Rotary engines

From: JHambleton@diabloresearch.com
Date: Fri Sep 25 1998 - 12:48:13 EDT


                GM bought the U.S. manufacturing rights to the Wankel, and
Honda CVCC, engine. Then shelved them, never intending to produce the
engines. The logic was to keep these highly efficient engines from
displacing the crappy engines being produced by GM (and Ford & Chryco). A
twin rotary Wankel engine produced more useable horse power over a greater
RPM range than anything produced at the time.
                You can get the facts on this from the Library if you think
I'm not telling the truth. GM has used it's monetary muscle to pull quite a
number of less than kosher deals. That is my main objection to them, not the
quality of their vehicles.
                Example: When Chrysler imported Mitsubishi's they were
labeled " Imported by Mitsubishi for Chryco". When GM imported Japanese
vehicles, they were labeled GEO, and nothing was ever mentioned about who
actually manufactured them. John Q. Public was lead to believe that these
were genuine GM products.

Sorry, I'll shut up now.

Jon H

Date: Fri, 25 Sep 1998 09:20:43 -0400
From: Rader <rlr@rtp-bosch.com>
Subject: Re: DML: Alternate Powersources (part of Demons)

> Wankle introduced his Rotary engine: a serious change in motor
> design, but nobody has ever trusted it even though it has been around for
> years.

  I wouldn't say "nobody," because Mazda continues to use the Wankel
today in their RX-7. The reasons why rotaries have never achieved mass
acceptance are numerous, but I don't know if I'd interpret that as a
lack of trust. From what I've heard, they have a lot more to do with
large licensing fees paid to the patent holders, probably the Wankel estate;
not to mention the difficulty of emissions control in an engine with
a power cycle much like a 2-stroke.

  I remember the days when you had a whole bunch of Mazda rotary small
cars and trucks, not to mention rotary Polaris snowmobiles, and even
a few rotary lawnmowers (never saw one of those, but did see pictures).

  Ron



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