ok. I was thinking that a Mini Van (no, not a minivan, like you take kids around and stuff, a Mini as made by Morris, for example google image search 1965 Monte Carlo) bodyshell with an RX8 engine would be incredibly awesome. I need someone to measure a few things and take photos of other things for me. I need:
-Measurement of engine from the front of the radiator to the back of the engine
-Measurement from the front of the radiator to the very back of the transmission not including the propshaft
-Measurement of the height of the engine from the bottom of the sump to the top
-Measurement of the back differnetial from where the propshaft meets it to the furthest point of the diff
-Photo of the front suspension from below

I think that's about it for the moment, major respect if you post back with the measurements :P
thanks bros!

 

Most awesomemost first post

 

Soooo, what makes this a good idea?

 

Sounds fun but why? Our torque isn't exactly what you want in a minivan. Especially if you're gonna be hauling kids and or stuff. Probably gonna be slower than stock lol. Manual wouldn't work probably because the shifter would end up in the footwell area lol because of length of the van. And height. Automatic Has even less torque.

 

I think that idea sucks. Why would you want to put the high revving Renny in a mini van. Simply put the idea is gay!

 

Depends, If you put it on a stripped out astro frame you can make one hell of a dune buggy out of a mini van with the renny

 

no no no not a minivan, a Mini Van. we're all thinking of different cars here, i was thinking the 1960's, 70's and early 80's Leyland and BMC Mini's. sorry for the n00b post, I should have specified which car. will edit original post to show this.

 

Ohhhhh a Mini. That would be a little better. Interesting!

 

i would sooner burn my house to ther ground than fit a Renesis into a minivan.
the Mini Van, however, would be a completely different story. i need the measurements to find out if this is even remotely possible haha. thanks!

 

That would be a pretty good swap. I know a lot of people will stick a b16 or b18 in them, and those are stupid fast. I don't think a Renny swap into one of those would be all that hard space wise.

 

i know of people putting Civic VTEC's in, Suzuki Swift's in, all sorts of stuff. at the moment i'm just tryinv to suss out if it would actually work, and how much it would cost. but yeah, people have even put V8's in them and i know of one that used a Nissan 300ZX twin-turbo and it goes like the clappers.

 

Interesting measurements, not exactly clear why for any of them except the height of the engine.

You don't need the front of the engine starting at the forward most pully to the flywheel, pully to end of transmission at output, etc...?

I would recommend that if you are going to be using the Renesis in a swap project COMPLETELY rebuilding/designing your own cooling system from scratch custom for that car, both oil and coolant. Our stock setup isn't very good. You should be able to significantly improve it being able to select from a wider range of radiators, simplify piping, etc...





For those mis-reading, here is the chassis he is considering:



.95 tons, so 1,900lbs. A fresh built Renny in it would have a power to weight of about 9lbs per whp, (OEM stock RX-8 is around 15.2lbs per whp). A 320whp Turbo'ed 8 is about 9lbs per whp.

 

It is possible.
What you need is to find a good transmission to make the mini rwd. Such small rwd homemeade cars usually have bike engine conversions and a chain driven rear axle to ease-up the build and build costs.
If you're going with the renny i suggest that you hook up PhillipM here. He has a read engined buggy with a manual non-sequential transmission and might be able to help you and eventually sell you some fabrication parts.

The hardest part of the project would be the rear suspension\drivetrain setup imho. Still doable with some fabrication though

Doing it FWD would be pretty tight

 

bse, I haven't found indication yet, but I think that the chassis he is planning to use is already RWD...


Nevermind. Just found some engine bay pics, it does appear to be FWD.

 

It's a FF layout
Minis were pretty popular amongst racers for that, like the autobianchi a112 abarth. They were pretty agile on tight courses!

 

If money isn't a concern the Diaso D962R setup might work.

 

^ That's cool! Nice and compact.

Gonna have to research that a bunch

 

Saw one once at a HPDE, very impressive.

1,300 Lbs Renesis powered track toy.
www.diasio.com

 

I was just going to try and find the RX8's standard transmission, cut a hole in the firewall to fit it into the cabin, and make it RWD by using the standard back differential if I could find one. Either the RX8 or 7, becausethey're pretty similar. I was also looking at getting it to be RWD by getting a front subframe and turning it around and using it for the back.
I need all the measurements to determine how much i must cut into the firewall and what kind of engine mounts I've gotta use.

 

Mazda should make a van and all their vehicle lineup with renesis engine. That would be cool.

 

god dammit! its not a minivan! it only has 2 seats!

 

lol it took you two weeks to come up with that response.

 

because i was seething with rage at the thought that i would put a rotary engine in a Minivan.

lol

nah i actually forgot i had posted this haha