30 Years of Mazda winning Le Mans
Last weekend, the 89th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans took place. For the first time, this event was held on May 26 and 27, 1923. Up to and including 1965, only European car manufacturers such as Bentley, Jaguar, Ferrari, Bugatti or Mercedes-Benz won this endurance race. This was followed by four successful years for Ford with the GT40 and finally the first overall victories by Porsche with the 917. Although there had been car manufacturers in Asia for some time, it took until 1991 before one of them crossed the finish line of Le Mans in the lead. That year, the event took place on June 22 and 23. On the grid were various Group C race cars from Jaguar, Sauber Mercedes-Benz, Peugeot, Porsche, Lancia, Cougar and Spice, as well as three vehicles from Mazda.
Four-disc Wankel engine with 700 hp
As early as 1990, the Mazdaspeed subsidiary had begun developing the new 787 model. It was based on a monocoque made of composite materials reinforced by aramid fibers. Carbon, now common in sports car construction, was just emerging at the time and many manufacturers were experimenting with different materials in search of the best compromise between weight and rigidity. In line with Group C rules, the 787 and the 787B evolutionary stage derived from it ended up weighing 830 kilograms. As a special feature compared to all its competitors at the time, Mazda didn’t resort to a conventional engine. Instead, the Japanese team had fully committed itself to Wankel technology with rotary piston engines. Their engine with the internal abbreviation 26B had four rotors, a chamber size of around 2.6 liters and an output of 515 kW/700 hp at 11,000 rpm.
Three Mazdas against the sports car world
The resulting sound could be heard from afar. In fact, it even caused permanent hearing damage to one of the nine drivers, Volker Weidler. He shared the cockpit of the 787B with start number 55 with Johnny Herbert and Bertrand Gachot. In the sister cars sat Dave Kennedy/Stefan Johannson/Maurizio Sandro Sala (number 18) and Pierre Dieudonné/Takashi Yorino/Yōjirō Terad (number 56). After the start, Peugeot and Sauber Mercedes-Benz initially took turns at the front. Meanwhile, the Jaguar V12 engines proved thirstier than predicted. Peugeot had to pull out of the race after retirements in the third and seventh hours. As a result, Sauber now held an unchallenged lead. Early on Sundy morning, a Sauber C11 retired. The second car, driven by a certain Michael Schumacher among others, lost plenty of time in the pit lane due to a gearbox change.
Three hours before the end they took the lead
Finally, three hours before the end of the race, the superior leading car of Mass/Ferté/Schlesser retired. This cleared the way for a minor sensation. Mazda had set consistent lap times throughout the race and now took the lead. The #55 car defended this without any problems until the finish. They were two laps ahead of the second-placed Jaguar and even four laps ahead of the third-placed Jaguar. Michael Schumacher and his teammates Fritz Kreuzpointner and Karl Wendlinger only finished 5th in their Sauber C11 behind the third Jaguar. Mazda is the first Japanese manufacturer with an overall victory at Le Mans and to date also the only carmaker to rely on a rotary engine for this purpose. Since 2018, Toyota has been another Japanese manufacturer on the winners’ list. But no one forgets the screeching sound of the Mazda 787B. In 2011, Johnny Herbert again turned a lap at Le Mans (see video) and finally made it onto the podium. He failed to do so in 1991 due to sheer exhaustion.
Images: Mazda
