Mazda may have popularized the rotary engine but the first truck to be equipped with a rotary engine came from China. In the 1960’s China went a bit Wankel crazy with then Vice Premier Li Xiannian proclaiming that China would develop its own rotary Engine and use it in cars and trucks. Obviously this plan never really came to fruition but there was at least one rather fascinating result – that is the TJ140 we discuss today.
The TJ140 was first produced in 1969 by the Tianjin Truck Repair Shop. The truck was never put into full scale production and was really a testbed for this new engine.
The engine in question was the 2110 Rotary Piston Engine. It had a displacement of 2.2 liters and likely had 2 rotors (based on the picture above showing what appear to be 2 exhaust pipes from the block. It produced 120hp at 8500rpm and 280Nm at 8000rpm. The engine was actually produced by another company – Tianjin Machine Factory. One of the main attractions of the rotary engine design was that it could run on low grade fuel, somewhat of a necessity at a time when higher octane fuel was scarce in China, especially outside the big cities.
An interview with a former employee of Tianjin Truck Repair Shop – Mr. Wei Zhongqi 魏忠琪 he says that the TJ140 was based on the Jiefang 140 (CA10B).
The TJ140 proved a have good performance with a top speed of 140km/h, certainly impressive for a truck even by todays standards. It was taken all over the country to Zhengzhou, Chengdu and even as far as Lhasa. Everywhere it went it impressed truck drivers who were used to driving things that were much slower.
Sadly production of the TJ140 ended after just 40 trucks were made. As quickly as the Vice Premier had proclaimed that China would become a dominant force in the Wankel world the goals of the Government changed and the project was terminated. This was mainly due to the rotary engines inherent lack of low down torque – necessary for heavy vehicles such as trucks and also their higher fuel and oil consumption.
[…] have reason to think that the Wankel engine was the 2110 made by the Tianjin Machine Works, already used in the Tianjin TJ140 […]