HT: Excellent. Now let's jump back a bit. How did you get started in the header business? Didn't you used to race or crew for an F1 team?
JG: (laughs) No, I never did any crewing with F1 and my only other crew experience was for my own race team in the mid-'80s. I raced a Formula Ford, which is a really competitive series because everyone has the same engine and they're limited in the allowed modifications. But the exhaust system was open (to modification) and so that's the one place everyone tried to get horsepower.
HT: So you started making your own headers in search of power?
JG: Yes and no. I'd seen an old ad in "Car Craft" magazine for headers that had this anti-reversion chamber in them. I called Jim Feuling who designed them, got a set and then basically took the antireversion idea and put it into what I thought the header design should be.
HT: And now all of your headers feature the anti-reversion chambers, correct? It's your trademark of sorts.
JG: Right, I have the rights to use that. It's actually patented it works so well.
HT: How does it work?
JG: You know how a two-stroke exhaust works with the big expansion chamber? It creates a back wave strong enough to prevent the intake charge from escaping the combustion chamber. Well, I'm doing the same thing, but when that negative reverse wave travels back up the pipe it carries with it residual gases that can contaminate the fresh intake charge that has just entered the combustion chamber. The antireversion chamber is a trap for some of it so that only the negative pulse goes towards the head to help scavenging and not the contaminated gases. There's also knowledge of where to put them so they work effectively.
HT: Where did you learn this tech? Was it at Black's? You were a prototype machinist, right?
JG: Right, I made experimental parts for race teams. Larry, the head engine builder, would come in and say 'make a piston like this or a rod like that or cut the valves this way' and I would do it. But I was really inquisitive you know, so I'd ask 'why should we do it like that?' Luckily Larry was one of those guys that loved to explain things. So he would give me an in-depth reason for why things worked the way they do and how he was trying to make things work better. It was a great hands-on education. I did that for four years.
HT: Keith Black was known for drag racing, NASCAR and V8 engines. How did that play into four-cylinder, specifically Honda, motors?
JG: Well, it's like learning the fundamentals first. Black's place taught me all about the basic mechanical stuff and they were always trying [new] things, too. You didn't know something would work until you tried it. Then if it did work, we'd try to break it to learn more. All of that teaches you about any motor. The same for racing; you learn so much in racing.
HT: You only raced in Formula Ford, right? Why not a series where you could apply your V8 experience?
JG: Because Formula Ford racing was a whole lot more affordable. When I got my first car in '85, it was something I could do with my spare time and money, same for all of the SCCA classes. Guess I just got stuck in small-bore 4 cylinders, but I've done lots of other stuff like Indy Lights, Grand Am, NASCAR, IRL. I still do today. But HyTech headers have been winning in Formula Ford for the last 15 years in a row, so why mess with that?
HT: Let's skip forward and tell us what got you started in the Honda market? You have one race header for the B, D and H series, but you've also got a lot of other parts like cams, pistons, intakes and more for the K series, correct?
JG: Yeah, I missed the B series thing. I could have been there a long time ago but I was so busy with Formula Ford ... and it was Honda [in semi-dismissive tone].
HT: Hey, them's fighting words, John!
JG: Well, my first introduction to [the Honda market] was through Dan Paramore, who was also working on Formula Ford. He called me one day and said 'you gotta do something for this Honda. It's got all kinda power in the exhaust.' I told him 'yeah sure, whatever. It's a Honda. VTEC what?'