A passion to be world class.
Brothers Mike, Karl and Rob Hugh were born to play with power. Growing up on a small island, they learned how to make the most of the limited resources there. Making it work better was the challenge from their father. They were constantly tinkering with engines and their dirt bikes were always the fastest and the most fun to ride. As they grew older, the bikes were replaced by cars but the challenge remained and fastest was best.
In 1981, Mike and Karl took the bold step of turning their hobby into a business and Active Autowerke was born. Their motto at the time "Anything and Everything BMW" probably should have included “everyone”, since the endeavor was a classic family affair with branches of the Hugh family tree pooling their talents into building the business.
The timing was right. The company grew as America’s motoring public developed a healthy appetite for BMWs. Soon Active Autowerke had grown into the largest independent BMW service facility in Florida with state of the art equipment, certifications from leading component firms and a hard-earned reputation for setting the benchmark in service, integrity and professionalism.
In late 1995, Karl set the future direction for Active Autowerke as he tapped into his passion for speed. This was the thrill of turning a fast BMW ... into a faster BMW.... a BMW for drivers with aspirations far beyond the norm.
As a graduate of the University of Miami School of Engineering with a specialty in Internal Combustion Engines, Karl was more than qualified to execute his vision. In less than a year, working with some of the most respected professionals in automobile performance, the first Active Autowerke M3 & 325i Turbo Kits were born. Many rave reviews and magazine articles later, these kits and their successors (our award winning BMW supercharger kits for E36, E46 and E9X cars) have become known for their quality, reliability, clever bolt-on engineering and affordable pricing. Active provided BMW owners with the ability to breathe fire into their everyday BMW driving experience. No longer a brand known just in Florida, today’s Active Autowerke has built a worldwide following for its line of flawlessly engineered and manufactured performance parts for BMWs.
As new models and challenges are introduced, Active Autowerke continues to innovate – and deliver – world class products that make the cars run and sound better. Active started development of the first midpipe to tame the weedeater sound of the F8X in 2014. This was the first single midpipe for the F8X which was developed and tested for two years before going into mainstream in 2016. This single innovation was hugely successful as it created a deeper smoother sound for the M3/M4 and M2C but this has led to tens of copies being made and sold by other companies who spent little to no time on R&D but took advantage of Active's hard work and undercut Active in pricing by offer lesser quality products with little to no support.
In 2019, Active took on the challenge posed by the BMW enthusiast community who insisted that it was physically impossible to develop and equal length midpipe for the F8X M platform (all equal length products were full exhaust systems which used the space after the differential to equalize the length) and after a lot of research, development and testing, Active developed the Active Autowerke Signature Equal Length midpipe which was recognized as innovative when Active was granted patents both in the US and in the EU/UK regions. This patent also extends to midpipes on the G8X M platform. Of course, Active has to spend resources defending their patents from all the copycats who primarily source products from China where there are companies willing to look the other way on copyrights and other legal protections. Active thanks its customers for their support so that it can continue to develop and innovate for everyone's favorite car brand BMW.
With the expansion of the BMW world into Mini and Toyota (with the 2020 Supra), Active is building on its foundation as the premier BMW tuning and performance company to offer software and performance updates for both brands that bring an adrenaline rush back into driving these cars. In order to broaden their expertise in auto tuning, Active has completed the development of Porsche GT3RS tune that provides an additional 25 whp without any other changes to the car following that with a GT3 tune. But the focus remains BMW and the improvements continue with an emphasis on driving fun.
The Hugh brothers can’t stop improving. It’s been in their genes from the beginning.
