diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index 57cdbc035..17dd18311 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -78,10 +78,15 @@ if ENABLE_FILTER_TESTING
 PLUGIN_DIR = plugins
 endif
 
+# If benchmarks were turned on, build and run a bunch more tests.
+if BUILD_BENCHMARKS
+BENCHMARKS_DIR = nc_perf
+endif # BUILD_BENCHMARKS
+
 # Define Test directories
 if BUILD_TESTSETS
-TESTDIRS = $(V2_TEST) nc_test $(NC_TEST4) $(HDF4_TEST_DIR)	\
-$(NCDAP2TESTDIR) $(NCDAP4TESTDIR)
+TESTDIRS = $(V2_TEST) nc_test $(NC_TEST4) $(BENCHMARK_DIR)	\
+$(HDF4_TEST_DIR) $(NCDAP2TESTDIR) $(NCDAP4TESTDIR)
 endif
 
 # This is the list of subdirs for which Makefiles will be constructed
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index ee1542ce2..39be36d22 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -1523,6 +1523,7 @@ AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile
                  docs/images/Makefile
                  nctest/Makefile
                  nc_test4/Makefile
+                 nc_perf/Makefile
                  nc_test/Makefile
                  ncdap_test/Makefile
                  ncdap_test/testdata3/Makefile
diff --git a/nc_perf/Makefile.am b/nc_perf/Makefile.am
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..09a2ecf54
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nc_perf/Makefile.am
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+# This is part of the netCDF package. Copyright 2005-2019 University
+# Corporation for Atmospheric Research/Unidata See COPYRIGHT file for
+# conditions of use.
+#
+# This directory holds tests for netCDF-4. It is skipped if netCDF-4
+# is not enabled.
+#
+# Ed Hartnett, Ward Fisher
+
+# Put together AM_CPPFLAGS and AM_LDFLAGS.
+include $(top_srcdir)/lib_flags.am
+
+# Un comment to use a more verbose test driver
+#SH_LOG_DRIVER = $(SHELL) $(top_srcdir)/test-driver-verbose
+#LOG_DRIVER = $(SHELL) $(top_srcdir)/test-driver-verbose
+
+TEST_EXTENSIONS = .sh
+
+# Link to our assembled library.
+AM_LDFLAGS += ${top_builddir}/liblib/libnetcdf.la
+LDADD = ${top_builddir}/liblib/libnetcdf.la
diff --git a/nc_test4/Makefile.am b/nc_test4/Makefile.am
index 9f5abd592..f055dff36 100644
--- a/nc_test4/Makefile.am
+++ b/nc_test4/Makefile.am
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# This is part of the netCDF package. Copyright 2005-2018 University
+# This is part of the netCDF package. Copyright 2005-2019 University
 # Corporation for Atmospheric Research/Unidata See COPYRIGHT file for
 # conditions of use.
 #