Moffat Mazda Team - Bathurst 1983

[racer69]

Did both the #43 Moffat/Katayama car and the #34 Handsford/Waldon car run with the 13B rotary engine, or did the #34 car still use the 12A rotary.

As far as know the only other car with a 13B in the race was the Ron Dickson entry.

Thanks.

[Wrighty05]

As I understand it (could be wrong) car #34 was a 12A all the way through: practice, qualifying and race.

I think car #43 qualified with the 13B but the qualifying perofrmance was so poor that they changed to a 12A for the race.

It's hard to figure out however, because the Moffat team back then were very secretive and not very accommodating to the press, so people who were in the team may be the only people that know the true story.

[Hazza]

just a quick question: Ukyo Katayama?

[Gaz170]

Just checking the Great Race book, it appears 43 qualified with a fuel injected 13B, but ran the race in a carby 13B that had been run in on a road car.
A couple of theories on the poor qualifying put it down to either the injection system not coping with the altitude changes at Bathurst, or a miscalculation of the port sizes.
Car 34 seems to have run a 12A all meeting, according to the book.

[Gaz170]

Originally posted by Hazza
just a quick question: Ukyo Katayama?

Yoshimi Katayama. Born May 15th, 1940 in Kobe, Japan.
Raced Mazda cars in Japan Touring car championship & in various worldwide sports car races.

[GTRMagic]

The EFI system introduced at a wet Sandown in 1983 was good for that year, the engine was driveable, and allowed the power to get to the road very well

At Bathurst, with the significantly longer application of full throttle, the climb that interfered with the EFI systems ability to cope with different air densities at different altitudes, and a lack of running at the Bathurst circuit, meant the 13B with EFI would have to come play another day.

If they had a MoTeC system way back then, the engine could have been tuned on the spot... but at the time the team was relying on electronic boxes from Mazda Japan, and no real local fiddling was allowed or even possible.

[mixxer]

Originally posted by Gaz170
Yoshimi Katayama. Born May 15th, 1940 in Kobe, Japan.
Raced Mazda cars in Japan Touring car championship & in various worldwide sports car races.

AH SO him of the spectacular roll over at Bathurst in a RX-3 or R100 coupe ?

[racer69]

Certainly is the same man. A very quick driver.

Known as 'Mr Mazda' in Japan, i suppose in the same way as Masahiro Hasemi (also a Bathurst visitor in 1981 and 1982) was known as 'Mr Nissan'.

And to think the ARDC were going to ban the 13B altogether because they were worried of it being a one-horse race.

[falcontastic]

Was that the fellow Moffat pulled out through the passenger door at high speed?

[Gaz170]

Same man on both counts. I'd forgotten about that spectacular rollover.

[Crash Test]

EFI/Carby? Didn't Moffat say at Bathurst 93 that the engine doesn't know where it gets its petrol from?

BTW- fairly useless information, but James Moffat, son of a gun, has had a couple of races in a production XR6 Falcon at club level...

[prn 31]

Originally posted by Crash Test
EFI/Carby? Didn't Moffat say at Bathurst 93 that the engine doesn't know where it gets its petrol from?

BTW- fairly useless information, but James Moffat, son of a gun, has had a couple of races in a production XR6 Falcon at club level...

"Son of a Gun?" Wasn't he born in 1983?

I know that is very OT, but didn't Allan buy his son an AC Ace for James when he was born? No doubt this would've gone long ago when the "collection" had to be liquidated?