We wouldn’t be the magazine that we are in this industry if it weren’t for the many engine builders and machinists for whom we produce all of this content. In that spirit, we have always made it a priority to recognize the hard work and amazing talents of engine builders.

In fact, over the past seven years, we’ve placed the spotlight on dozens of successful engine builders who exemplify the key attributes of a well-run business through our ‘Engine Builders of the Year’ program.

This year, we also took the opportunity to rebrand this long-running award, which is now known as our America’s Best Engine Shops contest. This year, the America’s Best Engine Shops was sponsored by Engine Parts Warehouse and its brands Erson Cams, World Products and PBM Performance Products. This contest aims to find the best engine shops out there operating in three different categories – Race, Vintage and Diesel.

We look for shops that: celebrate creativity and innovation; encourage training and education; emphasize marketing, merchandising and promotion; maintain professional standards and conduct; take pride in appearance, business management, community involvement, business growth, achievement, and victories.

To give these builders some credit, we asked people to nominate worthy shops for the award, which were then voted on by members of Engine Builder and Engine Parts Warehouse.

We are also recognizing our third annual Engine of the Year winner, which is the engine voted on by our audience as most-deserving of the crown from our Engine of the Week series, sponsored by PennGrade Motor Oil and Elring – Das Original.

With 52 different engines being showcased in 2019, the voting came down to a Top 10 engines, with one winning engine taking home the hardware. 

Lastly, we added a new category to recognize a slightly different kind of engine builder – those doing amazing work in the performance diesel space – with our Diesel of the Week series, sponsored by AMSOIL. Similar to Engine of the Year, we created a Top 10 diesels based on our audiences’ selections, and launched the inaugural Diesel of the Year contest.

The series only just started in August, but we had some great diesels for people to vote on. Those engines consisted of Cummins, Duramax and Powerstroke examples, with one taking the inaugural crown.

Congrats to this year’s crop of engine builders, and make sure to enter your shop in 2020! EB