Here are my rotary powered vehicles. Click the thumbnails to see a larger picture.
My rotary powered MG Midget
This car has some history.
It had a street ported 12A in it. I have since fitted the 13B and tranny from my rotary truck. The tranny is still in it, but the engine had to go back into the truck. The other engine is just a couple of housings I threw together and tossed into the engine bay. Savy veiwers will notice something incredibly wrong with it.
My Rotary Truck
The Mazda rotary engine pickup truck is by far the coolest minitruck from the mid seventies, period. It's even been called the Cadillac of minitrucks by prominent rotary enthusiasts. The REPU may look similar to the Mazda B1600 and the Ford Courier, but it is vastly superior. These trucks can tow heavier loads, they have more bed capacity, a nicer cab, better brakes, a wider stance, handle better in the twisties, and are easy to work on. I can see why they are in high demand amoung the rotary elite.
This is a good starter page for those of you who might not be familier with the REPU.
Here is a page completely about the REPU, The REPU Guru.
Just about the only thing I can think of which would give the REPU a run for its money is a VW Crewcab with a rotary conversion! I know Tom definetly wants one of those.
I installed a '79 RX-7 5 speed in my truck, and the old stock tranny (really worn out) is currently in my MG for experimental purposes. I would like to intall a supercharger into my truck some day, mainly for more torque. How about a 20B? I'm not sure how well it would fit between the firewall and the radiator, but I'd certainly have more torque! I would need a series 5 RX-7 tranny too. I have already taken a few basic measurements and it seems possible.
Have you seen the new Cadillac red? It is a very nice color. It's not burgandy or too dark, but just right because of the pearl paint which catches your eye in the sunlight. Should I paint it that color?
By the way, I have seen a Courier with a Mustang 289 V8 in it before. Sorry no pics, but it barely fit. Infact the radiator had to be moved right up next to the grill to clear the front pulley, and the custom-built headers had to go through holes they cut in the inner fenders! They also put the battery in the bed right above where the stock battery sits in an REPU (gee I wonder why). The stock rear end is strong enough to withstand the V8's torque so it should be strong enough for a 20B as well. However it uses a normal differential (one wheel drive). Too bad a posi 3RD member was never manufactured for these trucks. A posi ford 9 inch with the correct brakes and lug bolt pattern is always an option though.
My CD Cosmo
Mechanically this car is in good shape (doors, electric windows, hood, trunk, etc. all work) but the engine and tranny are tired. I'm not specifically familier with anyone who's installed a 20B into one of these "CD" Cosmos before, but there are some rumors out there. There are at least two 20B powered HB Cosmos in Australia, and the JC Cosmos came stock with these awesome engines.
Why do some web pages show the CD23C Cosmo as an AP Cosmo? Actually, AP stands for 'Anti Pollution'. The 12A version is known as CD22C if I remember correctly. I believe the boinger powered model is called 121L.
Here is an HB Cosmo that has a CD style front grill and a 20B in it.
The engine bay of the CD Cosmo looks long enough for a 20B, which is only 160mm longer than a 13B when measured from rear housing to front cover. The extra rotor housing and special 20B housing are both only 80mm each. The stock front pulley is around 20mm longer than a 13B because of the serpentine belt which runs the alternator. If I moved the tranny back by about 100mm and removed the radiator fan shroud and fan, I would have 33mm to spare between the water pump pulley and the radiator (close!). It would be tricky to mount an electric cooling fan in there, but there is lots of room between the radiator and grill for a big intercooler! It is better to mount an electric fan behind the radiator rather than in front of it - if at all possible. I could always try detatching the radiator from the oil cooler and moving it forward by a few inches and building a custom shroud, or do what Lance Warren did and get a custom built radiator and slant it for more room/cooling capacity. I'll do a third gear scoot over that bridge when I come to it (inside joke).
Well one thing is for sure, If I went ahead with the conversion, the heavy Cosmo would thank me with better acceleration and a beastly sound eminating from the tailpipe! You've got to start with a heavy car; even an FC RX-7 would be ok for this sort of project. Just don't try to squeeze a 20B into a 1st gen (well, you could but...).
Of course no cool Cosmo-info page would be complete without these three Cosmos. I absolutely had to include a link to Lance Warren's '83 HB Cosmo powered by a modifed 20B and his 20B JC Cosmo with the sick 20 inch rims (like you all haven't seen them before right?). Check them out at www.3rotor.com Then there is Rob's 20B powered HB Cosmo Sedan. Click the link to go to his site, or just click on the 3 Rotor Group button at Lance's site.
Here are some other peoples� rotary rockets that are worth mentioning. Click the thumbnails to see a larger picture. (more pics coming)
My Bro's GSLSE (series 3 special edition)
Too bad he sold it.
Rick's '74 rotary truck.
Nice grenaded clutch there, Rick! Check below for some older pics of this truck.
This truck is pretty cool. It's got a loud exhaust and is running with a dellorto carb and DLIDFIS. It has been lowered for cornering (it corners very well). It's been a wonderful truck and has towed everything that we've needed to tow thus far, such as a heavier than average sandrail on a fairly large trailer (let's see a B1600 or Ford Courier do that without a V8 or something, HAH!). Right now he uses it to commute to work, but it could probably do 15s in the quarter mile. I guess we'll see someday!
He recently got an RB SS HD disk and SS pressure plate with a light steel flywheel. It runs great with the 460 diff. No more clutch probs!
Tom has lots of rotary powered cars. Check 'em out!
Tom's convertable rotary truck.
This truck has a trick paint job. The battery is up in the bed like a V8 Courier I've seen. It needs minor bodywork as it is now 10 years since the conversion.
Tom's Rotoscoot
This is the coolest rotary truck I have ever seen! You look at it and you're like, "sure it looks tricked out, but it's just a poser." Wanna bet!?! It's a '77 with too many mods to list here. Well, maybe a few. The suspension mods allow this truck to corner better than most cars on the road today! Way better than a 1st gen with RB's suspension upgrades (and I thought his decked out 7 was all that!). It can handle any dry road at twice the posted speed limit, and then some (curves or straight, It doesn't really matter hehe). A 7" supercharger is going on its GSL-SE 13B next, which ought to make close to 200HP and enough torque to get that 3.90 diff and 45 series 17" tires moving pretty quickly! Man, my '74 is so jealous!
Tom's Rotary B2000
Tom's '80 RX-7.
Tom doesn't have this really nice SA anymore, but thats ok. I already miss its mean 2nd gear chirp.
Tom's GSL-SE 13B REW project
Tom has installed a 13B REW into his uh, brown GSLSE RX-7 and is debating whether he should go with a stock ECU, or an aftermarket computer, or just a supercharger and a big carb. He already knows what color he's going to paint it, which will be Competion Yellow Mica (only available for one year on the Series 6 / 3RD Gen RX-7 R1 package). Infact he already had the engine bay painted this color before he installed the engine (after test fitting it of course). He felt that he had the privilege to paint his car a color that was only available on a car with a 13B REW.
Tom's '82 (series 2) GSL RX-7
A streetported 13B with a RacingBeat 'Streetport' dual exhaust system plus suspension upgrades make up some of the cool mods we've done to this RX-7. We've installed an Atkins Supercharger kit and this car rips! More pics as we take them.
Tom's rotary powered Baja Bug
Yes, a 13B in a baja bug! I think Tom has been bitten by the rotary bug!
Hey here's an update for you! We recently installed a Supertrapp into the megaphone and it helped with the noise level. Now the rest of the exhaust has been removed and sent to HPC to be coated with their great product. They should be coming back in the mail soon!
Update! We got the exhaust back and installed it. Now we need to figure out some oil cooler fans and get some heat shield and this car ought to be finished!
Tom's rotary powered Mazda GLC
Tom recently picked up a GLC and wasn't too excited about the boinger it had so, you guessed it, he built a streetported 13B and sourced a ribcase 5 speed tranny for it! One weekend later, motor mounts were fabricated and the engine and tranny had a new home. The GLC's stock brakes were looking pretty sad so he found some RX-7 strut assemblies and tossed them in there too. It will soon have an RX-7 LSD rearend. This car still needs some detail work to be done such as radiator, fuel cell, etc. But when it's finished, it's gonna be a little ripper!
Tom's '77 REPU
Tom doesn't have this old '77 anymore. We parted it out in '00. I wasn't even sure if anyone took any pics of it. Well, somebody took one, so here you go.
Tom's boinger powered 510
Here is his 510. It has, yes folks, 16" rims and all the suspension upgrades that you could need. What's next? You guessed it! ROTARY POWER! More details coming soon!
Tom's Rage Baja Bug
Tom's other one, the Rage Baja. We don't know if we want to put a rotary in it yet because we still have our hands full with the other baja. This car is like a little brother to the other one, but definitely holds its own, let me tell you!
We've driven lots of cool places in this baja! Too many to list here. One time Tom launched the front end 9 feet into the air from a road construction sand pile. It was cool until the rear tires hooked on the sand pile and whipped the front end down onto the hard ground which bottomed out the front suspension and was really quite painful (I think I'll call that maneuver 'the chiropractor' since it cracked my back in several places, ouch!). Other than that and a busted rear bearing (since replaced) this baja is really cool!
Tom's Sandrail
Tom doesn't live near much sand, so all he can drive his wonderfully overbuilt sandrail in is the woods near his house. It actually does quite well considering the terrain. When it does get stuck, it's not very heavy which makes it easy to get unstuck even without any winches or other vehicles nearby. It's currently got a VW 1600 boinger in it and we don't have any plans to go rotary. It's been freshly painted in these pics (at night, but you can still see). The pics below (coming soon) show it at an earlier time.
Pics shot in April '96 of a typical day doing cool car stuff
Firstly, I must say that the camera I used was one of those free disposable pieces of junk that certain stores were giving out as part of a promotion or something. My friend grabbed a couple and gave me one. I took these pics of a typical day doing cool car stuff. Sorry about the quality, but I scanned the negatives which allows for at least 10x better quality than scanning the prints. I also tried to make them look as good as possible, given the grainy film and lack of flash etc. Heh, these pics came out pretty good compared to the original prints. Not to preach, but if you have the choice to scan negatives instead of prints, please scan the negatives. I always choose negatives over prints, if I've got both on hand to choose from.
Note, I may fix up some explanations for each pic a little later (like making it so when you're holding the mouse over a pic, a sentence pops up), but for now please check out my notes about each pic below.
00 The MG sat here before I got it. That 13BREW engine went into Tom's brown/yellow GSL-SE pictured above.
01 This is Tom's green '75 REPU that he got in '90 or '91. It is being parted out here.
02 This is the debut of Tom's sandrail to this site.
03 3rd gen RX-7 tranny and engine (what he does with it in his private life is none of my business).
04 Blasting through the sticker bushes up on 18th.
05 Heading down a hill.
06 Going down into a valley.
07 In the valley.
08 Front tires off the ground a little right before a 'woop-dee-doo'.
09 Front tires off the ground even higher here.
10 Heading down another hill.
11 Top of the mini 'suicide' hill (suicide as in nearly 90� of vertical lift where a car once flipped over and burned) aka the fire hill/trail.
12 Did he flip me off in that last pic? (look closely at pic 11)
13 Going up the mini 'suicide' hill. He once got lots of air under the front end from flying up this hill. So much so that when the front end came down, it completely tweaked one of the tie rods.
14 Blazing his own trail (ok, bad pun) up near 18th .
15 Possibly going up mini suicide again (over exposed pic).
16 This is Rick's '74 REPU before he got it. Since then, Tom got the streetported 13B and put it into his baja, I got the alloy rims and Rick got the rims off of the green '75 REPU and the engine out of the orange '77 that we parted out in '00. (pictured above)
17 Tom's VW Squareback, black '82 RX-7 (later got a supercharger pictured above), white baja.
18 Probably the best pic of the RX-7, and a front shot of the Squareback.
19 White baja, '91 Titan 21 speed (lol), '75 REPU, MG Midget.
20 Front shot of baja, etc.
21 Not much clearance under this baja. A shame. Heh, Rick's Mustang (far background) is lifted higher on a jack stand.
22 Sandrail after its romp in the woods.
23 Rick's '79 Mustang (burgandy, not the red one) and black Fiat X1/9.
24 Sandrail trailer, REPU tonneau cover, Sandrail, etc.
25 Sandrail, etc.
So there you have it. A typical day in the life of doing car stuff back in early '96. I'm glad I was able to get these up on my page. I just hope it doesn't overload the server with all these extra pics to load. Maybe I should set up different pages or something... I guess I could have broken up the sequence here and bunched all the similar pics together?