Circuit Logic: Mazda captures Laguna Seca on Google Street View
Looking for a corkscrew? If it's a bottle of wine you're looking to open, we're afraid we can't help you there, pal. But if you want to take an interactive look at one of America's best race tracks, Mazda and Google have come to the rescue.
The Japanese automaker has captured the Laguna Seca race track (which it sponsors) from every which angle and placed it on Google Street View, making it the first circuit available on the online service. The interactive feature allows you to check out the track from start to finish, Andretti hairpin to the famous Corkscrew downhill kink, all from the comfort of your own home. In fact, we've placed the widget together with the press release right after the jump for your convenience, along with a brace of high-resolution images in the gallery below.
Gallery: Laguna Seca on Google StreetView
[Source: Mazda]
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PRESS RELEASE:
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca World's first Circuit on Google Street View
Leverkusen, 04 September 2009. The legendary Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in California can now be viewed from your PC on Google Street View. Racing fans can travel the entire circuit – starting at Andretti's Hairpin to the infamous Corkscrew Curve – from the perspective of a race car participating in the final leg of the 2008 American Le Mans Series. The tour was filmed using a spherical, multi-lens camera mounted to a vehicle, and combined with additional photographic imagery, GPS and other geo-spatial data to produce a true image of the race track at eye level.
This makes Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca the first racing circuit in the world to be available at Google Street View, an honour it richly deserves. For 52 years, the circuit has been venue for some of the most important racing events in the United States, including the Speed World Challenge and the WSBK Superbike World Championship, among many others. As one of the world's toughest circuits – with 11 curves, a length of 3.6 km and an elevation change of 91 metres – it has been host to thousands of prototype test-drives over the years as well.
One of its most famous prototypes was a small, two-seat roadster from Mazda in the late 1980s. The production model of this car would later enter the Guinness Book of Records as the world's best-selling two-seat sports car ever – the Mazda MX-5 – which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.
Mazda is the raceway's main sponsor and continues to test prototypes for the US market on a regular basis, and to hold its own racing series throughout the US, including the Mazda MX-5 Cup and Formula Mazda.
To take an interactive tour of Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca click on: http://maps.google.de.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Purplewon 1:03PM (9/08/2009)
that's just plain cool
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MKIV 3:34PM (9/08/2009)
Now if someone can figure out a way to animate this thing, I can practice running some laps sitting at my PC. Way too cool!
jackson liu 6:05PM (9/08/2009)
I've seen this a long time ago in a brazilian car blog (!!)
http://alto-giro.blogspot.com/2009/08/alto-giro-avistamentos-carros-de.html
they have done a pretty good job, finding it out by themselves one month ago...
salguod 1:00PM (9/09/2009)
Some of the mapping has been up for a long time, but it wasn't near as complete as it is now.
Check out the Renault R5 Turbo on the Paddock road: bit.ly/16cR1t
Aprime 1:04PM (9/08/2009)
They've mapped another raceway too - don't quite remember which one though.
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why not the LS2LS7? 1:56PM (9/08/2009)
Thunderhill.
zamafir 1:11PM (9/08/2009)
Sick, now do the green hell :)
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Soul Shinobi 1:12PM (9/08/2009)
Hell yes! :D
Soul Shinobi 1:11PM (9/08/2009)
This is not only cool but could be very useful for someone planning an event.
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Alex 1:16PM (9/08/2009)
Heh, i picture a google street-view car racing around the track with LMP racers.
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Commander Cool 1:19PM (9/08/2009)
HA! That was my first thought too.
I expect the streetview cameras don't do much to help the downforce.
Ray 1:23PM (9/08/2009)
no matter how hard i try i can't pass that corvette and porsche. The acura and the audi are all over me.
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twistedfusion 1:31PM (9/08/2009)
Cool! Now all google needs to do is let you put a start and end point on the map and street view automatically moves to the next point making it seem like your "driving" through the track.
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Rich 1:35PM (9/08/2009)
Gran Turismo is your friend.
twistedfusion 1:42PM (9/08/2009)
lol, actually after going around the track, I have a bad itch to fire up gran turismo.
bendizzle 3:01PM (9/08/2009)
he Japanese automaker has captured the Laguna Seca race track (which it sponsors) from every which angle and placed it on Google Street View, making it the first circuit available on the online service.
This is actually not true, Thunder Hill raceway has been on streetview since mid august.
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Fooman 7:37PM (9/08/2009)
This has been up for at least 6 months... I could have sworn autoblog already covered this.
evaristo.jo 3:11PM (9/08/2009)
This is like last month old!
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dukeisduke 3:12PM (9/08/2009)
Wow, that's insane. You can see the elevation changes on the track. Also, not too far past the front straight, you can see where someone made a trip through the gravel trap (on the right). I'd like to see them do the Nordschliefe next.
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why not the LS2LS7? 4:59PM (9/08/2009)
Halfway through the Andretti hairpin you can see where they photoshop out the shadow of the google car, but not the shadow of the camera on top.