Cars
Mazda 787B
Prototype
Asia
To date, only one Japanese car has won at Le Mans. To date, only one car with a rotary engine has won at Le Mans, and the 787B is the rotary-engined, Japanese car that claims those honours.
The Wankel engine, which originated in the 1950s, never really caught on. It offered some serious advantages over the traditional petrol engine (greater power from a physically more compact and lighter engine), but presented serious technical challenges that most manufacturers never overcame – and the upshot was that few carmakers persevered with the technology, except Mazda.
Built to the Group C regulations, the 787B was powered by a four-rotor Wankel engine using all the know-how that Mazda had gained by building and selling rotary-engined cars with a great deal of success since the 1967 Cosmo Sport. It was a loud car, the engine having a sound as distinctive as its configuration. It wasn’t the favourite to win that year, being considered something of an underdog. However, when competitors fell by the wayside, it kept going, and by the late stages of the race it had won over the multinational crowd who all wanted to see a truly remarkable and unique race car take a famous victory, which it did.
The Wankel engine, which originated in the 1950s, never really caught on. It offered some serious advantages over the traditional petrol engine (greater power from a physically more compact and lighter engine), but presented serious technical challenges that most manufacturers never overcame – and the upshot was that few carmakers persevered with the technology, except Mazda.
Built to the Group C regulations, the 787B was powered by a four-rotor Wankel engine using all the know-how that Mazda had gained by building and selling rotary-engined cars with a great deal of success since the 1967 Cosmo Sport. It was a loud car, the engine having a sound as distinctive as its configuration. It wasn’t the favourite to win that year, being considered something of an underdog. However, when competitors fell by the wayside, it kept going, and by the late stages of the race it had won over the multinational crowd who all wanted to see a truly remarkable and unique race car take a famous victory, which it did.
