drive your RX8 to Road America this weekend.... it's all Mazda and there's big NEWS
 

o k maybe you know that this weekend at Elkhart Lake Wisconsin’s Road America is totally insane as far as Mazda Racing along w the Mazda Corral Midwest Rotary Rally....

but did you know that

Mazda's LMP2 American Lemans entry, currently running second in class just received an increase in the restrictor for the 3 rotor motor?

probably another 70 hp.. there are other rumors about a new engine this weekend but i would prefer to defer until i know for sure. Road America is Jamie Bach’s home track so if you want to see Mazda on top of the Podium at the end of a Major Race ‘best gas up the car and head to Wisconsin.

125 laps, 500 miles at Road America sunday.

of course there's also...

Star Mazda and extremely competitive series w Bobby Rahal's son kicking major ... Marco Andretti too but you can throw a blanket over the entire field.

along w the Le Mans cars the Speedworld GT cars do the same 500 miles. ferraris, maseratis, corvettes, vipers, BMWs.

the Speedworld Touring cars... Mazda 6 is near the front of this race

the Trans Am

and there's 2 days where you can put your RX8 on the track for some touring and anything else you can get away with. last year i passed a 427 cobra in the carousel w my FD. o k it was Frank Bennett's but i was driving. a mere $50 gets you on the track. less than a full tank of 93 RX8 to play w as Cam and Candy will be our guests for the weekend.

and the mazda corral. and the mazda Party... MRR

link:


https://www.rx8club.com/midwest-rotary-rally-86/midwest-rotary-rally-road-america-68092/

howard coleman

Wish I was gonna be in town! I'd go!!! BTW, theres a whole sticky for it below :D

Do u need to register for this? How do you sign up? Or is it just a show up type thing?

here's where all the info is ...have fun!!! and post pics!!!

hummm... you can't get there from here! Will I be able to watch it on Speedvision?

The ALMS race will be on SpeedTV. The Midwest Rotory Rally I fear will not. I don't think, they feel, we rate. :D

If I can watch the P2, I'll be happy! The really sad thing is that on Speed, they really do not give the Mazda much air time. I'm really glad to here they will be giving it a little relief in the restrictor area. They have been held back way too long. I know when the Petit Le Mans comes to Road Atlanta this fall it probably will not get much attention then either as the P2 Porsche will be making it's debut.

I live about 15 miles from Elkhart Lake. I probably won't go out on the track, but I'll just take a drive out there and cruise around town for awhile. It should be nice to see some other 8's around for a change. They are few and far between around here.

The old restrictor plate was 49.1mm (1.933"). That is a total of 2.92 square inches in area. The new one is 53.5mm (2.10"). That is 3.46 sq. inches in area or an 18% increase in area. Remember the entire engine has to breathe through that! Even the new restrictor which is better than the old one is tiny. This is a 3 rotor peripheral port engine. 3 rotors! Your 2 rotor Renesis engines that make far less power breathe through a single throttlebody that is 75mm (2.95") or 6.83 sq. inches in area and your intakes flow just as much as it does. Kind of makes you look at your intake in a whole new way doesn't it! With the 49.1mm restrictor plate, the engine made around 400 hp. Horsepower gain doesn't always follow flow increase in percentage but it usually stays fairly close. This means that if they could get 18% more airflow to the engine, they could theoretically pick up 72 hp!!! It is probably a little less than this though. Speedsource is no longer building their engines. This has been moved to Atlanta. The new engine will have a better optimized intake system (hopefully the return of the variable intake as it is still allowed in the rules) and a properly tuned exhaust system around their needs. Remember that the car was built in only 10 days. They literally just placed a 3 rotor in a car and sent it off to the races without optimizing it for it's job. These changes alone mean more power for the car over a broader range. Another change of the rules for the car is that they are allowed to carry more fuel now. Yes that does affect lap times somewhat but not nearly as much as making an extra pitstop over the competition.

So far their competition is producing around the 480+ hp mark and Porsche will be pushing over 500 hp. If they could pick up 70 or so with the new restrictor and a few more over a wider range with the new intake manifold setup and exhaust, they will be quite competitive. Also remember that since the car was built so fast, alot of the rear of the car is from a Courage C60. This car is a C65. They had to use a conglomerate of parts to get the rotary to work. This all adds up in weight and because of it they are about 100 pounds heavier than they should be. Hopefully this will be an area they address in the near future. Remember they weigh more and make less power but are still in 2nd place! This has been due to reliability more than anything. Their lap times have been off several seconds from the others. Fortunately as they get the weight down a little and the power up, they will be right there at the front.

BK Motorsports has also hinted that the car should be worked out well enough over the next year that it may make an appearance at the 24 hours of LeMans in 2006. Let's hope so! That would be a wonderful thing.

I'd like to come down for the Petit. The last time I was there was for the 1981 SCCA Runoffs.

Ya'll come on down, we have a great bunch of 8'ers down here and love to have a great time at the track. We're just getting our thread started for the event:

https://www.rx8club.com/se-rx-8-forum-30/petit-lemans-road-atlanta-sept-29-oct-2-a-68233/

Oh my... I think I'm hijacking this thread... sorry! :o

Greetings from the NE region!

I'll be at RA for the ALMS event, racing in the Skippy National series. Our track time is fairly sparce, so I'll look around for the Mazda corral.

Hope to see you all there!

I'll see if I can scare up some name tags. That would be nice for me at least, I'm kinda shy

You, shy? I might be able to go but only for the day. Which is the best day to go?

I would prob say Sunday. Thats the day of the actual racing. I can be shy!

From the previous pictures, it looks like they are gathering on the inside/paddock area. Near the bridge after turn 3 (Flag station 4). Is it still the Sargento Cheese bridge?

We moved our spot this year, it was too damn loud

Skip Barber is located right across the Bill Mitchel Bridge. I'll take a walk tomorrow (Friday) after qualifying and look for you guys.

I ran midpack all day today and qualified 9th of 19 for race 1 tomorrow. Hopefully I can work the draft and get a little luck. Look out for car 71.

Charles

run em!