Powerplant of the future?

[corin_huke]

There was a guy here in the UK, Jim Noone, who raced a rotary engine in our HR1000 inboard class that we run in Europe. The engine came from a Triumph Road Racing bike - those of you who know your bikes will recall that Triumph ran these engines, with a lot of success, in the superbike class in the 1990s

Jim was very successful with it, but the biggest headache was getting people to agree upon the approach to measuring the engine's swept volume - one race it was legal, the next it wasn't. Over time Jim had enough of this uncertainty and eventually swapped to a more convntional engine - a real shame, as I can remember it running and on a long straight away, it really used to wind up and go...

[Skoontz]

How much are you looking to get Bruce?

That engine would make a very fun single seat buggy motor for a Honda Pilot....

Jim was very successful with it, but the biggest headache was getting people to agree upon the approach to measuring the engine's swept volume - one race it was legal, the next it wasn't. Over time Jim had enough of this uncertainty and eventually swapped to a more convntional engine - a real shame, as I can remember it running and on a long straight away, it really used to wind up and go...

If memory serves me right, that was the same cry Mercury laid on when the OMC Rotories were killing anything they ran against, providing they held together.....

[jeff55vDSH]

I would bet the turbine not rotary engine is gonna be the engine of the future. But then again, the global warming nonsense folks may force us to resort to canoes. But that's another issue now isn't it? Anyhow, I read somthing about turbine outboards a couple years ago. I don't know if it's gonna go forward, or get pushed to the wayside for one reason or another.

http://www.texs.com/magazine/tsg_13.htm

[pops67g]

I think the death of the rotary engine is more due to people just being afraid of what they don't understand. If something doesn't sell immediately and in large numbers it disappears real quick. One thing though - don't tell Mazda that the rotary is dead because they just keep making them and the current 232 horsepower version seems to do pretty well in a really small, light package.

[Roy Hodges]

After much thought, my GUESS is that ONLY mazda has the brains and guts to maybe try making turbines for the masses . A turbine has to be done right, or not at all. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$....! Even small (relatively) aircraft do NOT have turbines untill they get very expensive .Money talks , B S walks.