25 Facts About Kas Kastner

Kastner or Kas Kastner, was a builder and tuner of racing cars, a racing driver, and an author.

Kas Kastner graduated High School in 1945, then enlisted in the US Army for a two-year stint, during which he was stationed at Fort Carlson in Colorado.

Kas Kastner soon returned to Colorado where he earned a living in a variety of jobs, including managing the pool-hall portion of a large bar, where he earned some extra money hustling pool.

Kas Kastner's next stop was working as a mechanic at a Chevrolet dealership in Delta, Colorado.

Kas Kastner acquired a copy of the factory tuning manual for the TD, and with it taught himself how to repair and modify the car.

Kas Kastner continued to acquire manuals for imported cars and ordered English standard tools from overseas, over time becoming the local expert on foreign cars.

Kas Kastner first raced a Triumph in 1954 at Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

In 1956 Kastner moved with his wife and two children to California, where he went to work for Williamson Motors in Los Angeles as a mechanic.

Less than 3 months later Kastner was their service manager.

Kas Kastner served as chief instructor for the California Sports Car Club at Riverside Raceway and as the National Licensing Chairman for the SCCA, as well as winning the SCCA's annual award for Best Technical Article.

Kas Kastner used well-known methods like porting and polishing ports and milling the heads to increase the compression ratio to as much as 12.6:1.

Kas Kastner stopped racing, but continued building performance parts in his own garage, which he then sold to Cal Sales.

Kas Kastner began to write manuals on how to tune and prepare Triumph cars for racing.

Kas Kastner instituted a driver assistance program, providing financial support for successful club racers.

In 1963 Kastner took three factory stock TR4s, prepared them, and took them to the 12 Hours of Sebring, where they finished first, second, and fourth in the 2.5 GT class.

When Kastner asked to be compensated for the work he did preparing the Sebring cars, the president of Triumph refused.

Triumph countered Shelby by offering to match the salary if Kastner would stay to establish and run a new US competition department.

Reportedly all Kastner took with him was his reputation, a promise of a magazine cover page, and a single rough drawing done by Pete Brock, designer of the Shelby Daytona coupe.

Triumph stopped production of the Vitesse in 1971, and Kastner sold the car in 1973.

Around this time Kastner took up sailboat racing, winning a National Championship title for 13-foot Cyclone boats and another in the 30-foot keel boats class, in addition to several Fleet and District Championships.

Discussions with friend and early turbocharging expert Hugh MacInnes led Kastner to establish Arkay Incorporated in Hawthorne California.

In 1986 Kastner was offered the position of National Motorsports Manager for Nissan by Nissan Marketing Director John Borgen.

At NPTI Kastner had a team of over 225 working for him.

Kas Kastner married long-time friend Peggy DeMerritt in November 2000.

In 2016 Kastner received the Harry Webster award for his contributions to the Standard Triumph movement.