I'm a retired rotary ( mazda ) tech.Started in the beggining with RX-2's,3's,4's & R-100's. Opened my own shop in 1975 and got involved in Hi-performance shortly thereafter.Became intrested in Road Racing in 76 and assisted a number of Mazda racers in SCCA ( Showroom Stock,B-Sedan & C-Production )& IMSA ( GTU & Radial Series ). the SCCA 1977 B-sedan National Champion was a RX-3 driven by Stuart Fisher ( Look it up ), the Chassis built by his brother Bill with the engine and transmission owned and provided by myself.It was the 1st P-Port engine to be entered into ANY Mazda entered in competion in the USA. It set track records at Laguna Seca,Sears Point,Portland,Riverside,ran 15 West Coast National SCCA events,with 12 1st Places and when entered in the Nationals at Road Atlanta,qualified 5th and finished 1st. ( 1978 would prove to be more difficult even with a car that ran 5 seconds under the track record ). As a result of our efforts Stuart and myself were invited to the 24 hours of Daytona as members of the Mazda Auto Tokyo entry ( 2 RX-3's..one team Japenese,one American),one car finished and the race was considered a "learning experience"as next year the RX-7 was to be introduced and I was again asked to join the effort and as History shows,the 1st & 2nd GTU cars were numbers 7( the Japenese crew's) and 77,the American crews.later that year I assisted the Mazda Factory cars in the 5 hours at Riverside,Laguna Seca and Sears Point.
My B-Sedan driver Stuart diden't get to drive at Daytona,but did get a C-Production RX-7 built for him and finanicaly backed by Mazda ( the car never ran well and in my opinion was because Stuart,Bill and myself wern't included in the construction details ..such as the builder installing a uncalliberated Mechanical tach that was 1000 RPM low at the top resulting in repeated DNFs from blown motors ( it read 9000 and was turning 10,000 ).
The politics of racing began to enter and got to the point where I decided my effort and experience was of no further value, so I watched from the sidelines as a good Team crumbled and vanished.I had a Home shop with a loyal Customer base and built a number of Mazda Street cars..i.e. RX-3's & RX-2's with 80ci engine swaps, street ported ,light flywheels,headers,suspension kits and so on.
These were VERY quick cars with a top end exceeding 140mph.
I continued as a Journey Level Tech working on Mazdas and other makes untill 1990 when I decided 25 years under the hood was long enufgh..I now live in Reno Nv,go to a race once in a while and remember how it felt . watching Stuart come from behind the trees at Portland,leading the field on the 1st lap ( our 1st National win )..watching him take the checkered at Road Atlanta...watching him in 1998 start from the pole at Road Atlanta,go to dead last in the 1st lap, from being spun and finishing 4th ( with the track record ).
It was real,it was fun..it was REAL FUN.
So any Mazda people want to chat . ask advice..drop me a E-mail
Lee

 

Welcome to the forum, i read your post and all i gotta say is...wow, you have alot of exp with Mazda cars and it warms my heart to see such an exceptionally mechancially inclinded individual, interested in our little group, your membership with us is greatly appreciated and we welcome you with open arms, please enjoy your stay.

 

Oh wow, you've got your own little chapter of history yourself. It's nice to have a racer from Mazda from the 70s grace by the site. I too own a rotary powered car (Rx-7) and the P-port was a genious idea.

 

I would like to ask a question maybe you can answer for me I own a 1984 b2000 with 2.0 and a bad autoMatin trans and a friend has a manual transmission out of a 75 or 76 courier that was behind a 1.8 will that transmission bolt up to the 84 Mazda 2.0 with no issues

 

If you have an answer to that question you can email me at soeeder071@gmail.com

 

Ummm, do you realize you've reopened a thread nearly ten years old? It is highly likely the folks you're asking questions of have long since stopped visiting this site.

 

I didn't til after I posted it was the oly thread that sounded under my transmission swap search