The car that never had a chance: the Wankel-whirling NSU Ro 80 (1967-77).
Besides its rotary engine it surprised with a somehow still futuristic design by Claus Luthe (with of superlow drag coefficient of 0.355 for that time) who later gave BMW its beautiful bodies it had quite some technologically innovations for its class such as disc brakes (with the front ones being inboard), a space-saving MacPherson strut/semi-trailing arm suspension setup, power-assisted rack and pinion steering and a semi-automatic, vacuum-operated three-speed gearbox.
More development time would have been urgently needed. And it didn’t help that the Ro 80 was named „European Car of the Year” in 1968: The mechanics had no idea how to service something as strange as a rotary. NSU ended up replacing engines one after the other at their own expense which led straight to bankruptcy and a takeover by Audi in 1969.
It was the first time the editor discovered one in real life on the streets of Hamburg since his childhood. The NSU Ro 80 still stands today as a milestone in automotive design.
