This car is a 1983 bmw 320I, also known as an "E21". I was going to fix up the original engine and make it run and all that, but realized it was seized, then I was going to rebuild a spare I had from a free E21, but decided it wasn't worth the cost. so I bought my friend's 12A for $250 and I'm currently working on getting that going.

when I brought it home, it was hideous.

 

during and after I lowered it, much better.

 

installation of the rotary. I plated the unibody rails and adapted the factory engine bracket to fit chevy leaf spring bushings. my trans mount is hideous and nobody needs to remind me, but it was quick and it will work. nobody will ever see it anyways.

sorry that the pics are out of sequence, and sorry that some of them turned out so crappy, I'll try and post some better pics tomorrow.











it will be a little bit till I get it running, have to hook up a radiator, figure out fuel, and then I am ready to fire it up. after that, I need to make a drive line, get a new line for the clutch slave cylinder, get some gauges figured out, and some other things I can't think of right now.

 

nice share....

 

looks good to me

 

I see a red door and I want it painted.... blue? Heh.

Anyway... Good luck getting it all together. Once it's running it'll be sick.

 

awsome...
defintly would be a fun car..

 

Im loving it, keep us updated!!

 

thanks dudes. I'll try and get some more serious progress done soon and get some pics of the engine that don't suck.

as for the red door, I know it sucks, I have a black one that isn't dented I may replace it with, if I can find a similar blue, I may just paint it with that for now until I decide what to do for a paint scheme when I repaint the whole car one day. it's chipped in a few places and has some minor rust forming under the paint in a couple places. it will be fine for a while, but it needs to eventually be addressed.


I'm a bit concerned that the 12A may be a bit low on power, but I've heard this car was 100 pounds lighter than an FB stock, and it's going to be considerably lighter than that with the lighter engine and trans. the emissions are bypassed and the only thing the belt is running is the alternator, so that will probably help out. The engine will likely need a rebuild and if/when I finally get to that, I think I'm going to street port it. I may put a header on it and do a different carb setup in the mean time, but we'll see.

I hope to get the engine running within a week, that goal should be obtainable, we shall see.

 

where in oregon are you at?

 

cool- a good driveway project!!!

 

nice, i like it

 

Bend, I hear from my friend who referred me to this site that there are active members of this site near my area.


I didn't do anything significant to the car today, I was tired and got distracted with a little simple modification on my fixie.

 

got the radiator mounted

 

Nice job man very original no one gonna expect a BMW with a rotary in it!

 

thanks, I've heard of an E30 or two with one, but not an E21, so it's not a completely off the wall idea, but still unique.


so, it runs, kind of. my friend and I fixed some vacuum leaks since the video, I'm going to fire it back up some time tomorrow and see if that helps it run any better. if that doesn't work, then we're thinking the ignition may have issues.

 

well, it doesn't run like crap anymore. it has a rebuilt carb now with mechanical secondaries and it's running strong. I'm really surprised at how strong it runs, I'm sure it's due for a rebuild. If things go well financially, I'll be street porting it (or maybe something a bit more aggressive, who knows) and obviously rebuilding it.


here are a few more pics to show you all what it's looking like and so you can see it out of my driveway for once.
some pics of the exhaust work:





had to make my own drive line, no shop around here had the dealie to even balance a drive line that had the BMW end, so it's unbalanced, but it doesn't vibrate too badly.


had to recover the BMW and mazda ends for the slave cylinder (which I'm rebuilding soon) and it now fits a universal stainless braided brake line.





and pics of it not in my driveway!

 

couple more shots of the exhaust, and an oil pan clearance shot.

 

Good stuff, I like it!

 

thank you sir. Took it on a 3 hour drive today, it did amazing, besides my unbalance drive line, sketchy front suspension, and brakes that I don't have full confidence in while going into a serious corner. I am in love with rotaries, the power band is so smooth, and I was never once lacking any power that I was wanting or needing to use during the whole trip. My 12A is a junk yard engine with original internals as far as I know, I have no idea what condition it's in, but it can't be too great, the only engine mods are mechanical secondaries on the carb (cuts out when I hit the secondaries unless I do it just right, I'm kind of slow off the line as a result, need to mod accelerator pump me thinks), emissions removed, and 2.5" exhaust. I plan to at least street port it and rebuild it, I imagine it will not disappoint me, especially with a header.

this car was begging for a rotary, what was BMW thinking with their inferior piston engines?

 

Nice work- I'm impressed!

 

impressive indeed =)

 

Nice project, how does it sound. Maybe you can post vids with some sound. Keep up the hard work.

 

thanks dudes. I can probably make a video and post it within the next couple days so you can all hear what it sounds like. it's pretty distinct, yet, people who don't know me, or don't know what I did to the car, have no idea it has a rotary, I love it. it's not very fast, just better than average, so I think it qualifies as a sleeper.

for now, here are some slightly better and more up to date pics:

 

Wow, German on German cool. Kudos to you my friend. Can't wait to see more pics. Oh and by the way those are some awesome motor mounts. LuisGT