Word: audis
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Like a Jack Rabbit. Technical difficulties slowed acceptance of the Wankel. Toyo Kogyo paid West Germany's Audi NSU $12 million in the early '60s for rights to the engine, spent seven years and $20 million improving its performance. The most crucial problem, devising a tight but long-lasting seal at the three apexes of the rotor, was solved by substituting a carbon alloy for the cast-iron tip used in German models. The original Wankel engines belched clouds of smoke, so Toyo Kogyo built a 40-lb. "thermal-reactor" afterburner to oxidize the exhaust and attached...