I was like WTF????? In looking in the results of the first Trans Am race for 3 years yesterday I noticed that they had an RX7 finishing in 9th. The new Trans Am series is designed for cars meeting SCCA GT1 rules and the RX7 fit in. The car was driven by Glen Jung and a picture is attached.

Way to go whirring triangles. A privateer with no torque beat a lot of V8 Monsters. I cannot easily explain how much of an achievement this was. The Trans Am V8 cars have well over 650 hp and at least 500 ft lbs of torque. Just incredible.

Eric Nummelin

 

"Muscle Milk" I like it.

 

And it didn’t take a 3rotor, accomplished this with a 13B…. very impressive

 

Yummy Yummy.

thewird

 

Yeah, he finished in fourth I believe at the runoffs in GT1 this past December also. Impressive!

 

Nice looking car!

 

with the luck of the rotary the rule makers will change the rule books and either disqualify the car from future races or make it non competitive by imposing stupid rules.

 

i wanna see this in person!! Need to plan a race day this summer....

 

that was sweet

 

So I found a link to an in-car from the race. You should watch it the video is awesome. What is really interesting is watching the Skeen cars first lap. The guy smokes by the RX7 like it was in a different class. The car is a peri port 13B so at best it is making 330 hp. The majority of the GT1 field is making over 750 hp. I don't think we have to worry about the SCCA powers that be reducing its competitiveness anytime soon.

What I have noticed that in any racing series that adds a displacement factor to a rotary for the fact that it gets 2 power pulses per crank revolution (i.e. doubling its displacement) the cars just are not equal in performance to a piston engine of the same displacement. The lack of torque always kills the cars in traffic. This is at a 2:1 factor. In SCCA GT1 the cars are competing with 6 litre cars with 1.3 litres. I know of a couple of 3 rotors that are running and they would be a better choice but still not equal. You can reduce the weight as much as you want, but on tracks with long straights, like Road Atlanta, Road America and Mosport a rotary is going to get killed.

Watch the video and see.

Eric

http://vimeo.com/3829293?pg=embed&sec=

 

I have a good friend that races in the series. He said the car is very fast as long as its not in traffic. The car weighs 1700lbs or so, his cars minimum weight is 2800lbs. and it makes 810hp (when not running on 7 cylinders lol). Problem the RX7 has is when the bigger heavier cars infront slow him down in the corners, he just doesnt have any grunt to get it back up and running. My friend is the other car that splits the RX7 wth the Corvette your in the car with.

 

WOOOOT for Triangles.
Thanks for sharing Video.

Ace IIB

 

Glen Jung and Rotary X-Treme Team #77 RX7 scored 4th at Road Atlanta:

" Glen Jung, of Osteen, Fla., scored his best qualifying performance of the year by taking fourth on the grid at 1:22.291 (111.117 mph) in the No. 77 Rotary X-treme/MAZDASPEED/Goodyear Mazda RX-7. "

I believe this car now has a 20B.

Does anyone have links to this team, this car, and this Trans-Am race ?

Thanks,
:-) neil

info synthesized from these links:

http://www.mikeskeen.com/2010/09/ske...ta-qualifying/

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?ui...88&topic=12641

 

The car now has a 3-rotor. Injector Dynamics (Yaw Power) has some info on it - they do the injectors used in the car. http://www.yawpower.com/

I've got a bunch of sweet photos of it from the Toronto Indy this year. That black/blue colour scheme was its 2009 livery.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cspivakphoto/4898335317/http://www.flickr.com/photos/cspivakphoto/4898335317/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/cspivakphoto/, on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cspivakphoto/5128515514/http://www.flickr.com/photos/cspivakphoto/5128515514/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/cspivakphoto/, on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cspivakphoto/5128517156/http://www.flickr.com/photos/cspivakphoto/5128517156/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/cspivakphoto/, on Flickr

 

I know this is a way old thread but just as an addition, Glen Jung finished 4th at the Toronto Indy this year.