2013 Mazdaspeed3 - Dark Side of the Zoomzoom

[OSN]

Yeah, I bought this car in the middle of the worst winter we've seen in a long, long time...so I don't have many good pictures yet. These were from the dealership:




What's been done to the car by the previous owner of 6,700 miles (a paycheck left in the car shows he just started a low-paying job a week before he bought the car, so he likely couldn't keep up with the payments):

BC Racing BR Type Coilover Suspension
Corksport Stage II Power Series Short Ram Intake
Cobb Tuning Exhaust(I'm truthfully not sure what the exhaust is, but this is the closest looking of the ones I've looked at so far)
Blacked out Mazda badges, front and back
Debadged 'mazdaspeed3'
Smoked tail lights
Red fog lights
Wind deflectors all windows
Stuff that I haven't found yet

Interior is completely stock.

I am waiting on these arrivals so I can roll up my sleeves:
NRG Shift knob
Two seat heated seat kit, 5 heating levels

Now for the audio. I am not really sure which direction I'm going. I have some gear to sell to fund whatever I come up with. I would either:

-put in my Nexus 7 as a front end, USB output to my Fiio E7 USB DAC, and run optical cable to a DSP that takes optical;
-or buy an active HU for simplicity

I am pretty locked in to building kick pods for midbass, I hate using doors as enclosures. I figure I'll run something up on the pillars or in the sail panels. I have an Aura RPM5350 (50x4/150x1 bridgeable) and an Aura RPM4200 (150x2 bridgeable)
amplifier that I will probably work with, but may change. I have a Dayton HO10 at my disposal, but not locked in to using it. I have Aura NS8s but not locked in on using them. I have TangBand w3 bamboo wideband 3" and Vifa truncated frame tweeters to use with a wideband if I go that direction.

Given the weather we see up here, I want the midbass to be weather-resistant, so paper cone drivers are probably out.

I intend to maximize the utility of the hatch to the highest degree possible, so outside the box is certainly in play. I will be busy once the weather breaks. Or is it broken now? Stay tuned.

[TIMMAY!!!]

I really love those cars. When I was looking for a new car I test drove a standard non-Speed 3 (well actually, my dad drove it because I didn't know how to drive stick then) and really liked it. My dad did too, but at the time, the prices were just not feasible for me.

I see those have a limited slip diff too, I wonder how well that works.

For the hatch were you thinking of ditching the spare tire or do you want to keep that too?

Whatever you do, I'm interested to see...cause I think a hot hatch is going to be my next car.

[OSN]

I plan to keep the spare. I have Allstate which includes roadside, they'll put my spare on for free. I have done a lot of tire-changing myself with the Altima I am turning into the dealership next week. The donut tire is probably ready to be replaced after getting 5 flat tires, including 3 sidewall blowouts. My last flat tire before that was never, which is 19 years of owning cars. These were Michelin Primacy MXV4s for those keeping score.

I figure I could mold around the spare in place, and be able to access from a hinged assembly for amps and enclosure.

[OSN]

Well, I got some work done on the car this week:





It sits a couple of inches lower than stock shift knob, it's more ergonomic for me when resting my elbow on the center console this way. I expect to get some things rolling next month with noise control, nothing very exciting until I do enough buying and selling to get the system together.

Also, I've investigated further and the exhaust installed is actually Ultimate Racing. I just don't know how far up he replaced. I'm going to take it to my local speed shop and have them look everything over.

[astrochex]

Its important to have the right knob in the car.

[chad]

Red fogs?

[captainobvious]

When you're ready to tear this apart, I'll be of great use. I know it pretty well now

[OSN]

Red fogs?

Yeah, they're about useless right now. I plan on changing that at some point.

[OSN]

When you're ready to tear this apart, I'll be of great use. I know it pretty well now

Did you get your snow tires on? Curious how they'll do, I plan on getting some this fall. I'm thinking I can get some stuff done inside the car the weekend on March 22/23, you gonna be around?

[chad]

Yeah, they're about useless right now. I plan on changing that at some point.

That would get you pulled over RIGHT NOW here... and our cops are lenient for the most part.