A Little Hell-Raiser: We Drive the 1992 Mazda MX-3 GS
From the August 1991 issue of Car and Driver.
“Mazda will make vehicles that wink at you,” proclaimed chairman Kenichi Yamamoto. As mission statements go, that’s a catchy line. The MX-3 has an air about it. Sitting there, looking quirky and racy and maybe even a little frivolous, it kind of grins a conspiratorial grin. It chucks you under the chin with a promise of fun times to come. “Hey, you’re not doing anything. Whaddya say we go raise a little hell?” A car that winks at you?
When it appears this fall, the MX-3 will run in the small sports-specialty category, a class bursting at its little seams with such sporty coupes as the new Toyota Paseo and Nissan NX, plus the familiar Isuzu Impulse/Geo Storm and Honda CRX. (The CRX is the lone two-plus-none among a pack of two-plus-twos.) Mazda hopes, however, that you’ll view the MX-3 a little differently. Not so much as another zippy two-plus-two coupe based on cheap-sedan hardware, but rather as a sports car with distinction. Two distinctions, actually: real four-passenger capacity, and the automotive world’s smallest V-6 engine.
We wonder just how “real” that occupancy rate is, but there’s no denying that this high-revving, four-cam 1845 cc six introduces a new class of powerplant, bringing to the small-coupe segment the silky snarl that comes only from sixes. (Mazda is also looking to steal thunder from Volkswagen, which after many years of struggle is just now readying its narrow-angle V-6 for production in the Corrado.)
Catchy styling makes the right first impression, combining rounded forms, a wedgy profile, a sharply raked windshield (65 degrees from vertical), and a vast, wrap-over rear window. It looks sharp, and heads swivel all around the MX-3 on the road.
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Aero add-ons help trim the Cd to 0.31. Notable aesthetic details include the curvature at the rear edge of the side windows and a tiny glass panel beneath the rear spoiler, in the batch’s vertical face. The latter is touted as an aid to visibility but seems so shallow as to be more useful as a styling element, to keep the tail from looking too thick and flat.
Wheelbase (96.3 inches) and front and rear track (57.5 and 57.7 inches) are very generous for this class, giving the MX-3 a big footprint—which is a promising start for good handling—as well as a surprisingly roomy cabin. From the driver’s position, the interior looks wide, open, and spacious. It also looks attractive and well laid out, though much less distinctively contoured than the sheetmetal.
The front seats easily accommodate large adults without crowding, and they offer good side bolstering that stops short of impeding entry and exit. And what of that back seat, which Mazda claims is not a “plus-two” penalty box, but a place where average-size people can ride “in reasonable posture”? It is quite wide (and attractive, with a continuous, wraparound effect at back and sides but clearly defined bun pockets), but an occupant’s head, knees, and feet need to be located precisely where Mazda intended in order to find a fit. It is possible to carry two adults back there, but they should be good sports—literally, because it’s an athletic clamber into place—and the trip shouldn’t be much farther than down to the video store.
Most of the car’s sloping front end is over the horizon from the driver’s eye, a minor packaging miracle considering the giant lump of engine the hood has to cover. Though 1.8 liters is hardly a lot of swept volume, it takes a load of far-flung aluminum to enclose it and its valve gear and manifolding in a V configuration. One glance at the outbreak of cam covers and intake runners under the MX-3’s hood shows why orthodoxy for these efficiency-minded coupes is four cylinders in a neat little row.
But it all fits, and an impressive collection of machinery it is. The transversely mounted V-6’s main castings are all-aluminum, with the cylinder banks angled at 60 degrees. Twin camshafts in each cylinder head operate four valves per cylinder, whose breathing efficiency is aided by an intake tract that uses two solenoid-controlled butterfly valves to vary its effective volume and fatten the torque curve.
Mazda engineers correctly anticipated that low- and mid-range torque was going to need help in this short-stroke, high-rpm engine, and some drivers are sure to wonder if it got enough. The SAE net output ratings are 130 horsepower at 6500 rpm and 115 pound-feet of torque at 4500 (numbers that meet or beat those of every car in the class except the NX2000’s 140 hp and 130 pound-feet). But on the go, the free-spinning little six often seems to generate the sensations of speed more effectively than it does real thrust.
Around 3000 rpm, the exhaust resonates with a gorgeous snarl that evokes the E-type Jaguar 3.8, yet there’s little power to be had down there. Not until 4500 does the small of your back start to register acceleration, and then only in the lower gears. Rapid progress demands lots of revs, like in the range from 5000 to the 7000-rpm redline. That can feel a trifle overdramatic in traffic, but at least the engine is happy to do it. It’s marvelously smooth and responsive, though up there, the Jaguar snarl is replaced by a muted whir that recalls Mazda’s rotary engine.
A light-action, rod-linkage gearbox provides smooth if slightly long throws for stirring through the five ratios. The five-speed’s gear spacing is probably as good as it can be, but the one-two gap is pretty broad. Peg the tach in first (33 mph at 7000 rpm) and the shift to second drops revs all the way to about 3900—a bit below the fringe of torque territory. As soon as we can mate a production MX-3 to our instruments, we—and you—will know a lot more about how the impressions from this pre-production example translate into hard performance data.
Fortunately, a well-sorted chassis contributes to the MX-3’s back-road fun factor. And, for that matter, to its freeway composure. This is the company, remember, that coined the term “stagility,” denoting a combination of stability and agility. And the firm strut-type suspension, a refinement of the system used by the Protege and Escort/Tracer sedans, does in fact give fine directional stability along with quick cornering response. Engine-speed-sensitive power steering feels light and quick, and the dartiness we’ve noticed before in this rear-suspension design is much better controlled.
There will actually be two MX-3s. The one we’ve been talking about is tagged the GS. There’s also a base model, but its 88-horsepower, SOHC 1.6-liter four, leaves it out of the real news. Differences include a disc/drum brake arrangement in place of the GS’s four-wheel discs, smaller tires (185/65 versus 205/55) on fourteen-inch steel wheels rather than the fifteen-inch alloys fitted to the GS, and a slower steering ratio (17:1 compared with 15:1). An electronically controlled four-speed automatic can replace the manual box in either model, though we can’t imagine who would opt for it, especially with the playful, torqueless six. Prices have not yet been announced, but they will have to be competitive among small sporty coupes, meaning suggested retails in the low teens.
The smooth and slinky MX-3 will shortly take its place among the RX-7, the Miata, and the MPV as the sort of specialized, off-center vehicle on which Mazda is building a name. If Mr. Yamamoto has his way, it will not only wink at you, but will also grab your sleeve and drag you off, promising an experience just a little different from what you’ve had with everything e
Source: www.caranddriver.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.