My relationship with First State Motorsports started last summer when i had an sc300 that i wanted to turbo. It had almost 200k miles and I pieced together a turbo kit for it. I had pretty much everything i needed except for a downpipe. Most of the shops i visited in the MD area were either to busy to get to it or didnt want to touch an na-t setup. I remembered meeting Josh at the philly street races a while ago so he asked me to come check his shop out.
I got there expecting a big shop but i found a moderate sized shop with some unique projects going on. I talked with Josh and Dan at the time and we mapped out a strategy to get my car. I got a favorable estimate and based on my general feel for the shop. There are four things i want in a shop: i like my car to be done in a timely manner, i want good quality of work, i want updates on my car and i do not like suprise charges(a couple of hundreds for unexpected costs is ok) but the estimate has to be as close as possible to the final price. I went with my gut instinct and i couldnt have been happier. I liked the feel of a shop that wasnt so huge because then the customer doesnt feel like they dont get enough attention. Dropped my turbo kit and accessories there as well as my car.
Throughout the entire process, Josh kept me updated. Almost everyday i would get a phone call updating me on the status of my car, if they had to spend any additional money that wasnt listed on the estimate, he got my approval before he went ahead. Car was delivered on schedule and i was impressed with the craftmanship.. He also called to follow up after the car was done. Even when the oil pump on the 200k mile motor decided to let go months later, he did not hesitate to pull his motor out of his own sc300 to get my car running within a weekend because my car was my daily.
When i finally bought a supra with a blown motor, of course i took it to first state to get it done. Work as usual was top notch. Fuel system was installed, AEM was installed, new motor and wideband were installed. He even used his own AEM map and tweaked it a bit for my 1000cc injectors to get the car to run decent at no additional cost. He also followed up with me the entire time and checked up on me after i had the car. He stayed late many times to get my car done in time so i could enjoy the car while the weather was still nice out.
Lastly, i had a 200whp all motor civic si.. Car was in pretty bad shape when i brought it in.. Bought a built motor and tranny through someone else and had Josh and Dan drop it in. They got the swap done properly but for some reason the motor wouldnt crank. They spent over a week diagnosing and finally got it running right. Turns out the cat went bad and the aftermarket ecu wasnt throwing a code. Did they charge me for troubleshooting? No. They charged me for only parts and cost of labor to do a swap which was a flat fee that they had already given me an estimate for.
I recently got bored with my pt72 on my supra and decided to go with something bigger.. Guess whos going to be doing all the work? You guessed it.. first state..
They've churned out a couple of decent NA-T's recently including Josh's personal sc300(The Quickness), Bryan's supra(NAT95) and mine. They also did some work on Andrews supra(Bad94Sup) and a tilton equipped na-t sc300 from md. Sure the shop isnt the typical huge shop but if you like the small friendly feel with good quality work and customer service you should definitely check them out
I got there expecting a big shop but i found a moderate sized shop with some unique projects going on. I talked with Josh and Dan at the time and we mapped out a strategy to get my car. I got a favorable estimate and based on my general feel for the shop. There are four things i want in a shop: i like my car to be done in a timely manner, i want good quality of work, i want updates on my car and i do not like suprise charges(a couple of hundreds for unexpected costs is ok) but the estimate has to be as close as possible to the final price. I went with my gut instinct and i couldnt have been happier. I liked the feel of a shop that wasnt so huge because then the customer doesnt feel like they dont get enough attention. Dropped my turbo kit and accessories there as well as my car.
Throughout the entire process, Josh kept me updated. Almost everyday i would get a phone call updating me on the status of my car, if they had to spend any additional money that wasnt listed on the estimate, he got my approval before he went ahead. Car was delivered on schedule and i was impressed with the craftmanship.. He also called to follow up after the car was done. Even when the oil pump on the 200k mile motor decided to let go months later, he did not hesitate to pull his motor out of his own sc300 to get my car running within a weekend because my car was my daily.
When i finally bought a supra with a blown motor, of course i took it to first state to get it done. Work as usual was top notch. Fuel system was installed, AEM was installed, new motor and wideband were installed. He even used his own AEM map and tweaked it a bit for my 1000cc injectors to get the car to run decent at no additional cost. He also followed up with me the entire time and checked up on me after i had the car. He stayed late many times to get my car done in time so i could enjoy the car while the weather was still nice out.
Lastly, i had a 200whp all motor civic si.. Car was in pretty bad shape when i brought it in.. Bought a built motor and tranny through someone else and had Josh and Dan drop it in. They got the swap done properly but for some reason the motor wouldnt crank. They spent over a week diagnosing and finally got it running right. Turns out the cat went bad and the aftermarket ecu wasnt throwing a code. Did they charge me for troubleshooting? No. They charged me for only parts and cost of labor to do a swap which was a flat fee that they had already given me an estimate for.
I recently got bored with my pt72 on my supra and decided to go with something bigger.. Guess whos going to be doing all the work? You guessed it.. first state..
They've churned out a couple of decent NA-T's recently including Josh's personal sc300(The Quickness), Bryan's supra(NAT95) and mine. They also did some work on Andrews supra(Bad94Sup) and a tilton equipped na-t sc300 from md. Sure the shop isnt the typical huge shop but if you like the small friendly feel with good quality work and customer service you should definitely check them out
