wordplay: Greg Bloom
Ok, so last month’s ride was the head-turner of the year so far, and I don’t have to tell you that the Cayman was a blast to take to the mountains and drive right up to the plane on the tarmac at Eagle County Airport. Pretty surreal for us common folk! Much to my surprise, the next ride was not a disappointment at all, like I’d anticipated it would be. I thought jumping from a Porsche to a $23k Mazda was going to have me depressed and feeling way too close to normal. On the contrary, and you’d have to drive the Speed3 to believe it, this car was quicker than the Cayman in 2nd through 4th gears! I kid you not!
Changing cars from week to week tests my skills enough, having to adjust to the feel of each car, especially when there’s a clutch involved. In this case I went from the classic Porsche gear ratio, which insists that you rev the engine a bit and ease into a powerful torque, to that of the Speed3, which leaves little or no room for bad timing and shoots you off the line like a hare on crack. A layperson could literally snap their neck if they don’t respect the awesome quickness. It has a 2.3-liter 16-valve 4-cylinder Direct Injection Turbocharged Engine that throws down 263-horsepower and STILL gets 26MPG on the highway and 18 in the city. Wow!
This is a super-lightweight car, folks. I mean the turbo kicks in when you hit 3500rpm and the front wheels lose enough traction to where it gets a bit scary... Fun as hell though! This car is the “sleeper.” No one would expect the Speed3 to perform like it does, aside from maybe Vin Diesel who, as we speak, might just be prepping for Fast and Furious IX: Mile High Momentum (please don’t Google to see if that’s a real movie coming out…please…really).
Anyway, for the most affordable speed rush ever, short of your uncle’s ’87 Grand National and that packet of Splenda you accidentally inhaled at Starbucks the other morning, grab the Mazda Speed3 and enjoy all the quickness of an expensive sports car at more than half the price!
Mazda.com |