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7th Generation Chassis Improvements
What good is a ground-breaking engine without a good chassis to supplement it? Mazda made a lot of improvements to their new 7th generation chassis with a lot of attention to small details.
Much to our surprise, a lot of key components that we address when doing performance chassis tuning at MotoIQ were considered with the new Mazda 3 chassis. A lot of attention and time went into small details that decrease driver exhaustion, increase driver focus, and improve suspension compliance- all areas that are addressed when building racecars as well.
The first notable improvement is the overall chassis and body structure increase in stiffness.
This massive stamped sheetmetal addition to the unibody ties the shock towers, inner aprons, the ring module and the firewall. It greatly improves chassis stiffness and probably was added to the chassis to improve the car's performance in the new small offset barrier crash testing.
