No Compromises
Tym Switzer
Founder, Switzer Performance
Tym Switzer began tuning DSMs in the early 90’s, first as a privateer drag racer piloting his Talon into the 9’s and then as an engine builder for Buschur Racing. A little over ten years ago, Switzer ventured off on his own and established Switzer Performance. For the next few years they churned out increasingly powerful and involved builds to suit customer tastes and expectations.
Switzer credits most of the company’s accomplishments and successes to his clientele, most of whom he says have pushed with ever-increasing performance and street-drivability requirements and an unwillingness to make any concessions. “At first, our focus was on selling and installing parts. As we became more demanding and our customers a little more ambitious, we found that we were forced to build some of our own parts to meet those requirements,” Switzer explains. “The individual parts we were building became parts packages, and those evolved into more complete parts packages.”
In spite of the recognition garnered from customer cars like the Sledgehammer Porsche and the P800 R35 GT-R, Switzer is insistent that his clients deserve the credit. “The most tremendous accomplishment we’ve had over the past ten years,” he comments, “is that we’ve grown every year since 2008. While everyone else was losing money and closing their doors, Switzer Performance continued to grow. It’s our customers who continue to refer 90-percent of our new clients to us that push the brand, win races, and really grow our business.”
Switzer’s deference to his clients continues in his estimation of current and future tuning trends. “I believe what sets us apart is that there aren’t any other companies offering what we offer. There are parts and packages for Porsches and GT-Rs but I don’t believe there is the same level of customer-driven development.” [pullquote]I BELIEVE WHAT SETS US APART IS THAT THERE AREN’T ANY COMPANIES OFFERING WHAT WE OFFER[/pullquote]He explains, “Other shops have an idea they pitch to well- heeled clients until someone ‘bites.’ What ends up being built is what the shop owners want to build and sell. Basically, the halo-car is the car the owner wants and maybe has been lucky enough to find customers that want exactly the same thing.” Switzer adds, “I’m not going to say it’s wrong or a bad business model. If that’s what their customers want, that’s great. It’s just 180-degrees from where we are as a business.”
Switzer closes, “We’re working on a new Switzer car based on a German OEM but that’s all I can say about it right now. Other than that, we have some great new stuff coming out for Porsche turbos and we just released our Ultimate Street Edition (USE) GT-R after two years of development and fine-tuning. As far as the future of tuning vehicles, the Syvecs standalone ECUs seem to be the only thing letting bespoke vehicle builders like ourselves to get into these increasingly complex, integrated engine control systems. The Syvecs boxes and, frankly, hundreds of man-hours in testing are going to help everyone in the industry, not just us, overcome this new level of OE ECU complexity on many of the newer vehicle platforms.” For now, Switzer and his team will continue developing packages to accommodate his customers’ demanding requests, pushing the import performance envelope along the way.
