Legal Eagle Racing's New Wheels

I have a problem. I don't drink. I don't smoke. I don't chase women. I do, however, have a wandering automotive eye. It's not long after I've acquired a vehicle before I start looking around for something new and interesting. Autocrossing feeds that addiction, as I get exposed to lots of different very cool cars.

After winning multiple championships last year in the EP3 Civic Si, affectionately dubbed the Minivan(tm), I started thinking about where to go next. Over the summer, I toyed with several ideas - make the Minvan more of a hard-core autocross car, get a beater second car to play with, etc. One possibility was always to just trade the Minivan(tm) in on something better and more interesting, if I could find it.

This weekend, I did:



Friday night I discovered this practically new (2200 miles!) MazdaSpeed3 on a local used car lot. After driving it on Saturday, I was hooked. With good reason.



Car & Driver named the MS3 one of the 10 Best Cars of 2007, calling it in another review "[a] crazy-fast box of fun, the definitive power toy." Grassroots Motorsports summarized that it "[l]ooks like an econobox, pulls like a locomotive and handles like it’s on rails. This, largely, is why:



A turbocharged version of the 2.3 liter inline-4 found in the regular Mazda3 sedan, the motor (which is also used in Mazda's ALMS LMP2 prototype) makes a whopping 263 horsepower. It does, as advertised, pin you back in the seat when properly motivated. Thankfully, with a 6-speed gearbox, it's still relatively livable around town and (hopefully) won't get me a stack of tickets!

Looks good with the LER graphic on the side, huh?



This ought to keep my wandering eye in check. For a little while, anyway.