Race Engine Talk

We are nearing the end of another year and I must say this one went fast and not as well as hoped for. A lot went on for us from minor flooding to holding off the Nazi horde.

I did not come near the overall business goals that I had hoped for at the beginning of the year and I do not think we were alone in that disappointment. The market was soft and the high gas prices killed the marine segment of our business. There is also a lot of uncertainty among buyers even though the overall economy is strong. For those that listen to the left-wing media, they were told that the financial situation is grim regardless of what the real economic picture showed and I feel it kept a lot of people from spending their extra dollars on high performance cars, their engines and the parts that we sell.

Another thing that killed us was ebay. In 2006, we had a great year with ebay and made a lot of money with them but, because of being linked to a bad account from long ago (one that can not be easily fixed), we were shut down. Attempts at trying to re-open were met with stiff opposition from ebay. It seems they like to cut off their nose to spite their face. I had two accounts with perfect feedback that got canned. Oh well, we have to move on I guess.

We are also nearing the end of a long battle of cleaning up the mess that was A.H.M. Performance - Germany. The people that we were working with were just not getting the job done for us and we had to shut that whole thing down. We still sell to our German customers but just not through any distributors. Many lessons were learned and we are cleaning up some of the last of the messes and we will be completely done.

However, not all was bad. For example, with ebay giving us the shaft, we focused more attention back on our own websites and they are better off now. We will also be making a harder charge toward grassroots support at the local tracks this coming year. eBay may have meant to squash us but we will make lemonade out of those lemons.

So, with one month to go before 2008, we first want to thank our customers for their past support and we hope that it will continue on into the future. We have a lot of goals and they are attainable with hard work and determination…..and a lot of help from the Lord!

For the months of October, November and December of 2007, we will be giving a $50 discount to all 509, 540, 555 & 565 shortblock assemblies. The A.H.M. Performance built short blocks consist of a new Dart Big M block, SRP domed or flat top pistons, a 4340 PBM 4.250″ stroke forged crankshaft, 6.385″ 4340 forged H-Beam rods, race bearings and race rings. All the rotating parts are internally balanced and assembled into the fully machined block.

 Please call us at 410-866-4747 or e-mail us at chris@ahmperformance.com for more information.

We at A.H.M. Performance / Cross Racing Products recently purchased the new BHJ O-Ring fixture for Chevy LS engines. We can provide o-ring installation as well as cut for receiver grooves for o-rings or for Fel-Pro Loc-Wire gaskets.

This fixture will speed up the process greatly as we had to do it previously with our boring machine and our verticle mill and it was very time consuming.

The current rate for having this performed is $200 for the block and $200 for the heads. If both are being done at the same time, we can do them for $350.

Please contact Chris at 410-866-4747 or by e-mail chris@ahmperformance.com for more information.

Hello everyone. This is the first blog entry here and I hope this is something that will grow with time. We have two businesses that work together; A.H.M. Performance and Cross Racing Products. They can be found online at www.ahmperformance.com and www.crossracingproducts.com so be sure to check them out.

We are always open to your comments and suggestions. If we did anything, right or wrong, please tell us about it.

We will be adding new content as often as time permits so please do check back or you may even want to subscribe to our blog.

Thanks,
Chris Crossont