This weekend at GT Live, we competed in the Redline Time Attack with our Mazdaspeed3. Once again, our own Eric Bizek was at the wheel and produced fantastic results.

As in previous events, we entered our daily driven Mazdaspeed3 in the Street class. This requires a street trim car with street tires. Many cars in this class are marginally street cars, but they are pushing the limits of the rules which is OK and to be expected. Our Mazdaspeed3 is truly a street car utilizing the parts that we sell. Our goal for this is to demonstrate what fellow MS3 owners could achieve using only our parts. We could go faster using some ‘race’ parts, but that doesn’t align with our goals…nor does it seem necessary.

Additionally, we decided to throw the MS3 into the higher class known as Modified. All we changed was our wheel/tire combo to qualify for that class. Our car is definitely not built to the extent of nearly all Modified class cars, but we wanted to see how it stood against stiffer competition.

Ultimately, we ended up with two 1st place finishes. We won the Street class by roughly 11 seconds, and the Modified class by nearly 2 seconds. In doing so, we continued the MS3’s torture of being completely beat on over and over. Not only has this poor car done over 1000 dyno pulls (yes, 1000…not 100 or 10), but it has been relentless Time Attacked, track driven, and daily driven since we purchased it nearly 2 years ago. This car is simply…amazing. Not only that (excuse what some may view as a marketing pitch), I don’t know anyone else that’s pushed this platform and their products to this extent. Believe me, it’s far less expensive to publish an engineering document than it is to push a car like this constantly… but our products (and car) have held up perfectly and we’ve learned things you just can’t experience in a controlled environment. This event was the FIRST TIME we’ve every had to actually work on it! Why? A power steering line to the rack worked itself loose. Nothing extraordinary.

This car continues to amaze. No surprise many of our staff regularly comment how impressed they are with it, and how they may soon consider purchasing one. Keep in mind folks, these same people have daily access to STIs, EVOs, and even a GT-R!! That’s no small compliment.

Big thanks also to Toyo tires for their wonderful support!

Car configuration:

COBB AccessPORT
COBB Turbo-back Exhaust
COBB SF Intake
COBB FMIC
COBB Springs
COBB Sway Bars
COBB Double Adjustable Shifter
Stock Struts
Stock Turbo
Volk RE30 18”x8.5”, +52mm offset Wheels (Street Class)
Toyo R1R 255/35-18 Tires (Street Class)
Prodrive GC05 18”x 8”, +46 mm offset (Mod Class)
Toyo R888 245/40-18 Tires (Mod Class)

After the award ceremony, there was of course much celebration!