Two brothers, one dyno room, and twenty-two years of side-by-sides — built on a rule their father enforced before either of them could drive: if you can't measure it, you didn't build it.
Before anyone said "side-by-side," there was a bench in the family garage, covered in Lectron carburetors, and a man named Dennis Packard who could make a two-stroke sing.
Banshees. Snowmobiles. Race quads. For more than twenty-five years Dennis tuned, ported and rebuilt the machines other shops gave up on — and distributed the Lectron carbs half the fast guys in Utah were quietly running. His sons, Jace and Jedd, grew up in that shop. Not visiting it. In it.
You don't inherit a business like that. You inherit a standard — and a very specific allergy to claimed horsepower.
When the Yamaha Rhino landed, most tuning shops shrugged. The Packard brothers looked at a slow, top-heavy ranch rig and saw the future: machines everyone would want, that nobody was making fast yet.
Dad stayed loyal to two-strokes. The sons went four-stroke — and never looked back. Their early turbo kits earned the name the hard way; as Dirt Wheels put it, Packard's early kits "were known for being affordable." Working power, for working people. That part never changed either.
Today Packard Performance runs its own machine shop, fabrication floor and dyno room under one roof — five-axis CNC mills cutting the billet, curves coming off the drum. Nothing white-labeled. Nothing guessed.
This is the shop that bolted a turbo and a supercharger to one 999cc Yamaha and made 550 horsepower. The shop that, with Oribi Composites, built the first thermoplastic composite wheels in powersports — half the weight of aluminum. The shop whose Pro R supercharger platform is rated to 550+ hp and 22+ psi on Rotrex's own books.
Every kit that leaves Clearfield leaves with a dyno curve. Because a Packard doesn't ask you to believe. It shows you.
Dennis Packard builds PER from the family garage: Lectron carburetors (a distributor for 25+ years), billet bowls, two-stroke porting for Banshees, race quads and snowmobiles. Two boys learn the trade at floor level.
The Yamaha Rhino lands. Jace and Jedd take the family standard four-stroke. Packard has been in the side-by-side industry ever since.
Packard's early turbo kits were "known for being affordable" (Dirt Wheels). Working power, priced for the people doing the working.
A 19-step install and roughly 1,600 test miles later: "the easiest forced-induction swap we have ever done on a UTV" — and "we still have no idea how they sell this much billet for $2,700." The full test →
Dirt Wheels features the Packard Super-Turbo YXZ1000R — turbocharger and twin-rotor supercharger on one engine. The car takes second at the UTV Invasion sand drags in St. Anthony, Idaho, straight off the trailer. The feature →
With Oribi Composites, Packard launches the first high-performance off-road UTV wheels made with advanced thermoplastic composites — about half the weight of aluminum, dropping an average of 25 pounds of unsprung weight per car. CompositesWorld → JEC →
Rotrex-driven, billet-mounted, intercooled. 380 to 500 turnkey horsepower — a platform rated capable of 550+ hp and 22+ psi with supporting mods, on Rotrex's own product page.
Sand Sports Super Show builds. UTV Takeover at Sand Hollow. Sand Mountain, Little Sahara, Glamis. The dunes are the courtroom; the verdicts come in on Sundays.
Twenty-two years in, the bench keeps getting bigger. The standard hasn't moved an inch.
All week, you take it.
Sunday, you give it back.