Founded in 1996 by me, Len Hoffman, Hoffman Automotive Machine is a small business located in Watkinsville, GA that puts the small in small business. We are a two-man shop dedicated to extremely high quality, detail-oriented Porsche cylinder head machine work. Cylinder head service is not side work for us. We don’t offer bottom-end services, block work or sell parts. We don’t have a sales staff or even a secretary standing between us and our customers. Just two machinists with well over 40 years of cylinder head experience, a whole lot of machines and a fanatical dedication to precision, details, reliability, R & D, and performance. This dedication has made us the industry leader in Porsche cylinder head service and the go-to choice of professionals and do-it-yourselfers all over the U.S. and Canada.
We have the know-how, equipment and experience to resolve pretty much any issue we encounter. Including CNC machine work and casting repairs. I have been TIG welding cast aluminum cylinder heads since 1987 and still personally do all the prep work, welding, and post weld repairs. In 1996 I built a custom casting oven for super precise temperature control during pre-heating and post cooling. Over the years I have developed countless repair techniques, many making use of custom tooling and fixtures. If we can’t repair it, it’s probably beyond repair.
Now for a little about my background.
I grew up in a family import automotive repair shop in Columbia, SC. My parents, Rich and Sonia Hoffman, opened The Bug House in 1972. In 1979 VW sued them over the use of the word Bug and they changed the name to Import Specialties. They sold the business in 2019 where it continues today on Rosewood Dr.
One of my earliest memories is sitting in a Zink Formula Vee my father built in 1966 for a local racer. Dad began building engines for the Vee a couple of years later and in 1970 he purchased a Stuska dyno. His development work produced fast reliable engines for Vee’s, and a side business building hot engines for street bugs turned into a full-time business. Between 1970 and 1985 my father’s Type 1 engines won over 250 circle track feature events, most, though not all, with him behind the wheel.
It was working in the family business that I fell in love with engines and cylinder heads. Especially cylinder heads. I ported my first heads when I was 16. My father’s dedication to development provided me with a front row seat to the profound impact cylinder head prep has on an engine’s performance. The simple design of the Type 1 VW engine allowed for rapid dyno testing of components and different cylinder head designs and we did an incredible amount of testing. My father’s reputation spread and in the early 80’s Reed Cams engaged him for cam testing. The lessons learned on those engines are universal and provided a fantastic foundation of practical knowledge for me to build upon.
Growing up in an import shop also provided me with a keen insight into the challenges shop owners face. I know a shop’s reputation is on the line with every job. One of the most difficult decisions an owner faces is who to trust with their outsourced machine work. This is doubly true for Porsche cylinder heads. Whether it’s a set of vintage Mezger heads or modern 9A1 and everything in between all these heads have their own peculiar quirks. Trusting them to the wrong shop can be a nightmare.
And even if the machine shop is reasonably adept at dealing with the larger peculiarities of these heads, most are unable or unwilling to deal with pesky details, passing them off to their customers to deal with. We don’t do that. It’s our commitment to our customers that we never send out a head that has an issue that they’ll have to deal with. Whether you’re a DIY’er or a professional our quotes include tending to every detail so that when you receive heads from us all you need to do is pull them out of the protective plastic bags and install them. Period. That’s our commitment to you.
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