The Phoenix, Arizona based, Speed and Custom Division Shop, was established by Gene Winfield in 1966 at the request of his employer, model kit company Aluminum Metal Toys (AMT). Incorporated as a subsidiary, AMT needed the company to build both full-scale and scaled automobile mock-ups (typically out of wood at the time) to promotional ends, as well as to manufacture the templates or masters in order to construct the molds from which the parts for their model kits were extracted or cast. Winfield headed the subsidiary company as production manager.