THE NEXT LEVEL
Classic Porsche visits the new Emory Motorsports facility in LA
Back in November 2013, Classic Porsche devoted several pages to a shop based in Oregon, Emory Motorsports. A lot has happened since, with founder Rod Emory seeking new opportunities in Southern California in a much larger facility – and he’s been creating quite the buzz thanks to a handful of acclaimed project cars!
When it comes to shaping the modern Porsche scene as we know it, few – if any – have done more than Rod Emory and his 356 Outlaws. He and his dad Gary were jokingly called ‘outlaws’ by their friends back in the ’80s when they first created their hopped up 356s. Rod has since built a remarkable following and an instantly recognisable brand within our Porsche scene, fuelled by social media – he has over 180,000 followers on Instagram. Furthermore, Porsche AG has acknowledged Rod’s design sense and has endorsed his role as a brand conservator. The arc of his career is astonishing and his ultra-efficient workspace in their secret North Hollywood, California location is equally impressive.
Back in 2013, Classic Porsche published an article about his company, Emory Motorsports, when it was still based in Mcminnville, Oregon (see issue #20). In case you missed it, here is a short recap about the man and his business venture. Rod comes from a true motorhead family, with both his grandfather and father influencing the automobile landscape in their own way.
Grandpa Neil Emory co-founded Valley Custom Shop in 1948, which produced its fair share of notable custom cars through the ’60s. Gary, Rod’s dad, made his mark on our scene when he opened Porsche Parts Obsolete in ’74, one of the first companies specialising in old stocks of Porsche components. He was also the creator of the original Baja Bug in the ’70s, copied all over the world since.
Rod opened Emory Motorsports with his wife Amy in
1996, with the goal of serving the vintage Porsche
community. Noteworthy endeavours included supporting over a dozen customers’ competition 356s at racetracks around the country. After the turn of the century, though, he and his team focused on street Outlaws beginning in 2008; in fact, he has built over 170 of them since 1996. But he’s also restored significant race cars in parallel, including 904-6, 906, 908 and the famous 1949 Gmünd 356 SL Le Mans class winner.
A lot has happened at Emory Motorsports since we published our piece half-adozen years ago, starting with a relocation from Oregon to Southern California. Rod explains the decision: ‘Back in 2012, I didn’t have the resources to properly restore the Gmünd 356 SL; so, I partnered with a friend of mine, moving close to his aerospace company located in California’s high desert. I wanted to move my shop to Southern California anyway, because my wife and kids were already in LA semipermanently – my son Zayne was on a TV show at the time.’ This partnership produced a few of the tools to facilitate the 356 SL’S restoration. During this project, he began to look for a shop close to the movie/tv studios, settling in North Hollywood in 2015. The larger facility allowed him to ramp up the production of altered 356s.
Rod puts them in three categories, starting with the ‘Emory Outlaw’, featuring stock bodies and improved drivetrains. The ‘Emory Special’ offers fairly similar running gears (though up to 260bhp in some instances), along with tailored body lines, from raked windscreens and nose, to raised wheel arches and rolled rockers, etc. Finally, the ‘Emory RS’ utilises Porsche 964 chassis components
“HE AND HIS TEAM FOCUSED ON STREET OUTLAWS IN 2008…”
(coil-over suspension, transmission, brakes…) and can be built with either two- or four-wheel-drive. A great example of the latter is the 356 RSR unveiled at Luftgekühlt 6 this year – it runs a 393bhp twin-turbo flat-four of their own design.
When it comes to the shop itself, Rod was lucky enough to find an industrial structure in the heart of North Hollywood, which has history dating back to the mid-1900s and the dawn of the movie industry. ‘It was the perfect building for us’, he states. ‘We wanted a place with character, plenty of space and a large gated yard. Coming from Oregon where we used old barns, we didn’t want to move to a concrete building in California.’ The work area covers 17,000sq ft, along with another 3000 of storage space, floor to ceiling full of Porsche parts. It should be noted that Emory Motorsports has a much larger inventory in their old facility, sourced when needed for the latest projects.
Before transplanting the workshop part of the business, Rod downsized his company from 12 to four employees, realising that some of them may not be able to relocate to a new state. The influx of business in recent years allowed him to increase his workforce to 15 people now.
Amy remains involved as she runs the office and handles accounting, while both his daughter Jayde and son Zayne work part-time. Porsche 356s still represent the bulk of the business, though Rod estimates that one in 12 projects is now an early 911.
When entering the facility, clients first pass through the showroom featuring a few cars on display. The selection
“WE WANTED A PLACE WITH CHARACTER AND PLENTY OF SPACE”
presented during our photo shoot included Rod’s first Emory Special (a highly-modified ’64 Cabriolet), a 904, a 930 Turbo with only 60 pre-delivery miles, and a 356B built for artist John Oates of Hall & Oates fame.
Next to the showroom sits a lounge and office areas, one room being dedicated to design and prototyping. Most of the physical work is performed in the 200ft-long shop set up for fabrication and machining, complete with four unique metal-shaping stations.
Clear plastic curtains divide the space between the dirty metalwork and the clean assembly area. Car storage shelves line the walls in the ‘clean room’, holding 20 cars above and 20 below. The back of the room houses the trim and upholstery areas. An adjacent 15ftwide hallway stretching the whole length of the building houses the clean parts used during the restoration processes. Walled-off sections of the same structure additionally house a ‘rough bodywork’ area and a ‘dirty room’ with a bead-blaster and ultrasonic cleaner.
Rod comments: ‘We can almost do it all here, except for the final paint, done by a shop that works exclusively for us. Also, Rothsport Racing in Oregon handles the final assembly of our Emory Outlaw-4 engines and dyno work.’
While impressed with Emory’s former workshop in Oregon, the new facility truly brings the company to the next level, thanks to the vision and pure energy of Rod, Amy and their faithful staff. Come to think of it, in the decade since launching Classic Porsche, we don’t remember visiting any restoration shop that houses close to 70 Porsche 356s!
“THE NEW FACILITY BRINGS THE COMPANY TO THE NEXT LEVEL…”