Rotary power thread! [Pics]

[ForcedFirebird]

Only if they are boosted

Or racing. There's one that does all the Homestead events. They rebuild it every race (3-5hr enduro). To boot they feel like they have to consistently rev the snot out of it in the garages with all it's 5" megaphone exhaust fury.

[Jims5543]

I sold my FC with a FD engine about 2 years ago and regret it badly. I have a standing offer to buy it back from the guy at any time he wants to sell it.

Last trip to the dyno it put 460RWHP @ 18 PSI, I never ran it there, I ran it at 15 PSI and closer to 400RWHP when I wanted to shit my pants, when I was just tooling around on the street I ran 12 PSI or 350 to the wheels. In a 2660 lb car even 350 felt insane. 400 was downright scary and was good for a low 11 second 1/4 mile (even though the car was built for Autcross and track days) and 460 would put me in the 10's. I had a set of 10" wide slicks for it for track days and AX. At AX events it was consistently a top time of the day car.

That engine was built in 2007 and had over 30K miles on it when I sold it, this is an engine that originally made 255HP now making over 500 HP.

To make them last they have to be built right, and more importantly tuned correctly. It still runs like a raped ape 8 years and close to 40K miles later.

Trust me when you take it out, it begs to be driven hard, so every outing resulted in hard driving.







I used to take it up to the mountains (5 trips total 2000 miles+ per trim over a 4 year period) to run with my Porsche friends. None of the cars in this picture, including the Noble could hang with that car. The guy in the Red 911 had close to 400 HP back then. He went for a ride with me in my car once and was amazed how late I could brake with it and now hard it pulled.



The guy in the silver car (back left in pic) owns a Porsche Speed shop in NC. He was seeing my RX7 for the first time, the guy in the red car told him to try to keep up with me coming down a moonshine road we run on that is desolate. It is a 6 mile long road and by the time I reached the end of it, I had time to park, open my hood and take some pictures of my car before he even came down the last stretch of road.

I will have that car back in my possession. I so regret selling it.

If you have never driven a boosted rotary you are missing out, I am right now toying with purchasing a Factory Five Cobra kit and putting a 20B into it and tuning it to about 550 HP. Why the 20B? To wave my middle finger at all the V8 swappers. :D

[Kevinl]

am I the only one who thinks rotaries are freaking terrible? I'm not saying you couldn't pay me to drive one, but it would have to be a 6 figure salary..

I wouldn't buy one but might drive it till the motor blows which wouldn't be long

M20's are tough SOB's there are some bad ass engines with timing belts 4g63,2jz etc

What the hell does Slammin know he likes vehicles with a POS 1960's buick V8 that makes as much power as a M20 from 4.0 liters and he is putting a POS V12 based on two M20's in one of them

[Hooffenstein HD]

What the hell does Slammin know he likes vehicles with a POS 1960's buick V8 that makes as much power as a M20 from 4.0 liters

Almost as bad as me. I'm halfway into installing a POS buick/Holden 3800/L36 "ecotec" in an E30. F timing belt changes and valve adjustments.

[varg]

Or racing. There's one that does all the Homestead events. They rebuild it every race (3-5hr enduro). To boot they feel like they have to consistently rev the snot out of it in the garages with all it's 5" megaphone exhaust fury.

And that's bad, since wankels seem to be unbearably loud compared to piston engines, and they sound like crap unless 3 rotors or more so it's not even pleasant to listen to. I double up on my ear protection when the wankel boys show up at the drags.

[Nesset]

And that's bad, since wankels seem to be unbearably loud compared to piston engines, and they sound like crap unless 3 rotors or more so it's not even pleasant to listen to. I double up on my ear protection when the wankel boys show up at the drags.

Some of the really old RX2's and RX3's sound pretty trick with the right exhaust/carb combo. I would love to see some 10k rpm drag racing sometime.

[Jims5543]

Or racing. There's one that does all the Homestead events. They rebuild it every race (3-5hr enduro). To boot they feel like they have to consistently rev the snot out of it in the garages with all it's 5" megaphone exhaust fury.

That does not make any sense at all, go talk to some ITS or ITA or even IT7 guys and they will tell you they get 2-3 seasons out of an engine.

I have a friend that races in ITS and stretched the engine into 4 seasons because he was on a tight budget. Most piston guys rebuild after each season.

Car# 63 in this pic, he was on his 4th season with the same engine.



Also, since when did track racing series do away with sound restrictions?

[ForcedFirebird]

That does not make any sense at all, go talk to some ITS or ITA or even IT7 guys and they will tell you they get 2-3 seasons out of an engine.

I have a friend that races in ITS and stretched the engine into 4 seasons because he was on a tight budget. Most piston guys rebuild after each season.

Car# 63 in this pic, he was on his 4th season with the same engine.


Also, since when did track racing series do away with sound restrictions?

You are preaching to the choir. My partner had a Rexie Chumpcar that did a few 14hr races, but had other issues such as fueling. I have no idea why these guys have the rotor on the work bench every race, but they do. The car is fast, but it also has made my kids jump when visiting the paddock. :(

[TwoJ's]

From an ME's perspective, WANKEL engines are very cool in theory. Mr. Wankel was very innovative and I admire the design that he came up with. I've never owned one, but from what I gather, they are not quite as cool practically. If someone could develop a Wankel engine that could offer the same kind of service intervals and reliability of piston engined, it would be awesome. They offer great specific power output.

[Jims5543]

You are preaching to the choir. My partner had a Rexie Chumpcar that did a few 14hr races, but had other issues such as fueling. I have no idea why these guys have the rotor on the work bench every race, but they do. The car is fast, but it also has made my kids jump when visiting the paddock. :(

I thought there were decibel restrictions, I know it causes headaches even for the quieter rotary guys. Or it used to since it is apparent that is no longer enforced.

As far as why they rebuild every race, it is easy they are cheap which leads me to believe they are dumb too. They prefer to rebuild over and over using crap / used parts rather than building a good solid engine.

The engine in my FC was built by a very small indy shop and when it was finished, the engine alone cost me $10K. Much of that cost was performance upgrades like an aggressive street port, intake runner porting, the throttle body was custom modified to be 20% larger as well as the intake runners. Then dowling the engine to make it stronger. Etc.. I essentially built an engine that could handle 20+ PSI then ran 15 PSI in it. Hence it still being prefect 8 years and almost 30k miles later and trust me I beat the snot out of that car.

I hear people say all the time, man those engine always blow up, yeah, they do for 2 simple reasons, bad tuning, cheap engine build = used parts that should not have been put in there.

My friend had a bone stock TurboII only oil changes and tune ups he had 210K miles on it. My brother had a non turbo FC and it had 240K miles on it when he sold it, it too was bone stock.

If you go in to tune them, especially FI cars, you better know what you are doing.

[Nesset]

Found a RX7 FB in town... Sorta' abandoned and stripped. Sad sight but someone could save it..

[FunfGan]

Maaaaaaan I love rotories so much.

So much amazing noise.


On a side note, FD's are the only cars I get a little pained when I see engine swaps in- especially v8's.

[lambo]

Rotaries are cool. I don't think I could own one unless it was a fire-breathing monster, though. Like, stock RX-8's are super meh to me.

[Kershaw]

I had an rx8 for 7 years before I sold it.

[Nesset]

I had an rx8 for 7 years before I sold it.

Sorry for the fat bump but how was it? I've been considering saving for up for one some day..