www.oakvillebeaver.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday, June 30, 2010 · 18 Oakville Nissan's `Win Your Payments' winner Photo by Karen Newman/Metroland Media Group Ltd. During April and May when Oakville Nissan customers leased a new Nissan Altima, Sentra, Versa or Rogue, they were entered into a draw for a chance to win all your payments for free! The lucky winner will have all of their payments paid for by Oakville Nissan on any 48-month lease. Pictured above are, from left to right, Jose Martins, winner Louise Lavelle, Brian Haley and Tim Coleman. Mazda is celebrating its 90th year. A breakthrough was making the rotary engine workable. One of the first cars to use a rotary was the Mazda Cosmo sportscar. Mazda celebrates 90 years of technical innovation Metroland Newspapers Carguide Magazine Mazda Motor Corporation is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year. Mazda's innovative spirit and willingness to try new things has led to the creation of some remarkable automotive technologies benefitting millions of motorists. One of Mazda's most popular innovations has been the incredibly smooth rotary engine that in its latest `RENESIS' form, generating 230 hp, that powered the unique four-door coupe Mazda RX-8 sportscar. Today's Mazda rotary engine has a fascinating history. Invented by the engineering `dreamer' German Felix Wankel, the rotary engine which carried his name so impressed Mazda's Kenichi Yamamoto that Mazda bought the patent in 1961. The first `Wankel' engine delivered to Hiroshima suffered many problems that the genius Yamamoto-San and his engineers cured. When Mazda engineers first tried hydrogenfuel in their rotary engine in 1990, it quickly became apparent that rotary technology had several advantages over piston engines using the same fuel. The hydrogen/air mix in a rotary engine is more thorough and stronger as the intake process can take longer and there are no intake and exhaust valves to heat up. Mazda is also looking to other ways to make cars better and cleaner. Several years ago, Mazda engineers used single nano-technology to successfully embed precious metal particles individually onto a ceramic base, avoiding the `clumping' problems of the old technology and achieving a 70 per cent saving in the precious metals required, with no drop-off in performance. For any vehicle, weight gain kills performance, diminishes agility and increases fuel consumption. Driven by the ambition to build ever more efficient cars that are still fun-todrive, Mazda introduced its `gram strategy' to lower vehicle weight by scrutinizing every component at the initial design stage to identify and implement possible weight savings.