Rotary As A Daily Driver?

[W0rp3D]

One of the two cars i want to build is an RX2 coupe with a pp 20b and individual throttle bodies.

[RBPOWA-(TJ)]

basically i would really like a mazda rx 2 3 or 4.

how reliable would they be as a daily driver?

HA!

[W0rp3D]

HA!

Ever owned one?

Edited May 16, 2009 by W0rp3D

[RBPOWA-(TJ)]

nah lol just saw the thread and felt like putting that in *shrugs*

[W0rp3D]

nah lol just saw the thread and felt like putting that in *shrugs*

Contrary to a lot of peoples opionon, i tried to kill mine for a year and it wouldnt die.

[warps]

Everything up to (but not including) Iron Chef's thread has been pretty much spot on.

rotors are fun and very reliable if treated correctly. In fact in racing circles, I've read more stories of RB26's dropping their guts than rotaries. My RX2 rally car has the same engine it had in it over 6 years ago. I do an oil change after every big event, and warm it up properly before racing. Other than that, I drive it like I stole it. Have had the temp gauge on the wrong side of 120 deg C a few times when I was popping fan belts, and had other major cooling issues (all fixed now), and it still runs fine.

Big carbied and ported rotors can be cantankerous in traffic and not much fun as a daily. An EFI 13B will still haul arse in an early RX, and be reliable and very easy to live with.

Yes, the rotary scene draws a lot of wankers, but so does the WRX scene, import scene, v8 scene etc.

[zebra]

Contrary to a lot of peoples opionon, i tried to kill mine for a year and it wouldnt die.

True that, If I could choose again I would never have sold my ser.3 RX7 to buy the skyline.

I'm on my 3rd motor in 2years of owning the skyline, In the 2 years I had the rotor (which was over 200,000ks old) it didnt miss a beat and it often saw 9500rpm+

Infact seeing this thread makes me want to go buy another 1st gen RX7 for a track car

[js_gtr]

A mate who knew nothing about cars bought a S2 RX-7 at an auction, then came by to show me his cool car...

The conversation started like this...

Me: You bought a rotary!

Him: What's a rotary...?

He learnt quite quickly that if he missed services stuff broke, and I can remember a $1k+ bill to re run all the oil lines.

It was quite thirsty from memory, but a shed load of fun to drive and always had classic looks.

My favourite rotary quote : "Rotaries, great to drive, not to own"

Jamie

[rev210]

a long time ago I had an Rx2 that I used for pizza delivery. It was pretty good on fuel as I had tuned it well. Extend port 12A.

Had a few rotors over time and as already mentioned they aren't for knuckle heads. They are really reliable if warmed up and treated right. This isn't expensive to do either.

As a daily they are fine if you do your research and learn how to keep them.

[Iron Chef]

Everything up to (but not including) Iron Chef's thread has been pretty much spot on.

rotors are fun and very reliable if treated correctly. In fact in racing circles, I've read more stories of RB26's dropping their guts than rotaries. My RX2 rally car has the same engine it had in it over 6 years ago. I do an oil change after every big event, and warm it up properly before racing. Other than that, I drive it like I stole it. Have had the temp gauge on the wrong side of 120 deg C a few times when I was popping fan belts, and had other major cooling issues (all fixed now), and it still runs fine.

Big carbied and ported rotors can be cantankerous in traffic and not much fun as a daily. An EFI 13B will still haul arse in an early RX, and be reliable and very easy to live with.

Yes, the rotary scene draws a lot of wankers, but so does the WRX scene, import scene, v8 scene etc.

lol I was wondering how long it would take for the rotary Nazis to wander in here and start defending the reliability of their motors.

I've owned an R100, two RX-3s, a 13B turbo RX-2 (Fast Fours Project Pizza Delivery, for those old enough to remember), a S1 RX-7 and a S8 RX-7, so I'd say I'm in a reasonable position to comment.

There's a lot more to owning an old school rotor than how reliable the motor is (for the record, they're just as reliable as any other motor when serviced at the correct intervals).

Firstly, the fuel consumption is woeful - I defy any rotary owner to tell me otherwise. If you're going to spend 90% of your time stuck in traffic, you're better off keeping the rotor for weekend thrashes and buying something cheap and economical as a daily.

Secondly, as someone mentioned before, you're talking about 30 year old cars these days - parts are difficult to come by, and expensive to purchase when you do. For your own survival as much as anything else, make sure all the safety-related components have been modified (suspension, brakes etc) because hitting something at high speed in one would be far more disastrous than if you were in a car built in the last 10 years.

Thirdly, I wouldn't be leaving them in a public car park if you wanted to see the car still there when you finished work. You can install all the alarms in the world, but that doesn't change the fact that any 15 year old with a length of blue packing tape could be inside your car in under 20 secs. They were designed in a time where theft (in Japan at least) wasn't a very big issue.

My search in Japan still continues for an R130 Luce

[W0rp3D]

the fuel consumption is woeful - I defy any rotary owner to tell me otherwise.

I beg to differ, it is not "WOEFUL", it's worse than that.

My old 13b bp i got down to about 16ltr/100k in normal driving, having fun was 20+

Edited May 16, 2009 by W0rp3D

[warps]

lol I was wondering how long it would take for the rotary Nazis to wander in here and start defending the reliability of their motors.

Haha nazi - ur funny If only you knew.

Well, since he asked about their reliability, I answered him.

I gather from the OP he's after something "old school", ie a bit different from your mundane shopping trolley, otherwise he would be looking at a late 90's Camry. Cheap, reliable, safe, cheap, economical and cheap. Can't go past one for a daily.

Of course if you want something "old school cool" then be prepared to put up with old technology, rare and expensive parts, poor crash safety, and high fuel costs. I don't think that's restricted to rotaries only.

16l/100km? pffft. I bank on about 75L/100km on special stages, and about 20L/100km on liaison. Of course I avoid driving it on the roads at any other time as much as possible (because it's a dog in traffic)

[levizzle]

If you know what your doing then it should be ok, but they can cause a few headaches!

[babyskyline]

I had a series 1 rx7 for about a year. Was a fun little project car that i couldnt kill.

Sure might have been very thirsty on fuel but was a hell of a lot of fun and very reliable.

I would happily get another one

[Duncan]

daily needs to be reliable, have power steer, air con, decent radio, electric windows and mirrors.

so rx2/3/4 is not really going to fit any of those.

would no doubt be a fun weekend car if you like rotaries but a rubbish daily.

[gregor]

i wouldnt have one as a daily because if it was and old one in good condition id want to keep it that way which might be a lot of work. If it wasnt in good nick you dont want it as a daily anyway..

[R33_Dude]

daily needs to have power steer

Not neccessarily, depends on the driver. Have owned many non-power steering cars. Some of them are a pain, but I found the series one RX7 I had to be quite light in steering at slow speeds.

daily needs to have air con, decent radio, electric windows and mirrors.

All of the above are optional - in Tasmania I don't really care about air con, want air conditioning? Wind down a window. When I move to brisbane my opinion may change

Radio can easily be wired up, particularly easily in an older car takes an hour if your handy with a soldering iron, personally I prefer a simple stereo anyway.

Electric windows and mirrors and so on are good in a way but when you don't have them you don't care that you don't have them. If it truly bothers the owner anyone can fit a electric window kit quite easily. Have never cared about electric mirrors apart from thinking "Thats handy!"

Depends on what you want in a daily. At the moment I want comfort, inconspicousness (my fault that one entirely) and a touch of grunt - hence the turbo pulsar. If you want an old fashioned daily you don't particularly put that much emphasis on modern convenience. Hell, I don't put much emphasis on modern convenience even when I have it.

Its a personal thing really if you have to have modern kit you have to have it, if you couldn't care you couldn't care. I'm on the couldn't care side.

All this talk of RX-7's and rotaries has made me want to buy another - I'm already flicking through classifieds. 

[W0rp3D]

My S2 rx7 had air con, electric windows, electric mirrors (all factory) and i put in a decent stereo.

[OLDSKOOLRX2]

its interesting i thought as soon as i saw a rotary thread on a nissan site all i would see would be how rubbish and unreliable they are blah blah blah You seem to get that alot, people just choose to think they are a peice of shit without knowing a thing about them, Personally ive only had 1 engine in need of rebuild as a split in the oil line has lost oil pressure and the motor was toast. But not bad considering ive had 12a turbo s1 rx7, 13bept s4, 13bept s5, 13bbp series2 rx2, 13bep 808 sedan, 13bbp rx3 sedan,12a bp rotary van, 12amp 323 and current 20bbp, tripple throttle bodies etc rx2 sedan. Great fun,, small, powerfull and out of controll!

as far as a daily goes just a standard 12a or 13b wouldnt be too bad just keep the 4 barrel and go easy on the secondarys, and once you hooked your f**kt

[babyskyline]

its interesting i thought as soon as i saw a rotary thread on a nissan site all i would see would be how rubbish and unreliable they are blah blah blah You seem to get that alot, people just choose to think they are a peice of shit without knowing a thing about them

Most of the poeple on here are a lot more mature and enjoy different cars for their different attributes regardless of what we drive.