Educate Me - Why have rotary engines never really taken off?

[MikeHiow]

I knew it was high, but had no idea it was that high - it only goes to reinforce my point about people not being so concerned with the running costs.

It took off well enough in the RX8 to sell 26k of them in this country (potentially outselling the 325 and 330s, although not sure without year to year figures?), and for Mazda to develop it further for their next rotary car.

If they manage a Euro 5 Rotary, it'll probably (at least partially) address the efficiency concerns, too. At this point, providing it remains true to its nature - it'll be beyond awesome

I really need to buy one.

 

[Dogbreath]

If they manage a Euro 5 Rotary, it'll probably (at least partially) address the efficiency concerns, too.

You cannae change the laws of physics. The engine is flawed in numerous aspects, and those flaws are an inherent part of it's design.

 

[spaz]

Slight resurrection, just read this...perhaps there is life in the old dog yet!

http://www.autocar.co.uk/CarReviews/FirstDrives/Audi-A1-12-kWh-e-tron/254073/

 

[flibbage0]

You do realise what you have just done, Fox and Mike will be in here in 30 mins for Part Deux of Fox vs Mike

 

[jak731]

Bit late to the party, but surely if the amount of R&D money that has been spent on making traditional engines more efficient had been spent on wankel engines the wankel would be just as good if not better? Or is it fundamentally a worse design?

 

[mjt]

Slight resurrection, just read this...perhaps there is life in the old dog yet!

http://www.autocar.co.uk/CarReviews/FirstDrives/Audi-A1-12-kWh-e-tron/254073/

I quite like that little A1.

Looks brilliant in the Competition Kit.
http://cdn0.mattters.com/photos/photos/5899639/AudiA1CompetitionKit_01.jpg

 

[Jonnycoupe]

Bit late to the party, but surely if the amount of R&D money that has been spent on making traditional engines more efficient had been spent on wankel engines the wankel would be just as good if not better? Or is it fundamentally a worse design?

The Mazda Skyactiv powertrain and engines thats under development now will probably answer that if their claims are correct.

 

[georges]

Slight resurrection, just read this...perhaps there is life in the old dog yet!

http://www.autocar.co.uk/CarReviews/FirstDrives/Audi-A1-12-kWh-e-tron/254073/

So after 31miles, you are left with 20bhp? I mean, I know it will top up the battery but surely all cars would be using 20bhp to keep them at 60, so it wouldn't top it up a lot to generate much more power.

 

[Lashout_UK]

Bit late to the party, but surely if the amount of R&D money that has been spent on making traditional engines more efficient had been spent on wankel engines the wankel would be just as good if not better? Or is it fundamentally a worse design?

Fundamentally a flawed design, in short, jak

 

[Dogbreath]

So after 31miles, you are left with 20bhp? I mean, I know it will top up the battery but surely all cars would be using 20bhp to keep them at 60, so it wouldn't top it up a lot to generate much more power.

I guess if the engine can run continuously you'll get more than 31 miles before the battery is exhausted, but in essence you are correct. It's not really intended as a long distance cruiser though.

Wan kel is an interesting choice - I suppose the size, weight and refinement advantages outweighed the efficiency issues in this application. A single cylinder piston engine (or even a twin) would not be as smooth.

 

[Saytan]

since this thread has come back to life

it's 4am, in january. it is minus 7 outside

your housemate wakes you. they need you to unblock the driveway so they can get somewhere in their car pronto.

you slide your conventional engined car off the driveway, they drive away, back in bed. 5 mins.

or

you take your rotor engined car around a large block to warm it up. in your pants, at 4am

 

[taximike]

They have taken off! Many times! Many planes had rotary engines up until the war

 

[Lashout_UK]

They have taken off! Many times! Many planes had rotary engines up until the war

They may have been called rotary but they were not wankel rotaries - they were piston-based engines with rotating cylinder blocks (similar to radials). Very different!

The first wankel engined aircraft wasn't until the late 60s at least...

 

[Gaijin]

zzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz

zzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzz

Why don't you two tarts just come to the Brighton meet and bugger each other senseless.

You've obviously got a major hard on for each other.

At least over this way, no-one would even bat an eyelid.

 

[Lashout_UK]

I'll bring a van and we can chuck 'em in it for a bit. See what happens.

 

[Jonnycoupe]

They have taken off! Many times! Many planes had rotary engines up until the war

Many UAVs have ****el powerplants, some produced from the same site as the Norton motorcyle engines were made.

 

[aproctor]

I would imagine with some R&D rotarty engines could be a serious competitor, it is all very well comparing a tried and tested design to something which has only had a few commercial applications.

Look at any car from the 1960s/1970s, how many cars with over 200bhp would return much more than 20mpg?

Reliability is also a factor, these 30/40 year old cars may be lucky to see 100k miles with such a state of tune.

In regards to the actual displacement of the engine, if they detuned it to half power and increased mpg i am sure many people would be happy with 115bhp and mid 30s mpg (as well as being super smooth).

I agree with the comments against them in the here and now, but i do think if you can make a 3 litre petrol engine average 30mpg anything is possible.

Considering the costs when bought second hand surely it is just a PAYG car, opposed to the crappy eco boxes with free tax where you have to spend twice the amount and end up with a frankly shonky, boring car.

 

[ubersonic]

They have taken off! Many times! Many planes had rotary engines up until the war

Your thinking of radial engines, rotary engines were phased out in aircraft in the early 1920's

*EDIT*

Its just occurred to me, are ****el engines actually rotary engines? I know they call them that but they seem to share their design with radials not rotarys

 

[starfighter]

Not read most of the trhead but they are still ok weight : power arn't they? that is what matters for performance. sure MPG,oil use and reliability is rubbish but if you forget about that stuff.

 

[-Ad-]

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It's not like they break down every 5 minutes. It has been said that some Honda B-Series engines should be rebuilt every 60K as well, but no one calls these unreliable.

I might be late to this thread party but ****ing hell, another retarded comment and right at the beginning.

More hearsay here with the words 'its has been said' and 'that some'. Who was this by, the tooth fairy and Mrs Acrington-Jones at number 42, clearly the most qualified to make such blase comments.