EMPI played a major role in the olde skool side of volkswagenz and VW performance az well.
I will b adding more 2 thiz page in the future and eventually reorganizing thiz page into linkz so itz
not 1 big jumbled mess, but 4 now thiz is all i have.
i wanna spend a special shoutout 2 Vintage Speed 4 for letting me use some of their info..THANX! if u wanna c their
place then clik here, but not until ur done with my page!
~~~A LIL HISTORY BOUT EMPI~~~
EMPI started out when a guy named Joe Vittone saw the potential in aftermarket VW parts. the company waz started in the late 50s
and waz located in Riverside, California. they produced lotz of accessoryz, parts,
and other thingz during the 50's, 60's & 70's.
the briefcase story
an interesting piece of EMPI lays in the famous "EMPI briefcase." the story goes that in the original dayz
of EMPI they had numerous outside dealers, one of which was Dan Harrell. he had a suitcase that he carried with him that contained all the paperwork and such
to write sales agreements and encourage new dealers to carry EMPI. then after some time he put the briefcase in the closet and forgot about it. when it was
discovered the EMPI luvers went nutz...there were pictures, flyers, and brochures never seen before. also in there was plans 2 convert an ordinary VW dealership
into an official EMPI dealership. letters of introduction and ads were also in the briefcase. the owner of this briefcase has sold it 2 a japanese
EMPI collector (trader!)
picture of the outside of the briefcase
inside the briefcase
The original EMPI went out of business in the 70's after the purchase by LEE ELIMINATORS
and the name & logo was left unprotected. Filter Dynamics owned the EMPI name next but then let the logo/trademark expire.
After
EMPI/Filter Dynamics went out of business a former
employee, Jaime
Halvorson & Lyle Cherry bought the EMPI name and decided to
carry on the
EMPI tradition. but Mr. Bug (Dan Weldon) in Anahiem, California came along some time later and
reregistered the name having different ideas.
Mr. Bug has grabbed more than one old name from the
past and
tries to pass off his junk with the old names that meant
quality. he
sued Lyle Cherry and won because Lyle didn't have the time
and didn't
want to waste the money to fight Mr. Bug so he just said
forget it.
so now Mr. Bug owns that name & logo. i guess everybody wants 2 own a piece of the EMPi name huh?
~~~ARTWORK~~~
i saw some of these empi parodies at a couple of showz and decided it would b kewl 2 c if i could reproduce
them on my computer. wat u c below r the results! please dont copy them without my permission...i will let u use them
but just let me know that u took them ok?
i made these all on my own...(im so proud!)
these r some stickers that i scanned in and just changed the colors a little.
~~~EMPI ADS~~~
i found theze on the back of some rilli old HOT VWS magazines. clik on the thumbnail 4 the larger image.
i got this one from Vintage Speed!
if u would like 2 contribute anything just 
and let
me know!
