Tour the Mazda R&D Basement with Grassroots Motorsports Live
#1
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Tour the Mazda R&D Basement with Grassroots Motorsports Live
Not sure where to put this thread as it really isn't 3rd-gen specific at all. Is there a general Mazda discussion forum here? Hmm.
Someone at Mazda let Grassroots Motorsports into their basement at their R&D facility. The video is long but it starts off right away briefly looking at a couple FDs (the only LHD Spirit-R that Carlos Lago did a piece on for Motor Trend, back in 2012, and a beautiful CW R2 that Fritz would love to be able to sell ) before looking at a 10th anniversary FC.
From there it starts looking at a bunch of other cool Mazdas in their collection, although I haven't had time to watch the whole thing yet. Pretty cool.
Check it out:
edit: Board is doing funky things with YouTube link embeds. Here's a link to the Carlos Lago piece on the LHD Spirit-R that you've probably all seen.
Someone at Mazda let Grassroots Motorsports into their basement at their R&D facility. The video is long but it starts off right away briefly looking at a couple FDs (the only LHD Spirit-R that Carlos Lago did a piece on for Motor Trend, back in 2012, and a beautiful CW R2 that Fritz would love to be able to sell ) before looking at a 10th anniversary FC.
From there it starts looking at a bunch of other cool Mazdas in their collection, although I haven't had time to watch the whole thing yet. Pretty cool.
Check it out:
edit: Board is doing funky things with YouTube link embeds. Here's a link to the Carlos Lago piece on the LHD Spirit-R that you've probably all seen.
#4
I remember seeing someone claim that the supposed LHD 2002 Spirit R is actually just a '93 with a paint job and a bunch of parts on it. It certainly doesn't have the Spirit interior pieces, which makes sense b/c they were never made for LHD. I wish someone could actually get the VIN to figure it out for sure.
I'd love to get a detailed story on what that car actually is and how it came to be here.
I'd love to get a detailed story on what that car actually is and how it came to be here.
#5
Actually, just re-watched the beginning of the motor trend video and (1) they say they "retrofitted" a LHD RX-7 with Spirit R parts, and (2) you can easily see that the engine bay is not a later RX-7; it has the older intake tube that was phased out with the updated bumper.
Makes me think this isn't a "LHD Spirit R" anymore than anyone else who takes an R1, paints it, and puts on Recaros and the BBS wheels. Kinda annoying because there are a ton of articles spinning it as some kind of one-off late production car sent to the US.
If it's a LHD 2002 Spirit R it's probably the most valuable FD in the world. If it's an R1 with some mods, it's... an R1 with some mods.
Makes me think this isn't a "LHD Spirit R" anymore than anyone else who takes an R1, paints it, and puts on Recaros and the BBS wheels. Kinda annoying because there are a ton of articles spinning it as some kind of one-off late production car sent to the US.
If it's a LHD 2002 Spirit R it's probably the most valuable FD in the world. If it's an R1 with some mods, it's... an R1 with some mods.
#6
Actually actually, watching the rest of the video, it isn't an R1. It has the strut brace, but it's got a sunroof and on the lift it didn't look like it had the passenger oil cooler. Not sure if it was possible to get a Spirit R with a sunroof.
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#8
Junior Member
They made a non-convertible Miata, but didn't produce them because they thought it might affect sales in the RX-7 market.
Unless they have the next rotary coupe/Furai/RX-7/etc. ready for unveiling and production