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Goodies Speed Shop closes it’s doors one last time

By on Oct 30, 2013 in Goodies Speed Shop | 0 comments

Two years ago I purchased Goodies Speed Shop in San Jose. At the time it was losing money, however we had a good plan to increase the revenue and shift the margin to a better mix of parts and service.  We moved Goodies  from Lincoln Ave where it had been for fifty years to Club Auto Sport in north San Jose. After a bumpy start revenues grew and the business neared profitability. Unfortunately we were never able to get the right mix of parts sales and service sales and the margins were eroded from Internet competitors. After 51 years in San Jose, Goodies Speed Shop is no more. Since the devastatingly slow summer, we just couldn’t keep the margins high enough to cover the overhead. On Friday, October 25th 2013 Goodies Speed Shop stopped doing business at Club Auto Sport – Silicon Valley in north San Jose and closed its doors one last time. Empty Shop Empty...

Goodies Speed Shop Race Car – 2006 Mustang GT

By on Oct 19, 2013 in Auto Racing, Goodies Speed Shop, Motorsports | 0 comments

Goodies Speed Shop has just completed testing the Mustang GT Track/Race car. The car was based on a 2006 Ford Mustang GT with a 4.6L V8 that had been driven approximately 49,000 miles. The following modifications were made to get this car ready for the track: Custom 6 point roll cage DJ safety 5 point harnesses Corbeau seats(2) For Racing Suspension Ford Racing ABS module (GT500S/R) Ford Racing 3.73 Rear Gears Ford Racing Cold Air Intake Miller GT500S lightened wiring harness Moroso Radiator Catch Can VIS fiberglass hood Jongbloed racing wheels 18×10.5 Maximum Motorsports Camber/Caster plates Stop-tech ST40 front brakes Steeda Underdrive pulley kit, Steeda end link (bump steer kit) Steeda ball joints Steeda front Splitter Hotchkis Adjustable Sway bars Hotchkis Strut tower brace Hotchkis under body front frame brace Hotchkis Panhard rod Hotchkis rear lower control arms Pace Setter Long...

Goodies Speed Shop to Anchor Club Auto Sport Phase II

By on Dec 18, 2011 in Goodies Speed Shop, Motorsports | 0 comments

Groundbreaking occurred this week on the new building at Club Auto Sport which is being fast-tracked to enable Goodies to open in its new location in March 2012. The new Goodies will include a well-designed retail store featuring a wide variety of speed and performance parts and accessories — in addition to its signature service center, and a fabrication area for the custom parts we sell. If you’ve toured Club Auto Sport or attended an event held at the club, you probably think you’ve seen it all. The spectacular 10,000 sq. ft. clubhouse and lounge with its polished black granite floor and 20-foot floor-to-ceiling window walls. The vibrant business community. The beautifully lit drive aisles. And the hundreds of public, private and member events attracting thousands of guests annually. And lots of beautiful cars! Goodies will take approximately the front five business condos totaling...

Sebastian Vettel: What matters most about your ride

By on Nov 27, 2011 in Formula One, Goodies Speed Shop | 0 comments

Today’s Brazilian GP marked the end of the 2011 Formula 1 season, a season in which Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel dominated. I was struck by a comment Seb made in the post-race interview on Speed Channel. I think it captures very well the spirit of our customers and our team at Goodies: “At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter if you race Formula 1 cars, touring cars, sports or business, as long as you enjoy it. That’s one thing about us. If you walk into the garage — even as a guest — you get that feeling we really love what we do and we are passionate.” At Goodies Speed Shop we love driving our cars — muscle cars, exotics, dragsters, or sedans. That’s why we talk about them. That’s why we upgrade them. That’s why we customize...

Best Lap at Laguna Seca 1:51.34

By on Jun 23, 2011 in Motorsports | 0 comments

I was back at Laguna Seca Raceway yesterday. The weather was fantastic, mid 80′s and dry and the track was hot and rubber had been laid down all day long. I was able to do my fastest lap (so far) of 1:51.34 during the middle of the afternoon. Still short shifted and lifted from turn 5 to the bridge before turn 6 to avoid being black flagged for a sound violation. Above is a track map from Harry’s Lap timer for iPhone that show my speed and G force (yellow is between 0.6G and 0.8G, red is above...

Laguna Seca: March 2011

By on Apr 8, 2011 in Motorsports | 0 comments

In March, I was able to arrange 3 track days at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey California. The first was with Your Private Track Day on March 7, 2011, the second was with Porsche Club of America on March 15, 2011 and the third was with TrackMaster Racing on March 28, 2011. Jim and Vafa joined me for the YPTD and TMR events. Jim was driving his yellow Ferrari F430 and Vafa his Ferrari 612 and his new Maserati Trofeo race car. We all had a blast. I’ve posted a few videos on my Youtube...

Upgrading the ECU

By on Mar 2, 2011 in Auto Racing | 0 comments

Over the past few weeks I’ve been looking for an ECU upgrade for my Porsche 911 turbo (997TT). Searched all over the web and found there were 2 basic approaches to ECU tuning. The first, and in most cases more expensive, is to find a local tuning shop, arrange an appointment and drop off the car for the day. In this case they would remove the chip, bench flash it with a new tuned map then insert the chip back into the car.  In cases where a shop was not local it was also possible to remove the chip yourself and send it, via mail (or other delivery service) to the shop where they would again bench flash it and send back to you for insertion back into the car. The second is loading the map dynamically through the OBDII port. In this case an OBDII cable with a USB connection is sent via mail (or other delivery service) to you and connected to your PC and the car.  The PC reads the...

Is Slashdot for sale – if not should it be?

By on Feb 22, 2011 in Media, Open Source | 1 comment

Many years ago I ran a subsidiary of VA Linux called OSDN. OSDN consisted of 11 websites and three businesses. These 3 business were the e-commerce business Thinkgeek, a subscription business called Animation Factory and a media business consisting of Slashdot, Sourceforge, Freshmeat, Newsforge, Themes, and Linux.com. All 3 businesses became profitable towards the end of 2003 and had an annual revenue in 2004 of approximately $24M. Today, the business is known as Geeknet. Much of the old OSDN has gone, yet a few of the key assets remain. Animation Factory was sold several years ago to Mecklermedia. What remains today is the e-commerce business Thinkgeek and a scaled down media operation consisting of the sites: Slashdot, Sourceforge and freshmeat. Do you need vps hosting? Geeknet made many major changes in 2010, including: 1. Thinkgeek revenues grew 55% to $76M 2. Media revenues grew...