2010 Mazda 3 - The Car Without A Country

Like any competitive race car, the Tri-Point sedan has undergone serious suspension work. In fact, because it started life as a stock showroom car, the entire suspension has been engineered from the ground up to suit Tri-Point's needs. A custom rollcage was designed and fitted into the car as collaboration between Mazda USA and Tri-Point Engineering. One interesting feature of the cage design is that Tri-Point was able to omit the heavy cage door bars typically needed for side impact by building a custom Kevlar driver impact brace. This little box is extremely lightweight, very strong and acts as a crumple zone in case of an accident, protecting the driver from any side impact.

The car has also been set up with modified suspension pickup points for extremely accurate fine-tuning of the car's handling. Unfortunately, many types of racing don't allow modified suspension pick-up points, so this is one area where Tri-Point will have to spend some time reverse-engineering the 3 to adhere to the rules for whatever series it ultimately decides to run the car in. A set of beefy one-off rear control arms were fabricated along with a set of tubular sway bars, measuring 31mm up front and a massive 45mm in the rear. All this combined with customized Koni dampers and Hypercoil race springs proves that there's no doubt this sedan can handle its way around any road course you throw at it.

Stopping power is put in place thanks to StopTech Trophy Race calipers and large drilled AeroRotors. This setup is a major upgrade from factory Mazda brakes, as you would expect, and hardly a single piece of this car has been left untouched. Wheels and tires are race bred as well, 17x8-inch Racing Hart forged race wheels paired with sticky Toyo R888 tires.

What Tri-Point has here is an extremely well-built race car, with no place to race. Yet, the original plan was to manufacture parts for customers based on the car you see here and also build up the 3 other race shells they received at the same time. None of those cars are completed as of now because of the proverbial "wrench" thrown into the plans by the rule change to the World Challenge race series for 2010, but we have faith in the ingenuity and creativity of Mark and Chris and the Tri-Point staff. Don't be surprised to see this car putting in work somewhere soon.

Worth Knowing Tri-Point Engineering was founded in 1979 when the Mazda RX-7 first became available. Starting out with high-performance work on rotary-powered cars, Tri-Point and Mazda now work together closely on many projects including bolt-on turbo kits for many applications. Tri-Point has competed in all sorts of racing since its 1990 debut with a '87 RX-7 SCCA Solo II race car.

Specs & Details
'10 Mazda3
Engine 2.5-liter, 4-cylinder built by Comptech USA

Engine Modifications JE 12.5:1 forged pistons, modified factory connecting rods, Comptech performance camshafts, Ron Davis Racing Radiator w/ heat exchanger

Engine Management Motec M400 w/ throttle-by-wire & cam control, tuned for Sunoco GTX260 Octane race fuel

Drivetrain Xtrac 6-speed sequential gearbox, clutch-type limited-slip differential

Suspension Tri-Point Engineering tubular adjustable sway bars 31mm (f) & 45mm (r) Mono Ball suspension pickup points, billet front control arms, custom fabricated rear lower control arms; Koni 2817/2812 (2-way adjustable) Dampers Built by ProParts USA, Hypercoil Race Springs

Interior Tri-Point Engineering/Solidworks rollcage, Sparco ProAdv bucket seat, quick-release steering wheel hub, 325 steering wheel; Safecraft 6-point harness, 10# Fire System; custom Kevlar driver door crash protector, Motec ADL3 data logger

Numbers 270 hp at 7800 rpm (World ChallengeTarget HP), 220 ft-lbs of torque at 6400 rpm

Thanks To Mazda North American Operations, Mazdaspeed Motortsports Development, Comptech USA, StopTech, Rod Davis Racing, Motec, ProParts USA, Sparco, Safecraft

Worth Knowing
The SCCA Racing World Challenge series has gone through many evolutions since its inception in the year 1972. What started off as a series to race completely stock automobiles with a cap of a measly $3,000 has morphed into a massive worldwide race sanctioning body, with many different classes and rule books.