I'm normally an Integra guy but my nieghbor had a sweet prelude (98) kinda of a grey ish blue color...with a kenwood deck in it. Just an opinion here I guess for all you lude owners. This guy sold his prelude and got a brand new MazdaSpeed Protoge. I looked at the stats and the lude has 200hp and the mazda has 170hp and turbocharged. Would any of oyu guys do this. Its a pretty sweet car...black, fully loaded with custom system and sub/amp box...

 

i don't know if i'd get the mazdaspeed tege, but the mazdaspeed miata would be tempting.

 

Last year Car&Driver reviewed the "Mazdaspeed-Protege" "The Nissan Sentra V" Ford Focus "SVT" and the Neon "SRT-4", see, the protege came at 3th place, i mean, Focus? and Neon in 2nd and 1st?? I know the new Neon SRT-4 is really fast, but not reliable, , is a piece if crap car that is cheap with a big motor ... That's why i'll never get a Protege instead a Prelude, the Protege is by the way 170 HP and $20.000, you can find a 30K '00 Lude N/A for like 15K Not Turbocharged and not intercooled ,, with the extra 5K you'll smoke bigger cars than a Protege LOL, that guy maybe was looking for 4 door car for his family LOL
Oscar

 

There's a local that has the MP and it's slow for being turbocharged that's all there is to it!!!!!

 

please be quiet :stupid:

...the mazdaspeed protege may not be great stock, but with about 1k worth of modding(boost controller, intake,exhaust) you will be pretty quick. My friend has one and its really nice, he runs a 14.7 at his best with i/e/boost/intercooler piping, but he hasnt gone in a while . Its not a bad car but i would never pay 20k for it. id prefer a lude

 

Hes a sophmore in college so I dont know why he wanted a 4 door, probably cause of insurance on a 4 doors is cheaper than a 2 door

 

that's true the protege may not compare to the lude in performance stock for stock, but it has greater tunning potential out of the box
a few upgrades and you would drop a sec or so off the 1/4 mile time
you'd have to spend wuite a lot to get the SH lude to run 1 sec faster in the 1/4 mile

 

I bought a zex kit for 400 bucks and cut my time from 15.3 @ 91 mph to a 13.92 @ 102 mph on a 75 shot. That throws out the theory for a 1000 bucks you can make a protege fast when you can do it for less than 500 for a lude. If people want to talk about mazdas do it in the right forum, not in a prelude forum !

 

I will put this arguement to rest. As a Protege owner ( I really like my ES protege over an EX Civic) and Honda lover I can honestly say the Mazdaspeed is a very nice car (excellent handling and beautifull interior) and has some potential but after doing some research I decided on a low mileage Portege ES for my 100 mile a day commute instead of the MSP and Civic SI (only two doors). The turbocharged MSP I test drove felt very somewhat weak and is no where near as fun as my best friends lightly modded Prelude base. After lurking and reading on many Protege sites I have found out that the turbocharged FS Mazda Protege motor is fairly weak due to it's puny rods and does'nt leave a lot of room for improvement. Which is why my Mazda will likely stay pretty stock. The MSP motor is built better than the stock protege ES 2.0 but not that much stronger. It all depends on what you want the car for. Last night my friend received his skunk2 intake manifold for his 2001 Prelude Base so I'll let you know what a difference that makes when the install is done. The skunk2 manifold is awesome looking and the quality is top notch, I cannot believe the difference between it and the stock manifold. All he has now is a high flow cat, Greddy cat-back, and an ebay CAI and his car seems fairly quick as he has beat my Maxima by a couple of lengths. He has not ran it at the track because he was waiting forever for the Skunk2, but we will finish the install tonight and run the car Friday night. If you are just going to cruise it then I say the mazdaspeed has more appeal but if power is your need, the prelude is much more tunable and realiable. The H22 engine far more superior to the mazda FS. Lastly, Have you driven the Prelude?, it just feels better IMO.