During the late Eighties, Mazda scored a further three class victories at Le Mans. In 1987 the Mazda 757 of David Kennedy, Pierre Dieudonne and Mark Galvin won the GTP class and finished seventh overall, while the Mazda 757 took home another GTP trophy in 1988 with a 15th place finish for Yojiro Terada, David Kennedy and Pierre Dieudonne.
Powered by a new three-rotor engine, the Mazda 757 was the first Mazda prototype chassis designed by Englishman Nigel Stroud, but it was only a stepping stone to the even faster and more powerful four-rotor Mazda 767, which made its debut alongside the 757 in the 1988 Le Mans 24 Hours.
In 1989 its replacement the 767B took GTP class victory with a seventh place overall finish, yet for all the class titles, Mazda’s real aim was to win the world’s most famous race outright.
The 2015 Goodwood Festival of Speed will see a Mazda 757 and a Mazda 757 join the car that achieved that aim – the Mazda 787B – on the famous Goodwood hillclimb.
