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....

By fall, while Mazda was doing relatively well, Ford sold more than half of their stock in Mazda, reducing the percentage owned from 33% to 13%. The Financial crisis also impacted motorsports coverage, and new news brought to you by this site, as well as sales in our on-line store. Finally, on December 12th, Speedsource suffered tragedy with the horrible accident that killed Carol Tremblay, wife of SpeedSource racer/owner and enthusiastic SevenStock supporter.

Looking ahead to 2009, RotaryNews.com will not be attending the 2009 NAIAS, since Mazda will not be showing anything new. We hope for a good season for the Speedsource crew. We also hope the RE-Amemiya team will have a better season than 2008. In October the bi-annual Tokyo Autoshow will be held. It will be interesting to see the impact of the financial panic on the Japanese Automakers. Rumors are Mazda is planning to show a concept car there, and word has it the 16X is still under development. There should be another SevenStock, however plans are still in the very early planning stages.

So, Stay tuned! We hope to be a little more active this year than the last half of 2008!