#Supercars #WankelEngine #RotaryEngine #AutomotiveEngineering #EngineTechnology
If you’ve ever wondered why the wankel engine, also known as a rotary engine, was not widely adopted in supercars, you’re not alone. Despite its unique design and potential benefits, the wankel engine has not seen widespread use in high-performance vehicles. In this article, we’ll explore the reasons behind this and shed some light on the fascinating world of automotive engineering.
##What is a Wankel Engine?
Before we dive into the reasons for the wankel engine’s limited adoption in supercars, let’s first understand what sets this engine apart from traditional piston engines.
– A wankel engine is a type of internal combustion engine that uses a rotary design to convert pressure into rotating motion.
– Instead of using pistons and cylinders, a wankel engine features a triangular rotor that spins in an oval-shaped housing.
– This unique design results in fewer moving parts and a smoother operation compared to traditional piston engines.
##Potential Benefits of Wankel Engine in Supercars
The wankel engine has a number of characteristics that make it an attractive option for high-performance vehicles like supercars.
– Compact and lightweight design: The absence of bulky pistons and crankshafts makes the wankel engine more compact and lightweight than traditional engines, which can be advantageous in supercar design.
– High power-to-weight ratio: The rotary design of the wankel engine allows for a high power-to-weight ratio, which is crucial in supercar performance.
– Smooth and high-revving operation: The rotary design of the wankel engine results in smoother and higher revving operation compared to traditional piston engines, potentially leading to improved performance in supercars.
##Challenges and Limitations of Wankel Engine
Despite its potential benefits, the wankel engine has faced several challenges and limitations that have prevented its widespread adoption in supercars.
###1. Fuel Efficiency and Emissions
– One of the major drawbacks of the wankel engine is its relatively poor fuel efficiency compared to traditional piston engines.
– The design of the wankel engine can lead to incomplete combustion and higher emissions, making it less appealing in an era of increasing environmental concerns and strict emissions regulations.
###2. Apex Seal Wear
– The triangular rotor of the wankel engine relies on apex seals to maintain compression and prevent gas leakage during operation.
– However, the repeated motion and high speeds of the rotor can lead to significant wear and tear on the apex seals, resulting in potential reliability issues and maintenance costs.
###3. Cooling and Thermal Management
– The unique shape and motion of the rotor in a wankel engine present challenges for cooling and thermal management.
– The engine’s design makes it more prone to overheating, especially under high-performance conditions, which is a critical consideration for supercars.
##Adoption by Mazda and Limited Usage in Supercars
While the wankel engine may not have seen widespread adoption in supercars, it has found a niche in the automotive world, particularly through Mazda’s dedication to the technology.
– Mazda is one of the few automakers that has consistently pursued the development and use of wankel engines in their lineup, most notably in models like the RX-7 and RX-8.
– The compact and lightweight nature of the wankel engine aligns well with Mazda’s focus on creating sporty and agile vehicles.
##Conclusion
In summary, the wankel engine’s unique design and potential advantages make it an intriguing option for use in supercars. However, challenges related to fuel efficiency, emissions, reliability, and thermal management have limited its widespread adoption in high-performance vehicles. Despite this, the wankel engine continues to hold a special place in the automotive world, particularly through Mazda’s commitment to its development. As automotive technology continues to evolve, it will be interesting to see if the wankel engine finds new opportunities in the future of supercar engineering.
It has reliability issues( due to friction, it suffers from wear and tear ) and because of emissions legislation.
It’s not efficient. It’s unreliable. It’s expensive to design. There are better easier ways to make supercar power.
Would be cool though.
Engine development (from the ground up) is very expensive and time consuming. Making engines at low volumes is another very costly exercise since there are a lot of high precision parts usually requiring custom tooling for forging, casting, machining etc. Even many supercars simply borrow and adapt already developed engines.
There was simply not a lot of interest in wankel engines. Piston engines (broadly speaking) don’t require very tight tolerances and complex machining. Wankel engines (early ones) also suffer from seal wear and failure much earlier than piston engines. With little mass market interest, few car manufacturers at the time invested in manufacturing and improving this kind of engines which means there is also less interest from the supercar makers.
Wankels also have fairly low torque and have to run at very high rpms for power. This makes them a bit unsuitable for high torque applications. (pickup trucks, SUVs, heavier vehicles).
Mostly emissions. It doesn’t seal well do there were all sort of problems with emissions. Plus it wasn’t really good at anything. It was a novelty and super cars are usually based on race vehicles. They put the engineering into those cars so they can race in competition. Nobody wanted to put the money into an engine that couldn’t be reliable or efficient in a race.
like everyone else said.. reliability, cost, fuel consumption, reliability, and reliability. it breaks my heart too as the 3rd gen rx7 was new when i was younger and i’ve always wanted one, but i just cant own a car that would be no less reliable if the engine internals were made out of chocolate.
I had an 86 Rx7 bought with a blown engine in the early 90s. Had the engine rebuilt and it blew up again after a year and a half. I’ll give credit where it’s due though. The motor was smooth AF.
The stirling engine is silent and therefore used on submarines. Its not the same as wankel engines, but if you are interested in odd engines, read this.
https://www.saab.com/newsroom/stories/2015/march/the-secret-to-the-worlds-most-silent-submarine
I put 55,000 miles on one in the early 80s, the last year on dirt roads. Never did blow the engine tho.
Not really ELI5, perhaps ELI14, but there is a very good video by Engineering Explained on this, look it up.
It’s a unique engine design that showed a lot of promise in the early day – at one point, quite a few manufacturers started experiments with Wankel engines as they had many clear advantages in weight, power output, compact packaging and smoothness.
However, there were quite a number of issues, particularly with rotor seals, that were never satisfactorily resolved and most companies quickly gave up. Only Mazda persisted with development for another decade or two. With only a single company working on solving the issues while R&D was continuously poured into other ICE designs, it quickly became apparent that the Wankel design was never going to be competitive.
I suspect that the increase in emissions regulations is what put the final nail in the coffin.
It was banned for being too baller under race conditions. It’s super efficient and reliable under load but not idle.
https://all-car-news.com/en/why-the-wankel-engine-was-banned-from-the-24-hours-of-le-mans/
Turns out continuously injecting oil to maintain a seal between combustion chambers and then immediately burning it isn’t the most efficient of engine designs.
Isn’t Mazda bringing the Wankel back for the mx30 as a range extender?
Wankel engines are excellent at turning apex seals into exhaust. Just like magic.
They may live on as a hybrid range extender. Mazda is trying to make a go of it. By having a computer control the engine and by having it connected to a motor generator you can run the engine in the most efficient rpm ranges that don’t eat seals. Plus you can run the engine off of the electric motor without combustion to do self cleaning cycles for the apex seals. Carbon buildup behind the seals is the no. 1 cause of failure, so you MUST redline them regularly. Yes, you beat the shit out of it to keep it alive. A redline a day keeps the mechanic away is the slogan of every rx7 driver.
Check out Liquid Piston, they’ve inverted the wankel engine and are making some interesting motors with it!
Because people didn’t want to say the name. [Wankle Rotary Engine](https://youtube.com/shorts/cFTFSJHH0Js?si=-4nMgjBKbdnKAL-o)
Boutique car manufacturers are usually run by someone who has a strong opinion on the right way to build a car, and none of them dream of replacing apex seals