Mazdaspeed
|
|
Mazdaspeed is Mazda's in-house race and street car tuning arm and is highly involved in both amateur and professional motorsports.
Mazdaspeed began in 1967 as "Mazda Sports Corner", a tuning and racing operation run by Mazda's Tokyo distributor. They were competitive at the 24 Hours of Le Mans races in the early 1980s with the 717, 727, and 737 before Mazda brought the group to Hiroshima in 1983. In 1991, Mazdaspeed's 787 won at Le Mans, a feat no other Japanese team has managed.
After the FIA effectively outlawed the Wankel engine the next year, the team turned away from professional racing and focused instead on enabling third-party competition of Mazda vehicles. Mazda assumed control of Mazdaspeed in 1999 as a tuning and performance parts operation within the company.
In the United States, Mazda North American Operations and Mazdaspeed host a traveling "drive event" called Rev It Up that allows normal people to drive Mazda cars around a timed course for points. This is one of very few drive events that drivers are actually timed and scored. Mazdaspeed also sponsors many amateur and professional race series in the US that involve the Mazda Miata and Mazda3.
Mazdaspeed vehicles
- 2003 Mazdaspeed Protegé (upgraded engine/suspension/appearance)
- 2004-2005 Mazdaspeed MX-5 (turbo engine/suspension/appearance)
- 2004-2005 Mazdaspeed RX-8 (suspension/appearance)
- 2006 Mazdaspeed 6 (turbo engine/AWD/suspension/appearance)
External link
- Mazda Motor Sports - Mazdaspeed's US operations (http://www.mazdamotorsports.com)