VTT - Who we are, and what we stand for

History:

VTT was started in 1978 by my father Ron Vargas under the name of Vargas Hi Performance. The goal of the shop was to innovate in the automotive performance market with emerging technologies such as turbocharging and fuel injection. The shop quickly became the go to shop in the bay area for anyone with any sort of platform looking for more power in a new exciting package. The business took off, and before we knew it, we had cars, boats, vans, RV, muscle cars; you name it running around with my father’s signature logo on the side and a fresh turbocharger under the hood.




He continued along this path, and eventually found his love which was Diesel's as he came from the trucking industry, while keeping the performance side alive, he transformed the business into a Turbo and Diesel Specialty shop catering to all types of light diesels and turbocharged platforms.

From there he went through the extensive red tape process, and started Vargas Aero Turbo which built, and remanufactured turbochargers for aircraft, and also branched in the industrial turbocharging world.

My place in the business:

From the time I was old enough to walk he had me in some type of high speed motorized device or learning how to fix them. I worked at the business from the time I was 14 to 27 years old. At this time I decided to follow a dream, and head down to Los Angeles to get involved in the production industry, starting in the Action sports world with DC shoes. I did that for about 12 years, and quickly moved myself up into producing television for networks such as History, Discovery, MTV, etc.



In 2011 my father passed away unexpectedly in his sleep leaving clear control of the business up in the air. In the months following, I left my position at a successful production company, and returned home to take care of my family and run the business. When I arrived we were mainly focused on Diesels and industrial applications, which we still do, but I became increasingly bored of the slow pace. My good friend came by one day with his 335, we sat down, and he told me about the market, where he thought it was headed, and who the players were. I told him it seemed interesting, so I decided to look into it a little more, and it spawned what is now our BMW Performance division.

What we stand for outside of business:

The VTT banner not only includes a turbocharger production facility, an installation shop, it also includes one of the largest food nonprofits in the bay area, hope4theheart.org. We donated over 3/4 of our 3 acre lot to our non-profit which on a monthly basis feeds between 15,000 and 50,000 people. It is open 7 days a week giving foods to organizations, (soup kitchens, homeless shelters, group homes, men’s homes) any organization that needs food can sign up, and is happily given everything from, meat, to bathroom supplies, all donated from some of the best known retailers in the world. On top of that the food bank is open every 3rd Saturday of them month to the public, where we give food to thousands of people who stand in line usually starting the night before. This organization is a true non-profit, run by my sister, my mother, and a rotating crew of about 30 volunteers, not a single person is paid a penny in salary, everyone works on a volunteer basis with the reward being the smiles on people’s faces as they receive food themselves and their families. If anyone here is in the bay area and knows of a family or person in need, go to the site, and send them down, we will make sure they are taken care of; also if you want to volunteer your time, we are always looking for people to help!



What we stand for in business

When my father started this company, he did so under the banner of honest work for honest pay. We have been in the same locations now for 37 years; we have achieved this kind of longevity in a very tough industry by following that mantra throughout the years. We routinely employ people who are down on their luck and looking for a new start. Our head installation tech, is an ex drug addict my father picked up when we has panhandling, our parts cleaner is a guy who lost his house and his family, and desperately needed someone to give him a second chance to get back on top. This week, a kid fresh out of a program was going door to door looking for work to help get back on his feet, I hired him on the spot, and put him to work the next day learning some skills that will help him get back into society. This is the way of VTT, we are not in business solely to make money, we are here to help others that may be less fortunate to have a better life, we do this through our non-profit, we do this through our hiring, and we do this through our honestly, and integrity.

We appreciate this community, and have worked extremely hard to bring you guys new innovative products that help further the development of the performance BMW aftermarket, and we do this while keeping the other parts of business going, as well as doing our part to give back to our local community. Keep this in mind the next time you think you have a bad word to say, or think you have insight into what we do here. My attitude on the forums can be abrasive at time, but it is because I have little time for BS, and tend to speak my mind, this does make for a bad person, or bad business practice. We look forward to more innovation in 2015, and thank you as always for the support.

I will leave you with a thought, "Sports (competition) doesn't build character, it reveals it" John Wooden