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His forte: Converting cars into high performance machines
performance-pix
Justin Gibson of Norcal Muffler and Truck welds an exhaust system onto a customers truck. Just a simple addition can add horsepower and performance. - photo by JASON CAMPBELL

Jason Webb knows high performance machines.

After all, he takes seemingly standard cars and adds the bells and the whistles that make them beasts from the stoplight or off the trail -- whether it’s a horsepower-boosting supercharger or a monster lift kit.

For the last decade he’s been taking the visions of the customers that walk in to his Norcal Muffler and Truck and making them reality. And don’t let the name fool you --Webb deals in a lot more than just mufflers and just trucks.

Some of his most favorite touch-ups include extremely high-end rims and tires for BMWs and other luxury cars, adding an entirely new element to a business that he has since grown into Stockton and helped expand his customer base significantly.

But it’s the smile -  that happy customer - that he looks forward to when somebody walks through his door.

“A lot of people are out there looking for high-performance accessories,” Webb said. “I would say that making people happy is what I look forward to the most. Seeing that excitement when they do something to their car that helps set it apart from the others that are out there, something that makes them really, really happy.

“They make it their own a little bit different from the other cars that are out there on the road. That’s the most rewarding part of the job.”

Even though a simple muffler tweak can transform a standard car into something fun to drive, not everything that comes through Webb’s door is simple. Installing custom headers - which streamlines the exhaust that comes off of motors - is often a timely and labor-intensive process, and some of the lift kits that he installs can be extremely tedious.

But it’s the variety that helps set apart the boring and makes coming to work something that Webb enjoys.

In any given day he might start with the installation of a supercharger - pushing more than 600-horsepower to the wheels of the muscle car undergoing the transformation -- before moving on to a customization and then watching a 1930’s Ford roadster roll into the shop for a one-of-a-kind exhaust project.

It’s not necessarily building race cars or something that’s going to take a lap around Daytona, but it is, in a sense, something even more thrilling - transforming the daily driver into something someone actually looks forward to climbing behind the wheel of.

“People love their cars, and to know that you played a role in helping them learn to love it more is a great feeling,” he said. “Driving to work doesn’t have to be boring.”

 

By JASON CAMPBELL

209 staff reporter