Hi! I am Japanese, 46 years old. When I was high school student, I read motorsports magazine, I wondered why Mazda RX-7 won so many times in IMSA GTO/GTU. At that time, there was no internet, but there was a few TV programs for broadcasting American motorsports in Japan in midnight. So I feel this video is so precious!
I love the GTO class IMSA RX-7's. They were so successful. Due to their smooth ride, balanced handling, and reliability and were pretty fast. It is a shame that they never appeared in the Gran Turismo series. Suck a successful legendary machine should have been in the games. The closest we get is the fully modded 1983 RX-7 GT Turbo.
@sprydo7 : IMSA GTO and GTU have been replaced by ACO/FIA GT2, GT3 and GT4 classes. GTO was Over 3 liters, GTU Under 3 liters displacement. That no longer applies. Also, modern GT cars are a production based chassis where the IMSA series used a tubular space frame. The only real similarity to the production car was the silhouette and engine block. Great racing though. I miss it, too.
Durh. After each race the engine is taken apart, restored and rebuilt if necessary. It's taken better care of than a human baby. Daily use yeah its unreliable compared to a piston engine, fact.
Rotaries are not reliable across long time use. The only reason these engines survive is because they don’t do enough collective revs through the duration of the race. Race engines are like tires they deteriorate and while a conventional piston engine CAN last upto 250k miles without a complete rebuild, the mazda renesis engine requires you to rebuild the entire thing every 70k. Nuff said.
@@megashae468 the renesis is the least reliable rotary. NA rotaries like from the FC or FB will regularly do 100k, with usual maintenance. Turbo rotaries might last a little less depending on how hard they're pushed, but if the motor does lose compression, they are infinitely easier than piston engines to rebuild. Just put all the seals in the rotors and sandwich the plates together
@@kap914. I noticed a ad banner on the background that said it was San Antonio. Never noticed it before. I was at the St.Petersburg GP when Fitzgerald was killed. He went straight into a Jersey barrier.
why was the rx7 so dominant for so many years in IMSA GTO class? Did it have some kind of unfair advantage? i.e. much lighter chassis? More power? Superior handling? was it the vehicle, or more due to having superior team management and planning (team strategy)?
+autoparts321 Everyone at the time, driving for other manufacture claim it was unfair advantage racing against rotary engines. for the size and weight. If you look at the specs during those time, they actually had to add dead weight on the rotary powered chassis to "be fair" Even up until last couple of years ago, in the Speedvision GT series the RX-8 was "penalized" and had to add weight to the chassis to deem fair. Pretty much every sanction racing organization either have separated Rotary in to its own class or are put in to stricter restrictions.
Interesting,,, I heard that the calculation for engine displacement was flawed which classed the Rotary cars into a class with much smaller piston engines. For example 1.3L (2 rotor 13B) or 2.6 liter (4 rotor) rotary was really equivalent to a piston engine of double or triple the displacement. The rotary has 3 rotor faces on each rotor, and has 2 rotors, 0.65L or 650cc displacement per rotor face. This makes 6 combustion areas (or cylinder) equivalents per engine each displacing 650cc which gives a total true displacement of 3.9L and all 6 of these faces will fire in one rotarion of the Elliptical Shaft(crankshaft/output shaft). If the engine was only claimed as a 1.3L then it was classed against cars with small engines like 1.5 or 1.6L I think. This gave them an unfair advantage. Also the engines for that displacement were very compact and light.
autoparts321 Yes the Mazda volume measure is based on how much liquid can hold within the two rotor/rotor housing 1.3L The calculation of the 3 facing rotor is almost correct.. here is link for the simplest ... there is a much more technical calculation as well www.rx7.com/techarticles_displacement.html As for not in the right class, that is totally incorrect. IMSA GTO stands for Grand Touring Over (Over 2.5L) So it's racing in the right class.. but the motor is sooo much lighter than any piston engine, hence there is a weight penalty
Could someone please point me to where I could find out information on the cars in this series?? O: more specifically the year shown in the video? I looked but to no avail.
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Hi! I am Japanese, 46 years old. When I was high school student, I read motorsports magazine, I wondered why Mazda RX-7 won so many times in IMSA GTO/GTU. At that time, there was no internet, but there was a few TV programs for broadcasting American motorsports in Japan in midnight. So I feel this video is so precious!
This Rotary was flying like the wind
VHSのビデオテープでもってました♪今また見れて嬉しいです
I love the GTO class IMSA RX-7's. They were so successful. Due to their smooth ride, balanced handling, and reliability and were pretty fast. It is a shame that they never appeared in the Gran Turismo series. Suck a successful legendary machine should have been in the games. The closest we get is the fully modded 1983 RX-7 GT Turbo.
I was fortunate to drive one the factory cars in Sonoma for test and tune. great memories.
@sprydo7 : IMSA GTO and GTU have been replaced by ACO/FIA GT2, GT3 and GT4 classes. GTO was Over 3 liters, GTU Under 3 liters displacement. That no longer applies. Also, modern GT cars are a production based chassis where the IMSA series used a tubular space frame. The only real similarity to the production car was the silhouette and engine block. Great racing though. I miss it, too.
Durh. After each race the engine is taken apart, restored and rebuilt if necessary. It's taken better care of than a human baby. Daily use yeah its unreliable compared to a piston engine, fact.
Like every other race engine pretty much, yea.
Rotaries are not reliable across long time use. The only reason these engines survive is because they don’t do enough collective revs through the duration of the race. Race engines are like tires they deteriorate and while a conventional piston engine CAN last upto 250k miles without a complete rebuild, the mazda renesis engine requires you to rebuild the entire thing every 70k. Nuff said.
@@megashae468 the renesis is the least reliable rotary. NA rotaries like from the FC or FB will regularly do 100k, with usual maintenance. Turbo rotaries might last a little less depending on how hard they're pushed, but if the motor does lose compression, they are infinitely easier than piston engines to rebuild. Just put all the seals in the rotors and sandwich the plates together
Love the awesome 80's music.
ただただかっこいい～
this video is another example of why youtube is great. i wouldnt' have had a clue it exists before seeing it here
rx-7 design is not outdated compared to other cars in this video
I came to see the RX-7 ... but that Fairlady is beautiful!!!
@MRIlls DODGE DAYTONA from 84 to 93. it was also used for the IROC championship 90 to 01 and 92 to 93
What street race was this? St Petersburg? Was this the race that Paul Newman’s teammate Jim Fitzgerald was killed at?
I want to know as well
@@kap914. I noticed a ad banner on the background that said it was San Antonio. Never noticed it before. I was at the St.Petersburg GP when Fitzgerald was killed. He went straight into a Jersey barrier.
This video has 2nd gen, of known as FC RX7 from 86 thru 91
It also has 3rd gen rx7 known as the FD from 92-93 thru 2007
+Levi Neckerauer no FD in 1991 ...
7:15 >> !!DAAAANCEmuthaFUCka-^__^-its MAZD[A]ccCELeRAtion LLLOLOL!!
really miss my 88 GTU...this video,.... is inspiring. Does anyone know, if they still have the IMSA class?
unfortunately they don't anymore
why was the rx7 so dominant for so many years in IMSA GTO class? Did it have some kind of unfair advantage? i.e. much lighter chassis? More power? Superior handling? was it the vehicle, or more due to having superior team management and planning (team strategy)?
#ROTARYRULES
😃
+autoparts321 Everyone at the time, driving for other manufacture claim it was unfair advantage racing against rotary engines. for the size and weight.
If you look at the specs during those time, they actually had to add dead weight on the rotary powered chassis to "be fair"
Even up until last couple of years ago, in the Speedvision GT series the RX-8 was "penalized" and had to add weight to the chassis to deem fair.
Pretty much every sanction racing organization either have separated Rotary in to its own class or are put in to stricter restrictions.
Interesting,,, I heard that the calculation for engine displacement was flawed which classed the Rotary cars into a class with much smaller piston engines. For example 1.3L (2 rotor 13B) or 2.6 liter (4 rotor) rotary was really equivalent to a piston engine of double or triple the displacement.
The rotary has 3 rotor faces on each rotor, and has 2 rotors, 0.65L or 650cc displacement per rotor face. This makes 6 combustion areas (or cylinder) equivalents per engine each displacing 650cc which gives a total true displacement of 3.9L and all 6 of these faces will fire in one rotarion of the Elliptical Shaft(crankshaft/output shaft).
If the engine was only claimed as a 1.3L then it was classed against cars with small engines like 1.5 or 1.6L I think. This gave them an unfair advantage. Also the engines for that displacement were very compact and light.
autoparts321 Yes the Mazda volume measure is based on how much liquid can hold within the two rotor/rotor housing 1.3L
The calculation of the 3 facing rotor is almost correct.. here is link for the simplest ... there is a much more technical calculation as well
www.rx7.com/techarticles_displacement.html
As for not in the right class, that is totally incorrect. IMSA GTO stands for Grand Touring Over (Over 2.5L) So it's racing in the right class.. but the motor is sooo much lighter than any piston engine, hence there is a weight penalty
Not true
All faces do not fire with one revolution. It’s like saying a piston motor fires 4 times a stroke.
Could someone please point me to where I could find out information on the cars in this series?? O: more specifically the year shown in the video? I looked but to no avail.
rx7=best car!!!
IMSA、300ZX良かったな
Porsche want to demand on Mazda for this model for the 944
ロータリーサイコー！
@g00sampson Thanks...GS,...really enjoy these rotary car. Did you see the new Mazda....prototype? Check out Mazda Furai'
mx6ってマツダカペラ1989年式のこと?
@MRIlls that would be the Dodge Daytona likely driven by Dorsey Schroeder
why did that say mx-6 in the scrolling text?
i guess they didnt black flag ppl back then for having a bumper battle in the middle of a race.
@sprydo7 Heh the Furai is several years old allready m8.
LOL @4:18 "some of the other teams are unhappy with the weight of the mazda" rotary FTW
European engine in the east ..