A bit about my car history:

Bought a 2014 Mazda 3 Sport in snowflake white pearl new as my secondary car when the 3rd Gen first debuted. The car had a custom red leather interior (not available through Mazda), BBS style wheels, lowered on Eibachs, first gen 3 to have Rally Armor mudflaps (pretty sure my car is still up on their website), and some other cosmetic stuff. This car was so reliable, worked on the coldest Alberta days (-45C anyone?) and was a great compliment to my summer car.

Fast forward to the end of 2019 - I was so impressed with the package of the 4th Gen after a test drive that I sold my 2014 to a co-worker's kid, and ended up signing a lease for a 2020 non-turbo AWD in polymetal grey with the red leather interior. The timing was right as the car was ready for pick-up one day before the world shut down for the pandemic.

I got to modding the car almost immediately, and I'm pretty certain I was the first car in Canada to have the Mazda optional body kit (I special ordered it using Japanese part numbers), and the first AWD in Canada to be lowered. I had fun driving the car to local meets and bombing around town with the Corksport springs, Enkei TSX-R (18x8.5+38), some cosmetic mods, but always knew it would be so much better with a turbo. A year after I got my 2020, Mazda released the turbo (doh!). I guess I caught the Mazda 3 bug because I broke my current lease to get into a turbo after test driving one.

I had previously built a R32 that I owned for 9 years, but since I sold it, I just can't seem to scratch this pesky mod itch! I spent the last few months collecting new parts (more to follow) and I'll be transferring what I can from my 2020 car to the 2023 Turbo.

 

I walked back into the dealership at the beginning of November 2022 and negotiated a deal on a 2023 Turbo. My only requirement was that it come with a red interior. They said they could get me a white one the fastest, but it would still only be delivered in April/May 2023. To me this was perfect, it would mean taking delivery after winter, and giving me time to de-mod my car, while collecting parts for the new car.

Pictured:

• Corksport rear spoiler (regular carbon)
• Corksport rear sway bar.
• Corksport Turbo lowering springs (might consider exchanging these for the new "Not So Low" springs? On the fence)
• Corksport rear engine mount
• AutoExe front strut bar
• AutoExe front subframe brace
• AutoExe rear chassis braces
• AutoExe trunk chassis brace
• Burger Motorsports Stage 1 Air Intake kit
• Mikstore LED ambient door lighting kit
• Mikstore paddle shifter extensions (forged carbon)
• Mikstore interior trim skins (regular carbon, to cover the piano black trim)
• Mikstore TPU gauge cluster protection film
• Lamin-X headlight and rear turn signal film

I headed back to the dealership mid-Dec for regular maintenance, and a quick chat with the sales rep revealed that my car would be showing up early January! Que mad dash to de-mod the car:

Check out this hack job by the dealership when they installed the front lip ☠

 

Build threads are def a lost thing no ah days, I started one on here for my budget Gen 3 build, I miss the good ol days when I was a Honda kid scrolling forums for hours admiring peoples build threats, yours looks great so far! Im a g=huge sucker for the Gen 4's! cant wait to see more! and that lip hack job is exactly why i never go to dealerships

 

I don't know how many hundreds/thousands of hours I've spent on forums like Zilvia, SON240SX, NASIOC, GTRCanada, etc learning and taking inspiration from those build threads. Some of the forum OGs still live in my mind as legends, and some of them still pop up as featured guests on YouTube channels the likes of Throttle House, Larry Chen, ThatDudeinBlue, Roads Untravelled. Always get me like

 

I kinda have one on the Toronto Mazda Forum
Started it when i upgraded the Cams in the Gen 2 MZR 2.0L
and everything else i have i come across or done or planning to do to the car since.


Any regrets on letting go the GTR?

 

I might have an account on Toronto Mazda. I should definitely be more active on there, as I'm currently living in Ottawa/Gatineau and travel to Toronto often since that's where I'm originally from.

I don't regret letting go of the GTR, but I absolutely miss it. It was a passion project and got a lot of love at any car event I rolled into. I bought the car from Right Drive in Toronto and moved to Alberta with it. I built it to 450whp, lots of Gucci JDM parts, and unlimited smiles per hour. The GTR is a financially dangerous platform, as the aftermarket is quite literally endless. Alberta has an incredible car scene but the Skyline was so common there it kind of diluted the "specialness" of the car. You often felt pressured to keep modding to 'stay on top of the game' as it were but I got to the point where anymore mods would mean an extreme step to the next level (e.g. full bottom end upgrade, new diffs, upgraded transmission, etc). I was happier keeping it a relatively reliable street car.

Moving back to Ontario, the car was more rare and it was definitely a heavyweight at any car event I attended. It was still a lot of work and money to maintain the car and not have a panic attack every time it sounded or smelled different. There was always something to fix. I sold the car when prices started to skyrocket and it allowed me to put a down payment on my first house. In a way, I owe a lot to my old GTR: I made a ton of friends in the car scene, set me up for my current living situation, and I learned a lot about working on cars.

 

Make sure to wrap your pipes, fellas.

Be aware that the BMS heat shield slots into the MAF housing and the tolerance is tight! I'll have to remove some of the gold foil where the surfaces meet to allow it to fit.

 

Thanks for sharing!

GL with the wing and rear chassis brace install.

Looking forward to seeing more progress.

 

I wish that heat tape stuck to my aFe box like that! looks DOPE!!

 

Wow that front bumper. I don't even understand what they did. It's just supposed to be mounted by tape on that side.

A real hack job! There are tabs on the lip for self tapping screws in those spots. I guess you can put double sided tape on those spots, the entire underside of the lip is screwed to the under tray, in the wheel wheel, and double sided taped in the bottom grill area. There's also a spot you have to drill in the side of the car to mount the side skirts.

 

Wow that front bumper. I don't even understand what they did. It's just supposed to be mounted by tape on that side.

 

Sheesh, I love a good build thread! I miss these things, just like the others have mentioned. Looking forward to watching this build.

 

First look at the new car! The dealer received it off the truck on the 10th of Jan, and since then was sent off for rust proofing and tint/PPF. I hadn't seen the car or even pics from the dealer but the tint shop reached out to me and sent me some pics, the first time I laid eyes on her! I'll be popping by the shop tomorrow to install a few things before taking official delivery from the dealership 😅

Also got my summer tires in. As you can tell by the labels, Kumho ps71 in 235/40R18. The reviews online have been very mixed but it seems like an ok UHP tire for city driving. It was super cheap ($180CAD/tire from Quattro Tires) and I figured anything would be a huge upgrade over the shitty Turanza 440s that come with the car. The water channels are HUGE, probably not a great thing for dry traction.

 

That is an inexpensive price for a UHP
Whats the treadwear 340?

 

I stopped by the tint shop today to get eyes on the new car and install some quick and easy parts. The guys had all the windows tinted already, and laid the PPF earlier in the day on the full front end, mirrors, and B-pillars.

They had a bunch of trim removed. The interior panels were taken off in order to remove the door handles for the PPF on all 4 doors, and the C-pillar trim was removed to get to take the GPS antenna off to wrap it in black.

They gave me a couple of hours to check out the car and install whatever I wanted. Easy stuff first - AutoExe front strut bar went in.

Then the gauge cluster TPU film applied (the plastic on the cluster scratches like a mofo). Learned my lesson on my old car when a simple microfibre dusting turned into a full orbital polisher job.

Applied the carbon interior skin from Mikstore, and I gotta say, the fitment is bang on, and the fake carbon does a real good job of looking like the real thing.

Forged carbon paddles from Mikstore as well. These are real CF.

I had also bought front and rear pre-cut tints from Latin-X. I bought their "tint" colour for the headlights which provided a very subtle change which I'm sure will please the local constabulary. Mazda 3 Hatchback (2019+ ) Headlight Covers

before

after

KB43VER

 

Got my Ultimate9 EVC-X throttle controller today, shipped in from Australia. I've seen throttle controllers on the market for a long time but never paid much attention to them. A guy from Australia reached out to me and preached about his EVC throttle controller and it was a pretty inexpensive mod so I figured, "what the heck".

This thing is tiny! About the size of a small match box. I opted for the more expensive EVC-X model, as it offers a few more bells and whistles over the standard version, such as a launch setting, full throttle lockout for anti-theft, OLED screen, and Bluetooth connectivity with your phone. Will report back with a review once installed.

Throttle Controllers - Our Range

 

Yesterday was the day I officially signed off on the new ownership and took transfer from the dealership.

Bid farewell to the poly metal car

Pic of the two siblings sitting together, getting parts exchanged.

Here she is! Love at first sight. Lots of subtle changes compared to the 2020, all combined make it an even greater car than before.

Straight from the dealership to the garage. Less than 30km on it, and got straight to modding.

 

I had already installed the AutoExe front strut bar and some interior goodies prior to taking delivery.

For the first night I decided to knock out some easy ones: BMS air intake and AutoExe trunk bar.

Out comes the battery

Here you can see the inside of the stock turbo intake tube from the turbo inlet side. Even for a brand new car, you can see the darker areas on the inside of the tube, which was actually blow by oil making its way into the intake tract. I'll be surely getting the BMS oil catch can next.

looking towards the turbo compressor, that dark ring on the inside of the rubber coupler is more oil.

Bit of an annoyance - they sent me the wrong heat shield. with everything fitted up, the heat shield wasn't fitting to any of the mounting points and as you can see the MAF is completely misaligned.

Instead of reversing all the work I did already, I got rid of the heat shield and finished the install. I've emailed the company to try to get this rectified.

The MAF sensor wire dangles freely after the mod, so I made sure to secure it with a zip-tie.

Haven't had a chance to really wring it out, but the car seems to come on stronger after 2500 RPM, and doesn't have that power/torque dip higher in the rev range. The whoosh whoosh noises are also very welcome.

 

Next was the trunk bar. It gets mounted underneath the foam in the trunk. You actually have to cut away at the back of the foam to make it sit back flush so this pic gives you an idea of how much foam needs to be removed.

mocked up in the mounting position

The left and right side mounting locations use existing holes in the body work, but adding AutoExe supplied anchors into these holes. Cut away at the tape covering the two holes.

The supplied anchors were super flimsy and can't take a lot of torque. after inserting them, they kind of just dangle there and feel like they'll fall into the hole. I recommend taping them down after you've secured them to make sure they don't slip into the hole.

All bolted up.

Now the messy part. All you need is a good exacto knife or work knife, and some trial and error .

Everything laying back down nice and flat.

Haven't hit any corners with anger yet to see how the car feels, but from my commute, the front strut bar has made the front axle feel more solid, kind of like when you puff up your chest and walk around like a gym rat. The rear end of the car also feels more in line with the front end's movement, meaning when you turn in, it no longer feels like the back end is trying to catch up with the front, it's all turning together in one beautiful rigid hull.

 

Awesome! I need to get one of those trunk braces!

 

Looking good! I have an AE trunk brace on my BL Speed3. Wasn't originally aware they offered one for the BP and suppose I"ll now have to pick one up as well.

Also, make sure to post when you install the rear subframe brace!

 

Looking good! I have an AE trunk brace on my BL Speed3. Wasn't originally aware they offered one for the BP and suppose I"ll now have to pick one up as well.

Also, make sure to post when you install the rear subframe brace!

Did you get around to installing your under chassis braces? What were your driving impressions?

Also you're the only person I've seen outside of Japan with the LEG front lip. Any pics? I'm dying to get my hands on one, but the shipping cost is so insane.

 

Just the front for now. I have a professional shop service all my vehicles and my tech said he wasn't comfortable dropping the rear subframe because he didn't want to trigger a bunch of sensors or something to that effect.

LEG lip is cool and I'm still waiting to install their TCR wing in carbon. It's been clear coated, test fitted and my shop put together serviceable mounting kit, so hopefully not too much longer for the install.

And unfortunately I'm not a big picture person but here's a few photos from a recent track day. Vehicle dynamics were very predicable at speed. It's a fun car imo.

bp-series-mazda3-turbo-sonoma-hpde.246973

 

Just the front for now. I have a professional shop service all my vehicles and my tech said he wasn't comfortable dropping the rear subframe because he didn't want to trigger a bunch of sensors or something to that effect.

LEG lip is cool and I'm still waiting to install their TCR wing in carbon. It's been clear coated, test fitted and my shop put together serviceable mounting kit, so hopefully not too much longer for the install.

And unfortunately I'm not a big picture person but here's a few photos from a recent track day. Vehicle dynamics were very predicable at speed. It's a fun car imo.

bp-series-mazda3-turbo-sonoma-hpde.246973

You don't need to drop the subframe to install the AE rear brace. I recall you had subframe rigid collars, so perhaps your tech was referring to that, which would require the subframe to be dropped a little.

The LEG rear wing didn't come with mounting equipment? Seems like an oversight.

 

Speaking of rear spoilers, I spent my Friday evening mounting my CS rear spoiler (in regular carbon fibre), and debadged the back end.

The supplied install instructions were excellent, and the hardware kit came with everything you needed, including the 3M tape. Only thing not included was thread locker

Off comes the centre trim panel on the inside of the hatch. Undo 5 nuts, unplug the brake light, apply some heat to the underside of the OEM spoiler, and pop it right off.

The prep of the OEM spoiler was the longest part of the install. It involves cutting away at the inner layer of the OEM spoiler to reveal the 3 mounting locations, then drilling out the holes. Not difficult, just make sure you have a Dremel, painters tape, and take your time to align things properly.

The CS spoiler, though beautiful, came with flaws from the factory. I don't know how much of their stuff they make in house in Seattle, but I know this rear spoiler came from a factory in China (there was literally a Chinese QC sticker on the box). It came with a 3 inch long split in the clear coat along the seam where the carbon fibre sheet wraps around on itself. Not a huge deal, but still a bit of a nuisance. When it warms up, I'll just put a layer of epoxy over it and call it a day.

There were also a bunch of palm prints/grease marks on the underside of the spoiler that would not rub off, so I did a quick spot polish and it did the trick.

I gotta say though, it's a BEAUTIFUL piece <3

I'll get some better pictures once the weather warms up and I hit up the car wash. So for now, enjoy my tiny little garage.

 

Speaking of rear spoilers, I spent my Friday evening mounting my CS rear spoiler (in regular carbon fibre), and debadged the back end.

the wing looks SO GOOD! I want a wing so bad but all the ones they offer for the third gen 3's are cheap looking in my opinion, I dont get why CS doesn't make a wing like this for the 3rd gens.

 

Looking great, man!

 

I bet it looks great in person, all the options ive seen for the gen 3 wings are garbage and cheap looking. Especially that Obnoxious Bayson R Mazdaspeed style one everyone has

 

CS spoiler is looking good and bummer about quality control or lack thereof.

Yeah the LEG spoiler came as a basic piece of carbon; nothing substantial included. And in all honesty, most of their parts arrived like this. I have their WTAC se3p wide-body which left a lot to be desired as well but LEG is really on trend rn so I figure they (as well as tuner enthusiasts) could care less.

 

CS spoiler is looking good and bummer about quality control or lack thereof.

Yeah the LEG spoiler came as a basic piece of carbon; nothing substantial included. And in all honesty, most of their parts arrived like this. I have their WTAC se3p wide-body which left a lot to be desired as well but LEG is really on trend rn so I figure they (as well as tuner enthusiasts) could care less.

I'm seriously surprised that a well known JDM tuner house would cut corners like that.

 

As I mentioned, the CS spoiler came with a flaw/crack in the clear coat along the seam where the carbon fibre sheet ends. I called customer support and they set me up with a replacement spoiler right away, but the second one had the same issue, but to an even worser degree. I sent the second one back and kept the first.

Here are some before shots, you can see the spider cracks originating from the seam. What you can't see is the clear coat actually chipping away along that line, and it was a rough edge that would eventually get worse over time.

After the install I wanted to repair the crack, or at least coat it so that the crack wouldn't get worse. This was my first time doing a clear coat repair and it was pretty fun to be honest.

I masked off the area, and wet sanded it down, starting with 200 grit, then 800 grit, then 1000 grit, 1200, and finally 3000 grit. There's probably a more progressive combo of sandpaper to work up to but I worked with what I had.

I cleaned off the area with isopropyl/water mix each time before moving to the next grade of sandpaper. Once the area was smoothed out and cleaned, I polished it with a Meguire's power ball, then sprayed 3 coats of automotive clear coat. Took all the masking off, and let it cure for 24 hours.

Once it was cured, I had to sand it back down with 3000 grit to smooth out the hard edge left over from the masking. Once smooth, I polished it again, then topped it off with Turtle Graphene Max Wax.

Here are the after photos. You can still see the spider cracks under direct light (I didn't sand down to the bare carbon) but I assure you that spot is now silky smooth with no hard edges that could lead to future delamination/chipping.

 

I would have sent both of them back, F fixing their products...

 

Yeah the customer should never have to do that, but I waited a long time to get the spoiler and it was something I was eyeing for a while. All good! CS's customer service made up for it

 

Sexy !!