I haven't seen one sense my Family Moved from Sothern California to TX in the early 70's http://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/cto/5942236034.html 1st Rotary Engine car I ever heard run. From the bad pictures this one look to be in good condition. I have no Idea if it is a good price or not.
Kinda looks like the 4-cylinder Mazda my older brother Geoff had back in the '70s in North Dakota...it was a '68 or '69, IIRC.
Yup they only differ by the drive train, you could get a Piston engine in these, actually most sold probably had the piston engine. I just remember hearing it when we pulled in behind it in a parking lot, I was about 10 and bugged the young man who owned it to open the hood, and he did and told me about the future of Motoring were all cars would have wankels!
Yup. Sold ME on the concept......for a while. Wish I had a pic of the two rotaries I had (at the same time) parked side-by-side.....
Krash, have you seen the new Rotary Design by Liquid Piston? So far just small engines, but it looks like it may be a big advance over Wankels. Only Time will tell though http://liquidpiston.com/technology/how-it-works/
Looks like a different execution of the same old thing. Neat idea, but you've still got those seals that subject to significant wear. Over time, you are still going to have excessive oil use and loss of compression / blow-by. Maybe they plan for inexpensive seal replacements every 20k miles or so....
I hear you, the tip seals are fixed on the case in this version, and the rounded rotor supposedly does not exert as much pressure on them. That and with 3 times the firing impulses it is supposed to have a better power to weight ratio than a Wankel. And supposedly does not require mufflers to meet noise regulations. But it is all speculation as they are still experimental. They only have 1 5hp go kart actually moving under its own power with the engine. But it is air cooled.
Compared to this one for sale for $4,500, I think the red one is pretty reasonably priced. I watch for Mazda RX-2, RX-3 and RX-4 pretty often and rarely see anything half-way decent priced below $8k. I hardly ever see R100s for sale. For example, here's a 73 RX-3 just listed on eBay with bidding starting at $14k: And a '73 Mazda 808 (with 13B rotary engine) on eBay with a buy-it-now price of $8k. The red R100 in Illinois looks better and better.
