40 International FIA Records: Two Mazda RX-8s Drive 24 Hours at Full Throttle

All results below are subject to FIA recognition. They are published with the kind approval of the German Motor Sports Organisation DMSB e.V.

Leverkusen / Papenburg: A total of 40 international records have been set by Mazda with two RX-8s. Drivers and technicians celebrated their success at the close of the 24-hour record attempt on the 12.3 km oval at the automotive proving grounds in Papenburg, Germany. The day before, two 170 kW/231 PS Mazda RX-8s had taken the starting line, one in the FIA Category A (Special Vehicles) and a second in the FIA Category B (Mass Production Vehicles). With average speeds of 212,835 and 215,934 km/h, the two sports cars drove more than 5,000 km during the 24-hour attempt. These results clearly demonstrate that Mazda RX-8’s unique RENESIS rotary engine not only provides exhilarating performance, but is durable and reliable even under the most extreme driving conditions.

Record-setting performances of this kind are nothing new to Mazda, which boasts a long tradition of 24-hour endurance races. In this latest 24-hour attempt, both Mazda RX-8s shattered a Mazda record set in 1991 by drivers Bertrand Gachot, Johnny Herbert and Volker Weidler at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, one of the most prestigious automobile races in the world. That year, the team drove the Mazda 787B race car with a 515 kW/700 PS rotary engine exactly 4,923.2 km during the 24 hours of the race, with an average speed of 205,133 km/h. In Papenburg, both Mazda RX-8s were clearly faster.

Saturday the 2nd October, 12:20: Mazda Motor Europe engineer Shoji Tokuda waved the green flag and started the 24-hour drive, sending the first Mazda RX-8 on its way into the record books. The driver accelerated, shifted through the gears and then had only one goal—holding the ideal line at full throttle.

Prior to the record attempt, the German Motor Sports Organisation DMSB e.V. had selected three production Mazda RX-8s in Antwerp, Belgium and sealed their engines and transmissions on-site. All remaining stages of the record attempt were accompanied by commissioners of the DMSB e.V. to ensure all mandatory regulations of the FIA were adhered to. The second vehicle used in the record attempt had proven its reliability in last season’s Formula Woman Challenge in the UK. The only difference between the two Mazda RX-8s that took the starting line for one of the world’s fastest endurance trials, and all other Mazda RX-8 production models was added safety equipment - both had special body-contour seats, five-point seat belts and a roll cage. The Category A Mazda RX-8 was outfitted with an additional fuel tank and 19-inch wheels.

The cars were piloted by 15 automotive journalists from 11 countries, who completed the tough, 24-hour test on the 12.3 km high-speed oval, pausing only for necessary pit stops and to change drivers. Other than that, it was full throttle around the track. The record drive attempt was supported by the tyre manufacturer Kumho and Aral, which provided high-octane Aral Ultimate petrol.

The two Mazda RX-8s drove their rounds at consistently high speeds and without incident. Nonetheless, not everything went according to plan. An hour after midnight it began to rain heavily, but neither the drivers nor Jürgen Herschel from the tyre supplier Kumho panicked. Herschel lowered the tyre pressure, which resulted in an improvement of their hydroplaning resistance capacity. Despite the one-hour rain, the average speed of both cars remained high.

Sunday the 3rd of October, 12:20: Shoji Tokuda dropped the chequered flag and waved his two Mazda RX-8s into the pit. A total of 40 international FIA records were set by both cars. Mazda RX-8’s RENESIS engine, the world’s only production rotary engine, had passed its endurance test with flying colours. Mission accomplished.

 

daaaam..nice..i wonder how big those flames were popping out of the exhaust pipes...

 

Coo l ... get tired (*yawn) just reading the paragraph. How can they drive 24 hour straight?

 

I think this answers a few questions about the durability.

 

Oh yeah sure.... I always have faith

 

don't try this at home!



but if you do it on a track, videotape it and post.

 

tell me if my numbers are off...

avg speed 120mph >>> 120mph in 6th is somewhere above 6k rpm?

Damn, I was a bit more excited when I first read this story. 24 hours at an estimated 6k rpm is kind of impressive, but if im calculating it right then its somewhat comparable to a non-stop cross country trip at 80mph without the oil change.

If the test was conducted in 5th gear, thats a whole different story, but I doubt it. 24 hours is a long run but it seems designed to take advantage of the fact that as a result of engine power, aerodynamic resistance forces the car into either a moderate rpm range in 6th that is very close in top speed to high rpm's in fifth.

but still, 40 new records.

 

What it doesn't mention is, what happened to the cars following the 24hrs?
Are they still running?

A typical F1 car revs to 18k and races at its limits for approximately 2hrs.
Following that, the engine is near death.
Yes, it still runs, but it wouldn't be producing anywhere near the same power as before.

Is this the same with these 8s after running 24hrs?
Are they now sitting in a workshop somewhere with their engines removed?

The mind ponders........hmmmm......

 

6K RPM is not a lot for a rotary. These things should be able to rev to 13K RPM quite easily. It would be ineresting though to know how the engine faired.

 

That sounds impressive until you start thinking about what were the previous records like? Did anybody else actually tried this other than Mazda?

 

This is awesome news. Find the source link and post this on the main forum !!!

 

Now if they sat on 200km/h in 4th the whole time then I would be very very impressed, that is bouncing off the rev limiter.

However still a great effort.

 

Hey Gibbo,

Your drive at eastern Creek yesterday would be comparable considering track temps were 60deg. Would be interesting to find out how much oil was consumed during the 24HR endurance........????????

 

Good publicity for Mazda I guess but I can't really get too excited about 24 hours round an oval track at 6000rpm, which let's face it is hardly pushing the 13B to the limit. Saab used to trot this type of thing out with monotonous regularity, and you'd hardly call a Saab a paragon of high performance motoring. Now if they'd set a 24 hour record around the Nurburgring, THAT would really be something!

 

Hey if this was easy the Mazda 787B would have beaten our 8's hands down.

I'm impressed:p

 

Er...really? Surely the fact that a 230HP RX-8 achieved a higher average speed than a 700HP 787B says more about the real world difference between conditions at Le Mans and this oval track doesn't it?

 

Hey, thanks for posting this article, atridge!

Yesterday morning, following a left lane (our supposed passing lane) hog into work, I was getting a little frustrated since he was poking along at about 60 MPH. When he finally slowed down to around 54 MPH and exited, I thought I’d take the opportunity to kick in the mighty Renesis power. I knew the usual 6th to 5th gear change-down wouldn’t have the desired effect at that speed, so I went for 4th.

So, I blipped the throttle, and guided the shift lever around the corner, managing to hit 2nd instead! Before realizing my stupid mistake, I had already started to let out the clutch and began to feel the de-acceleration; watching the tachometer needle swing north as the engine went from a whine to a high-pitched scream. So, I fed in the throttle and quickly found 3rd, then 4th, etc. until I finally got the things under control. (I don’t think I hit the redline: I hope not, unprepared as I was.)

So, I cursed myself and apologized to my poor abused car for being such a dumbshit, all the rest of the way to work. Then, I logged in and found this article on the forum! I’ve got to say, I hope to be driving my car much farther than 3100 miles more before it’s worn out though. (I need to make “precision driving now” my mantra…)

nojooc made a good comment though; I would like to see how the innards of those engines fared also.

 

Yes, I'd say that your numbers might be a bit off. Where did you get the 120mph and 6,000rpm from?

215kph isn't 120mph it's more like 135mph. Also, the article refers to 15 different drivers. So it would involve more than just setting cruise control for 24hrs and putting your feet up - there would have been at least some thrashing it up through the gears, slowing down again etc. 215 is the average of the whole day's work, including pit stops, driver changes etc , not the top speed.

I'm certainly favourably impressed. The fact that they even came close to the achievements of the mighty 787B is enough for me. That was a beast of thing with 515kw, four rotor chambers and professional racing drivers at the wheel, not a bunch of journalists.

As NickG says, you can't fully compare this with the Le Mans effort, as the tracks, weather conditions etc would all be different. But the basic requirement in both cases is speed coupled with endurance.

Wherever they are set 24hr endurance records are not formalities, so I'm delighted to hear the RX8 did that well. :D

 

Some rounding errors in a quick calculation, I admit.

 

I thought so.

In fact neither 120mph nor 6,000 rpm seem to have any relevance to the record, going on the article that was posted here.

216 kph in top gear is closer to 7,000 rpm. Given that 216 was the overall average for the day, and included stops for driver changes, slow down for rain, plus whatever time they took for maintenance (tyre pressures, fuel, oil and so on) - you can be sure that the speed that they were actually lapping at was higher than that - i.e in the 7,000 to 8,000 rev range.

As far as I know, the car won't pull much over 8,000 in top (if it did the quoted top speed would be higher than it is) so the revs at which it hits the limiter are probably not all that relevant to 24 hr endurance records.

I imagine that we can allow for a certain amount of journalistsic licence when they describe going out onto the track and running at full throttle, but given that "full throttle" isn't 9000+ rpm in top, then it may not be too far from the truth.

Either way, Mazda must have been extremely confident in the strength and endurance of the Renesis engine to let 15 journalists thrash the heck out of it for 24hrs. I'm not saying that they would not be good drivers - I'm sure that they were - the point I'm making is that if the cars blew up or performed badly then that would be bad publicity x 15!!

They must have been confident - and that puts a smile on my face too. :D

 

You're not calculating that right either.

80mph is around 128kph. So if you averaged that speed for 24 hrs you would travel approximately 3000 kilometers.

The figures in the article above say that the cars travelled over 5,000 kilometers at an average speed that's more like 135 mph. Where on earth do you get 80mph from?

 

Come on guys, there are some pretty lukewarm posts on this thread, with various people commenting that it really wasn't much of a run, that less impressive cars do similar things, that the engines were possibly worn out, etc... Why??

How about some well deserved applause for what these cars achieved.

It wasn't just a potter round a track at 6000 revs, it was NOTHING like a leisurely cross country drive, and there is NO reason to believe that the engines were junk at the end of the run!

Mazda have hundreds of thousands of hours experience running rotary engines and I'm sure that they would not do something like this if they knew that there was a good chance that the engines would barely make the distance.

Surely, we should be proud of our cars, not cynical. :o

I'm clapping anyway.... :D :D

 

A brace of Mazda RX-8s has shattered a total of no less than forty international records during a 24-hour testing session.

Competing in the FIA A and B categories for special vehicles and mass-production cars, the RX-8s went out to prove that the rotary engine for which they're famous is as durable as it is lively. Among the facts and figures that came back from the speed marathon at the Papenburg oval in Germany were:


Average speeds of 132.278 and 134.204 mph
More than 5000 kilometres covered - that's 3108 miles

The times included all fuel stops and driver changes, and were also affected by a late-night downpour that forced tyre supplier Kumho to bring the cars in for a drop in pressure.

This meant the RX-8s both managed to average a higher speed than that achieved by Mazda's 787B racer when winning Le Mans in 1991.

 

Neat, are they allowing Mazda to use their rotary engine for racing again?

I thought they banned it from Le man's?

-Rupes

 

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?t=41846