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On the Road with Rob Mullner
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Jul 12, 2024
Welcome to JC Whitney's "On the Road" Podcast. Please "Subscribe" to our channel. Rob Mullner is the Vice President of Marketing at EMPI. Rob shares his experience in the auto industry with over two decades of experience in the auto aftermarket with expertise in the new car, hobbyist, tuner, off road and racing markets. Thanks for tuning in to On the Road, the JC Whitney podcast series. We are featuring an episode every other week with industry experts, friends, and storytellers. SUBSCRIBE to our channel so you don't miss an episode. Visit The Smoking Tire https://lnkd.in/gwmtTdXB
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0:00
Hello and welcome to JC Whitney's On the Road Again. My name is Angel Sala-Balen. I'm your
0:10
host and today we are joined by Rob Molnar. How you doing Rob? Good Angel, how are you? Doing
0:15
well man. Thanks for joining us today. My pleasure. So you work for EMPI. EMPI is a provider of air
0:22
cooled parts for Volkswagen's and Porsche's. And Porsche's, yes. Okay. All right. And so just
0:29
briefly, we'll just touch on some of the products that EMPI has. We have buggy in a box, brake kits
0:35
wiring harnesses, suspensions, and basically anything that you would need to customize your
0:40
buggy, sand rail, or street car. Yes. Am I missing anything? Carburetors, wheels, body parts
0:47
interiors. We have about 9,000 parts in our current offering. And it all started with the
0:55
humble valve guide replacement and the whole company sprung from there. And so if you've
1:02
got an air-cooled Volkswagen, we've got virtually everything that you want or need. If you've got
1:07
a bus, if you've got a Ghia, if you're building a Baja bug, you've mentioned a buggy in a box. JC
1:12
Whitney's the first recipient of that very first buggy in a box because we wanted to make it super
1:19
simple to get a rolling chassis on your garage floor and get it ready to drop a motor in it. So
1:26
JC Whitney, thank you for being the first buggy in a box customer. And I think you're gonna love
1:31
your buggy when it's ready. We hear that you're gonna be whipping that thing around. I feel
1:36
obligated. Yes, I feel obligated. So first question, what does it take to keep these parts
1:42
available for the customers in your community? It is shocking and amazing how much it takes
1:49
starting with the simple, what's the idea, right? Joe Vitone was inspired by Volkswagen. He was a
1:55
Volkswagen dealer, and then he became a Volkswagen builder. What he learned was, Volkswagen said
1:59
throw those cylinder heads away when the valve guides wear out. He said, no, I'm not going to do
2:03
that. And from that very simple product, he expanded into killer race cars, beating big V8s
2:10
at OCIR and local drag strips. So what it takes is, first off, an inspiration of why are we going
2:18
to make this? And then from there, we've got an engineering and a quality team that figures out
2:24
what's the right material? What should it fit? There's a lot of eras of Volkswagen bug. There's a
2:29
lot of changes. So does it fit a 67, which was a one year only car? Does it fit every Volkswagen
2:37
And the part that gets really strange and convoluted is that there are really very few original
2:45
Volkswagens, like the way they rolled off the factory. They've all been owned 10, 12, 15 different
2:52
owners. And we talked about earlier, they all have their vision. So that car has been changed
2:56
literally at a nut and bolt level. We get feedback all the time. Customer thought their car was a 72
3:04
It's really a 67 underneath. They thought they had a 1600 cc engine. No, it's really a 1500. You have to
3:11
respect the people that really know these vehicles inside and out. And fortunately, lots of them work
3:16
at EMPI. So we have inspiration, then we have technical knowledge. Then we have to figure out, can we
3:22
manufacture it? Do we have a supplier that can manufacture it? Then we get a first article, we check
3:28
it, we scrutinize it, we make sure that it does all the things it's supposed to do. Then we fit it to our
3:33
own test vehicles and we go drive the hell out of them. Does it work? Does it look good? Does it sound
3:38
good? Does it do what it's supposed to do? And when all of those boxes are checked, then we say, okay, is
3:44
the market ready for it? What price should we be offering it at to our dealers, which is where you
3:49
buy EMPI parts? So when all of those things all line up, that's when the magic happens. And we're at a
3:55
place now where our funnel is so full, we're launching about two new EMPI parts a week. To me, it's very
4:02
exciting that the market's responding so well to our new parts. And the fact that we touched on EVs and
4:09
all these other forces in the automotive aftermarket space, the reality is the core audience really
4:17
enjoys what we're doing and they really enjoy their Volkswagen's. So it's working out pretty well
4:22
No, I'm sure there are some people out there that are wishing and praying that a company like EMPI
4:27
develops these parts to solve their issue with their Volkswagen. We do get a lot of suggestions, things like steering, you know, original Volkswagen steering is a little bit
4:37
vague. We searched the world for a really, really good steering box. We pulled them apart. We tested them on our
4:45
own fleet of vehicles. And after I think our third test fit, and I don't know, a couple hundred miles of driving
4:53
local driving, we said, you know what, this will do the work. And we got it out into the audience and the community
5:00
responded because there were very few high quality steering boxes available. And then like every other market
5:06
there's a place where somebody is really at the high end, which not everybody can afford. So something that we
5:12
strive to at EMPI is kind of finding that middle ground. And I'm not gonna say we fit every budget, but we really
5:19
work hard to fit the kind of the median. And the steering box was right in the sweet spot. And it's been a big success
5:27
No, that's great. It sounds like you're providing a quality product. Right, right. And we touched on Porsche guys, right? Porsche guys, typically their wallets are different than
5:36
Volkswagen guys. The reality is they love their car just as much. It doesn't matter what they're sitting in. They love
5:43
that car. And so for a Porsche guy, sometimes it's the performance that's really the key. And most of them understand
5:52
that performance has a larger price tag. With Volkswagen, there's so many ways to get performance. They don't, they're not
5:59
necessarily all super expensive or, you know, capital intensive. So it's really the approach. And for example, with the
6:08
JC Whitney buggy, that thing weighs almost nothing. So we're gonna drop a 1914 dual carb, probably 40 dual 40s we'll put on
6:16
that. And it'll put out probably 100, 10, 100. Let's go. Let's go 115. Okay, I'll go on, I'll go on the low. Okay. But
6:27
yeah, 115, 120 should be pretty doable. But in a thing that weighs virtually nothing, it's gonna feel like it's got 500
6:34
horsepower, because it will go very rapidly. You will have to remember, oh, I need to shift gears because it'll run through the RPM
6:42
very quickly. What's the what's the red rev limiter at? On a build like that, we're probably looking at 4500 5000. So but it'll sound awesome. That's when we, we built a Manx a couple years
6:55
ago. And just that sensation of winding second into third. I would just do that just because it sounds so good. Yeah, I enjoyed that
7:03
so much. And the sounds and the smells, the vibration, you know, you're holding that wheel, you're grabbing that shifter, you're feeling it
7:11
all because you are pretty much bolted to the chassis. And you're part of it. Exactly. So you're you all that that resonance, it's coming through your bones feels spectacular. The only downside is I went to a donut
7:22
derelict show in Huntington Beach, you know that one. And that's it. That's a beautiful show. And it was a January and it was when we were
7:29
having that really terrible cold snap. So I thought, Oh, you know, I got a jacket, I got a sweater, I'll be good. Couldn't feel my ears. I'm
7:37
driving from my house to donut derelicts. I thought, I hope this isn't permanent, because I can't feel my ears. I'm not really hearing
7:43
anything. But fortunately, stopping got a hat, got some gloves, the ride home was much better
7:49
The amount of dedication to the community is obvious. Is there a deeper calling for the owner
7:54
There's 100 angles because every Volkswagen owner has a particular style and a kind of a spirit animal they're going after. So it could be
8:05
hardcore racer, it could be, I mean, there's a true story, a fellow who's even older than me, if you can believe it, built a car while he was
8:13
going to Fullerton College. It was a, I want to say it was a 67 bug. And it was, you know, mildly customized, a little bit of a built engine, some
8:23
nice little touches. This, this guy's using this car to commute to school back and forth, go to work, meet girls, whatever, car gets stolen. And
8:32
this, you know, this was decades ago, right? Because this fellow is now an AARP member. And, and just that car never left his head. He wanted to
8:42
recreate that car. So we helped him put together an engine that that looked and sounded like that original. He found a donor car and put it all
8:51
together. And now that car is going to make its world debut at European Buggin in Chimay, Belgium, in the MP booth. So everybody's got their
9:02
calling. Yeah, everybody's got their their groove. Right. And fortunately, we can help just about anybody, any, any way they want to go, we can help
9:10
them put it together. Kind of sounds like the calling is being the supplier for other people's dreams or whatnot. Yeah
9:18
Get them, get Volkswagen's back on the road is kind of our thing. Okay. And like I said, there's a lot of different ways that we do that
9:25
What does the future look like for MP in the face of an EV apocalypse or dawn
9:31
Apocalypse is a good word. So I mean, you, if you made it to SEMA last year, or even the year before, there's a whole section of the floor that's all
9:39
about EV. You can't ignore, you can't pretend, you can't just turn away. But MP loves carburetors. MP loves fuel injection. We do not offer a EV bug kit
9:53
and don't see one in our near future. Not to steal a Jay Leno. But if you think about your your daily, as your Rivia or Tesla or whatever to get you to and
10:05
from work, and that your old bug buggy Baja is your weekend fun car. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. As much as we can debate legislature and government
10:18
and whatever. The reality is turning a key, pumping an accelerator, hearing the were of that, that fuel pump, hearing the squirt of the fuel in the carburetor. To some
10:31
people, that's a pretty magical sound. And then to, you know, blip blip blip, turn it over and blip it a couple times. Sure, we can we can game boy ourselves into, you know, zeros and ones all day
10:42
long. Yeah. The reality is that a well tuned internal combustion engine does a lot of good for people. I'm going to tell you that nobody needs to be on Xanax if they have a dune buggy
10:57
Because if you turn that key and you drive away, people are waving at you, people are smiling at you, people are pointing at you. And you're thinking, all I'm doing is driving a dune buggy. And then you roll into that pedal and you're like, hmm, now I remember. It just every all the senses are activated. So long way around your question. But yes, we can see EVs, we know what they do. Yeah, we know what they're for. And internal combustion. That's our flag in the ground
11:26
Yeah, yeah. For fun, I did bring this is like one of the very first empty parts. This is a valve guide kit. So there's there's kind of a our Warshawski story, right? Where where Whitney came from this guy sees, you know, people are getting motor vehicles, right? Motor cars, and they're wrapping them around posts and, you know, crashing into horse carts. Yeah. And he sees all these these busted cars. And he's thinking, Are you kidding? You're gonna throw that away. So he he sees this opportunity to recycle
11:56
And then Roy shows up and says, you know, what we ought to do is, and like any good father, no, no, you're crazy. Don't do that. You're gonna waste your life. So somehow, you know, Roy takes JC Whitney to this completely wild aftermarket place. And our founder
12:13
Joe Vuitton had a very similar kind of an epiphany where Volkswagen said, Oh, just throw those cylinder heads away. And we'll just we'll just get you new one. And he said, No, no, we here's what we could do. Yeah. And that launched MP. That's where it all came from. So this is the origin story
12:31
Pretty much. Yeah. And to tell you how just completely nuts Volkswagen people are in a good way. Yeah, I was at a show two years ago. And a guy walked up and he said, Do you know about these? And I said, I've heard about them. He said, Do you do you have a set? I said, No. It's like, here, take them. And you know, on eBay, on Craigslist, wherever, this kind of stuff is just catnip for real hardcore Volkswagen guys. Yeah. And he just he just handed him to me and said, Here you go. So they sit by my desk. And I said, Oh, okay
13:01
I look at him for inspiration occasionally and think, you know, something as simple as this launched the whole company. Yeah. We've talked about MPs past. We've talked about the kits that you guys provide. You know, you got the brake kits, you know, you've got all types of kits, you got wiring harnesses, suspensions, anything that basically you would need for any buggy, streetcar rail, sand rail. Yes
13:26
Is there anything in the works at MP that you're excited about personally
13:31
Oh, there's some there's some great stuff coming. We can talk about camshafts. So MP got out of camshafts for a while. There were some some technical issues, some some quality control issues. Okay. So we we tore all that down, burned all of it and started at square one. Okay. And so a camshaft, a carburetor, an exhaust, you know, you you put those three together in the right configuration. And your 60 horsepower engine can be almost 200 horsepower if you really play your cards right
13:59
So for every guy that wants that just screaming crazy engine, there's lots of people that just wanted kind of mild. Give me a little more. Can I get another 20 percent, 25 percent more power? So the camshaft is really the key there. And we were MP was out of that market for a couple of years between I don't want to say COVID. I'm just gonna say COVID suppliers, a bunch of suppliers just literally fell off the map. So we had to start from square one, had to come up with our own profiles
14:29
Had to figure out all the metallurgy, the coatings, the hardness. And then finally, and again, based on all this heartache that we had with camshafts before, we said, OK, we we cannot put one foot wrong. This has got to be perfect right out of the box. So we are expecting to launch camshafts before the end of June
14:48
I'm stoked on that. So is the JC Whitney buggy going to be choppy with the new cams
14:54
No, no. The JC Whitney buggy is going to be, I think if we were at a like if we're having some Thai food, it's going to be very mild. OK
15:04
It's not going to be three alarms spicy. It is going to be a buggy that will start from the seat. OK
15:11
It will roll away. You can you want to pop the clutch and make a scream. It'll do that. It will. I'll personally verify I can jump over some things, but it's going to be a very mild build
15:23
So it's not going to have a lumpy cam. Nobody's going to confuse it with, hey, well, that you know, will that thing do some wheelies? Yeah
15:30
I mean, if you really put your mind to it, probably. Maybe. But but not out of the box. No
15:33
That's cool. That's all right. I like mild vehicles anyway. A dune buggy is so light already that you you really only have to think about it lightly and you can kick that tail out and you can not, you know, don't don't tell anybody's bosses
15:47
But they are very nimble and that wheelbase is very short. So it is it is ready to do outlandish parking lot activities when you want it to
16:00
Or if there's some sand around, you can have a very good time
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I personally attest to it. Weekend cars, let's go all the way, you know, pedal to the metal, you know, but throughout the week I'm trying to do like a regular mild
16:13
So, yeah, I'm glad that Epi has the full range for for their customers. Definitely
16:19
Now we're gonna change gears a little bit. OK. We're gonna talk about you. OK
16:22
And I guess we want to know, do you have a defining moment in your life in a car specifically that maybe led you to this career path of working for Epi or, you know, take that how you will
16:38
Wow. OK. So when I was a kid, I was probably five or six years old
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My dad was all about Studebakers. So some of the audience listening, watching probably remember Studebakers
16:50
But my dad had a Gran Turismo supercharger, the whole nut. And he was a machinist, so he would make some of his own parts. Nice
16:57
And I remember thinking, this is pretty cool. I didn't know anything about anything
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I'm five years old. I got a buzz haircut. We're at a stoplight and I think maybe there was a race that was going to happen
17:07
And I remember my dad kind of blipping it and then just flames shooting out the hood
17:11
And I thought, that's really cool. Is that supposed to happen? And so, because my dad was always prepared, there was a fire extinguisher
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He popped the hood, hit it with the extinguisher, and just got back in the car and we just drove away
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And I thought, yeah, that's normal. There's no big deal there. So that kind of presented some challenges that I needed to work through about, is that
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supposed to be a standard? And when you're five years old, you're not asking about fires and were we in danger
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Was something bad going to happen? Would the car explode? And so, all that came to me later like, hey, that could have been pretty catastrophic
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But the way my dad played it off was very just like, oh yeah, no big
17:52
Yeah, very dad. Yeah. And there's been a few events like that with some of my, I have two daughters, were there
17:58
in the car and maybe we got pulled over by the police or something like that
18:02
And I just acted like, yeah, that was no big deal. And so, every now and then, my girls would bring up, remember that time we were in the TR6
18:09
I had a British car phase for a while. Hey, remember the time we're in the TR6 and the cop pulled us over right in front of school
18:15
So, yeah, I remember that. And then we just talk about the next subject. So, that was that first Studebaker moment was probably a defining moment
18:23
There were a few other racetrack events I can think of. Yeah. That I thought, oh, this could be pretty cool
18:29
And then realizing, a lot of talent required, a lot of time, a lot of money and didn't have
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any of those. So, I kind of put that off to the side. But everybody should go to a good driving school, everybody. Yeah
18:42
If you want to go off-road, you want to go on-road, I can't recommend enough
18:47
You have a driving school you want to plug in? Any friends? It's called Dirt Fish
18:52
Dirt Fish. Dirt Fish. Dirt Fish. The guys at Dirt Fish. You can drive a manual
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You can drive an automatic. You can drive an all-wheel drive car
19:03
I believe they still do front drive there. But the nicest people, beautiful, beautiful scenery
19:09
It's outside of Seattle. And the way that they have modularized their track, their course, it adds on layers
19:19
And as you start to get good at the different techniques, which are totally different than
19:23
road driving, took me days to wrap my brain around it. But yeah, everybody should go to a school, either go to Dirt Fish or a school like Dirt Fish. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Awesome
19:36
All right. So last question. How can people stay in touch with what EMPI is doing and get in contact with you if maybe
19:45
they want to reach out? We have been all over social media. I have to say thank you so much to the audience that's really responded to what we're doing
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on Instagram and YouTube. So EMPI underscore inc on Instagram. EMPI underscore inc on YouTube
19:58
So we make it easy for you. Our audience has grown about 3,000% over the last couple of years
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And what I love about that is these are all people that truly enjoy the subject matter
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We're not spending a ton on advertising. So the people that are following and liking, they must actually enjoy the content. Yep
20:18
And I'm personally at a lot of Volkswagen events. I'm going to, I mentioned the Chermais Belgium
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This European bug-in is one of the biggest events every two years
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So I'll be at that. I'll be at the EMPI Open House. I'm at bug-ins, drag days all over California
20:35
And I work hard to get out to go see dealers around the country. Yep
20:40
We do dealer visit videos so people can follow along. We're so spoiled living in Southern California, right
20:45
There's so many EMPI dealers. EMPI's, you know, started here, based here, grew here
20:50
Just got a message from one of our dealers in Oklahoma. When are you coming out to our big event
20:55
A guy in Columbiana, Ohio, Jim's Custom VW. Hey, you got to come to our 35th anniversary
21:02
Yes, Jim, I'm coming to your 35th anniversary, July 19th. I believe it is July 19th
21:07
So if they want to follow along, go buy a Volkswagen. Yeah. You want to follow along, get your Volkswagen out of the garage
21:13
The one that's been under a cover that's got Christmas decorations. Yep. Piled on top of it for the last 15 years
21:18
Take all that junk off of it. Pull it out into the light. Figure out what does it really need
21:23
Find an EMPI dealer. What I've been constantly just overwhelmed with is the average EMPI dealer
21:31
Yeah, they want to sell you some parts, right? Because it's capitalism. Yeah
21:35
But they want to help you get your car on the road. Yeah
21:38
Yeah, that's why I feel with EMPI and the energy, it's really centered about getting your classic car
21:46
your air-cooled Volkswagen or Porsche, right? Back onto the road so you can enjoy it again
21:52
I mean, at the end of the day. Yeah, people forget. You know, we talked about that key turn and the whir of the pump
21:58
If you've got an electric pump. Yeah. You know, a couple blips, they get some gas in there and then the
22:05
getting that going. When people remember what that sensation feels like and then they roll the window down and drive away
22:12
it just hits them again. It's like, oh, that's right. That's why I love this
22:16
I don't, not to besmirch anyone, I don't know that your Tesla gives you that sensation
22:23
I don't know that it kind of fills your senses with all those different kinds of experiences
22:32
Forgive me. I know it doesn't. I rented a Tesla once. I know it doesn't
22:36
But getting that old car on the road and remembering why. And if you've got a family story connected
22:41
or you've got a friend of a neighbor, that car came from there. Yeah
22:46
I'm not going to say time machine, but kind of time machine. So
22:51
I'm all for it. EMPI's great. Thank you. If you don't know, EMPI is the company for you
22:57
to get all of your air cooled products for your Volkswagen and Porsche
23:02
Yes, sir. Smart man. My guy, Rob. Thank you so much for coming in today
23:06
Thank you, Angel
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