It’s often said that you should never meet your heroes, but when Mad Mike Whiddett had the opportunity to get up close and personal with the machine that inspired him to push mechanical boundaries with his Mazda rotary-powered competition drift cars, there was no way he could ever be disappointed.
We are, of course, talking about the legendary Mazda 787B; the Group C racer that in 1991 rewrote the 24 Hours of Le Mans record books by becoming the first Japanese car to win the iconic French endurance race. In fact, it’s the only Japanese car to have done so. At the 787B’s heart, the R26B – a naturally aspirated and peripheral ported 4-rotor engine that developed more than 700hp and was outlawed at the end of the ’91 World Sportscar Championship season.
In this new Speedhunters clip from Jason Laroza, Mike takes us on a tour of the race-winning #55 car (787B-002) and explains why it holds such a special place in his heart.
The Speedhunters