Posted on 11/27/2018
For most people, the name Felix Wankel doesn't ring a bell, but car aficionados around the world are familiar with the pioneering inventor of a one-of-a-kind rotary engine. After the Wankel engine's development, this pistonless powerhouse was often associated with Japanese automaker Mazda, which produced the Mazda Wankel rotary engine from 1967 to 2012. The Engine Truly elegant in its design and function, this rotary engine has no piston-driven cylinders. A single triangular rotor spins around an off-center axle within an oval-shaped chamber. Unlike a piston engine, it exerts exclusively rotational forces using only two moving parts. This simplicity creates fewer vibrations, resulting in a smoother and quieter ride. The Mazda Wankel engine's streamlined design allowed for much faster acceleration, but early models suffered from seal and stability issues during sustained high-speed rotations, which sometimes required ... read more