American tyre manufacturer BF Goodrich proved during the 1980s that the famous express 'race on Sunday, buy on Monday' does not only apply to cars. To showcase the potential of their latest T/A Radials road tyres, they shod a series of competition cars with the same compound rubber. For the 1984 season, the Jim Busby run team fielded this Lola T616 Mazda. Powered by a howling, 300+ bhp twin-rotor engine, the lightweight machine was fielded in the World Sports Car Championship and the IMSA GTP series. Raced in the Group C2 class, the T616 Mazda was particularly successful in the World Championship, winning the class at Monza and most importantly at Le Mans. Following the highly successful season with the Mazda-engined Lolas, the team stepped up to a GTP specification Porsche 962. The T616s continued to be raced by others for many more seasons. The two cars used in the World Championship were eventually restored to their original configuration by Busby himself. We captured both cars in this 46-shot gallery fittingly in action at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and the Goodwood Festival of Speed where Mazda will be the featured marque this year.
This year's World Endurance Championship kicked off this weekend with the 6 Hours race at Silverstone, run for the legendary Tourist Trophy. While the very powerful Porsches proved fastest in qualifying, the Audi R18 e-tron quattro turned out to be the better package during the race. Despite a late stop-go penalty, the R18 piloted by Marcel Fassler, Benoit Treluyer and Andre Lotterer clinched the first win of the season.

Enjoy the links:

2015 Audi R18 e-tron quattro - Images, Specifications and Information

1984 Lola T616 Mazda - Images, Specifications and Information