Local family turns hot rod hobby into success story

One Missouri family has found a niche-within-a-niche and turned their own automotive hobby into a successful business serving other like-minded enthusiasts across the world for over 20 years.

Kwik Performance is a family-owned and operated company in Fair Grove, Mo. specializing in engine accessory systems and bracket kits, particularly for Chevy engines. They offer serpentine drive systems, brackets, and engine accessories tailored for LS, LT (Gen 5), small block, and big block Chevy builds. Their products are designed for bolt-on installation, making them a go-to for hot rodders looking for reliable and easy-to-install solutions.

Wayne Powell, one of the owners of Kwik Performance, Inc. recalls one of his first introductions to the idea of a “hot rod.” At the age of 12 he happened to see the January 1957 issue of Rod & Custom magazine at a local newsstand. The issue featured a number of older cars and trucks that had been updated with early 1950s Cadillac engines. The idea of putting a newer, bigger engine in an older, lighter car or truck captured Wayne’s imagination and that became his definition of a “hot rod.”

It was about 15 years later when Wayne had the time and money to build his own hot rod, a 1934 Plymouth with a late model Dodge V8 engine. Many other vehicles followed over the years but the passion for cars, trucks and motorcycles remained just a hobby until the early 2000s.

While Wayne was working at a company called Reyco Granning Suspensions in Mt. Vernon, Mo., he became friends with Ken Wall and Kenny Hughes because of their shared interest in – what else – hot rods. One day, they all went to lunch and started thumbing through a Summit Racing catalog, admiring some fancy, billet aluminum front drive systems. Both Wayne and Kenny had big block Chevy engines that needed front drive systems but these were swap meet engines with no brackets, pulleys or other accessories like alternators and power steering pumps. The fancy billet systems with their $2,500 price tags were out of reach.

But hot rodders are known for their creativity and the trio devised a way to adapt a factory small block Chevy front drive system found on Chevy trucks from around 1988-95, to their big block engines. After they created some hand-crafted adapter plates they decided to have final versions made with some kind of computer-controlled machine. They found a supplier with a CNC waterjet and asked for a quote for two sets of adapter plates. The supplier responded a few days later and said that after he purchased the minimum amount of aluminum and charged a set-up fee, he could provide four sets of adapters for the same price as two sets.

So, the trio bought four sets of adapters, used two sets for their own projects and sold the other two sets at a swap meet. After a very brief discussion, that money was used to buy four more sets of adapters which were sold on eBay. And after those sold, the process was repeated on a regular basis.

“We started to think, well, maybe this is something that might actually turn into a business,” Wayne said. “With some of the money we had accumulated we hired an attorney, incorporated and started thinking long-term. And we started acting like it was a business instead of just a hobby.”

Naming a business is always a challenge. The team decided to take the first letters of their names as a starting point. The final name became “Kwik”, standing for “Ken, Wayne, Including Kenny”. “The name has some meaning to us and besides, hot-rods are supposed to be “quick”, says Wayne.

But, some simple adapter plates for big block Chevy engines wasn’t enough to build a real business around. However, a catastrophic failure in one of Wayne’s daily driver cars provided an opportunity. The car was a 1987 BMW and the automatic transmission was the failure point. With some encouragement from Ken and Kenny, Wayne decided it was time to hot-rod the BMW and replace the engine and transmission with something newer and bigger. The engine of choice was a low-mileage 2005 Chevrolet V8 from the LS family of engines.

While researching how other hot rodders were adapting this relatively new engine series into all kinds of other vehicles, Wayne noticed that there was a problem he and others had and that was the need for a bracket to relocate the air conditioning compressor.

The Kwik team got their heads together, designed a prototype, tested it in Wayne’s BMW and also in the vehicles of a handful of other LS engine swap enthusiasts. The product worked and it was introduced in 2008 on a newly-designed Kwik Performance website. Response was immediate from individuals and dealers and finally Kwik Performance was a real business.

“A small, niche business like ours couldn’t exist without the internet,” says Wayne. “The number of potential local customers for our products isn’t enough to sustain a business. But the internet gives access to the whole world. We’ve shipped products to Australia, Europe and the middle east. And that means we are bringing world-wide revenue back to our local Missouri economy.”

In the beginning, the trio still kept their day jobs and ran Kwik Performance in their spare time. Kenny then changed jobs and relocated so Ken and Wayne purchased his share of the company. Wayne’s younger son, Robert, was then hired on a part-time basis to take over Kenny’s responsibilities as the production manager.

The business continued to grow and eventually Wayne and Robert bought Ken’s share although Ken still provides engineering services to the company. Robert now serves as president of the company. Wayne, at age 80 still remains active in new product development, marketing and advertising. Sales and customer service are handled by David Nash and production is handled by Joel Olsen. “We also have close relationships with machining and welding suppliers here in Southwest Missouri,” says Robert.

Robert continues, “We’re a small company and we’ve made decisions to stay a small, family business. But Wayne’s experience working for large companies has given us principles to run our business in a professional manner.”

Today, the product line includes a wide range of brackets and complete engine drive systems for all Chevy V8 engine series. Kwik Performance is a supplier to aftermarket air conditioning manufacturers such as Vintage Air and is also a dealer for Vintage Air systems.

Many of the new product additions have come from Wayne’s and Robert’s personal hot rod projects. Robert has an LS-swapped 1999 two-wheel-drive, two-door Chevy Tahoe. Wayne is working on a 1948 Chevy pickup and it also has a late model LS engine plus suspension, brakes and steering from a Ford Crown Victoria.

“People ask me when I’m going to retire,” says Wayne. “Helping run our business is my idea of retirement. I can’t think of anything more fun than working on our own projects, dreaming up new solutions to problems we find and sharing them with other hot rodders.”