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Horsepower, Baby!
About this episode
Heath Norton, president of Callies Performance, joins Kevin Byrd and Willie B to talk racing culture and how Callies has evolved from making crankshafts decades ago to offering multiple families of cranks, cams, rods, and even engine blocks. They cover why U.S.-made parts matter, how catastrophic failures and customer “autopsies” drive engineering improvements, and the company’s new Gen III Hemi aluminum block developed with partners like Direct Connection and Stellantis. Heath also weighs in on the return of horsepower wars, durability testing, and the future of performance as OEMs ramp up motorsports again.
Topics:
callies evolution from cranks to full engine platforms
u.s.-made performance parts and quality control
engineering lessons from catastrophic engine failures
why rods are the “insurance policy”
gen iii hemi aluminum block development
durability testing and real-world feedback loops
oem collaboration with direct connection and stellantis
horsepower wars returning in new forms
future of performance beyond traditional muscle cars
motorsports investment by oems
The Horsepower Wars are back! President of Callies Performance Products Heath Norton takes Kevin and Willie deep behind-the-scenes on the massive collaboration between Callies and Stellantis/Direct Connection to bring the new Aluminum Gen 3 Hemi block to the masses. Heath reveals the "racing dust" he’s baked into the tooling for dry-sump flexibility and why the 52-hour torture test at the Chrysler Tech Center proved that the Hemi is far from dead.
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Chevrolet Camaro
"...re just kicking themselves for letting go of the Camaro? I know a lot of people internally really wish th..."
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Chevrolet Corvette
"...lly really wish they didn't. But the, that, that Corvette man, and they, they, they, that thing's, they've ..."
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Challenger Hellcat
"... right? Everybody was striving for 700, when the Hellcat came out, 707 was the new bar. And then, you know..."
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Ford Mustang
"...ecause the volumes are going down, it seems like Mustang sales, etc. They're just, you know, there's not e..."
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It is the two guys who are on podcast, he is Kevin Byrd, I am Willie B and man, very
few people just have the, just the, the exclamation point in everything they do like the guy we
have on the day man, our buddy Heath Norton, president of Cali's, everybody knows Cali's,
if you're serious about racing, if you're serious about performance, everybody knows
Cali's, they're distinguished in the industry as far as performance goes as being, you know,
just the go to, all things top tier, we get a lot of cool things to talk about, chat about
and catch up on today too man, so I am fired up, excited for the podcast today bro.
Well you said it man, anybody that's into performance, anybody that's into racing,
I mean Cali's performance products right, whether it's their crankshafts, con rods,
I mean they got into camshafts a couple years back right, and they're into billet blocks,
I mean anything that's just really pushing the limits, these guys have their fingers into and
it'll be cool catching Heath in here because there's so many details, so much engineering and
science right, that go into the, you know, the design and construction and whatever,
and then obviously the quality manufacturing, these guys have been doing forever and ever,
so we're going to pick up on some of those, but they got at least three big kind of new
announcements, so we're going to stagger those in today man, yeah we're going to save the best
for last, I mean I know you're going to be totally stuck on this one, so that's a little bit of a
hint. Oh dude I'm so excited, yeah I'm so excited about it, and you know just all that technology
that's incorporated in that now, can't wait to get on that, and yeah man this guy's in the industry
a juggernaut when it comes to performance, and you know you're serious when you're talking to these
guys, they're just out there living it, and by living it they're in everybody that's going fast,
anybody that wants to go fast, this is who they call, this is the stuff they have, so it's way
cool, and I say we might as well bring him on early, Heath welcome to the podcast as always man,
what a great moment it is to spend with you man, picking your brain, catching up on all things,
Cali's, thanks so much for joining us my man. Hey thanks for having me guys, it's so much fun to
be on this, I've been on this two or three times, and this is one of my favorite podcasts because
we got real enthusiasts, it's not just a bunch of guys who are trying to make a name for themselves,
they're people that really, that live and breathe this stuff, and you know you know Bird here, he
lives here, Southeast Michigan like I do, and you know it's the car culture in Detroit is something
special, and it's really a, you know it's something, it's something unique, you know you
people out in Denver, you don't really get it, it's like you can't help it, but it does, that's
the Detroit people who's gonna get it. We got grit, we got grit here man, we got grit, that's right.
Yeah man, you have to have it because you can only get your car out for like four months out of
the year. We've had, we've had 65 degree day, well 60 degree days, 35 times this winter,
it's been the best winter for hot rods, cars, performance, here's the problem with Denver,
we just don't have a race track right now, we're just, we're lost man, there's so many,
there's, that's a whole different topic for a different day, but yeah we're lost out here for
a place to go racing, that's why so many of us go to Vegas or go hunt down big races, but
when it comes to racing you guys are who we talk about, you guys are who we go to man,
so it's an absolute honor to have you on the podcast, pick your brain, you got so many things,
dude ever since you kind of took the helm, we've been talking to you anyway, I remember when we
first talked to you, you were so gung-ho and excited about some of these cool things that
Cali's was bringing to the table, you were like a kid in a candy store man, and that energy attitude,
excitement, it has not faded over the years, and it is just, it is awesome to see what you guys have
really kept your, kept the importance of Cali's, what it means to the racing community, so you
know, so top-line, so top tier and top-shelf and on the, on the line of sight, you guys are always
putting out stuff that we're needing, we're asking for and we're wanting. Yeah, I'd say I don't work,
I make fun things every day, it's the best part about my life, I mean some days it feels like
work, but you know, every day I wake up and it's, you know, I'm driving into the shop, I just start
thinking about what can I get to do today, and it's like, it's, I get energized on the opportunities
just to do really fun things, and you know, every once in a while I'll come into the guy,
all right guys, I got a crazy idea, and they're like,
and so like, oh, you know, the funny part is, is like when I go on vacation, they're like,
man he's gonna come in hot, he's gonna have so many ideas, and he's just, he's not gonna be able to,
you know, we're not gonna be able to contain him. So hold that thought, because we're gonna go against
a break right now, but you mentioned something I'd like to pick your brain about, we're gonna get
a lot of these new products, and like you said, a lot of them spawn from your ideas,
and when you're on vacation, but how different is it driving into that shop? Let's say today,
compared to what it was 20 years ago, think about that when we come back,
talking callies you guys, it's two guys, Rod podcast, Kevin Bird, Willie B, we're back after the break.
It is the two guys, Rod podcast, he is Kevin Bird, I am Willie B,
and man, we have a great guest on today, Heath Norton, president of callies, you guys know
callies, all things performance, looking about callies.com, callies performance. When we were,
you know, up against the wall at a break, he's mentioned driving into work, and I was just curious,
Heath, as you drove into work today, you say it's not even work, but how is it different
than driving into work 20 years ago? Is it even the same building? Tell me a little bit about that
difference. Different building, a lot much larger building. The 20 years ago, you would have drove
into our plan on Jones Road in the north side of the town that's in Falsoria, and that building was
the original building that we started in 1950. Wow. It was one of these buildings that we have
adding on and adding on, so it looked like almost like a refugee camp, because there was not,
it just, you know, it was a hodgepodge of ceiling heights. The plant we're in now,
it's an older building, but it's been making crankshafts for over 100 years, and we bought it
from Atlas crankshaft, which was a subsidiary of Cummins, and it's been making crankshafts
for over 100 years, and we've been in it for since 96, I believe, and we've been making,
maybe a little bit before that, but we've been making crankshafts for like-homing engine in
there for since the mid-90s, and we make cam shafts and crankshafts for like-homing engine
for all the piston-driven airplane engines. 20 years ago, all we made was cranks,
and 20 years ago, we were just starting our Comstar line. We made all of our magnums and
our stealths, and you know, it was, Big Y was, I think we made big blocks, small blocks, LSs,
and small block fours, and some chemists, that's all we made. Now we make 20 different families,
any year of crankshafts. I mean, we're doing cams, we're doing engine blocks,
you know, we're doing so many more different things, we're distributing more products for a
mother, great manufacturers, and you know, one of the greatest things about what we do is
we make parts here. Do we import stuff from overseas? Yeah, we do, but we label it as a
different brand. If it's a Cali's branded item, it's made in the United States, and we're really
proud about that. Energy and Cali's products are made in the United States, they're made,
and we welcome people to come visit us to see us, how we make them, we give you a tour,
our door is always open for customers, we don't, we, you don't have to schedule anything,
just show up, we give you a tour, and you know, we're always, we love what we do, we love showing
off what we do, and that's one of the biggest things that I tell everybody, when you're buying a part,
when you're buying it from somebody, ask them where it's made.
Ask them, find out where it's, because it's, you know what, we do sell, we do sell budget items for,
you know, for, you know, it's, but if you want stuff made in America, you got to buy stuff made
in America, and that's one of the biggest things about it, people don't realize that it's really
important, if you're, if you want to, if you want to support the industry here in the United States,
you got to buy stuff that's made here in the United States, and we're, we make a lot, we do buy
stuff from offshore, but we make a lot of stuff here, a majority of our stuff is made here.
Yeah, and you'll get the quality that comes with that, right?
Exactly, absolutely.
Quality control that comes with that.
It's been wild watching you, because when I first learned about Cali's, it was Cali's Cranks,
right, I was 26 years ago, right, and working on the OEs, right, having some prototypes made
with you guys, and then to watch you guys grow into so many segments in the last 25 years,
right, like you just rattled off, right, and so many different lines within, right,
connecting rods, so you got your top tier, you're boosted, you're this, you're full on billets,
you know, all these things that you guys have built, it's been fun watching you grow this thing.
Yeah, it's been great, I mean, it's, it's, and you asked the question about 20 years ago, and it makes
me reflect a little bit, and because sometimes I feel like, what have we accomplished, what have
we done, you know, just because day in and day out, you're, you're just grinding to get stuff out
of the door, but when you sit, when you sit back and think about it, it's, it's amazing
and a lot of stuff that we do on a yearly basis, because it's, you know, like we, we talked about
earlier, the couple of years ago, people were begging us to make crankshafts for tractor pulling,
and five years ago, we didn't make them. Now, I mean, we make navistars, we make big block
deers, small block deers, and we're coming out with a billet Cummins for the 6.7 for pulling,
and we're coming out with, you know, a budget, you know, service crank for that as well, and it's,
it's, you know, the scope of what we are doing and the complexity is, is just amazing. I mean,
it's, it's, I don't, I, I, I have to pitch myself how lucky I am. I get to do what I do.
And it's just more proof that men will race anything. It does not matter.
Oh, absolutely.
Men are silly stupid when it comes to racing. Men will race lawnmowers, the tractors,
the trucks, the cars, the coupes, motorcycles, and it's got wheels and can burn fuel. Men will
damn sure race it. We're not, we're not known for great decision making, but we're known for
having fun decision making. Absolutely, man. You know what's funny is, back in the early days of
racing, for people that, you know, I don't know if a lot of people on the podcast would know about
this, but there was this, there was this old forum site called Yellow Bullet, and people would talk
so much on there about who had what and what setup would work and what setup would work.
And you know, the people that were really backing up what they were saying,
in the notes of what they were running, always had Cali's. That was where the sign, they always ran,
you know, I got a Cali's crank pitch, it's this, this, this, this. And you can go back and watch
them forums and it was always like, it was always one of those, you know, just notable things when
you looked at the ingredients that worked. You always saw those, you know, that's what I'm running,
that's what I have. And it was always just a, just a little sign, just a little thing that you knew
you had security in that. And the fact that you guys always, like I mentioned earlier, you guys
always seem to come out with what is being in demand, what's next, as far as, you know,
hot racing performance setups. And man, I know with the amount of skews that you've increased,
what's next and what's coming out now has to be exciting for you and for us on this end.
You know what, one of the things that I find is it's the constant development and the evolution
of what we already, the current what we make and to what it is now. And we've seen, I've seen
cranks that, you know, people tear their engine down, they have a crank from 25 years ago and
they ship it to us. And I'm like, I look at it, I'm like, we actually sold that crank, we were
proud of that at one time. The evolution is just staggering where we are today versus what we were
20, 25 years ago. But to be honest, it's not, it's not just you.
I've been in the industry for quite a while, like everybody has been on this learning curve,
you know, like when I showed up in engineering scene, right, and you look at all the competitors
and you look at all the details of what goes in these engines. And, you know, that's kind of
the basis for a lot of what we do in the aftermarket. We start with OE stuff until we break it, you
have learned and figured out to what the aftermarkets learned and figured out,
it's been huge, huge. I mean, that's why we're spitting out production 1000 horsepower cars,
which is nuts, you know, that's great. Yeah, it's wild. Absolutely wild.
Willie, what you were saying earlier about, you know, on the, on the forums or whatever,
and people talk about their, you know, what's hot and what's working. And, you know, it's great
you can keep adding boost, you can keep adding RPM until the guts of your engines spill out onto
the asphalt, you know, like, and that's where, right, you got to do some upgrades. So that's
where Kelly's comes in for sure. You know what, well, actually, one of my favorite things is when
we do get the calls and they start sending us photographs of what failed because I'm always
amazed that, you know, I see like rods ripped in half and I'm like, all right, you got to tell me,
what did you do? Because I mean, I mean, how did you do this one? Because it's, and for us,
we learn a lot from it, which is great. But it's always sometimes you're like, wow,
I don't even know what you did. Because it's so some of the catastrophic failures are just epic.
And you, every once in a while, you will get one in and everybody just is like scratching the
head like, to do this, you had to really detonate the ever 11 hell out of that engine, or you had
to hydraulic it, or you had to, I mean, you do something because these things don't move like
that without a immense amount of pressure. Right. I see this on the website, man. Hey, Bird,
he's new thing, right? Confessions of a racer. It wasn't my fault, but
it was the tuner. It was the engine builder. Absolutely. You know, and any, any racer and
on the OE side as well, right? You're pushing everything to the limit. So I mean,
part of the game is you're, you're breaking stuff, you're learning, you're breaking stuff,
you're learning it. And sometimes the autopsy is so hard, you know, like revealing. Well,
that's what you want because you want to go, what was it? Was it the wristband? Was it this? Was
it that? You know, like you name it. But sometimes, right, that thing is whipping around at, you know,
789,000 RPM with a lot of mass to it. And, you know, part goes and just like, there's just
little shrapnel everywhere. You're just looking at, you know, oil pan with five holes in it and
the shrapnel on the ground and you're like, it could have been a hundred things. You just absolutely
talked about, you know, probably, which I always, people call it, I want to get a billet crank. Okay.
All right. Well, how about some rods? Well, if you're buying a billet crank, you're going to
want to use our ultra rods, those are the best rods. And what I said, you do an NA or boost it
because we can different rod for that or it's dirt or dirt racing, whatever. And how much are
those? Oh, give anything cheaper. No, no, no. You, if you're going to build an engine, you don't
cheap on the rods. Rods, you, you, you got what your budget is and start with the rod.
Right, right. Yeah. That's your insurance policy, right?
When a rod fails like a saw's on the engine, a crank and brake in two and still run. But, you
know, a rod's like a saw's on is just when a rod goes, everything goes sideways.
What's like buying, you know, beachfront property in Florida with no insurance.
Exactly. Right. It's like, get the beachfront with the billet rod.
Yep, exactly. You know, or at least.
I mean, you always pay how many times you want to pay.
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. All right. So look, man, I know we're up against the brake, but
when we come back, we do have to talk a little bit about, well, a little about this new thing
that you guys have as far as satisfying the need for all these, these gin three,
you know, aluminum blocks that are out there. And due to the fact that you guys are bringing
this to the, to the aftermarket, to the performance guys, we can get it to it for a little bit here,
but what a, what a big step. I mean, it's got to be so cool for you to work at a place where
you can go old school. You know, I just think Himmys and Mopars wedge motors. You got a 440
replacement wedge motors and 426 replacement Himmys motors for the old school guys. Now you
got aluminum gin three Himmys. You think about just the gin three design, how Birdmitch earlier,
it's an evolutionary step in strength, maximizing strength, thermal management, advanced
headboats, the plasma transfer wire, arc stuff that's going down and all these things
that are out there that you guys are bringing to the table with this. It's, it's unreal the
world we're living in, man. You guys get to live that every day. It's nuts. Well, and it's such a
huge branch, right? A fork in the road between, right? The difference between, yeah, it all goes
in the bottom of the engine, but the difference between what goes into designing, building a
crankshaft and an aluminum block, right? It just shows the massive space that you guys are in,
right? What made you lean that direction, man? What made you dive that direction? Just the need,
the demand? You know, I'm a glutton for punishment. I just love this. I mean, honestly, it's,
I say, yes, way too fast. And sometimes, you know, I'm like, I'm like, whoa, what am I doing?
And then, you know, but then I'm too stubborn to quit. And it's, it's a lot of fun. I mean,
I love this business. It's so much fun. And I, you know, I hear customers say, I really wish I had
this. And then I start thinking about it. And I'm like, why can't I do that? And then I get myself
into a, usually a huge mess that I got to dig myself out of, but usually it's been pretty lucky.
But it's, it's definitely a, a labor of love. You don't, you don't fake it in this industry.
You, you get, you, the, the, the, the, the frauds get found out. Oh, a couple drag passes,
we'll call you out in a heartbeat, you know, or whatever race you're in, man. It's, yeah,
it's evident. It's right there in front of everyone, right? It's on the ground for all to see.
Well, let's, let's dive into this block. Willie, take us out for a quick break. You guys,
hang on for a second. Cause I want some more scoop on this gen three aluminum block, man.
That's awesome. And think about this, the, the horsepower wars that we thought were over a few
years ago, they really just begun again. And I think they're coming back harder than ever before.
The aftermarket is there on par with where the, where the OEs left off at like a thousand horsepower.
The sky is the limit moving forward. And the man we have on with us will tell us all about it coming
up next. It's the two guys garage podcast, Ken Bird, Willie B. We're back after the break.
It is two guys garage podcast. He is Kevin Bird. I am Willie B. And we have a great friend,
Heath Norton, our president of Cali's, check it out online, Cali's dot com, Cali's performance,
everything. If you're a racer, if you're in performance, if you're in the road racing,
if you're the RPMs, then you know Cali's man. And they know you. That's what makes them so great.
When we left, we're talking about them diving into, you know, the world of gen three,
hammies, the aluminum gen three, hammies, which I think is great. The gen three engine block design,
everybody knows for, for the coyote people, for the GM, you know, people out there, it's,
it's something that's needed. It's something that's being big in demand. It's something that we
squeak more performance out of because the, the block design, the way the thermal management is
in these blocks is so much improved over the years gone by. It's the future of performance
and racing. And these guys are taking out to the next level, which is fantastic. So dude,
excited to, to have you on and talk about this. You know, we're, we're really fortunate to have
a great partner in Stellanus with, with their direct connection and Mo Park crew. We collaborated
with them on this block. This is the block that's going in the drag pack and the Halifant.
We also sell it directly to the public with our, you know, our working arrangement with,
with direct connection. It's, it's just been a great relationship for us because it's enabled
us to do more faster than we would buy by ourselves. We did, we did a huge durability test on this
engine up at the pressure tech center at CTC up at Auburn Hills. It's been just a great, great
project for us. And we're really excited to be able to offer this. And I won't lie. I might have,
you know, put some racing dust in the, in the tooling package that Stellanus didn't know about,
that I, the direct connection didn't necessarily know if I, I might have made it so we can do a
nine five deck from a nine to five, I might have made it, we can do a dry block. I might,
I might have done a few things that just said, Hey, what do you want? I'll get you there. But
let me have some freedom here. And that's one of some of the things that we did is we were,
you know, we're working on bringing some of these other variants to market to support,
you know, the drag racer and the, and also, you know, eyes don't want the bigger cubes in the
NA application. You know, we're just really excited about this project. It's been a, it's been a
long labor of love and it's, but it's, I, the gen three, I think is going to, I mean,
you know, whatever when, when Caniscus were not retired a couple of years ago and
they did the, the, the D 170 and I was like, is it over? Thank God it's not.
Cause it's so cool that they, they're bringing it back. They're, they're not,
the Hemi's not dying. And you know, it doesn't against that, that hurricane engine.
It's all great. That's great. But we need a Hemi in our life. Everybody needs a Hemi.
You know, it's fantastic. It's like everybody needs to, you know, there's certain things in
life, big blockchain relays, Hemi's, you know, there's just, you know, small block forwards,
you need these in your life because without them, our life's just not as good.
Amen to that dude.
Well, what a, what a great collaboration to be able to like marry this aftermarket experience
with the OEs because they have so much knowledge of the product, but they don't have the knowledge
of, he's a Mopar dude. He's got to be a dream come true. He's a Mopar guy.
They don't have, they don't have the insights of what we do with that outside the OE world.
So to blend that together has to be super cool. And then I was going to ask you, like, what kind
of things have you baked in? Cause that's what I'd always do. Like at Ford back in the day,
it was like, you know, they'd say, oh, we just need a, you know, a 25 horsepower, 15 horsepower
upgrade for this program. You're like, yeah, right, dude. So, and so it's going to put blowers
on it and this and that. And so yeah, you're always baking in what you know, the aftermarket's
going to need. So it's already there or right? It's in your tooling and you can flex it and,
you know, be, be in a local here in Detroit is, is just really a, it's awesome because you just
get connected to people and you start, you know, you run into people, you have lunch with people
next, you know, let's do it. Come on, let's go. And it's so much fun. And like we do, we're doing
some great stuff with Ford and GM and, and the direct connection at Stalinas. It's great. We,
we just, you know, we really get to do everything and bounce around and like,
you know, in a, in a, in a, in a days, we, you know, I'm working with Ford on their MegaZilla
crate engine. It's great, you know, and then we're working on these blocks and this, this,
you know, the hell of it and the drag pack engines with Chrysler and with GM, we're,
we're doing some of our projects with them recently too. And it's just, it's really a lot
of fun to work with a lot of these OEMs, whether because they're depth and as it in the day,
they're car guys, they're absolute car guys and they, they, they're in that business because
they love cars, not because they want a job or you don't survive in a car company unless you
love cars and you may work there for a minute, but you don't survive a long time. And that's
the really fun thing in this, in this Mopar block is just, it's really a lot of fun. The direct
connection guys have been fantastic. We're, we're moving forward. You can go to dealers and buy
hell of an engines again. And you know, they're, they're selling drag packs. It's just, it's
really, it's a fun time. It's a fun time. What are some numbers from some of these setups that
you guys are seeing? What are some, uh, some numbers that I think that the hell of it right
around 1100, I believe horsepower and just think about that 1100 and a aluminum package.
Right. So yeah, there's the drag race scene, but, um, you know, there's a lot of us that love to
pro tour and road race and everything else. And so that combo, damn, right out of a crepe.
Yeah, but the durability within this thing was, it was ridiculous. I mean, it was, they were doing,
I think it went 52 hours and it was, um, continuous quarter mile, half mile
and, and, and road ride, road race, uh, circuits and just hammering and hammering and hammering it.
It was just, it was, it, it took a beating and it just, you know, the block did really well. It
just really, you know, we worked out some of the kinks. It was just, it was so much fun to be a
part of it. I mean, it just consumed my life for a while, but it was great. I mean, I wouldn't trade
for anything. I'm just excited to see it out in the marketplace and be able to make it and,
and support people and get the product out there. And, and the cool thing is we get calls from people
like, Hey, this happened. Okay, great. Give us the info. We're going to keep tweaking this thing.
We're going to keep making it better. Every year it's going to get a little better. And because,
you know, there's no way to, as I gave, well, did you do an FEA analysis? I go, on what? I can't,
I can't, on what, what, what application, what variation, what, what package, what is something
that there's too many variations or I can't do it all. But if I can, you know, we get real world
experience on these things when, I mean, you know, guys are out pushing it and pushing it.
We listen, we make improvements. We want to know what you're doing with these parts.
Now you, you mentioned something that you got to go test it, be a part of this thing as you're
developing it. Does that mean there was seat time for you where you got in that thing, got the
bang gears at it? You got to let it eat the thing? No, I was in a dino cell. Oh yeah, dino dude,
you just hammer that thing 24 seven if you need to. Yeah, yeah, but you got to sit there and bang
on it, hear it at RPM, let the thing eat, just boom, that bang at the bang, right? It was awesome.
It was so much fun to be a part of it. How cool. Yeah, I was wondering how cool is that knowing
that, you know, you're sitting there pulling a trigger, watching it all and just all that feedback
is coming three at the same time, man. Dream comes true for a more part guy. Well, think about it.
So durability, right, you think about doing a dino pool, you know, a few seconds, you know,
everything comes down again, do a durability, just sitting there bouncing off a peak power,
peak torque, peak power, peak, like just nonstop. It's just full rage for hours and hours and
hours. It's a completely different experience. Like, it's, it's, there's a lot of engine
shops, they, they, they throw the engines on, they hit it a few times. Okay, we're good.
Got a number. That's great. I got the number. Yep. We tuned it, we did it, whatever, you know, but
yeah, when you're going durability, that's just nonstop, right? Nonstop. It's like quarter mile
and just keep going, you know, like, it's a, it's a beast. It was pretty fun to be a part of it.
It was really a lot of fun. Were there moments where you, you as the, what are the designers
were like, geez, we are hammering this thing. I mean, you'd sit there, you watch it, you watch
the gauges and you watch all the readings, you're like, oh my God, we're beaten. No, I mean, we are,
we are whipping this thing proper. And it, you know, it's been fun. I mean, I was, I, I was,
for the mega Zella, I mean, we've been working on the camshaft and we do the rods for that. It's,
it's been really fun watching that one come around too. And they're doing a great job. It's,
I mean, there's some really good crate engines coming out right now. I mean, really good from the
OEM. It looks like a little bit ago when you're, when you cover the GM side of coin, you, you pulled
back a little bit, like you were almost letting the cat out of the bag too early on the GM project.
Are you working with GM or something? There's some cool stuff coming out of GM.
I see a little. Don't sleep on, don't sleep on the bow tie.
Right, right. Do you think they're, you think they're just kicking themselves for letting go of
the Camaro? I know a lot of people internally really wish they didn't. But the, that, that
Corvette man, and they, they, they, that thing's, they've kind of gone all in and they've kind of
got that whole market, you know, there was a bow tie engine coming on that we are, it's not with
GM, but it's with one of the, one of the premier aftermarket Chevy builders that's going to be
really pretty cool. I got to keep it quiet for right now. The needle is getting moved in the,
in the, in the bow tie world. And that's, it's going to be really cool.
This competition thing just rocks, you know, like just leapfrog and one over the other.
And the best part is I'm Switzerland. I keep all the secrets. I suck guns to everybody.
Hey, is there another horsepower? Remember back, it wasn't that long ago before the big EV push,
there was this massive, you know, horsepower war between all these manufacturers, right? Everybody
was striving for 700, when the Hellcat came out, 707 was the new bar. And then, you know,
Ford stepped up with 750, 760 on the, the super snake or something along those lines. And then,
you know, Chevy had their offering and then, you know, there's the demons and all that stuff.
Everybody knocking, you know, the Corvette's got 1200 or so, some kind of, is the horsepower war
back? I think they're back. I have a feeling, you know, based upon, I think the horsepower
wars are back. And I think it's going to be, and it's not necessarily going to be like a direct
number, it's going to be a combination of attributes that they're all going to be pushing
each other. And that's really fun to see. It's fun to watch all the engineers really work to
maximize power out of smaller packages and really, and it's, I think that I think we're
about to come into a really cool time in the automotive industry, because we've sort of,
you know, I don't want to say we wasted time on electric stuff, because, you know,
there's always things to be learned. But I'm happy that we've refocused on
things that are awesome, not American. Yeah. Yeah, no doubt. You know, in my mind,
and let me see what you think too, at least from the hot rod side, we've built so many,
right, hundreds of thousands of LS, LTS, HEMIs, coyotes, we've built them, they're out there,
they're in salvage yards, they're on the road. So at least from a content standpoint,
and then to go along with that, the aftermarkets, you know, used to have a couple of components that
would go on, you know, maybe a cylinder head and intake manifold, whatever. But now it's
like the whole engine, you can buy everything aftermarket. So between the ability to buy just
about anything from the block up to here's like umpteen hundreds of thousands in salvage yards,
you can pick up, you know, that's that core, right, to build with it seems like at least
from the hot rod side, all of us here are good until we're dead, you know, like, even if the OEs
change their mind again, and go back to EV or quit, you know, because the volumes are going down,
it seems like Mustang sales, etc. They're just, you know, there's not enough of us buying new
muscle cars and sports cars, you know, like in the heyday of it. And they're getting more expensive,
so it's tough. But even if they kind of die off, I think we can still play. We can play for a long
time. You know, it's changing because I think that, you know, we're finding new opportunities and new
ways to have, I'll say muscle cars, muscle trucks, this and that. I mean, some of the things we're
doing, like the Duramax and the Cummins and the Powerstrokes and all these different,
it's just a different flavor of awesome. And that's all, you know, I think we're going to start
seeing cars come back. I really believe the sports car is not dead. And it may not be from an OEM,
the sports car, it may be something else, it may be a niche provider, it may be, you know, a concept
builder that's doing like something like Hennessy, that's doing something a little different. I mean,
that's some of the things that, there's a lot of opportunities that are going to come out,
because people are starved for these fun things. They want them. I mean, it's not just here in
the United States around the world, they want to have these kind of things. I think we're going to
see more and more of it. And I think the OEMs, it's really fun to see guys that are running the OEMs
and girls like motorsports, you know, and it's, you know, it's like Faralli and Ford. He races
himself. It's great. You know, Tim Kaniscus is a horsepower addict. I mean, the guy can't get
enough. I mean, he's literally, he might have to go to therapy for all this, but I mean, he's doing
a great job. I mean, and Mary Barra, she's all in too. I mean, there's a lot of great people at
these companies that are doing really fun things. And I think that they all, I think they're,
I don't know, Kevin, how you feel being, you know, you live in Detroit also,
everybody seems to be just like, like a wet blanket has come off their back. We're like,
oh, we can have fun again. We're allowed to have fun again. We're allowed to build things that are
fun again. Well, it's wild how much the OEMs behind the scenes. And it might not be apparent,
but it is. They are investing big time in motorsports, right? They are back in racing, which,
which I hope right translates into what they're building and selling. So right, getting into
Formula One, like big into IMSA, like it's just amazing what, and they're bringing a lot of
engineering in-house instead of just funding projects and racers out there, which is all great,
but it just shows like a renewed interest at certain levels and in total motorsports and
performance. So even simple things like Ford changing their name from Ford Performance back
to Ford Racing. Yeah, yeah. It's racing. It's not, you know, it's, it's, they, the,
the attention to the sport is a big deal. But I don't know, I'm pretty excited, you know, but,
you know, I talked about earlier, the, it's really important. If you want to maintain racing in America,
you got to support companies, great companies that do make things in America that support this
industry. And it's not just mine, but all of them. They, it's really important that, you know,
you don't just go buy the cheapest thing you can and just because it's cheap, because, you know,
you always pay, you pay, you pay once, you can pay twice, you get to pick.
Well, that's why we love having you on. Yeah, a lot of people know nowadays, if you want performance,
you spell performance, C-A-L-L-I-E-S, man. And you can find them at callies.com,
Callies Performance, all things Callies, and it's the truth, man. We're, we're talking facts.
Don't, what did I say? Spitting the truth over here for sure when it comes to performance.
So look, simple. Where do people find you online? Just Callies.com?
Callies.com, energymanufacturing.com for our block stuff. And we're on all social media,
give it, you know, check us out. We, we're really excited. Come visit us. We're in Foster, Ohio,
Northwest out. We are, we're open all the time. Come visit us. Everybody's welcome.
Do you, if you're going to go race in Norwalk, 45 minutes west in Norwalk,
we're an hour and 15 minutes south of Milan. Come, come see us, please. Make a stop.
I'm going to take you up on that, man. That's awesome stuff to see behind the scenes, man.
It's cool. I don't care. I don't know if I can sell my wife on it yet. Maybe, maybe there's
some good thrift stores in the area. Hey, make sure you check out our show every weekend on
Discovery Turbo. Check your local listings. It's also available in Discovery plus and
max six hour producer scoop senior producer, Justin Carter, executive producer, Bob Ecker.
I'm Willie B. That's Kevin Bird. And my friends, this is the two guys garage podcast.
Yeah, don't forget, check out our website, two guys garage.com and we're everywhere on social
at two guys garage and the two guys garage podcast. It's copyright 2026 print and productions
incorporated all rights reserved. Dude, way cool catching up, man. That's why we love having you
on, man. A true American company making bad ass parts, man. I gotta tell you, man, it's right
now in this industry, it really is. It's really important that people beat that drum because
there's a lot of things working against a lot of the manufacturers and it's between the private
equity guys and some of the other stuff happening. It really, we got to really jump on board on this
and support it. And I tell people, hey, you don't have to buy it for me, but wherever you buy it
from, ask Rose made and ask for pictures because it matters. It really does. It does man. And we
need you guys, right? Could you keep the whole thing alive? We talked about the OEs. It's a
symbiotic relationship, right? They're only doing certain things and it's a huge factor that we
leverage on, but we need guys like you to piece all of it together. So very cool. Well, hey guys,
hope you enjoyed it. You know where to go to get your performance parts. We love that
bi-American thing. Build it, make it here. We'll catch you on the next two guys at Roger Podcast.
Take care. Two Guys at Roger Podcast is a production of Britain Productions. For more
episodes, visit iHeartRadio, Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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