It's a bit of a shame those 427's never made it into production. Probably not something I would have gone for - but I would have liked to see them out there.

KEV

The ratios of demand as oppossed to expence were not on the 427 side , but it would have been sweet.

Well, I note the 350Z lasted a bit over 4 hrs, and the 200SX's seems to have carked it as well.

It would be good to see some rotary power in there -- perhaps next year?

Perhaps an opportunity for a RX8 Aussie Forum cruise day - 24 drivers get an hour each by investing $3000 each to buy and prepare an RX8 and run in the event.

We could use the combined wisdom of all these forum postings .. it might look something like this ...

get all the Mazspeed go fast bits, the hotest ECU, a special colour coded key, a light weight Hymee racing grill, some oil from Mazda would be useful as well as developoing some hybrid fuel by formulating a mix of Vortex, Gold and Optimax ... it would be sensational.

Of course we would need to do the advanced Murcott driver training.

Then we sell the car post event and distribute the proceeds!!

Cheap Fun!

I expect that all Mazda fans know that they won the 24hr at Le Mans in 1991. :)

But just in case anyone is interested, here's a link to a page about the 787b that became the first rotary, and the first Japanese car, to win that race.

The 4 small photos are all clickable to show a bigger pic.

Click here for 787B (http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/frame.mv?file=car.mv&num=304&left=)

I wonder what happened to those cars since 1991?

Edit:
Cough, cough, just realised that Kev is talking about the 24hrs at Bathurst... :o Maybe we could borrow those 787s......

Originally posted by timbo
Well, I note the 350Z lasted a bit over 4 hrs, and the 200SX's seems to have carked it as well.

It would be good to see some rotary power in there -- perhaps next year?

Funny you should say that but the PRO-DUCT RX-7 team were to race in the 24hr but had trouble dyno tuning the engines a week out from the event . As it would have been a serious rush job, they opted not to rebuild them & withdrew instead.

Last year, the same Rx-7 had a lean out at 10pm along conrod & spat the turbo. (Engine survived). We changed the engine in 3 hours & was back on the trackby 1am in the morning. Those that know the FD RX-7 would know that its easier to change the whole engine than the turbo's alone.

By 10pm in the evening the little rotary racer had crept up to 5th outright & would have been a serious chance at a podium finish. 3 lost hours later & it finished the 24hr in 25th place.

Mazda & several private racers have been making noises about racing the RX-8 but with just an atmo 13B to power 1350kg, it would be a tail ender in GTP. Some uninformed punters are saying the RX-8 is to weak for racing due to its lack of B-pillar but obviously don't know that a proper JGTC spec roll-cage would turn the car into a steel cell.

The best place for it is production cars but Mazda have made noises about Nations cup. .......:eek:

While this is a totally ridiculas proposal there is a chance that it would work as long as PROCAR allowed a special JGTC (Japanese Grand Touring Championship) rule that applies to the RX-7's racing there.

To be competitive against the others in the field they allowed the RX-7's the chance to race with the 3-rotor 20B engine from the Eunos Cosmo. Although it can't be turbocharged like the other cars in the field.

In atmo form, the 20B engines are good for 500hp & prove very reliable. While they are no match against the 1000hp GTR Skylines & 900hp Supra's, the RX-7 drops into the lower GT-300 which is technically eligable to compete in Nations cup under PROCAR rules.

Sounds good.........??? It does & would allow the RX-8 a chance to match the mid fielders but with the entrenched bias against the rotary engine from all motoring power brokers in Australia I see little chance of it being allowed to be competative.........

put me down for a $3k seat for 60 mins..

whats that, around $50 per min?

++dez;

Unfortunately the rules are 3 or 4 drivers and to extend it would cause all sorts of safety issues - so we'd need to increase the price, involve Mazda and/or the dealer network for sponsorship and field 6 cars! :D :D :D

Imagine driving them in rainbow formation around Bathurst for a few of hte laps.

Regards the Monaro production thing - those Ferraris and Porches etc. are not available as "production" cars either. So the 427 fits the rules the same as they do.

Yeah - it would have been nice to see a rotory or 2, even a 26B :D

I think with the success of the RX7 in the previous 12 hour races, and the Targa etc, I think Mazda Australia would be worried that anything less than 1st place for an RX8 would have been bad press on the new model.

Cheers,
Hymee.

and for those of us who's closest brush with the event was this thread - who won?

++dez;

Peter Brock in a Monaro..........

didn't he drive an original Monaro back in the late 70's or early 80's and some dick head rolled a rock out onto the track ( down a hill ) and took his car out big time?

I remember watching it in Cairns with an Uncle as a kid one time on a fly through from PNG to NZ for xmas or something, and in particular I recall that Australian's all rang the TV channel and offered to donate so much money that he managed to afford two new cars..

or something like that? was that him?

++dez;

ps: as you can tell I'm not a big Super Car racing oficionardo.. give me F1's and I'll give you a run for your money, but V8's and all that jazz.. nahhh..

Ummm... nope.. that was Dick Johnson... in a Falcon (the true blue falcon). Peter Brock was the guy that Dick Johnson was beating at the time.
Brock has nine wins at bathurst (that's the record) and is trying to claim the 24hr (or at lease the press is) at his 10th. But it doesn't really count cuz it is a different race format.