Wade Kawasaki was pumping gas at the corner of Venice and Vermont in Los Angeles when he was just 10 years old. The year was 1970, and he was working at his father’s Shell gas station, which Kawasaki describes as a window into what was coming in his life. “Just filling up those cars with gas, washing their windows and checking their oil—I got to look under their hoods,” he explained. “That was cool stuff!”
At first glance, Eric Grant may seem an unlikely SEMA Hall of Fame candidate. He never owned a garage, never built a performance vehicle, never manufactured or even sold an automotive part. A lawyer by trade, he couldn’t be classified as a "car guy" per se. Yet his profound impact on the automotive aftermarket and SEMA’s earliest years cannot be disputed. After all, he was SEMA’s very first executive director—and how that came to be involved an incredible twist of fate.
No one can deny Boyd his rank in hot rodding and customizing. Boyd’s remarkable success with the production and sale of high-end billet-aluminum custom wheels is unprecedented, and his specialty-vehicle designs have received worldwide acclaim for craftsmanship and originality. He opened Hot Rods by Boyd in the late 1970s, while the late 1980s brought Boyd Wheels. His custom rims gained fans in the hot rod world as well as the hip-hop community.
Butch is recognized as being one of the specialty aftermarket leaders, an individual whose business acumen has led to a preponderance of successes in the wholesale and retail distribution of performance parts and customizing accessories. Butch has been an ad director, account manager and marketing director. He has served on the SEMA Board of Directors and as the SEMA Treasurer as well as on various committees. Additionally, he served on the Board of Directors for AFFTA and SREA. He was both Director and Treasurer of PWA.
Joan Weiand overcame the obstacles that lay before her when she took over Weiand Industries in the wake of her husband’s death. Joan supported industry causes with zeal; she established and maintained a SEMA Scholarship Fund in her husband Phil’s memory.
The founder and CEO of Superior Industries, former used-car salesman Lou radiated the spirit of entrepreneurship. He started his company, Superior Industries International, with the design and production of alloy custom wheels. Today, Superior wheels are found on tens of thousands of production-line new cars. He had been on the company's board of directors since 1958, serving as chairman until 2007. Lou was also a major supporter of the SEMA Memorial Scholarship Fund and one of the Scholarship's subfund sponsors; the L.L.
Hilborn is a popular name in the Indianapolis 500 race, because Hilborn fuel injection units have been on Indy race cars for more than three decades. It was Stu Hilborn, an automotive engineer and lakes racer, who designed and developed the hybrid injection system, a variation of which is now used on new cars in an electronic configuration. His injectors have been used successfully and set many records in all types of racing including oval track, drag, dry lakes, super modified, off-road, motorcycle, tractor pulling, hydroplanes and Indy Lite series.
Bob retired from Chrysler Motors Corporation in the late 1980s, but he did so with credit for keeping the Chrysler nameplates prominent in all forms of racing. Bob is known as the originator of Mopar, a unit of operation that began as a performance parts division for Chrysler. It’s reported that he ran Chrysler’s Pure Oil Performance Trials team and the Mobilgas Economy Run efforts, and led the racing group that developed the Hyper Pak-powered Valiants for NASCAR’s short-lived compact car racing series.
Pete was the co-founder of Pete & Jake's, a large and very successful street rod products manufacturer, also responsible for the design and construction of popular hot rods, among them the award-winning "California Kid" coupe. He has built, or had a hand in building, a number of notable rods, including the Eliminator coupe and two “HogZZilla” custom motorcycles for ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons.
Borré got his start more than 40 years ago as a teenage counterman at a neighborhood auto parts store. To this day he admits to a passion for cars of any kind. It’s an infatuation he traces to his boyhood years, and that, he says, is what has always influenced his career choices. From the parts counter to management roles, Borré advanced to president of Sperex VHT Corp., a position he held for 17 years. Today, Borré is the CEO of Manik Motors, a major national supplier of truck accessories.