With a new day comes a new face, here at National Speed. Caleb, our newest Customer Success Associate, will be quite a busy guy once he gets settled in. In addition to taking phone calls, writing up customers, and ferrying the endless amount of information flowing between our techs and counter associates, Caleb also handles our social media accounts. So when you see our dyno videos or pictures of builds in progress, make sure you welcome our greenhorn by hitting that like button!
Adam: So Caleb, how long have you been working here?
Caleb: A few weeks, at this point.
A: Are you enjoying your time so far?
C: Absolutely! I mean, just a walk around the shop is really fascinating.
A: What do you currently drive?
C: 2017 Subaru Impreza WRX. Needless to say, we’ve got plans, haha.
A: So, tell me about how you got into cars.
C: It started early on. My dad has a ’79 Ford Ranger and, I think, around the age of 12 was when I started helping him work on it. Thankfully, my dad was a Mechanical Engineer so he knows a lot about that kind of thing. Whenever I was curious about something like, “Hey, how does this work in the engine?” I could ask him and he’d explain it. So, that kind of blossomed into me getting my first car eventually. Which I got after college, and was my WRX. But before I got that, I spent a lot of time doing research and figuring out that I really do like this car a lot. After I bought the car, I spent an entire summer researching aftermarket parts and watching videos on YouTube. That led me to the place I was working at before here, JB Autosports. They sell aftermarket Toyota and Subaru parts, so there was a lot of WRX stuff around at that point. Mostly 2015 and up, but there were other years as well. I was real heavily involved in that. But, currently, I follow so many different YouTube channels with people’s car vlogs and regular things like Motor Trend and into personal vlogs where they take their own vehicles and build them. So, researching cars and car trends became something I do in my free time a lot. If I’m not working on a car, I’m usually learning about cars or kinda’ seeing what someone else is doing to theirs. So you get to thinking “If I had ‘that’ then I would take ‘this’ path” kind of thing.
A: So, it gives you a bit of inspiration?
C: Exactly, that! You know, my career tracking was in sports before this. But, the whole 6 years that I was in college studying sports management, in my free time I was pouring over WRX stuff in anticipation of buying one.
A: So, are you only into cars?
C: No, I also have a passion for motorcycles as well. I actually got my motorcycle license when I was 17.
A: So, you did a lot of researching before you chose the WRX?
C: I did, I did… *laughs* Tons of research….
A: So, was there a moment when you were test driving the car when it kind of clicked, like “This is what I want!”
C: Yeah, totally. Before all that, I was shopping around while I was still in school and I drove a, I believe, a 2012 Civic Si. I was just looking around, you know? But, I drove that and liked it a lot. And then in 2015, which was when my model of WRX came out, I was able to drive one of those. And afterward, all I could think was “Hmm… I don’t want that Civic anymore. I want this car!” I still had to wait a little bit longer because I wasn’t finished with school at that time. But, it was that time right there that made me think that I had to have this car at some point.
A: I know you haven’t been around here long, but what would you say about the atmosphere of the shop and how do you like it?
C: It’s awesome! I mean, you come in and learn something new every single day. Actually, I end up doing lots of cool things every single day. Like, I was doing a dyno video of a really, really loud supercharged Mustang GT. I mean, there are so many projects we work on here. Everybody is extremely knowledgeable and very friendly and welcoming also. It’s just a good experience every single day. And you definitely learn something every single day. It’s a fun place to be and helps me promote my own personal passions while watching an Evo on the dyno. It makes me actually want to go to work!
