Your Virtual Tour Guide
For some reason, I just love giving tours of Sport and Specialty. I gave many plant and home office tours during my years in corporate sales, but touring plants, warehouses and administrative offices just wasn’t as much fun as showing people how you blow up cars and put them back together.
I also love hosting out annual Open House and car show. The guys even like doing it. They get to show off their work to friends and customers, and let their families see what they do all week. We often tend to work in a vacuum up here, and few things can make your efforts worthwhile than watching and hearing people admire and praise your work.
Unfortunately, we had to put the brakes on our 2020 Open House this year as state and local regs strictly limit the number of attendees, and social distancing, etc. make it almost impossible to enforce. Plus, if someone were to become ill at our event I would feel awful.
While postponed, my annual tour is now available in virtual form. It’s an impromptu tour that we started last year. A more formal scripted one is being developed, but this one is still kind of fun. Take a look and feel free to reach out with any questions!
Next year I’ll give the tours in person and make sure we have plenty of Portillo’s Italian beef and sausage available. Thanks for watching!
Read More of My Blog Posts
Fuelfed’s Shop Visit on a Fine Summer Day
Well, if variety is the spice of life, Saturday’s Fuelfed stop at Sport and Specialty for lunch was a real home run. Brian and Lorraine Hughes asked if I would entertain having their tour stop in for lunch on Saturday. I couldn’t say yes fast enough. As a new sponsor,...
The Restorer’s Healey – John’s 1967 BJ8
Regular followers know that the white-over-blue 1967 Austin Healey BJ8 that shows up on social media is one of my favorite cars. I purchased the car from my customer and friend Tony Grau and his family as an uncompleted project. We had previously assembled and painted...
It Drives Like an Alfa
I met my racing and paddock partner John Wheeler almost twenty years ago when I first started Vintage Historic racing. I was trying to figure this whole thing out and he was my coach and mentor. The most important thing he ever told me when I bemoaned my slow times...
We’re Racing Again! The 2020 VSCDA Blackhawk Classic
Last week, Cyndi Paceley of Vintage Motorsport magazine reached out to me for my impressions about upcoming the VSCDA Blackhawk Challenge. She was interested (after the racing concluded) to see how I felt the event went overall, and also specifically how the current...
More Cars, More Pages, More Videos, and More Fun
As "the web guy," part of the fun is seeing the progress of the cars in the shop, even when I'm not there. While it's great making pictures at the shop - and hanging out with the guys - to see updated images of projects is truly fascinating. What was a...
Stardom Isn’t Easy – My Time in Front of the Camera
For some time now, many of our customers and shop fans have commented that we should have a cable show. I even replied to a request from a casting agent, as I thought hey, this could be fun. Obviously, that never happened and most people I’ve talked to said it’s...
No One Races Alone
A few weeks ago I got involved in an online conversation where someone claimed that the only reason we can’t go racing is that organizers would demand a driver’s meeting, and if we could just do the meeting on our phones we’d be just fine to go racing again. I quickly...
Cars and Stars, The Amelia Island Experience
I’m still recovering from the automotive love fest and spectacle that is the Amelia Concours d’Elegance 2020. It's been held rain or shine for 25 years now. Amazing! Estimates for the first event in 1995 was 2,000 people, I read they expected 20,000 for this year. It...
Breaking The News
Over the past week I had two customer visits from two different types of customers. It got me thinking about the differences between the two, both really nice guys who want work done on their cars. The main difference is that for one, it wasn’t his first rodeo with a...
High Quality Work Won’t Go Out of Style
I had the opportunity to spend time with my friend Tom Yang over the past few days. Tom is a considerably experienced Ferrari specialist and restorer who shares a common passion for doing things right. Tom has a great website you should check out. We’ve shared ideas,...
The 2019 Drive Out and Pop Up Car Show
Our second annual Summer "Drive Out" was great fun, looks like we're on to something here. Great weather, great friends, and some pretty great cars made a fun day at the shop. I need to thank the Sport and Specialty crew, Ken, Ryan, Kathy, Bill, Max, Jon,...
The Sport and Specialty Drive Out & Pop Up Car Show
Reserve Saturday August 10 for the second annual Sport and Specialty Drive Out and Pop Up Car Show. Bring any marque, model, or year of car, but get there. Daily drivers welcome! A Portillo’s catered lunch will be available, along with the usual subs and things....