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The man behind Japan's only Le Mans winner

Toyota could finally break its Le Mans jinx next week, but it will come 27 years too late to be the first Japanese winner if it does. Nigel Stroud, the man who penned the iconic Mazda 787B, discusses the history-making machine

Engineering

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The screaming rotary-engined Mazda 787B, which remains the only Japanese car to win the Le Mans 24 Hours, is rightly regarded as one of the most iconic sportscars of all time, and unsurprisingly stands as designer Nigel Stroud's favourite creation. He has a 1:43-scale model of it by way of a memento in his house.

But that affinity is not simply because it beat the fancied Jaguars and Mercedes to score a shock victory in 1991. Rather, it's because it successfully applied the lessons learned in three previous iterations of Mazdaspeed's Le Mans programme dating back to '86.

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