So do you know who was the only Japanese make to win the 24 hours of Le Mans?
The year was 1991. Johnny Herbert, Volker Wiedler, and Bertrand Gachot piloted a Mazda 787B to overall victory not by being the fastest, but by being consistent. Oh, it helped that the R26B Wankel rotary power never missed a beat, either.
Not only was this the first and never-to-be-repeated (as of this writing) overall win by a Japanese manufacturer; it was also the only time a rotary powered entry ever took the title.
Here's a little trivia for you - a Porsche gearbox was mated to the chassis and engine combo, because, you know, who else is master of endurance racing?!?!
This obviously was not your garden variety rotary borrowed from your old RX-7, this was a 4-rotor monster, powered by 3 spark plugs on each rotor; capable of 900hp but detuned to around 700hp for reliability.
The clip below shows an earlier 4 rotor with only two plugs, but you get the idea.
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