For more than a decade the name Wankel has popped up whenever car enthusiasts start talking about advanced-design automotive powerplants. The theory of the Wankel engine goes back to 1954 when Dr.

TWENTY-FIVE years ago, a German book salesman named Felix Wankel entertained a revolutionary, if not heretical notion: he fell to wondering if the standard gasoline engine, man’s commonest prime mover ...

The rotary was the most radical rethink of the combustion engine in over a hundred years — and it paid the price for being different. Mazda introduced the innovative Wankel rotary engine in the 1967 ...

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. Mazda and NSU tend to get all the credit for Wankel rotary engines in cars, but Mercedes also did quite a bit of Wankel development, using the ...

Washington — Remember the Wankel? There's a new spin on the rotary engine whose quirky name once made it fodder for a Monty Python sketch. Conceived by German inventor Felix Wankel in the 1920s, the ...

The Wankel rotary engine is known for its troubled life in the mainstream automotive industry, its high power-to-weight ratio, and the intoxicating buzz it makes at full tilt. Popular with die-hard ...

It might seem like a novelty from a modern perspective, a technological dead-end kept alive only in the memories of diehard Mazda fans and persistent rumors of its resurrection, but the iconoclastic ...

The Wankel rotary engine is an engineer's dream. Smaller, lighter and simpler than any piston engine, the spinning-triangle design can crank out major power from a tiny package with a minimum of ...

Is August 13th marked on your calendar? If you're a fan of the Wankel rotary engine - or any sports car powered by a Wankel rotary engine (we're looking at you, RX-7 fans), it should be. Dr. Felix ...