What went wrong??
07-28-2002, 07:12 AM
#1
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2001
Posts: 198
Hey all, wooffinn here from downunder.I'm a collector of old mazda papers/mag articles etc. and just recently got a bundle of old mags from around the country. There was various write ups on R100's and NSU Spider's and RO80's but one paragraph made me ask this question.... What went wrong? :P
"with now 2 rotary engined cars on the aussie market and many more across the world stage, the beginning of a new era of motoring is dawning.Rotary power just has to eventually take over from the conventional piston engine as a more efficient utilisation of the internal combustion principles. Manufacturers simply can't afford to ignore the adoption of rotary principles will ultimately mean cheaper, more efficient cars." :unsure:
"with now 2 rotary engined cars on the aussie market and many more across the world stage, the beginning of a new era of motoring is dawning.Rotary power just has to eventually take over from the conventional piston engine as a more efficient utilisation of the internal combustion principles. Manufacturers simply can't afford to ignore the adoption of rotary principles will ultimately mean cheaper, more efficient cars." :unsure:
07-28-2002, 08:55 AM
#2
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Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Close enough to annoy you.
Posts: 1,381
Oil crisis mostly.
Rotary engines are not fuel efficent or where not terribly so at that time. Good efficeny if you look at HP to weight ratio but not much else.
Plus there was the reilablity issue. The early 10A was not the most hardy of engines and none of the NSU engines would stand up to any abuse. In fact it was common practice with the Ro80 to replace the engine with the German Ford V4.
State side the new air quality laws of 1975 stopped GM from continuing development on the rotary.
John Deere has or had several tractors based on the rotary engine, all of those have been sold to pegasus.
Merceades may or may not have something in the works.
I can't say for the guys in OZ but your average consumer in the states does not take great care of their car and as we all know, rotary engines don't like neglect.
The Renisis engine may well turn things around a bit, but it's going to be very hard for any manufacture to drop the 100's of years of piston engineering.
It is intresting to note that the rotary has only been running since 1957 and has come this far.
Rotary engines are not fuel efficent or where not terribly so at that time. Good efficeny if you look at HP to weight ratio but not much else.
Plus there was the reilablity issue. The early 10A was not the most hardy of engines and none of the NSU engines would stand up to any abuse. In fact it was common practice with the Ro80 to replace the engine with the German Ford V4.
State side the new air quality laws of 1975 stopped GM from continuing development on the rotary.
John Deere has or had several tractors based on the rotary engine, all of those have been sold to pegasus.
Merceades may or may not have something in the works.
I can't say for the guys in OZ but your average consumer in the states does not take great care of their car and as we all know, rotary engines don't like neglect.
The Renisis engine may well turn things around a bit, but it's going to be very hard for any manufacture to drop the 100's of years of piston engineering.
It is intresting to note that the rotary has only been running since 1957 and has come this far.
07-28-2002, 11:21 AM
#3
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2001
Posts: 184
I recently talked with a development engineer for Rotary Power International(pegasus, etc-try their web site) and they are making some remarkable progress in the rotary world.
Since I work on marine diesel engines up to 5000hp, of special interest to me was their 2,3,4,6 rotor diesel engines (2000+hp) From what I can guess, they have taken over where John Deere left off. When I talked to them they were doing testing with the military on their marine inboard diesel 2 rotor engine of 250hp. (major contract!)
I have a Haltech E6K in my KelmarkGT powered by a Mazda TurboII and they had never seen the Haltech before, to say that they were very interested in the Haltech would be an understatement. I think they really liked the data log feature as they can read/print engine data.
Well, it just shows that the rotary isn't dead and there are a lot of applications were piston engines just don't measure up.(Atkins Rotary putting them in airplanes is one example.)
Since I work on marine diesel engines up to 5000hp, of special interest to me was their 2,3,4,6 rotor diesel engines (2000+hp) From what I can guess, they have taken over where John Deere left off. When I talked to them they were doing testing with the military on their marine inboard diesel 2 rotor engine of 250hp. (major contract!)
I have a Haltech E6K in my KelmarkGT powered by a Mazda TurboII and they had never seen the Haltech before, to say that they were very interested in the Haltech would be an understatement. I think they really liked the data log feature as they can read/print engine data.
Well, it just shows that the rotary isn't dead and there are a lot of applications were piston engines just don't measure up.(Atkins Rotary putting them in airplanes is one example.)
07-28-2002, 12:33 PM
#6
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Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Sarasota, Florida
Posts: 558
this is one of the reasons I like this site, there is a wealth of information, and obscure interesting facts all over the place, I guess if you can't have a turbo, knowing a lot about your engine is the next best thing, right RD?
07-28-2002, 01:26 PM
#7
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Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Close enough to annoy you.
Posts: 1,381
Heheheh yeah at least I can read right?
Mercedes was still working on the rotary up into the mid 80's but never did anything. Mazda was pretty much it.
There IS a Russian rotary engine but good luck on finding information.
I talked to a guy who had a comotor rotary that was still running....which is amazing.
Mercedes was still working on the rotary up into the mid 80's but never did anything. Mazda was pretty much it.
There IS a Russian rotary engine but good luck on finding information.
I talked to a guy who had a comotor rotary that was still running....which is amazing.
07-29-2002, 06:13 AM
#8
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2001
Posts: 198
Hey all, you right Rotory Dragon, Mazda are the only true rotor developers. Did you know that there is a kit car available for the Mercedes CI11? They made about 15 of them as various prototypes as a thank you to Mr Wankel[the true god?] I read they actually gave him one and he couldn't wait to take it for a drive![even though he never actually had a driver's licence !]The Russian company 'VAJ' which is a division of Lada have been producing rotary powered cars since the early 80's. I actually found a web site full of info on them, but I'll have to track it down again. I'll post it when I find it.Most of them were for police and KGB cars as they weren't available to the general public! I've got a friend in Sydney with a Citroen Birotor[the upgraded version of comotor]a very queer version of the rotor but a rotor never the less! I also believe GM played with the idea but the oil crisis sunk that as well. I got a picture of the Corvette with the quad rotor in it somewhere in a mag, I'll go looking!!
07-29-2002, 01:01 PM
#9
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Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 946
