Just watched round 6 of the Star Mazda series on Speed Channel. You know these cars are all open wheel formula type racers powered by the RENESIS. At the Mosport Canada race, I noticed that the pace car was a white Honda S2000!!! What's up with that?! The RX-8 should be the Pace Car!

I've watched a few other rounds of this series, but never paid attention to the pace car before. Anyone notice what kind of pace car was used at the other tracks?

 

thats weak! Maybe honda decided to go rotary and not tell anyone ?

 

Hi dudes. I race in the Star Mazda Series.... They now got a Blue RX8 for pace car. It will be on Road America broadcast which will be shown september 19th at 2:00 PM (ET) on Speed Channel. Great racing and a lot of fun.... Look for me #1, red car!
Luis Schiavo :D
FOR COOL PICS VISIT WWW.LSCHIAVO.COM

 

Wow, that's great to hear Luis !

Tell us more the Star Mazda Race cars and how the RENESIS performs under it !

 

Hey smoker, The formula car has the same engine as our RX8. However it is able to do 0-60 MPH in 3.3 seg. The race car only weighs 1200 lbs (driver included) vs 3300 lbs for the Rx8.
The car was tested on an airport runway at Sebring,FL and it got to 170 MPH but without wings (which means no downforce and no drag). However with the wings is a different story. We were only able to go to 153 MPH with a very low wing settings at Road America. That is not too bad but is not what it is shown in the commercial either. However, racing those cars is a lot of fun. Watch the series on speed channel !!! . The complete broadcast schedule is on www.starmazda.com

Luis Schiavo
#1 Pro Formula Mazda
FOR COOL PICS VISIT WWW.LSCHIAVO.COM

 

It's the same engine, but were there any "hardware" modifications (porting, different displacements, higher revving)? Different fuel maps at least, I would think.

I'd like to hear some of the specs that aren't released to the public. It's good marketing to say "we use the RX-8 engine in our race cars," but there are so many things you can change about/around an engine and still call it the same engine.

 

The only difference is that we use a lighter flywheel and a different engine mapping. Other than that, it is the same everything. RPM's are limited to 8,500, no porting, no diff. displacement, no diff revving.

 

Your fuel cutoff is still ~9600 right?

 

Why do they limit you to 8,500?

 

To make the engine last the whole season.. Costs a lot to rebuild them.

 

Lschiavo

How is the lighter machine combined with rotary, with a lighter engine at the back, does it feel difference than a heavier piston engine?

How do you think with the torque map you have in the car, how the garage people tune the car with the gear ratio to suit low speed corners?

 

We use a special racing hewland gearbox, the gears are really different to the ones in the car. The ecu and the fuel system is different. I dont think you can put that mapping in our rx8.

The car feels great, it goes really quick from 0-100 mph. It feels light and the engine feels very alive. :D

 

Yay!!! They got the pace car right!

Cool, a real racer in our forum. I love watching the series and I'll be on the look out for RED #1. Those cars just fly, and it's great to hear the scream of the RENESIS in a race car application. Thanks for all the inside info!