Thread from 2013:
Hello to all from Garland (Arlen) Texas. This is my first post on this board. I have un-piled the junk and dusted off my long languishing SpitWankel project started about 7 years ago. Started as a rotary Spitfire project it quickly morphed into and all Triumph Spitfire Six 2.5L project. Bodywork, engine build and purchase of a 5 speed transmission conversion kit is about as far as it got before I became disenchanted. This car was just not going to be the best it could be, or even close, without a diff / rear susp swap, fuel injection system, with engine management system, setting the engine back 6", and on, and on. Back to the rotary!!! Starting with the hard part first, The diff and rear suspension. A few hours on the web revaled that the RX8 diff might work. I went to the bone yard a bought one yesterday, and sure enough, it appears to be pretty easy to mount in the Spit chassis. Of course that's about 10% of the job! Right now I am thinking I will use Miata hubs and brakes, adapted to the GT6 carriers, with coilover suspension. My main concern right now is custom swing axles will be needed. RX8 on one end and Miata on the other. Imported RX8 engines / trans pulled from cars in Japan seem to be readily available. I actually have an importer with racks full of them just a few miles from here. So he we go!!!! Mike
Curmudgeon should be by in a little bit. He's fairly well know for stuffing rotaries in LBCs. He built mine.
It has an RX-7 diff, Miata hubs and disks on all 4 corners with custom built A-arms and uses motorcycle shocks. Works like a charm, in a terrifying violent sort of way. I love it. It's like a go-cart on steroids. 
I don't have any pictures of the rear suspension, but here's the rest of the car.
Hey Toyman, Thanks for checking in! Great looking car! Sure is a lot of rubber under those back fenders.
It's going to be great to have some help on this from someone who has done it.
I have the GRM magazine set covering Ro-Spit but I think that a lot has changed.
Where are you located where you can grab rx8 engines pretty readily?
EvanB wrote:
In reply to Fidelity101
SpitWankel wrote:
Hello to all from Garland (Arlen) Texas. This is my first post on this board.
I have such bad short term memory I have forgotten what I read at the beginning of the post or I got too excited when I had read about an abundance of rx8 powerplants.
JDM Engines in Richardson. They also list a lot of them on ebay. They are importing them from Japan where cars must be taken off the road after a certain time period or mileage. They have just about any japanese motor and trans you would want.
Looking at eBay there seems to be a few more companies around the country that are also importing these engines.
I found Curmudgeon's thread on his current GT6 build. It's like a manual on how to do this. Man that's nice!
Called The Driveshaft Shop in NC (found them on the web) and they assure me that the axles can be done no problem, and cost is about what I was hoping for. So I'm getting started on the rear end following Curmudgeon's project.
In reply to SpitWankel :just a not about " in Japan the motors must be removed after so many miles and replace.not true.old wife's tail.as I loved in Japan for 7 years.this does not happen.perhapes they remove good eng ones from wrecked car,yes. But said law in japan, old wife's tail,to sell used engines in the states.
In reply to Alfaromeoguy :
Dude, this is a 5 year old thread.
In reply to EastCoastMojo :
Lol
