SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1508148
Danzio Motorsports Former Jaguar Mechanic, Chris Munzio, Strikes A Friendship And Business With Racer Josh Daniel By Larry Saavedra Photography by Larry Saavedra Chris Muzio is from the United Kingdom and came to America following in his father’s footsteps by planning to set up shop as a Jaguar mechanic. But after working for ten years at his father’s Jaguar repair shop in the U.S., his path veered in a completely different direction the moment he met off-road racer Josh Daniel. “His mother owned a Jaguar– that’s how I met Josh,” Muzio said. “He’d been involved with off-road his entire life, and I was here in America with no friends. Josh asked me if I would like to help him adjust valves on a truck he was building and we became best friends pretty soon after that.” That chance meeting was the beginning of Danzio Performance Engineering in Lake Elsinore, California. According to Muzio, the two began to hang out at Ocotillo Wells and Glamis, where they’d discuss different buggy projects. Both men had a passion for engines and technology. “People started asking Josh who had tuned his buggy,” Muzio said. “Of course, I was working at the Jaguar shop with my dad during the day and I was tuning cars on the side at night. That’s when my dad suggested that I start a performance shop.” The company name “Danzio” originated by combining their last names, and it stuck. The first shop was actually out of Muzio’s garage at home. “I wired buggies, tuned some cars, and put a down payment on a chassis dyno,” he said. “Josh luckily had a construction building and we were able to set up the dyno inside until we found a more permanent solution.” Danzio Performance began working on a lot of sand cars until the day Muzio met Chuck Hovey. “I started tuning one of his cars on the dyno and Hovey began winning a lot of races,” Muzio said. “He was our only client in the off-road racing scene. Later, when he was running a Danzio V8 in SCORE Class 1, we started getting other clients in racing and then Geiser Brothers came to me with the SMD Trophy Truck. After that, I tuned Cameron Steele’s Geiser Trophy Truck. It’s all been word of mouth ever since.” Muzio’s main goal is to ensure their clients are satisfied and winning. “We have on average 60 percent SCORE Class 10 vehicles that use Danzio engines at each race, and at least 10 SCORE Trophy Trucks too,” he said. “We take a Danzio chase truck down to each event for our clients in case something needs our attention. It’s part of our service.” Muzio said Danzio is committed to off-road racing with its engine packages, which range from small blocks, LS-based, and, of course, the TT big blocks. TT teams like Justin Lofton and Kyle Jergensen primarily use the Danzio P600 big block. “We have built over 50 of them so far,” Muzio said. They support other platforms as well with Ecotech and Ecoboost engines and tuning. Danzio is unique because they build custom Milspec wiring harnesses for their own engines and offer complete chassis wiring and electronics. Everything is under one roof, from engine building, engine dyno, chassis dyno, engine machines, computer tuning, wiring room, electronics, shipping and receiving, and much more. Nothing is farmed out. It’s essentially a one-stop shop, Muzio said. Danzio also supports road racing. “These guys followed me over from my Jaguar shop and I still tune their cars,” Muzio said. Danzio is not just a tuner; Muzio designs and writes programs from scratch. “I will take a blank ECU/PDU and program it for my clients,” he said. Muzio also dabbles in hypercars like the 2.1 million dollar SSC Tuatara, which set a record as one of the fastest production cars in the world. “It has all of our Life Racing electronics in it and [was] programmed by me,” Muzio said. “It’s unique that Danzio got involved, and we plan to continue our relationship with the builder as more SSC Tuataras get built.” Muzio is an electronics wizard, past clients say. “I have libraries of sensors and setups that can be used,” Muzio said. “My guys here can build a fresh big block P600 on their own without my input. When we switched to building that line of P-Series engines we got really good at it. It’s nice because I must spend my time developing new things or on the dynos.” Danzio offers engines and support for every SCORE class, with the exception of Subaru and Volkswagen. Interestingly, they don’t use crate engines– they hand-assemble everything. After 18 years at Danzio, Muzio has been able to keep the talent that works alongside him. “I have a great team here. I could not do it without them,” Muzio said. Ryan Carwin, who heads the wiring department at Danzio, is one of a handful of specialists. He said he started with Muzio two weeks after Muzio opened the shop. “I met Chris first as a customer, and then asked him if he needed a wiring person to give me a call,” Carwin said. “The rest is history. This is exactly what I like to do because working at Danzio is never boring.”