Having been inundated with a single request to put a post and some pics up of it, here are my 2,250 words now that I’ve had some time to contemplate and reflect on my move back to a JapLand Jalopy for the last 1,000miles.
A lot of friends & family did question what the hell I was at, after owning 7 BMWs over the last 8years and 130k. But that was the problem; I’d set budgets, made spreadsheets, did shortlists and for my money I just didn’t have the heart for another E39 or the ubiquitous E46, and the E60 wasn’t floating my boat interior-wise. Plus I hate to be typecast.
The complete spreadsheet list of cars I checked for price, VRT, & running costs is bizarre – my criteria related to price point, performance & sleeper status, economy, 4 doors, ride and handling, and the fact I have an Elise so something like an E46 M3 wouldn’t make sense. They included:
• E46 330i / 330D
• E39 525D/ 530D / 530i
• E60 525D / 530D / 530i
• E65 730D / 735i
• MG ZT 4.6 V8
• C6 2.7 Hdi (waaaaay above budget!)
• S-type 2.7 D / Type R
• S60-R / D5
• Avantime
• A3 3.2
• MeganeSport 225
• Focus ST
• Octavia vRS T / TDi
So a weird list, but I was open-minded/confused (delete as appropriate). Out of all of these the RX-8 had been in my thoughts the most for the last 9months. I had test driven several including wife & babyseat installations. I love them, and all the special engineering that has gone into them. But with my 50mile round commute each day economy was proving a difficult hurdle to mentally surmount, particularly with the 40mpg+ from the TDS. And the boot is small, which meant that weekend trips away, with some tasty early morning solo time on surrounding roads, might still be precluded due to packaging.
Then I came across the MPS. 2006, 67,000km, black with black leather, 18” rims on 215/40s, 2.3L direct injection turbo petrol, 260bhp, 280lb/ft and 4wd with an LSD on the rear. Xenons, cruise, glass sunroof etc etc..
It ticked most boxes, the only obvious hurdles being
1. not rwd
2. turbo
3. image / kudos / desire
The first 2 were quickly rationalized out from previous pondering – I hadn’t done the ‘4wd turbo’ thing yet (just like I now haven’t done the Rotary thing
), primarily
because I’d no interest in the usual full-on Impreza/Evo approach. The MPS
provided, at least on paper, a balance between subtlety, performance, comfort
and quality that really appealed, much like the S60-R did. The Legacy was also
considered but it just didn’t pull on the heart strings despite its
abilities.The third issue didn’t bother me massively either. My wife pointed out that I’d talk RX8 each time one passed us in the last year, but she never heard a peep about a Mazda 6 before (because you never see them!!). But I figured I found them interesting & desirable, and always conferred some kudos to the owner of one I would see. I had gotten over the phobia of “I’m a petrolhead, but that other petrolhead doesn’t know because I’m driving something ordinary” when I got my E39 & had the Elise in the garage. So mentally I was prepared for joe-soaps perception, or lack thereof, to my JapCrap. Personally I love the looks overall, except for the grill area which is a bit bland.
So brains were picked, forums surfed, sanity checks conducted (thanks Trudy, Kingers, & JPW!), money was found, the trip to Dublin was made. The car appealed greatly on driving, a deal was struck with the Mazda dealership, the tank was brimmed, and I slotted myself in for the drive home to Cork!
Pics aren’t great as it was dusk and the car isn’t clean, but you get the jist.
First impressions were that it was a quality item. The paint impressed, as did panel gaps and general fit & finish. It felt solid but rode really well, and the interior was a lovely place to spend some cruise-controlled motorway miles in, with comfy seats (elec & memory on drivers side), nice clear instrumentation, and a kicking factory fit Bose sound system incl 6-Cd in-dash changer & subwoofer on the parcelshelf. The sound system was important to me as I likes me tunez, aiii. It just felt a quality item. Yes, it was Jap to the core with light doors, generic column stalks, light controls, and beeps when I pressed stuff. But it stood toe-to-toe with the 159 I had driven up in all respects and exceeded on several, including ride and how the climate knobs rotated (such a lovely, damped click on the Mazda … I still adjust the fan & temp for the hell of it)
I sat on the motorway, mentally converting the OBCs 9L/100km in my head, thinking about what I’d done. Added about €90 a month to my fuel bill for a start! The spectre of 40mpg had really put a downer on my car shopping thoughts the last while, so it felt really, REALLY good to have broken the diesel chains that had begun to shackle my freedom of car choice. I loved 6,500rpm, and silent cruising. Diesels are good, but I concluded people had forgot just how quiet a modern petrol is in comparison; the answer was ‘Very’.
So off I schmoozed down to Cork, family 159 SW ahead, happy out getting 31-32mpg with some Tosca over the stereo soothing the miles away. Then 100miles into the trip, the Knockmealdowns started looming into the view. A quick call was made ahead, and my left indicator was thrown on. Well come on, it’s a 1,665kg 4 door saloon with all the toys, but it also had some go and a chassis that impressed so far – what would you do???? The Vee drew closer, the climb filled my windscreen, I dropped from 6th to 4th on the lovely snikkity ‘box, and made use of that torque. A brief lag, and it surged forward.
Most people here are familiar with the Vee. It climbs from the north side on lovely, smooth flowing surfaces with open to 45deg bends coming at you regularly. The MPS is softer than you might expect, and on these gentler flowing corners there was a smidge more roll than anticipated that took a fraction longer than you’d expect to settle. Initially that dented the confidence as I wondered is it the steering or grip that is giving me doubts but, once understood, it became immaterial. What it does do, once you adjust, is add to the lovely loping gait the car has with that engine – it has buckets of torque with 280lb/ft @ 3,000rpm and 90% of that available @ 2,000rpm.
So I eased myself into the climb, using 4th and that torque to feel how the cars natural balance felt, and covering ground at a pleasant pace with little effort. Soon the double apex left over the bridge came, so I heel & toed down to second (pedals are well set up for this), and turned into the sharp 90; roll checked, torque down, car just goes – little torque steer, total traction. I was on the opening uphill left that completes the corner immediately so turn again, bit more roll, second is gone, into 3rd on exit. It was then I realized that second it quite low; it seems the car is geared quite low from 1st-4th, perhaps to make use of the torque as you are further up the box. So up the box we went, and the slope was gobbled up.
Traffic was met up toward the hairpin viewing area which gave me time to reflect on my first few backroad miles. I wasn’t blown away I have to admit – solid and competent sprung to mind, but lacking that nth degree of involvement. As the traffic pulled in to view the view, I continued up onto the undulating sections that open out toward the lake and the Vee itself. The bumpier the road got, the more impressive the car became; it seemed to get a happier rhythm with itself now, and the lumps and bumps took that initial softness away so that it tracked straight and true through bumpy bends with spot-on body control, and the car feeling a lot more dynamic through steering and seat. It was hugely confidence-inspiring and I imagined you would want in excess of 1.1 leptons to feel it was truly floaty or lacking in body control. Most importantly, it started to engage me which it hadn’t on the earlier section.
As you go through the eye of the Vee, the road condition deteriorates further. The undulations are bigger, the surface really choppy, the bends tighter and more frequent, the cambers cruel in braking areas. I love it, as it really asks as much as you could want from a chassis. These are where the tough questions were asked, and the JapCrap delivered. A touch of float was noted, but was gathered up quickly which was all I could ask for here. Through bends, I started to feel the 4 wheel drivetrain jiggle a little power front to rear. Similarly, under brakes it was as though the drivetrain was deliberately shuffling power to the rear to give an engineered reaction, through torque reversal, for that initial turn-in phase.
The brakes themselves have a long travel so don’t give that instantly strong bite, solid pedal, and therefore confidence you ideally want. They are powerful however and performed perfectly, so it was more a matter of adjustment than lack of performance. Surprisingly they have solid discs on the rear, so maybe on a track this could compromise ultimate performance. On these roads the car did tend to shuffle around a bit in the bumpy braking areas – more than say my old M3 or Evads S4 which was my datum for the entire drive – but also a perhaps a bit more alert and lighter on its feet than the S4.
The steering was nice to hold, precise in its guidance, and gave a modicum of feedback and a lot of confidence into the bend. If that sounds like damning with faint praise, it isn’t. It has nice steering, but I also drive an Elise which skews things a bit. The turn-in itself was very incisive and the whole car quickly let me know it wanted all torques summoned so it could get on with the business of going pop out of the bends like a champagne cork. It does that really, really well. The steering tended to go light and uncommunicative if you did this, which I didn’t like. There was the barest smear of understeer if I was to give it the full monty out of a tight, well-sighted second gear corner for example, but having said that you can feel the rear really contributing as much as it can to neutralize that. I’d imagine on a wet trackday, where you could explore the cars balance at the limits and beyond, the back end could be made to contribute quite usefully.
So on and on we went, MPS and I, ducking & diving along that scrappy sinuous bit of road toward Lismore. Ultimately, as with all modern cars, it wasn’t the last word in driver interaction – modern cars limits and road conditions dictate that reaching this nirvana is now a fleeting moment rather than 30miles of motoring mecca. But it was engaging and fun and, as it slipped once again into the role of comfy fast cruiser heading out of Lismore toward Midleton, I began to really like this cars duality. However, I did reach the conclusion if you were a one-car person it would be worth looking harder at the Scoobys/Evos/M3s of this world which would have more dynamic edge. The spin home was uneventful, and it got another wash when I got there.
That was over 2 weeks ago - I’ve 800miles of the mundane commute done now in it. The boot is big, but the seats don’t fold as the MPS got some body in white changes to front & rear bulkheads that increase torsional stiffness by 50%. Apparently you can get the seats folding if you remove the boot trim and stick you hand into dark places to get at the button, but the aperture is smaller. The interior is roomy with more leg room behind me than the E39 5 Series. The doors open wide to let me put my 19month old into her car seat etc etc etc so it is fitting in with day-to-day life really well. Except the gangster tint on the windows makes my daughter think it is dusk 24-7, and also makes pedestrians and other drivers very slow to make a move across crossings or junctions as they can’t make eye contact with me. It shall be replaced with something lighter! The sharp clutch uptake makes smooth driving more tricky than it should in traffic. The gearchange itself is lovely with a quasi-metallic action (Kingers has compred it to his S2ks), but the gate is quite tight and when you have your hand on it you don’t know is it 1st or 3rd planes it’s in.
It is giving 27.1mpg average from its 3 tanks of go-go juice (which is my entire milage in it including the Vee), which is perfectly acceptable to me and exceeds its OBC calculation by a couple of tenths. On one spin home it gave an indicated 34mpg so I must put the head down some journey and see what I can eek out of it for the craic. Maybe on a round trip up to Mayo to do the challenging Maam Cross - Lenane - Louisburgh road – it’s that kind of car. I’ve already resurrected my plans to do Mizen-to-Malin in one day once the days get longer again.
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