Passion to Career

Ever wonder what happened to actual performance shops? I'm not talking about the shops that are 8 ft. wide by 25 ft. long with walls full of some knockoff parts, I'm talking about a shop that when you walk in you get the feeling that the people behind the counter know what they are talking about and know that the products they are no bullshit. shops like this are hard to find but I managed to find one while taking a stroll in the city of Alhambra, Ca.

The Carshop is a rare breed of shop, they do anything and everything imaginable out in the back. They do shit like stereo, tinting, alarm, rims, lowering, performance and they even work on setting up cars for drift, drag, track, to VIP, stance and show cars. The manager John said, and I quote, "we do all that shit dawg!"

"We can fuck with whatever your budget is, whatever you want 99.9% of the time I'll get it for you, even if we have to import it." 

after sitting down for a couple hours with John I got a chance to see how the shop was ran and talk about the passion for cars. John says "I've been wrenchin since i was 5 but ive been hooked when my older brother would bring me to battle import in the early 90's when it was really big." So right off the bat that I was talking to someone that knew what was up in the car scene, a real veteran at the young age of 30 (even though I though he was like 38) 

But the one thing that brought me into the shop was this sexy ass Honda ej1 sitting in the middle of the shop just begging for admiration. (yes i was totally lurkin on her) I must have made at least 40 circles around her and not once did it ever get old. It was rocking a very aggressive wheel fitment, a set of 16x8 0 offset XXR 531 to be exact. it had the works done on it, had a clean as vinyl flat black wrap (yes i said wrapped, not one part was painted)
 the entire inside was covered in dynamat to provide a crisp sound to the custom sound system that's on display inside. The shop car also showed off a carbon spoon lip with a carbon fiber trunk and roof wrap with some vision spoon style side mirrors. 

Now onto the interior, what I like to call "the guts." Right away I knew that the dash wasn't oem but  actually a dash out of an Acura RSX that lead down to a custom fit center console out of a BMW and a Mugen short shifter. This ej had a set of Bride seats with Takata and Sparco racing harnesses. This car wasn't flashy it all but if you were to see it there is no doubt you would be pretty speechless. 

Under the hood wasnt flashy at all just a stock D16z6 single cam Vtec with the stock automatic tranny (AND THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH NOT BEING 5 SPEED) that at one point was running a nitrous system.  

Spending a couple hours in this shop made me realize why I got into the car scene, the love that John had for cars was so vast it made me love them even more! honestly this guy could get you hyped on anything, plus his personality is just out of the box. 

TheGarageLife would like to say thanks to everyone at The Carshop for letting me shoot pictures and taking the time to talk about our passions, if anyone is down in the LA area make sure to check them out at 1820 West Valley, Alhambra Ca.