General Motors Rotary Combustion Engine

The General Motors Rotary Combustion Engine, or GMRCE, was General Motors' own Wankel rotary engine, a design that turns pressure into rotation instead of using reciprocating pistons. GM paid 50 million dollars in November 1970 for its first licenses, and president Ed Cole drove the program, aiming for a 1974 Chevrolet Vega option. The final design, with manufacture handed to the Hydra-Matic Division in August 1972, had two rotors displacing 206 cubic inches (3.38 litres), twin distributors and coils and aluminum housings, and test engines ran up to 500,000 miles with little wear. Mediocre fuel economy, apex seal and plating durability problems and the 1973 oil embargo ended the effort, and Cole postponed the engine on 24 September 1974. American Motors, which had planned to buy it for the 1975 Pacer, had to use an inline six instead.