30 years ago, the brand won the first Japanese success in the endurance classic, with the original 787 B with a rotary engine. Auto Moto has collected the memories of the actors of this unexpected victory. Part 1: the long road to the rotary.
The road to victory in the Sarthe began in Belgium in 1981. The 24 hours of Francorchamps are then the benchmark race for passenger cars. This year, Pierre Dieudonne was driving a Mazda RX-7 rotary engine prepared in England by the preparer pilot Tom Walkinshaw : “I remember a stint at the end of the night, explains the Belgian, Tom leaves the car to me. I had noticed that the gearbox was sticking. I ask him: “we are second, it’s unexpected. Do we insure? “” No, he replies, you take 500 rev / min more before changing gear: we break or we win “”. The BMWs give in to this Division 2 car.agile and sound RX-7 allows Mazda to win its first international race.
=> The 24 hours of Francorchamps 1981 on video
A few months later, the Belgian driver was summoned to the Tokyo Motor Show to celebrate the victory and shake hands. He meets there Takayoshi Ohashi, patron de Mazdaspeed. This large concession in the Japanese capital has a competition department. And the man intends to create a small prototype – adapted to the new C-Junior category, the equivalent of our LMP2s – for the world endurance championship and the 24 hours of Le Mans. Mazda had dipped a toe in the Sarthe, a decade earlier, with rotary piston engines mounted on Lola and then Sigma chassis.
Our dossier 24h of Le Mans 2021:
Live and ranking | TV program | Streaming
Committed | Starting grid | Favorites and issues
Mazdaspeed’s first test balloon is the 717 C. The catfish-shaped craft is designed in the workshops of the Japanese specialist Mooncraft. The RX-7’s bi-rotor is pushed beyond 300 horses. In each room, we find a triangular “piston” (the rotor) transmitting the energy produced by the combustion of fuel to the drive shaft via a crankpin. The solution is compact and reduces friction. “He was foolproof, remembers Pierre Dieudonné. The only thing that could be a problem was a over-revving when missing a gear. If you exceed 9000 rpm, you risk damaging a ridge segment in the combustion chamber ”. Fortunately, this does not happen at the 24 Hours of Le Mans 1983, Takashi Yorino, Yōjirō Terada and Yoshimi Katayama manage to win the C-Junior category… 68 laps behind the victorious Porsche overall.
“The driving force behind the program has always been Mr. Ohashi, boss of Mazdaspeed, with his emblematic pilot Yōjirō Terada. They were the ones who were going to make contacts, look for budgets, get technical help. Corn during the first years these efforts were fragmented« .
Photo : Mazda
Over the following years, support from headquarters in Hiroshima increased. In Sarthe, the brand is among the applied students. The 757 then 767 and 767B often appear at the finish (7th place in 1987 and 1989), but behind in the battle between the automotive giants: Porsche, Jaguar, Sauber-Mercedes then Toyota and Nissan … rotary engine makes it one of the most popular cars with the public.
The rotary on borrowed time
The end of the decade brings great changes. The Berlin Wall falls, the Japanese real estate market collapses (precipitating the archipelago into the economic crisis) and the International Federation of Motorsport intends to put an end to Group C regulations and its consumption limits. Future prototypes of the all-new World Sports Car Championship – note the demise of the term endurance – will be based on conventional 3.5-liter naturally aspirated F1 engines. Time is running out for the Mazda rotary program.
Yasuo Tutsotomi – Mazda’s engineering and product plan boss – took the reins a few months earlier. He commits yen and demands engine manufacturers a leap of 100 horsepower on the 13J quad-rotor atmospheric. Engaged as a freelancer, the British engineer Nigel Stoud designed the 787: “The problem was always the packaging,” explained this pioneer of computer-aided design. to our Autosport colleagues in 2018. The engine was as long as a 6-cylinder in-line ”. The R26B develops approximately 700 hp in racing configuration. Five years after Jaguar and its XJR-6, Mazda (finally) adopts the carbon fiber monocoque. A single radiator takes place in front of the nose, reducing the number of air inlets. The rear spoiler is placed at the lowest. Mazda is also rejuvenating its workforce. To the young and talented German pilot Volker Weidler – arrived in 1989 – Mazdaspeed added two other sprinters also from F1: Johnny Herbert and Bertrand Gachot.
1990 was, however, a difficult season in the Japanese championship and at Le Mans. In the Sarthe, the two 787s give up on mechanical problems. And during the night, Bertrand Gachot is also scared: “We encountered electrical problems and the headlights went out while I was driving. I had just passed the entrance to the stands. I had to do a full turn to bring the car back to the box, with the risk that another competitor will arrive behind me faster without seeing me. To signal myself, I threw the accelerator hard, which generated flames of one meter ”.
“Because of these reliability problems, the other manufacturers did not realize how much progress we had made in 1990” indicates Pierre Dieudonné. The next year, Mazda thus escapes the penalties imposed by the federation to discourage brands wishing to participate in the world championship with their old Group C cars. Tolerated at Le Mans – due to the fragility of the young 3.5-liters, the Jaguar XJR-12, Mercedes C11 and Porsche 962 C must now exceed the ton on the balance. But the Mazda, which would run under IMSA homologation, can finally keep their 830 kg. The firing window is open. Now it remains to review the management of the team …
=> Read the second part of this article by clicking here
To read on auto-moto.com:
24 hours of Le Mans: the 24 cars that made history
What we know about the future Ferrari at Le Mans
Where are the Peugeot program and the 9X8?
Hugues de Chaunac: “we must remain realistic with Alpine”
30 years ago, the brand won the first Japanese success in the endurance classic, with the original 787 B with a rotary engine. Auto Moto has collected the memories of the actors of this unexpected victory. Part 1: the long road to the rotary.
The road to victory in the Sarthe began in Belgium in 1981. The 24 hours of Francorchamps are then the benchmark race for passenger cars. This year, Pierre Dieudonne was driving a Mazda RX-7 rotary engine prepared in England by the preparer pilot Tom Walkinshaw : “I remember a stint at the end of the night, explains the Belgian, Tom leaves the car to me. I had noticed that the gearbox was sticking. I ask him: “we are second, it’s unexpected. Do we insure? “” No, he replies, you take 500 rev / min more before changing gear: we break or we win “”. The BMWs give in to this Division 2 car.agile and sound RX-7 allows Mazda to win its first international race.
=> The 24 hours of Francorchamps 1981 on video
A few months later, the Belgian driver was summoned to the Tokyo Motor Show to celebrate the victory and shake hands. He meets there Takayoshi Ohashi, patron de Mazdaspeed. This large concession in the Japanese capital has a competition department. And the man intends to create a small prototype – adapted to the new C-Junior category, the equivalent of our LMP2s – for the world endurance championship and the 24 hours of Le Mans. Mazda had dipped a toe in the Sarthe, a decade earlier, with rotary piston engines mounted on Lola and then Sigma chassis.
Our dossier 24h of Le Mans 2021:
Live and ranking | TV program | Streaming
Committed | Starting grid | Favorites and issues
Mazdaspeed’s first test balloon is the 717 C. The catfish-shaped craft is designed in the workshops of the Japanese specialist Mooncraft. The RX-7’s bi-rotor is pushed beyond 300 horses. In each room, we find a triangular “piston” (the rotor) transmitting the energy produced by the combustion of fuel to the drive shaft via a crankpin. The solution is compact and reduces friction. “He was foolproof, remembers Pierre Dieudonné. The only thing that could be a problem was a over-revving when missing a gear. If you exceed 9000 rpm, you risk damaging a ridge segment in the combustion chamber ”. Fortunately, this does not happen at the 24 Hours of Le Mans 1983, Takashi Yorino, Yōjirō Terada and Yoshimi Katayama manage to win the C-Junior category… 68 laps behind the victorious Porsche overall.
“The driving force behind the program has always been Mr. Ohashi, boss of Mazdaspeed, with his emblematic pilot Yōjirō Terada. They were the ones who were going to make contacts, look for budgets, get technical help. Corn during the first years these efforts were fragmented« .
Photo : Mazda
Over the following years, support from headquarters in Hiroshima increased. In Sarthe, the brand is among the applied students. The 757 then 767 and 767B often appear at the finish (7th place in 1987 and 1989), but behind in the battle between the automotive giants: Porsche, Jaguar, Sauber-Mercedes then Toyota and Nissan … rotary engine makes it one of the most popular cars with the public.
The rotary on borrowed time
The end of the decade brings great changes. The Berlin Wall falls, the Japanese real estate market collapses (precipitating the archipelago into the economic crisis) and the International Federation of Motorsport intends to put an end to Group C regulations and its consumption limits. Future prototypes of the all-new World Sports Car Championship – note the demise of the term endurance – will be based on conventional 3.5-liter naturally aspirated F1 engines. Time is running out for the Mazda rotary program.
Yasuo Tutsotomi – Mazda’s engineering and product plan boss – took the reins a few months earlier. He commits yen and demands engine manufacturers a leap of 100 horsepower on the 13J quad-rotor atmospheric. Engaged as a freelancer, the British engineer Nigel Stoud designed the 787: “The problem was always the packaging,” explained this pioneer of computer-aided design. to our Autosport colleagues in 2018. The engine was as long as a 6-cylinder in-line ”. The R26B develops approximately 700 hp in racing configuration. Five years after Jaguar and its XJR-6, Mazda (finally) adopts the carbon fiber monocoque. A single radiator takes place in front of the nose, reducing the number of air inlets. The rear spoiler is placed at the lowest. Mazda is also rejuvenating its workforce. To the young and talented German pilot Volker Weidler – arrived in 1989 – Mazdaspeed added two other sprinters also from F1: Johnny Herbert and Bertrand Gachot.
1990 was, however, a difficult season in the Japanese championship and at Le Mans. In the Sarthe, the two 787s give up on mechanical problems. And during the night, Bertrand Gachot is also scared: “We encountered electrical problems and the headlights went out while I was driving. I had just passed the entrance to the stands. I had to do a full turn to bring the car back to the box, with the risk that another competitor will arrive behind me faster without seeing me. To signal myself, I threw the accelerator hard, which generated flames of one meter ”.
“Because of these reliability problems, the other manufacturers did not realize how much progress we had made in 1990” indicates Pierre Dieudonné. The next year, Mazda thus escapes the penalties imposed by the federation to discourage brands wishing to participate in the world championship with their old Group C cars. Tolerated at Le Mans – due to the fragility of the young 3.5-liters, the Jaguar XJR-12, Mercedes C11 and Porsche 962 C must now exceed the ton on the balance. But the Mazda, which would run under IMSA homologation, can finally keep their 830 kg. The firing window is open. Now it remains to review the management of the team …
=> Read the second part of this article by clicking here
To read on auto-moto.com:
24 hours of Le Mans: the 24 cars that made history
What we know about the future Ferrari at Le Mans
Where are the Peugeot program and the 9X8?
Hugues de Chaunac: “we must remain realistic with Alpine”
