I need help with a little detective work. This is for a contest where I work. I've been searching but haven't found anything. Here's what I have to go on, just the one pic and these instructions:
Instructions: Correctly identify this rare vehicle. What is it? And what unusual power plant did it have?

Yes, both questions need to be answered correctly.

Thanks for your help.

Attached Images

orange_car.jpg (99.6 KB, 449 views)

Is it a BMW of some sort? I think I saw cars like that.

I think it might be a Mazda with a rotary engine. I am not sure. Don

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"Don't worry be happy"

I thought it might be a Holden Torana of some sort but I'm not so sure now. And I'm not sure they had "unique" engines.

Mazda Cosmo (if US variant) with Wankel rotary engine.

Pretty sure.

Be safe.

Looks European to me.

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Wayne
Torn & Frayed

That's not a Mazda Cosmo ('76-'78). I've owned four of those. Actually still have a '76 in the garage with about 25,000 miles on it.


Anyway, that car kind of looks like a Peugeot.
A little newer than Columbo's.

I think it is the German NSU rotary powered car. Roughly 70's era.

Looks something like a Maserati Quatraporte II which was a Citroen bodystyle

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Vaya con Dios

It is a NSU RO-80 with a Wankel motor.

Wankel engine

It is a four-door "limousine" with roughly 37K produced, and has the KKM612 dual-rotor engine.

See this page for more information: http://cp_www.tripod.com/rotary/pg05.htm

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Lost it all in a boat accident

Ugly........

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Regards,
Lee Jarrett

We have a winner. 1977 NSU RO 80

Thanks all!

Looks like your question is answered, now would you mind answering one, or two? Where do you put the feed sacks? How much hay will it haul and where does the dog ride? OK thats 3 but I'm no good at math.

Thank you for the additional information.

The contest ends March 1st and a drawing will be held from all entries with the correct answer.
Thanks to this forum, my name's in the hat! I'll let you know if I win anything.

Not much hauling because the motors in them were so bad that they had to be rebuilt anywhere between 15,000-30,000 miles and only got 15 mpg.

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Vaya con Dios

That was the story, but not true in my case. They would last quite a while if you changed the oil regularly. I got a little better gas mileage in mine, even though I had a lead foot. They were either 1.2 liters (12A) or 1.3 liters (13B) displacement but had a really good 4 BBL carburetor. Some guys put Hollys or Webers on them. And if you put a header on it (they had very restrictive exhaust manifolds called thermal reactors) they would really move. The RX-7 was the hot sports car of the time, but I was too broke to get one back then. I learned a lot about car repair driving my Cosmos and a friends RX-2. Ah, the follies of youth.

I had one of those Wankels in a Mazda RX3 back in the 70s.

It had the unique characteristic of all the bad qualities of a small car plus as the bad qualities of a fuel hungry large engined car.

Plus the 3 radiators it had ALL leaked...

Went into the purchase thinking Wankel was the solution to all engineering problems.

Took a few months to become thoroughly disgusted with having bought into another automotive magazine hype.

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Dum vivimus Vivamas

It's about 50 years too new for my taste.

I had a 1981 Mazda RX-7 with the twin rotor rotary engine. By then it was pretty much perfected and it was a fast car with something like a 10,000 rpm redline. I drove it hot and heavy and with it's almost 50/50 displacement blew off most everything on the road at the time in straights and curves until I wrecked it. I fell asleep on an S curve after working a double shift.
Those engines ran almost forever and I had near 100K on mine with no hitches although it got 20 mpg in such a small car. One neat feature was a bottle of antifeeze that would inject into the rotors at below 0 degrees to melt frost from the cylinder walls and not damage vanes on the rotors.
The later 80's models had bigger engines and more horsepower too.

had a '62 nsu prinz during my usaf days in england. a 2 banger with 4 on the floor. great little car to get around in.

I'll drink to that.....looks like a cross between a Corvair and a Renault....ain't that a scary thought?...

I had a friend who had one. He bought it cheap because it had been rear-ended. He as able to get body parts but no one, even the factory dealerships would fix the engine. The impact drove the alloy case into the cast-iron rotors and the seals chattered, cutting gouges in the case. He took the thing apart and had the end plates surfaced, bought a set of seals in Germany and built the tools to re-assemble the engine. He drove it to the dealership to rub their nose in the fact that they wouldn't sell him the tools. It ran fine but as someone said, it needed regular maintenance and the gas mileage wasn't all that good. Bill was a mechanical engineer with a pretty good "toy shop" in his basement. He also had a fine collection of Cadillac Eldorados from the 50's through the 70's.

Russ