[ZTWsquared]

(10-19-2011, 09:49 PM)oldeguy Wrote: I've been following the American Lemans Series Sportscar and Endurance Racing for the last four or five years. The Series has four, or five different classes of race cars, from Prototype sports cars, with any sized engine you can find, to Porsche Cup spec GT-3's. The Series also promotes the use of alternative fuels, from gasoline, to E-85 ethanol and iso-butanol. There has also been a Porsche 911 hybrid a few times. However, the car that I fell in love with in the prototype class is a Lola-Mazda coupe, owned and run by Dyson Racing. The part that really appealed to me was the fact that the engine is a 2.0 litre 4 cylinder mazda mzr turbocharged engine that developed over 500 horsepower. So, you all are saying what's that got to do with FC.net? I know it's a stretch, but the Mazda MZR is also the Ford Duratec 2.0 l engine. This year, the Mazda won the series championship, going up against a couple of Aston Martin 6.0 litre V-12s. I asked one of our veteran track guys, and he has lapped Mosport in and around 1:55, which I'm extremely jealous about, and at the same time glad for him, but the lap time of the Mazda at Mosport this year was 1:09.744. So, for all of us with Duratec's, we can say that our car has the heart of a race champion!!!

Yup - love the ALMS too ... and you didn't even mention the Audi Diesels which I admire greatly - and currently hold the track record of 1:04:094, which certainly puts that Mazda's time into perspective.

Just to add some detail to the 1:55 mentioned - that was in a recent event at Mosport in a "borrowed" 2012 Focus SE with sport package and would be what I consider a really decent time on par with my times in my n/a Focus track cars and a bit slower than with my s/c cars.

I have in-car video from that event if anyone is interested - let me know and I'll cut it up and post it.