SkyActiv Technology

What is SkyActiv Technology All About? Part 1-4

A lot of people ask why Skyactiv? We believe the sky is the limit. The sky is blue, the engine cover is blue, it is a great car and the sky is the absolute limit to what we can do.

We are not going to stay the same old manufacturer that we were. We are going to go sky is the limit. We go with SkyActiv, Sky Drive, Active Sense we are moving ahead.

SkyActiv technology is a philosophy of design that Mazda has some up with over the past 10 years or so where we take a look at the engine, the drivetrain the whole car and say "How can we improve on what we have done historically, what the industry has historically done and we have picked the whole car apart and ask our engineers "How can we improve this? If you had a clean sheet what would you do?" So the design engineers came up with the new body style; something that flows, something lighter and stronger. The heart of the entire thing is the engine and transmission so we came up with the idea that if we changed the compression ratio to 14:1 or 13:1 in Canada with regular fuel. How did we do that? By changing valve timing we leave the intake valve open a long time and opening the exhaust valve late.

Then we looked at the lubrication system and said why do we have to have oil pressure all the time? Why don't we lower the oil pressure and raise it when we do. The cooling system so we made the water pump smaller and therefore there is less friction. If we have less drag on the belts we can make them smaller. We also added direct fuel injection.

Come find out why were a better place to buy a car. Head down to West Coast Mazda and check out SkyActiv for yourself.

What is SkyActiv Technology All About? Part 2-4

We looked at everything just in design and in order to get the maximum efficiency out of the engine we made a small combustion chamber right at the top of the piston and the spark plug sticks down into that area and that is where the fuel gets shot at 2900 lbs.psi.and it is pushed down onto a bigger piston which is what gives us all of that horsepower.

We looked at the way the connecting rods are built. Normally the connecting rods are massive at the bottom end where it connects to the crank shaft. We made it significantly smaller in shape. The crankshaft is also made smaller and lighter and when it is smaller and lighter it allows for faster movement.

The funny thing about all this stuff is that it has been around for years. We have taken stuff that normally would have cost thousands of dollars and incorporated it into our engines. It is proven technology and we want to take the best of everything and incorporate it into our engines. The number of engine failures we have seen is amazingly low. How far can we go on a tank of fuel? I can go back and forth to Kelowna 4 times on one tank of gas.

Come find out why West Coast Mazda is a better place to buy a car.

What is SkyActiv Technology All About? Part 3-4

The maximum would be 14:1 when we need to have our highest compression ratio when we need to get our best acceleration we will go as high as we can into that 14:1 range. When we can cruise along and ask for fuel economy we will drop it to a 7:1 or 9:1 range and get the most out of that fuel. That is where we get the change between good power and good fuel economy.

We want good torque and that is not horse power that is what is going to give you the sporty feel. We lock the converter so the engine does not rev and then try and catch up. We have a chassey that will allow you to drive along the road even through pot holes. Many other people in the industry, the journalist always say they are amazed at the handling of these great Mazda vehicles. Once a driver has confidence there is a better chance to get the zoom zoom out of their car.

Come see why West Coast Mazda is a better place to buy a car.

What is SkyActiv Technology All About? Part 4-4

Safety is a 2 part thing. One part is avoiding the collision to begin with. The other is to survive after the actual collision. We talked a little bit about the suspension and the steering. In those instances when you just cant get out of a jam we have on the CX-5 and the Mazda 6 something called the smart seating brake system where when you get close to an object or lower speeds the car will actually stop. The laser sensor will see the object in front of you and start to stop if it finds you still aren't reacting it will stop the car for you and avoid a collision. A person is normally to small to see and because of the clothing and the shape you are almost acting like a stealth person. However if someone is pushing a shopping cart you will be able to stop easily.

In the front of the car there is a radar transmitter it is sending a beam about 300 to 500 ft. and it is using that to gauge how far that vehicle is ahead. The driver can adjust how far they would like to be from each vehicle depending on the conditions of the road.