Since 1990
Sam and the boys
A family business built on one rule: do it right, do it once.
The founder
Sam Baghdadi
“I’ve never done an apprenticeship, I’ve never been to tech and I’ve never worked for anybody. I’m self-taught and I’ve always run my own show.”
Sam started on the tools at 14. Before Sam’s Performance he ran a shop in Milperra restoring Fords, and in 1990 he opened Sam’s Performance in Padstow, starting out with carburettors. From the day he opened the doors, he says, there has never been a week without plenty of work.
When Holden’s Gen III V8 arrived, Sam threw himself into it. By the early 2000s the workshop was known as Sydney’s leading LS1 and Gen III specialist, and LS engines have been the focus ever since, along with the dyno testing, cam development and supercharger work that goes with them. Sam even helped HP Tuners develop some of their TPS functions.
His customers stick with him, too: “I’ve done guys’ Geminis, then their Brocks, and now I’m doing their VEs; they keep coming back.”
The brothers
A workshop full of Baghdadis
Sam has six sons and two daughters. Three of the boys followed him onto the workshop floor.
“All three of the guys I have working for me are my kids,” Sam told Street Machine. The others, he joked, “reckon I’m hard to deal with!” Today Sam and the boys run the workshop together: building engines, fitting blowers, tuning on the dynos and answering the phone. When you call Sam’s Performance, you are talking to the family.
“Being honest with people. We always deliver what we promise and we never bullshit people.”
Sam Baghdadi, Street Machine, 2015
- 1990Building engines since
- 1080hpSP427 on our engine dyno
- 7,000+Engine dyno runs logged
- 98%Recommend us on Facebook
Since 1990
Three decades of horsepower
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Early days
On the tools at 14
Sam started working on cars at 14. Self-taught, he never did an apprenticeship and never worked for anybody else. His first shop, in Milperra, restored Fords only. "No Holdens were allowed."
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1990
Sam's Performance opens in Padstow
Sam opened Sam's Performance in Padstow selling and tuning carburettors, and from the day he started he never had a week without plenty of work.
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2003
Sydney's LS1 specialists
As Holden's Gen III V8 took over, the workshop became known as Sydney's leading LS1 and Gen III specialists, from cold air intakes to 500+ hp monster motors.
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2011
V8 Ute Series champions
Chris Pither won the 2011 Australian V8 Ute Racing Series with Ice Break Racing, running engines developed on Sam's dyno.
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2015
A family workshop in Greenacre
Now at Rosedale Avenue, Greenacre, Sam told Street Machine that all three of the guys working for him were his own sons, and that "these days we do 1000hp stuff constantly."
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2018
The BLO 427
Sam built the 427ci LSX for the 1000hp, Magnuson-blown BLO 427 HSV GTS featured in Street Machine, which ran a best of 9.89 seconds at 149mph.
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2019
Harrop's 813hp test engine
Harrop had Sam build its supercharged 355ci Holden V8 test engine, which made 813hp at 7000rpm on 98 pump fuel on Sam's engine dyno.
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Today
Sam and the boys
Sam and his sons run the workshop together, building SP Built strokers, Harrop supercharged HSVs and 700 to 1000+ rwhp street cars.
How we work
Do it right, do it once
Everything we do comes back to a few simple rules: be the best at what we do, give “no bull” advice, and under promise and over deliver, in every part of the job.
“There's nothing I haven't tested and I don't use customers as guinea pigs. I do my homework on my own stuff and I develop it 100 per cent, so there's no guesswork when a customer comes to me.” Every part we fit and every package we sell has been proven on our own engines and our own dynos first.
In the press
Business details
- BusinessSam's Performance (owner Sam Baghdadi)
- Workshop80 Rosedale Avenue, Greenacre NSW 2190
- Phone(02) 9708 3333
- ABN58 995 653 085