Sitting in his office in a sectioned-off part of the garage that houses Kensington's Helix Minisports, Eric Savage proudly displays a bit of shiny metal he calls a "magic pill." Crafted of aluminum and high-tensile carbon steel, the pill, more formally called an MCS supercharger pulley, is an engine modification he designed -- on the back of a napkin, natch. It's an engine upgrade for the new breed of Mini, the brand-new zippy econobox cars based on the classic British model from the 1960s that are showing up like rabbits on American roads.

"It makes the car go really fast," smiles Savage, catering graciously to his interviewer's admitted deficiency in the area of car smarts. "It's a pulley for a supercharger; it pumps more air to the motor."

"It adds 13 horsepower and 15 foot-pounds of torque to a bone-stock car," explains Savage, which, as he's required to spell out seconds later, means that if you replaced the pulley that came standard on the Mini with his -- without changing any other parts -- it'd make the car really fly.

Since the new Minis hit the road in limited quantities last March, Savage has devoted his life to improving the performance of the charismatic cars. He's part of a burgeoning Internet-based industry, independent of auto manufacturers, devoted to making Minis drive better and faster.

Most of us, if we're lucky, end up doing one thing well. Savage, a 35-year-old Philadelphia native who's always followed his passions, is on to thing-done-well No. 3.

The son of musicians, Savage began playing the violin at age 5 and attended St. Paul, Minn.'s Macalester College for music. Though he played music professionally after he graduated (among his endeavors was a funk band called Toe Jam), he soon found his longtime interest in music waning.

In 1992, he moved back to Philadelphia where he apprenticed as a beer brewer and eventually became head brewer at Dock Street Brasserie. After much acclaim, he set out on his own with the namesake Savage Beer. But again, Savage found himself losing interest in a lifelong passion through doing it professionally.

"Brewing is a noble craft," says the tall, bespectacled blond, "but it's a static art. It's a 5,000-year-old craft. Everything there is to be done has been done. There's no new technology."

This left Savage at something of a crossroads. A self-described car nut and tinkerer all his life -- his mother claimed his first word was "Lamborghini" -- he had turned away from performance tuning as a means of breadwinning once before. (He had chosen brewing over cars.)

"At the time there was a rumor of the return of the Mini," he explains, fawning. "It's an iconic car, probably one of the three most important cars ever made, the others being the Volkswagen Beetle and the Porsche 911."

Savage was hesitant to get into cars, "because I've ruined my other two passions by getting into them professionally."

But, he adds, "When I got wind that BMW had bought the Mini brand, I decided, with only having seen a picture of it, that I'd go into the tuning business."

Auto manufacturers are wary of tuners: They generally don't see tuners as "legitimate" engineers, and have a bit of disdain for them as by law manufacturers are obligated to honor warranties even if a breakdown is caused by a part that is not factory-standard. But they also rely on tuners to generate buzz.

To start up Helix, Savage developed a business plan and ran it past the folks at the Small Business Development Center at Wharton. (He took an inexpensive business basics class back when he was starting Savage Beer. Attendees are entitled to gratis MBA consulting.) Backed by two private investors, Savage and business partner Chris Kellett (Emmy award-winning sound man by day, racecar driver by night) bought an expensive bit of machinery called a dynamometer (which allows for performance testing in the comfort of one's own garage) for pennies on the dollar from a liquidating Texas company.

The dynamometer gives Helix an advantage over most tuners: the ability to perform exhaustive tests of the performance and safety of their custom parts through hundreds of miles of simulated driving. (Helix also performs road tests for part durability.) Which is to say that while you can't necessarily be sure a part you buy from some random tuner isn't going to melt your engine, with Helix, you're at considerably less risk.

To date, Helix sells its own custom-designed ignition cables, the aforementioned supercharger pulley, exhaust systems, stainless steel braided brake lines, front stress bars and adjustable camber plates. It sells and installs these parts, as well as parts from other manufacturers.

With Helix experiencing its first positive cash flow this December (ending months of "wringing my hands with white knuckles") and with the recent proliferation of Minis on the highways and byways, it seems Savage, with a new house and first child on the way, may be staying put for a little while.

"The cool thing with this gig is that there's a little bit of everything," he says. "There's technical problems, imaginative problem solving and, of course, driving around in a neat little car. I think this is it. I love the work and I still like being in a shop."

And since he finds himself with another of his lifelong loves as a career, he's making it a point to seek other diversions outside of work. "Now my hobby is soccer," he smiles.