Kudzu DG-3
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Kudzu DG-3
The Kudzu DG-3 is a sports prototype race car, designed, developed and built to World SportsCar (WSC) regulations, by American racing driver Jim Downing; which debuted at Road America in 1993. It competed in sports car racing between 1993 and 2000; achieving 3 podium finishes, and clinched 1 pole position. It was powered by a naturally-aspirated Mazda 13G wankel 3-rotor, or later, a Mazda 13B wankel Wankel may refer to: * Wankel engine, a type of internal combustion engine using an eccentric rotary design instead of reciprocating pistons * Wankel AG, a German company that produces Wankel engines for ultralight aircraft and racing cars People ... 4-rotor engine. References Sports prototypes IMSA GTP cars {{sportscar-autoracing-stub ...
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IMSA GTP Championship
IMSA GT was a sports car racing series organized by International Motor Sports Association. Races took place primarily in the United States, and occasionally in Canada. History The series was founded in 1969 by John and Peggy Bishop, and Bill France, Sr. Racing began in 1971, and was originally aimed at two of FIA's stock car categories, running two classes each; the GT ( Groups 3 and 4) and touring (Group 1 and 2) classes. The first race was held at Virginia International Raceway; it was an unexpected success, with both the drivers and the handful of spectators who attended. For the following year, John Bishop brought in sponsor R. J. Reynolds, and in 1975 introduced a new category: All American Grand Touring (AAGT). In 1977, the series went through a series of major changes. IMSA permitted turbocharged cars to compete for the first time, as well as introducing a new category: GTX, based on Group 5 rules. In 1981, after Bishop decided to not follow FIA's newly introduced ...
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Wankel Engine
The Wankel engine (, ) is a type of internal combustion engine using an Eccentric (mechanism), eccentric rotary combustion engine, rotary design to convert pressure into rotating motion. It was invented by German engineer Felix Wankel, and designed by German engineer Hanns-Dieter Paschke. The Wankel engine's rotor, which creates the turning motion, is similar in shape to a Reuleaux triangle, with the sides having less curvature. The rotor rotates inside an oval-like epitrochoidal housing, around a central output shaft. The rotor spins in a hula-hoop fashion around the central output shaft, spinning the shaft via toothed gearing. Due to its inherent poor thermodynamics, the Wankel engine has a significantly worse thermal efficiency and worse exhaust gas behaviour when compared against the Otto engine or the Diesel engine, which is why the Wankel engine has seen limited use since its introduction in the 1960s. However, its advantages of compact design, smoothness, lower weight and ...
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Sports Car Racing
Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing which utilises sports cars that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be purpose-built prototypes or grand tourers based on road-going models. Broadly speaking, sports car racing is one of the main types of circuit auto racing, alongside open-wheel single-seater racing (such as Formula One), touring car racing (such as the British Touring Car Championship, which is based on 'saloon cars' as opposed to the 'exotics' seen in sports cars) and stock car racing (such as NASCAR). Sports car races are often, though not always, endurance races that are run over relatively large distances, and there is usually a larger emphasis placed on the reliability and efficiency of the car as opposed to outright speed of the driver. The FIA World Endurance Championship is an example of a sports car racing series. A type of hybrid between the purism of open-wheelers and the familiarity of touring car racing, this style is often associate ...
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1993 IMSA GT Championship
The 1993 Camel GT Championship and Exxon Supreme GT Championship seasons were the 23rd season of the IMSA GT Championship auto racing series. It was the final year of the Camel's sponsorship of the prototype class, and the final year of the GTP and GTP Lights prototype categories before they were replaced with the World Sports Car (WSC) class of prototypes the following year. Schedule The GT classes did not participate in all events. Races marked with ''All'' had all classes on track at the same time. Entries Prototypes GTP GTP Lights WSC World Sports Cars were classified with GTP cars in the final standings, but were run as a separate class in sprint races. Le Mans Cars Non-GTP prototypes raced at the 24 Hours of Daytona under this class. GT GTS GTO cars ran as part of the GTS class in endurance races. GTO GTO cars only raced as a separate class at sprint races. GTU Invitational GT Production-based GT cars were allowed to compete in ...
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Le Mans Prototype
A Le Mans Prototype (LMP) is the type of sports prototype race car used in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, FIA World Endurance Championship, IMSA SportsCar Championship, European Le Mans Series and Asian Le Mans Series. Le Mans Prototypes were created by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The technical requirements for an LMP include bodywork covering all mechanical elements of the car. Currently, there are three classes within Le Mans Prototypes, designated LMP1, LMP2, and LMP3. While not as fast as open-wheel Formula One cars around a track, LMP1s were the fastest closed-wheel racing cars used in circuit racing. Le Mans Prototypes are considered a class above production-based grand tourer cars, which compete alongside them in sports car racing. Later LMP1 designs included Hybrid vehicle, hybrid cars that use electric motors to assist acceleration. The Le Mans Prototype LMP1 class has been replaced by Le Mans Hypercars in the FIA World Endurance Championship, and the 24 Hours of ...
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Sports Prototype
A sports prototype, sometimes referred to as simply a prototype, is a type of race car that is used in the highest-level categories of sports car racing. These purpose-built racing cars, unlike street-legal and production-based racing cars, are not intended for consumer purchase or production beyond that required to compete and win races. Prototype racing cars have competed in sports car racing since before World War II, but became the top echelon of sports cars in the 1960s as they began to replace homologated sports cars. Current ACO regulations allow most sports car series to use two forms of cars: grand tourers (GT), based on street cars, and prototypes, which are allowed a great amount of flexibility within set rule parameters. In historic racing, they are often called "sports racing cars". Sometimes, they are incorrectly referred to as "Le Mans cars", whether they are competing in the Le Mans race or not. Types of sports prototypes Since the 1960s, various championships ...
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Kudzu DG-2
The Kudzu DG-2 is an IMSA GTP Lights sports prototype race car, designed, developed and built by American racing driver Jim Downing, to compete in sports car racing, between 1992 and 1999. It debuted at the 1992 12 Hours of Sebring. Its best result was a third-place race finish, and it achieved ten class wins. It was powered by a naturally-aspirated Buick V6 engine. Only 3 models were manufactured and produced. References Sports prototypes IMSA GTP cars {{sportscar-autoracing-stub ...
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Sequential Gearbox
A sequential manual transmission, also known as a sequential gearbox, or a sequential transmission, is a type of non-synchronous manual transmission used mostly for motorcycles and racing cars. It produces faster shift times than traditional synchronized manual transmissions, and restricts the driver to selecting either the next or previous gear, in a successive order. Design A sequential manual transmission is unsynchronized, and allows the driver to select either the next gear (e.g. shifting from first gear to second gear) or the previous gear (e.g., shifting from third gear to second gear), operated either via electronic paddle-shifters mounted behind the steering wheel or with a sequential shifter. This restriction avoids accidentally selecting the wrong gear; however, it also prevents the driver from deliberately "skipping" gears. The use of dog clutches (rather than synchromesh) results in faster shift speeds than a conventional manual transmission. On a sequential ...
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Mid-engined
In automotive engineering, a mid-engine layout describes the placement of an automobile engine in front of the rear-wheel axles, but behind the front axle. History The mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive format can be considered the original layout of automobiles. A 1901 Autocar was the first gasoline-powered automobile to use a drive shaft and placed the engine under the seat. This pioneering vehicle is now in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution. Benefits Mounting the engine in the middle instead of the front of the vehicle puts more weight over the rear tires, so they have more traction and provide more assistance to the front tires in braking the vehicle, with less chance of rear-wheel lockup and less chance of a skid or spin out. If the mid-engine vehicle is also rear-drive the added weight on the rear tires can also improve acceleration on slippery surfaces, providing much of the benefit of all-wheel-drive without the added weight and expense of all-wheel-drive compon ...
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Pistonless Rotary Engine
A pistonless rotary engine is an internal combustion engine that does not use pistons in the way a reciprocating engine does. Designs vary widely but typically involve one or more rotors, sometimes called rotary pistons. Although many different designs have been constructed, only the Wankel engine has achieved widespread adoption. The term rotary combustion engine has been used as a name for these engines to distinguish them from early (generally up to the early 1920s) aircraft engines and motorcycle engines also known as ''rotary engines''. However, both continue to be called ''rotary engines'' and only the context determines which type is meant, whereas the "pistonless" prefix is less ambiguous. Pistonless rotary engines A pistonless rotary engine replaces the linear reciprocating motion of a piston with more complex compression/expansion motions with the objective of improving some aspect of the engine's operation, such as: higher efficiency thermodynamic cycles, lower mecha ...
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Mazda Wankel Engine
The Mazda Wankel engines are a family of Wankel rotary combustion car engines produced by Mazda. Wankel engines were invented in the early 1950s by Felix Wankel, a German engineer. Over the years, displacement has been increased and turbocharging has been added. Mazda rotary engines have a reputation for being relatively small and powerful at the expense of poor fuel efficiency. The engines became popular with kit car builders, hot rodders and in light aircraft because of their light weight, compact size, tuning potential and inherently high power-to-weight ratio—as is true for all Wankel-type engines. Mazda put the engine into series production with NSU ( Ro80) and Citroën ( GS Birotor) as part of the Comotor joint-venture between 1967 and 1977. Since the end of production of the Mazda RX-8 in 2012, the engine was produced only for single seater racing, with the one-make Star Mazda Championship being contested with a Wankel engine until 2017; the series' transition to usi ...
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