chicago, new places, new people Options

[akamiami]

Hey guys, greetings from Chi-town.

Hanging out in Peoria and knowing the local scene pretty well, I always wondered how things really were in Chicago since there was usually a lot of big talk about big monster cars everywhere and great shops at virtually every street corner. Seemed a bit ridiculous to me considering the lack of modified cars that didn't have a significant presence in the local scene in the central IL area.

Having been up here with a group of guys pretty heavy into the scene for over a month though, I can begin to see a lot of things even though its the off season. These guys take this stuff seriously, and seem to have unlimited resources as far as their car interests go. For example....

I was at AMS the other day scoping them out. The showroom (if it could be called that) was tiny, and I mean very tiny. Get 4 guys in there and it would be quite crowded. They had all their custom parts zip tied to the walls though and in full view and around back they had a pretty good sized garage area with I think 2 doors. The whole building seemed to be encircled with DSM's too. It looked kind of like slo-pony, but these cars all had front mounts and working engines;) The guy I was with kept saying, oh yeah, that's a 10 second, or that's a 9 second, or thats a slow 11 second galant whenever we cruised by one too. Anyways, a kid walks in, young kid, maybe 18 and starts asking about parts availability and what not for his car. Later on I find out he's got a solid 11 2g that cruises the local v8 spots looking for easy money. Built stroker with a gt35r and all the fixins courtesy of AMS and all it cost him was a mere fortune. Tough break for the poor kid.

Then a couple of days later I was at GRD. These are the guys with the only AWD dyno in the state that isn't a Porsche facility. That's right, pretty much the only one this side of the mississip that is considered usable. Best part is they're probably 10 minutes from my place. Genesis Racing Development is their full name and they mostly work on Subarus, but when I was in, there was a GT35R'd Evo8 in addition to the usual slew of STi's and WRX's. One of the GC8's was owned by a kid (again 18ish) who drove up in his beater E36 M3. Forget about the fact that the STi was fully built with pretty much every cusco part in their catalog from the bolt in roll cage (props to bernie! ) to the oil catch can. The Bimmer was loaded; full body kit (tastefully done too I must add) with monster wheels, and the kid kept talking about the Dinan supercharger he was getting put on the next week as soon as it was released to the public. Sickening.

Anywho, GRD was a pretty awesome shop. Great big showroom with tons of parts from companies like Injen, Perrin, Defi, and a ridiculous amount of APS stuff. They had lots of wheels on the wall, including 18" superleggera's (that are freakishly light). The shop's 350Z was on hand too with its freshly installed twin turbo setup that dyno'd 476 hp that day on pump gas. The owner was talking it up saying he should be able to get 500 on pump and 550 on race gas by the time he's done. Definately worth the drive.

Well, thought you guys might find it interesting to hear how about car shops up in Chicago, since I certainly was entertained. I kept thinking how cool it would be to see a shop in Central IL with those kind of facilities.