CCarlisi

Now that exams are over with I have a little spare time on my hands. Here is my take on what the FD would look like if Mazda decided to go with a mid engine layout. I tried to retain the 3rd gen styling as much as possible. I appologize for the blury spots(eg near the side intake), but those were in the original photo. Tell me what you guys think.

-Chris C.

CCarlisi

Here is the original car/photo. Not sure who it belongs to, sorry I didn't get permission to bastardize beforehand

Mschafe

That looks really cool! I've always wanted to design a mid-engined rotary vehical.

Icemark

The FC and FD RX-7 is already a mid-engine vehicle. The engine is behind the front axles.

Mid engine is defined by an engine between the front and rear axles.

*edit
And by your picture you made, you have a rear engined, not mid engined car, with very little leg room in the front.
**end edit

Montego

iTrader: (1)

I kinda like it

neo_omega

why? go get a MR2.

CCarlisi

Iceman.

Yes yes, fine, FDs and FCs are mid engine.
As far as the legroom goes I think I left enough room. The wheel base was stretched by several inches, the windshield was moved forward, doors are larger ect. I didn't simply slap a vent behind the door panels and call it a day.

Neo,

I think a mid or rear engine layout would be ideal to exploit compact size of the rotary engine and also resolve some of the cooling limitations inherent with a FR layout. As I said in a previous thread. Big hood vents are ungainly looking, but the same vents on engine cover deck lids look pretty cool (imo. eg F40).
In addition you can eliminate all the weight associated with the PPF, driveshaft, seperate transmission, dif cases ect.

sinfestboy

that looks so wierd. what did you do?!!? I wanna see that photoshop history

DELTA_Rotary

Hehe I like the piece of fence behind the driver side door. Looks like a lot of rubber stamp tool on the passenger door.

RotoHead

That is an interesting take on a rear mounted MR rotary. I kinda like it. If ever I should find that I have a very, very rich and unfortuantly very late uncle who leaves me a very, very large sum of money then I had an idea to create a much wider MR supercar that had the engine located behind the passenger as well. But until such time, I'll just deal with my FB!

Chris

VELCRO SHOES

Looks like a mix between MR2/NSX/RX7


Take the hatch off though,it needs something there instead of the hatch since the motor is back there.....

7th Sense

The front end is pretty cool!!

black99

Looks pretty cool.

UnSeeN

thats pretty crazy..gj

BrianK

i don't know why I'm posting a reply to this, but I'm bored and can't sleep, so I suppose this is a good alternative to drueling.

anyway -

1. awesome photoshop work! it looks REALLY good.

2. footwells - seeing as how there is no longer a need for a PPF (or at least a PPF with a driveshaft down the center), the center tunnel doesn't have to be as wide, so you can squeez the seats in closers so the wheel wells don't interfere with the footwells.

3. engine hieght & the hatch - if the engine fits under the hood, it would fit under the back with NO hatch - so where the hatch is and how big is it has no bearing.

4. you haven't increased cooling capacity, you've reduced it. especially considering the little dinky intakes on the sides. it's possible to run a radiator up front (like the MR2), but an IC is another story. you could remove the rear glass all together and put the IC there (like the Porsche 911)

but who the hells cares because it was just an excerize in photoshop - well done!

peejay

The center tunnel is important - it stiffens the chassis. In fact in some cars it does the majority of the work.

A mid-engined RX-7 would be sweet. I'm always looking at my 1st-gen and thinking "Hmm... move the cabin a couple feet forward, yeah this would work..." Much better weight distribution with mid-engine than front engine.

Mr Rotary

Mid Engine RX-7. Different feel. Not for me.

SexyRexyR1

I commend you for the work you put into it ... but i really don't care for it ... like neo said, "want a mid-engine car ... buy an MR2"

CCarlisi

Surely you don't believe the only difference between the MR2 and the FD is the engine location. I wouldn't even think of cross shopping the FD against an MR2.

My point here is this: if mazda offered a mid engine version of the FD for around the same price as the FD I would buy the mid engine version. BUT I am not willing to give up all the other attributes of the std FD. Therefore I wanted to create an image that retained as many of the stock FD design characteristics as possible using a mid-rear engine layout.

legendr35

looks pretty nice, good photoshop job

Silver93T

Looks awesome. There is way too much crap in he engine bay of the fd. Having the motor in back would free up alot of room. I especially like the idea of having a huge radiator mounted up front. Also, alot of the components like the battery, abs, etc could stay up front away from the heat.