And although public-road prudence restrained the Corvette to probably three- or four-tenths of its capability, the equally prudent Protegé5 pilot was enjoying the full potential of his mount and grinning from ear to ear. The 650-hp Lingenfelter Twin-Turbo Vette had a 520-hp advantage plus a high-g tire-and-suspension setup, but the nimble little wagon managed to keep within view. But as we took off, we noticed there was no map in the Protegé5 - so we had to keep up with the car ahead.
#2004 MAZDA PROTEGE 5 HORSEPOWER DRIVER#
The mini-Mazda was on hand as an errand boy and was being used as a shuttle en route to the next driver change during the road drive. The setting was last month's Supertuner Challenge. Impatient readers who've already skipped ahead to the spec panel will be unconvinced that a 9.5-second mini-breadbox could ever qualify as sporty, but they have yet to play chase with a Lingenfelter Corvette on twisty Michigan back roads in a Protegé5. The Protegé lineup is morphing toward sportiness with the new MP3 sedan we showed you last month, as well as with this roarty little two-box 2002 Protegé5 (for five-door, gittit?). You've seen the "zoom-zoom" campaign Mazda is airing to inform us of its positioning as the sporty import brand within the Ford family of fine cars? It rings a little hollow now, with the MX-5 Miata standing as the only convincing sports car, but each of the company's new offerings will step in that direction, and maybe by the time the snot-nosed kid in the TV spots is terrorizing driver's-ed teachers, "zoom-zoom" will fit. As quite often happens with image makeovers, the advertising has gotten ahead of the product.
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