Memory of Super Shops

-
1BadDodge71

1BadDodge71

FABO Rice Hater
Joined
Aug 17, 2006
Messages
2,067
Reaction score
1
Location
Fort Collins,Colorado
Remember Super Shops?Man,I miss that place.I remember when I started on my 71 Duster,every payday meant all of us would go to Super Shops and walk out broke.Somedays I would just go there to browse around and drool at all the performance stuff they had or just shoot the s**t with the guys that worked there.I was so sad when it closed down.Whenever I special ordered stuff from them,it was always on time and the right part and if it wasnt,they gladly fixed it.I even still have stickers ,a coffee mug,and a licence plate that says Super Shops.
 
I built my first Duster out of parts from there,it was too cool all the carbs and headers and such on the wall.
 
I never liked it much. We had one here. All their boys tried to push their junk line of Erson cams on us all the time. None of those cams had lift worth a flip so they always tried to sell us those 1.6 Erson rockers. I always tried to support our local mom and pop speed shop till they finally went under. I do really like Summt, though. They're right up the road.
 
We had a "hot rod barn" here in NC, I was too young to ever go to it before it closed.. I have an old brass belt buckle with a drag duster busting through the barn doors doing a wheelie somewhere, probably take me a month to dig it out of all my parts junk, pretty sure I still have it.. Cool buckle...
 
Since Super Shops went under I haven't bought a single set of reasonably priced Mallory plug wires. Hanging around and brousing was always fun though. The one in Long Beach, CA where I shopped was burned and looted in the infamous Rodney King riots. City on curfew, what a great night to be out driving. Me and the Valiant Patrol haven't had that much high speed fun since. Riot in LA anyone? My right foot is jonesing.
 
Around Ft.Worth the stuper shops guys were dumber than a box of rocks.When you wanted something they tried to tell you to get something else an their cars were slow.
 
Bigdummy said:
Around Ft.Worth the stuper shops guys were dumber than a box of rocks.When you wanted something they tried to tell you to get something else an their cars were slow.
Click to expand...

Puzackly.
 
One of the items I remember purchasing at the Belmont, CA store was a NOS Powershot kit (which I still own to this day). I had many good experiences with them.
 
Bigdummy said:
Around Ft.Worth the stuper shops guys were dumber than a box of rocks.When you wanted something they tried to tell you to get something else an their cars were slow.
Click to expand...

That's because the idiots in upper management wouldn't listen to the people that actually were at the grass roots level on what needed to be stocked in the stores. When you have dragstrips and circle tracks all around, junky little hydraulic cams aren't going to cut it and people won't order stuff if they could get it at IIRC, hot rod harrys or other local shops. God help you if you ordered something that was out of the ordinary, "a week to ten days, possibly never" to arrive.

There were a few in the DFW that knew what was up. Finding them was an issue.

I worked there and ran Crane/Crower stuff in my cars because I got that stuff at WD, have it that day, picking up in Huntington Beach, CA. I couldn't get anything from Erson, ordered a big roller and after 10 month gave up on it. They, Erson, did make nice w2 rockers
 
Bought my Hooker SuperComps at the San Bernardino store for $109.99 ... wow, those were the days. I inherited these with my car and WILL NOT scrape them off. :-D


IM003298.jpg

IM003298.jpg
 
Super Shops started as SBRE - San Bernardino Racing Equipment, on Baseline just east of Sterling in San Bernardino. I lived one block down the street. The owner, Harry Eberling, was a good friend of mine. He started SBRE in a little tin building, then had the big store built. He started Riverside Racing Equipment at 7th and Fairmount in Riverside, which would be store number two. I worked for him there as a mechanic in the early '70's. After that he started Super Shops.

One of the guys that worked the counter at RRE was a kid named Steve, nickname Flash. Flash now runs J&M Speed Center off Adams in Riverside for any of you So Cal guys that might go there.

And the Erson Cams, that is what I bought from SBRE and ran in my little '63 Valiant with a 273 and a Holley 3 barrel that ran 11.80's at Riverside. I love Erson Cams, never had a problem with them.

Russ.
 
I loved Super Shops and have nothing but good memories of them. I practically built a Swinger out of their store. My buddy Irvin was the manager of one of the two stores that were here in San Antonio and we are still close to this day. Some days he'd drive one of his rods to work (he had a BRUTAL BBC Nova) just to show the customers he could walk the walk. SS brought high performance to the average Joe in a pre-internet world and I miss them and the concept.
 
I remember the store I used to visit in Yakima WA. the guys behind the counter were so dumb, we called it "Stupid Shops" my most vivid memory was one of the counter guys telling us not to buy from mail order places because parts would get damaged in shipping, just as he dropped the Auto Meter tach on the floor, my friend was buying !
 
Who could forget Eddie Hill, Ercie Hill or Fuzzy Carter?

5-15-2010.jpg
 
There was one on the north side of Chicago back in the day. I think it was either in Des Plaines or Mt. Prospect. This was in the pre-internet days and it sure was nice to go somewhere where you could see the parts in person instead of a tiny black and white picture in a mail order catalog.

Revhendo,

Didn't Eddie Hill break the 300 mph barrier back in the day while sponsored by Super Shops?
 
Ours in Omaha sucked unless you had a chevy.

It was 90% chevy parts 9% ford parts and 1% other makes.

I remember ordering my hyfire ignition from there and getting it 2 weeks later.

I always likes the champion auto stores for mopar parts back in the 80's.
 
hypermite said:
I remember the store I used to visit in Yakima WA. the guys behind the counter were so dumb, we called it "Stupid Shops" my most vivid memory was one of the counter guys telling us not to buy from mail order places because parts would get damaged in shipping, just as he dropped the Auto Meter tach on the floor, my friend was buying !
Click to expand...

There used to be one in Renton, Wa. also. I never bought anything from there, as i didnt have a performance car back then. They were there for a long time, and i never heard anything bad about them.
 
ramcharger said:
There was one on the north side of Chicago back in the day. I think it was either in Des Plaines or Mt. Prospect. This was in the pre-internet days and it sure was nice to go somewhere where you could see the parts in person instead of a tiny black and white picture in a mail order catalog.

Revhendo,

Didn't Eddie Hill break the 300 mph barrier back in the day while sponsored by Super Shops?
Click to expand...

Man, I want to say that he did in the "Nuclear Banana" but, I'll have to look it up. I do remember being at Pomona when he did that wicked blow over.
 
My local SuperShops was employed by a bunch of "TWEEKERS", I enjoyed spending my hard earned money at the local Service Center, much more knowledgeable employees, and they were not bouncing off the walls!
 
I bought my air shocks and 275x60x15 rear tires and Cragar knock offs from the Super Shops on Colfax in Denver in 1986. I think it cost me close to $600 for all of that "installed". They conned me into doing a burnout leaving the parking lot (right turn made it much easier in the Olds.

I could not afford the fronts, so I drive around with the back jacked up with big tires and the front with the stock Olds Rallys.

This was on my 77 Olds Cutlass Salon.

What fun days.

Thanks,
OldMoparsRule!
 
we used to have super shops in fresno, they sold chevy crap.
you had to order anything mopar and the counter guys we're douche bag chevy lovers who would joke about mopars till you asked them the reasons why they thought the chevy was better....then all you heard from them was ''goo goo ga ga duhhhhhh...cause they r??''
 
I loved the atmospehere and they had the best deal on bfgs in town.I have yet to find a store that doesnt stock mostly chevy parts-although now its competing with carbon fiber import shifter knobs ect.,its a little thing called supply and demand.
 
bought the first bfg drag radials from the belmont store.they had a burnout pad behind the store.the san leandro store was the amc dealership before super shops. traded labor for parts installed cam ex. man. carb on the managers 5.0 mustang cause all they had was kids working there.
 
Closest super shops was on Telegraph in Taylor MI, bought a Erson cam kit for my Volare with a 318. Always like that cam, with some other bolt on stuff that Plymouth ran a best ET of 13.40 at Detroit Dragway. Now those are great memories !!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top