Re: [Amc-list] Re; Curtis Wright Rotary

["Kelly Hardie" <ramblinguy.kelly@xxxxxxxxx>]

" you will get 172 hits one of which will make mention of the Suzuki  motor
cycle which I have seen,

And I have owned. Nice bike until I had trouble getting parts.

"fichtel & sachs [the clutch makers] made smallish wankels for assorted
industrial uses, sort of the briggs & stratton market.  i believe
that's what arctic cat used."

Malibu Grand Prix cars too, IIRC.

" others will refer to the NSU roadster that I have also seen.

"was this the ro80?  a very nice car, made i heard to show what the
company was worth to prospective buyers."

It worked, too. Audi bought the company and used most of the Ro80 design
(though not the motor) for the 5000/100

"vws had them until the '70s."

67 was the last year.

"he wanted something to establish his creds, and the 'vair was a better
target for him.  he showed what he was, another know-nothing
politician who found a parade [safety in this case] and ran to get in
front of it to show his 'leadership'..."

It didn't help that GM sent a PI to follow him around, giving him
credibility. That said, I owned a 60 Corvair, it WAS dangerous if you had no
experience with tail-heavy swing axle cars (common in Europe at the time,
but totally foreign to an American buyer).

"also iirc their first ones [rx3?]"

Cosmo (sports car) was first. Then R100, and RX2. The RX3 was a cheapened
RX2, leafs instead of coils, etc. I had an couple of RX2s, they got crappy
mileage like you say, but would run at 135 MPH all night long!

Kelly

On 9/21/07, Sandwich Maker <adh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> " From: "John Elle" <johnelle@xxxxxxxxx>
> "
> "
> "
> "
> " "Curtis Wright +Rotary +motor cycle
> "
> " you will get 172 hits one of which will make mention of the
> Suzuki  motor
> " cycle which I have seen, an Artic Cat Snowmobile which I have not seen
> and
>
> fichtel & sachs [the clutch makers] made smallish wankels for assorted
> industrial uses, sort of the briggs & stratton market.  i believe
> that's what arctic cat used.
>
> " others will refer to the NSU roadster that I have also seen.
>
> was this the ro80?  a very nice car, made i heard to show what the
> company was worth to prospective buyers.
>
> " They also at the
> " time made a little 4 door sedan with an in line air cooled 4 cylinder
> engine
> " that was faster than snot. It looked a bit to me as if it was a shrunk
> down
> " Corvair as I remember. It too looked a bit funny when you opened the
> trunk
> " and I believe it had a swing axle system on it too. So when cornered
> hard
> " the wheels assumed some really funny angles.
>
> the prinz, -very- small.  i recall seeing them in europe in the early
> '70s; were any ever imported?
>
> swing axles were very common on european cars.  vws had them until the
> '70s.
>
> " But Ralph Nador left that one alone, guess he made his fortune
> " panning Corvairs.
>
> he wanted something to establish his creds, and the 'vair was a better
> target for him.  he showed what he was, another know-nothing
> politician who found a parade [safety in this case] and ran to get in
> front of it to show his 'leadership'...
>
> " There is more to going around and around than just Wanks!
> "
> " It's too bad that the design was not followed through on and proven to
> be
> " workable in time for vehicles such as the Pacer to be successful and
> quirky
> " rather than just quirky but as my aged memory serves back in the day
> just
> " barely removed from Dinosaurs the rating or equivalent sizes of Rotary
> " engines as compared to reciprocating engines had not achieved a parity
> yet
> " that worked, leaving rotaries pretty much looked upon as gas hogs in
> there
> " field and certainly smog compliance which had not been achieved was the
> " death knell at the time. Mazda, only one of the manufacturers of Rotary
> " based vehicles pulled theirs off of the market until smog and fuel
> " consumption (in that order) was dealt with, others just disappeared
> " completely for ever as interest was lost.
>
> mazda always had rotaries in the home market iirc.  also iirc their
> first ones [rx3?] did have all the power but astoundingly poor mileage
> - low teens in a corolla-sized car.  the nsu ro80 wasn't out of line
> for power or mileage.
>
> mazda also gets credit for fighting the seal design war solo.
> ________________________________________________________________________
> Andrew Hay                                  the genius nature
> internet rambler                            is to see what all have seen
> adh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx                       and think what none thought
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>
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