Mazda Fan Festa 2012

MZ Racing brings us this coverage from the 2012 Mazda Fan Festa that took place this past weekend at the Okayama International Circuit. It was a celebration of all things Mazda including some old RX-3 race cars and modern RX-7 and RX-8 race and drift cars. The 767B and 787B were present and even took to the track together. The guys got on-board footage from both cars. Mazda also debuted their new Sky-Active diesel race car that will be campaigned by Dempsey Racing in the LMP2 class of Le Mans next year.


Source: MZ Racing on YouTube via RotaryNews.com on Facebook

Jay Leno’s Mazda Cosmo

This week’s episode of Jay Leno’s garage introduces us to the Mazda Cosmo 110S. The Cosmo represents a classic Japanese halo car from the 60’s. It was also Mazda’s first attempt at a rotary engine powered sports car. We never got any Cosmos here in the US, but this particular car was imported by a U2 spy plane pilot when he returned from his service in Japan. When Jay bought it, the body was in good shape but the engine had seized. Leno’s mechanic replaced the engine with a 1.2 liter 12A rotary engine from the first generation RX-7 with a couple of power upgrades including a Weber sidedraft carburetor and manifold. The car now has over 200 horsepower and a 9,000 rpm redline.


Source: Jay Leno’s Garage

LiquidPiston X2 Diesel Rotary – Gizmag

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This is the LiquidPiston X2 diesel rotary engine. It’s a compact unit that produces about 40 hp. The amazing thing about the X2 is that it achieves a thermal efficiency in the neighborhood of 75% which is unheard of for internal combustion engines. It achieves this with a constant volume slow burn of the air/fuel mixture. Head over to Gizmag to read more of the details on the X2. They were able to interview the President and CEO of LiquidPiston.

Mazda RX-7 Spirit R – Motor Trend

Carlos Lagos brings us something special on this week’s episode of Motor Trend Ignition. He gets to test drive the only left hand drive Mazda RX-7 Spirit R in the world. The Spirit R was Mazda’s way of commemorating the end of production for the 3rd generation FD3S RX-7. The last 1500 cars off of the production line received special upgrades to make them Spirit R’s. The car that Carlos gets to drive is a left hand drive model that a Mazda executive had converted to a Spirit R. He goes on to talk about how the harkens back to when the Japanese built cars that focused solely on driving pleasure.


Source: Motor Trend on YouTube