Read this and thought I would share.
Pro-M Racing is back…
There has been much misconception about what happened to the original Pro-M, what happened after they went out of business, and where Pro-M is now. I’d like to clear some of that up for you.
Pro-M Racing (a.k.a. Professional Flow Technologies) was founded in 1989 by Bob Atwood, a Ford engineer who was instrumental in pioneering mass air technology. When the production Mustang was first equipped with mass air, fellow employees within Ford would come to Mr. Atwood for a solution to the restrictive stock mass air meters. Mr. Atwood saw this as an opportunity for a business, and Pro-M was born. Mr. Atwood created a process by which a larger mass air meter could be “calibrated” to match the original curve, or scaled to a particular injector size/processor combination. Shortly afterwards, the Pro-M line of meters was created, and patented. From that point forward, the Pro-M product line was the benchmark by which all others were judged. Many others have tried to duplicate what Mr. Atwood had done, and several products actually became available as a result of these efforts, but they were, and still are, poor attempts at copying the Pro-M product line.
Pro-M was sold to Best Products in 1995, and Mr. Atwood remained on staff. Best Products did well for quite some time, despite poor management, and the new owner’s sometimes abrasive nature towards employees, and even customers. The primary reason for their continued success is that they still continued to produce a fantastic product.
Unfortunately, Mr. Atwood passed away in 2001, and Pro-M no longer had its founding father to steer the ship when it went off course. Best Products/Pro-M had now begun its quick descent. Multiple factors, revolving around poor management, led to financial hardships, and poor people skills led to a revolving door of employees coming and going. You can only get away with this for so long, before there are no good people left to be hired. The team of employees working for Best Products in the later half of 2004, and early 2005 would have been better suited for a job at the local burger stand. Even the people performing the actual calibrations were far from qualified for the job. Word spread quickly that Pro-M’s products were not what they used to be, and sales began to fall off. In March of 2005, faced with a mounting debt, the bank closed the doors of Best Products/Pro-M.
One of the former employees (from the burger stand era) bought one of the three flow stands, nothing more, and PMAS was born. Some other investors from failed businesses out in Colorado also became involved in PMAS.
Jeff Dunne, an employee of Ford Racing, and longtime friend of Bob Atwood, bought Pro-M Racing in April of 2005. The assets consisted of ALL of the remaining equipment, machinery, flow stands, existing inventory, and the patents required to manufacture the Pro-M products.
Happy with his job at Ford Racing, Jeff didn’t desire to operate Pro-M himself, so he agreed to allow PMAS to use the equipment, and the Pro-M name, and they began to produce product. It was apparent after a short time that this was a huge mistake. The PMAS gang was supplying product that was of poor quality at best. Delivery times were painfully long, and perhaps worst of all, customer service was completely lacking. The phones were rarely answered, and messages were seldom returned. The Pro-M name was being destroyed.
Jeff removed the equipment from their facility in August of 2006, and began the search for new management. Having been a customer myself, who experienced my own frustrations with PMAS, I began talking with Jeff about the possibility of purchasing Pro-M. In late 2006, I purchased the majority of Pro-M Racing from Jeff. Jeff has remained on board as my partner, and his continued services are invaluable.
Jeff gathered the help of the original engineering staff from the beginnings of Pro-M, and we began the rebuilding process. First, the flow stands, which were in a state of complete disrepair, mostly due to neglect, needed to be refurbished. Keep in mind that these were the same flow stands that PMAS was using to produce product! We first needed to fix the sophomoric sabotage that had been performed on the flow stands by the PMAS clowns… This, I believe, speaks volumes about their character. Nonetheless, today, a more accurate flow stand does not exist. NOT ANYWHERE. Next, each meter design was evaluated, and improved. New molds were made for the plastic meters, and new tooling was made for the metal meters. Today, the meter designs are the finest in the industry. Most importantly, we greatly improved the process by which the meters were calibrated. Pro-M used to establish a base curve for the calibration by flowing several production meters on the flow stand, and averaging them. This was a fairly accurate method, but since the production meters had a tolerance of as much as 6%, there was some inherent error in that process. Next, formulas for the flow stands were written based on that averaged curve. These formulas were fairly simplistic, and were accurate to the base curve within about 4%. A typical Pro-M meter (from before the burger stand era), was accurate to the base curve within about 4%. Enter the burger stand era, and a typical Pro-M meter may have been off as much as 15%. Obviously, there was some room for improvement. Today, we base our calibrations off of the actual base line used by Ford. In other words, we have duplicated the exact same base line curves that Ford used to check the production meters. They are what Ford considered to be the perfect curves, and we have them for every meter ever produced. No other mass air meter manufacturer can make this claim. Next, our flow stand formulas are based on complex polynomial equations that are accurate to this perfect baseline, to within ¼ of one percent. (Yes, 0.25%) Lastly, each meter is calibrated by an employee who takes pride in their work. These days, all Pro-M meters are held to within a 2% tolerance. That’s better than any Ford production meter. Even a stock Lightning meter has a repeatability factor of (+) or (-) 3% for a total of 6%. The Pro-M meter is 3 times more accurate! Compare this with other aftermarket MAF meters, and it’s laughable. Literally no contest.15% is quite common with the other guy’s stuff. We know, because we check them. And in some cases, some MAFs just flat out don’t work. We take a great deal of pride in knowing that there is no finer product than a true Pro-M meter.
Perhaps most important, is our level of service. This is my third business venture, and I’ve built all of them based on the philosophy that if you provide an excellent product, and excellent service, you will build a successful business. A customer of mine once said, “All you have to do to be successful in business is just not suck. Be assured that your competition sucks, so if you can do better, you’ll be a success”.
It’s true that we live in a world that is becoming used to poor customer service. If we leave a message on an answering machine, we’ve come to expect that it will be ignored and, usually, we are surprised if the call is actually returned! When we do speak to a representative of a company, you can almost expect that they will know just enough to get by. More often than not, we are left wondering if the advice we received was of any real value.
We are extremely busy, and we are not always able to answer the phone, but if you leave a message, your call WILL be returned… usually in less than an hour. All orders are shipped within just a few days… not weeks. And your meter will be properly calibrated… period. If you need tech support, you will be assisted by someone who actually knows what they are talking about. Your troubles will always be resolved, even if your trouble has nothing to do with the meter we sold you.
Our products are sold through some of the biggest names in the business. Jeg’s, Late Model Restoration, Muscle Motors, Steeda, www.bieberfever.com, Mustangs Unlimited, CJ Pony Parts, and more. Please see our website for a complete list of distributors.
We’re committed to putting Pro-M back in its rightful place at the top of the heap. We’re going to do much more than simply “not suck”. I look forward to exceeding your expectations.
Please see our new website www.PROMRACING.com for information about our products.
Thank you,
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Chris Richards
Mass-Flo EFI, Inc.
www.mass-floefi.com
Pro-M Racing,Inc.
www.promracing.com
