When Maverick turned to Goose in Top Gun and said, “I feel the need, the need for speed,” he might not have been talking about cars, but at Austin County’s Bumbera Performance, the line hits right at home.
If you are looking for a place to add a little more pep and speed to your vehicle, then look no further than Austin County’s Bumbera’s Performance.
In Austin County, you will find businesses that are truly like no other. Bumbera’s can take almost any vehicle and turn it into a speed machine by adding some special performance enhancers.
Kenny Bumbera, the owner of Bumbera's Performance, said his love for cars had been a lifelong passion.
"I've always been into speed and horsepower since I was a kid. Not coming from a wealthy family, I had to teach myself how to build the bikes and cars that I wanted. That's where it all started," Bumbera said.
Bumbera's Performance was opened by the husband and wife team.
"My wife, Cheri, and I started this business 30 years ago. Our first shop was off Highway 6 and Memorial Drive in Houston. I had worked for other shops in the area, but we decided to open up our own place and do things our way and we've never looked back," he said.
The business has changed over the years, with Bumbera's Performance focusing on a specific type of auto work.
"When we first got started, we did a lot of general auto repair. We no longer do that type of work because the restoration and performance side of things really took off about 15 years ago," Bumbera said. "It's important to know that we have two sides to our business: old cars and new cars. We do classic car restoration and performance work as well as late model highperformance work on newer domestic vehicles," Bumbera explained.
Customers can choose from various performance packages and modifications to make their cars faster.
"Our late model high-performance side of the business is where you really see the horsepower come from. We fabricate cold air intakes, supercharger systems, and turbo systems that can add anywhere from 20 horsepower to 400 horsepower and beyond," Bumbera explained. "It's not uncommon for us to take a customer's brand new GT500 and make it produce over 1,000 horsepower."
No two jobs are ever the same, especially when it comes to the restoration side of the business, Bumbera explained.
"Our customers come from all over to bring us their 'baby,' and they expect us to treat it as such. We take great pride in the work that we do whether it's a simple engine replacement or a full frame-off restoration," he said. "Oftentimes, we have customers that come to us with big imaginations and it's our job to make it happen. This means that we often are tasked with projects that have never been done before, like our '69 Hellcat Swap or our '56 Dodge Power Wagon.'"
The World's Fastest Naturally Aspirated 2018+ Mustang record was set by Boyd Bumbera, the son of Kenny and Cheri, in 2021 and built by Bumbera's Performance in Sealy.
"So, naturally aspirated means that there are no forced air power adders on the car like a supercharger or turbo. The car is making the maximum power it can with just the motor and a few supporting modifications like our custom cold air intake, aftermarket suspension, lighter wheels, lighter body panels, etc. Boyd decided he wanted to go after the NA record for the Gen 3 S550," Bumbera said. "Achieving a record like that in this industry would bring a lot of notoriety to our business and so after 4 months of testing different methods, parts, and tunes, Boyd was able to attain the record and make a big splash in the process."
Bumbera's Performance is operated by appointment only, which is easy to schedule on their website at bumberas.com/schedule-appointment. Visitors can schedule a tour of the shop and a consultation about their potential project.
Another name that might come to mind when thinking about cars in Austin County is none other than John Hennessey, founder, and CEO of Hennessey Performance. Hennessey has been a car enthusiast for as long as he can remember and has been tuning cars to make them go faster since he was a teenager.
“In the late-70s, I was fortunate enough to have a 1969 Oldsmobile Cutlass 442 convertible with a V8 engine. My first modification was to that Oldsmobile — it had the 400 cubic-inch V8 and a Rochester Quadrajet carburetor. I simply took the lid on the top of the airbox and flipped it over. It was as simple as removing the wingnut and reassembling it upside-down, just for a bit more airflow,” Hennessey said. “That Olds was foreshadowing my future, as I was addicted to speed and the enjoyment of wrenching on cars.”
After tuning a Mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4 from 300 hp to more than 450 hp and winning the Silver State Classic, a high-speed race in Nevada, Hennessey Performance was born.
"The press coverage was good, and soon I had enthusiasts calling me to do the same mods to their vehicles. So, I closed my small contracting business and started a performance company in Houston to satisfy the demand,” Hennessey said. “The company accrue rather quickly. In 2004, we bought the Lonestar Motorsports Park dragstrip complex in Sealy to build and test our tuned vehicles in one place — it’s 142 acres right along Interstate 10. We expanded to 51,000 square feet a few years ago and plan to grow again in 2023.” 
In terms of making fast cars go faster, Hennessey performance is one of the best places around.
“Our customers are passionate about high-performance cars and trucks, so they send their vehicles to our facility in Sealy, where our professional technicians can modify them for more power — effectively making their fast vehicles faster. Once it’s tested and inspected, it’s delivered back to the customer with warranty coverage for all our work,” Hennessey said. With being in business for more than 30 years, Hennessey’s shared how customer requests have changed over the years.
“Initially, we were modifying just about everything customers would bring us —everything was a la carte, and we primarily worked on sports cars,” Hennessey said. “Today, following the industry trends and what our customers have asked us for, our business is a nice blend of cars, trucks and crossovers. And we have a well defined product line of proven upgrades for each brand, such as Ford, GM and Dodge.”
Hennessey shared that most of our customers have upgraded their vehicle’s performance with different superchargers, fuel injectors, and air intakes, making the engine more powerful.
“We also add our new wheels, bumpers, accessories, and badging. Those make the vehicles more aggressive and visually distinctive,” he said. When it comes to what differentiates Hennessey Performance from its competitors, Hennessey said there are plenty of companies out there tuning engines, but we don’t consider ourselves in the “tuning” business.
“Instead, we make fast cars faster with professionally engineered upgrades backed by a comprehensive warranty. Our customers want to drive their vehicles daily — enjoying the enhanced performance — without worrying about reliability. That’s the Hennessey difference,” he said.
For anyone looking to make performance enhancements to their vehicle, Hennessey shared the following advice.
“Think about your objectives. People want to enhance their vehicle’s power for many reasons. Are you trying to increase power for towing or off-road capability? Or, are you simply trying to make the vehicle quicker for on-street performance? We’ve got a professional sales team that walks each customer through the order process to ensure their results match their wishes,” he said. Hennessey doesn’t just modify production vehicles — they also engineer and produce their own hypercars.
“Our first hypercar, the world record-setting Venom GT, was introduced in 2010. Last year, we followed that with the Venom F5 — an all-carbon-fiber 1,817-hp hypercar engineered to go a blistering 300 mph. Today, we’ve got a parallel production facility right here in Sealy, where we are making the world’s fastest hypercar,” Hennessey shared.
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