The Debut of FE2 is a Hit

Last weekend, at Buttonwillow Raceway near Bakersfield, CA, the Formula Enterprise 2.0 race car made its debut on the west coast with two cars just being converted to the new specification motor the night before leaving for the track.  I was driving one and Tom Burt was driving the other and these are only the 3rd and 4th conversions completed in the whole country.  The brainchild behind this generation 2 effort, Mike Davies of SCCA Enterprises, came out to help sort things out and gather needed data to continue to refine the new engine ECU mapping.

The new Mazda MZR 2.0 liter engine makes about 10% more horsepower than the engine it replaces and it is now about 185 hp. in total.  This difference doesn't seem like much but it translated into about 2 to 3 seconds a lap faster than the old 2.3 liter motor.  Plus it sounds great and revs higher and thus pulls far longer than the old one.  In addition, we gained a new 'no lift' upshift capability that makes driving the car more fun.  Next on the agenda is having an 'auto blipper' downshift mode that will really bring the car into the modern era and add to its drivability and fun quotient.

Tom and I battled all weekend long and he really got up to speed quickly.  I developed some fuel delivery problems late in practice that set me back a bit and we missed the first qualifying effort.  Finally in Q2 we got up to speed but never quite as fast as Tom so Tom was always one starting spot ahead in both races.  In each race, I got a better start than Tom and immediately went past him...but also in each race he chased me down and eventually got back by me.  The race to the finish line was a close one each time--less than half a second between us-- but I was able to prevail and got both wins.  Check out the highlight videos here:  Race 1 vid     Race 2 vid

Post race interview links are shown below:

https://www.scca.com/videos/2034763

https://www.scca.com/videos/2034785