In this episo… ah, screw it. Cut to the chase: Do you know what a Mazda R26B rotary sounds like?

Four rotors of fury! The littlest beer keg that could! The 700-horse shrieker from the first Japanese car to win Le Mans!

BEEOWHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!

Except… louder. Nastier. You hear that noise even once, it makes a bee-line for the whoopy monkey core of the human brain and lives there forever.

So we got ourselves here yep a story about that.

This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. This episode is our monthly deep dive into an epic moment from racing history. In this case, the time an underfunded Japanese carmaker and a strange little engine design went to France and slayed 200-mph giants.

Related Trivia: Sam once track-tested a real live Mazda 787. Ross used to own Mazda RX-7. And in 2014 and 2015, Jeff was competition director for the factory-backed Mazda SpeedSource diesel prototypes in IMSA.

This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.

**

**

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!

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠INTCPod@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

**

Check out Sam's new book!

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

**

Where to find us:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/intcpod⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://rossbentley.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://speedsecrets.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

**

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 Tuesday.

Corner by corner, inch by inch, one of the greatest tracks in the world. We’ve got thousands of laps there. Walk the track with us!

What makes Laguna Seca so great? Is the answer . . . California? The mountains? Memories of Mario, getting loose in Turn 9, that cotton-candy morning fog, or how the rear axle just snap-crackle-pops into the Corkscrew on trailed brake?

Yes! And so much else, right?

This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this ep's format “Walking the Track.” In this installment, Sam and Ross destitch their love for a deeply American, deeply Californian, and deeply wonderful track.

You will learn where the apexes are, if you don’t already know. But that’s the least interesting part.

***YOUR RELATED TRIVIA STARTS NOW***

Ross has strolled Laguna’s pavement countless times while teaching people to go fast there. Sam once got yelled at by track security for daring to walk a lap at sunset, on a club-race weekend, after everyone had gone home.

(Not allowed, they said. Which is ridiculous, but also, in that case, why were the gates open? Boo hiss.)

This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.

**

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!

⁠⁠⁠⁠INTCPod@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠

**

Check out Sam's new book!

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

**

Where to find us:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/intcpod⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://rossbentley.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://speedsecrets.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠

**

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 journalist 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 Tuesday.

Jeff and Ross co-host this show. Jeff is a race engineer. Ross is a performance coach who’s worked with thousands of drivers—Indy winners, Le Mans winners, even the late Ken Block.

Thirty years ago, one kid stood out from the rest; he would become one of the most decorated drivers in American history. Oddly enough, that kid was Jeff's son.

Colin Braun is now 36. His resume holds three IMSA championships, four Daytona 24 wins, a Le Mans win, and a NASCAR rookie-of-the-year title. He’s raced in IndyCar, World Challenge, and Global Rallycross; he’s driven Le Mans prototypes and GTP cars, Porsches and Ferraris and Ford GTs.

The most successful drivers do one thing better than the rest. So we got Colin on the horn and asked about that—and about what it takes to go fast in everything.

This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. Are we doing a run of guest episodes this fall because it sounded like fun? We are!

Related Trivia: Colin recently signed to drive one of Meyer Shank Racing’s factory-backed Acura GTP prototypes for 2025. This is neat. We like this.

This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.

**

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!

⁠⁠⁠INTCPod@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠

**

Check out Sam's new book!

⁠⁠⁠⁠Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023⁠⁠⁠⁠

**

Where to find us:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/intcpod⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠https://rossbentley.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠https://speedsecrets.com/⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach⁠⁠⁠

**

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 journalist 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 Tuesday.