15 Facts About Carl Kiekhaefer

Elmer Carl Kiekhaefer was the founder of Kiekhaefer Mercury and Kiekhaefer Aeromarine and a two-time NASCAR championship car owner.

Carl Kiekhaefer was a young engineer right out of college when he received his first of his over 200 patents.

Carl Kiekhaefer purchased an outboard motor manufacturing company in Cedarburg, Wisconsin in 1939, intending to make magnetic separators for the area's dairy industry.

Carl Kiekhaefer had 300 defective motors, which he rebuilt and sold to catalog company Montgomery Ward.

Orders kept coming for the motors, and Carl Kiekhaefer Corporation was born.

When Carl Kiekhaefer resigned as president of the company in 1969, the company name changed to Mercury Marine.

In 1990 Carl Kiekhaefer Aeromarine was sold to the Brunswick Corporation.

Carl Kiekhaefer became involved in car racing to promote his profitable boat motor company.

Carl Kiekhaefer then purchased large and powerful Chrysler 300s to use in NASCAR for the 1955 season.

Carl Kiekhaefer bought the best equipment and had a team, as well as transporters, unheard of in NASCAR at the time.

Carl Kiekhaefer brought his car with no driver to the first race at the Daytona Beach Road Course.

Carl Kiekhaefer had six drivers race for him during the 45-event season.

Carl Kiekhaefer had nine drivers race for him in the 56 event season, taking first, second, third, and ninth in the final series points.

Carl Kiekhaefer quit NASCAR in January 1957 after battling Bill France over accusations of cheating by the other competitors.

Carl Kiekhaefer then purchased four 1957 Chrysler 300Cs with the intent of entering the road race segment of NASCAR which only existed in 1956 and early 1957.