The Speedsource Mazdaspeed RX-8 finished second at the Grand Am GT class at Miami just today. It was leading until the last 5mins of the race, passed by a Pontiac GTO, almost... almost managed to regain the lead on the final straight, it was close, something like half a car length at the finish line.

Overall the car was pretty fast, qualified well, oh, and one interesting thing I noticed was the glowing exhaust header and also when it accelerates out the pit, the exhaust spits out a foot long flame at the exhaust for a few seconds, almost like a blow torch!! I thought that was pretty cool
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CandyDirty live

 

Good for them! I wonder when this may get shown on TV again.
Paul.

 

I believe the next one is mid april at VIR, busy weekend with both GrandAm classes, ST and GT where you can find RX-8s. the ST RX-8s dominated last year, and the GT RX-8 should/hopefully finish with a good season too! Unfortunatly the other GT RX-8 ran by Goldin bros arent doing so well, finished 3rd last, they were pretty slow and got zero TV coverage.

P.S. There are over 10 RX-8s competing in the ST class

FYI, ST class RX-8s are running stock engine with minimal modifications to the car and GT is a tubeframe + 3-rotor + carbon fibre panels

edit: Ohhhh the commentators were saying the 3-rotor was getting GREAT milage
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Problems with nexium

 

Cool, I don't really watch auto racing...but if there is a RX8 in it I'd love to watch it.

Are there any RX8 race video's on the net? Like a whole race...not just a guy at a track which I've seen plenty and enjoy.

 

Out of sheer surfing luck I stumbled on the last 5 minutes of the race. It looked like the 8 just ran out of room at the end there - it seemed to be gaining on the GTO-R.

 

the rotary does get good gas mileage in racing situations. In Le Mans they got slightly more than most of the piston cars, allowing it to pit less.

 

NOOOOOOOOOOOO. I haven't watched it yet and now I already know who got spots 1&2.

 

You mean the little "underpowered" RX8 came in second to the "Heavily Powered" GTO by only a half of a car length? You have to be messing with us!

 

No surprise there. Everyone knows the GTO is a huge, understeering land barge.

 

It wasn't an RX8. It was a tube frame race car with Rx8-esque body work.

 

^and let us not forget teh 3 rotor engine it was using

by the way i hear mazdaspeed is going to be selling it (or at least the components) to the public

 

Hmm I dont think we are underpowered(3-rotor), the car just handles too well(tubeframe), compared to the Pontiac GTO, which is huge and have worse aero-dynamics.

Maybe a little overpowered...

One thing I didnt like was that the RX-8 was often referred to as "little" lol, its always, the little RX-8, that little rotary... hahaha...And it didnt get a lot of TV coverage even it was placed 1st for almost 30mins. When the porsche GT3 was first, the camera was on it, when the RX-8 was first, they switch to DP class cars. Their focus is still on domestic cars.
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Prilosec Classaction

 

since when are porsche's considered domestic?

 

the cars are for sale by speedsource and mazdaspeed $ 280,000 a pop.

renesis 8: get use to it, those of us that remember when mazda was really into racing this allways hapeng theres something about mazda that the media dont like for example they interview the second place finish in dp but not the guys from speedsource and the car thet led most of the race and lost it because it rang out of space and dint want to make a crash and mazda is one of theyr main sponsors.

on another note it was a fantastic race I allmost have a heart attack at the end, the guys from speedsource have the car to beat this year, I recorded the entire race

 

I'm left to wonder how much better the ALMS P2 car would be doing if it were preparred by speedsource

 

I feel like in that movie...how much just for a sip, lol...how much for just the 3-rotor engine? LOL

Please tell me you can share this video...that would be sweeeeeet! I've never seen a full race with the RX8.

 

it use to be, and dint do any better in turns of performance, maybe if it was a completly speedsource project

 

I recorde it on my dish reiciver, remember that the GT cover its limited most of the race its DP I also have most of the 2005 ALMS season, and the gran am st 2005 season

 

wow... you ARE rotary crazy.... I wasnt near the tv when the RX-8 was passed. So the big pontiac just pushed it out?

Heh, I should start recording it on my DVD recorder, but i need to get a dual layer DVD 1st, if you guys want, i could probably post a clip or two from future races. But gotta keep it short, 2 hrs = 4.7GB... maybe i can a way to compress it...
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BrooklynAvery live

 

Think it was rigged?

 

The rx-8 ran out of room, there was a DP in front of him that broke hart and the pontiac put it nose along side the rx-8 on the inside line. one thing that you see in this race is the diference in engines, when the pontiac comes out of coners it jumps and lets the rx-8 far back but at the end of the strait the rx-8 was passing the pontiac, the diference of a hi hp engine and a hi torque engine.

 

Yeah, it was a shame, the RX8 driver wasn't agressive enough. Towards the end of the race, figures he doesn't have to risk pushing past the DP, pontiac driver jumps on the opportunity and passes them both into turn one. I lost a kart race the same way once - didn't know second place was right behind me and i got held up by a lapped car, its an easy mistake to make.

With the RX-8 in second on the last lap, he made a helluva charge outta the final corner, the GTO's torque get a few lengths on him out of he corner, but the 8s top end was catchin up on the straight. The 8 driver was smart and went way up on the banking, then dived down to gain more speed for the pass attempt and almost made it (i think the gap was half a car length. One more lap and the 8 woulda got him. Very exciting stuff! Too bad they didn't get that kind of coverage the whole race, I bet it was an awesome battle most of the way.

 

it was an awesome battle, they change position several times during the race, it was rally exciting!!!!!

my wife thoug I was going nuts from all the shouting

 

I finally watched it yesterday, even though I already knew the results (see earlier post). The freaking Proto car!!! They are always in the way, lol.

 

People cant catch onto a joke. Now that makes me laugh even more! I love these Forums!