AutoWeek office swag: Mazda rotary-engine keychain with realistic motion

When I got the keys to our long-term 2011 Mazda 5 last week, they came with a surprise--this aluminum-and-brass keychain in the shape of a rotary-engine housing, complete with moving rotor.

The rotor doesn't just rattle around or spin in a circle. Thanks to a thumbwheel on the back of the housing, coupled with a timing gear and offset crank journal, the thing actually moves in an approximation of epitrochoidal motion just like a real Wankel.

Associate editor Jonathan Wong tells me that the keychain came courtesy of Mazda a few years back and is used whenever we have a Mazda in the fleet (rotary powered or not). They're also available to all Wankel lovers via Auto Art models--or at least they would be if AA had them in stock.

No, you can't have ours.

By Andrew Stoy