Since the early days of Volkswagen, one company has always remained on top, EMPI.
EMPI began in Riverside, California by Joe Vittone when he opened a Volkswagen dealership in 1954 with his business partner Holt Haughey. The agency was named Economotors and specialized in selling Volkswagen beetles and buses, and service parts.
Soon after Economotors opened shop, Joe realized the valve guides wore out at an excess rate and he had a hard time finding replacement valve guides. After contacting Volkswagen, he was told it was best to discard the entire valve heads and replace them with new heads.
As a result, Joe decided to manufacture his own valve guides. This allowed old or worn cylinder heads to be repaired instead of being scraped, saving the Volkswagen owner a large amount of money in replacement parts and service.
Economotors saw a surge in customers who wanted to buy the new valve guides, so Joe founded EMPI (European Motor Products Inc) in 1956. At this time in Germany, performance equipment company Okrasa was well-known and Joe decided to add Okrasa to the EMPI line of products, and thus introduced the Volkswagen owner to high performance parts.
However, Joe learned many Volkswagen owners did not think they needed high performance parts and were happy with the 36hp engine that was standard in Volkswagens coming off the assembly line. Relucently Joe added the Austrian company, Denzel, and their high performance VW parts to EMPI as well.
In 1959 Joe designed an anti-sway bar for Volkswagens, and a rear stabilizer that prevented the rear wheels from tucking underneath the wheel well during corners. It was to be known as the camber compensator.
The company EMPI has now changed its name to Engineered Motor Products Inc to place emphasis on the engineering design and product development of its parts.
Speedwell designed a few products exclusively for EMPI, one being a dual-Stromberg carburetor kit. BRM started manufacturing the famous BRM magnesium wheel.
In 1966 Joe began offering a new line of Volkswagen that were outfitted with EMPI performance parts. These cars were known as EMPI GTVs and available in four levels, depending on how many EMPI parts were included.
EMPI grew to 28 distributors throughout the United States, most of these were also Volkswagen dealerships. Volkswagen of America was not pleased with these new performance parts and threatened to cut their supply of new cars to any dealership that did not cease dealing with EMPI.
In 1971, EMPI was sold to Filter Dynamics so Joe could focus more attention on Economotors. At its peak, EMPI sold more than 6 million dollars worth of VW performance parts a year.
Blaine is an avid air-cooled Volkswagen enthusiast, having owned many vintage Volkswagens over the years, he loves to share his passion with others.
Visit OldeSkool Vintage VW for more vintage Volkswagen information.
1 comment:
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