<VV> GM Wankles

[Tony Underwood]

At 11:50 AM 4/17/2010, lonzovair at aol.com wrote:

>Yup, Bill is right... I had a 1974 Popular Mechanix mag years ago 
>that showed the Wankle in the "new" 75 Monza, which is why that car 
>had the huge floor hump, giving it that "cockpit" feel... turns out 
>it was going to need 2 or three catylitic convertors (and just one 
>was quite expensive, let alone multiples) and the extra costs were 
>rather prohibitive on a "small car"... according to a later issue of 
>PM, I believe the same year.
>Later,
>Lonzo



Let's not forget the other Wankel proposals.    Chevy had considered 
a Wankel powered Corvette, and AMC was originally going to power 
Pacers with Wankels.    A motorcycle was marketed with a Wankel 
engine, as well as a lawnmower (not by the same manufacturer though ) ;)

Wankels can make a LOT of power for the displacement if you can put 
up with the oil consumption, rotor seals, and dirty exhaust of the 
earlier variants.     (I understand that most issues had been 
resolved as time passed and materials improved etc but the less than 
stellar fuel mileage aspects remained)    I read an article many 
years ago about a guy in CA who had a modified Wankel out of an RX7 
in a Lotus Europa and it was a rocket on wheels.

Current Wankels are able to make over 230hp from less than 1.5 ltrs 
of displacement but mileage is about the same as what you could get 
from a new Dodge Charger with a Hemi.   Still, they're very compact 
and light and they rev to 9000 rpm without flying apart, if that's 
what you wanna do.  ;)

One of the locals around here was toying with the idea of a Wankel 
out of an RX7 in the back of a Corvair with a Porsche transaxle... 
never came to pass though.    Shame, I'd liked to have seen what it 
would have done.




tony..