The latest muscle cars are small: there’s the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X, the new Subaru WRX STi, and the Mazda3 MPS or Mazdaspeed. Despite being small, all these cars are very quick, although the Mazda3 loses out with only 260 bhp and front-wheel drive.
It is actually quite twitchy, especially in the wet, with the car turning offline if you have a bit of lock on. Just put your foot down, and the turbo comes in with a whack – stacks of power at any speed – and just a couple of degrees lock are enough to send the car scuttling off to the kerb or the wrong side of the road! Not so bad in the dry but can be a problem in the wet.
Even so, this is a very quick hatch and quite a muscle car. The other two are much quicker – one whole second to 60 mph – but are much more stable thanks to four-wheel drive, and a chassis that has been further developed.
