Back in June of 2002, Road and Track did an article trying to find out what's the best handling car. The usual players from Ferrari, Porsche, BMW were in attendance. But so was the Mazda Protege MP3.

Great Grip

The sidebar in the article contains a spoiler, so I might as well spoil it here too. The MP3 came in last (of 8). But the mere mention in such prestigeous company is noteworthy in of itself.