Designed to combine a mixture of the Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile (FISA) Group C regulations with the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) GTP regulations, the 787s were the last Wankel rotary-powered racing cars to compete in the World and Japanese championships, using Mazda's R26B engine.

The reliability of the cars eventually paid off in 1991 when a 787B driven by Johnny Herbert, Volker Weidler, and Bertrand Gachot went on to victory in the 1991 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Air moved from the blunt nose of the car underneath the bodywork and through the radiator before exiting in front of the windshield.

The intake in front of the door and exit behind were no longer necessary and were thus not included, giving the 787 a smoother bodywork design on top.

As before, Stroud's monocoque design was built from carbon and kevlar by Advanced Composite Technology in the United Kingdom.

In the past, Mazda had developed variable-length telescopic intake runners to optimize engine power and torque for varying RPM levels.

[7] Another main improvement was the change in suspension geometry which allowed for larger wheels to be fitted along with carbon ceramic brakes, a first for a Mazda racing car.

[8] The first 787 chassis made its competition debut in April 1990, at the second round of the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship (JSPC) season.

For the Inter Challenge Fuji 1000 km, Mazdaspeed entered their 787 alongside an older 767B chassis, with Yoshimi Katayama, David Kennedy, and Pierre Dieudonné in the new car.

Driver Stefan Johansson joined Kennedy and Dieudonné in the first car, and Bertrand Gachot, Volker Weidler and Johnny Herbert were hired for the second entry.

The two 787s ran reliably for much of the race, lasting through the night until problems were encountered in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Two 787s were entered for the rest of the JSPC season with the Japanese trio of drivers in one entry and Kennedy and Dieudonné remaining in the other.

Oreca and team consultant Jacky Ickx were able to persuade FISA that the 787s should be allowed to run with less weight than their competitors, leading to FISA allowing the team to run the cars at 830 kg (1,830 lb) rather than the standard 1,000 kg (2,205 lb) required for the C2 class.

The newer car, with Sandro Sala and Kennedy, out-qualified the older chassis driven by the all Japanese squad by only an eighth of a second, but the 787B was able to outlast several other competitors and finish in sixth overall, fourth in the C2 class, and earning Mazda points in the championship.

A poor race at Silverstone added no points to Mazda's world championship total before the team concentrated on Le Mans.

Following the team's Le Mans victory, Mazdaspeed returned to Fuji once more with a 787B, and improved their season results with a fourth-place finish followed by another sixth at Suzuka.

The championship then flew to Mexico City where Mazda finished ninth, before the season ended back in Japan.

On the day before the race, team manager Ohashi decided to drop his usual conservative strategy and instructed the drivers of the No.

The decision was made based on the reliability of the cars demonstrated in the Paul Ricard tests, as well as the car's exceptional fuel economy, which meant that the carefully learned driving techniques intended to preserve the fuel allowance were no longer a critical part of the team's strategy.

55 moved into second place when the Mercedes-Benz C11 of Michael Schumacher, Fritz Kreutzpointner and Karl Wendlinger spun off and later pitted with a gearbox problem.

At the last pit-stop, Herbert asked to stay in the car, and went on to take the 787B across the finish line first, completing 362 laps and covering 4,932.2 km (both new records for the recently modified circuit).

At the end of the season, the Group C series was replaced by the 3.5-litre World Sports Championship and therefore Wankel-type rotary engines would no longer be allowed to run as they were outlawed and, as per Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile's earlier decision, 3.5-litre engines similar to those used in Formula One became the new formula for the 1992 season.

The following year, Mazda entered the MXR-01, based on the Jaguar XJR-14 and powered by a Judd unit, without much success (placed fourth at Le Mans in 1992).

Despite the Le Mans success of the 787B and its Wankel powerplant, Mazda did not exploit its historic victory through marketing campaigns and advertising[clarification needed].

The RX-8 utilized a new generation of the Mazda Wankel engine, dubbed "Renesis", which uses side intake and exhaust ports.

It was recommended he should take time off to allow for an operation but he chose to retire from the sport and handed his seat over to Heinz-Harald Frentzen.

The livery returned again, in 1995, in Jim Downing's rotary-powered Kudzu DG-1, which competed in IMSA's WSC (World Sport Car), a category with different regulations than the FIA.

[14][15] In 2002 Autoexe Motorsport with Yojiro Terada as one of its drivers participated in 24 Hours of Le Mans using a R26B 2.6L four-rotor engine in a modified WR chassis.

In 2005 B-K Motorsports competed a Courage C65 LMP2 prototype in the American Le Mans Series, powered by a Mazda tri-rotor Wankel and painted in a yellow and blue version of the livery worn by the 787B.

[26] On July 2, 2016, at the annual Sahlen's Six Hours of the Glen, held at Watkins Glen International as leg in the Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup, Mazda's Prototype team used the 787B livery on their two prototypes in commemoration for the 25th anniversary of Mazda's Le Mans win.