Dang, 03 is going back. Predates me at 17+ years. I miss Pete, hear from him occasionally. I can imagine some of the guys doing what you described, it was a different world back then!Not sure if its the same location, but I visited the/a Diablo shop way back in 2003.
A group of friends and I drove down to for NMRA opening weekend and coordinated with Nitrous Pete since he was there tuning his '03 for nitrous. Pete was one of the only guys at the time with access to Kooks headers for the '03 and my buddy was handing over cash to secure a set (which he never received, btw).
Anyhow, while there, a Diablo employee drive over to Home Depot to buy an "Employees Only" sign to place on the exterior shop door. Said nothing to us as we stood near the car, just stuck the sign on the door and walked away. We mostly ignored it, but laughed at the behavior and when we finally left, we also removed the sign.
I'm sure all those guys are gone now, but it's a funny memory about that place.