Last year, the idea was simple: Find a junker, fix it up with the best from the automotive aftermarket, and drive it to Las Vegas for AAPEX 2022.

This year, it’s anything but simple.

The automotive aftermarket is at the crossroads of change. Electric vehicles, driver assistance systems, autonomous vehicles, sustainability—it’s a shifting landscape. This year, the Big Bosses at AAPEX—Bill Hanvey, president and CEO of Auto Care Association, and Paul McCarthy, president and CEO of Automotive Aftermarket Suppliers Association—offered a challenge. Babcox Media’s Joe Keene, an ASE-certified technician, couldn’t refuse: Find and fix a rare Lincoln Blackwood and drive it down the Lincoln Highway to AAPEX 2023. But that’s not all.

Along the way, Joe is tasked with seeking out industry voices that can speak to the cutting-edge issues in the automotive aftermarket. So he’s brought along Babcox Media’s best and brightest to connect the automotive aftermarket’s heritage and pedigree with its latest technology and future growth. The destination may be the same, but the route is full of twists and turns.

Watch the video to follow Joe’s hunt for the Lincoln Blackwood, babying the rare black pickup truck back to Akron, Ohio, and how he and the Babcox Media team plan to answer the biggest questions facing today’s automotive aftermarket.

This episode of Road to AAPEX was presented by AP Emissions Technologies.