P
hil Blake owns a lot of cars –
more than 30 at my conservative
estimate – but there is nothing
random or undisciplined about
his collection’s theme: rotary
power. And if that number
of cars suggests a wild-eyed
hoarder or some other form of social misfit, I can
assure you that Blake is rational, organised and
quite ‘normal’: an electronics technician by day,
sometime DJ by night, he is a rounded man of
many passions beyond motor cars.
But even he would admit that none run deeper
than his fascination for these smooth, compact
and elegantly simple engines that 50 years ago
were being hailed as the first serious challenge to
conventional reciprocating piston power.
It wasn’t to be, as we know. Mazda kept the
Wankel flame alive until 2012 with the RX-8 but
attempts to curb its thirst, emissions and patchy
reputation for longevity had sealed its fate.
Blake’s love affair began in the 1980s when he
was a south London teenager with a £200 NSU
Ro80, driven illicitly when his parents weren’t
around – until a neighbour grassed him up. It
didn’t put him off: he admits to owning almost
30 of these stylish, prophetic German saloons.
Blake progressed in parallel through various
more pedestrian rotary RX Mazdas of the ’70s
before acquiring one of the ultimate prizes in the
world of Wankel-engined cars, a 110S Cosmo.
That was almost 20 years ago. Since then, this
sleek, futuristic-looking two-seater has gone up
in the world. No longer is it a slightly geeky120 Classic & Sports Car September 2019curiosity of the embryonic Japanese motor
industry, it’s now a £100,000 collector’s piece,
perhaps second only to the Toyota 2000GT in
the realm of Nipponese classics.
Nestling in the bosom of rural Suffolk, the
smart but unrestored white 1968 Cosmo is the
pride of Blake’s collection, not even usurped by
the much more recent acquisition of a yet more
obscure Wankel-engined vehicle, the semi-
mythical Citroën GS Birotor. With the same
price-tag as a DS23 Efi (but a greater thirst), it’s
probably no surprise that the French marque
only built 847 of these GS-based oddities. The
surviving examples would doubtless be in ther-
apy if they were people: disowned by its parent,
Citroën in fact tried to save itself the bother of
having to supply parts for its unloved progeny by
attempting to buy back and destroy all of them.
Around a third are thought to survive, although
I doubt many are as nice as this one.
In comparison, the NSU Ro80 was only a
qualified failure. Produced for 10 years from
1967-’77 and to the tune of 37,204 cars, this slip-
pery, wedge-profiled five-seater made the most
convincing argument for the benefits of Felix
Wankel’s super-smooth and compact engine.
It received rave reviews, not just for being the
first twin-rotor production saloon, but for its
overall excellence as a car, too. Arguably there
was no finer big saloon at the time, a remarkable
achievement from a company better known for
mopeds and rear-engined economy cars.
Initial sales were brisk, but engine failures
gave buyers the wobbles (instead of waving toMAZDA COSMO 110S
Sold/no built 1967-’72/1206 (including
pre-production cars)
Construction steel monocoque
Engine two-rotor 982cc Wankel, with
twin spark plugs per chamber and Hitachi-
Stromberg four-barrel carburettor
Max power 110bhp @ 7000rpm
Max torque 96Ib ft @ 3500rpm
Transmission four-speed manual, RWD
Suspension: front independent, by wishbones,
coil springs, anti-roll bar rear de Dion axle,
trailing arms, semi-elliptic leaf springs;
telescopics f/r Steering rack and pinion
Brakes discs front, drums rear (with servo
from 1968) Length 13ft 5^1 / 2 in (4102mm)
Width 5ft 2^1 / 4 in (1581mm) Height 3ft 9^1 / 2 in
(1156mm) Wheelbase 7ft 2in (2184mm)
Weight 2111lb (958kg) 0-60mph 10.2 secs
Top speed 116mph Mpg 18-21
Price new £2607 Price now £100,000Main: recognisable lines of
the Cosmo take inspiration
from the Ford Thunderbird,
with Mercedes-esque
‘eyebrows’ over the wheels- designs were agreed five
years before the car made
its way onto the forecourt.
Below: long, chiselled tail