Project Motor Racing: The Rotary Thunder Mazda 787B

In 1991, this banshee-screaming orange-and-green prototype rewrote Le Mans history, and somewhere in those trees will forever remain the pure sound of this car at full clip.

Welcome to the lore that is the Mazda’s 787B and the #55 car driven by Johnny Herbert, Volker Weidler, and Bertrand Gachot that clinched the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the first overall victory for a Japanese manufacturer and the only win by a rotary-powered car.

That result left not a dry eye in the house (aside from Herbert’s!) because it capped a decade’s worth of Mazda’s Group C persistence and stubborn dedication to a solution that turned a cult wail into an indefinable legend.

The Hills Are Alive

At the heart of the 787B is the diamond: the R26B engine, a 2.6L, four-rotor engine that screams to 9,000 rpm. Official Mazda figures for the 1991 spec quote just under 700bhp @ 9,000 rpm—numbers achieved with a decade’s worth of race-learnt tricks: continuously variable-length intake trumpets, ceramic apex seals, and three spark plugs per rotor to improve burn and efficiency over long stints.

But nothing prepares you for the sound of this thing.

Pure rotary banshee.

Loud—And Smart

No one wins Le Mans by luck. That’s the thing about racing for 24 hours on the limit: any fragility, any weakness, any untested component will come to bite you.

The 787B used carbon and Kevlar to keep the weight down to 830 kg, while the driveline paired that rotor to a tried-and-tested Mazda–Porsche 5-speed manual. The layout was mid-engine, longitudinal, with fat rubber and aero honed by Nigel Stroud and his team. It was also the first Le Mans winner on carbon brakes.

In an era when Group C owned the world, the 787B came to Le Mans in 1991 and ran the 24-hour race like a metronome. By the checkers, the Mazda had banked 362 laps (4,923 km) with only routine service and a few consumables: one oil top-up, a brake disc/pad change, a nose swap—plus fuel and tyres.

Herbert took the final stint flat-out, then parked the car and was carried out of the car—unconscious from exhaustion.

A triumph of reliability, efficiency, pace, and a driver lineup that could do the business for 24 hours.

Legacy

The legacy runs deeper than a single trophy.

The 787/787B family were the last Wankel-rotary prototypes that contested the World and Japanese championships because the evolution of motorsport rules boarded up the rotary era soon after. That’s why the car’s presence still prickles the skin at demo runs: it represents another branch of the performance tree—light weight, relentless revs, and a drivability window big enough to survive 24 straight hours.

Hero cars aren’t just fast; they find a way into your soul. The 787B did it in neon paint and four rotors, and the sport has never quite captured that sound again.

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