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Rotary Engine News
reprinted from original web site
TURBO COMPOUND is now universally used on Formula One racing engines for 15% better fuel efficiency. Honda is building a Turbo Compound Hybrid Formula One engine for use by McLaren. When using electric motor turbo assist you get a turbo compound feature for free by making the turbo motor a DC motor. The motor acts as a generator when not needed to accelerate the turbo charger. This is what is done in Formula one. However you are losing up to 20% of the recoverable energy in the exhaust due to the inefficiency of electric motors and generators. This was mentioned in my presentation at the World Motor Sport Symposium in 2008. Still worth doing never the less as when cruising at steady speeds on the freeway some energy is being recovered from the exhaust.
[ATTACH=JSON]{"alt":"Renault Formula One Racing Engine","data-align":"center","data-size":"full","title":"Renault Formula One Racing Engine","data-attachmentid":176}[/ATTACH]RUMOR HAS IT that Mazda is working on a Formula One style 350 HP (possible 450 HP if the 16B engine is used) turbo compound hybrid sports car weighing 2800 pounds for future introduction. The Mazda rotary implementation will work the best as there are no exhaust valves to waste exhaust energy. Piston engines lose about 20% of the recoverable energy in the exhaust in forms of heat and aerodynamic losses as the exhausts tries to get around the exhaust valves. This does not happen in the rotary. Furthermore the Mazda Wankel rotary engine is the smallest and the lightest ntermittent internal combustion engine for its HP output.
Paul Lamar