1984 Fb Rx-7 13b Race / Project Car on 2040-cars

Auto blog

The Miata gives me a new perspective on the world

The Miata: making everything a new experience and turning low-beam headlights into high-beams since 1989. That's what happens when you're basically sitting on the ground, something I've become intimately familiar with when driving our long-term 2016 MX-5 Club. I am not a tall person. Far from it. In most cars I drive, I crank the seat height up close to maximum as soon as I get in. That's easy in the Miata because there's no height adjustment at all. Couple that with the facts that the seat is thin and the car barely hovers off of the pavement, and my eyes end up sitting at the height of most car's exhaust systems. That results in a lot of examining other cars' bumpers in traffic. And one day recently, it almost led to me missing my exit from Interstate 94, part of the route I take every day to work. Everything just looks different from down here – it is quite literally a different point of view from what I'm used to. And then there's the issue of night driving. When you're this low down and stuck in traffic, the headlights of cars following look extremely bright (and incredibly close). They're not, of course, you're just lower than every other driver on the road so it seems like you're staring down high-beams in the rearview mirror. I still love the Miata. It's just not the best commuter vehicle, which should come as a surprise to precisely no one. But when a hole opens up in traffic, the Miata and I are the first to fill it. I just hope the other cars see me. Related Video: Mazda Long-Term Garage Convertible Lightweight Vehicles Performance

2019 Mazda CX-5 fuel economy takes a hit with new turbocharged engine

We learned all about the 2019 Mazda CX-5 last week, and now we've discovered fuel economy for its new 2.5-liter turbocharged engine. Unsurprisingly, it gets slightly worse fuel economy than its naturally aspirated counterpart. The 2019 turbo crossover, which only comes in all-wheel drive form, gets 22 mpg city and 27 mpg on the highway. Front-wheel drive CX-5s with the naturally aspirated 2.5 liter net you 25 mpg city and 31 mpg highway — all-wheel drive drops 1 mpg in both categories. For a little comparison, the turbocharged engine makes 250 horsepower and 310 pound-feet of torque on 93 octane gasoline, while the non-boosted engine makes 187 horsepower and 186 pound-feet of torque. You're definitely taking a hit in fuel economy, but the gain in power might be worth it, since the decrease isn't that terrible. Cars in its price and power range with all-wheel drive have comparable fuel economy. The Ford Escape with the 2.0-liter turbo is rated at 20/27; Chevrolet's Equinox with the 2.0-liter turbo is 22/28 and the VW Tiguan gets 21/29. There isn't really a clear winner in fuel economy for this much power when you look around the segment, but Mazda's engine is half a liter larger than everyone else. This translates to better torque than most of its competitors, but Mazda manages similar fuel economy. Also similar to many of these decked-out compact crossovers is the new high price of the Mazda we wrote about before. You won't be getting in to the turbocharged CX-5 for any less than $35,865. If you wanted a bigger Mazda like the CX-9, its fuel economy figures aren't significantly worse than the CX-5. Front-wheel drive versions are rated 22/28, and it drops 2 mpg in each category for all-wheel drive. The updated 2019 CX-5 should be coming to dealers soon. Related video: Featured Gallery 2019 Mazda CX-5 View 9 Photos Green Mazda Fuel Efficiency Crossover SUV mazda cx-5

Mazda Skyactiv-X Review | The revolution begins with a squeeze-bang

The matte black Skyactiv-X prototype looks like a rough Mazda3, perhaps reconstructed after a bad wreck by an over-enthusiastic owner of a spot welder and lots of gaffers' tape. Ribbed ducts poke out of the dash sending two breaths of conditioned air to no one in particular. Even its revolutionary engine, the thing we're here to experience, is entombed in a massive, nondescript cover to mask its unseemly noises. It's a wild, strange way to meet a very unconventional vehicle that promises diesel-like fuel economy, a wide torque band, and an exotic method for burning less gas than ever before. It takes a few hours for Mazda's engineers to explain the fundamental principles of operation. For more detail, read our Skyactiv-X Spark Controlled Compression Ignition explainer, but here's a very brief overview. Skyactiv-X marries some traditional gasoline engine characteristics with a novel form of compression ignition called SPCCI. The key for Skyactiv-X is to use very high compression in the cylinder and an extremely lean fuel-air mixture. Squeezed right to the cusp of getting hot enough to blow up all on its own (which is very hard to predict), a squirt of extra gas and a spark interject to cross that compression-ignition threshold in a controlled and predictable manner. See the animation below: That takes a few essential components to get just right. One is a massive amount of computer processing power and some pressure sensors in the individual cylinders, because the ambient conditions change how and when these things happen. Skyactiv-X uses a clutched supercharger to pump in additional air when needed to nail the mixture precisely, and high-pressure injectors to get the low ratios of fuel to disperse properly in the chamber. And since it operates like a conventional gasoline engine sometimes, it uses valve timing to lower the very high compression ratio so it doesn't reach combustion ignition in that mode. In practice, the Skyactiv-X runs in compression ignition mode most of the time. In practical terms, that means it drives like a torquey gasoline Skyactiv engine. The torque curve is broad and flat — diesel-like in that respect. That also means it can get away with using a six-speed transmission and a lower final drive for better response. There's enough grunt and economy together that Mazda can let the engine spin faster — at 60 mph, it's running at roughly 1,000 more RPM than a similar gas engine, with greater efficiency.