s13lover

I've seen bonneville cars that are powered with like 4 Hemi's making like 3500 hp. The motors are all staked in a line and power the drive shafts. I think that if you apply the same idea to rotarys you could have a hell of a fast car. But with a rotary, you wouldn't need seperate motors. A motor could be built with as many rotors as the person has money to build. A bearing would need to be placed between every 2 rotors to support the eccentric shaft, but I think it could be done. Have maybe a 6 rotor power the rear wheels and a nother facing the opposite way power the from wheels (opposite to off set the high rotational force of each motor) and a drivers seat in the middle.

Good idea or am I nuts? :D

wakeech

it's been done. that's how racing beat go it's rep (albiet with bi-rotors)??

Kiwi's do 4 rotors all the time... blokes down unda are a little loopy.

as for how competitive they are these days, i don't know... in any case, buliding and running a bonneville car isn't something you do lightly (or cheaply).

s13lover

Yeah, I know its not an everyday thing, but I just thought that stacking rotors in large numbers for the purpose of top speed would be more interesting than having several large V8's.

rotarygod

Racing Beat has run all 3 generation RX-7s at Bonneville which makes you wonder if they'll try an RX-8.

Their 1st gen was powered by a 2 rotor naturally aspitrated peripheral port 13B (300+ hp) 2 rotor that went 183 mph.

Their 2nd gen was powered by a 2 rotor twin turbo bridgeport 2 rotor 13B (500+ hp) that went 238 mph.

Their 3rd gen flipped at 215+ mph in '93 but returned with a 3 rotor tri turbo peripheral port engine (850+ hp) that went 242 mph. The car had much more in it but the driver let off since the track conditions were very poor and traction wasn't good. The car had lots left in it.

It would be cool to see more rotaries out there but they are racing according to certain class rules.

j9fd3s

racing beat also had a bonneville rx3, with a pp 13b.

neit_jnf

There's a 4-rotor BMW 3 series, yes you read right, BMW! from Australia featured on April's Turbo & High-Tech Performance magazine. It's twin turbocharged with maximum boost of 45 psi and powered by Methanol with 16 2000cc injectors. Estimated 1500 WHP and low 7s quarter mile.

s13lover

I know that there are companies that have done custom 2,3, and 4 rotor engines in production, or tube fame production looking cars, but I am talking about a custom long, skinny frame that has more rotors on it than you can shake a stick at!:D Thats what I wanna see.

wakeech

well... really, one of the weakpoints of rotary architecture is the e-shaft, namely its strength, and the way that multi-rotor motors have to be put together.

the 3 rotor 20B has a two peice eccentric shaft, and the 4 rotor R26B i believe has a three peice eccentric shaft (though i'm getting hazier on the details).

rxphink

http://www.hurleyrotary.com/default.aspx

used to have a 6 rotor engine that they were building for a boat I think.

s13lover

I know that. In fact I even said that an engine with over 2 rotors would require a bearing to support it the e-shaft. My point was that it would be neat to see a huge multi rotor engine in a bonneville car putting out several 1000 hp rather that several seperate piston engines making the power seperatly. I know there would be serious hurtels to over come when building such a motor, but it would be possible because of the engines design. With a piston motor you can't bolt up another cylinder, you would have to cast a bigger block. But with a rotary you can bolt on another rotor housing (along with all of the intake tracks, exhaust tracks, cooling tarck, etc. that accompany it.)