Most vehicles use a piston engine similar to the one-cylinder, four-stroke motor in the first car ever made, Karl Benz’s Patent Motorwagen. Lately, a more fuel-efficient and emissions-friendly engine design, the opposed-piston engine, has been gaining ground with commercial fleets. However, one engine format that never quite took hold in the auto industry is the Wankel rotary engine. This engine uses a triangular piston that meshes directly with the crankshaft and rotates within an oval-shaped cylinder. It was invented in
…
Read more