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Alfa Romeo’s Secret Rotary Engine
It’s hard to believe now, but for a time Felix Wankel’s rotary engine seemed the way of the future for automobile propulsion, and Alfa Romeo didn’t want to be left behind…
A little over a decade since the last Mazda RX-8 rolled off the production line and heading fast into an all-electric future, it’s hard to believe the Wankel rotary engine was once considered the future of automobile propulsion.
Hopes and dreams
Yet throughout the 1960s and early into the 70s, the rotary engine conceptualized by Felix Wankel and developed at considerable expense by German automaker NSU became the auto industry’s darling, with no self-respecting automaker wanting to risk being left behind.
Made of fewer moving parts, compact yet powerful, high-revving yet free of vibrations, the Wankel rotary engine held great promise compared to period automobile powerplants and made his inventor a wealthy man: Felix Wankel had shrewdly negotiated a 40% share of the income generated from the licenses that NSU sold far and wide.
Few people know that the long list of companies that bought a Wankel license from NSU includes Alfa Romeo, which approached the German automaker as early as 1962.
