Animated engines

[Manky Monkey]

A link sent to me by my brother Brock, who understands these things. Way beyond me, but fascinating to watch.

http://www.animatedengines.com/

[BikerGran]

Brilliant!  I never could quite understand how a diesel engine got started - now I do!

[Manky Monkey]

See- we learns you stuff here!

[one arm bandit]

its the wankle i was mesmarised by never seen on to know how they work, or how they get such high revs, still none the wiser how they work out the engine cc?

[BikerGran]

I spose it would be the volume of the 'cylinder' or whatever they call it, less the volume of the rotor.

[nabsim]

Its debateable with a rotary engine. Seem to remember Norton having problems entering a rotary engined bike for Isle of Man a few years back. That may be a good few years but not sure when

[digger06]

very debatable when norton wanted to race

[fifer]

Steve Hislop won the 1992 Senior TT on the Rotary Norton

Different sound 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wT0sA_ukD7E
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[Tony oily bike]

I visited the Norton factory about the same time as the you-tube feature.

They were having problems with the tips of the rotors not cooling properly.

Quite a few years later I got to ride an ex police rotary, and it was more like a two stroke in the way it revved (and boy did it rev!!), but it was unlike a two stroke in that the power was continuous (no power band, just kept on coming). Other weird thing was the lack of engine braking - diddly squat!

One of the publicity things at the time was the lack of vibration due to it having a lack of reciprocating parts (ie no pistons and rods changing direction, rocker arms moving etc), and to demonstrate this they'd stand a 50p piece vertically on the tank and rev the bike - it stayed upright!
And because of the lack of reciprocating parts, high revs were easily obtained.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpBEAewUwEo

Was on the Isle of Man when they were racing the early ones, and got overtaken on the road by the mechanics taking the bikes back to garage - now that was cool!

Suzuki had the RE5 rotary from the 70's (as a design styling thing, even the clocks and rear light are round)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBJo2BzysME&feature=related


And here's a real view of a rotor doing its thing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IteYK_vlD0


NSU (the car makers) had the RO80 back, I think, at the end of the 60's, but rotor wear meant the engines didn't last.

Here's NSU's video of how a roatry engine works
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvri-fUNRyk

The CC question? Always been a bit of a sore point, as 'swept volume' was the way it's always been calculated, but the power output per cc of rotatry swept volume is higher than a four stroke, so people used to debate it a lot

[nabsim]

Wasn't the Mazda the first long term reliable production car Tony? I remember the NSU's but didn't drive one and was always told they were unreliable but it is all hearsay. The Mazda RX is the only mass produced I can think of.

[Tony oily bike]

Head scratchin' here, but think you're right re Mazda's and the RX series.
Can remember the RX3 which looked like any other Japanese car of the early/mid 70's, the there was the RX7, a quite slick looking sporty model from late 70's to early 80's, and that was followed by the RX8 which most folk would recognise as it can be seen on the roads today.

A bit of searching has found a Mazda range called 'Cosmo', which started in the late 60's with Wankel motors, wasn't aware of that.
Citroen apparently had a late 60's car called the M35

Can't think of any other car manufacturers going down the 'rotary' (or more correctly Wankel - pronounced Vankel (schoolboy snigger!!)) route.

Bit from Wikipedia  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wankel_engine  lucky enough to have seen 787B car at Goodwood a few years ago (pic is the787B)
In the racing world, Mazda has had substantial success with two-rotor, three-rotor, and four-rotor cars. Private racers have also had considerable success with stock and modified Mazda Wankel-engine cars.[47]
 
The Sigma MC74 powered by a Mazda 12A engine was the first engine and only team from outside Western Europe or the United States to finish the entire 24 hours of the 24 Hours of Le Mans race, in 1974. Mazda is the only team from outside Western Europe or the United States to have won Le Mans outright and the only non-piston engine ever to win Le Mans, which the company accomplished in 1991 with their four-rotor 787B (2,622 cc/160 cu in—actual displacement, rated by FIA formula at 4,708 cc/287 cu in). The following year, a planned rule change at Le Mans made the Mazda 787B ineligible to race due to weight advantages.

Interetsing bit about the 'cc fudge factor' .............

[one arm bandit]

cheating by 2litres    seems even mazda cant work out ther size of there own engines.  i asked the ? earlyier as they recon the rx8 is a 1.3l       15mpg helish insurance and dear tax .........the advantages of these little engines

[phunkie hiboy]

Citroen apparently had a late 60's car called the M35

Don't know about the '60s, but they put a twin rotor unit in the GS in the late '70s/early '80s. Had fuel consumption issues as well as problems with the rotor tip seals. Citroen bought them all back, although there was only a limited amount built and they were only offered to existing known (to citroen) customers.

[Tony oily bike]

Open up your ears as this video has rotary-powered drag racing (something I hadn't seen before) ............. it has some footage early on of a Lamborghini, with a teeny weeney engine mod, see if you can spot it  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-8vtv6Ez_k

[Tony oily bike]

and how about this.............  a rotary powered dragbike............ (I think with a Mazda car engine.... well, you would, wouldn't you!!  )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdRmFyKgIqs&feature=related


some more 4 wheel rotary drag footage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5-DA8ew5Fw&feature=related