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

[Rotary John]

Literally Flying...​

Attachment 370970

Jimbo; first lap Parker 1973.

[jackiewilson]

Jimbo; first lap Parker 1973.

wonder why that was the only picture ?

[Bob V]

wonder why that was the only picture ?

Perhaps it was running so fast that the photographers could not get it in focus before it was gone...

[Rotary John]

Here's some more for you Jackie:

[Rotary John]

[Rotary John]

For those that have asked you can see in this picture the engine is mounted at the bottom of the bucket wich in turn is mounted directly yo the gearcase. No mid section

[Bob V]

[techteam]

Hey John my friend looks like you were in Windermere after all...

[techteam]

John I think these have never been seen. Windermere Grand Prix.

[Rotary John]

James: Your correct, I haven't seen these before. Where did you find them? Look carefully at Sanders 20 and Downard 22 at the bucket. You will see Downards is shiney silver and Sanders is the Johnson gold. Someone at Brugge mounted an Evinrude engine on Downards boat. We just put a Johnson shroud on it and let it go. Which he and Posey won.

[jackiewilson]

Hey John my friend looks like you were in Windermere after all...

schunky refuelling—— And Rick La Monte in the Merc Jacket.

[Rotary John]

Once again the rotary beat the merc V-6

[nitro_rat]

Once again the rotary beat the merc V-6

Surprise, surprise! A race only, nothing-even-remotely-close-ever-released-to-the-public, super duper top secret racing motor beats run-of-the-mill consumer outboard!!!

Just pickin’...

[FUJIMO]

Joking aside, I wonder what OMC had into the rotary outboard project, dollars wise? Any idea?

[Rotary John]

It's hard to factually say because much of the cost was absorbed by the production snowmobile engine and other rotary engine developments. If anyone could ever see the cost reporting for project D706, it might give some idea. My guess costs related to the race motor was in the 250/500K dollar range. That figure wouldn't include, boats, travel etc but only the engine. I was making $10,000/yr at the time and for '74 &'75 all of my time was charged to the rotary race engine. If my memory is any good, I recall OMC had 12/15 million total invested in the rotary engines programs for the initial signing in '66 till the end.