Sunday Business profile: KW Automotive makes suspension parts for race cars in Clovis

A Clovis manufacturer you may never have heard of is making high-end automotive suspension parts for sports cars you definitely have heard of.

The Ferrari Novitec comes standard with parts by KW Automotive, a German company whose Northern American headquarters is in the Clovis Industrial Park. So does the sporty Dodge Viper ACR-X and the stealthy Lamborghini Aventador.

KW has produced sway bars and other car components in the central San Joaquin Valley for a decade starting in Sanger when it acquired Belltech Corp. and ST Racing to expand its product line. Belltech and ST, suspension manufacturers, operated in the Fresno area for more than 30 years.

In February, KW bought and renovated a former 85,000-square-foot Pelco building, at Peach and Dakota avenues, where it makes, assembles and packages parts for high performance vehicles around the world. The office has 50 employees.

“We have been in Sanger for a long time in a fairly old building and our company continues to grow and expand,” said Bob Schuetz, president of KW North America.

The move gave employees a nicer work environment in a park-like setting near restaurants and allowed the company to have a building that reflects its global headquarters, Schuetz said.

KW employees can weld, bend and design just about every ring or piece needed for more than 5,000 vehicle applications or designs out there, Roel Garza, brand manager.

In the new building, a worker heats up the end of a one-inch steel rod from 50 degrees to more than 900 degrees in 10 seconds using an induction heater — electrical currents to generate heat.

The hot end of the U-shaped rod is placed in a machine that presses it flat so a hole can be drilled through it. Then, the rod goes to powder coating.

A couple thousand 20-foot rods, cut into various lengths, go through this process every month on their way to becoming sway bars that help control the body roll of a vehicle around turns and sharp corners.

In Clovis, “a lot of our business is in sway bars,” said Garza. “We manufacture a lot right here in our own backyard.”

The company’s signature yellow coilovers used in spring and shock assemblies are made in Germany and shipped to Clovis for assembly. More than three-quarters of the warehouse is stocked five shelves high with car parts that are sent to distributors when an order is placed, Garza said.

KW markets under three brands: KW, ST Suspensions and Belltec Sports Trucks.

The Clovis company also does custom work. It has a shock lab where employees create custom dampers or shock units for vehicles. Its research and development department helps design lowering kits for vehicles.

Mino Iorgozeanu, co-owner of Achilles Motorsports in Fresno, has been using KW products in the BMW cars his company races. Achilles is a race team competing on the professional and amateur levels across the country. The company also runs a driving school.

“I am surprised they are here,” Iorgozeanu said. “We’re so lucky to have them here.”

Race cars require a different quality of parts which KW assembles by hand to fit the appropriate level or shock needed, Iorgozeanu said.

But it’s not all work at KW. There is fun and games too, literally.

The company owns and operates RaceRoom, the arcade-style driving simulator that once had a storefront at River Park but is now a mobile company with employees trucking the seats with gaming screens to community events and car shows.

The simulators allow people to experience driving race cars with KW suspension on famous racetracks across the world.

This story was originally published May 30, 2015 at 5:25 AM with the headline "Sunday Business profile: KW Automotive makes suspension parts for race cars in Clovis."