Watch First drive: Sky is the limit, says Mazda

First drive: Sky is the limit, says Mazda

We drive Mazda’s revolutionary Sky petrol and diesel engines in next-gen 2013 Mazda6

30 August 2010
By MARTON PETTENDY in GERMANY
IT IS not often a car-maker lets journalists loose in – and requests feedback on – prototype vehicles underpinned by chassis and engine technologies that remain years away from production, but that’s precisely what Mazda did during a global ‘technology forum’ in Berlin last week.

GoAuto was one of just 40 media outlets in the world invited to test its future model technologies – including revolutionary new Sky G petrol and Sky D diesel engines, a revolutionary new sixth-generation chassis and the upcoming Sky Drive automatic transmission – in four pre-production mules officially known as ‘technology prove-out vehicles’, or TPVs.

The first Sky technologies will not make their way into Australian showrooms for at least 12 months – in the form of a 2.0-litre Sky G petrol engine and six-speed Sky Drive auto in selected versions of next year’s facelifted Mazda3 small-car – and the first Mazda model to combine the all-new lightweight chassis with Sky powertrain technology is unlikely to emerge in Australia before 2013, in the shape of the redesigned Mazda6.

Along with the unprecedented chance to test the four-cylinder engine and front-wheel drive chassis technologies that will underpin the next generation of Mazda models first hand in real-world European conditions, Mazda revealed a range of outstanding performance and efficiency statistics for its Sky engines.

Despite the fact the brand-new chassis – which will underpin the next-generation Mazda6, the all-new Mazda3 due in 2014 and a range of SUVs including the all-new sub-compact CX-5, redesigned CX-7 and, perhaps, a new CX-9 medium SUV – will not be fully developed for up to 18 months, it is clear Mazda’s focus on lightweight chassis development has paid handsome dividends.

Equally, despite being a year away from production and with its new automatic transmission requiring a significant amount of calibration work, Mazda’s new Sky engines appear to be well on target to achieve big gains in both performance and refinement - while meeting formidable new efficiency targets that should realise Mazda’s commitment to reduce the average fuel consumption of its new model fleet by 30 per cent between 2008 and 2015.

Mazda’s plan to deliver ambitious fuel consumption and CO2 emissions reductions by developing conventional internal combustion engine technology to previously unseen levels and achieving outstanding weight reductions for all of its future models has been well documented.

But even more impressive than we expected are the first fruits of its ‘building block’ strategy, which is designed to deliver maximum efficiency gains for the widest possible range of customers without (at least initially) the use of expensive fuel-saving electrical devices like brake energy regeneration and petrol-electric hybrid drive systems.

GoAuto sampled both the upcoming 2.2-litre Sky D turbo-diesel engine and the 2.0-litre Sky G petrol engine – each equipped with new six-speed manual and automatic transmissions – in Mazda’s new sixth-generation chassis.

Mazda did not officially specify which model the Mk6 platform would first appear beneath, but provided a number of comparative figures that made it clear what we were driving was, in fact, the next-generation Mazda6 that is not due to appear for at least two years.

Cobbled up beneath the bodywork and interior of the current Mazda6 and wearing a number of riveted panel sections to disguise the fact it is shoehorned within more compact exterior body dimensions, the all-new platform comprises a 50mm-longer wheelbase combined with 18mm and 25mm wider front and rear wheel tracks respectively.

Unlike today, the larger Mazda6 platform will serve both the US and other global markets.
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