Recap time. We have to turn to the engine as thats a rather important component apparently. Now most people will fit a Peugeot engine because simples, but I think they are all a bit s**t for tuning - sue me!
My favourite handling 205 has always been the XS, with a lightweight and small TU 8v engine. The XU engines push the weight bias towards the front heavily - expecially the 16v. The Peugeot 309 coped better as it had more of a butt. Looking at the pictures you can see theres really not a lot of weight to the shell. Two people could carry it!
Now a few people have done Honda conversions and yes the engines are massively superior and parts are easy to get hold of to boost power but its been done. Theres a 205 running a Honda K20 turbo engine already. Its a tall engine and not really light so.
We looked at the rotary. Its very square so its not going to have its weight tilted over the front axle, but its COG is massively low. Its also relatively easy to make power, sounds cool and can spit big flames. Yes big flames was one of the criteria lol
So FWD rotary. Err thats been done hasn't it?
Lots of drag racers have been FWD but they tend to stick the engine out the front in the same orientation as the original RX7
Someone apparently made a civic with one with a K20 gearbox so we got a low mileage gearbox for £300
This is where the problems start. Theres no mounting points for engine mounts on a 13b. With a bit of head scratching we found the 12a engines had front mounting points and so eBay came up trumps. This meant the sump wouldnt fit so we'll have to make one.
Heres a bracket made for the 12a - We'd need something similar
That issue solved in theory
Cameron downloaded a CAD model for the engine and got to work. He figured we would need something like this
but the gearbox would need a little chopping
