Tag: Mazda

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i-Activsense

With the newly designed Mazda 6 launch on the horizon, Mazda has announced more new features that they will be incorporating into their newest models. “i-Activsense” is an umbrella term Mazda is using to cover a series of new safety monitoring response system technologies designed to help the driver safely navigate the roads. Many have already been incorporated into the new CX-5.

Radar Cruise Control

Judges the traveling speed distance to vehicles ahead and modifies the speed of your vehicle to maintain a safe following distance. This means no longer fussing with your cruise control on long trips every time you come up on some traffic!

Smart City Brake Support

Already incorporated into the new CX-5’s, this is designed to help drivers avoid frontal collisions. The system uses a laser sensor to detect a vehicle or obstacle in front of the car and automatically actives the brakes and reduces engine output if the driver fails to slow the vehicle appropriately.

Forward Obstruction Warning

Monitors the gap between vehicles and the closing speed and then calculates the risk of collision occurring if the driver were to take no action. This ensures a faster response when the driver actives the brakes.

High Beam Control

Ever get so tired of turning your high-beams on and off on the highway at night that you just decide to leave them off? Well this smart high beam control system will take care of that for you! The high beam control will detect oncoming traffic and will automatically switch headlights between high and low beam, improving visibility at night and aiding hazard avoidance.

Lane Departure Warning System

When the system is switched on, a camera on the widescreen will monitor the position of the white lane markings at speed of 65MPH or higher to detect risk of an unintentional lane change and then will alert the driver with a rumble sound when moving out of their lane without indicating.

Rear Vehicle Monitoring

A smart solution to aiding a driver with their “blind spot”, the rear vehicle monitoring system will activate an indicator light in the door mirror for a driver making a lane change when a vehicle is approaching quickly behind the car and to warn the driver either if the vehicle might be invisible (in the blind spot) on the side or if a vehicle will approach within 5 seconds. The system will monitor both sides of the vehicle and indicate when intending to overtake or be overtaken.

Adaptive front lighting

The new AFS system automatically adjusts the angle of a vehicles headlight according to steering direction so when you are cornering or approaching intersections at night, the beam of the headlights illuminate the path the car is actually following.

While none of this new technology is groundbreaking, it is great that they are being incorporated into Mazdas line-up providing they have the flexibly to be turned on and off as needed. Some of them could potentially have a few drawbacks if not implemented properly, but I trust Mazda to incorporate these features in a smart and sensible way so that the driving experience is enhanced rather than hindered.

Gwynne-

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Rumors of a Fiat/Mazda Partnership

There have been some new stories surfacing lately of Fiat showing interest in partnering with Mazda or Suzuki.

Although Mazda’s U.S. sales are surging this year, up 48% through February, the company has forecast a 1.2 billion dollar loss after the appreciation of the yen and the losses it faced due to last year’s tragic Tsunami.

Mazda President Takashi Yamanouchi said last month that the company was “aggressively “looking for a partner and at the Geneva International Motor Show early this month, Fiat Chief Executive Officer, Sergio Marchionne, said he’s searching for a third partner after merging with Chrysler Group LLC to help reduce development costs and boost sales in fast-growing countries, and said teaming with either Suzuki Motor Corp. or Mazda Motor Corp makes sense.

I can see the benefit of partnering with another manufacturer to increase the production base outside of Japan. The exchange rate has been hard on Mazdas profits despite setting sales records in several markets around the planet and increased sales in North America. Mazda is currently building a plant in Mexico to service the Americas. It is a completely owned Mazda production facility and it should benefit Mazda greatly over the next few decades but the outlay of initial cash is pretty heavy at 500 million USD.

With the extra capacity at the plants in Europe that Fiat offers Mazda could leverage a better position and reduce costs and prices of vehicles sold there. If it was just a deal worked out with Mazda have vehicle produced in Fiats plants it would be a good match. Fiat would have the extra capacity used up and Mazda would not have the investment of a new production plant. Cars built in Europe would also avoid the import duties thus making Mazdas more attractive with lower prices.

Recently Fiat partnered with the cripple Chrysler group and they appear to have the ship turned around now and headed in the right direction.

If this partnership comes to be, only time will tell if it will benefit both Fiat and Mazda in the end.

-Derrick

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Mazda Motorsports Hour to Debut On New Velocity Network

Mazda has supported more road racers over the past decade than any other automaker and is now stepping up the support to include extended TV coverage on the new Velocity network.

Velocity is the cable network created by Discovery communications that provides high-octane programming for its viewers with programming geared toward events, with live auctions and world rally championships and real-life adrenaline-pumping shows.

The Mazda Motorsports Hour will be hosted by award-winning motorsports broadcaster, Rick Benjamin and will include 24 shows that be broadcast from April through November with content that will include feature races from the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear and Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship – two tiers of the Mazda Road to Indy Ladder – and SCCA Pro Racing’s Playboy MX-5 Cup. Joining Benjamin in the booth will be racers Randy Pobst for the MX 5 Cup, and James Hinchcliffe for Star Mazda and USF2000. Todd Lewis will be the pit reporter.

A competitive field of more than 30 cars are expected at each of this year’s 11 SCCA Pro Racing Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup races. The spec series based on the popular auto platform has served as a launching pad for young drivers as well as a place where veteran racers can find intense competition at a good value.

Drivers who show promise and success on the track in any of these series throughout the season qualify for additional chances to learn additional skills at being a professional driver and earn “MAZDASPEED Motorsports Scholarships” that include off-track developmental competitions and feature the creation of business plans and sponsor development processes upon which the driver moves to the next step in their racing career.

“Hardcore fans know that some of the most intense action can be found in the Playboy MX-5 Cup, Star Mazda and Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship. But if you weren’t at the race, you are left to take our word for it. Now, thanks to a partnership with Velocity, and Carolinas Production Group, fans can enjoy the action on a regular basis from their living room,” noted Jim Jordan, Alternative Marketing Manager, Mazda North America. Retrieved from Mazda Media, https://www.mazdausamedia.com/content/mazda-teams-velocity-2012-us-tv-broadcasts.

To find Velocity on your local cable system, go to Velocity.com.

Gwynne-

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Was that a Mazda?

Ok Mazda, we as enthusiasts, need to be brutally honest and let you know that you may have missed a key detail when you edited your latest commercial. Take a look and pay careful attention to the “Mazda” rally car shown in the 21st second of the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aAwnN8n2_-E

Mazda hasn’t offered a high-flying rally car since the 1994 Familia (323) GTR, like the one pictured below in competition.

Sure there are people running cars in the 2wd classes, like the protégé that Eric Burmeister recently brought out of retirement, and several 2wd Mazda 3’s and Mazdaspeed 3’s, but nothing like the mystery machine shown in the commercial.

Someone from the 323GTX yahoo group took the frame out of the video with the car in question.

Turns out that the car in question was a WRX and not a Mazda at all!

In Mazdas defense, they switched marketing companies a few years ago and it was probably an advertising executive that wasn’t familiar with Mazdas history that made the decision to use the video. And to be fair, it was only a one second clip, but that ad would have been much better with a 323 GTR instead of a clip of a WRX.

There are some great clips that could have been sourced from mazda Japan of the 323 GTR flying through the air from the WRC competition days instead of the substitute chosen by the advertising company with the front end taped up.

Derrick-

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More Turbos from Mazda

CorkSport likes to be in the know on what Mazda is up to so I spend a good deal of time keeping in touch with my contacts at Mazda headquarters and searching the internet for clues on what Mazda is developing. I recently ran across a fascinating bit of information looking up patent applications with the US patent and trademark office that gives us a very interesting clue as to what Mazda may have in store for us in the future.

Mazda had a patent approved on January 12, 2010 for a forced induction engine with two sources of boost. The patent refers to an electric driven compressor (electric supercharger) which disengages when the engine reaches a pre-determined mid-range RPM point at which point the engine switches over to an exhaust driven compressor (a turbo charger).

This could be really handy for a small displacement engine when you want to get a large amount of power. The electric supercharger gives the engine the necessary boost to get the mid-range where the engine can then develop enough exhaust flow to spin the turbocharger.

This is the same theory used for a twin turbo charged engine but with instant boost from the electric supercharger. It can give a small displacement engine a decent torque improvement and the turbocharger will add the benefit of top-end power.

The whole idea gets even better with a variable vane turbine that would adjust to the engine speed. The faster the engine speed the more exhaust volume, allowing you to get the most out of the turbocharger efficiency.

This whole patent has the fingerprints of 2015 Mazdaspeed 3 written all over it if you ask me. You would still be getting the smaller, eco-friendly, SkyActiv engine but when you put your foot on it there is a big turbocharger lurking to give you gobs of torque just like the current Mazdaspeed 3.

I will give a word of warning though, not all things which have patents ever see the light of day, but the fact that Mazda spent the time and effort to patent this idea with the US patent office, gives me hope we will see a version of this patent in the next 3-4 years.

-Derrick