2010 Mazdaspeed 3: Fine Gearbox
Drove our 2010 Mazdaspeed 3 last night and had much the same feeling of euphoria Kurt did. I haven't driven aMazdaspeed 3 in ages, and this is the best one yet. Everything just seems a little more refined, a littlebetter sorted out in this car.
I particularly like the six-speed manual gearbox. The shifter's gates are well defined and there's solid, positive feelas you move between gates — you can tellthis hardwarecomes from the company that builds Miatas.
Along with that, heel-and-toe downshifting couldn't be any easier. The pedal spacing and clutch takeup are dead-on on for this activity. In fact, if I was going to teach someone to heel-and-toe, our Mazdaspeed 3 would be a great choice. Close gear ratios make it easy to find the right amount of throttle blippage. Big four-cylinders (turbo or not) are also good fornovices — a good amount of torque, but not too much, so youdon't have toworry muchabout underdoing or overdoing your blips.
Erin Riches, @ 2,960 miles
