AbusiveWombat

Did you work on the air flow for the MS6 intercooler? Do you have any air flow experience? Aerodynamics and air flow is a funny art. You never know how much flow is going through the grill, gliding along the hood, over the IC, and out the back of the hood. I will agree that a FMIC would have been best but I drive an EVO...of course FMIC is the best.

The VW R32 has a similar setup and I've heard it has fantastic handling. One article that I read comparing it to the EVO and STi said the R32 was the most nuetral of the group. Also, the EVO is a 50:50 split 100% of the time and I doubt anyone will argue that it is one of the best handling AWD cars on the planet.

While I agree that wider tires would give it a little tougher look, this is an AWD car. AWD means you get TONS of traction. In my EVO when it's raining I can only chirp the tires...there's no spining, it just goes. The MS6 would look better but probably wouldn't perform any better. Also, with wider tires, you would increase the amount of driveline stress on hard launches. Remember, here in the USA we live a 1/4 mile at a time :D. More stress on the driveline means more worn clutches and broken drivetrains. By keeping the tire width small they'll probably save themselves some warrenty claims.


A stock Mazda 6s costs ~$25k....the MS6 will probably come in around $30k. what did you expect, SRT4 price range? At that price range it will do well directly competing with G35, RX8, and R32. To put it up against the EVO MR is a bit unfair. While the MR certainly has better performance, the MS6 has a much classier exterior and interior. You can't have everything.

The article did state that the rods are iron. While not very light weight, they will be strong. Time will tell but I expect we'll see plenty of these getting 300+hp will minor mods. If the weight stays around the same, that will be a pretty quick car.

Rotarian_SC

I think they should offer another version of it, similar to what the RS did, but not that extreme. Just take out all sound deadening and most of the luxury to make it an econobox to drop that weight.

ZoomZoomH

iTrader: (1)

^terrible idea, very few people will buy it, track ****** would want something on a smaller chassis, and daily driving enthusiasts will be repulsed by the lack of refinement.

btw MR is the highest-end Evo with everything in it. the RS is the stripped down street-legal track car.

Rotarian_SC

Sorry for the wrong Evo info, I am not saying to produce it in full, I am just saying to make maybe 500 at most of those cars, and I am not saying remove A/C, radio, etc, just have like an option to use lighter lower grade materials where you want, so you could customize it like the Scions with their numberous options are doing, it would allow for people to pick their compromises. It would make me consider to buy the car if they did that.

Your logic basically says the RX8 is not a good idea because there is not enough room for the people who want a 4 seat sedan and the enthusiasts who buy it won't appreciate the extra weight of the seats and special door reinforcement when they could go for a 2 seater.

ZoomZoomH

iTrader: (1)

i think we can be pretty safe to say that the RX-8 is NOT necessarily a track *****'s wet dream, so it's mainly aimed at *very* enthusiastic drivers looking for a comfortable (and nice looking!) ride without sacrificing too much sporting capabilities.

the target demography between RX-8 and MS6 is actually similar in that both provides excellent performance while also pampering the driver quite well, and the pricing reflects it. The only differences are, what type of drivetrain you're looking for, and whether passenger/cargo space is important to you.

GotBass

Right Engine, Wrong Car - Stick it in the 3.

Audioslave8

similar to the New 2005 Altima SE-R check the nissan website for details, i kinda like it

DreRX8

Altima SE-R with 260HP is nice--but damn that torque steer...I have a Millenia S with only 210HP and when its on boost I wrestle with the wheel--so I can imagine what its like in a 260HP Altima.

Don Vito

Too bad the ugly *** Altima doesn't have good looks like the Mazda 6 ( and mazdaspeed 6 ).

Audioslave8

id perfer the looks of the SE-R over the mazda6

zoom44

oh they will. give it some time.

Zio

0- 60 in 6.6 s isnt that slower than the 8??

ZoomZoomH

iTrader: (1)

0-100 km/h (0-62mph) is 6.6 sec. they don't have a 0-60mph time listed, but I suspect it'll be 6 flat.

Icemastr

A 0-60 of 6 seconds seems very slow for that much power and AWD even though the test was with the UK model which has about 20hp less or so than the US model is supposed to have, I was expecting a 0-60 of under 5 seconds. It can't weigh too much more than the WRX yet it has a lot more HP and torque yet the WRX manages 0-60 in under 5.5

Rotarian_SC

I think that would mean the 6 either has horrible gearing, has a much worse AWD system, or somehow they added a lot of weight. Otherwise the only thing I can think of to account for it was the driver is horrible.

ZoomZoomH

iTrader: (1)

no one has timed it *yet* (those are *estimate* figures)

fyi, the subaru legacy GT runs a 5.9 0-60, i'd use that as a guideline rather than compare to the WRX, weight plays a big part in standing launches.

crossbow

Yes but your not seeing the reasoning behind their decision to use this distribution system. They basically took the AWD system off the car's in europe, then slapped it to a system pushing out over DOUBLE the torque. The transfer case CAN NOT HANDLE the increased torque, which is why the rear maxes out at a 50% torque distribution, and is also why its water cooled. This is a huge mistake in my eyes. Their using a patchwork system to use existing tech off a much weaker powered car (standard 160 bhp) and hoping it stays together. They should have completely redesigned the transfer case =/. This is also the main reasoning behind the car's standard 100:0 torque distribution. If the transfer case isn't being used, it can't break right?

I definitely see that transfer case snapping the instant people start throwing mods on it.

My 6s MTX cost 18k...If I had to pay 25k, I would have gotten an base rx8 6spd . You can easily pick up a 6i MTX for under 16k. Estimating dealer markup, were looking at 32k+...mainly due to how exclusive most mazdaspeed car's are during their "inital" run. Of course now look at the msm, which is just sitting on lots, unsold, cause mazda produced WAY more then were selling.


Ah I missed that. Thanks for pointing it out. The fact that the standard 6i's stroke is 94mm really puts alot of stress on the rods when its boosted. Hopefully those are some rather buff iron rods.

I still disagree about the placement of the intercooler...but as you pointed out I'm no airflow mastar. I'm just following basic principals of heat rising...with you know, the intercooler sitting on top of the engine and all.

General weight estimates are 200-300 lbs+. Base 6i MTX is "about" 3000 lbs.

AbusiveWombat

I certainly hope, for Mazda's sake, that this isn't the case. I'm sure the engineers did their homework. Only time will tell though.

I don't see how you could have got a 6s MTX for 18k unless it was used. Invoice on a bare bones Mazda6s is $20k. No way would a dealer sell for 2k less than invoice unless you're a employee (or related) for Ford.

I priced out a well equipt Mazda 6s at edmunds.com. The options I selected were: luxery package (leather, heated seats, power driver), sport package (spoiler, wheels, suspension), sun roof, stereo upgrade, and side curtain air bags. Invoice was $24923.

crossbow

Abusive,

S-plan, -250 rev-it up coupon, -1500 incentive, -500 grad-student. Or 2200 USD off of S-plan price, which is already 4% below invoice.

They actually had higher rebates a bit later after I bought (damn it). But it came out to be a bit below 18k (base model 6s MTX+ Sports package (I wanted black cloth)).

http://www.mazdamotorsports.com

I got S-plan through mazdamotorsports (above url) which is one of the perks of being a member. (Just have to do 2 autox's a year in ANY mazda, to get membership). Its pretty cool that mazda actually "rewards you" for racing your car. If you slap their logos on your car, and actually start placing, there are cash prizes to boot!

Here's the S-plan listing for the 04 Mazda 6's.
http://grohol.com/mazda/Mazda2004.pdf

So final price was...

S-plan 6s MTX + Sports 20200 USD
Incentives/Rebates -2250

Or 17,950 USD.

The 1500 USD incentive is still available btw. Rev-it up coupons expired though. Because S-plan is non negotiable, its still actually possible to get "below" this price through haggling...especially since the 05's are now on deck. I'd imagine you could probably net one for 17k or even the high 16's if you really wanted to haggle. I didn't, I like the no haggle process of S-plan, its like buying a saturn . (Btw my car had single digit miles on it when purchased)

AbusiveWombat

That is a sweet deal!

Overport

dont know to much about it, but i'm already loving it based on the spec sheet. i'm interested to see how it performs on the street....