MAZDA’S MONSTER PERFORMANCE SPECIAL The Ford Focus ST is a little too obvious, the Volkswagen Golf GTI a little too conservative, and the Vauxhall Astra VXR so brash and in your face that you have to be a certain type of person to want to drive it. But the Mazda 3 MPS is something else entirely. It has more power than the others and, if you blink, you’ll miss it, partly because it went by so quickly and partly because it’s so understated you probably didn’t recognise it for the performance car it is. While the closely-related Focus ST uses a five cylinder 2.5 litre turbocharged petrol engine courtesy of Volvo, the Mazda ploughs its own furrow, or should that be burns its own tyre tracks. For it uses the four cylinder 2.3 litre turbo petrol engine that’s also found in the bigger 6 MPS, another car that hides its light under a bushel. If you are a mild mannered Mr. Bean type and want an instant makeover to be a motor mouth Jeremy Clarkson then the 3 MPS will give you that magical personality switch. However, if that’s only part of the dream and you still have a wife and three kids to shift about then the MPS will let you fulfill that part of your duties, too. The kids might be alarmed, though, the first time they experience you wrestling with the steering wheel to overcome the great gobs of torque this car throws at you if you press the loud pedal, sometimes even quite gently. If you can remember back to the early days of powerful turbocharged petrol cars delivering their all through the front wheels alone, then you will know something about torque steer. If, on the other hand, those formative years for cars were in the formative years of your youth it’s an experience you’ll never have enjoyed, if that’s the right word. But jump into an MPS, fire it up, and within a few seconds you’ll know what torque steer is all about. After a mile behind the wheel, you’ll be a top world expert. The motive power for this Mazda is almost 260 bhp of brute force allied to 280 lb ft of torque. That latter figure is the type of output from some of the more powerful, punchy diesels that have found their way into fast cars these days but when produced by a fast revving petrol engine the results are fantastic. Mazda quotes a 0-62 mph time of 6.1 seconds for this car but I’m sure it would be even quicker if you didn’t have to make a last minute thrust with the gear lever from second to third. The trouble is that even in a straight grab back from first to second this gearbox can be obstructive so shifting across and up the gate from second to third can result in going nowhere at all at a time you want to be concentrating on the road. The shift needs to be more intuitive. Settle the car down in sixth at 70 mph and the engine is turning a mere 2,500 rpm. But even then, and in sixth gear, it can give you a hell of a whack in the kidneys if you squeeze the go pedal. Knock it back to fourth and you return to the realms of torque steer. Mazda’s bigger 6 MPS has the benefit of four wheel drive to calm things down a bit but the wild nature of the 3 MPS, and learning to tame it, is half the fun. That and the fact that nobody suspects what you have at your disposal. True, there are some minor body changes and the tailpipe could have been ripped from somebody’s guttering system but there are few other giveaways. The 3 MPS costs £18,995 and will, if you are lucky, extract around 27 mpg from each gallon of 98 RON unleaded. For £500 you can have a sports styling pack to make it more like its rivals but that defeats the object. Maurice Hardy Annette's View There are various ways you can lose your licence. Stick it through a shredder, perhaps, or buy a box of matches and set fire to it. Or the fun way would be to buy a Mazda 3 MPS and flash past a few speed cameras. If, like me, you would rather keep on the road a while longer, then another newly arrived Mazda alternative might appeal – the Sport model with the two litre diesel engine. Like many modern diesels it’s great fun to drive and in most road conditions will get you there just as quick as the MPS but without the drama. At my age, that has more appeal especially as it manages the right side of 50 mpg. But no matter whether you drive the MPS or the Sport, the basics are the same. There’s a practical five door bodyshell, space for four adults easily and five if they are a little less large than average. And I like things like being able to see the column stalks behind the steering wheel, where they are not hidden by the spokes. If you enjoy music on the move, you’ll also appreciate the Bose system that comes as part of the package on both cars. It gives either model a dramatic sound track to accompany it whether it has a big bore exhaust or not. Car: Mazda 3 MPS Does it fit your ego?... 0-62 mph: 6.1 secs Top speed: 155 mph Bhp: 258 @ 5500 rpm Torque: 280 lb ft @ 3000 rpm ...and your wallet?... Price: £18,995 Urban: 20.9 mpg Extra urban: 37.7 mpg Combined: 29.1 mpg CO2 emissions: 231 g/km Insurance Group: 17 Best bits: nobody knows what it is; you can soon show them; it’s a sensible (!) family car, too.