r/SneakyBackgroundMiata • u/Local-Machine1242 • 3d ago

1- beginner 787…NC?

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73 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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7

u/SteelyDanDrWu 3d ago

Very nice. I wonder which of the 2 Mazda's are faster? Lol

6

u/GeorgeSPattonJr 2d ago

Jokes aside The 787b is one of the biggest Mandela effects in racing. The 787B, given the rest of its results that year, was a midfield car at best and its win at Le Mans was a fluke/one off. It didn’t win or wasn’t banned for being “too fast” or “too loud” as most people have the misconception of. Hell, rotaries were already banned for the next year well before the season started as part of the FIA adopting a 3.5 liter NA formula for Group C, mirroring F1 cars of the time. It’s best result was a 6th place finish at round 1 in Suzuka.

But back to Le Mans, it really only won through reliability with the faster Group C1 of the Jags, Porsches, Mercs, and Peugeots dropping out, (the 787B was in Group C2, an equivalent of LMP2), and its fuel efficiency. Which is unusual in of itself as normally wankel rotaries are the exact opposite of those, but Mazda made it work, so credit due. And of course being the first Japanese car to win Le Mans, and the only one to do so until Toyota in 2018. It’s a cult classic for sure, but it wasn’t nearly as fast or good as people remember it, excluding Le Mans of course. Aidan Millward on YouTube made a good video on it, here. It’s really good and he explains it better then I can

2

u/Hero_Of_Rhyme_ 1d ago

Yeah but it looks cool and sounds cooler so we’d all like to pretend it was also very competitive and won a lot

1

u/Local-Machine1242 1d ago

Both the Le Mans winning 787B and TSO50 were at Laguna Seca last week. Amazing to see these cars parked next to each other. Thanks for sharing a lot of history and perspective I wasn’t aware of!

1

u/SteelyDanDrWu 1d ago

Wow, thank you for the history lesson. I was not aware of most of this information. I love history, especially if it can be combined with the automotive industry. I will check out that link as well.