Mazda6 MPS 2005 Review

Handbrake isn't usually the first word you expect to read in a piece about a luscious new turbo AWD like the Mazda 6 MPS. But trust me: that lever between the seats is rather special, chiefly for what it says about Mazda's performance-car philosophy. Before I explain why, let's set the scene.

MPS stands, in case you were wondering, for Mazda Performance Series. Fittingly, the global media introduction to the first of the line was staged at a racetrack, the TI Circuit near Okayama. Usually Mazda stages its preview drives at the Miyoshi proving ground, outside its hometown of Hiroshima.

Today, the former Formula One track - famous in a small way for being the place Ayrton Senna raced a fortnight before his fatal accident at Imola in 1994 - is wet. The handful of cars assembled for the exercise are all handbuilt prototypes and, we later find, very valuable. Around $500,000 each is the whisper. Proper US dollars, too, so that makes the number $600,000-plus in our money. When the production 6 MPS makes it to Australia, around June, each example will cost rather less than one tenth of this amount.

With grey clouds threatening more rain, we queue for our allotted first three laps of the slippery 3.7km track. Despite its former F1 status, the TI Circuit is dauntingly short of run-off areas, even at road-car speeds. Especially the fast, slightly downhill and off-camber Turn 2. Or, to give its proper name, Williams Corner.

The 2.3-litre MZR DISI Turbo engine of the 6 MPS doesn't feel melodramatically mad in this environment. The blacktop is broad and smooth, and there's nothing really close to its edge to heighten the perception of speed. But glancing at the speedometer as I near the end of the back straight, I see more than 160km/h on the dial before braking hard for Turn 7, a right-hand hairpin that's TI Circuit's slowest corner.

The 6 MPS's engine doesn't come on hard in the mid-range and rush ecstatically to a wham-bam rendezvous with the rev limiter like some turbo fours. Instead, the Mazda engineers seem to have aimed for snappily accurate throttle response right off idle, followed by a beautifully broad band of linear response. It's one of those engines where you can accurately visualise the flat torque curve just from the way it reacts to a sustained squeeze of the throttle pedal.

In keeping with the engine's characteristics, the ratios of the compact, three-shaft, six-speed manual especially developed for the 6 MPS are wide-spaced. The engine has ample torque to cover the gaps. There's simply no need for close-stacked gears and the frenetic shifting that they would impose. Shift quality is damned good. Moderate effort, shortish lever throws, well-defined shift gate.

There's no doubt the 6 MPS has enough grip to utilise everything the engine has got. It's surprising how early the car will take wide-open throttle on the still damp and glistening corners. Although Mazda hasn't chosen to endow the 6 MPS with a permanent all-wheel-drive system with torque-splitting centre differential, instead deciding to develop an existing on-demand system, there seems little reason to criticise its performance. The car hooks up, goes.

The car's handling hallmark, on this first outing, is stability. Over-optimistic corner- entry speeds and throttle applications bring understeer. Avoid such errors and the 6 MPS will adopt a tenaciously settled cornering attitude. It proves largely impervious to sudden throttle lifts and coarse steering inputs. And when things do get a little out of shape, the standard, switchable, and rather subtle electronic chassis stability system proves that it doesn't mind a bit of fun.

Just as I'm getting the hang of both car and circuit, the allotted laps are up. Must remember to peel off into the pit road before Turn 12, and observe the strict 40km/h speed limit. The brakes are a little smelly, even though a special, hard pad compound that eventually may be offered by Mazda is being trialled. Otherwise, the prototype Mazda seems utterly unflustered by the spanking it's just been given.

Back in the pit garage, I join a group of journalists surrounding Mazda engineering boss Joe Bakaj. The Englishman is batting a barrage of questions.

How far across Mazda's range might MPS be stretched? "If we thought we had a credible product and there was customer demand…" Bakaj lets the thought roll to a standstill. So what will be the next MPS model? "I'm not allowed to answer that today." But he does concede that, to be a credible MPS product, a car doesn't necessarily have to be all-wheel drive, turbocharged or have four cylinders.

Bakaj is more comfortable when discussion moves to the 6 MPS. He explains patiently the reasoning behind decisions made during the drivetrain and chassis process. It's at this point that I eventually learn about its handbrake.

The handbrake, the engineer explains, communicates with both the all-wheel-drive and the chassis stability systems. It's quite simple, really. A computer controls the clutch pack that connects and disconnects drive to the 6 MPS's rear wheels. Another computer runs the chassis stability system, which selectively brakes individual wheels to restore stability when the front or rear of the car begins to slide. But tug the handbrake, and both systems are instantly neutralised. This feature has been included, Bakaj says, specifically to allow drifting-style fun. And once the car is flicked sideways with a brief dose of handbrake, the intentionally aggressive torque transfer to the rear wheels is designed to deliver the ability to throttle steer. Or, as Mazda's official 6 MPS press material coyly puts it: "The ability to fully balance the car in a turn by deft use of the accelerator pedal."

Armed with this knowledge, the second - and unfortunately final - three-lap stint we're allowed in the 6 MPS becomes an opportunity to find whether Bakaj speaks the truth.

Watching their precious protos in the hands of a drifting amateur must be hell for the watching engineers. Not every attempt is neatly executed, and apexes are missed by miles. My worst mistake comes at Turn 9. Failing to fully disengage the handbrake after a none-too-tidy entry, the Mazda is still only a front-driver as I hit the accelerator to power out. With no torque heading rearwards to the limited-slip differential, the inside-front Bridgestone Potenza spins savagely and severe understeer has set in before I realise what I've done. It isn't always pretty, but by the time my three laps are done and I've parked the car in pit lane, I'm smiling broadly. Mazda's fun-first dynamic priorities are just fine with me.

While there's still some final polishing required before the 6 MPS goes into production, it's obvious at this distance that it will deliver an appealing blend of spirit and sense.

It's a remarkably cohesive car for one that has made such a swift transition from show stage to showroom. The initial concept emerged from Mazda's Frankfurt studio only a little over two years ago. An Englishman, Peter Birtwistle, led the design team. They laboured through the Northern Hemisphere summer of 2002 and had the concept ready for the Paris show in September. Positive reaction there sealed the project's fate. It became a live program.

Turning concept car into production car wasn't as simple as it might seem. For a start, the MPS concept was a hatch. Given the limited global demand for the car (the 6 MPS is expected to sell at a rate of only 12,000 a year), a single body configuration had to be chosen. The projected volume was not enough, Mazda realised, to justify developing multiple variants. So the MPS quickly became a sedan, because the four-door model is inherently stiffer than the five-door hatch and wagon.

Then there was the small matter of the intercooler. According to Peter Birtwistle, the idea was always to conceal it. "We didn't want a boy-racer image," he says. "We leave that to the other guys." But exactly where it might be located was a moot point at the time the concept car was coming together. Only after much collaborative work involving designers and engineers was it established that a top-mounted intercooler with concealed air ducts could be packaged without compromising efficiency.

While designers played an important role in reconciling aesthetic satisfaction with minimal aerodynamic lift values for the reshaped sedan, the majority of the tough work on the 6 MPS program fell to the engineers.

The body was strengthened, with a small amount of additional bracing increasing the shell's torsional rigidity by fully 50 percent.

With the 'performance feel' of the old 2.7-litre Audi S4 and current BMW 330i as benchmarks, development of the 2.3-litre engine proceeded. Although based on the naturally aspirated engine of lesser Mazda 6 models, so much was altered and added that it's practically a new engine. Various internal components were strengthened, and a new direct fuel-injection head, single Hitachi turbocharger and top-mount intercooler were developed.

It's to the direct-injection system, by the way, that Mazda's engineers attribute much of the engine's sweetly responsive character. Injecting fuel directly into the combustion chamber, they maintain, has a charge-cooling effect that boosts torque by 10 percent in the 2000-3000rpm region. The same effect also endows the stream of exhaust gas, they claim, with greater energy. This brings the advantage of swifter turbo response. Substantial boost - the maximum, electronically controlled value is a little under 16psi - is available from 2500rpm.

While the AWD system was largely borrowed from an existing system used in the 6, it wasn't a simple transplant. To meet their durability objectives, the drivetrain engineers found that the power take-off for the rear axle needed to be liquid-cooled. It had to be designed and developed. Meanwhile, Japanese transmission specialist Aisin had to come up with a very compact and all-new six-speed manual 'box. A high-performance braking system with larger discs had to be developed and tested. And there was, of course, the task of developing a totally fresh calibration of the 6's double-A-arm front and multi-link rear suspensions to work in harmony with the car's 215/45R18 Bridgestones. The steering, too, was retuned with alterations to the valving of the hydraulic assistance.

And, perhaps most importantly, a connection had to be established between the handbrake lever and the all-wheel-drive and chassis stability systems.

Unexpected details like this are proof of Mazda's commitment to satisfying drivers with its MPS-badged models. If the cars that follow this one are similarly infused with a sense of fun, the 6 MPS could be just the beginning of something quite special.