Josef Hoppen, who founded JHM in 1990, was for years the head of Volkswagen of America's Motorsport and high performance activities. There he successfully oversaw the winning North American competition efforts of Porsche, VW and Audi.

    Before accepting the position at VWoA, Hoppen worked as a Service Manager, Race Car builder and driver at the  Porsche VW Dealership in Daytona Beach, winning several events, championships and factory awards. Hoppen came to America in 1957 after leaving the Porsche Factory Racing Department.

    Educated in Germany, Hoppen joined Volkswagen of America in 1962 as an engineer, overseeing technical matters, quality control and warranty matters while also providing technical dealer support. Hoppen soon found himself being asked to oversee Volkswagen of America's interests on the motorsport/performance front. This lead to his long and most successful association within the industry that saw him establish Porsche, Audi and VW as leaders in the motorsport and performance arena from 1967 through 1990.

    VWoA established the all new Porsche Audi Dealer organization in 1968 which brought new challenges to Hoppen's Motorsport Group. The first visible Porsche Audi Racing effort started with Jo Siffert's 1969 SCCA Can-Am program. This eventually formed the basis of the all out Porsche Audi 917 turbo Can-Am Championships. The team was guided and organized by Roger Penske and his successful Penske Organization. The drivers were Mark Donohue and George Follmer.

    Under Hoppen, this Porsche Audi motorsport involvement expanded to the IMSA and SCCA with Porsche Carrera, 924-944 turbo, 934 turbo, 935 turbo and finally 952 turbo programs with nearly 200 victories and countless Championships in Trans-Am, National & Regional races, Camel GT, GTO, GTU, GTX and Prototype events. Hoppen also started the Indy project for Porsche. In addition to making all models champions, Hoppen also made the Audi/VW powered 914 and 924 National Champions.

    On the VW side, Hoppen started making VW powered Dune Buggies Baja 500, Mint 400 and Baja 1000, winning products and National Champions. VW power and technology went into USAC Midgets, Formula Vee and Super Vee, introducing both V classes to many other countries and the introduction of several World Championship events. In the process, Bill Scott became the only American driver ever winning at the difficult Nurburgring in Germany. Finally, Hoppen made the GTI and Scirocco National Champions and introduced America's first one make Championships with the Scirocco Cup, Golf Cup and Bilstein Rabbit Cup.

    During the early part of the 1980's Hoppen was asked to further build a performance image for Audi products. This led to a rally program with John Buffum and the Audi Sport Quattro turbo winning 56 events between 1981 and 1988, claiming U.S. National Championships between 1982 and 1987 and winning 5 North American Championships during the same period. Other victories came in the Alcan 5000, One Lap of America, Pro-Solo and National road racing events.

    In addition to those Rally triumphs came victories at the difficult and well established Pikes Peak Hill Climb. Hoppen continued with Audi to develop specially prepared Quattro's for this event, winning six years from 1982 onwards with such drivers as John Buffum, Michele Mouton, Walter Rohrl and Bobby Unser. In the process, the turbocharged Quattro's set records that were to last for most of the next ten years.

    Additionally, Hoppen masterminded the Quattro's AWD turbocharged entrance into the Trans-Am and GTO tours. He guided the engineers through the maze of U.S. regulations to produce cars that were able to achieve a strong advantage over their rivals in both championships. While concentrating on these headlining opportunities, Hoppen also oversaw Audi's involvement in SCCA Showroom Stock racing, where the 200 turbo Quattro proved itself a success with victories at such venues as Sebring and Road Atlanta.

    The specially prepared Audi 200 Quattro turbo with Bobby Unser driving also established in 1986 the World Speed Record for All Wheel Drive cars at Talladega Speedway at 200+ mph.

    As Volkswagen of America's head, Hoppen was key in helping to shape Audi's entry into road racing competition arena, working with Audi engineers directly to create the kind of vehicles to make the brand a champion of this side of the Atlantic.

    In the time since, Hoppen has continued to use those relationships to form a partnership with Audi's high performance engineers, as well as Volkswagen counterparts and the leading Audi/VW tuners in Europe to create, develop and import the finest and most appropriate after market performance packages available for Audi and Volkswagen drivers.

    Hoppen's knowledge and tuning experience led him to the MTM organization, Europe's best and most experienced Audi/VW performance company, to become America's importer of MTM engineered and developed products.

    If Hoppen's experience as a motorsport/performance tester helps give Joe Hoppen Motorsport an edge than so too does it that his son Michael, who oversees the day-to-day operations of the company. The younger Hoppen began his career at Vasek Polak Porsche & Audi in Southern California, one of the best-known performance oriented dealerships in the country. There, he was involved with Polak's racing efforts, as well as with the dealership's performance street customers.

    From there, he went in the early 1980's to establish and run Abt Motorsport in Southern California, the first dedicated Audi tuning operation here in the United States. Mike Hoppen achieved a new level of success both for the company and himself by providing Audi enthusiasts the quality service, parts and technical knowledge to transform their vehicles into performance classics.

    The younger Hoppen's association with Audi performance was likewise a personal one as well, having prepared and raced successfully a Quattro (Ur-Quattro) in SCCA competition, this after competing in the Rabbit Bilstein Cup where he showed considerable talent, potential and victories. During the later part of the 1980's and early part of the 1990's he applied his skills helping to make the Beddor family's Quattro Group operation one of the leading centers for Audi high performance, easily winning the Virginia City Hill Climb, beating Corvettes, Ferraris and Vipers.

    Beddor's 4 Audi Sport Quattro's were turned into 480+ hp machines; beating the top leading performance cars at Quattro Club and Porsche Club track events. They were key elements, as was Hoppen, in establishing the Quattro Club USA.

    Mike Hoppen, in addition to developing, preparing and racing the Audi Ur-Quattro, the first Audi Road Racing effort, continued Audi association by developing and building two Audi 200 Quattro turbos for SCCA and IMSA Showroom Stock Racing. The cars were very competitive and recorded the first road course victory ever in the U.S. for an Audi Quattro at the 6 hours of Road Atlanta with Hurley Haywood as the lead driver. (The Audi also won the 6 hours of Sebring.) In addition to Haywood, drivers included Robby Unser, Gene Felton, John Buffum, Doc Bundy and Jeff Andretti.

    Mike Hoppen is the key development person at JHM. He works with numerous engineers and Audi technicians in Ingolstadt, Germany as well as Audi contacts in the U.S.

   After Mayer founded MTM in 1990, he carried on his work with the 20V Audi Turbo for Audi Sport activities. Two years later he cemented MTM's reputation when he introduced the 400 horsepower, 200 mile-an-hour, six speed gearbox MTM Audi. In years since, MTM's own research and development staff has continued to produce top quality aftermarket performance parts for Audi and VW engines and vehicles that have allowed them to explore the full extent of their performance envelopes. Today, MTM's involvement in computerized engine electronics has resulted in performance enhancing Motronic systems that have not only attracted great praise from the motoring press, but such customers as Hans Stuck, Walter Rohrl and 2000 Le Mans winner Frank Biela.

   In addition to quality products for Audi and VW, MTM now also produces software and fine tuned exhaust systems for Porsche, Bentley and Ferrari. The recent expansion of the MTM facilities includes additional workshops and tuning space and two of the most advanced chassis dynos from MAHA. Also sales, office and warehouse space were expanded. Furthermore, MTM installed one of the most modern engine dyno. With all these new facilities, the engineering talents and experience of the MTM engineering staff as well as the good contact to the factories, MTM is in a position to offer the absolute best in quality and performance.

   Concerning the dyno set up, this area is most impressive. The climate controlled chassis dyno room contains 2 side-by-side MAHA 4-wheel dynos, both with large cooling ventilators fans. The entire installation is the most modern, accurate and technically advanced. The engineering background and technical intelligence makes Roland Mayer recognize that in order to properly test and tune modern automobiles, air delivery representative of real world driving conditions is required for accurate results. The high powered ventilation system capable to produce large amounts of air together with high wind speeds, simulate highway driving. The most modern MAHA dynos are also know for their accurate test results.

   MTM's advanced technology and quality products are being recognized world-wide with lots of media and TV recognition, and respective positive media reports. There is also a great deal of interest and magazine coverage of MTM's exciting and advanced Prototypes. Below is some of the latest coverage and MTM's recognition in America.

Coverage of European Car Magazine:

   12/06  -  "Club Class"  A six page story on MTM's S4 Clubsport Audi.  "MTM's Bentley Continental"  The world's fastest Bentley at 205 mph.

   03/07  -  "Force Eight"  A pleasant trot through the countryside in MTM's supercharged RS4, a six page story.

   09/07  -  "Cover Story, MTM's 415hp RTT" Again a six page story.

   10/07  -  "The 2007 Tuner Grand Prix" MTM Supercharged cars participate at the special event in Germany.

Audiworld Report on MTM:

   The most recent Audiworld report on MTM states; "Chris Ostberg of Audiworld visited MTM's facility in Germany and tested some of MTM's exciting and fast prototypes." The Audiworld report of May 30, 2007 is very informative and interesting to read, with lots of detailed pictures of MTM's facility and technically advanced prototypes. The full article can be found at www.audiworld.com

Participation at Special Events:

   The MTM Team also participates successfully at many track events in Europe. Here to, MTM products prove to be superior, technically advanced and most respected by the participants, sponsors and media.

Audi of America Newsletter:

   And finally, the Audi of America Newsletter of June 2007 states: "This issue keeps the performance focus with a visit to MTM in Bavaria. No other third party tuner has the expertise with Audi that Roland Mayer at MTM maintains, and a drive in the MTM RS4 Clubsport made for a memorable visit."