Camcraft Newsletter
December 1, 1999
Editor: Charles Reichard
Dear Customers,
Hopefully we all had a pleasant
Thanksgiving. I spent the holiday in bed sick and am trying to recover by
Thursday when we fly to Sarasota for my stepfather’s 90th birthday
celebration. We return Sunday. As badly
as I feel right now I doubt I’ll get much work done before we leave. My
apologies in advance to anyone who didn’t get their performance cams done
before we left. Hopefully I will be well and rested when I get back and will be
quickly caught up.
Our business this time of year is
usually very slow to put it mildly. Fall of 1999 has been a pleasant surprise
to us. We have continued to stay busy despite racing season being over some
months ago. We have new customers wanting to include us in their off season
testing and regular customers trying new things for next season. We have a good
flow of work. Many of our customers report they are also busier than normal for
this time of year. The economy must be
good!
We will be closed from December 24th until Dec
29th. Please advise the appropriate people in your company of this schedule so
you will not be inconvenienced. Incoming UPS & RPS deliveries
will be as usual.
My trip to the PRI show was filled with hours of walking, talking, walking and still more walking. It was very fruitful but despite much careful planning and a serious effort not to get distracted by things not on my list, I still did not get to several important vendors. This show has gotten so big it is no longer a fun place to go for a day or two to see what’s new and visit important suppliers. It is real hard work for 3 days. The suppliers are spread out in far-flung regions with little thought of having similar suppliers in the same hall. It’s only going to get worse next year as they add more space on the other side of the street. It has become a business necessity to attend but it is real work if you expect to visit everybody you need to see. It is a great event. The information and ideas presented at the seminars was very good. If you didn’t go this year be sure to get there in 2000.
We
will be adding several new products next year but have not finalized vendors
yet. The main new product we’ll have will be nitrous systems as well as a
refill station and parts to back it up. I’m still undecided about whose systems
we’ll handle but I will announce that by next month.
We’ve
been looking for a new rocker arm supplier since Scorpion closed up, and talked
to several at the show. We still have a good stock of our tried and true Scorpions
on hand in those hard to find ratios like 1.55/1.65 and 1.7 for the small block
Chevys. It’s tough to sort through all the junk out there and come up with affordable
stuff that is real quality.
A
critical part that we haven’t promoted very much due to availability problems
is special length push rods. We stock a very fine 1piece .080 wall chrome moly push
rod with a 210 degree radius end for small block Chevys from -.100 to +.350 in
.050 increments. We also carry several sizes for BB Chevys and SB Fords. We
have increased our inventory greatly and usually have what you need for same
day shipment. Quality is very good and our name and the length are laser
engraved on each piece. We will have a listing of available sizes on our web
page in a few weeks.
Don’t
forget that in addition to our own fine cams we are also distributors for
Crane, Comp Cams, Reed, Isky, and several smaller specialty cam companies. We have
access to their entire lines and many of them drop ship.
1999
has been a great year for us and 2000 shows promise of being even better. We
thank you all for your support.
From
Charles, Harriett, Clarence & Chuck