Fuel cell cars, hydrogen-powered ones, electric- and hybrid variants — the poor old motorcar engine manufacturers’ of this world must be totally confused which is the right direction forwards, I reckon.
Firstly, here’s a little conundrum for you: What do Rolls-Royce, a Suzuki motorcycle, a John Deere tractor, Norton Motorcycles, Mercedes-Benz and the Mazda Car Company of Japan have in common? (You just never know when a riddle like this could be asked at your next pub quiz.) The answer is all the respective research and development departments of the aforenamed dabbled in rotary engine manufacture, with at least one, Mazda, still being a firm believer in this form of power for their current sports car range.
Yet it’s worth recording — if only for posterity’s sake — an announcement 50 years ago of an entirely different engine configuration that really shook the motoring world to the core. If you know your cars, you’ll have already recognised the powerplant in the illustration to be an basically an NSU RO80, Mazda-style!
It was NSU’s Dr Felix Wankel who built and marketed the first rotary engine back in 1960, although it was to take another three years before the East German marque showcased their Sport Prinz model — with the rather especial engine under the bonnet — to the world at the prestige Frankfurt Motor Show. “Piston engines currently on offer were little more than a nightmare of conflicting motions,” Dr Wankel was heard to remark on the NSU stand.
Yes, the car looked a little dated but the motor was nothing short of a revelation, it was reported in the motoring press at that time. The 1.2-litre, two-rotor under the bonnet was diminutive by comparison to a regular, four-cylinder piston engine block – but didn’t it go! It revved so freely and had such power that many customers bought the car back for an engine replacement, under warranty of course, within the first 12 months of purchase.
Teething problems of sealing the rotors was never quite conquered, as it turned out, but with the advent of the long-nosed NSU RO80 in 1967 the company were hoping all those problems were now firmly behind them, and stand back for the good times that were surely ahead.
Again, the rotary-powered car was eagerly sought-out by customers across Europe and even further afield, who had by now heard about the many virtues of owning one of the quickest saloons around. Indeed, the European motoring press gave the car the ultimate accolade they could endorse: Car of the Year for 1967.
Alas, the radical engine choice continued to give trouble, but a worse fate was to be found just around the corner for the oldest car company in the world that had been founded back 1873: NSU was technically bankrupt. And worse was to come: Dr Wankel had “forgotten” to patent all the hard work he had completed surrounding rotary engine development at the factory.
Around the same time Mercedes-Benz were dabbling in rotary engine technology with their concept C111, Rolls-Royce, it was reported at the time were believed to have had a rotary prototype running at the Crewe plant in the British Midlands, while Norton and Suzuki took a long, hard look at these compact but obviously really powerful units to power up their two-wheel machinery. I’m reliably informed American tractor company John Deere bought some loosely-termed German patents for their own advancement.
Right now, only Mazda in Japan persist with rotary technology. I’m not sure if they went through the normal channels to obtain the necessary patent rights for rotary engine manufacturer in the land of the rising sun . . . but seeing the word for “learn” and “copy” is the same word in Japanese, probably not!
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