The turbo is not irrelevant because it has a direct impact on the ratio of power delivery / fuel consumption due to the recaptured energy from exhaust gasses. The volumetric efficiency (ratio of cylinder pressure pre-compression to atmospheric pressure) of engines with turbo-chargers is almost always >1 while the volumetric efficiency of naturally aspirated engines is always (excluding rare high-performance vehicles in specific ranges of operation) <1.
I don't have time to do more thorough research right now, but the Ford Duratec 30 series of engines [1] is roughly comparable in both displacement and cylinder count and produces between 200 and 240 HP depending on configuration which puts this engine slightly ahead of normal engines from a performance perspective (smaller form factor and lighter).
Is there any apples to apples comparison that you can find that actually makes this development look substantially inferior? I get that you used a diesel because historically that gave the ICE an advantage but with modern diesel technology and forced induction they aren't the same animal.
In this context it is irrelevant since my comparison was purely one of power output against displacement.
The Turbo allows a given displacement to output more power for a given displacement, indeed volvo have 2 litre putting out 450hp (uses staged turbo's one of which is electrically driven), I wasnt comparing the nearest ICE equivalent to the rotary.
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The turbo is not irrelevant because it has a direct impact on the ratio of power delivery / fuel consumption due to the recaptured energy from exhaust gasses. The volumetric efficiency (ratio of cylinder pressure pre-compression to atmospheric pressure) of engines with turbo-chargers is almost always >1 while the volumetric efficiency of naturally aspirated engines is always (excluding rare high-performance vehicles in specific ranges of operation) <1.
I don't have time to do more thorough research right now, but the Ford Duratec 30 series of engines [1] is roughly comparable in both displacement and cylinder count and produces between 200 and 240 HP depending on configuration which puts this engine slightly ahead of normal engines from a performance perspective (smaller form factor and lighter).
Is there any apples to apples comparison that you can find that actually makes this development look substantially inferior? I get that you used a diesel because historically that gave the ICE an advantage but with modern diesel technology and forced induction they aren't the same animal.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Duratec_V6_engine#3.0_L
Edit: changed 'pre-combustion' to 'pre-compression' for clarity on volumetric efficiency definition.
In this context it is irrelevant since my comparison was purely one of power output against displacement.
The Turbo allows a given displacement to output more power for a given displacement, indeed volvo have 2 litre putting out 450hp (uses staged turbo's one of which is electrically driven), I wasnt comparing the nearest ICE equivalent to the rotary.