Mazda and bears

The Porsche sports car on snow and ice we skated. And what about the roadster Mazda MX-5? Easy! We go to Chelyabinsk, where the company arranges Mazda severe ice race. What we know about Chelyabinsk? In addition to the milling-machine Ivan Dulin and Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (CTZ), whose name was called the Soviet footwear with outer soles of car tires? A survey amongst friends revealed: it is easier to list what we do not know. For example, what is depicted on the emblem of a camel. That in Chelyabinsk, the Meridian Highway, passes geological boundaries of the Urals and Siberia. Finally, in the war years it was called Tankograd for good reason. By the way, Chelyabinsk is so severe that a miller Doolin are negatively and believe that such a famous city is not required. Mole, a character impracticable, and in general, in the place of Chelyabinsk could be any other industrial city - the writers of "Our Russia» just poked a finger at random on the map. Yes and no pipe-casting plant in Chelyabinsk. There is a Tube with the department "Height 239", a local landmark. And in Chelyabinsk many lakes. The ice of one of them, salted lake Smolino and ran mazdovskaya track. I must say that the organizers tried their best and the route turned really complicated. It is no accident because the journalists, the fastest time, will defend the honor of the Russian team at the European Championships Mazda MX-5 Ice Race 2011, which will be held in Sweden in February. War paint for a roadster selected by voting. As a result, the body of the MX-5 Russian team depicts a bear with missiles in their paws. Author of the idea - Denis Miroshnichenko from Zvenigorod. Have ice race one more reason. Since this year, Mazda Sport Academy began to teach winter driving in the MX-5 roadster. Now, besides the basic course Icy Sport on-liter "treshka" with "automatic" and "AWD» Turbo Sport on crossover CX-7, will offer customers advanced racing course on Advanced Sport "em-x-fifth." Classes are held until March 19 at the racetrack Tushino-ring "once a week on Saturdays. Education on the rear wheel drive roadster will cost 15,000 rubles, as much and the rate at crossover CX-7. MX-5 - the least winter car from the entire line of Mazda. However, inside the warm, draft-no, and the furnace runs for glory. And Outboard temperature - minus 27 Celsius. There is in this winter's madness is a certain logic. Because the MX-5 - the most affordable in Russia roadster with a folding hard top. And some owners are using it as the only car all year round. Before the race begins - learning to drive on ice. Chief mazdovsky "academician" racer Oleg Kesselman conducts instruction and provides three exercises. The first - the classic Snake: to cones in a row and offset. They learn to operate the wheel ahead of the curve and not turning the wheel at large angles. The second exercise - the so-called "dumbbell": special track, which really is shaped like a dumbbell. Here we learn to slide and work the gas on the ice. Both exercises could pass as the MX-5, and the upgraded Mazda CX-7 crossover. All machines had been forced off the system stabilization. On the ice, it does not help. The third exercise - test rides on the highway. Learning machines - with automatic transmission and racing - with the "mechanics". Preparatory exercises if not raised the level of novice to professional racer, it is still possible to overcome a difficult challenge. Albeit with some unpleasant departures and reversals. However, on the parapet of hard frozen snow over night flying and professionals. Therefore, all the time, was on duty nearby technicals with a rope - pick-BT-50. By the beginning of the competition trail unrolled, and some areas of ice glittered menacingly. MX-5 with the "mechanics" was the car a more dramatic - here is the rear samoblok other, more athletic suspension settings. The best time of our arrival showed professional kartingist Nikita Kotrovsky. Finally, we visited the main attraction of Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant - shop "Height 239". It produces single-seam pipes of large diameter oil and gas industry. Chelyabinsk products are used for the construction of pipelines in seismically active areas of permafrost, as well as for laying on the seabed. "Height 239" produces pipe 18 meters long with a wall thickness of 38 mm and tube length of 12 meters with a wall thickness of 48 mm. 239 - is the height in meters above sea level, on which the shop. This is the first project in Russia so-called "white metal". It destroys the stable stereotype that working with metal can not be associated with clean clothes and white, and traditionally refers to polluting industries. On the background of conventional gray Soviet shops Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant shop "Height 239" hits riot of colors. Here on the guild structures scatter drawn carriages, that the building in bright coloring. Inside - the same colorful orgy. Few people in colorful helmets and overalls, scurrying around the monstrous machine. A feeling that the creators of wonderful shop - big fans of Lego. The vast majority of workers - men. Women, for example, work kranovschitsami and NDT inspectors. The process of manufacturing pipes impressive. That crane takes a huge sheet of metal. That's a huge press a special blade bends it like paper. Here are cooked ready-pipe. Total impose three joints - the technological, internal and external. Then cover the pipe anticorrosive. For all the tour does not leave a feeling of unreality. Hovers over the shop gallery with wooden floor, the edges are the laurels in the tub. It's really clean production. It sounds absurd, but the work does not take smokers. A caught behind smoking is fired from the factory. Nevertheless, the production of wonderful shop is popular. Text: Eugene Bagdasarov Photo: Eugene Bagdasarov and Sergey Crosses (Mazda)