Mazda 2: loosing weight = going in the right direction
Mazda 2: step in the right direction
Just watched this video (found it HERE originally). And I really liked what I saw… The topic is worth mentioning as the continuation of the thought stated in some previous post: Old vs New – are the cars getting better?. Video below, made by the Fifth Gear team is showing in a pretty straightforward way what weight does with the car. Especially a small one… It’s a about doing the right thing by a car maker… finally.
As You can see they Mazda paid a lot of attention to the details, cutting weight wherever they could. At the same time not sacrificing the regular car usability (it still has all the necessary equipment that average consumer will need). And BRAVO for this attitude.
They didn’t choose the Toyota’s way:
Hey, we need a economical car that will meet the market demand…
Lets put 150 kg of batteries, electric engines to a regular compact… Let’s kill some forests by the mines and ship the nickel needed for batteries all the way around the world… Afterwards let’s make it ugly and rubbish to drive… It will save “some” fuel, but it will cost the buyer way more (for the “technology”) when he will be paying for the car!
Yeah… That is a great idea…
And we will brand this hideous car as a ecological world saver… People will buy it and feel better for themselves, driving a fashionable toy that doesn’t have much to do with being environment friendly…
And let’s not make it too good from the start ex. by using diesel engine… It will allow us to launch improved versions – every few years… And we will make even more money on selling these versions…
Yeah!
And a Prius was created…
Less is better!
Mazda did the quite opposite here…
Every person connected with motor sports will admit that the “weight is the cheapest horsepower“. Like ex. recently – less powerful, but stripped Megane R26R beat the Focus RS on the track. (Just imagine what will happen when somebody builds lightened Focus RS) Another example: Caterham R500 (a car that has less then 300 HP) beat the Bugatti Veyron on the track. Power to weight ratio does the job…
Talking about this little car – it’s not about performance. But loosing weight influenced it’s acceleration, handling and braking distance in a quite significant way… Especially the last one is an important safety factor You always find in car specs…
They didn’t mention the numbers regarding fuel economy… But as the car is 15-20% lighter I would guess that this will save even 5-10% of fuel in some situations…
Good job Mazda. Model 2 i’s still heavier than old VW Golf Mk1 that didn’t have all the currently known technology and materials… But at least it’s a start… And it looks as the new cars are actually (slowly) getting better…
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