Although there was briefly a company called Rotary Rocket, the term is much better known as a nickname for the Mazda RX-7 — one of the few cars that used a Wankel, or rotary, engine. If you ever ...

Typically, when we think of legacy brands that have employed the use of the Wankel rotary engine in the past, Mazda is virtually the only automaker that comes to mind. After all, the Japanese marque ...

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 ...

The rotary engine is unique in its success and failure and its ability to make an impact with a completely different way of thinking. As it is, every production car for the last 130 years, aside from ...

Back in 1957, German engineer Felix Wankel displayed a prototype for a new internal combustion engine that used spinning rotors instead of reciprocating pistons to complete each engine cycle. The ...

Felix Wankel’s rotary engine design is best known for being the heart of Mazda’s beloved RX-series sports cars. Revered for its minuscule size, high power density, unique sound, smooth acceleration, ...

Like many teenagers in 1980s Australia, I was a willing participant in the Japanese rotary-engined street racer phase that swept the country at the time. Hell, there was even a magazine called Fast ...

Wankel rotary engines, typically but not exclusively found in Mazdas, certainly lean on the "quirkier" side of modern powertrain systems, made quirkier because most rotary-powered cars on the road ...

Matt Nelson is an automotive journalist with nearly a decade of experience in all things cars. He's spent years working at dealerships in sales, finance, and service. He's since traded in his pens and ...