Incredible that this is a 1960s car. It looks kind of modern even now. I used to walk past one every day on the way to school in the 70s and think "wow look at that!"
There is 4 or 5 of these at a house in coundon Coventry really cool looking cars the guy let me have a go in one once I proved I had a licence nothing wrong with a rotary engine if you look after them
it's starting to look dated a bit now, but it is nearly 50 years old, my old man was given 1 for the week-end once in the early 70s, whilst his company ford was being serviced, and I remember being blown away by it, it just looked so modern back then, and it was probably 10 years old even then.
Stunning motor... After Clarkson and co the BBC should have gone back to Quinton and taken Top Gear back to this format and just thrown in a Tour instead of looking for replacement prats to head up the show!
Had one in California when I was a teenager! My dad fell in love with it and bought for my mom. I believe it was a 1968. What a blast to drive especially as a 16 year old with a fresh license.
If you rode in an Ro80 when it came out and you were 23, you'd be 72 now. The age of a freaking pensioner. How the HELL did that happen? Back when this aired (1995), said pensioner would be only 51. Today's 51 year olds might have ridden in a Vauxhall Cavalier 3 (first-generation Opel Vectra) when it came out. June 17, 2016 2:45 am
Your comments about it not being interesting at all - is not interesting at all. Without people talking about how the car affected their lives then all cars would look like Yugos
Sorry Quentin, but the Citroen DS from 1955 (!) is the most modern looking car with timeless beauty. "The DS is not the car of the future, nor the car of the past, it´s the car of today". Always modern and up to date! But I really like the NSU Ro80 also! The only car that in some respects could rival the DS!
Every time you copy a VHS tape three things happen to the generations: The picture gets softer. The colour saturation is increased. The colour drops by one line relative to the rest of the picture. You can see therefore that this is a copy of a copy of a copy etc. Then if someone only connects one channel up you can get sound in just your left ear too. (VHS stinks and it always did.)
I fully agree. It was a serious regular peoples car program back then until it became a rich peoples comedy car show where regular cars for regular people are just made fun off.
Dont forget the smokeless two stroke oil (1%) in your fuel as anti corrosion additive when using modern ethanolized e5 and e10 fuels in older cars. ( You might ruin your carbs and fuel pump with the modern ultra dry fuels! -- so use 1% two stroke oil as additive!) In Germany the Lotus and Jaguar Club does so!
They hype for the wankel rotary was pretty incredible in the late 60s and early 70s, Mazda offered one in all of their cars by 1973, even their pickup trucks and planned to discontinue their piston engines, Citroen built an entire factory for them and put a few in the GS, and General Motors went all in, they cancelled all piston engine projects anticipating that all their cars would be rotary powered by 1980, and their President Ed Cole said the Wankel Engine would be one of the biggest technological revolutions of the postwar age. Then the problems with fuel economy and reliability turned out to be unsolvable which meant that all these carmakers had thrown millions of dollars down the drain.
Owning rotaries was popular among Australian youth in the 90s but they completely disappeared years ago, if you're lucky you might see an RX8. There used to be a steady supply of 13B rotary engines from Japan and people would fit those into RX 2s 3s 4s and their piston engine equivalents.
@@android584 That’s not strictly true. There is still a massive rotary following in Australia. There’s more there than anywhere else and they spend fortunes on them.
He says the Princess was hateful This NSU was ahead of its time Hah I can actually see more than a passing resemblance to the Ro80 in the side profile there in the Princess
+eltfell Indeed, that always irritates me too! There used to be a club magazine called the RoView, and I remember some people used to refer to it as the R-O View. Why? !!!
+lithiumdeuterid Must be the same reason why he considers Triumph TR7, DeLorean DMC-12 and Austin Princess ahead of their time! In reality, none of these cars were ahead of their time, at least as designs! The Ro80 was indeed ahead of its time.
"he's one of the prime examples of brits not knowing shit" I take it that's why Top Gear is/was the biggest motoring show, watched by millions all over the world? While all those tired cookie cutter yanks cars shows were endless boring muscle cars are restored by hyped up infantile guys in big baggy shorts and tattoos, and a fake deadline is added to create drama and cover up the fact the show is the same as last week and the same and all the other endless copies, and that ultimately the whole thing is just a tiresome drag.
Mazda are introducing a rotary engined hybrid. The problems are well known. They perform much better at higher revs and load. Best to have a smaller engine pushed harder to get as much HP out of it as possible. Acting as a fixed speed generator, it really performs.
+Samuel Brooks Two different things. The 2CV handles like on rails as well, although it leans like a drunk Irishman, while a Corvette slithers around uncontrollably while being perfectly level.
I don't know how it worked in the rest of the world, but the NSU came to Australia with a "no questions asked" warranty. If you blew an engine, they'd replace it for free. Unfortunately this happened far too often. If an NSU pulled up at the lights next to another NSU, the drivers often held up several fingers. This meant how many angines they'd had. Not surprisingly, they went broke very quickly.
The holding up the fingers tale is actually just a myth that’s been spread repeatedly over time. There are a considerable amount of older members in the Ro80 Club International, that were around when the cars were current. And none recall ever seeing this actually happen.
Quentin was thin of data in his style-over-content presenting wasn't he. I kept flipping between the vid and Wikipedia to get the bits he was omitting; and that was not an option way back in 1995 watching this on a CRT.
That "looking fresh way later, but ugly at the time" can be said especially for the mid 2000's 5 series which looks more modern than the current 5 series imo.
I still don't like the design of the E60 5 Series. Mind you, the E65/E66 7 Series begin to grow on me nicely, especially when you have one with drug dealer wheels. Looks fab!
Pretty sure the early Mazda rotary engines, the 10A and 12A, are externally identical to the Ro80 which is no surprise given they bought the design from NSU. The Mazda having however, more conservative induction to the German's Peripheral ports. If you have to, JUST FIT A MAZDA UNIT people and leave things like Corsair V4's for what they do best- anchoring boats.
I thought I was the only one. In fact, I'm still struggling to like the styling of the Countach except the one without wings that they showed at Geneva.
Johans60 How can Audi, which makes piston engines have the same problems as the rotary engine? They don’t have the parts that were the problem ( Rotor seals).
Went to Ireland in one when I was a kid. A fetching shade of turd brown with nicotine yellow interior. Never missed a beat after my dad fitted a ford v6 power plant..
Quirky styling and a wankel engine ain't "Futuristic". Softly tapering roof first on an Ro80? Seriously? The Rover P6 released years earlier was full of more genuinely forward thinking design.
1965; Citroen DS celebrates its tenth anniversary... 2024; DS still looks futuristic. They share two aspects, both had an automatic clutch and both were powered by lousy engines.
The NSU dealerships replaced the entire engine, were they only needed to replace the rotor tips. The people that bought them had previously driven a BMW or a Mercedes. They didn't know how to treat the delicate Wankel engine, which takes more time to reach it's optimum temperature. And after starting it, it was best to let it idle a minute, not put stress on the rotor with totally cold oil. The drivers started the car, and sped off right away, as you would do in a Beamer. It wasn't really the car's fault.
Sadly, we're living in the world, ruled by a paper value. So the carmakers tend to obey wishes and preferrences of a careless chump, who isn't qualified to cycle, because he shifts under hard pedaling, yet complains about rattling noises (The very same bloke, who would go to the dealership to lubricate the chain, maybe once per year, if even that)
Had a Corgi (maybe it was Dinky) model of this in a beautiful burgundy colour with green tints.............at least that's how I remember it. Looks a bit like the Triumph 2000 from the front imo
Don't believe him for one minute regarding the Twin Rotary Wankel engine being sorted through specialists. I once owned a Mazda RX8 and the start up and shut down procedure was Space Shuttle-like,....and I'm talking about a 2008 model car. !!!! It was a nice smooth powerful engine in a car which had a uniquely styled body and interior, much like the RO80 but virtually impossible to run it economically with returns of 18-22 mpg and I tell you not there was nothing wrong with the engine in my car. There are plenty of videos on here of RX8 owners falling foul and flooding their rotors making the car a absolute nightmare to get started again. It makes me wonder why a car from the late 60's and 70's with the same twin rotor set up not suffer the same problems. ?
I find “Space-Shuttle like” somewhat of an exaggeration! My wife has run an Rx8 for the past 13 years. Other than not turning it off straight after starting when cold (causing flooding) there’s nothing else to it. It hasn’t been flooded in more than a decade now. I have never found switching off when cold to be an issue in a Ro80 though. Rotary engines will not take the neglect (lack of oil changes etc) that a conventional engine will take, but if treated correctly they will last well. An original unmodified Ro80 will last well, but now we have the additional benefit of ceramic apex seals which are now available.
@@djphilmanns ....yeah, an exaggeration on my part is probably right. I fell foul of the flooding issue through lack of knowledge really and I remember filling half the street with white smoke when I eventually got it running, my neighbours thought I'd set it alite. It was a nice car and ran perfectly but I couldn't justify keeping it as it fell into the £550 tax bracket. I always thought Mazda should have done an in-line four version of the RX8 to keep everyone happy.
NSU stands for non-specific urethritis. It is also called non-gonococcal urethritis (NGU) and non-specific genital infection ...is it only me who thought this was an April Fools??
The Triumph tr7 and the DeLorean were brought up as bad looking cars but now they are extremely desirable, i wonder what cars we think are ugly now will become future cult classics
The Ro80 was voted Car of the year when it was launched due to its styling and ,more importantly,this rotary powerplant but not many people knew how to "use" the engine which wore out prematurely-today the car is now being appreciated for the 💎that it is
@tttpietje560 Your Dad must be Vincent then! It's a lovely car, my friend Clive Thomas worked on it's restoration at Rotechniks, is he really going to sell it?
Out of experience I can say that the NSU's unreliability is adopted by Audi. DSG broke 3 times and total motor failure of the 8 cilinder after 60.000 kilometres. Never anything from so called German quality again for me.
Too many innovations all at once. The body shape was years ahead of its time and the gearbox was good in theory but the engine took years to sort out the reliability and the emission problems were never resolved.
Yes, but the GS bitotor was a major flop. It had so may faults that citroen pull it out of the market. Mazda, on the other hand, did a great job with these type of engines. And, in my opinion, the Ro80 is a bit overrated by Quentin. I love his work, but the Ro80 is very, very far from the DS. He says the NSU is the only car who was truly ahead of its time. The DS was in the market for 10 years when this came out and still it was a more advanced car. Not saying the NSU wasn't advanced, though...
The Birotor was not pulled due to faults. It was just too expensive (more than a DS) and was launched into a fuel crisis. With rotaries being far from economical, that was the final nail in the coffin. With only 600+ vehicles sold over two years, they decided to bail out.
A pity NSU never developed the Ro80 with a regular 4-cylinder engine either Inline-4, Subaru-inspired water-cooled Flat-4 or even Lancia-inspired V4 layouts.
NSU was bought by Volkswagen (VW) and force-merried with VW-daughter Audi. This was the end of modernistic design. Still, technical goodies were picked and survived in the Audi 50-80-100 / VW Polo-Golf-Passat oil-line (I can't say "bloodline" here, can I?). NSU was traditionally a brand for motor-bikes and small cars - one reason why more wealthy customers preferred Merc or BMW to a big NSU. The other was that progressive design was covered by French and Italian brands.
Have read NSU considered a Flat-6 before settling for the Wankel engine, additionally Comotor partner Citroen via Panhard had a 90+ hp 1.99-litre air-cooled Flat-4 from the Panhard AML which was considered for the Panhard 24 (yet vetoed by Citroen). In retrospect both Citroen and NSU should have worked on the NSU Flat-6 and Panhard Flat-4 instead of the Wankel engine.
@@akronymus Well... you could argue that they did when the Audi 80 (B3) came out in 1986. I remember lots of people back then commenting on the visual/stylistic similarities between that car and the Ro80.
Karl Hamilton Rubbish. The back end leaves a bit to be desired, granted, but the front is attractive and wouldn’t look out of place on a car launched at least ten years later.
@REPOMAN24722 "didnt they do any testing on the car so they would know how reliable the engine was, modern cars go thru millions of miles of testing." NSU were only small company at the time. Hence why they came up with a revolutionary design. The big boys would never be so adventurous. The car could have been continued for another 15 or 20 years with a piston engine in it. Mass production by VW would have dropped the build price.
my left ear thoroughly enjoyed this episode of topgear
@Jack Beanstalk it's in mono, left speaker only.
100th like.
I think the Delorean was good looking though.
Pmsl 😂 😂 😂
Incredible that this is a 1960s car. It looks kind of modern even now. I used to walk past one every day on the way to school in the 70s and think "wow look at that!"
Yeah, it could easily pass as an 80's, or even mid 90's design...
There is 4 or 5 of these at a house in coundon Coventry really cool looking cars the guy let me have a go in one once I proved I had a licence nothing wrong with a rotary engine if you look after them
it's starting to look dated a bit now, but it is nearly 50 years old, my old man was given 1 for the week-end once in the early 70s, whilst his company ford was being serviced, and I remember being blown away by it, it just looked so modern back then, and it was probably 10 years old even then.
My dad had one of only 3 in the country in Malawi 🇲🇼 in Southern Africa in the late 1970s ... I loved that car!
This car was actually designed by Claus Luthe, the same guy who would go on to give us the E30 3Series Beemer
George Cordingley, featured in the Video has sadly died aged 91. He was a wonderful person. R.I.P. George.
Strangled to death by his own son, jesus... may he rest in peace
£1500.... Not any more.
Stunning motor... After Clarkson and co the BBC should have gone back to Quinton and taken Top Gear back to this format and just thrown in a Tour instead of looking for replacement prats to head up the show!
I agree I liked Quentin very informative & witty it all went down after him had to suffer the 3 morons overgrown destructive stupid kids.
Christ. I remember this episode first time round
Had one in California when I was a teenager! My dad fell in love with it and bought for my mom. I believe it was a 1968. What a blast to drive especially as a 16 year old with a fresh license.
I still think this is one of the most beautiful cars ever made.
Agreed, looks like it could have been designed yesterday
@@markthomasson5077
No, because if it was designed yesterday, it would look like crap.
I'm not sure why the BBC hasn't made a car show for several decades? They were so good.
I was born in that wonderful year 1967. Everything was so optimistic then! Several ideas were naive, but some ideas shouldn't be forgotten!
Yep good days before the E.U. fucked it all up.
This is what the Austin 1800 should have looked like!!
Whilst Mazda have improved the longevity ... the rotary engine is still a very short lived affair compared to most engines
If you rode in an Ro80 when it came out and you were 23, you'd be 72 now. The age of a freaking pensioner. How the HELL did that happen? Back when this aired (1995), said pensioner would be only 51. Today's 51 year olds might have ridden in a Vauxhall Cavalier 3 (first-generation Opel Vectra) when it came out.
June 17, 2016 2:45 am
This is not interesting at all...We talk about cars, not people
Your comments about it not being interesting at all - is not interesting at all. Without people talking about how the car affected their lives then all cars would look like Yugos
@@jourwalis-8875 YOU ARE A TOTAL MISERY oops caps. screw you
Jourwalis - 51: the new thirtysomething.
I was just thinking about my 1990 school year and could hardly believe that was nearly 30 years ago.
My teacher might be in his eighties now!
Sorry Quentin, but the Citroen DS from 1955 (!) is the most modern looking car with timeless beauty. "The DS is not the car of the future, nor the car of the past, it´s the car of today". Always modern and up to date!
But I really like the NSU Ro80 also! The only car that in some respects could rival the DS!
He's a massive Citroen fan and absolutely loves the DS. Just watch this..... th-cam.com/video/1AjmLmG16Nw/w-d-xo.html
Every time you copy a VHS tape three things happen to the generations: The picture gets softer. The colour saturation is increased. The colour drops by one line relative to the rest of the picture. You can see therefore that this is a copy of a copy of a copy etc. Then if someone only connects one channel up you can get sound in just your left ear too. (VHS stinks and it always did.)
BETA was better.
@@rexluminus9867 I'm a Beta fan. Lot of Beta kit here, subscribe to my channel!
It's inventors did want people to make perfect copies 😉
That may be true, but if that’s your only copy to upload, then you don’t have much choice!
Top gear as it used to be, about cars and not a ridiculous pantomime for Clarkson and co.
Shut it misery guts!
@@padgecrack4018 no, quite happy actually!
I fully agree. It was a serious regular peoples car program back then until it became a rich peoples comedy car show where regular cars for regular people are just made fun off.
I think the term is aspirational. It became about the cars people dreamed of owning instead of those 99% could actually afford.
Beaufighter245:... but multi-multi-MULTI-millions LOVED the pantomime...! ... "oh no we didnt!" ... OH YES WE FUCKING DID!!!
DeLorean a horrible design !?. Was the lad drunk.
The best Top Gear days....
Dont forget the smokeless two stroke oil (1%) in your fuel as anti corrosion additive when using modern ethanolized e5 and e10 fuels in older cars. ( You might ruin your carbs and fuel pump with the modern ultra dry fuels! -- so use 1% two stroke oil as additive!) In Germany the Lotus and Jaguar Club does so!
This car was way ahead of its time!
What the bloody hell is wrong with the dealoren's design?!
Matan Egozi nothing it's awesome, still ! :)
Matan Egozi The big heavy shitty Renault engine hanging out back behind the rear axle?
athodyd again with the dealoren's design
athodyd don't blame Renault, blame Volvo and Peugeot also please haha.
I apologize, it is an engine that three great engineering companies should be ashamed of, not one.
They hype for the wankel rotary was pretty incredible in the late 60s and early 70s, Mazda offered one in all of their cars by 1973, even their pickup trucks and planned to discontinue their piston engines, Citroen built an entire factory for them and put a few in the GS, and General Motors went all in, they cancelled all piston engine projects anticipating that all their cars would be rotary powered by 1980, and their President Ed Cole said the Wankel Engine would be one of the biggest technological revolutions of the postwar age. Then the problems with fuel economy and reliability turned out to be unsolvable which meant that all these carmakers had thrown millions of dollars down the drain.
And Suzuki got their fingers severely burned with their RE-5 Rotary motorcycle.
But man I'm still diging that Mazda 110 Cosmo ....
Owning rotaries was popular among Australian youth in the 90s but they completely disappeared years ago, if you're lucky you might see an RX8.
There used to be a steady supply of 13B rotary engines from Japan and people would fit those into RX 2s 3s 4s and their piston engine equivalents.
Rotarys are popular as ever in NZ still
@@android584 That’s not strictly true. There is still a massive rotary following in Australia. There’s more there than anywhere else and they spend fortunes on them.
27/01 23, From a time when there were motoring programmes. Read that the inve ntor, Herr Wankel, did'nt drive !
The nose styling reminds me of 1970s and 1980s Mercedes S-Class.
He says the Princess was hateful
This NSU was ahead of its time
Hah I can actually see more than a passing resemblance to the Ro80 in the side profile there in the Princess
The Top Gear theme has changed so much...
Also, they say at 0:36 that it's 1996.
As he was gushing about the futuristic NSU Ro80 I thought that I heard him saying the same things about the Citroen DS
Aesthetical delight and technological disaster.
What a thing of beauty the RO80 is...not to mention a bargain!
In '95 maybe, probably go for daft money these days.
Still a very attractive car - visually and dynamically (I'd expect).
Still looks fresh today 2023❤
Why does he says, "R-O 80"? It's "Ro", like the greek letter!
+eltfell Indeed, that always irritates me too! There used to be a club magazine called the RoView, and I remember some people used to refer to it as the R-O View. Why? !!!
+lithiumdeuterid Must be the same reason why he considers Triumph TR7, DeLorean DMC-12 and Austin Princess ahead of their time! In reality, none of these cars were ahead of their time, at least as designs! The Ro80 was indeed ahead of its time.
Exactly. The "RO" is simply short for Rotationskolben (German: rotary piston)
Thats because he's one of the prime examples of brits not knowing shit, except their own shit..
So Citroen SM doesn't look fresh at that time, morons!
"he's one of the prime examples of brits not knowing shit" I take it that's why Top Gear is/was the biggest motoring show, watched by millions all over the world? While all those tired cookie cutter yanks cars shows were endless boring muscle cars are restored by hyped up infantile guys in big baggy shorts and tattoos, and a fake deadline is added to create drama and cover up the fact the show is the same as last week and the same and all the other endless copies, and that ultimately the whole thing is just a tiresome drag.
Except now, years later, even Mazda was forced to throw in the towel on production model rotary engines. They just don't work in the practical world.
Mazda are introducing a rotary engined hybrid.
The problems are well known. They perform much better at higher revs and load. Best to have a smaller engine pushed harder to get as much HP out of it as possible. Acting as a fixed speed generator, it really performs.
'corners like it's on rails' Did you see the body roll when it went round the corner - it was practically cornering on its door handles!
+Samuel Brooks Two different things. The 2CV handles like on rails as well, although it leans like a drunk Irishman, while a Corvette slithers around uncontrollably while being perfectly level.
+Samuel Brooks I think they have hydrolastic suspension ..
+MyFabian94 You're right, that's exactly how it is. The road holding and grip is excellent , despite lots of body roll.
+pirrracy No, they have independent suspension with McPherson struts.
+Samuel Brooks Body-roll ≠ Bad handling
I don't know how it worked in the rest of the world, but the NSU came to Australia with a "no questions asked" warranty. If you blew an engine, they'd replace it for free. Unfortunately this happened far too often. If an NSU pulled up at the lights next to another NSU, the drivers often held up several fingers. This meant how many angines they'd had. Not surprisingly, they went broke very quickly.
The holding up the fingers tale is actually just a myth that’s been spread repeatedly over time. There are a considerable amount of older members in the Ro80 Club International, that were around when the cars were current. And none recall ever seeing this actually happen.
I can assure you, they don't usr ten quids worth of oil in 800 miles! :-)
they should have made a piston engine version as well, like Mazda did ... Mazda alive, NSU dead!
They did, the K70 which was used by VW when they bought NSU and it was the stop-gap between the 411 and the new Golf and Passat ranges.
A link to Ro80 history is now gone forever. Thanks for everything you did at the Ro80 Club GB, George.
Same price as a basic XJ6: as much as a Rover P5 V8. The unreliable engine wasn’t it’s only problem. It cost too much.
RIP George Cordingly, murdered in 2012 by his son, Robert.
The son was jailed at Bradford crown court, for the murder.
Seriously? What's the reason for his son to murder his own dad?
@@FAT8893 www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-19951835
@@FAT8893 George had dementia, I think it was out of frustration from his son. Not condoning it, but I think that was the reason.
Quentin was thin of data in his style-over-content presenting wasn't he. I kept flipping between the vid and Wikipedia to get the bits he was omitting; and that was not an option way back in 1995 watching this on a CRT.
That "looking fresh way later, but ugly at the time" can be said especially for the mid 2000's 5 series which looks more modern than the current 5 series imo.
I still don't like the design of the E60 5 Series. Mind you, the E65/E66 7 Series begin to grow on me nicely, especially when you have one with drug dealer wheels. Looks fab!
Pretty sure the early Mazda rotary engines, the 10A and 12A, are externally identical to the Ro80 which is no surprise given they bought the design from NSU. The Mazda having however, more conservative induction to the German's Peripheral ports. If you have to, JUST FIT A MAZDA UNIT people and leave things like Corsair V4's for what they do best- anchoring boats.
As he said on the video, the Ro80 is a reliable, sorted engine and has been for a long time now. No need to replace it with anything else.
I agree with the guy about styling; look at the Lamborghini Countach compared to the Miura; the latter a timeless classic, the other a doorstop.
I thought I was the only one. In fact, I'm still struggling to like the styling of the Countach except the one without wings that they showed at Geneva.
Audi has the same engine problems now again
Johans60 How can Audi, which makes piston engines have the same problems as the rotary engine? They don’t have the parts that were the problem ( Rotor seals).
Boat Axe google 2.0T and 1.8T oil consumption.
That was the car who launched the Audi slogan "Vorsprunk durch technik"
If ever a car needed electricity
Went to Ireland in one when I was a kid. A fetching shade of turd brown with nicotine yellow interior. Never missed a beat after my dad fitted a ford v6 power plant..
Quirky styling and a wankel engine ain't "Futuristic". Softly tapering roof first on an Ro80? Seriously? The Rover P6 released years earlier was full of more genuinely forward thinking design.
More like 1984. I had one of those and it was amazingly modern in every way.
1965; Citroen DS celebrates its tenth anniversary... 2024; DS still looks futuristic. They share two aspects, both had an automatic clutch and both were powered by lousy engines.
Fuel consumption?
They should have replaced the engine with a convential one and continue.
Aye, they should.
Yes!.
On that I thoroughly disagree. Being "revolutionary" doesn't make something inherently good, and it wasn't.
People would drop in a Ford V4, which was a bad rough engine.
@@jimtaylor294 It’s a jewel of an engine, and with todays knowledge perfectly reliable.
The NSU 80 was a brilliant idea but the technicians hadn´t been ready yet.
The NSU dealerships replaced the entire engine, were they only needed to replace the rotor tips.
The people that bought them had previously driven a BMW or a Mercedes. They didn't know how to treat the delicate Wankel engine, which takes more time to reach it's optimum temperature. And after starting it, it was best to let it idle a minute, not put stress on the rotor with totally cold oil.
The drivers started the car, and sped off right away, as you would do in a Beamer.
It wasn't really the car's fault.
Sadly, we're living in the world, ruled by a paper value. So the carmakers tend to obey wishes and preferrences of a careless chump, who isn't qualified to cycle, because he shifts under hard pedaling, yet complains about rattling noises (The very same bloke, who would go to the dealership to lubricate the chain, maybe once per year, if even that)
Had a Corgi (maybe it was Dinky) model of this in a beautiful burgundy colour with green tints.............at least that's how I remember it. Looks a bit like the Triumph 2000 from the front imo
I have a blue husky Ro80 with liftable bonnet.
Made in Great Britain! 🤯😂
@Mechknight73
it's been done many times. works well and gives more power of course :-)
Don't believe him for one minute regarding the Twin Rotary Wankel engine being sorted through specialists. I once owned a Mazda RX8 and the start up and shut down procedure was Space Shuttle-like,....and I'm talking about a 2008 model car. !!!! It was a nice smooth powerful engine in a car which had a uniquely styled body and interior, much like the RO80 but virtually impossible to run it economically with returns of 18-22 mpg and I tell you not there was nothing wrong with the engine in my car.
There are plenty of videos on here of RX8 owners falling foul and flooding their rotors making the car a absolute nightmare to get started again.
It makes me wonder why a car from the late 60's and 70's with the same twin rotor set up not suffer the same problems. ?
I find “Space-Shuttle like” somewhat of an exaggeration! My wife has run an Rx8 for the past 13 years. Other than not turning it off straight after starting when cold (causing flooding) there’s nothing else to it. It hasn’t been flooded in more than a decade now. I have never found switching off when cold to be an issue in a Ro80 though. Rotary engines will not take the neglect (lack of oil changes etc) that a conventional engine will take, but if treated correctly they will last well. An original unmodified Ro80 will last well, but now we have the additional benefit of ceramic apex seals which are now available.
@@djphilmanns ....yeah, an exaggeration on my part is probably right.
I fell foul of the flooding issue through lack of knowledge really and I remember filling half the street with white smoke when I eventually got it running, my neighbours thought I'd set it alite. It was a nice car and ran perfectly but I couldn't justify keeping it as it fell into the £550 tax bracket.
I always thought Mazda should have done an in-line four version of the RX8 to keep everyone happy.
The RX8 performance was similar to a Porsche. They has similar MPG. You have to compare like with like.
NSU stands for non-specific urethritis. It is also called non-gonococcal urethritis (NGU) and non-specific genital infection ...is it only me who thought this was an April Fools??
And BSA means Bull Shitting Ape?
Yes
BMW stands for.. oh, I've forgotten 🤣
thank you for uplaoding this great video, and even better, its from Top gear !!!!
The Triumph tr7 and the DeLorean were brought up as bad looking cars but now they are extremely desirable, i wonder what cars we think are ugly now will become future cult classics
The Ro80 was voted Car of the year when it was launched due to its styling and ,more importantly,this rotary powerplant but not many people knew how to "use" the engine which wore out prematurely-today the car is now being appreciated for the 💎that it is
Jeremy Clarkson had just turned 430 years old when this was recorded
I just saw one of these! It was on a tow truck. That was also about to get to towed. Then they were gone.
Right ear feels lonely.
@tttpietje560
Your Dad must be Vincent then! It's a lovely car, my friend Clive Thomas worked on it's restoration at Rotechniks, is he really going to sell it?
The spiritual predecessor of Audi sedans as we know them today.
Times when Top Gear showed proper reviews of proper cars that ordinary folk could afford. What went wrong?
Not many Audi owners would recognise this. NSU Auto Union where Audi came from.
Rest of the world buying morris minors? If the midlands were the whole world maybe.
Well I've only just pressed play on the video and I'm pretty sure it must be 1995 if they were going to be announcing the best bikes of 1996!
It looks 1985 though
@@sianwarwick633 A little bit longer ago than when I left that comment
Out of experience I can say that the NSU's unreliability is adopted by Audi. DSG broke 3 times and total motor failure of the 8 cilinder after 60.000 kilometres. Never anything from so called German quality again for me.
Amazing car. Love my blue RO 80
Too many innovations all at once. The body shape was years ahead of its time and the gearbox was good in theory but the engine took years to sort out the reliability and the emission problems were never resolved.
I liked the TR7 & the Princess (which I think is still good looking)
@discocreator76
Ah bless, my dads bigger than your dad etc etc
NSU or mgb?
what complete horlix they are different cars
Quentin Wilson, hands down the most boring car show presenter to ever grace TV
@discocreator76
the austin princess is pretty! lol, now there's a first :-)
My dad owns this car. A nice car but it cost a lot of money... My dad will sell 'her'.
That was like the worst version of "Jessica" I've ever heard.
Yes, but the GS bitotor was a major flop. It had so may faults that citroen pull it out of the market. Mazda, on the other hand, did a great job with these type of engines. And, in my opinion, the Ro80 is a bit overrated by Quentin. I love his work, but the Ro80 is very, very far from the DS. He says the NSU is the only car who was truly ahead of its time. The DS was in the market for 10 years when this came out and still it was a more advanced car. Not saying the NSU wasn't advanced, though...
The Birotor was not pulled due to faults. It was just too expensive (more than a DS) and was launched into a fuel crisis. With rotaries being far from economical, that was the final nail in the coffin. With only 600+ vehicles sold over two years, they decided to bail out.
I don't like Quentin. He is always pedantic.
So it was Mazda that sorted out the rotary's problems.......Hmmmm.
Should've invested in some apex seals bro
DMC DeLorean
Triumph TR7
>Ugly
????
Quentin are you high?
TR7's too wedgy. I prefer the TR6.
Sound only in left channel!!
A pity NSU never developed the Ro80 with a regular 4-cylinder engine either Inline-4, Subaru-inspired water-cooled Flat-4 or even Lancia-inspired V4 layouts.
NSU was bought by Volkswagen (VW) and force-merried with VW-daughter Audi. This was the end of modernistic design. Still, technical goodies were picked and survived in the Audi 50-80-100 / VW Polo-Golf-Passat oil-line (I can't say "bloodline" here, can I?).
NSU was traditionally a brand for motor-bikes and small cars - one reason why more wealthy customers preferred Merc or BMW to a big NSU. The other was that progressive design was covered by French and Italian brands.
Have read NSU considered a Flat-6 before settling for the Wankel engine, additionally Comotor partner Citroen via Panhard had a 90+ hp 1.99-litre air-cooled Flat-4 from the Panhard AML which was considered for the Panhard 24 (yet vetoed by Citroen).
In retrospect both Citroen and NSU should have worked on the NSU Flat-6 and Panhard Flat-4 instead of the Wankel engine.
Some British registered ro80s ended up with Ford Essex v4s under the bonnet.
@@paulqueripel3493 Those v4 engines were almost as bad and troublesome as the original rotary.
@@akronymus Well... you could argue that they did when the Audi 80 (B3) came out in 1986. I remember lots of people back then commenting on the visual/stylistic similarities between that car and the Ro80.
Same intro music as today
It looks absolutely shite. An Allegro Vanden Plas from the front and a Ford Scorpio from the rear. Ghastly.
Karl Hamilton Rubbish. The back end leaves a bit to be desired, granted, but the front is attractive and wouldn’t look out of place on a car launched at least ten years later.
@@nkt1 False.
Truly looks like a modern car.
Citröen DS also looks fresh :D
@REPOMAN24722
"didnt they do any testing on the car so they would know how reliable the engine was, modern cars go thru millions of miles of testing."
NSU were only small company at the time. Hence why they came up with a revolutionary design. The big boys would never be so adventurous.
The car could have been continued for another 15 or 20 years with a piston engine in it. Mass production by VW would have dropped the build price.
No! Less! :-)
i had one too.. Pale Mattalic Blue.. L reg
The rest of the world buying Morris Minors? Even in the UK, the number buying those was rapidly diminishing and very few elsewhere.
Yes it is. :)
Amazing Design for it's time,and ahead.