A Full House at HG Motorsports

• February 12, 2015
• Story By
  Byron Yoshida

I bumped into HG Motorsports while shooting Extreme Auto Fest in San Diego last year, right away I knew I needed to know more. When their inaugural open house was announced for January 25th, I knew it was my opportunity to share their story. Owner, Dieter-Heinz Kijora has a life-long connection to European vehicles - beginning when his grandfather, Heinz Gietz, immigrated to the states and established Mercedes-Benz of San Diego and Autohaus. As an only child in a family business, Dieter found himself working at Autohaus during high school and then pursuing auto racing and instructing for the five years following. When it came time to open his own shop in 2004, it was his grandfather "HG" who would get integrated into the name owing to his putting down the roots for Dieter. HG Motorsports started with a 2001 CLK 430 in 2005 and developed his shop up to where he was able to move to its current resting spot in 2012, nestled between the beautiful hills of central San Diego. As his client base grew, so did his crew. Starting with a dedicated master technician then moving onto adding a dedicated painter as well as a Master Tuner to manage and direct their Dyno Tuning Operations. As a final touch, HG Motorsports hired a fabricator to assist with in-house R&D, building roll cages and handling any custom fabrication requirements a customer could need. While they held a soft opening after its first six months in their current location, HG Motorsports needed a proper "opening" open house. When the nearby MB dealership closed and they were able to consolidate their two portions of the shop into one, they knew it was prime time to hold an official open house. By the time HG Motorsports inaugural open house was open to the public, parking was filled to the brim. If you were local and an automotive enthusiast, you were there. So what's the secret of HG Motorsports? Was it their immaculate facility that reminds you of an automotive dealership? Maybe it's their one-on-one client-based customer service or their racing heritage? Or is it their multi-functional facility with multiple lifts, a dynometer, fabrication shop, and tire shop? Then you realize it has its foothold in a unique niche that not many, if any, can replicate. It’s the only premier performance tuning, racing, service and maintenance facility that is able to bring everything under one roof in San Diego County. “When you walk in, you’re not a client that’s looking for bolt-on parts, you’re looking for something with purpose.” says Dieter. They build it, tune it and support it. When you hear "purpose-built," that’s what HG Motorsports does. As soon as you walk in, you’ll notice their race-inspired background and connections with some of the top industry leaders to include HRE Wheels, Akrapovic Exhausts, Sabelt, Vorsteiner, KW Suspension, and Brembo Brakes. Their welder, Colin, continues with the full roll cage on this wide body E90 racecar. Brandon Watson, one of our local racers from BMW of El Cajon brought his '95 E36 M3 to show his support for HG Motorsports. HG Design shows off their ability to fabricate high-quality custom builds. During our visit we were able to see the first bagged Audi R8 in the states. Their project F80 M3 street car owned by their own Marketing Director, Gabriel Milori, just arrived and is currently being built with HRE Wheels, KW Suspension, Status Gruppe, Akrapovic parts and an ECU Flash Tune by Jailbreak Tuning. The first cracked F10 M5 (thanks to Jailbreak Tuning) was on display and being dynoed - measuring a noteworthy 651 whp. HG Motorsports is also a veteran sponsor for the well known Targa Trophy. Gabriel mentions, “We usually run Targa Trophy with our CLA’s, our employee Mike Petruzzo showcases his WRX STi and we also have a Porchse 991 GT3 running the events this year. I spotted their fully-built Mercedes C55 Racecar that I initially shot at Extreme Auto Fest 2014. Gabriel points out “It’s the car we use to teach customers how to first approach the track experience at various SoCal tracks to include Cali Speedway, Chuckwalla, Buttonwillow, Willow Springs, Thunderhill and Laguna Seca. It’s a great car to learn in.” So beyond building their business, what’s next? HG Motorsports focus has remained in tracking cars and street-able cars, Dieter tells us, “We might see HG Motorsports push into the drag proving grounds in 2015 as well as push to compete in the National Auto Sport Association (NASA) 25 Hours of Thunderhill race”. It looks like HG Motorsports has an eventful year ahead of them and with the amount of support shown during the open house, there’s so much more to come!