The City of Industry in southern California is home to wide range of car tuners. One of those is SP Engineering. Founded in 1996 by Alex Shen, SP immediately began making a name for itself by building all sorts of cars for customers. Focusing initially on the Japanese aftermarket industry, word began to spread about SP’s powerful and reliable street cars.
Their 13,000 sq.ft. facility houses five lifts, a Dynojet chassis dyno, office space for their sales staff and warehouse space to house all the various aftermarket parts they carry. SP became the first ever master distributor to be number one in sales simultaneously worldwide for HKS and GReddy.
When I first arrived to the shop, I was kindly greeted by this lowered and fully carbon fiber lip-kitted out Ferrari 599.
I parked the humble E30 and immediately felt rather Bavarian inadequate next to this E92 M3.
Most car builders or tuners show rooms are smaller affairs, but not with SP Engineering. There were many goodies to be seen in their very spacious show room.
Hidden in a corner of the show room was this fantastic little metal creation complete with a metal best friend.
If you find yourself somehow getting bored of all the tuner parts on display, you can spend hours looking at the walls as they're covered with pages from magazines featuring their car builds. Some of these features stretch back quite a bit.
Finished with checking out the show room, I headed to the warehouse/workshop space in the back.
Straight out of the show room and into the back, you're greeted with the shipping area. A packaging popcorn vending machine? Oh yeah!
The warehouse also serves as a storage area for automotive nicknacks that SP Engineering collects over the years. It was a rather pleasant surprise to see a Matech GT1 Ford GT bumper sitting on the shelves collecting dust. It would make a great wall decoration….
SP Engineering is well known for their knowledge of tuning GTRs. So seeing spare GTR parts throughout the shelves is a common thing.
SP Engineering originally focused solely on Japanese cars but then started to slowly broaden their horizons as they thought about the prospects of building exotics and european vehicles.
A lone WRX sits in dark corner gathering dust.
In addition to building customer cars, SP has been well known in the drag racing circuit and building their very own project vehicles for competition. Sitting next to the white WRX is a pair of FD RX-7s. The yellow one is of particular interest…
…as it houses a 2JZ!
For you rotary purists, the orange FD, which sat next to the yellow 2J powered FD, stayed true to its RX-7ness and retained its spinning triangles.
Further back into the warehouse area is the car storage and work shop area.
As you can see, the Nissan R35 GTR is fast becoming a popular choice for tuners and hobbyists alike. SP Engineering was working on 4 different GTRs during my visit.
This particular GTR was seeing a suspension and power upgrade.
Since the R35's motor is so big, the guys from SP engineering found it much easier to remove out the motor from the underside of the car, do whatever needs doing, and then hoisting it back up.
At SP it is also a common sight to see empty GTR engine bays. A motor comes out stock…
…but comes back in with some shiny new toys.
SP also has its own chassis dyno on site.
There are three different working bays with lifts at SP.
I found the fluorescent lighting around the edges of each bay made for some awesome light on the cars.
Welding masks and Miso Campo, all part of a well balanced SP Engineering breakfast.
There are jobs and then there are jobs. SP Engineering is the latter pick. Not too many people in the world can say that their day-to-day includes late model imports, GTRs, Porsches, Lamborghinis and Ferraris. And on top of that, they take what was already great about these cars and make it even better with a bit of SP Engineering magic.
-Linhbergh
OFFICIAL SPEEDHUNTERS SUPPLIERS
Linhberg, a (your?) E30 should never feel inadequate. C'mon!
That sculpture was probably made with DSM crankshafts.
was one of their Twin Turbo Lp640's there?
Hate me for what I may say but the last picture on this post make me think twice before taking my car there for service as it seen like they are pretty boy with money on their mind.
As an engineering student...this is a nice dream
They recently hired 2 of the engineers/fabricators from the now closed HKS USA also. That includes the guy who worked there for like 25 years who prototyped all the US spec exhausts, engine management, Turbo kits ect ect.
@goGreen--So you'd much rather have broke, ugly slobs working on your car? j/k...
SP Engineering is one of the BEST in the import industry.
That 599 is sick.
I honestly want to see more of this place, I also wonder if there are actual engineers there.
@ GFo12ce, I heard otherwise. Total of 3 engineerings for pumping out these MONSTERS! One being HKS USA R&D head engineer, another being a master tuner for MoTec, and lastly a name I cannot remember, but I heard he knows EVERYTHING! I would definately take my GT-R there! Could be the elite techinicans in the country. SP Engineering is the best when it comes to reliability and power! AMwho? haha
Awesome shop and awesome photos! Also, an E30 owner should never feel bavarian inadequacy. The 3rd from last photo of the wheel-less GTR would be a sweet desktop.
iv bought stuff from them before. never got anything tuned but they where really helpful and nice.
Nick's right. I mean, it's not everyday you see a shinning E30 on the street (not in my country, at least).
I love this company. Have been shopping from them some times now, much respect. Cheers from Greece
More pics on the Ferrari 599 please!
I remember that Yellow 2JZ RX7 from one of the Grip Video DVD's that I have.
That yellow RX-7 is the infamous "Supra Seven"
@go green, who cares what they look like? if theyre working for SP, apparently they know a thing or two about cars. the whole stance movement has people's brains in handcuffs, now they're worried about what the people working on their cars look like... function over form man. and for the record, when you're at work MONEY'S ON YOUR MIND
I've been there with my GT-R and they do fantastic work. By the way, that metal sculpture in the cornern of the man and his dog was made from GT-R engine parts.
Sounds like go green is into the "hellaflush." He's probably filipino. haha
One of the very limited R8 GT's in America is on the dyno and it doesnt even get mentioned!? Come on!
the only shop i go to for all my cars.. i love SP
Miso Campo? hahaa
@goGreen - Who cares what they look like?? As long as they get the job done RIGHT..
With so many people leaving their exotics for them to work on.. they gotta be doing something right..
Titan Motorsports down in florida looks almost identical to this shop in almost every way...... from the pictures on the wall, to the shop itself and the cars within.
warranty engine replacement of a gt-r longblock pays something like 32 hours.
and powertrain warranty is void after its been touched by non gt-r certified hands.
careful not to add too much power, or you'll be buying a $20,000 differential!
McLaren MP4-12C?
What an awesome place.... there are many sights.
PLEASE LET ME WORK HERE.