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F1 banned rotary engines awhile ago, rotary engines were banned at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, I don't believe they are allowed in most racing series (I could be wrong). Why were they banned?

I don't mean for this topic to fall into a pro vs con of the Wankel engine. I would just like to know what the reasons were for it's ban.

Thanks.

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Keep it clean

im not sure a wankel engine ever appeared in F1, but they just created the rules to not allow it anyways to keep some sort of spec to the series (rules have always limited engine selection to only one type of engine ala now only 2.4L V8)

as for  le mans, i suppose they created the rule because the previous year the 787B was so good... kinda lame but there ya go

Yea, I don't think it was ever in F1 either. Although in F1 you use to see V12, V10, and V8 all on the same gride. I know they banned it after Mazda won Le Mans, but I can't find what reason they gave for doing so. A couple years later the Wankel was also banned in the Rolex Series and no reason was given. I was just wondering if anyone had read or heard any reason for the ban. Was there a performance advantage? Was it cost related?

Just wondering.

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Keep it clean

I think it was because the rotaries generated the same amount of power, if not more, from a smaller, lighter engine thus giving it a large advantage. It's kind of like the Audi R10 having to shrink it's gas tank since it gets better gas mileage than all the other P1's.

Seems as plausable an answer as I could come up with. It would be nice to see the ban lifted though. I wouldn't mind a little more variety on some of the grids.

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Keep it clean

I'm not sure if this is the reason but it is my guess. In most of these series there is a limit to what engine size you can have like 2.5 in WRC. The Wankel engines in RX7's and 8's are only something like 1.3 litres where as something like a supra is a 3.0 and they produce the same amount of power. Therefore you could have a same size wankel engine with loads more power.

Just my guess

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basically all the big engine people cried that they were going to get owned by a 1.3L

its an amazing engine imo (13B) but I am a big rx7 guy too :)

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Drive with style

yeah 13b engines are small but powerfull, the like dought about them are they are too loud, but every engine has its own unique way

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Im That RockStar 69-Ner Fairlady Z Driver