A biweekly roundup of automotive news, good, bad and just plain weird:
Mazda MX-5 gets major power bump
The MX-5 has never been about power, but rather about balanced handling. Even so, there are those who argue that if some is good, more must be better, and hook their little roadsters up with turbocharger kits and V-8 swap and all manner of other madness. Bless them. They’re doing God’s work.
Still, Mazda maintains a rather holistic approach to their defining drop-top, and made considerable effort with the current generation to both cut weight and not focus on the horsepower too much. As a result, the new ND-chassis car was quicker than the model it replaced, but the engine got smaller and a little less powerful (but more efficient).
In the North American market, we get one engine choice for the MX-5, a 2.0-litre four-cylinder. Overseas, you can also get a 1.5-litre that makes a little less power, but revs higher. In instrumented testing, sometimes cars with the smaller motor seem to be quicker, indicating that it might be underrated.
Now, it would appear that Mazda’s taken the lessons learned from its fierce little 1.5-litre and applied them to the 2.0-litre. Unconfirmed reports generated by leaked documents indicate that the 2019 MX-5 will have the same torque levels, but now get up to 181 horsepower, a 26 h.p. increase.
As the power will be mostly higher up in the rev range, the MX-5 might not feel all that much faster at first. However, until Honda brings back a successor to the glorious S2000, this might be the sportiest roadster we’ve seen out of Japan in a while.
Porsche unleashes 919 Evo endurance racer
Formula One racing cars should be the fastest things on the planet. It would appear that they aren’t.
Instead, at the historic Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, the track record now belongs to a retiree: the decommissioned Porsche 919 endurance racer. A reworked version of their champion at Le Mans, the 919 is basically a spaceship on wheels, combining hybrid power and a turbocharged V-4 for some 1,200 h.p.
Because of various competition restrictions, the 919 used to be limited by fuel flow and battery power. This Evo version throws all that out the window, including the headlights. Built specifically to set lap records on a world tour, the 919 is brain-bending to watch. The cornering speeds alone don’t make any sense: if it was a slot car, it’d have long ago flipped off into the forest.
At Spa, the 929 was nearly a second faster than Lewis Hamilton’s former pole-setting lap in his Mercedes F1 car. At F1 speeds, a second might as well be an eternity.
As a publicity stunt, and a measure of what engineering can do, all this is pretty great. However, Porsche isn’t actually racing the 919 any more: here’s hoping we haven’t seen the last of something like this monster in actual competition.
Mercedes-AMG to eliminate V-12
Is there any engine more endangered than the V-12? Once a must-have for any exotic, now turbocharging and proper engine balancing have made the V-12 seem like an extravagance. Almost every manufacturer finds it easier to just offer a small-displacement V-8 instead, and use turbos to make up the power deficit.
AMG, so it seems, is about to follow suit. While the V-12 will stick around for Mercedes’ more luxury-oriented offerings – the Maybach range, for instance – their performance wing won’t be bothering with 12s anymore. Head of AMG Tobias Moers told reporters in New York that the lighter V-8 was the way forward.
AMGs now handle very well, and you could easily argue that their history started with V-8 power. Eight is great, and focusing on one engine offering makes a great deal of sense.
But if we’re talking about making a great deal of sense, we’d be talking about the Toyota Camry, not a fire-breathing Teutonic luxury coupe with autobahn afterburners. Even if you weren’t going to park one in your driveway, the AMG V-12 was pretty neat.
Subaru sells 2 millionth Outback
The Subaru Outback, that mobile dog kennel of the automotive world, has just hit an important milestone. Subaru just moved their 2-millionth Outback in the U.S. market, and presumably celebrated by baking a gluten-free cake and asking Cedar from accounting to play “Over the Rainbow” on her ukulele.
We love the Outback in North Vancouver, and for good reason. It’s rugged enough to tackle both a bit of gravel and the carelessly opened doors of the parking lot at soccer practice. It’s got decent traction in the snow, but doesn’t drink fuel like some giant SUV. And all the rattles they inevitably develop will help distract you from the persistent smell of wet dog coming from the canine passenger in the trunk.
We’re about due for a new Outback, possibly one that comes with a turbocharged boxer-engine option under the hood. While we look forward to that, expect much cheering about this achievement from both Subaru fans and the entire motivational bumper sticker industry.
Watch this space for all the best and worst of automotive news, or submit your own auto oddities to mcaleer.nsnews@gmail.com.
