The Capelling Wagon at the bank

A couple of days ago I had to take my wife to the bank and I managed to park my not so commonly seen imported wagon next to…an even less commonly seen imported Mazda Capella wagon. Mrs Drive automatically dismissed it as a ‘dark blue beat up old Mazda’ where I was wondering what exactly was the winding down sound I was hearing it make from the engine bay..

The winding down sound it seems was the ‘pressure wave’ supercharger winding down as I was looking (after a bit of research from good mate Google) from a late 80’s possibly early 90’s Mazda Capella supercharged diesel! Yes, a supercharged diesel. Apparently Mazda has been playing with this tech for years, I’d just missed this and focused on the rotary side of things instead. And this rare (well to me, I’ve never seen one before) Mazda Capella complete with Japanese sticker collection was driven by a very old lady to the occasional trips to the shops – amazing!

I had just one opportunity to grab a snap before the owner came back (probably wondering what some idiot was doing eyeballing her wagon) and it does look fairly tame:

 

But it was the Japanese stickers on the back that had me scratching my head some more. Is Mario the name of this wagon or was it some aftermarket Mazda Capella parts supplier no longer in business?

I was lucky enough to still be loading kids in the car when the old lady returned to start her wagon up – unsurprisingly it belched like a rough diesel truck, blew out some smoke and completely failed to excite anybody as it slowly peeled away to drive off (it sounded very similar to this one). Mrs Drive was right, pretty rough inside and out. For some reason I had visions of the ‘pressure wave supercharger’ winding up and the tires smoking like a bonfire as she flung it around the corner – er…maybe I should get out more.

Here’s how the Mazda Capella Supercharged Diesel wagon looks like from the front (now don’t get too overwhelmed!):

The ads in Japan for each years Mazda Capella Wagon was nothing short of awesome 😀

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSVBcuqJz1k

As for how one of them goes on the road? Google hasn’t provided me much to go on, save for an explanation on why the special blower was bolted on: With the need for more power as the demand for diesel grew, Mazda planted a pressure wave supercharger on their diesel engines in 1987, which were extremely popular as it offered the power of a gasoline engine while being more economical. Remember this was late 80’s early 90’s power so it would have been innovative in the day, not so much nowadays..

If you’re not sure how this things works, someone has helpfully put up a guide on Youtube with some pretty boring facts to stun people at your next cocktail party.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2SG666SW2w

Oh and someone also managed to run one on used cooking oil…

So anyone got one and want to let me know how they roll today? Let us know in the comments!

By the way if you have one (or any kind of Mazda Capella other than the supercharged diesel wagon) and you want to show your love to the world, a quick search on Amazon has come up with this delightful hoodie..