Automotive Specialists

I'd always dreamed about going to the salt flats when I was a kid. People don't realize it's a five mile dyno pool and it just seems You're using every ounce that you've got. My name is Keith Dorton. I founded the company Automotive Specialist in 1965. My name is Jeff Dorton. We're in Concord, North Carolina. I'm still inspired by Dad, Our business primary goal is to provide engines for all different types of motorsports, which includes oval track racing, drag racing, NASCAR to vintage to land speed racing, muscle cars, hot rides and so forth. We've changed our business model, which was primarily oval track racers, professional racers, mainly NASCAR, which we did for 40 plus years. Land speed has put us on the map lately, and I've had it for us. We first went to Bonneville in 09 with one car. It was quite a learning experience. It's just Were challenged by the altitude difference, the temperature, the barometer, all of the density altitude. All of that is so different from here in North Carolina. No rules other than cubic inch and type of class, so you're able to really get creative. So were challenged about tuning, but when it first got out there and the first record that we broke, it was, Music Remember when I was just getting started, engineers said it would be impossible for anybody to accelerate from standing start to over 200 miles an hour in a car. This is a 1956 engine that we've updated with electronic fuel ejection and other modern components to make over 400 horsepower. I've never judged our success by wins. I mean, we won the Daytona 500. We won a lot of other races in big time series. The equipment has changed into different types of materials which require different machining practices. The drastic increase in horsepower. Things that you're able to do with the new technology, it's just unheard of during most of my career. The Rotten Machine gives us what I feel You're always looking for that edge. We have used the Rotler for some very unique projects. We've adapted this machine to do some pretty far out machining on those blocks. Our only CNC machine we have now is our Rotler F69A, and it has brought us from the stone ages, it seems like, to, Gosh, we've used the machine for connecting rod machining. So whoever thought you'd be using a block machine for that. Blown or unblown, fuel or gas, that's it. So we've been to use some ingenuity to achieve some pretty radical things.