With a new sponsor, new colors, and new vigor, the RE Amemiya RX-7 (now named ORC AMEMIYA SGC-7) took the checkered flag in the first race of th 2008 Super GT Series! Drivers Hiroyuki Iiri and Ryo Orime finished 14.8 seconds ahead of the 2nd place car, the #2 Privée KENZO Asset Shiden.

Congratulations to the new team! Amemiya-san has put many hours into the new team. After clenching the 2006 Super GT series victory, it looks like 2008 is off to a very good start!

Hiroyuki Irie: "I'm happy, but I'm also relieved. I became the No. 1 driver for our team last season but was unable to win. Now I have won the first race of my second season. The Yokohama Rubber's tires have been a good match for our machine, and if we do things right, we should be able to get another win."

Ryo Orime: "This is my first win in the GT, so all I can say is that I am very happy. The machine is in very good condition, and it was great that the Yokohama Rubber's tires didn't lose their grip all the way to the finish. The last ten laps felt very long for me. Now I am going to do my best to help us get a second win."

Sunrise, FL (02/21/2008) -A limited edition (250 units) plaque with an actual lug nut from the winning #70 GT Mazda RX-8 for the 2008 Daytona Rolex 24 hour race. With 2 color pictures, one shot of the winning crew and drivers and the other, an action shot of a pit stop. A great way to help the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), as we will donate $10.00 for every plaque that is sold.

Mazda had a very good weekend in the ROLEX Daytona 24 hours race in Florida. The #70 Mazda RX-8 piloted by Sylvain Tremblay, Nick Ham, David Haskell, and Raphael Matos took the checkered flag, coming in 1st place in GT Class, 9th over all. Three of the Speedsource built cars came in the top 10 in GT Class, top 20 overall!!

The #69 SpeedSource Mazda RX-8 piloted by 2007 Bob Akin Cup winner, Emil Assentato, Jeff Segal, Nick Longhi and Lonnie Pechnik came in 5th in class, 13th overall.

RACES: Rolex 24 at Daytona & Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring
YEARS: 34 -- 1973-2007
WINS: 33 (and counting)

In the 1973 12 Hours of Sebring, Ray Walle, a New Jersey Mazda dealer, and Richard Schuck drove a Mazda RX-2 to 2nd place in the IMSA Touring 2500 class, and 26th overall, having started 61st on the grid. Walle, teaming with Tom Reddy scored the first class win at Daytona for Mazda in 1975 and further demonstrated the endurance of the engine as he drove the race car from New Jersey to the track, and home again after the race!

Thanks to its combination of Mazda’s trademark Zoom-Zoom performance and excellent environmental efficiency, the hydrogen rotary engine (Hydrogen RE) is one of the leading lights in Mazda's efforts to develop the power plant of the future. To demonstrate the exceptional environmental performance of this engine that burns hydrogen to generate motive power and emits zero CO2, Mazda has been leasing the Mazda RX-8 Hydrogen RE to corporations and local government bodies since 2006. In particular, the RX-8 Hydrogen RE not only offers clean performance, it also maintains a driving feel characteristic of a vehicle powered by a conventional gasoline internal combustion engine. With its dual-fuel system, the RX-8 Hydrogen RE can be switched between hydrogen and gasoline fuel at the touch of a button, and although it is an alternative fuel vehicle, it offers all the other acclaimed attributes of the base model RX-8, including its seating capacity for four adults.

Half way across the globe from the Detroit Auto show, the Tokyo Auto Salon roared into the Land of the Rising Sun last weekend with a conference hall full of wildly tuned machines. At the show, Mazda exhibited the 'RX-8 Mazdaspeed Concept,' a reference exhibit for the proposed Mazdaspeed parts available aftermarket Series-2 RX-8, from Mazda. Similar to the Series-1 body kits, interior and suspension parts, these will be for sale at Mazdaspeed dealer's parts departments after the series-2 shows up on the shores of the US later this year.

Mazda was able to announce today that a multi-year partnership with BP and their Castrol brand will bring new paint schemes to Mazda's top level sports car racing programs.

In ROLEX GT, the #70 Mazda RX-8 piloted by Sylvain Tremblay, Nick Ham, David Haskell, and Raphael Matos will take the green flag at the upcoming ROLEX 24 at Daytona in new Castrol Syntec colors. The #70 Mazda (in its new livery) was part of a very special integration of race cars from Mazdaspeed Motorsports in Mazda's vehicle display at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit....with race cars matched up with their street going cousins in the display, it reinforced the fact that there are more Mazdas and Mazda powered vehicles road racing on any given weekend than any other brand. The paint scheme on the RX-8 was also a direct tie-in to the Mazda Furai concept which Mazda unveiled to the media today. The dashed lines on the rear fenders and nose are the latest interpretation from Mazda vehicle designers, inspired by the paint scheme of the 1991 24 of Le Mans winning Mazda 787B. Tremblay and Ham will be behind-the- wheel-duo in the full 2008 ROLEX GT schedule.

RotaryNews.com was invited to an early morning press conference dress rehearsal at NAIAS on Monday morning in Cobo Hall. While we knew the Furai would be shown, we did not know they would be rocking the hall with 3 Rotor music. More to come from RotaryNews.com, including answers to your questions and more from Mazda. Click through to see the Video!

MAZDA
FURAI CONCEPT: 

THE
EMBODIMENT OF ZOOM-ZOOM

 

NAGARE: (pronounced
“na-ga-reh”), Japanese for flow

and
the embodiment of motion

FURAI:     (pronounced “foo-rye”),
Japanese for sound of the wind

 

Furai is the sort of car that could
only come from a company that incorporates the “Soul of a Sports Car” into
everything it builds, but with an eye toward the future and the environment
through the use of renewable fuels. 
Driving toward sustainability, Furai was initially tuned to operate on
100 percent ethanol fuel, the first time a racing three-rotor rotary engine has
been fueled by ethanol.  

Research continues in earnest with partner BP into other renewable and
future fuels, including ethanol gasoline blends like E10.

2009 MAZDA RX-8:

FURTHER EVOLUTION FOR THE ROTARY REVOLUTION

 

Launched in 2003, the Mazda RX-8 hit the global market with a serious
bang.  The RX-8 has won more than
50 global awards since its release including 2003 RJC Car of the Year in Japan
Australia's Wheels

magazine's Car of the Year for 2003, 2003 International Engine of the Year,
2004 Singapore Car of the Year, the 2004 U.S. Best Sports Car and UK Car of the
Year 2004.  It was also named on Car and Driver
magazine's Ten Best list for 2004, 2005, and 2006.  All together, Mazda has sold nearly
167,000 RX-8s around the world.

For 2009, Mazda will further the evolution of the four-door, four-seater
sports coupe, giving RX-8 a refreshed exterior and interior design, enhanced
performance and a new R3 sport package for the ultimate driving enthusiast.

Unchanged is the core of the RX-8 – a high-powered, lightweight
and perfectly balanced machine powered by the world-renowned twin-rotor RENESIS
rotary engine.

“Dating back to the Cosmo Sport released in 1967, every sports car ever
developed by Mazda has had the same fundamental mission – to provide car
lovers with a vehicle that’s fun-to-drive, exciting to look at and easy to
own,” said Tetsu Nakazawa, Mazda North American Operations’ RX-8 vehicle line
manager.  “The 2009 RX-8 embodies
that mission, conveying the unique and distinctive Mazda brand DNA to the
fullest.”

To enhance the highly successful RX-8, Mazda engineers focused on
innovation in three key areas for the 2009 RX-8: styling, performance and
packaging.  “The enhancements made
to RX-8’s exterior, interior, packaging and performance takes it to a whole new
level of visual and driving excitement,” remarked Nakazawa.