Marine City, MI (February 25, 2014)…Howe Racing came into existence in 1971 when Ed Howe started selling the cars he personally was winning races with. He left his job to continue racing and producing parts full time. He continually developed new components associated with them and then incorporated in 1974. Eventually the business took over his racing. Son Chas started working for him after school when he was only 10 years old. Later in 1987, he took over as General manager and became an equal partner in the business. Ed retired about 10 years ago in the early 2000’s. Chas eventually became a racer himself for many years, but now only drives an occasional test session.
He has been involved with NASCAR, USAC, ARCA, ASA, CRA and ARTGO as oval track was the core of the business for many years in the USA. After 2000, the company started building oval track cars for a series in the UK called ASCAR and one in South Africa called SASCAR. Starting in 2008, they began to do more developing into the road racing market as some of the short track oval business was waning. Howe has built cars since Holland’s DNRT then Scandinavia’s Camaro Cup (now called V8 Thundercar ) and for DTC in Denmark. Most recently, they have had good growth with Trans Am in the USA with the creation of the TA2 class.
“The early development of the Swedish Stock Car Series was exciting as we were creating an entirely new concept”, stated Chas Howe. “It was originally the idea of two Swedes; Hans Emeren and Tony Bryntesson. They came to me with the idea of adapting our chassis to their existing gen 4 Camaro drivetrain, and creating a gen five body to fit it. Considering that the gen 5 wasn’t released yet in 2009 it presented a real challenge. Thanks to assistance from GM’s Jeff Kettman, we were able to make it all come together. We tested the first prototype at the Autobahn Club Course in Jolliet, IL on August 13, 2009 with driver Nick Jonsson. By March of 2010 we had built and shipped 24 for their 2010 season. They have had three successful seasons and there will be 66 of these cars in Europe in 2014. The transition to the LS3 engine started development in 2012 and was implemented in the 2013 season.”
Howe Racing goes way back with Bill Howell to a time prior to the creation of Howell Engine Development when co founder Bill worked at GM as a Chevrolet engineer. “Many times, Bill would assist us with GM products or with advice”, continued Howe. “Our first involvement with Howell Engine Developments was as part of the development of the LS1 engine for use in stock car racing in the American Speed Association. While we were tasked by ASA to install and test the engine, Howell was doing the same with the wire harness. Years later when we started working with GM on bringing the LS3 engine to The V8 Thunder Series, Howell was the obvious choice to create the wire harness.
We know that anything we get from Howell will not only meet our specs but they also know the application so they will sometimes point out concerns that we may have missed. That is the real benefit of working with a company like Howell that has a great deal of practical experience. They are not just blindly pumping out product, they know how it is going to be used.”
For more information on Howe Racing, visit www.howeracing.com
Howell Engine Developments was formed in 1988 by Bill and Matt Howell to support the growing trends toward the use of electronic fuel injection in the Hot Rod/Street Rod and Four Wheel Drive segments of the automotive aftermarket. All Howell systems are full function, utilizing the GM computer (ECM), and Oxygen sensor, as well as complete GM diagnostic capabilities. For additional information, visit www.howell-efi.com or call 810.765.5100.
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