Mazda3 to tackle 9300-mile test 24 | 07 | 2013

    MAZDA UK DEALERS AND JOURNALISTS will drive a convoy of the new Mazda3 hatchback cars 9300 miles from Hiroshima in Japan, to Frankfurt in Germany.

    The epic journey — which will cross nine time zones, five countries and two continents — will be tackled by eight Mazda3s and their crews. The cars will arrive in Germany to coincide with the opening of the Frankfurt Motor Show.

    After taking a ferry across the Sea of Japan, the main overland portion of the Mazda Route3 endurance test drive begins in Vladivostok, Russia’s main Pacific port, on August 3.  

    The gruelling section across Russia has been broken down into three legs — from Vladivostok to Krasnoyars, via Blagoveshensk and Ulan-Ude. The seven ensuing legs of the tour — which includes Belarus, Poland and Germany —will take between three and six days each to cover.

    Related: Mazda3 Fastback revealed

    All the Mazda3 hatchback test cars will be powered by a 120ps SkyActiv-G petrol engine mated to a six-speed SkyActiv-MT manual transmission.

    This will be the third time that Mazda models have taken part in such an extreme test drive. In 1977, German reporters drove two predecessors of the Mazda3 — Mazda 323 hatchbacks — from Japan to Frankfurt.  

    The expedition was followed up successfully in 1990, when four Mazda 626s crossed the former Soviet Union. Now the stage is set for the most advanced Mazda compact ever to follow in their tracks.

    Related: New Mazda3 unveiled

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    Jim McGill

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