There have been numerous posts in the past on cam failures, some relatively recent, and I believe the Hughes name has been involved on occasion. I suspect that got back to him, and he may think members of the EM team have been backstabbing him. Of course, that’s only a guess to what’s going on in his mind, I don’t really know what led him to publish that article.

There were some supporters of Hughes on the team. The sarcastic and demeaning attitude towards people and circumstances he does not know firsthand was unwarranted. Since he is telling it like he sees it, I'm going to stick up for the friends involved and do the same, although since one of the good friends I made during this whole EM project had nothing but good to say about Hughes I feel bad about the whole deal.

I would venture to guess that some of the guys involved on the team have forgot things Hughes has yet to learn and probably never will (about engines, not pumping septic tanks), and to be fair, I'm sure Hughes knows a thing or two also but I doubt he is going to get much smarter because he thinks he knows it all already. To be brutally honest, his tool (lifter broach) is a simplistic tool, it only indicates or broaches the approximate diameter, the bore could have critical geometry errors and not show up with out more sophisticated measuring.

There were others that either broke or didn’t have their entry at the contest in the first place. Also, the eventual winner had some cam problems during initial testing that he posted about on another board. Apparently he didn’t know what he was doing either, despite the fact he won it all and also happens to be a well-respected IHRA Pro-Stock and Pro-Mod engine builder. Lucky for him he wasn’t using Hughes cams, or else he could have been looking at the possibility of being called a dumb ass. Perhaps part of his business success is being humble and personable enough to even discuss his trial and tribulations with mere mortals, and his customers appreciate that and contribute to his success.

The whole approach we took in this contest was a tough way to go, it took time to coordinate and ship parts back and forth, which ate up week’s worth of time and monetary resources. It was a handicap at best, but at the same time it was a unique way to do it that allowed many to be involved, so the Moparts team approach had good points also. Another thing, it took a while to be officially accepted as a contestant, and then there were the rules (which were still subject to change, by the way), which came after that to study and make final choices. If we would have finished the engine up earlier than we did that would have been a big plus, but as far as testing in the spring, well that’s nothing more than a load of crap unless you were big gambling man with deep pockets.