The Willys Jeep diehards haven’t gone anywhere. They’re still out wheeling on slick rock and muddy trails, climbing stuff that modern Wrangler guys would never dream of in their tricked-out Rubicons on 40s. And what’s better is they’re still finding new ways to make old iron even better off-road. Seth Hensler is a great example of that with his red-and-yellow, Wankel-powered rig.
If your social media algorithm knows you like old 4x4s, there’s a good chance you’ve seen Hensler’s @redeye_garage account. He owns several other jeeps, including one with a diesel VW engine. The rotary machine is sorta the opposite of that one, but in a good way.
At its core is a 1949 Willys CJ-3A frame, topped with a 1945 Ford GPW body. Meanwhile, the two-rotor 13B engine is out of a 1991 Mazda RX-7. It runs a Racing Beat intake with FiTech electronic fuel injection, and rather than going all-out with some big turbo, it remains naturally aspirated. That’s because it doesn’t really need any more engine power to get around.
It sends all of its output through a five-speed manual transmission, also from an RX-7, and then a Suzuki Samurai twin-stick transfer case. Said transfer case features 6.5:1 gears, and the final crawl ratio is 126:1. Since it doesn’t have to worry about daily-driving duties, it can afford to be more hardcore than a new Wrangler Rubicon with its 100:1 figure. However, Hensler tells me it’ll still run 80 (!).
You’ll find Lock-Right lockers in the Dana 25 front axle, as well as the Dana 44 rear. Each has 5.38 gears, in case you want to jot that down. It even has disc brakes all around. But don’t worry, it still rocks a set of 7.50-16 Firestone NDT tires.
Finishing it all off is a canvas top that Hensler made by hand in his garage. I love that type of artistry, and it shows a real passion for doing it yourself. A lot of guys I know might handle all of the wrenching and leave upholstery work or whatever for someone else. Not this fella.
The end result is a capable jeep that weighs—get this—2,100 pounds wet. It’s as nimble as ever, and given that the original Go-Devil four-cylinder only made 60 hp with 105 lb-ft of torque, it’s not like Hensler lost anything by going this route. Instead, he built a special lil’ crawler that sounds good but isn’t ridiculously loud, either. (The Aero-Tech resonator and Magnaflow muffler are to thank for that.)
Hensler told me that he gets plenty of hate for the rig. “Be prepared for a ton of comments like ‘rotaries suck and have no torque,'” he laughed. But there won’t be any coming from me, because really, it just makes sense.
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