We've all seen the posts & pictures, about "Dream Garages", "Super Shops", etc. and wondered "Who the H*ll owns/affords/add your own expletive here" these things. I got a guided tour by the owner of a shop that kicks *ss on anything I've seen here!
I was called this afternoon to be the #2 on a fire alarm annual test. It was on the diagonally opposite end of the planet, I was hoping for a short day and was P.O'd about having to go..... blah blah. I got there and was elected to be the "panel dummy", at the front door keypad, pushing "ACK" while the other guy walked around and set off the detectors and flow sensors. After about 15 minutes of "Yeah, got the alarm" I looked closely at the blueprint on the wall. I see:
Dyno Cell
Control Room
Chassis Dyno
Clean Room
Assembly Room
Machining Area
Bar / Lounge (!)
This really started to pique my curiousity. The building is about 1/2 block square, with offices on the front 1/3, and all this "stuff" in (what I assumed) was warehouse space. I assumed this from the tenant's sign on the building - NOT a car-type place. I asked the receptionist "What do you guys do here??" "We buy/sell COAL". Mmmm "OK", and I went back to pushing "ACK". (I figured the print was from the previous tenant). We got done with the sensor testing, and my partner Nextels me to "Come on back to the warehouse area, I need to show you something..."
I open the door to the "warehouse" and am greeted by:
90,000 sq. ft. of surgically clean floor.
Lighting you need sunglasses for.
Everything I mentioned above!
There was a 500+ inch KB hemi bolted to the dyno - waiting for "individual cylinder" EGT/EGA bungs to be fitted to the headers...
A "DART" sb chevy on the line boring machine having the factory .0001" errors corrected.
A '34 Ford Coupe strapped to the IN-FLOOR chassis dyno waiting to have the new EFI setup "tuned"...
I nearly fainted.
The cars, the COMPLETE machine shop, the tuning facilities, and the BAR!
Just a "blue-collar man's" type bar/lounge in a windowed room off the shop - about 40' long, to have my club friends over for meetings.....
Holy Crapola Batman!
"Your Partner here said you were a "gear-head", I thought you'd like me to show you around..." Needless to say I was stunned. This entire FACILITY is for the owner's hobby - going fast. I asked him for his card, and if he'd be willing to "maybe you'd like to host one of my Chevelle Clubs meetings someday???" "Well, I just had 50 of my Ferrari friend over the other day, but give me a call, we might work something out!"
I'm still freaked!
I was called this afternoon to be the #2 on a fire alarm annual test. It was on the diagonally opposite end of the planet, I was hoping for a short day and was P.O'd about having to go..... blah blah. I got there and was elected to be the "panel dummy", at the front door keypad, pushing "ACK" while the other guy walked around and set off the detectors and flow sensors. After about 15 minutes of "Yeah, got the alarm" I looked closely at the blueprint on the wall. I see:
Dyno Cell
Control Room
Chassis Dyno
Clean Room
Assembly Room
Machining Area
Bar / Lounge (!)
This really started to pique my curiousity. The building is about 1/2 block square, with offices on the front 1/3, and all this "stuff" in (what I assumed) was warehouse space. I assumed this from the tenant's sign on the building - NOT a car-type place. I asked the receptionist "What do you guys do here??" "We buy/sell COAL". Mmmm "OK", and I went back to pushing "ACK". (I figured the print was from the previous tenant). We got done with the sensor testing, and my partner Nextels me to "Come on back to the warehouse area, I need to show you something..."
I open the door to the "warehouse" and am greeted by:
90,000 sq. ft. of surgically clean floor.
Lighting you need sunglasses for.
Everything I mentioned above!
There was a 500+ inch KB hemi bolted to the dyno - waiting for "individual cylinder" EGT/EGA bungs to be fitted to the headers...
A "DART" sb chevy on the line boring machine having the factory .0001" errors corrected.
A '34 Ford Coupe strapped to the IN-FLOOR chassis dyno waiting to have the new EFI setup "tuned"...
I nearly fainted.
The cars, the COMPLETE machine shop, the tuning facilities, and the BAR!
Just a "blue-collar man's" type bar/lounge in a windowed room off the shop - about 40' long, to have my club friends over for meetings.....
Holy Crapola Batman!
"Your Partner here said you were a "gear-head", I thought you'd like me to show you around..." Needless to say I was stunned. This entire FACILITY is for the owner's hobby - going fast. I asked him for his card, and if he'd be willing to "maybe you'd like to host one of my Chevelle Clubs meetings someday???" "Well, I just had 50 of my Ferrari friend over the other day, but give me a call, we might work something out!"
I'm still freaked!
