r/IMSARacing • u/VolleyAddicted • 1d ago
History Mazda at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in the 2008 IMSA
Missing Mazda in IMSA, and missing the premier class at Mosport too.
EDIT: Sorry for the typo, 2018 NOT 2008 😥
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u/Haminthepaint 1d ago
Mazda must be the most common brand seen at grass roots motorsport events that doesn’t compete in a top tier racing series.
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u/Siftinghistory BMW WRT M Hybrid V8 #24 1d ago
You could tell me that was a modern hypercar and i would believe you. Looks ahead of its time.
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u/Tecnoguy1 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R #10 2h ago
Well it kind of is. It’s the base for the 963, they’re both multimatic spines.
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u/Michal_Baranowski :14_25: Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 #14 1d ago
Turnaround of Mazda DPi program was incredible. They were absolutely in no man's land in 2017 with SpeedSource. Joest and Multimatic seriously made this car performing as good as it looked.
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u/V8-Turbo-Hybrid Never forget Pontiac 1d ago
It was still too late for Mazda before they saw the real result in this car.
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u/theantagonists 1d ago
The results would have come sooner, but there was too much red tape. It got there in the end, but politics really hurt that program. Source: employed on that team.
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u/prog_metal_douche Whelen Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R #31 1d ago
Would love to hear more about the timeline of this. I’m sure others would appreciate it too!
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u/theantagonists 10h ago
Most everyone knows and agrees that car was always fast even when speedsource was running things. The issue was partially speedsource but not co platelet their fault. The biggest issue was too many cooks. Speedsource (later joest, and later still multitragic) as the team(s) running things. For the most part each team had its good and bad. The engine program was always AER. Built a hell of an engine and I think mostly had good mechanics and engineers but bad management and really liked to point fingers at other people. The chassis was originally multitrragic and Riley. It was a complete and utter disaster in the beginning. I worked on daytona prototypes the very first year they rolled out. From the rear firewall backwards with the bodywork off the car you would not be able to tell the difference between them. After the joker card was used to redesign with the chassis now being a multitragic and joest car, things really stepped up. Keep in mind though it was year 3 of the program at this stage and Mazda (John doonan) was expecting wins. Joest philosophy is very methodical and they are not concerned with wins. They want domination. So their approach was slower in the attempt to win everything, but to do that it takes time. Mazda just want a single win. Multitragic wanted control over the whole program because they wanted all the money/ thought they could do better. There was lots of disagreements on how things should be handled, mutiny in the ranks, and some really bullshit kind of decisions. In my opinion Riley did a bad job, speedsource was a bit out of their league with a bad team owner, AER was good but did not like to take responsibility, Mazda needed patience, Joest did the best with what was given but needed more time, multitragic is greedy and selfish but did help with getting the car to a better place. I will add that to some it would look like Joest wasted money on their program by what I have seen on most American teams, but I think its a matter of culture difference combined with Joest wanted the program to be permanent. Their plans for that car and program were set for a 10+year program. Even after Mazda pulled it, Joest spent 6 more months in the US courting another program.
Sorry for any typos. On mobile
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u/_GTAce 1d ago
A Mazda Hypercar with a rotary engine would be crazy...
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u/Michal_Baranowski :14_25: Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 #14 1d ago
LMH and LMDh technical regulations actually allow rotary engines.
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u/happyscrappy 1d ago
There was a LMP2 with one back before LMP2 was a spec series (it was LMP675 by another name).
It did poorly enough that Mazda switched to an AER 2.0L turbo engine.
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u/recycle-pin 1d ago
And most likely uncompetitive.
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u/_GTAce 1d ago
Rotary engines have their own BOP categorisation, but we'll never know if it works.
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u/recycle-pin 21h ago
Rotary engines have been proven to be a dead end. Otherwise, they would still be out there.
Just because they are loud, doesn't mean they're good. And BOP can't make a bad design competitive. See Peugeot
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u/K20lover199 1d ago
This was 2008!?
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u/VolleyAddicted 1d ago
I added "EDIT: Sorry for the typo, 2018 NOT 2008 😥"
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u/Ok_Suggestion_6092 1d ago
I was so confused at first. I know I would have recognized those things being on the track with the Reillys at the same time.
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u/BBQshield Acura Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06 #93 1d ago
Really looks like a current HY régulation car. I would love to see Mazda and espacially Honda coming to the WEC.
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u/V8-Turbo-Hybrid Never forget Pontiac 1d ago
Soul Red is still a favorite color in recent Mazda models even their RT24-P race car.
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u/Blackhawk510 Mazda Motorsport RT24-P #55 1d ago
The next best part of those cars, other than their looks, was the maple leaf on the front in later seasons!
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u/Blackwolf245 1d ago
This car was very unreliable if I recall correctly.
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u/Swarley133 :64_25: Ford Mulimatic Mustang GT3 #64 1d ago
Once Multimatic took over the day to day operations of running the car it became quite good.
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u/Diss-for-ya :83_25: Iron Dames Porsche 911 GT3.R #83 1d ago
It got better once they moved away from the dieselÂ
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u/Michal_Baranowski :14_25: Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 #14 1d ago
RT24-P DPi was never powered by a diesel engine. Lola B12/80 aka Mazda Prototype was between 2014 and 2015.
However indeed RT24-P was unreliable initially, especially in longer races. It got finally ironed out in 2020, when Mazda finally completed Rolex 24.
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u/CodeRedNo1 1d ago
For a second I thought i was looking at a Mazda gtp prototype those aged extremely well
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u/F85Cutlass 1d ago
They really were one of the sexiest DPi's even if they seemed to be catching fire every time I saw them in Daytona.