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The fast, the furious, and the tasteful.
The main difference between rotary and your more standard combustion engines is that rotary engines don t use pistons. Essentially, one or more triangular rotors spin in a circular chamber to combust the fuel/air mixture, which is a lot less complex of a solution than using pistons. Other advantages include less mechanical stress, less vibration, higher power-to-weight ratio than a piston engine, higher compression, the ability to use a wider range of fuels, a wider torque band, and better thermodynamic efficiency.
It all sounds wonderful when described as above, but the only successful rotary engine design to be used in cars is the Wankel, most famously found in the Mazda RX-7 and RX-8. The problems come with fuel efficiency and emissions and the habit of the rotary seals to fail as they are exposed to the fuel and varying heat levels. They also tend to consume a lot of oil. However, when the pros outweigh the cons, it can be a brilliant en
A purpose-built supercar versus an unconventional drag car.
If you re into rotary engines, you probably know of the two most famous Dorito-engine fanatics: Mad Mike Whiddett and Rob Dahm. The former is a professional drifter and the latter is a YouTube star and both have an unhealthy obsession with rotary engines. While Mad Mike pilots many rotary-powered monsters for drifting competitions, Rob Dahm builds some of the wackiest RX-7s on the planet. Arguably his greatest achievement to date is his four-rotor RX-7, the world s first such car with an AWD drivetrain. But when you re building projects that take years to complete, you can t have just one toy. Thus, Dahm has a three-rotor RX-7 built just for drag racing and testing too, but is it good enough to take on a $330,000 supercar? Turn the volume up and let s find out.
Turbo 3-Rotor Mazda RX-7 FD Drag Races Ferrari 488 Pista, They’re Not Even Close 27 May 2021, 18:18 UTC ·
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You probably know Rob Dahm from YouTube; he s a self-made rotary enthusiast who went from fixing computers to building an IT solutions empire. The car he’s running in the following video is the FD you’ve seen on his channel, a no-nonsense FD that serves as a testbed for Rob’s every rotary project. 9 photos
The first question that you may ask is, why doesn’t the RX-7 have a hood? Well, back in December, when he raced Ken Block’s Hoonicorn with his four-rotor turbo all-wheel-drive car, the hood came off on the very first race.