May 30, 1967—this was the day when it all began for Mazda Motor Corporation. On this fateful day, Mazda didn’t just begin the journey of a new automotive firm. This was the day that it began to do things differently.
While other carmakers were busy with their four-stroke internal combustion engines, Mazda was hard at work perfecting a technology known as the rotary engine. First known as the Toyo Kogyo Corporation, the Japanese firm needed to create a unique niche in order to remain on its own. Thus in 1961, Mazda licensed NSU Motorenwerke AG and Wankel GmbH and their rotary engine technology.
After years of hard work, its efforts paid off. In 1991, the quad-powered rotary motor 787B bagged the 24 Hours of Le Mans. And the firm has gone on to sell some 1.99 million rotary-powered cars—from the Mazda Cosmo of 1967 to different types of sports cars and sedans.
Today, Mazda continues to push the envelope—albeit in a different way. Back in 2008, it began to develop the famed SKYACTIV technology. At a time when others said it couldn’t be done, coupled with a global financial crisis, the independent Japanese company went ahead. Today, its SKYACTIV-equipped vehicles are some of the best in the industry, with numerous awards to boot.
The gasoline SKYACTIV engines, for instance, boast a highest compression rating of 14.0:1, while their diesel counterparts have the lowest—at 14.4:1. These numbers have allowed engineers to extract the most out of these mills in terms of power and efficiency. Apart from this, the SYACTIV body and chassis give its sedans and SUVs utmost safety and protection without compromising driving pleasure. In fact, each of its offerings are as nimble as its famous MX-5 roadster. Yes, every Mazda possesses the jimba-ittai spirit.
For 50 years, Mazda has been doing things differently And we’re quite certain it will continue to do so for the next 50 years and beyond. That is the spirit of Zoom-zoom.
