Everybody needs one wild child in the family. Don’t tell me that Lizzy and Phillip didn’t have a soft spot for Prince Andrew — after all, his older brother hung around with horsey married women, while his younger stirred speculation that he batted for the other side. Andrew, on the other hand, enjoyed the odd couple of beers down at the pub and shagged anything that wasn’t nailed down.
The Mazda3 MPS is the Japanese carmaker’s own little Randy Andy. It looks frightfully civilised, but can let its hair down with a vengeance when the mood takes it. And there lies the rub. I suspect most people who buy a hooligan car would like it to have the odd body piercing, a tattoo here and there. The Mazda looks to my plebeian eye a little too highbrow and not enough Hillbrow.
The Mazda’s appeal starts with the engine. The factory has tucked the same 2,3-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine as is used in the Mazda6 MPS under the bonnet, with the same 190kW and 380Nm on tap. The important difference is that the new hatch is considerably smaller — and lighter — than the Mazda6 sedan.
Another factor is that the bigger car comes with power-sapping four-wheel-drive, while the 3 gets by with the front wheels alone digging deep for traction. An engine delivering that much power and torque to the front wheels would usually be considered a recipe for enough torque-steer to render the car undriveable. But Mazda has largely solved that problem by managing torque delivery in first to fourth gears electronically and, it says, fettling the steering angle and stiffness of the drive shafts to deliver “appropriate” power from take-off.
The press blurb claims a top speed of 250kph and a 0-100km/h time of 6,1 seconds. We’ll have to wait for one of the performance magazines to conduct a proper test to find out if this is as fast as it should be.
All moving parts have been beefed up, and the crankshaft and con-rods are made of steel. A limited-slip differential helps tame wheel spin and improve traction and the bodywork has been stiffened up considerably. The brakes are discs all round, measuring 320mm up front and 280 at the back, and all the usual letters of the alphabet are dished up electronically to make safe drivers out of fools. Mazda elected to use the five-door Mazda3 body, and makes much of the fact that the MPS can be used as a mom’s taxi or a hooligan tool without falling on its face.
During the launch we thrashed the MPS mercilessly around Welkom’s Phakisa racetrack. The steering initially felt a little heavy, thanks to the struggle between torque steer and electronics, but not enough to put me off the car. Handling and braking were very good, and the engine served up more than enough grunt to add loads of excitement to the mix. Sporty aluminium pedals, a nifty six-speed manual transmission, tuned suspension, wider fenders, a large diameter tailpipe and sexy black leather seats with red stitching all hint that this is a rather special Mazda3.
Give me R259Â 990 to spend on a fun car and the Mazda would be at or near the top of my list — if it weren’t for one thing. Would I ever be able to look at the badge without the puerile dumbed-down catchphrase “Zoom-zoom” ricocheting around in my head? I fear not.