G'day
Im thinking of doing a 12a rotary conversion to a clubman van , i know i can use a gearbox from a fwd mazda 626 , but after that it gets a bit confusing.

what drive shafts do i use? mini or mazda ?etc..
Or do you get them made to suit ?
And do you use longer diff ratio to suit the 10 inch tyre ?

Sorry if this question has been asked before but i couldnt find any info on this sort of thing listed in the other conversion threads.

any information would be great help

CHEERS

I have heard of them but never seen one, or met somone who made one - thought they were just stories. Would love to see some pics and get some info on a conversion.

Anyone got any details on the Ford OHC 1600cc conversion - Visard menions them in his book - anyone got one or know anything about them?

Generally most people either get custom billet shafts made up or as I did take the donor vehicles shafts and get them shortened and resplined, not a huge deal for a decent fabricator/turner. Should be interesting conversion good luck...

Cheers

Matt

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225hp atw on 14psi. 1/4 Mile no idea. Take one 1971 Mini Clubman, one Starlet GT Halfcut, Simmer over a warm MIG Welder, and Voila Minstar! www.mpdesign.id.au

So it's going to be FWD? correct

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Respect mine and I'll respect yours.

or a mitsu cordia apparently.



You will need to have shafts made. Either the donor ones turned down or some new billets ones.

No engine conversion i've seen required the fitment of a taller diff ratio.

You won't upset too many people asking questions about rotars. Doesn't come up often.

Do you know rotaries are a tax on people who are bad at Maths?

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But he's thriving and striving and hugging the turns.

Yea, i thought this conversion would be something a little bit different as ive only seen 1 fwd rotary so far . that was built by a guy in NZ who used a mid 90s 626 wagon , so it was quite simple as the 626 bellhousing and the rotary have the same bolt pattern.

I did consider making it rwd but decided against it because would have to remake most of the floor pan , subframes etc...

With the diff ratios though, i assumed a diff geared to run 13 or 14inch tyres would be effected by running 10s as the diameter is smaller and there for lowers your ratio

Or do you run a bigger tyre on the front??

Before you start you should look into the maximum size engine that you are allowed to fit into a Mini and then look at the capacity of the rotary. (clue, a 12A is not really 1200cc like a lot of people think.)

Mazda did built front wheel drive cars with rotary engines, they also built buses with rotary engines, which proved that Mazda can get it wrong sometimes!

sorry off topic when mazda gets it wrong
Morris 1100 knows where im going here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazda_Roadpacer

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Im here to learn!

Actually the Roadpacer could have been be a good thing. I think that they are lighter than the RX8. (The 6 cyl Holden Kinggwood was about 400kg lighter than the Roadpacer after Mazda added a heap of electrical goodies like a fridge!)

Yeah the roadpacer "Could" have been a good thing,,,, "IF" it were fitted with a twin turbo Keith Black 8 litre Alloy V8

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No offence intended here but--> anyone writing a book about minis 30 years ago may not have experienced such worn or stuffed-with components as we are finding these days.

You should put your heart & soul into everything you do.

Yea , but the mazda spec charts and handbooks all specify a 12a as 1.2 ltr and 13b as1.3ltr ?
or do the road authorities class these another way due to having 3 firing faces in 1 cylinder ???

13B is classified as being a 2600cc,,, not sure what they see a 12A as tho,,, i`m no rotor head but i like them alot,,, actually just helped a mate of mine buy a turbo RX7 with 420odd hp,,, very quick car indeed

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No offence intended here but--> anyone writing a book about minis 30 years ago may not have experienced such worn or stuffed-with components as we are finding these days.

You should put your heart & soul into everything you do.

As taken from the NCOP ---

"...The engine capacity to be used for rotary engines is twice the swept volume of all rotors (eg a 13B rotary engine has a swept volume of 1308 cc giving a 'capacity' of 2616 cc)."

Therefore a 12A would be 2.4l(ish)making it too big to register.

Depending on the actual capacity of a 10A you may get away with one of those, but find a decent 10A now days.

Didn't Norton make a Rotary bike engine???

Dicko

So did Suzuki - the RE5.

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"Not Speeding Officer..........Qualifying"