Mazda has made a few decisions along the way that were at odds with the direction most of the automotive industry was heading at the time, and sticking to naturally aspirated engines for way longer than anyone else was one of them.
The company claimed its SKYACTIV technology could make non-force-fed gasoline engines just as powerful and as efficient as a turbocharged equivalent, and even though the products did show an improvement over other contemporary naturally aspirated powerplants, the promise could never be fully fulfilled.
Well, just as it did with electric powertrains, Mazda has since started offering turbocharged engines throughout its lineup, with the 3 being among the recipients, but anyone nostalgic for the aspirated area can still find plenty of options to choose from with Mazda.
The Mazda3, for example - in its hatchback form here - gets a 2.5-liter unit putting out 186 hp and the exact same amount of foot-pounds (252 Nm). Those are worryingly low figures, particularly for a vehicle that weighs just over three thousand pounds (1,360 kg). To make matters worse, this Mazda3 is also fitted with a six-speed manual transmission.
Stick shifts may be great for driver involvement, which is what you want to feel as you're piloting a car up or down a twisty mountain road, but when it comes to drag racing, there is absolutely no debate: automatics are just better. Unlike driving itself, changing gears is one of the things robots have already become better at than us humans.
A very skilled driver is maybe going to come close, but not everyone is blessed with that kind of ability. With more and more cars switching to automatic transmissions, even people who drive various cars for a living are getting fewer and fewer chances to exercise their shifting muscle, to the point where we risk having it completely atrophied.
This tendency is perfectly displayed in the clip below where Sam (from Sam CarLegion) and a friend are struggling with the Mazda3 we mentioned earlier and a Kia Forte 5 GT, also featuring a six-speed manual. Unlike the Japanese car, though, the South Korean one gets a 1.6-liter turbocharged engine doing 201 hp and 195 lb-ft (264 Nm) of maximum torque. Add a lower weight than the Mazda's (even if only by a fraction), and we know which of the two is the clear favorite.
Shifting gears, however, and particularly launching the two cars, proves to be an issue. We can even see Sam's friend looking at the gear lever during a shift, which isn't what anyone comfortable with a manual would ever do. Still, considering the same car won even with the drivers swapped, we guess it proves there is no doubt about which of the two is quicker.
"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie) Full profile
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