The engine under the hood of the little Mazda3 is a holy grail of engineering: a gas engine that uses compression, not ignition, to drive the car. That’s why there are still only six of them in the world and why it’s hurtling me down the autobahn at 175 km/h.
Okay, so the autobahn thing is more for the fun of it, but it’s part of the demonstration that Mazda’s new Skyactiv-X technology is both practical and realistic. It will be several steps ahead of its current Skyactiv-G technology when it’s released in a year or so.