See all Motoring NewsThe 'wall of death', an octane-fuelled, travelling daredevil show, has long entertained crowds with gravity defying motorcycles and small cars. Nik Berg of Mazda’s ZoomZoom magazine obviously thought it’d be fun to get involved and brought along a Mazda2 to the Demon Drome wall of death to play.
Mazda makes a lot of the 2’s low weight, that no doubt helping it take on the gravity defying stunt. Even so, a Mazda2’s 950kg kerb weight is somewhat greater than the combined weight of the wall’s more usual man on a motorbike user.
The wooden walled circle was originally constructed in 1927 in the USA and shipped to the UK not long after. Additional strapping and some strengthening helped the Mazda2 take to the wall, while some modifications to the car were undertaken to reduce the weight further.
All the seats were removed, and a race seat was fitted, which was occupied by Demon Drome’s Dynomyte Dave Seymour. The suspension was prepared by Mazda UK’s race team, Jota, it being raised and firmed up to prevent it compressing at the two and a half g the 2 would pull driving on the wall.
Even though it looks death defying the Dynomyte Dave never had the 2 out of second gear, maxing out at around 50km/h. The airbags and stability controls were also disabled for the run.
All good fun, though not at all easy: as small as the 2 is it required the team at Demon Drome to build the wall - with just a 31ft diameter - around car, and remove two of the 18 panels to get it out.