today I was thinking about how the each rotor produces one power stroke per revolution of the eccentric shaft, and what effect it would have on sound. The exhaust note comes from the explosions in the engine, right? So if each rotor produces one power stroke per revolution of the eccentric shaft as opposed to a piston engine, which produces one power stroke every other revolution of the crankshaft, then the rotary would be producing sound with twice the frequency. Thus, wouldn't the exhaust note from a rotary engine running at X rpm have twice as high a pitch (e.g. be one octave above) as the exhaust note from a 4-stroke piston powered vehicle with the engine running at that speed? Just curious, as I've never owned a rotary or heard one really revved. :p

Not really able to answer the question, but I did notice that the DBs in the were rated higher than the G35 in C&D, however the engine/exhaust note seems to be quite compared to the nissan V6, perhaps this is somehow related:confused:

Interesting idea, I don't know how the extra explosions would affect volume. Maybe the rotary would give the same pitch as a two-stroke piston engine running at the same speed, though. With that extra high pitch, the wankel might sound like an F1 car! :D

today I was thinking about how the each rotor produces one power stroke per revolution of the eccentric shaft, and what effect it would have on sound.


The gearing on the shaft is such that one complete rotation of the rotors yields three on the shaft. I believe each 3 rotations of the shaft therefore requires 6 combustion events (1 per rotor-face.)