166. 1500HP+ AWD Civic, Competing at Events, Honda Leaderboard w/ Jonathan Valentino Perez

A lot of the Honda community guys were like, man, like, who's this guy? You know, it just came out of nowhere and very quickly went very fast. Hit third gear and all I seen was a red glowing thing shoot at my exhaust. So like right there, it just shot out. And I was like, what is it? And my car just lost power. I was like, holy cow. It made like a crazy sound like this.

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome back to the Minnoxide podcast. I'm your host, Harris, AKA Minnoxide, man of many automotive aspirations. And I'm here with my Ford Loving co-host, Dan, Mr. Gunnar Garage. And today we continue our trip down here in Illinois, Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, whatever area. Is this technically Chicago or not really? Are we still far enough?

Chicago land?

Chicago land, Schaumburg. Sure, Schaumburg, yeah.

So today I found out that your Instagram is not Honda God. I found this out like 30 seconds ago. It's Honda, was it EG All-Wheel Drive?

Yep, so Honda EG All-Wheel Drive, AWD. For some reason, it just looks like Honda God on it, and I think it's awesome that it does that, but that was not the purpose. It was literally, it's a Honda, it's an EG, and it's all-wheel drive.

I've been going around telling people, like, yeah, I'm never gonna go talk to Honda God. I don't like this. But anyways, your actual name is Jonathan. You go by Valentino at events. You go to all these events and stuff. So go ahead and tell us a little bit about yourself, what it is you do, both professionally and then of course at the track, and we'll go from there.

Yeah, well, my name is Jonathan. I'm the owner and driver of this 1400 horsepower all-wheel drive Civic. I'm located in Schaumburg, Illinois. I'm owner of Precision to Envino Experts as well. We built this car about two years ago. Completed it, I would say, about two years ago. I've had the car for, I would say, about a solid eight years. Besides that, man, it's been a long, long journey from purchasing the car to getting it built and then to actually getting it racing. So we've actually put a lot of love into this thing and I appreciate everyone that has been a part of this journey for me. So with the car, I would say, in 2024, we finished the car and we actually started racing the vehicle. Which was an awesome journey for the fact that I had no idea really what I was doing. I'm going to be honest with you. So it was one of those things where I was just like, you know what, I have a great team to back me up. And the people that helped me build the car is phenomenal. So, you know, I was like, with the team and me being who I am and trying to make sure this car got done correctly, it actually played out very well. You know, the first time we took this car, we took it to H-Day and we ran like an 890 and that was just testing, like literally testing. My tuner, Abraham Elba was there and I was like, this is a perfect moment for this car to do some testing with it. John Roman, Boosty built was my engine builder, my transmission builder. And then we also had Richard Nelson who was Heltek. So he actually helped with the vehicle as well, tremendously, a good amount of work with the wiring and making sure the car performed the way it did. But besides that, we did a lot, man. So I would say the first outing was a successful outing to me because we kind of rushed it and we ran an 860 on our first pass ever and new driver, you know, learning the car, learning how it worked. And on low power, so it's like 40 pounds, you know, so I thought that was a successful day. And what needed to work during those times was the suspension. My car was like kept pulling to the left, kept pulling to the left, kept pulling to the left. And I was like, Jesus, you know, we need to do a corner balance. We need to do spring rates, you know, play with those type of things. And that's what we did.

And it was all wheel drive at that point.

Yeah, it was all wheel drive. We did all wheel drive the car. So my intentions was always to have an all wheel drive vehicle. If I was going to build a Honda, it had to be all wheel drive for me personally. I thought, you know, how cool it would be to have an all wheel drive Civic. And the goal was never to go as fast as it did now. The goal was to go 850s. That was actually my goal with the car. When I first started building the vehicle and we did that with our first pass was 860. Then we brought the car back home and we played with it. You know, play with the spring rates, like I said. And we also played with, you know, getting it faster. Because again, I was a new driver. So I didn't want to be...

Well, can we back up for just a second? Yeah. So like a new driver altogether, like you've not drugged any drag racing.

I'm sorry. So I've never...

No street stuff or anything with another car. You just got a wild hair up your a**. And yes, in Honda, you're like, Honda sounds good.

I was like, Honda all wheel drive, 1,400, 1,300 horsepower. I'm like, that sounds like a good combo. You know what I mean? I was like, lightweight, all wheel drive and power. You know what I mean? What more can you ask for? And that's what we built. It was me, John, from Boosted Built. We were like, what can we do with this car? Let's see how far we can take it. He asked me, he's like, what is your goal? What is your goal with this project? And I was like, my goal is to run 850s and I'll be the happiest man with that, you know? And yeah.

So you got your license.

So I got my license. And I was like, here, pull that towards you real quick. And I just like, let's, hey, let's jump in the Honda. So my first time out with the car was my first time really driving a race car, you know? And I was nervous. That was my first time staging. That was my first time everything. And I thought I did pretty well, you know? The second pass was same thing, like 880. And then I was like, you know what? This car is going way too much to the left. And I was like, I don't want to do this no more. I think we need to still, you know, put some work into the car before we start turning it up with power. And we came back and me being me, the next week we're like, no, we need to go testing the Great Lakes, you know? I was like, this car, you know, I got excited. You know, I have been building the car for about eight years and we put it together in about, I would say two and a half years. So I was like, you know, we need to go back to Great Lakes and, you know, figure some stuff out. So we brought the car back, I corner balanced it. Mark P from GP1 Race, he actually gave me some advice with the corner, with the spring rates on my car. He's like, hey, let me help you out with that, which he did and actually worked out really well. We went to Great Lakes, first pass off the trailer, ran a 790. First pass off the trailer. It was amazing experience. And I couldn't believe it. The tuner's like, hey man, I'm going to turn it up for you, and I just drive it, just drive the car. He's like, it has every safety feature, it has the strain gauge, all you need to do is drive this car and it's going to go. He's like, just shift light, you see it, shift. That's all you need to do. And we got the 790 pass, at I believe it was like 159. And that was awesome. And then we said, you know what, screw it, let's go back. Let's go back up. And then we ran a 780. My tuner is really good. Abraham Alwa, man. He puts some love into the car. He's very known, you know, like all his cars, he tunes, all the cars he does, it's very fast cars. So I was pretty happy with that.

Well, having someone knowledgeable. So it seems like you have a lot of knowledgeable people in your camp. Where does that come from? So how'd you get to know? Like a lot of people have spent years and years and years being disappointed by everybody. Yes.

So like the team I have is phenomenal. So that's exactly how it happened. So John Roman from Boosty Built, he had a K-Series car that I would follow online and I would see him at the track. And this guy was always doing good numbers and stuff. He's a K-Series guy. He knows his motors. He knows his transmissions. And the process of building my car was like, you know what? I'm going to pick him. I want him to be my builder for my vehicle.

OK.

You know, and me also doing my homework, asking questions, seeing other people out there like High Boost, Pharrell, is a huge person that I looked up to in the all-wheel drive community. I was like, man. So I've also followed a lot of all-wheel drive guys. I just didn't have my car done yet. So I would ask these guys these questions and they would be like, hey, man, I recommend this, that what John, which was amazing thing, he he just knows everybody like he's very known in this industry. He's like, man, if you want a team, he's like, you should pick Abraham for your tuner. He's like, I'll be your engine builder, your trans builder, obviously. And he's like, I think you have a successful program. And because of that, we do, you know, and then Richard Nelson set up my car from Helltech. So I decided to go with the Nexus R5 and I hit up Richard. And he's like, I'll guide you throughout the whole process. We're talking about from the wiring to every sensor, to everything he would think I would need for my car. And, you know, he set up my car, did all the calibrations on my car. So it would be Richard Nelson and Abraham Elba working together, you know, which I think was a big plus in helping, you know, get my car to where it's, you know, got to where it was quickly.

So, okay, so timeline. So this thing started making the rounds, you said around two years ago?

Yeah.

But the build was taking how long again?

So I've owned the vehicle for a solid like eight years. Okay. The build itself took about a solid two, two and a half years. Sure. And then once we finished the build, I decided to just go to events. I did testing at events because of my tuner. Because my tuner would go to these events and I would be like, oh, they're local, you know, six hours away, 10 hours away. Yeah. You know, why not just take the car there and test, I guess you can say at an event. But my testing ended up being amazing. Like I would go there and my car would perform very well. You know, I went to like Ohio versus Mitsubishi. Yeah, the Ohio Mitsubishi shootout or whatever. The DSM shootout. I went to that one. I got to race the Red Demon. I made it to the semi-finals with him. That was a great experience. I unfortunately broke my front diff and touched the wall. Yeah. And then I'm hitting the wall on that one. I got disqualified. That was another one. That was a big one. I got a new PV there. That was like a 780 PV. You know, so a lot of people, you know, unfortunately I can't say I build engines. You know, I don't build engines. I don't build transmissions, but I do put the car together. So, you know, like John, he would build the motor, build the trans, bring it here, and I would put the whole car together. And then everything would be like remote, you know? So I would hit up Abraham or Richard Nelson. I would give them a call. They would just hop on the computer for me and check out the car like that, you know? So I appreciated the team effort to get the car where it's at. And, you know, from...

That's not an uncommon way to go about it, though. I mean, to say that you didn't build it is not completely accurate either, though, because there's a lot of shops even that build race cars that are like, hey, we're sending this to the engine guy. We're having the trans build and they put it all together for you. So I think that you're selling yourself a little bit short there.

Yeah. You know, I'm a tin shop man.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I'm not a performance shop. But yeah, I definitely I put a lot of effort and love into it, especially my fabricator, GL Fabrication. He always had faith in me from the beginning. So, you know, he put a lot of love into the car and making sure that nothing breaks. And thankfully, I've never had like anything crack, anything, any of those type of problems. But besides that, man, I had an amazing year. Twenty twenty four, man, it was a beautiful year for me. I can honestly say I went to, you know, all the events, man. FL2K, TX2K, World Cup. I went to Ohio.

So since you're not going to make World Cup this year, are you going to try to make 2K then?

I'm not.

You're not going to try to make TX2K?

Unfortunately, this year is way out of question, fortunately, for my car. I do have all the parts to get the car, to get it going again, but my safety is my number one concern. So I really need this 25, 2K, Jenna, before I go back out racing. Sure.

We still got what? How many, six months?

Yeah.

Roughly.

Well, maybe street car bragging rights.

Yeah.

That's another one.

That's another one. Yeah. This winter, right?

No, that's in, what was it? May? May, I think it was. Yeah.

Yeah. So my goal is definitely to get it for TX 2K.

Oh, okay.

So let's say TX 2K. That's my testing. Everything needs to be done by that time. And then I'm going to definitely go to H-Day. Like next year, I'm going to all the events. H-Day is in Maryland.

Maryland? Okay.

So that's my next one. But next year, I'm going to be outside. So I'm going to be all the events like I did last year. Sure. And I'm not missing one for sure. So I was racing every single month. So that's the plan for next year. This year, unfortunately, the car got in the back burner. What time? But it's just fab work was what I need to get done for it. I put work first, unfortunately, before I put the car.

Well, I mean, that's unfortunately whatever you want to call it.

Yeah, it's just one of those things. It's more of a hobby, a fun thing for me. So, but next year, everything is set to go. I will be definitely tending. My first event will be TX2K, and then H-Day is where I really want to push the car to like the max on that. So, you know, by the, you know, going back to the car for the event, you know, we ended up getting on the, you know, top 10 list by the end of the year when we went to World Cup. So, for World Cup, we ended up hitting a 7.4 at 195. And, you know.

That's moving, man.

Yeah.

And this is your first race car.

I have to keep reiterating this. Yeah. So this is my first race car and I'm doing all this in one year.

Like, just like accidental savant thing here going.

You know, like I just jumped in the car and every month, I was just getting a better driver, better driver, better driver. And a lot of the Honda community guys were like, man, like, who's this guy? You know, it just came out of nowhere and very quickly went very fast. You know, I got on that list extremely fast and, you know, all these guys, you know, they all have like performance shops. You know what I mean? So like I'm the little guy trying to keep up with these.

Well, when you're the Honda God.

Yeah. For real, definitely.

Again, if I thought that, there's probably other people out there that thought that. We were squashing that today. So, okay. What class do you run in then?

Stick shift.

Oh, so it is still a stick shift.

Yeah.

Okay.

My car is a stick shift class car. I love the stick shift class car. I will, I never want to put a sequential on my car. I'll be completely honest with you. I enjoy driving my car, like shifting gears, you know, and not just going up, up, down, down. You know, it's just my personal opinion. Can you go faster? Absolutely. You know, that's the new thing. Everybody wants to do the five speed sequential and it helps save the motor. So, you know, when you're K24, the motor isn't revved too high and having sequential, you just, you know, just keeping the motor a lot healthier. So, for me, I'm going to do, me and my tuner talked about it, actually, like a month ago. He does not want me to switch because I thought about it. And I was like, man, you know, all these guys that are going really fast have a sequential in their car. And he's like, no, man, he's like, we're going to do it with the H pattern. So if we have to mess with the gearing and stuff like that, that's what we're going to do.

I mean, at least they keep that in its own class, right? So you're not like running up against a lot of that other stuff. Right.

Well, the stick ship class, man, you got some monster cars in there.

Yeah, we're just talking to Ben, our podcast before this. And it's like they had to expand the field up to 32 World Cup.

Yeah, World Cup this year. It's insane amount of cars for the stick shift class. And I'm so sad that I don't get to be a part of it. But it's always next year, though. Yeah. Oh, definitely next year. Yeah.

It's gonna be a party.

Oh, definitely a party. I can't wait for next year. Next year, I'm coming out, chasing everybody. But yeah, you know, one of my events that I won for the stick shift class was with the Grub Worm. Yeah. You know, unfortunately, he broke, I believe, second gear.

Okay.

And fortunately, he couldn't catch up. You know, he was coming, though. That man was coming.

Yeah, that's a fast one.

He was. I watched the video. That man hit third gear. He put it in third, and I seen him coming close. But unfortunately, what's that sound? Yeah, I was like, what's going on here? But yeah, that was a good experience there, the stick shift event that one. It was an outlaw stick shift class. Like Nick Coleman, Grub Worm, like a top stick shift guys. And I was going rounds, going rounds in that one. I was running, because it's like seven, eight, seven, nine, seven, eight. And it actually got me a win, you know, being more consistent and not trying to like break records or trying to go as fast, which was probably one of the best days of my life, you know, getting to experience winning 15K and the crowd going crazy, you know, a Honda, you know, like a Honda, let's be real, you know, going against a Grub Worm.

I was going to say, yeah, like beating him and all people, right?

Yeah, you know, it wasn't a fair race. Yeah, I get it. But winning is winning. Winning is winning. And that, in my opinion, that's stick shift racing. That's like anything can happen in that class, man. It's insane. And I got to W on that one, and it was a great experience for me.

Whether you are new to working on cars or a seasoned shop owner at the top of their game, the High Performance Academy is where all car enthusiasts can go to expand their skillsets. If you want to learn how to build an engine, tune your car, improve your wiring or suspension setups, the HP Academy has the perfect step-by-step course for you. As a friend of the show, they provide the listeners with a special 55% off discount code that you can use risk-free on any course of your choosing. Details are in the description of the show below, or go to the partner's page of minnoxide.com. Go check it out, let's get back to the show.

You must be halfway decent then at banging gears and stuff because you're driving manuals and stuff as you're growing up then, at least a little bit. Yeah, yeah, okay. I'll say yeah. You still got to shift pretty good to do that and not blow stuff up too, you know?

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, so a car that I get to practice on is my best friend's Omar car. He has a twin turbo V, a 1400 horsepower twin turbo V.

V3 or V2? V2.

Nasty, man. It's a beautiful V. And that's one of the fastest cars I know. So you could say I've driven in stick shift and he would let me just drive it for fun. We'll just take turns and having fun with it.

OK, so you have experience with fast cars.

This has some experience with the fast cars. But going to the track and staging, that was new to me. Bumping in my reaction time, things like that.

Everybody's watching you.

Everybody's watching, especially me, man. Everybody was like, Jesus Christ. And I learned a lot from a lot of people. I got a lot of advice. Nick Coleman, he gave me a lot of good advice when it comes to actually racing on the tree, which is pretty neat. He has the fastest stick shift truck out there.

Oh, that's the truck with the purple wheels, right?

Yes. Yeah, Nick Coleman's awesome guy, man. He gave me a lot of pointers, a lot of pointers when it comes to racing, how to play with the tree and things like that. So I listened to him and it's helped me a lot tremendously when it comes to that.

What's the best reaction time you've done?

Oh, man. I got 128. Nothing crazy. To be honest, honestly, I'm making sandwiches at the light. I was like, Jesus. So with me, I have a slipper system in my car and I haven't learned exactly the timing when I let go versus the light. So like in my head, I'm thinking I'm letting go of the perfect timing, but the delay still hitting is not the best. So I've changed that now. I upgraded my slipper system and now it's computerized. So now I'm going to be able to hopefully cut a lot better.

Sure.

Okay. So a lot of my videos on Instagram, you can see everybody's always treating me, but I catch them. So as soon as I hit third and fourth, I usually pass them up.

So you got, there's potential to be even faster than.

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. You know, the car itself has, in my opinion, had way more potential. Even when I ran the 740, we were on 65 pounds. And my next time out, I went on 75 pounds. And unfortunately, the valve decided to let go. And the valve went audio. It came out through the motor, through the turbo, and it was done, lost compression number two. And that put me out for the rest of the World Cup event. But, huge shout out to Apex Turbo, because I put a new turbo on the car. It was the first time we had that turbo on the car, and I ran my new PB, getting on the top 10 list for that. And I was very thankful for that. My other turbo, had three turbos previously to that, and they were always blowing. I think we're probably pushing a little too hard, and the shafts would always break on it. So, we were having some troubles at a lot of events I went to. First pass on, literally, a blow turbo, and it would put me out for the event. So, I was very happy when I went to Apex, and we, they definitely proved it, because man, off the whole, it was amazing, no turbo damage, no nothing. And it was pretty neat, you know? For once, I was like, man, I was having a bad streak for like three events in a row. Yeah, I was like, geez, driving, you know, getting there, doing a pass, and turbo let go.

And if you're driving across the country in some instances, yeah, or is that all like locally?

No, yeah, I was Ohio and then Florida.

Oh, that's a drive.

Yeah, that was the first pass was like a 790. OK. And just to get, you know, like just to get a feel for the track. And then we're like, OK, well, let's turn it up. And anytime we went past like 55 pounds, it would it wouldn't just it was unfortunately, we just didn't it wasn't able to hold it. But, you know, there's a lot of factors into that. So unfortunately, it was just a shaft would just crack in half and it would just break. And the the fin would shoot out the exhaust. And when I went to Ohio, that's where I'm pretty sure I was one of the main reasons why they want to cross bolts in it.

Oh, really? I was gonna ask that question.

Yeah, because the exhaust wheel broke and shot out and actually landed next to someone's camping site. So they got it on video, like glowing red right next to their campsite. It was pretty insane. I'm not gonna lie. I was like, holy cow. Yeah, so after that, I think they kind of pushed hard with the, putting the cross bolts in the...

Well, there was other incidents too. Like, I've, yeah, it's just, I'm sure at some point, like that was definitely contributing.

Yeah, I've seen some twin turbo cars shoot out as well.

Well, that's why I stand to the side. If I see, you know, a certain brand turbo, I'm like, I'm gonna step aside real quick.

Yeah, it's dangerous, man. Like, I was the first time I experienced that. I was hit third gear, and all I seen was a red glowing thing shoot at my exhaust. I'm like, what is that?

Right here, right?

Yeah, right here. So like, right there, it just shot out. And I was like, what is it? Then my car just lost power. I was like, holy cow. It made like a crazy sound, like, whiz. I was like, whoa. Car lost all power. I was like, that's crazy. I've never seen nothing like that. And then, you know, all the smoke from the oil.

Dude, that is insane.

Yeah, that's one of my crazy. And then another crazy experience I had was when I touched the wall. Oh, I had some few crazy experiences. So I touched the wall when I went against the Red Demon in the semi-finals from the diff breaking. And then in TX2K, my car caught on fire, you know? That was, unfortunately, it was a mistake. I think I forgot to tighten one of the bolts down on my valve cover and shot oil, got in the exhaust, huge fireball. Still ran a 790 with a car on fire. I was not letting go. But yeah, some crazy experiences I had with the vehicle. Besides that though, I've always had successful, you know, by the end of the year, we had it pre-dialed in, you know, especially when we put the new turbo on it. That was key.

How did you discover Apex? Or did they discover you?

No. So John, again, my builder, from my engine builder, from my cast motor. What was he based out of again? Palatine. So John, Boosty built.

Okay.

Yeah, John Roman. So he built all my, it was a K20 motor. It was the same combo he had in his car. He built the transmissions. So he's really good at it, like extremely good. And you got to have someone who has passion and love for that type of stuff. And he definitely shows that. So I was like, no, we got to, I had a lot of guys also, but when someone's local to you, like 30 minutes away, and they're building some good motors, why wouldn't you want to pick it? Like, hey man, you want to be a part of the team? And he agreed, and we were just a great team working together. And he recommended me everybody who I should be a part of my car to make it successful extremely fast. That's what I want. I was like, look man, let's get this car, but I want it to be done quickly. You know, I want to go fast quick. You know, I'm not looking to go fast two years, three years from now. I want to go out and I want to, you know, just party. You know, keep up with these guys, you know, these cars are going fast, man. And I want to be a part of that, you know, especially going to events, you know, like going to an event is an amazing experience for me. It was my first year and got to meet tons of new people, you know, awesome people, YouTubers, all kinds of people following my car and, you know, being getting it built so fast, quickly like that, or going fast quickly, you know, surprised a lot of people, I would say, you know, and I'm pretty happy about that because it's not easy to build a race car and then have it go fast, quick. You know, usually I see people who are still two or three years deep and, you know, breaking stuff and blowing things up. And, you know.

Well, it helps that you have people that have the recipe, too, right? They already went through all those nightmares, you know, and all the development and all that stuff. By the way, for context, the best time that Adams ran in his twin turbo Viper was 7987.

Really? Oh, really?

Yeah. Now, granted, that car's got, every car's got more in it, you know what I mean? Right. That's after, like, a handful of outings. But, like, that's for context, by the way.

Yeah. No, I know that's fast. Like, yeah, that's, yeah.

And to be doing it that quick, that is incredible. So what, OK, so when it comes to Honda world, right? That we've only had a handful of Honda guys on the show, right? You're probably the fastest now. What's the food chain look like? Like, who's the guy right now?

Speed Factory.

Speed Factory.

Yeah. They're only like six seventies.

OK.

B Series. Yeah. So they're B Series. They get frustrated and they have Mark P. They're both K Series guys, like seven one. And then seven three, I believe. And then it just goes down, you know? So you got High Boost. You got the Carry Out Boys. You have a good group of people that are going really fast. So, you know, World Cup is gonna be a great time. I can't wait for World Cup because there's gonna be a whole new list. You got these guys putting Billit Motors in their cars. Man, the bigger Turbos. They're all getting ready for FL2K right now. So, you know, I personally think FL2K and World Cup is gonna be, the list is gonna completely change. I'm number nine on the list right now, but I'm definitely getting kicked out by World Cup. There's no doubt about that. I hate to say it, but...

But you're getting ready for next year, though.

Oh, absolutely. I'm coming. My goal is to be top three in the world. So, you know, God willingly, that's what I would like. I'm setting up the car for it 100%.

On that list, like you said you're number nine, is that United States or globally?

Globally.

Globally. Geez, dude. Okay, so, okay, I got to confess. I've been watching Street Outlaws.

Okay.

Like, because I never got to as a kid, so I'm just binge watching all of it, and I'm like, you know, the whole list and everything.

Yeah, it's something to be, you know, it's a proud thing for me. I never expected to be on some list that, like, with the fastest Hondas, you know, like, my goal was 850, and I'm over here running 740s by the end of the year. And, you know, seeing a lot of these guys go faster is, like, a lot of motivation for me.

Yeah, so you want to pursue that.

Absolutely.

I was going to ask what your goal was if you had the time. So the goal is the top of the list.

Top three, yeah. If I can be number one, that would be amazing. But, you know, top three for sure. You know, I would love a low 7. Who knows, maybe a high 6. But the car will be set up for a six-second car. Absolutely, no doubt about that.

What does it take to get to that level, though? Like compared to where you're at now.

So right behind me, you need one of those.

Okay, so you didn't have that before?

I did not have that before. So my old setup was a K20A2 cast motor. Yeah, so it was a cast motor. We had a Remy Block, Speed Factory Piston, Stock Crank, Four Piston Kingpin Head, Drag Cartel Cams, all the accessories there. That was put together by John. But what my new motor, it's a JBR motor. We did a K24 solid block. I did their top of the line best motor you can possibly get. So this has no water in the block. It has only running through the head. They're custom cams, custom pistons, custom rods. Now we're going to like custom stuff. Where my old motor, you're able to buy everything off the shelf.

Wow. Yeah.

So wow, that's kind of crazy too when you think about it.

Yeah. So the next step is it's crazy. We went to bigger turbo. So we had an 83 from the Apex. Now we're at 86, 88. We're doing air to water for the new build. We're doing a new cage for the new build. The car is completely getting a complete makeover. You got carbon doors, carbon roof, carbon dash, new wheel set up, got new brake set up. It's just the list goes on and on and on.

You're not f****** around, man.

So is this gonna be your tow rig then?

Yeah, we're gonna have the blast. No, I'm gonna have a smart car.

Okay, yeah, smart car. You're gonna have the same color?

Absolutely. So yeah, it has a push cart. So yeah, you know, just right now, it's again, we're just waiting, but I have everything, you know. We're trying a new clutch, you know. So we're setting it up for a six-second car. Now we just gotta make sure we can make it a six-second car. We gotta make sure it stays together.

Are the rest of those guys also stick? Or are some of them sequential? The rest of them are all sequential?

That is correct.

Okay, so let's talk about...

H pattern would be Mark P. Okay. Mark P is the...

So you're second on the H pattern list then for Hondas?

H pattern, I would probably be... No, I would say probably like fifth. Okay, yeah. Sure. Okay. So the fastest ones is... They're all sequential. The top two are sequential. But again, they're just holding together better, to be honest. So like our transmissions, sequential is just like... It's not bulletproof, but it just lives better. Sure. And it has more gears. So it's helping the motor also live longer. So with the H pattern, we only have four gears, so we're rubbing it out, and it's putting a little more stress on the motor. Okay. K Series are extremely known. My number one problem is valves. I'm always bending valves. They get hot. So every event I go to, the head has to come off, put new valves in it. It's a pain in the butt, but it's...

It's gonna get a lot hotter now too then.

Oh yeah. Definitely. Well, we got the air to water. So we're switching to M1 fuel. So M1 fuel should help a lot. We were doing M1 and C85 mixture. So that was one thing we were doing. So my tuner is like, no, we need to do air to water, and we need to do M1. That's what we're doing. So pretty much with my tuner, he's just giving me a lot of recommendations. Like we're just upgrading a lot. Atomizer, injectors, just tons and tons of new upgrades that hopefully work as a recipe together. And if not, we're gonna figure it out. We're gonna make it work. So that being said, I'm just gonna pray and hope. I just wanted to stay together. That's my thing. A lot of cars at our speed or power wise, they don't hold together as long as we would like it to. So we just gotta figure out that and then we'll be good to go.

This guy's crazy.

I know. I'm like freaking shocked at all of this.

Yeah.

You just woke up one day, you're like, I wanna be the fastest Honda in the world.

Yeah, pretty much. I was like, man, the Cast motor, it was doing great, but I was just like, if you're gonna do the next level, that's the next level.

Well, you're making what? You just would say 1300, 1400 on the Cast?

We were doing in the Cast when I would say like 1400, with the Cast. This new motor set up is supposedly for 2000. So with the Turbo, I would say like 1700, 1800. Let's be realistic. And we just gotta put it to the ground. We gotta relearn the whole car.

You know what breaks my heart? No, it's not the 2% female demographic. It's the fact that 80% of you guys are not subscribed and following the show. So go ahead, hit subscribe or follow. And of course, if you're on YouTube, hit that bell. So you are notified when we drop a new episode. Let's get back to the show.

It's gonna be a whole new build. So even the look, everything is just a completely new build. And I'm looking forward to it. You know, it's gonna be rowdy. And I can't wait to drive this thing.

How old are you?

I am 36.

Okay.

Yeah. So I have about two years of drag racing experience, I guess you could say, but you know, I've been into cars.

Yeah, but you can sit there and think like, oh, I want to do this and I'll, you know, that whole meme about next year, next year, next year. Sometimes you gotta just be like, you know what? Time to pull the trigger and just go for it.

You should go to that track with Piero.

Yeah, I know. I did that my night when I got into my first time on a track. And then I was like, OK, I'm going to. This is going to be an expensive hobby, but I'm going to go in on it.

Sorry. Yeah. It's an expensive hobby.

Yeah.

Sure.

Yeah.

This car, man, which I was thankful for, because a lot of people like I was on that one motor for the whole year. So all I was doing is swapping out valves. A lot of people were blow up motors.

I was going to say, how are those just throwaways? Or like, you see me last the whole entire year then?

Yeah. So all I was doing was taking the head off, putting new valves, putting it back together.

That's got to be, even though they're probably what, Ferreira valves or something nice, they're probably, yeah, they just, they're still not crazy expensive for a Honda probably, are they?

A couple hundred bucks.

Yeah.

Yeah. It's honestly not a lot.

You're probably burning more fuel than you are in valves.

Yeah, definitely. Actually, that is true. I want to talk about that way. Absolutely. You know, and then I have John, you know, John, I'm very thankful he would come to my shop and do everything. You know what I mean? So he would come here, do everything for me. Yeah. He would just swap everything out. I'll get it ready for him. And then, you know, he would just kind of put it together for me. And then we would go out to an event and kick butt, you know, and it worked out really well. So, you know, I learned that motor really quick. Unfortunately, now we got to learn a whole new setup. But I feel like, again, we have the right team to do that. So, you know, now I just got to learn this billet setup and putting ice in the box, you know. Now it's running M1. Can you keep M1 in the car? No, you know, a lot of guys, they put gasoline after a pass. So, you know, it doesn't get corroded inside the motor, things like that. So just figuring those types of things out, asking all the questions I've been asking, because it's a lot of maintenance now. Now we're going into some high maintenance versus before it wasn't honestly a lot of maintenance.

So, I mean, you gave some examples. I mean, when you're talking about high maintenance, what's that all look like?

So height maintenance, so like with the new setup is going to be M1. We're talking about that it's more fuel than anything. So my maintenance with the cast motor was very simple. I'm not going to lie. So every time we would go to an event, I would bring it back and we would take the head off and it was bent valves every single time. So I would say about every four to six passes, my valves were definitely getting bent, losing a little bit of compression.

Other than that, you're pretty much just good.

Absolutely. Yeah. I had no other issues. The bottom end was never taken out. The clutch was still in great condition.

Are you gonna have to do that now at this level? Because we're talking to like Ben Hockman, and every 10, 20 passes, he's tearing a thing down.

Yeah, he's definitely, he's on a whole other level too. So I'm stepping into that level now. You know what I mean? Where now we're gonna have to take apart everything every single time probably. I don't hope we don't have to, but it comes with that. So me seeing these guys at this level, I'm like, wow, there's a lot to learn and a lot of advice that I've been given as well, which I appreciate. Like Ben Hodgson, I see that guy, I see him all the time at the racetrack. You know, we're in the same class, stick shift class. Yeah. So, you know, we raced the same class and a lot of the other guys too. So they always, they love my car too. You know, I came out, like I said, I'm a little Honda guy, you know, keeping up with these huge horsepower cars. You know, I'm at like 1400, these guys are like 1800, 2000 horse plus, you know.

Yeah. 3000, 4000 pounds. Yeah.

With my little 2400 pound car. Yeah.

Yeah.

My car weighs 2495 with me in it. Corner balance. Yeah. We're going to get another.

That's the old setup though, right?

That's the old setup.

So is this going to be lighter everything or about the same probably?

We're going to try to make it lighter.

Okay.

So I went with the carbon doors, the carbon roof, the carbon dash.

Cheeto diet.

Yeah, everything. Like cutting everything. I want the whole car cut up. So yeah, you know, like...

He's not going to eat for a week before he goes.

It's not working out right now for next year. But yeah, with this new setup, it's definitely because the billet is heavier.

Yeah.

So billet is heavier. You know, I have a billet trans.

So I was going to ask you, what do you run for a trans?

So I have a PBG dog box, one through fourth, a KDN shifter setup on there, a selector. And then I have a jar cartel billet housing on it. It's honestly the best transmission you could possibly get for the four speed. I got pro race bearings in it. I have every single component you could possibly imagine for a transmission like that to work the best possible way it possibly can. And I've never had any issues with it. I've taken it apart twice in the last two years and the gears and everything are still a great condition. And thanks to Richard for setting up the strain gauge. I think that's a huge part of it. The strain gauge set up, making sure you're not grinding the gears and things like that. And I do drive it once in a while around the shop area. So I'll go around the block a couple of times with it. Sometimes I feel like I want to just drive it around, go to 7-Eleven or around the corner.

So you still have... Are you getting rid of your alternator and stuff now too? You're going to run a lithium battery and have to charge it?

No, the car's always been 16V. So I have a 16V system on my car. The battery does last a good amount. That's the fuel, is the question. The fuel is a 2.5-gallon tank. So for this, I can make it to the gas station and back before the thing starts dying out. But yeah, the car's fun, man. The old setup was like a crazy street setup, I guess you can say. And this time around, unfortunately, it's going to have to be pushed everywhere. It's not going to be one of the street at all before again. What did you do?

Any like street stuff?

I did. I'm a track guy. I definitely do some hits in front of the shop. Yeah. So I've done some good hits, but it is extremely hard to keep this car straight. You really got to drive this thing. I have like two videos that went viral. Me doing some hits on the street, and it's just insane. It's just like, sideway, sideway, sideway. It's just skating and dangerous. And I'm like, yeah, I'm not sure if I want to put this thing on the street like that.

But it's a totally different game at the track, though?

Yeah. At the track, it's hooking. Like my tuner has it dialed in really well. One, two, one, 60 foot, one, two, twos all day long. Sure. We run a 485 for the 8th mile. And that's for a Honda, I think that's pretty good, especially being all wheel drive, you know. Right.

What do you run for a tire?

Tire? We're doing a 13 by 10 Mickey Thompson.

Sure.

I got that up front and the rear is a 15 by 8 in the rear. So it's a 24, 5 tire. So, you know, it matches. It's just fatter up front and skinnier in the rear. Obviously, for the squatting, you won't want it to squat. You know, you don't want it rubbing, hitting the rear quarter panels. Besides that, it's it's solid, you know, strange suspension. Yeah, all the dry shop axles. Man, this car has everything you could ever imagine, man. The Trustfab diff, you know, like it has the works. This car has.

So before, I'm not going to ask you how much you got into the new iteration, but let's from from dream to purchase of car to first time on the track, what do you think you spent for first?

That's my number one question. I get asked all the time. Yeah. I would say probably like 140 to 160. Okay. Yeah. And then what the new setup, I don't even want to know.

Yeah. I was going to say, yeah.

Well, you know, a motor 30 to 35, new setup, my transmission.

That's right behind you.

Yeah.

That billet looks pretty, but it costs a lot.

It costs a lot. You don't need one, you need two.

Yeah.

So, you know, I have an extra head. You know, in my opinion, drag racing, you also have spare parts. And that's one thing I have learned. I've started collecting spare parts. So it's not just, hey, let's build one motor. You need to have two motors. Something happens at the track. You need to be able to swap it out.

Where's the second one hiding it?

The second one, I don't have a bottom end, but I do have that full top end.

Okay.

So I have the head for it. I have the cams, which is earlier. I showed you in the box back over there. I have it all back there, but I am still working on doing the bottom end when the time comes. But right now, I'm saving up for it. Yeah. I'm dumping a good amount of money in just the cage work and the fab work. Yeah.

The cage isn't cheap either.

Yeah. The cage is definitely not cheap. We're looking at like 10 to 15K there. And then we're also moving the turbo up front. So, you know, another six to eight grand moving all that up front and all the fab work with that.

So, are they going to be able to add on to what you have or is that got to come out entirely and start over?

So I asked that to my fabricator and he says that he's going to probably keep what's in the back and then add on to the front. But worst case scenario, I want him to do what he needs to do.

Right.

Right.

If you got to take it all out and redo it, that's what we have to do. Open checkbook. Just get it done. Yeah. Yeah. Just I need it done the correct way, the right way.

Well, yeah. It's your life you're talking about here. Right. Yeah.

I just want it. For me, it's safety, man. I've had people bugging me all year about it. They're like, just run it like that. Just run it like that. I'm like, dude, I've seen some really bad accidents, man. My goal is to hit 200 plus. God forbid, axle brakes or something like that, brakes up top end. And this cage is definitely not certified for that. You know what I mean? I want to have something that's going to protect me. I have a family. I want to go home to my family at the end of the day.

Watch the video of Kelvo crashing a Viper at 200 plus miles an hour. It's a, it'll definitely open your eyes to.

There's people out again. I'm not talking bad about it, but I see a lot of cars out there that do not have the right cage for how fast they're going. And that is insane to me.

And they still let them run, even though, or how does that work?

I don't know how that works, but when you go to TX2K, you'll be questioning some cars out there that are, you know, roll racing and having cages that are, you're just like, man, that guy should definitely not be at the track. But you know, people have passed away from that, you know? And that's something I, unfortunately, I take extremely serious. So I'm definitely doing every safety precaution I can on my car to make sure that I am safe in it. So, yeah.

I mean, you could argue that, hey, it's your life, but if they're cutting corners there, where else are they cutting corners as well, right? Like what are they gonna do that their car's gonna come apart and could be dangerous for somebody else?

Correct.

So there's two lanes too. You gotta remember that part too, right?

Right. Yeah.

You know, it's personal. Maybe some people, which I get it. I want to keep my car, you know, streetable or, you know, I don't want it in my car. I understand that. But at the end of the day, like, I get it. Like you don't want to have a caged car. It's dangerous driving your car with a cage in the street, right?

Yeah.

You're driving, somebody crashes into you, your head hits the bar. You know what I mean? It's just different scenarios.

And you run in a slower class. Like that's just what you gotta do. I don't know. Yeah.

Yeah. For me, nah, man, I need it all. I got a new race tech seat. Yeah, I got a new race tech seat. I went full safety.

Which race tech seat did you go with?

I went with their...

Is it the head containment union?

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. But I went with the second version of it. There's a V2, I believe. So they have steps on it. But yeah.

I'm not sure if they're... Did we talk about it? Because we had race tech on the podcast a few weeks ago. I'm not sure if they dropped...

That was the one that they were just dropping, I believe.

I don't know if they dropped it yet or not. Basically a drag racing dedicated seat that was lighter. That was a big complaint that they were getting.

They had a carbon version they were working on.

That is true. I got the one below the carbon version. So I was just like, I want this because, again, your head, I wear a hands device, I wear everything. I got all the correct equipment to make sure that something happens.

I was going to say return that sucker and exchange it.

If I can, I will. Yeah, man, like I said, I look up, I also follow Pro Mods and other cars that are just ridiculous. And I just like, I wonder if I can do that to my Civic. I do that to my Civic as in safety. There's just things that, I see people with carbon seats. I just don't feel comfortable putting carbon seat. If people are like, well, you have carbon everything, put a carbon seat in it. I'm like, man, I don't know. I don't know if a carbon seat will...

Yeah, but the carbon's on the other side of that bar.

Yeah, there's a lot of... I made a post about it and it went crazy. They were arguing about the carbon seat shouldn't, if it's real carbon, it shouldn't break the way it should and things like that. But I was like, you know what? I'd rather have the extra 15 to 20 pounds in my car and my safety be... The race taxis, it's amazing. It hugs your rib cage and they made it really nice. So you're flipping around, you're not loose, you're in a tight seat, you know what I mean? So that's something I look... I was like, I gotta get me a race tech. I made a post about it and it got... All the racers were commenting on it, and the number one thing was the race tech. They're like, no, get a race tech. So that's what I did.

Yeah, they're breaking out really big right now in the world, and they're trying to get into everything right now. So yeah, they're doing some cool s***.

Are you on fire suppression then too, and all that?

Going to, yes, definitely. I didn't have it before, but we're definitely doing that now. Yeah, I'm doing it all. I've seen some fires too, and I'm just like, yeah, we need that.

Well, you were on fire.

Yeah, well, I needed that when I was definitely on fire. Yeah, I was, my whole passenger side over there was definitely on fire, and I was thankful that I kept in it. And by the time I went to that, I started slowing down. The fire put itself out. So I got super lucky, but I just burned a lot of stuff. I burned all kinds of wires and things like that. But I was super happy with the outcome of, it could have been a lot worse, you know, the car had been gone versus having some burnt wires and some piping and stuff like that.

So how about between passes, right? So you're on Haltech, right?

Correct.

So are you involved in looking at all the data logs and all that stuff? Are you trying to learn along the side of your tuner, or how's that all work?

So I actually don't and I'm going to be honest with you. I do ask questions. Absolutely. So what I do, I get an example of what I do. So after I do a pass, I call my tuner and he kind of just brings the golf cart, comes to my car, jumps on the computer. My tuner is Abraham Alba. So like, he just has so much data, man. This guy builds and tunes a lot of the fastest cars, you know, not the racing, like these crazy record breaking cars. And he's just really good at dialing in my, you know, a lot of cars quickly. So what he does, he just comes to the car, checks my data, he'll ask me, he's like, do you want an A to B car or you want to go fast? And I appreciate that. You know, he's like, I'm like, for me, I'm always like, no, I want to go faster. He's like, all right, cool, we'll turn it up.

If you've been waiting on a standalone ECU solution, Toon by Shawn will be having an awesome Black Friday sale on Haltech products for the entire month of November, but that's not it. Once the sale is live, you'll be able to stack code Minnoxide for an additional 5% off. So get that affirm ready, cut back on Achilles dinners, I know I have to, and save up to get that plug and play kit you always wanted. Stay tuned. Let's get back to the show.

We'll turn it up. We'll be like, hey, man, you know, you're pushing it right now, you know, you know, your EGTs are really hot. I recommend you probably not, you know, your map bar sensor is like a little, you know, you go higher. So I was like a five bar and ended up now I have a 10 bar in my car. Things like that. And he just kind of tells me, hey man, you're good to go. And I honestly, I like that. I'm not going to lie. Like I like the fact that he comes, does what he does. And I'm like, I cool. I trust him that much. Where, you know, the questions, I don't ask them crazy questions. I don't get into involved with it because I just really trust them, you know? And I just feel like I just want to be driving the car. I just focus on driving, getting the car ready. I have a team of, like my fiance, she packs my parachute. She checks my safety before I go on the track. Then I have my best friend Omar. He does all my tire pressure. He checks the gas, you know? So in between everything, you know, I have the people who I bring with me to check what I need them to check. And I don't like adding new people or things like that because it's just like, you know, it's hard to trust the trust factor.

You got a good team already. Yeah, that makes sense.

Yeah, so it's, you know, and they always come with me. So I'm very thankful for that. They'll miss work. They do with, you know, things like that. And, you know, we have a great time every time we go racing. But going back to the tuner thing, yeah, man, he comes, he says, hey man, you're good to go. And I go out there and we just literally just drive the car. Every single time, just drive the car. And every time I drive the car, it's a new PB. So one thing I loved is every time we went to an event, I got a new PB. Every single time, it was amazing. The only two times, unfortunately, were when I blew the turbos. So, you know, we were...

That'll put a kink in things.

Yeah, they're like, hey man, you know, I'm going to turn it up to like 60, 65 and just didn't happen. But, you know, again, I'm thankful for the company that would at least made a huge effort until like, here's another turbo.

Right.

You know, but it's just... Yeah, I can respect that. That's one thing that I'm super thankful for, is that they didn't just like, oh, hey, you're screwed. It's like, no man, we're here for you too. They were always there for me. I've never had to complain about them. They put my car on, you know, a lot of social media platform. They had, it's just that 83 was just not, I don't know, just kept breaking shafts. You know, then they downgraded me to 80. And unfortunately, I was just like, you know what? I'm just going to do an apex. You know, a lot of people are pressuring, especially my tuner. He's like, we do apex a lot on our fast cars. He's like, just trust me. He's like, just try it. I'm like, all right, cool. We tried it. And again, we ran 749 or 743 at 189. You know, so that was like off the trailer again, you know, and I thought that was pretty neat. You know, that's crazy because again, putting brand new turbos on the other times I've gone out, they just break. So it was a sign of relief. I think the whole Honda community was watching me that day, World Cup, make my first pass. I had so many congratulations at the end of the run. It was insane. And I guess like Leroy too, like Leroy the Savage, Cletus. Yeah, that was my first pass with him. And that was awesome memory. You know what I mean? So that car is so fast, so loud too.

That's awesome. Yeah, I mean, what the Apex claims they can do, what, 20% more with the same size turbo too?

Yeah, 20 or 30, I think is what she was saying. Yeah, they're good people. We had them on the podcast. What was that? PRI last year. Audio was a little rough because that was her first time out with that setup. But, and I should talk to them again. That was a good one. So, okay, but then you're going bigger with the Apex turbo now as well, because it was 83 before?

Yeah, 83, now we're 86. So I did upgrade to it and they actually recommended it to me as well. They're like, hey man, you know, they're on board with me.

Well, those turbos can take a lot too.

Do they take all beating? They're a beautiful piece. Like if you ever get to look at one, it's beautiful. It's all billet, like it's a masterpiece. Like I like stuff like that, you know? Like you look at the quality, you're like, oh, this is a good quality, you know? Shiny, huge.

You like your shiny stuff.

Yeah, I like shiny stuff. Shiny, go fast.

Shiny and green.

Shiny and green. Yeah, so, you know, hopefully with their turbo setup, the new motor setup, it's a K22 from JBR, so it's a heck of a motor, you know? It's gonna rev high, but I'm gonna have that torque that I need. And then with the setup that it's gonna have, it should go fast. It should go really fast, but you know, everything in time. Everything in time.

Right.

You're not rushing it either.

I can respect that.

Yeah, I'm not rushing it. I tell everyone that last year, I accomplished all the goals I needed to accomplish. I accomplished the 850. I said I won the 790. I went to the 790. I wanted to get on the top 10 list. I got on the top 10 list. I went to all my bucket list events in one year.

That's kind of insane.

You know, so I had my fun. I had my time. Now it's more like, hey, let's do the next level, but I'm in absolutely no rush between work, family, friends, life. It's, you know, it's a lot. And I did myself drag, you know, I took a lot of time getting this car to where it needs to be to go to fab work, but trust the process, man. I'm trusting it. I'm going to let it do its thing. And I'm pretty sure the outcome will be good. You know, a lot of people are waiting. I have a lot of people waiting for this car to come out, like a lot. So I get asked a lot on Instagram, like a lot.

I'll be waiting.

Everyone's like, come on, let's go. Like, I got you guys, you know? So the car should be leaving anyways, like I say in about a month.

Okay. Cars are going to head down to Florida.

Head down to Florida.

Okay.

Head to Florida. I would say probably have it for like two months, bring it back and I'm getting straight to work because I have all the parts here. I'm not missing anything.

How long is it going to take you to throw it all together once it's back from cage?

I would say me being me to three weeks.

Okay. Because you're doing it all after work, probably.

Yeah. No, I'm definitely going to take off work. Okay. I'm going to be excited. I'm clearing my personal schedule and I'm dedicating to getting the car done. Absolutely. And it's going to be during winter time. So for us, it's slower when it comes to business in the winter. Not everyone wants to bring their Lambos and Ferraris and those types of things in this weather.

Sure.

So I have more time to spend. And that's what I'm going to be spending it with. I finished building this car.

Well, let's talk business a little bit. Tell us a little bit about what you do here.

So I'm the owner of Precision San Vinyl Experts. I've been window tinting, paint protection film and vinyl wrapping for about 13 years. Okay. I'm out of Schaumburg, Illinois. I've been in this facility for eight years. I am an expo dealer. So, you know, we are one of the top leading brands when it comes to paint protection film and window tinting. We get to work on tons of projects, tons of cool cars. I've met some amazing people because of the work we do and the cars we get to work on. And one thing that's really neat is that my car and like my business, it goes together really nicely. You know, I go to the car shows, car meets, those types of things. And it brings a lot of attention, you know.

You bring this to car shows or?

Yeah. So, well, not like this, but you know, when I had the car from racing it and stuff like that, I would take it to like Tuner Galleria. I always win like a lot of these Honda trophies and things like that. And, you know, I have a huge fan base with this. So, you know, we're close to 100,000 followers on Instagram, you know, and that's just one of my pages of TikTok, Facebook and other things. So the car has a great following with a lot of people. So I appreciate that the people that want to see me build this car, you know, I never did it for attention. I just kind of always like, oh, look, I'm building this car and here are the things I'm doing to it. And it turned into something really crazy online. So I'm just going to keep, you know, with the flow and hopefully the next time this car is out, it makes a statement out here because I'm doing it. I'm definitely going to be pushing it.

So you're going to throw it back together. So it's going to be during probably one of the snow falls. So you're not going to be able to test a dragway or anything. I'm guessing, right?

No, but I am definitely going to go down south to test. OK, so yeah. So once the cars get together, I'm definitely taking a trip with some friends and we're going to go testing.

Any tracks in particular come to mind?

I go to Florida.

Florida.

Yeah, my tuners in Florida.

So Bradenton.

Yep. Exactly. Yeah. So we're going to go over there and then do some testing over there. And then my first event should be TX 2K.

Okay.

And then we're going to go to H-Day and then Ohio and then Outlaw and then FL 2K and then World Cup. So I'm not missing that calendar.

Just filling up. Yeah.

Right. Yeah.

It's going to be a party and then next year, one of my goals, I hope it happens. I want to take my car to Puerto Rico. They have a great event in Puerto Rico and a lot of Honda enthusiasts go to that.

Honda and Rotary over there, right?

Yeah. My family is into Rotary racing as well. We got like Hellboy, we're on like 670s. We got some Rotary cars that are really fast.

In your family?

Yeah.

Like a cousin or?

Yeah. Like family, friend, cousins. We're huge into racing too. So I'm the Honda and the other guys, they all have their Rotary like RX7s, Datsuns, Starlets. Okay. So I come from the racing family. But I've looked up to them. And I just like the Hondas, you know, the Honda for me was just, I grew up with it. I've always, that's my high school dream car. You know, like when I was in high school, I was like, man, I need to get one of these, you know? And then I seen John Roman with it and doing really well with it. And I was like, man, you know, I would like to build a normal drive car. And that's what I, you know, what we did.

So where did that all come from then? So like, take me back even further then, like you said it was your dream car. Like you said you're inspired by your family. Like when did you first start working on cars then?

Okay, so as long as I can remember. So Felix is my aunt's husband. He was always into cars. And he, they had like RX7s, Datsuns, old school Corollas, those type of cars. So growing up, he had a shop and he did body work. And he also did with his friends, they raced cars. So growing up, he kind of took me under his wing. And I've always was just been surrounded by race cars. And then, so him, Freddie, we're talking about some like heavy hitters out here in Chicago.

Did you always grow up here?

Yes. So yeah, I'm from Addison, Illinois and Chicago, Illinois. So half my life in Addison and half my life in Chicago. Okay. So me growing up out here, having the body shop and working on race cars, that's what they did. They go to Great Lakes Dragway and they would race their cars for fun. We're talking about like 14 second cars. Yeah. Like, you know, the slower and we're talking about again, like 20 years ago, though. You know what I mean? Like when I was 10 to like 13 years old, when a 400 horsepower Honda was the s***. Yeah, super, super fast. So and then he always I was always working with him at the shop. You know, on my spare time, I would keep that cake, do brakes on this car, do this. He would show me like how to do a lot of stuff on cars. So growing up, I've always tinkered with cars. My first car was a Honda CRX Si, a single cam turboed. We made like 375 horsepower with it. And then I had a Mitsubishi Evolution. That thing made like 800 horsepower from AMS. It was like a 2.3 liter 35R setup. Pretty crazy. And then I kind of went to more of the luxury, I went like Mercedes. And then I ended up buying an SRT.

The current Jeep that you have?

The current Jeep I have, yeah. So we ended up with, I ended up with that one. And then between all that, about say like 8 to 10 years ago, I picked up the Honda. Actually, my fiance got it for me as a Father's Day gift.

Oh, really? Okay.

Yeah, which was pretty neat. I was like, man, I need to find one of these. I had two of them that I really liked. And she kind of just went out and picked it out, paid for it, and said, hey, I got you a Honda. And I thought that's honestly one of the coolest surprises of my life. I was like, wow, like you're a keeper for a shirt. You know what I mean?

So she saw you with a saw just cutting things out of it.

Like this car, take everything out of it. Yeah.

She's like, you're getting out of control with this car. I was like, yeah, pretty much. Yeah. So it started off, front wheel drive. This car has had like five stages, but never ran. A lot of people are like, man, you're never going to get this car running. But I was like, again, you know, life, making money to build the car, right. Right. You know, that's a lot of money and things like that. Fortunately, I wasn't the richest guy in the world. So I had to work my way up to what I have here at the shop now. So I worked for somebody doing this stuff.

So was that your main thing before you started your shop?

Yeah. So before I've always did fine. I did fine dining, like in high school. Sure. And then I moved to doing tinting. So Manny, a good friend of mine, introduced me to window tinting. And I was like, well, I actually like doing this. I have a background, again, with the automotive and then high school automotive. I've always tinkered with cars, motor swaps, things like that. But going back to how we came with the cars and stuff, yeah, I just went drag racing a lot. And then over time, these guys started building full chassis cars with the rotaries in it. And I was like, holy cow, like these things are crazy fast, you know? Now they're running like 650s, 670s, over 200 miles an hour. And I was like, man, I want to be on your level, but in the Honda, you know?

Right, yeah.

And they all have...

So are they based out of here as well, then?

Yeah, definitely. Freddie is based off of Chicago. Also Felix, he's also based on Glendale Heights. And then my little brother, my little brother too, where he's huge into cars. We got like a SS, like a 1000 horsepower SS turbo.

Like Chevy?

Chevy SS, yeah, it's pretty crazy. And then he does a lot of street racing, and he shouldn't be doing, but...

We don't condone street racing. Yeah, we don't do street racing.

We do a lot of hat races, yeah. We do a lot of hat races and stuff like that. And then my buddy Omar. And then, you know, just being around cars, meeting awesome car friends, and sticking together, you know, throughout the years. You know, we all grew together. We all went to high school together. A lot of the people that I deal with now. So I've just had a great relationship with the car community and with the business itself. You know, this business also has introduced me to an amazing amount of people. Cause if it wasn't for this business, I guarantee I wouldn't have this car. You know what I mean? So I'm thankful for that.

What would you say most of your businesses, is it mostly tinting or is it, you said PPF as well?

So I do a lot of PPF and window tinting. So we do clear film. It's a clear film, 10 mil film, or 8 mil film, or 10 mil film that you put in front of a car for rock chips. So like when you're driving, I do a lot of race cars too. You're hopping in and out of these cars and damaging them. So it helps protect a lot. Window tinting is another huge thing. Everybody wants their windows tinted, either for privacy or heat rejection. So it just depends on what you want, what you're looking for. But it's helped me build my racing career. So I'm thankful for that. And that's why this year we've grown the business. So I can go next year out racing more. So I can step away next year and the business will run itself.

When you say grown a business, like what do you mean by that?

More employees.

Okay, how many of you work here?

So we have about four people.

Four people?

Okay. Five, including my fiancee. She answers the phones.

You need somebody to do that? Yeah, that takes time, too.

She's good at it. She's, I get so many compliments on how nice she is over the phone.

Oh, she was really mean to us when we got here.

I would have to pick up the phone and hear your voice, man. This guy is mean.

I've never had anybody wipe my chair down before I started.

Yeah, she's super nice, man. And it's just, again, it's always a team effort for everything, and I've learned that when it either my business or my race car, it's just teamwork makes the dream work. You know what I mean? Yeah.

So where does this all come from? Because not everybody can play as a team player. Did you learn this growing up or just came naturally or what?

Yeah, I just learned that you can't do everything on your own, especially the business. The business is what taught me that. I can't answer the phone. I did it at one point, answering the phones. So let's say, answer the phones, schedule, dealing with clients, clients coming in, you're working on a car, another client comes in, those type of things. So it's been a struggle learning how to grow a business. I have no experience in that. I jumped into the shop and this was nothing here. I just jumped into it and I was just like, holy cow, this is something new. I'm thankful for the people who have trusted me, with this. When I got this place, this guy is like, man, do you own anything? Like, no. He's like, how can I trust you? And I was like, man, I had to show him my history. I was like, look, man, I have clients already. I already have a clientele base and I just need somewhere to do cars. And I had one person believe in me and it took off. And we had nothing in the shop. I started with absolutely nothing. And I'm very thankful to where we've gotten now because it's been a huge, huge, amazing chapter in my life. And it's also, again, helped me build the race car that I have here, which, you know, I get to enjoy a lot with.

So percentage-wise, so between you and your four employees then, is it like, how many hours are billed towards PPS versus 10? Like, what do you do more of?

Man, both. Both probably equal? Yeah, equal. Like we just finished the Lambo up there. Yeah. Yeah. Like the front bumper, the fenders and the hood just got done with the PPFs. As you can see, it's all scratched up on the bottom there. So like, nothing you can do about that, but it's just so low to the ground. But what rock chips and those types of things. And then I have, so I do the PPF, and then I have another guy also does PPF. So we'll do one or two cars while we're doing tents. I have somebody else doing tents, and then I have somebody doing paint corrections, ceramic coatings. So I've had to learn how to build a team and also learn how to run a business, where I want to be able to step away. So my goal is to be able to step away and only be needed when I really need to be needed. So next year, I want to be out racing. So I built this year my team, so when I start racing next year, I don't have any excuses. I can't make it because I got to, I hate to say it, like I don't want to lose money.

We still got to pay for all the billet.

Yeah, I still got to pay for everything. So like stepping away for a week or two, that's a big chunk of change. So now I have a team that's going to be able to do that, versus me stepping away and trying to hustle and then coming back to work. Like I would go racing last year and come right back and I would have to do like a huge list of cars. And I'm just like, holy cow. And a lot of people are loyal to me, so they wait. So now I have, instead of having five people, now I have 15 people waiting for me and I'm trying to play catch up. And I just had to learn how to just have people help me do it.

Well, it's hard when every event is a week process, right?

Yeah. How about, let's think about it this way. A week of getting the car ready, right? Yeah. You got to get the car ready. You got to load the car. You got to get the food. You know, it's a lot. And then take the drive. It's a day or two drive and then race, come back, unload the car, figure out. You can't just leave the car there. You got to get the car ready for the next event. While I'm doing all that by also trying to get work done. It gets complicated. But I stressed out last year a lot over it and I don't want to do that again.

You got bed lying around here somewhere?

Yeah, definitely upstairs. Go upstairs and take a nap. Yeah, man. So I kind of live here. So last year I lived here a lot. And this year for next year, I was like, this year I was like, you know what? I'm going to make sure this business runs where I'm able to enjoy racing freely, where I'm not stressing. So I'm able to make money, of course. That's the whole point of it. Right.

So why did you snap over at me?

You looked at me. Okay. You're an efficient answerer, sir.

Well, then like, so you just like went into this. Like this guy just goes full bore into s*** and just works out.

I just figure it out.

Yeah.

That's one thing I've learned is like, you just got to do it. You just got to do it. Good or bad, you got to do it. You got to learn from your own mistakes. Nothing is always perfect. And it is what it is. Not like, I'm pretty sure when you guys first started, you know what I mean? To what you are now, it's a big change. You know what I mean?

Yeah.

Just because you just did it. You know, a lot of people, unfortunately, just can't do that. You just got to jump into it.

Oh, yeah. Dan asked me a lot of questions. And I'm like, because I want to change things up, right? Yeah, we broke two microphone quick releases today. So we found the failures on those. But anyways, what's your favorite race you've done? Who's your favorite person to race against? Do you have anybody?

Man, my favorite race? It would be Leroy. Cletus would be my top because I got a PB and he ran like a 7-2 and I ran a 7-4. So it was like right next to each other. My other race would be, man. Like we're talking about, like I've raced some awesome people like Joanna. I've raced Los Broke. I lost, frustrate. Like these are all like famous YouTuber, famous Instagram people, you know, and I've either kept up or beat them, you know. So I've been thankful that the people I have raced, it's all, you know, it's all good. But I would say my favorite one would be what Cletus. Yeah. That was like crazy, you know, like it was that World Cup, all these people, you know.

And you want to talk about Internet Famous, that guy's another level of Internet Famous, right? Yeah.

You know, like good or bad, I was super happy with the outcome of my, my, my run. You know, it was just like, I got to race one of the most coolest legends in YouTube and race car community, you know, and I kept up with him and my little Honda, you know, like this guy has no, you know, has all the bells and whistles in his little, you know, little Corvette there and I'm over here on a budget. Yeah.

So I don't know, man. Should we pop the usual three? I don't know if we're cruising along.

Yeah.

No, like Grub Worm, you know, that was another one. But I just didn't think it was fair, but I won, you know, like it was cool that I raced them, but I raced a Supra. That was a good one. That one went viral on Instagram. That was a good race. But besides that, man, I think all my races are good races, good or bad.

What's your favorite track?

Maryland.

Maryland?

Maryland.

That's where they host WCF?

Yeah. Maryland, you can, man. Maryland, the air over there.

OK.

My bet, like World Cup is the best vibe, in my opinion, when it comes to what we do. That's like a party over there, man. Jesus, that's a great time. One of my best events would be that.

OK.

Yeah. For World Cup, TX2K, FL2K, Ohio, like that was Mitsubishi vs. The World. They were all good events, but World Cup, that's just a whole other level. You got the fastest people in the world. Yeah. You know what I mean?

We're going there this year. We're excited to check it out.

Oh, you will have it.

It's gonna be our first time.

Yeah. You are gonna have a time of your life. OK. Definitely. Definitely.

We're gonna only do Friday, Saturday, Sunday this year because we're headed to SEMA for the first part of the week. But depending on how it goes, I think next year we'll probably just do the full week.

Yeah. It's a good time. Yeah.

People have been telling me forever, but I had too many friends and previous guests to sign up to. I just couldn't ignore it.

Whether you're racing, walking around the pits, or even in the stands, it's a vibe. Yeah. Especially bring some cash with you when you're on the stand. Oh, yeah. The dollar bets are the most amazing up there. I won like 400 bucks last year. That was a good time. After my car broke, I was like, I'll just hang out and watch everyone.

I'm so glad you bring up your car breaking because this is what I hear from everybody. I always say bet against the Hondas. Is this true?

Depends.

Okay.

Yeah, it just depends. If a Honda staying together, it's going to go fast.

Right. And that's right here. It's like, if it stays together, it's going to go fast, but will it stay together?

That's the question. Most of the time I would hate to say no. But yeah, like I said, I have some successful passes, but it's just when I go slower, unfortunately. Like when I put it like a 780 tune up in it, I could go rounds all day long. Once I start cranking it up, it's like two or three passes. And then I've got to swap the head out or something like that. But you know, that's unreliable, unfortunately.

So was there any, like you said, you always had Honda in your sights. Was there any kind of like, there had to have been a number two or like, what's if you, what's this, what other platform you were looking into a little bit?

I was going to say, right, full chassis, full chassis, rotary car. Yeah. If I don't get what I want out of this car, I'm definitely do a full chassis rotary car. Yeah. Or actually, if I don't do the rotary, it's going to be a K Series. So it'll be like a Datsun 1200 with the K Series in it.

Gotcha.

Yeah. So it, you know, they're going fast now. They're going to like six forties, I believe something like that.

That's insane to me, dude.

Yeah. A K Series and a full chassis car. We cannot go wrong with that. You know what I mean? So, uh, rotaries are there fast too. It's just, I have everything for a K Series. So it'd be easier for me to just kind of swap everything over, but I'll never get rid of this car. This car will stay for me for the rest of it's my life.

You know, do you ever see yourself in a Pro Mod someday?

Oh, I would love to have a Pro Mod. I see a Pro Mod money.

Yeah. I know. Yeah. Yeah.

Definitely. Yeah. Absolutely. You know, I would love to have like a five second high five second car, you know, that's my dream. Who wouldn't want that? You know what I mean? But again, that's a whole nother level.

Yeah. No, that's when you start talking about seven figures real quick.

Really quick. Yeah. This one here, you know, it's already up there. And, you know, buying double of everything and things like that. It's just it's a pretty penny.

Oh, yeah. Especially if you started competing at the Pro Mod level. It's like you need to have a full trailer ready to party.

You need a whole team trailer.

You're probably going to ship your car soon or know somebody that will. And as someone who used to work in freight logistics, I understand the difficulties of finding reliable transport, especially when trying to make it to rallies, racetracks, or to warehouse to hydro Corvette, because you're going through a messy divorce and when she says everything, she means everything. Anywho, Nick Shearer is the proud owner of SureThing Logistics. Having traveled much of the country with every type of vehicle you can imagine, he's got the experience and reliability that you want to ensure a safe journey for your pride and joy. If you want to find out what it takes to ship your vehicle, go to surethinglogistics.net, fill out the intake form, and be sure to let him know I sent you. Let's get back to the show.

We will see you next week.

I know that it's cheap, but you're still on that side of it.

I have some sponsors, but it's not like, here's this for free or that for free.

We gotta change that.

Yeah, I gotta figure that out.

Well, the Instagram stuff that's been growing for you too, that probably helps a little bit.

We'll see you next time. Some discounts, absolutely. I have JJ Auto Works, I got Drag Cartel, Mark P. Man, I can go on with the amount of people. Speed Factory, like all these guys help me out tremendously, because they want to see me win. And I love that about the Honda community. They don't hold back with me. I don't have any grudges with anyone or anything like that. They're all just like, dude, we got you. You know, you need something. Like the Gringo, he has an Integra. Really fast Integra, all-wheel drive Integra. And my slicks got chunked. So the TX-2K is prepped for more radio style. So what happens with our slicks, we get chunks taken out of it from launching it and being so sticky, like so strong. And he real quick, I'm like, hey, can I borrow your slicks? No hesitation. He's like, take the whole set, my whole wheel setup. And we went out there and, you know, he let me do a pass on it. You know what I mean? Like, that's awesome. Yeah. You know, just having a community like that is great. You know, Joanna too. I was like, about to have her two slicks. I was like, man, I can't miss Max.

That's the blue and pink one, right?

That's correct. Yeah. She has a pretty fast front wheel drive car. Okay. She also is pretty cool. You know, like all these people are really neat. You know, like talk to like Kyle also, Boosted Boys, him, Fustry, all those people, you know, we all talk and, you know, give each other a little bit of information here and there. If I need advice, I ask them as well, you know, and they'd have no problem communicating with me.

How come you didn't want to stick with front-wheel drive?

I want to go fast. Front-wheel drive, I think like 777, 80s, you know, but, you know, being all-wheel drive, you can, you know, touch sixes. So that's what I want, you know. Again, my goal is to hit sixes with this car.

Sure.

So will it happen? I'm not sure. Well, I do everything in my power to make it happen. I'm going to try my best. I promise you that. Yeah.

Our first experience of having Honda folks on the show, it was Peter Lee, Money and Fuji. He had an eight second, I think, front wheel drive Honda. And that was pretty sweet.

Yeah.

That was my first exposure to the Honda world.

What kind of motor did they have on the cars?

There was one of them had a B, the all wheel drive. Yep. And then the rest of them were K.

I think so. Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, just it's a good time, in my opinion. You know, Honda's and you know, every car is different, but an all wheel drive Honda is a whole different complete, like a different animal.

What are we going to see you in like a small tire Fox body or something?

Yeah. I got my buddy's CTSV for that. Yeah. My buddy has a new set up with his car and we're going to do some crazy racing with that one too. So we're going to actually take both our cars racing at a lot of events. He's a sequential. He's one of like the first CTSVs with a sequential in it.

Oh really? PPG as well?

Yeah. Like it's pretty crazy. It's at like 1600 horse right now. We just sent it out for a cage. So it's coming back with a cage actually on Sunday. It's getting dropped off finally. And then we're going to go do some testing. So that thing is fully built, fully everything.

Do you know who his tuner is?

It's Koza, Koza Performance. So Koza Performance built his whole car. And we're going to go do some testing with that really soon. That's a car that I'm looking forward to because I've never seen a Cadillac at that level versus my street version, you know, like you got Chris Conaway, who has an amazingly fast CTSV. So, you know, we asked him for a lot of advice, but that that thing is going to come out really, really, really nice. It's a show car. It looks beautiful. It's like show and go. So that's how we like our cars. You know, we want to not just be fast, but to look beautiful as well.

So at the track, right, because like you mentioned, like it seems like you're very able to work on cars yourself. So when it comes to like at the track, like, you know, like switching heads and all that sort of stuff, are you doing that? Is your team helping? Or is it everybody?

So it's everybody. So let's say I'll get the head off, swap the valves out, put them back in. It'll be John. Like when it gets technical, I have John do it. Just because he's there. That's his engine.

Right, like you could, but it's like, you'd rather just let the guy.

It's his motor.

Yeah.

It sounds wild, but it's his motor. It's his build. I let him touch it, you know? And that's what he does. He's going to do it way faster than I can.

Right.

And it's expensive. So let's see if I make a mistake. Is it really worth it? Because you're rushed? No, he can do it rushed. He knows what he's doing.

Well, that's what Ben was saying on the podcast just before this. He's like, I would just rather let the guy who could, like I could spend hours doing it myself or just let the guy that's a pro do it.

Exactly. There's nothing wrong with that. We all have things, like when I'm at that track, man, it's I have, I'm doing, running around, doing interviews, a lot of the parts that I have, people want to come and talk about it, how's performing and things like that. And again, I'm thankful for the people that come because they come all the time, they go to all the events and they make sure my car, this is what they literally tell me like, Jonathan, I just want you to relax and I just want you to drive this car. That's what I want you to do. I just want you to drive this car and just win, go rounds and I have a great team for that. I don't got to pack the parachute. I don't got to, honestly, I don't really do much besides ask my tuner like, hey, we good? Is it her? Is it her? I don't think so. Should I do compression test? Now you're good. All right, go, send it. You know what I mean? And I've been super successful with the team I have.

So, okay, so you're going into next year, so you're gonna be chasing those low sevens then?

Absolutely.

Okay.

So, you know, 740 is where we're at. We left off with a 743 at 189. And the goal is to just to go way faster than that. And with this new set up, if we learn it fast enough, which we should, we have all the data. I have awesome tuners. I got two tuners. You know, I think that's what helps as well. You know, Richard from Haltech, you know, he knows what, you know, I hope the guy knows a thing or two, right? He knows a thing or two. And then I got Abraham. He knows a thing or two. So they work together to just make it happen. And they do make it happen every single time. So I'm thankful for that. You know, they don't hesitate one second. I could call them, hey, 10 o'clock, 12 o'clock at night. Like, hey man, tomorrow, you know, let's say tomorrow's race day. And I'm like, dude, I don't know. I just need to check this car. They'll jump on real quick, check it real quick. And they're like, you're good to go, man. You know, or like, hey man, I would clean out the injectors before, you know, you take this car back out. And I'm like, all right, cool. You know, I got an injector cleaner. I have a lot of my own equipment.

What are you running for injectors anyway?

Decks? The 2600.

Okay.

Yeah, I got eight of those. And we're doing M1 now, so we're going to change that up. And we're making a mechanical fuel pump, you know, and I got a bigger mechanical fuel pump, bigger fuel lines. It's the whole shebang, man. Like I'm telling you, it's a whole new car. I'm going to have to learn. But I feel like with the people I'm dealing with, they kind of have that set up in a way already, because they're already going that fast. So I'm asking the right people the right questions.

Yeah, that makes sense.

You know what I mean?

Did your driveline didn't change then? Like you still had the PPG before that, all that stuff. Okay. So that's not going to feel completely different to you.

Absolutely not. Just the power. Learning how that turbo is going to kick in. Like every turbo, like I had a 76 mil, I've had the 80, the 83, and they all kick in. You can feel the difference when you're launching the car. You can absolutely feel the difference when it kicks in. Like the 76 was the hardest for me. Like it hit hard. Yeah, like it came in quick, the spool versus the other ones, but you could feel a top end. They would definitely be faster.

Shall we? Yeah, I think so. Yeah. All right. So at the end of every episode, we'd like to ask our guests to pick three cars. This will be interesting. He's Honda.

Oh yeah, I know where this is going to go.

You, I need a track car. I need a show car. I need a daily driver. You have an unlimited budget. Build whatever you want. What are you picking?

Okay. So daily, I'll do M3 G80. Okay. Track car. I would do a Datsun with a Kate swap in it. And then what was the other one?

Show car.

Show car? It would be the SVJ Lambo.

Yeah.

Okay.

Fair enough.

Yeah.

Are you tinted or wrapped some of those?

Absolutely. Okay.

Yeah.

I've had the pleasure of working on some amazing cars.

I bet you've driven some cool stuff then too, huh?

Definitely driven some cool stuff. I've driven Countach's. I've driven McLaren's, S20s, Huracans, Evos. Pretty much a good amount.

Did the other Honda guys come here or what?

Oh, absolutely. I have a lot of Honda, actually a lot of Honda car guys that come here to get their cars tinted and worked on. So around here, the Honda community, I'm definitely involved with it, with hooking up my Honda people, man. Yeah. You know what I mean? We got to stick together. Sweet.

Well, on that note, where can everybody find you?

So on Instagram, it would be Honda EGAWD, and then we have TikTok, would be the same thing. And Jonathan Valentino Perez, if you want to follow me on Facebook. But my main one would be Honda EG AWD on Instagram. That is where I post everything about my car, my racing, pretty much everything that I do.

Okay.

What about for the business here?

For the business, Precision Tint and Vinyl Experts. We're located in Schomburg, Illinois. It would be PTVE on Instagram. And, you know, precisiontintvinylexperts.com, or give us a call. I appreciate you guys stopping by. Thank you so much.

Thanks for s******* with us. Dan. You can find us at Gunnit Garage, everything, or Mr. Gunnit Garage on Facebook. Sure.

Have people been adding you on Facebook?

No, it's still been growing a little bit.

There's a couple, that Thunderbird guy. I know you got to have him.

I talked to him a little bit.

Well, anyways, Jonathan, thank you so much for having us, man. This has been like a year into making something. I'm glad we could finally get together.

Which is really neat. That was pretty cool.

Yeah. So I was really excited. I'm like, we're going to have this Honda guy on. I'm like, I'm excited. So thank you so much.

My first Honda podcast, man. So yeah, my first podcast with the car.

So I appreciate it. But thank you so much for having us, inviting us into your shop here. Dan, thanks for existing and we'll see y'all next time.

Thank you guys.

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 and see y'all next time.