With a vast product line, extensive in-house engineering, and a deep commitment to quality, BluePrint Engines enjoys strong present-day success and eyes an even more promising future.

It might not seem like racing engines and industrial engines have much in common, but BluePrint Engines has turned this combination into a recipe for success that has spanned more than 40 years. Founded in 1982 by second-generation racer Norris Marshall, this Kearney, Nebraska-based company has steadily grown into one of the world’s largest builders of performance crate engines. 

BluePrint currently offers more than 300 different combinations of GM, Ford, and Chrysler crate engines, with carbureted, fuel-injected, and supercharged versions ranging from 300 to 1,015 horsepower. Alongside this wide assortment of automotive performance engines, the company’s Origin Engines division focuses on engines for generators, mobile equipment, agricultural implements, and other industrial applications.

Although both divisions have separate product lines, a recent cross-pollination between the two sides of the company has fired the imagination of racers and enthusiasts, creating a buzz of excitement at the 2022 PRI Show. The project began with Origin Engines’ proprietary 3.6-liter four-cylinder engine, which was originally designed for steady low-rpm use in industrial equipment. But then BluePrint refitted it with a single aluminum LS head, along with some other performance tweaks. The result is a tough, compact engine capable of 340 hp and 500 lb.-ft. of torque with a turbocharger. 

It was all in a day’s work for BluePrint, which engineers and manufactures many of its crate-engine parts in-house, including a Chrysler Gen III Hemi block currently in development. This self-sufficient mindset contributes to the company’s ongoing efficiency, with 220 employees shipping approximately 50 crate engines and 30 industrial powerplants every day from BluePrint/Origin’s 230,000-square-foot plant. 

In addition, the ability to engineer components within the company helps mitigate supply-chain challenges. Between the two divisions, there are approximately 1,500 key parts the company has engineered or re-engineered, largely freeing it from dependence on outside suppliers for many critical components. 

Along the way, Marketing Manager John Chrise has seen BluePrint grow by leaps and bounds, while contributing significantly to the company’s good fortunes. Although he’s only been with BluePrint as an employee since September 2022, he’s been helping the company thrive and expand for decades. “I used to run a small marketing and advertising firm, and BluePrint was one of my clients,” recounted Chrise. “Eventually, I sold my partnership in the agency, but I made a stipulation that I took BluePrint with me. As an enthusiast myself, it was the only client that I was interested in servicing. Then, in the summer of 2022, the company asked me to come on inside. So I’ve been doing work for them for 20 years.”

To build the BluePrint brand and drive sales, Chrise and his team rely on a wide array of contemporary marketing methods. But he said it’s all ultimately built on the quality of the products themselves and the satisfaction they bring customers. “One-hundred percent of our success comes from the reputation for dependability that we’ve achieved over the years.”

Throughout Chrise’s involvement with the company, PRI has been a vital ingredient in reaching potential customers in motorsports and automotive-performance market segments. It has proven to be an indispensable tool for understanding where the company’s customer base is going and what resonates with them the most. “This whole community is so diverse,” observed Chrise. “PRI really helps us take the pulse of what’s going on in the professional race industry. It gives us a lot of insight, ideas, and strategies on which to enter into some of these fields.”

Given the many benefits the company gets from being involved with PRI, it was a natural step to join as a Founding Member. Further deepening the company’s commitment to the organization, CEO Norris Marshall also heads the SEMA Political Action Committee and serves as a member of the SEMA board of directors. “Norris is a true believer in the whole industry and loves it,” noted Chrise. “He gets really passionate about anything that he serves on. So he’s a great catalyst.”

With a relentless approach to quality, an innovative spirit, and the drive to continually excel, BluePrint engines is enjoying the kind of success that characterizes the best in PRI Members. As this is being written, the company is about to build its 400,000th engine and is considering doubling the size of its plant to allow continued expansion of the business. 

“We’re always looking for ways to serve new markets, specifically in racing,” said Chrise. “And we have a lot of market segments we still really haven’t touched yet. It’s an industry constantly on the rise, and there really isn’t any end in sight.”