Only one rotary engine has ever won the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and it’s a literal screamer that revs to 9,000 rpm and shoots flames out of its exhaust. Thankfully, Mazda doesn’t want this engine and the cars it powered to become dusty museum pieces. The automaker’s motorsports division recently released a video on its YouTube channel showing how the big four-rotor engines are maintained.
After several years of trying, Mazda finally won Le Mans with the 787B in 1991, the same year the FD RX-7 road car started production. But instead of the familiar two-rotor 13B that powers the RX-7, the 787B has a four-rotor unit known as the R26B. Estimated to make about 700 horsepower in race trim, this engine has similar rotors to the ones used in Mazda road cars of the period, but nearly everything else is different. It even has three spark plugs instead of two for improve fuel efficiency.
Mazda Motosports via YouTube
That makes finding replacement parts a major hurdle, but the durability of the …
Go to Source
Author: Stephen Edelstein
