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Goodwood Festival of Speed celebrating Mazda this year [w/video]

Mazda gets to wear the crown and sash as the doubly honored marque for the Goodwood Festival of Speed this year. The Japanese brand will be the focus of the Central Feature, the sculpture that sits outside Goodwood House, and its race cars will be the focus on the lawn, where there will be at least one representative from "every era of Mazda's motor sport achievement."

The theme for this year's event is "Flat-out and fearless: racing on the edge." The showcase, of course, will be the 700-horsepower, rotary-engined 787B that won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1991. It will run up the 1.6-mile Hillclimb while a Mazda challenger from the World Rally Championship runs the Forest Rally Stage, joining Andros Trophy ice racing and sportscar racing Mazdas.

The festival happens from June 25-28 this year, and there's a press release with more details down below the video recap from 2014 and Mazda 787B Le Mans lap.




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Le Mans-winning 787B to headline fantastic Mazda line-up at FoS 2015

Feb 18, 2015 -- Mazda is the only Japanese manufacturer to have won the world's most prestigious motor race – the Le Mans 24 Hours – and the victorious rotary-engined 787B, with its distinctive sound, is certain to be a crowd favourite as it winds its way up Goodwood's iconic 1.16-mile Hillclimb at the Festival of Speed this year.

The 787B is part of a fabulous collection of racing and road machines that will be brought to the Festival by Mazda, in the year in which the company is also being honoured by the iconic Central Feature outside Goodwood House. Further motor sport success has been achieved in touring cars, the World Rally Championship, Andros Trophy ice racing and sportscar competition in the USA – in which Mazda's pioneering SKYACTIV-D turbodiesel technology is breaking new ground currently.

In fact, every era of Mazda's motor sport achievement will be marked by some incredible competition cars both on the Hillclimb and the Forest Rally Stage as we celebrate the FoS theme 'Flat-out and fearless; racing on the edge'. The Moving Motor Show on June 25, will also showcase many of the key models from Mazda's current range.

Festival of Speed Central Feature to honour Mazda

This year's Central Feature will celebrate Mazda's 95-year history and its numerous international motor sport achievements, and has been created by renowned sculptor Gerry Judah working closely with the Japanese company.

Each year, the FoS Central Feature pays tribute to the achievements of an individual marque, and the spectacular installation planned to honour Mazda's contribution to the world of motorsport and motoring this summer is destined to be a real crowd-pleaser – as well as playing perfectly to the Festival's 2015 theme.

'The theme for this year's Festival of Speed is 'Flat-Out and Fearless: Racing on the Edge,' and Mazda's continual push to reject engineering conventions and strive for something unique perfectly aligns with this philosophy,' says Lord March. 'We are delighted to be celebrating Mazda's motor sport achievements and pioneering road-car technologies with the Central Feature, and to help it showcase its brand-new cars to an international community of car enthusiasts and the world's automotive media – an audience that only Goodwood can attract.'

Jeremy Thompson is mangaging director of Mazda Motors UK: 'Mazda has a long and proud heritage in racing, and through motor sport has demonstrated its engineering challenger spirit through the rotary engine, its Le Mans win and the LMP2 SKYACTIV diesel prototype currently racing in the United States.

'This spirit is also encompassed by both our historical and current road cars, being the only manufacturer to perfect the rotary engine, the only manufacturer to use the Millar Cycle engine, and the manufacturer who developed the world's smallest V6 engine. We were also the manufacturer who defied convention by bringing an affordable two seat sports car to market when all other manufacturers were deserting that market segment. Mazda also has more cars, and cars with Mazda engines, racing each weekend in the United States than any other manufacturer and it is all these landmarks and achievements that we will be celebrating at Goodwood this year,' he says.

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