You know, this article doesn't surprise me at all. Every time emissions regulations get stricter, you end up with more creative technology to eek out every last bit of power that you can from an engine. This is just one more step. In a way, I kind of saw this coming about four or five years ago with the Mazda RX-8. Mazda had to pull the car out of the European market early due to being unable to meet fuel efficiency standards. Practically the day after people started talking about how the next Mazda rotary engine was going to be a hybrid. Not only would it help the car meet fuel standards, but it would also provided some much needed low end torque, something that rotary engines are sorely lacking. If such technology would be needed to make the rotary engine viable, it would only be a matter of time for it to apply to more traditional engines as well. Who knows though? Maybe car companies will come up with some creative loopholes to get around laws, such as the PT Cruiser which was classified as a truck for fuel efficiency standards.
Well hybrid engines are a compromise, as the technology and infastructure for purely electric cars isn't going to just pop up overnight. As for rotary engines, I've never been a fan. Not only is the power just not there compared to a traditional piston engine, the fact that apex seals really do wear out about every 70-80,000 miles and need to be replaced seems like a design flaw.
Yeah, you're just straight-up wrong about that. I had an RX-4 with a whopping 1.3L of capacity and little fucker made 250HP or so in 1974. 3-cornered Wankel rotary engines make rippin' power and if you go more exotic, like 5 or 6 corners, they start making stump-pulling torque, too. Shit, son, used to be 20k. Problem is, either the engine casing's gonna wear or the apex seals are gonna wear. Go for the seals, they're cheaper. But yes. It does mean that you end up pulling the engine a lot, and nobody enjoys that. Said-same RX-4 had no governor on the distributor and a 4-barrel Hitachi carb every bit the right size for a Chevy small block and with no reciprocating parts on a rotary, there's nothing to float. As a consequence, you could stuff your foot in it and if the tires weren't locked up, the little thingie would tear ass clear through 13,000 RPM without even pausing for breath. You do that a few times and you get to replace the apex seals now.Not only is the power just not there compared to a traditional piston engine
the fact that apex seals really do wear out about every 70-80,000 miles and need to be replaced seems like a design flaw.
I'm curious as to what your engine setup was. I'm not saying I don't believe you, but naturally aspirated Mazda Rx-4s didn't seem to break 150hp. I'm no expert on the things, but from what I understand with even modern Wankel engines, to get those numbers you'd normally need a turbo setup.
Right you are. Consider, though - that's the same as the mid-market V-8 Camaro. You and I both know that it's not difficult to talk more than 150HP out of a Chevy 350. Said same is very true of a Mazda rotary. Displacement for rotaries is counted in weird ways. From a power-strokes-per-rotation standpoint, it might as well be a two-stroke. Except it's a 4-stroke with all implied efficiencies. As such, calling it a "1.3L engine" is a misnomer. It weighs like a 1.3L, makes power like a 2.6L, and redlines like Formula 1. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Wankel_Cycle_anim_en.gif mk - here's why .gifs are good.
Ha! You've found the one useful gif in the history of hubski. Not sure it's time for a change yet. I never got to really test the one wankle I owned. My first ride was a 1983 Rx-7, but I totaled it in about two weeks. I remember vividly that I had a Sly and the Family Stone tape in the deck. What a sad day that was, as I had looked forward to nothing more in my life than having wheels, only to ruin a badass machine like that with the negligence only a 16 yr old could have.
I owned that RX-4 for a week. It was one of three cars I pulled out of someone's back yard to haul off as scrap - the first being a '69 Ford Ranch Wagon which I sold the engine and transmission out of for $500, the second being a '66 Corvair Monza that I sold running for $800 and the third of which was the RX-4, which I got running again and which my dad paid me $500 to "sell" to my sister. She wrapped it around a lamp post six days later. I even waxed the thing. It was a drag.