William C. Hughes founded Hughes Performance in Phoenix in 1971. This family owned business did well when they first opened, and to this day they maintain the wonderful Hughes Performance standard and are known for their indestructible transmission parts for racing and other aftermarket products.

Tony Kane of Hughes Performance is bullish on the new pony-car wars. That’s why they’re introducing new Torque Converters for the three players: 2010 Mustang, Challenger, and Camaro. These converters are super tough and are able to get that added HP to the ground. They feature a 10” billet cover with a 1-piece lockup piston and a 1 ½” wide lockup clutch (over twice as wide as stock).

Hughes is also offering their XTREME Pro Mod XP4. This baby will, according to Tony, “handle 3500 HP.” It has a new larger 1 ½” input shaft and is contained in the state-of-the-art forged aluminum Superglide case. It has a billet, 400 spline output shaft, and 1.69 billet gear set with 1.80 available. The XP4 features a lock-in dipstick for NHRA compliance. The original XP4 was the first nitrous PowerGlide in the 3.90’s used by Detroit area racer Bob Rahaim.

Look for Hughes to also release their new line of billet torque converter covers in 2010. These will eliminate one of the biggest problems in your tow vehicle which occurs when the lockup piston applies in high torque applications and an enormous amount of force is applied to the lockup piston and the torque converter cover. This is especially true in modified diesel engines and can cause the cover to flex and simply destroy the lockup lining and piston.