Smartbears Mazda rx8 evolve edition

[Smartbear]

Didn't a lot of these get ford v4 conversions iirc ?

I think they did, seem to remember the engine being relatively small and lots of space to put a bigger unit in.
The other weird thing was the semi-auto 3 speed gear box, with the gear lever knob activating the clutch.
Not sure what happened to NSU, remember bubble cars and not much else.

They did get the old v4 put into them , it was a short compact engine so ideal for the space , but god it was a horrible noisy rough old thing , normally found in transits unfortunately !

And ford corsairs I think
Rob

[Paulwirral]

And capris and zephers I think , I remember the transit version used to knock the bottom end bearings out quite easily , but did seem to rattle on forever , still a horrible old thing though .
I can only imagine a customers face when they picked it up after conversion , nice smooth rotary to a shaking , knocking piece of iron , but at least the car still drove I suppose , we were all a little easier going back then and expectations weren't so high

[Paulr]

And Saabs. I had a 99 Combi Coupe with a freewheeling device as well. Screw a knob below the dash in and you had NO engine braking at all. It was for economy, they said, but was damn dangerous. Approach a bend and let off and it seemed to speed up! It was discontinued for reasons like people crashing spectacularly failing going around corners.

The rotary engine had promise I thought. Smooth as silk and very powerful for its size, with a very small amount of moving parts compared to a standard engine, so it should have been reliable as well. But they never really sorted it, and if Mazda couldn't, I doubt anybody else could.