[patrickt]

Just to be clear, I have no intention of buying Keith's business. But, it's interesting to think about. You wonder how much a business like that actually throws off as net income, what the investment in all those machines must be, how they're financed, what their true value would be if you had to sell them, etc. But that's not the really interesting thought. The interesting thought is how many people actually make a lot of money doing something that they really, really enjoy. I've written any number of times that the ERA labs looked like so much fun to work there that I offered (half-jokingly) to pay Peter to let me come and work for him. And when I would say something to the guys there like "you don't realize how unbelievably lucky you are to be doing this" they just looked at me, politely, like I was absolutely insane. And then I think, maybe it's not so much fun. Maybe it's a huge PITA and you have to deal with nuts all the time -- some nuts being easier to deal with than others. Maybe doing anything (like building high performance engines), if you have to do it for a living, changes the allure of what was once viewed as "tremendous fun" in to something akin to "just another day at the salt mine" -- and then, if you're not making a lot of money doing it, it starts to suck. How much is Keith Craft Engines worth without him working there with you? Or for that matter, how much is Kirkham Motorsports worth without the two brothers? They seem to love their work and make a lot of money too (I hope they're making a lot of money, they deserve to). Hopefully they won't burn out on it all (at least not before they can turn the business over to their children, who hopefully will have the passion of their dads). The same goes for ERA. I don't know -- I wonder how many people in this industry really love what they're doing -- and it's too much to expect to get the real truth on something like that posted on an open internet forum. I've also wondered a few times just how much do the guys at ERA make (or Kirkham)? In my book they deserve to be multi-millionaires, and I really hope they are. Peter told me more than once that "the margins in this business are razor thin." Who knows. Hopefully Keith squirreled away a lot of dough, and if he does sell his business, I sure hope the buyer doesn't run it in to the ground. Which leads me to think that maybe you can't make money in this stupid Cobra industry unless you have a ridiculous passion for it to begin with (and that includes engine builders and others). If you're looking to just make money alone, I don't know if you can do it in this industry. Just rambling thoughts....