Mazda has developed a taste for elaborate publicity efforts as of late, especially in promoting the new Mazda MX-5 Miata sports car. They recently launched a dedicated advertising campaign for the car emphasizing its driving joy, and now they want to talk a little about the engineering excellence that has resulted in that joy.

True to form, they have come up with an elaborate way to show us the benefits of 50:50 weight distribution. In this video Mazda engineers put their money where their mouth is and drive a Mazda Mx-5 up an aluminum balance beam. Here’s what happens next:

Dave Coleman, Mx-5’s product manager: “Having the weight distribution 50:50 makes the car behave more predictability and more constantly.  Weight is the single most important factor in developing this car – when you’re trying to make a car perform well you do it with brute force with lots of power and big tires or you can go completely the opposite way and reduce the amount of work that the car has to do respond to the driver’s input by making it lighter.”