Inside SpeedSource: Facility

Photo: John Dagys

Walking through SpeedSource’s state-of-the-art facility not only reinforces the scale of its multi-faceted motorsports operation, but also provides a glimpse into the future for the South Florida-based organization.

A lot has changed since the team’s formation nearly 20 years ago, although the vision has remained the same for team owner Sylvain Tremblay, who has continued to make advancements in the sport, with proof of that coming right inside the shop walls.

PHOTOS: SpeedSource Facility

SpeedSource’s sprawling 50,000 sq. ft. facility, located in Coral Springs, Fla., features virtually everything needed to design and build an entire race car from the ground up.

Along with advanced chassis and engine dynos, as well as a full engineering office and carbon department, SpeedSource is equipped with cutting-edge manufacturing machinery, including three CNC machines.

“The machines allows us freedom,” said Marcus Shen, director of engineering. “If the race team needs something and you only have three days to turn around the car, we can make a part, no problem.

“You can’t do that if you have to farm it out to somebody. It allows us the luxuries of not being in those confines. I think that’s invaluable and allows us to build a lot of parts.

“We’ve built the machine shop up in such a way that we can quickly react to prototypes. We can make a one-off part where a big machine shop typically doesn’t operate that way.”

The team moved into its current facility in late 2011, having come from a shop that was nearly one-quarter of the size, without many of the luxuries the current building features.

Located on a five-acre lot, and with only roughly 70 percent of the shop space currently occupied, Tremblay felt it was important to have a facility the organization would grow into.

“Doubling the facility was ambitious, especially when thinking if we could support that size,” he said. “But I didn’t try to think about two years, I tried to think about 10 or 15 years down the road.”

Originally used as a media distribution warehouse, the entire interior of the shop was gutted and fitted with custom designed offices and rooms suited for a first class motorsports operation.

An extreme level of attention was taken, from the trophy filled front office to the main shop floor, where the pair of Mazda SKYACTIV-D P2 cars are prepped for each TUDOR United SportsCar Championship weekend.

In fact, with its state-of-the-art componentry and near-spotless floors, SpeedSource’s shop, in some cases, could easily be mistaken for that of a top-level German-based factory LMP1 squad.

“It’s important to have a nice facility for the people that work here,” Tremblay said. “It’s a very functional facility and very high tech because the technology has changed quite a bit. I wanted to have a clean place that the guys could really take pride into.”

With the team continuing to make gains in its factory P2 development program, Tremblay sees SpeedSource remaining with its roots firmly planted at its current shop, as it looks to continue its expansion in the motorsports industry.

Located less than one-hour from Homestead-Miami Speedway and Palm Beach International Raceway, and a two-and-a-half hour drive to Sebring International Raceway, the facility is in a prime location for year-round testing opportunities.

“We had studied to move the facility to California or North Carolina,” Tremblay said. “There’s pluses and minuses to both particular sectors.

“But my heart has always been in Florida, and for what we do, there’s very few places in the country where you can test year-round.

“If you look at road racing, South Florida has a pretty good history of it.”

With championship-winning cars having come out of the SpeedSource facility over the years, they too are creating history, as one of the leading motorsports operations that has a bright future ahead.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John