The past weekend marked the start of the 2010 Rolex Sports Car Series with the 48th running of the iconic Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona. The 'twice-around-the-clock' race pushes drivers, crew and car to the extreme edge of endurance. For the SpeedSource team, the start of the season brought a refreshing change of scenery after having spent the offseason building a fleet of Mazda racecars for Grand-Am competition. A solid performance from the entire crew and strong running for the #70 Castrol Syntec SpeedSource Mazda RX-8 brought home Mazda's 23rd class win at the historic race as well as SpeedSource's 2nd win in three years.

The Rolex Sportscar Series returned to action this past weekend in Daytona Beach, FL for the annual Roar Before the 24. The three-day test at Daytona International Speedway offered many teams the first opportunity to run brand new cars in preparation for the Rolex24. For SpeedSource, it signaled the completion of an off-season surge that included the construction of three new Rolex Series RX8 GT cars and three new Mazdaspeed3 ST cars for the Continental Sportscar Challenge.

SOURCE: www.rallysportmag.com.au

Mazda Australia is eyeing off a podium finish at next year’s Targa Tasmania, with the Mazda RX-8 SP set to make its endurance rally return following what will be a further 12 months of development.

On its debut at this year’s Targa Tasmania, amid a field of powerful and expensive rally exotica, the turbocharged Mazda Motorsport RX-8 SP finished an impressive 10th outright at the hands of expert racing driver and 2008 Targa Champion Steve Glenney.

/Source:Automotive News/ The next-generation rotary engine from Mazda Motors isn't ready. The engine, unveiled at the 2007 Tokyo show under the code name 16X, was planned as the power plant for the next-generation RX-8 sports car to be launched in 2012.

Seita Kanai, head of Mazda research and development, said the engine does not meet the performance and fuel economy guidelines the automaker requires for a production model and it continues to work continues to cut the rotary's fuel consumption.

The code name refers to the increase in the current engine's displacement, from 1.3 liters to 1.6 liters.

The Tokyo Autoshow is a biannual (every other year) event that, in the past, has been the place where debuts such as the RX-7, and the RX-EVOLV occurred. This year, however, the autoshow is barely an international event, with all major non JDM car manufactures pulling out of the show. Even the Japanese domestic market manufactures have pulled back their plans, including Mazda. This will not be the year we see a new RX-7 concept, as confirmed by Mazda now. The displays at the 2009 Tokyo Autoshow will consist of a new piston engine line named "Sky" and a recycled concept small city car first debuted at the Paris Autoshow in 2008.

Exclusive to RotaryNews.com
by Edwin Krampitz, Jr. (ekrampitzjr)

Mazda has been coy about what the 16X rotor dimensions will be. Based on a bunch of detective work from the Mazda website and a recent US patent application, along with a lot of algebra and number crunching, I believe I have determined them:


Rotor radius (R) = 120 mm
Equidistance (a) = 2 mm

R' (R-prime) = R + a = 122 mm
Rotor eccentricity (e) = 18 mm
Rotor width (B or W) = 70 mm

K ratio = R/e = 6.67:1 (using R, not R')

Displacement using R' as Mazda (technically incorrectly) does:
798.8 cc/rotor, 1598 cc/engine

Major axis = 280 mm; minor axis = 208 mm

My confidence in the accuracy of these dimensions is very high, based on information in the patent application in particular. Read on for the technical details explaining how I determined these numbers....

September in Sydney, beautiful blue skies, warm weather and great conditions for Drag Racing. This would provide the back-drop to one of the greatest and most justly deserved performances provided by an Australian team in Drag Racing history in this country!!!


The three day weekend would start with the awards dinner on the Thursday night at the Rooty Hill RSL, where PAC customer Damien McKern would proudly accept his award as National Champion for Super Compact in it's inaugural year!!

Mazda Motor Corporation today delivered one Mazda Premacy Hydrogen RE Hybrid each to the City of Hiroshima and Hiroshima Prefecture government authorities in western Japan. The Premacy Hydrogen RE Hybrid is Mazda’s latest hydrogen rotary engine (RE) vehicle that uses hydrogen as a fuel and features a unique hybrid system. Including the first lease of a Premacy Hydrogen RE Hybrid to the Iwatani Corporation in May 2009, Mazda has now delivered three hydrogen hybrid vehicles to fleet customers to date. The City of Hiroshima and Hiroshima Prefecture each had a rotary engine RX-8 Hydrogen RE vehicle delivered in April 2006, making this the second hydrogen-fueled model that has been handed over to the local government authorities.

Will Nonnamaker wrote in to tell us that Mazdaspeed has announced that Team Sahlen will be campaigning 2 Mazda RX-8s in the 2010 ROLEX Grand American Sports Car Series. Team Sahlen will be a fielding a full contingent of drivers who have contributed to Mazda Championships through the years. For the #43 RX-8, the father and son duo of Joe & Wayne Nonnamaker will co-driver together, and Joe Sahlen & Will Nonnamaker will be partnered in the #42 RX-8.

Every year, the Monterey Historics bring classic race cars from around the world to the famous Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. This year, the RX-792P 4 Rotor was piloted by Mazda staff, and Actor Race Car driver Patric Dempsey. Weldon Munsey (Mazda Dealer Affairs Manager) qualified 10th out of 28th in a pack that included a ton of Porsche 962 and 956s on Friday. Patrick Dempsey ran it in Saturday morning warm-up and in the race. He finished 4th. Thanks to RotaryNews.com reader Allan Rodgers, he was the first to send in this story, even before Mazda Staff had a chance to email us!