Yeah, I was comin' home from seeing clutch play a show in dallas last friday night, just cruisin' down 183, minding my own business, doing maybe 60-65 in a 60. Just takin' it easy, when my bro says to me, "you know this mustang is trying to race, he's revving his engine." Cool. I've been bitchin' about not being able to get people to respond to my aggression, and here I am takin' it easy for once, and I get a challenge. It was a GT, 4.6 ltr engine. Nice. I'm curious if he just saw the fat exhaust tip and was thinkin' he was gonna take me easy (you know, I'm gonna school this idiot in the mazda 3 with 0hhhhh so scary exhaust tip), or what... we both downshifted at the same time, and I started to get excited, cuz i was pulling on him, pretty good too... I came up behind a car and slowed down to go around as he continued forward,he slowed down so I pulled up next to him again and away we went again, same result, even with me slowing down again to go around another car, and him slowing down cause he was the one with the completely clear lane. So I pull up next to him again, already having pulled on him twice, just had to slow down cuz I wasn't in the mood to weave through the lite traffic that was there, and finally, we both have completely empty, post-midnight Dallas-Irving highway ahead of us (actually, dead ahead of us was TX stadium, home of the Cowboys, for another couple of years anyway, but that's neither here nor there). Once again, downshift, but this time I get to keep it in full throttle through fourth and part of fifth, and it wasn't even close. Pulled ahead and stayed ahead. As we were passing TX stadium. I really wish I would've had a digital camera, and had gotten some video, it really would've been cool from the passenger side of my car, looking at his car with tx stadium in the immediate background. Oh well. Boosh. Go Four banger.

 

Nice......I think roll-on acceleration is where the Speed3 would do best, it eliminates the traction issues seen at launch in a front wheel drive. I bet he was mighty surprised.

 

I'm not 100% sure, but I think the 4.6 GT is only rated at 250 hp (low 14 second cars)so the Mazdaspeed 3 actually has more horsepower. I don't know what the torque on the Mustang is, but it should be similar. I would bet on the Mustang from a stop, but once rolling I would expect the MS3 to get after it. The newest GT's have significantly more power (low 13 second cars).

 

225 hp, 290 ft-lbs stock from a 98 Mustang GT, 3400 lb weight for the Coupe, 0-60 in 6 seconds.

Get a good launch and you've got him covered standing or rolling

The new Mustang GT is 300 hp and 0-60 in the mid to low 5's

 

the old gts are not a problem for the ms3. even the new ones are not that fast. If the new mustangs are low 13s then the ms3 is an low 12 car. mustang has very bad whp, crank power off the v8 is 300 but whp is 240-250. the older gts have 200-210 whp. the ms3 has 263 at the crank. and 230-240 to the wheels. Not even a compitition. the mustang weighs over 300 pounds more. thats like saying a tiburon v6 can beat an 2000 acura integra gsr. 170 HP 2600 pounds. tiburon 170 HP and 3000 pounds. do the math.

 

Motor Trend ran a 2005 Mustang GT 5-speed from 0 to 60 in 5.1 seconds and ran the quarter mile in 13.5 seconds at 103 mph in the January 2005 issue. It is definitely faster than a stock MS3.

 

If I remember correctly, one of that mags that tested the MS3 finally called Mazda because they were not getting the 5.8 sec 0-60 or 14.4 sec quarter mile times. Mazda gave them some tips like launch rpm (1,900 rpm?), shift at 6,000 rpmand then don't lift off the gas for 2nd or 3rd. This is outside the normal test procedures so I suspect it might be possible to get better numbers out of the Mustang with the proper amount of abuse.

 

I think it's a lot harder to launch a front wheel drive vehicle correctly. Physics plays such a huge role off the line.

 

hey peps,

sorry to throw a curve ball off subject , quick question here.. i live in Louisiana and i have a chance to get a
Mazdaspeed 3 .. ive been researching the car for about a month now. anyway , my local speed dealer in new orleans
is not to willing to work with my trade-in.. so i located a speed dealer in South Carolina. question :: will it be
worth the 24+ round trip to go get this pocket rocket?? .. lol thanks for replys.

IronValoR

 

It entirely depends on whether or not you want to be in the fastest FWD production car currently being marketed as a new product in the United States (at least at under 25K). I traded in a Civic Si for this car and so far, no regrets whatsoever. I could've gone with an rsx type s and gotten cold air intake, headers, catback exhaust, and a chip reflash, paid a bit more money, not have the parts and car fully warrantied after the aftermarket work, AND STILL BEEN A HALF SECOND SLOWER in the quarter mile. Yeah, this car is for real, and it's pretty damned limited. My only question is why are you still in front of the friggin' computer, and not driving to South Carolina? Wait, I do have one more: why south carolina? DFW is alot closer, and we have a coupla mazdaspeed dealers in the area, as evidenced by my purchase... and they worked with me and my trade, even tho I was a bit upside down... Just a suggestion, it's more like an 10-12 hr round trip than 24+.