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Mazda RX-Vision GT3 concept slinks into Gran Turismo Sport next year

The World Final of the FIA World Tour in Gran Turismo Sport just went down in Monaco, and Mazda was there with a couple of big announcements. The first is that the Hiroshima-based automaker will become an official video game partner next year, 2020 also happening to be Mazda's centenary year. The second reveal was a sketch of the Mazda RX-Vision GT3 Concept, a GT3-class racer based on the RX-Vision Concept shown at the 2015 Tokyo Motor Show. Game creator Kazunori Yamauchi and Mazda's North American design chief Julien Mountousse wouldn't get into details, such as how close the final car would look to the drawing or whether there'd be a rotary engine under the hood. Yamauchi would only say Polyphony Digital is modeling the car right now, and Montousse added that designers wanted the Vision GT3 to be a car players really wanted to drive. As much of a looker as the race car is, it's clear some changes will be in order; the front fenders, roof, and rear wing are nearly on the same plane. The brunt of aero accessorizing happens down low, a massive front splitter leading to extended side sills with vertical planes, and what must be a massive rear diffuser with an even larger set of vertical planes. It's hard to tell by the drawing, but it looks like the rear wing supports angle out from the body to merge with the end plates. When the RX-Vision GT3 shows up to contest the 2020 FIA-certified championships in GT Sport, it will join the Atenza Gr.3 as Mazda's only GT3-class car in the game — the Atenza effectively a near copy of the Speed Source Mazda6 that raced in the U.S. Grand-Am series until a couple of season ago, but with four doors instead of two, and a gas engine instead of diesel. Mazda didn't qualify for the GT Sport Manufacturer's Cup this year, they'll be hoping their team can change that next year with the RX-Vision GT3 since, as Montousse said, "That car has all the Mazda spirit in it." There will be more coming from Mazda in GT Sport as well. Word is that the official partnership won't stop at a single new car, and Yamauchi remarked on the partnership, "I think we can keep our expectations high for next year." Fast forward to 17:50 in the video to see the sketch presented, or roll back a bit to 14:00 to listen to comments from Mazda global head of design Ikuo Maeda.

Mazda RX-3 restomod makes Leno scream, us cheer

The Mazda RX-3 Savanna was the rotary-engined version of the Mazda 808 Grand Familia. Sold in the US from 1971 to 1978, the little Japanese fastback earned a reputation as an excellent racecar, winning events all over the world. A racing connection is how a fantastic 1973 restomod example owned by Savant Young made its way to Jay Leno's Garage. Young said that when he was a boy his uncle used to street race an RX-3, and Young liked how the RX-3 sounded and the fact that a tiny import could go up against and beat big V8s of the time. Leno admitted that he has no connection to the RX-3, saying it's not the kind of car he typically likes. But he liked Young's custom update so much that when he saw the coupe sitting outside the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles, he waited for the owner to show up. Young's changes over the 15 years he's owned the car include dropping in the rotary engine and running gear from the second-generation Mazda RX-7, bridge-ported and methane injected. At 15 pounds of boost he says it's putting out about 400 horsepower. The rear end comes from a Toyota Hilux half-ton pickup, to help put all that power down in a car that weighs maybe 2,100 pounds. The color is taken from the Lamborghini palette. Disc brakes all around, 14-inchers up front, control the velocity. Nothing controls the gas mileage, said to be "maybe 12 mpg." And nothing could stop Leno from whooping it up during the driver. Check out the fun in the video above.

2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata First Drive [w/video]

Hypothetically speaking, if you blindfolded me, put me in the car pictured above, and told me to hit the road, it would have taken me maybe two minutes to figure out that I was driving the 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata. There are just certain facets about Miata driving that have been baked into every generation of Mazda's roadster, and it makes for a symbiotic relationship between car and driver that's truly unique. Sure, I could rattle off a list of cars that come close to offering the same sort of experience, but they just can't quite capture the same intrinsic Miata magic. Mazda knows its Miata is an incredibly special machine. Listening to the company's engineers and designers talk about the development of this fourth-generation ND model is fascinating. The attention to detail is astonishing, and every single person involved in the Miata program knows that the most important goal is to keep this car as true to its predecessors' ethos as possible. It cannot just be a great convertible, or even a great Mazda – it has to be a great MX-5 Miata. But the company did not just want to improve upon the third-generation NC Miata, which has been around since 2006. They wanted to tie the ND Miata's roots back to the original NA from 1989. Back in '89, the Miata was a less-powerful, 1.6-liter model with 115 horsepower and 100 pound-feet of torque. Mazda's team said they are proud of every version of the MX-5, but it's this specific, first-generation model that the company calls the "most right" – the most true to the idea of what a Miata ought to be. So that's why, before being allowed to attack the winding roads of the Spanish countryside in the 2016 MX-5, Mazda wanted me to spend some time with a cherry example of the original NA Miata: a Mariner Blue darling that, even with some 239,000 kilometers on its clock, still felt absolutely impeccable from behind the wheel. Light, responsive, and perfectly balanced, it was the original embodiment of the harmony between driver and car that Mazda wanted in every Miata. Mazda executives said they felt the first Miata was also the right size. So they chopped off three inches on the ND compared with the NC, and put it on a wheelbase that's been reduced by six-tenths of an inch. In fact, these dimensions mean the new Miata is more than two inches shorter in length than the original, and only two-tenths of an inch taller. In this day and age of ever-expanding waistlines and footprints, it's a remarkable achievement.