"I've been
interested in hot rods forever. Where I grew up in Oshkosh,
Wisconsin, my best friend＊s dad owned a junkyard and we were
always fooling around with cars and engines. Throughout the
1950s and 60s, we built a bunch of hot rod cars. I remember
an early 1950s Henry J that we put an Olds 394 in it. The
carb sat where the radio would have been in the dash and the
shifter was somewhere near the back seat.§
So began my interview that early Sunday morning with the very
soft spoken and highly respected engine genius, Keith Eickert,
in his absolutely spotless, Palm Coast, Florida shop, located
north from Daytona＊s massive speedway complex.
※Fooling around with these cars and altering them and building
up the motors from all the junk parts helped me get where
I am today,§ Keith says. ※We had to make things work from
scratch.§
Following a brief stint in the army, he had a few different
jobs in the Chicago area until he ran into an old friend from
Oshkosh. As fate would have it, that old buddy was Gary Garbrecht,
who was then head of Mercury Hi-Performance and had worked
for Mercury during high school. ※It was funny,§ says Keith.
※Gary and I never did any of the car stuff together in Oshkosh.
I only knew Gary from shooting pool together.§ In 1971, Gary
asked Keith to join him at Mercury Marine. They spent six
years together concentrating on building racing engines for
Mercury.
※There were virtually no after-market racing engines at that
time,§ he says. ※If you wanted to build racing engines, you
worked for Mercury. About 95 per cent of all race boats were
Mercury-powered. They all seemed to be 36-foot Cigarette＊s
with a pair of 550s, and they were doing well if they paired
with #3 Speedmasters,§ he recalls. ※I went to all the races
and I would run into Bobby Moore all the time. I went to Lake
X to test, as well. It was fun.§
In the late 1970s, Keith had the opportunity to work directly
for two race teams. ※No one had ever done that before. The
Thunderbird Racing Team was owned by Preston Henn, owner of
the Thunderbird Swap Shop, a gigantic flea market in Ft. Lauderdale.§
Keith＊s engine shop was in the center of the Swap Shop and
the other team was owned by legendary Rocky Aoki of Benihana
Restaurant fame. Keith＊s engines first gained fame in Thunderbird
Racing＊s 38 Bertram, ※Natural Lite§ and Rocky Aoki＊s 38 Bertram,
※Benihana.§
※It was a great time for offshore,§ Keith says. ※Preston had
a helicopter landing pad on the roof of the Swap Shop and
all sorts of people would drop in to talk and party... Don
Aronow, Joey Ipilito, Joe Halpern. It was fun to race back
then. Everyone got along. There was no fighting. Racing may
have had a bad rap, but everyone had fun. There was only one
class back then 每 US-1 Open Class 每 and everyone played by
the same rules. A whole lot of boats, maybe 30 to 40, would
show up to race. There wasn＊t a whole lot of technology available
back then. It was all up to the drivers and mechanics.§
Keith is quick to credit Carl Kiekhaefer for all his contributions
to offshore.※He is responsible for what high performance boating
is today. Carl was an absolute genius. He started Mercury
Marine, perfected the sterndrive for performance use and developed
Mercury＊s #3 racing drive. After he sold the company to Brunswick
in the early 1970s, he formed Kiekhaefer Aeromarine and developed
the #6 drive in the early 1980s. But not a lot has really
changed from back then. We＊re still using the same basic 427
block that GM brought out in the mid-60s. If we were lucky,
we could get about 550 horsepower out of a good race engine
back then.Now 40 years later, we＊re using the same basic block,
but getting up to 1500 hp out of it.§
Keith worked for Preston Henn and Rocky Aoki for two years.
He then took the opportunity to create Hawk Marine Power with
Bob Saccenti and Jerry Jacoby in North Miami. ※I built engines
for dozens of teams all across Europe and the United States
while Bob and Jerry both had their own shops. Jerry raced
the 35 Cigarette ＆Ajac Hawk＊ with either Bob or Keith Hazel
throttling.§
In the early 80s, offshore racing expanded from only the Open
Class to include Production Class (outboards), Modified Class
(maximum 700 CID small blocks with single 4-bbl carb.), and
Sport Class (maximum 750 CID small blocks with fuel injection).
Keith built Hawk engines for all of these classes and remembers
in Key West, at the end of the 1981 season, Hawk engines won
every single class in the World Offshore Championships.
In order to, in Keith＊s words, ※get out of Miami,§ he started
KS&W in St. Augustine to not only build racing engines,
but to rig and conduct maintenance work.※Back in those days
there was no real high performance pleasure market. It was
all racing.§ One of Keith＊s best customers at KS&W was
Ben Kramer of Fort Apache Marine, located on famous NE 188th
St. in North Miami. Ben wanted Keith to build engines just
for him. So, in 1983 Keith moved into Fort Apache where Ben
built a ※state-of-the-art, no holds barred, complete engine
shop§ just for Keith. Keith＊s first assignments were engines
for Ben＊s unforgettable 42 Apache, ※Warpath.§
By 1986, Ben Kramer was having problems of his own and the
market for high performance pleasure boats was increasing.
So, Keith moved back to Flagler County (located just north
of Daytona Beach) and started Lightning Performance with a
couple of friends.
※It was mainly a race engine shop,§ says Keith. ※I was lucky
to be in the right place at the right time and to work for
people who raced and wanted to win at whatever cost 每 not
by cheating but to pay for the R & D that had to be done
at that time to be able to win.§ This allowed Keith to be
able to experiment and develop what was needed in order to
be the best and to win.
Thus Lightning Performance was where Keith started developing
his own line of accessory products such as oil pans, valve
covers, engine mounts, sea pumps, accessory mounting hardware
每 to name a few 每 and made it available to the public.
By 1991, Keith＊s two partners ※split§ and Keith moved on his
own to his present facilities in nearby Palm Coast. Business
flourished with the new high performance pleasure boating
market, enhanced by the rush of poker runs, plus the new racing
classes., They all demanded newer, more powerful engines as
well as a plethora of after-market accessories. By 2001, Keith
wanted to get away from the day-to-day of the business and
put it up for sale. It was sold, along with the Keith Eickert
name. However, the sale didn＊t work out well. ※I saw 34 years
of my life＊s work get wiped away. I had to dig the company
back out of bankruptcy, take it all back over, and get it
back to where it is today,§ he says very bitterly. ※My objective
is to build it back to where it once was, then offer it for
sale again to someone who can continue with it, so I can back
off and don＊t have to be here 24-7.§
Meanwhile, Keith and two employees, continue to develop new
products. He proudly showed me the prototype of a new 725
hp engine based on his reliable, well-known 675 hp engine
built from a 540 Dart block. This new turbocharged engine
incorporates 3每4 psi of intake pressure, Keith＊s own serpentine
belt drive accessory package (including power steering and
external oil pump), Carrillo rods, aluminum heads, T &
D shaft rockers, and EFI Technologies Electronics. At the
Miami Boat Show in February, Keith will have another new engine
showcased, based on a 598 CID, 10.6 deck Dart block, which
produces 850 hp non-pressurized at 5,800 rpm; 1300 hp supercharged
on 93 octane; and 1500 hp supercharged on aviation fuel at
6,700 rpm.
And if you check out Keith＊s web site, as I did at www.kustomengines.net,
you＊ll find a whopping total of 18 product categories including
dozens of individual items from deck hardware to steering
systems in his catalog to satisfy the most discerning of high
performance buyer.
※I love what I＊m doing. ※I live right here above the shop.
My fun is jumping on my Harley and taking off. Although that
doesn＊t happen often enough.§ I asked him where the high performance
engine business is headed. ※I＊ve wondered that myself,§ he
says. ※What more can we get out of the reliable old 540 block?
We＊ve run out of capacity compared with what customers want.
We＊re getting 1500 hp or better out of it now. The boat market
is too small to justify the millions of dollars it would take
to develop a larger capacity block so power can increase beyond
what we＊re getting now. I just don＊t know.§
I don＊t know either. But what I do know is that if more power
is available, Keith Eickert will undoubtedly find it. |
