pcldletter |
06-22-2005 12:57 PM |
Rotary Hybrid.
I've been thinking about this on and off for a little over a year now, and just have to throw this out. Wouldn't a rotary engine mate perfectly with an electric motor? Rotary, high HP with low tourque. Electric motor, high tourque with low HP. With the electric being most powerful at 0 rpm, and the rotary being most powerful up at the top, it seems you would have the broadest possible power curve. Reliability should be good as well. There are very few moving parts in a rotary engine, and even fewer in an electric motor.
The small size of the Rotary engine would alow both to fit in a relatively small engine compartment. According to Honda, their hybrid civic sedan only weighs 287lbs more than their regular sedan. While that is a good amount of weight, it is not much in comparison to the power gains that would come out of it. Now this is a relatively small motor, and battery package, I would imagine a powerful motor and everything needed to go with it shouldn't weight too much more than 5 or 6 hundred pounds.
While this much weight would cripple a nimble sports car, it opens up incredible possibilities elswere in the automotive world. In a truck for instance, you would still get the stump pulling tourque from the electric motor, while getting high HP for plowing and towing. Who wouldn't like to see high fuel mileage from their pickup?
Lets say you put this into an average every day car. Say the Mazda 6. You could get a car that is responsive, fun to drive, and gets fabulous gass mileage. Hybrid cars just don't seem to appeal to the average driver. What does anyone have to gain? It seems you sacrafice the better pleasures of a responsive car for better gass mileage. With this combination, you would gain alot, and lost nothing.
This isn't to say you couldn't put this technology into a sports car / sport oriented car. This however is thinking miles outside the box from where manufacturers have hybrid cars now. Lets say you can engeneir the car so that you can get the maximum power with the least amount of added weight. At 300 lbs, you would lose approximately 3/10ths of a second in the quarter mile. That is with no power gain at all. Now add a powerful Electric motor that if at full power at WOT. Now tripple the tourque at low RPMs and you no longer have to drop the clutch at 8000 rpm to get a decent launch. You don't have to keep the engine over 5000 rpm to be able to rip out of a turn. A power curve that is hight, flat and even is every drivers dream. I would imagine you should be able to put both powerplants in a space about the size of a big V6 or small V8. Battery and fuel placement could create a relatively even weight distribution.
Just my two cents in the matter.
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