For whatever reason, we’ve always had a soft spot in our heart for race cars that were crazy, innovative, and largely unsuccessful. We have an even bigger spot for those that are crazy, innovative, and winners. It is not being disrespectful to say that the Mazda 767b was not the winningest effort that the company ever put on wheels but it was surely one of the most bad ass and it did win the 24 Hours of Le Mans! The cars were endurance road racing prototypes that competed at races like the 24 Hours of LeMans, the Daytona 24, hours and all of the other big stuff in that style of competition. The ran in the late 1980s and were part of an evolutionary line of cars that the company competed with.
The car’s defining piece was its four rotor Wankel engine that produces a sound the likes of which has not been heard before or since on the race track. While there are loads of cool videos showing these cars on the track, it is here chained to a chassis dyno where the thing really tips the scales of sanity.
While there are no power numbers given here, that’s not really the story. The story is the sound and the fury that this engine produces. Just when you think the thing cannot possibly rev higher, it goes another couple thousand RPM into the stratosphere. It is easily one of the most incredible sounding cars we have ever heard and not in the melodious way. This is in the shrill, ear splitting, blow the windows out of the dyno cell kind of way.
I’d say more but I’ll let the video do the talking.
