| I get asked often how I got my start into building race cars so here's my story. It all started when I was a 15 year old high School student living in Cape Coral, FL. We use to have a neighbor that lived a couple blocks away in the same subdivision as us that would drive by our house every Friday and Saturday night and also most Sunday afternoons with his modified 1970 Nova, on his way to somewhere. The sound of that car would just make my heart race and finally curiosity got the best of me and my brother so we finally decided to follow them one night to where they would go which turned out to be a remote location in North Cape Coral where they and several hundred other local people would street race their cars. I was hooked on this "street racing" and decided I needed to get myself a car. I managed to purchase, with help from my father, a 12 second '75 Camaro from a local racer and my brother also bought an '80 Z-28 Camaro that ran some high 13's. Over time we needed to do things to the cars that required welding and fabrication so at 17 I enrolled myself into a welding class at a local vocational school and bought a used MIG welder so I could do things to our cars like install a roll bar, amongst other things. It wasn't long before I was performing work on other peoples cars including that guy who got me hooked on this obsession. My family eventually moved to the Ocala area and I took a job as a welder for a local fire truck manufacturer. I had sold my Camaro right before the move but my brother still had his so we teamed up on his and started modifying it for "Heads up" racing at the Drag strips. I ended up quitting my job of 6 1/2 years at the fire truck manufacturer to take a job at Suncoast Race Cars as their head welder. I worked there for 5 months which don't seem like a long time but I learned a ton on the In's and out's of building a professional race car. I left mainly due to travel distance and other issues I had at that time. I ended up taking a job at a local company as a welder and while there obtained certifications in MIG, TIG, Stick, flux core and Sub arc welding. After 3 years there they were bought out by a much larger company and layoffs ensued. 120 employees were laid off, myself included. In October of 2001 After spending 8 months on unemployment trying to find a job with decent wages I decided to take a shot in the dark and open my own chassis shop after being coaxed by two of my dearest friends to give it a shot. They said to me, "you have the knowledge and skills, why not?" So while obviously being scared to death, I took the $5000 my wife and I had left in savings and sunk it all into opening up "Dan Neumann Race Cars". Nearly 7 years later I can proudly say we're going strong and have many satisfied customers who I cannot thank enough for giving me the opportunity to show them what I can do for their racing programs. We may not be the fastest at getting a job done but we will do our best to give you the most bang for your buck. Just remember one thing. It's not how much you spend, but how well you spend it. |
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