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!

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ABOUT THE SHOW:

It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.

Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.

We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.

New episodes every other Tuesday.