OD404

Again, no Engine isn't all that heavy compared to others. It weighs less than a small block v8 (and that's with all its ancilliary parts in cluded). The downside to ceramics is the need for 5000miles to bed the tips into the housing in order to make a proper seal...

No they don't Cast iron is used for the rotors and the front and rear plates. Aluminium is used for the main housings and they use steel inserts to increase the hardness (and therefore reduce wear) of the inner surface. The engine that Mazda currently has in development (dubbed the 16x) will have an all aluminium housing, but I believe they are retaining the cast iron rotors. The only time ceramic has been used in a rotary (outside a tuner using ceramic coated seals in highly tuned engines) was the R26B engine used in the 787B Le Mans car. The seals were ceramic and the housings were plasma coated in ceramic.

Once you overcome it's poor thermal efficiency which is the cause of its low mpg, high emissions, low torque (compared to similar piston engines of the same power) and to some extent the apex seal life issues seen on the earlier engines.

On the face of it, it would appear a good idea, but the 2stroke does have limitations. It's speed for instance is limited due to the scavenging requirements, which can be overcome by using valves on the intake side (and possibly a little super/turbocharging to help), but then you run into dynamic constraints as the valvetrain is operating at twice the speed of a four stroke engine. Toyota did look into this and I think quite a while back they actually made a 2stroke for automotive use, but it wound up being no better for performance than the equivalent 4stroke, but more expensive and less reliable.

It isn't a two stroke as the intake and exhaust events are kept separate...

But a rotary has twice as many power-strokes per crank revolution which is the reason the ACO banned their use at Le Mans, and why the DVLA and insurance companies class them as twice their actual capacity.

There's one in developement now, a friend is one of the lead designers for it (not sure if I can say much more than that at the moment, haven't talked to him in a while)...

Like I said, there's too many differences to put this argument to bed...

Similarly, a recent road trip involving a 1000cc GSXR and a Caterham showed that for people with similar driving/riding abilities, the Caterham spent most of its time pushing the bike.

Someone hit a nerve Andy?

But then the car would need to weigh the same as the bike... Cars and bikes are too different to make a particularly useful comparison if you ask me. It's more about what suits the rider/driver the best.

This is the main thing, we're all comfortable with a certain package because it's what we're familiar with. I use ProE on a daily basis too, so that is the one I generally recommend. Going a little off topic here... However there is one thing about it (and every other CAD package out there as far as I'm aware) that is guaranteed to infuriate me, and that's it's in ability to draw a proper circle. By the very nature of the way it models curves, a circle is actually an ellipse which is fine for you designer types as the package knows you are drawing a circle and will always treat it as such, but for an analyst like myself it's a nightmare. This becomes an issue for me on a daily basis, as I spend most of my time doing thermal, structural and flow analysis of cylinder heads and when your valves are actually elliptical, modelling the heat transfer from them to the valve seat will always produce the wrong results. The solution to this is to delete the valves and seats and model them in the analysis software (Ansys) which is as difficult to model in 3d as AutoCAD!! Rant over

The air strip?

Silly thing is, they'll race anyone, I have more trouble with Saxos and Fiestas trying to race the rx7 than other jap cars and Porsches etc. Think that says something about the typical owners... I do enjoy it though, so easy to play with them in 5th, let them think they are keeping up, then drop it down and leave them standing

Voted

Que me taking the back off my rx7 to see if that's a photoshop or not...

Depends on your choice of car and what you want to get out of modifiying it. All the car I've owned have been modified to some extent or another. My 1.2 Corsa had an upgraded stereo, no massive subs, but new head unit, decent amp and the stock speakers were replaced for better quality ones. At the time I wasn't fussed about it handling well or having more power (there little point with a small engine like that, you spend a lot of money for little gain), nor did I care for bodykits and big wheels. Having the stereo just made driving it more pleasurable. My Civic Vti had new wheels, suspension, a bit of engine work, and everything stripped from the interior. They are nippy and good handling cars to begin with and the mods just enhanced that and focused it more on the drive as opposed to comfort, looks etc. My current rx7 has a fair amount of engine work, and bodywork mods and a little to the interior, the looks aren't to everyones tastes, but if you go that route make sure you are changing the looks to something YOU like, not because you think other people will like it... So really the two questions are: What car are you looking at getting? What do you want to modify on it? That way we can tell you if it's really worth it or not

Her loss...

I used to have my cv online with a number of engineering recruitement companies, I got a fair few offers for interviews, mostly from companys I'd never heard of. They were free so I would say it was a good thing. They do hassle me every month to check I still have a job On the graduate side of things, you'll be interested to know that company policy here is to only recruite graduates for professional positions, that way you keep an upward flow of skills through the company. For instance we need another FEA analyst, so the route is to promote me and another analyst to create a "gap" at the bottom for a graduate to fill.

Pretty much my view...

I suppose it depends on why you go to uni really. I went because it was a means to an end, my chosen career in this case, and for a lot of people that will be the same. I do get the feeling that in many cases people go to uni because it is an accepted convention; "you want a good job, you go to uni" etc and that just isn't the case. Where I work (in an engineering design office) there are loads of people here who are more knowledgable than me who never went to uni. As someone said, when you go to uni you want to make sure the debt you get in is worth the benefits the degree gives you. I don't think this is the case in many instances. The biggest benefit of uni for me so far has been its dedicated careers service, as this has prepared me for writing cv's (I've never been rejected on the basis of my cv since) as well as interview and assessment centre preparation. I do know Loughboroughs careers service website is openly accessible from the net and has a lot of good information about cv's and interviews so for those who want some advice it would be a great place to start

Likewise haha. On a serious note, I'll echo what other people have said, Uni doesn't guarantee you a job, I've seen so many people with degrees go out and get jobs that you can easily get without one. Part of this issue comes from the government trying their damndest to get more people into higher education, which seems like a good idea, but what it seems to have done rather than getting more people on to worthwhile degrees like maths, science, engineering etc, is create a raft of degrees that serve very little purpose (who really needs a degree in jewelery design?) This has a knockon effect to those that don't have degrees (and by many accounts, might actually be more employable) as there are now loads more people with degrees in the job market place. National Grid was mentioned a few posts back and I know for a fact that they struggle year on year to get the graduate intake they want, though I don't know if that is also the case with apprentiships. My advice would be to just keep applying to as many places as you possibly can, eventually you will get there

For 10K I'd have gone the K20 route... For that money I could have a 450whp rotory built by someone else And no the B20 conversion is not pointless, the thin sleaves and det issue really only come into play when you turbo the engine, but when you consider that for around the £300 mark you can swap the bottom end/block of a B16 and get a healthy increase in torque and power I'd say it's the best value mod you can make (since the B16 doesn't respond all that well to bolt ons). I'd agree there isn't much point in going B20 if you are already running a B18, but for the Civic boys it's very good idea.

Yes they can, but within a couple of years you will be able to afford a better car, you might as well save the money the wheels and tyres would cost you and put that towards the next car. You won't get that money back when you come to sell your car, that's not the way modding works, trust me! Also there's nothing worse than looking at a fiesta with "new" 14" halfords alloys on, it looks stupid and it makes you look like a plum to everyone else... Changing the cd player is worthwhile though, I did that to my first car (along with new speakers and an amp) as there is no point changing it's looks or performance (wasted money), but at least you can enjoy a better quality of Classic FM (ahem).

Good advice, insurance when you first start driving is so high, you're best off getting something cheap (that may not necessarily be particularly cool) and saving some money towards something nice when your insurance becomes cheaper. I got my first car when I was 20, didn't need one until then, so can't comment too much on what would be a good car to get, but my insurance on a 1yr old Corsa at 20 was only £700. Worth the wait in my opinion.