My love for Mazda, and for the 787B in particular, the 1991 Le Mans winner.
When I became manager at the firm of H.C.L. Sieberg on the Stadhouderskade in Amsterdam in the mid-seventies, I first got to know the Mazda brand.
Mazda had just launched the Mazda 929 Hardtop on the Dutch market.
It was an immediate, huge success!
There were also models such as the 1000, 818 and 616. And they had something else rather special: cars with a Wankel engine! The Wankel engine is also known as the rotary engine.
Not many makes had this type of engine. In fact there was really only one other, NSU with the Ro 80; the others had already dropped out! And at NSU, too, it proved a short-lived project.
Now, the Wankel engine did have a somewhat dubious reputation. The seals of the rotor chambers gave out fairly quickly, and then you were in for a hefty repair. A lot of it was covered by the warranty, but being without your car for a while every time was still a real nuisance for many people.
The die-hards, meanwhile, were often lyrical about the power — and therefore the speed — of this modest little engine!
In the mid-nineties I myself had the pleasure of driving a Mazda RX-7 FD twin turbo for several years. What a beast of a car that was. Totally unsuitable as a family car, of course. For that we also had a Mazda 626 coupé. In short, we were certainly Mazda-minded in the Van Houten household.
My Wankel was a truly trouble-free car. A beautiful black one, a feast for the eyes! In short, nothing but praise. Apart from normal servicing, it never once had to go into the garage.
My admiration for the brand grew even further when the news came out that Mazda would be taking part in endurance racing, and in particular the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Mazdas were of course already being raced a great deal. Thanks above all to the unusual concept of the engine, they often ended up in a favourable class in terms of engine capacity. Later on, by the way, the rules were changed with a conversion factor.
They were fast, really fast, but 24 hours fast and then reaching the finish as well — that would be the ultimate test! Mazda had in fact been experimenting since 1983. I don't think anyone really expected them ever to pull it off. But as it turned out, the Wankel was not only fast, it was also much more economical than all the others, much more reliable, and according to many the Wankel engine produced the most beautiful sound of any racing engine ever. High-pitched, fierce and sharp.
Ferrari purists will of course deny this, and Lola fanatics do not share my opinion either; they shout the loudest on Facebook and YouTube that they are right.
Hence a special place in my collection for the Mazda 787B! In its Le Mans 1991 version, with the beautiful Renown livery. Incidentally, a second 787B also took part. It finished a creditable 6th — in a white and blue livery, as it happens.
