Shop services European models

Like many gearheads, Chris Felber would hang around his father's import car service shop as a kid, dropping by after elementary school classes in Summerville.

What's unusual is those memories are but a decade old, and the teenager now runs his own business, European Motorsports and Imports off Howe Hall Road in Goose Creek.

Since launching EMI, as it's generally called, early this year, Felber has attracted a mix of business. It includes drivers of high-end sporty cars such as a 560-hp BMW M3, as well as Audis, Porsches and Volks-wagens.

There also are owners of ultraluxury models, Bentley Continentals, Rolls Royces, Mercedes and Ferraris valued at $150,000 and up. His clients are from the Charleston area and as far flung as Dallas and Miami.

"I started out learning on VWs," said Felber, 19, a graduate of Summerville High School. He went on to study and repair other German cars, as well as the posh Italian and British models. "I picked up needed knowledge."

Chris Felber honed his skills working at his father, Dietmar Felber's, established venture, German Auto Repair. Dietmar Felber, a former Robert Bosch manager, opened his shop in 1996 on Main Street in Summerville. The lineage goes back another generation; his grandfather, Ludwig Felber, was a top German mechanic on supercharged sports cars since the 1970s. With parental help — his mother, Pam, is a partner and works in the small front office — Chris took over a 5,000-square-foot former domestic repair shop.

The business, while specializing in foreign cars, continues to work on Chevy Silverados and other American-made vehicles.

Rick Parish, 53, is the chief mechanic for the domestics. "You see something new every day," he said. EMI also handles maintenance and repair for at least one local limousine company.

On the import side, "It started with a guy with a Rolls-Royce," Felber said. He quickly added to the ultraluxury business, attracting doctors and others with Rolls, Bentleys, Lamborghinis and Ferraris.

EMI employs 12 people and has made investments in high-tech equipment from computer laptops to diagnostic gear. The business is looking at purchasing a dynamometer, a machine that precisely tests horsepower.

Customers are satisfied with the company's work.

"I love my Audi," said Samantha Hemmer of Ladson, who brought by her eight-year-old A4 for a minor repair one day earlier this month. "It's at top performance now."

In their spare time, Felber and his cohorts are retooling an Audi TT with a turbocharged engine boosted to 500-plus-hp. Working with a California-based auto engineer, the team is hoping to compete in the grueling One Lap of America race, formerly known as the Cannonball Run.

Reach Jim Parker at 937-5542.