Archive>>jun Rotary At La Sarthe

My new best friend in the world Rufus Goldstreiff has pointed out that JUN ran a Mazda RX7 at Le Mans in 1981. I had a look through the Theo Badri photo archive and low and behold look what I found!

I don’t know much about these Mazdas but I believe this is the 253 model type. Anyone have any further information? I only have 1978 and 1980 Le Mans annuals from this era…. ahh my life is very incomplete!

Hey how come this car isn’t yellow?

:Rod Chong

JUN AUTO EVO

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1

Ohhhhh......my............ God.............................................



Rufus, you are the man! Theo, you are a dangerous man too, with this incredible photo!!! I wish I was around to shoot this thing! I hope this car is still around, we NEED to do a full Speedhunters HD video and photo shoot on this bad ass SA22C! So sick it just makes me want to scream expletives and shake my head.



I <3 JUN AUTO.



Susumu Koyama is the man!!! And so is Mr Tanaka!

2

There probably is a story behind those yellow hats the two team members are wearing hahaha

3

Just imagine the noise this thing used to make.

4

LOL maybe it was the beginning of "Team Yellow Hat" in JGTC?

5

Man that thing is sexy.

6

On a same note. Hey Antonio, you should dig up some pics of the Jun Auto Honda Integra Type R Hyper Lemon built for time attack a couple of years ago.....

Props to Koyama san....

7

That is the Mooncraft Racing 254 type, using a twin rotor 13B engine. There was another car that I think was entered by TWR as well that was red/white and blue TWR of course went on to very big things in motorsports in later years



One of the drivers of that blk gold car (Yijiro Terada) is now the head of Auto Exe, a well known Japanese brand focused on Mazdas.. He's probably got as much experience racing rotories than anyone

8

Had a look at Racingsportscars.com to check the entry and results info for this car:



http://www.racingsportscars.com/photo/Le_Mans-1981-06-14-photo.html



Chassis/Engine info: Mazda RX-7 (Mooncraft) – Mazda 13B 2R 1308cc Rotary



Entry info: Mazdaspeed (Japan)



Result: did not finish (Rear axle) - 25 laps



Grid: 49th(4:04.79) - 50th fastest qualifier



Sponsors: JUN/TOKICO/mazda



Class: IMSA GTO



So this was one of two official Mazdaspeed cars at Le Mans in '81. In '82 the cars were entered in the IMSA GTX class.



From what I can tell the 1981 iteration of the car is a type 253 and the 1982 version of the car is a type 254.



According to this results sheet here the car is listed as a 253i and was supported by TWR at Le Mans.



http://www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au/le_mans_1981.htm



You can see here:



http://www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au/le_mans_1982.htm



the 1982 car is listed as a 254.

9
10

daamnnn S130turbo is laying down some knowledge right there!!! respect!

11

Here in Japan you can get a whole bunch of 1/43 collectibles in all the Le Mans liveries.



They include the JUN car among others. check Ebbro ( I think ).



I don't know exactly I just see them in the stores.



Recently they did a Le mans pack with 5 or six cars.

12

yep ebbro does a TON of them. I'd love that JUN one..have to look into scoring that LeMans pack!

13

Hey Rod, always glad to help out. Sadly I don't know more about the entry either, just figured from the decals that JUN might be involved in this - however I am kinda confused what their part was if this was an official Mazdaspeed entry, run by Tom Walkinshaw. Maybe really just a sponsor? Or was JUN involved in some other automotive related business before they started to modfiy cars for themselves? Damnit, somebody out there must have an old issue of Option Magazine (and a fluent knowledge of the japanese language ;)), I bet there's some more information buried between those pages.

Greetz

14

A 1981 Le Mans annual would also do the trick.

15

Rod you have to put this in game..this car..is INSANE...i love it.

16

Wrong JUN.........



The JUN involved with that car ( and many other Japanese race cars of the period, as a sponsor ) was - and still is - a large apparel manufacturing and retail group.



Absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with JUN Auto Mechanic.

17

Some of our long term readers will know that I'm a big fan of late '70s/early '80s Group

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