Page One

This is my 1969 NSU Ro80. NSU was the first company to produce a rotary engine vehicle for sale and licensed the rotary engine concept to Mazda who made it famous.

My car is as close as possible to original except it now has a Mazda rotary engine in place of the NSU rotary.

Recently I had the engine rebuilt and they re-planed the side plates. Here is the picture of the machine that is grinding a new surface on a side plate.The rotor housings were beyond salvage so I bought new.

And here is the finished engine with new RX7 oil cooler and rebuilt carb and alternator. Next job is to turn the air cleaner around to the front and improve the cooling for hot weather.

October 2008

After 5 years of ownership I finally came across another Ro80, infact another 3 of them, but I have to confess it took some organisation and a 4 hour drive. Recently I took my car to the German Autofest in Canberra and here is my car amongs its sisters.

It was a great location on Lake Burley Griffin and one of the first warm days in Canberra this season. The group of cars caused so much interest it was hard to take a picture without lots of people milling around.

From left to right the metallic red one is powered by a 13B Mazda rotary headlights converted to single piece design, then mine powered by Mazda 12A with original headlights, the white one is completely original having been in the same family from new and the red on on the right has the NSU motor that has been converted to fuel injection and the headlights upgraded. So they were all the same but different. Here they are from another angle.