Cover your ears, the Mazda 787B is going back to Le Mans

Ear defenders at the ready race fans, the flame-spitting Mazda 787B and its deafening rotary engine will take part in a demonstration ahead of this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans to help mark the centenary of the race.

Those of you with long memories (and permanent hearing loss) will remember the car wailed its way to victory at la Sarthe in 1991, piloted by Johnny Herbert, Volker Weidler and Bertrand Gachot.

The 2.6-litre, four-rotor R26B engine flung out 700 of the loudest horses ever unleashed on a race track, and completed 362 laps to claim the chequered flag and turn Mazda into the first Japanese winner of the event.

Apparently the car only needed one oil top-up during the race, while the brake discs and pads (this was the first ever Le Mans winner with carbon brakes) were changed once en route to victory.

With a rotary engine ban coming into force in 1992 the 787B was immediately retired from competition and now rests at Mazda’s HQ in Hiroshima… usually.

Except for this year - to celebrate Le Mans’ 100th anniversary - the car is being shipped over to France where it will take part in a demo run, driven by 29-time entrant and ‘91 Mazda driver Yojiro Terada.

Oh, and the plan is for it to spend a month on display at the Le Mans museum from 1 June to 2 July, along with around 70 other former winners of the endurance race.

Hopefully there'll be a fire extinguisher close by...