Charlie Garrett Still Building Winning Engines at 73

Building winning engines since the mid’50s and still going strong, Charlie Garrett doesn’t show any signs of retiring from his one-man shop in Hanover, Pennsylvania. Thanks to the good folks at Diamond Pistons and Trend Performance, some of Garrett’s accomplishments were remembered and they passed along a few of his tips for keeping a race engine in optimum running condition.

“Consistency is how we won championships,” stresses Garrett, now 73. “If your objective is to a win a championship, you cannot tolerate failures.”

Customers have said Garrett’s shop is cleaner than a gourmet kitchen and he is meticulous in checking in every detail. Garrett started out as a drag racer and eventually ran in arguably the most competitive engine-building division, Pro Stock.

“Having made a reputation in Pro Stock, it gave me a competitive edge in sprint car engine building,” says Garrett, who ran a 6.80 at 203 mph in his quarter-mile days.

In 2010, Garrtt teamed with California sprint car racer Jason Meyers to win the World of Outlaws championship, and the duo followed up the next year with another crown.

Garrett will stress that proper maintenance is the key to winning. Changing oil every other race, yes! Keeping the air filter clean, yes! Cleaning the oil filter after every race, yes!

“I use System 1 filters, which is a canister with a stainless-steel filter,” says Garrett. “You buy it once and it lasts the life of the motor.”

When it comes to building new engines, Garrett relies on the innovative mold kit from Diamond pistons to ensure that the piston is designed around the shape of the combustion chamber in the head. Diamond then laser scans thousands of surface points that are transferred to a CAD program where a 3D model is made of the piston crown.

From left: Garrett uses the Diamond mold kit to help produce the ideal piston crown for his cylinder heads, then uses Trend pins in the assembly.

“I’ve never cracked or burned a Diamond piston,” boasts Garrett. “We also connect the pistons to the rods with Trend piston pins.”

For the rugged sprint-car circuit, Garrett rebuilds engines after every 10 races, and tells customers to limit engine life cycles to 500 to 600 laps, depending on track sizes. He dyno checks every bullet out of his shop. A typical team might have six engines in rotation — one for each of the primary and backup cars, two in the shop for rebuild and two in the trailer.