‘One-in-a-100-years’ are fairly excessive odds, however that’s precisely what number of instances a rotary engine has received the best endurance race of all time, Le Mans.

Farmers discuss one-in-a-100-year climate as being the sort of storm, hurricane or flood that comes alongside simply as soon as a century. That’s sort of what the Mazda 787B is; it’s that bolt of lightning that hits as soon as in a lifetime.

On the 2023 Mazda Fan Festa, I was fortunate sufficient to not solely see and – most significantly – hear the 787B operating laps of Fuji Speedway, but additionally watch Mazda race engineers carry out the 1991 Le Mans winner’s heat down checks like a high tier athlete after a marathon.

For those who solid your minds again to final yr, you may keep in mind that I noticed the spare physique 787B reproduction on the Mazda Museum in Hiroshima. Regardless that I obtained to look over a 4-rotor R26B engine, the expertise left me feeling a bit… cheated. So you’ll be able to think about my pleasure after I realized that the 787B – automobile #55 – could be at the Fan Festa this yr as a part of the Le Mans centenary celebrations.

In fact, the 787B wasn’t the one rotary-powered automobile to ever enter Le Mans. Spectators have been first handled to the buzz of a twin-rotor 10A in 1970, albeit powering a Chevron B16. Aspect be aware, that individual automobile made a quick look within the Steve McQueen movie Le Mans. 

The primary Mazda-built, rotary-powered chassis to enter Le Mans was an RX-3 entered in 1975 by a French privateer crew. In 1979, the primary RX-7 was entered by a Japanese dealership, Mazda Auto Tokyo. The RX-7 struggled over the subsequent few years, however in 1982 an IMSA GTX RX-7 Kind 254i completed 14th total.

The 254i returned to Japan and was raced domestically in numerous liveries. The automobile then disappeared for just a few many years, till it was acquired by Powercraft, a tuning store primarily based in Shizuoka, and rebuilt from the bottom up.

This was the final of the RX-7 chassis automobiles to compete at Le Mans. Finally, they needed to give option to purpose-built racing machines if Mazda have been ever to compete with the likes of Porsche or Jaguar.

In 1983, the Mazdaspeed 717C received Le Mans’ Group C Junior class and completed twelfth total. 1985 noticed the twin-rotor 737C, pictured right here, take third place.

The 737 and previous 717 have been vital automobiles in their very own proper. The latter was the primary to make use of a twin-tube aluminium monocoque chassis, and the previous was the final automobile to make use of the 13B engine. Each automobiles laid foundations for future victories.

The 737 additionally has fascinating provenance because it was the primary automobile constructed completely by Mazdaspeed themselves, in contrast to the earlier automobiles which had been constructed by Mooncraft in Shizuoka.

When the 737 retired from endurance racing it fell into the arms of privateers, who ran it within the All Japan Sports activities Prototype Championship. It then sat in storage for a few years, earlier than lastly being restored by MZ Racing, who recreated lacking components and decals from outdated photographs.

By the point the 757 automobile – designed by Nigel Stroud – got here alongside, it was clear {that a} rotary-shaped storm was brewing. That automobile launched a brand new three-rotor 13G engine, after which the 767 and 767B introduced the four-rotor 13J. These engines paved the best way for the legendary four-rotor R26B within the 787B.

I’m unsure if the 787B or Yojiro Terada – higher often known as Mr. Le Mans – attracted the larger crowd on the Fan Festa. Terada-san entered the race a document 29 instances, with 4 class victories and a finest total end of seventh. He raced for Mazdaspeed all via the Nineteen Eighties and into the ’90s, and even drove a 787 to complete eighth total in 1991 behind the first and fifth inserting 787Bs.

It was an honour to shoot Terada-san’s portrait and battle the crowds that swarmed him for an autograph.

Watching these Mazda rotary legends of Le Mans do laps of Fuji Speedway was an actual deal with, and it’s about as near having a time machine as I’ll ever get. We’ll possible by no means see one other rotary-powered automobile getting into Le Mans, although they may. After rules prevented rotary engines from getting used from 1992, in 2021 the governing our bodies entered just a few strains within the rule e-book which utilized to rotary engines, successfully giving the Wankel permission to race once more.

Seeing a rotary in a Le Mans automobile is maybe not as unattainable as you may first suppose. In 2021 – the identical yr these entry guidelines modified – Mazda resurrected the rotary as a spread extender for his or her EV automobiles. Simply think about a hybrid Mazda LMH or LMDh automobile getting into the grid…

Nobody can see into the long run, however who is aware of, we’d see a second rotary win at Le Mans in the subsequent 100 years.

Toby Thyer
Instagram _tobinsta_
tobythyer.co.uk