NSU Ro 80
A wind-tunnel-shaped executive saloon paired front-wheel drive with a smooth twin-rotor engine and a clutch pedal that disappeared.
NSU Ro 80 — 1967 · Loudumo · CC BY-SA 4.0
Research pending
A matching completed auction sale has not been verified for this exact year, body, trim, engine, transmission and market.
Joyride shows this gap instead of substituting an asking price, unsold bid or mismatched special vehicle.
More than a set of wheels.
NSU unveiled the Ro 80 at the Frankfurt motor show in September 1967 after five years of development. Claus Luthe’s aerodynamic shape and the compact twin-rotor Wankel made it look and feel unlike an ordinary piston-engine saloon. This profile covers the launch car, before later detail changes.
Look a little closer.
‘Ro’ means rotary piston; ‘80’ was the type number, not the engine size.
Photos show an example of the model or generation. The pictured vehicle’s year, equipment, or modifications can differ from the specification described here.
Designed in the wind tunnel
The wedge-shaped body reached a drag coefficient of 0.35, unusually low for a four-door car of its era.
Source: Audi Tradition · NSU Ro 80 ↗Advanced, but not trouble-free
The Ro 80 won major praise and became the first German Car of the Year winner, yet early rotary durability and later fuel-price concerns hurt sales. That mix of brilliance and risk is central to its story.
Source: Audi Tradition · NSU Ro 80 ↗Where these facts come from
Selected facts checked for this edition. Some source pages link to broader model families. Last reviewed September 29, 2026.