Daniel
Reyes lost more than his right leg when a
runaway car crushed him in 1999. He lost his
ability to tool around in his 1967 Ferrari 330
GT, which as a sport car's sports car featured a
five-speed stick.
Living in Southern
California, not driving wasn't really an option
for the businessman.
"People were driving me around all the time," he
recalls, noting that he gave away two cars he
had and opted at first not to drive at all.
"Losing a limb is devastating. But I love cars,
and eventually I bought a Jag and a PT Cruiser,
which is a rather mundane car. I thought, 'This
is where my life is going.' I remember in rehab
they told me, 'Get used to big cars like vans so
you can get in and out. And you'll be driving
automatics from now on.'"
He took a hard look at his situation. At the
time of his accident he was a consultant for
Mattel Toys, leading the team crafting the 2000
version of the Barbie doll.
"I didn't go back to toys at all – I tried to
re-evaluate where my life was," Mr. Reyes says.
"Of course, when something takes a limb off, you
don't do these things in a week. I'd always been
interested in cars, so I went back to cars to
look at how I can do this, and I found this huge
hole in this whole business – nobody in America
could do these things [allowing the disabled to
drive a stick], or cared to."
Mr. Reyes didn't have the money for the
engineering to pursue his goal, but then he
learned of an Italian-made system that had
allowed a professional racer to return to his
BMW after a double amputation. Mr. Reyes sped
off to the Guido Simplex factory in Rome.
Now, through his Santa Monica-based RediAuto
Sport he's selling specialized equipment that
allows other disabled drivers to tool around in
their favorite vehicles, whether they are
Maseratis or Miatas, Mustang GTs, or Dodge
trucks.
The system activates the clutch through a lever
on the stick shift, the accelerator via a ring
on the steering wheel, and the brake with a
leather-covered lever found between the steering
wheel and the stick.
Installations run from $5,000 to $9,500.
The exclusive distributor and installer of the
Total Hands Driving System in the United States,
Mr. Reyes has found a niche that's showing
growth almost solely through word of mouth.
While most of his trade has come from
California, he's done jobs for people as far
away as the Deep South and Canada.
Not every client suffered a catastrophic loss of
limb or spinal injury, whether in an accident or
perhaps a war zone. Mr. Reyes and his six
employees are riding a demographic wave as the
nation's baby boomers refuse to let the
impediments of age get in the way of driving
pleasures they've always known.
"Everything is accelerating in its own way," he
said recently from Europe, where he was working
on a new deal with the factory for soft-touch
hand controls for aging drivers. "The business
is really, really growing very quickly."
That's not to say he's making a profit yet.
"We're a million and a quarter in the hole right
now, and that's out of my own pocket," he
readily admits. "Cash comes in, but that's what
fuels growth."
RediAuto is looking for investors, but at the
same time it has cut some favorable deals with
companies, such as Ford, for custom
installations in models such as the Mustang or
Buick for the soft-touch line.
"We're going to keep endeavoring," Mr. Reyes
says. "I don't know how to give up, so I don't
know how to not endeavor."