It has been said many times that the reason the lip spoiler is standard fit in the UK is because helps reduce fuel consumption. Is this Mazda Uk saying this or is this the word from some Government Ministry that deals with this sort of thing? Have any of you asked for the data on this?

at some point i think the lip spoiler will be available in the states and i think i would like to have one. if someone can provide the fuel data it would go along way towards convincing the wife that we should have one.:D

 

"THE BOOK" specifically states that the spoiler improves fuel economy.

 

OKAY WHO LET THE YANKEES INTO THE EUROPEAN FORUM????

 

hey puppy i've been in here a long time, since it started i think now about that lip spoiler?

i don't have one of those yet but i here it is on it's way. does the book give any hard data with graphs or anything? my wife is a scientist and will believe something like that much quicker than she wiil me:o

 

I think it's purely based on the fact that it reduced the cars drag coefficient to .30 from .31 therefore improving fuel consumption.

I can't imagine it will make that big a difference. Post a question on the tech forum about the how much a .01 drop in the drag coefficient might effect fuel consumption.

 

found this crawling around on the web -




"For all vehicles, ranging from small passenger vehicles to commercial buses and trucks, reducing air drag is one of the most efficient ways of improving fuel economy. For example, a 5% improvement in drag for a typical diesel engine heavy truck, which can simply be achieved by improving the design of the wing mirrors, can result in fuel savings of around 500-1000 litres/year for a typical 150,000 km annual highway driving. On the other end of the scale, in motor racing fuel saving might not be the number one priority, but reaching very high speeds certainly is. To propel a typical Class 1 ITC racing car at 300km/h, around 30 kW of additional power is required for a car with drag coefficient of 0.40, compared to one with 0.36. And when you are operating at the limit of your engine, this can make the difference between winning or losing. "

trying to find out more....

 

This is an interesting article on the subject :


http://www.howstuffworks.com/question497.htm


even gives you the equation to calculate your drag co-efficent right down to your mothers weight....

 

i have just spoken to some technical boffins at the department of transport here in the UK and they have said



"there is nothing to stop any car from having poor fuel comsumption so long as the emissions arent excessive i.e. exhaust particles etc." There are no specific grading of fuel comsumption etc just exhaust emissions."

In otherwards it looks like the car develops excessive emissions but as Europe is "green" or trying to be begs the question....


Why are we trying to protect the environment when no bugger else cares ? like the US and parts of Asia

 

Just attempted to contact Mazda to ask why the fuel comsumption issue has resulted in a boot lip spoiler and a drop in power is a requirement for europe?


The answer i got was a "huh?"

 

LOL
Sorry, and you are surprised at that?!!

I stil havent had a mail back from the CRM manager who is normally good at replying with regard to delays etc. Not sure if he is out of the country or in hiding!

 

I'm not sure it has any value hounding Mazda UK as I'm sure they don't know either and have just been told by HQ that deliveries will be late. Question is if they or the dealers will compensate.

However, over demand in the Far East would suggest that the car has been a far greater success than their pre-order book had indicated. In a way we should be glad that the car is so highly sought in a very competitive market. I'm hoping that the trend will follow in other markets once the car is launched and the public at large are made aware. Should positively impact on depreciation.

rael

 

The power drop was because of "Emissions" regulations (specifically Euro 4) not fuel consumption.

These regulations cover emissions of pollutants (CO, NOx, HC...) but NOT emissions of CO2 which is not a pollutant, i.e. it's not toxic (which is just as well because when you burn fuel it nearly all turns into CO2 + water). The only way to reduce CO2 emissions would be to burn less fuel. So if there were regulations covering CO2 emissions it would be tantamount to outlawing cars with poor fuel consumption (which would be very bad news indeed for the RX-8).

I think Mazda said something about the power reduction inproving fuel economy, but this is just a positive side effect and was not why they did it. If they are implying they reduced the power as a service to us to give us better fuel economy then they are just indulging in rather misguided spin.

The lip spoiler will improve fuel economy and also increase the top speed, but the effect will be very small - otherwise they surely would have fitted it as standard in all markets. I suspect it is standard in Europe because high performance cars traditionally have spoilers here, and maybe this isn't true to the same degree in the US. Do you not like the spoiler or something?

 

well i believe it was mazda uk that said the uk cars were getting it because it increases fuel mileage.i was wondering if someone could get their data but apparently "hunh" was their answer. i like the looks of it and will probably purchase one in the future. but having the data will make it easier for me to sell my wife on the idea.

 

As others have pointed out, the only official numbers we have from Mazda are a reduction in drag coefficient from 0.31 to 0.30.

Aerodynamic drag increases in proportion to the the square of the speed. So in low speed driving drag is very small and the spoiler will give you no measurable benefit. However, for high speed cruising almost all the car's power is used to overcome air resistance and any reduction in drag should give you a corresponding improvement in fuel consumption. So if you do a fair amount of motorway/freeway miles then, theoretically, you should see some benefit.

 

I would like to know why cars have to be "greened" for europe? Nowhere else is the case. I know it has to start somewhere but the Ozone layer aint going to be able to determine who pollutes more than any other. Wish it did though

When we all know the biggest poluter on the planet is the US who incidently told the recent green conference to bugger off.

Guess hats of to the US for being cynical and "buying" up every 3rd world's quotient as an attempt to present a reduction in there pollution index.

 

Hey man, back off. We are seeking global harmony although internal political pressures may suggest our global decision a little bias but hey, all we want is peace; a little peice of Iraq, a little peice of Iran (it's the oil you know)......

rael (with Amerian tongue firmly in cheek).

 

How will the mazdaspeed side mirrows affect the drag coeffecience?

 

the word negligible comes to mind.