Mazda often has created race cars with a twist, dating back to when Car and Driver campaigned a Wankel rotary–powered RX-2 in 1973. Come 1991, the last year before the rotary was banned from the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the Japanese automaker took its 787B Wankel-powered racer to a win in that round-the-clock classic. Old song, new tune for Mazda in 2013 as it puts its new Mazda 6 on the track and again steps away from the crowd, racing the sedan with the same turbocharged 2.2-liter Skyactiv-D turbo-diesel that will arrive in the 6 later this year. John Doonan, who heads Mazda’s racing efforts in the U.S., smiles as he explains how they take pride in “being different.”
