Mazda3 2006 review

It is generally a given that the godfather of small cult cars over the past 15 years is Subaru's WRX.

The "Rex" has been a perennial favorite with boy racers, testosterone overdosing males, wannabe rally drivers, pretenders, ram raiders and joy riders.

The super Subi, for reasons which become apparent when some of the aforementioned is considered, is also an insurance hot potato and has become a rather anti-social device in many respects.

So, all that considered, has the Rex run its course, or perhaps met its match?

At the very least, Mazda has fired a serious salvo across the bows of Subaru-land at Fuji Heavy Industries.

It's latest hero car, the MPS (Mazda Performance Series) version of the 3 hatchback, has blown the socks off the $40k performance car world.

It is just that little bit better here, and has that slight edge there, and for $39,990 in standard trim it packs a fair punch for your dollar.

And boy that's pretty much all you need to ignite a fire in this little corner of the market where Ford Focus XR5, Holden Astra turbo, VW Golf GTi and Renault Megane F1 slug it out, fighting for tiny pieces of road against the WRX warhorse.

The pocket rocket set has really gone supersonic this year.

The MPS 3 is the real deal.

This manic Mazda is propelled by a 2260cc direct injection four-cylinder petrol engine whose breathing is aided by a turbocharger.

There is no automatic, however the six-speed manual is well gated even if the clutch is a bit touchy. But who wants to give passengers a comfortable ride anyway?

There is no single dimension which places the hottest production Mazda yet on top of the rostrum. But it has climbed the turbo-spinning mountain with a lot of help from its tricky limited slip differential and a torque management system helping to eliminate the unruliness that so often mars front-wheel-drive behaviour.

Here the boost from the fixed turbo is kept under wraps in first and second gears.

Anti-torque-steer measures include matching the stiffness and optimising the angles of the left and right drive shafts.

Even with a bit of steering angle wound on the tendency for such an animal to reef the wheel from your control is pretty much stamped out.

With all this mouth-watering power (190kW) and torque (380Nm) shovelled through only the front wheels it is quite stunning how well behaved the MPS is.

But this is not the whole story of the Hiroshima hero car.

It steers, handles and rides with brilliant efficiency and some testers have measured its swiftness from 80km/h to 120km/h to be superior to the fabled Porsche 911.

It is one quick jigger but it also backs up this rorty ability with engineering savvy.

The MPS is stiff and there is bugger all travel but the ride quality does not seem to go west.

As well as bigger brakes and things to keep everything in check, there have been modifications around the body with bigger flares to house the 18-inch shoes, larger air dam, more muscular bonnet and a racier body kit.

The anchors measure 320mm up front and 280mm, discs bigger than you get on the garden variety Mazda 3 range.

Cosmetically nothing is over the top which is damn good if you want to maintain a relative amount of stealth on the road.

Nothing that provokes "like look-at-me, follow-me-copper 'cause I'm a hoon" sort of stuff.

The MPS 3 is done in just the right amount of doses and just the right amount of taste.

It errs on the conservative side and does a good job to mask its considerable talents.

We don't expect you to get anywhere near the 280km/h terminal speed (the MPS is restricted to 250km/h in any case) marked on the speedo even in the legal confines of a racetrack.

But on our experience, the free-spinning turbo terror can easily crack 200km/h before you can spit out your grandmother's name and where she was born.

There is the usual array of electronic safety gismos and the good thing is it is "switch-offable".

If you want more, the sports pack for $43,690 adds xenon headlamps, a 7-speaker Bose sound system, half leather trim and high gloss alloy wheels.

Turbos love petrol and the MPS 3 is no exception.

Don't expect to get near the 10litres/100km in the real world.

We were getting anywhere between 11 and 12 on this run and that wasn't driving the socks off it on boost all the time. A few friendly squirts here and there and the figures go south and your petrol budget flies north.

But you'll have plenty of fun and that's the bottom line.