There is now also a patch of white paint on the front left corner where some butthead in a parking lot scraped my car and took off. I also have a small patch on the right front corner where I rubbed off some paint forcing my way out of a parking spot that some equally stupid individual in a new Taurus blocked me into. I had parked behind an Explorer in a spot just barely large enough for the Z and the Taurus decided to block the driveway behind me. So after backing into the Taurus and giving it a nice shove, I miscalculated the distance between myself and the Explorer. Oddly enough, there was no sign of the impact on my rear bumber, but the Taurus ended up with a bent license plate and a busted headlight. OOPS.
Hey Mr. Taurus Guy, if you're reading this: 
I've made several intake modifications to the car including removing the lower resonator, installing a K&N filtercharger and an Iceman intake. You won't find any K&N or Iceman stickers on my car. Actually you won't find any performance part stickers on my car. The less my competition knows about what I'm running the better.
Anyway, after resetting the computer, I noticed a definate performance difference with the new intake.
Before I make anymore modifications to the engine, I'm going to have to rebuild/upgrade the transmission. Since the ZX2 gets the weaker version of the Mazda transmission, it's really not much good over 170HP unless you really baby it. And ofcourse, if you're doing performance mod like these, it's certainly not so you can baby it.
I've also removed the passenger seat, carpetting and particle board from the trunk, rear package shelf and brace, floor mats and the plastic panel that surrounds the trunk latch. The deer removed the right side door mirror. Since I'm used to old cars with no right side mirror anyway, I'm in no hurry to replace it. I figure the reduction of drag from the missing mirror probably makes up for the increase in drag from the dents, if there is any
Update: 11-08-2002
The Iceman intake is supposed to be a simple bolt on installation. Well the hole for the O2 sensor that goes into the intake tube is actually too far up and I had to reposition the wires and part of the harness that goes to the sensor and it only barely reaches. Another quarter of an inch and I'd have been S.O.L. in the simple bolt on department. Also the large rubber piece that mounts the intake to the air box is about one size too small. It'll fit, but it is not and easy task by any means. Better make sure you have real good leverage and strong hands. This was an area where I actually found myself wishing that I had three hands.
The passenger seat is currently in the car but that's only a temporary thing. I spent the summer in Seattle ferrying Malachi around and he's too old and decrepit to crawl into the back seat, so I put the seat back in. I'm currently trying to decide if I'm going back to Seattle for the winter (depends on wether or not I get the cash) and if I do, I'll want the seat to stay in 'til I get there because it's more comfortable to sleep in than the driver side seat. Though I am entertaining ideas for using that area as a bed without the seat. Only problem is that the floor is kinda lumpy. I can cross the country (2150 miles) in 48 hours if I sleep in the car. I've driven the Z across the country 6 times now. It has 67,000 miles on it. Yow. But I just saw a 99 ZX2 on eBay with 97000 miles.
I removed what was left of the mirror housing and used some of the sticky putty stuff that Ford uses to hold the plastic on the inner door to fill the holes in the mount. I then applied black electrical tape over that. The reason for doing this was that I was tired of the car having the wires to the power mirror motor wrapped up and held in with electrical tape. This way, unless you look closely, you can't even tell that the car is supposed to have a right side door mirror. And the car is safe from any possibility of accidentally shorting the wires since I removed them at the connector.
This is a picture of the inner door of my car with the Inside door pane removed. Upon removal of the panel, I found that I could do the above listed repair/modification.
Those reading this who know me and the car will be glad to know that I also fixed the problem with the door lock. I can now lock and unlock the passenger door from the outside. I can also roll the window all the way down. It's not as easy as before the deer plowed into the side of the door, but it no longer requires the strength of a WWF Superstar.
WARNING If you wish to remove the window crank, Ford does not make it easy. There is a C-Clamp that holds it on inbetween the backside of the crank and the washer. You can pry this clamp with a small flat head screw driver. There's also a method where you use a towel and wedge it into the crank, catch the C-clamp, pull back and forth and it eventually pops out. I haven't tried the second method. The first method took about 60 seconds. I found this out after spending twenty minutes trying to take it off like you would a normal window crank. Ford also sells a special too to remove this clamp. Ofcourse that'n no suprise, they sell special tools for removing most of the stuff the have attached in non-standard forms. Also I've been told that the C-Clamp and washer are very expensive to replace so be careful with them. My door handle is in the glovebox now. I think I'll leave it there.
I put the carpet back in the trunk without the fiberboard it came attached to. The carpet only weighs 2.5 pounds, so the problems associated with removing it are not worth the gain. I also re-installed the brakelight cover which weighs all of about 4 ounces, for the same reason. This view is from the dash. Notice the missing seat, plastic panel and package shelf cover. That package shelf cover must wiegh five pounds. Thing's a lot heavier than I expected it to be.
