Yeah it is based on the 2.3l Duratec 4-cylinder. Same motor can be found in various Ford/Mazda products (Focus, Ranger, Mazda 3). Great little all aluminum motor with a decent amount of potential if built correctly. Based on the article I read in Autoweek, Mazda states the internals have been strengthened a bit from the standard 2.3l. The compression was also slightly dropped for the Mazdaspeed version.