Seems to me the combination of light starting load and smoooooth operation make the rotary ideal for a hybrid project. Does anyone know of such a project either commercial or hobbiest?

B

 

Lots of people put them in airplanes. They have been made into generators. Mazda puts them in cars

 

More importantly, rotaries have no low end torque... making it a perfect fit for an ISA combination...

 

bad combo.

 

i had a very good idea of using a rotary engine as a outboard boat motor. being how they can rev much much higher than a v6 i know mine can push 9-10000 with out even trying and i only has a few internal mods

 

I remember reading an article back around 1997 in a poular science or one of those where Mazda was working on a Hydrogen fueled "sort of" hybrid. It was basically a 13b, I think it was like the Renesis with side exhasut ports, ALL ALUMINUM including rotors and side housings. It had a 4" thick electric motor/generator that sandwiched between the engine and the tranny that was good for a ton of low speed torque and also doubled as the starter. It was all fueled with some sort of hydrogen generating fuel cell.

It was not a true hybrid because the electric motor added low end grunt rather than being the main propulsion engine. I thought it would have been awesome to get ahold of one of the motors - seems like they were good for an instant 100 ft.lbs of torque on demand! And, I think it was made so it would bolt to back of standard rotary engine, then allow a standard tranny to bolt behind it...

Jason

By the way. there already has been a rotary outboard engine - although it was a very small one. Seems like it was a Suzuki?