Rotus(Lotus 7 replica) powered by a Mazda 13-B turbo. Dad's summer toy.

Very very cool. I also really dig the hidden rollbar. I've always thought the round tubing looked out of the place given the Locost's (rotus, lotus replica, whatever) square edges.

Are you Jay Leno?

lotusseven7 wrote: No progress in months, but I just moved everything into space in one of our buildings and will be setting up shop soon. Finally enough room to work on all the toys.

what's the one on the left? A Palatov or something?

Its a B-Mod Prince SR-5 sports racer.

Here's the ad for it. Looking for a killer auto-x toy?

http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/open-classifieds/mine-prince-sr-5-sports-racer-b-mod-dsr/106673/page1/

Great forum. I stumbled on you folks yesterday. I have an interest in the Rotus because I acquired one (88RO7**046) from the original owner that had Chris build and complete September 19th, 1987. The reason I know is because it stated Michael Kondo and Len Ferrara completed it under the driver side interior skin. I hope "bansaitoyota" has knowledge of the (slightly enhanced) 2TG it possesses. I really hope this forum is still active. I would love to know more, and share what I know.

Again, life gets in the way and there is never enough time to play with the garage toys. Luckily I was able to get a free week to work a bit on the Rotus and Miata. Not a whole lot of progress, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. - Removed the old "louvered" rear fender guards and made a set out of machine turned 0.030" stainless steel. - Mounted a set of "clamshell" fenders instead of the "cycle" fenders that it came with. Less aerodynamic but I prefer the more traditional look. - Ended up having to buy a new set of wheels as the original Panasports had the wrong front offset and stuck out beyond the edge of the fenders. - Built a very small exhaust system to replace the horrible fake "duals" that were originally fitted. I'm hoping that the turbo does a very good job at muffling the exhaust note because I'm not holding out much hope that the tiny muffler will do much of anything. To-do list: - reinstall interior and trunk panels. - need to recalculate front spring rates. - complete fluid service. - clean-up some engine bay wiring. - fab a proper battery hold-down. - scale/corner weight the car and then set the alignment. *** DRIVE IT LIKE I STOLE IT !!! *** 

This gives me a funny feeling in my pants

I was wondering what you were going for on the front fenders. They are indeed a classy option to the cycle fenders. Love the engine turn stainless as well.

Nice, the car looks great! I've always loved clamshells. A 7 (that isn't a Series 1 Lotus) with cycle fenders is still cool, but just doesn't look "right" to me.

Well, after installing the clamshell fenders, I found that the front wheels had the wrong offset. DAMN! Unfortunately it looks like the Panasports are not going to work and I was forced to go and buy new wheels. I picked up 15x7's for the front and 15x8's for the rear with the proper offsets. I'm not crazy about the look of the new XXR wheels although others who have stopped at the shop like them. I prefer the look of the Panasports on the Lotus 7 and most older sports cars for that matter. Hopefully I'll get some time in the next week or so to do some more work on the Rotus and Miata. 

In reply to lotusseven7 :I was involved with the original Rotus design which started on a napkin at the "Sambo's" restaurant on the Golden Mile Frederick MD. Chris Custer and i were having lunch together and i was doodling some stuff on a napkin for some ideas. That was in 1977. I designed the front suspension (but should have done a couple of things differently on hindsight) but had to leave the project for financial reasons but i did stay somewhat involved. In 1985 even took two cars to a BFGoodrich "G" test session in Ohio and i was the first driver to achieve one "G" in a Rotus on street tires (the only other vehicle to achieve that was Chevrolet Engineers using a 1984 Corvette on GoodYear tires).  The car was designed around the Japanese spec 2 litre twin cam four cylinder. Many of the core parts were select by me to make assembly easy.

lotusseven7 said:

I picked up the Rotus that was listed on the Washington DC CraigsList this past weekend. It was listed with a bunch of stats from an old Rotus brochure but only very brief description of the cars current condition. I was able to speak with the owner, but other than a few of the bits that he replaced, he didn't know much about the mechanical condition of the car. That's fine as I'm familiar with both the Mazda rotary engine and Lotus 7 kits. I raced Mazda's for many years(RX-2's, RX-3's, an RX-4 and numerous first generation RX-7's) and have built several different Lotus 7 replicas(RM-7's, RM-8's, a Rotus and an original Arch chassis 7 and a Maxton). i probably paid a bit too much for the car, but the seller was firm on his price and since it was Carlisle Import and Kit Car weekend, he was getting ready to trailer it up there and sell it. I decided to take the plunge and buy the car. After a 4-1/2 hour trip south, I loaded it up and headed back home. 9 hours on the road, 2 tanks of fuel and some crappy fast food later, its now resting peacefully in the shop. I took a quick look at the car and it needs some "love". Here's the short list. - the radiator needs to be moved forward and have proper ducting fabricated. - after the radiator gets moved, the air intake needs to be relocated. - the wiring needs to be cleaned-up big-time! - find and repair the rear differential leak. - fix the broken emergency brake. - install the included clamshell fenders and make some supports. - cut-off the crappy roll bar and build something that will be SCCA legal. - purchase new seat belts. - install a steering wheel quick release. All in all, not a bad car. A few weekends worth of work and it will be a nice summer ride for my father. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, I didn't buy it to drive it myself, I bought it for dad. I've had his RM-8 kit in the shop for 2 years now and simply don't have enough time in life to work on it. I have been apologizing to him for not being able to find time to build it, but with work, building a new house, a fiancée with some medical issues, it was easier to buy a car for him to play with. He can take mom for ice cream or go to a trackday with it, it's his as far as I'm concerned and hope he enjoys it. As soon as we fix those couple items we will see if its more fun to drive than my Miata V-8! They should both be fun but in very different ways.

Pictures link:   http://s31.photobucket.com/user/w650gb500/library/Rotus?sort=6&page=1 

 

 

I have Rotus 7 with b13 engine but converted to one two barrel weber sidedraft DCOE carburetor and racing intake manifold with performance exhaust. Engine has more power then with fuel injecsion system and goes from 1000 rpm to 8500 with no hesitation. Love the car but I dont know from witch car front spindles, hubs, brakes and ball joints are used. I see on the picture of your car that you have same set-up like on my car so I hope that you can help me with some information. Cheers

Here is the parts list as provided by ROTUS. The front spindle, brake rotor, caliper and hub are from a Toyota Corona or Corolla. I hope this helps.