Killer B’s, Honda and Mazda to Release B Segment Racers
By Mike Kojima
We can just about all agree that racing is fun. We can also agree that racing is also very expensive. It is the expense of racing that deters most of us with racing ambitions from actually taking part in wheel to wheel racing. Well the SCCA, NASA and several manufacturers of sub compact cars, known as the B Segment have gotten together to support a new affordable racing class.
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| The Honda and Mazda B Spec racers are derived from the pedestrian Fit and Mazda 2 respectively. You gotta admit lowering them and putting on some graphics makes the cars look a lot less stubby and cartoonish. |
To date both Mazda and Honda have embraced the program cooperating with the SCCA to draft a set of rules that will be common with SCCA, NASA, Grand Am, World Challenge and possibly our own MPTCC. Both Mazda and Honda have created inexpensive B-Spec kits that are officially homologated as legal mods for the series. Ford, Mini, Toyota and Kia have all built demo cars for the series and Nissan seems asleep at the wheel even though they have an excellent grass roots Motorsports program where this series would be a shoe in.
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| B-Spec racing is designed as a very low cost way to run a late model compact car. |
Although it is hard to get excited about the stubby, tall, cartoonish looking B Segment cars (hey manufacturers, you used to know how to make cool looking small cars, look to your past when designing the next generation!) when lowered with some cool wheels and racing graphics, they start to look a lot better.
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| A universal set of rules adapted by SCCA, NASA, Grand Am, and World Challenge should help make the class viable. |
Unlike the old Showroom stock racing trunk kits of yore, the new B-Spec kits actually make some pretty competitive and fun to drive race cars. Mazda and Honda both invited us to the Streets of Willow Springs race track to get to sample their respective B–Series racers with close to final kit specs as well as bone stock cars to contrast and compare to the racers. Let us tell you about them.
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| The race kits are simple and easy to install with the only major expense besides the car being the roll cage. |
First up was the stock Mazda 2
