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Formula Mazda is a class of relatively affordable Formula Racing. Formula Mazda has its own class in SCCA club racing, and there is a professional series (officially the "Star Mazda Championship Presented by Goodyear") in North America that often runs as a support race for the American Le Mans Series. The cars are very popular; seeing a field of 40 or more cars at a race is quite common. Many drivers aspiring to the top classes of racing use the pro series to hone and demonstrate their talent. In 2006, the 2004 Formula Mazda champion, Michael McDowell, will be driving in Champ Car, while Scott Speed, who won in Formula Mazda in 2002, will become the first American F1 driver in a decade. In terms of both cost and performance, Formula Mazda lies between Formula Ford and Formula Atlantic. A full season in the Pro series cost around $200,000 - $300,000 in 2005. Formula racing is a form of motorsport where the type of automobiles used is regulated by a formula. ...
The SCCA could be considered the grass-roots level of auto racing in the United States. ...
The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) is a series of automobile races, founded in 1999 by Don Panoz, and sanctioned by IMSA. The American Le Mans Series utilizes the rules and regulations of the Automobile Club de LOuest, which organizes the world famous 24 Hours of Le Mans, to...
Champ Car, a shortened form of Championship Car, has been the name for a class of cars used in American Championship Car Racing for many decades. ...
Speed at the 2005 United States Grand Prix Scott Andrew Speed is a race car driver born on January 24, 1983 in Manteca, California, USA. A driver and for the Squadra Toro Rosso, he will make his Formula 1 race debut in 2006. ...
Formula One, abbreviated to F1 and also known as Grand Prix racing, is the highest class of single-seat open-wheel auto racing. ...
Formula Ford is a single seater class in motor sport which exists in some form in many countries around the world. ...
The Toyota Atlantic Championship is an auto racing series with races throughout North America. ...
Original car
 large, close fields are common in Formula Mazda racing The series originally grew out of a group of cars built for the Jim Russel Racing Drivers School in California, USA in the 1980s. The cars have a basic steel tube frame chassis, with a 180hp carbureted Mazda rotary engine and a 5 speed H-pattern Hewland transmission. In the interest of creating close racing and limiting cost, the rules state that no modificaiton is allowed until the rules expressly permit it -- at one time even replacing the mirrors on the car was prohibited. The engines cannot be modified, and they are sealed to make it easy to detect cheating. The cars all use the same tires, springs, dampers, and adjustable anti-roll bars. The carburetor (American spelling, carburettor or carburetter in Commonwealth countries, carb for short, or carbie (slang)) is a device which mixes air and fuel for an internal-combustion engine. ...
Wankel Engine in Deutsches Museum Munich, Germany The Wankel rotary engine is a type of internal combustion engine, invented by German engineer Felix Wankel, which uses a rotor instead of reciprocating pistons. ...
A shock absorber in United States parlance (sometimes damper in British use) is a mechanical device designed to smooth out or damp a sudden shock impulse and dissipate kinetic energy. ...
A sway bar (also called an anti-sway bar or anti-roll bar (ARB) or roll bar) is an automobile suspension device. ...
New car In 2004, a completely new car was introduced for the Pro series. It features a carbon fiber chassis, 6 speed sequential gearbox, and a sealed 250hp fuel-injected Renesis engine very similar to the one in the Mazda RX-8. The MoTeC ECU uses input from the gearshift to enable upshifting while the driver holds the throttle wide open. The ECU also provides traction control which the driver can turn off from inside the car. The rules allow a choice among five different spring rates at each corner, and the new Ohlins dampers offer separate bump and rebound adjustments. The driver can adjust the front anti-roll bar from the cockpit. Carbon fiber composite is a strong, light and very expensive material. ...
This is an article about manual transmission in general; for guidance on how to drive with a manual transmission, see Manual transmission driving technique. ...
All Mazda Wankel rotary engines are essentially a single family - they all derive from the first Wankel experiments in the early 1960s. ...
The Mazda RX-8 is a car manufactured by Mazda Motor Corporation; which first appeared in North America at the North American International Auto Show (2001). ...
An Engine Control Unit (ECU) (also known as an engine management system) is an electronic device, basically a computer, that is part of an internal combustion engine, which reads several sensors in the engine and uses the information to control the fuel injection and ignition systems of the engine. ...
Traction control and Vehicle Stability Control systems, on current production vehicles, are typically (but not necessarily) electro-hydraulic systems designed to prevent loss of control when excessive throttle or steering is applied by the driver. ...
The new car is substantially faster than the older car, usually lapping about 3 seconds faster per mile of track, but the original car remains legal for SCCA club racing.
External link Official Star Mazda Series site |
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