I had the opportunity to head out to the MazdasNW.com Wednesday Night meet at Jasmine Grill in Federal Way, WA last Wednesday and I really had a great time. Roughly 70 enthusiasts turned out with 48 Mazdas and a handful of other cars.
Organized by MazdasNW.com, a forum for Northwest Mazda Owners and Enthusiasts, the weeknight meets appear to be just the tip of the iceberg as meets go for this group of enthusiasts of a really wide demographic.
It was great to be out among Mazda enthusiasts and like minded gearheads. The best part was seeing a lot of the custom work people had put into their cars – from custom fabricated dash pods to harness bars. Bringing along the CorkSport 2010 Mazdaspeed3 had some surprising results – mixed opinions abound whenever discussing the 2010 – but one thing was certain, the new Mazdaspeed3 gets attention wherever it goes.
Here are a few photos from the meet. If you’re in the Pacific Northwest, take a look at MazdasNW.com and head out to one of the next meets. The meets are on the second Wednesday of every month, even numbered months at the Southcenter Mall in Tukwilla and odd numbered months at the Northgate Mall in North Seattle. Hope to see you in North Seattle on the 9th of September – go to www.MazdasNW.com for more info.
I have to admit at first glance the Mazdaspeed 3 looked a little “off” with the smile in the front bumper. After spending quite a few hours with the car I can tell you with a straight face, you don’t even notice it. This may be different on a Mazdaspeed 3 that is not Black Mica like ours, where there is a bigger contrast in color between the car body and the bumper insert.
What I can tell you for sure is that cleaning the front bumper is not a lot of fun. Bugs get wedged in the strakes inside the insert quite easily and at weird angles. You have to get down low to get them all out of there. The wheels are not bad to clean nor is the rest of the body. The rear wing is an interesting design, it is basically a smaller wing with another wing over it.
Driving the car is great. The car seems to be planted better on the road compared to the older Mazdaspeed 3. I had a chance to go through some decent corners and get on the throttle a bit. You can feel the differential really pushing the outside tire to get you through the corner. It is quite a rewarding feeling having the car urging you to go faster. The car almost begs you to take a corner as fast as you can. The only two initial changes I would make to the handling are to make the Mazdaspeed 3 a little flatter in corners with some larger sway bars, and lower it around an inch or so to close up the wheel gap. The Dunlop SP 2050 tires seem decent but I have not had a chance to really push them to the limit to see what happens.
The exhaust note is very subtle and is quieter than the older Mazdaspeed 3 stock exhaust. You get a a small hint of the flat exhaust note but not a lot. The dual tips are also much nicer than what the pre-release pictures showed. The angle of the tips matching the bumper contour was a nice design touch as well.
There are a few items I wish Mazda would have given the North American market. Being that the sport model is the only version available we were not able to get the HID headlights and LED tail lights with the car. We’ll have to wait and see what kinds of options become available and see about changing the lights out with something better. On the plus side this is the first car I have had to actually “speak” with the car to setup the Bluetooth, and for making phone calls. The navigation works well from the limited places I have driven so far. I really love the boost gauge. It is a nice throwback to the old style of the turbine boost light from the 323 turbo.
So now that we have the car what are we going to do with it? Maybe a better question is what we are not going to do with it. We have quite a few projects planned for the new car. If you want to follow along with updates to this project and other CorkSport products be sure to sign up and follow us on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/corksport or click the “Twitter” buttons above and below.
In this age of multi-brand dealerships it’s not too often that you get to visit a Mazda only dealership, let alone a NEW Mazda only dealership. Most of the time the dealers are selling at least one other brand with the Mazda product line but not this time. Alan Webb built a new store for their Mazda franchise and had a performance meet / BBQ to celebrate the grand opening. Of course, I attended the event (on June 26th) and brought along one of our cars.
Anyone with a Mazda was invited to the event and there was a range of vehicles that showed up including some vintage Mazda hardware; an RX2 and RX3. The Mt Hood Miata club and RPNW (Rotary Power North West) made up the majority of cars that attended the event, but there was cars from all over the area.
I brought along the CorkSport project RX8 to the show to display the new CorkSport RX8 tower braces. The RX8 definitely gets lots of looks driving around.
Alan Webb stopped by the show as well and his comment about the CorkSport RX8 was “That car is hot!” I didn’t take the opportunity to give him a hard time about driving a 350z convertible to the show, next time I will.
A special thanks to Colin in the parts department at Alan Webb for getting the whole show together.
Photos of the event by E. Reyes
