The rotary engine was an unconventional design that delivered great power for its size. Here's what's good and bad about it.

You hear endless myths about the Mazda RX-7, from breathless praise of its “magic” to horror stories about blown apex seals.

When Dr. Felix Wankel created an engine that could produce big power while taking up the smallest space possible, who would have expected the tuning world to accept it with such open arms? Considering ...

This RX-8 ditches the rotary for a Camaro-sourced V6, keeping the balance intact, and embraces its handling ethos.

This file type includes high resolution graphics and schematics when applicable. Automotive engineers are concerned with weight-to-power ratios when designing vehicles. While light-weighting is a ...

Imagine an engine that's 30 percent smaller than a traditional piston design of like output, and that runs smoothly, with less noise and vibration. Plus, it burns several types of fuel. That's the ...

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 ...

Although it showed plenty of promise during development, the rotary engine was never widely used. Rotary (or Wankel) engines are renowned for smoothness, but they chew through fuel and lack torque ...

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 ...