Many of us "older" guys and gals probably remember Super Shops, which once was the nation's largest chain of speed shops. They sponsored Garlits and Eddy Hill, gave away race cars, and was the nation's largest retailer of BF Goodrich tires. But, for a lot of us, it was the place we first got our hands on real speed parts and was a great place to hang out and "live the dream". They bellied up back in the late 80's, I think. Well, some cat down in San Diego has apparently licensed the name and is out to build a franchise chain of new Super Shops. The first two are in 'Diego and Ramona, and a third just opened up in San Bernardino, which happens to be the town where the old Super Shops first started. Maybe I shouldn't care, but... wow. Just when I thought a real live brick and mortar old school speed emporium was a thing of the past, some guy thinks he can turn the clock back. I wish him luck fighting Jeg's and Summit.
That's cool, I remember Super Shops. They used to sell all kinds of go fast V-8 parts. Hard part for them will be staffing the place with somebody that knows something. I still have a cam in the box from Super Shops that the guy working there picked out for me (hey I was young and dumb )for a build ,looking at the grind #'s years later the thing might as well be a stock cam. No discernable improvement anywhere. LOL
hope it does better this time around, they went down in the early 90's. to me they earned the nickname "stupid shops" for a reason......they had some real winners behind the counter. but you know it's going to be mainly tuner parts with a sbc intake thrown in there i bet. i mainly went to vic hubbards for performance stuff in high school/j.c.
We had a Super Shops at 21st and Memorial and I loved the place, was sorry to see it go. "Super Shops... Because everyone deserves performance."
to me they earned the nickname "stupid shops" for a reason......they had some real winners behind the counter. Well ill tell ya OldTimer, Being that i was in the top 10 salesman list in the ENTIRE Super Shops chain for over 2 years till i became Manager of the Thousand Oaks California branch, The guys that worked there that Knew there shit felt the same way about Many of the Know It All customers that walked in the door. Stupid Shops was a Name hung on the guys after we sold the CUSTOMER what he asked for and it wasent the right parts for the application. CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT !! I cant tell ya how many 1850 Holley 600cfm carbs i sold to guys that KNEW that was the right carb for there SS 396 El Camino's & 429 Torinos, Or maybe the $89.99 Weiand manifolds for S/B chevys. Was a cool place to work & they paid O.K... that started almost 15 years of working as a parts counter person. Wonder how it will be this time ?
wow that brings back alot... we had one here in indy, i bought alot of parts from them, also it was a place to sit and park on fri and sat nights.....
Bought a set of cragar drag lights (still got em) in Anaheim, BBC oil pan in Denver, and lots of stuff in OKC Super Shops. I was sorry to see them go.
Now thats a walk back in time.I remember the one that was on Stevens Creek Blvd.I hope they make it this time.
Just remember High School in Los Angeles in the early 80's, going to Super Shops was like an exciting field trip.
I went to the one in Belmont once for spark plugs for my 460 Ford with 12.5 Arias pistons Small chamber heads and a 125 NOX shot. Kid didn't have the heat range I wanted but gave me some extended tip Fire in Oil plugs. Couldn't understand why I wasn't happy. Garenteed they would fit. Never went back.
i can see that happeneing, maybe it was just down by me since i started going there near the end. i was a kid myself so i went in there with questions and got the "i don't know" bit alot. it seemed like they were a step above pep boys (but there was 1 good guy in the costa mesa store) and didn't care to help people much. but i did like the smell of the place .
yup ! definetley rember them! i used to visit the one on rosemead blvd(?) and the one near azuza/glendora area...i was a young kid with gas money (when gas was abut .88 cents a gallon!) and nothing better to do than cruise to supershops and check out the headers,centerlines and cams....about the only thing i could ever afford was flourecent VHT paint for the engine i built for my 68 camaro and a set of accell wires
OHH YESSS, The smell of 1000 tires laying around & packing lube from all the parts. And dont get me wrong, There were some real Walnut heads that went thru there for sure... We would try & weed them out or leave them in the shop changing tires till they quit !
other than tires it seems everthing they had needed to be ordered... nothing in stock. I bought a bunch of stuff for my 70 Z/28 from them. it took forever. they called me and told me it was all in, then I went there and it wasn't. I told them they could refund me on the spot or send it to me via UPS. I have no idea what it was I bought but it was a lot of money for me at the time. that was the Stevens Creek store in San Jose (?). I just drove by there last week. I think it's a shoe store. they had one in Fremont too, it had even less stock on hand than the other store. seems like I bought some BFG tires at the Fremont store for my HOT ROD Datsun truck
Actually, I thought Service Center was the place for go fast stuff and the Super Shops is where you went for tires.
We had a couple here in Austin and my experiences were like RichFox's. Youd always go there with high hopes only to be let down by bad info or the wrong parts. I hope the latest incarnation has thier shit together.
Our local Super Shops is now a seafood joint.... I used to love going there when I was younger..... One friday afternoon, they had their tire guy mount and try, at least, 6 sets of different wheels/tires on my 70 SS454 Chevelle!!! Just cuz they were slow, and it was fun for them, and me.
You sure it was Rosemead Blvd? I remember the one on San Gabriel Blvd., but don't remember one on Rosemead.
I used to frequent the one up here. They always had the lowest prices. Towards the end I think hey were selling alot of factory blems because they knew that they wouldn't have to warranty them. Dave
thats why i put the (?) i couldnt remeber exactly which strret it was on,,but in that area... cornernfool mentioned ServiceCenter! now that was the place my pops used to frequent and i'd always tag along too..,,there was one located in El Monte (where we lived) and Richard was the man who ran it..Richard and my dad went way back,, he pioletd a 66 (?) nova wagon for years at pomona(and he was fat)
Gotta love speed shops....My old man had a customer awile back come in his machine shop and he had built his own "speed shop" 350 SBC. It had 3 forged pistons and 5 cast pistons, almost .580" lift cam with stock rockers and springs,and 850 Holley on it! It ran good
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