Year: | 2007 |
Make: | Mazda |
Model: | Mazdaspeed 3 |
Bought: | Fall 2006 |
Sold: | Summer 2007 |
Horsepower: | 268 hp |
Torque: | 280 ft-lbs |
Weight: | 3153 lbs |
I was fresh out of college, single, and with a decent job for the first time in my life. So obviously the only thing to do was buy a brand new car. The Mazdaspeed 3 had been announced but hadn’t made it to dealers yet. As a die hard Mazda fanboy after the Rx-7s I went through, it was a simple choice. Big power in a practical car and most importantly I was going to be the first owner of the car. There weren’t going to be any hacked up mods or sketchy repairs from the previous owner, and the paint was going to be shiny!
I also loved the idea of buying one of the first cars available, so I went to the dealer and agreed to MSRP for the first one they received. The wait was painful, but when the car finally arrived it was just what I wanted.
It was quick, completely reliable, and comfortable. And most importantly:
Doubt I’ll ever own a car with that low miles again. So with a brand new car in hand I took it straight to the track. I went to several track days at Lime Rock and Loudon and had a blast, some mediocre videos are embedded below. Lime Rock is first:
And Loudon in Nh, with the in car lap starting about half way through:
The feeling of driving to the track, lapping it without changing a thing, and then driving home without worrying about reliability was incredible. Though while this was going on, I decided to make an even larger purchase and go from renting a small apartment to buying a house. Which meant I needed to get rid of the monthly car payment and high insurance for the MS3. So roughly 10 months after I bought it and with 11k miles on the clock I sold it someone who probably had the privilege of buying the first used Mazdaspeed 3 in the area.