120. Car Builds, Content Creation, and Sponsors w/ Ashley Vaughn

I was working construction. We started on all the builds, coming in on Mondays, exhausted. And all the guys on the site were like, what are you doing? These guys were all like, we want to see this. Like, what do you, like, you tell us about it, but like, we want pictures. Like, you need to start posting this stuff. I was like, yeah, whatever. Like, I'm not gonna.

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome back to the Minnoxide podcast. I'm your host, Harris, AKA Minnoxide, man of many automotive aspirations. And I'm here with my Ford-loving co-host, Dan. Mr. Garage. That's right, it's me.

We're out here.

Mr. Garage. Mr. Gunner Garage.

What did I say?

I think you said Mr. Garage.

Mr. Garage.

You're a Ford guy, I gotta leave.

I know.

Oh, you should have seen him gag when he found out you have a Chevy.

Hey now.

Hey now.

Yeah, it hurts, doesn't it? No. But, yeah, we're continuing our PRI trip, and now we're back at, I don't know, this apartment. I don't know what to call it. I don't know. So we're not on site. Home sweet home. Yeah, that's right. That's in the terms and agreements. And today we are here with Ashley Vaughn. So, hi.

Hi.

So we actually got several recommendations from people to get you on the show. One from being-

I don't know why.

They're going like, oh stop at the windshield right now. One of them being Dave Rasmussen, who's been on the show twice now, Justin White, who was on. So you have a wide variety of people that-

Why you would associate yourself with either one of those guys, I don't know, but you know, it's fine.

I mean, I've only known them for half a second.

Yeah.

Loose connection.

I'm just kidding. Loose connection.

Loose connection.

No, I'm just kidding.

We always throw that in subtly, like I don't know them that well.

Yeah, I don't know them that well, like just in case, you know.

Yeah, right.

No, Justin and Dave are awesome people. Yeah, they're really good guys.

Dude, Justin, I did not expect that I would have so much fun with a guy. I met so quickly.

Yeah.

So yeah, that guy's been awesome. But nonetheless, why don't you just kick the show off? Tell us a little bit about yourself, what it is that you do, I guess how you amassed your following, and we'll just kind of go from there.

Okay. Yeah, so I do honestly a little bit of everything. Basically, I think how I amassed my following was mostly from my BMW build. I'm building a twin turbo E46. I did all the fabrication work myself, so turbo mounts. We also have six dirt bike mufflers coming out of the rear bumper of the car, so that made a splash. The car originally, we cut the collectors off of the manifolds and built six straight pipes to the rear of the car with the dirt bike mufflers. But then we had to move shops, and very quickly, we had to pull it on a trailer, and unfortunately, ended up bottoming out the exhaust on the dovetail trailer and crushed it and tweaked a bunch of stuff. And I was like, well, I guess it's time to start over. And I started making jokes about putting turbos on the car, and that's when I got actually my first sponsor on board. Max Speeding Rods reached out to me and were like, hey, we saw you making these jokes on social media. Are you serious? And they ended up sending me two turbos, and it's just been kind of boogieing from there. The car was originally supposed to be just a seat time, cheap car that I could just jump in. We could do cheap, stupid stuff to the six straight pipes. I mean, that cost me hardly any money, you know? But then it turned into a complete turbo build, which I was not expecting. I have four or five other builds going, so it was a financial undertaking that we really weren't anticipating, but I've kind of just been rolling with the punches and trying to make it happen. So that's going to be running in March, finally. It's been a long time coming. Big, big, big movement for me. Kind of, it's just been a lot of welding. Like, I think I have probably 100 and something hours into just the exhaust side. Yeah. So I have to build the rest of the exhaust to the front of the car. There's like people on social media making jokes about Bluetooth turbos. They're not going to be Bluetooth. So they're Bluetooth right now, but that doesn't mean they're going to be Bluetooth forever. And yeah, I also have the Corvette. I'm building over the winter, so that should be done in March as well. But I'm trying to finalize sponsors and kind of what exactly we're doing to the car. I have a cam we're going to be putting in the car. I have, I'm potentially porting the blower or replacing the blower, but long term, I think I want to go turbos with that car. Oh, wow. I'm just a turbo person. Yeah. That's fair. Yeah. I mean, I love superchargers. Don't get me wrong. It's just turbo powerband is definitely more my style.

I enjoy it. I enjoy both. Like me and Dan have gotten to experience quite a bit of both. Like I've been in thousand horsepower supercharged cars and also two thousand horsepower twin-turbo cars. It's two very different types of fun. But there's something about anti-lag that just, it's like that extra level for me. I don't know. It's just me. But so, okay. So what are the plans for like the Corvette then? Do you have like the cams picked out and like, you know, potential blowers?

Yep. So I have a sponsor on to port the blower. I am trying to potentially upgrade the blower just because I'll-

Is that Joker's?

Yes.

Okay.

Yeah.

I saw that on your page.

Yes. Yeah. So I'm working with them. I have been in contact with other supercharger companies, so I don't know exactly which direction the build at this moment is going to go. But worst case, I'll have Joker's port the blower, and we'll go that direction. Yeah. But I have a Stage 1 cam we're going to be putting on it. Justin will be tuning the car.

Okay.

Yeah. So a little bit of a spicy build, but not too spicy just because-

In its current phase.

Yeah. Yeah. So I'm hoping next phase, we can go turbos and build the bottom end and beef up the motor and just build it from there. But for now, it's just going to be a little bit spicy, not too spicy. I wasn't planning on building this car at all. To be honest, I bought the car to keep it stock.

I'm seeing a reoccurring theme here, which is every car person alive, by the way. Yeah. Yeah. I was going to get a daily. It'll be fine.

It'll be fine. I'm not going to touch it. I did do a good job, though. I didn't touch that car for two years. I did buy the car, and I haven't touched it for two years. I just started getting more and more sponsors onto this car because it is a hot car in the market right now. There's a lot of companies coming out with product, and there's a lot of R&D going on with the car. So it's just gaining momentum, and I'm like, okay, I guess we need to do a phase one, which I also wasn't accounting for. So it's just... I'm kind of rolling with the punches right now, to be honest. People are like, why aren't none of your cars done? And I'm like, well, it's just the way things are developing, and it's not really entirely in my control, so... Yeah.

I love how that... Yeah, it's just accidental modding.

It's just...

Yeah, accidentally, I just have to build this car now, so...

Well, did I see... So, and you have an RX-7 you're working on, too?

Yes. That is definitely... My necklace is probably not showing right now, but I have a rotary necklace. I wear this all the time. Yeah. But yeah, it's... The rotary. It's been a... Probably my most painful build, I have to admit. It's been... I've had... I've been building the motor now for five years. It's been at two different shops. The first shop screwed me over pretty bad. I basically was contacted by Mike Vargas down... I was visiting Adam LZ's compound. He saw me down there and was like, hey, I saw that your motor is at this shop. We just got another three-rotor from this shop, and it mushroomed the center bearing out within 600 miles. You may want to pull your build out of there. And the shop was going downhill at the time, so I rushed down there, pulled all my stuff out. I immediately left the shop it was at, brought it to Mike Vargas' and we instantly took it apart. There's a whole YouTube video on it of what we found and basically all the wrong... I mean, it was pretty bad. Like we went to go pull the motor out of my truck and put it on an engine stand and all of the bolts, bolt holes to hold it onto the engine stand were all stripped. So we started out like having to rethread all of the bolt holes. So it was just, yeah, it was ugly. I was really disappointed. I spent a lot of money with them. Just sucks. It's not really a lot of-

And that's just all loss?

Yeah. Well, it's not a total loss. I mean, some of it is like some, I mean, they did weaken the motor I purchased. Like there was a through bolt that was cross threaded completely. We couldn't even get it out of the housings. So like that needs to be fixed. We're trying to figure out like what the best route is with that. If we, you know, yeah, it's just complicated. It's Mike's, Mike's got it handled. He's helping me out a bunch. I've just been, he's a really busy guy. He's dealing with a lot of different YouTubers and builds. So kind of just been waiting. But yeah, eventually it'll get in the car. That's more of like my passion project. So I don't really mind that. As opposed to the other ones just being like, yeah, they're just, you know, whatever. But no, no, it's, I mean, I've had that car since I was 16. So it was like my first car that I bought. And that's, I'm never going to give up on it, but it's just been definitely the most painful build, hands down.

Well, the fact that you're not just LS swapping it to that kind of, it's got to stand for something.

I can't do that. I can't bring myself to do that. I'm a Chevy person, whatever, but like I can't. I heard, I hear they handle great. Like I don't hear bad things. I don't hate on people that do it. Like if anyone, you know, but.

Well, who do we talk to that said it doesn't really affect the balance of the car that much.

You know, he says it's about the same way. It was Sean from tuned by Sean.

Oh, that's right.

The sponsor of ours, by the way. Thank you very much, Sean. He, yeah, cause I asked him, we have a friend of ours that has an FD RX-7.

Okay.

And he just blew a seal. So he's trying to decide what he wants to do. So I was asking Sean, he's thinking about swapping, doing some stuff. And we were like, hey, what's the best? And he's like, LS. I mean, it's literally, if, you know, rotary people kind of punish themselves, it's kind of a known thing.

Well, the best bang for your buck is an LS. I hate to say it. You're spending a lot less money to...

I mean, I think you could put a 302 in it too, but you know, whatever. Small Block Ford is still, you know, they're comparable. But yeah.

Hey, either way, I mean, the rotary stuff is just really expensive, and it's really hard to find the right people to build.

There's that too, right?

Yeah. But I feel like that's with anything. Like I was just talking to somebody, I was just at the ARP booth a second ago, and there was a guy there that basically same story had him and a buddy who has a car at the show, both got screwed over by the same shop. And I think it was BMW stuff that they were talking about, but I don't remember. Yeah. So it's not just rotary stuff.

It's everywhere.

It's rampant through the whole community.

We've talked to some big shops, and the amount of hacks that are out there is really sad. And people, you spend a lot of money with these people, and you just end up getting screwed. And then there is not a lot of stuff you can do about it.

No, people end up just going and building it themselves. There's no other solution. It's basically, I'm just going to take this on and learn what I need to know to, yeah, unfortunately. I feel like a lot of rotary builders, that's where they basically end up. They end up just doing everything themselves. They'll start, I mean, it's not like-

Let's tell Jay to DIY everything.

Yeah.

I mean, there's a lot of good, like you can buy port plates and go off of those, and there's a lot of good stuff out there for if you're going to do it yourself, but it's still nerve wracking. Like if you've never touched a rotary before to go build a rotary from scratch and completely DIY it, it's a little nerve wracking. And you're like YouTube trained.

Yeah, just a lot of Rob Dom videos.

Yeah, yeah. Just pound some Rob Dom down every night.

I'm excited for that. What was it?

12 Rotor.

I was watching a video last week.

He friggin catfished me the other night. I was like, you're gonna hear it fire. And then I watched like almost that entire video and then nothing happened. I was like, damn it.

You're like another 30 minutes of my life.

Right.

Just that YouTube ad revenue. Yeah. Okay. So then does that cover it? I feel like we're missing one in there.

I also have a Duramax build going, and the Subaru build, I don't really talk about.

Oh yeah?

You shouldn't talk about either of those last two, but that's fine.

Yeah, right. Just leave those off the table. No, we're building a LS swapped all-wheel drive Subaru.

Okay.

Yeah. So we have a LQ4 in it right now from just junkyard motor. We're planning on twin turboing it down the road, but that builds kind of way on the back burner, and then I'm building an LB7 Duramax as well. So we're hoping to solid axle swap that. So I was just talking to BorgWarner. We're hoping to do either a compound over stock setup or just a compound setup.

Yeah. So over stocks, you're not doing injectors or any of that stuff?

No, we'll do injectors. Yeah. No, I mean like compound, like put a larger turbo over the stock. Oh, okay. Sorry, it wasn't clear on that.

Yeah. I don't know much about the, my hate for GM runs pretty deep, so I don't pay attention to much of their stuff.

Fair enough.

It's a pretty known thing on this show. So if I'm giving you s***, it's just-

That's where I come to level him out, where I'm accepting of all types of people. And then you get Dan over here, he's just, I don't know, filling the word.

I don't know. I feel like you're putting me in a trap there. I'm just gonna keep moving.

Okay, so give us a little bit of background of like, how did you fall into like the whole fabricating? And like, what was the first thing that you kind of started working on when it came to working on your own cars?

Fabrication wise, working on cars, I had been doing that since I was probably like 16, 17. I just started, I honestly couldn't afford to have somebody fix my cars. I got kicked out at 17. So like when my radiator went out on my Mark III Jetta, I just had to replace it. There was no like, I can bring this to the mechanic.

Holy s***, Mark III Jetta, what year is that?

Oh, I don't even remember.

That's old.

Yeah, it was old. It was an old car. It was a total s*** box. But I learned how to drive stick on that car before I bought my RX-7. So when I bought my RX-7, I like practiced three times, I think, on that Mark III. And literally the linkage was so sloppy. Like you'd have to like do this like certain procedure to get it to go into first. Like it was just horrible. Like if you just like put it where first should be, it would go into third every time. Okay. Yeah. So it was a pretty hard car to learn on, but we were able to like beat the piss out of the car. So it was kind of fun. You know, we had a lot of fun in that car. That's kind of what started me working on cars. I then was working, I bought the RX-7. It wasn't running quite right. Oh, shocker. Yeah. So the guy who had it before me, I think, knew that it was gonna let go. That's why he was selling it. He put bars leak through the motor. So when I took it apart, I don't know, three years ago, I've owned the car since I was 16. So this was years later. We took the motor apart, there's bars leak all in the motor. He knew what was gonna happen. But so I was trying to diagnose the motor and just try and figure out, it was a really weird condition. It wasn't completely blown, or I would have known what was going on. There wasn't a lot of coolant or anything coming out of the exhaust pipe. There wasn't any sweet smelling exhaust. So I was trying to figure out what was going on with the motor. It took me a while, but I was buying parts for the car, and that's kind of what got me a foot in the door, is I just got cold-a** if I wanted a job at this Mazda dealership, I was buying parts from, and that's where I really started to progress and just learn automotive basics. I had a good group of guys in the shop that basically kind of took me under their wing and would pull me out in the shop and be like, hey, we have this Subaru ripped apart. Have you seen a motor ripped down this far? And they'd show me everything, and I'm looking at schematics every day of parts diagrams, and I was able to learn a lot from that. And then from there, the fabricating, the BMW was the first thing I actually started fabricating on. I had dabbled a little bit in make welding, but not much. And basically, I bought that project to learn to weld on. So we had this crazy idea of doing the six straight pipes to the back of the car. And that was my first time MIG welding, and I just, it's just practice. Like you just got to sit, and there's no substitute for hands-on just doing it. You can watch a million YouTube videos, but until you sit down, just do it over and over and fail over and over and over and fight through that, that's really where you learn.

Was there some YouTube videos though, or like anybody who showed you at first how to get started?

Yeah, so my boyfriend helped me a lot. He had practiced mig welding, and then on top of that, just watching YouTube and learning from there.

But no medals in high school or anything like that?

Oh, no, no, no formal training. No, not at all. Yeah, yeah. So, and he, you know, he just hands me the tools and is like figure it out. Yeah. For the most part. So, yeah. That's cool. Yeah, he's like fail until you figure it out.

That seems to be a pretty reoccurring trend.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's how you learn. You learn more from failure than you do from success. So, yeah. Yeah, you just got to stick with it till you figure it out, which can be really aggravating at times. And half the battle with welding is like cleaning the metal. Like you spend more time, I feel like cleaning and prepping than like the, all the pie cuts on that exhaust took me hours to just cut and clean and then re-clean and then start like tacking and then re-clean again and then weld all together.

Well, funny thing, if you get your mandrel bent stuff from Hayes Performance, it comes pre-cleaned.

Well, that would be nice.

Yeah.

Save you a lot of time there.

Yeah, it would. I don't normally drop ad stuff in the middle of this.

It's just so natural right now.

It would.

She hit two topics that were right on the money for our freaking two sponsors.

No, that was clean. That was good.

Yeah?

Yeah. It was like a smooth pickup line.

It was smooth until he's like, yeah, I just picked you up.

Yeah, that worked, right?

Smooth is definitely how people describe me. I'm totally sure. Yeah.

So then, OK, so now you're kind of out. What's kind of your objective here at PRI? You mentioned like you're catching up with a bunch of old friends, but you're also kind of looking for sponsors. Is that sponsors for current builds, future builds?

Yes. So my the past few years I've come here, I've been very like, I have all these builds and I'm like trying to talk to like everybody. And it's super overwhelming where this year I'm coming in with like a much more like honed in game plan of like same this year. Like I'm trying to get these two cars done. I need these products and I'm kind of just trying to really hone in and, you know, not put the blinders on really is what it comes down to and not be so scattered.

How's that going? So we've kind of been dabbling with trying to get started on doing this stuff because our following is growing and stuff. So we just go in there and be like, hey, look, I have this many followers, things like that. Like, how does that conversation start?

I actually think that's a really bad, like, that's not what I guess. Yeah, like, not bad way to go about it. But I feel like you're going in like swinging your dick around.

Yeah.

You know what I mean? Like, I got like 130,000 followers, you know? I feel like they want statistics. So it's really hard. They speak a totally different language, and it's taken me four years to really kind of figure out how to speak their language. And each company is a little different on what they're looking for, which is really difficult because one company wants to hear a different conversation from you than the next company. So like, honestly, I just, I kind of go in there, I'm like, hi. You know, I introduce myself. I want to tell them a little bit about myself and kind of who I am. And then from there, I'll start throwing them like, here are my monthly numbers. They care a lot more about your views than they do about your following number. Because the following number, like it's a great number.

You can artificially inflate it easy.

Yeah, you can pay. And so like a big thing that I show them is I have a statistic sheet and it shows that I'm not, like 0% of my views are from ads. So I'm like, it is all organic, what I build. And they're really looking to showcase their product, right? Like they want to know that you can create good, engaging, and whatever style content you want to create. Like I do more like humor stuff. So like I create funny humor content, but I mix in specifications about their products and more educational stuff. Like I can work those two things together. And that really kind of helps as a selling point.

Well, yeah, like, Danny, you've seen like a pitch deck. I only hand it out if people ever ask. Like I'm not out here like, all right, here you go, throw it out there.

It's hard though, because you miss 100% of the, you know any of the goals you don't shoot at.

I'm so glad you brought up that quote, because-

I don't know what the actual expression is. I just balked the f*** out of that, but.

No, so I told my dad this. I'm like, you know, they say the saying is you miss 100% of the shots you don't take.

I miss 100% of the shots I do take.

I f****** suck at basketball.

It's like a horrible expression sometimes.

We'll get back to the show in a second, but if you or your shop is building a car this winter, you might need components for an exhaust, an intake, charge piping, and who knows what else, because you know builds never end. If you need mandrel bends, flex couplers, T-clamps, and more, make Hayes Performance your first stop so you're not sitting around waiting on your stainless steel goodies. Check out everything they have to offer at hayesperf.com and use code MINNOXIDE for free shipping as well. Let's get back to the show.

We have this conversation often because it's, you know, things are growing, but you don't want to come in there and be like, hey, I have like 100 views this month. You still need to have something to show, so you got to build something first. You can't just come in to this thing and turn a camera on and be like, hey, give me turbos.

I mean, no, I wouldn't recommend that, but at the same time, like some of these companies I've had conversations with when I had 10,000 followers versus 130, you know, like it doesn't necessarily hurt to start the conversation. Like if you're small, I would more recommend you just go in, introduce yourself, just have a casual conversation and, you know, talk about products, ask them product questions, show interest in the product that you're willing to like learn. And then from there, as your stuff grows, you'll build with those companies along with what you're doing. That would be my best advice.

I really want Koenig as a sponsor. I like, well, you're familiar, like you're from the Beamer world. Like I got, like, I love my GTIs, right? Like it's like, I don't know. I love, it's the lightest wheel you can get for a GTI.

Like for a reasonable price.

They're a good company.

Yeah, but they're just like, yeah, we got our own podcast. I'm like, check back in 10 times the followers. We'll check back later.

Yeah. I mean, for somebody like that, like I've been talking again, like I feel like just familiarity, like year after year makes a big difference. Like I've been contact, like I love Rays. Rays, they make, yeah, they're a great company. I love their wheels. I already own a set of their wheels. Just year after year, I go in there and talk to them. Even if there's people change, I'm like, hey, I talked to you guys two years ago. Don't know if you remember me, you know, kind of thing. Yeah. I think just making the face to face, like I was just telling him this at dinner. I feel like-

The calzones.

Yeah. Eating the cal, over calzones. You're talking about how, you know, every year, it's pricey to come out here. Like, if you don't have a sponsor that's paying full ride for you to book a hotel and the flights and everything to come out here, it gets really expensive. Same with SEMA. But the relationships and the face to face interactions that you get, I mean, they're priceless. So you can't really-

You need so many cool people. Like, even in a hallway today, like Dan flagged someone down and it's like, all right, now we got a new best friend. Like, it's- That's one thing about the car community, man. Like, people are so willing to just talk and, like, have fun and just share stories. Like yesterday, we were drinking over at, what was it, Kilroy's?

Yeah.

Yeah, the stories you hear when somebody has a couple beers in them, it's always fun, too.

Well, I think that's all part of the networking too, right? If they want to-

I've gotten some of my sponsors at bars.

Yeah, absolutely.

I got K&N on. I met them at a Out of Mel-Z party at SEMA, and they were like, hey, we have a ride-along spot, 7 a.m. I'm like, it's 4 o'clock in the morning right now. Okay, yeah, I'll be up in three hours for your ride-along. Yeah, no problem.

That's crazy.

Yeah. Was that-

were they doing ride-alongs this year? Or was it last year?

Optima. This was two years ago.

Okay, so I see.

But I did do a ride-along this year. Yeah, that's all on my YouTube video.

Dude, it was so cool. Like, SEMA's got some cool opportunities, too. I got the opportunity to ride with Vaughn Gittin Jr. last year.

Oh, sweet.

That was awesome.

Yeah, he's a cool dude. I rode with him. Where the heck did I ride with him? Yeah, I think it was actually two years ago. Yeah, out at SEMA, at Optima. But I've seen him- I go to, like, Hyper Fest, and he's there, and he's always at events I'm at.

Well, I didn't get to really talk to him, though, because it was kind of like, you know, in top gear.

Yeah, you're, like, in and out of the car.

It's like top gear when the Stig's just sitting there, like, in silence.

You didn't talk to him while he was driving?

Yeah.

You didn't have an opportunity to chat with him?

Hey, how's it going?

I know you're a little busy right now.

It's like when you ask your Uber, like, hey, where am I gonna go eat? It's like, what do you suggest we get tonight? Yeah, those cars are cool, though. Like, I actually was going to ride with Adam, but I think his car broke down, or some weird wheel or something. I don't know, something was, I can't remember.

Oh, that sucks.

It was more than a ten-second pit stop.

Like, something was...

It's gonna be a bit...

It wasn't deeply f*****, but it was, something was wrong. But yeah, no, that's cool. So you're getting to experience a lot of these things. You're traveling to country. So what are the typical kind of events you're attending? Is it more like the SEMA PRIs, the competition events, everything?

So honestly, I've been a garage rat for the past few years, like, just grinding on the builds. I'm hoping with these two cars running, this upcoming season.

The Beamer and the Vette?

Yeah. So I'm hoping that I'll be able to do like the Corvette. I'm going to be building for a drag and like road course stuff. And then the BMW is going to be drifting. So I'm hoping to get to some events and just start driving and competing and just see where things go, start building it from there. Yeah.

Are you doing a ton of cooling stuff to the Vette? That's the first thing that comes to mind when I think C7 ZS6?

Actually, no. Me and Justin have talked a lot about stuff. I'm sure I'll have to upgrade the cooling system eventually, but for now, I think we're just going to keep it stock. What year is it? It's the 16.

Okay.

Yeah. So the cooling system will become a problem. I know that. Yeah.

More so for road course, probably.

I was going to say the road course stuff. Yeah. I'm not going to be doing a ton of road course.

Okay.

So we don't have a ton of concerns about it. I'm primarily going to be dragging the car.

Okay.

So I'll get some road course days in, but it'll primarily be drag. It's kind of the plan.

What do those make? So what, a stage one cam and an imported blower?

We're shooting for about 800 to 900 horsepower, like real horsepower. I mean, stock, they're making 650 to the crank.

Yeah.

So, yeah. I mean, that's why I bought the car and didn't touch it for two years. I was like, this is a car with a good horsepower number. I honestly wasn't expecting to have to grow into the car as much as I did. The steering on the car is very twitchy. You'll see car and driver reviews of it where they talk about that it's like driving like a squirrel. Like it's just, it cracked. Like I've driven cars with wide tires on them, but this thing just like, the steering is very, very touchy.

Interesting. I haven't driven a C7, but like the twitchiest car I've ever driven like was a 570.

Okay.

And like I've talked like, we've had Alex Sajadi on the show who drives Porsche GT4s, and he's like, yeah, it's just twitchy. It just wants to break. It's like wants to break loose on you all the time.

Yeah, this car's probably maybe, I mean, I've never driven a GT3 or GT4, but- They're weird too. Yeah, I would imagine they're probably in the same kind of caliber of car, but I'm assuming they'd probably handle a little bit better, but I don't know, I could be wrong. This car's just really twitchy. Yeah. You'll see certain review channels that are like, this thing is like an untamed animal. Like you just never know-

Which is like, it's fun.

What it's gonna do. Well, it scared the f*** out of me at first. Like we were driving the car home, so I bought it, this is a terrible story, but I bought it like half-site on scene in Florida. Like I'd put a down payment on the car and then flew down there, signed the paperwork down. Like I didn't sign anything before I got down there. Got down there, like drove the car up and down the road a couple of times, and was like, all right, yeah, I'll buy it. Good enough. Yeah, good enough. I did that. I started driving home. He starts yelling at me. He's like, stop doing that. I'm like, doing what? He's like, stop doing that. And then we like traded off, because it was like an 18 or 19 hour drive home. We trade off, and he's like, what the f*** is up with the steering on this thing? This is like so, it's like so f****** twitchy. I'm like, I told you, like, it's not me, it's a f****** car. So there's nothing wrong with it. Like we thought that like maybe the steering rack was going, or it's just honestly how the cars drive. Like we've driven multiple of them. My uncle actually traded his GT4 RS for a Z06, C7 Z06. I'm like, what's the difference? Well, he bought a brand new Malibu boat, that's why. Yeah, he bought a boat. So, yeah, I was like, fair enough. They're on that thing all summer long. He probably uses that boat more than the car ever. He's like, you can't like use the power on the street. Like it's just not...

The newer 4RS, right? I guess that's the only 4RS, the GT4RS you said?

Yeah, he had like a newer one. I don't know what year.

Yeah, I think the only time they had a 4RS was the new one. I don't know. I shouldn't be looking at you. You don't even know s*** about it.

He's like, I don't know.

Wait, is it a Ford?

Yeah, because that one has the same motor as the previous generation GT3RS, I think. So it's like a crazy a** car.

Yeah.

So you never would uncork it.

Yeah, he basically was like, you never can uncork it. Like it's just it's not a street car. It's a track car. And there's just not... You can't like, you know, he lives in Illinois, so there's not a lot of roads that I think you can kind of uncork that on.

Yeah. Oh, especially in Illinois.

Yeah. Yeah.

At least in Minnesota, we can go up to some twisties middle of nowhere, you know, sort of deal.

Yeah, there's not a lot. Like, I mean, well, we're not really ones to talk. We drove from... Where was it? We were at Edelbrock's facility, and we drove from Edelbrock to my family's house in Illinois, and we like bombed. We did like 120 the whole way and cut off like an hours worth of time. It was like a five hour drive. We did it in like four. Oh, wow. Yeah.

That's like when we went out to New York then, when we went to Buffalo and Niagara Falls. There was a lot of highway. There's like that stretch where you're going like Erie, Pennsylvania, like Pennsylvania, all that stuff.

I know exactly where you're talking about.

Yeah, I think we were, while we were rallying, we were all in our cars like talking to each other, seeing what the limit was you could set the cruise control at. So, yeah, I think the GT 500, by the way, is like 150.

The rental car we had had a limiter. So we were like, yeah, so we were like at one point, the limiter was like, what, 130 or something, or 130, right?

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150.

150. No, the limiter was at 130. Weren't we going downhill?

150.

Oh, really?

Yeah. So you could park it at the limiter at 150, but the car has a speedometer trap, and it will set top speed records, and I set it going downhill pegged at 150, 4.2.

No one's going to beat that. You have to be flat out going downhill and beat this record.

Yeah.

That poor loaner car.

I did 150 in that car for almost three hours. The only reason why I let off is because the oil temps are climbing so high. I was like the charger with the 5.7, and I'm like, I know the 5.7s have oiling issues, so I keep going on this car.

We're going to blow this car up. Yeah. That's nuts. And then we were like-

The car would set cruise control at 100, so we just dropped it down to 100 and just cruised until the oil temps came down, and then just went back to-

Then we were like two seconds from the hotel, and we almost got obliterated by a semi not paying attention. We weren't even speeding at that point. Like, it's just, yeah, happened at events.

We were speeding, but it wasn't like 150.

No, it was like-

It was like normal speeding.

Normal speeding. Yeah, like doing 80 on the highway or whatever. Yeah.

That was crazy. Good race in that car. Yeah.

No, I remember like we were doing 120, 130, allegedly. Actually, no, it's been long.

In Mexico. Yeah, this is all in Mexico.

Pennsylvania.

No, because I used to run road rallies around the country, right? So we used to do, one of my regular routes was Minneapolis to Colorado. I think we ran it two or three times. But like that Montana stretch or the Wyoming stretch or whatever. Yeah, was it Wyoming or was it Montana?

I don't remember which one, but I almost ran out of gas because I was like, I've never drove that long and not seen anything.

Single gas station.

No life. I don't think I saw a bird, a squirrel.

I'm like, squirrel, there's no f****** trees up there.

At one point in time, a cop got on the road we were on, and I was like, if the car starts to chug, I'm gonna flash my lights, honk my horn. I'm gonna swerve at him. I'm gonna do what I can to get him to pull over because I might die out here.

Oh my God.

It was bad.

Now, I missed the rally life. Like, I've thought about doing like little friends rallies and all that stuff, but going across the country with a group of like 20 or 30 cars.

Yeah.

Have you done rallies before or no?

No, I've always wanted to do at least one, but.

Well, Massachusetts, isn't it? Ace's neck of the wood?

Yeah.

Woods, the squad driven stuff.

Yeah, I've heard of them. I just yeah, I just haven't like part taken in anything. I'd love to do drag and drive too.

We're doing our first one here in a few months.

That's awesome.

Yeah. Yeah, I say we. Dan's driving. I'm doing I'm just passenger princess.

We'll see. Sometimes it's better that way. It's a lot less stressful. You can just sit there, put your feet up.

Yeah. Well, it's stressful because I'd be the one doing all the GPS stuff.

You're getting yelled at.

Yeah. I remember this is when I went on Crown Rally 2018 or whatever. So this is like me. I'm a fresh photographer or whatever. And I ended up saying, hey, what's the worst that could happen? I'll ask the Lamborghini SVJ guy if I can get a ride along. I'm like 18 at the time. I'm like, I'll get her, you know, they're not going to say no, who cares? So I ended up bombing through the Smoky Mountains and, you know, this almost million dollar Aventador, which is cool as f***. And I'm the one doing the navigation at one point, and this is in the Smoky's. There's no reception. So we're literally doing U-turns. The gas, like the car's on, like, running on fumes. Like it's about to run out of gas, and they need premium, I think, or maybe at least 91, which there's none of in that part of the Smoky's. So I'm just like, oh man. But it's the worst when it's like recalculating on you.

Yeah, you're like sitting there and you're like recalculating. You're like, I think take a left now. I don't know.

And it's like you turn, it's like, wait, we've seen that tree before.

You're like, god damn it.

Yeah, that was a wild time.

You should do a rally.

I would love to. I just I would need to buy a GPS. Like I don't want to like my record is pretty clean right now.

Oh, I see what you're saying.

That's saying a lot. Like I just wouldn't want to rack up points on my record.

True. Radar detector is worth its weight in gold.

Yeah, that's why I was saying like I'd have to just invest into a radar detector before I do that.

You have any sponsors for that?

No, not yet.

Well, you don't have a radar detector?

No.

You're out of your mind.

Yeah, no, I just like free ball it.

I've seen Unidin at SEMA the last two years now, and I basically go up and say thank you. I feel like I should cut them a check because they have saved me thousands of dollars.

I've made them thousands by saying buy Unidin instead of Escort.

I've honestly gotten more tickets not doing s***. Like, we almost got into a fistfight with a Stady because there was a Honda, and we were leaving an event in New Hampshire. It was an Import Face Off event. So we left Import Face Off, and they were sitting at the border scoping people. And this Honda in front of me was doing 90 downhill. They f****** pulled me over, and were like, you were doing 90. And he, from the passenger seat, he's like, no, she f****** wasn't. I'm like, can we not? I'm not trying to get some ridiculous ticket. And then sure enough, the guy comes back to the car. He's like, yeah, you were doing 80. I was like, yeah, that's what I thought. I'm like, why don't you go after the Honda that was in front of me doing like 95?

But I probably saw it was a Honda. I was like, no shot.

Yeah. I'm in a bright white Corvette. Like I just stick out with a sore thumb with like sponsor stuff all over the sides and you know, my name all over it, so.

So what the build that you're doing is literally, so one of my friends, his wife, is she his wife now? Yeah, wife, has like the exact same build. And it just is a nasty chop. Like I sat behind it, and I'm just like, I want that.

Well, yeah, that's what I've been talking to Justin about, cause I was like, oh yeah, like stage three cam, like I need like, you know, large lobe separation angle. And he's like, no, he's like, no, get a stage one cam. We can tune that all in. Like you, you know, you can turn the chop up with the-

You just want it to sound like it's dying.

Yeah, right?

Yeah.

Like it's going to stall and die. Yeah. No, I just wanted to sound nasty. Like I just don't, I don't, I'm tired of driving a stock car. Like I've been getting ripped on by people for being stock. And I'm actually, it's so like ox, it's like a complete oxymoron. Cause I'm actually proud that I've bought a car and not touched it for as long as I have. And other people on the internet are like, oh, you just drive a stock Corvette. Like-

It's such a slippery slope though.

I know. Cause once you start modifying, there's just no end.

Like we were talking to Sam Barrows on episode 110. Like they were talking, like, make it fun. Like, you probably only have to have the only stock GTR in the country. And then, you know, a year or two later, it's 1,400 wheel.

Yeah. It's- I don't know why people get so hateful on the internet. It's just- it's ridiculous.

It just is. You could do anything. You could save puppies or something, and then somebody will complain about it.

Like, you hate puppies. Clearly.

Leave them where in the wild, where they belong. I was like, what?

No, the guy we're gonna have on, like his girlfriend has a whole foundation, like they save foxes. They travel the country saving foxes. And like, you'll see the comments are just full of whatever.

I feel like the more positivity you put out, honestly, the more negativity you get.

Because they feel bad about themselves.

Yeah, and people literally are just miserable. Like, I think that's really, it actually makes me really sad because there's just so many miserable people out there. And I'm like, am I gonna be like that someday? Like, I'm just gonna be like miserable.

Spoiler alert, you are.

You are.

I'm Norwegian.

I f****** hate my life.

I'm just naturally miserable.

Oh, perfect. So you just blend right in then?

Yes, absolutely.

You just don't take the time to hate on other people's posts?

No.

It just stays in your head?

Yeah. Well, yeah, I come from a generation of just put it down way deep and then let it explode on the people closest to you and then you're done for a little while.

And then you're done for a little while. You're good.

Yeah.

We filled the quota.

It's like Bill Burr calls and just put this little shelf of my jar of hate, like just save it for later.

Just bottled and put up on the shelf. That's for later.

Yeah.

He's also out of Massachusetts.

Oh, really?

I'm just guessing. I'm just trying to pin that whole area to country right now. I'm just trying to figure out.

It's all, it all blends together.

Like I, I'll be honest with you. If you said, where's Massachusetts on the map? That's one thing I can't get right. I can get half of the Middle East, correct? I, for some reason.

Oh, we're like the thing with the little whoop-de-doo. It's called Cape Cod.

That one was a down.

Yeah.

Yeah. All I know is I want to go out there and just shovel buckets of butter and lobster into my face.

That's all I want to do.

I know, but I'm just picturing all the East Coast. There's got to be just lobster and s***, seafood.

Oh, the seafood. Yeah, we're spoiled. Yeah, I come out here. I'm like, I don't even want to touch. Everyone's been talking about all you can eat crab leg bars. And I'm like, I don't know.

So far from the ocean.

Yeah, we're pretty far from the ocean. Like, I don't know. We're just really spoiled. But Vegas, we go to Vegas. The seafood's good out there. I gotta say, yeah.

They fly it in over there.

Yeah, it's pretty good. It's fresh. It's good. I mean, depending on where you go, but.

So I feel like we keep getting off topic.

I know. We're very off topic. We're talking about food.

Was there a topic?

I have no idea. So are you doing this? So you were working at a dealership. Did you, like, were you working a job? Are you doing this full time now? Like what's keeping the lights on?

I was like selling car parts for about five years. I was trying to get a management position because I honestly was doing managerial work without the title and the pay. So I was trying to get a managerial position, kept hitting walls. Like they just want you to do all the work and not really pay you. Yeah. Checked out. Yeah. So then from there, I was like, okay, I'm not making the money that I want. I basically started going to school for construction management because it just seemed like a natural transition with my strengths. Like I like people. I'm a good people person. I'm good with sales. And the schematics translated very easily from like, you know, car schematics to blueprints. So I started going to school, like I was in school while working the job still at the parts deal. I worked at like a Lexus dealership for a while. I worked at a couple of different dealerships. Then from there, I ended up getting in a bad car accident. I got t-boned at like a intersection. The guy had a red light, blue four lanes of traffic and like t-boned my car. So I ended up getting, I didn't like hit my head or anything. I ended up actually getting a really bad concussion from that and having no idea just because my car spun. So it was enough to like, I guess, disrupt the sack that your brain is in or something. And one day I was driving to like my calculus class like early in the morning, and I completely lost my vision. So I started having these like ocular migraines where my vision would go completely out, be like full TV static. I wouldn't be able to see anything. So my teachers sat me down. They were like, yeah, you need to like take some time off from school. Like you can't. I was taking like 20 credits at the time, which is like seven full classes. It's like more than I'd have to the dean sign off on how many classes I was taking. Just so that I wanted to get through school faster. I'm a hard worker and I was pulling a 4.0 at the time. So then from there, I was like, I'm just going to get a foot in the door at a construction site. And that was like the first job site I was ever on. Super intimidating, like being a girl on a job site for the first time, there is no like handholding. Like they're like, here you go, you're on a construction site now. And the site I was on was very dangerous and very technical. So it was just a, you know, hit the ground running kind of thing, which I'm used to. Really wasn't, you know, anything terrible. But so yeah, then from there, I basically, it was really funny. What started the whole, so I hated social media. I don't know if you guys know this, like I was like anti-social media. When I was working at the car dealerships, I would use to tell people, like I have friends still that I talk to. They remember me saying this. I was like, I will never own a selfie stick. Like selfies are like the stupidest thing ever. Like I was like so anti-social media, anti, like that whole culture. And it's just so funny because I was working construction, we started on all the builds, and I was coming in on like Mondays exhausted, like to the point where I was borderline not functional. And all the guys on the site were like, what are you doing? Like, what are you doing on the weekends that you're coming in here? Like, are you an alcoholic? Like, what is going on? And I'm like, no, I'm building these cars. And, you know, we're, we at the time, we're working out of a shop that we were doing things after hours, and we had to, we had the weekend, but it had to be out of there on Monday morning. So, you know, whatever we needed to do in that weekend, it had to be done and out of the shop. So, there was like this huge grind on the weekends to get everything done in time. So, I was coming to work like completely just, we had been in the shop till four in the morning every night, like three hours of sleep, just beat. I was like so beat, like I was like a zombie when I showed up for work, and these guys were all like, we will, we want to see this. Like, what do you, like you tell us about it, but like we want pictures, like you need to start posting this stuff. I was like, yeah, whatever. Like, I'm not gonna. They're like, no, you can make money. And I was like, yeah, okay. You can't make money doing this stuff. Like, and then COVID hit and my job site shut down. I was right outside of Boston. So they shut down for a while. And then once I got back off of quarantine, we kept getting put, I kept getting exposed and put back on quarantine. Like I'd come back for like a day, get re-exposed and then sent back home. And I was going like stir crazy at my house. So I was working on the projects. I was like, you know, like maybe I'll just like try recording stuff and oh my god, my first content was terrible. Like I don't know if you see. It's still up there. Like go look up the ghetto tripod video if you haven't seen it. Yeah, I spent a day and built a tripod out of like two by fours. Because I was like, I have no tripod. And I built it out of a Swiffer and two by fours. And then I like called my dad and he's like, I have one of those in the basement. I was like, well, I just spent all day building a tripod out of two by fours. But cool. Yeah, and that was my first YouTube video. It's pretty pathetic, but.

Well, at least you keep them up there. Like I keep all mine up on the various YouTube channels I've attempted over the years too. Like I got some like when I was like 12.

I just like try to like motivate, I literally keep them up there for other people. Like I hate watching them, but.

You have to go back and see where it started.

Yeah, I think it's important to, for other people especially, to see where you started. And like that's where everybody starts. Like no one is perfect.

I don't know if I had built a tripod.

You're probably better off not building a tripod.

I don't know. I think some of the one you built might be better than some of the ones we have.

I don't know.

There's been a lot of building and rebuilding things over the years. Like, okay, you have to realize, like I'm the guy that I took, you know, like those chairs that swing?

Like the ones you like out on a porch or something?

So one day, our snowblower ran out of gas, and I had a Jeep Gladiator at the time, and I had my toe straps. I'm like, you know what I'm gonna f****** try? I'm gonna throw the toe strap on, put the chair upside down, and had my brother sit on the chair so there's weight on it. It f****** worked. Our neighbors, I mean, it was perfect. That's hilarious. So that's the type of innovation I do, and that's why I totally agree with the Swiffer ghetto tripod.

I mean, it worked. It wasn't perfect.

It worked.

Exactly.

It worked, but yeah.

Some people just have a like mechanical... So you were saying that like that, when you went to construction, it kind of checked the boxes for things that either interested you or you thought you would be good at. I mean, I started off my business in doing satellites, and I had an employee one time that... So we had to put together mounts on roofs, and he just couldn't figure out where the lock washer would go. And I'm like, I would find it on the head of the bolt, and he would have the nut screwed on. And then I explained, I was like, here's how the lock washer works. It pinches in here, and it keeps it locked in the place, and it won't shake loose, all this stuff. And every time, lock washer on the bolt side, I'm like, what are you doing? So some people just have no...

Well, that's pretty important.

Yeah, I thought so too.

I'm like...

This is what locks everything on here.

That's why it's called a lock washer. I thought explaining the logistics of how it worked and what it had, but it just didn't... They just don't either give a s***, or some people just literally couldn't take something apart and put it back together. Just can't.

Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't say that I'm mechanically, naturally inclined. You should meet my dad. He's probably the least mechanically inclined person. One of the least mechanically inclined. He's really good at other stuff, but when it comes to mechanics and power tools, I get nervous when he picks up a power tool. I'm like, let me chaperone you, or let me just do it. But I've always just had a passion for cars, and it always seemed really important to me to know how to work on stuff. Like if you ever broke down anywhere. Like, I don't know. I guess that was just always a priority of mine. I had really bad colic when I was a kid, and my dad used to drive. The only way I would sleep is him driving me around in his old air-cooled Porsche and like bottle feeding me out of there. So I think that had something to do with it. Speaking of air-cooled. I know, right? The air. But yeah, I think that had a lot to do with it. And like me and my brother used to just fight over hot wheels and all, you know, power wheels and all that kind of stuff. And my mom tried to get me into like Barbies. I remember this one day. She, my mom's gonna kill me for talking about this, but I really don't care. She brought me into like Toys R Us or whatever, to the Barbie section. She's like, you can have any Barbie. And I like me just being a little s*******. I like went up to the shelf. I was like, I'm gonna get the most expensive Barbie there is here. I walked up, picked up some like wedding Barbie or some, some super, I don't even know.

I know what you're talking about.

Yeah, yeah, like super.

I remember Toys R Us, okay. The big ones, right?

Yeah, it was like a big one. And she had this like huge wedding gown. It like looked expensive.

They're obnoxiously big.

Yeah, I was like that one. And she's like, okay. Dude, the thing sat in the box. I never f****** touched it. She's like, why? They can probably be worth a lot of money now.

Oh, pro, guaranteed. Dolls are weird like that.

I don't know what happened to it. She probably threw it out.

Well, I had trouble, because I collect some car stuff, too, like, you know, diecast stuff. Yeah, I have to like, my son, I have to buy. Well, my daughter, 14 year old daughter, she'll she'll keep it in the box. My son, I just know he's going to open it. But I'm like, you can't open these. I don't know. I can't explain to you why I'm going to buy you toys and you need to leave it in the box.

You need to leave it in the box. You're like, you'll thank me later.

Yeah, those are the guys that buy a GTD and put six miles on them, by the way.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Don't be that guy.

It's very expensive. Yeah, I have my 14-year-old you met when you got in here. She actually was really funny. So she's shown a lot of interest in this. That's awesome. She thinks it's great, and I show her to do stuff. She absolutely loves it, and she's kind of taken into this whole thing. Actually, it was really funny. We were at the show today, and her partner in small engines class had to call her and be like, hey, what parts do I put on this now? Because she's not there right now. So she's really nervous that this thing is getting put, because I have a deal with her. If it comes home and it runs, I'm going to do something for her. It's going to be special.

That would be awesome.

Yeah, so now she's very nervous about her friend working on it. She's not putting it together. And I'm like, well, why doesn't even she, why doesn't she ask the teacher? And she's like, he doesn't know anything.

That's crazy.

That's the worst, though. You're trying to learn, and there's just, it's like back when I was starting to learn, there was no YouTube. There was barely Google. Like you, that's why I'm like, guys, like you have so many resources at your fingertips now. Like there's really no excuses. And like, granted, like a lot of the stuff on YouTube may not be correct, but you, you'll get on the right track to figuring out what to do.

I do it a lot of times to see, like, let's pretend I'm trying to work on something that's behind the dash.

Yeah.

Right. And I'm like, all right, I need to get there. So sometimes I'll watch a video just to see what it looks like back there. Like somebody's already torn it out and had it all laid on the ground. I'm like, oh, I need to get to this nut that's right there. So now I know exactly where it is, because this year, it's just been an hour already looking for it.

Yeah, exactly. No, 100%.

If you think you have a problem, I guarantee you somebody else has had the same problem, and they may have made a video about it. So you should take a look.

Yeah. And if not, you can probably find a video where you can look and see how things were put together before, or if you need to view under a dash, that's a great example. Yeah. Yeah, 100%.

I don't like spending time under the dash. It's like a whole realm of place I don't like to be.

Don't be a Mazda tech when that whole Takata airbag recall came out. The techs all wanted to shoot themselves. I felt so bad. They were leaning underneath the dashboard all day long, replacing those things. I felt so bad. And then we had a transfer case recall that was just like, we had a wall of transfer cases.

Holy s***.

Yeah. Literally a wall of warranty transfer cases. And every week, I'd have to put them on a dolly and roll them out to the scrap bins once they were cleared off warranty.

That's nuts.

Yeah. Yeah. I used to stay in pretty good shape, though. I'm lifting a lot of weight and stuff all day, and construction keeps you in good shape, too. I'm walking up and down seven stories all day.

Well, how's that going into... I did construction for a while, by the way, and I had to carry a bunch of tongue-and-groove birch up and down stairs all day.

That sounds brutal.

That was horrible. What's that like being in a male-dominant... It seems like you just like to punish yourself on all fronts, but it's just such a weird thing. And then like guys can be gross. I think, I don't know if you know who Reckless Raquel is.

Yes, I love her.

Yeah, but she's like constantly getting asked, like, what do you have in OnlyFans? Are you starting in OnlyFans? Do you get a lot of that, too?

Oh yeah, 100%.

Is it like just disgusting on that front or...

I mean, yeah, but it just kind of comes with the territory. Like, I feel like you get that no matter what, whether you're in it.

Well, I don't get it a lot, but yeah.

Oh, well, that's unfortunate.

I'm sorry for that.

No, we're just not big enough yet. Yeah, yeah.

We're just not big enough yet. Yeah, yeah, okay. Yeah, I mean, I've gotten that. It's kind of unfortunate because I started this like before OnlyFans was even a thing. So, I mean, before that, it was just people asking for nudes, like straight up in conversation.

You know, just right to the point.

Yeah, just right to the point. Like the old school, the traditional way. The traditional way, yeah. Or you just get the unsolicited dick pics, like straight, no hi, no hello, no how's it going, just like straight, like here's my thing, you know, in a photo.

Guess you never know when you're gonna fall in love, right?

Yeah, you just never know. Yeah, you know, this thing's like bent 90 degrees to the left, and you're like, oh, that's it, that's the one.

This is the one.

This is the one. Yeah, no.

I just think like on social media, particularly, it's like you must just...

Well, I feel like it's... There's actually an assumption base to it now. Like it's if you're doing social media and you're a car girl, I feel like it's just an assumption that you have an OnlyFans. And I don't think that's entirely like guys fault. I feel like there are like I feel like 90% of the girls that do car content have an OnlyFans. Like it kind of...

Do you think they're trying to... I think it's kind of simmered down in the last like year or two, but do you think there was like a point where they were trying to catch the car wave like as a trend to try to get from clout?

I think yeah, but I think those girls, it becomes pretty obvious if they're they actually work on stuff or not. Right. I mean...

Some guys don't care.

They didn't build six independently independent straight pipes out to the back of a BMW.

Well, I try, you know, like I'm doing this because I want to learn and progress my skills. That's what's most important to me. Like being a pretty, you know, face on camera is just not really where my priorities are. Like, okay, that's like a nice added thing. But like it's not like that's not where I take pride in. Like I take pride in my work and progressing my skills and picking up new skills. Like in the past, like five years, I've learned how to paint. I learned how to weld. Like I've picked up multiple different skills where like just being a pretty face on camera, like that'll fade. You know what I mean? Like that's just not not what's important to me, I guess. If that makes any sense.

So what about what about on like the, you brought out the dark side of it, which is literally any existing male out there, unfortunately. What about like the positive side? I'm sure you've seen a lot of positive reactions from people or people reaching out as, Oh, yeah.

Oh my gosh. Yeah. I like half the reason I keep doing social media is because of all the awesome people that I get to meet and talk to. Like, they're just... And too, like, I feel like I do make an impact. Like, I know that may sound kind of stupid and cliche, but there are people that, like, my brother committed suicide, and I've had personal conversations with people, even if it's just, like, casual conversation about cars, they'll reach out to me, like, two years later and be like, Hey, like, that night, you know, I reached out, like, I was really having a difficult time, and like, you made a difference. Like, you were just someone to talk to, and that was like, thank you for that. And those are the conversations that I'm like, okay, I'm making some sort of a difference, or there's some positive impact that I'm making, you know what I mean? And just people are just great. Like, I love talking to just various people and hearing their stories. And it can be overwhelming at times, like when things were like blowing up a year or two ago, it was like, I was just getting so inundated with messages, but it's calmed down a lot since then.

What was happening two years ago? I guess, what was blowing up?

So like two years ago, I basically went from 30,000 followers to 130,000 followers in like 60 days. Oh wow. Yeah, so it was like insanity. Like I just couldn't keep up with stuff.

Did you have a video that went kind of viral? Is that what, do you have any idea?

It was like multiple viral videos.

It was a weird time. I know, that's when I went from six to 30,000 too, in like that weird time frame.

It was right around when TikTok was like, when was it? Yeah, it was like kind of around when TikTok had just come out and like Instagram and Facebook were starting to try and like compete with them. And then YouTube had just come out with shorts. So it was like a very hot time for like short form content. I had like basically dropped YouTube altogether to just focus on short form. And that's kind of what, I had been pumping out short form content and that's really where it came from. Yeah.

So I noticed you posted a SEMA video last week, two weeks ago?

I put out three.

Three, okay.

Yeah, I got out three this year. I don't know how. I'm not going to be honest with you.

So are you trying to do more long form sort of stuff?

Yes, so I'm much more, I mean, I just enjoy it a lot more. I like the editing. It's like a love hate relationship with editing. I love it, but it's just so time consuming. So I am trying to put a lot more effort into the long form content now and just making it better. I think I've had a lot of positive feedback of people saying that they can see the difference. They've come a long way from where I started, the ghetto tripod, to where I am now.

Well, I was looking at some of their, you're in that 12, some of them look like one of them was 30. Do you have a limit where you try and keep yourself at? Or is it just you're trying to get the content?

So I'm trying lately to play more. It's so sad because I feel like if people could just create, it would be such a different environment where like the algorithm just takes such a, you have to take a very different approach and I have to make very different decisions on, like the, so I put out three SEMA videos. One of them did really well. Actually, the first two I put out did very well. The last one I put out is like kind of struggling and it's a much long, it's like a 20 minute video. So part of that is because the algorithm, there's three different really important metrics. I don't know how much research you guys have done or if you play into this at all. But from my understanding, there's three very important metrics that the algorithm on YouTube looks at. One of those is your average view duration and your average watch time. So say people on average watch your video for four minutes. Well, if you make a 10 minute video, that's going to be a much larger percentage of that video versus if you put out a 20 minute video. So part of the reason I think that video is not doing well is because the average watch time is good. It's like six minutes, but it's a 20 minute video where if I put out like a 10 to 15 minute video like I normally do, it'd be pushed out a lot more.

I've definitely noticed that. Well, especially like the retention one. That's when I realized like depending on who we have on as a guest and how in depth the topics are and mostly how the episode starts to like the first like 20 minutes are a big indicator of like the next 20 minutes of retention, which is cool. Like it's like, for example, I'd actually did it for the Justin White video. I put in an intro like, you know, like coming up soon sort of deal. And that rocketed like retention. It like it was like a 30% increase over any previous video.

Oh, wow. That's awesome. So it's cool. Yeah. Like stuff like that I would double down on. I'd be like, okay, this worked. And I would start implementing that on like, yeah, if maybe not every video.

But well, it's going to be this year thing. You have to do it long enough to know if it works too.

Yeah, because it could just be like a one time this worked in this specific scenario, and then the next video it flops and you're like, oh, this killed my watch time.

Like Justin's face.

Yeah.

He does have a very cute face.

They love listening to Ed talk about beige.

Yeah.

Did you meet Ed as well then or no?

I think maybe briefly.

He was in the, was he in the podcast? Yeah, he was on the podcast thing with you too, wasn't he?

Oh, yes.

Yeah, the vet labs.

Yes. I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah. If you said vet labs, I would have been like, Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

No, he's a hoot and a half.

Yeah. No, he's hilarious. I bumped into him today, actually.

Yeah. When we met them at SEMA, I was like, wait a second, you think you love me? Because he was talking to me, and Dan was getting drinks or whatever. I'm like, wait till you meet this f****** guy. They started bonding because he used to have like 13 Fords at some point too or whatever. I don't know, man. It's just, it's so weird how we're like this one big happy community. You can go, or I shouldn't say one big happy community. There's a lot of s*** people too.

But I was going to say that earlier when you were talking about it. Like, I feel like the car scene has changed like so much from when I was 16 to how it is now. Like, I feel like car shows now are just like this giant dick measuring contest, and everyone's just like showing off.

It depends where you go too.

It does depend on where you go. But like, when you kind of rise like not above that, but you find like better shows or better people, like the community is still there. Like, I know the community gets a lot of hate. There's like this whole takeover scene, whatever. But like, if you find the right people, like it's still there. It does still exist. It has changed, but I don't know.

You have to build your own kind of circle too. I've noticed that too. It was like, especially when I travel to country, it's like, all right, now we got this group over here. Or it's just, you have to rise above it. Cause like, if you're at that like bottom entry level stuff, it's kind of like Walmart, you know?

Yeah, you're gonna always find that.

You gotta work your way to target.

Well, you gotta work your way to target.

It depends on what you're doing too, cause there's different people in this industry. There's show car, like, I'm going to show my car. We've had way more success and more fun at events, where you're doing something with your car. There's people who like to show off their car, they take it to get ice cream, and then they park it back in the garage. I wanna go beat the s*** out of my car. I wanna do stupid stuff, I wanna do burnouts, I take it to the track, and that's where we, I think those are the people we click with a little bit more. Not that we don't love show car stuff and we go to plenty of shows.

Oh no, 100%. I just feel like it's been a flooded market and you see a lot of people complain about that.

If I have a pair of New Balance shoes and a lawn chair, I pull out of my trunk and I just sit next to my car, then that's where it ends.

Don't forget the jorts. You need some jorts.

Yes, some cargo shorts. Yeah. So I'm just, I mean, I'm always the old one in this group because I'm 42, but at the same time, I want to go. I get excitement from driving the car. That's why I have it.

Never gets old.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I feel like we're awful people when we talk like this, by the way, because like it's Minnesota wintertime now.

Yeah.

Six months of just nothing.

My car is literally a show car right now. You can look at it in the garage.

Yeah, you can cut it. You can buff it.

You guys think about it. You guys have a longer build season. Like I only get like three months.

Here's the thing though. Nobody does that. We've had so many shops, right? The springtime is like crunch time for everybody. You've had four or five months just sitting on your a**.

It's just poor planting on your part.

I know it is. It's everybody in the Midwest. That's how it works.

That's hilarious.

Oh s***, it's almost summer.

Oh, I gotta get on that building thing.

Right? It's a known problem that we have there.

That's hilarious.

Yeah.

So then what's kind of like upcoming and next for you then? Is it, do you do a lot of work for other people as well or not really?

Not really. Not right now. I'm just focused on trying to grow.

Team me sort of deal.

Yeah. Yeah. This is like the, this is kind of my first opportunity to solely focus on this. I, for multiple different reasons, like my day job, I just ended up letting go. Like we, it was a-

I love how you let them go. That's a good way to put it.

Well, yeah, I ended up, I technically quit, but there was, it was kind of a mutual feeling. So it's like for multiple different reasons, it just wasn't working. I was actually making really good money off of social media at the time, but now meta just like pays like s***. Like they just don't, they don't pay creators what they should be making.

More so from Instagram or Facebook or both?

Facebook. I was making really good money off of Facebook. Yeah. Oh, that's right. Yeah.

They really tanked it. I started making money like after the tank.

Yeah, a lot of people did. Like they ended up like tanking all the people that were making a lot of money. And then I feel like-

Like five figures. Yeah, it was legit for a while on Facebook.

Yeah, I was making really good money on there.

You came in, and they were like, we need to monetize more people.

That's why whenever I see somebody riding a wave, I'm like, you know what? F*** it. The second I jump on that f****** wave, it's going to end every single time.

Any social media stuff, I feel like it's just- If you're getting paid from ad revenue, it's just a risky business. Like it's just not a- I've heard of big YouTubers that I talk to, they talk about it like that. They're like ad revenue is just- YouTube's very hit or miss. Like everything ad revenue wise is- You have to hit metrics. If you don't hit those metrics, you're not getting paid.

And that's why I saw this in March with TikTok, right? I was like, man, I'm starting to notice that's getting harder to make money on here. I should probably diversify. And that's when I started getting monetized on YouTube, Facebook, and all that stuff. And I'm like, all right, cool. Like we have- even if one sucks, we could figure something else on the other. So that's been cool. I know I haven't been able to get monetized on Snapchat yet, but I heard it pays pretty good.

Okay. I haven't even experimented with Snapchat, but people ask me- usually if people ask me for a Snapchat, it's like asking if I have a Tinder, I feel like. Yeah.

Well, you don't even have to interact in there, you just post a spotlight.

Yeah, I know. I'm already posting on four or five platforms. I'm like, I'll get to it eventually. I just keep telling myself, I'll get to it eventually, and then I post on it a couple of times, then I'm like, part of it is, if you look at my Snap score, it's like 3,000. I just don't use the app.

Holy s***, that's actually really low.

Yeah, I literally don't use Snapchat, and I've had a Snapchat for probably like 10 years, and I just don't, I don't even know how to navigate the app. Like, I barely know how to use it, so I have to like figure it out.

I finally turned out my notifications on it because I wasn't using it.

I always give s*** to anybody over 40 that's on it.

Yeah?

Yeah. Why? It's just weird.

Yeah. That's not nice.

I'm just saying, I was in my own YouTube.

You just rashed his s***.

I'm just saying, like, that's like me being on AOL now. Yeah. It's just like, you don't fit in here, youngin.

Yeah.

I don't know. But, so, okay, so... Trying to think which way we want to...

I wouldn't judge you if you had a Snapchat. Like, it's totally okay.

Like, I'm kind of past the judging phase. I'm just like, huh?

Well, I was using it because it was easiest for me to, like, grab a video and do it, and it's not... I am horrible at it. I try to, like...

Well, it's like, you can just, like, record... It's like adding an Instagram story, but it's easier. It's, like, faster and easier. You just, like, record, and it, like, just posts your story or whatever. It's not technically called a story, I don't think, but it, like, posts your... whatever you call it.

I just decided that my contribution to the internet is I just bring my sparkling personality, and I let him put it on the internet.

He doesn't even look at the highlights.

I'm like, no. Every once in a while, I'll ask him, like, how are our numbers doing? And then he'll tell me, I'm like, oh, that's pretty sweet. And then he's like, he'll send me videos to watch, and I don't watch them.

Hey, it's better that way, honestly. Like, when you get to, it's really easy to get too wrapped up in the numbers. And especially, like, as you grow, I don't know if you've seen this yet, but as you get bigger, like, people don't realize this when I talk to them. Like, a lot of people just don't know this. You're constantly losing, so you have to gain more than you're losing any given day. So, like, it starts out, like, you're, you know, when I was, like, at 10,000, it was like, oh, I lost five followers today, but I gained 10. Well, those numbers get way bigger as you get way bigger. So you're like, oh, I lost 1500 followers today, but I gained 2000. You're like, what the f***?

Well, it's also weird on, like, Facebook and Instagram because they don't have a really good bot control either. I think that's what it has to be part of it too.

I feel like they also play with it a lot.

I think so.

Because I've had people that have followed me for years, and they're like, I never unfollowed you, but I somehow my Instagram account doesn't follow you anymore.

Oh, weird.

Yeah. So there's just like kind of weird stuff. I just don't trust anything. I'm a little tin-hatty when it comes to that stuff. I mean, it's a big tech company. If they could get around having, okay, say this person, I'm sure there's a metric to it. Like, oh, this person didn't interact. Like, they may watch your stuff, but they didn't like or comment on anything for two years. Oh, we're just going to have them, we're going to think they're a bot, and they're going to unfollow your account. And then if you're losing followers and stuff, then we don't really, and you're losing views now, well, we don't have to pay you as much. Kind of makes sense, right? Like, there's always a hidden agenda. I don't know. I don't know if that's actually going on. I'm just saying, maybe, you know, bad example, but.

Yeah, last time we started doing controversies on here, all our cameras shut off.

Yeah, we started talking s*** about Tesla, and we're pretty sure that Elon beamed in on us and shut our s*** off.

I wouldn't be surprised.

So during like your journey of like whichever car, was there at any point you're just like, f*** this car or f*** doing this? Or were you always pretty passionate about it?

No, I've always been pretty passionate about it. I think the RX-7, I had close moments with that. Like the shop I brought it to.

Every rotary person ever said.

No, this shop put me through hell, dude. Like the emotional roller coaster that this brought me on, I just was like, I don't know if I can keep doing this. Like this is just, I just have like such a passion for that car because it was my first car. And then to have somebody like completely, not only screw me over, but then accuse me of like stealing and threatening to sue me. And like it getting to that level. I'm like all this over a car and a motor. Like it just seems, you know, in the midst of like losing my brother on top of that, it was just like so much all at one time. I was like, this may like break me. Like I, there's, that was like the first time I'm like, I don't know if I want to do any of this anymore. Like I don't know if I really want to keep building cars, if this is how it's going to keep going. Like that's why I took on a lot of this stuff myself. Like, you know, Corvette, I've never built an LT4 before, so that's going to be a nerve-racking build with how expensive that motor is. I mean, if I f*** something up, it's like a $30,000 motor, $20,000 motor.

We have a friend that knows all about that.

Yeah.

He is currently trying to sell it.

Oh, nice, so he's throwing in the towel.

So we'll have him on the podcast to tell the whole story here at some point, but basically it was a twin-turbo build for a C7. Lots, lots of issues, more issues. The issues were fixed. I was in the car when the car lost power completely. Like, it was really rough. And yeah, now he parted out the twin-turbo kit, which was a part of, it was a world record kit that was on that car. It came off of a world record car. And now it's going on to somebody else's car.

That sucks. I'm gonna need to know what kind of issues you're using.

I think it was a torque tube problem. So the way you fix it is you buy a Ford Mustang, because it does not have a torque tube, just so you know.

I see what you did there.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

These Gen 3 Coyotes with a 10-speed are pretty phenomenal. Which, by the way, is crazy, by the way. How little money you had to throw at that platform to be running 3s?

I know.

Are you a draggy racer at all?

Not really. I'm kind of a noob.

There's gonna be so much drama if you get into that. There's so extra in that forum.

I feel like it's extra everywhere now. Like, I was in the drift scene. Like, drifting is kind of what got me heavily into cars. When I was like 14, I started going to FD events when it first came here. Yeah, I think I started going like 05, 06. FD came over here, I think, in 04. So I just was like hooked. Like, it was just such a great community. I mean, not that it's not a great community now, but the pits were just so much more open. Like, it was like, you could go up and talk to any driver at any point. 90% of them were really cool and like very small, because like it had just started over here. So it was just a really like cool, interesting community to be a part of. And I just was really hooked. I was like, this is awesome. Like these people are awesome.

And well, with what drifters put their cars through, they got to have some sort of like, yeah, they've got to be pretty understanding.

Yeah. Well, they still help each other out, which is nice.

But that's pretty common amongst all car stuff, really. Like even like we do a lot of road course stuff, and it's like, if somebody's hurt or broken or whatever, like everybody's jumping in to help get stuff fixed and get back out there. Yeah.

Yeah, it's nice.

It's, we think that was part of our success out in Detroit, too, because we just talking to a lot of car people, and it, everybody was just so nice and inviting and.

That's good.

Yeah, Detroit was awesome. I cannot wait to get back out to Detroit.

Oh, that's awesome.

That was five for five. Awesome. So I guess you're, do you see yourself doing a lot more drifting stuff then?

Yes, but I want to just make sure I kind of want to do a little bit of everything. Like I want to go to college a little bit. And like I was describing that to people today, like I want to go and make sure that drifting is what I actually want to be doing. Like for all I know, I could get on on the drag strip and be like, yeah, this is it. You know what I mean? So I want to get a seat, like seat time and a little bit of everything for now, and then hone in on, okay, this is like the direction I want to go and just start building a team. I'm going to need help. You know, I can't like do everything myself at that point. So I'm going to need a team of people and start building a team to get to the track and do that more frequently and kind of just build up funds and sponsors and just keep progressing stuff. So yeah, I think like next season is kind of going to be my experimental year. I may take another experimental year the season after, but then I'm going to start honing in on like one direction or the other.

OK.

Yeah. There may be some bucket list stuff, like if I don't get to do like a drag and drive event, but I want to do drifting, I may take some time and go do a drag and drive event on the side or something like that.

But what about a drift and drive? We've seen those yet.

Yeah. So like Drift Week. Yeah. Yeah. Drift. Yeah. Like the Drift Week stuff.

Yeah. Something like that. Yeah. I found out about that recently too.

Yeah. Who is it that runs that? I think it's Erin Lucy that runs a lot of the Drift Week stuff. But yeah, they're on like Drift Week 7 or 8 now.

Okay.

They basically, yeah, they drive around. It usually happens in a different region every time. So like some of them will be down in like Texas area. Like Drift Week 5 was up by me, like in the Northeast area. So they basically drive around to different tracks and then just like do an event at like, they'll be in the Poconos one event and they'll drive to a different track and be somewhere else, another event kind of thing. Yeah.

Well, that's kind of cool. That's kind of like where me and Dan are in this journey too. It's like, we're trying to figure out things that we really like doing. Like, I don't know. I think we both have a calling for road course.

Like, there's just not a lot of other things out there that you get to race for 30 minutes. Like you don't, there's, I mean, you're like on the track for half a second. Yeah. I mean, even drifting, they're not out there for very long. Road course is, I'll burn a full tank of gas in one session. I have to fill my tank up on a track day probably five, six times. Which is expensive. I mean, it's an expensive hobby, but it's...

Yeah, but so is drifting. You're burning through tires. You know what I mean?

I'm filling up my tank as much as they're switching up tires.

Which one's the most expensive, do you guys think?

Ooh, I don't know.

I feel, cause like some of these like, for example, like drag races, they might go through two or six or eight sets of tires in a season. Drifters will go through that in a day.

Like a weekend.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But at the same time, the stuff, the hard launching of a car like that, they need to have like, now you're talking like $3,000 axles. Like you're, I think they all have their own, like you're spending money in certain areas.

Like drifting, you have to, like talking to clutch companies, I have to buy a more expensive clutch for drifting rather than drag racing. Yeah. Which is kind of funny, just cause you're like, you know, clutch kicking the car constantly. So you're like beating the piss out of your clutch, to be honest. But just cause you, I mean, drag, drag racing, you're only hitting that, the clutch a few times, like going down the strip where like drifting, you're, you're clutch kicking it like multiple times around, you know, in a session. So they're like, it does go through a lot more abuse. And then like tire wise drifting, I mean, it really depends on the track because it has long sweeping corners and you're going into that at high rates of speed, you're going to burn through your tires very quickly. But like if you're on a smaller track where there's not like, you know, fast paced, high bank corners, you're going to go through tires a lot less. I would imagine. I mean, I'm just speaking from like watching the sport.

Oh no, I mean, even can come down to the smoothness of the surface, right? If it's a little more rough, that's obviously going to eat. It's like driving on, you know, a hundred grit versus 500 grit sandpaper.

So one of my girlfriends, she runs a local like truck, like event. She like puts on truck events, like diesel truck events by us. And they poured a like a so she just started doing burnout competitions and they poured her pad. And they do this thing is the nicest concrete I've ever seen in my entire life. Like it looks better than my garage floor. It looked like they finished this thing like to perfection. But nothing you can't get traction like it like, yeah, you like go out there and spin tire. It doesn't create smoke. Everyone's like it's like an ice skating rink. So now we're trying to figure out like, how do we do we blast it? Do we like how do you rough up the surface? Like it just needed a broom finish. But I think the company is worried it was going to like rip through people's tires or something. I don't know. Like a Tyler would be ecstatic to go lay down tile on this concrete. Like it is literally perfect. But yeah, I feel I like she's like, I don't know what I'm going to do. Like, I don't know. We'll figure it out. Yeah. But yeah, very little tire smoke. Like you have to have like a really high horsepower car to go out there and actually create tire smoke. Yeah. Yeah. People were like coming off the track. They brought like three sets of tires. They're like, I didn't even get through one set. Like there's just no, no traction. So I guess it's good in the sense that you're not spending money, you know, like they, they're like, Oh, I have an extra set of tires for the next event.

But so don't hire a concrete company. That's really good at their job.

If you're going to, or at least like tell them, don't make it like, we don't want to smooth as finish. Like, I don't think anybody really, I think they, and I can see, like, from a construction management standpoint, like where the confusion came from. You were like, yeah, we're building this pad. Like, I'm sure there was some sort of conversation of like, we're building this pad for like shows to put on an event. And they were probably like, Oh, we want to do a really good job. So people think we do really good work. And there was just like a disconnect between like the functionality and doing a real, they did, they like did too good of a job. Like I was shocked. I like it. Literally the concrete looks wet. Like it's that smooth. It's just unbelievable. I've like never seen, I'm like, I wish they could do this like at my job site.

I was gonna say, if you were in the trades, you know that like never happens. Nobody's really just truly good at their job.

No, it's like you're always playing like adult daycare, to be honest.

Absolutely.

I'm like, why, like how did you guys do this good of a job? Like you must have been really passionate about doing this good of a job.

Yeah.

Yeah. So I don't know. She'll figure out what to do with it. But yeah, I have good connections with like the burnout stuff. So I'm hoping to do some burnout stuff to throw that in there. I'm pretty well networked in like the burnout community now. I've been talking to Lacey Blair and Zach, who do Burnout Wars. So I'm hoping to do a couple of their events, but I'll... Yeah, I'm probably going to have to build like a designated burnout car, if I'm going to get serious about that, because I just don't think any of my current builds are going to fit the mold for that. Like the Corvette, I could not bring out there. Like I just couldn't bring myself to bring that out there. And then like the E46...

What would a designated burnout car be?

Oh, I don't know. I'd have to like... I'd want to do something different.

Talk to the Australians.

Oh, yeah. I'm already... Like I'm daily... I'm talking to Australians.

Have you ever come up to like Minnesota for like power cruise before?

I was thinking right in my head, I was like, she needs to come up for power cruise.

So I would love to.

Croykey is amazing. Croykey.

Yeah. So one of my friends, Tyson, he's from Australia. He's helping like bring burnout stuff over here. He helps run like summer knots and all this stuff over there. And I talk to him daily. I like just bounce ideas off of him. So I don't know. I don't have like an exact burnout car planned. I just want to do something kind of different, like what I'm doing with everything else. To try to, I don't know, what's the point of like doing something if you're just gonna do like run of the mill s***? But maybe that's the thing.

First thing that like hits me every single time is the Holden. That's the first thing I think about when I think about burnouts.

Really?

I think truck.

Truck.

The light in the a** end. It's got power.

Yeah, there's so many trucks.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, you have to also remember we had Kyle Nelson on the podcast with that crazy, what was it, S10?

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. That, oh dude. You have a lot of fun with that.

Do you guys know who Liam Doren is? Do you follow him at all? He was out at SEMA. He has the, oh my gosh, what he has Hayabusa, two Hayabusa motors in the back of a Mini.

Oh yeah.

And he does the spin wheelies.

You just gotta say the car and we know who it is. Yeah.

Well, his name is Liam Doren. He's a really cool dude. We were hanging out with him at SEMA and then down in Florida. We went down to Cletus' for the 2.4 hours with the Mullets and stuff like that. It's a good time. Yeah. Yeah. But he's a really cool dude. They're British, so don't call them Australian. They'd be very insulted.

They'd be very insulting. No, Dan's said a lot of insulting things to a lot of people here.

It happens. It comes with the tape.

But that car, actually, those cars are common out there. They circle track race them in the grass, so it's kind of cool. So they put it on pavement, and now it does wheelies and spins.

Yeah, the wheelies are good because it gets up on its end, it spins in a circle. It was very cool to watch.

Yeah. That was a, don't quote me on this, but I think it was his second time actually doing that at SEMA. So they like did it for the first time, it went hyper viral, and then he did it for the second time out at SEMA. The first time, I think, I'm pretty sure they took that car out, he crashed it into the wall, and like they had to rebuild the whole car. Yeah. So yeah, it happens. That's how do you learn? You're gonna have to learn somehow.

You know, I say this all the time. I've taken my car off into the grass a few times, but if you're not figuring out where the limit is, then-

You don't know where it is. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And then you're always pussyfooting the car, and I hate to say it, but you're afraid of the car.

I do a little bit of it. I have four kids. I always say, I have friends, and some of them go, I'll be like, oh, it's faster. And I was like, I'm having a great time. And I feel like I do all right, but I will never be top of the echelon of any of this stuff. But I'm-

It's too late for you.

That's true.

That's not nice.

It's never too late for anybody. Look at my friend-

I'm gonna live vicariously through all of my children.

Hey, look at Rudy Hansen. He just made it into pro, and he's-

True, true.

He's an older guy. You know what I mean? I feel like it's never too late for anybody.

There's hope.

Yeah, there's hope.

I'm pretty proud for an old guy.

Yeah, KFC got started at 74. It's fine.

Yeah.

Disney started at 60 or whatever. Whatever. You know what I'm talking about.

Yeah, all those inspirational quotes.

The ones that are built for guys like me that are already old.

So obviously, you've done a lot of cool stuff in your journey then.

What are some of the coolest things you've done?

I mean, you've gotten to experience so much stuff in the last few years.

Seema is definitely up there. Really? Yeah, it was pretty crazy. His birthday is in November, and we were like...

When's your birthday?

November 22nd.

I was about to see if he was the same as my brother, so I was just curious. The 18th. Oh, cool.

So not for our part.

My wife is the 13th.

Oh, no way. This was my cousin. We're just giving out everything for the Wikipedia right now.

But literally, we had been watching, obviously, Seema videos on YouTube for forever, and I was like, I'm going to get you to Seema for your birthday this year. This was in April or something. He's like, no, you're f****** not. You can't buy tickets. I was like, I don't care. I'm going to get us in. And I had no following at the time. I was in contact with a few different groups of people that knew how to get tickets and had a smaller following. And next thing you know, we're at Seema. And I was like, this is just completely surreal. Like, it just, I don't know. I've been watching this on TV for so long, and then you meet all these people that you see on TV or you'd never think that you'd get to talk to in real life. And they're all just like super, 90% of them are just really down to earth.

Normal people.

Normal people, just doing their thing. Like, I was talking to Farmtruck in Asian today, and they were giving me advice, because I was like, do you guys ever hit a wall, and then you gotta get over the wall to take things to the next level, and you're just sitting here, and you're like, what the f*** am I doing? Why am I doing this? And they're like, and Farmtruck looked me in the eyes and goes, do you know how long? I was drag racing. He goes, I was working my day job to pay for everything I was doing on the weekends, and I'm racing a pickup truck that's heavier than everything else out there. And he's like, why am I doing this? Like, what am I doing? Why am I racing a f****** pickup truck? And he's like, you gotta just stick with it and stick with it and stick with it, and eventually it works. So I don't know.

Did you look in the back of the truck? Is it still got a bunch of wings in there?

Oh, I don't know. I don't think they had their truck here.

Oh, I thought I saw it was here.

No, maybe it is. I haven't been able to walk around a lot. I've been getting stuck at booths just talking to people, which is awesome. That's what I love to do.

We've had so much fun this time talking to people. Now that last year was kind of like recon for us. I was just butting.

It gets better every year, to be honest.

We've grown so much since last year, and Dan came on literally this time last year when my last co-host left me and made me cry, and he went to California, and I hope you're listening, Sean. But nonetheless, it's grown so much, and the fact that a guy even recognized us today, and we were just like, we're going to give him a free shirt. I'm surprised it's not as much as Seema yet, because we got recognized a ton at Seema by strangers.

I think there's a lot of, like, I recognize a lot of people, but I don't necessarily go up to a lot of them. There's definitely some people that probably know who we are.

Yeah, we saw Kyle Loftus like four or five times, and again, I always like to point out, he smiled at me at Texas 2K.

I'm just saying, that was like, all right, cool.

But, like, the guy that was...

Are you sure he didn't wink at you?

I think it might have been. Either that or he had something in his eye.

It was a Baywatch moment.

It was a Baywatch moment. Everything just started going in slow motion.

It was up in Brainard, so it was a mosquito. He was like...

Yeah, when they didn't cut the grass that weekend at the track, oh my God, that was horrible.

Oh, that sounds visual.

Yeah. It's bad. Yeah. Minnesota, we have quite a bit of variety. But anyways, back to the cattle off this thing. But it's like, I'm not going to be like, all right, hi, you know, I'm going to get a picture, you know, sort of deal.

Oh, I would. I don't think they have any problem with that.

I don't think they have a problem with it, but I'm also not that... Like, I've never been a selfie guy. Like, if you go through my Facebook, I have, like, no photos of me.

I am this exact same way. Like, there's times where I, like, meet people, and I'm like, I should have, like, got a selfie. Like, what was I even... Like, this is, like, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I just was like, yeah, hey, hi. I'm, like, so-and-so.

And then you have somebody who just yells across the hall, Bruno!

Yeah. So, I don't know. I used to watch Motor Trend. Now all of that stuff's dying. Like, nobody watches actual TV anymore, but Garage Squad was one of my favorite shows, right? They go to people's garages and finish their projects. So, Bruno Manziel and Christie Lee. Yep. And I am a Christie Lee. So, I like girls in the industry because I have three daughters, and I just think it's super f****** cool. I think Christie is awesome.

She's awesome. I've met her in person.

Have you really?

Yeah, I have. She's awesome.

I got a picture of her at SEMA, and you should have seen him. Like, I don't know. I try to not, because we've been meeting some more, like, celebrities and type people, and you don't want to lose your s***. But I was totally like...

Dude, he was freaking the f*** out.

I was, like, shaking. I didn't know what to do. So, I was like, all right, I'm going to go get a picture.

Dude, I've never seen Dan Shuck like this in my life. Like, let me put it this way. If there was active gunfire outside, I'd be like, Dan, go take care of it. He'd be like, no problem. This, he couldn't...

If you told me Christie was out there, I'd be like, oh, are you sure? I don't know.

My palms are already sweating.

And then I'm like, Dan, well, just keep it simple.

I think the biggest thing is, like, they just want to be treated like normal people because they are normal people. You know what I mean? Like, it's hard to, like... It's just hard. It's, like, hard to go up and interact. Because it can be really intimidating. I think that's my biggest factor, is, like, I don't want to treat them like they're a celebrity, but I also don't want to be, like, rude. Like, you know what I mean? Like, they probably get inundated with people walking up to them all the time.

That's how I feel about it all the time. And she was actually talking to somebody. I just popped in. I was like, hey, I'm a huge fan. Can I just get a quick picture? She was like, absolutely. She turned, got a picture, and then I walked away.

Charge it to the game.

Yeah.

Do you see yourself getting to that level?

I mean, to be honest with you, I'd love to. That's ultimately my goal, but I don't know if I'll ever make it there.

I will say, again, in the short time I've known you and from what I've seen, I think some people just kind of got a personality and a work ethic, and I think that's really all it takes. I mean, I don't know.

Oh, well, that would be awesome if that's all it took.

I don't know if I'm on the other side of that yet, but it's kind of like you look at people who've done it, and then there's kind of a recipe for them.

I mean, that's basically what like farm truck and agent were telling me today. They're like, it really just comes down to like, people quit, you know? Like you don't, they basically were telling me like, you don't fail until you quit. So just don't quit, and it'll all work out in the end. I mean, and they made it when they were older. You know what I mean? Like, I don't think it's necessarily has to do, I mean, like, even look at like Dave's automotive, like that guy just blew up out of nowhere. He's a younger guy. I don't think it has anything to do with age. I think it does.

Well, especially for that space. But yeah, for a lot of things, like it really doesn't have, it's not the same. 40 is the new 30.

Like...

Oh, thank you. Well, I don't know. We're just pumping up your ego over there.

Yeah, right?

Don't let it go to your head.

This is my favorite podcast.

I'm just making sure my Uber doesn't take himself out before we leave. But no, to your point, though, it's like... A lot is more... So much more is possible now.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I'd love to be the next... I mean, just... I'd love to get to the... It's just crazy to me that I'm interacting with these people that I've watched since I was a kid, or my idols, or now I'm like... They actually talk to me, know who I am, recognize me, and now we have mutual conversations. Like, it's just... To be even just remotely close to that level, like, not that I'm anywhere near that level, but just to be sort of near that level...

Like, recognized...

. recognized is just insane to me. Like, I'm just... I feel so blessed, and I feel so thankful that I'm even here. I never thought this was possible. Like I said, I absolutely hated social media, and just to even... I never thought I would actually get to this point, and it's just been a whirlwind, and now it's like I just have so much going... I have to just pull everything together, is really what it comes down to, is like I have all these projects, and I just got to start pulling the builds together, getting things running. I think one of the spaces I've not done a great job in is like my local community, because I was really nervous about like people knowing where I live, you know what I mean? That's kind of... So like my Facebook has said I live like all over the place, just because I just don't want people knowing exactly. And I think that's kind of done me a little bit of a disservice, because people who live by me, I feel like would be much more apt to like be a passionate...

Nobody supports you more than your hometown people, for sure.

Yeah, and like people don't know my hometown or where I'm from, or for the most part. I mean, there are some people that know. So I'm hoping like once I get the cars running and start going to specifically local events, that'll kind of change and shift things, if that makes any sense. So start building the local community. Because I just, I don't know, I just get really sketched out by people. I have weird interactions, like we were talking about earlier.

Gotta carry that blicky.

Yeah.

If I was a girl, for sure, I would definitely be worried about that. But you just gotta get big enough to where you get a-

Oh, stop.

You get a compound, like Adam, you know, you just gotta get yourself, eventually you get to where, okay, now I'm buying a giant pole shed out on like 30 acres. I'm gonna put a gate up.

Yeah, exactly. I just-

Yeah, just getting from, you know, where I am now to there.

Yeah, right?

That's just the hard part.

This life in general, like, you have to go through middle management before you can get to like a certain place. People are always like, why would I want to work more for less, whatever? I was like, because it's the f****** stepping stone to the next step.

Well, and then you're working for yourself. Like, I talk to people who, you know, work for bigger name people like that, and they're like, I'm signed on to this person, and like, I literally couldn't do what you're doing. Like, you have the opportunity to go work for yourself and build this for yourself. And like, as hard as it is, because you're, I mean, you guys are, have been there. Like, you're starting from literally zero. Like, you're starting from the ground up. It's intimidating. It's scary. Most people aren't, like, naturally good on camera, you know, and like, it's this whole, there's just, there's just, with this kind of stuff, there's just so many different things to learn. It's very similar to, like, content creation and the automotive space are very similar in the sense of, like, you just never know everything. And you may, like, know one area, but like, there's a whole nother space. Like, there's just so much to know.

Like, rotaries and piston engines.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Like, they work the same, but not really.

But not really.

It's, it is such a weird, so I can't video myself. I don't know why.

It's really hard.

It is, for some reason, I'll go, so we'll do this. Like, our shorts get millions of views. Like, people see me. I don't really care. Like, I just can, for some reason, when I'm not doing it, I just totally forget about it. We'll go to Road America. We have a friend that has a halfway decent following, and I'm fixing cars, and I'm doing this s***, and I'm bouncing all over the place. I don't care. I'm just saying off-landish s***, like I always say, and I don't really care. But as soon as I go like, hey guys, I just can't do it. I don't know why.

It's really hard to, it's like so unnatural.

Maybe that's what it is.

Yeah, no, and it feels that way for everybody. Like, especially filming in public. Filming in public for me was mortifying for so long. Like, it was just so hard. And like, I would just procrastinate it, and then like not end up doing it, because I was just like, it just, it feels so unnatural. Like, you're pretending like you're talking to people, but you're not actually talking to anybody, and you're standing, and you look kind of crazy. Like, people are walking by you, and you're holding a camera. And then I can see it, like, I've gotten better at it. Like, this year, I was vlogging at SEMA, which there's a lot of people around. It's pretty intimidating. I've kind of gotten over that hump. But like, you can see people in the background of the videos. Like, when I was editing, I'm like watching people walk through the background of the video, and they're getting all weirded out, like, being, you know, realizing they're walking through someone vlogging, and like, it's a very weird, like, people get weird about being, having a camera up around them, and now you're in like a public space, and then it's just weird recording yourself. Like, it's a very weird space.

It's the best podcast, though. When the cameras are set up, and somebody goes like, ooh, ooh.

Yeah, yeah.

That's so funny.

They're like, oh, oh.

Yeah. Or like, oh, we were doing like house photos. We're doing like the 360, whatever. And then I turn into that guy. It's like, oh, get out of the way.

Yeah. Yeah. I do that to people all the time. I'm like, oh, sorry. And then like half the time, I'm like waiting for people to walk through shots. When like at SEMA, especially like, there's just so many people. Oh, yeah. And I'm like waiting for people to clear. And like, I'll just be standing there, like not. You can tell I'm not like, like I have my camera like pointed at the ground or something and people will be like, oh, person with a camera. Like, oh my God. I'm like, no, you're good. Just like, just please keep walking.

Like, I'm planning. I saw you coming. I'm planning this out. You need to just keep on.

Yeah, just keep moving. You're f****** up my my traffic pattern.

Now, it's like, it's like great. It's like when the semi goes from left to right, but the guy in front of him goes right to left.

Yeah, great.

Yeah, exactly.

So what are some invite? Because like you were obviously at this before you had a social media following. That's what makes it even ten times better. Right. In my opinion, because you were doing the hard stuff before it was popular due to hard stuff.

It's a lot easier to do it when you had everybody in the comments going, Yeah, I think a lot of people don't realize that that follow me is like, I've been doing this before social media even existed. Right. Like YouTube didn't exist. Instagram wasn't a thing. I was already getting my hands dirty at that point. So I think it's hilarious when people come into my comment section, they're like, you're a fraud. You don't work on anything. Like who's actually welding that stuff? Your nails are too clean. Your hands are too clean.

Can you settle that one for me, by the way? We get that comment all the time, like, oh, their hands are too clean.

You can tell them, I own soap in a scrub brush. It's like, it's not that hard. Like, if your hands are still dirty, you have a problem. Or you like work on stuff 24-7, like he does.

Like, Dan's always in his, look at this, his hands are clean. He's always in the shot.

You tell him I call him in his shot.

Well, look, I got a fingernail ball to fall off.

Or you tell him you wear gloves. Like, it's just, honestly, you don't know anybody in explanations.

Comments are just hysterical, man.

Oh, that's why I was doing that hater of the week comment for a while. Yeah, I still get people that walk up to me, and they're like, I love that. But like, I thought about doing that. It's, be careful with sponsors.

That's what I was thinking about, yeah.

Yeah, I've had a few sponsors that I'm high risk because of that, so I stopped. Yeah, so I think from now on, I'm going to keep doing it, just because like a lot of the people that closely follow me enjoy it. So I have a s*** you don't know about.

Yeah, I saw that, yeah.

Yeah, like page on my Instagram. So I'll probably be dropping those in there.

Okay.

Yeah, so like it's not public, you know, and my sponsors probably really won't see that, so.

But where I was going with that question, since you were doing it before, you know, the following and all that, what are some advice you would give to somebody who's in like the, you know, 14, 15, 16, 17 year old range, right? I think that's one of the things that we're trying to do with this podcast is kind of give a blueprint to a ton of people. And then you also have people like Andre with High Performance Academy. Literally, you can get a course for damn near free.

Their stuff is really good. Yeah, I've been watching some of their tuning stuff and it's awesome. Yeah, they do a really good job. Best advice I would give is just stick with it. Like you're going to get hate. You're going to get there's going to be setbacks. You're going to get people who are dicks to you or try and hold you back or tell you. I mean, I can't tell you how many people have told me like this isn't for you. Like, why? Why are you doing this?

Yeah, why do you tell me that every day?

Well, even my own family is like, why? Why are you doing this?

When the real job coming?

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So it's you're always going to have it comes down to like the people that are telling you that they can't do that for themselves. And that's why they're telling you that like they don't believe in themselves to do that. So they're not going to you can't ask them to have the capability to believe in you to do that. And if it's something you're passionate about and it's something you really want to do, you need to just like go and find the resources like not having like I don't have a dad to teach me. I don't have an uncle to teach me. I didn't have like resources. I could just walk out my back door. I had to find those resources. But if you're resourceful, you stick with it, you're passionate about it. Those those resources will come and you'll find them. And then YouTube is, I mean, you can learn a lot off of YouTube now. Like YouTube, I feel like opened a lot of doors for people that just don't have family or, you know, easy access.

They can get mentors via, like, online. Like the Union, they're not a mentor, but they kind of are, right? Like if you are, like, I can just imagine somebody that was me five years ago watching someone like Rob Dom.

Yeah.

And, you know, taking it on as a virtual mentor.

Yeah. No, you can 100 percent. I mean, it's just such a great resource now. Like, it's really not an excuse anymore that like, oh, I like didn't have school and I didn't do this. And, you know, even school, I feel like schooling is is what you make of it. I was talking about this on Justin's podcast, where I've seen there's been really good groups of people we've hired out of UTI. And then there's been really horrible people that we've hired out of UTI. And it's super hit or miss. It really comes down to do you apply yourself or do you not?

100 percent.

So even going to school, you could have gone to school and you come out not knowing anything, to be honest.

What about for like somebody that like I see? This is like one of my struggles, right? And I see this all the time, too, is you don't realize what you're passionate about until after school usually, right?

I think you got to go try stuff.

You think so?

Yeah. And I think we put too much pressure on kids to like figure it out right off the bat. Like I have nothing against college, but at the same time, I feel like kids are pushed into massive amounts of debt really early on, and it creates this massive pressure for them to very quickly figure out, do I want to do this or not? With no real-world experience, no, like you're taking college classes, it's not really a good indicator of whether or not you're going to enjoy a career and actually doing the thing. I think the biggest thing is like getting out there and actually working in the field, working in the job, figuring out like, is this something I can see myself doing? Like getting a foot in the door, I think is a much bigger opportunity than sometimes in even school. Like, I mean, I went to college, I was really, I mean, it's not that I'm like a bad student. Like I was pulling good grades and it just, I couldn't justify spending the money, especially with the fields that, you know, worked with like my passions and kind of my interests.

Which were what at the time? Did you feel cars coming on?

Yeah, cars. And like I've always been, my dad, me and my dad, like my family renovated like an old Victorian when I was a kid. So like, yeah, so like the woodworking stuff also works into that. So kind of both of those were passions for me. Like I'd love to build houses someday and own a construction company.

I got to show you somebody that's doing a wicked house build in Minnesota, a car guy, like, he was actually building his own super like car or whatever for a while, like designed it all. But now he's also like, he designed his own house and they were like, I'll show you. It's super cool.

That's really cool. Yeah, I'm like super into that stuff. Like I've taken CAD classes, I can do everything in multiple different computer programs. Like I've built houses digitally. And I've done like renovation work and like have a hands-on experience too. But I think the biggest thing is like just getting the foot in the door somewhere. And like just, even if it's like a lube tech and you're just changing oil, like you're gonna be changing a lot of oil and you know, getting dirty every day. And like, is this something you really wanna be doing? You're gonna be in a cold shop, you're gonna be in a hot shop. Like, you know, this is what you're gonna be doing for the next 30 years. Like, is this what you're gonna be happy doing, you know? Or are you talented at it? Maybe you're like, you suck at it, and you're like, okay, this isn't for me. You know, I'm gonna get into, maybe it's not like quitting automotive altogether, but maybe it's going into a different, you know, niche or a different, you know, I really like welding or I really like painting or, you know, I'm not a good mechanic, but I'm good at these other things.

Maybe you just need to be a service writer. Maybe you know all of it, but you're not good at throwing a wrench.

Yeah, absolutely. I have friends that are service writing. They make really good money.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, you can make good money in a bunch of different spheres. You know, maybe you're a really good salesperson. Maybe you sell cars, you know? There's a lot of different avenues you can take within the industry. So I think the biggest thing is like, just experiment. Like, I feel like we put a lot of pressure on kids to like, no, figure it out very early. And then the biggest thing is like, you got to just like trust in the process. Like I've changed career. I tell my sisters that all the time. They're still young. They're trying to figure out like what exactly they want to do. And I'm like, you got to just like try stuff. Like, you know, it's never too late to like switch career paths and be like, okay, yeah, like, I think I'm going to like go this direction now. You can't be afraid to do that. I think a lot of people get like, they're like so far down a path. They're like, I don't know. Like, I'm just going to stick to this, you know? And I think that's a big disservice. Like, I think it's better to kind of switch things up at times or... I mean, if you're doing that constantly, like every year, that's probably not a good thing.

Yeah, that's the other thing. People switch things, like, way too frequently, too.

Way too much. Yeah, I feel like people either do that...

You have to stick with something sometimes.

Yeah, yep, you do. You gotta, like, stick... If you don't stick and see it through, then you're never gonna... You know what I mean?

I've always just... I've gotten a long ways where I'm at. I've never... So I own a Low Voltage Electrical Company now, and, like, I've gotten everywhere I've ever gotten, just on word of mouth. And literally just...

That's awesome.

Showing up when I say I'm gonna be there, doing what I say I'm gonna do...

In the contractor world, that is huge.

I'm in the trades, and I only do commercial work, because I get tired of homeowners who just suck. So anyway, it just... Doing that, and just... I try and do everything I do as efficiently as possible. Whether I worked in kitchens for a long time, I was a semi-truck trailer mechanic, so I didn't work on any of the engines and tractors and s***, but we would weld on bumpers and do that stuff. I just wanted to be... I feel like I can find a faster way or a better way to do a lot of things. But just trying to put in effort where you can. We were even just talking with Apex Turbo before this. They literally just want to have the best product, and they really put all of their effort into that, and it works out.

Well, it's funny, there's a lot of companies in the automotive sphere that are very old companies that are, I feel like, comfortable and kind of stagnant right now. And there's a lot of companies that are very passionate about putting out a very high-quality product. And it's funny, they're closing the gap very quickly.

There's a shift.

Yeah, it's shifting.

Until they get bought up.

Yeah, that's the other problem.

Until they get bought up.

Until Holley buys them, because they'd be like, Holley's buying everybody at this point.

Have you talked to any 3D scanner companies yet?

I have not.

I was just thinking about, because given what you do, it'd be kind of cool. Because it's even cheaper for us to do, apparently.

Yeah, I would love to. There's some small custom pieces that I need for the BMW that I would love to 3D print, and even just to have a mold to then build out of carbon fiber or something else.

Do you have a 3D printer yet?

No, I don't.

That could be kind of... Again, one of our friends... One of the guests said you didn't get to interview on the podcast because you decided to do better family stuff. No, I'm kidding.

Family's important.

No.

I can't remember what was going on that day.

It was something weird. But he got a 3D scanner, and it's like, well, now he could 3D print his own parts and all that stuff. That seems really cool.

I don't know.

It could be another idea.

I would love to get into it. I just like, I have another thing to learn. Yeah. Another thing to learn.

And the time in the box for two years. I've never opened it yet.

Yeah. Yeah. I'd love to do more. Like I'll branch out eventually. But just for now, I got to just stick with what works. Well, no, it's like I got to just like put. I literally have to put blinders on. Like I need to get these two cars done. Like it's been years of building these things. And I'm just I'm tired of getting hate. Not that the hate will go away on social media. Like that's not the main reason I'm doing it. But it's just like I just in the back of my own head, I'm like, I want these done. And I'm tired of having conversations even with just like friends. It's so funny because it's not just social media hate. It's like friends that don't actually understand that, like all the nitty gritty of what's going on. Like we're just not close enough that we talk often enough of like knowing all the details. And they'll be like, yeah, like, you know, they'll kind of start like playing into like what I get on social media. I'm like, dude, you have no clue what's going on. Like you're like, that's fine. And like say whatever, but like, it's just like, I just need to get this done. Like it's just to a point where I'm like, I'm tired of f****** around and it's time to like shut up or nut up and just get it done.

Well, if you're doing it, so like still like your followers or your fans or whatever you want to call them, they, they still want, it's like if you were watching a TV series and like the next season was supposed to come out and then all of a sudden they canceled the show, you'd be like pissed, right? So it's the same thing. I get this, I was, so I have a little Bronco too, that I want to, I was thinking about putting a 2JZ in. So I started looking, there's a guy who put a 2JZ in a freaking Ranger, right? So like, but if I started watching, I watched his build series, but if it had gone like episode one, two, and he's like, yeah, then I'm like, don't know. I'm like, so you've got to kind of be almost strategic on when you release the content. Do you have enough to like sustain it while you finish the build? Otherwise people are going to be, they're like, oh, I really want to see that done.

That's the other thing is like, I'm just, I try to be pretty gen, like I feel like pretty genuine. I mean, no one's, the way that the algorithm is, you can't be genuine on social media. It pushes stuff and makes things look different than how you would even ever expect them. So like part of it is like, people like being genuine. Like anyways, I try to be pretty genuine. I've like put out all my content pretty much in real time. Like I work on the car, I edit a video and then I put it out. Like it's not, it has not been like, you know, I hold on to content to... Some of it is like, I need to hire an editor and I just haven't had the f****** time. Like all the people will give me hate because like all the pipes on the BMW that have welded from the turbos, the dirt bike mufflers, they're like, you didn't weld that. And it's cause I didn't ever put out a video or a bunch of content. I filmed a video. I just never f****** edited it. Like it's not that I didn't do it. It's just like, I didn't have the time to edit a f****** video. But then to be like, oh, you didn't do that. It's a little crazy. Like I put 120, 140 hours into just the back end of that exhaust. Like you can't really say I didn't do that. Right.

Yeah.

It's like you did all kinds of other stuff, right? And you show all these videos. You're like, yeah, that's the part I just skipped. Yeah.

Yeah. It's like you see me working. Like there's numerous videos of me working on stuff.

And so what? Like sometimes you have to outsource some things. Like not saying that you did, but like we talk about this built or bought thing all the time. Like, so what if I, like I've built my orange car, but I took it in and had somebody else bolt the heads on and set the timing and do that stuff.

I think when it comes to the built, I put a post out about this like a year ago, and it f****** like exploded because people just were, cause people were sharing that post that was like, built, not bought. And it was like, if you paid to have someone build the car, then you still built it. And I was like, if you never laid a hand on that m************ car and you just paid the money, I don't think you built it. And I don't think you have the right to say that you built it when another shop built it. Like just say, so-and-so built the car. I mean, you wouldn't walk up and say, I built it.

Well, yeah, that's just a lying thing, which I get that part.

There's a lot of lying that happened. I mean, look at the Miata guy. I don't know how much of that was lying though. I watched all the content I could find on that Miata guy at SEMA with the Lambo motor.

Oh, yeah, that one with the Lambo intake.

Yeah. Yeah, the Lambo intake. I don't know. He spoke like not great English. I don't know if that had a factor in it, but.

It blew up the Internet for a little while.

Oh, yeah, it did. Yeah, he did. Yeah, but then he left the show or like he like stopped answering questions and left the show early.

Oh, really?

Yeah. Like it was that bad. People were like interrogating him like that. Yeah, it got pretty ugly, I think, or at least that's what I like saw on the Internet.

But the human race is great, isn't it? The human race.

Yeah, like something like goes wrong on the Internet.

Chase him out of here.

Yeah, pitchforks and torches. Let's go. Who's got the flamethrower?

Right. Beat him to death with a Miata.

F****** poor guy. Like he apparently has a race team down in Florida. I mean, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I don't.

But I feel like part of doing something like that, you're also kind of, I don't want to. No, I totally get it. If you do something inflammatory.

Yeah.

Like, I don't know. I don't know.

I'm not sure he was expecting that reaction.

Oh, there's that, too, right? Like there's some of my highlights I'll post, and I'm like, oh, f***, that didn't go the way I wanted.

Yeah.

Yeah, but that's content creation. You like live in one.

Right.

Or just putting yourself out there, like, you know, in any way, whether it's content creation or the build, like because we express ourselves through our cars, I feel like.

Yeah.

I'll leave it at that.

I'll leave it at that.

I was looking for something there.

Is that why mine are all 90% done? Just life.

Life.

But I think we're cooking up on, gotta be closing in on two hours.

Yeah.

Yeah, it was long.

So I know that chair is uncomfortable for f****** him, for sure.

He's like dying over there. How's that hard wooden chair treating you?

It's actually plush.

It's plush, yeah.

It's plush, okay.

But I don't know, Dan, do you want to pop the usual three?

Yeah, I think so.

Yeah.

All right, so at the end of every episode, we like to ask our guests to pick three cars. I need a show car, a daily driver, and a track car. You have an unlimited budget. You can build, swap, do whatever you want. What are you picking?

Ooh, people are gonna hate my answers, probably.

Don't worry, they will, regardless if they were good or not.

Okay, show car? Like, are we talking, like, fully modified?

It can be whatever you want.

Are we talking, like, all VIN numbers?

I will give you a little secret. Some cars can be dual purpose.

That didn't answer her question.

No, that didn't help me at all.

Like, you can take it to the track and take it to a show.

No, let's not give her an Audi before she's even struggling, all right?

Show car? What was it? Show car, track car?

And daily driver.

And daily driver. I'm probably gonna just pick from my own garage here.

Unlimited budget.

Unlimited. Yeah, but I would just modify what I already have. You know what I mean? So like, I don't know. I feel like, show car, I'd really like an FDR X7.

I know that sounds so stupid, but like, if people love those for some reason, I have a 2021 GT500 and I have a friend that comes out with his FDR X7 and people drool over his car all the time.

Yeah, I mean, I just, I have a total soft spot for those cars. I'd probably like modify, like put a bigger turbo on it and build it and make it into a track car too. Wouldn't just be for show.

It is a great track car.

Yeah, I mean, they're great cars. I'd keep a rotary in it all day. I would not put an LS or a Godzilla or any other engine into it. I'd probably, if I unlimited budget, I'd probably put like a four rotor into it. Do like a Mad Max or yeah, that's his name, Mad Max, right? The guy that builds all the rotaries.

That's your scene, not mine.

Okay.

I just work here, bro.

I just work here, bro.

I'd probably put like a four rotor or something crazy into it. Daily driver, honestly, I'd love to have my Subaru back. I know it sounds so stupid.

Was it a Hawkeye, Blub-Eye?

No, it was like a new body style. Yeah, it was a Rex-eye or whatever the heck they call it now.

Okay.

But back when the bumper was not... like now they're like split. They have like a plastic piece in the middle. Mine's all painted like through the whole thing. It's all one piece.

Okay. Oh, they're like this current generation or?

Yeah, it's the current generation, but I had a 15. So they gave it like a facelift. Yeah, they gave it like a facelift 2019, I think.

Okay.

Yeah. So I have like the pre-facelift. I just really like the look of the front of the car. Oh yeah, they have the new generation.

Yeah.

I would take like my body style Subaru like a 2015, and I would just build it. I'd love to build it into like an 800 horsepower. Mine was making like 450 the wheels, but I just love that car in the snow. Like every winter, I drive a truck now, and I absolutely hate it. Like I've driven a jeep, I've driven a truck. I absolutely hate everything else I drive in the snow. I was absolutely spoiled in that car. I could do like 80 down the highway with snow tires on that thing, and plow through a foot of snow.

I've seen a ton of videos of them like pulling trucks out of the ditch.

They're absolutely animals in the snow, and you can go out and drift around in it. It's a complete blast. I miss that car every winter. As stupid as that sounds, I'm picking horrible cars. Unlimited budget, so if it blows up, I can say it's going to be instantly motors on it.

You can do all that cool s*** right till it blows up.

Right till it blows up. Well, it's unlimited budget, so it doesn't matter if it blows up.

You should just get like four or five spare motors as a backup.

Yeah, right.

Yeah.

They come in six packs.

They come in six packs.

You get them at Costco.

Yeah, right.

Track car?

Track car, I'd probably, I don't know, just build my Corvette, I guess. I love that car a lot. It's grown on me a lot. I used to hate on Corvettes. I was like, that's an old man car. But I don't know. I'd love to twin turbo it and just make it into a f****** monster. But I also feel like that's kind of overdone. So I don't know.

You're doing all right, old timer.

Yeah.

Yeah, right.

RV build would be cool too. I'd love to build an unlimited budget. I'd probably put an RV. Maybe I'd put an RV into the Corvette.

An RV? Which RV?

Probably an RV 25. I don't know. I don't know exactly. Just anything RV. I think they're cool motors.

That'd be so trippy, an RV in a Corvette.

Yeah. Yeah. If you see that happen, it's definitely mine.

Dude, you locking that in?

I would love to lock that in.

We'll see.

We'll see. Yeah.

We're the right sponsors.

Yeah, right. Well, we're already working on a 2J for the BMW, but you didn't hear that here. Whoever makes it through the end of the podcast will know.

True, the only of the legit fans.

We had a vote off, and that's what won on the vote off.

So over an RB, huh?

I think so. Yeah. Like people wanted a 2J.

2J is in a BMW. I think I put an RB up there.

I know. I know Drift HQ does that a ton, but that's what the people want. That's what people are going to get. I don't know.

It's cool for a reason.

It'll shoot flames like a m***********. I don't know. Like I just want to see all six of those dirt bike mufflers shooting flames out the back.

Holy f***.

That is super cool, by the way. Like I looked at the pictures of that, and like we were in a motorsports too. So like you have videos of it running. I didn't get a chance to get a car.

I do. Yeah. So with the six straight pipes to the back, I do. But with the turbos, I don't. It hasn't been running yet. So March is- Sweet. Noted. Yes. March will be when it's running, and there will be updated sound clips. So when we had the car like running, we didn't even finish welding the exhaust. So it does sound like if you hear the sound clips, it does sound exhaust leaky when I'm in the car, just because it does, like we didn't fully weld it. We added like exhaust clamps, and I didn't get a lot of clips like right before we crushed it.

What are they? Are they like FMF pipes? Or are they something like eBay?

No, they're like knockoff eBay 450 cc dirt bike.

Yeah, like 20, 30 bucks a pop or something.

They were a little bit more than that, but it's still, I still spent like, I think like 400. I'm gonna end up spending like two grand on dirt bike mufflers like that. I can always upgrade them down the road. You know what I mean? So I was like, they might sound like this for now, but we can always get like really nice ones, you know, down the road if things go well. And we just expand the build.

Has anybody else done that? That's such a cool idea.

I don't think so.

I never even like thought of like...

I mean, we put them out the rear bumper, like I cut a hole in the rear bumper, and I don't think anyone's done that. But I'm sure people have stuck with that. Like dirt bike mufflers on cars.

Oh yeah, I'm sure.

Not six of them, not one per cylinder.

I don't think. Yeah, that's crazy.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And if we stick to the 2J2, it'll kind of stick with the six theme. You know, I don't know. Be good. Yeah.

Well, sweet. On that note, where can people find you?

The underscore Ashley underscore Vaughn on Instagram, TikTok, Ashley Vaughn on YouTube. Just search Ashley Vaughn, you'll find me, hopefully.

Yeah. And at least start with your Instagram, because there's a link tree there, too. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I have a link tree. Yeah. Start on the Instagram, you'll find the link tree, and then you can click on links from there. Yeah.

Dan, you can find us at Gunna Garage and hopefully Snowmobile content coming here sometime soon.

Hell yeah. I'm going to have to come Snowmobile out with you guys.

You are more than welcome anytime.

Hell yeah, dude. I'm down for that.

We ride Yamahas. I just ordered, I got a brand new one sitting in the trailer and waiting for some snow.

I have a Switchback Assault 800.

Oh, do you really?

Yeah.

Sweet. My oldest, she's going to start straight line racing, ice racing, this year. That's b*****. She's got a Polaris Pro X. She's 14, so she has a 440 class, so I was trying to figure out the fastest 440 I could get. So yeah, she's going to start that. She rides 1000cc Yamaha right now.

That's f****** awesome.

Yeah, it's pretty b*****.

Yeah, that's b*****. You're raising a little b*****.

Yeah, so if you want to come out and ride with a bunch of girls that love to throw snowmobiles around.

I would love to do that. We like hardly get snow anymore, so.

I know. Well, we're only four hours from the UP, and they've already got like eight feet.

F****** mint.

Yeah.

Okay. All right. So I'm going to have to trailer my stuff out here.

Oh, definitely.

Yeah.

Like I was saying earlier, you have to come up for power cruise as well.

Yeah, 100%.

Did you see the 1320 video on it or no?

No, I haven't seen it yet.

Yeah, they came out for that. That's a fun event.

That's the other problem, too, if you want to know. YouTubers don't have time to watch YouTube. If you're not editing or building cars.

I fall so far behind. It sucks. I'm busy. I'm literally on my laptop editing, and I can't like, I can't even put music on.

You can't multitask.

Yeah. Yeah, I can't even put music on. Like, it sucks.

I'm like. Somebody feels my pain.

Yes. Yeah.

I'll be doing highlights, and it's like, I would really love to just bump some. Well, everybody is under investigation now, so I have to be careful who I listen to. Yeah. It's like, oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Something.

I know. It's always something.

As for me, at the time of this recording, more bigger shirts are still available. I may be around too in the projects. I don't know. But yeah, thanks for coming on to the show.

Yeah, thank you so much for having me.

Yeah, it was a blast. Dan, thanks for existing, and we'll see y'all next time.

Thanks for existing.