The MX-8
 

Secret spy photo ;)

(yes, it is a Renesis)

Who's doing the swap?

we're doing it at mazmart

This could make a really interesting SM2 car. Nice to see someone is attempting to turn the turd of an MX-5 into something fun an interesting.

It should be pretty baller. Motor has a mild street build.

And looky all the room for FI!

looky all the room for another rotary :D The amount of vacant space is silly compared to how full the bay is new.

and the whole motor is LOW and BACK. this thing is gonna be tits.

is that a battery on driver side?

car weight with renesis?

probably not much... its a light motor

you know... if this thing works out, ill sell my turbo and bp and get one of these sexy things installed in my car!

Lighter than stock. But the car's not drivable quite yet, so it's not been weighed. Though the powertrain is in and ready.

Yup.

This is an NC, and while I'm sure you can swap the renesis into an older tub, we won't be offering it as a kit. Where the NC swap we're expecting to have a kit on the market at around $10k to include all necessary parts (yes, including the motor).

finally. someone is modding something other than floormats.

what ECU will this beast be running?

RX8 ecu. Flashed. And paralleled with the NC ecu. OBDII "compliant". ;)
Probably also retrofit the RX8 instrument cluster into the NC's dash. Should be pretty sick.

are you offering this only for the NC because it doesnt involve any cutting of structural members? (i'm guessing)

very nice! :)

The placement of that engine is going to make that thing awesome to drive! it will surprise many autox goers for sure...

awesome concept, only thing is, the renesis motor is garbage, if it was any good at holding boost rx-8 owners wouldn't swtich it out for the 13b-tt... just go get a 20b and call it a day.

Man, that engine bay is so empty, it looks like someone stole the engine. Lighter weight, around 200HP at the wheels, 9500RPM redline, and better weight distribution - that should be a fun car!

Cheers,

Jeff

Interesting. Ihave a mate who is at about the same stage in his build. The great thing about this swap is that the nc and the rx8 are essentially the same car/chassis, with a section cut out of the middle of the nc, and they even come off the same production line. This means that the whole engine and subframe, with the electric rack and 330mm odd rotors all bolts straight in without modification. A quick piccie for you.
http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/8...2007055vy4.jpg
http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/8...729a668124.jpg

BOOOOOO!!!!

rotories SUCK!!!!!

I take it you were never taught when you were younger that if you had nothing inteligent to add to a conversation to keep your mouth shut?

I love this forum, so many people happy to offer their useless opinions and bash random things for no good reason:cjerk:

With poor spelling too! What nerve! :giggle:

Well, you get that, that's why I'm in engineering and not an english teacher...

So the NC is finally allowing Paul's dream to be realized, eh?

Actually, the Renesis is a damn fine engine. It just has virtually no margin for shitty tuning, and even less if with a turbo. Those who are well versed can get them to do amazing things, very reliably.

We have rotary motors at work that lived through entire race seasons, including through 24 hours races. How can a motor run wide open over multiple 24 hour sessions and not be reliable? Oh, and we race on PUMP gas.

We have our own on site rotary machine shop, run by a man who's got nearly 40 years' of experience building mazda rotaries. We could have dropped in a fancy motor, such as the 620hp 4 rotor that sits in front of my desk at work, but went with the Renesis for a reason. ;)

And can you tell us why? It's amazing how people can make loud declaration and are not even able to bring arguments to support their declaration.

Rotaries are great motors, it's just the lack of knowledge, and horror stories that affraid people. And for the horror stories, it's well known that most of the time it's the lack of good maintenance that kills these engines. They sure needs mor TLC than piston motors, but they're lighter, smaller, less complicated, less parts moving, and run smoother. They sure consume oil but IMO it's not a big concern as somtimes big mileage piston engines consume more... I'm pretty sure that if mazda did not have bought the exclusivity of this motor, these motors would have a greater place on our roads and would not affraid people like this...

i used to have a 88, it was a peice of shit. nothing but a constant pain in the ass

this explains it perfectly
http://img54.imageshack.us/img54/120...rrotaryna5.jpg

ford spent millions on that motor, if it was such a good motor, everything would have one. and they dont just "consume" oil, they are MADE to BURN ENGINE OIL.

and here is another little tidbit, mazda doesnt even include the RX8 in its customer satisfaction surveys, and there is a reason why. and lets not forget that the motor has been recalled already for low compression

WOW, such a compelling argument...

How funny... because at that time, the contemporary RX7 won more IMSA races than any other car, GTU was dominated by the RX7, which won 24 hrs Daytona 10 years in a row (1982-1991) and won the championship 8 years in a row (1980-1987). It was done on RELIABILITY, not by power. Most of the contemporary piston motors put out HUNDREDS of horsepower more. HUNDREDS. This was because IMSA kept crippling the rotary by restricting it, because it was so dominating.

The RX8, especially the earliest ones, has had its share of issues. Most of them were electronic/programming in nature. The US spec RX8 got a really shitty tune. But the motor itself, when treated properly, is typically pretty robust.

rotary racist; please don't hate. why....why can't we all just get along.

im not a rotary racist, its a GREAT idea, and i would love to see it improved, but as of now, its crapy

they make a funny exhaust note

thats all i got......

i will say the one thing that i did love about my rx7 was the ablity to shoot fire balls whenever. it was GREAT for tailgatters. i made several people slam on their own brakes that way, LOL! just VRRROOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM...........P O W ! ! ! ! !

the Rx8 is dominating in sports car racing now too - Club and pro.

The great thing about the Rotary in my limited experience is that it can be beat to shit and as long as heat is controlled life is good. The part I don't like about them is how random they are when they fail. Park it one day and it has compression, go to start it the next and nothing. Bye bye apex seal. Carbon build up bad.

Good race car motor, shitty daily driver motor in my opinion. And nothing sounds nearly as horrible as a rotary with a wide open exhaust. Weed whacker from hell.

Still think this is a cool swap, the MX-5 is such a boring safe car it needs something a little edgy to make it cool.

Never owned a DD rotary - only raced them, but it would seem to be true form most reports I've read that it requires more maintenance. I don't care much for the sound either EXCEPT for one - the last Mazda factory GTP car. That car was the best sounding rotary ever- probably because it sound more like a small bore, high rpm v8.

:noes:

Thats pretty much what I've heard as well.

Rotary engines aren't exactly efficient engines that's the only bad thing I can see about them. Hating on them for the reasons I’ve seen in this thread is pretty foolish.

We have a guy locally that has over 200k miles on his 12a. It's his daily driver and not boosted. I think if you maintain and tune them properly they have their applications and will last like any other engine.

For every 200K Rotary engine that is still going strong, I bet there are 10 that popped for "no reason". Apex seals are the devil.

Why do you think Mazda pulled the FD Rx7 in NA? Too expensive. Unreliable. Horrid gas mileage. They do really poorly in cold climates as well.

The pluses? Can make retarded power. Can beat the poop out of them. Nice small package. And finally the eleventiybillion RPM rev limit.

Don't get me wrong, I sell my kid on the black Market to get a minty FD. :)

I believe the FD went on to 2002 in other places. I don't believe the "No Reason" thing sorry 90% of the time is tuner error.

I bet that if you part them, you will get more $$$ :bowrofl: I heard somewhere that kidneys worth well in this time of year:eek5:

I had a mint FD. It was OK, but I enjoy the miata much, much more.

and for every 200k rotary, there are a 1000 500k piston motors

...umm prove it?

Bryan Taylor you are by far the largest rotary hater I have ever known...like I hope the RX-8's success and the Furai make more manufacturers pick up rotaries, just to spite you.

the repo truck my dad used to drive was a 2001 gmc 3500hd GAS motor with 515,000 on the original motor. i would take a pic, but he just change companies 2 weeks ago. now its had like 7 transmissions, but the motor is still original, only in its 2nd set of spark plugs too, and it would go 10-40k on oil changes. and i have seen several imports go that far, hell the old parts delivery truck at my work was a chevy van with 350k when they sold it, still running. how about you show me some rotaries with over even 100k on the original motor? they are VERY few.

First Rotorys are the most efficient motor other then bike motors. How many motors do you know that have a 1.3L displacement and can make up 400+ whp.

The biggest reason the FDs got pulled in America was stupid fucking idiots. First mazda didn't have techs that could really work on rotorys so when ever something happened to the motor instead of fixing the issue they just swapped motors. Second people were buying the FD thinking they were just everyday cars not knowing that they were sport breed cars that require higher maintenance. Lastly FD owners have noticed a flaw in the design for cooling and cause the rotory to overheat easier then the FB and FC causing the apex to flux easier and those poop quicker. People on rx7club.com have fixed the cooling issues have been getting 100k out of modded rotorys. No I don't have any post off hand.

Ben, I would have kill you guys if you used the 26B in the store front. every time I am there I go paw that motor. I would love to see a N/A 26B in a miata, talk about gas eater thou.

I think you mean specific power, not efficiency. Specific power is the power output per engine displacement, like kW/l or HP/cu in.. Efficiency is the fuel consumption rate at a particular power level, like lbs/HP*hour

What i meant by them not being efficient was MPG. they do not get good MPG per liter.. this will be the death of the rotary in future designs unless they figure it out.

Yea I was thinking efficiency as for power for size not as in gas intake. That i will give the rotory gets shit gas mileages.

I wonder how the rotory would work with the HOO fuel(if you don't know what i am talking about seach online for water fuel).

I've had 3 RX7s, an '86 GXL, a '91 convertible, and a '94. Never once had major engine issues out of any of them (the '91s tranny bit the dust, so I had a TII motor/trans swapped in). The key to keeping them running well is controlling the heat as mentioned, and devoting the time to maintaining them.
I've noticed that most people that don't understand the way they work are the first ones to voice a negative opinion about them, and in no way am I saying that's what's going on here, but just what I notice after being around them for so long.
As far as fuel efficiency, hell, not one of the 7s I had got less than 22-24mpg as long as I wasn't being a speed freak, which is pretty nice considering most V8 sports car's get the same mpg but were slower.

Really?

I can see selling a FD for a Miata for financial reasons, but not because you enjoy the Miata more. However I have never driven one, and never ridden in a rotary FD. Did get a ride in a 500whp LS1 FD at a local autox last year.

BEAST.

that had this thing called tq...ride in a rotary motor powered car, you'll see what your missing.

Sold my mint <30k 96M, picked up a mint, bone stock 94 FD, loved the acceleration but wanted my little roadster again. Sold the FD, and now I have a turbo 91 NA. My miata isn't as sexy to look at, but IMO it's more fun.

ok, if the why run the MX5 and RX8 ecu's in paralell? If you swap in the rx8 cluster, what is left for the mx5 ecu to run?

Nice
 

Nice, how long do you think it'll be till you get it on the track? :firedevil

Just my .02 Everyone I know that has an RX-8 has had nothing but problems with them. Just to support America here, my brother has a 2002 Chevy 2500 with 220K on the clock and he uses it everyday to pull Fema trailers. Original motor and tranny, grant it, it has the Allsion tranny and the 6 liter. He laughs when I drive my Miata but i can only help but smile when we pull up to the gas pump.

Sorry, this area of the development will not be open for discussion at this time, for several reasons to include legal.

We're hoping to have it ready for the open house this summer. Body & paint at the end of the month. Probably. Hopefully.