If the power and weight numbers for the ND turn out as the press currently indicates the car will be really close to the power/weight ratio that my CooperS has with a 15% pulley. I'll be quite content, even though I expect the power delivery to be very different between the two.
Sorry for derailing the "Mazda should have fitted a supercharged LSJuan otherwise we're not buying this thing" discussion .
Looks like things escalated a bit quickly, my wife is now encouraging me to try and put the deposit down on one of the Launch Edition models when those become available for depositing in early May.
What about a roots blower on the 1.5 out of the Mazda2? At least then it'd have cool blower whine to listen to.