JPC Keeps High Performance Mustangs Running Loud and Fast

Most people working in the racing and high-performance world have early memories of what drove them to get involved in the industry. That might be wrenching on a relative’s car, seeing a few stock cars at the local fair, or watching a childhood hero take the checkered flag on TV.

For Justin Burcham, owner of Justin’s Performance Center (JPC), the introduction to go-fast fun stuck like rubber to asphalt. “When I was younger, I used to go to the racetrack, and I got hooked on drag racing: the sights, the sounds, the smells,” he says. Better yet, his neighbor owned a bracket car, offering an insider’s look into the racing world.

In addition to building a deep appreciation for car culture, the experience launched a successful career for Burcham. His shop in Denton, Maryland provides parts and service for fellow high-performance enthusiasts, selling quality big-name products alongside its own custom-crafted parts and accessories. While it serves all creeds of speed addicts, JPC pays extra special attention to the Mustang platform.

Swap Jobs

A quick glance at JPC’s website will provide ample evidence of the shop’s commitment to souping up Ford’s legendary pony car. In fact, Burcham says one of their primary money makers is transmission swap packages for late-model Mustangs. The complete kits, marketed as Stage 1-Stage 4, range from just under $6,200 to almost $9,450.

In addition to these custom packages, JPC builds its own private-label parts with a CNC vertical mill. The business manufactures parts in house, such as: fuel rails, timing chain guides, oil squirter block-offs, driveshaft loops, transmission crossmembers, and CMRC lockouts. In-house engine builds are also on the menu at JPC –primarily power-adder engines built for turbos and superchargers.

“We don’t machine engines in-house, but we do have a good amount of equipment,” Burcham points out. “We’ll outsource some of the hardcore machine work, then do the blueprinting and assembly in-house. We have all the tools necessary to check every parameter of the engine before assembly. This process has yielded great results over the years as we have not had any engine failures due to incorrect tolerances or improper assembly.”

When relying on fellow aftermarket manufacturers, Burcham reaches for a handful of favorites. He points to Callies rods, Diamond pistons, Procharger, Oliver Racing, Precision Turbo, McLeod clutches, Fueltech, Haltech, Transmission Specialties (TSI), and DriveShaft Shop as brands JPC uses.

Mostly Mustangs

While the shop tackles occasional specialty jobs like F-150s or diesel truck bolt-ons, Burcham says 95% of day-to-day business is Mustang-focused and high-performance oriented. Those seeking more power without a Blue Oval on front shouldn’t be worried though, as JPC doesn’t discriminate by badge. Burcham says the shop’s 10-man crew is currently working on an older Camaro, and is installing a Holley EFI system on a Chevelle.

Over the years, Burcham says he explored the idea of being an “all-in-one” shop but feels late-model Mustangs are his strong suit, so he decided to “stick with what we’re good at.”

“Sometimes you get a call about a car that’s 20-25 years old, and you just know it’s gonna be a problem before it even gets there,” he says. “So, it’s like: do I take that job? Or do I take on a car that’s two years old, where the customer wants to do a supercharger or headers? At this stage of the game, we can pick and choose the jobs we want to take on”

Picking Up Steam

Getting to “this stage of the game” was something of a lifelong journey. Burcham started young in the industry, working on cars and modifying them to race throughout high school. During that time, he landed steady work at an auto repair shop shortly after working at a machine shop, and began honing his knowledge of the craft.

“I ended up working at a performance engine-building shop, and all the engines were big-HP race engines,” Burcham says.

Starting at the ground floor, he moved from cleaning blocks and cylinder heads to eventually machining blocks and cylinder heads, longblock assembly, and dyno tuning through his teens and early 20s. Burcham’s passion for high-performance engines and racing continued as he moved into building high performance boat engines for offshore boats, such as Cigarettes, Fountains, and Skaters.

While sharpening his shop skills, Burcham also gained more credibility on the track by racing Mustangs with NMRA weekend events. “We won a national championship and set some national ET records,” he says. “We competed in multiple classes successfully over the years, while also sponsoring a handful of racers in different classes. Most of our sponsored racers were record setters and/or NMRA champions. We gained a ton of knowledge about different combinations and aspects of racing during those years.”

Through racing, he built an even bigger network and developed relationships with companies and colleagues in the industry.

Burcham’s excitement for racing didn’t burn off at the track.

He operated under the Justin’s Performance Center banner in the late ’90s. Then, in January 2001, he decided to go full time, and incorporated his business that’s dedicated to high-performance fun. He and his friend operated the humble 1,200-sq.-ft. shop in Glen Burnie, Maryland and slowly built up a client list from the racing circuit and local Mustang owners. The business quickly grew its name by keeping a sign up on the vendor midway at various events – ensuring racegoers and race car drivers knew exactly where to get their Mustangs modified in the area.

As the shop moved full time into retail sales and installations, business boomed. Adjacent sites in Burcham’s building complex were added just to provide enough space for the business to grow. “We had cars stacked everywhere — it was crazy,” he notes.

That location worked well for about 10 years, Burcham says, until the volume outgrew the space’s capacity. JPC upgraded to a 15,000 sq.-ft. shop about 10 miles south in Millersville, where it continued to operate for nearly another decade.

Since things have shown no signs of slowing down, Burcham decided to expand again. This time, moving into JPC’s current 16,000-sq-ft facility in Denton, a small town roughly 70 miles east of Baltimore. “[The new shop] is a lot more of an open layout and better-suited for the work we do,” says Burcham. He says customers often comment about the shop’s impressive size, where there might be 35-40 cars, primarily Mustangs, in-house on any given week.

Customer Care

Even with a solid word-of-mouth reputation in the high-performance world, Burcham stays focused on maintaining new business. Two things he avoids are haphazardly cutting prices or over-promising just to land a customer. Burcham says it’s more important to understand the customer’s expectations, and help them be realistic with their goals.

“If the customer’s saying: ‘Hey, I want to install a supercharger kit and I’ve got $5,000,’ well, unfortunately that’s not going to happen. (I) just tell him right upfront, a supercharger kit alone is going to be $5,500-$7,000. By the time you upgrade the injectors, install it, tune it, and everything else associated, it’s going to be a $10,000 job.”

JPC has an in-house Dyno Dynamics eddy current dyno, which it uses to test manufacturers’ claims, develop in-house products and perform calibration work. As part of a “do it right the first time” approach to customer service, JPC staff strives to use their own vehicles as test beds.

As a former racer, Burcham knows all too well the unquenchable thirst for more power. Therefore, JPC tries to prepare its customers for future add-ons. Burcham points to the example of someone coming in for a 500-horsepower upgrade.

“Eventually, you’re gonna want 600, and then you’re gonna want 700, then you’re gonna want 800 — it’s a natural progression,” he says. By getting the customer to invest in the parts and services they need upfront for the future, Burcham notes, “we try to get them to buy the correct part once, to save the customer money in the long run.”

Fellow Enthusiasts

Most of the high-performance builds the shop works on are for hobbyists. Of those cars, a lot of them are in the 8-second car range, Burcham says. The business did work on more heads-up race cars at one point, but it’s since pulled back. “At one point, there were a dozen cars with (the JPC logo) on the side of them,” says Burcham. “And that’s another thing that help put us on the map.”

Today the shop still works with some NMRA drivers, including Mike Ciborowski and Tony Hobson. Burcham says he’ll also occasionally partner up with drivers who race on smaller, regional circuits.

Even though Denton is a less centralized area than JPC’s previous location, it still sees a steady stream of customers coming in from all over. Burcham cites cars from New York, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and nearby Delaware as the majority of current jobs in the shop, and he’s had cars as far as away as Texas. Outside the U.S., JPC has worked on cars from Canada, Cuba, and even the Middle East.

“We’re a destination location, whether you’re 1 hour away or 6 hours away. If people want us to do a build on their car, they’ll find a way to get it to us.”

Modern Challenges

Like many businesses, Burcham says JPC has had its share of challenges lately trying to navigate the global supply chain dilemma. Parts that would typically arrive in 1-2 weeks are now running as long as 8-12 weeks – and those parts are getting more expensive. The bottleneck affects both the retail and service sides of the business.

“Unfortunately, a lot of customers aren’t very understanding of that,” states Burcham. “It’s like they know it, they acknowledge it, but at the same time, they want their toy.”

The shipment delays have kept some cars sitting in the shop longer than Burcham likes, but he says he and the shop crew have tried to be as flexible as possible. So, when parts arrive for backlogged jobs, there’s always a chance they’ll need to switch gears to get a job done that’s been on hold for months. He describes it as a “constant moving target” and says he tries to be as transparent as possible with customers, even if the manufacturer isn’t giving him a clear timeframe.

Talent Gap

And while the shop has its core crew of well-trained employees, Burcham says he’s seen the same challenges of finding skilled laborers like other trade businesses. “The type of work that we do, it’s a very, very specialized field,” he states. “You can’t just grab a guy from Mr. Tire and say, ‘Hey, install this supercharger, or put this 1500-horsepower engine in this car, or do this custom chassis work. It’s taken me many, many, years to find a crew as experienced and knowledgeable as I have now. We have a really great group of guys. I’m blessed.”

Similarly, Burcham says he doesn’t want to hire someone as an ‘order-taker‘ for the sales department. It’s crucial, he states, to hire salespeople that know his specialized parts field. Burcham wants to ensure they’re providing the customer with the right parts for their build to not reflect poorly on the company.

Despite those challenges, the shop hasn’t lacked business, even with the slowdowns that COVID caused across the country. Burcham says business is a little quieter in the winter, but “we’ve never had to break out a deck of cards.”

Looking Ahead

When asked about the future, Burcham says he wants JPC to continue on its independent streak.

“We’re trying to do as much as we can in-house, that way we are in more control of the builds — which helps us meet deadlines,” he says, pointing to JPC’s arsenal of equipment, such as: tire mounting/balancing machines, alignment machine, chassis dyno, welding machines, fabrication tools, and engine-building tools as part of that setup. JPC recently upgraded to a Mainline Prohub dyno capable of holding 6000rwhp, which opens up more opportunities to cater to larger horsepower cars.

The shop’s CNC-manufactured parts also continue to help build the business’s name, Burcham says. He points out that a handful of companies sell JPC’s private-label parts, which helps boost his bottom line and spread the word about the shop. Plus, it takes some of the heavy lifting off his plate in terms of advertising and selling.

Burcham says he also wants to continue building off JPC’s online presence, beefing up its e-commerce arm, specifically focusing on mail-order engines and components. The way he sees it, customers want stronger, faster engines, regardless of global pandemics and shifting labor markets.

“At the end of the day, people just want to go fast. Speed is very addicting.”

He leaves us with a thought that calls back on his early racing days: “I’m extremely competitive, to put it lightly,” he stresses. “I love — and expect — to win. I’m just not cut out for losing.”

That passion is part of what keeps him so dedicated to his customers. If they’re winning, he says, he’s winning.

 

JPC Racing
10349 River Road
Denton, MD 21629
410-729-0005
https://www.jpcracing.com/