How hard, or is it impossible to turn a rx-7 into awd

 

why? AWD isn't really wanted in a race car...AWD induces a bit of understeer, you want the car to be neutral.

 

it would be a lot of custome work, in fact all of it would be custom fab.. i would not suggest it, but it sure would be bad *** to see one

 

It would be far easier to buy a Mitsu. 3000 GT and drop a rotary into that than go the other way.

 

3000GT is a heavy turd, eclipse or talon would make more sense.

 

its been done

for a rally car

but even then, you can rally a normal 1st gen

 

the only way that an eclipse or talon ever make sense is if it is an awd tsi (all wheel drive turbo). and in that case why bother swaping over to rotors. that little four banger will hall *** as is.

 

I think the torque distribution for a rotary+AWD would suck, unless it's boosted considerably.

 

I have a super duper simple way to make an AWD 1st-gen.

Step One: Get a 1st gen. Preferably one with a floor consisting mostly of iron oxide.

Step 2: Flip the car over and get a melon baller (one of those industrial melon ballers) and scoop out the floor and drivetrain.

Step 3. Acquire a Merkur XR4Ti and scrape the body off of the floorpan and suspension.

Step 4. Get out the MIG welder...

Step 5. Call a good friend in the UK and have him or her ship you over a Sierra/Escort(*) Cosworth transmission, front subframe, and front diff. Then bolt those in.

Step 6. Drive your piston powered, AWD RX-7.

* - UK Escorts were FWD. Cosworth Escorts were Escort upper shells mounted on Sierra Cosworth floorpans. The Sierra is what we in the US know as the XR4Ti (although they didn't get the uber-tough 2.3 Turbo) and the Cosworth 4WD bits are a literal bolt-in. Neat, huh?

 

You are correct. Correct me if I am wrong but the rally car you are reffering to was Rod Millen's 1st Gen.

Thats all I remember...

 

That it were.

It was about as much a 1st-gen as my idea is, though.

RX-7s make great rally cars in 2wd form, though...

 

Rod Millens 4WD first gen wasn't exactly close to stock...
As far as I know the engine is moved out of the middle to make place for the front diff. There are several "Rod Millen's" build, and according to different sources, it was either full custom setup, or it used parts from the old 626 FWD. I can't tell you for sure, as I'm only saying what I've read myself, and as said: not all stories about this car(s) seem to agree on how it was done.
One of the cars is in Belgium though, check this:
http://users.pandora.be/Rotary.Restorations.JRE/
and click for "rotary collection"

 

Or if you are fond of the V6's you can get a Sierra XR4x4 and use its 4wd powertrain.

Or you could just BUY a merkur XR4ti...I owned one, they're fun as ****. I'd so own another one.

 

I would one one in a heatbeat, too.

FWIW, and I forgot to add this in my first post... AWD may inherently understeer, yes. However, because of the way AWD lets you control the car, you can set the *suspension* up (remember the suspension?) to oversteer, and then you can power your way out no problem.

Having a good front weight bias helps also, so the car wants to yaw around the front axle instead of the middle of the car.

Having owned an AWD car that had absolutely no problem oversteering, I have to call you out on that generality.

 

And that's the beauty of Subaru's AWD...

Add some toe out and it'll oversteer on a dime.