Background
I have designed many plastic parts with my last stint in corporate life being 15 years as the Senior Mechanical Designer for a prominent medical device manufacturer. I worked with a great team of people there and am named on 5 US Patents for plastic parts used in and as Medical Devices. In addition, I spec’d, maintained, repaired and ran the industrial 3D printers that we had. This is a solid background for this current stage of my life, running my own 3D printing company.
Cars have always been in my blood. When I was a kid it was matchbox cars and building models. At 17 I got my first German car, a beat 1980 Volkswagen Jetta. That car taught me how to turn a wrench, a skill that I have honed in the many years (and many German cars) since then. From replacing brakes, clutches, suspensions and even swapping a more modern Subaru engine into my Westy, I’ve done a lot.
I got my driver’s license at 16 and even before I had my own car, I was involved in motor sport. It started out as autocross. Then morphed into crewing for several racing teams. I’ve flagged at Sears Point raceway in California. After 10 years of autocross I moved on to participating in track days. Ice racing and road rally were also given a go as well..
In 2007 I purchased my 1985 VW Wolfsburg Weekender Westy. I have spent the entire time replacing and upgrading, making her better than new. That lead me into combining two of my passions, so designing parts just sort of happened. I am developing parts which are no longer available (NLA) but also specialty parts as fun and inspired replacements. There are select products (basically stuff that I thought had that cool factor and I wanted to install on my van) that I sell as well. Having a good relationship with my vendors is key in providing these products to you. 🙂
In addition to my Westy I own a first gen Porsche Boxster. I have wanted a Porsche for a long time and picked this little beauty up on the cheap. It needed some work but is an utter blast to drive. So, of course, parts development for the 911/Boxster/Cayman is also ongoing.
My new daily is this, a 2021 BMW 330i XDrive M Sport. A smart person would have bought a new Honda Civic Si, I thought it better to buy a used BMW. LOL. I’ve been obsessed with these cars for a while and I want to experience as many cars as possible before I pass on. So I put my trusty VW Touareg TDi went up for sale. My goal is to have this be my jack of all trades, daily driver and track day fiend. Will it excel at this mission? Time will tell, but I do know that it will be an utter blast driving her around figuring it out! 🙂
SOLD. A few years ago traded in my Alltrack for a 2012 VW Touareg TDi, fresh out of the VW Emissions fix. 😉 I plan on exploring with this wonderful monster of a vehicle and expect some new product development to come out of it too.
(Traded in) Wintertime duties are handled with a 2017 VW Alltrack. 4Motion AWD makes driving in snow quite a fun experience. It has the BES lift kit and oversized Nokian tires making it 2″ higher than a stock Alltrack. Custom driving light mounts and vent mount gauge pod are a couple more upgrades I’ve installed.
(SOLD!) And the last member of the fleet is this 2002 VW Eurovan. Initially purchased to start a VW camper rental business until COVID hit and I didn’t feel right about going this direction any longer. The previous owner is a friend of mine and this van has been meticulously maintained. It is nice family run about that my wife loves driving.
There is a snap shot of my background and affinity for German vehicles. 🙂 Thank you for choosing to support an enthusiast run, one man show of a small business.
Cheers,
Chris