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MAZDA 757 (1986)
Car No. 170: D. Kennedy / M. Galvin / P. Dieudonne Car No. 171: Y. Katayama / Y. Terada / T. Yorino
Qualified: 29th (#170 - 3'44.74), 25th (#171 - 3'43.31)
Race: Withdrawn (#170 after 137 laps, #171 after 59 laps)
The Circuit de la Sarthe was well known for its 6km-long Hunaudieres straight and 90-degree Mulsanne corner, however this year the shape of the Mulsanne was modified, becoming gentler.
Mazdaspeed's newly designed IMSA GTP machine, the "MAZDA 757" was equipped with the 13G series 3-rotor engine developed by Mazda and generating 450 horsepower. The machine had its shakedown in November, 1985. It was a provocative work, designed by the famous Briton, Nigel Stroud. Prior to Le Mans, team had a huge amount of testing at Suzuka, Fuji, Silverstone, Donington, and also competed at Silverstone in a 1000km race. The team also attended the Le Mans test day in May, resulting in a total of 4500kms test mileage for the new machine. At the short race during the test day, they finished in 3rd place, giving them optimism for the race. However, it was something they would feel only until the start of Le Mans.
In the race, the Japanese-crewed car stopped after only 59 laps. An input shaft joining the engine and gearbox had broken, and the machine lost all drive. The trouble was of course unexpected and had never happened during testing. The European-crewed machine had the same experience in the middle of the night and stopped. Even with perfect preparation, all kinds of trouble can occur quite easily in the actual race. That is why Le Mans is so grueling. Despite this, the team had collected valuable data and had also found it possible to do battle at the sharp end, something they could never have achieved with the C2 car. Their hung their hopes on the following season.
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