The Mazda Protege was one of the best-handling front-wheel drive cars ever and slapping a turbo on it would have made it even more exciting. The 2003 Mazda Protege had the same rad racing beat suspension setup as the MP3, but made a much more entertaining 170 horsepower from its 2-liter four-cylinder engine with a unique front air dam and rear wing.

In the early 2000s, racing heart wheels were all the rage among car enthusiasts. These high-performance wheels were designed to improve handling and stability on the track, and they quickly became a status symbol among driving enthusiasts. The protege was a dieing platform and the first Mazda speed model disappeared just one year later.

A Mazda speed MX-5 Miata was ready to take its place in 2004, ever since the 1990 Miata came out, enthusiasts cried over more power. Finally, they got it in the form of a turbocharged 1.8 liter engine, producing 178 horsepower and capable of making 0-60mph in just 5 seconds. The MX-5 Miata came equipped with a six-speed manual transmission on LSD, stiffer springs and sway bars, Bilstein shocks, and 17-inch wheels with wider tires. It even pulled 9.8G's on the skid pad and all for only $900 more than a regular non-turbo Miata.

The Mazda speed MX-5 Miata was dead after just two years in 2005, but the new Mazda Speed Six got not only a turbocharged 2.3 liter four-banger and 270 horsepower, it got active torque split all-wheel drive. Unlike the Mazda Speed Protege, the Speed Six was a high-performance sedan for grown-ups, with an understated trunk spoiler and a hidden intercooler perfect for speed lovers and adults who wanted to fly under the radar.

However, there wasn't really a market for a midsize sedan that wasn't sweet for commuting or hitting the track, so the Mazda Speed Six was also left behind after just two years. The next chapter in the Mazda Speed story came with the 2006 MazdaSpeed3, which came out with the same engine as the Speed Six and put out 263 horsepower.

The MazdaSpeed3 was a rather tame-looking hot hatch, but it would rip the steering wheel right out of your hands if you weren't careful with it. With bigger wheels, different bumpers, and a rear spoiler, it was about all that gave away the fact that you were driving a Mazda3 with bite - an LSD and sports suspension together with all that power in a lightweight, practical hatchback made the MazdaSpeed3 their first real blockbuster.

The smiley new 2nd gen MazdaSpeed3 kept the momentum going, now it had a hood scoop for better air flow to the intercooler and a bigger mouth for looking happier while it pinned it to your seat. The i-Tech tuning was tweakable, and the interior got a little more refined and it put on a few pounds too, but none of that changed the Speed3's life-of-the-party personality.

However, in 2010, the MazdaSpeed3 became one of the best-selling Mazdaspeed models, as people bought them up until Mazda put the turbo in hibernation. The third gen Mazda3 launched without a Mazda speed model and the name is dormant now, but here's hoping it'll be back when the fourth gen comes out in 2019.

Big Announcement We are launching a ton of new merch, new shirts, new hoodies, new hash stickers, a lighter, and a lanyard - tons of new stuff just in time for the holidays. That perfect gift for a donut fan I want to be totally upfront with you guys it's currently being printed and while it won't ship immediately, I promise you that it will be there by Christmas. This is Hans, Hans is in charge of our merch if your stuff doesn't make it there by Christmas you can kick Hans in the face. We've never had this amount of stuff before, I'm really, really excited about it - some really cool pieces, really high-quality stuff, please order at shop.mazdaspeed.com

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enbefore Mazda made Miatas and manufactured the millennia they raced mercurial mechanicals and Motorsports and made many melancholy trips to the Magnificent 24 hours of lomar what started out as a tiny race team ended up becoming a high-performance brand itself this is everything you need to know to get up to speed on Mazda speed the year was 1967 and Mazda had just started selling the Cosmo no not timmy turner's fairy godfather the new car the two-door sports coupe with the newfangled rotary engine the 10-8 cos when the Cosmo arrived at Mazda Auto Tokyo Japan's largest Mazda dealer one employee in particular took notice that employee was former racecar driver takayoshi Ohashi Ohashi saw potential in the weird space AG cosmo and talked a dealership into letting him start an independent race team called mazda sports corner Mazda have been doing pretty well at races all around Asia and they were eager to prove the reliability of their Wankel rotary engine to everyone else instead of using pistons that go up and down rotary engines use spinning metal doritos called rotors to compress air and fuel inside of an oval housing with the factory's help in 1968 the Mazda sports corner team entered to cosmos in the 84 hour long marathon day low route you heard me 84 straight friggin hours of racing around the freaking Nurburgring talk about jumping right into the fire the Cosmo racecars would be mostly stuck with only small changes like an extended wheelbase for stability power brakes and a larger grille opening for cooling Mazda put power train engineers kunio Matsuura and taka Haruko be okawa on the project to bump up the power for the Mazda sports corner team they gave the 10 a rotary engine and aluminum housing to save weight and modify the intake to make an extra 20 ponies per total of a hundred and thirty her Spurs to everyone's surprise by the 80th hour the Mazdas were running in fourth and fit behind a pair of Porsche 911s and a Lancia Fulvia one Cosmo crashed out but the other finished just off the podium in fourth that is an astounding result for a totally new car with a totally new engine in an insanely tough endurance race Mazda immediately saw that the Mazda sports corner could help them not only get more brand recognition out in the world but also help develop their production cars they used what they learned in pre-race testing to make improvements to the 1968 Cosmo streetcars plus everyone was so stoked with the results of their first race that they couldn't wait to go back for more Mazda helped them Mazda helped them the Mazda helped the Mazda sports corner team race everywhere throughout the 70s at home in Japan and Europe at the 24 Hours of the mall and 24 hours of spa and in the u.s. at the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring when Mazda launched new models Mazda sports corner raced them in 1978 the Mazda rx-7 took the racing world by storm in America they dominated the International Motor Sports Association series EMSA where the rx-7 would rack up a total 100 wins over the next 12 years on the whole the Mazda zit great but where they kept falling short was that the prestigious 24 Hours of LeMans like Nolan eyeing a tall glass of milk oh ha she and Mazda both focused on the mall and became even more determined to conquer the Beast Mazda bought a majority of stock in the little race business and Ohashi changed the name from Mazda sports corner to Mazda speed the name of the episode in 1982 finally the team had a promising breakthrough when their rx-7 to 54 I came in 14th at that year's 24 hour of lamothe as Sookie and I know all too well long-distance relationships are hard to keep going so Mazda asked Ohashi and Mazda speed to move in with them at their headquarters in Hiroshima in 1983 they were about to get seriously serious about winning them all together when the FIA announced the new race classes and Mazda speed took the opportunity to switch from production-based cars to racier Group C sports prototypes Group C was one of the gnarliest Road racing classes ever these things were fire spitting eardrums shattering monsters that way nothing and were fast as heck whoops and somebody else has a time the rotary powered seven-one-seven c 72 7c and 7 3 7 c prototypes they raced for the next few years did Brittany okay but Nissan and Toyota were starting to use turbo v6 s and it soon became obvious that Mazda was going to need more power than their little 2 rotor 13b Wankel could make even though mazda had been working with o Hoshi's team for years the extent of their factory support was really only two guys working full-time on race engines Nobuhiro Yamamoto and junichi Bunn Emoto sat down with their boss Noriyuki Carrillo and decided what they needed was another rotary but the idea wasn't officially approved so they had to work on it in secret after normal work hours kind of like my dad worked in secret on his other two families the secret three rotor engine became not so secret to Mazda execs and they gave it the official greenlight the next year it's like guys just tell the truth out-of-the-box and normally it'll work out smash that like button if you hate secrets subscribe if you have some soon they had a new 13 G rotary making 450 Hurst person at 9000 rpm ready to go over the next few years they had some better results and class wins running the 13 G in the 757 prototype but still no overall wins and this winning at LeMans thing is horde what was the zoom zoomy car company to do do me uh add another wheel oh yeah add another rotor a 500 horsepower for rotor 13 J engine went into the next generation Mazda 767 prototypes in 1988 the very next year they pumped the 13 J M engine up to 630 her spare but it still wasn't enough power with Mazda senior exec yeah - OH Tatsu told me watching from the stands of 767s came in 7th 9th and 12th at the 1989 24 hours of am all those finishes clinched mazda the EMSA GTP class title an impressive feat for any team but tuk Satomi still wasn't satisfied he asked the Mazda speed team what they needed to win and veteran driver pierre du dôme flat-out set another wheel no he said he said 100 more horsepower sorry no need to be sorry just like with a mandate from above Mazda is now 8 man race engine team built one of the most glorious screaming banshees since the Odyssey the loudest banshees since halo I wanted to make a reference to Homer's The Odyssey but my crew said no let's make a Halo reference because they'll like that the four-rotor are 26b Wanko at full whale the engine made an incredible 930 Hurst person had a ten thousand three hundred rpm redline that's with only a two point six liter displacement but in a 24 hour race things got to be reliable so in race turn the engine only made 700 per Spurs it wasn't quite the hundred more ponies that taught Satomi ordered but the engine was smaller lighter and more efficient in the previous 13 JME oh and it made some of the most incredible noises to ever come out of a car listen to this clip Mazda speed excitedly entered to 787s at lamothe in 1990 but heartbreakingly neither one crossed the finish line they got knocked down but in true tub-thumping fashion they got up again they made the chassis stiffer improved the engines power band and reliability and added carbon brake discs a first a limb all competition Mazda speed went into the 1991 24 hours of them all with two updated 787 B's and one 787 from the previous season it would be the last year they were allowed to enter their signature rotary engine it was announced that the following year's rules were going to change their class and mandate 3.5 liter engines like f1 cars had all of Mazdas racing hopes and dreams hashtag hope dreams were riding on three cars they knew they had reliability on their side so the team told the drivers of the fastest 787b the orange and green number 55 car to push hard at the very beginning after six hours Mazda speed was in fourth place behind three Benzes and after 12 hours as their Benzes they started Tuesday braking sick carts broken it does not feel right when I Drive it can we take it to the dealership no we can't afford it we should have bought the Honda no you said you didn't want the and it's not a status symbol we have to take an over to finish the race I have a lift credit no I want to use over the number 55 stake quick and consistent and with two hours left to go it's snagged a lead and never gave up almost twenty years of dedication finally paid off I do what that feels like Mazda became the only Japanese automaker to win the 24 Hours of LeMans that calls for some lightning lightning lightning right since the FIA banned the rotary in 1992 Mazda speed turned their attention toward supporting grassroots Motorsports instead of Pro racing Mazda rx-7 of Miatas were crawling all over racetracks and Mazda speed jumped in to develop and sell go fast parts for race cars in 1999 Mazda took their relationship with Mazda speed to the next level and bought him out completely they kept slaying in Motorsports tough but fast Mazdas had been absent from the production line up for a whole Ohio finally a couple of board engineers at Mazda R&D in Southern California decided it was time to crank things up a notch and they started working on making speedier versions of the Mazda model their first idea was to take the popular but underpowered protege mp3 one of the best-handling front-wheel drive cars ever and slap a turbo on it the 2003 Mazda Protege had the same rad racing beat suspension setup as the mp3 but made a much more entertaining 170 her spurs from the 2-liter four-cylinder engine with a unique front air dam rear wing and racing heart wheels racing heart wheels were in the early 2000s they made the wheels that were on the fast and furious Supra yeah you like Danny pervy little wheel your nose some of you guys were over there like cleaning your koi pond you heard who supra some of you watching one punch man you're like you know hear the word super the protege was a dyeing platform and the first Mazda speed model disappeared just one year later a Mazda speed mx-5 miata was ready to take its place in 2004 ever since the 1990 Miata came out enthusiasts cried over more power well they finally got it in the form of a turbocharged 1.8 liter for making 178 ponies it had a six-speed manual on LSD stiffer springs and sway bars Bilstein shocks 17-inch wheels and wider tires it pulled point nine eight G's on the skid pad and all for only $900 more than a regular non-turbo Miata you can't even buy a turbo kit for that as good as that sounds the Mazda speed Miata was dead after just two years in 2005 the new Mazda speed six got not only a turbocharged 2.3 liter four banger and 270 for her Spurs it got active torque split all-wheel drive but unlike the Mazda speed Protege the speed six was a high-performance sedan for grown-ups it had an understated trunk spoiler and a hidden intercooler perfect for speed love and adults who wanted to fly under the radar but there wasn't really a market for a midsize sedan that wasn't sweet for commuting or hitting the track so the Mazda speed six was also left behind after just two years of what about the Mazda 3 I'm getting to it buddy just sit tight I just excited I said it had been a huge seller since it came out in 2003 maybe they could turbocharged one of those too it's a great question the 2006 mazdaspeed3 came out with the same engine the speed six head and put out 263 Hertzberg aimed straight at the VW GTI the speed three was a rather tame looking hot hatch but it would rip the steering wheel right out of your hands if you weren't careful with it bigger wheels different bumpers and the rear spoiler were about all that gave away the fact that you were driving a Mazda 3 with bite an LSD and sports suspension together with all that power in a lightweight practical hatchback made the mazdaspeed3 their first real blockbuster in 2010 the smiley new 2nd gen mazdaspeed3 kept the momentum going now it had a hood scoop for better air flow to the intercooler and a bigger mouth for looking happier while it pinned it to your seat I'm tuning was tweak the interior got a little more refined and it put on a few pounds too but none of that changed the speed threes life-of-the-party personality and for around 25,000 bones it was a hell of a good deal people bought them up until Mazda put the turbo in hibernation the third gen 2014 mazda3 launched without a Mazda speed model and the name is dormant now but here's hoping it'll be back when the fourth gen comes out in 2019 big announcement we are launching a ton of new merch new shirts new hoodies new hash stickers a lighter a lanyard tons of new stuff just in time for the holidays that perfect gift for a donut fan I want to be totally upfront with you guys it's currently being printed and while it won't ship immediately I promise you that it will be there by Christmas this is Hans Hans is in charge of our merch if your stuff doesn't make it there by Christmas you can kick Hans in the face we've never had this amount of stuff before I'm really really excited about it some really cool pieces really high quality stuff please order a shop that doesn't that media or doughnut Mediacombefore Mazda made Miatas and manufactured the millennia they raced mercurial mechanicals and Motorsports and made many melancholy trips to the Magnificent 24 hours of lomar what started out as a tiny race team ended up becoming a high-performance brand itself this is everything you need to know to get up to speed on Mazda speed the year was 1967 and Mazda had just started selling the Cosmo no not timmy turner's fairy godfather the new car the two-door sports coupe with the newfangled rotary engine the 10-8 cos when the Cosmo arrived at Mazda Auto Tokyo Japan's largest Mazda dealer one employee in particular took notice that employee was former racecar driver takayoshi Ohashi Ohashi saw potential in the weird space AG cosmo and talked a dealership into letting him start an independent race team called mazda sports corner Mazda have been doing pretty well at races all around Asia and they were eager to prove the reliability of their Wankel rotary engine to everyone else instead of using pistons that go up and down rotary engines use spinning metal doritos called rotors to compress air and fuel inside of an oval housing with the factory's help in 1968 the Mazda sports corner team entered to cosmos in the 84 hour long marathon day low route you heard me 84 straight friggin hours of racing around the freaking Nurburgring talk about jumping right into the fire the Cosmo racecars would be mostly stuck with only small changes like an extended wheelbase for stability power brakes and a larger grille opening for cooling Mazda put power train engineers kunio Matsuura and taka Haruko be okawa on the project to bump up the power for the Mazda sports corner team they gave the 10 a rotary engine and aluminum housing to save weight and modify the intake to make an extra 20 ponies per total of a hundred and thirty her Spurs to everyone's surprise by the 80th hour the Mazdas were running in fourth and fit behind a pair of Porsche 911s and a Lancia Fulvia one Cosmo crashed out but the other finished just off the podium in fourth that is an astounding result for a totally new car with a totally new engine in an insanely tough endurance race Mazda immediately saw that the Mazda sports corner could help them not only get more brand recognition out in the world but also help develop their production cars they used what they learned in pre-race testing to make improvements to the 1968 Cosmo streetcars plus everyone was so stoked with the results of their first race that they couldn't wait to go back for more Mazda helped them Mazda helped them the Mazda helped the Mazda sports corner team race everywhere throughout the 70s at home in Japan and Europe at the 24 Hours of the mall and 24 hours of spa and in the u.s. at the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring when Mazda launched new models Mazda sports corner raced them in 1978 the Mazda rx-7 took the racing world by storm in America they dominated the International Motor Sports Association series EMSA where the rx-7 would rack up a total 100 wins over the next 12 years on the whole the Mazda zit great but where they kept falling short was that the prestigious 24 Hours of LeMans like Nolan eyeing a tall glass of milk oh ha she and Mazda both focused on the mall and became even more determined to conquer the Beast Mazda bought a majority of stock in the little race business and Ohashi changed the name from Mazda sports corner to Mazda speed the name of the episode in 1982 finally the team had a promising breakthrough when their rx-7 to 54 I came in 14th at that year's 24 hour of lamothe as Sookie and I know all too well long-distance relationships are hard to keep going so Mazda asked Ohashi and Mazda speed to move in with them at their headquarters in Hiroshima in 1983 they were about to get seriously serious about winning them all together when the FIA announced the new race classes and Mazda speed took the opportunity to switch from production-based cars to racier Group C sports prototypes Group C was one of the gnarliest Road racing classes ever these things were fire spitting eardrums shattering monsters that way nothing and were fast as heck whoops and somebody else has a time the rotary powered seven-one-seven c 72 7c and 7 3 7 c prototypes they raced for the next few years did Brittany okay but Nissan and Toyota were starting to use turbo v6 s and it soon became obvious that Mazda was going to need more power than their little 2 rotor 13b Wankel could make even though mazda had been working with o Hoshi's team for years the extent of their factory support was really only two guys working full-time on race engines Nobuhiro Yamamoto and junichi Bunn Emoto sat down with their boss Noriyuki Carrillo and decided what they needed was another rotary but the idea wasn't officially approved so they had to work on it in secret after normal work hours kind of like my dad worked in secret on his other two families the secret three rotor engine became not so secret to Mazda execs and they gave it the official greenlight the next year it's like guys just tell the truth out-of-the-box and normally it'll work out smash that like button if you hate secrets subscribe if you have some soon they had a new 13 G rotary making 450 Hurst person at 9000 rpm ready to go over the next few years they had some better results and class wins running the 13 G in the 757 prototype but still no overall wins and this winning at LeMans thing is horde what was the zoom zoomy car company to do do me uh add another wheel oh yeah add another rotor a 500 horsepower for rotor 13 J engine went into the next generation Mazda 767 prototypes in 1988 the very next year they pumped the 13 J M engine up to 630 her spare but it still wasn't enough power with Mazda senior exec yeah - OH Tatsu told me watching from the stands of 767s came in 7th 9th and 12th at the 1989 24 hours of am all those finishes clinched mazda the EMSA GTP class title an impressive feat for any team but tuk Satomi still wasn't satisfied he asked the Mazda speed team what they needed to win and veteran driver pierre du dôme flat-out set another wheel no he said he said 100 more horsepower sorry no need to be sorry just like with a mandate from above Mazda is now 8 man race engine team built one of the most glorious screaming banshees since the Odyssey the loudest banshees since halo I wanted to make a reference to Homer's The Odyssey but my crew said no let's make a Halo reference because they'll like that the four-rotor are 26b Wanko at full whale the engine made an incredible 930 Hurst person had a ten thousand three hundred rpm redline that's with only a two point six liter displacement but in a 24 hour race things got to be reliable so in race turn the engine only made 700 per Spurs it wasn't quite the hundred more ponies that taught Satomi ordered but the engine was smaller lighter and more efficient in the previous 13 JME oh and it made some of the most incredible noises to ever come out of a car listen to this clip Mazda speed excitedly entered to 787s at lamothe in 1990 but heartbreakingly neither one crossed the finish line they got knocked down but in true tub-thumping fashion they got up again they made the chassis stiffer improved the engines power band and reliability and added carbon brake discs a first a limb all competition Mazda speed went into the 1991 24 hours of them all with two updated 787 B's and one 787 from the previous season it would be the last year they were allowed to enter their signature rotary engine it was announced that the following year's rules were going to change their class and mandate 3.5 liter engines like f1 cars had all of Mazdas racing hopes and dreams hashtag hope dreams were riding on three cars they knew they had reliability on their side so the team told the drivers of the fastest 787b the orange and green number 55 car to push hard at the very beginning after six hours Mazda speed was in fourth place behind three Benzes and after 12 hours as their Benzes they started Tuesday braking sick carts broken it does not feel right when I Drive it can we take it to the dealership no we can't afford it we should have bought the Honda no you said you didn't want the and it's not a status symbol we have to take an over to finish the race I have a lift credit no I want to use over the number 55 stake quick and consistent and with two hours left to go it's snagged a lead and never gave up almost twenty years of dedication finally paid off I do what that feels like Mazda became the only Japanese automaker to win the 24 Hours of LeMans that calls for some lightning lightning lightning right since the FIA banned the rotary in 1992 Mazda speed turned their attention toward supporting grassroots Motorsports instead of Pro racing Mazda rx-7 of Miatas were crawling all over racetracks and Mazda speed jumped in to develop and sell go fast parts for race cars in 1999 Mazda took their relationship with Mazda speed to the next level and bought him out completely they kept slaying in Motorsports tough but fast Mazdas had been absent from the production line up for a whole Ohio finally a couple of board engineers at Mazda R&D in Southern California decided it was time to crank things up a notch and they started working on making speedier versions of the Mazda model their first idea was to take the popular but underpowered protege mp3 one of the best-handling front-wheel drive cars ever and slap a turbo on it the 2003 Mazda Protege had the same rad racing beat suspension setup as the mp3 but made a much more entertaining 170 her spurs from the 2-liter four-cylinder engine with a unique front air dam rear wing and racing heart wheels racing heart wheels were in the early 2000s they made the wheels that were on the fast and furious Supra yeah you like Danny pervy little wheel your nose some of you guys were over there like cleaning your koi pond you heard who supra some of you watching one punch man you're like you know hear the word super the protege was a dyeing platform and the first Mazda speed model disappeared just one year later a Mazda speed mx-5 miata was ready to take its place in 2004 ever since the 1990 Miata came out enthusiasts cried over more power well they finally got it in the form of a turbocharged 1.8 liter for making 178 ponies it had a six-speed manual on LSD stiffer springs and sway bars Bilstein shocks 17-inch wheels and wider tires it pulled point nine eight G's on the skid pad and all for only $900 more than a regular non-turbo Miata you can't even buy a turbo kit for that as good as that sounds the Mazda speed Miata was dead after just two years in 2005 the new Mazda speed six got not only a turbocharged 2.3 liter four banger and 270 for her Spurs it got active torque split all-wheel drive but unlike the Mazda speed Protege the speed six was a high-performance sedan for grown-ups it had an understated trunk spoiler and a hidden intercooler perfect for speed love and adults who wanted to fly under the radar but there wasn't really a market for a midsize sedan that wasn't sweet for commuting or hitting the track so the Mazda speed six was also left behind after just two years of what about the Mazda 3 I'm getting to it buddy just sit tight I just excited I said it had been a huge seller since it came out in 2003 maybe they could turbocharged one of those too it's a great question the 2006 mazdaspeed3 came out with the same engine the speed six head and put out 263 Hertzberg aimed straight at the VW GTI the speed three was a rather tame looking hot hatch but it would rip the steering wheel right out of your hands if you weren't careful with it bigger wheels different bumpers and the rear spoiler were about all that gave away the fact that you were driving a Mazda 3 with bite an LSD and sports suspension together with all that power in a lightweight practical hatchback made the mazdaspeed3 their first real blockbuster in 2010 the smiley new 2nd gen mazdaspeed3 kept the momentum going now it had a hood scoop for better air flow to the intercooler and a bigger mouth for looking happier while it pinned it to your seat I'm tuning was tweak the interior got a little more refined and it put on a few pounds too but none of that changed the speed threes life-of-the-party personality and for around 25,000 bones it was a hell of a good deal people bought them up until Mazda put the turbo in hibernation the third gen 2014 mazda3 launched without a Mazda speed model and the name is dormant now but here's hoping it'll be back when the fourth gen comes out in 2019 big announcement we are launching a ton of new merch new shirts new hoodies new hash stickers a lighter a lanyard tons of new stuff just in time for the holidays that perfect gift for a donut fan I want to be totally upfront with you guys it's currently being printed and while it won't ship immediately I promise you that it will be there by Christmas this is Hans Hans is in charge of our merch if your stuff doesn't make it there by Christmas you can kick Hans in the face we've never had this amount of stuff before I'm really really excited about it some really cool pieces really high quality stuff please order a shop that doesn't that media or doughnut Mediacom