32. Drifting, Getting Into it and the Costs, Closing Tracks, w/ Man of The Blessings Dylan Pride

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if it were wood? How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

Yeah, perfect.

Close enough, all right, cool. All right, and break, let's do this, all right. Hello, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Minnoxide podcast. I am your host, Harris, AKA Minnoxide, local photographer, videographer, man of many automotive aspirations. And I am here with my co-host, Sean.

Wow, that was a really great intro for yourself. I don't think I can top that, but you can find me. I'm usually driving a blue Durango or orange BMW, pretty rare, 1M. This is the Minnoxide podcast. This is where we take you beyond the meat, and we kind of introduce you to some of the people in our community that make it so great.

Would you like to introduce people to your leaky Durango? Or should I talk about my leaky Golf?

We don't have to talk about that right now. I just got back from Power Cruise. I'm really tired, and so is the Durango.

Starting that episode off with a cough. So today we have a new guest on the podcast, which we do every single episode. We try to talk to people, as Sean mentioned, to people in the car community. Today we have Dylan Pride. Local, drifter, man of fun, automotive stuff. We've only chatted like once or twice on social media, but I thought you'd be a great fit. You're very well known in the Minnesota community. So why don't you just kick it off? And man, I got real stutters this morning. We do not record this early usually. Why don't you just go ahead and kick us off? Tell us a little bit about yourself, your builds, and then what's it called? A little bit about drifting.

Yeah, I'm Dylan Pride, D Pride, man of the blessings.

Is that what you go by?

Yeah. Well, not, I don't go by that, but yeah. I bless cars.

Do you have a tramp stamp that says that by chance?

I wish. Yeah, I've been into drifting since 2017, ever since I was 16, 17 years old. And I have a 1989 Toyota Cressida with a VVTI 1JZ, and I drift it. Yeah, it's pretty fun.

So what made you want to jump into drifting in the first place? Because a lot of people in the car community, they kind of choose a direction. Like they'll choose drag racing, road course, autocross. Drifting seems to be, I want to say, up and coming Minnesota, or maybe I'm just out of the loop.

Yeah, I mean, it's definitely gotten a lot more popular since I started. Back in 2017, when I started, there was just all the what you would consider OGs now. So when I got into it, I was looking up to a lot of older people that are like five years older than me at least, and I don't know. I've always been into drifting and stuff like that, like back when I was younger, watching Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift. That was my favorite movie of them. And then I saw it happen at BAR. I was at Wednesday Night Drift when they kind of first started, and I was watching drifting there, and I thought that was cool. And then right after that, I wanted to get a drift vehicle, something rule, drive, and manual. And then I went to, I don't know if you guys are familiar with Final Boat.

Yeah.

That's like at US Air in Wisconsin there. I went to a special stage, which is pretty much a qualifying event for the real Final Boat. And I was watching all the cool low cars there, and I was like, this is the drifting that I want to do. Like, I want to do this style of drifting. Because there's different styles. You have grass roots, and then you have pro driving, more pro cars, faster, bigger angles, stuff like that. The style of drifting that I'm into is more of a low power, not lower power, but lowish power. You're not focused on that and not a whole bunch of angle and not focused on like, you're focused on having fun versus winning, is more the aspect of it, I guess.

So this is something I, this is an area I have no clue about. That's why I've been trying to watch Adam LZ more, because I'm trying to learn about this, and just people like within that scene. So if you have any tips, let me know who I should watch and learn, because again, I'm trying to know all aspects of the community, but I never understood, how does the racing aspect of drifting work, like formula drift, I don't understand.

For formula drift, so that's the pro side that I was talking about, yeah. So that's more of like, you get judged by your clipping points and how close you are and stuff like that. And like, obviously if you spin out, then you don't win that round or something like that. Or if you hit somebody and they spin out, then...

Mustang style?

Yeah, something like that happens, and then it's usually not good for you. But I'm also not very well versed in formula drift.

It's a whole other level.

So I'm just speaking off what I see. But yeah, they go off of your angle, how close you are, where you are in your clipping points in the inside zone or outside zone, depending on what you need to be. And you just get points off of that.

Oh, it's kind of coming back to me, because it was on a Grand Tour episode, I want to say, when Hanman was working with that. Like, what was it? Armless or legless?

No, armless.

Armless drifter or whatever, like the professional drifter or whatever. Did you ever see that episode?

Hmm, I don't know. I don't think so.

I think it's a few years old now, but like, yeah, you had to be at a certain angle at a certain point or whatever. Yeah, okay, like a racing line.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's if you're in the line or not in the line also. Yeah, because there's like, let's say like there's an outside zone, then you got to get there. And then like, there's an inside zone. You got to get on the inside instead of being more on the outside.

Right.

Like, it's just you'll know where the clipping points are before you drive, but then you just have to get there. And that's where the skill comes in because you have drivers that don't know how to do that. And they just kind of go around the corner sideways and then.

Hope for the best.

But usually in Formula Drift, it's not like that. They're pretty good to where they know where they need to be and they can execute it pretty well. So.

So what about the style of drifting that you do? Is it are you still competing or is it just purely, you know, a spectacle?

So most events is just just for fun. Yeah, it's kind of like. I guess you could compare it to like go kart racing. Like you're not you're not actually out there to like do something.

Yeah, you're not there trying to win, you know, a champion.

You're just there to have fun with your friends. And that's that's exactly what I go there to do. Most of the time, like in the morning, I'll drive by myself for a little bit, but then I try to drive with my friends and my team.

Yeah.

And but there is events like final bout, which final bout you have to get invited to special stage, which is the pre final bout pretty much. And then you drive with your team. And if your team does good and looks good, it's just more about like how you look really. So if you're super far apart, like we were at special stage this year, we don't win, but if you're close together and you seem like you're getting along with your team well in the driving aspect, like everybody's doing good, then you're gonna do a lot better and you get judged off of how you look and stuff like that versus like your line is judged subtly, but it's also in a team aspect. So if one dude's doing good then, and the rest of them aren't, then you're not gonna win. Like you're not gonna get judged very well.

It's a team sport.

Exactly, you have to be in it together. But yeah, like I said, non-like final balled events, then you're just there to have fun. But driving close together with your team is the best part.

Right, so this is more like a hobby. Yeah, yeah. Is this an expensive hobby?

It's pretty expensive, yeah. I mean, back when I was telling him, back when I was LS, it was a lot more expensive than it is now for me because I had like a 400 horsepower LS and I was going through three pairs of tires a day, at least, and that was on a good day. And now I've only driven one event with the 1J in my car and that maybe makes 300 horsepower, and I didn't even go through a full pair of tires for the whole day.

Oh, wow.

So it's a lot more cost-effective for me now, which is kind of what I was going for because the 400 horsepower was kind of, you just clutch kick once and then you don't have to try. It's just, you kind of just hold your foot to the floor and left foot brake, and it's really, I feel like I have better driver experience with the other engine now, the 1JZ.

Yeah.

So.

Do you feel like you're getting like, is it more, what's the word I'm looking for here? Like more engaging?

Yeah, it's a lot more like, you have to be a lot more into it.

Right.

When you're driving with the 1J.

Like on the power.

Yeah, exactly. Like I said, with the LS, I could just stay on the gas and left foot brake where I needed to. And that was really it. It wasn't, it wasn't hard.

So what about like, like the tune and the build? Okay, let's back up. Cause I don't think we even mentioned on this episode yet. So what is your car? And take us through the build of the car, I suppose.

So I have a 1989 Toyota Cressida with a 1JZ BBTI in it, R154 trans, it's stock ECU, stock turbo. The only thing that's done to the engine is like, I have a front-mounted intercooler and a full three inch straight pipe. And that's it.

Well, so is it not even like a tuned engine or anything?

No, it's bone stock tuned.

They make that much power stock?

Well, with the intercooler and the exhaust, it makes it up to like 15 PSI versus the stock is like 12, I want to say, or 10 or something like that. So that helps a lot. It's just more flowing with the intercooler and exhaust.

So then do you work on it yourself or do you have somebody that you take it to in particular?

I work on it 100% myself.

Okay, that's pretty sweet.

I mean, friends will come and help me stuff, stuff like that, like bleeding the clutch or something like that.

Yeah, help me out for a case of beer, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. So, but yeah, other than that, I built the car myself. I actually, so the first drift vehicle I had was a 1994 Ford Ranger. With a 2.3 liter non-turbo, just five-speed, I got it for like 300 bucks in Duluth.

Okay.

And I towed it back to my house in St. Cloud, and it needed a rear end, so I put like a bigger rear end and stuff like that in there, because eventually I was planning on like doing like a 5.0 swap out of like a SN95 Mustang or something like that. So that was the original plan, but then I was drifting it, and yeah, I didn't really have angle, and it cost me like way more to lower than you would think.

Okay.

And like actually be reliably low and not, I had a big three-wheeling problem and a big wheel hop problem with that vehicle, so.

Sounds about right for me.

Yeah.

That's where I stand with the old GTI.

So I was putting a bunch of money into suspension, trying to make it like good-ish.

Yeah, viable.

Yeah, but I wasn't even focusing on the engine and trans at that point. And eventually I was just sick of not having power and cause like they make like 90 horsepower.

Yeah, that was probably a hard, like you set yourself on like hard mode instantly.

Well, personally, I think that drifting, you should start out with a lower power car. That's what I've heard. It's good to learn on lower power. And then once you get experience in how the feel of like the inertia and stuff like that, like once you get all that experience, then go to something higher horsepower. So that's what I did. I was actually planning on keeping the Ranger and I had a two, three turbo for it out of a old Thunderbird.

Okay.

And I was gonna put that in it. But then I got this Cressida from my friend that he had this Cressida for the whole first season that we were drifting, but then he upgraded and got a different Cressida and they sold me this one. And I was just gonna throw an LS in it because everybody was like, oh, LS is so cheap. It's like super cheap to do. And I was just gonna have the LS Cressida be like my throw around car, like not care about, you know, just my practice car, I guess you could say. And then I was gonna have the two, three turbo Ranger and that was gonna be my main drift vehicle. And then I started getting into the LS and buying stuff. I got the engine for free actually, but.

How'd you manage that?

I have a buddy that he flips LS engines, I guess you could say. So he kind of just had an extra five, three laying around. He's like, yeah, you can just have it. And I was like, all right, this is real cheap getting into it. And then all of a sudden I had to buy accessories. You gotta buy the intake, you gotta buy the oil pan, gotta buy the very expensive transmission.

Yep, starts adding up really, really quick.

So then I was like, all right, well, this is gonna be the only drift car. So I sold my truck and ended up selling it for like a thousand dollars or something like that, because I just, nobody wanted it, and I didn't want it anymore. So, so yeah, I was doing the LS swap from 2017 to 2018, and it was actually on a different Cressida chassis. So this is the one that I have now is different from the one I had at first. That one I, yeah, I just did the swap and it was very cheap. Well, it was still expensive, but I did it as cheap as I could because I was only 17, 18 doing it, like barely working 40 hours a week at O'Reilly's.

So you're about my age then?

Yeah, I'm 23.

23, I just turned 24, what was it, last Monday?

Yeah.

Yeah, thanks for dinner by the way, Sean.

Yeah, you're welcome.

Happy bladed.

I still owe you one more from last year.

Yeah, we were talking about this last night at dinner. It's like, I'm the worst at taking like, you know, when people are like, hey, let me take you out to dinner. It's like, all right, I'm gonna avoid that person for a while. Like, I'm so bad about that. But okay, so you have been building this thing for a while now. So this is like your go-to drift car. So, and now you have the 1JZ in there. Do you have any like aspiration to, like, what do you want to do with it in the future? Do you like it where it's at right now?

Actually, I was talking to my teammate about it. I was like, man, I was really thinking about doing like a bigger turbo and stuff like that this winter, and do Haltech ECU and stuff like that. Everything, like, and then I was like, but I drove the car now, and I honestly really like it how it is. Like, I was like, I enjoy it just how it is. Like, there's some small things, like I have a boost cut issue because it's over boosting a little bit, but I can fix that. And then just some basic like wiring stuff that I need to fix, but other than that, like the car runs and drives fine, and I really like how it is and the power level, because like I said, I don't go through as many tires or anything. So, because if I put a big turbo and a Haltech and everything on it, I'd be probably making 500 horsepower.

Yeah.

Like, and I don't want to do that again. So, I really think that I'm going to leave the car for at least probably three years, just how it is. I mean, I'll probably get a new body kit and stuff like that.

Right, make it a little showy.

Mine's all banged up right now.

Are those body kits generally like cheaper? Because, you know, if you're hitting like walls or, you know, they're obviously, you know, meant to be like quick and, you know, you want to change them out.

So, my body kit is a, it's a BN Sports Rep Kit. So, it's not a real kit. BN Sports, the real one is like, I want to say $2,700 plus six months out at least. From BN Japan. And then my kit is actually, it's Fine Line Tuning is who makes it out in California. And it's only like 935 bucks or something like that. Yeah. So, it's not too bad. I mean, this is my third kit already. So, I've definitely spent a good amount in kits. And I plan on buying another one this winter because I just, I don't like when my body gets all banged up.

Yeah. You want to look good.

Yeah. And I mean, I can fix it. I do fiberglass work and stuff like that myself.

Okay.

Oh, really?

Yeah. So, I'm probably gonna fix the one that I have. I'll fix it up and make it look nice for like a spare body kit, just in case if I like. Yeah.

It's always good.

Just in case I run over my body kit at an event, which I have done before. I have a video of me running my bumper over clear, like 18 pieces at least.

Frickin nuts. Respect you on doing your own fiberless work, by the way. Like I actually got to see that in person, like a work in progress. So it was a client of mine, I was shooting, I want to say two months ago, Rogers Rods and Customs up in, it's kind of close to you up there. No, it's like 40 minutes north of you. But yeah, it was like a bunch of these like old, like 80s, 70s cars, like a work in progress. And they're like halfway through redoing the fire. It's crazy what you can do. Like respect people who can do that. So how long have you been doing that?

I've been doing fiberglass work ever since I got fiberglass pretty much. I was like, well, I'm not gonna pay somebody hundreds of dollars to do this because it seems, seems like I can do it. And I can, at first, I wasn't as good as I am now for sure.

It's like that toxic traits. Like you see something, like for example, like I'll see like boxing videos or whatever on TikTok. You're like, I could probably do that. Yeah. Is that how it started out?

Well, that's the same thing with painting. I do my own painting stuff now, and I even paint for some people if they want it and stuff like that. Because surprisingly, I got very good in a short amount of time. Because one of my friends up in St. Cloud, Mitch, he went to body school, and I hung out with him pretty much the whole time. I lived up in St. Cloud, and he taught me everything that he knows about body work. So that kind of helped me to do my own thing. And he helped me paint my car, because my car was maroon, and now it's blue.

I love that, by the way. There's a, I think it's your cover photo on Facebook, maybe or whatever, like the one where it's like, it's just a really good shot. I'm sure you know which one I'm talking about. It's a ridiculously good looking car.

Yeah, I like it a lot. Yeah, that's our team color for our drift team.

What is your team color? I haven't seen this picture.

It's supersonic blue metallic. I can pull it up if you want.

Okay, yeah, go for it. Yeah, we might as well show it to Sean over here, and then for the hashtag highlight reel. But no, so that's the other thing I was gonna ask you. So tell us a little bit about your team.

That's probably the cover photo you're talking about.

No, no, no, it's like a side shot almost.

Oh.

Yeah, I'll see if I can find it later. I might have been on, when I was creepy on your Instagram maybe.

Yeah, maybe, yeah, I post a lot of my car on that.

Yeah, which you should. Yeah, it's freaking awesome. And it's like, I love that it's like, again, I wasn't around in the early 2000s and whatever to see how big drifting was back then, but it just really seems like it's been popping off, especially in the last decade.

Yeah, in Minnesota especially, because Minnesota, like I said, when I started even, it was very small compared to what it is now. Like, it's probably grown 60% since 2017, since I started, which is kind of ridiculous, which kind of sucks because I feel like there needs to be more tracks and stuff like that because...

And they're all getting shut down too, which sucks.

Well, that and also like, everybody's getting more strict and the driver cabs and stuff like that is just... It's hard for anybody to get seat time nowadays. Like, the Wednesday night drift stuff at VIR is really nice because they do like 10 a year now. They used to only do like three or four.

Okay.

And now they do a lot. So it's nice because you can just go up there, pay 25 bucks and drive for the whole night.

I kind of want to go up and see that actually.

Oh, it's the same time they do Wednesday night drags. They do drift. Is there something else that they do?

They do autocross, but the autocross days are opposite from the drifting days. So they use the skid pad at VIR. So whenever autocross is there, then drifting won't be. But yeah, I don't know how much autocross has been up there recently because that's why they used to only have four Wednesday night drifts a year is because autocross would alternate with them. So I don't know if they're not doing that anymore or if they... I haven't been up there since 2020, honestly. So doing the Wednesday night stuff. So, yeah.

So tell us a little bit about your team because you keep mentioning your team. So who are the people, I guess?

So my team is Streetlust, the shirt.

That's a cool shirt, actually.

Yeah, thanks. Thanks. So it's my friend, Cody Edel. He originally started it when he lived in Florida in 2015, I think it is. And then he moved up here and he became friends with all of us up here, which is me, my friend Moises, Frankie. He's been friends with Frankie for a very long time, like since they were like 16 years old. Now they're like 30. So they've been friends for a long time before Street Lust and stuff like that. And then Tyler Mumm. Yeah, so that's our whole team. It's just five of us.

So then how does the team aspect kind of, I guess, work? So how do you guys like, so you guys practice together and stuff, I'm guessing?

Yeah, when we go to events, we try to go to the same events and practice and do tandems and stuff like that and to get closer in proximity and just drive better, feel each other out kind of. And I kind of messed it up because I did the swap, so I got to feel my whole new car out and stuff like that.

Right.

Just completely different driving aspect. But yeah, so we try to go to events together and do what we can.

What do all they drive?

So yeah, I have the Cressida, Cody Edel has a JZX90 MK2 with a 1J in it also. That's factory in that car. And then Frankie has a SC400 that we're in the middle of doing a manual swap on. Moises has a stock 5-speed IS300 and Tyler has a stock 5-speed IS300. So those are both just like the NA2J that comes in them.

Oh yeah.

That's freaking sweet. I really want to shoot some drift cars. I haven't shot any since, like, I want to say proving grounds pre-COVID.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

That's when all the cool ones were there. Is it? Yeah. I mean, I don't know. There's a lot of the drifters that have really cool cars in Minnesota. I feel like they just don't drive that much anymore just because they're older. They have kids, stuff like that, like just family stuff.

Because they can afford it, but then they don't have the time.

Exactly. Well, either that or they just can't afford it anymore either. Tires have gone off a lot and stuff like that.

Or to get more kids.

The supply too, I'm sure, is an issue. Especially more people wanting to drift.

Yeah. Yeah, I know. Back in 2018 and stuff like that, even Kenda KR20s back then, actually, they would have a set amount that they would have every year. And then once they ran out, they ran out alone. So right about now would be when they run out.

Well, what type of tires do you usually use for drifting?

So yeah, the Kendas, the KR20s, well, their KR28s now, it's just a newer version. Those are really good. They're grippy. And then there's Ironmans, which those are a cheaper tire. Those are the ones that I run now, actually, because they last a while with a lower horsepower car. And yeah, it's more, it's a lot of just eBay brands that you find out are good, and then everybody starts buying them, and then they get more expensive, and then you just have to find a new eBay brand that's cheaper.

So what makes a good drift tire?

Pretty much as long as it can handle the heat that you're going through with it, and it doesn't chunk. You just want that. Because I know there's also Accelera 651 Sports. Those are, they're good tires, but they don't last as long as you would think because they're designed specifically for drifting, and they're kind of expensive. They're almost the same price as Kenda's, but I think they last about half as long as a Kenda. So, but they do burn nice and smooth. They don't chunk usually. So yeah, that's nice.

Something else that I was thinking about since 2017, a lot of YouTubers have been getting into like drifting, like AdamLZ, ChrisFix built the SN95 Drift Stang. And I think like a lot of these like DIY YouTubers are kind of showing like, here's how easy it is and how cheap it is. And a lot of people were starting to go like, oh, like I could get into this sport. Like I already have a Mustang. I'm just gonna turn it into a drift missile.

Yeah, I mean, it could be, it is very cheap to get into if you want to. Like if you just want to get 350Z or an E36 BMW or a Mustang or something like that. Like those are fairly affordable chassis right now still. But then, yeah, once you get into it, you're gonna, you're like, okay, I want to do C coil overs. Yeah, everything, yeah. So it's just a downhill spiral.

Yeah, I think Donut Media also did a really cool series, High Low with the 350 Zs.

Oh yeah, they built like a cheap one, and then they built the expensive one.

Yeah, expensive one. And they, at the end of it, they did like LS swap, turbos, twin turbo, single turbo. It was, that's actually one of my favorite series from them is like their High Lows, and just kind of showing off like, here's what you get with expensive parts, here's what you get with cheaper parts. Most of the time, cheaper parts still do the same thing as the expensive ones. Maybe you just don't get as many features.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I think that's a good thing for them to show off, especially to new drifters and stuff like that. They should watch that before they even think about it.

Yeah, and then at the end, they kind of show like, here's the total. High Card gets like $20,000 worth of parts, and then Low Card has to do most of the work themselves, and it's like they're looking for free parts, so it ends up being like their 20 grand versus their 2,000 or something. Like they get like such a small amount of money, and but they still end up being able to compete with the High Card.

Yeah, I feel like the thing is, is like when you're in drifting also, like you should be like fairly mechanically inclined to where you can fix your own things right on the spot or something like that, because like there's so many times where I have like little issues, and like if I didn't know anything, I'd be like, well, I have to take it to a mechanic or something like that, or somebody that works on them, which you can't take it to a regular mechanic shop or something like that. Like same with high performance cars, obviously. But yeah, it's...

I guess that's where having like a team to like be there, to kind of like see the issue and know like what's going on, that helps out a lot. And being able to do the work yourself, like you said, like, you know, if we wanted to get into drifting, I don't know if he'd be calling me all the time.

Oh, dude, I'd be so screwed. Yeah, I'll be watching ChrisFix regularly, like I'll have to figure that out. But it's like drifters anonymous, like you're just like, you're there to support each other and take care of each other. Because like, if you don't know something, I'm sure one of your teammates might. You have a, you know, well, a group of five. So it's like somebody's got to know something. Yeah, for sure. This is gonna stick with me until the end of the episode, if I don't ask it. So you mentioned like a grippy tire or whatever earlier. So like, how does that make sense? Cause don't you want it to like be slippy or like, I can't explain that.

Yeah, so it really depends on your horsepower level, I guess. So like when I was LS, I, with the Acceleros, for example, they're not as grippy as Akenda. So I can just be on the track, put my foot to the floor and I'll hit limiter, no problem. Versus if I have Akenda, then I can put my foot to the floor and I'll speed up. Like I'll gain speed when I'm drifting. So I'm still spinning the tire, but the tire has some type of bite that like it speeds you up. So like, let's say I'm super far behind my teammate and I need to catch up. If I have a grippier tire and I just hit the gas, I'm gonna get a lot closer than if I have not as grippy tire. Like I run, like I said, I run Ironmans right now, which they're good tires. They're obviously not nearly as grippy as Akenda, but for like my horsepower level, I can still catch up and stuff like that if I need to.

Okay, so that makes sense. So like, yeah, you still want to be in drift. Yeah, you just want to have that extra control.

Yeah, it's something that you get into after you get more experience, because obviously when you're first starting out, if you have a 350Z or something like that, or even a stock 240, which nobody has nowadays, but if you have one of those things, then you're gonna want to up your tire pressure and just be able to get the tires to spin, really. That's your first goal.

How high of a tire pressure do you usually run?

Well, when you're a beginner with a very low-power car, I mean, when I had my Ranger, I was running 80 PSI.

Holy s***.

Yeah, like scary high, like not safe high, for sure. But now I run 30 to 40, pretty average. And then when I had my LS, when I was trying to stay on somebody, I think the lowest I heard down to was like 12 PSI.

Oh my, that's like drag racing.

Yeah, I actually have a picture of me drifting and my wheels like this close to the ground because the tire's folding over.

Yeah.

Yeah, from so much grab on the ground.

But that's also because, so, and I'm guessing that's like 12 PSI cold, right?

Yeah.

Yeah, so like when it heats up, like it could be a lot.

15 to 18.

What the hell would 80 heat up to then?

I don't know. There was times that my friend, he would drive his 240 to Wednesday night drifts and he would have 80 PSI in the tires and he would have them in his vehicle. And I was like, I was like, I don't know if it's worse to be in the vehicle or in the trunk because it's hot out. So I don't know, I think, I was like, just put them in the trunk because at least if they blow up, they blow up back there, not next to you. I was like, why don't you just air them off when we get there?

Dude, it's like a bomb.

It's literally a bomb. Like those tires, it says max PSI is like 45 or something like that.

Right, I was gonna say, you're pushing it.

Yeah.

I can't f****** believe that you will go that high. That's insane. I remember when I was at Proving Grounds, I wanna say, yeah, again, like three or four years ago, or whatever. I'm dying to send help. They had, just podcast dying over here. They had like a burnout pit or whatever, right? And I think it was a GTR or whatever, and that was a real wheel drive converter or whatever, like an R35 or something.

Oh, really?

Yeah. Well, to be fair, it's like 90% real wheel drive anyway, but it was over there doing donuts, and then the tire blew, and this was like, I want to say, I want to say 50 yards away from me. And when the tire blew, it literally hit on the inside of my leg. Like it got really, yeah, it got close to the Bojangles or whatever the hell you call them, but yeah, so that was like ridiculous. I really do wonder. So, okay, so how often do you blow tires drifting then?

I avoided the plague. You don't want to blow a tire because obviously if you blow a tire, you can mess up your fiberglass arrow. You can mess up your quarter panel, stuff like that. Back in 2019 or 2018, when I was just, I didn't care, I would blow tires up all the time. Like just because, like even if I knew that they were getting close, I would just go do donuts and do it till they blow up. And I messed up my quarter panel pretty good a couple of times from doing that. So yeah, you kind of want to avoid that. I just go until I feel that they're baldish, and then call it good. Or usually I can feel when they're getting pretty greasy. Like if I spin out a couple of times, I'm like, all right, maybe the tires are a little low on tread, go get some new ones type deal.

So then do you typically have like an inventory of tires at home or anything like that?

Yeah, I have like 10 to 12 sitting at home all the time.

So do you just change out the front or rears when they're needed, and then your fronts are like basically fine all the time?

Yeah, the fronts, I mean, it's like your average track day tire, I guess you could say, because they're still working with the grip and everything like that, because I have very grippy front tires, so I can kind of steer and just go where I want to. Because if you don't have grippy front tires, you can understeer and then just kind of push into like dirt or into a teammate, and you don't want to do that. So you want very controllable front tires, which I usually run those Acceleros, they're very good for the front. They last at least a whole season, which, I mean.

That's pretty good.

That's pretty good if you think about it. And then, yeah, the rears, like I said, I only go through about a pair a day now, so it's not too bad. Those tires, I can usually get like 120 bucks for a pair. So they're a lot cheaper than like a grippy tire. Yeah, at least the Ironmans are.

Yeah, especially if you're getting most of the work done, then you know, still get what you're, because you're not competing quite yet. Have you done any like actual competitions though?

I have not actually.

Not yet?

Well, I did a tandem comp at BIR one year, but my tire already beated, so I lost.

Right.

That'll do it.

Yep. What's the craziest, I guess, like breakdown or damage you've done? Do you have anything in store?

I mean, I've blown three LSs. Okay, wow. Like three of them. So they were all five threes. And the thing is with LSs, they can get oil starved and drifting very easily. So I had a stock GTO pan, and all the oil will go to one side, so the pickup wouldn't get any oil. So that was the main issue. And then cylinder seven and eight rod bearing would always go out. And when I did, I had a 6.0, which was my most recent one. And I put a baffled, it's just a bolt-in baffle for it, because they have stock baffling, but they don't have the trap doors and stuff like that. So I got one that has trap doors and everything, and then that helped a lot. I didn't have any oiling issues with that engine.

And that's the one that you sold or got rid of, right?

Yep, yeah. That's the one that I didn't have any issues with, so I sold it to a friend, and he's putting it in his crescent now.

Yeah, yep. Isn't the 5.3, is the 5.3 a truck motor or no?

Yeah, yeah, it's an LM7, just a Silverado engine.

Yeah, yeah, and the 6.0 is too or no?

The 6.0 I had was, but they do make an LS2, which is an aluminum block 6.0. So I still iron block 6.0 with aluminum heads.

So you mentioned early on that you kind of got into cars, like, you know, like the old Fast and Furious or whatever, but like, do you have any like defining moments that just where you're just like, this is why, like, for example, like I grew up Mopar. Like it's been a cult for me, even though I love all cars now because I'm a photographer, like that was just, you know, doing the Gran Turismo, driving the Viper and all that stuff, you know. Do you have anything like that, that kind of got you into it?

I mean, when I was younger, like I played a lot of Need for Speed, like Underground 2.

Okay.

I played that all the time.

Everybody's favorite.

Yep, that's the best one. Yeah. At least that's the one I liked the most. And then, yeah, I think the defining moment where I was like, okay, this is what I want to do was when I was at that special stage event in 2016. I was there watching all the cool low cars, and I was like, these are the type of cars that I want to drive. Yeah. I want something like this. And then I had the Ranger for like a year, but then in the back of my mind, I kind of knew that that's not what I really wanted. So once I got the Cressida, that's when I started messing with it. And I knew that I could make it look a lot cooler than it was, because it looks like a grandma car store factory. It looks like a Toyota Camry, but rules.

Yeah. You know what my dream with this podcast is, by the way, is to affect car prices. So like, for example, we're talking about, you know, the Cressida.

Oh, like top gear. If we just hate on a car, the stock prices plummet.

It's like, oh, you hated that car three years ago. What? No, no, there's video proof of you hating this car. Oh, well, I changed my mind.

Cressidas are not good. They're $500 cars. They will forever be $500 cars, even though one sold for 14 grand the other day.

Crazy. What do you think about that? You know, people paying, you know, 20K for a 240, just to, you know, make that their like drift car, you know.

The thing is, is I feel like the people that are paying that much are like, okay, I'm gonna keep this stock forever. Like people like when you saw there was a couple, I think it was two years ago or something like that, bring a trailer, an S13 one for $35,000 because it was bull and stock. And I feel like that person's never gonna modify that car. Like I, everybody that I've seen that has bought a very expensive car, it doesn't seem like they will ever plan on doing anything with it. But I have seen people pay $18,000 for a 240 very easily and make that their drift car. And I mean, right-hand drive Toyota sedans, like my friend's JZX90, that's like a $23,000 drift car now. Yeah, like they're not cheap. If they're in good condition and not banged up and stuff like that, they're very expensive.

Well, I feel like a lot of the cars that I see on Marketplace, they're clapped out, they're saying all these keywords that somebody would want to hear, stock, unmodified, but in the pictures, it's like beat to hell.

Yeah, exactly.

It's like, is somebody restoring this? Is this, would it cost to get into drifting these things?

Like I said, I've never paid more than $500 for a Cressida, and I never will. Well, that's a lie. Last fall, I paid a decent amount for a Cressida, but that's because it had a lot of stuff that I wanted, like coilovers, it had wheels. And I sold the wheels and made profit just off selling the wheels. So it was worth it to me because I got free coilovers and stuff like that out of it. So, but.

That's part of a, so when I was browsing Supras before things went tits up for me, when I was like looking at Supras, there was one that I saw on auction. Had an amazing set of wheels. It was an expensive set. It was on coilovers and everything. I'm like, if I can get that car for whatever, what the market value is, I can get rid of the wheels. And it's like, oh, I'm in profit.

Yep, exactly.

Yeah, those are the steals you want to look for. I really do. I wonder what Eric got his 244. I forgot what it was.

When did he get it?

Well, did you ever see his 240?

Yeah, I saw it in Ike's garage.

Yeah, because they're going to do some fun stuff with that. But like, it wasn't the nicest car.

No, I mean, I saw it. It's, you know, they've got it down to primer right now, but it's...

I can't wait to see what they do with that car. I think it's got, what is it, the RP25 in there, I think?

I don't know, I didn't.

I'm out of touch, but it's like, they are so ridiculously expensive. Like, it's like that classic meme. It's like, just before they post something on Facebook marketplace, just, you know, take a good old hit of the meth pipe, or the crack pipe, whatever. Just ridiculous.

Everything's just overpriced, I feel like. And yeah, like even if your car has good bones and like good stuff in it, like if it doesn't look good, like nobody's gonna want to pay that much for it, you know, like that. Like I wouldn't even feel comfortable listing my car at what I think it's worth right now just because of how the body kit looks. Like, if it doesn't look presentable, the person that's buying it isn't gonna be super happy about it, you know?

Yeah, it gives them a lot of room to negotiate down.

Yep.

Talk, Sean. You got me mid-yawn over here. You know, I think we should try to flex on everybody. Yeah, we're recording at 4 a.m. right now, guys. They can't tell.

They can't tell. There's lights on in the building.

Yeah, there's lights on in the building. No. All right, so do you have any kind of dream events that you wanna attend, or is there anything that you and your team, I guess, because again, you are in the hobbyist category right now. Do you have any ambitions of competing, or is that just too crazy right now?

The biggest goal of ours is to drive Final Boat. The Final Boat. Like we drove, we actually got invited to drive Special Stage Central, which is that it's a big stepping stone because you have to get invited to drive that event, and then you have to perform while at that event, and then you can drive Final Boat. So we got into the first section of it. We got into, we got our feet in the water right now. So hopefully, we're hoping we get invited back next year. I know that we didn't do very great this year because I had a new car, and honestly, it was like some of our team members kind of first time actually driving on the big track, which is because there's two tracks at US Air. There's an intermediate track, and there's an advanced track. And the advanced track, they just haven't driven that much. And that's where we got judged. So we don't have as much seat time as we would have liked before we got invited to it. But we're hoping that we get invited back next year and have some more seat time under our belt for that event.

So how do you get invited to those? Any idea?

You just have to apply. So there's a thing on FinalBalt's website where you just put your application in all your cars. And we submitted a YouTube video, actually, that was showcasing everything with our cars and stuff like that. So, yeah. The main reason we got in, actually, is because there was enough room for us. If there wasn't gonna be enough room for us, then we went to get in.

And it's probably gonna get harder and harder over the years as more people get into it.

Yeah, with all the cool cars that apply and stuff like that, there's a lot of teams, especially in the Midwest, I feel like now, and Chicago and stuff like that. That's where a lot of the cool teams are, I feel like. And they all apply to drive the same special stage we do. So getting into that bend is pretty hard. I feel like that's the hardest special stage to get into.

Is that kinda like the biggest name, then, for getting into, I guess? For example, when it comes to drag racing, you get Texas 2K, FL 2K, Final Bout. Is there other versions of it around the country?

Final Bout is the biggest, that's the main...

The Super Bowl.

That's the Super Bowl of grassroots style drifting. So, yeah, because they have a special stage east, in New York area somewhere. They have a special stage northwest, which is like Pacific Northwest. And then they have a special stage south, and then they have a special stage central. So all four corners of the country, there is a special stage. And then they pick the... I think it used to be like the best three teams of each one, and they would allow them to drive Final Bout. But I think it's more now, because I think they picked like six or seven teams from central alone.

Geez.

Yeah, so there's like 20ish teams driving. The main event.

Yeah. Well, I mean, it's growing so ridiculously fast. Like they're... Yeah. And honestly, like, the tracks are like, I mean, they're not that huge. They don't take up a lot of space.

They're not very big. It's just everything to do with zoning. And if the neighbors like the noise and...

Oh, don't get me started on f****** neighbors. Oh my God. All right. It's been a few episodes, I've had a good rant.

Here we go, strap it in.

It's un-f******-believable. Okay, so many people here know that I used to run a rally, or rallies, plural, because I'm a multi-failure. So last year, we did a track event at Atlanta Motorsports Park, and amazing track, amazing people. The instructors were incredible. Everything was perfect about it. But the one thing that gets my blood boiling is that there are noise restrictions. So they will black flag you if you exceed these noise restrictions. And sometimes there's fines involved. Thankfully, we didn't get any of those. But if you do it enough, as an event, I think they only get three warnings from the city or whatever a year before they start getting charged or something ridiculous like that. I remember reading the contract and talking with the lady, and I was like, uh-oh, we're going to have a lot of cars breaking. A stock GT 500 broke that barrier. Oh, wow. And I'm just sitting here thinking like, all right, we have a lot of cars that are louder than that. Like Ross's Supra got flagged because he has like that aftermarket exhaust. I forgot which one. Krista's Mustang got flagged, and Dan's Mustang somehow didn't get flagged, which was the loudest car on the rally, I'm pretty sure.

Well, a lot of those tracks, they have a microphone set up at a very like certain spot. So I think they told us like, you know, just don't fly by, you know, like let off the gas and get back on. Yeah, like you just have to be, you know, considerate, because that was the same thing when I went autocrossing over in a Canterbury. They had a microphone at a certain point in the track, and they're like, don't exceed this decibel. Otherwise, you know, the neighbors or the city or whoever, like they're going to call and they're going to kick us out of here. And we want to keep coming back. So please be quiet. Otherwise, you're out of here. So I was so, you know, I was talking to my friend, Pierrot, about, you know, like your friend, our friend, our friend of the show, Pierrot, was there. And I was like, like, how are you going to get by that? Because he's in the Evo and it's loud as s***. He's like, I'm just going to, you know, clutch in and, you know, just not accelerate at that one part and then just continue going. Once I get past the microphone, I'm like, OK, cool. But like, it kind of hinders your ability in like a competitive sport.

Get a good track time.

Yeah.

All right. Oh, it gets me so annoyed. Oh, by the way, did you guys see like the thing that got shared all over Facebook? Like some guy, he had his roof done and he had the shingles like made to look like a dick on his roof.

No, I saw.

Oh, this is how I got to show you this after the episode. It was hilarious.

Was this Eric by chance?

No, no, no. But he like I messaged it to him and Eric always loves to remind me, like, I've seen that already. This is my community. The roofing community is mine. Blah, blah, blah. By the way, if you need a roof, hit up Eric. But anyways, yeah, it's like that I'll bring down property values. Like I need to start going to these areas and bringing down property values so they don't build this. Like we as a car community need to go out there and just make it impossible to build houses in your tracks. Because it's a problem, man. Like I think three or four drag strips like got shut down in the last year or two. Like notable drag strips.

Just because of noise restrictions and stuff.

Well, noise restrictions, but also just, you know, turning the land into developments and all that. And I get it, we need houses because people can't stop f****** reproducing because everybody needs 16 frickin children. But have you seen this? Like you go like f****** Octo Mom over here. It's just it's stop it. Stop having like get your white picket fence, two or three children at most.

And please, let's do some IQ testing, too, like, oh, man, this is a Harris speaking from Communist China.

I actually, you know, so I've been reading a lot lately, you know, because I've been doing 75 hard. And I'm like thinking like, obviously, I do like I read a lot like personal development stuff and stuff about psychology and philosophy and all that. But I'm like, I've been thinking, like, I kind of like I was reading something, a story about Mao Zedong or whatever, like, you know, back during like the like the s***** times in China. It's like my brain isn't awake enough to get into the details. But like, I've thought about like reading some of these, like, you know, communist manifestos and stuff and just see, like, what is like, just to understand it a little bit, you know, because like, as you know, like, my parents come from a formerly communist country. Right. So it's like, I just want to like, because like, there was a lot of believers. And even now in America, like, there's a lot of people that are like leaning towards that because they don't understand it. But so I just want to read about it. But wow, this is really turning into a interesting podcast.

Yeah, your rant is taking a turn.

This is a fantastic rant. My point being, my point being, two children, stop building houses, keep the racetracks, keep the racetracks. This is an honest man's journey.

It's crazy that Brainerd is still able to operate, even though they're in a semi-large town, and it's developing continuously around.

Because that town won't be worth s*** if they weren't there.

Exactly. If it wasn't for that track, I don't think a quarter of the population would be there. I feel like a lot of people buy a cabin or a house just for the track. When I went there, I know PowerCruise and some of the events that they host, it's very local. But I saw people from North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Ohio, Iowa.

It's a Midwest event.

It is a big Midwest event. So I'm sure people from all over probably just get either renting a cabin for those days or weeks of the month. That is like the main economic factor for Brainerd, I feel like.

Yeah, I'm trying to get my breath back after that.

Me and my friend Frankie, teammate with FC 400, we've actually talked about either purchasing a home in Brainerd or in Shawnell, where US Air is, and then just Airbnb-ing it, doing Airbnb while we're not there, and then block out the dates that we're going to be at the event or something.

Yeah.

Because then we can afford to be there more, not have to pay for any type of lodging, and then while we're there, it's just making side money, passive income.

Do you have any side hustles? Because I know you mentioned fiberglass and painting and all that.

I don't do much, but yeah, I tried. I mean, sometimes I'll flip cars, do paint stuff, fiberglass, work on people's cars for them. I guess whatever, I'm kind of a jack of all trades. It's not much, but it's honest work.

If you're able to fix up the exterior of a car, especially something that's beat up, and you can really sell a car for more if it has a nice exterior. Because beauty is an eye of the beholder, and if it looks like s***, you're not going to pay that much for it. But if it looks clean on the outside, especially if you get fresh paint, and you get any key marks, scuffs, you can sell that car.

A good detail.

A good detail, which is usually just a vacuum, and you squirt it off. Is that the main?

Yeah, that's kind of what I would go for. Actually, I got a IS 300 earlier this year, and I got it for cheap because it looked bad. There was a lot of rust. There was rust around the windshield, there was rust on the rocker, rust in the rear taillight area. It wasn't good, which made it a lot harder to sell. Because like you said, if the exterior looks bad, then it just doesn't sell. And everything else was perfect. I mean, I daily drove it to working back because I work in St. Cloud, so I have a 40-minute commute. And I drove it to working back for like two weeks straight, and I was like, all right, this thing, it drives just fine. There's no issues with it. It's just rusty. So I made it very hard to sell. I was sitting on it for almost a month, and it was just so hard to sell just because of how the exterior looked.

You couldn't even go on any of your drift forums and sell it on there.

I had it on some drift pages, and then I also had just had it on Marketplace. But yeah, eventually somebody bought it, and they did turn it into a drift car. So yeah. Which it was a great first drift car. I sold it for 4,500 bucks for a manual IS300, and I think that's a pretty good deal. It's just the exterior wasn't perfect.

Right, and that's just what you're gonna get here in the Midwest, you know, with cars from the 90s, it's a whole lot of rust.

Yeah, it's either with Lexuses, I know that they're either really clean or just rusty. Like, there's really no in-between. Between all the Lexuses I've had, most of the ones that I've had have been pretty clean, actually, because I like to daily them. Lexus is very nice, comfortable.

It's an amazing daily.

Yeah. I had a...

I thought about one for a while.

Yeah, I had a lowered LS400 that I actually got from Sam Moraine. I daily-ed that for a good bit, and then I sold it. And then I got a Lexus LS430, which is just a newer version of the LS400, and I daily-ed that for like a year, and I loved it. And then I ended up putting coilovers and wheels on it, and then it was a lot stiffer, but...

Dude, it's crazy what coilovers do to a car. Even my brother's car, compared to mine, even though we're both on coilovers, he has a different brand, I'm not sure. I think they're nicer, too, like $200, $300 or whatever. And it's like, dude, that f****** speed bumps. So Sean's neighborhood just introduced some nice speed bumps.

Yeah, I saw. I was like, well, good thing I didn't drive my drift car. I wouldn't have enabled the key.

No, you would have had to park a f****** block away.

Well, they're just bolted down, I think, right? So I mean, we could.

That's what it looks like. No, they're impacted down. They're like whatever those round headed bolts are. I don't know how they're going to... They got to... I don't know if they have to like special tool, like pry them up or what.

You have to like cut the stud off from underneath, yeah.

Yeah. I think because they have to remove them for the snow plows, it's not like, you know...

Also that's just for the summer?

Yeah, it's just for the summer. Just because people love blowing through the stop signs in my neighborhood. So it was a safety concern for sure. But holy s***, they're aggressive.

They are aggressive. Well, I'm trying to figure out like the perfect speed to hit... I'm spitting on myself today. The perfect speed to like go through those speed bumps, right? Because like I noticed today, like I go through a little bit faster, it's like a little smoother. But it's like if you go too fast, like I did in my Cherokee a few years ago, I hit a speed bump at like 40, 45. I bottomed out my f****** Cherokee. Like, I've bottomed out every single car I've had, and I've had... No, no, never mind. I was about to say I've had every single one airborne. I haven't, actually. The Golf's the first car of mine that I've had airborne. So that's where we're at in that discussion. But freaking... Oh, I was going to ask you this. So we have a lot of like, you know, young listeners on the show as well. So like, if somebody wanted to really pursue drifting, not just, you know, like... It's not as simple as just choosing a car and getting into it. So like, what are some things that you wish you knew five years ago when you got into this? And then like, what resources could people use nowadays?

Um... I guess what I wish I knew is something... Get something that's low power, but not too low power, you know? Like...

What's too low? 90?

I didn't like that. But like, a 350Z is a good power, like 200-ish horsepower is pretty good. Or, I mean, a Miata is fine even, because like, they have lower power than that, but they're also way lighter than a 350Z or something like that. So just get something that's a good mid-range of power, and then don't do angle for a while. Just try to stay stock, stock angle. That's the best to learn, because then you know your limits, and then when you do have angle, you can kind of look cooler, and you'll know how to get out of it better. And coilovers and seat is the biggest two things, because you want to stay planted, because if you're not planted in your car, when you're drifting, then like, you're focused, you're like holding the wheel, versus actually just being able to sit in the car and just throw the wheel and just kind of... You can't really learn your car when you don't have a seat, honestly.

That's pretty standard, I feel like, for almost all motorsports is having a good seat to keep you planted so you're not fighting yourself the entire time. And it really helps you just put more focus on actually driving instead of keeping your body in the seat. And then same with coilovers. Coilovers just change a vehicle so much.

Yeah, exactly. Which, I mean, honestly, in drifting, I would probably recommend a seat before coilovers even. Like, in a 3-way DC, you can drift a stock i-350Z. They're fine. They have a lot of body roll, but...

I feel like, you know, you guys are just blaming the car for your lack of core strength. I think you should be doing more planks. You know, stop wasting money on seats.

I mean, you could do that.

I don't know, man. Fighting those G-forces is...

It's ridiculous.

Yeah.

Dude, like, I remember, so actually, I've been in a drift car exactly one time in my life. And that was at Vegas for my 18th birthday. So we actually went over there. We drove the Huracans on the track and then with the instructor. Honestly, it was great as my first time in a Lamborghini and all that. I would never do it again. Yeah. Just not worth it, in my opinion. For first time, absolutely worth it. But second time, yeah, no. But then we also did the drift drive-along, or ride-along, sorry. I think it was, I wanna say it was a C7 Corvette.

Okay.

And so typically, facilities like that, they hire people who are like ex-pros, or almost pro, but not really. This guy was seasoned, to say the least. So he gets in there, he throws that vet around. So they had two cars. I think they had a Hellcat and a C7, or whatever. Okay. I might be making s*** up on the Hellcat, actually.

No, I gotta go on the Hellcat Charger.

Yeah, okay, so yeah, they had a Charger. Okay, so I'm not feeling s***.

So you fit five people in that thing, and they'll swing you around the track.

Let's just go to a takeover. We'll just jump in there, five of us. Well, actually, you can probably get seven people in a Hellcat because you have the people that sit on the door seal hanging out.

Yeah, out the windows. And on the trunk.

Quite frankly. Yeah, you dorks going to the track.

Yeah, there's a perfectly good intersection right outside.

I kept thinking about that yesterday while we were filming the Durango, because I'm hanging on the back of the GTI, right? Because I have my gimbal and everything. And I'm just thinking, it'd be wild to see somebody just hit a drift right now, like all back here. I really want to get a shot like that. But I was like, huh, takeover would be kind of fun right now. Because like, oh no, I actually, I think I yelled at Alec or whatever, my driver who was on the show before. I'm like, time to do some takeover s*** or whatever, because he has the Hellcat Durango. That's funny. Oh, super, super off tangent, but I have to say this. The other day I was coming back home, going down 169, and I look over to the right, and in the Cloverleaf, going into 494, there was a semi-trailer in the ditch. I'm talking like this is a 45 degree angle or whatever, and I'm just sitting here thinking, huh, I wonder if that was a takeover guy or a drifter. What are your thoughts on takeovers? Is that good practice?

I don't like them, but I feel like nobody in the car community actually likes them. Nobody likes them. I mean, when they first started, I would make memes like saying, oh yeah, they're cool and stuff like that, but they're not.

It's gotten really bad over the years.

Oh yeah, well, yeah, down in Minneapolis and stuff like that. I know that last year was pretty bad. They were doing it just every weekend, just whenever they wanted, doing whatever they wanted. So I feel like it's gotten a little bit better in Minneapolis, at least.

Yeah, they've created task forces and divisions just for the takeovers. They don't even show up anymore. They just record everything, and then they'll just send tickets in the mail and suspend people's licenses that way.

Oh, for sure.

But it's like-

Really, I didn't know that.

Yeah, there's a bunch of cameras on the highways now, so if they can tag somebody that was there, and then they could literally follow them along the highways for the longest time, and then they can send cops right to their door afterwards and be like, we literally have you on video.

Yeah. You don't know this guy, but back when we were doing some Venom promotion, I wanna say two or three years ago when we went to Chicago, frickin one of my buddies, I think it was a Dill, they were picking up a car, and they drove it across the entire state of Indiana or whatever, and apparently an airplane, or no, not an airplane, so they got a ticket on one side of the state, and then they got a ticket on the other side of the state because they were just like, you could have gotten here in this amount of time, like doing a speed limit or something. I'll have to find a story. It was something ridiculous. They literally did the math or something or whatever, and they were just like, how the frick is this guy over here? Though they do that with those planes too.

You ever see those signs that say speed enforced by aircraft or something?

Isn't that how they do it? They kind of do a calculation or whatever. There's no f****** way he made it there in that time period.

I mean, that just seems like math. Like you have X amount of miles, and then if you have the speed limit be like 70, and then there's a certain, if they did the speed limit, they would go from, if they clock you at point A and point B, your time should be greater than time X or whatever. I don't know. I'm not too good at math to figure out all that. That's like the basic that I would figure, how they could figure that out. And I've seen too where they say they have expert camera, like witnesses who can say like, or mathematicians who can look at a video and say, with the speed that you were going in this shot, and then if we advance the frame by five milliseconds, we can see you pass this line, and that means you were going this speed. And it's like, there's no way.

They can gargle my balls.

Yeah, exactly.

I feel like the speed enforcement thing is kind of, it shouldn't really be a thing as long as you're within reason.

Within reason. Everybody knows you get five to 10 miles exactly added onto the speed limit. Everybody knows that's the rule.

Like I don't think I can get a ticket from admitting it on a podcast, but I definitely do 80 in a 70 every day. That's just where I set my cruise at because I know I'm safe there.

Whatever, grandma.

Well, it's easy enough for if you have a radar detector and then if the flow of traffic's usually going the same speed and if you see a cop, you can usually get on the brake before and then get down to 75 or whatever, and then you're safe.

I want to say this was Dan Deckard, again, former rallyer of mine. I want to say it was him. It might have been somebody else, but I'm leaning it was towards him. Basically, he got pulled over, right? He's like, oh, sorry, officer. I usually have my cruise control set to 10 over and the officer's like, that's still illegal.

Oh, boy, that's funny.

Oh, man, just.

I mean, I've definitely done some very legal speeds.

What was our cruise control? No, we tested this on Venom 1. He said his cruise control. What was your limit on cruise control again?

It was like 110.

I think that's a Dodge limit to that.

Yeah. And then Moe in the GTR, because I was curious, like, oh, like, how fast can I can set my cruise control to for like max speed? And it stops at 110. And then Moe set his cruise control speed in the GTR. I think it was 88 was the max in the GTR.

What are you arbitrating over this?

After that, I was so curious, like, what are the max speeds for every other car? Because obviously it's different with each manufacturer. And I think Mark's GT500 was 120 miles an hour. He could set the cruise control speed for us. So I wonder what the highest, like some manufacturers, like, oh yeah, if you really wanted to, I guess you could cruise control at 150, 160.

I wonder how they decide that though.

Like they know it's illegal either way.

Yeah, well, that's what I'm thinking. Like maybe in like Germany on the Autobahn, like a lot of like German cars, they probably have like, you know, they're like, I don't have a limit. Yeah, they probably have like, if you could, if you can set it to that speed and you can get it that high, we'll let you get there.

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

But the GT500 at 120, I mean, I'm sure they got some in Germany, maybe.

Yeah.

I'm sure they, I'm sure they spec it for US or Germany.

Well, and that's the thing, like a lot of like these speeds are controlled by, you know, probably the National Highway Safety, whatever agency. So they're the ones who set like the precedent.

Those, that's another thing. I could never, like a big car like that, like you've seen the streets in Europe, like even like the big cities, like you could never drive a car, like a GT500 is fricking huge by European standards.

I think it would fit. I just think you're just going to be a hog, you know, taking up most of the lanes and you're not probably driving it through a small Italian villa.

Do you remember-

And 120.

Yeah.

120, cruise control through the villa. Do you remember the, I think it was, this might have been top gear when Jeremy Clarkson had the Aventador, trying to squeeze through like this, like he had to reverse it or whatever.

Yeah.

Just ridiculous, dude. Cars are getting so bloated nowadays. Like, I mean, what's your car way?

It's honestly pretty light. It's like 3,500 pounds. Well, okay. For a luxury sedan, that's a lot.

Yeah.

And I still have full interior and everything. So it's like, it's probably still about 3,500 pounds.

Yeah. What did Sam say his 92 S4 was?

It's like 3,000.

I think it was like mid-3,000s as well.

Oh, like 32, 33.

I think I remember him saying it was heavier to my Golf.

Yeah, cause his is a luxury sedan as well.

Yeah, and his is like, I want to say fairly gutted.

No, I think it's full interior. I think he just doesn't have a headliner. That's it.

Oh yeah, that might have been one. So yeah, he's working on his roof right now. I'm really excited to shoot that thing.

Yeah, you did that carbon roof or whatever.

Yeah. Yeah. So do you talk to him as well a little bit?

Yeah, I was, I mean, back in like 2020, 2021, we were like super, super good friends. We would, I would actually go to drag racing events with him and stuff like that. I've like been to like meet in the middle and then the half mile event in, gosh, I can't remember, independence. Kansas, I think it is, or Kentucky?

Maybe.

Kansas, I think it is, yeah. Yep, I've been to a couple of events with him. Like doing drag racing stuff or watching drag racing. And yeah, we, we're not as close to friends now, but that's just because.

Life.

Life, and I lived a lot closer to him back then, and we were both unemployed for a while.

True, yeah.

So we could just kind of do whatever we want. We hung out like every day because we were like, all right, well, we're both unemployed and nobody else is, so we're just going to hang out. And that was when Sam was in the middle of his, his first rendition of the S4. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, that episode was a blast, dude. Like I think that episode was one of the turning points in how we want to operate on this podcast is like, talking to every random person, like it's, it's fun at a car meet, but we're trying to like cultivate this to be something where we do talk to, you know, people who, again, do cool stuff, cool, you know, whatever, build cool stuff and all that. Like I love having like shop owners, business owners on here, but also people like yourself who do a lot of drifting and are very good at it, you know, like, you know, or at least from an outsider's perspective, again, might be different from your perspective, like a long a**, but.

Yeah, I feel like, I feel like everybody critiques themselves very hard. And like, I mean, I don't think I'm very good at all, but I, there's so many people that are just like, oh yeah, you're great and stuff like that. Like.

Well, over time, you're gonna like 10 years from now, you're gonna be the OG. Like for example, I always talk about like JWP in the car community. Like he is one of like the OG, like he's been around like before, like since I was a f****** kid.

Yep.

And it's like, it's crazy to see that. So like in 10, 15 years from now, you're gonna be like.

The guy.

Drift Master Z or whatever the f*** you want to call yourself.

Lots of things like it's everybody, I feel like once you're 30 and have kids or a kid at least, and you have a super cool car, you can just let it sit and still be cool.

Yeah, yeah.

That's kind of where I was telling Melanie, I was like, yeah, I mean, after a while after we get a house and stuff like that, I have kids or something, then I'm fine with parking the Cressida for, I'll leave that thing sitting in the garage for 10 years, I don't care, as long as it's still mine.

And you have that option.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, obviously, I still want to do it for at least another eight to 10 years.

An option just dust it off.

Yeah.

Let's see what she can do.

Yeah, exactly.

I think that's going to be so cool to see in our generation grow older and just there's just going to be like how there's like a bunch of like, you know, old heads in the drag racing scene and like in the motor sports.

Barn finds.

Yeah. Seeing seeing like we're drifting ends up with like, then we're going to see like a bunch of old guys in drifting, because drifting is like a fairly new sport. It probably started like what? Like early 90s?

Yeah, probably like early 2000s.

I would say probably started. What is like the origins? It's probably started in Japan, right?

Yes, Japan, so who did a series on this? Somebody on YouTube, a big YouTube did a series on this. Basically, it used to be like a street thing. Yeah.

They went in the mountains.

In the mountains and all that stuff. Yeah, so yeah, that's kind of like the origins.

Yeah, so like the early 90s, and then it made its way over to the States. I think, you know.

States was like early 2000s was when it started. There was a lot of people doing it.

Well, especially with Fast and Furious. I mean, that f****** ignited the car community. Like even though it's turned into this whole cringey thing now, whatever, like, you know, a f****** superhero movie. Like, I think after Five is when I started losing interest.

Yeah, oh yeah, for sure.

Like Five was like my like, oh my God, did you see them take, like I was still a kid. They took the freaking safe with chargers, go Mopar, you know, like that was, that was. And after that, I kind of grew up.

Yeah, which even that was just, you could tell it was the beginning of the end.

Hey, so actually, I just remembered, so there's this topic I wanted to bring up on the podcast. So I don't know if you remember Casey from The Rally, but he actually hit me up.

I remember Casey. He's awesome.

He's a blast. So he brought up, he's like, have you ever talked about this on the podcast? So I think he said he might be moving or whatever. He's like, what are the most car-friendly states with the United States? I think this would be a really cool topic to discuss on here, just for s**** and giggles. California is immediate now.

Yeah, 100% no.

F*** California.

Well, for modifying cars, but I follow some, there's some really cool car shows.

If you're doing, yeah, if you're doing like off-road stuff.

So let's factor that into the discussion, yeah.

Okay, well, I actually think California is a great place to go for car-related stuff. Like you said, there's off-roading. You drive like an hour, two hours out, you're in the desert. You can go to the sand dunes. You can go off-roading on the trails out there. Whatever you want, they have it. But that's the same in Minnesota. You drive somewhere two hours away to go off-roading, or literally in your own backyard. But with the kind of shows and events that California hosts, you got like...

Tier of card, diversity.

The LA car show, the Long Beach, what is it, the circuit that they put on. Just some of the things that you can do in California, it's still really, really awesome.

That's tough. Yeah, because at the same time, they also like that Hyundai, right? They will give tickets to stock cars for being too loud. It's tough. I feel like you can make it. If you stay out of trouble, it's actually a pretty good scene, because again, the diversity down there is crazy. You got everything from drag racing to drifting and-

Off-roading to some of the-

You really harp on off-roading.

Well, he mentioned it, and it made me think, yeah, they actually have some really awesome dunes. If you're into the big Baja trucks, I love those trucks. I think the style is so amazing.

Trophy trucks?

Yeah, trophy trucks. Those are awesome. I would love to sit in one and see what it's like going 100 miles an hour and just feeling like-

Just bouncing?

Just like that one Jim Carrey from Ace Ventura or whatever, when he's in the Land Rover just bouncing like this.

That's how I feel in my wake-up.

You ever see the aerial view of those trucks? They're going 100 miles an hour, and you just see the suspension just going like-

Yeah, yeah.

But the cab is just floating.

So nuts. What about, here's one, Georgia. Because you're near Tail of the Dragon, you're near those amazing roads. The car scene's pretty sick in Atlanta. That's where you have the real caffeine and octane.

And the real takeovers.

Yeah. Takeovers actually originated in California. They started in San Francisco, in the Bay Area. That's where it all started, and then it just blew out.

Then the next, when it started getting popularized again, I'm pretty sure there was one in Michigan where they did a highway shutdown. That's when it really caught fire. After that, that's when I started seeing takeovers everywhere. But nonetheless, Georgia, you're next to all those beautiful roads, Tennessee as well.

Yeah. I don't know if they have any emissions stuff or not.

That's the other tough part is emissions. Emissions, yeah.

Because I know that Minnesota, Florida, Texas, they don't really have any emissions.

Yeah, that's true.

Big emissions stuff.

Oh, what about Texas?

Texas, I think, is a great state.

I think Texas would be amazing just because of the modified community is absolutely insane.

Everybody gets welds at 18.

Yeah, and that's really cool. But I'm not too familiar with their car shows and the events that they might put on. I know, obviously, Texas 2K, and that's awesome already being in the state, but depending on where you are in the state, it's still maybe six hours away.

It's very muscle car down there. I mean, they have a lot of cars, a lot of diversity. A lot of trucks.

I'm actually a huge fan of street trucks, too.

Oh, yeah, like those street F-150s with all... I've seen all the...

With the 5.0 twin turbo. Like, they're sweet. I would choose that over a Mustang. Everybody has a Mustang. Nobody has a street truck.

One of my buddies might be doing that.

Doing what?

Street truck.

Street truck?

Like a new F-150.

They're so cool.

With a twin turbo.

With a single cab, short bed.

Four welds.

Four welds. I love it. I think the style is just so perfect.

Oh, yeah, it's great. We got Texas. We got California as options. California is, again, probably the most diverse.

Well, and it depends, if you're going to modify your car, do it carefully.

Yeah, or in California.

You're going to have to know people.

Yeah, I feel like in California, if you want to daily drive your cool, fun car, then it's going to be kind of hard. Especially like, let's say my car is there. I can't do that. No shot, yeah. No, 100%.

You're going to have to trailer it everywhere.

They're going to be like, there's nothing on your exhaust. It's just a pipe, because literally from my downpipe is just straight pipe, like straight three inch. That's it.

It came like that from the factory, I swear.

You can see black on my exhaust tip. That's how much, like just an extra feel that I have.

I've been trying to figure out what I smell like yesterday, after yesterday's shoot, because I was like, huh, I smell like, you know, like I didn't see any smoke in the sky, so it's not California fire, but I smelled like something was burning. And then I remembered that in my Volkswagen, like my trunk turns black, like really quickly from my exhaust. So I'm like, oh, because the trunk was open, I'm hanging out at a trunk.

Oh, yeah, you could smell it out there.

So you're just inhaling exhaust.

Yeah, so I finally pinned it this morning. I was like, what the f*** was it? Because I still smell it, like it's burning. So but anyways, I don't know, for some reason, Tennessee isn't like I see, I wouldn't recommend like car scene.

If you move close to Tale of the Dragon, it's pretty barren. It'd be like equivalent to moving to like, the area would be like Knoxville area, and it would be probably equivalent to like moving to Duluth. Like, it's a college, or like St. Cloud, it's like a college city.

I could see that. But even like Nashville, Nashville is big, though.

I don't think it would. Yeah. Well, Nashville is on the other side of the state, though.

I know. But still to say like, Tale is three hours away, that's not a big deal. It's like us going to freaking Brainerd.

I know. But like, how often do I really want to make that three hour drive? There are probably so many people that live in Nashville who go like, oh, it's just three hours, but they never go because it's like, yeah, why would they?

Well, again, that's kind of like why I'm leaning towards like, Georgia, just because like, it is a large area.

It's got a, it is like, I just don't, I will personally, I don't know if I want to move that far south. Oh, they got ridiculous weather is disgusting.

So one of my friends, I think he said he's banned in the state of Georgia or whatever he is like a ridiculous ticket over there, like their troopers are next level, I believe is what I heard. Like I think their speeding laws are bonkers. I remember driving to Florida, but keep in mind, Texas has that too.

Yeah.

If you heard the ones from Texas, like basically they can get you like, even for lining up, they can like, Oh, they have really strict street racing laws.

Well, I feel like that originated from Texas 2k stuff. So yeah, I feel like that might be more just like Houston area. Like you're out in some area like Fort Worth, Dallas area or something like that.

Well, that's where Texas 2k is moving to next year.

Oh really?

Yeah.

So they're about to adopt some new laws.

Yeah. They're probably talking to the Houston police and they're like, all right, what do you guys do? Because we need to do that too.

How many extra helicopters do we need?

Yeah. So a few people got impounded the last year.

Yeah.

It's ridiculous because they'll take seized cars. Like, we're talking a thousand horsepower Corvats and turn them into, you know, fricking cop cars.

Oh my gosh.

I think they had a CTSV a couple of years ago.

Sack.

Yeah, which is like- Yeah, but that's the thing. Like, they don't care for those cars. So like they'll thrash on them, beat on them, you know, and then it's like, all right, cool.

They're a fleet. Their cop fleet looks like a Need for Speed hot pursuit.

That's my favorite Need for Speed, by the way.

It's like on a, what is it, Too Fast Too Furious, where they just get to pick whatever car they want from the impound.

I need to start looking at Texas auctions now, actually. Texas police auctions. If anybody else wants to try this out with me, let me know.

Oh, or like Copart down in Texas. They probably got some cool s***. Like, yeah, Hellcats, that's that's recovery. Yeah.

Huh? Huh.

Let's check it out. We'll make a series out of it.

Yeah, we shouldn't. That'd be an amazing series.

Well, once you're not so broke. Or Copart sponsor us or Houston police sponsor us, we'll take a car off your hand.

You know what? How about this? No, no, f*** them. They don't bring enough capital to the party to sponsor us. What I need, I need Capital One to sponsor me because I got fantastic credit using Capital One. So please.

Are you sending this to Capital One after?

Dude, I need a credit card sponsor. Credit means get it, baby. Come on, Capital One. Hey, Sean.

We're doing the wrong podcast. We need to be doing a finance podcast.

Absolutely not.

Let's switch it to financial advice.

No, so fun fact for Capital One, by the way, Sean. Did you know this? So when I first got my Capital One a few months ago, or I want to say six months ago, they have a sign up program. So if you spend $4,000 within three months, you get a $750 bonus that you can use on anything else in points and rewards. So go to capitalone.com.

Can I use that $750 to pay off my debt of four grand?

Yeah, no, you legit could. I'm not even f****** around. This is exactly what I did. I invested in everything, because I only had to ramp up my spending by an extra whatever, a few hundred bucks a month, or whatever. And I was like, all right, time to invest in a podcast. Where do you think this podcast came from? This was Capital One, baby.

This is the debt.

I think we have a new, listen, I'm getting this b**** sponsored by Capital One. All right, back to cars, because I'm having a f****** heart attack right now.

I think it's time to finish off with the final question.

Well, you're the master at finishing, so go ahead.

Well, thank you. I don't know how you know that, but. So if you listen to the show before, this is the part where I'm gonna ask you, you're gonna have to choose three cars. One's gonna be your daily, one's gonna be your track car, one's gonna be your show car. You have an unlimited budget. Imagination is the only thing holding you back. So this is really just to kind of let us get to know who your taste as a person is, what is your preference?

While you decide, I will go ahead and play some Union Civil War music in the background.

I think I'll start with track car.

Track car, all right.

That'll be my first one, which it's gonna be a drift car.

I've figured, I would hope.

Yeah, I think I would have to go with like a JZX 100, like a Toyota Mark 2, which is like a newer version of my car with my engine. That's the engine that's in my car. It's that car. So that's, it's just a newer, newer Toyota sedan that was right hand drive. And yeah, I think that would be my track car. That's pretty much what I want. That's my dream track car that I can drift and just.

That'd be your end all, be all.

Drift car.

Drift car.

Yeah, that's the one that I would go for for sure. And then you said daily and. Show car, I would probably do like a.

Yay. Yeah, these aren't easy questions. Yeah. Um... To make it easier, are you thinking like JDM?

Yeah, like Lexus.

Lexus?

Probably like a Lexus that knew the, what is it, the LC 500?

Those were getting popular lately. F****** boats, but.

I know nothing about those.

Really?

Yeah.

They're cool.

Are they?

Yeah, they're very.

Big VA, it's like a 392, but Japanese.

Yeah, and it's two-door.

But it's luxurious as f***.

Very nice.

It's a Japanese challenger.

Japanese challenger.

You've been wrong.

I've seen a lot of people compare it to the LFA, just not with the performance, but the looks.

Yeah, exactly.

LFA-inspired for sure.

An LFA would be cool, but I think more realistic. Even with no budget, I think I would still go with LC500, just because they're.

I'll have to check that out. I've seen them, and they look crazy.

They're very cool.

And with the little touch of Lexus, it seems like it would be a luxurious ride.

The aftermarket community, there's just not, or aftermarket support, rather. There's not a lot there for performance-wise. No.

What is it, like a 100K car?

Something like that, yeah, I think so.

It's tough, yeah. I mean, you'd appreciate a m***********, because it's a luxury car.

And then I think at daily, I'd have to do a Escalade, like the CTSV Escalade or whatever.

No Durangos?

No.

No? So you want the slower, double-debriest one?

Toyota guy, that's my two brands.

That's all right. I f*** with the big cars. I like big, heavy, fast slash slow vehicles. It's just kind of like my niche right now.

Yeah, that's kind of what I'm into too, honestly. I always like a big, big luxury vehicle, but can go really fast.

I'm trying to think of the designer of, I think it's Ferrari. Do you know who said this? They said, add lightness and then simplify.

No, that's Lotus, I think.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, Lotus is the one known for being light.

Yeah, and that's their motto for being great at racing. And then it's Dodge, Cadillac, and GM just say f*** that. We're gonna make a big, heavy boat, and we're gonna throw the massive engines in it, just keep making it heavier, and we'll break that barrier. We're gonna force that barrier to open up for us. And then they dominate. They can dominate.

Yeah.

Which like the GT500 is like perfect at that. Like, listen, again, big Mopar guy here. I grew up Mopar. But the GT500 is f****** perfect. I mean, it's an amazing track car with 760 horsepower. I mean, crank behind the balls, but it's just ridiculous. Like it was like smoking down the Claren on the track. Like it was, I mean, granted, you know, driver mod because Mark's an insane driver, but. Oh, man, Merica, Merica. Well, nonetheless, where can people find you?

Like social media platforms like yourself, unless you want to give out your address.

That's your number.

I'm on Facebook. My name, Dylan Pride. Otherwise, Instagram, X8 underscore D pride. I have a TikTok, but I don't really use it. And that's about it.

Everybody's giving up on TikTok nowadays.

All right, this is the end for me. You can check me out on Instagram.

Why do you say it that way? Like, it's the end. Are you dying on us, Sean?

Yeah, yeah. This is it. This is the end.

This is the retirement podcast.

And this is it. This is all you're going to hear from me from the rest of this episode. All right?

Yeah, sure. I'll take it.

You can find me on Instagram. 1mnmopar, you can see some stuff from Power Cruise recently. Just got a bunch of videos.

Yeah, we got to get you on YouTube, dude.

And we'll eventually get there.

Yeah, again, I like your username.

All right, fine.

Don't find me. What's it called? And then make sure you guys are signing up for the Minnoxide newsletter. Basically get like, know what's new podcast-wise, YouTube video-wise, whether it's cinematic or reviews or whatever the hell I'm doing. And of course, wallpapers from my, I'd like to think, nice photos. So other than that, make sure you're following everything Minnoxide. And other than that, thank you. I'm going to keep saying other than that until I beat it to death. Other than that, thanks for joining us, Dylan. Thanks for coming on, Sean. Thanks for retiring. Make sure you get your double AARP. See you guys next time.