Ah, the Wankel rotary engine. The Dorito-spinning engine configuration is perhaps one of the coolest, and financially most terrifying, bits of automotive engineering. Best known for its appearance in ...

Rotary engines (also known as Wankel engines and Wankel rotary engines) are quite different from piston or "reciprocating" engines. One of the distinguishing features is that they don't need valves to ...

Rotary engines are compact, smooth, and powerful, so why don't more automakers use them? Well, it's complicated.

The piston engine may be the most common type of internal combustion engine found in consumer automotive vehicles. That doesn't mean it's the only option drivers have ever had access to. In the 1960s, ...