LOL
Koenig, for all your ranting, you completely missed the point of the discussion.
Let's recap, shall we?
Your main point is that there will be a 2nd gen Mazdaspeed6 (2.5L turbo DISI, AWD, the works) based on the existance of this car that Mazda showed.
I argue that you can't make that leap to conclusion based on Mazda's history of showing "Mazdaspeed" cars/concepts that are totally unrelated to Mazdaspeed vehicles as we know it here in the USDM (turbo upgrade, exterior upgrade, drivetrain chage, etc.).
Further adding to the confusion, the press also makes the same unsubstantiated leap to conclusion - "Hey, they call it Mazdaspeed Atenza in Japan, right? So it must be heralding the new Mazdaspeed6 with turbos, AWD, etc.!"
Wrong!
All this stems from not understanding the culture and Mazdaspeed brand concept over in Japan.
The ironic thing is that for all your ranting, you provided information and PR's that illustrate my point:
What did they call that first gen concept?
Mazda Atenza SPORT
MAZDASPEED A spec
What did it have?
A whole bunch of exterior goodies, and some extraneous exhaust and suspension parts.
So it was just showing accessories and it's not a production vehicle?
To someone in the USDM, it would seem that way. But, the car buying experience is vastly different in Japan. So much so, that the line between production and accessory added option is blurred just by the nature of the market and the car-buying experience over there.
I'm going to skip the in-depth cultural aspects and personal microeconomics that shaped the car-buying market in Japan as it is today, but in Japan the car market is so tuned towards accessories and the customer that you can literally customize the car that you want down to every bit of option straight from the factory whereas here in USDM we have to make do with what options the cars have on the dealership lot. In the JDM, the customer is the pivotal point of decision when it comes to what options the car has. In the USDM, the dealership is the point of decision of what option each car has and then the customer decides which car/options to pick from the dealership offering.
So to say that a JDM Mazdaspeed vehicle (ie the Mazdaspeed RX-8) is just a bodykitted RX-8 is a gross oversimplification stemming from ignorance of the way the market over there operates. Even so, you can't exactly extrapolate a FI USDM Mazdaspeed RX-8 from that RX-8. Similarly, you can't extrapolate a turbo USDM Mazdaspeed6 from the 2nd gen Atenza Mazdaspeed Concept.
The A-spec car used to be available on Mazda Japan's
Webtune site where you can order, buy, and customize your car. It came straight from the factory built to your specifications (or the preset A-spec specification), so yes it is a production car as they define it in the JDM.
So how does this all connect with the that 2nd gen Mazdaspeed Concept pictured above?
Note that the A-spec "Mazdaspeed" car does not follow what we consider a "Mazdaspeed" vehicle here stateside. It had no power upgrades nor drivetrain upgrade. Mazda typically does this in their home market for each initial launch - they'll show their Mazdaspeed version for Japanese consumption.
Was that A-spec version a harbinger of the Mazdaspeed version as we know it here in the USDM (turbo, AWD, etc)? No. As you mentioned, only years later did they show the
MPS concept that foreshadowed the Mazdaspeed6 as we know it today.
Mazda is repeating what they did in terms of brand execution for the 2nd gen Atenza. The Mazdaspeed A-spec concept that was eventually produced was a market demonstration of a factory JDM trim upgrade. The same is true for the 2nd gen Atenza Mazdaspeed Concept. It is not a demonstration of the Mazdaspeed6 as we know it here stateside, just as the A-spec was not a concept of the Mazdaspeed6. If there will be a concept that will herald a Mazdaspeed6 for North American consumption, I suspect that it will arrive years from now just as Mazda did with the MPS concept release timing. Now THAT would be the more appropriate barometer to use to predict the 2nd gen Mazdaspeed6.
But what about the turbo DISI 2.5L I saw? Surely that foretells a Mazdaspeed6 model?
Any competent research and development shop, will have
wundertoys to offer to a brand. I personally work in R&D, and I have seen and personally developed items for my company. Some of them were produced, sold to the public, and incorporated into the brand portfolio. Some not. With that in mind, from my experience the presence of an item in the development pipeline is not an accurate barometer of things to come.
quod erat demonstrandum
PS. Just a couple of advice to help you:
One of the items that limit the harvesting of knowledge from Internet search results (or in general, for that matter) is language. Absence of information in English doesn't mean absence of information in
kanji/kana.
6club is not the final arbiter of information. You'd prefer information from guys who just joined the forum recently over a guy who has been following the 6 since early 2003 and has direct contact with Mazdaspeed R&D both off and on the track? lol
