Photos by Agile Automotive Performance and Anderson Ward
 

The idea for Agile was formulated in the summer of 2003 by two friends and car enthusiasts who wanted to create a performance company that focused on customer service and quality.

This shop outgrew its space but not its performance mission.

The story of Agile Automotive Performance is your basic rags to … well, not riches, but a lot better than a rags, story.

The rags part is how Agile’s office started out — quite literally, in a remodeled shipping container. The owners kept customer cars in an outside parking lot as their inside square-footage would not allow work on more than two cars at a time. And this was just outside of Baltimore, on the East Coast, not sunny Los Angeles or Arizona.
 

With hundreds of hours of custom fabrication experience and a state-of-the-art Miller TIG welder, the techs fabricate custom turbo kits, intercooler and piping kits, exhausts of all sizes, intakes, roll bars and cages, mounting brackets, overflow tanks and reservoirs, chassis reinforcement and stiffening pieces, carbon fiber plates and covers, and the custom-sewn heat shielding needed with turbos.

Now, though, Agile Automotive Performance has more than 9,000 sq. ft. to eliminate those early problems. And as we all know, you don’t get up to that size by failing.

From tiny acorns …

The idea for Agile was formulated in the summer of 2003 by two friends and car enthusiasts who wanted to create a performance company that focused on customer service and quality. Hill McCarty owned a 2002 Subaru WRX, and after taking it to other performance shops only to receive negative experiences, he believed he could do better by offering customers honesty and expertise.

Agile opened its doors a few months after Hill’s idea grew into reality, with that little two-bay shop that didn’t amount to much more than 1,500 sq. ft.; that’s smaller than a modern house. The owners had no space for inventory, no decent sales area of any kind and virtually no showroom. But with the two founders as the only employees, the space worked for a while.

Despite the small facilities, Agile dove deeply into improving all aspects of vehicle performance. The owners’ thrust had a twofold effect. First, they filled a void in the local market, and second, that brought in more and more customers and generated word-of-mouth advertising. Catering to both two- and all-wheel-drive markets, a Dynapack AWD dyno was put in place the first month; the move allowed Agile to focus on AWD platforms, but the owners didn’t stop there. They also incorporated 2WD service, as their new dyno could be utilized as two, 2WD dynos, capable of running simultaneously. It was the foundation of what they called, “the right combination.” And Agile took off.

Once in its new facility, Agile was able to create a separate engine/transmission assembly space, fabrication area, dyno bay and service bays allowing for better organization and greater oversight.

It didn’t take long to need more help as demand and business grew. But with only two lifts and an extremely small work area, growth was visibly capped. McCarty, who would take full control of the business not long after the start of Agile, knew expansion was inevitable and kept watching his dream grow.

Three years later and with lots of hard work they had enough momentum to move into a 9,200-sq.-ft. facility minutes off of the major north-south Interstate 95 in Fallston, Md. The new digs offered much of what the old locale was missing: six garage bays, a huge showroom with drive-in access, customer waiting area and, yes, the office staff was no longer working out of that shipping container.

The move had other working benefits, too. The added square-footage allowed Agile to keep a much larger inventory of parts, give more working room to the techs and room for housing customer cars inside, which allowed the company to have more projects going at the same time. The depth of their work could and did increase, as well.

Now, we’re talking performance shop.

With the extra room, Agile was able to create a separate engine/transmission assembly space, fabrication area, dyno bay and service bays allowing for better organization and greater oversight. This isn’t just your typical install shop. Yes, the company installs standard bolt-on parts that any high-performance catalog will offer, but the staff also designs and fabricates parts, builds engines and transmissions, dyno-tunes engine computers to optimize performance, prepares cars for track use and offers suspension-tuning services. As part of its commitment to quality, Agile backs all of its in-house work with a one-year /10,000-mile labor warranty.
 

McCarty says his company’s mission “is to provide the performance enthusiast with the highest level of workmanship, quality and customer service.”

The shop is well-known for its custom fabrication work. With hundreds of hours of custom fabrication experience and a state-of-the-art Miller TIG welder, the techs fab-custom turbo kits, intercooler and piping kits, exhausts of all sizes, intakes, roll bars and cages, mounting brackets, overflow tanks and reservoirs, chassis reinforcement and stiffening pieces, carbon fiber plates and covers, and the custom-sewn heat shielding needed with turbos. On its website, Agile shows prospective customers confidence and attitude by saying, “We can build you whatever you need to turn heads — and slam yours back in the seat whenever you hit the gas.” This approach applies to both street and track cars, and is well received by Agile’s customers.

Customer commitment

And that brings to mind another very important element of any shop: the intangibles of core beliefs and mission. McCarty says his company’s mission “is to provide the performance enthusiast with the highest level of workmanship, quality and customer service.” He reinforces the philosophies of Agile when it comes to his team’s work and, more importantly, the people they come in contact with. Commitment to the customer and to exceed his or her goals for each given project top the list. The goals they keep in mind every day are:
•  To support our customers in their pursuit of pure driving pleasure through continual improvement of their street car or track car.
•  To provide the highest quality of engine calibration or tuning with uncompromised commitment to improved drivability, reliability, and performance.
•   To select the highest quality and best designed products for each application without surpassing budget limitations.
•    To provide a full range of performance services to our customers from brake service or exhaust modification to transmission or engine builds.
•    To never compromise the safety of a vehicle, to provide our customers with information on safer venues for using their performance vehicle to its potential (i.e. drag strips, race tracks, racing organizations), and to promote safe driving habits both on the street and on track.
 

While the performance shop specializes in Subarus, the team makes it clear it will work on almost any forced-induction import, but stresses it needs to be well-maintained. Going back to McCarty’s philosophy of providing all-encompassing service for the vehicles Agile supports, maintenance is a key portion of that.

In order to meet these goals and philosophies, Agile has focused its attention on a narrow selection of vehicles, specifically Japanese imports that are turbocharged from the factory (Subaru, Mitsubishi, Mazda, Nissan). Targeting this niche market has allowed Agile to gain more specific knowledge and offer full support for every aspect of these cars. This also allows Agile to keep the majority of work done in-house where quality and processes can be closely monitored and profit margin protected.

While the performance shop specializes in Subarus, the team makes it clear it will work on almost any forced-induction import, but stresses it needs to be well-maintained. Going back to McCarty’s philosophy of providing all-encompassing service for the vehicles Agile supports, maintenance is a key portion of that. Regarding fluid changes and factory maintenance, Agile’s website gives valuable advice: “We cannot stress enough how important it is to regularly change your fluids and keep up with suggested factory maintenance. Especially on turbo vehicles, changing your oil every 3,000 miles is imperative. Not only will your car make more power with clean, quality oil, but your engine will also last longer. Also, turbo cars often burn small amounts of oil, so remember to check your oil level in between changes.”
 

The shop’s at-track presence connects with potential and current customers for new projects, products, track days and other performance perks. Photos by Anderson Ward.

It’s about drivability

McCarty does all of Agile’s dyno tuning and, above all, emphasizes the importance of reliability, drivability and performance, in that order. It’s quite obvious why reliability is his most important tuning goal. Everyone wants his or her car to run well as long as possible, so Agile makes sure to never sacrifice that for a couple of extra horsepower. Whether customers are daily driving or tracking their car, achieving smooth drivability is of utmost importance since most driving is done outside of wide-open running conditions.

“Any roughness or disruption of output erodes the driving experience for the customer,” McCarty says. It’s obvious most customers are looking for power. However Agile’s philosophy has been never to compromise the first two principles to achieve a greater power gain.

McCarty does the majority of tuning with the Cobb AccessPort, but also has considerable experience tuning AEM EMS, Link, K-Pro, UTEC, Haltech, AFC/SAFC and various boost control systems.

Again tapping into the shop’s confidence and attitude is McCarty's promise that “Agile Automotive has what you need to land ruthless dyno numbers and race-winning times.”   
 

Catering to both two- and all-wheel-drive markets, a Dynapack AWD dyno was put in place the first month; the move allowed Agile to focus on AWD platforms

Agile also promotes its commitment to its customers and quality by maintaining memberships in two important organizations: SEMA and the Better Business Bureau. A member since 2006, Agile is part of SEMA; as well, it is an accredited BBB member with an A+ rating. McCarty prides himself on hiring employees who are highly educated, often ASE certified, and hard-core performance enthusiasts themselves.

In tune with the customer base

To further engage customers, Agile puts out an e-mail newsletter, maintains a website (agileauto.com), a Facebook page and actively participates as a vendor with NASIOC (the North American Subaru Impreza Owners Club). The shop’s at-track presence connects with potential and current customers for new projects, products, track days and other performance perks.

The new digs offered much of what the old locale was missing: six garage bays, a huge showroom with drive-in access.

The e-mail newsletter goes out to a core of more than 500 Agile contacts and that list seems to grow every month. In a regular effort to stay connected to its customers Agile also hosts a semi-annual open house in the spring and fall to meet customers face to face,  show recent projects and allow the enthusiast community to mingle and see the now spacious facility.

The story of Agile Automotive Performance proves much like driving: It’s not always about where you’ve been as much as how you’ll get to where you’re going.