How did you first get into rotaries & where has it taken you?

[Norton]

Originally posted by Miguel
So share, how did you get into RX-7\'s then?

RX7\'s only? or can anyone play?

[FD3SNuttah]

fantastic thread!!!

heres my story,

when i was a 9 year old kid, my older bro bought a rear wheel drive 323 it was rusty as hell!

I wa talking to my dad about cars and we had just scrapped the mazda 323.  he told me that the body work was crap but mazdas make the best engines he had ever seen, he started telling me that mazda made one called the rotary it didnt have pistons at all instead it simply spins round! i was only about 10 and didnt quite understand what he meant, lol i thought the whole engine spun around in the engine bay!

A few years later we moved across town and the next door neigbour had an EGI with the plate C666 ... i just loved the shape of it and when he came out being one of the "cooler older kids" i was a bit weary of him, I told him that he had a nice car and then he said "it looks nice but watch this kiddo"

he got in and fired it up, then he booted it up our street, he fishtailed it a little and when he changed into second a huge flame popped out of the exhaust!!!  man the noise it made was incredible!

now ten years later i have bought my first rx! thanks for reading guys....

Nas

[Miguel]

Originally posted by Norton
RX7\'s only? or can anyone play?

Any rotary is OK!

Speaking for myself, but I guess for many others - I\'d love to know what a rotary engined bike must be like..so tell us!

[Norton]

My interest in Rotaries started in the summer of 1987, an acquaintance and I went out for a ride and decided to head over to Snetterton race circuit to watch the club level racing. As we wandered around the paddock we stumbled upon a modern looking race bike with a red, silver and blue paint job complete with the \'Norton\' logo on the fuel tank. I will never forget the moment they fired it up, in my humble opinion there is nothing to rival the sound of a race-prepped wankel engine. The rider, Malcolm Heath, took the bike to a win. A famous British marque beating modern Japanese bikes, cool!
The next time i saw the Norton Race bike was October 1988 at Brands Hatch but this was not merely club level racing, this was the big time. Steve Spray took the Norton to two fabulous wins in two very hard fought battles against Terry Rymer on the Loctite Yamaha. The famous British marque was now beating the best of the four stroke race bikes from Japan, very cool!!!
During 1989 i followed the Norton race team all over the UK, from Brands in the south to Knockhill in Scotland and from the Isle of Man to Cadwell Park in the east. Steve Spray won both the National Championships that year.
For 1990 i decided to try a season of club racing myself on a Honda CBR600. To start the season i booked a practice day at Snetterton. On arrival at the circuit i was surprised to find the Norton team there. My first \'dice\' with Spray came at Riches corner when Spray shot past me at the first apex. A few laps later i had just blasted past a little MZ racer half way down the Revett straight and was grinning to myself at how i must have frightened the life out of him when Spray did exactly the same thing to me, i nearly jumped off the bike!
At the 1990 Motorcycle Show i promised myself that one day i would buy myself a Norton F1, the \'race replica\'... (and one day i will).
The Norton Rotary company folded under the pressure of large debts in 1992. I continued to follow the fortunes of the race team but sadly it all came to an end at the close of the 1994 season. The National race series changed from F1 rules to the production based Superbike rules which ruled the Norton out.
I often dreamed of seeing the likes of Steve Spray and Trevor Nation back on the black and gold bikes. In 2002 my dreams came true, Spray and Nation made an appearance on the National Motorcycle Museum owned Nortons at Cadwell Park.
During the day at Cadwell, a couple of bikes caught my attention, an Interpol 2 ex-police bike with a 1970’s John Player Norton fairing and a white and pink Interpol 2 engined \'Streetfighter\' both fitted with race replica exhaust systems. I got chatting with the owner of the Streetfighter and learned that he could sell me a naked (full fairing removed) Interpol 2 that he had in his garage. Towards the end of 2002 i took delivery of the Norton Interpol 2 fitted with a Stainless and Titanium race rep exhaust.
I love riding the Rotary mainly because it brings back to me the sights and sounds of the ‘Glory years’ of the Norton race bikes. I often find myself playing sweet music with the exhaust note just for the sake of it, revving on down changes and rolling on and off the throttle through villages etc. At my old age the bike is quite quick enough for me (12.35 sec ¼ mile) but hopefully not so quick that I am likely to lose my driving license. There is much talk of how different they are to ride compared to a piston engined bike but in my opinion there is very little difference. Compared to my last bike, the Rotary has as much low down torque, a lot less vibration and a bit less engine braking, but then my last bike was a Harley Davidson!! At the end of the day its still a petrol fuelled internal combustion engine, it just sounds so much nicer than a piston engine.

[rextreme]

I remember watching Alan Moffat in a Peripheral Port SA Rx7 at Bathurst way back when touring cars were group A in Australia. I loved watching the Rx7s winning. I was about 8-10years old. My parents had a RC hobby store so I got a 1/12 scale SA Rx7 body shell with the big flares and raced it until it descintegrated.

Thats probably how it started.

Then After actually learning to drive I went through a number of cars including my first rotary, An NA FC that I had rebuilt to go fast. I tried to buy an FD, I just love the shape. I went to a yard and the the guy gave a friend and I the keys to this 400hp FD. it was a true circuit spec road car. After a few sideways experiences I was hooked. But the car was $60000AUD and I couldnt come up with the cash at the time.

So i went through WRX, MR2 Turbo, FC turbo but I still wanted that FD bad.
When my GF and I decided to move to Japan. I knew I was going to get an FD. And what a place to get it. Driving japan in that car has been great. But something went wrong. The car didnt end up how i thought. some quick decisions (based around money) led the car to be less than I dreamed when It should have been so much more. That 400hp beast I drove is still haunting me. But I was satisfied with the Car. I recently sold my beloved FD but 110000Klms is a good reason to sell an FD I think.

So now I am saving hard for the next one, and i am planning to return to Japan. so when I am ready, Miguel, you\'ll will get an order.

[Mir]

The holy thread revival any more stories??

[grinder]

i have just re-read most of them .. quite a good thread to be honest !

[Ada7]

Funny reading and looking back at what i and others had back then. How things have moved on now.

Adam

[jetpilot]

I will go with the revival

My first experience of a Rx7 was a long long time ago and funnily enough, i was never that interested. I guess it was 98 ish, maybe earlier, a guy i played Saturday league football with bought one, a UK car, god knows how much it cost, i think i remember talks of £22k in the changing room, it was red, maybe why i wasnt that interested as i hate red cars!

A few years past and Fast and Furious came out, another red one, still lacked appeal.

Another year went by and i jumped on the Jap Import bandwagon maybe 03, as the docks were just down the road in Southampton and on my second visit, there it was, a standard black Rx7. I was so tempted to bid on it, but i already had a car and needed the cash as i had to buy stock, it went through the auction and no one won it! I came home and couldnt get it out of my head, the next auction was 2 weeks time, how could i get the money within two weeks?? i had a friend who used to work at Mazda (salesmen), so i quizzed him on them, did some research where i found Mrc, looked on ebay etc The funny thing was, if you typed Rx7 into ebay then, there was maybe 1 car for sale and only 2 or 3 pages of search results!

I cant even remember what i was driving at that point, i think it was a Wrx Wagon or Prelude 2.2 Vtec, whatever it was it was sold in a week and at the next auction it was bought and not really looked back and i am on my fourth. The first black Rx7 was slightly modded during my ownership with a original 99 spec bumper, exhaust, filter and Apexi and is still going strong and on its 3rd member now

One was broken for parts, yes i know, the sell a single cheap or as parts debate and the shell was crushed with £2k worth of month or so old paint! The magazine featured Fc went to Jersey or Guernsey and a rebuild 96 i have never heard of to this day. The fourth will be a keeper for sure as i am making sure it is done exactly how i want it to be, any changes i make over time will hopefully be or can be just cosmetic to keep my interest or if i ever come into some money, i will have a short block triple built for it!

I am hopeful that as these difficult times end and the less well kept ones end up as a tin of beans, good examples will become increasingly difficult to find and their values rise! Its encouraging to think of things like Sierra and Escort Cossies, Rs Mexicos and Rs2000 that were a bargain once have now gained that cult status, very hopeful the Rx7 reaches those heights as in my eyes, in truly is a gorgeous car, in every way i might add!

[shaunwil]

I still have the car I talked about, man holy thread revival. All be it has changed to a full single turbo, fully caged car with some serious mods. But its still the same car !

Shaun

[wolfie1]

well i will tell my wee story!
 
i am a vehicle mechanic to trade and was on the hunt for a sports car preferebly a 2 seater, i looked at a lot of things mr2, audi tt (yes i know), caterham 7 (no roof in scotland always put me off) lotus, old porsche, skyline,350z, supra etc anyway none really took my fancy to be honest i had driven most and to be honest wasnt entirely impressed. anyway my best mate is a self employed joiner/builder and come accross an rx7 in a garage at a house he was working on and asked the owner about it and found out it was her sons which had sat there for 6 years and hadnt turned a wheel and didnt start anymore which he was selling but he was abroad in australia, so i waited my time and the son eventually come home and i went round and met him and we got talking and he was thinking on breaking it for parts but he would rather sell it to me knowing that it was going to get looked after, sorted and put back on the road and not stripped. so i went home and told the girlfriend and she was skeptical didnt know what it looked like so thanks to google some pics came up and she seen a black 1 with gold wheels and she asked does it have gold wheels, so we went out to look at it and she loved the look of it in person so we bought it! it is an import 94 fd with about 27000 on the clock which was completely standard all bar gold enkei rpf1 wheels, an re amimeya front spoiler, sideskirts and ohlins coilovers. so got it home got it running and wow i love the thing now cant see me ever selling it, i have done so much to it now have modded just about every aspect of it now