History, Part Three

Some of my favorite childhood memories are watching a a good family friend race RX-7s at ICSCC club races at Portland International Raceway. My dad was equally important and each summer I would look forward to watching CART and American LeMans races together with him at Portland. Watching racing during my formative years led to aspirations of building and racing cars of my own. In college I dabbled with dirt bikes but racing cars was really what I wanted. I was fortunate to have a solid job after school which permitted me to purchase and race RX-7s of my own. Before long, I was finding myself knee deep in 12A and 12B rotaries, Weber carburetors, and fancy suspension bits. There are few things more fun than ripping along with rotors churning at 9000rpm. But New Mexico is home to two road race tracks, both of which demand more torque than peak horsepower. And so in a bittersweet decision, the RX-7 found a new home after I had made my mind up that a torquemeister Saab 2.0 or 2.3 liter turbo power plant would perhaps be better for the highly technical New Mexico race tracks.

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