Regarding styling, the new Mazdaspeed3 is a great looking sports compact car; Mazda's
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| The Mazda's serious power is backed up by some seriously good looks. (Photo: Mazda Canada) |
exterior upgrades aren't exactly subtle, but in this type of car that's perfectly fine. A vehicle like this is supposed to make your heart race simply by looking at it, and the Mazda certainly succeeds. Its fenders are some 20 mm (0.8 in) wider than the standard 3, and the lowering springs it's been equipped with are some 60 percent more resistant to roll, while the car itself rolls on meaty ten-spoke 18-inch wheels wrapped in 225-series high performance rubber. The Mazdaspeed3 also has a performance bodykit that includes new front and rear bumpers, side skirts, a tailgate-mounted spoiler, and a great big 95 mm (3.75 in) diameter exhaust pipe.
To complement
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| The performance 3 has all the goodies that you could ever want, including nav and a good stereo system. (Photo: Mazda Canada) |
the sporty exterior, Mazda has livened up the interior. The standard seats were ditched in favour of new sports cloth buckets that have puffed-up leather bolstering and red stitching to hold driver and passenger in place during aggressive maneuvers. Of course, red is the dominant colour inside the Mazdaspeed3's interior, with red thread used on the seams of the shift boot, seat logos, plus the 280 km/h (175 mph) speedometer and other instruments. Like the Mazdaspeed6, the high-performance 3 gets a black gloss and alloy-look patina, stainless steel scuff plates, and proper aluminum pedals as you might find in a racing car. To give the car broader appeal than just to the tuner crowd, the car is also available with an array of high-end options, such as automatic xenon headlamps, rain-sensing wipers, a satellite navigation system with flip-up display, and a rockin' sound system. Unfortunately, the oh-so-cool key-card keyless-start that comes standard with the 'Speed6 isn't available.
But on the subject of the super-tuned 6, Mazda's recipe to create the Mazdaspeed3 is rather simple: its engineers merely took
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| The heart of the beast: it makes less horsepower than the Mazdaspeed 6, but the same amount of torque. (Photo: Mazda Canada) |
the most powerful, fire-breathing engine on hand, and stuffed it into one of the hottest compact cars currently on the market. The engine of choice is a 2.3-litre dual overhead cam 16-valve inline-four that features direct injection (DISI) and a turbocharger; basically the same engine featured in the Mazdaspeed6. As not to cast a shadow over Mazda's halo performance vehicle, it generates 27 less horsepower, but torque figures go unchanged at 280 lb-ft. Combined with a short-throw six-speed manual gearbox, the Mazdaspeed3 ought to be the quickest and fastest front-wheel drive hatchback on the market, until Dodge's rampant 300-horsepower Caliber SRT-4 hits the streets. To counter the 'Speed3's straight-line performance, it gets more powerful brakes than the regular 5-door, with rotors that measure 320 mm (12.6 in) up front and 280 mm (11.0 in) in rear, as well as an active stability control program.
Unlike
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| When that needle swings around, all hell, but not traction, breaks loose. (Photo: Mazda Canada) |
the Mazdaspeed6, the Mazdaspeed3 will not be all-wheel drive, for several good reasons: partially to keep weight down and partially to keep pricing down. For Mazda, FWD was a logical move, as it keeps the Mazdaspeed3 from outperforming the Madaspeed6, but more so the front-wheel drive route will give this hot hatch a completely different driving experience.
Because the engine makes a 280 lb-ft mountain of torque, putting it to the ground effectively required some hefty measures. It gets a limited slip differential, and a clever engine management program which limits the amount of torque developed in the first four gears. The system also takes into account steering angles and vehicle speed when determining how much torque should pass through the driving wheels, by measuring the stiffness and speed of the left and right drive shafts. Neat.
