Hello! I ran across your web-site and I was so excited. My brother and I
are
looking to build a racing airplane and we are wanting to use a 4 rotor
rotary
engine. I have been searching all over trying to find connections and
finally
I found your site. Please add me to your news letter and I was wanting
to ask
some questions about the size of plane we are planning and how much
room you
think this engine will take up. I have other questions as well so I am
hoping
I came to the right place.

Thank you for your time and I hope to hear from you soon!
Jeremy
Santa Cruz, CA

Good news but check with the Reno race organizer as the history of
Mazda rotary engine
racing is marked by discrimination. For example: the current Rolex GT
rules require the
RX8 to run with rev limiters set to 500 RPM BELOW <<< the stock street car
red line. This, along with additional ballast, has handicapped them
almost to the
point of being uncompetitive.

You might be better off running in the 500 mile EAA air race from
Dayton Ohio to OSH every year. No such discrimination against rotary
engines yet.
There is a $1000 dollar Everett Hatch Memorial Fund prize donated by
some of the
listers on here if you average over 220 MPH for 500 miles. Past winners
have been
Tracy Crook but at lower avg. speeds in shorter Sun n Fun races. I know
it is not
much but every little bit helps. So far a two rotor p-port powered
Velocity has averaged
214 MPH in that race. Another possibility is city to city records.

Here are some of my suggestions for an out and out Reno racer.
Dave Garber used a Bell 47 final drive which only weighs 40 pounds
and is good to 1000 HP. An RX8 electric rack and pinion would make
a good gear retractor. The tank behind the pilot is an ice water
inter cooler. There will be some other cooling challenges.

One of our rotor heads on here crews on an unlimited at Reno.
I am sure you will get a bunch of volunteers.

Paul Lamar

Jeremy,

Dave had a mild stroke last year so his dual engine racing plane is up
for sale. It had been his dream to challenge the Reno event. Buying
his plane and upgrading it would be the cheaper and faster way to go
IMHO. Drop me a line for his email and telephone number.

Doug

Jeremy,
The thing to do is to check carefully before you build anything. The
RARA group can be one of the most "old boy" groups I have ever seen. By
that I mean that they are protective of the long time racer group. They
re-wrote the rules a couple of years ago to make the Open Gold race an
ex-warbird race in perpetuity. The open racers must have a minimum
weight of 4500 pounds IIRC. With the sport class racers now pushing to
or past 400 MPH I'm sure they didn't want them entering the open races
and filling up to the silver positions. The cost of running an open
class machine like Strega or Rare Bear would kill them if the small
planes started getting competitive. The minimum weight requirement makes
new unlimited's less likely, unless powered by old warbird engines.
Bill Jepson