Asteroids. To me this is a Wankel Engine

I need to zoom out a lot more to include a motorcycle.
Is it on this page? http://thevintagent.blogspot.com/2011/11/short-history-of-wankel-motorcycles.html

But given this was about 1967, I'd have to go for the 1960 model.
Dafydd.

There's a link there to a National Motorcycle Museum, which is a hoot. "There will always be an England."

I remember the clutch lever was broke. He used the clutch cable wrapped around a stick between his fingers to change gear.
Dafydd.

Nickname was Lefty, wasn't it?

It was a German who is credited for it's invention but the Japanese who (semi) successfully used it in automobiles. NSU of Germany gave it a shot, however. I believe it was Mazda that fielded few cars but never used the term Wankel in the name. I believe the first engines were plagued with engine wear problems leading to greater than expected oil consumption. They probably couldn't pass all of the new smog emissions requirements. These new US requirements also killed the air cooled designs such as used by VW and even Chevy, at one time. Another invention of long ago was the "CVT" or "constant velocity transmission". The early models were too weak to be used with the more powerful engines. They relied on some kind of centrifugal force that would spread apart some kind of split pulley that had a V-belt between the halves. Today's CVTs are nothing like these early prototypes. There are other gasoline powered engines today that can produce tons of horses from a small package that are based on rotary rather than piston-cylinder designs. I wonder, however, just how much more effort will be put into designing automobiles around gasoline powered engines.

Actually, early on in my construction work career , I would work for a company in the winter when work slowed down.
An old guy took me under his wings and apprenticed me as a millwright and machinist mechanic to
repair and rebuild their ATL's , CNC's, Hobbing and Bridgeport milling machines and the list goes on. Later on in years, I would go to work there even if it was only for a day.
But anyway they use to make Variable Speed Drives .

I miss those days , I think I would still be tinkering around there today but they moved to Mississippi around 1986/87 .

acronyms. One thing that has improved with technology and automation is precision and consistency when making engine parts. I recall "hot rodders" discussing the importance of "balancing and blueprinting". Just adding cubes, higher lift camshafts and higher compression ratios did little more than guarantee a short life expectancy for their engines. A lot of time "and money" was spent in the machine shops getting everything weighed and mill to meet the tightest of tolerances. There was an old saying that "Speed costs money. How fast do you want to go?"
As for CVTs in automobiles, I'm not convinced that they're fully ready to be as reliable as the tried and true automatic tranny. I think Ford is or was engaged in a class action lawsuit about failures of their CVTs that began to happen at around 30K miles. I imagine they are much better than originals and fine for hybrids but I doubt they're sturdy enough for heavy loads or mountainous roads.

Brit paraffin = US kerosene. Remove the heads, put 'em upside down on the bench, fill each one with kerosene, mill away metal until each has the same volume. Smoother running.

"Scientific Progress Goes *****!". One of the C & H books.

the boinkety sound was a juice harp lol .