Re: [DeTomaso] Throttle response?

[JDeRyke@aol.com]

In a message dated 3/13/03 7:47:20 AM, pantera@madbear.com writes:
snip.....
<< Their torque to horsepower ratio seems to be a little low though. For 
example, the new RX8 has 250 hp with 162 ft pds of torque.  It is naturally 
aspirated.  Has anyone ever put a rotary in their P-car?  >>

The low torque is because a rotary is really a two-stroke engine in the 
opinion of many (including race sanctioning bodies), and all two-strokes are 
light in weight, low on torque but high on power once they get spun up. 
One of the Nor-Cal members started to swap in a 'rotary'. He coupled two RX-7 
engines together to make a 4-rotor (back in the mid-80s!) that would have 
fit, built an adapter for the ZF and rigged a gilmer-belt-drive for TWO 
Mallory distributors to power both engines. He was looking for 400 horses at 
8800 rpm.... Then he got buried in building his own computerized fuel 
injection system (10 yrs before the factories did), moved, retired etc, etc- 
the thing never got finished & he sold the Pantera. Sad story, really. He's 
the same guy that built the hemi-powered Bugeye Sprite, so none of us were 
betting against him finishing the rotary conversion, but in the end, it 
didn't happen. Cheers- J DeRyke