Thank you for visiting Mantapart's new web site. We are still in the process of upgrading all of our parts listings so bear with us, there is much more to come. We feel that we offer the GM small car owner the largest selection of quality, performance and competition parts available, plus the technical and engineering background to support your every need.

Our company started in Ohio back in the early '70s when a bunch of Formula car racers borrowed a Buick dealer's Opel Ascona autocross car and ran it at the Old Smokey Hill climb at Nelson Ledges- winning their class and beating many highly-modified Euro sedans. In the following years, that led to a full SCCA and IMSA race program where Mantapart fielded the only FIA competitive Mantas that raced in U.S. endurance road racing, finishing 4th in the Nation in the '74 Trans AM 2 Liter race series. During that time Tim Meehan had moved to Detroit where he worked with Chevrolet Engineering, gaining even more experience and connections to be able to provide the best parts for their race and performance business. By 1975 the business had grown to the point that Tim left GM and returned to Ohio and continued to build on the success of Mantapart's racing and parts business. Since the Opels of Germany are the GM cousins of the Cavaliers (jcars) it was only a logical progression that the company moved into doing the Cavalier and Sunbirds when the Opels were no longer imported here.

In 1983, Tim Meehan worked with the GM's Pontiac Motorsports group, building up the first Pontiac Sunbirds for IMSA racing. Development of the cars gave our company the engineering experience to develop the chassis, brakes and drive train parts for these cars that would enable them to run with the Nissan, Honda and other small sedans that were dominant then. Unfortunately Pontiac decided not to fund the team that was to compete with those cars. So, Mantapart went back to their parts business and continued to develop and build more of these parts and followed with more as the newer GM jcars came along.

In 1989, Mantapart again got involved with GM's Oldsmobile Motorsport group, and helped provide suspension and engine parts for many of the factory and independent Olds Calais and Achieva racers. Our Quad 4 cylinder head developments gave some of these teams a marked performance advantage. We designed and manufactured the only rear wheel drive bellhousing for the Olds quad 4, allowing the engines to be used in rear drive chassis and mounted on engine dynos and test stands. Engine builders like KTech, Bilmar, Bertils and GM Powertrain have used our bell housings. A new frt. knuckle was designed and cast by Mantapart that would mount the 11" Corvette brake package directly to the Calais and Achieva suspension without unreliable bolt-on adapters. They were used by teams that competed in the SCCA Escort and IMSA International sedan series for some time.

Engine development has always been a strong skill at Mantapart, and during that time the company developed a large selection of race-quality parts for the Olds Quad 4 engine, also. Our special cams, cylinder heads,intakes and internal parts were used in applications from Midget racers to the salt flats at Bonneville. Also during this time the company built their own Pontiac LeMans (cousin to the Opel Kadett) and developed the chassis and the 2 liter OHC engine (same as used in the Sunbird chassis) for full IMSA competition. The car ran at Mid Ohio in it's first professional race, driven by Tim Meehan to a win in the Proformance division. Time with the business and family again convinced the firm to concentrate on the parts business, so Mantapart continued to develop more Quad 4 components and support many of the factory and independent GM racing efforts.

Mantapart again got involved with the Pontiac Motorsports group when the new Sunfire came out, working on the development of the first Sunfires to run in the short-live North American Touring Car series. Working with the Vauxhall and Opel factory touring car teams gave the firm many technical advantages in their quest to develop the new j-cars into better road racing cars. Mantapart was the first company to develop a suspension package for the new j-cars, including strut braces,coil overs, swaybars, Bilstein struts (exclusively designed by Mantapart) as well as many other drivetrain and engine refinements. This knowledge has been used in the production of a complete new line of suspension, brakes and power train parts for the 2.4TC- powered Cavaliers and Sunfires that are now sold by GM. Mantapart has returned to the aftermarket parts business and is in a continuing process of refining chassis and engine parts for these various models, as well as not forgetting the earlier J-cars, N-cars (Grand Ams,Calais & Achievas), L-cars (Beretta & Corsica) and even the little t-cars (LeMans).

Mantapart offers a wide selection of engine components for all the small GM cars from the 2.2 OHV engine,through the 2.3 & 2.4 Quad engines, as well as many of the 60 degree V6 engines. The firm is continuing to grow and expand to try to offer the best available parts and technology to improve these vehicles to meet the challenges of the Asian and European performance sedans. These efforts are starting to pay off on the track and on the street. Last year, Chuck Hemmingson won the first race by a new Sunfire in the SCCA World Challenge series, and there are more cars coming in that class and the Motorola Cup series. Numerous autocross, solo and club racing events are being won by modified j-cars, and the Import drag wars will soon see some interesting j-cars supported by Mantapart.

So, thank you for visiting, and we hope supporting, Mantapart's web page. You will find our products to be well-engineered quality components that we feel will give you car the improvements needed to compete with the other leading brands of small performance sedans. Our specialty is hard parts, not dress up components- Our goal is to elevate the GM small cars from their econo-box past into valid world-class performance sedans. We would appreciate your patronage and support in helping us attain that goal. Thanks again for selecting Mantapart for your GM small car performance parts needs.