Builders of a '62 VetteRod that took the Goodguys PPG Nationals by storm this past summer, Phil and Jeremy Gerber of Mundelein, Illinois' The Roadster Shop were presented with the Goodguys Trendsetter award at this year’s SEMA Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. The award is presented annually at SEMA to rising young talents in the realm of rod & custom car building.

Together with their father Neal, the Gerbers took ownership of The Roadster Shop in Elgin, Illinois in 2004 to expand the company’s product line and raise the bar for Midwestern hot rodding. While developing new lines of chassis and components, the Gerber’s discovered the burgeoning performance muscle car and street machine market and jumped in head first.

In 2006, a brilliant orange ground hugging 1966 Chevelle, complete with a custom chassis designed and built in-house, launched a new line of products and a new company – RS Performance Concepts. The Chevelle raised eyebrows throughout the industry and in the magazines and requests from customers for complete turn-key cars soon followed suit. In 2007, a bright green ’70 Chevelle served as RS Performance Concepts’ lab rat, furthering the performance and design capabilities of the Gerber brothers as well as allowing them to compete in the Goodguys’ popular Street Challenge Autocross events. It was also in 2007, the company moved to their all new 30,000 square foot state of the art facility located in Mundelein, Illinois.

Though they had slowly and methodically been working their way into the hot rodding scene, the Gerber’s exploded onto the forefront of the industry with the debut the 1962 Corvette “C1RS”  (pictured) at this year’s Goodguys PPG Nationals in Columbus, Ohio. Built and designed completely in house by Phil and Jeremy for customer Barry Blomquist, “C1RS” was the talk of the event and the entire industry as the Formula 1 racing-inspired Corvette ripped through the Street Challenge Autocross with a winning time of 32.222 seconds while being named the unanimous winner of the Goodguys/Air Ride Technologies 2009 Street Machine of the Year. The Corvette’s landmark debut and subsequent victory in Columbus combined with their other builds and innovative chassis design has firmly ensconced Phil and Jeremy Gerber in the annals of hot rodding history. And they’re just getting started!

The Gerbers are in good company. Past recipients of the Goodguys Trendsetter Award include; Chip Foose, Troy Trepanier, Alan Johnson, Eric Peratt, Tim Strange, Dave Lane, Zane Cullen, Dean Livermore, Jesse Greening, Troy Ladd and J.F. Launier.

 (Courtesy Goodguys)