Whet

Whet (pronounced hwet or wet)

(1) To sharpen (a knife, tool, etc) by grinding or friction.

(2) To make keen or eager; stimulate:

(3) To stimulate one’s curiosity (usually in the phrase “to whet the appetite”)

(4) The act of whetting or a person or device which whets.

(5) Something that makes more keen or intense; an appetizer or aperitif.

(6) A spell of work; a short period of time (US slang, south of the Mason-Dixon Line, such as the phrase “to talk a whet”).

(7) To preen (obsolete).

Pre 900: From the Middle English verb whetten & noun whete, from the Old English verb hwettan (to whet, sharpen (and figuratively "to incite or encourage”) and noun hwǣte, a derivative of hwæt (bold) and related to hvæt (sharp), from the Proto-West Germanic hwattjan, from the Proto-Germanic hwatjan & hwatjaną (to incite, sharpen), from the primitive Indo-European kehid (sharp).  It was cognate with Dutch wetten (“to whet, sharpen”), the German wetzen (“to whet, sharpen”), the Icelandic hvetja (“to whet, encourage, catalyze”) and the dialectal Danish hvæde (“to whet”).  The Proto Germanic hwatjan & hwatjaną which was from the primitive Indo-European root kwed- (to sharpen), source also of the Sanskrit codati (incites (literally "sharpens")), the Old English hwæt (brave, bold) and the Old Saxon hwat (sharp) was the source also of the Old Norse hvetja (to sharpen, encourage), the Middle Low German & Middle Dutch wetten, the Old High German wezzan, the German wetzen (to sharpen) and the Gothic ga-hvatjan (to sharpen, incite).  Whet is a noun and verb, whetted & whetting (used with object) are verbs, whetter a noun and whetted an adjective.  The noun plural is whets and the homophone wet (in accents with the wine-whine merger).

The Modern English words wet and whet are etymologically unrelated but for a number of reasons are sometimes, understandably, confused.  Nor is the whet/wet thing an isolated example and the reason for much confusion lies in the terminology familiar to historians, translators and etymologists: the source of most modern English being conveniently traced back to Ancient Greek and the surprisingly large number of forks of Latin, through the filter of Old and Middle English.  The Greek & Latin is obviously foreign and for most, words can be recognized only by their similarity to what is now familiar but Middle English is (at least substantially) readable to a modern English-speaking audience prepared to guess a little and pick up wherever possible from the context or sentence structure.  Old English (which once was the “Olde English” which better captures the idea) however really is a misnomer and is almost wholly unrecognizable and is better thought of as pre-English and probably only the most structurally oriented etymologists would regard it as a proto-form.  Indeed, many prefer the alternative “Anglo-Saxon” as a description because it was introduced to the British Isles by the Germanic peoples who settled in the mid-fifth century, a timing which meant it was in that language that were written what came to be regarded as the first works of Literature “in English”.

One suspects that were an anthropologist now to discover the old texts as a novel form, it’s unlikely they’d be labeled as any form of “English”, something which may have happened because of a desire (which long persisted in the study of “English” history) to make Englishness as ancient as possible, historians long seduced by their constructions of all that stretched back to the island’s links with the classical age.  Except when treated as aberrations, uncivilized barbarians and pockets of violent backwardness, much of the non-English contribution to the history of life on the British Isles tended until recently to be neglected or devalued by historians and the attitude to language reflects this but that Modern English contains both wet and whet, pronounced the same yet meaning different things hints at the tangle, an additional twist being that some “whets” and distinguished from others by being used “wet”.

In English use, this meshing of sound and overlap of meaning does produce the odd tendency to error.  For example, a Parthian shot (Parthian an Iranian language of the people of ancient and medieval Parthia) is a metaphor used to describe a barbed insult, delivered as the speaker departs, the construction based on a military tactic used by Parthian mounted cavalry.  While in real or feigned retreat on horseback, the archers would turn their bodies back in full gallop to shoot at the pursuing enemy, quite a trick which demanded fine equestrian skills given that the riders’ hands were occupied by his bows and arrows.  It was more admirable still because the Parthian military used neither stirrups nor spurs, riders relying solely on the pressure from their legs to guide and control their galloping beasts.  However, the literal “Parthian shot” was literally also something of a “parting shot” given the way it was delivered and among English speakers is often rendered as “parting shot”, a use so frequently encountered that many dictionaries now accept it as a legitimate alternative form as long as the correct meaning is conveyed: Whichever word is used, the metaphor refers not merely to an effectively made comment, the essence being that it is delivered at the point of departure.

Part in this sense was from the Old French departir, from the Late Latin departiō (to divide), the construct being dē- (away from) +‎ partiō (part, divide).  Interestingly, “part” (in the sense of “piece of something) existed in Old English and is an example that the relationship with the more recent Middle & Modern English is occasionally recognizable.  Part was from the Middle English part, from the Old English part (part) and the Old French part (part), both from the Latin partem, accusative of pars (piece, portion, share, side, party, faction, role, character, lot, fate, task, lesson, part, member), from the primitive Indo-European par- & per- (to sell, exchange).  It displaced the Middle English del & dele (part), from the Old English dǣl (part, distribution).

Lindsay Lohan wetting her whistle during a fishing trip with Hofit Golan (b 1985, Israeli media personality), July 2016.

Whet and wet are subject to the same linguistic clatter.  To “whet one’s appetite” and “wet one’s whistle” can both mean “to imbibe an aperitif” although there are differences of nuance, the former meaning “to sharpen the desire for more” while the latter references the usefulness of alcohol as a social lubricant.  The occasional mistake is thus understandable and those learning English must think such things surely unnecessary but, as a noun, things don’t improve.  The English whet is a word about sharpening things and a whetstone is a literally a piece of stone, most frequently in the shape of a rectangular cuboid (although there are specialized shapes optimized to sharpen different devices with more complex curves) against which the edges of a blade are worked at an acute angle until sharp.  That’s fine but whetstones are often used with a cutting fluid (water or an oil), both to enhance the sharpening and carry away swarf (the tiny fragments of metal lost from a blade).  A whetstone may thus be used wet or dry but fortunately, the term “wet whetstone” has always been avoided and the variations are instead styled water stones (also waterstones) or oil stones (also oilstones).

Japanese Natural Whetstone.

Whetstones may be cut wholly from natural stone or modern composites.  The natural product (an there are cults among the advocates of the various types), is formed usually of some form of quartz, and documented since antiquity are the locations of the quarries which produce the whetstones able to provide a blade with the sharpest edge although recent research seems to indicate there’s little difference in the results it’s possible to achieve but a huge gulf in the efficiency with which one does the job compared with another and it’s thought the ease of operation was as much a factor in historic preferences as the fineness of the edge.  The classical whetstones, being a natural product were subject also to much variation in appearance and the more pleasing or rare have always been prized, some now collector items, bought to be displayed rather than used for their historic purpose.

The synthetic composites are made usually with a type of ceramic such as silicon carbide (carborundum) or aluminum oxide (corundum), held together with a bonded abrasive.  Popular in industry and commerce because they offer a faster cutting action than natural stone, they have the advantage of being able to be fabricated as a double-block, coarse grit on one side, fine on the other, thus enabling the one reversible piece to be used instead of two.  Unlike a natural stone, the consistency of particle size, distribution and density can be almost perfectly replicated throughout and although artisans may still hanker for the look and feel of real stone, it’s admitted the modern synthetics are usually now superior; the ability to integrate nano-sized particles meaning the construction of composites is now almost infinitely variable.

Dalstrong’s summary of sharpening techniques when using their synthetic composite whetstones.

Wet & Dry

Wet (pronounced whet)

(1) Moistened, covered, or soaked with water or some other liquid.

(2) In a liquid form or state.

(3) Something that is or makes wet, as water or other liquid; moisture.

(4) Damp weather; rain.

(5) In historic (US prohibition era) use, a person in favor of allowing the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages; still used as a descriptor of political candidates or activists in “dry” counties who advocate the status be changed to “wet” but now substantially a retronym.

(6) To make (something) wet, as by moistening or soaking (sometimes followed by through or down).

(7) To urinate on or in (applied usually to pets or children).

Pre 900: From the Middle English wet wett & wette (past participle of weten (to wet)), (wet, moistened), from the Old English wǣtan (to wet, moisten, water), replacing the Middle English weet, from the Old English wǣt, from the Proto-Germanic wētijaną (to wet, make wet), from the primitive Indo-European wed- (water, wet), also the source of “water”.  It was cognate with the Scots weit, weet, wat & wete (to wet), the Saterland Frisian wäitje (to wet; drench) & wäit (wet), the Icelandic væta (to wet) & votur (wet), the North Frisian wiat, weet & wäit (wet), the Old Frisian wēt, the Old Slavonic vedro (bucket), the Swedish and Norwegian våt (wet), the Danish våd (wet), the Faroese vátur (“wet”) and the Old Norse vātr; akin to water.  Wet is a noun, verb & adjective, wetter, wettability & wetness are nouns, wetly an adverb, wetted & wetting are verbs, and wettish, wetter, wettest & wettable are adjectives.  The noun plural is wets and the homophone whet (in accents with the wine-whine merger).

Words in some way related to wet include damp, drench, misty, drizzle, mizzle, humid, dank, fog, mist, muggy, rain, slippery, snow, soak, sodden, soggy, stormy, dip, douse, drench, hose, irrigate & liquid.  For all related words, context and the history of use define the relationship (of extent, type etc).  For example, to drench or soak something implies saturate whereas moistening means only some degree of dampness whereas to soak something suggests an immersion of extended duration until saturated.  With reference to rain, which can always be referred to as wet weather, mizzle & drizzle are expressions of graduation which suggest a lighter fall.

The multi-media US personality Ye (the artist formerly known as Kanye West (b 1977)) with Australian architect & model Bianca Censori (b 1995) in "Wet" themed top, Huacai Intercontinental Hotel,Beijing, China, September 2024.

The word wet has proved convenient shorthand for many technical purposes including in calligraphy and fountain pens where it referred to depositing a large amount of ink from the nib or the feed.  To audio engineers, a “wet sound” recording is one to which the audio effects have been applied.  In aviation, it’s a reference to having used the afterburners or water injection for increased engine thrust (maximum wet thrust can be more than twice maximum dry thrust (afterburners consuming huge quantities of fuel)).  In mining a “wet extraction” is a method using fluids whereas a dry extraction relies on the employment of dry heat or fusion.  In soldering, to wet is to form an intermetallic bond between a solder and a metal substrate.  In bench-top science, to wet is to employ a liquid (typically water) as a method of chemical analysis.  A wetback (also called a wet-heater) was a form of heater which in addition to radiating heat to an external space was also attached to the building’s hot water supply, thus providing in whole or in part the energy used to maintain its temperature (wetback was applied also from 1924 as a derogatory description of undocumented Mexican immigrant to the US, a reference to their usually sodden state after crossing the Rio Grande.  There presumably have been bed-wetters (involuntary urination while sleeping) since there have been beds but etymologists can find no instance of the term bed-wetting prior to 1844 (it has also gained an idiomatic identity in politics (qv)).  In ecology, a wetland is an area where water covers the soil, or is present either at or near the surface of the soil all year or for varying periods of time during the year, including during the growing season.  The wet-nurse, though an ancient profession, was first so described in the 1610s.

As vulgar slang, as applied to women, it referred to the sexual arousal indicated by the vulva being moistened with vaginal secretions (which may or may not be related to the word “moist” being often rated as the most disliked in the English language).  The sexual slang associated with men is the “wet dream” which most etymologists insist dates only from 1851 although Middle English in the same sense had ludificacioun (an erotic dream), these nocturnal adventures mentioned by Henry VIII in letters as proof of his virility, called into doubt by his inability to be aroused by one of the wives he didn’t wish to keep.

Wet is widely applied in idiomatic use: To be “wet behind the ears” is to be inexperienced; a “wet blanket” (from 1871, from use of blankets drenched in water to smother fires (the phrase is attested in this literal sense from the 1660s)) is someone who spoils the fun of others by failing to join or disapproving of their activities; to “wet one's whistle” is to have one or more alcoholic drinks, an allusion to the idea intoxicants stimulate sociability; in politics a “bed wetter” is a politician who reacts nervously to every passing vicissitude, the label usually applied by those with safe seats to those holding marginal electorates; to be “all wet” is (1) to be mistaken or (2) a really bad idea, both used since the early 1920s (thought built on the earlier sense of “ineffectual”, perhaps ultimately from the circa 1700 slang meaning "drunken"; in computing there’s hardware and software and those working in AI (artificial intelligence) refer to the human brain as wetware; In crime and espionage, wet-work is a euphemistic reference to jobs involving assassination and known also as a wet affair, a wet job & wet stuff, all phrases alluding presumably to other people’s blood.  In historic UK slang, a wet was someone thought ineffectual, feeble or with no strength of character, a weak or sentimental person (although this use faded as the specific political construction (qv) which emerged in the 1980s prevailed.

Dry (pronounced drahy)

(1) Free from moisture or excess moisture; not moist; not wet.

(2) In climatic matters, having or characterized by little or no rain.

(3) Characterized by absence, deficiency, or failure of natural or ordinary moisture.

(4) Not under, in, or on water.

(5) Not now containing or yielding water or other liquid; depleted or empty of liquid.

(6) In dairying and other forms of animal-based milk production, a beast not yielding milk (also used by analogy for oil wells).

(7) The absence of lachrymosity, free from tears.

(8) Drained or evaporated away.

(9) Desiring drink; thirsty; causing thirst.

(10) A food (typically toast) served or eaten without butter, conserves (jam, jelly), honey etc.

(11) Of food, lacking enough moisture or juice to be satisfying or succulent.

(12) Of bread and bakery products, stale.

(13) Of or relating to non-liquid substances or commodities (usually as dry goods, dry measure; dry provisions etc).

(14) Of wines (though now also used of beer, cocktails and other beverages), not sweet.

(15) Characterized by or favoring prohibition of the manufacture and sale of alcoholic liquors for use in beverages (mostly prohibition-era US but still a term used in political debates in “dry” counties).

(16) As a general descriptor, anything plain; bald; unadorned; something expressed in a straight-faced, matter-of-fact way.

(17) Dull; uninteresting:

(18) Indifferent; cold; unemotional.

(19) An unproductive period.

(20) Of lumber, fully seasoned.

(21) Of masonry construction, built without fresh mortar or cement.

(22) Of a wall, ceiling, etc in an interior, finished without the use of fresh plaster.

(23) In ceramics unglazed (if deliberate) or insufficiently glazed (if in error).

(24) In art, hard and formal in outline, or lacking mellowness and warmth in color.

(25) To make something free from moisture (or with its moisture substantially reduced.

(26) Something tedious, barren, boring, tiresome, jejune.

(27) Of wit, shrewd and keen in an impersonal, sarcastic, or laconic way.

(28) In sheep farming, a ewe without a lamb after the mating season

(29) In electronics, an imperfectly soldered electrical joint (where the solder has not adhered to the metal), thus reducing conductance

(30) In food preservation, to preserve (meat, vegetables, fruit etc) by removing the moisture.

(31) In chemistry as anhydrous, free from or lacking water in any state, regardless of the presence of other liquids.

(32) In audio engineering, a sound recording free from applied audio effects (especially reverberations).

(33) In animal breeding, an impotent male beast (applied especially to bulls).

(34) In the rituals of certain Christian denominations, of a mass, service, or rite: involving neither consecration nor communion.

In acting (especially on stage, to forget one’s lines.

Pre 900: From the Middle English drye, dryge, drüȝe & drie (without moisture, comparatively free from water or fluid), from the Old English drӯge, from the Proto-Germanic draugiz (source also of the Middle Low German dröge, the Middle Dutch druge, the Dutch droog, the Old High German truckan & trucchon, the German trocken and the Old Norse draugr), from the Germanic root dreug- (dry), from the primitive Indo-European dherg (to strengthen; become hard), from dher (to hold, support).  Dry is a noun, verb and adjective, dryable, drier, driest, dryer (or dryest) are adjectives, dryly an adverb, dries, drying & dried are verbs and dryness is a noun.  The noun plural is drys or dries; the spelling drie is long obsolete.

The meaning "barren" dates from the mid fourteenth century.  As applied to “persons showing no emotion, use emerged circa 1200; of humor or jests (delivered without show of pleasantry, caustic, sarcastic), it’s of early fifteenth century origin (and implied in dryly).  The sense of "uninteresting, tedious" was from the 1620s.  Of wines, brandy etc which were "free from sweetness or fruity flavor", use dates from circa 1700.  Dry was first used of places prohibiting alcoholic drink in 1870 (although, ad-hoc, there had been “dry feasts” & “dry festivals” at which no alcohol was served since the late fifteenth century and the colloquial dry (prohibitionist) entered US political slang in 1888.  Prior to and during the prohibition era in the US, the “drys” were those who supported prohibition and in the isolated counties in the US where it’s still imposed, they remain a (local) political force.  Dry goods, first so named in the 1560s were those dispensed in dry, not liquid, measure.  Dry land (that not under the sea) as a concept (first in the law of real property) was from the early thirteenth century.  The dry-nurse (a back formation from wet-nurse) was “one who attends and feeds a child but does not suckle it", use dating from the 1590s.  The dry-run (rehearsal) dates from 1941 and was adopted by the military and just about everyone else dates from 1941.  Dry ice "solid carbon dioxide" became available in 1925.  Dry out in the drug addiction sense is from 1967.

The first process of dry-cleaning (to clean clothes or textiles without using water) appears to have been advertised first in 1817.  The long-known "fungal decay in timber" was in 1779 first described as dry rot, the figurative sense of "concealed or unsuspected inward degeneration" dating from 1821.  As a hair-drying device, the first use of blow-dry appears to be a surprisingly late 1971.  The process of preserving vegetables as freeze-dried was a wartime development in the US, first announced as a patented commercial process in 1946, the earlier sun-dried documented since the 1630s although the technique dates from early human culture.  The dry sense of humor (with apparent unintentional humor or sarcasm) was noted first in the early fifteenth century, dryly meaning "without moisture" in the 1560s and "without affection" by the 1620s.  The drywall (plasterboard, sheetrock; gypsum-based manufactured panel used in interior construction) was first sold in 1952, the earlier use (1778) of dry wall meaning (a wall built without mortar).  A drier (used since the early fourteenth century as a surname) as “one who dries and bleaches cloth," agent noun from the verb dry (that which dries or is used in drying), dated from the 1520s.  Dryer was used to describe a piece of machinery in 1848 although the first drying-machine appears to have entered service as early as 1819.

Wet & Dry

Wet and dry must be one of the most obvious and commonly cited dichotomies in English and there are a number of noted examples.

Perilli's Dry, Intermediate and Wet tyres for use in Formula One.

In motorsport, there are wet and dry tyres, the former (obviously) used when the track is wet and the latter (also called “slicks”) when the surface is dry.  There are also various flavors of “intermediate tread” tyres for conditions which are damp rather than wet.  The difference is that dry tyres have no tread (the grooves cut into the contact surface) pattern, the purpose of which is to provide passages into which the water is forced to be expelled at the sides.  In the early 1970s, there were competitions with rules which demanded the use of street tyres (ie those used on street cars as opposed to racing rubber) and some drivers discovered a unique property of BF Goodrich’s square-shouldered T/A Radial was that if the tread was (in advance) carefully worn down to a certain point, it would behave much like a slick and last long enough not to have to be replaced for the duration of most races (or until fuel-stop sessions in endurance events).

In the law of real property, there are wet and dry leases, typically issued in conjunction when handling riparian property.  The leases are often divided because it’s not uncommon for the one commercial operation to have part of a business on land and part on water (such as a marina or docking facility) and being very different, may have different operators.  It’s thus normal commercial practice for a head-lessor (perhaps a hotel operator) to enter into both a dry lease (for the hotel property on land) and the wet lease (for whatever happens on the water) and then sub-lease the wet lease to someone with the appropriate expertise.

Wet and dry sandpaper is the tip of the sanding iceberg.  Wet sanding, which is sanding with the addition of water to act as a lubricant, is less abrasive than dry sanding, and results in a smoother finish and whenever possible, it’s best to wet-sand when finishing a project.  Dry sanding removes more material, and smooths rough material more quickly and if the ultimate in smoothness isn’t required, is the choice of many.  So, wet sand for a super smooth finish but the two are of course frequently combined, dry sanding first to remove most of the unwanted material before wet sanding.

Lindsay Lohan in Cynthia Rowley wetsuit.

In diving, wetsuits and drysuits use different engineering but operate on a similar principle.  Wetsuits use a layer of water (heated by the wearer's body) to provide insulation while a drysuit uses a layer of air and is completely water-proof, stopping water from coming into contact with the skin.  Wetsuits are made from rubber neoprene and are designed so the diver’s body heat is retained but, unlike drysuits, are not waterproof.  For that reason, a loose fitting wetsuit is suitable only for warm-water conditions; skin-tight wetsuits are ideal for cold water surf because they are warm and permit more movement than drysuits.  Where the drysuit excels is in predominately out-of-water conditions such as kayaking, paddle-boarding or water-based photography.  For extreme winter conditions a drysuit is really the only choice because for warmth, additional layers can be added beneath the suit, something not possible with a wetsuit.

In northern Australia, the concepts of spring, summer, autumn (fall) & winter really don’t make climatic sense the way defined seasons do in more temperate regions.  Instead, there’s just the wet and the dry.  The dry is long and hot, rain is rare and towards the end of the dry there is the “build-up” which unfolds over a month or more as the air becomes warmer and heavier, the clouds in the evenings begin to darken and the humidity becomes increasingly oppressive.  Locals call it the period of mango madness because as the fruit ripens, emotional instability is apparent in some, mood swings induced by the inexorable rise in heat and humidity.  The wet usually begins in late November or early December and is marked by heavy monsoonal downpours, spectacular lightning, increased cyclone activity and a rise in crimes of violence.

Makita 20 litre Wet Dry Vacuum Cleaner 1000W.

Wet and dry vacuum cleaners are devices regarded with some awe because we’re all schooled to take care to ensure water is kept way from electrical appliances yet the manufacturers of these things encourage us to suck water into them.  They’re obviously of great utility in handling wet floors or sodden carpets but can be used anywhere where something wet is the problem and suction the answer such as cleaning hot tubs or removing surface condensation.

During the 1980s, in the corrosive, gut-wrenching world of Tory politics, the factions became not quite formalized but certainly well-understood as the “wets and drys”.  The origin lay in the use of the term “wet” which the right-wing fanatics (of which there were a few in the Thatcher government) applied to their less hard-line colleagues (defined as those not in favor of repealing the twentieth century).  Wet was an old term of derision in historic UK slang, someone thought ineffectual, feeble or with no strength of character, a weak or sentimental person.  In an effort to retaliate, the wets labelled the fanatics “the drys” but this backfired because the drys loved the idea and were soon describing themselves thus' presumable because while "a bit wet" had long been an insult, "dry humor" had always been thought clever and sophisticated. 

Wankel

Wankel (pronounced wahng-kuh)

A type of rotary internal combustion engine, first produced 1961, named after its inventor, German engineer, Felix (aka Fritz) Wankel (1902-1988).

The Wankel engine is a type of internal combustion rotary engine, one of many based on the a rotary principle, the Wankel using an eccentric drive to convert pressure into rotating motion.  The design was conceived by German engineer Felix Wankel, an eccentric, though clearly gifted, self-taught engineer who was an early convert to National-Socialism (linked with a right-wing political movement in 1921) who joined the NSDAP (the National Socialist German Workers Party which would become the Nazi Party) the following year.  It’s important not to make too much of that, the party in its early days an aggregation of factions which were, literally more nationalist and socialist in character than anything like the racist and ultimately genocidal thing into which the Nazis evolved under Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945). 

But an enthusiastic Nazi Wankel certainly was although that didn’t protect him from falling victim to the internecine squabbles which would beset the party to the very end, expelled from the party in 1932 after feuding with his Gauleiter (the regional party boss) who, after Hitler came to power in 1933, succeeded in having Wankel jailed although, under less unpleasant conditions that those tossed into concentration camps.  Indeed, while in prison, he was able to continue working on his rotary engine, a patent for which had been granted to him in 1929.

Felix Wankel admires a shaft.

Wankel though had friends in the party, one of whom approached the Führer, stressing the importance of the amateur engineer’s contribution to German industry and that proved enough to secure his release.  He worked on a variety of projects during the 1930s, some on contract for BMW but mostly for the military including on seals, something which years later would absorb much of his energy at that of many others.  Despite his efforts for the Reich, his attempts to rejoin the party were rebuffed but his friends did gain him the honorary rank of Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant Colonel) in the Schutzstaffel (The SS (Security Squad or Section), originally Hitler's personal security detail which evolved into a vast party security apparatus and later a parallel army almost a million strong) although his career in the "black mist" wasn't long, Wankel expelled within two years.  The records were lost in the confusion of war so the reasons aren’t known but while it’s tempting to wonder just how ghastly one has to be to be thought too evil for the SS, given the lack of any subsequent punitive action against him, it’s likely he just lost out in another of the squabbles that were so common in the Nazi system, the structures of which actually encouraged internal conflict.

It didn’t stop the Nazi state funding his research including what he was then calling his “rotary motion engine” although progress was slow and slow for a reason, the fundamental flaw in the design not resolved until the 1950s when another engineer, less visionary but more practical, rectified the fault.  Wankel's rotating cul-de-sac was far from unique in wartime Germany, the interest of the regime in technical innovation and the gullibility of party officials drew cranks, con-men and inventors inspired and otherwise.  Among the projects which received interest and sometimes cash from the state was a “non-combustible” material called durofol (which would catch fire), a scheme to create liquid fuel from the roots of fir trees (which consumed three times as much energy as it produced), the production of alcohol from bakery fumes (apparently that one was quickly rejected), a “death ray” championed by notorious drunkard Reichsleiter Robert Ley (1890–1945; head of the German Labour Front 1933-1945), which turned out to be impossible to build or even test, a plan to turn the atmosphere into a conductive element using ionization (which at least has a theoretical basis even if impossible) and the mysterious “Gerloff miracle pistol”, the records for which were lost.  Compared to some of these, Wankel’s engine (which didn’t work) probably appeared quite promising.

Gleitkufenboot (skid boat).

Wankel had other projects too, one of which he would, like his engine, later revisit.  This was the Zischboot (Hiss boat), intended as a small, high-speed torpedo-boat for the navy, a kind of hydrofoil that used clusters of skis.  In the 1970s, Wankel would display a prototype (now called the Gleitkufenboot (skid boat)), powered by an impressively powerful Mercedes-Benz four rotor Wankel engine.  Wankel claimed not only was it impossible to capsize the boat but that it was unsinkable, a notable feature said to be borrowed from certain sea creatures, air-intake "nostrils" with flaps controlled by sensors to ensure no water could penetrate when driving through waves.

Wankel survived the war and suffered not greatly in the denazification process the allied occupation authorities ran to weed out the worst of the worst, his work as an engineer suggesting someone unpolitical and being expelled both from the party and the SS probably helpful in mitigation.  In that he was lucky; had the investigators dug deeper they would have discovered Nazi-era Wankel held some fairly unsavory views and had expressed them more than once.  In the new Germany, those opinions he either no longer held or kept to himself, in 1951 obtaining a position with NSU as a technical consultant.  NSU were interested in his rotary motion engine.      

1957 NSU Prinz (the front of the car is to the left).

NSU (the name an abbreviation of "Neckarsulm", the city in which the factory was located) began in 1873 as a knitting machine manufacturer which in 1886 branched out into the production of bicycles and so successful did this prove that by 1892, the knitting machines were abandoned, the factory converted wholly to the building of bicycles.  The first NSU motorcycles appeared in 1901 and were both popular and profitable, encouraging the company in 1905 to enter the potentially even more lucrative market for cars.  Between then and the end of World War II (1939-1945), there were ups and downs but NSU survived and, in December 1946, resumed building bicycles and motorcycles, commercial vehicle production starting in 1949.  These efforts proved successful and the company, by now a significant beneficiary of Wirtschaftswunder (the post-war German "economic miracle"), was by the mid-1950s the world’s largest maker of motorcycles and profitable enough for car production to resume in 1957.  Wholly unrelated to knitting machines, motor-cycles & cars, NSU (non-specific urethritis) was the old term for NGU (non-gonococcal urethritis), an inflammation of the urethra not caused by gonorrheal infection.  In post-war Germany, it's used also as the initialism of Nationalsozialistischer Untergrund (National Socialist Underground), a general term for neo-Nazism and other fascist organizantions & movements.     

1958 NSU Prinz Sport.

The car was modest enough, tiny and powered by a 600 cm³ (37 cubic inch) air-cooled twin cylinder powerplant which was essentially two motorcycle engines joined by a common crankcase.  As was fashionable in small European cars of the era, the engine was at the rear, something which would prove a cul-de-sac, most manufacturers outside the Warsaw Pact soon convinced to abandon the idea.  That disenchantment actually extended to Porsche which had the 911’s replacement in production by the mid-1970s, only to find out just about every soul left on the planet who still thought rear-engined cars a fine idea were Porsche 911 buyers who insisted nothing else would do.  The customer being always right, the 911 survives to this day and that a rear-engined machine can be as well-behaved as 911s now are will be no surprise to those familiar with modern electronics but Porsche, remarkably, had engineered a high degree of predictability into its behavior even before computers were robust and fast enough to do the job.  In 1958, NSU didn’t face the same issues of high-speed handling, the new Prinz (Prince) having but 20 bhp (15 kW).  It was wholly utilitarian but suited to the times and sold well, national success (and growing incomes) meaning within a year, the idea of a more profitable up-market version became attractive.  Although little more than an Italian-styled body atop the existing underpinnings and never a huge seller, the Prinz Sport remained in production for a decade and its lightweight and slippery shape made possible an impressive top speed of 75 mph (120 km/h).  By 1968 over twenty-thousand had been built and it was the Prinz Sport NSU used as the basis for the world’s first Wankel-engined car.

The rotary engine, light, powerful and with few moving parts had interested NSU which saw the potential for motorcycles but they also quickly identified the fundamental flaw in the design which Wankel had never resolved: both rotor and rotor housing rotated, each on different axes, creating an assembly almost impossible to keep in balance as well as necessitating an additional housing.  While Wankel proceeded along his path, publicized by NSU in 1954, another NSU engineer, Hanns Dieter Paschke (1920-1999), unbeknown to Wankel, was developing his own version (KKM 57), displayed in 1957 as the DKM 54 at the NSU Research & Development Department in Versuchsabteilung.  Before long, the concept would be refined in that the single housing became static and only the rotor rotated, Wankel’s original vision intriguing but perhaps, even now, impossible to build as a practical working device and NSU devoted some years to making their version exactly that.  In 1964, it was released to the public.

1967 NSU Spider.

In 1964, the Western world was not so laden with rules and restrictions (for good and bad) and it was possible to sell for use on the public highways what were essentially prototypes in development and that the NSU Spider certainly was.  It was also a seen by NSU as an advertisement on wheels, a showcase not only for their upcoming models but also to encourage other manufacturers to buy licenses to produce their own Wankels, an option that would be exercised by many, including Alfa Romeo, Curtiss-Wright, General Motors, Daimler-Benz, Rolls-Royce and Mazda.  For whatever reason, BMW, Felix Wankel's Nazi-era employer, declined.  Citroën, an outfit with a reputation for the quirky, were enthusiastic enough to set up with NSU a Swiss co-venture to pursue the technology.  More than most, the French would come to rue the day they ever heard Wankel’s name.

A NSW spider, the Sydney funnel-web.

The NSU Spider should not be confused with NSW’s spiders of which there are quite a few.  Of the order Araneae, spiders are air-breathing arthropods (the usual reference to them being arachnids is a bit vague) and Australia is home to many, the most venomous of which is the Sydney funnel-web (Atrax robustus), found in New South Wales (NSW) in forests as well as populated urban areas.  They prefer to burrow in humid sheltered places but it’s not uncommon for them to wander into suburban backyards and sometimes they have to be rescued from swimming pools.  Human encounters are however relatively rare but they’re noted for their aggression if a threat is perceived so caution is recommended, their highly toxic venom produced in large amounts and the remarkably large fangs (larger than a brown snake, another of Australia’s many dangerous species) can be deployed with sufficient force to pierce human finger & toenails.  Although measuring only 15-35 mm (.6-1.4 inch), their venom contains a compound which attacks the human nervous system & internal organs, a strike from a male able to kill an adult although since anti-venoms became available in 1981, no fatalities have been recorded.  The Sydney funnel-web is the deadliest spider in Australia.

Skoda (rear) engine bays, the conventional (piston) engine (left) vs the single-rotor Wankel (right).

Although the project never progressed beyond the prototype stage, the Czech manufacturer Skoda was apparently the first to have running vehicles with a rotary engine installed (a complete engine said to have been running as early as 1961) but in 1964, the NSU Spider was the first to go on sale.  It used a single-rotor, water-cooled engine and was easily distinguishable from the Prinz Sport because it was a soft top cabriolet, apart from which it was substantially the same car with only detail differences in styling and specification except it was offered only in red or white.  One other change was definitely apparent however, power had jumped to a heady 50 bhp (37 kW) at a surprisingly low 5,500 rpm, enough to propel the Spider to close to 100 mph (160 km/h) for anyone on the autobahn prepared to push the little machine to the limit.  Never expected to be a big seller, fewer than 2500 were built between 1964-1967, its purpose more to whet the public appetite for what NSU intended to be their entry into the burgeoning middle-class mass market.  Additionally, though not at the time discussed, the Spider’s engine, while at a stage of development beyond being a prototype, was not ready for release to a public using it in a wide variety of ways in different climates in different countries.  The Spider’s customers unwittingly were also NSU’s development test team, something which later in the century would become a handy business model for many software companies.

Given the specifications of the Wankel NSU would produce in the future, it may that the Spider’s single rotor powerplant wasn’t an ideal a test bed for the customers to debug but problems in design and the choice of materials were identified and, where possible, within the limits of metallurgy and the realities of economics the lessons learned were applied.  Nor was the Spider’s specification static, the experiences of the customers applied to improve not only longevity but also power, the later cars enjoying a slight increase in capacity, output now 54 bhp (40 kW) at 6,000 rpm, 4 bhp perhaps not impressing all but it was close to 10% more and although the factory didn’t claim any increase in attainable speed, the most recent Spider owners presumably got there a little more quickly.

1967 NSU Ro 80 (1967-1977).

If the spider had generated interest, the NSU Ro 80, released in 1967, was a sensation.  Even without the novelty of the rotary engine (without which all concede it would doubtless have been a success), it would have made quite an impact.  The body, which does not look out of place even in the twenty-first century, was a modernist masterpiece, trendsetting in a way the 1955 Citroën DS (often called the déesse (literally "goddess")) was just too extreme to be yet more aerodynamically efficient, the Ro 80’s drag coefficient (CD) of .354 just a fraction better than the French car’s .359.  Beneath the skin, the futurist vision continued, the efficient front-wheel-drive packaging in the vanguard of adoption by larger vehicles, four wheel disk brakes (inboard at the front), a semi-automatic transmission, power-assisted rack and pinion steering and all independent suspension.  Reviews upon release were sometimes ecstatic, the only criticism from some who found the interior austere but it was era in which only the most expensive German cars were fitted-out with much beyond the starkly functional; NSU’s designers looked to Le Corbusier and Gropius, not the Jaguar Mark X.

The Ro 80 won the 1968 European Car of the Year award and buyers seemed as impressed as the many journalists who voted NSU.  Out on the autobahns, the twin-rotor engine was a smooth, quiet and a delight to use, the slippery shape meaning the 113 bhp (85 KW) it generated from a comparatively small 995 cm³ (61 cubic inch) displacement allowed it to match the speed of cars with even three times the capacity, the turbine-like feel encouraging a disregard for the 6500 rpm redline which it seemed to exceed without complaint.  The honeymoon didn’t last.  Critics began to notice it was good to match larger six cylinder cars in performance but it came at the cost of a thirst many V8 owners didn’t suffer.  Nor was the Ro 80, so at home cruising at 100 mph (160 km/h) on the autobahn, quite as happy in the stop-start urban conditions where the modern German motorist was now spending much time, some finding the previously admired semi-automatic transmission clumsy to use, the experience jerky.  The Wankel engine didn't deliver much much low-speed torque and drivers had to adjust their technique; those used to the more effortless performance of the 2-3 litre engines most often found in this class of car found negotiating their commute through a succession of red traffic-lights harder work than before.    

Nothing is perfect and such was the appreciation of the Ro 80’s virtues these drawbacks may have been overlooked or at least endured but what couldn’t be forgiven was that the Wankel engines were frequently, numerously, rapidly and expensively failing and, being within the warranty period, it was NSU which bore the cost to repair or replace.  That was bad enough but the car was quickly gaining a reputation for unreliability and sales were falling, exacerbating the financial strain NSU was suffering from all the warranty claims.  Nor was the once profitable motorcycle business there to subsidise the four-wheel venture, production having ended in 1968 to allow the company to focus on the Ro 80.  The problems hadn’t been wholly unexpected, just underestimated; NSU’s engineers had warned the board the engine wasn’t yet ready for production and needed at least months more durability testing and development but, perhaps remembering the relatively smooth introduction of the Spider, and certainly seeking cash-flow, approval was given for a debut in 1967.

It wasn’t difficult to work out where the problems lay which was mostly in the high wear of the apex seals and consequent damage to the rotor housing.  Essentially, the seal failure destroyed the engine, necessitating a replacement and it was not uncommon for replacement engines also to fail and require replacement, again under warranty.  For a small company with limited resources, it was unsustainable and NSU was soon unviable, the takeover by Volkswagen in 1969 said to be a "merger with Audi" only an attempt to glue a veneer of corporate respectability on what was the takeover of a distressed competitor.  It was unfortunate.  In just about every way except the flawed engine, the Ro 80 was years ahead of its time and deserved to succeed.  Had it been powered by a 2.8 litre flat-eight and configured with all-wheel drive (AWD) it would have been worthy competition for Mercedes-Benz and Jaguar (in this class BMW & Audi not yet a thing) and more advanced than either. 

1967 Mazda Cosmo.

The issue was the engine at that stage of its development given the metallurgy of the time rather than NSU because Mazda, which had in 1961 purchased a licence to produce the Wankel, were suffering the same problems in the Cosmo sports car, introduced also in 1967.  The Cosmo however, was a low-volume model and Mazda had other, profitable ranges on sale and so could absorb the cost of fixing failed Cosmos.  Mazda did seem to learn from the NSU experience however.  When they put the Wankel into volume production, the vehicles initially were offered either as a rotary or with a conventional piston engine, an approach which seemed promising but such was the fragility of the Wankel, even that had to be abandoned.  Mazda, after putting Wankels even into small trucks and busses, realised that for consumer vehicles, it was a niche product and restricted it to specialist sports cars.  The problems didn’t go away, but, for a while, they became manageable.

Mazda RX-7 (the Porsche 924-928 inspired second generation (1985-1992) model) in Lindsay Lohan's music video clip First (2005).

The Cosmo's spiritual replacement was the RX7, a two door coupé (there was a short run of roadsters in the second generation) built over three generations between 1978-2002.  With over 800,000 produced, it's probably still the machine most identify with the Wankel engine and was the car which came closest to gaining the mainstream acceptance which had eluded earlier models such as the RX-2 (Capella), RX-3 (Savanna) & RX-4 (Luce), probably because reliability had significantly improved and those buying relatively expensive sports cars were more tolerant of the higher fuel bill and in fairness, much of the competition offering similar performance returned fuel consumption which was little different.  It was replaced by the RX-8 which proved (thus far), the swansong for the Mazda rotary on the streets.     

1972 NSU Prinz 1200 TT.

Remarkably, Audi-NSU, although axing the outdated rear-engined Prinz range, maintained the troublesome Ro 80 in production and despite its thirst it survived even the first oil crisis which killed off so many others.  Although most of the old NSU manufacturing capacity had long been given over to the Audi production line, it wasn’t until 1977 the last Ro 80 was built, the decade’s total production of 37,000-odd a disappointment for a car expected to ship more than that every year.

Despite NSU’s takeover in 1969 in the wake of the problem, even in the early 1970s, many major manufacturers were still convinced the Wankel's many advantages would render the piston engine obsolete and embarked on large, and expensive, development programs.  In this they were encouraged by the legendary optimism and confidence of engineers who so often think any engineering problem can be solved with enough time and money.  However the problems, seal wear, emissions and high fuel consumption proved insoluble and the projects which hadn’t been abandoned didn’t survive the first oil crisis.  Apart from the odd small-volume independent, only Mazda persisted. 

Notable Wankel Moments

1974 Mazda Rotary Parkway 26 Minibus (1974-1976).

The Mazda Cosmo was shown only weeks after the NSU Spider. Twice the capacity of the NSU, it was much more ambitious and though also troubled, its low volume meant the rectification was manageable.  Only Mazda has produced Wankel engines in large quantities and they've offered the power-plant in sports cars, racing cars, sedans, coupés, station wagons, pick-up trucks & buses, the last two perhaps a curious place to put an engine not noted for its prodigious torque.  Others, with varying degrees of success, have put them in automobiles, motorcycles, racing cars, aircraft, go-karts, jet skis, snowmobiles, chain saws, and auxiliary power units.

1976 Mazda RX-5.

Even Mazda, which has at least partially solved most of the problems, currently don't have a Wankel in production; the last, used in the RX-8, unable to meet the latest EU pollution standards.  Despite this, Mazda claim to be committed to the Wankel and the factory say development is continuing, in 2016 showing the RX-Vision, hinting it could be on sale as early as 2020.  The COVID-19 pandemic put that at least on hold and concerns about CO₂ emissions may mean the Wankel's historic automotive moment, which lingered for so long, may finally have passed so whether Mazda really solved the problem of toxicity may never be known. 

1975 HJ Mazda Roadpacer (HJ & HX, 1975-1977).

Most Holden fans, as one-eyed as any, don’t have fond memories of the HJ (1974-1976) Premier.  Usually, all they’ll say is its face-lifted replacement, the HX (1976-1977), was worse.  With its chassis not including the "radial tuned suspension" (RTS) which lent the successor HZ (1977-1980) such fine handling and with engines strangled by the crude plumbing used in the era to reduce emissions, driving the HJ or HX really wasn’t a rewarding experience (although the V8 versions retained some charm) so there might have been hope Mazda’s curious decision to use the HJ (and later the HX) Premier as their top-of-the range executive car, complete with a smooth two-rotor Wankel, might have transformed the thing.  That it did but the peaky, high-revving rotary was wholly unsuited to a relatively large, heavy car.  Despite producing less power and torque than even the anaemic 202 cubic inch (3.3 litre) Holden straight-six it replaced, so hard did it have to work to shift the weight that fuel consumption was worse even than when Holden fitted their hardly economical 308 cubic inch (5.0 litre) V8 for the home market.  Available only in Japan and sold officially between 1975-1977, fewer than eight-hundred were built, the company able to off-load the last of the HXs only in early 1980.  The only thing to which Mazda attached its name not mentioned in their corporate history, it's the skeleton in the Mazda closet but does have one place in history, the footnote of being the only car built by General Motors (GM) ever sold with a Wankel engine.

Mercedes-Benz C-111 (1968-1970), the three-rotor (upper) and four-rotor (lower) Wankel versions.

Although the C-111 would have a second career in the late 1970s in a series of 5-cylinder diesel and V8 petrol engined cars used to set long-distance speed & endurance records, it's best remembered in its original incarnation as the lurid-colored ("safety-orange" according to the factory) three and four-rotor Wankel-engined gullwing coupés, sixteen of which were built.  The original was a pure test-bed and looked like a failed high-school project but the second and third versions were both finished to production-car standards with typically high-quality German workmanship.  Although from the school of functional brutalism rather than the lovely things they might have been had styling been out-sourced to the Italians, the gullwings attracted much attention and soon cheques were enclosed in letters mailed to Stuttgart asking for one.  The cheques were returned; apparently there had never been plans for production even had the Wankel venture proved a success.  The C-111 was fast, the four-rotor version said to reach over 300 km/h (190 mph), faster than any production vehicle then available.

Herr Wankel’s personal R107 (350 SL) fitted with 4 Mercedes-Benz Rotor Wankel (KE-413).

Less conspicuously than the C-111s in lurid safety orange were the roadsters which Mercedes-Benz used as Wankel test-beds.  The first used the W113 (1963-1971) platform, remembered now as the first “pagoda” and while it would never have been suitable as a production car, it apparently wasn’t as unbalanced as the sole W113 fitted with the 6.3 litre (386 cubic inch) M-100 V8 (used in the big 600 Grossers and the 300 SEL 6.3) which test drivers described as "exciting but unstable".  Still, the Wankel W113 proved quite a bit faster than the 280 SL and as a proof of concept was judged a success.  The W113 though had never been intended to use anything but a straight-six whereas the successor W107 (1971-1989) was designed from the start with an engine bay and transmission tunnel which would accommodate either a V8 or the Wankel with its high central power take-off.  The W113 had used a three rotor unit (M 50 F) but R107 had four (KE-413) and delivered considerably more power than the 3.5 litre (215 cubic inch) & 4.5 litre (275) V8s used in the production models and not until the adoption of 5.0 (305) & 5.5 (339) V8s in the 1980s would the performance be matched.

Four rotor Wankel engine (KE-413, left) and the unit installed in Herr Wankel’s 350 SL.

Yet however successful the proof of concept may have been, the early skepticism mentioned by the combustion chamber specialists was vindicated because as they pointed out the chamber was "...the central feature of the combustion engine.  The priority is to produce an optimum design so as to achieve the most favorable thermodynamic efficiency."  By that they meant "...as complete combustion of the fuel as possible” and not only was this not happening with the Wankel, their point was that fundamental aspects of the design meant it could not happen, something which manifested in high fuel consumption and difficulties in meeting the exhaust emission standards due to all the non-combusted hydrocarbons.  Modest in their demands in the early 1970s, the US regulators had already provided a decade-long roadmap which would make the rules so onerous there was then no realistic prospect the Wankel could ever be made to comply.  The engineers were confident they could produce a smooth, reliable and powerful Wankel, albeit a thirsty one, but knew they could never make it clean.  All of the factory’s W113 & R107 test-beds were scrapped when the project was cancelled but Felix Wankel’s personal R107 SL survives.  He obtained a four rotor unit from Mercedes-Benz, had it installed by technicians at his institute and in 1979, the trade journal Auto Motor und Sport published their road-test of the unique machine, reporting a 0-200 km/h (120 mph) time of 25.9 seconds and a top speed of 242 km/h (150 mph).

Citroën GS (GX) Birotor (1973-1975) on the stand at the Frankfurt Motor Show, August 1973.

Sometimes one gets lucky, sometimes not.  In the US, Ford introduced the new, small and economical Mustang II a few weeks before the first oil shock in 1973 and had a big hit (something sometimes forgotten by those who so decry the Mustang II and condemn it a failure).  In Australia, about the same time, Leyland announced the big new P76, a selling point its V8 engine.  The P76 wasn’t without faults and may anyway have failed but the timing didn’t help and it didn’t last long, shortly taking with it whatever remained of Leyland Australia.  In France, in October 1973, the very month in which events in the Middle East triggered the first oil shock, Citroën's thirsty GS Birotor went on sale.  Shown at the Frankfurt Motor Show in August, the reception had been generally positive, most complaints being about the aesthetic; all the Birotors appeared to be painted in shades of brown, a color which seemed to stalk the 1970s.

Mechanically though, even before going on sale, some with high hopes for the Wankel were disappointed, the Birotor not realising the promise of smaller, lighter packages.  Despite the compact size, the engine would fit in the GS’s engine bay only transversely so Citroën’s signature inboard disk brakes couldn't be used for the first time since the pre-war Traction Avant. That necessitated a different subframe, a wider track, and bigger wheel arches than the standard GS.  Combined with other detail differences, it bulked the rotary-powered GS up to 690 lb (290 kg) more than the standard GS, compelling the addition of anti-roll bars to reduce the increased propensity towards body roll.  Another mechanical aspect not much discussed at the time was the Wankel's high exhaust emissions.  In one of many possible illustrations of how the politics of the matter has changed, it was a time when the exhaust pollution rules imposed by the United States appalled Europeans because of the way they made the detoxed cars behave.  Not wishing to sacrifice power, in Europe, drivers for years enjoyed un-emasculated engines and accepted the higher emission of CO₂ and other pollutants as part of life.  Widespread interest in climate change, then the concern of a handful of specialists looking at what was called the "greenhouse effect", was a generation away.  Despite cubic money being spent, it was one aspect of the Wankel that was never fixed and was the final nail in the coffin of Mazda's RX8.    

Known also as the GZ, the Birotor replaced the noisy but robust and economical air-cooled flat four used in the GS on which it was based and cost about 70% more.  The Wankel engine was the first fruit of the NSU-Citroën joint venture and, being of small capacity, attracted lower taxes than a similar piston-engined car.  However, it suffered the problems endemic to the Wankel: ruinously high fuel consumption and chronic unreliability caused by wear of the rotor seals and the damage this caused to the housing walls.  Citroën had looked at the Ro 80's issues and had included an additional oil pump to improve seal lubrication but the problems persisted.  Internal documents later revealed that just as at NSU half a decade earlier, there were those within Citroën who understood, long before the release, that a disaster was impending but a combination of corporate inertia, an unwillingness to admit failure and a number of contractual obligations meant the Birotor went on sale.  Within months the extent of the problem was realized.  Although only a few hundred had found buyers, broken ones were being towed to dealers around the country and owners were irate.  Early in 1975, Citroën dropped the model, offering to buy back all the 847 made, running or not, customers given a full-refund.  Most agreed and Citroen scrapped every one they could, hoping everyone would forget they ever existed.  A remarkable third of owners declined the offer and many survived in private hands; among Citroën aficionados they’re a collector’s item though probably more displayed as a curiosity than driven.

A twelve-rotor motor intended for marine applications.

The low weight, compact profile, small number of moving parts and very high specific output of the Wankel has always attracted engineers.  The Wankel turned out to be well suited to applications where it could be maintained at a constant speed for long periods, the problem of unburnt fuel in the exhaust substantially resolved, improving emissions and fuel consumption.  Wankels lose efficiency dramatically when they are revved up and down as they are in the normal use of a passenger car but in boats and aircraft where engine speed tends to be constant for long periods, they can work well.  In airframes especially, where weight is so critical, the inherent advantage of the vastly superior power to weight ratio can be compelling.

1989 Norton 588.

One of the many companies to purchase a licence from NSU was English motorcycle manufacturer BSA (British Small Arms) and this became the property of Norton when it absorbed BSA in 1973.  Norton’s troubled history in the 1970s had little to do with the Wankel but after bankruptcy, it was revived on more than one occasion and during one of those escapades, it made almost a thousand Wankel motorcycles.  Other manufacturers dabbled with Wankels and Suzuki actually made some 6000 RE5s between 1974-1976 but the best of the breed were thought to be the Nortons, even though they were admitted to be early in the development cycle.  The Wankel was a more reliable thing by the time the Nortons were made but they suffered the underlying problem of all road-going applications: the advantages just weren’t enough to outweigh the drawbacks, added to which, piston engines continued to improve.  Norton allowed the project to die but did use the Wankel technology to develop a line of UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles, sometimes called drones) engines that proved successful; weighing only 22 lb (8.2 KG) yet producing 38 bhp (28 kw) they proved ideal for the task.

1972 Chevrolet Corvette XP-895 Prototype.

In 1972, spooked a bit by the news Ford would be offering the mid-engined De Tomaso Pantera through Lincoln-Mercury dealers, to steal a bit of the thunder, Chevrolet dusted-off and displayed a mid-engined Corvette prototype, production of which had been cancelled because of the cost.  It was shown again in 1973, this time with a four-rotor version of the Wankel GM had been developing in a number of configurations.  After the Wankel project was aborted, there were plans to use the body with a V8 to replace the existing Corvette, a release penciled in for 1980 but again, costs and concerns about sales potential aborted the idea.  It meant the already long-serving Corvette stayed in the line for fifteen years, not replaced until 1983 and not until well into the next century was a mid-engined version released.