Hello Mr. Lamar,
My name is Rob Woods, I am 30 years old and I am a recent Mechanical
Engineering B.S. graduate from the University @ Buffalo. I have been
the
head engineer for 3 Mini Baja cars and one Formula SAE car during my
time at school and have designed a majority of these vehicles by
myself.
I have found a real passion for vehicle systems integration. I feel
that
anyone can build a vehicle but it takes clever individuals to do it
right ala Colin Chapman, Gordon Murry, etc. I realize production
based
machinery is put together with what is in the parts bin to keep
costs
down which leaves people like me shrugging shoulders when a really
clever/ingenious part or assembly is attached to a rather boorish
design.
During my time at school I have designed most of my parts completely
custom. Throttle bodies, manifolds, uprights, suspension pieces,
brake
systems, etc. I also worked for Stainless Steel Brakes Corporation
designing a successful line of calipers for the aftermarket. In short
I
am capable of doing just about anything I set my mind to. Basically
what
the degree has taught me along with years of actual design work.
I have a chassis concept that I am looking to build around an engine
and
transmission to achieve my aforementioned goals of integration purity
in
a performance vehicle. I also plan to campaign it in the SCCA A-Mod
class so I have a cheap local testing ground for lower speed
dynamics
and eventually to track days at major race tracks for the upper end.
My
end goal is a street legal kit style car that I can drive that
actually
has DAQ to backup/improve the design. If I can sell a couple later
on
then all the better.
I had my eyes set of doing a different engine/ tranny combo but have
been intrigued with an r26b engine ever since I spent 2 hours staring
at
it in the Detroit auto show about 6 years ago. While always
impressed
with wankle engines, I have always seen their problems as something
not
worth dealing with. That is until recently. I am impressed with the
work
on the new Renesis engine and started to do a lot of research on them
in
the past month.
I managed to finally stumble on your website and I have to say I am
blown away at the level of detail you seem to hold your work to.
Your
thoughts on regenerative turbo systems using a Rotrex style traction
drive along with the cleverly simple slide throttle has had me
smiling
for weeks. I spent the time to read every post that you have along
with
doing a little background research with your involvement with racing
cars. It is really refreshing to see that someone is challenging
ideas
on accepted technologies with actual researched and fabricated ideas
and
not just armchair quarterbacking.
I was hoping to strike a conversation with you about my idea of 4
rotor
engine and tranny combination. I have some very specific question
regarding the setup of such an engine in terms of the cooling and
oil.
If you are willing to speak/e-mail me about this then I will make a
couple drawings and descriptions to show you what I am up to.
The main reason for me to contact you out of the number of
individuals
that I have found in my research is the perceived free thinking
nature
you have toward your work and your knowledge base. I find it
refreshing
to find someone out there that has an attitude toward asking the
real
questions in design and development to be right up my alley. I
request
that you add me to your news letter and I would hope that you would
consider taking a couple moments to see what I have cooked up. I also
do
have some skills to trade for any time spent looking at my project.
Respectfully,
Rob Woods
Thanks for the complements Rob. Fire away on the questions.
Here are some pictures of the Mazda four rotor that won Lemans
back in 1991 when it was a REAL car race :)
--
Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.
Hello Paul,
I just sent you a word document. Does what we discuss end up on the
newsletter? Not that I mind but I was just curious. I look forward to
your response to my idea.
Rob Woods
Here is some stuff on the four rotor Corvette.
Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.
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