We all know that Mazda and Honda are into this B-Spec racing thing and earlier this week we got word that Kia would be playing along, too with the Rio 5. And now, thanks to Mazda's Facebook page, we know that Fiat and Ford will be joining the action, too.
The gallery posted on the Mazdaspeed Motorsports page, shows a welcome amount of gamesmanship between teams with pro-level touring car drivers playing multiple cars with everyone testing and talking in a very open area. The test day is most likely to set ballast and ECU calibrations for a more level racing series. A dyno on hand would confirm the ECU part of this guess.
The presence of the BFG trailer isn't surprising either, the spec tire for the series is the BFGoodrich g-Force R1 Comp in P205/50R15.
stovt001 says:
11:41 AM, 10/13/11
Sweet! Now Chevy and Toyota (and/or Scion) need to get in on this. It is too bad Chrysler, VW, and Nissan don't have any US market subcompacts to get in on this but even that could change in time. I'd be hard pressed to come up with a racing formula more relevant to potential consumers.
bthayer23 says:
11:49 AM, 10/13/11
This looks awesome! I'm wondering if MINI would get in on this, but they'd probably have to detune their base engine down from 120hp; most of these cars make 100hp stock.
breif says:
11:52 AM, 10/13/11
I find myself suddenly very intrigued.
peartree1 says:
12:16 PM, 10/13/11
Love it!
caheew says:
01:40 PM, 10/13/11
This is too awesome.
mckman says:
06:28 PM, 10/13/11
Fiat=Chrysler
powell_jr says:
06:49 AM, 10/14/11
Awesome! stovt001, Nissan has the versa (w/ the 1.6 for this application). VW is rumored to bring the Polo statewide in the next few years.
The more the merrier.
sniperruff says:
07:37 AM, 10/14/11
bthayer23 says:
"This looks awesome! I'm wondering if MINI would get in on this, but they'd probably have to detune their base engine down from 120hp; most of these cars make 100hp stock."
IIRC the Euro-spec mini features engines close to that range (Mini One).
coxwill says:
07:53 AM, 10/14/11
I would watch this! I really hope MINI decides to play too.
bthayer23 says:
08:07 AM, 10/14/11
Any idea which sanctioning body would run this? Grand-Am, SCCA, Time Attack, etc?
bthayer23 says:
11:01 AM, 10/14/11
Oops, just read the follow up. They'll be in the SCCA SSC class.