The title Wärtsilä has a particular glow round it within the motorhead neighborhood. That is largely due to the RTA96-C, a 14-cylinder, two-stroke turbo diesel behemoth that our personal Mike Hanlon endorsed as one of many Seven Wonders of the World again in 2004.
The numbers hooked up to this 89-ft-long (27-m), 44-ft-tall (13-m), 2,300-ton colossus beggar perception to at the present time; 108,920 peak horsepower is an effective place to start out, or maybe the truth that it is able to operating at better than 50% thermal effectivity. Simply the sheer, cavernous dimension of every cylinder – at 38 inches (97 cm) of bore by 98 inches (249 cm) of stroke … Engineers can arise the cylinder to work on it whereas the factor remains to be operating.
Such a machine causes sure stirrings within the loins of any red-blooded petrolhead. They need to’ve made pin-up posters of this factor. So once I’m offered with the chance to interview Håkan Agnevall, President and CEO of Wärtsilä … Effectively naturally, my first query to Agnevall is when we’ll see this supertanker donk in a motorcycle.
I am somewhat late, he tells me; Wärtsilä offered off its large two-stroke engine enterprise again in 2015 as a part of a pivot towards vitality storage and decarbonization. It is now owned by an organization referred to as WinGD – right here, check out them placing collectively a 14-cylinder, flex-fuel succesful 14RT-flex96C engine:
WinGD’s 14RT-flex96C essentially the most highly effective diesel engine (previously Wärtsilä)
The corporate nonetheless makes whopping large engines, although – might we nonetheless see a Wärtsilä superbike? Or no less than a Goldwing-style tourer? “It is going to be robust,” says Agnevall. “The engines we nonetheless have, I imply, they’ve a cylinder bore about half a meter (1.6 ft). You would slide down these as properly, if you would like to. Equally tough, although, to placed on a bike.”
Tough – however not unattainable! Wärtsilä is not going to do it, although, so it will in all probability should be a shed construct. Anybody received a extremely large shed?
So disappointing. I imply, why construct engines in any respect for those who’re not going to place them in bikes? Certainly that is the best calling for any piston engine. Is the RTA96-C or its flex-fuel descendent in some way unworthy?
It won’t slot in your commonplace Fireblade chassis, however you would not essentially should construct the body from scratch – simply keep watch over Market for any small to medium sized second-hand truss bridges which might be going low cost.
Wärtsilä
Cooling … That is going to take some work, except you are planning to experience it solely via rivers. And so’s heating, I suppose; the low-grade bunker gasoline an older RTA would sometimes dine on flows about in addition to tar for those who do not heat it up. We’ll additionally have to funds some area for a decent-sized gasoline tank, since it may well undergo 250 tons a day for those who’re not straightforward on the throttle.
The transmission and clutch may also be a problem, given the height torque of seven.6 million Nm (5.6 million lb-ft). We would even have to go for a shaft drive – though the final time I noticed a shaft that may be as much as the job was Pammy and Tommy’s honeymoon video.
Suspension-wise, properly, the motor alone weighs greater than 10 occasions as a lot as a fully-loaded 787 Dreamliner, so you are not going to get a lot love down on the plane wreckers. This’ll in all probability require a name to Ohlins, to speak them right into a Scandinavian collaboration undertaking. And if we’re getting custom-built boingy bits entrance and rear, properly, we would as properly spec it for off-road shenanigans:
Granted, it is not going to be straightforward to get a foot down on the lights, and the torque response while you blip the throttle would possibly barely alter the Earth’s rotation. What’s extra, this may be essentially the most environment friendly engine on the excessive seas, however we suspect a Vespa would in all probability beat it for gasoline financial system round city.
A Vespa wouldn’t, nonetheless, ship 109,000 horsepower, and you would be significantly much less prone to have your lunch cash stolen for those who rocked up on a Wärtsiläcycle.
Such a pity.
Supply: Wärtsilä
Editor’s observe: this piece was amended on twenty third June for an incorrect unit conversion.
