Performance 101 | Performance Foundation First

The steps to consider when building a performance vehicle. Street, strip or track, read this first!!

Do you drive your car or does your car drive you? Knowing what to do and how to do it is just as important as what is under the hood. 101 will teach you the secret of why our performance vehicles have become the benchmark of street performance, the envy of open-trackers and the weapon of choice for club racers.

Beginning with the end in mind.
When you start your project have some sort of plan of where you want it to end up, or at least where you think you may want to end up. Whether you are planning a little or a lot, two months or two years worth of work, always keeping in mind your goal. This will help you better organize your project and maximize your time and budget by making sensible decisions along the way so that you don't have to re-do something that you have already done.

Decide if you want to build a street car or a racecar.
Another big decision is whether you plan on building a street car or a race car. In our system, building street cars and racecars, the parts, engineering and planning are very different. How do you differentiate? Simple, if you plan on running your car only on the track, you have a racecar. If you plan on driving on the street, but also take it to open-track events, consider it a street car.

Please note: most of the high-performance street car suspensions and components are street-friendly while fully track capable, which means that you don't have to give up the benefits and comfort of a performance street car just to do open-track events.

A common mistake that we see many people make is using race car components on street cars because they participate in open track events. Well, the race parts may work, but if you are not prepared to deal with the harshness, noise, service and maintenance issues that race car parts require, it may not be your best choice.

Align you budget and your expectations.
Everybody has expectations on what their performance car is going to be and everybody has a budget. Sometimes the budget is a one time shot and sometimes it continues over time. Be sure in your planning stages that your expectations and budget are in sync. If you have a budget, but don't know how far it will go, our performance consultants are very good at recommending and planning (based on Kenny's proven philosophy) the best steps and components to help you maximize the resources you have to get you where you want to go.

Follow a proven philosophy or create your own R&D project.
This is a big one. There are a lot of parts and a lot of places to buy parts in the aftermarket. Some of those parts outlets offer "packages" of parts, but very few provide you with a proven philosophy of performance and component compatibility.

Performance Parts such as Kenny Brown parts offer you a proven philosophy of building performance, not a confusing array of parts, and these components are tested, tried and engineered to fit and work together. Our philosophy, developed over many years and highly acclaimed for street and track, work because at Bishop it's about the car first, your car not a bunch of random parts.

Our performance cars are legendary as the pinnacle of street performance and the hands-down favorite of open-trackers. Bishop builds our cars first then supplies you the same parts he uses. The engineering, testing and developing are already done -- so there is no-muss, no-fuss just bolt them on and go.

When you buy parts from different companies, you are never sure if everything you are getting will work together or how they will work together. If you have issues or problems it will be difficult for one single supplier to help you, so you now are engaged in your own R&D project. At this point typically trial and error, trial and error, trial and error is your path to a solution. Now some people have the time, money, aptitude and interest in R&D projects and that is great. If you don't, relying on experience and a proven philosophy will maximize your budget, your expectations and your enjoyment of your ride.

Performance 101 was writen by the legondary chassis tuner and performance guru Kenny Brown