Performance cars

[nismo]

I've been a member for a while here now and in light of the recent postings regarding businesses, I thought I would just introduce myself and the business, one time only, in this thread and let you know what we have to offer. I think I know that this will not interest most of you, due to the location or interest in cars, but you never know.

Anyway, people call me Lee, I've lived here for 10 years, married with 2 kids. I've worked as a programmer for most of my time here, but recently me and 3 Finns formed a company called Performance Imports Oy. We've all been interested in sports cars for years, and aswell as owning these cars ourselves, we've upgraded them to well beyond the factory specifications, and do all of the maintenance ourselves. All of our cars have been upgraded at the engine level, removing all of the factory items and replacing the pistons/rods, bearings, turbos, exhausts and even programming the car's computer to work with these changes. In the case of the Lancer Evolution we have, it has been upgraded from a 2litre engine to a 2.4litre, by using the engine block from another car and is expected to reach a level of 800hp. So we use this knowledge to upgrade customer's cars to their specifications. The parts required can be sourced by us, as we are doing now, importing parts to fix a BNR32 Skyline's rear differential.

We have also started to import cars, and have several arriving next week, along with sourcing vehicles specified by customers and dealing with the importing and registration. Please note, that we will import all makes and models of performance cars, not just Japanese cars and not just RHD, though I prefer that of course

url: http://www.performanceimports.fi
article recently: http://www.65degreesnorth.com/content/view/1415/46/

Summer is coming and it will soon be time to get my own car back and enjoy the work that has been done on it during the winter.

Thanks,

Lee

[paulrenn]

Nice!

Good luck, but I have to say, there seem to be quite a few companies importing, and I think the market is so small for this that I doubt anyone can really make the big time with this (in Finland, I mean - small population, expensive taxes, and steering wheel on the wrong side!). Don't give up the day job yet

I know you're in Oulu, Lee, but where is the company based?

You might get some servicing work, good that you have "huolto" also, but I guess you need to be prepared to service the general crud that exists (Opel Corsas etc) in order to make some cash.

Might be on the lookout for a MKIV Supra in the next year or so, but I'll get a LHD if possible. Let me know if you see one in the auctions - very rare from Japan. I shouldn't have sold the other two I had

[nismo]

Thanks for the wishes Paul! We're a pretty down to earth bunch of guys, who have a lot of experience with sports cars, and we started this really out of a love of them. We're not expecting to make it big, at least not yet, but we have some plans for the future. Now we're just doing what we like to be doing and experiencing different cars, be they Japanese, European or from elsewhere and hopefully we can make some other people happy too! There are only 2 cars I ever wanted, a Skyline and a TVR Cerbera, so I'm half way there, let's see how Finnish katsastus looks upon the Blackpool monsters, but I don't think I'll be tackling that anytime soon. With driving different cars, you get an appreciation as to their different characteristics and styles, and it's easy to find youself liking a car you hadn't really thought too much about before.

The business and the cars themselves are in Oulu, but we do the majority of the maintenance /upgrades in Temmes, where the tools and the heavy machinery are that are required to remove engines and the likes are situated. All of our personal cars have been built there. Some maintenance on everyday cars is carried out there also, but mainly through Vanhantien Autohuolto.

I drove a friends Mk4 supra a couple of weeks ago, though it was naturally aspirated. It felt like a good, solid car with an excellent steering feel and even the factory steering wheel was surprisingly small and weighted just right. Inside, it was rather smaller than I expected, though the seats were comfortable and the dashboard had a sculpted feel making it easy to drive almost immediately, at least once I remembered how to drive an automatic! We have a Mk3 supra, built by us to 540rwhp, and that is quite a spectacle. Looks stock in almost every aspect, but doesn't go like stock The Mk4 is definitely one of the sleekest cars to come out of Japan, but I've never seen a LHD version, so I will keep a look out. I'm guessing you want the RZ? A lot of the Finns I know do drive RHD and it doesn't bother them at all, but I can see that it might be a problem.

This post was mainly to let people know we exist, especially those in Northern Finland where it's not so easy to find companies which sell these cars and also can maintain them to a high degree.

Anyway, here's some of our handiwork:

Disassembled engine:


Engine cover painting, and modifications made to the intake piping:


Fully rebuilt engine, with lots of new parts:


Engine back in the car just before firing up for the first time: