Tri-Point Motorsports is opening the doors to its facilities tonight. The Tri-Point team has taken its familiar blue Mazda6 and Mazda3 Touring Cars to the Speed World Challenge podium more than 12 times over the years. This makes Tri-Point BFFs with MAZDASPEED and as such Mazda’s motorsports arm is also using this opportunity to preview its 2010 World Challenge efforts. Did I mention that this is going down tonight? If you find yourself in SoCal’s San Fernando Valley (yes, it is home to more than porn and Valley Gurlz) feel free to swing by. I’ll be the one caressing the Tri-Point cars inappropriately. Here’s the deets:

Who: Members of the Automotive and Motorsports Press, MAZDASPEED enthusiasts, current, retired & future Mazda racers

What: 2010 MAZDA3 –World Challenge Touring Car Spec Product Walkaround. Join us for a soda, snacks, and high quality bench racing.

Where: Tri-Point Motorsports 21345 Deering Court Canoga Park, CA 91304

When: Tuesday, November 10, 2009 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm

Why: To check out what will be Zoom-Zooming World Challenge in 2010. Tri-Point Motorsports is now taking orders for customer cars.

How: RSVP to nicolen@tripointengineering.com

The Mazda took an early lead and managed to hold off the Chevy, winning this week’s Showroom Showdown by a 6-to-5 margin. It’s definitely a sharp looking car. If you have ideas for future showdowns, post ‘em below!

This week is the battle of the Camry fighters. Ryan Douthit just reviewed the new Mazda6 and I did a real quicky review of the Malibu hybrid (Porter still owes me a longer review on the Malibu, since he actually spent some time with the car). For this showdown, let’s compare the V6 models. The Mazda’s 3.7 liter V6 puts out 272 hp, and Chevy’s 3.6 liter V6 puts out 252 hp. Both cars are only available with 6-speed automatics, and come in under $30k nicely equipped. Which would you choose?

Just how important is the all-new Mazda6 to the Mazda’s American portfolio? “The Mazda6 is one of the biggest launches we’ll have this decade,” commented Jim O’Sullivan, President and CEO of Mazda North America. Coming from a company that already launched an impressive array of new products in the last few years, that’s quite a statement.

The outgoing Mazda6 wasn’t what one would call a disappointment, per se. It just failed to set the world on fire. Where its competitors sold 300,000 and 400,000 of the Accord and Camry, respectively, the little Mazda6 scooted under the radar, moving just under 100,000 units—hardly a blip better than the outgoing Protegé.

Continue reading after the jump.

Continue reading "2009 Mazda6 Grand Touring" »

By Rob

Editor-in-Chief

I met Tim Suddard, publisher of Grassroots Motorsports, over at the Mazdaspeed booth on Tuesday to talk about next year’s Ultimate Track Challenge. While I was there I spent some time checking out this Mazda6, which was the World Challenge Touring Car Champion for 2007. Here’s my walkaround video of the booth.