The SECRET Behind the RAPID Mazda 787B

there are great sounding cars the V10 F1 car a V8 NASCAR but this is right up there the Mazda r26b rotary it's the engine behind the Mazda 787b lemon car one of the most iconic race cars ever and that's because of its engine one of the most unusual race engines ever but why was it so good it's become iconic because of the incredible Livery the Underdog Story and the incredible noise it made oh and the Flames don't forget the Flames as a feat of engineering it's right up there with the best so let me explain well Mazda had been racing at Le Mans for a long time but never able to compete with the top teams in the top class the likes of Mercedes Peugeot Porsche Jaguar all teams with more budget and larger better equipped support but the main factor in this iconic cast story was the engine now we know Mazda like a rotary they've been put in all sorts of cars over the years where other brands stick to the trusty piston engine Master like to do it their way the RX7 being probably the most iconic Mazda really believed in the technology when almost every other brand left it alone and the other manufacturers had a reason for doing so they're often unreliable and even in the road cars they need rebuilding fairly frequently not exactly what you need at the mall but Mazda pushed on and that's because the upsides of the engine are actually pretty numerous so let me explain this is the 13B engine from the RX7 it uses a rotor rather than a conventional piston and crankshaft setup now the rotor sits in a rotor housing meaning that as it spins there are three Pockets surrounding it this is where the air and the fuel are combusted inside of the rotor housing there are ports one for the inlet of fuel and air and the other for the exhaust gases so as the rotor goes through its rotation it sucks air and fuel in compresses it in this section then combustion happens here but the gases are pushed out and the cycle repeats itself so The Roaster spins where a piston would go up and down this is one Rotor at 654 CC and the RX7 had two back to back now I previously mentioned the benefits over a piston engine firstly this engine is four-stroke just like a piston engine but each of the lobes of the engine can create a power stroke in one rotation meaning there are three power strokes per rotation where the piston engine creates one so you get more power with less displacement than a piston engine 13B engine in the third generation RX7 was only 1.3 liters but when turbocharged created 252 horsepower from Factory which is impressive secondly there are far fewer rotating components and there is less overall rotating Mass meaning the engine's rev very freely and rev super high 787b revved to over 10 000 RPM finally where piston engines are rarely perfectly balanced the rotors in a rotary are meaning the engine feels very smooth to drive as there are a few vibrations being put through the car so when it came to the 767 race car and the 787 in the following years Master took their 13B engine and stuck it straight in the back of a race car with only one main change they bolted two of them in there this is where roaches also have benefits they sort of stacked together so you can take a two rotor engine make a new crankshaft and create a four rotor Engine with relatively minimal modifications needed and this became the r26b engine and it immediately became one of the most iconic Motorsport engines ever and that's because it was the ultimate Underdog as we were going to rock up a lemon with a 2.6 liter naturally aspirated engine yep just 2.6 liters against the 7.4 liter v12s That Jag had and the 5 liter turbo V8s that Mercedes had and you imagine being part of a serious well-funded race team with a V12 race car a Mazda Rocker with their dinky little Ford Dorito engine absolute Madness let me briefly interrupt the rotary chat to introduce to you a new sponsor bespoke post bespoke post is a monthly membership club delivering a box of awesome top shelf goods from under the radar Brands so every month you get a preview of what cool stuff is coming in your box so for this Weekender box you get the incredible carry all bag well let's say you choose this explore box then get this day hike kit with a nomad backpack M8 water bottle survival LED headlamp and a toasted coconut and vanilla bean bar if you want to you can swap boxes and what's awesome is that 90 of these products come from small Brands many of which are based in the US every box has around 70 dollars of products but you get them for a fraction of that every month bespoke posts introduce their members to cool new products outdoor gear barware home and kitchen goods clothing and more based on a preference quiz you fill out also it's free to join and you can skip a month or cancel any time to get 20 off your first box of awesome click the link in the description and enter code driver61 at checkout or go to bespokeepost.com forward slash drive 61. and with that back to the video so Mazda for the 787 bolt of the engine in the back of their fully custom carbon monocoque and fitted a Porsche gearbox on the back of that and where the engine was the hero of this car the chassis design wasn't bad either body was entirely made from a carbon fiber Kevlar composite with a super Sleek low drag design entirely aimed at being quick at Le Mans the car also ran carbon ceramic brakes for the first time at the mall meaning they could absorb incredible amounts of heat without fading whilst also lasting longer than traditional steel brakes perfect for 24 hours of driving the car had enormous magnesium Wheels with massive 355 section Dunlop rear tires to deal with all that power it meant that at Le Mall this car was quickest through the Porsche curves quicker than Mercedes Peugeot and well Porsche through the corners it was refined and capable and to top that off it was light it weighed 830 kilograms where the Merc and the Porsche were up above a thousand for the 787 had one big issue and it started before the car had even run the rulemakers didn't really like it at the time the cars on the grid were so varied Porsche were running a flat six Mercedes had a V8 Jag ran a V12 Ferrari had V8 and while Mazda were running rotaries but the FIA wanted endurance racing to follow the lead of Formula One and moved to 3.5 liter naturally aspirated engines and in 1991 they announced that it would be the final year with this open rulebook next year it would have to be v10s now I do love v10s but this variety is what lamal is all about I mean on this channel we've covered the delta wing the Flat 12 Porsche the V12 diesel Audi and a Peugeot with no rear wing Engineers really go mad at Le mall and that's why if you're not subscribed you should anyway Mazdaspeed the team that ran the 787 decided it was now or never they were going to be outlawed the next year so the idea was to go for it while they could so they worked on the B variant of the 787 the 787b to go to Le Mans they put together a strong team of drivers Volker weidler Bertrand Gasho and Johnny Herbert and they covered the 787b in the now iconic orange and green Renown Livery they qualified 12 over 12 seconds behind the leading cyber Mercedes team but surprisingly they weren't phased that was because they weren't worried about the qualifying Pace it would be all about the race pace and part of the confidence was that they were ready to run several laps longer per stint than the other teams and all of this came down to those clever engine designers at Master speed and when I say clever I really mean it when Master initially made the r26b it was producing 500 horsepower but in qualifying at the mall it made 900. now you may ask how because they didn't have a turbo or the usual tools you'd need to make more power but they made their car incredibly efficient and it was down to the incredible attention to detail of the master team first thing was the inlet and Outlet ports they poured massive Research into getting the air in and out of the engine as freely as possible then they added a third spark plug to the engine where the previous race engines had two it stopped this tiny pocket of fuel on air getting separated from the main combustion and not getting fully burned which is a fairly common problem in rotors meaning that where fuel was getting being wasted it was now being used to create more power they also upgraded the Apex seals the tiny seals on the three points of the rotor these are the Achilles heel of rotors just ask any RX7 owners they essentially serve the same purpose as the compression ring in a piston engine but are hard to lubricate properly in a rotary and so they can chatter against the housing and eventually the engine will go bank that's the board a ton of time into creating ceramic Apex seals that wouldn't do this and they worked then finally Masters party piece the secret to this engine's incredible power output the variable Inlet Trump is these are inlets that change length with a hydraulic actuator based on the driver's input on the throttle and this is genius because engine makers normally have to compromise on the length of their inlets shorter ones are better for power at the top end and longer ones are better for more low down grunts but Mazda use this to make their torque output incredibly consistent just take a look at this Dyno graph Master released after lemon in the operating range of 6009 RPM the car is producing almost exactly the same torque level making the car really drivable the drivers could predict the power output meaning they were able to be very precise with the throttle outs of the corners and drive the car right on the limit of traction what was so special about the 787b um I think it was the ease the the witty drove and that mainly was down to the rotary engine itself very very smooth not very talky had a very very long flat Power Band and that was enabled you as a driver to sort of really feel that power easy on without any problems not being able to spin up the rear wheels not damaging the tire and then having a problem through through the stint that you were on so Mazda had their 900 horsepower weapon up and running but for the race they actually turned it down to 700 horsepower they knew how good they were in the corners that they were lighter than the other cars and that they were going to burn less fuel now I showed you the paragraph a few seconds ago but look again this bsfc line is brake specific fuel consumption essentially how efficient the engine is and Mazda took this to another level in their development they were able to create power whilst using 10 to 20 percent less fuel than the other cars so through the race the drivers were able to go longer and make up time by not pitting as often the engine was perfect for drivers smooth meaning the car is controllable to race for multiple hours drivable powerful revvy and made an incredible noise just listen to this and it sounded so good because of the three power strokes per rotation and the four rotor setup and the fact it nearly revved to 10 000 RPM all together in men that were a V12 sings this thing screams and is maybe one of the top three best standing race cars ever anyway at lemon the strategy was paying off after starting 12. they ran most of the race in fourth before the cars in front were starting to break down meaning they were running in second place behind the Cyber Mercedes but with a few hours to go the Cyber started to slow backing off to try and control their overheating problem the alternator bracket had snapped down due to the vibrations of La mole this meant that their water pump wasn't being driven properly and the car was beginning to boil they eventually pitted with the 55 Mazda leading for the final couple of hours eventually winning by two laps the first ever Japanese car to win at Le Mans Johnny Herbert had pulled a double stint to finish the race leaving him severely dehydrated having to be dragged out of the car after the finish and actually missing the podium A 2.6 liter rotary had beaten the v12s and turbo V8s at Lamont and after the race Mazda actually pulled it apart it turns out it could have done it all over again only dropping two percent on Peak engine power after more than 3 000 miles of full racing speed this kind of engineering is what I love about Motorsport and it was the same in F1 in the 90s where those engines could rev to 20 000 RPM check out a video all about that just here thank you very much for watching and I'll catch you in the next one

Channel: Driver61

Views: 132,556

Keywords: Formula 1, Driving, Coaching, Motorsport, Engineering, F1, Racing, Incredible Motorsport, Driver61, Scott Mansell, Callum McIntyre, Bespoke Post, Mazda, Mazda 787B, 787B, Le Mans, Le Mans 1991, Rotary, R26B, 13B, Engine, Wankel Rotary

Id: QUzQEulg2CQ

Length: 12min 21sec (741 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 15 2023