[MidnightAuto]

When I was growing up in the 80’s I had a 71 gto and one of my favorite things was to stop into the local speed shop to browse and contemplate all the goodies I could drop into my car. At the time, my local store was a super shops, some might remember a sponsor to Eddie hill, the guy who broke into the 4’s. Anyway my question is this - having recently gotten back into the hobby, do places like super shops still exist? Where can I dream of all my goodies in person? Or is it just internet/mail order these days?

[mgarblik]

There are at least 6 "speed shops" in the Dayton, OH area, a city of just over 100K population. So yes, they are still out there. Most have strong machine shop reputation or a long history that keeps the doors open. Don't expect internet pricing at a walk-in "speed shop". In most cases, they are paying more for the parts to re-sell than you can buy them for on the internet. Parsons & Myers Racing Engines, Ohio George Montgomery's Speed Shop, Performance Clinic, G & G Custom Speed, Ault & James Sped Shop, Kamer & Kamer, are all in the Dayton area. Parsons & Myers builds engines for several Pontiac customers who hold NHRA class records and sport many class wins in NHRA Stock and Super Stock with Pontiac 400's and 350's, believe it or not.

[Schurkey]

Originally Posted by mgarblik

There are at least 6 "speed shops" in the Dayton, OH area, a city of just over 100K population... ... Most have strong machine shop reputation

I had to drive 30 miles from my Old Hometown of ~60,000 people to get the headgasket surfaces of a block planed by a guy who's got ANCIENT equipment and he's ready to retire. There's no one in town doing automotive machining any more--and if it can't be had at AutoZone or Advance or NAPA, there's no local hot-rod parts either.

I bought my own valve grinder and seat grinder (but since I can't do guide work, I'm still in need of machine shop services for heads.)

[Steve C.]

John Dinkel ( punisher1) with the Pontiac powered Fairmont in my signature below recently purchased Austin Performance & Specialty a well known speed shop here in Austin. It's probably been around since the 60's in one form or another. The owner recently passed away and he bought it from the family. He has a partner in it and it's employees will remain. John will keep his regular mechanic job at the auto dealership and continue to operate his separate hobby race shop.


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[GoatZillaRacing]

Back in the day, I would spend half my time on the phone giving free tech advice only to have the customer take my recommendations and buy the parts from Summit. I'd find that out later when they'd call back for advice on installing it!
I moved from selling parts to complete "Injun Kits" or "Injuns" and learned my lesson.
Today, it's all internet. The phone almost never rings, even with a cool number like 1-702-PONTIAC.

[4dblnkldude]

In my area there also was a speed shop in Lawrenceville, NJ. I think it was named Lawrenceville speed. He catered to the roundy round guys mainly. That guy had every AN fitting you could imagine. The other local spot was Langhorne Speed, I walked in there in 1995 or so and asked if he had header gaskets for a pontiac. He said " the only thing I have for a Pontiac is a gallon of gas and a match" I think I went in one more time after that. It closed up at least 10 years ago.

[Navy Horn 16]

Originally Posted by Steve C.

John Dinkel ( punisher1) with the Pontiac powered Fairmont in my signature below recently purchased Austin Performance & Specialty a well known speed shop here in Austin. It's probably been around since the 60's in one form or another.

Thanks Steve, I didn't know that place existed.

[Steve C.]

Despite Summitt, Jegs and the internet the business continues well. A niche in the market for which it has its own particular requirements and customers. And knowing John he will improve it


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[bob d]

We have one just down the street from me in Yorkville N.Y. Burkhart Automotive which is now ran by Phil Burkhart Jr. the NHRA Funny Car driver. His father opened it years ago. I go there to get my VP Race Fuel. Thanks Bob.

[Chief of the 60's]

I have Jan-Cen. They have been around a damn long time. Some of you may have heard of Pro-Mod champ Mike Janis. Mike's father started Jan-Cen and I have known Mike since he would ride shotgun in his father's truck while both of us were heading to the track.

[MidnightAuto]

you guys are lucky. anyone know of any shops near westchester county, ny?

[Chief of the 60's]

Originally Posted by MidnightAuto

you guys are lucky. anyone know of any shops near westchester county, ny?

Pep Boys has a Speed Shop in Bay Shore - https://www.pepboys.com/speedshop-pe...file/bay-shore Supposedly their pricing is competitive with Summit.

[HWYSTR455]

Originally Posted by MidnightAuto

you guys are lucky. anyone know of any shops near westchester county, ny?

https://www.skspeed.com/

Brian is the man when it comes to manual transmissions, especially Muncies.

Speed World is in Baldwin:

https://www.facebook.com/baldwinspeedworld/

But think they are more import oriented.

Google it, sure something will pop up. But when I was living in Yorktown Heights, I know there were plenty, but that was late 60s-early 70s.

Stuff around here, like the big chain ones used to be Speed Unlimited, but came under attack many times for their' business practices. Price would be pretty much what they thought they could charge you, and became know in the circles as 'Speed Unreasonable'. There is still one store open in this area, and they still have the legendary 'Memorial Day Sale'. I've camped out there back in the day for ridiculously low prices for 'while they last' sales. Mainly to lure people in.

Some of the Mom & Pop shops used to vary prices too, many used the speed shops to fund their' own race/car programs, but it is too much like crack. It's that whole 'Don't get high on your own supply' thing, they dip in, and then fold.

Distributors, such as Atlantic, Nat Perf Warehouse, and similar, require a min $10k (or more) initial purchase, and you have to maintain X sales/purchases per month/year. So many find it hard to stay alive.

I was going to open a speed shop in the 80s, M.R. Performance & Handling, Inc, and was going to specialize in suspension parts, do installs, etc, and quickly found out just how difficult it is to build a shop up. This is before Pro-Touring even had a name, and would have done well if I had more investment capital, and been prepared better. (and not suffered from a divorce during that time)

I was incorporated, and in the late 90s was going to diverse, and do EFI stuff, offering tuning, and have a forum where I would also have an area to share EFI config files, (EFIFiles.com), but again, went thru a second divorce! I even did Accel DFI training, had the courseware and all, probably still do somewhere.

.

[jerry455]

We used to have Gratiot Auto Supply, Ramchargers and several other speed shops around here in the Detroit area. I loved window shopping of the things that would be cool to have on my car. My Mopar buddies used to go to Mancini Racing in Detroit. We loved cruising and street racing on Woodward and Gratiot Avenues.

[ponyakr]

Summit, Jegs, Amazon, Ebay sellers, & a few others have done to the local independent speed shops what Wal Mart did to all the Mom & Pop shops in all the small towns in this country.

Before those, there was Performance Automotive Warehouse. Any of you guys remember getting those big PAW catalogs ?

Back in the '70's & '80's I got a business license for a speed shop, so that I could buy my parts from what were called "warehouse dealers". Speed shops could buy from WD's for what they called "jobber price". To keep my volume up enuff to keep buying from the WD's, I'd sell to all the the hot rodders in my area for just a little more than my cost.

But, even back then, guys could buy from PAW cheaper than I could sell for, after adding tax. I remember one particular guy who'd only buy from me what I could sell him cheaper.

As others have mentioned, the only way an independent can have a speed shop is if their main business is a machine shop. Sometimes they can get better prices from certain companies, if they use their products exclusively. Cams & related equipment is an example. Probably lots of shops have a deal with Comp Cams. Many also probably have deals with certain piston companies, & suppliers of other engine building parts & supplies. I'm quite sure that there are several guys here who know about machine shop's deals with certain brands and/or suppliers.

https://www.bangshift.com/forum/foru...appened-to-paw

http://fepower.net/simplemachinesfor...p?topic=3748.0

[mgarblik]

Ponyakr is right. Traditional speed shops are more or less gone. The few shops I deal with stock parts they use themselves in race and performance builds as a convenience, not really as a retail point of sale type of thing. Super Shops, Nationwise Rod Shop, were more the retail type speed shops in my area. They have been gone for decades. Used to be fun to window shop. But I used to enjoy spending a few hours in the Sears tool department too. Life goes on. With the pricing structure a speed shop has to live with from a modern WD now, I don't see how one would survive. From what I have seen, a legitimate speed shop seller like Ponyakr today would only be able to buy parts for 3-5% less than anyone else could buy on the internet for most items. Very hard to make a living on that kind of margin without doing a huge volume.

[ponyakr]

One thing I have noticed is that occasionally, on certain parts, O'reilly or Auto Zone will have the best, or at least a very competitive price. But, they must charge tax. I recently learned that they have 10% veteran discount. So, that cancels out most of the tax, for vets.

They can order lots of different speed parts. You can also order from them, online, & have parts shipped direct, or sometimes to your local store.

O'Reilly just came to our little town last year. Auto Zone came only a few years back. I now buy from both. But I like O'Reilly best.

[Tom Vaught]

Originally Posted by ponyakr

Back in the '70's & '80's I got a business license for a speed shop, so that I could buy my parts from what were called "warehouse dealers". Speed shops could buy from WD's for what they called "jobber price". To keep my volume up enuff to keep buying from the WD's, I'd sell to all the the hot rodders in my area for just a little more than my cost.

When I had my Business, I could buy from the Warehouse, just like you.
I was buying at the same cost for parts as Ramchargers, Gratiot Auto, Mancini, Richards Automotive, Super Shops, and Mayfair Auto Supply.

Eventually I got away from the Warehouse and bought right from TRW, Sealed Power, Wolverine, Melling, Crane, and Comp Cams.

Made Money, Paid my Taxes, and mostly bought Engine Parts.

You would be amazed at some of the mark-ups that were out there.

A Camshaft Company was making the actual Ram Air IV camshafts for Pontiac.
The Pontiac Dealer wanted over $200 for the Cam in the early 70s. I was buying the cams
for $17.39 each in batches of 10 at a time and selling them for 1/2 the dealer price.
Sold a lot of those camshafts. All of those deals are gone today with Summit out there.
But buying in volume was the only way they would deal with you.

Tom V.

[grrrrregg!!!]

Tognotti's in Sacramento has been around for awhile, and still going.

[lemansboy70]

We used to have McCullough Auto Parts. They would have a twice a year "Midnight Madness" sale. We couldn't wait for those sales! Always held on a Saturday night. Would have a huge stack of loose Hush Thrushes on a table for $10 each. The owner was a Pontiac guy, so he always had something interesting for me. One time he pulled a '65 tri-power intake from under a table and sold it to me for $75. This was in about 1983-84. The tent would open at 10 p.m. and not one minute sooner. Lots of really cool Street Machines would show up. It was Heaven for a teenager.