They fired off a store not long after I made it here to Arkansas. Adds on the radio all the time, 8517 Geyer Springs Road, Little Rock, Arkansas. I bought a few parts for my 65 Chevy pickup from them. Their parking lot was one of the places to hang out when cruising Geyer Springs Road. A couple of the guys stayed in the speed parts business with a locally owned store.
Would like to hear more old stories about this very famous chain of speed shops, they started from a small shop in San Bernardino and grew to becoming the world's largest, gave away a few Funny Cars and who can forget "Super Nanook" which almost won the big 64 Funny Car meet at OCIR?
So what's the word? They ever get any stores open? Used to be Super Shops on South Cobb Dr in ATL (Marietta if you wanna get technical). I bought some stuff there back in the day, like a cowl hood for my V8 Vega. Lol. Whatever happened with some of the other big names in the speed shop bizz? Gratiot, Midwest, even Johnny's Speed and Chrome was big back in the day.
I bought a Mallory distributor for a 65 Sport Fury (383) at the one on South Cobb Drive back in the late 80's. I didn't buy much else. I tried a couple times. But, all they seemed to know anything about was Chevy stuff so I gave up going there.
We had one in Nashville years ago. Most of the staff was from California. We all hung out there every Thursday night into the late hours.We would pack the parking lot full of cool cars, then we would head out to long straight aways to do some illegal drag racing...those were the days
Tried them several times in the 80's and never impressed with there knowledge or service. A few long trips to there shop with zero results told me to go else where and did. Next time I happen to drive by and they were closed so it seems stupid finally caught up with them and they paid the ultimate price.
Midwest got bought out by Summit in '83 or so. Gratiot faded away in '79 or 80 I think...I used to go to the SS in Red Bank, just across town from Chattanooga...Agreed on the bozo status of most of the guys there. I bought a couple sets of Weld Draglites and BFGs from them, and one set of Cragar Drag Stars, the Bob Glidden stickered ones. They had the 15X14 in stock there, or I may have very well been in the same boat as metalman. I still remember the first full set of Russell AN fittings and braided stainless I bought from there...Just like the magazine cars, yeah buddy. They sat for 3 o4 years until I finally got a car built to use them, lol. The shop I liked best closed before I turned 16, well the store did anyway. Honest Charleys went on as Speed Distributors Warehouse for a couple more years, then it too vanished. Happily, Honest Charleys is open again in downtown Chattanooga, albeit with new high prices (higher than when they were open in the 70s and early 80s.) and a lot of gold-chainer stuff. I still remember that Muncie 4-speed display with a big old Mr Gasket vertical gate shifter for a demo.... Yeah, I ended up buying 3 or 4 of those shifters in following years because of that display: I have 3 now.....
The wheels on my car came from Super Shops! .... weld super tricks.... man, they look dated!!!!! My first purchase was also an Erson cam and I HAD to have one of those cool Erson Cam jackets!!!
Man, Super Shops......Geez, I remember way back I bought a set of 195/50-15s for my wifes '94 Civic.....musta been about, oh,....'95 or so...... Good times.....
Way back at the beginning of this thread, Ryan said.. Were you and Les partners? Now THAT'S a top-notch guy!
does anyone know if they reopened a store in texas, i loved that place , have some warranty stuff for them too, haha love lifetimes
Yeah we had a Super Shops here in Columbus, the building is still there, it hasn't changed. Now its called Rim Tyme.....Fo Shizzle !!!
We had a super shop out here in spokane until about 1995 or so. It was across the st. from the titty bar talk about killing two birds with one stone.
ding! Ding!ding! I used to sell parts too,not at super shops but i know exactly what you mean!actually it was kinda funny sometimes when those asses had to come back in and eat crow!!!those guys hated it even more because back then i was in my early 20's.
There was one down the street from me in the Dayton area and its now a rent to own appliance store,they had some questionable people behind the counter like in the discount parts stores of today. I had some issues buying parts there as I did not know what I needed sometimes and the people behind the counter did not know what they were selling so I ended up with the wrong parts most of the time,I should of went a little farther down the street to another speed shop that was locally owned by a racer but the super shop had better store hours.
We had 2 here in Indy (1991) - I bought my wheels, tires, all the engine chrome for my then '73 Mustang "Street Machine" - what I liked about them they had everything in stock - no waiting - you could touch and feel and size stuff up on your car - today 1-800 hope it's right & fits.
Holy cow. I think the last time I bought anything at Super Shops (Garden Grove Racing) was about 30 years ago. Bought some custom Centerlines, and some hardened pushrods. The pushrods were bent, they told me they are supposed to be that way, but took them back anyhow. Seems they gave away a funny car, and the new owner looped it off the start line at OCIR (DOA), tried a second pass, and gave up. I never saw that car again at OCIR. Good times.
bought a set of sbc valve cover gaskets there in the early 80's. i was asked what kind of car so i told them 41 chevy with a 1970 400 sb turbo 350 trans from a 72 nova 10 bolt posi from a 66 impala it has a white body with a blue door and primered trunk. asked them if they needed any more imfo. ? just got this blank stare back at me. finally after about a minute i had to educate him that they were all the same. still had to give him a year to look them up. stupid shops, YEP.
Ok I have to chime in here ! A long time ago in San Diego we had a great speed shop call "San Diego Racing Equiopment" Run by car guys for car guys. Well they got bought out by Stupid Shops and ran most of the car guys off because they wanted them to sell sell sell not really caring about what or who it was for. The Manager of that store was Gary Forsithe (sp) He went on to become Western regonial rep for SS. I would call him at least once a month and tell him how screwed up his store was. The after they turned it in to a lowclass Pep Boys it went down hill fast!!! And like it has been posted here they only stocked stuff for Chevys. I could get it cheaper and faster through Summit. Maybe the new stores are doing better I will see when I get home!
I used to check out the one on Van Nuys Blvd. in my GTO. I didn't know shit, but it was fun. I still don't know shit, but I'm having alot more fun.
Older guys? Older guys? Super Shops was a modern speed shop. You want old, look at Almquist (east coast) or the original Honest Charlie's or I suppose Blairs or So-Cal for the lefties. Older guys, that's funny!
I had a giggle at the Older Guys thing too, Im in my 30s and remember them still being around in the early 90s.
Now I have the Super Shops radio commercial stuck in my head. " 4550 University Avenue IN San Diego...."
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