Weekend News Round-up: 2016 Mazda MX-5 Reviews, Lane-Splitting is Safer and Aston Martin Going Electric

by Mark Stevenson

Published: June 1st, 2015

weekend news round up 2016 mazda mx 5 reviews lane splitting is safer and aston

Surprise! TTAC didn’t have a single writer at the Mazda MX-5 media preview. Instead, here’s a few different reviews of Japan’s favorite roadster from other outlets and a run-down of what you may have missed over the weekend.

MIATA! MIATA! MIATA!

2016 Mazda MX-5 Review (AutoGuide)

“A smaller Miata is a better Miata.”

2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata 2.0L First Drive (AutoBlog)

“Championing the roadster revolution.”

First Drive: 2016 Mazda Miata (The Detroit Bureau)

“Forward into the past.”

The 2016 Mazda Miata Is Undeniably Fantastic (Jalopnik)

“This car rocks.” Travis says a longer review will be available later this morning. UPDATE: It’s up.

2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata Tested! (Car & Driver)

“The Meta Miata.”

NOT MIATA! NOT MIATA! NOT MIATA!

Lane-splitting for motorcycles is safe, says landmark Berkeley study (LA Times)

Bottom line: riders who lane-split are safer overall and accidents involving lane-splitting are less likely to cause serious injury than other motorcycle accidents. California is on the cusp of making lane-splitting legal.

Revisiting The Cars Of May (Speedhunters)

“With the sixth month of the year now upon us, it’s time to take a look back at the feature cars of May 2015.”

Aston Martin plots future hybrid models (Autocar)

Another builder of sporting GT cars is planning a drive down Electric Avenue. Aston Martin could also see its lineup expand to seven separate models.

Nissan rules out Navara-based SUV… for now (GoAuto.com.au)

Nissan Australia won’t be sourcing a truck-based SUV to go head-to-head with the Ford Everest, Toyota Fortuner and Holden Colorado 7. Australia also won’t get the new Murano even though it’s selling like hotcakes elsewhere.

Challenge Won: We Do 11 Seconds in the Dodge Charger Hellcat (Cars.com)

“We set out to see how close we could get to 11.0 seconds with a factory-fresh 2015 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat and drag strip rental of Byron Dragway in Byron, Ill.”

FIA looking for a new F1 team (AutoBlog)

New team would bring total to 12 with 24 cars on the grid in addition to 2016 entrant Haas.

Tesla loses fight with dealers to sell its cars in Texas (The Verge)

Two bills, which would have allowed direct sales of Tesla cars in Texas, have died on the floor.

Sprint Cup competitors form Driver Council (Motorsport.com)

“We’ve been trying to get all of our drivers together for about a year now,” says Danny Hamlin. Just don’t call it a ‘union’.

Goodwood festival adds drifting category (AutoBlog)

The end is nigh.

Mad Max before and after shots show what’s real and what’s fake (The Verge)

Even without CG, the explosions in Mad Max are still apocalyptic.

More as the day goes on…

[Photo credit: AutoGuide/Adam Wood]

#AstonMartin #California #LaneSplitting #Mazda #Miata #MX-5 #Nissan #Review #Study

Mark Stevenson

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6 of 32 comments

Lemmiwinks on Jun 01, 2015

The logic of the lane splitting report fails to make sense to me. 6000 reported accidents. 1000 of which involved lane splitting. Seeing as lane splitters spend the vast majority of their time on the road not actively splitting lanes, this says to me that there were 5000 accidents, and then an additional 1000 accidents caused by a practice which actually takes up a small fraction of a rider's road-time/miles. Am I missing something there?

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- Mark Stevenson on Jun 01, 2015
  
  The question to ask: is lane-splitting the main reason for the accident or was it just a "contributor"? Speed gets listed as a "contributor" to many accidents, but it isn't necessarily the cause.
  
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- Russycle on Jun 01, 2015
  
  Motorcyclists--the ones who aren't jerks-- only lane split when traffic is heavy, which tends to be when accidents occur, so I'm not sure the lane-splitting is causing the accidents.
  
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- Izzy on Jun 01, 2015
  
  @Russycle I only lane split when traffic is at a stand still or moving
  
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KixStart on Jun 01, 2015

It's easy enough to overlook motorcyclists as it is... permitting lane-splitting is not going to help. I've usually got my left side mirror adjusted further left to help control my blind spot but it leaves a hole in my view into which a motorcyclist on the line could fit. Managing congestion by permitting lane splitting does not seem like sane practice. This seems like a bad idea, unless the real intent is to increase the available donor organ pool.

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- Bryanska on Jun 01, 2015
  
  Amen. Congestion can benefit from other things. The fraction of motorcycles on the road is tiny, and the additional risk isn't worth it. If they're upset at being at risjk now, just wait until they're playing with fire in the same lane as a car that doesn't see them.
  
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