With 2011 coming to a close it completes our 8th full year in business. 2011 was a good year for R/T Tuning, sales were increased, employees were hired and more services were provided. This year we brought on a 4th full time tech Bill House. Bill was a Daimler Chrysler Master tech for 15 years, as well as an ASE Certified Master tech. Also we added another full time salesman to operate our online sales and assist with customer support. Will Schneider has been in sales and involved in the automotive scene for several years. This brings our employee total to 7 full time employees with over 65 total years of experience.
2011 was our first full year with the Mustang AWD dyno up and running. Having the AWD Dyno finally in house allowed our Tuner Andy Brahy to dial in the tunes for better drivability, more power, and use our own equipment to help diagnosis issues faster and more accurately. On our Dynojet 2wd Dyno this year, we surpassed over 1600 cars run, over a 1200 cars tuned and a total of over 16,000 dyno runs since the dyno has been installed (mid 2005). We became a Cobb Mazda Pro Tuner for Mazda vehicles, to our already acquired Cobb Subaru and Mitsubishi Pro Tuner Status. We also performed more product testing this year then we have in the past, due to our equipment and controlled method of testing.
(Chris Ushler being ProTuned by Andy Brahy)
This year was our 4th full year with our state of the art Hunter alignment rack. This year we upgraded our software to keep not only current, but to help us align vehicles more accurately and faster. In the middle of 2011 we had surpassed our 1000th alignment, with over half of them being full coilover alignments. Making us one of the most experienced performance alignment shops in the Northeast US. This year we also performed a lot more “fitment” alignments. With seeing the variety of cars that we see, we learned a lot about many different vehicles from that standpoint of wheel/tire sizing and offsets. We know what it takes to make a perfect fitted car.
(Our alignment technician Pat hard at work getting that perfect alignment we are known for.)
2011 saw the addition of some services as well. This year we added the services of having our customer’s vehicles detailed by “The Detail Shop” for pick up. We also have this service done for our customers at no charge for larger jobs. We also invested in higher quality fender rolling equipment. We continually have a great working relationship with our body shop of choice LIP Collision and still offer the service of working together with them on large projects as well.
2011 was a good year for shop upgrades, both cosmetic and equipment. We added another lift, top quality SnapOn MIG/TIG welder, fully upgraded Launch scan tool, as well as many job specific service tools to stay current. We also purchased back up stacks for the dynojet dyno and back up components for the Mustang AWD dyno, assuring us the least amount of down time and greatly reducing the risk of a customer having to reschedule their appointment. We painted the shop area, added drop reel air lines, a parts window, and some lighting upgrades. We also updated our front service office with new service writer desks, freshly painted walls and many cosmetic upgrades.
(Our newly renovated service office with new flooring and service writers desks.)
2011 was a mixed year for online sales. Our “R/T Speedshop” site had steady sales but did not increase over time. We have over 850 products on
www.rttspeedshop.com. Our Ebay store “Performance Outlet East” did very well and had increases in the months expected and still did well in the months were sales were not increased. We currently have over 3600 products on our Ebay store.
2011 was another successful year for R/T Tuning sponsored race vehicles with over 7 total Top 16 finishes, 5 top 8 finishes, and 3 podiums in drifting. Also 6 top ten finishes and 4 podiums in our sponsored road racing cars. We tuned and aligned a large percentage of road race and drifts cars in the NE keeping us the go to shop for race car preparation.
(R/T Tuning sponsored S-Max Nissan 240SX time attack car.)
(Nick D'Alessio flying the R/T Tuning banner on his EliteJDM drift car.)
This past year we had the privilege of being able to play a large role in a great charity event. Ken Aiani came to us with a proposal to host a charity dyno day for a fellow automotive enthusiast Mike Bartuski. Mike was in a very bad car accident which left him paralyzed from the waist down. The community as whole really came together and made this a great event and together we all raised over $6500 for Mike and his family to help with his living conditions. Unfortunately Mike passed away later that year during a medical procedure. I take comfort in knowing that the event raised Mike’s spirits and the money raised bettered his quality of life before he passed away. I am very proud of everybody at R/T Tuning, Ken and all of the other volunteers, as well as the local car community that made it such a great event.
(We had a huge out pouring of support for Mike B. this spring at our benefit dyno day. Over $7,000 raised!)
2011 was our best year for social media and online communication with our customers. We have over 1,400 facebook friends and updated our facebook page daily. We also posted over 80 blog posts on our website keeping our customers and followers constantly up to date. This year we added more ways for customers to contact R/T tuning as well as implemented systems to make sure we are always available during business hours and able to contact customers who have tried to contact us during closed hours.
In 2011 we made several performance parts supplier acquisitions. Being as we are going into our 9th year we already have dozens of suppliers, as are direct with dozens of manufacturers. We also added more OE and OE aftermarket supplier which allow us to get multiple parts deliveries per day. Most parts are able to be obtained the same day and if they need to be ordered in within 48 hours. We also created a larger area for stocked parts as well as increased our stock supply.
Overall 2011 was a good year for R/T Tuning. We had customers travel from as far as Canada and Alaska for our services. We have stayed prevalent and on the fore front of the aftermarket and performance industry. We continually made upgrades and implemented systems to better serve our customers. Without our customers and their trust in us we wouldn’t be able to continually get better every year. We look forward to all feedback, so we as a company can continue to get better. I would like to take this time to thank all of our customers for their great support in the year 2011 and look forward to 2012.
(Pat C. came down from Canada this summer to have Vince tune his awesome flat black 370Z.)
Sincerely,
Vince Hafner III, and the whole crew at R/T Tuning