Steel bodied 1973 XP987 GT Corvette mid engined Rotary

Dave-R · Post by **Dave-R** » Fri Sep 26, 14 10:20 am

Very very unusual and interesting ex-GM show car this.

Made in Italy in steel on a shortened and widened Porsche chassis and fitted with an experimental mid-mounted GM rotary engine.

Adrian Worman · Post by **Adrian Worman** » Fri Sep 26, 14 10:40 am

Brilliant post Daveman

I actually saw that car at Earls Court Motorshow, had posters if it everywhere.
Goin by the dialogue in that vid it was '73 and I would've been 8!
Great looking car.......... remember the Mercedes C111 Bananarama! prototype? Same era, wonder if that was an influence?
A mate of my old man at the time had an NSU Ro80, me n Unker were just chattin bout Rotary engines the other day and I only just realised that there isn't a Rotary engined car in production any more?

Dave-R · Post by **Dave-R** » Fri Sep 26, 14 11:19 am

Adrian Worman wrote: me n Unker were just chattin bout Rotary engines the other day and I only just realised that there isn't a Rotary engined car in production any more?

Really? Not even Mazda?

I wonder if it is for the reasons mentioned in the video clip. The difficulty of getting the emissions down low enough?

Kev · Post by **Kev** » Fri Sep 26, 14 1:25 pm

Excellent vid, Tom seems a no nonsence sort of guy!

Dave81 · Post by **Dave81** » Fri Sep 26, 14 1:44 pm

Has the De Tomaso look about it!!!

Dave-R · Post by **Dave-R** » Fri Sep 26, 14 2:42 pm

Kev wrote:Excellent vid, Tom seems a no nonsence sort of guy!

Yeah but when it comes to buying/selling second hand cars he is no different to most other second hand car dealers.

drewcrane · Post by **drewcrane** » Fri Sep 26, 14 3:28 pm

Wow a rear engined, front wheel drive, steel vette,

Dave-R · Post by **Dave-R** » Fri Sep 26, 14 3:46 pm

It's still rear wheel drive. Using a front wheel drive transaxle in the rear.

drewcrane · Post by **drewcrane** » Fri Sep 26, 14 3:48 pm

Dave wrote:It's still rear wheel drive. Using a front wheel drive transaxle in the rear.

And Porsche parts too, not really a vette then is it???

Dave-R · Post by **Dave-R** » Fri Sep 26, 14 3:50 pm

I think the only Vette bit of it is the name.

latil · Post by **latil** » Fri Sep 26, 14 4:20 pm

It seems that the rotary is not quite dead and that Mazda,although ending production in 2012 and saying there would be no more are actually developing a new version for 2015/16 launch. Unless they change plans again.

Dave-R · Post by **Dave-R** » Sun Sep 28, 14 12:45 pm

Money is on the next generation C8 Corvette being a mid-engine supercar. Possibly as early as 2017.

http://blog.caranddriver.com/a-mid-engi ... d-the-way/