Simanaitis Says
On cars, old, new and future; science & technology; vintage airplanes, computer flight simulation of them; Sherlockiana; our English language; travel; and other stuff
About the Author
Thanks sincerely for coming by.
Dennis Simanaitis sees this website as an opportunity to share enthusiasms with kind readers, including those who followed his 33-year career as Engineering Editor at Road & Track magazine. Before that, he worked for the Society of Automotive Engineers (now SAE International). He was Associate Engineering Editor for its monthly Automotive Engineering magazine; later he served as Manager of its Member Relations Division. An earlier career was teaching mathematics at the College of the Virgin Islands on St. Thomas. His educational background is in this subject, with a B.S. degree from Worcester Polytechnic Institute; an M.A. from Western Reserve University; and a Ph.D., specialty: dynamical systems theory (sort of differential equations without the dirty bits), from Case Western Reserve University.
He has managed to get this far in life without ever having a real job. His good fortune seems to be continuing.
A contact point: enged@aol.com.
© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2013
Simanaitis Says 
I’m more than intrigued by Porsche’s patent for a six-stroke internal combustion engine. That said, despite some online reading about it, I don’t feel fully informed. No doubt R&T’s esteemed engineering editor emeritus has some solid insights! What say you on this innovation, Dennis?
In all honesty, this Porsche news is utterly new to me. This calls for Googling.
I saw something about this on YouTube – one of my engineery geeky things. Look there, too…
Googling result: Both CandD and Motor Trend have good articles on it, along with official Porsche stuff. There are also several videos.
It’s a way to combine the four-stroke “induction/compression/expansion/exhaust” with a two-stroke’s “piston up (which combines compression and induction)/piston down (combining expansion and exhaust).”
Clever crankshaft geometry gives two power strokes for six strokes. One challenge would seem to be maintaining the necessary sealing of the crankcase below the piston to make the two-stroke’s duality work. Interesting.
During my year in England in the mid-80s, I spent my free time visiting people of interest, none more interesting than the Costin brothers, both accomplished (and opinionated) regarding high efficiency engine design. Honda was then promoting their VTEC which did offer benefits, but they pointed out the additional sealing, thus maintenance and longevity issues. Mike was obsessed with simplicity, and his often-mentioned evaluation was “an awful lot of monkey motion!” I immediately thought of that when exposed to the Porsche patent.Frank is better known for his structures and aero work, but he had no lack of insights and opinions regarding engines. I managed to compare some of their thoughts with Keith Duckworth, in each case, just opening a subject, and keeping my mouth shut.
I have red your article on the Maserati Karif published in Road&Track of August 1988.
Do you have by chance other photos of the Karif that you tested in Modena? I am the owner of a black painted Karif with chassis number *100002, built in February 1988 and apparently displayed at the Motor Show of Torino of end March/early April 1988.
Was that car you tested? Was it painted in black and do you have its chassis number or any other useful information to identify that Karif? Thanks