w650gb500

Toyota rear axles, ring & pinions, brakes and differentials are normally used in numerous of their other vehicles. Even though it may be from a vehicle that was never offered in the US, there is a good chance that an LSD from a different Toyota vehicle will work. By pulling the rear "chunk" out and doing a bit of research, I would bet you can find something that fits. Good Luck and let the search begin.

PM sent, I'll take the front wings.

Good guess and close.... Its a Lola T644E Formula Ford that was converted and is now powered by a Suzuki GSXR-1000. It runs Formula-S or F-1000. Link to pix: http://s31.photobucket.com/user/w650gb500/library/Lola%20T644E%20%20%20Formula-S%20%20%20F1000%20%20%20FB?sort=6&page=1

No progress in months, but I just moved everything into space in one of our buildings and will be setting up shop soon. Finally enough room to work on all the toys and hoping to get back to finishing a few projects for next season. http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c376/w650gb500/image.jpg1_zps5xf8ygfn.jpg

Not much to update, but I was able to get away for a few hours to weld everything, do some grinding and then prime/paint the rollbar.

John, I wish that I had an answer for you. I purchased the car a few months ago, showed up at the sellers house, had him drive it up on the trailer and upon arriving back home, rolled it into the warehouse. I may have started it twice to this point! I've been too busy to work on it but hopefully in the next few weeks I'll find some time. Honestly, I don't see how it could be very efficient in its current location, but for a street car it will work until the winter when I will look at repositioning it and getting some airflow into and out of it. Sorry I couldn't be any help. Dan

Fixed the pictures.

*** HERE IS A LINK TO PICTURES: http://s31.photobucket.com/user/w650gb500/library/Rotus?sort=6&page=1 *** Not much time to work on the car lately, but I decided to play hooky from work yesterday and get in a few hours of shop time. I decided that the rollbar needed the most attention, so that's what I spent the day working on. The sawzall and grinder made quick work of the old POS bar that was on the car. After taking a good look at the bar, it seems like someone did a half-a$$ job of attempting to shorten the overall height of the bar. Unfortunately they FAILED in a big way! It's no longer a problem, just scrap tubing. I took a while looking at how I was going to build the new bar and rear down tubes given the structure in the back of the car, or lack of structure in this case. After measuring for an overall height and bending the main hoop, I decided that instead of traditional rearward facing down tubes, I opted for a second rear hoop as bracing. Then came a symmetrical "X" in the plane of the front hoop which will give me a place to mount some sort of headrest. Standing back and looking at the bars reminded me of my old Reynard formula ford(double roll bars), so I decided to go get some 16gauge sheet, hole saws and dimple dies and see what comes of it. It might not be to everyone or anyone's liking, but its different and I think a cool look. I'll try to finish weld everything this weekend and post some finished and painted pictures.

I'm looking for a windshield assembly for my recently acquired Rotus. It has a shorter windscreen and non-original frame installed and I would like to have a full-height windshield and proper frame. If anybody knows someone who may have one where to possiblt source one, please let me know. Thanks, Dan

I built this one back in 1995 and drive it for 2 years. It was a body and chassis by a company out of South Africa that was called an RM-7.

No, I did not convert this one, I purchased it already done. It's a unique car. It was built for the 2003 Grassroots Motorsports Challenge which it won. The car was so well built that they ended up changing the rules as to how the cars could be built and the team budget spent. Here is a build log for the car since I picked it up. Not much progress lately, but hopefully in the next month or so things will slow down at work a bit and I can get back in the garage. http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/my-new-rebuild-the-mongrel-miata-20/99962/page1/ Here is some reading from when it was built: http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/articles/mongrel-motorsports-miata/ i also picked up a complete Monster Miata kit and plan to build a mild street car over next winter.

I picked up the Rotus that was listed on the Washington DC CraigsList this past weekend. It was listed with a bunch of stats from an old Rotus brochure but only very brief description of the cars current condition. I was able to speak with the owner, but other than a few of the bits that he replaced, he didn't know much about the mechanical condition of the car. That's fine as I'm familiar with both the Mazda rotary engine and Lotus 7 kits. I raced Mazda's for many years(RX-2's, RX-3's, an RX-4 and numerous first generation RX-7's) and have built several different Lotus 7 replicas(RM-7's, RM-8's, a Rotus and an original Arch chassis 7). i probably paid a bit too much for the car, but the seller was firm on his price and since it was Carlisle Import and Kit Car weekend, he was getting ready to trailer it up there and sell it. I decided to take the plunge and buy the car. After a 4-1/2 hour trip south, I loaded it up and headed back home. 9 hours on the road, 2 tanks of fuel and some crappy fast food later, its now resting peacefully in the shop. I took a quick look at the car and it needs some "love". Here's the short list. - the radiator needs to be moved forward and have proper ducting fabricated. - after the radiator gets moved, the air intake needs to be relocated. - the wiring needs to be cleaned-up big-time! - find and repair the rear differential leak. - fix the broken emergency brake. - install the included clamshell fenders and make some supports. - cut-off the crappy roll bar and build something that will be SCCA legal. - purchase new seat belts. - install a steering wheel quick release. All in all, not a bad car. A few weekends worth of work and it will be a nice summer ride for my father. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, I didn't buy it to drive it myself, I bought it for dad. I've had his RM-8 kit in the shop for 2 years now and simply don't have enough time in life to work on it. I have been apologizing to him for not being able to find time to build it, but with work, building a new house, a fiancée with some medical issues, it was easier to buy a car for him to play with. He can take mom for ice cream or go to a trackday with it, it's his as far as I'm concerned and hope he enjoys it. As soon as we fix those couple items we will see if its more fun to drive than my Miata V-8! They should both be fun but in very different ways.

The Rotus in MD was sold this weekend. It followed me home on the trailer to PA. It's a bit rough, but for the price, I can straighten it out. I did find out how difficult it is to negotiate on the purchase price when you are 2 hours from Carlisle and it is the Import/Kit Car weekend. Oh well, still a good deal.

HaHa. Only in a dream. I'd have to sell every toy I own and mortgage the house to be able to afford it. I'll stick with building my own and actually driving/enjoying it. My build should begin as soon as I finish the RM for my father.

More of the same car. http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c376/w650gb500/7-5.jpg http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c376/w650gb500/7-2.jpg http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c376/w650gb500/7-3.jpg http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c376/w650gb500/7.jpg

Drooling over this! http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c376/w650gb500/7-4.jpg

Magnaflow 13742.

I have 2 RM kits here at the shop, an RM-7 and an RM-8(currently under construction). We imported 11 of these from Canada years ago and these are the 2 that are left. I built and drove an RM-7 with a 4AG some 13 years ago. If you have questions about these specific kits, feel free to PM me and I'll answer what I can.