COMPARISON TEST

NISSAN SENTRA SE-R SPEC V

MAZDASPEED3 GRAND TOURING

SUBARU IMPREZA WRX TR

VOLKSWAGEN GTI

MINI COOPER S

POWER TOYSFIVE LOW-BUCK CHOICES FOR HIGHTAILING IT.BY PATRICK BEDARDPHOTOGRAPHY BY KEVIN WING

ELECTRONICALLY REPRINTED FROM MAY 2007

www.caranddriver.com

ON THE ROAD TO BAGDADCOMPARISON TEST

hy go long-faced and grumbling into the low-carbon future when you can grin all the way? Bring on

the power toys, small cars with big muscles and no excuses.

The idea behind this roundup is sim-ple—keep the price down and the thrills up. And the market was ready for us with four spanking-new choices for 2007.

Arguably, the Mini Cooper S was the original power toy, a bite-size parcel of impudence when it rolled into the U.K. spotlight 40-some years ago. Same old im-pudence, all new parts, is the story of this latest generation, new in the showrooms last winter. Of course, the snub-nosed styl-ing carries on, but this newest Mini is a bit longer, 2.3 inches to be precise, mostly for crash protection. Consider it to be up-sized all the way to micro; it’s still nearly 20 inches shorter than any of the other play-ers here. Under the hood scoop, the super-charger is gone, replaced by a twin-scroll turbo breathing into a new aluminum

1598cc four. Net result: 172 horsepower at 5500 rpm. Yep, it’s a power toy.

Another old comer to this concept is Volkswagen. The original GTI swaggered onto German roads in 1976. It was a two-door Golf with more motor. Same idea now in the U.S., but for 2007 you can opt for a five-door. And we did. Today’s engine, a 2.0-liter, is made more by a turbo. The take-away: 200 horsepower at 5100 rpm and a broad-shouldered torque curve. Power toys aren’t necessarily cheap. Our heav-ily optioned test car—do you really need a nav system to find a playground?—bot-tom-lines at $29,290.

It ain’t braggin’ if this MAZDA3 in MAZDASPEED guise can do it. Turbo-charged till its head bolts tremble, its 2261cc four booms out 263 horsepower. Outrageously wide tires fill its wheel wells. The body bristles with more slats, spats, and spoilers than a Harrier fighter. And yes, it comes in Probable Cause Red. The defense won’t get much rest in this one.

Nissan’s new Sentra SE-R Spec V is the only player to come to the games without a turbo; it relies instead on the group’s high-est redline, 7000 rpm. The Spec V is the all-in version of the Sentra, packing a close-ratio six-speed gearbox, powerful 12.6-inch front discs, 225/45WR-17 summer tires, and an optional limited-slip front diff.

We’re measuring these new toys against that most enduring of benchmarks, the tur-bocharged all-wheel-drive Subaru Impreza WRX. This little motor scooter, now with 224 horsepower from 2.5 liters, has been charming us since its introduction as a 2002 model. It’s friendly, it’s quick, and it keeps on charging when the road turns to Cool Whip.

We know about that because the road did turn to Cool Whip as we ascended through 4600 feet on our climb into Prescott, Ari-zona, after an afternoon in misspelled Bagdad. Three of the five test toys made it to the hotel that night. Names will be named as you read on.

ThE OThER bAgdAdHome to the culinary wonder Miner’s Diner, Bagdad, Arizona, is 105 miles northwest of Phoenix, has 812 male and 766 female residents, whose median age is 31.6.

W

47 $21,850 $23,900 146.2 66.3 55.4 97.1 57.2 57.5 13.2 91 630mini cooper s 2622 62.7 37.3

1751

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55 $20,515 $22,715 180.1 70.5 59.1 105.7 59.9 60.4 14.5 91 1339nissan senTra se-r 3086 62.7 37.3

51 $24,620 $24,620 175.8 68.5 56.7 99.4 58.5 58.3 15.9 91 1137subaru impreza Wrx 3200 56.3 43.7

51 $23,230 $29,290 165.7 69.3 58.4 101.5 60.4 59.7 14.5 91 1543VoLksWaGen GTi 3155 59.3 40.7

MAZDASPEED3 GT

ThE VERdICT

A CRAZY-FAST BOX OF FUN, THE DEFINITIVE POWER TOY.

ThE hIghS

MAJOR TURBO MUSCLE, POWERFUL BRAKES, BUCKETS GIVE GREAT HUGS, GOOD ERGONOMICS.

ThE LOWS

BOOMY EXHAUST, OVER-AMPED RED OF THE DIAL MARKINGS, CALLING-ALL-COPS STYLING.

Solidly grounded in fantasy, this MAZDASPEED. It’s your basic

comic-book superhero come to life in sheetmetal, the usual manly biceps and quads replaced by four bulging Bridge-stones. Pow! Biff! Sock! No doubt about it, this is the top overdog of the power toys.

Keepin’ it real is so over. Why not hit the road in an outrageous costume? Why not go around bristling foils and fripperies for all the world to gawk at? Why not defy all the laws of gravity and common sense with a dip of your throttle toe? For only $26,300, you can thrill your-self giddy while publicly claiming that a five-door hatchback is a concession to the practical-pig realities of responsible citizenship.

ON THE ROAD TO BAGDADCOMPARISON TEST

1

When it comes to power toys, anything worth doing is worth overdoing. Yeehaw! The 263 turbo horses tug at the steering and bust the front tires loose at silly speeds. The colossal brakes absorb speed like a Jell-O embankment. The driver’s chair is deeply cupped in the backrest, just right for those Immelmann turns you’ve always wanted to try. The exhaust booms, the wind rushes, a shower of stones seems always to clatter off the belly. Everything in this car happens in italics.

It’s fun. Of course, the numbers are heroic—101 mph in the quarter-mile at 14 seconds flat, 151-mph top speed. But the fun is deeper than extralegal velocities. The machinery works. The six-speed loves to play. The steering is always entertaining, passing along just enough unruliness to hint at an outlaw spirit, but not enough to confirm it.

What can red do for you? The interior is a festival of red stripes, accents, surrounds, pipings, and digits. “MAZDASPEED!” scream the red logos on the front buckets. You might want to hang your jacket over the passenger side; no sense admitting to anything in writing.

Still, we’re all adults here. We all know that too much is fun and way too much is even better.

LET THERE BE LIGHTWhen you’re running through the twisties at night, a low headlight cutoff makes left-handers go black. Worst offender: the WRX. The Mazda’s cutoff height is driver-adjustable (above).

ON THE ROAD TO BAGDADCOMPARISON TEST

199volkswagen gti 21218 18 5 2 8 8 17 4 48 3 5 4 10 8 8 8 0 14 82 7 404176

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206MazdasPeed3 22219 20 4 3 8 8 19 4 48 3 5 5 7 8 8 8 0 17 81 7 424378

*These objective scores are calculated from the vehicles’ dimensions, capabilities, rebates and discounts, and/or test results.

189Mini CooPeR s 20196 15 5 5 8 8 19 4 47 1 1 1 6 8 9 9 0 19 83 7 424167

173nissan sentRa se-R sPeC v 16128 15 5 3 9 8 16 3 37 4 4 4 4 7 6 4 0 20 74 8 374068

168sUbaRU iMPReza wRx 17148 20 1 3 7 7 15 3 37 3 3 3 3 6 5 6 1 18 75 8 363863

Copyright © 2007 Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., Inc. All Rights Reserved.For more information about reprints from Car and Driver, contact Wright’s Reprints at 877-652-5295.

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172 @ 5500

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