Where is racing beat located

Mederer Is Not Amused. Traction and stability concerns limited my second pass to mph. The third try, which required slaloming around blown-engine debris deposited by a competitor, clocked mph. Not only was that too slow to qualify for a record attempt, I also turned off course early with my engine in a severe state of distress.

Monday was spent replacing that engine and adding ballast at the tail of the car in hopes of improved traction.

A Tuesday pass at mph with the engine splitting the sound barrier lifted our spirits. I adopted a strategy of driving judiciously through the rough salt and saving full throttle for the last three miles to achieve maximum velocity through the timing traps. On the record attempt, that felt good while it lasted.

Then, in fourth gear under full throttle, one rear tire, then the other snapped its tenuous grip with the salt. Backing off the throttle with a full head of boost under the hood had no effect, and the car began a slow, uncorrectable counterclockwise pirouette.

At mph. I yanked the parachute release just in time to keep the car from helicoptering into the air. Mederer is not amused by my escapades. Not So Easy. While that equipment is tolerable for a mph run requiring only a few seconds, imagine being cooked in this brazier while the car waits in line before runs lasting minutes. With no synchros in the gearbox, 12 gauge readings to remember, and a touchy clutch, I had my work cut out.

The fearful obediently traipsed to the parking lot. The MPH Club. Lady Luck finally took a ride with us. The day was bright, the salt was drier, and I was authorized to use rpm for a qualifying pass. The engine pulled so hard under full throttle in fifth that I had to feather the pedal to stabilize the tach needle at rpm. The timing stand reported Team management lifted my rpm limit to go for broke on the return pass.

The engine screamed smoothly, sweetly, and assertively to rpm, worth That speed rush—quicker than a Concorde SST at liftoff—was something too good to share with grandkids. Alas, it was not to be. Late Wednesday, the heavens split, and the flats reverted to a not-so-great salt lake.

Our Speed Week ended after exactly three and a half days. Open for Business. Compared to long and short racing indulgences with speeds topping mph, the California Roadster built by Racing Beat and celebrated on our February cover seems sedate. Instead of waiting for Mazda to produce a convertible version of the second-generation RX-7, Racing Beat simply constructed one from the ground up using only those factory body panels deemed appropriate to its topless cause.

This led to a total abandonment of any roof, sound deadening, undercoating, HVAC equipment, side windows, power steering assist, and the factory doors. Lighter fiberglass doors intended for racing RX-7s provided convenient entry and exit to the two-seat cockpit. Tubular reinforcements, a taller driveline tunnel, and seam welds in lieu of the factory spot welds were incorporated to achieve the desired structural stiffness.

A custom fiberglass nose cone adorned with dark corner lights and a nicely integrated rear wing gave this one-off a look distinctive from the factory design. Another Survivor. While the use of a recalibrated four-speed automatic transmission seemed like the anemic approach, it saved the weight and complication of providing clutch-actuation linkage.

Racing Ugly. Of course, the essential roll cage, fire extinguisher, driver restraints, and racing seat expenses add to the cost; these races also consume brake pads, rotors, suspension parts, tires, fuel, oil, and the occasional fender. Racing Beat contributed moral support and some helpful suspension components. Seven editors and a few close allies handled long driving stints in the three events we campaigned in While outright victory eluded us, we did score three respectable finishes: third out of 83 starters at Altamont; second at the Flat Rock, Michigan, track, located mere miles from our office; and sixth in the car field at Thunderhill Raceway near Willows, California.

Well pummeled during its LeMons career, our venerable RX-7 earned its trip to the shredder ages ago. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below. This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.

Working within IMSA rules, he shaped, smoothed, and added enormous auxiliary intake ports to the side of the rotor housing. These were so large that he had to leave a metal bridge in place splitting the port so the corner seal of the rotor didn't disintegrate. The bridge-ported engine made hp, and when fitted with a racing exhaust, power bloomed to hp at rpm.

The resulting RX-2 was a screamer in both the figurative and literal sense. Oku reports that when Mederer was performing clandestine dyno-runs in his garage, you could hear the sound at least three miles away. Bedard easily took pole position in his first outing an Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania, but the RX-2 subsequently lunched its differential.

IMSA, sensing an unfair advantage under the little rotary coupe's hood, piled on a massive lb penalty. Mazda's racing reputation in the US was born. Meanwhile, at Bonneville, Racing Beat was pairing their circuit-racing successes with records on the salt. Red-and-blue-liveried Racing Beat machines began setting the bar in , with another Car and Driver partnership hitting The first-generation RX-7 arrived in , and again set a record of Really serious speed arrived in with the second-generation RX-7 FC-chassis and turbocharging.

Racing Beat adapted GTP-class competition parts from Japan, reworked the fuel injection, added twin-turbocharging, and built a trunk-mounted ice-water intercooling system. Power was a staggering hp at rpm: good enough for a But the Salt Flats can be harsh. In , the Racing Beat team returned to push the bar even higher with a hp three-rotor engine crammed into a third-generation RX With chief engineer Jim Mederer at the wheel, the white Racing Beat RX-7 headed off, aiming to hunt down the production record of mph.

When the car hit mph, it shimmied, spun to the left twice, and went airborne, flipping and landing on its roof. Video footage of the crash is terrifying , showing the RX-7 shredding itself on the salt, then catching fire.

Mederer coolly frees himself from the wreck, crawling backwards through the cage, and nonchalantly reaches back into the cockpit to pull the fire-suppression systems. Rains in and prevented Racing Beat from making a second attempt at the record, but Oku-san says the team was determined. The car was repaired and wanting a change from the past we painted the car black with blue stripes and gave it the name 'Back in Black.

And drive he did. The subsequent class record of mph average speed still stands today. Along with racing and record-setting, Racing Beat offered products which ordinary Mazda fans could appreciate. RX-7 owners have long been able to tune the suspension and performance of their rotary machines with Racing Beat upgrades and, beginning in the early s, the team began tuning the then-new Miata as well.

Racing Beat's direct partnership with Mazda also grew over the years. Our shipment Posted by Jim L October 04, The past year has been a wild ride as Racing Beat has experienced overwhelming demand for almost every item in our product line. Posted by Jim L March 09, Our Connection With Mazda From special projects, race applications and production vehicles, our partnership with Mazda extends over 50 years.

News From The Inside Miata Exhaust Availabily Unfortunately many of the components used in our in-house manufacturing of our Racing Beat Miata exhaust systems have been impacted by the worldwide backlog with international shipping.