Driving Impressions
They say it gets to 60 in less than 60…and we believe 'em.
Wait 'til you drive this puppy. The first thing you notice when you turn the key is the car's throaty exhaust note. While the raspy sound emitted by some tuner-mobiles can quickly become tiresome, the MazdaSpeed 3 has a mellower tone that adds to the car's high-performance feel without crossing the line into the realm of obnoxious. As you start rolling you're liable to be struck by how docile and well behaved the car seems. Even with this much power on tap, the MazdaSpeed 3 happily cruises along through heavy traffic with a minimum of fuss.
Find a stretch of open road, however, and this gutsy little motor is eager to show you what it's got. Acceleration is impressive, making the manufacturer's claimed sub-six second 0 to 60 times easy to believe. For some highly juvenile fun, rev it up, dump the clutch, and you'll be rewarded with tire-smoking burnouts that'll make the 16-year-old in you grin from ear to ear. Keep your right foot planted and you'll quickly find yourself doing speeds that are likely to get you arrested. Mazda tells us the car is electronically limited to 155 miles-per-hour and, based on our time behind the wheel, we can tell you that number isn't as far-fetched as it might sound. Unlike some small turbocharged engines, this 2.3-liter unit has surprisingly good grunt at low engine speeds and no noticeable turbo lag. We can also tell you the steps engineers have taken to minimize torque steer—the bothersome tugging you feel through the steering wheel under hard acceleration — have been remarkably successful. The six-speed manual gearbox compliments this engine very nicely, with short throws and gear ratios that allow you to take advantage of the motor's abundant torque. The hydraulic clutch has a bit of an abrupt on-off feel to it, but requires only a light touch. Stopping the car is a no-nonsense affair even from supra legal speeds. We found those larger brakes combined with the standard Dynamic Stability Control (DSC) gave us an extra feeling of security when we set out to explore the car's handling limits. The MazdaSpeed engineers' suspension mods have taken what was a nice little car with sporty overtones and turned it into an extremely competent handler that feels stable and predictable even when pushed hard. With these stiffer underpinnings the ride quality does suffer a bit, but it's far from objectionable. Considering the mindset of the folks who'll be buying a car like this, we think it's safe to say that they either won't notice or won't care. The rack-and-pinion steering also adds to this feeling of confidence. The steering is precise and offers good feedback, though we'd prefer a little more weighty feel.
The interior's ergonomics are little changed from the mainstream Mazda3, which is a good thing as far as we're concerned. The new front sport seats make a good thing better with excellent comfort for casual motoring and substantial side bolsters that are just the ticket for enthusiastic driving. Rear 60/40 split-folding rear seats add a touch of practicality not commonly found in machines capable of delivering this level of performance. Drop both seatbacks and the little wagonette has room for more than 43 cubic feet of cargo. While flogging the MazdaSpeed 3 around the 11 turns of Laguna Seca raceway was great fun, we walked away from our time behind the wheel convinced that the car's high-performance potential is only a small part of its appeal. Being able to drive it that hard on the track all day and then stop to load up on super-sized commodities from your neighborhood warehouse store on the way home, well, now that's what we call wild.
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