The fairy tale goes like this:
Probably the luckiest thing for BRODIX was when a scruffy hot rodder with a 1955 Chevrolet (and nothing else), met a beautiful nurse trainee in Fort Smith, Arkansas in 1964. The other piece of luck was that the nurse’s father was a foundryman in the little rural town of Mena, Arkansas. This foundryman, Francis Dix was not very affluent, but he had been raised in the foundry business and had an unreal sense of adventure.
Eventually the scruffy hot rodder married the beautiful nurse and went into business with the foundryman. Being ignorant, the hot rodder talked his father-in-law into making an aluminum Mopar Hemi head which proved to be abject failure.
The next project was an aluminum small block Chevy compatible head which was the subject of an article in the January 1973 Hot Rod Magazine. Being a small town Arkansas boy, the hot rodder did not know how to market anything, and even if he had known how, he had only $300 in the bank to use.
Through another stroke of luck along came a very nice man, John Doss with the Speedmasters Company in the Chicago area. Through no fault of John’s, this was a bumpy ride and eventually the project ended back in the hot rodder’s lap.
The nurse jumped into the business, straightened out the kid, and BRODIX was formed. Three wonderful children, Jeff, Greg, and Jennifer, came along and saved the old hot rodder and the nurse by eventually joining the business. Along came Lori, Jeff’s beautiful wife and Cody, Jennifer’s handsome husband. They are both also a very important part of BRODIX today.
Recently, Hot Rod Magazine named the original head as the world’s first aluminum aftermarket small block Chevy compatible head and proclaimed it to be one of the top 20 speed parts that changed the high performance world.
The old hot rodder and beautiful nurse are still around to watch the ongoing BRODIX fairy tale that is still alive and well today.