so... wat are they going to do with the current chassis...
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Rolling chassis for spares/show car?

 

Hopefully throw it the **** away

 

Yep, Lola coupe starting at Petit Le Mans.
Speed TV article

Artist Rendition

 

I like it. Now if they could just paint it orange and green!

Interesting article. I didn't realize that BK had hired a former Indy Car engineer and team manager. That's good news. Hopefully that will help them. I do hope they are serious about winning again. It sounds like they just started to accept losing and then suddenly reality hit them and they decided to change. Let's hope it works out this time. If they can prove to be more than just an unreliable car on a starting grid, I'll start cheering for them again. As long as they are mediocre, it's not worth it. Let's hope the new car gets a good debut.

On the positive side, it's good to see them talk serious enough again that LeMans could be on the cards next year.

 

They have plans to go back to LeMans in 2009, probably with a DI-4 banger in a Lola coupe.
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One thing I noticed in the article was Mr. Pruett's opinion that the rotary was both hot and heavy. Obviously the hot part fits, but how does the weight/CoG compare between a rotary and turbo 4, taking into account the necessary cooling etc?

Or, I spose, a turbo4 VS NA 4 rotor, since that was the direction they were supposedly heading?

Of course, had Mazda stuck with the rotary, I'm not sure anybody would be looking to buy it as a customer program, so maybe this was the better move in the long run...

 

The Turbo 4 is very very light. , i'd think that it is still lighter with all necessary cooling and plumbing and turbo than a 3-rotor. Not to mention it makes a lot more hp and tq.

I hope they sell a few turbo4s, i might start watching again in october when they debut the lola coupe and can compete for top 5.
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The AER 4 cylinder complete with turbo and intake weighs in at a lightweight 74 kg (163 lbs). A 20B isn't even close to that. The 4 cylinder is much shorter in length and intake exhaust packaging is easier as they are on opposite sides of the engine from each other. You can also stress a piston engines as an integral chassis member whereas you can not do that with a rotary. Now you start seeing the challenges of using a rotary. Also keep in mind that a 3 rotor won't have anywhere near the almost 450 ft lbs of torque that a turbo 4 does. Lots of considerations to make but I'd still love to see a rotary used. I'd personally like to see a smaller turbo 3 rotor or larger 16X geometry based 2 rotor turbo engine used. The latter could actually be quite competitive.

 

Lets just hope for the 16X turbo.
In that article, I wonder if Mazda Japan wants to go racing in Le Mans or MNAO.

If they are to put the 16X into production, it seems like a good time to take a trip to France to test their engine.

From the How the Rotary was saved thread, Mazda had the current Renesis ready a few years before RX-8 debuted.
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The first side port engine was running back in 1994. Actually that's not quite correct. The first time it was tried was in the late 60's but seal technology of the time didn't work with it.

 

The hot and heavy comment might also be refering to them having to use the Lmp1 rear end on the courage chassis, and the related problems to that thrown together car. The courage setup was definitely way to heavy and the cooling was designed for pistons.

I think for a rotary to be competitive the entire car might have to be designed from the ground up around the rotary. Cooling and like RG pointed out about the rotary can not be a stressed part of the chassis are two huge hurdles for the rotary.

Two good pictures to show the size of the MZR-R motor. First one is either the Judd V-10 or the Aston Motor. The second is the little Mazda. Here

 

And here is the official render! Story and picture by Trackbytes.

 

Hopefully they won't **** this chassis away like they did with the Courage.

 

I don't know if that's fair... it's not like BK/Mazda took a good Courage chassis and ruined it. Even Acura was less than impressed (to put it mildly) with the Courage when they started their program. And they were using an entire P2 chassis, not a cobbled-together mess.

 

Good point, hopefully they make something of the Lola coupe

 

Nice find!! It looks good. I guess they figured they may as well make the move now vs later considering there's nothing to be gained as a back marker for the rest of the year.

 

http://rides.webshots.com/album/568217174KRhUVg

Some pics of the final race @ Laguna Seca last weekend...

 

Not sure if this is repost but.... ???

http://p2closeout.com