We were at the drags last night chatting it up with several BangShift fans and all of the guys were devotees of different makes of cars. The conversation arose about guys who became known for building engines for their specific types of cars. Ray Barton’s name rolled off the tongue of the Mopar guy, the dude with the ProCharged Chevy was swearing by Steve Morris, and off they went, around in circles.
That got us to thinking about other men who have made their names as specialists in one singular type of engine or family of engines. There’s the late Lamar Walden, who was recognized as the premier builder of hard core Chevrolet “W” motors in the world. We can’t forget Joe Mondello who championed Oldsmobile performance and power, Kenny Dutweiller who cut his teeth and gained fame with crazy power from Buick turbo V6 engines, Jon Kaase who has been building wrecking machine Ford engines for decades, and Annunziata Romano, known as “Nunzi” in the Pontiac realm as one of the best at making power from those engines.
That’s just a sampling, we’re sure that there are a fistful more that we’re missing. Who are they and who is the best?
We want to know who the best make/engine model specific engine builder of all time is, tell us!
Keith Black
Dave Zuschel
Both of them, hemi’s and Allisons.
Ray Barton, Dick Landy, Charlie Westcott Jr Hemis
Ray Barton , Keith Black , Jon Kasse
Bless’em all …..
Bob Repine. He Drove the Hemi Thrasher in the 60’s and 70’s. That man literally can build a frictionless engine. We tore down an engine that we drag raced in the mid 10’s for 10 years and it hadn’t even worn the babbitt off the bearings. He’s retired now. He only does engines for us and a couple other people.
David Reher & Buddy Morrison, Arlington, Texas
Barry Allen is hands down the best AMC builder. One day I’ll be able to afford to have him build a stoker 360 for the Matador.
Chevrolets – The Grump, Bill Jenkins. SOHC Ford – the Old Master! Ed Pink.
Steve Morris Engines has the BBC and LS stuff figured out. My experience with him is you just tell him how much power you want and he blows your expectations out of the water with a reliable insane amount of power! Heck he even developed his own v16 that makes 5,000 hp with off the shelf LS usables. When it comes to best engine builders of all time I can say he is one of the most innovative of my time!
Steve Morris! he was the first real engine builder i met at the age of 13 he did all of my stepdad’s engine work and when he started to make big power with prochargers and a chevy platform he convinced us to go that route and we never looked back! ive learned a ton from him and have the utmost respect for him and I’m always excited to see what he comes up with next!
Steve Morris engines