Two separate n-rotor engines. 4 wheel drive. Cuts the problem in half.
Matt-
High power to weight ratio is only one of the problems. You need four wheel drive at Bonneville as the coef. of friction can be
as low as 0.3. Bonneville is a drag race as you have limited distance to
accelerate to over 400 MPH. When you are doing 350 MPH you are using up real
estate at a prodigies rate. The combination of high acceleration required and
low coef. of friction requires aerodynamic downforce that can be controlled. The car becomes
extremely unstable at speeds over 200 MPH due to the traction required to
overcome aerodynamic drag subtracting from the cornering stiffness of the tires. In other
words you need to be able to change the angle of attack of your wings as a function of speed. This is why it is so hard to set the wheel driven land speed
record currently at about 409 MPH. Been there done that with Craig Breedlove.
See what happens when these problems rear their ugly heads. http://www.rotaryeng.net/ Scroll down to the bottom and download: .... I told him there was too much downforce on the nose! Bonneville
RX7 crash.
Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.

Paul, that is sure an ugly crash. Interestingly most of the LSR wheel
driven cars don't use much in the way of downforce devices. I met Al
Teague who finally took the record from the Sommers Brothers. His car
is pretty much a dragster with a total-loss cooling system. The water
goes through and is exhausted overboard. He finally mounted a small
wing in 2006. Located it in front of the rear wheels to balance the
downforce.
Don Vesco of motorcycle fame crushed the wheel-driven record though.
450+! He ran a streamliner powered by a turbine. There is talk of a
piston driven and a turbine record now. Vesco took the record (458 mph)
even though he blew a tire on the return run! No wings on the car,
vertical stabilizers yes, but no downforce devices suprisingly.
Bill Jepson

Bad news! Now they will disqualify the rotary from the piston record.

Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.

I think the rules should talk about fuel, not how the metal is formed to
use the fuel.....

dave A



The Rotary Engine NewsLetter. Powered by Linux.
ACRE NL web site. http://www.rotaryeng.net
Copyright 1998-2006 All world wide rights reserved.