Justinlansdale's 2003.5 MSP: Quick Release Installed

[justinlansdale]

Well i guess to kick this off, i'll give a little brief history on my auto background.

Start: I remember playing around with my hot wheels when i was really young and of course, like everyone at that age, i had my favorite car of the group. I had a little red Fiero hot wheel that i was absolutly obsessed with. I don't know what it was at the time, maybe the color of the lines of the body but i just loved that car. I remember telling my dad that when i got old, i was gonna get one and he told me "nope, i don't think so...they stopped making them cause they catch fire all the time."

Fast forward a few years: I'm 15 years old. My dad had the nicest alpine white Toyota Tundra that i absolutely loved. I was hoping and praying that when i got my license, he would pass that truck on to me. A few weeks before my 16th birthday, he came home in a 2000 Toyota Corolla (completely baseline....AM/FM radio, no power locks/windows, automatic, no cruise control, etc.) I felt like crying. When asked why he traded his nice Tundra for the Corolla, he said "this is going to be Justin's first car."

So at this point, I couldn't stand the way the car looked. The thing was ugly. The only thing i liked about it at this point was the color. Time goes by, I get my license and i'm driving the "rolla" around and hating my life. I was really bored one night and decided to sign up for a Corolla message board. After seeing that with a LOT of work and time, this car could be transformed from a beast to a "not-so-bad" looking sedan. My dad and i started talking about building the thing up and after a little while and a lot of work, it went from this:



to this:





Alright, so by this point, i had a really nice, clean looking Corolla. I went from being really embarressed driving the car around to loving every moment i spent in it. I entered her in a local car show in 2005 and won best of the Toyota class which was really awesome and i felt like all the work my pops and i did really paid off. I drove the car around for another few monthes and decided that it was time to move on: I needed something quick...and this car was the opposite of quick.

I sold the Corolla and immediatly started my search for a second generation MR2 turbo. Fueled by my Toyota obsession, I found the perfect car: a red 1991 MR2 turbo, hidden in the high grass at a friend of a friend's house in Souderton. The owner at the time Gavin (R.I.P. he just passed away two monthes ago in a car accident) gave me my first test drive and the moment the turbo spooled, i fell in love with the car. The paint was horribly faded and the motor would overheat after 15 minutes of hard driving but it was exactly what i wanted. A little while later, my friend Brett, myself, and an envelope with $2,500 bucks went to make the trip up to souderton to make a purchase. We towed the car home and got to work. This is what the car looked like the day i bought her:





The paint needed a lot of TLC. My dad and i got to work and spent three whole days hand buffing the entire car and got it looking as decent as its gonna look for a 15 year old car. This car was quick, even in the stock form it was in at the time. A few weeks later, the head gasket blew and i sourced an MR2/Supra specialty shop in NJ that would do the head gasket job for "cheap". I towed the deuce up to Frenchtown, NJ and dropped it off at JP Autoworks and left it in the hands of Jim and Paul. After deciding that since the motor would be pulled for the headgasket job, i might as well go all out and do a mild build. We had the block bored .20 over, picked up a set of oversized forged CP pistons, new bearings, rings, 1.4mm TTE headgasket to insure a little bit of safety and had the head completely resurfaced with a 3 angle valve job. JP spent a little more time working on the car then i thought and EIGHT MONTHES LATER i get a phone call saying that they still couldn't get the car running. I couldn't bear to have the car sit up at the shop any longer so i had no choice but to write them a check for a substantial amount of money so i could get the car out and have it towed back home. Once back at home, I had the car dropped off with a friend who just happened to know his cars a little bit better than the guys at JP and had the car running within two hours.





The deuce ran great for about two monthes. The car was FAST for being still on the stock CT26. I was running turbo>3" divorced downpipe w/wastegate dump>3" straight pipes all the way out. The car sounded mean. After a little while, it started billowing white smoke. I was praying it was just turbo seals while i was running the compression check on the motor. I wasn't so lucky. 38/20/15/45 psi across the board...the motor was blown. I couldn't afford to have the motor rebuilt again for the second time. I decided to pick up a non-turbo low-milage 2.2L 5SFE from Dave Jenny at PAautoracing for basically nothing. My friend Brian (bmatyeah) and i got down to work. We pulled the 3SGTE out in my garage and slowly swapped in the 5SFE.

Towards the end of the swap, i was in contact with some tard Dan (dpancoast) and I decided to let the car go. In July of this past year, i sold the car to Dan and it was very good decision that i did, because i still get to drive it once in a while when Dan feels like being nice

At this point, the MR2 was sold and i had no idea what i wanted to pick up next. I wanted something RWD and went looking for a clean 944 turbo. After doing a little research, i decided that probably wouldn't be a great idea so i kept looking. Found a really clean red 1991 240sx hatchback on craigslist and my pops and i went up to go check it out. The car was located in Boyertown and looked great from the first glance. A few dings and dents but nothing major, car ran decent so i decided to pick it up. Heres a few shots during the first week:



This car didn't last very long either. While driving home from the Willow Grove mall with a friend, the timing chain decided to skip teeth and advanced the timing and toasted a few valves. The car checked out with 0's across the board in my compression test and it was just not worth it to me to rebuild the DOHC KA24. I listed the car up on craigslist at midnight on a Tuesday night and by mid-day Wednesday, the car was sold. The last photo i have of the car is this one:



So now here i am car-less once again. At this point, i'm totally sick of looking at old, beat on, used cars. After landing a nice new job, i decided i wanted to pick up something really nice and new(er). I really wanted an S2000 but they were way out of my price range so my search went on. I came across a laser blue 2003.5 Mazdaspeed Protege on a lot at a Subaru dealership. The first thing that came to my mind was my old Corolla and after taking it for a test drive, i loved the way the car handled and decided that this was the car for me. After signing over loads of paperwork for the car loans, i drove the MSP off the lot. In addition to having decently low miles, it came with a 12,000 mile full powertrain warranty so that hopefully my bad luck won't put this car out of buisiness like it did to the rest of the lot.

End: I'm now driving a '03.5 MSP and loving life being that i acually have a reliable, nice looking, newer car.

[justinlansdale]

Here's a shot of the MSP when she first came home on Halloween 2007:



...and here's the most current picture I have of her:

[justinlansdale]

Modifications as of 06.08:

-Injen CAI
-Authentic Greddy Type-S BOV
-Hallman Pro MBC

-Circuit Sports 2.5" Catless J-Pipe
-Greddy Resonator
-Muffler Delete

-Tein S-Techs
-Tokico Blue Struts

-16" Black OEM P5 Wheels
-Kuhmo Rubber

-Stewart Warner Boost/Vac Gauge

-6000k HIDs (Both Highs and Lows)
-Hella Supertone Horns
-VIS Carbon Fiber Hood
-20% Tint (Shades of Gray!)

[bmatyeah]

Its so nice that you finally have a reliable car. It handles better then any car you have owned.

[teh DIRT]

is that josh's truck? i goto school with him.

[justinlansdale]

don't jinx me! ;-)

[justinlansdale]

Originally Posted by teh DIRT

is that josh's truck? i goto school with him.

yep. that was taken at the north penn car show in '06, i just though the size difference between the two vehicles was pretty funny.

[jdm free]

good luck wit the msp....sad to hear about everything that happened with mr2

[justinlansdale]

took the car over to shades of gray today to get the tint done. ended up with 20% all around, ryan and damon did an awesome job. pictures up soon!

[justinlansdale]

Update: 12.21.07

Started a purple theme for under the h00d thanks to LPC!

[03.5MSP]

Good luck with the MSP, and keep us posted on the mods.

[BradC]

Nice. Looking good.

[jdm free]

more purple n it would look good imo

[Zillon]

Hot damn, that looks great Justin.

I wish I would've made the trip this morning now... I ended up sleeping until 3 this afternoon though.

[LPC]

It looks really good justin! whats next in line.

Btw thats a plastic cover thats is powder coated so if you ever ran into a powder coater who said you cant coat plastic then you guys need to come see me

[BradC]

Originally Posted by LPC

It looks really good justin! whats next in line.

Btw thats a plastic cover thats is powder coated so if you ever ran into a powder coater who said you cant coat plastic then you guys need to come see me

That was my first though, didn't know you could coat plastic

[Racersky]

dam justin nice car....we should chill some time.....I'm bored as hell this winter break -_-" and Please Clean the engine bay it's bugging the crap out of me lol

[dturbocivic]

HEY ! i know that kid with the Red lifted up dodge, does he post on here ?

[Shades of Gray]

Car looks awesome...hopefully we can get some CLEAN pics of it for our forum gallery soon! lol, Thanks again for the kind words!
Ryan

[Zillon]

Originally Posted by Shades of Gray

Car looks awesome...hopefully we can get some CLEAN pics of it for our forum gallery soon! lol, Thanks again for the kind words!
Ryan

Justin and I are gonna work on that clean photos part.