I haven't found any info on driving rotaries in the winter. I'm a college student and will be DDing my 1991 Rx7. I estimate 7,500kms a year maximum because I'll be 5kms from school and even closer to work. I'll only drive home (600km round trip) on holidays which will happen two times in the winter. I know rotaries already rev high when first started up then go down to their 700-800rpm idle. But how will this work during the winter? Will I just use a thinner oil? Will the car have more trouble starting in the winter than a piston engine?

Let me give you an idea of what kind of winter I'm talking about.

Average low during December is -10 celcius and -15 celcius in Jan and Feb. But we get -30 Celcius quite often, especially with wind chill. Sometimes -40 with the wind chill. Basically 6 months of winter.

I'm going to have winter tires and steelies and using one of those little tarp carport things to keep snow off the car. But starting the engine in the morning is my biggest concern.

Could anyone help me out here? Anyone have personal experience driving their rx7's in winter?

 

I used to drive my 86 DD in the winter, only got stuck a couple of times trying to make it up icy hills. I also had a 91 turbo DD that I drove in the winter as well, but when I got my 93, I ended up getting a Jeep for snowy days.

I never had any problems starting in the cold, but our coldest winter days rarely get to -10C.

 

If it is properly maintained and has good plugs,filter etc,it won't be a problem.
I had a beat up 88 that would start up in -30.
The ice was so thick on the windshield of the car that it came off in a big Sheet,like 2 inches thick!..like a spare windshield!

 

garage or heated garage would help in extreme cold. My FD warmed up very slow in the cold ..but it would generally start.

 

I'm not worried about it taking a while to warm up, even with my Civic I let it warm up for 10-15 minutes when it's -20 to -30 out. That's the kind of answers I was looking for though, I just wasn't familiar with rotaries in the winter.