BIOGRAPHY

Chris's first car was a front end collision 1967 GTO purchased from a high school classmate in 1976. "Parts for this car were already very hard to find. That summer I made my way around to various local Auto Salvage yards and with my friend, we put the GTO back together. That experience was the early motivation to make GTO's both a passion and a business. If I was having trouble finding parts for my car, surely others were too." For several years, Chris was in outside sales for a large computer company. As he made regional sales calls, he'd also allocate time to visit yards, old Pontiac dealers and look for hard to find parts. "That early experience of identifying and removing these hard to find parts helped me learn so much about these cars and the automotive restoration industry."

At that time (early 80s) Dennis Kirban was producing a GTO Parts newsletter and Chris noticed he often only had one of each part available to sell. He quickly realized there was room for both of them to be successful. Within a short period of time, Chris and his wife Pam also realized that it was difficult handling 2 full time jobs while raising a family. While he made sales calls, she took care of their sons, answered phones and handled a lot of the mailings. "If I wanted to support a family, I'd need more than one of each item I was finding in parts yards." So Chris began to look for opportunities to reproduce needed parts. After making several successful reproductions along with a growing customer base, he decided a full line Pontiac catalog could be a full time job. He borrowed about $15,000 from friends and family and after about a year of developing a catalog, he was in business.

The Pontiac parts business grew over the years. Literally hundreds of reproduction parts were made and distributed through his Pontiac catalogs as well as through all the other Pontiac restoration supply catalog companies. When the internet was launched, Chris introduced the PY Online Forums that became the worlds’ largest gathering of Pontiac enthusiasts sharing Pontiac restoration and performance information. All of this allowed expansion into new, fun and exciting ventures. In the 1990's, the company Performance Years developed a full line of Muscle car locks sets that today is the only surviving business of its kind. He made multiple non-sport Trading Card series; Among them, the popular Musclecards ™series I and II and Mustang Cards Carroll Shelby Signature Series Series I and II. He started a local utility/car trailer business and continued to grow and expand the Classic Pontiac retail parts business. And a little more recently, he gave the go ahead for his son Eric to develop a Late Model Pontiac parts company called GTOG8TA.COM.

In 2003 despite historically frustrating selling of OEM GTO and Firebird exhaust systems (fitment and availability problems) he saw that there was very few options for performance exhaust for the same. So he began to source mandrel bent downpipes, X-pipes, mufflers, tailpipes and OEM style stainless tips. This idea was so successful, that the Pypes Performance Exhaust was created and was expanded to all American Muscle cars and trucks. A few years later, he saw the same void in the market for a nice reasonably priced OEM looking performance aluminum radiator and the Cold Case Radiator brand was launched.

In 2015, Chris decided to sell his Pontiac catalog business to Ames to avoid unnecessary competition amongst long time industry friends. That move allowed the full development of the Cold Case Radiator line that aligned perfectly with the Pypes distribution channels. Through all of these times, Chris maintained a strong connection to his original Pontiac passion by supporting the industry with a huge selection of Pontiac products for both the exhaust and radiator lines. In 2018, Chris formed the non-profit Pontiac Preservation Association which includes the Pontiac Hall of Fame (PPA for short) which has inducted 32 worthy members to date. The floor standing monument has been seen at the Pontiac Nationals, POCI Nationals and more recently at the Pontiac Oakland Museum in Pontiac IL.

These days, at 68, Chris has taken a step away from day to day operations to let Eric run the Max Performance company and has since promoted a long time Pypes employee to run the Pypes and Cold Case brands. The past successes are still quite noticeable. The auto locks business is the only one of it's kind remaining and larger than ever. GTOG8TA.com is the largest late model Pontiac site on the internet. The Pypes and Cold Case brands have solidified themselves as highly regarded national brands. The wholesale Pontiac reproductions business is still thriving and a signed Carroll Shelby Signature series trading card now sells for hundreds of dollars! Most of these entities not only continue to do well but the original goals of providing a great customer service experience and continued new product development are still mainstays of the companies. Chris still frequently attends Carlisle and SEMA. He still owns the original 1967 GTO that started it all. In his spare time, he even started a Cigar accessories business called Fog Box. He lives with his wife Pam in Pa. still but spends a good part of the winter in Southwest Florida. They are both enjoying all three son's, their families including 5 grandchildren with one more on the way.

ADDITIONAL MEDIA