Anyone know what the status of the R&T P2 Mazda is since the Lime Rock crash?

 

They're not on the entry list for Utah and Portland. So it looks like they'll miss the next two races because of the damage at Lime Rock and possibly preparing a new car.

 

my friend was at lime rock. so what happened?

 

The tv coverage said the car got into some debris or oil and made pretty hard contact with a guardrail and then the GT2 Ferrari slammed into them. The damage looked pretty extensive and may have damaged the tub.

 

I heard that the car was in pretty bad shape, that its going to be really hard to fix dont count on it entering any race soong

 

Yeah, that's what I figured. Unfortunate!! Perhaps we'll see the 4 rotor soon.

 

Official press release regarding the damage:

http://www.americanlemans.com/news/Article.aspx?ID=2272

 

Ditch that car and show us the 4 rotor =D
________
Glass weed pipe

 

^ the 4rotor is not allowed in the race anymore.... they banned it.

 

Since when? The rules say otherwise.

 

rotaries were banned due to unfair weight in 92 but they were allowed back in with a 3rotor in the courage.

 

I could have sworn we ran a 3 rotor in IMSA GTP lights in 94 (Won the driver's championship for Wayne Taylor I believe) and then in the WSC class of what I believe was Grand Am. We ran in LMP675 with the 3 rotor in 95 and 96 in ALMS, actually winning at Le Mans that year. That was followed by the return of 4 rotor powered chassis in 97 that had some level of success at LeMans and winning SRP at Daytona 24 HR in 2001.
The 3 and 4 rotor powerplants have been legal in various sactioning bodies for quite some time, I guess the only recent allowance is for the 4 to be allowed to run in LMP2. I think my information is mostly accurate.
Paul.

 

^ i guess im wrong then. i got the info from other people. thanks.

 

They were only banned for a year or 2. That's it. Even the variable length intake manifold is still allowed. Today with restrictor plate rules the rotary is at a very big disadvantage unfortunately.

 

Thanks for the link.

 

why isnt mazda using the 4rotor in the races now?

 

Most likely because Mazda dosen't make 4 rotors any more. They are a race only engine. And the rules would require an even smaller intake restrictor, making zero to minimal power gain.
Then there are the development costs.

 

With the new Lola car coming out soon, we may see some big changes as far as powerplants go. We may not. They are rumored to be looking into hydrogen as a fuel but I personally see this as a waste of time and don't think it will get past the experimental stage. There are a limited number of original Mazda 4 rotors in the world and Dennis Spencer owns most of them. It's not my place to spread rumors but let's just say I don't see him giving any of these up any time soon.

It is true that a 4 rotor would need a smaller restrictor plate which hurt total power. The current car isn't even using all of the tricks to make power that they could be. They are not using a variable length intake manifold which is only legal on a rotary although the Courage just doesn't seem to have enough room for it. This is probably the biggest reason. We'll see what will happen with the Lola. If they can get weight down to minimums, cooling reliable and get a variable length manifold on it, it might actually be competitive in their class but I still don't see them touching the Porsche cars. Keep in mind that the competition will also grow quite a bit next season.

I personally want to see Mazda Japan step back into the program as a more dominant and controlling force rather than as support for private teams.

 

i remember seeing something on rotarynews.com about the new Lola using a hydrogen? seems like the courage is having big problems with cooling.

 

I agreed completly, instead of developing such expensive proyect that might never work or be competitive why not get 2 or 3 cars runing with diferent setups to see what can be acomplish like acura will do next year.

 

Paul, theres very little info on the lmp675 that won lemans in 1996, when I tell people about it even rotary enthusiast they say they never heard anything about it, maybe you can get some info out, some pics and even a little video if posible, it is a magnificent achivement that should be well known and not forgotten.

Leo loco.

 

Mazda/Downing raced the Kudzu DLM that year. It was powered by a 3 rotor.I know they won their class and finishing a 24 hour endurance race is no small feat but in this case it was a matter of "you can't win if you don't finish". It was a rotary outlasting the competition type of victory. The Kudzu won it's class because it was the only car in it's class to finish the race. They placed 25th overall. There were only 25 cars that finished the race so they were the last place car that actually was still running. All of those cars that were behind them DNF'd.

Not much info available on that car but here is a picture of it.
http://www.mulsannescorner.com/dlm.htm

 

That's one handsome sonofagun leaning in toward the car with the cap on

 

That's because it's not you!!!

 

do all mazda race cars have simular looking headlights? lol. thanks for the info and pics.