About Carl

Come and let me 'tell ya story 'bout a man named Jed, a poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed, when out one day, he was shootin' at some food, and up through the ground, come a bubblin' crude, oil that is, black gold, texas tea. . . .

Oops, wrong story.

Before building my duplex while going to college, I lived for several months in one of those big cookie cut apartment complexes. Mine was all the way in the back and I was usually able to keep my RX-2 parked within 20 feet of my front door. Out my front apartment window I could see my car. Looking that direction was the property line. Beyond it was a trailer park. One of the closest trailers to my apartment had an RX-4 parked next to it most of the time. Its owner noticed my RX-2, particularly the tag number, "MAZDA".

Eventually I learned it belonged to Carl and we shared our common interests in rotaries. Up to that point he had been in an engineering program at the college, but was disenchanted and looking for an excuse to quit and do something else. I learned he had had several before the RX-4 and that there were others in his family. He had already learned to rebuild them and had done several. In doing so, he discovered that the larger intake port configuration used in the 1974 models was incorporated into the 1973 production briefly before the major changeover to new 1974 technology. His RX-4 had an exceptional exhaust system and the Racing Beat Holley kit. To that point he had never done any porting. Even though my car was lighter and had the same engine and intake system, his car was clearly more powerful. That's when the significance of the exhaust system crystalized in my mind, but I digress.

Our discussions led to his realization of his competence and confidence in working with rotaries. So, when he decided enough was enough with college, he had a plan. He went home and got a job at a Mazda Dealer. He is now, and has been for something like 10 years, at the third or forth Mazda dealer he ever worked for. He has the distinction of winning more awards for his competence than any other Master Mazda Technician in the southeast. These awards are based on a multiple source system that includes the results of surveys of dealer service customers, technicians' employers, the teachers at Mazda tech school, and the service reps employed by Mazda.

After working for two or three dealers for a couple years, he sprung for the last black GS received by his employer prior to the '82's arrival. He popped for 15" BBS wheels and 205/50-15's right away. Before he had 12,000 miles on the car he installed a BAE turbo kit. Before another 12,000, he broke an apex seal. We rebuilt that engine, and I taught him what I knew about porting. What a blessing the bigger ports turned out to be. That motor never broke that I recall, even though he did some exhaust system experimenting and tried different size turbo housings, carburetors, and water injection. Eventually a ported 13B wound up in the car.

One evening he and his wife paid me a visit in "The 7" after he had done some mod. He wanted to see what I thought about it, so the three of us went for a drive, with her in his lap. She had never seen a speedo top 140 before, but I didn't have road left to see what it was really capable of. She was immensely grateful for lack of additional straight road. She never again got into any car that I was driving.

Later, he stumbled into another RX-7 that some dimbulb moneybags spent a fortune on but broke anyway. It had one of those west coast built ported engines, suspension goodies, and a Cartech kit. The guy was just passing through when he broke it and he bailed. Carl got the works for $300. Spun a main if I remember right. Before this happened, someone had wanted a ported 13B in a hurry, so he dealt with the guy & wound up with only a ported 12A in his. So, he pulled the engine and fixed it and popped that & the Cartech into his. He backgraded the car he bought to stock and sold that for a big profit and had all the go faster stuff on his car.

I never got to drive it Cartech equipped, as his county adopted emissions testing and he let a $6,000 (coincidentally, the price he was able to buy a nice BMW trade worth at least $8,000 retail from his boss about six months before) offer steal it from him before I got my chance. He was griping about too many cars in the family, too expensive insurance, and no room in it for kids, so after 15 years, he thought it was time to let it go. Some rust was eating at it anyway where he was rear ended while the car was young. The buyer, a nineteen year old, blew the engine within a month. He managed to also ruin a good rotor intended for the rebuild by dropping it on the floor. He blew a second engine within six months. He also ruined three of the four expensive 15" three piece wheels. When he blew the third, Carl was on vacation. They sent the car to the auction while he was gone and somebody stole it (figuratively) for $500.

So back to the original question:

Felix,

Thanks for the information.  I was beginning to think
the answer to that one was only known by a retired
engineer somewhere in Japan. How did you learn about
it?  Is there a book or something?  I am impressed!

David

Carl once told me something about an SE air pickup change, so I called and asked him to remember for me. He gave me the only 48IDA Weber I've ever owned (didn't cost him anything), and lots of other goodies over the years. He's good with people, but I think he treats me special.