Rotary Audi ?

[king_panther]

Thought this may interest a few people on here;

http://www.themotorreport.com.au/49...ut-this-week-at-geneva-rotary-engine-featured

It's only a concept true, but this little snippet got my attention;

"When the electric motor's battery energy is depleted, a 70kg range-extending single-rotor 254cc Wankel engine and an electric generator work to recharge the battery, boosting the A1 e-tron's driving range by an additional 200km.

 

[Fred]

A Little bit of Audi history here for anyone interested. The four rings of audi represent the four companys that combined to form Audi, being: Horch,NSU,Wanderer & DKW.
NSU was the first company in the world to incorporate a rotary engine in a road going vehicle. (i also think they designed the rotary before felix wankel?)

 

[king_panther]

Never knew that Fred thanks for the info.

I knew about NSU & them trying to market rotary-powered cars, but didn't have much success?
The fuel crisis of the 70s didn't help either.

I remember AMC were going to go rotary, & the DeLorean was originally meant to have a Citroen-sourced wankel engine too.

I thought Wankel designed it but NSU were the first to market it? I don't know of different rotary designs sorry...

 

[Nitephyre]

Correct Brad, Felix Wankel designed and built the first Rotaary, NSU were the first company to place them in road-going cars.

 

[Kristian]

The NSU motors were peripheral ported and horrendously unreliable - NSU Ro80 owners used to wave to each other by holding up their fingers to indicate the number of engine rebuilds they'd had...

It's a pity because aside from the reliability issues, Ro80s were about 20 years ahead of their time. Most owners these days fit Mazda engines, it's very rare to see an original NSU motor.

Back to the topic at hand, wow, talk about history repeating itself!

 

[Guest]

geez that just might be the most fuel efficent rotary ever lol

 

[bradc]

" Citroen-sourced wankel "

Ohh now that just sounds like a giant calamity of catastrophic proportions!

 

[Kristian]

Citroen actually made 50 of them and gave them out to people to use for a few months for testing purposes. They used NSU motors, were called the GS Birotor from memory.

 

[bradc]

I bet none of them made it past 1000km of service.

 

[Kristian]

PMSL - just got this off Wiki:

A two rotor GS was launched in 1973. Dubbed the Citroën GS Birotor (also called Citroën GZ), it featured a 107 PS (79 kW) Wankel birotor produced by the joint NSU-Citroën Comotor project. This style of motor is noted for its smooth power delivery which complemented the luxurious ride quality of the hydropneumatic suspension. The Birotor was extensively reengineered, besides for the Comotor 624 engine. Discs all around (ventilated in front), different wheels with a five-bolt pattern rather than three, and a three-speed semi-automatic transmission were combined with a more luxurious interior and flared fenders to set the Birotor apart from its lesser siblings. Sadly, the Birotor was placed in the uncomfortable position of costing more than the larger, faster, more economical and less complex Citroën DS which quickly sealed its fate.


The Birotor version achieved poor sales and was quickly pulled from the market after 847 units sold. It was not economical for its size and was launched during the 1973 oil crisis.


The sales and quality were so disappointing that Citroën attempted to buy back and scrap each Birotor, as it did not want to support the model with spare parts. A few of these remarkable vehicles have nonetheless survived in the hands of collectors, many without titles for some time as Citroën did not want to recognize the cars.

 

[king_panther]

Hmm.... just had a thought of putting a 20B in a DeLorean lol..

Sure would get me to 88MPH easily.

 

[bradc]

I've got to get to the petrol station so I can get to 88mph so I can go back to the future?

 

[Musty]

dunno if it would sell well in france, coz etron literally means a piece of faeces

 

[king_panther]

Hmm.... just had a thought of putting a 20B in a DeLorean lol.

Looks like it's already been done;

http://www.eliseusa.com/rotary.htm

 

[bdscott]

I would love to own that delorean

 

[bradc]

I've got to get back to the future so I can change my seals?

 

[king_panther]

I've got to get back to the future so I can change my seals?

No, I've got to get back to 1955 & show them a stainless steel coupe with a triple-rotary twin-sequential-turbocharged engine lol...

 

[bradc]

That doesn't work! Good luck getting a rotor rebuilt in 1955

 

[cyber_scriber]

It's hard and expensive enough getting them rebuilt today!