As the new Mazda6 makes its American debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show, the Japanese car maker reveals the first shot of its racing version, the Mazda6 GRAND-AM Racer, set to compete in the new GRAND-AM GX class. It is powered by a SKYACTIV-D Clean Diesel engine.

To make its motorsports debut at the Rolex 24 endurance race on January 26-27, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Mazda6 will become the first ever diesel-powered car to race at the event. It is still in development phase and performance figures are yet to be confirmed, but it’ll get up to 400 horsepower. That is very remarkable, considering it is based on a production block that is currently on sale to civilians in Europe.

John Doonan, Motorsports Director, Mazda North American Operations noted that: “We have been eager to announce this car for months, but had to wait until the production car was revealed.  The SpeedSource engineering team, working with the Mazda engineers, have been flat out for months on engine development.  We’re happy to report that the engine is meeting the performance targets for both power and endurance.  That means 400+ hp for over 50 hours, with an engine that includes a very long list of production Mazda parts.  This is not a pure race engine; it is a production block SKYACTIV-D.  We’re excited about having our newest engine powering our newest car.”