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up this year; that was always going to be her car so to get that one running after being down for three years was the most rewarding feeling and it’ s one of the most fun cars to drive. I love that car very much. It means the world to me.
Whenever you complete any project it’ s a good feeling, especially when the project has kicked your ass. I would have to say another rewarding project was Ross Baird’ s car; that was the first Viper I had ever worked on. I needed a transmission for my Supra and he had a brand-new one lying around. He asked me to build him a twin turbo kit in exchange for the transmission, so I said done deal! I trailered the car down to my shop and had it for about a month or so. I built this top-notch, twin 76-millimeter turbo kit for it and then sent the car back over to Powerhouse Racing and Dynosaur Performance where it was built and pieced back together over a course of seven
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months. Once finished, that car went 7.70 in the quarter mile off the trailer! Seeing your twin-turbo kit do work like that was a pretty good feeling. That was the first big power car I ever did a turbo kit on.
Who and which companies work close with Calvo Motorsports to make all of this possible?
Definitely Dynosaur Performance and Powerhouse Racing are going to be our two biggest companies that have worked with us. The cars wouldn’ t have worked the way they did if it wasn’ t for Ross, Clint, Brian and all of the people at Dynosaur / Powerhouse. They were there when we were getting big and they have helped us along the way. They are good guys over there; they have helped us so much. Also, I am very glad to have Colin and his tuning company Ninjaneering on board with us; that man is a genius when it comes to tuning.
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What advice would you give other performance shops that want to follow in your automotive footsteps?
Don’ t do it!( laughs) I’ m kidding, but some advice I have for other performance shops, don’ t undercut or cheapen yourself just to get work. The biggest problem I see in this industry is that people cheapen themselves to get a job and they will undercut anybody and it worsens the whole industry. The only thing you’ re doing is taking money out of your own pockets.
I see that with so many people that come in here; you don’ t get filthy rich in this business; you do it because you love it. You have people that come up to you and say,‘ Well this shop will do it for so much,’ and I don’ t understand how they make any money off doing that and the reality is they really don’ t because they are trying to get that
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one job and that just ends up paying for an old job that they didn’ t make money on and it’ s just a vicious cycle. I think that’ s the biggest problem in the aftermarket industry in general. You have all of these companies producing these parts from China that make it next to impossible to compete with. That’ s probably the biggest hurdle most of us have had to deal with.
What can we expect from Calvo Motorsports in the future?
I really just want to stick to the heads / cam and turbo kit packages for now. They are in and out, and they are easy. I would like to do some more big builds like the General, but not super crazy. I’ d like to have a group of customers that want to go racing all the time and just service those cars. I think that would be really fun.- KEVIN COX
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