Hi,
Some years later .....
I have begun researching for a book in which this vehicle is a key part. Early days .... but I think the Rotarymotive name has bled across from another project. The car is the prototype built by Auckland motoring entrepreneur Roly Crowther. It never got a marketable name but was simply the Crowther sedan. Yes it was to have been powered by a rotary engine designed by the late Hamilton Walker, and did run for a period in the prototype. Yes, the chap with the glasses is Dennis Smith, the main engineer on the Crowther sedan, and a very clever engineer who made a lot of progress turning Walker's design into a functionning engine. Ferris de Joux designed the body and was responsible for it's manufacture I believe. Rotarymotive was the name of a company part owned by Crowther, to develop the engine for production. The car was one of two highish profile New Zealand vehicles which were unsuccessfully proposed for production. The other was the Anziel Nova. Roly Crowther died last year. The Anziel Nova is still in showroom condition and makes the odd outing. The Crowther sedan, with a conventional engine also exists. I think the DAF transmission mention earlier in the chain may have related to a later vehicle which Roly Crowther built prototypes of, the Crowther Toiler, a fibreglass utility vehicle with gull wing doors and a DAF transmission. Ferris De Joux I think was also involved in that. If "Facel" is still around I'd be interested to hear from him/her.
The punchline .... the only New Zealand-designed motor vehicle to make it into production was the Trekka....aah but that's another story.
www.trekka.co.nz with links to the book (he pointed out modestly)
