J. Bittle

“J” and Scott case discuss the maiden voyage of the Hinchliff/Ross Mustang at the July 4th 2002 SAAC convention held at Fontana’s California Speedway.

J. Bittle and Ed Hinchliff spent many quality hours together in Ypsilanti, Mich. And via phone during the restoration of the Hinchliff Ross Mustang. Ed who works in Advance Vehicles at Ford still race this 2002 Trans Am Mustand and builds it entirely himself, including the custom rear axle with link.

J. Bittle and Steve Ross after many telephone conversations were able to meet to in Rochester New York. Steve spent many years racing after he sold the Hinchliff Mustang and has fond memories of thos days behind the wheel.

Other Car Info Pages:
Bonneville
NHRA
Shelby American – G.T.500 #1917
A.J. Bittle’s Project Car Boss 351 Powered Cobra Jet Mustang
Dominator Mustang GTB
Dominator Mustang GTA – Link

2000 Hot Rod Café – J. Bittle - A Performance Guy
By Bob McClurg

Cut San Diegan J. Bittle with a knife, and he’ll no doubt bleed “Ford Blue”. In fact, “J.” Bittle has been a “blue blood” most of his 44 years. Born in Los Angeles, California February 17, 1956, Bittle would spend the majority of his childhood further east. In the mid-west, J’s family moved to the right spot for racing, spending almost 8 years in Indianapolis and living, at one point, across from the back straight away of The Track in Speedway, Indiana. Early photos in Gasoline Alley with his Dad are special. J remembers getting Lloyd Ruby and Mario Andretti’s autographs through the fence and the ’64 Mustang Pace Car as some of his earliest car memories. He remembers going to many Indy time trials in May and even watching his hero, A.J. Foyt, win against the Granitelli turbine car in the ’67 Indy 500.

In 1969 moving to Pennsylvania landed J right in the heart of the rolling hills of Bucks County where he completed high school. The likable Bittle says that his “early education” began at places like Atco Dragway, (Atco, New Jersey) and Maple Grove Raceway, (Mohnton, Pa.) both of which are strategically-located right in the heart of eastern Americas’s “stocker country”.

His automotive orientation to Fords was assured when he invested a lifetime (at 17 years) of saving paper route, lawn mowing, and dishwashing income into his first car, a 1970 Mustang Mach I. Unknown to “J”, that acquisition, along with several other critical path choices molded him into a performance car enthusiast for career and life. “I still remember my amazement when my father, who rejected my desire to buy a 289, 3-speed, 64 ½ convertible Mustang for $800 that was sitting in poor condition in a back yard, said, “Why don’t you go down to see if Mrs. Browne will sell you her Mustang?” I guess the more I think about it, maybe it was destiny because when Mr. Browne said yes and took my life savings of $900 and then gave me 6 months to pay the balance. I know I fell over with astonishment. That was a Sunday night so a friend and I headed out to cruise Hatboro!” The 351 Cleveland 4V, 4 speed, Grabber Yellow car immediately brought attention at high school and the local cruise hang out, the main boulevard and McDonalds in Hatboro, PA! According to J. the Cleveland was more than just a crowd pleaser at school and in the days when street racing was tolerated, it would hold its own with any small block, winning about as much as he lost. “That car batted .500,” said J. Soon after acquiring his first car, J. accepted a “lot boy” position at Kohl Motors, an AMC dealership and gas station service center in Doylestown, PA. I remember my Mach I’s first performance upgrade was a pair of Hooker Headers I installed while I worked one night at Kohl’s. I also remember a “Statey” (PA State Trooper) making me remove them after getting a ticket for modified exhaust. At Kohl Motors J. met John Elderhorst, another high school student from the rival high school across town. John owned a ’65 GTO with a 400, 4-speed and Tri-Power. As the shop apprentice, John’s Plum Crazy Purple 12 second GOAT led the two future “Valvoline Guys” to many a spirited cruise. His new friend John’s mechanical background further intrigued J. and led the two of them to regular visits at ET Speed, the local 611 Doylestown speed shop. “I remember in those days Ford was a dirty word,” said J, “If you walked in and ask for anything (points, headers, etc) for a Ford, especially a “Cleveland”, the counter guys would just laugh. I’m sure that it was a combination of those early ‘70’s experiences that planted a desire for my owning a speed shop today. I still recall the Mopars and Camaro’s at ET Speed.”

After the challenge of modifying a Hot Rod in Pennsylvania was thrust into J’s face by one of PA’s finest, a new direction began to take shape. The following summer an advertisement in the local paper read “For Sale, Mach I, 428 CJ” and the Bittle Big Block saga began. In the days when 5 year old muscle cars were plentiful “J” sold his beloved Cleveland and laid down $1350 for the ginger brown Mach I complete with 428 Super Cobra Jet, 4 speed, 3.91 gears and ram air shaker. Unfortunately, a youthful mistake short lived the Mach I’s tenure with J. Nevertheless, an even greater event was about to occur. Feeling ravaged by local “Bow Ties” and reeling from the short life of his first Big Block, without the opportunity to avenge his earlier small block losses, J proceeded to buy the hulk of his once pristine SCJ back from the insurance company and embarked on a new mission. He began searching for a wounded ’69 Camaro in which he intended to drop the entire driveline from the Drag Pack Mustang. Beating a Chevy with a Ford powered Chevy was just an early indication of the growing blue in J’s blood. However, probably to everyone’s benefit, a close friend of J’s, Chris Nodich said one day, “Hey, I pass an old Shelby whenever we head to the shore. Why don’t you check it out!” $800 later and with my good buddy, Eric Hawk, driving Mom’s Vista Cruiser Wagon through Philadelphia with the Shelby on a tow strap, the 1967 GT500 was safe in the Bittle's garage.

The genial Bittle holds a BS from Texas A&M University, an engineering school with one of the most active student run automotive car clubs in the country. "The experiences that I received from college covered the gauntlet of racing disciplines. On that campus you get exposed to both domestics and imports, drag racing and auto crossing, on- and off-road and then there was Texas World Speedway just six miles away from school. I spent most of my spare time there. You might say, I grew up racing the high banked oval at TWS". During his senior year, Bittle ascended to the presidency of the car club and built the Texas A&M Sports Car Club to record membership.

In the process, Bittle also became actively involved in the local chapter of the SCCA. Moreover, he was also a charter member (and the Texas Regional Representative) of an exciting new car enthusiast club dedicated to the cars that Carroll Shelby created for Ford in the 1960's: namely the 289 & 427 Cobra and the Shelby GT350, and Shelby GT500 Mustangs. The club was officially known as the Shelby
American Automobile Club, or quite simply, SAAC. "I was one of the early members following co-founders Austin C. Craig and Rick Kopec," reminisced Bittle.
After graduation from Texas A&M, Bittle opened up a Texaco Service Center in the town of College Station, Texas, called Total Performance: a business devoted to both general and high performance automotive repair work. However, Bittle longed to return to his native California so in 1983 he and his newlywed wife, Vickie, re-located to suburban San Diego. "I got a job working at Drew Ford in 1983 as a Performance Specialist. Ford was just getting back into high performance again," says Bittle. "The 5.0L Mustang V-8 had just been re-introduced as a "GT" along with a totally new turbo-charged Mustang called the "SVO." Big things were really starting to happen." Bittle's involvement, while at Drew Ford, with the blossoming Ford "SVO," or "Ford Motorsport" parts program put him in direct contact with the big boys in Dearborn. It would set the stage for even bigger things. Part of Bittle's 1 on 1 relationship with Ford led to the creation of an SVO/Ford Motorsport training film showing Ford Dealers how to effectively sell performance parts on the local level. In 1985 Bittle left Drew Ford and opened up "J. Bittle American," aka "JBA". "JBA." The new enterprise quickly became one of the largest SVO/Ford Motorsport warehouses in the country (1988-1992) as well as making SVO's prestigious "Top 10" dealer list. In the process, J. Bittle American gained national attention in such performance enthusiast magazines as ROAD & TRACK, AUTOWEEK, MOTOR TREND, CAR CRAFT, FABULOUS MUSTANGS, POPULAR HOT RODDING, and others. "We were one of the early west coast parts companies (along with Ford Power Parts’ Ron Miller, Kaufmann Products’ Chris Kaufmann, and Maier Racing's Bill Maier,) to get into the national mail order of Ford Performance Parts." Along the way, Bittle also helped another would-be Ford great named Steve Saleen. In 1986, Steve wanted to establish the "Saleen Performance Parts" operation (in conjunction with LaHabra, California's Burch Ford.). "From 1986-1988 JBA functioned as Saleen Performance's Warehouse and Parts Division." In the mid-‘80s, header manufacturing became a priority at JBA. "We realized early on, that you can't build performance without free-flowing exhaust." In 1986, Bittle introduced his first header, a big tube, 1 ¾ -inch diameter, full length, race header for the Shelby GT350 Mustang. "At that time, there were a number of different cylinder head applications available, and we made our headers to fit those popular cylinder head (ie; TFS, Root/SVO J302, etc;) applications. Directly on the heels of the JBA Shelby header came the 1986 release of the JBA 5.0L, big tube (1 ½-inch) "shorty" header. Manufactured and distributed around the country it was one of many first innovations that JBA was responsible for in the new 5.0 Mustang market place. JBA next developed a full line of chassis and suspension components for the Fox Mustangs that were extremely popular following the successful Road and Track and Motor Trend shootouts that JBA participated in. In 1989, Ford provided a new Mustang to JBA to assist the celebration of the Mustang’s 25th Anniversary. The JBA Team built the fabled Dominator GTA Mustang in just 3 weeks to participate in a top speed shoot-out with Road & Track at the 5.5 mile Nissan Test Oval in Arizona. The custom steel Trans Am style Dominator led the production car field posting a 175-mph top speed. The GTA model showcased many 5.0 market innovations that the JBA team was responsible for such as the installation of the T-Bird Super Coupe IRS package in the Mustang, high horsepower EFI programmable fuel management systems, and stroker engine assemblies in 5.0 Mustangs making 600 + horsepower such as the JBA 320 and 370 combinations. In 1990, Bittle took his company in yet another direction with the acquisition of John Hamilton's engine building shop, which was moved from San Antonio, Texas, to San Diego, California, re-naming it "JBA Racing Engines." In 1993 several key events occurred. The JBA header manufacturing operation had grown to a point where spinning it off was imminent. The Dominator GTB eclipsed all corners during the Motor Trend shoot-out with the record breaking 1.09 skid pad, and a real estate transaction went bad. It was during this time that J. Bittle American split up into three separate divisions known as "JBA Headers, JBA Racing Service Center," and finally the engine division known as "JBA Racing Engines." Simultaneously, all three JBA operations moved to its 15,000-square-foot facility at: 7149 Mission Gorge Road, San Diego, CA. 92120, (619) 229-7797, FAX (619) 229-7761, www.jbaracing.com. As the Mustang performance aftermarket was becoming more saturated with new entrepreneurial entities (1994), Bittle diversified. "Initially our header division branched into the General Motors product line in 1984 with the introduction of the JBA shorty headers for the 350 small-block powered GM/Chevrolet Silverado and CK series.” This was to develop into the number one selling part number – the 1830. "It was just the beginning. We now have over 55 header part numbers in our JBA Header product lineup. We cover all GM, Ford, and Chrysler V-8 applications, both big block and small-block, as well as a great many V-6 engine applications. Basically we make headers for all sport utility applications, S-10, Dakota, Durango, Explorer, Ranger, etc;" "We found that in the header marketplace, there was an opportunity for a high quality, smog-legal header product, and we've addressed that!" Bittle is particularly proud of the company's patented "Fire Cone" collector - a directional flow device that when installed helps make a large majority of JBA header products (particularly space-restrictive "shorty”, Cat-Forward? design headers,) comparable in power to full length headers and 50 state emissions legal. And there's more!

While HOTRODCAFE.COM was visiting JBA, Bittle showed us he still has his Shelby GT500 as well as his personal 5.0 outlaw, 9 second, ’91 LX Mustang. The latest R&D header project, a new equal length, "shorty" tube header for the new Ford Focus. This new header will be marketed through both JBA and SVO. "Prior to Ford coming to us, we hadn't really gotten into the four cylinder or sport compact market-place. Ford came to us with the intent of helping build an aftermarket or “presence” for the Ford Focus, and we're doing that with the development of the new JBA/Ford Racing technologies. "SVO") aftermarket performance header." It should also be noted that, at this writing, Bittle and company are also in the process of designing supercharger and turbocharger applications (again in conjunction with Ford) for this exciting sport compact offering from Ford. How does Bittle market his exhaust products? “You (individual consumer) can still buy headers from us, but basically most of our sales volume is done through retailers, or the exhaust professional trade. In other words, you can go to a local muffler shop, and order a JBA header, and they'll install it for you." Bittle is also particularly proud of his JBA Racing service center. “We consider ourselves to be the premier performance service and installation center for Chevy, Ford and Dodge performance cars, trucks and sport utility vehicles in Southern California. The vintage racing market place and sportsman and marine performance enthusiasts also flock to JBA. Vintage Nascars as well as NHRA, Nascar, and SCCA competitors regularly look for parts and services from JBA. Both late-models and vintage muscle cars enjoy the dyno testing services and are frequent customers of one of Southern California's premier Hot Rod service centers." You can contact JBA Headers, JBA Racing, and the JBA Service Center at the aforementioned telephone numbers, or you can click onto JBA's website, www.jbaracing.com.