vader1

Yeah, yeah, we know, they suck...apex seals, blah blah. And yeah, missing a finger.

Marioshi

I had no idea the Wankels were so small, no wonder they don't make any torque! ;P

I agree though, I love these slow mo clear cover videos. Really hits home how the various types of engines work for me.

JonBoy

Very neat! Amazing how good those apex seals are (for now), considering the motion of the part and the contour they have to follow.

s2000Junky

Its all about power to weight/size in a sports application, so in that they are the best. And in every other way they are the worst. Poor reliability/longevity, poor fuel mileage, use a lot of oil etc etc.

ZDan

Very cool video!

Rotaries are neat/cool and all. But hideously impractical. Fundamental issues with massive inefficiency due to broad rotor faces rejecting heat and problems creating reliable sealing. F20C reconfigured as a V4 would be nearly as compact as the 1.3L rotary and about the same weight, while giving a bit more power and 1.5x the fuel mileage. The novelty of the rotary is just not worth it...

It sucks that Mazda's "Vision" concept car is saddled with the rotary. That car would be *brilliant* at 2750 lb. with a ~275hp 2.5 liter NA V4, which would be totally doable...

TheDonEffect

I was tossing around this idea in my non engineer head the other day, why make a boxer 4 when you could mane a v4. It's have almost all all the benefits and you could check spark plugs like normal.

vader1

You know, I don't know what the problem with the apex seals is because my dad had an 84 RX7 and they never were a problem up to 135,000 miles when he sold it. I never heard any real complaints about APEX seals at all until the FD's. They were fine if the engine was only putting out 135 hp.

They may not make great car engines, but I see the military is looking at rotaries for remote power generation and other things where a really light and compact engine is beneficial. The one in the video is for a RC airplane. I wonder if small rotaries might make a good engine for small power equipment like weed wackers and chainsaws. And I wonder where that guy's digit went.