53. Freelance Work, Crown Rally and TX2k Stories, Building an SRT 300 w/ Erik Blume

Hello, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Minnoxide Podcast. I'm your host, Harris, AKA Minnoxide, man of many automotive aspirations. And this is the Minnoxide Podcast, where we go beyond the meat. You know, the thing is, is in the car community, like if I were to meet Erik here at a car show, it would be a five, 10 minute conversation, and somebody else steals him away, game over. Whereas this way, a lot of people can get to know our guests and just kind of go beyond the meat in the car community. So, without further ado, just wanted to introduce you. So, Erik Blume.

It's actually Blumey.

Damn it, I knew I should have said 40 episode.

That's like the inner circle thing, because it's just easier to say Blume.

Some of your inner circle has messed me up too, it's okay. People are like, oh yeah.

Our wedding, they're like, Mr. and Mrs. Blumey, and a couple of people in the crowd were like, what?

Oh.

So, yeah, this is probably gonna make it no longer inner circle, but.

Yeah, so I've known about you since pretty much I got into the car community. I remember taking photos of your car at the Minneapolis mile, the first one.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And that actually made one of their highlights or whatever it was, so you still have that thing, right?

I do.

Yeah, so it's a Chrysler 300, which variant is it? Is it an SRT or no?

2007 SRT.

2007 SRT, okay. Yeah, and then Bryce basically did all the work on that too, right?

Yeah, it's Bryce built since before Bryce was Fat Cat.

Yeah, yeah.

So, yeah, it's, I've had it for like eight years.

Yeah.

Met him probably one year into it when I effed up a bunch of the installation things. That's right. And I found him on the internet, so.

Yeah, so I definitely want to talk about that at some point, but give people just kind of an introduction of who you are. So you're like a photographer. I don't know, did you do video as well, a little bit of everything?

So I started in graphic design, and that was actually what I went to school for. And so that kind of transformed into photo video, which was where my passions were, but I wasn't sure if that was going to be something I could make a living doing. So graphic design was kind of the plan A, but it was actually kind of a fallback. So yeah, photo video, specifically car-related photo video for quite a long time.

So how did that happen? Because I initially wanted to be a graphic designer too, but then I realized that there's people that are way better at it than me. And I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna suck at this. So I guess what made you have caused that jump? Like when did you decide it was like a full-time thing?

For the photo video part of it?

Yeah, yeah.

I started doing, I mean, it was right out of the gate. So I went to school, I went to college for graphic design, four year University of Wisconsin Stout. And it took me about three and a half years to figure out that I didn't like graphic design, but graduated with a degree. And I was like, my passion was photo video. So I had been in the car since I was a kid and had started doing actually most of my bread and butter was music videos, like really early on.

Just a wide range of genres or?

Like rappers.

Rappers, okay.

From the North side. So yeah, I hung out over North in Minneapolis quite a bit. When I was pretty young, like high school and early college years. And then my college, well, high school and college buddy, John, we started doing just videos for fun together and like weddings and stuff. And then that transitioned into kind of combining with the car hobby, which I was super into. And he was just kind of along for the ride kind of guy. He wasn't super into cars, but loved videography. So we, it ended up kind of just falling in our laps that we were at Proving Grounds and we were just kind of doing video for fun, like 2014, 2015, probably. And so we did videos at Proving Grounds. This was back when Proving Grounds was once a year. So we did a couple of videos there and then kind of towards the end of college years, they offered me, they being MAPerformance. They were like, hey, what are you doing after college? I was like, I don't know yet because I'm in graphic design. And they offered me a job. And then, yeah, that was kind of the kickoff point for that. Yeah, landing a job in the car industry out of college, doing photo and video, which was crazy at the time.

When did you officially start there then?

20, it would have been January of like 2015 or 2016.

Okay.

And then, yeah, I was there for seven and a half years.

It was a fairly small company back then too, right?

Yeah, yeah, I was employee like number 30, I think.

Oh wow, okay.

Yeah, so it was still, they had just moved into that, the Cottage Grove facility. From Plymouth, I think it was. So yeah, they had just moved there. And when I first toured it, they were still doing custom stuff, like one-off big turbo LS donks and stuff. There was like my first day there, there was a candy green donk that was like white leather interior on like 30s, and it was a big turbo LS build that they were putting together. And like yeah, they were still doing the one-off stuff, which was super, super cool. And that quickly transitioned into more of what they are or were manufacturing and stuff like that. And so.

Dude, the freaking donks. Okay, so I love donks.

I know you like donks.

I love donks. Yeah, I made it clear that I love donks. Now, I don't like donk trucks. I freaking cannot stand those.

Okay.

Which aren't.

But a truck, to me, is not a donk.

Yeah.

Right?

Yeah, but have you seen, I posted it a few weeks ago. It was basically a photo of a truck or whatever, and then it had those huge wheels and then half an inch thick tires.

Oh yeah, yeah.

I was just like.

That was at SEMA, wasn't it?

No, no, no, that wasn't at SEMA. No, no, that was just something that just took the web by storm.

Yeah, I've seen that photo.

Just ridiculous. So yeah, but I'm all for donks. I've never done photos of a donk. That's the other thing. I don't know if you struggle with this being a photographer, but there's like stuff I want to shoot, but it's like, I don't want to do it for free.

Yeah. There are some passion project. Like, yeah, I've seen your lists every year. You come out with that list that slowly gets smaller, which is the goal. So mine's mental, but I have some similar stuff. I'm a big donk fan as well secretly. I was like, yeah, that would be, if I were to do it all over again, I would do it. I would get a donk, build a donk.

Oh, that'd be kind of, would you ever, well, the thing is, would you do a newer donk or an older donk?

G body.

Okay, gotcha. Cause like, I don't know if it would look great on your car.

No.

I'm not a fan of like the more modern ones. Like 36 is a new 300. Yeah.

I feel like the internet can fact check me on this, but I think the term donk is specifically a G body.

Oh, okay. Okay.

I think anything outside of that realm is something else. It's not technically a donk.

Garbage. Garbage. Yes.

No, I might have just made that up too, so we'll find out.

Yeah, because I know that there's a difference between bubble top and a square body as well and stuff like that. See, now I have to go, I need to get a donk expert on this show. That's the thing. That's the other thing for this is I want to get, I've yet to have anybody that's an expert in the EV space, diesel space, and I need to get a donk expert. Because that's the thing. I have a lot of people offering up, I'll come on, I'll talk about EVs. It's like, yeah, but your stuff's an opinion piece.

Yeah. I don't know any donk guys. I know some lowrider guys.

Yeah, we don't have a lot of them.

Lorenzo would be a good, a really good guy to have on here if you're like into lowrider stuff. He's a super cool guy.

Dude, we saw a f***** up lowrider at Vegas. So we were at Circus Circus in Vegas, we were like waiting for an Uber, which by the way, this is hilarious. So there was like this cracked out guy, like he was legit tweaking. And I was sitting next to a pilot, like he was a private jet pilot waiting for his Uber. And this guy comes up to him, just, you know, twitching and all this crazy stuff. And then he's like, where are you going, man? And like, you know, whatever. But then he started telling him like, fly me out to LaGuardia, man. Like I gotta get to LaGuardia. You could just like name me off, like, can you take me to this airport? It was the funniest thing ever. But how the heck did I get into that? Oh my God, I can't, I had to backtrack that. But oh yeah, the lowrider, that's right. So it was like a lowrider on a trailer. And it looks like you may have hit the ground too hard or something like that. It popped wheel on the left and it just body panels screwed up. But yeah, I'd love to get into all these little different niches. But like at the end of the day, I wanted to come from people within those niches. Like I'm not gonna talk to, I'm not gonna talk to Rat about photography. Right, like that's not his niche.

Yeah, the lowrider niches, it's a very tight knit, hard to get into. They don't, it's like you gotta earn it kind of community.

You know, there's something to be said about communities like that too, though. Like you gotta earn your...

You can't just buy a lowrider and they're like, hey, what's up? It's like, no, you gotta be from it or, you know. It's a super interesting community for sure.

Well, it's a different type of art too. Like even at SEMA, like a lot of the lowriders, you look at them and they have like beautiful pinstriping and all that like, and that would again, look ugly on a lot of modern cars, just wouldn't look right. Like when you see some of these lowriders, it's just like a bouncing art piece.

Yeah, they're like etching paisley into the header.

Yeah.

Yeah, there's that, the Ruby, I think it's a 64, that like reddish Impala that's also local, that's absurd. It's mouthwateringly well done.

Yeah.

So I don't know how we got to lowriders, but.

I don't know, it's a nice detour, SDOs, donks, lowriders, yeah. I love a detour like that. So then how long were you on map?

Seven and a half years.

Okay. And then at that point, you kind of just went into freelance, right? For a little while?

Yep, yep. So I jumped into freelance full time almost two years ago now, probably. Yeah, it would have been August of 22-ish. I guess that's, yeah, a year and a half ago, probably. I don't know, I'm bad at math, but yeah. So jumped into that and that's been great. And then I was at Moto Crane for about a year, which is shy of a year, and now I'm back to freelance again, which is, I'm figuring out what is me. That's where I need to be on a personal, on a work ethic level. Yeah, so.

Yeah, I mean, just for some people, it just makes sense to just be on your own too. And if you're able to at least sustain a half-decent living doing it, then why not? I mean, there's just something to be said about making your own hours as much as you can, at least. Because especially with your, you have a nice broad level of skills, like you could do weddings, you could do automotive events and all that, which is one thing I saw. Like you had is, I mean, I should do a wedding. I should, I've never done one.

You can figure it out.

Yeah, I know.

You should shadow somebody. That would be step one.

Well, I've never even been to a wedding.

What?

Ever. Yeah.

How old are you?

24.

Wow.

Yeah.

Never attended a wedding?

Never.

That's incredible.

Yeah.

I've probably been to 100.

Yeah, well, I mean, you get paid for more than half, I bet.

I just, I've never met someone, I mean, besides babies.

Yeah.

That's amazing.

Yeah, I've never been to a wedding, never been to a funeral, nothing like that.

That's a good problem to have.

Yeah. Yeah, just, I mean, here's the other thing, right? Because like a lot of my family, right, is, they were all married when they got here. It's like there's not a lot of kids, you know, even in my extended family. Like, I'm just finding out about a lot of extended family in Europe or whatever, but that's the other thing, because like, you know, my parents are refugees, right? So a lot of families overseas, or distant family, again, I didn't even know about until somewhat recently. And realistically, I didn't even start having a ton of friends until I got into the car community. I think I've been invited to like one wedding and then something came up, I couldn't go to that. But that's pretty much it, dude.

Yeah, where are your parents from?

Bosnia. Yep, so purebred Bosnian over here. I mean, I was born here, which is a different thing, but. Yeah, so, but no, I definitely should shadow somebody at a wedding or something, because again, it'd be a nice little, because like I've heard you can make, I shouldn't say bank, but a good chunk of change for weddings.

Yeah, I consider myself a, I don't know if you want to get into weddings on the podcast. I'm a mid-grade wedding photographer. I have some friends that make upwards of 20, $30,000.

Per wedding?

Per wedding.

Yeah.

Yep, yeah.

And I'm just curious because, so like, what's, I guess, how do you even justify that level of cost? Like, what goes into that sort of package? Like a 10,000 or $20,000 package?

I think it's, what's the word for it? I mean, it's like, why would you buy a Ferrari over a Corvette?

Right.

It's the bougieness of the deliverables, I guess.

Yeah.

As a high-end wedding photographer, yeah, you're getting bougie levels of deliverables.

So I guess I'm more so curious. Like, what's the, because I think somebody told me they deliver two or 300 photos or whatever. Is that kind of the realm, or is it usually a lot more?

It kind of depends. Our wedding photographer, for my wedding, we got 50, I think. But they were, that was what was expected. And then I've heard of people delivering 2,000 photos.

Yeah.

For, you know, like we do some Indian weddings. We've gotten Indian weddings lately, and they're multiple days, sometimes weeks. So 2,000 photos over the course of a five, six day event is not crazy.

Why are those, wait, wait. Okay, so this is the first time I've ever heard about this. I should really talk to some of my friends about this now. But why are they, how does a multi-day, I know this is not automotive related, but I think people would love to know about this. So why are Indian weddings so long? Or like, how does that work in India?

So I'm not the expert on this. I just attend.

That's fair.

Or work them. But they have different, and it depends on which part of India you're from. And that will dictate the types of ceremonies that you have, I believe. So they have one, like a henna night where one entire day is just them getting the henna done, and that's part of the ceremony.

Interesting.

And then they have different days of different ceremonies, and the actual legal part of it is one day, and then the religious part of it is another day, and stuff like that. That's my very loose understanding of that, so.

Yeah, I'm definitely not claiming he was an expert. But now I have some research to do after we're done with this podcast. Because that, I mean, I'm sure it costs a lot, too.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's, oh man, that's freaking nuts. Okay, so we got into a fun, yeah, get that aquafina, son. We're all over the place already. Yeah, no, it's totally fine. Okay, so then you're doing freelance, and then we were just talking about before we started talking about everything else, is so you're kind of adding to your studio. So where's your studio based out of them? Is it at your house or?

It was. So for about two years, I had a studio in my basement, a portrait studio, we'll start with that, which has been started off as just kind of a hobby and then transformed into making money doing it. Right around COVID times is when I started making good money doing portrait work. And then, yeah, two years of studio in my basement, which is the actual size of the studio is probably the size of this room.

Yeah, and this room is an eight by 16 minus the wedge cut out on the corner.

So, yeah, so I mean, we have a regular sized basement, but the actual studio portion of it was about this size. And yeah, like no overhead on that. It's just, you know, buying paper and lights and stuff like that that I already owned, but there's no rent, you know, obviously mortgage, but it's the overhead on that was minimal. And then jumped into a 2000 square foot warehouse, section of warehouse about four months ago. And that's off West Seventh in St. Paul. And just been throwing money at that. Trying to grow it, trying to build stuff that I think is cool and rent it out and hope that it continues to excel.

So I'm curious then of your overall like work. So like you've worked with a lot of like the, you know, models within the community and just, first of all, I love your work. It's freaking, it's awesome. It's just, I love your creative take on a lot of things. We can get into that. But so what would you say is kind of like the, what are all the various aspects of work that you do then? So like portraits, for example, like what percentage of your work are portraits? Or like studio work?

Yeah, I'll break it up in percentages of money because that makes sense in my brain. Yeah. Probably 20% of it is weddings, maybe. I really don't do a lot of weddings. And then I would say 10% to 20% of it is other, which would be like a big chunk of that's Red Bull stuff because I do freelance photo and video work for Red Bull. Oh, cool. And then just other standard freelance stuff like, oh, hey, I need a video for my pond company or whatever. And then the rest of that is just portrait work. So that 60% to 70% of it is portrait work, which is pretty crazy actually.

So portrait work, and that's not necessarily always at the studio, but anywhere?

Pretty much. Most of it's at the studio. Some of it's outside, but I found a niche pretty early on with the style of portrait and the lighting style and the studio aspect of it that no one really did here or didn't do well. And ran with it, and so far so good. Because yeah, there's a million natural light photographers in the Twin Cities, and they all have killer natural light studios, and they're outside doing fall sessions, and that was just not a market that was gonna make money, because it's saturated. So I picked the opposite direction and ran with it.

So then for your studio then, because again, we talked about you putting together that, I don't know what the heck you want to call it, the old stereos and the-

Speaker wall.

Speaker wall, there we go. Yeah, not a very cool name, but- Yeah, I keep struggling to come up. You should come up with some cool, wacky name for it. That 70s show or something.

Yeah.

But no, that thing's really cool. So again, do you make setups like that and just kind of like, I don't know, do you wheel them in or whatever, like as needed or?

Yeah, everything is built in there. So it's, yeah, 2,000 square feet, and then it does have a garage door, but the garage door goes into another unit. So I've been trying to nurture that relationship with the woman that owns or leases the other unit that runs a full business out of her unit. So yeah, I've had cars in there before. It's been pretty tricky, but yeah, everything that's in there is permanently in there, and it gets moved around within the space as needed. So, but yeah, the speaker wall is kind of the hero piece right now, and it's very heavy.

Have you started doing photos with that yet?

Yeah, I had a mixer event on Saturday that was like kind of the big hurrah, not big hurrah, but big unleash of that prop specifically. So, but yeah, I built a little T wall type thing that's kind of nestled against the wall to provide little rooms basically, because it's just a warehouse. It's just a brick, white brick warehouse with no walls. So, it's got a little back room that's got the paper wall set up, and then I have just kind of a storage and changing room, and then the big room is probably 1,000 square feet, which is the main room. There's big windows and stuff like that, and then that's got the speaker wall, and I got one of those hex lights that everybody has in their detailing garages. And got a guy that came in and did some graffiti, which was super cool. And yeah, then I have a little T wall that has two sets that kind of change out. Change out as needed with themes or whatever.

So I was gonna ask, so concept wise, do you kind of have a list of pre-made concepts, or do people come with ideas to you, and then it's like, hey, can you make this happen, or is it a mixture?

For the shoots or for the props?

Shoots.

Yeah, shoots, I have kind of a few ways that people go about it. I have enough work done that people are just like, I wanna come and do a laser shoot. So I have a laser that I own that I use for shoots, or they wanna do something with graffiti, or something with a speaker wall, or something with, I have this big round red bed that's very goth looking. And other people come to me with new concepts, or sometimes it's just based on a piece of clothing that they have, or cosplay, or gearing up for Christmas stuff. And other people are like, they're like, I have no idea what I want, but I just want you to do it. So I'm like, here's some options, and they kind of pick through, and yeah, sometimes people just have no idea what they want, and I have to kind of curate it or guide them to some direction.

Yeah, so do you basically just have like a moving rack, like a TJ Maxx rack, just push it out? Be like, all right, pick a costume or anything like that?

I wish, I wish I had the budget to provide wardrobe, but I don't.

So people typically come with their own then?

Yeah, pretty much 100% of the time. If there's like some, like I do paint shoots a lot, so I'll provide paint, like gold paint or something, and then I do a lot of shoots with like liquid latex. Yep. Like you typically paint it on, but we'll like pour it on or something.

Yeah, like stuff that like Halloween, like decor.

They're for like special effects makeup type stuff, so you can get a bunch of different colors and whatever. So yeah, it's just kind of a wide array of people know what they want, people don't know what they want, so.

Didn't you do one with like honey a while back?

Yeah, one of the first ones, one of the very first ones that I did actually that was like kind of blew up on the internet, not blew up, but like people still talk about it was an octopus shoot. So I had a dead octopus that I bought at Kowalski's. It was like eight pounds. I paid like $140 for it. And then this was at the house where I had a crappy, the worst, the crappiest claw foot tub that I could find on Marketplace that I literally dug out of this guy's backyard and like scooped fungus and mushrooms out of and like bleached the s*** out of it. Can I swear? No, go for it, yeah. Bleached it and yeah, set up this really dingy set in my garage and had people come and put a fake, well, it was real, it was a dead octopus, like, you know, like holding it and like people had it. I don't know if you're gonna like show stuff on the YouTube version of this, but.

Yeah, I do highlights.

And then honey was another one that was, yeah, like mixed it one to one with like gold glitter. So it was like really thick and you could like, yeah, almost like hold it. It was so thick. So that was another really pretty fun one. Still finding chunks of honey at the house, like just in corners, you'll find ants on an old pile of honey, which is gross, but.

The octopus thing's kind of getting me. It's like that thing, like, for example, like I'm thinking calamari, cause that's octopus, right? I think, right? Or no, it's a squid.

I'm pretty sure it's like, yeah, octopus.

Either way, these are big brain sea animals. And then one day it's just like some model just thrown around. I got it all just.

Yeah. It smells so bad. I can't even imagine. Like I said, we shot it in the garage and I tried to refreeze it. Yeah, it was a mistake. It was a mistake. I mean, I paid like, yeah, I paid $140 for this thing. Like, but yeah, it was food grade. I literally, like I said, I bought it at Kowalski's, tried to refreeze it cause I was like, oh, I'll use this again.

Like try to use it between sessions.

It unthawed, like I think I must've lost power or something and it unthawed? No, that would be frozen. It thawed in the freezer and leaked. And I had to throw the fridge away. This like mini fridge that I've had since college with like all my cool, the garage fridge, like with all the stickers and stuff on it.

I was like, you couldn't get the smell out.

There was no saving it from that smell. No amount of bleach or cleaner or vinegar or anything. There was, yeah, I had to toss it.

That'd be so funny if you just had to re-freeze it every single shoot and just use it for years on end. Name it Squidward or something.

Yeah, that was a smell that I do not care to experience again.

So then, and I don't know how much you want to talk about this or not, but then, so you were a motor crane for about a year then, roughly?

Yeah, yeah. So after MAP, I was freelance for probably six to eight months. And I was very much in the, you know, I had been freelancing for a long time. Always had the side hustles. I've had side hustles for my whole life. Not my whole life, but, you know, always shooting music videos, weddings, and the weekends. Like, you know, the standard photo video guy always has a bunch of irons in the fire. And then, yeah, the MAP thing ended, and then freelance for, I think, six or eight months. And then one of my really good buddies worked at Moto Crane for a long time. He reached out and was like, hey, man, I see you're doing really well, doing freelance, and I'm like, you know, practically crying myself to sleep. Like, you know, I'm like, I'm not doing really well, but thank you.

I know that feeling.

Like, skating by doing freelance. And he's like, would you entertain a job? And I was like, yeah, Moto Crane would be killer. So jumped on there for a while, and yeah, I was there for about a year, and that was a pretty killer experience. Very unique place to work. And then as of like four or five months ago, back to freelance again. So.

What were you doing over there?

Media, media marketing.

Media marketing. Oh, so you were still doing like photo, video stuff for them basically?

Yeah, yeah. So at MAP, I did photo, video, and like started at, you know, product photography, and like, you know, graphic design, and like all of their sale banners and like stuff on the website. I did that forever. And then transitioned into doing, you know, product reviews and, and you know, everything one-stop shop for media. Cause I was the only media person there for three, four years probably. And then the media team started to grow at MAP, and we started to do a bunch of other stuff. And like Tyler Mum was there, and I'm gonna pause while I think of who else was there, which you're gonna edit. So it doesn't seem awkward.

The amount I edit is very minimal. Like the only thing I ever edit out is like if people ever say something they don't want to say. That's the only time. Otherwise, it's long form, because people usually listen to this sort of thing, like either while they're working in a shop or they're on their way to work. So it's like, you know, they're half invested, usually. So, yeah, I know I wouldn't stress it at all. But yes, it seems like everybody that was at MAP, especially, you know, in the last like six years, seems like everybody's like pretty tight. Like even if they've gone into separate careers, seems like they're, I don't know, just kind of seems like you guys were like trench buddies once upon a time.

It was. Yeah, it was a super tight knit group. One of my coworkers was in my wedding, Kurt, really, really, really good buddy of mine. But yeah, the media team grew there and, you know, I did a lot of Instagram there, a ton of Instagram stuff. And then we ended up hiring a guy that just did TikTok and Instagram. And then that that was like my whole, you know, I was media crew. So that was what I did at Motocrane as well. So kind of same stuff. I took over their Instagram and did some YouTube videos, and it went from like Map had, you know, tens of thousands of products on the website and Motocrane had like 50, they have three arms that they sell and then some accessories. Yeah, like that's it. So it was like going from having unlimited amounts of content to do our own products to like, OK, we're releasing one product this quarter. And like, we needed the rollout to be insane. Like, everything goes into one thing there. So it was a pretty intense turn of events going from, you know, the conglomerate that was Map with their insane catalog of offerings to a company that was very, very niche.

Yeah, I could see that being difficult just because, again, like with Map, it's, I wouldn't say it's necessarily, it's not like a ton of creative work, just kind of rinse and repeat, I imagine, a lot of that.

Over the years, it transformed into like, you know, top five exhausts for your WRX. And then it was, was like top five exhausts for your, you know, pre 2015 WRX. And then it was top five exhausts for your 2015 plus WRX. And then we did that for the STI. And then it started to get to be a lot of that kind of stuff. Because at the end of the day, they sell parts.

So you got to sell parts. Yeah, it was fairly, I wouldn't say easy. But again, a little bit of rinse and repeat. Whereas at Motocrane, it's just, like you said, one product a quarter.

The first project I did there, they upgraded the base module for their middle arm, which was called Ultra. It was called Ultra. And the first month I was there, I was in San Francisco and Jersey. And then they also went to South Carolina for it, which I was on a wedding for or something was unavailable.

Yeah, that makes sense. And those things, those rigs are freaking sweet. Like, I'm glad that Jacob had then finally upgraded to a bigger setup. I mean, I think it's just a natural progression of anybody that does videos, just bigger, bigger, bigger, as long, you know, for the most part.

Yeah, good transition into Jacob. I did an interview with Jacob at Motocrane because he had just bought a Radical, which is the small arm. So that was pretty awesome. Jacob's a great guy.

Yeah, I'm excited. So he'll be the next guest on after you, assuming all things go well. Cause that's the thing, like, when you're at that level of busy, like he's doing a lot of banging gear stuff right now. Like, I understand if you need to reschedule like every once in a while. Yeah, that's just how it goes. But yeah, have you worked a lot with the Golden Peaks guys then?

Yeah, I've known Jacob since we were kids, basically, through Afton, skiing and snowboarding.

Oh, okay.

So I grew up snowboarding. I've been snowboarding since I was eight, so like 24 years snowboarding. So I was a coach on a team that they had there. It was called D-Team. And he was a skier student. So we were like on the same team, but adjacent. So I knew him since he was probably 15, and I was like 20 at the time, probably. And then, yeah, he started getting into the skiing videos and stuff like that. And we have just known each other since then forever. And then the car portion of things just kind of naturally progressed as well. And we've shot Crown together and stuff like that. I was on Crown West in 2021 working for him, which was pretty crazy. Big full circle type stuff.

So that is wild, actually, when you think about it. So how old are you then?

32. Tomorrow.

Oh, well, happy early birthday? I don't know. Yeah, belated is after the fact. We forget about your friends. It's early.

It's early.

It's early. You know what's gonna be wild is I guarantee a few of your friends here does be like, oh, s***, happy belated.

Like, wait, tomorrow, but it was released on this day. Because tomorrow is not gonna be tomorrow when you release this.

No, no, no.

It's gonna be two weeks from now, right?

No, Thursday. Thursday. Yeah, should be. Yeah. Typically, the nice thing about having this new location at ratified is I can structure myself a little bit better. Since I don't necessarily have a co host anymore, I will have a guest co host soon to be announced. But it's a lot less to schedule because like, Sean had a kid and he's in New York, all this stuff, just a lot of things were going on at the at the time, you know, because like he was planning to move to California. So scheduling became difficult, whereas here, it's like, it's just me, I don't have anything to worry about, this is what I do full time for the time being, unless some crazy opportunity comes up, you know, I'm at any point ready to just drop and like move to Texas or something, you know, like, yeah, we'll see what happens. I don't know.

Texas is great. Love Texas.

Yeah, I can't wait to go to Texas2k. That's my for sure trip. So the two, the two non-negotiables for me every year are I need to do a rally in Texas2k.

So, Those are good non-negotiables to have.

Well, yeah, it's like, I mean, I have other non-negotiables in other aspects of my life. Like, oh my god, don't steal my f****** fruit punch. I don't know. But, but so then how many crowns have you done? That's kind of how I found out about you really.

Four. Four, I think. Yeah, we did North in like 20. One of the first ones 2016 or 2017. It was like, I think it was like the first official central crown was what it was called at the time. And then I think I did the North after that, which would have been like 17 or 18. And then I drove North with my wife in 2019. And then COVID. And then Crown West in 2021, which was the first two years was as me working as myself. And then 2021 was with working for Jacob.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

He called me up. He's like, hey, you're kind of the POV crazy footage guy. Do you want to come be my POV crazy, like handheld footage guy? I was like, yeah, that sounds awesome.

Yeah. Did you also do the high five thing or is that just Ben? Because I know Ben would literally be holding the camera and be like, ah, high five. I think you may have just done that.

There's several of that.

Yeah.

Several of those from West that I did. I don't know if I got it from Ben. Maybe Ben got it from me.

Maybe.

Or we naturally progressed together.

Yeah.

Because yeah, I like, yeah, that was, I was like, I just, I'm from like pre gimbal levels of that's how old I am. When I started doing video stuff, gimbals were not achievable.

Yeah.

They were great. We had steady cams, which were just sticks with weights on the bottom, basically.

Oh yeah, I remember those.

And you had to hold, it had like a weird articulating handle and you had to like basically pan with your thumb. And then like you really had this like crazy, I don't even know what the word is, but yeah, like, yeah, steady cam era.

I remember looking at those because like I got my first gimbal, I want to say 2018 or 2019. And even then they weren't necessarily cheap yet, but then I saw Josh Wei put one up for sale earlier this year and it was like, I think he had it up for like 150 bucks. I'm like, f*** you. Are they actually that cheap? So then I went online. I'm like, no way. I'm like, that's crazy. Cause like I got a Ronin M again, this is my second Ronin M cause I sold my previous one cause I was like, f*** video.

But yeah, I have an S, I think I paid 300 bucks for it for disaster SC, but brand new. It was $300.

Yeah. And I like these, so Chun Media, so he's got like the smaller one. And I guess everybody, cause like now I got the old version, it's like, come on. But like these smaller ones are like, I want that cause it looks, it's just getting smarter and smarter. Like for example, like Jason's like, he's able to like lock it in place now. So like when he's walking around, it's just not free hanging.

Yeah.

I don't know if mine does that currently, but I don't know.

Yeah. I was in a weird position where like, yeah, kind of an old head learning to use gimbals. And then I kind of got leapfrogged by the younger generation of video guys. And then now I'm just kind of like, I'm going to just handhold it then. And so that was kind of my jam was just like high energy handheld stuff. And I think I got really good at that. So that was that was why I was on West for Jacob, which was super fun. I had a ton of fun on the Crown West.

It's just another perspective on the rally because like, obviously they had the, you know, the car and then they had all their gimbal guys and then having a POV guy. Like, it's just, it's cool to stitch all that stuff together because like when they shot my rally coming up on two years here soon, like they gave me so much. They gave me drone like everything I needed to piece together an awesome video and just all these various angles because I think they would run and gun with the POV stuff, a lot of gimbal stuff. So super cool.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Crown, the first couple of years we shot it, which was with my buddy John, who is the guy that I shot Proving Grounds with, we were we didn't have a camera car. And like the first north we went on, we actually didn't even have a vehicle. I just we both jumped in random cars at the first checkpoint and we would go a checkpoint in the back seat of that car and film and like get shots of them driving and like, you know, waving in other cars and like looking at the map and arguing or whatever. And then we would get out at the next checkpoint and film some B roll of cars pulling up and then just hope to find another car to hop into and then like seven, eight, nine checkpoints later we were in Chicago, hopefully, and make sure that John's there as well. And then like, OK, our bags made it in some other vehicle and like, yeah, it was a s******* for us, not for the rally. Like the the method to our madness was a bit chaotic.

Yeah. Thanks for saying the standard for the rest of us, because when I so I actually ended up doing Crown Rally as well as a photographer back in 2018, I think it was their second time doing South. I think it was. And that was crazy. So I actually so here's the deal. So I was starting college, like no joke, like the day like Crown Rally ends, right or whatever. So it's like I had to figure out a lot of things. So number one was like if I basically so I got the call from Justin or whatever, like 16 hours before I had to be in Chicago. No, not 16, like literally a day and a half. It's like the next day I had to be on my way. So after I agreed to do it for like what was it like 300 bucks or whatever, because like I was a new photographer on the scene and it's like, you know, this is pre inflation. So $300 is a lot, especially for somebody else broke as me. So anyways, I'm like, let me get back to you because like I had to take off work for the weekend and I was like, f*** yeah, I'll quit because like this is like this is like a dream come true. Like being a new automotive photographer on the scene, it's like doing crown was like top tier. Like, I mean, we all know how big they got. Just shooting 125 cars across the country. Yeah, bet your a** I'm in and get paid for it. What? But yeah, but anyways, so then I had to figure out how to, cause like the thing is, is like, if you miss the first day of class in college, you can get dropped from the class and then that f**** up your entire, you know, like I love our academic system. It's like sick, f*** up my next 40 years, thanks. But anyways, got that sorted out. And then we had to figure out how was I going to get down. So I ended up riding with Kelly Wraith in the Camaro in the Wonderbread Camaro that had this stupid Fig Newton sticker across the front.

I spent a lot of time in that car on West as well.

Yeah, yeah.

I love Kelly.

Yeah, he's good s***. So we, so I rode down with him, we had a convoy of, I want to say eight cars going down to Chicago. And I didn't know where I was sleeping, none of this stuff until like midnight, by the way. Like we had like a powwow, I want to say around 1145, where it was just the media team. It was my first time meeting like Tom and all these other guys. I'm like, I don't know what I'm doing. So then what ended up happening? So what was the next car? So I ended up riding in the CTSV with Marcus from Detroit. I don't know if I've ever met him. I think he's done North a handful of times. He had a great...

I think Smith used to have a CTSV. I wonder if it's the same one. Black manual wagon?

No, no, no. It was gray. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it was a sedan. But I ended up riding with them from Chicago to Indy, and from Indy to wherever... Some gas station. And then I ended up being at the same gas station as Savage Garage. And I was like, I'm gonna go see if I can go ride with them. Worst thing is, this is the first time in my life I've ever said worst thing they'll ever say is, no, you know? So went over there, jumped into Uris with Randy Savage, and he's like, you'll probably have more fun in that thing. And he points to his SVJ. I'm like, f****** right, I will. So I jumped in the SVJ, and it was supposed to be until like the next stop. Ended up being four hours just through the crazy mountains and all that stuff. Yeah, freaking nuts. We even drag raced to Uris and the SVJ at a stoplight, did like a tunnel run at like 140 miles an hour in the SVJ. And then, by the way, I felt horrible because I left all my luggage into CTSV, and it was going back and forth in the backseat, and they eventually just were like, f*** this, we had to change this up. I felt so bad when I found out about that. And then it came full circle. I ended up doing Tail of the Dragon as a passenger with Kelly and the Camaro. So yeah, dude, Crown Rally, it's such a different experience. Like that, I'm so happy I ran my own rallies for a while because it's just, there's nothing on the planet like a rally. Would you say the same? Did you enjoy them?

Some core memories. Yeah, it was like, the first one I rode, I'm gonna pause long here for names.

No, you're good.

I'm not sure if the names matter, but the first one, just some of the ride along, like as a filmer, you're looking for cars that have back seats, because on rallies, most people have co-drivers.

Yes.

So you're in big cars, a lot of CTSVs and stuff like that, and there happened to be a P1 with no passenger, no co-driver, and he was at the checkpoint with me fumbling around trying to figure out what car I was in, and I was like, hey, Kevin. I was like, hey, Kevin, you don't have a passenger, right? Can I jump in with you? And he's like, no, kind of fumbled through it and said no. And I was like, all right, that's fine. And then I ended up in a different car, and then the next checkpoint, he pulls up, and he's like, get in. I'm like, oh, no way. I was like, get in, and I'm like, all right. I'm in a P1, about to go on a rally, and I'm also the co-driver, because he doesn't have a co-driver. So I'm like, navigating while holding a camera. I'm like, trying to read, because Crown Rally does the very vague checkpoint situation, where it's like a riddle at times, where you get a coordinate, and there's like, it's a game.

I had to do that in DSVJ, and we lost connection.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I know.

Yeah, so spent, similar story. It was supposed to be one checkpoint, and it was like four hours, and at one point, it was absolutely downpouring, and we're at getting gas at some random gas station, and there's people like, the energy that you get in a rural Wisconsin town on Crown North in a P1.

It's insane.

Dude, when we were like, what is that? Like what? They're like, like, flooding flies away from, yeah, it was just nuts.

It was the funniest thing, dude. We were in the Appalachian Mountains, where we stopped over for I think a quick snack or whatever at a gas station as well. Which by the way, we were literally on fumes because we could not find a gas station. Like, cause like I was navigating and side note, I missed the turn a few times. Cause like, again, when you're navigating with no connection and updates, like, oh s***, we're supposed to take a turn a mile and a half back. But dude, like it's wild though. We were at the gas station and John or whatever was like on a smoke break and then all these like, it's like they came out of the forest, like all these like hillbillies, like actual hillbillies, like singing, you know, from the coal mine came out. They came out and they're just like, takes a long drag of the cigarette. The f*** is that? Like, you know, just like.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Pulling up to a rural gas station in Orange P1. The lady working the gas station comes out. She's like, what is that? Yeah, like literally, is that a Ferrari? Is that a Lamborghini?

It's amazing. It's such an amazing energy. Because think about, and I think they may have, I don't know, because a lot of these routes are used by the same rally or several rallies nowadays. So it's like, I feel like once a year, they just hear one loud car coming. Because it's awesome. I don't know if you saw this in rural Wisconsin, but there'd really be like 10 or 15 people sitting on a hillside just watching us blast by.

They're like in chairs. They knew it was coming. They heard one car and they ran to their garage, or they were listening to police scanners or something.

Jepro, hear those spaceships coming. But no, Supra, it's a different level of energy, dude. I would love to see them back. Even though I will be involved with the community for upcoming rallies, and there's a lot of other great rallies out there right now, it's just they became the biggest name. Yes, sure, Gold Rush is the craziest, and Gumball and all that, but I don't think anybody had more cars ever than Crown.

Yeah, and I think that Gumball and Gold Rush is a...

Celebrity of Crown.

Celebrity, yeah, that's exactly what I was going with that. It's more of a show than it is car enthusiasts creating core memories together. It's been fun to see the progression of Crown too, from seeing it in 2015, 2016, and the level of organization from then to now, and seeing how much money's been raised, and how many people have had so much fun doing it.

It'll never be perfect on communication front. I've heard it from a number of people, like complaints over the years, and it's just like, when you're dealing with that many people, to make like Crown Rally Add's peak probably had at any given point, four or 500 people. Cause like when you think about 150 cars plus passengers, and then you have all the volunteer staff, and then every single, like it's just a lot to go on. So I don't know, I'd love to see it make a comeback at that scale, but that's such a hard scale to manage. Cause like, when you would look at the lists every year, it's like, oh, 8,570 S's, six Aventadors, 19 Huracans, AKA Civic of Supercars, like, you know, it's just a million. So, so then you've done four of those then. Did you do two of them in a 300, you said? One.

I drove north in 2019 in the 300. Which was fun.

Was it pretty stock back then? Or what was done to it?

Yeah, stock and pro-charged.

Okay, stock and pro-charged.

Yeah, totally bone stock, everything with some SRT4 injectors and P1 pro-charger.

Okay.

P1 SC.

So what would that put it at power-wise? Five hundreds?

Five-ish. It was on 91 at the time.

And then, so where did the build go from there, then? Because is that before or after you met Bryce?

After.

After, so yeah, okay.

Because I bought the car pretty much stock. It had some 22-inch Viper wraps on it. Way about 62 pounds a piece.

No joke. Are they actually that heavy?

Yes, without a tire on it. They're okay. They're off the truck, the SRT 10, those wheels. That's the look that they were. And it had the body kit on it, which is a sought after front end body kit in that community. So yeah, when I bought it, Bone Stock, 2007, I bought it in 2015-ish, 16? Because yeah, Hellcats had just come out, so yeah, 2015-ish, 2016. And then did some work on my own with some people from work, which would have been MAP at the time. I'm working for an import tuner shop, and we're doing after hours work on a Hemi. And so we f***** it up pretty big time. And bent a bunch of rods. And I think I was just kind of poking around for help. And even then, Bryce was like the guy. But this car is even way back then, it went up to Sheridan to get worked on.

Yikes.

They f***** it up royally.

Shocker.

And then I went to a guy in Elk River for tuning that was a LS tuner at the time. I don't even know if he's still around. He f***** it up even more. And lied to me about it. I was supposed to be being tuned while I was on vacation, and I had a buddy go check it out. I'm like, it hadn't even been touched the day I was coming back type situation, like standard nightmare tuning situation. And I guess that's not a nightmare. It could have been way worse, but it didn't get done. And so I picked it up from him, the untuned, got my money back, I think. I don't remember, but yeah. And then I think just like, please, God, someone to help me fix this car. And Bryce came up through the Mopar community. And yeah, we've been, you know, best friends ever since pretty much. Excuse me. So from there, yes, from there, it was a cam. And then shortly after, bags and pro charger. And then that was right around when I took it on Crown. So yeah, stock block, stock everything on 91 with a P1 at like 8 PSI would have been 5, 515 maybe to the tire.

Yeah, that's a 6.1 in there, right? Yeah.

Yeah.

God, that's an amazing motor. I learned about those a couple of years ago, like just how potent they were. It's like, oh, they're way better than a 6.4.

Yeah. Yeah, they are. Yeah. I don't know if you want to go down that whole rabbit. I don't know if you want to talk about one of the car now.

I'd love to, yeah. Yeah, why not? Let it rip. Let me strap in here.

Yeah, it's like it just depends on which direction you want to go with things.

It's your day.

But yeah, so yeah, I mean, after that, it was I decided that I wanted, because this is the first car I've ever modified and the only car I've ever modified. And of course, it's a f****** Hemi, which is the worst car to modify.

Is that a Gen 2 or Gen 3, technically, like the Hemi? Because I know Bryce specializes in like Gen 3 Hemis. Would you know what yours would be? I don't know.

Two.

Two? I think. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. This is going to be a text question for Bryce.

We'll get schooled in the comments.

It's okay.

I think it's a two. I don't know my Gens.

Nonetheless.

I don't know anything.

That's why that's why we pay price.

I learned, unfortunately, pretty late to not touch anything on any car ever. Yeah. So, yeah, it was stock block pro charge for a long time and super, super fun. Just playing around with that, you know, doing cosmetic things here and there. I got rid of the wheels pretty early on. Yeah, if they're that heavy, they were insane. I had no like they were heavy and I weighed them one time and I was like, this is like there's no way they're like, you know, 70, 80 pounds with a tire on it.

It probably was ridiculously fast after you got rid of them.

And so then, yeah, from there, I put charge stock charger wheels on. And it was like just would blow the tires off. And yeah, did that for a long time, slowly just kind of figured out a game plan because I knew I wanted to like go for big power with it. So after that, built a motor that was fine. Got built by Jake, the local guy, SRE, Sampson Racing Engines, who I think he's still around. I think he's still building motors. So yeah, he built a motor that took me a while just chipping away stuff's expensive. So chipping away at that. And then the plan was to just kind of go down the line and then turn it up once everything was bulletproof. So built the motor and then built the trans. And then most recently got a one piece driveshaft for it. And then it's got a whole Hellcat rear end swap. So cradle and axles and all that stuff. So yeah, the trans building was an absolute nightmare. That was like mid COVID is when that happened.

And oh, it delays all over, I bet.

Yeah, this is a five speed nag one that was being built. I wanted to make a thousand wheel. That's been the goal ever since I've had it.

Is that the same five speed that's in like the all wheel drive chargers? Maybe? I don't know.

I think so. There might be some differences with like solenoids and stuff, but more stuff that is above my.

Again, the people we pay. Like you'll never see me doing anything complex on the golf, at least in the near future. That's why we're here at Ratified.

I mean, so I paid a bunch of money for this reputable guy to build this trans, shipped it to Florida, and it was months. Pay half up front, which was like three grand, and everything was on paper. We're getting all this stuff, and here's everything we're getting, and bill it, stall, and all this other stuff. And he's, oh, we're working on it, we're working on it, it's being worked on, we're working on it, it's being worked on, it's going to ship in a month. And he's like, oh, we're waiting on parts, and then now we're working on it, and then it got to the point where he's like, it's done, and I shipped it. I was like, cool, once I get tracking, I'll give you the rest of the money. And he's like, oh, there's no tracking. What do you mean there's no tracking? This is a $7,000 transmission. You don't have tracking? And so luckily, unluckily, Bryce had a funeral to go to in Florida, which is where the TransBuilder was based. And so he stopped by. This guy had a shop. He had employees. And stopped by, and there was my transmission sitting on the pallet that we shipped it on, still wrapped, untouched. So Bryce stayed there while this guy finished the Trans. Like, he stayed a few extra days to literally watch this guy finish the transmission, shipped it with tracking. And I was like, all right, I guess I'll just give you the rest of the money, you know, in good faith. Like, Bryce theoretically watched this thing go out the door. And yeah, sure as s***, shows up, totally ready to rock without a stall. No stall, no torque converter. And so I'm like, hey man, like, there's no, there's just, this is not here. I paid you for it. He's like, oh yeah, they're back ordered. I'm like, okay, well, like, get it. So then ordered one and they were like three months out, like whatever, month goes by, it shows up. I'm like, all right, cool. That showed up sooner than expected. Put it in, you know, everything's great. And then tuning and all that stuff, everything's going great. And then I'm like, all right. So then that was 2021-ish probably. And I store the car in the winter. So then the following spring, put the battery in, go to turn it on, and it starts on fire. And smoke coming out of the hood, like wipers are going crazy, it's honking, and the battery's like sparking. And the terminal had like fused itself together. So I'm with the closest thing to me was a crescent wrench and whacking the battery trying to break it off. And eventually get it off, and it had like melted, like the, I forget what the little point, the thing that the terminals connect to on the battery was like melted. And so I'm like, all right, call Bryce. He's like, just don't touch it.

So what would that conversation like when you pick up the phone, what's the first thing you say?

Oh, I was borderline crying.

Yeah.

You know, like so much b******* has already been through. And then it's on fire. And yeah, it's like, yeah, just don't touch it. I'll be right there. And he comes and there's this this big like zero gauge wire that goes from the starter to the firewall. That's like two feet that was not. It was gone. The whole wire was like in two little pieces at each end, and it had totally melted, I guess. So then it was a whole year of just chasing already crappy Chrysler electronic gremlins of like getting my taillights to work. And, you know, like what fuses did it blow? And why does three of the four windows not work? Why is one window working? And like, OK, my headlights half work sometimes. And then, you know, like just stupid stuff that was already pretty stupid because it's Chrysler and it's got a bunch of dumb stuff to it already.

My empathy is raging right now because like even though this happened years ago, I'm like, I feel the I would be so f****** annoying.

We're not even to the most recent part yet. So this spring, I was in Saudi with my wife visiting family and Bryce. This spring, we were going to turn it up. This was the all I needed. Everything was built. Everything was bulletproof for a thousand wheel. I can launch it on the track. The theoretical weak point was the axles, which with slicks launching at the track, they're good for a thousand ish stock Hellcat axles. So I'm like, OK, I need fuel and I need a head unit, and we're ready to rock. I wanted to go from five to seven, eight hundred, and then to a thousand. Because I was like, I can't just go from five to a thousand, I will die. I've driven some fast cars, but not thousand horsepower rear wheel drive cars that are 4,400 pounds.

I'm just curious, before you continue, what do you have for traction control in that? Or what do you have, like, I'm guessing you don't have a MoTec or anything like that?

It's all stock.

It's all stock? Just curious.

So yeah, I bought a big fat fuel pump, because previously up till then it had been on a booster pump, which is a thing that I don't understand how it works, but it boosts your stock fuel pump using electronics. And booserdry. So yeah, it's...

What was it called?

Booster pump.

Okay.

Yeah, I think they're pretty common, actually. It worked for me great. It worked great for like two, three years on 91. So yeah, we were going to turn it up. Bigger fuel injectors. So I bought, you know, 1200 cc injectors, and I bought a big, I think it was a 525 pump, put that in, and like got the special hat for it and all this stuff, and gets on the dyno, and it made like 548 on the P1 and like 9 or 10 psi. And we're just figuring out that now I'm running out of air, so we got to redo the intercooler system and all this other stuff, and he's like on and off the phone. I'm like in Saudi, like trying to talk to him about tuning and like crazy time difference, and everything turns out fine. The new injectors and everything get tuned, and it's great. He's running great. So he drove it while I was gone just to get it good and come back. And so I'm driving it, still getting used to it and driving it to work, and I'm driving home from work one day. I hadn't even really gotten on it all spring, and driving down my street going home, and it gets stuck in third. And I'm like, okay, cool. Pull into my driveway, all neutrals, and then it like rolled, found reverse, and so I have a pretty long driveway, so I was just figuring out where we were at, and I was like, you know what? Put it in park, shut it off, call Bryce. He's like, don't drive it, don't do anything. So he's like, we're just going to see what's going on, pull the trans, pull the pan, and the oil is shiny, the fluid. Fluid is glittery. I'm like, cool, this is the built trans now. And there's a couple little chunks in there, so we call the guy that built it, and we're like, what the f***, man? This is a 1500 wheel transmission, and it made 550, 548, and it broke. And so he's like, yeah, I don't know. We'll have to look at it. It could have just been the stall that failed, and blah, blah, blah, blah. So I'm distraught, laying on my back in my garage, staring at the ceiling. What am I even doing anymore? Why am I even here? Why am I even doing this? I've spent a year's worth of mortgage on a transmission, and it doesn't work. And so the guy that built it from Florida agreed to fix it for the cost of shipping, which in the grand scheme of things was like $700. This guy's lied to me. He's dragged a** before, and I just need to... If I pay $300 and I never see this transmission again, whatever, I guess, and I'll just figure out what Plan B is. And so ship it to him, and a couple weeks go by, and he's working on it, and he's like, I think I got it fixed. I think it was just the stall. He's like, we put a new one in and cleaned it out. And so obviously, we got to clean out the pump and the lines on the car, because they theoretically have chunks in them, too. So that's all moving, and I get a call from Bryce, and the guy... His name's Chuck. The guy building the trans died.

Mm-hmm.

Mid build. Okay. That's... Yeah, Chuck died. And I'm like, what? He's like, yeah, he's dead.

That's a bummer.

Kidney failure. And I'm like, so now what? You know, obviously, like, RIP, but what do I do? He's got my stuff. I'm like, you know, luckily, he's got an employee that finished it, and this was all this year. So like this summer, it got shipped back to me, and it's sitting up at Moe's on a pallet, theoretically built. You know, I don't know how you check a transmission, if it's built or not.

That's a Bryce problem.

Yeah, you got to take it apart to look at it. It's not like you can just like look at it. You got to take it apart and know what you're looking at. So yeah, I was like, thank Lord for Bryce has just been, the car is cursed, or me. So yeah, I'm like, yeah, it's been on fire. It's killed people.

That's wild, dude. I wouldn't even know how to respond to that. Like, so every aspect of that, by the way, from the fire to the guy, like the guy building it, it's dead halfway through. That is crazy.

So I'm still like, do I, you know, hold on, I need an Advil, bro. I'm like many racks into a thousand horsepower capable car that may or may not ever see that, you know.

So where are we at today with it?

We are at the Trans-ZMOS, theoretically built. It's just got to go in, and we got to clean out the lines and stuff like that, and see if the pump also failed, you know, it's got a trans cooler on it and stuff like that. So all that stuff's got to be cleaned. It's got debris in it, theoretically. So yeah, I'm to the point where I'm like, I just want it together and I just want to drive it. It's fun at 550. I don't know if I care about 800. Like I'm just so deep into it, though.

Yeah.

Money and time and emotion and, you know, it's eight years of blood, sweat and tears. I know people always say that, but like, good Lord.

Yeah.

So that's the saga of the cursed 300.

Dude, there's people out there that just have a build that never is built. I get it. I've heard this story countless times.

It's had a lot of time on the street. It's had a lot of good times. Of course. And yeah, I know people that their bills have been down for four years. It's seen the road every year.

For a bit.

This year it was like a week.

Yeah, I mean, it should be getting there. I mean, I'm excited. You're in competent hands with Bryce, at least. And I'm just curious, what was the motive to send it down to Florida to get built?

He was the most affordable, reputable transbuilder at the time. There was another guy that was like number one, but it would have been like eight grand. Eight, nine grand. At the time, that was just absurd. It still is absurd. But yeah, I'm having thousand horsepower problems without any of the power of them. I make half of what I want, and I have the same downtime and number of problems as guys that I know that make double the power. It's like, yeah.

Yeah, because you would think the problems would start coming after it's tuned for the full thousand. Yeah. But you were still at 500-ish, right?

Yeah, it's never seen north of 548.

That's kind of wild when you think about it.

Which is damn near what it made with a stock trans and a stock block.

Yeah, right. So you never got to...

I was melting stock transmissions like once a year. I was at 515-ish.

What does a stock transmission cost though to get like a used one?

300 bucks.

Really?

Are they? Yeah. Really?

They're not... Okay, so it's like, f***, I was blowing another one up.

Yeah, I mean, and the time and labor that it takes to put it in.

That's probably where it...

Which sucks, but...

Yeah, that's probably more of the cost, I'm guessing.

Yeah. So, yeah. That's the 300 saga.

Will we see it next season ideally, hopefully, right?

Yeah, I'm hoping that the trends and stuff will go in this winter, and then we'll see how it goes.

Have you ever... So, I'm just curious, like, I'm sure at many, many, many points, you screamed at the... I wouldn't say the windshield, because that wasn't working, at the sky. Screaming at the sky. Have you ever thought about switching to a different platform or car at any point?

I'd love to. But I am financially so deep into this project.

Right. You're just committed at this point. Yeah.

It's like 40 grand, probably.

Well, it's like, you come to a point...

Because big power hemmies are not cheap.

No.

I'm like, yeah, I could have had a big turbo-built LS Donk. I could have had two of those by now. I could have had a Viper and a Donk by now.

Yeah.

Well, maybe not with current Viper prices, but...

That, yeah. That's ridiculous. They're coming back down, though. I'm currently watching AJ's Viper on Bring a Trailer. We'll see what happens to the ProCharge one.

Sure.

I'm curious to see how that'll do. I think the auction ends in like two days, but they shot up so much over COVID.

Yeah. They used to be able to get a Viper for like 30 grand.

Yeah. Like the Gen 1s.

Yeah, Gen 1.

Gen 2s were like 40, 50-ish, I think.

I'm not a big Viper market guy, but I have a lot of Viper friends, weirdly. Yeah. So, yeah. Chapter 2.

What's Chapter 2? Yeah.

What's the next thing?

You know how much money you can make off fricking reading audiobooks, by the way?

Me, personally?

Well, with your voice, easily. Yeah, you got the voice for it. You're like a white Morgan Freeman. Take with that, as you will. That's the other thing. I love saying absurd s*** on this podcast, because I know somebody's giggling looking at the windshield right now. No, you can make good money reading. I'm not sure how much, if it's gone down at all, with the introduction of AI and all that. But you can go online, pick any set of books or whatever. If people like your voice, you could basically just narrate Cat in the Hat or something.

I think that'll be completely dead in a year. I've seen AI voiceover stuff. One of my buddies works for Google in California. And he's sent me a video that's like an e-learning video. Like, here's how to do whatever you're doing at work. E-learning for work. And I want a 10-minute video, and he's like, this is a computer-generated voiceover. I was like, no, it's not.

It's ridiculous.

It's just a computer-reading text. And the technology is absolutely absurd.

Well, especially if your buddy's at Google or whatever, it's like, they're even further ahead. Like, they're aware of more things, because right now, the hot one, I think it's called 11 Labs. That's what I used a couple months ago. Literally, I think it was like a dollar to sign up. And I don't know if some people saw this on my page. I didn't get a lot of views on these videos, but I was able to take Biden's voice and just be able...

So scary.

Yeah, like, I could literally make Biden and Trump talking to each other about slow-a** Supras or whatever. Like, it's like, you know, just ridiculous. So that industry will be gone real quick too. I don't know. There's something to be said about human f***-ups though. Like when I listen to audiobooks, I don't know if you've ever listened to audiobooks, but it's a little bit... It's charming when they f*** it up, when you hear their lisp. But I'm sure we can incorporate that with AI. I don't know. But I don't know. For the next six months, take that beautiful voice of yours and do some audiobook reading. So I guess other car stuff wise then. So you've done Crown Rally. You've done, obviously, working on your car and all that fun stuff. Have you done any other large events, like proving grounds or anything like that?

Yeah, I've done, obviously, a ton of proving grounds. I went to proving grounds every year for eight years, probably. And then a couple C-months for various reasons. And then two or three years at Texas2k.

Okay.

Those are probably the big ones. And then some OG drift events way back in the day.

OG being? How back in the day are we talking about?

2014-ish. So not OG OG, but before we were on here, I was talking about I'm a self-proclaimed new old head. I'm not as old as some of the OG OG guys, but for the new crew, I'm the old head of the new crew. So yeah, 2014, I was in St. Louis, shooting for Midwest Drift Union, and then Detroit, back when they did Streets of Detroit, which is a throwback. I think 2015 was probably the last year they did that, to my knowledge. But yeah, it started pretty heavy with drift photography. But yeah, I think for the big, big event, big car events, outside of the states, this state would be SEMA in Texas2K.

So I guess, to kind of pivot, I guess, I mean, how would you, so would you be working, for example, like that drift event, would you be working as a paid photographer or anything?

Those two were actually for my senior project in college.

Okay, sweet.

Yeah, so at the end of college, you do a big senior project. And in graphic design, you get to do basically whatever you want. So I branded a fake drift event, which I needed real drift event coverage for. So I went out and went to two MDU events, like I said, Streets of Detroit, which was crazy. They literally drifted in front of this, I think it's called Union Station in Detroit. Oh, cool, okay. And then whatever the track is in St. Louis, I can't think of the track name off the top of my head. So yeah, and then making posters and a fake recap video, and then promoting that fake event for my project. But everything else, the SEMAs and Texas2Ks have all been for work.

Oh, really? Okay, so when you went to Texas2K, who was that under?

MAP.

Oh, MAP?

Yeah.

Same with SEMA then?

Two years of work, working Texas2K for MAP, and then one year that was just for fun.

What were you doing on behalf? Did they have a tent or something down there?

No, the first year... Let me think about that. No, the first year was just with MAP friends. The second year was paid for MAP that we were doing features. So we featured a bunch of people down there.

That had MAP parts?

Yeah, and more so just niche vehicles. There was a big turbo high horsepower BRZ that was out there on the street, and then we did one on a gentleman named Omar that had the, I believe, quickest and fastest STI. It's like 1,400 horsepower, 2016-ish STI that's running like eight, I think.

Crazy. Think about how much... I could just see the vape smoke coming from behind.

Yeah, that thing was nuts. And then obviously we've always been, through MAP, pretty closely connected to 1320. They sponsored 1320 forever. You can watch the intro to 1320. It's Procharger and MAP. And the third one, maybe? Texas Speed. So yeah, the first year going down there was just with MAP buddies. Tim, who had a big turbo, A4. It was a VR6 A4 that made like 900 wheel. And then we had a newer gen GTO that was Buddy Jakes that made like 820. Which was like, yeah, the 2017-ish era. So like 900 all wheel, which was, it still was absurd. But even then, like five, six years ago, we were unbeatable. And I had, you know, I'm texting Kyle from 1320. The first Texas2K were in a group text, and I get a text from Kyle that's a location, and it says, no cars on our 800 wheel, no spectators, and an address. I'm like, this is the coolest text that I've ever gotten. It's from Kyle. So yeah, you show up, and it's, yeah, like, supers with chutes and, you know, like the UGR Lamborghinis and stuff, but on the street, you know, the meetup spot is like midnight, and then you stick around for two hours, and then you go out on the street and do Texas2K street stuff.

Dude, you're taking me back to some core memories because my first year at Texas2K, it's like, you know, we went to this, like, crazy meetup. I mean, people are parking up and down the street, and again, you see everything from, like, crazy 6, 7, 800-horsepower Civics to, you know, again, UGR Lambos, but they take the stickers off, because I think they make them take the stickers off nowadays.

Probably.

Because, like, I've never seen, like, at least on the street, I don't think I ever see, like, UGR cars have stickers anymore, which only makes sense.

It's not a good look.

It's not a good look.

For marketing.

Yeah.

Which makes sense.

Well, like, for example, like Mike Johnson with the Mustang or whatever, like, he started getting a lot more sponsorship opportunities once he started doing actual track stuff. Because, like, the street racing stuff, like, as fun as it is and as cool as it is, it's hard to make money off of, you know.

If not impossible.

Yeah.

Unless you're doing cash pots, you know.

Yeah.

Which is not, it's a totally separate entity than, you know, title sponsors or whatever.

But yeah, I need to get some more street racing. Like, I need to get, like, the head of a ring on here and then just blur their face.

Yeah.

Like, I need to get one of those.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We, that first year at Texas, we had some pretty, pretty crazy lineups because, you know, like, the 900 horsepower Audi was, people were gunning for it. And we had, like, Tony, who's a bad Cobra.

Yes, yep.

He was with us. And then, like, Josh Seeling.

I don't know if I know him.

And his brother Rob, I think. He also had a Supra at the time. But yeah, like, four, five, six cars, all well over 800.

Well, Tony's make, I want to say, like, close to 2,000 nowadays, maybe.

15-ish?

Yeah, 1,600, I think.

Never even been in that car. Yeah. Just been near it. Yeah. He was, people were, like, gunning for him hard for a couple years down there, and that was cool to see, and, like, be in, like, that circle that's, like, watching the race, watching Tony and three Supras with chutes, four wide in Texas, and, yeah, like, we would, you know, like, scout for stuff ahead, and then they blow you, cars going by you at 200 miles an hour on the freeway, and they're pulling chutes on the freeway. Really? Yeah, like, stupid stuff. We had, like, super late, like, obviously, you've been to Texas, you go sometimes all night, and there was one that, it was just a random group text, random address, and we show up, it was, like, four in the morning, this business park in Texas, and, like, literally the sun's coming up, and we're like, no one's showing up, it's, like, just our little group. You know, there's, like, six of us, we're like, this is, like, a fake bunk address, or, like, what, like, a decoy address, or, like, what, like, there's literally nobody there. And we're waiting, we're waiting, we're waiting, and this, like, F-350 pulling an enclosed trailer pulls up. And I'm like, what? And another one, and these two dudes trailer these two cars to the spot, and this guy gets out with, like, a full race suit, like, helmet, neck brace, and gets in, they pull out this car, and he gets in it, and I'm like, oh, this is the race. And, like, sun's coming up, and then people start filling in the parking lot, and these two cars line up, and they have the flares, like, the road flares out to, like, mark the little start point, and, like, I'm just, like, blacking out. I'm like, this is... These two guys just trailer their cars to a spot, and it's a dig grudge race that we just stumbled upon. And, like, I had never... This was the first time I'm experiencing anything like that. I'm like, oh, my God. These guys are, like, doing the tire compound stuff and, like, doing the thing and...

Like heating up the street and stuff?

And they got the flashlight guy ready to go, and these two cars, they're, like, lined up. Guy with the flashlight does his thing. He does whatever that some... You know, like, two clicks and then runs back and then clicks it again and then drops it, and they go and, like, full-on wheelies on the street, and, like, one gets kind of saucy, and they're like, we're gonna run it back. We're gonna run it back. And then, like, they come around the block and do it again, and then, like, a bunch of cheering. I'm like, I'm blacked out at this point because I am just so overwhelmed with what's going on. Like, two 2,000-horsepower, full-on comp cars, like, on the street. And we hear sirens in the distance, and everybody's just, like, breaks up. All of a sudden, we're running, and I'm like, oh my, like, what? And I see, like, one of the black cars just pull into the trailer, and, like, they close the thing and drive away with him in the car still. And then next thing we know, we're, like, on the highway with one of the trailers, and he's got, like, three, four guys on Hayabusa's, like, running offense and, like, scouting for him to get away from the spot, and, like, just crazy. And then, like, Texas is over, like, whatever. Like, the next day is, this was all, like, 30 minutes. And we go to sleep, wake up the next day, and we're, like, driving home, and, you know, my buddy Tim is on the internet, and we come to find out that this was, like, a cash pot grudge race that was, like, 10 grand that we had just watched. Super casual.

I know exactly what you mean when you get, like, overstimulated in a situation like that, because you don't know what's going on.

Yeah, you're just like, this is me, I'm here, and this is real, and, yeah.

It's like you're in a movie.

Yeah.

Like, it literally is, like, a Fast and Furious grudge race.

Holding my camera and just, like, trying to consume what's going on and be, yeah.

So what, you have no idea what kind of, like, do they, like, build cars with, like, shells or something?

One of the cars was, um, he was famous, grudge racer. Black Jesus. It's like a fox body. One of them was a fox body, and one was a... Camaro.

Okay.

I got two thousands of, like, catfish.

Oh, okay. So, like, a catfish.

I'd have to factor. It's been a while. But, yeah, one of them was Black Jesus. I think a Google bull grudge racer.

Okay.

So, I don't remember what he drove at the time, but, yeah, ended up that was the rate. Like, there was 10 grand on the line for this race that we just stumbled across.

We'll pull up the footage. Yeah. We'll check the replay.

There is footage. I do have... This is all stuff that I can give you B-roll for.

We are 1000% doing a highlight of this. This is ridiculous. But, no, dude, I totally understand. So this year, we actually started hitting some... Okay. So the first year I went to Texas2K, I went with Chaz, Jessica, and Marina. And it was four of us in a 8-900 wheel at Trackhawk or whatever. The thing is, is when you travel with a big group like that, it's a catastrophe. Like, everybody wants to do something different. Like, we didn't necessarily have a plan, and the non-committal things happen. It's like, are we doing it? Are we not? So this year was just me and Sean, so we took out his Hellcat Durango. And that was a blast. Outside of the issues we had with the welds not fitting, and it falling off the jack stand, and listeners of this podcast are all too familiar with that story. But, anywho, we went out. I think we only got like two races in against the Supra and I think a Tesla Plaid, which we knew was going to dust us anyway. But we were going from spot to spot, and like, you know, some of the spots was like a meetup spot, so that was cool. But like, when you see like 11, 12 cars, you know, just packing like a pump. So first of all, I'm being overstimulated thinking about, I don't even know where to start with this, because it was such a crazy night. Like, I got to see Kyle off this like in person, which, you know, is like, again, like, this is a scene I'm just starting to break into. So I'm like, oh, cool. Like, he walked right past me at this, like he literally got video. Yeah, the camcorder, he shot the video right in front of me. So like, that was super cool. But like, we're in this parking lot of a gas station, like waiting for people, like Kyle was jumping in to cars to go out racing and whatever for his footage. And funny enough, it was actually the same meet that Trey and his dad were at. So actually they got front row parking. So they were smart where they parked because everybody, like me and Sean were blocked in. This gas station was literally car to car, nowhere to pass through. It was packed. Like, there is nothing like this Texas racing scene that I've seen in my life. It literally was like a movie. But even then, like we started going from spot to spot, like racing spots, because like me and Sean, we just wanted to get a couple of races in. Like the Durango is fast. Like it's not, you know, near as fast as anything down there, but we had the chance for a few decent races, but then we started running into more and more cops. Like it was like we'd get to a spot, and it's just a hornet's nest. Like out of nowhere, like 10 cop cars, you got to get the f*** out of here.

Yeah, and it's, I think it's just gotten worse.

Well, because they ramped it up. So I think that's one of the good things about it moving to Dallas, because like I shouldn't say good things because it's going to be wild, but I'm doubtful that they will be ready for it.

Sure.

Because like when Texas2K comes to town, it is, it's like a car festival. Like it's like in Houston, like the same craziness that's going on in the Southwest is going on in the Northeast an hour and a half away.

Yeah.

It takes over the whole city. Yeah. So I'm excited.

Yeah, we went, man, I went with Adam in his Viper. That was the last time I went, which was for fun. And we got a couple of races in. That wasn't near the wild.

Which Viper of his?

Adam Smith, the red Viper.

Oh, that Viper. Okay, that Adam.

And he had just gotten it, I think pretty much wrapped up. So, yeah, 1400 wheel.

What was this, two years ago, you said?

Yeah, 2021-ish.

Oh, that was probably the year, I think that was the year that he ended up on the video or whatever. Yeah, I think so, because that was the same video that Chaz ended up in. Like, they were like, so they brought like the, I think it was the M4, the M5 CS, which was fast as s***, had a JB4 tune. And it's like, oh, this guy's, you know, we got the Viper over here, and then we got this guy, he's doing a ride over here, he's got AC and cooled seats, and we'll still give you the gap. But yeah, I remember that year that Adam went, yeah.

Yeah, that's a scary car.

So is that the fastest car you've been in?

I was in one of Koi Christmas' GTRs, like 2000 horsepower GTR, that was at Power Cruise, I don't think he ever actually got on it. And then I've ridden in Joe Devito's Mustang.

Okay. What's that one make? Something...

It runs eights, I believe.

Yeah.

And yeah, we did a hit on the street on low boost, which I think was like 1400 wheelish. But that's a purpose-built car. Like, Adam's Viper, like it's just a bunch of power thrown at a little go-kart basically, so there's not a lot of like power to the grounds type situations, whereas like Joe's car, I think, is quite a bit more intentionally built for one specific purpose, which is dumb speed. So yeah, that's a crazy car. Also, yeah, he runs a DeVito Racing up in Fargo now. DeVito Racing Compound, I think, is the full name. So I think that's probably, I did a little video for him a couple of years ago, 2020 or so. And yeah, we did a poll on 52 in St. Paul on the bridge.

I remember fricking Adam showing up to Jeff Storm's birthday at his house. And we were all just in the back of the deck, or whatever. Jeff had this amazing spread for his birthday. Barbecue and all this.

I've been.

And then we hear, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think you were there at that one.

Maybe as a realtor.

Did you know?

We might have been at the same birthday.

But fricking Adam pulls up in the Viper and just, just anti-lagging or whatever, or two-stepping. People always get mad when I mix those up, but two-stepping in front of his house in a neighborhood, just burning the asphalt right wild.

Yeah.

I think he was doing that a lot on Crown too. Like every single gas station he'd be just two-stepping.

That's such a weird feeling, the rolling anti-lag thing. I experienced that for the first time in Chris O'Regan's Evo, a white one.

Oh, okay. That's a fast car.

Oh, no, they're scary. That's a car that you're like, if we crash, there's nothing, because it's a s***** little Evo.

It's not...

In the Viper, it's weird because it's a convertible, but I felt you feel safe. You're much lower, and it feels safer. I don't know. Evos do not feel safe to me.

Well, is there a cage in an Evo?

No, I don't think there was. That's a street car. He doesn't track that car, really. I think he does power cruise, but...

I don't think Adam has one either, or Adam Smith, rather. I don't think he has a cage.

No, they have those dumb little loops behind them. Maybe.

I've been in the other Adam's Viper, the 2000 horsepower Gen 5, and I just feel safe in that car. First of all, it's got MoTeC, so it's ridiculous. I remember one time, one of my first times being in that car, I think it was the first or second time I was in that car. It was a cold night. We were driving past Enthmodo, and he's like, let's see if they can figure out who it is. So, he anti-lags or whatever, and I'm like, oh, we're sideways. But then when you stay in it with the MoTeC, it just corrects itself. That's one of the last things you want to do, is let off, because then the car just wants to swing around even more.

Yeah, the weight shifts like crazy.

I literally just dropped the highlight on this yesterday. It's just talking about that oversteer, it just snaps or lift off oversteers, what it's called, I think. It's just ridiculous. The thing is, I feel safer in that car at 180 miles an hour than I did in my Jeep Gladiator at 80. Which, to be fair, I've done 110 in the Gladiator too. I maxed that f***** out going downhill.

I feel that.

Yeah, it's ridiculous. I mentioned for Texas2K, man, you brought back some core memories on that one.

Yeah. I think the last one was, I think I'm good on street speed.

Yeah, what makes you say that?

We spent a bunch of time in a six-something wheel BRZ.

That's a lot.

Going 170 in a BRZ, I was just like, I think I'm done here. It was literally this epiphany moment where we're street racing in a BRZ. This tin can. Most races are 40, 60 rolls, depending on, some are 80 rolls if you're in stupid fast stuff. 60 rolls, so it's 60 to 160-ish. And 160 for him was the top of fourth, I think. And he would win the race against whatever, and he would grab fifth, and then just keep going. And I'm like, what are you, no, stop. And we would go to like 175, 180, and then he just wanted to really pound that win home. And yeah, 175, 180 in a BRZ, and I was just like, I don't want to do this anymore. I'm done with the sketchy street speed stuff.

I feel that. I've gotten up to 150 in my golf, and I'm just like, I don't think I want to go more. Because I know I can, but I'm like, in this car, I don't know. It's different in a GTR. I've taken GTRs up to 150. I've taken the GT500 up to 166, and it's like, those cars are capable of it. You feel safe-ish.

We did like 190 in a certain car on a certain event, and I was like in a McLaren, and you're like, this is fine. I feel fine. You're ACs on, listening to music. You got a podcast playing. It's just casual. You're like, oh, we're going 190. It feels like 90. And you're like, this is totally fine.

It is different on events like that.

Because they're built for it. BRZs are not built for 175.

Sorry, cars like that. Yeah, no, BRZs were not designed for that. No.

So that was my last Texas 2K, and I think, yeah, sketchy street speed stuff.

Yeah, there's a certain limit. That's the other thing. You have to know who you're driving with sometimes, too. Sometimes you jump in with whoever, and it's like, all right, I mean, this guy seems legit. It's weird, because you want to jump in with somebody who you know is not going to have an ego that is going to want to go further, further, further and get you into a dangerous situation, too. That's why I think there's only been one or two people that I've really trusted. Because you are trusting them with your life.

Yeah, but that's the video guy journey. It's like you're just getting into cars with random people.

Yes. So you got to gauge it.

Who are you? What are you capable of? Because yeah, there's egos, and there's lack of skill, and those two things combined, and there's other factors, road conditions, pedestrians. There's so many things that are out of your control.

Yeah, and thankfully for the most, I think people are, from what I noticed, they were a lot smarter in Texas, too. Really organized, from what I saw, at least. There is that level of organization. I don't know if I really... From what I've heard, the scene's a little rough out here sometimes, depending on who you go with, what group you're with.

It is. Yeah. There's levels to the scene here. There's the fast car guys that are just in a group text, and that's it.

Twice a year maybe, get together.

And it's just friendship beef, and they bring along some friends, and yeah, then there's everybody else.

Dude, I was scrolling through my memories today on my phone. I was just trying to find something else, just for S's and G's, and I found one. I think it was from two or three years ago. There was a guy out here. I think he was on a bike or something else, and it was a screenshot of somebody's Snapchat. This was shared multiple times, a guy who lost his foot. Yeah, I remember that. Do you know what photo I'm talking about? Like, it's literally just a dude's leg and his foot and all this meat in between. I was just like, this looks like an Erik Blume shoot.

Yeah, I remember that. I wasn't there. I had nothing to do with it.

Yeah, just wild. Oh, man. Do you do much street stuff or not, really? I mean, we've made it out to a bunch of it, not so much.

For media or for personal driving?

Just for the heck of it.

Just here? Yeah.

A bit.

It's been a long time.

Yeah.

Yeah, I went out a couple times way back in the day with Joe and I think his name's Stu. He's got a newer GTO that's like 2,000 horsepower. And then I used to go to the way back when people would do digs on Shepard because I used to live right there. I'd just walk down there and watch people because the cops didn't really used to care a lot when people were doing it down there. Way back in the day, they would just like kind of roll up and stroll through the parking lot and be like, hey, you guys should go home. Yeah, it's like, oh, there's nobody over here. There's no pedestrians. There's no sidewalk. You know, it's a relatively safe space for people to be doing that. I think they kind of just were like, just stay over there and you'll be all right. But yeah, I haven't done much in a long time.

So it's a bummer that tracks are starting to shut down to like we, you know, the, you know, uh, Houston Raceway. They just tore down what earlier this year. It's like, that was the last Texas2K there. It's like, hopefully, uh, cause like, I don't know. Like, yeah, there's a place for street stuff. I feel like it, but you know, you still want to be able to go to an actual track.

People are doing the dumbest s*** of tracks now too.

The one, the video of the guy riding in the back of the pickup, the stupidest thing, dude.

Like, yeah, okay. That's how tracks get shut down.

Well, I think, so I was reading an article about it. I'm not sure if there's, you know, you can't even trust normal news pages nowadays. But I think that they had like one type of certification and then they were like, they didn't really care that they were going to lose it. I think it was like, I, they had like a IHRA or whatever license and then that's what they lost. But then they're getting an NHRA one next. I don't know how that, that's what the article said. It's like they were going to switch from one license to another, so they didn't care that they lost it doing the stunt. But I don't know.

Wouldn't the stunt make them not eligible for the new license, too, though?

That's kind of what I was thinking, too. I don't know. Either way, it was stupid. It was just dumb. Because like the truck's doing a full blown, like there's so much going on there that I'm just like, I mean, he's the only one in danger. Yeah, that's fair. I remember first time I did rollers hanging out of a truck bed, we had the bed open. This is like my third photo shoot ever, I want to say. It was with a black STI, shout out to Cheeto. I had to think on the name for a second, but I'm hanging out of this Dakota or whatever, and I'm like, oh, I'm slipping. I'm like, we're going 50. I'm like, okay, this is very dumb. So I never did that again, hanging out of laying down in a truck bed that's flat open. Yeah.

Yeah, I never did trucks. I had a forerunner that had the window that rolled down in the back.

So nice.

Incredible.

I did that. So a few years ago, we did some promo. I think it was promo for Crown maybe. We wrapped Michael Morgan's ACR or whatever, and I was helping Jake basically film or whatever. And yeah, window pops right open. Score. Super easy. They don't make cars like that anymore. Windows don't roll down in the back anymore. Stupid.

I got a wagon. I got to do the whole hatch now. Yeah.

Is that your daily?

Yeah.

Oh, you got a Volkswagen TDI? Oh, sick.

Okay.

Those are awesome.

Yeah. It's got a Eurocharged tune on it.

Okay.

And springs.

And springs? What color is it? Blue. Blue?

Yeah.

I remember Gabe used to have a black one.

It's like the worst color.

Yeah, it's rough.

I feel like every other color for that car looks better than the dark blue.

That's fair. They look good in black.

Yeah. They have like that light gray. I've seen white ones that look really good.

Yeah. Yeah.

Red. They have red ones. Oh, yeah. The blue is the worst.

I remember Molly from Crown or whatever. She was looking for a red one for a while. Never worked out.

I just saw her two days ago.

In town? Oh, interesting.

She rented my studio.

Oh, really? Yeah. Got you.

Oh, okay. Also more Crown people.

There's so many people from that community, dude. It's such a big community. Again, I'm coming full circle. I would love to see it come back and be successful. But even then, like, I'll be building something pretty awesome here with community next season. The next week, week and a half is going to be a bit of a whirlwind for those guys, which I can't disclose too much. So we'll see what happens there. But nonetheless, I think, let's see where we're at.

Time-wise?

Holy s***. Guess, guess how far deep into it we are.

Hour 36.

Six more minutes than that. Hour 42.

Hour 42.

Time starts flying, dude.

If you've made it this far.

Congratulations. Well, that's the thing, dude, like I always tell people, like the flow of convo really starts after an hour. Like even with people that like, you know, you talk to regularly, it's just like after that one hour. Flow of convo is great. So I'm sure Bryce is going to be jumping up and down that you were on this.

Yeah. I just saw him the other day.

Got to have him back on here. But anyways, for those of you that have listened to the show, at the end of every show, I like to ask a question. And this is basically to just get an idea of who you are, what your car tastes are, assuming that you win the Powerball. So the question goes like this. You have to choose three... It's been a few weeks since I've done this, by the way. I took a week off after SEMA. So the question goes like this. You have to choose three cars. One is going to be a show car, one's going to be a track car, and the hardest one for most people, the daily. You have an unlimited budget. But the only limitation is your imagination.

Daily is the easy one for me. Trackhawk.

Trackhawk for the daily. Okay. Would you modify it at all?

No.

Stock? Okay.

Okay. And then show car and race car?

Yes.

Basically. Do I, am I also paying for maintenance?

Unlimited budget. You know, so swaps and all this stuff. I mean, let's not make a bunch of glory rung cars, but.

Yeah, I think show car, I would go donk.

What kind? What car?

Like an 80s Regal.

Nice.

Or like a Monty SS.

I'm sold.

Yeah. Any, I don't know. I just love all of those.

And how big would your wheels be?

Um, 26, 28 ish. You know, nothing. I don't like, you get into those like 30s. I think that's a bit much.

I wonder what those wheels weigh.

Who knows? Yeah. Just a tasteful, tasteful, tasteful dog.

Tasteful money.

Yeah.

Okay.

I like the regals. I think regals are my favorite.

You're sending it to Caprice.

They're all, they're all good. I'm just naming them all off now at this point.

So now we're to track.

I got to go big because yeah, my budget's been pretty lame so far. Um, yeah, I would go all out like Koenigsegg or something. Yeah.

You're not a third person that said Koenigsegg on this show.

Yeah.

I'm not sure if it was for track car or for show car to previous guests, but yeah.

I mean, I think out of like the big three for the hypercars, I would go P1. I think they look the best. Like out of the 918, the P1 and the LaFerrari is the third one of that? Like the OG hypercars. But yeah, the older Koenigsegg for me.

Older Koenigsegg, like a CCX?

Yeah.

Oh, okay. Okay.

Those were always cool. I was like the first, I can pretty much like frame for frame play the top gear segment on the CCX. I think it was a CCX. It might have been like the CCR or whatever.

The one with the Crown Victoria motor, right?

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. He's like, does there, I remember that whole segment on top gear and I just fell in love with that car.

Yeah. That one was what silver? No, it was black. I can't remember. What color would you do?

I want to say silver. I'll go black. Black. Always black.

Black with like silver wheels?

Black, black.

Black, black.

Murdered.

Murdered.

Catch some heat for that probably.

No, I, all right. Now, settle this one for me. What are your thoughts on black wheels?

Love them.

Love them.

Yeah. Sorry, Cher.

He's got beef. I don't know.

No, they're fine.

They're not that hard to take photos of. They're not that bad. They can be, but like, I don't know, editing wise, I kind of figured that one out.

Yeah. You just got to not suck.

Just got to not suck. Well, like I learned how to just like, you know, bring my highlights, my whites up and it's like, all right, it's a little more detail back out there. I don't know. I'm not going to give away all my secrets, but. That said, though, where can everybody find you?

Like my address?

Maybe not. Let's start with web address.

Yeah. I mean, I don't, I have a personal Facebook and a work Instagram. And then I do have an Instagram for the car too. That's low PSI 300. I'm not on there much because it's been down all summer.

That's fair.

But there's some cool stuff on there. Some pretty rowdy burnouts and pulls and me snapping an axle and all that stuff. And then the photo account is EB photo 651. And then you can just add me on Facebook as a friend if you want.

Sweet dude. I'm excited. I like watching your work. It's awesome to see whatever projects come through. You make people look better than they are.

That's the goal. Not necessarily the goal. The goal is to make people feel good about themselves. Which, yeah, I take all that very seriously. I try to not be...

Well, it's good for people's self esteem.

Try to not be a creep. For what I do in the industry and all that stuff, there's so many losers.

Yes, I've heard.

And I try very hard to be not a loser.

Yeah. I've heard a lot of good things about you. Like, I mean, obviously. But like, I've heard bad stories even here locally of like...

Oh, yeah.

Like, eight dudes that are just weird.

Yeah. No, I mean, yeah, it's every week there's a story of somebody having a poor experience as a model with a portrait photographer or, you know, whatever. But there's tons of stuff out there, safety groups and stuff. And I try to provide safe spaces for stuff and try to not be a piece of s***, which is surprisingly easy.

You would think.

You'd think, but people still manage to pull off the opposite of that.

Yeah, which is a bummer. As for me, you guys are listening to the Minnoxide podcast, so you found me. Congratulations. If you haven't realized that, two hours in. Yeah, just make sure you're going to minnoxide.com, signing up for the newsletter. I have some exciting stuff coming up here. I'll probably do some giveaways and some stuff. I know I've been preaching that forever. It's actually coming here. Lots of awesome stuff that I have Trevor working on. Hopefully it will be done by the time this episode drops. Even though it's not official yet in the backdrop, I am taking on Razorhood as the first official sponsor of the podcast, which is freaking awesome. I don't think we touched on this earlier on, or I think we did before the episode started, but Razorhood is basically a telemechanic for people that need help with their cars combined with AI, so super exciting company. I'll be talking a lot more about that here in the future once I just kind of get things prepared. So check them out. I think it's razorhood.com. But other than that, follow all things Minnoxide, and thanks for watching. Thanks for coming on, Eric, and see y'all next time.