Thursday, March 15, 2012

How to build a 13B rotary engine

Rotary engines have been on my mind this week.  I just interviewed F1Outsider about his RX-8 ownership experience.  And, I'm researching a piece for Hooniverse about the Mazda Roadpacer (a Holden Premier with a 13B).

You don't need to understand Japanese to enjoy this video of the Hiroshima plant.

4 comments:

Lukas said...

I am very much liking your recent selection of Hooniverse article topics.

Maxichamp said...

@Lukas: Thanks! Feel free to add your thoughts to the Roadpacer post on Hooniverse. It's based on the Holden HJ Premier, which I know nothing about. Apparently, Mazda couldn't use the Statesman because Isuzu was selling those in Japan.

In my research, I learned that VB stands for Victoria Bitter.

Also, which sedan (make, model, year) in your opinion was the greatest luxobarge to come out of Australia?

Alan said...

I've had this in my youtube favorites for a while now.

Thanks so much for interviewing F1Outsider, can't wait to read that. I've pretty much made up my mind that the next car will be an RX-8, fuel economy be damned. I miss that rotary feeling too much.

Also, with rising fuel prices comes even lower residuals on low-mileage cars. I won't miss any of the luxury of the LS, as they come pretty well loaded, ride nicely and are plent spacious for four.

Damn, I am excited. I can't get rid of the Lex quick enough.

Lukas said...

There were only really 2 luxo barges that I can remember from my childhood - the Ford Fairlane / LTD http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Fairlane_(Australia) and Holden Statesman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holden_Statesman. Both were just larger variants of the standard Falcon / Commodore, and both are no longer made due to Aussies preferring Euro luxo over Aussie luxo. Neither were ever very exciting - just large and crude.

A nice variant is the WB ute, which looks Statesman-like. The panels were all interchangeable, so people did that and made luxo-barge-looking utes.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hj75/3776528631/

http://gallery.oldholden.com/d/17329-2/wb_ute_blue_tuff.jpg