1. 44 DAC NEWS DECEMBER 2015
– with backing by DAC member Ed
Cole – the Corvette name may have
vanished from Chevy’s lineup.
“If Duntov wasn’t there, Corvette
would not be what it is today,”
Lingenfelter said.“GM probably
would have dropped it because it was
a small segment of their business.”
Today the Corvette is a halo
car – an eye-catching vehicle that
draws attention to the Chevrolet
marque. And, the sports car – plus
GM SUVs and Cadillacs – are a big
part of Lingenfelter’s after market
performance business.
Ken Lingenfelter’s entry into the
world of fast cars and charity fund
raisers goes back to his own more
modest beginnings as a GM kid
coming of age in Ford-dominated
Dearborn and the racing and
performance firm built by his cousin.
years I realized what a good venue
this was to bring people in to look at
the cars and generate donations for
charities.”
His collection started out with five
cars that were crammed into a three-
car garage. Now he has about 40,000
square feet of space and vehicles
ranging from a Top Fuel drag racer
to a 1967 Oldsmobile 442 that is
similar to his first car to a range of
Corvettes and exotic vehicles like the
Lamborghini Reventon.
Probably the most valuable car in
the collection, though, is the “Duntov
mule,”which is the first prototype
Corvette with a V-8 engine.The
car was the creation of Zora Arkus-
Duntov, a famed General Motors
engineer who has been called the
“father of the Corvette.”
If it wasn’t for the work by Duntov
BYJOSEPHCABADAS
Fast cars and charity
programs – those are two things
near and dear to Ken Lingenfelter,
owner of Lingenfelter Performance
Engineering.
A DAC member since July 2013,
Lingenfelter comes from a family of
automobile enthusiasts, and his name
is intertwined with the history of the
Chevrolet Corvette. A collector of
fast and exotic cars – some 250 total
– he maintains a private museum at
his headquarters near Brighton (MI).
These cars are not just there
for his liking. He uses his private
museum to help raise funds for
charities.
“The mission for the car collection
from the get-go has been for charity
fundraisers,”Lingenfelter said.“I’ve
been collecting cars for about 25
years, but probably in the last nine
LINGENFELTER’SAUTOGENE
In the Brighton home of his automobile collection, Ken Lingenfelter poses next to a 1967 Oldsmobile 442 that is similar to his first car.
High performance car builder, racer and collector

2. 45DAC NEWS DECEMBER 2015
Hot Rod Association titles.
Tragedy struck when John
Lingenfelter lost control of his car
and struck a retaining wall during
the NHRA Sport Compact finals in
October 2002 and later died from his
injuries at age 58.
The automotive performance
company faced an uncertain future.
CHANGING LANES
The same year that his cousin
died, Lingenfelter sold his title
insurance firm. Not long after, John
Lingenfelter’s brother convinced
him to help run the performance
company.
Lingenfelter did just that, buying
the company outright in 2007 and
moving its headquarters to Brighton.
Within a year, as GM celebrated its
centennial anniversary in 2008, the
economy entered a major economic
slump and GM went through
bankruptcy and reorganization. For
Lingenfelter, it was a scary time as
business plunged 25 percent, but he
was hopeful.
“GM was building some very
good cars,”he noted.“The 2010
Camaro was a huge success and the
new Corvette is huge too.Those are
two products we spent a lot of time
working on along with the Cadillac
CTS-V and some SUVs.”
Today it’s a fun time to be in the
automotive aftermarket business,
especially with many of the quality
products coming from GM. His
business success also sparked an
interest to share his car passion with
others and help charities out as well.
EVERY CAR A STORY
Lingenfelter’s car collection
originally grew from five vehicles 25
years ago to 150 in 2010 to 250 today.
Most of it is housed in vast rooms
His company, Metropolitan Title,
grew from two employees to about
3,000 people with offices in 15
states. Shortly after the turn of the
millennium, Lingenfelter’s career
suddenly changed direction.
THE RACER
While Lingenfelter was building
his title company, his cousin, John
Lingenfelter was working in Decatur
(IN), coaxing more horsepower out
of Detroit’s V-8 engines. Founded
in 1972, Lingenfelter Performance
Engineering made performance parts
and “tuned”cars such as the Corvette
and the Pontiac Firebird.
An aftermarket automotive
supplier, Lingenfelter Performance
Engineering’s business is to make fast
cars faster. It provides engine building
and parts for engine and chassis
tuning, plus installation services for
owners.
“I know there’s no such thing as a
car gene, but so many of my family
members are focused on cars, drag
racing and road racing that it seems
different,”Lingenfelter said.“John
was probably a bigger daredevil than
any of the rest of us.”
For more than four decades, John
Lingenfelter racked up 13 National
GM KID IN DEARBORN
His family had lived in Euclid
(OH) where his father ran a Fisher
Body shop. But by the late 1960s,
Lingenfelter’s parents moved to
Dearborn when his father was
transferred to work at the GM Tech
Center in Warren and Detroit’s Clark
Street Cadillac factory.
“They came to Dearborn because
it had a good quality of life, but it was
different because I was driving a 1969
Chevy Camaro to school every day,”
Lingenfelter said.“Back then, you
asked your friends what department
they worked in because everybody
worked for Ford.”
A GM outcast in a sea of Ford
blue, he was taunted by another
student at Dearborn High School
who had a Boss Mustang and kept
saying,“Come on, race me.”
In those days, back about 1970 or
1971, before the insurance companies
and police came down really hard
on young drivers, street drag racing
– though illegal – was as popular as
cruising.
“So we decided one day after
school to prove who was better,”
Lingenfelter recounted.“At 2:30
everybody left school and lined up on
Outer Drive and I smoked him.”
That stunt, however, got him
expelled from school.
“It was not one of my finest
moments and I got in a whole bunch
of trouble,”Lingenfelter said.“I’m
thinking that I got in even more
trouble because I beat a Ford.They
did eventually let me back in school.”
Although he was involved in road
and drag racing as a hobby, his first
job was as a short-order cook. By age
17 he took a job at Burton Abstract
& Title Company in Detroit.
After Burton Abstract was sold,
Lingenfelter started his own title
insurance business in Howell.
A Lingenfelter Performance engine at this year’s
Concours d’Elegance.

3. 46 DAC NEWS DECEMBER 2015
GM engineers put in a Judge engine
and added honeycomb wheels and
an interior so it had a Judge look to
it,”he explained.“The Olds Vista
Cruiser was a cool wagon because it
had the glass roof in the 1970s.”
Other cars – a Grand National
drag racer and a 1932 Ford hot rod –
are in the collection because of who
sold them. He purchased the drag
racer at auction, for instance, because
the proceeds from the sale went to
help the Darrell Gwynn Foundation
that supports people suffering from
spinal cord injuries.
The Ford hot rod came across the
block at the Mecum Auctions and
the proceeds from the sale supported
Curing Kids Cancer.
And, of course, modern Corvettes
are at Lingenfelter’s facility
including a new Z06 that can
produce 730 horsepower – thanks
to enhancements from Lingenfelter
Performance Engineering.
“That’s what we do. We take
what General Motors has built
and enhance it,”he said.“We have
another one, which is our mule, that
makes 800 horsepower, and we are
in the process of building and testing
a 1,000 horsepower car for our
customers who want more power.”
For Lingenfelter and his company,
there’s never too much horsepower
that can be squeezed out of an
engine.
at his Brighton headquarters while
others are temporarily stored at a
nearby industrial facility.
“There is a story behind every car
that’s here,”he said.
DAC member Dick Kughn
inspired Lingenfelter to open his
collection to help raise money for
charities. For years, Kughn had his
own collection of classic cars and
Lionel trains and did the same thing.
“Dick had a good idea and that
influenced me here,”Lingenfelter
said.
One of the charities that
Lingenfelter and his wife, Kristin,
supports is the Ronald McDonald
House’s facility at the Detroit
Medical Center.
“They spent time letting us know
on a real fine, detailed level what they
were doing,”he explained.“We were
so impressed that we had to help
them out.”
Besides the Duntov “mule,”
Lingenfelter’s collection includes
a number of significant Corvettes,
including one of his company’s
specially tuned cars that had
“smoked”a Blue Angels jet on
the quarter-mile. Five of his cars
narrowly escaped the 2014 sinkhole
collapse at the Corvette Museum in
Bowling Green (KY).
Some of the exotic cars include
the Lamborghini Reventon, a rare
959 Porsche.The latest is a rare 2015
LaFerrari, a plug-in hybrid car.
MORE POWER
Part of the collection is the
“muscle car”room with cars from
the 1960s and 1970s including a
custom-made Pontiac GTO Judge
station wagon and an Oldsmobile
Vista Cruiser wagon. Lingenfelter is
a station wagon fan.
“There never really were any
GTO Judge wagons, but a couple of
Ken Lingenfelter at last summer’s Concours d’Elegance in
Plymouth.
Attorney and Counselor at Law
Author of
Protecting Your Commissions--
A Sales Representative's Guide
DAC Member since 1992
THE LAW OFFICES OF
RANDALL J.GILLARY,P.C.
Representing the Manufacturer's
Sales Agent in Commission
Disputes
The Law Offices of
Randall J. Gillary, P.C.
201 West Big Beaver Rd., Ste. 1020
Troy, MI 48084
(248) 528-0440 Phone
(248) 528-3412 Fax
www.gillarylaw.com