OldGuy

I cant believe that with all the cups in there we are running 2nd to a MAZDA!!
a MAZDA!!! I havent seen what happened over night

fastmover

Keep in mind, that the mazda's are tubed frame cars with a carbon fiber body on them, the gt3's are still a factory production based unibody. Unfair build specs if you ask me.


Semper fi.

OldGuy

Good points
Did you ever answer my Cherry Point question and were you an AV-8er??

Terry L

IIRC, The Mazda RX8 is supposed to run a 240 HP no torque engine. What is in the race car - if it's the same engine the development is ridiculous.

seefouress

The most amazing thing to me was the reliability and power of the Mazda rotary engine throughout the 24 hour race! All the top GT3's were limping along (due to overheating they said) with a mandated 6000 max rpm limit toward the end, while the Mazda was still going strong!

At least it seemed that the old Porsche bugaboo of excessive rear tire wear was not a factor (?). As the season moves on to shorter races and tracks with lower average speeds, our Porsches should (hopefully) still be competitive against the Mazda, et al.

fastmover

Sorry, no I am not an av-8r, but I am an 8 year Marine veteran, Spent my first year on active duty in Iwakuni, Japan with MAG-12 (Marine Air Group-12). I choose the name for a football board I post on also. Because I am a JETS fan, so hence the fastmover screen name. You must of served in order to pick that up.

Semper fi.

OldGuy

I worked the Av-8B for 7 years on the program.
I was just curious

fastmover

The Harrier is my favorite Jet, did you work on the civilian side developing? Very cool.


Semper fi.

OldGuy

Yes as a civilian Naval engineer, not a contracter, but a DOD employee.

str8ner

How much for a track ready RX8? I am ready to trade my GT3 for one of these. I bet they are a lot cheaper. By the way, I acquired a spec miata last year and they really are a lot of fun. Makes you question your financial decision somtimes.

Stephan

OldGuy

I dont think you can get a track ready tube frame RX-8 unless you buy a factory race car.
the GT3 is probably the cheapest car that is as close to the race car as you can get.
Price a Chevy C6R.

Apex GT

I was running around the pits during the 24 hours. The inside scoop is that little Mazda rotary is making 550HP. The good news it will probably have a weight penalty moving forward to level the competition. As far as the smaller type tracks goes do not count these little rockets out! You really have to see it in the flesh to beleive it. Same old stroy at the end of the day, the P cars have infinite support and IP available, I am not so sure about the Mazda??

leif997

It would have to in order to rip by 997 cups like they were standing still...reliable little F 'ers, ain't they?....lets see how they fair when they start putting inlet restictors on them like they did to the RS'es before they were phased out for kicking the sh*t out of the DP cars!!

ECS

Yeah, I am really curious about all the overheating of the Cup cars. It was pretty chilly there, and I don't remember this happening at all last year.

SoloRacer

For the record, the engine in the Daytona RX8's is far from the engine in the RX8 you buy from the dealership. For starters the stock engine is a 2 rotor engine whereas the racing RX8's have a 3 rotor. The only car that Mazda made that came with a 3 rotor was the Mazda Cosmo from the early 90's. Next they port the hell out of it (peripheral porting - similar to running a large cam on a piston engine) and then employ a bunch of racing tricks to make it reliable.