The Engine Everyone Said Couldn't Work - How Mazda's Rotary Won Le Mans

The story of Mazda's rotary engine: Felix Wankel's idea of an engine without pistons, the NSU cars that made it famous and then hurt its reputation, why Mazda licensed it in 1961 and the engineers who fixed its biggest flaw, the 1967 Cosmo Sport, the early RX models, the oil crisis, the RX-7 from 1978 through the twin-turbo third generation, the 787B's historic win at the 1991 24 Hours of Le Mans, the RX-8, the rotary's weaknesses with fuel, oil and emissions, the end of production in 2012, and its return as a range-extending generator in the MX-30 R-EV. Plus what to know before buying a rotary car. Chapters: 0:00 Intro 0:45 The invention 2:32 The problem 3:02 Mazda's bet 5:17 The RX-7 6:31 Le Mans 7:30 The RX-8 8:45 The return 9:25 Buying a rotary 10:33 The lesson 10:49 Recap Sources: Mazda heritage material on the rotary engine, the Cosmo Sport, the RX-7, the RX-8 and the 787B 24 Hours of Le Mans results (1991) Mazda announcements on the MX-30 e-Skyactiv R-EV (2023) Image credits (resized and cropped for video): 88 public-domain / CC0 images (no attribution required). Additional footage: Pixabay (pixabay.com), Pixabay Content License. Additional photos: Pixabay (pixabay.com), Pixabay Content License. --- Voiceover is produced with AI text-to-speech. Images are licensed (public domain or Creative Commons) and credited in each video description. Sources are listed above for every number in the video. #cars #automotive #MitchTannerCar