Frantic summer months as we completed our consolidation move into our original production building. Managed to work in a few new products: stainless steel exhaust mid-pipe sections for 79-80 and 83-85 RX-7s, stainless steel versions of our 1st gen RX-7 street port connecting pipes, revised street port muffler units (better sound and power!) and more…
For 2020 we’ve added a new Racing Beat shirt design to the line-up. Super soft shirts and a new vintage-aged logo design provide a contemporary look and awesome comfort! Our best fitting shirt ever. All sizes available.
Racing Beat has teamed up with world renowned hydraulics supplier Goodridge LTD (UK) to offer a line of braided stainless steel clutch lines for the 1981-85 and 1986-92 RX-7 applications. Hard to believe that this gap has existed for all these years in their product line, so we reached out to see it they’d be interested in producing these lines for us. The answer was obviously “yes”, and we now have these high-quality lines available exclusively through Racing Beat. Exact fit, great price, check it out!
Racing Beat is back again in the just-released Xbox game, Forza Horizon. Unlike a typical racing game, Forza Horizon is an open-world game which allows the game player to explore, race, and drift along the vast highways of Colorado while attending the fictional Horizon Festival. The goal of this game is to earn fame by competing in various competitions while driving fast, destroying property, avoiding traffic and causing general mayhem along the way!
Follow Racing Beat on Facebook for latest news, product releases and cool Mazda updates, including photos from the Sevenstock 15 event at Willow Springs Raceway. This is a great way to keep current with the latest Racing Beat news, don’t miss out!
Spied in the Mazdaspeed booth at the 2011 SEMA show in Las Vegas was this interesting teaser – a turbocharged Mazda 2 version. But wait, the standard fuel-sipping 1.5-liter engine has been replaced with the turbocharged 263-hp, 2.3-liter four from the Mazdaspeed 3. However fun having this much power on tap might be, we suspect that a massive dose of torque steer might make this beast a hair-raising ride.
Cool graphics on top and a complete make-over under the chassis features updated coil-overs and swaybars, making this Turbo2 an interesting and fun package. Testing with our own Racing Beat suspension products installed on a Mazda 2 confirms that this project vehicle will certainly be one fun car to drive! If you’re not game for installing a turbo system on your Mazda 2 just yet, get your grin started with an update to the swaybars and springs on YOUR Mazda 2 today.
We’ve been having some fun with a GoPro video camera and our collection of product video clips is slowly starting to grow. As new clips become available we’ll add them to individual product pages, our first videos can be seen on the Mazda2 exhaust and suspension spring pages – check them out!
Racing Beat Testing Notes – Mazda 2 Product Development
Driver: Jim Mederer – Racing Beat
Test Vehicle: 2011 Mazda 2 – Manual Transmission
Project: Suspension Tuning
I just finished our suspension work on the Mazda 2. The Racing Beat prototype springs lower the car 21mm/0.8″ front and16.5mm/.64″ rear, plus they increase the spring rate 20% over stock.
The Racing Beat Mazda 2 front sway bar is 1″ and features a conventional solid bar design (stock was 19mm/.75″). The rear sway features a new design. I found a technique to clamp the rear bar inside the “U” axle beam that connects the rear hubs to increase rear torsional stiffness, and it is working well. The “bar” portion is 1.50″ OD/.06″ wall tube.
I tested the stock car (with stock tires) with a VBOX GPS data recording system and found an average of .87G through the middle of my standard test corner. After development, it now produces .94G! Along with the “G” increase, the car averages 1.5 more MPH through the corner. The corner was recently repaved and hasn’t been striped yet so comparisons with other cars aren’t valid – but the change is real. The car has an unusual tail-out attitude – but it is stable and likes the throttle. Roll is substantially reduced and the car is much more responsive to turning inputs. The bar change has also reduced the tendency to spin the inside tire in slow corners when accelerating from a stop. The darn thing is kinda’ fun!