Lynn, you are right (as always...:)
Actually Wankel was rather PO when he found out what "they" did with his engine (the one with the inside sparkplug - complete disassembly for a plugchange, talk about SAG:), BUT it did run around 18000 rpm....).
"They" was mainly one of his engineers, I think his name was Paschke. NSU was running out of patience waiting for Wankel's "perfect" engine.
Paschke did essentially the design of the basic Rotary, and wouldn't you know it - the Renesis has just about the same layout as the original engine - side-intake and side-exhaust!!
This was changed allegedly for problems with the sealing discs (instead of the side-seals?).
So everything was changed to peripheral. When side-seals where introduced, no one thought about going back to side-ports and even just for trials....
When Wankel found out about Paschkes design he supposedly said: "Now you made a mare out of my thoroughbred!" NSU countered: "Well, we wish that at least the mare would already be running! We buy the thoroughbred later!"
You can do the Babelfish translater - Falls Sie der Deutschen Sprache nicht mächtig sind!
Saludos,
Thomas Jakits
This is not Wankel's engine. NSU discarded his design and had to induce a compressor company to give up its rights to a compressor design it owned so as to convert that design into the engine we gleefully punish today. NSU moved the stationary seals to the apex of the rotor as in Wankel's design. In fact NSU also tried to sell it as a compressor, but nobody bit on the idea.
Wankel was a sliding seal designer during WWII and his contribution was a collection and indexing of the many rotary engine and compressor designs up to that time. His design was one that had the crank case rotating at 2/3 crank speed, and other impossible features such as the spark plugs inside the rotor. How handy would that be?
Its only redeeming feature was that it performed (in theory) with pure rotary motion. It was not useful for anything and was never produced in any numbers at all. The NSU Prince was the first rotary powered car. The engine looking remarkably like the modern rotary. The design (originally a compressor) had already been discarded by Wankel. So, a Moped
(motorized bicycle) manufacturer NSU, brought you the rotary engine. Wankel thought NSU had ruined his idea.
Lynn E. Hanover
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