ASC to Sponsor Breakfast at Inaugural L.A. Auto Show Design Forum

Another Part of Company's Growing West Coast Presence

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 5 -- ASC Incorporated, a full-service specialty-vehicle design and development partner for automotive manufacturers, this Thursday (Jan. 6) will sponsor a designers breakfast and panel discussion at the first annual Los Angeles Auto Show Designers Forum at the convention center here. The forum, conducted in the midst of the Los Angeles show, is expected to attract up to 2,000 attendees in total. The event consists of various panel discussions, media briefings and a design competition with participation among most of the West Coast-based OEM design studios.

The breakfast ASC is sponsoring, at 8:00 a.m. PT on Jan. 6, will consist of a panel made up of noted designers, with among those currently scheduled being Grant Larson, chief designer at Porsche A.G. in Germany and designer of the new Porsche Carrera GT; Freeman Thomas, head of the Chrysler Group's Pacifica Advanced Design Studio in California; Frank Saucedo, head of General Motors Corp.'s Advanced Design Studio in Los Angeles; Dave Marek, senior manager of the Automotive Styling Group for Honda Research and Development- Americas in Los Angeles; Henrik Fisker, formerly creative director of Ford Motor Co.'s London design studios; and Reeves Callaway of Callaway Cars Inc., designer of many world-famous supercars. ASC's director of design, Tom Pavlak, will act as welcoming host for the breakfast.

"This sponsorship is very much in keeping with ASC's new and expanded business model as a full-service specialty-vehicle partner for all of the world's automakers, including those based here in southern California," said Mark Trostle, ASC's chief designer and the ASC executive with direct oversight of ASC's new Huntington Beach, Calif., facility. "In fact, as part of that commitment to West Coast-based OEMs, we just opened up a new design and technical center in Huntington Beach, one of several design studios we now have in the U.S. The new, conveniently located studio houses four surface plates; sophisticated CAD modeling capabilities, including Alias(TM); metal- fabrication capabilities; and a state-of-the-art paint booth."

Trostle also noted that ASC will be hosting a customer and media open house at its 18,000-sq. ft. Huntington Beach facility on February 1, 2005, at 3:00 p.m.

ASC employs more than 150 professionals in design, out of the company's 1,200 total employees. Last summer, the company was recognized by Business Week magazine for its role as co-designer of the Gold-medal-award-winning Chevrolet SSR in the prestigious annual IDEA (Industrial Design Excellence Awards) competition co-sponsored by the magazine, along with other Gold winners in industrial design such as the Apple iPod Mini and the Airfoil Pro triathlon bicycle.

In its nearly four-decade history, ASC has assisted its automaker clients in the design and production of thousands of production vehicles and concept cars, including such notables as the Dodge SRT-4 sport compact; the 1997 Lexus RX 300; the Buick LaCrosse concept; the 1995-96 Mitsubishi 3000 GT, featuring the world's first modern retractable hardtop; the 1987 Buick Grand National GNX, recently named by Automobile magazine as one of the "100 Coolest Cars" ever; the 1984-90 Ford ASC McLaren Mustang; the ASC SO-CAL SSR, winner of General Motors' Best Design award at the 2003 Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show; and the ASC Dearborn Deuce Convertible, a 1932 Ford replica currently in production at ASC which was the winner of two awards at the 2004 SEMA show, "Best-Engineered SEMA Product" and "Best SEMA Street-Rod Product" runner-up.

ASC's award-winning programs include vehicle development and sub-assembly of the Chevrolet SSR (winner of a "Gold" award in the 2004 Industrial Design Excellence Awards, or IDEA, competition sponsored by Business Week magazine); convertible systems for the Toyota Solara and Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder; and numerous appearance programs and body packages for such products as the Dodge SRT-4, Dodge Viper SRT-10 and Pontiac Grand Am SC/T. Founded in 1965 and headquartered in Southgate, Mich., the company employs more than 1,200 car nuts at ten facilities in the U.S. and Germany, and is on the Web at http://www.ascglobal.com/ .