Long Road Racing: Racing DNA for the road-117353

Long Road Racing is channeling 15 years of road racing experience to provide enthusiasts with their ultimate street Mazda MX-5.

Street cars are compromises. That's not to say any given street car is a bad car, it's just that they are designed to satisfy a broad-based audience. It's true even for sports cars; they're built to please the most people possible, which comes with compromises. Even with a multitude of packages and options, getting the exact car an enthusiast wants may not be possible from a factory, which is why the aftermarket thrives.

For any popular make and model, there's no shortage of great aftermarket parts, but how they work together to achieve what the buyer is looking to accomplish isn't easy to determine and needs to be taken into account when planning an upgrade.

Racecars are built to do a specific job, and do it well, so why not take the engineering skills, experience and mindset of a motorsports company and apply them to street car solutions? Which is where Long Road Racing comes in.

The North Carolina-based company developed and builds the Global MX-5 Cup cars that Mazda sells for the Global MX-5 Cup series in the U.S. and beyond, and which many have bought for competing in other arenas or even for track days. The success of the program has completely justified Mazda's faith in LRR.

"When it came time to select a development partner and single builder for the 2016 Global MX-5 Cup car, Long Road Racing was the logical choice," says Mazda Motorsports director John Doonan. "As long-time members of the Mazda racing family, the Longs have experienced success on track, displayed the ability to attract talented personnel on the engineering and fabricating side, and earned trust among the racing community. Clearly, the production platform of the Mazda MX-5 is a global 'winner' as a road car [2015 Global Car of the Year and Global Design Car of the Year] as it rolls off the assembly line. Then, when a passionate and talented group of enthusiasts like LRR get ahold of it, even more amazing things can happen with the driver's experience with the car."

Now LRR is taking the knowledge and experience it's gathered, not only with the Global MX-5 Cup program, but over 15 years in racing, to engineer and build packages to enhance the street MX-5.

"At some point, racing becomes part of your DNA," says LRR principal Glenn Long. "As you develop racecars, be it Global MX-5 Cup cars or Spec Miatas, you learn a tremendous amount about what influences what, and what the feel is. I think our racing experience is directly applicable to knowing what the customer wants, and determining what works or doesn't work to get to the desired result. We are providing engineered solutions, not just parts that fit."

Long Road Racing is focused on motorsports, so it took some prodding for them to even consider applying their expertise to the street. Some of it came from people who experienced the Global MX-5 Cup car and wanted something similar in a street car; some came from enthusiasts who simply found a Mazda racecar developer and wanted a street car that better suited their desires – such as combining the luxuries of the GT model with more of the sportiness of the Club model, which isn't a factory option. LRR began to see a demand and, as the initial rush of building Global MX-5 Cup cars slowed, an opportunity.

Now it's committed to putting some of its motorsport DNA into street cars. The intention isn't to build racecars for the road, but to apply motorsports philosophies to delivering a car that better suits the customer's desires. Street cars are worked on alongside the racecar builds, by the same team, using the same tools and approach.

"It's a racing culture," says Cameron Auld, the lead technician at Long Road Racing. "Professional sports car racing is all about precision. I think that trickles down to the way we do things. The racing experience is huge for the customer, because they know it's done right."

 

The Long road travelled

The Long Road Racing story begins with long-time club racer Glenn Long and his son, Tom, racing Spec Miatas. The company quickly expanded to help a growing customer base in Spec Miata racing, and won the Pro Spec Miata championship in 2005.

The road racing specialists eventually played a key role in pushing Freedom Autosport's MX-5s to the front of the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge Street Tuner field, with Tom as team manager and driver, and Glenn as crew chief.

Now a factory driver for Mazda in its IMSA Prototype program, Tom was the lead development driver when LRR became Mazda's development and build partner for the Global MX-5 Cup racer, which made its debut in 2016.

"With 120 of the new-for-2016 MX-5 Cup cars sold to date, the team at LRR has proven their worth to our customers across North America and now the globe," says Mazda Motorsports director John Doonan.