http://www.speedtv.com/articles/auto/alms/34748/

this sucks.

they bend over backwards to make that dog bentley competitive, but they can't throw mazda a bone for the rotary .

this throws a wet blanket on my sebring plans.

 

Thats right. And we have been discussing it here: https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...09#post1689109

 

wow there is a bentley in alms?

maybe you mean aston martin, which was actually faster than the corvettes.

kthxbye

 

right aston martin. and why was it faster pray tell?

 

Corvette had restrictions against it due to wins. Sometimes either teams sand bagged to prevent further restrictions. The Vettes have torque and the Astons have long legs. Pending the track, both are pretty even.

 

v12.

are you sure you actually KNOW anything about this series?

 

as bad as I feel about the rotary piston swap, part of me is glad, I wont have to see a badly funded, non competitive car 6 seconds per lap begind the leaders

Is it the rotary fault HELL NO!!!!!!

 

no kidding. Better to have a competitive piston car than a rotary car that is struggling to fight off cars from a class below.

 

you're right. This announcement just pisses me off. I have no idea who's right or wrong in the endless pissing contest between the corvette and the aston martin teams. All I know is they are both threatening not to run if the rules aren't tweaked to favor their particular team. Which is quite a dreary situation.
and one for another thread.

 

Politics are just part of the game, its what you do in the off season. This happens in every form of racing from grassroots autox, road racing and of course in pro racing. When you are GM pumping an est $10-15 mil a year into that program you better be able to produce results or the bean counters will kill it the next year. Part of making sure you can get those results is playing the "our car needs help" game, every team/manufacture will do this at some point.

I do not blame Mazda at all for pulling the plug on the 3 rotor, it made zero sense from a marketing stand point. At best you can try to relate the performance of your 3 rotor race car to the street going RX8 that has weak sales and a tiny market share... Or do you go with an in-line 4 like 95% of the cars in your production lineup, seems easy to me. All I care about is seeing Mazda out there racing and I would much rather see a piston powered LMP2 Mazda winning than a 3 rotor dead on the side of the track.

Not like they have completely pulled the plug, you still have the Star Mazda Pro series with the RX8 power and the Speed Source cars can get more attention for the RX8 than an LMP2 car ever did.

 

both teams should be able to just uncork it and run, but all their bitching won't allow that.

 

I am dissapointed that the rotary is gone from ALMS, but I will still support Mazda and watch ALMS as long a they are using an engine I can relate to. Mazda will have stiff competition this year as Acura is joining the fray. GO MAZDA!

 

the big dissapoinment is that the engine is not really a mazda

Its an AER engine with a mazda logo on it, they claim mazda is helping develop a new head, and even clain that it is a completly new engine, but all evidence points in the other direction

 

so? maybe mazda is just trying to get their feet on the ground before they start making their own engine

 

Acura will be competition for Porsche, Mazda will not be mixing it up with them too much.

 

Ditto!!!

 

Yeah but working with AER may help Mazda in the long run even if it's mostly AER at this stage. If they can eventually be completely independent great. But if AER helps them be more competitive in the early going I have no problem with that.

 

+1