50. Hellcat BENTLEY Unibody SWAP, Working for Monster Energy, Formula Drift Ridealong w/ Rob Hoover

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome back to the Minnoxide Podcast. I'm your host, Harris, AKA Minnoxide, man of many automotive aspirations. And you are watching the Minnoxide Podcast, where we kind of go beyond the meat. One thing that we have an issue in, in the car community, is you go to a car show, much like SEMA here, you talk to somebody for five to 10 minutes, and then all of a sudden, somebody shows up and you get taken away, and that's the end of the conversation. So that's why I love doing this long form format, talking to people such as yourself, just to get an idea of, well, who you are, beyond the titles or whatever it is that you do. So today I have Rob Hoover, but I will let you kind of make your own introduction since we only just met two days ago.

Yeah, kind of to your point, we met a couple days ago for like 10 minutes, had some fun, I'm sure we could talk about that later, but yeah, I'm Rob Hoover, I do many things. I've been with Monster Energy Drinks for about 17, 18 years on their marketing side, kind of since their inception. They were around two or three years before I started, but I was pretty early on, and I've kind of grown with that company, and I've kind of seen how it's evolved and progressed, and we're pretty heavy in motorsports, and I'm a car guy, so it's the best of both worlds, fun job.

Yeah, I guess it's just a smidge closer, by the way.

A bit closer, gotcha. You know, it's fun, I get to play with cars and get paid for it, meet a bunch of drivers, do cool things.

Yeah, and if we need to pause at any point, too, just let me know.

The phone was on ring. Let's see here. So, that's my W2 gig. I'm not here for Monster this week. I've got a brand called Curb Corrector. We make curb ramps for lowered cars and low cars with the Intra driveway to keep them from scraping. So, that's taken off pretty good for the last few years. So, I'm out here with them this week.

So, do you have a booth out here then for that?

Nope, this is my second year coming as a spectator to assess the situation and it's a non exhibiting company. So, they let us come out to check it out, get a feel for it and we'll probably get a booth next year. So, that's the plan. But that's what I do and I play with cars as a hobby.

Yeah, so, I mean, we could talk about a million different things, but first of all, I really want to talk to you about your build because we talked about your, what was it, a Bentley build, correct? Can you please touch on that? Because that was so cool when you were showing me pictures the other day, so just kind of tell me about it and what spurred that idea.

It's my labor of love for the last year or so. So, I've had a ton of different cars, fast cars, luxury cars, and I'm always chasing something new. And about a year ago, I decided to buy a Bentley, and I'm just going to LS swap it like everybody else LS swaps everything, right? On the hunt for a Bentley, couldn't find one, and then I found an 89 Bentley Turbo R in a storage container being like 10 years old, old guy to ever touch it, so I picked that up. And right about the same time, there's a designer, a Bimelake Artiano, he does, you know, designs of cars and crazy renditions of cars, and the second I got that car, he had posted a rendering of a Bentley with a Hellcat motor. I said, all right, now we're talking. I never really had a Hellcat, never even knew much about it. Did some research, they had the same wheelbase as a Hellcat Charger, and then it was off to the races. So I started gutting the Bentley, bought a Hellcat Charger, and started cutting that up, and as of right now, the Bentley body is on top of the Hellcat Charger chassis, so it's a unibody swap, and now we're just finishing up the little details, and it's gonna be, hopefully here next year, so we'll see.

So when you, was it a brand new Hellcat Charger used, salvage?

So I watched Copart forever, trying to find a wrecked one. Didn't want to cut up a perfectly good Hellcat, but it was up during COVID and everything was so high, a wrecked Charger was as much as a pre-owned one. So I just bought a 2016, drove it for a couple months, got the feel for it, it's got about 820 horsepower, and it's pretty nasty. And decided one day, one Saturday, it's time to do the deed, cut it up, and no turning back.

So how much of the work are you doing yourself?

100%. 100% of the work myself.

So what even goes into swapping a body? I mean, I'm sure, do you have your own shop and all that?

Yeah, I have a shop, so I can't do it at my house. My HOA would not like that too much. So I've got a little shop that me and the guys just kind of work out of and do car stuff. But I've always tinkered since I was a kid. Growing up, didn't have a ton of money, so I couldn't really pay to have things done. So when I wanted to stereo, I would have to figure out how to do it. And I wanted to lower my Honda Civic back in the day. I'd have to figure out how to do it. And as time goes on, I've just gotten braver and braver, I guess, or stupider at this point, and just doing it myself, cutting, cutting, and welding, welding.

So, OK, so you grew up Honda then?

What's it? My first car was a Honda Accord. 86 Honda Accord. It was nothing. And then moved on to Civics. And the B20 VTEC Turbo was my fastest car at the time, way before Fast and the Furious. And it's just, once you get, I'm 44. I can't stick with Hondas. I'm too old to have a Honda now. It gets the stigma.

It gets a little weird.

Yeah, I miss them. They're my favorites, but I just can't do it. So I had to grow up, I suppose.

So I've seen some Honda guys grow up into the older NSX. Have you ever thought about one of those?

100%. But have you seen the prices of those NSXs these days?

Oh, they skyrocketed. I think they're what, in the 80s now?

Yeah, it's wild. And just knowing what they were a few years ago, five, six, eight years ago, in my heart, I can't bring myself to pay these new prices.

Especially considering, especially wanting to get a right-hand drive one, they were even cheaper, too.

Right, right.

Freaking out.

Maybe one day. You first. You first. Go ahead. You do something first.

What do you mean?

You buy one first.

Oh, dude, I would love to have an NSX. I actually got to ride in the first gen NSX a number of years ago, and the owner had 60,000 miles on it. And then I think he sold it for 60.

I've never even been in one. Is it pretty decent?

It was pretty interesting. It was good. I mean, that's the thing. It felt like a 90s sports car, like a straight up sports car.

I can appreciate that, though. I like that, for sure.

So OK, so then you've been working on this. So how long have you been working on this thing?

I started right about SEMA last year, right about that same time, so about a year. I've got a regular job. I've got a lot of stuff going on. So it's just here and there when I can find time to do it. Being out here this week has really just motivated me to get to pedal to the metal. Let's just get it going, finish this thing.

That's definitely something this show will do. I was talking about this with Nick, who I had on just before you. It's like, it's just so overwhelming here. There's so much to see. And I'm just curious. I forgot to ask Nick this, but what's one of your favorite builds out here?

So, when I started the BENTLEY build, I didn't really know much about these unibody swaps. So I started a Facebook page for unibody swaps, just because there wasn't one. And that was about last year, maybe a year and a half ago. Now it has 200,000 people in the group. So there's a lot of people out there doing these things. And it's kind of brought to attention, like the B is for Build guys, they just did a 2019 Mustang.

Yeah, I saw that.

That's pretty cool. And there's just tons of these unibody swaps out there. And that's kind of what I like to see, something unique. And everybody can motor swap, but these unibody swaps are pretty cool. So I guess the B is for Build Mustang's pretty cool. I've been following their build the past few weeks and it looks pretty good.

So, okay, so what are some, I'm sure you've had some challenges in building this thing.

Oh, nonstop. It's crazy. Every time I turn around, I need a new tool. I need more cutting disks. I need a two post lift to pick the body off the chassis, not a four post like I had before. So I'm having to buy things. I had to buy a welder. I had to buy all these tools.

Are you documenting all of this somewhat or?

Only on an Instagram page. Right. I want to do a YouTube channel, but going back to time, that's so time intensive to do that. I haven't done it. Everyone asks, maybe my next build, I'll do that. But for now, I just want to get the car done.

What kind of builds have you done in the past? Have you done any others?

Probably one of my favorite ones. I had an LS swap 911. 1999, 996, 911. That was a few years ago. That was fun. But this is probably my biggest one, the Bentley. Most of the other cars have just been kind of bolt-ons and nothing too crazy.

Yeah, I mean, swapping an entire body. There's a lot that goes into that.

It's crazy. I mean, it's very fun. It's like adult Legos. I used to play with Legos as a kid and same thing. We figure out what fits, what doesn't fit.

Yeah. When you showed me that rendering, I was like, that's money. Well, yeah, it's money green.

Money green. I think that might be the color we go with.

Dude, I'm really excited. We keep watching that build. So what got you into kind of wrenching on cars then?

Like I said, man, as a kid, all boys like cars. Well, at least most of my friends like cars. We were kids and played with Hot Wheels. And I just had to, if I wanted something, I had to do it myself and just tinker in.

So there wasn't really anybody that kind of like coached you or anything along the way or a little bit or?

My dad was a mechanic, but he was just a regular mechanic, a Chevrolet guy, GM guy. And he would always make fun of my Hondas and make a day as a kid and always give me a hard time. And I was trying to tell him, dad, they could be fast. They could be fast. But yeah, I guess my dad was my mentor, I guess, and helped me out. I stole a lot of his tools as a kid. I'll tell you that.

So I grew up Mopar, right? So it was kind of funny. Me and my brother both got Golfs, or whatever, because I switched from Mopar to Golf or whatever, because I just got a stinking deal on this thing, and souped up and all that. And he's like, man, I got two stupid Golfs in the driveway.

They don't understand.

Oh, well, that's the thing. Now he's got an AMG GTR. So he's in a German train. And that's the thing. So my parents are Bosnian, right? So Bosnian refugees. So it's like, coming from Europe, we're all about German cars. So it's kind of funny how we went from all American to damn near all German. Like my mom might even get rid of her Jeep, Ferranos, Mercedes, or whatever. We'll see what happens, but yeah.

I do have a G-Wagon that I've recently got. That's pretty cool. It's the worst, best thing ever. It's so old technology. Rides rough, but it's just cool.

What year is the G-Wagon?

2016.

2016, okay.

And it's pretty cool. You know, I've got a little BMW 3 Series that I drive every day, but the G-Wagon, I figured let's try it out, see what happens. And it's a pretty cool head turner, I guess.

What is your, so you got the Bentley that you're working on, the G-Wagon and the 3 Series. Do you have anything else in your collection that you're sitting on?

After the Bentley body swap is done, I've got a 84 Porsche 911 Turbo that will be body swapped onto either 996 or 997. So that'll make some people mad. That'll require a lot more cutting. The wheel bases aren't the same for those cars. I'm gonna have to shorten the chassis, but that's next.

Have you shortened the wheel base before?

Negative, but we'll figure it out.

So you're basically a student of YouTube University?

100%. YouTube is the best thing that's happened to the car industry. If you wanna learn something, it's just like a search engine with videos.

Oh yeah, like somebody like Chris Fix, for example, he'd go over there and just learn anything.

100%.

One of the best things, so I bought my car off another YouTuber, right? So he literally has an entire catalog of YouTube videos of working on my car.

That's great.

So I should probably start tapping into that, a little bit.

Yeah, at least you know the history too, so that's great.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so funny enough, so when I bought this car, it was about 100 horsepower or less. So I had the initial turbo, whatever, and I took it out for a spin for a show called Meet the Owner, where I basically would drive the owner's car. Whatever, with them in the passenger seat, scaring the hell out of them. And typical front wheel drive, I was understeering, absolutely hooking on a bend, almost understeered into a tree. So okay, so you said you got into Monster about 18 years ago?

Yeah.

So how did that happen?

I went to college for marketing and didn't really know what I wanted to do when I graduated. I'd never even had a Monster Energy drink ever. I was, you know, Red Bull. Actually, NOS Energy was kind of big back then, so I was drinking NOS. They were in the car scene. I picked one of those drinks up at a drift event or something. But anyway, I saw this job posting for this energy drink online, on Craigslist, of all places, and went to apply, grabbed my first Monster on the way to the interview so I can know what it tastes like. Did the interview, got hired, and it's been here ever since. They can't get rid of me. And, you know, we've always been in motorsports, but as we've grown and gotten bigger, we've been able to bring on partners that are top tier, like Vaughn Gitten Jr. Think you rode with Vaughn?

That's who I rode with.

You rode with him, that's right. How was that?

Dude, I've only been in a drift car one other time. And I was at this Las Vegas Speedway or whatever like five years ago. So I've been telling people ever since that ride along, like I'm used to going forward, right? Like I've been in some seriously fast cars, a 2,000 horsepower Viper is the fastest I've been in.

Straight line, right?

Straight line. And I highly recommend that if you ever get the opportunity to ride along at something like that, that's awesome. But there's something to be said about lateral G-forces because when you're on the right side of the car like this and then they swing it in a transition as a passenger.

Yeah, hold onto your phone if your phone's out because you're gonna lose it.

I almost flew, I almost lost it at one. And I was holding it pretty tight, but then like on a transition, that's where they get you.

Yeah, it's impressive to see what they do, you know.

What I didn't expect is how fast they get up to speed. So what are those RTRs making for power, any idea?

No idea, but actually their headquarters and their office is right down from where I live. So if you're ever in town, Charlotte, North Carolina, come give me a shout. We'll tour the facility when Vaughn upfits those things.

Yeah, that's so sweet. Yeah, cause he says it's like not that far from you either.

Yeah, pretty close.

Yeah, but no doubt, it really threw me off guard cause like, you know, like they get out, they mosey on a little slowly and then they just floor it. And then my favorite part was being right next to that, the Bronco.

Yeah, you got lucky. You got to tandem with that guy. That was pretty awesome.

Dude, I, yeah. So tandeming with a thousand horsepower Bronco, and seeing those big tires, cause like, you know, the Mustang's low and I like, I'm like, oh, those tires are getting really close.

At your eye, right?

High level. So that was, I was speechless. And you know, I felt silly cause like, I'll be honest with you. I did not really know who Vaughn was. Like I knew AdamLZ, of course I watched his content, but I've only recently started learning about the drift scene, you know, just because I've had a number of like smaller drifters from Minnesota come on. So for me, I enjoy events the most, like when they become a memory, like just a few hours later, like it hits you. Like sometimes like, have you ever had those moments like you go after a ride along, you just kind of wake up in the middle of the night?

That just happened. That just happened. That was amazing, right?

Yeah, you have.

Never forget that. Yeah, so it's so cool. Daniel, who we met through, he wasn't gonna use his camera in the car. He said, I'm putting my camera away. I'm gonna experience this moment, just me in the car. So I don't think he brought his camera out. So he gets it.

So one thing I learned from my buddy with the Viper is, you know, you wanna basically put your phone against your chest right here, right in the collar bone area.

Noted, all right.

Yeah, because that basically holds it tight. And then that way, all you have to do is just hold it like this, and then you can just...

Is that what you did?

Yeah, something along those lines. I had to do, I had to double-hand it at points. But the thing is, is I've been filming for so long, like I'm actually able to just... I know what to do with my hands and still enjoy it. But a lot of people, like they'll be looking at their phone and they forget to enjoy the moment. But for me, it's like, I've done it enough times to know how I can do it. And that's my biggest tip, especially if you're going straight line, hold it against your collarbone, set it and forget it, and you're good to go. Because then you could actually enjoy the moment. But oh, man.

Pro tip, thanks.

Yeah, so I'm reliving it in my head right now, man. I'm still speechless as to...

So Vaughn is big. He's a big name and Ford brought him on to be like their partner in the RTR. Not many manufacturers would do that. And because he's just a great brand advocate for Ford and for Monster Energy and he's amazing. So if you ever get to meet him, tell him you got to ride with him and he'll chat you up forever.

Dude, so that's one of the things like when I got in the car, I was like, well, first of all, he had his mask down or whatever. He just like was ready in his own. Cause that's the thing, he's doing that for hours on end.

Could you imagine?

Yeah. Oh my God. And it's like, you know, roughly the same loop. And I'm just thinking like, all right, does he, cause having done ride along before, I'm like, all right, does this person want me to just kind of enjoy it? Or does he want the woo screaming kind of personality? And I'm just, I went with the quiet, enjoy this mode.

That's probably best. Act like you've been there.

Act like you've been there, yeah. Oh, by the way, another pro tip. Another thing that's gotten me in some really awesome rooms is don't be over excited. Like be like, I've been here, it's cool, bro.

Right, make it comfortable for everybody involved.

Right, exactly. Cause it's weird to be on the receiving end sometimes too. Like, oh my God, you know.

So yeah, you rode with Vaughn. Chelsea DeNofa was out there. Jason, your buddy rode with Chelsea.

Correct.

And that was my first time riding with AdamLZ, so that was pretty fun. I've done Vaughn a million times, but Adam, yeah, that was fun.

And I think Dan rode with Chelsea too, I think.

I missed it, yeah.

Oh yeah, because so yeah, what happened is, I think AdamLZ's tire popped, I believe, on that one. So they had it jacked up or whatever. I think I was supposed to be with Adam, and then I ended up with Vaughn. So, super cool.

Good timing, that was awesome. Glad we got to do that.

Yeah, I'm really glad that you guys set it up. I mean, I gotta give props to Dan for bringing me out here. This is my first ever SEMA.

Oh, is it?

Yeah, first ever. I mean, this is, I'm beyond overwhelmed. And the people I've met already, I mean, it's, I definitely gotta thank Dan from Carmmunity, which, shout out, download the app. It's really kick a** right now. I'm actually really happy with it. So one of the first things I did when I came to town, funny enough, so actually I opened up the app, and then I, cause the app, you're able to see who's nearby. So one of the problems with like Facebook or whatever is like, you can add mutual friends, but the thing is, there's nobody nearby. You can add like, oh, who's in town? You have no way of knowing. But with this, I just went, oh, five miles away, add.

That's awesome. I just created my profile this morning.

Okay.

And I guess I'll just start putting the Bentley pictures up there and see how that goes. Yeah. That's cool.

Yeah, just put together the garage. Yeah, I'm excited to see where it's gonna go. Cause the thing is, from where it was last year when I launched right around SEMA time, it's grown a lot. And then I actually managed to sit in on one of the meetings he had with Toyo, I believe. And I'm like, all right, there's even more vision to this.

Yeah, there's so many ways you could take it. How old are you?

I'm 24. I'm a youngin.

Yeah. I don't know if you're old enough to remember the forum days back in the forums.

A little bit.

A little bit. Well, they were awesome back in the day. You know, you could find anything you wanted to find there. It was very vehicle specific. And as Facebook's taken over with the groups or whatever, it's just not quite the same.

It's not because you can't like search.

It's hard to search and it's just not the same. So if Dan who can figure out a way to bring that forum touch back and make it a real community, hence the name Carmmunity, I think you got a winner.

Yeah, I'm excited. Like, I mean, it's been up and down over the last year, but I'm just like, the more the vision is coming to life, the more I believe in it, which is super cool to see. I mean, I'm sure you've seen it with people within the car community over the years you've been involved in.

But you're super close. You're tied in with it really now. You're in with it tight. So you can see how it really goes from the inside and the outside.

And it's been fun to try to, the other thing is because I'm not really like, I'm just here to do media for him. Nothing crazy. Just basically just put out content or whatever. But coming from a sales background, like I want to understand how things tick. I just need to know. But enough about Carmmunity. But just curious, what's your username on there so people can add you? Any idea?

Richie underscore Petty. Richie Petty.

Penny, okay.

That's not even my name. It's just that I had my personal Instagram account, which was my name. Then I had to build a car build page for my car. And I didn't know what to put. So Richie Petty, I don't know. I'm not rich, but sometimes I'm petty. Whatever.

All right, yeah, sure.

At the real Richie Petty on Instagram and Richie Petty on Carmmunity.

Yep, so let's see. Where were we going with that? So yeah, so you've been with Monster a number of times. So what's officially your role nowadays then? It's something to do with events?

Yeah, I do field marketing. So pretty much anything that's consumer facing, it touches people out in the field. No sales is all pretty much fun stuff. So if I find a cool event, I'll sign the contract or we'll lock it in as a partner with them. We do Cars and Coffee Back Home in Charlotte, where I live, we sponsor that. Just finding cool things to kind of keep the brand in the forefront of everything and just having fun.

So you're more so on localized events?

Yeah, I do several states on the East Coast, but locally for a few big states, yeah.

And so what do those events typically look like? Like just getting some cars out there?

Well, being in the South.

Yeah.

A lot of country music. We do a lot of country music festivals. It's not my favorite, but people love music festivals. There's a lot of music festivals. I try to do as much car stuff as I can. I need to find some local rallies. I know you're a rally guy. You've done some rallies. I might tap your brain for that, to find some local rallies, but anything where somebody needs a beverage, an energy drink, they're in. Music festivals, concerts, EDM festivals, whatever.

So what kind of scale are these events? Like how many attendees typically? I mean, I'm sure it ranges, but.

Yeah, it ranges, man. We do really intimate things. We've got a Country Music Awards party next week in Nashville with a few thousand people, just real intimate music stars, or we could do 10,000 person concerts or festivals or races.

It varies, it's fun. So I had a rally that went from St. Louis down to Atlanta, and we actually stopped in Nashville during the Country Music Awards Festival right on Broadway.

I heard that podcast, you mentioned that once or twice. Nashville's crazy, huh?

Dude, it was shoulder to shoulder. I mean, it was bananas.

They call it Nash Vegas, it's almost like Vegas. Yeah, I can see that. But yeah, it's cool.

Yeah, so, okay, so I guess, so are you doing, so you're not doing anything with Monster out here or whatever, so what does that relationship with RTR look like then?

So basically we have Vaughn and Chelsea DeNofa as our drift drivers, one of our top tier athletes. And it's all accomplishing, so everything that they touch, he brings us along with them. So we're always on this, always on this suit, always on this hat, always on this trailer. If RTR's doing something, Monster's there. Even if it's not physically there, our brand's present. Sometimes we'll bring out some Monster girls and big trucks and throw out drinks and have DJs and make it a big party. But yeah, that's the beauty of this, is we attach ourselves to these athletes and these drivers and kind of go along for the fun. It's awesome. That's why, when I saw Vaughn this week, I gave him a shout, got us all a ride, and it's good.

Yeah, so one of my first times seeing the Monster girls in a truck or whatever was actually on my college campus. They were just parked on the side, just giving drinks to all the college students. Just super, that was my first time trying anything Monster. I think it was kind of like the Gatorade alternative. Like the...

Was it, we've had so many different brands, so many different...

I'm trying to think what it was.

We have, we had Mutant, we had all kinds of things.

Yeah, it was like the one that was like hydration drinks or whatever, so something more than that. And it was actually really good. I was like, oh, it was a really good flavor. So that was my first experience ever with Monster. But like I told you the other day, like I'd never drink Monster regularly until I went on a road trip with my buddy with the Viper. And he was drinking like five of them a day. And I was like, I was about, oh, I was like, oh, there's no coconut Red Bull here. And he's like, oh man, you gotta try this. So I tried that thing and I was hooked.

Like yeah.

It's just great.

Thank you. That's awesome, man. So don't drink five of the day. No, yeah. Maybe do three.

Yeah, no. For me, it's like one was enough. I'll just tap out right there. But so then, did you grow up in North Carolina?

Born and raised in Charlotte. Yeah. I moved just south of Charlotte into South Carolina. We're right on the border. So close enough to the big city.

Okay.

The big city. But I'm far enough away from all the craziness and kind of have a little bit of property out there and I can have fun.

So what's the car scene like out there?

It's pretty awesome, man. Our office is literally right next door to UGR Underground Racing.

Oh, no way.

Yeah, it's pretty cool. So we see, if I go to the office sometimes, we'll see them just killing these Lambos up and down the side street. It's pretty cool. And I grew up with Kevin and Casey as kids. Those are the owners. And they were old Mustang guys back in the day when I was a Honda guy. And it's been cool to see them progress. And now their office is right beside ours. Yeah, big car scene.

That is rowdy. I talked about this, I think, 10 or 15 episodes ago, like that yellow one that did very well at Texas 2K. I want to say last year, and did well this year, actually. But it's like, I think they had it listed for like one and a half million at one point or something like that. I'm not sure if it actually was for sale or anything like that.

Those guys, it's just crazy.

That's such a, when you start talking to those guys about what the invoices are for those builds, it's.

Unfathomable.

It's, but man, they perform. So I have a question then. So what kind of a motorsport did you like growing up?

I always liked you, just drag racing. I would always go straight. Yeah. I'm a terrible go-kart racer, because I've never did any road race or anything like that, just drag racing, drag racing. So that's why it's cool to get a ride in a drift car to see a little variation.

Yeah.

I could probably never pull that off. I'm more of a straight-line guy.

Have you ever been, so I guess what's the highest horsepower car you've been in?

My Hellcat 820. And that's, I mean, on the streets, I probably didn't, actually, every year some friends of mine and I come out to Vegas, and we rent some supercars from a royalty from Houston across to, we probably rent out half of his fleet, and we just take them out to Valley of Fire, we just, you know, wide open, Huracan's probably not as high as my Hellcat, but it definitely feels a lot faster, so, yeah, you should try that with some of your guys.

Yeah, I want to, actually, I was supposed to go over there yesterday, I wanted to meet up with Danny, what's his last name, Bukert, whatever, from Iconic or whatever, so they just dropped the kit for the 296 or something like that.

Yeah, go check them out.

Yeah, super cool. So, they're over there, so I want to see if I can swing by there today, hopefully, if I have time. I'm basically back to back to back on podcasts today.

That's good.

But I've always wanted to rent something from there to have a full day, because the only Huracan I've driven was at the Speedway over here.

It's not the same.

It's not, because it's only five laps.

It's very restricted, five laps. Once you start to get the feel of it, you're done.

Yeah, exactly, like around lap four or five is when you start understanding the car, and at that point, it's too late. I mean, I think you could purchase like nine or 12 laps, but it starts getting pricey, whereas if I go to Royalty, I can just run over.

1200 bucks, you get it for a day. It's not cheap, but it's an experience.

Well, even in like four hours, you could really enjoy a car in four hours.

Get it for the day. Get it for the day. Just save up. Go play some roulette, win some money, and get it for a day. They let you take it out, and I don't want to say how fast I went out in the Valley of Fire. I'm not going to incriminate myself, but the fastest I've ever been in a car was in his Huracan in the Valley of Fire. Just beautiful scenery and fast cars, and you should do it.

Playing some Sammy Hagar, Can't Go 55.

Yeah, Sarah Crunk, you get it.

My dream car, or I have a lot of dream cars. Being an automotive photographer, I've seen everything, but I had the opportunity to ride in an SVJ during a rally, a Crown Rally a few years ago.

Nice.

And that was about four hours through to Smoky Mountains.

So you were in the car the whole four hours?

Four hours. I needed a chiropractor, for sure. That thing comes with the carbon buckets and everything. And I said that that car makes the normal Aventador look like a Rolls-Royce. It was that rough.

That uncomfortable.

Yeah, but again, it's part of it.

It's the experience. You're right. No complaints.

Yeah. Ever since then, that's the car where everything kind of flipped the switch for me, because up until then, I was like, I'm just going to keep moseying along in life, go to college, we'll figure it out. But after that, it just lit this ridiculous fire in me. I'm like, how do I get an SVJ?

100%.

If I could go rent the ones at Royalty right now, I would. Just because I'd love to drive one. I've yet to drive any V12.

My problem is when I do things like that, when I drive something, it gets me to the point where I'm going to go figure out a way to buy it. So I try to refrain from a lot of new hobbies because I don't want to get sucked in and down the thing. But that was my first Lamborghini I drove a few years ago with Royalty and it was like, man, soon enough, soon enough. That's my goal.

Right. Which it's weird to say, but the Huracan is the civic of supercars.

It is, but I don't care. I loved it.

It's weird to say that it's attainable, both a long, healthy career. I think it's totally attainable.

It is, and it's fairly reliable, I think, versus the older ones. Oh, yeah. It was great. I've driven their McLarens, their Lamborghinis, the Ferraris, and the Huracan was just my favorite all around.

Did you rent anything from them this week or no?

No. Literally, I was planning on staying here at the show every single day, putting my miles in, putting my steps in, and not leaving the area. That's what I did. Just last year, I felt like I missed so much. There's so much here. I didn't know what I missed until I got back home, and I was seeing my friends' pictures and different things. I was like, oh, damn, I didn't see that. I didn't see this. This week, my mission was to get my steps in and see everything, so I did no fun cars.

So is that basically what's going to define a successful event for you is seeing as much as you can this year?

Yeah. Yeah. It's inspiring. I love seeing all this cool stuff. Makes me want to get home and finish my car and figure out what I can do next time. Then maybe the Bentley will be done next year. I can bring this out, have a booth, and who knows? We'll see how it goes. Maybe I'll get famous on Instagram with this Bentley build I'm doing.

I love this era of social media we're in right now because, well, for the most part, I should say, because quality is kind of winning. It's not just like a spam to win game like it was before. I've noticed this with my TikToks especially, right? The ones that... We're talking about one minute videos I'll put an hour into, and those are the ones that do the best versus the stuff that I just throw up there. It's a quality thing that's winning now, which is awesome.

Yeah. That takes time, takes effort, and people value that. People realize that.

So who are you? Who's kind of like your crew of people? Who are your car friends, I suppose? I guess, do you try to associate with Camaro guys, Mustang guys?

And I've had so many different cars that I've built so many different friends along my life. Just probably seven, eight, nine years ago, going back to my shiny object syndrome that I have, I saw an old Volkswagen bus. The old sixties and fifties buses. I was like, man, those are really cool. And then I wanted to get one. Then I ended up buying three, four, five of them. And so I got some old school Volkswagen friends and then I've got the Porsche guys. And then now this new car I've built and I've got a bunch of Mopar guys. Everyone has their quirks and everyone's cool in their own way and I can relate to them in different ways. But yeah, but I guess my core group of friends, they're all BMW guys.

Really? Okay.

They are.

Like older BMW, newer, a little bit of everything?

They're all new BMW guys, M3s and the X3s, I don't even know. I got a little 3-series that I drive every day just so I can fit in, but it's nothing special. But the BMW guys.

So is there anything in particular that just kind of, well I suppose you already answered this with what ignited your passion was basically just kind of tinkering and stuff when you were younger, but did you do much of anything younger? Did you ever mess around with video games or anything like that when you were younger? You know, like Gran Turismo is like a big one for me.

Man, I wanted a car so bad that I got a job at Chick-fil-A when I was 14 and a half and I worked as much as I could to buy my first car. So no real video games. I'm old, but I had a regular Nintendo NES. Those were more Mario Brothers my time. But when Gran Turismo came out, sure, we played it. But I was just always grinding, always trying to figure out how to pay for my car parts and pay for my car hobby, buying cars, flipping cars, I was always busy.

For example, when I was a kid, I used to watch a lot of Chip Foos, for example, or Gas Monkey Garage or whatever. Was there any of those shows that particularly stuck out to you?

All of them, man. Like Saturday morning cartoons. My brother would watch the cartoons and I would watch Stacey David on TV and all the shows back in the day that are no longer, I don't think they're even on anymore. I don't even know the names of them anymore, but it was car stuff every morning, Saturday morning with my dad. And that's it.

I was going to ask you this earlier, so do you do a lot of traveling for your job then?

Tons.

Tons?

That's why it's taking so long to finish this build. You know, kind of event based, so whenever there's an event, I have to go just check it out, make sure it looks good, make sure everything's smooth and it's usually three or four days a week and the weekends and then I get back and have to wind down and back on the road again in a couple of weeks. So this is my last big trip, SEMA, and I'm home for like three months.

Nice.

The Bentley is getting major progress.

So do you do much international stuff too or not really?

Nope, strictly in the States.

Strictly in the States?

Yeah.

So then, but basically anywhere in the States.

Yes, but my girlfriend is in Dubai right now, racing sand rails out in the desert and I'm super jealous.

What are sand rails?

It's like side by side almost.

Oh yeah.

Yeah, they're out there in the desert. She sent me pictures this morning and yeah, definitely jealous of that.

What's she doing out there? I guess who's she out there with?

She's for her work, so they're international. I'm stuck here. She's over there having fun.

Well, you're still having fun over here.

I can't complain.

You're in a different kind of desert.

Yes, for sure.

Do you have any other hobbies? Do you do side by side stuff or anything like that?

Again, have you priced those out? That's the price of a car. Those are expensive.

They're expensive nowadays.

I couldn't really use it. I don't really have a way to ride it, so no side by sides. That'd be a fun hobby once I get these cars done.

After riding along with Vaughn and all these RTR guys, would you ever consider getting into a drift machine of any kind or building one?

No, but you know what, man? The whole Mustang thing is pretty intriguing. I never thought I would like a Mustang, never thought I would care about a Mustang, but seeing how Ford has really backed the aftermarket and the enthusiast side of things and by bringing Vaughn on, man, I just saw a sign downstairs that Ford's getting into vehicle wraps, factory option vehicle wraps next year.

What's that consist of?

I guess you order a car and you can have it wrapped at the dealer under warranty. Literally, I mean, I sent the photo to my friends, I was like, this is crazy. So I don't know much about drifting, but if I was going to do something, Ford supports those guys and I'd consider it Ford, a Mustang.

Yeah.

I appreciate that, that they're supporting the industry and guys like us.

I had a little bit of a rant the other day while we were waiting in line where I think, like, listen, I grew up Mopar, but I think as of right now, in the last four, five, six years, I think Ford is the enthusiast brand. They are crushing it. I mean, they're doing everything they possibly can for enthusiasts. I mean, they have a car from the bottom to the top. I mean, yes, not everybody's a fan of like what they have in line for, I think, all the way up to the EcoBoost and then the V8s. And now we have the GTD. Like when I saw that, I'm like, they're pushing the envelope.

And I'm a big supporter. If I could see the vision and I can see they're supporting the industry. So I like to support those who kind of support what I like. So you might see me and I might be a Raptor, might not be a Mustang, might be a Raptor or something. But yeah, Ford, thumbs up for those guys.

One of the tuners over at Most Performance, we had them on the podcast, I want to say a couple episodes ago, or builders are saying like, man, these new Mustangs are ridiculous. Like you could get a thousand horsepower out of them. So cheap.

You mentioned that. So what does it take to get a new Mustang to a thousand horsepower charger? Just bolt on stuff, just bolt on?

So there's a guy that we head on early on, I think I want to say episode six. His name is Mike and he has the new 10-speed Mustang. And I'm not sure what his entire build consists of, but I think he got the car for 30s, 40s, something ridiculously cheap, like a nicely optioned Mustang. You know, he got sponsored, I think, by Vortex Superchargers, one of the Supercharger companies. Threw that on, a couple other things, and I shouldn't make it sound as easy as it is, but I'm not.

But technically speaking, it is, considering 10 years ago, that was unheard of.

Right. I mean, it's easier than ever to get 1,000 horsepower. That's why that freaking Bronco out there, I think, could probably put on 100,000 miles.

Yeah, it's amazing, man. So I'm glad to be a part of that, glad that I can be a part of that and maybe buy one of these cars one day and get to 1,000 horsepower.

I'm crazy enough, though, because I was watching that Bronco, when it would drift sideways and it would stop just before a transition, it would lean in so hard. And I was thinking like, man, like, man, would that thing roll over? What the heck? But then, honestly, I saw they weren't doing ride alongs in it. And part of me is crazy enough to be like, well, I want to go.

All you had to do was ask. I'm sure they would have figured it out.

Well, I'm sure if they weren't giving it to anybody else, they wouldn't just be like, all right, well, this guy is crazy. Yeah.

Yeah, I don't know. That was definitely cool. Maybe next year.

So outside of like RTR, so what are some, is there any other like partners that with Monster that do similar sort of events outside of like drifting and Formula Drift?

So Monster Energy also owns NOS Energy Drink. Nobody really knows that. But so we've got Chris Forsberg. He's our drifter. We do a lot of dirt track racing for the NOS brand. So we're pretty heavy in the motorsports, but who else out here? Casey Curry. He's one of our Monster off-road drivers out here and he just built a drift Jeep. So he has a four-door Jeep Wrangler. He was in that about two years ago when he debuted it, all-wheel drive, LS swapped, Jeep Wrangler that just drifts like crazy. And Casey's here. I don't think his Jeep's here, but he's here and he's kind of gone from... He won the Dakar Rally a few years ago off-road, but now he's kind of embracing the drift culture and trying to make his name there, merging those two scenes and doing something cool. So Casey's here in this drift Jeep. That'd be awesome. Check it out.

That's freaking rowdy. So that's one thing I kind of noticed, right? So, like, you guys do a lot more, I want to say, like, localized events. Like, for example, I noticed that we're talking about Monster, but, for example, like, Red Bull has all these crazy viral, you know, videos that just go all over the place. Is that sort of stuff that Red Bull does, like, the crazy, like, or not Red Bull, sorry, Monster? Like, do you guys do a lot of that stuff?

I think we see value in localized things. Like, in Minnesota, where you are, things are maybe a little different than in South Carolina, where I am. Yeah, every local market has their little, their little, you know, their little niches and things that resonate with them, and we have, we have, like, local teams in every market that can, like, focus on those things. So, if, like I said, country music is really big in the Carolinas, so we do that, or if, you know.

That makes a lot of sense.

But, yeah, it does make sense.

It's worked for us. And it's put some ground on local events is awesome, because, like, for example, we, so I used to host a car show out at our local, like, ski hill or whatever, you know, because it's, you know, closed during the summer and at the parking lot. And I think we brought Monster out for a number of events out there, if I remember correctly.

Anything you have, give us a shout, give me a shout, we'll get you connected.

Which is super cool, because, again, you get those boots on the ground, just throw out some free drinks.

Yeah, it helps out your attendees, helps us out. It's a cool thing that kind of.

Yeah, and I was just curious, I asked that question just because, like, it's a different approach. That's one thing I've noticed, you know, just, is there any big, like, motorsport things that you guys are trying to branch into? Or how much are you allowed to disclose on that front?

A few years ago, we got into NASCAR. I'm not really a big NASCAR guy. Circle driving is kind of boring. But got into NASCAR, that worked really, really well. So I think our newest venture, it's not really motorsports, but I guess it is. It's like powerboat racing in Florida. These big, crazy boats on the oceans of Florida. That's our newest thing. But we pretty much have the automotive scene on lockdown, man. We got John Forrest and his drag, and his funny car. We sponsor Hoonigan, who has a huge presence out here this year and every year. Ken Block was one of our top tier athletes. It sucks to see him go. But his legacy will live on, and Hoonigan is doing crazy things, and glad to be a part of that. We've got Vaughn and his team, tons of off-road things, motorsports everywhere. I think our core things are cars, girls, and music, as our monsters.

That's fair.

Like, tears.

Basically, the three things needed to live a happy life.

That's right.

I have to ask you, what's your favorite flavor of Monster?

You know, I don't like anything diet outside of Monster. Anything sugar-free that Monster makes, I'll drink. But I'm a big fan of grapes. I've always liked grape drinks as a kid, so give me the purple Monster, sugar-free, so I'll stay so skinny.

I still have to continue dabbling in the... Because I've only tried... I finally tried the normal, the original flavor yesterday. I've been looking for Monsters this entire week. I ended up finding some over by Hoonigan. So I stole some from Nick.

We'll send you a care package later. At your door will be a pallet of Monster. You let me know how it goes.

Yeah. I'm just curious. Do you guys have like those... Like the mix-and-match boxes? Like...

No, but for you, I'll make it happen.

Yeah. That and the white flavor.

Yeah. That's probably our most popular one. Tastes good. Sugar-free. It's pretty light.

Yeah. Yep.

That's the one.

It's awesome.

Keep drinking, man. Thanks for giving me a job so I can support my car hobby.

So where is the car hobby heading? Because you told me the Porsche is next on that. So I... I mean, this is going to be towards the end of the episode. I'll ask you this question, but if you did have an unlimited budget, what are some of the crazy bills that you would do?

Yeah. I've heard this question asked on your podcast before.

And we'll ask it officially later. I just want to prime you.

That's a good question, man. It's going to be cliche. I'd love to have an underground Huracan. They're right next door. So if I break it, they can just fix it for me.

Which honestly, they're kind of the... What's the word I'm looking for here? I think they're number one when it comes to the Huracans. There's other people in the scene that do it. I mean, there's some really big names that are really great, but I think Underground just has it on such a lock down. Their brand presence is good. Their attention to detail, their quality control. That's the other thing. Anybody can build a fast car. Does it survive is the other question.

That's what we talked about yesterday. As Vaughn and his guys were out drifting all day long and they were doing those rides all day, the car's never broke. They maybe changed a tire or something, but the car's never broken. So quality is huge.

By the way, speaking of changing tires, what an absolute pit stop, like so awesome. How quick they were changing the tires. It's like a freaking NASCAR team out there.

It is.

But yeah, like we were talking about, it's like you have these crazy, crazy builds and they're ringing it. They're right at the rev limiter for hours on end. Yeah, they have a couple minutes to cool off, but they're pushing that car for everything it's got.

Four days, five days straight.

Yeah.

All day. It's impressive.

So, are they doing any more of that today?

I think today might be the last day of that, but with SEMA Fest today and tomorrow, open to the public, I don't know if they're giving ridealongs to the public or how that works out, but today might be the last day.

Are you going to be going to SEMA Fest as well?

I've got some friends coming in town tonight and tomorrow, so I'm officially done with SEMA at about 6.08 when they're plane lands. After that, it's degenerate gambling for the rest of the weekend.

That's fair. And then when do you fly out?

Sunday morning.

Sunday morning? It seems to be like when everybody's just packing up and heading to the trail. So outside of like, do you travel for any other car events? For example, have you ever been to Texas 2K or anything like that?

I went to Texas 2K before COVID and had some friends down there. So I was in town just luckily over the same weekend. Craziness. I love it. I love it. Have you been?

Yeah, I've been there the last two years. So I finally started getting into it. So one of my buddies just got me into it. He actually took me to it.

You're friends with the viper guys, with the big horsepower viper guys.

All my listeners know I'm a big viper guy, just because again, I grew up with that. In my backyard, literally my backyard, like two miles from my house, we have Enthmoto who makes the fastest vipers in the world. When it comes down to it, it's awesome. So I'll hear them just doing pulls on the highway, street testing time to time. Just super awesome. And then right next door, like my neighbor, is the owner of Radified Motorsports. So they make really fast Audis, you know, the RS3s.

Yeah, there's a lot going on out where you are. That's awesome. Yeah.

You know, that's the thing. We're a small scene, but we're a strong scene.

I love it.

Which is awesome. Do you guys, is your scene pretty big down there? What's your guys' population down there?

I'd be lying if I made a guess. Probably Charlotte, a couple of millions. It's a big city.

It's probably got to be similar to Minneapolis, maybe a little bigger.

Our car scene's pretty good. Our cars and coffee usually get to a couple thousand cars, a couple thousand actual cars and then probably two or three thousand attendees just to come spectate. That's pretty big. Yeah, a lot of supercars there, a lot of supercar owners that come out for the weekend. It's a wide variety.

Are you into Formula One at all with coming to town here?

I was trying to go when I came to Vegas in two weeks. None of my friends would cough up the money to buy a ticket with me.

You were telling Dan that if he would have told you six months ago.

Six weeks ago, I would have just got a ticket. I would have just coughed it up. It's pretty high, I guess, for the first year in Vegas, but it would be an awesome experience.

Yeah, so how many years have you been coming to SEMA?

I've been here for two years, and I haven't been since before COVID. So, off and on, and prior to that, it was all with Monster.

Okay, gotcha.

For different things, for Vaughn Gitten Jr. or Dubb Magazine, we sponsored Dubb, so for that scene. So I've been coming for different levels of that.

So I guess on the Monster front, or not even the Monster front, so I guess kind of what's next for you? Because obviously you're very passionate about cars. Are you looking to keep branching out into other sports?

I guess my main goal with Monster is, since I'm kind of overarching every event, everything, I guess if I was to grow in the company, I'm just going to go straight to the motorsports division and motorsports department so I can do strictly car stuff. If I get to that point in the company, then I've made it. The boy in me has made it. He got a job in the car scene.

Yeah, I mean, to be able to do the awesome stuff you do, again, the RTR experience, that was freaking sweet.

Yeah. Do you ever get out to Charlotte? You should make a rally to stops in Charlotte. We could do a cool tour of Vaughn's shop or some NASCAR shops, something cool off that way.

Oh, actually, Sy, so when I was planning my south rally last year, before we ended up doing St. Louis to Atlanta, because part of it was looking at tracks and also being somewhat close to Minnesota, because that's a lot of my audience. I was actually looking over there. I actually wanted to stop by to do a tour or whatever. And I was on the routes that I planned. I have a Google Drive of routes that I've planned. Because for me, I've been doing it long enough, five years, to where it's second nature to me to plan routes. It's really fun. I'm trying to think who does a rally out there. Actually, my buddy Joey from GeForce Rally, he's actually putting on a seven-day event down there and somewhere in the south. I can't remember where exactly it goes. But he just did also another run all the way down to Florida from somewhere just.

Yeah, I've never done a rally in my life. That's on my bucket list for sure.

It's different, man. Because the way I could think about it, it's kind of like a vacation for car enthusiasts. Yeah, and it's all pre-plan. I talked about this with someone yesterday. It's like some people are like, oh, well, I could get a bunch of my buddies and do it for cheaper. It's like, well, great. But then you have to plan. It's so nice. There's nothing to be said about the peace of mind of just having one or two owners and a bunch of volunteers just managing the whole event for you.

You don't have to worry about anything, but just enjoying.

Yeah, well, so Asa, who was on episode 45 that you were listening to, his rally is fantastic. I mean, it's a higher price point. But something to be said about price points too. For example, Dan had an event a few years ago. The first rally of 10,000 Lakes. And it was a mix of, you got Hurricanes over here, and then you have a Civic that blew up on the rally. It's very different, because the thing is, when you start combining too many variations, like you start getting to people that overcompensate, unfortunately.

Right, you're right.

So for example, if you threw me in a GTI, I want to see how long I can keep up with the Hurrican.

Right, it's human nature, it's car guy nature, but I see what you're saying.

But when you have a Crown rally, like they would have 150 cars and they had a few oddballs in there, of course, but they'd have six Aventadors, 12 Hurricans, and eight McLaren 720s, and two 600LTs. Like, it's nice to rally with like-minded people.

I would agree with that.

And I was kind of in that middle tier, right? So I was kind of in like the, we got a little bit of disposable income, so like 2,000 a ticket, four-star hotels. You really feel like a rock star for a weekend. So that's what you want to look for.

That's attainable. You can attain, that's attainable. You can tape up a little bit, do that, and it's just like a vacation. I'm in, next one, I'm in. When the Bentley's done, I'm in.

Yeah, oh, that would be freaking rowdy. Oh, that would be rowdy. I'm curious, are you gonna try to put the Hellcat interior in there?

Yeah, I mean, it's gonna be, well, a little bit more luxury version of the Hellcat stuff. I'll wrap the leather, different leather, wrap the dash in leather, but all Hellcat dash, all Hellcat seats.

Man, it would look so cool. So if you do that money green, how nice like a brown interior would look.

Tan interior, yeah. Dude, that's the plan.

Dude, I'm excited. And then are you gonna do like a bunch of like custom like lighting and stuff like headlights, taillights or?

I've just been taking names of vendors out here of what I can do and who I can reach out to. And you know, there's some carbon fiber folks out here making custom carbon fiber parts. There's nothing for the Bentley. They can't get the carbon fiber hood for a Bentley off the shelf, but these guys said they can they can whip something up for me. And yeah, it'd be cool to tie in some of that stuff to the build.

Yeah, yesterday over at Hoonigan, I met a gentleman from RK Sport, I believe it was, and they are all about raw carbon fiber.

I love it. And that might be the same group I talked to.

Oh, Caesar?

Yeah, that's exciting. Super cool, dude.

Yeah, so it's like just, I love coming out here and learning about different industries. Like you, I mean, dude, look at the entire halls of, well, one, new technology, but also just new parts. I mean, this is the craziest trade show, just car show I've seen in my life.

Everybody's pleased when they come here. It's awesome. When I was in college, I was in Circuit City. I worked for Circuit City in the car audio department. There's circuit cities no longer, but the car stereos back in the day, that's what got me through college. And TV screens and big subwoofers and stereos. And then over time in my mind, I guess that seems kind of faded off. There's a whole hall with car audio stuff here.

I couldn't believe how much audio stuff there was when I walked through there yesterday.

I'm going there today just to kind of relive my youth and see what's out there and see what's new. But I thought that kind of industry was kind of dead, but not so much.

So were you kind of like putting like 12 inch subs into your car and stuff like that or?

God almighty, I had big stereos. I had like six 10s in the back of a Suburban and two 15s in the back of my Honda Accord, rattling down the street like a dumb broke kid, but it was great.

I'm curious, what was your like poster as a kid? What was the car poster you had on your wall?

Porsche 911 Turbo Slant Nose, the one I have at my shop right now, waiting to be built.

The Slant Nose, I think that is one of the most perfect Porsches ever built. There was one at Texas 2K. When I make a highlight, I'm gonna definitely put this photo in there. It was like a wide body Slant Nose that was black and it had some deep dish wheels. Yours is black too? Oh my, are you gonna keep it black?

Probably, yeah.

Dude, what a phenomenal looking car.

It's cool, it's timeless, it'll never get old. You know, that or the Countach was on my wall too, but.

Countach?

I can't afford a Countach at this point in my life these days.

Did you see Doug DiMiro about the Countach?

Yes, that's crazy.

Good for him. He was talking about how much the price increased and then what he thinks it's gonna increase to.

Yeah, definitely an investment.

Oh, absolutely.

Better than a stock market these days, look at that.

I wanna say he got it from the Hamilton collection, I'm not sure, I think it was. Yeah, because Hamilton got rid of it. So on Dan's rally, we actually got to go stop at the Hamilton collection, that was pretty cool.

How was that?

So I was more impressed with Iron Gate over there. So when I was talking to Chicago Motor Cars, which they have one on site over there, I was talking to one of the sales guys there and he's just rattling off people who have garages there. He's like, oh yeah, the CFO of Chipotle is in the back over there.

That's amazing.

You know, he wants this car and it's like, man, again, being a Minnesota boy, when I go down to Chicago, I'm like, there's some money in the city.

Crazy money.

Just, even here in Las Vegas, it gets crazy out here.

Chicago's another world, yeah, they have secret guys, secret cars you don't even know about.

Oh, we even have a guy in Minnesota, like for example, we have a hidden LaFerrari that has only made it out once in a while. Yeah, well actually, so I've said to, I don't know if I've ever told this story on a podcast, but there's actually one guy in Minnesota, I think he sold a part of his energy company and now he's like on the board or something like that. But he sold it for us, like we're talking billions, and as of recently, he's acquired a ton of cars and as of right now, he has eight or nine Bugattis. You know, so, and then he has the golden era coming. For example, we saw him on Ray Car Week. I mean, it is absurd.

I can't lie, I would do the same thing if I was in that position.

Oh yeah, and he actually drives them too. That's the other thing, that's the other sad thing, is when people start turning it into art, unfortunately.

Which they are.

Which they are, absolutely.

I think I told you yesterday, I had a Gen 3 Viper a few years ago, and it had like 10,000 miles. It was super mint, but I was scared to drive it because it was so mint, so low miles, so I sold it. So I'll never be like that again. I'm going to drive everything I have. I hate that I got away, but I'm just going to drive everything I have, and if it gets a rock chip, big deal.

That's the thing, man. You only have so long to enjoy cars. My buddy, for example, that has the Twin Turbo car, it's like the ACR. They've shot up in price. A lot of people want to keep them and keep them normal, keep them stock, keep the miles off of it. My buddy's over there wringing that thing's neck every weekend.

To each his own, but I'm at a point now where I'd rather drive it than look at it.

Yeah, exactly. Otherwise, what's the point? You can just go get art at Home Goods or something.

I used to want to buy a car low, buy low, sell high. Now I'll just buy it, use it, and sell it for what I paid for it. And I'm okay with that. And the experience is worth more than a couple thousand bucks I'll make on the car.

Yeah, I remember watching VinWiki a number of years ago when Ed bought the Ford GT. And it's like he wanted to get the highest mileage once because that way he can enjoy it and not worry about watching the mile odometer.

100%. There's a lot to be said about that mentality. That's where I'm at.

Yeah, one of my buddies back in Minnesota, Lambo Dad, he bought the highest mileage Huracan in the country.

Was it red?

No, it was white. Well, it was the highest available at the time, but that red one was from Houston, right?

My buddy that went from Houston had 125,000 miles at a time five years ago. Reliable as hell. He dogged it out. Not dogged it out, but he dogged it out. Not going to lie. Didn't break on him one time, the whole trip. Turned it back in. It was out getting rented again the next day.

Honestly, most cars, especially when you start talking about higher performance cars, they're made to be...

Use them or lose them. If the seals get dry, it's going to start leaking if you don't use them.

Yeah, exactly. You want to take the car through all the RPMs.

Yes.

I'm curious, where does your car knowledge lie? Actually, what a stupid question. You're completely doing a body swap on it.

We'll see how I answer this question.

I don't know. Have you dabbled at all with engine building or do you have somebody else do stuff like that?

Minor stuff. I probably could take an engine down and build it. YouTube, thank you for helping me out. But I'm bolt-ons and I've never gone internal myself.

That seems to be kind of like the next stage for a lot of people. It's like, I'll do everything else except for engine and transmission.

Yeah, I'll do an engine before I do the transmission. I'll tell you that. Transmissions scare me, but I'll do an engine for sure.

It's so interesting to watch that. Where the heck were we? We were talking about something that lost me on that one. But no, it's been super awesome to have you on. So one thing, as you listen to the podcast, one thing that we like to ask people, I keep saying we, god damn it, because I'm so used to having Sean.

I was going to hope to talk to Sean about Hellcat Durango. I want to think his brain about that.

Dude, that thing is a blast. So he's one of the reasons that I'm actually out here. So I'll be giving a shout out to a number of people here because the reason I'm out here is when I talked to Dan about a month ago or a month and a half ago, I think he was asking me if I'm going to SEMA. And I'm like, no, but if you pay for me to go, I will. That's how I mosey my way into things. I'm like, hey, you bring me out there. We'll make it happen and I'll create content for you. Little did I know though, Dan kind of went and reached out to a number of people to just pitch in to bring me out here, which was like 100 bucks a person or whatever. People that I set up cruises for and all this stuff, just crazy. So I'll do a nice long list appreciation post on that. But it's crazy how tight-knit the community can be, dude.

I love it. I love meeting new people every day. It's awesome.

It really bothers me when I get on Facebook and some people are like, oh, Carmmunity sucks. I'm like, well, no, your community sucks.

You're not in the right group. It's up to you to make it better. You can go sideways and get crazy, you can make it better, find a good group of guys to grow this board.

It's amazing. It's the whole reason that I am who I am today. One of my things is I like to hang out with people that are almost double my age.

That's wonderful. That's how you learn, grow, get some knowledge.

I've said it a number of times on this podcast. It's really selfish that I do this because I love to, well, as much as I love to put people on a long-form platform, I also get to learn so much. That leads to better conversations and all that. I'm always working my way up to more intelligent, more fun conversations. And you're episode number 50, by the way.

Oh, nice.

You're going to be 50, so that's a special number.

That's a special number.

But no, that's the thing, man, is we cultivate the community we want to be a part of. I think that's huge.

I love your pod, man. Just started listening right before I met you. I've just binged on a few, and it's awesome. I can't wait to finish them all. One through 49.

One through 49, yep. And then after that, your season expires, and you have to buy it on, like, Netflix.

I'll just put my AirPods in when I'm working on the Bentley, and knock out all your podcasts. That's my goal.

That's what a lot of people do. So one of our early guests, Piero, he works at a paint shop with his dad or whatever, and he always listens to it throughout the day. You can tell I'm getting tired, man, from this. I need a monster immediately. But yeah, it's just so awesome, because I'll get text messages all the time, be like, oh, man, I was doing this, and I listened to the podcast, or during a rally, I had a number of people do it. So we actually put a big QR code on the back of the BMW. That was super awesome.

That's smart. That's marketing.

Yeah, and then also I like these Minnoxide stickers I've been giving out to people. Like, it's a great business card, for sure.

I love it, man. You got a good thing going. Glad we got to meet.

Yeah, I hope to keep it going. I'm excited to see who comes on next. But as you've listened to the show, for those of you that haven't listened to the show, I like to ask a question at the end of every episode to get an idea of who you are as a car person, what you would do if you had, one, an unlimited budget, and two, an unlimited imagination. Because this is the part where people struggle, because once that budget comes in, their imagination can't catch up to it. So it goes like this. If you had that unlimited budget, unlimited imagination, what would be your daily, your track car, and your show car?

Daily? Probably just a Urus would be great. Just four doors, take the family out, throw my dog in the back, fast as hell. It wouldn't be stock, I'd do some stuff to it.

Would you do that or an RSQ8? I love that.

That is a curve ball, but that's probably what no... I'd say that's probably tied. The normal person wouldn't expect that on the road, what that car can do. Looks like a wagon. They wouldn't know it. Good one. TBD.

Let's put the years in for the time being, because that's the thing, they're the same exact car, just the different shell.

You're right, you're right. All right, we'll do RSQ8 for the daily. We'll do a UGR. Listen, unlimited budget, I get it, but I've always wanted that twin turbo Huracan. So that's the race car. And show car? Buddy. I don't know, probably just something, some crazy build that hasn't been done yet. Not like the Hellcat BENTLEY is anything special, but something crazy like that. Maybe like a new Rolls Royce Phantom or something, but some crazy motor swap, something cool like that. Okay. I like the weird things.

There's a guy on TikTok, I think, I can't remember if it was a Rolls or a BENTLEY, but he's running his car on welds.

I saw the black one. Yes, that was pretty crazy.

Freaking gnarly. But yeah, definitely, there's a twin turbo Huracan that's been driving around town these last few days. I keep seeing it over and over again. I mean, the whistle, there's just something about it.

I know, I mean, that's probably the basicest answer ever, but that's just what I can get down with. That's what I can relate to. I'm not too flashy, but that's awesome.

What color would you do a Huracan?

Either, well, I like orange or more Monster Energy green. The green ones are pretty sweet.

Oh, okay, that's pretty sweet.

Might as well.

Well, awesome, man. It was awesome to have you on the podcast. I really appreciate you for the RTR Ridealong. Just a little bit of everything. I know we both have to get back to SEMA. There's a ton to do at this event, but I do have to ask, where can people find you?

If you want to follow the Hellcat BENTLEY build on Instagram, it is at TheRealRichiePetty on Instagram. And you can see me from start to finish where I found it and where it is to this current day.

And I'm hopefully a YouTube in the future.

Yes, please find me some time. Let's do it.

Yeah, if we can find you some time, we'll make it happen. As for me, you're listening to the Minnoxide podcast. Please make sure that you are following the Instagram, the Facebook, sign up for the newsletter at minnoxide.com. And the other thing is right now, I'm definitely trying to grow the YouTube side of things. So if you do want to listen to this on YouTube, I'd be much appreciated. Otherwise, I know a lot of people are on Spotify and Apple, too, but I figured I'd at least shout that out. But nonetheless, thank you so much for coming out, and let's see what's next. Thanks, man.

It's been awesome. Yeah, you bet.