How This Car Changed History, And Got BANNED

on a sunday in june 1991 an entire country is silently watching tv you see history is about to be defined their hearts are full of pride the mazda peak their hands clenched eyes wide open 787b didn't first night every single channel in japan broadcasts the same message an entire nation's ears are perked to the broadcast of telugu for the first time in their lives japan is winning winning a fight thought to be unwinnable the most grueling battle of the world's nations fought not with tanks and bombs but with petrol tires clenched teeth and pure guts on this day during the 59th running of the 24 hours of le mans david finally kills goliath a plucky little team of downtrodden underdogs prove to the world that not only are they a challenger but that they are kings this is the story of the mazda787b [Music] this isn't a story about winners though this is a story about losers that won you see the team at mazda shouldn't have actually won they kind of never did let me set the stage you see back in the 1960s mazda had a new engine that they were very proud of and that of course is the rotary engine designed by felix wenkel this was a new revolutionary way of exploding fuel it was lightweight it was simple and it was compact but you see mazda was kind of the only ones that really believed in it in their first touring car race they didn't even get on the podium and that pretty much was mazda's racing luck sure they dreamed of winning le mans but they were never really competitive they did have a promising race car the mc74 which of course broke down and never even finished the race the rx-7 le mans car didn't even qualify then in 1984 by some miracle they won a race in a car designed by lola called the t616 of course this isn't all that important because this is a slower class but hey at least for once the rotary engine won but then it was quickly back to failure with the 757 the 767 the 767b every year that mazda entered the race they were crushed by the competition but in 1990 they had come out with a new incredible race car the 787 gone was the little two rotor 13b and in its place was the massive four rotor r26b and then on a cold morning in 1990 the drivers left the line and none of the 787s even finished one had a little bit of engine trouble and the other one well it just caught on fire and gave up for decades the rotary engine had been giving its all but by the end of the 1990 racing season there wasn't much hope for it and on the horizon were rule changes that pretty much doomed it in a few years the rotary engine would be outlawed completely look for those of you that don't know racin there are three things that matter on a race track the car the driver and the rules you see cars in the 1980s were getting a bit too fast so the rules started to change the fellas in charge of le mans the fia wanted everyone to start to adhere to formula one standards which meant that all the cool crazy experimental engines of the 80s were about to be abandoned for standard 3.5 liter engines and these new rules were going to go into effect in the 1992 season and i know you might have heard an old wives tale that the 787b was outlawed because it was too loud or too fast and yes while it was very loud track officials even warned spectators that it was coming because it was so loud they needed to cover their ears the truth is far more humbling it was being outlawed because of some boring rulebook so mazda knew that in 1991 this was their last chance to prove that the rotary engine was a viable racing platform so with that in mind they went back to the drawing board they pushed the 787 into the shop and got to work what rolled out of that shot was nothing short of a technological marvel seriously there was nothing like the 787b before designed by nigel stroud a man who worked on the porsche 956 and cut his teeth in formula one stroud's new 787b was lighter he had convinced mazdaspeed to spend the money and get a full carbon fiber monocoque with a body aerodynamically formed in a wind tunnel designed to maximize top speed on the mulsanne straight it had carbon brakes which was a revolution at the time and most importantly they had totally revised the four rotor r26b engine this new version had ceramic apex seals three spark plugs per rotor and an insane and revolutionary continuously variable intake system that essentially made the car able to stay in its power band like the entire time think of vtec on steroids this meant that the car was able to produce nearly 900 horsepower almost instantly and was incredibly efficient at it and then mazda went and detuned it to 700 horsepower to make it even more efficient and more reliable because this is endurance racing and reliable and efficient are more important than speed i know generations later after dealing with the rx-7s and the rx-8s of the past it's kind of hard to think about but in 1991 mazda had the most reliable efficient engine in the race and it was a rotary sure insert your apex steel jokes here but like everything is different on a race track when you push a car for that long to its very limits all stereotypes fall by the wayside the car was so efficient and reliable that they based their almost whole strategy of racing around it in training instead of the drivers trying to get the best lap times they raced to see who could use the least amount of fuel while still maintaining a respectable lap wrapped in the now iconic orange and green renowned livery the 787b was like nothing else with its high revving engine with its insane torque curve and wild aerodynamics tuned for the straights all that was left for muscle speed was to find drivers that could actually tame this angry beast to go the distance in a car that was constantly trying to kill them mazda needed the absolute best what they got was a formula 3 driver a prisoner and a man who doctors said could never race again mazda's team was french but was spearheaded by a belgian man named jackie eeks the drivers were from everywhere including belgium sweden ireland and japan there were two teams of 787bs in that 1991 race but today we're just gonna talk about the winners belgium's bertrand garcia germany's bulker viedler and hailing from the uk the mad man himself johnny herbert bertrand started the season in prison thanks to an assault on a cab driver yeah the dude sprayed a cab driver with cs gas over some road rage spent a few months in prison and then went racing volker had driven the porsche 962c in le mans previously but had very few wins under his belt johnny herbert was a formula racing veteran who had an absolutely horrific accident in 1988 when his formula car slammed into a barrier nearly severing one of his feet and severely damaging the other doctors had to work on him constantly and they told him that his racing career was over however in 1989 he found himself back behind the wheel he found it really difficult to press the brake pedal and he couldn't run for the le mans start but he could win together this team of wacky individuals a prisoner a rookie and a man with a limp set out on june 22 1991 to rewrite history [Music] it's three o'clock in france the 24 hours of le mans has just begun the number 55 mazda 787b is all the way back in 19th place despite qualifying for a better spot you see thanks to rule changes and the fia's desire to have everything be like formula 1 the top 10 spots were reserved for people who followed the rules and the 787b did not follow the rules so it started way in the back additionally the penalty for not following those rules was you added 200 kilograms of ballast to your car which is about 440 pounds for those of us using the hamburger system the ballast didn't really make that big of a difference as the race started the mercedes team with all the extra ballast piloted by none other than michael schumacher himself quickly pulled ahead of the peugeot team that did not have the ballast the raw power and skill of the mercedes teams meant they were favored to win the race 400 pounds be damned against all odds though right behind the mercedes powerhouse was a team that no one expected to see the number 55 mazda 787b which as night fell had climbed up to fourth place you see no one not even mazda themselves really believed that the 787b was going to be competitive so when it came time to hand out that extra ballast jackie east was actually able to convince officials that the mazda 787b was powered by a small displacement naturally aspirated engine and no other team thought to question it because no one really cared they thought the mazda team was just kind of cute so the 787b left the line with a lightweight 830 kilograms ready to hunt down and overtake those heavy 1000 kilogram mercedes benzes and porsches the big manufacturer's lack of respect for the mazda team eventually ended up being their downfall as night fell upon that track in france the mercedes team could not shake the mazda then one by one the mercedes all kind of fell apart the number 31 had gearbox issues number 32 ran into some debris and suddenly the underdog mazda team was in second place in first was the number one team mercedes and the team at mazda speed could smell blood in the water as the race drags on jackie eeks notices that the number one mercedes is taking a slower pace he reasons that they're trying to conserve fuel you see the extra weight and larger engine was starting to take its toll and even though jackie is usually very cautious he tells the team to push it and then in the 11th hour or sometime around the 22nd hour i guess pushed to its limits by the angry pack of bees behind it nipping at its heels the mercedes-benz begins to overheat and has to pit in letting the underdog mazda787b finally take the lead throughout the course of this race the little loser team from japan that nobody thought was going to be in the top 10 was suddenly number one all of japanese tv was tuned into this race at this point as japan was leading the world's most prestigious endurance race a ragtag group of ruffians driving a strange car with a stranger engine was ahead of auto industry titans mercedes jaguar porsche were all sniffing the exhaust fumes of a mazda to stay ahead they had johnny herbert do a double stint at the finish you know the guy with the broken feet by the end of the race he had no water he was dehydrated as hell his ankle was killing him the pain was so bad he almost passed out on top of that he had stomach problems he was nauseous he was anxious he was exhausted he was stretched so thin you could see through him but he kept pace the wild rotary engine had finally proven itself in its dying breath of the lama series as a giant middle finger to the officials that outlawed it the wankel rotary engine pushed past everyone and its horrifying screen echoed through the valleys of france as it finally crossed the checkered line first place to team mazda as herbert finally passed under the checkered flag in the 787b the newly crowned champion was in pretty rough shape he had to be dragged out of the car and put into an ambulance herbert didn't even get to stand on the podium but that's the beauty of endurance racing it's both a test of man and machine and on that day in 1991 mazda and in its place all of japan took that test and passed to become the first team from japan to win the 24 hours of le mans the cumulative effort of dozens of engineers and drivers and mechanics the end result of loss after loss after loss was gold pure gold and that is the story of how mazda and japan finally won the 24 hours of le mans i hope you enjoyed watching consider subscribing to ideal cars and as always it's been ideal hanging out with you guys see you in the next one later [Music] you

Channel: Ideal

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Id: sbkqP5zFVzM

Length: 13min 11sec (791 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 25 2022