Rental Car Ruckus 2: Electric Boogaloo

[Jake]

Was told that I'd have pace cars provided for my Chief of Pace duties at the NASA East Coast Championships over the weekend at VIR. Mazda is a NASA sponsor, so it was entirely unsurprising to hear that they had provided us two of their finest for our pacing duties.

We had a 2016(?) Mazda3 and Mazda6. The 3 had 115 miles on it and the 6 had about 350. Both were dark gray, the 3 had a black interior and the 6 had cocaiiiiiine seats that were the purest of white for all of 17 minutes.



I spent much more time in the 6 but drove both in relative anger. They share a drivetrain - the Skyactiv 2.5L with 185 hp and a similar amount of torque. The 6 is roughly 300 lbs heavier than the 3 so obviously one was slower than the other.

Quick impressions of the 6... styling is spot-on. Ours was the Grand Touring that was rolling on 19's yo. They looked good and had just enough sidewall to soak up all the curbing that definitely wasn't jumped. Brakes were good but initial pedal feel was too touchy. Suspension is impressive and for being so big, the 6 really could be hustled around VIR. I had a few pace laps where I was told to "catch the field NOW" and it was willing enough to dance. Nice bit of lift-off oversteer if you wanted it.

The motor sounds better than anticipated with a nice growl at higher revs. The transmission is a 6-speed "automatic" that is basically a dual-clutch with a torque converter for 1st-gear starts, or at least that's what I think it is. It shifted pretty snappy and when left in Manual mode, would let you bang the fuel cut all day long. THANK YOU Mazda. Subaru, take a hint. In "Sport" but left to shift itself, it would downshift under braking to prepare for the next corner. Really pretty satisfying for a two-pedal and not much lag when you pulled the shift paddles (but some, a GTI is faster).

Only downside... holy god is it slow. It really needs more power in the form of a turbo, a hybrid setup or a V6 to be "quick" at all. I know all these family sedans are going to the small 4-cylinder setup but with three or four people inside, it was pretty lethargic. Top speed on the back straight was 9 mph slower.

Interior was nice, lots of leather everywhere. The Mazda version of iDrive is a bit clunky but it wouldn't turn me off of the car entirely.

So yeah, I liked it enough given it's in a class of car that interests me as much as Bud Light.