Unorthodox Racing (“UR”) was founded by
an enthusiast who had spent a decade wrenching on American muscle cars.
He worked with many products, some as simple as spark plugs to as complex as
super/turbocharger systems. By the early 1990’s it was clear a new era
was dawning with smaller
displacement higher performance engines being offered. He slowly began developing what would become UR
power pulleys. The first pulley was for his personal 1988 T-Bird Turbo Coupe with the 2.3L SOHC 16V Turbo engine. His father in law was a
class A machinist, trained in Germany before he came to the US. The two
designed then machined a crankshaft pulley for the T-Bird. The pulley performed flawlessly, the seat of the
pants improvement told him he was onto something.
Over the next few years more pulleys
were made and tested. Another was made for a 1992 Civic Hatch (EH2) the founder
bought for commuting to graduate school. The new pulley made the little 1.5L SOHC 16V
feel like a whole new engine, especially when the VTEC kicked in. He knew some underdrive pulleys
for the V8's he worked on caused charging, cooling or other accesory issues. So the amount/percentage of
underdrive would have to be tailored to each car/engine. Every new
pulley was put through rigorous testing (the alternator, a/c, air pump,
power steering and water pump) to assure the accessories functioned at
factory specified output levels. It was during this testing that he realized the most important fact about making power with pulleys. Smaller displacement engines saw bigger performance
gains from weight reduction than underdrive. This is why UR pulleys are
designed to achieve the maximum possible weight reduction.
With this important engineering and test data UR was registered as a Sole
Proprietorship in 1996. Market research showed the demand for small
displacement perfromance parts was growing. A final business plan and
Mission Statement were created. At the heart of this was UR’s strict
policy of only making products that “DID WHAT WE SAID THEY WOULD,” “FIT
LIKE WE SAID THEY WOULD,” “LOOKED LIKE PIECES OF ART” AND “WOULD LAST
THE LIFETIME OF THE VEHICLE.” There would be no compromises which meant a
higher retail price. It was the only trade off he was willing to make.
He was sure the end user would not chance damaging their engine with a
cheap part. What’s the point of saving fifty or hundred dollars if it
causes thousands of dollars in damage. It was simple, it was about
quality, customer satisfaction and word of mouth. This philosophy is
still a cornerstone or UR 23 years later.
In early 1997 UR was incorporated and
launched our first web-site. We introduced our pulleys to this hungry
new market in May of 1997 with our first ad in Turbo magazine. UR
pulleys were officially the first pulleys for the small displacement
market. We were quickly accepted by enthusiasts, racers and tuners as
a vendor they could trust. Enthusiasts worldwide have used UR products
in everything ranging from everyday street to full out race cars. 20+
years later we are still the leader with hunderds of billions of end
user driven miles using our products.
UR products are designed and
manufactured exclusively in the U.S. using the latest 3D product
development tools. Strict quality controls are followed from material
selection (Using only the finest U.S. produced raw materials), machinery and tooling.