Mazda 787B - Life After Le Mans

Life After Le Mans

After Le Mans, the winning car (787B-002) retired from duty while the other two cars (787B-001 and new 787B-003) continued to race. Mazda would go on to finish 4th and 5th in the Japanese and World championship respectively, with a season high (besides Le Mans) 3rd in the 1000 km Fuji race (a JSPC race). As Mazda used different drivers throughout the season, none of their drivers finished in the top 10 in points.

After the 1991 24 Hours of Le Mans the 787B would compete once more at the last race of the season, 430 km of Autopolis finishing 9th and 10th. At the end of the season, Wankel-type rotary engines were outlawed and, as per Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile's earlier decision, 3.5-litre Formula One engines became the new formula for the 1992 season. The following year, Mazda entered the MXR-01, based on the Jaguar XJR-14 and powered by a Judd unit, without much success (placed 4th at Le Mans 1992).

Despite the success of the 787B and its Wankel powerplant, Mazda did not exploit its historic victory through marketing campaigns and advertising. However, it partially improved sales for Mazda's road cars. In the United Kingdom, Mazda would release a special edition of its MX-5 with the racing color and also a BBR (Brodie Brittain Racing) turbo conversion; only 24 were produced and the car is one of the most sought after special edition cars of its model. Long a proponent of the rotary engine, Mazda has maintained a rotary-engined road car for many years, though sales of the Mazda RX-7 were stopped in most U.S. states in 1996 (and in Japan in 2002) until release of the 2003 Mazda RX-8. The Mazda RX-8 utilized a new generation of the Mazda Wankel engine, dubbed "Renesis" which uses side intake and exhaust ports.

Of the winning drivers, Herbert would have a successful career in Formula One, notching up three wins before leaving the championship in 2000 and returning to sportscar racing. Gachot would go on to drive at Jordan Grand Prix before being given an eighteen months prison sentence in August for a CS gas attack on a taxi driver in London; his place for the Belgian Grand Prix was famously filled by newcomer Michael Schumacher. He was finally released after two months and had minor successes before retiring altogether. Weidler would compete in the Japanese Formula 3000 championship, only to have his career cut short when he was diagnosed with tinnitus. It was recommended he should take time off to allow for an operation but he chose to retire from the sport and handed his seat over to Heinz-Harald Frentzen. Of the non-winning drivers, Dieudonné would later hang up his helmet and become sporting director at Oreca, this time backed by Chrysler to help the Dodge Viper to score class wins at Le Mans by the late nineties and an overall win at the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2000. Terada, a veteran of the race since 1974, continued to run his Autoexe tuning business. He still competed at Le Mans, although without factory backing but showing no signs of retiring. The former F1 driver, Johansson, would return to IndyCar duties frequently competing in the race before returning full time.

The R26B engine would be used by Mazda in its Mazda RX-792P for its premier IMSA GTP category with limited success. The engine continued to be used in the GTS category, for the spaceframe FD3S RX-7 which would return to Le Mans in 1994, backed by Mazdaspeed. The livery would return again in 1995, when a rotary powered Kudzu, which was competing in IMSA’s WSC (World Sport Car), a category with different regulations than the FIA. This time they would start the race without the Renown sponsorship and in 1996 in the lower end LMP2 category which was the last time Mazda used the livery. Mazdaspeed would continue to compete in the race until 1999.

In 2002 Autoexe Motorsport with Yojiro Terada as one of its drivers participated in 24 Hours of Le Mans using a R26B 2.6L 4-Rotor engine in a modified WR chassis. However, they did not finish the race. In 2005 B-K Motorsport competed a Courage C65 LMP2 prototype in the American Le Mans Series, powered by a Mazda tri-rotary; and painted in a yellow and blue version of the livery worn by the 787B.

Today the car is considered by Mazda and Rotary enthusiasts as one of the most iconic cars to come from Japan despite the Wankel engine's German origins. The 787B have been celebrated by every major toy and model company in and outside Japan. The 787B is considered as the most popular of the Group C cars and has appeared in several video games. Throughout the Gran Turismo series, the color scheme can be seen as a fictitious compilation of various Mazda paint schemes. In 2005, a factory-backed RX-8 used the Renown colors to compete in a 24 hour race at Silverstone.

Mazda keeps the winning car at the Mazda Museum in Hiroshima. At the same time, Mazda produced four replicas and gave one of them to the Le Mans Museum. The car usually makes appearances at the annual Sevenstock shows, and has made two appearances at the Monterey Historics event in 1999 and 2004 and still bears a pair of small oval racing stickers behind the side windows, referring to its appearance at the 1999 Goodwood Festival of Speed, when it was reunited with and driven by Gachot.

The 2008 Mazda Furai Concept bears the 55 number of the winning 787B.

After completing a lengthy restoration, the winning #55 787B was demonstrated during the pre-race of the 2011 24 Hours of Le Mans. Winning driver Johnny Herbert took the 787B around the Circuit de La Sarthe for a demonstration lap.