Found this interesting story:

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In 1970 a Swiss Industrialist named Dr. A. Gerber contracted Franco Sbarro (a Swiss Car-Designer/Builder) to build him a Wankel (Rotary) powered 914.
Sbarro acquired a 914/6 and a 2-Disk Wankel Engine out of a NSU RO 80 ...
The Engine was bolted to a NSU Half-Automatic Transmission, special Axles and Shift-Rod were fabricated.
The Engine was cooled by a front-mounted Radiator with dual Fans out of a Renault R16.
The Water Hoses for the cooling system were routed through the center tunnel.

Technical Details:
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HP - 115
mpg - 21
top speed - 190 km/h


Dr. Gerber used the car as a daily driver and replaced the Motor after about 70000 km with a newer model Wankel Engine.

To this date, the car remains in the possession of the Gerber Family.
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and this is a Photo of Prof. Felix Wankel himself in front of the Car !!! (notice the NSU in the background)

I want the NSU Prinz in the background!!! I almost bought a Ro80 (used ) in the 70's. Way cool car.

Geoff

About that time I was into racing outboards. OMC came out with 4 rotor Wankel outboards. Well over 300hp.
They nearly killed a couple of the factory drivers cause the hulls kept blowing over backwards with the extra top speed. I only got to see the run once in person. Absolutely killed the Mercs.

Dave

I think it was suzuki who made a rotary for arctic cat snowmobiles a while back. That thing flew like a bat out of hell.

Andy, that is a very interesting picture and story, where do you find all this stuff?

Very cool article!



That photo is just way too cool!!! Prof. Felix Wankel himself posing in front of a rotary 914!!! How cool is that?!?

Thanks for sharing!

hint: it helps if you can read german ...

Andy

It was in the glovebox of #4!

no, actually, it's out of "Das Grosse VW-Porsche Buch" ...

it's right after the article about the 914 with the 928 Engine in it. (sounds familiar, eh?) ...
Page 173 ...

Andy

there's a german magazine named "hobby"
in #6 from 1972 (released at March 15) there's a 4 side story about the Wankel 914

unfortunately I didn't own this magazin, but as far as I know a friend in germany has got one
maybe I can get a scan, then I'll post it here

So long,
Gustl

Hmmm... and to think, I have a turbo rotary sitting in the garage waiting for me to find something to stuff it into. I WAS thinking Lotus 7 replica (Locost) but this is also intriguing.

now here is the story about the Wankel-914 out of the german magazine:

Does the radiator vent out the wheel wells? Looks clean. . .

i bet out the bottom


is the second car in the pic, a six with gas burners??????

yepp ... the whole story is about the Wankel project and how it compares with a standard 914-6

So how does it compare to the six?

I'll come back with this answer later - kinf of bussy at the moment ...

but ... here's another (unfortunately german) article about the Wankel-914

the summary says, that the Wankel-914 was the better car

to make it easy I translate the table from the last page:

standard 914-6 # Wankel 914
about 8,000 DM # about 1,570 DM # prize of the engine
about 5 hours # about 2 hours # time for engine inspection
premium (95) # standard (91) # kind of fuel
25,8 mpg # 24,3 mpg # fuel consumption
0,33-0,44 gal # 0,22 gal # oil consumption per 600 miles
every 3,125 miles # not nessesary # oilchanges
110 DIN PS # 115 DIN PS # power
about 125 mph # about 120 mph # high speed


The article says, that the 914-6 is extreme noisy, compared with the Wankel-914
The NSU-automitic transmission shifts smooth and pretty well, 1st gear up to 50 mph, 2nd 80 mph and 3rd up to the end of about 120 mph. The lower highspeed is a result of the higher weight, due to the heavy engine and the additional water cooling system.

After about 45,000 miles without any problem the owner ordered a new engine because there was a newer revision available.


So long,
Gustl

And those early Ro80 apex seals lasted until 50k when you had to replace them.

Geoff

There was also a rotory motorcylce back in the day. I saw one at the Barber Museum in Alabama. Very clean design.

Paul

Suzuki had a production rotary powered motorcycle. There is one here in Santa Maria. As for the Lotus 7 style conversion, they were produced and sold (and may still be) under the name "Rotus 7". The Cap'n

They're working on a Rotus 7 at a shop about a mile from the house . . . it's pretty cool!

Am I a bad person for thinking Rotus 7 could be a mispronunciation by more...asiatic people?

If anyone has a copy of road and track from June 1974 Rod Simpson did a rotary swap into a 914 and was planning on doing a production of them 10 at a time, the price was pretty steep at $9400 but the 10a mazda engine didn't seem to give to much of a gain. He was actually putting the radiator in the rear. I have the article but I have no way to scan it.

Oh yea Suzuki made the rotary motorcyle RE5 in 74 and 75, I have a buddy that picked one up on ebay a couple of years ago for $700 and it still runs today.

You're not wrong. Google "rotus" and one of the links tells the whole story. Actually, most of the Rotus cars are NOT rotary powered. There's an interesting link to jalopnik that has a story about a gathering of some absolutely AMAZING cars. Like 1700 lbs./600+ HP rocketships. The Cap'n

Looking at that first picture, there are steel wheels on the car - did they ever make those wheels for a 5-lug pattern? I thought they were only on the 914/4.

Click to view attachment

they did - 5.5x15 steel wheels (with 165HR15) were standard on the 914-6

options were the chrome steel wheel, 5.5x15 Mahle Gasburner (with 165HR15) and 5.5x14 Fuchs (with 185HR14)

Dr Wankels personal Ro80. Look at the extra badge on the front