Most car enthusiasts associate the term “rotary engine” with Felix Wankel’s invention, developed in the 1950s and most commonly associated with Mazda. However, more than half a century before the ...

The rotary engine, once heralded as a revolutionary alternative to traditional piston engines, has experienced a tumultuous journey through the annals of automotive history. Despite its decline in ...

Mazda began 1920 as Toyo Kogyo Co., Ltd, a manufacturer of corks. Toyo didn't make its first vehicle until 11 years later, a three-wheeled motorbike called the Mazda-go. Founder Jujiro Matsuda named ...

Wankel engines first saw use in production cars as early as 1964 — and not even in a Mazda, but rather in an NSU. That little single-rotor powerplant quickly evolved into the more typical two-rotor ...

Long before Felix Wankel became synonymous with rotary engines, an inventive Hungarian-American engineer named Stephen M. Balzer secured one of the earliest patents for a rotary-powered automobile on ...

Developing a gasoline-powered rotary engine was a dream for Felix Wankel, and we mean that literally. Some steam engines worked on the same basic principle as far back as the 18th century, but the ...

The R130 was a very rare model, produced for only three years and with fewer than 1,000 units built. It was also notable as the only front-wheel-drive Mazda model powered by a rotary engine until the ...