In the 1920s, Felix Wankel thought that the conventional approach to engine design was not complicated enough and so, in a classic case of thinking outside the box, came up with his novel rotary ...

The engine in question was the Wankel rotary, named after German engineer Felix Wankel, who first patented the concept in 1929. Instead of pistons moving back and forth, the rotary engine used a ...

The Mazda 787B carved its name into motorsport history in 1991 as the first Japanese car to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans overall. Even more legendary was its powertrain, a screaming 2.6-liter ...

The Iconic SP is almost certain to house the new rotary powertrain announced by CEO Moro. It’s official. The rotary is coming back. Earlier this month at the Tokyo Auto Salon, Japan’s biggest car ...

In theory, Wankel-style rotary internal combustion engines have many advantages: they ditch the cumbersome crankcase and piston design, replacing it with a simple, single-chamber design and a thick, ...

The 1974 Mazda REPU was the world's only mass-produced rotary pickup truck, featuring a 1.3L Wankel engine with 110 hp and ...

The traditional piston engine has garnered the vast majority of attention and application in the internal combustion age, but there was another: the Wankel rotary engine. German engineer Felix Wankel ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Peter Lyon is based in Tokyo and writes about the car industry. At the Japan Mobility Show two years ago, Mazda unveiled a ...