High powered Front wheel drive street cars are certainly not something we come across too often in Australia. We first spotted Alex’s Mazda 3 MPS back in 2013 at the Calder Park drags where Alex ran a very respectable 12.8 second pass at 114 miles per hour. At the time the car has some basic bolt ons and made around 220kW to the front wheels.
Fast forward to today and Alex has just given the MPS a complete overhaul of the car. Primarily setup for circuit track days, Alex is keen on giving the quarter another crack so we popped down to Quickbitz to check it out on their new Dynotech hub dyno.
Engine wise the factory 2.3L turbocharged 4 cylinder now features a forged bottom end. The cylinder head has received a comprehensive work over but stock cams remain in place. Boost comes from a Garrett GTX3076 turbocharger alongside a Haltech Elite computer and E85 fuel system. Let’s see how it goes!
2008 Mazda 3 MPS
Factory 2.3L engine (forged internals)
Ported cylinder head by Orger Engines, stock camshafts
Garrett GTX3076R turbocharger, 3in exhaust
JMF port injection intake manifold, Turbosmart Raceport BOV
Custom Performance Engineering cast stainless exhaust manifold
Treadstone front mount intercooler, Tial external wastegate
Haltech Elite 1500 computer
Bosch 1600cc injectors, E85 pump fuel
SPEC stage 4 drag clutch, Fidanza lightweight flywheel
Thanks to:
Jarrad Davis of JDAutoworx for the build
Peter from Freak Custom Fabrications
Michael Quickbitz Stix tuning
Horsepower Factory on install
Nick from Lux Racing on set up
Mazda MPS Club Australia
My Wife for her support