http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/02/automobi...eels&oref=login

[QUOTE]November 2, 2008
Collecting
Taking a Rotary for a Spin
By ROB SASS

FORTY years ago, a panel of auto journalists picked the NSU Ro80 as European Car of the Year. Now mostly forgotten, the Ro80 was a German sedan with an aerodynamic shape that presaged the Audi 5000 and Ford Taurus of the 1980s. As important as its trend-setting styling, though, the Ro80 featured the first Wankel engine in a mass-produced car.



Potential game-changers in the auto industry have often ended up as blind alleys. Dinosaurs at least have birds as their living legacy, but innovative cars like the Tucker, Corvair and Citro

 

I both love and hate rotaries. Heck, I probably feel the same way about 2-stroke engines.

 

wow....surprising

FD prices seems to be holding steady, but they haven't done as well as the MKIV Supra

 

My bought a 1984 RX-7 GSL SE, which was the first fuel injected 13b rotary engine. I loved that car. The engine made a lovely sound, it loved to rev, and it was a joy to hit that rev limit beeper.

The car had 130,000 miles put on by our family and sold it to a firend who kept it until 150,000. The engine was virtually trouble free, with the exception of flooding problems at 100,000 which were fixed with a new set of injectors. Thats pretty good reliability for the era.

The engine was not that efficient (I think my dad would get about 21 mpg most of the time) but it guzzles under hard acceleration and is really fuel efficient under a steady cruise, sort of like a gas turbine engine. (it could pull 30 mpg) I think there could really be a future use for these if they were used in hybrids. Use electric power to get the car up to 40, and then kick in the rotary for cruising.

 

[QUOTE=vader1,Nov 5 2008, 09:10 AM] The car had 130,000 miles put on by our family and sold it to a firend who kept it until 150,000.

 

I think it was a 4 rotor for the Vette. Right motor, wrong time.
poor fuel economy and emisions killed it after GM spend ALOT of money for the rights to make it.

 

That's because F&F didn't glamorize the FD as much as the MKIV...lol

 

the nyt is as terrible as the rotary engine.

uggggh.

 

the rotary is mechancially superior to a piston engine because of it's fewer moving parts and the fact that those parts all rotate instead of coming to vitually a dead stop at TDC and BDC (ineffecient production of rotational energy)

sorry, you lose....back to shcool with the mindless comments

rotary: 1.3 L of liquid smooth V8 ass kickin power (and yes, it is a true 1.3L displacement, so to all the parroting pundits, don't even bother with the 2.6L bs!)

 

Agreed.


It's unfortunate that they're as inefficient as they are - and that the production rotaries seem to have a higher chance of being a dud than 4-strokes.