Hi-Speed Power Equipment, located in Valley Stream NY, was opened by Frank Dominianni in the forties. Hi-Speed was the first shop in the area to have an engine and chassis dyno and did everything, engine swaps, conversions, repairs, you name it. He was a master with the early Vette FI units. The amazing thing is, Frank is still running his shop 7 days a week 10 plus hours per day! The shop is a time capsule - I don't think the exterior has been painted in forty years. I cannot even imagine the parts and pieces that are in this shop.
Frank raced a Crosley powered Nardi in the early fifties, then moved to Corvettes and raced successfully through the sixties and seventies, winning the SCCA B Production National Championship twice! Frank's Championship winning '62 is currently owned by Mike Yeager
Don and Harold Nicholson's Speed Shop n Arcadia, California in 1953. Don got the nickname "Dyno" years later and Harold was killed at the Saugus drag strip in 1955. Here's my sedan in front of the building in March of 2009
Not really a speed shop but fits better here than anywhere else. Hot Rod magazine office 1952 . George Hill's "City of Burbank" streamliner. Just set class "C" record @ 229.77 MPH with a 248" Merc flathead.
Chet lived just down the street from Radke's . He left it parked in the driveway next to his house , without a cover , most of the time . So when I went to Radke's , I would drive past Chet's ..........Z
Was thinking the same thing: He's got a list in his hand and the 3 boys at the counter are probably his race team. Looks like their shir says Walts____ _____ Service.
this place is far out. been 10 yrs since i was there, but there was box's upon box's of hold race car parts. stuff everywhere. very cool
cool. if i could go back in time....being a "youngster" on this page the closest thing to a real speed shop i have ever seen was the summit store in reno or maybe the big depot stores like kragen. they would have heads, nitrous re-filling, and dress up parts but theres no nostalgia there. it never reminded me of "the way it was". while i may be new to this lifestyle i can certainly appreciate the way things were. i feel a little mourning for the shops that have gone away.
The photo of the gentleman behind the counter in the white shirt is Joe Barzda. that's the only picture in this thread that's from the California Speed & Sport Shop in New Brunswick NJ. As you stated "The guy there didn't seem to interested in the old school stuff" was me. You are correct that we don't try to cater completely to to the old car stuff. If we tried that business plan we would have been gone many years ago. Since 1945 when the shop opened by my uncle Edmund Barzda we tried to diverisfy product lines and you needed to change as peoples vehicles changed. Nowadays in the central new Jersey area most people drive trucks and thats a huge marketplace for us. Also, trying to compete with mail order catalogs selling product just above ther cost is also a problem with every small shop that cant buy at the warehouse distributor prices. i appreciate you stopping by. Jim Barzda California Speed And Sport Shop 299 Jersey Ave New Brunswick NJ 08901 732 545-0311
M&M Speed Engineering was the retail part of United Speed Wholesalers,I ran the retail counter in the Mid 70's .
San Bernardino Racing Equipment 1964. The first store in the chain of what would eventually become Super Shops.
The Jalopy Journal
