Could I build a rotary 200sx?

[dandan]

Hi all,

For some reason i\'ve been mulling over some very odd ideas lately, but i quite like this one so I thought I would share it with you to see if there are any completely watertight reasons why this wouldn\'t work that I haven\'t spotted.

I may soon be getting a little runaround, and was thinking s13 200sx, cos they are cheap, but still quite fun and also the kind of car I should be able to work on myself. The only big problem with this is I know next to nothing about piston engines, but quite a lot about rotaries, but rotaries are expensive to run which is why I need a runaround in the first place, but i dont know about piston engines so i\'d like a rotary runaround but rotaries are expensive to run which is why i need a runaround... ad infinitum

Anyhow, this got me thinking, when I am in a financial position to spend ludicrous amounts of money on a car again (a year or two I should think) it will definately be rotary, but why should it be rx7 or cosmo shaped? I\'ve always liked to be different, so why not try something interesting, and stick a rotary in something else?

Obviously it has been done on many occasions with many different cars, but has anyone done an s13? or s14 for that matter? I know an rb26 would be a more obvious swap, but the whole point is to make it rotary, cos I love \'em so much!

It\'s front engine, rear wheel drive, probably quite lightweight I would guess, and seeing as they have been pushed to well over 500 hp in the past, they should be able to cope with a powerful 13b.

Here\'s how i see it, in my cotton wool, rose tinted world:
Rip out engine and box from s13, make mounts for 13b, shove it in, make adaptor from s13 prop to fd box or from fd prop to s13 diff, (or even put whole fd running gear all the way back to the hubs?) use fd wiring loom and ecu and get smart person to splice in all ancillary electrics (lights, wipers,p/s etc etc) turn key and drive away in cloud of tyre smoke!

Ok so possibly a tad oversimplified, but can anyone give me a good reason to shoot this idea dead before I even consider it further? I\'m not expecting it to take any less than at least a year to do, and I hope to learn to welding, panel beating, machining, wiring and the rest along the way, but it would be a fun way to learn, surely!
It depends on a lot of things panning out in the future but I just thought I would air it and see what people say.

[dandan]

oh, and i\'ve already got a name for it,


drum roll


\'PROJECT 200RX\'


as louis walsh would say, \'i like it\'

[royal]

Like your vision! Don\'t reckon it would take you a year though. A crazy mate of mine put an engine and running gear from a Supra into an old tax free jeep thing! Craziest thing I\'ve ever seen. It had a right load of dodgy welding on it.I didn\'t actually see him put it through its paces, only fire it up and then I moved house.  He said he just wanted to take out a few scoobies at the lights! I reckon he would have let off the clutch and the engine would have jumped off the chasis!

[Adriansturgess]

Dandan......I applaud your ambition...... :bandit

[Adriansturgess]

Like your vision! Don\'t reckon it would take you a year though. A crazy mate of mine put an engine and running gear from a Supra into an old tax free jeep thing! Craziest thing I\'ve ever seen. It had a right load of dodgy welding on it.I didn\'t actually see him put it through its paces, only fire it up and then I moved house.  He said he just wanted to take out a few scoobies at the lights! I reckon he would have let off the clutch and the engine would have jumped off the chasis!

Yeah, well that might just have taken the Scooby out anyway....flattened by a flying engine..... :Giggle

[Mr J.T]

Yeah, well that might just have taken the Scooby out anyway....flattened by a flying engine..... :Giggle

lol we no like scoobys :WaveBye

[J4P RX]

Buying an FC would be easier and cooler

[dandan]

well yeah of course it would be easier but thats not the point!

I\'m going for innovation here, not repetition!
So no dead-ends mentioned yet, this could be possible....?

[antnicuk]

only one thing i can think of.................. why?

As J4P RX says,  buy a cheap TII, they are quite rare and you can certainly practice your welding.........  you can also scare FD\'s with some engine tweaks.....

I could understand putting a nissan engine in an RX but i cant see the appeal of the other way round,  the RX looks better.

[Kron]

Why not look for something a little more exclusive? There are so many 200sx\'s around and the car is only looked fondly upon by the drifiting scene due to its weight distribution otherwise its a pretty plain package.

If you\'re going for innovation you don\'t want to be using an S-body Nissan.

[dandan]

fair points from tony and kron, but there are some points of method to my madness...
Firstly, I think it has to be a non-rotary and probably non-mazda transplant vehicle, to possibly help raise awareness of the rotary and its possible uses outside of rx7\'s. (if i did it I would like to really do it properly and make lots of people aware of it too) I would like it to be something people in the scene know well, but don\'t expect to have a rotary engine in.

Secondly the 200sx s13 is cheap and readily available and there are huge amounts of tuning parts available and loads of very knowledgeable people who have worked on them for years which would make problem solving a lot easier.

Thirdly it\'s true it is a mainly drift-related car, but how is this a bad thing? drifting is great!

Looks-wise i dont think much matches a nice rx but thats a sacrifice i will have to make.

Does anyone have any suggestions of other vehicles to use? FR layout, reasonably light, cheap, with a readily available list of modified parts? all suggestions very welcome, plus they have to be able to have a catchy title like 200rx! lol

[banned advertiser]

Think your plan is good Dandan, they are cheap, parts are easy, have seen some very nice kitted ones, so not ugly, and most importantly, would be nice to see the nissan boys faces when there supior cars get mashed and they discover it ortor powered.

[fro]

Good idea Dan. There\'s enough room in a S13 engine bay to have a party compared to a FD. The only minor problem I could forsee is the steering column - with a CA the column\'s on the intake side of the engine, with a 13b it would be on the turbo side (and might possibly get in the way of the exhaust or turbo(s))

[mullins]

There are so many 200sx\'s around

Could say the same about FD\'s.

and the car is only looked fondly upon by the drifiting scene due to its weight distribution otherwise its a pretty plain package.

I look fondly upon them and I\'m not into drifting! They\'re a damn fine car and I like the shape. Plain package :xconfused
Sorry not picking on you Kron. :WaveBye

Another good conversion it the Toyota Altezza. A friend of a friend converted one to a 13B turbo in N.Z. Let\'s just say it went a lot quicker that it did from the factory (and originality is everything in the car scene over there). Also don\'t forgot the good old BMW route.

I personally would love to see a few more people here in the U.K. "break the mould" with regards to conversions and innovations. We can\'t all drive round in identical looking FD\'s with big wings

Dandan do what YOU want to do!

[BlitzBoy]

Yeah how about an E30 325i sport with a rotary engine?