About Us

After more than 30 years of building offshore arsenal, Keith Eickert makes his mark as the man of power.

Keith Eickert has been working on hot rods since his young days in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Following a stint in the army he met up with a friend in Chicago who asked him to work with him at Mercury Marine, the only name in the industry at the time, where they spent six years concentrating on building boat racing engines.

In the late 1970’s, Keith had the opportunity to work directly for two race teams. Keith’s engines first gained fame in Thunderbird Racing’s “Natural Lite” and Rocky Aoki’s “Benihana”, both 38 Bertrams. There was not a lot of technology available back then; it was all up to the drivers and mechanics.

Two years later, Keith co-created Hawk Marine Power in North Miami. They built engines for dozens of teams all across Europe and the United States. As the classes of racing expanded in the 1980’s, he stayed in the game and Hawk engines won every single class in the World Offshore Championships in 1981.

Keith left Miami and started KS&W in Saint Augustine but was then lured back by a client who built a state-of-the-art shop just for him. The client was Ben Kramer and his boat was the unforgettable 42 Apache, “Warpath”.

When that stint was over Keith returned to northeast Florida to begin Lightning Performance with friends in Flagler County, just north of Daytona Beach. He had the pleasure of working with people who not only wanted to win but also encouraged him to research and develop new technology. Thus Lightning Performance was where Keith started developing his own line of accessory products such as oil pans, valve covers, engine mounts, sea pumps, accessory mounting hardware, etc.

In 1991 Keith moved to his present facilities in nearby Palm Coast. After selling the business and his name in 2001, he took it back over to restore it to its former glory and renamed the company Kustom Engines. At present he and two employees continue to develop new products. Proven with the power, Keith Eickert engines are widely used throughout the offshore race scene, as well as the recreational performance boating industry.

Adapted from "Legends of Offshore: Keith Eckert" by Richard Crowder, Poker Runs America Magazine, Volume 10, Number 1.