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Wow, I looked it up and that used to be what? DL automotive or something like that. When I was at Penn State that was a pretty nice speed shop for the time. Also I see the junkyard that was accross College Ave. is gone. Houses and warehouses everywhere. How things change in 20 years.



Yep it still is DL Auto, we are in same building. They've changed their business model from what used to be in there years ago. The only employee left from just 2 years ago is the head machinist Dennis, everyone else is gone & new cast of characters in there. They used to sell alot of aftermarket stuff to walk in customers, now it's pretty much just strictly machine work/engine building services. They'll still sell speed parts, but generally only to guys who are having motors done in there etc. The big walk in "speed shop" in State College is A&A auto parts right down street from us.... they have all your typical GM/Ford speed part type stuff on shelf, Holley carbs, gaskets, MSD ignition type stuff, with huge price markups. But they still sell a ton of it to guys who don't know any better. Years ago @ DL especially when Mark Jones ran the counter, 90% of his day was selling parts, carbs, headers, exhaust systems, running boards etc. Now we pretty much never order that type of stuff in, just because profit margins on it are too thin anymore. We used to have the Keystone Automotive truck delivering there every day... now it's once a week if that. & it's usually for one of my orders once we get $300+ order worked up to cover freight. Most of our stuff comes from Atech or Liberty engine parts. Keystone has dropped alot of their good lines including Holley carbs, which is ridiculous.

The junkyard has been gone for many years, I'm gonna say at least 10... that's now Pep Boys, a Giant supermarket & a restaurant/bar. They had a real mess with soil contamination from the JY when they built the new shopping center. I was only @ that junkyard once, just because they never had anything old, it was more of new salvage yard & their prices were really high... I think I got a parking light for my '89 Lebaron there once. Yes the landscape in State College changes rapidly, especially with the price of land & the University driving it up constantly. The building we are in is valued @ $650K... if it was 5 miles outside town it would be a $150K building, ridiculous.