The story behind the founder: A.C. Nutter

A.C. Nutter founded Nutter Racing Engines (NRE), and built that company into one of the most respected engine shops in the Northwest.

A.C. began building racing engines in 1968 after being discharged from service in the U.S. Army. A friend from A.C.’s college days was racing in the NHRA top alcohol dragster class.

A.C. began innovating immediately, trying such new concepts as powering a dragster with a pair of Big-Block Chevy 427 CID engines coupled in tandem.

In 1971, A.C. began competing as a driver / builder, and began winning almost immediately. He built a 1957 Chevy NHRA Super Stock Eliminator with a 220 HP engine and a Powerglide transmission.

Later, A.C. built a 1961 Impala race car with a 170 HP 283 CID two-barrel engine and Powerglide transmission to run in NHRA stock eliminator. That car was so fast that on its very first pass, it ran three tenths of a second under the national record.

The next day, he made more runs more than three tenths under the existing record. That infuriated the NHRA officials to the point that, using a profoundly crude measurement method (measurements of crank rotation using a cloth ruler between pencil marks on masking tape), they declared the perfectly-legal camshaft to be illegal and disqualified the record runs. To avoid that method of discrimination in the future, A.C. bought a new camshaft of the same innovative design from the same manufacturer, but had the lobe centers moved so that even the crude NHRA checking method would declare it within spec. The next race with that car, A.C. set the new national record from 15.86 down to 15.57.

In 1985, Nutter Racing Engines (NRE) got involved in NASCAR circle track racing, and became highly successful (and still is) in that field of competition. Greg Biffle, who went on to drive for Jack Roush and finished number two in Cup points in 2005 and number 3 in Cup points in 2008, got his first NASCAR ride in a car that NRE built.

Later, Greg and A.C. teamed up to run a car with the new Ford SVO Windsor “N” engine at Tucson in the NASCAR winter heat series. In that race, Greg dominated the race by such a margin that NASCAR took the Ford advantage out of their rule book. For several years running, Greg so dominated the Winter Heat series (using NRE engines) that Benny Parsons went to Jack Roush and recommended that Roush hire Greg.

In one recent year, NRE engines won seven local track championships. In one of those series, NRE’s winning engine ( on dirt) was a Chevy V6. All the other competitors were powered by open V8’s. The six other championships consisted of one Ford V8 engine, one 340-Mopar V8, and the remaining four were SBC V8’s.

At one point, NRE engines held all the six-liter APBA Hydro Class World Records as well as the High Points National Championship several years in a row, with Terry Troxel at the wheel of Bob Shultz’s “Stinger”.

Building oil pumps began in 1998 after learning most of the pump didn’t do what they claimed or produce the flow that was desired, and most are treated with an insulation coating (anodizing) so equipment was purchased, along the way many proto types were built and to the current pro pump has been refined & designed for flow and cooling