Competition Motors

Competition Motors Serving the El Paso Southwest for over 50 years. We were the #1 Source for Volkswagen Parts, Service, and Repair. Soon, VWs were all he started to work on.

Back in 1968, a young man, fresh from his tour of duty at Ft Bliss, Texas, had a dream. Rudy Inamoto had a passion for fast cars and dreamed of working on them, and racing them. Not just any automobile however, he had a particular fondness for European sports cars. Austin Martins, MGs, Porsches, you name it, he worked on it. Along the way, he started working on a few Volkswagen Beetles, which brou

ght back memories of Southern
California and his very first car. Not content on just repairing, he wanted to see just how fast he could make those little bugs go, especially when it came to drag racing in the quarter mile. He forged friendships and business relationships with many of the industry's greats. Gene Berg, Dean Lowry, Fumio Fukaya, Ed Fulton, Darrell Vittone, and many others. He even acquired a few "famous" race cars
including the The Deano Dyno-saur, and the Race Shop's 850 Fiat Spyder. Various publications have featured his race cars including Hot VW's, VW & Porsche, VW Classics, and most recently Ultra VW. Back in the day, he set many world race records. Seeing a VW Beetle blow the doors off a
V8 was commonplace for Rudy Inamoto and the crew of Competition Motors. He even raced what was arguably the very first front wheel drive drag car, a 1977 Volkswagen Scirocco. His best 1/4 mile time in that car was 13.65 secs at 100 mph. That was back in 1983, without nitrous or a turbo! In 1996, he built a "Pro Sedan". A 1973 Super Beetle body on an all tube chassis. Innovations continued with this project as he built the 2500cc motor based on a water-cooled Vanagon "wasser-boxer" block...

TO BE CONTINUED...

01/26/2026
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01/10/2026

Need a source for EMPI parts?
Give Summit Racing a call.

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Merry Christmas!
12/20/2025

Merry Christmas!

11/14/2025

Professional funny car driver John Force announces that he's no longer going to drive a drag race car in NHRA competition.

04/01/2025
12/25/2024

Twas the night before Christmas and I was so bored,
There wasn’t a trace of a Chevy or a Ford.
The presents were wrapped and the lights were all lit,
So I figured I’d mess with my Dodge for a bit.
I popped the release and I lifted the hood,
When a deep voice behind me said “looks pretty good.”
Well, as you can imagine, I turned mighty quick,
And there, by the workbench, stood good ol’ Saint Nick!
We stood there a bit, not too sure what to say,
Then he said, “don’t suppose that you’d trade for my sleigh?
I said “no way, Santa” and started to grin,
“But if you’ve got the time we could go for a spin!”
His round little mouth, all tied up like a bow,
Turned into a smile and he said “Hey! Let’s go!!”
So as not to disturb all the neighbors’ retreat,
We pushed the Charger quietly into the street,
Then, taking our places to roll down the hill,
I turned on the key and I let the clutch spill.
The sound that erupted took him by surprise,
But he liked it a lot, by the look in his eyes.
With Hoosiers a’ crying and side pipes aglow,
We headed to Summit, where the hot rodders go.
And Santa’s grin widened, approaching his ears,
With every up shift, as I went through the gears.
Then he yelled “can’t recall when I’ve felt so alive!”
So I backed off the gas and said “you wanna drive?”
Ol’ Santa was stunned when I gave him the keys,
When he walked past the headlights he shook at the knees!
Then the big block exploded with side exhaust sound!
Santa let out the clutch and the tires shook the ground!
Power shift into second, again into third!
I sat there just watching, at loss for a word,
Then I heard him exclaim as we blasted from sight,

(A Summit Racing customer shared the following poem to Summit Racing’s page years ago. It has since become our favorite Christmas story, and a tradition to post it to each Christmas Eve.)

12/18/2024
11/15/2024

So. Many. Engines. were seen at The SEMA Show this year. Now we want to see YOUR engines!

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El Paso, TX

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