I don't think the owner of such a fast performance car would care about fuel consumption. Admit it: 1000hp out of a 12.9l N/A V8(?) is very impressive!
No it isn't..... Far from impressive.... Ferrari F430 has 180bhp per litre or so, and if you think 1000hp is alot from an NA engine, when you should look at drag cars. So many V8's pushing over 1000hp with a lesser capacity. 1000hp from 12.9l is actually. Dire.
Alot of it relys on Maintance and proper Cooling down and warming up. Its absolutely crucial, unlike a piston engine you can skip a maintance here and there, or thrash it when its cold once every now and then, or turn it off after a hard run without cooling it down. Its not possible to do that with a rotor, or you'll end up with a very short engine life.
They'll still have to be rebuilt earlier than a piston engine, but rebuilds for rotors are usually a fair bit cheaper as they're alot easier to do, only starts getting expensive when you put in lightened gear, better apex seals, Porting, Doweling, etc.
A Wankel is very much like a 2-stroke - look after it and it'll last it's designed life (less than 4-stroke reciprocating engines admittedly, but that's not the point). Thrash it from cold and it'll go pop sooner than something that likes going pop.
Difficult question to answer. Just exactly how do we define beauty, it is after all in the eye of the beholder.
Is something considered beautiful purely for it's looks, or is it the power it produces, or even the noise it makes. Or maybe even it's significance within history ?. That's an argument that could run and run.
I don't know if this has already been posted, but i'm not sure if internal combustion engines come any prettier than the Pratt and Whitney Wasp series.