Founded in 1996 by owner Alex Shen, SP Engineering began operations in the City of Industry, California in a 4,800 square foot facility with three employees in addition to owner Shen. Although the physical plant was a bit humble compared to others in tuner-rich southern California, SP Engineering almost immediately began making a name for itself by building cars for its customers. Focusing initially on the Japanese import performance aftermarket, word began to trickle out regarding SP's powerful, tractable and reliable street cars. Indeed, several magazines, including Turbo and High-Tech Performance, European car, Sport Compact Car and Import Tuner, in particular, began to periodically nose about the facility as a reliable way of identifying future feature vehicles (see "SP in the Media" elsewhere on this site). As business increased with customers' cars, Shen began to focus on retail and wholesale accounts as a more predictable and reliable revenue stream to enhance the overall financial viability of his business enterprise.

This effort really began to payoff when SP moved a few blocks away to a larger 13,000 square foot facility housing five lifts, a state-of-the-art Dynojet chassis dyno facility, space for the growing sales staff and for the increasingly large inventory of high demand aftermarket performance parts. By now, SP Engineering was employing twenty-one (21) staff persons, the majority in sales and shipping and receiving, servicing hundreds of wholesale and retail accounts. As the business continued to grow, and with the related increased purchasing power, SP Engineering became the first ever master distributor to be number one in sales simultaneously world-wide for HKS and GReddy, the two Japanese aftermarket performance powerhouses. Indeed, SP has been, from time to time, number one in sales for other major Japanese aftermarket manufacturers, such as Tein, Blitz and VeilSide. In some cases, as with the VeilSide intake manifold, a three-piece, hand-built surge tank, lower intake manifold, 100 mm throttle body and high-flow billet fuel rail, SPE is the exclusive importer of this acclaimed intake manifold and has sold more of these units over the last two years than all other VeilSide distributors combined. Because of its ability to stock high-demand import performance aftermarket parts, SP has become the leading enterprise of its type in the U.S., servicing many Tuners and distributors across the country.

Although initially making a name for itself in the Japanese import performance sector, a quick look at SP Engineering's website demonstrates the company's wide-ranging experience and expertise in the euro market and with some force-inducted domestic offerings. SP has been active in the Lamborghini market, turning out impressive Diablo and the new Murcielago as well. As a matter of fact, during the 2004 "Running of the Bulls", Shen showed his tail lights to all-comers as a result of a ground-breaking and innovative nitrous system for his personal 6.0 Diablo. Much the same has happened with the Porsche 996 TT and GT2 markets as it has become clear to any discerning customer that, when it comes to turbocharged, supercharged or nitrous-equipped exotics, SP Engineering is the place to build and service your personal high performance vehicle. The strong move into the euro market reflects a major component of Shen's strategic business plan. With its force induction expertise, SP Engineering is uniquely equipped to enhance and service many of the turbocharged and supercharged vehicles exported to the world's largest passenger vehicle market by Daimler-Benz, Porsche and the Volkswagen Audi Group in particular. Even with this growing focus on the euro market, SP will continue to build and service "special" import performance vehicles, such as the Nissan/Infinity 350Z TT/G-35 TT, the Mitsubishi Evo, the Subaru WRX and STi and the long awaited and hoped for MKV Supra.

In order to effectively implement its strategic business plan, which includes racing in 2005 the shop's famous Supra-7, its R-33 Nissan Skyline GT-R and manufacturing its own specialty parts, almost certainly a larger facility is needed to accommodate and effectively serve SP's many, loyal customers. To exploit the euro market, certain other niches and to go racing, SP Engineering will likely move to larger quarters as soon as is reasonably possible. With top notch manufacturing, fabrication and tuning talent already signed and waiting to come aboard in 2005, Shen intends to continue to grow the business and increase the company's market penetration by continuing to do what has been successful in the past, ongoing assessment of the aftermarket performance industry and effectively serving you, our loyal customers. Stay tuned for periodic updates "About SP".