![]() Inside, white-face gauges with red markings (on ES models) look great in the daytime but start to hemorrhage and lose definition at night.Īlso new is a redesigned center console, metallic accents on the dash, new sound system options that include a 6-CD in-dash player, and significantly improved, more supportive seats. We've always admired the taut, European- inspired lines of this Protegé iteration, and the car's new beak continues the theme, possibly with a bit of Ford's New Edge design in the hood's sharp creases and headlights' angrier glower. At least this year, the 2.0-liter is also available in the LX version, the middle trim level. of Protegé, you'd have to be content just keeping up with traffic. The twincam 1.6-liter remains as the base engine, but with 103 bhp pulling about 2500 lb. Thankfully, the Protegé's manual 5-speed shift linkage remains as robust as ever, and the available 4-speed automatic we sampled was crisp-shifting and showed little tendency to hunt on grades. (and 8 bhp) on the 1.8 it replaces.Īlthough a decent performer and quite smooth, this ULEV-certified powerplant lacks the willingness to rev and midrange response of some other 2.0-liter competitors, such as Ford's Zetec or Chrysler's single-cam Neon engine. And, as you can see in the photo, body lean is extremely well controlled again quoting Mazda's figures, it's just 2 degrees at 0.5g lateral acceleration.Īs always, there's a price to pay: about 100 additional lb., which partially offsets the torque gains of the new 130-bhp 2.0-liter dohc 16-valve engine, shared with the 626-with a peak of 135 lb.-ft. In hard numbers, Mazda claims an 18-percent improvement in response time (from when the steering wheel is moved until the car actually starts to turn) over last year's Protegé ES. alloy wheels (an inch larger for 2001) wearing 195/50R-16 tires and stiffer front and rear anti-roll bars, and you have one crisp-handling car. Rear spindles (which, on the ES model, carry standard disc brakes) are also more rigid. At the rear, anchor points for the struts' lower transverse links have been suitably reinforced, as have two other brackets that tie the subframe to the car's structure. Specifically, thicker-gauge metal now forms the front subframe, a piece further fortified with a bolt-on stamped plate connecting the control-arm attachment points. Nothing unusual here (other than the presentation itself being held at the end of a pier), but as we'd later find out on our drive inland of La Jolla, California, these strengthened pieces turn an already fun-to-drive machine into a precision tool for cornering. ![]() At 's event introducing the revamped 2001 Protegé, the parts du jour were large metal stampings welded together to form suspension subframes, painted in regulation semi-gloss black. As a mechanically curious kind of guy, it warms the mitral valve of my heart when a new car introduction includes a table-full of interesting components that wouldn't normally be seen. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |