Weiand (™) Logo

Weiand Automotive Industries, Inc. assured their place in automotive performance history when in 1937 they developed and manufactured the first aluminum intake manifold available to the mass market. Founded by Phil Weiand in the mid 1930’s the company began in California as Weiand Power & Racing Equipment which was a performance parts warehouse.  Their first original product was the ‘High Weiand’ the aforementioned aluminum intake manifold.  It wasn’t until 1957 that Weiand began to develop complete blower drives for the GMC 6-71 supercharger.  There was no turning back from that point.  Weiand continued by producing supercharger kits for several of the most popular platforms through the years.

Phil Weiand was an auto enthusiast to the core and his company reflected that.  Phil and the company were involved in motor sports the whole way.  Weiand products were front and center in many famous dragsters with some big names starting it out like Big Daddy Don Garlits’ Swamprat 1 the Isky-Weiand Special and Lloyd Scott’s Bustle Bomb. In 1963 Weiand Power & Racing Equipment continued to build new roads when they were among the founding members of SEMA (Speed Equipment Manufacturing Association, now Specialty Equipment Manufacturing Association).

Phil Weiand lead the company for generations up until 1978 when he passed away.  Phil’s wife, Joan Weiand, took over and continued to move the company and industry forward.  Under Joan’s lead Weiand introduced a series of Roots type superchargers for popular street applications as well as expanding into the Marine industry.  In 1998 the company left family hands when it was sold to Holley Performance, another legend in the industry. Due to their huge impact in the automotive performance industry both Phil and Joan were inducted into SEMA’s hall of fame.

Weiand Automotive is a pioneer in the automotive performance industry.  Without Weiand’s advancements the level of performance automotive technology, the racing and the street scene would not be where it is today.  Through the years the company has been a leader in the industry with their high quality and innovative designs and parts.  Although Weiand is a household name in performance it is also a tricky name.  Debates over how to pronounce Weiand have happened more than a few times with popular alternatives being ‘Wee-And’, ‘Weigh-And’ and not pronouncing it at all.  For the record, according to the family they pronounce it as ‘Why-And’.

™ BLITZ Co., LTD

BLITZ has roots in the 1970’s as a circuit racing team that grew into a high performance tuning shop. The next step for the company was in 1981 when they established BLITZ Co., LTD in Tokyo, Japan. A focus of BLITZ has always been to produce high quality performance products for the aftermarket that can endure the daily grind and still perform when needed. While maintaining that focus BLITZ has been able to expand by distributing parts internationally. In 1997 BLITZ expanded into the North American Market with a partially owned subsidiary BLITZ North America Inc.

BLITZ roots type supercharger kit for Mazda RX-8.

BLITZ has a large range of performance parts and has become a serious player in the tuner market. They continue to hone their high performance parts using real world street car and professional racing results. TEAM BLITZ has been racing in the D1 Grand Prix Series since 2002 with some strong results. BLITZ has some great superchargers kits available for the tuner market.

TRD Logo (™)

Toyota Racing Development (TRD) is Toyota’s in-house performance development and tuning division for Toyota, Lexus and Scion vehicle lines. At the time of writing there are two main divisions of TRD: Toyota Technocraft Co. Ltd or TRD Japan (established June of 1954) and TRD U.S.A. (established in 1979). TRD Japan was originally known as Toyota Sports Corner (TOSCO). In December of 2006 TRD officially expanded into Thailand with TRD Asia Co. Ltd. which was a new corporation made up with 80% shares owned by Toyota Technocraft Co., Ltd. and 20% by Toyota Tsusho Corporation. In August of 2007 Toyota Australia established TRD Australia which offered the first TRD production vehicles. Unfortunately the production was officially brought to a halt in March of 2009. Beyond superchargers TRD offers several optional and aftermarket performance parts including headers, mufflers, suspension parts, braking hardware and much more.

TRD Supercharger Kit for a 2003 Toyota Matrix

TRD has been in the business a long time and has an established reputation. Along with the quality that is expected of Toyota vehicles comes TRD’s outstanding professional racing results for both cars and trucks. They have a long list of participation coupled with impressive achievements. A complete list of achievements is beyond this article but to get an idea of just how deep their racing roots are we’ve included a list of series and racing leagues they have participated in:

- The Japanese division of TRD has raced in a variety of series including: All-Japan F3 Championship, ESSO Formula Toyota, Netz Cup (Vitz) and Super GT (JGTC).
- TRD U.S.A. has been raced in Baja 1000, Championship World Series (CART), Championship Off Road Racing (CORR), Grand-Am Cup Sports Touring, Indy Racing League, International Motor Sports Association (IMSA), NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, NASCAR Sprint Cup, Nationwide Series, National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) and Toyota Atlantic Series.
- Toyota Team Europe which is now known as Toyota Forumla One Team has raced in 24 Hours of Le Mans, Forumla One World Championship Racing (F1) and World Rally Championship (WRC).

I will mention one interesting and noteworthy achievement by TRD. In 2000 Toyota was able to grab a CART win with a TRD built engine. This engine was the first American built engine to win an Indy race in 20 years. With that same engine design by 2002 they were able to take the Indy Series Championship. As long as Toyota continues to rise in the world market and TRD keeps focusing on high quality performance parts there is no stopping them. They will continue to churn out excellent aftermarket superchargers and accessories and will improve on the race tracks.

Vortech Logo (™) and Supercharger

Vortech is much younger company than several industry competitors but that hasn’t slowed them down. Vortech is a major player in the supercharger world. They are credited with several innovations for the centrifugal supercharger. Some of the innovations include: The first to offer a supercharger test cell designed and operated to SAE Standard J-1723, the first to develop a centrifugal supercharger with gears, the first to use an air bypass valve in systems and air / oil mist system for cooling. Vortech has six US patents. They are the only company to receive the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Award for Best Engineered New Product on a centrifugal supercharger. They have managed this achievement three times.

Vortech Engineering, LLC is a strong race supporter with Vortech superchargers and systems. Vortech has racing teams in the NMRA and NMCA drag racing and Vortech parts can be found in racing teams throughout the world including jet ski and marine applications. Several world record holding vehicles have used Vortech parts.

HKS (™) Logo

HKS provides high performance aftermarket parts for a large variety of makes and models of cars. HKS was founded in the later months of 1973 by Hiroyuki Hasegawa and Goichi Kitagawa. HKS started out in a dairy-farming shed at the foot of Mount Fuji, Japan with funding from Sigma Automotive Co., Ltd.

A year after inception HKS made history by releasing the very first aftermarket turbocharger for passenger cars. The first turbo kit was for the L20B engine from the Datsun 240Z. Along with making history with their first turbocharger HKS was the first in producing an electronic turbo timer and boost controller. HKS was a pioneer in the in the Japanese aftermarket performance industry and to this day continue to release a large array of performance parts including superchargers.

In 1982 HKS expanded their operations when they opened HKS USA, Inc. Further expansion developed into the UK and Thailand while products continued to be developed for both Japanese and American domestic cars as well as European models.

By the late 1980’s HKS had become involved in the racing scene. They have competed in several forms of racing including drag, All-Japan Formula Three (F3), Japanese Touring Car Championship (JTCC), Super GT (Formerly All-Japan Grand Touring Car Championship or JGTC), D1 Grand Prix (D1GP), Rally, Superbikes and more. Outside of their own racing teams they remain active in sponsoring other racers who carry the HKS name.

HKS continues to grow as a company and with its high quality performance offerings. HKS is currently a publicly traded joint stock company with subsidiaries now in California, USA (HKS USA), Cambrideshire, England (HKS Europe) and Bangkok, Tailand (HKS Thailand).

Neuspeed (™) Logo

Neuspeed provides superchargers and performance parts for Acura, Honda, Volkswagen and Audi. The company started in 1975 by Bill Neumann with his two sons Gary and Aaron. The original company from Burbank California has roots in dyno-tuning and custom engine building.

In 1980 Neuspeed brought out its first Volkswagen project nicknamed “Thunder Bunny”. It was a 1981 VW Rabbit which boasted a 0 to 60 in 7.2 seconds which reportedly was the fastest front wheel drive car in America at the time. Along with the speed boost the Thunder Bunny came with some excellent handling. The Neuspeed Rabbit posted a 64.5 MPH slalom and handled better than almost every vehicle that had been tested by Road and Track and Motor Trend. The Ferrari 512 Boxer and Lamborghini Countach were the only cars to have better ratings.

Throughout the 80’s the Neumanns continued their performance specialization in water cooled Volkswagens which included the Rabbit, Scirocco, Golf, Jetta, Passat, Fox, Cabriolet and Corrado. As the 80’s neared an end and Volkswagen sales were decreasing in the United States Neuspeed decided to expand their focus. With the tuners starting to take root there was an burgeoning market in Honda CRXs and Civics in South California. With excellent foresight Neuspeed expanded to include Honda and Acura to their line.

By 1995 the Acura and Honda part sales were nearing that of the Volkswagens effectively doubling the size of the company. To further their Honda line in 1996 they funded a team for the North American Touring Car Championship (NATCC). The first Neuspeed race car was an Accord. It took them only to mid season to make a difference and to start wracking up victories. The Neuspeed driver, Randy Pobst, won the Drivers Championship and Neuspeed took home first place in the Manufacturer’s Championship for Honda. The team also won awards for completing every race and for the most laps.

In 2001 the Neuspeed supercharger kit for the Volkswagen 2.0L 8 valve engines had arrived after a year of intense development and testing. This first supercharger received rave reviews for its smooth power delivery and factory like appearance. The kit received full approval from California Air Resource Board (CARB) which made it smog legal in all 50 states.

By 2003 Neuspeed had grown to be the largest supplier of high performance water cooled Volkswagen parts in the United States as well as a leading supplier for Acura and Honda performance parts.

As expected with new ownership comes new plans. The focus for SuperchargerKits.org is to provide quality information and resources for current supercharger owners, those who are looking to buy one or anyone wanting to better understand what a supercharger is about. Outside of the main focus it is very likely there will be some further content and resources relating to other performance enhancements for your cars, trucks and possibly bikes and boats.

Over the next short while there will be some cleaning out of the old content that has little to no value. After that a follow up of fresh and hopefully good information.

This article is pending a rewrite relating to Paxton and their history.