SEMA News - August 2009

By Steve Campbell

Private-Sector-Sponsored Projects Join Students and the Real World

What if your company had access to some of the brightest minds in your field? What if those minds, students at a major university, were allowed to focus on the creation and development of a product to which your company might eventually have marketing rights? What if the result was bottom-line revenue?

In most cases, university students learn theory and perhaps gain laboratory experience yet are rarely immersed in complete real-world problems and solutions until they leave academia and start earning a paycheck. Until a few years ago, Texas A&M University followed that model. But then a team within the school’s Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering Technology department reconsidered their approach.

“We had the typical engineering course in the final semester, where each student was tasked with an open-ended Senior Design Project,” said Dr. Joe Morgan, one of the department’s professors and a main supporter of the change. “I refer to those as ‘trashcan projects.’ You do them, you hand them in to your faculty member, and he promptly throws them in the trashcan because they have no residual value.”

Morgan and his colleagues felt that there had to be a better way, and they began to transition from the one-semester course to a two-semester track that is now referred to as the Capstone Design Experience. The concept is to get students involved in outside projects that can be taken to the marketplace, allowing them to learn not only about their core subject but also about business practices.

“Within Capstone, a group of three or four students begins a simulated start-up company,” Morgan explained. “They have to come up with an idea and transition it to a fully functional working prototype for test, evaluation and consideration for commercialization. But as we began doing this, the student teams created more and more intellectual property each semester. The capabilities of the teams and their ability to produce something of value kept increasing.”

One of the E4 projects resulted in a Painless Performance product—Diesel MD, a module for diesel-powered vehicles that allows performance adjustments to either increase torque or fuel efficiency.

Dennis Overholser, one of the founders of Painless Performance, said that four projects have now been sponsored by his company. One of the E4 projects has already been converted into a Painless Performance product—Diesel MD, a module for diesel-powered vehicles that allows performance adjustments to either increase torque or fuel efficiency. A second product is in the final stages of testing, and a third is going to be developed by the student team that created it. The students will form their own company and sell the product through Painless Performance.

“Each team has a student who knows his stuff about a particular facet,” Overholser said. “One may know hardware, another knows telecommunications, another knows software programming, and one may know about building circuit boards. These teams choose a project based on something they’re interested in or a suggestion by an outside source like Painless or a faculty idea. They take it from concept to working prototype. If they don’t finish the product, they don’t graduate.”

Student teams have developed a wide array of prototypes for different industries. One Texas A&M pseudo company, P.W.L.S. Innovations, developed a product called ExacTrak for first responders such as firefighters or military personnel. It allows people’s movements to be tracked within buildings—previously impossible even with GPS, which is blocked by solid obstacles—to monitor their whereabouts and help ensure their safety. Another team, known as Dynamic Design, developed a device for air sampling of CO2 within large structures, both for hazardous levels and for compliance with EPA regulations.

“We don’t just talk about and theorize about things,” explained Chris Landry of the P.W.L.S. Innovations group. “We put things together and really make things function. Taking away that experience will help make us better people in the workplace.”

The Capstone/E4 program at Texas A&M University allows students to become involved in outside projects that can be taken to the marketplace. They learn not only about their core subject but also aspects of real-world business.

“Being able to plan is probably the most difficult part,” said Julian Coleman, a member of the Dynamic Design team. “We have to be able to detail how much time we’re going to spend on working on a program, creating the printed circuit board and testing. They’re all rough approximations, but we’re held to them.”

The students also learn the benefits—and hazards—of selecting appropriate personnel for their companies. Just as in a working business, the interplay of personalities and the ethics of the employees can make or break a project.

“We’re not going to choose people who don’t want to work,” said Brad Sutter, the “S” in P.W.L.S. Innovations. “We choose our own team, and we have to trust that they’re not going to fail us.”

The student entrepreneurs are also taught to manage the expectations of their sponsoring companies and advisors—an element that is stressed hard by Dr. Morgan. Many entrepreneurs have undergone the disquieting experience of being unable to deliver on promises made when a development project seems to be going well.

“We had to see our capabilities and look at time versus cost, which is a whole other aspect of what we learned in this experience,” said Kosta Papasideris, another member of the P.W.L.S. Innovations group. “Dr. Morgan used to say, ‘Manage your customer,’ which meant being able to deliver something that would be acceptable and also manageable not just by us as a team but as students. We met weekly to discuss our progress and what was being done, what was late, what was in, and we realized that those meetings mirrored industry. Meetings like that happen all the time. Managing our customer came into play when we were ahead of schedule and our customer wanted something new or better or improved. That is something I will take into the business world.”

Professor George Wright, a senior lecturer and the main point of contact for Painless Performance at Texas A&M, said that working through real problems is the primary benefit of the Capstone/E4 program at the university. He pointed out that, while every faculty member strives to instill seriousness and professionalism in students, there are limits to what can be done in a classroom. In addition to creating a working prototype that may offer commercial possibilities, graduates who have gone through the E4 program have demonstrated how they will function as employees.

“Twenty or 30 years ago, people would interview, and a company would hire someone,” Wright said. “But they might make mistakes about the compatibility of employees with the company. Ultimately, you’re going to have some false selections, some people who leave either because they’re not happy or you’re not happy with them. The Capstone Experience gives you the ability to see an individual working in a team environment, much like an internship. In this program, the students face real problems and have to produce real results.”

The benefits for industry will be immeasurable as more colleges and universities delve into these types of programs. Get additional information about the Texas A&M Capstone Experience and E4 here.

SEMA News - August 2009

By Alysha Webb

Paying Off in Business Contracts and Contacts

Toyota and BMW have done “quite well” emphasizing personalization with their Scion and Mini brands, says Fred Aikins, senior product manager for Kia Motors America. Kia aims to emulate that success with the Soul.

“This car should produce big business for us,” says Zambrano.

As automakers come out with more models specifically designed for personalization, attending measuring sessions is becoming ever more important for SEMA members. The sessions are an opportunity to get data and ideas for aftermarket products for new vehicles. They’re also a great place to make contacts that could result in future business.

SEMA holds about 20 measuring sessions each year, says Bill Wolf, SEMA senior director of OEM Relations. Only manufacturing member companies are allowed to attend.

Most measuring sessions take place before the official launch, though the Soul measuring session, in May at the Kia Motors America headquarters in Irvine, Calif., was held after the vehicle’s launch.

Three Soul models were on offer, including one on a lift for easy access to the car’s underside. As for the two ground-level Souls, Wet Okole’s Zambrano crawled over one’s interior while Ralph Turner, technical support manager for American International, measured the console of the other.

American International of Camarillo, California, makes navigation and sound systems.

The company, which has about 60 employees, will get some business from the Soul right away, says Turner, though the biggest demand will come later, when buyers of used models want to upgrade.

“There’s a lot of info we can pick up here that would be hard to get at the dealership,” he says.

Making it personal

Toyota and BMW have done “quite well” emphasizing personalization with their Scion and Mini brands, says Fred Aikins, senior product manager for Kia Motors America. Kia aims to emulate that success with the Soul.

Kia will offer dozens of its own accessories for the small boxy car. But “there are some things that aftermarket companies can do better, especially those that have an impact on the warranty” says Aikins.

Engine performance upgrades or oversized wheels and tires, for example, wouldn’t meet Kia’s engineering standards, and therefore wouldn’t be covered in the manufacturer’s warranty, he says. The Soul comes with a 10-year, 100,000 mile powertrain and five-year, 60,000 mile bumper-to-bumper warranty.

Using aftermarket parts gives customers more choices, says Aikins. The aftermarket company does need to warranty the part itself, however, and customers must understand the part is not covered by the factory warranty, he says.

Spending quality time with a car isn’t the only benefit of attending a measuring session. They are also great places to make connections, says John Espino, new business and market development manager for Banks Power, a division of Gale Banks Engineering of Azusa, California.

Espino met some GM representatives at a SEMA event in 2001. Now, Banks is the exclusive distributor for the Duramax diesel engine in GM trucks.

“You have no idea how many opportunities lie through these connections,” says Espino.

They can also lead to advance knowledge of what will change—or stay the same—in an upcoming model, says Espino, which “helps tremendously with getting products out on time.”

SEMA sends an e-mail blast to its database of interested companies three to four weeks in advance of a measuring session, says SEMA’s Wolf. Notices also run in the association’s weekly electronic newsletter, eNews, and on the SEMA website

Companies that don’t want to travel to measuring sessions can still get a model’s measurements, Wolf explains. Sometimes the CAD files will be online before the launch, he says. That was true for Toyota’s Scion tC, launched in 2004. But a product still needs to be fitted to the model at some point.

Kia is launching several more models this year. Someone from Wet Okole, which has about 60 employees, will likely be at those measuring sessions too, says Wolf. He notes that the company attends all the sessions in this area.

Says Zambrano: “It’s more practical for us to come to these sessions.”

SEMA News - August 2009

By Alysha Webb

Paying Off in Business Contracts and Contacts

Toyota and BMW have done “quite well” emphasizing personalization with their Scion and Mini brands, says Fred Aikins, senior product manager for Kia Motors America. Kia aims to emulate that success with the Soul.

“This car should produce big business for us,” says Zambrano.

As automakers come out with more models specifically designed for personalization, attending measuring sessions is becoming ever more important for SEMA members. The sessions are an opportunity to get data and ideas for aftermarket products for new vehicles. They’re also a great place to make contacts that could result in future business.

SEMA holds about 20 measuring sessions each year, says Bill Wolf, SEMA senior director of OEM Relations. Only manufacturing member companies are allowed to attend.

Most measuring sessions take place before the official launch, though the Soul measuring session, in May at the Kia Motors America headquarters in Irvine, Calif., was held after the vehicle’s launch.

Three Soul models were on offer, including one on a lift for easy access to the car’s underside. As for the two ground-level Souls, Wet Okole’s Zambrano crawled over one’s interior while Ralph Turner, technical support manager for American International, measured the console of the other.

American International of Camarillo, California, makes navigation and sound systems.

The company, which has about 60 employees, will get some business from the Soul right away, says Turner, though the biggest demand will come later, when buyers of used models want to upgrade.

“There’s a lot of info we can pick up here that would be hard to get at the dealership,” he says.

Making it personal

Toyota and BMW have done “quite well” emphasizing personalization with their Scion and Mini brands, says Fred Aikins, senior product manager for Kia Motors America. Kia aims to emulate that success with the Soul.

Kia will offer dozens of its own accessories for the small boxy car. But “there are some things that aftermarket companies can do better, especially those that have an impact on the warranty” says Aikins.

Engine performance upgrades or oversized wheels and tires, for example, wouldn’t meet Kia’s engineering standards, and therefore wouldn’t be covered in the manufacturer’s warranty, he says. The Soul comes with a 10-year, 100,000 mile powertrain and five-year, 60,000 mile bumper-to-bumper warranty.

Using aftermarket parts gives customers more choices, says Aikins. The aftermarket company does need to warranty the part itself, however, and customers must understand the part is not covered by the factory warranty, he says.

Spending quality time with a car isn’t the only benefit of attending a measuring session. They are also great places to make connections, says John Espino, new business and market development manager for Banks Power, a division of Gale Banks Engineering of Azusa, California.

Espino met some GM representatives at a SEMA event in 2001. Now, Banks is the exclusive distributor for the Duramax diesel engine in GM trucks.

“You have no idea how many opportunities lie through these connections,” says Espino.

They can also lead to advance knowledge of what will change—or stay the same—in an upcoming model, says Espino, which “helps tremendously with getting products out on time.”

SEMA sends an e-mail blast to its database of interested companies three to four weeks in advance of a measuring session, says SEMA’s Wolf. Notices also run in the association’s weekly electronic newsletter, eNews, and on the SEMA website

Companies that don’t want to travel to measuring sessions can still get a model’s measurements, Wolf explains. Sometimes the CAD files will be online before the launch, he says. That was true for Toyota’s Scion tC, launched in 2004. But a product still needs to be fitted to the model at some point.

Kia is launching several more models this year. Someone from Wet Okole, which has about 60 employees, will likely be at those measuring sessions too, says Wolf. He notes that the company attends all the sessions in this area.

Says Zambrano: “It’s more practical for us to come to these sessions.”

SEMA News - August 2009

By Alysha Webb

Paying Off in Business Contracts and Contacts

Toyota and BMW have done “quite well” emphasizing personalization with their Scion and Mini brands, says Fred Aikins, senior product manager for Kia Motors America. Kia aims to emulate that success with the Soul.

“This car should produce big business for us,” says Zambrano.

As automakers come out with more models specifically designed for personalization, attending measuring sessions is becoming ever more important for SEMA members. The sessions are an opportunity to get data and ideas for aftermarket products for new vehicles. They’re also a great place to make contacts that could result in future business.

SEMA holds about 20 measuring sessions each year, says Bill Wolf, SEMA senior director of OEM Relations. Only manufacturing member companies are allowed to attend.

Most measuring sessions take place before the official launch, though the Soul measuring session, in May at the Kia Motors America headquarters in Irvine, Calif., was held after the vehicle’s launch.

Three Soul models were on offer, including one on a lift for easy access to the car’s underside. As for the two ground-level Souls, Wet Okole’s Zambrano crawled over one’s interior while Ralph Turner, technical support manager for American International, measured the console of the other.

American International of Camarillo, California, makes navigation and sound systems.

The company, which has about 60 employees, will get some business from the Soul right away, says Turner, though the biggest demand will come later, when buyers of used models want to upgrade.

“There’s a lot of info we can pick up here that would be hard to get at the dealership,” he says.

Making it personal

Toyota and BMW have done “quite well” emphasizing personalization with their Scion and Mini brands, says Fred Aikins, senior product manager for Kia Motors America. Kia aims to emulate that success with the Soul.

Kia will offer dozens of its own accessories for the small boxy car. But “there are some things that aftermarket companies can do better, especially those that have an impact on the warranty” says Aikins.

Engine performance upgrades or oversized wheels and tires, for example, wouldn’t meet Kia’s engineering standards, and therefore wouldn’t be covered in the manufacturer’s warranty, he says. The Soul comes with a 10-year, 100,000 mile powertrain and five-year, 60,000 mile bumper-to-bumper warranty.

Using aftermarket parts gives customers more choices, says Aikins. The aftermarket company does need to warranty the part itself, however, and customers must understand the part is not covered by the factory warranty, he says.

Spending quality time with a car isn’t the only benefit of attending a measuring session. They are also great places to make connections, says John Espino, new business and market development manager for Banks Power, a division of Gale Banks Engineering of Azusa, California.

Espino met some GM representatives at a SEMA event in 2001. Now, Banks is the exclusive distributor for the Duramax diesel engine in GM trucks.

“You have no idea how many opportunities lie through these connections,” says Espino.

They can also lead to advance knowledge of what will change—or stay the same—in an upcoming model, says Espino, which “helps tremendously with getting products out on time.”

SEMA sends an e-mail blast to its database of interested companies three to four weeks in advance of a measuring session, says SEMA’s Wolf. Notices also run in the association’s weekly electronic newsletter, eNews, and on the SEMA website

Companies that don’t want to travel to measuring sessions can still get a model’s measurements, Wolf explains. Sometimes the CAD files will be online before the launch, he says. That was true for Toyota’s Scion tC, launched in 2004. But a product still needs to be fitted to the model at some point.

Kia is launching several more models this year. Someone from Wet Okole, which has about 60 employees, will likely be at those measuring sessions too, says Wolf. He notes that the company attends all the sessions in this area.

Says Zambrano: “It’s more practical for us to come to these sessions.”

SEMA News - August 2009

By Alysha Webb

Paying Off in Business Contracts and Contacts

Toyota and BMW have done “quite well” emphasizing personalization with their Scion and Mini brands, says Fred Aikins, senior product manager for Kia Motors America. Kia aims to emulate that success with the Soul.

“This car should produce big business for us,” says Zambrano.

As automakers come out with more models specifically designed for personalization, attending measuring sessions is becoming ever more important for SEMA members. The sessions are an opportunity to get data and ideas for aftermarket products for new vehicles. They’re also a great place to make contacts that could result in future business.

SEMA holds about 20 measuring sessions each year, says Bill Wolf, SEMA senior director of OEM Relations. Only manufacturing member companies are allowed to attend.

Most measuring sessions take place before the official launch, though the Soul measuring session, in May at the Kia Motors America headquarters in Irvine, Calif., was held after the vehicle’s launch.

Three Soul models were on offer, including one on a lift for easy access to the car’s underside. As for the two ground-level Souls, Wet Okole’s Zambrano crawled over one’s interior while Ralph Turner, technical support manager for American International, measured the console of the other.

American International of Camarillo, California, makes navigation and sound systems.

The company, which has about 60 employees, will get some business from the Soul right away, says Turner, though the biggest demand will come later, when buyers of used models want to upgrade.

“There’s a lot of info we can pick up here that would be hard to get at the dealership,” he says.

Making it personal

Toyota and BMW have done “quite well” emphasizing personalization with their Scion and Mini brands, says Fred Aikins, senior product manager for Kia Motors America. Kia aims to emulate that success with the Soul.

Kia will offer dozens of its own accessories for the small boxy car. But “there are some things that aftermarket companies can do better, especially those that have an impact on the warranty” says Aikins.

Engine performance upgrades or oversized wheels and tires, for example, wouldn’t meet Kia’s engineering standards, and therefore wouldn’t be covered in the manufacturer’s warranty, he says. The Soul comes with a 10-year, 100,000 mile powertrain and five-year, 60,000 mile bumper-to-bumper warranty.

Using aftermarket parts gives customers more choices, says Aikins. The aftermarket company does need to warranty the part itself, however, and customers must understand the part is not covered by the factory warranty, he says.

Spending quality time with a car isn’t the only benefit of attending a measuring session. They are also great places to make connections, says John Espino, new business and market development manager for Banks Power, a division of Gale Banks Engineering of Azusa, California.

Espino met some GM representatives at a SEMA event in 2001. Now, Banks is the exclusive distributor for the Duramax diesel engine in GM trucks.

“You have no idea how many opportunities lie through these connections,” says Espino.

They can also lead to advance knowledge of what will change—or stay the same—in an upcoming model, says Espino, which “helps tremendously with getting products out on time.”

SEMA sends an e-mail blast to its database of interested companies three to four weeks in advance of a measuring session, says SEMA’s Wolf. Notices also run in the association’s weekly electronic newsletter, eNews, and on the SEMA website

Companies that don’t want to travel to measuring sessions can still get a model’s measurements, Wolf explains. Sometimes the CAD files will be online before the launch, he says. That was true for Toyota’s Scion tC, launched in 2004. But a product still needs to be fitted to the model at some point.

Kia is launching several more models this year. Someone from Wet Okole, which has about 60 employees, will likely be at those measuring sessions too, says Wolf. He notes that the company attends all the sessions in this area.

Says Zambrano: “It’s more practical for us to come to these sessions.”

SEMA News - August 2009

By Alysha Webb

Paying Off in Business Contracts and Contacts

Toyota and BMW have done “quite well” emphasizing personalization with their Scion and Mini brands, says Fred Aikins, senior product manager for Kia Motors America. Kia aims to emulate that success with the Soul.

“This car should produce big business for us,” says Zambrano.

As automakers come out with more models specifically designed for personalization, attending measuring sessions is becoming ever more important for SEMA members. The sessions are an opportunity to get data and ideas for aftermarket products for new vehicles. They’re also a great place to make contacts that could result in future business.

SEMA holds about 20 measuring sessions each year, says Bill Wolf, SEMA senior director of OEM Relations. Only manufacturing member companies are allowed to attend.

Most measuring sessions take place before the official launch, though the Soul measuring session, in May at the Kia Motors America headquarters in Irvine, Calif., was held after the vehicle’s launch.

Three Soul models were on offer, including one on a lift for easy access to the car’s underside. As for the two ground-level Souls, Wet Okole’s Zambrano crawled over one’s interior while Ralph Turner, technical support manager for American International, measured the console of the other.

American International of Camarillo, California, makes navigation and sound systems.

The company, which has about 60 employees, will get some business from the Soul right away, says Turner, though the biggest demand will come later, when buyers of used models want to upgrade.

“There’s a lot of info we can pick up here that would be hard to get at the dealership,” he says.

Making it personal

Toyota and BMW have done “quite well” emphasizing personalization with their Scion and Mini brands, says Fred Aikins, senior product manager for Kia Motors America. Kia aims to emulate that success with the Soul.

Kia will offer dozens of its own accessories for the small boxy car. But “there are some things that aftermarket companies can do better, especially those that have an impact on the warranty” says Aikins.

Engine performance upgrades or oversized wheels and tires, for example, wouldn’t meet Kia’s engineering standards, and therefore wouldn’t be covered in the manufacturer’s warranty, he says. The Soul comes with a 10-year, 100,000 mile powertrain and five-year, 60,000 mile bumper-to-bumper warranty.

Using aftermarket parts gives customers more choices, says Aikins. The aftermarket company does need to warranty the part itself, however, and customers must understand the part is not covered by the factory warranty, he says.

Spending quality time with a car isn’t the only benefit of attending a measuring session. They are also great places to make connections, says John Espino, new business and market development manager for Banks Power, a division of Gale Banks Engineering of Azusa, California.

Espino met some GM representatives at a SEMA event in 2001. Now, Banks is the exclusive distributor for the Duramax diesel engine in GM trucks.

“You have no idea how many opportunities lie through these connections,” says Espino.

They can also lead to advance knowledge of what will change—or stay the same—in an upcoming model, says Espino, which “helps tremendously with getting products out on time.”

SEMA sends an e-mail blast to its database of interested companies three to four weeks in advance of a measuring session, says SEMA’s Wolf. Notices also run in the association’s weekly electronic newsletter, eNews, and on the SEMA website

Companies that don’t want to travel to measuring sessions can still get a model’s measurements, Wolf explains. Sometimes the CAD files will be online before the launch, he says. That was true for Toyota’s Scion tC, launched in 2004. But a product still needs to be fitted to the model at some point.

Kia is launching several more models this year. Someone from Wet Okole, which has about 60 employees, will likely be at those measuring sessions too, says Wolf. He notes that the company attends all the sessions in this area.

Says Zambrano: “It’s more practical for us to come to these sessions.”

SEMA News - August 2009

By Alysha Webb

Paying Off in Business Contracts and Contacts

Toyota and BMW have done “quite well” emphasizing personalization with their Scion and Mini brands, says Fred Aikins, senior product manager for Kia Motors America. Kia aims to emulate that success with the Soul.

“This car should produce big business for us,” says Zambrano.

As automakers come out with more models specifically designed for personalization, attending measuring sessions is becoming ever more important for SEMA members. The sessions are an opportunity to get data and ideas for aftermarket products for new vehicles. They’re also a great place to make contacts that could result in future business.

SEMA holds about 20 measuring sessions each year, says Bill Wolf, SEMA senior director of OEM Relations. Only manufacturing member companies are allowed to attend.

Most measuring sessions take place before the official launch, though the Soul measuring session, in May at the Kia Motors America headquarters in Irvine, Calif., was held after the vehicle’s launch.

Three Soul models were on offer, including one on a lift for easy access to the car’s underside. As for the two ground-level Souls, Wet Okole’s Zambrano crawled over one’s interior while Ralph Turner, technical support manager for American International, measured the console of the other.

American International of Camarillo, California, makes navigation and sound systems.

The company, which has about 60 employees, will get some business from the Soul right away, says Turner, though the biggest demand will come later, when buyers of used models want to upgrade.

“There’s a lot of info we can pick up here that would be hard to get at the dealership,” he says.

Making it personal

Toyota and BMW have done “quite well” emphasizing personalization with their Scion and Mini brands, says Fred Aikins, senior product manager for Kia Motors America. Kia aims to emulate that success with the Soul.

Kia will offer dozens of its own accessories for the small boxy car. But “there are some things that aftermarket companies can do better, especially those that have an impact on the warranty” says Aikins.

Engine performance upgrades or oversized wheels and tires, for example, wouldn’t meet Kia’s engineering standards, and therefore wouldn’t be covered in the manufacturer’s warranty, he says. The Soul comes with a 10-year, 100,000 mile powertrain and five-year, 60,000 mile bumper-to-bumper warranty.

Using aftermarket parts gives customers more choices, says Aikins. The aftermarket company does need to warranty the part itself, however, and customers must understand the part is not covered by the factory warranty, he says.

Spending quality time with a car isn’t the only benefit of attending a measuring session. They are also great places to make connections, says John Espino, new business and market development manager for Banks Power, a division of Gale Banks Engineering of Azusa, California.

Espino met some GM representatives at a SEMA event in 2001. Now, Banks is the exclusive distributor for the Duramax diesel engine in GM trucks.

“You have no idea how many opportunities lie through these connections,” says Espino.

They can also lead to advance knowledge of what will change—or stay the same—in an upcoming model, says Espino, which “helps tremendously with getting products out on time.”

SEMA sends an e-mail blast to its database of interested companies three to four weeks in advance of a measuring session, says SEMA’s Wolf. Notices also run in the association’s weekly electronic newsletter, eNews, and on the SEMA website

Companies that don’t want to travel to measuring sessions can still get a model’s measurements, Wolf explains. Sometimes the CAD files will be online before the launch, he says. That was true for Toyota’s Scion tC, launched in 2004. But a product still needs to be fitted to the model at some point.

Kia is launching several more models this year. Someone from Wet Okole, which has about 60 employees, will likely be at those measuring sessions too, says Wolf. He notes that the company attends all the sessions in this area.

Says Zambrano: “It’s more practical for us to come to these sessions.”

SEMA NEWS -- August 2009
HALL of FAME 2009

By Drew Hardin

Bill Perry, Rolan “Jeep” Worthan and Henry “Smokey” Yunick Join SEMA’s Prestigious Hall of Fame

Bill Perry		Henry “Smokey” Yunick		Rolan “Jeep” Worthan

It seems like everyone gets a trophy these days. Our children’s sports teams don’t keep score anymore; everyone’s a winner just for showing up. The entertainment industry spends so much time staging awards and honors presentations, it’s a wonder that films, TV shows, music and theater still get produced.

Even in our own industry, it’s hard to keep track of all the “…of the Year” statuettes that are handed out in each and every automotive niche.

The net effect of all this is an overall dilution of an award’s true meaning. When everyone gets a trophy, does that trophy matter anymore?

Here, it does—very, very much. SEMA’s Hall of Fame award isn’t something you get just for showing up. It is the highest, most prestigious honor in the entire specialty-equipment industry—an industry that encompasses some 7,100 member companies that contribute more than $31 billion to the world economy.

SEMA’s Hall of Fame is almost as old as the association itself. Created in 1969, just six years after SEMA’s formation, the Hall of Fame award recognizes those members of the automotive aftermarket whose ingenuity, enthusiasm, integrity and old-fashioned hard work formed the industry’s very foundation and shaped its growth over the past four decades. Through their various contributions, these individuals have grown our industry from a small group of pioneering speed-part manufacturers to the wide-ranging economic powerhouse it is today.

The qualifications for Hall of Fame membership are rigorous. Nominees must have contributed to the industry on a national level and have been involved with the industry, or SEMA, for a minimum of 10 years. Their contributions must be seen as enhancing the technology, professionalism or general standing of the industry, and their activities must have been performed with a high degree of integrity. Involvement with or contributions to SEMA are important considerations in the nomination process, though the nominating committee has the discretion to honor a person who has significantly contributed to the automotive aftermarket without close ties to the association.

Each of this year’s Hall of Fame inductees made very different kinds of contributions to our industry, but one trait seems to unite them: a true, deep passion for their particular automotive calling—a passion that drove them to high levels of achievement in each of their fields. It’s an honor and a pleasure to welcome Bill Perry, Jeep Worthan and Smokey Yunick to SEMA’s Hall of Fame for 2009.

Bill Perry

Writing about Bill Perry after he lost his battle with leukemia earlier this year, SEMA Chairman Jim Cozzie and SEMA President and CEO Chris Kersting paid him one of the greatest compliments you can about another individual: “Simply put, Bill was one of the good guys.”

Everyone who knew and worked with Perry agreed. Joel Rosenthal, vice president of Gantt-Thomas & Associates, considered him a mentor and called it a “true blessing” to have worked with him. John Towle, PWA’s executive director, called Perry an “honest, forthright, compassionate and competitive individual” who was “dedicated to the industry and his family.” Bill Wagner, vice president of sales and marketing for Winfield Consumer Products, said Perry’s wife, Cathy, and his sons, Chris and Michael, “were the typical Southern family, and Bill was the southern gentleman. They couldn’t do enough for you.” And Ron DiVincenzo, general manager of Cap World, summed up what many felt when he called Perry “a great leader and a role model for us all.”

Like many in the automotive aftermarket industry, Perry had an early love for fast cars. He built radio-controlled cars as a kid and raced them at tracks in his hometown of Atlanta. He started working on real cars at age 14, and by the time Cathy met him when they were attending the University of West Georgia, “he had already done all the local dragstrips,” she said.

Perry’s experience as a racer led him to a job at a local speed shop while he attended college. In 1980, he became a manufacturer’s rep with Quality Parts Sales Inc., and he took a major step in his career when he bought the company just five years later and renamed it Bill Perry & Associates (BP&A). In the years to follow, Perry expanded his agency to the point where BP&A now has seven reps covering eight southeastern states.

Perry’s relationship with SEMA pre-dates the forming of BP&A. He joined SEMA in 1977 and became very active within the association. He served on the Board of Directors and was in his third consecutive term when he passed away. He was a member of the Board’s executive committee, and he served on the Manufacturers Rep Council (MRC) select committee for a number of years. Both he and BP&A have earned numerous awards and honors from SEMA, including the MRC Hall of Fame Award in 2008 and SEMA’s Manufacturers’ Representative of the Year award.

Perry’s enthusiasm for high performance never flagged. According to Cathy, he “…always loved cars, and always had a car he was working on, even when he started his business and raised his family.”

In fact, it was that enthusiasm that took Perry’s interactions with his customers to a higher level, said Rosenthal. “He was at his best at interpersonal relationships. When he was standing in a parking lot of a retail store, talking to a product’s end user, he was that enthusiast again. His face would light up when he was talking about that part, and the racer he was talking to just sensed it. That focus on enthusiasm had a great deal of influence on how he ran his business.”

Perry was also very generous with his time, Rosenthal said, no matter how big (or small) the customer was. “A lot of people would push back from having to talk to the ‘little guy’ who might not create a big sale. But even if he was talking to a guy who would just buy one piece, you still sensed Bill’s enthusiasm.”

Perry was a spiritual man, Rosenthal said, so when you were around him, “life lessons and business lessons often intermingled. Even in tough situations you’d see his spirituality play out in how he handled things. He was never ‘in your face.’ He was a gentleman’s gentleman.”

Rolan “Jeep” Worthan

Let’s start with the nickname. “That’s a question that’s been asked of me more times than I can count,” Jeep Worthan said with a laugh. “My mom gave it to me as a baby, though she claimed she could never remember why. Maybe it was because I looked like one when I crawled around on all fours. Or maybe it had something to do with my conception.” He paused. “That usually gets a chuckle.”

Currently the vice president of marketing/sales for Auto Meter Products Inc., Worthan was a Chicago-area racer and enthusiast before he knew there was an aftermarket parts industry. By chance, he spotted an ad in the Chicago Tribune classifieds for a job at Auto Meter while recuperating from knee surgery in early 1974. He joined the company that April, and he’s been there ever since.

“In the early ’70s, Auto Meter was truly unknown,” Worthan recalled. “Everyone, including me, was using a Sun tach and Stewart Warner gauges.”

Immediately Worthan went into sales, using his experience as a racer to introduce fellow racers to Auto Meter’s products.

“I always had a love of going fast; that was my advantage,” he explained. “I had a passion and cared for the racer—the customer—and I would bring his needs back to the factory so the engineering team could develop products that the racers would want to buy.”

That strategy launched what Worthan considers the most significant product in his Auto Meter career: the Monster Tach. In 1977, Worthan took a “tach tester,” which incorporated the new electric tach, to race tracks around the country. Ostensibly, the tester would help racers calibrate their own tachometers, but once they saw how responsive Auto Meter’s gauge was compared to their own, “they became new believers,” Worthan said. “That product really helped us penetrate into racing and got the ball rolling.”

Worthan brought that same level of enthusiasm to SEMA after he experienced his first SEMA Show with Auto Meter.

“Up to then, my experience had been as a user of performance products, and suddenly here I was on the other side of the fence,” he said. “I immediately fell in love with the industry.”

It wasn’t long before he made friends in the association, one of whom was a member of the Board of Directors.

“He told me how much he enjoyed it and that I’d be perfect for it. So in the early ’80s I got on the board, and I’ve been heavily involved ever since.”

To date, Worthan has served eight terms on SEMA’s Board of Directors. “Eight and counting,” he said. “I’m running again.” He has also been involved with a number of SEMA’s councils and had a hand in the formation of the Motorsports Parts Manufacturers Council (MPMC). He’s currently an active member of MPMC, the Young Executives Network and the Hot Rod Industry Alliance, and he is the SEMA Board liaison for the MPMC. He has also been recognized by the Performance Warehouse Association (PWA) as its Person of the Year, and Auto Meter has been PWA Manufacturer of the Year four times during his tenure with the company.

“Jeep’s eighth term on the Board of Directors only scratches the surface of his involvement,” said Ron Funfar of Hedman Hedders. “He has either served on or chaired nearly every SEMA committee—many more than once. He was a charter member of the World Motorsports Society and was influential in the formation of what is now SEMA News.

“It’s not often that a person’s name is synonymous with the company he works for, but when someone says ‘Auto Meter,’ the first thing that comes to mind is Jeep Worthan,” Funfar added. “Jeep’s love and passion for this industry are unparalleled. You will not find an individual more deserving than Jeep to be inducted into the SEMA Hall of Fame.”

Henry “Smokey” Yunick

There were really two Smokey Yunicks. The first was the stuff of legends.

Henry Yunick dropped out of school as a teenager to work on his family’s Pennsylvania farm after his father died. His nickname came from a track announcer commenting on the condition of his motorcycle during a 1941 race. He joined the Army Air Corps, flew bombers and fighters in World War II, and then returned from the war to open what was at first a tiny shop in Daytona Beach, Florida, “The Best Damn Garage in Town.”

It wasn’t just bluster. First in NASCAR, then at Indy, Yunick applied his prodigious mechanical talents to making fast cars and making cars go faster. The roster of men who drove for Yunick is a Who’s Who of racing champions, from Allison (Bobby) to Vukovich (Billy). He won two NASCAR Grand National Championships as a car owner and mechanic, and he won at Indy in 1960 as the co-chief mechanic for Jim Rathmann’s Offenhauser-powered roadster.

“Indy was his love,” said Jim McFarland, who was an editor at Hot Rod magazine when he began a 40-year friendship with Yunick in the ’60s. “He came out of NASCAR but gravitated to Indy since he wasn’t bound by all the rules. He could explore more things there. The technological challenges were something that intrigued him.”

Yunick’s speed secrets could be so ground-breaking—or difficult to discern—that some hung another nickname on him: cheater.

“I get offended when I hear that,” said Trish Yunick Brown, his daughter. “He maintained he didn’t cheat. What he did was innovation. As far as he was concerned, if it didn’t say what he was doing wasn’t allowed, then it was perfectly fair. Many things that weren’t in the rulebook on the weekend became rules on Monday morning, courtesy of Smokey.”

Yunick’s talents weren’t limited to the racetrack. Pontiac, Chevrolet and Ford were among the auto makers that benefited from either his hands-on engineering or consulting work. He is credited with developing, among other components, variable-ratio power steering, reverse-flow engine cooling and the extended-tip spark plug.

He was closely involved with the development of Chevy’s small-block V-8. According to McFarland, he “…pioneered a lot of thinking that builders of aftermarket parts picked up on. He came up with a cross-ram intake that Vic [Edelbrock] built later, did cylinder head work, pioneered things ostensibly for Chevrolet that wound up in various segments of the aftermarket.”

Racer safety was a big concern of Yunick’s as well. He stopped competing in NASCAR when the sanctioning body wouldn’t let him use a fuel bladder; and he designed a “safe wall” in the ’60s that would move on contact, absorbing some of a crash’s energy.

The Yunick of legend could be blunt, even ornery. “Cantankerous, that’s a good word for it,” Trish Yunick said. But then there are the stories about the other Smokey, the one who would open his garage in the middle of the night to help a fellow racer, even if he was a competitor. Or who, in his later years, found time for a family that had learned to live without him for long stretches, especially from late April to early June.

Trish told this story about her dad’s other side:

“Smokey and John DeLorean were friends. They worked at Pontiac at the same time. Smokey called John one morning, and John was going through his first very public divorce. They didn’t talk about the divorce, but Smokey knew he wasn’t in good shape. So he hung up the phone and flew to Detroit to check on him. They talked for a while, and Smokey felt better about John, so he flew home. John later said he was thinking about killing himself that night. Smokey did have a bad side, but he really was very human.”

SEMA NEWS -- August 2009
HALL of FAME 2009

By Drew Hardin

Bill Perry, Rolan “Jeep” Worthan and Henry “Smokey” Yunick Join SEMA’s Prestigious Hall of Fame

Bill Perry		Henry “Smokey” Yunick		Rolan “Jeep” Worthan

It seems like everyone gets a trophy these days. Our children’s sports teams don’t keep score anymore; everyone’s a winner just for showing up. The entertainment industry spends so much time staging awards and honors presentations, it’s a wonder that films, TV shows, music and theater still get produced.

Even in our own industry, it’s hard to keep track of all the “…of the Year” statuettes that are handed out in each and every automotive niche.

The net effect of all this is an overall dilution of an award’s true meaning. When everyone gets a trophy, does that trophy matter anymore?

Here, it does—very, very much. SEMA’s Hall of Fame award isn’t something you get just for showing up. It is the highest, most prestigious honor in the entire specialty-equipment industry—an industry that encompasses some 7,100 member companies that contribute more than $31 billion to the world economy.

SEMA’s Hall of Fame is almost as old as the association itself. Created in 1969, just six years after SEMA’s formation, the Hall of Fame award recognizes those members of the automotive aftermarket whose ingenuity, enthusiasm, integrity and old-fashioned hard work formed the industry’s very foundation and shaped its growth over the past four decades. Through their various contributions, these individuals have grown our industry from a small group of pioneering speed-part manufacturers to the wide-ranging economic powerhouse it is today.

The qualifications for Hall of Fame membership are rigorous. Nominees must have contributed to the industry on a national level and have been involved with the industry, or SEMA, for a minimum of 10 years. Their contributions must be seen as enhancing the technology, professionalism or general standing of the industry, and their activities must have been performed with a high degree of integrity. Involvement with or contributions to SEMA are important considerations in the nomination process, though the nominating committee has the discretion to honor a person who has significantly contributed to the automotive aftermarket without close ties to the association.

Each of this year’s Hall of Fame inductees made very different kinds of contributions to our industry, but one trait seems to unite them: a true, deep passion for their particular automotive calling—a passion that drove them to high levels of achievement in each of their fields. It’s an honor and a pleasure to welcome Bill Perry, Jeep Worthan and Smokey Yunick to SEMA’s Hall of Fame for 2009.

Bill Perry

Writing about Bill Perry after he lost his battle with leukemia earlier this year, SEMA Chairman Jim Cozzie and SEMA President and CEO Chris Kersting paid him one of the greatest compliments you can about another individual: “Simply put, Bill was one of the good guys.”

Everyone who knew and worked with Perry agreed. Joel Rosenthal, vice president of Gantt-Thomas & Associates, considered him a mentor and called it a “true blessing” to have worked with him. John Towle, PWA’s executive director, called Perry an “honest, forthright, compassionate and competitive individual” who was “dedicated to the industry and his family.” Bill Wagner, vice president of sales and marketing for Winfield Consumer Products, said Perry’s wife, Cathy, and his sons, Chris and Michael, “were the typical Southern family, and Bill was the southern gentleman. They couldn’t do enough for you.” And Ron DiVincenzo, general manager of Cap World, summed up what many felt when he called Perry “a great leader and a role model for us all.”

Like many in the automotive aftermarket industry, Perry had an early love for fast cars. He built radio-controlled cars as a kid and raced them at tracks in his hometown of Atlanta. He started working on real cars at age 14, and by the time Cathy met him when they were attending the University of West Georgia, “he had already done all the local dragstrips,” she said.

Perry’s experience as a racer led him to a job at a local speed shop while he attended college. In 1980, he became a manufacturer’s rep with Quality Parts Sales Inc., and he took a major step in his career when he bought the company just five years later and renamed it Bill Perry & Associates (BP&A). In the years to follow, Perry expanded his agency to the point where BP&A now has seven reps covering eight southeastern states.

Perry’s relationship with SEMA pre-dates the forming of BP&A. He joined SEMA in 1977 and became very active within the association. He served on the Board of Directors and was in his third consecutive term when he passed away. He was a member of the Board’s executive committee, and he served on the Manufacturers Rep Council (MRC) select committee for a number of years. Both he and BP&A have earned numerous awards and honors from SEMA, including the MRC Hall of Fame Award in 2008 and SEMA’s Manufacturers’ Representative of the Year award.

Perry’s enthusiasm for high performance never flagged. According to Cathy, he “…always loved cars, and always had a car he was working on, even when he started his business and raised his family.”

In fact, it was that enthusiasm that took Perry’s interactions with his customers to a higher level, said Rosenthal. “He was at his best at interpersonal relationships. When he was standing in a parking lot of a retail store, talking to a product’s end user, he was that enthusiast again. His face would light up when he was talking about that part, and the racer he was talking to just sensed it. That focus on enthusiasm had a great deal of influence on how he ran his business.”

Perry was also very generous with his time, Rosenthal said, no matter how big (or small) the customer was. “A lot of people would push back from having to talk to the ‘little guy’ who might not create a big sale. But even if he was talking to a guy who would just buy one piece, you still sensed Bill’s enthusiasm.”

Perry was a spiritual man, Rosenthal said, so when you were around him, “life lessons and business lessons often intermingled. Even in tough situations you’d see his spirituality play out in how he handled things. He was never ‘in your face.’ He was a gentleman’s gentleman.”

Rolan “Jeep” Worthan

Let’s start with the nickname. “That’s a question that’s been asked of me more times than I can count,” Jeep Worthan said with a laugh. “My mom gave it to me as a baby, though she claimed she could never remember why. Maybe it was because I looked like one when I crawled around on all fours. Or maybe it had something to do with my conception.” He paused. “That usually gets a chuckle.”

Currently the vice president of marketing/sales for Auto Meter Products Inc., Worthan was a Chicago-area racer and enthusiast before he knew there was an aftermarket parts industry. By chance, he spotted an ad in the Chicago Tribune classifieds for a job at Auto Meter while recuperating from knee surgery in early 1974. He joined the company that April, and he’s been there ever since.

“In the early ’70s, Auto Meter was truly unknown,” Worthan recalled. “Everyone, including me, was using a Sun tach and Stewart Warner gauges.”

Immediately Worthan went into sales, using his experience as a racer to introduce fellow racers to Auto Meter’s products.

“I always had a love of going fast; that was my advantage,” he explained. “I had a passion and cared for the racer—the customer—and I would bring his needs back to the factory so the engineering team could develop products that the racers would want to buy.”

That strategy launched what Worthan considers the most significant product in his Auto Meter career: the Monster Tach. In 1977, Worthan took a “tach tester,” which incorporated the new electric tach, to race tracks around the country. Ostensibly, the tester would help racers calibrate their own tachometers, but once they saw how responsive Auto Meter’s gauge was compared to their own, “they became new believers,” Worthan said. “That product really helped us penetrate into racing and got the ball rolling.”

Worthan brought that same level of enthusiasm to SEMA after he experienced his first SEMA Show with Auto Meter.

“Up to then, my experience had been as a user of performance products, and suddenly here I was on the other side of the fence,” he said. “I immediately fell in love with the industry.”

It wasn’t long before he made friends in the association, one of whom was a member of the Board of Directors.

“He told me how much he enjoyed it and that I’d be perfect for it. So in the early ’80s I got on the board, and I’ve been heavily involved ever since.”

To date, Worthan has served eight terms on SEMA’s Board of Directors. “Eight and counting,” he said. “I’m running again.” He has also been involved with a number of SEMA’s councils and had a hand in the formation of the Motorsports Parts Manufacturers Council (MPMC). He’s currently an active member of MPMC, the Young Executives Network and the Hot Rod Industry Alliance, and he is the SEMA Board liaison for the MPMC. He has also been recognized by the Performance Warehouse Association (PWA) as its Person of the Year, and Auto Meter has been PWA Manufacturer of the Year four times during his tenure with the company.

“Jeep’s eighth term on the Board of Directors only scratches the surface of his involvement,” said Ron Funfar of Hedman Hedders. “He has either served on or chaired nearly every SEMA committee—many more than once. He was a charter member of the World Motorsports Society and was influential in the formation of what is now SEMA News.

“It’s not often that a person’s name is synonymous with the company he works for, but when someone says ‘Auto Meter,’ the first thing that comes to mind is Jeep Worthan,” Funfar added. “Jeep’s love and passion for this industry are unparalleled. You will not find an individual more deserving than Jeep to be inducted into the SEMA Hall of Fame.”

Henry “Smokey” Yunick

There were really two Smokey Yunicks. The first was the stuff of legends.

Henry Yunick dropped out of school as a teenager to work on his family’s Pennsylvania farm after his father died. His nickname came from a track announcer commenting on the condition of his motorcycle during a 1941 race. He joined the Army Air Corps, flew bombers and fighters in World War II, and then returned from the war to open what was at first a tiny shop in Daytona Beach, Florida, “The Best Damn Garage in Town.”

It wasn’t just bluster. First in NASCAR, then at Indy, Yunick applied his prodigious mechanical talents to making fast cars and making cars go faster. The roster of men who drove for Yunick is a Who’s Who of racing champions, from Allison (Bobby) to Vukovich (Billy). He won two NASCAR Grand National Championships as a car owner and mechanic, and he won at Indy in 1960 as the co-chief mechanic for Jim Rathmann’s Offenhauser-powered roadster.

“Indy was his love,” said Jim McFarland, who was an editor at Hot Rod magazine when he began a 40-year friendship with Yunick in the ’60s. “He came out of NASCAR but gravitated to Indy since he wasn’t bound by all the rules. He could explore more things there. The technological challenges were something that intrigued him.”

Yunick’s speed secrets could be so ground-breaking—or difficult to discern—that some hung another nickname on him: cheater.

“I get offended when I hear that,” said Trish Yunick Brown, his daughter. “He maintained he didn’t cheat. What he did was innovation. As far as he was concerned, if it didn’t say what he was doing wasn’t allowed, then it was perfectly fair. Many things that weren’t in the rulebook on the weekend became rules on Monday morning, courtesy of Smokey.”

Yunick’s talents weren’t limited to the racetrack. Pontiac, Chevrolet and Ford were among the auto makers that benefited from either his hands-on engineering or consulting work. He is credited with developing, among other components, variable-ratio power steering, reverse-flow engine cooling and the extended-tip spark plug.

He was closely involved with the development of Chevy’s small-block V-8. According to McFarland, he “…pioneered a lot of thinking that builders of aftermarket parts picked up on. He came up with a cross-ram intake that Vic [Edelbrock] built later, did cylinder head work, pioneered things ostensibly for Chevrolet that wound up in various segments of the aftermarket.”

Racer safety was a big concern of Yunick’s as well. He stopped competing in NASCAR when the sanctioning body wouldn’t let him use a fuel bladder; and he designed a “safe wall” in the ’60s that would move on contact, absorbing some of a crash’s energy.

The Yunick of legend could be blunt, even ornery. “Cantankerous, that’s a good word for it,” Trish Yunick said. But then there are the stories about the other Smokey, the one who would open his garage in the middle of the night to help a fellow racer, even if he was a competitor. Or who, in his later years, found time for a family that had learned to live without him for long stretches, especially from late April to early June.

Trish told this story about her dad’s other side:

“Smokey and John DeLorean were friends. They worked at Pontiac at the same time. Smokey called John one morning, and John was going through his first very public divorce. They didn’t talk about the divorce, but Smokey knew he wasn’t in good shape. So he hung up the phone and flew to Detroit to check on him. They talked for a while, and Smokey felt better about John, so he flew home. John later said he was thinking about killing himself that night. Smokey did have a bad side, but he really was very human.”

SEMA NEWS -- August 2009
HALL of FAME 2009

By Drew Hardin

Bill Perry, Rolan “Jeep” Worthan and Henry “Smokey” Yunick Join SEMA’s Prestigious Hall of Fame

Bill Perry		Henry “Smokey” Yunick		Rolan “Jeep” Worthan

It seems like everyone gets a trophy these days. Our children’s sports teams don’t keep score anymore; everyone’s a winner just for showing up. The entertainment industry spends so much time staging awards and honors presentations, it’s a wonder that films, TV shows, music and theater still get produced.

Even in our own industry, it’s hard to keep track of all the “…of the Year” statuettes that are handed out in each and every automotive niche.

The net effect of all this is an overall dilution of an award’s true meaning. When everyone gets a trophy, does that trophy matter anymore?

Here, it does—very, very much. SEMA’s Hall of Fame award isn’t something you get just for showing up. It is the highest, most prestigious honor in the entire specialty-equipment industry—an industry that encompasses some 7,100 member companies that contribute more than $31 billion to the world economy.

SEMA’s Hall of Fame is almost as old as the association itself. Created in 1969, just six years after SEMA’s formation, the Hall of Fame award recognizes those members of the automotive aftermarket whose ingenuity, enthusiasm, integrity and old-fashioned hard work formed the industry’s very foundation and shaped its growth over the past four decades. Through their various contributions, these individuals have grown our industry from a small group of pioneering speed-part manufacturers to the wide-ranging economic powerhouse it is today.

The qualifications for Hall of Fame membership are rigorous. Nominees must have contributed to the industry on a national level and have been involved with the industry, or SEMA, for a minimum of 10 years. Their contributions must be seen as enhancing the technology, professionalism or general standing of the industry, and their activities must have been performed with a high degree of integrity. Involvement with or contributions to SEMA are important considerations in the nomination process, though the nominating committee has the discretion to honor a person who has significantly contributed to the automotive aftermarket without close ties to the association.

Each of this year’s Hall of Fame inductees made very different kinds of contributions to our industry, but one trait seems to unite them: a true, deep passion for their particular automotive calling—a passion that drove them to high levels of achievement in each of their fields. It’s an honor and a pleasure to welcome Bill Perry, Jeep Worthan and Smokey Yunick to SEMA’s Hall of Fame for 2009.

Bill Perry

Writing about Bill Perry after he lost his battle with leukemia earlier this year, SEMA Chairman Jim Cozzie and SEMA President and CEO Chris Kersting paid him one of the greatest compliments you can about another individual: “Simply put, Bill was one of the good guys.”

Everyone who knew and worked with Perry agreed. Joel Rosenthal, vice president of Gantt-Thomas & Associates, considered him a mentor and called it a “true blessing” to have worked with him. John Towle, PWA’s executive director, called Perry an “honest, forthright, compassionate and competitive individual” who was “dedicated to the industry and his family.” Bill Wagner, vice president of sales and marketing for Winfield Consumer Products, said Perry’s wife, Cathy, and his sons, Chris and Michael, “were the typical Southern family, and Bill was the southern gentleman. They couldn’t do enough for you.” And Ron DiVincenzo, general manager of Cap World, summed up what many felt when he called Perry “a great leader and a role model for us all.”

Like many in the automotive aftermarket industry, Perry had an early love for fast cars. He built radio-controlled cars as a kid and raced them at tracks in his hometown of Atlanta. He started working on real cars at age 14, and by the time Cathy met him when they were attending the University of West Georgia, “he had already done all the local dragstrips,” she said.

Perry’s experience as a racer led him to a job at a local speed shop while he attended college. In 1980, he became a manufacturer’s rep with Quality Parts Sales Inc., and he took a major step in his career when he bought the company just five years later and renamed it Bill Perry & Associates (BP&A). In the years to follow, Perry expanded his agency to the point where BP&A now has seven reps covering eight southeastern states.

Perry’s relationship with SEMA pre-dates the forming of BP&A. He joined SEMA in 1977 and became very active within the association. He served on the Board of Directors and was in his third consecutive term when he passed away. He was a member of the Board’s executive committee, and he served on the Manufacturers Rep Council (MRC) select committee for a number of years. Both he and BP&A have earned numerous awards and honors from SEMA, including the MRC Hall of Fame Award in 2008 and SEMA’s Manufacturers’ Representative of the Year award.

Perry’s enthusiasm for high performance never flagged. According to Cathy, he “…always loved cars, and always had a car he was working on, even when he started his business and raised his family.”

In fact, it was that enthusiasm that took Perry’s interactions with his customers to a higher level, said Rosenthal. “He was at his best at interpersonal relationships. When he was standing in a parking lot of a retail store, talking to a product’s end user, he was that enthusiast again. His face would light up when he was talking about that part, and the racer he was talking to just sensed it. That focus on enthusiasm had a great deal of influence on how he ran his business.”

Perry was also very generous with his time, Rosenthal said, no matter how big (or small) the customer was. “A lot of people would push back from having to talk to the ‘little guy’ who might not create a big sale. But even if he was talking to a guy who would just buy one piece, you still sensed Bill’s enthusiasm.”

Perry was a spiritual man, Rosenthal said, so when you were around him, “life lessons and business lessons often intermingled. Even in tough situations you’d see his spirituality play out in how he handled things. He was never ‘in your face.’ He was a gentleman’s gentleman.”

Rolan “Jeep” Worthan

Let’s start with the nickname. “That’s a question that’s been asked of me more times than I can count,” Jeep Worthan said with a laugh. “My mom gave it to me as a baby, though she claimed she could never remember why. Maybe it was because I looked like one when I crawled around on all fours. Or maybe it had something to do with my conception.” He paused. “That usually gets a chuckle.”

Currently the vice president of marketing/sales for Auto Meter Products Inc., Worthan was a Chicago-area racer and enthusiast before he knew there was an aftermarket parts industry. By chance, he spotted an ad in the Chicago Tribune classifieds for a job at Auto Meter while recuperating from knee surgery in early 1974. He joined the company that April, and he’s been there ever since.

“In the early ’70s, Auto Meter was truly unknown,” Worthan recalled. “Everyone, including me, was using a Sun tach and Stewart Warner gauges.”

Immediately Worthan went into sales, using his experience as a racer to introduce fellow racers to Auto Meter’s products.

“I always had a love of going fast; that was my advantage,” he explained. “I had a passion and cared for the racer—the customer—and I would bring his needs back to the factory so the engineering team could develop products that the racers would want to buy.”

That strategy launched what Worthan considers the most significant product in his Auto Meter career: the Monster Tach. In 1977, Worthan took a “tach tester,” which incorporated the new electric tach, to race tracks around the country. Ostensibly, the tester would help racers calibrate their own tachometers, but once they saw how responsive Auto Meter’s gauge was compared to their own, “they became new believers,” Worthan said. “That product really helped us penetrate into racing and got the ball rolling.”

Worthan brought that same level of enthusiasm to SEMA after he experienced his first SEMA Show with Auto Meter.

“Up to then, my experience had been as a user of performance products, and suddenly here I was on the other side of the fence,” he said. “I immediately fell in love with the industry.”

It wasn’t long before he made friends in the association, one of whom was a member of the Board of Directors.

“He told me how much he enjoyed it and that I’d be perfect for it. So in the early ’80s I got on the board, and I’ve been heavily involved ever since.”

To date, Worthan has served eight terms on SEMA’s Board of Directors. “Eight and counting,” he said. “I’m running again.” He has also been involved with a number of SEMA’s councils and had a hand in the formation of the Motorsports Parts Manufacturers Council (MPMC). He’s currently an active member of MPMC, the Young Executives Network and the Hot Rod Industry Alliance, and he is the SEMA Board liaison for the MPMC. He has also been recognized by the Performance Warehouse Association (PWA) as its Person of the Year, and Auto Meter has been PWA Manufacturer of the Year four times during his tenure with the company.

“Jeep’s eighth term on the Board of Directors only scratches the surface of his involvement,” said Ron Funfar of Hedman Hedders. “He has either served on or chaired nearly every SEMA committee—many more than once. He was a charter member of the World Motorsports Society and was influential in the formation of what is now SEMA News.

“It’s not often that a person’s name is synonymous with the company he works for, but when someone says ‘Auto Meter,’ the first thing that comes to mind is Jeep Worthan,” Funfar added. “Jeep’s love and passion for this industry are unparalleled. You will not find an individual more deserving than Jeep to be inducted into the SEMA Hall of Fame.”

Henry “Smokey” Yunick

There were really two Smokey Yunicks. The first was the stuff of legends.

Henry Yunick dropped out of school as a teenager to work on his family’s Pennsylvania farm after his father died. His nickname came from a track announcer commenting on the condition of his motorcycle during a 1941 race. He joined the Army Air Corps, flew bombers and fighters in World War II, and then returned from the war to open what was at first a tiny shop in Daytona Beach, Florida, “The Best Damn Garage in Town.”

It wasn’t just bluster. First in NASCAR, then at Indy, Yunick applied his prodigious mechanical talents to making fast cars and making cars go faster. The roster of men who drove for Yunick is a Who’s Who of racing champions, from Allison (Bobby) to Vukovich (Billy). He won two NASCAR Grand National Championships as a car owner and mechanic, and he won at Indy in 1960 as the co-chief mechanic for Jim Rathmann’s Offenhauser-powered roadster.

“Indy was his love,” said Jim McFarland, who was an editor at Hot Rod magazine when he began a 40-year friendship with Yunick in the ’60s. “He came out of NASCAR but gravitated to Indy since he wasn’t bound by all the rules. He could explore more things there. The technological challenges were something that intrigued him.”

Yunick’s speed secrets could be so ground-breaking—or difficult to discern—that some hung another nickname on him: cheater.

“I get offended when I hear that,” said Trish Yunick Brown, his daughter. “He maintained he didn’t cheat. What he did was innovation. As far as he was concerned, if it didn’t say what he was doing wasn’t allowed, then it was perfectly fair. Many things that weren’t in the rulebook on the weekend became rules on Monday morning, courtesy of Smokey.”

Yunick’s talents weren’t limited to the racetrack. Pontiac, Chevrolet and Ford were among the auto makers that benefited from either his hands-on engineering or consulting work. He is credited with developing, among other components, variable-ratio power steering, reverse-flow engine cooling and the extended-tip spark plug.

He was closely involved with the development of Chevy’s small-block V-8. According to McFarland, he “…pioneered a lot of thinking that builders of aftermarket parts picked up on. He came up with a cross-ram intake that Vic [Edelbrock] built later, did cylinder head work, pioneered things ostensibly for Chevrolet that wound up in various segments of the aftermarket.”

Racer safety was a big concern of Yunick’s as well. He stopped competing in NASCAR when the sanctioning body wouldn’t let him use a fuel bladder; and he designed a “safe wall” in the ’60s that would move on contact, absorbing some of a crash’s energy.

The Yunick of legend could be blunt, even ornery. “Cantankerous, that’s a good word for it,” Trish Yunick said. But then there are the stories about the other Smokey, the one who would open his garage in the middle of the night to help a fellow racer, even if he was a competitor. Or who, in his later years, found time for a family that had learned to live without him for long stretches, especially from late April to early June.

Trish told this story about her dad’s other side:

“Smokey and John DeLorean were friends. They worked at Pontiac at the same time. Smokey called John one morning, and John was going through his first very public divorce. They didn’t talk about the divorce, but Smokey knew he wasn’t in good shape. So he hung up the phone and flew to Detroit to check on him. They talked for a while, and Smokey felt better about John, so he flew home. John later said he was thinking about killing himself that night. Smokey did have a bad side, but he really was very human.”