Q: How did Turboeast come about?

A: I was building a turbo kit in late 2001 for my 01 IS300.  I was unemployed but had saved some money and decided to turbo the car then look for a job.  I happened to talk to an old friend of mine named Brad (most know him as IS300GTE).  He had just picked up a 02 manual.  It was with a lot of his input that I decided to do the business.  I had been thinking about it, but once he showed me the demand for the kits I decided to do it.  We turboed his car in Feb of 02 and was at the track in April.  His car was the third turbo IS300 behind Toyomoto and XS Engineering (Although I contend that XS's car never ran right as their customer sold the kit because he said it never ran well or shifted under boost).  The business started with me and a partner that didn't work out.  I then ran solo for awhile but I really needed someone with business experience to handle the accounting/tax side of things.  That's where my current partner has come in.  He doesn't work at TE day to day, but puts a tremendous amount of work into most of the things that nobody ever sees.  That's where we are now.

A: When I was 17 I had a 1987 Dodge Shadow Turbo.  I pulled the wastegate line for more boost.  I also did 2 headgaskets in 5k miles, so I quickly started to learn about turboed cars.

Q: So far, what has been the most rewarding accomplishment for you?

A: Staying in business and always pushing the limits.

Q: Were you surprised at how fast of a rate the boosted community is growing?

A: It's growing pretty fast, but it is a niche market for sure. I am a little surprised by how many turbokits we have sold for how few IS300's there really are.

Q: What can we look forward to from Turboeast?

A: A little more diversity in the cars that we work on and the things that we do. We are currently moving into area's that most tuners overlook such as high performance alignments and corner weighting.  But the biggest thing is being more efficient.  Or number one project right now is reducing the wait times for our customers, be it in shop work or products that we are shipping out.

Q: Do you worry about competition from other tuners?

A: Well, in reality competition should be good for the consumer.  But we are in the age of "one-up-manship".  That's fine, but it seems that the customer is getting trampled on for some shops personal gains.  What they don't understand is that the instant gradefactation of "one-up-manship" only lasts so long.  For me it's about our long term goals and that means building cars that myself and the owner of the car can be proud of.

Q: What are your long term goals personally and as a tuner?

A: Well the first goal is to continue to develop the business.  Notice I didn't say grow.  I'm not sure that bigger means better.  I think for us, better is getting more done faster.  Personally I'm interested in the new engine technology. In peticular hybrids.  I like the idea of a high hp gasoline engine that doesn't have to do all the mundane work of "normal" driving.  I also look at a 50 hp electric motor as nitrous without a bottle.  You can go bigger in turbosize and higher in the rev band without hurting our powerband.  The extra fuel mileage is the icing on the cake. 

Q: If you can sum up what Turboeast is all about, what would it say?

A: That's pretty hard.  I think we are all about fast cars.