The Mazda RX500 concept car debuted in October 1970 at the 17th Tokyo Motor Show and remains one of the most futuristic rotary-powered designs ever created. Built to celebrate Mazda’s 50th anniversary, the RX500 showcased the brand’s bold vision for high-speed performance, advanced safety ideas, and radical styling during the golden age of Japanese concept cars. Radical Design and Space-Age Styling With its sharp wedge profile, wrap-around glass canopy, and butterfly-opening

The fastest feeling coupe on Japanese roads in 1969 was a rotary car. Picture Japan in 1969. Compact coupes are everywhere, the “my car” era is taking off, and manufacturers are fighting for attention. Mazda’s answer was not bigger displacement or more cylinders. It was the Familia Rotary Coupe, known in export markets as the R100. A small, practical coupe that delivered performance people usually associated with much larger engines. A rotary for the real world Mazda, then op

Did you know Mazda once built a rotary-powered bus? In the mid-1970s, when Mazda was still known as Toyo Kogyo, its engineers believed the rotary engine was about more than speed. They saw it as a symbol of smoothness and modern design. So they asked a bold question: could that same engine make a bus feel refined? The answer was the Mazda Parkway Rotary 26, a 26-passenger minibus powered by a 13B two-rotor rotary engine, the same family of engine used in Mazda’s sporty road c

The Wankel rotary engine stands apart from every other internal-combustion design. Compact, smooth, and mechanically unconventional, it challenged the piston engine’s century-long dominance. A single inventor lit the match, yet a global network of engineers kept the flame from going out. This is the story of those people, the ones who turned rotary theory into running engines. Felix Wankel  (1902–1988) Inventor of the Rotary Internal-Combustion Engine Felix Wankel is pictured

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Chevrolet Corvette, long married to big pistons and bigger noise, quietly flirted with a very different idea: the rotary engine. This was not a marketing gimmick or a wild aftermarket swap. It was a serious internal experiment inside General Motors, driven by a belief shared across the global auto industry at the time: the piston engine might not be the end of the story. Why GM Looked Beyond Pistons By the late 1960s, the rotary engine was t

The Mazda Eunos Cosmo, introduced in 1990, was known for its three-rotor rotary engine, advanced technology, and luxury focus. It occupies a unique place in Mazda’s rotary engine lineup and automotive history as the only production road car ever built around a triple-rotor rotary powerplant. Where the Eunos Cosmo Fits in Mazda’s Rotary Lineup Mazda’s relationship with the rotary engine spans decades, from early experiments to lightweight sports cars and endurance racing. Mode

By the late 1960s, engineers were openly questioning whether the piston engine had reached the end of its evolution. Among the most radical alternatives was the rotary engine, a compact and remarkably smooth design that promised high performance with fewer moving parts. While today the rotary is most closely associated with Mazda, some of the most serious early research took place in Germany, inside an experimental vehicle built by Mercedes-Benz. That vehicle was the Mercedes

In 1991, while much of the paddock was focused on brand-new cars built to brand-new rules, Mazda arrived with something that looked outdated on paper and radical in reality. The Mazda 787B did not use pistons. It screamed instead of growled. Most people expected it to be interesting. Very few expected it to win. Twenty-four hours later, Mazda had claimed overall victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, becoming the first Japanese manufacturer to do so and the only one to ever win

In the 1970s, Suzuki showed that a Wankel rotary engine could power a production motorcycle. Inspired by that success, Dutch manufacturer Henk van Veen set out to build something far more extreme. The result was the Van Veen OCR 1000, a superbike built around a car-derived rotary engine and engineered with almost no regard for compromise. What made the Van Veen unique was not simply that it used a rotary engine. Several manufacturers experimented with Wankels during the decad

The history of the automobile is filled with ideas that were simply too early, too expensive, or too inconvenient for their time. Few technologies embody that truth more clearly than the Wankel rotary engine. Below is a timeline showing how the rotary engine rose, spread across the automotive world, nearly challenged the dominance of the piston engine, and is now experiencing a limited resurgence in Japan. Felix Wankel 1924 – The Concept Felix Wankel conceives the rotary engi

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the rotary engine was widely seen as the future of internal combustion, promising smooth operation, compact size, and fewer moving parts than traditional piston engines. Hercules, backed by its parent company Fichtel & Sachs, already had proven rotary engines running successfully in snowmobiles and small aircraft. Building a rotary-powered motorcycle was not a novelty stunt, but a serious attempt to bring this emerging technology to everyday

In the mid-1960s, when most sports cars still relied on small piston engines and familiar technology, NSU decided to bet on something entirely new. The result was the NSU Wankel Spider, a compact two-seat convertible that quietly rewrote history as the first Western production car powered by a Wankel rotary engine . Chairman of NSU, Dr. Gerd Stieler von Heydekampf, unveils the “NSU Spider” Built in Neckarsulm, West Germany between 1963 and 1967, the Spider was produced in ver

In the early 1960s, Japan’s automakers were still known for tiny city cars and economy sedans. The country was rebuilding and learning fast but few outside Japan believed it could compete with Europe’s engineering or America’s horsepower. Then a small company from Hiroshima decided to gamble everything on an engine that most engineers considered impossible to tame. If Mazda could make the experimental rotary engine work, Japan would not just catch up. It would leap ahead. Maz

In the late 1800s, bicycles were more than a novelty. They quietly reshaped daily life, gave riders new mobility, and even opened unexpected social possibilities. Few captured this moment better than the 1897 Stearns Combination Tandem, a bright orange machine designed for two, and remembered today for the unusual freedom it offered Victorian couples. From Simple Tools to the Automobile Age The story begins in Syracuse, New York, where industrialist Edward C. Stearns built hi

The prototype Jaguar XK 120 at the 1948 London Motor Show at Earls Court. In postwar Britain, life was gray and uncertain. Cities were still recovering from bombing raids, fuel was rationed, and few could imagine a future filled with speed and glamour. Then, in 1948, something extraordinary appeared at the London Motor Show. Under the bright lights of Earls Court, Jaguar unveiled the XK120, a car that would redefine performance, beauty and ambition. A Sports Car That Made His

Tatra T26/30 climbing test, likely near Kopřivnice, Czechoslovakia, circa 1929 In the foothills of the Beskydy Mountains, in the small industrial town of Kopřivnice, Czechoslovakia, a quiet revolution in engineering was unfolding. The year was 1929, and Europe stood between wars, balancing fragile optimism with a hunger for progress. Factories were modernizing, borders were redrawn, and automobiles were becoming not just symbols of wealth but of resilience and ingenuity. At t

If you are fascinated by automotive history and the evolution of engine design, the 1929 promotional film Silent Knight: The Triumph of Silence Over Noise  is a remarkable artifact. Produced by Willys-Overland, Inc., it was created to promote the innovative sleeve valve engine system developed by Charles Yale Knight. This design promised quieter, smoother, and more refined performance at a time when noise and vibration were accepted parts of motoring. The Story Behind Silent

The Tampa Bay Automobile Museum’ s 1942 Tatra 87  was recognized at the Hilton Head Island Concours d’Elegance with multiple honors, including the Chairman’s Award. Surrounded by some of the most remarkable automobiles in the world, the Tatra drew steady attention for its unusual beauty, its engineering innovation, and its distinct presence on the show field. For the museum, the recognition felt like a celebration of both art and science. The Tatra 87 is not just an elegant

Lancia stand at the Paris Motor Show at the beginning of October 1922 A century ago, one car rewrote the rules. When the Lancia Lambda  debuted at the 1922 Paris Motor Show, it looked elegant, but what lay beneath made it revolutionary. Built in Turin, Italy, the Lambda was the world’s first production unibody car, the first with independent front suspension, and among the earliest touring cars with four-wheel brakes. It handled better, stopped faster, and rode more smoothly

The Tampa Bay Automobile Museum has officially added its first motorcycle and it’s no ordinary bike. The 1989 Norton Commander , powered by a 588 cc Wankel rotary engine, represents a daring engineering experiment in motorcycle history. Unlike traditional piston engines, the Wankel rotary uses spinning triangular rotors instead of reciprocating pistons, producing power in a smooth, continuous motion. The result is a compact, lightweight engine with an uncanny turbine-like fee