I missed this thread earlier. (Hey, I'm not just slow on the uptake)

I can't remember the specific BHP figures, but they were generating the same shaft outputs (and higher) than 1,000 cc bikes, whilst being officially rated as 600cc capacity. A damn good engine design.

The engine was, from memory, 588cc in swept volume and produced approximately 115BHP as standard. It was possible to tweak them pretty severely, to well over 150+BHP. I lusted after one of these things for years during my light hovercraft days, but never managed to get one.

The motorcycle racing industry was somewhat divided on their liking for the things, and at one point an attempt was made to classify them as a 1176cc engine, since wankel designs have the rotor turn twice during a complete power cycle, because some people wanted to get them out of the sub 1-litre category due to the competition.

An interesting fact: in the early 90s sometime, when they were actually making the things, they had sold something like 8 time as many engines as bikes with engines, mostly to people with microlights, etc. There are even some light aircraft still flying with the things in. The cost of the engine was around £3000 a unit, too high for me.

Patrick.




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