Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

I was lucky enough to win a day at Oran park & got to test Drive the new Mazda Turbo range around the track including the MPS 3, MPS 6, RX8, & new MX5...then get taken by Dick Johnson in MPS 3 for a hot lap

First drove RX8...interior is awesome & handles beautifully but was disaappointed with the performance...i know its a rotary & you need to rev them but it feels like the diff gears are for the highway

Next i drove the MPS 6...Loved the throttle response & felt quicker than the RX8 & def handles well but not sure if i like the AWD feeling (used to Rear) & also found the gearstick positioning awkward as i felt like i had to reach forward & down to grab lever

Next was the MPS 3...first i will say i thought this much power in a front wheel drive was crazy & that it would just wheelspin & understeer...I WAS WRONG!!! This thing is nuts...as soon as you touch the pedal its throwing you back in your seat...although you can get it wheelspin it barely understeers & shat all over the RX8, MPS 6 AWD in handling & performance...This thing hits peak 380nm torque at 3000rpm & pulls all the way til redline then launches hard into the next gear. This car although nowhere near the quickest is prob one of the most fun cars i have ever driven...you could drive it out the showroom straight to the track no problems whatsoever!!!

I then got taken by Dick in MPS 3 for a hot lap...let me tell you when you are out there you think you are tha sh it & a good driver til you hop in with someone like Dick...its nuts...i loved every second of it as i was getting thrown left to right as he hammered this mazda around the track & this car def is a little rocket & i got to see its full potential this time around

next i drove the new MX5 which is quite diff to the 92 1.6L & 98 1.8L which i have driven...actually feels like it as some go but more a sports cruiser than anything

Overall was an awesome day & id say MPS 6 is good for a sports family, MX5 as i have said above, RX8 good for posing & the occasional straight line squirt & MPS 3 is just awesome all round although would not like to drive it in the wet with stability control off

Anyway look forward to others comments but this car is def the best FWD car i have ever driven & a def if your after a hot hatch in my opnion

Edited by Noel
Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/134438-mazda-3-mps/
Share on other sites

  • Replies 40
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

You comments are pretty much what I have experienced, the difficulty with the MPS3 is the lack of front wheel drive traction under power. To overcome it, Mazda have tuned the traction control to limit the power, so that it APPEARS not to power understeer. The problem is, this makes it slower than the quoted power figure would indicate whenever the traction control intervenes.

So when I jumped on the throttle to drive it out of a corner (and get some speed coming onto the straight) the ECU would cut the power by half and it would be slow until it gained some traction. This would then affect the speed all the way down the straight.

Personally, if I buy a car with 190 kw I want it to be able to use that 190 kw whenever I want. Not when the ECU thinks it’s OK for me to have 190 kw. The truth is 190 kw is too much for a front wheel drive, road car.

:O cheers :ban:

PS, it’s much, much worse in the rain, when repmobiles easily drag you off (very embarrassing).

Edited by Sydneykid
Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/134438-mazda-3-mps/#findComment-2498251
Share on other sites

Yes, they are awesome. My flatmate took delivery a couple of weeks ago and it's a lovely beast. Still yet to line it up against the R34 though... should be an interesting contest

i have a stock r33 manual & i reckon it would leave me for dead off the line although i would still rather my car ;-)

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/134438-mazda-3-mps/#findComment-2499043
Share on other sites

I have driven all of them as i work for mazda..

and the Mazda 3 Mps is quick.. but the Mazda 6 MPS still OWNED IT as far as i'm concerned..

They should have made the M3 MPS an all wheel drive and the M6 MPS a CONSTANT all wheel drive.

The RX-8 is still by far the funnest to drive! :laugh:

Edited by RB_turbo_bitch
Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/134438-mazda-3-mps/#findComment-2499067
Share on other sites

how?!?!

Enquired about MPS 6 way before it came out then when 3 came out they sent me some brochures etc & there was this code & a link to site which was a car game where you had to race around track & they log your time & did not think anything of it then yea then a few weeks ago i recieved an email telling me i had won this & to choose a session...there were loads of people (were 3 sessions x 2 days) so guessing they chose top 50 or so times...not sure

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/134438-mazda-3-mps/#findComment-2499125
Share on other sites

We have got a sp23 as a second car - great cars and they handle so well

I was looking into getting a mps3 but the price tag put me off as its going into wrx territory

A mate took me for a spin in his mps3 and i was very impressed at the overall package - the only gripe i have is i hate fwd turbo

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/134438-mazda-3-mps/#findComment-2504354
Share on other sites

i cant wait to see one of those maxda 3 turbo's worked too 250-300kw

It wouldn't be driveable at that power level.. Most FWD struggle to be too driveable once you exceed the power levels for the chasis and get power to the ground.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/134438-mazda-3-mps/#findComment-2504493
Share on other sites

i had a 2000 magna 5spd and it had a bit over 170hp at the front wheels (so a bit over 170kw at the fly- rough gestamite) and it was borderline for fwd traction. in the wet even with good tyres if you hit a bump at full noise in second or 3rd it would just start spinning. i could take off from a stop sign in 2nd and still spin the wheels.

barely understeered though. if you punched it out of a corner it would mostly just spin the inside wheel but off the line it would do both.

of the line in 1st you had to be delicate if you were trying to launch hard.

did the mps 3 torque steer much? my missus has a sss pulsar (natro sr20 with 112hp atw) and it torque steers in 1st and 2nd at full noise like nothing else on rough roads. on smooth roads its not so bad, but can be a bit unpredictable.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/134438-mazda-3-mps/#findComment-2505048
Share on other sites

did the mps 3 torque steer much? my missus has a sss pulsar (natro sr20 with 112hp atw) and it torque steers in 1st and 2nd at full noise like nothing else on rough roads. on smooth roads its not so bad, but can be a bit unpredictable.

well suprisingly no...not even when Dick was driving it....they have put alot of effort & technology behind this to make it as good as possible with a FWD setup

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/134438-mazda-3-mps/#findComment-2505195
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now



  • Latest Posts

    • Update 3: Hi all It's been a while. Quite a lot of things happened in the meantime, among other things the car is (almost) back together and ready to be started again. Things that I fixed or changed: Full turbo removal, fitting back the OEM turbo oil hardlines. Had to do quite a bit of research and parts shopping to get every last piece that I need and make it work with the GT2860 turbos, but it does work and is not hard to do. Proves that the previous owner(s) just did not want to. While I was there I set the preload for the wastegates to 0,9bar to hopefully make it easier for the tuner to hit the 370hp I need for the legal inspections that will follow later on. Boost can always go up if necessary. Fitted a AN10 line from the catch can to the intake hose to make the catchcan and hopefully the cam covers a slight vacuum to have less restrictive oil returns from the head and not have mud build up as harshly in the lines and catch can. Removed the entire front interior just shy of the dashboard itself to clean up some of the absolutely horrendous wiring, (hopefully) fix the bumpy tacho and put in LED bulbs while I was there. Also put in bulbs where there was none before, like the airbag one. I also used that chance to remove the LED rpm gauge on the steering column, which was also wired in absolute horror show fashion. Moved the 4in1 Prosport gauge from sitting in front of the OEM oil pressure gauge to the center console vents, I used a 3D printed vent piece to hold that gauge there. The HKB steering wheel boss was likely on incorrectly as I sometimes noticed the indicator reset being uneven for left vs. right. In the meantime also installed an airbag delete resistor, as one should. Installed Cube Speed premium short shifter. Feels pretty nice, hope it'll work great too when I actually get to drive. Also put on a fancy Dragon Ball shift knob, cause why not. My buddy was kind enough to weld the rust hole in the back, it was basically rusted through in the lowermost corner of the passenger side trunk area where the wheel arch, trunk panel and rear quarter all meet. Obviously there is still a lot of crustiness in various areas but as long as it's not rusted out I'll just treat and isolate the corrosion and pretend it's not there. Also had to put down a new ground wire for the rear subframe as the original one was BARELY there. Probably a bit controversial depending on who you ask about this... but I ended up just covering the crack in the side of the engine block, the one above the oil feed, with JB Weld. I used a generous amount and roughed up the whole area with a Dremel before, so I hope this will hold the coolant where it should be for the foreseeable future. Did a cam cover gasket job as the half moons were a bit leaky, and there too one could see the people who worked on this car before me were absolute tools. The same half moons were probably used like 3 times without even cleaning the old RTV off. Dremeled out the inside of the flange where the turbine housing mates onto the exhaust manifolds so the diameter matches, as the OEM exhaust manifolds are even narrower than the turbine housings as we all know. Even if this doesn't do much, I had them out anyways, so can't harm. Ideally one would port-match both the turbo and the manifold to the gasket size but I really didn't feel up to disassembling the turbine housings. Wrapped turbo outlet dumps in heat wrap band. Will do the frontpipe again as well as now the oil leak which promted me to tear apart half the engine in the first place is hopefully fixed. Fitted an ATI super damper to get rid of the worn old harmonic balancer. Surely one of the easiest and most worth to do mods. But torquing that ARP bolt to spec was a bitch without being able to lock the flywheel. Did some minor adjustments in the ECU tables to change some things I didn't like, like the launch control that was ALWAYS active. Treated rusty spots and surface corrosion on places I could get to and on many spots under the car, not pretty or ideal but good enough for now. Removed the N1 rear spats and the carbon surrounding for the tailpipe to put them back on with new adhesive as the old one was lifting in many spots, not pretty. Took out the passenger rear lamp housing... what do you know. Amateur work screwed me again here as they were glued in hard and removing it took a lot of force, so I broke one of the housing bolts off. And when removing the adhesive from the chassis the paint came right off too. Thankfully all the damaged area won't be visible later, but whoever did the very limited bodywork on this car needs to have their limbs chopped off piece by piece.   Quite a list if I do say so myself, but a lot of time was spent just discovering new shit that is wrong with the car and finding a solution or parts to fix it. My last problem that I now have the headache of dealing with is that the exhaust studs on the turbo outlets are M10x1.25 threaded, but the previous owner already put on regular M10 nuts so the threads are... weird. I only found this out the hard way. So now I will just try if I can in any way fit the front pipe regardless, if not I'll have to redo the studs with the turbos installed. Lesson learned for the future: Redo ALL studs you put your hands on, especially if they are old and the previous owners were inept maniacs. Thanks for reading if you did, will update when the engine runs again. Hope nothing breaks or leaks and I can do a test drive.
    • No those pads are DBA too  but they have colors too. I look at the and imo the green "street" are the best.
    • I’m not sure what happened I told them about sonic tunes free OTS tune and the next the I know .. I was booted..   To funny 
    • Yea - I mean I've seen my fuel pump which is decades old and uh, while I'm not saying this with real knowledge... but I sure get the ick at using anything in the fuel system that produced the state of that pump. Many years ago I went through multiple pumps (and strainers) before I dropped the tank to clean it out with extreme violence. I'm talking the car would do maybe 50km before coming to a halt, which resulted in me cleaning out the filter with some brake cleaner and going on my way. None of my stuff ever looked like what came out of your fuel tank. I don't think I'd be happy with it unless every single component was replaced (or at least checked/cleaned/confirmed to be clean here).
    • I'm not going to recommend an EBC pad. I don't like them. Just about anything else would suit me better. I've been using Intima pads for a while now.
×
×
  • Create New...