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Ro 80


TagoraSX

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Best colour Ro80 you have there!

what about a Subaru engine? If it would fit between the chassis rails! Light, short, plentiful.

The Essex v6 is so heavy, and I seem to remember the v6 conversions had a horrid bulge on the bonnet, forget it. I have heard of an Audi engine swap, but I don't know which one.

Have you driven one with a rotor motor? Pistons dont belong in there. Mazda 13B conversions have been done, it would fly with an RX8 Renesis.

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With the space available it's going to be a struggle and I would have thought that a transverse engine wouldn't stand a chance of fitting. My immediate thought was something from a Scooby - as Des has also said above. Or an old Alfa flat four. There must be a few crusty Suds or 33s about that could donate their engine.

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I think an audi inline 5 would fit a treat. look at the engine bay on a late '80s/early 90's audi 90/100/coupe and its a very similar set up with the front of the engine right up against the grill with the rad offset to one side, they have a similar level of overhang to the Ro80 with the box/diff also in a similar location. they like to rev,sound good, have buckets of torque and are plenty powerful enough.  In Profile the body shape of the 80s audi 100 is uncannily similar to the nsu. worth a look I reckon.

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As said, the V4 was popular because it was short.  A Subaru could be a good choice, I think all the tuning boys go for 2 or 2.5 litre so perhaps a 1.8 would be cheap?

 

Otherwise I can't think of anything else compact enough that would have enough power.  Unless you go for electric power, probably the spiritual successor to Wankel engines; very smooth, nobody really does it and rejected by mainstream buyers.

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My'N' plate  RO80 has an inline 4 Audi 1800cc engine fitted to the semi auto-box.  

 

Loads of space  around it - but frankly its a terrible mismatched bodge that needs its knackers revving off to get any sort of forward progress.  

 

Bought like that I found it so disappointing I laid it up.   Still no idea what I'll do with it - but I've got to say that it feels grossly underpowered, and definitely NOT the way to go.

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If you don't keep the original gearbox you're entering a whole world of pain because these have inboard front brakes (2CV style).

The disks are effectively between the stubs on the transaxle and the driveshafts.

 

About the Subaru engines, I'd imagine 1.8's are thin on the ground these days. 2.0 turbos will command a premium, but there'll be plenty of n/a 2.0's about. There have been loads of Legacys, Foresters and Imprezas with that lump. Having owned cars with both, I can say the extra 200cc makes all the difference. I can only imagine how dull the 1.5 and 1.6 Imprezas are!

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I think it's worth getting the tape measure out, the V4 thing may not be the norm just because of size, think about what engine availability there was in the early seventies, ex Tranny lumps would have been plentiful thanks to bank robbers smashing vans up from ramming Morris Minor patrol cars or the IRA cutting the roofs out, only other engines going spare would be shagged out Austin 7 units or ex MOD Coventry Climax things with 30 layers of green hammerite and a lawnmover carb.

Biggest pain with whatever engine might fit, if it's anything modern then the fuelling and ignition involve a load of extra complication.

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Thanks for all the suggestions so far.

 

The original gearbox will be staying put, one less problem to worry about. We are looking into the Subaru option which sounds interesting. I'm also coming around to the idea of returning it to original NSU power,  I would need a rough Ro80 for all the ancillaries which may take a while to find.

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I missed this the first time round.

It's such an elegant design considering its' age. They got a lot of timeless elements in there.

 

How's about something like a turbocharged Rotax engine? Three pot screamer, about 130hp. Think jetskis and ski-doo (yeah, well, you may have to look a bit further afield than Telford for that) but they are short and designed to be stuffed into a tight space.

 

--Phil

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Are Hurley Engineering still going? Their website looks like it hasn't been updated in a good while. They started out doing the V4 conversions, I remember their add in the Exchange & Mart in the '70s. If they are still going they may well have a shed full of rotary engine ancillaries.

I have a Ro80 service manual and parts book, if you would like a scan of any pages to ID a part no. etc, just pm.

 

http://www.hurleyrotary.com/aboutus.php

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