[dcb]

a flywheel and a piston cost 70k? I just wouldn't present theory as fact without testing. While I get the benefits of your proposal, I think you all might have missed a few considerations that could put this engine in the realm of seriously impractical for improving the efficiency of vehicles, i.e.: reliance on an inefficient cvt, large amounts of rotating mass , lots of extra weight, unproven delicacies in the crank area, unknown volumetric efficiency, rotating exhaust seal, articulated stroke has exponentially worse compression ratio in response to changes in displacement (unless the cylinders are made to be moveable too).

If you are going to present CVT as an efficiency improvement, you gotta back it up with real data. Number of patents and PHDs and a flow diagram doesn't mean squat. The real data I've seen has CVTs sucking air.