I watched the race by the Dunlop bridge in the morning and at the Esses until the race ended. I still remember the sound of MAZDA 787B but never imagined listening to my home country's national anthem that day.
The fact that the Mazda 787B beat the Silk Cut Jag, Sauber Mercedes and other super competitive racers speak in volume as to the 787's legacy. Baddest ride of it's time and it shocked the shit out of all of the manufacturers.
It didn't win on pace alone. This race had a high amount of DNFs because e.g. Mercedes was using at the same time old and new regulation cars. Mazda was also running lower minimum weight - that was thanks to their successful politicking, others did not opposite because no one considered them a threat before the race based on their previous moderate at best results. And contraty to the popular claim, 787B was not banned, and there was no specific rotary ban. That is a myth and complete BS.
@@deggis4 The 787b completed more laps than the 1990 winning Jaguar. Team orders for the #55 Mazda was to run the race as if it a sprint. This was the one and only start for the #55-002 787b. They ran a lower weight because of the engine size,not politics. According to official records 2nd,3rd,4th,and 5th place finished the race, They were Jaguars and a lone Mercedes.
They were only in Group 2 and 80% of the field were Porsches. LeMans is only partly about speed. Using the same platform year after year will spell amazing reliability and continually developing and refining a fast platform will keep it competitive. After the rules change in 1992, a Dauer 962 won Le Mans overall in 1994.
A real shame, that what is considered different or over the top gets banned immediately... So many great innovations, that are lost because of this. This was a very special year, since there was nearly every engine layout present
This story is pure myth. It has become such a popular tale I don’t blame anyone for believing it. The 787B was not banned after winning. All the engines in this race were already banned from next year’s formula because they wanted to slow down all the cars, bring cost down and safety up. A 3.5 liter engine had already been mandated for all cars in this class. The 787B is partly so famous because the Mazda rotary cars lost year after year at Le Mans and their ‘91 win was a huge surprise. Part of the reason it is was even competitive was because Jacky Icx convinced the stewards that their engine was small enough not to incur the 400+ lbs weight penalty the Mercedes had. Since no thought they were a threat, no one complained. So, they had an enormous engine and a lot less weight than the Mercedes, which was still faster, but they all broke down.
@@The_ZeroLine the reason it was banned was because of the fuel consumption... I never said it was banned because it won..? You could still use a old engine, and chassis for that matter, which has been seen many many times at Le Mans. And since the implementation of the chicanes, a engine that was mostly good for high speed, it wasn't really a popular solution. The earlier entries in prototype classes, were in C2 or C3.. the 787 was actually the first Mazda to challenge for the overall win
@@The_ZeroLine about the old cars.. The Porsche group c racer were in action in remarkable long time, but it was also such a solid car. The rotary engine was less then 3,5 litres. But rules now stated, that it had to be a piston engine. And not sure about the cost reduction attempt, since they wanted to mimic the quite pricey 3,5 F1 engines.. It also backfired exponentially in their face, as there was historically low entries in 92. So besides allowing other classes, they changed the rules again in 1993.. Again it was a stupid move and disappointing thing to ban or limit innovation. It's a automobile race, it's meant as entertainment and limiting fuel, tires or whatever is ridiculous as the entire thing is a waste of energy and material in itself
Been in the Mazda was so bad for racing was such a bad move because I know people just come sometimes to the races just to hear that engine whistle back I remember when they came to Lime Rock park in Connecticut and there was described as the wicked sounding Mazda’s
Dicen que todo lo pasado fue mejor, esto es una prueba de ello, los autos han perdido originalidad, de que sirve la tecnología si no pueden devolvernos la esencia del deporte, ocurre en el futbol con el var, ocurre con los coches "hibridos" cuando lo que solo nos bastaba lo que teniamos en frente, admirable el mazda y pensar que toyota y nissan lo intentaron pero este japones pudo hace honor sin ser favorito, se nota que nisiquiera es tan veloz, partio muy atrás pero ni eso impidió que dejara su huella en le mans soy hincha de nissan y no podré sentir la felicidad que te daría que tu marca favorita logre algo como mazda, el zx llego quinto el r390 ck hizo la pole y se retiro, el r390 gt llegó tercero. Pero me rendire ante este valeroso mazda.
It was a terrible shame the Mazda won the race, due to an unfair weight advantage. I remember watching the last laps with the Jags in 2nd, 3rd and 4th, and thinking how close they came to sweeping the podium in their last appearance at Le Mans.
Julian Lockwood unfair weight advantage? That just proves what engine is superior. I think everyone had the option to make their car as light as possible, and Mazda just did it better
MySpaceSucks3 Not true. Every car had a minimum weight requirement. 100 kilos of ballast was added to the Group C cars, with the exception of the Mazda’s. This was the crucial advantage that made the difference.
