zfz

Here is a shot of one of the new Mazda6 Skyactive Diesel's at Daytona on the weekend. This was to be James Hinchcliffe's ride...

HiWire

Nice! I'm looking forward to watching their races. I hope they put SkyActiv technology in the next MX-5 engine.

I wonder – what kind of transmission are they using?

RXeckless

iTrader: (11)

Mazda Motorsports fielded three diesel-powered entries at the Rolex 24 at Daytona endurance race. None of these three vehicles were able to complete the race with at least two going out with engine failure. Nice try Mazda, I guess they still need a rotary after all.

Quote Autoweek:
Three and a half hours into the Rolex on Saturday evening, all three 6s were in the garage. A $0.25 nut (isn't that always the way?) failed on each cars' fuel line. Doonan was able to get one back out and he hopes it will finish the race tomorrow.
All three 6s, however, were out of the race less than six hours into the race.


Read more: http://www.autoweek.com/article/2013...D_AM/130129841

IAN

iTrader: (3)

Thats to bad really.

23Racer

Actually, the first 2 went out with holed pistons and the 3rd lost the rear main bearing. In all cases it was due to excessive heat build up from the compound turbo system they had on the cars that caused water temps to skyrocket.

Finally, the lap times the cars were running were slower than a decent ITS RX7 and only 2 to 3 seconds a lap faster than the chump cars usually run.

All in all a PR and race disaster. Spin it like they will, they were not ready to go to the race and it showed. Who would buy a SkyActive diesel from Mazda now?

Eric

rx7racerca

iTrader: (1)

Didn't they test before the race? It really does sound like they poorly prepared.

23Racer

All they had were hours of dyno testing. The cars had barely turned a wheel before showing up for the race. There were all kinds of other issues as well like the halfshafts not being able to handle the torque of the turbo diesel after being designed for the rotary, the gearboxes developing huge heat issues, the cars having to be modified as they were 10 inch shorter versions of the RX8's. And the main issue, the diesel engines just weren't fast enough or reliable enough. To be competitive, they needed to make almost 75% of the power of the V10 Audi LMP1 cars, from a motor far smaller and only 4 cylinders. They could on the dyno, but real life got in the way and without any testing, they had many potentially expected failures right in front of the crowds and TV's.

Speedsource is a great team and they did the best they could, but I believe that the whole program was rushed due to the rumoured impending dropping of Pro Motorsports funding by Mazda Corp. at the end of this year.

It must especially have galled them dealing with all these issues while an older RX8 prepared by a Mexican team went far faster and for far longer and for far less $$$$$ outlay. And did you know that the whole GX class was created by Grand Am to allow these cars a place to race? Turbo cars are illegal in GT and Mazda had been a strong supporter of Grand Am, so bingo bango a new class for 2013....... The Caymens were added as a class filler and were not expected to win as a Prep 2 car.

All in all a major clusterf......

Eric

p4nc7

iTrader: (1)

I'm sure SS will get it together, I recall the first few events for the RX8 were a disaster no?

23Racer

You are right and that SpeedSource will get it working, but the main issue isn't with them. It has to do with the motor supplied to them by Mazda and the systems requirements supplied to them by Mazda. They could only build to the requirements provided to them, i.e. this much engine coolant heat dissipation, this much engine torque, these types of gear ratio spreads, this much intercooler size, etc....

Speedsource was basically going through the starting of testing with the whole world watching. I am not saying that anyone did anything wrong, what I am saying is that external Mazda Corporate Marketing pressures forced all parties to attend the most important race of the year with a woefully underdeveloped and tested package. Everyone at the track did their best, but it didn't come off and made things look bad for Mazda. At some point, someone should have stepped up and said that our inlet airtemps are way to high, the drivetrain is underdeveloped, our rads can't shed enough heat, the car is dog slow and we need to skip this race to develop the car properly.

Eric

20B-3Rotor

Should be interesting to see how Dempsey racing does with the P2 car at Sebring.. or will they skip it for more testing for the 24hr Le Mans

GoodfellaFD3S

iTrader: (213)

I was at the race...... they were slow, and they made virtually zero exhaust noise. I have a pic of the new engine on a stand I can post, and one thing really stood out to me..... a single lonely small diameter exhaust tube coming off the engine feeding to the first turbo.

Definitely not good for business, I heard that the Mazda bigwigs there were dejected, heads down, etc. Their trailors were buttoned up overnight and they were gone before 7am. Needless to say, quite a change from past years with rotary power.

Me and my friends were all rooting for the #78 20B RX-8, which started very low in the field (57ish out of 67) and finished 27th overall, 17th in GT. The 8 really got left behind by the other GT cars on the banked straight, but held it's own otherwise.

23Racer

Yep, thats what I was told. I really feel for John Doonan and the guys at Mazda Motorsports as they are working very hard with extremely limited resources.

Regarding the noise issue, its really hard to race a car when you can't hear it. This past fall I raced a Subaru for Kijiji Canada. It was very fast, had great power over a limited rpm range (4,000 to 6,200) and you had to drive it like a diesel. However the biggest issue I had to overcome was not being able to hear the engine to give me a shift point reference, I constantly had to watch the AIM dash to see what was going on. It was freaky driving into Turn 1 at Mosport and all you could here was tire squeel. I never knew that R-Comps squeeled like little girls before, LOL. It was a very different experience and it was fun to take a 3100 lb car to a 1:36.07 lap time with only 265 whp. Also the 4wd was awesome coming out of 5b.

Maybe some of those issues were what contributed to the 6's early demise. A couple of over rev's, combined with the heat and boost issues, who knows.....

Eric

zfz

Here is a link to more of my photos on the Toronto Star's Wheels site:
Wheels.ca – Rolex 24 photos: More a sprint than an enduro

Will have to wait and see what, if any, show up in Saturday's Wheels section...

zfz

Oh, if you want to see a time lapse sequence that I shot of the fog rolling into the Speedway early Sunday morning have a look:

Photos & Videos: Active Weather - The Weather Network

23Racer

Dempsey/Foster have split from Mazda after 6 years and because of that have put their LMP2 plans on hold for 2013. It looks like they will be entering a GT car now in the ALMS and LeMans. I wonder if thats because the Skyactive diesel just isn't fast enough yet and if they want to go racing in 2013, they need to look elsewhere.

Man, lots of changes at Mazda Racing since they have stopped funding rotary efforts.

Eric

GoodfellaFD3S

iTrader: (213)

IMO without the rotary they shouldn't bother racing...... How many sedans were racing at the Rolex 24 hours? After the first couple of hours, zero

23Racer

Now you can judge for yourself;


In car from Skyactive diesels. The cars look like they have tons of grunt out of the corners as the driver has to wait a while to get on the power, but they really run out of breath quick.

Eric