As many of you are already aware, my car has been at GTM since October 2009 as part of the R&D for the first GTM G37 supercharger. I had always planned to take a trip out to LA and meet Sam and see the shop…hopefully while my car was still there. I got that chance this past weekend.
After talking with Sam on the phone a few weeks prior, I made arrangements to come out this past weekend and spend a few hours Friday and Saturday with Sam and see the progress of my car. I arrived on Friday afternoon. The interesting story about my flight from Dallas to Santa Ana was about ¾ of the way through the flight, I realized I was sharing a seat next to Chad Light of John Force Racing, Inc. While talking with Chad, he mentioned to me that the Stillen company shop was right next to the Santa Ana airport, so because of a change in plans with one of the companies I was coming out to meet with…I decided to stop by Stillen, unannounced, and see if I could meet Josh and Kyle! Ha! You can read about that experience in my other thread (
My experience at Stillen ).
So after my tour of Stillen I made my way to GTM. Although I had a Garmin to guide me, it still took me for a loop when I arrived at GTM. You see…there is no fancy signage, no fancy advertising outside GTM. Just some mirrored windows and a line of Infiniti’s and Nissan’s 350/370s outside the shop. It was very easy to spot when I stopped looking for a big glowing GTM sign and just followed the line of cars!
I was greeted by Sam upon walking in. I also met his wife and Pablo…the guy who always answers the phone with “It’s a great day at GTM, how can I help you?!”. Ha. I walked through the offices and back into the shop/warehouse. The shop is huge. As you can tell from some of the pictures taken…there are several lifts, a tire changing area, wheel balance and alignment area, dynometer, and a fabrication area.
There were two technicians working in the shop when I arrived, Brandon and Eric. Brandon was working on my car at that moment and while Sam was taking a phone call from a customer I had the chance to check out my car and talk with both of the technicians. It was really cool to not only get to see my car, but get an opportunity to just talk with the guys working on the installation. Very down-to-earth and very friendly. I spent somewhere between 3-4 hours at the shop. The guys showed me the supercharged 370Z, I got to hear it running. I got to see the two cars they are using to create the GTM Twin Turbo installation DVD. They had one car with the engine and tranny completely out and another with it in. They told me how they are making the video and the time and effort they are putting in to make sure it comes out the way they want it to. I think this DVD is going to be really helpful when it’s ready. Here’s some pictures of those cars.
I got to see a few 370Z’s from some of the guys on the 370Z forums…awesome cars guys! Sam had a red G37 in the shop running nitrous and twin G35R’s…putting 1000HP to the wheels! Sick stuff! I saw several other G37’s both Sedan and Coupe. I saw some of the tubing being used in the kit, both the polished and the black. There were cars everywhere. There is definitely no shortage of work at GTM.
I got to see the Rotrex supercharger up close. It’s very compact and surprisingly light. Sam explained what the difference was in the design of the different trim lines. Brandon showed me the evolution of the supercharger mounting plate. I got a firsthand look at the engineering that has gone into some of the parts of this kit. While I was there, I watched Eric walk away from one of the project cars and fabricate a part then walk back over and try it out on the car. It gave me a much better insight into what a typical day is like for these guys.
Like I mentioned already…I spent a good 3-4 hours there on Friday…and nobody gave me the impression that I was interrupting them. They were all very accommodating and very polite and sociable. I decided to head out for the night and before I left Sam invited me out for dinner later. So we agreed to meet later at the hotel I was staying at. So around 8PM Sam and I headed out for some sushi. Sam’s restaurant of choice was a little packed (45 minute wait) so we headed over to another place practically next door. There must be a million sushi bars in the Southern California area! I know we passed at least 3 from my hotel and we only went about 3 miles down the road. The funny thing about dinner is no sooner did we walk into the sushi restaurant…the manager of the place was greeting Sam by first name and asked him “where have you been?!?”…”you’ve been eating at different sushi bar!” haha! Sam got called out the minute he stepped in the door. It was pretty funny. Sam quickly came up with a cover story…he told the guy he just got out of jail and I was his probation officer….nice one, right?
The reason I mentioned this stuff is not just for the entertainment value, but also so you guys understand the environment in which I got to spend time with Sam. I got the chance to meet the owner/tuner/manager/fabricator for GTM not only while he was working but in a setting outside of work as well. We talked about everything from where we grew up, our experiences growing up, and in particular, how Sam got to be where he is now. He’s been working around cars for a long time. He’s been an owner of a shop with a ton of employees to a shop with only a handful…like now. Up until this past weekend I only knew Sam through emails, phone calls, and forum messages. He’s as genuine in person as he is on the forums and over the phone. He cares about making sure his customers are happy and wants to do what he can to make sure that everything is done right the first time. He has the balls to call you out on your BS or be the nicest person you could meet. From the simplest act of kindness of offering me a refreshment when I arrived at the shop, to treating me to sushi that night.
I made my way back to the shop on Saturday morning and spent another 2-3 hours at the shop once again. I returned the favor from dinner the night before by treating the 4 employees working on Saturday to lunch. We had In & Out Burgers. Sam ate Pablo’s triple triple…John managed to pound down two double doubles and I tried my double double “animal style”…whatever the heck that means.
In closing I just want to say thanks to Sam for his time this past weekend and his generousity. It made my weekend out in LA a pleasureable one. Shout out to Pablo, Harrison, John, Brandon, and Eric…and Sam’s lovely wife.
Also want to give a shout out to Gamedog (David) for being really cool, picking me up from my hotel and driving me out to Anaheim to meet some of the other members of Team Outcast! The Korean BBQ was great and I had a really nice time talking with all of you. Especially Gamedog and Da Hashi!
You’re an old man Da Hashi…but you definitely don’t drive like one!
Lou(from Amplified Motorsports) it was a pleasure meeting and talking with you as well.