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 ...

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 ...