I saw one of these for the first time in quite a while recently, but it was in distant traffic and I could not get a shot. As it is, I shot one some time back and its CC is here, so my motivation wasn’t that great. But Roshake posted this one found in Budapest, and this profile shot reminded me how rather unusual they were, so its deserves another go-around.
In my CC, I posed the question whether its 1.8 L V6 was the smallest displacement V6 ever (hint: it was not), but I somehow suspect this one is likely one of the four cylinder versions.
Initially, a 1.6 L SOHC four was the base four, but later were also 1.5 and 1.6 L DOHC fours to be had, along with the little V6. Speaking of, that V6 was physically just as big as the larger-displacement versions of the Mazda K-Series V6, as they obviously wouldn’t have tooled up a truly smaller V6 for this application.
The MX-3 wasn’t exactly a big hit, as the market for little sporty coupes had just peaked, and this slightly-odd looking one didn’t exactly pique the interests of buyers all that much.
Related reading:
Curbside Classic: 1992 Mazda MX-3 GS – Smallest Production V6 Engine Ever?
There is a white MX3 I see regularly in my town, with an elderly driver who just might be the original owner. Is there any visual distinction between the 4 cylinder and V6 versions?
All US-spec V6 (GS) MX-3’s have a standard rear wiper/washer that was never available on four cylinder cars in any model year.
The 1.8 V6 was a novelty (the Nissan NX2000 was a peer car, same idea, had a 2 liter engine with 140hp from the Sentra SE-R), a “smoother” engine.
Now that I know it’s the same block as the 2.5 V6, it would be interesting to take a Probe GT V6 drivetrain, with that silky smooth, 154-hp V6 and the slick 5-spd and drop it in here.
MX-3 GT.
The Probe GT was a nice driving car I briefly had two in the 1990s.
Plenty of these swaps have been done over the years, and the Japanese KL-ZE is the variant that is most sought after in all cars meant for K-series motors; found mostly in the home market MX-6 and related GE platform cars, 200ps/165ft-lb of power was on tap in factory tune. A roughly 2,600 pound MX-3 like this with one would be wildly fast, and it is rather curious Mazda never did this themself considering the ease in which they could and the aspirations they had circa 1991.
It would have further undercut sales for the MX-6, which ended up having a hard enough time in the coupe market of the nineties. (I really liked the MX-6, but they were SO expensive, especially the V-6 LS, which was getting on to $27K fully equipped.)
I was thinking specifically about the Japanese market in such a scenario; a KL-ZE AZ-3 would have been a very formidable weapon against the Mitsubishi FTO GPX that seemed to raise the stakes of available power in that size/price class upon introduction. I do suppose the top Lantis “coupe” filled that role and the MX-6 equation still existed, so there is that to ponder.
I think it’s indicative of the overall problem sporty coupes faced at this point: There were now essentially four distinct segments: smaller models like this and the Nissan NX; C-segment coupes like the Civic coupe and two-door Sentra coupe; mid-range coupes like the Prelude, Celica, Silvia, and MX-6 (and in the U.S. the Diamond Star cars); and high-end GTs like the RX-7, Fairlady Z/300ZX, and Supra, plus outliers like the MX-5/Miata and MR2. It was a lot of product, appealing to what I suspect were often more or less the same range of buyers, and increasingly competing with non-coupe alternatives (the four-door Integra, to name one).
The unfortunate thing from a buyer perspective is that instead of resulting in rationalization, it eventually sunk everything except the Miata and some home-market stragglers running out the clock to try to earn back a little more of the tooling costs. There were some fairly arbitrary decisions here and there that I assume were intended to limit cannibalization, but it obviously didn’t help, at least not enough.
The MX6 had an oil soluble transmission they were not very durable cars plenty hit the junkyards here simply because the trans was junk
My oldest Daughter has one of these Mazdas with a V6/five speed that she’s had for almost twenty years. It has some loud mufflers on it. She loves it. She accidentally damaged it, by trying to exit a parking lot one night at the wrong spot and drove over a curb. She had the damage repaired and has held onto it for all these years.
There is a similar car that has always appealed to me which is the Nissan NX2000 with another small displacement V6. The styling is somewhat “Unique” but it looks like a fun little car.
Just an FYI, the NX2000 had a 2.0 SR20DE I4 from the Sentra, G20/Primer, Sunny, Silvia, etc. Nissan was never nearly as adventurous as Mazda with engines, but most manufactures had small displacement V6s and I6s on the JDM, thanks to tax structure based on displacement. But the Mazda 1.8 and Mitsubishi 1.5 were outliers in the 6 cylinder form.
Yeah, Nissan had a 1,998 cc version of the VG V-6 (and of course the legendary RB20), but I don’t think it went into any of the sporty cars, unless you count the F31 Leopard (sold here as the Infiniti M30). The Silvia (240SX) I think used only the SR20DE and SR20DET, and of course ours got stuck with the 2.4-liter KA24E from the pickup.
The RB 20 was assem,bled into NZ market Holden Commodres it was better than the awful Starfire 1.9 four but thats a very low bar.
Even though the displacement is similar to some of its options, I don’t think anything on the Sunny/Sentra platform anywhere got 6 cylinders. I guess that’s why the turbo was used to add power. The bigger cars with whole ranges of engines are really interesting.
I almost forgot about the S12 200SX V-6, which had the VG30E engine. To your point, that wasn’t on the FWD Sunny/Sentra platform, of course, and apparently it wasn’t offered in Japan; I guess it was a WRC homologation special.
That’s an oddball. The only 6 cylinder S chassis car ever offered anywhere.
I had a 1994 Mazda MX-3 for nearly 20 years. It was a twin-cam 1600 cc version with a 5-speed stick. I replaced the original alloy rims with 15×6 ones from a MX-3 V6 with stickier tires. It was a fun car to drive but the seats were terrible! I stuffed them with cardboard and paper to put some support in the proper places. But aside from that, I really like the car. Shown here is a photo of my MX-3
Great car! Boy, that was a popular color. MX3s, Proteges. 626s, MX6s, even B Series.
These where all over the place around here in easten ontario. A few friends had them. V can’t comment on the ride as I couldn’t fit in them. They were popular though.
Remember them being “everywhere” throughout the “90’s”.
I remember a guy show off one of these cars to his buddies in a McDonald’s parking lot. His friends were laughing at him, telling him that he “bought a harsh girls car, man”.
I picked up one of these 1992 MX3 GS, V6, manual 5 speed from an Estate Sale a couple of years ago. I am the 3rd owner. 2nd owner had a large car collection, and this was one of his favorites. It now has 122,000 km (75,800 miles). After sitting stored indoors for a few years before my acquiring it, I gave it a full tune up, rad flush, etc. It’s a very fun little car on twisty back roads. Does a 2nd gear pull to the rev limiter at 7800 rpm, exiting to 3rd gear at 105-110 kmph. Sounds more like a sports bike than a car of that era. Doesn’t make a lot of torque down low, so when I am out playing, I mostly run the engine between 3500-6500 rpm. Handling is sharp and tight, effortless, and corners like it’s on railroad tracks. This little whip is about as much fun a car as I’ve driven on mid-speed, twisty back roads… While I am in Canada, these are worth quite a bit in Europe, where there’s more demand for low-displacement rippers that handle well.
The V6 has a front air splitter under the bumper wrap/valance, GS stickers on the front quarter panels, and a rear spoiler and a V6 badge on the hatchback. Some might think that it’s a ‘Girl’s Car’, but I can get any of my motorhead friends to pucker up and hold their breath while I rip this thing through the twisties. Just needs the right roads and a good driver to really make it shine. It’s an absolutely lovely little toy that feels very solidly planted on the road.
Replying to myself… I didn’t mean to say above that these cars are worth quite a bit in Europe, just that they are worth quite a bit more than in North America, where I believe that they are undervalued. In any event, mine will be put through the ‘Collector’ program in my area, which requires that cars be 25+ years old, all original (stereo, seats, body) and cuts off work use and commuting, but drops the insurance cost to a negligible annual fee; a couple hundred dollars a year…
Here’s a YouTube vid of a guy taking his MX-3 GS V6 manual for a rip in Portugal. It’s obviously not a BMW M, but so much fun!!! Right car for the road, and fun is fun… My exhaust sounds about exactly the same…
Another pic of mine below.
One more… I couldn’t seem to figure out how to post multiple pics here…
Never once does he hit the Rev limiter, mostly staying well below the redline. He maxes out on his little backroad rip, at I think, 150-160 kmph. Tops out around the 1min, 10 second mark… I include a photo of the Speedo from mine, at rest, up closer so that you can compare and come up with your own opinion…
One last comment about this vanishingly rare little toy. I read a British car review, from a retired professional race car driver. They commented that they had read lackluster reviews about the car prior to driving it, and their response was that the other reviewers had obviously not pushed the car hard enough, because if they’d done so, they’d have known that this car was ‘more fun than the Circus coming to town…”