Jeff and the Glorious Mazda Fail-Diesels

Jeff and the Glorious Mazda Fail-Diesels

From It's Not the Car by Sam Smith, Ross Bentley, Jeff Braun

March 31, 2026 · 48 min · Season 3 · Episode 103

About this episode

Jeff Braun shares the story of Mazda's ambitious but ill-fated diesel racing prototypes.

Ten years ago, INTC's Jeff Braun helped a Japanese carmaker go IMSA racing with a 180-mph diesel prototype. The car was cool. More than 700 lb-ft of torque at 2800 rpm. Gobs of potential. Also: It blew up every five minutes. (An exaggeration, of course. No race car blows up every five minutes, even an underfunded, production-based coal-roller cranking around Daytona. That would be silly.) (It was probably more like ten minutes.) Mazda's diesel Le Mans prototypes of 2014 and 2015 were one of the most admirable, ambitious, and ill-fated efforts in American motorsport. Jeff was on pit wall for the thick of it, helping make those cars faster. Sam is here now, asking questions. This show changes format weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “JEFF TELLS A STORY.” This episode was produced by Sam Smith. Thanks, as always, to our friends at BFGoodrich for supporting the show! ** Who We Are + Spicy Merch: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.ItsNotTheCar.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ** Support It’s Not the Car: Contribute on Patreon ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.patreon.com/notthecar⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ** Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think! ⁠⁠…

People in this episode

Host: Sam Smith

Guest: Jeff Braun

Topics covered

  • IMSA racing
  • diesel prototypes
  • Mazda
  • motorsport history
  • car performance
  • storytelling

Keywords

  • Mazda
  • diesel
  • IMSA
  • motorsport
  • Jeff Braun
  • car performance
  • Daytona

Sponsors

BFGoodrich

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Mazda, INTC

Products: diesel prototype

Places: Daytona

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