"Fallen Members"

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John_T_Brown, Loc: Sterling Heights, MI


Jeff T. Kobylski's Eulogy


Jeff's Funeral was today which ended and closed the story of a life that was too short. I gave the eulogy last night and wanted to share it for those of you in the Mopar Community who could not make the funeral...


Jeff T. Kobylski, innovator, engine builder, cylinder head porter, engineer, and successful business owner of Modern Cylinder Head passed from us on Sunday. He was a rare talent that grew up as a normal kid in the Detroit area with a passion for cars and how to make them go faster. Jeff and his brother Bob grew up down the street from us and met my sons in middle school. Since they lost their father at an early age, he and his brother Bob would often come over the house with their posse of friends to hang with my son Brian. They loved to come to the track with my sons and their love of racing grew with every outing. I guess that hanging around my house sparked the passion for racing and kept Jeff and Bob out of trouble. They would come over to the house to talk about fast cars and whatever else high school teenagers would talk about for hours on end and many times I would give them fatherly advice on various subjects. They would also come to see how Brian’s 440 Six Pack Challenger project was coming along and eventually used some of the knowledge they gained to make Bob’s car (a black ’78 Chrysler Córdoba) go faster. That car did not last that long because it got rear ended by an old granny on the way to high school one day.

Jeff was always very interested in engine technology and we all talked about that subject for many hours on end which naturally included drag racing. He always took a keen interest of the inner workings of engines always asking many questions about the relationship certain parts and how each one contributed to making power. After they all graduated from Sterling Heights High they all started pursuing their careers. Jeff went to college while at the same time working at Tile distributor, he actually tiled bathrooms! Then Jeff got his break working with what he really loved to do, working in a Racing cylinder head porting shop where he started learning his craft. He made enough money to buy his first real high performance car that he got to tune up, a ‘88 5.0L Mustang GT and he proceeded to beat that car into submission constantly improving its performance until the whole uni-body started coming apart. Jeff quit his job after a while at cylinder head shop and started porting cylinder heads in his friends two car garage. After gaining more experience on his own Jeff opened a small facility in Clinton Township where he and Bob started machining and porting cylinder heads, this was the birth of Modern Cylinder Head.

Jeff honed his craft for many years gaining notoriety in the high performance business first porting heads for the fast street/strip cars and eventually to NHRA and IHRA class racing cars. His business grew and He and Bob moved into a much larger facility so they could perform many more machining operations themselves. Jeff and Bob became accomplished machinists, fabricators, and welders. Jeff and Bob never stopped improving their techniques to gain more power out of these high performance engines and eventually acquired CNC machinery to computerize and port large quantities of high performance heads.

Jeff’s passion for racing peaked when he took on the task of competing in NHRA’s SS/AH Super Stock class where he had a following of Hemi Racers that wanted the parts and pieces that he and Bob developed and sold. Jeff was runner up at the 2011 Dutch Classic Hemi Shootout and won the SS/AH class eliminations this past September at the Columbus Sports Nationals. Jeff was a heck of a great driver too, just ask some of the racers about his reaction times when they went up against him at the track.

He and Bob are responsible for making thousands of racing and high performance enthusiasts from around the world go fast.

Not bad at all for two kids down the block!

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hemiparts

My thoughts and prayers go out to Michelle and his daughter Sierra as well as his nephew Kyle and his whole famly. I had gotten very close to Kevin over the last few months and we were looking forward to a busy summer with the Missile

Godspeed my good friend

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Here are the ones I can recall we've lost:

Archie - Harris W. "Archie" Hendrickson 2002

Back_N_Black - Chris "Zimmy" Zimmerman 09/28/08

cudax4 - Don Rae November 06

• http://www.moparts.org/moparts/picture/print/pages/Rae.html

Daniel_Banker - Daniel Banker 10/7/08

• http://www.danbanker.com/home.html

Dave Seward - more info needed

Great Lakes NOS - Ron Adair 2008

HEMI71GTX - Rick Falk April 05

Kev_73_Missile - Kevin Christner ~01/13/09

Mike_Gibbons - Raymond Mike Gibbons 06/22/08

Mopar Scott - Scott Rowe 2002

mrnobodyracer - Mike O'Malley

Prowler - DJ (David) Vargus 5/18/08

Supercharger - Al Loftis ~12/22/07

Unlawfl - Gary Davis 5/13/04

• http://www.moparts.org/moparts/picture/Unlawfl/index.html

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Lower Nazareth Township man died "doing what he loved to do" - UPDATE
After an initial test run, no one could have expected Lamont Akins' day on the drag strip would end tragically, according to his best friend.

"He made the second pass and something happened to the car," said Easton resident Darrin Robinson. "He ended up rolling it."

Akins, 48, of Lower Nazareth Township, died today in a racecar crash at the Maryland International Raceway, according to his widow.

Lori Akins went to the track after receiving word of the 12:20 p.m. crash. She was on her way back to the Lehigh Valley at 8:30 p.m. this evening.

The cause of death remains uncertain, she said.

"I don't know what happened," she said. "They're doing an autopsy."

The St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office had no immediate information on the incident. Nor did representatives at the racetrack in Mechanicsville, Maryland, who directed questions to a manager reporting to work Tuesday morning.

Robinson said Akins was at the racetrack for a "grudge" race. Also known as a match race, it involves drivers who challenge each other for cash or even pink slips to the cars.

Robinson said he raced cars with Akins since they were teenagers. They attended Plainfield High School together in northern New Jersey and met in ninth grade on a race track, he said.

Akins worked during the day as a mechanic at VIP Honda in North Plainfield, N.J., where he started fresh out of high school, Robinson said. But he pursued his passion on area drag strips during his free time.

"He was one of the beasts," Robinson said. "He was one of the most feared racers out there."

That said, Akins was also known for his big heart.

"It was just Lamont's personality. He treated everyone great. He never had any foul words for anybody," Robinson said.

Another friend, Charles Wynn, also of Easton, said if you found yourself in a jam at 3 a.m., you could call on Akins to bail you out.

"You could say, 'I know you put in 14 hours, but can you come over here? My car won't start,' and he'll come right over," Wynn said. "He's just one of those kind of guys you can count on being there."

Robinson participated in highway races with Akins as a youth. They drifted to drag strips as they got older.

"We've been on every track across the eastern part of the United States," Robinson said.

Robinson said Akins' hobby was lucrative. Through sheer force of will he was able to work his way out of poverty into his beautiful Lower Nazareth Township home, Robinson said.

Lori Akins said the family splits time in Lower Nazareth and at her mother's home in Greenwich Township.

Akins leaves behind a stepson, Thomas Rollins, who will graduate next month from Nazareth Area High School.

"He was a hardworking, dedicated man," Robinson said. "He died doing what he loved to do."

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but remember his big ol' orange 4dr truck.

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He was a huge cranky guy that neglected his health for the things he could build or buy for the Mopar hobby, but if you asked him for it he would give you or sell cheaply any of his treasures and was happy to share the knowledge he had acquired. Every time I stopped in he had to tell me of some new ailment, but somehow he kept going...I always thought he was going to be around.

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