We know Mazda is not going to give up on making a new Mazda3 MPS or Mazdaspeed3 as it's called in America, but we have no idea right now about what it will be like. We thought it was going to be an awesome hot hatch with almost 300 horsepower coming from a 2.3-liter turbo engine, but a new report suggest something a lot more disappointing.
During the recent Mazda3 prototype drive event, Auto Express magazine talked to engineers who said the next MPS could simply use a tuned 2.0-liter engine. No, not a turbo 2-liter like every other hot hatch in its class has, a naturally aspirated Spyactiv unit based on the one that's already available.
This would be tuned to produce somewhere around 200 horsepower at 7,000rpm, a lot less than the monster that's currently power the car.
If this is true, fans of the Mazdaspeed/MPS badge will surely be disappointed. But after the much-rumored demise of the Evo, nothing surprises us that much. The only way to make sense of this report is to look at it from another perspective.
Honda still makes a car like this, the Civic S, which has a 2.4-liter VTEC engine producing only 201 hp. It's their only hot compact in America and goes up against the much more powerful Ford Focus ST by undercutting it in terms of price.
Mazda could be looking at a similar let's just do it and be done attitude to hot models while it tries to tackle much more important projects, like the Mazda2 and CX-3.
This would be tuned to produce somewhere around 200 horsepower at 7,000rpm, a lot less than the monster that's currently power the car.
If this is true, fans of the Mazdaspeed/MPS badge will surely be disappointed. But after the much-rumored demise of the Evo, nothing surprises us that much. The only way to make sense of this report is to look at it from another perspective.
Honda still makes a car like this, the Civic S, which has a 2.4-liter VTEC engine producing only 201 hp. It's their only hot compact in America and goes up against the much more powerful Ford Focus ST by undercutting it in terms of price.
Mazda could be looking at a similar let's just do it and be done attitude to hot models while it tries to tackle much more important projects, like the Mazda2 and CX-3.