I had an '08 Mazda3, fully loaded, with a stick. It was a blast to drive. I can only imagine what the Mazdaspeed3 is like.
Photography Credit: David S. Wallens
It’s like one of those Missed Opportunities out of Craigslist. (Those are still a thing, right?)
You: a slammed, wide-body Mazdaspeed3 innocently waiting for a green light in DeLand, Florida.
[How to make the most of a Mazdaspeed3]
Me: Heading to meet a friend in town for dinner.
Go back several years, and you’d occasionally see a Speed3. Heck, we even had one in our project car fleet.
At the time, the MZR was a big deal in our world. Add a factory turbo setup, and you had an even bigger deal.
Today, though, it’s a bit of a rare sight, which got me thinking.
How hot is that setup?
Where did the flares come from?
Track use? Autocross?
Local or just someone passing through?
We can’t recall seeing this at any local event, but it does have some GRM written on it.
I had an '08 Mazda3, fully loaded, with a stick. It was a blast to drive. I can only imagine what the Mazdaspeed3 is like.
I can hear the rust.
I had a 2010 Speed3 for about 16k miles, from new. Left it stock, fun little car to drive.
I still want one, but they are either all still mega expensive and used up, or they are cheap and blown to bits. It's usually the latter.
A friend bought a 1st gen when they first came out, and stock for stock, it would blow the doors off of my then-new 2009 WRX once he caught up with me after the launch. Here's both of those cars, MySpace angles and all!
Once he tuned it and it stopped cutting boost in 1st and 2nd, I had zero chance. Thing handled great, too.
I had the opportunity to buy a 2011 new, but opted for a N/A 3 S Touring instead. I still think I made the right choice for the situation, but again, I still want one.
Appleseed said:I can hear the rust.
My car only had two years in Massachusetts (2009-2010). It had some rust when I sold it in 2019.
In reply to Tony Sestito :
He must have had fat, sticky tires and suspension on the car. They cut boost in the lower gears because they literally wouldn't hook on anything but prepped surface.
In reply to z31maniac :
He did have RX8 wheels and summer tires on it, but he had stock suspension. Coming out of the hole, he did have to take it easy, but man, it MOVED!
Had a 08.5 for a few years
Mixed bag. Torque for days, fun turbo noises, decent handling. Great seats!
Bad transmission. Shifted like it came out of a truck. Heavy and clunky. Didn't like it. And 70mph was about all it would do out of boost. I got 30mpg with it, once. A steady 80mph was more like 22mpg.
Got a Boxster and haven't looked back. Ymmv
Test drove a 1st gen and fell in love, but my credit was in a bad place at the time (divorce, buying a house, having kids) so it didn't make financial sense. The mix of practicality and performance was hard to beat.
My mom has a Mazda 3 hatch 2.5 6spd and it's a fantastic car. I can only imagine how much fun it would be with 90 more horsepower.
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