Jim, Dave, List,
Sorry I'm late to the fight Dave. I'm still trying to catch up with this
thread, and have probably missed some of it, but I MUST jump in here and let
it be known that I intend to run rotary engines as my primary power plant in
at least 3 vehicles (Sedan, GT and truck) just as soon as time and finances
allow. There are at least two other gentlemen racers in my area who intend
to campaign rotary engined vehicles with ECTA.
David Parks mentioned Omega class engines, non-otto cycle, and two rotary
sizes. Sorry David, but the rotary is clearly a 4 cycle engine, with
exactly the same 4 events as any piston engine. The fact that they occur in
a different manner in no way diminishes that fact. (Lord, I must be watching
too much CNN, I sound like a lawyer.) There are also 4, and potentially 5
sizes of rotary engine just available from Mazda. Common U.S. production
engines include the 10A, 12A and 13B, with the three rotor 20B easily
available through Mazda's competition parts department. There may also be a
4 rotor available on a more limited basis. Only the 10A, at 982cc would
fall below the 2000cc figure using a x2 calculation. (Don't underestimate
these little fellas, with less mass they can handle higher RPM easily and
run on alcohol they were stout little sprint car engines, and I believe one
still holds the G/PRO record on the salt.) I'd like to see rotary engines
from Rupp, Curtis-Wright, Graupner, and others. While the rotary engine may
never gain that kind of popularity, it sure isn't helped by the X3 factor.
I've gotto stand with Dave Dahlgren on this issue. Just because "we
always did it that way" doesn't make it right. If that was true we'd still
be training infantryman how to form squares and line for battle, performing
surgery without sterile equipment, and (finally I come up with an analogy
that'll hit home with everyone) trying to get our LSR questions answered
WITHOUT THIS LIST.
Chuck Rothfuss
Rotor head
At 12:41 PM 12/15/2000 -0800, you wrote:
>I don't know Dave, the Bonneville record book shows 21 F class records set
>in 1990 or later and 10 older than 1990. That shows some interest. How many
>people out there want to run rotary's?
>Jim in Palmdale
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