Motorsport safety equipment, since 2003

Garreth started GSM Performance in 2003. The original plan was building, modifying and customising cars to a standard good enough to get them into magazines, and several did, including Redline and Fastcar. Over the following years we supplied parts and customisation work on hundreds of vehicles.

From there we moved into performance parts, and raced our own Subaru Impreza track car and a TVR T350c. Running our own cars is what showed us where the business needed to go next.

People buying specialist high value parts wanted better product knowledge and more choice than they were getting. So we narrowed down to the parts we could speak about properly, and split the catalogue across three sites.

Between them they list over 14,000 products. One store holding brake kits, bucket seats, roll cages, helmets and racing suits would need a filter list nobody could read. Splitting it lets each site sort its own range on terms that make sense for it, and lets the fitting guides and information sit next to the products they belong to.

We opened the GSM Performance showroom in 2012, with motorsport seats, big brake conversions and harnesses on display. The seat range runs from the Sparco Circuit II, Corbeau Revenge and Cobra Evolution through to the Mirco RS2 and the Bimarco Futura. You can sit in them here rather than choosing from measurements alone.

We also supply bespoke race seating on projects, and past customers include Nike, Partick Thistle FC, MSV Explorer and Blackberry. Each one gets a tailor made quotation, a package built around what they actually asked for, and a time plan for the work.

The goal has always been a level of service that beats what people expect from an online retailer. The market has changed a lot since 2003 and we have changed with it, month by month, off the back of what customers ask us for.

The team is small and picked carefully, and we take on an apprentice each year to support the local area. Our advice comes from product training and time spent handling the kit in the showroom.

In 2014 we started filming product video reviews. Photographs do not show how a buckle works, how thick a seat cushion is or what the back of a helmet looks like, so we put those details on our YouTube channel.

In 2015 we widened the range to cover everything that keeps a driver safe, so racing suits, helmets, gloves and boots joined the seats, harnesses and cages.

In 2016 we extended the showroom by another 1,000 square feet, taking it to 2,500, and increased the stock we hold so the racewear could go on display alongside the seats.

In 2017 we spent the year on the ordering process itself, week by week, from placing an order through to delivery, and reworked every step of it. SMS delivery updates came out of that, as did our own supporting articles and documents for products where the supplier had not provided enough information.

Each year we add services and support without losing the small business approach, and we would like to keep it that way.

GSM Performance Limited, company number 09256002.

Registered office: Unit 5 High Hazles Road, Manvers Business Park, Nottingham, NG12 3GZ.