Tag Archives: Iida

Three Rotor Wankel – Mazda 757 #003

For 1986 the Lucky Strike sponsored Mazdaspeed team employed Nigel Stroud to design a new challenger for Le Mans which was to compete in the IMSA GTP class with a new 3 rotor type 13G Wankel rotary engine rated at 1962 cc / 119 cui.

Three 757 chassis were built #001 was given it’s debut at Suzuka in April 1986 where Yoshimi Katayama, Youjirou Terada and Takashi Yorino finished 6th from 12th on the grid.

#90 URD  David Mercer, Jens Winther, #201 Mazda David Kennedy, Takashi Yorino,  Kouros 1000 Kms Silverstone,

Chassis #002 and today’s featured #003 got their first runs in the Kouros 1000 Kms at Silverstone where Yoshimi Katayama and Youjirou Terada finished 13th overall and first in GTP with chassis #002.

David Kennedy and Takashi Yorino, seen battling with the #90 URD driven by David Mercer, Jens Winther above, came home 19th one spot behind and on the same lap as the #90 URD, both cars being 38 laps behind the winners Jaguar driven by Derek Warwick and Eddie Cheever.

#120 Mazda 757, David Kennedy, Mark Galvin, Pierre Dieudonné, 24 Heures du Mans, Le Mans,

Mazdaspeed took all three of it’s 757’s to Le Mans in 1986, but only used two of them in the race.

Both cars, #003 carrying the #120 race number driven by David Kennedy, Mark Galvin and Pierre Dieudonné and #002 carrying the #121 race number driven by Takashi Yorino, Youjirou Terada and Yoshimi Katayama were bought back to the pits at the end of the race after their gearboxes failed after completing 137 laps and 59 laps respectively.

#120 Mazda 757, David Kennedy, Mark Galvin, Pierre Dieudonné, 24 Heures du Mans, Le Mans,

The 757’s continued to be campaigned in Japan through 1986 where Yoshimi Katayama and Youjirou Terada scored a season high 4th in the 500 km race at Fuji in November.

Following a 1987 season high 4th place finish at the May Fuji 1000 kms for Takashi Yorino and David Kennedy Mazdaspeed returned to Le Mans with three cars one of which, #002, was retained as a spare.

#120 Mazda 757, David Kennedy, Mark Galvin, Pierre Dieudonné, 24 Heures du Mans, Le Mans,

#003 was renumbered possibly with a new chassis #103 and driven by the same David, Mark and Pierre trio as in 1986, but now carrying the #202 race number as seen below.

After starting 28th they finished the race in 7th place overall, first in IMSA, while the new sister chassis #104 carrying the #201 race number driven by the ’86 all Japanese trio of Yoshimi, Youjirou, and Takashi, retired with engine failure after completing just 34 laps.

#202 Mazda 757, David Kennedy, Mark Galvin, Pierre Dieudonné, 24 Heures du Mans, Le Mans,

On it’s return to Japan chassis #003/103 was acquired by Shizumatsu Racing who ran it in Japan during the 1988 and 1989 seasons for Syuuji Fujii, Terumitsu Fujieda, Tetsuji Shiratori, Kaoru Iida and Seisaku Suzuki whose best results were two sixth places during the 1989 season.

Pleasure Racing became the entrant of the car for it’s final season with the drivers Syuuji and Tetsuji being joined by Keiichi Mizutani for one event at Suzuka in September where they finished 14th from 18th on the grid.

Syuuji and Tetsuji rounded out today’s featured cars known career at Fuji in October 1990 with an 8th place finish from 18th on the grid, equaling the 1990 season high finish at the same track in July, from 16th on the grid, when Seisaku was also sharing the driving.

Thanks for joining me on this “Three Rotor Wankel” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looling at a short tailed Alpine. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Jun Jeans – Mazda RX7 253i

Welcome to the first of 26 vehicles that will be featured this month that have either run at, or are of a type that have run in the Le Mans 24 Hour endurance race, I will be featuring these cars every day this month except Wednesday, there will be no prizes for guessing what the featured marque will be on Mazda Monday’s.

In 1979 Mazda ran a single Mazda RX7, also known as a 252i, at the fastest round about in the world for Tetsu Ikuzawa, Youjirou Terada and Claude Buchet but it failed to qualify with a best qualifying time of 4m 18.880 s.

The 252i is thought to have raced at Fuji on at least 3 occasions, but a class win in November ’79, for Youjirou Terada and Nico Nicole, is the only known result.

Mazda RX7, Silverstone 6 Hours,

Three years later today’s featured car the RX7 253i made it’s debut sans 252i type rear wing at the 1981 Silverstone 6 Hours, as seen in these photographs, where it was driven to a IMSA GTU class win and 8th place overall finish from 23rd on the grid by Youjirou Terada and Win Percy.

Youjirou and Win were joined by Hiroshi Fushida at Le Mans in 1981 where they out qualified a Domon sponsored sister car driven by Tom Walkinshaw, Pete Lovett and Tetsu Ikuzawa with a 49th best time of 4:04.790 against the 51st best time of 4:07.180 achieved by the Domon sponsored drivers.

Neither 253i finished the race the Jun (Jeans not Speed Shop) sponsored car retired after completing 25 laps with a rear axle problem while the Donon sponsored car retired with a rotary engine problem.

Mazda RX7, Youjirou Terada / Win Percy, Silverstone 6 Hours,

253i’s were raced in Japan until 1986 by teams that included Kinomi Racing, Team Speed Shop Seven, Yours Sport, Alpha Cubic Racing Team, Mishima Auto Hanbai, Capris Enterprise,TRS Itabashi, Koyata Engei Racing and AMRC teams.

The best known results for the model are three second place overall finishes for Tony Trimmer and Nico Nicole at Suzuka in August 1981, at Fuji 1000kms in July 1982 for the Alpha Cubic Racing Team trio Chiyomi Totani, Kaoru Iida and Keiichi Suzuki and finally for the Aqua Motors Club No.3 drivers Chikage Oguchi and Takashi Yorino in the November 1982 Fuji 500 kms.

In 1982 Mazda built an even more radical body for a pair RX7 254i’s for Le Mans and got one of two cars entered to a 14th place finish at Le Mans with Youjirou, Takashi Yorino and Australian Allan Moffat sharing the driving.

Thanks for joining me on this “Jun Jeans” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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