Mazda continues to champion the internal combustion engine as it takes four MX-5s on a mammoth road trip using sustainable fuel
In its continuing mission to prove the viability of internal combustion, Mazda has achieved a landmark feat in driving from Land’s End to John O’Groats with four Mazda MX-5s, powered entirely by sustainable fuel.
Celebrating 35 years of the iconic roadster, four examples from the firm’s heritage fleet were chosen – a 1990 1.6-litre Mk1 from the car’s launch year in the UK, a 10th Anniversary Mk2, a 25th Anniversary Mk3 and a 30th Anniversary Mk4 – before being filled with 100 RON E5 biofuel from SUSTAIN, which contains zero fossil fuels and is manufactured from agricultural waste and by-products from crops unfit for consumption.
With no modifications to the cars required, the drop-in fuel utilises carbon that already exists in the atmosphere, which the plants absorb as they grow, recycling it, rather than releasing additional CO2.
While the 100 per cent biofuel isn’t currently publicly available, SUSTAIN’s 80 per cent fuel is, and Mazda has been running its entire heritage fleet on the sustainable fuel – including all generations of rotary-powered RX-7.
“Achieving the first-ever drive from Land’s End to John O’ Groats on 100 per cent sustainable biofuel is something we’re extremely proud of,” said David Richardson, director at SUSTAIN. “Sustainable fuel allows us to keep vehicles such as these on the road for years to come, whilst reducing their environmental impact.”
“Over the 1000-mile trip, we calculated that around 981kg of CO2 was saved by using SUSTAIN. Electric vehicles are increasing, but there are many millions of combustion engine cars on our roads – it surely makes sense to reduce the emissions from those vehicles if we can.”
