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