About the Owners

Bert Wehr is Carobu's expert engine builder, bringing with him nearly 50 years of experience as an automotive technician. Even more importantly, Bert has been specializing in Ferrari engines, which are highly complex and unique, since 1980. Born in Vasteras, Sweden, he studied as a mechanic with BMW before immigrating to the U.S. in 1969. Upon arriving in America, Bert immediately began working as a Volvo technician in Chicago, IL before continuing on with his journey to Denver, CO and finally settling in Southern California.

Engines had always been a fascination for Bert, especially more exotic, multi-cylinder, multi-cam engines. “There are no two engines exactly alike," he says. "This is what keeps the work interesting and challenging.” Having worked on less exotic cars for years, he was approached in 1980 to take over the engine department for an independent Ferrari shop in SoCal. Since then, he has gained over 35 years of experience in the Ferrari business, with a specific focus on engine re-building. He has also restored many vintage and classic Ferraris and other specialty cars over the years.

Wehr has been a partner of CAROBU Engineering for 16 years and has hundreds of hours of Dyno testing experience, primarily, but not exclusively, with Ferrari engines.

Bert's first love is motorcycles, especially motocross and dirt bikes, though he rides a BMW K1200 as often as his schedule allows. He spent several years riding Harley Davidsons and volunteered to be the Director of the Harley Owner's Group in Southern California from 1993-1998. He really enjoyed organizing rides, rallies and speaking at meetings and events.

Originally from Corona Del Mar, California, Tate Casey has been modifying and building cars since he started driving in 1965. From an early age he was fascinated with the concept of improving engines for more power. One of his earliest hot rod memories is of modifying the exhaust on the family's VW bus for more power. He was a voracious reader of car magazines like Road & Track and as a young teenager studied books like Philip Smith's "The Design and Tuning of Competition Engines."

In the late 1960s Tate was stationed at a U.S. Army base in Frankfurt, Germany where he was exposed to the European automotive tuning scene. A friend of his worked at Opel tuning company Steinmetz. After touring the company's facilities, Tate realized that modifying cars for a living would a very cool thing to do.

Once back in the states, Tate dove right into the tuning industry, initially focusing on the VW brand and its air-cooled vehicles. After completing a degree in Automotive Engineering, he worked as a mechanic at Chick Iverson Porsche in Newport Beach, through which he made many contacts that helped get him involved in custom VW magazine feature car projects.

Tate went on to work on BMWs and then Mercedes automobiles. He owned a Mercedes tuning company called Hochleistung-Benz in Laguna Hills, CA where he designed and developed engine upgrades, exhaust systems, suspension parts and aftermarket wheels for Mercedes owners (for more on Tate’s Mercedes background, see HB Sport). After that, Tate went on to work as the marketing manager for a company called Metrix. During his tenure with the company he was responsible for introducing the Hartge and Carlsson brands to the U.S. as well as working with companies such as Racing Dynamics.

As with Carobu's engine builder Bert Wehr, Tate also has a long history with motorcycles, most specifically with Italian brand Ducati. You can see some of his motorcycle projects at www.motorosso.net.

In the late 1990s Carobu Engineering was formed as an engine development company. Tate partnered with Vince Roman and Jack Burns, who owns Burns Stainless. Bert Wehr was hired on to build engines and run the dyno. Today, Carobu is owned by Tate and Bert.