History Keith Black Racing Engines... For Sale !!!

Looks like with Wall Street in chaos, can the trickle-down effect be heading for Main Street or pit road?
Keith Black Racing Engines, a legendary name synonymous with drag racing, laid off much of its work force this week and is for sale, according to Ken Black, president of the company.

Keith Black opened his first shop in 1959 in a small location on Atlantic Boulevard then expanded the operation to its current location in South Gate, CA. Black died in the summer of 1991 from complications of cancer at the age of 64. He was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1995. His son, Ken, took over the operation of the business in 1991.

Ken Black said while they have laid off most workers, the company has parts in stock and is still working on engines that have been ordered. An up-turn in engine orders (and payments) could get the company going again, he said, but the company is for sale.

 

maybe he can get part of the 140 million tx break that Nascar is receiving

 

Is this the same Ken Black as in KB Racing? Owns Greg Anderson and Hillery Will's NHRA cars?

 

No, Keith Black Engines and KB Construction are two totally different entities.

 

Maybe he can ask the government for a Bail Out

why not eh?

at least his request would be a bit more legitiment, than the other bull shit thats going on.

Seriously tho..this sucks

 

I'm afraid this is just the tip of the iceberg. Look for many other changes in the performance and racing worlds in the next 12 months. Life as we have known it is changing, and there's nothing we little guys can do to change the downward flow.

I'm gunna go snort some Nitro.........

 

I wonder how this will affect Kieth Black Racing Pistons?

I would assume that that is a separate corporation???





.

 

So sorry to hear about Blacks shop - that's too sad. The shop I was working at shut down two months ago. Things are grim here - last week I applied at one of those quicky lube places and haven't heard back from them. Week before that, I applied for a general labor job and they said they'd have to have a drawing to determine who got hired - yikes!

 

C'mon Jay Leno, Jesse James, ect. snag this company and re-hire the help!

 

I did business with Keith for a lot of years. The first time I went to California to pickup parts and see who I was doing business with, there were 2 companies that impressed me. KB racing and Arias pistons. They were run as real businesses. Most people in the serious drag racing world were small operators. Those 2 had lots of employees and a real building. That was 1980. Alot has changed since then. A sad day non the less.

 

While the team I worked for,was still a regular customer of Keith Black's,we were told,they really only had,about 300 regular customers worldwide. That's a pretty small customer base. Sure hope things improve,great people to deal with,and a fine quality product.

 

Keith built the motor in my 442 back n the early 70's. Super guy to work with.
A SAD day indeed.

 

A different company totally .... http://kb-silvolite.com/index2.php

 

yea, before someone "overseas" gets it.

 

Thats just bull shit there.. Who is sucking who's dick here.. The france family aint nowhere near broke . I really dont know who the fuck got that shit thru but they need a good ass kicking. Nascrap is a god damn cult . They got the poor fucks lined up for fines and possible cool aid.
Screw em. Aint real racing anymore. Hell they got fenders anyway so it really aint real racing.
Dave

FTF

 

This is not a social commentary by me - just a relaying of the facts.

Part of the so called bail out extends for two years a tax policy that had been allowed to expire in December that lets motor-sports facilities be treated the same as amusement parks and other entertainment complexes for tax purposes.
That allowed them to write off their capital investments over a seven-year period. The motor sports industry feared that without a specific legal clarification, motor sports facilities would be required to depreciate their capital over 15 years or longer because of a recent Internal Revenue Service inquiry into the matter. That would make repaved tracks and new concession stands more expensive in the short term.
It isn't a new tax break, rather the way tax law historically has been interpreted, it allows the owners of race facility's and amusement parks the incentive to invest in their parks to stimulate jobs and material spending. There is no tax break or savings, it just changes when they take the depreciation.

 

So if its of no real benefit why did they specifically say nascar then cut to the bull shit explanation. When i read it it said nascar then motorsports and amusement parks and shit... Dont matter i quit going a long time ago .. I cant sell 2 or 3 cars to buy a ticket and 2 beers... Lot of rednecks got more money than i do..
Dave

 

My guess would be because NASCAR will grab the headlines and after all the media is all about sensationalism, not news anyway.
By the way, I wasn't defending it or even making an opinion, just thought people should know the facts, or as much of them as we will ever know.

 

change the name to KB RACING ENGINES AND INVESTMENT CORP...then the wallstreet assholes acan give up some of that $700 billion to him

 

One of my old neighbors,when I lived in Downey worked for Keith Black,in South Gate. He went to school with Ken Black. I wonder if he got layed with the rest of them? That's just too bad. Well,the bad economy touches all of us ,in some way...

 

The statement about them having only 300 customers I'd like to address. The hardcore racers in the supercharged categories make up their customer base. When I raced, there was about 300 nhra licensed racers total. There would be some boat and tractor puller people also. The whole group is fairly small. There are several block manufacturers now so when you divide the pie, there isn't a whole lot to go around. I have been out of this since 1996. I have no idea how they run the business or where most of the racers by their parts. In my lifetime, very few business's last forever. When the aluminum blocks were first released, you had a Donovan and a KB. Then there was a Milodon. See what there is now and what has become uncompetitive. I don't have any insite except this is one more part of history that is going down.

 

I was at K-B SHOP 1971 by buddy lorry azevedo and partner john kinsel had two inj late model hemis built for 1972 camaro funny car called the DRUMMER. Woody gilmore chassis Don kirby - Youngblood paint. The shop manager was HOLLY HEDRICH a HOT RODDER. The car set the national record at ENGLISH TOWN NJ WON COMP ELM 1972- BLEW THE DOORS OF OF JEGS.

 

With the problems Jesse is having trying to get his magazine together, I doubt he could take the pressure of having 75 or 80 customers at the same time with $70,000+ engines he couldn't get out the door....

 

True Dat

 

I remember a series in Hot Rod where he put one of his new aluminum big blocks in a third gen Camaro. That was a bad car! Sad about his company.




and on a side note...... now that you mentioned "JJ", count down until he comes on here and the resulting thread lock.....

 

Thanks to Hotroddon for cutting through the Washington mumbo-jumbo. This just emphasizes the final phase of converting racing into entertainment.

 

NASCAR isn't my thing at all, but I sure do hate the bullshit, pissing, moaning, whining and bitching about it.
A whole lot of tech has come out of NASCAR, even modern NASCAR. If you think you haven't benefited from the cam, valve spring, rear end, lubrication, electronics, safety gear, brakes and other technology that has gone into current NASCAR vehicles, you're incredibly short-sited. Think about that the next time you bolt in a Moser axle, COMP valve springs or MSD 6AL box.

But what the hell do I know? I'm not cool enough to get that whole "us versus them", "Trad vs Chainer" "glass vs steel" and class warfare thing.

I don't have a problem at all with businesses not paying taxes...because business DON'T PAY TAXES! Their customers pay it for them. If you're selling lemonade on your front lawn for 25 cents a glass, and the government comes in and says you need to pay a nickel on each glass, are you going to continue selling it for 25 cents? Of course not.

Any tax break NASCAR gets keeps prices down for teams, track owners and customers. So Bill France And Company has become filthy rich...good for them. He figured out a way to charge people to race, and charge people to come watch them race. Then spent the next 60 years building it up.
What's it to you?
-Brad

 

If I recall, the Drummer was facing off against a jr fueler for top honors. According to the NHRA record, the little B/Fueler was required to spot the purported slower injected flopper almost a good full second, but the damn Camaro was a full 2-3 tenths faster outright leaving the rail no chance in hell of catching him. And yes, Jeg's A/FC Cuda was no match

 

Lorry azevedo was not a bracket racer the record at that time was 7.80 he kept his foot in it 7.35 record. It hurt them with in 1 year they were out of the ballpark.

 

The team I worked for,also shut down in 1996. That "300" figure as stated was "Worldwide". Factoring in Australia,Britain,Europe and the Scandinavian countries adds up. The Nitro cars switching to more advanced block designs from other manufacturers also was a big hit to "KB".