Stuttgart (dpa) – The assembly halls at Korb near Stuttgart used to resound to the whirring of rotary Wankel engines – but now all is plunged into silence.
Managing director Juergen Bax casts a wistful look out of his office window at a picturesque vineyard nearby before telling the visitor how he believes the future of this innovative power unit can be secured.
The 58-year-old has just had to file for temporary insolvency and the future of the Wankel Rotary GmbH is anything but rosy yet Bax is not a man to give up easily.
His faith in the viability of the Wankel engine is unbroken and the engineer sees it as a realistic alternative for powering anything from light aircraft to lawnmowers.
“Look over here,” said Bax pointing to a 35 kilowatt airplane motor that weighs a mere 35 kilos. “You won’t find that anywhere else.”
The immediate problems facing Bax and Wankel are of a different nature. With the firm in the hands of an receiver, around 85 patents and manufacturing rights connected to the Wankel principle are for sale and could be snapped up by other firms.
Bax is still smarting from his last commercial disappointment. Germany’s Foreign Trade Ministry refused permission for the company to supply Israel with Wankel engines to power military reconnaissance drones. “I could hardly believe my ears when I heard about the decision,” said Bax.
Wankel Rotary GmbH was set up at Korb in 1993 as the legal successor to the firm founded by genial inventor Felix Wankel (1902- 1988), the man who came up with the rotary piston engine principle in the 1950s.
Wankel’s name can easily stand alongside those of the great engine designers such as Carl Benz, Gottlieb Daimler and Rudolf Diesel but 12 years after his death, the motor he so fiercely challenged has almost been forgotten.
Wankel’s breakthrough came in 1963 when erstwhile German carmaker NSU decided to fit the engine into its Spider convertible. Only a few thousand of the car left the production line but the motor proved to be more of a success that the engineers had dared hope for.
In 1967 came the now Wankel-driven NSU RO 80 four-door saloon, many of which are still in use today. The Wankel engine with its triangular piston, small number of moving parts and low weight marked a technological milestone but the euphoria that surrounded it was short lived. NSU was taken over by Audi and new owners Volkswagen halted all development on the engine, the production of which was complicated and expensive.
The engine’s halycon days were from 1965-1976 when more than a million Wankel engines were built by the then licence holders, Mazda in Japan, Fichtel & Sachs and Outboard Marine. They were used to power cars, motorcycles and boats.
Wankel was sold to British concern Lonrho in 1992 but a plan to sell the firm to Japanese carmaker Mazda fell through. Mazda was one of the few motor manufacturers to believe in the future of the engine, resulting in the Mazda RX-7 sports car of which 1.3 million were sold. The firm offered a 100,000 mile guarantee for the engine and even won the Le Mans 24-hour race with a Wankel-powered car in 1991. British motorcycle maker Norton also experimented with Wankels.
In 1992 Bax founded the Wankel Rotary GmbH with Dankwart Eiermann who worked under the late inventor and the two men hold two-thirds of the company. For several years the firm was busy making rotary engines for light planes and go-karts, exporting its products to the United States, Mexico and China.
“Heinz-Harald Frentzen (Formula One driver with Jordan) used to drive a cart with a Wankel engine,” said Bax who keeps a 1975 NSU RO 80 at home parked next to his everyday transport, a Mercedes limousine.
The air-conditioning units on Germany’s prestige ICE express trains were made at the Korb works but a year ago VW cancelled a contract for refrigeration equipment and Wankel Rotary was forced to embark on a cost-cutting drive.
Plans for expansion had to be abandoned and after the deal with Israel fell through the company’s energy was exhausted. The last of 15 employees was laid off in June and since then the official receiver has been looking for a new buyer or a consortium that could save Wankel.
Felix Wankel had to start from scratch himself in 1945 after the French destroyed his workshop in Lindau on Lake Constance at the end of World War II. His research had been partly financed by the Nazis.
Bax realises that a considerable commitment is required by anyone seeking to get the rotary engine financial machinery running smoothly again. “This is not something you can operate as a hobby, it needs proper investment” said Bax. “The engine works well now though – we’ve ironed out the bugbears.”
The engineer believes the rotary motor would be ideal for lawnmowers or Snowmobiles as a replacement for the thirsty, two- stroke engines in widespread use.
Closing the interview Bax pumps his arm up and down to show the conventional piston movement of his rivals before clenching his fists and exclaiming defiantly: “That’s when the competition will have to watch out!”
