Mazda3 Observations....

[Aaron]

Just some initial thoughts...

* Theres a glaring fault in the brochure. Anyone else foudn it yet?

* Insurance nightmare - while there's only 3 models there's 2 completely different bodys of each. It's kinda like a step back to the BA days but with even less bits in common.

* SP23 may not be the best outright purchase, the marginally lighter Neo, Maxx or even Maxx Sport seem to be all about 30kg lighter than an SP23. Sure there's a bit more power and torque - but then take a look at what's sitting inthe cog-swapper....

The 2.0L gets a slightly lower set of gears through to 4th, this shoudl let the 2.0L rev out a bit easier, snatching back some of that power and torque difference. It's interesting to note that the SP23 is a Mazda6 gearbox but the motor runs a lower static compression and obviously differnet ECU tuning. It shoudl be very easy to drop a M6 motor in and jump up the 122Kw and 207Nm if you can get the ECU code from the M6 into the M3 ECU...

Actually I'd start thinking that popping the 2.0L onto the workbench would yeild better results.

In fact I reckon we'll see some pretty rapid mods for these things coming out of the US and most will be an interesting improvement with our state of tune.

A.