In this episode, we go down a slightly different path and interview a smaller shop owner to get his perspective on running a performance shop. Justin Miller started working as a dealer tech at age 17. He began doing work and selling parts online in his free time. Justin has worked hard to grow his business with an initial investment of his own $1200. He now rents a 4200 sq ft building with a dyno and several lifts. And he employees 1 full time technician and a receptionist.   Game changing product: Holley HydraMat Software: Quickbooks for accounting Favorite...

  David Localio was fortunate enough to have a family who fully supported his addiction to horsepower! He bought his first car in 6th grade. (That’s correct. 6th grade!) His first experience with turbos came when he got ahold of a Buick Grand National and spent all of high school modifying it into the 10’s. He got a job at a local repair shop and realized that service work just wasn’t for him. So he enrolled in the School of Automotive Machinist (SAM) and ended up working there as well. He then went on to be involved with a ton...

  Dale has been tuning turbo EFI V8’s for many years, but the American drag racing market has traditionally been dominated by carburetors and nitrous controlled by antiquated methods. Dale made his break into the US by way of a forum post toDominator (from Street Outlaws) offering to tune his car on EFI. Since then, he has also converted the Dung Beetle car to EFI as well. This has really changed the game for the domestic drag racing market and requires a much different approach to tuning 3000+hp cars. Game changing product: Plex Tuning PCM-1000 Combustion Analyser & Data Logger...

  Tim Bailey was one of the early Subaru tuners when the WRX hit the states. Eventually, he started Surgeline Performance which was later purchased by Trey Cobb. While Tim still works on the actual tuning, most of his time is spent controlling the dealer and tuner network for Cobb. Now he travels all over the country to set up new dealers and help out existing ones. In this interview, he goes into detail about how they manage that network and why it is so important to regulate the prices of their products. Action Item: For anybody tuning cars, do...

  Rhys is a professional driver. But did you know that he is also a shop owner? He has taken his love for racing and turned it into a successful company. Rhys Millen Racingproduces parts, builds movie cars, and champions race teams. His repertoire includes Global RallyCross, Pikes Peak, Formula Drift, Fast & Furious cars, Penzoil commercials, and RedBull sponsorships. The dedication to the sport and the constant drive to get new contracts puts Rhys in the upper echelon of specialty shops. Tune in as he talks about the challenges of meeting deadlines and the time required to maintain his...