Which George Barris are you most familiar with? The King of the Kustomizers who built the Batmobile, the Munster’s Koach and other outrageous vehicles for movies and TV? Or are you better acquainted with the Barris Brothers, George and Sam, who set custom car trends for decades with Sam’s heavily chopped ’49 Mercury and the later Hirohata Merc?

They arrived at the Cocoa Beach Cruise Night in their gleaming ’66 Chevelle Malibu. Bill and Katie Posey were excited to help kick-off the first leg of the Hot Rod Power Tour with a barbecue before the next day’s drive to Valdosta, Georgia. They were with friends and fellow enthusiasts, and it was the perfect occasion to announce Posey’s new leadership position in Washington.

Every business involved in the automotive specialty-equipment market has at least one thing in common: They all want to develop the most efficient way to provide customers with top-quality parts, assemblies or services. Finding the right tool for the right job can go a long way toward fulfilling that goal.

This compilation of restoration products that were introduced at the 2010 SEMA Show runs the gamut from traditional numbers-matching reproductions to modernization components for handling and power. We’ve also interspersed comments from the owners and executives of some of the industry’s leading restoration specialists. Both say a lot about how the marketplace has changed.

Exhibitors can promote their SEMA Show debut by sending press release materials into SEMA's publication department.

How effective are your advertising and media campaigns? More important, how are you measuring your return on investment (ROI)?

To learn what it takes to market product for use by American armed services, we talked to some specialty-equipment manufacturers that have branched out from traditional commercial sales to work with military suppliers. Among those willing to share their experiences were FOX Racing Shox, ICON Vehicle Dynamics, Wilwood Engineering, MasterCraft Safety, Roush Yates Performance Products and Rhino Linings.

Internet speaker and business consultant Joe Dysart has outlined some of the key elements that should be in place, based on insights from top experts in the medium, when developing a social media policy for your company and its employees.

Bill Stroppe’s involvement with racing runs so deep that it would probably be easier to list the types of racing he didn’t participate in than those he did. On-road, off-road, even in the water, the vehicles that Stroppe and his crew built were fast, competitive and usually groundbreaking in their design and execution.