Yup, those are all correct. I should double check how I had things remembered. Felix Wankel and NSU did the early work. GM licensed it and did development work. Their plan was to use it in the Vega actually. In '70 gasoline was still about $0.25/gallon and gas mileage was not important, but they thought the rotary would be the savior of the environment. That is how it was being sold to us. Who was to know that the savior of the environment (as far as car emissions) would be computer engine controls. The gasoline crisis and the sudden change of the public being interested in MPG more so than BHP just killed the gasoline hungry rotary in GM.

I obviously had things grey about the AMC Pacer part. The Pacer was designed around the GM rotary, but when GM killed it after the gasoline crisis AMC had a car without an engine. What a poor bastard child the Pacer is. But there are still Pacer enthusiasts.

 

saw one today on the road looks nice

 

Rotarys may rev smoother, but at least piston engines will rev longer than 50k miles.

edit: They dont rev so smooth with no apex seals.

 

Rotaries only rev to 50k for jackholes who abuse them. I had two factory motors that went over 150k miles, both turbo... a 93 and a 91.
You may have no apex seals, but you have a whole bunch of extra rotating pieces. Rotaries only have 3 moving pieces, the eccentric shaft and two rotors. With the RENESIS having no overlap, it should respond VERY well to boost. I just don't know how the exhaust ports are going to act with a turbo, being side ports instead of peripheals (sp?).

 

theres one at first team mazda at greenbrier

 

I ran my '83 GSL till it had 185,000ish miles. The oil seals started to show wear and it was burning oil. I can still crank it if I want/need to.

Most of the horror stories revolving around short engine life are the result of owners to choose to modify without knowing how it's going to affect everthing.

 

Here is a very fast reving 4 Rotor with a Scoot kit on it. Impressive if you as me.

http://sashishi.hp.infoseek.co.jp/4re_0629_001.wmv


And here is a new RX-8 with some sort of body kit on it. I think it looks like ass stock, but this kit makes it look badass, 3rd Gen RX-7 like. All it needs is a front mount to fill up that huge hole in the front bumper.

 

that's the R-Magic kit in Japan

 

...and a turbo or two to go with the front mount.

 

FWIW, the RX7 in my avatar has over 300,000 miles on it, including pleanty of those miles on race tracks and autocross courses. Original engine had an oil control seal fail at 270,000 miles. They are sensitive to overheating being abused, but generally they are reliable if you take care of them.
To see info about the engine and performance mods on the RX8 engine check this out, they are aiming for 450hp in this one.

Paul Yaws Renesis engine development