This young man was born with a love of anything with wheels, and a desire to build things. The toys that fascinated him as a child were machines, functional machines, machines that were built for a single purpose, tractors, trucks, bulldozers, trains, racecars. As he grew, he learned how to repair machines by repairing the equipment used in his father's trucking business, and learned an appreciation for fine craftsmanship and design by restoring antique autos, all the while dreaming of one day building such fine machines.

At 16, his father passed away suddenly and he was thrust into the world of business, and he accepted the task of operating the family business while finishing high school. A childhood cut short became an opportunity to reach for his dreams. He found time between satisfying customers and late night repair emergencies to play with a whole new collection of toys - full size cars and trucks and equipment, and he began to accumulate metal working machinery - fascinating new toys that would allow him to give shape to the toys he always wanted. A string of hot rods, race cars and motorcycles lured him into the world of drag racing, previously only glimpsed in magazines, and he knew he had found his home, but still dreamed of the day that he could build the machines he loved.

In 1979, at 23, he knew he could no longer spend his days fixing other's mistakes and struck out on his own, closing the family business and opening a racecar fabrication shop. His experiences in racing so far had been a series of frustrations, dealing with incomplete information and less than perfect products purchased from seemingly indifferent or unknowledgeable vendors, and being forced to rework, rebuild and reengineer those products to suit the application. He was certain that if he could build a product that was needed and was as good as it was claimed to be, he could make a living in motorsports. Encouraged by advice to 'build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door', he set about finding a mousetrap to build.

Selling his dragster to buy machines for his fabrication shop, he began to race his street Harley at the dragstrip. More frustrations with expensive but inadequately developed speed equipment inspired him to install a turbocharger on his bike to solve a cylinder head problem. Still more frustrations led to building his own turbocharger system which exceeded all expectations and made enough power to earn him several national records and a pile of burned up clutches. Experiencing a need which no one else could serve, he decided to build his own clutch to solve his problems. That clutch was the first prototype of the Bandit Superclutch. Several racing friends asked for copies to be built for their own racebikes. That 'better mousetrap' had appeared. Because of their superior performance, the clutch earned a popular reputation as the best, and the 'sideline' grew explosively and became a complete business in itself.

Thus John Magee began Bandit Machine Works. With all those frustrations and disappointments still vivid in his memory, John was determined that his products would be the absolute best that could be made, so that his customers would not experience the same frustrations he had experienced. Also determined to create more than 'just another job', John set about to create a company that led the industry in innovation and quality, and a company that created an atmosphere of satisfaction, spirit, joy, and reward for all those involved.