Helix Motorsports, the Neighborhood Tuner

It’s possible to walk past Helix Motorsports on Umbria Street in Manayunk and not know what happens in the building. Nestled between row homes and close to a bar, an elementary school and a purveyor of tomato pie, Helix’s headquarters could pass as a law or a dental office. It’s modest, just the way owner Eric Savage likes it. 

Savage comes across as a mellow guy, but he’s taken some risks in his career … and they seem to have paid off, as his MINI and BMW tuning business is now a pretty heavy hitter in the car community.

In 2001 Savage left AWE Tuning, a Willow Grove-based VW/Audi-focused company, to start something of his own. He then bought a MINI, rented some brewery space and then moved to Manayunk. 

“Basically, the way we started, we imported a Euro-spec MINI to this country before they were available here, to kind of get a head start on tuning,” Savage said. “It was a normally-aspirated one, before the supercharged ones were introduced. It wasn’t that great of an investment, but we made a lot of suspension pieces for it and kept it for a while before we were required to export it because it wasn’t DOT-certified.”

Savage said he bought the MINI sight-unseen from a BMW dealer in Gothenburg, Sweden. Because the dollar was so strong at the time, he picked up the car — including the exporting fees — for about $13,000. He said he looking to get a jump on the tuning the MINI, as there were no real competitors. 

But why the “new” MINI?

“I thought that would make such a splash,” he said. “BMW was going to make the MINI with an independent rear suspension. The hot cars of yesterday were GTIs, and the problem with GTIs was that they had a solid rear axle, and they couldn’t handle as well as they could have. And when BMW said it was going to fit the MINI with safety and electronic stuff from the E46, it was very exciting. I thought, this is going to be a very cool, well handling car. Designs came out, and they looked great, and I knew that this was the car we were going to go for.” 

Over the years, Helix has developed a number of unique parts for MINIs; the company is probably best known for its front-mounted, stepped-core intercoolers. They’re designed in-house and produced by a thermodynamic engineer buddy of Savage’s.

“During his day job, he makes cooling devices for server farms and he just happens to be a gear head,” Savage said. “It’s basically just heat exchanging. If you’re good at it, you’re good at it.”

Helix also offers everything from supercharger pulleys to intakes to short-shift kits.

Savage’s business was growing quickly until 2008, when the economy went south. In May 2008, he moved his business to its current Umbria Street location … and kind of switched up his business model. Helix started offering BMW tuning, repair and maintenance to its lineup — mainly focusing on the turbocharged N54 and N55 engines. The company is also devising some parts for the newly introduced BMW N20 engines. It simply couldn’t overlook the popularity of newer, turbocharged BMWs, Savage said.

Currently, Helix’s garage houses several MINIs and a few BMWs, including a newer 328i and a vinyl wrapped 135i — a car Savage affectionately calls “the rolling lab.” The N54 has been treated to downpipes, a catback exhaust, a different intercooler and is tuned.

Other than the matte-black covering — and the sound when it’s opened up — you’d be hard pressed to tell the car apart from a stock 135i. The car, with its discreet embossed “Helix” logo on the driver’s side of the hood, sums up Savages business nicely.

“We keep a low profile here, and that’s the way I like it,” he said. 

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Helix Motorsports is located at 4648 Umbria Street, Philadelphia; it can be reached at 267-335-4337. For more information, visit its website at www.helix13.com.