Rotary domination in the BTTC

[magnusrx7]

Lifting a VERY old thread.

I did some serching on these BTCC Rx7\'s... did not find that much.

Anyone know if there are any videofotage from 1980-81?
Would be so lovley to have a DVD of that..:mmmm

//magnus

[kiwiracer]

Lifting a VERY old thread.
 
I did some serching on these BTCC Rx7\'s... did not find that much.
 
Anyone know if there are any videofotage from 1980-81?
Would be so lovley to have a DVD of that..:mmmm
 
//magnus

only pics fella
 
on the bttc forum it was asked if the rx8 can compete seeing as though its a \'4\' door,the answer was NO its a rotary !!!!!!:spank

[Brett]

Yeah - wouldn\'t want a non piston winning anything these days

[Baz-7]

I recently got myself a brochure off ebay that concentrated quite heavily of the RX-7\'s sporting achievements....I wasn\'t old enough to take myself off to Touring Car races back then, but I\'m sorry I missed the LOUD HOWLING....Bet they sounded glorious!
 
My only experience of a racing RX-7 was at the Willhire 24-Hour Saloon Car race at Snetterton in about 1983, when one quite comprehensively exploded right in front of me!
 
Wasn\'t there a factory rally car too?

[pdtaylor18]

TWR rallied the Mk1 and dominated for quite a while as it was classed as a 1300 but then when the powers to be had enough they reclassed it. same probs as DVLA today,some 1300 some 2.4 or 2.6cc.

[Initial-D]

Wow an old thread!

Time attack and Nippon are the only events rotaries can compete in these days, I did see an FD a few years back in Belcar at Brands that was awsome!.

Its sad we don\'t have a Super GT or Super Taikyu series over here.

[kiwimazda]

TWR rallied the Mk1 and dominated for quite a while as it was classed as a 1300 but then when the powers to be had enough they reclassed it. same probs as DVLA today,some 1300 some 2.4 or 2.6cc.

No doubt about it you guys know your stuff
TWR(Tom Walkinshaw Racing)Handled the Racing side of things and the rally was handled by MRT
The car finished 1st on the Polish rally in 1984 driven by Ingvar Carlsson and 3rd on 1985 Acropolis same driver. Rod Millen in America an expat Kiwi used them and also developed a 4wd Rx7 series 1 but it was never used on the world stage. Helater developed and used a 2nd gen for Pikes peak Hillclimb and Ashley forest Rallysprint in NZ(winning both)
The Group B rally car had 13b on 51mm IDA 300 bhp.
960 kg

[kiwimazda]

Wow an old thread!

Time attack and Nippon are the only events rotaries can compete in these days, I did see an FD a few years back in Belcar at Brands that was awsome!.

Its sad we don\'t have a Super GT or Super Taikyu series over here.

You can still use a rotary in all forms of motorsport be it circuit sprint hill climb and Rally.

[jinx]

No doubt about it you guys know your stuff
TWR(Tom Walkinshaw Racing)Handled the Racing side of things and the rally was handled by MRT

Surely TWR prepared the first WRC/European rally FB\'s in 81 and 82 as a follow on from their circuit programme? Where these copies of NZ or Millen cars? It would have been a very TWR way of short-cutting development as they later did with Group 44\'s cars en-route to building the XJR for Le Mans.

TWR may not have \'dominated\' rallying but they were piqued to discover that, having proved (in the hands of the already experienced Rod Millen at least) that the idea had merit, Mazda chose to base rally operations in Belgium with WRC driver Achim Warmbold, who then set up MRT.

[stacy]

Wow an old thread!

Time attack and Nippon are the only events rotaries can compete in these days

Not so. :spank

There\'s a few points in here that I may as well comment on since the thread has been brought back from the dead!

It was me that asked if I could run an RX8 in the BTCC in 07, in person rather than the forum. I guess others may have followed. It actually went a fair way down the road, but in the end Alan Gow decided that it took us too far away from the international S2000 regulations which all the TC series across the world were adopting. These specify 4 pots, rev limits and so forth.

He did say I could run an RX8 with local (UK) homologation but I would have to run the Mazda 4 pot engine rather than the rotary. Given the aggravation they\'ve had since the turbo diesels got up to speed you can get a flavour for the aggro that would have followed a rotary in terms of equivalence.

Unfortunately the main reason I wanted to run the rotary was that a touring car power engine could be had for a 5th of the price of a similar spec S2000 engine, and with much greater durability too. I don\'t have the money to develop an S2000 engine from scratch and Mazda themselves didn\'t seem to be biting my hand off to do it for me..

So there the project died.

The FB Mazda was never homologated as a Sports Car, but firmly as a Saloon car. The regulations then, as per now, dictate a set of internal dimensions to define a Sports/Saloon car - number of doors wasn\'t an issue in period, and has only manifested itself in the Super Touring/S2000 regs. I don\'t remember any 4dr Capri\'s or indeed XJS\'s later on.

Really the noise was just whining about rotaries, and even that looked a bit weak when you could demonstrate on the dyno that you had no more go than the equivalently prepared 2.0 16v. In fact it just became plain whining.

The FC Mazda would I think meet the internal requirements for Group A (where these Saloon measurements can be found nowadays and for the period to be raced against) but wasn\'t to my knowledge ever formally done by Mazda. Neither was it homologated as a Sports Car. So it\'s actually eligible for series that don\'t insist on factory homologation (Racing Saloons).

The FD I doubt would meet the requirements, but I don\'t know enough about them to know.

An RX8 would, but now the BTCC regs have changed to S2000 they are a little more controlled than those of the period.

In terms of racing nowadays there are a few people flying the flag;

Dave Nixon still has sporadic outings in his 12A RX3 in Post Historic Touring Cars. (CTCRC)

I don\'t think anyone is in Group 1 Touring Cars (CTCRC) any more but there are one or two RX7\'s in garages which would be eligible (FB 12A on carbs). I won that championship 3 times and it\'s where I started racing so am pretty fond of it, but it\'s a shadow of it\'s former self I\'m afraid. A few years ago you\'d need to be doing a 1m30 at Thruxton to be in the top 6, and now that would put you on pole by 2s.. No fun.

There are two RX7\'s in Toyo Tires Racing Saloons today. Tony Ellis has an FB running a 13B and has taken two outright wins, and I am still running my 12A. I won six races (I think?) last year. That\'s against E30 M3\'s, E36 M3\'s, M5\'s, Rover Tomcat\'s, Sierra Cosworths and VR6 VW\'s.

There were races last year where someone missed a gear and that was enough to lose a race. It\'s pretty tight, one make type tight on occasion.

I\'ve also entered a CSCC Future Classics long distance race, but didn\'t find the competition I was looking for.

So plenty of places to run a rotary in racing today, and to be absolutely fair despite being at the sharp end I\'ve not experienced the usual moaning about rotaries in the Racing Saloons. They are a slightly different breed I think.

S.