Some say there are two types of car guys: ones who like rotary engines, and ones who want to swap piston engines in the place of rotary engines. The fact of the matter is, rotary engines are cool, but they can be finicky and problematic. Also, they require a unique understanding of their basic functionality and quikiness, and some people just don’t want to deal with that. Mazda, as you know, has been the main purveyor of rotary powered vehicles for over 40 years now, and many of them were installed in the sporty RX7. It didn’t take long for gearheads and backyard mechanics to look at the engine bay of these cars and say “Gee, I vet a V8 will fit in there!” much to the chagrin of the die hard rotary guys. Today, the V8 swapping is extending to the newer RX8, with people mostly swapping in the popular Chevrolet “Gen III” V8.

But the one you see here… this one is different. This one has a largely forgotten Infiniti V8 plucked from the old Q45 luxury sedan.

Remember the Q45? Back in Infiniti’s infancy, they released these full sized, rear wheel drive sedans upon the masses in the US to compete with the successful Lexus LS400. The original ones were based on the Nissan President, which was an expensive luxury barge in it’s home country. They even had a “Touring” package that was sporty for a car like this, and it was capable of 6.7 second 0-60 times which was pretty good in its day for a big sedan.

So, does it fit, and more importantly, does it work? Let’s have a look!

Ahh, the sign of a true Craigslist post: a car pictured just after a wash. There’s no shame in this one, as it’s pictured right inside a self-wash bay at a DIY car wash! The soap is still on the ground for crap’s sake! The seller notes that it has a rebuilt title, and it looks like it either got smacked in the front at some point or there’s some shenanigans going on underneath. I think it’s a little of both.

Not sure if this thing is a time traveler and was painted at the GM Van Nuys plant in the early 90’s, or if it had a bad chop shop respray at one point, but this thing’s gonna need some paint.

The Mazda RX8’s were excellent handling cars at the time of their debut, and still are today. While the wheels are considered “flush” by the stance crowd, there’s no sign of stretched tire stupidity here. Dare I say this one just looks right. More shocking is that it looks just as good up front. More on that in a bit.

After the Japanese sports car boom of the 1990’s, 2-door performance coupes were on the decline. As cool as coupes are, a lot of companies were hesitant on building newly designed sporty coupes. As a result, cars like Mazda’s RX8 sport one or two crew cab-style rear hinged doors for the rear passengers to use to help ingress/egress. Funky, but functional. Also, where are the rest of the ground effects?

Speaking of funky, check this out! This is a Nissan/Infiniti VH45DE 4.5L V8. These were built in the 1990’s for Nissan and Infiniti’s flagship luxury sedans, and we saw them here in the US in the Infiniti Q45. It’s a 4.5 liter V8 with dual overhead cams, 32 valves, forged internals, variable valve timing, and a really weird intake manifold that makes it look like it’s transversely mounted. The old Japanese car manufacturer’s “Gentlemen’s Agreement” that made all your Japanese cars in Gran Turismo 2 have “276hp” also applied here, but in reality, these made around 310hp and 330lb/ft of torque. While that’s weak by today’s standards, that was a serious power plant in its day, and these engines were stout. With the forged internals and 6-bolt main caps, they are boost-friendly and have lots of potential. Even stranger, this car also sports the entire front subframe out of the donor Q45! The front suspension is even Nissan-sourced, coming from no less than two generations of 240SX. It’s super weird, but it mostly works!

The seller of this former spinning triangle-powered transporter reports that it DOES run and drive, but with a few caveats. First and foremost, none of the gauges work, and he’s been using a GPS as a speedometer. Back in the old days, once you figured out how to get that non-stock engine under the hood of your ride, you spliced a couple wires together and everything in the dash worked. With modern cars, doing that is a lot harder, and sometimes gauge signals need to pass through computers and other, more complex avenues. Since this is such a weird swap, there’s not going to be a plug-and-play solution for that. But hey, he’s tossing in his GPS, so at least you’ll know how fast you’re going! At a negotiable $2600, we think it’s a weird swap with some serious potential. It’s located in the Corvette’s backyard, just outside Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Check out the Craigslist ad HERE.

Money TALKS. PRICE DROP PRICE DROP PRICE DROP 2,600$ cash takes it home. OBO. NOT WANTING TRADES. Will throw in the GPS I use to know how fast I’m going. Has rebuilt title. It has 116k miles. The engine has been swapped out with a VH45DE v8 engine. Out of a 94 infinite Q45. Does have automatic transmission. Car runs and drives great. It’s really fun car and will get up and go if you step on it. Had red and black leather interior. Working sun roof that doesn’t leak. Working navigation system. None of the gauges on the cluster work, ONLY the gas gauge works. You could buy a digital cluster if you wanted to have all gauges working. Car does have some rust on the rockers under the doors. The rust isn’t on the frame rails of the car, just the rockers. Can be repaired. Trunk could use paint, it’s chipping. Car sounds really mean, and drives good. It does sit pretty low to the ground. All the mounts are custom up front. Used the Q45 subframe. S13 coilovers up front, S14 knuckles up front. all the swap was done at Swap shop garage in Paintsville Ky. Be done a great job at the swap, it’s the only Rx8 in this country with this engine swapped inside it. If interested in buying, or have any questions. Feel free to message me.

As always, let us know what you think of this freak in the comments section!