The racing continued, with more corporate backing, highlighted by a victory at Le Mans in 1991 and more IMSA GTO and GTU wins than you could shake a rotor at. In 1983 it became a semi-autonomous part of Mazda Motor Corporation and was moved to Hiroshima with the name MazdaSpeed. They called themselves "Mazda Speed Corner." That was in 1967.Mazda Speed Corner kept racing its rotary sports cars, from the Cosmo 110S to the RX-7, for 15 years. Like its European counterparts, MazdaSpeed used to be a separate entity, in this case a team of racing enthusiasts at a dealership called Mazda Auto Tokyo, Japan’s largest Mazda dealer. MazdaSpeed is to Mazda what AMG is to Mercedes and M is to BMW, an in-house tuning arm that takes mass-market sedans and coupes and transforms them into street racers. How did it all happen? Let’s start with some background. Mazda is making "Zoom-Zoom" for real with the MazdaSpeed Protegé, the first MazdaSpeed product to make it to the States. And that’s not just good news for people who like driving, that’s a call for motorsports rejoicing. The Protegé is the first fully tweaked car to officially bear the MazdaSpeed name in the United States but word is that it will be followed by MazdaSpeed versions of the Mazda 6, the Miata and then the RX-8. They’ll be coming to selected Mazda dealers this fall, along with corporate interest in the import drag racing scene, Speed Channel World Challenge and other motorsports endeavors.
On what do we base this conclusion? Mazda is officially launching MazdaSpeed here in the United States, with a complete line of cars, performance parts, performance accessories, support of racing and even hats and T-shirts. At first it seemed like it was just marketing hoopla, like when it claimed its minivan was raised by Miatas, or when it spent $7.5 million for the title rights to Laguna Seca racetrack and started calling the place its "spiritual home."īut now it looks like the Zoom-Zoom is for real. POWERTRAIN: 2.0-liter, 170-hp, 160-lb-ft turbocharged I4 front-drive, five-speed manualįirst, the big news is that Mazda really means all that "Zoom-Zoom" stuff.
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