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Crane Cams was founded in 1953, by Harvey J. Crane, Jr., and was originally known as "Crane Engineering Company, Inc." In 1970 the original name was shortened to "Crane Cams, Incorporated", better defining the company's products and market.

While the firm's original name sounded intentionally impressive, the seed that produced today's manufacturing conglomerate germinated in an unused corner of Harvey, Jr.'s father's small Hallandale, Florida machine shop.

Learning the skills required of a precision machinist, young Harvey became interested in "hopping-up" the flathead Ford V-8 engine in his own car. Like most other hot-rodders, he was influenced by the various "hot rodding" magazines coming from California, and ordered his first "hot rod" camshaft from a California cam company.

 

Harvey's first mail-ordered cam performed well. To build a second engine he ordered another, but he soon found that the second cam was not at all like the first. Checking two more, he found that they too were different! Harvey's machinist's skills and hot-rodder's ingenuity included an already substantial knowledge of engines. He was also well aware of the critical effect that accurate, consistent camshaft design can have on engine power. Harvey knew he was more than capable of designing and producing his own camshafts.

 

Using a rebuilt cylindrical grinder, he quickly gained cam lobe design and manufacturing knowledge. Harvey's "home-made" cams soon proved to be more powerful and faster than anything he'd previously purchased.

 

Other local hot rodders began to buy his camshafts, and the reputation of the fledgling, backroom cam company quickly spread across the state. Crane Engineering Company was founded in 1953 and quickly gained a loyal, if somewhat local, following.

The mid and late 1950's found the flathead Ford V-8 being replaced with the powerful, compact small-block Chevrolet V-8, and saw the amazing growth in popularity of all forms of auto racing. Oval tracks and drag strips appeared across the nation, feeding the public's insatiable demand for speed, and the tiny company began to grow as well.

 

In 1960, Pete Robinson, a young Georgia Tech University engineering student and drag racer, installed a Crane cam in the supercharged Buick V-8 powered 1940 Ford coupe that he drove daily. When Robinson sold the '40 coupe and bought a "slingshot" style, tube-framed dragster chassis, a Crane roller camshaft was quickly installed in the dragster's home-built, supercharged, 352 cubic inch small-block Chevy. Robinson was locally successful, and on a whim, he decided to enter his "Southwind" dragster in the 1961 NHRA Nationals.

 

Virtually unknown, Robinson met and defeated the nation's fastest dragsters, finally emerging as the Nationals' upset Top Eliminator winner. A few other Crane-cammed racers were also successful at the event, but "Sneaky Pete" Robinson and Crane Cams caught the drag racing world's attention.

 

Soon, word of the amazing power and torque produced by Crane camshafts reached oval track racers. Since then, Red Farmer, A.J.Foyt, The Wood Brothers, Bud Moore, Bill Elliott, Junior Johnson, Dale Earnhardt, Richard Petty, Darrell Waltrip, Bobby Allison, Donnie Allison, Cale Yarborough, Steve Kinser, and thousands of other racers have won features and set fast-time using Crane cams and valve train components.

   Crane Cams prospered during the "car culture" years of the 1960's. Needing room for expansion, the firm moved into brand new facilities in early 1966. Numerous new products were developed and   added to the line. Crane needle bearing, roller-tip, aluminum rocker arms, patented roller tappets, mass-produced, racing cylinder heads, high-strength pushrods, aluminum valve spring retainers, high-rev kits and numerous other products firmly established Crane as the No. 1 cam and valve train company in the industry. 

It was also during this time that Crane Cams became heavily involved in the emerging science of computer cam lobe design. Previously, cam lobe profile designs required a tedious series of complex mathematical exercises involving a slide rule or mechanical calculator. The emerging world of computers slashed this time to a fraction, while increasing accuracy. The result was an explosion of knowledge gathered, expanded and exploited.

 

As Detroit became more involved in motorsports, Crane Cams established itself as an original equipment supplier to the automotive industry. Ford Motor Company, American Motors and Chrysler Corporation were early clients for a variety of products and services, and Crane today remains a trusted vendor with the industry's largest firms.

 

Through the energy crisis of the early 1970’s and into the 80’s, Crane Cams thrived. In 1975, Crane acquired its steel billet camshaft supplier, Universal Camshaft Company, of Muskegon, Michigan. In 1980 Crane Cams selected Daytona Beach as the site for a brand new manufacturing center, relocating Universal Camshaft’s operations and others of Crane Cams to the new Daytona Beach facility. Following several more years of solid growth, Crane Cams found itself needing room to expand. That problem was solved in 1985 when Crane Cams moved its entire operations from Hallandale, Florida to Daytona Beach.

Crane Technologies Group, the firm's corporate headquarters are
located in Daytona Beach, Florida.

 

Crane Cams acquired Camshaft Machine Company and its Wolverine/Blue Racer subsidiary in 1994. With that acquisition, the company name was changed to Crane Technologies Group, to better reflect the firm’s business stance in both the automotive original equipment and aftermarket. Following five years of success, Camshaft Machine Company was sold in January 1999 to Federal-Mogul Corp. Crane Cams and Wolverine/Blue Racer remain as part of Crane Technologies Group, enabling the Crane management team to focus its efforts on the rapidly growing automotive performance and replacement aftermarket.

 

Entering a new century, Crane Cams and Wolverine/Blue Racer divisions are now poised to aggressively pursue expanding their share of the camshaft, valve train and electronic ignition market. In particular, Crane Cams’ FireBall line of electronic ignitions and the FireWire Race Plug Wire line have shown remarkable growth and will continue to grow with product innovations to meet the needs of weekend and professional racers and street performance enthusiasts.

 

Current clients include: General Motors Corp., GM Performance Parts; Ford Motor Company, Ford Motorsports SVO; Chrysler Corporation, Mopar Performance; Harley-Davidson Motor Company; Mercury Marine; General Motors/Holden-Australia; Mack Truck; Lycoming Aircraft Engines; and Ram Aircraft, Inc.

 

In 1979 Crane Cams became an employee-owned company, assembling and implementing an Employee Stock Ownership plan. The ESOP makes each one of its 300+ employees true employee-owners with a stake in their company’s future and the empowerment to help grow their company.

 

With an even stronger focus on the future, the employee-owners of Crane Cams and Wolverine/Blue Racer call upon a rich and colorful racing heritage to move their company rapidly forward into the next century.