Mazda has some fine-driving cars in its lineup, but compared with other marques it hasn’t tried overly hard of late to capitalize on that with performance-branded versions of those models to match the likes of Toyota’s GR and Honda’s Type R badges. That could be about to change if the two sporty concepts Mazda showed at the Tokyo Auto Salon are anything to go by.
The cars in question are the MX-5-based Mazda Spirit Racing RS and the Mazda Spirit Racing hot hatch. Details are thin and Google’s translation of the Japanese text that talks of “polishing the undercarriage” isn’t much help. But it seems that both cars retain their stock powertrains and instead rely on changes to the body trim, wheels, suspension and interior to make them look and feel more exciting than the cars they’re based on.
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