Speed Shop candy that we drooled over

[Richard Cranium]

The last speed shop in my area closed up years ago & towards the end, the majority of the stuff they were selling catered to the pump-my-ride crowd with gaudy wheels, and gaudy stick on crap.

 

[QuickBpBp]

View attachment 1101533

I have a chromed 70-2 383 air grabber base I am missing the lid... BUT I have the chromed '71 3 nipple breather which I have never seen another.. I got to polish this been sitting on a shelf for decades..

 

[ckessel]

My favorite place to have worked at still is the defunct speed shop in San Luis Obispo, The Parts House, from back in the early 80's. We had not just a set of headers or an intake laying around. Over 100 sets of headers, 30+ manifolds, factory direct with Carter/Earls/Norris Cams/Eagle Headers/Carillo Rods/Ross Pistons/Hank The crank/Brownfield Heads[ now AFR]/Cragar Wheels plus tons more stuff. It was always a juggling act at payday. Had to pay my bill plus house stuff. Lots of PB&J sandwiches! I always figured that was the gear heads equivalent of working at Victoria's Secret.

 

[3sloppydogs]

Our local shop was Coleman Bros. Started in an old wooden building then moved to a nice facility near t door. They did a lot of in house machine work. Good stuff.
Just down the road from our old dirt track Dorsey speedway in Elkridge md.
I miss both of them

 

[Cranky]

A good looking blond local girl helped me put it all back together. She'd go with me to the speed shop even. She was a sweetheart. Still own the car. Should have married the girl.

I finally married the girl that did the stuff with me and the cars. She even made a few laps at the drag strip and 'tried' to learn to drive my 9 second car out on the back 40 at the drag strip but the seat was in a fixed position and she couldn't reach the shifter to put it in reverse let alone park. Well, when she thought the gettin wasn't as good as it should have been, she drug up after 31 years....

 

[dart4forte]

https://www.hotrod.com/articles/salem-speed-the-shop-time-forgot/

Went to a Salem Or Mopar show and drove by the place. Nobody home however I found out the ole boy comes by and wrenches on some of the motors he ha# in there.

 

[Budnicks]

There used to be a chain outfit Service Center - Speed Shops
in Concord Ca., I use to go in weekly at a min.
the guy behind the counter was the owner,
he was always willing to help, had a decent inventory
usually had to order anything I wanted

I worked at Monument Automotive Supply, as a teen
Concord, Pleasant Hill & Antioch,
they had a decent lil' display wall & racks, a huge catalog area to browse
them big 5 hole steel stands on the counter, with every speed supplier
whenever I was working, not stocking shelves or delivering something
I was behind that "Speed" counter
I sold a crapload of performance stuff from there
most all my checks went to performance parts too

Bailey's Brothers Speed shop (speed & marine)
Vallejo Ca. were a top-notch speed shop & maching shop
their main business was Dirt trackers, Sprint Cars & Drag Racers

Morgan's Machine, Marine & Speed Shop, in Walnut Creek Ca.
Tim Morgan, he actually campaigned a T/F dragster
& a T/F Hydro IHBA drag boat, that had a couple of records
it was a cool store that had the dragster & fuel Hydro on display
good machine shop

We had a Super Shops in Vallejo Ca. IIRC too

Tognoti's Auto World was a cool place too, Sacramento Ca.
it was full of cool stuff & usually some race cars on display

Vic Hubbard's in Hayward was a great place too
right off the hwy-17 back then (880 frwy now) a sponsor of mine too

Gotelli Speed Shop in San Bruno Ca.

Flowmasters was in Santa Rosa Ca.

I'm sure I'm missing some of them too

 

[ckessel]

Hubbards had a wholesale section, Speed Warehouse, that Vern[ owner] also bought from. He campaigned a Nova SS 396 in SS competition NHRA in the 70's before I worked there. He held the class record with it. He built[ still does some] race engines mostly for the circle track crowd in the area. We had sand drag, asphalt drag, circle track, road race, boat and other customers coming through. He also carried normal parts like filters, brakes, belts, hoses, gaskets etc so it could be one stop shopping.

 

[dart4forte]

There used to be a chain outfit Service Center - Speed Shops
in Concord Ca., I use to go in weekly at a min.
the guy behind the counter was the owner,
he was always willing to help, had a decent inventory
usually had to order anything I wanted

I worked at Monument Automotive Supply, as a teen
Concord, Pleasant Hill & Antioch,
they had a decent lil' display wall & racks, a huge catalog area to browse
them big 5 hole steel stands on the counter, with every speed supplier
whenever I was working, not stocking shelves or delivering something
I was behind that "Speed" counter
I sold a crapload of performance stuff from there
most all my checks went to performance parts too

Bailey's Brothers Speed shop (speed & marine)
Vallejo Ca. were a top-notch speed shop & maching shop
their main business was Dirt trackers, Sprint Cars & Drag Racers

Morgan's Machine, Marine & Speed Shop, in Walnut Creek Ca.
Tim Morgan, he actually campaigned a T/F dragster
& a T/F Hydro IHBA drag boat, that had a couple of records
it was a cool store that had the dragster & fuel Hydro on display
good machine shop

We had a Super Shops in Vallejo Ca. IIRC too

Tognoti's Auto World was a cool place too, Sacramento Ca.
it was full of cool stuff & usually some race cars on display

Vic Hubbard's in Hayward was a great place too
right off the hwy-17 back then (880 frwy now) a sponsor of mine too

Gotelli Speed Shop in San Bruno Ca.

Flowmasters was in Santa Rosa Ca.

I'm sure I'm missing some of them too

There was a small speed shop at the end of Springs Road in Vallejo. This was in 73. They had a MP 56 Chevy in one of the bays.

 

[Dibbons]

Hell, a buddy of mine wanted to open a speed shop with me circa 1975. I contacted a wholesale supplier in the Bay Area (all they wanted to open an account was letterhead "proving" I was a business owner). I went to the local print shop and got the stationary made up. The warehouse representative said to call in my orders collect. The trick was they would refuse the call but call me back using their own WATS (wide area telephone service) line so I would not incur long distance phone charges.

I made up a name for the shop "High Performance Madness" and had a local guy paint my second-hand pickup doors with a turtle burning rubber with the initials of the shop "HPM" on the turtle's shell. Ran a fictitious business name notice in the local newspaper to make it legal.

My buddy flaked out so we never opened a business front anywhere. I ended up with a very small opening inventory in my garage at home (a full set of parts catalogs, a few sets of generic headers, 850 CFM Holley double pumper, various gaskets and accessories).

My first couple of sales were to a couple of locals who I turned over the special-order merchandise (clutch set-up and something else) without full payment. Ended up having to take them to small claims court to collect the balance. Quite a fiasco. About the same time a, Super Shop or Service Center (don't remember the name for sure) franchise opened up in Salinas and my business plan came to a screeching halt after that.