For more than a decade the name Wankel has popped up whenever car enthusiasts start talking about advanced-design automotive powerplants. The theory of the Wankel engine goes back to 1954 when Dr.

Ask most people what a rotary engine is, and they'll describe a Mazda RX-7 with a triangular rotor spinning inside a housing, combustion happening in sequence as the rotor moves rather than across a ...