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July 2015 9 Spencer Frownfelter takes care of shipping and receiving. Erick Hainke, sales/technician, handles sales calls to customers throughout the country, in addition to some that come from Europe, Australia and South America. George Lambardo making install kits. Joe Melia works on a 7.5-inch differential for a 2006 Ford Mustang. come to us for regular service re- pair when their vehicles break down, or they come here for the wants. We get the 'wants' and the 'needs.' "The need would be the every- day car. If a four-wheel drive or a rear-wheel drive or a Jeep breaks down, we'll do the repair," he said. "And we also have the wants. Right now we have a brand new JK Jeep in here, and the customer is getting 5:13 gear ratios installed because he put bigger tires on it. He came in here because he wants to, and obviously because he can, not because he needs to. "So the advantage we have every day is we get to take care of your specialty needs and your spe- cialty wants." Service needs and wants shift with the seasons, Gutowski said. "In springtime, we get the wants, the guys with the race cars, the oval-track racing, the drag racing. In summer and fall is when we get a lot of the four-wheeler guys. And during the winter is a lot of re- pair." The shop handles service re- pairs as well as custom installing for a race car or a truck. Technicians use specialty tools to narrow rear ends and some sus- pension components. TIG and MIG welders are used to cus- tomize the rear end. The company has serviced or sold parts for racing cars all the way to the top of the oval-track business, he said. In drag racing, the company works with cars in the 6- to 7-second range, he said. DTS started from a service cen- ter as a sales department that kept growing, which led to the expan- sion to a different building. The owner sold the sales portion in 1985, creating Drive Train Specialists as a parts distributor. The new company also had grow- ing pains, moving in 1994 into a new facility with 20,000 square feet, more than twice the space of the old building, allowing an ex- pansion to four service bays, Gutowski said. Training is a priority at DTS. Sales/technicians receive training whenever something new comes up in any relevant components or technology. DTS has the advan- tage of being in the greater Detroit area where most of the axle manu- facturers are in their backyard. Manufacturers also like to visit DTS to see what an axle distributor can do and does, and they benefit from the company's input on the technical side, DTS officials em- phasized. The company spreads knowl- edge and information in other ways as well. DTS has a tech hot- line that customers can use to get help with a project. Sales/techni- cians handle most of the questions, and Gutowski jumps in when nec- essary, he said. The company also continues on page 11