Precision Turns: Howe Performance steers competitors to the finish line
by Mike Henle for Off-Road Business
Feb 1, 2006
It's mid-week at Howe Performance in Lakeside, Calif., and the phones are ringing non-stop. Company staff is at a mad rush in efforts to get ready for the Laughlin Desert Challenge, an off-road race scheduled within a matter of days near the Colorado River in Arizona.
There's hardly time for a cup of coffee in the frenzy. But Jeff Howe wouldn't have it any other way. On race week, there's an unexplainable rush, which starts every morning as soon as he climbs out of bed.
A San Diego native, Howe is in the heart of countless competitors who count on both his expertise and his equipment. He has attended off-road events since the Borrego 150 in 1972 and has never quit looking for innovations in fine-tuning the sport's vehicles.
The demand for Jeff Howe's performance steering and related components has never been greater among off-road motorsports competitors.
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But while the sport has changed dramatically, the breakneck pace and pressure surrounding it has remained the same. Checklists are long and patience is thin as Howe now chases the fascinating world of motorsports. That's why he founded Howe Performance, a 2,000-square-foot building, which he opened in 2002. Today, the company has five employees gearing its efforts toward sand racing, rock crawling and desert racing.
Two years ago, Howe started making racks, rams and steering boxes. Howe says the company will enter into the air cleaner business this year.
"We're going to make the Super Filter," explains Howe. "The reason I got into the air cleaner thing is because the original builder doesn't have them on the shelves anymore. The other ones weren't good enough, so we explored the tractor market to see what worked best for them because it would work best for off-road racing. I've got a new program designed to allow a lot more air flow while keeping it in a small package for these larger V-8 engines."
Howe Performance will generate more than $2 million in parts and service after the books have been figured for 2005, representing an increase of about $500,000 over the previous year.
Howe is also in the process of designing a special hydraulic system, which he says will undoubtedly revolutionize off-road racing. For some, gone will be the days of struggling with jacks in the desert. With a flip of a switch on the dash, a hydraulic jack system will lift the car, eliminating the need for traditional jacks necessary up to now. Off-road and NASCAR competitor Robby Gordon used the system at Dakar and loved it, according to Howe.
BUILDING ON A DREAM
Precision, precision, precision. Consistent product quality has helped Howe build a business generating more than $2 million in parts and service in 2005.
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Howe had a premonition that he'd make a living in off-road racing someday. He later chased the legendary Ivan Stewart, a Class 8 truck racer who helped put Toyota on the map while setting the standard in the full-sized truck category.
Howe knew he was a long way from finishing his own race but Stewart had a way of introducing the addictiveness of competition and Howe was hooked after that. "That's where I got my love for off-road racing," he recalls now.
Howe didn't want to put his family through the rigors of racing, so he followed his passion to another level. He's producing power steering, rack-and-pinion assemblies and power steering hoses for everything from 5-1600 buggies to Trophy-Trucks in off-road racing, and has also added the materials to rock climbing and sand racing competition.
He has ridden with off-road names like Bob Gordon, Frank Arciero, Rob MacCachren and Scott Douglas, to name a few.
"I feel very comfortable in the off-road market," Howe says. "I really do feel that we're number one in the industry. We force the customer to do it our way. If people want to piece parts together, we're not interested."
Howe's name is known for more than performance. Equally important is the safety aspect of power steering. Writer and outdoor enthusiast Lance Clifford pointed that out in a story he wrote at http://Pirate4x4.com/, praising Howe for his work.
For Howe Performance, product R&D flows directly from motorsports competition. Customers remain the company's number one test bed.
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"He [Jeff] is super knowledgeable about the needs of a rock crawler, as he has been going to rock crawling competition for product R&D for quite some time," Clifford wrote. "He knows what we put our rigs through and designs his steering components accordingly. When I told him that we were building a new high-end competition buggy, he suggested we use his newly upgraded, double-ended, fully hydraulic ram, which is capable of 10 inches of travel...Now I didn't just buy a ram from Howe, and then open up my Northern Tools catalog for the rest of the parts. Jeff sells complete kits that are designed to work together."
As Clifford points out, thousands of competitors and crewmen count on Howe, who has gained an invaluable reputation for not only his expertise but his business sense. When it comes to off-road racing, Howe has inventory, which includes rack and pinions, control valves, the Truggy system power for unlimited equipment. An estimated 80% of those competing in off-road racing are using his products, Howe estimates.
In rock crawling competition, legendary former off-road racer Walker Evans runs Howe Performance equipment and standout 2005 Modified Stock champion Shannon Campbell and Jody Everding run Howe's equipment as well as other top sand racers in the country.
UNENDING CHALLENGES
And there are even bigger things on the horizon at Howe Performance.
"We're going to try to surpass $2 million," Howe predicts for 2006. "We're going to be pushing the housing for the steering boxes for the rock crawling. We will have the all-aluminum, which is 14 lbs. lighter than the stock steering box. Now that we have two years of on-track testing complete, we are ready to proceed with production."
The sand racing market will stay much the same, although there are always plans to make changes.
"The more the sand car market runs taller tires, there will be a need for power steering," Howe explains. "That's where we're going to focus our efforts. The tall tire makes the hole smaller, but with a tall tire you're going to have leverage, which wants to rip the wheel out of your hands. Therefore you need power steering to overcome it."
Howe Performance's five employees work at a brisk pace to keep up with demand at the company's 2,000-square-foot, Lakeside, Calif. facility.
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Every conceivable form of competition presents new challenges on a daily basis. Off-road racing is no different, but no matter what the change, Howe will remain an innovator.
Meanwhile, rock crawling competition continues its rise in Colorado, Utah and Arizona. In Howe's business, you get used to living out of a suitcase and eating at greasy spoons. It's a way of life and while it can be tiresome, to Howe, it's all part of the never-ending saga of man and machine.
Shiny equipment like Trophy-Trucks valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars go out in showroom condition and come back looking like they've been in a demolition derby. Howe is there to resurrect or refine equipment driven by standout competitors like Troy and Tim Herbst of Las Vegas, former Class 1 and current Trophy-Truck driver John Marking, the leader of Fox Shox; the entire Baldwin family; multi-faceted driver Rob MacCachren; and actually 75-80% of all off-road racers.
THE ART FORM OF COMPETITION
Even when you get a good night's sleep, someone like Howe is always dreaming of new ideas to enable racers to go faster or climb rocks better. A mistake, slow time or lower score is generally met with a new innovation.
As they say, it's not getting knocked down that matters. It's getting back up and devising a new game plan.
There's an art to all forms of off-road racing and Howe might be considered the mad scientist of motorsports. He's constantly updating every aspect of his business to keep pace with competitors, crawling or flying low.
From Trophy-Trucks to rock crawlers, the Howe logo inevitably graces the componentry of 75-80% of off-road race vehicles.
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Howe's distribution arm includes chassis builders and off-road stores like McKenzie's Performance Products and Off-Road Warehouse, to name a few. Manufacturers include Jimco Racing, AlumiCraft and many others, including Tatum Motorsports.
Howe escaped the business in the early 1980s, moving to Mammoth Mountain. Calif., but even that resulted in him working on the hydraulics system at the ski resort. But like so many others who left auto racing, Howe missed the excitement, the friendship and the intangible high that motorsports generates.
Chris Costa, a 47-year-old shop supervisor, has a wealth of experience in motorsports and is quick to speak up for his company.
"I hate racing when you have inferior products," Costa insists. "Racing is what Jeff and I have been doing for all of our lives. We're so particular in the way our products are sold and built. Everything must be right."
"You must pay attention. When the customer calls up, there's a series of questions that need to be answered," Howe says, citing two machine shops he uses as invaluable members of his team. "I use Steve Kruger in Tuscon. He builds my racks and we work hand-in-hand to design and develop new steering racks. Then, Bill Sergeant has a shop right up the street from me and he designs my pulleys and brackets along with other odds and ends."
As for the research and development side of the business, Costa points out that the best test is to give the part to a customer. "We have some of the rock crawlers that we work with," Costa explains. "We give them stuff and tell them to see if they can break it. They test it for us."
Although moving to bigger quarters isn't something he really wants to do, the way Howe's business is going, he might not have any other choice.
Howe Performance is definitely a science. Things are done with precision–exactly what you'd expect from someone who's so good at what he does.
Mike Henle is a LasVegas-based freelance writer and the author of” Through the Darkness: One Man’s Fight to Overcome Epilepsy.” He can be contacted via e-mail at mhenle@aol.com, or through his Web site www.mikehenle.com.
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