Our tuning correspondent, Rob Dahm, travels the city and country in search of fascinating stories about tuned cars and their owners. This time Dahm pulls one of his own cars out of the shed: a Chevrolet Corvette Z06 whose V8 engine has been replaced by a Wankel engine from an RX-7. Funny, because you often see it the other way around and people put a V8 in the RX-7.
Contrary to what you sometimes hear about rotary engines, the torque of this Wankel engine comes in early. This Corvette should produce about 745 Nm of torque at 4,000 rpm. Because the Wankel engine is so small, Dahm managed to place the engine behind the front axle. Actually, this is just a Corvette with a mid-engine.
The Corvette with two Wankel engines as quiet as possible
It is not the first Corvette with a Wankel engine. Chevrolet itself once built a study model with a rotary engine with two discs and even one with four discs. Back to Dahm’s car. He added a fun (and a bit kitschy) gimmick to the exhausts. The ends are in the shape of the Chevrolet logo. Due to the heat, the pipes are a bit deformed.
In addition, Dahm says that he tries to keep the Corvette as quiet as possible. Not quite what you expect from a tuning freak like him. The modest sound would make it suitable for street use. To show that he can also handle the track, Dahm takes him to the Apple Valley Speedway circuit. View the images below.
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