Who founded MOON Speed Equipment around 1950?

Dean Moon founded MOON Speed Equipment around 1950. The company grew from a small operation in a garage behind his father’s Moon Café in Norwalk, California, into one of hot rodding’s best-known speed-equipment brands.

Moon had already been active in dry-lakes racing during the late 1940s. His early products included multi-carburetor fuel blocks, spun-aluminum wheel discs, aluminum fuel tanks, and distinctive throttle pedals. The company later became especially famous for Moon discs and auxiliary “Moon tanks.”

The brand’s visual identity was as important as its engineering. Moon’s bright-yellow cars, polished products, and eye-themed graphics made the equipment instantly recognizable at drag strips and car shows. The logo is commonly called Mooneyes, but that name refers to the brand and emblem rather than a different founder.

A related milestone came in 1963, when Moon was among the founding members of SEMA. After his death in 1987, the business paused; Japanese dealer Shige Suganuma later revived it as MOONEYES USA in the early 1990s.