Originally Posted by rotarygod

I wish the amount of money that was spent on this years car was spent originally on the first attempt. The Racecar Engineering article even mentions that they could have had everything worked out properly but it would have taken about another 6 months or so. So what!!! I'd rather be the latecomer who does good than the guy to get there on time who never does good year after year and design change after design change. Do it right the first time no matter how long it takes or do it over again and take even more time. Not to mention the public embarassment. I'm quite frankly shocked that they still have ANY sponsors.

Originally Posted by rotarygod

I found and bought the issue of Racecar Engineering. It tells alot of what was done and why. Some of it we all pretty much had figured out such as too many engine builders.

They used the Courage chassis because Jim Downing recommended it. It was the only one available that they could get a rotary mounted in quickly. The back half of the car was basically a C60 Courage which is an LMP1 car. They even had the LMP1 car's brakes. The transmission they had to use wasn't what is normally used. They were 275 lbs overweight and 50 hp down. That's huge.

The chassis didn't have enough cooling area which we all knew. At the end of last season we knew they had a new water pump but the article reveals that it was a water pump from a Champ car and had dual radiators. Interesting. Francesco Ianetti developed special ceramic heat shields for the car. We all know of his wonderful apex seals. I didn't realize that he (along with a few others) designed the heat shielding for the Space Shuttle!

They said that the car could have been setup to use the rotary properly in the first place. In other words they could have gotten things redesigned to get weight down and the adaptation done properly before it ever hit the track but they said it would have taken another 6 months. They just wanted to get the car out on the track now. Maybe they should have started construction of it 6 months earlier! They only built the thing 2 weeks before it's first race! Why is there never enough time and money to do it right the first time but always enough to do it again? I'll never understand that. Especially when you are working on a tight budget.

The goal of their first RFQ (request for quote) for a new engine last year was pretty interesting. The goal was a turbocharged, direct injected 20B using lightweight alloys (all aluminum) with a goal of 550hp and 450 ft lbs of torque. Since the RX-8 didn't have a turbo, they didn't feel the turbo idea would be good from a marketing point of view though. The other option was a 4 rotor but there are no production based 4 rotors (or 3 rotors anymore so go figure?) and parts for them haven't been made in 20 years. The race engine they were running used standard Renesis rotors. The turbo 3 rotor would have been cool.

They had a change of heart at some point though and saw the MZR DISI as a perfect marketing engine that also met their needs on the track so that's what they did. Too bad they barely finish any races with the new car. I'd have liked to have seen them just take the extra 6 months to get the original car done properly and then evolve from there. They half assed the car together in too short of a time and then spent too much money to try to make it all work only to spend far more money in the end on a totally new car. The logic escapes me.

Originally Posted by BlueRenesis82

Well, at this point it would be a better idea for Mazda to throw more of their backing into Speedsource. They have always had a better sorted car, and with the noise they are making about Speedsource customer cars next year, it sure would be nice to have more than 2 Mazdas in the field to fight the Porsches.