Suzuki licensed NSU Wankel rotary-engine patents in 1970. The RE-5 used a liquid-cooled single-rotor engine of 497 cc and a five-speed gearbox. It was an unconventional attempt to broaden what a motorcycle engine could be.
The model was produced from 1974 to 1976; sales in the Australian state of Victoria began in January 1975. Heavy fuel consumption and emissions requirements complicated its commercial life. Its brief production run left the RE-5 as a distinctive record of its era.
Development required solutions to uneven combustion at low load, stationary-gear cracking and oil-consumption problems. A suitable spark-plug design helped prevent fouling and pre-ignition. That work shows how many details sit behind an appealing basic engine concept.
Museums Victoria acquired its 1975 example in 1977. It retains the early, unusually rounded Nippon Seiki instrument cluster. Looking at a motorcycle like this, it is worth noticing both the engine and the details through which its engineers and designers tried to express the future.