California company reinvents the rotary engine
California company reinvents the rotary engine
Unlike the Wankel rotary engine made famous and famously killed by Mazda, with its pinched-oval housing and triangular rotor, GoTek’s DynaKinetic engine features a circular housing and a rotor that looks like a twisted ninja throwing star, creating four combustion chambers each fitted with a gear-driven piston resembling a flap that moves in and out to suck in and compress the fuel/air mixture as the rotor spins.
There are still no camshafts or valves, the intake and exhaust ports are simply opened and closed by the passage of the rotor. GoTek CEO Steve Herbruck tells FoxNews.com it can be optimized to run on just about any fuel, with either spark or compression ignition.
Another advantage of the circular design is that it does away with the offset rotor crank required in a Wankel, improving torque to a level that’s even better than a reciprocating piston engine. GoTek also claims to have solved the sealing issues inherent in the Wankel design that led to high oil consumption and poor emissions performance.
The prototype is equivalent to a 1.5-liter four-cylinder, but is just 6 inches wide and 12 inches in diameter. The unit can be sized up and down, and several can be stacked together to meet different power requirements
Okay, I know it's not Japanese but I figured Drivebye woulda bit by now?
I just now saw it! I haven't checked the main page in a while!
Cool idea, it's good to see this style of engine still evolves. Now it just needs to be paired with a chassis of the same spirit!
You dream too small! I wanna see a spec series race chassis developed! Think Radicals with rotaries...
Heck, as small as they say that motor is, think 1.5 litre go karts!