League Of Extraordinary Pocket Rockets
Cheesy, perhaps, but the parallels to the whole Clark Kent/Superman thing are just too strong to ignore. A phone booth isn't involved and Lois Lane is nowhere in sight, but a mild-mannered econobox does go down the production line to emerge as an immensely stronger, more handsome and more virtuous version of its former self. That would be the so-called pocket-rocket, an ordinary small sedan or coupe transformed by a more powerful, high-revving engine, fatter tires, flashy wheels, firmer underpinnings and all manner of spoilers, spats, sills and other visual tweaks meant to convey its Alpha Car status to weaker 4-wheeled underlings. As we all know, however, absolute power corrupts absolutely, and the pocket-rocket's Kryptonite can be torque steer. And that's not to be taken lightly in our group, as anywhere from 172 to 263 bhp is delivered through what many consider to be the wrong pair of wheels.
Yet all of our contestants worked far better than physics might dictate, as we found in an 800-mile odyssey that took us from our Newport Beach offices up Interstate 5; over California's ultra-curvy Highway 58 connecting Buttonwillow and Santa Maria; past green, bovine-encrusted foothills inland of Atascadero; and on to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca near Monterey, where Mother Nature arranged both wet and dry lapping sessions on the same day. After multiple runs through the Corkscrew, thoughtful note-scribbling, repeated trips to redline and extreme number-crunching, the real standouts emerged from a group that's quite impressive overall, and fairly tightly grouped in most aspects of performance. When we ultimately pried our driving-gloved fingers from the cars' leather-wrapped steering wheels, here's what we found.
323.8 Points
Well, a big part is that it just doesn't look all that racy, largely a function of the car's tallness and big gaps between the tires and wheel wells. “By far the most econo-looking of the group,” wrote Assistant Road Test Editor Jonathan Elfalan. “There simply aren't enough go-fast tack-ons to make up for the car's uninspiring shape,” added Feature Editor Mike Monticello. The largest, roomiest car in the group, the Sentra seems to be working at cross-purposes with itself, as ultra-spacious and ultra-sporty don't seem to coexist comfortably.
Dynamically, the Spec V is a mixed bag. The engine is a willing, frenetic revver and offers up a nice linear progression of power (good for a 6.6-second blast to 60 mph), but the 6-speed's linkage was judged the clunkiest and most plastic-sounding of the group. On the road, there's a spooky bit of yaw on lift throttle or trail braking that gets your attention, perhaps a function of the car's rather low-tech twist-beam rear axle.
Yet, said Road Test Assistant Calvin Kim, “On the track you can immediately load the suspension past that dodgy level and it settles down.” Steering is reasonably precise and transmits a leftward tug of torque steer only during high-rpm upshifts, but feels overboosted and lacks a linear gain in effort as steering lock is added. All of us agreed that, after becoming familiar with the Spec V's quirks, it was an entertaining track car.
Inside, you sit up high, good for forward views but it does seem to accentuate the feeling of roll, despite the moderately firm suspension. Seats are SE-R-exclusive, have decent bolsters, but are covered in a somewhat slippery, seemingly petrochemical-based fabric. There are some other SE-R-specific touches such as two additional gauges for oil pressure and longitudinal g's, and the Spec V touch of red webbing for the front seatbelts, but overall the interior was judged to be of lower quality and more sterile-feeling than the others, with a cheaper feel to many of the controls. On the plus side, noise levels at cruise, from both the engine and channeled through the structure from the tires, were reasonable, and a healthy dip into the throttle produces a nicely modulated rasp from the fat single-tip exhaust.
So we were a bit underwhelmed by Nissan's latest effort. It's a decent, fun-to-drive car (especially if you routinely take three of your 200-lb. buddies along) and its price is right, but its competitors have simply gone the extra mile in styling, chassis and interior sophistication.
355.5 Points
The new Mini (or is that the new new Mini?) is here. Well, we think this is the genuine article; as Monticello keenly observed, “Can't tell the new car from the old [2002-2006] car, unless they're parked side by side.” A tape measure would show an overall length increase of 2.4 in., with the wheelbase remaining at 97.1 in., but the style remains pure Mini — wide-eyed, wheels at the corners, a huge greenhouse and cuter than a bucket of puppies.
A peek underneath this BMW-built car reveals an all-new, 13-lb.-lighter rear suspension, with cast-aluminum semi-trailing links of such sculptural interest you might want to make a table lamp out of one. A new steel-sleeved, aluminum-block 1.6-liter eschews the former car's Roots-type supercharger for a twin-scroll turbo, mounted nice and high for all to see in front of the engine. There's considerable tech within, as the engine uses variable intake cam timing, sodium-filled exhaust valves and direct-injection fuel delivery.
And it scoots. Being the lightest in the test by 400 lb. (2535 lb.) with 172 bhp delivered with a velvety, linear smoothness, the Mini is a solid mid-pack performer…in a pack that can reach 60 mph in the 6-sec. range. It's one of three in the test to post a quarter-mile time in the 14s. And the laurels continued after lapping Laguna Seca: “It was the most fun on the track,” offered Monticello, “especially in the wet, with the ability to wag the tail under braking on demand.” In a word, “tidy” describes its cornering comportment, with mild understeer on corner entry, very predictable and gentle rotation with lift-throttle or brake, and minimal steering corrections needed throughout the corner. And a great shift linkage, precise and with minimal resistance into each gate, makes it easy to keep the little 1.6 on boil. Only a rushed 3-2 downshift brought out a touch of vagueness.
We liked the Mini through Highway 25's foothills, its sure footing, nicely weighted steering and short wheelbase making quick work of the switchbacks. But ride is somewhat pattery over sharp, high-frequency bumps, perhaps a byproduct of the run-flat tires. And we're less than enamored with the dinner plate-size center speedometer, which prompted photographer Guy Spangenberg to quip, “We should fill it two-thirds with water, and stick a goldfish in there.” Actually, BMW has stuck several audio controls in its lower third. And why does BMW insist on poorly reinventing the wiper and turn-signal stalks with the “detent-less” design found on its sedans? “It's fine most of the time,” said Kim, “but if you get flustered you could get in a perpetual left-right-left-right blink pattern as you try to reset the circuit.” On the plus side, the round-cushion seats offer more support than it might first appear, and the tach, mounted on the steering column, offers a digital readout of speed too.
Quirky in its execution, the Mini may be a little too clever for its own good. Ergonomics? Wonky, as style steps on function. But when it comes to driving dynamics, it's very difficult to find fault.
358.6 Points
It's no secret that Honda loves relatively small-displacement, insanely high-revving engines, and it's the Civic Si's K20Z3 powerplant that remains both its best and worst feature. Drive it like you hate it, keeping the 197-bhp 2.0-liter on its aggressive set of cam lobes above the 6000-rpm VTEC transition point, and it's tingly mechanical nirvana on up to the cut-off at 8300. Get caught out at, say, 3000 rpm, and teenagers borrowing mom's minivan will have their way with you.
Love it or hate it, this bipolar engine can now be had in our test car's 4-door guise, which adds 2.0 in. of wheelbase and around 59 lb. but increases its usefulness, especially as the rear seating area has a completely flat floor. The driver's seat, though, is where you want to be, its snug-fitting bolsters upholstered with grippy black Alcantara with red stitching. You face the unusual double-tiered dash (an acquired taste, not acquired by all) with the tach front and center, and a digital speedometer up top framed by curved bar-graph readouts for coolant temp and fuel level. The driving position is superb, the short-throw 6-speed shifter seemingly raised by a pack of Formula Fords (“as perfect as a transmission can get,” says Kim) and there are the expected excellent Honda ergonomics and nicely finished plastics.
The consensus was that just enough had been done to the exterior to stand above more Plebian Civics, including sharp-looking gray-painted alloys and a well integrated rear spoiler, touches that toughen its look and temper the “Car of the Future, Today” front-end styling. Pop the hood and the beautifully finished engine shows pride of workmanship that the others can't match…perhaps not so important on a family sedan, but a points-earner here.
At Laguna Seca, where the engine could repeatedly camp in the rarefied rev zone, the Si dazzles. Its standard helical-gear limited-slip diff excels at putting the power down without wheelspin and a minimum of torque steer; when the rains came, there was enough grip and stability to press on almost as fast as in the dry. Said Elfalan, “You find yourself underestimating how much grip you have and how early you can get back on the throttle.” Andrew Bornhop, Editor, R&T Specials, added, “I wish I could get it to rotate a little more.” Indeed, the Si is a one-line car, but it's a very good one-line car. Its weak link? Brakes, which coughed up significant plumes of smoke after each of our four-lap sessions, and exhibited some fade. Thanks to that, we all found ourselves deeper into Turn 11 than we wanted to be.
Yet on the road, the off-VTEC lower noise levels are appreciated, as are the well-snubbed ride motions that stop short of jarring and the controls that almost seem to meet your fingers halfway. Best of all, the Si has the most affordable as-tested price of the bunch, at $22,085. With its bifurcated powerband, you have to work to extract the juice, but anything worth doing has a degree of difficulty, right?
370.2 Points
Like the Civic Si, the GTI is a familiar face — a decidedly European face, with rounded contours and a protruding honeycomb grille outlined with a red stripe — now with two additional doors, which makes for five total in the VW's case. (Determining whether a hatch is really a “door” is, as they say, beyond the scope of this article.) What couldn't be more distinct is how the GTI applies its power to the road in a deceivingly smooth and understressed way.
A full 200 bhp is available, by way of a direct-injected turbocharged 2.0-liter 16-valve inline-4, an evolution of the port-injected 20-valve 1.8 T (the injector nozzle takes up some combustion-chamber real estate and precludes that fifth valve). The result is buckets of virtually lag-free torque (207 lb.-ft. from as low as 1800 rpm), channeled through a 6-speed whose precise, low-effort linkage is a joy to use. The power ultimately reaches the fat, 225-section Continental tires through an open differential, albeit one whose wheelspin is checked (with some lag) through brake intervention.
So the speed comes easily, without trying hard; it's just there with sort of a gentle murmuring sound coming from the engine bay and the scenery rushing past. Suspension tuning is completely in character with the powerplant: capable yet absorptive, with what feels like more travel than the rest. One area that could use a little less softness, however, is the brake pedal. Despite the GTI's second-shortest stopping distances, that middle pedal sank low enough to require the “side of the foot” heel/toe technique in track driving.
One would do well to heed rally great John Buffum's mantra, “In like a lamb, out like a lion” when really pushing the GTI hard. After lapping Laguna, Bornhop noted, “One thing you don't want to do is carry too much entry speed and get into a push…it's kinda hard to fix, a struggle to get that front bite again.” Like the Civic, the GTI's rear tires generally like to obediently follow behind the fronts, but it's not bothersome as the overall level of grip is high. Steering feel isn't high-strung, yet effectively passes along reports from the contact patches.
There was no shortage of accolades about the interior. “The class of the class when it comes to interior design,” offered Monticello. “Clean, well arranged and pleasant to be in,” piped Elfalan, who was also a big fan of the deeply contoured Ferrari-esque seats with integrated, movable headrests and the thick-rimmed, D-shaped steering wheel. There's nothing especially fancy or innovative here; it's all about stylish execution with a quality feel and look to all controls and soft-touch surfaces.
Quick yet stealthy, capable yet restrained, the GTI is a great device for going quickly, arriving refreshed and remaining under the radar. “The 5-door just makes sense,” said Monticello. “It's about time a GTI came this way.”
377.5 Points
If performance strictly by the numbers is your thing, put down the magazine now (gently), go to a Mazda dealer and write a fat check. Because the “3” excels at the test track and sweeps every category, be it 0-60 mph (6.0 sec.), the quarter mile (14.3 sec. at 98.9 mph), skidpad (0.91g), slalom (69.6 mph) and braking (trust us). It's also the most aggressive-looking, a natural result of its base canvas, the Mazda3, already being a Type A extrovert. To this, front fenders are subtly widened, just-so rocker sills and rear wing are added, ride height is dropped 10 mm and suspension is firmed. Look closely beneath the hood's leading edge and you'll see ductwork that routes air to the charge cooler atop the engine. The hood's been reshaped for clearance, with far better aesthetic results than the triple-tiered monster on the Mazdaspeed6.
Generating these impressive numbers is Mazda's 2.3-liter direct-injected turbocharged engine making 263 bhp, routed through a 6-speed manual, a cone-type limited slip, equal-length halfshafts and ultimately, the front 215-section Bridgestone Potenzas. If you're thinking, “That's a ton of power to be putting through two softball-sized contact patches,” you get a gold star. So boost is bled off in the first two gears, and the engine-management computer dithers with the E-throttle to minimize slippage and maximize acceleration.
It works reasonably well. Floor it in the lower gears and there are micro-tugs on the steering as the computer sorts things out, so you're busy at the wheel but not overwhelmed. Shifting itself could be more precise, and a strongish spring in the far right shift gate requires a deliberate push to ensure a 4-5 upshift doesn't become a 4-3 downshift. Torque down low is amazing, but don't bother spinning it to the optimistic 6750-rpm redline…the engine will physically rev that high, but at 6000 it goes as flat as week-old Pepsi.
Handling-wise, the 3 is a mix of fun and endearing imprecision. By far, it's the most pointable car — Bornhop: “What I particularly like is that under drop-throttle turn-in, I can get the rear tires to actually make noise” — but you can really feel the weight in the nose, so you're getting the car to rotate to work around that. Brakes seemed to take hard use in stride, with no real pedal sink after lapping.
Inside, the 3 is slightly gimmicky, with center-stack lights that radiate outward sequentially when various controls are turned (Remember KITT, the talking Trans Am from Knight Rider?) and is certainly the sportiest of the lot, with Mazda's “organ pipe” shrouds over the main gauges, red illumination and a pair of leather-trimmed sports seats up front, with metallicized inserts and wings to support your upper back and shoulders.
All that power does have a way of making you look past some of the 3's refinement issues. “Its rough-around-the-edges personality is part of what makes it so fun,” offered Monticello. And its Special-Stage looks only add to what's undoubtedly the top bang-for-the-buck car of this impressive group.
Source : Road & Track
Cheesy, perhaps, but the parallels to the whole Clark Kent/Superman thing are just too strong to ignore. A phone booth isn't involved and Lois Lane is nowhere in sight, but a mild-mannered econobox does go down the production line to emerge as an immensely stronger, more handsome and more virtuous version of its former self. That would be the so-called pocket-rocket, an ordinary small sedan or coupe transformed by a more powerful, high-revving engine, fatter tires, flashy wheels, firmer underpinnings and all manner of spoilers, spats, sills and other visual tweaks meant to convey its Alpha Car status to weaker 4-wheeled underlings. As we all know, however, absolute power corrupts absolutely, and the pocket-rocket's Kryptonite can be torque steer. And that's not to be taken lightly in our group, as anywhere from 172 to 263 bhp is delivered through what many consider to be the wrong pair of wheels.
Yet all of our contestants worked far better than physics might dictate, as we found in an 800-mile odyssey that took us from our Newport Beach offices up Interstate 5; over California's ultra-curvy Highway 58 connecting Buttonwillow and Santa Maria; past green, bovine-encrusted foothills inland of Atascadero; and on to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca near Monterey, where Mother Nature arranged both wet and dry lapping sessions on the same day. After multiple runs through the Corkscrew, thoughtful note-scribbling, repeated trips to redline and extreme number-crunching, the real standouts emerged from a group that's quite impressive overall, and fairly tightly grouped in most aspects of performance. When we ultimately pried our driving-gloved fingers from the cars' leather-wrapped steering wheels, here's what we found.
323.8 Points
Well, a big part is that it just doesn't look all that racy, largely a function of the car's tallness and big gaps between the tires and wheel wells. “By far the most econo-looking of the group,” wrote Assistant Road Test Editor Jonathan Elfalan. “There simply aren't enough go-fast tack-ons to make up for the car's uninspiring shape,” added Feature Editor Mike Monticello. The largest, roomiest car in the group, the Sentra seems to be working at cross-purposes with itself, as ultra-spacious and ultra-sporty don't seem to coexist comfortably.
Dynamically, the Spec V is a mixed bag. The engine is a willing, frenetic revver and offers up a nice linear progression of power (good for a 6.6-second blast to 60 mph), but the 6-speed's linkage was judged the clunkiest and most plastic-sounding of the group. On the road, there's a spooky bit of yaw on lift throttle or trail braking that gets your attention, perhaps a function of the car's rather low-tech twist-beam rear axle.
Yet, said Road Test Assistant Calvin Kim, “On the track you can immediately load the suspension past that dodgy level and it settles down.” Steering is reasonably precise and transmits a leftward tug of torque steer only during high-rpm upshifts, but feels overboosted and lacks a linear gain in effort as steering lock is added. All of us agreed that, after becoming familiar with the Spec V's quirks, it was an entertaining track car.
Inside, you sit up high, good for forward views but it does seem to accentuate the feeling of roll, despite the moderately firm suspension. Seats are SE-R-exclusive, have decent bolsters, but are covered in a somewhat slippery, seemingly petrochemical-based fabric. There are some other SE-R-specific touches such as two additional gauges for oil pressure and longitudinal g's, and the Spec V touch of red webbing for the front seatbelts, but overall the interior was judged to be of lower quality and more sterile-feeling than the others, with a cheaper feel to many of the controls. On the plus side, noise levels at cruise, from both the engine and channeled through the structure from the tires, were reasonable, and a healthy dip into the throttle produces a nicely modulated rasp from the fat single-tip exhaust.
So we were a bit underwhelmed by Nissan's latest effort. It's a decent, fun-to-drive car (especially if you routinely take three of your 200-lb. buddies along) and its price is right, but its competitors have simply gone the extra mile in styling, chassis and interior sophistication.
355.5 Points
The new Mini (or is that the new new Mini?) is here. Well, we think this is the genuine article; as Monticello keenly observed, “Can't tell the new car from the old [2002-2006] car, unless they're parked side by side.” A tape measure would show an overall length increase of 2.4 in., with the wheelbase remaining at 97.1 in., but the style remains pure Mini — wide-eyed, wheels at the corners, a huge greenhouse and cuter than a bucket of puppies.
A peek underneath this BMW-built car reveals an all-new, 13-lb.-lighter rear suspension, with cast-aluminum semi-trailing links of such sculptural interest you might want to make a table lamp out of one. A new steel-sleeved, aluminum-block 1.6-liter eschews the former car's Roots-type supercharger for a twin-scroll turbo, mounted nice and high for all to see in front of the engine. There's considerable tech within, as the engine uses variable intake cam timing, sodium-filled exhaust valves and direct-injection fuel delivery.
And it scoots. Being the lightest in the test by 400 lb. (2535 lb.) with 172 bhp delivered with a velvety, linear smoothness, the Mini is a solid mid-pack performer…in a pack that can reach 60 mph in the 6-sec. range. It's one of three in the test to post a quarter-mile time in the 14s. And the laurels continued after lapping Laguna Seca: “It was the most fun on the track,” offered Monticello, “especially in the wet, with the ability to wag the tail under braking on demand.” In a word, “tidy” describes its cornering comportment, with mild understeer on corner entry, very predictable and gentle rotation with lift-throttle or brake, and minimal steering corrections needed throughout the corner. And a great shift linkage, precise and with minimal resistance into each gate, makes it easy to keep the little 1.6 on boil. Only a rushed 3-2 downshift brought out a touch of vagueness.
We liked the Mini through Highway 25's foothills, its sure footing, nicely weighted steering and short wheelbase making quick work of the switchbacks. But ride is somewhat pattery over sharp, high-frequency bumps, perhaps a byproduct of the run-flat tires. And we're less than enamored with the dinner plate-size center speedometer, which prompted photographer Guy Spangenberg to quip, “We should fill it two-thirds with water, and stick a goldfish in there.” Actually, BMW has stuck several audio controls in its lower third. And why does BMW insist on poorly reinventing the wiper and turn-signal stalks with the “detent-less” design found on its sedans? “It's fine most of the time,” said Kim, “but if you get flustered you could get in a perpetual left-right-left-right blink pattern as you try to reset the circuit.” On the plus side, the round-cushion seats offer more support than it might first appear, and the tach, mounted on the steering column, offers a digital readout of speed too.
Quirky in its execution, the Mini may be a little too clever for its own good. Ergonomics? Wonky, as style steps on function. But when it comes to driving dynamics, it's very difficult to find fault.
358.6 Points
It's no secret that Honda loves relatively small-displacement, insanely high-revving engines, and it's the Civic Si's K20Z3 powerplant that remains both its best and worst feature. Drive it like you hate it, keeping the 197-bhp 2.0-liter on its aggressive set of cam lobes above the 6000-rpm VTEC transition point, and it's tingly mechanical nirvana on up to the cut-off at 8300. Get caught out at, say, 3000 rpm, and teenagers borrowing mom's minivan will have their way with you.
Love it or hate it, this bipolar engine can now be had in our test car's 4-door guise, which adds 2.0 in. of wheelbase and around 59 lb. but increases its usefulness, especially as the rear seating area has a completely flat floor. The driver's seat, though, is where you want to be, its snug-fitting bolsters upholstered with grippy black Alcantara with red stitching. You face the unusual double-tiered dash (an acquired taste, not acquired by all) with the tach front and center, and a digital speedometer up top framed by curved bar-graph readouts for coolant temp and fuel level. The driving position is superb, the short-throw 6-speed shifter seemingly raised by a pack of Formula Fords (“as perfect as a transmission can get,” says Kim) and there are the expected excellent Honda ergonomics and nicely finished plastics.
The consensus was that just enough had been done to the exterior to stand above more Plebian Civics, including sharp-looking gray-painted alloys and a well integrated rear spoiler, touches that toughen its look and temper the “Car of the Future, Today” front-end styling. Pop the hood and the beautifully finished engine shows pride of workmanship that the others can't match…perhaps not so important on a family sedan, but a points-earner here.
At Laguna Seca, where the engine could repeatedly camp in the rarefied rev zone, the Si dazzles. Its standard helical-gear limited-slip diff excels at putting the power down without wheelspin and a minimum of torque steer; when the rains came, there was enough grip and stability to press on almost as fast as in the dry. Said Elfalan, “You find yourself underestimating how much grip you have and how early you can get back on the throttle.” Andrew Bornhop, Editor, R&T Specials, added, “I wish I could get it to rotate a little more.” Indeed, the Si is a one-line car, but it's a very good one-line car. Its weak link? Brakes, which coughed up significant plumes of smoke after each of our four-lap sessions, and exhibited some fade. Thanks to that, we all found ourselves deeper into Turn 11 than we wanted to be.
Yet on the road, the off-VTEC lower noise levels are appreciated, as are the well-snubbed ride motions that stop short of jarring and the controls that almost seem to meet your fingers halfway. Best of all, the Si has the most affordable as-tested price of the bunch, at $22,085. With its bifurcated powerband, you have to work to extract the juice, but anything worth doing has a degree of difficulty, right?
370.2 Points
Like the Civic Si, the GTI is a familiar face — a decidedly European face, with rounded contours and a protruding honeycomb grille outlined with a red stripe — now with two additional doors, which makes for five total in the VW's case. (Determining whether a hatch is really a “door” is, as they say, beyond the scope of this article.) What couldn't be more distinct is how the GTI applies its power to the road in a deceivingly smooth and understressed way.
A full 200 bhp is available, by way of a direct-injected turbocharged 2.0-liter 16-valve inline-4, an evolution of the port-injected 20-valve 1.8 T (the injector nozzle takes up some combustion-chamber real estate and precludes that fifth valve). The result is buckets of virtually lag-free torque (207 lb.-ft. from as low as 1800 rpm), channeled through a 6-speed whose precise, low-effort linkage is a joy to use. The power ultimately reaches the fat, 225-section Continental tires through an open differential, albeit one whose wheelspin is checked (with some lag) through brake intervention.
So the speed comes easily, without trying hard; it's just there with sort of a gentle murmuring sound coming from the engine bay and the scenery rushing past. Suspension tuning is completely in character with the powerplant: capable yet absorptive, with what feels like more travel than the rest. One area that could use a little less softness, however, is the brake pedal. Despite the GTI's second-shortest stopping distances, that middle pedal sank low enough to require the “side of the foot” heel/toe technique in track driving.
One would do well to heed rally great John Buffum's mantra, “In like a lamb, out like a lion” when really pushing the GTI hard. After lapping Laguna, Bornhop noted, “One thing you don't want to do is carry too much entry speed and get into a push…it's kinda hard to fix, a struggle to get that front bite again.” Like the Civic, the GTI's rear tires generally like to obediently follow behind the fronts, but it's not bothersome as the overall level of grip is high. Steering feel isn't high-strung, yet effectively passes along reports from the contact patches.
There was no shortage of accolades about the interior. “The class of the class when it comes to interior design,” offered Monticello. “Clean, well arranged and pleasant to be in,” piped Elfalan, who was also a big fan of the deeply contoured Ferrari-esque seats with integrated, movable headrests and the thick-rimmed, D-shaped steering wheel. There's nothing especially fancy or innovative here; it's all about stylish execution with a quality feel and look to all controls and soft-touch surfaces.
Quick yet stealthy, capable yet restrained, the GTI is a great device for going quickly, arriving refreshed and remaining under the radar. “The 5-door just makes sense,” said Monticello. “It's about time a GTI came this way.”
377.5 Points
If performance strictly by the numbers is your thing, put down the magazine now (gently), go to a Mazda dealer and write a fat check. Because the “3” excels at the test track and sweeps every category, be it 0-60 mph (6.0 sec.), the quarter mile (14.3 sec. at 98.9 mph), skidpad (0.91g), slalom (69.6 mph) and braking (trust us). It's also the most aggressive-looking, a natural result of its base canvas, the Mazda3, already being a Type A extrovert. To this, front fenders are subtly widened, just-so rocker sills and rear wing are added, ride height is dropped 10 mm and suspension is firmed. Look closely beneath the hood's leading edge and you'll see ductwork that routes air to the charge cooler atop the engine. The hood's been reshaped for clearance, with far better aesthetic results than the triple-tiered monster on the Mazdaspeed6.
Generating these impressive numbers is Mazda's 2.3-liter direct-injected turbocharged engine making 263 bhp, routed through a 6-speed manual, a cone-type limited slip, equal-length halfshafts and ultimately, the front 215-section Bridgestone Potenzas. If you're thinking, “That's a ton of power to be putting through two softball-sized contact patches,” you get a gold star. So boost is bled off in the first two gears, and the engine-management computer dithers with the E-throttle to minimize slippage and maximize acceleration.
It works reasonably well. Floor it in the lower gears and there are micro-tugs on the steering as the computer sorts things out, so you're busy at the wheel but not overwhelmed. Shifting itself could be more precise, and a strongish spring in the far right shift gate requires a deliberate push to ensure a 4-5 upshift doesn't become a 4-3 downshift. Torque down low is amazing, but don't bother spinning it to the optimistic 6750-rpm redline…the engine will physically rev that high, but at 6000 it goes as flat as week-old Pepsi.
Handling-wise, the 3 is a mix of fun and endearing imprecision. By far, it's the most pointable car — Bornhop: “What I particularly like is that under drop-throttle turn-in, I can get the rear tires to actually make noise” — but you can really feel the weight in the nose, so you're getting the car to rotate to work around that. Brakes seemed to take hard use in stride, with no real pedal sink after lapping.
Inside, the 3 is slightly gimmicky, with center-stack lights that radiate outward sequentially when various controls are turned (Remember KITT, the talking Trans Am from Knight Rider?) and is certainly the sportiest of the lot, with Mazda's “organ pipe” shrouds over the main gauges, red illumination and a pair of leather-trimmed sports seats up front, with metallicized inserts and wings to support your upper back and shoulders.
All that power does have a way of making you look past some of the 3's refinement issues. “Its rough-around-the-edges personality is part of what makes it so fun,” offered Monticello. And its Special-Stage looks only add to what's undoubtedly the top bang-for-the-buck car of this impressive group.
Source : Road & Track
