By Tom Williams
Gail Carpenter, president/owner of GC Performance Classics, has been in the automotive repair business for over 45 years. He built his first engine in the back room of his parents’ home in Indiana.
Starting in 1983 and continuing into the ’90s, Gail Carpenter worked in circle track racing, primarily in Indiana and the Mid-West. He was a car chief and builder and even worked as crew chief for Don Bickford in ASA. He also went international and was the crew chief for a vintage Jaguar in the classic Mille Miglia, a vintage car race through the Italian countryside from Brescia to Rome and back.
For 27 years, the senior Carpenter was the lead tech at Muncie Imports and Classics in Muncie, Ind. He and his team consistently produced in excess of 1 million dollars annually. Muncie Imports specializes in the restoration, of vintage and classic Jaguars.
About six years ago, health issues dictated that he slow down a bit, and following major heart surgery in 2015 Gail followed his son, Jeremy, to Nashville.
Jeremy Carpenter, business operations manager at GC Performance Classics, has his own story to tell. As they say, “Like father, like son.” Jeremy grew up in the business and started working at Muncie Imports at the age of 15. He worked there until he was 21.
He followed his dad’s footsteps into racing and raced between the ages of 18 and 26. Jeremy built racecars along with his dad’s engines, and his racing crew career took him all over Indiana, the Mid-West and as far south as New Smyrna Beach Speedway and Volusia Speedway Park in Florida, with Jim Crabtree Jr Racing.
Eventually, he went into the commercial construction industry where he stayed for 19 years. With all of the big construction projects in the Nashville area, he settled in Nashville in spring 2012. But his love was still classic cars, motorsports, and, along with his father, classic Jaguars.
Fast forward to spring 2016 when father, Gail, moved to Nashville to be closer to family. Gail and Jeremy Carpenter followed their hearts and opened GC Performance Classics on July 1, 2016.
Most shops today concentrate on quick-turn mechanical or body business where they might turn 30 or more jobs per week. Oh, those shops will do re-builds, but they tend to get antsy if a project sits in the shop (taking up valuable retail space) for more than a week. They depend on volume.
GC Performance Classics has a different way of looking at things. Their goal is to provide intensive, quality restorations on the type of vehicles most people turn down – classic Jaguars with the occasional Land Rover. They also specialize in other British classics and American muscle cars.
GC Performance does everything from mechanical restorations to full restorations. They prefer to build what Jeremy Carpenter calls “street restorations” as opposed to concourse restorations. Most of their cars are meant to be driven and enjoyed by their owners.
While they certainly have the skills and talent to do body work and painting, they prefer to farm most of that out due in part to current space constraints. They also farm out most of their upholstery work.
With their roots in Muncie, Ind., and Indianapolis area, GC Performance has maintained strong partnerships with a number of specialty shops and suppliers in Indiana, such as C&R Racing Radiators, Moser Engineering, and McGunegill Engine Performance. McGunegill is a major race engine supplier and does all of GC’s machine work.
In-house, GC Performance has a fabrication shop, an engine shop, which is Gail Carpenter’s domain, and plating and refinishing areas. They only have six lifts, which stay full 100 percent of the time.
This is not your typical mechanical shop. A visitor to the shop won’t find old cores sitting around or grease on the floors. As a matter of fact, the cleanliness is reminiscent of most respectable race shops. Gail Carpenter is the primary engine builder, and his engine shop is as clean as any ER, except it has black-and-white checkered tiles on the floor. The customer area is spotless and comfortable.
But what would you expect from a shop where very few customers come through the door? Ninety percent of the projects are brought in and returned on one of their two transport trailers.
According to Jeremy Carpenter, most people do not realize what a real restoration costs. The typical job at GC would run approximately $75,000 with a range of between $25,000 and $250,000. Some jobs can take as little as six months, but most come in for the longhaul; anywhere from one to three years.
When complete, all cars receive a final test drive and any additional concerns are handled before they are returned to their owners.
Some of the on-going projects include a couple of vintage Land Rovers, a 1952 Jaguar XK120, three Corvettes, a ’69 GTO, and a ’69 Z28 Camaro. There are a number of Jaguar XKEs, including a 1963 that is almost finished after a three-year stay, and a 1967 XKE that just came in. There is also a 1989 Chevy S10, which is being fully restored and customized pro-bono for a 75-year old Viet Nam vet.
The newest model in the shop is a 1994 Jaguar XJ220 Super Car, which arrived in March and may not see the light of day for another eight to nine months. This is a very rare car as only 271 Jaguar XJ220s were ever made.
So, what is in store for GC Performance Classics? To begin with, they are very active in vintage racing and plan to grow that part of their business activities. Also, they are in the planning stages for a new automotive business park to be built starting next year just south of Nashville and adjacent to Interstate 840 in Rutherford County, Tenn.
The plans call for a much larger footprint for GC Performance, which will be an anchor for the park. There will also be an exotic-car facility, private shops, a go-cart track for families, and a “club road course” for customers to open up their cars a bit.
For all of this, GC Performance Classics will be looking for a few career-minded restoration professionals. They currently have five techs, including Gail Carpenter; one restoration assistant an office manager and Jeremy Carpenter keeping it al together. •
