We at GRR struggled to contain our disbelief when we first laid eyes on this year’s completed Mazda central feature shortly before members of the public were allowed a peek.
One member of the office was heard to loudly declare ‘that must be a model’ as they stood looking at the Le Mans winning number 55 Mazda 787B perched atop Gerry Judah’s wonderful, spiralling sculpture.
As this brilliant video from Mazda explains, far from being an empty show car it was in fact the same car that left a young Johnny Herbert on the verge of collapse after an heroic effort to secure victory in the 1991 Le Mans 24 Hours.
And it’s not just the cars used in the central feature that made this year’s so spectacular, some of the stats behind it were simply astonishing: At 40m long it stretches 35 metres into the sky and weighs in at 120 tons – the equivalent of 120 Mazda MX-5s. Holding everything together are 418 steel tubes, which, if laid end-to-end, would stretch 1.16-miles – or the length of the Festival of Speed hillclimb.
Enjoy the video Mazda put together in commemoration of an incredible effort, and remember to watch right to the end for some spectacular aerial shots.
