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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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