Not quite sure if I ever saw this thread pop up...

I'm at work today thinking, "god damn so many front wheel drive Toyotas these days...

and then it kind of crept up on me...

Why not a Transversally mounted rotary? Wouldn't it take advantage of the the rotational force better rather than through a drive shaft, ect...

In that case, **** front wheel drive... rear engine right over the rear axle?

Or am I just drinking too muvh of our coffee?

 

well the way the front end is designed there would be no way to put our engine and a tranny sideways in the front. plus rear wheel drive is bad ***

 

NSU had one.

Mazda had one before, with a 13 something engine in it. I want to say 13a? It was a unique engine.

 

Also, there are a few rotary 323s out there

 

Boo yeah:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazda_R130

13A

The 13A was designed especially for front wheel drive applications. It had two 655 cc rotors for a total of 1310 cc. This was the only production Mazda Wankel with different rotor dimensions: Diameter was 120 mm (4.7 in) and offset was 17.5 mm (0.7 in), but depth remained the same as the 10A at 60 mm (2.4 in). Another major difference from the previous engines was the integrated water-cooled oil cooler.

The 13A was used only in the 1969–1972 R130 Luce, where it produced 126 hp (94 kW) and 126 ft·lbf (172 Nm). This was the end of the line for this engine design: the next Luce was rear wheel drive and Mazda never again made a front wheel drive rotary vehicle.

Applications:

* 1970–1972 Mazda R130

 

Front wheel drive=fail

Rear mounted engine RWD= WIN!!

 

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...hlight=bertone

 

Well the Front Wheel Drive application was more of a curious question.. (lets bring these babies back into mass production Mazda! Gas sipper Rotaries LMAO @ the oxymoron...)

The other one, a Rear mounted transverse rotary would open up an interesting amount of frames to plop it in... (Can you say MR2? Elise? any other god damned rear engine car lol)

*shrugs* Just a crazy Idea, I am glad Mazda tried it though, wonder what the issues were aside from production that caused them to abandon it?

 

I believe it's been done in a first-gen MR2. It has been done in Civics a couple of times, and 323s as previously mentioned.

 

Might be a little tricky keeping a rear-mid-engine rotary cool, but otherwise no real reason why it couldn't be done.

Of course, 1st gens are all classed mid-engine as is, being as the engine is behind the front axle line.

Wasn't there a test-bed version of this done by Mazda at one time?

 

dont for get about that rotary front wheel drive honda civic.

 

Someone should build a 13b TII-powered 1st gen MR2! That would be sweet!

 

Already been done

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woqiFrnZqvE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmo6N...eature=related

 

while not a rotary this has to be the coolest vw conversion ever. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKqAw...eature=related

 

I like the vdub conversion my self:

http://www.geocities.com/zenjoe/vw.html

http://www.thingsthatgo.ca/projects/...otary_vw_1.htm

 

Reminds me of my disasterous comparison of the new 2 dr Focus to 1st gen.

 

They also have a Hydrogen-RE MPV(or whatever they are in Japan)