2006 Mazda MAZDASPEED6 in Hayward

You're speeding up a mountain pass in a fast car, racing uphill, exploring an unfamiliar route as you cross a great natural barrier. You're not just driving, you're traveling, and it fills you with a sense of solitude and purpose. Such fine thoughts are in short supply when you're stuck in traffic on the Santa Monica Freeway, so it's no wonder the idea of driving a legendary mountain pass holds so much romance.

But no matter what some guy in a tweed cap will tell you, great mountain driving can be found in places other than the Stelvio Pass in the Alps, and you don't have to be in an Italian sports car from the 1930s, either. Think about the Sierra Nevada, the picturesque range of mountains in California. Think about the new Mazdaspeed 6, a grand touring car disguised as a four-door sedan.

About 5000 examples of this derivative of the Mazda 6 will come to the United States this year. It surprised us to discover that this turbo-charged, all-wheel-drive sedan is nothing like the adolescent rally-car clone we expected. It's more like the Audi S4 than the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, a sophisticated all-wheel-drive sport sedan that takes you places.

The Mazdaspeed 6 took us to the Sierra Nevada, "mountains topped by snow," as Padre Pedro Font, a Spanish cleric and explorer, called them in 1776. It's the remote, eastern slope that presents the most imposing spectacle, as the peaks rise more than 13,000 feet and even today can be crossed in only a few places. It's not exactly an evening commute from Los Angeles, though, as it's a solid 200 miles to Whitney Portal, where the mountains get serious.... Read full article