B EHOLD THE FIRST ROTARY CORVETTE

I n the era of LS swaps where the Holy Grail of all engines is available for 500$ at the junkyard.

Where the number one on the list of engines you want to swap in even in your Miata is the almighty Chevy V8.

A man who has more love to the rotary engine than Felix Wankel himself decides to go against the flow and rotary swap a C5 Corvette.

Mr. Rob Dahm the daddy of the famous 900 HP 3 rotor RX-7 and maniac behind the 4 rotor AWD tube chassis FD RX-7 decides that he should step out of the box.

He decided to step in the barren land of zero bolt-ons and be the first to slide a ROTARY engine in a Corvette.









For once the space under the hood was not the problem. An adapter plate to mate the 2 rotor to the torque tube on the other hand was a major issue.

Not to mention, the hassle associated with the engine mounts since the 2 rotor looked like a midget in Shaquille O'Neal's bed.

All that was not enough to stop Rob from building his alien underdog. His first race was with time as he had to finish a unique project before LS Fest to sneak his way in and rub it in the face of all LS cars.





STEP ONE: Get the rotary to corvette torque tube adapter plate CNC machined.





A custom adapter plate to mate the torque tube to the bell housing on the 2 rotor is not such any easy job when you are racing time.

Thanks to 3D scanning an adapter plate was made in a couple of days and the first marriage between a rotary and a corvette drive train took place in Rob's Garage.







STEP TWO: Fabricate front engine mounts





A billet timing cover was mandatory to bolt down that tiny engine floating behind the sub-frame.

Also a billet water adapter machined in the last hours before the zero hour, and a custom alternator bracket was machined the night before.





Well, if you think you can desecrate the holy chassis of the C5, and take it to the den of LS die-hard fans without punishment, you are definitely wrong. Expect to be towed to dirt town, and imprisoned in the high security prison of LS Fest. Not to mention, five year old children invited to eat ice cream in your non-LS car.







STEP THREE: Bolt it all together overnight

You may think that this project is planned with extreme detail by a mastermind, but NO. It took more than 30 continuous work hours at the last two days and a full crew of rotary gurus to figure out the bugs, fabricate the turbo kit, finish the cooling system, and get the car running for a total of 500 mile drive after it leaves the shop.









Mr. Dahm escaped the LS Fest prison and went free on his way to put his wizardry to work. The story obviously doesn't end here.

The car has to hit the dyno and get tweaked. At this point we are left shocked unable to predict as there is a lot waiting this one of a kind monster with a triangular heart...











