anyone know if its heavier than stock...

and how to determine difference for assurance that the part wasnt just painted red...

its a lot lighter than stock, you can also check the welds.. they are a lot better than stock as well. It will be red and also have a Mazdaspeed Gold Plaque and i think a part# on it or something.. my friend has one.. very sweet.

i didn't know it was lighter but i posted about the welds and plaque thing on the evil forum for jio

yeah its a lot lighter.

my reinforced PPF weighs like 20-30 LBS

to answer my own question and as for reference... as ive managed to finally score one..

heres a pic of that plaque for verification.. and she weighs 18lbs..

sunuvabitch thats nice.



kevin.

Is that used? How much do used ones go for?

Looks cool.

Where did they manage to save the weight? Is it different material, construction or maybe both? And aside from better welds, where is it stronger? I've never seen one in person or a side by side picture, so I'm curious.

Nice, but they still break, just not as bad or as often as the stocker.

one other notable difference between the speed and that of stocker is the hanger... look at the difference...

Anyone have any photos showing the difference in welds? Also, where exactly is the frame thicker?

recallin the welds not as sloppy as the stockers... and some of which were also extended and thicker...

didnt notice any extra welds except at the ends.. im tryin to acquire another.. ill document in detail then..

weighed both on a digital bathroom scale... only difference was a pound.. speed bein the lighter

When we built the Falken FD (drift car), we had both. A new MS PPF and a stock PPF, and after looking over them for a long time, and weighing them at that time new without any dirt or grease etc, there was no difference I saw other than the color and plaque and .4lbs heavier on the OE unit. The MS one broke half way through the first season (might have only been about 4 events or so), so I did some better welding than what comes on the stock units, and installed it in place of the MS unit. Still unbroken and in the car to this day almost 2 years later. Honestly I was kinda disappointed because MS parts are usually far better than their OE counterpart.



Granted, the Falken FD has solid rear diff mounts, but I still feel it should have consisted of something more exciting than a near stock unit with a plaque and red paint. All the welds I saw on ours were in the exact same places, and just about the same in appearance.

SpeedMachine,



Where did you purchase the Mazdaspeed from? there are rumors going around about a couple of vendors painting PPF's and calling them Mazdaspeed when in fact they seem to be normal "Painted" ppfs. According to corksport and a couple of website postings I have seen the Mazdaspeed is Powder coated red, and not painted. Just wondering if you have any idea. I personally do not think the part is worth the money, considering it claims to only be 10% stronger because of cold rolled steel. I think most of the Japanese tuners just beef up the welds in the key areas and then resell them (e.g. R.E. Amemiya). Please post any more information you have.



thanks,

E