OMC's 4-Rotor Wankel Racing Engine - The Real Story

Was never stripped until i had finished with it after Parker. Aircraft type checks, visual. Carried a spare which sat in it's crate for the whole season and was never touched.Did approximately 20 hrs Racing and the Engineers [Ian Hawkins , now head honcho of Ilmor, and Malcolm Tyrrel, retired] said it would run another 20 hrs ,no problem.
Remember ,the motor was so detuned it would probably have done 100hrs.
Andretti and Peterson were running the same engine at 10,500 Rpm and pulling 650hp, and winning the world championship. Reliability was the keyword.
Maybe if the rotary lads had worked arse backwards and got the damn thing reliable, instead of trying for pure power, they may have got it off the ground. On second thoughts, i don't think so, there's a fundamental flaw somewhere in the damn thing even if they could solve the tips and coating problems. cranky.

Perhaps that why Merc used Cosworth to help make the new 4 strokes?

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Originally Posted by powerabout

Perhaps that why Merc used Cosworth to help make the new 4 strokes?

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I quit racing after Parker and only played boats with my son Mark. We both raced Paris and won in '79. That was my last race and i lost touch with Cosworth. You would have to talk to Willabee.

Talked to Mike Downard a few days ago and he said he ran a rotary OMC back in the day. Claimed they had tons of power, but were gas guzzlers. Then the Mercury guys "claimed" the displacement was too big and so forth.....sounds like they did a little crying about it.

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Originally Posted by Old fiberglass

Talked to Mike Downard a few days ago and he said he ran a rotary OMC back in the day. Claimed they had tons of power, but were gas guzzlers. Then the Mercury guys "claimed" the displacement was too big and so forth.....sounds like they did a little crying about it.

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Tell Mike hello from Rotary John. He won Windemere in a rotary, in '73 I believe.

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Originally Posted by Rotary John

Tell Mike hello from Rotary John. He won Windemere in a rotary, in '73 I believe.

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Hey John, 'YOU BELIEVE' ???? Windermere was one of the very few races the rotary ever won and you can't be sure, you certain it was Downard who won it,?????? In the words of one of my favourite colonials 'YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS' !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey Mikey , remember Auronzo up in the Italian Dolomites----Ridgell,Wyrabeck, Garbrecht, Rolla, and co. first time you ever saw a 4 bladed prop. That was a hornets nest.

Did i get that right--------rotary a was gas guzzler---------but you said it was eco friendly and economical and miserly on fuel---------- someone is telling porkie pies here

I never met you, but my old buddy Brett and I were drinking the other night and he was talking about the Cosworth, and how he hopes to see you at OFF..Friday night should certainly be lively....:cheers:

Amazing we never met. You were right there at the time, you didn't miss much, just a cranky slightly less old fart who did things different and hated to be shat upon.
Greg is a great guy and a good friend of my son Mark. Saw Greg get very "UNCOOL" when his dad awarded the first inboard trophy to Jack D'eath who finished some 65 miles behind us, he just threw a sh-t fit. Ask him about it. and tell him i said Hi and will be there on the Thursday---------just to check things out. J.

To Liquid Nirvana and Rotary John, i apologise for hogging your rotory site with non related old race stuff. Liked it better when you got all pissey over my comments, it's ok to tell me to go "jump in the lake" or "Bar-B-Q- my balls on the Weber" , if you give it you have to take it, learned that yonks ago. Keep taking the tablets. J

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Originally Posted by jackie wilson

Did i get that right--------rotary a was gas guzzler---------but you said it was eco friendly and economical and miserly on fuel---------- someone is telling porkie pies here

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Jackie:
The engines that ran at Parker consumed 18 gal/hr @ 260 HP; thats a BSFC of approx .40 lbs/HP-Hr. Thats 1/2 what the 2-strokes did at the time. As told in the stroy, the rotor bearing burned up at this level, so after that race the engines were set as rich as possible without loosing power. Even then, BSFC was approx .50. What Mikey forgot was he was comparing the rotary to the 2-stroke V-4 he had been running at 2/3 the power, so of course fuel consuption would be higher. My memory was the year, '73, not that Mike won (they say memory is the second thing to go). The only race the rotary didn't win was Parker, and Paris. As told before, the rotary had a 15 min lead at the Paris race when the sabatoge caused the engine failure. The other engines had boat/driver failure, not engine failure. The rotary actually won St. Louis, but lost to Homer Green's bias towards Merc. I recently read Bob Zipps article about the rotaries at St Louis and his account is similar to mine.
Have a nice day.

Now Now John, let,s not get too exited here---- At the present time ,i have ALL my God given attributes still intact, and still perform the first rather well. The second one [memoire] is still in even better shape, which begs the question---------AT WHICH PARIS 6 HOURS DID THE ROTORY LEAD BY 15 MINS. ???????? Now i have seen 28 of the 30 Paris 6 hrs from 1954-----84. and it's one of 2 things, i either wasn't there that year, or it didn't happen. !!!!!!!!!! Would love to hear who was driving, and how long was it running, before it succumbed , [ to sabotage ??????] . What kind of sabotage ? Did someone put the hex on it, and wish it would break, or was there some dastardly wicked plot afoot to stop this piece of kit from progressing further. My fond recollections of the flawed machine was --- went good,. but should have lasted longer, as it was most likely to stop on it's own anyway. In nearly 50 years of circuit racing, i can't think of one single race where the lead boat had a 15 min advantage after only a short while. Or maybe this time, the rotary lasted a little longer than normal. Just as a last memo. 'THE ONLY RACE THE ROTARY DIDN'T WIN WAS PARKER AND PARIS. ?????
It didn't win Berlin, Amsterdam, Milan, Bristol,London, Chasewater and a multitude more---------in fact John, for the effort put into the project-----the return was miniscule.

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Originally Posted by jackie wilson

Now Now John, let,s not get too exited here---- At the present time ,i have ALL my God given attributes still intact, and still perform the first rather well. The second one [memoire] is still in even better shape, which begs the question---------AT WHICH PARIS 6 HOURS DID THE ROTORY LEAD BY 15 MINS. ???????? Now i have seen 28 of the 30 Paris 6 hrs from 1954-----84. and it's one of 2 things, i either wasn't there that year, or it didn't happen. !!!!!!!!!! Would love to hear who was driving, and how long was it running, before it succumbed , [ to sabotage ??????] . What kind of sabotage ? Did someone put the hex on it, and wish it would break, or was there some dastardly wicked plot afoot to stop this piece of kit from progressing further. My fond recollections of the flawed machine was --- went good,. but should have lasted longer, as it was most likely to stop on it's own anyway. In nearly 50 years of circuit racing, i can't think of one single race where the lead boat had a 15 min advantage after only a short while. Or maybe this time, the rotary lasted a little longer than normal. Just as a last memo. 'THE ONLY RACE THE ROTARY DIDN'T WIN WAS PARKER AND PARIS. ?????
It didn't win Berlin, Amsterdam, Milan, Bristol,London, Chasewater and a multitude more---------in fact John, for the effort put into the project-----the return was miniscule.

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Jackie:
Glad to hear your functions still operate, mine are getting worn out. The Paris race was in 1974. Barry Woods was driving and had the lead by 15 min with 15 minites left in the race when the engine died. When we looked at the engine we found all of the nuts that held the carbs on (2 each) had been loosen all the way to the point they were ready to fall off. The result was a massive air leak causing bearing failure. Each engine was run for at least 45 minites on the dyno before they were shipped and then run again being set up on the boats at the Belguim plant. It would have been impossible for these nuts to have been loose from the get go without engine problems earlier. Besides, one of the standard proceedures was to check all nuts and bolts after being set up on the boat. The other rotaries; 1 hit a turn bouy and took the side off the boat and 1 barrel rolled. As far as Berlin, Amsterdam, Milan, Bristol,London, Chasewater, etc. the rotaries never ran there. As you may recall, UIM banned the rotaries. In fact at the Paris race, they were forced to run "exibition" and couldn't offically win the race. They were only allowed to run because OMC threatened to pull all their entries if they couldn't run. Maybe I should have said "of the races it ran".

OK, John, what am i missing here.???? If the thing ran perfectly for 5 and three quarter hours, Who and better still, HOW did anyone sabotage the engine running around the 100 mark without anyone noticing. I know the Merc Guys were Doubtful and Dubious, but even they were not smart enough to undo the carbs at the 11th hour, OR WERE THEY ????? They always were sneaky bastards in Oshberg. Maybe they invented Telemetry before anyone else and kept it to themselves. I know they had a T5 [ according to Tony Williams] But it must have died along with all the other secret sh-t.

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Originally Posted by jackie wilson

OK, John, what am i missing here.???? If the thing ran perfectly for 5 and three quarter hours, Who and better still, HOW did anyone sabotage the engine running around the 100 mark without anyone noticing. I know the Merc Guys were Doubtful and Dubious, but even they were not smart enough to undo the carbs at the 11th hour, OR WERE THEY ????? They always were sneaky bastards in Oshberg. Maybe they invented Telemetry before anyone else and kept it to themselves. I know they had a T5 [ according to Tony Williams] But it must have died along with all the other secret sh-t.

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Jackie:
The engine ran for 5 3/4 hrs with loose carbs. The intake vaccuum apperently kept the carbs close engough to function. Remember, I told you we set the carbs at the factory as rich as possible, so an air leak would lean it out. The nuts were loosen sometime between leaving the factory in Belgium and the race. If you were at the race, you might recall Barry could not start the engine at the start of the race. We ended up replacing the flywheel thinking we had weak ignition, though I know we had some, as it would fire a plug outside of the engine. He finally got it cranked and took off. Lets be very carefull. I'm not suggesting Mrecury had anything to do with this! For all I know the security guard at the hotel did it. If one or 2 of the carbs had loose nuts, I might have believed they came loose during the race, but when all of them were loose? These were star washers lock nut and with all of the other running we did, never had a loose nut before or after.