[h=2]SVRA: Mazda showcases 'Heritage' at COTA[/h] Sunday, 06 November 2016


Mark Dill / Images by Dill, John Hollansworth Jr.
Above: Jeremy Barnes, Mazda North American Operations public relations director, in the Rx-7 GTO in which Pete Halsmer won the IMSA championship in 1991.

Mazda, the only Japanese manufacturer to conquer the 24 Hours of Le Mans, has been celebrating the 25th anniversary of their 1991 victory this year – and continues to do so at this weekend's SportsCar Vintage Racing Association (SVRA) National Championships at Circuit of The Americas.


Mazda North American Operations has filed three truly historic entries from what they call their "Heritage Collection." There are two prototypes, a 1989 Mazda 767B and a 1990 Mazda 787 as well as the 1991 Mazda Rx7 GTO racer. The prototypes are entered in SVRA Group 11 and the RX-7 is in Group 10. They are all in a combined run group.

Of the three at COTA this weekend, probably the most storied is the 767B, chassis 002. Its sister, chassis 001, was famously crumpled at Goodwood during the hill climb competition in 2015. It is restored and in Japan under private ownership. The completely refurbished 002 is dazzling stateside racing aficionados and people who just plain know a great racecar when they see one. Jim Downing, five-time IMSA champion – all with Mazda, restored the 767B at his Downing/Atlanta Racing garage. Driving the car this weekend is Ken Saward, senior design engineer at Mazda North American Operations (MNAO).
What set the 767B (pictured, being driven by Mazda Senior design engineer Ken Saward) apart from previous Mazda entries was that it began to pull into focus the ultimate goal of an overall win at the most important sports car race in the world, Le Mans. Mazda had regularly fielded entries since 1970 when it fit its unconventional rotary engine into a Chevron B16. The arrival of English designer Nigel Stroud, who cooked up a departure from previous entries in the form of a model 757 in 1986, launched a new and more powerful trajectory.
Stroud applied what he learned from his experience with the 757 to introduce the model 767 for the 1988 season. At the heart of the big step up from the 757 was the 767's engine, a four combustion chamber rotary unit dubbed the 13J. The displacement of the combined chambers was measured at roughly 2.6 liters, or in the tricky world of equivalency formulas, rated at 5.2 liters for a more conventional four-stroke piston pumper. The horsepower rating came in at 630, a sharp bump up of some 200 HP over its predecessor.
The following year the cars reached their potential, reincarnated with evolutionary modifications reflected in a new model number: 767B. With enhancements that addressed some reliability challenges they hit their stride with GTP class wins at Dijon, Brands Hatch, Nurburgring, Spa, Mexico and most importantly Le Mans with drivers David Kennedy, Pierre Dieudonne and Chris Hodgetts. The team also finished seventh overall.
After Downing's exhaustive two-year restoration effort, the 767B chassis 002 is completely restored to its robust, howling rotary power of racing lore in time for celebrations in 2016. The revitalized wonder was revealed at the August Monterey Motorsports Reunion with Saward at the wheel. In Saturday's feature race Saward steered the iconic machine to eighth overall in the field of 28 cars and fifth in the GTP3 class.
The 1990 Mazda 787 was not only the next step on Mazda's ladder from the 767B, but also the immediate precursor to 787B, the car that became the first and only rotary engine racer to score an overall win at Le Mans in 1991. That machine remains in Japan. The 1990 Mazda 787 on hand this weekend, carrying the number 56 and dressed in the team's traditional white and blue-trim livery, is powered by an engine – the R26B - that was a nice upgrade producing some 70 HP more than the 767B's 13J.
Designer Nigel Stroud responded to the lighter, shorter power plant with a completely new ground effects chassis. This was Mazda's first carbon-fiber composite car and it incorporated an advanced telemetry system that helped team engineers monitor, among other things, the all-important fuel consumption. All the advancements of the new racer necessitated extensive testing and the team simply ran short on the priceless commodity of time. The car clearly showed promise but needed more development. The two entries featured star drivers Johnny Herbert in one car and Stefan Johansson in the other, but at Le Mans both were DNFs and classified 39th and 40th.