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Off the line

The track is empty save for the humming Supra ready to explode into the record books. No pressure on the driver — he and his dedicated crew have the steel-eyed confidence that a seven second run (at a speed of more than 200 miles per hour) is attainable. The green light blinks on and the car tears through the track, crossing the finish line to a chorus of cheers from the crew.

It’s just another workday for Don Summerton and Russ Maskey. Founded in 2005, Summerton and Maskey’s Accelerated Performance Engineering specializes in high performance race cars -— either enhancing parts and engines or testing their own models. Their version of the Toyota Supra has been hailed by various journals and national magazines, earning cover stories in the likes of Import Tuner, where it was called the ‘World’s Fastest Supra.’ “We grew up drag racing in the late 90s, so we fell into the high performance world. Once we opened Accelerated we raised our standards for customizing engines and started seeing inter- national recognition for what we do,” says Summerton.

Considered the car by Summerton and Maskey growing up, the Supra became the focus of their competition with rival companies. “We brought on clients that were willing to fund a race team — travelling, expenses, etc. We just kept pushing and pushing to the point [where] we’re running at 200 miles per hour consistently in a car with a stock 1990s suspension and a stock 1990s rear end. It’s had a lot of admiration from V8 guys because of the parts that we re-work to handle the horsepower,” Summerton says.

Accelerated is now creating new parts for the 2013 Scion BRZ, parts that no one else has access to. Oh, and they hold all of the standing records for the car, a feat considering they compete with much larger Asian companies for the honor. “We’ve gone head to head with Japanese manufacturers who do hundreds of millions in revenue and we’ve held them off because we can adapt, and that’s what we did with the Subaru,” Summerton says.

Accelerated claims a variety of clients, from race enthusiasts in Arizona to Middle Eastern sheikhs in Dubai, and looks to continue their string of successes, breaking records for the fastest Supras around. Summerton said all the accolades make the job satisfying. “It helps having people from all over the world giving us the push or a pat on the back because it’s saying the ends justify the means for what we’re doing.”

The track is empty save for the humming Supra ready to explode into the record books. No pressure on the driver — he and his dedicated crew have the steel-eyed confidence that a seven second run (at a speed of more than 200 miles per hour) is attainable. The green light blinks on and the car tears through the track, crossing the finish line to a chorus of cheers from the crew.

It’s just another workday for Don Summerton and Russ Maskey. Founded in 2005, Summerton and Maskey’s Accelerated Performance Engineering specializes in high performance race cars -— either enhancing parts and engines or testing their own models. Their version of the Toyota Supra has been hailed by various journals and national magazines, earning cover stories in the likes of Import Tuner, where it was called the ‘World’s Fastest Supra.’ “We grew up drag racing in the late 90s, so we fell into the high performance world. Once we opened Accelerated we raised our standards for customizing engines and started seeing inter- national recognition for what we do,” says Summerton.

Considered the car by Summerton and Maskey growing up, the Supra became the focus of their competition with rival companies. “We brought on clients that were willing to fund a race team — travelling, expenses, etc. We just kept pushing and pushing to the point [where] we’re running at 200 miles per hour consistently in a car with a stock 1990s suspension and a stock 1990s rear end. It’s had a lot of admiration from V8 guys because of the parts that we re-work to handle the horsepower,” Summerton says.

Accelerated is now creating new parts for the 2013 Scion BRZ, parts that no one else has access to. Oh, and they hold all of the standing records for the car, a feat considering they compete with much larger Asian companies for the honor. “We’ve gone head to head with Japanese manufacturers who do hundreds of millions in revenue and we’ve held them off because we can adapt, and that’s what we did with the Subaru,” Summerton says.

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Accelerated claims a variety of clients, from race enthusiasts in Arizona to Middle Eastern sheikhs in Dubai, and looks to continue their string of successes, breaking records for the fastest Supras around. Summerton said all the accolades make the job satisfying. “It helps having people from all over the world giving us the push or a pat on the back because it’s saying the ends justify the means for what we’re doing.”

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