OMC’s 4-Rotor Wankel Racing Engine - The Real Story

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

As a long time St. Louis resident and fan of the "St. Louis Race" for many years, unfortunately we had to miss some races because our PRO Nationals were on the same weekend. Th race where the Rotaries were run was one of those we missed, and it is really great to hear what happened from someone on the inside. All the crashes and "driver instructions" were evidently the reason the next year, a number of boat racers from other categories were used as turn judges at the OZ World Championships. I remember hearing there was controversy at a previous race for overlap violations, etc., and they wanted turn judges who had no connection with OPC racing or either of the factories. Now we have more of the "rest of the story".

Thanks again for all the technical info on the engine. The average person would probably never have had an opportunity to hear about this if not for you and BRF.

[LIQUID NIRVANA]

What a fantastic story. I was at the Galveston race. Unfortunately the editor of Motorsport has all the B&W photos I took of the rotaries. I only have a few color shot left.

There is much more to come.
John Sheldon (Rotary John on BRP) is sending me his entire memrobilia collection which I will scan & post. Hopefully this thread will become the definitive epitaph to what could have been the future of Outboard Motors. If you go the the epilog above you will read why this did not happen. Who could have ever guessed that. Lets make this thread one of the very best. Keep those pictures (& video's) coming, and all you former racers & OMC people, get on board & add you experiences PLEASE!! If you need help posting, my email is liquidnirvana@y7mail.com

Ken

[LIQUID NIRVANA]

All kudo's to JOHN SHELDON (aka RotaryJohn her on BRF), he wrote the story above. Thankyou so much John.
One name springs to mind Charlie Strang, there are many others but Charlie was the CEO. Wouldn't it be good if Charlie chimed in here. Lets ask you as head of the company for so long tell its story Charlie. When you go, as we all do, much will be lost so PLEASE just tell us.

Ken

[Master Oil Racing Team]

John's story on the rotaries was fascinating to me because of several reasons. First, I drove my Mazda RX-2 to the Galveston race, and I ended up overhauling the engine myself after 90,000 miles. Secondly, they were truly revolutionary and played a brief but spectacular part in the history of outboards. Third, I remember being very proud at the time that half the drivers were Texas boys. And finally....the epilogue blew me away. I never figured that into the equation. I always thought it had something to do with the STOOPID EPA guys out of Washington that tagged the rotaries with terrible milage stats. Which brings me to the question....Skoontz...why do you think the Mazda rotaries were pigs?

I am looking forward to more of John's posts. I had posted the Motorsport article some time back, but I will dig out anything pertaining to them and post them here. What a great thread.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

When I saw my first Mazda I was driving A chevy Malibu. The Mazda was the size of a compact Japanese car from those days. I was behind it at a stoplight. It turned right and hauled a$$. I stomped it just to see how fast I could catch up. It ran like a spotted a$$ ape. It gained on me the whole time and I never caught up. That's what I bought a couple of months later when an idiot ran a yield sign and T boned my car.

I never knew any car from those days get 30 mpg, but the Datsun's and Toyotas might get 25. But....they had to burn premium gasoline. My Mazda RX2 would burn the cheapest fuel offered, and would cream the other cars off the line. That's why I had to overhaul the motor. When I left my car at a friends house while I spent 30 days in Africa, his kids drag raced and beat every car in their part of town. To take care of a Mazda, you have to let it warm up so the aluminum and cast iron could equalize in temperature. The drag racing kids didn't do that and as a result it caused a water leak between the aluminum rotor housings and cast iron side plates.

I always got 17 to 18 mpg in the city and around 22 on the highway. The EPA milage estimates that they published from their newly formed "milage estimate treadmills" was 10 mpg and pretty much wiped out the rotary engine for autos. Mazda barely survived, and I think it was because Mitsubishi or some other Japanese company picked up the pieces. In their wise wisdom, the EPA took a gallon of gasoline and ran all the autos through their paces for a half hour or so and sampled unburnt fuel among other things to make their calculations on fuel milage. The rotary's already met 1990 pollution standards in 1972. To do that they had a 1600 degree F thermal reactor just past the exhaust manifold. It had an air pump feeding into it to incinerate unburnt hydrocarbons, and the motor itself did not produce an abundance of oxides of nitrogen. The motors were very far ahead of pollution standards of the time, but before the thermal reactor heated up, there was an excess of gasoline. The idiots at EPA never thought to call Mazda to ask about why so much more gasoline came out the exhaust before the car warmed up than was typical with 4 cycles. They just published the results. A part of mpg milage had to do with how much unburnt hydrocarbons came out of the exhaust pipe. My car got more than twice what the EPA published.

Please guys don't sidetrack into political rants. I just wanted to set the story straight on what I personally had experienced with rotary engines. They were a little less mpg than the top of the line Japanese subcompacts, but they would burn the cheapest fuel out their and outrun the rest.

Now I'm wondering. Were the OMC rotary's aluminum housing's sandwiched between cast iron as well? And were there any problems due to the temperature differential between the intake and exhaust ports while the motor was warming up?

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Here is the Motorsport article about the Galveston race.

[LIQUID NIRVANA]

Quote from above: Now I'm wondering. Were the OMC rotary's aluminum housing's sandwiched between cast iron as well? And were there any problems due to the temperature differential between the intake and exhaust ports while the motor was warming up?

My "GUESS" that OMC were in a new field & that they were trying so many different things. Combining aluminium & steel seems a bit of a nonsense but perhaps it was just a quick fix to see what would happen. All these engines were prototypes. No individual engine was the same, every single engine was unique. John has been sending me updates as things pop into his head. After all this was 35 odd years ago. I will be posting them all. These engines were way ahead of their time & probably still are. Moeller has them now & I believe they are now direct Injected. Wouldn't it be awesome if they could adapt one to an E-Tec gearcase & run it.
I just want to see & explore one of the four that John boxed up back in 1976. These were the new era powerheads without the notorious bolt. Another thought I had was regarding the EPA. If Charlie had notified them of their (OMC) success with the emissions & fuel consumption figures would they (EPA) have banned 2 stroke outboards (as they did with the 2 stroke bikes) & effectively killed Mercury & all other 2 stroke outboard manufacturers. The EPA were certainly a law unto themselves with no thought for common sense. or so it seems.
Things could have been very different today.
Ken