desperado-c
Member
- :
- Mazdaspeed3
Lately I've been spinning my front wheels in 2nd a lot due to the colder weather and less tread, I suppose. It's kind of got me thinking how my next car is probably going to be AWD. But it will have to be pretty light weight, too. Given that I've had a pretty great experience owning Mazda, I'd kinda like to stick with them. So, admittedly, this has increased my level of wishful thinking about the possibility of an AWD MS3 being produced.
This is all speculation, reading tea leaves, etc., but what if the MS6 and the MS3 are really part of a long-term, evolutionary strategy to come up with an Evo/STi killer by, say, the 2010 model year? Looking at recent history, originally some thought the MS6 would be taking on that niche, but 3550-3600 lbs and 273hp is just not enough power-to-weight to do the job. And the AWD wasn't up to the task when more juice was added, so everyone soon realized that Mazda meant it when they said it was aimed at the more upscale sport-tourers (Audi/BMW, etc.). Then the MS3 was announced and a lot of people wondered if maybe it would be AWD and better able to take on the task. But no AWD, so, no, it's an FWD aimed at the WRX.
But then we get Mazda NA's head of product dev (?) appearing with DG and talking about how easy it is to convert the MS3 to AWD. Next we have SCC saying they have a big surprise planned in conjunction with Mazda NA. So I'm now starting to think that (in additon to being the testbed for turbo DISI) maybe the MS6 was the testbed for performance AWD, without having to take it to Evo/STi levels. With people modding and adding more power, Mazda could just watch and see how things shook out. Then the MS3 was the testbed for performance handling without having to add the complexity of AWD. Hence all the time spent at the track and the MS-CAI and coilover options. The logical next step would be to put the two together by taking the experience gained with the MS6's AWD and combining it with the experience gained making the MS3 handle to come up with . . . an Evo/STi killer (or at least competitor, maybe priced a little lower). A guy can dream, can't he?
This is all speculation, reading tea leaves, etc., but what if the MS6 and the MS3 are really part of a long-term, evolutionary strategy to come up with an Evo/STi killer by, say, the 2010 model year? Looking at recent history, originally some thought the MS6 would be taking on that niche, but 3550-3600 lbs and 273hp is just not enough power-to-weight to do the job. And the AWD wasn't up to the task when more juice was added, so everyone soon realized that Mazda meant it when they said it was aimed at the more upscale sport-tourers (Audi/BMW, etc.). Then the MS3 was announced and a lot of people wondered if maybe it would be AWD and better able to take on the task. But no AWD, so, no, it's an FWD aimed at the WRX.
But then we get Mazda NA's head of product dev (?) appearing with DG and talking about how easy it is to convert the MS3 to AWD. Next we have SCC saying they have a big surprise planned in conjunction with Mazda NA. So I'm now starting to think that (in additon to being the testbed for turbo DISI) maybe the MS6 was the testbed for performance AWD, without having to take it to Evo/STi levels. With people modding and adding more power, Mazda could just watch and see how things shook out. Then the MS3 was the testbed for performance handling without having to add the complexity of AWD. Hence all the time spent at the track and the MS-CAI and coilover options. The logical next step would be to put the two together by taking the experience gained with the MS6's AWD and combining it with the experience gained making the MS3 handle to come up with . . . an Evo/STi killer (or at least competitor, maybe priced a little lower). A guy can dream, can't he?
