Mazda 3 2.3 MPS 5dr

I have just bought a brand new mazda 3 mps with aero kit and have never been so excited about driving a car. It's sheer power and torque through all the gears is just unbelievable. In my experience, you feel very safe in the Mazda 3 2.3 MPS 5dr, and the cornering is superb. The seats are very comfortable and the interior is well laid out. It also has a 6 CD changer with BOSE speakers.

The Mazda 3 2.3 MPS has a story. Three years pootling round in my three door Toyota Corolla T-Sport, and we were planning a family. So back to Toyota I went, looking for a nice quickish people carrier, maybe the T180 Auris Verso, which wasn't too shabby.

Resignedly, on the way home, with a people carrier on the agenda, I glanced over at the Mazda garage, looking at the RX8's, MX5's and my lost youth. However, there was a Mazda 3 there, which looked a little different.

An hour later, I'd ordered a Mazda 3 MPS with the Sports Aero Pack, and couldn't believe the solution that I'd found to my quandry.

Simply put, the car is essentially a Swiss Army knife.

Internally, there are five seats, automatic wipers and lights, climate control, Isofix seats (for the kiddies), comfy part leather seats, a six CD autochanger (cabin loaded, none of that mucking about in your boot), autolevelling lights, windows that close themselves when you lock your car, and frankly, the air that you're in a family car that's been down the gym for a bit.

Externally, the SA pack gives you a nice big spoiler, dinky little drag reducing wing mirrors, and dropped suspension, which gives a nice "I'm fast" kind of look.

But it's when driving the car that things come to life.

The engine, a 2.3 litre straight 4 DISI Turbo can behave itself at low speeds, but when the beans are given, it performs in a way that can only be described as brutal. The acceleration is phenomenal, and it will power from 0-140 with little argument. Torque feels consistent from 3000 revs, and, with good shifts, be maintained to within 20 mph of the top speed. Traction control, stability programme, and all the other electronic chicanery prevent you from shredding your tyres, what with 256bhp being put through them. Essentially, If you're sitting in a 5 door family hatchback. No one else has a quicker one than you.

The handling, although a little numb in the non-SA pack MPS feels tighter in the SA version. The SA has Eibach springs, and dropped suspension, so somehow, the feel of the road comes through more. The limited slip diff can be felt, but not in an obtrusive way, as if it's trying to tell you that it's helping, but if you carry on, you'll be dead. Torque steer, the bane of any Astra VXR driver is present, although it never quite gets beyond being an annoyance, and has not managed to propel me into a curb or bush to date. The traction control and ESP seem to help you into that impossible corner, rather than mother you.

In short. I drove all the contenders. Type-R, Golf GTI/R32, Focus ST (Which was close in the running), Subaru WRX.. And for all round handling, performance and practicality. You can't beat the Mazda 3 MPS SA Pack.. It's mental, it's safe, it's fun....

And you can transport a family in it.