Anyone who has ever studied engineering or engine design loves the history of the Wankel Rotary Engines and Mazda's first use of them in production cars.
Personally the idea of a true 4 door, 4 adult car, with a fresh (I think very attractive) design, with innovative technology, and a 8500 RPM readline would appeal to your average Honda/NSX owner - but we will have to see. Early car tests have been very promissing.
To better understand the Rotary / Cool animations:
http://www.rotaryengineillustrated.com/guide.html
Rotory engine (from Mazda):
In a traditional 4-stroke piston engine, the same cylinder, does four different jobs - intake, compression, combustion, exhaust.
A rotary engine, however, allows each of these four jobs to be done in a different section of its housing. The effect is not unlike having a separate cylinder to perform each of the four jobs.
In a piston engine, expansion pressure created by burning of the fuel-air mixture forces pistons to move back and forth inside of cylinders. Connecting rods and a crankshaft then convert this linear movement into rotational motion required to drive the car.
In a rotary engine there is no linear motion to convert. Pressure is contained in chambers created by different areas of the housing and convex faces of a triangular rotor. As combustion occurs the rotor is immediately made to turn thus reducing vibration and increasing potential engine revs. The resultant increase in efficiency also means that the engine can be much smaller for equivalent performance of a traditional piston engine.
How does it work?
The main component of the rotary engine is the triangular rotor, which orbits within a roughly oval housing in such a way that the rotor's three apexes are in constant contact with the inner wall of the housing, forming three sealed volumes of gas, or combustion chambers. In effect, each of the rotor's three faces acts like a piston. As the rotor rotates within the housing, the three chambers that it creates change size, producing a pumping action.
In the centre of the rotor is a small externally toothed gear that is fixed to the housing. A larger internally toothed gear mates with this fixed gear, determining the path that the rotor will take through the housing.
Because the rotor is mounted off-centre on the output shaft it turns the shaft with the same motion as a handle turns a crank, moving output shaft through three revolutions for every one of its own.
