The rotary engine is one of the least common powerplants ever developed, primarily as it doesn't conform to the usual design of an internal combustion engine. Rather than use cylinders and pistons ...

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 Wankel rotary engine was made popular by Mazda, who built rotary style engines from in production cars such as the RX-7, RX-8, and others from 1967 to 2012. The Wankel rotary engine is unique in ...

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 ...

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 ...

Most vehicles use a piston engine similar to the one-cylinder, four-stroke motor in the first car ever made, Karl Benz's Patent Motorwagen. Lately, a more fuel-efficient and emissions-friendly engine ...

Mazda made a splash in the market in 1990, launching the Eunos Cosmo with the three-rotor 20B engine. Compared with contemporary Wankel rotary engines, the 20B's extra rotor beefed the compact ...

Like it or not, the combustion engines that have driven our world forward and sideways for more than a century now are about to leave the scene. Not because they're no longer effective, but because ...

A Wankel engine is a type of rotary engine, but not all rotary engines are Wankel engines. Wrapping your mind around this idea will help you to better understand the similarities as well as the ...

Perfectly tuning the heat range of an engine's spark plugs is something of a dark art to all but the most well versed tuners and the engineering egg heads at automotive OEMs. Getting the spark plug ...

Mazda continues to hint strongly at a production version of the Iconic SP concept The Iconic SP debuted at the 2023 Tokyo auto show Power comes from electric drive system with rotary engine serving as ...

The rotary was the most radical rethink of the combustion engine in over a hundred years — and it paid the price for being different. Mazda introduced the innovative Wankel rotary engine in the 1967 ...