Patent ID: 7735465

Claim:
A method of operating an internal combustion engine, the engine including: a cylinder; a piston mounted in said cylinder to undergo a reciprocating movement along a stroke path between top dead center and bottom dead center during the operation of said engine; said cylinder and said piston conjointly delimiting a combustion chamber; a crankcase connected to said cylinder; a crankshaft rotatably mounted in said crankcase; said piston being connected to said crankshaft for imparting rotational movement to said crankshaft; a device for metering fuel to said engine and a device for supplying air to said engine; an ignition unit for igniting an air/fuel mixture in said combustion chamber; and, a control unit controlling the metering of said fuel and the time point (ZZP) of the ignition of said mixture in said combustion chamber; said engine having a rated rpm (n V ) which is the rpm at maximum power; said engine having an rpm (n) which can vary during operation thereof and having a high-rpm range wherein the rpm (n) of said engine lies above said rated rpm (n v ); and, said engine having a regulation range wherein the rpm lies above the rpm in said high-rpm range and said regulating range extending up to a maximum rpm (n max ); the method comprising the step of controlling said engine in said high-rpm range so as to cause the number of combustions to be less than the number of engine cycles in the same time interval; and, in said regulating range of said engine, shifting said ignition time point (ZZP) to a later time point.