Mazda has developed a stop/start system that it said can restart an engine in just 0.35 seconds.

Conventional stop/start systems use an electric starter get an engine going again when the driver is ready to accelerate. The process usually takes about 0.7 seconds, and sometimes creates a noticeable lag. Mazda’s new Smart Idle Stop System (SISS) makes use of direct injection to simply ignite the fuel inside the combustion chamber without doing any mechanical cranking.

Mazda will begin offering the system in 2009, but not in the United States. It decided a stop/start system would not offer American drivers much benefit, said product communications manger Jeremy Barnes, adding that the system works only in pure stop-and-go traffic common to cities like Tokyo.