WILWOOD HISTORY

Wilwood Engineering began in 1977 as a small manufacturer of disc brakes for Grand National race cars.  These “stock cars” required improved brakes over ordinary factory brakes. Owner Bill Wood’s original designs of high performance disc brakes proved to be an immediate success and soon found their way onto many racecars across the country. By the early 1980’s Wilwood was becoming the standard name of brakes on the many types of stock cars racing in NASCAR. Original designs of brake calipers, rotors, mounting hats and brackets were improved upon and Wilwood’s product line soon included smaller, lightweight brakes found on sprint cars, drag racers, road racers and virtually every type of automotive racing application.

Wilwood originally contracted most of the machining and finishing of the brake parts to job shops in the Southern California area. As Wilwood expanded, more and more of the machining and assembly was performed in-house.  Computerized machining centers (CNC mills and lathes) were utilized and Wilwood began the formation of a specialized and sophisticated production center.  Other parts of Wilwood began to grow as well: Wilwood’s sales and administrative staff grew along with the design and engineering department, always the strength of Wilwood’s success, grew by employing creative minds encouraged to solve disc brake performance challenges while incorporating efficient production techniques. The result was an efficient company team ready to seize upon the explosive growth of auto racing in the 1980’s and 90’s.

The dynamic growth of auto racing the past 10 years has been unprecedented. With the fast expansion of the sport, Wilwood positioned itself to become the leader in the high performance disc brake market.  Wilwood’s product line continued to grow with more diverse applications and greater brake system componentry, including master cylinders, pedal assemblies, brake pads and specialty racing hubs.

The early 1990’s saw Wilwood’s entrance into the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) field. With fast, efficient production machinery and highly skilled production employees, Wilwood products have become original equipment on many specialty performance vehicles, such as snowmobiles, ATV’s (all terrain vehicles), and racing motorcycles. The automotive racing industry has continued to expand and Wilwood has retained its position as the industry leader in high performance disc brakes. Future growth will include branching out to racing outside of the United States and continued growth as an OEM supplier to the automotive and specialty vehicle markets.