Folllowing our exclusive last month of the ALMS Falken Ford GT, we have another American Le Mans Series scoop!
Thanks to our association with Marshall Pruett at SpeedTV.com, we can bring you breaking news that the Mazda powered, BK Motorsports, will be running the first Lola Coupe (aka closed cockpit) LMP2 race car in ALMS. The plan is for the coupe to make its debut later this year. Marshall wanted an Artist Impression of the coupe, in the teams 2008 livery and I was happy to oblige.
The Lola Coupe has been seen in the European Le Mans series and 24 Hours of Le Mans with Judd and Aston Martin Power.
You can read the full article, including an Interview with Mazda Motorsport boss John Doonan, over at SpeedTV.com.
Thanks to Marshall for the scoop!
- Andy Blackmore
http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/pruett-mazdas-march-to-the-future//P1/
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Nice artwork Andy...and not an AD marker in sight!
Damn, they ditched the 3 rotor power plant.....so disheartening.
This a great development! Marshal is the man when it comes to U.S. road racing, always got the scoops.
I hope Mazda can get a bit more competitive. The LMP2 cars have absolutely amazing cornering capabilities.
Good luck t o them. It's nice seeing Mazda stick with a fairly in-dependent effort as well. None of this dump millions on a bunch of teams like Acura. Much more grassroots imo.
Great Scoop. Hopefully we'll see Mazda further toward the sharp end of the P2 grid with the new Lola and Dunlops.
They have made quite a leap forward recently when they changed to Dunlops, so I think they are catching up. There current Lola is quite old too. Ben Devlin is a cracking driver.
The coupes are new this year (one races with AM power and one with Judd in European Le Mans series), some teething problems here and there, but they appear quick and are relatively cheap compared to the Porsche.
fc pro am - They are out there to win, not make up the numbers. At least Mazda are directly involved. You got Porsche, Mazda and Acura in P2 (aong with Audi in P1)
^^ Absolutely, Mazda being involved is important. From a "personal" standpoint, it would be awesome seeing a prolonged usage of the 2005 season 3 rotor wankel. It feels good knowing Rotaries are being utilized, hopefully with a focus on continued development in the performance dept.
+ I think the original livery is quite effective (there are some lame ones in ALMS!) and putting that on a closed coupe should be great.
When I get a minute, I might try a 787B style livery on it ( if you look at the livery in plan view, it is 787B inspired
Very cool, love to see Mazdas flying around the track. Sebring next year will be very colorful. haha
Nice stuff Andy, I'm really excited to shoot photos of the closed cockpit cars although I won't be able to get close ups of the drivers like I can on the Audi and Porsche's. I bet the drivers will be happy to get a little shade too. The Falken GT was running no A/C and the coolsuits hadn't been installed at Lime Rock, that's just cruelty.
I'm glad Mazda and Lola have the privateer in mind.
Andy; I have been searching for this photo in a large resolution ever since a colleague of mine in the ALMS sent a smaller picture over to me more than a month ago.
Thankfully, I finally found this higher-resolution picture that I can use in some marketing materials.
I wanted to know if you had a top-down sketch of the Coupe, or a bird's eye view looking down on the car? If there isn't one made up, would you be making one in the near future?
Many inquiring minds would like to know. I look forward to your response.
-Jack
Great looking car redy to debut at Petite Lemans , then crash
during qualifing.......bitter disapointment...made a paper model of it
1/64th scale, not quite like the real thing
sweet look'in sled !!!!!!!!. good luck 2 the boyz @ mazda!!!!!!!!!!.