Wankel v. SBC: A cagematch to power the Aerovette

Quick, what type of engine powered the Aerovette? Having a hard time deciding whether it was a four-rotor Wankel or a small-block V-8? Understandable: It used both. See, it started life as the XP-882, a mid-engine design with a 400-cu.in. small-block V-8 mated to a TH425 out of a Toronado. But then in the early 1970s, GM resurrected the prototype, but fit it with a four-rotor Wankel and called it the XP-895.

A few years later, GM resurrected it again, popped another small-block into it, and officially called it the Aerovette. They even had some intention of putting the Aerovette into production in the early 1980s, but that plan stalled out.

So why the brief history lesson? Because Greg Steinmayer, whose cutaway engine display photos we showed you yesterday, also shared with us photos of both the four-rotor Wankel and one of the small-block V-8s that powered the Aerovette.

We wonder how well GM’s rotary fling would have worked out had they not grown so spooked of it before they consummated it. Would it have flopped, or would we all now better know the definition of epitrochoid than hemispherical?