13 Oct 06
Fire up the 3 using a regular key - no superfluous starter buttons here - and the bright orange numbers on the dials spring to life out of a cool blue background. Select first from the nicely weighted six-speed manual gearbox, dial in a couple of thousand revs, lift the clutch and hold on tight.
The full 280lb-ft of twist comes into play from just 3,000rpm, so take-off is brisk, to say the least. Unfortunately, the steering at low speeds is horribly light - apparently it's been set up this way in a not particularly successful attempt to reduce the impression of torque steer felt through the wheel. However, the ride is well controlled, providing a good level of comfort for everyone on board and only getting a little choppy at daft speeds.
There's quite a narrow powerband - maximum power is achieved at just 5500rpm - so it's best to change gear reasonably early to keep your momentum. Once you get used to this it's actually more rewarding than thrashing the ultra-revvy Renault Clio 197, for example.
The steering does firm up at speed, but it still doesn't give you much of an idea about what's going on where rubber meets road. The steering set-up in a Focus ST or Astra VXR is much better.
Pile the MPS through a serious of corners and the chassis does a good job of keeping everything in check, the stability control only taking the edge off things at the last minute. The traction control can be put to sleep if you really want to have a hooligan start off the line, but you'll soon tire of that, so you may as well keep all systems engaged as you'll barely notice it doing its job when it does.
The 3 MPS will dispatch corners without either you or the car breaking into a sweat, and it'll reach some scary speeds in very little time indeed. The only problem is, it doesn't exactly inspire you while you're on your way there.
