IT’S been a long since we last saw an all-wheel drive Mazda road car in Australia but, given the lack of anything with genuine sporty pretensions since the 323 turbo 4WD of the mid-1980s, that hasn’t really been a problem. But the new Mazda6 MPS would have been impossible to build without all-wheel drive. Feeding 380Nm and 190kW through to the road is hardly the sort of thing you’d choose to do via the front wheels. The surprising thing about the MPS is that, despite its eye-popping specifications, it turns out to be quite a refined car on the road. With a tougher body, reworked suspension and a new six-speed manual-only gearbox, the MPS is a complete performance package. In fact, for some, it might even be a bit too civilised.