has anyone ever put a rotary in a lotus?

it seems like a perfect fit, it would take serious modification of the drivetrain, but im sure its possible

i mean a lotus is like a 1900 lb car, add and even lighter engine brigdeported 13bt that **** would fly

 

Are you talking about the Lotus Elise? Putting a rotary in there would be mighty tough, as that chassis is only designed to accept a transverse engine, and all the good rotaries (Mazdas...) are longitudinal...

Good rotary swaps I've seen are old 4WD Subarus, and a DeLorean with a 20B... That latter one seems like an ideal setup, since ditching the PRV V-6 is no great loss...

 

I would consider this more for an old school Elan (approx 1600 lbs, RWD, very well-balanced, and a nice body style), but if it were me I'd probaby 12a it, to stick with a simple carb setup, and it's not as though a 12a would be slow in a 1600lb car. The other problem here, of course, is that an old school Lotus Elan (60s Elan, not 80s), even minus a motor, would probably cost more than buying a mazda for each day of the week...

Was the 20b DeLorean your are talking about painted a bright blue? If so, I think I have seen the same car... small world.

 

An old Elan would be sweet. You'd want to get one that was maybe a little rough though. They're pretty expensive in decent shape. Not to mention that the motor that's in them to start with is a pretty sweet one. I'd be a shame to hack up a nice old 60's vintage Elan.

You could look into a Lotus 7 replica. I would love to build a rotary powered Lotus 7. In fact, I kinda plan on it... after the Spitfire is done. There is a company that makes a 7 that is ready to accomodate Miata parts. Making that kit accept Rx7 parts shouldn't be too hard.

 

theres no way i could afford one, I just spent all my money an a mint turboii, but i was just curious if anyone had done it

 

I still don't understand why Mazda never offered a rotary Miata.

 

Same reason they never offered a 13b in an Rx3. It just doesnt make sense from a sales point of view. Most (not all) Miata owners will expect their car to be practical and get good gas mileage. A 2400 lb soap dish that only gets 20 mpg is not going to sell well. I think it would kick ***! But thats because I'm a rotorhead. Miata owners are anything but.

 

wow, what a coincidence, I have been thinking alot about this lately. I don't have anywhere near the skills and money required to actually complete a conversion of this type, but it would make an awesome car.

In fact, the biggest reason that I even checked this forum at all is to see if anyone was talking about or tying the idea. I did find that the Lotus forums have rumors about a possible rotary lotus using hte renisis engines....

--Alex

 

If you're talking about the Lotus Elise with the Celica GT-S motor, I'm not sure a 13BT is going to be much lighter, with all that extra iron in there.

I'd love to see it though.

 

Let's see it.

 

I was just thinking that a rotary in there could add considerable horsepower without reducing the elise's wonderfully low weight.

On the lotus forum I read about a guy using twin sportbike engines.

--Alex

 

Back in the early 90's, I had a friend of mine that had a ported 12A in a Lotus Europa. With him in the car, it weighed about 1600lbs. It was a blast to drive. When I left Ft. Bragg in 94, he was building a Lotus Super 7 with a 13B Turbo, but I never heard if he finished it or not. I could imagine how insane it would have been.

 

Dosnt someone on here have a rotary super 7

 

They did, just not in the US.

I saw an ad in Hemming's Motor News about 5 years ago for a Lotus Elan +2 with a 12A rotary installed. The car had a new factory backbone frame and new paint and looked awesome for $4500. That would have been a cool car to have.

 

I have one . 63 Super 7 with 6 Ports 13B. the car had 50MM side Draft with RB Header and muffler. Car is super fan and fast almost as fast my FD with single turbo but much cheper to run . I think this is one of best combo you can put into light weight car. too bad the rotary get misunderstand... and thus got bad name.

the car is in Good runing condion. but the ext need some TLC. that why I did not post the pic yet. when I finish it I will share with every one



Shooting fire ball at every Heel&TOE down shift. Priceless

 

There are a couple of guys running around in 13B Super 7s down here, but I haven't seen them in years. Neither of them were turbo'd, though. In all honesty, I had a dream about a TII powered Super 7 last night. This is so weird.

 

Yes I love your car, its the one I was talking about.