NSRA Autocross 2026 Sponsor Spotlight
By Kevin Webb NSRA Autocross Director autocross@nsra-usa.com
Bowler Performance Transmissions D rive into Lawrenceville, Illinois, and the land- scape doesn’t describe what is happening behind the doors of Bowler Performance Transmissions. If it lives between the back of the engine and the rear pinion, Bowler has either built it, fitted it, or made the bracket that holds it. Recently Mark Bowler gave us some insight into why his company became an NSRA Autocross sponsor. Kevin: Having companies like Bowler Performance Transmissions on board as a sponsor of NSRA Autocross events gives a big boost toward our efforts to spread autocross excitement to attendees of our events. How did Bowler get their foot in the door in autocross? Mark: Bowler’s programs are engineered around the hardest demands a street-driven performance car will ever see—the kind of abuse autocross and pro-touring driving puts on a transmission including repeated full- throttle shifts under load, second-gear hits with the tires loaded, sustained heat cycles, and the brutal duty of going from cold to wide-open in a single corner. That design target is fed by years of data from our own in- house vehicles and testing. I was at the beginning of the ‘Pro-Touring’ craze, building cars to perform and test along the way. As an enthusiast with a passion for high speed and handling, seat time experience helps deliver the demands that are required to perform. I became great friends with Brett Volkel of Ridetech and was part of the first Street Challenge Series, which helped pro- vide real data and pushed the demands of transmission requirements. Kyle Tucker was the first to encourage Bowler to get involved in offering the same attention to detail we offer in our automatic transmissions applied to the popular Tremec transmissions. Bowler was part of the first Optima Street Car Challenge and the pro- touring builders and Optima Ultimate Street Car racers were running Bowler drivelines at their limit. Bowler supports the industry with an in-house fleet of test vehi- cles because we are more than a textbook company, we are a true engineer it, test it, prove it, and build it company. We say: “If the racetrack can’t break it, the customers’ Saturday cruise won’t either.” Kevin: What steps do you take when guiding a cus- tomer’s transmission choice to determine the best outcome?
Mark: Many shops build transmissions but at Bowler we think we build
transmissions differently using a coachworks approach; one technician, one transmission from a base core to a curated hand-built, fully blueprinted masterpiece. Each transmission is custom-built to the customer’s require- ments, vehicle information, and then fully dyno tested with the complete package that the customer is going to receive. There are no shelves of pre-assembled trans- missions waiting for an order. The transmission in front of the technician is your transmission that is being tai- lored to your vehicle specifications. The build is driven by a tech sheet revealing vehicle weight, engine com- bination, engine torque, rear gear ratio, tire size, as well as the intended use—every choice that matters downstream is captured upstream. Our philosophy is that horsepower is just a number and if we build a transmission for horsepower, and not torque, it’s going to fail. Torque is what matters. The whole point of a transmission is to transfer torque to the rear axle. The transmission, converter, and calibration are tested and signed off before it ever leaves the building. Kevin: How intensive is the testing before they are shipped to the customer? Mark: Most performance shops dyno test but we wanted to extract more data than a store-bought dyno, so we built our own configuration that moni- tors what others don’t. We wanted real-world results, so we use a popular engine for testing. No electric motors, or basic four or six-cylinder drive motors, we use what our industry demands, modern technolo- gy. We have a GM LT1 engine powering our dyno, producing 480 lb-ft of torque. We have an eddy load brake that will load 800 lb-ft of torque. We monitor line pressure hot vs cold, converter pressure, cooler flow, and behavior under load with the customer’s exact converter and calibration in the loop. The com- plete system goes on the dyno together: transmis- sion, converter, calibration. If it doesn’t prove out as a system, it doesn’t ship as a system. The complete dyno session happens in a custom soundproof room so we can monitor noise and temperature. Kevin: We thank Mark for giving our readers an insight into Bowler’s commitment to push the limits of high performance. We look forward to welcoming Bowler Performance Transmissions to our events in 2026.
16 JUNE 2026
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