JBA Power Festival - San Diego's Premier Speed Shop Grand Opening

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For the last 25 years, J. Bittle American (better known simply as JBA) has been in the business of making fast street cars faster, starting out with headers and exhausts and evolving into today's full-service speed shop, JBA Performance Center, in the heart of sunny San Diego, California. Starting out in a small, two-lift shop, the business has outgrown its surroundings twice, and the latest move has put them into what can only be described as a "Garage Mahal." To celebrate a quarter century in business and inaugurate the new location, JBA held their Power Festival and invited all of San Diego to come hang out.



The shop itself is expansive, with a big retail showroom up front and a mix of seven two- and four-post lifts, an engine building clean room, a machine shop, an in-ground chassis dyno, and an engine dyno cell in back. As a matter of fact, the engine dyno triggered the whole move, in a roundabout way - per General Manager Bruce Tucker, "We were halfway done putting a dyno cell in at the old shop when we found out that we couldn't get the electric service that we needed for it. So, we just decided to take the plunge and move."







With more than double the room of the previous location, JBA will finally be able to meet the expanding demand for their services, which have grown to include what they call the Anti-Crate engine. The concept is custom engines, specifically designed, built, and tuned for a specific vehicle and application. JBA owner J. Bittle says, "Originality, innovation, or a mass-produced crate engine? We won’t build it until you order it. This explains the popularity of our JBA Anti Crate program. Power engineered the way you want it and hand built for your application. No sitting under a heat lamp, just fresh horsepower!"


The new engine building clean room is the home of JBA's "Anti Crate" program.


An in-house machine shop means less work sent out and better control over the finished product.

JBA has also always been at the forefront of what you might call "environmentally aware" performance. Here in smog-obsessed California, building a car that's quick and clean (and more importantly, able to pass the draconian requirements of state emissions law) has always been a challenge. Taking that commitment a step farther, JBA has created GreenSpeedCo, devoted to low environmental impact, improved emissions, performance tuning for maximum fuel economy and performance, alternative fuel technology, and hybrid vehicle service. According to Bittle, “Lean is mean and green. We’re using technology driven from decades of experience in tuning performance vehicles for maximum efficiency.”


An in-ground Dyno Dynamics chassis dyno allows full-service tuning (specializing in SCT EFI).


The new engine dyno was the tiny snowflake that triggered the avalanche when it came time to move into bigger digs.

Customers past and present turned out in droves to see the new facility, show off their cars, eat a few hot dogs, and listen to some live music. JBA also frequently plays host to local car club meetings on weekends and evenings, and the new, bigger building and parking lot will only make them more popular for these kinds of events.




Don Swanson & The Retro Rocketts covered classic rock favorites all day.


2009 PSCA Wild Street points runner up David Schwarz kept the crowd entertained by firing up his Mustang to provide a soundtrack when the band was taking a break.


Goats, old and new...


...and a valve cover signed by Jim Wangers!


"How many bars do you have? And who's that creepy guy with the camera?"

For the rest of the pictures from the car show, check out our complete photo gallery.

SOURCE:
JBA Racing
Web: www.jbaracing.com
Phone: (858) 495-3395




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