in the last 24 hours I have assembled a 2 rotor motor for my rx7 and ARA has allowed 3 rotors with a 2022 rulebook update. With emergence of US Rally Federation now all 3 (3rd being NASA rally sport) all allowing 3 rotor (or more) motors I can officially kick this project off:
this was my daily driver for about 2-3 years until the motor died a carbon death @ 75K miles (im the 7th owner) for a while but this its current state (plus some snow) and yes that is a (dead) rotary snowmobile behind it. Upon dissasembly the motor had been rebuilt before which is pretty sad. current rotating assembly feeds the latest rx7 race motor.
The idea is that the rx7 will eventually need to be or will be retired and I want to apply all the lessons learned from this rally car:
and bring it to the rx8. its too much work to make the FC 3 rotor with its current setup so this car will always be a 2 rotor. Build it with Halos and fitment initially instead of after the fact, a proper PDM system is becoming an option with Haltech but I will need an elite ecu 2000 series to be able to run a 3 rotor so all of these ideas make me think clean slate, slow build.
I've already started parting out bits of it to fund my recent motor to pre-prep it for racecar duty.
EvanB said:
This is exciting.
It really is! I haven't paid attention to rotary stuff in a loooong time. Is there new exciting stuff in the 3-rotor world? Is stuff based on the renesis, big ported old school stuff, or new exciting things?
I don't exactly know how and I am not sure on when but I am thinking 2 phases:
- Get it mobile so i can park it more conveniently elsewhere. possible track day use
- gut it, run it and feed it used parts
- carb'd 2 rotor from spare parts thrown together as power plant.
- retain existing PPF (power plant frame setup)
- do nothing to the suspension/brakes/wheels.
- Actual rally car
- Haltech Elite ECU + Nexus PDM or related
- 3 rotor non turbo setup, likely ported too
- rally cage and general halo safety accoutrement
- fuel cell
- BMW DCT, ditch PPF setup
- custom shocks, new A-Arm, longer axles
- think pre-runner or some sorta baja thing.
current suspension is not good for rally:
there is a stage rally car rx8 out there but I don't exactly know what was done to it or where it is. This car is planned to be a real open class car - something for fun and enjoy that is gnarly too.
with the double a-arm making new control arms and do custom long travel suspension feasible. the idea is keep the subframe (or use as template, open to tube subframe too) and remove all the tabs and weld on new ones so I can do something thats somewhere between this:
and this:
thats the basic idea because fitting 15s on these is impossible and running 16" gravel "retreads" for stage rally sounds terrible.
bgkast
PowerDork
1/10/22 10:10 p.m.
This is going to be good!
In for whatever the berkeley this turns into.
Baja and RX-8 are two words that I don't think I could have imagined together
I think the other RX8 you're thinking of is the Van Klink car over in NZ:
As far as I've been able to find it still runs stock-ish suspension, and runs on really smooth stages for the most part. I think your plan up front with different arms is good, and in the back you could even consider doing a more traditional live axle setup. Look there's even room for it with the gas tank and rear subframe gone!
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:
I think the other RX8 you're thinking of is the Van Klink car over in NZ:
As far as I've been able to find it still runs stock-ish suspension, and runs on really smooth stages for the most part. I think your plan up front with different arms is good, and in the back you could even consider doing a more traditional live axle setup. Look there's even room for it with the gas tank and rear subframe gone!
The klinky 3 rotor is awesome, as you can see when you remove the gas tank it allows for all sorts of room for activities. I have tried to ask them how they managed to fit 15s but I've got nothing but crickets. Having it stockish may be fine but we don't have smooth NZ roads for rally, and the rough stages you can make up a LOT of time because everyone tends to slow down, so strategically you don't need to risk it as much on the all out speed stages if you can fly past people on the rough stuff by floating over it but your car needs to be capable of handling that.
the other rx8 rally car I mentioned is stateside:
details on this one is a complete mystery.
15s aren't impossible. Stampie has them clearing the automatic rx8 brakes.
Im trying to develop a wilwood dynalite and big rotor setup for a little big brake kit that clears 15s for the track build im doing.
In reply to fidelity101 (Forum Supporter) :
That one with the orange stripe, I vaguely remember a SpecialStage thread talking about it exploding the carbon driveshaft more than once. I believe this ewrc profile has all of its' events, 3/4 of them DNFs.
Dusterbd13-michael said:
15s aren't impossible. Stampie has them clearing the automatic rx8 brakes.
Im trying to develop a wilwood dynalite and big rotor setup for a little big brake kit that clears 15s for the track build im doing.
pics or it didn't happen, i tried a variety of braid templates and needed a negative offset because the wheels hit the rear knuckles, the front i think is manageable with automatic brakes and those cars came with 16s. the knuckle itself is too big and the arms are such a wide spread that you need a low offset so the barrel doesn't crash into the suspension links.
yeah the orange one didn't do well and fell off the face of the earth. the carbon driveshaft makes me wonder if better underbody could have protected it but other folks out there are running carbon fiber driveshafts in their rally cars, however the easy answer is aluminum driveshaft and be done.
The Braid and many other rally wheels have a gigantic inner lip for rock hits- Methods had the same problem needing a negative offset on the BRZ while a +35 offset 15x6 stock VW wheel clears fine. Not to say that you don't have other issues, but there are probably weaker/higher clearance options out there.
Ah. Okm its a wheel specific issue, and a rear end issue. Im using only the front suspension and brakes. Im also using circle track wheels, not rally braids.
So, may not be applicable based on the further discussion. Sorry.
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :
Yeah the rear is the trouble (go figure), in the front it just hits the calipers, smaller brakes and the right offset and you're good. The arms are much closer together so the wheel has room for turning whereas the rear it is a real wide triangle.
the Braid wheels have huge barrels to help clear motorsport rotors/calipers, its not the lip but the fact that the rear knuckle is so damn big but I should check out circle track wheels come to think of it... but what do you got going on that i'm missing out on?! I gotta see this
the rx8 has bigger brakes than an evo IX (in diameter)
I printed a template, I can demonstrate the rear issue.
In reply to fidelity101 (Forum Supporter) :
Currently in the beginning of planning stages of using an RX-8 entire front suspension under a partially tube framed AMC Spirit with NASCAR wheels and tires for my new hpde at Hill Climb car.
Interesting perspective about where/how you can pick up time on rougher stages, and planning for it early. I'm excited to see where this goes, and for the sound of a 3-rotor blasting through the woods. 
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:
I think the other RX8 you're thinking of is the Van Klink car over in NZ:
As far as I've been able to find it still runs stock-ish suspension, and runs on really smooth stages for the most part. I think your plan up front with different arms is good, and in the back you could even consider doing a more traditional live axle setup. Look there's even room for it with the gas tank and rear subframe gone!
I like the way this guy thinks.
I really don't want to do solid rear axle but I haven't totally ruled it out
>2 rotors may be the best sound since the 10000rpm 10s from F1.
okay so this ended up not panning out and I'm jumping into a new forever project. this is getting re-homed this weekend to make way for my next bad idea...
the more I dug into this the more I didn't want to go further, the cab being difficult to fit with the clamshell doors and myself, front and rear suspension being basically thrown away and a budget for a fuel cell which I don't have.
stay tuned.
sorry to give your hopes up but there is an abundance of dead rx8s (for now) at least.
fidelity101 said:
.....
.... there is an abundance of dead rx8s (for now) at least.
True, There's one being delivered to my house tomorrow night. 
EvanB
MegaDork
11/16/23 2:50 p.m.
fidelity101 said:
okay so this ended up not panning out and I'm jumping into a new forever project. this is getting re-homed this weekend to make way for my next bad idea
Does that mean the seller of a certain car in Illinois found the title?
