NSU RO 80 Rotary - Barn Find

Hello. /p>

Up for auction is this extremely rare Right Hand Drive NSU Ro 80. Discovered after being locked away under covers for at least 25 years. this car was dragged out of it's cave earlier this year.

Air was placed in the tyres and the quiet suburban garage released this rarity with not much more than a muffled pop. (one tyre was too perished and blew up. ) I placed the spare tyre from the boot onto the vehicle. inserted some air into the spare and rolled it out into the daylight.

From Wikipedia - The NSU Ro 80 is a four-door. front-engine sedan manufactured and marketed by the West German firm NSU from 1967 until 1977.

Noted for innovative. aerodynamic styling by Claus Luthe and a technologically advanced powertrain. the Ro 80 featured a 84 kW (113 bhp). 995 cc twin-rotor Wankel engine driving the front wheels through a semi-automatic transmission with an innovative vacuum system.

The Ro 80 was voted Car of the Year for 1968[1] and 37. 98 units were manufactured over a ten-year production run. all in a single generation.

Some more info on the NSU - Citroen. Saab. Audi. Mercedes. Renault. BMW all had a wake-up call when the radical NSU Ro80 was launched.

The Ro80 is recognized as one of the most significant car designs of its era. With a rotary engine. semi-automatic. front wheel drive. aerodynamic shape. power steering. disc brakes. etc. it was a very advanced car – and justifiably the winner of World Car of the Year in 1967.

Small numbers were sold in Australia and sadly. most have rusted away or succumbed to problems with the original rotary engine. Probably less than a dozen remain on the road in Australia.

This particular RO 80 remains a true survivor and is completely original. The only part that appears to be missing is a LHF headlight. The LHF guard has some orange paint showing underneath so perhaps that guard is not the original item - maybe the missing headlight is the reason this car was off the road.

Their is a rust spot at the back right bottom window and a few scrapes here and there - but the dust comes free if you are into rat look vehicles. The black interior has some mould present as the car was kept under two heavy tarpaulins.

I've hooked some jumper leads to the car and can assure the potential purchaser that the engine freely turns over. No fuel was used as the condition of the fuel lines is unknown.

I do know that it belonged to a German car enthusiast back in the day as I was trying to purchase the 1956 356 that was parked in the same garage in front of the NSU - however my budget blew out on the Porsche once a few collectors found about it.

I'll happily arrange and or facilitate Australia wide delivery at your cost and would also be happy to work with international purchasers on getting the vehicle delivered to a Melbourne freight forwarder of your choice.

From memory the speedo reads 62000 miles. I would estimate this to be correct as the car was only on the road for approximately 8 years.

Here's a link to a show winning RO 80 from Google - http://nsuro80australia. com/

Inspection may be available at a mutually agreeable time.

Also published at eBay.com.au

Want to buy this car?