Your old man sounds like a good bloke. Many of us feel the same about rotaries.

I think you should read about registration laws first. I think you'll find in NSW it's difficult to register a 13B (can only just get away with a non-turbo 12A), in a 1200.

s%$t, noisy, don't last "too" long, and go through sooo much petrol.

I used to know a guy with a bridgeport 13B and a 48IDA weber. It used to use 35 litres to go from Bankstown to North Sydney/return. That's about a whopping 70L/100kms

A standard carby rotary has about the same economy as a V8, and the new re-genesis engines in the new RX8 get pretty good economy.

Seriously, if you can wait and save up to do it properly, it'll better. Doing "rolling upgrades" is an expensive option.

I used to like rotaries...until I found out how much petrol they use.

Cheers,
Chris