{"id":78434,"date":"2021-08-24T09:52:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-24T09:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.secret-classics.com\/?p=78434"},"modified":"2021-08-27T06:18:31","modified_gmt":"2021-08-27T06:18:31","slug":"30-years-of-mazda-winning-le-mans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.secret-classics.com\/en\/30-years-of-mazda-winning-le-mans\/","title":{"rendered":"30 Years of Mazda winning Le Mans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four-disc Wankel engine with 700 hp<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n

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