It was stuck in Texas, surrounded by MazdaвЂ™s attorneys, who apparently questioned the idea of handing over to some loonies a car already assigned to the crusher. Work then took a four-week hiatus because the donor Mazdaspeed 3 had yet to arrive. It took about 12 hours for FrancoвЂ™s class to clear the 5вЂ™s engine bay. Franco, a retired Chrysler engineer, had experience doing engine swaps, and his knowledge paid dividends that saved countless hours. Instructor Glenn Franco supervised as his class took care of the heavy lifting-swapping the engine, subframes, brakes, and suspension-twice a week, four hours at a stretch. We had the van towed to nearby WashВtenaw Community College to enlist a little help from the WCC Vehicle Performance class, which was just beginning a new semester. We refrained from making a warranty claim because we were about to yank the engine anyway, and besides, Mazda sent us the car and we didnвЂ™t get a bill with it. The culprit was a bad variable-valve-timing solenoid that crinkled a pair of valves in the No. A mere eight days later, the 5 was at the local Mazda dealer with a crippled engine. Mazda found us a 5 Touring in Crystal White Pearl Mica paint and delivered it to Ann Arbor on April 8, 2008. So what had started as harmless lunch conversation turned into reality quicker than the Detroit Three could sell their private jets. ItвЂ™s probably a good thing we pitched the minivan project before the ill-fated race took place.Д«arnes told us it would be a pretty easy swap and that the Mazdaspeed 3 engine would be a simple bolt-in. This would be the same Jeremy Barnes-a club racer and thoroughgoing enthusiast-who supported our Nelson Ledges 24-hour effort with an MX-5 Miata. Thanks to a recent relocation, our new Ann Arbor offices include a garage-but not real adult supervision.ДЄt the 2008 Detroit auto show, we approached Jeremy Barnes, MazdaвЂ™s director of product and corporate communications, with the idea of this powertrain swap. In the past, our Boss Wagons were built by professionals in very large garages under the supervision of real adults. Instructor Glenn Franco is second from the left. The Washtenaw Community College Vehicle Performance class poses with the Boss Wagon. The result, a one-of-a-kind вЂњMazdaspeed 5,вЂќ would be perhaps the coolest project car yet in our Boss Wagon series. Guys swap out engines at racetracks in a matter of a couple hours. Since the 5 shares its underpinnings with the 3, we could just acquire a turbocharged Mazdaspeed 3 powertrain and swap it for the stock unit, which would instantly add 110 horsepower. Imagine, we mused, the astonished faces when such an innocent-looking mommymobile lights up its front tires and disappears in a cloud of smoke!Д®ven more appealing, the solution seemed simple. And before you could say, вЂњYou guys are smoking banana peels,вЂќ we were thinking of ways to add some real hustle to the little MazdaвЂ™s repertoire. With that thought in mind, the conversation started getting surreal. Even though the Mazda 5 weighs 3358 pounds-thatвЂ™s pretty mini as far as vans go-its 153-hp, 2.3-liter four doesnвЂ™t produce acceleration blisters when asked to propel that much mass. However, driving excitement is hard to appreciate when itвЂ™s tempered by an anemic power-to-weight ratio. Maybe it was a slow news day, but the topic came up because the Mazda 5 is an appealing small van-a minivan in the purest sense-and more fun to drive than pretty much anything else with sliding side doors. Take the subject at hand, a hot-rod minivan. Sometimes conversations in our office can get bizarre.

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