Piece of cake, eh? They got to work.The exterior has a lot of parts from the MP3, the wing, air dam and skirts. In fact, it was pretty much done by six guys, "Mike, Scott, Tod, Kelvin and two guys in Japan," said Davis, referring to Mike Zoner of Callaway, Scott Rasmussen, Tod Kaneko and Kelvin Hiraishi of Mazda R&D in Irvine-and two so-far anonymous guys in Japan. Upgrades from the base car are visible both inside and out. It would have to be a limited production run (there will be only 2000 MazdaSpeed Protegés for North America) it would have to be true to its donor car lines yet be distinguishable as a unique vehicle from 100 feet away and it would have to offer significant improvements in steering, braking, handling and drivetrain performance. "This isn’t just an MP3 with a turbocharger."Indeed, a true MazdaSpeed car would need several things, Davis said. Engineers knew what they wanted from the car. "With only 140 hp, it wasn’t up to the performance requirements of a Mazda-Speed," said Kelvin Hiraishi, director of research and development engineering.Work began on a new version of the MP3, with appropriate horsepower and the hearty backing of MNAO’s new chief Charlie Hughes, just nine months ago. "Eventually, with some pounding on the head, the executives began to realize it was a viable product."The MP3 came out a year later but without the MazdaSpeed badge. "The MP3 was an underground project" Davis said. But convincing the suits at MNAO was another problem. Reaction to the SEMA show car was strong, along with customer research that showed there was a market for it. The MP3 had suspension upgrades, aerodynamic parts added on and an MP3 player in the dash. The first rough of a complete vehicle was the bright yellow MP3 shown at SEMA in 2000, a year after Mazda Motor Corporation took over full control of MazdaSpeed. "The platform was just terrific," said Robert Davis, vice president of product development and strategy at MNAO. Not then.īy 1997, Mazda North American Operations started discussions with its corporate parent to bring MazdaSpeed to the United States, with the Protegé as the first logical candidate. Some MazdaSpeed performance parts were sold in the United States through Mazda Racing Development, but there were no MazdaSpeed cars. The racing continued, with more corporate backing, highlighted by a victory at Le Mans in 1991 and more IMSA GTO and GTU wins than you could shake a rotor at. In 1983 it became a semi-autonomous part of Mazda Motor Corporation and was moved to Hiroshima with the name MazdaSpeed. They called themselves "Mazda Speed Corner." That was in 1967.Mazda Speed Corner kept racing its rotary sports cars, from the Cosmo 110S to the RX-7, for 15 years. Like its European counterparts, MazdaSpeed used to be a separate entity, in this case a team of racing enthusiasts at a dealership called Mazda Auto Tokyo, Japan’s largest Mazda dealer. MazdaSpeed is to Mazda what AMG is to Mercedes and M is to BMW, an in-house tuning arm that takes mass-market sedans and coupes and transforms them into street racers. How did it all happen? Let’s start with some background. Mazda is making "Zoom-Zoom" for real with the MazdaSpeed Protegé, the first MazdaSpeed product to make it to the States. And that’s not just good news for people who like driving, that’s a call for motorsports rejoicing. The Protegé is the first fully tweaked car to officially bear the MazdaSpeed name in the United States but word is that it will be followed by MazdaSpeed versions of the Mazda 6, the Miata and then the RX-8. They’ll be coming to selected Mazda dealers this fall, along with corporate interest in the import drag racing scene, Speed Channel World Challenge and other motorsports endeavors. On what do we base this conclusion? Mazda is officially launching MazdaSpeed here in the United States, with a complete line of cars, performance parts, performance accessories, support of racing and even hats and T-shirts. At first it seemed like it was just marketing hoopla, like when it claimed its minivan was raised by Miatas, or when it spent $7.5 million for the title rights to Laguna Seca racetrack and started calling the place its "spiritual home."īut now it looks like the Zoom-Zoom is for real. POWERTRAIN: 2.0-liter, 170-hp, 160-lb-ft turbocharged I4 front-drive, five-speed manualįirst, the big news is that Mazda really means all that "Zoom-Zoom" stuff.
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