So I have a story that will touch you rotary owners who care. So I bought a couple FDs thinking I would sell them or something, but one I wanted to keep. I've bought a custom FD in Virginia that was set up nicely due to some crazy insurance money payout. I couldn't believe the $$$ on the receipts that insurance paid for. Unfortunately it was a 7,000$ on receipt paint job that shines very deeply and needs a slight buffage but is usually a beauty.

Anyways, her engine died due to lost compression. It died gently, and right as I pulled in the drive way and wouldn't start up again, but would crank over and over. She was harder to start up over the days and I could tell. Only about 69,000 miles on her so she was run hard and so was the (LOL) auto trans. I believe the hold button was ALWAYS used and this car got HORRIBLE mileage for all of its life I am sure. I could never get better than 13 in the city then it declined to 10, then 8. It felt like a science of when it would die.

So it died quietly in its resting place and then I had a couple neighborhood kids who were screaming at 4 FDs (which none of them move and most have bricks behinds)
come help me push it in the garage. (There was a slight threshold raise that blocked my straight leverage and my driveway is at a bad incline for that, too.)

So I had a 7 year old steer it in and he did perfect. I was surprised!

Anyways, I had purchased a nice single turbo Rx7 that I am selling parts of, already sold the PFC and getting a manual in exchange. The car itself is a manual but it has rear end problems, I think from worn out bushings on shitty St. Louis rds. Also the single turbo job was hacked together and was a deadly place. The power steering hoses were sloppy.

So I bought two more LS1 Rx7s. Well this one I got which was built but a girl for way too much in this market. (I hope gas prices go way down, please please.) Has a lot of issues but is mid miles (66,000) and 50k on a 01 block/trans. Needs some minor fixing and wiring but its all set up underneath.
I bought another LS1 Rx7 that I drove back from new york that had a lot of careful, sorted out time with lots of pictures that spoke for itself how much it was cared for.
I still have the link to it, as well.

That car locked up in 4th after the "CURSE OF THE DARK KNIGHT", that everyone keeps talking about. I was going around the "FALL CREEK MINORS CURVES" that are alright for a minor thrill I suppose. Lots of Indy people could probably attest to this.

So it didn't exactly threaten my life but it was a nice surprise and confused me, so I stopped. Which was stupid. I couldn't get it to come out of gear. So I eventually got it rolling in 4th by revving it up just a hair as to burn as little of my clutch as possible, but she had enough torque to go pretty well. Well I managed to only have to stop 2 more times before I got home through roundabouts and such so I didn't have to burn a lot of clutch which made me a lot happier than I thought it might go.

So I am trying to decide if I am going to bring back the ROTARY or the LS1.

I have had much more time in an auto rotary. I spent a little bit of time in a non driveable N/A car that didnt have an intercooler on it. I didn't spool up the T04s turbo which had a 2200 or so spool start which made it easy to just low shift the gears and get decent mileage on a very cold drive back from St. Louis in a blizzard. That was the catch of buying an 8,000$ car in that market before things hit 4$ a gallon. I was willing to risk safety because of manual steering in very icy whether with staggered wheels. 9.5 rears 8.5 fronts 18's with tokico and tein .. common setup I know. Anyways it was rough because the wind was blowing and this car was barely putting out heat because of how beat it is. I plan on stripping it all and sandblasting the engine bay because it is honestly just ugly. Red with CHEAP BLACK PAINT over it. No damage or anything, just visually appalling.

Needless to say I want to swap the rotary and swap it with the manual.

The problem is I do not have the manual ECU here yet and only the auto harness. If I wanted to bullshit and go auto trans until I could pop it out and swap manual, could I get away with that since the auto harness is already run through the chassis I'm swapping a 5k fresh motor and trans (both rebuilt, trans by pettit and the engine fresh from mazda from Ray Crowe). I have the receipts for those. The idea was to sell! But I just want to keep a rotary alongside my LS1 to never forget the thrill of rotary power.

 

Rotary. As long as you can keep the miles down.

 

As opposed to all those N/A cars that have useful intercoolers.

It's always good to cool your ambient intake air down to... ambient...

wat?

 

Why the more the...... ah **** it

 

Hell yeah interfooler FTMW!!!!!!!!

http://www.inlandmotorsports.com/ima...ntakechart.gif

 

yo sam

 

If you want a great toy, track beater, weekend car, go with a wankel. If you are looking for a little better gas mileage, nasty power and domestic catalog parts,
LS-1. V8's sound sweet at idle, but (IMHO) broken and janky when you get on it,
ie: good cruiser/stoplight car. Rotaries sound awsom (in that 10000 killer bees
attacking a Suzuki sport bike way) when you rev them up. For most drivers +400 hp and 900billion foot pounds of something called torque I keep hearing about..(?)
with no traction control can be a little hard to keep stuck in the twisties, so
regardless of comprable weight etc. I still think the LS-1 is a little disadvantaged
in "spirited cornering." Go with what makes you smile more, you've driven both (sort of) and If the budget allows I say keep one of each. OH! and most important for an LS-1 swap, make sure you have a big enough intercooler......

 

If you want to go back to rotary, let me know and I'll buy your busted T56.

 

maybe if you suck at driving and have no concept of the term "throttle control"



Just fix the t-56, drive it forever. Sell the others and invest in something that might appreciate, like a mutual fund, or your home.

 

I said "most drivers" since, most drivers suck at driver and have no concept of throttle control. However as I didn't want to be rude to any one I merely said
"most drivers," as I have no way of judging this guys driving abillity I did not want to insult him if he is a poor driver. Conversly I didn't want to assume he was a bad driver either as for all I know it's Mikey Schumacher on the other end of the key board (obviously that is meant as an exageration, put the point stands.)
I've also however found in life that at least %70 of the people who boast of
driving technque are in fact experts..... at what they have read in books or seen on Days of thunder/Initial D.....