Marc James Small wrote:
>
> At 05:44 PM 2/27/97 -0800, Barrie Henderson wrote:
> >I think you are referring to Wankel - a German engineer - he designed the
> rotary engine and Mazda was the only company that actually put them into
> production - as far as I know.
>
> My heavens, NO! There were a series of NSU RO cars in the '60's. NSU was
> merged into Audi which was then purchased by VW, so Volkswagen owns the
> rights to the Wankel engine. Every time Mazda sells one, they send a
> ten-spot or so to Wolfsburg.
You can add to this list Citroen which built a small number of
Wankel-powered cars in the early 1970s. Unfortunately the venture was
unsuccessful and Citroen bought back many of the cars and - horrors -
crushed them.
> And this DOES have a Rootes connexion, as one of the first Lord Rootes few
> errors was in refusing the GIFT of VW as offered him by the British
> government in 1945. (But, then, Henry Ford passed it up, as well, with the
> acid comment that 'a car this funny will never sell'.)
There is another interesting connection here. In the early sixties,
Chrysler came close to buying out Audi/Auto Union, but VW got in first
so Chrysler bought Rootes instead.
Russell Maddock
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