18.05.2023In 1991, Mazda achieved the victory at Le Mans with a deafening Wankel engine sound that gave you goosebumps

There are several reasons why Mazda's victory in Le Mans in 1991 can be described as a real effort. On June 23rd, 1991, it was Johnny Herbert who was in the car and raced across the finish line around four o'clock in the afternoon, giving Mazda its first Le Mans victory. However, there is no celebration of his victory on the podium. Herbert is so dehydrated that only his adrenaline made it possible for him to finish the race. As the team proceeds to the awards ceremony, Herbert lies unconscious in the circuit's medical center. The labels CMR and Spark take on this unique moment in the history of Mazda and deliver the matching models of the Mazda 787B in the scales 1:18 and 1:43. The model from spark in scale 1:43 comes with a display case. CMR's 1:18 scale bigger brother has steerable front wheels and opening doors. The specialist magazine Modell-Fahrzeug has nominated the model for the modelcar of the year 2021, which was produced exclusively for ck-modelcars and modelissimo. The Mazda 787B can't be missing from the collection of the most popular Le Mans winners.

In addition to Johnny Herbert, Volker Weidler can also claim that he gave everything in Le Mans, 1991. At this point, the German has been in Formula 1 for two years alongside Christian Danner for the Rial-team. During the 1991 Le Mans race, Weidler loses an earplug. Due to the extremely loud Wankel engine of the 787B, Weidler suffered permanent hearing damage. In 1992 he therefore withdrew completely from motorsport. He suffers from balance disorders that make it impossible for him to actively participate in motorsport.

The competition for Mazda in 1991 was not small. Jaguar wanted to defend the title after a win in the previous year and Mercedes also wanted to build on their victory in 1989 after a one year break. Not to forget Porsche, who started with a total of 15 Group C-cars. What nobody had on their radar, however, was Mazda. Although one belonged to the regular participants and was known for its prototype Wankel concepts, it was never able to make it past 7th place. Due to these few victorious years, Mazda was only marginally featured in the preliminary reports from 1991. In the end it was Gachot who was able to maneuver the car in a fuel economy window that none of the competing cars could match. This fuel-saving driving allowed Volker Weidler to move the car faster than his two “passengers” thanks to the necessary reserves. Nevertheless, in principle, the winner should have been Mercedes in the end. The Sauber team's C11 was clearly in the lead two hours before the end of the race. Then the bracket for the alternator at Mercedes broke - a part that costs a few cents - and the C11 failed. Because the alternator and the water pump were driven by the same belt, the engine was immediately dead. Now all the 787B had to do was hold out. And he did. Two hours later, Johnny Herbert crossed the finish line completely dehydrated, making Mazda the first Japanese manufacturer to win Le Mans.