The Mazdaspeed 6 was a turbocharged all-wheel-drive car that was much more comfortable than its rivals. It was the closest thing Mazda had to a Subaru STI or Mitsubishi Evo. But an old Mazda design shows that the 626 MPS, which was never made, was almost ready to join the other sports cars with wings prepared for the World Rally Championship. Mazda Performance Series, which the Mazda 626 MPS stands for, debuted at the Geneva Motor Show in 2000 as “a test bed for sports tuning parts and to see if it could be made.” The Mazda speed 626 MPS was built on a medium car instead of a compact sedan, so it was more like a Legacy GT or Galant VR-4 than an STI or Evo. It also had a 2.5-liter twin-turbo V6 engine that looked much like the VR-4 engines in the Galant and Legnum. This engine was made for the MPS plan and was based on the 2.5-liter variable-intake engine in the regular 626. It had a colossal intercooler in the front, a bigger radiator and oil cooler, a lighter machine with a better clutch, and a massive intercooler in the show. It needed them because it had 276 horsepower and 289 pound-feet of torque, sent through a five-speed manual gearbox to full-time all-wheel drive. It would have been good in corners, too, thanks to its 18-inch aluminum wheels, highly adjustable suspension, unique front lip, fender flares, side skirts, and massive back wing, which made it more aerodynamic. The brakes were also the right size, with front calipers with six pistons and back calipers with four pistons. Mazda had said before that it was thinking about making the 626 MPS. Even though the MPS was never implemented, the Mazda 6 finally became the 626 in the United States in 2002. The Mazdaspeed 6 had all-wheel drive and a turbocharged 2.3-liter four-cylinder with the same output as the concept, but it had a six-speed manual gearbox instead of the concept’s five-speed. But it’s hard to say why the ‘Speed 6 isn’t thought of as highly as its closest rivals. Is it because it wasn’t a WRC legend or because it didn’t have the type of wing linked with good performance at the time? In either case, it’s hard not to think that the Mazdaspeed 6 might have made a more significant mark if it had been a little crazier.
