MazdaSpeed Proteg?

By Brett Solomon

Looking for a reasonably-priced car with a killer sound system? For most people, that means driving the car to an aftermarket electronics dealer to get all the work done. For Mazda, it means loading up the latest Protegé with a hot Kenwood audio system, dressing it up with performance parts and selling it for only $5,000 more than the standard model.

The MazdaSpeed Protegé is a zoom-zoomy four-door sedan based on Mazda’s popular economical standard. There are a multitude of other tweaks performed to the basic Protegé to create this racier version. It’s new engine has been given a shot of adrenaline courtesy of a turbocharger system designed by Corvette-racing specialists Callaway Engineering. The vehicle’s suspension has been tweaked by Mazda racing stalwarts Racing Beat and the beautiful rims are provided by Racing Hart.

Kenwood teamed with Mazda to build the MadzaSpeed’s sound system, using its Excelon KDC-MP919 head unit as the center-piece. The Liquid-Gel 3D display is very cool, and certainly trumps the mundane display of other factory car systems. You can easily program full-motion graphics to garner more attention from even the most jaded passengers. And the motorized faceplate retracts from view when the vehicle is turned off so it isn’t eye-candy for a potential thief. In addition to standard CDs, the head unit is also capable of playing MP3 audio tracks recorded on CD-Rs or CD-RWs.

At the heart of the Kenwood system is its tuning ability. Instead of the standard bass and treble controls that you find on a typical factory radio, this system lets you tweak bass, midrange, and treble “Q” parameters, which adjust the spread of the frequency, so you can really fine tune the subwoofer for the type of music you listen to. Crossover points for the sub are also adjustable. However, to tap into these deep controls you’ll have to actually read the manual. Ouch!

Powering the system is a Kenwood KAC-5295 amplifier rated at 50 watts for each of the four main speakers and a hefty 250 watts for the subwoofer. A pair of six-inch Kenwood coaxial tweeters pump music in the front with a pair of nine-inch speakers in the back. The subwoofer is an eight-inch unit in a sealed enclosure that fires though the rear deck. Even with all that gear, you still get full use of the trunk since the amps and rear speakers are tucked in an ABS plastic housing mounted underneath the rear deck. The wiring layout looks pretty good, with my only complaint being the possibility that the plastic ABS enclosure may resonate after three or four years of hard driving and subwoofer pounding underneath the Protegé’s belt.

Bass is where this system really rocks. It’s not the “boom-car,” wake-up-your-whole-neighborhood-from-another-county type of bass, but a nicely executed bass extension that is lacking in most other vehicles. This bass adds a new dimension to your favorite music, especially in the intimate setting of a car since you can really feel the rumble. Mazda did a good job with midbass transients. The midbass attack is fast and accurate compared to most factory sound systems, probably due to Kenwood’s use of larger speakers with a lot of cone surface area. The highs are pretty good too. They aren’t as airy and defined as some of the best aftermarket systems, but they aren’t as bad as most factory systems. Stereo imaging is a little lacking with wandering images hovering below the steering wheel. But overall, the music comes alive in a way most factory sound systems cannot duplicate.

Mazda has a limited number of MazdaSpeed Protegé vehicles available priced around the $21,000 MSRP price mark. If you are in the market for a slick, great-handling vehicle designed to zip you down the backroads swiftly with your favorite tunes providing the soundtrack, this car is ready to rock.

MazdaSpeed Protegé

$21,000

170-hp 2L DOHC 16-Valve 4-Cylinder

Garrett T25 turbocharger

Kenwood-designed sound system

www.mazda.com