The Alternate History of the Rotary Engine: 1968-70

[This is fiction. It is made up. If you want to know the real history of the Mazda RX range and of rotaries in general, have a look at Monito.com's WRCE site.

There is a FAQ for the Alternate History of the Rotary Engine series of posts.]

The years 1968 to 1970 were lean ones for the rotary engine. Rumours abounded and there was frequent talk that the engine was going to disappear.

Mazda continued production of their Cosmo, updating the L10A car to the longer wheelbase L10B and ending production of the unsuccessful 10a engine in favour of the small capacity V8. Various Mazda show cars were previewed with derivatives of the rotary engine, however they were not realised as production models. There were press reports that the Italian-styled 1500 was to receive the V8 but this did not eventuate. The V100 was released as a companion to the Familia and began selling well, and enjoyed some motorsport success. Internally, Mazda began referring to the V8 as the 25a (2.5 litre, revision A).

NSU released the Ro80 to the public in 1968 and later in the year confirmed that Yamomoto had joined the company along with several of his R&D team. His decision to leave Japan would later be looked upon as the reason no Japanese manufacturer successfully released a mainstream rotary powered car. Yamomoto still believed in the rotary engine and resumed his research and development work almost where he and his team had left off at Mazda. The Ro80 was well received in the press, though there were some reports of unreliability.

A large yellow car was seen at the Mercedes Benz test facility in 1969. It was later revealed to be the C101 triple-rotor concept car. Future revisions of the car were called the C111 and were to be instrumental in Mercedes' adoption of the rotary engine in its vehicles.

Next:
1970 and 1971 were boom years for the rotary engine and Mazda's break-away 25a V8. Almost every major car manufacturer had a rotary research program and many released teaser concept cars to the public.