Positive, the rotary engine could also be an oil-eating machine stuffed with Nazi-designed spinning tortilla chips that flip cash into nightmares, however god, I like them. My first automobile was an RX-7, and whereas, considerably tellingly, I haven’t owned one other rotary since, I take into consideration them usually. Not as usually as Rotary Stifler, aka Rob Dahm, although, and particularly not since somebody gave him a selfmade 12-rotor marine engine to attempt to get working.

Sure, 12 rotors. It’s quite a bit to take care of, even for a rotary professional like Rob. This engine was cooked up and constructed by a man, which suggests it has every kind of idiosyncrasies and quirks that need to be handled to get this pile of elements that hasn’t run since 2008 again into combating form. Possibly it’s simply my pure love of schadenfreude, however seeing an hour-and-a-half-long video of individuals organizing springs and seals and determining rotor timing on this one-of-a-kind motor with little or no documentation is so satisfying, which is why I’m sharing it with you.

Along with the large organizational problem introduced by this many rotors, Dahm and firm need to attempt to determine what made this engine kick the bucket within the first place, then attempt to stop it from occurring once more. This entails working with a ton of custom-machined elements, astronomical costs for even Mazda-based rotary engines after which performing some A Lovely Thoughts degree arithmetic in order that not solely are all of the rotors timed appropriately, however they’re additionally set up so {that a} fashionable laptop can run the ignition and in addition so it gained’t blow up or shake itself to items.

There’s a whole lot of shifting elements. OK, properly, not that many; it’s a rotary, however as a determine of speech, it really works. Get pleasure from.