i was watching speed channel at around 930-10am today and it was talking about the rotary so i decided i wanted to tape it, within the first two minutes it started showing dr wankel working with GM to produce a 4 rotor corvette which they built a concept but they said because of the gas prices in 1972 they never made it...Nothing of mazda was mentioned, anybody know about this?????

 

yep, it was called the R500 ,

 

Mercedes made a Wankel engine too.
http://www.worldcarfans.com/classics...ml/country/gcf

 

thas to bad they didnt go through with that, the world needs more rotaries

 

GM made a two rotor corvette prototype, then worked on larger engines. For those intrested, the very good UK magazine "Classic and Sportscars" had an article about the two rotor corvette a few months ago. It's now fitted with a 13B Mazda engine, btw.
GM engines weren't very good because GM's engineers were unable to think out of the usual. They were too heavy, too thirsty, and not reliable.
More info on most rotary engines (in German, but still): www.der-wankelmotor.de
Won't come much more complete then that

 

Chevy actually had two rotary concepts. The 1973 Corvette XP-897 GT (Red Car) with a two rotor engine and the 1973 XP-882 4 Rotor (Silver Car). The Rx-500 was a Mazda experimental car of 1971 with a two rotor 12A with a top speed of 150mph.

 

I believe the Vega was supposed to be fitted with a rotary too wasn't it, but they didn't get the engine ready in time so they went with the standard piston 4 cylinder? I don't have a source to site, but I believe that's true.

 

I have read that the AMC pacer was another car originally designed to be rotary. Dunno if it's true.

 

NSU also had production wankel engined cars.THE AUDI RO 80 IS A ROTARY.
THE WERE ALSO MILITARY ONE ROTOR INBOARD ENGINES.

I HAVE ALSO SEEN A ROTOR AS BIG AS A HOUSING.THIS WAS FROM AN EXPERIMENTAL ENGINE THAT JOHN DEERE WAS WORKING ON FOR THE US MILITARY, FOR SUBMARINE APPLICATION.

 

Yea, the AMC Pacer was going to use a GM supplied rotary and had a higher than normal transmission hump for use with the rotary. The Chevy Monza (based on the Vega) was supposed to come with a rotary engine. Both the Pacer and the Monza came out in 1975, the year the GM rotary was supposed to debute.

 

NSU was the firm who developed the rotary in the first place. All others paid for the licenses to NSU-Wankel. And it's not a Audi Ro80 but a NSU ro 80 (I have two). VW-Audi later took over NSU when it was in troubles, and renamed it Audi-NSU. The car as such remained badged NSU however. Only 37.000 were made. On the paperwork mine are Auto-Union Audi NSU.

 

whats funny is they all measure the displacement the same as mazda still does. so all the people that argue that the displacement should be double(12a=2400cc, 13b=2600cc). most of the people that argue this are piston swappers. yet thier piston manufacturers claim the displacement is just as mazda does.

if mercedes and chevy both picked up the rotary do you think they would have outlawed them at lemans?