Sometimes, depending on your mood, or how the day is going (or isn’t), it doesn’t take much to transport you away from the mundane, the ugly, the gristle of a thorny encounter with someone you’d rather not see. Please, you say to yourself, just get me out of here. Put me in something far, far away from this madness. Well, since you asked…. Try the Mazdaspeed3.
Mazda, the somewhat quirky champion of rotary-engined RX-7 sports cars and a handful of normal sedans, SUVs and the brilliantly conceived Miata, has always believed that there is more to motoring life than simply sinking into a mobile sofa, clunking the thing into Drive and sliding off to the supermarket. From time to time, Mazda actually puts its mouth where its corporate motto, “ Zoom Zoom,” lies.
Racy version
The 2013 Mazdaspeed3 is the few-holds-barred, snarling, bumpy, noisy and very racy version of its more sedate antecedent, the Mazda 3, a pretty much bread-and-butter car that is fine for what it is, but is nothing like this tribute to the pure essence of over-the-road, full-out European rally competition.
Find a twisty road
Get out of the city, take it up in the hills, find a twisty road. This is where you get some sort of idea of what it’s like in a full-out rally car and there’s a distinction to be made here between a tight, nimble rally car and a big touring sedan, like a BMW Seven series or an Audi A8. The latter cars will give you a vague hint of what it is like out there in the elements, but for the most part you are cosseted in comfort, impervious to the cruel world out there. The rally car – the Mazdaspeed 3, for example – will tell you precisely what it is like: take that hairpin turn a lot faster than you think is prudent. The car will march right through it, gripping the road, flinging your tightly-belted body from side to side.
Some disconcerting elements
When they designed the inside of this car, Mazda was, for the most part, conservative – largely black. But there are some disconcerting elements – a chintzy-looking red and black checked pattern of upholstery on the seat backs and door panels chief among them. And there were also some standout nits: the 6700 rpm redline marker is useless because the entire tachometer is rimmed with a red line. So the actual redline marker is nearly invisible. Snaking your hand to the electric window lifts is an exercise in awkwardly bending your wrist to the left because the driver door grab handle gets in the way and blocks your arm from straightening out and touching the window buttons. Read more [Link]
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