Greetings fellow Third gen fans,

I'm still pretty new to the forum, but I'm far from a car buff wana-be. To cut to the point, I'm conducting a small survey dealing with the desire and or need of a Speedshop/Racing parts store and a Drag Strip in the Pensacola area. I recently bought 21 acres of land right in in town. Now My question to you that have lived in the area(or traveled through it), are there any Shops in the area dealing with american racing at all? And are there any Stips that I may have overlooked in the area. I wasn't there very long when I was with the Marine corps, but I still have some family down there, and they don't know a damn thing about the speed world down there. So if you guys down there would like a big shop and strip down there let me know, otherwise, I'm turning the land around for re-sale. Thanks alot to all!

 

There's a couple of speed shops down there in the general area. The better one, USA Performance deals in domestic performance parts, but they are more circle, full drag, and dirt track oriented, than simple street performance. They've got great customer service, two of the nicest guys you could talk to... when you can manage to grab some of their time (they get pretty harried).

There's no drag strip in the immediate area; the closest is the eighth-mile in Holt. I think there's a quarter-mile in Dothan, Alabama, but that's quite a drive.

If you did build a track, a quarter-mile is the way to go if you have room for it (and can get the legalities out of the way) as people around there are dying for a good quarter-mile.

But if you want to set up a shop and have it able to support itself, you may have to cater to the import crowd at least a little, as, like it or not, that's what more money is being spent on.

You could probably do like Bryant's does in Navarre. That shop is divided in two with two seperate doors and signs.

If you change your mind I may be interested in the land or I know a couple people who might be, and they would all have similar goals as yours.

BTW, you might "clean-up" the land before you ever start the paperwork. I can probably get you the construction equipment rented fairly cheap (I can try anyway).

 

Thanks for all the info, I planned on haveing to cater to the tuner crowd due to the # of them down there. I would have their little body kits and all the little popcorn mufflers and neat leds and stuff but the focus of the counter talk would be for that guy rebuilding that 57 chevy or that old torino. If you get my drift. I'll be down that way again Apr 16-28 to finalize some paper work, so I'll talk to those guys in that parts shop. Thanks again, and if you want start letting people know that there will be a 1/4 / 1/2 mile track there before to long!