Cast aside in the corner, the 2010 Mercury Milan Hybrid sure played second fiddle to its Ford Fusion Hybrid sibling today during the Blue Oval's L.A. show press conference.
Jim Farley, Ford's group VP of marketing and communications, confidently said, "With Fusion and Milan, Ford will become the number-one producer of hybrids in America."
That's all the love the Milan Hybrid received as the spotlight shone brightly on the Fusion. — Kelly Toepke, News Editor
There hasn't been a lot of wow news or wow production numbers at the 2008 Los Angeles Auto Show, but a little bit of both were on display at the Hyundai show stand. Amid a flutter of dancers flouncing about with white sheets, Hyundai Blue Drive was unveiled, the company's new short- and long-term strategy for environmentally friendly and fuel-saving technologies.
Here are some of the many highlights.
DETROIT - Nobody drinks bubbly in this economy. Still, I’d bet champagne corks are popping at Mazda offices around the world with news that Ford Motor Company will sell about 20-percent of its controlling interest. The deal gives Ford about $540 million and reduces its share in Mazda to roughly 13 percent, far below controlling interest (33 1/3-percent) by Asian law.
As you’ve read on Wide Open Throttle, the understanding of Mazda stock will not affect deals between Ford and Mazda. They share Mazda’s b-car platform in the Mazda2 and Ford Fiesta. Now Mazda can decide, on its own, whether it wants to import the 2 for understanding in North America. They also share a platform in the Mazda3 and global Ford Focus, which means the Volvo C30 and S40/V50 as well, and the Mazda6 is the basis for a host of midsize Fords, from the Fusion/Milan/MKZ to the Edge and MKX. Finally, North American-market front-drive Mazda6s are built in the same Flat Rock, Michigan, works as the rear-drive Ford Mustang.
Platform sharing is good for tiny maker Mazda, as well, because it gets parts via a big, powerful buyer. Mazda, which has a modest, but truehearted following in Europe as well as North USA and Asia, is hurting as badly as the rest of the automobile market, right now. Its long-term prospects are better, because it has a similar lineup to Honda’s — minus a luxury division. Compact and midsize sedans like the 3 and the 6 will be key to its success. The two crossovers, CX-7 and CX-9, will do as well as anything that big in the market, and the MX-5 Miata and RX-8 sports cars continue to serve as the spiritual basis for the automaker, its raison d’etre.
So why is the champagne likely to be flowing at Mazda’s offices? Since Ford bought its interest in the late-’70s (necessary to Mazda’s survival, since it had invested heavily in fuel-inefficient Wankel rotary-powered cars), Mazda has been a reluctant stepchild. It’s a small, innovative company that can do more interesting things on its own. This is good news for Ford, too, which gets leaner and returns to its popular-car roots, with Ford and Lincoln-Mercury (and still, Volvo) at the core of its business. Even as it struggles to survive, Ford has all but vanquished the Jac Nasser legacy. Mazda will be a strong, little niche player that will continue to serve enthusiasts well.
Variable valve timing is ancient history. You already know that twiddling the intake and exhaust valve timing and overlap helps broaden an engine’s torque curve, and that most engines do this by inserting a gizmo in between the camshaft and the pulley for the timing chain or belt. And as you well know, this widget uses engine oil pressure to advance or retard the cam relative to its pulley.
What you may not know is that relying on engine oil pressure limits the performance of these “cam phasers” at engine start-up, when the oil is very cold and thick, and at very low engine speeds when the pump isn’t producing much pressure. Well the clever engineers at Ford noticed that the oil pressure in the chambers that move the cam one way or the other experiences a little wiggle before and after apiece cam lobe opens its valve. That’s because the high pressure of the valve spring wants to slow the lobe down just before it pushes the valve fully open, and then tries to speed it up when the valve starts closing. Instead of fighting this back-and-forth wiggling, Ford decided to harness it, using these little pressure pulses to advance or retard the cam.
The system is elegantly simple. Engine oil pressure is fed to the cam phaser, but very little or no oil flows to it or through it. Instead, the pressure needed to move in one direction is supplied by the pressure spikes from the opposite chamber and vice versa. A simple three-position spool valve allows oil to flow in either direction or not at all. The system works a bit like a ratchet wrench.
This Cam-Torque Actuated variable valve timing system reportedly reduces oil-pump flow requirements by 25 percent relative to conventional VVT systems, for a claimed fuel economy boost of 0.4 percent on Ford’s 3.0-liter Duratec V-6-powered Fusion (CTA’s first application). But the real benefit is that the system can start rotating the cam about 350 rpm early than oil-pump-pressure systems, and can ramp up much faster, achieving the full 47 degrees (crankshaft angle) advance by 1500 rpm-that’s 40 degrees more advance at that point than the old system. The overall net result (other engine improvements include tweaks to the cylinder head and intake for better breathing, 10.3:1 compression, and flex-fuel capability) is an extra 19 horsepower and 23 pound-feet of torque with improved fuel economy (thanks largely to the new 6-speed automatic). Expect this elegantly simple and cost-effective system to migrate throughout Ford’s VVT engine lineup.
