Update 4/4/2013: Someone pointed out that this thread is in the top 10 Google results for "rotary miata" (gogo GRM for excellent SEO!). Please note the build thread has moved to http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/2013-rotary-miata/61989/page1/
Dear $500 Miata,
Meet your new friend, the $700 RX-7.
Bought this 1990 RX-7 last weekend from a young man in San Ramon. My understanding is that he and his dad bought it from the original owner with a dead engine, bought a rebuilt engine and swapped it in. Poor kid had it for two weeks and spun it out in the rain, tangled with a barbed wire fence and landed in a ditch. Subframe is shredded, driver's side control arm is ripped out, and there's not a panel on this car that isn't crumpled or scraped up. [Be nice to the young gentleman, boys, I'll be sending him this and subsequent threads so he can see how I use and abuse his previous love!]
I know nothing about rotaries, but, hey! Learning experience, right? (Why are you laughing??) It starts, doesn't leak oil, no burnt oil or coolant smells...I didn't see any pools of fluids beneath the car (it had obviously not moved in months), so for $700, figured I'd take a chance. Here she is after the tow truck managed to get her halfway into my driveway.
Before the tow, I removed the battery since it was just sitting in there loose and unrestrained. The hood went up and down before the tow; now, though, the latch is stuck. So once I get some decent car dollies (darn Harbor Freight for it's cheap but flimsy dollies...the two in the rear bent when I set the car down), I'll get a bunch of friends to help me push it into the garage and start taking it apart.
This build might be a $2011 contender, but more likely $2012. I'm still not fully recovered from my surgery, so there's a limit to what I can do for another few months. I'll come out to $2011 to shag cones, if nothing else. :D
As I drove back from the $2010 Challenge, SVRex and I were chatting on the phone (thanks to so many of you for calling me and keeping me amused during that long drive!! I was using a hands-free set, promise!). I said that the GTXes were done for the Challenge, and he agreed. He told me, "You know, you keep saying how much you regret selling your Miata. You should get another Miata." I pointed out that used Miatas were ridiculously expensive in CA. Paul told me to just keep my eyes open. Not 12 hours later, a friend forwarded me an email from his neighbor. She'd sold her property and needed her dead Miata gone before Nov 1, and did he know anyone who'd want it for $500? I sent SVRex the good news: Miata acquired!
As I pondered it, and Craigslist, over the next few weeks, I noticed early RX-7s can get really cheap around here. I called SVRex again... "Talk me out of a rotary Miata." He laughed and said he couldn't. I asked him if it was within my skill level, and he felt it was. I talked to my local rotary performance guy who used to work on my '95 Miata, Paul Elenga at Rotorsport on El Camino in Santa Clara....two out of two Pauls agree: Carlota should be able to do a Miata rotary swap. :D
That's kind of the nice thing about being a novice. Conceptually speaking, an MIata engine swap is a lot of work... a Miata rotary engine swap is simply more work. Please do not point out that the scale is logarithmic!
So...step 2: RX-7 acquired! Next step...Profit! Er, Rotary Miata!
First, though, I gotta get that hood up. ;)
