BumpStop.com (a.k.a The BumpStop) is a popular internet-based automotive enthusiast website based in Firestone, Colorado founded in 1993 by Garrett Bragalone.

History and Growth

In 1993, Garrett, a college freshman at the Colorado School of Mines, was introduced to a brand new computer lab on campus. Within this lab, a new form of communication was taking place - the network. Out with the text based gopher machines, and in with new PCs with an application called, NCSA Mosaic (first graphical web browser), which connected to the World Wide Web. Intrigued with the the power of the internet, Garrett quickly was on the bandwagon on learning basic html code as it became available.

With the free campus student home pages in reach and a lack of information on a the world wide web for car enthusiasts, a web site dedicated to one of Garrett's hobbies, lowriders, classics, and customs cars was born! He contacted all his custom car buddies and put together a collection of pictures to scan in on the campuses brand new black/white scanner. Armed with pages of custom cars and descriptions, he submitted his site to Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web at Stanford (which is now Yahoo!) His site was actually the first page under the automotive section!

As thousands of hits and emails poured in, Garrett realized the potential of his site and finally obtained bumpstop.com and moved his site to an official Internet Service Provider. It has had many iterations over the years.

The name of the site, BumpStop, came to be from the well known, cheap, and quick trick in the custom car world to lower you vehicle was to remove the rubber/poly urethane bushings from the vehicle's a-arms to obtain minimum ride height.

BumpStop has had millions of visitors, featured on TV, radio, numerous magazines, newspapers, and won many web awards. It's often imitated, but never duplicated.

Revenue Model

Revenue for The BumpStop is mostly generated on targeted online advertising, sales of branded merchandise (cups, t-shirts, stickers), and occasional affiliate programs.

Target Age Group = 18-25 year old Males

Services

BumpStop.com is dedicated any cars deemed 'cool', but its main focus is on the Lowrider, Custom Car, Sport Truck, Classic Car, Hot Rod, and Automotive Art community.

Features include:

Picture Gallery - Offers thousands of pictures of owners rides and complete descriptions

Video - Custom Car videos

Classifieds - unique free and paid classifieds dedicated to the custom car community niche

Forums/Message Boards - Trouble issues, get opinions

RSS Feeds - get the latest site news/information to your desktop and mobile device

Chat Rooms - open chat rooms to discuss automotive topics

Industry News - automotive news related to the site's audience

Car Show Listings - allows users to post and search for car shows

Car Club Listings - allows users to post and search for car clubs around the world

Future

Looking for ideas to invest, expand, and grow into a unique automotive community, different than all the other custom car web sites.

External Links

http://www.BumpStop.com

Reference

Top Automotive Site - WorldHot

Fast and the Furious Blog - January 2007

Alexa - Most Popular Customized Car Sites

Cool Site on the Month - Sept, 2006 : Sport Truck Magazine : PRIMEDIA publication

About.com - Lowrider Trucks - Facts and Photos

All Things Automotive - King of Cool Cars - April 1997; by Greg Hooten

NetGuide Magazine Publication - Automotive Awards - April 1997 ; CMP Publication

ComputerLife - Best Car Web Sites - July 1997 ; Ziff Davis

ComputerWorld - Automotive Buzz - December 1997 ; Ziff Davis