› Forums › Forums › SPEED SHOPS from Dover’s past › MOROSO..in Greenwich
dino.dinoHere’s an ad from ’73…. in Greenwich…before going Big Time….
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gene-terenzio-srYou are wrong, he started in Stamford conn. on canal st, then partnered with stall headers.
dinoGene corrected me on this one …..Didn’t Start In Greenwich……Where was his “Performance Automotive”? that was really first ? right? had it lettered on two vettes.
gene-terenzio-srStamford then where ever Stall was then greenwich then the big plant was back in Stamford then upstate conn.
jimbo
Dicks first shop in Stamford was the old Citi Service gas station just over the bridge from West Main Street.
It was Dick and the late Hank Detrick who ran the place and I was there one day when they were both working on their Corvettes and as customers pulled up to buy gas in those days they had to come out and pump it for you they would stick their heads out of the bay door and yell were closed!
They really just wanted to work on their cars all day.
When Dick had the shop on Canal Street he once hung a sign on the front door that said the following.
Out to Lunch be back next month.
He was really a great guy and hanging around there on Saturdays was always fun because every Saturday afternoon someone would show up with a car on a trailer and ask Dick if he wanted to race.
One block away was State Street along I-95 and Dick would drive the Corvette over and take the guys money each time.
I used to get a kick out of going over to his home when he and Nancy lived in Ridgefield and seeing the Moroso stickers all over his refrigerator.
He only worked for Jere Stahl out in York, Pa. for about a year or two before he moved back to Connecticut and started the business again on Puttam Avenue in Greenwich.
I asked him why he did not stay with Jere Stahl and he told me what happened and what he thought of Jere Stahl which I better not repeat.
Jimbo
gcd1962
The following is the History of Moroso.
Dick’s first venture in selling speed parts was after he returned home to Old Greenwich from Ga.Tech. This was around ’60/’61. He sold parts out of his parents house under the name of Speed Associates. Dick’s job at the time was working for the Post Office and he sold the parts in his spare time. When Paul Gommi and Russ Grady opened up their speed shop on Main St in Stamford, one of them complained to the warehouse that was selling to Dick. The warehouse (Don’s Automotive in NJ) asked Dick for proof that he had a legitimate business. Quick thinking Dick had the solution. He had a large banner sign made (more than likely by John Kutzman) and very early on a Sunday morning, I went with Dick, one of his brothers and I think Hank Dietrich and we went down to Greenwich and hung the banner sign on a commercial building on the Post Road and snapped a few pictures – Instant Proof of a business. Dick continued under the name Speed Associates until he and Hank Dietrich went in to partnership at the Citgo station on West Main in Stamford under the name Performance Automotive.
After (I recall) a little more than a year (I think 1964), Hank wanted out and the owner of the station wanted Dick out because he sold hardly any gas. Dick then moved to Canal Street where the Marriott Hotel is now located. Dick’s shop was next to Mandy’s Auto Body. Here Dick worked on the cars and sold parts again under the name of Performance Automotive. Sometime in late ’67 to early ’68 was went he sold the business to Nick Patch and a friend of Nick. Dick moved to York, Pa to form Stahl/Moroso. As others noted Dick wanted out shortly after arriving there. By around Aug of ’68 Dick had enough packed up everything and moved back to CT. He opened the newly formed Moroso Performance in Oct ’68. His partners at the time were Vinny Tarantola from Vitar in Queens, NY and Paul Cambell (and old friend of Dick’s). He paid back Vinny shortly thereafter, and Campbell sometime in late 1970/early 1971.
Around 1970 Dick began to wholesale some of the products and that’s when business really took off. It was in late ’72 that he moved back to Stamford again on Canal Street, but this time in the old Yale and Towne complex. By late ’74 he outgrew that space and bought the property in Guilford and built the present building (which was expanded shortly after moving there)
dinoGCD1962…Mysterious…. But know his Stuff. Check this Topic ! :
How ’bout sayin’ Hi at New guys ?
