A few years ago (OK, probably ten) I met a guy that worked in a
California race car fabrication shop.  He had a 1983 diesel passenger
van with a Mazda rotary engine, installed using parts that he fabbed and
the diesel 5-speed transmission.  I never saw the van with the engine
installed, but related stories about passing cars going uphill in the
SoCal mountains, engine revving well over 10,000 RPM, with a giant smile
on his face.  The engine was removed to install in another car, and he
was selling the van.  Part of the van modification was a raised engine
cover (plywood lined with noise-reducing foam) that must have been eight
inches taller than the flush-fitting stock cover.

Mike

On 10/16/2011 11:58 AM, Evan Mac Donald wrote:
> All right. I have been thinking of off-beat, kind of "cool" engines to
> replace the not-all-it-could-be waterboxer, and one I keep coming back to is a
> Wankel 2-rotor, from Mazda. The later ones were fuel injected, so no carb
> worries, and I figure the high RPM needs of the engine could be met by putting
> it together with a Deisel gearbox, and its 4.86 or even 5.11 (or so) final
> drive. It is low on torque, which is an obvious bad point, but if you let it
> rev, which it surely can, it should be quite happy at 5500or so RPM on the
> highway at cruise. Lots happier than our regular engines would be at thier
> regular cruise RPM of 3600 to 4000....
>
> Anybody wanna poke holes in this (ok, crazy) theory?
>   Evan Mac Donald
>
>
> "...in the absence of facts, myth rushes in, the kudzu of history."
> -Stacy Schiff