Moonduck

This I can easily accept. As I said, it was anecdotal evidence, not extensive personal experience. You gave actual examples that I can accept. The only nits I would pick is to wonder about relative engine weight (as it affects performance) and such intangibles as throttle response. (In other words, weak arguments as I am not a Wankel nut)

The important thing is that I am not arguing the triumphant superiority of the Wankel. I said that I think it is a neat design, still do. I find it impressive that the car that you chose to compare it to was a Vette, arguable one of the most R&D heavy NA street cars around. GM probably put as much money simply into tuning the Vette as Mazda did on the entire design and build of their rotary. Given the massive proliferation of the V8, the staggering number of people constantly working to push the envelope on the V8, and the stupefying amount of money thrown into R&D on piston engines in general, of course it is going to have the edge. The fact that only one company uses a rotary tells its' own tale.

In conclusion, I'm not saying that it is better, just different, and given the limitations I mentioned above, it does a damned good job of holding its' own.

Oh, and I could just as easily come up with a bunch of engines that have inferior performance and MPG, so don't think I'm rolling over because of one measly example =)