Keith Black

[Princess Valiant]

when I was younger I remember reading up about the growing popularity of hypereutectic pistons as being a lower cost alternative to forged pistons which are still quite costly.......at the time I dismissed the name Keith Black as being a company name that makes pistons ...so what.

well as i read more and more and get more engrained into all things vintage automotive ......i could not help but notice the name Keith Black on some very vintage dragster car photos from the what i estimate the mid 60s.

so that caused me to do more research into the name Keith Black and found that the name of the man behind the company actually has a lot more history and legend and a place of importance in racing than i ever thought. He had a very important role with Chrysler.


anyone have more info on who Keith Black was?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Black_(engineer)#Engineer

 

[krazykuda]

He used to make Racing Hemi blocks for drag racing. He was a big name back in the day.

 

[famous bob]

He used to make Racing Hemi blocks for drag racing. He was a big name back in the day.

he didn`t make the pistons, silvolite paid him for his endorsement. they were good pistons, I`ve ran them in 2 brand zx`s--------------bob

 

[1968dartman]

I worked on an alcohol dragster that had one of his blocks. They make great products!!

 

[SSVDP]

Off the top of my head I can't recall specific details but he was both a super bright engine guy and just an all round good guy.

 

[Frankie]

If Keith Black piques your interest, here are two other names from my era of drag racing that you might like to research...

Ed Donavan and Ed Pink. Both contributed in a big way to sportsman and pro racing back in the day.

...I'm proud to say that I've met all three of these guys at one time or another, and all were very gracious.

 

[C130 Chief]

And Mickey Thompson didn't just make tires...

 

[winstoninwisc]

micky with his help bend and brake a lot of steel still today if your not ready to seriously hookup

 

[ocdart]

Rani -

All you have to do is ask a question here on FABO and you'll get answers.

Here's a Keith Black story for you that you won't get from anybody else here on FABO:
Waaaaaay back in July 1970, having just recently gotten married and still going to college, I joined the California Army National Guard to fulfill my military obligation. During the first weekend drill (five months before even going to Basic Training) there were a few of us new guys sitting around in our civilian clothes and I overheard a couple of guys talking about drag racing and I knew one guys last name was 'Black' so I jokingly asked, "Any relation to Keith Black?". He said, "Yeah, he's my dad." There I was, a Mopar guy and one of the other new guys in my unit was Kenny Black, Keith's son! Kenny now runs the Keith Black business.
We became pretty good friends after that but lost contact after a couple of years when our National Guard unit was disbanded and we were re-assigned to two separate units.
About six months after meeting Kenny Black, I broke the block in my '69 340 Swinger (long story best left for another thread). All I could get from a dealer was a short block so I called Kenny to see what he could do for me. He told me come down to the shop and pick out the block I wanted. When I got there, they had stacks of 340 T/A blocks against a wall in their warehouse because they were building some of the engines being used in the old TransAm race series. The T/A blocks were stronger since they were cast from higher nickel-content steel and the oil pan rails were filled solid.
Prior to all of that, I used to see Keith Black, Ed Pink and other SoCal engine builders with regularity at the big Top Fuel and Funny Car races at Orange County International Raceway (OCIR) here in SoCal - back in the day when you'd hear radio commercials about "64 Funny Cars - Be There!!!" Those were great times! Those were also the days of push-starts for Top Fuel cars and the fire-up road was immediately in front of the pit-side grandstands at OCIR. They'd push both cars down from the finish line area toward the starting line and they'd catch and start about 2/3 of the way down the fire-up road. If you were standing there at the short fence separating the grandstand area from the track and in just the right spot you'd get a snootfull of nitro when they fired as the dragsters were passing right in front of you no more than six feet away from the fence. There was a turnaround area where the doorslammer staging lanes emptied out and both cars would turn around, do their burnout and dry hops, stage and get on down the track after the tree counted them down. More than several times I watched as a driver would stop the running fueler in front of Keith Black and he'd reach down and make a little adjustment on something.
Like I said, those were great times and the basis of some great memories.