From a technical perspective, the Mazda3 MPS is a stunning achievement. It's hard to argue with the way that Mazda's engineers have made 258bhp through the front wheels feel as if you're driving a four-wheel drive car. It's also quite devastatingly rapid and composed but, after driving this car to the limit, one has to wonder whether there is a place in the market for a car that offers such pace and such little drama.

Recent statistics have shown that as speed cameras proliferate, the number of police in traffic cars has diminished, with some respectably sized regional police authorities having just a handful of jam sandwiches. Time was when driving an eye-catching hot hatch would mark you down as one of what the police dubbed the 'eighty percenters', namely the sort of driver who would be speeding for eighty per cent of the their time spent behind the wheel. In that era, the logic of driving a Q-car, a rapid vehicle that looked completely unexceptional, was unassailable. If you wanted to make progress and were a bit on the naughty side, you needed a car that wouldn't draw attention to itself. Notable cars in that tradition included the Rover 620ti, the Subaru Legacy 4CAM Turbo and the Volvo 850 T5. Nowadays GATSO, SPECS, Truvelo and ANPR cameras don't differentiate, whether you're driving a bog-standard Ford Focus or a Dodge Viper with Gumball 3000 stickers all over it. The Q-car would seem to be a forgotten concept.

Mazda clearly doesn't think so. Despite the eighteen-inch alloy wheels, deeper bumpers and a big-bore exhaust, this is hardly a car that demands attention. Mazda offers a £500 styling kit for those who want to make their MPS stand out a little more but the lowering kit, roof-mounted spoiler and RX-8 PZ-style door mirrors only do so much. The issue is the car's fundamentally frumpy five-door silhouette. If you were designing a credible sports hatch, this would not be the place to start.

And yet, and yet. Sit inside the MPS and clock the modestly sculpted sports seats, the drilled pedal set and the sports steering wheel and you still won't be hugely enthused. Likewise, the identikit fascia and inoffensive thrum of the 2.3-litre engine at idle give absolutely no clue as to what's in store. Slot first, feel the clutch bite as the light pedal rises and give it something to think about. The revs soar, the turbocharger gets into its stride and the Mazda deploys its power more cleanly than any small hatch with 258bhp going to the front wheels has any right to. Just for the purposes of research, I switched the traction control off and repeated the experiment, in this case leaving two monster black lines on the Bavarian tarmac. This car has some very clever electronics that work almost invisibly in the background.

"The Mazda3 MPS is that rarity: a rocket of a hatch with all the pizzazz toned down"

It's not all smart software coding that's keeping things shipshape though. A limited slip differential is the key ingredient in getting as much traction as possible but add in a latest generation stability control package as well and you have what is currently the state of the art in front wheel drive traction. Compared to the Mazda3 MPS, the Vauxhall Astra VXR seems a very bad joke and even the Ford Focus ST with its heavy five-cylinder engine up front helping grip must give best to the Japanese car.

Do a little more than paint parallel black lines on the road and you'll get some measure of the MPS's quite stupefying acceleration. In favourable conditions, it'll get to 60mph in 5.9 seconds which would is just astonishing for a front-wheel drive hatchback that costs less than £20,000. Second and third gears access a deep well of grunt and on our test route that dipped in and out of Germany and Austria it was huge fun to punch past hot BMWs, Porsches and Mercedes sports models, their drivers' mouths forming a perfect 'O' as this unassuming Japanese hatchback made mincemeat of their symbols of Teutonic superiority.

Top speed is electronically limited to 155mph, a speed that the Mazda3 MPS will butt into quite easily given a quiet stretch of derestricted autobahn. At this speed the rather 'quiet' steering is a bonus, the car requiring very few corrections to keep tracking straight and true. It's also welcome on very bumpy back routes but on the sort of fast A and B roads that most of us like to drive hot hatches on, that slightly inert feeling on-centre robs the car of the immediacy and tactility of the best current hot hatches. Ride quality is almost beyond reproach for a car of this ilk but the price has been paid in terms of roll stiffness, the MPS lacking a modicum of body control when really picked up and flung into a corner.

The slightly reluctant steering and modestly sporty suspension all lead one to the conclusion that the MPS doesn't really relish this sort of scruff of the neck driving. Whereas some cars get better the more mechanically merciless you are with them - the Fiesta ST springs to mind - the Mazda3 MPS just gets a little ragged. Treat it as a Mazda hatch that has a quite astonishing trick up its sleeve, however, and it feels a more satisfying companion. The engine is something of a white good in terms of aural response but it's hard to fault its power delivery. Peak power arrives at 5,500rpm with the maximum torque of 380Nm making itself known at 3,000rpm. It's just a shame that there's a band of resonance at around 4,000rpm where the engine is doing some of its best work.

It's hard to fault the exceptional fuel consumption figure of 29.1mpg although the emissions figure of 231g/km might well have intrigued company car user choosers turning away now. There can also be very few grumbles when it comes to everyday practicality too. The Mazda3 isn't huge in the back and the small rear doors don't open particularly wide but it is a five-door so compare like with like when doing price comparisons with rivals. Headroom is very good, despite the swoopy styling. The front pair of passengers should have no difficulty getting comfortable although one drawback of the thick rear pillars is somewhat limited rear three-quarter visibility when reversing or doing a 'lifesaver' check when switching lane.

It's a strange fish, the Mazda3 MPS. Hugely impressive in terms of pace and practicality but curiously unexciting, it's a car that might fill a tiny niche. Let's call it a hot hatch for those who thought they'd grown out of the things.

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