history? Some people will say GM's LS series, and some will say Toyota's 2JZ, but I think the rotary engine is the most legendary. Because it works differently from all current engines, it is a unique and alternative branch of the internal combustion engine family, and there are endless interesting stories behind the rotary engine, so let's talk about the rotary engine in this issue.
This is the plan view of the rotor engine, the middle triangle rotor will make eccentric movement around the middle gear
In the 1950s, Felix Wankel joined the NSU company (NSU later merged with the Auto Union to form what is today Audi) and devoted himself to the research of rotary engines.
Felix Wankel was born in 1902, the father of the rotary engine. As a member of the Nazi Party, he was locked up for a while after the war. Otherwise, the rotor engine could be a few years earlier. In 1964, NSU launched the world's first car equipped with a rotor engine, the NSU Spider. Although this car was not very successful, it withdrew from the stage of history after only producing more than 2,000 units, but the rotary engine has become the star of that era, and many manufacturers have invested in the development of rotary engines, such as Mercedes-Benz. They launched a concept car C111 equipped with a rotary engine in 1969, and then introduced a four-rotor engine with 350 horsepower.
NSU Spider is still a rear-mounted rear-drive car
. In addition, Rolls-Royce has built a diesel version of the rotor engine, and Suzuki put the rotor engine on the motorcycle. In short, major manufacturers have produced this "newborn". Strong interest, but new technologies are always imperfect, poor fuel economy, coupled with the oil crisis in the 1970s, made these manufacturers abandon the rotary engine.
Mercedes-Benz C111 concept car
Here is an interesting episode. The magic of the rotary engine not only affected Western car manufacturers, but China also developed rotary engines in the 1960s. In line with the concept of "Foreign advanced technology, we also have to own", at the end of the 1960s we purchased a batch of rotors for research, and Tianjin Power Machinery Factory was responsible for production. To this end, the factory set up a rotor engine workshop, and it only took a year to launch the "2110 rotary engine", which is used on the "TJ140" truck.
According to the standards at the time, the performance of TJ140 is quite advanced. It once pulled the goods from Tianjin all the way west to Lhasa; then returned to Tianjin with the goods. The whole journey was more than 10,000 kilometers, and passed the sinister Sichuan-Tibet Highway. But we did not solve the common problem of high fuel consumption of the rotary engine, and the TJ140 was eventually submerged in history.
In addition, the Shanghai Automobile and Tractor Research Institute developed a rotary engine car in the 1970s, but this car was not mass-produced.
Rotor and Mazda's love feud
Next, let's talk about the story of Mazda and the rotor engine. I also said before that the Mazda family is not interested in the rotor, so why only Mazda has carried forward this technology?
After World War II, Japan was in a mess. In order to restore the auto industry, the government is preparing to integrate Toyota, Nissan, and Mazda into one.Big group. Obviously, Mazda did not want to be annexed, and in order to deal with this crisis, it had to come up with a technology that could stand alone. So Mazda set its sights on the rotor engine. And Mazda does not have the option of giving up like Mercedes-Benz and Rolls-Royce. They have to make a desperate move, even if they hit the south wall, they must put a hole in the wall and go down.
This is an unsuccessful battle for Mazda. Trying new things is inherently risky. In addition, the patent for the rotor engine is in the hands of NSU, so Mazda has to spend 280 million yen to purchase a production license. The president at the time Matsuda Tsuneji once put forward the slogan "Technology is always innovation" to inspire employees' determination to win.
Initially, Mazda's development of the rotary engine did not go smoothly. The wear and tear of the engine far exceeded expectations. The life span of an engine is only a few dozen hours, so mass production is impossible.
For this reason, in 1963, Mazda established the "Rotor Research Department", headed by Kenichi Yamamoto and the remaining 46 engineers who specialize in developing and improving the rotor engine. These 47 people are also known as "Rotor 47 Warriors." Then in May 1967, the first rotary engine car-Cosmo Sport was launched. It is powered by a twin-rotor engine code-named 10A. The maximum output power is 94kW, and the power per liter exceeds 100 horses. It was an amazing figure that year.
This is a photo of Cosmo Sport at the Tokyo Motor Show in 1964. In addition to the rotor engine, the beautiful design is also very eye-catching.
Compared with NSU Spider, Cosmo Sport is more reliable and mature, so it has been recognized by the market after its launch. From 1970 to 1975, Mazda introduced four rotary engine models, RX2, RX3, RX4, and RX5.
Although Mazda RX2
is constantly improving the technology of the rotor engine, high fuel consumption is still a problem that cannot be bypassed, and the oil crisis in the 1970s magnified this shortcoming. More and more public and media began to question the rotor engine. Mazda still did not give up in the face of doubt, and of course it is impossible to give up. The good news is that the 1970s and 1980s were the period when the Japanese economy took off, so Mazda performance cars equipped with rotary engines can still have good sales, and its special character also cultivated a group of loyal fans.
The most classic Mazda RX7, this model has a total of 3 generations, the picture shows the first generation model (SA)
Mazda rotor engine peak period in the early 90s, in 1991 the 58th Le Mans 24 Hours, Mazda The 787B race car made a strong encirclement and won the championship. This is the first Le Mans championship of a rotary engine car and the first Le Mans championship of a Japanese manufacturer.
What is interesting is that after Mazda won the championship, the FIA banned the rotor engine from participating. Some conspiracy theorists believe that Le Mans is a European game, and that the Americans won a championship. Asian manufacturers can no longer make trouble. This also reminds me of Toyota Motorsport retiring in the last lap to watch Porsche win the championship a few years ago. This conspiracy theory was brought up again.
In the civilian car market, after 1990, Mazda also launched the three-rotor magic car Eunos Cosmo and later the familiar RX8. In June 2012, Mazda announced that the RX8 was discontinued. In this way, the era of Mazda's rotor also came to an end. The last rotor of
, the Mazda RX8
rotor engine, has many reasons. From a design point of view, the oil must be sprayed into the combustion chamber in order to lubricate the cylinder block, so the burning of the oil will be very serious, and the emission will naturally not be good. In addition, because the intake, combustion, and exhaust are all completed in the same cylinder, the temperature of each part of the cylinder will be very different, and the expansion rate will also be different, which leads to the problem of poor sealing. The final result is low efficiency.
In addition, from a market perspective, it is really difficult for Mazda to make a rotary engine. Each part needs to be designed and produced by itself, even if the cost of finding a supplier is extremely high. For consumers, it is also very difficult to maintain and maintain a rotor engine with a small quantity. Combining these factors, Mazda can play the rotor engineBy 2012, it will not be easy. The
rotor engine is a great invention. It is difficult to say whether it will be reborn in the future. There is news that Mazda may combine the rotor engine with the hybrid system. As a car fan, I can only look forward to it.
