Mazda2 Thread

2306 miles on the 2 as of now & as expected I couldn't leave stock alone. In the past two weeks I had a new headunit (Pioneer AVHP1400) installed, Mazda stubby antenna, & a Racing Beat muffler. I have some Racing Beat springs that will be going on within the next few weeks, than it's tires & wheels (6UL hopefully). Now onto some photos.

New headunit. iPod control & steering wheel controls. May eventually upgrade with the Nav module & better speakers. In due time..

Stubby antenna. Felt no need for the 3 foot antenna that came on the car.

Stock Muffler

Side by side they look identical in diameter.

On the car. Very easy install. I spent more time tracking down 2 14mm sockets.

Sound is very subtle with a nice low, deep tone. Motor noise is still dominant but this gives it less of an econobox sound. As always Racing Beat delivered an excellent product, safely shipped, & detailed instructions for installation (although not needed). I'd like to thank Mike Liao from Racing Beat for excellent communication through some delays that arose with the order.

Today I installed a bilstein PSS coil over kit on my "2". Ride is firm but controlled....dare I say it feels german-esque?

Next up are wheels. Currently I've got a set of Konig lightspeeds to mount up. I'm debating on reusing the stock tires and TPMS, OR coughing up more dollars for tires and a set of TPMS sensors.

Will the 185/55's work OK on the 7.5" wide wheels? Might be better to just save up for another couple weeks and get some yoko S drives and new sensors....but I'd love to get the wheels on the car now!

2,780 miles. Racing Beat springs installed yesterday. Extremely easy install, again a great product. Only put maybe 100 miles on them since installed & they feel better than stock. I've noticed less body roll & bumps aren't as rough. Once it's had some time to settle I'll post up after pics as well as driving impressions. Next step tires/wheels/tpms sensors. I may hold off on this until next spring, depends on how long the 6UL wheels will take to ship.

Are the 2s 4x100? That will make wheel decisions very easy!

In reply to chandlerGTi:

Yes they are

13" wheels don't fit. I tried with an old pair of Civics rims I have lying around

jrw1621 wrote: Is Mazda still offering "friends and family" S-plan pricing to MazdaSpeed members and their friends, families? What is S-price for a Mazda2?

okay my turn to chime in!

I have owned an FC rx7 for about 7-8 years and I have been rallycrossing it for about 3-4 years so needless to say the mazdaspeed contingency program is awesome! and S-plan was about 500 off sticker because S-plan is invoice but a 2011 rx8 was about 3000 off MSRP.

I purchased May of 2011 a manual touring edition but with the sale they had going on and 0.0% apr I put 500 down and managed to get it with the rear bumper guard and all 4 mud guards for 17050 OTD. Didn't give them my beater trade in, offered me too low and they cant lower the price on the car to make up for it on the trade. businesses are in business to make money not go to work!

Also! mazdaspeed contingency for parts also includes accessories, so I paid full price on those accessories but I paid 285 for the roof rack and 109 with the bike attachment!

White was the only pearl color offered and like my rx7 it was also pearly white (when it wasn't covered in mud)

I've had some downtime at work so I've read the thread and here are my bits and pieces over owning it and putting 23,000 miles on it....

1. The best way to make the stock seats better would have been to purchase the touring model, it is more sporty feeling and looks like it was modeled after the GTI w/ the red striping,

2. I can't imagine the headlamps and diff interior makes a huge weight difference but I've never gotten 40mpg A. Michigan speed limits are 70 so drives to family in Chicago I drive 80 the whole way, more like 29mpg B. w/ AC on, w/ roof rack, w/ bike on roof rack, @80mph from Portage IN to Detroit I got 25mpg down I-94 C. I do a healthy mix of city/highway and get about 32-34mpg

3. If the SCCA still had THS (street tire H stock) instead of RTF I would be dominating, however 100hp cannot keep up with an SRT4 or GTI on decent tires

4. It tripods nicely around the autoX course :)

5. Maybe I'm used to my carbd rotary engine but the initial throttle response is awful, sometimes it delays too much and can get scary in traffic with soccer moms in SUVs

6. I snagged a set of worn starspecs 205/50/15 and yes 205 is too much, its unessecary, I will be going to a 195/50 or 195/55 after this season. less weight and more acceleration (tiny tiny tiny unnoticeable bit)

7. not going 15x7 so I can stay within RTF rules but BMW 14" bottlecaps fit nicely (with hubcentric rings) for winter wheels/tires

8. WHERE CAN I GET THESE HEADLAMPS!!! AHHHHH more visibility is never a bad thing

9. Its long slow day here at the office

10. I see a lot of FoMoCo on parts on this car yet the stick says 99% japan built...

11. great thread, haven't found much on the 2 with any legit info that isn't about someone’s stereo mods and etc.

12. Drove the fiesta 4 hours before I bought my 2

13. skullsroad wrote:

Why did I go with the Mazda 2? Well, it's essentially a mid 90's car wrapped in a modern body. Well at least it felt that way to me. Especially when compared to the Fiesta. Just a simple drivers car... a lot like the B13 Sentra.

+1 I just wanted a simple car that was fun to drive and easy/cheap to maintain. Sure you can spend 17k on a used BMW from the early 00s and get the same feeling but pop the hood and the mess of plastic and parts… yikes! I wanna save money on commuting so I can blow it on the rallycross car and seat time.

1. just hit page 13. Going to have to try the ign switch trick, good find!

2. Andy Hollis: does that tune change the throttle response? I can’t stand the initial lag! With that in conjunction with its gearing it makes rush hour traffic stop and go grueling! I’d rather be in my rx7 with a carb and aluminum flywheel… if it had AC and a radio

3. anyways here is mine, and I recently did an ebay shorty anttenna so it wouldn’t interfere with bike rackness and it goes up to 8'7" so be careful at the ATM (it was a close one!)

bah, not used to the pictureness, lemme try again..

Last shot was from the hooniage that involves snowdrift and it did pretty well with the all seasons that I had on at the time (hubcentric rings came in the day I got back, doh!)

but to give "raw" idea of how well it does

May 28th I pax'd 53 out of 183 w/ the Detroit region SCCA

June 23rd I paxed 53 out of 160 w/ the Detroit region SCCA

Last event I pax'd 43 out of 137 w/ the Detroit region SCCA

and if you look closely at the the tint, it gets darker as it goes back, granted I drive so much I hate having jeep/SUV headlamps blind me on the highway

35% doors 25% rear doors 12% back hatch

random fact: you can cruise control at the lowest speed of 13mph and there is no steering column lock so you can turn the wheel from end to end without the shaft locking with no key in the ignition...

I've now got the HID retrofit parts I need to do a bixenon conversion using the stock headlights/housings. The projectors are actually designed to fit in a 9003/H4 socket so mounting/aiming is really simple. If I have time to do the retro this weekend I'll post up some pics.

So I'm now contemplating these wheels.

Specs Size: 15x7, Offset: +30mm, Backspacing: 5.19", Weight: 13.6lbs

According to a wheel offset calculator the inner clearance will be 2mm more & the outer clearance will extend 28mm more. The question is, good fit or not?

If I'm getting wheels I'm getting RPF1s, I may even spring for the 14inch wheels for 8.4lbs each and it would worse top speed but better accel.

In reply to MA$$hole:

I'm running the exact same wheels, just in silver instead of black.

TRMotorsport C1M 15x7 by maximstensel, on Flickr

TRMotorsport C1M 15x7 by maximstensel, on Flickr

TRMotorsport C1M Fitment F by maximstensel, on Flickr

TRMotorsport C1M Fitment R by maximstensel, on Flickr

I'm on Racing Beat springs. I really like the "stance" on these wheels, it's just the right race car look that's a little bit agressive but doesn't seem like a fashion statement, and even after three months I can't get over how perfect the car looks with them. The only thing I'd really like to do is see if I can find a flat plug to replace the center cap, since I think the included one is a little cheesy looking, but I don't like it with no cap at all.

Oh yeah, these photos are with the stock 185/55/15s on them. I still haven't decided what tires I'm going to get, I really need to figure that out and get off of these terrible OEs.

Installed the HID projectors/ballasts today. Took about 6 hours, but well worth it. Simple with the DS2 projectors, just slid into place after removing the old headlight/lamp shield. With the shroud trimmed and glued in place they look factory. Light output is anything but. I went with 5000k, going for light not colors....

Teaser:

I'll get some finished pics tomorrow. Here is a tip I found....if you get the glue on the headlight lens, use some WD40 or similar and it will nearly wipe right off.

Finished headlight assembly...

Tires, wheels, sensors just ordered

In reply to TAftonomos:

I like that ALOT and I want to do this, but after some quick google searching I found DS2 to be for a wall mount projector? care to elaborate on what car or where you can get these parts?

http://www.theretrofitsource.com/product_info.php?products_id=237

I ordered the 50 watt bulbs...much improved at night.

Has anybody found a regular halogen light upgrade that makes a noticeable difference on our cars? I'm tempted to try some Silverstars or PIAAs or something. I'd like a headlight upgrade but I'm not ready to hack my lights up.

MA$$hole wrote: Tires, wheels, sensors just ordered

Awesome! Let's see some pics. So when are we autoXing that little go cart again?

In reply to miatame:

Package should arrive tomorrow & I'll be throwing them on Friday. Pics this weekend. I no longer work Sundays so if you & Greg keep me posted I can have the car out at the next event.

I'm still waiting to see the video you shot on the last outing.

Max_Archer wrote: Has anybody found a regular halogen light upgrade that makes a noticeable difference on our cars? I'm tempted to try some Silverstars or PIAAs or something. I'd like a headlight upgrade but I'm not ready to hack my lights up.

I tried some upgraded bulbs (PIAA's IIRC) but wasn't happy. Everything I did to the headlight housing is completely reversible...there was no drilling/hacking or fab work to be done. The projectors index on the 9003 bulbs' base, pretty simple stuff. Worst part was getting the lamp apart!

Just did the first oil change on mine - so simple. One doesn't even need to jack up the car.

MA$$hole wrote: I'm still waiting to see the video you shot on the last outing.

Video of the 2? I didn't send that to you?

In reply to miatame:

Negatory. Don't even think Greg has seen it.

Well, got the wheels & tires today from Tire Rack & unfortunately they were not mounted & balanced. Kinda disappointed by this as I had ordered from them a few years ago & this was provided. Now I'll have to wait a few weeks till I can get the time to drop them at a shop.