DO IT FOR A LIVING
170 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 4 years ago - ★★★★★ - 132 ratingsDO IT FOR A LIVING is a podcast where YOU, the performance racing industry enthusiast and shop owner can hear from the best minds in the performance racing industry talking about business and tech. We discuss new products and services and the best resources used by the big dogs. You can listen on your way to work or in the shop. With new episodes coming out every Monday, you'll find interesting topics and valuable information you can use to build your performance business. Now take this information and use it to build the next record-breaking car or innovative product.
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Episodes
163: Stewart Waliser of Stews Self Service Garage
March 03, 2020 16:25 - 56 minutes - 78.2 MBStewart grew up in a Seattle suburb and was an active kid. When he turned 16, he got a beater $500 car and was tasked with keeping it running. He used this car to learn maintenance and slowly acquired mechanical skills. He went to college and continued to modify cars. He was living gin the dorm and didn’t have a place to do the work so he called several shops, but nobody would allow him to do the work at their shop. It was at this point that he shifted from wanting to be a surgeon to owning ...
162: Nathan Cicio of Cicio Performance
February 17, 2020 17:11 - 1 hour - 139 MBNathan grew up in Florida working on cars to help his dad’s business. In his twenties, he moved around always chasing entrepreneurial ventures but wasn’t always focused on cars. He eventually purchased a 2002 WRX Wagon and then he was hooked! The modifications began and he couldn’t get enough. This led to starting a performance shop with two buddies and eventually meeting Doug Wilks who was the owner of Top Speed Performance. Nathan then began organizing tuning appointments for Doug to fly i...
161: Chris Riggs from Speed by Design
February 10, 2020 09:30 - 1 hour - 115 MBChris got his career going in cars by doing a buy-in for body kits while he was in college back in 2001. He ran this business all through college and made a decent living. But, after graduating, he became a medical salesman. He worked there up until 2012 when the company he was working for got bought and he was given a buyout payment. That same year, he started Speed by Design. Initially, he wanted to do installs for GTR’s. He soon realized that Oklahoma wasn’t large enough to warrant a sp...
160: Ben Silcock and Andre Simon return to discuss HP Academy
February 03, 2020 09:30 - 45 minutes - 63.1 MBIts been about 4 years since we last talked to Andre and Ben of HP Academy. Originally, they were focusing on keeping the business small and running it themselves. They soon realized that they needed to hire some extra help. They have grown to 7 people and really helps generate content. Andre and Ben now release interviews each week and have greatly expanded their online education program. The online courses include tuning, engine machining, race car wiring, and vehicle setup. They are cur...
159: Bryan Thompson of Powerhouse Racing
January 27, 2020 09:30 - 1 hour - 106 MBBryan Thompson started out in Utah and bought himself a Toyota MR2. He quickly started modifying it to go faster. He ended up going to college to get a Computer Science degree but was cut short because of his love for cars. He then followed a friend to Dallas to begin working at Dinosaur Performance (which later purchased Powerhouse Racing). Soon enough, he was giving the reigns to run Powerhouse Racing. Even though he preferred working on cars, he soon realized he could develop parts that h...
158: AJ Hartman returns for an update on AJ Hartman Aero
January 20, 2020 09:00 - 47 minutes - 65.7 MBBack in 2017, AJ was humming along and making composite parts for race cars and street enthusiasts. He was approached by a customer who was wanting to help AJ scale the business, so he sold off 49% of the business. They changed the name to RHR Composites, hired 2 people, contracted some aerodynamic parts to be designed, and moved to a larger facility. Along the way, their vision for the future didn’t align so AJ had to buy out his partner to take back 100% of the company. Even though it was ...
157: Matt Beenen returns with BuiltRight Industries
January 14, 2020 12:22 - 43 minutes - 59.5 MBSince he was a kid, Matt always wanted to be an entrepreneur. Using inspiration from his childhood, he decided to start a side gig to follow his dreams. His initial idea consisted of 50 latches that allow you to drop the Ford F-150 back seat down to access some secret storage. To his surprise, a Facebook post in a small F-150 group resulted in him selling out rather quickly. So, he began his journey to go at the business full-time. His second product development was a bedside rack system f...
156: Alejandro and Pablo Moreno of Tandem Automotive
January 06, 2020 09:30 - 1 hour - 111 MBAlejandro and Pablo Moreno didn’t start a shop together but found they could grow a business by working as a team. Alejandro got his engineering degree, worked at Bell Helicopter for a while, and went back to school to get his MBA. In the meantime, Pablo was an auto mechanic, went to flight school, and then decided to start Tandem Automotive with a friend to work on drift cars (hence the name). When Alejandro finished grad school, he was looking for some sort of entrepreneurial venture and...
155: Theresa Contreras and Sara Morosan of LGE-CTS Motorsports
October 14, 2019 18:16 - 1 hour - 94.9 MBThe business was originally started by their parents who did maintenance and custom work in California. Theresa studied graphic design and worked as a machinist. She went back to work in the family auto body shop and worked in the front end. She taught herself how to pinstripe and paint and continues to do so to this day! Sara was also interested in working at some sort of automotive business and studied business and automotive classes. Strangely enough, she worked at a competitor’s auto bod...
154: Vadim Belogorodsky from CANtrolls
September 03, 2019 08:30 - 1 hour - 92.8 MBOn this episode we get a chance to talk with Vadim Belogorodsky from CANtrolls. CANtrolls is a company focused on using CAN interface hardware to make engine swaps easier… but it goes way beyond that! Vadim taught himself to program at age 13 and has since worked on medical devices, oil rigs (doing CAN-based Networking) and most recently with Zero Avia an electric aviation startup. Vadim is a standout in the automotive aftermarket for his ability to get things done. I know him personally to ...
153: Reid Lunde returns to discuss his interconnectable relay entered in the SEMA Launch Pad Competition
August 05, 2019 08:30 - 55 minutes - 76.2 MBReid has been very busy lately managing several businesses. He still has KSTuned which is the Honda racing side and then has Kaizen Speed for the domestic cars. But his new venture is a weatherproof. solid-state relay that can handle heavy current and is interconnectable. This makes it very easy to daisy chain additional relays without having to run more power wires. He also made it so that you can attach a CAN control module as an option. This gives the customer the ability to keep it very ...
152: Johnny Cichowski of Nine Lives Racing
July 22, 2019 21:01 - 1 hour - 103 MBJohnny joined the military after high school, served his time, and then used the GI Bill to go to college. He really didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life and began messing with cars and going autocrossing. He worked a short stent helping at a friend’s shop and then got a job at PFC Brakes doing sales and technical support. This job took him all over the world supporting various racing platforms. His next job was at OG Racing selling safety gear and brakes. He was also making cust...
151: Jonny Mill of WheelWell.com
March 11, 2019 08:30 - 58 minutes - 80 MBJonny Mill grew up in a small town in California and moved to LA as soon as he graduated high school. He worked at a talent recruiter and had various jobs in the entertainment industry with advertising and marketing. He always enjoyed cars, but things really took off when he developed The E-Stopp (an electronic parking brake). It was intended for handicap vans but soon found an amazing niche in the automotive restoration market. He was approached by Bryan Harrison of SEMA to compete in the f...
150: Charlie Eklund of Hennessey's Tuner School
February 11, 2019 09:30 - 49 minutes - 67.9 MBCharlie Eklund moved down to Houston, TX to attend Tuner School in 2017. The people at Hennessey Performance saw something special in Charlie and offered him a job in the admissions department for the school. Since then, Charlie has been the face of Tuner School to narrow down the applicants and help them get jobs after graduation. To further help them out, Charlie helps students find part time jobs while taking classes and they even offer a house where the students can rent a room and not h...
149: Richard Tomlin of Apex Auto Works and White Pony Dry
February 04, 2019 09:30 - 1 hour - 91.9 MBRichard Tomlin owns a paint, restoration, and fabrication shop south of Houston, Texas called Apex Auto Works. He made a name for his shop by building cages for Spec Miatas and was cranking out one a week. The shop is located on the way to a road course so he catered to the weekend racers and was able to do anything they wanted from complex fab work to paint and body. He recently embarked on a new venture by developing an absorbent powder called White Pony Dry. It is far superior to kitty...
148: Bob Morreale of The Tuning School
September 03, 2018 13:24 - 1 hour - 77.1 MBBob grew up working on Fords by building engines and going drag racing. He got turned on to the Buick Grand National and became obsessed with going faster! After some frustration with trying to fine tune their setups, Bob decided to start diving into the actual electronic tuning. This opened a whole new world of going faster and picked up a bunch time at the drag strip. He had a couple computer businesses and a shop but was always helping people tune. So, he decided to make it a real busin...
147: Dave Carapetyan of Rally Ready Driving School wants to teach everybody how to drive a rally car!
August 27, 2018 08:30 - 56 minutes - 64.1 MBDave grew up in Austin and has lived there his whole life. During middle school, he played in a punk rock band (look up The Snobs – Schools Out, Let’s Skate) in the early 2000’s. They organized a tour on the east coast and recorded a couple 7” records. While touring and playing shows, he got turned on to street racing. Having no affinity to school, he dropped out of High School and decided he wanted to play music and race rally cars. After some coaxing, he convinced his dad to “invest” in an...
146: Dan Kahn of Kahn Media started by sending articles about his car to magazine editors. Now he runs his own PR firm.
August 20, 2018 08:30 - 1 hour - 121 MBDan lived in a house of car enthusiasts in southern California. Both his dad and grandfather owned their own businesses, so Dan was kind of groomed to have his own business as well. In high school, Dan bought a 1968 Mustang Fastback and spent 2 years restoring it with his dad. Once they finished it, Dan went out and took some “professional” pictures of the car, wrote an article, and sent it to every magazine he could find. He was able to get this car featured in some magazines and even on a ...
145: Joe Gambino of Rogue Fabrication couldn't find a tube bender to meet his particular needs so he went out and made one himself!
July 30, 2018 08:30 - 1 hour - 81.3 MBJoe grew up in Oregon and stayed there through college and went to Oregon Tech for Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Business. He never really saw himself owning his own business, so he spent several years working for other companies as an engineer. He spent all his extra time playing with and modifying offroad trucks. He soon realized that he could take a pretty good tax write off if he created a business to research, develop, and sell various parts he was making. In 2008, he made a si...
144: Colin McLemore of Mac’s Custom Tie Downs is working to become the household name for tie downs of all sorts
July 23, 2018 08:30 - 1 hour - 99.5 MBColin grew up buying and restoring pedal bikes and really enjoyed working with his hands. When his dad took a job in Washington with Boeing, Colin bought a 1940 Ford which was quite a step up from the bicycles. He went to college at Washington State University and preferred to look for car projects instead of studying. Having to haul dead cars all over the place, Colin began looking for better solutions to tie them to the trailer. In 1993, he made the business official and started to sell hi...
143: Chris Walters details how they built up a relationship with Jay Leno over years before releasing Jay Leno’s Garage Car Care products
July 16, 2018 08:30 - 1 hour - 85.9 MBChris has been in California his whole life and used to have a job at a company that developed vehicle care products for professional body shops. This gave him intimate knowledge about materials and products for the car care market. One weekend, they were out an event demonstrating some car care products and caught Jay Leno’s eye. He invited them out to his garage to test out their products and shoot a demo video for JayLenosGarage.com. A few months later, Chris get a call that Jay’s detaile...
142: Will Baty of Centerforce clutches shares how they continue to innovate to stay ahead of market demands
July 09, 2018 08:30 - 1 hour - 91.7 MBWill grew up in California and has always had a passion for cars. After high school, he started an apprenticeship at a machine shop working on engines. He went to college, but it just wasn’t for him. He was much more interested in racing than he was in going to class. After a few years, he began working at Centerforce Clutches via a recommendation from a friend of a friend. He started as a machinist and worked his way up the ranks over many years. In the mid 90’s, Centerforce decided to move...
141: Tony Whatley wants you to turn your side hustle into a successful business
July 02, 2018 08:30 - 1 hour - 98.5 MBTony started his car passion by contributing and participating on the LS1.com forum back in 1998. He wasn’t happy with the support of that forum and decided that he could do it better. So, he started LS1Tech.com in 2001. All the while, he was working in the Oil & Gas industry. He continued to teach himself various software systems to allow him to create websites, design graphics, and model parts. He eventually sold LS1Tech.com and started DV8 Motoring to continue to sell parts via relationsh...
140: Bret Voelkel of RideTech explains how his company emerged from the 2008 recession stronger than ever
June 18, 2018 08:30 - 1 hour - 89.7 MBBret grew up in Jasper, IN and dabbled with cars during high school. After high school, he worked various jobs in Jasper and then took a job in Florida as a tech rep for the NHRA Drag Racing circuit. A few years later, he started working for a company in California to work for Blower Drive Service. He had been traveling about 300 days per year and decided to settle down back in Jasper with his new wife. He worked a tool truck and was building his own pro-street hot rod. He wanted to be able ...
139: Steve Dinan, Founder and former owner of DINAN, made the best products possible and backed them with a warranty and recently started a new service shop called CarBahn
June 11, 2018 08:30 - 1 hour - 85.1 MBSteve has known he was going to work with cards since the first grade. His dad was an engineer and his mom was a pianist and they encouraged Steve and his siblings to pursue any passion they wanted. This even includes Steve attempting to build a submarine as a kid. He ended up getting drafted to the Vietnam War and worked as an electrical engineer supporting the airplanes. Once he got out, he went to college and got an engineering degree. While at school, he worked at a BMW repair shop. It w...
138: Jason Gauci of Lund International talks product development, marketing, and patents for their products in the off-road truck market
June 04, 2018 08:30 - 58 minutes - 67 MBJason grew up in upstate New York and spent his childhood around cars. For college, he went to Clarkson University and got his Mechanical Engineering degree. He had every intention to go work for an auto company in Detroit but he just couldn’t commit to the cold weather. So, he moved south to work for Home Depot as a mechanical engineer. He worked his way up the ranks and eventually moved on to work for Newell Brands (makers up Rubbermaid and other household items) as a product engineer. Whi...
137: Brent Picasso of Autosport Labs discusses the process of using crowd funding to make RaceCapture and Podium
May 28, 2018 13:47 - 1 hour - 92.9 MBBrent is a first generation American and his parents immigrated to the states after WW2. He spent a lot of his childhood playing with electronics. During high school, he practically took over the computer lab in the mid 80’s to code and tinker however he liked. He went to college to get a Computer Science degree and worked for Microsoft after graduating. He then moved over to GE Capital to do software support for them. At this point, he discovered Autocross and fell in love immediately! He...
136: Dave Rowe of EPS Motorsports travels all over the world tuning various race cars using his MoTeC expertise
May 21, 2018 08:30 - 52 minutes - 60.2 MBDave grew up in Melbourne, Australia and has always been a petrol head. He knew from an early age that he wanted to work with cars and left school at 15 to get an apprenticeship at a local dealership. During that time, he began racing go carts to satisfy his need to race. Once he finished his apprenticeship program, he became qualified to be hired as a mechanic. He then got a job at a shop that focused on motorsports and he began racing cars himself. After that, he took a job at MoTeC in Mel...
135: Lance Stander, the owner of Superformance, tells how he moved from South Africa to the US to pursue his passion for cars
May 14, 2018 08:30 - 55 minutes - 63.8 MBLance is from South Africa and he grew up working with his dad at his dealership and salvage yard. When he grew up, he took over part of the business and spent years growing it. Eventually, he decided to make the move to America and attempted to continue with the auto salvage business. He came over on a holiday visa and quickly discovered how hard it is to become an American citizen. After 3 rejections, he was able to finally make it legal and he and his family got their citizenship. Along t...
134: Jim Ring shares how he and his brother Mike expanded RingBrothers to include manufacturing billet assemblies and specialty body panels
May 07, 2018 08:30 - 49 minutes - 56.9 MBThe Ring brothers grew up around their dad’s fueling station and spent their time tinkering with whatever they could get their hands on. Jim moved around a few times and eventually moved his family back home to Spring Green, WI (2 hours west of Milwaukee). He saw a 1969 Camaro Indy Pace car for sale in the paper and had to get a loan from a bank to purchase the car. He fixed it up and ended up selling it for a profit. This was the catalyst for starting his own shop. Jim found a vacant car de...
133: Kris Miller has helped Powerstop Brakes increase their brand’s recognition through strategic sponsorships and by creating excellent content
April 30, 2018 08:30 - 1 hour - 84.6 MBKris grew up in Chicago and stayed there to go to college. His family has always been enthusiasts and he grew up tinkering with anything he could get his hands on. He got a degree in Aviation Flight Management and got his A&P License. He never worked in the aerospace industry because he got offered a job at a fuel management company. This company was buildings components of Holly’s EFI throttle body. His next move was over to AMS Performance as their 4th employee. He helped them grow the bus...
132: Gary Carbono left his job as a lawyer in Panama to pursue his passion for cars and founded Race Lab Motorsports
April 23, 2018 08:30 - 1 hour - 76.9 MBGary was born in Panama but grew up in the United States. His father had a machine shop and Gary was always around cars. He worked at his dad’s shop at a very early age and learned the importance of hard work. His parents ended up getting a divorce and Gary moved to Panama to live with his mom when he was 9. In his early 20’s, he bought a truck and began modifying it immediately. He increased the power with a supercharger and did basic tuning adjustments. He went to law school and became a l...
131: John Nguyen quit his day job to pursue Track Spec Motorsports and has parlayed that into the Spec Corvette racing series
April 16, 2018 08:30 - 1 hour - 99.9 MBJohn was born in Florida but moved to Philadelphia when he was 10. His dad and he were always tinkering and fixed things rather than replacing them. He stayed in the area and went to college at Penn State to get a Mechanical Engineering degree. Even though his passion for cars never went away, he got a job at a beverage company and ended up in California managing a facility. During that time, he had a side hustle of selling other people’s parts online. It became more and more difficult to ...
130: Scott Molitor of MoFab takes us through the process of acquiring a performance shop to grow his business
April 09, 2018 08:30 - 1 hour - 83.6 MBScott grew up in Minnesota and enjoyed tinkering and making stuff as a kid. He played with dirt bikes and 3 wheelers anything else he could get his hands on. His dad got transferred for work and ended up in Colorado. After high school, he enrolled in an automotive program while working at a construction job. After graduating with his Associates Degree, he went hunting for a job. He had bought a Mitsubishi Galant VR4 and fell in love with imports and turbos. During this time, he meets Nick wh...
129: Dennis Overholser, co-founder of Painless Performance Products, takes us through the ups and downs of growing his wiring and accessories company
April 02, 2018 08:30 - 54 minutes - 62.8 MBDennis grew up on a farm in Indiana and went to Nashville Auto Diesel College before getting drafted to the Air Force during Vietnam. He took a position as a mechanic for their vehicle maintenance division and spent his time repairing equipment. When he got back to Indiana, he met a girl whose family lived in Ft Worth. During one of their visits to her family, he realized there were a lot of jobs in Ft Worth and made up his mind that is where they wanted to move. He got a job as a tractor de...
128: The Bondurant Racing School just celebrated its 50th year in business! Tune in to hear what Pat and Bob are doing to make it thrive for another 50 years.
March 26, 2018 08:30 - 1 hour - 105 MBBob has been racing his entire life. He got started in small Morgans and Triumphs in California and was jealous of the loud and fast American race cars. He stepped up to Corvettes and started winning immediately. He caught the eye of Carol Shelby who was trying to get Bob to race in the Shelby Cobra. After Bob had to race against a Cobra, he was convinced it was superior and went over to Carol’s team to drive. He won a bunch of races that year and then they took the Cobra to Europe with Dan ...
127: Tim Palazzolo of GAP Racing earned his reputation as a world-class builder by paying attention to the little details
March 19, 2018 08:30 - 1 hour - 92.8 MBTim was practically born into working on cars. His dad worked at an automotive repair business and Tim immediately took a liking to cars. When he turned 14, he got a compact truck and began modifying it for the mini-truck scene. He built the car all by himself and was happy to show it off at high school. He got his associates degree and got a job at O’Reilly Auto Parts as a delivery driver. Over the years, Tim worked his way up through the ranks, managed his own store, and even worked at the...
126: Trevor and Travis Hill of TWOth Autosport want to take novices and turn them into professional racing drivers
March 12, 2018 08:30 - 1 hour - 101 MBAs kids, Trevor and Travis saved up their money and spent it on go carts. With a matching contribution from their dad, they were able to get pretty serious and eventually toured around the US and Canada to race go carts. They both ended up going to college but continued to race. Their goal the whole time was to be professional race car drivers and they thought of school as their backup plan. Travis ended up working at the race track in Calabogie as a driving coach and began developing a busi...
125: Dirk Starksen from Advanced Clutch Technology (ACT) tells how he got started and how he continues to innovate
March 05, 2018 09:30 - 59 minutes - 81.5 MBDirk has always been a builder and tinkerer. He started working for a clutch company called Kennedy Engineered Products that built engine adapters and clutches for VW’s. He was working as a clutch assembler and was in college for a Mechanical Engineering degree. He worked his way up the ranks at KEP. In 1994, Dirk was working on a project for the Japanese import vehicles and asked his boss if he could take the idea and run with it. In 1996, he started Advanced Clutch Technology (ACT) and sta...
124: Doug and Brad DeBerti build crazy vehicles, race trucks, and have a new show on Discovery called Twin Turbos
February 26, 2018 09:30 - 1 hour - 91.1 MBDescription: Doug and Brad DeBerti, the father and son duo, have a new Discovery Channel show called Twin Turbos. Doug was born and raised in Montana and moved down to Bakersfield, CA when he was 18. In the late 80’s, Doug got a new truck and began making custom parts for it. He wiggled his way into a building lease and took out 4 credit cards to raise capital for the new business. In an ingenious move to project inventory, he would buy empty boxes from manufacturers and weighted them down! ...
123: Glen Reid of Futura Trailers brought his innovative idea of a lowering trailer to reality
February 19, 2018 09:30 - 1 hour - 93.5 MBGlen is from New Zealand and his dad actually used to own a trailer company. His dad sold the company in the mid-eighties and it was a couple decades before Glen got back into trailers. After high school, Glen got into construction and went off to create his own construction company. Glen then moved to Dubai and did construction there as well. Over the next decade, he built a very large business with around 700 employees. His next adventure went down a completely different path. He took hi...
122: David Schardt of Forgeline Motorsports continues to push the envelope with their carbon+forged wheels
February 12, 2018 09:30 - 56 minutes - 77.6 MBDavid was born and raised in Ohio and has been there his entire life. Growing up, he was very active in outdoor activities and his dad was racing. By the time he was 18, he had his SCCA license and was racing pretty regularly. When he went to college, he started off in Accounting but changed it to HR and Psychology. During school, he wrote a business plan to distribute wheels in the Midwest. His dad owned Dayton Wire Wheels and he noticed there was a void in the market of distributing wheels...
121: Bob Boileau discusses how he became President of Pikes Peak International Raceway and how they have outlasted the previous owners
February 05, 2018 09:30 - 1 hour - 96.3 MBBob grew up in Colorado and has been around racing his whole life. His dad raced with SCCA and then became the chief driving instructor in Colorado. His dad brought the family to a race and they met another family of racers. It was at this time that Bob would meet his future wife (she was 11 and he was 13). Bob went to college for a business degree and ended up in California after graduating to become a stunt driver. He ended up moving back to Colorado when he and his wife got married. Bac...
120: Paul “Scooter” Brothers shares his experience at Comp Performance Group, the SEMA board, and how they look for companies to acquire
December 11, 2017 09:30 - 1 hour - 90.8 MBScooter grew up as a mechanic and got his first job right out of high school. He was drafted to the Navy during the Vietnam War where he served as an aircraft mechanic. When he came back home, he got a job at Racing Head Service around 1972. They were having trouble finding good camshafts for their market so they started Cam Dynamics (now Comp Cams) to fill the need. Over the past few decades, Scooter and the team have built Comp Performance Group into a juggernaut in the aftermarket power...
119: Larry Chen works every single day to capture stunning automotive pictures from all over the globe
December 04, 2017 09:30 - 1 hour - 93.4 MBLarry scraped and saved up $1000 to purchase his first Canon Rebel XT DSLR camera back in 2004. He had been taking pictures with a simple point-and-shoot but wanted to step up his professionalism. He had his own business fixing & building computers but also took pictures as a paparazzi. These jobs were a means to an end that allowed him to take automotive pictures. Over the last 13 years, he has traveled all over the world and been to hundreds of events to pursue his passion. As a testamen...
118: Chris Stewart took his knowledge of marketing & design and combined it with his love of music & racing to create the GridLife festivals
November 27, 2017 09:30 - 1 hour - 102 MBChris went to college at an art school in Michigan and focused on graphic design. After graduating, he worked at several design firms and worked his way up the corporate ladder. He was also running a forum called EFHonda to pursue his passion of the EF Honda chassis. He even started his own parking lot meet up called the EF Honda Meet to hang out with fellow enthusiasts. In 2004, they stepped it up and rented Gingerman Raceway on a Monday and took their cars out on to the track. They called ...
117: John Whalen of Whalen Speed R&D details how he has built up his business over the years
November 20, 2017 09:30 - 1 hour - 89.5 MBJohn bought his first Eagle Talon when he was in high school and upgraded to a turbo Eclipse when he got to college. He did quite a few mods and ran it a lot at the drag strip. Then, John and some buddies got together and rented a small shop to modify their cars and others for customers. After a few years, John separated off and took his fabrication equipment to work at another shop. That second shop began to shift to more domestic cars so John decided to go out on his own. He bought an 85...
116: Trevor Doelling of Texas Speed quit installing parts to focus on online sales. Now, they are machining and manufacturing their own parts.
November 13, 2017 09:30 - 1 hour - 84.8 MBTrevor raced cars all through high school and he progressed over the years with more powerful and faster cars. When he turned 21, he bought a Trans Am that came with the new LS V8. At that same time, his now business partner Jason Mangum also had a Trans Am and they raced against each other any chance they got! Trevor graduated college in 2000 and moved to Dallas, TX to look for a job. It was at this time that Trevor and Jason really considered starting a real business. When they pulled th...
115: Howard Anderson of AR Fabrication and Darton East believes that slow and steady growth is the best way to ensure success
November 06, 2017 09:00 - 1 hour - 114 MBHoward began his focus in the sport compact performance market building roll cages and engines for customers. He bought his first CNC machine way back in 2005 because he wasn’t able to reliably get sleeved blocks. Things were going good until the economic downturn in 2008 when they had to sell off all the assets to stay out of bankruptcy. In 2010, he started Howard’s Hot Rods with his wife. This was kind of a side business and Howard went to work for another machine shop. As time went on, ...
114: Three friends - Jeremy, Ben, and John - teamed up with different skill sets to start Fathouse Fabrications
October 23, 2017 08:30 - 1 hour - 63.1 MBJeremy and John met during high school and shared their love for turbocharged 4-cylinder cars. Jeremy (aka Fathouse) and John worked behind John’s parent’s house wrenching on their cars and other peoples’ cars. They met Ben at a car meet and struck up a lasting friendship. After a few years of doing car stuff on the side, they decided to have a go at creating a real performance shop. They all brought a different aspect to the table: Jeremy was an industrial welder and had been fabricating ...