You put a Rotary in a WHAT?

[HoTWire]

Engine swaps, seemingly the heart of our retro scene, take your older car, find a suitable engine swap and you are on your way to greatness. Now a lot of people will attempt to keep it within the make of the car they have, Zetec in a Ford, modern Nissan lump in a Datsun. Other people take what they have to hand, those crazy Swedes and their big power Volvo lumps that find their way into all sorts of things. Still other people go for that they know, throwing a BMW engine or a big V8 in all manner of vehicles. Then there is that special class of person for who the answer to more power, or more interesting engines is to put a donkrotary in it. This here is a thread for those brave souls.

Inspired first and foremost by this :


Here is another picture :


and another with a clue to the drive train


Only thread I've found on the car so far is this, which seems to be missing its pictures and stops suddenly :
www.rx7club.com/old-school-other-rotary-63/volvo-343-rotary-spaceframe-racer-1059929/


From that thread though I discovered that the engine is actually from a previous project:




A rear wheel drive turbo rotary powered Mini!
www.theminiforum.co.uk/forums/topic/142925-rotary-mini-turbo/



So far, so bonkers.

To my limited Dorito power knowledge more rotors = more power(-ish), so you get single and bi rotors in road cars mainly, with turbo charging fun times for more speed. Then in the exotic end you get triple rotors (like our guest RX 7 at The Gathering this year), at the top end you get the quad rotors that Mazda used in their Lemans Group C race car... and this chap is putting into a Volvo 142 :





All of the lunacy here : www.rx7club.com/old-school-other-rotary-63/tegheim-home-made-4-rotor-wolvo-project-892879/



Last but by no means least we have the ever wonderful Pipey's RotorBeetleGolf

Full details here : www.speedhunters.com/2014/11/a-bridgeported-party-in-the-rear/






The rotary engine is a bit crazy to start with, interesting design, unreliable, a bit fragile, very thirsty, but so so awesome in many ways. I do enjoy them being thrown into things they shouldn't be in, anyone got any more?? ... I'll also accept a 4 rotor NSU Ro80 if anyone has built one

[luckyseven]

That "engine" for the Volvo will be needing some plates as well as housings, really. Or it's gonna leak like a sieve. Peripheral porting, mind you, uber cool and stupid power... if you don't mind 8mpg!

Plenty of rotang conversions around, one that springs immediately to mind is the superchraged del'orto breathing Imp recently owned by randywanger_ of this parish

[luckyseven]

Silverstone Autosport's rotary Escort is a perennial favourite, and a potent beast to boot

[luckyseven]

Not forgetting the superb Wankelpop owned and built by Derek (Norton). Also, as his nickname suggests, he has a predilection for the more obscure two-wheeled rotaries.

[dbizzle]

From a thread back in March...

Mar 20, 2014 22:16:02 GMT dbizzle said:

Another feature I wrote for this month's Banzai is on this rotary-powered Datsun 510. Pics scavenged from t'interwebs here and here and here - get the mag to see, like, proper pics an' that.

[chubz]

That red golf is utterly pointless and stupid.

Lower than ya grans nipples . wouldnt be able to use it in 99% of england due to the roads...

And then its got a powerful engine in the back..for what reason, i VERY MUCH doubt it even has the capability of going over 15mph.... Really, what drugs are people smoking when they build such cars ?

[Frankenhealey]

Dec 2, 2014 15:06:10 GMT dbizzle said:

From a thread back in March...

Mmmmmmmmm flamezzzz

[HoTWire]

Dec 2, 2014 16:22:41 GMT chubz said:

That red golf is utterly pointless and stupid.

Lower than ya grans nipples . wouldnt be able to use it in 99% of england due to the roads...

And then its got a powerful engine in the back..for what reason, i VERY MUCH doubt it even has the capability of going over 15mph.... Really, what drugs are people smoking when they build such cars ?

Okay I'll bite because I'll assume you are trolling, or haven't read the rules of the forum*.


Yes that Golf is utterly pointless and stupid... HURRAH! Awesome.

It is driven to and from the Gathering every year, a good old distance up the motorway from deepest Southern parts of England. In fact it gets driven a lot of places, it being a car and Pipey liking to use it. So that negates kind of the rest of your argument.

Even more excitingly it is on air so it can raise and lower its suspension.

So why do people build such cars? Because they like them and want to...




*even has a handy guide for you not to be an annoying person in it.

[conair]

Dec 2, 2014 14:35:20 GMT luckyseven said:

That "engine" for the Volvo will be needing some plates as well as housings, really. Or it's gonna leak like a sieve. Peripheral porting, mind you, uber cool and stupid power... if you don't mind 8mpg!

Plenty of rotang conversions around, one that springs immediately to mind is the superchraged del'orto breathing Imp recently owned by randywanger_ of this parish

I like Imps and this has just ticked every awesome box on the list, love it!

[niwid]

Dec 2, 2014 16:22:41 GMT chubz said:

That red golf is utterly pointless and stupid.

Really, what drugs are people smoking when they build such cars ?

No idea, but I'll have what he's having. And people say drugs are bad for you!

[goldnrust]

Faster than the original engine do we think?



I would post my rotary engine swap, but it's still in a Mazda sports car so it's not really very far from home! haha

[optimusprime]

Dec 2, 2014 16:22:41 GMT chubz said:

That red golf is utterly pointless and stupid.

Lower than ya grans nipples . wouldnt be able to use it in 99% of england due to the roads...

And then its got a powerful engine in the back..for what reason, i VERY MUCH doubt it even has the capability of going over 15mph.... Really, what drugs are people smoking when they build such cars ?

Simple answer, because he can!

Now i might not like a particular car, and to be honest, dropped to the floor vehicles don't 'do it' for me.

But that don't mean i cant be in awe of the time effort and engineering behind such things.

Life would be boring if everyone liked the same things.

[dallow]

Dec 2, 2014 17:53:32 GMT optimusprime said:

Dec 2, 2014 16:22:41 GMT chubz said:

That red golf is utterly pointless and stupid.

Lower than ya grans nipples . wouldnt be able to use it in 99% of england due to the roads...

And then its got a powerful engine in the back..for what reason, i VERY MUCH doubt it even has the capability of going over 15mph.... Really, what drugs are people smoking when they build such cars ?

Simple answer, because he can!

Now i might not like a particular car, and to be honest, dropped to the floor vehicles don't 'do it' for me.

But that don't mean i cant be in awe of the time effort and engineering behind such things.

Life would be boring if everyone liked the same things.

saw the golf at the gathering and was shocked when he drove away across a field!!!
I don't like every car I see but I do admire the engineering that goes into them.
The world would be a boring place if we all did sensible things.

[HoTWire]

Let's not make this thread about that guy and his opinion.

Let's make it about stuff like this:

www.rx7club.com/old-school-other-rotary-63/1974-13b-re-nova-727207/







Makes hell of a noise too :


Goes well too

[chubz]

fair points,not a fan of slammed cars either because they wont be useable on most of the uk's roads.

props as its obviously not just stuck together curse word looks well built, but surely putting a big motor in something like that (that i doubt can be driven hard) is just a waste of time

[randywanger_]

Rotary powered anything is usually made of WIN! My old Imp was awesome indeed.

You can buy a subframe to mount a 12a or 13b straight into the 510. Tempting!









Obviously this engine is lower and further back than normal so an enlarge transmission and driveshaft tunnel and modified firewall to fit the engine. A tidy 13b turbo install though.

[randywanger_]

MK2 Cortina with a 12a bridge port n/a motor





From here: retrorides.proboards.com/thread/126591/cortina-ii-bagged-rotary-powered

[luckyseven]

Front-mount intake weirdness on that Datto is weird. More pics required

Have a rotanged Chevy Vega (of all bizarre things...)



www.speedhunters.com/2012/07/vega_rx/

[RetroWarwicK]

I daren't mention the covin which has a 13b waiting in the wings....it's slammed and pointlessly great...

[swampy76]

Love threads like this but at the present it upsets me as my rx8 is awaiting open heart surgery after digesting a bearing!

Going to be a fun few weeks doing an engine swap outside this time of year