LinuxRacr

Friday I was in Houston for the Mazda Street Heat seminar for Mazdaspeed Dealers. It was an all day event with informational sessions, that included a test drive of the Mazdaspeed with 3 other people in the car taking turns with you on a 24 mile run around Houston. I was a passenger 1st, and go to feel what it was like to just ride in it. It was a blast! It was not as fast as I expected, but then again we had four 200 LB adults in it also. Even still, it managed to pull pretty nice. The ride quality is better than the MP3! Over the bumps, it rode closer to a Cadillac, but handled like the MP3! I only felt one dip really bad. When I drove it, I expected more power, but I was comparing it to big_ben's ride which would have killed this kid in a speed test. Even still I wonder how it would have pulled with only me in the car! Some things to note:

The orange color looks a lot better in person! I think it is great now that I have seen it shimer in the sunlight!

This car has nice stopping power with ABS. When you mash the breaks, there is minimal skid before the ABS kicks in.

The limited slip really helps out on traction. When one wheel started to slip, the other seemed to help correct it.

There is torque steer, but it is controlable! LSD!

I did not get to hear the stereo, but it was really better in practicallity in the trunk area being that the 8" sub, and amp are attached to the deck above the trunk bottom. What a space saver! The radio was MORE complicated to operate than the Z919, and the Z828. To set station memory (24 total), you had to drop into submenus. This could be a problem at speed.

They do not want people messing with the car! They want to keep a certain "exclusitivity" with the car, and owners, which is why they WONT be selling the turbo, and engine components seperately in a kit. You can't even get the turbo manifold, or rear amp/sub assymbly without a VIN number from your Mazdaspeed, and you would have to give them the old one. The charge piping is clamped together with ONE TIME USE ONLY clamps that if removed would give away that you had been tampering with the car. It would not nessesarily void your warranty, but it would be a good tip off of tampering.

All that aside, I would like to say that Mazda definitely has something good going on here with Mazdaspeed. The 3 "consumers," me included, Hunter Smith of Protegetech.com, and Kyle from the Houston RX-7 Club were allowed to give some valuable input on what they believe should be the way the Mazdaspeed customer should be taken care of. One of thes aspects was the way the car is delivered to the customer. Do you remember the old Saturn commercials of how they would deliver a car to a customer with everyone clapping? It would be like that, but not so damn cheesy! It would be more involved with a face-to-face with the person you would be dealing with in every department, and a walkthrough of your car on the ground, and on a lift! We all agreed that building a trust relationship with the customer was the most important. This has been a long post, so until I can remember something else this is it!

RebelRacing

How does one go about getting into one of these Dealer seminars? Do you have to get invited? I wonder if there are gonna be any of these in Canada.
Lastly...Can the suspension parts be purchased individually unlike the turbo parts?

LinuxRacr

If you have the right connections, anything is possible! As far as the seminars being offered in Canada, I don't know. I suspect the suspention parts can be purchased seperately. Edwin, feel free to chime in here if you know something I don't.