RSTWIII invests an additional $4.0 million in Steel Horse Automotive, Inc.

On January 25, 2002, RSTW Partners III, L.P. invested an additional $4.0 million of common stock in its portfolio company, Steel Horse Automotive, Inc.  Steel Horse is a leading manufacturer, importer and distributor of automotive appearance acceessories primarily for light trucks and sport utility vehicles.  RSTWIII’s initial investment in Steel Horse took place in March 1998.  RSTWIII has now invested a total of $28.2 million into Steel Horse to support acquisitions and internal growth.  RSTWIII’s $4.0 million January 2002 investment was in conjunction with Steel Horse’s most recent strategic acquisition of the assets of Fibernetics Molded Products, LLC.

Fibernetics manufactures a variety of customized automotive products incorporating four distinctive molding processes:  vacuum formed plastic, fiberglass, carbon fiber and urethane.  Located minutes from the Steel Horse corporate headquarters in Compton, California, the prime manufacturing at Fibernetics is supported by full in-house design and tooling capabilities to take a product concept from start to finish through design, engineering, tooling, molding, and final paint processing.   Major product lines include fiberglass Tonneau covers, body styling kits, fender flares, running boards, hard tops, consoles, and other custom exterior vehicle styling components.

“The addition of Fibernetics provides the Steel Horse family of companies with unparalleled leadership and expertise.  Our continued objective is to offer the broadest and deepest range of light truck accessories to the OEM and automotive aftermarket sectors,” said Dean Lueck, President and Chief Executive Officer of Steel Horse Automotive.   “The opportunity for the Steel Horse family of companies to make a distinct contribution within the automotive industry is tremendous, and we look forward to drawing upon the technological synergies and manufacturing capabilities this acquisition creates.”

In addition to the Fibernetics acquisition, since March 1998, Steel Horse had acquired CDK, Inc., Acme Products, Inc., Nifty Products, Inc., Source One Marketing, Inc., Mid America Automotive Products, Inc., The Accessories Group and Bauer Vehicle Gear.  Steel Horse currently operates manufacturing facilities in California, Oklahoma and Ohio.  Steel Horse now possesses the broadest product line of automotive appearance accessories in the United States, including consoles, grille guards, bumpers, roll bars, steps and tubular products, stainless steel accessories, racks, hard-tops, top sliders, molded floor mats and carpets, doors, seats, tonneau covers, fender flares, car covers and soft tops and more.

Steel Horse focuses on the automotive aftermarket, primarily selling its products through big-box retailers, mail-order retailers, automotive store chains, automotive distributors and other mass distribution channels.  In addition to the aftermarket, Steel Horse also supplies specialty designed carpets, floormats and cargo bay mats directly to OEMs such as Ford, General Motors and Volkswagon and supplies a wide variety of products to OEMs through the mass customization channel.

Contact:

Steel Horse Automotive                                   

Faith Barnese

Vice President of Marketing

(800) 533-7704 x2224

email:  fbarnese@shauto.com

        Corporate Websites:

www.steelhorseautomotive.com

            www.maapautomotive.com

            www.bauergear.com

            www.niftyproducts.com

            www.fibernetics-mp.com