When the NSU Ro 80 disappeared from the market 40 years ago
03/19/2017
It was a small note that only attentive readers of the Swiss weekly magazine "Automobil Revue" noticed. It was March 24, 1977, and the small article announced the end of production of the NSU Ro 80:
"We have been informed by Audi NSU that construction of the NSU Ro 80 sedan equipped with a twin-disc Wankel engine has now been discontinued. The reason given for the discontinuation of the only vehicle of European provenance powered by a rotary engine is the excessively modest demand.
During its ten-year production period, around 37,300 of this vehicle type were sold. As is well known, a new drive unit with an output of 170 hp is being tested in the Ro 80 and Audi 100. The decision as to whether the Ro 80 will be replaced by an Audi 100 with an inverter drive will probably only be made after the two-year trial period."
This car would actually have deserved a much more extensive obituary, as the NSU Ro 80 was a symbol of German ingenuity and engineering discipline. What's more, its design was almost a decade ahead of its time, so modern and streamlined was Claus Luthe's achievement at the time.
Its "best" competitor in Europe, the Citroën GS Birotor, only managed to sell a minimal number of units in comparison . With the end of production, the engine concept was in principle also laid to rest in this country; only Mazda in Japan continued to develop it undaunted and even achieved a Le Mans victory with the high-revving engine.
