30. Car Mods And Laws, R&D at MAPerformance, Tunes and Builds, w/ Kyle Larkin

Hello, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Minnoxide podcast. I'm your host, Harris AK. Minnoxide. I'm a local Minnesota photographer, video creator, content creator, a little bit of everything. And this is the Minnoxide podcast.

And this is the Minnoxide podcast. Yeah, you're correct. It is your show.

Yeah, I'm going with it. Let's go.

And I am your co-host, Sean. You might know me as the guy with the orange BMW, the 1M, or the blue Durango Hellcat. This is the Minnoxide podcast, if you didn't know, where we take you beyond the me and we introduce you to some of the drivers of the cars in our community.

Perfect. All right, we finally got the intro. It took only three times, but don't worry about it. But today we have a special guest here for episode 30. His name is Kyle Larkin. You're kind of a man of many hats, as you told us before we started recording.

Keep going.

R&D specialist over at MAPerformance, which I finally figured out how to say. And you've worked on so many cool projects over the years, but just give us a little bit of insight as to what you do over at MAPerformance. And we can just kind of go from there.

Yeah, so like you touched on, my nine to five every day is over at MAPerformance as a R&D specialist. For those who don't know what R&D is, it's research and development, commonly known as research and do-overs. Okay, that's a first. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of redo work going on. So what that basically entails is all the parts that we develop and eventually sell to customers, they touch my hands first and I help with either design iteration or any changes that need to be made. There's also some backend work with as far as like install instructions for customers. It's kind of all that behind the scenes work when you're developing products for cars that instead of you have these shops out there, you drop your car off, they build the products and then on your way you go. This is, you know, we have to meet a niche of many people. So having somebody there to kind of test fit, verify, confirm everything works like it's supposed to, that's my job every single day from nine to five. And then more recently, I've kind of took on a little bit more of like the tuning role during the day and then after hours. So I started my own kind of business, I guess you could call it lurk tuning and development. So that's what I've been doing after hours and on the weekends and stuff like that. Mostly focused on Japanese cars, but I don't stray away from any really cool project that comes my way. So it's kind of like a brief overview. I've also been doing this for a long time. I started wrenching on cars as like a career path in 2014. So almost 10 years.

The first thing that you kind of pointed out there at the beginning was you're the first person that touches these cars as they come in?

Yeah.

So what does that kind of consist of, I guess?

So like if we were to pick up a new platform, let's say for example, I drove the BRZ here today. Like when we got that car, you know, bought it from a dealership brand new, somebody goes and picks it up, brings it to the shop. And like the first thing we'll do on the first day after media has kind of had their hands on it and taking pictures and beating the crap out of it right away with no break in miles, we'll pull it in and put it up on the lift. And then the other guys that I work with, I'm the only technician, but there's a welder. We did have a couple of design engineers, our CNC engineer, and then there's two guys that are kind of in a management role that also kind of oversee things. We'll all get together and just kind of look at the car. And we already have an idea before we purchase a vehicle or even start development, kind of like what are the main products we're gonna do. So anyone that's bought MAP products before, you probably know like downpipe, intake, intercooler.

The basics.

Those are like gonna be the things that like, if you own a car that's in our niche, you know that we're gonna make something for it. And then cat-back exhaust is another one. So like, we get a car in, we'll know right away like, what do we need to do? What's challenging? What's different? Like, how can we make this better? What are the pitfalls of the OEM? You know, how can we change this? Or even now, you know, we've had to pay attention more to what the OEMs do as far as emissions. That's kind of thrown a loophole into, not a loophole, but kind of a wrench in the plans, I guess you could say, when it comes to modifying new cars and trying to ride that fine line between being emissions compliant and still gaining something out of it, and not just having a product for the sake of having a product.

Is that something you have to worry about then, is being emission compliant?

So it's, that's kind of tricky. So like a lot of products, even not our own products, because I guess I probably could have circled back to what MAPerformance is, but I'll touch briefly. So we're a automotive aftermarket manufacturer, as well as a wholesale supplier. So we not only manufacture and distribute our own parts, but we distribute other brands. And like some of, you can basically buy anything from us. If somebody, people ask me all the time, like, do you guys sell this? Can I get this from you guys? I'm like, if there's a part that you want, if we don't have it here, we can get it. Like it's all, it all comes from usually the same place. So when it comes to emission stuff, you know, f***, I already lost my point.

No, no, no, no, emission. The only reason I brought that up is because like the recent thing happened with like tuning and emissions or whatever. So I was curious, did that affect anything on the MAPerformance side of things?

Yeah, so like I said, we talked about like making sure we're making a product that still has a value to it. So, you know, we have to adhere to the rules that the EPA and other governing bodies, yeah, what they've set out for us, but there is still room to play. I think catalytic converters, like going catalyst with the downpipes has kind of gone away. I mean, there's some people that are still doing it, but as far as manufacturing, like if you just own a car and a welder, you can obviously go catalyst. Like that's not a, you keep it hush hush, but it's not, but as far as manufacturers go, there's not many that are willing to risk that. And even to, we try, we're not, I shouldn't say try, but if the OEM downpipe comes with two cats, our downpipe is gonna have two cats in it. Like that's just, anything that's touching emission systems, anything that has to do with emissions, monitored or not, if you modify that, then you are at risk of breaking the law and receiving a fine. And luckily so far, like we've kept ourselves off the radar and adhered to our best abilities, the rules that are set out. So we've kind of kept ourselves out of hot water and continue to do that. And we have plans in place. If regulation becomes less stringent, probably won't go backwards. But we have plans in place that if it gets more strict, because political climate is everything when it comes to this kind of stuff. Like five years from now or four years or whenever the next election is, I have no idea. It's probably only a couple of years away. I have no idea. Next year, 2024. So these political climates, they change so quickly and you never really know. Like I think car people feel the hurt when it comes to like these changes in how they want this stuff to be regulated.

The greatest of the world, making life hell.

But at the same time, you look at like, there's other markets that are way more, like you look guys that are into guns will know, like that's one of the most volatile markets when it comes to like legislation out there. I mean, that stuff changes on a weekly basis.

I remember the last time a presidential candidate said, you know, we're gonna increase those speed limits.

You're right, yeah. So like we have it pretty decent when it comes to like the volatility of that legislation. And like it seems that like you'll have a big jump. Like, you know, the last couple of years, there's a bunch of these diesel shops and some like importer, even like domestic aftermarket shops that kind of got hit with fines. And you know, we saw that, but the repercussions of like everybody seeing that hasn't really happened. It was kind of like this big jump from like, do whatever you want, like catalyst everything, flames out the hood, like who cares? Like it's all good. When we went to this, like, all right, we gotta tone it down. And it's kind of stayed there. It hasn't really moved from that point. And honestly, I don't see it moving from there. You just never know like what's gonna happen for eight, 10 years from now, like where regulation is gonna go.

Yeah, so is there not like a loophole with going catalyst where you, you know, claim this is for off-road use only? Cause I see that a lot with headers or exhaust systems and some other mods too that say like, you can only install this if you're using for off-road use.

So this is a question that's perfect for me, like almost custom tailored. Cause this is something that I argued with, you know, when we were in these kind of media, we call them stand up meetings where everybody, we stand up and we look at these cars and we talk about what we're gonna do. And that was something that, you know, definitely got brought up a bunch of times like, well, what if it's off-road use only or racetrack use only? The problem with how legislation, especially regulatory legislation is written is it's all about intent. You have to prove that your customers intend to only use that on a racetrack or in a non-emissions, like in an emissions compliant way, meaning like you're only using this off-road. So that's like where the tricky situation is where people talk about the RPM Act. The RPM Act, like when you get down to it, it protects street cars that are converted to race cars. It doesn't really talk a ton about street cars that are street cars and modifying street cars. So there are like, I wouldn't say bills, but people out there lobbying for government entities to leave these street cars alone. And so we're such a minority that even if every single guy that was into cars went catalyst and had some crazy flame tune on, it would not really affect emissions at all. But it's all about just the outward perception and the intent of your customers. So if they intend to break the law and you're allowing them to do that, then that falls on you.

Right, so you couldn't just put like a checkbox at checkout and be like, you're only going to use this for a race track.

Because I can't prove that you are going to, I can't without a doubt say you are only going to use this at the racetrack.

Okay.

So that's where that kind of thing, like the loophole, it's not really a loophole, because it takes one person, one spy to go, yeah, they don't care if you go rip down the street with this. So then them going, okay, well then you're eligible for a fine.

Well, that just seems pretty hard for the seller to show the intent for that person, because for you, you're selling it. And if you sell it with the intent that this is only gonna be used off road, and then it's up to the customer to then use it for that purpose, and then for them to go on the street, you can't help that.

Right, yeah, and that's where it's really tricky. And so it's like basically the methodology is leaving no margin for error.

Right, so it's really just them putting, making sure that you are the final say so.

Like if there is a way for a customer to buy your product and defeat emissions and drive their car in the street, and you are giving them every opportunity to do that, that means you are complicit.

You're part of the problem.

You are complicit in them breaking the law. So that deems you responsible. So it's really tricky to kind of find that. It's tricky to cheat the system. If it's easy to follow the rules, it's hard to cheat the system. So we try to not skate the lines too much just because it keeps you out of hot water. It keeps you in business.

And so part of being smog compliant, that's not really a thing here in Minnesota. And probably like 30, 40 other states. I think it's like New York, some states on the East Coast, California is a big one. Everybody knows. Colorado, I think. Even like stock cars in California are getting flagged from the dealerships.

Yeah, so I mean like there's a large number of products that we can't even sell to California. Like we can't ship them there. And even if like, let's say you had a buddy that lived in like Utah or Arizona or like a neighboring, yeah, same region. If you were to purchase that, and then, don't quote me on this exactly, but we've touched on this before like at the shop. Like if I sold it to my buddy in Arizona, drove across state lines, picked it up, came back, installed it on my car and drove it in California, like there is some argument that you could, there could be litigation because you know.

Against any performance?

Yeah, because you knowingly sold it. Like if you, if they could prove that you knew that the customer lived in California and intended to use it in California, that could be against like the whole car deal.

Okay, so you guys probably like flag anything.

So yeah, anything like, anything that gets shipped to California, like there's a list of things that can go and there's a list of things that can't go. And most of it, like I think we can send cat backs. I think those are okay. Yeah, but like downpipes for sure not intakes only if they're carb certified. And that's a whole big mess. And like, there's only a handful of companies really doing that because it involves a ton of money. Oh yeah. Yeah, so yeah, there's a whole handful of stuff that we just can't send out there.

That's so crazy. Damn, I can't even imagine like, I get scared of like tax laws. Like, you know, like anytime I open a new Shopify store, I'm like, oh man, I had to think about all this and blah, blah, blah. I can't even imagine, like California as a whole is just a problem.

Yeah, well, and what sucks is like, I've been out there and like it's a beautiful place. Like I love, I mean, I will say like half of the reason we went to California, me and my wife, we watched that, I don't know if you guys seen it, it's a documentary on Netflix about the Hotel Cecil. It's like a haunted hotel in downtown LA. I don't do spooky. I don't usually either, but this one is just one of those like docu-series things caught my eye. But yeah, it's on Skid Row in LA.

Oh God.

Yeah, so like got off the planet LAX, went to In-N-Out 8, drove straight to Skid Row and like looked at this hotel and then we're like, all right, we're good. And then we jetted down to San Diego, but like, yeah, California is a beautiful place. And like, yeah, I mean, the people in the politics, not the best, but-

Yeah, I grew up in Huntington Beach. And I go back there and visit, but yeah, Huntington Beach, cesspool.

Why did I forget that? Cause like I went to, that's the only place I've ever been to and was Huntington Beach in California. When we went to go pick up the Noble, which have storms.

Oh yeah.

Yeah, dude, that's such a beautiful area.

It is gorgeous, but it's really gone downhill.

When I went there, it was, I want to say, yeah, December, 2020. Like it was like COVID was starting to die down a little bit. I think it was like in between waves or whatever. And it was a ghost town. Like even the beaches were just empty.

Best time to be there.

I know I was there when COVID hit and everything was shut down for like, everything was closed. And it was, it was, yeah, like you said, a ghost town in Huntington Beach. Everybody was so like terrified, you know, they had the mask mandate, you know, all the like, unless you're a mandatory worker, you know, everything was closed, you know, I would go grocery shopping and that was about it. You know, that was all I could do.

I loved the food over there. We went to, I, have you ever tried Japanese curry?

No.

So good.

Is it?

So much better than Indian curry. And I'm sure somebody's gonna crucify me for it. But like, when I had it out there, like we went to the spot. Cause like when Jeff was stationed out there or whatever, he's like, dude, I got to take you to this place. It was like 30 minutes away. So out of the way. I hated my life in the back of that convertible Camaro. But freaking awesome. So yes, California is absolutely beautiful, but it's just, it's gotten tough. And yeah.

I just, I can't believe how much car culture is still out there. With just how much like regulation and stuff is forced on those guys. And like, I think it's easier for some of the people that live out there that are like notable. Like if you're, if you're TJ Hunt or like, you know, you're somebody that has a following and a name, companies are going to send you stuff and like, they're not selling it to you. They're just sending it to you.

So they're going to get around with that.

You're yeah. Like, so if you're, if you have a name, if you're, if you're somebody of, you know, recognition, you can get around with it. But like even still, like just the random guys who are just into cars are still able to somehow get by. It's kind of crazy.

Yeah, have you seen Alex Martini went to a show in LA or Long Beach and he was talking to a bunch of the people there, you know, they're the, you know, Scion XPs, Subaru guys. And they're, he's asking them like, your car's modified. How do you pass smog? And then they're like, you know, we, we pay a guy. And then he starts asking them like, how much do you pay them? Some guys are paying like 400 bucks to get their cert. And then some guys pay like 80 bucks, you know? So it really depends on like who you know and how well you're connected out there.

And I know like a lot of guys, like, for example, Dustin Williams, I don't know if you guys went to Modest at all.

We didn't make it, but yeah.

So him and I are after doing his Z and now we're doing his WRX. Him and I have been pretty close. And I was like, man, like moving from Mississippi to California, like, aren't you worried about the cars and stuff? And he's like, man, anything that like is even questionable. I just have them registered in Mississippi. So like his WRX is at the shop right now, like torn apart and it's got a Mississippi plate on it. Cause it's like so far from smog compliant, but that's a way that I think a lot of people are getting around it too is like, what is it? Montana that you can is basically the- Well, you can do whatever you want in Montana, it seems like, and like, especially towards cars, like just registering them under an LLC out there or something like that. Just so that like, if you got pulled over by, you know, what is it? CHP is the California Highway Patrol or whatever, like they pulled you over, like, oh, you're out of state, like we can't smog you. I think that's like a loophole that people are using as well. So yeah, I don't know. I just can't believe how passionate people are to still modify cars and still live there in like just the worst possible situation when it comes to trying to do anything.

I know, I think California is kind of known right now as like the worst state to be in that, you know-

To be happy.

Yeah, to try to be happy, to try to enjoy something you love. And they're like, nope, we're gonna make it really difficult for you.

Just gonna take that away from you.

You really can't have any hobby out there, not cars, not guns.

No, people just get too angry. They're like, no, we don't want you to be happy. And then they're like, close the racetracks too, because we don't want you on the street. We don't want you at the tracks. We don't want you-

We just don't want you.

Yeah.

That's so heartbreaking right now with how many tracks are closing around the country. And I'm sure COVID had a lot to do with it, but it's just every other week, maybe every third week, I see on my Facebook, like, oh, another drag strip, notable drag strip being closed down in this state, whatever.

Yeah, I think the most recent one is Atco. It's on the east side. It's a drag strip only, but I think that just closed.

Yeah, a lot of them are getting bought up by real estate companies and they're tearing them down to put up mega mansions or whatever.

The first one I really felt was the Texas 2K track, the one down in Houston. That's when I really felt like, oh my God, we're losing these tracks. You know how many memories were made down at that track? Even though one of the lanes wasn't perfect, it's the amount of, even the two years that I went, the races we saw there were just fricking insane. And we'll never see them at that track again.

Well, I think the crazy thing too about Texas 2K this year is, as soon as the event was over, they started demolition. It seemed like it was a couple days after the event was over, they started tearing down the track.

The body wasn't cold.

Yeah, they were saying farewell as the...

I'm sure there's somebody who's tried to make a pass as the bulldozer was coming down the other direction. And that track was super cool. I went there in 2018 for a Texas 2K event. And it's just a cool track to just walk around the pits. That's my biggest problem when it goes, as far as events goes, at least at the track, I'll spend 90% of time b*********** with people in the pits and maybe 10 or 5% actually watching races.

That was about right for us. We did a lot of night stuff too this year.

Like just out on the streets and stuff?

Yeah, that was the goal this year for me. Because last year we had zero chance to get out for the street stuff. But this year, Sean's the best travel buddy when it comes to car stuff. He doesn't have to worry about nothing. So we had the Hellcat Durango down there, the welds on the back and everything.

Looking proper.

Yeah, well, it looked proper for all of 10 minutes. Yeah, we fit in. But no, it was freaking nuts. Because we were able to go across town. He was fine with driving an hour or two, this show over here and then this street event here. You know, we got a couple runs in, you know, you can't, it's hard. The bigger the group you travel with, the less things you get to do that you actually want to do. So, the loudest voice.

Yeah, the biggest thing with Texas that I don't think people realize is like, if you wanna go somewhere, and I've been to Houston a couple of times. If you wanna go somewhere and do something, it's like an hour drive minimum to get anywhere. Like you wanna go to the track from your hotel, it's an hour. You wanna go to the street spot, it's an hour. Oh, we're moving spots. We're going to a different dig spot in a different side of town. It's an hour. It's such a huge state. And like driving there, half of your drive to Houston is in Texas. Or like a good chunk of it is through Texas.

I think four and a half hours, I think, right? From the beginning of Texas to Houston.

Oh my God, I felt like it was like six.

I'd say I thought it was more than that.

We were in that state for a long time trying to get out. Like the first day after when we were leaving on what was that, Sunday? And we were just driving north. Literally, I think we got six hours, sun was down and we're just getting out of Texas. So it is an incredibly huge state. It's the largest state.

So from Houston, we try to divide it up halfway. So yeah, I think you're about right because I think we stayed what, in Muskogee on the way back?

Yeah.

So I mean, Sunset, Oklahoma, right?

Yeah.

That sounds right. It sounds like an Oklahoma kind of name.

Yeah. Yeah. Freaking nuts. But it's like, yeah, it's like middle of the night. To be fair, I think we left at noon that day because we wanted to hit the track.

Yeah, it was later.

That's right. But even then it's like nine, 10 hours and then we're finally getting to Muskogee. Like Texas is freaking huge, dude.

Yeah. And our way back. So I went down with my buddy Josh and a couple other friends and he's got a like six, six 57 horsepower, 700 horsepower Evo. And we trailer that down there. And we had some drama on the way down. We lost a serpentine belt tensioner, like I think in Oklahoma, somewhere around there. So we had to change that in the Jimmy John's parking lot, like unloaded the Evo, drove to O'Reilly's, bought a tensioner, bought a belt, swapped that back on the road. But on the way back, the trailer that we used, it was an open trailer. And it years previously, I guess somebody had run it into like a guard rail or something. So the alignment of the rear axle was kind of off. And on the way back, we stopped to get gas and somebody went and looked at the trailer and the one tire in like the back right corner was completely like about to pop, like showing cords and we're like, f***, it's Sunday at 9.30 and we're like an hour away from Dallas. Like, where are we gonna get it? Like, are we gonna have to sleep here or are we gonna have to get a tire? Or like, we went to like the most podunk, like sketchy tire shop that you could find in downtown Dallas. And they sold us a used tire for a hundred bucks and swapped it with the car still on the trailer and on we went and that was the rest of the trip. But like it was, yeah, I've only been out there once. I definitely wanna go back again. I think, cause I think this year, it's gonna be in Dallas now. So a little bit short.

Two hours closer.

No, it's like four hours closer.

Oh, four hours closer. Oh yeah, that is definitely a one day trip.

Sean, from here, it is 13 hours and 58 minutes from your house.

That seems so doable.

It's a one day trip. Like we've done that.

You guys broke it up when you went the last time?

Yeah, it was like 16 hours.

We drove 18?

18.

Is it 17 or 18, something like that. Cause I think World Cup finals in Maryland is like almost the same distance.

Yes, which I've never been. We talked about this, what, with Sam Moraine when he was on the episode.

Yeah, Sam was the first time I ever heard of that.

Yeah, Sam took my spot. Cause I went them, I went, so my friend Josh is like who Sam went with and our friend Jake and a couple other guys. And like I've slowly distanced myself from just cars in general. And so Sam took my spot going to that. So he's been going with them the last couple of years. But yeah, we went, we did TX2K and World Cup in 2018. And they're about the same drive and the same group of us. But yeah, we would just split it up between the three or four of us and we would drive. We never stop, like stop to get gas, stop to pee. Otherwise it was a straight shot down there. Not till we were there. Did we sleep? Well, you slept when you weren't driving, but otherwise, which was sketchy because you have one guy awake and everybody else is asleep and you got the trailer and construction and all that stuff. It's just a little nerve wracking.

I know, yeah. When you're the guy that gets stuck driving at four in the morning and everybody else is asleep, like, okay, I guess I'll just drive.

Yeah, I've got your life in my hands and there's nothing you can do about it.

I've done that with my dad. Me and him drove from Minneapolis all the way down to Ocala, Florida. That's about 25 hours. We drove straight there and we were loaded up with about, I wanna say like 12,000 pounds of hay. And-

It's an interesting trip.

Yeah, well, we got a farm down there and we were dropping off some hay because it's way cheaper to buy hay here than down in Florida.

Makes sense.

And then we get there. I think we took a nap for like three hours and then unloaded all the hay, drove back another 24 hours. So between us two, it was crazy because I went to sleep during the off hours, like during the night, and then he would drive. But I remember I woke up and we were stopped at a gas station. I'm like, what's going on? He's like, oh, I just started dozing off. So needed some fresh air. I'm like, just wake me up next time. Like I can drive.

You start to see the phantom deer and you're like slamming on the brakes. You're like, what was that?

You just reminded me of the hay story that Jacob had when he was on this episode. You remember what that was? Like basically, I think in certain states, like you cannot have more than 10 bales of hay or whatever and you get, yeah, it was-

It was like a local county law.

Yeah, it was a dumb thing, whatever. But speaking of dozing off though, I was actually, I'm in some of the Supra chats. I don't know if you are as well, but like, like, or not chats, the groups or whatever. And apparently one guy the other day, he just picked up this Supra. I think he was either straight shotting it. Yeah, I think he was straight shotting it after buying it in another state. Dozed off, hit a guardrail total that on the way back home. It's like, man, that fricking sucks. He actually, he, I'm guessing his arm must have been like right in front of him. There's a picture of this in the group or whatever. But like when the airbag or whatever went off or when he must have hit it, he actually has the Toyota badge right here. Oh my God.

Branded himself?

Branded himself. I'm not sure if it's real. Like that'd be so hard to fake. Like imagine trying to get a marker and drawing the Toyota badge perfectly.

Or even trying to Photoshop that and like getting the indents right or stuff like that.

Yeah, so I'll see if I could add this to the highlight because that was so crazy to see. Like, and that's one of the scary things about driving straight through. Like I went to Texas straight through three times and I never drove by the way, but I stayed up to keep them company every single time. Cause I'm a good passenger though. Like I'll stay up with you. Like I'm not gonna let Sean fall asleep, you know? Like I did it twice with Chaz. We straight shotted it through. And then, I don't know, one time with Chaz and you know, the girls are asleep in the back and it was just like, I gotta keep this f****** guy up. Like, you know, we're just hopped up on caffeine and monsters.

I found the best thing to keep you awake is like sour. I'm not even a big candy person, but like sour candy is like something to keep your jaw. Either that or somebody told me like singing songs out loud, not in your head, but like just singing to yourself in the car, that keeps you awake.

Oh yeah, it like, you know, keeps you mentally like focused because you're singing along, you know, you're trying to remember words instead of just focusing on the dotted lines in the middle of the road, like staying in between.

What's your song? What's your genre? Do you do rap songs? And then the second you start dropping slurs, you're like, all right, time to go to sleep.

No, not quite. Music is tough for me. So like what we talked about before the podcast, I like to pride myself on being a master of nothing and interested in everything. So I have like some of my childhood friends are, you know, either produce music or have some involvement in music. So my music taste is pretty widely varied. My Spotify playlist goes from like classic rock to like hard rap to hardcore rock to, you know, it's, there's not one, like you couldn't be like, oh, what are you a fan of? I'm like, kind of everything. Like there's even some countries, you know, put in there. The only thing I can't really like get myself into is like, like the EDM electric dance music. I don't know. I just, this doesn't do anything for me.

You can't sing along to that.

Yeah, that's right. I gotta have some lyrics.

If it's too soft, I can't do it. If it's like hardcore, like dubstep, like back in the days, I can get into that, but I can't do like the calm stuff.

See, that's more like what I like. Like there's some of that, like, I don't know, like chill hop or like, I don't know. There's like the lo-fi stuff. Like if I'm like working, like either tuning or just like wrenching on cars, sometimes it's nice to just like have something like an ambiance sound in the background to just kind of like.

Gets you in the zone.

Kind of, yeah.

It's like the best type of music to listen to when you're in traffic, cause it just like chills you out.

Don't get super mad. Yeah.

I can't.

I tried it.

Just let it flow. You know, the traffic's moving. You know, you should try it.

No, I tried it. I'm still angry. Did I tell you, I f****** followed a guy for three miles the other day? Scary, dude. Here's the story. Just so I don't seem like a total psycho. So basically what happened is this guy, like he was riding everyone's a** in a big SUV. So it's like, obviously you shouldn't be doing that because like I almost got into an accident because of it. I was, you know, behind him and he had slam on his brakes, which resulted in me slamming on my brakes, whatever. So I go into the right lane and I'm minding my own business. I'm like, cool, let's move on with my day. And then I'm just like, I see him come over. He gets up my a**. I gave him a little break check. I'm like, hey, just leave me alone. And then he passes me, gives me a thumbs down. And then I have the big text app on my phone, right? So I'm like, all right, what am I going to say? And I decided not to say anything.

I can already see what you were typing up.

No, actually I went from really angry to I'm like, all right, let's try taking the other approach. I was like, I wrote out be better. And then I was like, ah, you know what? I've moved on.

That's too nice.

That's what I was thinking. And so anyways, after that, I mellow out like I should, like a normal person, just let it go, Harris. And then I'm on the exit. I'm about to get off. I'm not even kidding. Like it's a solid white line at this point. And then he honks. So I'm like, primal.

It's on.

I'm primal urge. I whip across two lanes and I'm just behind them. I'm not dumb enough to do anything or anything, but I just want him to be like, oh, this guy might be a little crazy.

I like how you started by saying, oh, I got to tell this story so I don't seem like a psycho.

I don't know if he really helps you, Kasey.

Whatever, I'm here for entertainment.

It's funny that that guy gave you thumbs down because that's what I would have done. I was talking about this with my wife and I was like, what's the worst way that you can communicate to people? I stopped doing the middle finger because it doesn't mean anything now. It's like, I'm going to give you thumbs down.

That sticks with me.

Because that's like-

That hurts.

Yeah, like I'm telling you, you suck. Not just like F you, it's more like this is an attack on your character.

Well, I think the thing that makes the thumbs down hurt so much more is like middle finger, like f*** you, that's like vulgar. But you know that if I'm trying to piss somebody off and then they give me the finger, I know that I won. I know that they're upset. They're angry. They're upset. But if you give them a thumbs down, you're just like, man, dude, you just suck. And I'm cool with that.

So that's fine.

I'm fine. You are the problem and I'm okay. So like, I think that's why it stings.

Yeah, I definitely understand. Yeah, that was the perfect way to put it.

This guy was the problem. But so before we move on to an actual topic, no, this guy was the problem. Not even kidding. But anyways, my first ever thumbs down was actually from my E36 M3 convertible driver. And it was over here, like right up right before the big bridge on 169 here. And I didn't do anything to this guy. All I did was like, I think I went from like 68, just like a fun little pull. Like my car was relatively new to me at this time. And I, you know, it might've been like a little, I mean, it's not even that loud. I still have a catted downpipe because you know, legal things. And then I just get a thumbs down as he's taking an exit. And I'm like, why dude? Like, I'm just chilling. And that one stings, that one sticks with me.

Yeah.

Cause I didn't do anything wrong and I got a thumbs down.

And my first thumbs down was probably at a cars area, Cars and Coffee getting denied entry in my Civic.

So that doesn't count. The Cars and Coffee, like they, they had.

I was, I was devastated. Me and my friend Hector, we like stayed up. We went like street racing the night before.

Do you have a friend Hector with a Civic?

Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, do like, I didn't, I don't even think about that. Yeah. Well, so let's say he owns a Civic. It's, I won't say where it's parked, but it is parked somewhere in like a thousand pieces because I've just am a huge procrastinator and won't put it back together for him. I mean, he broke it. So I don't understand why it's on me to put it back together, but yeah, Hector does have a Civic. It doesn't have a spoon engine in it though. Or a MoTec system exhaust. It's crazy how many people haven't seen the original Fast and Furious. I won't tangent too hard.

But I think a lot of people skipped that and they went for the newer ones.

Those all suck. Even rewatching, I'm trying to think of what's one of the newer ones. Tokyo Drift is, it's good and it's iconic, but if you weren't into cars or weren't into Japanese cars, I feel like the first movie kind of appealed to like anybody. Like it was about cars, but you could watch it and it was like a good story and like it made sense with cars or without them. But like, I just don't know if like Tokyo Drift has that same appeal. And but like now they've gone completely the other direction where cars don't matter at all.

No, because I was just watching a review on like the Fast and Furious series and they went from, you know, where the final climax of the first movie was, you know, a street race. And then you get to, you know, the final climax of some of these newer movies where it's like they're driving their cars out of a plane and landing on a highway. And then they're driving, you know, battling tanks in their regular cars.

And it's in a rocket ship going to space.

Yeah. And now they're going to space. Like the series is no longer a street racing like series. It's a superhero movie.

They should have like, they could have kept the name, but like changed, I guess, like some kind of wording, like the Fast and Furious universe, but it's totally removed from the actual story. And like, also like, how old is Vin Diesel now? Like how old was he when they meet in the first movie versus how old is he now?

He's gotta be like in his sixties.

But he's always been bald, so who cares?

Yeah, like you can't really tell, like he has an age. That's just like the weird, like the character, all the other characters have progressed or moved on. But then you got this same bald dude, like family is forever.

I wonder what he uses for lotion.

Like gold bond.

You know, yeah, that's a solid one. I'm a USERING guy, but I mean, Avino is just kind of, you know, whatever, different topic. Welcome to Harris's Makeup and Lotion Podcast. One of the things that I wanted to talk to you about today, because you did mention that you've done some high profile builds. You know, one of the people you mentioned was Dustin Williams. You mentioned Alex Martini. So just kind of take us through, I guess, each of those.

Yeah, so last year was kind of a big year for me as far as that stuff goes, either build consulting or just doing it in general. So the first one was Alex's car. It was kind of a weird timeline. The car showed up months before we ever started working on it. Just got dropped off on a trailer and they're like, hey, the car's here. And that was when Alex was still working with Fitment. And so the car was an NA S2000 with a K-Swap in it, a K24. And it ran and drove. Well, it did run and drive. It showed up to us not running and driving because he brought it to an event, blew up the clutch, put it on a stacker and then sent it to us and said, fix it. And I want to put a turbo on it. So he sent it to us. It showed up, obviously didn't run or drive and they kind of got put on the back burner for a while. And then Alex was in the middle of like departing from Fitment. And I'm not going to get into that too much, but in the middle of, you know, starting what is his, his new thing that Alex Martini, what is it? Meta Martini and that stuff with Torque Motorsports or what? I'm not exactly sure.

Yeah, everything he's up to.

Yeah, all the, all the new stuff that he's doing, he's kind of ventured out on his own, which good for him. But that was kind of like when he was departing the company. So we're like, hey, you know, we need to finish, we need to start and finish this build so that he can take the car and we can shake hands and be on our way. So I was kind of in charge of just consulting that build and then the tuning of it. So it was like, you know, this is the goal. This is how much power we want to make, you know, what do you recommend? So kind of gave a short build list, like these are the injectors you want. This is a turbo we want, you know, Jose was going to make the manifold and then Kyle Nelson did all the engine work. And so did Josh Hamer over at Eurocharged. He worked with us for a while. And he, they all kind of, you know, took the original motor out. It was leaking from everywhere. Tons of broken or cross loaded bolts. It just kind of a hodgepodge, like somebody's garage build that kind of got halfway finished up, finished enough to run and drive. So actually ordered a fresh, like JDM K24, redid the adapter housing to go from the stock F series trans to the K series.

These GoPros, man, they're freaking out today. They both just died. It's weird. I've never had them die simultaneously like that before.

They're cooking.

Oh, I know exactly why. Okay, that's a later problem.

Anyways, continue. So yeah, we, you know, I shouldn't say we, guys at the shop, yes, went through this new motor, just put, you know, fresh timing components, resealed everything, just made sure it was fresh. So it's a bone stock JDM K24. Jose Asensio built the turbo kit, came out super good. Like all custom fab, like put the turbo exactly where we want. I got the car running, car made 470 on E85. And actually got to, it was funny, like I left for maternity leave or is it paternity? I don't know what it is if you're a guy, if it's still maternity leave. Paternity leave, yeah.

Yeah, Papa.

Yeah, Papa leave. I left for that. And I was gone for like two weeks while my wife recovered. And they like had just finished the car. And like, it's ready to start. Like, you know, when you can come back and tune it, like come take the car. So I actually was like, well, like Lauren's doing good. So I can just come pick up the car and like, I'll come back to work in a week, but I'll drive the car around and like go run errands and get groceries and stuff in it. So I had told them, I was like, look, this car is going to get built. It's going to get given to somebody who isn't going to have support of us anymore. Like isn't not readily available. Like I'm not going to be able to be like, Hey man, I'll go to your house and check out what's wrong with it. Like this is going a couple hours away. Like we should make sure this thing's ironed out completely. So I drove the car for a week, did some street tuning, just kind of got all the drivability stuff ironed out and made sure like, yeah, this is a fully flushed out, like nothing's going to fall off this thing. You're not going to have anything weird pop up. So I drove the car for a week, drove it to an M&List, like ripped it a bunch. And then yeah, we strapped it on the dyno, cranked out four, the original goal was 400. And I had spec'd the Precision 6262 Turbo and I was like 10 pounds, I should do it easy. And like literally after the street tuning, put the car on the dyno, first rip, made 400 like on the dot, like perfect. And I was like, I texted Alex, I was like, all right, it made 400, like, what do you want to do? And he's like, well, can it make more? And I was like, yeah, we can make a little bit more. So yeah, we ended up turning it up like 14 pounds and it was at 480 and it was super fun. And but it's like, the thing is a death trap though. It's small, it's an S2000, but it's stock trans, stock diff, stock axles. And it was like slammed on the ground with some like junk, I don't remember what kind of tires they were. It was not great tires. And like the thing would just murder every single gear shift you'd be spinning. So that was the first one that we did. And I don't even remember when that was. It was in, well, my kid was, I shouldn't remember. My kid was born June 2nd. So it would have been early June when we finished that one. And Alex has been seemingly just driving the crap out of that car. I mean, I know he did a burnout contest with it shortly after. And I think his goal with it is to be a time attack car. So he has like some aero parts, I don't know. I loosely follow it, just kind of try to keep in touch. Like, hey, how's the car going? And you know, that's kind of like my motto is like, you know, if I tune a car, if I help build a car, like I'm going to support that for life. Like I'm a part of that now.

It's your name on it.

Yeah, so like-

Lifetime warranty.

Exactly, and like-

I wouldn't go that far.

Yeah, well, I mean, but I kind of like to uphold that. Like, you know, I tell everybody like with the cars that I'm tuning now, like, if you have an issue, if something's wrong or like I missed something or the car suddenly doesn't run right or just something seems off, like, let me know and I'm not going to charge. Don't be afraid to ask me because you think I'm going to charge you more money. I'm going to come and fix it for free because that's the right thing to do. And like me growing up being into cars, like that's what I wished everybody else would do. And I'm in this position where I have a day job and I'm doing this on the side more so for like discovery. Like it's fun for me to learn. It's fun for me to do all these projects. So I don't even have to rely on the money from that to like keep me going. And like one day that'd be cool, but for right now I'd much rather support people and like help than like just make it a business and make it like my income. So yeah, I don't know exactly what he's got planned for next, but that was the first like, wow, this is cool. Like I have my name on something that's like a lot of people are gonna see. A lot of people are gonna see this car. And some weird stuff got, you know, happened with him departing our business and then him starting his own of like people not wanting to share stuff and things like that. But it was, I mean, if you go on his blog for the car, like my name's on there. And I was like, that's good enough for me. Like, that's all the wrecking. I don't need somebody to be like, you know, boasting my name, like, oh yeah, he did this. Like, no, I mean, like he gave me my credit and then that was it and that was cool with that. So that was the first one we did. And then a couple months later, TommyFYeah, he's from Connecticut, most notably for Skylines, like R32, R33 and just like JDM import cars. He had reached out and I guess I don't remember who, I think it was either Dustin or Adam LZ that had given us his contact info because we've worked with both of them in the past. And he said, we have this, I have this Evo 2 that's kind of got a little bit of a history. It was called the Pleasure Evo. It was a time, not time attack, hill climb? Yeah, hill climb car. So it had done like Pike's Peak a couple of times and a couple, it had some records on a couple of mountains. So it was like a notable car and he had bought it from the original owner, Alex, that built the car originally. And he's like, this thing just, you know, I drove it at Lime Rock and it just, I don't know, it's kind of, it's not what I want. So he wanted us to kind of refresh the car and go through it and, you know, modernize it. All the parts were like bespoke race car parts. Like they, I forgot what it's called. There's a website that's like racecarjunk.com and it's like just all like takeoff parts from like F1 cars and hill climb cars, all these rally cars and stuff. And it like, it had like an ancient Garrett turbo on it. It had this crazy like super long runner tubular exhaust manifold on it. And like it had, the transmission was some crazy dog box that's like from out of a factory Mitsubishi rally car. So it was like a 10, it had like a magnesium case. It was like some $10,000 gear set. It was like, everyone's like, don't f****** break it. And I was like, I'm not gonna break it. But he sent the car to us to just kind of be modernized. It had an ECU that it was kind of the previous life before Cybex was what it is today. They had another kind of venture that's called Life Racing. And it's just like kind of a weird, bespoke ECU that not a lot of people here tune. So he's like, I can't really find anybody to tune the car. And all this stuff is really old. Like, I just want to modernize it. So he sent the car to us, went through everything, made sure. Originally, he thought the motor was hurt. So we went through and like that was the very first thing, like compression, leak down test, check timing. Like the timing belt had slipped at some point. So it was like off a couple of teeth. So first thing I did was like correct all that, make sure everything was good, threw it on the dyno. And like it made okay powers, like in the 400s, but it was super lazy and just like not what you want for like a time, like not a time attack, but just like a. Of course. Yeah, like you just, you would, you had to be like on the throttle at all. Like it was on or off. There was no like linearity to it. There was no progressive throttle response. It was just, it was too big of a combo for what he was trying to do with it. So we ended up moving it to like a smaller, it was an Archinari turbo. They primarily make drop in like factory housing, Mitsubishi turbos. So it was like one of their mid range turbos that was factory frame, but still made, I mean the car made 430 on MS109. So it still had packed a punch, but it would, you know, I mean, you're talking about making peak power at, you know, 3000 versus making it at 6,000. So it livened the car up. And then with that, we, you know, switched it over to a Haltech, which was a fantastic experience for me. Cause I rewired the entire car, which was, I should back up. This whole build happened in a week. Getting the car, finishing the car, tuning the car, car getting shipped back. It got shipped to Connecticut, back to Connecticut to go to a race in Lime Rock. All happened in a week. Showed up on a Friday, left on a Sunday, or no, left on a Monday. So like a little over a week. But I didn't even have parts. Like the first day I'm like, I can take this apart, but nothing's here. You know, we're waiting for stuff to get shipped here. So it was like every single day was a 10 to 12 hour day, including weekends of just wrenching on the car. Cause I was waiting on a harness or I was waiting on wire to wire the chassis harness, or I was waiting on the ECU from Haltech. So every single day something would show up and I'd spend 10 to 12 hours rebuilding the whole car. So it showed up, you know, whatever, Thursday, Friday, with the old setup and it left on Monday with the Haltech, the new Arginari Turbo, totally different exhaust, totally different intercooler setup. And yeah, it was just, that one was a time crunch, but it was really rewarding. The probably the sketchiest moment with that car is after, you know, we tuned it over the weekend myself. And then Tommy had a guy that worked at the shop, his name's Clinton, who I still keep in touch with. He kind of remote tuned it with me. So I took care of all the wastegate stuff. And then I was like, well, you're Tommy's guy, like, I'm not gonna butt in, like, I'll have you finish this, you know, on TeamViewer and stuff. And after we were done with that, I was like, okay, let's go make sure like this all works on the street. Cause most of the time you'll tune something on a dyno, and then you go on the street and there's just something you have to change. It's more than likely that boost control is different, or you're gonna cut, the load comes in a little bit different. So pull out of the shop, and there's like a straight that's right in front of the shop. Like make a two, three, four hit. It's really short ratio gearbox. So I was like able to run through a couple gears. And I come to the end of the street, mind you, this car isn't registered. It has no plate. It has headlights, no turn signals. It's caged, it's right hand drive. It's not mine. And I look behind me. And so it's kind of like an S curve, like in front of the shop, there's like a road that goes left, and then you're in front of the shop, and then you go straight, and then there's a T at the end of it. And I'm at that T, and I look behind me, and all I see coming around the corner is one of them police cruisers. I was like, f***. Like, one, either this car is going to get impounded, because there's nothing. There's no registration, there's no insurance, there's no plate. And like, I'm not wearing a seatbelt, I was doing like 90 on a 30, like I'm going to prison. Like, I'm like, that's it. So I'm like, well, best case, I just drive it into the neighborhood, and maybe he doesn't realize what's going on, because he was at the end of the street that I started on, and I'm on the other end. So I take a right, and then there's a neighborhood behind MAP. So I take a right, and then I take it right into this neighborhood, and I'm like, not going fast. I'm like, I'm going quick, but I'm not going fast. I'm not speeding.

Got to get away.

But I'm going like in a hurry. So I was like, okay, pull off into this neighborhood that's got a cul-de-sac, and I'll just park the car, I'll just get out. I'll just walk, because if the car gets impounded, and I don't go to jail, whatever, like we'll figure it out, right? So I get out of the car and I'm walking away, and this cruiser has its lights on at this point, and just blows past me. And then another one blows past me, and I'm like, my heart is pounding. My friend, Alex Nelson, he was filming me doing this, like I have a video of it. And he's calling me, he's like, dude, there's two cops coming. And I'm like, yeah, I know, I'm out of the car, it's in the neighborhood. And then he jumps in his Model 3, and comes to pick me up. And as he's pulling up, I get a text from a friend of mine, who's a lifelong friend, middle school, elementary school, and known this guy forever. He's a Cottage Grove cop. And he texts me and he goes, I scared the s*** out of you, didn't I? They were responding to like a domestic dispute in the neighborhood that I parked in. So like it was completely unrelated at all. And he was the one that was behind me. And he's like, yeah, I saw a race car on the street, like I knew it was probably you. And but like, I was like, dude, you literally gave me a heart attack. Like there's not been a lot of moments where I've been like, dude, I'm going to go to jail or like something really bad is going to, or I'm going to get fired because I got this car impounded. Like, I was like, well, yeah, I had to test it. I had to drive it.

My anxiety is through the roof right now.

Oh my God. Yeah. That story had me on the edge of the seat. And that, you know, final deliver.

Yeah, dude, just.

What a great story. Yeah.

Like that was, that was like that whole, like in the moment, that was just way too much work. Like I don't, I enjoyed it. I'm looking back on it. I'm thankful that I got an opportunity to work on like such a special, cool car. Like it has history. It's an Evo too. You don't like really see that. It had a bunch of really cool bespoke parts on it. Like the coilovers on it were some other one-off custom rally suspension coilover. It had a bunch of hodgepodge, like, oh yeah, Mitsubishi parts on it. Like it was just a cool car, but it was just a ton of work. Like it was, and it was like a ton of last minute work. Like if I were to do it again, I'd say let's not do this in a week. Let's do this in three weeks. And like, we'll be way less stressed. But it all happened, like it all worked. And it all worked out. Like the car had some issues. Like, and that's just what happens. If you build a race car in a week and then ship it to an event, you're going to have issues. But the car, it was fast and it was competitive, but there was just some little things that ended up happening that were, like I said, like minor stuff. Like there was an issue with one of the charge pipes and one of the coolant feeds to the turbo, like had an issue. But like just-

Like if you had one more week or-

Yeah, or if we could have even brought it to like DCTC or Brainerd and just flushed it out with like one track day, like just something to actually test the car, not me running from the cops up the street, like that would have been perfect. So that was the only real thing. But yeah, I mean, it was, there was some first for me in that just like, like taking a car from scratch and setting everything up, like setting the ECU up. Like a lot of the tuning that I do, I primarily started doing Hondas. And a lot of those are either flash based or they have an interface chip that kind of does all that work for you. You don't have to do any set up. It's not like configuring everything. And that was like the first one. And I'd done standalones before, but that was the first one that was like, there is nothing here. There's like, I had to set out all the pinouts, like everything. Like there's, this isn't a plug and play thing. This is like, you do it all from scratch. And I had one day to do it.

Can you explain to those of us who aren't tuners, so pinouts?

Okay, so like, if you look at an ECU, you look at anything, you look at your phone, like there's a pinout for each of these wires does something. So does it drive an injector? Is it a boost solenoid? Is it a coil? Does it turn the fuel pump on? So all of the, there's what's called, referred to as a pinout, is just basically saying, this pin or this circuit on the ECU is refer, not reference, but this goes to this, I guess is the simplest way I could explain it to you. So I'm telling you that pin A11 is fuel pump on. So when you turn the ECU on, it primes the pump for one second and it knows I need to energize or I need to pull the ground this pin for X amount of time. And then once the car's running, just leave it on. So that's like basically telling the computer where everything is, like what each circuit does, which is like, you have to do it for everything. Like there's some stuff that like, like the injectors and the coils, those are hard, are hard coded in the ECU. So you can't mess with them. Or most of the time they're hard coded or at least like, you know, if it's an ECU that's set up for a four cylinder or an eight cylinder, like, you know, outputs one, a one through eight are going to be only injector drivers. So sometimes you'll be, you don't have to do a ton of work. But if you're doing a car that like, it had a can key pad, all of the lights, the electric power steering. What else did that car that have that was kind of goofy? Had some other thing like, but all of it was driven off the ECU. So like, it was much more modern than when it came to it. Cause before it had like a whole switch pad. And when it left, it had one to start the car, one as a manual override, if you wanted to drain fuel for the fuel pump, and then one to turn the power steering pump off. Cause it had a Toyota MR2 power steering, like electric power steering pump in it. But that was it. You didn't have to do any, you didn't have to flip anything else on. It was just key the car on, press the start button and it ran. So you have to tell it where all that stuff is. And it's not hard work. It's just, it's lengthy. And like, you have to constantly be referencing, what is my wiring diagram have? What is my body harness? What does that have? And then like filling in all those numbers and then it all has to work. And it never works in the first try.

So that's like the part of the build where you're 90% done and it's the 10% that takes the most amount of time. Just the wiring, the electronics, that is what took you to do the 90% is gonna take you the same amount of time.

Exactly.

10%.

Yeah, that car was a lot of fun and it's actually for sale, I think still, if anyone wants to buy a really cool piece of history. So I'm sure it's probably like 60K or some egregious price, but it's a cool car.

It's really cool that people from other states send their cars to you guys.

Yeah.

You guys are just that notable, that they're willing to send a car a few hours away instead of a local shop that might be in their area.

I mean, a big part of it is the pull that we have in the industry, like it's very, I mean, shops will work with suppliers all the time, but we can go to a manufacturer and kind of leverage like, hey man, we sell $100,000 in your parts a year. Like, can you hook us up? And like that portion of it, I think, lends us to doing more. Like, I started at MAP in August 6th, 2018. And for the first four years I worked there, we didn't do anything like this. And this has kind of been like a recent venture to kind of up our like social status, I guess would be the best way. But I think everyone's kind of realized the power of social media and doing these things.

That was a loud killed itself.

Yeah, she's dead.

If it melts, it melts.

It's gonna burn down. Yeah. But yeah, the power of social media is super huge and that helps sell parts. So we recognized working with people that have a following, that's gonna help sell parts. So that's kind of why we started taking on some of this stuff. And the next one, Dustin Z is like a really clear case of that. So Dustin hit us up, said we have this Z or I bought the Z. Like you guys wanna do something with it? I think it was like a mutual thing because we started dabbling in the infinity market. We have a Q60 and we did down pipes and a cat back and we're developing an intake for it. And we're like, yeah, like why not? These are cars are very similar in build structure, why not just tack this on? So the car got sent to us and they were like, okay, the kicker with this one is it has to be done by SEMA. So I think I had that one for like a week and a half.

Oh wow.

But it's way less of like an intrusive build. The only thing that made it more difficult is like what I've realized is how much time and like I give a big amount of respect. Like I don't watch a ton of automotive YouTube because I'm watching somebody doing something the wrong way. It just like completely kills it for me. But I give a huge amount of respect for these guys, excuse me, building cars on camera because it takes so much longer to do the simplest thing. Oh my gosh. Just filming. Like it could be, you could be just putting a cat back on your car and it's gonna take you an extra hour just because you're filming.

What would take an hour itself turns into two hours. And I've told him this, where I'm trying to record myself and do this job of replacing my brakes. I have to set up the camera, hit record, start doing whatever I'm doing. And then maybe I don't like the shot, I gotta do it all over again. And then it's like, this is a pain. I just want to fix these parts. And it's almost not worth it unless you have a dedicated camera guy to film your shots for you. But yeah.

Yeah, like I said, I have a huge amount of respect for people that are willing to put in that extra effort and really commit themselves to doing it. Because I wouldn't say I've tried. Like I said, I'm interested in a lot of things. And definitely like grabbed a GoPro and like, I'll film myself doing this. And then I get halfway through and I'm like, yeah, I'm just not gonna keep doing this. Like it's just way too much.

So maybe it's like we don't record that part of the process, but we can record us driving or simply walking around, just something that doesn't require like a reshoot after reshoot, like take four. It's like, you're just showing off what's happening now.

So back to it. Yeah, Dustin and Charlie, who is the head of media over at MAP. Shout out Charlie. They got together, reached an agreement of what we want to do with the car. Wanted to get ready for SEMA and we wanted to develop some parts on the car to then promote us at SEMA and just use his standing as a way to help sell the parts. So car got shipped over. Our down pipes from the Q60 fit right off the bat. So there was no like development or guesswork there. It was bolted on and like good to go. That was day one. Max Odegaard, who now works at Patience Metal Fab. I don't know if you guys have been to Proving Grounds, right?

Yeah, yeah.

Have you seen like, it was either green or black. It's a Nizzou pickup truck drifting.

I haven't seen it myself. I only been to Proving Grounds once.

I'm going to it next week.

That's what you're thinking about.

Power Cruise.

I doubt it'll be there, but if you go to the fall Proving Grounds or Carmageddon or whatever that is, I'm not going to talk about that, so don't even try. He might be there. But yeah, Max was the former R&D prototype welder and super talented guy. The only reason I ask if you sell a truck is it's a one-off tube frame truck. Everything's built by hand. But he started on the exhaust that night and we had a prototype done within the next day. So that was the first segment of it. And we built this exhaust for SEMA. And then AMS came over from Illinois and they had all these like prototype parts that they had developed on their own car that they were like at the drag strip with like that weekend. So they had an intercooler, a fuel, sorry, a heat exchanger, intercoolers, cause it's a watered air charge setup, not an air to air. So all of that fuel system, their inlets and they like a flex fuel kit. So we threw all those parts on within a week and then also our brand of coilovers. So we have, we launched earlier this year or last year, yeah, early last year Evolved Autosport, which is primarily coilovers for like a couple bespoke different cars were like adding more as time goes on. And then there's like lug nuts and wheel spacers. It's just like kind of all like the supporting stuff. And it's just meant to kind of bridge the gap where we kind of got in a weird spot where there was really cheap stuff that felt really cheap and really high end stuff that either felt really high end or it felt really s*****. And it was kind of bridging that gap of like an affordable yet comfortable product. So the point of the Dustin build was to market those coilovers and then the exhaust and the down pipes. So we got all that done in a week and it was like relatively drama free. The only thing that happened is like when the car got dropped off, got dropped off at like two in the morning from some kind of like sketchy transporter from California. And like it showed up and we're like, you know, when cars get dropped off, you hope that like they show up, everything's there, everything's intact. And you're like, okay, we're good to go. Sign the paperwork. See you later. Here's the money. Well, it showed up and it like, it was super dirty. Like it was like filthy. Like it looked like it went through like a rainstorm in the desert. And we're looking at over and like, sure enough, like you look at like the bottom of the bumper and there's like paint rubbed all the way through to the, like to the bare plastic. You could see black plastic and there's like a chip on one of the fenders and stuff like that. And I'm like, okay, what turned into what was supposed to be 30 minutes of me getting up at midnight to go meet this transporter is now going to turn into many hours of arguing about, you know, who's responsible and stuff like that. So yeah, I was there till like 2.30 in the morning talking with this guy.

It's really hard to like trust transporters cause I've had people pick up vehicles of mine and then I'm watching them put it on and you know, some of them have been manual cars and I just see them like stall it, stall it again. It's like these people have never driven a car in their life and they're tasked to drive it onto those big, you know, stackers and it's like, I'm worried right now cause I actually saw this guy, he got onto the stacker and then bumped into the car already on the stacker. I'm like, oh boy, I can't believe this. And then, you know, I've told him like, you just, you know, dented my bumper and he's like putting it in the report. I'm like, no, it didn't come like that.

Which car was this?

It was a Z3. I sent it to California.

Oh, this is when you sent it out to your mom.

Yeah. So that was a few years ago, like 2018, 2019. But I witnessed that and then it gets out there and it is like you said, like they drove through rainstorm and then followed that by driving through the desert. It was filthy. It was disgusting. And it's like, how do I avoid this?

What do I do to get around this? Yeah.

I guess getting clothes trailer, but that's like way more expensive and not worth it for a little Z3.

Well, you got two options. Either get good service or pay more. I refuse to see the problem.

I'm cheap.

Well, you got a cheap service then.

Yeah, man. That's how the rich stay rich. You got to stay frugal, man. That's what you do.

And get dirty as cars.

That's right. Oh, that's fine. But yeah, that was the only drama that ever happened with like everything. Like we had, you know, our team working on our portion of it in AMS is obviously a very well-known respected team. So like all the parts showed up, everything worked. There was some like, for me, it was a little bit stressful doing the work on the car itself because it's like, these are all prototype parts from a different manufacturer and no one that came with is an, like they're not an engineer, they're not a technician. I'm like, hey, I've got a question about this. Yeah, let me call this guy. Hopefully he's not on lunch break. Like, so there was a lot of like points where I was like, yeah, this is where this probably goes. And then confirmed later, like, yeah, no, you were, you were correct. But there was a relatively like stress-free time and it was just fun getting to know Dustin, like who now is like somebody I'd consider like a lifelong friend. So him and I have become super close and that was nice. And we took him to the MNList meet, which-

That was huge.

It was, it was nuts. Well, and like, I f***** it up. So, you know, we were, that was Tuesday. I think the car showed up on a, like Dustin showed up a day or two after the car, the car showed up on like a Tuesday and like he was there on like a Thursday. And we were like halfway through the build by Tuesday. But I think Monday or Tuesday, I was like, hey, like, you know, some people I know and like friends and stuff, we meet up at this park. It's like right by your Airbnb. Like, as he was like only like a couple miles away where he was staying. I was like, you should just like pop by and like just hang out. It's a good time. I was like, maybe you could even throw it like on the Instagram or something. And like, maybe like, I was like, usually this is pretty like not dead, but like not a ton of people, maybe like 60 cars. Or like, maybe you'll get a little bit more. You throw it up like last minute. He's like, yeah, that sounds good. And I was like, okay. I text Tyler Ray and I was like, hey, like, Dustin's in town, we're doing a Z. Like you want to just put something on the event page that like he's going to be there. Maybe we'll get some extra people. And he's like, yeah, that sounds sick. Like awesome. Like, do you have any pictures or anything? Like you want me to put on the post? And I was like, yeah, here you go. And that was that, you know, we get through the day. We had finished doing something and Charlie and Dustin and a couple of the other media guys from MAP were like, we're going to go out into Wisconsin and drive some of the letter roads and just get some pictures and stuff of the car, like pre-semen. Like at this point, the car exterior wise looked how it was going to look. It was just like little stuff in the engine bay and tuning the car, what was left. So they were out driving B roads and stuff like that. And I was like, okay, I'm going to hop on my dirt bike, ride over there and get there like 30 minutes before they're supposed to be there. And I was like, I know I'm going to ride the bike because driving a car, I knew there was going to be some amount of traffic, but I was not expecting like what ensued that day. I mean, it was insane. I've never seen like even regular like sanctioned like car shows, not meets, like this blew that out of the water. It was insane. Like it was like lined for blocks and blocks. And there's people that are like, yeah, I never even got in. Like I waited for hours and never got in because there was so much traffic. That's the advantage of riding a motorcycle, man. You can get wherever you want. You just hit the shoulder or hit the sidewalk and you go where you need to go. But yeah, and he showed up late too. He was supposed to be there at like six and they got there at like 730 and stayed for an hour and then left. And when I was leaving, I was like, hey man, I'm really sorry to do this to you because he's a very introverted person. Obviously being a YouTuber, you have to be outgoing and exciting and stuff like that. But as an individual, he's very, not shy, but just kind of quiet and not reserved, but just a normal guy, I guess, would be really the best way to put it. So I was like, I'm sure you're probably pretty overwhelmed with the amount of people here. So sorry about that. But it was super fun. And it was just fun hanging out. That was like the chill build of the year, I guess, would be the best way to put it. Because like I said, everything worked. There was no drama. And just kind of hung out. Just we're bros, I don't know.

Yeah, no, I completely, that's one thing that I've even started noticing doing this podcast is like, even yesterday at Cars and Caves, like I had somebody, like our previous guest dad came up to me and I'm just like, do I know this person? And it's just like having people approach you is just, it's a different feeling. It's really cool. I love it, but you meet people you've never thought you'd meet before, but you know, I grew up an introvert. So it's like, you know, when I have 20 or 30 people around me, it's like, all right, this is overwhelming. But do you have trouble getting into that show?

I don't know what they did. Like I think, I honestly think he probably drove down the wrong, I know that they were like the entrance to the park, like somebody from MNList or Drive Cartel was like up there when Charlie called and like, yeah, we're almost there. I'm pretty sure he drove down the wrong side of the road and then they just had everyone move over so that he could drive.

Yeah, I remember Tyler, he said something like he broke some laws getting into there.

It definitely was, I don't know. It could have been avoided had they been on time. Like this is the best way to put it. It's like, I was like, cause they were out in the middle of nowhere in Wisconsin. I'm like texting Charlie, I was like, hey, when are you guys gonna be here? And like nothing, call them like straight to voice. And I was like, okay, well, I guess we'll just hang out and see what happens, but it all worked out. And like, it was a really good showing. Like it was cool to see regardless of the reason like that many people show up to an event and like just hang out and just like being excited for cars. Like I think the Midwest and Minnesota in particular is like kind of a tough spot. Like it's really like you have lots of clicks and it's really diversified. And like, it's tough to get like a really large crowd together that's all like excited about something. So that was kind of cool to see. Like, cause you know, it's just like so divided. Like a lot of times it's so divided. Like you've got meets that are like only import cars or only European cars or only, you know, domestic cars. And then, you know, the bigger shows are like, you know, they're tailored to like super cars or, you know, high end sports cars and stuff like that. It's like all kind of divided. But like, it's nice to see like everybody kind of all get along, I guess is the easiest way to put it and like get together to just hang out. Which was that was that was what the coolest part of it for me was, is just seeing that many people. And like seeing people that I hadn't seen in a long time. It was like, it definitely like, regardless if they cared, like who was coming, like they were like, oh, this is gonna be a big thing. So I'm just gonna go. And that was cool. And I saw cars I'd never seen before. I was like, why are these like hiding and coming out for this? Like, just drive.

Isn't that crazy? You know, some of the coolest cars in the community are just, you know, hidden, you know, they're not the people who show up to the Buck Hill meets on Wednesdays, you know, where are they going?

Or how about only? Like there's some people that go to only this show. Like for example, like Jesse's RWB only makes it out twice a year. You know, so it's like-

Hidden gem.

Yeah, hidden gems or whatever. And it's like, you know, I'm kind of spoiled having shot it once or twice, but it's like stuff like that's just hidden and you'll never see it. But then you see some guys that only go to Buck Hill and they bring, you know, whatever, they're 67 or something crazy, you know. It's really cool to see like people like that put stuff on the map. So I don't know, we don't really have anybody in Minnesota that puts stuff on the map anymore. I know Tall Guy was pretty big, but he never put on meets.

Dude, I saw it. I'll never forget like when he was like coming up, I was in Plymouth like at a Target or something and I like parked my car and I was like, dude, that's Tall Guy car reviews. And I saw him, dude, he is tall as s***. He's huge. I saw him walk out of the Target. Like I didn't say anything, but I was like, damn, like that dude's huge. But yeah, like there really isn't like a notable figure to like really come out of here. I mean, like I'd say Koi Christmas, like I don't know how much of a national following he has. He's not like an influencer, but like people know him. And like, I mean, he's been on 1320 a bunch of times, him and his kid. Like, so like kind of that and like, yeah, kind of Tall Guy car reviews, but like there's not really anybody that's like, you know, you think about Minnesota car scene, you think about this guy. Like there's not really any of that.

Right, the only thing we kind of have kind of have gone for us is again, we have a bunch of good shops here. You know, like MAPerformance, that's a big one. Enthmodo is probably the other big one, like recognition wise.

I mean, that's, I mean, that's in like a totally different spectrum of like, they're a racing like team, like it's, the levels of their, it's insane. It's like astronomical to me. I don't know, it's crazy.

It's so crazy, but I, we definitely, and we still have a lot of fast cars up here and you know, just people who do wild stuff. It's just, sometimes you just got to look for it. And that's kind of like one of the purposes of this podcast is get people on who like kind of fall between the cracks and aren't known, but it's like they do really cool s***. So yeah, I definitely love that aspect.

Yeah. And that's like kind of what happened. Like I'd say for a long time, like, you know, when I was 16, I bought my 95 Civic and like, that's what got me into cars. Well, I shouldn't say that was the car that got me into cars, but like that was what started me doing car stuff. And like for the longest time, like my goal was like, I want to meet as many people as I can. I want to go to every car show. I want to like, you know, I was always envious of like, when I was trying to buy parts, there'd be these people that like, you could hit up and be like, I need this. Like I need this used part. And they'd be like, oh, I've got 10 of these in my garage in the corner. Like I always like thought that was super cool to just like maximize everything to do with cars. And like the older I got and like the more stuff I did, I realized like, you kind of lose that special moment if you are constantly going to things and like trying to min max every car show and like see everything. And like kind of what I've done like the last couple of years is like, kind of took a step back and was like, what interests me and like, what am I passionate about? And like only doing that and like only going to the shows are like, there's a reason I want to go to this and not just going to go. And like not to say that there's anything bad about that or like, especially if like you're first getting into cars and like you just want to meet people. There's not like, I would say wholeheartedly go to every show and talk to as many people as you can and like just network. But like for me, it was like, I kind of wanted to start going to things for a purpose. And like, there was a reason to be there. So that's like kind of how I've transitioned and like kind of fell off in a way. Like I liked to be like, I'm very extroverted in the opposite sense of you saying you're introverted. Like I'll talk to anybody for an hour. Like the Minnesota goodbye is the toughest part of my day. Yeah, so I like stepping away from that and like really realizing like what is my core interests and like, how am I gonna develop as a person or like do what's right for me? Like, so when I started doing all this tuning stuff, like going to shows and stuff, kind of took a back seat because I was like, I wanna develop my skills. I wanna help develop parts and all this kind of neat stuff that's interesting to me, but that takes away from the rest of your free time. And like I said, I have family and all this other interests too. So it's like, I had to pick what's important to me. Like going to power cruise this weekend was like, well, let me look at the schedule and see like what I can do. So you have to kind of get to a point to like really realize what do you want to do and like, what do you want to be in this space? And like, how does that influence how you're going to go about things?

That's pretty reasonable. It's, I'm just trying to think, cause like.

Yeah, I could talk forever.

No, no, no, it's tough because like you want to go out and meet people. That's kind of what me and Sean are doing now. It's like, we're trying to meet new people.

We're pivoting back into, we used to just go to shows to, I started feeling like I was just going to go, just to be like in it, to be part of it. But now we're kind of going back there and we're, we have an objective.

Yeah, you have a purpose.

We're meeting people, we're talking to people, people that we would have never talked to before or we're more interested to meet some of the people with these cars that we see maybe at every month at these car shows. So, it's interesting.

Yeah, but also like, cause I got started in the scene as a photographer and all that fun stuff, but then I stopped bringing my camera. I remember exactly, I think it was my second or third year in the car scene since I created Minnoxide, like Keaton, the guy with the blue Huracan at the time, he's like, where's your camera? Like that was like one of my first shows. I was like, I don't feel like taking photos. And that's when it clicked on me, I wanna start talking with people, instead of just being like, all right, let's get some stupid photos. Like there's a million other people doing free photos, again, they're star tour, whatever, in the car scene. But for me, it's like, I wanna actually get to know people. And that's where everything I do just exploded. Actually, I don't know, truly getting what people actually do with their cars. And that's where I started learning about the nitty gritty, like the stuff you do. Granted, I could never do what you do, but at least having a basic understanding.

Yeah, I mean, that's like what, I think that's the best part about cars. Like I talked about earlier, like going to the track and stuff. Like for me, I could watch any of these events online. And granted, it's never the same. Like I went to, earlier this year in Florida, Bradenton Motorsports Park, they had the World Series of Pro Mod, and they also had like an import section. And so it was the ex front wheel drive cars, which is like outside of the Outlaw cars, it's like the fastest import front wheel drive cars out there. So it's like, it was a crazy event. So I mean, you had like V8 muscle cars going like four seconds in the eighth mile, and then you had Honda Civics going seven seconds in the quarter mile. So like fast s***. And like I watched a lot of that, because like you can't, nothing beats like some Pro Mod car flying past you at the 60 foot, and it's literally thumping you in the chest, like you feel it go past you. But like a lot of my time there was just spent like walking around and like trying to talk to people, and just like, how can I scrape your brain, and like just hear what you have to say, like what kind of insights do you have? And like, that was a big part of my development as a person, and like what I'm doing now was like meeting as many people that were smarter than me than possible. So like making these connections of people that I looked up to, and like how do I become better friends with them, and how do I leverage that to help myself learn? And what you'll end up finding is like, so many people that are actually passionate are so willing. If you show that you're passionate, they're so willing to show you something that you would have never learned on your own, or like you would have taken years to learn on your own, just because they recognize like, you have the same mentality as me, and I wanna grow you to be what you want to be. So like, that's like the best part about cars is like the connection. Like I could care, like I never drive my car anymore. Like I just, I more so care about like the people involved and like the connection there is like, that's what's really the best part about it.

I can't top that.

That's a beautiful message.

It's a perfect way to.

I'm pretty big.

No, I love that, you know, because like I said earlier, I was just going to car shows to like be in it, to be part of it. But when you make it more about the people, I think it becomes way more special. And especially, you know, how you're saying, you know, you're showing more enthusiasm, you know, for their, you know, their hobby, what they do with their hobby. It helps, you know, build this relationship and like makes it more fun for you. Instead of just being a watcher, you're also learning, you're involved. You're, yeah, you're being involved with it.

Well, one of the coolest points to that was like, we had Sam on the episode and he was showing us some stuff in the S4. He's like, oh yeah, I went down to Texas, you know, I was asking people, you know, about this, like just picking up little things and like you said, people are so helpful. Like you get the occasional people that like to play their, you know, their cards close to their chest, but most people are like, yeah, man, let's do it.

Like try this or like I did this and it worked great.

Well, it gets lonely at the top, right? Like what happens when you do have the most horsepower in your racing group, you run out of people to race because nobody gives a s*** anymore. But if you have everybody, you know, like on, you know, on the same level, like, you know, instead of competing, you're collaborating, which is the meme that's been going around or inspirational posts that everybody's been posting this week.

But at the same time, like the to play devil's advocate, it is nice. Like, especially like in the racing scene, like a little friendly rivalry, like that drives innovation. Having like, you know, trying to one up somebody else is like 100% necessary in racing, like keep it friendly. But at the same time, like you have to have something that drives you. So, probably two or three years ago, we started really developing parts for the like 10th gen Civic Si market. I know you guys are like, I don't know how much you guys are into import cars or like...

That's what you're learning.

I was saying, like, I don't know how much like I'm going to say words, you're going to be like, a what? But so we did the like, not the current generation, but the last previous generation Civic Si. We started like really gung-ho developing parts for it and to drive sales, like I said, like social media drive sales. We took our shop car and we like converted it to like a full on drag car. So I mean, slicks and skinnies and didn't have a cage in it, but we weren't going fast enough to need a cage. But, you know, we did a whole race program and we did that for like a summer. But part of that, there's a company that also is very similar to us. They're out in Pennsylvania. It's called PRL. And they had the same kind of thing. They had a drag civic of the same generation and they had a similar setup. And like they went out and went, you know, 11.5. And we went out and went 11.2. And then they went 10.9. And then when we went 10.8. But like it was this really friendly. We sell their parts, they sell our parts, but it was this friendly rivalry of like one-upping each other. You know, well, we were the first to hit 500 on a stock short block. OK, we made 700 with nitrous on a bill block. Like just this constant back and forth. And that was like up until now, that was one of my biggest highlights was that whole program, because it was myself, one of my managers, Dailin Snow and then Brian May. He works over at Ratified now. He's doing all the tuning for Rat and all them with the RS3 and the Supa.

I didn't know he was over with Rat. I've heard the name before. He's like the BMW guru.

Yeah, Brian Trueform Technologies. That's my boy. I love Brian to death. He's awesome. He also loves to talk for hours. Every time he stops by the shop, it's like three hours of talking about That's something I've noticed with a lot of you Spaceships and mechanics is that you'd much rather be talking than working. Big time. But so it was like the three of us just at the track. I think we had like five or six private rentals at Brainerd or at Rock Falls. And it was just making passes, looking at data, making improvements and going back down the track again and breaking stuff. Like it actually blew up one stock motor. I mean, it's kind of impressive. So the factory engine in those cars, it's a 1.5 liter four cylinder turbo. So obviously had a bigger turbo on it and just some supporting stuff. But like relatively stock engine, it had the stock port fueling and then, or sorry, stock direct injection with port fueling on top of it to reach like that 500 horsepower range. But yeah, I mean, it was a bunch of days. I mean, it was hot. Like there's no shade at either of those tracks really, but we were out there just like developing this stuff and it was just driven by like the need of like, these dudes went faster, so we have to go faster. And like that's one of the better parts about racing and like developing parts is like finding that ambition to be better. But yeah, Brian's at, primarily he's with Rat over at Ratified. He's also doing his own thing. So Trueform Tech is his brand. And with that, he's been developing like a number of like tools and then also tuning BMWs. So he's big in the N54 game, always has been. And I know he's done stuff like with the F80 and G80 M3s and then like any, like 340s and all, like all the 40 trim cars, he's done a bunch of those. So like the, you know, the 340 and M240s and all that. And then he also, I think does some stuff with AJ over at Eurocharged every once in a while. But yeah, he kind of bounces around. I mean, that's just whatever his calling is at the time. He'll go to, but yeah, Brian's a super awesome guy. He's, I love that guy to death.

So do you want to put a ribbon on him, Sean?

Sure thing. Well, actually, I was going to see if you wanted to say something because I feel like I've done more talking than you for once.

Yeah, no, because I've been over here trying to do play IT because the GoPros are absolutely killing themselves. At this rate, I'm going to go with Insta360s. I'm going to go with a different company GoPro.

I told you these new GoPros, they're just not, you know, they ain't it. They overheat and that's a serious issue with a lot of the new GoPros.

No, what's happening is because there's a battery pack and there's a battery that's overheating. So that's why I plugged that one in directly. So that one's still powered and that one's not because I lost that other cord.

I told you not to get GoPros.

Yeah, tell that to my bank account. Anywho, so we can go two different ways with this. So we can either talk about your personal build, just kind of go over that, or we can wrap it up which way you want to go. You want to tell us a little bit about it?

Yeah, well talk on like, because I guess that's kind of got what, it'll make a lot of sense why I'm into the things I am, if I explain that. So I'll keep it brief. I'll do my best to keep it brief. So at 15, I had a friend, and his dad was into cars, and definitely some sketchy nefarious things going on there. But he had a turbocharged 95 Integra sedan. And it probably made like 400 horsepower. But he gave it to my friend, and like that was his summer car. Granted, my friend really didn't know anything about cars, and wasn't really into cars. He was like, look, this thing's cool. And like, let's go rip it around. So it broke. And it was, let me tell you, the simplest break I've ever heard of. But us being 15 and not knowing anything about cars. Because like I was like growing up skateboarding kid, like just a rug rat running around being mischievous. Like cars were, I was like, whatever. So yeah, friend Stephen got this car. We're ripping this thing around. We're going to take it out to the street races back when like Sears and what is it? Sun Foods. Those were the spots.

The good old days.

Dude, the best. I could talk about that for hours too, of like how many nights hanging out down there or at the rice lot or whatever. But we take it out there and this and that. And then one day like Stephen went to go start the car and like started and click. And we're like, something's broken. So, but he could start it if we pop started it. You know, put it in like second gear, pushed it to a start. My dad was a technician for 25 years. And he teaches over at Dunwoody College in Minneapolis now. So I was like, well, my dad knows a ton about cars. Like, we'll just drive it. We'll pop start it and drive it to my house. And my dad will help us. And my dad walks outside and he's like, yeah, check this. And I was like, the what? And he's like, yeah, check this. Check to make sure the starter solenoid is plugged in. And I was like, what's that? And so we look and shows us what it is. And sure enough, that's all it was. It's like the wire popped out because it's just like a spade connector and just popped off. So wouldn't engage the starter. So then from then on, anytime there was something wrong with Steven's car, we just went to my house and like asked my dad a million questions till he either got pissed and came outside and fixed it for us, or he just led us to the right direction. So then when I turned 16, I needed a car. And I at that point was like into cars. Like I would go with, we'd go to, I don't know if you guys went to Sears Sunday, if that was ever a meet you guys went to. The Sears in Burnsville at the mall, there used to be a car meet there for a long time. Same thing with the, what is it? The Sonic meets too on Wednesdays. I mean, like I said, I'm doing this a long time. So there's a lot of old meets.

How old are you?

25.

25?

I'm older than you.

Yeah, but I don't know. I've been doing this for like 10 years. That's the only thing. So yeah.

I remember like 10 years ago, let's see, I would have been 17 and I think I was going to, you know, Sun Foods and I was going to the street races. I was in a, no, I wasn't in a Jeep yet. I was in a Saab.

Nice.

That was my first car, a 97X SUV.

Hell yeah.

That thing was sweet, had the 5.3 V8 in it and I was a total s******.

Just running everything.

Yeah. Just basically like you, how, you know, I didn't know anything about cars and all I knew was that, you know, I liked driving around with the homies bumping two 12s in the back. Yeah.

Putting it in neutral, revving it up. And we like, everyone is so quick. Maybe it's just because it's like an age difference thing, but this is only a side tangent for a second, but like, but you know, car culture today has become kind of goofy when it comes to like sideshows and stuff like that, or people ruining car meets by like hitting the two step and stuff. But like, I don't know, back, like I feel like all of us back when we were that young, we're doing that s***. And like, we caught flack for it, but like, you know, we grew out of it, right? But I think like the major problem is it's like now you have adults doing that. You have people that are 30.

You have social media, which blows it up way more over, like, you know, it's just crazy.

Like how different is men like, yeah, like, let me bang my camera off two step in a parking lot. Like, no, dude, I'm good. But so, yeah, time for me to get my first car. My friend was selling at 95 Civic Hatchback, pretty clean, like no rust, like just a nice car. It had 17s on it because it was 2005 spec, no body kit, though, just the 17s. Bought that car, drove it the first summer, like all stock, just drove to car meets, tried racing people. Actually, I think I swapped the cylinder head on it at one point for like an extra 30 horsepower or something like that. So all of 130 horsepower. But you know, I was like, I want a turbo this thing, like that's what I wanted to do. So I was probably the winter leading up to like senior year. I was like, you know, my first two jobs was I was a busboy and I was a liquor store attendant. So I'd walk bottles of booze out for people and like quickly realized that like these weren't going to pay the bills. So started at white bear Mitsubishi changing oil with like the drive, like I don't want to keep doing this, like move me to, you know, a higher position. So I started to use cars and stuff like that. And that's what allowed me to fund this build. So we start, you know, I started collecting parts, put this hodgepodge turbo kit together of like, you know, random eBay parts and like mig welding a downpipe together and cutting intercooler pipes and like 12 couplers on the whole thing. So ran around with that for like a year and I was like, well, I want to turn this thing up, but the engine is going to explode. So then it was pull the motor out and build a short block and then build the head and then a new turbo kit and all this and that. And so it was like every single year I was changing something. I wanted to go faster. I wanted to do something different. And part of that was driven by my dad and I got to hang out in the garage and we had a project together and that was really nice. We just had a really good time just being in the garage and b*********** and stuff like that. And then it also, the more I worked on cars, the more I enjoyed it. So I was like, this is the career path I want to go down to. So then I went to Dunwoody and I did my two years there and got my associate's degree and that I moved from Mitsubishi to Subaru and then Subaru to MAP. And it all progressed solely on the basis of I had this car that was pushing me along, that pushed the rest of my life along. So I met a ton of friends through cars that I still have to this day because I had this car and I wanted to go to meets, I wanted to go race, I wanted to do whatever. So now it's gone to the point where the car is kind of a basket case. It has all these parts that I wanted. You know, when I was 16, I would have loved to have vanilla. So car right now sits at like around 500 horsepower and a front wheel drive Civic. And it just kind of sits in my garage. But like I have aspirations to do more stuff with it. It's just, you know, I have been kind of building this point. You know, when I when I first started, I did the first built engine, I had, you know, everybody back in the day, not even back in the day, up until this year. If you were an import guy, you went to Shane at DB. So Shane tuned my car. And then I drove the car around like the same like engine setup, like I was changing wheels and like different side skirts, different wing, you know, some interior stuff. I was changing that stuff. But like the engine and like the power it made was the same. And I got this itch to make more. And I was like, well, f***, I got to spend 500 bucks on another tune. And at that time, I was working at MAP and Brian was working at MAP. And he's like, dude, like you have all of this stuff here. Like you have complete access to a dyno, like unfeathered access to a dyno. Why aren't you teaching yourself to do this? So then that's that's how this whole like tuning rabbit hole started was like, I bought a new ECU for the car, changed the turbo, changed the cam, changed the injectors, did all this stuff. And like, because I was teaching myself to do this, I wasn't sinking myself financially developing the car. And at the same time, I was developing skills. So that's kind of like what pushed me to get into tuning was like the fact that I like to tinker. I just like to change things. And it would have cost me way too much money to do it. And I had, you know, the access to a dyno and the access to really smart people. I had Brian and now like I work Shane rents our dyno. So I work with him sometimes nuke from NF. They do a bunch of Subarus. They were kind of like predating JM. I think they kind of existed at the same time. But NF was like back in the day, the big Subaru crowd. So working with Nuke and Fuji, like, I've been able to make these connections and like, you know, learn a lot of stuff. And so it had started where like the first summer I was tuning, I just tuned my car, I drive it somewhere. Oh, this feels like s***. Like let's dig through a log and like, oh, yeah, this is wrong or like this is weird or like the car starts weird. This is what's wrong. So I spent that first summer just only doing my car focused on like how do I make my car run perfect. And then after I did that, people knew that I was doing it. I was posting it on just on my feed like, oh my god, like I just made the first hit with my car on the dyno and made 400 horsepower. So people recognize that and, you know, it started off with like friends are like, oh, you know, like I can't get in anywhere. Can you tune my car? Okay, I guess. So how much do you want? I don't know. Something. And it started kind of off with that, sorry, I keep itching my nose. It started off with that, we're just like, you know, I'd have friends or friends of friends like, hey, could you tune this? Hey, you want to come hang out for a couple of days and we'll figure this out. Like, I don't know how to do this, but we'll just figure it out. And it started off like that. And now it's this year has been like the first year where it snowballed into like, I'm going to open this up for anybody. And you come to me, like, I kind of have like, you message me on Facebook on my business page, it'll, it'll auto generate a response. And it Facebook's auto generate response stuff works like s***. I don't know if you've ever used it. Like if somebody doesn't message me for three days, and then they message me, it'll do the like what's supposed to be only the like if they message me for the first time, it's supposed to send it sends it to him like every time. But eventually, eventually, essentially, it lays out like, what is your car? What do you see you are using? What fuel? What's a note? What's the notable modifications to the car? And that like kind of helps me grasp because the nice thing is like the way I'm doing it now is it's like technically a private calibrator. So you hit me up, I go, this is something I'm interested in doing. Let's book this date. Let's get it done. Or this is out of my wheelhouse or this isn't something I'm willing to take on. Unfortunately, like these are the people I'd like I've turned to people away. Not like, no, dude, I just don't like you and I'm not like, I don't think this is the best fit for me. And these are the people that I would recommend you going to to have success because ultimately like, there's nothing worse than like strapping a car on the dyno, hooking up and looking at it, you know, looking at the PC screen and you're going, I'm totally lost and I just can't make this car work. So I like, if there's something different that I'm going to do, I'm going to set myself up for success because I don't I don't want to leave anybody hanging. I don't want to leave somebody with a bad taste in their mouth when it comes to that because at the end of the day, like I'm doing this because I want to learn and I want to help people be able to get their cars running good affordably. So this year was like the first year I branched out and I was like, like, let's do this semi full time. And I've done a lot of like really cool cars. I mean, ton of Hondas, like a bunch of cars over 500 horsepower, which like a front wheel drive car that weighs 2500 pounds, that makes five to six hundred and a couple of cars are in the seven, eight hundred range. That's moving. Like that's that's no joke. And like to think about it like a four cylinder making you think about like how much work the engine does, a four cylinder making 600 is the equivalent of like V8 making 1200. So like if you it's kind of impressive what these engines are able to do. But I've done a bunch of stuff like anything that's on like a standalone ECU. So you think Holley, Link, AEM, Haltech, those are some of the big name ones like anything that's on those. The language is different, but the operation of how stuff works is kind of the same. So I've done like Jay-Z's, I did an R32 the other day, I did a it's like a 60s Volkswagen bus that had a Honda engine swapped in it. Like I've done all sorts of goofy things just because like just is interesting to me. And it all is kind of applicable to the same thing. And I've done front wheel drive drag cars, I've done street cars, I've done drift, actually a decent amount of drift cars despite me like never drifting a car or ever really doing like like I've been to like a final bout once and I watched drifting at proving grounds. But like you just end up learning a ton of stuff. And like that's the like each different sport or section of driving has its own unique properties that you have to pay attention to. Like with the drifting cars, you have to like dial in the trans the transient fuel between throttle position. So like when you're on and off throttle like that, that has to be dialed otherwise the car will buck or it'll kind of get stumbled up. Like the drag cars need to transition between shifts perfectly otherwise they'll bog between shifts so that each different platform and each different style of driving presents different unique strategies that you have to employ. So that's kind of like why I don't pigeon like some guys will be like I only do this or only do that. I don't I will never say I'm an expert at anything, but I'd like to be proficient at as many things as I can because ultimately that's how you learn as much stuff.

So you learn a lot by working on different platforms too, because you can like take different things from each of them. And that's super cool, dude, like I was watching an Adam LZ video the other day about like they're just tuning on the go getting ready for like a drift event like, hey, if you do this, I want the car to do this, dude, the amount of things you know, you're only a year older than me. So it's like, it's crazy to see like, just how much you've done in the last few years and like, like, you are the pure definition of a car enthusiast. There's no better way to put it.

So that, yeah, freaking awesome, dude, like at the same point, like, I appreciate I'm going to be as humble as I can. I try I at least try and not always super humble. But like to your credit, though, like, I've seen the pictures you take, like, I like taking pictures. I've taken some pictures in my day. They don't look anything like yours does. And I think like that's like a part of cars is like every person brings a unique perspective or like they bring like a good car friend group has one guy that can do something like they got you got the one guy that's really good at working on cars and they got the one guy that takes pictures. They got the one guy that does whatever like that's like what makes a good group of people is like when you have all these really talented people that all congregate together. So to your credit, you can take a way better picture than me. So don't feel like I'm at all anywhere above you because everybody just has their own kind of skill sets and you know, this is just I like to tinker and this was like the perfect avenue for me to follow. And I like I said, the right circumstances of people and opportunity just kind of fell in my lap. So it's where I ended up.

Freaking sweet. I take some glorified JPEGs, man. I'm telling you.

I don't know, man. I've been seeing some of them pictures. They're looking pretty good.

Yeah, I used to call myself Minnesota's most average photographer. Just because like, yeah, that's a whole different round. I could talk about photos all day long and all that, but just kind of like how you could talk about tuning and all that. Yeah.

I mean, it's tough to stay on topic.

This could easily be a six to seven hour podcast, without a doubt. If you're up to it, we'd love to have you back on in the future too.

I was gonna say, like, if you wanted to get together, like, I don't know if like, I don't know if people leave comments or like reach out to you like, oh, I'd like to learn more about this. But like, if there's like a topic, especially as it like relates to tuning, and not just like so much like a broad spectrum of my life, but if you wanted to get more into like the nitty gritty of tuning, I'd love to do that. I'd also love to see if Brian was up to it too. Brian's he'll talk for he's like, I'm, I'm decent, right? I'm okay. I'm not the world's best. I'll never say like, oh, I'm the best tuner. I'm the best this or that I'm not going to do there. But Brian is on like a whole nother level of like, he blows my mind every single time we talk. And it's even funnier, like, I love giving Sam s***, like, Sam's a good guy. Him and I are good friends. But I just love beating him up like verbally. And like, Brian will tell me about he's like, I was telling Sam about something I just I don't know, man. I just didn't seem like it clicked in his head and I was like, yeah, it sounds like Sam. So I don't know. It's it's it's funny, like how much you think you think you're smart until you meet somebody else and they're like, nope, I'm an idiot. But that's the best part about it. It's like finding somebody else that's like way smarter than you and you're going, I'm just going to be a sponge and absorb everything I can. So like, that's why I enjoy hanging out with those kind of people and just like absorbing as much as I can and like humbling myself to like, damn, I did this like that's sick. And then like I watched Brian like yank out a thousand horsepower and some bounty or some BMW. I'm like, OK, like back to the drawing board. We're not cool anymore. Like that's the that's the stuff that, like I said, it drives innovation and like drives you to do more.

That's kind of our goal with this podcast, too, is like we're working our way up. Like I like being the dumbest person in the room. And I do a great job of being the dumbest person in the room, the best at it. So that's why I love asking questions and doing this podcast because we want to get more into the nitty and the gritty and, you know, just, you know, it'd be awesome to have a conversation with someone of like, you know, just who's been in the industry 20 years just knows everything. But we got to work our way up to that, you know, so it's like, I love it. So you and I are like on the same page. I mean, it's super freaking sweet.

Oh, yeah. And that's something that we can, you know, ask our viewers right now is, you know, if you're listening and you feel like, you know, this is something that you're interested in, please let us know. And, you know, we can have a, you know, a more in, in follow up or something. And we can have Brian and you come on at the same time and or somebody, we really get another microphone, really have our minds blown.

So yeah, like I said, Brian's insane, but I don't know. Also to your credit, though, like shoot your shot, like hit people up. I don't know. It seems like you've gotten like a lot of like, it's funny because when you're into cars, you get to a point where like your friends list just becomes full of people that you've never ever met.

Yeah.

And that was like our first conversation was like, Hey, never met you before, but I see what you're doing. And like, it's really cool. And you're like, yeah, same. And like I looked and I was like, we've been friends on Facebook since 2018.

Have we actually?

Yeah.

It's freaking wild.

But like, yeah, that's five years ago. But like, it's like, you never know, like, you never know if someone's like watching you in the bad way, but like they're seeing or the bad way, they're seeing what you're doing and they're like, Oh, that's cool. And like, you never know what a simple conversation will start. So I would just start sending out mass emails like come on the show, man, like, let me hear you hear what you got.

I got so many rabbit holes out. I'm trying to contain myself. But like, I've been having a lot of opportunities in the last two weeks. And I'll tell you about this off camera, Sean, like stuff just popping up out of nowhere, just from conversations that I had, like, you know, me announcing going full time and all that, like, basically, like, for the listener, like, shoot your frickin shot, you never know what's going to happen. Like, have the lunch with somebody, like, surround yourself with people that you don't talk to. Yeah, like you and I probably wouldn't have ever met if you didn't hit me up, like, maybe at some point, like, you never know. But like, we've been friends on Facebook five years and we never talked. So like, that's hilarious, maybe honestly, there's a good chance that we've s*** talked to each other.

Probably 100%. Like, I used to be really guilty of just being an absolute s****** and like, running my mouth, fully not able to back it up at all. Like that was that was definitely my thing. It was my always my thing until like, last couple years, I was like, I got to mature up a little bit, especially like, trying to be a business owner. It's like, I got to be respectful to everybody and like, it takes away but it's like, you know what, it's a it's good to mature a little bit but I do like, I like my fair share of internet arguments so you never know. You never know.

What forums do you frequent?

Like Facebook or like actual forums?

Like on Facebook, you know, everybody's part of like some group and you know, there's always some sort of discourse.

Ironically, I like s*** talking on the Wisconsin Car Enthusiast Club page because I feel like that has like the most of you have like the dudes that are from like Milwaukee, which is like a similar environment to like Minneapolis and like the suburbs around there. But then you also have like the podunk dudes in like Green Bay or like in the middle of Wisconsin. So you have just like this weird demographic of like urban people and like rural people clashing together and you get into the funniest arguments and like you can really get some people angry. I love it.

I got to join that.

So I like being in there and like everyone in that one's, sorry, excuse me. Everyone in that one's so opinionated. It's great. And like that's when you really start to like get under people's skin is like when you're like really dig into it.

But like look how excited he is.

No, like you can see like the inner me like trying to hold back.

He just said that he loves doing this. So I was like, he's got to have some good ones.

Yeah, and like I got banned from running like now. Pretty everything's toned down. But I got kicked and banned from MNList a couple times like, got into it with, you know, admins and people in that one, just like s*** talking. So not my proudest moments, but I got some funny like screenshots out of it. So that was always a good one. Like MNCC, like it just kind of exists and like it's a good hub to see what's going on. But I never like really like I'm not in there asking questions or like, hey, can somebody help me out? Like I've never really been someone that's big into posting anything, like comment on stuff, but I'm not starting to thread. So like I never really use that. So like MNList was definitely one and like that as a Facebook group has kind of died down a little bit. It's not as like poppin as it used to. Like before it was like like in 2018, 2017, you go in that one and it's like buck wild. But yeah, I don't know.

I remembered MNList used to be freaking wild and oh my God.

Yeah, I mean there was there were some times man, like otherwise, like the only thing I'm using Facebook for is like posting my own stuff for like for sale pages. And then like I'm in a bunch of like tuning groups and like some of them are really good and some of them are really awful because like there's one that's like got a bunch of really insightful people. It's put on by T1 Motorsports. I can't remember T1 Development. I don't know. Big big mo tech guys like they're super smart. So that's like a good one that I just kind of like saturate information from. And I'm like, I'm not going to post in here because I'm going to look like an idiot. So yeah, as far as like pages to s*** talk, like any of the selling pages, like if you've got something up there, like you just smoked a crack rock and then you're like, I'm putting my trailblazer for sale. Like, I'm going to go on there, I'm going to clown you like that. Those are the ones that are free game or like the way that COVID affected not only cars, but car parts, like it's crazy. And like there's like people asking like astronomically way too much for stuff. And I'm like, listen, dude, like I'm going to sit you down and I'm going to let you know what you're doing wrong here because this is this ain't it. And you just f****** it up for everybody else. So like the sales pages for sure was another like another one that I was in just clowning people or being just a menace.

I'm in a few of those sales pages. I think they're all the same. Yeah, I literally see the same, you know, OP right before posting this smoking a crack rock.

Yeah, right. Yeah. And like I got into I at some point I decided I wanted to be an adult and stop owning Hondas. So I was like, I'm going to buy BMW. So I had a E92, 335. So I joined all the BMW like for sale pages and stuff. I was like, I got to buy some Catalyst downpipes and inlets and all this stuff for this thing. But like, I'm pretty sure M&BMW is like on like the classified page. You have to get approved to comment or something like that. Because I think I went to go comment on something and it's like the admin has to approve this. And I was like, M***********, I can't talk s*** because they're watching. There's one that's pretty popular for the Japanese cards. It's like Minnesota JDM. And that one's like free game to just do whatever. And like it gets like, they'll have like spam bots take that one over for weeks at a time. And they'll just be like, weird stuff going on in there. And you're like, all right, well, hopefully this goes away. And then it does. And then it's back to s********** people posting 2000 2001 rusty CRVs for $5,000. I'm like, hey, man, we're not take it down enough. That's another like, I'm going to keep talking.

You got a king of the Minnesota. I think I run out of data on my computer.

You get it. Last tangent is like you talked about talking s***. So this is like one of my favorite things. So like, I'm sure you guys are some gamers here, right?

Once upon a time.

Yeah, yeah. Or at least once upon a time. So like my ritual, if I'm playing games with the boys on Discord, we're going to go play some Warzone. We're going to play Rocket League.

I see where this is going.

I don't know if it's, I don't know if you do. So we're all on Discord. We're hanging out. We're going to play games. Everybody's like, yeah, I'm ready to be dumb, but we can like chill and hang out. What I'm doing after I close that game is I'm going straight to marketplace and I'm offering people a quarter of what they're asking for, for some something. I'm trying to buy a boat. I'm trying to buy a motorcycle from 1979. I'm trying to buy a pickup truck and I'm asking, hey man, how's a thousand bucks? How's that going to, how's that doing for you? And that's what gets me going the most, is being that s***** person that low balls you.

I'm going to have to check my messages because you probably messaged me on some of the stuff I'm trying to sell.

Like I'm trying to buy a four-

I'm trying to wonder, how did you get my price and then get all the way down there already?

I'm trying to buy a four-wheeler and like, hey man, will you do a thousand bucks and three wheels? Like you can keep the fourth one. Like that, that's, and I, I feel bad saying it and doing it, but like genuinely, well, I always almost know they're going to say no, but it's like just out of pure entertainment because somebody is going to say yes and I'm going to get a screaming deal on something. But like, I almost always know, like they're not going to say yes to this, but I feel like kind of an a******. Like even, even saying it. Cause most of the time I have like zero intention of buying it. Like this is like my scumbag, like behind the keyboard with a cloak on, like pastime at one in the morning.

He's going to start looking at the descriptions too. Like it's going to be like a sad description. Like, Oh, my dog is, you know, I need surgery or I'm getting divorced. And you're like, that's a thousand bucks. You're going to jump on it. You're going to feel so s***** when it works out.

Hey dude, I'm just trying to buy a thousand dollar boat that might sink, man.

All right, Sean, we need to put a pin on this before my computer explodes.

All right, go ahead.

No, no, no, it's your question.

No, it's our question. I'm giving you the opportunity to ask it.

It's our question that I haven't asked in 15 episodes. It's your question. So I bullied him. A success.

At the end of our show, we like to ask our guests this simple question. You're going to choose three cars. What are they going to be? One's got to be a daily, a track car and a show car.

Unlimited budget, no restrictions. Like if you want to modify something, like Dave Rasmussen put a Judd in something, like just wild stuff.

I felt like I had this picked out of my head because I listened to Sam's episode and I got this question. Like I heard this at the end. So I was like, mentally, I did my homework. I checked up on you.

Yeah, of course.

As you should. I got that follow this morning on Instagram. So I know you did too.

Yeah, I did some homework. Because like, okay, so before you answer this question, we wanted to be, we're trying to take this podcast to the next level. So we want to do a little bit of homework on our guests. Yeah, because like, you know, some people we've had on here, we know very well. But as we're trying to branch into people, we don't know at all, you know, like Joe Rogan does, like he'll read a book of like one of his guests or whatever, like watching a million videos. So that's what we're trying to do. But yes, homework, continue.

Yeah, so I did my homework too, as you should. So I was kind of prepared, but now I'm like kind of drawn, I'm not drawn to blank. So I just kind of feel like a, like a wimp with these. I think they're so cliche, but a daily driver would be a Gen 2 R8 with like just a simple turbo kit, just a simple thousand horsepower turbo kit.

Nothing crazy, yeah.

Well, but that's just like, R8 dudes think that's totally fine. And like, I like R8s because it's like a gentleman's Lambo. Like you think of like a Huracan and an R8, like if I'm driving a Huracan, everyone's taking pictures. You're driving an R8, like. It's like douchebag versus dapper, I get it. Yeah, so to me, similar performance, but one is like, low key in a way. Like if you know, you know, and you're gonna freak out, but if you don't, you're like, oh, it's just an Audi. It's a TT.

Hairdresser.

Yeah, right, like, oh, that's a woman's car. No offense to anyone who owns that. It's definitely not a woman's car. That's not a bad thing either. I really pigeonholed myself there.

Yeah, yeah. This is a big f****** hole.

Yep, so track car, the newest generation, so FL5, Honda Civic Type R. I fell in love with that car. And like that one could go back and forth with the daily driver because that's what I'm taking the previous generation, FK8, up to power cruise. So you're going, right? Yeah. I'll see you up there. But like, they're basically the same car, just a body style change, but it's super versatile. And they're like, they're track rats. I mean, it's a Type R, like that was what they were developed to do way back in the nineties was like, be a homologation race car. Like you drive it on the street, you drive to the track and you go home. So that would be like the kind of in between daily and like track car, because the R8 would just be to go like, just go send it on the highway. That's the only purpose of that. Show car. God, just not a big car show person, so it's tough for me. But like, that's fine.

You already got two cars. That would be perfect for the car show.

No, I know, but then like, yeah. What would I do for a car show?

Got to be something really special.

But car show, I don't know.

It doesn't have to be like Stancey Boy show or anything.

No, I know, but like, it just has to be something nice.

Yeah, what is your, like, your show car?

You know, what's very personable to you? I always was really big into mini trucks.

We got an Eric here.

Well, not K trucks. No, no, not K trucks.

Like a Datsun mini truck.

Yeah, like, what is it? Is it a 610 or five? I don't remember what the Datsun ones are. Like the Nissan Hardbody or like an S10. Like those. Yeah. So my show car would be like a bone stock GMC cyclone. I always thought those things were super cool. So that would be when I was like a kid, not a kid, okay, when I was 17 playing forza in my parents' basement, like I was always building like 1000 horsepower LS swap cyclones. I just thought they were cool. I always thought trucks were cool. Never owned one, never.

So I think that's a perfect show car for you.

Yeah. I got to own one one day.

It's very unique to you. I think it speaks volumes.

Yeah, it's different.

And I like how your daily and track car, you can interchange between them. Yeah, for sure. And that's perfect because I don't think I ever would ever daily a RA.

I think it's perfect. Dude, people do it. It's perfectly reasonable.

I feel like that's a good weekend car. And then you have the Honda for the weekdays.

No, you can keep AC in a twin turbo RA.

Yeah, like Joe Daly's his. The guy with the sheepy one.

Yeah, there's no reason not to. Other than gas mileage. But if I have a turbo R8, I'm not caring about gas mileage.

Well, even then, you could hire somebody to fill your car up for you. My dad has my brother fill up his car. And it's got garbage gas mileage. You know, so it's yeah. But where can people find you, man? Or how should people reach out if they want to talk to you?

Yeah, so if you're interested in tuning with me, if you're interested in that, if there's anybody, like I said, mostly I have a couple customers with like Volkswagen's. They're all like older. Like I have a customer with a Mark III with a turbo VR6, but it's on a standalone. So it's not really like applicable. And like I dynoed Sam's car every time he got his car. I didn't tune his car, but dynoed it for him. So I've got some experience with the European cars on standalones, but not like my niche, but Japanese cars on either like widely available flash tuning or like if you're a Honda guy on the K Pro or S300 or just anything on a standalone ECU, you can find me at Lirk Tuning and Development on Facebook or facebook.com/lirktuning. If you just want to chat and you just want to find me, Kyle Larkin on Facebook, I pretty much, if you got a car in your picture somewhere, I'll probably add you back. So I'm always down to chit chat and shoot the s***. Or if you happen to catch me at a car meet, I'm usually, I try to make it to the M&L's meets. I've been to the Buck Hill meet once. And it's like a literally a straight shot from my, it's 30 minutes, but it's one road to get there from my house. So I've been trying to go to more meets recently. I've been, my son is almost 14 months old. So he's been with me to a bunch of events. So I'm trying to like take him to more stuff and like, I don't want to influence him and like make him like cars. I want him to like cars on his own or not like cars. So he comes with me everywhere I go. He's pretty cool. So if you see some goober with a beard and a kid walking around, that's me. I'll talk to anybody like you guys. So just come up and say hi. Otherwise, like I don't really post on like TikTok or Instagram, like the last Instagram post I posted was like from last year, so. Yeah, yeah. I don't know, I'll go in phases of like keeping up with socials, but Facebook is like a yearly drop or something. Yeah, like Facebook is the only one that I'm consistently like, yeah, I'll just ship something.

Just because you're on their trolling already.

Yeah, I'm offering you $5 for your firstborn son.

Where do people find you, Sean?

I am at 1mnmopar on Instagram. You can catch me on there. We'll see you there, and maybe on some other platforms in the future. But where can everybody talk to you, Harris?

First of all, we still need to figure out a name for Sean. I'm pretty sold on-

We keep saying this.

I like Sean be real. I think that'd be a really great handle for you. And there was another one I came up with.

Right, message me if you think that's a great idea.

Yes, I agree. As for me, if you don't know already, find me on Minnoxide on anything. Please be sure to sign up for our newsletter. I started pushing that a lot lately, so you can basically see all the most recent content, Wallpaper Wednesday, all that fun stuff. That's all on the Minnoxide website. By the time this drops tomorrow, it'll be the last day for that print of Grady's GTR, doing a crazy blap blap on the bridge. So be sure to get that if you want it, because I will never sell it again. But I think that's it. Oh, I actually have a quick question. What did you think of the Jockos?

It's pretty good.

You like it?

Is this a sponsor thing?

No, I want them to be a sponsor.

JockoGo, if you're watching this, these boys here, they're putting you on. So better send in that request real quick.

It's the dream, man. Like this, if I can get sponsored by Ice Mountain.

I go through cases of Ice Mountain. It's an absurd amount. Like I should be doing something environmentally friendly. I should be doing something environmentally friendly to make up for all of the empty Ice Mountain water bottles that my household goes through. But it's insane, like Sam's Club, just emptying out the pallets of Ice Mountain. It's ridiculous.

Yep, that's us at Costco.

Best water.

Yeah, so Ice Mountain, Jack O'Go. Get it. It's time for the newsletter. And thank you very much for coming on. Thanks for reaching out. I think it was a blast. We will definitely have you back on again because you're very knowledgeable, so.

I try to be.

Yeah, so thank you very much for listening, guys, and see you next time.