The Rotary Dream Is Well & Truly Alive At Scoot
The Return Of The Rotary

It’s exactly one week until the Tokyo Motor Show opens its doors, which means that we’re now only days away from learning all about the concept car that Mazda has been teasing us with through small bites of information and one single image.

All indications are pointing towards a new rotary power-plant, but its configuration is anyone’s guess at the moment. Gasoline may prove a tad too difficult to meet stringent emission regulations, and we know Mazda has tried hydrogen fuel cells in the past too. Could the new RX-9 or the Cosmo Sports (both names are being thrown around at the moment) be a diesel even? Hell, why not? Hybrid? I really don’t care which way Mazda goes – as long as it stays true to its heritage which began almost 50 years ago with the 10A-powered Cosmo 110S, I’ll be happy.

Scoot-Shop-02

We could speculate all day, but come next Wednesday the answers will come – or at least we hope they will. To get us in a bit of a rotary mood though, I thought I’d pay a visit to a shop that I hadn’t visited in over a decade.

Scoot-Shop-01

Welcome to Scoot – one of Japan’s most renowned rotary tuners.

Scoot-Shop-03

Koseki-san, Scoot’s owner, is someone that’s stayed true to his calling. Once an F1 engineer, he’s dedicated his life since to rotary engines, forming his own company and catering to enthusiasts for close to two decades now.

Scoot-Shop-04

It doesn’t matter if you want to build a complete custom creation for track work, or a fast and reliable street car – Koseki-san will look after you. And by the look of what I found parked up outside his shop in Atsugi, Kanagawa, the passion for all things rotary is never going to fade.

Scoot-Shop-10

There were quite a few nicely specced FDs on show, all variously tuned and styled.

Scoot-Shop-06

Narrow body, widened or totally transformed – the FD remains one of the most customisable Japanese performance car of all times. If Mazda manages to retain this aspect in whatever it’s come up with for its new sports machine, I think it truly can do no wrong.

Scoot-Shop-07

Rotary Cappuccino? Well, maybe in a little while, for now it’s just a bare canvas waiting to be transformed by the master himself.

Scoot-Shop-08

My soft spot for FC3S RX-7s ensured that I spent some time looking at this super-clean example sitting on period correct BBS mesh wheels. While shooting this image I was reminded about the time I photographed Koseki’s FC demo car. That was such a long time ago I don’t even remember if I ever shared it here on Speedhunters. I must investigate further!

The Car That Started It All
Scoot-Shop-09

But as cool as all the customer cars were, it was one of Koseki-san’s own creations that I couldn’t stay away from. This is the FD3S-based machine that back in 2005 prompted me to make the trek down to Scoot and meet the man behind the operation.

Scoot-Shop-11

At that time, Koseki-san made me sit in the car and rev the hell out of the engine, just so I could feel the motorcycle-like throttle response of the custom 4-rotor engine. It’s one experience that after 10 years I still remember like it was just the other day.

Scoot-Shop-12

Back then the engine powering the wild RX-7 was built around four 12A housings and rotors, meaning it had a capacity of 2.3-litres. In the time since, that motor has been replaced by an all-new unit based around a quartet of 13B housings and rotors, peripherally ported and featuring individual throttle bodies. Capacity has been bumped up to 2.6-litres and power increased to more than 500hp. The sound, however, is even more intoxicating. This car is so special it might just deserve another feature…

Scoot-Shop-16

Wandering around the shop, it became obvious that Scoot is working on some interesting projects. Some, I am not allowed to show you just yet, but others, like this  Lotus Europa, Koseki-san was happy for me to share.

Scoot-Shop-17

This lightweight little beast will soon be fitted with a naturally aspirated 13B – a nice match for the lightweight chassis. Of course, Scoot isn’t the first to have done this conversion, and if you cast your minds back to the 2013 Tokyo Auto Salon, you might recall RE Amemiya’s 20B-powered Europa. What you see here isn’t a show car though, and Koseki-san told me it will be 100 per cent functional and regularly driven on the street once completed.

Scoot-Shop-23

This is the milled adapter plate that will be sandwiched between the engine and the gearbox. It’s a key component that Koseki-san had to design himself, and now that it’s arrived in physical form he’s able to progress with the build.

Scoot-Shop-25

Specifically, it will allow him to drop the 13B into the stock midship position and run a Subaru gearbox as a transaxle.

Scoot-Shop-24

Hiding under a few covers was the twin-rotor engine that’s being utilised in the build. I really can’t wait to see the finished project, and from the sounds of it, the Lotus will be a total sleeper as the exterior is remaining stock.

Scoot-Shop-32

In the far corner of the large garage is the fabrication area. Scoot definitely isn’t a ‘bolt-on shop’, and most of the stuff that Koseki-san does is custom and one-off, therefore requiring specialist equipment.

Scoot-Shop-18

Lots of stuff happens in here: engines are built, gearboxes stripped down, housings ported and exhausts fabricated.

Scoot-Shop-22

Scoot is more akin to a race shop than a tuning house, and that’s something you notice straightaway.

Scoot-Shop-19

As you can imagine, no space goes waste, and everywhere something isn’t going on is a perfect place to store rotor housings.

Scoot-Shop-21

Scoot even makes its own original-design 3-piece apex seals; components that are slotted into every rotor that’s being prepared for use.

Scoot-Shop-34

Everything else that is required in a build is either created from scratch or obtained via a CNC milling and machining company that Koseki-san has been collaborating with for decades.

Scoot-Shop-20

Like many workshops in Japan, spare parts are plentiful. There are stacks and stacks of boxes filled up with everything and anything Koseki-san needs to bring an old FC or FD RX-7 back to life.

Once You Go Rotary, There’s No Turning Back
Scoot-Shop-30

Upstairs is Koseki-san’s office. It’s here that he runs the business from and where he designs everything from engines to suspension systems.

Scoot-Shop-26

As I mentioned earlier, before Koseki-san set up Scoot he was an F1 engineer and specialising in suspension. It comes as no surprise then that he still does a lot of work in this area and consults for many race teams and series. For example, these Öhlins dampers are off an R35 GT-R GT3 race car that competes in Super GT, and Koseki-san is the man responsible for the car’s handling setup. For those that may remember, he was also called in to do the suspension in RE Amemiya’s Hurricane FD3S RX-7 that competed in the 2013 World Time Attack Challenge.

Scoot-Shop-27

No, you aren’t seeing a 5-rotor engine! The first four peripherally-ported 13B housings will soon be used in another naturally-aspirated 4-rotor build for a customer car, while the housing on the end with the four smaller ports on the very top is from a Mazda hydrogen-powered prototype car. This should give you an idea of the rotary engine work that Koseki-san is involved with.

Scoot-Shop-28

Of course, a custom 4-rotor engine’s most complex part is its rather long eccentric shaft.

Scoot-Shop-29

It’s nothing short of a piece of automotive engineering art.

Scoot-Shop-33

One car I was given the okay to take some shots of was this soon-to-be-finshed Scoot compete build, featuring an evolution of the Scoot aero package on Koseki-san’s silver 4-rotor demo machine. The rear wheel spats – items that featured on Scoot’s iconic 13B turbo 327FD RX-7 back in the late ’90s and early ’00s – hint that this FD3S will be used for high speed runs too.

Scoot-Shop-14

If there’s one thing you can be certain of, it’s the fact that every Scoot creation is meticulously pieced together. The attention to detail is some of the best I’ve seen.

Scoot-Shop-15

Under the bonnet, not a 4-rotor but a naturally aspirated 3-rotor 20B. I’ll have all the details on this build when I have the chance to properly feature it.

Scoot-Shop-31

Scoot is so much more than a rotary tuning shop. This is a place where the rotary dream is kept alive, where anything is possible and where passion and true engineering skill is at the core of it all.

Scoot-Shop-05

The main reason for my visit, however, was to shoot this 4-rotor-powered Datsun 240Z. Yes, you read right! Stay tuned for the feature…

Dino Dalle Carbonare
Instagram: speedhunters_dino
dino@speedhunters.com

ADVERTISEMENT

Comments



Comments are closed.

76 comments

by Oldest
by Best by Newest by Oldest
2

Wow, definitely with staying up till 3 am to read! Another shop I will check out on my next trip to Japan.
Nice shots as always Dino.

3

Good to see the gold box in Japan

4

The rear tail lights of the Scoot kit look like Nissan Gloria tail lights. 

Not much can compare to a rotary idle. Quad-rotors are just madness. So addictive.

5

My all time favorite FD hood. Woulda made the wife buy one if she didn't sell her FD.

6

I have always wonder what Lotus think about what guys like Koseki-San & Amemiya-San had done to the Europa...for sure it would be intresting.
Great article...its been a while that I don't read about scoot and what he is up to this days. Its good to see that he is busy as ever. And working in some awesome R&D stuff.
Dino any chance you can please follow up on the Hydrogen prototype from Koseki San's point of view?
Koseki San seems to have a serious close relationship with Mazda. Im pretty sure he either knows or have a very good idea of what mazda is up to.

7

Quality as usual Dino. Do Koseki do all the work on the cars himself?

8

EliThanos Lotus could probably care less. They care about selling cars, not what a handful of people are doing to long discontinued models.

9

Great article.

10

I can't wait for the new Mazda!!!! I hope it's rotary powered but more importantly I hope it's RWD and comes with a stick like the miata. Im a big dude and i cant fit confortably in the FD and i dont like the se3p but i really need to have a car that goes BRAP before I die. For the love of Japan give us something new that's rotary powered to drool over Mazda!!!!!

11
speedhunters_dino

@Tom Not too long to go before we find out. I think you won't be disappointed, except the brap brap brap may sound a little different ...

12
speedhunters_dino

cjhcjh Thanks! Mostly yes, he only has one guy working in there with him

13
speedhunters_dino

EliThanos There is not much he can talk on about that...maybe after next week...

14
speedhunters_dino

@SomeguyudunO Best around for sure!

15
speedhunters_dino

@Greg Thanks @Greg

16
speedhunters_dino

6A13TTFelipe lol

17

It seems like he's not doing a lot of work with the most recent chassis or renesis motor. Have you every been able to discuss the RX-8 with him?

18

Brap

19

Now the Scoot 4 rotor is running a 26B are they planning on changing the 2.3 badge or just leaving it on as is?

20

Can I buy that subaru rotary adapter plate? Please?

21

The Scoot RX-7 is just one of the reasons I own a Y34.

22

FOUR ROTOR S30 WHAT THE SHIT
I NEED THIS IN MY LIFE

23

The  FC3S RX-7 is probably the must undervalued japanese car from its era ! I love the way it looks !

24

Hey Dino you forgot to take a pic of that silver minivan! Lol!!! Bet it has your favourite CVT bro! :P

25

"This car is so special it might just deserve another feature…" 

Dino, I think you meant to say that it MUST deserve another feature.

26

@Tom  my friend you need a 90's cosmo then those sedans can be fun if done right

27
speedhunters_dino

ssvirk Haha, I think I'm getting the message :)

28
speedhunters_dino

abezzegh87 CNC

29
speedhunters_dino

John Key NZ Man don't get me started on CVTs again.

30
speedhunters_dino

juanpcarrera89 Truly is

31
speedhunters_dino

@Crazed S30 Fan Dropping soon ;)

32
speedhunters_dino

AlexLobanov Contact Koseki-san. Website link is at the bottom of the story.

33
speedhunters_dino

tunerguy21 Good question!

34
speedhunters_dino

BigTmoneyD Brap x2

35
speedhunters_dino

FunctionFirst No never entered the conversation. Sort of gives you an idea of what he thinks of them lol

36
jbfromsiliconvalley

Slowly becoming a rotary fan. This pushed me into fandom. Does Scoot mainly stick to NA motors? Also I wonder what would happen if Koseki and Mad Mike were locked in a garage for a couple of weeks. Nuclear powered 6 rotor?

37

Only car game in the world that has the scoot kit? stuner.net

and it's free!

38

Great read! Wonder how that Lotus turns out.  :)

39

Cannot wait to see those features!

40

Emptypie Literally had just pulled it up before reading this. I have been enlightened by my experience, thank you.

41

You can check out my builds on the forums, same username. PM me if you have any questions. There's also a huge Facebook community. Cheers

42
speedhunters_dino

koko san Don't worry, I'll shoot it when it's done. Far too interesting!

43
speedhunters_dino

jbfromsiliconvalley Mainly NA yes, but he'll do anything I'm sure. Now that would be recipe for something exciting for sure!

44

I might be like five or seven years old. Not only is this shop a veritable playground for rotaryheads, the beautiful FD and FC examples, and rotary converts - especially that S30 (Safe to assume that NA has a triangular powerplant as well?), but every time I read Scoot I couldn't help but smile.

45

holy smokes!!!! a rotary-powered 240z!? sounds unique but I wanna see some more soon XD

46

speedhunters_dino BigTmoneyD BRAP X3 XD

47
speedhunters_dino

EythanAldrich Feature coming up very soon :)

48
speedhunters_dino

IRONWOLF RD No idea on the NA

49

holy hell. i knew scoot since a while now but i thought it's just another aftermarket Rotary shop. i didn't know about the skills of this man. real genieus!

50

Great article @speedhunters_dino. I get chills up and down my spine everytime i watch that youtbe video of the scoot fd3s being dyno'd. I can only imagine the smiles on youre face the day you revved that beast.

51

speedhunters_dino EliThanos You gave some hints though lol

52

speedhunters_dino John Key NZ Recently shopping for a new car and whenever I came past a CVT car I could see the look of disgust on your face lmao Dino I think you single handedly dissuaded a ton of people from getting those things hahaha

53

so awesome thank you, we need more rotary japan content!!!!

54

i2uicosta Kuramaza BLAP BLAP BLAP BLAPPPPPPP

55

VeRTeXR i2uicosta มีสตาร์ทเครื่องไหม...

56

Kuramaza i2uicosta เปิดตัวเฉยๆ ):

57

VeRTeXR i2uicosta รอคลิปไฟลุกห้องเครื่องบนสนามแข่ง

58

Kuramaza VeRTeXR ลง 2J ได้ปะครัช

59

i2uicosta Kuramaza NO BLAPP NO ROTARY NOOOO

60

VeRTeXR i2uicosta ROTARY ลง J ยากิคงเอาระเบิดไปปาแน่ๆ

61

VeRTeXR i2uicosta คนจนแบบผมขับรถบ้านๆพอ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8AM4fQriDk

63

VeRTeXR Kuramaza i2uicosta ใจมาสด้า มันยังอยากเก็บเครื่อง​โรตารี่ไว้อีกเรอะ

64

Marnburapa360 VeRTeXR Kuramaza อีโวกวักมือเรียก

65

i2uicosta Marnburapa360 VeRTeXR เพื่อนเก่าผุดขึ้นจากหลุมโดยการสังเวยอีโว โถว์

66

Kuramaza i2uicosta VeRTeXR อย่าว่าแต่อีโวเลยแลนเซอร์​ก็ดูท่าร่อแร่ อาจไม่เหลือรุ่นต่อไป​มาให้ปะไฟเบอร์​กลาสมาแปลงร่างเป็นอีโวเซินเจิ้น​ละ

68

Marnburapa360 Kuramaza i2uicosta VeRTeXR สี่สูบเทอร์โบ 300 ม้า สูบน้ำมันเป็นเลิศ ขนาดขออเก๊ไม่โบก็สูบ เหมาะกับสถานะการณ์สมัยนี้ยิ่งนัก

69

YaKiZoBa Marnburapa360 i2uicosta VeRTeXR ค้านำเข้าม้าแม่มคงแพงกว่าค่ารถ

70

Kuramaza YaKiZoBa Marnburapa360 VeRTeXR MikHaiL69 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dj6Q9SJRpS4

71

i2uicosta Kuramaza YaKiZoBa Marnburapa360 VeRTeXR ไหนรถ

72

MikHaiL69 Kuramaza YaKiZoBa Marnburapa360 VeRTeXR https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJbX9p8fEnU

73

Kuramaza YaKiZoBa i2uicosta VeRTeXR ราคารถนำเข้า​แปลวคร่าวๆแบบง่ายๆก็แปลงเยนเป็น​บาทไม่ต้อง​เปลี่ยน​ตัวเลขนั้นละงับส์

74
FarhadOstovarnejad

well, i bet you guys wont believe , coming from a totally sanctioned country . Iran , i am huge fan of rotaries and specially scoot sport Rx7 , we aint have any rx7 in iran  all i got is what i could get from the net .

75

FarhadOstovarnejad Hey farhad im in iran as well, we have rx 3's here....

76

the car was very good 
really really like to see the car that shiny new car fits like made ​​for walking trailsthe car was very good http://utamadomino.com/app/img/peraturan.html" rel="dofollow" target="_blank">http://utamadomino.com/app/img/peraturan.html and very fast http://utamadomino.com/app/img/jadwal.html" rel="dofollow" target="_blank">http://utamadomino.com/app/img/jadwal.html mix of colors http://utamadomino.com/app/img/promo.html" rel="dofollow" target="_blank">http://utamadomino.com/app/img/promo.html from which to http://utamadomino.com/app/img/panduan.html" rel="dofollow" target="_blank">http://utamadomino.com/app/img/panduan.html make want pobud http://utamadomino.com/ see hatnya http://dokterpoker.org/app/img/peraturan.html" rel="dofollow" target="_blank">http://dokterpoker.org/app/img/peraturan.html kecepatanya http://dokterpoker.org/app/img/jadwal.html" rel="dofollow" target="_blank">http://dokterpoker.org/app/img/jadwal.html was very nice ,http://dokterpoker.org/app/img/promo.html" rel="dofollow" target="_blank">http://dokterpoker.org/app/img/promo.html  suitable for a "http://dokterpoker.org/app/img/panduan.html" rel="dofollow" target="_blank">http://dokterpoker.org/app/img/panduan.html sharp bend http://dokterpoker.org or not sharp I guess motorists http://633cash.com/Games like this is http://633cash.com/Pengaturan" very skilled in the speed I hope I can membilinya someday will whether http://633cash.com/Daftar http://633cash.com/Promo there are http://633cash.com/Berita new cars http://633cash.com/Livescore are better I http://raksasapoker.com/app/img/peraturan.html" rel="dofollow" target="_blank">http://raksasapoker.com/app/img/peraturan.html 'll wait for it , with a stylish car classic http://raksasapoker.com/app/img/jadwal.html" rel="dofollow" target="_blank">http://raksasapoker.com/app/img/jadwal.html style I http://raksasapoker.com/app/img/promo.html" rel="dofollow" target="_blank">http://raksasapoker.com/app/img/promo.html also like http://raksasapoker.com/app/img/panduan.html" rel="dofollow" target="_blank">http://raksasapoker.com/app/img/panduan.html to see would be http://raksasapoker.com/ whether there is a http://yakuza4d.com/peraturan" rel="dofollow" target="_blank">http://yakuza4d.com/peraturan car that is http://yakuza4d.com as fast and forius http://yakuza4d.com/home like in the "http://yakuza4d.com/daftar movie , the car very http://yakuza4d.com/cara_main good car http://yakuza4d.com/hasil designed a way apparently hopefully http://yakuza4d.com/buku_mimpi there will be new cars more good and the price is quite pantastis then chances are I can membilinya the same as you have at this time

OFFICIAL SPEEDHUNTERS SUPPLIERS