I know that video and that was the clutch that let go, hence the front wing and the bonnet popping up, not many engines will take that sort of high rpm abuse without letting go.

Rotary engines are reliable in the right application, race engines will last many seasons without rebuild (just a strip and check every so often) and they are very highly regarded in the aviation world (they use the mazda engines too)

The NSU's had the dodgy tip seals and Mazda pretty much got all of that ironed out in the early 70's.
Yes, the 3rd gen was pushing things a little too far in terms of relaiblility but if you do a little digging you will find that everything before then was very good.

The rotary suffers a lot from mis-information too, I wonder how many perfectly good engines were rebuilt (or changed out for boat anchor ford engines) because they wouldn't start or some idiot blew them up due to over reving the poor thing because 'its a rotary'

 

That video was excellent,never seen so much lack of mechanical sympathy.