The Streets of Long Beach circuit is not known as one of the most forgiving places to race. There are walls on all sides with no runoff, which only aids in amplifying the sounds of an uncorked 13J four-rotor race engine. It’s almost like doing a trench run on the Death Star in a tiny wheeled fighter.
Mazda driver Joel Miller has balls like church bells to even strap into this wild machine, but then to give it the full beans on such a tight circuit is next level. Thankfully he strapped a GoPro to his chin to capture this video for us.
Ahead of the IMSA and IndyCar races at Long Beach this week, a series of 1980s and 1990s IMSA GT cars were invited to run exhibition laps to keep the crowd entertained between races. Mazda USA trotted this lovely machine out of its SoCal collection to deafen anyone in a 12 mile radius. It’s just the best.
Everything about this interior view of the rare old racing Mazda suggests it was built with speed in mind. This isn’t just any old RX7, this is a dedicated race car with a carbon kevlar center tunnel, a smooth delrin shift knob that moves about two inches with each shift, and a dash full of electronics. What more could you need?
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This big wide screamer weighs about 2200 pounds, and was party to three class victories in the IMSA season across the 1990 season. It’s a seriously capable machine, even 29 years later.
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