Import car performance shop names. Lame for the game...

[swan song]

Why is it all these speed shops have the corniest names?!?!? It's always the same recipe, take one word from initial d. And another word from a car part or the word import. Back when I thought fast and furious was cool (dating myself here...) I had a rb20det swap in my s13. Took it to a "speed shop" thinking "Jesse" from "F&F" would tune my car... The name of the establishment? Garage 112. (They later went out of business because one of the techs took a customer's hachi out for a spin and totaled it...)

Have you guys heard of any AMERICAN tuning shops for Japanese cars that actually have good names? Something original? I know of motorex in the 90's. And Japan always has awesome names.
 I haven't stepped back into one since the above mentioned incident, plus finding out they did my wiring on rb20 while stoned and drunk... Restore my faith. Lol.

[Teranfirbt]

This is why (almost) all work done to my cars is done by my hands

[ozzie]

You should feel lucky you at least have such shops. In my area, there are two stores of note: "Twin City Speed", which is a great place to go if you're looking for overpriced parts for american v8s, and "Diesel Fuel Systems", the ONLY place around that has a dyno. They won't tune gassers, but they will let you use their dyno, at something like $150 for 3 runs.

[85GTS]

This is why (almost) all work done to my cars is done by my hands

x eleventybillion

I shudder to think of the ways some of these yutzes could screw up mah baby.

[swan song]

Oh for sure. Like I said, that was at a time when I was still learning. Now, however, I'm doing my own 1uzfe swap, 8.8 swap, suspension geometry, etc. the last time I went into a "speed shop" was to ask if they knew a good fabricator. The pointed me out the door, with a contact of an A-hole that didn't know his butt from a hole in the ground.

But I'm talking about names of shops. I just laugh when I see "fast garage" or "speed tec" or "xtreme customs", "hyper performance", "Initial-short Dick" lol. The other irritating one is "any group of numbers, followed by the word Motorsports"

Good names: "veilside", HKS, spoon, bensopera, kei office. These are original names. You wouldn't even know what they do if you didn't have someone tell you, or you looked them up under "auto performance." But they are famous because of the work they do. It literally takes a weird name like "veilside" and makes it cool.

[corax]

http://johnreedracing.com/

the guy to talk to in the PNW if you have any Motec needs, the best doesn't come cheap though.  He can make you a harness that looks like pure art, set you up with engine management that will do whatever you want (Motec), and tune it remotely to the razor's edge.  He's been making a name for himself over the last few years working with some BIG names in the tuning industry (seen Ryan Tuerck's new car?), but, IIRC, used to be a tech at a local Toyota dealership

look at how many pins are in that connector, realize every pin in that Mil-Spec connector is used, now compare it to the diameter of the harness and feel ashamed at the last wiring job you did.  These are all hand wound harnesses used in some of the most demanding race environments.



This is his own personal AE86 stage rally car (which, unfortunately, hasn't seen much action lately)

the entire center console switch panel is CAN bus

[ozzie]

http://johnreedracing.com/

Between how tired I am and my last job, it took me 3 tries to read that correctly.



That wiring loom is fucking amazing. I imagine at that level they must have to plan the loom carefully to avoid crosstalk between the wires.

[a2ndopinion]

Just after I moved back to Oregon, I went into a local "speed shop" "Import Tuners" or something, looking for jets for the Weber carb on Zoomy's Baby, and the stupid kid who approached me asked what I was looking for, and I said "jets for a Weber carb." He said, "sorry, we only have parts for Imports." I just looked at him like I thought he was a moron and walked out.

[swan song]

That was typical of 2005-ish. I had so many discussions in speed shops where I was the most knowledgable person in the room. Funny story- when I had my skyline engine put in my 240sx they did it for 800$ installed (front cut was 1600$)this was at "garage 112" over off 112th and foster rd. I got the car and it was doing ok but it would die at stop lights for some reason. Later on, about two weeks, I was at the PIR drag strip and my "skyvia" wouldn't start at all.

Fortunately, one of the shop mechanics that did my swap happened to be walking by (what are the freakin' odds!?!?!?) he comes over, undoes some wiring by the battery, twists two wires together, and bam! Skyvia lives again. He then tells me "man, we did your car when we were high...giggle"

I sold the car that week.

[a2ndopinion]

I was at the PIR drag strip and my "skyvia" wouldn't start at all.

Fortunately, one of the shop mechanics that did my swap happened to be walking by (what are the freakin' odds!?!?!?) he comes over, undoes some wiring by the battery, twists two wires together, and bam! Skyvia lives again. He then tells me "man, we did your car when we were high...giggle"

I sold the car that week.

That's totally F'd up!

[swan song]

It was turning point for me. From that day forward I vowed to do my own work. Leave the shops to the guys with lots of money. Because that's what it takes to buy quality work.