ENGINEERING
THE JOY OF DRIVING
Each Mazda must pass a series of strict tests before going public,
and it’s at their Hiroshima headquarters’ test track where Mazda’s engineers
are masterminding the unforgettable drive.
There is one mission that motivates everyone at Mazda more than
anything— to deliver the feeling of pure happiness and to energise every driver
once they get behind the wheel. Felt by drivers and passengers across the
world, it has fuelled Mazda’s innovations for almost 100 years and, today,
helps form a crucial part of the company’s process with new model development.
This unique philosophy is best personified in Mazda’s talented engineers who,
across all disciplines, work tirelessly to provide an invigorating driving
experience for every driver. Masayoshi Kanei is one such engineer, having
joined Mazda’s development team 14 years ago and who has been test-driving both
work-in-progress prototypes and development vehicles close to production,
including the Mazda CX-60 PHEV. Just don’t call him a test driver.
High Performance
“At Mazda, we don’t call ourselves test drivers because we’re involved in
every single step of development, from initial planning to signing off a
production model ready for launch,” he explains. “Yes, we do get to
test-drive a lot of cars that come through our department to cross-check data
and evaluate their drivability, quality, and roadworthiness. However, another
essential metric is what we call within Mazda the ‘performance feel’, which
focuses on human perception to acceleration and car movement.”
“I’m in charge of powertrains,” he continues. “We collaborate with other
engineers to discuss details like engine settings, acceleration, and power
output.” Even when the car only exists on the drawing board, these processes
are still used to determine the feasibility of the design.
Once out on the proving ground, Kanei recruits all his senses to evaluate the
vehicle’s performance. “When accelerating, for instance, you need to be able
to measure and assess even the slightest change in such things as g-force and
jerk through your body,” he says. “These factors massively affect your
experience in the car as the driver.” Jerk is a vector that changes in
acceleration over time and Mazda considers it as one of the key parameters to
further pursue their human-centric innovations.
However, Kanei also admits that the human senses are crucial, but not
perfect. “We feed back our own assessments to the [powertrain] designer and
combine that with the numerical data, in order to configure a better
powertrain that can operate exactly as the driver intends.”
The Best of Both Worlds
This process played a particularly significant part when Kanei was working on
the CX-60 with its e-Skyactiv PHEV powertrain. “A PHEV is a vehicle that
benefits from the best parts of both an internal combustion engine [ICE] car
and an EV,” says Kanei. When the PHEV’s battery charge is high, it drives on
electric power saving the fuel. Should you want to speed up on a faster road,
then the car chooses to use the internal combustion to amass enough power to
generate the speed required.
“But sometimes, you feel the car is not accelerating as fast as you want. Or,
contrarily, you feel the jump to the ICE takes place too fast. That’s one
common issue for PHEVs,” says Kanei. This switch from electric power to the
ICE can be tricky to fine-tune, he says, but remains a vital task. After all,
he queries, “wouldn’t you be scared if the car doesn’t react the way you
want?”
The CX-60 PHEV brought with it new challenges, but Kanei and his team were
happy to solve them; and, eventually, would build a PHEV powertrain system
that ensures a nimble and laser-sharp drivability. “It wasn’t so
straightforward to achieve the kind of drivability we seek in a Mazda, but we
got there in the end,” Kanei says with a smile. In short, the car was
masterminded to drive the way that you want.
That said, there’s no denying that test-driving forms a crucial part of the
development process, and Kanei admits he gets to do a lot of it—from Mazda’s
top-secret proving grounds across Japan to Germany’s world-famous autobahn.
“As we’re involved right from the beginning, we set our own parameters and
targets for the powertrain to ensure each car delivers the pleasure of
driving,” he says. “Whether a PHEV or not, during the test drive, we need to
make sure that those parameters and targets are achieved without fail. The
margin for an error in assessment at driving tests is very narrow.”
Ready for
Anything
The pressure’s on for Kanei and his fellow engineers, but they’re more than
qualified for the task. Having worked on models including the Mazda CX-30 and
the latest CX-60, Kanei explains that Mazda employs a system to ensure their
engineers are well-equipped for any task.
To get this point, a regimented system is deployed to help Kanei
and his colleagues acquire the skills they need to evaluate fairly, steadily
and, most importantly, safely. It starts with a rank for newcomers — suitable
for exploring Mazda’s impressive Hiroshima headquarters — and ascends to the
higher qualifications, which permit dedicated drivers, as Kanei explains, to
hit “maximum speeds permitted when test-driving”. As is befitting to Mazda’s
driver-first mentality, the most important factor here is identifying what
will suit the end user.
These differences in capabilities from the novice rank and upwards can be
significant. “When test-driving, you need to assess the car’s performance
accurately, regardless of the conditions. If you can’t do that, your
evaluations won’t be seen as legitimate or trustworthy by the development
team,” Kanei continues.
Drivability at various speeds is a key measure of a car’s
performance. With Kanei able to test various models at nerve-wracking high
speeds, on everything from dry straights to wet corners, it proves why Mazda
has this stringent licence scheme in place: to ensure each car always deliver
the pleasure of driving, even when pushing the needle, and to keep these
talented employees safe in the line of duty.
Looking to the Future
Before receiving his calling to work at Mazda, Kanei had already learned the
ropes of high-performance engine development at university. Asked which model
he enjoyed test driving most so far, he says “it’s always the latest model
that I’ve worked on,” without a pause. “With today’s technology rapidly
advancing all the time, there is always a new challenge to tackle, and you
always need to up your game as an engineer to meet that, which is very
exciting for me.”
“I’m sure the next one we will work on would pose us another brand-new
challenge, but we’ll welcome that challenge because, as far as our job is
concerned, there is no end to it,” he finishes. “Continual improvement is the
only way forward.”
Words Shogo Hagiwara
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