46 GEARS January/February 2007

When Kit Lindsay came to the last question on ATRA’s What’s Working industry

study last spring (Complete this sen-tence: The sole purpose of my business is:), he didn’t hesitate: “To make a living and have fun doing it!” was his response.

“Life is way too short to spend it doing something you don’t enjoy,” Kit told me during my recent visit to his shop in Warrensburg, MO. And you don’t have to spend much time with him to know that he’s enjoying life to the fullest. He works hard and he plays hard.

At 44, Kit has already seen and done more than many people twice his age. He owns his shop and has a large new home that he built himself, where he lives with his new wife, Christi, and 13-year-old stepson CJ. He also has a son Jesse (24) and a 2-year-old grand-son, Djinn, who live in Seattle.

Kit gets into his shop at about 5 AM. Not to open the doors; the shop doesn’t open until about 8. Those early morning hours are what he likes to call

“Kit Time” — time to catch up on trade magazine articles, look through and respond to industry online forums, and wade through his email.

Kit has an unusual approach to transmission repair: Instead of install-ers and rebuilders, each of his techni-cians is a specialist on certain units. In addition to managing the shop, Kit is the Ford/Mercury man. Ben Hefley is the GM specialist and Richard Wilkins is the Chrysler tech. The office man-ager is Tanya Goin, and Jackie Starks is the shop helper, gofer, and all-around assistant.

Kit also has a different approach to the work week. He doesn’t think in terms of time; he prefers to focus on production hours sold rather than on a dollar amount: A good week for Kit and crew is to sell about 2 units a day.

Kit likes his free time, and des-perately believes a two-day weekend doesn’t give you enough time for your-self. So he extends the weekends: He shuts the shop down at around noon on Fridays — and sometimes closes for the whole day if the weather’s nice. He also

closes the shop between Christmas and New Years; sort of an extra vacation for him and his crew.

You might think that, when he clos-es the shop, Kit would spend time rest-ing from his busy workweek. Hardly: That’s when Kit really kicks things up a notch.

He just finished building a new, 4000+ square-foot home. He purchased the property — about 10 acres — and then contracted the entire job himself. He did all his own plumbing, some of the electrical work, and helped out with the framing and construction. It took about 4 years to complete, but the result is nothing short of a masterpiece.

And, unlike most people, Kit didn’t finance a dime. He built his new home the same way he did his shop: com-pletely out of pocket. Kit says that puts him in a power position, not having to worry about monthly overheads, and allows him to be more aggressive tack-ling new projects.

Kit also owns his own airplane — a single-engine, 4-seater Mooney M20C — that he flies whenever he

Free Spirit:by Rodger Bland

Kit Lindsayof Lindsay Transmissions

Kit Lindsay

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48 GEARS January/February 2007

gets a chance; about 100 hours a year (the national average for private pilots is about 15 hours). And, unlike so many other private pilots, Kit is instru-ment rated, so he can fly in all types of weather.

“I used to fly medical patients for Air Lifeline,” says Kit. “People who are sick or badly injured, going to a hospital or for treatment somewhere. And I flew a lot of cancer patients.”

Most small airplane owners shell out a bundle for repairs and annual inspections. Kit went another route: He’s certified as an aircraft technician, and performs all of the services for his and his partner’s planes.

Of course, when you own a plane you need a place to keep it. For most people, that means renting space at a nearby airport. Not Kit: He and a part-ner leased a plot of land a few miles from town, where they put in their own runway and some hangers to create their own private airport.

With all that property to maintain, Kit needed a big lawn mower. Most people might buy an industrial-sized

riding mower or lawn tractor. But Kit isn’t most people: Instead, he bought a 1950 BF Avery farm tractor, and restored it from the ground up.

“I got to thinking, well, maybe I’ll get an older tractor, just for fun,” he explained. “I found this one, and it was kind of rare. I spent about $5000 restoring this antique tractor; I probably could’ve bought a really nice lawn mower for that, but now I have this beautiful antique tractor, and it is gorgeous.”

Kit’s latest project is a 1956 Thunderbird that he’s restoring. “The way the woman described it, I thought it was going to be a dog,” he said. “What I found was a beautiful — although dirty — ’56 T-Bird that had been sitting for the last 25 of its 50 years. Three of the four (original) tires were still hold-ing air.

“She told me she’d take $10,000 for it, and I said, ‘That’s really too cheap; it’s worth a lot more than that.’

She asked if I was planning to resell it or restore it. I told her that if I bought it I’d restore it, so she said, ‘Then that’s my price; you just have to promise me a ride in it when you get it finished.’”

Kit also enjoys riding dirt bikes with CJ, but has had to take a break from that pastime after being injured a few months ago when he was thrown from his bike. He shattered his collar bone, broke his shoulder blade, and injured his wrist and arm. The sling

only lasted about 5 days — “It was too restrict-ing” (that’s the idea, Kit!) — but he’s on the mend, and plans to ride again soon.

No doubt about it: Kit Lindsay is living his life to the fullest, and hav-ing fun doing it. Maybe we should all take a page or two from his book.

Lindsay Transmissions

CJ Pflughaupt- Wild Child, Idea Guy, Mess Maker

Kit Lindsay - Ford-Mercury and Owner/Manager,

Ben Hefley - General Motors, Jacki Starks -

Girl Friday, Tonya Goin - Office Manager,

Richard Wilkins - Chrysler-Plymouth

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ATRA's Powertrain Expo 2007

October 11-14, 2007

Come join us in Las Vegas,Nevada, at the:

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