April 1, 1983: We opened Danny’s Speed Shop, a 400 square foot retail space with a small machine shop area in the back.

Who is Danny? Well funny thing is, there is no Danny. There never was, just the 2 founders Ron and Tom. Danny was a nickname, kind of an inside joke. We hated the name from the beginning but learned how to make it work (later incorporating and changing our name to D.S.S. Inc.).

1985: Our first brand new equipment purchase was this SuperFlow SF600 flow bench.

Making more power and developing our Racing Engine Business was everything to us.

1985: Tom's Outlaw Super Stock car, seen here at Union Grove Wisconsin (running in the high 9 low 10 second range at 3400 LBS).

Powered by a Naturally Aspirated 9200 RPM Ford Boss 351 Cleveland. Utilizing a manually shifted Doug Nash 5 Speed transmission and then later a Liberty Clutchless transmission. Fun to drive!!

When we were not at work we were racing or working on our race cars. Racing has always been a great learning and promotional tool.

1986: Danny’s Speed Shop was incorporated under the new name, D.S.S. Inc., otherwise known as "D.S.S. Racing".

We outgrew our first shop and moved to Belmont Ave. in Chicago.

At the time we thought we would never fill up 5,000 square feet.

Our new location had room for 3 of our race cars in the front window. Better yet we had 3,000 square feet of shop space out back!

1986: Retail counter of our Belmont Avenue Store.

Founders (pictures from left to right): Tom Naegele (age 22) and Ron Raffanti (age 23).

1988: The dream of being involved, let alone be part owner of a Pro Stock Racing Team became a reality.

We partnered with a good customer of ours, Chuck DeMory and DSS-DeMory Pro Stock Racing was formed.

We ordered a brand-new Jerry Haas Ford Probe Chassis and got busy on our engine program.

Seen here one of our engines on our first Super Flow SF-901 Dyno.

Over the years we built several Big Block Ford Pro Stock engines both Hemi and Wedge style along with a few Pro Stock Chevy Big Inch Big Blocks.

We ran a busy Match race UDRA and Midwest Pro-Stock schedule, also fitting in a few NHRA and IHRA national events.

Pro Stock Racing taught us so much about engine building and engine design.

1992: Our Small Block Ford engine business was really starting to take off. The Chevrolet world had assembled performance short blocks readily available, but no one was really offering that for Fords.

With all the new Big Valve Cylinder Heads and Centrifugal Superchargers coming onto the scene there was a tremendous need for Forged large valve relief pistons.

The DSS Bullet Short block program was born. We have sold tens of thousands of these engines and there are still many of them on the road today.

Building the engines, doing the weekly maintenance and the crew chief duties for a Pro Stock team is a big commitment. We did it for many years. The things we learned along the way are priceless.

We had to cut back on racing to make time for our growing business. Today we have several shop cars including a Super Charged Small Tire Mustang and one of our old Jerry Haas-built Pro Stock Mustangs.