The Mazda 6 made its US debut on the second day of the LA motor show with the surprise news that the Japanese won’t be offering a V6 petrol engine. The 6 will only be available from January with a 2.5-litre Skyactiv petrol engine and a 2.5-litre Skyactiv diesel engine.
In order to promote the idea of ‘clean diesel’ to a driving population generally suspicious of oil-burning, Mazda is going to roll out the ‘Mazda 6 Skyactive-D Clean Diesel race car’.
The car will compete in the Rolex 24 Hour race at Daytona on 26-27 January next year.
Mazda bosses say 60 per cent of the components in the diesel race engine - which is good for 400bhp and around 400lb ft of torque - are shared with the production engine.
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Is this the US-6 or the Euro-6?
Hitherto there has been different versions of the Mazda 6 - the US/North American market one being longer and wider than the one the model received by the rest of the world.
So does this mean there are now no longer 2 versions of the 6?
Stuart Milne wrote: a
Sorry to be fussy, but isn't the diesel engine a 2.2 litre rather than a 2.5?
No surprises there...
I don't fully appreciate what Mazda has really accomplished here with this "revolutionary" SkyAcitve technology. The platform is somewhat lighter, the engines are lighter and more efficient. That's all okay. But it's just slightly more economical than the BMW 3d.
I won't be surprised if in the next few months BMW managed to dip its 3-series under this Mazda and perhaps under 100g/km too. This Mazda does beat Mondeo hands down though. And with Ford procrastinating it's new Mondeo, Mazda has the market open to itself.
Hybrid is the way forward!