The greatest moment in the history of the automobile did not come with Da Vinci's first design, or the internal combustion three-wheeler of Karl Benz. No, for the automobile, its greatest moment came when that first guy (yes, that guy) gave it some stick and wanted more. This is one of the most basic man laws, that more equals better, and for the automobile, better in its purest form is defined by horsepower.
A prime example of such rapaciousness was the musclecar movement of those domestic abusers of yore. The recent power struggle between the European houses of AMG, M and S/RS is yet another expression of this want, something that is also exemplified by our little compact corner of the aftermarket. We started innocently enough with bolt-on power-adders, but it wasn't long before our Supra taillight conversions gave way to complete Supra engine swaps.
This quest for more power is not lost on Mazdaspeed as Mazda's in-house performance division followed the same evolutionary path as the aftermarket. The '03 Mazdaspeed Protege and later the Mazdaspeed Miata were the first US-market vehicles to wear the prestigious Mazdaspeed badge. Both of these rides were vastly improved over their base model brethren, but that Mazdaspeed magic was limited to the bolt-on variety. Because these "port installations" came from the factory as base models, they didn't become Mazdaspeedsters until the stateside engineers set to work on them, prohibiting any major performance improvements such as structural enhancements, stouter internals or engine swaps.
All of this changed with the Mazdaspeed6-the first truly-engineered model of its kind from Mazda. The turbo four in the MS6 was smooth like butter but slightly overworked (like a Super Street editor) with some 3,600 lb of car to pull around. This is about the time the animated bulb above the heads of Mazda's pocket-protector posse began flickering at seizure-inducing intervals. And thus was born the '07 Mazdaspeed3.
With a MS6 powerplant crammed into its bay, the Mazdaspeed3 proves that more equals better when compared to the standard Mazda3. The slightly rotund 3,153lb curb weight and 263hp puts the MS3 at the best power and power-to-wieght ratio in its class. But it ain't easy transferring this much power to a FWD chassis in a manageable fashion, and it wasn't as simple as merely dropping the engine in and hooking it up.
Somewhat surprisingly, that's exactly what the Mazdaspeed folks tried at first, as early development mules were equipped with straight-outta-the-box MS6 mills. By now, astute Mazdaspeed maniacs have noticed that the 2.3L DISI engine (yo, peep the sidebar) makes 274hp in the MS6-this 11hp drop was necessary to reduce the violent wheelspin and torque steer the prototypes were making. But this is only one ingredient of the MS3's sophisticated torque management system.