Private Equity Is Eating the Car Modding Industry

This weekend, reports started circulating that legendary tuning house Hondata has been acquired by Engineered Performance Technologies. That’s the same private equity-backed parent company that owns Cobb Tuning, AutoMeter, Ecutek, and other big names in the car modding world.

Hondata Acquisition News

On Saturday, I found what looks like a leaked press release draft on a Honda Type R parts Facebook Group page stating, “Engineering Performance Technologies (EPT) is proud to announce the acquisition of Hondata Inc., the premier innovator of engineered software and hardware solutions for the Honda and Acura performance market.”

What’s weird is, the real company is called Engineered, not Engineering. Also odd is the fact that no official communications appear to have been issued by Hondata or EPT itself (I did send some notes, and will update this story if I hear back). Hence why I’m thinking it’s a leaked draft. That said, this feels way too specific for somebody to make up. So I imagine either somebody shared the release before they were supposed to (Hondata’s retailer HA Motorsports’ staff is on summer break for another week as I’m writing this), or I just read an AI-mangled version of a release that’s buried on an industry-facing press wire page.

Anyway, if we’re deciding to take the release at face value, here’s the nugget you will be interested in if you’re interested at all:

“This acquisition ensures that Hondata will have access to expanded corporate resources, state-of-the-art research facilities, and deeper manufacturing capabilities. Customers, dealers, and tuners can expect the same specialized support they have relied on for years, alongside accelerated development for future platforms, CANFlex systems, and next-generation software features.”

So far, it sounds like it’ll be an expansion of business as usual, which would be great. Though any time private equity gets involved in anything, I tend to get a little nervous. More on that later.

Quick Context

Here’s a speed run of context you need to fully appreciate today’s Hondata news:

Summer 2013, Avante Capital Partners (also called Avante Mezzanine Partners) and Promus Equity Partners bought the well-established car gauge company AutoMeter and started to build its own little aftermarket car-parts empire around it. Engineered Performance Technologies (EPT) came online as the corporate umbrella company to stand in as an AutoMeter parent and, soon, manage other brands in the space.

AutoMeter had actually already been owned by another investment firm at that time, with its own network of subsidiary companies in its orbit (Stack, Ltd., Dedenbear Products, and ProParts LLC making NASCAR’s Spek-Pro gauges).

In 2014, EPT acquired Cobb Tuning, best known for Subaru computer tuning, but it now has applications for a huge range of cars. That gave EPT a foothold in the all-important ECU tuning world.

A few years later, Ecutek, a British ECU tuning outfit, was bought, too, giving the parent company a foothold in Europe.

Last year, EPT picked up PRL Motorsports, which makes hardware (intakes, intercoolers, and other such things, primarily for Hondas).

So, with all that in mind, it makes a lot of sense for this Engineered Performance Technologies entity to go after Hondata, a major authority on Honda ECU tuning.

With this move, EPT has effectively built two parallel empires. In the Subaru camp, it has the software (Cobb) and the hardware (GrimmSpeed). Now, in the Honda/Acura camp, it has completed the same puzzle with the software (Hondata) and the hardware (PRL Motorsports).

What’s Next for the Enthusiast Aftermarket?

Best-case scenario, Hondata gets a cash infusion and infrastructure bump, allowing the brand to expand its offerings without dropping support for existing products. Worst case, the brand gets gutted of talent and hobbles along, trading on name recognition for as long as its new owners can squeeze money out of it. The reality will probably be a bit of both.

As for the car-modding business as a whole … it’s complicated.

Flatirons Tuning hosted a podcast recently with Justin Grimm from Overtake (formerly GrimmSpeed) and Dan Hurwitz from Mach V Motorsports to discuss private equity in the automotive aftermarket. You can check that out here:

Well, specifically, their conversation was about the consumer-facing performance aftermarket. (In auto industry speak, “aftermarket” often is just describing non-name-brand replacement parts like the brake pads, control arms, and sway bar end links you grab from your local auto parts store or Amazon.)

Grimm is particularly well-versed to discuss this because his tuning company, GrimmSpeed, was sold to private investors circa 2019 (it was spun up into an aggregator called Aftermarket Performance Group). Grimm himself was fired shortly after, and details of that situation came to light last year when he did a Reddit AMA.

Today’s version of GrimmSpeed is owned by, guess who, the same company we’ve been talking about for most of this story—EPT.

While the whole enthusiast-focused aftermarket is too big for any one investment firm to eat (for now), I think it’s fair to assume this trend of consolidation will continue. Aftermarket parts companies are juicy snacks for PE—they tend to have a strong brand name, loyal customers, and opportunities for corner-cutting (sorry, I mean cost-cutting) that a prideful founder might ignore but a corporate overlord would be inclined to exploit.

We’re still a long way from the car-enthusiast aftermarket being owned by one dime-squeezing megacorp, but I generally am not into consolidation and corporatization. My concern is that fewer players in the space will lead to homogenized products, and ultimately, higher prices and crappier quality.

Here’s hoping Hondata keeps good people in charge and continues its great work.