Our wallets ache whenever we see an RX-8., Mazda Mazda’s Rotary History Mazda’s history with the rotary engine goes back to the original licensing agreement with NSU and Curtiss-Wright in 1961.

The Mazda rotary engine is the ultimate underdog, belting out big league power numbers from a scant 80 inches of displacement. At 350 cubic inches, a small-block Chevy is more than four times ...

NAGAO, Japan — Back in the early 1960s, Mazda signed a licensing agreement with NSU, a small German company building a single rotor rotary engine. The reason for looking at this oddball ...

While rotary engines made excellent power for their size (the 1.3-liter in the RX-8 made 232 hp, or 178 hp per liter), they were prone to apex seal failure, necessitating an engine rebuild more ...

D-B has been studying, designing and testing the Wankel for nine years. The fears originally offered by automotive experts that sealing the gases between the odd-shaped rotor and an equally odd ...

After this, the engine was first employed by the Japanese company in 1967 when producing the world’s first dual-rotor rotary engine car, the Cosmo Sport. Subsequently, production began at Mazda ...

Rotary engines lived on, with General Motors and Mercedes-Benz experimenting with them in the 1970s and Mazda making them a regular feature in its lineup, notably in the RX-7 and RX-8 sports cars.

The rotary engine has been a Mazda staple since 1967. It powered one of the most famous and eccentric Japanese sports car line-ups, the RX-series, until 2012 when Mazda discontinued pure rotary ...

NSU, a German car company, employed Felix Wankel in the 1950s. Between 1958 and 1973, 25 motorcycle, marine, car and industrial engine makers signed Wankel rotary engine licence agreements.