THSCC Forums

I have a chance to get a new Mazda 3 5 door 2.3 dirt cheap.

Has anyone gotten a chance to drive the new Mazda 3 yet?

I may stop by the dealership this weekend to take one for a spin. They have been talking to me for a while, but I am kind of waiting for the AWD version (I'm hoping here, but the chassis is built around AWD). The chassis is the same as the new S40 and new European Focus. (I'm sure you already know that though.) The Duratec (not sure if I am suposed to call it that in the Mazda) seems to stand up really well. One acquiatance of mine has been running his Focus with the duratec in autoX from pretty much day one, and even had it out to play at G&W's Fall Fling.

thanks, any feed back would be great. I will need to move on this fairly quickly, so anyone else have any experience with one?

No Focus has a 6 banger Duratec, they have I-4 Zetecs. The 3L Duratecs are in the Taurus/Sable, Jaguar X-Type 3.0, Lincoln LS, Mazda6 and Escape and the 2.5L (underbore) is in the Contour/Mystique and Cougar.

But the Zetec is a spiffy little engine and there is a lot of aftermarket stuff for them through the Focus (and I guess you could bolt these to the newer Caterhams too).

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Has no responsibility whatsoever.

Wes,

There actually is a 4-cylinder Duratec - it's been in the Ranger for a year or two, and made it into the Focus in '04. It's also pretty much the same motor that's in the Mazda 6 and the new Mazda 3. It's torquey and has a TON of performance potential. The folks on the focaljet.com forums (where I know Gary from...) have a few '04 Duratec'd Foci making some impressive wheel horsepower numbers. The engine makes about 150 to the flywheel from the factory, with nice fat torque curve peaking around 160 lb/ft. It's quite conservatively tuned from the factory, so little stuff like an intake make abnormally large hp gains, around 10-12 fwhp. I didn't believe it when I read it the first time, but it's been backed up with several dyno tests.

The Zetec (what my former Focus had), is indeed a pretty darn respectable engine, but not a tuner friendly as the new Duratech. Since it's a Ford/Mazda collaboration, there will be tons of them on the road, making for a pretty darn good aftermarket. Not to mention that it's all aluminum, and weighs about 80 lbs less than a Zetec.

I'd like to have a Duratec 4 in the Miata...

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Tom Freeman
'98 M3/4/5 | '93 Spec3 325i | '12 TSX sport wagon | '03 Tahoe
Team Silver Bullets '91 240SX

Since I may be able to get this for about 1/2 off, I really don't have anything to loose. If I don't like it, I could probably still sell it for a profit. Now I just need the pieces to fall into place.

Thanks for the opinions.

I stand corrected.

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Has no responsibility whatsoever.

Speaking of which, did you get the car? If so, how do you like it?

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In need of car.

I passed. He had no problem selling it afterwards. It took a whole 2 hours.