A big thanks to Charles R. Hill and the rest of BHR!!!!

Several years ago was the first time that I had ever heard of Charles R. Hill and Black Halo Racing, It was shortly after I purchased my Mazda RX-8. I was cruising along on the internet when I saw an RX-8 with nitrous! I thought it was the coolest thing, I emailed the owner of the RX-8 and asked him a gazillion questions. “How did you do that? Was it expensive?” The only thing I knew about nitrous at the time was that it made the cars in the Fast and the Furious movies wicked cool. The owner of that nitrous oxide injected 13B sent me a dry response back. “You should email Charles R. Hill at Black Halo Racing”.

That was all he said.

And so I went on with my life, I cruised the forums looking at cool RX-8s, all the while thinking, “I gotta do that!” or “Man, I wish I could get those wheels”. Some time later I met another RX8 owner on the internet, this time with a pretty beastly supercharged Renesis out of Las Vegas. So I sent him an email asking about a few of the things he had on his car. His response back, “Charles R. Hill at BHR in Arizona would be a really good guy to contact, he has helped me immensely”.
And so forth.

It seemed that countless RX-8 owners had crossed paths with the infamous Charles R. Hill or the Black Halo Racing guys. As I spent more time on the web and more time under the hood of my car it was finally time for me to install my own nitrous system on my RX-8. And so, I sent emails to some of the BHR team, for they are the supposed experts. And that was that, I purchased the unique and stealthy BHR built throttle body spacer, I pieced together my kit, and I put it in. I was another satisfied BHR customer. Life was good, and for a while I was the cool kid on the block.

Sometime later I decided to relocate from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Tucson, Arizona. I packed as much as I could fit in my RX-8 (surprisingly, almost everything fit inside the small '4-Door Coupe') and began my journey across the country. The drive was long, one filled with natural beauty along with nature's wrath. I crossed the Rocky Mountains in a blizzard and traveled across the windy red dirt of Northern Arizona. With over 1600 miles clocked on my road trip my engine blew up while climbing a remote hill eighty miles north of Flagstaff, Arizona.
As I sat in my car contemplating my options I posted a distress thread on the forums of the RX-8 club. “Help! I'm stranded in the middle of nowhere, my car won't start! What might be wrong?” The post went a little like that and I received several responses telling me various things to check, with no luck I forked up the cash for a tow into Flagstaff.

The next morning (the car was still not running), out of desperation, I sent a quick email to Charles R. Hill at Black Halo. He was the only expert I knew of, and I knew that Phoenix was not that far from Flagstaff. My goal was to hopefully get my car running good enough to get to Phoenix and have him and his team help me diagnose the motor fully. At that time I still didn't know my motor was toast. I clicked “Send”, walked outside of the mom and pop mechanic shop and smoked a cigarette.

Then my phone rang, it was the man himself, Charles Ray Hill. The most I had ever talked with him before was through a couple of short emails over a year before. He walked me through a couple of troubleshooting steps, several things to check, and if those didn't work he told me to give him another call. He invited me to come to not only the Black Halo shop, but to his home as well and he would help me with his car.

After several hours my car was still not running, it may have even been in worse shape. Gas was leaking from my midpipe gaskets, my plugs were so fouled that even cleaning would not allow them to spark, and so I had it towed to Tempe, Arizona, the home of Black Halo Racing. And so my 36 hours at Black Halo Racing begins. I arrived at the shop about twenty minutes before Erick Krewson (Easy E1 on the web) and Charles R. Hill arrived.

I stood in the parking lot all the while wondering what kind of magic was sitting behind the large garage door. A small BHR sticker was plastered on the back door. The glorious sound of a Turbo II quickly came into earshot and I turned and watched as Erick and CRH pulled up in Erick's near perfect black RX-7.
The door to the garage opened, revealing a showcase of Rotary galore. The garage was packed with a multitude of RX-8s and a beautiful chameleon colored FD. The garage was so packed that we had to push one of the cars out into the lot just to make room for my crippled 8. Ten minutes later the verdict was in. Time for a new engine.

The issues behind my engine's demise are still up in the air. But that's beside the point. I did not have the money to buy a new engine, I couldn't afford a rebuild, I couldn't even afford the $700 tow from the Grand Canyon down to Phoenix. I smoked a couple of more cigarettes while walking around the outskirts of the BHR lot, kicking small rocks around as I aimlessly thought about my options. The only option I came up with was to ditch the car. I had to sell it, blown engine and all. Fifteen minutes later I walked back through the garage and into the office in the front of the shop. I plopped onto one of the couches, cracked a beer with the guys and CRH told me he found me a brand new engine that was only twenty minutes away. It was at what most would refer to as the 'stealer-ship'. However, this time the tides had finally turned into my favor. He has a friend at the Mazda Dealership, Josh Wojtyna. They had a 4-Port 13B, the specific one for my car. Not only that, it was going to be one day turn around. They would be able to put in my engine the following morning.

The rest of the afternoon is where I was able to see some of the things that set BHR apart from the rest of the automotive world. Ray got to work hand building some ignition kits. And lucky me, he built my BHR ignition kit right in front of me! Not only that, but he had each of the BHR members sign it for me!

The rest of the evening was spent with the BHR team. I received VIP treatment as I ate a home cooked meal with CRH, Erick, Todd (BHR's third member AKA Flashwing), and Ray's girlfriend Jennifer. The food was fantastic and the rest of the evening was spent poolside with the BHR team. We talked about cars, politics (our views thankfully, are well-aligned), and about the time Easy E1 was pulled over three times in a single night.

The following day was all about Black Halo Racing. Erick and myself headed back to the BHR shop so that we could have my car towed (yet again) to Chapman Mazda in Deer Valley, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix. CRH and Erick shipped off some brand new BHR products to a plethora of RX-8 owners from across the world (yes, some of their products are shipped not just nationwide, but worldwide).

Then they got down to the daily grind, Erick began to port some irons that were going to be going into a stunning yellow boosted 8 and CRH began to cruise the web, answering emails and responding to various rotary specific questions. I began documenting the world of BHR using my cell phone to capture the 'evidence'. A blue RX-8 sat on one end of the shop, with almost half the car covered in Carbon Fiber pieces; the yellow one in the middle, with its engine components disassembled in the room CRH keeps just for engine building. I spent the next few hours snapping pictures and asking questions about the various components around the shop. Erick was gracious enough to show me his methods of porting intake and exhaust ports and why this process helps a rotary gain more power.

As five o’clock came around Josh gave Erick a call letting him know my engine was replaced and my car was ready for pickup. And so we crammed into the RX-7 and headed to Chapman; the only Mazda Dealership that has NEVER tried to rip me off. I swiped my Visa and thought, “It could have been way worse”. CRH and I drove my car back to his home as Erick headed back to BHR to close up shop. The sun began to set over the Phoenix Valley as I received yet another home cooked meal from Jennifer. After dinner Erick installed the final piece to my engine, my hand-built BHR ignition while I held the work light. Fifteen minutes later I started the car, we said our goodbyes, and I drove my final leg of my two-thousand mile journey to my new home.

Black Halo Racing is not just some company that flips car parts, nor are they just a mechanic or performance shop. They are much more than that. They build business relationships based on mutual respect for rotary engines. They treat their customers like friends and family. I don't think BHR made a dime off of me, yet they still provided a solution that allowed me to keep my car and get it running. Black Halo Racing was more satisfied that they had gained a new friend rather than a customer for life (although the latter is true as well). I express my sincerest gratitude to Charles R. Hill, Erick Krewson, and Black Halo Racing. Thanks to Jennifer for the wonderful home-cooked meals. And to Josh Wojtyna at Chapman Mazda of Deer Valley, Arizona for the most amazing turnaround time I have ever heard of and for the deal you gave me on my new motor.

-Josh Rosenberg