This past month we’ve seen a whole slew of automobiles dropped to insane lowness. This Miata is no different. This car is like the crispy cornered pieces of brownies that only a select few actually enjoy. And just like any good brownie recipe, the best ones are always the most simple. 

Let’s be honest here: this car is as Mazda OEM stock as possible. The engine still retains the stock 1.6L. The exterior additions to this car has been a Mazda OEM front R-Package lip, rear R-package lip, and a OEM hardtop painted glittery silver. Really, the only things not stock is the now rare RSR GTII ExMag exhaust system, Jackson Racing Header and the Boss Frog roll bar. Continue reading at Speedhuners

By Linhbergh Nguyen

It’s almost done! Check out Shaun’s ride page for more pics and details!

Our friends at Grassroots Motorsports just put out their 25th anniversary issue. That’s a pretty big accomplishment for a totally independent, family run operation, and my hat is off to Tim Suddard and his crew. If you’re not a subscriber or can’t make it down to the newstand, they made the entire issue available in digital format. The issue’s feature article is their list of “the 25 best cars ever.” It should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the magazine that the Miata made the top spot, but I was pleased to see that the Mustang made the #4 slot and that the Volvo 240 squeaked in at #25. There’s also a great article on the 24 Hours of Lemons, and I was very happy to see that two CarDomain members made the list of “three cars that should have sucked but totally didn’t”–the UDMan’s Corvair and the Team Size Matters Fury.

Tri-Point Motorsports is opening the doors to its facilities tonight. The Tri-Point team has taken its familiar blue Mazda6 and Mazda3 Touring Cars to the Speed World Challenge podium more than 12 times over the years. This makes Tri-Point BFFs with MAZDASPEED and as such Mazda’s motorsports arm is also using this opportunity to preview its 2010 World Challenge efforts. Did I mention that this is going down tonight? If you find yourself in SoCal’s San Fernando Valley (yes, it is home to more than porn and Valley Gurlz) feel free to swing by. I’ll be the one caressing the Tri-Point cars inappropriately. Here’s the deets:

Who: Members of the Automotive and Motorsports Press, MAZDASPEED enthusiasts, current, retired & future Mazda racers

What: 2010 MAZDA3 –World Challenge Touring Car Spec Product Walkaround. Join us for a soda, snacks, and high quality bench racing.

Where: Tri-Point Motorsports 21345 Deering Court Canoga Park, CA 91304

When: Tuesday, November 10, 2009 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm

Why: To check out what will be Zoom-Zooming World Challenge in 2010. Tri-Point Motorsports is now taking orders for customer cars.

How: RSVP to nicolen@tripointengineering.com

This RX-8 in the Vibe Audio booth sure did a lot of flashing and blinking and thumping and carrying on, so it was kind of a letdown to find that all of its features were just for show. Like, those bubbling mineral-oil-filled amps? No functional purpose whatsoever. The rotating-ball sub in the trunk? Nothing but a gimmick. Nothing too impressive under the hood in terms of mods, just a lot of dress-up and neon. I guess that’s often how it is with sound-stage cars. Oh well, at least it put on a show–go below the jump to see the video.

I figured it was time for some import tuner love in this week’s eBay Motors Showdown. The Veilside RX-7 is a magazine quality FD with $50k in mods according to the seller. And the Hakosuka Clone looks sweet and has lots of authentic JDM touches. Oh, and both of these rides are John Naderi approved. So, which would you choose?

I had to be down in Portland for the weekend, so I thought I’d take our Mazda 3 test car over to the Burnside skate ramp where a Jeep had famously rolled over a few days earlier. Once I saw the ramp, I wasn’t sure that the Mazda would fare any better, plus I was pretty sure no one would ever give me a test car again.

Skate ramps notwithstanding, I came away pretty impressed with this little car. Actually, it didn’t feel little. It felt just about right. Continue reading after the jump!

First of all, for me, the 148 hp produced by the little four banger is the proper amount of hp for a FWD car of this size and weight. Any more hp and I’d want AWD or RWD. The only time the Mazda felt gutless was attempting to pass going uphill on the freeway at 70+ mph. Otherwise the Mazda had plenty of scoot.

The car felt very well balanced and handled nicely, with great steering feel. There was not a whole lot of torque steer and it had a good turning radius for its size. It’s fairly sporty but without an overly harsh ride. First rate ergonomics, no nasty blind spots, comfy seats. Basically it’s a well-proportioned and thoroughly practical and liveable car.

The only weakness is that a fair amount of tire and road noise makes it into the cabin. So I just turned up the Bose stereo. The brakes were also a bit graby and non-linear, but that might have been my particular test car.

It seems to me that the Mazda3 is a car you get if you want to buy an import, but don’t want a Corolla or Civic, and don’t want to chance the reliability of a Jetta. It doesn’t have AWD like the Impreza, but it also delivers better gas mileage. The car also has a fair amount of personality and style (I prefer the previous design, though, without the goofy smiley face). I’d probably go with the hatch, but that’s me.

Check out our new copper red mica Mazda3 i Touring 4-Door test car! Ok, so it’s a boring FWD automatic sedan, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun with it. With the auto and the moonroof/6CD/Bose package, the MSRP is pushed up close to $21k. But still, it seems like a pretty decent car for the money. I’ll be driving it around town and then down to Portland this weekend, and will give you my full review next week. Stay tuned…

This is a car I’ve been meaning to feature for a while now. It was built by my friend Russ, the man behind the RE-Extreme blog, the place to go to for the latest news on anything and everything related to the RX7. Before Russ got rid of this, his second RE-Extreme project car, we met up in the Tokyo Bay ready to immortalize his very unique ride. After much searching we ended up at a Hotel in Tokyo Disneyland, which provided a very nice, yet very un-Japanese backdrop!

Before embarking on this project Russ took lots of time to think about what direction to go with his FD. One definite requirement was to be as original as possible choosing a good mix of bits and pieces for that bespoke look. There is no denying the FD3S is by far one of the most aesthetically pleasing cars ever to come out of Japan, without even beginning to consider the possibilities the aftermarket offers. Flick through the pages of the Hyper Rev series of books dedicated to this shape and you will be surprised at just how many body parts are available, a list that keeps growing even if the car has been out of production for years now! Continue reading at Speedhunters

By Dino Dalle Carbonare

You have to love factory tuner cars and the companies willing to sell them. They put their reputation on the line, slapping their badge and warranty on big-winged, look-at-me designs that boast bloated horsepower numbers and raspy exhaust notes. With some automakers, you know you aren’t looking at much more than some fatter wheels wrapped in ultra low-pro rubber and a fake hood scoop, so it’s hard to get excited. But when Mazda gets involved in the factory tuner game – a company where Zoom-Zoom conveniently works both as a catchy marketing riff and a to-the-death engineering mantra – you know good things are just around the corner. Bizarro two-tier semantics aside, Mazda got a lot right with its first shot at the Mazdaspeed3 back in 2007. Wisely then, they aren’t fiddling with the recipe too much. Crammed into the shell of the new 2010 Mazda3 is the same drivetrain as the last Mazdaspeed3, which would be a 263 horsepower turbocharged engine, six-speed manual transmission and a limited-slip front differential. And because Mazda is mindful enough to keep a North American engineering staff on hand to fine tune vehicles for our market, we get the most hardcore version of them all. Front-drive hoons have never had it so good.

What’s Not to Like
We didn’t like Mazda’s tiny 4.1-inch MID nav screen the first time around in the 2010 Mazda3, and not surprisingly it hasn’t grown on us since then. Its diminutive size and steering wheel-mounted controls make it too difficult to see, and passengers can’t even use it (unless you don’t mind them clawing at the wheel, that is). The new “smiley” styling of the Mazda3 has proved rather polarizing thus far, and we expect the same learning curve to affect the Mazdaspeed3… Read the full review here!