The icing on Mazda’s 90th birthday cake must be the SpeedSource Mazda RX-8’s victory a few hours ago at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona enduro. Drivers Jonathan Bomarito, Nick Ham, David Haskell, and Sylvain Tremblay repeated their 2008 win amidst a field of Porsche GT3s and Camaros.
Of course, Mazda has some experience at this venue, having conquered all at the 1979 Daytona 24 Hours during the inaugural run of the IMSA SA22C Mazda RX-7. See JNC #3 for the full story. Who says rotaries aren’t reliable?
A little weekend browsing for you guys: Mazda just launched its 90th Anniversary mini-site. Timeline photos abound, including some rarely-seen commercial vehicles.
Don your headbands, hang your friends out your side windows and get ready for Shakotan Boogie. In 1987 Japan apparently made a movie out of the manga that celebrates the bosozoku lyfe. Plot points include cross-cultural drag racing that ends in some hard-to-watch hakosuka and F-body carnage, but the parade of boso’ed cars is worth the suffering. There are more Japanese lowriders than you can shake a takeyari exhaust at — Soarers, Cedrics, Glorias, Crowns, Skylines, and even some other not-so-boso cars like an AW11 MR2 and Honda CR-X.
Anyone who can name all the cars in this clip will win either an Apple iPad or our eternal admiration (prize to be determined).
Mr. K Talks Z-Cars: Yutaka Katayama opines on the Nissan 370Z, Toyota FT-86, Datsun 200SX, toy ponies, and the future of driving. Full article at Racer.com.
Experience the BRE Reunion! In the Fall of 2008, BRE (Brock Racing Enterprise) team members reconnected en mass for the first time since the end of the 1972 race season. The BRE team changed the perception of Japanese cars as they won the SCCA D Production Pacific Coast Championship in 1969 with the BRE Datsun 2000 Roadster, the C Production Championships in 1970 and 71 with the BRE Datsun 240Z and won the professional Trans-Am 2.5 series Championships in 1971 and 72 with the BRE Datsun 510s. If you want to hear insider stories of what it was like to be on the BRE team and some of the crazy things that happened, you can get a two hour DVD of the reunion at www.bre2.net. Also a favorite moment of the night was when each team member shared what they are doing today. Don’t miss it!
Mazdas at the 2010 Retromobile Show: Retromobile 2010 is one of the biggest classic car shows in Paris. They have all sorts of vehicles showcasing the history of locomotion, and this year Mazda had a big display. Check out photos at LeBlogAuto and ClassicMotor.se.
Strong Nostalgic Showing at the Tokyo Auto Salon:This year’s TAS had more J-tin that we can remember for a long time. Check out Speedhunters’ coverage here: Old School Style @ TAS 2010.
Kyuusha Dealership Found Outside of Japan: We’ve seen plenty of nostalgic car dealerships in Japan, but this is the first one we’ve heard of on the outside. Sadly for us ‘Murrikins, it’s still on the other side of the ocean — Christchurch, New Zealand to be specific. But it’s a start! Check out the post on Retro-Classics.
In just a few days Mazdafarians will begin rejoicing in honor of their chosen marque’s 90th birthday. It has been ninety cycles of the sun since Toyo Cork Kyogo Company, Ltd. was founded in in the city of Hiroshima. (more…)
The icing on Mazda’s 90th birthday cake must be the SpeedSource Mazda RX-8’s victory a few hours ago at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona enduro. Drivers Jonathan Bomarito, Nick Ham, David Haskell, and Sylvain Tremblay repeated their 2008 win amidst a field of Porsche GT3s and Camaros.
