It all began when Joe Vittone opened a Volkswagen dealership in 1954 with his business partner, Holt Haughey. The agency was known as Economotors and was located in Riverside, California which is 60 miles east of Los Angeles. The agency quickly become a popular spot to sell and service Volkswagens. Joe discovered after a short time that the valve guides wore out very quickly which led to the need to rebuild cyclinder heads of the 25hp and the 36hp engines that were in production. There were no repair parts available that were approved by Volkswagen. He was advised by Volkswagen to throw out the entire cylinder head and replace them with new parts. Joe didn't like that suggestion so he decided to make his own valve guides. They allowed old or worn cylinder heads to be repaired instead of junking them. This saved Volkswagen owners a fair amount of money and the tools were a hit. The guides sold very well and thus European Motor Products Inc. (EMPI) was born in 1956.

Another complaint Joe always heard was that Volkswagens were too slow. Okrasa, a German based company that produced performance equipment, was added to the EMPI line in 1956. This allowed Volkswagen owners to upgrade to a heftier engine. At first, the idea didn't take well because some owners thought a 36 hp engine was the biggest size they would need. Then in 1958 Joe added the Austrian company Denzel to his line-up. Denzel also produced high performance engine parts but they were much better quality and more expensive than Okrasa.

In 1958 Joe designed the anti-sway bar to counter the effect of the poor handling characteristics of Volkswagens. At the same time other car manufacturers were installing anti-sway bars on their cars and stated that the car would lean less when driving around corners or in the wind. Only a year later, in 1959, Volkswagen made the anti-sway bar stock on their cars. Next Joe designed the rear stabiliser to fix the problem of the wheels tucking under during hard cornering. This became known as the camber compensator and was installed on the famous Inch Pincher drag racer.

Around this time the name of the company changed to Engineered Motor Products Inc. as Joe thought it emphasized the product development and quality. When Joe went on a trip to Europe he met with Speedwell owner Graham Hill. Speedwell was then granted the manufacturing rights to some EMPI parts like the camber compensator.

The EMPI catalog mainly consisted of dress-up accessories but also had such performance parts as the high-ratio rocker arms, 88mm slipper-skirt pistons and cylinders, carburetor kits, centrifugal advance ignition distributors and of course the famous BRM wheels. EMPI was promoted not only by its catalog but also posters and clothing.

The BRM wheel was introduced in June 1966 between EMPI and Speedwell. The cost of the wheel was $50 each. It was cast out of 90% magnesium which made it light and fragile. It was highly prone to corrosion so that if you polish it on a Friday afternoon it would look horrible for cruising that night. This was solved when a VW driver polished his wheels to a mirror finish with wire wool. They looked so good that soon everybody had to have a set of BRMs. Adaptors were required which some drivers looked down on. Then in 1968 when Volkswagen introduced the 4-lug wheel which BRM's could no longer fit. EMPI came up with the GT Spyder wheel which was a two-piece cast aluminum wheel. Other popular wheels were the 5-spoke, 8-spoke, and the Rader.

Joe realized that in 1966 he was a great advantage by owning a VW agency that he was able to offer complete new cars that had many EMPI parts. Thus, the EMPI GTV (Grand Touring Vehicle) was born. These cars were available at 4 levels. The MkI was a VW 1300 with the addition of a front anti-sway bar, camber compensator, E-Z-R gear shift, sports exhaust system, chrome wheels and of the course the GTV logo on the front quarter panel. This kit was $437.20 plus the cost of the new 1300 Bug. The MkII added even more accessories such as a rear parcel shelf with additional speakers, engine lid lock and dual reverse lights. This package was $566.85. The MkIII added extra instruments, more dress-up parts and the coveted BRM wheels for $755.05. And the MkIV had everything plus a ram-induction carburetor kit, brake servo, seat recliners and Boge shocks. This was $1238.75.

EMPI expaned into 28 distributors and 489 agents throughout the United States. These agencies also sold Volkswagens which Volkswagen did not like. Volkswagen tried to get the agencies to stop selling EMPI products and even threatened to cut their shipment of new Volkswagens.

During the peak of business EMPI sold $6 million worth of parts a year. In 1971 Joe wanted to devote more time to Economotors and so EMPI was sold to Lee Eliminators. Joe's son, Darrell, which had been a part of the EMPI business left in 1972 to open The Race Shop. EMPI went into decline until 1974. Then Filter Dynamics came along and bought the EMPI name. Filter Dynamics never had the experience needed to make the business work, and they let the logo/trademark expire. After EMPI/Filter Dynamics went out of business a former employee, Jaime Halvorson & Lyle Cherry bought the EMPI name and decided to carry on the EMPI tradition, but Mr. Bug, also known as Dan Weldon, in Anahiem, California came along some time later and reregistered the name having different ideas. Mr. Bug is notorious for grabbing old names from the past and trying to pass his products off with the old names that meant quality. He sued Lyle Cherry and won because Lyle didn't have the time and didn't want to waste the money to fight Mr. Bug so he just said forget it. The EMPI name is currently owned by Mr. Bug.

[Portions of this article were taken from California Look VW by Keith Seume]

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