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Post by Jamie on Apr 6, 2018 10:30:37 GMT
Great pictures Mikael, the 787b is a classic and the rotary engine a real jewel of a thing. What a noise they made.....I remember at Le Man in 95/96 the Jim Downing run Kudzu Mazda WSC cars....by god they were loud. At night, when the race had strung out a bit, you could hear that car at every corner on the circuit.....amazing. You really could hear every blip on the downchange....fabulous.
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Post by mikael on Apr 6, 2018 11:05:47 GMT
Jamie,
yes, the sound (as well as the fuel "economy" ...) reveals that the Wankel/rotary engine is in fact, by nature, closer related to a two-stroke piston engine than to a four-stroke engine.
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Post by charleselan on Apr 6, 2018 11:34:58 GMT
Mikael, An excellent piece on the Mazda Wankel Rotary engine, and some superb photos illustrating the post. Like Jamie has mentioned those Mazda race cars made some noise. I did Le Mans in 1990/91 and it was during the night of '90 that the shear decibels of those cars struck me. During the mid hours of darkness I decided to take a quick sleep, but could not thanks to the noise of the Mazda's. Like Jamie one could hear them all around the circuit, but when they raced by quite near to my place of attempted slumber it was mighty loud. 1991 did not appear so bad as I took a couple of hours sleep on the floor of the Press Office which was over the pits but well insulated  . JC |
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Post by René on Apr 6, 2018 11:37:33 GMT
Watching a brief highlight of the 1960 Le Mans last evening on the Motorsport.tv channel it was revealed afterwards that this evening (6th April) at 10.00pm UK time the 1988 highlights will be shown. That should be worth watching as it was the TWR Jaguar's first victory, a pretty memorable occasion. Yes, and Jan Lammer's Le Mans victory! |
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Post by René on Apr 6, 2018 12:05:35 GMT
Regarding the Mazda 787B (Le Mans '91): I kind of admire the fact that the four-rotor 26B engine is basically "just" two standard two-rotor 13B engines coupled together - just as the type-name suggests. The 26B engine develops 700 HP at 9000RPM. The 2003-2005 standard (Renesis, Japan spec) version of the 13B develops 250 HP at 8500 RPM - so it's 100 HP more per half-part for the racing engine -- kind of a relatively modest difference, I think ... Mikael, the Mazda was a great car. When I went to Le Mans I first was cheering for the Jags but when the race developed and the Mazda became more of a factor, also the sympathy shifted towards the Japanese team. The car made, as JC already mentioned, an impressive sound and it was just wonderful when they eventually won the race. Historic. |
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Post by René on Apr 7, 2018 9:31:48 GMT
René, We also have Zolder 1982 as well, although not an event you or I would wish to remember for obvious reasons. On happier ground I too have the Slot-It Mazda and strangely enough I was going through three large boxes the other evening containing many of my slot car models all packed up, all untouched from when they were purchased, the Mazda was one of them. I do not have the Jaguar, or any in slot form, but several in 1/43rd scale built up from resin kits from the green original TWR Jag to the Silk Cut versions. Great "T" Shirt by the way and wonderful for the memorabilia collection. JC Yes of course, Zolder 1982. A painful one to remember but in a strange way I am also grateful I was there. The complete Jag line-up must look great. I have the Silk Cut and the Castrol Daytona car myself, both as slot car. As static models, I only collect Ferrari. All the rest are slot cars in my collection (with the exception of Gilles's M23 which I have as a 1/43 model). The Mazda by the way is not a Slot.it car but a Mr. Slotcar. Comparable to Slot.it in quality so you harldy see the difference! |
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Post by charleselan on Apr 7, 2018 11:59:58 GMT
René, We also have Zolder 1982 as well, although not an event you or I would wish to remember for obvious reasons. On happier ground I too have the Slot-It Mazda and strangely enough I was going through three large boxes the other evening containing many of my slot car models all packed up, all untouched from when they were purchased, the Mazda was one of them. I do not have the Jaguar, or any in slot form, but several in 1/43rd scale built up from resin kits from the green original TWR Jag to the Silk Cut versions. Great "T" Shirt by the way and wonderful for the memorabilia collection. JC Yes of course, Zolder 1982. A painful one to remember but in a strange way I am also grateful I was there. The complete Jag line-up must look great. I have the Silk Cut and the Castrol Daytona car myself, both as slot car. As static models, I only collect Ferrari. All the rest are slot cars in my collection (with the exception of Gilles's M23 which I have as a 1/43 model). The Mazda by the way is not a Slot.it car but a Mr. Slotcar. Comparable to Slot.it in quality so you harldy see the difference! Hah! The Mr Slotcar version, pretty racy so I understand, good to know it is comparable with the Slot-It model. Have you seen the latest Slot-It Group C release René? It is the Lancia LC2 Martini that ran at the Brands Hatch 1000Kms with "Brilliant" Bob Wollek; P-L Martini and Paolo Barilla. The very car that I took a photo of with Bob sat in the car while the team worked on the car during practice. Just might have to get that one as I don't have a LC2 in slot car form. |
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Post by charleselan on Apr 7, 2018 14:27:29 GMT
Last evening (6th April) the 1988 race was featured on the Motorsport.tv channel and that was a griping race if ever there was. Porsche were very strong with three works cars up against 5 Jaguar XJR8's (three from the WC and two from America). The number one designate Jag of Brundle & Nielsen was never really a factor due to issues, but the star was Jan Lammers ably supported by Andy Wallace and Johnny Dumfries.
The Lammers Jag deservedly won a superb victory with a hard charging and very close Stuck;Bell & Ludwig 962 in second. An absolutely amazing race with the lead jaguar duelling continually with either of the two leading Porsches; the Andretti family in the third works 962 was never really a factor.
On the podium it was obvious that Tom Walkinshaw knew that Jan Lammers was the star performer, by the wonderful embrace he gave his top driver.
Hans Stuck and Bob Wollek were outstanding in their respective mounts, and there can be little doubt that Hans was the fastest Porsche driver there has ever been, something that those within the team have often said, and this includes Stefan Bellof. Bob was, as ever, eternally unlucky.
The only downside for me was the dire commentary which had been quite obviously dubbed on some time later, with Neville Hay at his most verbose and inaccurate, along with a tired and disinterested sounding Anthony Marsh. For an overdubbed commentary the mistakes were inexcusable e.g getting a stationary works Mazda mixed up as a Primagaz Porsche 962!!
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Post by René on Apr 7, 2018 14:36:38 GMT
Yes of course, Zolder 1982. A painful one to remember but in a strange way I am also grateful I was there. The complete Jag line-up must look great. I have the Silk Cut and the Castrol Daytona car myself, both as slot car. As static models, I only collect Ferrari. All the rest are slot cars in my collection (with the exception of Gilles's M23 which I have as a 1/43 model). The Mazda by the way is not a Slot.it car but a Mr. Slotcar. Comparable to Slot.it in quality so you harldy see the difference! Hah! The Mr Slotcar version, pretty racy so I understand, good to know it is comparable with the Slot-It model. Have you seen the latest Slot-It Group C release René? It is the Lancia LC2 Martini that ran at the Brands Hatch 1000Kms with "Brilliant" Bob Wollek; P-L Martini and Paolo Barilla. The very car that I took a photo of with Bob sat in the car while the team worked on the car during practice. Just might have to get that one as I don't have a LC2 in slot car form. Yes, the Mr.Slotcar version is quite racy indeed. A good chassis and powerful engine, some good detail also. I have seen the new Martini LC2. It's gorgeous but since I already have three Martini LC2's I will skip this one! I have spent a bit too much recently on toys so I will take it a bit easy for now... However, I did buy the new SRC McLaren M23, an absolute stunner. 1973 Denny Hulme version so with the beautiful Yardley colours. It is super detailed, really a beauty but it was not cheap... I will take a few pictures of it on my track and place them in the slotcar section. |
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Post by charleselan on Apr 7, 2018 14:49:16 GMT
Hah! The Mr Slotcar version, pretty racy so I understand, good to know it is comparable with the Slot-It model. Have you seen the latest Slot-It Group C release René? It is the Lancia LC2 Martini that ran at the Brands Hatch 1000Kms with "Brilliant" Bob Wollek; P-L Martini and Paolo Barilla. The very car that I took a photo of with Bob sat in the car while the team worked on the car during practice. Just might have to get that one as I don't have a LC2 in slot car form. Yes, the Mr.Slotcar version is quite racy indeed. A good chassis and powerful engine, some good detail also. I have seen the new Martini LC2. It's gorgeous but since I already have three Martini LC2's I will skip this one! I have spent a bit too much recently on toys so I will take it a bit easy for now... However, I did buy the new SRC McLaren M23, an absolute stunner. 1973 Denny Hulme version so with the beautiful Yardley colours. It is super detailed, really a beauty but it was not cheap... I will take a few pictures of it on my track and place them in the slotcar section. I was going to ask if you had the SRC Denny Hulme Yardley M23, it does look gorgeous but it is very expensive; I believe it costs over 70GBPounds in the UK. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 17, 2018 21:37:34 GMT
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Post by robmarsh on Apr 18, 2018 6:58:06 GMT
I was there as well René doing photographic work for various magazines, it was probably one of the greatest race meetings I have ever been to. Being on the grid was better than any GP grid I have ever been on, and so many big teams taking part. It was fantastic that the very noisy Mazda won, and what a colour scheme that "Charge" car had, but by then due to those odious individuals the Group C cars had been severely hobbled. Didn't the Jag's look fantastic in that Purple colour scheme, great days. JC, that is great. Now we have Spa 83 and Le Mans 91 that we both attended. I am sure there are more! As for the t-shirt, I found it! It's not in the best condition anymore but still a nice memorabilia. In the photo also two slot cars of that race, the winner and one of the Jags.  Model Factory Hiro make 1/12 of both those cars plus the 1988/89 Jags and the 956 Porsche. I have been tempted but can't afford them. I loved the all purple Jaguar. The Silk Cut magazine advert was really classy in those days. A piece of purple silk with a slash in it-no words. |
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Post by charleselan on Apr 18, 2018 15:06:05 GMT
There was something really classy about that 1991 dark purple livery on the XJR's, they looked really beautiful, shame about the 3.5 litre Brawn inspired thing which I hated. Always remember that it was very fast in Le Mans qualifying but never raced as it wouldn't have lasted more than a few hours.
Such a shame that the Jag's and other Group C cars were so hobbled that year thanks to those two odious individuals looking after their own interests of F1. Pleased the Mazda won though, especially for Johnny Herbert.
I have just remembered that one of the perks of being a Press photographer at that time was the occasional excellent freebees that were handed out; one of the best being a Silk Cut Jaguar "Bum Bag" that was real quality and I still have it amongst my camera gear.
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Post by René on Apr 18, 2018 16:06:21 GMT
JC, that is great. Now we have Spa 83 and Le Mans 91 that we both attended. I am sure there are more! As for the t-shirt, I found it! It's not in the best condition anymore but still a nice memorabilia. In the photo also two slot cars of that race, the winner and one of the Jags. Model Factory Hiro make 1/12 of both those cars plus the 1988/89 Jags and the 956 Porsche. I have been tempted but can't afford them. I loved the all purple Jaguar. The Silk Cut magazine advert was really classy in those days. A piece of purple silk with a slash in it-no words. Rob, that's why I collect slot cars! They are still affordable compared to Model Factory Hiro models!  |
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Post by Jamie on Apr 18, 2018 16:25:24 GMT
There was something really classy about that 1991 dark purple livery on the XJR's, they looked really beautiful, shame about the 3.5 litre Brawn inspired thing which I hated. Always remember that it was very fast in Le Mans qualifying but never raced as it wouldn't have lasted more than a few hours. Such a shame that the Jag's and other Group C cars were so hobbled that year thanks to those two odious individuals looking after their own interests of F1. Pleased the Mazda won though, especially for Johnny Herbert. I have just remembered that one of the perks of being a Press photographer at that time was the occasional excellent freebees that were handed out; one of the best being a Silk Cut Jaguar "Bum Bag" that was real quality and I still have it amongst my camera gear. I agree John, the all purple Silk Cut livery was far better than the white/purple design which I found a little fussy, though it’s very iconic of the period. I also really like the simple BRG livery on the XJR 6’s. I liked the XJR14 in isolation but not the portent it signified. The two seat F1 cars were amazing and exciting machines but they were not Group C cars.......nothing beats the Sauber Mercedes C11 in my view.. |
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