Before you come to any conclusions, Harry Eberlin is not involved nor associated with the new Super Shops®.  Yes, he and his friend did come to visit and meet with the president, manager, and staff at the El Cajon store, to reminise and to give advice; at our request.  Harry has no financial nor legal association with Super Shops Racing Inc. the current owner of the Super Shops® name and trademarks.

Nevertheless, Harry Eberlin started the original Super Shops® almost from nothing, and turned it into the nation's most known name in auto performance.  To that, we give Harry a lot of credit and respect for such an amazing feat.  It is also why we have dedicated this section to him, because Super Shops® would never have existed without him.

The Story of Harry Eberlin and the Original Super Shops®

In 1957, Harry Eberlin quit High School and ran away to New Mexico.  He lived in his car.  The front window of this car did not even roll up to keep out the cold. He got a job in a gas station paying 85 cents an hour.  Harry did a great job but still got fired as he could not speak Spanish.  He went out and found another job which was making adobe bricks which paid $1.00 an hour.  He was still living in his car and shaved, showered etc, in a gas station restroom and the money was running out. He was 16 years old and nobody to turn to.  He went hungry, slept with a blanket which he had to knock snow off in the morning.  He was very cold at night. Harry then made the biggest decision in his life which was, he never intended to be in this position ever again.  Cold, broke, nothing to eat and no place to live. In November of 1957, Harry sold the hub caps off his car to get enough money to buy some gas to drive back to Colorado Springs, so he could live at home again.  Here he found a job at the Air Force Academy working on a pipeline crew, filling trenches.  This paid $2.25 an hour.  He worked hard for 6 months. He again left home and moved to Tucson Arizona.  He still lived in his car and parked it behind Gary’s Engine Service.  Here he got the name “Gypsy”.  He sold parts out of the trunk of his car.  Harry moved to Florida in 1958.  He still was living in his car and right on the beach.  At this time he had some bad luck and spent some time in jail for Drag Racing.  He had hardly any money left, so he decided to go and see his real Dad in Michigan to ask for help in a job and some money so he could start his own business.  His father said, “sorry, I can’t help you”. August 10, 1959, Harry didn’t have any other choice but to go in the air force. The reason he did was to save enough money to open his own business.  He went to Alaska and during the trip to a remote Alaskan Weather Station with a friend, Harry told his friend he was going to save $1,000.00 while he was there.  His friend said “You’re crazy, there is no way you can save that on $1200.00 a year”, but Harry was determined.  One year later coming back from Alaska his friend was on the plane again.  He said to Harry, “did you save the $1,000.00 you said you would save?” Harry replied, “Yes, and not only did I save $1,000.00, I saved an extra $250.00 and a promotion to $1,500.00 a year”.  Harry lived on $250.00 for one entire year.  His friend was amazed. Harry moved to Edwards Air Force Base in 1962.  He got married.  At the time he was making $250.00 a month working for the air force.  $80.00 went for rent with $170.00 left to live on.  Out of this Harry saved $90.00 a month. On July 1, 1963 he opened his business with $2,000.00 which he had saved making a lot of sacrifices and with a lot of determination.  Albrights Fence Company were not out of the building which Harry had rented.  He had already handed out flyers saying he was now open and ready for business, so he parked his car out in front and was selling parts out of the front seat and trunk of his car for the first three days until his building was vacant. The first month he had been burglarized twice and more than one third of the inventory had been taken.  Harry had to play manager, purchaser, bookkeeper, night watchman as well as being the owner.  He wanted to give up but had a friend of the family drop by and give and look at the books.  The friend told him he was making money, not much but stick to it.  Harry stuck with it even with the inventory loss.  The first months sales were $1,900.00.  There were four days when nobody came in all day. Phil at J-M speed shop in Riverside was selling a set of 4 Mickey Thompson Raiders wheels for $149.00 on sale.  Harry went down to Dean Moon and bought a set for $149.00 his cost.  There was no way he could compete and make money.  Harry then came up with the idea of the deposit fund.  Harry put a set of 4 wheels out front with a price on them and took deposits paid- in-full.  He had 16 wheels on order and went down again to Dean Moon and bought 16 wheels at one time, cash.  Harry was buying parts from Edelbrock C.O.D, who told him that there was no way he could make it way out there selling Hi Performance parts only, but Harry had the determination to make it no matter what people in the business said. He was still in the air force, working four nights a week and running his own business also.  He had to go down and purchase parts, also to restock his business. Harry’s first employee was John Larance and then Mike Cunnningham.  In 1966 he opened store NO. 2 in Pomona and tried to run both stores.  The stores in Pomona didn’t make it.  It was open 7 days a week. In 1967, Jimmy Patterson came to work for Harry at 33 cents an hour or $18.00 a week. Harry bought a small building next door at 25824 East Base Line, and moved into two-thirds of it.  The remaining one-third was occupied by a beauty parlor.  In 1968, he took over the entire building, and in 1972 built the first of several additions. In June 1972, Riverside Racing Equipment came into being and Ontario racing was born in March of 1973. San Diego was added in March, 1974.  Then the Corporate name was changed.  San Bernardino Racing Equipment Inc., became Super Shops, Inc.  This was the name that had been held in reserve for several years. Next came Garden Grove in June 1975, and West L.A. the next month. On June 1, 1976, Super Shops moved all the central warehouse and corporate office functions to a 40,000 square foot building in the Colton Industrial Park. Overnight the Company began operating the largest High Performance warehouse on the West Coast. It was just the beginning! The Long Beach store opened in August 1976. Covina became a milestone when it opened on June 19,1977, the first Super Shops Store built from the ground up. The pilot model for stores to come. Later that year, the Super Shops Corporate offices moved to Ultra modern facilities in New Port Beach, California. Van Nuys opened in December of 1977. In April, 1978 it was joined by Sacramento, the first store to open outside of Southern California, and in June the first out-of-state store, Salt Lake, San Gabriel in August of 1978. Phoenix in November of 1978, were followed in 1979 by Tucson , Denver, and San Jose. In the Autumn of 1979 came operation “NAME CHANGE” all store became Super Shops Automotive Performance Centers.  A move almost as significant as the move to the brand new Super Shops warehouse in San Bernardino, 116,000 square feet, with sophisticated communications and security systems that a lot of companies only dreamed about.  This warehouse is designed to serve 30 stores.  30 Super Shops stores that are already a reality, or under construction or on the drawing board. On March 22, 1980, opened Albuquerque and on April 1981, Colorado Springs. On July 2, 1981, 18 years and one day from the founding date of Super Shops, the performance industry was rocked by the news that Super Shops had purchased Mallory Electric Corporation from W. R. Grace and Company.  Super Shops, the retail chain, was in the manufacturing business, the owner of the highly regarded Mallory organization in the Carson City, Nevada. On December 6, 1981, Merrill store opened.  This was a second store in Riverside. Portland, Oregon was the next store on March 27, 1982, followed by Stockton, California on April 3, 1982. On April 27, 1982 we purchased Sig Erson Racing Cams. The Fresno store came next on June 12, 1982.  July 3, 1982, Englewood, Colorado.  La Mirada on July 14, 1982. On August 7, 1982- Las Vegas, Nevada and Torrance to follow. The point of this story? That one man with the dedication and two-thousand dollars can begin and build a business by himself.