Grassroots campaigns aimed at automakers rarely succeed, and even when local dealers get involved those efforts tend to stagnate or get lost in the filter between the showroom floor and the automaker's HQ. But when an entire country's marketing and
PR efforts get behind a project there might be a faint hope of success. Mazda UK is launching a lobbying blitz to get its Japanese parent to bring the goods to Britain's masses in the form of the Mazdaspeed2 (well, it'd be called the Mazda2 MPS in the UK, but you get our point).
Hot hatches have consistently been winners abroad, so Mark Cameron, marketing director for Mazda UK, is trying to get Mazda to equip its newest sub-compact with a blown motor and some suspension tweaks to bring the people what they want. If it does happen, and reports say that a three-door MS2 is a distinct possibility, it won't happen for at least two years, but if when it does, expect a turbocharged 1.5-liter four, producing around 170 HP.
[Source: Autocar]
http://www.autoblog.com/2007/10/13/mazda-u...or-mazdaspeed2/
10-16-2007, 11:29 PM
