{"id":84990,"date":"2025-02-07T09:11:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-07T14:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=84990"},"modified":"2025-02-07T10:36:52","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T15:36:52","slug":"mopars-unsung-hero-part-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/showcase\/2025\/02\/mopars-unsung-hero-part-one.html","title":{"rendered":"Mopar\u00ae’s Unsung Hero – Part One"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Joe Hilger\u2019s name doesn\u2019t pop into many books in the history of Direct Connection, but it should. Joe was an executive at Chrysler during the 1980s and became a director when the corporation was fixated on 2.2L turbo engines and a front-wheel-drive passenger car platform. Long gone were the Challenger, Charger, Road Runner, GTX, Super Bee, \u2019Cuda and other iconic nameplates that gave Chrysler its street creds during the muscle car movement. For Mopar\u00ae<\/sub>\u2019s Direct Connection, they continued during this “dark era” in which the factory-built 426 HEMI\u00ae<\/sup>, 440 Six Pack and other hi-potent V8 engines were long gone, but Direct Connection still offered high-performance parts and tech advice for racers wanting to go faster and enthusiasts looking to burn rubber on the streets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It may have been the darkest of times for Chrysler V8 performance, but for Joe Hilger, he had high-octane race fuel pumping through his veins. Standing over six feet tall, Joe still epitomizes the look of a corporate exec. Well-educated, well-polished and well-spoken, Joe fit the mold. Still, unlike some of his peers, Joe was a gearhead that spent his high school and college days hanging on the fence at many drag strips and watching his Mopar heroes like Ronnie Sox and Dick Landy powershift their way to victory in their HEMI engine-powered Super Stockers trailering the competition. \u201cI was born in Kansas, and my family had a farm. They did all their own mechanical work, and my father would say \u2018Anything built by man can be fixed by man\u2019 and he meant it,\u201d smiled Joe. Like most farm kids, Joe was driving well before he had a license, and his love of cars increased even more. \u201cMy dad had a 1956 Dodge at the time and he and my uncle would talk about HEMI engines, that\u2019s one of the reasons I love Mopars so much,\u201d noted Joe.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

While in high school, Joe took Auto Shop and rebuilt a Chrysler 225 Slant Six while getting his hands dirty on other class assignments before graduating in 1967. Joe then headed off to Pittsburg State University in Kansas to pursue a BS in Industrial Technology with a degree in Automotive Technology. \u201cWhile in college, I had a 1966 383-powered Dodge Coronet with a four-speed,\u201d noted Joe. \u201cI absorbed as much knowledge as possible, I guess you could say I was a wannabe engineer,\u201d laughed Joe. \u201cI graduated from college in 1972 and while still on campus, I interviewed with the Kansas City Zone Manager from Chrysler. I think he saw my passion for the automotive industry, and my stellar grades, and I aced the interview.\u201d After getting hired into Mopar\u2019s Parts and Service Division in 1972 as a young Chrysler Zone Manager working out of the Kansas City region, Joe brought his hard work ethic and common-sense approach when calling on dealers. \u201cI learned and listened to what the customer was saying. Diagnose the issues, ask the right questions and fix the problems,\u201d said Joe. \u201cMy internal driver and mindset are a lot like drag racing and that is to be prepared, know what you\u2019re doing and look at the finish line.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Joe and his family moved around the country as he worked his way up the corporate food chain. All was well until Chrysler went bankrupt during the late 1970s and early \u201980s. Despite this, Joe used his experience and showed dealers that despite lackluster new car sales, they could still be profitable in their parts and service operations. After a series of promotions, Joe made his way to Mopar HQ in Centerline, Michigan, around 1984. Chrysler still had a bankruptcy hangover, and Mopar was still feeling it. By 1986, the finance guys wanted to kill off Direct Connection, but Joe knew the importance of this iconic performance parts brand. \u201cDirect Connection was a halo brand for Mopar, and our racers and street enthusiasts embraced it. However, the budgets were tight and financially we had to do something. Having two brands and marketing them is very expensive. We were committed to staying in the performance parts business and the team had to come up with a viable solution,\u201d noted Joe. With the business climate of the day, Mopar and Direct Connection were being scrutinized very closely by Chrysler\u2019s Senior Management and Leadership Board and the major player leading the charge was Gino J. Giocondi.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cGino (Giocondi) was a smart businessman. He always told us, \u2018When you have stockholders, you can’t lose money\u2019 and he was right. Direct Connection by itself was not pulling its weight as a separate brand and department.\u00a0The company\u2019s direction at the time was tough. We were mostly a front wheel drive company at the time. The Direct Connection catalog, as good as it was, was not covering the overhead costs,\u201d said Joe as he reflected on that era of uncertainty. \u201cMopar Parts was making money, and I was growing fast-moving products such as collision parts, service items and accessories. Unfortunately, without corporate support for Direct Connection, the decision was made to ‘close it down.’\u00a0That meant getting rid of everything Direct Connection had achieved since it was launched in 1974 and I was not going to do that. I walked out of the executive office at Mopar HQ, grabbed Larry Shepard (Chief Direct Connection Engineer) and Larry Henry (Direct Connection Product Manager), and told them about my idea to rename Direct Connection to Mopar Performance. Since the head of Direct Connection, Brian Schram, was out of town, we knew we had to do something quickly,\u201d recalled Joe.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Knowing speed to market is important in launching a new brand, Joe and his team quickly investigated if Mopar Performance would be a viable alternative to Direct Connection. They were right, as the diehard community of Mopar gearheads embraced the new brand and sales went up. \u201cWe live in a process-driven world to reduce overhead and this rebranding work. Mopar Performance became part of the Chrysler Corporation field support, everything from purchasing to sales.\u00a0Better than that, we linked our message to technicians (both dealers and independent shops) about Mopar quality with Mopar Performance Parts as the link.\u00a0So, when I look back, that decision to keep performance inside Mopar was the right thing to do,\u201d said Joe. \u201cI made sure to discuss the move with Gino (Giocondi) first and told him \u2018You are right, Gino. We don’t have enough budget to market two brands, so we are going to reposition Direct Connection as MOPAR PERFORMANCE PARTS\u2019. Gino was happy and he realized it was a huge benefit to the overall Mopar brand image,\u201d stated Joe. But Joe wanted Gino to see the passion among major influencers and arranged a lunch meeting with “Big Daddy” Don Garlits, Carl Schiefer of Schiefer Media, and Gino Giocondi. Joe reflected on a comment Gino made to him after that important lunch meeting. \u201cOn the way back to the office, Gino said to me, \u2018Wow, those guys are passionate about Mopar!\u2019 I said, you’re correct, and we can take advantage of that in our messaging.\u00a0We got a small budget, but we can make it work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s just one of the many great things Joe Hilger did to save the performance parts business for Mopar. In Part Two of “MOPAR\u2019S UNSUNG HERO,” we\u2019ll look at Joe\u2019s foresight in getting the famed “HEMI” name trademarked before other automakers could get their grimy hands on this celebrated brand and tarnish its reputation.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joe Hilger\u2019s name doesn\u2019t pop into many books in the history of Direct Connection, but it should. Joe was an executive at Chrysler during the 1980s and became a director when the corporation was fixated on 2.2L turbo engines and a front-wheel-drive passenger car platform. Long gone were the Challenger, Charger, Road Runner, GTX, Super Bee, \u2019Cuda and other iconic nameplates that gave Chrysler its street creds during the muscle car movement. For Mopar\u00ae\u2019s Direct Connection, they continued during this “dark era” in which the factory-built 426 HEMI\u00ae, 440 Six […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":84979,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[638],"tags":[2984,547],"class_list":["post-84990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-showcase","tag-direct-connection","tag-mopar"],"acf":[],"custom_fields":{"post_thumbnail_image":false,"social_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/JoeHilgerP1_Social.jpg","icon_selection":"article","external_link":"","featured_article":[],"upload_background_image":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84990"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84990"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85052,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84990\/revisions\/85052"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}