086: Forget Billet for a Second… What’s With Aftermarket Cast Blocks?

Over the last year, we’ve seen a handful of well-respected manufacturers teasing something brand new that pushes against the idea that billet is the only way to go — aftermarket high-performance cast blocks and heads. On this episode, we have Platinum Racing Products’ Herman Urriola, one of the figures driving this new development, to talk us through the design, manufacture, and use cases for aftermarket cast engines and much more. 

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Platinum Racing Products is well known worldwide thanks to its ultra-high quality parts for a range of high-performance engines that deftly walk the fine line between form and function.

Billet rocker covers, crank trigger kits, fuel rails, RB sump adapters, and much more are PRP’s bread and butter, but recently we’ve seen teases of an ambitious new product from the Australian company — an aftermarket cast aluminium RB26 block and head that doesn’t just reproduce the factory item but improves on it in numerous ways.

In this conversation, we dive pretty deep into Herman’s reasoning behind putting the huge amounts of time and money required into this new product and we touch on who it’s for, why it’s better than billet in a lot of situations, and why an enthusiast would want one in the first place.

Herman also gives us insight into his thriving business and details some of the mistakes he’s made, as well as what he considers the key to operating a successful aftermarket parts business.

A large part of the Platinum Racing Products process involves hundreds of hours of market research, R&D, design, CNC manufacturing, and testing — Herman gives us a really interesting look at what can be quite a high-stakes way of doing business. After all, it can easily cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to take one new part from idea to product on the shelf.

This is going to be a great listen for anyone interested in part development, CAD, CNC manufacturing, engine building, or business development in the aftermarket industry.

Follow Platinum Racing Products here:
IG: @platinumracingproducts
FB: Platinum Racing Products
YT: PRP - Platinum Racing Products
WWW: platinumracingproducts.com

Don’t forget, use “PLATINUM50” for 50% off our HPA Engine Building Fundamentals course here: https://hpcdmy.co/enginebuild