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Rotaries are truly fascinating engines. They’re small, lightweight and unlike anything else on the road. Also, people keep saying something about a spinning Dorito?
One of the coolest Lego projects we’ve seen in a while is this working model of a rotary engine, complete with a light that goes off to simulate the ignition of the fuel inside.
The Akiyuki Brick Channel based this model off of the Mazda RX-8’s 13B-MSP Renesis rotary engine, taking extra care to include the case, two spark plugs and of course, the apex seals that rotary owners tend to bemoan.
In case you’ve always wondered how rotary engines (a.k.a. Wankels) work, the Akiyuki Brick Channel took extra care to label their Lego-bot creation as it ran. Those apex seals play a special role in real life, as it’s the spinning action of the Dorito-shaped rotor and the ability of those seals to enclose each chamber of the engine that causes the engine to work.
Just watch the mesmerizing Lego motion and you’ll see where fuel goes into the engine from the intake, gets compressed after it’s sealed off from said intake by those infamous apex seals, gets ignited once an apex seal pushes the fuel to the spark plugs and then ultimately exits the exhaust. Most rotary cars have more than one of these, but now you have the general idea down of how that eponymous rotor works.
Akiyuki Brick Channel submitted this cool Lego project to Lego Ideas, where fans all over the world can submit their designs to the company. If you’d like this to become an official Lego kit, you can vote for it here. That kit would no doubt become an instant must-have for any rotary fan you know.
[H/T Brickman on OppositeLock!]
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