ASC Opens Southland Design Studio

American Specialty Cars Inc., the company that popularized the sunroof in 1965 and grew up turning Toyota Celica coupes into convertibles, has opened a West Coast design studio in a bid to capture a piece of the growing Southern California automotive styling business.

ASC’s move into an 18,000-square-foot facility in Huntington Beach, which was formerly home to Porsche’s advanced engineering and design studio, marks a homecoming of sorts. The company was founded in Los Angeles in 1965 but relocated to Michigan in 1967 as ASC developed close ties with Ford Motor Co. and other domestic automakers.

For years, ASC maintained a manufacturing facility in Dominguez Hills where it chopped the steel tops off of Celicas and turned them into convertibles for Toyota Motor Corp. But that plant closed in 2000.

“We decided to move back with a design studio because styling cars has taken on a more significant role for us, and we want to start working with all of the [major automakers’] West Coast design studios,” said Jeff Steiner, ASC executive vice president.

The new studio, headed by ASC designer Tom Pavlek, has just six employees “but will grow as work comes in,” Steiner said. The company plans to move some of its Michigan-based engineering and marketing staff to the Huntington Beach facility, which can comfortably handle about 100 employees, he said.

The company recently developed a large four-door convertible based on the hot-selling Chrysler 300C. No production plans have been announced.

Almost every major automaker, from Aston Martin to Volvo, has an advanced design studio in Southern California.

Steiner said ASC’s Huntington Beach studio, which held its grand opening Tuesday, already was doing work for Porsche and for Hyundai Motor Co.’s Irvine-based design center.

“This is the second Detroit in terms of where product planning and design decisions are made,” he said.