Hardships
You have a few days for this? I think from a philosophical point of view having a clear idea of where you want to go is key. It's true in business, building a car or any important endeavor.
When I started AEM I had to come up with a business plan. AEM today is nowhere near what the original plan laid out was. It was going to be a high-end tuner-shop pilot program. Then after it got rolling we wanted to open franchise shops in demographically similar areas.
From 1987 to 1997 we became known as a good tuner shop thanks to the customers and magazine exposure, which was really big in the developing years. We had been making intakes since 1993 but they were all hand fabricated in a semi-mass production approach.
When you are undercapitalized you can't step up, which in this case would have been to better production capacity and advertising to back it up. When Peter and Greg Neuwirth came into the picture AEM was able to build on that reputation and produce the products in volume.
Cool Cars
Elmer Shannon's 240Z with a turbo'd L28. It raced in the Silver State Challenge and I think he won his class a couple times. The thing ran 165 mph all day. The guy was a stock broker in the Bay Area. He dropped the car off, we wired in an Electromotive fuel injection computer, tuned it and he was off.
I've driven real GT40s at breakneck speeds down the 91 freeway while tuning them. Racing history at triple digit speeds pretty cool.
A guy named Hal and this wild Studebaker that ran a Corvette C4 chassis and underpinnings with a twin-turbo 355-cubic inch Winston Cup V8 built by Bob Habermehl under the hood. The car weighed 4,000 pounds and we dynoed the thing. Keep in mind my dyno only went to 250 whp back then. This is well before the advent of Dynojets. We got the tuning dialed and all that and this car hauled ass. It was easily the fastest 4,000 pounds I had been in in all my life. Hal took off and drove the tires off the thing. Then a year and a half later Darren at R&D Dyno got his Dynojet so we had to get it over there. We had to know the bottom line: 720 whp, it was a monster.
I had a Studebaker straight 8 Indy car in the shop once. Tons of Cobras and vintage racers. It was all over the board.
I also remember Russ Matusevich; he had a wicked 5M Supra that ran 9.40s back in 2001. Abel Iberra was an early customer of AEM. We stay in touch and although he is a competitor in the SCC Pro RWD series I consider him one of my closest friends. I know there are plenty of people I'm not mentioning here but I have enjoyed working with all of the racers.
Tuning Philosophy
That's easy, "To finish first you must first finish." So when I am talking about tuning I am an engine guy, not a suspension guy. In fact, I think it's my job to make the suspension and transmission guy's life a living hell. Giving them as much power as humanly possible and let the driveline parts scatter where they may. But while doing that, obviously, the engine has got to live.
For me, I start very conservatively. But before you get into it you have to know what the customer wants; that's key. Ask the guy what he's doing with the car. In the racing world, the more money (for spare engines or rebuilds) a guy is willing to invest in the effort, the closer to the edge you can tune. But if it's a guy out there using some of his college money to go racing I will dial it back. Ditto for a street car.
Then Versus Now-Independent Versus CorporateIt is very cool what AEM has become; it is financially better. Having partners take care of the business aspect has slowed down my aging process significantly.
The coolest thing is now I am free. Take fuel injection for example, I have always wanted to do an engine management system. Back in 1977 or 1978 I was at BAP/Geon, which was a Weber concessionaire in the States. I wrote a paper and sent in to Magneti Marelli, which was working on EFI. I said we need to look at making this fuel injection something the guy on the street can use not just the factories, the OEMs. Of course they laughed at me and said you are out of your mind dude; you're high.
Then in the early '90s I went to Motec and said we need to make a system where you can take your Motec controller and plug it into another car. I don't care if it uses a wiring harness or a plug but we need that capability. And they went you are out of your mind. Original, huh?
Obviously the AEM EMS plug-and-play line up of ECUs has been fairly successful. So with our current infrastructure there is a lot of flexibility to dream and do things we could not fathom in Compton back in the day.
That's a great feeling; to literally make dreams come true. We have a talent pool here that is staggering. I could not imagine working with a better bunch of people.
The flip side of course is, take last night, I was dyno tuning an engine and it was like Nirvana to me. Getting on an engine, settling into the process and making power is one of the most satisfying things. I miss having that rush on a more regular basis and the intimacy of dealing with the people, the enthusiasts, who actually use the car on a one-to-one basis.
The Future
We are shipping the new universal EMS, and are working on an innovative air filter technology, which I can't tell you about without killing you and quality control certifications to produce parts for the OEs. We are doing intakes for GM trucks and Cobalts, Scion stuff and parts for Mazda.
I have been working on some electronic items that will be really cool and we'll introduce one of these "hotties" at SEMA this year. Looking forward, one thing I can tell you about is dash systems. Dashes with controllers and the manner in which it is implemented is real key. Stay tuned for that ... maybe I shouldn't have said that.