Hi, first of all let me introduce myself as Mark from Ireland, and from the little I've seen of this forum it seems to be a very nice place with friendly people.



At the minute I'm in the middle of building a kit car, and lately have been agonising about which engine to put into the car. A little thing worth knowing about Ireland is that insurance premiums are extortionately high and basically dictate small engines ($2500 on the 1.4l Focus I now have been driving for 4 incident free years ).



Up until recently my plan was to use a Honda Fireblade motorbike engine , or else some 20 year old engine/transmission (which would allow me to register the car as a vintage car, thereby dramatically lowering insurance costs.)The latter option didn't really appeal to me until I discovered that RX7's have been in production since 1979 meaning that I could slap one of these engines in and have more or less the best of both worlds.



As far as I can see I'm looking at either a 12A engine or a 13B, and to be honest I know very little about either, so I'm looking for advice from anyone who thinks they can help me decide either way. I'm more interested in a reliable engine than tuneability because due to the lightness of the car, even with 150bhp im looking at around 300bhp/tonne which is Ferrari territory.



Mark

 

A guy in our area built a Super 7 replica using the 13b, as well as other parts from a second gen. Uses in for autocross and time trials.

 

Well first off, Nice to have you with us!

A friends of mine here just finished putting a 13b into his 79 Spitfire.

If you're building the car, fitment is probably going to be a no brainer.

As far the motor itself, it's reliable but has it's "quirks"

Flip through the 1st and 2nd gen boards to see first hand.

Ask question in there to get some of the best advice available!

Don't mind the smartass' they're everywhere!

 

Welcome to NP Mark from Ireland, I'm Damir from Chicago.

 

is all of ireland green like in the pictures??



I want to visit there someday, my great grandfather supposedly owned a bunch of land there.



Welcome to the forum inan. Get a s5 j-spec turbo block, run stock boost take car of it and it will last you forever. Maybe crank the boost for some thrills.

 

thanks for the kind welcome, I have recieved some bad news about registering the car as a vintage car, ie. it won't work (it's complicated ), meaning the rotary engine is out of the question.



I was considering using a rotary engine anyway, but the engines aren't very common over here meaning parts are hard to get (ie. expensive), personally I find the buzzing sound annoying and petrol is twice as expensive over here so unfortunately I won't be using rotary power . It does mean though that I will be happily reverting back to my original plan of using fireblade power - woohoo!



I was aware that a high percentage of kit car builders in the US use rotary engines, they do make a lot of sense for track day use.



And finally to answer your question, yes Ireland is green like in the pictures, we were in America a while back and when we came back we couldn't believe how green everything was. Believe it or not blue is actually the official Irish colour although I can't remember how I know this.



Mark

 

How did you find no pistons?? Your screen name seems really familiar.



LOL! Yes a rotary is a gas hog! If your paying lots for petrol which I think you are it sucks.



We pay 0.90 pounds per litre. or 45 cents a litre for americans or $1.70 per gallon. So fuel economy is not an major issue.



Stick around here your a car enthusiast like us and your welcome to join in in the fun.

 

By the way - what do you pay for petrol?



Take what you pay and divide by 2 then multiply by 3.7 to get what we sould pay a gallon here.

 

I hope those aren't Brittish Pounds youre associating me with - imagine me calling you Canadian, and thats what you get when you call me English only it's 20 times more offensive. (By the way I pay around $3.30 a gallon.)



Mark

 

Note to selfo not own car in Ireland