What Is Mazdaspeed?
The company’s Web site says Mazdaspeed is Mazda’s soul unleashed, which certainly makes it clear how important its mission is to the automaker. That mission is high performance and the image that comes with it. Although it’s been around since the late 1960s, and engineered the rotary-powered prototype that won the 1991 24 hours of Le Mans, Mazdaspeed is best known in America for three very recent high-performance rides: the turbocharged 2003 Mazdaspeed Protegé, the 2004 Mazdaspeed Miata and the just-released Mazdaspeed 6. Together they’ve almost made Mazdaspeed a household name in the United States. Almost. But Mazdaspeed is much more than those three cars. It’s an in-house performance division with three divisions of its own — production cars, motorsports development and performance accessories. Right now the RX-8 has the most extensive line of Mazdaspeed-branded parts. It ranges from clutches and coilovers to body kits and brake pads, and Jack M. Stavana, director of accessory operat
