ROTARY REMINISCENCE

Reading about the NSU Ro 80 (Issue No. 343) brought to mind my one and only contact with one of these remarkable cars. I was working as a mechanic in a village in Northern Ireland in the early 1970s when an Ro 80 arrived on the end of a tow rope. It was the first rotary-engined vehicle any of us had seen. Something had gone wrong with the driver’s side drive shaft. My colleague started work on it, located the problem, and ordered replacement parts from the NSU agent in Belfast. The parts had to come from Germany, which took six weeks!

Well, the parts duly arrived and my colleague, Raymond, got on with fitting them. When he finished, the engine spun over but that was all; it wouldn’t start. So out came the spark plugs. They were soaking wet with petrol, which had leaked past the rotor seals. We spun the engine over and out came heaps more petrol, it was incredible. We tried again. We lost count of the number of times we had to repeat this operation, but

eventually the engine burst in to life and the workshop disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Eventually the atmosphere in the shop cleared and Raymond took the car for a test drive. He returned a few minutes later with an ear-to-ear grin. He handed me the key and asked me to take it for a drive. I then understood the grin on his face. This was the smoothest-running car I had ever driven. It was remarkable, with very little engine noise. The gear change took a bit of getting used to (no clutch pedal) but that didn’t take long. The Ro 80 was an absolute delight to drive, smooth as silk. I was sorry to have to return the key.

One more thing. Also in the July edition [No. 343] was an article about two Aston Martin DB2S. In the very early 1960s, when with my first employer, a customer came along one day and traded in his immaculate British Racing Green DB2 for a new black MGB. To this day, I still can’t understand why.

Michael Kirkpatrick