Pete and Jake's Hot Rod Parts

Pete and Jake's Hot Rod Parts Turns 40

After WWII, G.I.'s who were used to flying fast planes, driving powerful tanks, jeeps and trucks came home, stripped their old Model A or '32 roadster of it's fenders, upgraded their engines and headed for the track, abandoned air strip or the salt flats to fulfill their new found need for speed and power. That was the beginning of the hot rodding movement as we have come to know it.

Pete Chapouris & Jim "Jake” Jacobs, longtime friends, began building and testing hot rod suspensions and parts out of necessity. Other than the local junkyards there were no off-the-shelf hot rod parts to be had. Pete & Jake took on the challenge to change that. Out of this friendship and collaboration Pete & Jake's Hot Rod Parts was born.

Starting with their revolutionary 4 Bar® suspension system Pete & Jake tested these parts on their own hot rods: Pete's "California Kid” and "Jake's Coupe.” Through thousands of miles of road testing on these two vehicles, they perfected the 4 Bar® system eliminating the twisting and caster changes associated with stock suspensions. These innovations lead them to experiment in other areas of hot rod suspensions. By 1974 they had a line of parts that was gaining notoriety among the hot rodding crowd.

Pete & Jake knew that their parts would change the way hot rodders built cars. By standardizing the 4 Bar® system and making it work on the Ford chassis without modifications they simplified installation and setu