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From: Mark Steitle
[mailto:msteitle@gmail.com]
The rotary is a very durable
engine.
I
owned and drove a Mazda RX-2 for a few years during the liesure suit era.
Like many Wankel engines during that state of development the seals failed, but
only after a month demonstrating its condition. With 80,000 miles on it
Mazda stepped up and repaired the engine at no cost to me, and I kept on driving
until the body rusted out. After more than three decades of improvement I
expect that the new engine designs and materials are even better so the engine's
reliability is not the issue. It's not the engine that concerns me but
rather that relatively untested speed reduction units. We have seen their
continued development and improvement with the smaller Subaru powered aircraft
but no one has the tens of thousands of hours on a 300+hp system that is
required to calm my nerves IFR, at night, over the Rockies.
Robert
M. Simon
ES-P
N301ES
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