mazdaspeed 3???

hello everyone. obviously i'm new here and have registered due to my interest in the mazda 3. first i'd like to get the ass kissing out of the way and say that i love the mazdaspeed protege and just about all new mazdas.

i am especially interested in the mazda 3. over at focaljet.com we have discussed the new duratech 20 & 23 engines extensively and have come to the conclusion that they have huge potential.

now on to the question at hand. will there be a mazdaspeed 3? if so, does anyone know when it will be released? i did a little lurking here before i registered and it seems as though wrongpres is your head honcho for news.

edit: hmmm, half of my post disappeared.

the reason i am asking about a mazdaspeed 3 is because although i think the mazdaspeed pro and the SVT focus are great cars, they both have their up and downs. the SVT has too soft of a suspension and it's engine is gutless when compared to the competition. the mazdaspeed could use the SVTF's brakes and more power. lets face it, if this car had 222/200 at the wheels then it would be a killer track car (by that i do not mean drag racing). the upcomming C1 chassis that will be shared by ford, mazda and volvo will be better than anything either of these companies has in current production.

i would love to see a car with the rear "control blade" suspension of the focus (due to the passive rear steer characteristic) combined with the chassis tuning of mazda speed. and of course this vehicle would have to be powered by a turbocharged variation of the new duratech 20 or the 23 (i think they are called MZR in mazdas). i may be mistaken but to my knowledge the current protege lump was not designed for boost. i know the zetec sure as hell wasn't. however, the new duratech engines were.

i hope you protege gurus will refrain from flaming a helpless newbie who is mostly uneducated in regards to the protege. and if i have offended anyone with my gibberish than please forgive me and chalk it up to said lack of protege knowledge.

BTW- i've been autoXing for 2 years and just had my first taste at open track racing a few weeks ago. my car, although capable, just won't cut it anymore. i need something faster.

well if they continue to make half ass Mazdaspeed cars, i dont think it will be

pdhaudio said:

well if they continue to make half ass Mazdaspeed cars, i dont think it will be

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now what do you mean by half assed mazdaspeeds? are you refering to the enigines lack of output of something wrong with the build quality. it certainly can't be the suspension.

right, the fact that they drop in a small turbo and only rate it 30 more crank hp. they need to look at a mitsu engine with forged. the only thing i meant was they need MORE power!! look at all the cars today, most have LOTS of power! like wrx, srt4, evo, more coming! suspension rocks though!!!!

i think if it comes out it will take a while. i think currently the mazdaspeed protege is not selling like hotcakes. hell, you can get them for 17000 now which is cheaper than a nicely equiped p5.

and the ammount of problems that the mazdaspeed has probably would make mazda rethink releasing another problem ridden vehicle with a warranty, at least, probably not until sales slump at the end of the production run for the mazda3 to boost up some sales.

so to conclude, i say it will be 2-3 years before a mazdaspeed 3 is released.

I agree with you uclap5. 2-3 years!
But for now, a 160hp 5 speed 151pft, 17'' alloy weel, Mazda's suspension train will be quite admirable for a compact. THat's my next car for spring 2004.

you mean 2005, Ford/volvo/mazda having problems with retuning the 2.3 liter motor.
Also if you do get the mazda3 with the 2.3L Cosworth will have a turbo kit for the focus 2.3L. That will be able to drop in. Oh and the v6 motor found in the mazda6, tarus, Escape, Volvo, Jaguar, etc is the duratec. The 4 cylinder is not. But yes you are right about the charastics. It does have vavle time adjustments much like Honda's VTEC.
FORD ***** EVERYTHING UP.
I talk to MAZDASPEED and they have a Protege turbo that is 225hp at the wheels. They stop there because they did not want to keep trashing the transaxle. But Ford since they owned Mazda did not want a car to have more power then there SVT Focus. Ford just cracks me up. I would have my cake and eat it too. I would dominate the whole market with pumping out fast rockets. Ki8nda like what dodge aka mercedes done with the NEON. (But still its an ugly car). Oh well I wish I had enough money I buy fords majority shares of mazda. Oh well Life goes on.

cdglowp5 said:

Oh and the v6 motor found in the mazda6, tarus, Escape, Volvo, Jaguar, etc is the duratec. The 4 cylinder is not.

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this is incorrect. at least in the ford family of engines. the four cylinders are part of the duratech family. the new duratech family of engines includes a 1.8, 2.0, 2.3 I4 as well as the 3.0 v6. newly developed is a duratech 3.5 v6 that should power many vehicles much like the VQ 3.5 in nissans line up.

cdglowp5 said:

FORD ***** EVERYTHING UP!
I talk to MAZDASPEED and they have a Protege turbo that is 225hp at the wheels. They stop there because they did not want to keep trashing the transaxle. But Ford since they owned Mazda did not want a car to have more power then there SVT Focus. Ford just cracks me up. I would have my cake and eat it too. I would dominate the whole market with pumping out fast rockets. Ki8nda like what dodge aka mercedes done with the NEON. (But still its an ugly car). Oh well I wish I had enough money I buy fords majority shares of mazda. Oh well Life goes on.

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i would not be so harsh as to say ford ***** everything up. if the situation was reversed and mazda owned 33% of ford do you think they would allow ford to produce a sport compact that was vastly superior to their own for the same money? i think not. i mean really, if mazda owned ford and ford wanted to bring the focus RS from across the pond and sell it for 22K do you really think mazda would be thrilled with that? they would snuff that in a heartbeat. it's just good business practice.
besides from what i've read about mazdas financial troubles before ford bought into them, if it wasn't for ford rejuvinating the company there probably wouldn't have been a mazdaspeed protege to begin this little debate with.

Sorry, but Ford getting invloved with Mazda was not a good thing. They even tried to kill the rotary. The thing that Mazda had going for it, was that it is not or was not a domestic, and another quality Jap product. Ask anyone that owns one of the Mazda/ford cross breeds, the van, tribute etc, and they'll tell ya, this ain't no honda or toyota, they have their problems, and it's Fords fault. i'm close with my dealer, and I see the little problems with the Ford crossbreeds.

The Mazda 6 V6 is Ford. It's quality is a big fat ? at this point imho.

The Mazda 6 4cyl's are all Mazda. I think that's what he meant above.

I rushed into getting in the speed as I did not want to buy a Protege that had anything to do with Ford. This may very well be my last Mazda, as i won't buy a ford/Mazda cross breed. I'm one of many that has been burned by Ford, and domestics in the past. They build crap. Anyone that thinks different just hasn't learned their lesson yet.

Ford is better off being the cash cow, and letting volvo, jag, Mazda ( and the rest) actually designing and building the cars. Ford hasn't built a quality product since their existence.

How many people do you see trading their Honda accords in for a Taurus? I sure as hell don't. Maybe the rare insane moron who doesn't know any better.....but I haven't seen it happen yet.

Anyways. 2-3 years for a Mazdaspeed....I agree. Probably more like 2. How long will this FnF fad, and hot import thing last? Not sure. If the New Mazda 3 has no problems in 2-3 years, I'll be ready to trade my Mazdaspeed by then, and you never know. But not until that car proves itself. I realize the engine is still Mazda btw, but the fact that ford is dipping it's fingers into it scares the s*** out of me.

oh, and just a interesting point to make


the major problem with the speed right now is the hesitation of the turbo. Which is caused by the ECU.

Guess what the only part made by Ford is in the protege's....the damn ECU

Coincidence? maybe, maybe not. Might be just a program error, could be a technical error, nobody knows yet.

I agree w/ everything that newf said(stupid) . In my life time i`ve owned and worked on a couple of ford vehicles, and in turn have nothing but bad experiences w/ ford!! Their products are nothing more than just plain crap!!! The same goes for mopar. After the garbage they put my parents through....i`d never again buy one of their vehicles!!(protest)

My past couple of rides have been nothing more than Toyotas and Nissans. And ironically......NO PROBLEMBS!!!!! Go figure!?

Anyway..I hope that ford does`nt try to F**K things up too much w/ mazda. They are after all infamous for this in the past!!

Just my $0.02.

yep, ford ****** it up. seriously. AND... I am predicting Ford to go bankrupt in the next 7 years. They are headed down the tubes- seriously- they are in HUGE TROUBLE. They aren't doing well AT ALL. I wonder what is going to happen to Mazda then

Believe me I had two Tributes before owning a Protege. The build quality of the Tribute is crap and is on every consumer magazines used car not to buy list for 01' and 02'. The Tribute is a great vechicle designed by Mazda and built by Ford I think in Illinois plant (not sure on that one). None the less Ford is a problem for Mazda all the time. I think some of Ford's service habits have even rubbed off on the dealers. I think the new Mazda 3 line will be a fresh step in the right direction for Mazda provided they build them in Japan. I think that the Mazdaspeed line will continue but Mazda needs to develop there products around the Mazdaspeed concept instead of just adding Mazdaspeed components to a car that in its conception had no previous development. I think for sure this was the case for the Protege. I will pass some more judgement when we see what they do for the Miata. We all know of the development of the Mazdaspeed RX-8 and it for sure will exist and it will be a trackstar, this is what I am preaching though. The renesis engine and its platforms were designed for the Mazdaspeed concept and design. Therefore i think the RX-8 will make a good transition into the Mazdaspeed line up and be able to take punishment and maybe even give some back to the average consumer. Mazdaspeed in my opinion will continue, but I agree with the rest I think it will be a good two years after intial production for the Mazdaspeed three to be a production model. We shall see Mazda has kept everyone guessing with this car so we will all just have to wait and see.

Sorry for the rant.

wow, there's alot of ford hate on this board. hell, i'd even go so far as to say you guys hate ford more than the honda kids.

anyway, i understand that you guys hate ford because you've been burned before. that's fine. however, i have not had any problems with my focus and i tear the s*** out of it. my focus has had less problems than my wifes corolla, her friends civic, and my co-workers protege5. the only friend i have who owns an import that has been flawless is my friend in vegas who owns a lancer. at the moment i have no problems with ford.

as far as problems the mazdaspeed has, i've been reading the mazdaspeed forum and from what i gather, that car has a lot more problems than just improper ecu tuning. i suppose those problems are also fords fault? and as far as the ecu problem, why does the blame automatically have fall on ford? wasn't it mazda who picked the ecu to use in thier car? from my understanding ford gives mazda almost complete freedom in designing their cars. maybe it was mazda that ****** up and not ford.

and to the person who said that ford is famous for ******* up other companies, i think you need to re-evaluate you position on this. if anything, for is famous for takeing a dying company and completely turning it around. jaguar anyone? how about volvo? lest we forget mazda? they are doing much better now than they were doing 5 years ago.

as far as ford going bankrupt, it could happen. however it is unlikely. with the introduction of the new f-150, mustang, 500, futura, and the c1 platform focus, ford will be effectively fixing everything that is wrong with it's line up. if they did go bankrupt you can bet that they'd sell off the companies they own that don't make them much money (like mazda). more than likely GM would buy up mazda just to make it's portfolio bigger. or it would just go into limbo and who knows what would happen then. but make no mistake, ford will not go out of business. the govenment would bail them out before that happened as they did to chrysler in the 70's. too many american jobs depend on ford's existence.

anyway, i did not intend for this to become a mazda vs. ford flamefest. i just wanted some info on the possiblity of a mazdaspeed 3 and in came the anti ford crew.
what a way to welcome a new guy.

I am sorry you feel this way I was not trieing to be anti Ford. But, If you ask for someone elses ideas and they flame a little on Ford and make other statements with it perhaps you should bypass the crap you don't like and read the content of the post. Flaming back is what will continue the Fire. I like the looks of the Ford and drove one, I agree with you it had decent power over the Mazda and better brakes but did not shine in the handling department. I always have a problem though with the build quality meaning the small things such as interior parts and steering wheels and seats that don't fit the car properly. I am being constructive and these are opinions not facts I would hope we could conine this thread on a positive note or we can ask a Mod to move it to Flame Wars and contiue it that way.

actually, your post wasn't that bad, it was very objective. like i said i just wanted some info on the mazdaspeed 3. when posting it did not occur to me that the mere mention of ford would bring out so much negativity. i mean come on, about a 1/3 of all posts in this thread are ford bashing with little to no info in them. that's just sad.

Unfortunately some people in here are this way with new folks and I would like to apologize for them they mean you no harm. The Ford/Mazda issue is a sore subject. To my knowledge there is no such animal as of yet speaking of a Mazdaspeed 3. I certainly hope there is one and I think if you did a poll asking if everyone else would like such a thing you would get a positive response. Perhaps we could say this Mazdaspeed should continue and iron out its problems by developing thes products from conception with Mazdaspeed in mind. The new motor will be a good one I think and I welcome it because I see all of the problems with this engine I currently have I have decided that my current project has reached a end. I am currently going to keep my eye on the new MX Sportif as it is called or Mazda 3 and hope it fills in the holes that the Protege leaves, such as the engine. We shall see my friend. As for now it is all speculation and I think that is why people got off track.

I would hope that other members could continue to calm this down and keep it on track.

By the way welcome to our humble home here and I do hope you find some of the info here helpful as have I.

wasn't it mazda who picked the ecu to use in thier car?

If they did how come they didnt use the ford ecu overseas on the same engine. That makes me doubt that. Mazda used to never used ford ecus. Even the second gen probes and mazda mx-6,s use different ecu,s. One ford ecu and one is mazda ecus even though they are the same engine. I wouldnt say that ford always makes total crap but they sure make alot of it. I personally havent heard to many problems actually with the 2.0 zetec but I do know that they almosr ecalled all focuses and that they have alot of recalls. Go with what you like. Wish nyou the best of luck. I belive it was the mazda 3 that I saw at the new york auto show and it is lovely and I am really thinking of getting one. I feel like everyone else that if ford has anything to do with production I think I am out. I have owned a ford before to. Lots of problems. Personally If I was going domestic I would probally go with chevy.

fords and mazdas

I can understand everyone's frustration with Ford, but I've never had a problem with them. I own a 1990 Ranger with over 130,000K miles and it's never been in the shop for anything non-routine. But then again, Ford does make better trucks than they do cars. I just bought a 03.5 P5 and I love it too. Personally, I don't like the looks of the Mazda 3 and I wouldn't own a first production car/engine. 1=problems. Anyone remember what happened to the Audi TT's when they first came out? Crash go boom. Then someone figured out to put a spoiler on it and they quit flipping over.