Actually, I drive the MR2 now. The Protege (not a 323, 323 was the BF chassis, my car was a BG chassis...) was totalled last September coming back from the Solo2 National Championships.

And FWIW, my Protege could skidpad ~.95... that was tested by ME, on a real skidpad, not a magazine editor.

Also, the SRT-4 slalom tested at 69.0 mph, not too far off the MSP. It's in a skidpad that it wouldn't compare....because of the lack of camber, and it achieved .85 there, mainly due to running wider tires than the MSP.

Looks like you also need to pickup a copy of Corky Bell's Maximum Boost. A non-stock turbo running 20+ lbs of boost on stock internals? That's just somewhat hard to believe when the REST of the freaking FS world are starting to break rods above 12 on the stock turbo. A larger turbo would be MORE efficient at higher boost levels and would put MORE stress on the weak rods. The FS well tuned with a decent turbo will pass 200whp on less than 10 lbs of boost. 22 lbs would be well in excess of the yeild point on the internals.

If you want to talk about strong mazda piston motors, you talk about the B6, BP, and FE3, not the FS, FP... Please read up on what you're trying to bullshit about.

You guys aren't even reading what I'm saying. The car is great. I'd buy one if I wanted a 4 door right now... BUT...

the FS motor is NOT a "cool" motor as far as mazda piston motors go IMHO. Cool Mazda motors would be the K series v6s, B series I-4s, and the FE3/FE3-T which were just freaking badass. (170 lb-ft from a NA 2L back in the mid 90's, 40 higher than the FS with the same displacement.)

As i said before, it's great if you want to keep it relatively stock and have a cool, fun, good looking, great handling car...