Quote:
Originally Posted by rogue
His shop was first opened in 1968 named Guldstrand engineering in the infamous "Thunder Alley." Thunder Alley was originally an alley off Jefferson Blvd. in Culver City. Don't quote me on it but I think they moved to Burbank in the 90s.
I first discovered their shop getting some racing gloves and shopping for seats for the camaro. The safety and motorsports shop Werks 2 is next door to Guldstrand. I knew he was a legend and I was shocked to look over and see him in the shop, in a lab coat, still wrenching on cars. Awesome, it was right then I decided to have them rework my subframe and keep my car semi-traditional. Having someone like him put his stamp of approval on a car is worth more than any performance mod. I think its great he still loves being in the shop every day and dealing with the customers. He's a real firecracker. Wish I could get him out to a track day for some driving lessons and I'd even let him flog my car. It'd be awesome.
Considering he was the one that pioneered the suspension changes of the first gen camaros for the Penske Trans Am cars, I'd say hes the grandfather of everything we're doing today. Making muscle cars perform like they should!
As far as Dana Chevrolet:
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We walked into his shop in 1989 looking for sponsors for our University High School auto shop Street Stock car we ran at Saugus. He sponsored us a full suspension and bushings. This was before energy and you had to use all your old shells. Those were a pain to install. I think he had those made especially for him.
The guy running his parts dept was really cool and helpful. I was trying to setup my Challenger for autocross at the time and he gave me some straight talk and advice. I think he wrote for the magazines at one time and later worked PR for Edlebrock. John Costa? or John something?
I drive by the old shop on Jefferson every week. I see the Speedway Pattern building is for lease.