Los Angeles -- The arrival of a Viper at many shops would be an occasion for everyone to come take a look, but at DC Performance Inc. it is likely to be one of several expected that day. After six years, the shop has acquired an international reputation for being one of a handful of independent shops that specializes in Dodge's flagship model and can wring out serious performance--whether for the street or the track.
On the day that Parts & People visited, there were at least a dozen Vipers on site, including two that can boast world records.
The shop was founded by Dan Cragin, Kim Cheney, and Tony Parr in 2002 following the closing of Claude Short Dodge. At the time, the dealership was No. 1 in the sales of Vipers in the nation, said Cragin, who had worked there for 22 years as a technician.
Parr was the general manager at the dealership, and the pair knew Cheney because he was a Viper owner who frequented the dealership's Viper service facility. With the closure of the dealership, the group began talking and shortly after opened DC Performance within a few miles of the former dealership with a strong emphasis on servicing and upgrading Vipers, Cragin said.
"I had already run the Viper program at the dealership, which was almost operated as a separate business, so I knew the cars well," he said, adding that he is now the shop foreman and service writer for the business.
He said he has more than 30 years of motorsports experience, including seven years on the Penske Indy Car team, and now focuses on the shop's motorsports operations, which include everything from racecar setup to supplying a pit crew.
Cragin said they also hired Lyle Larson, a long-time professional alcohol funny-car racer, to watch over its performance parts business and help with its drag racing projects.
The 6,000-square-foot shop now also includes four technicians and a parts runner/cleanup person, Cragin said. As the business has grown, he said it has begun to diversify more. The shop has always had some other performance business, he said, but in the last two years has been making a push to attract other vehicle owners, including Mercedes, Porsche, Rolls Royce, Bentley, and Austin Martin.
"The Vipers won't last forever," Cragin said, noting that their business dipped last year because there was no 2007 model.
"We try to specialize in cars, though, that are owned by people who have the income to pay for the type of work that we do -- which typically means the cars have cost more than $40,000.
"The owners of these cars seem to have a lot of passion for them," he said.
Most of the shop's customers are middle- to upper-income professionals, Cragin said. "We've tried the youth market, but we just ended up with problems," he said. "They are often putting on their own parts and can't get the combinations right. They also usually don't have the money to fix it right.
"Ideally we'd like to be tuning on very high-end cars," he said. "You can work on three cars and make the same money that you would usually have to work on 10 cars to make."
Because the shop's customers have invested a lot in the purchase of their vehicles, they also are more willing to spend significant amounts on upgrades as well, Cragin said, noting that the average ticket in the shop was around $3,000.
"There is still a lot more that we can do with the Viper, but we really feel that we need to get beyond that one car line," he said.
In addition to selling performance parts and tuning, the shop has also begun to design some of its own parts, Cragin said.
The shop also takes on specialty projects from customers, which have included building the first Generation II Viper to run more than 200 MPH, Larson said.
"And it did it at more than 7,000 feet," Cragin said.
The shop's most recent success was having a 2003 Generation III Viper run a 9.48-second quarter mile at 148 MPH, making it, they believe, the world's fastest NHRA legal Viper, Larson said. While the car now has more than $200,000 invested it -- not including the price of the car--he said they have just added a nitrous system, which should increase the performance even more.
The car is also street legal, Larson said, noting that he drove it to breakfast and lunch before setting the record in the afternoon.
About 70 percent of the shop's business is on Chrysler vehicles, Larson said, adding that while the work on Vipers has remained fairly steady, they are seeing strong growth in LX platform vehicles, including the Challenger, Charger, Magnum, and 300.
A full 60 percent of the company's business is performance, Cragin said, including computer upgrades, superchargers, suspension systems, clutches, brake upgrades, and safety equipment. "The only things that we don't sell a lot of are wheels and tires," he said.
While the parts business has slipped slightly in recent months, Cragin said he believes that is largely because of the economy and people being a little more conservative in their spending. He said that as they expand the parts they offer for other car lines, he expects it will begin to grow again.
Cragin said the company has also been developing its own parts designs, ranging from custom software for ECMs to an ultralight flywheel, which tend to be more profitable than distributing parts for others.
"We want to increase our parts sales as much as we can," Cragin said. "You can sell a part in 60 seconds and make a $100," he said, "but to make a $100 in labor takes an hour."
Cragin said the shop advertises in a quarterly Viper magazine as well as on a number of Web sites that specialize in Vipers and the other makes that they are now trying to attract. In addition, he said they also contribute material to many of those sites. "You have to get on their and participate and post about what you're doing and answer people's questions," he said. "Probably 40 percent of our parts sales come from that sort of stuff."
While some customers know exactly what they want done, others require consultations based on their performance desires and what they are willing to spend, Cragin said. "A lot of times it's about helping them achieve a balance," he said. "If you want a Viper with 1,100 HP, you will also need to improve the suspension and the brakes so that it's safe."
The shop's Dynojet dynamometer has helped attract a diverse group of vehicles to the shop, Cragin said, noting that they sell time on the dyno, which often leads to the customer then purchasing tuning and sometimes upgrades as well. He said they are hoping to add a four-wheel dyno in the near future.
Larson said they are planning to install a nitrous oxide filling station at the shop, which would help them serve their own customers but also hopefully attract new people that own performance vehicles.