55.Boosted Mustangs, 1800+ Pulls, Superchargers, Getting Sponsors w/ Mike Johnson AKA 651MyGarage

All right, cool.

And 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 gonna be an awkward intro, because now I got a co-host for the first time in, I don't know, 15 episodes now. So to my left here, I got Dan Deckard, Gunnit Garage, man of many Mustangs, introducing you as my first time part-time co-host. I don't know how to describe it, so.

Yeah, basically whenever I can make it is when I'm gonna try and get out here. So obviously, four kids, I'm an hour away from here, so it's a little harder, but.

Yeah, well, I think it's awesome to have you on here, just because I don't know if many people know this story. So actually I wanted, when I was looking to get a dino running the background, I actually wonder if that gets picked up. Oh yeah, it gets picked up just a bit.

Holy cow, that's part of that production value.

That's part of that production value. Yeah. But so anyways, so back when I, so I used to do the Whiplash podcast, however long ago. And then I wanted to, you know, took a break from that to start the Minnoxide podcast. And I was like, well, I kind of want to co-host. And the two names that came to my mind was you and Sean, but I ended up just reaching out to Sean because he was like, you know, five minutes away. And I didn't feel like driving an hour and all that stuff. So it's kind of funny how we've become full circle.

Yeah. Well, Sean was great.

So it's a, he's a free agent now. But nonetheless, okay, let's see how this goes. Do you want to introduce what the show is?

Sure, I can try. So just from listening, and I just looked at the cameras, I bet. This is the Minnoxide podcast, where we go beyond the meat. And we kind of, you're hanging out at a car show, you get to chatting with somebody, you see them for 15 minutes, they get distracted or they see another car, somebody else grabs their attention. And this is just a way to kind of pull our local people aside and get some one-on-one time with them for a little bit and just to get everybody introduced a little bit further.

All right, we're gonna restart the episode real quick. No, I'm kidding, that was perfect.

Perfection.

So that's it. I wanna introduce our guest 10 minutes later, Mr. Mike Johnson, 651Garage, Man of...

My garage. My garage, 651MyGarage.

My garage.

I don't know if you said 651Garage, which it's fine.

Yeah, I see your shirt.

If you type in 651, I will pop up, so.

Oh, did you like fix on like your STL?

No, it's just every time you type in 651, like YouTube or whatever, it's just like MyGarage. Boom, but it's all right.

Yeah, I really wanted to get you back here because now, you know, we're almost 50 episodes later since you, I think you were episode seven or eight or something.

Yeah, one of the early ones, Test and Trial.

Yeah, Test and Trial. We've come, I mean, obviously now we got video. People haven't seen your face before for the most part. The only time they see your face is when you have a bucket to get had and put bus slings on them. But I really wanted to get you back here because we just had an entire car season. We had you back on in March. Now it's November. Crazy how time flies. So I guess tell us a little bit about some of the gapping that's happened this year.

Yeah, so honestly, I really only been out two power cruise events, first power cruise, second power cruise event. And they just, I really wanted a car that can compete. Cause I always, last year I was at power cruise, obviously. And I got my feelings hurt, you know, being at 750 wheel, it's no slouch, but it's like, okay, well, I need the next level. I need the next step. What's the next step? And just so happened that ESS said, how about you give us a try? I didn't reach out to them, didn't say nothing. I was just joking about it on my channel. Like, I want to try something new.

And ESS is your new supercharger.

Yes.

What did you have before?

Vortech.

Vortech, okay.

And ESS is pretty new even into the industry, correct?

In the industry, I would say no, because they're mainly out in Europe. So they're big in Europe. But as far as like coming over to the States, they're fairly new. And then jumping into like Domestics and whatnot, they're still, I would say fairly new, at least within the last five years or so. Because everyone obviously knows Procharger, Vortech, Paxton. So those are, I guess, the American brands. And that's just what you're going to hear. But I guess if you go over to Europe, all you hear is ESS.

Interesting. So what are they typically Procharge out there? Just Beamers or something?

Actually, yeah, BMWs, they have a kit for an R8, just Supercharged stuff. So I was like, that's kind of cool, actually.

So you know how nasty that would be, like a Procharged or not Procharged, ESS charged?

Yeah, Ben, what's his name? Ben, he had that purple GTR, and now he's got like some sort of BMW. I forget his name.

Oh, it's like, yeah, Boris or whatever, from GPP.

Yeah, so he actually has an ESS in his car, and we were joking about it at...

He does?

I'm pretty sure. At TuneEvo, he's like, oh yeah, we're joking about the Supercharger stuff. He's like, I actually have an ESS in here. I have to actually verify it because I don't want to say too much on the stage because they're on this podcast, but like, I'm pretty sure he does.

And now you're Reveal. That's the other thing. It's like, it's kind of interesting being in my position, especially as previously being a photographer, I get all these ins, so I know what's coming in the scene like months before everybody else. But that's kind of gone away because everybody thinks I might drop it on the podcast or an accident. But I keep my secrets good for the most part.

I don't care, Mois, because no one will ever believe anyone, whatever I say anyway. So it's like my tuner or even the shop, Mois and them, can we post your numbers? And like, yeah, I don't care because no one's gonna believe you anyway. As truthful as we are, every time I just post my videos, it just never works out. If I say my real numbers, it never works. If I lie, it never works. It just, you can never win. So it is what it is. I just post the videos now and I just, it is what it is. Those that are local know. If you don't know, well, open invitation, you know, we do power crews once a year, twice a year. Anyone can come, it's a three day, you know, event.

Get this a little bit closer, by the way, just like a little bit. You can pull the mic towards you as well. Yeah, there you go. Especially if that dino comes back, it's game over. It doesn't sound like you're whispering. So, damn it, I had a question. I just fricking lost it. I don't know, but I don't know what I was gonna say. What were we talking about?

The ESS or, I forget what, what were we talking about?

I'm worth 10 minutes in, I already dropped it.

How did you ask me about the ESS?

Well, we were talking about your numbers.

Yeah, like the comments section, like you posted this like two days ago and everybody's just like, b*******. The comments are always the funniest thing. Cause like, what are you at right now? Do you want to reveal that?

Well, yeah, so the numbers are actually, you know, public between the, the Facebook pages, the dinos, my whole social media page. I made 949 and then, or 949 to the wheels and then 700, I forget the torque number, but a little over 700 torque to the wheels. And those are the real numbers. Last year, well, at least earlier this year on the old supercharger, I only made 914 and then like 680 torque.

Okay.

So going to this new supercharger was more for data purposes and obviously a new partnership really. And I just said, okay, well, let's try it. You know, it's a prototype design. No one's ran it. No one has any data on it. Very minimal data, I should say, as far as the public goes. And then they just said, you want to run it? Like we like that you actually use our kit. So I sent in my old supercharger for like a wear and tear analysis and everything. And then they sent out a new head unit for me to try out. Put it on. They said, well, you think you make over a thousand? Like, I'm sure it will, according to the data, you know, the specs of the blower, but I was like, I don't really want over a thousand. I don't care for more power. I just care about how well the car actually gets down, the function of the car, right? When you think about bigger blowers, people always assume like it's going to be laggier. It's not going to feel as good and all that stuff, right? But then you threw it in the dyno, like, holy cow, this thing actually made like 50 more wheel horsepower and 40 some torque throughout the entire power band, not peak power band. You know, it's just like, or peak horsepower, but like the entire power band, it was just that fag game across the whole entire thing. So it is kind of scary. Just a little bit of 50 extra horsepower, 50 extra torque or so, it gets down pretty good.

You just had to say dyno, by the way.

Insert, you know, audio here. Dyno run.

Yeah. I'm not sure if I can disclose what they're running right now. Well, it's one of Trey's old cars.

It's a B5S4.

Yeah. Yeah. We'll give that a second. That is hilarious, dude. That's one of the reasons I usually like do it a little bit later in the day, but it's like, whatever. It's, they're having a company party here at Ratify Motorsport, a host of the Minnoxide podcast. So it's going to get rowdy the whole time. So, okay. So then what's the chart look like then? So you could show this to me after the episode two and I could throw it in a highlight, but how did that curve look compared to like when you searched setups?

To my previous setup?

Yeah. Vortech versus ESS.

Wait, my ESS versus ESS or?

I guess ESS, ESS, and then also compared to your old setup.

I guess all my centrifugal, so I've only had centrifugal blowers on my car. So they honestly, the Vortech, every the line, the horsepower and the torque lines are almost identical. Like they follow the exact same curve. It's just when I went to ESS, it was like that much fatter gain throughout the whole entire power band. And then to this blower now, it's just an even fatter power band. So I have yet to show the overlay of the Vortech compared to this newest ESS, but I would assume it's a fair amount of fat gap in there. And it's not like a turbo car where you get peak horsepower, per se, or even this. What was I gonna say? It's not, I guess, when people compare horsepower and peak numbers, well, I should say, when people compare horsepower numbers, they always talk about their peak horsepower. I like talking about power bands because when you look at someone's power bands, that's really gonna determine who's gonna gap, you know?

Yeah, you want that consistent pull, not right at the very top end.

Right, and when I raced, I raced an 800 wheel Civic, and there was like, oh my God, well, he's gonna gap, he weighs mid-2000 pounds, over 800 wheel, but then it was neck and neck the whole time, and I was like, hmm, let me see your graph. And of course, he made that 800, the very peak, the very last little bit of his whole entire RPM range. Whereas me, I had the whole entire power band going all the way across, so I was just like, well, obviously, I knew that.

Right, and then what was his, do you know what his torque number was?

No, I don't know his torque. I wanted to say it was only like five when you're something.

Yeah, that's what's great about the Coyote, is it just, it's almost neck and neck with the horsepower gain, it's right there. So even if your car's heavier, it just muscles it all the way up there.

Yeah, and then paired with the 10-speed, you know, I sit and peak optimal power, power band, the whole entire time. And my car is not light, especially at power crews, it is not light. You know, with me in there, I would say it's about 3,900 pounds. And then, you know, talk about full tank of gas. And then honestly, I carry three extra passengers the whole time. I'm a fully stacked Mustang in there. Like we're, we are not light by any means. Like we are a past beyond Hellcat territory.

You're the Mustang that brings the crowd with him.

I put the crowd inside my car. So I always tell people it's don't guarantees, but you know, we're out here having fun. And honestly, a lot of new people that have never been to Power Cruise, the MC throws people in my car like, oh, go for a rip at the Mustang over here. Like it's loud. You guys will have fun. But you know, that kind of goes neck and neck to, or hand to hand to like some of my races that I've done at Power Cruise. Like, wow, I really took that guy and I had three extra passengers in my car. Or dang, I wish I wouldn't have had so many people in my car because like, let's just talk about racing ratified, right? There's Supra, you know, it's, I forget how much Supras weigh, but-

You want to say 33?

Yeah, they're the white one. I forget what it weighs, but it's fairly, fairly lighter than me. And you can only fit two people in there. And then when they ran me, you know, it was a good race. And people are like, well, how did that car, you know, keep up with you? That's crazy. They must be sandbag. At some point, you know, power to weight really matters. Well, I should say, it really does matter, power to weight, but there's a lot more things that go into it, obviously. But, you know, just talking horsepower and weight, personally, like, yeah, they were easily, I would say 800 pounds lighter than me, because I was fully stacked in there.

Yeah. Let's see if I can get an Apple sponsorship real quick. Hey, Siri, how much does a 2020 Supra weigh?

Total weight is 3,397 pounds. Yeah, so that is fairly light compared to my Mustang. And then you think about putting Trey in there, you know.

Well, he doesn't weigh much.

Yeah, he doesn't weigh much. And then me, you know, just two passengers in the Supra, they're probably only 3,600 pounds at very max, I would say. No, not that much. Yeah, so, Trey, I know you ain't that light, but yeah, so just that right there is, but at the end of the day, it's just all about having fun, see what cars do and, you know, we're having fun. None of these races are serious. So when people see my races, they always think it's for money. I don't know why, but it's like, wow, you're really wasting money out there. You must be making tons of money or...

I think it's based off of other people's scenes, right? Cause like people like to cut their own bias of like, I don't, for example, I don't know what the Detroit scene's like, but maybe it's a bunch of s*** talkers out there. So they might just assume it's the same out here. Maybe I don't, I don't know.

Yeah, definitely like in the internet.

It's the internet too.

Yeah. I read what things like my races are for like thousands of dollars or why would that guy even race you? Like I just post up an evil nine. He said he was, I think just stock turbo. Well, I didn't know that at the time. How are you going to know that when you got power crews, you know? Unless you sit there having conversations with the guy, but then they could be lying to you anyways.

It's like, so, cause you could have a conversation, everybody, or you could just go out there and just race.

Yeah.

See what happens.

Yeah. See what happens. And I think that's the beauty of what I do is I just run it and see what it does, whether you're stock or highly modified. I mean, McLarens or Lambos, whatever. It's just nice to see it. Cause why not?

I think you did a race against Joe Sheepey, right?

Yeah. I raced Joe's R8, yep.

How'd that, did you win or lose that one? I can't remember.

I totally lost that one. I don't think Joe would ever give me that chance, that satisfaction of beating him in his Twin Turbo R8. I beat him from a dig at the airport wave when he was stock, just barely. And then he was like, I'm gonna go Twin Turbo this car and I'm gonna beat you. I'm like, what? I'm sitting there like, what the?

There's something to be said about losing to a Mustang.

I wonder how many builds you've inspired, really with all of these races that you've done. I'm sure there's some people that went home and changed some things up for sure.

Yeah, Joe, I forget his last name. It starts with a K, but Joe, he has a Camaro SS and I've raced him since the airport. That's where we met. And so he's got a Procharger on there. And so I've raced Joe at the airport. I raced him at Parkour's last year and then twice this year. And every single time he's changed something with his setup, he's like, I added more boost. I added more boost. I changed something up. We did this, we did that. And every time I've been able to edge him out, because I keep changing myself too. I think that's that. No one's ever going to stay the same build per se, but I don't know, at the end of the day, it's just nice to see what your build does. Whether you change it or not or, you know, just minor upgrades, right? It's nice to see the difference.

How's that relationship with ESS, by the way? Is it pretty loud back and forth? Like you guys just text at night or what?

Yeah, so Moe's and them, they've taken control over that, I would say, because it started out as me. And then I just said, oh, well, you guys are the shop, you know. How about you guys talk to him? Because then you can have more like professional shop shop talk and you guys run the dino and stuff anyway. So rather than me always asking the shop, like I need the dino, I need this done or whatever. How about you guys just talk directly with each other? And then because then they could explain things as far as like a professional level, because I'll just say like, oh, I made like 700, I made 800. Or this is what I did. But then people at the shop was, you know, probably explained in a different way or how much airflow was actually getting in the way. Just all those.

The nitty gritty stuff.

Yeah, the nitty gritty stuff. So those are the data that I don't really know. I just know that was what I made on 15 pounds of boost. Really, right?

So who's doing the tuning then? Is it remote tune?

Yeah, remote tune from Majid. He's out in Saudi Arabia. So I'm not tuned by anyone in the States.

I heard those guys. So we had Sam on eight episodes ago or whatever. He said, is that Sam's kind of go-to guy?

Yep. So they do direct business with them over there. So any Mustang really that comes in, they're pretty much tuned by Majid there. And I have nothing against it. I mean, my car gets down.

No, I follow them and they've got quite a bit of successful stuff that they've got on their social media anyway. And I think that's where Moed talked to me about using them as well when I was talking to him.

And I just think that's nice. And I can see the data on the data log. If I'm at the track, you know, whatever I need, I data log it, I can see it. Whether or whereas like Lund, they lock all their information. So if I need to see anything, I have to send it and wait for a reply to how my car is. I don't, maybe that's another tier that I have to pay for for them. So I could see my information. Cause how do you know if you have issues, you're a misfire and you're at the track? Oh, I need to know now. I need to know where to go. Especially like dead field pump. The second park is I had a dead field pump Friday night. So we drove all the way back down the city, grab a new one, drove all the way back up, installed it. And then that was with Sean. I was riding with Sean and doing all that. And then installed it. It ran great the next day. And then it died again. And then just stuff like that. Like I don't have time to send an email. Cause then if I would have sent that email per se, like another tune, I would have been done the whole week. Yeah. I wouldn't have been able to figure out what had happened in my car.

I talked to another local tuner one time and he's a tune that I had. He was trying to help me and he couldn't get in. Everything was locked. And he said, he doesn't ever do that. He says, your tune, you paid for it. Why shouldn't you be able to get in and whatever? So yeah, that's, I don't like it when they do that either.

Yeah. So I don't know. That's what I tell people, but I don't know. It's just whoever you want to rep. I honestly, I don't have anything against any other company, but at the end of the day, it's are you going to work for me and what I need you to do?

Did ESS have any say in or asking like who you were tuning? Did they offer any services or?

Yeah. So ESS has their preferred tuners. So I think it was like Lund and Wengard or something. And then some other company, Majid is not on the list, but they all knew that I was tuned by Majid from the beginning. And so, I don't know, it just kind of all worked out. When I posted my first ESS numbers, everyone was like, well, you should have went of Lund. You would have made an extra 40 more horsepower. But then I'm sitting there laughing. It's like the exact same setup tuned by Lund, it made like 50 less horsepower on the same dyno.

Really?

Yeah, so I was joking. But then at the end of the day, anyone smart that knows anything about dyno is a tool. There's a lot of skewed things that can happen. You know, I don't know if that's the right word, but like.

They fluctuate.

Yeah, there's a lot of fluctuation. I don't know if he had the same DA. What if he wasn't on E85? Tire pressure, there's so much different things that can go in with.

You can definitely ramp up. I was talking to somebody who will probably never be on this podcast, but I was talking with them, and they're like, there's so many of these guys that just pump up their numbers just to show off the sheet. They're just sheet warriors.

And I get that all the time on the ESS page. As much as I love the ESS guys, man, they're ride or die lone guys. I mean, nothing against that. But at the end of the day, it's like, well, bring your car up here and let me see what it does, because I'm a strictly 40-row guy. You'll never catch me really doing 60 rows unless it's just me goofing around, or you will probably never catch me doing digs unless we're having fun at the airport, right? Because that's where I did my digs. Just soft launch, no prep, no burnout, kind of crap, you know, just having fun.

Why don't you do 60s?

It just doesn't feel good. Like 40 rows, I could pump out like 1.3 the G-force. I mean, it feels great. 40 rows feel amazing. 60 rows is just like, blah.

Yeah, yeah, that's fair. I think most people do 40, I think, right?

In Texas, that's like a strictly 60-row game.

No, Texas is 80-row. 80, 60, yeah.

So a lot of people that watch my page, actually, they're like, dang, bro, like how in the heck did you take him? Or like, cause I do race a lot of higher horsepower, higher torque guys here. And I was like, well, how did you take him? Like send him a 40 row. He makes more power than me, but I'm gonna play my game. You know, I'm not gonna give that big turbo the chance to, you know, be fully spooled at 60, 70-row when I know I can get him down low. And if he sends it, he's just gonna spin anyways. So I'm gonna play my game. And at Power Cruise, that bridge is a 30, like a 30-row, 40-row game anyways. So it kind of just works out to my advantage of what we have up here and what I like doing.

That's fair. I remember seeing like 80 rolls for my first time. Cause like that's when you start talking about those, you know, 2000 plus horsepower cars. And not all of them do it a lot of, cause it comes down to how the car is built. Like, you know, a lot of these guys can still do 40s and 60s, but it, when I heard about 80 rolls, I was like, geez, you gotta be making some steam. Cause like, if I did an 80 roll in my little hoop team, like I'm out at 110, like it's the shortest race ever.

Yeah. You're car is screaming for dear life already. And I always joke with guys cause like, you talk about like the NIN Vipers or some of these GTRs that are making, you know, 12 on your 2000 up here. They're doing 45, 50 rolls.

Yeah. My first time, my first time doing probably, I think a 40 roll ever as a passenger, was in an Nth Viper and you know, 2000 horsepower build and it was 38 degrees outside. We did a 40 roll blasted by this limo, like, you know, anti-life gone. And it's like, it hooks, it's gone. So it's like, it really comes down to, you know, higher boost comes on and all that stuff, but all that fun stuff.

There's definitely a lot that goes in with it. And like I said, you got to just play your game when it comes down to it. Once you start getting these higher numbers, you got to play your game.

Well, it's like the GTRs, right? Like they're always going to win at 40 rolls, but it's just, it's crazy, dude. There's so much that could play your game.

Now people hate that, but I don't know. We'll see what happens. I really like to try to go to Texas and try to compete against them, but we'll see what happens. I know Maxilloration League has talked to me many, many times about coming down and I just keep telling them, I know you guys are all like twin turbo, like thousand plus, build block, build trans, but like, I'm going to throw you a 40 roll. They're like, no. We're never giving you that chance. I was sitting there and laughing. Well, you'll probably never see me then.

So why do you do so well at a 40 roll then? Like, is it just how the car's built or?

Just how it's set up. We actually did do some suspension work. So when I was 750 wheel on the Vortech setup and watching my other friends with their Mustangs and cause they're, you know, they're all Whipple or, you know, they make way more steam than me at the time. So I'm always, I always joke, like I'm the slowest, like 10 already boosted, 10 or 80 and up here. And that's, I think that was, I would say that's pretty true because I'm the gatekeeper and if I lose, I got other guys, but no, so they, they did like all my testing. So all the testing for me. So I watched them race, have fun and like, okay, well you're hooking or like you're winning a lot of races. What's your setup? What's your, you know, bread and butter. And they're like, well, they're all century blower guys that are really taking the scene. They're not twin turbo, no, they're not Whipple. I'm not saying that those cars can't compete, but just from what I've seen and what runs at night, it's a century blower guys. They just get down and they're consistent. You know, you talk about all these back to back hits all the time. It's always been the century blower guys. So I don't know what to really say. I'm not saying twin turbo ain't fast, but I mean, I've raced a twin turbo at Power Cruise. I specifically sawed him out and we ran it probably like 10, 12 times and same result every time. But then, you know, that's kind of a different subject, but just going back to it is just finding out what works and just copying it. Why would I try to reinvent the wheel when there's some people that have already had success? And I think that's basically it. Just copy paste. I mean, we've done some other things that didn't work, but now it's just a waste of money.

You know, that's so nice about your platform though is cause the, the five old platform is so supported. Like there's so many of you guys out there. So it's like, I mean, you, what you, you're, your wife's car is pro charged, right?

Yeah. So that's kind of what I was going to touch on. There's a, there's a boost, isn't just boost. There's an application for whatever you're doing. So whenever we talked to Mark, he said he would do nothing but a twin screw because he does road racing stuff. I mean, that's what he likes to do. So he needs that torque and that low end. So I have a Whipple car and I have a pro charge car. My wife's car is pro charge. So, and it does, mine comes alive right out the dig and hers needs, I think Mal's car on a 40 roll would be great because she's got whatever the lowest trim pro charger is on it. And it takes a minute for it to ramp up. But then when it does, I mean, it pulls hard like a freight train, and it sounds way cooler than my car.

No, I think that's one of the things that I wanted. I don't want to blow my tires off every single hit. I don't want to worry about, am I going to spend this time or not? So, I mean, I still make over, you know, well over 700 torque, which is plenty for this street, but at the same time, it's not 900 torque, like a Whipple or a twin turbo car where you get all that crazy torque.

You have to manage it.

Yeah, and it's just that much more. You got to drive the car. I'm not saying you don't have to drive the car, but for what I do, seven inch torque is plenty. It'll scare you still.

So, okay, wait, did you have your suspension set up at the beginning of the year when you were on the last time?

Yes, so I, over winter, when I went the whole ESS route, I just said, well, if I'm adding 200 more horsepower and like 150 more torque, I need something that's going to be able to plant it to the ground. And so I was sitting there talking to Dave Rasmussen, and he's like, we should try this. We should try this. And I was like, okay, let's try it. He's like, I'll even install it. We'll set up some custom alignment specs. And I think I know what's going to work. So I was like, okay, I put my trust in you. You roll course, you do all this sort of racing and stuff. And I talked to my own guys and they do a lot of street stuff. And I was like, I want what works on the street. So that's what I do. Or per se, I don't do digs, I don't do drag racing or anything like that. So I don't need to be set up like that. I just like to roll race because that's what I'm all about. And especially Parker's, that's what I'm about.

You'll save transmission and axles my way too.

Yeah, so that's another thing we could talk about too after this too. And I'm still stock trans, stock axles, drive test the whole nine yards. And 1800 some poles later, still the same.

Have you done 1800 poles?

Yeah, yep. At least.

At least.

And what year is your car?

2020. So it's a fair amount of poles and people don't really believe it, but like I have endless content. They're really still going. I haven't even finished my Vortech content.

Yeah, we got a little bit of a, I can't wait to listen to this back. Cause like I've done podcasts with them doing dyno runs before, but I think this might be the loudest one I've done listening to so far. You know, I'd love to, cause like AJ's had his Calvo Viper on the dyno, Calvo Viper on the dyno before. I'd love to hear what that sounds like. That'd probably be rowdy dude.

Right.

But anyway, so you have endless content, 1800 points.

Yeah, so it's a solid platform and it comes back to like, the tuning's great, but being able to look at your data is also great too. Cause when my field pump died at power cruise, I mean, I could have kept going.

Are you triple or double pump?

So now we are on a triple pump. But I've always been double pump.

Booster pump too?

Yep, booster pump. Well, on the Vortech, we were just two on constant. And then we ran into some issues with dead pumps, couldn't figure it out. So then we went to a Hobbs, still dead pumps at power cruise. And then we went to a whole radium hat with a pump inside of like a little capsule. Ran great. We were able to do poles, eighth tank, when I felt great, but then still had dead pumps. So now it's like, what in the hell can we really do? And I didn't really want to do the whole surge tank route per se. I mean, I know everyone's going to say, you should just do surge and be done. But I was like, let's give it one more crack at it. The guys on a triple pump don't have issues. So here we are on a triple pump. So I don't know, if this doesn't work, then I guess that just means no crazy back-to-back pulls or probably not do 80 pulls at power crews. Pretty much what it comes down to. It definitely gets hot. And we don't shut the car off until it's lunch, really. I'm always out there constantly running and running, come back to camp, fill it up with a jug and go out again.

Do you have an end gauge or something you're using to monitor while you're in the vehicle?

I have the HP tuners like that, our MPV device.

Okay. So, I would just click on your phone or something. Yeah.

Yeah, but just click log and then if anything happens, I can just plug the laptop in, we'll look at it. And I could see the information that I know what to look for, I guess.

You'll look at the information that's sent to somebody who knows what they're doing?

Yeah, it's like, because I've had issues before, so I was like, okay, if this happens again, I'm looking here, you know? So you look at that kind of data. But other than that, I mean, most of the stuff is like custom charts anyway, so I don't know what those numbers mean. So that's their own custom calibration that the tuner has set up for himself.

That is so crazy when you think about it though, like, oh, I can't run 80 pulls. Like how many four digit cars can you just wring its neck all day? Like there's really, I can't think of any.

I honestly, out there, from what I've seen, none.

Is there any? Cause like think like Corvettes will overheat after two pulls.

Yeah, every C7Z, they're waiting in line with their hood propped. Like you haven't done anything yet. I'm like, oh, it's already hot. Already hot. What do you mean it's already hot? You drove from camp to the line. Yeah, exactly. And then, you know, you watch them do two, three laps and they exit early and like, where you going? I just lined up. I finally caught up to you. Heat soaked. Or they do run it and they're like, it's heat soaked. I'm just hot. Well, you're already lined up, so you better run it. And of course I have the big old camera in the back. So it's like, they ain't got no choice. But yeah, honestly, even the GT 500 guys had problems. I ran the orange one that made like 900 wheel. It was good. It did very good, but GT 500 are just so much more heavier than a 5.0. So I took him and then the big stretch, because you do one pull and then like 20 seconds later, literally you're doing another pull down the big stretch. And that's not enough time for those twin screw guys to cool down. But for me, I mean, my IITs only jump up like 28, 30, 30 degrees and then 20 seconds of cool down. Man, I'm ready to go.

So what are your temps at usually?

Honestly, I don't even know. But they only jump up by the max I've seen is probably on a hot day, probably 35 above ambient.

Oh, wow.

That's after like a full, wow. We're doing a full pole. Yeah, that's really good.

I've been tripled digits over ambient, don't mind before.

Yeah, no, that's scary. So that's what I love about the Sentry Blower. Like I'm doing back to back hits all day long. I don't have to invest in cooling mods, ice tanks, inner chillers, like the Whipple guys, or Twin Screw guys, I should say. Like even you talk about LT4 guys, LSA guys, they've invested so much money in the cooling. It's just like, what? At that point, how is it even efficient if you spend all this extra money and what not, you just battle the heat the whole time.

Did ESS provide you an inner cooler with their kit then?

Yes.

They got something pretty substantial?

Yeah, so when I went ESS, they're like, we got this new prototype inner cooler coming out. Like, hmm, how big is this? What did they get? I forget the actual number. I think it's 30% larger than their standard, what they had. Oh wow. So then I was like, well, you might as well throw one of those in there too for me, cause I do a lot of back to back hits. And I think this would be great for me to have to try because I actually do race the car. And they're like, perfect. Awesome. Send us the data. So that's pretty much how that worked. And then they were just so stoked that a person that actually runs their car, not just once or twice at a drag strip once a month, you know, I mean, we're talking about, we did 80 some poles the first power cruise, at least. And then the second power cruise, I mean, we got cut short cause dead field points, we still managed to do 50 some poles, or 50 logged races that I'm still working on. I think we just started power cruise two videos. So, and I haven't even finished all my power cruise videos from when I was on the Vortech. So, I mean, it's just like, I really want to go back to the Vortech videos and finish those. But then it's like, I'm already on this whole ESS platform. And for 2024 season, people will want to see the ESS G3R content.

Yeah.

So, it's like, oh, I don't know.

Dude, it's okay. Hire me as an editor. Let's make this happen. We'll talk business after the podcast. Because I feel like that'd be super beneficial to ESS as well, to see these. Again, you wringing the s*** out of this car with their blower. I mean, it's just.

Yeah, it's so, I don't know what the words are like. I'm just, it's lighter. It's just more efficient. It just works great, all done on a six rib and nothing against Vortech. But like they messaged me after they found out I was going ESS. And they said, why would you run that crap?

There's a lot of hate out there on the ESS. I think it's because they're new. I know somebody who's sponsored by Procharger is very much dragging them through the mud right now. And I'm, you know what? I'm seeing you. I'm seeing people out there. They're really enjoying what they've got and I'm not sure. I think they may be a big player in the market.

Oh yeah. They're dominating the market now. Everyone's going ESS and like, why would you, the install is easier. The maintenance is easier. I mean, you're doing it all on the six rib, not, and, you know, just comparing to Vortech, Vortech's blower, the same blower that's comparable to the ESS G3 needs an eight rib. So I was like, well, then I got to do a whole eight rib conversion.

Those aren't cheap either.

No. And then they were like, yeah, we'll give you that. We'll give that to you. I'm like, yeah, but I got to do an eight rib conversion. I don't think you understand. Like I get it. Like you'll give it to me for free, but I don't want to mess with that.

I love that they're hitting you up like a jealous girlfriend. They're like, please come back to us. We'll give you an angelic set up.

I kid you not. They said when you're done running that crap after a month.

I remember you showing me the screenshot. Yeah.

So that was, I still think that's so mind blowing. And honestly, just from what I've seen, just between the maintenance and the belt swaps and the fluid swaps, because they have their own encased fluid, so you don't share oil or cooling with the engine. But even that was a hassle on the Vortech. I had to take off my throttle body and crap, and it's like, really? And ESS, everything's just right there, and the install and everything is just simple. So why wouldn't you use it if it's that much more lighter, efficient, makes good power and maintenance? Like hassle-free, it's a no-brainer.

So what's the argument against it, then?

It's just who you want to rep, I guess, I mean.

Really?

It's just ESS is new.

The new kid on the block.

They're not American, I guess. And I don't know how much you want. From Europe.

Europe, okay.

So I think they had some races where they, so they were sponsoring some high-level people, and don't quote me, this is again, this is from the guy who I'm friends with on Facebook, that I think they had some things come apart at a couple sanctioned races, too. So some people were, whatever. Again, it's all on who's gonna drag their name through the mud and who you're following and stuff, too.

Was that a while ago?

It might have been, I think so.

Okay, yeah, it's always interesting. That's the thing, dude, I talk about this all the time. I don't know if you saw the post I made yesterday, was it today or yesterday about the, because I blurred out the names of the shops or whatever. Basically, somebody just talking about like, oh my God, I'm listening to the podcast, I'm starting to piece together. And like, I s*** you not, like half the shops in the city hit me up. Is it me? It was hilarious. But my point being, it's like, it doesn't matter who you are, like somebody will, you can't please everybody. So it's like that one guy on Facebook, it's like he might've had one bad experience, but then we see Mike over here doing 80 pulls in a day, and it's like, well, who do you believe?

Yeah, the proof is in the pudding, right? I mean, you're going to see what's out there. And again, when I first heard you went to ESS, I had already had no one about these conversations happening before that. And my first thought was, ooh, poor Mike. And then, but now, I mean, you're proving it wrong. You know what I mean?

Yeah, and it feels good to prove people wrong, and try something new in it. But I also think that's a good thing, is bringing a new company on, you know?

Well, it's all development.

Yeah, that's what it's all about. And I think that's where what's great about me is like, I actually run the car. They want me to try it out. If it don't work, it don't work, I guess. Whoopsies. But at the end of the day, it's like, for me, well, I get a free supercharger that I can go play around and have fun.

Right.

Tell us a little bit about that, by the way. So I have so many questions to ask you. I was actually worried about it on the way here today. I'm like, oh man, what am I gonna talk about? How many updates has this guy done? Tell us a little bit of how these sponsorships of yours work, because I remember on the last podcast, we kind of talked about you making a switch from street racing to street racing, but on the track kind of, you know, with power crews and such. So just kind of tell us a little bit about how these sponsorships have come to fruition.

Yeah, so obviously everyone, I guess, always starts from street, I would say to some extent. I mean, this cruising with the homies at night or whatever on the street or to church, whatever. It's like, to church, we're gonna have fun, you know? Like you're driving a nice car, I'm driving a nice car. There's no doubt we're gonna have fun, right? But, and then a couple people will start getting sponsorships. So I started asking, like, what are you doing that's different than me? Obviously I run the car. I'm proving the platform is great. Like what differs? Like we're on the track. Like, hmm, you know what? I'm gonna give that a shot. And then, yeah, I did get in trouble. I'm not gonna lie about that. But then I was like, you know what? I got all this power cruise content. I'm gonna start posting it up. I kid you not, once I started posting up these power cruise videos, people were like, let's collab. Let's do something. How about this free stickers or this and that, American Monster reached out. You want some carbon fiber parts? I'm like, well, no, not really, because I run the car, I don't want to damage carbon fiber. Like, well, just let us know when you're ready. I'm like, okay, so that was in the back of my mind. And I was like, huh, okay. Well, what if I can get some cameras, get some GoPros? Nope, I actually reached out to Insta360. Many times, like, hey, I do a lot of 360 videos. Would you guys sponsor me a camera or two? Cause obviously I shoot many cars and stuff. And they said, no, we don't like your content previously because of you did a lot of street activity and stuff. Well, but nowadays it's just like, that's all you see is people on the street hooning around with their cameras and they're all sponsored. So that one hurt. That one hurt. I'm not going to lie. I was like, wow. They said no to me, but here they are giving people cameras. They gave Trey a camera. I told Trey about this whole 360 camera. They, Trey was like, I'm going to try it. Boom. They hit them up. They're like, we like to sponsor you. I'm like, I showed you this. So I actually tried contacting them and they said no.

It might've been, cause like, I feel like pages like that might have multiple admins. My admin, just the admin wasn't feeling it.

Yeah. I just wasn't feeling the whole Mustang thing. Probably. I don't know if I hate somebody. And then Coobz did it with his Odie. Coobz said, I got sponsored a whole camera kit and everything. I was like, how can this be?

That boy's wilding right now.

Yeah. So honestly, that's the last time I ever hit up a company for like, can you sponsor me? Last time I hit them up or any company. And then all of a sudden I just, you know what? I'm gonna keep doing my own thing. That's fine that they got cameras. I'm hurt, but I'm gonna keep going. You know, I'm gonna look past it. And then all of a sudden it's just like, just kind of like that. Just click, click, click. You want this? You want that? And then all of a sudden I was like, well, for the next season, I gotta spice it up. ESS hit me up. Like, try us. Okay. I talked to the shop, talked to Moe's, the tuning and everything, because being supercharged for five months and then switching up to a whole new setup already is, it's still pricey. Don't get me wrong, just because things, I get things for free. You know, there's a lot of background parts that you still have to buy, make the kit work, tuning, you know, all that stuff is still, I still got to pay for that stuff.

Oh yeah, you took $7,000 off of your $12,000 bill.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's not, yeah, people don't realize that either.

And then it's like, okay, now I got a new supercharger that I have to get rid of, that I just spent a fortune on, right? So definitely selling things secondhand suck too. You're losing money there, because that's where I initially started, right? And then just from there on, just kind of, it's just a big domino effect. Going to this new supercharger, just like, we love your content. Thank you for using our product. What it's designed for. Keep doing it. And then it's just like, yeah, your videos did good. You know, like you got 10,000 views, but the sales are probably through the roof. Honestly, I think ESS really blown up just through my videos. I'm not too sure, but I'm pretty sure because every day I answer like five, 10 questions about, can you spec me out an ESS kit? I'm like, well, there's only like six.

Are you getting commission on this yet?

No.

Can we have a con...

I think I do.

It's time to have another conversation, I think.

Seriously.

Yeah.

I'm gonna look right into camera. ESS. Let's get this boy some commission. Let's get some big ESS stickers on the car. We'll go crazy with this. You're an official licensed salesman now.

Yeah. So I used to get like, it's just walking proof that the kit is good. I understand like ProCharger and Vortech and all that guys.

They work. They're proven.

They work. They're proven. But I just think that they're old technology. There's so much new crazy things that come out.

You're calling them boomers.

I know.

They got lazy, right? They didn't need to change anything.

They didn't need to change anything.

Right.

And they've been the same forever, but here we are new with ESS. They're dominating the season. They're dominating the scene. And it's like, well, they got to do something quick because I guarantee you everyone's going to ESS. If they want a century blower, they're going to ESS. They're not touching Procharger. They're not going to Vortech.

So you really like them that much after everything you've seen.

What's the price point on it? Do you know like what their kids cost compared to like Vortech or Procharger, Procharger being on kind of the higher end?

Yeah, pretty much everything is, I would say like 1500 to $2,000 more than ESS. Well, as far as the same comparable size blower, CFM wise, I think they're a lot more expensive. Because I think picking up a G3 kit from ESS, I think it runs you like 5900 bucks. That comes with everything that you need to get it up and running. So I was like, well, that's kind of a steal. Because when I bought my Vortech for the first time, it was like 75, 7800. I was like, that's a big penny. And then you still got to do fuel system and everything after that. And it really adds up. So like I said, an ease of installation and maintenance, it's just, it blows them out of the water. And why would I, the maintenance part always kills me. It's like, damn, I got changed out of a belt. Well, how hard is it to change the belt? Yeah, well, it's not bad when, but when you got to move all these parts, do all these things to change a belt, then we're having problems.

You're talking to a supercharger guy, I've changed him many a belts. I keep one of those long skinny belt deals in the, I've actually cut out a thing in the back of my car where it sits in there permanently. So yeah, I've done that. I've got three or four belts in the trunk.

And then people always tell me, yeah, you won't have the issue if you want Twin Turbo. Yeah, but how many Twin Turbo guys actually do 80 pulls a day?

Right.

None.

Well, we'll find out with Dave, right?

Well, we'll find out with Dave.

So I'm curious because, so Dave's going Twin Turbo, right? We're gonna get him back on a, where are they now podcast here soon too. But, cause he just wrapped up that build roughly pretty much for the most part. I think he's just dialing it in there, I think.

Yeah, dialing it in. Last time I checked, it's like, it's ridiculous, but like full spool, like 3,000, 3,200 some RPMs, and however much torque that is, like 800 some torque. I mean, he was telling me, he's like, yeah, this is a fifth gear, fifth gear, 40 raw. It just blows the tires off. I was like, yeah, but Dave, that's cool, but you can't use it. What am I gonna do with that? If I'm blowing tires off everywhere, like, I can't use that.

Spinning ain't winning.

Yeah.

I'm curious to see what he does with that. Cause like he was telling me a little bit about that as well, but his goal with that car is, well, that's the nice thing about turbo cars, just click it down.

So he has, well, obviously he showed me like his, one of his higher maps, right? But for his whole setup and his tuning thing, with the new Mustang PCM tech stuff now, you can do like boost, you can control the boost levels and everything just from your steering wheel, factory ECM and everything. So ECU, I should say. But yeah, all through the factory stuff. So he has quite the setup.

He was showing that when he was here at Ratt last time, he was clicking through the maps on his deal by using the cruise control buttons. And I thought that was the coolest thing.

They're learning from the Euro people.

Yeah, it's so sick. And I was like, dang, if I went to a twin turbo, yeah, I would definitely do that. And I would definitely just be doing rolling and like two-step everywhere. There's a reason why I don't have a twin turbo car.

You'll be going through turbos like hotcakes.

Yeah, and I guess that's another thing too is why I never went to a twin turbo or a Whipple. And I had a CTSV.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that.

Yeah, I didn't like the whole Toon Screws stuff because you're good for, grab my lip. I would, I raced the CTSV a lot. And I went to Carl, they're known as TCP now. I said, listen, I raced this thing a lot. Like we're talking about like two, three poles in a minute, two minutes. And he's like, well, it's gonna heat, soak a lot, like, well, just give me a set up where I can do two, three poles within a minute. Okay. Just very basic. And man, those IETs are through the roof and they stayed up there. They never came back down, you know? And we said, this is what twin screw is like. People always brag about how much torque you can actually make. Yeah, I made a fair amount of torque, but like that's nothing after those two poles, you know? Once all that goes into effect and all that timing and stuff happens and your car's a dud. And for what we do, it just, I wasn't a fan of, so I said, I'm not doing twin screw again. And then just seeing what twin turbo guys do up here, they're out once a month, then they're down for two weeks. They come out, they're broken again. It's just so many different things. It's like, well, how can that be that only Sentry guys are running the streets or running around week after week, day after day? So that's why I ultimately went this route. So nothing against it. I would like to try a twin turbo because I guess that's like the big boy setup, you know?

Yeah, cause like, I mean, how high can you really go with a Sentry?

So a guy right now, I'm a current supercharger on a BuildBlock BuildTrans. He's like 1300, 1400. But that's on a 10 rib, you know, setup and everything. So I'm like, well, I'm just like, well, I'm still on stock block, stock engine, stock trans, axles, drive shaft.

Yeah.

Are you running a crank support or anything like that too, or no?

No, so that's one thing I love about ESS is the whole bracket design. It sits on the same side as Procharger, but their whole belt design is totally different. So it doesn't cause any stress on the crank. So that's like, okay. So I just said, okay, that sounds good. And from what I've known, they just, no one's had any snapping crank issues or whatnot. And that's what they said about the Vortech too. So that's why I initially went with Vortech.

Right.

Cause you hear a lot of Whipple guys and Procharger guys snapping cranks. So they have that balancer. So I was like, I don't know. That's a lot of information for non-Musting people, but there's things that work and things that don't work. Or I just try to minimize my risks. Cause I do run the car a lot.

And how poor have you been since you switched to ESS? Has it saved you a lot of money? It's sponsored by ESS.

I might have a Whipple for sale soon, by the way.

Honestly, once you get in a boost, a boost application, it's all expensive. There's no cheaping out. I'm going to save $200 by not specking into this blow off valve. I'm going to run the cheap blow off. Now you'll spend that 200 and an extra $800 on something else, you know, tires, wheels set up. Just endless fuel pumps, spark plugs. You go through them a lot more. Oil changes, you do a hell of a lot more with those.

We had consumables, yeah.

Yeah, and brake pads. Well, at least for me, brake pads. You know, you're doing 160 on the track, you're slowing down to, you know, whatever it is, 40, 50, pretty quick, depending who's in front of you. Cause people don't understand, like, when they see me at Power Cruise doing these runs, like, well, how come there's 10 people on the track at the same time? You guys are crazy. Like, you've never been here, you can't talk. You know, cause it's like several hundred people, I would say, that just cruised the track the whole time. And it's not one person or, you know, a pair of people that go down and which of the clear, and then they send the next two down. It's, you guys are running, you know? So it depends what happens in front of you. So definitely go to the brake pads like crazy.

Time to get some carbon ceramics too.

Yeah.

Is yours a performance pack car too?

No, it's all base.

Really?

Well, as far as, it's a premium Mustang. So I have leather, heat-cooled seats, subwoofer, digital dash, but then as far as the performance pack goes, I don't have the performance pack.

So it's in the Mustang, what would they call it? PP non-PP. So it's got all the premium package, non-performance pack.

Yeah, all the comfort stuff. And that's what people don't understand too. I'm not a tin can Mustang running around. I got leather, I got heat-cooled seats, and I always rip on these Audi guys here. They don't have cooled seats. I think now they do, but I was always clowning with them. Like, RS3s don't even have power seats or cooled seats. What's going on here?

You're in enemy territory right now.

I know.

Well, I see you out with your family a lot too, right? So you're not gonna get your... You explained to your wife that she has to sit in a race seat now and go out with you, and the EC doesn't work and all that stuff. So I'm in the same boat. I take my kids and family with me all over the place. I actually have my track pack car. I had a rear seat delete. I put a seat back in it. So yeah.

I think it's great because my wife would sit in the passenger seat, obviously, and then I bring my drag slicks, whatever you want to call them, my slicks in the back seat, and then I have my son in the other seat, and then my two field jugs in the little space in between. So it's like, how in the heck did you fit all that in? It was like, oh, I made it work. I drive the Mustang to the track. We race it, and we drive it home. I never trailed it, knock and wood. But the Mustang is just that good, and I tell people, I can't do that in a Corvette. I can't do that in the GTR. Just Porsches, I can't do none of that. And I really tell people, the Mustang does what I need it to do on somewhat of a budget. Yep. It just works.

So I've talked to Rad about the Supra, for example. This is off air. I think it was right after our episode. I was just curious what it would cost to build the Supra the way he has it. Because I think that's kind of comparable to you.

Yeah, I actually spec'd out a Supra build.

I remember you talking about that.

For what I wanted it to be. And whatnot. And I was just like, man, once you talk about a built Trans or the pure Trans II, I was like, that's like my whole build in the Mustang already.

Yeah, so that's what I was gonna say. So, okay, if you want to lay it out, because right now we're about to move some Mustangs at some dealerships. Coming from a Mopar guy, yeah, let's move some cars. But so, okay, from what you have into the car to everything that, to have your build, just kind of run us through it.

Yeah, so let's just talk about everything like at MSRP, no discounts, no nothing. The supercharger right now, probably run you about 6,000, 6,500 bucks, depending what you want. But at Marp, probably build at 6,500 bucks. And the fuel system, 2,500 bucks. And then headers, about a thousand. So what is that?

That puts us at 9,000 so far.

No, 10,000. Is that 9?

Yeah, 10,000. 65 plus 25 plus a thousand. Yeah, that's 10,000 right now.

So we're at 10,000. And then, so that's it. That's the main bulk, the supercharger, your fuel, and then the headers. And then from there on-

Injectors come with the kit?

Yep, for the fuel system, yep.

Okay.

And then from there on, I was like, well, this is where you can really blow the money or really not, you know, because then now you need wheels, right? How are you going to put the power down? And I cheaped out. I got the whole race star set up, you know, 200 bucks a wheel, whatever that is, back in the day. And so back in the day, yeah, I rocked just the two rears. So 200 bucks a wheel. And then Mickey Thompson, I forget, like four, they're probably 450 bucks now for just one Mickey Thompson tire, so.

ET.

Streets? Yeah, Street Hours, yeah, probably like 450. So that's probably another 1500 bucks, at least just between the wheel and tire set up.

So now we're at like 11.5.

Yeah, 11.5 and that's it.

Well, what about suspension?

Oh, yes, suspension. So.

Yeah, don't you try to sneak out on us.

I always forget, because like I started out in the Vortech set up, and Vortech, I was so bare bones naked, right? But now, so now on the ESS, the whole, I actually have Stock Spring Stock Struts, the whole nine yards. But I did do like the, it's called the BMR Bread and Butter 2 Kit, sold by Lethal Performance. I'm sure you can find out some other websites, but 1200 bucks, it just kind of locks your IRS up, and just kind of keeps your wheel up to a very minimum. So you're talking about, man, I forgot some of these names.

BMR makes a great set up, by the way. I mean, you've got Steeda, they all make a good stuff.

Yeah, so Camber Arms, Toe Arms, just you guys will look it up, BMR, bread and butter, two kit, get it installed, 1200 bucks, that's all you need for suspension wise. I'm Stock Springs, Stock Struts, which is still mind blowing, because people are like, why don't you go get Viking Shocks, and all kinds of crazy stuff. I don't really do drag racing. I probably could, but I don't know. I'm at that point where it works fine for what I need to do, and don't really want to change it. I keep saying, I'm done spending, done spending.

Sure. What's on the list? So like, if money's not an object, what's the one thing you wish you could do to your car right now? You have something rolling around in your brain that you're ready to pull a trigger on.

Well, I don't know. The only thing I would do different next, or my next step, my next level, would probably be built motor, built trans, twin turbo. That'd just be it.

That's the next logical step.

That's the next logical set up.

So every season is just more boost.

More boost, more boost. But I'm at that point where I like what a car does as far as the competition goes. Obviously people do get faster and faster every year, but I think right about that $800,000, $900,000 real horsepower mark is, it's fairly competitive, especially for me being stock block, stock engine, stock trans, axles, driveshafts, you know. If I'm gonna lose, I'm losing to a race purpose built car.

Oh yeah, cause like that's when you, again, like that's that next tier, right? At a thousand, there's plenty of people right now, but like when you start going to that 13, 1400 range, like that's where people are built.

That's my money. I could do other things with that money and-

That's a very big next step.

Yeah, it's a very big next step. And I was telling people like why I even got the mustang in the first place was because I had a family. I actually built a house for people that don't know. So it really set me back and I could have bought that Lambo, that McLaren, anything stupid, crazy, right? But I was like, what good is that going to do me when I have a family? And then I was like, I'm going to build me a house. And that house has gone me so much further in life than a Lambo.

Well, you have a huge garage.

Yeah, so it's like an A-car garage. Nice. People, I always joke with people about that, too. It's like my whole neighborhood, whole developments, all custom houses. I do live up north, but it's not like custom houses, custom million dollar houses. These are your standard split entry houses that you just get to choose every aspect to it. And I just said, why would I do a $40,000 granite countertop option when I can do $10,000 and get an A-car garage? That's logical. That just makes sense. Why wouldn't you do that? Right.

And this is granite.

The hardwood floor is 20 grand for hardwood floors, 60, or 40,000 for all granite countertops. Like, nah, I skipped this. I did like laminate. And Aussie people can't even tell, do they? Like, they come in this house, they're like, this is so nice. They don't talk about, well, I wish you would have got granite countertops and hit this house, or I wish we got the hardwood floors. The laminate floors are very good today, especially having a newborn and parties.

I was going to ask how old your kid was because they ruin everything.

Yeah, yeah. So between the markers, the spills and everything, the laminate floors, dude, they do amazing. And I would probably be crying if I had hardwood floors.

Oh yeah. My wife and I go into a furniture store like once a year and get everything. We're like, we're going to buy this and then we tuck ourselves out of it. Because the kids will spill something on it.

Exactly. And so then people talk about, wow, that garage though, like we need to see what's inside there. And they finally open up the door and like, wow, this is nice. I wish we would have had something like this. Everyone always talks about how big of a garage they wanted or need for other toys.

And how many of my friends' houses I've been to, I've never gone home like, oh my God, I love their granite.

Yeah. I don't think so either. I don't think I've ever said that.

I'll always talk about a garage. Be like, did you see his f****** garage?

Yeah.

Well, I think you offered to buy my house when you were just over here this last weekend. And we only were in the garage, in the shed. We haven't even made it into the house at that point.

Cause like he was talking about like, oh, maybe he'll move like, you know, further up north or whatever it is. I'm like, dude, your house is like in this perfect, like little area, like where you have a good spread of land. You have all these extra garages and s***. The house is like, you know, it's, you know, what, what's a good term analogy for it? Like modestly sized?

It's a split level. It's like what you're talking about.

It's perfect. And I'm like, you're still close enough to the cities without having to go way the f*** up north, you know, to get, you know, cause that's the thing. If you want to do a crazy build, you can drive an hour and a half up north and land is super cheap and all that. But it's like, so I'm like, yeah, Dan, if you ever consider moving, give me a call first, cause that's perfect for what I need.

And there's no HOA there. So I just said, I'm in a development, but there's no HOA and I get what I want. But I don't know how far people want to move up north or if the location makes sense to them. But I just said, building custom house is just the way to go. And I got what I wanted out of that aspect and made my wife happy so she can support me in my car hobby.

Did you do your own contract? So I know you're in the construction business. Do you work for a big builder?

Or in what level are you? So I'm a plumber, but I just said, you guys just handle everything and it just really doesn't make any sense for me to really...

So you used a builder or somebody and they went through that, okay.

Yeah, I used a builder. They already had their own plots of land sectioned off. And I just said, I need the biggest lot because I want this big old garage there. I'm like, well, this is the only lot that it's gonna fit on. Like perfect. How much is that? It's actually the cheapest lot too. And like perfect, it makes even better sense. Because it was cut, the lot's cut goofy. It's like a triangle, which isn't really ideal because all the lots are all nice squared off lots. And it just happens this is the biggest lot that they had and the cheapest, like no one wants a goofy triangle cut lot, but it worked out great for me. And honestly, timing couldn't have been any better because I was gonna buy AJ's C7Z back in the day, the big APR spoiler. I looked at a couple others, his cars. I'm like, man, this is really good, yeah. And then my wife's like, you gotta think about the future a little bit. You could buy that cool sports car, but what about later? Yeah, all right, you know, it's winter. I don't need to be in quite the rush to buy a sports car. And then it just kind of all worked out pretty good. And the whole Mustang thing, I'll say it again, like I wanted a car that people would just hate when they lose to it. And just the Mustang, I was like, God, people hate Mustangs. People hate Hellcats. And I was like, I'll try the Mustang.

So this is a question I thought about, I was gonna ask you today. I'm a diehard loyal Ford guy. Do you, after having the Mustang, the success you've had with it, have you thought about giving Blue Oval another chance at like some other stuff? Are you now like shopping for F-150s? Or like you're gonna put your wife in an Expedition? Now, are we brand switching you over to?

No, so my daily is a CRV. My other daily is a Highlander. And then our truck is a Ram.

Okay, so you're not loyal to any of it.

I'm not loyal to any brand. If it feels good, it drives good, the car is good. But it's got definitely service purpose, right? It's gotta do good in its category, what I need it to do good in. As far as my next platform goes, we can kind of touch up on that. I want to try all wheel drive for a wheel drive turbo.

It's a G80M3.

Yeah, my only problem is to get into some of these platforms, it's big, big money.

And ADK just to get the car.

Yeah, and I was like, oh man, I'm really scratching my head. So what other platform can do it? F-150.

Yep.

I said, I know exactly what that engine's capable of doing. I know exactly what that transmission can do.

That'd be great for ESS. Get yourself like a single cab F-150.

They're not that much heavier than a regular Mustang. I think they weigh like what? 4,100 pounds or something. Yeah. They're kind of fairly light.

You're talking extended cab, or not extended cab. You want a...

Regular cab.

Oh, regular cab?

Regular cabs, or a small short box, yeah.

You're not going to do crew cabs?

The crew cab might hurt a lot of feelings though. You can definitely find the crew cabs a lot. But yeah, I don't know yet. I just kind of keep throwing that around. It's like, you know, that'd be pretty cool, a four-wheel drive. Some boost and that thing, that would definitely hurt a lot of feelings too. So I don't know.

Some guys out there running trucks like that, that's a good setup.

Yeah, no, it seems like it works great, and that four-wheel drive seems to do pretty good without anything major from what I understand. Obviously a lot of people run Build Trans, but I haven't had the need for Build Trans, but I also think it's like due to how I race.

So just, I'm assuming you're talking probably a 10-speed truck. You're getting a newer truck. We just had, so Jared Bowen, who you know.

Yep, Bowen.

We, he's got somebody he kind of sponsors, Mike Rausch. He does a lot of racing. He's another orange Mustang guy. So he just blew his 6R80 up in his car, and I had a two-wheel drive F150 at my house that I had bought for the Coyote motor in it. We took that trans out of that truck, that 6R80. He had to build, Jared had to do a little bit of a bracket or something like that for underneath. We bolted it right into Mike's car. He says he's running cooler trans temps. He's shifting harder and it's, everything's hitting. He's doing like, it's burning out in third gear when he hits third gear.

And okay, dyno runs done.

So, you know, you may not, I think that drivetrain's pretty solid if you wanted to just bolt on a supercharger and roll.

Yeah, I mean, a lot of companies, Ford from the dealership was like, we'll throw on a Whipple, we'll throw on a Roush, give you a three-year warranty, go have fun. I was like, man, it won't be half bad, actually. But everyone knows about the Roush or Whipple, stock tunes, they're kind of doodoo. But I don't know, I just kind of think that's, that's pretty awesome that Ford actually offers support like that, though.

I've been ranting about it for like, probably like 20 or 30 episodes, dude, like Ford is just crushing it in the enthusiast game right now. Like, they're supporting us. Car enthusiast is like crazy.

Yeah, and I think that's great, too. And platform works great. I have nothing bad to say. I actually hated Mustangs for the longest time. I was a big LS guy, finally got into CTSV. I was like, man, I'm gonna be killing all these Mustangs, literally. No, that's not how I was when I first raised a couple Mustangs. Like, dang, how fast is that? What the, that's just a little bit of boost. Then I finally stepped into one. I was like, yeah, the hype is real. Hype is very real. And my current setup, I'm only pushing 15 pounds of boost. And then cranked over, you know, almost 950 wheel. So that's something to be said there. My last setup on the ESS G3X, it was almost 18, pushing 19 pounds of boost. Which is a lot, but more, significantly more boost than what I'm currently running in. I made less horsepower, so I just think that's kind of funny.

Yeah, it's weird when you start talking about PSI, because ultimately all it just comes down to like flow and, you know, the smart people stuff.

Yeah, that's a whole nother category. People don't understand either. Like when I raised the twin turbo, 6466, 10 speed Mustang, tuned by Lund, let me emphasize again, tuned by Lund, 6466, you know, E85, 10 speed. He had the whole works. And then we raced at Power Cruise and I got him every time, every single time. And I said, let me see that dino graph though, because we're doing 40 rolls. You know, we're not doing 60, 70, 80 rolls. We're doing 40 rolls and you look at his power band, his torque is, hasn't even come on yet. Like it's just starting to climb. I said, by that time I'm already gone. I already have my 600, 700 some torque at, you know, a 4,000 RPM, you just started building torque.

Chase is a race.

Yeah, so by the time he gets going to a turbo, I'm gone. And yeah, he could have break boosted or rolling anti-lag, but I think that's the beauty of the nature, right? You gotta be able to drive the car. You gotta know what a car does. Play your game, you know? Yeah. But it's just because you make all that horse power doesn't mean it's going to be fast. Like you can give anyone a nine second proven car, but if they've never driven a nine second car, they'll probably be lucky to do 11s down the first pass. Honestly.

I can't remember who I was talking to about this. There's something to be said about it being a driver, right? Like some of these guys, you can, like for example, you can give me a 2000 horsepower car. I will not be able to break into, you know, even the eights.

Yeah.

You know, it's like, because I don't have the, you know, driver mod for that. Like it takes a while to get there. I showed him, cause I've been practicing my brake boosting in my slow a** little head. And I was showing him the other day, like the difference between, you know, me just, you know, dropping it a lot into third or second, whatever the instance is, and just flooring it versus brake boosting. And you were able to tell the difference.

Oh, absolutely. You could tell the difference.

100%. Yeah. Pass under seat, see a crazy driver. But like, there's just something to be said about that. Like, I do wonder how that race would go if he was brake boosting.

I like to try it again. I think Dave is the only twin turbo car that, that I know of that is being built, I guess. I think that's the word. Like, the only other twin turbo car that's around here locally that, that wants to try it out again, I don't know. Maybe there's other twin turbo guys around here locally that I don't know of, but I'd really like to get it on paper or on video, get the research done because.

Research.

Yeah, we like to call it research. I love racing. I want to see what builds this versus that. You know, I've raced a lot of different things, but like, when you talk about the Mustang platform, everyone's going to say Whipple's the king, Twin Turbo's the king, or, you know, Century Blowers are the king, Pro Chargers is the king, right? Everyone is going to say whatever they want to say. But as far as what I do, I want to see what car actually performs the best. Considering what I do. So I think it'd be interesting. I think Dave would be the only only person that I think of. But he's a whole different like tier than me. When I'm talking about racing other builds, like I want to raise stock, stock blocks, stock trans guys. Dave is like, he's kind of the build to the next level. There's a whole, yeah, it's a whole other build, you know? And then I know there's another day with a bill block RPG, everything too. And I was like, we have your Whipple, but you got a whole bill block and everything now too. Like that doesn't really compare to me. It'd be a good race, I'm sure. But you're the next level already, considering your bill block.

Well, bill block doesn't always mean, I mean, if he's running a Gen 5 Whipple, he could be spinning pretty good. But so I had a bill block, but I was running nine and a half to one compression. So it actually brought, my boost was way lower than it was when I had 11 to one or whatever a stock coyote is. It made a huge difference.

Oh yeah.

So, and then sometimes your internals are beefed up. That doesn't always mean that they're tuned up and turned up like they should be.

Correct. But I think just for my sake, I just find that, well, you can, I don't know that, you know, if I never look at the engine or, you know, I don't look at your boost gauge, you know, twin turbo guys, you never know what kind of boost they're going to run at you. Oh, I'm just on boost gauge, seven PSI cranked out 20 at you and like, hmm. But I don't know. I think it'd be interesting to see where people stand for power cruise 2024. That's the only time you'll catch me out there guys is power cruise. So.

Well, you get a, you know, three years worth of content every time you go out.

I, I've been kind of joking around with Carl at TCP. He just pumped out another ZL one that made over a thousand wheel. And I was like, and it's a 10 speed too. So I was like, hmm. I was like, I need to see that car run. Oh yeah. At power cruise. Carl was like, be careful what you wish for. It was like, I love what they pump out. I love the cars that they do out there. It's like, that's great to have like a dedicated GM LSLT shop that just pumps nasty cars out there.

I completely forgot. They have 10 speeds in those Camaros too. Why don't we see more of those?

Honestly, I don't know. I couldn't tell you. Maybe it's just because when you think about ZL1, you think about an older guy that just wants to roll gears maybe, but I don't know.

The SSs, they also had the 10 speed, I think, right?

SS.

The Camaros.

Oh yeah, Camaros, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, because that's-

Ryan said there was a collaboration between Ford and GM.

Yep, that's their like collab. They do good from what I understand. Yeah, they do great. I just don't ever see them. I just don't think that people like Camaros as much, but-

Well, obviously.

I haven't really seen too many, raced too many.

I almost wonder if it's just like, easier to tune the Mustangs.

I'm not too big. I just know that to get an LT4 to my level, it takes a lot of money. Much, much more money than what I've gotten into my Mustang, and guys will joke about that all day long, but it's true. That's why I just said I can't do LS LT4 anymore. I just talk about whole heads, cam and boost like.

Well, we were just having that conversation the other night with Derek and those guys and Caleb. They're still, that's great. And there's a reason why the Camaro is not being made anymore again, but they're outdated technology. I mean, we're still running a single cam. I mean, come on. Dual overheads, like you gotta get with the times or you're gonna get left in the dust.

Yeah. It sounds great. Don't get me wrong. I was like, I got to tell my wife, I'm gonna be sitting in a Corvette, just chopping, you're gonna be sitting there, and just, boobies just bouncing, and you're gonna love it. And it's like, no, I'm not. I'm not gonna like that. So I kinda got that dream shot down when I said, AJ, I'm not buying your C7Z anymore. I had big plans. I was like, I wanna be chopping around. I think that'd be cool. I still think it'd be cool when a dream car is still to get his Corvette. But I just, for the performance aspect, you just can't do it for the better bang of the buck. You know, it just, the Mustang just does it. I keep telling myself, I wanna switch, do a new platform, new platform, but nothing can do what the Mustang does for what I just said, what, 13,000? 13,000 and do, what am I, I'm up to probably like 1,800 some hits. 80 poles at Power Cruise. Someone's gonna argue like, oh, my Honda Civic will do that. No, I've seen plenty of Civics at Power Cruise. They don't last up there.

What happens to these Civics at Power Cruise?

A couple of blown head gaskets and I don't know, they just don't work. The one, the two that I raced was a coupe and then an Integra. They just said, they just keep spinning. They keep spinning and spinning and then overheat. So I'm like, hmm, front wheel drive. I don't know what to say. Like I really want to see a fast Civic up there. That was like on my list. I want to see a fast Civic. I've raced fast Civics somewhere else in Mexico, but I've never seen a fast all wheel drive Civic up there. Cause you know, when you think about it, what we do or what I do, we cruise the track. Most Civics are like, they've got like a six gallon fuel cell in there. I think Dre has like a four gallon fuel cell in his all wheel drive Civic. He's only going down the track and he's parking that thing. He can't be cruisin a three mile track. So I really like to see an all wheel drive Civic at Power Cruise.

Have we not had any all wheel drive ones up here?

I know there's a couple, but it just always seems like they're always down.

Yeah.

Just many issues, I guess. They'll run, but they don't run. I don't know. I want to see one. For research, obviously.

Speaking of research. Give that a second, boom. Okay, there we go.

I got to see the McLaren. The McLaren totally gapped me. It was faster than I thought.

Which McLaren was that?

It was black and had all the carbon fiber splitter.

Was it a GT or?

720S.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, 720S. From what I understand, it had exhaust and some E tune on there or something.

Yeah, so we went on a rally with a GT, which is basically a tuned down 720S. And it's like, you can get 1100 wheel out of those suckers.

Yeah, I didn't realize they're 2,800 pounds either. I'm like, I was forward deep in the morse and dang, I was like, okay. That's kind of fast. But yeah, so then I got to see Kyle's Viper and then Joe's R8. That was great off the bucket list. I got to see Becca's TTRS. Really great car to see. Just all the ratified RS3s, all their cars. Really great cars off my checklist. Finally get to see something crazy because that's what I'm all about.

Is there other events around the country like Power Cruise?

Not that I know of, no. We're the only one that kind of cruises in the track like that.

Well, it's set up so well because I think we have one of the longest straights in the country, right?

It just works great for what we need to do. I think they tried it somewhere else on a shorter track and it just didn't work. I mean, three mile track goes by pretty fast. You do the whole lap in like four minutes, just putzing around.

You could do something like that at Road America, but there's no way they're going to let that Hunnigan re-go on over there. Have you been invited to other events? Are you planning on only doing what? Do you have another idea of what level you might want to go to next?

Yeah, so the ice cream cruise is just in Iowa. I know some people in Indiana because I went to school there. So they're like, you got to come down for like an Indy street takeover or a street car takeover. So I would like to travel, but it all comes down to money because obviously I'm not balling. But money, trailering, gas, there's a lot of expenses that go into it. Like we talk about just at power cruise, you know, your ticket. And then I spent 55 gallons in those two, three days at power cruise. That's pretty expensive too. Just a lot of more things.

In this economy, yes.

Yeah. So that's pretty expensive. But I would like to travel. I know Texas people have been saying, we want to see you in Texas. Kind of funny. Like 2% of my own fan base is in Minnesota, which is kind of funny. But my whole fan base, I got a lot in Cali, Texas, in Florida, the southern states. And they keep asking, like when are you coming down? We want to see that thing actually run us down here. Because you could be fast in your state. But then like there could be other fast guys in their state. And they all think that they're fast. But then we, until you guys actually race, you never really know. People can guess to me, like when I tell people I make 900, obviously they probably make 902, but my 900 and their 900 could be totally different with how elevation everything goes too. But I've definitely seen other fast cars. I've definitely seen other events. I really want to go.

Have you been to Texas 2K?

No, I really, I was going to try to go this year, but then the ESS kit didn't get installed yet. I didn't want to run the Vortech down at 2K because it's the Vortech. And I really want to try the ESS out. So, but I don't know. We'll see. I really like to try to go, but I got to get a lot of things in row first.

Should we sell the two car trailer and get a three car trailer?

Yeah, we're actually going down with Caleb, who we're going to have on here soon, hopefully. Eisenberg?

Yeah.

Cause he's got that ZR1 now, which I can't believe he never. I hope he revealed that.

Yeah, he did.

Okay.

I can't believe he never finished that C7.

It's a work in progress, don't worry about it. But if you would like to purchase it, we can, I can be a broker for that.

I'm good, I'm good. His wheels cost more than my home tire build.

You'd be surprised at the deal I'd be able to broker for you. If anybody wants a twin turbo vet, hit me up.

His wheels set up, I was like, wow, dude.

Yeah, dude, that boy's got taste. He's got good taste.

He does, he does.

Yeah, but he will be throwing his ZR1 and then his GT500 onto a gooseneck and we're bringing that down to Texas.

Yeah, I would like to get in touch with some people and see who can trail my car down. Obviously I pitch in and whatnot, but.

Well, good for you. We can get another trailer for you through Dan.

I would definitely love to.

Let's see how this year goes. Let's talk next year, because I would rather kick that vet off and put another Mustang on the trailer any day.

Yeah, I would definitely like to go. You know, most wants to see it run and ESS would let definitely love to see some 2K action because it's all what's holding you back from going down is it just like a financial.

So let's talk about ESS.

Yeah, they need to buy you a trailer.

ESS. I'm going to look at deep into the camera again. ESS. Let's get this boy on a sales commission. Let's get a tent down there. Let's move some f****** sentries.

They put you in Texas. You start spanking people at Texas 2K. Like that's they're just going to be printing money at that point.

Well, the problem is like you can't record the street stuff then.

No. Yeah, I would. Obviously, it really depends what I'm going down to do. I don't even like qualify for 2K events. But it'd be interesting to see what else we can do down there. But people have got to be able to be okay with doing 40 rolls.

Even then though, because like if you're following is again in California, Texas and all this and everybody kind of gets together for this great festival. It's like, what better proof is there? Like even if you're not recording and spanking people down there, you're still down there vouching for the kit, which granted this podcast will probably help with that too. So I want some commission money too. But even then down there, you'd be able to actually have conversations with people. You'd just be like a sales rep for them is how I see it at least.

Yeah. People actually want to see the car. I went out to Vegas, San Diego, and just me post on Instagram like, hey, I touched down in Vegas or San Diego. Everyone's just like, where are you at? We're coming to find you. I was like, who can find me at the bar? People are like, yeah, we're on our way.

Have you found people?

Yeah, I actually have. Yeah, it's kind of crazy how that is. And just even locally, I can't even go to grocery stores or Walmart.

Which is why because you don't even show your face.

Exactly. But people that know, know and I think it's so funny, like just the other day, I went to the liquor store to grab some drinks and stuff. And this guy was like, I seen your Mustang. I heard it and I knew it was you. I wasn't even going to stop in here, but I might as well now. And it was just like, okay. And then he says, okay, nice to see you, Mike. We'll chat next time. And I was telling my wife, like, I don't even know what that guy is.

I get that all the time.

Yeah, but you guys are talking like you guys are best buddies. Like, yeah, I know. I mean, I'm a fairly open guy.

Dudes are super easy.

Yeah, we're pretty chill. I'm pretty chill. I'm pretty outgoing, talkative, but. It's wild.

Like for us guys, like we could make a new best friend in like 15 seconds. Like it's like, we're like dogs. It's like, Oh my God. So, okay. So how many followers are you got on TikTok?

TikTok has kind of died down. I think it's like 85,000. It really died down with the whole racing algorithm on TikTok. They just hate that stuff.

So then Instagram, you're also pretty up there too, right?

So TikTok's 85 and Instagram is 62,000.

Is that where most of your following is then? That you talk to?

Yeah, I try to communicate and talk to everyone through Instagram. TikTok's messaging system is just...

Garbage, yeah.

Yeah, I don't know why it's bad, but yeah, and then also Facebook.

Oh, because you can't request to talk to somebody if you're not friends.

Yeah, so that's kind of annoying. And then I just started up a Facebook fan page that links my Instagram to Facebook. And then I think that one I had like 17,000. And I just started that one in August.

The Facebook one?

Yeah, so that one's kind of like blown up the most.

And is that through like reels, I'm guessing?

Yeah, just through reels. So everything I post on Instagram goes to Facebook or to my fan page.

Okay, so they're linked, okay.

Yeah, they're linked. So that also helps me with cross posting.

So those are your three platforms you use? Or do you do YouTube shorts too?

Yep, I do. I just started doing YouTube shorts. And that's one, it's kind of taken off pretty crazy. So I should have been doing YouTube shorts a long, long time ago.

And especially for your type of content too, cause like every race, like I'm invested in it. Like when I watch it, right? Cause like, I think one of my best shorts was actually a video of you when I said, like it turned into a Tesla, like when you were passing that cop or whatever, it's like 50,000 views, but you have all this content. And a nice thing. So like one of the issues that I have to worry about is if I post a different style of content and it blows up, then I get all these followers that aren't going to see that ever again. But for you, it's perfect because like you do racing content all the time. So your shorts and your long form are perfect. Like they work together. So I'm glad you're doing that.

Yeah. And then obviously I do a lot of the people are starting to say like I'm doing too many like partnership videos. Cause like when a brand gives you their product, they expect like let's just talk about like my ex force exhaust system that I just got. All they requested was two YouTube videos and two Instagram reels. Simple, simple. And I was like, well, that's a no brainer, but I'm kind of most of my time is those that have way priority over like my racing videos. Cause I honestly need to, you know, they gave me a whole exhaust system. I better go do that video. But, and then, uh, let's see, like the same time, like I want to do my racing content, but then it's so hard to like get everything together. Cause obviously I do go around, talk to people's cars, talk to people, uh, showcase their car. And I really want to do longer YouTube videos, but then to find the time to edit. I mean, you understand editing, editing of 10 minute video is like several, several hours depending on how it goes and, and, uh, stabilization. That's why I always tell people like, you need a gimbal. Cause when I'm, I'm big on blurring stuff, you know, people that aren't, don't want to be on camera and stuff. Like, so I go the extra effort to blur people's faces.

It takes time.

It does take time. And some people don't really care. Like I'm just going to throw everything on the internet. Who cares? Like, well, I don't know. I just feel like that's going to bite me in the butt one day is when Joe over there doesn't want to be on camera and I got him on camera doing something stupid. But in reality I'm over here focusing, you know, on you guys. So I don't know. It just feels like I might catch a bad case.

Yeah, that's fair. Yeah, it's okay. Just hire me as an editor. Uh, part two. But no, uh, so that the reason I bring that up is like, cause we got old Gunna Garage over here trying to grow his channel here going into it. Cause like at the end of the day, it's like one of the reasons I want to have him as a cohost and I've, why I've been pushing it up to Gunna Garage is because like, well, you've always had Gunna Garage, but also like you're in that like beautiful position where you have the knowledge I'd like to think, uh, you have to get in trouble. Yeah, exactly. You have the resources you have. You actually have your own Lyft, which is super helpful. Like that's the other thing. It's like you have all these things that will help you do it. And I'd like to think you have a decent personality at least. So it's like all these different things. I feel like they would, they would really mesh well together for like a YouTube channel. And then, you know, of course all the, like, for example, I don't know if you see the video I shared last week of his, where basically like you spilled the oil or whatever and your seven year old told you, told him, I told you so.

Oh yeah. Yep. Yeah.

It was so funny. I'm like, that's the sort of stuff that, you know, you should be posting. Granted don't, don't, don't stage it, but yeah.

I always tell people just to be consistent and just keep doing it. You're already there wrenching or doing whatever.

Yeah. You just gotta record it.

Just set up a camera and I shoot 99% of my things on my iPhone. I very, very rarely use a GoPro to shoot because they just, the battery just don't last long. And I don't know, just, it's another platform you gotta like get used to.

Part 500 of me b******* about GoPros batteries.

Yeah. So I, and then the only time I use GoPros is for my 360 camera when I'm not racing. And I have tons of batteries of those, you know, tons of batteries for them.

But you said they last a good bit too.

Yeah. They do last a good bit in the cold, not so much, but they do good for what I needed to do. But when I'm running and gunning, I do have my big A73, but I don't honestly, it needs to be stabilized and running around the big rig is, it's tough. And I don't know how these other influencers run around with the bare camera.

Oh, like Kyle?

It just, it shakes. I get a headache watching it and editing it. It just, I get a massive headache. And I know you could do that whole warp stabilization thing, but then it warps and warps your videos and too much for me. So I don't shoot like that. And the iPhones, phones nowadays do a really good job of just capturing everyday stuff. But the one thing I want to say is just be you if people are going to watch you, people are going to watch you. If they don't, they're not. And for me, when I first started, I had like 50 followers, 50 subscribers. I was like, man, if only I could get this whole Facebook group to subscribe to me or watch my content, that'd be so awesome. But then looking back at it, when I say it, only 2% are actually from Minnesota. Like, that's a little, it hurts. But at the same time, it's like, well, that's fine.

Dude, nobody will support you more than a stranger.

Exactly. And like, yeah, I get a lot of support from other states and it just keeps pushing me forward. And, you know, at the end of the day, I still say I'm Hmong and I'm from Minnesota. And deep down inside, like, I don't know. I think that's what matters. You know, I still have my roots. I don't forget where I started from. I, you know, started with the Subaru and everything.

And...

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. I support the Subaru. So if you guys ever see those Subaru jokes, you know, like I started out there. I was big and I'm going to beat all these V8s, my little Subaru. Man, it just never worked out, guys. I'm sorry to say. And then, you know, I got into V8s and I do show a lot of support to the Subaru community a lot. And I love them still.

Sorry guys, we lost the battle.

Yeah, it's tough. You sometimes just got to cut your losses and know where you actually stand. I mean, but yeah, just keep posting, keep being consistent. Because a lot of people do say like, my content is garbage. I was like, man, I probably get that 90% of the time is that content is garbage. Why would you ever post that garbage? Obviously you're going to win. Why would you post that? I'm like, it's content. I was out there racing. I'm at a track. I'm having fun. I'm just going to post whatever I want to post.

Well, it's working for you. That's why people get upset about your videos, too. If you've got to shoot an exhaust video, people just think that you're just 100% doing this just for, I mean, you probably, you are, you're doing this for fun. But at the same time, if somebody's willing to give you some stuff and you want to shoot a couple of videos, people just don't understand how the world works.

I think that's a great trade-off. I even talked with Carissa, right? I think she also got an exhaust and she had to do three videos or whatever. I think it's a fair trade-off.

Oh yeah.

You're showing off a product and if you like the product, even better.

Yeah, I think that's a no-brainer. And I tell a lot of people, don't be afraid to record your car or shoot videos with your car because someone's going to see it. If you genuinely have passion and you do it, someone's going to see it. And I don't know, it could lead to bigger, better things. And how many people you know have Mustangs? I mean, tons. There's Mustangs everywhere, right? But it just shows you that I'm just another ordinary Mustang that just, I don't know, I get stuff too. Yeah, so.

It would be interesting to see you go into like one of the German platforms, but even though it has a higher threshold to get into, it would be, I don't know, man.

Will you stop trying to take the Mustang guys away and just let him, it was his idea. I think you're doing great, Mike. I think you should stay right where you are.

I'm enjoying the platform, but I do want to slow down a little bit. Yeah, yeah.

Is this your retirement?

Yeah, I do want to slow down a little bit just because like it's, I got a family now, but at the same time, I'm still here, still around. And honestly, I had so much more fun at just the two power cruise events this year and no other night activities.

It's a lot less risk.

Risk and even like the morning shows, I didn't even attend many morning shows. We attended them early in the year, but then after that, we didn't really attend any. But at the end of the day, like I still had plenty of content. I still had a lot of fun this year and just doing other things with your car. How many times do you go out every week, you see the same people over and over again? Is it really interesting to see each other every single weekend, three times a week? I just feel like it doesn't, you don't get that spice to go back to the event anymore.

I kind of agree with you on that one. I mean, to be fair, like my conversation's at every car. That's one of the reasons I started a podcast. It's like, I like to talk to people for like an hour because there's always so much to catch up on.

Yeah.

And you and I like kind of both understand it's like we know so many people so like you can never catch up with everybody. But Buck Hill, for example, is one of those, like I just can't go every week. It's every week, 15 minutes from my house. Like I, I'm good. You know, so I get what you're saying.

I've yet to do a Buck Hill, but like me crossing the cities to go down there on a, what is it, a Thursday or Wednesday?

Wednesday.

Wednesday. Yeah. Wednesday night. Yeah. That's a little tough with kids and stuff.

Priorities.

Where are you at?

North Branch.

Okay.

Yeah. So coming down here. Yeah.

That's it. So I'm in Hudson. So it seems like all of the car stuff goes on over in that corner, right? Where Harris is.

Yeah. Oh yeah.

And coming from North Branch, you'd be driving through the same crap. I am 694 over to...

It's tough.

Yeah.

Gas is expensive now, especially when you start to get these higher boost levels and higher horsepower. I get like five miles a gallon, six miles a gallon, and I'm carrying two field jugs right now. I drove the Mustang down. Like how cool would it be?

I saw that out there, I thought, but it's 50 degrees and Thanksgiving tomorrow, so.

I love driving the car. Car gets driven a lot.

How many miles do you have on it now?

18,000 miles.

What'd you buy it at?

Pretty much brand new, it's a thousand miles.

Okay. So you got 18,000 miles. The car's never really been down outside for upgrades.

Yeah. So it only time it gets driven to the track and raced and drives home. So car gets driven. I love driving it. It's just when people ask, can you daily it? Yeah, to an extent. It depends how much you want to fill up on gas because gas is expensive and it does e-cast like no other.

But well, on your current setup, it definitely is gas yet. Cause like those that have decent MPG stock, I think.

Yeah. They do pretty good. It's like 22 miles gallon. Yeah.

The second you go to E85, it's all, it's game over.

Yeah. It's super game over.

Cause I can still get 16, 17 in my orange car with the Whipple on it.

Oh, okay.

And even the GT 500, now that you take the wing out of track mode that I've learned that I can get 14.

Nice. So you're on corn then too?

Oh yeah. It's just always on E85. I've never once had 93 in it, honestly.

So you just go to the gas station, fill up with E85?

Yeah. Yeah. I think we're testing out E70 right now, which is fine. I'm not racing, not doing anything crazy, but.

Do you have a tune for like, like any of those like race fuels or anything like that?

Nope. It's just strictly E85.

It'll be interesting to see how, what that car would do on one ethanol.

I, I want to see what it will make with one ethanol. S, I don't know about R. I think R is just way too spicy, but it would be just cool to see what it'd do with a dyno. Cause the first time we tuned that car was like E63 back in April and made over 900. So I like, dang, if only we had like one R or something, whether you had, I don't know, this is what it is. And then this past dyno event, it only had like 70 or 70%. So, I don't know, there could be more to be, could be more, could be less. I don't know.

Yeah. That would, that would be a fun one to see.

Yeah.

Just bring a barrel of it. Cause like a lot of these guys, like some of these guys, buy pallets of it, like a few barrels of it.

Yeah.

That'd be cool.

That's next level though.

Yeah. And you got to be using it up cause it doesn't store well. Yeah.

Fair point.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You have to put all that stuff back in my house and...

Well, you would use a whole barrel in one power cruise, I think.

I said 55 gallons, right?

I would use a whole barrel at one event. Yep. Just me. Assuming everything goes well, yeah. Yeah. I would definitely use it all up.

It just will be fun to see. I'm just the man of many bad decisions.

Yeah.

You've talked me into a few, I know.

Yeah. I've talked you into good decisions too, though. Yeah. He was looking at getting like a GTR or a GTS.

And so I almost switched platforms too when I blew up one of my other cars. So, but yeah, I fell back into the Mustang.

Yeah. I just, I keep looking at it every day. Look. But then it just comes back to, I don't want to be caught lacking in a Lambo or a Ferrari. As cool as they are, any modified cars are going to come up to you. And especially if they know you too, I'm going to come spank you. You know, all it takes is mildly, a mild, you know, B58, you know, just, man, there's so many rolling around here. You're going to get spanked.

You run into a different level too of modding something else. So let's say you get into an Exotic or even a GTR, there's no $6,500 supercharger kit for a car like that. It doesn't exist.

No, that's one thing that I'm glad I didn't go and do it.

What does a VF supercharger cost on a Lambo? But even then, like, they're not that-

$14,000.

Yeah, but then again, they're also, what, 800 wheel horsepower? Get spanked by Mustang.

Yeah. Yeah, I think that's what I love about the platform is the amount of people that I've, the amount of feelings I've hurt in that car. And every year people keep coming back. I was like, I've upgraded my car. Let's try it again. Like, okay, let's see what it does. I was like, well, I had another $10,000 to mod. Let's see what it does. Whole new supercharger. Let's see what it does. And it's the same result. The car, the hype is real in the car. It does great. And I drive it to the track and I drive it home. And I don't know, it's just really, I keep saying that, but like it's true. People have seen it. People think that I'm at the track every single day racing these people on my videos. Like, no, they were from two events this year only.

So would you not consider a super then just because it had built trans? Because that's all they had to build is the trans, right?

Yeah, so I spec'd it out. I don't know too much. I think when you go to like a CSF intake manifold, it's like five grand that has poor injection. Like, okay, that's quite the upgrade. And then you talk about turbo kit and turbo, probably like six, seven grand.

And a billion trans I think was what, 12?

Yeah, so their pure stage two trans is like, I think 11, 11 or 12,000. And then you still have to do fuel system with some sort. And that's where I kind of stopped. I was going to ask Rat what they're doing for their fuel system. Because the one thing I hate about my Mustang was I did my fuel system three times because it started out with, I'll be okay. I'll be happy with 700. Okay, so you just spec out a 700 horsepower fuel system. Well, I wanted to up the boost. Okay, well, you need to buy a new fuel system or change this up because you only have a 700 horsepower spec'd fuel system. You need bigger lines. You need bigger fuel pumps. Okay, well, let's do that. Okay, so we did that. And then it's like, we're still having issues. How would you just try doing this? So I've done the fuel system three times now. And I wish from the beginning, I would just, you know. Yeah, what they say, buy once, car once kind of deal. And ultimately, I should have spent an extra 800 bucks and just bought this fuel system I currently have, rather than doing the set up three times. And you talk about three times plus labor, pulling everything up. Because once you switch from like a dash six line, you know, go dash eight, go dash 10, I'm dash 10 now. You have to rip out the whole time freeze system. You know, it's not just all, we just replace the fuel pumps. The whole line has to come out. And that takes time.

It takes a little bit of time. It's not horrible. It's what's nice is you rip the back seat out, the fuel pumps right there, the lines go underneath, you zip time along there. It's not horrible. But yeah, it's time consuming. Because you're running a pressure regulator, it doesn't matter if you have a 1200 horsepower fuel system and you're only running 600 horse. Like you said, plan out your goals, and then buy parts that support that. Because like I've done the same thing. I've been like, I'm gonna go here, I'm gonna do this. Then I go to this level, I'm like, oh crap, now I need this. So then you've been up and if you just spent that extra right out the gate, you wasted all that other money in between.

So I'm sitting with extra parts. So if anyone wants that Radium hat for a Mustang, 2011 plus Mustang, you know.

Okay, welcome to Minnoxide Marketplace.

Yeah, we do have extra parts sitting around, but just stuff like that. It just, why I can't really justify it. I like the Supra, but at the same time I'm back to, I can't take my son with me. I can't put the two drag radios in the back seat. I can't put a jack, I mean, I could probably put a jack back there, but I can't carry everything I need to carry that I do with my Mustang.

Have you thought about putting a hitch on the back of your Mustang? Not to pull a trailer, but even just one of those baskets in the back? I've thought about it.

There's that girl, a 1320 chick, that has like a little hitch, a little thing, and she puts her wheels and jugs in the back. And I was joking with her. I said, I put everything that you have on that little hitch inside my car. She's like, oh my God, let me see that show. It's like, it actually fits in there? Yeah, it's tight fit, but yeah, everything does fit inside the Mustang. She's like, wow, I have to try that next time. But you know, it's just funny. But yeah, I don't know. I just, every time I want to switch, I'm back to where I am.

Yeah.

It's tough. Cause like that, that's where Dave's at too. Cause like, I don't think it was Dave. I can't remember. We had him on a podcast. He said he was not looking for that car, but then he's just like, ah, f****** A, it does everything I need it to. Cause like, he also drives around with his kids in the back. It's perfect.

Yeah, it's perfect. And kind of like we're going to like, I really do want to try Euro. So bad.

We'll see what Sean does, cause Sean just picked up his M3. So we will see what he does with that.

Is that a G80? Yeah. I really like that platform.

It's expensive though.

It is expensive. It seems like the potential is there though, for that price category. But I don't know. We'll see. We'll see what things go.

We'll see what he does. He's going to come tuned up for a Texas 2K, hopefully. We'll see. He's probably going to enjoy the car for a little bit, cause he just got it.

Yeah.

But knowing him, that f***** is going to be tuned up by Texas 2K.

We'll have to see. I think, I'm not sure if the trans are a limiting point in that car either. I forget.

Cause like that S50, I think the motor is like mostly built already.

For what I understand it is.

We'll see. I'll have to talk. There's going to be some shop cars around here that are doing. And I was talking with rat a little bit just before you got here about that platform. There's a few shops around here that are experimenting with them. So we'll see what happens.

Yeah. Experimenting would be cool. Especially. I just feel like Minnesota is just so lacking compared to other States.

I think we're working our way up there though.

We are. But like, when you think, let's just talk Mustang real quick.

What are we even doing for the last hour?

How many Mustangs are boosted up here that actually run around that you can really think of?

You can count them on one hand, bro.

Yeah, probably on one hand, but like you go to Florida, Texas, it's so insane. I mean, they're everywhere. That's just what you see. And like, there's some other platforms too, like Civics. Civics are just huge down south too, that are just built up like crazy. And you come up here, not saying that we don't have a strong Civics scene either, but how many Civics you actually see are like decent sized turbo, pushing 600, 700, 800, running around.

What do you think it is that's the limiting factor in our scene?

I honestly don't know. It's hard to figure out, but I don't know.

I think we have the shops.

We have also here though, when you live here and you have a car like that, you have to have two cars. So if you think about some people that are down south, cause I see a lot, like you were at that Mustang show with me, and I'm not a young guy by any means, but we were probably some of the youngest guys there, right? It's all that they buy their 5.0 and they drive it around, that's whatever. They're not interested in boosting the car. It's a fun little muscle car for them to drive around in a weekend drive with their... Now that Mustang club tends to have some older people. Yeah, I was in that club for a while. But here it's like you have to spend $10,000 minimum to boost your car. But now I also need a Civic, I need a CRV, I need something to drive me around in the wintertime too. So that's another 10 grand. So maybe they just aren't... You can't afford to do that. Or you don't have the garage space.

Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. But I also think it's even in the car show scene, because we do a lot of import cars, there's not many cars that are wide body and bagged here, either compared to southern states. If you go to a southern state, you will see bagged cars. You come up here and it's like, this is all we got to offer, some wheels and the spoiler. I just feel like we're so lacking everywhere as far as the car aspect goes compared to other states.

I think we might just have a lot less enthusiast maybe when you think about it. Cause like half the, cause like, for example, when now that your GT 500 is put away, you're going to go snowmobiling the rest of the season pretty much. Right? Cause that's winter. Like we have, I think it's made cause we have two different seasons. So we have more hobbies maybe. So like cars in the summer and then, you know, snow.

Then also, you know, we're number two in boat ownership in this area. Florida is number one.

Really?

So yeah. I mean, even in the center, like all those other toys and stuff, we recreational vehicles, like side by sides are 20 grand now. It's you got all these other hobbies.

At least.

Yes.

I guess I can put it that way. Cause we have boating. If we don't have cars, we have a lot of hobbies up here, I guess.

I didn't think about that. Yeah. Side by sides. Get a lot of people. There's a lot of cool side by sides at power crews.

Like, yeah, I had mine at, I went to a super bike event. I had some friends that were racing and they convinced me to bring my Yamaha Viking up, which seats six. And I didn't know the, what happens at that. This is my first time at BIR. I did not know that once the lights go out at that place, like when the sun goes down, it turns into a whole another level of place. And we were in my side by side. There's literally no rules. Nobody's stopping you. And we were probably out doing things we shouldn't have been doing way late into the night. It was, I don't know if I could go there without having a side by side again. Do you should get around that places?

Yeah. Oh yeah.

It was a lot of fun.

Yeah. They just, I was just doing like the mon money, you need a trailer, a side by side, a golf cart and your race car.

Oh, I had a 40 foot fifth wheel camper with a trailer behind it with my side by side on it. And if I wanted to bring a race car, now I got a whole nother problem.

Hey, I don't want to get to that yet.

There's just so much.

Yeah.

I guess, I guess that's where we're at scene wise. That would make sense. That's the most logical explanation.

I'd like to see what other people think about that though. It's just, why, why do we lack so much?

I mean, Four months out of the year is the only time you get to enjoy it.

Yeah. But then I would assume that, dang, your car would be spectac, extra spectacular because if you can only drive it like that many months out of the year, I don't know.

I just feel like, I feel like people aren't as motivated to get their s*** done too, right?

Yeah. I do know a lot of people that have just fallen off the face of their Things about winter, right?

Like, okay, like let's say you're trying to get a build done throughout the winter and you know, things are behind, whether it's parts or shop or everything. By the time you get to June or July, you're like, f*** it. I'll be out next year.

Yeah.

Cause like, then you're like, oh, I only have two months out of season left. I think that might be another part of it.

Not as many people build their cars over the winter either. You would think that'd be logical. But when I talked to some shops, they're like, no, we actually kind of died down in the winter time. And everybody's in the spring time. Everybody's like, oh crap, I gotta get my car going.

Yeah.

In March, March is when it gets crazy. And yeah, definitely. That's why I want to get my done before, or you know, early, early spring, or you know, it's when I want to get my stuff done. But now that I'm ahead and the car is done, I should be able to do 2K, Texas 2K.

We'd love to see you down there. You should come down with Brian because Brian wants to come down to...

CTSB, Brian.

Yeah. I need to get him back on Pharrell.

Where are they now? You should get him on. He's like improved, like crazy. I remember he talked to me the first time, like how I got into TikTok and stuff.

Yeah.

I just said, just post. Someone's going to like your car.

Did I have him before or after you? I can't remember.

Before.

So, yeah, then he... The car was working. So then he's like, f*** it, let's get a bigger turbo. What does he got? Big a** turbo on there?

Yeah, he got... He reached out to that company that he sponsored. They just gave him a big old, like, I want to say it's like an 88 or 90 mil turbo.

The size of his kid.

Yeah, it's huge. They gave him a big old turbo and then they just did all this amazing fab work. It's one of a kind CTSB. I don't know the CTSBs really have a big single of the hood and never got it finished. We had like a big rivalry early on. Like, I'm going to go beat that Mustang. And then people are like cheering me on because they the whole TikTok fan or group, you know, they kind of know me as the orange Mustang. And then I'd be Brian and Brian's I'm coming back with a big old turbo. So like our episodes were like doing good. Like people are going back and forth between us and me and him just having a blast with it. Like, wow, people were actually fired up about this. This is awesome. It creates views, you know, and and then he just never got it done. And I was like, Brian, I got one more video of a random black CTSV that looks like it blew up and I could say it's you. So I give you more time to finish your build. So he's like, do it, do it. So then I posted it up and we're having fun. I don't know if I actually heard his feelings or not, but yeah, then he just switched up his whole build again. And I said, dang, I never got to see your car actually run, which is unfortunate, but like I tell people, there's no rush cause we'll always still be here. There's no rush to get anything done and have it not work when it needs to work, you know?

Yeah. I mean, yeah. And honestly, he's one of those guys, like he's here just to have fun too.

Oh yeah.

Yeah. He's such a blast dude.

Ryan's amazing. I remember when he first picked up his CTSV, he just hit me up out of the blues. Like I'm picking up this V, can you come meet me? I'm like, uh, sure. I mean, I've never really talked to you in person really before, but yeah. So then he took me out for a rip in his V for the first time because I had one and inspired him to get one. So, well yeah. Now he knows the whole Mustang hype. So I'm trying to give him a switch too.

You're inspiring people to sell their s***.

Yeah. A lot of people, I believe, believe it or not. Like a lot of people say like, you've inspired me to buy a Mustang and get ESS. Like I was like, that's awesome. Like I was like Ford, I need commission. Come on.

We're going to get a hotline. Don't worry.

I've been trying that. There's no better advocate for Ford than me. And that doesn't work.

I just, I just hope one day, I'm sure Ford sees these videos. Cause when, when ESS reached out, they're like, yeah, the whole shop watches it. Like everyone here watches your videos. And Vortech was the same way. Like we watch your videos. We want you to be over here. And I was like, You broke their heart, man. I didn't say anything bad. I was like, you know, we had 1600 some polls on the Vortech V3, like 1600 some polls in a short year and a half out there running there. We snapped four or five belts. You know, I had my fair share of Vortech, you know, but kit works great. The blower did great. Once we figured out the belt issues and just always had belts on hand because that's just supercharged your life, right? Once you get past all that, I mean, the kit was, it's phenomenal. It worked great. It hurt a lot of feelings too.

They're not a bad company by any means. If you have a Vortech, don't worry about having to think you got to go selling it on ESS.

Don't switch, guys.

I worked with them on some of the older Celine stuff that we have, and I've sent blowers out to them. They rebuilt them, sent them back.

Oh yeah.

They're very easy to get parts from. That's not, yeah, they're not a bad company by any means.

Yeah, and I can tell people, even like tuners, we could debate tuners all day long, but at the end of the day, Majid works great for me. He does what I need him to do. And I can have a normal conversation like this with him. And I think just building that connection with your tuner and having a personal level of like what I need it to do, what I need my car to do, that goes way further than Joe over there has a world record car from this tuner. You should go get tuned by them. I'm not gonna get a world record tune, nor do I care for a world record. It'd be different if I was like, I'm pushing world records. I want to push world records. We'll get you there one day.

Well, you have a shop that you work through, right? You have Moe's. Do you talk with Majed directly, or do you work through them?

A little bit of both. I talk to Majed when I'm like, when I need something on the fly, if it's just a tune or car's acting up, I'll just data log and send it to him. But if we're talking like, oh Majed, we got a whole new supercharger, we're going twin turbo or something, you know, something crazy like that. And then Moe's, obviously, they get their parts and stuff like, well then, if I have to deal with the shop, then I'll let the shop do their thing. Because they take care of the tuning and everything, because that's their own scheduling and stuff too. So it kind of works hand in hand.

Find somebody who you can get a good relationship with. So I've had Bowen do a bunch of stuff for me, and I've been on rallies and had the car do something weird, and it could be on a Sunday, and I can call him and be like, hey, or I'll send him a text, and if he gets back at me right away, him and I will be on the phone. He's like, hey, do a crank reeler, and let's do this. Bang, I'm back on the road. So yeah, sometimes, I've been back and forth on this tuner thing too, having all of these fords that I have, and I like to try different things. So I have the ProCharger, I have the Whipple, so I'm always testing out different stuff. And I'm still trying to build that tuner relationship with somebody that gets you a good, I worked with Mo early on when he first opened his shop, and at that point Mo was going to tuning school, stuff like that. They didn't really have, he wasn't comfortable doing the Coyote stuff at that point. Now it sounds like you guys have a good system. We may need to talk again.

Definitely, I feel like I'm a test guinea. No, but I think we got, they pretty much got it all figured out. Carr does great. And I brought my black Mustang to Bowen for the first time too, and we had a lot of good success out there. And he was saying, wow, people are coming in like crazy for tuning. What did you do? I'm like, oh, I've been posting videos of me racing. So that's where I kind of got started. And then, of course, in case he didn't tune anymore. And then when I built my Vortech set up, I needed a tuner like now. And Majid was the only one that answered me. Lon got a call, Palm Beach got a call. Everyone pretty much got a call. And well, are you going to do it now or like in two days? So we need the car up and now, we're like running now. And Majid answered the phone. He got it up and running. And I said, perfect, that's, he's got my business. You know, there's nothing more than, nothing more than you can really ask for. Like if he answers the phone, he gets your business.

Absolutely. Well, I went that route one time too. I had somebody actually gave me the time of day, but that tuning was very, very bad.

It could go both ways.

Yeah, exactly.

But I don't know, I think I tell people like, if you have a good relationship and your car works fine, don't switch.

Right. And don't try and chase the numbers. That's the other thing that I talk about too. Who cares if it's working for you, you're having a good time, you're obviously whipping some a** out there. And I've seen you, like I think I heard Harris say on the last one, you also post your losers too. Like it doesn't, you're having a good time, that's all that matters. You want the car to perform and not blow up. So who cares? You're so close to four digits, but are you like all but heard about it? No. I had a friend of mine that had a GT 500 and he hit like 986 and he was so pissed that he didn't hit a thousand. I'm like, dude, who cares? Yeah. That car eventually blew up by the way.

Was it green?

No, it was a 1314, it was red.

Oh, right.

Yeah.

Cause I raced Eric's GT 500, the Ruby red. I don't know if you know him, but I think he made like 997 or something. And he's like, dang, how much does it hurt if you made 997 and not 1000? I mean, deep downside, it would kind of hurt.

Yeah.

Cause I feel like a thousand, like every one wants to crack a thousand, but like realistically though, it's not something that's attainable for a lot of a lot of people.

No.

And definitely your bank is going to be hurting a little bit too.

I mean, it can be attainable if you get yourself a Mustang and an ESS pro charger, not pro charger, I keep saying pro charger.

So one guy was arguing with them for today, like the longest I was like, it's a pro charger. You're like, no, it's a ESS.

It does have, it's like a It's a CleanX.

Yes, that's funny. But yeah, so like the whole supercharger war and tuner war, I just tell people, if it works fine for you, don't switch. Just switch. Because I'm having a good success out here with ESS and Modgit, doesn't mean everyone should switch to ESS and Modgit. Because you're going to have bad apples everywhere, right? Just like so-and-so over here doesn't have always great customers. There's always going to be bad customers and bad products. Parts fail. Most of the time, the tune's not off, but you have parts that fail. So then they blame the tuner. Well, tuners only do so much, but realistically, you have to look at your parts. I think that coming back to what we said, me being able to look at the logs and see what I need to see, or see the things that I know what to look at, it goes so much further than having the tuner lock everything and me being dead in the water waiting for an email. So what do I know? I'm not trying to wait for that two-day turnaround time or pay extra 500 bucks for the platinum tune for 24-7 support.

Yeah, that's the other thing. So you can get that kind of support if you want to pay that kind of money, which is kind of crazy, the monster they want for that, too.

Yeah, it's like, really? And I don't know, maybe that's why they're making so much more horsepower, but that also comes back to like, I'm on a pretty conservative tune still. With my whole setup, it's been fairly conservative. You talk about 15 pounds of boost. That's not even cracking like anything crazy for a coyote. 15 pounds of boost, you're just...

I've seen VMP run a coyote up to 30 PSI.

Yeah.

So yeah, it can happen.

Yeah, they've been pretty crazy. So I'm fairly moderate and I would say it's conservative and I'm just there to have fun. I'm not chasing numbers, nor do I care about cracking some crazy drag times because I don't drag race. So what I am concerned about is, can we do 80 pulls a day? That's what I'm really after. And just having fun, just having fun. And now people understand that either they'll do two, three hits and put the car away on a trailer.

How much fun is that?

That's not fun for me, man. I'm out there doing back to back pulls all the long 160, 180 and cars fine driving home too.

So, so since this is your first time, do you know how the, the last question.

So this is before you, I was going to say, so I listened to your first episode again today, just to kind of refresh my memory. Yeah, the question wasn't in play then.

Yeah, that was, so we, we implemented the question. You know about the question, right?

Yeah, the, the cars.

Yeah, we implemented that at Texas 2K. So let's see, let's give Dan his first go around on this one. I'll help you out if need be.

All right, sounds good. So something we like to ask everybody, I'm saying we now, like, I'm just part of this all day now, right?

You are.

All right, so we like to ask three cars, track car, daily and show car, unlimited budget, only limitation is your imagination.

Man, that is a crazy question. I knew you were gonna ask that, but I'm so minimalistic, is that a word? Minimal.

Practical.

Practical. Yeah.

Did you hear Ratt's answer when he was on? He was like, just give me a truck. I don't care which truck.

Yeah, and my daily, like, I love my CRV. It does create, it does what I need it to do.

Well, I think that's gotta be a new one for the daily, right?

I don't need anything fancy. It does what I need it. It's got carplay.

So CRV, you're locking that in?

Yeah, CRV is great. Kind of sidetracked here, but like we had the Tesla and the Tesla didn't have carplay and I was so mad. It was like, we got this amazing Tesla play for you. I'm like, yeah, what kind of configure everything else? Like what? I can't just plug in my phone and go, nope. But so that's my daily. Yeah, CRV is just fine. My track car, man, I don't know, because I don't really like track like that. I'm a straight line kind of guy. But the one car that caught my eye at Power Cruise was probably the McLaren 720S. I got to see one in person, sit in one, and then I was like, hmm, yeah, this is a little out there, but I've never driven anything like this, or like do all these crazy track stuff, right? But I think a 720S would be kind of cool. I don't know how practical that would be on the track. No idea.

Practicality is not in this here, right?

I don't know. I think that would be pretty cool to have a 720S. I still keep shopping for one every day. Look at one.

There was a bargain GT for sale not that long ago.

And then Showcar.

Showcar, gosh, I don't mean, no. What do I like? Man.

Dude, he's going to go through a midlife crisis right now.

I figure out.

After talking with him for this time, we've been here, I was, this question is all up in the air. I thought too, I was.

Yeah, I don't know. Showcar, I.

Would you go classic or newer?

I'd probably go new. I don't know.

You have bags again or no?

No, I don't care for.

Okay, no bags.

Bags.

Euro or American or JDM?

Yeah, probably, probably be like Euro or something. I don't know. I just, for a Showcar.

I mean, some people have said, Koenigsegg Regera in the past. So, I mean, we're talking unlimited budget here.

Unlimited budget.

Dare to dream.

That one's tough. A Showcar. I don't know. I think a Ferrari looks really nice.

Okay, we're in Ferraris.

Yeah, I think that would be the standard for a Showcar for me. I don't know what kind of Ferrari, but I think just Ferrari is the name. Would do pretty good for me as a Showcar. I'm not big in the Showcars.

Like a 458, would you go naturally aspirated or turbo?

Naturally aspirated for sure.

So then if you go naturally aspirated, you got the F430, the 458, everything. All the older ones would give a s***.

But I think 458, because that's what I've heard of before. That one rings the bell. Yeah, that one rings the bell for me. But yeah, I don't know. I think this is a very tough question. It's like someone that never driven one, a sad one, seen one really like that, driven one kind of like that. So I think Ferrari, to me, sounds like a very good show car.

Everywhere you go, everybody's looking, doesn't matter.

Yeah. Yeah.

I don't see a lot of them out. No.

Well, that's the thing is, especially since they stopped, you know, making naturally aspirated Ferraris, like they're worth a good bit too. And there's dude, a straight piped 458. Dude, sounds like an F1 car. It's just out of this f****** world. Like I got, like my buddy has one dude, and it's the craziest sounding car ever. The only other thing I've, I'm about to start a whole fight on the internet. I'm probably a, I don't know, popular, unpopular opinion. I think that the F430 sounds just a hair better than the 458. So if you look at like the comparison videos online, it's like, everybody says 458, cause it's the newer one, of course, but the F430 is so insane. Like straight piped, it's just, it's crazy. But that's just me. Anyways, where can people find you?

Yeah, check me out on 651MyGarage. I'm on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, pretty much all the social media platforms out there. And yeah, that's pretty much it. And we just keep pumping out these racing videos and we'll see everyone at Power Cruise 2024.

And if you or a loved one has been heard by Mike's Mustang, please reach out to Hotline. We got to create a hotline for you. Dan, where can people find you? My part-time co-host.

You can find us at Gunnit Garage. I say us because I do this with my wife and kids and all that stuff. So that's hopefully they figure this out more than I do. But yeah, Gunnit Garage on all the same stuff Mike just listed.

Yeah, Gunnit with two N's. Two N's, yep. People get used to that soon.

Yeah, it's my son Gunner started the whole thing. He used to say Gunnit all the time. So we kind of morphed into this. Yeah.

Sweet, awesome stuff. And then as for me, you're on my podcast. You found me, Minnoxide, everything. Please make sure you're signing up for the newsletter. I try not to spam those too much, but with the upcoming things, this winter's gonna be cool. I'll have my first ever merch drops. I'll be really cool. I'm super stoked for that. Trevor's been working a lot on that. He creates amazing stuff. I like that sticker over there. I'll get you a sticker after this, sir. People love that, dude. It's just like, that's the thing. When you create quality stuff, people wanna rep it. So I'm super excited on that. I'm still waiting on my raise a hood banner, but that is the official sponsor of the podcast. So far until I get more. So I'm just gonna put that together at some point. Just so much going on, man. You know how it is when you're creating content, it's never ending.

Yeah, it's endless. And even talking today, we could keep talking about everything.

Oh, yeah, we're over two hours, by the way. Yeah.

The content's endless. I mean, you just talk about two days of the track. I mean, we're still going on the same content, so.

Which is crazy to me.

Well, then full time in the trades, like that's the industry I'm into. That's already long hours. Yeah.

And then also, you know, if you guys do want a fast Audi, well, Audi, Supra, I don't know. Rat works on a little bit of everything. Come here to Ratified Motorsport if you want to beat Mustangs.

Ask him for the Mustang, Mustang build.

The Mustang killer.

He'll hook you up. He'll know exactly what you need, and it's going to be a pretty penny.

Tell me you want to beat that stupid orange car you see everywhere.

Which one of his builds have beat you?

The gray TT RS has beaten me.

That's Chase's, right?

Yup, Chase has beaten me. Rats RS3 has not taken me yet. I'll say that again.

That's also because he rolls four deep, right?

Yeah, yeah, yup, yup.

But so do you.

Yup, he had a boost leak. He was on the map one out of five accidentally, and well, he'll have to catch me on 2021st season. But there's Supra definitely beat me, but I had dead fuel pumps, so I don't know if you can count that one either. I don't know, Ratt's good competition though.

All right, so Rattified versus 651MyGarage coming 2024. And on that note, thank you everybody for listening. Thanks for coming on, Mike. Dan, thanks for your existence, and we'll see you all next time.