CARSON CITY (Jan. 8) – MarTec Engineering is another small shop in our region that came about when the owner followed his passion.
When asked why he started the business owner Nick Maher said, “I guess the term ‘scratching your own itch,’ is how I’d describe it. When I was about 15 I got into off road trucks and stuff like that. Once I had a decent job around age of 20 I started building my own truck.”
Nich Maher, owner of MarTec Engineering, stands by a rock crawler the he modified the front end on.
He wanted to install a roll cage, different motor and other things as well but there wasn’t the budget to buy parts.
“I kind of gathered tools and figured it out on my own. Once I got it done and got it out, up in the hills with everyone, lot of people saw it they kind of brought in some work that way,” he said. “It just kind of snowballed from there.”
Around 2010 he was working out of his garage with a building business. So while he was rolling cars in and out his own vehicles were parked in his back yard.
“I needed more space and that’s what got me down here,” he said. “I’m in the same building as Alpine Locks but physically behind them. This was October of 2016 that I moved in here.”
Front door of the shop on the right side of Alpine Lock’s store front.
The shop, located at 3267 Research Way in Carson City, offers a bunch of services.
“I offer anything metal related,” he said. “I’ve done handrails in houses, gates for houses, build staircases, my specialty is off-road fabrication, suspension, roll cages, anything like that. On road cars I do, performance modifications, roll cages in cars and suspension.”
Like many shops the bread and butter might be in an unrelated field. He explained its actually architectural work for a food procession place in Carson City.
“They give me a lot of work, a lot of stainless work, aluminum work and stuff like that,” he said. “But the main stuff I do is a lot of off-road things.”
Right now the split is around 75% off road plus a couple of customers that he does non-automotive things for. As far as roll cages a few weeks he fabricated one for a drift car and he’s done some for NHRA spec cages for drag cars as well.
Maher stands by a Corvette the made a roll bar for and has added a blower to the engine for more horsepower.
“Before I did the metal worked I worked on a race team here in Carson doing drag racing,” he said. “Then I did production welding up in Reno for a couple of years after that then for an architectural shop and now have gone to do this full time.
Over the past years he has worked on some Ultra 4 cars but nothing specifically for desert cars. A couple of weeks ago he did install a skid plate and revamped a bumper on a 4800 car that will race at King of the Hammers in February.
Last year he also helped prepare a car for the Ultra 4 Nitto Tire Nationals as Wild West Motorsports Park.
Maher grinding a plate and the base plate for the new chassis table is on the floor behind him.
Like others that have switched from being an employee to a business owner Maher has found there are challenges.
“My biggest challenge is the business side of it just because I spent so much time working at places were I just showed up and do my eight hours of work and take off,” he said. “A lot of things you don’t see that go on until you’re doing it by yourself. Scheduling, paper work and making sure you’re doing everything right and that kind of stuff.”
Now that the New Year has passed Maher is looking to the future.
“My plan for 2018 is that I’ve purchased a plasma cutting table so I can do cnc plasma cutting and that will be ready February 8th,” he said.
Another addition will be a chassis table, which he already has the base plate for. This will be installed on jacks that will allow a chassis under construction to be raised or lowered.
With this in mind he’s already taken on a project to build two chassis from scratch that will become a pair of 4-wheel steer rock crawlers.
“I’m very optimistic, you know I’m really yet to advertise a whole lot. I told myself that just keep doing what I’m doing and hopefully the word of mouth would just keep flowing. And if it got down to it I’d work on advertising a little more but I really haven’t the need,” he said.
While he doesn’t have an Internet site yet Maher owns his domain name. There is a Face Book page as well as an Instagram page where photos are located.
For those interesting in contacting him the Face Book page is, www.facebook.com/MarTecEngineering and the e-mail to contact him is martecengineeringNV@gmail.com.
OTHER RACING NEWS:
- This weekend Best in the Desert started its 2018 season and several riders from Northern Nevada competed in the 3-lap motorcycle part.
Best finish was the team of Brody Honea and Tallon Taylon as they finished 2nd overall in Open Pro. Behind them Jason Alois and Wyatt Brittner were 7th overall and coming home 10th was Reece Honea and Danny Cooper, who won the 30+ Pro class.
Further back the team of Ricky Dahlberg and Stephen Helms ended up 13th overall. The team of Chris Mass and John Levie finished 24th while Colton Scudder and Ian Prince, running in the Open E class, ended up 39th over all.
• Remember on Tuesday afternoon, between 2 and 3 p.m. Teresa’s Garage Radio Show will be on. Due to not feeling too well I might have to call in and my time is around 2:15 p.m. It’s a good show about all things automotive.
Teresa’s Garage Radio Show is on Tuesday afternoons.
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We now have five very appreciated sponsors that are helping support this site. Please patronize them as they support your sport.
Our newest is Big Valley Honda and is the first dealer we have as a sponsor. They sell everything from motorcycles, UTV’s, ATV’s and about anything else things one could want.
They are located at 2225 Market Street in Reno and their website is www.bigvalleyhonda.com and they have a Face Book page, www.facebook.com/bigvalleyhondareno.
Our first sponsor is a full service motorcycle shop, Reno Motorsports and they too have a full service shop as well as about anything a rider could want.
They are located at 964 Terminal way, by Mill Street and their website is, www.rms-renomotorsports.com.
Sponsor PJ & Co Restaurant and Saloon located at 1590 Wells Avenue in Reno is familiar to most in the riding lifestyle.
Good food, great place and they have Bike Night every Wednesday. For further information please check their website at, www.pjandco.net.
Concours Body Shop, owned by racer and race supporter Gil Grieve, is a business doing quality repair work on cars and trucks.
The business is located at 240 Telegraph Street in Reno and their website is, www.concoursbodyshop.net.
If you are into karting or want the most cost effective way to start racing then check out Nevada Kart Sport, our only full service kart shop in this region.
The shop has moved to 894 Deming Way in Sparks and their website is, www.nevadakartsport.com.
Have a business targeted toward the motorcycle, motorsport or off road demographic? Well we are looking for more sponsors.
You can contact us either through the comment section of the site or our Face Book page.
