MAZDASPEED announces turnkey Grand-Am GT racecar

MAZDASPEED Motorsports Development announced Thursday that it has expanded its Grand-Am racing series partnership with SpeedSource, Inc. to develop a new GT-class Mazda RX-8 for the 2006 season. SpeedSource won the 2005 Grand-Am Cup Sport Touring class driver's, team and manufacturer's championships with a modified 2-rotor RX-8 production car (pictured).
The more radical Grand-Am GT cars are essentially silhouette racers. The RX-8, for example, will feature a Riley Technologies-developed tube frame chassis with a six-speed EMCO sequential transaxle and a carbon fiber RX-8 look-alike body developed by Downing/Atlanta. The car will be powered by Mazda's three-rotor 20B rotary engine.

A turnkey GT racer from SpeedSource will set you back about $280,000. MAZDASPEED will also carry the Downing/Atlanta body panels and the 20B race engine. MAZDASPEED promises a "lucrative" contingency program for RX-8 GT racers.

[Source: Mazda]