Performance Unlimited Blog

The auto repair shop at Performance Unlimited in Ringwood is usually full of cars, SUVs and pickup trucks as they receive the skilled attention of the auto repair technicians who make Performance Unlimited one of the premier auto repair shops in the region. Wednesday morning, Sept. 26, however, in the center of the shop were tables, chairs, breakfast and coffee. By 7:30 a.m., the chairs were full of business owners who belong to MC3, the McHenry Area Chamber of Commerce business connection group. Denny Norton, owner of Performance Unlimited, is the president of the connection group. “We usually have the meetings at Green Street Café,” Norton said. “Once in a while, though, we hold the meeting at a member’s place of business. Today, it was my turn.” Norton said that holding the meeting at Performance Unlimited was a great way to really showcase his business for other members of the group. “You can tell them about the auto repair services you offer, and your commitment to quality, but ...

This time each year, we welcome the return of that seasonal panorama of multi-hued reds, yellows, oranges, browns and greens as the leaves begin to change color. First on the trees, then descending to the ground, it’s a visual gift that softens the blow of an impending winter to follow. While it’s hard to compete with the natural aesthetic value of the changing autumn leaves, a mat of wet leaves on the pavement can pose a hazard to drivers and those in their vicinity. Almost as though a layer of silicone was laid between two surfaces, tires can have difficulty grabbing the road at critical moments. While this probably isn’t the greatest road hazard you’ll face throughout the year, it is worth noting. It’s also a useful reminder to check your brakes. After all, if your car will slip on wet leaves, imagine what it will do on a patch of ice in a few months. It only takes a few minutes for a qualified mechanic to check your brakes. Most auto repair shops, such as Ringwood based Performanc...

I remember when I was young. Our family car was a station wagon. As far as my brother, sister and I were concerned, that was just great. We were free to roam throughout the back of the car at our leisure.   We’d climb over the seat and back again playing games of tag and who knows what else. No seatbelts – nothing. Today, that’s not allowed. By law, all children in Illinois must be securely belted into their seats or, if younger, strapped into an approved child-safety seat. My dad told me about the child seat they used when I was young. “It was just some fabric strung between a frame made of conduit,” he said. “The conduit had hooks on the end that hung over the back of the front seat so you sat between your mother and me.” By description, it sounds like we were loaded for launching in case of an accident: hardly the ideal way to ensure safety. Using proper safety equipment in a vehicle is an idea Denny Norton, owner of Ringwood based auto repair shop Performance Unlimited , heart...

Drivers with tachometers in their cars know that, give or take a little, their car’s engines spend a lot of their time running at about 2,000 rpm. That’s 2,000 revolutions per minute. That’s a lot of revolutions. To better understand that number, let’s break it down to revolutions per second. That works out to more than 33 revolutions per second. Count one-one-thousand and, by the time the last syllable is out of your mouth, the crankshaft in that engine has revolved 33 times. Now that’s moving. If you consider that red line for most engines, the maximum rpm the engine is recommended to safely handle without breaking, is generally 5,000 to 6,000 rpm, that 33 revolutions per second increases to as much as 99 revolutions per second. That’s faster than a hummingbird flapping its wings. And a hummingbird merely has to move its wings up and then back down. With a 4-stroke combustion engine, every revolution of the crankshaft translates to, not just the crankshaft turning, but the bearings...