Rotary-Powered C6 Corvette Is a Tire-Smoking Drift Machine

This rotary-powered C6 Corvette isn’t your average build, and in this case, that’s a good thing.

We’ve seen our fair share of wild and crazy Corvette builds over the years, many of them involving unusual powerplants. Most of the time, however, these swaps are more traditional, with larger or more modern powerplants sourced to provide both high output and solid reliability. But one thing we don’t see very often are rotary engines, in any guise – let alone a Corvette. And that makes the wild, tire-smoking, rotary-powered C6 Corvette documented in this video from Fast Car a bit of a cool anomaly.

Yes, the stock V8 that this Corvette came with is long gone, replaced by a Mazda 20V rotary engine that’s been heavily modified by the folks at Pulse Performance Racing, who added a Garrett G52 1450 turbocharger and an E85 tune, among other upgrades. The wicked little mill generates big numbers as a result – 800 horsepower, in fact, though our host notes that four digits are well within reach. Shifts are handled via a Wave 69G sequential six-speed gearbox, which is mounted in the front.

Of course, one can’t just build a wild rotary-powered C6 Corvette and leave it looking stock, and this one certainly isn’t. Rather, the entire body has been replaced with carbon-kevlar pieces that came from a mold of a Z06, so the fenders are wider than stock. That weight reduction only makes the car more of a performer, though in this case, the goal is to light up the tires and put on a show – not rocket down the drag strip in record time.

That much is clear from this car’s other modifications, which include a Winters Quick Change differential, a popular choice among drifters for its durability, as well as the fact that gear ratios can be adjusted quickly and easily. Couple that with the fact that GM experimented with the idea of installing a rotary engine in the Corvette many years ago with the XP-882 Aerovette, and it’s hard to deny that this build is a pretty cool alternative the traditional engine swap project.

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