Tate Casey has been modifying and building cars since he began driving in 1965. From an early age he was fascinated with the concept of improving an engine to make more power. One of his earliest attempts was to modify the exhaust on the family's VW bus to increase power. He was a voracious reader of car magazines like Road & Track and as a young teenager he studied books like Philip Smith's "The Design and Tuning of Competition Engines".

Tate joined the U.S. Army in his late teens and was stationed at a base in Frankfurt, Germany, where he was exposed to the European automotive tuning scene. A friend of his worked at Opel tuning company Steinmetz. After touring the company's facilities he realized that modifying cars for a living would be a very cool thing to do.

In the 70's Tate's first motorcycle restoration project was a 1966 Honda 305 Scrambler that sparked his interest in restoring bikes.

By the late 1990s, Carobu Engineering was formed as an engine development company specializing in high performance cars including Ferrari, Mercedes and exotic Italian brands. Tate does the engine simulation, performance engineering and manages the parts development and sales. His expertise is used with good effect with engineering motorcycle restoration and performance.

Starting in 2019, the shop was moved to Chelsea, Alabama near to Barber Motorsports Park and Museum. The new shop is 4,500 ft² and has a paint booth.