SKYACTIV may come across as just another marketing term to a lot of people, but Mazda actually take it very seriously at every stage of development. Today, at the Mazda Headquarters in Hiroshima, we were shown three less-than-known improvements Mazda has made over their pre-SKYACTIV vehicles.
1. Pedal layout
Sit in the driver’s seat of any of the new Mazda vehicles and you’ll find that your legs rest at an equidistant point from the centre. Mazda’s engineers positioned the pedals in such a way that the driver can sit in a very relaxed position, with no awkward angles to maintain.
Furthermore, the accelerator uses floor-hinged organ pedals, which has a dual function. Firstly, it puts less strain on the calve and thigh muscles. It also makes shifting from accelerator to brake pedal a lot more seamless as the driver doesn’t need to raise or lower his leg when making the switch between pedals.
2. More Accurate Steering
Mazda showed us something really special that probably would have gone unnoticed by most. Their latest batch of cars require only about 8 minor corrections when driving on a straight section of road, compared to 15 corrections using other cars on the same course.
This improvement carries over to cornering, which saw an improvement from 4 steering corrections to just 2 on SKYACTIV models.
3. Comfy Seats
Mazda seats aren’t just plush, they’re well thought out too. All Mazdas with SKYACTIV technology have seats that are engineered to distribute pressure evenly on as much surface as possible instead of just putting all the weight on small areas as most other cars do.
