A while ago I was reading about Mazda’s plans for the future of its model lines in the face of a changing economy and rising fuel costs. I’ve been watching Mazda’s plans to produce a hybrid car sometime in the next few years, and possibly partnering with Toyota, though I never thought it would actually work out.
But it’s happened!
Mazda and Toyota announced a deal in which Toyota will supply its hybrid technology to Mazda. “Hybrids are spreading fast in Japan, and launching a model in the domestic market has become an urgent task.” Mazda Executive Vice President Masaharu Yamaki told a joint news conference in Tokyo.
Mazda aims to begin selling a vehicle with Toyota’s hybrid system along with its own next-generation gas engine in Japan in 2013.
Partnering with another company that has already produced the technology is a very cost effective way to get into the market. Toyota says the deal with Mazda could indirectly help lower the costs for other companies to get hybrids to market. With Mazda’s goal of raising their fleet’s fuel economy by 30% by 2015, they can’t just improve their combustion engines, they’re going to need a hybrid system to get to there.
Having driven many Toyota hybrid vehicles, I’m not sure how much ZOOM ZOOM fun could be had. I guess we will just have to wait and see what they come up with, and when we will see one here in the USA.
90 years is quite a time span in human lives. The average life span is 67 years in the world today. Mazda (Toyo Kogyo) will be celebrating 90 years in 2010. We can thank Jujiro Matsuda for getting the company going in 1920 which led to the manufacturer of the cars we all love to drive. So for the 90 anniversary what is Mazda up to? I myself was hoping for something crazy to show up but it looks like there is just going to be a few special edition models available in Japan.
There will be a special “Gunmetal Blue Mica” version of the Mazda 3 (Axela in Japan) equipped with the 2.0 DI engine and I-Stop is available.
So far there are no plans for the 90th Anniversary Mazda 3 to make it to North America but that could change if we protest enough.
Mazda also has plans for a 90th Anniversary version of the Biante. A Biante is a compact minivan in the Japanese market. It will be available with the same 2.0 DI engine and I-Stop as well. I have not been a fan of the Biante styling myself but for its size you can haul 6 people comfortably and some cargo. Think of it as a different looking Mazda 3.
Who knows maybe Mazda will surprise us this year with a new rotary powered machine for the 90th anniversary. So far it has been quiet from my contacts in Japan but you never know. Mazda could be keeping a surprise on the down low.
I enjoy reading up on how Mazdas are being raced around the planet and seeing how teams use their tools (in this case Mazdas) to race it out with the other manufacturers. There are plenty or examples out there but I want to show just a few from overseas.
Starting off in Australia, the Bathurst 12 hour race is set to take place on Feb 12-14th. In Class C performance hatches and sedans there will be a pair of Mazda MPS 3 (Mazdaspeed 3 to us in North America) being raced by Osborne Motorsport. Hopefully there will be no off course adventures like in the past where Len Cave rolled his car 9 times. The good part is Len walked away from the wreck, the bad part the car was a write off.
New Zealand’s GTRNZ race series had a win by Brian Gray in the GT2 class recently He is running a “made it myself” RX-7 which features a 26B 4 rotor, 6 speed Holinger gearbox and a winter quick change rear diff. If you have never heard a 4 rotor, it is an incredible sound; it really reminds me of a Formula 1 engine at higher RPM. Picture credit goes to Dave Ayers below.
On the Japanese front, Knightsports placed 2nd in a battle during the Macao Grand Prix in the Road Sport Challenge. It was a great race and it came down to Tanigawa in his RX-8 and Sun Tan in a Mitsubishi Evolution at the end. You can see the video from the race here. The end of the race came down to less than a half a second between the two drivers. If Tanigawa had another lap I think he could have passed Sun for the win.
So what are you waiting for? Get your Mazda out there and join in the fun! Even a local autocross event or a high performance driving school or event can provide you with a chance to see what your Mazda can really do.
Mazda has developed a system for the DISI direct injected engine which allows the engine to turn off when you come to a stop. When you push the throttle again the vehicle starts back up smoothly and you continue on your way. Why is this important you ask? The biggest reason is the fuel savings. In city driving it seems (and feels to me) like you spend more time at stop lights than actually moving. While sitting at the stop light your car is running and burning fuel. Mazda decided to do something, and make the car not run while stopped to save fuel. Mazda says the i-stop system can improve fuel economy by as much as 10%.
The picture below is from Mazda’s webpage and it shows the i-stop system and how it functions.
When you come to a stop the car turns off at a precise point, this allows the i-stop to turn back on smoothly. Because the motor is direct injected the system is able to restart in .35 seconds when you touch the throttle to move again. Mazda says this is half the time that conventional electric motor systems take. In reality, .35 seconds would be pretty tough to notice when you hit the throttle in your car.
You can gain up to 10% better fuel economy with a system that is invisible to the driver, what’s not to like? The 10% fuel savings is made during the Japanese government drive tests to rate fuel economy. The Japanese testing is different from how the US EPA does fuel testing, which results in a .25 mile per gallon increase with the i-stop system in place. Mazda has been discussing this with the EPA, and trying to get the testing changed but so far nothing has come out of it. With the gains not showing up with EPA testing Mazda is not sure if they will be offering the i-stop system in the North America. The extra cost and not being able to market the improvement is the biggest factor, because the US EPA testing does not allow for accurate estimations of gains. Cross your fingers the EPA will be willing to adjust their methods or we will get left out from one of Mazda’s good ideas.
I am hoping the system is available when the Mazda 2 arrives this summer. You could get a decent 40+ MPG car that you wound not be ashamed to drive every day.
I was mentioning my impending transmission swap after I had destroyed the B6T AWD transmission, there where a few more bugs with the transmission swap and I worked them out over the next couple of weeks. The first time I took the 323 around a corner at high speed the car tried to trade ends. A quick counter steer and full throttle put the car into a very manageable slide. This is the way the car should have been delivered I remember thinking as I straightened the car out before the next corner. The 90-94 AWD transmission was setup to put more of the percentage of power to the rear wheels vs. the fronts.
I picked up some second hand Silverstone rally tires from the Tabor Rally Team to mount on an extra set of rims and try my luck at rally cross. The one thing you don’t expect to hear on an AWD car is “I didn’t have enough grip”. The combination of a small turbo which made instant boost which translates into instant torque and a 2600lb car made for lots of wheel spin even with rally tires.
As you can see in the picture above, the results were great! I think I exported about 60 lbs of dirt from the Hillsboro fairgrounds back home to Vancouver, WA after that event. It took forever to get the dirt and grass off the bottom of the car. I didn’t exactly set any record times driving that way but after a season of racing it was good enough for 3rd place in open class with the Oregon Rally Group.
There was another rally cross event which sticks with me due to the strange nature of the event. I showed up to the event with some shaved Toyo T1S tires on the 323. I didn’t have a chance to mount the rally wheels for the event. It was a good thing to, as the water truck was a no show. That meant no water to keep the dust down and make the course a muddy mess. My run group was in the afternoon so I got to watch the cars run in the first half of the day. After a while you could see black on the dirt from tires leaving rubber on the course. This was advantage for me with my Toyo tires. My first run out was one of the fastest on the dry grass/hard pack dirt and I placed fairly high overall for the day.
Special Thanks to Wayne Flynn at pdxsports.com for the great picture above
Around that time I was thinking, you know I could always use more power. So trying out different combos of parts like ECUs and air flow meters I finally settled on running an odd mix of parts. To get rid of the factory airflow meter I went with an HKS F-CON Pro unit that was not made for the 323GTX. This setup uses a pressure sensor connected directly to the intake manifold. It allows the removal the clunky air flow meter and allows you to run vent to atmosphere bypass valves. It also allows you to use a standard BP turbo ECU to run the other basic functions for the engine. A set of 550cc injectors are used with the system for when I decide to get something different for a turbocharger or I decide to go crazy with the power.
I was happy with the 323 until I ran across a set of Advan RC rally rims for sale in Japan. After several months waiting of them at arrive from Japan they showed up at my door. The bolt pattern was supposed to be 5×114.3 which was great. A set of Familia GTR 5 bolt hubs and brakes would do the trick for installation. It turns out the wheels I had received were 5×100 Subaru wheels. In the end this may have been for the better, Familia GTR 5 bolt knuckles and brakes are heavy. After weighing the units they are almost double the weight of the 4 bolt AWD knuckles. For a car that will see rally cross more often than high speed track events light weight rotating assemblies really make a difference. So what am I doing with a fancy set of seemingly useless Advan wheels now? I don’t let too many things get in my way that I want in regards to the 323. I have chased down a set of second hand hubs and I am going to drill them to 5×100 along with a set of rotors. I get to have my wheels and keep the lighter brakes.
This sums up my odyssey with my 323GTX. One thing that has remained constant through all of this is the BF chassis 323 shell. My car is now mid-way through the 200,000 mile mark. It has been in a few accidents, parked in a ditch by someone who didn’t know how to drive an AWD car, rally crossed, taken out on track days, drifted into curbs, and loved like a 323GTX should be.
-Derrick
Derrick’s Mazda Odyssey – How it All Began – Part 2 July 15th, 2020CorkSport
