Lurch

Wild West ProRally from Washington St. is on at 11:30 tonight and again Saturday at 5:30pm.

We won Group 2 here and Speed interviewed us at the finish. See what a dork I am on TV...maybe...if it isn't on the cutting room floor.

Also, did you catch my interview on Hi-Rev Tuners a couple weeks ago?

Okay. End of Shameless Plug.

Lurch

Eric Burmeister
MAZDASPEED Rally Team USA

Little Donny

I saw it, lol

I'll be watching...

mazdaspeedwest

don't get that cahnnel please record it

superdave

Thanks for the heads up. I watched it, though it was a pretty short clip. I wish mazda would make an awd turbo to compete in the... well the popular class whatever its called

Makaveli

someone should record it and post it on the web if they can???

I wanna see this

Lurch

Yes, we all wish that. It's called Open class and it requires a 2 car team and a budget about 7-8 times what we currently spend. Please let your feelings be known at mazdausa.com.

Perhaps if Mazda starts selling 4wd Proteges here it may make more marketing sense...

Stay tuned.

superdave

Wow. I figured it had to be very expensive, as I believe it was said that one of the scooby teams could change the tranny in 16 minutes. I'll send Mazda an e-mail regarding my wishes. Just for clarification your in the 'Group 2' class?

Lurch

Correct. Group 2 is for 2wd, 2.0L, n/a cars. That is our class. It is not only a class that is cheaper, so that manufacturers and privateers can get involved without spending a small country's budget, but it is also the class with the most potential competition...

Focus, Civic, Vibe, Neon, Corrola, Golf, Jetta, Protege, Tiburon, Elantra, Sephia, Lancer, Sentra, RSX, Integra, Mini, Matrix, etc. can all fit into this class. All relatively cheap 2L economy cars.

If a 4wd (turbo?) Mazda becomes available on the showrooms, perhaps we have a chance of using an open class team as a marketing tool.

rowan

Don't do Open class... build a proper Group-A or Group-N or WRC spec car... Cars that are slower than WRC cars with 100 less horsepower don't particularily impress me

If the TV guys can increase the coverage of Group 2 it would be great!

Lurch

You obviously haven't seen an SCCA rulebook. Group N is slow. Group A and WRC still don't have as big of restrictors as Open class. So while a WRC spec car is in the neighborhood of $2 million, an SCCA Open class car is MORE POWERFUL for about a quarter of the cost. They just have some technology limits to help keep the cost down. Then there is the issue of dealing with the FIA to get a spec of the car homologated.

GroupN=270hp, stock based parts that don't stand up to the rigors of the sport. Must be a homologated model (Protege isn't)

WRC=320hp, unobtanium parts, stupid expensive suspension, electronic gearboxes/traction control/diffs. Must be homologated for WRC (Protege isn't)

Open=420hp, more reasonable parts cost, workable suspension, non-active diffs. No homologation necessary as it is an SCCA class, not FIA.

As the head of Prodrive USA said to me, "we can build an open class car that will blow a WRCar away."

Cheers,

Lurch

StuttersC

I was watching something about SCCA Pro-Rally on Speed Channel and saw you talking to the announcer guy after you won one of the stages. I was really happy to see the Protege on TV...

Good job.

Hey, Lurch, have you seen the December issue of Grassroots Motorsports yet?? I mentioned you in there too...(My shameless plug)

Little Donny

I forgot to reply but I saw you! hahaha

redrims

I saw you. I never miss an episode.

Davard

You also made into on to coverage of the Lake Superior Rally last night. They mentioned your second place. If you had jumped your car, you probably would have gotten extra time. The guy with the Neon SRT-4 came very close to losing it on the jump, so he got lots of extra time.

mopho

Open class cars have more horsepower than WRC but less torque. So, a WRC would be quicker than an open class car, but open class car can have a higher top speed. The WRC car has only 320hp but has 500 ft-lbs torque at something like 3000rpm and more traction (active diffs) so it will actually accelerate quicker out of the corners than an open car and handle better. The Hyundai open car for example, has 398hp and 370ft-lbs torque at 4500rpm. A WRC car will only do 120mph while an open class could go as high as 135-140mph
Having had rides in the Hyundai a few times, I can assure you that Open class cars are plenty fast! There is definately plenty of shove too, I would estimate (from seat of pants) it will do 0-60 in 4- 4.5 seconds on the dirt!
Also, WRC cars are baned from USA rallying as well as full group A (which would allow sequential gearboxes)