oF CoURsE Citroën made a rotary! The two weird things in this world come together

The Mazda cosmo has such a classic look I love it

You forgot the Mazda Roadpacer. This was an Australian made Holden Premier sedan, shipped to Japan without an engine, and fitted up with a rotary, sold between 1975-1979. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazda_Roadpacer_AP

The Japanese seem to have gotten the Wankel sorted so much better than anybody else. They even sound better. Kudos to Citroen though for making the Ami Rotary sound just like the two-cylinder standard version.

Nice list but technically, you could have had 9 different production cars without even leaving the Mazda stable. While the argument could be made that the RX line was an evolution, most of Mazda's rotary cars were wholly their own vehicles, despite sharing an evolution of the Mazda engine design. 1. R100 2. RX-2 3.RX-3 4.RX-4 5.RX-5 6.RX-7 7.Cosmo 8.REPU 9.RX-8

The coolest sounding compact engines ever.

Damn you just gotta love rotary engines

You forgot about Mazda Rotary Parkway, the only rotary bus ever produced.

Rotary Lada? Thats new for me, seems like i learn something new everyday haha 3:03 Sounds exactly like 13B too.

DORITOSSS POWERRRRR!!!!!!!!

Omg now i will buy a lada rotary thanks man

BRAP BRAP BRAP BRRRAAAPP shututu....

I always liked the Mazda rotary-engine pickup truck, with its lovely big round double taillights and bold ROTARY POWER wording on the tailgate :D

I feel like they didn't give the rotary engine a good enough of a chance It's sad to see that the rotary engine has just been reduced to something for enthusiasts to appreciate

Wait lada made a rotary? ..654cc with 115 hp ? Wowowow😱

I was driving an RX7 in a game when you uploaded

That crazy mazda cosmo sounds more like a F1 than a modern F1

Lada supposedly made lots of rotary cars but unfortunately it’s extremely difficult to find any proof the of the many scrapped prototype vehicles which are rumored to have three and even four rotors

That three rotor Cosmo sounds AMAZING!

The Mazdaratti looks good in red!

Love the vids man, you put so much work into this. Keep going man!

It was said NSU Ro80 owners carried a spare engine in the boot (trunk) to cope with the frequent seal failures. The engine was light in weight and compact, and could be changed by the roadside by a competent mechanic.

Don’t forget the Holden/Mazda Roadpacer

Ok the title is rotary CARS, not rotary ENGINES. Therefore the RX-4, RX-7, RX-8, etc should all be separate individual entries.

Missed one: the short lived, but available to the Japanese public, Mazda Roadpacer, twin rotor rotary installed into a Holden HX Kingswood. Problem was typical for a rotary installation in a heavy car: plenty of power by mid 1970's standards, not enough torque. It was definitely not an RX model.

Damn that 20b Cosmo is a gorgeous vehicle.

Wait, so you included separate entries for cars that were never actually in production, but then grouped econoboxes like R100, RX-3, with sports cars like three generations of RX-7 selling over 800k units and the RX-8 sport sedan selling 200k units? At least the Cosmo generations - although totally unrelated in market segment and body style - shared the same name. It was interesting to see the non-Mazda rotary cars.

The interesting thing about rotary engines and LADA is that a lot of Mazda RX owners in Russia swap stock engines with 1.6 16V (98hp) ones with additional custom turbo to raise the power. The reason is simple - proper restoration of rotary costs almost the same, as to swap the engine.

There's also the Aerovette which never really left the prototype phase. It was basically a more aerodynamic mid-engine rotary Corvette

Thank you for this. I knew about some but not all these models. I once owned a 1977 Rotary pickup, and, the only year produced, it had a larger cab than the earlier two years More room and the same great 13B driveline. Mine had a Racing Beat intake with Holly 4 barrel and Racing Beat exhaust. Never ported it, but I think I had more race challenges driving that truck than any other, and I always won. Only trouble with that truck, it came with steel 6 bolt 16 inch wheels, and I could not mount any wider good looking wheels, which usually came in five bolt 15 inch. My two sons, between them, still own rotaries that came from me. 71 R100 with a larger 70 cube 12A (12B in Japan) engine, ported, and with only 1900 some pounds it hauls. Also we have a 73 RX2, again with a ported 12A, and about 2100 with 210 HP. Also in the family is a cherry original 84 RX7 GSL-SE, which came with a 13B, 4 wheel discs, and limited slip. We love our rotaries though it is very hard to keep the older rotaries on the road. Not because of the drivelines, they are solid. But we have trouble with rubber, brake cylinders, etc. Have had to order way off to Australia for some parts. Might have to tear out the Mazda front ends and put in a Ford suspension and brakes or something to keep them going.

You didn't cover the Mazda R100, which was not an "RX", or the Mazda Roadpacer, which was based on a Holden Kingswood.

awesome video !

A little addition on the Lada cars: there were 50 copies of 21018 sold but the engine proved to be so unreliable that 49 out of them were retrofitted with the usual engine instead of the rotary. I guess there's a small possibility that somewhere in Eastern Europe someone still owns an original 21018, the only one left in the world :D

I absolutely love the design of rotary engines, and wish that they would make more cars with them. Great video!

I know it isn't a car but the Suzuki RE5 bike was in production for 2 years, Norton also made an Aircooled twin rotor bike

Interesting sounds

Total production of rotary Ladas (21018, 21019, 21059, 21079 and some fwd models) is about 1000 pcs.

Love the sound of that motor. Wish there were a way to make em more reliable. Wish I had one.

You forgot Mazda 787B, that won 24 Hours of Le Mans once.

I'm a simple man. VisioRacer uploads a video, I watch it.

Not a Japanese car fan at all, but a buddy of mine had one of those Mazda trucks in high school, and what I remember most about that truck is the weird baby blue paint job, and that the motor reved forever...the rpm's seemed to be like the energizer bunny, they kept going and going and going....it had a neat sound to it...

It might be worth a mention that the AMC Pacer almost got a rotary. GM was going to provide the engines. GM pulled the plug and AMC had to use their already existing 232 and 258 straight 6. Probably worked out for the better though, cause rotary engines don't like weight. They work great in really light vehicles though.

Well I think I have a new car to acquire as soon as possible. Rotary Lada. I mean seriously???? I did not know that even though I see Ladas every day and I drove one for a while too.

A high school friend had an RX-4 - I always dug the sweet howl of that 13B rotary. Hope to get an RX-7 one of these days. This is a great KZfaq channel - thanks

Am I the only one to find wankel engines sounds particularly ridiculous, especially at idle? Reminds me of cheap french moped. And again, very well documented and informative video (always discovering new thing watching this channel), but it omits few details. NSU Ro80 and the Citroen GS share basically the same engine, COMOTOR being a joint venture between these two manufacturers. The M35 "prototype" (actually a mule, sold to "lucky" customers) also share the same engine but cut in half. These 3 cars shares the same roots. Also, Citroen didn't want to keep these commercial failures and technically expensive to maintain cars on the road. Most of the M35 and GS Birotor had being bought back from customer or exchanged for another, piston engined, car, and were all but few scrapped. Both are now considered historical treasures, running ones are even rarer. And also, most ridiculous trivia ever, the M35 was meant to be produced at 500 units. All being marked on the body with a numbered sticker. In fact, only half were ever sold, and to conceal this commercial failure, the stickers lied with some having a serial number exceeding the actual production run... Citroen's wankel adventure, associated with the oil crisis, and the very expensive acquisition of Maserati to build the even more expensive V6 coupé SM model, and also the even more obscure idea of the Wankel powered chopper, are all causes of this manufacturer demise.

A few years back I had a drive of a Mazda RX-7 on a motorway in Britain... damn, once out of the corners that thing was lightning fast. Not sure exactly what model engine was in it, but it was a rotary... completely awesome !

My younger brother took a bi-rotor motor from a wrecked Mazda RX-4 and adapted it to fit into a 1964 Alfa Romeo Spyder , the result was both incredible speedy and scary to drive. You could hear the car scream a mile ahead of you on the freeway and very few cars could catch up and over-take it . It made a noise that sounded like a cross between a jet and an air raid siren,almost deafening as it roared by.

You forgot a car most people don't know about. Rolls Royce actually made a rotary a long time ago and I believe it was diesel too. It was really strange and I can't even remember what it was in but you should look it up

Concerning the beautiful Ro80, NSU honoured every single warranty claim with new engines - and bled themselves dry. The build quality and design of these cars (1967) was on par with anything today.

I had no idea Lada made rotaries. Thanks for the video.

Ah, the video that I requested for maybe 2 years ago. Thanks, this video is added into my playlist now.

Does anyone know of any engines that can can be built to replicate the sound and high rev nature of Formula 1 V10 and V8s? I’m looking for potential future motor swaps and am not coming up with much in my own research. Edit: If I could, I’d go with the 1LR-GUE from an LFA or a 26b Rotary. I’m not sure how feasible those two are tho lol

Just gona say with that Mazda repu the blue one was actually a Datsun 1200 Ute with a rotary swap not to hate though great vids I thought it was just funny 😅😅

When you put subtitles on, the m35 sound is translated as "applause" :)

In 1989-90, my First Sgt in Monterey CA had a Mazda Rotary Pickup that had been customized, and it was gorgeous.

Mazda had a 10a, my friend, early R100 Familia I believe, keep the great vids up, If you ever go to New Zealand, I'll buy you a beer.

My first vehicle was a 1974 Mazda Rotary Engined Pickup, and it was great -- much more powerful than other Japanese pickups of the day. I remember coming across a friend in his muscle car on a country road when I was driving it. He tried to lose me, but I stay right up with him, then passed him. He was amazed. I used to drive up long uphill grades at a hundred miles an hour, amazing people all around (yes, I know, unsafe -- sorry, I was a teenager). It didn't get very good mileage, though. Fun days.

Those are not the only 9 vehicles with Rotary engines....Mazda 787B, Mazda Parkway bus, Mazda Furai, Nissan experimented with them and GM too.

5:39 you can see the joy in that mans face

I hope the rotary comes back

I'm so glad to see the Mazda Cosmo Eunos on this list. From my opinion it's a hidden gem of the car world with its twin turbo 3 rotor engine

There was one Right Hand Drive GS Birotor built. In Australia by talented Citroen enthusiast Greg Feinberg. He also converted an SM to RHD... Very complex job.

It doesn't matter what car is, the sound of the Rotary Will transform it in a beast!!

lol, rotaries are such weird sounding engines. although that purple rx4 sounded pretty mean and 3 or 4 rotors sound amazing!

I found out about rotary Ladas like four years ago, since then i have been looking everywhere but i couldnt find any for sale, i guess its because it was KGB special and they didnt produce alot of them

You missed the Mazda Road Pacer from the mid 70's which was a HX Holden Premier that would be shipped to Japan minus engine and transmission and Mazda dropped the 13b and Jatco automatic transmission in and was for the luxury segment, and the Mazda Rotary bus.

Visio, the Holden motor company used a rotary in one of its cars also. The 1976 Mazda 'Roadpacer' was equipped with a 13b was also Holden HJ Premier

I think General Motors experimented with rotary engines for a bit but never adopted it in any production car. GM probably didn’t continue with the rotary engine experiments due to poor fuel economy or bad emissions which was a key issue at the time of development. However, i think the biggest reason was rotary engines don’t produce much torque, making it unsuitable to propel the big heavy American cars being sold at the time. It would have been interesting if they followed through with it.

I’ve been hearing a lot of stuff about the Liquid Piston engines, supposed to the the improved successor to the rotary engine concept. While it’s been advertised to have insane horsepower numbers for its size, the torque output might be underwhelming. In order for the liquid piston engine to produce torque, it might have to run at very high rpm’s. And torque is what you really want for a daily driver. However, for motorcycles or racing sports or even chainsaws, where peak horsepower is more important, this engine has enormous potential.

There was a prototype Corvette made in the late ‘60s that was powered by a rotary

Thanks for the video. I currently own a 2006 RX8GT and a 1991 Rx7 convertible. I love them both. I also had a 1993 Twin Turbo RX7. I miss that car and wish I had the engine rebuilt rather than selling it. If the 1991 or the 2006 ever needs a replacement engine I will gladly have that done.

Can't help but like the rotary engine concept, despite its failings.

My first car was a 79 rx7 automatic. Got it for 600 bucks. Sold it for 2000 too some old dude after driving it all throughout high school. Miss that lil Car! After i sold it, i did some research and found out a automatic rx7 from 79, was more rare than a manual cause autos were a luxury back in the day.

Didn't know about the Lada rotaries, but that Lada with the birotor sounded good, and 110hp makes fun in it because people expect you to be slow, and then they get a surprise. Personaly I would prefer the Repu or RX4 to own, those are nice looking and sounding cars.

the eunos cosmo should have had its own spot on this list for beeing the most powerful production rotary, for all the tech that it got and for having the first and only 3 rotor production engine on the planet. just a bad ass car thats gonna be a future collectors car.

brilliant videos mate, keep them coming

Really good video. I didn’t know about all those weird European rotary cars. Thank you!

You missed at least 1. The Mazda Roadpacer. Only 800 produced and made from an Holden Premiere body.

The RO80 had a semi automatic transmission. The clutch was engaged by pushing the gear lever. Also it was a very modern design, ahead of it's time for sure. Even from the outside it looks more like a 80s car than a 60s car.

I always wanted a first gen RX7 with a post '86 turbo engine. Where I live they just aren't. I love the sound.

Holy shit, a rotary LADA!

Have driven both a Mazda R 1, and a Mazda pick up, very powerful. The R 1 with manual trans would nearly pull a front wheel off the line. I would say one of the biggest early problems with Mazdas rotary engine was the deceleration valve, the spinning rotors were so heavy that on deceleration the engine wouldn't slow rotation quick enough, apex seals were finally corrected in the late 80's. Wish I could find a good older RX 4.

"The Brap Movie" starring Visio Racer!

Lada did not have permission from Wankel to produce rotary engines, so the Soviets purchased One Mazda car with a rotor and resorted to reverse engineering. Hence a very large number of breakdowns. In early batches, only 2 out of 5 engines were operational. VAZ "РПД 415" is a reference quality engine, it's a pity after that the experiments were closed.(

Some interesting Sachs rotary engines also in the Schweinfurt industrial museum.

A Lada with a rotary engine? Wow, that must have shocked a few bystanders.

Mazda alone made over 10 different cars with rotary engines, not even counting the different generations as separate models. Cosmo, R100, RX-2, RX-3,RX-4, RX-5, RX-7, RX-8, REPU, Roadpacer, Luce and Parkway (but the last one is a minibus).

They sound so good...

The Repu was a cool looking mini truck they definitely should have put a decent alternate motor in rather than killing the entire pickup off I could see that with a decent v6 as a really popular pickup

I love these euro-cars!

If only there was a way to solve the apex seal issue...plus the depth of the chamber at TDP, it could make another comeback.

Great Video, thanks for making!

Some say the Citroen Rotary was sold but the company tried to buy them all back.

Vaz

Awesome video!! Learned alot

In Bulgaria the nickname of ВаЗ(WaZ) 21018(21019) is Жигула (Zhigula) my grandpa haved it!! Very good car i miss her!!

U missed out the Holden Road Pacer

Wait, you lumped the RX2, RX3, RX4, RX7, and RX8 all in one limited entry? Missed the R130 Luce, The R100 ,The Roadpace, Multiple concept cars like the RX500, the RX01, since you included the C110. Also the 787B The first Javanese car to win LeMans. Shit I just more than doubled your list.

A Rotary Lada? Lmao that's EPIC

Do the V7 Engines next