At Decatur Garage, co-owners John Bacon and Daniel Palazzolo team up to provide truly elite service with years of experience and expertise in an independent neighborhood shop. Our customers’ best interest comes first and foremost, and we strive to provide the honesty and trust that leads to repeat business and recommendations. Our goal is to offer honest pay for honest work, focusing on high quality, reliability, and approachability.
John Bacon has over 35 years experience as a full-time automotive technician, with numerous accolades and honors. Presented with the opportunity to learn about Porsches early in his career, John has developed a passion for the brand with the knowledge to back it up. In 1979, Decatur Automotive Center was born, and with that shop, many good memories tempered with many long difficult weekends and races. In particular, John twice supported race cars at Le Mans, the world’s oldest sports car race in endurance racing. The Le Mans race is as unique as the Kentucky Derby or the Indy 500 - running on a closed public road circuit not only to test a car and driver's ability to be quick, but also to last over a 24 hour period. In 1976, John supported Toad Hall/Michael Keyser racing a Chev Monza, and in 1984 with Buick March Turbo.
As a part of Pegasus Racing, a team based out of Atlanta by businessman Ken Madren, John ran in the IMSA series from 1982-1986 with a changing cast of characters as drivers. In the early 2000’s, John worked with G&W Motorsports (which later became Synergy Racing), then moving on to work with Tafel Racing from 2005-2007. In both of these teams, John focused on Porsche 911 GT3 variants in GT Classes.
“Racing teaches quick thinking and problem solving,” John says. “Learning what works and what may be text book can be very different.” This approach carries over to the way Decatur Garage operates, so that customers can feel total confidence in our judgment both technically and financially, while also offering a low key but sharp presence, and delivering on our reputation.
Daniel Palazzolo started in the automotive industry at the age of 16, working for John Bacon at Decatur Automotive Center. Working with John, Daniel caught the Porsche obsession, learning the history, culture, and specifics of the brand firsthand. Over the past 15 years, Daniel has also worked in other Atlanta area shops, focusing specifically on Toyota Land Cruiser restoration.
Throughout his career in the automotive industry, Daniel also spent seven seasons working for the United States Forest Service as a wildland firefighter. In these years Daniel travelled extensively, predominately in the western US, but has returned to his roots in Atlanta.
Check out Daniel's most recent adventure at ATL to the Arctic, a blog chronicling his solo motorcycle ride from Atlanta to the Arctic Circle, Alaska for breast cancer charity in support of his sister.