From Passion to Profession: Matt Graves' Automotive Journey
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Car
Volkswagen Beetle
The Volkswagen Beetle is a famous car that looks very different from most cars today. It has a unique round shape and is known for being simple and reliable.
Term
four cylinder
A four-cylinder engine is a type of engine that has four parts called cylinders. It's usually smaller and helps the car use less fuel.
Part
exhaust system
The exhaust system is what helps remove the gases that come out of the engine after it runs. It also helps make the car quieter and cleaner.
Car
Jaguar E-Type
The Jaguar E-Type is a classic sports car from the 1960s and 70s. It's famous for its sleek look and fast performance, making it a favorite among car enthusiasts.
Company
American Powertrain
American Powertrain is a company that makes parts to improve the performance of American cars, especially muscle cars. They help make cars faster and more fun to drive.
Car
Ford Mustang
The Ford Mustang is a well-known American car that has been popular since the 1960s. It's famous for being sporty and fun to drive.
Car
Chevrolet Camaro
Car
Chevrolet Corvette
The Chevrolet Corvette is a famous American sports car that has been around for many years. It's known for being very fast and having a unique look.
Term
manual transmission
A manual transmission is a way to change gears in a car that requires the driver to do it themselves, using a clutch pedal and gear stick. It's not as common in new cars anymore.
Term
automatic transmission
An automatic transmission is a system in a car that changes gears for you, so you don't have to do it yourself. This makes driving easier, especially in traffic.
Term
dual clutch transmission
A dual clutch transmission is a type of automatic that can change gears very quickly, almost like a manual transmission, but it does it automatically for you.
Term
DCT
DCT is a special kind of automatic transmission that can change gears very quickly. It uses two clutches to make shifting smoother and faster than regular automatics.
Term
LT motor
The LT motor is a type of engine made by Chevrolet that is powerful and used in cars like the Corvette. It has a lot of horsepower, which means it can go really fast.
Concept
SEMA
SEMA is a big car show in Las Vegas where companies show off parts and custom cars. It's a place for car lovers to see the latest in car accessories and modifications.
Company
Summit Racing
Summit Racing is a store where you can buy parts and accessories to make your car faster or look better. They have a lot of different products for car lovers.
Company
J.C. Whitney
J.C. Whitney is a company that sells car parts and accessories through a big catalog. Many people used to get their catalogs in the mail to see what they could buy for their cars.
Company
JEGS
JEGS is a store that sells parts and accessories for cars, just like Summit Racing. They help car enthusiasts find what they need to improve their vehicles.
Brand
CJ Pony
CJ Pony is a company that sells parts and accessories for Ford Mustangs, which are popular cars among car enthusiasts.
Concept
Carol Shelby
Carol Shelby was a famous car designer and racer who created some well-known cars, including the Shelby Cobra. He worked with Ford to make the Mustang faster and more exciting.
Concept
Stacy David
Stacy David is a TV personality who is famous for building and customizing cars. He has a lot of fans in the car community because of his skills and shows.
Concept
Dave McClelland
Dave McClelland is a well-known announcer in drag racing, which is a type of car racing. Many people in the car world respect him for his work and knowledge.
Company
Vintage Air
Vintage Air is a company that makes air conditioning systems for older cars. They help keep classic cars cool and comfortable to drive.
Company
Mopar
Mopar is a brand that makes parts and accessories for cars made by Chrysler and other companies. They help people customize and repair their vehicles.
Term
performance racing industry show
The Performance Racing Industry Show is a big event where people who work in racing come together to see new racing parts and technology. It's a chance for them to learn and connect with others in the industry.
Term
suspension parts
Suspension parts are the pieces of a car that help it ride smoothly and handle well on the road. They connect the car to its wheels and make sure it can absorb bumps and turns effectively.
Part
3D printed parts
3D printed parts are made using a special printer that builds objects by adding material layer by layer. This method is often used to create custom car parts quickly and efficiently.
Part
CNC machines
CNC machines are tools that are controlled by a computer to cut and shape materials very accurately. They're commonly used to make parts for cars and other products.
Concept
classic muscle car
Classic muscle cars are older, powerful cars that were made in the 1960s and 1970s. They are known for their strong engines and sporty looks, and many people love to collect and restore them.
Company
Tremec
Tremec makes special gearboxes that help cars shift gears smoothly. They're often used in fast cars to make them perform better.
Term
cryo treatment
Cryo treatment is a process that makes metal parts stronger by cooling them to very low temperatures. This can help them last longer and perform better, especially in high-power situations.
Term
Coyote
The Coyote is a powerful engine made by Ford that is often used in Mustangs to give them a lot of speed and power.
Term
Whipple
Whipple makes superchargers that help engines get more power by pushing in extra air, making them faster.
Car
Chevrolet GMT-800
The GMT-800 is a series of Chevrolet trucks and SUVs made in the early 2000s, known for their durability and versatility.
Concept
Formula One
Formula One is a top-level car racing series where teams compete in fast cars on different tracks. It's known for its cutting-edge technology and high budgets, making it one of the most exciting sports to watch.
Car
Mazda Rx7S
The Mazda RX-7 is a type of sports car that uses a special kind of engine called a rotary engine, which is different from most cars. It's known for being fun to drive and is popular among people who love cars. Many fans appreciate its unique design and performance.
Car
Cadillac DeVille
The Cadillac DeVille is a big, fancy car that is designed for comfort and luxury. It has a lot of space inside and is known for being smooth to drive. Many people think of it as a classic American car that represents luxury.
Car
Holden Caprice
The Holden Caprice is a large, comfortable car that is often used for luxury travel. It has a lot of room inside and is known for being powerful and smooth on the road. People like it for its combination of comfort and performance.
LIVE
Welcome to the Driven By Enthusiasts podcast from CJ Pony Parts, where we celebrate the people behind the builds and the stories that start in the garage.
I'm your host, Melanie Henry, and each week we're sitting down with the owners, the experts, and the enthusiasts who live for the drive to find out what feels their passion for the hobby.
Because at CJs, we know behind every wrench turn, every build has a story. Let's get into it.
Hey, everyone. Today we are here with Matt Graves from American Powertrain.
And I've known Matt in the industry for a few years now, working, you know, previous work on agency.
So for anyone who doesn't know you, can you introduce yourself in your role?
Yeah. So I've been at American Powertrain now for about 15 years.
I started out here as the marketing manager and kind of worked, you know, through the company over the years.
And now I'm pretty much marketing manager, commercial sales. I do product development, product management, car shows, kind of a jack of all trades here, master of none.
So, you know, we're, but I really enjoy it. You know, my previous career before here, I worked at Cherry Bomb Exhaust.
So I've always kind of been under the car in the product lines that I work in.
So I went from exhaust to transmission. So not a big transition other than the products are a lot heavier now.
That's for sure. That's for sure. And so was there something that like sparked your love of cars going back?
Yeah. Well, nobody in my family really was a car person except for my grandfather Graves. I'll take that back.
He was a paint body guy. And but other than that, my dad really wasn't in the cars.
It's just something I kind of gravitated to. I remember when I was really small, my mom had a Volkswagen Beetle
and I used to go out and open the engine cover, the trunk, you know, over the engine and just sit there and stare at the Volkswagen, you know, four cylinder.
And she was like, you would just stand there for like half hour looking at it. And I would just be like little.
So I guess it just kind of was, I was kind of born with being drawn to, I always like mechanical things.
When I was kid, I'd take everything apart. I'd get something electronic, take it apart and tear it up and get yelled at.
I like tools and tinkering and it just kind of evolved from there. And then my mom had remarried when I was like 10 years old and my stepdad was a straight up car guy.
So I got kind of a reinforcement. He was in the four trucks big time still is to this day.
And he was like head tractors and, you know, we had motorcycles and stuff. So yeah, growing up was always some kind of, you know, vehicle around that I got into.
And so I don't know. It's just always kind of been in my blood, you know.
And now neither one of my kids are really into it either. So it's going to end with me, I guess.
But my youngest one starting to get more in the cars now, she's turning 15 tomorrow actually.
And she's really excited about driving. My oldest wasn't very excited about driving, but my youngest one definitely is more excited about it.
And I asked a lot of questions on how to take care of a car and things like that.
So there's hope. Hopefully. Yes, there's hope. There's hope. Yeah.
Awesome. So there's always been some sort of automotive influence in your life and how did that tie into working in the industry?
What was your first role in automotive?
Well, going back again to my stepdad, he started at it. He was actually at Cherry Bomb or the parent company was Maramonic Sauce.
So he had been there for 20 some odd years before I even started working there.
So I was going to college and he had told me that they had a second shift opening in the plant.
Because I was looking for some not shift work while I was going to school during the day.
And he got me on down working on an assembly line.
And I liked welding and stuff. Never really did a lot of welding other than playing around with a stick welder in his shop.
And they stuck me right into a mig welder line with no mig welding experience at all.
The first day of working there.
And I took to it. Well, it's strangely enough, I was very terrified about it for like a couple of days.
And I took to it like a duck in water. Like it just became a thing.
Like I got really good at mig welding.
Amazing.
And I got really, I really enjoyed the kind of zen of sitting there welding exhaust flanges and all day long.
And I really just kind of got into the whole vibe at that plant.
You know, I really liked watching the tube mill make exhaust tubing and the muffler lines would spin these spun mufflers.
And we had robot welders. It was just really cool.
And there was an engineering lab there that did R&D.
So they did all the design works.
They'd bring a car in and they would scan the factory exhaust system.
And we would build a replacement exhaust system.
So if you went to a monarchy or a modest and got a replacement exhaust system,
that more than likely came from Merrimoth back in the day,
especially from the 90s through the early 2000s.
Very cool.
And in that, in there, in the plant, we are in the product line, we had the cherry bomb exhaust line,
which went back to like 1968.
In fact, that was the one of the slogans that I came up with.
And back when I worked there was disturbing the pieces 1968.
And we kind of, thank you.
The brand was kind of not really well known in the 90s anymore.
It was kind of big in the 70s and kind of just slid under the radar with Flowmaster and all the other big exhaust systems that were out at the time.
So we decided to relaunch the brand in 2005.
And I kind of spearheaded that.
But going back to starting working there, I decided that, man, I want to work in this R&D lab.
I want to figure out how to get in there.
And I was going to engineering school, really trying to get my foot in the door at the lab.
And I opened and came up as basically just kind of an engineering assistant.
And I got into that job and never looked back and worked my way up through the whole ranks of the company.
And really liked doing the design process of exhaust systems.
And we had chassis dyno, engine dyno's and all this cool equipment.
I was there for 17 years.
I walked in there just looking for a night job while I was going to college and wound up parking myself there for 17 years.
So if you're a car guy and you like mechanical things, that place was heaven.
It really was.
And it was like, why would I even want to leave at the time?
But as all things must come to an end, economies change, companies get sold.
And when I first started working there, there was 900 people working there.
By the time I left, we were down to 200.
Wow.
So some of the offshore stuff kicked in and things like that happened to us.
But one door closes and another opens.
And American Powertrain was right around the corner just a week later.
So I've been there since 2011 now.
But it's been a fun ride doing all this over the years.
So I guess almost over 30 years now, which makes me feel very old to say that.
Yeah.
So was there like a key step that caused the transition between Cherry Bomb and American Powertrain?
Yeah.
Pretty much the key step was my whole department got let go.
Cherry Bomb.
So yeah.
The company I had as of the time decided to divest some of the brands and, you know, and
it was just, it was the end of the road for that at the time.
So I had known Robert Hall, who started American Powertrain.
I already knew him through some work we did together at Cherry Bomb, some products
that we helped make for him at the time for some Jaguar stuff that he was doing.
Robert had done some come up with a Jaguar five speed kit for an E type.
And that kind of planted the seeds to start American Powertrain.
And he was an European car enthusiast.
He's also a muscle car enthusiast.
And he decided to branch what was called the driven man at the time into American
Powertrain and do, you know, Camaro Corvettes, Mustang kits and all that stuff with
automatic transmissions.
And he had started the company a couple of years before I came on board.
It had grown to a pretty good size, but he was struggling with it to manage it.
Needed a marketing manager, needed some help with the websites and branding and
things like that.
And he knew that was kind of right up my alley.
And as soon as he found out I was letting go from Cherry Bomb.
He was like, twist him arm to come work for him.
And I did.
Scooped you up before anybody else could.
Yep.
Yep.
Yep.
So it's, it's been a cool, it was a, took me out.
It was a different kind of industry for me.
Even though it's the same thing, but it was, you know, you had to learn a lot
of technical stuff selling transmissions, especially swapping them into all these
different cars, learning the ins and outs of what fits what car and,
you know, how to get all the parts sorted out and stock all the parts,
build a website around all that kind of stuff with kits and things like that.
So it's a, it was a different animal that I, and I enjoyed the challenge of it.
And it's still a challenge to this day, every day doing these transmission kits.
So yeah, but one of the things that I leaned into here was this is mostly
manuals, right?
So we're doing something that's kind of dying in the, in the automotive world
is buying a manual equipped car with a manual transmission out for sure.
Yeah.
And it's, you know, kind of going back to selling these to guys to upgrade
their old muscle cars or even, I wouldn't say late model cars, but, you know,
nineties, early 2000s cars.
Now we're getting, you know, we're doing Fox body Mustangs, G bodies,
you know, 94 up Camaro's.
We're even doing the 2010 Camaro's.
We're doing, you know, late model Mustangs can, we can swap in some stuff with those.
But, you know, people still like to row their room gears.
It's kind of part of the muscle car Aurora, right?
It's like having that watch shifter ball or block shifter ball sticking up, you know,
that's kind of iconic.
A lot of guys want to relive that whole thing from high school and having
the manual transmission cars.
Again, kind of like cherry bomb.
We lean in on the, you know, nostalgia cells and people like, you know,
man, I've got a, you know, when you open the door of their car, it's cool to have
a car with a lot of power, but it's almost like a little bit of a cherry on top
to see that stick and, you know, in the, in the interior.
Like it's like an extra gold star for you, right?
If you got a muscle car that you go, that's got a manual in it.
Okay.
This guy knows what he's doing, right?
He knows how to drive.
So it's a lot of fun being able to provide that product for people.
And we kind of lean into that with our, you know, save the stick marketing
campaign and all the apparel that we do and stuff like that.
So it's just, you know, it's kind of a dream for me to do some of this stuff.
So I really enjoy just, you know, being able to provide something like
that and seeing how the market reacts to it and where it's going to go in
the future.
I don't know, you know, I don't know how, how much longer we can
keep putting sticks in cars, but right now there's not an end in sight to it.
So we're going to keep doing it as long as we can.
Yeah.
For sure.
And that's something with the car shows that I hold and go to.
I will be looking at a beautiful car and I look at the inside.
For example, a newer Corvette.
There's a guy who comes to my shows, newer Corvette.
He even let me drive it.
And I'm like, this is an automatic.
It feels like a disservice to the car.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I get what you're saying.
I mean, look, don't get me wrong.
Yeah.
The C8 has an actual trim it transmission in it, even though it's an automatic.
It's actually, you know, it's called a DCT.
So it's a dual clutch manual automatic.
So it's instead of a torque converter and clutch plates changing gears,
you actually, if you open up that transmission, it looks like a manual,
but it's got computers and electronics and, you know, servers doing all the shifting for you.
You can't argue with the speed of, I mean, the thing shifts in like under 30 milliseconds.
I mean, if they were to make a manual version of that car, the two side by side,
there's no way you would keep up with that DCT.
So I understand the performance of the technology.
I also think if they built a manual C8 Corvette, they would sell a ton of those.
Even if it's slower.
It's just the interaction, right? It's being able to some analog driving a sports car.
You want to hear it, you want to smell it, you want to feel the clutch,
you want to kick that clutch in, you know, you want to grab second gear and chirp the tires
and it's all on how you drive it and all the minute inputs you make to it yourself.
You know, it gets kind of numb with the computer doing it for you.
And I appreciate it.
It's thrilling to drive. I've driven a C8 and it's amazing, right?
The technology is amazing.
And if I could afford one myself, I'd probably have one sitting in my driveway right now
because it's really an amazing car.
But I still think the Chevrolet needs to build like a base model Corvette with cloth seats, rear engine.
I don't need the big high-powered engine.
Just give me the regular LT motor 450 horse with a stick.
I think it'd be a lot of fun. I think they would sell a ton of those like that.
Well, maybe not a ton, but if it's price right, you know.
There's definitely a market for them, I think.
I think so. I think so, yeah.
Oh, man.
So whenever you first transitioned over to, well, not even just your transition to American powertrain,
but your start at Cherry Bomb, is there something from your early days
that sticks with you that kind of molded how you went about your experience in this industry?
Like, is there something that stuck with you that you've carried this whole time?
Oh, gosh, there's a bunch of those moments, I think.
You know, being a car enthusiast and working as in the industry as a car enthusiast
is kind of like a lot of PHP moments happen,
especially when I first started traveling, right?
I traveled a whole lot back in the day, but doing all the car shows and things like that,
I guess probably when I first went to SEMA,
the first SEMA show I went to in 2004, it was kind of mind-blowing.
I mean, I've done car shows at that point, but nothing like that, like nothing that level.
For every moment I was there, it was like, oh, my gosh, oh, my gosh, oh, my, you know,
and it was just all kind of like, I get to do this every day.
I get paid to do this every day.
You know, like the jealousy of my friends, you know, you're at SEMA.
Now it's like, yeah, I had to go SEMA again this year.
I mean, after I've done like 20 some odd SEMAs, but still special even today.
It's not the same as that first time, but yeah, I'd say my first trip to SEMA was one of those moments.
The second one, well, I don't really rank them higher or low,
but I'm just kind of, as I'm thinking about them,
was probably like getting my foot in the door at Summit Racing and like getting our product line there
and doing all that, because it was a lot of work, like to get into a big,
I mean, I've got one sitting right here, you know, because Summit Racing catalog like,
or J.C. Whitney, that was it.
So I went, so if you guys remember J.C. Whitney, those of you out there that are my age,
probably remember J.C. Whitney, that was the big catalog you got in the mail, right?
And they had so much stuff and we sold so many cherry bombs to J.C. Whitney.
So many in fact that I would go, their headquarters was at the Sears Tower in Chicago, right?
And I would go up there and meet with those guys and they were like the greatest people, like they had,
and I remember my first trip up there, how much hospitality they had,
and just being there in that building, like, because J.C. Whitney was probably 100 years old at that point,
you know, or maybe a little less, but they were been around, I mean, been around a long time.
It was kind of like the first part-successory company, right, for cars.
Now they're gone or they got absorbed into whatever, you know, private equity or whoever bought them out now.
I think it's AutoGeek now, it's like the skeletal remains of J.C. Whitney or something like that.
I could be completely destroying that, I could be wrong.
But, you know, Summit Racing, it means the same, like Summit Racing, we've all had,
you know, we all still get excited to get the Summit Racing catalog or JEGS or, you know,
I'm gonna shout all of them out, even, you know, I know CJ Pony, if you're a Mustang guy,
to get those catalogs back in the day, to be in those catalogs,
to help do the work to get your product in that catalog.
Now it's on the website, it doesn't hit the same, but you know what I mean?
It's like, when I first went, wow, I helped put Cherry Bomb in this catalog,
I got my product in here, I did this work, I did the photography,
you know, I come up with the pricing, I did the spreadsheet, so I did all the,
that was a big one for me, that was a proud moment in my career to just kind of achieve something like that.
And then, you know, to meet some of your heroes, you know, I've met Carol Shelby,
I've met, you know, obviously Stacy David and, you know, all these different people over the years that,
you know, the guy, Dave McClelland was probably one of the big ones for me,
in the face of the NHRA, if you remember that guy.
I remember my second or third SEMA show coming up, he was in his little wheelchair thing,
driving around, you know, his legs were kind of bad then,
and he interviewed me for Hot Rod TV at SEMA, the second year at SEMA, it was the second year.
And he gets off his little chair and sits up there on his stool,
and I'm a nervous wreck, I had never done anything like this in my life,
like a TV moment in Hot Rod TV, he asked how you want to come have an interview with him,
and I'm like, oh my gosh, yes, you know, so I'm sitting there,
and we're not filming yet, and he's like, starts asking me all these questions,
and I'm not telling him stuff, you know, I'm like, why is he asking me this question or that question?
And then when the interview starts, I realize the brilliance of his preparation.
He was setting me up for these questions, right?
He's like, what year did Cherry Bomb start?
Tell us about, and his voice was just like so overwhelming,
I just kind of sat there like a deer in headlights, like, yeah, I was just so start,
I'm being interviewed by Dave McClellan on Hot Rod TV at the SEMA show.
What's happening? Where am I?
So that was a big moment for me to go through that.
There was another moment in time where we had Stacey David come to the Cherry Bomb plant
and do this whole back history of Cherry Bomb.
Another like pinch me moment that we were even doing this thing, right?
So, you know, and the other, probably the other in my,
I'd say top five moments in my career was my first ad in Hot Rod magazine.
Like I designed it and put it in there and submitted it
and got to open it and see it in the mail.
And I was like, wow, you know, so yeah, there's a lot of, you know,
because we all as car people, and I hate to see it nowadays
because the media is kind of just not what it was, right?
You know, there's the old thing where you would put an ad out in whatever car magazines
and then as soon as it hit the newsstand or the mailboxes,
the next day was your sales spike, right?
So let's say you got a new Hot Rod magazine on Sunday or in the mail Saturday,
Monday morning, we're waiting on the phone, right?
Because you're looking through all the, you know, there could be a catalog piece in there
or showing what products you got or they're doing an editorial on your product line.
You know, some of that sparkles gone now because now everything's instant, right?
As soon as you put a new product on, it's on your website right now.
There's no big fanfare.
Yeah, there's no, you know, you do some PR on it, but it doesn't land the same, right?
It's just not as, I don't know.
I really do miss the magazine and catalog days.
At the same time, I really embrace the electronic side of it too.
And you have to.
And I appreciate it as a user as well having the internet and its vast wealth of resources.
Yes.
Whether it's correct or not in most cases, but you know, as a car guy,
this is a golden age of information right now, you know.
It is for sure.
Yeah, but there's my long answer to your question.
That's okay.
I'm here for the long answers.
Well, and you kind of touched base on my next question, which was like,
who are some of your biggest influences or maybe your mentors throughout your career?
Oh, yeah.
So I would say, yeah, probably there's a lot.
I can't even, you know, and you know, one of them is a Zand Martin.
Me and Melanie both used to, you know, be used to work for Zand and ice.
She used to be Zand was a Martin company, an ad agency, right?
And Melanie's previous life.
That's where she came from.
And I actually had her as our ad.
It's a cherry bomb for many years and an American power train.
Zand had tons of experience.
And it was, it was to me, I was drawn to her as a woman that,
that could navigate this very masculine environments.
I really respected that about her.
She really knew what she was doing and she gave me tons of life advice,
career advice, industry advice that I could never get from.
I couldn't even replicate that again if I tried.
So she's definitely one of my, you know, a big influence on my career and my life.
Stacy David was a big part of that.
I got a lot of experience from him.
There's just so many people.
I mean, my, you know, all the people I've worked for over the years, you know,
it just, my stepdad, you know, without him, I probably wouldn't be here today.
Without him getting me on a cherry bomb and pushing me, you know,
helping him with the car stuff over the years and work on my cars.
And, you know, there's just, I don't know, I can't even put out all the people that,
that I can say thank you and take up three hours in your podcast probably.
But it takes a village, right?
We all have, you know, we all learn from people.
We don't, we learn things, but 99.9% of it is you learning it from other people.
That's either experience, broke it, burn it, destroyed it or been successful with it.
You know, I catch myself now in the role where I kind of dole out some advice to people
and I really go, but at the back of my mind going probably shouldn't listen to me.
But then I'm like, I guess somebody did listen to me.
You know, I've done this for 30 years.
So it is pretty neat to have to kind of be the older guy now in the industry.
I hate to say it, but that's kind of where I'm, you know, I'm going to be 53 this week.
So that's just where I'm at.
So, you know, hopefully I can guide some, some of the younger crowd around to navigate
some of this stuff.
But, you know, there's been so many people like Rick Love at Vintage Air.
I mean, that guy, I mean, he always has great advice.
Just, you know, just so many guys like that over the years, you know, Dave McClellan even.
So it's just, you know, just having, I surround myself with a good group of automotive friends in the industry
that I can't say enough about.
One of them that's helped me back in the day was John Clark.
John used to work for Mopar.
And he was like kind of the brand manager at Mopar in the early 2000s.
And we collaborated together on some bills with Cherry Bomb.
And John had a lot of, you know, background.
But he was just like a straight up hot rodder in, you know, having to wear a tie every day, right?
And, you know, kind of a caged animal at Mopar.
But he breathed and lived high performance.
And him helping me navigate some of the bigger things that we had to do at the time was a big thing.
So he definitely in the top, he's in the top 10 of people help, help my career over the years
or influence me to get where I'm at.
So again, I'm leaving out so many people that I'll probably remember after this.
But yeah, it's been, I wouldn't be here without people, you know, that's what it is, right?
Yeah, a thousand percent.
I understand exactly where you're coming from and it's meeting those good people.
And in the automotive world, there's so many of them.
It's a cheat code.
They're like, hey, you're great too.
To meet that right person, it's a cheat code, yeah.
Yes.
That is incredible.
You never know, you know, part of the reason, you know, one of the things you go to SEMA
or you go to these car shows and stuff like that, you just never know what's going to happen.
You never know who's going to walk in your booths.
I mean, there's so many times that I just can't believe that I had this chance conversation
with this person and next thing you know, they're a big customer or I'm doing some kind of media collab with them
and it's like, what happened?
You know, it's just so cool to, you got to be there, right?
You got to be there and you got to make yourself present and be willing to talk to people
and, you know, my old boss used to say, people buy from people, not from brands, right?
And that's kind of how I've just, that's been my mantra since day one.
After, you know, when he told me that, it just kind of like turned a lot bulb on like, it's all about relationships,
especially this industry.
It's having the right relationship with people makes, can make or break your whole career.
And I just, I tell all the sales guys at American Power Train and everybody that works in my build a relationship with your customer.
You may be irritated, but if that guy can call you at nine o'clock at night and ask you something, that's a good thing, right?
Yeah.
So, you know, if he's, if he, that's how close you could be with the customer, right?
And I have a lot of customers that will call me at nine o'clock at night.
Not all the time, but I take that call, you know, and I'll, you know, they've got a problem where I want to help them out.
You know, they're under a car or something like that.
Bobby Allaway is another one.
So, Allaway is another, if you guys have heard of, you know, Allaway is a big, you know, car builder.
He won SEMA Battle of the Builders.
He's done the Riddler.
He lives about six or seven miles from me.
And I would go down there in the 90s.
One of my good friends was his cousin and he was working down as a body man down there.
And I would go down and kind of, I wanted to learn some of the trade, right?
So, he didn't pay me or nothing.
I would just go down there and just kind of be like extra help around the place in the evenings.
And I learned a lot of car building stuff down there with him.
But he would always tell me, I only use people that I trust and that I have a relationship with.
And to this day, we are his transmission supplier for all his car builds.
And that goes back to me and Bobby having a relationship from the 90s.
He could call lots of other transmission companies and get his same stuff from those people,
but he calls me and that means a lot to me.
And he's not the only one that's like that.
And that's just kind of how I've always been like, I treat him as family or friends,
you know, my customers because they help feed my family, right?
So that's just how I look at it.
And again, I get paid to do this.
So it's fun.
Yeah.
And you forget you're working whenever you're having that much fun.
Yeah.
I mean, it's a career, right?
It's your career.
It's not really like, oh, I got to get up and go to work.
Yeah.
There are some days like that when it's cold and you don't want to,
you got a meeting or you got to work on a spreadsheet.
Those kind of days aren't the greatest,
but the good days use the outweigh those days.
And the successes, as long as you focus on, you're going to have days that are
grind, but the days that are, when everything's popping and working,
you can't beat it.
You just can't beat the brush of it all.
I love going out and setting up for a car show on Friday
and seeing all the people come through and going out to dinner at night
and looking at people's cars.
It's a lot of fun.
It's got a lot of rewards to it.
It does for sure.
And sometimes there's challenges that you go through with,
that are often met with rewarding moments.
And so was there a time that you face a challenge in this industry
that made you better at what you do today?
Yeah.
I'm trying to think there's been, you know, well, I think my challenge
was back in the day was getting laid off.
You know, the economy wasn't that great at the time.
We survived the 08 crunch at Cherry Bomb,
but we really never recovered from it.
And a lot of people were downsizing or consolidating,
outsourcing parts to save money.
I think that kind of made me realize that, you know,
you can't always rely on what you think is going to be there every day.
You got to rely on yourself, right?
And even though you may be at a great company at the time,
those things can radically change overnight.
The economy can change, you know, whatever can happen.
You got COVID or whatever.
You just have to be ready to retool your mind
for the next thing sometimes, right?
Yeah.
I would think probably, you know, career changes
and we've all had to go through it are probably the one,
it's always a moment to reset, right?
To reset how you got here and where you're going in the future
and use that moment as a learning experience, you know?
And so that's just kind of how I, that was probably one of my,
the moments where I go, oh, no, what do I do now?
Right?
I don't have a job.
I feed my family.
I have to do this, but I wasn't even really worried.
I should have been worried about feeding my family,
but it's more like, man,
I don't want to work in anything but the automotive world.
I don't want to go work at Home Depot or somewhere.
That's what I was worried about.
Like, oh man, I don't want to get a job at a bank.
You know, like that's not me.
Yes.
I understand it clearly.
So that was, that was really the concern.
It wasn't putting food on the table.
It was like, I don't want to have a non-cool job.
You know, that was what I was more worried about
than anything.
Like, I don't want to be one of those people.
I want to, I'm a car guy, you know?
I got a car parts, you know?
I got to build cars or do something.
So, yeah.
Yes.
And then at that point when I decided that's what I'm going to do.
No matter what happens, I'm just going to stay in this
and I will make it happen.
Because that's what makes me happy.
And if you're not happy,
it doesn't matter how much money you make or...
I mean, that really is true.
I mean, having money is great, right?
It's nice.
But if you're just miserable going to work every day,
it's not worth it.
It's really not.
I mean...
Yes.
So trying to, you know,
and some days we all have to go to work.
Sometimes we have to go to work
and we're not doing what we want to do that day.
That's part of the gig.
But as long as you can, for the most part,
do what you set out to do,
it makes life a lot better, you know?
Yes.
And it kind of changes like,
oh, I have to do this to like,
oh, I get to do this.
It makes you very excited to work.
Yeah.
And I've said that a hundred times now already here.
Like, I get paid to do this.
So yeah, it's just, you know,
I was at PRI last week and again,
performance racing industry show.
It's like hardcore engines and race parts
and suspension parts and all kinds of stuff.
It's like SEMA kind of stripped down to the core.
Yes.
It's amazing.
And I never get like,
I always get so excited to go to PRI.
It's like my favorite,
one of my favorite trade shows.
I like it honestly better than SEMA.
SEMA is just huge
and it's almost too big for its own.
Like you just can't see it all and absorb it all.
Where as PRI you can,
it's a smaller convention center.
It's an Indianapolis.
Way more manageable.
And again,
I'm pinching myself walking around looking at,
you know,
an engine with 600 turbos on it or what?
Yeah.
What is this?
3D printed parts
and all this cool technology
and they've got all these welders there
and CNC machines going
and I'm just like,
I'm just a kid in the candy store.
Yeah.
So again,
I'm just glad to be here.
Yes.
Yes.
And,
and so I'm sorry,
how long have you said you've been at American Power Train?
I will be 14 years.
Next June,
I'll be here 15 years.
Yes.
June of 2026,
I'll be here 15 years.
So.
Yeah,
that's incredible.
So you're at American Power Train
and a lot of people know them as like
the transmission people.
But if you were to break that down
even further,
what would you say like,
is there true specialty?
It's going to be manual transmissions.
Like,
that's our true specialty.
It's converting your
classic muscle car
hot rod or truck
to a manual transmission
with overdrive.
That's the core thing.
We are a Tremac elite dealer.
So we are one of Tremac's
12 or 11 elite
distributors.
The general public cannot buy directly from Tremac.
They set up distributors across the country.
And we're one of their larger
distributors.
It started out that way,
but now we are.
So we,
we will take a Tremac transmission.
In some cases,
we've modified that transmission to fit the car.
An example would be
a C2 Corvette.
A C2 Corvette,
you can't put a five or six feet in that car
without cutting the floor or the tunnel or whatever.
Well, most Corvette owners
do not want to do that, right?
No.
So what we do is that we cut the transmission.
So we, we design
the transmission kits to fit the car
with the minimal amount of modifications.
And that's really at the core of what we do.
You call us and say,
man, I want to put a five speed or a six speed in this car.
You know, but I don't want to,
I don't want to cut a lot of stuff.
I want to keep it looking factory original.
And that's where we come in.
That was, that's really our specialty.
We'll take the transmission
and move the shifter around.
So it comes up in the right
location.
And 99% of what are the kits we have,
especially if the,
the muscle cars had a four speed
version of that car in the past,
you will open the door of that car
and it'll look just like the four speed car
that the factory came out with
other than the five speed shift pattern on the ball.
You know, or the, we have seal plates.
Like some Corvette's have the little
seal plate on the center console with the pattern.
Yes.
We even have the T handle replica on the Corvette
with the springy T handle.
It doesn't do anything for reverse,
but it still has the action.
It looks, you can't tell
if you look in that car that it's got a
a more modern transmission.
So the big problem with the old four speeds
is they don't, you didn't have any overdrive, right?
Yes.
So having a car,
a moderate or a muscle car with a modern
transmission, you could drive it a lot more.
You can, you can drive it at 70 miles an hour
and keep up with traffic on the interstate, right?
Yeah.
I have a good friend of mine that's got an old
C3 Corvette.
It's kind of a rat rod,
a beater Corvette.
It's nothing original about it.
He kind of built it out of like a hodge podge.
He had a frame and a body.
Then a five three LS swap on it
and he put a TKX in it.
He drives it to work every day.
Like, I mean, it's just a beater
and he loves it so much.
He's like, it gets, it's got Holley EFI.
It's got an LS engine in it.
He's got a overdrive transmission.
He's got a 373 gear in the back
and he runs 75 miles an hour
at 22 and RPM down the interstate.
Yeah.
Today's conveniences.
Yeah.
He's like, I get 18 miles a gallon
with that.
And he's like, I don't even, he has like
a full size Chevy truck, a newer truck.
He doesn't drive it.
He drives that car.
It's not as fun.
It's not as fun.
Right.
And he goes, I just, I get up every morning
excited to get in that car and drive it to work.
Yeah.
I'm like, yes, that's, that's what we're after.
That's it.
That's the vibe.
Yeah.
That's the vibe we're after.
So, you know, but yeah,
it's, and it's not, it's not a cheap thing to do.
You know, an average transmission conversion kit
can cost anywhere from 45
to $7,000, depending on what you need or, you know,
how much power you've got.
We have a wide range of options, right?
So like, if you've got a 69 Camaro,
I can do a five or six speed.
We can do a twin disc, a single disc.
If you got, you know, a new LT4 with 700 horsepower,
600, 700 horsepower, you know,
we can put something behind that.
If you've got a thousand horsepower,
we can make it work with that too.
There are some modifications required.
So the process obviously kind of go up.
Depend, you know, there's a scale, right?
The higher the power, the more your wallet has to open, right?
That's just what it is.
So you need heavier materials, thicker materials,
you know, stronger, stronger construction.
We do, we'll take a Tremac transmission
and do what's called an extreme addition.
And we take it apart and we do what's called
rim polishing where we tumble the gears
and it's got a coating on them.
It pushes up the gears real nice.
It takes the stress risers out of it.
We'll do some cryo treatment to the transmission
get internals to take that bigger horsepower.
As you know, in today's world, you can pick up the phone
and order a thousand horsepower, no problem.
I mean, it's right at your fingertips now.
Crate engines, turbos, superchargers,
especially with the LS engine craze
and LT engines, Coyote motors.
You know, it's just, it's amazing what kind of power you can
inhale cats that you can pump out of these engines now.
So we have prepared our transmission lines
to handle those bigger power engine options
and stuff like that.
So like I said, we can set you up with a,
if you just got a 5.3 or a 3.02
Ford or 400 horsepower
and a Mustang, we can put a T5 in it
and you'll have a big grin on your face
and drive it forever.
You put a Coyote in a Mustang
and it's got a Whipple on it and it's making a thousand horsepower
so we can, we can set you up with a package to,
for that too.
So we literally can, it's cliche to say
but we can do from mile to mile, right?
So.
Yes.
We cover the whole range of banging through gears.
So.
Very cool.
So is there a product that you're most excited about right now?
I would say probably
our transmission kit still,
we just came out with
the late model Chevy truck
and I say late model like 99 to 06.
Chevy truck is the new kit we just came out with
so that was pretty cool.
It gets me excited to see like
a Chevy truck from the 2000s
with a stick in it.
And I know some of those had them
but like most of those all had an L-S engine in it
from factory, right?
So to take a two-wheel drive Chevy truck
and put a six-speed in it,
we just, we bought a shop truck last year.
It's a 2000 model truck.
A lot of people, it's a GMT-800 series
or NBS, a lot of the forum guys will call it.
There's the OBS and then the NBS
and the GMT-400 and the GMT-800
all that nomenclature
but it's basically the 99 and up Chevy trucks.
Okay.
And we just came out with a five and six-speed kit
so that's got me, it's pretty exciting to have that.
We've got a pedal kit for it
that's Malwood makes for us
and it's just neat to bolt,
take the automatic out, take the automatic pedal out,
bolt that in there
and turn it into a stick overnight.
And it's just, the level of fun
goes up now from a boring pickup truck
to get plywood to now you're like,
man I can chirp the tires on this thing
go in the Home Depot or maybe do a donut
safely, legally somewhere.
Yeah.
Back of Home Depot, parking lot or whatever.
But yeah, it's just, it's a neat,
that gets me excited.
All the new stuff we do or a new car
or we bringing something new in the shop.
We did the third gen Camaro a couple of years ago.
We brought in the 2010 Camaros
that have the factory six-speed
with a big linkage on it
and trim it come out with a, what's called a Magnum XL
it's a longer tail housing six-speed
that bolts in its place and gets rid of all that linkage.
Having that kind of like
changing, swapping out into a late model car like that
is kind of neat.
So I really like getting involved in some of the newer cars
and doing some conversions on them.
They're a little more challenging
with the electronics and things like that
but that gets me excited to work on some of that stuff.
Yes.
And I feel your last two answers
have kind of already answered this question
that I have is what sets American powertrain
apart from other companies in this industry
and it's really the option
to be totally customizable with what you're doing.
Yeah, we pride ourselves in,
we have like the in and out burger secret menu, right?
We can build you whatever you want.
You just tell us what you want.
If we have it within our means, we can do it.
So yeah, we can,
it kind of makes it hard to,
you know, especially with your website,
like there's a million options, right?
We have a lot of debate on how many more options can we add
to the product page for a transmission kit?
Well, it's almost limitless.
No, and we,
not only do we sell transmission kits,
but a lot of guys call us and say, hey, I need a rear end.
And so, hey, we started working with Curry.
Now we got Curry nine inch for ends.
A lot of guys say I need a crate engine.
We started working with blueprint.
Now we offer blueprint engines.
Some of our competition doesn't go that far to offer something.
And I understand why the hassle.
You know, you want to focus on what you do,
but at the same time,
a customer's on,
especially some of our shop business
that a lot of shops just like pick up the phone
and talk to one guy.
I need an engine.
I need a rear end.
Need transmission.
Like here's my drivetrain.
My sales guys have a lot of experience
with all those parts.
And I know kind of what fits together and what works.
What gear ratio rear engine need.
What's a good engine set up a clutch set up.
This transmission will fit in that car.
I know that motor will bolt in, you know,
so having kind of those extra parts options.
While a pain makes it easier on the consumer
and we make a little more money selling some of that stuff.
While I've got, you know,
he's got his credit card out
and he's wants to buy an engine.
We're going to make it happen for him.
You know, and we'll do the legwork.
Sometimes we have,
and a lot of times look,
they'll email and say, hey,
I'll use Josh and my sales guys.
Josh, I need an engine.
I need a,
I want a nine inch and I want it to hold a thousand horsepower.
And Josh will spend the next 45 minutes to an hour
going out and doing all that research
and getting his list of parts ready to go
and cause him up and gives him,
here's your one total.
You know, and guys like,
all right, cool.
And he's got one person to deal with
and one person to yell at, right?
If all it goes wrong.
It's easy to decide who it is.
Well, yeah.
And that's,
that's our thing.
It's like customer service.
Again, it goes back to being,
you're part of the team at that shop.
You're part of the build team.
Yeah.
So it's people buying from people again.
And we just want to be able to offer that
to our customers.
And I think that kind of sets us apart
from some of our competition.
And we've got some great competitors.
We actually work with some of our competitors
on parts and stuff like that.
You know,
they all, everybody chooses their own path,
how their business wants to go.
And this is just kind of how we've done ours.
For sure.
Yes.
And that,
that's very obvious in the way you talk
about what you do.
For sure.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We take pride in that
and kind of be in the,
you know,
you can call us for just about anything.
We'll try to figure it out.
We'll try to help you.
We even sell automatics from gear store too.
So we're not all,
we're not all just manuals.
You know,
there are some people that need automatics and
we have that option available.
And we've been working with gear store
for a couple of years now
and they're great company to work with.
So we list that they've handled that.
We'll take the order and hand it to them.
And they're kind of like us
with manuals with automatics.
They,
they just,
they do the whole thing
front to rear.
So that's been,
again,
having great partners,
building relationships up with suppliers,
vendors and customers
and it's all about spinning all these plates
and keeping it all going.
Right.
So it's a lot of fun.
Yeah.
For sure.
And to look at it
from a wider perspective,
is there something that you think
the automotive industry could do better?
Oh man.
That's a loaded question.
I don't know.
Um,
everything could be better.
Right.
Um,
I don't know if it,
is it like,
are you talking about maybe the car manufacturers
or the aftermarket industry
or both?
Let's focus on the aftermarket.
Aftermarket.
I think,
I think we should really focus on,
you know,
I'm all about
building parts in America.
That's kind of,
you know,
I think we should kind of get some of that back.
I realize
that's not so easy to do.
Now,
once the cat's out of the bag,
but
I try to focus on,
how can we help
do more things here?
Right.
Not only from a quality control standpoint,
just, you know,
having it nearby and closer helps,
but,
you know,
I think I don't,
I don't know
what the industry can do per se.
To kind of keep that
internally more.
Um,
I think there's,
there's more room to work in that area to,
to,
you know,
more made in the USA.
Focus.
At the same time,
I'm,
you know,
there are a lot of other countries
that can build products better than anyone else.
And you shouldn't turn your back on that either.
But I do think,
you know,
I've watched a lot of
really good
American companies
just disappear over and out into some
other country.
And it's just a brand.
And it's,
it's kind of sad.
And in most cases,
it's not the country's fault.
It's the people that
took that brand
and did that with it.
So I don't,
I'm not blaming like,
Oh, other countries.
And, you know,
we need a lot of that.
It's just corporate America.
You know,
they have to make some of these decisions.
And I get it.
You know,
um,
you know,
so this stuff like that,
like what can we do to,
to kind of keep
doing more stuff for the car industry here?
Uh,
I think there's some media stuff that
I wish was still
the media landscape has changed a lot.
And I wish some of that would,
you know,
again,
I'm an old,
old buddy that still likes car magazines.
And,
you know,
I realized that's gone.
It's gone.
There's still some out there.
But,
you know,
anybody 10 years younger to me,
dude,
does not even care about magazines.
It really is a thing.
Like it's like,
I thought more younger people would read magazines,
but I was wrong.
Uh,
you know,
so it makes me sad to see some of that stuff going away.
And I don't know what we can do to,
to slow it down.
You got,
did you got YouTube,
which has been a great,
it's a great resource.
It's a great way we promote our company too.
You know,
it's hard to argue with it, right?
It's changed marketing.
YouTube has changed marketing.
Social media has changed marketing.
It's changed products.
It's changed companies.
For sure.
I don't know if there's any guardrails that we can do anymore.
You know,
but
it's kind of the same thing.
It's like,
once the cat's out of the bag,
you can't stop it.
You know,
it's just kind of romanticized about the old days.
It's, we all do, right?
It's like nostalgic.
You know,
you kind of miss some of that,
but you also have to keep up with the times.
And, you know,
again,
like I said,
I wish for some of that stuff to come back.
I wish for
more parts were made in America.
Uh,
and I wish,
you know,
I wish we can do something to kind of curb that or,
or,
you know,
even just emphasize it on anymore as,
as, as an aftermarket industry, you know,
how do we,
how do we kind of
get our arms around that some more without,
you know,
losing the whole side of the whole thing at the same time,
either.
Yes.
But again,
there's a lot of decisions that have to be made
when you go overseas or have things made like that.
And
not all of them are easy to make.
And a lot of them make a lot of sense to have that done
there.
But it's just kind of a pride thing,
you know,
being a car guy here in the States.
You want to make all the parts here for that Camaro or whatever.
We try to do that as much as we can,
at least North America.
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah.
I'm not like, oh, let's all make it all in America,
no matter what.
But, you know, it's, it's, it's.
You recognize it can't always be that way.
Yeah.
And as someone who has gone through it and watched their
company go over,
not a way
for that very reason,
it's kind of,
you know,
it's still a part of me that hurt about that,
you know, to see that happen.
900 people
down to 200 people
in just a handful of years because of that.
So it was a big effect on my career,
my life,
and it's just kind of one of those things that,
and I've been to overseas.
I've gone overseas to help source parts.
I've done it.
I'm not going to lie about it.
It's part of it, right?
And it's just, we all have to face that.
Because sometimes there's no other options.
I like to see more of that come back someday.
So we'll see.
Yes.
And with the nostalgia factor and thinking about how you got
your start in this industry today,
if you were to give advice to someone who wants to come into
automotive, what would you,
what would you tell them?
Learn as much about cars as you possibly can.
Because one of the worst things is
if you don't know
what you're selling, you're not going to sell it.
So if you're here to sell,
if you're going to sell car parts,
you better know the parts and you better know the cars.
Because this,
after this industry will eat you alive if you don't.
So.
Yes.
And trust me when I say this,
I don't know everything about cars.
We're always learning, right?
There's always something new to learn.
That's my favorite part.
Me too.
I'm always fascinated.
You know, I'm not an electric car hater.
They fascinate me.
I appreciate the technology.
I do realize that that probably will end my career down the road
with selling manual transmissions.
It'll be more of a, you know, it's a hobby right now.
We'll be, we're still in a hobby thing,
but I like technology.
I like new things.
I'm always interested in the latest car,
you know, like, especially like the supercars with the
hybrid, you got the electric motors are not there for
efficiency.
They're there for performance and kind of adding that into
the mix with internal combustion is pretty neat.
And I like seeing, you know, the DCT stuff's pretty cool.
Computer controlled transmissions.
You know, we do sequential conversions.
Some of our trims are not cheap.
An average sequential gearbox is about 25 grand that we do.
But the technology behind it is pretty cool.
So it's like, I like to stay on top of it and really get my
hands around it and kind of study it.
And that way I can talk about the product because if you're
going to spend 25 grand on the transmission,
I better know what the hell I'm talking about to sell that
to you.
Right.
You know, so that kind of stuff is pretty cool.
I like to be, you know, like going to PRI and seeing what
the new, we saw these compressor powered turbos like
with compressed air and I'm like, whoa, you know, like,
yeah.
And it's all computer controlled like nitrous.
And, you know, it's kind of mind blowing.
Like it's like, I don't have enough room in my brain to
get all the stuff in there.
But if it's going to affect my side of the industry,
I'm going to learn as much about it as I can.
I really try to stay on top of the trends as much as
possible.
And I just like it.
Whether I'm working here or not, I just like it.
I watch a lot of YouTube videos.
I love Formula One.
Formula One to me is like the pinnacle of automotive racing.
There is limitless budget mostly.
You look at the Formula One engine program.
They have more budget than NASA does or SpaceX now for
their rocket program.
It's like, whoa, just to win races, right?
For nothing.
It doesn't do it.
It isn't further society.
You know, it's like, it's just a win.
It's just a bragging rights thing to win a race.
You know, so that to me, I've always just been
fascinated with that, like the carbon fiber and
all the, you know, the flexible suspension and
aerodynamics and how does that trickle down and
so many things from Formula One have trickled down
in the cars.
Like look at the Hondas over the years.
VTEC, the Honda VTEC came from Honda F1,
the variable valve technology.
And now that's in every car has some kind of
variable valve technology, right?
That all came from being competitive and racing.
So going fast and modifying your car still
trickles down into everyday vehicles.
So it's just kind of a neat, you know,
just keeping up with that stuff is pretty cool.
I know I bore my family with it sometimes,
because I got a bunch of girls here that aren't
really in the cars.
It's great to have women in cars.
Don't get me wrong, but people that aren't
in the cars are not in the cars.
So it's like, and you know, you're trying
to have a conversation with someone that's
not a car person and you're like,
is there somebody else here I can talk to?
You know, you know what I mean?
So I'm like, I'm telling my wife about,
oh man, I saw this cool video the other day
and she's yawning, you know.
So I get it.
I was even trying to explain to my girlfriends,
like they don't understand that my 49 Chevy
doesn't have power steering.
And they're like, but you steer it.
And I'm like, but in new cars, it's assisted.
Yeah.
Or electric.
The wheels.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, it's just, and it's cool.
See, it's like analog thing, right?
You have to do it yourself.
It's more, it takes more effort and you got to
think about what you're doing.
You know, people are falling asleep in these
autonomous cars, reading a book.
I'm like, what is going on?
Yeah.
And I taught both my daughters how to
drive a stick.
Now, is that something they want to do?
Is that the kind of car they want to drive
every day?
No, but I wanted them to learn
the dynamics of it, right?
So I have an old like 97 Nissan hard body pickup
truck.
Got a five speed in it.
Got the probably the lightest clutch in the
world.
It's really super easy to learn to drive a
stick in.
And I figured out the way to teach a
teenager to drive stick is on gravel, a
gravel road, because when they dump the
clutch all of a sudden, because they're
just going to dump the clutch and kill the
car.
If they're on gravel, the tires will
spin.
And in most cases, they can feel that
spinning and kind of get a sensation of
throttle input and clutch release because
the tires are spinning in the gravel.
It also keeps daddy from having to buy
new tires or clutches as they're learning
to drive a stick because they have the
gravel to absorb the abuse.
So I told a few of my friends like, hey,
if you're going to teach your kid to
drive a stick, find a gravel road.
Oh man, that was the right trick.
It just kind of came to me like, try
this on the gravel road.
And it kind of built their confidence up.
They'd spin gravel and kind of keep
going.
And now they're like, you know, I could
drive a car with a stick.
It doesn't scare me no more.
You know?
So there's still some moments when
my youngest daughter will be 15
tomorrow.
So she's learning to drive now.
I've been kind of taking her over to
the school and driving around the
park a lot.
And she's drove around the yard of
my truck and she said she wants to
drive that truck some more with stick
so I was like, yep, I did it.
I'm good.
I know how to drive it.
I like my X there.
That's not automatic.
Okay.
That's fine.
I get it.
But the one thing a manual car will
do is keep them off their phones
because your hands are full, right?
You're driving.
You know, you don't have time to
look over and text.
And you know, you've got it.
You make you more aware of
what you're doing and where you're
going, right?
Yes.
I've got a lot more interaction with
the car.
Yeah.
So it's, you know, I really suggest
if you've got a teenager, if you can
find one, teach them how to drive
with stick.
They don't have to, that data car,
but it is nice to know.
I mean, what if you get in a
situation where you need to jump
in a car and it's got a stick
and you don't know what you're
doing, right?
Just to be able to drive that
car.
You know, I remember my step
dad had this big Ford F-250
three-quarter ton, whatever truck
and he had a four speed in it
with this like giant heavy clutch,
right?
That's what he taught.
That was the first thing I drove
was that thing.
My God.
And I was sweating trying to drive
this truck, right?
I believe it.
It had manual steering, four
speed.
It was a big block fork of, I
don't know, 464 in it.
And we went to the biggest
hill in town at a red light.
And he's like, all right,
don't let the car behind you.
And I'm like, are you kidding
me?
You know, how can I drive this
truck without rolling into someone
behind me, right?
And so it was just, I learned
quick, you know.
Yeah.
I wasn't that brutal with my
children, but yeah, it kind of
taught me real quick how to like,
you know, and every car at that
point from, I've had a manual
car in my life ever since.
You know, I've got two out
there, two outside right now
that are both sticks.
So my Cadillac and I've got
a little Nissan truck and we've
had all kind of had Fox body
Mustangs, RX-7s and Hondas
and Miata's and all have
sticks in them over the years.
Yes.
They are so much fun.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yes.
So speaking about cars, do you
have a favorite car project
you've ever worked on?
Probably my Cadillac has been
my favorite.
The Chicken Coop.
I have a 1983 Cadillac
Coop DeVille.
No, that car never came with a
stick, but I was determined to
make it a stick.
And it was kind of one of those
things like a challenge, like,
okay, we sell all these
transmission kits for Mustangs
and all the muscle cars, no
brainer.
But if we could put a stick
in your 83 Cadillac Coop DeVille,
that means we can handle it
anything else, no problem,
right?
Absolutely.
So I kind of use it as like
a calling card for what we
can do like, but also for
myself, like I just wanted
something different, you know,
I just want to kind of, I like
to stand out from the crowd a
little bit with some of the
projects I've done over the
years.
And I had this one in the back
of my mind for when I was at
Cherry Bomb actually to build
a, you know, my cousin or my
cousin, one of my good friends,
his grandmother had this
two door 80s model Cadillac
in her barn for years.
And we would walk by that car
and go, we ought to break that
thing out and like make it a
dirt track car or just
something, a burnout car,
put LS swapping or whatever.
And I got to sketching things
around one night was like,
what if we LS swapped it and
made it more of a pro touring
car, you know, like that would
just fry everybody's brains,
right?
And I got to, I went, I
actually found another Cadillac
at the time, probably a couple
of years after I started
working here.
And we were raising two small
kids at the time.
I took the car all apart and it
never went anywhere.
I still got the car all apart.
Still got it.
Well, fast forward to the
pandemic.
All my buddies knew about the
chicken coop project that I
had.
I had mass parts.
I had a nine inch rear end
ready for it.
I had a 427 LS ready for it
sitting here for 10 years.
Jeff Lee, our good buddy,
Jeff Lee that we know, he
got tired of me sitting on
sitting around not getting
this done.
And he collaborated with some
other friends and they went and
found me an 83 cooped Ville
intact, fully intact car without
an engine, really not shape and
gave it to me.
Like right when the pandemic
started, like this is all right
around when it started.
So if you want to be
motivated to build something
when your friends go and buy
you a car and tell you to get
it done, you get it done.
When they go through that
trouble, they make that kind of
effort for you and buy you a
car to get you off your rear end
and get it done.
I got it done.
So I got the car finished in
2022.
And we took it on power
tour that year.
Originally 21.
I can't remember now.
We took it on power tour that
year for the first time ever.
And it was amazing.
And the reaction from everybody
was so cool in that car.
I had QA1 got involved with
me.
We did a full QA1 suspension
car.
So here's this
$1,000 body car.
And we made a full pro touring
car.
I put a six-speed Tremac in it.
I had to cut the tunnel.
I had to come up with a clutch
pedal, you know, cross member
for it.
So basically that car is like
a Caprice.
If you've got a box Caprice,
it's kind of the same car.
Same B body chassis.
This one's technically a C body.
Same.
So QA1 had a B body pro touring
suspension.
All tubular
front and rear.
Full
39 inch in the back.
14 inch bare brakes all the way
around.
It's just crazy when you see the
car.
Even to this day when I look at
it, I'm like, so does it make
sense?
So cool.
Yeah.
It's a grandma Cadillac.
And I live pretty close to
the Dragon Deals Gap
129.
So it's kind of a famous
local road here in the Spokies.
I'm like a 15 minute drive from
the start of it.
And I take that car up there a
lot and run through the
mountain with it.
And there's this gas station
down at the end called
Tell the Dragon.
And I go down there and park.
And there'll be like McLaren's
or Ferrari's, Porsche's,
all these super cars sitting
there.
And I get out and park and go
inside and get something to
drink.
And every time I do that,
those guys that drive those
cars are all around my
car, looking at it.
And they're just like, what is
this?
And like looking at the
brakes and looking at the
engine and the manual transits
can't believe it, right?
And there's like, and I'm like,
and I can kind of, I can't
outrun those guys.
No way.
I mean, it's a giant brick,
but I can keep a lot of those
cars in my line of sight going
through there.
And it's pretty, you know,
then it's impressive how
good that car can be.
This goes to show you the
aftermarket.
I mean, you can take pretty
much anything out there,
especially with the GM car
or Ford, the DNA to swap
some of this stuff out.
So this is pretty fun.
I finally got to call in all my
favors over the years, right?
And building a car.
So it's one of those like,
you know, to, to finally
get my own, you know, I sit
on the sidelines for years
where everybody else is
building their cars while I
was working, building up a
brand and trying to get
things going.
So it's cool to have them.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm going to actually like,
I didn't do a lot to it this
year.
I got it running and driving
the last couple of years and
had his engine trouble with it
last year.
And this year I decided
I'm just going to,
I'm just going to drive it.
I'm not going to do any more
modifications right now and
just enjoy it.
So, you know, we did
power tour this year with it
and I'm planning on taking
on some more trips this
coming year.
And now I've got vintage air
in it and it's a lot
quieter.
It's comfortable.
My wife likes to ride in it
now because she doesn't smell
like gasoline when she gets in
it.
Just sorting your car.
You know what it is.
You got to keep sorting it out.
I was with you trying to sort
out some of your car stuff
on power tours.
So I know,
I know what it's like.
Yeah.
I know it too well as well.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yes.
Well, Matt,
it has been great talking
to you.
So where can,
where can people find your
products?
Or if they want to learn
even more about American
power train,
where can they go?
Yeah.
You just go to
AmericanPowerTrain.com
or you can go to
at AmericanPowerTrain on
Instagram or Facebook.
We have a TikTok
and YouTube channel as well.
Or you can call us at
931-646-4836.
Operators are standing by
to take your
transmission order.
That's awesome.
Thank you so much, Matt.
It was great talking with
you.
Great talking to you too,
Melanie.
Thank you for the time.
We appreciate it.
About this episode
Matt Graves shares his inspiring journey in the automotive industry, detailing his evolution from a welding job at Cherry Bomb Exhaust to his current role at American Powertrain. He discusses his passion for cars, the importance of manual transmissions, and the challenges of keeping the automotive hobby alive in a rapidly changing market. With anecdotes about his favorite projects, including a unique Cadillac build, Matt emphasizes the significance of relationships in the industry and the joy of driving. His insights into the future of automotive technology and the importance of learning make for an engaging conversation.
Original notes
In this conversation, Matt Graves from American Powertrain shares his journey in the automotive industry, discussing his early passion for cars, career beginnings, and the influences that shaped his path. He reflects on the challenges faced in the industry, the evolution of automotive technology, and the unique offerings of American Powertrain, particularly in manual transmissions. Matt also shares insights on mentorship, the importance of relationships in business, and advice for aspiring automotive professionals, culminating in a discussion about his favorite car projects and the future of the automotive industry.
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