It is quite ironic that internal combustion engines (ICEs) have remained basically the same for more than one hundred years. It is only now – when they are allegedly on the verge of disappearing – ...

In theory, Wankel-style rotary internal combustion engines have many advantages: they ditch the cumbersome crankcase and piston design, replacing it with a simple, single-chamber design and a thick, ...

Rotary engines are a beautiful feat of engineering innovation in the world of internal combustion engines. They're compact, ...

In a world dominated by pistons, the rotary engine was something different for motorists. It was the vision of German engineer Felix Wankel, built on the belief that the up-and-down motion of pistons ...

Long before Felix Wankel became synonymous with rotary engines, an inventive Hungarian-American engineer named Stephen M. Balzer secured one of the earliest patents for a rotary-powered automobile on ...

If you’re even remotely into rare JDM oddities, Mazda’s Autozam AZ-1 likely holds a special place on your radar. It’s a tiny, mid-engined kei car built to comply with Japan’s famously strict rules on ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Peter Lyon is based in Tokyo and writes about the car industry. At the Japan Mobility Show two years ago, Mazda unveiled a ...

Perfectly tuning the heat range of an engine's spark plugs is something of a dark art to all but the most well versed tuners and the engineering egg heads at automotive OEMs. Getting the spark plug ...

The challenge isn’t building a fast rotary car. It’s building one that ordinary people can afford without sacrificing what makes it special. Mazda continues exploring rotary engine sports cars, ...