[velocedoc]

Shankle started out over in Van Nuys in a little shop off Cabrito Blvd. I used to run heads down to them for repairs and valve jobs. AR Ricambi bought out the founder and built it in to a thriving business. Made lots of parts runs to them as they were open Saturdays. Gene was my go to guy there as he had a 1600 Veloce. His brother now has the car after he passed away. There were an office of people doing the paper work in the back and a big ware house of parts upstairs. After Gene left I always asked for Julius to make sure we were on the same page for parts.
ARicambi started getting into Honda after market parts as they must have seen the Alfa market slowly drying up with out new cars coming over.
Shankle moved over to the Topanga Canyon area in to a better facility and that is where they merged with ARicambi as stated above. Shankle had come up with a lot of R&D for turbo charging Alfa's, and regrinding cams. Just look at their last catalog and you can see they were into a lot of after market parts.
I heard John Shankle passed away from cancer. Correct me if I am wrong.
Brad lives in the Fresno area and last time I saw him was when I was at Concorso where he was selling parts.

 

[justcallmefred]

Shankle-

Still @ -will get an e-mail for him and pass along.

 

[180OUT]

Please tell John that he is truly revered and well remembered across the entire country by a whole generation of Alfisti who got both parts and knowledge from him. We're still using his cylinder heads! Ask him to join us on the BB.

 

[Little Italian]

Shankle Catalog

I used to purchase a ton of stuff from John Shankle back in the '80s and early '90s. I still have three of his catalogs which are indeed collectors items - because of the wealth of technical information they contain. I think some one should scan his latest catalog and post it on here on the BB so all can use it.

I'll be glad to do the scanning if someone (John) will give me permissions to copy and post the catalog. I'm sure its copyrighted and I don't need any trouble from the Feds.

 

[rkirkpatrick]

John appears to be on LinkedIn, so anyone trying to get hold of him might want to start there.

 

[Del]

Bought his suspension kit (springs, torsion bars, stab bars) for my new 89 Milano in 1990. Have always liked the set up, and still works fine.

 

[rogerspeed]

Shankle (the ALFA business) was bought out by AR Ricambi which in turn eventually folded. The other division, as I remember, was "Lightspeed" specializing in Mazda. At one time in the 90's AR Ricambi was in discussion with Joe LoRe to open an east coast branch.

 

[vespam5]

AR Ricambi moved to Alhambra at some point in the late 90's, they were next door to a well known import tuner called JG Engine Dynamics I believe.

 

[darth dino]

Shankle catalogs are now collectors' items and are prized by those who have them. I'm sure keepin' mine.

my spiral bound version is covered in greasy fingerprints, and has tattered corners. they were to drool over for the performance parts, and so very useful for looking up specifications. cam specs, engine rebuild clearances, torque specs for everything, distributor curves, and so on. just an amazing resource.

AR Ricambi also sold "mechanical parts catalogs" that had collections of factory exploded parts diagrams for your entire car, with factory parts numbers divided up by model and year. they were invaluable when working on or restoring my GTV and GTV6.

 

[alfaparticle]

AR Ricambi also sold "mechanical parts catalogs" that had collections of factory exploded parts diagrams for your entire car, with factory parts numbers divided up by model and year. they were invaluable when working on or restoring my GTV and GTV6.

I got one of those with my Spider when I bought it in '99. Then I lost it and I missed it so much that I bought a replacement on ebay.

 

[archeologist]

My 200k mile spider wore Shankle sway bars for most of it's life, as well as a throttle relocation kit, and a Sure-Start at one point.

As a 20-something getting into Alfas I also drooled over the catalog regularly. I still have an AR Ricambi catalog I use as reference.

As an engineer with an MBA I'm not surprised they folded. People who buy 20 year old cars don't normally spend a ton on aftermarket parts, especially on cars that didn't need much help to begin with. No surprise they eventually closed up.

I met an Alfisti recently who's making really nice hotrod parts for Subarus. As a professor once said "Find a parade and get in front of it." He found a big parade and is doing quite well.

 

[Lokki]

Shankle advertised an "F-1" throttle pedal that I always wanted for my 74 Spider, back in the day.... It lowered the pedal position to eliminate the 'bent right knee' driving position. I've never been able to find one though, and no one else seems to have copied the idea so perhaps it sounded like a better idea than it actually was.

I loved that catalog.

 

[tirefriar]

Lokki, guess what I found rummaging through my Alfa porn... coincidence?

BTW, if anyone can't download it and whats a copy, just pm me with email address

 

[archeologist]

Lokki, I think I have one in my toolbox. Let me check tonight, it wasn't complcated.

 

[velocedoc]

What I have needed is the chart that shows all the various references for clearances, cams, carburetion jetting and torque values for the Alfa's that Shankle put in the back of their catalog. Just the price of the catalog was worth the pages of information. Should someone have that I would appreciate a scan.

 

[archeologist]

I also think I have that, at least I hope I still do!

 

[Jim Tyson]

Shortly after the AlfaRicambi/Shankle merger, AR's newsletters started listing trick Honda parts under the trade name of Lightspeed. My understanding(and somebody please correct me iffn I'm wrong) is that the Lightspeed venture was a bust and Brad had to start laying off employees. AR shrank rapidly. I have saved all of my Shankle and Alfa Ricambi catalogs and newsletters and would be happy to ship them to someone who is more computer savvy than me.They contain a wealth of information.

 

[alfaparticle]

What I have needed is the chart that shows all the various references for clearances, cams, carburetion jetting and torque values for the Alfa's that Shankle put in the back of their catalog.

There are about 20 pages of technical information in my catalog. These two might be the ones that you want.

 

[BobG]

Shortly after the AlfaRicambi/Shankle merger, AR's newsletters started listing trick Honda parts under the trade name of Lightspeed. My understanding(and somebody please correct me iffn I'm wrong) is that the Lightspeed venture was a bust and Brad had to start laying off employees. AR shrank rapidly. I have saved all of my Shankle and Alfa Ricambi catalogs and newsletters and would be happy to ship them to someone who is more computer savvy than me.They contain a wealth of information.

PM sent.

 

[sam79alfaveloce]

Shankle disappearance

Yeah anyone knows their disappearance? My 1979 Alfa Sprint Veloce has many parts from them, including a racing headers, rims, etc. I still have the car! Another guy asked where I got the rims and I told him Shankle but where are they in this 2015? Obviously the Alfa population maybe dying off. Such business may not sustain at all. My email is [email protected]