> Made it back from the old country. Had a good time with beer, wine and
> crazy drivers.
>
> I visited the Two-Wheel museum in Neckarsulm, which is the place of the
> first Wankel engine driven cars.
> There is the SPIDER with the single rotor and the RO 80 with the two
> rotor, and their engine cut-away's. What hit me on those P-Port engines
> is the two-port solution. A small port on late timing with a carburetor
> at app.. 8" from the port, and a larger main port with the carb at the
> same distance but the butterfly right at the rotor housing.
> That was in around 1958.
>
> The car in the picture is not quite an RX8 but a SMART.
>
> Richard Sohn
> N-2071U
>
> Those "Smart"cars are a riot. My wife and I call them telephone booth cars :)
> I missed that museum last time I was there.
> Where in Neckarsulm is that museum Richard? We are going over in June
> for a few weeks and I will look it up then.
>
> BTW Francois hope to visit you too in Geneva. Robin has some stuff
> to do in Northern Italy and we might go to the Paris airshow as well.
>
> Paul Lamar
>
> BTW Richard, The NSU Wankel video with the German narration is on
> our new web side below under:
> ROTARY VIDEOS/SOUNDS
> .. Principles of the Wankel (in German)
>
> Paul Lamar
>

I grew up in Neckarsulm. There is a railroad running North-South near the west
end of the town and it is just east of it. From the street of the RR crossing its
north about 200 metres, if so much, on 'Urban Strasse 11'.

The buildings are sort of and an 'old castle' style. The fire engines used to be
in there and at the second floor a 'Rittersaal' used as a gym. The back building
of the 'little castle' complex has a restaurant, that used to be high class. Now
I think it is fast food, pity. Not far however, about 50 meters north is a
'Besenwirtschaft' with typical home made food and good wine (if you like the
'sour' type) and all very reasonable. The owner's name is 'Bauer'. Highly
recommended, however it is not always open.

A high class Restaurant however is about 150 m south from the Museum, called 'Zur
Post', on the opposite side of 'Urban' street.

Rolf Pfeiffer

Thanks for the tips Rolf.

Paul Lamar

I wanted to add that the restaurant "Zur Post" is also a small hotel where you can
stay overnight. But there are others.

How did you like the “Zweirad-Museum”, Richard? It's a bit small, I know.
BTW, the 'Smart' is a money looser and production so far is scheduled to be stopped
by the end of 2005.

Here is something else. In a German forum a comment was made regarding leaded fuel
still being allowed and used in aircraft engines. The response as follows sums up the
reason for Paul's efforts:

“In the piston engine aviation field the emission laws are not yet stringent, most
likely due to the relative small number of piston engine aircraft. However, more
important is safety. Since aircraft engines run close to 100% of the time near
maximum power, the poor reciprocating piston engines and their valve stems need to be
protected by lead in the fuel.

It would be a good thing if for piston-engine-aviation only the Wankel engine type
would be used. These engines last longer, are suitable for continuous high load
operation, leaded fuel is not required and these engines have no valves that in the
highly stressed reciprocating engines occasionally fall into the cylinder with total
engine loss as a result. Crankshafts in RPE’s are also known to break, but not so in
Wankel engines.

Wankel engines further enhance flight safety with reduced environmental impact.”

Regards
Rolf Pfeiffer

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