I have to admit this is becoming more interesting to me. Looks like lots of relatively small e- motors have the stock H.P., or close to it but with the great torque of electric . Mounting plates are available commercially for $1000 to any rx7 transmission.

the first gen might be the perfect car for going electric ? Anyone else been thinking of this?

 

i'm sure its been done, like 20 years ago.. would just be better with the new batteries and motors and stuff

 

That defeats the whole purpose of saving and rebuilding the RX7s..

That is worse than swapping an ls on to it...🤦‍♂️

 

Theres a thread on here where a guy has done this. I think he's on his 3rd iteration of it.

 

I get the whole keep it rotary thing . I've been that guy with three 7's including a '79 limited. The rotary is unique , a joy and privilege to be connected to, but I am seeing the conversion as an equally unique way to keep the car on the road for decades to come. My '79 project car still needs an engine and the thought of electric conversion might be another way to do that. It's a second 7 for me . Still have an mint '89 I drive all summer . There is no doubt , 10 years from now most cars on the road wil be electric and charging "pumps standard at your local station

 

why so? What is your adversion to EVs?

 

why so? What is your adversion to EVs?

 

So..why we spend time and money saving them?

Because we like the rotary motor.....that is it...plain and simple....

 

but the electric is a rotary?

 

You are splitting hairs now....you are looking for me to validate your decision on making your fb, if you own one, into an electric golf cart...

There are so little of them left around and they are disappearing... I can't figure out why people want to swap them out... but it's your car, you do what you want with it...but I won't say it's OK to swap it because then we both be wrong....🤷‍♂️

 

In my opinion, electric conversion will be my alternative when my engine goes and parts are so scarce or economically unfeasible to come by. I would have imagined between LS or electric most people would accept electric over LS only because the "hate" for pistons and to remain different. But then again, by that point being different may be embracing piston engines. Either way, I am 100% in the RX-7s shouldn't be swapped with a piston engine category just because that's a key part of the car and history. While other cars with stock piston engines swap anything all day for all I care but if it's between a paperweight and a running car and I'm given two options crate electric or crate LS. I think electric will have my vote. That said, I don't care what you do with your car but there was probably better platforms to choose an LS swap with our pool of cars and engines are shrinking enough as it is.

 

1972 Datsun Bracket Racer w/ Dual Electric Motors...

 

I'm in the "keep it rotary" camp not because I'm averse to EVs or conversions, but because it's the main feature of the car.

I'd electrify a 616 but not an RX-2. If it's to keep it on the road, I'm sure scrounging together parts for a later 13B is cheaper than an engine swap.

 

As cool as the idea is, an EV engine would f up the 50/50 weight ratio and make your car 500 pounds heavier. Removing the AC/ radiator. oil cooler will only save you around 70 pounds. the 12A is going to be lighter than an electric engine. The battery would have to be placed in the rear/front. . I'm sure the car would be fast, but the handling would suck on it for sure. Hopefully, one day we can, I'd like to slap a mini rotary from Mazda as a range extender! " rotary powered"

 

This is probably my biggest concern . It would be a total fail if the car was not fun to drive. The simplicity of the EV is appealing ( like the rotary) but the FB/SA is a unique driving experience which I think the EV could be if you could get the weight balance right. 144 volts is a lot of weight to distribute with battery. Anyone know what a stripped engine bay weighs vs normal?

 

I wondered about the weight distribution too, but then thought of the flexibility of locating the controller and individual cell packs of a battery pack. There was a company that did a conversion of an old 911. They kept clutch and tranny but there was no need for gear ratios...you could start off in 1st or 4th, just depended on whether you felt like rowing.. Point is you cold also lose the weight of the tranny too.

Makes me wonder if any one ever threw a CVT into an RX7, probably a similar feel to electric.

 

CATS suck in a performance car. I went from a stock '15 WRX 6sp to a '17 FXT CVT with many more mods and ponies. CVTs suck in performance cars.

 

CVT's are just misunderstood and like rotaries, improperly maintained. People **** on Nissan CVT's but don't know pretty much every Toyota has one too . In theory, a rotary engine WITH a CVT would be amazing, as cvt's keep the cars in the optimal powerband at all times for either MPG, or performance.. you can literally set the ECU to keep the rotary revving at 6500 RPM all the way to 100 and there would be absolutely no loss in power ..

 

Yes, in theory. CVT's are good for efficiency but like I said, from my experience with turbo Subie CVT's, they suck ***** compared to a manual. Also I don't think a tranny set to keep the rpm's at 5-7000rpm all the time would be very nice around town. On a race track maybe.

 

Your auto subbie should be faster than your stick one. Stick will always feel faster, but a modern CVT is faster according to all the data I have on them, it's even faster than a dual-clutch. Although for longevity I'd pick a dual-clutch system.
Also, RPM's don't do anything to CVT's torque does, the ECU is set to get max torque to MPG .