[b]Growing up on Long Island in the fifties and sixties was very different then it is today.
Nassau County was mostly farm lands and malls were nonexistent.
The closest place to shop was the Village of Valley Stream, a sleepy little town one block wide
and eight blocks long. When we would go to town my greatest thrill was to walk the couple blocks
away from town to Hi-Speed Power Equipment.
Having gone with my Dad to West Hampton Drag Strip and Freeport Speedway since the mid fifties I
was totally obsessed with cars of all types and any kind of race car!
Frank Dominianni is the owner operator and has been in business since the forties. Frank was a
road racer and there were always cars by his shop I had never seen before. You must remember back
then foreign cars were few and far between. Frank raced a Crosley powered Nardi in the early fifties
later graduating to Corvettes.
Hi-Speed was the first shop in the area to have an engine and chassis dyno and did everything,
engine swaps, conversions, repairs, you name it. He was a master with the early Vette FI units.
He had customers who wanted small / big blocks in sports cars and he got it all done.
In the fifties Frank had a number of business deals with Tony Pompeo, an importer of Italian racing cars.
"I bought 300 Italmeccanica superchargers from him one time, Frank said, I sold and installed them
for every variety of car including Cadillacs, Fords and Studebakers."
The amazing thing is, Frank is still running his shop 7 days a week 10 plus hours per day!
The shop is a time capsule - I don't think the exterior has been painted in forty years. I can not even
imagine the parts and pieces that are in this shop.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-