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Mazda returning to top-tier racing with diesel-powered prototype in USCC

Mazda has unveiled its latest challenger in the top flight of endurance racing, a diesel-powered prototype that will campaign the inaugural, 2014 Tudor United SportsCar Championship. The new Skyactiv-D-powered car will make its race debut at January's Rolex 24 at Daytona.
"This is the most significant step Mazda has taken towards returning to the global racing stage since our overall victory at Le Mans in 1991," said the director of Mazda Motorsports, John Doonan. That historic racecar, the rotary-powered 787B, has grown to become one of Mazda's many, well-known racers.
More recently, the Japanese brand has been making waves in the Grand-Am series, campaigning RX-8s and, most recently, running diesel-powered Mazda6 sedans in the GX-class. Mazda will campaign two factory-backed prototypes at Daytona. Driver lineups will be announced closer to race day.

China's FAW now building all three Mazda6 generations

The Chinese auto market is one of the most interesting in the world to look at. Its automakers appear to still be figuring things out and remain open to experimentation. For example, at this moment, you can buy new copies of all three generations of the Mazda6 from showrooms there.
Mazda joint-venture partner FAW recently introduced the latest generation to China as the Mazda6 Atenza, according to Just Auto. Yet buyers still have the option of getting the previous generation as well, which is sold as the Mazda6 Ruiyi. Obviously, that isn't too remarkable - companies in the US have briefly sold two generations of the same nameplate simultaneously for brief points in the past, and the practice is much more common in developing markets. However, Chinese consumers still have the third choice, too - the first-generation model that dates back to the early 2000s, is still on offer, known simply as Mazda6.
While it would be hard to imagine selling three generations of the same models at once in the US, the idea is an interesting one. We enjoyed our long-term test of the latest generation, and the previous models weren't bad cars either, so provided there's a healthy difference in pricing and marketplace confusion is limited by differing names, we can see it working. If nothing else, it's a fascinating illustration of how broad China's developing auto market really is.

A '70s F1 car and a first-gen Miata make an amazing lovechild

For no apparent reason, this artist asked what if Mazda built an MX-5-based F1 car? And what if it were from the 1970s, the glory days of James Hunt and Niki Lauda? Here's what it'd look like. Look at it! Look at its adorable little eyes and the huge tires. And the intake! The rendering is by YasidDesign and was done live in front of Facebook followers in a Facebook Live session. It borrows heavily from 1970s F1 cars – it looks like a March 741 served as the basis for the open-wheel portion – and blends it effortlessly with MX-5 styling cues. It all came together in about 90 minutes. Watching the process is remarkable, especially considering YasidDesign is doing the bulk of the work live while taking comments and advice from people on Facebook. Check out the video and YasidDesign's other works on his Facebook page. Related Video: