TMCP Podcast #178: G-Body Coolness with Kevin Bryde at Hotchkis Performance East

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VACATION SPECIAL EDITION!

Bernie_McPartland_PowerTour2013 — Bernie McPartland at the 2013 Hot Rod Power Tour. Nice shirt.

Feature Segment #1 – TMCP Show Producer Bernie McPartland at the 2013 Hot Rod Power Tour!

Our man Bernie McPartland hit the 2013 Hot Rod Power Tour during the first week of June, and he was kind of enough to grab a few chunks of audio from the trip (his wife Anita and his ’66 Chevelle made it as well)!

Featured guests included Hot Rod Magazine editor David Freiburger, and COMP Performance Group VP. Chris Douglas!

FEATURE INTERVIEW

Four Point Seat Belt Mount — Kevin’s innovative bolt-in race-belt mounting bar. Kevin designed the system with driver safety and rear seat passenger comfort in mind – and he doesn’t have to run a roll bar!

While I (Rob) was in the Charlotte, North Carolina area last week on vacation I had a chance to visit a few shops, including Kevin Bryde at his all new facility named Hotchkis Performance East!

The bulk of our time together was focused on a business interview conducted for an upcoming episode of our Cars For A Living podcast show, but we did have enough time to go over the car that inspired his transition to business ownership (he recently left Earnhardt Ganassi Racing where he was a veteran NASCAR component fabricator to take his business full time).

Kevin has always been interested in cars, and this ’85 Cutlass in particular. It belonged to his mother who had always said it was his car when the time came to sell it. He finally approached her and asked to buy it, then started restoring it.

With small children and his racing career his project car was constantly pushed to the side, but he made progress as time and money allowed. Like all good resto projects it ballooned out of control and is now into the “don’t ask how much” range.

When the “Pro-Touring” movement came to the fore front he decided that taking his car in the direction of handling and braking was exactly what he wanted to do, so he began his search for suspension upgrades (that’s where the introduction to Hotchkis Performance came in).

Hotchkis had a great selection of G body parts that were just what he was looking for . While he had the body off the Cutlass, a friend of a friend ran into the director of marketing at Hotchkis and prompted him to go see Kevin. When he saw the car he was so excited that he had John Hotchkis come out and see it for himself. Kevin and John have been friends ever since and the Cutlass is now a company car.

Front to rear the Cutlass is full of upgraded goodies and Kevin was kind enough to talk me though some of the highlights including a full G-body chassis stiffener he’s developed as well as a bolt in rear sear race-belt mount that doesn’t intrude into rear passenger space! Both products are in the works for a future release.