My concern lies with Mazda's push as a brand to move upscale. That combined with the elimination of the TCR and prototype programs has me wondering if support for club racing and other amateur endeavors is next. Support and involvement of motorsports doesn't fit the image of upscale branding. I would hate to see Mazda go And would be curious to see what, if any, manufacturers (Honda and Hyundai I'm looking at you two) would fill the void if Mazda were to discontinue amateur support. It's a substantial concern that I have for our world going forward.
I'll admit I'm more than a little bummed. I started following Motorsports with their RX8s in Grand-Am. I was drawn to Mazda's uniqueness and their close relationship with both amateur and professional racing. I loved being part of their corrals at races. Unfortunately, when the RX8s were retired it kind of seemed like the beginning of the end. The corrals ended. The SkyActiv Diesel effort was a bust that resulted in some dull years. Despite a few glimmers of hope their DPi endeavor never really took off despite three different management teams. As mentioned previously I'm also concerned how this will ultimately play out with their overall Motorsports support. The TCR program got canned. How long does the MX-5 Cup have? I certainly don't wish Mazda any ill will but their shift to "upscale" branding has left me behind.
Yeah I feel like Mazda is about to be done with motorsports altogether in their push to become a Japanese Buick.
Tom1200
SuperDork
2/18/21 3:14 p.m.
Hmmm I wonder if I can get a smoking deal on a used prototype?
Sad to see them go.
j_tso
Reader
2/18/21 5:25 p.m.
In reply to Tom1200 :
A chassis with the old setup is for sale.
That was from before Joest then Multimatic rearranged everthing.
captdownshift (Forum Supporter) said:
My concern lies with Mazda's push as a brand to move upscale. That combined with the elimination of the TCR and prototype programs has me wondering if support for club racing and other amateur endeavors is next. Support and involvement of motorsports doesn't fit the image of upscale branding. I would hate to see Mazda go And would be curious to see what, if any, manufacturers (Honda and Hyundai I'm looking at you two) would fill the void if Mazda were to discontinue amateur support. It's a substantial concern that I have for our world going forward.
I'm not sure I agree with that when you look at the German manufacturers.
j_tso said:
In reply to Tom1200 :
A chassis with the old setup is for sale.
That was from before Joest then Multimatic rearranged everthing.
That is listed by Sylvan Tremblay
wae
UberDork
2/19/21 9:15 a.m.
z31maniac said:
captdownshift (Forum Supporter) said:
My concern lies with Mazda's push as a brand to move upscale. That combined with the elimination of the TCR and prototype programs has me wondering if support for club racing and other amateur endeavors is next. Support and involvement of motorsports doesn't fit the image of upscale branding. I would hate to see Mazda go And would be curious to see what, if any, manufacturers (Honda and Hyundai I'm looking at you two) would fill the void if Mazda were to discontinue amateur support. It's a substantial concern that I have for our world going forward.
I'm not sure I agree with that when you look at the German manufacturers.
There's also Lexus. I'm not real familiar with everything they're doing, but they've got a GTD program, some sort of performance street car, and I thought some sort of performance trim across their platform. "F", maybe? Honda certainly participates in motorsports as well, even under the upscale Acura brand in DPi. I know the original NSX was an Acura in the US, is the new one branded as such as well? GM moved their DPi program branding away from Corvette and into Cadillac a couple years back. I can't think of anything that Nissan is doing right now with Infiniti. Or with Nissan, for that matter.
I have to wonder if Mazda wants to focus all of their motorsports and performance branding around the MX-5. They seem to be making a bigger push around the MX-5 cup racing all of a sudden like. And the MX-5 is certainly well known as a performance-oriented brand even outside of enthusiast circles. Mazda has also never really been in the hybrid development game, so moving into LMDh is probably a little more difficult for them since they don't have anything on the shelf in the road car department that they could start with. I mean, I know that the batteries and motor and all that is a spec thing, but they don't really have any in-house experience with it and the cost to develop or purchase that experience isn't something that the road car side seems all that enthused about helping to amortize.
Mazda's never going to be a premium car maker as long as their halo car is a $27,000 convertible with under 200 hp. Don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with that :) But they're an odd company that way.
In that case, it makes more sense for them to be involved in club level motorsports and programs like Global MX5 Cup than prototype racing. Especially US prototype racing, which is really low profile. The club support reaches enthusiasts directly and really reinforces their brand. The racing is cars that are very clearly derived from cars in the showroom, not some spaceship that uses the same paint color.
I think the only way to get real value out of prototype racing is to be racing at the very top level in the WEC and be doing well there. Audi did it right. Mazda did it right in 1991 when the rule set was working for the weird engine that they sold at the time. But it's a big, big investment.
I figure there are two big reasons for an OE to get involved in motorsports:
Win on Sunday, sell on Monday: NASCAR, Le Mans, IMSA DP, top levels of NHRA, etc. Use a successful race program to fire up your fan base and dealer/staff network while, hopefully, making new fans.
Racer support: Make money by selling cars and parts to racers--like today's programs from Mazda, Hyundai, Porsche, Honda, etc.
And sometimes you can blend the two.
I figure that somewhere someone has to approve the expense and/or make the numbers work.
