Racing Solutions, Inc (RSI)

Jim, it was great talking with you as well. I am excited to see that the Houston Viper Club is back in action. I can already tell that this will be the best group the Houston VCA has ever seen.  

To answer your question to where RSI has been for the last several months and what the future is for RSI. We know RSI has been a topic on a lot of Viper owner’s minds. RSI has had some minor set backs as does a lot of companies, but with the support of our customers and the Viper community we are in the process of a major reorganization. RSI has not closed the doors or turned off the phones. RSI is still in business today and we will be in business for a long time. We are excited about the things that are going to come out of RSI very soon.  

Jim we do have some great dealers in Houston that handle warranty work,  like Todd Archer at Archer Dodge, Jeremy and Patrick Brown at Northwest Dodge, but RSI does have good amount of people that bring their cars to us rather than a dealer for quicker turn around times and the knowledge. Here at RSI we offer professional people that have been around Vipers for more than 12 years and have the knowledge from the ground up on how Vipers work. We are proud to say that we also know how the customers feel about their Vipers and we respect that. We have built a good part of our reputation on being able to understand what the customer is looking for when it comes to everything from oil changes to twin turbos. I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag yet, but Houston is going to see the best Viper and Aftermarket shop ever.  

Best Regards  

Jason Calzada  

Tomball Dodge

Howdy Jim,

I’m not exactly sure how to start on this whole thing, but I’m sure I’ll get through it. You’ll need to edit it down to something that makes sense. And, you’ll probably need to ask me to fill in the blanks in a few places. I grew up in Tomball, TX. My father owned Tomball Ford. After graduating with an engineering degree from Texas A&M, I went to work at Covert Ford in Austin. Then, I came to Tomball Ford to go into the family business. I bought into the business to be partners with my father. After 5 years, this didn’t work out, and I found myself unemployed with all of my net worth tied up in a minority share of the company.

I ended up with an opportunity to buy a small Ford store in Port Lavaca, TX that had gone broke twice within the previous 8 years. Nobody wanted to touch the dealership and Ford Credit was owed a lot of money on the deal. So, in March of 2002 I was given the opportunity based on not much more than my relationship with Ford Credit. We were extremely successful very quickly.

Then, just three months later on July 3rd, 2002, I bought the Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep store in Port Lavaca. Again, we were able to do much better than expected very quickly. Things were great.

In my opinion, the sexiest car ever built was the GTS Viper. However, since I had always been a Ford guy, I did not feel like I was “allowed” to own one. So, when I became a Dodge dealer in 2002 it was already after the GTS was built out, forever. I did a locate and ended up doing a dealer trade for an ’02 GTS Graphite with no stripes. I took the car as a “demo”, and actually still have the car in my garage on an MSO (never titled).

For Christmas 2003, my wife bought me a Motorsports Club weekend out at Texas World Speedway in College Station. I was excited about it, but wasn’t sure when I would find the time.

In January 2004, I bought the Chevrolet, Buick, Pontiac, GMC dealership in Port Lavaca. This gave me a monopoly on the new car dealerships in Port Lavaca, representing 8 different franchises. It also gave me enough economies of scale to have an advertising reach well beyond my area.

In May of 2004, I took my “demo” 2002 GTS to TWS for the Diver’s Education weekend. I had one of the best times of my life. I described it as an adrenaline flush. 20 minutes of adrenaline with 40 minutes of relaxation, over and over again. It was the best stress reliever I had ever experienced. I knew I would come back, but figured I could only get away once or twice per year.

In September of 2004, I was given the opportunity to purchase the family business of Tomball Ford from my Mom.

Then, in January of 2005, the General Manager of TWS called me to tell me that Viper Days was coming there in February and that I should check it out. I ended up only being able to attend Friday of the event. I was HOOKED. I made a long list of all the different things I wanted to do to my stock GTS to make it a better track car. However, once I got home I realized that I was looking at spending $15,000 to modify my completely stock car, which would cause it lose about $15,000 in value. So, rather than make a $30,000 mistake, I bought a 2000 GTS ACR Viper Racing League completely set up race car from Bobby Archer.

I traveled to Viper Days events from Sebring, to Iowa, to Indiana, to Virginia, to Oklahoma, and Kansas. I got set up with a technician from Port Lavaca who has a lot of racing experience and a one car trailer, and started racing in the VRL. I went from not finishing races, to no podium finishes, to 3rd, then 2nd, then 1st.

I enjoy the series and the people so much that I decided to come to the table as The Presenting Sponsor for the entire Series for 2007 and 2008. My plan is to sell lots of cars to the people who are involved in the series around the country, while doing my part to make sure the Series stays around for a long time.

So far, I have made every event in 2007. Not only did I get 1st place in January, but I won first place overall beating all cars, including all the Comp Coupes. In February, I get first place in California at Buttonwillow. And last month, I had several car issues, which kept me back in 3rd place. I plan to attend every single race in 2007 with the exception of mid-Ohio in May. I leave in about 2 weeks for a race in Sebring, where I am going to be coached by Neil Hannaman who drove GTSR’s for the Dodge and was an engineer for the car. I AM EXCITED.

Because of the success we had at Tomball Ford, DaimlerChrysler gave me the opportunity to purchase the Dodge store in Tomball in March of 2007. With the new building, combined with our knowledge of the market, our success in trucks, and our involvement with Vipers, this is a PERFECT fit for Houston. It has only been one month, but we can already see a huge potential in this market.

I already have one technician that is Viper Certified and I am working to have a second one as soon as possible. Plus, I have a crew chief who is EXTREMELY knowledgeable on Vipers at or for the track, and I have all the equipment to set up and prepare cars for anyone interested. I expect to do quite a bit of work on many of the Comp Coupes I race with. Plus, I plan to become the home for Viper owners in South Texas. This will be a slow process of creating great experiences for people needing warranty work or interested in track set up.

With my association and sponsorship of Viper Days and the Viper Racing League nationwide, combined with the fact that I have 2 dealerships, I plan to have a healthy allocation of the 2008 Viper. I currently have all the specs and am taking orders. I have a specific Viper Sales consultant to handle it for me. My hope is that the volume of 2008 Vipers will be the launch pad for getting my name out in the Viper community. As far as your questions about “dealer experience”…. Yes, we will store Vipers inside. Yes, we have a Viper Tech. Yes, you will get updates. My people all know that the Viper community is VERY important to me. They know that I spend one week out of every month traveling around the country with Viper owners. They know that this is my passion and that I will have my nose right in the middle of everything Viper related. I am happy to personally schedule appointments for you and give you updates. I want to be involved at that level. I can assure you that nobody will be hard on your car. Doing something like that would be the fastest ticket to the unemployment line.

Also, I am really working hard to get a HUGE attendance at the Viper Days event June 22-24 at Texas World Speedway. ANY help you could give would be very appreciated.

Please let me know if I left blanks in my bio. I tried to do in chronologically, mixing both the car business and my Viper involvement. If I need to treat them separately, let me know.

Thanks,

Ben