Mazda Officially going back to LeMans

[clive]

The Mazda North American boss announced on Eurosport yesterday that Mazda will officially be going back to LeMans next year with a Diesel as per Audi !

The commentator pushed a couple of times to find out if it would be a Rotary but all he would commit to was that the Rotary is a small compact unit that as many Rotary people here will know will run on a multitude of fuels including Diesel

Maybe we will see the 16X development manifest itself as a  Diesel unit ?.

For those who do not know, Mazda is still the only Japanese car maker to win Le Mans and with Audi dominating again this year Toyota won\'t be changing that this year either.

[shaunwil]

For all the changes at Lemans it is more likely to be a small 1.6TDI lump like the the Deltawing unfortunately. Would be awesome if they had made a diesel 16x though !

Shaun

[jetpilot]

Good news, but, really hate the whole diesel concept, not as much as i hate the hybrid concept though!

There have been some heavy debates/arguments on Pistonheads about diesel and now hybrid LeMans cars! I know the whole concept of Endurance racing is longevity and less time in the pits means more on track but from what i can gather the regs are stacked in the favour of diesels and on that basis i dont really get it! Petrols and diesels/ hybrids (if thats what you want to develop need to operate on a level playing field!

[Grant Monkhouse]

I think a rotary diesel would work very well, diesels need heat and not a spark plug of which we all know a turbo rotary produces lots of heat. I think it would rev like a piston engine too.

Anyway we shall see what they come out with. When is lemans?

[jetpilot]

This weekend

[Grant Monkhouse]

Take it they\'re racing now then? I\'m watching moto gp at the mo

[kiwimazda]

It will be piston power for sure. That\'s where the core market for cars is and what they need to sell. Unfortunately granny going to buy her new car will be in a demographic group that will dictate any car manufacturers target audience. As they say what wins on sunday sells on Monday. I suspect there is a massive que down at the local Audi dealer right now for a le mans style car to rake home.

[Grant Monkhouse]

Well I did wonder why I was seeing so many of the LMP1 and LMP2s driving around Huddersfield these days.

Car racing is becoming a joke, where noise limits and the powers that be decide what we have to race with. When car racing become governed by electric cars I will not watch it and take up table tennis.

It does make me laugh how LMP1 stands for lemans prototype 1. There isn\'t anything prototype about using a diesel like all the other teams is there.

We can hope its a rotary.

[kiwimazda]

So in theory I could take my Suzuki swift engine with 160bhp, stick it in the back of a radical, call it a :censored::censored::censored::censored::censored::censored::censored:zuki and go race at le man

[Brett]

I think a rotary diesel needs a miller tyoe cycle to work effectively.  Good luck to Mazda though

[kev-yorks]

That would be a interesting motor Brett Miller cycling a Rotary...............for a boinger the 2.3 miller was certainly a cracking bit of kit. Revs may be a issue possibly for the charger unless you went with two stage charging and a electronic clutch, or possibly charger low end and turbo upper revs which may work better.

[zeppelin101]

There have been some heavy debates/arguments on Pistonheads about diesel and now hybrid LeMans cars! I know the whole concept of Endurance racing is longevity and less time in the pits means more on track but from what i can gather the regs are stacked in the favour of diesels and on that basis i dont really get it! Petrols and diesels/ hybrids (if thats what you want to develop need to operate on a level playing field!

The rules have levelled out since Audi first came to the party with a diesel. The problem is that the ACO really need to be updating the rules every year as the engines are getting more efficient as the teams tweak between seasons so that everyone can be competitive.

Not exactly feasible to tweak the rules to penalise the teams who are making significant progress or you\'ll bin them out the competition entirely before long.

Diesels and hybrids are here to stay in sports car racing - best get used to it!

It won\'t be long before hybrids are common place in most top open wheel formula (already in F1 as we know) with the emphasis no doubt moving further towards electric power over the next 15 years.

Motorsport has always been the proving ground for new technology that eventually filters down to road cars, particularly with respect to powertrains. If it survives 24 hours at Le Mans AND the car in question wins the race, how better to prove your stuff works and works well?

The old adage of "win on Sunday, sell on Monday" still holds true in that respect.

[B.Martin]

I thought the rotary was banned from Le Mans after the 787 dominated all before it?

[Grant Monkhouse]

I thought the rotary was banned from Le Mans after the 787 dominated all before it?

It wasnt banned. The rules were changed to bring the teams closer together performance wise. Us rotards say it got banned to enfuriate others. Lol

[clive]

I\'ve no doubt that this will be a proper news item in Autosport magazine this week,

They have been using a Lola chassis with a Cosworth engine in ALMS but with Lola in administration I wonder what they will use this time.

A little more info came out at the end of the race in that the Mazda will enter LMP2 so it will not be taking on Audi and Toyota head to head , also "if" it entered it\'s own chassis they would have to build it to take other manufactures engines :xconfused