This Rotary-Engine Sedan Was a Revolution (and a Total Failure)

Fewer than 38,000 of NSU’s revolutionary Ro80 models were built in the 10 years between its debut late in 1967 and the day in 1977 that NSU’s corporate parent, Volkswagen-Audi, turned the factory that built them over to Porsche 924 production, thus laying the NSU brand – which dated back to the 19^th century but was merged into Audi in 1969 in desperation following the Ro80’s inauspicious launch – to rest. Though NSU’s dramatic move upscale proved a business disaster by most traditional measures – reliability, sale-ability and, above all, profitability – the Ro80 lit a path that many cars would follow and is still held in high esteem today.

It is, according to author and automotive historian, Englishman Martin Buckley, despite several shiver-inducing weaknesses, a wonderful machine, arguably one of the noblest of automotive history’s dismal failures. Accordingly, he supposes his volume “NSU Ro80: The Complete Story,” Marlborough, Wiltshire: The Crowood Press, Ltd., 2023, pp. 176, $43.99 (US) is the first English-language book-length appreciation of the machine. In it, he makes the contrarian yet convincing case for its having been “a masterpiece” with wit and style.

Consider – the first ever family sedan purpose built around a twin-rotor Wankel engine, with class-leading aerodynamics, fully-independent suspension and modernism all about it. Front-wheel-drive, four-wheel disc brakes, in-board at front. Superior outward visibility in all directions. An early, two-pedal manumatic gearbox. Known in Porsches as the Sportomatic, a microswitch found in its gearlever triggered its vacuum-operated clutch. Heady stuff for 1969.

Consider also – the Wankel engine, NSU’s baby. (Dr. Felix Wankel started consulting to NSU, at that time the world’s largest maker of motorcycles, in 1951.) Prone to burning its rotor tip seals to smithereens in 15,000 miles or less, causing power loss, plus untoward smoking, difficult starting and unusually excessive fuel consumption (economy never being a rotary strong suit.) Indeed, Buckley relates, some cars ended up with as many as nine replacement engines before their warranties expired. In fairness, he points out, no one ever did have complete success with the Wankel motor, though more than a few would try. But when it worked, it was notably smooth and powerful, making the hoary European Ford V4 that many a frustrated Ro80 owner inserted in the rotary engine’s place a cruel irony. A gruff and ornery lout, it was, alas, one of the only internal combustion devices capable of fitting in an engine bay designed for the diminutive rotary, whose genteel and effortless smooth was its greatest calling card.