The SpeedSource No. 70 Castrol Syntec Mazda RX-8 GT clinched 3rd place in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series GT driver, team, and manufacturer championships at the season ender 7-hour race at Miller Motorsports Park on September 20. SpeedSource wrapped up the 2008 season with its 8th top-five finish for the year, including 3 wins. With 2 pole awards, and the most number of laps led per driver (236) and per team (500), SpeedSource counts this as a successful season in many ways. Bringing home its own set of achievements, Emil Assentato's No. 69 FXDD Mazda RX-8 GT posted its first pole, first win, 8 top-ten finishes, and a top-ten standing for Assentato in the team championship.

2008 started out great, and then went downhill from there. The year started out with coverage of the Detroit Auto Show, NAIAS, and the introduction of the Mazda Furai, and the face-lifted RX-8, and the 16x. The Furai was thought to be a early April Fools joke by some, but the Youtube videos and appearance at various auto shows and motor sport events this year dispelled any though of the 3 rotor 450 HP monster being a prank. The early part of the year continued with Mazda Rotary Power Dominating the Rolex Daytona 24 hrs. As the year progressed, however, the news slowed down, as did the economy....

Mrs. Carol Campbell Tremblay, wife of SpeedSource racer/owner and enthusiastic SevenStock supporter, Sylvain Tremblay, lost her life in a very tragic traffic accident Friday Dec 12th. Sylvain has been a good friend to the SevenStock event and the Rotary community in general.

Carol was a devoted wife, was the first investor in SpeedSource, and went on to be the office manager, and biggest supporter of her husband's dream of racing. She loved going to the races and other events with her sons as a team, and a family.

Hiroshima, July 2008 - In the 1970s, Mazda developed the RX500, a dream supercar that amazed a multitude of car fans around the world. After sitting dormant in a warehouse for the last 30 years, the legendary RX500 has now been fully restored. In July 2008, it was put on display at the Hiroshima City Transportation Museum, 38 years after it was first exhibited at the 1970 Tokyo Motor Show.

IRVINE, Calif, June 4, 2008 – Mazda North American Operations today announced the first shipments of 2009 RX-8 sports coupes are being released to dealers across North America, and will soon be in showrooms.

For 2009, Mazda will further the evolution of the four-door, four-seat sports coupe, giving RX-8 a refreshed exterior and interior design, enhanced performance and a new R3 sport package for the ultimate driving enthusiast. Unchanged is the core of the RX-8 – a high-powered, lightweight and perfectly balanced machine powered by the world-renowned twin-rotor RENESIS rotary engine.

The good folks over at Fomoconews have some mad photochop skills. The image here by forum user "rhoadwh" represents the best of the Furai and Taiki.

Rhoadwh writes: "I set out to create an overall theme based off of Mazda’s latest Taiki and Furai concepts. The Taiki uses a front mid-ship design, which is what all RX-7’s have used in the past and is why I chose this as my first starting point rather than the mid-engined Furai."

Set your DVR's to record SHOCKWAVE on The History Channel, 10:00 PM June 6th, 2008. A segment of this episode features the ill-fated attempt to set a 1993 Bonneville Land Speed Record in a Mazda RX-7. Dramatic footage shows the Racing Beat RX-7 becoming airborne as the car reaches speeds of nearly 230 MPH! Eyewitness accounts describe the unfolding drama, while in-car footage gives an the viewer a driver's perspective of the action.

Mazda is continuing testing the Furai, this time at California's Buttonwillow Raceway. This car is a great marketing tool for Mazda, as this 6 minute test video shows, the car scoots around the track.

Mazda has opened its new technical center in Chesterfield County, Virginia. The company is making a $1.6 million investment in equipment and upgrades at the center, where it rebuilds rotary engines for the RX-8.

"This is the only operation of its type in North America," said Robert Davis, the company's senior vice president for quality, research and development. The company has hired 20 people to work at the center, which also houses a technical call center and will have training programs for the company's dealers.

RX-7 Heaven is back for the 11th year! The Southern California RX-Club is proud to announce SevenStock-XI! Thanks to your support, the entire rotary community, this event has gotten bigger every year, last year it was so big we had to find more real estate. Our world famous event of all things rotary is once again being held at Mazda North American Operations.

The folks at Mazda are once again allowing us to hold this great event at their beautiful headquarters in Irvine, California. So mark your calendars, get your RX cars ready and find any way you can to get to Irvine on the weekend of Saturday September 27th for an entire whole slew of rotary-related actives.