Richmond Auto Repair

Kelly Shelton

The Owner

Kelly Shelton, the owner of The Euro Shop, got into cars accidentally. Kelly found a dark blue 95 BMW 3 series for sale at $6,000 with 200,000 miles on it. BMW blew him away. It was sporty, attractive, and had more features than his parents’ new Hondas. He started tinkering with it. He was 16 years old and a sophomore in high school. During his junior year, he enrolled in the automotive training in the Chesterfield Technical Center Auto Program -- top of his class. During his senior year, he got an internship with a dealership, working with Dodge, Chryslers, and domestic vehicles. Kelly wanted to work for BMW so he spoke to the service manager at the BMW dealership so the dealership entered the program and hired him. He worked there through his junior and senior year. They hired him straight out of high school. Out of everyone who’s been through the tech program, he’s the only one to become a shop owner.
Kelly is a diehard BMW fan and says they are the best driving cars out there. When he decided to become a lifelong technician, his friend talked him into going to college so he did and earned a degree in business. After college, his dad talked him into working for a health insurance company. He started in sales, ended in management. By the time he left, he was COO. That’s where he learned managerial skills. His management philosophy is “ I’m not a boss.” He leads by example rather than commanding people to do things.
Kelly has 6 employees. All three of our technicians graduated Universal Technical Institute, and either attended the BMW STEP Program, or the Mercedes ELITE Program.
Kelly Shelton opened The Shop in 2014. His biggest passions are cars and music. Kelly plays the drums, the guitar, and he sings. He likes everything from jazz to classical, hip hop, and rock. The Euro Shop has a room-to-room sound system so each tech can choose what they listen to.

Adi Jakupovic

General Manager

Adi is the most tenured employee besides Kelly at The Euro Shop. He ensures that workflow in the shop is running as it should. Adi is Bosnian, but was born in Germany, just outside Stuttgart. His family moved to the US in the 90s. He attended Henrico High School, and was a student at Virginia Commonwealth University before he left to pursue his career. Adi is generally self-taught with his technical skills, and he has also completed extensive Service Advisor Training. Adi got into cars while he was growing up in Germany. He watched new BMW's, Mercedes, and Porsches rolling out of the factories, and always thought they were really cool. He’s loved the German brands ever since. Adi’s favorite thing about working on cars is the feeling of accomplishment he gets from putting something together and making it work. He enjoys doing performance work on cars, and doing cool, unique stuff, like swapping a corvette engine into an E36 M3. We are lucky to have someone so passionate about cars working here!
If you think Adi only ever works on cars, he has lots of other hobbies, too. When he’s not working on cars, he likes soccer, football, sports in general, hanging out with friends and his dogs, plus he’s a beer & whiskey aficionado. Adi has four rescue dogs, and is recently engaged to be married! Adi is a superhero nearly every day, but he does say that “on a weekly basis, I see a car that has either been misdiagnosed or poorly fixed, and every time, we are able to fix the problem for the customer. A lot of estimates I see are “Blanket” repairs, where somebody just recommends replacing a whole slew of parts instead of taking the time to diagnose the problem.” In the way of music, Adi likes everything from European folk music to rap. Adi really likes the atmosphere at the shop and knowing that we all are here to do the right thing – what’s best for the customer. By the way, Adi is a big Porsche aficionado. You can see photos of Adi and his vintage Porsche project in the Gallery. Check out the photo of Adi in the back of his Porsche! We think those photos of his Porsche are pretty cool!

James Hefferon

Service Manager

The Euro Shop is excited to introduce James Hefferon as our Service Manager! James has 14 years of experience in the automotive industry and will be our customer’s main point of contact going forward.

Tell us about your background, experience, education, certifications etc.
I have been working in the automotive industry for 14 years, 1 year as a Mercedes Auto Body apprentice, 2 years in the Parts industry, 12 years with BMW as a Master Tech, Shop Foreman and Service Manager. I am a graduate of Nascar Technical Insitute and the BMW STEP program. I am BMW Master Certified, BMW Hybrid Certified Blitz 3, EPA 609/MACS certified.

How did you first get into cars? And what do you like most about them?
As a kid I loved watching the old muscle car shows on the speed channel and began to notice people in my neighborhood with cool cars which made me want to learn more about them. I love the sound of a beautiful, well tuned engine.

What are your other hobbies?
I have a passion for building motorcycles and riding them. I also enjoy snowboarding in the winter months as well as hiking and camping.

What is the most rewarding experience you have had from working in the automotive industry?
Being able to bring a machine back to life when no one else can figure out what is wrong with it or had deemed it a hopeless cause.

What kind of music do you like?
I enjoy all genres of music. When I was younger I played Bassoon in the symphony at school. I currently listen to Hip Hop and Jam Band music the most.

Married? Kids? Pets?
I have been married to my highschool sweetheart for 9 years, we have two boys ages 6 and 3 years old.

What do you like most about working at The Shop?
The workplace culture at The Shop is unparralled to any service center I have worked in. We are encourgaed to work at our own pace and spend the time to diagnose and fix the vehicles the right way which goes a long way to reducing stress in a tough feild. It feels like I come to work everyday with my second family.

Mike Peyton

Master Technician

Mike has been in Virginia his whole life but was originally from Fairfax, VA, where he lived until a few years ago. Mike is our go-to Mercedes-Benz and Sprinter Specialist. He had been working for Mercedes for the last 14 years as a Master Technician until he joined our team in 2019. He attended Annandale High School in Northern Virginia before going to UTI in Houston, Texas, and then going on to complete the Mercedes-Benz ELITE Program in Allentown, PA.
Mike first got into cars when he was in High School when he enrolled in his first Automotive Tech Class. On the weekends, he was always hanging out with his friends, trying to fix their cars. He's been passionate about them ever since! Mike is a true Mercedes enthusiast and loves the incredible amount of technology that cars today are equipped with. He also loves the passion that "gearheads" have for their cars and brands.
There's not really a type of music that Mike doesn't like. He enjoys Classic Rock, Country, Alternative, Jazz, and Classic Hip-Hop. His diverse taste makes it easy to pick a Pandora station.
Mike married his lovely wife Jenée in August of 2012. They now live in Chesterfield, VA with their two kids, Greyson and Aizley.
The upbeat attitude is Mike's favorite part about being at The Shop, as well as the whole team's passion for the cars we work on. He also loves the amount of love and dedication that is put into each car serviced.

Mike Torrance

Master Technician

Tell us about your background, experience, education, certifications etc.
I have been working as an Auto Tech since 2007. I started at a small shop with no AC in Kennesaw, GA doing Tires/Oil Changes in the summer and kept the ball rolling from there. I enrolled in an Auto Tech school in Charlotte, NC where I spent two years trying to learn as much as I could. I actually met one of The Shop's current employees, James, there and we work together today. From there I was offered a seat in the BMW STEP program in Orlando, FL. I found out on my first day that James had gotten into the same program. We spent about eight months immersing ourselves in the brand/technology and I was subsequently picked up by a Dealership in Raleigh, NC. I worked there for two years and jumped ship to start my own european auto repair shop. There is a saying, “the road to success is paved with failures”. I do wish I knew then what I know now. After four years, I left Raleigh for another Dealer in Midlothian, VA where James was the Shop Foreman. I worked at that dealer for five years and was scooped up by The Shop soon after James.

How did you first get into cars? And what do you like most about them?
The first vehicle I bought was a 1996 Firebird that was constantly breaking down. It was up on jack stands in my parents garage every weekend for about two months while I tried to contain the disaster that it was turning into. 

From a repair standpoint, the problem solving aspect of vehicles is by far my absolute favorite thing. They are complicated and require quite a bit of operation knowledge to understand how certain systems work. Once that information is acquired, repairs just become a fun reverse engineering puzzle for me. From a general standpoint, I enjoy track driving. Vehicles can be pushed quite far into “scary” territory and still perform optimally. I have been quite surprised what a stock BMW can do with a good driver behind the wheel. 

What are your other hobbies?
I am into craft beer, PC gaming and hiking in the mountains.

What is the most rewarding experience you have had from working in the automotive industry?
My most rewarding experience has been mentoring/training new tech.'s who are fresh out of school at the dealership level. I enjoy teaching, helping develop and sharing my experiences with others so that they can grow within their careers and hopefully not run into any of the problems and/or hardships that I endured during the first few years of my career.

What kind of music do you like?
I like a lot of the heavier “trap” style EDM from artists such as RL Grime, Ekali, Baauer, 1788-L and some Skrillex. Grew up going to raves and camping out at EDM Festivals.

Married? Kids? Pets?
Not married; no kids. Have a retired racing Greyhound named Enzo, a 'dumpster find' cat named Walter-melon and another 'foster this cat until you end up keeping it' cat named Miese-mo.

What do you like most about working at The Shop?
 I like that the people who work here actually have a passion for the automotive industry/sport, rather than the previous two places I had been with. A few of us regularly go to track events, build personal performance cars and all of us are deep into F1. It is nice to work with people who share a lot of my similar interests.