August 17, Tsukuba Circuit, Japan. KNIGHT SPORTS completed the shakedown of its highly tuned RX-7 racecar prior to it being entered in the 2011 running of the prestigious Macau GP. Driving the RX-7 is Macau resident Kevin Tse, who also competes in the GT Asia series. Managing Director of KNIGHT SPORTS Mr. Hidefumi Nakamura: "We have two cars entered this year, an RX-8 and an RX-7. We've also secured the support of local companies as sponsors in addition to our one main sponsor. Everything's going well; we just need to finish up on our preparations for the race."

The day of the shakedown at Tsukuba was an extremely hot 35 degrees Celsius under clear blue skies. When our editorial staff arrived at the track, the team was letting the RX-7 warm up in the pit before the test got underway at 12:30. The Cheng brothers, who manage the team and also run Mazda dealerships in Macau, were there alongside Kevin for the test. Tse got in the car after learning about the challenging and compact track from Tatsuya Tanigawa, driver of the team's RX-8 contender. He was informed about the ultimate shifting and braking points, so crucial at a circuit of this nature. The RX-7 was complete with all aero parts fitted, though remained unpainted and without any livery. The KNIGHT SPORTS-tuned 13B rotary turbo is set up to produce over 500ps for the Macau GP event - but on the day of the shakedown, the car's engine was set up more modestly, with shifts in the region of 7,000rpm. The output was therefore around 460ps. Kevin soon headed out of the pit and onto the track. Mr. Tanigawa commented, "The RX-7 is well balanced and has a very natural feel through the steering wheel."

On this extremely hot day, Kevin ran around 60 laps of the track. He tried not only regular shakedown menu items, but also sliding the tail as he adapted to the car's performance. Kevin later related, "That was the first time I had ever driven a full race-spec. RX-7. I'm really impressed with the car's performance. It has a massively powerful engine and excellent handling. I think I was able to adapt to the RX-7 sufficiently with this single day's driving. I'm really looking forward to running at Macau." Meanwhile, this year's RX-8 is still under development and will have its test run in September.