56. Deutsche Car Club, B58 Platform, Battle of the Brands w/ Steven Kojack

Alright, cool, let's let it rip. Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome back to the Minnoxide Podcast. I'm your host, Harris, aka Minnoxide, man of many automotive aspirations. And I almost forgot my intro on that one. I almost forgot what I was called. I almost messed that one up.

Oh yeah?

Yeah. But today, I'm here with my co-host, Dan Deckard, aka Gunnit Garage, who will promptly introduce the show.

Yeah. So this is the Minnoxide Podcast, where we go beyond the meat and give you a chance to meet some of our local people in the car scene we have here.

No, we've got national now, dude.

Oh yeah?

Yeah, we're going global at some point.

All right.

Yeah, I'm excited for PRI. I got some really fun guests coming up here. But nonetheless, today I wanted to have Steve on. Just give us a little bit of an introduction about yourself. So you are the founder of DCC Car Club, which we can get into that. But you're in the German scene, and obviously it made sense to have you on because well, your car was built by Ratafide. Because I actually parked next to your car a number of weeks ago, I think. So I was like, all right, if this car is here, it's probably making some steam. So I wanted to get you on and just kind of hear a little bit about your story.

Yeah, I appreciate you having me on. Super excited to be here listening to you every week. You're definitely making an impact in Minnesota, putting us on the map. So thank you for that. Yeah, my name is Steven. I am the founder of Deutsche Car Club. Started that in 2020, right about COVID.

Okay, so it's pretty new then.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, three years going on for fairly new compared to other car clubs. Been running that for the past three years, having a blast with the whole German community. So yeah.

Just scoot on over here just a tad a little bit. There we go. Okay, cool. So yeah. For some reason, I thought Deutsche Car Club was around a little bit longer, but I guess because I got into the car scene around 2018 here locally. So I don't know, Deutsche Car Club just was a bigger group. I mean, it's always been how many members you guys have in there now?

Right now, I think we've just crossed over 2000. On Facebook.

It's quite a bit.

It's definitely, you know, we started the group in 2020, but got into car scene about 2018. Grown up in Texas, you know, I think as everyone started, I started with the Honda Club. So I had a Honda CRX Si, which I thought that was the baddest car, you know, on the road. I was in high school and did the whole, you know, exhaust and intake and filter, and you thought you were the fastest guy on the road.

I love those things. What year was yours?

Mine was 1988.

88. Okay. I don't know if you remember, a few months ago, I posted on my Facebook because I saw one cruising down the highway on 169. And again, I didn't grow up a Honda boy, but I was like, that was a sick looking car.

It is, you know, it's I think for a lot of car guys, I think that, you know, that was the start. And, you know, the main reason is just the cost of them going to the meets in Houston, you have your Mustangs, Camaros, Trans Am at the time that, you know, just cost so much and being in high school, what are you going to get? You know, you go and you find a $2,000 Honda, fix it up. And believe it or not, back then, I mean, they were they were pretty quick. So you know, getting into that, that's kind of where I started in the not so much the car scene, but streets kind of going out cruising and that sort of thing. So yeah, it's been pretty much growing ever since. But yeah, I mean, the the car club itself, the way it started was when I got into the car scene in 2018, I joined, you know, and then BMW on the on the Facebook page, I went and bought a 2011 335 E92 and joined that, you know, that club on the page started, you know, chatting with them, making posts, did a JB fortune and, you know, kind of a normal thing to do with the E92s. And maybe like a month after that, I started searching, I said, Well, you know what, if there's one group, there's got to be another, you know, maybe multiple. Right.

Yeah.

So I came across Twin Cities Beamer Club. And, you know, with them, it seemed like they go out or they were going out every weekend, creating meets, cruises and things like that. So join that. And that's kind of how it started.

Okay.

You know, in the car scene with at least the German. I mean, I've been a BMW fanatic my whole life. Eight years old. You know, I remember summer of 1991, I believe. You know, dad and mom took us over overseas back home to Lebanon.

Gotcha.

And over there, you want to talk about German scene. Everybody drives a BMW or Mercedes.

Yeah.

But one of my brother's friends that was over there picked us up in his to this day, I think it was still an M3. But the problem with overseas is everyone up edges.

Oh, fair enough. Yeah.

Never know what real M3 or not. But jumped in the back and he was gone. I mean, he was taking corners drifting when drifting wasn't even a thing. And since that day, eight years old, BMW has been a top modelist. That's what I want to buy when I grow up type of thing.

Get this is like a little bit closer, by the way, just because you're like, yeah, I'm totally ruined the flow. But that was, oh, you have no problem with up badging, though, because we do it here in the States, too, right? Like we get all these stupid scat packs up badger to hell cats and whatever.

Just don't know anymore. I mean, they're even putting superchargers on the on the scat packs now, which is a horrible idea.

But that's not a good idea.

They don't handle boost very well.

Well, not even that. I mean, you spend the money on a charger, save a little bit more and get a real hell cat.

That's kind of what we had Bryce from Fat Cat Performance on way early on in this podcast. And we were talking about it like, okay, is there a cost benefit to just boosting a six four? And he's like, well, in theory, like yes, you can. But in the long run, you kind of just want to help out. But the weird thing that he mentioned in his episode, I wonder if I should talk to some other experts about this. He basically said, if you're going for that, like 1200 plus range, you just want to build a six four anyway. That's what he said. That's what I'm remembering. Maybe somebody will fact check me, but it doesn't make sense to me.

I'll never understand. Well, I mean, it is what it is. That's what they want to do. That's what they want to do.

We're in a good kind of platform, though. You and I, granted, I'm Volkswagen, you're Beamer, but it's so easy to get power out of this, out of these cars. I mean, so you got the what years of your car?

So mine's a 2017 340.

Okay. And that's what the B58 motor.

So that's going to be the Gen 1 B58.

Oh, okay. So are they in Gen 2 now?

So we are on, I believe, Gen 3. So you got B58 Gen 1, B58 TU Gen 2, and then you got B58 TU 2, which is Gen 3.

Interesting. When did Gen 3 come out? Any idea?

Gen 3 would have been 2023.

So the fresh ones.

Correct. And for us people that don't know what that stuff is, are we, BMW does a lot of inline stuff, right? Is that like an inline five cylinder?

So that's going to be their inline six turbo.

Inline six turbo.

So and you'll see this when we go down to Texas 2K in a few months. The Supra has the same motor, the B58 or whatever. It's exactly the same, right? I've always wondered if there was like a slight difference.

But now that the Supra is actually about 80% BMW, daily driven exotics actually did a thing on it where they before they bought it or after they bought it, they actually stripped it down to see, you know, what parts are Toyota and what parts are BMW and ended up being like 80% BMW.

So it was pretty much when they were coming out, people were upset that that was the case.

But well, the B58 motor, I mean, it is just magnificent.

It's amazing.

It's my car has 84,000 miles on it. I've been racing it since the day I got it. And the only thing I've had to do is change the spark plugs. That's it. I've had an N55 and N54 before this. And I mean, they were consistently every two weeks. Yeah. You know, got to take it back in and got to change this out. Got to do that. Check engine light every time you do a pull. This motor is just just amazing. It's an amazing motor.

Yeah.

I mean, I always tell people, though, and I've said it a million times on his podcast, the second they put the S58 in the Supra, I'll be the first one to put a deposit if they do it.

Yeah, that's going to be I mean, that's going to be scary if they do that. Yeah, because like these M3 comps right now, M4 comps, you're doing a stage one and a catalyst downpipe and they're low 10s, high nines. Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, it's ridiculous. X3M competition yesterday. I was watching a video stage one tune with a catalyst downpipe. That's it. It ran a 99 quarter mile. So imagine that motor in the Supra.

That's going to be a scary car, which is a Supra light car. I think it's like four or 500 pounds lighter than an M2.

The Supra is correct.

Yeah. Because I think the M2s are damn near 4,000 now, I think every BMW is heavy.

I don't know what it is about being even, you know, you take a look at the M2, you think two door coupe small is going to be, you know, 3,200, 3,300 pounds. And they're just my car is 37, 3,800 pounds.

Yeah.

And you think, you know, smaller car, less weight.

It's it shocks me.

Yeah, it's I don't know what it is.

They pack a lot of bells and whistles into them. I mean, heated seats, all that kind of luxury stuff.

But they all have that. That's the thing. So my car has, you know, navigation, heated seats, everything. M2 will have the same thing and way either the same or more. So I don't get it. I know it's a little bit bigger engine inline six twin turbo, but it shouldn't be that much heavier.

That's one of the, but you know, do you watch throttle house at all?

I don't know.

So I actually started watching them a lot more this year. So they actually did a little comparison video. So they had the new M2, new Mustang dark course. That's your people. And then what else did they have? They had that new Lotus. I think they threw in a Camaro, like old Camaro for good measure. So funny enough, we already know who won the M2 because it's the best out of that entire lineup. The dark course was second, I believe. But you know what surprised me was the new Lotus, right? Is it took off, I think it's all wheel drive. It took off at the launch, gone, but because they have such a garbage transmission in there, just completely lost it. Whereas the M2, it starts coming to life in third gear, which is just, I'm excited. If I could get that car today, I would.

That's definitely going to be a scary, scary car. I mean, I'm just thinking about it now, Supra with the S58. I mean, they're good luck.

Yeah. Well, they weigh like 3,300 pounds.

Well, they're making, I mean, the Supra is now with the Gen 1 B58 motor. I mean, it's crazy. They're again, running 10s with little to no work done to them.

Yeah.

So I'm actually contemplating getting a Supra, I know.

Yeah. I don't see why not. I love when I go down to Texas 2K, and again, you're going to see this when you're down there. It's freaking awesome. All of them are missing a headlight.

Correct.

Which is amazing. So, okay, so I want to go a little bit further back though. So you grew up in Houston then?

Born and raised in Houston, Texas.

Houston, okay. So how long did you live, or when did you leave Houston?

So in 2003, we decided to move up here. You know, down there, you know, I was getting a little too much trouble.

Fair enough.

And, you know, my dad recently passed away, who was my, pretty much my idol. I was right next to him on pretty much anything that he did. He was actually running a Acura dealership and which is, you know, Honda Acura, which is why we got into him. But I mean, I remember going to the dealership, visiting him. They used to do car shows at the arena and, you know, we'll get to take a car home and then obviously take it back to the dealership. I actually got to ride in the NSX because of him when it first came out in 1992. It came, you know, he brought it home. And you want to talk about, you know, excitement.

Yeah, blow a little kid's mind.

I was just, I completely forgot about the Ferraris and Lamborghinis and everything like that.

Which was the goal of the NSX to make you forget about Ferraris.

That's pretty much it. But yeah, we, you know, after he passed away, we all kind of, you know, took a step back. My mom's brother, my uncle lives up here with, you know, my cousins and things like that. So like, you know, Minnesota, good opportunity, great for families and things like that. So they were like, yeah, we got, you know, really nothing to do here except get in trouble. So packed up our things, sold the house and we moved up here.

So were you involved much with the cars or how old were you when you left Texas?

So I was 21.

21. So were you involved with the car scene down there much? When, when, when did Texas 2k come to life?

I want to say it was, it was past that there was no Texas 2k when I was there.

I want to say it was like 2008 or 2013 that Texas 2k came around. Something around there. Yeah. Which is a bummer. That's no longer in Houston. Did you spend much time at that drag, drag race park over there they had or no?

We went a few times. Yeah.

It's a bummer.

We were, we were young kids at the time. So you know, street racing was free, fair enough. So we went a few times to watch, but other than that, it was mainly street racing.

And yeah, I, I share some similarities with your story because, you know, my dad's a partial owner of a dealership as well. So and even when he was like, man, or manager, general manager, however many years ago, like he'd bring fun stuff home. Like I've gone to ride, like I remember when the Hellcats first came out, he brought a Hellcat home. And I remember I said this out loud. I was like, man, I really don't like that whining sound. That was before I became quite the petrolhead I am today. But but no, I remember actually one, this is like when I was super young, he actually brought home a Grabber Blue Mustang with the white stripes. I can't remember if it was a 50. I want to say it was a 50. Might have been a GT 500. I don't know.

It had stripes more than likely.

You think so? Did it have 350s in that generation?

Was it a manual? I can't.

Yeah, yeah, it was a manual.

Oh, you said S197, right? Yeah. Okay. Then, no, they did not have a GT350 then.

That's what I thought. They didn't have one. Yeah, so you're making s*** up today.

No, they have a GT500, though.

Yeah, it was. It basically showed me. It's like, oh, if you take your hand off, it turns off or whatever. He was showing me what happens when you let go of the clutch. Yeah. He's like, this is what stalling is. I had no clue what that meant. But I remember being in that car, and I'm like, oh, man, first of all, f*** these back seats. Secondly, I can get with this. But yeah, that was always cool to have him bring stuff home.

It was almost on a week. I remember when the Acura Legend came out.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Oh, wow. I was a brand new model. And it was, I remember, just gorgeous. This is the smell of a new car, especially, you know, what's funny is you go into a Honda dealership now, you sit in the new Honda or Acura, they have the same smell. I remember from early 90s, same exact smell. And it just nostalgic feeling comes over me when I, you know, sit in a new Honda and just remember, you know, I remember the back in a day. But Acura Legend, I remember when he brought it home, it was, you know, I mean, it was just gorgeous. It was the car that was supposed to compete with BMW and Mercedes at the time. But every, yeah, every, every new car that comes out, you'd bring it home. Acura Integra GSR, brought it home and the VTEC or the Type R. I remember that. It was, I mean, you want to talk about becoming a, you know, a car guy. That will do it right there.

Yeah, I mean, being around all the cars all the time. And actually, funny enough, my dad was, first of all, he didn't own a car for years. He was just demoing stuff, you know, just bringing whatever stuff home. He had rules for himself, of course, you know, as any good manager would. But yeah, it was just super interesting. Like, I got to get exposed. Like, I remember one guy, he actually brought in his Jaguar F-Type R, right? And he traded it for a Jeep Renegade, of all things.

That's a big mistake.

Well, I'm sure that's what his former ex-wife said, too. Because yeah, that's why the car was traded in. But you know, he brought the Jag home for a few weeks. And up until a certain point, that was one of the best cars I've ever driven, because they're all wheel drive, it's a V8. Were the Type R supercharged? I can't remember.

Yeah, four-cylinder. They just had a higher...

No, no, that was the V8. No, no, no, I'm talking about the Jaguar. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was about to say, oh, not a Honda. But no, that was such a fun car to drive. And then, what else has he brought home? Like, Hellcat Red Eyes. I didn't get to drive that one, but... Well, I had driven somebody else's, but yeah, whatever. In rain, it was terrifying, don't worry about it. But my brain's all over the place. Like I said, I came here two hours early today, and it was just absolute catastrophe.

When you talk about cars, usually it's gonna be... Because there's so many things running through my head right now, I'm trying to gauge, all right.

What did you have when you came? So 2003, you came here, what car did you bring from Texas here?

I didn't. You didn't have one then? So what ended up happening was, I ended up selling my CRX, because moving to Minnesota, front wheel drive, I'm like, yeah, there's no way, I'll buy something up there, maybe I should get a truck, and then later on, figure it out, I'll see what the car scene is like. And when we moved up here, it was just a huge culture shock. There was nothing, nothing, nothing. I remember my cousin taking me to Porky's on university. And you pull up, and it's just not, not what you'd want as a car guy. Maybe if you're older, a muscle car, but it's just a car show. And they'd speed up and down, trying to show off here and there.

I've done a few burnouts over at Porky's before.

Other than that, hey, did you guys go out? What's going, where do the guys meet? Do you guys race? No, just come and chill and then go home. So I ended up buying a 1993 318 IS. I said, you know what, I'm just gonna buy a BMW. I've wanted one since I was a kid and didn't know how slow that thing was.

I think my aunt has that same one.

Holy cow. Slowest car I've ever had in my life. I mean, it was, I remember hitting the highway and you'll have people come up next year because it had the M3 wheels. So it looked like an M3, but 318 IS in the back. And you, I mean, four-cylinder Honda's HX, if you remember those, they were putting buses on me. And I'm like, what is going on? It's supposed to be a BMW. I'm having second thoughts about this. And that was a four-cylinder, but I ended up buying that BMW from Motorworks BMW. That was when they were at Feldman's. So yeah, I bought that, but the culture shock, I mean, it was depressing. There was literally nothing back in 2003.

So how long until you start getting exposed to the fun part of the car scene that had ever happened?

So 2018.

So a 15-year period of just-

Nothing.

Nothing, so okay, now we gotta go back now. So what do you do for 15 years?

So the 318 IS was my purchase, and then they started coming out with all-wheel drive BMWs, right? And I had the 318 maybe for a year, gave it to my little brother for his senior year in high school, and I went and bought a Honda Civic. I said, I'm going back to my, you know, what I know. So I bought a Honda Civic EX. And again, didn't really do anything because there's really nothing, but I knew about them and comfortable and so on. And then in 2008, I purchased a 2006 BMW 325X drive. And again, kind of fell back to the same thing. All right, I'm going to end line six. This is what BMW is known for. Another just super slow car. I couldn't believe it. I was so just upset after a month of having it. Kept that for a while and then started kind of building. And then 2018, you know, that's when the 335 started breaking out. And I think they started breaking out a little earlier than that, but everyone was putting JB4s gaining hundreds of horsepower. And I said, you know, that's what I want to do. I'm going to find one. And then that's kind of how I got into it.

So when did you start modding cars then? Did you mod any of those earlier BMWs at all?

No, the other ones were certified. OK. You know, didn't want to break the warranty. And again, I was building. That was the start of my career. Started building myself. You know, we started out, I started out with Best Buy in 2003, and started building my career with them. Getting promoted, promoted. Where in 2008, 2009, I started making good money, right? So I bought a BMW, kept on going higher and higher. And then about 2017, 2018, you know, that's when I started, you know, that's when the cash flow started coming in. Where I had money that I was saving, money that I could spend, and money that pay the bills. The first time in my life that I had that. And, you know, that's when I jumped into it.

So then, okay, so because like currently your build is built by, sorry, your BMW is currently built by Ratified. Did you build your early 335 with anybody else?

No. So my current one, I would say a mixture between Ratified and Mechanical.

Okay, gotcha.

And there, so I take it both places since they're both my sponsor for the club.

Right.

So that's kind of, yeah.

It's getting a little further from you again.

Oh, sorry. But that's kind of the way the car is now. But no, the previous ones were never built. I mean, I put a lot of money into them. The 2011 N55 that I had, again, I've always been one step behind. The N54s were the thing, so I bought an N55, right? Start putting tunes and putting this and just again, it was fast, but not fast enough to keep up with everyone. So I sold that, I pick up an N54 and start, you know, again, putting this time I did upgrade of turbos, everything. I think we dynoed it at about 590 horsepower to the wheel, all wheel.

That's cooking.

That's, I mean, that was a fast car. But again, now B58s come out. And everyone's doing it to B58s, and now all of a sudden, they're, you know, faster than N54s. So finally, I'm in a position where, all right, I'm in the mix. I bought a 58, I didn't, B58, I didn't wait, and, you know, we're good to go now.

Yeah. So when did you say you got this one?

This one, I've only had it for a year, a year and a half.

Gotcha. And you said it's a 2017?

2017.

Did they really, I guess they did put the B58s.

2016 was the gen one and just the three series.

Damn, we're coming up on eight years of that car being on the streets. And they got that sucker figured out. I mean.

So one cool thing about the B58 that a lot of people don't know is the head on a B58 was actually originally built for a diesel. So instead of, you know, putting it on a diesel, they put it on, you know, the traditional inline six BMW. That's the reason why it is what it is. And why it can hold so much power. I mean, there's guys that are running stock motor a little bit over a thousand horsepower in the East Coast. I mean, these motors are just, you know, they can handle power. That's the great thing about them.

Can the rest of the drivetrain keep up with the...

That's when you start to get into, you know, little issues. So that transmission from what you read online can supposedly handle 800 horsepower. Mine started slipping at close to 700, so it had to be tuned back a little bit.

Okay. So what's your current number right now, do you know?

So last year when we dynoed it, it hit 663 all wheel. I dropped it off a couple weeks ago here, and Brian, who was a wizard, by the way, when it comes to tuning, you know, he kind of did a little update. We tried dynoing here, it just didn't work out. So, if I take a guess, I'd say it's probably in the same range, maybe a little less. It definitely runs a lot better since the last update that he did.

Do you have sheets by any chance, or no, you say you weren't able to get a good dyno run last time?

Not two weeks ago. I've got sheets from a year ago.

I would love to see a comparison in the future just to see where it's cleaned up, right? Because we just had Mike on last week, and he sent us a really funny chart where you have this one chart where it's 1900 horsepower, and then you have this other one at 1700 horsepower, but you're way more into power on the lower horsepower run or whatever. It was the funniest chart ever. I cannot wait to put together highlights.

What's weird about it is, I think we are running less power from what Brian told me, but it feels faster.

Well, yeah, and that ultimately comes down to when's the power coming on.

The adjustments that he made, yeah, because it's less power, but it feels faster. But whatever Brian tells me, I'll listen to him.

So are we talking still just like downpipe in a tune? Is that what it takes to get? So we were talking with Mike last week, like Harris was saying, where he's got a Coyote built Mustang, and he was saying about 12 to 13 grand to get his car into that 7, 800 range.

Yeah, so on a Gen 1 B58, no, you're going to need a lot more. So Gen 1 B58 on mine, mine is pretty much fully decked out. So I've got the Purecast 850 turbo. I'm running fully 85 PR port injection, stage 3 low pressure fuel pump. What else we got there? Pretty much everything that you can imagine that's needed for the B58 is on there.

So then what's that come out to financially then for that?

So on it, I'd probably say a little over 10 grand. So it's really not bad at all.

No, considering what you get out of it, I mean, to be making mid 600s to the wheel on an all wheel drive car, what's the way again?

So on mine, I think it's about 37 or 3800.

Which ain't too shabby.

It's not bad, but I mean, it's still a family car.

So that takes me to my next question. Do you do a lot of street stuff?

I did in the past, I would say the last two months, we've kind of started pushing it more towards the track.

Like power cruise type stuff?

Yeah, that sort of thing. So last year we did, or this past year, in May we did the Battle of the Brands.

That's right.

In Rock Falls, which was awesome. Sponsored by Ride-ified and AJ.

Eurocharged, yep.

Eurocharged. This year or next year, we're gonna change it up a little bit. We're gonna change the name as well. What ended up happening at Battle of the Brands this past year was supposed to be BMW versus Mercedes versus Audi versus Chevy versus the world, right? And it just didn't happen like that. It ended up being shop versus shop, which was even better. So we got five cars out of this shop, five cars out of that shop, and they just battled it out. And we did points for each winner. So I think next year what we're gonna do, we're still planning to do it in May, and I think we're gonna call out all the shops in the Midwest. Hey, who has the fastest shop? And we're hoping to do a buy-in. So each shop buys in $100 per car, $200 per, we haven't figured out the details yet, but, and put that money together and do a first, second and third place, cash win. So this past year we didn't do any cash, we just did it for fun, a first year trial type of thing, and look for the details to come, but it's gonna be in May, and I guess I can call out all shops now if you think you have fast cars. Stay tuned to the details for that.

I'm really excited for that, that'll be sweet. So you guys did that, what, at Rock Falls, right?

Correct.

Yeah, that's, I think, an hour from here, I think.

Hour and a half, hour and 20 minutes, so it's not bad at all.

Yeah, like 25 minutes for me.

Yeah, whatever, you f****** Wisconsin boys. Yeah, I went to drive an hour to go, unbelievable.

I saw that event online, I think, and it was something I was gonna try and go to, but I never made it. I had some car issues early on in the beginning of this season, so.

It was a blast. We had such a good time. Think about it, you know, six, seven hours of having the track to yourself.

Yeah.

And runs over and over and over and over.

Yeah, as somebody who used to run rallies, I know that all too well. Like, were you on the rally where we ran to the drag strip or no?

I was not, that was the.

That was when you missed. That was the year you missed the thing you went. That was Niagara. That's right. But yeah, there's something to be said about a full track day rental, I guess.

It's first time renting a track, and it was, like I said, just a blast. You definitely don't want to miss next year, because next year is going to be bigger and better.

So was this your kind of your first time, like figuring out the kinks and all that?

Yeah, you know, that day I ran my car, I was very, very, very disappointed. I ran a pretty 11 flat, quarter mile, I was hoping to be, you know, mid 10s. It was a hot, hot day, and, you know, normal boost for me, 30, 31 pounds of boost is what I'm normally running. That day, I just couldn't get over 26 pounds. There was no boost leak, we looked at it, I even, you know, Brian was there, and I told him, hey, this is going on, you know, like it could be the fueling, it could be the weather itself, it's just not, you know, pushing. But I was only getting about 26 pounds that day. And I was really hoping to crack the 10s and just didn't happen. So hopefully next year, be different.

Were you guys doing prep or no?

No prep.

Was no prep? Yeah. Was it prepped earlier in the day? I can't remember what I...

Correct.

Yeah, I heard it was prepped in the morning, but not later, right?

And for me, I mean, I didn't, there was no issues with, with traction, all wheel drive at launch.

Yeah, it's not sure problem.

Right. So I think it was just, I wasn't running full power that day. If I had to take a guess, 26 PSI, I'm probably in the 550 to 600.

Yeah, seems reasonable. Yeah, I know some of the rear wheel drive guys are struggling because, you know, you had the good prep in the morning, but then just kind of lost traction throughout the day.

Yeah, which I was surprised too. I mean, it was a hot day. So you think car over and over, but keep in mind too, not all the cars had slicks on there.

Right.

And they weren't doing burnouts.

Yeah, exactly.

Not every car was doing burnouts, but it was a good time.

It'll be fun to see what happens next year. I think our scene's really expanding quickly right now. It exploded. Yeah, because I get to being in my position and having so many people on this podcast, like I get to get a complete worldview from every part of the community, from the German people to the Honda boys to everybody. And as an overall community, I think every year has been getting better and better. I want to say for the last three years has been growing and growing. And I think, I don't know, I feel like COVID had a little bit to play with that. But I don't know. It just shook things up a little bit.

It's exploded, especially the last three years. So I'd say this last year, every year, it's just getting bigger and bigger and more car enthusiasts are coming out and they're actually working on their cars. And I'm seeing so much more people at events. You know, 2017, 2018, when I first got into it, drive to work, you really don't see any you know, much cars on the road now. I mean, every day I drive into work, there's someone pulling up next to me like, no, dude, I can't do it right now. I'm on my way to work. You know, it's too cold. I'm going to spin. You know, so but it's it's it's so awesome to see this community the way it is, the way it exploded. We're actually I think we're ready, ready to compete with with the nation.

Do you drive your car? Are you around then?

I normally know. So what ended up happening was I'll go back to I was with Best Buy for 20 years. And last year, during around Christmas time, you know, coming home and the wife is I married my wife in 2011. So we've been married, you know, 10 years, 11 years now, have three daughters that are into cars just like, you know, just like their dad. But coming home, I started noticing my demeanor kind of change. You know, what's going on? I'm like, Oh, nothing, you know, just going to work coming back. Are you just, you know, looks like you're not having fun or enjoying yourself. I'm like, well, I mean, it's not about having fun or enjoying us a job. And she's the one, you know, why are you not at the BMW dealership? I'm like, great question. I don't know. I've been with the company 20 years. I'm just not going to start over. I'm getting, you know, I'm not getting younger. I just, I'm not going to start over in order for me to go to Motorworks, which that's where I wanted to go. I mean, the stars had to line up. Everything had to be perfect. And it started out with my wife. And at the time she had a five series, so she had a 535 and that's what, you know, she drove and I drive a Yukon during the wintertime. My 340 gets stored under wintertime. I drove the Yukon and one thing led to another. I went to work one day and I looked around. I'm like, I'm really not enjoying this at all, like I used to. So I went online. I saw that they were hiring sales advisor. So just for, you know, whatever, I'll apply. I applied and they called me and when it interviewed and I said, you know, I've got to love the manager. The GM's got to be great. Sales manager's got to be great. The environment's got to be great. Like I said, the stars needed to align for me to take this jump. For me to, you know, leave a company I was with for 20 years, you know, it's not exactly easy to just pack up and, you know, hey, I'm leaving, right? Big time. I was nervous. I was scared. What if this doesn't work out? Motorworks had nothing to lose. I had everything to lose. I jump in it and it doesn't work out. I just ruined 20 years of my career, right? So I go for the interview and I interview with Trung, who is my sales manager now, right? Interview went great. Awesome. He's a great guy. I'm like, sweet, all right. I can work with him. And then I went to Laura and Tim, talked to them, interviewed with Grant. I'm like, awesome. All right, great. Now GM. Is the GM going to be good, bad? I'm a big believer in leadership reflects attitude, right?

It trickles down completely.

It's going to reflect the attitude of the sales manager and the employees there. So if the GM is not, you know, we don't see eye to eye or there's no connection there. I wasn't going to do it. And he ended up being one of the best GMs I've ever worked for. He is a employee and customer first GM, which I absolutely love. He makes up fun. He cares about us. You know, I was only there for a month and a half. And on my birthday in August, I get this little present. Like, what is this? It says Motorworks on it. I open it up and it's a small cupcake from a really expensive place. And a note from him, happy birthday. I've only been there a month and a half. I was with Best Buy for 20 years and really never had a happy birthday.

Not a single cupcake, yeah.

And just working there from June 1st till now, I am having a blast. I'm having such a good time. I now think, why didn't I do this sooner? Okay. He from Mark, who is our general manager, down to Sonny, who is our general sales manager, to Laura, Tim, Ivan, Truong, all, I mean, they are, it's almost like the perfect group came together to run a store. I want to go to work every day. I want to stay late. I don't want to go home. I get to talk about BMWs to customers every day. And I get to take care of them. That's another great thing about it. I'm not your, and not saying anybody there is, but I'm not your traditional sales guy. You come in, let's have a conversation. Let's have some fun. Let's go out on a test drive. Let's talk about cars. And let me get you the best deal in the house. I've got your back. And that's kind of the way I do things there. So I am having such a great time working there. Just a blast.

I'm at kind of a similar crossroads in my life right now too. I'm doing just a job, and I want to really get into something automotive. And so I just was always excited to have you on here because I wanted to kind of pick your brain on that. So what were you doing at Best Buy?

I was their senior designer. So I pretty much traveled in Minnesota. So for example, if you were building a house, right, you would come into the store and say, hey, I'm building a house. I need to get a TV, I need to do this. Well, hang on. Let's get our senior designer out to your house and let him design your whole entire house. So I would go in there and I would build their theater room. Let's get a TV mounted here, speakers here. If you wanted to control the whole entire house with your phone, I can make that happen for you. So, you know, doing that for 15 years. And previously, I was just kind of in the home theater.

I'm a low voltage electrician, so it's similar fields too.

It is, and you know what's funny is that I've trained a lot of people and I've mentored a lot of people. And one specific person comes to mind, his name is Brandon. Brandon came to Magnolia, which is a store within a store concept in Best Buy. He came to us in about 2012, 2013. Young kid, had a lot of potential, but just, you know, rough around the edges here and there. And I took him under my wing and, you know, I think created one of the best salesperson out there. He left in 2021, I believe. He went into real estate. That's what he wanted to do, right? Went into there and is doing just phenomenal. I saw one of his posts one day about how he left, you know, a job that was secure for him in a safety net, and glad he went into this, because it's always been his dream to be a realtor. And that actually helped me push me over the edge to accept the job there. But going back to, sorry, ramble down here.

No, no, that's exactly the kind of, you know.

Yeah, going back to the car thing, what ended up happening was we were gonna get my wife an X5. She's done with the five series in which she wants an X5. We sold the X5, or the five series, and the very next day, I get a call from Motorworks, interview. I go and I told her, I said, well, let's hang on, I'm pretty sure there's employee discounts, so let's not get an X5 right now. Let's see how you know what happens. I said, if I don't decide to go there, then we'll go order one. And yeah, ended up going there, so, and employee discount, you have to be there about six, seven months, I believe. I think mine is up, I think January 1st, I'll be able to use the discount. So I told her, I said, you know what, just drive my Yukon, I'll put winter wheels on my BMW, I'll drive it for the winter, and then once my employee discount kicks in, we'll get your X5, I'll put my car in storage, and I'll take the Yukon back. And it's just been a headache, dude, ever since. She hates my Yukon. She, I mean, every day she drives, I feel bad, you know, but I'm like, we can go pay full price, or we can wait, get the discount, and get it fully loaded and do this. And one day she'll tell me, I can't do it anymore, let's go buy it. And then we get our shoes on, let's go, and then, no, let's just wait. It's every week, it's different. So I can't wait for January 1st to come in. I cannot wait.

We came full circle. I was wondering where you were going with that story. I'm like, ah, there's somewhere he's gonna come in. So we came full circle, and I was like, all right, now it makes sense. Like, I don't know if you saw it in my eyes. I'm like, oh, I clicked. No, that makes a lot of sense. I mean, they got such a good team over there, man. I went over there with Sean. We brought his 1M over a few weeks ago, or just before the rally or whatever. And yeah, that was my first time inside that store. It's different.

It's way different. If you actually would have went in there maybe two or three years ago, I was actually against Motorworks a few years back. I went in there and things just changed. I mean, it was, you know, I bought six, seven cars from Motorworks in the past 15 years. And I'm not gonna get into it, but let's just say it didn't have that feeling anymore.

Wasn't it owned by a different group?

No, it wasn't owned. I think they had a different manager in there. But the sales guys that I bought from weren't there anymore. Both of them left and it just wasn't Motorworks. So I went over to Minnetonka and started buying my cars there. And it wasn't until I applied and found out about Mark. Mark actually was in Arizona and moved up here. And I'm assuming, I don't know the details of whether what he did or not, but I'm assuming he cleaned that place up and maybe got rid of here. I don't know. All I know is that the Motorworks a couple years ago is not the Motorworks today. You walk in today, whoever greets you, whoever you work with, you're gonna have an awesome experience. Anytime you work somewhere, there's always that one employee that rubs you wrong.

Fair enough, yeah.

Anywhere that you go. Any new position, same company, there's always that one employee that you're just like, I don't like them.

Yeah, my newest employee's a dick.

And if you don't have an employee, it's you, right?

So, well, shoot, I don't want to continue what I'm gonna say. No, but there is not one person. I'm not, you know, not saying it just to toot their horn. There is not one person there that I dislike. Everyone there is, Mark did a phenomenal job. Everyone there has their personality, and everyone's personality blends. And it is, like I said, I am having such a good time. I wake up in the morning early, put the kids on the bus, and I'm ready to go to work.

How early is early for you?

So kids get on the bus at 9 a.m. So I'll put them on the bus 9 a.m. and I head into work. I'm usually there between 9 30.

So what, you're up at like seven or whatever?

I'm usually up about 7 30. That's when the kids usually wake me up, go downstairs and breakfast.

That's actually not too shabby.

Me and the wife kind of get up and do our things.

I'm telling you, man, I keep telling people, if this haul doesn't work out, I'm gonna go sell BMWs. I've said this a number of times.

I guess if you're into BMWs, the platform is just, I mean, you're gonna have such a good time. You're gonna have such a good time. I mean, it's not even a job for me. I literally go in there, customer comes in, now, you know what we're thinking about, BMW? Well, hang on, time out. Let me tell you a little story about BMW and how awesome they are.

And sharing your passion with everyone, it's, they notice that immediately, that's one of the things that, in any position I've been in, it's just people can immediately tell when you're actually passionate about something. For example, a lot of people even do photo shoots with me just because they like working with me. It's fun. Because I give a f***, so there's that aspect to it. And some people just like to go with the free person, but hey, we're not gonna talk about that, right, Dan?

But I don't think that I did anything free.

That's right, you didn't shoot with Derek yet, right?

No, I haven't yet. He's out traveling the world now, so.

Let's keep it that way. No, I can't.

Gotta spread the love.

Gotta spread the love. But now there's just something to be said about that. So yeah, if this little dream of mine is struggling, I might come in with an application or whatever one day. Because there's just something to be said about a place that has won the inventory, has a great car. And honestly, I think people are buying BMWs. I don't think you guys are struggling. You guys are probably a fairly high-volume dealer.

Yeah, not at all.

Well, actually, I'm just curious. How many cars do you guys put out a month, roughly?

On average, what, 180? 150 to 180.

Okay.

Yeah, I think the B58 Platform is what shot up BMW. Because if you look at consumer reports, ratings, BMW actually shot up to number one.

Because they put those in the SUVs too, right, the B58?

Actually, in almost every series.

Really? And I mean, it's a reliable model, for the most part, I like to think.

Yeah, you now have three things that you typically don't have when it comes to German cars, right? Luxury, reliability and performance. You either have two out of the three, or one out of the three. With BMW, it's three out of three, guarantee.

Yeah, they are absolutely, honestly, we actually got into an argument about this in my little Volkswagen chat. We have like 80 of us in one chat or whatever. Audi people in there too. But we were talking about, somebody brought up like Audi, BMW, Mercedes, what order would you put these cars in? And for me, it's like, I think when it comes to the overall platform, I think Audi and BMW are killing it right now. Mercedes is, nothing excites me from their brand right now.

They need to step up. I mean, they're just not, they're not changing. They're not doing it. They're still doing the same thing from 10 years ago.

Which, to be fair, the stuff they did 10 years ago, like for example, E55 AMGs are f****** awesome. And you know, like any of the V8 twin turbo stuff is great, but now they're kind of just going into, I don't know, man. Like for example, like a C43. Like would I take that or the comparable, like you know, what's comparable? An M340, I think, is like that same 40, 50K range, I think, whatever it is. I would much rather take that, you know, as an enthusiast. But just, I don't know. But I also have to say I prefer Audi's because of the room I'm in. But.

Well, I mean, you know, it's.

Well, they do B58's here too.

Yeah, whatever, whatever, you know, whatever makes you get up in the morning and want to drive a car, that's what you should get, regardless of what anybody tells you. But with Mercedes, I think cost of ownership as well, when it comes to the tuning side of it.

Yeah.

I've seen some of these numbers, the cause for getting a stage one, stage two and parts. It's crazy.

Yeah.

It's crazy. And I think that has something to do with it.

Yeah. I mean, to be fair though, like those fricking, what is it, is it the C63s? Those things are monsters, but not everybody has a 80, 100K budget.

Right.

You know, so.

Well, no, I mean, you get a Mercedes and you tune it, they're monsters.

Yeah.

That's the thing is that you buy a Mercedes and you're like, well, how much does it cost to tune it? And some do and some don't.

What cost of ownership on a BMW, because that was another thing that was, you know, Euro cars, import cars, things like that was always, get domestic stuff, it's easier to get worked on, it's cheaper to get parts, stuff like that. Is that not the case anymore with BMW or some of these other ones?

It's not necessarily, it's the case, it's just on the B58, it just doesn't happen.

Right.

German cars are always gonna be expensive to fix, whether you go Audi, Mercedes or BMW, just kind of the nature of the beast, right? But with the B58, we just don't see a lot of them coming in for issues like we used to with the N54, N55, N52.

Those were a dime a dozen.

And N55 was considered reliable.

Yep.

You know, we just don't see it. It's just, you go in the shop and it's just older vehicles that are in for service. But it's always going to be expensive to own a truck.

Right, right.

Yeah, all the time. There's just no comparing it. I actually came in a few months ago, again, when I just came to check it out. I want to see those. I want to see those right around when you were hired. I came and checked out the, so one of my friends is actually having his M2 delivered upstairs or whatever. Nick White, who I'd loved to have those guys on the podcast. Those guys are fricking rowdy. But his M2 was over there waiting to get delivered that same day. It was like the blue one. I don't know if you saw it up there. Yeah, so I actually went and sat in it, and I'm just like, that interior was...

Ridiculous.

I was still undecided on the looks. I still am undecided on the looks on the M2, but the interior, it's...

It's gorgeous.

It's probably one of the best interiors of modern cars. Now, I still have to check out the new RS3s. They actually looked pretty good from what I saw in photos, but dude, that M2 interior.

Yeah, it's ridiculous. And what's nice about the M2 is the body kit that they put on there. That body kit comes standard. And it looks wide body. That's what makes it look really nice.

It's a beefy looking car.

It is. I would still prefer the G80 M3 Comp over an M2.

Fair enough.

That's on my list.

I would get it an X drive if I could. Oh, absolutely.

Hands down. These things are breaking records.

Yeah, did you see the one, I think it was Puret, I posted it or whatever, like the one that's like 1300 wheel horsepower?

Yeah, so that is built, I believe, by M-Power out in New Jersey. And yeah, they broke the record twice. The first time they ran, I think, an 8.9 quarter mile, and then they ran it back again, and they ran an 8.7. Wow. Now, granted, this car is fully built, but 8.7 quarter mile car, BMW, I mean, it's the only car previous that would even have the potential of doing that were the M5s. So, the S58 Platform, the B58 Platform, in my opinion, they are king right now. They're on top.

Yeah, I mean, who else is to compete, right? Like you have, you know, the Daza, but we'll see. I actually had a conversation with Rat here last week, and we were just talking about it, because there's a number of shops around here getting those new M3s as shop cars. Right. Yeah, M3s, yeah, probably those. And it's gonna be a very, very hot market for those. I can't wait till they drop in prices so I can get one.

Yeah, and as soon as more inventory comes in, that's the problem right now, is if you want to order one, I mean, you're gonna wait until springtime, summertime next year.

Is inventory still struggling to catch up?

For the M cars, yes. Because, so BMW changed it a little bit, where it used to be where everything was built and assembled in Germany.

Yeah, now it's in North Carolina, right?

Now it's built in Germany, assembled in North Carolina. The M cars are the only cars that are still assembled and built in Germany. Oh. So that's why it takes a little bit longer for the M cars to get here versus an X5 or an X3.

Okay, I did not know that that was the case.

So X5, you come order one, I can have one in four to five weeks.

Yeah.

You come order a M3, we're talking May-ish, time frame.

How long do you, okay, do you have any idea how long it takes to ship a car overseas?

Three months.

Three months? Was that how long it took?

Are you talking about from just shipping it from here to there, or just from there to there?

Just the actual shipping part, like not the building part. Yeah. I never looked into that, because I used to work in freight.

I think it's two to three weeks, because usually once they get on the boat, it's two to three weeks when they hit North Carolina.

Okay, yeah, I'd imagine, because you're giving customers updates and such, right? So now because I often don't get to talk to Motorworks people, because I know that... So you guys have something that's called geniuses or whatever?

Correct.

Okay, so first of all, what is the BMW genius? Because I never got a clear answer on that. I kind of got it, but tell me about that.

So we have two guys. We have Zee and Scott. They're geniuses. Yeah. They're literally geniuses. A genius is a person, let's say you come in and you purchase a new BMW. As you can expect, new technology. There's just a lot of things that has changed from your 2020 to 2024. After you make your purchase, everything is signed, ready to go. A genius will sit with you in the car and they will literally review everything. All the features, how everything works. They'll set you up with the My BMW app. And by the time you leave, you are comfortable with everything in the vehicle.

Gotcha. And then I think, so there's one guy in particular there. I've heard of his name. He's like the top sales rep or whatever. He has like his own team. What was his name? Sean. Sean, right? Yeah, so Kevin works under Sean, I believe, right? So, okay. Now I'm just trying to remember the structure of it there for whatever reason, but-

Well, Sean, he has three assistants and he needs three assistants. You want to talk about a guy that eats and breathes BMW. That's the one-

He's been there for like what? A long time.

He's been a long, long time. 20 years, but he'll have 10 customers come in at one time.

I want to say he's been on Crown Rally too.

Has he?

I think so.

He's got, I believe, an 840.

Did he have a Z06 before?

That I'm not sure.

I might be confusing him with another Sean, but-

Yeah, he's the one that everyone should strive to be. Yeah, okay. He's the way he takes care of his clients, the way they remember him. It's amazing to watch. I've been in sales for 20 years, and at Best Buy, I was top of my game. And you walk in, and I've always had the thinking, there's always someone better. And you can go two about ways. You can be jealous and upset and try to beat that person, or you can learn from that person. And I always choose the route of, as good as I am, there's always someone better, and hopefully I meet that person, so I can take myself to the next level. And just watching him on what he does, just the littlest things, you think, oh shoot, yeah, that makes sense.

Yeah, I mean, that's something that, I mean, it applies to every aspect of life. I think everybody can take something away from that. But even for me, I constantly have debates with other content creators in the automotive space. Just as an example, it's like, a lot of people will b**** and moan and complain about algorithms, for example. But at the end of the day, it comes down to, well, what level of effort are you putting into this? Because I have some friends, and they occasionally have success. They'll put in 10 minutes into creating something. Whereas for me, one of my highlights, a one-minute highlight, I could spend an hour on it. And then when I post it, I feel good about the effort that I've put in. And guess what? One of those highlights is at 1.3 million views now. I got a thousand bucks off a single highlight. So the reason I bring that up is, a lot of it is effort in results out.

Of course.

And it blows my mind that people don't seem to, they always find an excuse for why that formula isn't working.

Well, and one of the things I don't believe in is luck. I don't believe, oh, he got lucky or they got lucky. I'm a firm believer in the harder you work, the luckier you get.

Yes, okay.

And it's definitely one of those things where it's hard to find, everyone wants it easy. And things just doesn't come easy. You have to bust your butt and go for what you want. You want to get out of low voltage and be in car sales, right? What are you doing to better yourself so you can be prepared to jump into that? That's the type of thinking that I think everyone needs to start getting into. All right, what am I gonna do to better myself to get to the next level? Because there's a big difference between good and great. Which one are you? Are you good or are you great? And the work that you need to do to better yourself, not only just as a person, but to advance your career, you've got to start thinking, what am I doing to better myself? Am I learning? What am I learning? Who am I listening to? I like to listen to a lot of motivational speakers. I don't even know who they are, but you're on TikTok, you're on Facebook Reel, and you're just scrolling through, and someone starts giving a pep talk, and you start listening, oh, that makes sense. Yep, that's what I'm gonna start doing. So I think that if there's a will, there's a way.

Yeah, I 100% agree. I mean, I'm on a straight, I know we're straying a little bit from cars here, but I mean, ultimately, that's what it comes down to, man. And the problem is though, is I know somebody's gonna take something away from this. This is the only reason I'm going down this rabbit hole, is you can read every f****** book on the planet, on the planet, sorry. But if you do not put that knowledge to work, it's just as good as useless. You should not have even read the book in the first place. Same thing applies to watching the motivational videos and all that stuff. So maybe once or twice a year, I'll catch myself. I'll be going down these motivational rabbit holes, I'll be watching David Goggins, I'll be reading David Goggins, or watching any of your stuff, whoever. And then it just comes down to, well, I've been watching this for the last week or two, I haven't done s***. So that's what it comes down to, but. You have to apply it.

Just like the New Year's resolution. Everyone has a New Year's resolution, right? And then after three months, it's all right, what's going on?

This podcast actually almost lines up with New Year's, but funny enough, I almost wanted to wait on doing this podcast because I was like, I don't want anybody thinking it's the New Year's resolution because it just came to mind. So a little bit about how this kind of goes. Do you guys smell that exhaust too, by the way?

Are they pumping in in this room or what? But yeah. It smells great. It does.

Yeah, you start getting dizzy, guys. Just let me know. It'll make for a fun podcast. But so funny enough, so after I basically lost my a** on Whiplash Rally, which by many people to this day, former rally right here saying that it was one of my best events ever, I decided to just put a pause on Whiplash altogether. And I was doing the podcast and all that fun stuff. But I even put a pause on that because I just, you know, I was constantly driving an hour up north to NutriShop, which, you know, my co-host, Chaz, I had a blast with him. He's got that white Porsche that's built to the tits. But nonetheless, I decided to put a pause on the podcast for, I want to say it was four or five months at a time, and I kind of missed it. So yeah, it kind of came down to, you know what, let's just see what happens. Let's do the Minnoxide podcast, do it my way just for the sake of Minnoxide. And that's how, you know, it really, it's close to New Year's, but man, you can really smell that gas in here. Or the exhaust. Makes me nervous.

Well, that's, you know, when we, when I first started DCC, that almost didn't happen because of that. You know, do we want to start another club? There's already, you know, MN, TC and Audi Bastards, and then do we really want to do it? What's funny is that we, when I was with the Twin Cities BMW crew, we invited Audi Bastards to cruise. During the daytime, let's get together. We're bringing 20, 30 cars. You guys bring 20, 30 cars. And, you know, let's go cruising. We met at DCTC in Rosemount, right next to the track, parked all there. They had about 20 cars. We had about 20 cars. And I remember we get on the highway, we get on 52, right? And I was the lead car. And you look in the rear-view mirror, and you see 40 cars lined up, BMW, Audi, BMW, Audi. And that's where it kind of, the light went off. I'm like, you know, if we can combine powers, I guess, I mean, we can do some damage. Audi, Mercedes and BMW, instead of being against each other, coming together, man, good luck to anyone that wants to challenge. You know what I mean? And that's where the light went off that day. And Teth, who is, I'm not sure if you know, he goes by TK. He was an Air Force engineer. So he worked on jet airplanes in Germany, big BMW guy, himself works on, there can pretty much, the smartest guy I've ever met, he can, if you tell him, hey, I need this car fixed, and if he doesn't know about it, he literally will tell you, well, let me read up on it tonight, and I'll fix it tomorrow. He'll go online, he'll read about the car, about what's, you know, the goods, the bads, how to fix it, and in the morning time, he fixes it just like a pro. That's the way he is. So I call him one day, I'm like, hey, you know, let's get together, I got an idea. And at that time, that's when I met Trey, and you know, a few other people, I remember Trey, when I first met him, I'm like, damn, this car is, Jesus, backfired the Nagi.

Yeah.

Backfiring, shifting, I'm like, Jesus. God, I'm looking at my three-third film, like, God, I just bought this. And I'm thinking, you know, but the thing is that when Twin Cities BMW would create a meet, these guys would be like, all right, we're gonna take off. Like, why? He's like, you guys are gonna take pictures, and you know, we don't wanna be intrusive, and we own Audis. And it would happen week after week. And we became good friends with Trey and Rad and everyone, and I'm just like, let's combine. So I call him, I said, hey, let's chat, let's meet up later and let's talk. And I gave him the idea of, let's bring everyone together into one club. Now, you can still have your own separate clubs, but DCC is where we all come together. And we sit there, chatted about it, and I'm like, we gotta come up with a name. What would be a good name? Now, keep in mind, he lived in Germany. That's where he was based out of, right? And right away, I mean, didn't even take him a second. He said, Deutsche. I'm like, well, what's Deutsche? He's like, that's German. So that's German and German. I'm like, Deutsche Car Club, DCC, that. And at the time, I was big into daily driven exotics. And I'm like, DCC. I'm like, that rings a bell. I said, let's do it.

You love the macronyms.

Yeah, I mean, it was perfect. And I said, we gotta come up with an admin team. We gotta put, and I want people like us. I want good people. I want good people that don't cause drama, that understand what this club is about. And we started kind of digging and seeing who, to bring it along. And that's when, first thing came to mind was Renee. We brought Renee and Dante in. And then I'm like, Trey would be perfect because he's big into the Audi. He can help us out with the Audi people. And that's kind of how it came to fruitation. And I remember day one, we launched the club on Facebook. First day, we were at like 300, 400 members. And every day was just growing and growing and growing. I think the first three months, we were at like over a thousand already. And ever since then, there you go. And we started doing cruises and meets and events. And it's just, it's been a great time. And Renee does, I mean, I don't think this club would be where it's at without her. She does so much. She takes care of the sponsors. She creates the events. She runs around. If there's a DCC event, or if DCC involved in it, she's there. She's the first one there. So we wouldn't be here without her. And she's the one that's actually gonna be taking care of the Eau Claire next month, or next year at Rock Falls. So she's gonna come up with the details and she'll be the point person to do that. So it's been just a fabulous time. It's just been great seeing everyone come together and instead of being enemies, friendly enemies together, going out and going against the Hellcats and then, you know. It doesn't take much. Yeah, it comes to. What's fun now is that people without German cars are asking to join. I mean, every day.

I was gonna ask you that. Is that something you guys entertain or?

In the beginning, we said no because we wanted to build a platform. It's a German car club. Let's keep it German. But now everyone knows who we are. When we send out a message that, you know, we have a meet tonight, it's Mustangs, Camaros, Hellcat. Everyone comes. Now we're letting everyone in. Yeah, why not? Let's have fun. It's already, you know, the platform is there. Everyone knows it's a German car club. Because again, in the beginning, I didn't want it to be, you know, well, you guys are a German car club, but why all these, you know, domestic here? You know what I mean?

Sometimes that does ruin it a little bit, right?

Yeah, so in the beginning, no, but now if you're interested, you know, jump on the page. We're on Facebook, Instagram, join, and that's where you'll see, you know, any posts that, you know, during a season, any meets, events that we do.

Okay.

Did you go to Power Cruise at all this year?

No, so what ended up happening is June- Well, Power Cruise, the first one was Mother's Day. So there's no way I'm gonna- Not gonna happen. And then I started my job at Motorworks. I just couldn't. I mean, they, you know, you have to build your vacation time and things like that, so I just couldn't go.

No Saturdays off ever, I'm assuming?

No Saturdays. I mean, you can obviously request Saturdays, but Sundays off.

To your detriment.

Yeah. Pretty much.

Yeah, that's one of the tricky things. If I do jump into something like, you know, car sales is a little atypical in that way, right? You know, whereas, you know, I'm sure it's, you'll probably come to find this in the next few years even too, it's just your vacation time's probably a lot different than it would have been at Best Buy.

Well, it's funny about car sales, and with Best Buy during the summertime, it's a slow time. So that's when you take your vacation. It's the complete opposite in car sales. Summertime, spring summertime is your busiest time. And I mean, can you take vacation? Yes, but probably shouldn't. So everyone takes their vacation, Christmas, you know, New Year's and so on, which, you know, has its benefits as well, but it's the complete opposite. So trying to adjust to that is, you know, first time in 22 years that I'd have to wake up early and go to work on Black Friday. And, you know, prepare myself for the stress and working a 12 hour shift of running around and, you know, crazy day. And even what's funny is I called one of my friends that, you know, worked with me at Best Buy on my drive home. I'm like, this feels super weird. I'm not tired. I'm not exhausted. I don't want to go to sleep. I'm like energized and, you know, feeling good. You know, 20 years of doing that, it's a shock to your body. So I felt so good. It was so nice waking up Friday morning, you know, not rushing and not, all right, 7 a.m. We're going to be there from 7 till 10 p.m. at night and things like that. So it was really nice this year.

That's a good setup. Yeah, that's one of the tough things for me, man. It's like every year, my two non-negotiables are, I have to go to Texas 2K and I have to do a rally. Like it's rally. It's non-negotiable for me. So it's like, it's just tough because, you know, when it comes to, you know, taking a weekend off, for example, to do either of those, that's tough, you know. So yeah, we'll see what happens on that front. I mean, ideally in the next few weeks, you know, I'll be able to cash flow enough to do this full time for the rest of my life. We'll see what happens.

Yeah, well, you've got, I mean, Minnoxide has, I mean, I listen to it, like I said, every week. It's so awesome to listen to these guys that you know. You know, get personal, like, oh, I didn't know that about him. That's super cool. And you know.

It's so different, right?

It is, it's awesome. Jacob, I've known, you know, for a while.

Which Jacob, Stevenson?

Stevenson. Awesome guy. And you know, he's come up to the Deutsche Car Club time. We've sat down and chat and, you know, listening to him. Again, it's so awesome to, hey, I know him and he's on a podcast. So I think that, I think you'll be fine.

I think so, man. We'll see, we'll see what happens here. The big thing I've been trying to push people to do is, like, you know, just try, if you can, especially if you've got YouTube premium, listen on YouTube, right? Because that's what I'm trying to build my hours towards right now. Because like to get monetized on YouTube, you need 4,000 watch hours. Obviously, it takes a while to get there. Because like, even if I had 1,000 listeners, it would take a while.

Well, like I said earlier, it's nothing happens overnight.

No, exactly.

You bust your butt and, you know, it'll happen. I'm a huge believer. And again, there's no such thing as luck. There's a will, there's a way. Go after it. Go get it done.

Well, to rephrase it too, it's like, I learned this mostly from my roofer buddies, but just working in sales jobs before too. It's not about whether luck is real or not. It's just the more doors you knock on, somebody's eventually gonna say yes. So that's kind of the way I see it. It's just like, you know what? Like yesterday, I was talking with Alec, who was also on the podcast, Lux Detailing, and I was like 11 at night, and I was like, dude, this is a super, most of my days, I get something done, but yesterday was just a different level of just like, I text him, I'm like, did you win the day? Because I just f****** did, you know? It's like, you need people like that in your circle. I feel absolutely horrible if you don't have at least one person you could text to be at least somewhat aligned on your goals, which is super helpful.

You always want to be around people that have similar goals, similar aspirations, you know, you just have to. Otherwise, it's a lonely world.

Well, for me, it's like, I drink like three or four times a year, and it's usually with this f***** over here, but.

If he's fair, that's about as many times as I drink, too, so.

But like, for me, it's like, I've never been interested. This is probably why people think I'm a little more financially stable than I am. I don't go out clubbing every weekend. Like I know a lot of these guys don't go to like a club, and it's just, they're just flat broke all the time. It's just like, well, you're, I just, I don't, I try to stay away from, my vice is gambling, because like, once I get going, I'm going. So that's why I stay away from it. That's how I lost my first business when I was, you know, a teenager. Yeah, which is, I mean, to be fair, it's a small business, super small business, but like, you know, how many 15-year-olds made five grand off Minecraft? You know, it's like, blew all that, but.

Gambling.

Yeah, but you know, it's like, once you're aware of your vices, like, you want to stay away from it.

That's why I don't do a lot of things. I have a very addictive personality.

Yes.

So if I jump into something and I enjoy it, whether it costs money or not, I'm into it and I won't stop. So that's why, you know, I'll go to the casino here and there.

Exactly.

If my cousin calls me or my brother says, you know, hey, let's go, I'll go. I won't even go near the blackjack tables. I'll literally sit on the slots and play the 25 slant, pull the handle. Just so I don't, you know, get into it.

Well, it's like, somebody said this the other day, it's like, you know, you don't want to build this bubble of a world around yourself. Like you want to expose yourself to stuff that's going to suck. Like for example, like if I am going to go gamble, I'm going to bring $100 exactly. And then, you know, assume I'm going to lose it.

Well, leave your, make sure you leave your credit cards in the car too.

I know, I've never been that bad.

ATM machines, literally every corner you turn.

Oh, I can never do it. They charge like $8 to get your own money out of there. I hate ATM machines.

When you're gambling and you have that mindset, the $8 means nothing.

Yeah, that's the only machine that you win on.

Or lose in every way you look at it.

Yeah, but no, that's one of those. I never got into using it. I would never use a credit card on one of those. That's just like...

That's when you know you have a problem. You probably should take a step back and say, all right.

So speaking of that, then, this is your first time on a track at the Rock Falls?

Correct.

Okay, so now have you been bitten by that bug? Is that gonna be a hobby for you now?

It definitely, if it wasn't for changing careers, I would have been at every single event at BIR. Brainerd, I would have been there, yes. If you only street race and never been to the track, I urge you to go to the track. There's no nerves of, all right, let me check my rear-view mirror. Where's that? Where's this? You know what I mean. Yep. You get on the track, they reel you in, and here's the lights, and off you go. And it's fun. And you're more of a competition with yourself, trying to beat your time. At least that's the way I was with when I was there.

Yeah, no, some people maybe get nervous, or think they don't want to go there because there's going to be people faster than you there, or whatever. I've noticed that it doesn't really.

No, and there's going to be people faster, but there's also going to be people slower than you. Yep. And no one judges, no one's going to come up to your car and say, dude, you're slow, get off. Don't, you know, everyone's there to have a good time. It's just, there's no, when you go out street racing, especially if you have a career, you have a family, kids, you have a lot to lose and nothing to gain. And, you know, when I go out, I rarely, you know, do any type of street racing. I'm there because of the club, and I, you know, I like to meet people, hey, thanks for coming out, and so on. Have I done it, maybe a few times, but, you know, I just, I always look at it as, you know, I've got three daughters, right? I've got my wife, I've got a career. If I get caught, right, there's your license is gone for a year, that means I lose my job because you have to have a license, right? My car gets impounded, and now I've got to hire a lawyer that's gonna cost thousands upon thousands of dollars. There's too much there to lose for what? Just to get a, hey, I beat you. But I get it, I get it why people do it. I wish they would open a track here. I think that if Minnesota was smart, I think they would open a track in the Twin Cities. I think it's a huge moneymaker. Every time I talk to state troopers or cops, I have a couple friends that work in the Rosemount PD, and take it to the track, take it to the track.

Build one.

The track is hour and a half away, the track is three hours away. Build one. It's not easy to just hop in your car and drive an hour and a half. Now you've gotta let your car rest if you don't have a trailer to pull it on. You gotta make a day of it. You can't just go and come back. That's my response every time, build one. Build one. And I guarantee they build one in the Twin Cities. It's game over for Eau Claire and Brainerd. It will be packed every single weekend. Why not?

Right.

Yeah, it would be awesome. I know that Michael Morgan was trying to do that for some time, but it's just roadblock after roadblock, city after city. So there was... Actually, I'm gonna have Michael Morgan on here next week. We're probably gonna touch on this, but I think there was like three or four bids around, not the Twin Cities area, but like closer.

I heard Egan had one a year and a half or two years ago when it fell through.

Yeah, like there was just a bunch of these that were just like getting teed up, and there was one that was even supported by somebody who was very wealthy, just trying to make it happen, but it just sucks when it gets shut down. And but I feel like seeing it from a non-car person perspective, they're probably all wondering like, why our city?

Well, it's easy. I mean, it's, I get it 10 years ago. You ask for a track, it's not enough car scene to do it, right? Now, I mean, from 2018 to 2023, I've seen the difference between the car scene in 2018 and now it has exploded, exploded. The car scene is here. It reminds me of Texas days. You know, in Houston, when I grew up, it was every single weekend, we were out. There were so many spots we used to go to. You know, granted Houston is a year round thing, but...

And they also have nine million people.

Nine million people, well, that helps. But, you know, it's... The car scene now reminds me a lot of that, going to a meet and seeing, you know, a hundred cars there. It wasn't like that. I get it ten years ago, but now it makes sense. It would be a huge money generator for the, for whatever city or, you know, the state.

Well, just as a safety aspect, too. I mean, we spend... We do a lot of things that don't make sense to idiot-proof the world, right? So why not, let's throw a track in and get these people off the street and onto a track. It seems like that would make sense just for a safety aspect.

But it doesn't even have to be in the cities is the thing.

Yeah, it could be just outside.

Go out to Farmington. Farmington is only 25 minutes from the cities. Go out to Farmington. Go out to, you know, wherever you want to go outside the cities. Make the drive 20, 30 minutes.

Elko Newmarket, make that into a real track.

Right.

Make it a 20, 30 minute drive from the cities to wherever the track is. I guarantee every weekend it will be packed. It will get to the point where people will start driving to Eau Claire and Brainerd because they can't get a run in.

Yeah, man, it's a lot easier said than done, unfortunately. You would think it would be easy, but there's just so much freaking red tape. That's the frustrating part. Actually, I would love to... that's a good topic to talk about with Michael for next week.

Most tracks aren't high-end facilities. I mean, to build one is going to cost some money, but they're not insane. It's just going to be getting the people to agree to it.

I think if we start a petition and see how many signatures we can get, because I think that it comes down to money. Congress and any politician, they can care less about our feelings.

I think it's more so of a local level when it comes to that. I think city ordinances and the people involved in those.

That's what I'm saying. Take it out to where there's a lot of farmland, and just do it that way. Rock Falls is a great example. You drive into the city, there's everything, and literally a 10-minute from our hotel to where Rock Falls is, and there's nothing around it. There's a lot of land here that I've seen that can easily put a trek.

All right, well, after this episode, I will be launching the Minnoxide bribery fund.

I think if we start a petition, it would be pretty cool to see how many people would sign it, and then give it to your guy next week, to see if that's enough to at least raise some eyebrows.

Yeah. Well, thankfully, he's been running his own events. Actually, I need to talk to some people here locally about this. I actually did my first autocross event this year through the Morgan's Motorplex event, and I went to the St. Cloud one, which was hosted at the St. Cloud Highway Research Facility or whatever. And it was kind of like a hybrid, like road course meets autocross. Like it was bigger than like, you know, it wasn't like tight and nimble. There were some really fast straights. I think I even got up to like 100 at one point, which is cooking in the Gulf, by the way. It takes a while to get there. But it was a really, really fun track, but he might not be able to make it happen next year. Just, you know, it costs a lot of money to do it. So, you know, when you're... So we'll see. We're gonna have a conversation about that too, because that was nice. It was only an hour and 20 minute drive for me, and it was a great track. You know, got that, scratched that itch, you know, but not everybody can go up to Brainerd. It's a stretch. I mean, if you're closer to the north side of cities, okay, maybe, you know, it's an hour and a half, maybe two. Brainerd? Yeah.

No, Brainerd, you're talking from where I live, two and a half hour drive.

Okay. Yeah, which I mean, that's tough.

And it varies a lot. I mean, think about, you know, coming from the other side of town. It's just, it's not just the drive, it's packing up. All right, we're gonna be there for the day. We're not gonna be able to just hop in and come back, 30 minutes, be home. And it's an event. I mean, you really have to plan for it and make it a whole day.

Well, let's put it this way. There's not a very big spectator structure with that, right? Because it's one thing if you and I want to go get a trailer, we'll go up there for a weekend. There'll be like three or four of us in a car, great. But ultimately, and maybe that will help financially. I mean, I'm guessing it's doing all right. But if you had somebody closer to the city that was 30, 45 minutes at most away, it's a lot easier to get spectators out there. Like for example, we have, what is it, Rallycross or whatever. I think it's in Pine City, which is like maybe an hour north of the cities. That's, you're able to get a lot more spectators for that. Granted, it's a cheap event or whatever.

Well, I mean, Brainerd has been open for how long? They're doing fine in the small city. I mean, imagine if they were 30 minutes away, I mean, forget about it.

Yeah, that'll be interesting. I'm curious to see what people have to say on that, because, but at the end of the day, you are gonna need a mountain of money to build a track. I mean, to build a quality track. Cause like, for example-

A quality track, but there's plenty of them out there that are like a shack. I mean, Rock Falls isn't anything fancy.

Here's an idea, and this is funny, is we started looking at abandoned airports. There's actually quite a few that are not very far. We're talking 30 minutes that are abandoned. I mean, that's a perfect foundation to build a track. You have the road, you just build around it.

But ultimately, the facilities are great and all, but it also comes down to the actual track. What's it called? The actual road and a track too. That's not cheap. I mean, to do it with good material and actually the upkeep. DCTC, for example, I haven't done autocross there yet, but I've heard from a number of people that it just absolutely destroys tire, just eats through them. So I know a lot of people that religiously do not want to go there.

Just because of that, yeah.

Just because of the surface. So that's the other thing. It's like, if you want a high, okay, a drag strip's probably a lot easier to do than a road course by a lot. But that's where Brainerd is perfect. We have one of the longest straights in the country, so that's why we're able to support an event like Power Cruise, do roll race after roll race. But then we're also, we had the drag racing, we had the road course, we had a small road course. That one is a one size fits all. It's just a bummer that it's so far away. So to do something of that caliber, which, how long is Brainerd again? I want to say two and a half, three miles?

Two and a half hours, roughly.

No, no, I mean, how big is the track? I want to say it's like three miles big, maybe?

Three and some change, I thought.

Yeah, it's like, you know, that's a lot of material cost into building the actual road course, you know, and to actually keep up with it. So that's the only thing that I'm wondering, is what the costs are there.

Well, and I would say, you know, Brainerd has been open for this long and they're doing good. I think it'd be, get a lot easier and better if it was here.

Oh yeah, it's just that initial seed funding that would be the tricky part. So once again, the Minnoxide Bribery Fund is gonna be live. Yeah, let me just see, how far are we cooking? That was an hour and a half so far.

Oh wow.

So before we putt-

Felt like 10 minutes.

That's the thing about, you know, these car conversations, man, like even at car shows, like I'll be going over to the Medina Motorplex and I'll be catching up with somebody and I'm like, oh, my, that was at 10 minutes. Oh, okay, it's noon. Okay, time to go get lunch. We're done with the car show. It's like, man, why are people leaving? Oh my God, it's over.

Two hours in, three hours later.

Yeah, so I get that. I get that all too well, man. It's just, especially when you sneak in to like, you know, there's a reason I don't have any clocks in here. I don't want anybody to have any concept of time, nothing like that. That's why I even hide the computer for myself, because I want to be locked in. And then once we have headphones here in the near future, you're gonna be even more locked in. So it's just, it's super exciting stuff.

Anytime, you know, it has to do with cars. I mean, I can do hours upon hours upon hours. And it's, you know.

Yeah, so before we get into the final question, though, so like, what's next for you then, build-wise? Because I know you just had Brian, you know, basically tune that sucker up for you. So then next year, are you gonna be trying to attend a lot more events? It's tough with a new job.

Well, yeah, it should be a lot easier next year. You know, I'll be almost a year in and have vacation hours where I can, you know, go there. I do plan on attending hopefully all the events. I don't know what's next right now. There's so many things running in my mind. I actually talked to Trey about this last week. I'm like, hey, let's figure out a cost to get this motor, you know, built up to handle a thousand horsepower. So, you know, I'm thinking about that. I just, I don't know. I'm thinking X3M Supra, or do I go, you know, do I get a Corvette and, you know, get a turbo? I just, I don't know. There's so many things. All I know is I want to be in the nines next year. Whether that's with the car I have now or something else. Again, every year, every year, everyone is just getting faster and faster. 2020, if I would have had this car, I would have been up there with Gapplebee's. Obviously, those guys are still over 1,000, but if I had this car three years ago, I would have been top of my game. And now, these cars are getting faster and faster every single year. We're coming on stock cars that are 500, 600 horsepower, which is now nothing. So I don't know, I'm going to take the next few months, December, January, February, to just think about, you know, what am I going to do? Am I going to sell this one, get a Supra, build that? Am I going to sell this one, get the X3M? Or am I going to keep this one and, you know, make it faster? Yeah, so I don't know.

Yeah, we just had a guy with the fast Mustang on, you know, super cheap. He told us how what it goes into that build of his. It's just it is crazy because just people are getting smarter. The people who are building these cars, like knowledge is coming at such a fast rate now, like because you have guys like, for example, like Brian, they're collaborating with all these other guys. You know, it's like, you know, when everybody's learning together and we're building better cars, it's no wonder they're getting faster. So so that's your thing. You're trying to get into the nines.

Yeah, this past year was tens. I didn't get into the tens. And I think I would have if I would have been able to hit my boost target. But I have to be in the nines. Because I think next year nines, you'll be able to compete. You won't be able to beat everyone, but at least you'll be able to compete. I think that's how fast these cars are going to get next year.

Yeah, it used to be 10 second core mile was the goal. That's like a stock car right out the gate.

Yeah, tens was I mean, back in my day, you ran tens, you were on TV.

Well, Fast and Furious, bring me a 10 second car.

Easy. Yeah.

So yeah, that would be pretty interesting to see. We've just had so many, we've had a number of different tuners on here, man, that just or car builders, you know, it's like, oh, these guys do Corvettes, these guys do this. So it's just, there's so many ways to skin a cat. So it's gonna be interesting to see what happens there. But where did that bug come from? Like, why, why, what, what's got you itching to get faster?

I am very, very competitive. And I don't like to lose. I'm a good loser, meaning that I'm humble and I'll shake your hand and good job. But deep down inside, my blood is just boiling. And this past year, going out with the guys and things like that, I've lost a few times. And it's killing me. And these are the guys that the year prior, I beat. Same car. And now they're faster. So it's a competitive, and the competition in me kind of screams out, this is all right, we got to go to the next level. We got to get this done. I'm not going to lose to so and so next year. Or I've got to be with this group at this level. I don't like to lose.

Fair enough. I think I'm in that same boat. I just I don't have the financial means for it quite yet. Because that's the tough thing, dude. It's like when it comes to switching platforms, right? I've talked about this before. I could easily spend a few thousand bucks, add another 200 wheel to my golf and I'll be smoking Hellcats. You know, but then the question is, is what happens when those guys get up pulling in a tune? Well, I can't beat you in a golf anymore. So now I have to go get a Supra that's built and it's never ending.

And that's obviously in the back of my mind, too. And I've got, you know, kids and a wife and where is the priorities? Obviously they come first before anything. So you know, we're doing good and I could build a car and so on. So but you know, I do have to keep them in mind.

You know, now how involved are they in your in your car stuff? So like I have I have four kids, three daughters and a son. My wife, she has a car like we're we do all this a lot of this together. So do they go to car meets with you?

Yeah, it's car meets. No, if we're talking obviously night thing, no, but events, you know, day events. Absolutely. So I have Mikayla, who is ten, she is my oldest Stephanie, who is eight, my middle child and then Gabrielle is my youngest five years old. And anytime I am outside cleaning the car, I mean, they are on top of it. They'll go into my trunk, get the towels to help me clean, do this, do that. What can I help with? I want to help you. They get in the car, they have a thing that they do where they do a three to one countdown. I mean, I'm supposed to hit boost as I do it and they start screaming. They're involved as much as they should be as kids. My wife is, and everyone's going to say this about their wife, but I have the best wife in the world and I'll fight anyone who says otherwise.

I'd be interested in that because I've seen a lot of car enthusiast's wives over the years and very few are even in the same league as Mallory. His wife, I mean, she's got a pro-charged Mustang herself, you know?

Yeah, my wife isn't...

I'm fighting you about your wife.

Not every car guy, most of the time, is like, oh God, I'll play in your car.

She's not into... She doesn't want to build a car to go fast.

Exactly.

She understands.

It's about your hobby.

Correct. She's not going to, hey, I'm going to go out. She's not the again. What about... She's not like that. Have fun. Go out, have fun. I got you.

Were you there on that cruise or whatever where that guy had to go home because of his wife or fiance?

I don't remember that. I think it was... Yeah, I remember that one. It happens all the time.

It does.

That's why I'm asking.

I've seen it happen in front of my face, and I'm just scratching my head. A marriage is a partnership, right? You become one. So whatever you do to yourself, you're doing to the other. That's what I believe in. My Christian faith believes in that. You become one when you become married. So when I hear stuff like that, I'm just like, I gotta ask the wife. Really ask? Or shouldn't you just let her know?

Inform, yeah.

Hey, guys, we're gonna go out tonight. Do we have anything? Nope. Nope, we don't got anything. You free? Yep, I'm free. That sort of thing. We have a mutual understanding. We don't ask each other for anything. She doesn't come up to me and say, can I buy this or can I buy that? We both understand and we both trust each other that we will never do anything that will put our family in jeopardy based on a purchase.

Yeah, you don't abuse that relationship, right? Correct. You don't go, I'm out every day.

It's a trust thing. I trust her 100%. She trusts me 100%. Am I going to go buy a turbo charger for my car? She trusts me that I know if we can't buy one, I will buy one. If we can't, I won't do it. I will never put our family in a bad position based on parts for a car or going out. This is why I said earlier that I have a lot to lose when I go out versus a lot to gain. And she was with me when I had nothing. When we first got married, I left Best Buy in 2009 to go to Ultim electronics. I want to try that, better paying job, so on and so on. Well, Ultim electronics shut down in 2011. A month before our. Wedding. Imagine having a wedding completely paid for that is $50,000 plus, right? You just spent everything you got on this wedding, and you tell your soon-to-be-wife, I don't have any money, I'm broke. I just lost my job, they shut down, and all my money that I had is on this wedding. She didn't care. I'm with you. Whether you have it or not, got married. She didn't ask for a dime. It was a struggle in the beginning, because again, looking for a new job and so on. I didn't want to go back to Best Buy just because I had too much pride. I left them to go to Ultimate, and I'm going to come back because they can have my job back. I didn't do that. In the beginning, she didn't ask for anything. Nothing. With her family, she was used to getting everything she wanted. But in the beginning, she didn't ask for a dime. She was there with me in the beginning when I had nothing. And now that we are, you know, I feel like on top of the world, I want to get her everything. I want to, you know, do a lot of things, but there's that trust that I think is so important in any relationship. If you have to ask your wife or if you have to ask your husband for permission, then I think there's a conversation that needs to be had.

Yeah, you're not doing it right.

That something is going on.

There's nothing that breaks my heart more than seeing a guy in the car scene be like, ah, I can't, I'm stuck doing this. Now, granted, obviously, there's a bit of a give and take, of course, as with any relationship, partnership, whatever. And this is coming from a single guy, but I'm an observational person. Whereas like, yeah, I got a one-year-old or a two-year-old. Yeah, we have to put in a little extra effort.

Sometimes it's also verbiage. You hear so much, I've got to ask the wife, maybe to that person, they don't have to ask the wife, they just have to tell the wife, but they say they have to ask the wife.

Ask the old ball and chain.

It starts to rub off, but there are some guys out there, and there's some girls out there too. Same exact thing, I've got to talk to my husband, I've got to ask him if I want to buy something. But I hear so many times, I've got to check in with the wife, I've got to ask the wife, I can't spin, no, she told me I can't buy anything. Oh my god, that just, I am mind blown when I hear that. If that is going on, I mean, seriously, something is off. You need to have a conversation.

Sometimes it's just two people ain't compatible.

Or one person is abusing the one side of it.

Oh, well some people just need to, and looking at my own personality over the last three or four years, it's like, all right, I think I've finally grown a little bit of a pair, to mouth off a little bit. But I think that's a big part of it too. It's like a lot of people get comfortable, or they don't want to upset the status quo. So it's like, eventually, power dynamics are weird, man. Whether it's one side or the other, but a lot of...

It shouldn't be. Like I said, the way we think about it is you become one.

Exactly.

What you do to yourself, you're doing to the other.

And that's a good way to go about it.

Trust is huge. If you don't have trust, you have nothing. Literally, you have nothing. You're going to live in a life of misery and jealousy and always worrying. If I do this, is she going to get mad, or is he going to... I can't live like that.

And that was Minnoxide's marriage counseling segment.

Well, that's good. You talk a lot about your family, so I just wanted to know, as a car guy myself, with a big family, I'm just curious how other guys go about it, and you seem like you're doing it right, so I just wanted to see where we're at with that.

I appreciate that. I think family is very important.

Absolutely.

You're one of the happy ones.

No, my oldest is 13, and we'll go on cruises. You've met her now a few times, and I'll call her on my way home. I'll be like, hey, get the Shelby washed. We're going on a cruise. She's like, absolutely. So she'll start getting her done.

Well, what's funny about my oldest, Michaela, 10 years old, Becca, more so, who has the pink Audi TTRS, who was built by Redified, just a beast of a car. My oldest, that is her kind of idol, I guess, per se. That is who she wants to be. That is who she looks after. When she found out that the Rock Falls event that we had, when she found out she was there, or going to be there, she wouldn't talk to me for days because I didn't take her with me. I ended up getting her shirt with Becca's name and car on the back. Any time you're over my house, that's what she wears. That's super cool. She doesn't want a BMW anymore. She wants an Audi, so that kind of broke my heart a little bit. But that's what she wants.

All wrapped in the same brand at the end of the day.

Pretty much. Same flag.

Yeah, man. She's got some cool merch too. I remember seeing her. Actually, I'd love to have her and her husband race together, I think. I'd love to have them on at some point. I should talk to Rad, see if we can set something up there. Yeah, no, that's a fast freaking Audi, dude. Didn't it get whacked a few weeks ago by a truck, I think it was, on the track?

Over the summer, yeah.

Oh, yeah, that was earlier on then. Yeah, basically, I don't know if you saw the video, but the guy lost control or whatever on the drag strip whacked her.

What's funny is this kind of speaks her personality and who she is. I don't even think she cared about her car, if you watched the video. The moment that car stopped, she was jumped out to go check on the guy.

Yeah, she ran out and checked on the guy. That's something you see a lot in the community.

That's when I say I want good people around me. That's the stuff that I'm talking about.

Yeah, exactly. It's actually really incredible to see how tight the racing scene is, at least in some, I'd say in most parts of the country. I feel like when you look at social media, it's a lot worse than it really is. I think a lot more people are closer.

Of course.

That's just the nature of the beast. It's really cool watching shops help each other out or people like, oh man, I just broke this on a track. Come help me out.

That's the car community that we all love. That's the one we want to keep alive.

That's the one that Grand Papi raised me to believe.

Right.

Well, Dan, do you want to drop the usual three?

Sure. So at the end of every show, we like to ask our guests a question. If you could have unlimited budget, you could pick three cars, a track car, a daily and a show car. What would those cars be?

Unlimited imagination.

Swaps are okay. Whatever you can imagine.

And I gave you 48 hours extra time to think on this one.

What's funny is that I'm still contemplating on the show car. My track car, and this is something that I've been in love with since I was a kid, is a Ferrari F50. If someone has done this, I have not seen it. I would get a Ferrari F50, the big V12, and I would twin-turbo it. Now, they've twin-turboed F40s, and those things are monsters, but I have not seen a F50 twin-turbo. That would be my track car. Fully built V12, twin-turbo, everything you could throw at it. I think that would be just a killer car, whether you want to take it on the drag strip or, you know, Corso. Yeah.

I wonder why that is.

I'm pretty sure it's just how rare the F50s were. That they're just valued so high that putting twin-turbo is just a waste of money.

More than an F40, though? I feel like the F40 is just like the number one kid right now.

No, I would say the F40, when that first came out, it was the car to get, and I think, you know, more so than the F50 that a lot of people got the F40. You just don't see F50s.

Fair.

Yeah, you see F40s, but you just don't see F50s.

What color would you do? Would you just do red?

I'd stick with red. You gotta go red with the F50.

I feel like that's a Ferrari for sure. Like, somebody would pick a different color, but a Ferrari's gotta be the red, right?

Yeah, it has to. Yeah, you can't go any other color than red.

Alright, so Daly.

Daly, I would actually, I'm not sure if you guys have heard of this, a Resvani.

Oh, yeah, I've heard many bad things about them.

I would do the Resvani tank.

Yeah, the Hamilton collection was b******* about his. He got rid of that thing. He hated that thing so much.

Well, based on what I see, you know, bulletproof, it's just an awesome, awesome vehicle from the looks of it. The door handles are electrified. So you can turn it on. Someone tries to run up to your car, you grab the handle and it electrocutes their hand. You have a smoke screen. If there's a riot, you can disappear with the smoke. Loud horn.

Definitely needed in Minnesota, by the way, with all our riots.

All-wheel drive, and you get the option of putting the Hellcat in there. A thousand horsepower Hellcat motor, so they tune it for you. I think 300 grand for it. So I mean, I would love to just roll around in the Twin Cities and that thing.

300k for something that doesn't seem unreasonable.

It doesn't.

I mean, the car itself seems unreasonable, but that doesn't seem like outrageous.

If you never see it, look it up. It looks b*****. They even have the Hercules as well, which is a six by six. And I think that one's like 580, but I would definitely do that as my daily, you know, close. How cool would that be? Just rolling on the highway going to work and that, you know, that sort of thing.

Yeah, I went to have fact check that after the fact. I was wondering what that rattling was, by the way. I was like, man, that airplane's getting awful close. Okay, it was a train. We're good. I'm not to double check that was the Hamilton Collection's car because he had one car. I think it was a Reservoir. He just had an awful experience with it, but I might have to double check on that now because now I'm doubting myself.

Yeah, I'm not sure. I mean, I haven't read reviews.

But it's crazy.

Yeah, I've built one myself online.

Yeah.

And mine, we have an unlimited budget, right? So you could get the extended warranty.

Later problem.

Yeah.

So then show car, this is what I'm struggling with because I love old school vehicles as well. And one of the cars that I would love to own one day is a 57 biller. I'm just I'm into 50s vehicles, just that they're just they're timeless. The way the inside, the outside. I what I would love to do with a bell air is I would take a bell air. And some people are probably going to hate me for this, especially the classic enthusiast.

Yeah, I have so many of them listening.

You don't really might catch it. You're growing, so I wouldn't be surprised. I would take a 57 bell air and I would leave the outside, obviously do a cool paint job, but I would update the interior and the engine. I would throw like a Corvette engine as the motor, and the interior will be all updated. Like, you know, take a Cadillac, escalate interior and put it into a bell air, put it on bags, 22 inch wheels, and, you know, pull up to a car show and just hit the button and just squats on the ground.

You know, that's not the craziest I've heard. I actually saw one at the Medina, at Caffeine and Octane. There was somebody that put a boat motor into one of those. It was like a huge, I can't remember. What's a standard boat motor?

Chevy 454 is a pretty big standard. A lot of Chevy stuff, 305s, 350s.

There was something crazy big. I don't know, I have a picture of it somewhere, but yeah, it was a massive boat motor inside a bell air.

I wonder how that would sound.

Yeah, just rowdy, I bet. So where's the bell air classic car thing come from?

My dad.

Your dad?

So he had a, I remember when, before he passed, he used to tell me about the cars that he had and he wished he kept. I forgot what year it was. He had a GTO in college. His first car was a 57 Beller. And I remember him telling me about it. He's like, man, if I kept it. And this was back in the late 90s. If we would have kept it, it would be worth this amount, and I wish I didn't sell it. And I had a dream of buying that car for him one day when I grow up and have a family and give it to him. Obviously, I can't do that, but that was my, and it just always stuck with me. Taking something like that and kind of updating the interior, but also just keeping the body original, putting bags on it. I love the bags. You roll up and it just squats on the ground.

Yeah.

Fair enough.

That would have been a good one to take the porkies.

Easy.

Yeah.

Yes.

Well, sweet. On that note, coming up on two hours. So that was, like I said, man, time flies. But first of all, let's see. I forgot how to wrap up these shows.

Where do people get a hold of you?

Oh, that's right. Yeah. Where do people get a hold of you?

Yeah, so at Motorworks BMW, I'd love to help you out. If you're a car enthusiast, come see me. You don't have to worry about the whole upselling or, you know, am I going to do just comes, I take care of anybody that's a car enthusiast. I take care of everyone. But if you're a car enthusiast, come see me. I'd love to help you out and have a little fun. You can give me a call at 952-460-0328.

First time someone's dropped a number. What's that? First time someone's dropped a number.

For me, it's call me, let's chat, let's have a good time, whatever car you want to test drive, let's do it. I'd be more and more than happy to help you out.

And then Deutsche Car Club on Facebook?

Correct. Deutsche Car Club on Facebook, Deutsche Car Club on Instagram as well. You can also check out our YouTube channel. Just type in Deutsche Car Club. We've got about six or seven videos on there from this past summer. It's going to be a little quiet, you know, now with the winter time, everyone, you know, cars and storage. So we'll ramp back up again. Hopefully, it will be the first episode back at Eau Claire.

That would be pretty sweet. Are you guys on CarMunity yet?

I am. I haven't been on there yet a lot.

It's getting better. Is it?

You know, the first time they first came out, it was a little tough.

Oh, we've made it known. I remember, so Dan Balto was in the room right next door, and I was doing my podcast with Asa Gladstein, and I was doing a very honest review of the rally we were on, and he heard everything. But that's the thing. I've grown pains. Well, yeah, absolutely. And I'm very excited. This week, there's a lot of exciting news. I forgot to update you. I'll tell you after the show. But what's it called? What's Coming is very exciting. I'm excited to be a part of. So that's why I was just asking, because right now, it's about to start ramping up like crazy on that app.

I'm excited.

It's going to be great for event hosting. That's the only reason. I was just kind of curious.

Dan's pretty good at taking constructive criticism, too.

Well, you also have to be good at it, too.

Well, I don't even think it's his fault. I mean, it's just an app that you have to put work into. Any app that you first start, you have to... There's growing pains. You learn from the mistakes, you learn from the issues, and you just keep building on it.

Yeah, so I'm very, very excited on that front. And that's the other thing, too, is I've kind of made myself known that I'm going to give you my blunt feedback, but I'm not going to s*** on your parade without giving you a solution, too. And then also, there's a level of understanding that has to go into it, too. It's like, it ain't cheap to make that thing. But anyways, on that note, where can people find you?

You can find me at Gunnett Garage with two N's. Yeah, come catch us on there. We're trying to ramp up and get ready for some mobile content here, so we switch over in the wintertime. And give us a chance to, we're growing and trying to come up with content, but it's not always easy.

Yeah, yeah, I hate that, the truth. And as for me, you guys found me here at Minnoxide. But be sure to check out the official sponsor, Razorhood. razorhood.com, Instagram, Facebook, all that stuff. I actually got to talk with the CEO, Michael Peterson, who we've had on the podcast a number of times now. And I was actually playing around with the tool. It's super cool. I was playing around with the AI tool. And actually, did you get on there, Dan?

I haven't got a chance to mess with the AI tool yet, but as far as the website and everything, and I've got a truck in the garage now, and it's pretty neat.

Yeah, so if you've made it this far in the episode, do me a favor, go on there, sign up, add your car to the garage. Basically, what Razorhood is trying to do is kind of like an online telemechanic, right? So it's like, oh, in my instance, my VW, squeaky brakes. All right, let's find out why, blah, blah, blah. Throw that in, and the AI will give you suggestions. But here's the cool part, the coolest part. Now, this is the part where they're building it out over time. It takes time to get data and all that stuff. But for example, they have the Toyota Camry just absolutely specked out in there because that's one of the most common cars people buy, right? So it's like you're able to put in your problem, and then honestly, I can't even explain it. But if you have a good daily driver, throw it in the garage, mess around with the AI, raisethehood.com.

If you're one of those people that goes and you've got a problem, right, and you go to a website to do a contact us and they have that little chat box, then you would much rather do that to resolve your... Amazon does it now, too. You don't call into a number, you do whatever. If that's your kind of style, go check out Raise the Hood. You can go in there and chat away, figure out your stuff, car problems you got.

Yeah, it's a good starting point. So at some point, I will have more of an official ad, but this is my first time trying to do it because they aren't the official sponsors, so I'm getting better at that. But on that note, thank you everybody for tuning in, and please be sure to share the show, and we'll see you next time. Thank you for your existence, Dan.