Two rotary engines, three decades apart. This 1:18 scale model car puts a modern tuning build of the RX-7 FD3S in the colours of the only rotary-engined car ever to win Le Mans overall.
The FD3S, Mazda's last twin-rotor sports car
The third-generation RX-7, chassis code FD3S, was launched in 1991, the same year the 787B won at Le Mans. It uses the 13B-REW twin-rotor engine with sequential twin turbochargers. Mazda built it until 2002, and it remains the last RX-7. Its low, curved bodywork is one of the best-known Japanese sports car shapes of the 1990s, and it is the base Liberty Walk chose for one of its most extreme kits.
Liberty Walk's LB-Super Silhouette kit
Liberty Walk launched the LB-Super Silhouette complete widebody kit for the FD3S in 2023. The kit is made only in FRP and requires much wider wheels than the factory car. It draws on the Group 5 Super Silhouette racers that ran in Japan in the early 1980s: flared arches, a deep front splitter and a large rear wing on a street-car base.
A tribute, not a race car
This car did not race. It is a tuning build that uses a historic livery as a reference, and it belongs in a collection as a tribute rather than as the replica of a competition car.
Why the Mazda 787B No. 55 livery matters
On 23 June 1991, the No. 55 Mazda 787B driven by Johnny Herbert, Volker Weidler and Bertrand Gachot won the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It was the first overall win for a Japanese manufacturer and remains the only one for a rotary engine. Its four-rotor R26B engine and orange-and-green livery made it one of the best-known cars in endurance racing. On the FD3S, the same colour split follows the new widebody panels, from the flared front arches to the rear wing.
The 1:18 scale model on display
GT Spirit produces the GT568 in resin as a limited edition. At 1:18, a standard FD3S measures about 24 cm long, and the LB kit makes the model visibly wider than a factory RX-7 at the same scale, so it needs a slightly deeper shelf. It fits a JDM tuning display next to other Liberty Walk subjects, or a Mazda rotary collection alongside a 787B at 1:18 or 1:43.
