147. Building the Cyber Runner, Fabrication and and Custom Builds, Drifting, w/ Luke Walker

I had to like restrict myself. There's a handful of times where I was like, it's too much detail, there's an off road truck, you're gonna go beat up.

It's a good thing you're a body guy because you're into two sports that hate body panels.

Yeah, dude, for sure. 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.

I am.

Mister.

Gunner Garage.

Yeah, we're not out of our game.

It's okay. Let me introduce.

We should say, yep.

Every single thing.

Did I say, yep?

Yeah, yep.

It's been a long day, man.

And we are continuing our Detroit slash Michigan trip, since we're quite a ways away from Detroit now. And today we are here with Luke Walker from Dialed Auto Works.

Got it.

Nailed it. And I am blanking on your Instagram handle, but you are most commonly known for the Cyber Runner. That seems to be the thing right now, but you do a lot of cool projects here. We actually just did like a whole, like, what? Half hour, 45 minute tour here beforehand. We played with lasers.

Yeah, laser beams and plasma tables.

But make sure to watch the tour video when it drops. But go ahead and tell people who it is that you are, what you do, and we'll just kind of go from there.

Yeah. So my name is Luke. I owned Dialed Auto Works here in my pole barn. Kind of just started during COVID. I, whenever we were all kind of shut down, I opened up the doors and got some people in and kind of just kept going with it. But I do like paint and auto body collision work and ventured into fab work. It just kind of naturally progressed into doing frame swaps and just welding, plasma cutting, laser beaming, building cyber trucks out of Ford Rangers and running over Corvettes at, you know, what is that called out there? Oh, Dream Cruise. Dream Cruise. Yeah, Woodward. That's what I was like. Yeah. So, yeah, here we are just fabbing and doing paint and auto body out here.

So before you got to the cyber truck, what were you, I guess, when did this business start? What were you doing beforehand?

It was about four years ago. So I worked at just a regular body shop. It's Cooper Auto Body in DeWitt, just north of Lansing there. I worked there for a while and then I actually rolled my truck and then I started working on it. And it's like, how long is this going to take me to fix? And then I had the idea of Cyber Truck. And then toss the idea, it was probably six months before I really pulled the trigger on Cyber Truck build. COVID hit and then I was like, man, I am never going to finish this truck if I go back to work. So that's when I started the grind here at the pole barn.

Okay.

Just kind of progressed into what it is now.

Well, so that's a big jump, right? To go from like a steady paycheck to being a business owner. Was there like a transitionary phase or?

Yeah, it was like a risky move. So my wife at the time was six months pregnant. So I talked to her and I'm like, I think I can do this. I was like, it's going to be hard for a couple of years. I just expect that. And it was, you know, it's like, I mean, I just was doing anything and that's probably where a lot of like the fabrication stuff came in. It was like, oh, well, I'm like slow on paint and auto body, but this guy needs some fab work done. I'll do it. You know, like, why not? Might as well. And I'm like, I'm a really progressive person. So I like to learn stuff. If I'm like, that was one thing also, my job is just real stale. I was just like, bring the car in. Because I was a body man, so I wasn't painting. So I was just like, bring the car in, tear it down, fix the car, give it to paint, bring it back. Just was like, you know, the repetitive cycle of it was.

So you were already doing like the welding and stuff like that on that stuff?

Not so much like TIG welding, but I did like a lot of like aluminum repairs, just like with the rivet guns and stuff. And then just like standard MIG welding, plug welds. I mean, we used like the spot welder, the big, whatever, the car liner spot welders, and just doing stuff like that. But not like fabrication welding, not like trying to lay down nice welds or like tube work or nothing like that. So yeah, so where were we?

So the transition, so your wife's six months?

Yeah, she's six months pregnant. And then I could just kind of, I was like, what do you think? She's like, just go for it. I mean, worst case scenario is I just get a job again. So like she had a full time job, working at High Caliber Carding and Entertainment there. She's like, she was, actually today was her last day. So she's part of her ways from there, but she was the event sales manager there. So she was in charge of the whole sales department for High Caliber. So anyways, we talked and we just said, all right, let's go for it. So I mean, I just put it out there on social media, says I'm working out of the shop, and I was doing rocker panel jobs, anything, whatever I could. So and like I've specialized in so long. I mean, I started hanging around the shop whenever I was like 16 with my dad. So I mean, paint and auto body is just kind of my second nature. So I can pretty much do anything when it comes to that. But then, yeah, like I said, fab work, it was just like a fun new thing. It's like, I actually really enjoy it. So it's good. I'm having a good time. It's like I'm doing like, I mean, I'm just really, I just really like working on cool cars. Like the Willys project here, it's like, I feel really good when that's done. Like it's very satisfying versus Sandy's minivan at the body shop. You know, it just didn't bring like any joy or satisfaction. But this is a whole new, like he is so pumped with this. You know, he is a happy guy.

Plus he's the guy who gets to spend the money, right? So that's one of the things that holds me back sometimes too. I'm like, oh, that's gonna cost so much.

Yeah. And like, I mean, like I said, he had a budget. We went past it, but I mean, he's fine. I think it's because he really sees like, it's far cooler than I think what he was thinking, you know? Like just the level of work is nicer than what he was thinking, you know? So like as he sees it come along, he's really like, let's go. That's why I think that's why he upgraded to 6.0. It's like, why not make it make it something super nice if you can, you know? So, yeah.

So where were you? Where did you pick up all these skills? YouTube University or what?

Some, yeah, a lot of YouTube and so Paint Body was just being in the shop. I mean, like I said, my dad did it for a long time and I would go hang out the shop after school. And then I started off whenever I got out of high school being his helper.

So it's kind of the same shop.

This was no, this is at a shop in Colorado. So I'm originally from Colorado. So my paint and body career started in Colorado. And then really, I guess what made me move here were like the sand dunes and the pre-run and stuff. So I had the truck out in Colorado. I was kind of like, I mean, I guess we go over like the whole kind of like history of how I got here. Yeah.

Why I leave Colorado? Because a lot of people go to Colorado.

Exactly. So like a lot of people ask me like, what's up with that? So let's see. So I actually owned a small body shop out there. So I was 21. Me and a body guy that I worked with had this small shop right next to the highway available. So I was like, talked to him into doing it. And so we both brought, I don't know, like seven grand to each to go in on this body shop where I would paint booth for, you know, finance the paint booth and just started working out this two bay garage in Colorado. So then, I mean, do you want to start like, where I started painting all about it with my dad and then kind of how I just got here?

So your dad had a shop?

He did not have a shop. He just worked at a shop. So I just started working with him underhand. Gotcha. Okay. And then I just worked through body shops. And then once I got older, I just started painting full time. So I was full time painter for a long time. Like in Silverthorn, Colorado, like Silverthorn Breckenridge Ski Resort area. So that was like my old stop where I was. I was there for like 16 years. So then I got into the shop with my buddy Corey. Had that for like five years. So now I'm like 26, 27-ish. And then I bought a piece of land next to it to build like a new shop on, because the one we were in was like too small. So bought this little plot of land that this old trailer park used to be on from the owner. She like owner financed it. And then during the big weed boom out there, the owners of a dispensary came to me wanting to buy the shop or to buy the property to put their new dispensary there because they were getting kicked out of the place up the road. So I had that land for like a year and a half. I like doubled my money on it. I'm like, I'm going to take this money and now buy the land that the shop is on because I was just renting it. And so, but what had happened is they, the day we closed on land I sold them, they went and bought the land out from under me. That my shop was on. So this is where like Michigan comes into play. So I was working at a body shop in Colorado and a new guy named Jamie Prater started working at the shop. He rode dirt bikes. So we became friends really fast, but he's from Napoleon, Michigan. So, which is just south of Jackson here. After everything goes down to the shop, I'm like, I got to move all my stuff. I don't know where to go. Real estate's super crazy out here. This was like 2014 ish here. So this was like the recession, like the big dip, the bottom of the barrel for property values out here. He's like, dude, buy a house in Michigan. They're so cheap. I had the money from selling the land. And so I found this place and I bought it side on scene without seeing the house, just off of pictures online. Just I saw a quick shot. There's like five pictures. None of the house, just the pole barn and three acres. He's like, dude, you should just buy that and move all your stuff from the shop to here.

No pictures of the house.

Never saw the house.

Shopping the land, you're like, I'm in. Yep.

So I got ahold of the real estate agent. I was like, I'll take it. He's like, all right, wire some money. And like two days later, I own this place. And I'm like, I've never even seen this place. So I just own some land in Michigan now. So I actually started moving stuff out slowly, just filling stuff with the pole barn. The 54 is one of the first things that came in here. I just sat over there, had old 68 Fummons, well, it was a 68 Ford truck, dually, with a Cummins swap in it. So 12 valve in it. That was in here. So just like over a couple of years of Thanksgiving trips, working full time, I'd just take a few days off and haul the load out here. And then I'd come work on the house. The house was like, saveable. So I was honestly expecting to just doze the house. I mean, I bought this place for so cheap. I'm like, who cares? Like, I mean, the property and the pole barn's worth it. So this is really just started off as storage, didn't care about the house, never really had intentions of moving here. And then I brought the pre-runner. So once I got the pre-runner, I brought it out here and then I would fly from Denver to here and then go to the Sand Dunes and spend a day working on the house. So, I mean, spirit, you could fly like round trip for like 150 bucks. So it was like pretty awesome. You know, like I fly like twice a month or something like that. And then one of the trips, I wrecked the truck really bad, long darted it, stuffed it, like half cart wheeled it, folded all the suspension back. I'm like, well, I'm never gonna be able to fix this, just flying out every once in a while and working on the truck a day of the week. You know, it was like, it's just not possible. And I was just like renting a place in Colorado. So I was like, dude, I'm just gonna move out there. I was like, I can paint cars anywhere. So it's kind of the beauty of that, of that industry. It's like you can go anywhere and do it, you know, it's like you don't have to be in Colorado or anywhere. Some places pay more, which is why Jamie was there, because the labor rate was just higher. Right. Made more dollar an hour versus here in Michigan. So that's what I did. So I saved up money. I kind of made a plan for six months, saved up as much money as I could. And then I moved out here. And then I would work on the house and work on the truck. And then I was like, once I go broke, I'll get a job. So I fixed the truck, got it running again, put the 5.0 in it. That's why I did the 5.0 swap. And that's how I ended up in Michigan. So I just wrecked my truck, put me in Michigan. It's kind of weird, but yeah.

When did you, what year was that roughly when you wrecked the truck?

I wrecked the truck. It was probably, so I bought this place in 14. So it was probably around 2016, I would say. Okay. That was like a big wreck. Jumped it, landed sideways, fold all suspension back. Like, you know, it was a big, big wreck. Like cab swap. I mean, the whole truck got, went through. And like I said, put the 50 in it.

Did you buy the truck in Colorado or here?

So I actually traded for the truck. So I, Jamie, how I got into pre-running was, or like pre-runners was Jamie was from here. He had a mild build Ranger that they, he was always talking about the dunes. So when we lived in Colorado together, he'd always talk about the dunes. And I'm just like, God, dude, I don't care. Like I'm never going to the dunes, dude. I'm like, cause I was a big like downhill mountain biker. So I was like riding downhill. I was like, that's just what I did. You know, like summertime was my season, like just doing all the big ski resorts and stuff out there. So he'd always talk about pre-runner for like five years. I never heard the end of it. He's like, dude, you got to go to the dunes, do this, that, you know? And then this Ford Explorer pre-runner came up for sale in Denver. And this was whenever I had the shop out there. So I was like buying cars and flipping them or whatever. So I was like, I'll go check this out. I had this Mitsubishi Galant that I've offered the guy. I was like, I'll give you this car. He's looking to get it. He's having a kid. So he's like, this isn't really family friendly. So I shot him an offer. I was like, give me some 1500 bucks in this Mitsubishi Galant. And he's like, all right, deal. So anyways, I ended up with this pre-runner Ford Explorer. And then I was hooked. Like from ever since the day I drove that thing home, I'm like, do this thing sick. Like, I mean, like he's just mobbed. Like, I mean, I had King shocks. It was like fully caged. It was like a pretty sick build for being in Colorado. It was like kind of rare. You just didn't see it out there. So, so Jamie really got me into it. And my buddy Tyson, cause Tyson was really big into it out here. So, I mean, he's got a really nice Ranger pre-runner truck. And that's how I got into like pre-running. So, then it started to escalate. I had that Explorer for a couple of years. And then I had a 1969 SS Chevelle that I've restored, like painted it flat black, matching numbers 396, a big block car. And I found this truck on Race Desert, which is kind of like the Craigslist for off-road trucks. So racedesert.com goes there classified. They got like race vehicles, pre-runners, sand rails, all that stuff. So, I mean, I would just scroll through there just for fun. And then I saw this truck pop up and I had the Chevelle praise. They praised for like 32 grand. And so the truck popped up for like 35. And I was like, damn, I wonder if I should, man, I should see if this guy wants to trade. So I just like shot in the dark, hit him up. I was like, hey, well, actually, I had like, I had an old 70s convertible Cadillac and some other cars that I tried throwing at him at first. He's like, nah. He's like, I really like first gen Camaros. And I was like, well, I mean, I got six and nine Surveille, second gen. I was like, I don't know if you're into that. He's like, yep.

I'm like, hold up.

Hold up. I was like, I need, so we just worked out a deal. So anyways, I met him in Phoenix. His brother was in Phoenix. He was from California. They raced the truck like 10 years. So it was built in California. They like, you know, went through all the growing pains with it, and they really raced the truck, like very competitive truck. I think there was some beef with him. I don't know the whole history with him. Like, he said he sold the truck because he just didn't want to like do it anymore, but I think he like had problems with people in the industry or something. I'm not really sure. So we were trading. So I just drove to Phoenix. And then, I mean, mechanically, the truck was great. The body was really rough. I mean, like, dude, it was a serious race truck. It just got beat up, you know? It was just a beat up race truck. No glass. I mean, nothing, race net windows, you know? So I de-raced it, raced trucked it, kind of made it a little more friendly for going to the dunes and stuff. So that's how I ended up with the truck. So traded my shovel for it. And that was probably, so it was probably 2016. So then I had the truck for, like I said, a couple of years and then wrecked it.

Yeah, yup.

Came out here.

Then finally came out here. So then at this point, you said you were still working for somebody else, right? When you first came out here?

So whenever I first came out here, like it was probably six months and no work, and then I just ran out of money. So then I just started job hunting. Okay. And then I really only had two jobs. So I started working in Jackson, and then my second job was when I left. Got you. Before I started going full time here.

Okay. So then, so then you, when do you decide to rebuild the truck after you have that crack?

He did it while he was off of, before he went back to work.

Before I went back, so the little window there. Yep. So that was the six months when I moved here. I mean, the house is empty. There's like nothing in the house. There's no cabinets. I mean, it's been gutted. I mean, all the electrical plumbing stuff and drywall is all good, but just there's nothing in the house. So yeah, the six months of me just first being out here was trying to get the house a little bit livable and rebuilding the truck. So, and then, and then I ran the money and got a job.

So you're just bringing it back to like what it formerly was?

Yep. Yeah. So just like a Ranger, I put some McNeil fiberglass on it. Like that made it look nicer. You know, I took the time to like fix all the bodywork and make it like a pretty clean looking truck, but working windows, windshield, stuff like that. So, yeah.

Are you racing it at all like competitively or are you just doing this for fun?

No, I would love to race it. I mean, I mean, with that comes huge sponsorship dollars. You know, it's like to go race anything off road is like so gnarly. I mean, you just need a bunch of help. I mean, I would love to. That's actually like a bucket list thing. It's like, I really want to go out west and race like Rage of the River or something like that. Like, just do one race, call it a cyber truck, screw it. It's going to get beat up.

Yeah.

That's a bucket list.

I don't even care.

You know, it's like, I mean, I would love to have like an extra set of fiberglass bedsides for it, but whatever. That's a huge goal is to do a race. Like, I mean, it's like one of my biggest dreams is to race the truck.

Yeah.

I mean, that would be sick.

You meet your wife out here then too?

Yeah. So we met while I was still in Colorado, because she would actually go to the dunes too. So we kind of met through dunes. So she had like a lifted Chevy truck. And then we just kind of met online and just started talking. And then I was like, you know, I am moving out there in a few months. And she was like, okay. And here we are. Yeah. I just kind of, it was just really weird timing how it all worked out.

I really wish that's how my relationships worked. Oh yeah, you like this thing. Okay. And then we get married.

You like trucks? I like trucks.

Yeah. You like the sand dunes? We should get married. Yeah. Yeah.

So she thinks my runner is sexy.

Yeah, pretty much. But it's just funny cause she, her uncle has like had like a Silverado pre-runner. So she had went for rides in the dunes. So she was like, I want that too. So she didn't know anything. Bless her soul. Went out and bought like a lifted Silverado, takes it to the dunes and quickly realizes like, it is not capable of like what a pre-runner can do. So she was like really disappointed. She's like, went out and bought this lifted truck and it's just like bouncing through the whoops, like super rough. And she thought because it was like lifted, it would have the suspension under it. And she was-

No, there's not enough travel and then soft.

She figured it out quick when she went up there.

What's it look like? So I've heard about it for years. I have never been there yet. I really want to, and it's really not that far for us to come here, especially if I want to take a ferry across the water, right? But what's it look like out there on a weekend, nice summer day? Is there like everything and anything out there? Is it-

It's beautiful.

Yeah.

It's awesome. It's like, it's this weird little like nook of paradise to me. It's like, it's a rare spot like on earth where you can go like full, like go huge in a truck. And then it's like a hot summer day and then just pull over to the beach and you go swim. So it's like just right next to the beach. It's like, yeah, it's kind of, it's a weird spot, man. It's like, there's no other, like, I think Pismo was probably the closest thing to it, you know? And I mean, it's a, basically a freshwater ocean, you know? And summer days, I mean, we just, we're driving around in flip-flops in our bathing suits, and we'll go mob through the dunes as fast as we could go, beat the crap out of the trucks, and then go swimming.

Is there a lot of traffic out there, though? Is it hard to...?

It depends, especially, like, holiday weekends, it's really busy, but the way, I mean, the way I look at it is like a, it's like a cool car show, you know? It's like, you're just going to a really sick car show on those weekends. And then, like, if you kind of time stuff right, like, I mean, for the trucks, and like, I mean, a lot of, like, the sand car guys, like, going fast out there is kind of really hard on a busy weekend. But if you time it right, we're like, everybody's kind of heading out to go get dinner, you can kind of get some hot laps in. And then, sunset's a real big deal, so everybody will come out for sunset, watch the sunset over Lake Michigan. And while everybody's sitting there watching the sunset, you can, like, run laps. So, like, everybody kind of clears out, like, all parked watching the sunset. So, like, you can, if you time your stuff right, you can get out there and have some fun.

Just the sunset, it'll be here tomorrow, I'm going to rip this thing around.

Yeah, pretty much. So, like, and then, like, a standard weekend, it's a little busy, you know? It's not as busy as, like, Memorial Day or something like that, so.

Right, but you can just go throughout the middle of the week if you have time.

It's a lot more relaxed. It's a ghost town out there. Really? Like, there's nobody out there during the week. And, like, that's, like, if I really just want to get down on the truck, like, I'll go try to go, like, Thursday, because, like, Thursday's fairly dead, and Friday is pretty good, and then everybody starts coming Friday night, so. Okay.

Is it, can it, is it, like, a state park or something? Can anybody just go there and whatever?

Is there rules or laws or?

There are rules. They're very common sense rules, but you do have to have, like, your state park sticker, your trail sticker, and your ORV sticker. So it's about 50 bucks, maybe 60 bucks in stickers to get out there, and then a doom flag, and then you can take anything out there.

Okay.

So it's pretty, I mean, pretty easy entry, and then, I think a big reason why I really like it is it's a lot like drifting. So like, there's no like strict schedule at a racetrack. Like I did some drag racing in the Chevelle, you know, it's like getting knocked out first round. I'm like, well, I just paid a bunch of money to do three races.

Yeah.

You know what I'm saying? So like you could go out there, do as many laps as you want, and then when you're tired or broken, you can just hang out at the beach and then go back out. It's just really like kind of free for all, you know? But as far as like rules out there, like the biggest thing is not to be on the back side of dunes because there's some directional dunes and there's a scramble area. So like the directional stuffs, the east side of the dunes, scramble areas, west side. You should be careful. I mean, especially with the smaller vehicles, side-by-sides are a big deal now. So like, and they're just like, really, if we're coming up to them and they want to turn real quick, and it's like understandable when you're in side-by-side, you're just like, well, I'm going to go over here. It's because you're not like normal road rules, you know? So as a truck or like a sand car, you just got to watch out for the smaller vehicles because they turn faster. So if you're coming up by them and they decide to change direction, just got to be careful or like just blind spots, just go slow, don't be dumb. That's really it.

So if I have like a regular off-road vehicle, am I still going to have a good time or do I need something that's going to want to jump and do all that or?

If you go out in a regular truck, you're going to have fun. But if you hop into my truck, you're going to be like, you'd have way more fun. Golly, what am I doing? This is where it's at. It's like, that's what gets the bug. You'd go for a ride with something like that, and then you want the next level. It's just like anything, you progress. You just want more. Yeah, no, you'll have fun. I mean, there's like plenty of stuff. I mean, 90% of it out there is stock vehicles.

I was going to say, like people coming out of like TRXs or Raptors.

Yeah, I mean, anything. I mean, like there's like Subarus out there running around.

Well, you guys have here in Michigan too, like the ORV trails, you can bring dirt bikes on them too, right? Can you have bikes out there?

Yeah. So yeah, you can have, so can you have bikes at the dunes?

Yes.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, anything. So dirt bikes, quads, it's all open.

We only have so many in Wisconsin. Like we have lots of nice trails and stuff too, side by sides, ATVs, snowmobiles, right? But dirt bikes is a hard one to get. They don't let us just take them. I think here you can have dirt bikes on almost any trail.

Yep. Yeah, as long as it says. I mean, there's markings on the trails. Like some stuff isn't allowed, you know, but for the most part, yeah, it's pretty much wide open. You can go out and rip.

So I'm just trying to decide what I need to put on my trailer on the ride out here.

I have a 36 foot gooseneck.

We're going to fill it up.

Sweet.

I got a couple of things in my yard you can have, dude.

Don't tell me you saw me pulling with an empty trailer.

That's how I know when to start my sales pitch.

Yeah.

Right. All right. I think we should listen. I'm here to talk Dan into buying.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I dropped a Fox off at a buddy shop here. They're going to do a crazy build with it. So we've been shopping on marketplace and doing stuff. So what are you doing?

What are you doing to it? What are they building?

So it's a friend of ours and a couple of guys that we know, a tuner and another guy who's got a shop in Detroit there. They're wanting to build. We saw him at Bragg & Wrights, and he shows me this car that he was looking to buy, this Fox Body Notch. I'm a huge Fox Body guy, so he's just kind of like, hey, this is whatever. Would you be interested in a drivetrain? I'm like, dude, I have 302s coming out of my ears at home, so no thanks. But I got home and I'm mowing the grass, and I have this clean Fox, but it's not a notch. It's the hatchback one, right? So I just, I'm at my lawn mower and I pull over, I take a picture and I was like, hey, this is whatever here. I was like, this would be almost free or basic. We'll work out some kind of deal. Are you interested? And he's like, yep, no problem. And him and I just happened to be coming to Michigan the next week. And he's like, will you drop it at Ed Shop? And I'm like, what the hell? This seems to all be coming along. So they're going to do like a drag car, burnout vehicle, burnout, start as a burnout vehicle. Yeah.

I need some loving.

Yeah. This thing's going to dub as a burnout car too.

Yeah.

So she's going to do burnout.

It's not pretty, but it's from a Georgia. So it's, it's rust free.

Again, rust free card from what's I think that laser would help clean it up real nice.

Yeah. That was a huge transition coming from Colorado. Cause like cars are so, there's a Colorado car and this thing is extremely clean.

Dude, every time I go to Colorado, I'm like, is that an 89 Ranger on the road? And it's not like all the cars you would normally see rotted or gone. You see like a 93 Ford Taurus and it just looks brand new.

It's crazy. Every bolt comes out of it, you know, you don't have to fricking snap bolts off and that thing, you know? Yeah, I mean, Colorado, I mean, they just don't use salt. It's all mag chloride and stones. That's really it. So out there you go through like aluminum wheels. So your wheels will start getting corroded from mag chloride and then windshields. That's your biggest thing.

I bought my wife's Mustang from there and it was tons of rock chips and windshield.

That's it.

It's littered with little spots and nicks and dings.

Yeah. I'm glad I have that and rust. Terrible. It's so bad. Yeah. Well, that sounds cool. That's going to be fun. Yeah.

So anyway, moral of the story is I have an empty trailer. We'll see if we can load some up for you.

Yeah.

So you get to 2020, and then you basically start pushing the business side of things. At what point does the whole Cyber Runner thing become an idea?

When does that come to fruition? So 2021, we're up the dunes, and so it's a really nice looking Ranger. It's got a Dixie Cup paint job on it. We're messing around. It's the last day of the season. So it's like October, whatever it was, late October. And we're just like messing around, like high marking on this hill, like going up and just like doing rainbows or whatever. And so I go up on it, and then I hit like soft sand, and the truck just rolls over on its side. So like goes on to the driver side of the truck, smashes up the cab, fiberglass, you know, and I'm like, well, that sucks. So at least I got a winner to fix it. So then that was the winner. So 2021 is whenever I pulled in here and just started tearing it down. I was like, well, I'm gonna fix the damage. I knew I had some, I mean, it was a tired race truck. So like, there's a lot of like, just cracks in the chassis, just like on the floor. Like I had to basically cut the floor out to fix it all, really. So I started cutting the floor apart and then cut off all the damage panels to the roof, the cab corner, you know. So that's when I said, I was like, all I got really left is the one cab corner and the back panel.

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And then it just happened. I don't know, Cyber Truck got released. I don't remember the like first time I thought of like Cyber Truck idea, but I remember thinking, man, that thing's hideous. I'm like, what the hell is like? I think somebody could make that like way cooler.

Right.

And then I like kind of tested it with some friends. I'm like, what do you think if I turn the truck into Cyber Truck? And then it's like 50-50. My one from Brad's like, it's dumb.

Right.

And my other buddy's like, that's sick.

Nobody ever trusts Brad anyway.

Yeah, dude, Brad's like, you don't know. Brad's always my number one, like he ain't getting that s*** done. Like he was like that when I first wrecked it. He's like, yeah, that truck will never drive again. And he's like, oh, you proved me wrong. And then Cyber Truck was done. He's like, oh, you did it again. And then like, he helped me put the body on this and was sitting on here. He's like, you're doing it again. He's like, I thought this was going to suck, but it's pretty cool. So every time I'm working on like a project, Brad's at the back of my mind. I'm like, F you, Brad, this is happening.

Got that chip on your shoulder.

Yeah. That's what I need. I need like a doubter to like get me, to like push me along. I just want to prove them wrong. It's a weird like spite thing. Yeah, right. Whatever that is. I'm going to show you.

Everybody needs a Brad in their life.

Yeah. You need a Brad, dude. And I appreciate Brad because he has his motivation. Yeah. Thank you, Brad. I hate you, Brad. All right. So I don't remember the exact, so I kind of threw it out there. Some people liked it, some people didn't. And then I drew a thing on my phone. I was like, well, I'm just going to see if the proportions are going to look right, because if it's going to look stupid and not look, it could not look corny. I was like, that was my number one. If this thing starts looking weird, I'm just not going to do it.

Can you make a normal Cybertruck more corny, though?

I don't know. That was like it. Because it had to resemble a Cybertruck, but it had to look cooler than a Cybertruck. So that was my thought process on it. So I took a side picture of the truck and then just roughly sketched it on my phone. I just drew over it to make sure the peak was going to look right, like it wasn't going to be too stumpy in the nose, or just like it had to look right, had to look like a Cybertruck, but it had to look better than a Cybertruck.

Did you just take a photo and just do it on your Instagram story and just doodle it on there?

I was a little more involved. I actually used a sketch app. I could probably show it to you.

If you find it, definitely send it to me.

I'll send it to you. I'll text it to you. So once I did that, I was like, oh, this could work. This is like, I think it could work. And I didn't want to cut the cage all apart to redo it, so that was another stipulation. I didn't want a year of six months of cage work. You know what I'm saying? So I was like, it had... So if you look at the truck, you can see, I could pretty much put another Ranger cab right over it. So it's all built off the Ranger roll cage.

Oh, so you didn't have to modify anything then?

Yeah, I did the back. I cut the back portion of the cage out to put the third seat in. So I really just extended the back of the chassis. But as far as like hindsight though, I would have redone that. I would have at least cut the top of the cage off to match the profile of the Cybertruck, because it would have been way easier to tie the body into it. Versus making it, the body fit, you know, a not right shape chassis. You know what I'm saying? Like it just took way more work. And like I wasn't anticipating that. So hindsight, I would have cut at least the top of the chassis off and made the roof line match Cybertruck. So that would have been a really good thing. I would have done different. Yeah, so where were we?

So you start basically, you took it off, just you were doodling it, designing it.

Yep. So then I had the truck all cut apart, and I had this like half inch square tube. So I just lightly tacked the roof profile onto like the cage.

Okay.

And then that was the start of it. I was like, all right. I was like, it was still like, I'm ready to bail anytime. The first time I was like, I'm not bailing on it, was once I actually made the sheet metal panels and just like tacked them onto it. So I had like the front fender tacked, the door panel, and then the bedside just loosely tacked to this like, kind of like a little half inch square tube exo cage. You know what I'm saying? So I was just like, I was ready to cut it off at any moment and put a Bronco body on it. That was it. So like, that was my go to. Originally, I was like, I'm going to do a Bronco because now it's going to be extended. It'd be sick to have this thing mobbing as a Bronco. So that was the backup plan. But then once I got the sheet metal hung on it, I was like, this is actually looking pretty sick. So that was, from that moment, I was like full kill. Like, all right, we're doing this. No backing out now. I was like, I'm going to show you Brad. I'm going to show you. Like, so yeah.

You need like an F you Brad bumpers.

I didn't make a sticker that says F you Brad.

Nice.

If you have any of those, I will buy one of these.

Yeah, I'm sure they'll make it.

So how similar are the panels to like an actual Cybertruck?

Not even close.

Not even close.

So it's all just like...

Well, no, I mean like material wise.

Oh, material wise. So it's all, it's not stainless. So it's just painted to look like stainless. It's all 20 gauge steel. Cause actually work with stainless is very difficult. I mean, to bend it is, it's such a hard material.

Yeah, if a billionaire found out it's difficult.

Yeah, exactly. So yeah, it's all just regular, standard old mild steel. 20 gauge is pretty thin. The truck, we, I was expecting it to be heavier. It was like, it was 5,200 as a Ranger. And it would know without me in it. I don't know how much fuel was in it, let's say half tank. And then after a Ranger, it was 4980. So it shaved some weight off of it, which was surprising. Yeah. So with all the sheet metal I put on it, cause I mean, it had fiberglass front clip, fiberglass fenders. So I was like, man, that's like, I mean, yeah, that's heavy. Yeah. It's like, if you pick up a fiberglass bedside, it's like, you're thinking like probably 40 pounds, you know, like seems like it. And it's like different than like car fiberglass, like a lot of drift cars with fiberglass, that stuff's really light. It's only like two layers. But like an off road stuff's like five or six layers. Oh, okay. This is like it's way thicker material than like drift car or street car stuff. So it's a little more heavy. So that was like a fun surprise after it was done to weigh it. I found out it was less, so I was expecting to be heavier. I was like, man, I think it's going to be like, my guess, I think, because we had like a pole going, I think I was like 5490 or 5500 was what I was thinking it was going to be. But so it's pretty light for what it is.

Yeah, for real.

Yeah. And all like that windshield, you know, that thing's like 80 pounds.

So how'd you do that then? All the windows and stuff.

I actually put out, once I started getting closer to the end of the build, so it took about three years to do it on and off. So like, I started six months into Danielle being pregnant, and after Ry was born, there was three or four months where I just didn't even touch it, and then I'm just doing normal work out here, you know? Just kind of enjoying the baby life, you know? So what were we talking about? Crap, I forgot.

So basically, so you had the kid, I forgot what her name was, sorry.

Ry. Her name is Ryan. We call her Ry.

Yeah, so you were working on the truck on and off. Oh, we were touching on the glass.

Oh, that's right. So yeah, so about a year or two, I started like really thinking about what my most expensive thing is going to be with this truck. It's like, it's going to be the glass. So I started, I actually put a thing out on my Instagram. I was like, anybody, I was thinking laser cut. I'm like, is there, oh, sorry, water jet. I was like, is anybody got a water jet that I can cut some glass? You know, like just some flat panels. Cause I designed it all to take flat panel glass. Cause I knew that was going to be the cheapest route. I mean, and I did not want to run Lexan because being in the sand, it just, the first time you roll a window down. It just scratches it, it's like so bad. It's like, you can get scratchless stuff, but it really isn't, you know, the first time you wipe it with a rag, it's all spidery looking, you know? So I did not want to run Lexan. I wanted real glass. And that was like my hard, it had to have real glass. So I just put something out there. And my friend Todd, he really wasn't my friend at the time, but like we knew each other on Instagram, but he's like, hey man, I've been cutting glass for like 20 years on old hot rods. He's like, it used to be my old business. He's like, I'll just cut it for you. And I'm like, what? I was like, he's like, yeah. I was like, what are you talking? Like, how much? He's like, yeah, I'll just do it. He's like, it's a sick project. I'll just do it. I was like, oh, I mean, I'll buy the glass. He's like, all right. So it was like a few hundred bucks. And then I sent him all the templates, just paper templates, and he cut all the glass.

And it's all like automotive safety glass then too? Yeah.

It's all laminated. So it's like, just like windshield material. So like, it's not going to like smash.

It's going to blow in your eyes and face.

Yeah. And actually windshield's cracked right now.

And everybody's like, oh, you cracked the windshield.

Well, that was, so the reason why I had to put the glass back is because the primer is failing. Well, the windshield was doing it too. I was afraid it was going to come out. So whenever I had the windshield out, I had a heat gun on it. I like wasn't paying attention. I had the heat gun on the spot. I just like cracked it from the heat gun.

Oh, so it's not even like a cool story. No, it's nothing. Yeah.

It's not even like I jumped it super huge or nothing. And that was a big fear. It was like, man, this windshield is so big. Dirt Fest is a big event we put on here in Stanton, Michigan, where we take all the trucks out on a motocross track, where we do a big long jump competition. And well, the first year I did it, I'm landing the flat, and I'm just waiting for this windshield to go, you know? But it totally kicked a**. Like it ruled. I was not even worried about it at all. Now I'm like, this thing's so good. So it was a day before an event, kind of like right now, I just re-glued that glass in, like a couple of days before Gridlife. And I pulled out and cracked it, and I had to put it back in, because I didn't have like a backup windshield. So I had to put the cracked glass back in it, which was painful to do, just over something so stupid, you know? Like, golly. So anyway, so I talked to Todd again. He's got another windshield for me. I just got to get it and cut that one out, put that in. So that's where we're at.

Where's he at? Is it somewhere easy to get to?

He's like 45 minutes.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, he's not too far. So he's like to the west of here, like, northwest, so.

Okay.

Yeah, I forget exactly what town he's in, but yeah.

So now you've built this thing, you've got it kind of figured out, how do you unveil it? Like, where does it go for the first time? Or what kind of reactions are you getting?

Grid Life was it.

Oh, really?

Yep, Grid Life was its first.

So the same event, but last time.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry. So it wasn't, so it's first time out, and like it was a 2024 Civil Lake Prerunner Invasion. So Prerunner Invasion is like the big kind of opening ceremony each year for all the prerunners up at Silver Lake. So that was its first like event, but it was also the first time I took the truck out and like drove it. So I had the truck done. I had planned on testing it on the property here, but it was like just a mud fest. And there was no way I was taking this like brand new truck and just caking it mud to test it. I was like, it's just going to have to get tested at the dunes at Printer Invasion. So we went out there, bugs, like I mean power steering pump, had to put a scramble to find a pump out there, just pouring fluid out of it.

Ford with a bad power steering pump.

Yeah, what? Never heard of that. That one's holding it. That one's doing good. I think I got a good one in there now. I just got lucky. The other big issue was my coolant temp sensor. So it was all Holley Terminator X stuff. So my coolant temp sensor wasn't working, so it was like making it run horrible. So we were messing with the tune to try to bypass the temp sensor just to get it to run through the weekend. And we really never got it running great, but I was able to go out Sunday and do a few hot laps. So I wasn't actually able to make it to like the actual event. So at the golf course there, they have a big event like car show for the pre-runners. So I couldn't make that because the truck wasn't around, I was working on it. So that was kind of like a half unveiling. Like a lot of people wanted to see it, but a lot of people didn't get to see it because I was having issues with it. So all the bugs worked out. The next big event was Grid Life. So that was like its kind of real public display.

Were you posting like build pictures and videos and stuff along the way? So people knew you were doing this.

Yep. So on the dial channel, on the YouTube channel, I posted some build videos. It's just like, I mean, just grind it through it. Like I've started one for this too. So yeah, so people knew of it. And I would post on Instagram. People would see it, you know, like raw sheet metal. I mean, there's a lot of detail that went into the truck. I mean, one of the things I have the most time is just making the windows work. I was like, yeah, there's no way I'm not having the windows work in this. I mean, when you're at the dunes, you're rolling down your windows, talking to your buddies, you gotta roll the windows up, because a lot of times the sand's blowing in. Half the reason you have a pre-runner is for comfort. You know, just being out of the elements up there, so you can go out there on a cold day, or when the wind's blowing. It's just nice to have the windows up. So just figuring out the regulators. It's all custom stuff. So it's their custom fitted, I started off with Ranger window regulators, and it was not working. I probably got 100 hours into those, just not going up straight, because it's all open edge glass. You know, it just wasn't working, because it was a single track set up. So I ended up buying some GMC or GM1500 Silverado ones, because it's dual track. And I figured those were fairly common and abundant. So I got those, but they're slightly curved. So I had to straighten them out, to make them for flat glass, and then just doing the window tracks. I mean, I probably have 150 hours and just doing window stuff and that thing. That's crazy. But it's all electric power windows. So like, the windows go up and down in it, you know, and it's the same, you know, real glass, like I said. I mean, and it was like one of those really annoying things, like trying to fabricate that with like lexan glass, because it's flimsy. So like, if you're trying to build a door that shuts against a weatherstrip and it's like slightly moving, it's not good, because it's like, so what do you do? There's not like only other material you could really use would be like quarter inch plate of steel or aluminum that's not going to, you know, because you're not sure the exact shape of the glass yet. So you don't want to have your glass cut and then realize that you're right.

The door itself you made, right? You manufactured this whole thing.

So half of it's Ranger, half of it's fabricated. So the inner door jam with the window like regulator area is like, and the part where the hinges are is still Ranger. And then I basically cut the skin off and modified the jam to seal it all in. So there's just like a lot, that's where a lot of the time went on the truck, was just the agonizing details like that. I'm like, man, it's like, and I had to like restrict myself. There's a handful of times where I was like, it's too much detail. There's an off-road truck, you're going to go beat up. Like, cause I kept like my natural auto body instinct was like perfect gaps, get this like crisp, you know?

Like there's so many, yeah, there's so many like shortcuts you could have taken at this point. Like just, you know, a window with a little hinge on it that you can open like this.

I mean, I seriously went through every possible scenario for the windows, you know? I was like, I was like, what if I just did a strap where you pull, right? And then just zip the window up, you know? And I was like, no, dude, it's half-assed. I was like, I just want a working window. That's just like, it's like as everybody probably overlooks it on the truck, but it's like one of my biggest accomplishments was doing the working windows and doors.

Yeah.

Like, there's just so much time wrapped up in that. It's like, can't comprehend it how much time I got into it.

You went full a**.

Full, full hardcore, dude. I went full, my tisms, tism, man, had to have it.

What about, so for example, like all the flares and everything, how did you decide that you wanted to do that?

So it was just like cardboard, you know, so I would stand back, look at it, put some cardboard up there, kind of get a general shape. And then that was it. I tell you what, I sure wish I had the plasma table.

So you didn't have it at that point.

No way, dude. I wish I did. Like, because right now I could have all those files saved. So if I do something to it, I could have like a bedside.

Oh, you could just dial up a panel and cut it.

Yeah, like that's a huge benefit of that is I got all those files. Like if I smash a vendor, I got all those, I would have it all saved. I could just really cut it real quick.

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But I can't do that now, so.

Well, that could be V2 if anything were to. Because obviously you're still, I mean, how often are you taking it out?

A lot, so like, I mean.

Do you take it to Target?

I mean, I drive around town, yeah.

Oh really?

Yeah, I cruise around, yeah. I cruise around good.

I saw it at a play down, I was going to ask you that.

Yeah, it's got an old farm plate, old farm truck on there, so farm truck plate. That is awesome. Yeah, I drive around all the time. Like we'll take out for a cruise or whatever, there's car shows around here. Yeah, that's cool. It gets around, yeah. I mean, it drives good. So, I mean, it's like what printers are all about. I mean, it's what printers are for, it's for having like some little bit of comfort and being a little fricking mob, you know? It's like you can go, I mean, we could go jump, a big a** jump out on the field and run it to the store. Yeah. You know, it's sick.

So, I'm assuming that people are kind of drawn to this thing too. Like it's getting kind of, I heard something about Travis Pastrana, drove it or how did you run into this guy?

So, it was just kind of, so we're Daniel, we're at High Caliber Karting. They would host the Nitro Circus guys when they came into town. So, whenever they came into town, they let them take over the facility and race go-karts and whatever. And just kind of, good break for those guys, with all their travel and stuff. And so Jordan, the owner, called me. He's like, hey, Travis is gonna be here. He's like, is the truck ready? And I was like, it actually is. He's like, it was like a few days before. It was like all late notice, you know? He actually had mentioned it like a while back, but it was just kind of like, he might be here. And then it was like coming up to him, he's like, hey, he's gonna be here. He's like, bring the truck. I was like, I'm there. I'm like, dude, this guy's my hero. You know, like, he's like, one of my idols. So I was like, I'll be there, yeah, you can see the truck. So I just took it there and they showed up. I'm sitting there and then like, it's like the first time I've probably been like, really starstruck. I felt so dumb. Yeah. Like, he's like, trying to make a joke. Like, I felt so dumb. He's like, what did he say? He's like, is this thing fully electric? I was like, no. He knew. Like, I'm just like, I'm freaking out because it's like, the guy that's in my whole life looking up to you and I'm like, oh, gosh, so stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Yeah, I'm glad to see that. Then I got out of it and it's fine. Right. But yeah, then he, I took some of the guys for rides just right around the parking lot, you know, like jump some of the rocks or whatever, rock features in the parking lot. Sure, the mall was pumped about that, but yeah. So then I was like, do you want to drive? He's like, nah, he's like, I don't want to drive it. I'm like, dude, when are you ever going to be able to drive something like this? I was like, just don't roll it, but just go out and you'll be fine, dude. You're fine. And so he got in it and ripped around a little bit and he's like, I got to get out of this thing. So he signed the dashboard and it was awesome.

That's awesome.

Travis drove the truck.

He still signed in there?

Yeah. Yeah, that's on the dash. Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome. So that's really cool. I was like, I guess when I was building that, I never would have thought anything like that would have happened.

Right.

You know, I was like that was like, because I mean, I had like three years like lonely in the shop thinking like, what's this going to be like? You know, and like, I kind of got lucky because like, I was running behind on it, but then Cybertruck would get delayed. So I'm like, following the status of the Cybertruck.

You're like calling Elon and be like, hey man, I need a minute.

Keep canceling this thing. Because my big goal is to get out before Cybertruck was released. Like I wanted mine to be on the road first. Yeah.

It was roughly the same time.

It was like pretty much like right. I was probably a few weeks behind when like they started being seen.

Yeah, I couldn't believe it. Like I saw a video on Facebook. I can't remember which one it was of your truck. And I'm just like, I'm like, I was just like, what's going on? Like I didn't follow the bill. I didn't know what was going on. I was just like, this is fricking sick though.

Yeah, I mean, a lot of people think it just took a Cybertruck body and modified it. Yeah. I've said it on there. I don't think a lot of people realize that the whole thing is just completely fabricated.

Well, he showed me some of the videos, as I'm driving, he's like, look at my phone. And I'm like, when we pulled in your driver, I'm like, dude, that thing looks way sicker in person.

That's what everybody says. Yeah. A lot of people say that.

I don't know, dude. It looks sick in the video. Cause you're telling me you used the DJI, was it the Osmo or whatever? And that thing just going like ripping through the dunes.

Yeah. Seeing that thing in full glory.

I am sold that my first time out there has to be checking out that thing. Cause that, dude.

If you guys come, let me know and I'll take you for a rip. It's an experience. It's like nothing you've done. It's like, you can't tell people what it's like. It's just like, we gave some people rides that had never been in one and they're like, that is not what I thought.

I'm gonna want one real bad. That's gonna be the problem.

It's so smooth, man.

What do you call the third seat? It's not like a b**** seat or anything.

No, it's just like the back seat. Just the back seat?

Okay, it's the normal seat.

Hop in the back.

Depends on how much you scream, whether you call it the b**** seat or not.

That's where you're gonna be.

I'm not gonna go back there.

Yeah, I mean, no. I guess it doesn't have a special name. It's just third seat, hop in. We'll go for a ride. Sweet.

You know what you need to do? Have you ever seen that video? I think it was like a dragon drive or something, and it was the Corvette, and he has the bald eagle helmet. No, you never seen those?

It's been viral.

Yeah, I think he does, I don't know if he did a rolling burnout, but he had the eagle helmet hat. It was like a furry costume, and then just pins it. You should just do something like that with that.

I was just riffing around, there's a bald eagle helmet, a bald eagle hat on.

Dude, I'm going to call it right here. You need to be a part of, what is it? Is it Slim Jim that has the Sasquatch commercials?

No, Jack Link.

Jack Link, that's it.

Dude, Jack Link, you need to get hooked up with them, have the Sasquatch drive that thing.

They're right by my cabin. They're like 30 minutes away, the whole factory.

Oh, really? Dude, I need to get hooked up with Jack Link, bro. That'd be sweet.

Everything in that town is named Link. Link Ford, Link this, Link that.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

People would be so pumped on driving around, dude, it'd be like a parade. I'm just hopping freaking meat out the windows. It'd be so sick. I'll be like cruising past people hucking bee sticks at people. It'd be so fun.

Dude, I'm just saying, what is it?

Unleash Your Wild Side or something?

Yeah, that'd be perfect.

I know where that is. Isn't there headquarters over there in Minneapolis?

No, it's Minong, Wisconsin.

It's the only office in Minneapolis.

I did a job there, actually. I did a satellite for them. So if you go in the front door of their place, like in the lobby, they've got those beef jerky things. You used to see a gas station with the yellow plastic. You lift it out and you grab the little plastic tongs. You can get it like piece by piece. They got one of those right in the lobby.

Oh, that's legit.

When we left, they were like, go ahead.

We were like filling up our tool bags and shaking.

Your pockets full of meat, dude.

I had like spilling out of places. Yup, thank you.

Your wife's like, why do your pockets smell like hot dogs?

Dude, I smell like beef jerky. My wife was on me, man.

I don't know what we have to do. We have to get this man a Jack Link's partnership.

Yeah, that would be tight.

You come out to my cabin, you bring it out there, I'll bring it. We'll go to Jack Link's.

Dude, freaking donuts in the parking lot with it.

So one of the things I envisioned, like I said, I'm building this thing, I'm like, what should I do with it? And I'm like, I should take it to Texas, just drive it to the Gigafactory. Just see if Elon will come out. So I was going to be one of my goals is to meet Elon and show it to him. But I'm like, I don't think that would ever work.

No, I don't think that would ever work.

That stupidest thing I've ever seen.

Just tag him, you gotta get on X and tag him. Be like, who do you think did it better?

Well, a lot of people were like, dude, you're gonna get a cease and desist. And I'm like, I don't think this dude has open patents on all this rocket technology. You don't care about a stupid Cybertruck. You know, like, I could probably literally call a Cybertruck and he probably wouldn't even care, you know? So I was like, really care. I was like, cause I did have that in mind. I was like, I'm not gonna call this a Cybertruck. I'm not gonna put any Tesla logos on it. That's why I called it Cyber Runner. I was like, I gotta like make it a cool name by the way. Yeah, it's like works really good.

Super cool name.

Yeah, I like it. Cause I mean, the whole thing, I don't forget what YouTube channel was, but he built the Eleanor car from Gone In 60 Seconds, and they sent him to see it, and they took the car, I think he got it back at the end of the day. But I was like, yeah, I was a little nervous of that. I was like, man, what if- They just took it? Yeah, cause it was like their property, intellectual property, and he called it Eleanor was the problem. If he called it something else, it would have been different. So yeah. So that was in the back of my mind. But I mean, I really don't think Elan would have cared. No, no. That was a very common comment I would see is, I'll wait till they come take that from me.

Well, that's when the Ferrari stuff was getting really hot too on social media. Like everybody was talking about, I think that's right around when Whistling Diesel burned down his Ferrari too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, in the grand scheme of what Elon's got going on, like you're not on his radar of s*** he needs to worry about.

If you guys are enjoying the show so far, just go ahead and drop a subscribe or a follow if you haven't already, just so you get notified the next time we do an awesome episode like this. Let's get back to the show. Well, how did the Corvette thing happen, by the way?

Oh, God. So that was like an interesting ordeal. So, I mean, you guys have been to Woodward. You guys know how it is. Not yet.

We haven't been to the Dream Cruise. We've been on Woodward, but yeah.

Oh, you haven't been to the Dream Cruise? Okay. Well, I'm going to enlighten you. So Dream Cruise is nothing but the right lane is like super creep. You're going two miles an hour. Everybody's asking you to do burnouts, you know, the whole time, like the whole side of the road is lined with people sitting there, you know, looking at the cars and camping chairs and tents, you know. Well, we pull up, traffic just stopped real quick, like seriously probably five seconds. And a kid was like, do a burnout. And I'm like, I can't, like freaking, I don't know what was going on. But I was like, I just didn't have the horse to do a burnout and dry. Cause like it just rained, so I was doing burnouts when it was wet. So cause I do a burnout, I'm like, can't, I don't have any traction. Or I was like, I have too much traction. And then I was like, I'll goose it for you. And so I goose it, and then the truck goes boom and goes up and down. And I'm like, what was that? And Daniel's like, what was that? I was like, I don't know. And I looked down, there's like a Corvette right on my front, like right in front of me. And I'm like, or he's like by the side of me. I'm like, I think I just hit that guy's car. And I look over and all the people are like, that guy just pulled out in front of you. And I'm like, what happened? So they all had recorded it. And I stopped for like five seconds and the Corvette just pulled over in front of me. And then I goose it and I just run up on his tire and like up over his fender and like off the front of his car. And I like didn't do any damage to his car. It's kind of incredible. But anyway, so the cops got called, the cop watched the video and everyone's like, yeah, dude, the guy had pulled out in front of you. He didn't even have his blinker on or nothing. Like you stop for five seconds and then get over. And then I just go to go and there's a car in front of me. There should have been no car there in that amount of time that I was stopped. So the cop looked at it and was like, dude, it's not your fault. Corvette guy, I'm like, what do you want to do, man? I was like, if you want to claim your insurance, you got to do a police report for your insurance claim. I was like, if you just want to go about your way and just chalk it up as an accident, I was like, there's not really any damage. There's like a little rubber rub on his fender. I was like, I mean, at the bottom of his fender, like probably broke off a little bit, like popped the bolts out or something, you know, like it probably needed a little bit of work. But for what happened, it's incredible the fender wasn't just blown off. I mean, I literally drove up on that thing. And so he's like, all right, he's like cops like, it's your fault. I mean, he's like, you're going to, you would get a ticket if I write a report, you know, you didn't use your turn signal. We got video. It is what it is. You know, you pulled out in front of him and it is what it is. And so that was it. And so he is the guy, his name was Pete. And at the time, after we had left, I was like, you know, I should have just fixed his car for free. It was like, if I just had to reattach the bottom of the fender.

I forget your freaking Bobby guy.

Yeah, I didn't think of it until after. I'm like, I wonder if I could find this guy. So I actually called the police station. I was like, hey, is there any information on this guy? And they're like, no, there was no report. I'm like, God, I can't get ahold of this guy. And so on a piece of paper, he wrote down my information. And I was like, and there was another phone number there. And I was like, is that your number? He goes, yeah. I was like, oh, sweet. So I took a picture of it. So I thought I had his phone number. Well, I called that number in some restaurant. So it wasn't even the guy's phone number. I don't know. I don't know if he was like a little, he's kind of older. I don't know if he was like flustered or maybe didn't hear me or whatever. But so he only has my phone number. So Pete, if you're out there, I'll fix your car for free. I don't know.

Pete, he'll fix your car for free.

Yeah, it's like pretty simple. Are you sure, Bruce? This is the last one. Yeah, it was last year.

So it's probably not even fixed yet.

I don't know what the guy did. And it was like a Callaway Corvette. So it's like a kind of a rare Corvette.

Yeah. We got some reach. We'll find Pete for you.

Yeah. If we can find Pete, I'll fix your car. I don't know if you fixed it already, but let us know.

He's going to be like some cyber truck idiot.

Yeah. Okay. So then going to the Internet side of this story. So as we're at Dream Cruise, we're walking, I'm like, that was crazy. Like I cannot believe I was more shocked that like he just didn't have any damage to his car. I'm like, honestly, that was the best case scenario. Nobody got hurt. His car didn't really get that damage. I mean, my truck's fine. You know, I was like, that's kind of, kind of awesome. I mean, I got to run over a guy's Corvette for free, really.

So you should not, now you gotta join Monster Jam now. Yeah, right.

Hit me up, Monster Jam. So I am walking down the road. So I'm walking down the road. We're going to get something to eat and I'm like, I'm just going to post this video. So I posted up real quick. I heard I didn't hear any of the audio and it's like just perfectly cut to where like I sound horrible. I'm like, oh, this does not make me look good. Cause I'm like, oh, cause it was like something like, oh yeah, he's lucky that something, I don't know what's going on with my phone, but it's blowing up. But I was like, he's lucky that it wasn't worse. I'd have to watch the video again. I forget what I said, but it just does not like sound good on my, it sounds like I'm like kind of a D-bag. Yeah. And so people were blowing it up, like this view, I think it's got like 12 or 13, 20 million views or something like that. And I'm just getting flamed in the comments. I'm like, oh my gosh. I was like, everybody there, and a lot of it was like just Cybertruck comments, like, oh, Cybertruck needs to learn how to drive. And I'm like, you don't even realize this isn't even a real Cybertruck. Like, what do you know, you know? Yeah. So yeah. So they're excited. Like, I definitely got an earful from everybody. And that but even though technically it wasn't your fault, it wasn't not my fault. I like it. And it's just the way the video is cut. Like where it starts. Like if you saw the full length video, you'd be like, oh yeah. Oh, that was bad. You know, like he pulled like that was just dumb. You know, he said he thought I was letting him over. But I'm like, you were like back here. Like, how would you think I'm letting you over if I mean, the all traffic was stopped, right? And there's like probably 15 feet in front of me. There's like barely enough room for you to squeeze in there. So I don't know what you're thinking.

So, oh, well, after driving around in Michigan these last few days, that doesn't matter to people.

Oh yeah.

It doesn't matter that I'm in a big truck, tow in a trailer. I don't need, you know, a car and a half length to stop. Come on in.

You can stop right away, man.

Yeah.

The trailer's empty.

Yeah.

That's fine.

That's for you. It's a parking spot for you. Yeah. Our trip down through Chicago, we saw, you saw a lady hit something.

It's like a, I don't know, some sort of, it was a Hyundai Santa Fe or something, but she, it was like packed, right? There's four lanes and it's Chicago, and it's traveling to do construction. So it's got the big metal or concrete barriers. And there's like a post with the yellow and black lines on it, you know, like you can, don't hit this. And it's anchored with like cables. So at an angle, and she's all of a sudden, like last minute decides to exit, and she just hits the cable, and it launches her car up like this.

What the?

So she, like she ran over a Corvette, went up in the air like this.

Then she comes down, and there's a concrete barrier on that side. She hits it, boom, and it sends her this way.

And then she hits another concrete barrier, and then sideways blocks the exit. So now it's her, all these cars on the exit, all these cars in a line wanting to exit.

And I'm like, and I just drive by like, s***, that sucks.

That's wild.

Yeah.

All I was looking down at my phone because I was trying to do something, and then I just, all I see is a car come down, and I'm like, the f*** just happened?

Like it was up and then it was down?

Yeah.

You don't see a roof line like this often.

You know what I mean?

Yeah, that was exciting.

So speaking of exciting then, so okay, so what is a typical day at Silver Lake, right? Was it Silver Dunes?

Silver Lake sand dunes, but like we're at Silver Lakes, fine, yeah.

So what's a typical day out there look like for you?

So like usually we go out for like a weekend, so we stay like campground up there, haul the camper up. That's why the tow rig is a big flat bed, so I can take truck and camper. So we can haul them both at once, because we were getting pretty sick of that. So it's like, if you have a camper and a truck, you can only take one at a time, unless you're taking two vehicles and that's just...

Well, I ended up, because I had to say they had a goose neck, or I mean a fifth wheel, and then I would still put a trailer behind that, so I would triple tow. And like, that's cool and all, and I've towed all kinds of s*** all over this country, and I'm like, I don't really give a s***, but it's still a pain in the a**.

Yeah, it's just a big rig, you know? It's like, it's just a huge problem, or it could be, you know?

So then I went to an RV.

Fix your micro, I think it's rubbing against there.

I went to an RV this year, then it's easier to put a trailer behind there and just tow that.

Yep, so that was like our next move was like RV, like something that had enough power to pull a truck. But I found that, and then I, it was just like cabin chassis, and then I built the whole bed on it.

Oh, sweet, so that was one, I was looking for like maybe a roll off, or like, you know, like a roll back or whatever, so maybe I'll do that, and it'd be kind of cool to have one of those for pickup cars and...

Yep, that would be sick. Like that's not a roll back, like I would love it to be, but I mean, it's sick. I mean, like just the whole rig is like the dream rig. But it took me a couple of years of hunting and finding stuff. It's hard to find those in four doors that aren't like beat up work trucks, you know? So yeah, it's super, super nice, but typical weekend, Friday night we roll up, camp, usually, I mean, I forget the early enough we'll go out, like for sunset on Friday night, but it's just pretty relaxed, you know? It's kind of see what the friends are doing, like try to go out there with them and time everything with all of the friends. I mean, it really is coordinating with them, like when they're going out, when they're eating dinner, stuff like that. But go up, get the camper unloaded, get the truck off and put the flag on, air down, so run like probably 10 pounds of pressure in the tires. So yeah, if you ever go to the dunes, air down or else you'll get stuck immediately. Yeah, so I mean, it's just a nice getaway. We talked about buying a cabin or something up there, a property, but then we're just maintaining property now.

Yeah, that becomes a hassle.

Is the campground like right on it basically or right attached to it?

It's like about a half mile away, a mile. So it's like just down the road a little bit. But yeah, there's a handful of campgrounds. I mean, it's a huge tourist destination. So tons of camping up there. I mean, you can like rustic tent camp if you want, like I mean, whatever. There's hotels up there, but we're all about the camper life. We had a smaller camper and we upgraded the bigger one. Actually missed the smaller one, but the wife wanted a bigger one because we got a kid.

Yeah, right on it.

Yeah, I mean, it's nice. I'm not hating on it, but yeah. So I mean, really, it's just go up, hang out, kind of do whatever you want. Like it's kind of-

Just rip around?

Yeah, just rip around. I mean, we drive around, there's ice cream, and they got like, Craig's Cruisers there, like go-kart tracks and stuff.

Dude, that's gotta be your next one, right? If you ever replace the cyber thing, do you like an ice cream truck?

Dude, what? Dude, if I roll it, we're gonna be hawking ice creams out the window.

Dude, just beaming kids in the neck.

Just people in the head with popsicles. Oh, yeah.

Not kids. It's gonna happen.

Grown men.

Yeah, hitting grown men with popsicles. But I'll have the speaker up top playing ice cream music.

Anyways.

That's the beauty of the news. That's a lot why I like drifting too. So like Mid Michigan Drift Club here, like locally, if it wasn't for them, I would not be drifting at all.

Yes, I have this whole drifting thing coming.

Oh man. So like my buddy Josh, he's kind of like the local drifter in Jackson. So I mean, he's been doing a long time, and we just kind of know him from just motorsport stuff. We ended up going to a track with him. I went for a ride and I was like, that is not what I thought it was. I mean, to be quite honest, I just, I guess like from an outsider perspective looking in on drifting, like you see like the graphic out cars, like real JDM, Japanese style looking stuff, you know, it's like really wasn't a big appeal to me. I was like, I mean, the cars are sick, I guess they're teens. I mean, all that stuff's super sick, you know, like, but I was just like, I don't know, just seems like not my style. But then when I drove, rode in the car with Josh, I was like, this is a hundred percent my style. This is sick. Like just tandeming with another car, like looking out the passenger door, and there's another car two feet away from you was like, so epic. I was like, all right, I'll only get into drifting if the right thing rolls around. So like it was probably a year and a half or something like that. So Ray runs MidMichigan Drift Club out here, and Josh helped him with it. I don't think Josh is as involved as he was, but they started doing a Jackson Speedway here. The first event they did was at Corrigan Speedway, and that's where I rode in the car. But Ray used to own the Z, so I don't know what happened. I just started talking, and Josh was like, hey, Ray is selling that Z. It's a pretty good deal. It's ready to drift. I was like, great, I don't need another project. I was like, if I could just... Doesn't need to be turnkey, but just 90% ready to drift, I'm fine with that. If I get to spend a week on it, I'm cool with that. So Z needed motor mounts. He just was like over it. And so I was like, I'll buy it. So paid four grand for that thing and started drifting. And it's awesome. Like, I love it. It's like, it's funny. Like I think what caught me off guard was the amount of grip that like you feel in the car. So like, I think that that's what like gave me the addiction is feeling like the pull in the seat. It's like outside looking in, it looks like you're just sliding around out there. Cars look like they're on a slick track, you know? But it's kind of the opposite. It's like a lot of drift guys are hunting for grip. So like the more grip the better, because the faster you can go. So feeling the G's in the seat is really like, like when you're like mid drift and the car's really pulling and you're like plastered into the seat is like a super sick feeling. So yeah, I just started drifting. So it's like probably this will be my third year. So I've had, I was drifting the Z for two years, two seasons. And then, yeah, then I started doing this. My goal was to start this the first of the year, but I was a couple months behind. So I'm a little bit behind the ball, but it'll get out this year. So that's the plan. The main goal is LS Fest. Holley's been a real big part of this. Helped me out. Like, I mean, they've really stepped up and helped out with his build. So. Okay. How have they been helping out? They pretty much sponsored the car. So I mean.

Well, tell us about the car a little bit. Obviously, we talked about it in the tour a little bit, but tell us a little bit more about it.

So we called it the 1954 project. It's 1954 Chevy 210. I don't know how it all started. It started off, this was originally a bagged car, but I kind of just lost motivation. It sat over there for probably three or four years.

Were you the one that initially bagged it?

Yeah. Yep. So it was bone stock whenever I got it. And then I put it on S10 chassis, bagged that chassis. And then I just would not finish the car. I'm like, man, to just go cruise around in it wasn't doing it. I could just cruise around in anything, you know? Right. So I just really wasn't motivated. So I was like, started tossing up the idea. I'm like, what if it was a drift car? So then I'm like, oh, I could do it on the S10 chassis, but solid axle, you know? I was like, not really ideal. I mean, it is, it's fine, but I don't know, the S10 chassis just wasn't there for drifting, so my friend Tyson was, I was like, well, I'm just gonna, what if I take the subframes off the Z? I just started brainstorming. I was like, oh, I could use the subframes and the transmission, put an LS, because I already had the LS for the bag project, so that's been here. And so I'll just, just started coming together. I'm like, I'll cut apart the S10 chassis, put the subframes on it. He's like, why don't you just, at that point, just build a chassis? I was like, oh, you're right, because really, what's two frame rails of an S10 is nothing. I was like, that's dumb. I was like, actually, I could sell this chassis as an S10 bag chassis for somebody who wants it. So that's what I did. So I sold the chassis and then started throwing money at this thing. So right now, it's all custom built. Like I said, it's got the 350Z front subframe, the 350Z rear subframe. It's got an FDF angle kit on it. It's their older kit, but it works fine. CD-09, so it's the transmission out of the Z, so six speed manual with the LS.

No bolt to the LS, or they probably have like some sort of a swap kit or?

A Dabber kit, yep. So it's from Njuku Racing. It's got, I mean, just your whatever, whatever kit. You don't have to change the bell housing, which is really nice. So it's just a plate that bolts up to the LS and then bolts the transmission to it. Put the clutch in it, it's ready to rip. But yeah, so, and then Holley, so I pitched the idea to Holley, so they helped out with the Cybertruck a lot. Yeah, so they hooked up, they gave me the pro dashes. I mean, all the fuel system is all Holley stuff, so, and their other companies that they owned have worked with me on that. So the same thing with this, so I pitched them this idea, they liked it, and so, yeah, they've just been really good to work with. I mean, they've, it's probably been one of my biggest sponsor deals, really. So I'm like super grateful for them.

How did you come across working with them? They just reach out to you or?

So it was, whenever I was Cybertruck build, I was getting ready to just order the Terminator kit. I'm like, I'm just gonna just buy it.

Oh, okay, so you're just gonna go with them anyway.

Yeah, yeah, I was gonna go with them anyways, but I was like, do I know anybody that knows anybody at Holley? So I know Darren Parsons out in California. I just sent him a quick text. I was like, hey, I'm gonna buy this stuff. Before I buy it, do you know anybody who might be able to help me out with Holley? He's like, hold on a second. So he sends me an email, he's like, he sent them an email, he's like, send me pictures. So he sent them pictures of it. And then that's where it all started. So he's like, send him an email. He's like, sounds like they're willing to help you out. And I'm like, sweet. So that's what happened. Just called her. I mean, I was literally just gonna buy it, but I was like, maybe I'll just reach out to somebody first.

Yeah, sometimes we're just having like, just ask the question, right?

Yeah, yeah, yep. If you don't know, if you don't ask, you don't know.

Right.

So that's exactly what it is. Just asked around real quick before I bought stuff and just started happening. Just started clicking. So I started working with Alex there at Holley and it's been awesome. It's like probably one of my best deals I've had, you know, like seriously, like, I mean, it's, you know, I mean, you guys are car guys. It's hard, you know, it's hard to get help with builds.

So they're probably getting 100 emails a day or more, you know, that same thing.

So, oh yeah, everybody wants free this. Oh yeah, I'll, I'll, I'll put your tag in my Instagram, you know, stuff like that. But that's pretty cool if they want to work with you on this project too, though.

Yeah.

A whole nother level like that.

Yeah.

It's a fun relationship to have.

Yeah. And I like, and somebody, I don't know if somebody was one of my friends or like, you just like building weird stuff or like different, you just can't be normal. I'm like, well, I don't know about that. I was like, I just had these two cars. It's not like I went out of my way and like bought a Z to do this. I just like, I had the stuff. So I'm like, I might as well just do this, right? Yeah. And like, how do you make it work? Yeah. And like the, I mean, the 350Z is sick. Like, and at first I really was like not super pumped with like Zs, just like how they look. But once I like drove a Z, then I really got what like the hype about was about. Cause like, I mean, they're really good drift cars. They're just like the best platform, one of the best platforms for it. And then, you know, once I drove, I'm like, this car rips. And it's just like stock with an angle kit. It's kind of crazy, you know? I'm like, this thing hauls a**. It's freaking 300 horsepower stock. It's like, it's like 309, which is pretty impressive. V6 car.

You mentioned in the tour that this is going to be your first turbo car too, right?

Yeah, first turbo car. So we're putting a 67 millimeter turbo on it. So it's kind of small, but it's just to give me some low-end boosts, you know? So it spools fast. I'm not like super laggy. Mild horsepower for an LS. I mean, everybody I talked to was like, dude, you're only going to try to get 500 out of it? And I'm like, I mean, it might be 550, you know, something around, around 500, I'm happy with. It's just mainly to keep tires on it as long as possible. And I'm really huge on reliability. Like big horsepower comes big problems, you know? Like really, I mean, all the big horsepower trucks I see at the dunes, like they are getting rebuilt once a year, you know? Like stuff's blowing up, transmissions are getting roasted out of them.

Things get to a level where they become not fun.

Exactly, yeah. How much do you want to work on it? It's like, well, I want to drive it more, you know? Like I enjoy driving them. I do enjoy working on them. I've always been like, crafty, I guess, even when I was a kid, like customizing BMX bikes and stuff, you know? Like just doing, building BMX is my roots, so I think old BMX and skate kids kind of naturally transition in the car stuff, so. Yeah. Yeah, so the Drift24 project's getting close, so waiting on some turbo stuff from BTR.

Are you doing your own turbo kit or headers or anything?

It's got Holley manifolds on it right now. It's got turbo manifolds on it. And then I'm just gonna, and then I'll do all the tube work and stuff, and plumb it all myself and whatever. Probably hood dump it. I really, really wanted to dump the exhaust out of the gas door and then take the spring out of the gas door so it's like a tractor. So it's like boom boom boom boom boom. Like when it's running, it's like flopping, you know? But I'm like, it's like, as you get down, it's like, all right, that could be an extra project. I'm just gonna hood dump it for now. You know, or fender dump it and just not spend two weeks on exhausts, you know? So yeah, thank you.

It's a good thing you're a body guy because you're into two sports that hate body panels.

Yeah, dude, for sure.

That's probably why I gravitate towards this car. And like, I mean, I really don't want to tear up the Cybertruck. I mean, gosh, if I roll that thing, I'm gonna be so bummed, you know? And that'll probably just go Bronco body, to tell you the truth. So it'll probably be the end of it.

No ice cream, man?

Oh yeah, the ice cream truck I meant. Yeah, Bronco ice cream truck. That's what we'll do.

Or like a Snap-on truck or something.

Oh, that's a good idea.

Like a box van, yeah.

I'll throw Harbor Freight tools out of it just to confuse people.

Yeah.

Why not? Harbor Freight already is like compared to Snap-on, compared to Snap-on.

Right?

Yeah.

There's so many fun ideas you can do with it.

Oh yeah, that's crazy. Yeah.

Well, it's like themes, like, you know, like for anything, like, you know, if you look at like drift cars, like some of them have themes and all that same thing. Is this going to stay like this color wise and all that?

Yep.

I like this look.

It's sick. Yep. It's the whole big reason why I did it, because one, it's a really clean car, and I really hate to beat this up. So like, I'm in these like sports that just beat up cars. It's like, I don't want to beat these cars up, you know, because things, but I am also aware of the risk. You know, if I go back it into a wall, it is what it is.

Well, that is the name of the game.

Yeah. So I can just...

I don't know if I've actually seen like a 210, I guess, before. Like I've seen cars like this, but I kind of like the way this thing looks.

Yeah.

As much as I hate Chevys, it's almost got like a front lip on it already.

It's still a damn already pretty much. Yeah.

That's pretty sick.

Yeah. It's a good looking car. I mean, I think, you know, these were like kind of the, you know, non-desirable Chevys, you know, cause it was like 53, 54, then 55, 56, 57s. Those were like the big... So there was a period where these, nobody cared about these really. These were just kind of whatever, cheap cars really. Right. And I got it probably, I mean, I've had this longer than the Prerunner. So I had this like 15 years, something like that. Been hauling it around from Colorado to here. But I traded, like I said, I traded a really nice Chevy Cavalier for it. But this was like non-running in a guy's backyard. And when he signed the titles, like this car is like nice, like custom paint, like, I mean, I couldn't sell this car for the life of me. Like, it was a low mileage, like 60,000 miles on this car. I bought it from Brent. I was the only owner. Pimped it all out, wheels, TV screens, sound systems, interior work.

It was a real like, pimp my ride type situation.

Yeah, it was like, it was a, it was classy. Like, it was like a fast furious car, but not like crazy graphics, just a real sleek looking car, you know? But the kid, like, once we signed the titles, like we loaded this on my trailer, drug it out of his backyard, signed the title. He ran, like literally ran, and once he got the title, cause he was afraid he was gonna change my mind to the car, cause he thought he was like ripping me off so hard. So that has been my like personal mission in life, is to drive this car one day and be like, ha ha, Cavalier guy, this is way sicker, dude.

Two decades later, we're like, yeah, got you. He's got like a minivan and kids now.

Yeah, yeah, the Cavalier's in a scrap yard somewhere. Dude, that's like, for sure. That's like, I'm like, ah, please, like just want to drive this car. It's going to be a big deal for me driving this car. Personal deal.

So then how do you choose which car are you going to take to grid life?

Well, so truck can go on the decks. See, this is where the whole camper thing comes into the problem here. So I'll just load this on the flatbed trailer behind it. So truck on truck, car on trailer, and then that whole rig will go. And then I guess we're staying at a hotel. So, yeah, hopefully grid life will let me drive this thing. I know there's like a, like a drifting, coming to the drifting community is a little different than like the pre-runner community because you kind of have to get accepted in the events. So like, I just can't sign up for grid life and go drive. You know what I'm saying? So it's like, rightfully so, because they can't, I mean, that's a fast paced track. I mean, I think the first corner is like almost 100 miles an hour sideways. So it's like, you can't just have guys sign up for it.

Even to run, they're like road course stuff. They're very, first of all, I think there's a list. And then you almost have to know somebody before you can get into it. So yeah, it's kind of exclusive.

Yeah. And that's like, I mean, obviously I'm not going to be there this year, but hopefully next year I'll have enough time in the seat of this thing and really like figure it out to hopefully next year I can get into grid life because it'd be so sick to take this thing out on track.

Where are you going to go test this thing?

Probably Jackson. So we kind of have an open door there. Just, I know, just from knowing Josh, they're like, if you ever need a test or something, I'll just, I'll run it out there real quick.

How far is that from here?

I like 20 minutes. Okay.

So again, not from here. So what is that? Is that like a pad or a drag strip?

Jackson Speedway is unique because it used to be, so they got a circle track where they used to race like mini sprints, it's concrete layer underneath, but it used, it was dirt. So they scraped the dirt off of it. And then off to the side of that, they had a go-kart track where they ran like high speed gas powered go-karts. Well, they sold those years ago and Josh and Ray had the idea, they're like, what if we drifted on that? It's like a tight track. It's like a kind of a really technical track. But this is their third year there. And so they've done a lot of work. So it's a go-kart track essentially. And so it's a concrete go-kart track that was pretty narrow. And then basically Ray just takes any money they make and puts it back into the facility. So he's added a bunch of concrete to the outside of the turns to make it better for drifting and stuff. So I actually just took this kid's chair out there and helped them a few weeks ago clean up the track. So yeah, I like being a part of it. It's like, I mean, the drifting, I feel like at home in the drifting community, cause it's a lot of like BMX kids, skate kids. I guess that's who I grew up. I was a BMX kid growing up. So it's all the same personality types. You know, it's like, I don't know, it's just a good vibe. Like I like being in the drift scene.

So I think that's what US Air, we used to be a go-kart track as well.

Oh really?

Yeah.

Yeah. So yeah, so Jackson Speedway is this old go-kart track that started drifting it. And honestly, if they didn't do that, I mean, I wouldn't travel any farther to do it. So, I mean, now I would with this car, but I would have never got into it. If I was having the pre-runner, I would have never like, what's nice is I could have just like, when we're not up at the dunes, it's like, oh, there's an event. I'm just going to run over there real quick, drive a car over, do some hot laps, come home. It was like, it's awesome. It's great. So yeah, if those guys weren't doing that, I probably wouldn't be drifting. So thank you, MidMichigan Drift Club. I appreciate you.

Where does the YouTube thing come into this? Why do it? Because some guys just like to hunker down and work on their own stuff, you know, to documenting it's a job in itself.

Yeah. Yeah. YouTube's hard, dude. YouTube's really hard. It's super hard. Where did it? I think, I guess it would, I've always been in like filming stuff, I guess, and I think about it. Like when I was riding mountain bikes, I would always like, I was always the guy with the camera. I'm like, yeah, I just want to video tape it too. Sick, you know, we're doing big stuff. So yeah, I guess I've always really been into like video and stuff. I guess even when I was a kid, we would mess with my mom's camcorder and stuff, filming like BMX videos in the backyard and whatever, you know? Yeah. I think just filming it, I think.

So it's a natural progression.

Yeah, it just kind of happened. I mean, I did some like snowmobile videos out in Colorado. So like, if you go way deep on the YouTube channel, there's like some Colorado snowmobiling videos and some dirt bike videos. Just happened. I mean, I guess I never really thought about that.

So you just do it just for the heck of it?

Just for the heck of it. Yeah. It's really just because. I mean, don't get me wrong. I think every YouTuber has a dream of like being huge, and it's your full-time gig. I mean, really, it's like, I can't imagine a better job, really.

Right.

It's the best job. You can do exactly what you want and get paid for it. It's like, what a time to be alive. Seriously. It's like, I mean, yeah, I mean, YouTube, it's just fun, and I really enjoy editing too. So like- What do you edit on? I'm just curious. Premiere Pro. Yeah. So I just, I don't know, I just kind of figure stuff out, like hours of YouTube and how to do stuff in Premiere. Yeah.

You're a tinkerer.

Yeah. I just like mess around stuff. So like, and honestly, like a lot translated from Premiere to Fusion 360. Like a lot of keyboard shortcuts and stuff are similar. And it's like, kind of once you wrap your mind around, like how they program a program, like, okay, so you get like deep in the Premiere. Okay. Well, you can kind of use the same mindset. Okay. Well, if you were going to do this on a piece of metal, how would you do that on a computer? Like, you know, I don't know, just like, I think a lot of it just cross references, which may be why I picked up on CAD a little quick, I feel. Yeah. Yeah, YouTube just was a natural thing. I don't know. And I really wanted it. So whenever I started really filming like pre-runners, at the time, a lot of like off-road videos were just like of the trucks. And so I was like, dude, it'd be sick to like know the people. I think people want to know like, okay, like if you go down to some of the first pre-runner videos I did, as like I'd sit down and do like a quick interview and then we just go film the trucks. I'd be like, all right, where do you work? What do you do? Tell me about the truck, what motor's in it, just real fast. That could be a probably a minute to two minutes of just a quick interview with the owner of the truck. And then we go rip and then I would just film it. And I was like, I feel like people want to know the people of the trucks too. So that's kind of really what stemmed the pre-runner filming. And then, and then that kind of really got difficult, like filming people and then the trucks, right? And then it kind of turned into more vloggy stuff, like just kind of our weekend up there. And then trying to incorporate some of that stuff too. So at this point, I'm just doing whatever. I'm just filming cool stuff, I guess. It's my mission. Yeah, I mean, hopefully it blows up and I have a million subscribers.

I mean, you never know. After like J****** and the CKY or all that stuff those guys did, you never know what, obviously you get a call from MTV, be like, hey, you're doing crazy s*** on video.

Yeah, you never know and there's not a lot of video, like the film that we're getting. So to be able to film in the dunes is kind of hard. Yeah. So like at a track, you can just show up with a camera and stand around, gets cool shots. Well, the dunes, you got to one, pay to get in, you got to have a vehicle capable of going on sand dunes. Two, you're never going to like some of the side by side shots, like of us mobbing with the Osmos and stuff. It's like you have to have an equal capable truck to film another fast pre-runner. So you got to have a gnarly truck to film that truck in its natural habitat. So there's not, I think on the DOW channel, there's not a lot of videos like that, like where you're seeing trucks just full rip, being paced, kind of rollers, really, like roller shots, gnarly roller shots.

So then there's tiers to basically the whole pre-runner world as well, right? Like again, all I know about pre-runners is what I've seen on racingjunk.com, right? Like that's as far as my knowledge goes. So kind of break it down, like is yours like a specific type or?

I would say that there's just like levels of pre-runners. So like a mild build, so you got mild, mid and then like long travel, right? So like your mild build is going to be like Dever Leaf Springs. So still leaf spring rear end with like maybe a small bed cage and like triple bypass shock in the rear, like a 16 inch shock. And then the front. So a big reason why people like Ford Rangers, because they come like the old ones come with like TTB, like the front traction beam stuff up front. And that's really... So we run into problems like building like a mild build is your front upper or your front A arms are only so long, right? And then you start getting really long. So like really you just need a longer pivot point for more travel. So with a twin traction beam or like I beam Ford stuff, you get... I was thinking that was my truck. Your beam goes and cross it to the other side of the frame rail. So like let's say you got your frame rail here, you got your passenger side wheel coming all the way over to the driver side of the chassis, which allows a lot of travel without having to push a control arm way out or center mounting. So like center mount would be a very expensive process because you got to move your whole engine back and then build a bulkhead up front to get just your longer arms. So really it just comes down to how long your arms are for traveling. So like a mid build would be just like a kit you would buy a little bit longer A arm or whatever, or if it's a beam ranger, you could do like some extended beams, some unequal length beams would be pretty mild. Then you start stepping up to equal length beams, that's they're the same length on each side, but they're really wide, so you can get more travel than you're, then you need like a big engine cage to accommodate for bigger shocks. So now you're starting to get into like mid travel stuff. And then long travel stuff is four link rear end, center mount or full size beams. So the beams are like kind of cheap travel. So there's a cheaper route for getting big suspension numbers up front.

So you got Rangers, F-150s, Broncos, all that, the I-beam.

And you think we like, so you can get to a lot, a real common modification to like get your pre-runner started is to find something with beams on it. And then you can cut them and extend them and then brace them all up. So you can work with factory beams, like kingpin beams, and then get some pretty good numbers out of that. So like, and that's why they're so popular, is because they come factory with the beams, you know? And then you can modify those to make them work, or just go full out and buy custom built set, like what's on the Ranger, well, Cyber Runner now.

So what kind of speeds can you get up to at the Dunes?

I think the fastest I've gone is like 89. So that's like down, like there's an exit, so they call it exit road. So if you're going over the Dunes, the directional, you can go left to exit the Dunes, or you can go right to go back towards the beach. And that's kind of like the big kind of downhill, long straightaway. That's probably the longest straightaway you can get out there. And I've been like 80, I think 89 was my top speed. Which is intense. That's fast. Yeah, that's really fast. Like, I mean, we're going over whoops that are, you know, two foot tall, you know? So it's like, and you get to a speed where you just like scoot over the top of them, which is like, you know? It's pretty sick. Yeah, I mean, I think we go out, I kind of like it like Silver Lake, like a skate park. So like very BMX oriented. So what we usually do is we'll go out and we'll find like a line that we like. It's like fun. Maybe it's got a couple of jumps or something in it. Or we like, we'll session a spot. So if we find a jump, we'll like session the jump for a little while. So it's like, we kind of like, treat it really like a big skate park. So it's like, because it is kind of small for Sand Dunes. I mean, it's nothing like Glamis. It's nothing like Oklahoma. Acre wise, it's really pretty small. So finding a track that you could like haul, go really fast around, like kind of push the limits is what we do. And then or session like a jump or something.

Right.

Just find something to dink around on. Then we'll go exploring, you know, just kind of put around, do our thing, you know.

Where else in the country have you taken it? Have you gone anywhere else?

So a big bucket list trip is like Glamis. So I have this extravagant kind of tour that I would want to do. And it always came down to like Toe Rig. So I had like a old at 73, F350, it's like 300,000 miles on it, 2,000. And I was always like, there's no way I can take this out west and break down on this thing. Hauling the truck, you know, I was like, this would just be a nightmare to like have problems with. So I've never gone out west with it. And so last year I got the Toe Rig and I was like, this is our rig. I was like, now we can finally go like out west. So my bucket list trip would be to go to Glamis for Thanksgiving.

And where's that at again?

California. I'm pretty sure.

Okay.

Yeah, it's in California. I was like thinking maybe it was in Nevada or something. But yeah, so go hit up Glamis for Thanksgiving because it's a huge part. It's a huge deal. It's like, I mean, it's awesome out there. Leave the truck out there for a couple of weeks, fly back, hit up SEMA. So take your truck to SEMA. And then from SEMA, it's a couple of weeks after that, do like Rage of the River race. So that's like my kind of big dream tour would be to do something like that.

And where is that race at?

It's like Laughlin, Nevada. So it's like south of Vegas, I think it's like 45 minutes or something like that.

And is that something that you would have to like work towards? It sounds like something you could just sign up for?

I mean, I could sign up for it, but it's just a lot of money. So it's just really funding. Like, I mean, the race, I think is fairly cheap to enter, but I mean, we're talking like fuel. I need to have a couple of friends come out the pit. You know, I mean, it's just like, it's a big process to race. Like, going to Glamis is one thing, going to SEMA is one thing, but to schedule a race is like a whole other thing.

And I'm just curious, like, if you wanted that sort of thing to happen, like, what's it cost? Any idea?

I think if I just wanted to go out and do the race, I mean, fuel in the tow rig out there is gonna probably be 3,500 bucks, something like that. And then, I mean, probably like safe, like 10 grand. 10, 15 grand would be a good, I mean, what's good about that race is a two day race. So they held first day and then if you break, then you got the night to fix your truck.

Yeah.

So I would want to have some money to like, oh, my transmission is blown up. Actually, I have a spare transmission, so I'd have that. I'd take that with me. Just have some extra money in case something blows up on the truck, like a rear end. I got some funds to like, consumables. Yeah, to fix the truck, you know.

What's the format of the race?

So it's just like a time race. So if you go out, say we signed up for the race. So I think, you know, I guess I've really never looked too much into like how the race structure works. I'm like, oh, I'll figure it out once it comes time. But I think it's like for a two day race, they'll take your combined time and add it together. So if you run, I think you do a certain amount of laps. You do, I know like the mint is four laps. I don't know how much it is for Rage of the River. I mean, I looked into this like last year. Yeah, I know how it goes. So yeah, you do a few laps and you get timed and then next day, the time you again. And then combined time, they declare a winner.

That's a cool bucket list item, man.

It's pretty sick. Yeah, I mean, it's like.

We'll get you there.

It'd be awesome. It'd be great. It'd be so sick.

What does that thing run for trans, by the way?

C4, so.

Okay, I was gonna ask, is the rest of the drivetrain also other than your I-beams and all that stuff, or is it, so C4.

Yep, so it's, yeah, C4 trans. Then to a nine inch, it's based off a nine inch, but it's a fully custom built housing. It's like 35 spline axles in the rear, full floaters, so it's nice because you can take the axle out just by popping the cap off. So you take the cap off, you can pull an axle out without taking the wheel off, which is great. It's got two and a half inch BMS Blitzkrieg hubs, which is like huge hubs, you know, there's like massive hubs. And actually the front hub is still on there from whenever I wrecked, I fully jumped sideways onto that hub, it bent all suspension back and the hub survived. It's like kind of incredible. What the heck, dude, that's gnarly. But yeah, so pretty much all Ford driveline, the only thing that I would say is still there from the Ranger is the frame rails. So the frame rails are still there. And then the cage is all built around that. Some of the door components is Ranger door jam stuff, but other than that.

You don't run them in four wheel drive or do some of them?

Some do run four wheel drive, but it's more moving parts that could break.

Right, right. So once you start messing with the beams and stuff in the front, I suppose that gets to be...

Gets a little tricky. It kind of limits you on travel a little bit because your CV joints or whatever can only move so much before you got to like strap it before it starts tearing up joints and stuff in the front end, so. But my buddy Jamie did it, so he was two wheel drive Ranger, stock, I think it was a three liter, but he went all four wheel drive, the Dana 44 stuff up front, so. And it's sick. I mean, he did break some stuff like right out of the gate, and he got it fixed, and it seems like he's got it dialed pretty good, so. It's fun seeing it like rip because he can just like, at the dunes, I got to keep up momentum, like I can't stop at the bottom of the hill and then go up it, so he can just be like cruise right up stuff. I'm like, that's pretty sweet, you know? And then like we do some like trail trips, so we'll go like hit up some trails up north, and four wheel drive is awesome out there for that. So, I mean, two wheel drive is great, but I got to keep my momentum up.

Yeah. So you'll go like up to the UP and ride there too?

We haven't been to the UP, but we've been to St. Helens twice. Okay. Just mobbing around the trails. And honestly, the truck's quite uncomfortable on trails because it's just all chatter bumps. So like when you're riding that, like if you listen to the videos, you'll hear like the rattling, the like, click, click, click, click, click, click.

Yeah.

It's like the shocks rattling. So like when you're on chatter, it doesn't really absorb the chatter. It's like kind of being almost as a stock truck. I mean, it absorbs some of the big bumps, but like as far as chatter, the truck still like, so it really, really doesn't, it's really not the most fun thing to be.

Like walk 40 stuff is.

It's not, it's horrible. Yeah. It's like, it's in it. And then on top of the vibrating, the shaking, you got the shock like click, click, click, click, click, and it's like, oh, it's, they're all connected to the roll cage. So it's just like ringing throughout the cage in the truck.

You know, this all sounds so fun.

Yeah. I mean, it's sweet. Like don't get me wrong. That's a good time. But after about three hours, you're like, all right, this is uncomfortable. Where I can take my stock Explorer, and at least it's quiet. Yeah. You know, it's still bumpy, but it's like not rattling in your ear the whole time. So, yeah.

So what's next for you then? What's the next year or two? Is it just wrapping this up pretty much or?

Yeah. I mean, just doing trips. And then big goals, give this out the LS Fest in Bowling Green this year, just to kind of have it out there for Holley and show them what they helped build. I mean, I want it done way before then, but that's my heart. If it's not done by then, it has to be done by then. Yeah, just getting this thing figured out, get some test hits on it, and have some fun with this. I mean, it's a multi-purpose car, so I can drive it on the road, do burnout competitions with it. I mean, just doing burnouts just sideways all day anyway. So it's essentially a burnout car.

When is LS Fest anyway?

I think it's September. Yep, it's early September. And then I took the truck out to Ford Fest, which was super cool, but it was like monsoon season. Like it rained the whole time, we couldn't even go out on the track. Yeah, all I did was, I did the autocross in it, which was fun.

We can get what, three wheel at that thing or whatever too?

Oh yeah, yeah.

That's cool.

Yeah, so I actually, I took the coils out of it and put like PVCs and I took a drift and I went to Wasso. I took it to one of the drift events. So I basically just lowered the truck down onto the bump stops. So it was like just pretty much stiff and it drifted really good. It was awesome. It was pretty sweet. It was a fun time. I've got a video of that on the YouTube channel too. So check that out. Yeah, but yeah, if you don't lower it, then it's three wheels. Like it starts to like wanting to roll and then it'll pick the left front wheel up or the right front wheel up as you're turning. It's kind of crazy. Like everybody's like, we're going to roll. Like I took Josh for a ride in it. He's like freaking out the whole time because it is pretty trippy. I mean, you can, and like a lot of trucks run sway bars. I just think it's more fun without a sway bar. It's faster with a sway bar. Like if you're going for corner speed, but I ain't racing nobody. Like if I go out west, I'll throw a sway bar on it. If I go run the race, I'll throw it on there. But I don't know, I've just been driving for so long without a sway bar.

What's the, have you ever, what's the furthest you've jumped or the highest you've jumped? Have you ever really done the math on it?

I've done it, yeah.

I've seen some photos.

Yeah, there's some, probably the biggest jump was a few years ago when the truck was gray and teal. So it was like my paint job before Dixie Cup.

Okay.

So it's had a couple of iterations. So it was like gray truck, then it wadded it up, then it went gray and teal, then Dixie Cup, now Cyber Truck. So before Dixie Cup, there's just a huge jump off last hill at the dunes, kind of like this big step down. So it's like the hill is kind of like this, kind of eased down and dropped off. And it was like we eyeballed it. And I think I can get to like that knuckle if I'm like full pin at this thing. And I was like, all right, let's just do it. And it was way too busy. So we always jump. So like a lot in the videos that comes across as like we're kind of reckless out there. It probably looks like, but we're actually really safe. So like any jump, it's like I'll never hit a jump without a spotter. If I don't have my personal friend on top of that hill to like wave me over it, to make sure nobody's on the backside of it, I like just don't jump it. So for that jump, we had, I mean, all my friends are at the top. So I had a couple of spotters, and then I had one specific spotter spotting me for the exit road. Cause it was like jumping into like exit lane out of the dunes. Yeah, I was like, I'm gonna land this, I'm gonna be hauling a**, and I'm gonna have to go into this exit road. And so I had two or three normal spotters just for the backside of the jump, and then I had one. So as I was coming up to it, I'm like lining up and then glancing at them just right before I'm ready to take off. But distance wise, it was probably, I was probably like 15 foot off the ground, and it was probably like a hundred and, it's hard to say because it's downhill. So it's probably like 120 or 130 to like the landing from the lift, which was huge. Yeah. That was the biggest one. And then Tyson probably has like the king of jumps. It's actually in the intro of all my videos. It's like a quick clip in the very intro of him just like fricking booter in it with like the sunset behind it. It's so sick. It's like, that's like probably the legend jump out there. I mean, I want to take that jump down one day. So I'm still looking for that jump, Tyson.

How does the land? Because again, like the only thing I've ever jumped is like my GTI off. Like I'm surprised there was no damage, right? Like it's like a pothole on L94. What's the feel to land something like that?

I wish the property wasn't super muddy because I'll just take you guys for a ride because it like jumps over there. But it's, I can't explain it. I mean, it's just like, I think what really gets people, if I were to explain it, is coming up to the jump, right, you're visiting a jump, and then we're going like, imagine going 45 or 50 miles an hour down the road. And then there's a trailer in front of you, like Grand Theft Auto style.

Okay.

All right, so like, that's like kind of the feeling you get. You're like, it sounds fun. And then once you start getting close to the jump, you're like, oh no, like I regret this. Yeah, yeah, like you kind of like reality hits you. And then as you're going up the jump, you kind of just don't see anything. Cause I mean, you got your whole hood blocking it. I mean, you have this whole invisible thing in front of you, your truck, and then you just kind of see the sky. And then like you're like, if you're doing a real big jump, you're like looking out the corner of the window, like your window over here to kind of spot, to see if you're going to make the landing and to kind of gauge if the truck's tipping or not. So like if the truck's tipping, let's say to the right, you want to turn your wheel to the right so that when you land, the wheels hit and pull the truck back out from under you. You don't want to turn. You could, I mean, yeah. So like, so yeah, if you're tipping to the right, you turn the wheels right so then when you land up, sucks the truck back under you. And then you're going to have to figure it out quick. But at least if you're turning the opposite way, the truck's going to pull out from under, pull the bottom out from under you. So there's a couple of things you can do if the truck starts to tip, but that's like my fear is tipping. Like I don't want to tip. I want it to be nice and straight. If it's nice and straight, then I'm just kind of spotting my landing, see if I'm going to case it or whatever I'm doing. But yeah.

What was, so what did it feel the first time you jumped your truck out there?

Frickin crazy. So like, so when you land, it's like just so smooth. Like it's just like an endless cushion of like, I don't know, I don't know how to explain it. It's like, it feels bottomless. So like, it just is like, and then like, if you hit real hard and you feel like hit the bumps, then it stiffens up real quick. And then you hear like thuds once the bump stops bottom out. So it's like, but like, I wish I could take you for a ride. It's like, you can't explain it. I'll take you for a ride.

Bottomless, just like that fish buffet you told me about.

Yeah. Oh, gross.

He meant seafood buffet, not fish buffet. I don't know why, but fish buffet sounds way worse.

Dude, the fish buffet is nasty.

Yeah, but seafood buffet sounds b*****, right?

Yeah, whatever you bougie m************ want to call it.

He doesn't eat fish, like fish, seafood, shrimp, nothing. He doesn't f*** with it.

Yeah, I'm down for that. That sounds super gross.

All the trout you can eat.

There's a bowl of tuna out there.

A bowl of tuna is crazy.

It's super nasty, bro. Maybe if it has relish and mayonnaise in it, I'll mess with it.

Yeah, right?

It's a high production quality.

If there's a couple shrimp and crab legs, then it's weird.

Yeah, it's hard to explain.

I'm excited. This is one of the things I've always wanted to do. That's why we do this podcast. We just get exposed to the crazy stuff out there.

One of my favorite things is taking people for rides. How do you explain running eight seconds on the drag strip? It's really fast. You feel like this.

Until you feel that G-force, it's something.

Yeah. It's like the same thing in the truck. When you feel... It's a lot like a roller coaster. You get that zero G, you're like weightless, and you get that drop in your stomach. And then your natural instinct, if you've never been in a truck before, it's like brace. You're like, holy crap. Because you're so used to how a regular car feels. It's just your natural instinct to...

Well, I'm a land mammal.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We live on land.

That s***'s for the birds, bro.

Do you ever have to maybe hit your brakes? Does any of that bring...

It doesn't matter. The trucks are so heavy.

Like a dirt bike or anything?

No, no. I mean, you could do it, but to find a jump that big to where it's going to matter is like, that's a big jump, you know? But I have the handbrake in the truck, and I have experimented in the air off smaller jumps, and you feel like a little twitch in the truck. You feel a bump, but it's not going to save you. I mean, you're along for the ride. Whatever it's going to do is what it's going to do. That's why scoping out the jump is real important. If you can take a test hit off of it, like a lob, just to see what it's going to do. If it's going to throw you, if you're going at it, and it's going to throw you to the right like this, you can change your angle up and hit it like that. Or vice versa. If it's going to pitch the truck one way, you can just change the direction you hit it to compensate for what it's going to do.

Is it pretty rough? Have you ever flat landed it?

Yeah, yeah. So if you watch the Dirt Fest video, there's at the jump contest as a 100 percent, probably 15 feet off the deck to freaking flat. And it's a hard hit. Like we're like, oh, this is going to suck. And then, but I mean, our backs didn't hurt. You know, I mean, we walked away. We're fine. But it's like a good freaking, you know, that's a smash in the ground. Yeah. You're hitting the ground. But it's kind of, I mean, that particular jump, I bent the right beam and I bent all four wheels. So Raceline sent me new wheels. So there were brand new wheels already. They were on the truck for like two months. And then I did that. But I was to, on their defense, I was running really low pressure. So if I was running a higher air pressure, it would have been totally fine. But I mean, it basically squished the tires to nothing. And then I landed on the rims.

How low were you running?

I think it was like 13 or 14 PSI.

And you would want to be a?

I'd probably like 30 to be, yeah, to do something like.

But that's a little more shock out of it.

If I'm planning on flat landing, I'm going like 30 PSI, and I'm putting a bunch of compression into the shocks, and I'm going to put my bump stops. I usually run it with like 200 PSI. I'll go to like 250. Just stiffen the whole thing up, you know? But there, we're doing time trials, so it's kind of a race. So we, I'm hunting for traction, which is why my tire pressure is lower. Gotcha. So that's why. And then also after the race, we're doing a long jump contest, so I just didn't fill up tires, you know what I'm saying? I just sent that thing. And it was like, I help run the event too. So I'm hosting a lot of like the go-kart races and the pit bike races and stuff.

A lot going on then.

There's a lot going on. So I just like did, I just, it was like a mad scramble. I'm like, oh, the jump contest is going. I show up late, you know? And I'm like, let's just send it. So, yeah, so that was probably the whole time I've really damaged a truck, like jumping it. And it's a pretty big jump. It was a big one. But it's impressive that we like, we're totally fine. So it's like, the truck did its job really well.

So, well, shoot on that, man. No, man, should we, sorry, it's 11 p.m. I think.

Do you want to pop the usual three? Yeah, absolutely. All right, so at the end of every episode, we like to ask our guests to pick three cars.

Okay.

I need a track car, a daily driver, and a show car. You have a limited budget, build whatever you want, swap whatever you want.

Track car, unlimited budget, like road race car, or like, Well, track is whatever you can envision.

It's a drift track, a drag track, whatever you want, yeah. A road course, a fricking pre-runner track, whatever you want.

A railroad track in your choo-choo trains, whatever you want.

Okay, so track car would probably be like just full spec trophy truck. I mean, a million dollar build. If we're doing it, let's do a big baby. You know, let's go race. Anyone come to mind? Probably, gosh, who knows? I mean, Brent all truck, I mean, whatever, geyser truck, any trophy truck. I'm not going to be a beggar at that point, if we're doing this. So track car would be full build trophy truck. I mean, to the T, whatever, most expensive thing, whatever it is. Yeah, more bigger. Then you say, so then, so that's my race, or that's my track car. Then, what'd you say?

Daily driver in a show car.

Daily driver. I would say, man, I would probably say like, is an R8 a daily driver?

Absolutely.

Yeah, I would probably go R8.

Yep, Audi R8, daily driver.

New generation or previous? You want the Ironman one or the newer ones?

Probably the Ironman ones, like the older gen, like first gens.

You want a manual or?

Manual, for sure, dude. 100%.

Gotta feel it out.

Yeah, oh yeah. Yeah, I mean, I got the A4, so I wonder if I got the things.

Oh, you got an A4 as well?

Yeah, yeah. And then show car. Dude, I'm going to go with the, I got the 68 Caddy out there. I think that thing, bagged, some mob steel wheels, convertible. Yeah, it's candy paint. I mean, just a low cruiser, man, I think I'd be sick.

Mine was a 69 Continental, so not much different.

OK, OK, hold on, hold on. I'm torn because I had a 66 Continental and that was the one car I regret selling. All that I've had a few other cars like Oldsmobiles and stuff I've sold. That's the one I'm like, Oh man, 66 Lincoln Continental, Suicide Doors. I think it was so awesome.

Was it convertible too or hardtop?

Hardtop, but I prefer the hardtops.

Oh really?

Yeah.

See, if I'm going to have that, it's just for cruising. Like I want the convertible. You want to haul the kids to go get ice cream.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

You can get six people in there comfortably.

OK.

Not that you can't in the hardtop, but yeah.

Maybe I'll change my mind to, I think that would probably be my cruiser, but I have the 68 Caddy already. So I'm totally cool with that too.

Which one are you locking in?

Oh, I got to lock in.

Yeah.

And see, we'll have you on a second time.

Oh, OK. We'll go Continental. We'll go bagged Continental, hardtop. If I'm not taking care of it, I'll take black, dude. If I'm like super money guy, and I got somebody to detail on that thing, I'll go in a black Continental. Yeah, dude, just, I mean, perfect bodywork. I don't want to do it, but I appreciate it. Like just laser straight car. I mean, just to the tee. I mean, fresh chrome, be sick, dude. That'd be awesome.

Dude, just wait till you're kid, and I don't know if you're planning on having more, get it older.

It's the last one. This is it.

OK. Like, I haven't had to clean a wheel in a long time.

Ooh, you're on to something.

Yeah, no, they love going to car shows and stuff, so I'm busy getting ready. So I was like, hey, my old is for sure. She'll pull a car out of the garage, she'll start washing it, and then the kids love to help, so they're in the rag. Their little hands, man.

Oh yeah, oh yeah.

Yeah, child labor.

They got little hands, they can fit in holes like that.

That's perfect. Exactly.

And get all up in there. That's what I'm talking about. He's thinking now.

He's like, well, she's like, honey.

Well, she's already shown some natural abilities. She loves the water bottle, and she'll grab the little brush over there and just like wash on cars. I'm like, oh yeah, here we go. That's a good idea. She does it already, but I've never thought of like, yeah, this is fun. This is really fun. To clean this wheel.

It's a team effort.

But I think she's going to be in the cars. I hope she is. I hope she is.

Yeah, dude, being around the crazy s*** you do, yeah, that won't be a challenge.

Yeah, it's like somebody said it, whenever I was like mid grind in the middle of Cybertruck builds, somebody was like, I was like, I feel, I was like kind of going to this phase where I was like feeling guilty a little bit. I'm like, man, I'm putting so much time into this. And then somebody's like, don't build it for yourself, build it for your daughter. And I'm like, that actually is really awesome to think about. It's like, I'm not building this for me. I'm really just building it for her. It's like, she can have the stuff. It makes it really...

You're only five, six years away from like, she's super excited. You're probably sooner than that, but now she's gonna be soon starting to thinking about, I might drive this someday.

Yeah, I hope so. I hope that fuels a little bit of a... I mean, I looked at my dad. It's like why I painted cars, so I got into it, because I was like, dude, I thought painting cars was so sick. I was like, I can paint whatever I want on it.

Well, that's exactly what it is. If you show kids that, oh, you can make anything, that's kind of a cool thing.

So I always tell kids, I was like, if kids are coming up checking out the Cybertruck, I'm like, look, man, if you can't afford it, you can build it. I was like, YouTube's out there. I've learned how to TIG weld from YouTube. I've learned how to use a plasma table from YouTube. I was like, you just need to have a little bit of ambition and a little bit of willpower and discipline, and you can do it. Like just, you got to see it through, no matter how long it takes, you know? I was like, trust me, I had a ton of bail sessions on that stupid truck. I'm like, this is so dumb. Why am I doing this to myself? But I mean, the truck's sick. I mean, kids love it. I love the kids love it. All the kiddos come up and check that thing out.

And the fact that you built it yourself too. That's the cool part.

Yeah. And like the weird compliment is, is like when people think it's a real cyber truck that I modified, like a lot of people were like, is that real cyber truck? I'm like, that's a weird compliment. But no, because I did a good job on it.

Is that a high quality for you or low quality for Tesla? Which one is it?

Yeah, right. Yeah. But like I'm like, no, Tesla never made a two-door cyber truck. So people are like, oh.

Shoot the windows. Let's see if they break or not.

Yeah. Don't do that. If you see my truck, don't vandalize it. It's not real. It has nothing to do with Elon.

Yeah.

It's not bulletproof. Don't shoot it.

On that note, where could people find you?

LookyDude on Instagram, L-U-K-I-E underscore dude. The Dial channel on YouTube. Luke and then Luke Allen on Facebook. Sweet, Dan.

Gunner Garage or Mr. Gunner Garage on Facebook. I'm not going through all the extra stuff, I'm tired.

And on that note, thank you very much for making this happen, man. I'm glad we were able to get together to do this. Dan, thanks for existing, and we'll see y'all next time. Thanks again for watching the show, guys. Be sure to go into the description down below and check out all of our sponsors. They are what make this show possible. It allows us to travel the country and talk to some really cool guests, so be sure to check them out, support them just like you support us, and see y'all next time.