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Don Kraay of Performance Engineering resizes a crankshaft for a six-cylinder motor being converted to run as a race engine.Engine-tuning firm targets niche market
Woman takes control of company that caters to race enthusiasts after death of her husband.
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JENISON, Mich. -- When Kathy Huizinga's husband died in 1992, she suddenly became the owner of a small business that beefs up engines for racing.
Ready or not, she was a woman running a company in a primarily male-dominated industry.
"I already knew 50 percent of the business and I had little kids at home, so I had to sink or swim," says Huizinga, 52. "I'm definitely a swimmer, so I kept the business."
Performance Engineering Racing Engines Inc. specializes in custom engines for street, strip or circle track racing. It also enhances motorcycle and boat engines.
By 1990, the company Huizinga's husband began in 1984 in a 2,400 square-foot garage had grown so much it moved into an 8,800-square-foot building in the industrial area of this Grand Rapids suburb.
During the past decade, Huizinga has added more equipment and diversified into new areas, such as motorcycle engines.
Shops like Huizinga's are "a niche within the automotive and racing industries," said John Dodson, community/NASCAR team relations director for the NASCAR Technical Institute in Mooresville, N.C., which also is home to 53 NASCAR racing teams.
"Anybody can put an engine together, but the better you can make the parts fit and work together as a unit, the better the engine will perform."
In 2003, racing and performance products in the upfitter industry generated $1.76 billion, or nearly 18 percent, of the automotive specialty equipment market's $10.02 billion in revenues, according to the Specialty Equipment Market Association, a trade group that represents auto accessory and replacement parts makers.
"Technologies can occasionally begin in the upfitter area and quickly come into the (original equipment) area if consumers embrace it," says Bruce Harrison, a senior consultant with Global Insight Inc. The adoption by (automakers) of 20-inch wheels is one example of this happening, he says.
"We're seeing the (automakers) become more involved in the upfitter business," Harrison says. "It's a profit center for them."
Huizinga and her four machinists turn out about four complete engines a week. Performance Engineering charges anywhere from $2,500 to $80,000 to work on an engine. The company does all of its machining work in house.
Huizinga says she has learned how to use as many of the shop's machine tools as possible. "I cannot do all of them, but I have a knowledge of them," she says.
As for problems running a woman-owned business, Huizinga says she's had one employee who wouldn't tell anyone he worked for a woman; he no longer works for her. But the male machinists may receive one perk they wouldn't otherwise get: Huizinga grills lunch for her employees once a week.
Huizinga says the auto manufactures love the performance-engine industry, as it provides customers for their after-market parts. Not everyone who comes into Huizinga's shop is looking to modify their engines for greater performance so they can race at a place like Marne, Mich.-based Berlin Raceway. Many are hobbyists who race for fun or are restoring their older vehicles. Some just want their engine to sound intimidating.
Huizinga hasn't yet worked on any engines for NASCAR, which holds regional and national races. "That would be a dream," she says. "Mine are more local."
She does have some customers in Utah, but a majority of them are in Michigan. About three other Grand Rapids-area businesses can do what Performance Engineering does, Huizinga says. But she says that customer service is what differentiates her from the rest.
"I make it happen," she says. "Even if I have to make my guy work overtime, we make sure it works."
Todd W. Carter is a freelance writer based in Allendale, Mich.
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The Detroit News.
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