Q. Who is Jay Chen?
A. Hi, my name’s Jay Chen. I’m the manager of the Powertrain Performance group here at Mazda North American Operations R&D. Basically, I spend a lot of time driving around in cars and making sure that they drive as a Mazda should.
Q. What is a turbo engine?
A. In a way you can imagine the engine as your lungs. You can only fill your lungs with so much air. What a turbocharger does is that basically it acts as another pump to force air into, potentially my lungs, which will probably hurt, or into an engine, which gives it more air. And more air means more power.
Q. What is the benefit of a turbo engine?
A. When we decided to design the Skyactiv Turbo engine it was designed to replace a six-cylinder engine. So, this six-pack of soda here is your six cylinders. We wanted to make the same power, which meant it needs the same amount of air. But we didn’t want to have all the weight of a six-pack. So, if we took off two cylinders and we put a turbocharger on it, now we can displace the same amount of air by using this turbocharging pump. And we have less friction, less weight, and less space.
Q. How does the mazda turbo engine differ from other turbo engines on the market?
A. A conventional turbocharger takes time to spool up and then deliver the air into the engine. That means it takes time for you to get your power. Mazda put a lot of effort into redeveloping our turbochargers, even the engine itself, so that we can extract the most response out of the turbocharge engine. If you can get the turbocharger to deliver air faster, suddenly you can use that air instantly when you step on the gas. We are building an engine that was meant to replace a V6 engine, but still retain all the benefits: the response, the drivability.
Q. Why is the Skyactiv-G 2.5 turbo engine being introduced into the Mazda3?
A. When Mazda developed this Skyactiv Turbo engine it was designed to replace a V6 engine. It was meant to go into the CX-9 SUV which is a large three-row vehicle. So, I have here a large three-row SUV and in the past, there were my six cylinders inside of it. Well, as we developed our CX-9 we’ve now taken two cylinders off it and we’ve put our turbocharger onto it. So now we’re forcing air into four cylinders that weigh less, take up less space, have less friction.
Well, this combination here turned out to be so fun in the CX-9 that we started applying the same Skyactiv Turbo engine inside of the CX-5 and now the Mazda6 sedan. Now we’re putting it into the Mazda3, a much smaller vehicle. So, now you have the same high torque, instant response and driving experience that you have available in the larger sedans and SUVs, but now you have it in a very small vehicle.
Story Charlotte Briggs