Mazda celebrates 40 years of the Rotary Engine

May 30, 2007 Today marks the 40th anniversary of Mazda's first Wankel rotary engine powered vehicle. On May 30, 1967, Mazda commenced sales of the world's first dual-rotor RE car, the Cosmo Sport and has since produced almost two million rotary engined vehicles. The first wankel-engined auto was an NSU (now Audi) Wankel Spider in 1964, and though Mercedes, Rolls Royce, Norton, Suzuki, General Motors, Citroen, John Deere and Arctic Cat all experimented with some even producing small runs of wankel engined machinery, the only manufacturer to produce the engine designed by German engineer Felix Wankel in quantities remains as Mazda.

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