The bulb suddenly turned on, as he was cleaning a ball bearing of a newly dismantled shaft.
The breath of compressed air impressed the gear holding a crazy rotation: over thirty thousand laps per minute. Very frictionally, just a slight buzz let the speedy motion blur out.
"Why is not there a motor with these characteristics?" Cladio De Bei asked, fascinated by the bearing. Upon completion of the operation he came to the drawing board. A piston here, the seat of the candles at the top, drains it below. In short, the idea of the rotating engine - nothing to do with the disappointing Wukel of the Nsu of the early seventies - took on thick.
Claudio De Bei fanned, looking out of hours that became smaller and smaller. An infinite number of numbers. Calculations on calculations: cubic centimeters and degrees, temperatures and holes, traps and amps. "An amazing night," recalls Archimedes Bassano, author of about forty patents, a wizard in the preparation and restoration of vintage motorbikes, racing technicians around the world, thanks to the racing car made with the unforgettable friend Renato Sonda and competed by Marcellino Lucchi in the early 1990s.
Here's the engine, designed as if it were a ball bearing.
"The concept from which I started - unveils Claudio De Bei, class 1945, son of art (his father was the famous Pius, owner of a Piaggio resale with an adjoining repair workshop in Via Mure del Bastion) - is that of the bearing spheres. Upper elastic bands to ensure the cylinder's watertightness. To fuel the engine of 1000 cc, it is sufficient to have a 26-carburetor. The overall speeds that can reach full rotation exceed 22 thousand per minute, the power it expresses is 460 hp. Diwali figures but Claudio De Bei is ready to confirm, given to the hand, after testing at the test bench of the first prototype made with the help of teammates friends. "From the tests carried out at the desk," De Bei explains, "I have verified that one liter of fuel can take about eighty miles to an incredible hourly average, considering the power that can develop at maximum speeds."
Electric motors, or nearly, incredible for a blast engine, whose normal performance is around 25 percent under the best operating conditions.
The beauty of this endothermic engine is weight: a few tens of pounds.
Thanks to the rotary system and the centrifugal shaft, it is possible, with few steps, to increase compression up to 25 atmospheres. The engine is covered by a number of international patents and the project has been presented to Fiat.
Claudio De Bei, with his ingenious invention, is shaking the Japanese.
