MEET THE OWNER
Evan Brown, the proprietor of Performance Autowerk, was born into a family with a passion for European vehicles. In fact, on the day of his birth his father was at the Mercedes dealership buying a 1979 300SD. He was driven home from the hospital in his Mom’s 1974 BMW 2002Tii. Throughout his childhood, European vehicles were the norm, so it came as no surprise at age 15, that he set out to buy a BMW of his own.
That car, a 1980 BMW 320is, ignited a love affair with cars that has stood the test of time. The old 320is was in pretty sad shape when he got it. A sure sign of things to come was that the starter failed to crank it over after signing the pink-slip from the previous owner.
From that day forward there were too many cars to count. He even had a dedicated shed on the side of the driveway that, at one point, housed enough parts to build an entire BMW 2002.
At age 16, Evan received a job offer from a local BMW and Mercedes shop. It was a simple job; clean the floors, drive the customers and perform menial tasks around the shop. He took to it very quickly, but yearned to actually turn wrenches.
At the same time, he had become quite familiar with the BMW 2002 and joined the BMWCCA. Over the next year he would build a 2002Tii clone and prepare it for track duty. On the final day of high school Evan skipped the celebration and drove straight to Thunder Hill Raceway, where a new passion of its own was born: High Performance Driving.
During the next year Evan was offered an apprenticeship role at a shop servicing BMW and Volvo vehicles in Oakland. He thrived and quickly moved from apprentice to line technician.
That year he was working on the side and weekends for Larry Oka Racing Services where he helped to build and maintain a fleet of rental race cars. In exchange for his work he was granted seat time in the race cars. At the age of 18 he ran his first full season of ITC racing where he earned a couple of lap records and went on to win the season championship. It was the mentorship of Larry and his crew that helped him learn what it took to make a track/racecar work. He never forgot the mantra “In order to finish first, first you must finish.”
Shortly thereafter, Evan spent time at DVC and Washington State University. He did a stint as an estimator for the family mechanical contracting business, but the draw to cars was too great. When the opening for a tech became available at the BMW and Mercedes shop he knew he couldn’t pass up the opportunity.
Over the next 17 years, Evan grew with that shop. They added Mini-Cooper, Land Rover and Audi to their product lines and he gained valuable experience and knowledge. He went through after hours courses on electrical diagnostics, fuel injection and carburetors. Achieved ASE Master Technician status and moved on to become shop foreman. It was there that he learned how to diagnose cars correctly and perform factory quality repairs.
During the same period, Evan was immersed in the car club lifestyle. He taught high performance driving for the BMW club, SCCA, NASA and a host of other private car clubs. He did some private driver development for local racers, built, developed and helped to maintain several race cars. He even spent a fair amount of time on the track with his motor cycles.
There was no doubt that he wanted to own his own shop. While working, he observed procedures, attended service writing school and developed his own ideas about how a service and repair shop should be run. After a short stint managing a HVAC service department he had gained the experience that he felt necessary to venture out on his own. When he found the space in Dublin he jumped on it. A fitting location as the previous tenant had built multiple exhaust systems for his project and race cars.
Evan looks forward to developing relationships with his customers and providing quality service for their vehicles. He welcomes race, track car, restoration projects and looks forward to answering questions or just discussing your vehicle.