12 Questions with Chuck Gleaves

[CPG Marketing]

Name: Chuck Gleaves
Job Title: Inglese™ Builder/Technician

Half technician, half artist, Chuck Gleaves builds induction systems at Inglese™. He uses a combination of beauty, power and technology to craft some of the most powerful and exotic looking carburetors in the world. Chuck hand-builds custom Weber carburetors to suit the specific performance requirements of each individual customer. He draws on his vast knowledge to create carburetors in a wide variety of styles and with an equally varying amount of features.

Chuck Gleaves

What is your background in the industry?

Well, basically I have a racing background. I was involved with different drag racing classes for over thirty years. Of course, I’ve also worked with COMP Cams®. I ground camshafts for COMP® for twelve years, and I was in sales. That’s about it.


What do you like best about the job?

The challenges. There’s always something different to challenge you.


What is your all-time favorite or dream car?

There’s so many of them out there now days, but I would say I still like the Camaros. So probably a ’68 or ’69 Camaro.


Do you have past racing experience? If so what kind, and do you still race?

Yeah, like I say, I used to run NRHA, IHRA and then I switched over to running the street car nitrous shootout classes. I had a red ’63 Corvette for that. We set a lot of records in those races. I’ve been out of it probably about six years now. Basically, I still help people that have race cars – quick 8 cars, standard stick shift cars and stuff like that.

Chuck Racing His 1963 Corvette

What is your proudest moment in racing or in the industry?

Getting to run an alcohol funny car.


Who is your favorite racer and why?

I would say Warren Johnson. The reason I say that is because Warren is always looking to experiment with and to work with something that’s going to be faster. That’s kind of like what we would do with our car. We would always go to the next level. I think that’s what he always does.


What is the best career advice you ever received? Who gave it to you?

I’d probably have to say that it came from my dad. He said do something that you actually enjoy. And whatever that is, stay in that direction and be the best you can be at it.


What advice would you give a kid who wants to go grow up to be a racer or work in the industry?

Get an education first.


What are your hobbies outside of racing and the industry?

Induction Jeweler Hard At Work

I work on hot rods and street rods. I go to the race track and help some of my friends who have different types of race cars with their suspensions, engines or whatever.


What is your favorite type of music to drive to?

I like basically all kinds; country, rock, gospel, whatever.


In the next five years, what do you think will be the most important advancement in performance automotive technology?

Fuel injection. There’s so much you can do with it as far as working with computers. It’s the same thing you can do manually, but having the laptop there, you don’t have to actually go in with hands on. As far as adjusting anything, you can do it all with your laptop. You can set your parameters for timing, fuel, nitrous, whatever. That’s probably where it’s going right now.


What is the one thing you couldn’t live without?

My belief in God. Everything else just falls in place from there.