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This contraption is the Wankel Rotary Engine. It works very differently from a normal piston engine as shown below




First, some history. The engine was developed by German engineer Felix Wankel in 1957. It was first used in 1964 in the NSU Spider then in the Ro80 luxury sedan. There were many touted advantages. Compared to a piston engine, it was lighter, more compact, and had fewer moving parts.




By 1972, the Wankel was touted as the engine of the future. GM Vice President John DeLorean said that by 1985, 80% of GM cars would use it. The company was planning on putting this engine first in the subcompact Chevrolet Monza. AMC wanted to buy the engine to put in the Pacer. NSU partnered with Citroen on a "Comotor" project. Mercedes Benz developed a 3 rotor engine and put it in a mid engined concept car, the C111


Then there's the company most famous for rotary power, Mazda. By 1972, the company was selling one in every single one of their models, even pickup trucks! For 40 years afterwards, the company continued selling rotary engines in select models, most notably the RX-7 and RX-8 sports cars.

Then problems began to pile up. It turned out that the rotary engine was not very fuel efficient due to its inherent design lowering the compression ratio. With the 1974 oil crisis, this was a big problem. It also belched out smog. As the 1975 US emissions standards loomed, this was another big problem. The problem of apex seal wear was the final nail in the coffin.

It soon became apparant that the rotary engine was useless. And the fallout from this was enormous. When GM pulled the plug on their rotary engine, AMC found itself without a motor for their new subcompact. They had to shoehorn in a giant 3.8 Liter 6 cylinder engine, which made the car 200 pounds heavier. GM could easily afford mistakes like this, but smaller companies that tried their hand were in deep trouble.
-At NSU, the Ro80, which was an amazing car with front wheel drive and a very aerodynamic body that should've been a hit, turned into a flop and the company had to sell to VW in 1972.
-Citroen, hamstrung by the Comotor cancellation as well as other problems, was forced into bankruptcy in 1974 and had to be bought by Peugeot.
-Mazda also was forced on the brink. The company ran a huge loss in 1975 and had to be bailed out by Sumitomo bank.

Perhaps the worst fallout of this are the super annoying group of people who claim that the rotary is the greatest thing since sliced bread and go crazy when Mazda teased that they'll launch a new rotary model.

So that's the rotary engine, a useless doorstop that ruined at least 4 different automakers. The world would be a better place if the Wankel engine had never seen the light of day.

BTW Felix Wankel was a fervent Nazi, not that it matters, just saying.
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