Bargains on ebay?

[shane]

Incidentally, this is the Panhard that Geoff refers to above:

[walpurgis]

So all your Golfs, Passats, Scirrocos and Polos aren't really VWs at all. They're NSUs.

Incidentally, I may be wrong, but I believe NSU and BMW were originally Auto Union and VW were started as a commission to Ferdinand Porsche by the Third Reich. The auto Union Badge is similar to the Audi badge, I'm not sure when Audi became part of VAG though.

Much of the German industrial manufacturing base was broken up into what were regarded as viable units by the Americans and the Brits after WW2, supposedly in order to get the German economy back on its feet. Which is why we've ended up with the manufacturers that exist now. Not to mention the various engineering designs nicked by the British as 'war reparations' and put into production over here in the late forties. Bristol and Frazer Nash car engines, BSA motorbike engines, Webley and Diana air weapons and much more.

[Stubies]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rare-Recor...item3f28a4c00b

well, it is rare!

[shane]

I may be wrong, but I believe NSU and BMW were originally Auto Union and VW were started as a commission to Ferdinand Porsche by the Third Reich.

Partly right about Auto Union / Audi ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto_Union ), and right about VW, although the design of the Beetle was pretty much a crib of an original idea by Hans Ledwinka of Tatra
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatra_V570 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Ledwinka)

[Stubies]

it is a shame about the Wankel, it is a great concept but was to difficult to build reliably back then.

Frankly - i would have done the same. i would have believed in the future of the wankel and got stuck with the repairs too.

Ralph Nader certainly put paid to the Chevvy Corvair, but he wasn't responsible for the demise of the grand-daddy of all the horrendous rear-engine swing-axle concoctions, the VW Beetle. Curiously, that honour goes to the NSU Ro80! By the early 70s, the Beetle was years out of date, and VW lacked the imagination to replace it with anything more adventurous than the awful Combi or the even more awful 411. At the same time, tiny NSU had taken a great leap into the 21st century with the Ro80, but had bitten off more than they could chew and were forced into bankruptcy by development costs and terrible warranty problems with the Wankel. Into the breach leapt VW, and bought the wreck. Unknown to the world, NSU had also developed a more conventionally engineered little brother to the Ro80 which VW released a few months later as the VW K70. Excellent though it was, it didn't set the world on fire. The same could not be said for it's direct descendant though. That was the Golf, and the rest is history. So all your Golfs, Passats, Scirrocos and Polos aren't really VWs at all. They're NSUs.

[shane]

Couldn't agree more. It's a lovely idea, and Mazda developed it brilliantly to give it reliability. Only trouble is that the shape of the combustion chamber makes it inherently inefficient, which is why an RX8 can barely manage 20MPG, and can be bought for about two grand, returning to the theme of bargains on Ebay...

[Stubies]

nice!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/A-SUPERB-P...item43beea4a70
older but cheap
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/rega-plana...item2581e04cd0
looks nice
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rotel-RP-1...item3f287cec00
mislabeled
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Record-pla...item3f28b883fa
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/technics-S...item3a84350956
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rega-Plana...item485903b0b0

[Ali Tait]

Couldn't agree more. It's a lovely idea, and Mazda developed it brilliantly to give it reliability. Only trouble is that the shape of the combustion chamber makes it inherently inefficient, which is why an RX8 can barely manage 20MPG, and can be bought for about two grand, returning to the theme of bargains on Ebay...

I bought my V6 Alfa for £1200..

[Stubies]

Couldn't agree more. It's a lovely idea, and Mazda developed it brilliantly to give it reliability. Only trouble is that the shape of the combustion chamber makes it inherently inefficient, which is why an RX8 can barely manage 20MPG, and can be bought for about two grand, returning to the theme of bargains on Ebay...

So that is why they are no so efficient.... i wondered about that. given the conservation of momentum, i thought they should have been more efficient. but they never were... thanks for the illumination.

[MartinT]

I would have thought that the squish action of the Wankel engine would help combustion but I guess not. Still a great engine design, though.