About

Mike Kent was like any other kid growing up during the 70’s and 80’s who was fascinated with cars and trucks that were cruising the streets and showing up in popular car magazines. As a kid he was either playing with die-cast cars, building 1/24 scale Model cars, reading comic books or car magazines. It was the combination of these things that led Mike to teach himself how to draw and work on his own cars. He went on to take mechanical drafting courses and ended up working for the number one engineering firm in Overland Park Ks.
 
 
In 1996 his world changed when he accepted a job at WELD RACING, with the understanding that he would only be allowed to create manufacturing prints and parts drawings for the production floor and no design work, since this was and had only been done by Greg Weld. He was given an opportunity to create his first wheel design for Greg within his first 6 mos., this was the VR-14 Flame wheel, then the Flame steering wheel, then the Flame motorcycle wheel for Custom Chrome, and so on………
 
 
From 1996 to 2006 he worked along with Greg to design over 200 wheels that made it into production which included 2pc billet hot rod and sport truck wheels, steering wheels, 1 pc forged car/ truck/ motorcycle and racing wheels.
 
 
From 2006 to 2008 he worked alongside Greg again with the Greg Weld Design company until Greg passed away in late 2008. Since 2008 Mike has continued to do wheel design work for BMF wheels, Race Star Industries and a few other wheel companies.
 
 
2013 started another chapter for Mike, as an opportunity arose that he would sell Race Star Industries wheels along with Hoosier Tires and Mickey Thompson Tires. In the near future, Kent’s Hot Rod Garage will offer services for one-off wheel designs and other fine automotive accessories to help you take your ideas and create a one off look to meet the needs of today’s car builders, whether for themselves or others.