-----Original Message-----
From: Lbc302@aol.com [mailto:Lbc302@aol.com]
Subject: Re: Bricklin weight
What are you thinking, putting a Jap motor in a rare American Sports Car,
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I'm thinking that the way the Americans designed it (don't forget it was
built by Canadians) it wasn't really much of a sports car. Don't get me
wrong, I'm not knocking the Bricklin - it's a super-cool car, and that's why
I bought it, but today's minivans will outhandle it.
Plus, mine was a basket-case, so what's the big deal if the only original
part on the thing ends up being the steering wheel?
Plus, CARS ARE FOR DRIVING. I think that the concours restoration guys do a
great thing, and it's important to have original examples around. But for
me, the bottom line is how much fun is this thing to DRIVE?
Plus, the rotary is one of the coolest motors of all time. Do some reading
before you shoot your mouth off. If it makes you feel any better, you can
pretend that this "Jap motor" is really a "Kraut motor" - it was originally
conceived by Felix Wankel, a German the same as Nicolaus Otto, the inventor
of the four-stroke piston engine. Or you could ask yourself how the hell
could it _possibly_ matter what the motor's country of origin is? Engineers
are engineers. Motors are motors.
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400HP on a 1.3Liter motor,Granade Motor,it will destruct in short order,if
you look at any small displacement motor pushing high horsepower,they just
do not last,you will be lucky if you get 20,000miles out of that engine,
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Apples to apples, Claude. I'm not talking about a piston engine here. The
"1.3L" displacement number for a rotary really can not be compared to
displacements for piston engines. My naturally aspirated 13B makes about
200 hp at the crank and has almost 200,000 miles on it. Obviously a liter
of rotary displacement is very different from a liter of piston
displacement.
I agree 100% that the big-horse small displacement piston motors can't
sustain this output for long - I'm thinking specifically of the turbo Civic
phenomenon here.
Mazda's done very well in many forms of racing, including LeMans, where
longevity is at least as important as speed.
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put in a tried and true Small Block chevy for the weight and the performance
parts available you will get more horsepower per dollar than you can realize
from the mazda motor,
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And I'll have the same drivetrain as every other hillbilly in North America.
If you're going to be that way about it, why would I want a Bricklin? There
are lots of other cars that can give me better performance for the money,
right? I guess we should just all drive 5.0 Mustangs.
Don't get me wrong, I like the SB Chevy just fine. But go to a car show.
500 cars there, 300 of them will have a SB Chevy with a TH350 trans and Ford
9" rear. What's the point? Why would you ever want to spend all that time
and money on a car that's mechanically the same as everybody else's?
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For all the money you will spend for the firecracker mazda motor,you could
get a 500+horsepower smallblock chevy engine,heck you can get the same from
small block ford engines, and save the hassle of modifications to the car.
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The modifications aren't "hassle" to be saved, they're THE WHOLE POINT of
the project. Following your logic, I could just buy a low-mile '93 Vette
and put a blower on it. And see two other cars just like it on my drive to
work every day.
--
Phil Martin pmartin@surgnav.com
"I'm a Charger, charging through the night,
Like an orange bolt of lightning passing everything in sight"
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