From his very early days Steve was always pottering around, hammer in hand, looking for things to "engineer" and modify. Thankfully he settled on engines and not plutonium.

The intervening years have seen a lot of changes for Steve; for one thing the hammers are now larger, the other is Steve's passion and ability for building and tuning all manner of engines has gone from strength to strength.

His technical training and natural ability have placed Steve in a good position to offer his services to people in the racing arena who know that too much power is never enough and that it's not the taking part but the winning that matters.

Steve's abilities are backed up by numerous qualifications from the Federation of Engine Re-manufacturers. In addition Steve has completed a course in the Lock-n-Stitch repair technique which has proven invaluable in the recovery of unique, exotic and historically important engines.

In 2006, Westley Harding was racing a black 1964 Ford Fairlane in the Masters Race Series and Westley had a problem. The car was neither fast or reliable, spending more time in the pits than on the track.

After speaking at length with Steve, Westley was convinced that the black Falcon was never going to be a contender and therefore commissioned Curltek to build him a new race car.

In 2007 the yellow Falcon hit the track for the first time, and with Steve providing all of the engineering and development, along with the trackside support, the long lasting partnership between Curltek and Falcon Hell Racing was formed.

Known to shy away from the lime-light, the ever modest and bashful Steve didn't want me to include this bit. However in 2003 Practical Classics Magazine ran a three-part article on rebuilding a Vauxhall slant-four engine. The complete strip down through to final assembly and fire-up was performed by Steve.

PDF copies of the articles are available below.