Talk about rare parts finds, someone in Germany is selling one Wankel Rotor and Housing for a Mercedes-Benz C111 experimental automobile.

How this German eBay reseller found such a rare piece of automotive history is beyond me but it’s for sale. A single Wankel Rotor and housing listed by eBay user BlitzBlitz popped up for sale earlier this week (Feb. 22, 2019) for a “Buy it now” price of $13,600. Fortunately, if you actually have a legitimate use for this magic German Dorito, BlitzBlitz is accepting Best Offers.

Check out a couple of screenshots of the rotary below.

 

Looking over this seller’s listings, it’s not like BlitzBlitz resells particularly expensive automotive parts. Most of the parts he does sell are your average Garage sale fare of small to medium-sized vintage or NOS parts easily shipped.

This is certainly his eBay Magnum Opus as it’s his most expensive listing a part so rare that there’s literally no market price points for.

The Mercedes-Benz C111 was, after all, an experimental car that Mercedes developed in the early ’70s as a rolling testbed for new technologies. Although the C111 had its most performance success with a turbocharged straight-five diesel, it was its early rotary engines, which this part came from, that earned this experimental car some automotive press ink.

Embed from Getty Images

As mentioned, Mercedes teased its fanbase by showing this car off at the 1969 Franfurt Auto Show with no intention to sell one despite some fans of the brand literally submitting blank checks to Mercedes to whet their appetites.

The first version of the C111 rotary had a tri-rotor setup good for 0-62 MPH in five seconds and a top speed of 161 MPH. In 1971, the year this rotor for sale was manufactured, Mercedes came out with a C111-II powered by a quad-rotor tuned to 350 HP that dropped that 62 MPH time by .2 seconds and raised the top speed to 186 MPH.

Although Mazda had success with rotaries, Mercedes certainly did not see a future with this high-revving gas guzzler. Its poor thermal efficiency meant the rotary was a thirsty engine and its reliability was questionable.

Throughout the cars short-lived history, Mercedes only made 16, which makes this engine part a bit of an anomaly. Who, exactly, is going to buy one? If anything it’d be Mercedes themselves since they presumably own most of the C111’s and this part IS shipping from Stuggart where Mercedes is headquartered.

Anyways, if you’re a baller with money to burn for no real reason, boy do I have the part for you.

It’s noteworthy that this is at least the second time this part has been listed, down from $14,900. What a bargain.

Source: eBay

 

 

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