Mazda , commonly referred to as simply Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Fuchū, Hiroshima, Japan. In 2015, Mazda produced 1.5 million vehicles for global sales, the majority of which (nearly one m ...

's first

automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with Wheel, wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, pe ...

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gen ...

was the

V-twin A V-twin engine, also called a V2 engine, is a two-cylinder piston engine where the cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. Although widely associated with motorcycles (installed either transversely or longit ...

family. This tiny

air-cooled Air-cooled engines rely on the circulation of air directly over heat dissipation fins or hot areas of the engine to cool them in order to keep the engine within operating temperatures. In all combustion engines, a great percentage of the heat ge ...

engine was only produced for a few years in the early 1960s before Mazda introduced a more common

inline-four engine A straight-four engine (also called an inline-four) is a four-cylinder piston engine where cylinders are arranged in a line along a common crankshaft. The vast majority of automotive four-cylinder engines use a straight-four layout (with the ...

configuration.

BA (356 cc)

The first

engine from Mazda was the 356 cc (60x63 mm) air-cooled 90°

. It was an

overhead valve An overhead valve (OHV) engine, sometimes called a ''pushrod engine'', is a piston engine whose valves are located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier flathead engines, where the valves were located be ...

4-valve

pushrod A valvetrain or valve train is a mechanical system that controls the operation of the intake and exhaust valves in an internal combustion engine. The intake valves control the flow of air/fuel mixture (or air alone for direct-injected engines) ...

design. This engine produced and 16 lb·ft (22 Nm) in the 1960

Mazda R360 The Mazda R360 is a kei car manufactured and marketed by Mazda as the company's first passenger car — a two-door, four-seat coupé. Introduced in 1960, the R360 featured a wheelbase, weighed and was powered by a rear-mounted air-cooled 35 ...

EB (577 cc)

The engine was enlarged to 577 cc for the 1961 B600, which was built until 1966. It produces at 4300 rpm and of torque at 3000 rpm. This engine is popular with custom motorcycle builders in Indonesia, who use it in a variety of frames to emulate the V-twin engined Harley-Davidsons.

BA (356 cc)

EB (577 cc)

References

See also