RE: Shed Of The Week: Mazda Xedos 9 Miller
Discussion
Great shed and had completely forgotten about these!
Another one of my "nearly" cars. Was trying hard back in the early 90's to get a Xedos 6 Sport as a company car but failed. Mazda was considered a bit left field and unfortunately we had a good relationship with a Ford dealership so I had to take a Mondeo 2.0 instead.
Still had plenty of fun in the Mondeo mind you
Another one of my "nearly" cars. Was trying hard back in the early 90's to get a Xedos 6 Sport as a company car but failed. Mazda was considered a bit left field and unfortunately we had a good relationship with a Ford dealership so I had to take a Mondeo 2.0 instead.
Still had plenty of fun in the Mondeo mind you
Top Shedding! I'd never heard of this car, looks to be an interesting and unusual ownership proposition.
Going to have to read this now:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller_cycle
Going to have to read this now:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller_cycle
PH said:
The downside is it's not as efficient as the standard Otto cycle motor
I assume these didn't have direct injection?The point of the Miller/Atkinson cycle is to improve the thermal efficiency of the engine by having a longer expansion stroke than compression stroke. Thus the heat energy does more work and less heat is lost to the exhaust.
Without GDI that seems like a bit of a waste of time, it's fine if just air goes back out of the cylinder but fuel too? hmmm haha
loudlashadjuster said:
Interesting car. I think the Xedos 6 did fairly well on the back of its pert looks, looks that didn't unfortunately transfer to the larger 9 - it was a bit unresolved and bland for it.
Ah, great! We haven't had "unresolved styling" for a while, whatever that means. Good shed and an unresolved, Friday is now complete!!MiseryStreak said:
Top Shedding! I'd never heard of this car, looks to be an interesting and unusual ownership proposition.
Going to have to read this now:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller_cycle
Agreed. Going to have to read this now:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller_cycle
I had never heard of a Miller cycle engine, until now. I knew that Prius's used the Atkinson cycle though.
Engine can be summarised by: more efficient (c. 15%) due to reduced pumping losses and its smaller size, but more expensive to make due to smaller production volumes, supercharger and intercooler. As a result, was not commercially successful.
http://www.motivemag.com/pub/feature/tech/Motive_T...
MarJay said:
It has toys, it has waftability, it has comfort, it has an interesting engine technology, it has quite a lot of power, and it's supercharged.
THIS is the kind of thing that shed should always be.
Don't forget to add MOT, tax and a sub-£1k price tag to that checklist, then try to find qualifying cars. Probably not as easy as some seem to think. THIS is the kind of thing that shed should always be.
loudlashadjuster said:
Interesting car. I think the Xedos 6 did fairly well on the back of its pert looks, looks that didn't unfortunately transfer to the larger 9 - it was a bit unresolved and bland for it.
Shame, as this Miller-cycle car was at least an attempt to do something different. Hats off to Mazda, they do (did?) like their niche engine technologies.
As a shed though, somehow quite compelling. For those comparing to a 328 I'd say I doubt it would feel slower on the road.
It was quite a success in the USA, where it was called the Mazda Millenia.Shame, as this Miller-cycle car was at least an attempt to do something different. Hats off to Mazda, they do (did?
) like their niche engine technologies.As a shed though, somehow quite compelling. For those comparing to a 328 I'd say I doubt it would feel slower on the road.
Curious engine. Just had a little read. Apparently its actually a 3.0 liter engine, but as the intakes close some 47 degrees after BDC, only 80% ish of the stroke is compression so its effective displacement is the 2.3 liters. Compression ratio drops to 8:1 on the compression side which makes it easier to compress and provides cooler temps (less heat loss through shallower heat gradients, probably does something for NOx emissions, but may worsen uHC emissions). The expansion stroke remains at a larger 10:1 so you improve that work in/work out ratio. The super charger is needed to make up for the charge lost by keeping the valves open.
My car and I guess a lot of eco minded cars has a similar action, except Honda use variable late intake valve closure as a kind of throttle. Means they can keep the actual throttle nice and wide to reduce the pumping losses caused by a partially closed throttle valve and still get the right amount of charge in the engine for the power demanded. This only works < 3500 rpm or 50% throttle after which the VTEC system swaps to a more normal cam profile. Its Eco-VTEC... eco and normal, not normal and wailing banshee.
My car and I guess a lot of eco minded cars has a similar action, except Honda use variable late intake valve closure as a kind of throttle. Means they can keep the actual throttle nice and wide to reduce the pumping losses caused by a partially closed throttle valve and still get the right amount of charge in the engine for the power demanded. This only works < 3500 rpm or 50% throttle after which the VTEC system swaps to a more normal cam profile. Its Eco-VTEC... eco and normal, not normal and wailing banshee.
V8 FOU said:
loudlashadjuster said:
Interesting car. I think the Xedos 6 did fairly well on the back of its pert looks, looks that didn't unfortunately transfer to the larger 9 - it was a bit unresolved and bland for it.
Ah, great! We haven't had "unresolved styling" for a while, whatever that means. Good shed and an unresolved, Friday is now complete!!Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff