Hey guys,

Not sure if you guys knew this or not. But being an AMC nut as I am, I recently found out that the AMC pacer was originaly going to come with a wankel(sp?) rotary engine identicle to the engine's in the very first RX-7's. They were all ready to go through with it but the deal fell through over a price missunderstanding or something like that.

Just thought it might be interesting. The rotary would have done the pacer well.

 

actually it wasn't the mazda rotary engine that was supposed to be used it was supposed to be the GM rotary engine however GM pulled the plug on it at the last minute and AMC had to go with an alternate engine. The car (pacer) had actually been designed around the rotary engine and that could be one of the reasons it failed so badly.

 

hahaha

i seen a poster of a pinto with a 4 rotor once lol

 

i learn something new today

 

i have no clue why opened this thread up...i guess i was looking for pictures or something...but i did learn something new...

 

Really?? I thought for sure it was wankel(sp?)...... I didn't even know GM made a rotary.

I do know that the pacer didn't do as well as AMC hoped becase of the car not having the rotary. The car relied on being quirky all around. and the rotary would have sealed the deal as being one of the most outlandish vehicles for sale at the time.

The Pacer failing badly is a matter of opinion though. lol the car went down in history. Who dosen't have an uncle, aunt, father, mother, freind, relative that didn't have or know of someone with a pacer?? they are famous to a degree that very few cars beside performance cars get to reach.

Just my thoughts on the matter lol

 

GM tried to make the Wankel design work like many others did before Maz.

 

They (GM) had also designed and built a 4 rotor engine that they put into acorvette chassis as a prototype, but could not get past the engineering problems associated with the early carbon apex seals.

 

Well it is still a wankel just because that it the "type" of rotary engine, ie it isn't a rotary piston engine from early airplane. In this case it was a joint partnership with AMC agreeing to buy engines from GM. There were quite a few in the early 70s that did research on the rotary. In the US for years Mazda had to pay a royalty to Curtis Wright (aviation) because they owned the rights to the rotary in the US.

I understand what you are saying about the fail badly part, but as far as AMC is concerned it was a failure. I am in much the same boat driving around one of my 76-8 Mazda Cosmos... THEY are universally considered a failure except in Japan where they loved them. However everytime I bring one out I get the stories of my dad's best friend's mom had one and it was great car I wish I had one. considering mazda only made 10k of them for the US I have come to the conclusion that everybody knows everyone else... LOL