69. Miata Life, Drive Cartel and Car Shows, w/ Tam Nick

Hello, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Minnoxide podcast. I'm your host, Harris, AKA Minnoxide, man of many automotive aspirations. And I'm here with my young and fresh and Taylor Swift love and cohost, Dan, from Gunna Garage.

Yeah.

Are you just saying that because you may carry all the chairs upstairs?

I think so. It was rough before this episode. OK, to be fair, you carry two and you may double the work because you're like, oh, let's open it up.

Well, I had to see.

You have to return it.

I want to carry it down.

Shout out to Amazon, by the way, not sponsored would be great. But we got to like everything like a week early, which is pretty awesome. So, I mean, $80 shipping will f****** do that, I hope. But anyways, welcome to the show. This is the show where we go beyond the meat. So we got somebody on today for Episode 69, a very special person known as Tam.

Oh, one word. One word.

Yeah. You are by far one of the most. How do I put this? High energy people in our community. You have been around in the Minnesota car community for however long. And I know you're involved in various different things, but every time I've seen you at like a drive cartel meet, you know, whatever Cars and Craft, you're always kind of like that uplifting spirit.

Like that's the only reason why drive cartel has me. I'm a mascot.

But speaking of mascots, it takes a special kind of person to have their entire car wrapped with their face.

That's the only thing I'm not a real disclaimer. I'm not a car guy. So hi, everybody. I'm thinking for having me, but I'm not a car guy. I just I like stickers.

No, I think you're I think stickers add horsepower. I mean, sure, whatever.

Yeah, what's you know, that's that's why I bought miata for for the high horsepower. Yeah, yeah.

No, I remember I met you like years ago and like in passing and you were like in between. Who's whose show were you managing at the time? Was it it wasn't Ed Sheeran? It was before that you had somebody else you were touring with.

It might have been Elton John.

That yeah, that's right. So you were like in town in between whatever the hell it was. You were just drained. You were just like not talking to nobody.

I had I had that's that's when I started this dating with Elton. And then the whole month of August, I was off. But that month of August was jam packed with stuff, too, because that's when it was modest. That's when it was mile. Yeah, that's when it was Rammstein. It was just like a bunch of just random things that going on. Yeah, so that was yeah, that that's when I remember when they came.

They had like 80 trucks or whatever for like their show. Didn't they? Yeah, a lot of like 80 semi. Yeah, a lot of fire.

That's all I have.

They just wanted to replicate the Minneapolis riots. It's all good. But but anyways, so again, you've been involved. So I guess the main people you're involved with is kind of drive cartel.

Yeah, sure. That's my affiliate gang. Yeah, Nukes going to hate me. He's going to kick me out already.

I need to get him on too. A lot of people have been saying I should get him on too because he's been involved with that for a long time.

So definitely.

But I mean, you do a little bit of car stuff. I know you we kind of got to know each other a little bit more at SEMA this year.

Yeah, SEMA. That's where all the car guys are.

Yeah. Yeah, that's where we met for the first time.

Yeah, you're right.

That was good.

And yeah, talking about your personality, I feel like we've been best friends for years now.

Oh, that's heartwarming.

And yeah, hanging out. My wife and I, we very much enjoyed your company.

I enjoy your company, too. Yeah, eating Hell's Kitchen.

Yes.

Yep.

Dude, OK, first of all, let's take a second to acknowledge that I f***** up on dessert.

Dessert.

Dessert. Was it figgy toffee pudding?

Yeah, that's what I had.

It was delicious. Yeah, I wanted to do the red velvet thing because like when me and Sean were at Texas 2K last year, I had that red velvet, whatever it was, at Steak 48. Amazing. The best piece of food I've had in my life, like steaks, everything out the window. It was the best dinner of my life. And I thought that would be the same at Hell's Kitchen because I was like, oh, it looks like the same on the menu. No, I tried your figgy, whatever the stuff, whatever it is. Really good. Yeah. How did you end up at SEMA, by the way, this year? I can't remember.

That's a good question every time. Tam, why are you here? I was already in town for a whole week for Ed Sheeran. Yeah, so it was a redo date. The tour was supposed to end in the September. And then we had a whatever, an incident thingy. So we came back. The show was October 28th. So it was like a couple of days before Halloween. So then I was like, sweet. So I spent two full weeks in Vegas. I do not recommend that. Two full weeks, one full week of work, and then one whole week of SEMA.

Yeah, three or four days in Vegas, and I'm usually ready to get that a lot of there.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's why I was there. So then, and then Balto was like, yep, the first time I went was through community. Seattle community.

That was the previous year, right?

Same year, same thing. I was already there in Balto. Yeah, because as I said, I was supposed to be done with tour before October, supposed to be done in September. It's like, oh yeah, I'll make it to SEMA. And I was like, well, my flight and everything is already there. I'm just gonna stay an extra week. So that was fun. Yeah.

No, that was really fun. And you somehow ended up in our hotel room.

Yeah, I went from the Four Seasons. And then I was like, well, I'm just gonna crash. So go Jason and Harris.

Woohoo. Yeah, it's so funny that Jason ended up being here downstairs today, too. He's doing some filming for Ratified, which, by the way, that Audi and a dyno are ridiculous.

Can we hear some dyno pulls?

We will hear a dyno pull at some point.

All right, yes.

No, that is either the first or second loudest car I've heard here.

Oh, OK.

Really. Full on straight pipe. I think it's an R7. It's pretty close to four digits, too. Jesus. We'll see what happens.

All right. When I walked in, it was very hot and smoky in there, so.

Just Audi things.

Just German car things.

Well, if it was a Dodge, it'd be an electrical fire.

That's just rude. That's just rude.

It's fine.

It's OK. Just because Ford's up and up right now doesn't mean that you get to talk all that smack.

Oh, right now? I thought they'd been up and up for a long time, but that's fine.

I mean, they've been in the... Oh, by the way, so I posted some highlights or whatever from our episode with Tim DeCesaro, where he's like, the dark horse stops faster than any car ever, which is true, because of the tires, and you know, has big, what, 390-millimeter carbon ceramics, I think.

Yeah, I believe so.

Yeah, something like that. Something ridiculous. Everybody in the comments is like, no, uh, it's like, well, for a stock car, it's like, yeah, it's smashing everyone. Yeah, it's a Mustang, I'm sorry, but it's like, I don't know what to tell you. So anyways, that's where that's been at. So I guess what has been your overall involvement in the car scene then? Did you, like, that's a good question. You just kind of appear, right?

Well, somebody let me know.

I've just, yeah.

Yeah, like, because I know you've been helping, like, promote shows already.

It's weird.

Now that I think about it, what do you do?

What do I do? Why am I here? I know. Well, thanks for your time, guys. Peace.

No, I just knew that every, like, 30 episodes, we just need like a fun, chill one.

One has nothing to do with cars. No, I'm just kidding.

Well, the thing is, like, I barely attend any drive cartel stuff. Like, it's just, it's always been out of the way for me. It's like, you know, I'm lazy. Like, that's the thing. And also, like, when I first discovered, like, yeah, I would come out to, what's the one, at the brewery.

Cars and Crafts.

Yeah, Cars and Crafts.

Yeah, for sure. St. Paul Brewery. May 4th this year. Ooh, that's a kick-off.

Is it really?

Yeah, May 4th. First, yeah. There's only gonna be a couple of them this year.

Yeah, every other month is what they said last episode. So, it's like, yeah, so that's exciting. But yeah, I started going to those more once Cars and Coffee started f****** around.

Okay, let's, we can talk about Cars and Coffee.

Sure.

What's the first Cars and Coffee you went to?

Chanhassen.

Yeah, the OG ones, right? Those are really good.

Do you know why I got kicked out?

I don't know, it's too rowdy. I don't know. That's, so, that's how they all end, right?

Honestly, yeah, that's pretty much what happened. So, I mean, they were already having issues with the city at the time. Because it's a one-way entrance, a lot of traffic. I mean, those were the glory days. Like, a Selena 7 came out, a P1 came out, like, all these crazy, crazy things came out.

Yeah.

And then there was, I believe, from the stories that I've heard, there was basically an ambulance coming through because some dude had said something happened.

Yep.

And the ambulance was struggling to get through, and people were literally, like, flicking off the ambulance. So, that's the stories that I've heard.

Yeah.

And that's one, I guess, the main, one of the main reasons it's not there anymore, but it was getting too big. It just got too big.

I've been to the smaller shows. I had a little break from, I had like a one or two day break. I flew back, and it was a show, it was a Wednesday show, or Tuesday show. It was a Wednesday show.

Uh-huh.

Wednesday's Cars and Caves.

Yes.

Yes. That was fun.

Yeah, well, those are, and it's like a lot of the same people, you know, a lot of the owners. Yeah, yeah. At the Motorplex there. So, it's a lot of the same people. It's slowly growing, but I don't think they want it to, like, be a big show, right?

They definitely do not.

It's like, let's just keep it chill.

Yeah.

And I think that's a uniquely Minnesota thing, where we just bring a f****** chair, just sit with the same people every week at the same bar with the same sticky table, just every single week. I don't know, I can't do it.

Did you ever go, did you ever partake in Coon Rapids cruise?

That was a blast.

That was really good.

It's all right, but it's, again, that's all bumper to bumper. I mean, it's, you're just sitting there.

So I went to the second ever Coon Rapids cruise. I can remember it was in April of 2020. Yeah. Yeah, so I was driving around, and it was a really nice day, and it was 2020. That's all I did was just, I think that's how, I think most people know me, like through 2020, because that's when I built up my cars, right? I don't know, because there's nothing else to do. So then it was like, oh yeah, someone's like, oh yeah, go to Coon Rapids, there's cars there. I was like, okay, so when back in my day, cruising Coon Rapids means Main Street, like downtown Anoka, right? So I drove my car there, nothing. I was like, this is weird. I'm going to go check out, I did like a year at Anoka Ramsey, so I'm going to check out that area, and then boom, because for some reason, even 2020, I don't know why there wasn't social media. It wasn't that big yet, because the people that-

It was word of mouth.

Yeah, yeah. The people that put it on are like the more boomer type people.

That's a fair assessment.

It was like Porky's on University back in the day.

We're going to touch back on that.

We had to know about it to go there.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, that was Porky's back in the day. That was an institution every Friday, Saturday night. And then by 10 p.m. you get kicked out because out of the Sun Foods parking lot. But yeah, so then I just stumbled upon it. And like I said, April 2020, I see MK4 Supras and Dodge Vipers. I was like, what is going on? It was still pretty small at that time. So now I'm just telling everybody, I was doing the word of mouth, spreading the word. I was like, everybody, all my friends, you have to come up to Coon Rapids on Saturdays. There's a cruise. It was like, where's the cruise? Coon Rapids. I was like, I'm not going to Coon Rapids, Tam. I was like, you know what Cheapskate is?

Yeah, that spot.

It's going to be a bunch of cool cars. And then it blew up from all the way to Culver's to all the way to the hospital. It was just lined up, which reminisced the days of Midway.

Yeah, that's it was hot. That whole summer, like the second summer, it fell apart. We can get into that. But that whole first summer was crazy. I remember I probably got like 50 people myself. Like I was like, and I was like early Minnoxide days, but like I was still like getting a ton of people to come out. They're like, what? Huh? We're going to go sit in the back of a truck the whole time?

Yeah, yeah.

And I used to have my gladiator at the time, so I would back it up and I would just sit on the roof with my friends or whatever. Just watching people cruise by, top of s***. It was good.

Yeah, it was really good. I mean, that's a long strip, and there's so many. And then it only worked out because of pandemic, right? Because all those businesses had nothing, and so it was just a bunch of parking lots.

Yeah.

And they were kind of born with a problem, because like, you know, like, hey, you guys can't park here because we have an event. Like, more and more people started coming, and then...

It started getting a little ridiculous, and some of the takeover crowds started coming, too.

Yeah, yeah.

Which is a little bit of a bummer, but everybody had their spot, too. Like, we used to go to... What was the Chinese restaurant over there called? I forgot. I think it was like New Mandarin or something.

I know you're talking about.

That was our spot. I was riding or hanging out with the Mustang and Camaro guys back then. So, you know, Kelly Wraith and all those guys. So, that was like our go-to spot. But then it's like, all right, let's change parking lots, go up the street. And then there was like this, I remember one particular time, there was like, I think it was like 16 or 17 Miata's. Were you there for that one?

That was my gang. I called them the Miata Jabronis. Yeah, we started really big there. Anoka Ramsey, Anoka Ramsey Corner Lock. That's where we all really parked.

You a big WWE guy?

I love WWE.

Okay, you said Jabronis, so I had to ask.

Oh, I guess that's where it comes from, I guess, huh? Yeah. I hate the Rock. My favorite wrestler is Stone Cold.

Stone Cold?

I like Stone Cold.

Oh, we should go get some beers. We'll be right back.

Yeah, he's so cool. But yeah, I don't know why I call him Jabronis. I don't know why. That's like my word. I don't know why. I mean, I adapted it, I guess. I think Charlie Day did it too, and it's always something in Philadelphia. You keep using this word Jabroni. Yeah. But yeah, so then like, so I think, yeah, 2020, we got all the miyadas there, and then it was still really, because the cruise officially ended, say, September-ish, right? So then I continued it, and I had a thing called Miata Monday. So yeah, yeah, so Miata Monday between, like, all the way from, like, I think it was, yeah, September, all the way until the snow hits, which was, like, November.

Okay.

So yeah, it was at the restaurant my cousin and I opened called Red Ginger China Bistro and 35W. You guys have a restaurant?

Wait, hold on.

Yeah.

Didn't I notice?

I know.

You didn't bring us anything?

What kind of restaurant is it?

It's a Chinese restaurant.

I don't know. I figured you're a barbecue guy.

It's an Applebee's.

The reason why I'm here, but my family immigrated here in the 70s for a place called Tam's Rice Bowl, which is like one of the first authentic Chinese restaurants in the Fridley, and then that closed.

So yeah.

I know I have lots of backgrounds. Concerts, restaurants, not cars.

So what was the place called again?

Red Ginger China Bistro.

And that's in like, what, Burnsville or something?

No, it was north, north.

North, okay.

Shoreview. Shoreview, Lionel Lake, Circle Pines.

You still there then?

Yeah, I'm still there. Yeah, it opened in like 2008. Yeah, it's going strong. But yeah, so I was all like, it's during pandemic time, and it was only takeout only. So I was like, hey everybody, I have a whole, it's like not a big parking lot, but it was filled with Miata's. I think I counted it. It was like 30 of them. It could keep growing, you know. It was a good time.

Dude, it's a cult following.

Yeah.

When you get a car like a, like a cheap, fun sports car, like a Miata, it's a cult following.

I had my Miata for 12. 13 years? I don't even know when, but over a decade, I had it for a hot minute before all the...

You don't have it anymore?

I have it. Yeah, I have it. Yeah, but I'm saying I just had it before all the internet craze and whatnot.

Yeah, it was cool before I was cool. It's like, dude, that's one of my biggest frustrations is I wish I stuck with gaming through high school, because like I was like semi-pro and like some stuff, and I was like...

Did you play on real tournament? That's what I grew up playing.

Yeah, I was playing like tournaments, like for CSGO or whatever, and I was working my way up, and I decided, all right, well, I got a D- in chemistry. Actually, I had an F in chemistry. I'm like, I should probably turn my life around before this really goes off the rails. But then, like, everybody's doing it now. It's like, oh, man, I could have been the guy that was doing it before it was cool.

So back in the day, kids are like, I want to be a basketball player. And now I was like, I want to be a professional video gamer.

Fortnite-er.

Fortnite-er, gosh.

I got out just before Fortnite became famous.

You should have stuck with it. I could be looking at the next Ninja, right? Is that guy's name?

Oh my God. I probably would have been as flamboyant too. Yeah, man, I miss streaming. Those were the good days. I've thought about streaming, for example, me and Dan are into iRacing now. The problem is I suck.

Yeah, well, I suck more.

I think that's what everybody should have done in 2020. I thought about it for the longest time. Everybody's like, like I said, Tam, you're interesting. You should record yourself. I was like, no, I'm good. But that's what we did in 2020. A lot of gaming, a lot of car stuff. I mean, that's what we did.

It ruined a lot of things and built up a lot of other things, right? The car industry went crazy. Side-by-sides and campers, you couldn't get one.

Yes.

It was snowmobiles, things like that. People, people, outdoor activities. It kind of pushed everybody outside.

Even bicycles.

Yeah.

Bicycle shops were like empty.

I wouldn't know I wasn't in my own bicycles.

I don't know how I know. I have white friends at Mountain Bike, you know. I don't know.

No, but the birthday cruises, too. Those were cool.

Yeah. It was right by my house, and we went to Red Ginger right afterwards. The first, first, first big one was, it was like a trailer park for a little boy, which was in between the Blaine parking ride and Red Ginger. And that was so many cars. Do you remember that one?

I think I went on that one.

I'm telling you, that was the first, it kicked, yeah.

I think that was it. What was the guy's name? Cameron Burr. It came up in my story recently.

Here's what the kid...

Yeah, everyone was like, this is an excuse to drive.

That's literally what it was. Everybody was doing burnouts. You got all the... Everybody. From the delinquent scat pack owners to the boomers, you know, with whatever bill.

Yeah, Odie was going through a set of tires like a month for doing birthday burnouts.

How about Bud, dude? He was destroying the tires on their red eye.

Yeah.

It was ridiculous. I think it was Bud. I'm pretty sure it was Bud.

I don't know how it feels to do a burnout.

Come on. Is it manual?

Your Miata?

Yeah, it is.

You should get the clutch, right?

Get a little squawk on it.

You know the funny part is, so we make fun of the Miata as a low horsepower car, but that's not my first car. My first car I still have, which is an FB 1983 RX-7.

Oh, really?

So I think if I'm not going on tour this year, I think I'm going to focus on that car and make it like a... My Miata is super ricey, but the FB RX-7 is going to be like old school classic JDM.

Is that the Wedgnose one?

I had one of those for a little bit. I bought one, and I suppose I just needed a fuel pump, and I never did anything with it. I ended up trading it for a Saturn SE2. I know. Although I had that Saturn forever, and I sold the Saturn, I think, three or four times. I'd sell it to somebody, like a cousin or a nephew or whatever.

Those are actually pretty good cars. My buddy, we started working on Saturn. Shout out Jake Mullock. That was his first car. So then he got an FC RX-7, like super low mileage. So then, I don't know, for some reason, I stumbled on this FB. Picked up for $1,500, 40,000 miles. So yeah, it was like a burnt orange, all burgundy interior. So yeah, I'm going to focus on that. So then that's my first car, right? 83, rotary, carbureted, 12A. So I'm like driving this car. He's like, yeah, it's cool. It revs high, but it takes forever to get there. And then my cousin was moving to California. I was like, hey, you want to buy my Miata? So he was like the second owner. And I was like, yeah, sure. And I drove the Miata. I was like, wow, this car is so fast.

Do I have a blast driving the Miata on the SimRig? So we're having Alex Sajadi on the podcast tomorrow who races GT4 Porsches or whatever.

That's a real car.

And he also told me is like, you want to start with a slow car. That's what you want. Build your skill set on a slow car and then go from there. So I actually ended up getting, again, apparently a lot of this can translate to real life. So we'll find out this year at the track event. But I did the same track in a GT4 car that I was doing with a Miata. And I was like, this is too fast. I can't do this. Whereas before, I would have been like, oh, this is fast. Whatever. It's weird. You get accustomed to the horsepower.

So I need to do something because all I'm doing is a GT3 Mustang.

You got to do a Miata, dude. It's so fun. Dude, you got to go on to an online race, and then you just got to qualify last, which means don't qualify at all. Just start dead last, right? Because when you start at the low skill ranges, you just watch the crashes happen right in front of you, like corner one. I s*** you not. I think the most I've seen in one crash was seven cars. It's just all Miata.

I mean, you should start on a smaller car, right? Because it's like, then the driver base and that car base.

Exactly.

Right? And that's what was, I don't know, but I guess really rednecked me. IROC, IROCZ, right?

Okay, I'm listening.

No, that's what it was. They all have the same car. And it's just based on the driver's skill, not the car, right?

Oh, that's like that Corvette Challenge or whatever.

I know what it is, IROCZ. They said they might be bringing it back, too. There's a chance. We'll see if it happens.

I mean, I kind of like that, because right now, the car industry is like whoever throws the most money into a car wins, right? But that's also a lot of things, right? So if you have an easy platform where everybody has the same, and it's like driver mod, right? So then you just test the best driver, not the best company.

Just throw it. You mean like in a racing perspective?

Yeah, yeah, for sure, right? Yeah.

The fact that there's actually a Miata spec series is awesome. I probably should just watch that instead of Formula One, because again, it's amateur racing.

Yeah.

It's like, how much more fun and grassroots does it get than that? There you go, yeah. I know like Dan goes to grid. Have you been to grid life?

I have not. I really want to.

I feel like that's your scene, right?

You're right. It's combining both my worlds.

Yeah.

You get concert EDM and car guys.

Right, exactly. It'd be perfect. I always wanted to go to that. We're hoping to go to this year, but we'll see what happens. There's so many things up in the air.

There's a couple of them, right? There's like a Colorado one, a Michigan one.

Yeah, there's like eight of them. So I think the closest one would probably be the one in Michigan for us, I think.

So you're telling me they have a concert, too, on top of the racing stuff?

Yeah, like full.

It's like Seamafest, but not dead.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, well, like, I guess you want to go even more smaller scale. It's like Proving Grounds, right? They have like a really crappy DJ, and then there's a bunch of different kind of races. Instead of a crappy DJ, it's, I don't know.

Legit, like artists.

Yeah, like Odessa or something. I don't know. They have like, it's pretty cool.

Yeah.

You didn't make it out to Seamafest, did you?

No.

No, we didn't get tickets, so we were like, screw it, and we were flying out that night.

Yeah, something like that. Yeah, yeah, it was something stupid, because you guys weren't fun.

I went the first night when it was super dead, because everybody went to the cool car meet. Origins. I went to it last year. I went to the last year. That was a cool one.

It was popping. Yeah, I wish I went to that.

Because those are all the cars from Seamafest going to that car meet.

Exactly.

But the reason I went to Seamafest, because my friend Brendan, DJ Bonix plays for Wiz Khalifa. Wiz Khalifa was the headliner that night.

Oh, one of the headliners.

You know what I mean? So that's why I went to that one really early. And I was like, yeah. And then I had to fly out the next day, because I said when we're two weeks in Vegas, it's way long enough. That's when everybody was more. It was more people.

And then you passed off your ticket to me and Jason.

Yes, I did. Yeah.

So it worked out. We went there.

Definitely.

It was really quiet. It was cool. I feel like the Hootigan Burnyard was like the main attraction there. And then they had Formula Drift there, which apparently...

And they had Nitro Circus. So like on paper, it's pretty... I think it's just kind of... I don't know, man. A lot of people are card out. Like I said, I was card out.

Well, you've been there all week, right? But most people do too.

Look at all the vendors. What's the last thing you want to do? Go do more card things outside? And I don't know.

Yeah, but you're there with your company, your group, your whatever. People are going out drinking with their friends. There's endless things to do in Vegas.

But that's every night. So think about it. I went out every single night on SEMA night. Thanks, Brian. Brian Janouche. Yeah, you know what I mean? So yeah, we went, yeah, it was three nights of clubs in a row. I was like, I can't do this.

Didn't you get a photo with somebody famous that didn't know who you were?

Wait, what?

I don't think it was just a topic discussion while we were at SEMA.

I took a picture with someone?

Yeah, there's some of you, you know, I forgot to tag you.

Oh, yeah, Dustin Williams. Hey, no, whatever. He follows me now. We're good. We're homies.

That was so funny. He tagged everybody except you.

He didn't know who I was. I just like showed up. I was like literally rolled out of bed. I was like, all right, Brian, what are we doing tonight? Yeah, that was a cool gang. Yeah.

Does he... Brian has like a business in Vegas, I think, right?

I think he's just really... He's just very top rank.

Yeah.

And then he just has his little thing with like Pennzoils. I don't know, you got to ask him.

I lost touch with him, like I want to say three or four years ago, because like, you know...

He's one of the reasons why I even know of Drive Cartel.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah. The first one, I think, yeah, Brian was all like, you should come to the, one of the, my first modest was the parking lot in Union, what was it called? Union Square? Not Union Square. Union Station. It's in St. Paul. So, yep. So my buddy Cameron and I, who had the Black S2000, he was all like, yeah, let's go to this thing. And then that's, that's, Brian got me like, introduced to them. I didn't know who Nuke was. I was just telling those guys, I was like, I thought Edwin, I don't know who Edwin is, he's a Mexican guy. I thought he was Nuke.

I don't know who any of these people are.

Yo, yeah, yeah, yeah. So then I think, yeah, so that's the first time I've actually heard of Drive Cartel. And of course, loud mouth Josh. Go to Josh, he's like, yeah, Tam would be a good asset. And I was like, you want two loud people on this. All right, here we go.

Because Josh is loud too.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, so that's, that's, that's, I guess, that's the background of how I got introduced to Drive Cartel.

How long ago was that?

2019? Actually, I don't know.

It's right around. That's when I got into the car scene.

It's before that, 2018.

2018, April 2018 is when this all became a reality. That's when I got involved in the car scene. Like before I...

18?

Yeah, 2018.

Okay.

April 2018. April 28th, 2018.

Wow, they have it on the ndoc.

Yeah, that's the day I created Minnoxide. It was supposed to be just a b******* page to get some likes, to get some free tickets to car shows.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's become a lot more than that.

Well, that works.

It's kind of cool. It worked out.

I understand all about b******* pages. Garage Special is my garage. It's my fake thing. And I looked in it. 2012. That's when Garage Special...

You have two sports cars. You arrange meets. You go to all these car things. You're not a car guy?

No, no, no.

Not a car guy, sure.

It was a photo page. Garage Special was a photo page. It was like a pseudo-magazine. So back in the day, it was very fat-laced, Stance Nation, illest, that type of thing. So my buddy Ming and I was all like, yeah, he had a red MR2 turbo. And I had a little Miata, but both little red ones. It put little black steelies on it. It was like, yeah, man, we're a car gang of two.

And he moved away.

And I was like, I guess it's just me now, guys. Yeah, but yeah. So yeah, I think it was because my car had zero stickers at that first Minnoxide. And then all the stickers were put on for Hot Import Nights 2019.

Is that when all the face stickers came up?

Yeah, that was the debut, the debut of it at Hot Import Nights 2019.

I like the color scheme, the teal and the red. It looks good.

So there you go. So yeah, I actually never liked red cars. But you know, when you buy cars, you don't really pick the color. It was handed down.

Well, when you talk about the Miata, I think that's like 90% of them are that red.

Yeah, but that's before. I didn't know what. I don't know what this car is. I had an RX-7. It was burnt orange. That was a cool like old 80s car. And it's a bright red little tiny convertible with a license plate, which I didn't pick. It's UR2BIG. You're too big. My cousin picked that.

You still have that?

Yeah, and it's still there. Yeah, because everyone's like, oh, your car is so small. Car's not small. You're just too big. Yeah, yeah. I know, right? So I had a buddy in the concert world that powder coats, like mic stands. And so I had a bunch of... I had some wheels, and I was like, oh, I think I found the first set of wheels I put on the Miata, because it had steelies on it, were like SI wheels. That's before I figured out what offset was. Now I love offset and stands. Before, it was super sunken in. So I was like, oh, this powder coat... I got access to powder coat. What color should I powder coat it? And I was like, I want gold. And I was like, man, you want red and gold car? I was like, I don't know what else to powder coat. My buddy's like, you should do blue. I was like, I'm not going to do Spider-Man Miata. So then, like I said, I was really into RX-7s. So one of the brands in the RX-7 world is like Endless. And then there's one called Project Mew. And you know Project Mew? Look at Project Mew. So that's the real reason why.

What's Project Mew for those of us that don't know anything?

$10,000 breaks. I really shouldn't know anything about them either. So yeah, so that really cool color, and that resonated with me. I was like, sweet. So then that's why I did teal. And I was like, oh. And if you do graphic design, they're opposite inverted colors. So now I'm known for stickers and teal everything. So I just went powder coat my wheels, my seats, my Part Shop Max seats. Their color is copper. And I was like, nope, teal. And it's just everything teal. That's why.

So you're like a show car guy.

I'm not a show car. Show cars like.

You're just a fun guy. Yeah.

There you go. I'm a fun guy.

You're like in this weird. It's weird, right? Because like there's only a handful of people in the car community that can do what you can do. Because you can transcend everyone. You could talk to. Well, maybe not the boomers. They'd probably have a heart attack. But nonetheless.

I had a good time talking to the boomers. Yeah.

Because I feel like I would get over stimulated talking to you if I was in my 60s. Like I'm already like on the edge.

That's who started the Coon Rappers Cruise. I start talking to them. Keith of Steel.

Oh, that's right.

Yeah.

You're willing to talk to anybody who's wanting to talk to you.

That's true too. Oh my God. When I used to work at the casino. Oh my God. Like some people would just come there for a conversation, dude. I get it though. I get it. Like at a certain point, it's like, well, I don't know anybody anymore. They're all dead, you know.

Every summer, I was always surrounded by the boomers because the reason, I didn't go to Proving Grounds. Wait. Oh, here you go. I didn't go to Proving Grounds until Radio Disney ended. And you'd be like, why are you guys talking about? So because I used to work for Radio Disney. I was an MC for Radio Disney. And one of our events that we do is back to the 50s. And back to the 50s is always the same time as Proving Grounds. So that's why I was always back to the 50s talking to all the boomers, seeing every single color beller you can think of.

Well, even better.

Proves my point, though. It's like you could transcend from the show car guys to the race car guys, because at the end, you're not a part of any particular cult.

You're right. That's true.

I think I fall in the same category, right? Because I can have anybody on the show, and it's totally fine. I made it a point to prove I don't care. I'm just here to have a good time. But then when you get these guys, they're like, oh, I only talk to oudi people, which is ironic, saying, give them where we're at right now. Or I only talk to beamer people, or only Ford people. You gotta talk to a little bit of everybody.

That's why I always distance myself, like, oh, car guy, because it gets very, very, very clicky.

You know what I mean? I've always been really out of place. I don't know if you ever saw a meme that went around a few years ago. It's like when you have the entry-level car in the video game mission, and it's like all the Lamborghinis and I'm just like a gulf. I'm that gulf. I'm the entry-level, you know? So it's just perfect, because I've just been able to transcend all of these.

What are you talking about? Instead of gulf, I'm the Miata during the rally of 10,000 Lakes. For some reason, I ended up in a pack with Tony and Tony Yass and his Porsche. And then, and, and, wow, Moe, Moe's GTR.

Yeah, yep.

Right? And then like Justin's Tesla, like a Tesla and a GTR and a Porsche, and then me. And I was trying to keep up with them, which I kind of did for a while, but it was a Miata, the gear ratio. I was roaring at like 4,500 RPM, so it's the whole way going over 100. I was like, my car is going to blow up. That was the hardest I've ever driven. It's just miles.

It's just.

That's my concern, too, is like, if I do rally my car, right, I anything over 100, like, yeah, I could do it. But it's like, I'm going to be at 3,500 RPM, which isn't bad. But it's like, and the thing is, is like, I'm not even like, I have a catted downpipe, so I'm not too loud, but it would do my f****** head in. It just, I just.

We should drive around the orange car for a little while.

The orange car doesn't even compare to Chaz's Porsche. When he drove that f****** thing back from Michigan, oh my god, I was deaf for a week. I mean, it's ridiculous.

When you put the engine in your rear, head rested. Yeah.

His Corvette wasn't much better when we were coming back from south, and speaking of rallies, make sure to sign up for community. But when we were coming back from south, first of all, I fell asleep for like an hour or whatever. I wake up and Chaz is like, we almost died, like, three times. It was like raining in the Wisconsin Dales. Every time I come back from a south rally, it's always perfect weather until we get to Wisconsin. F*** your state, Dan. And it was just ridiculous because I'm not done. He says he lost contact. So he had extreme contacts in the front, and on the rears, like, was just, you know, full on like slicks or whatever it was. And he's like, yeah, we lost contact with all four tires a few times. So we literally had to stay at a BP for like a half hour, let the rain clear. All right, you could defend your state now.

One thing about rallies, that's what you said, you were hanging out with all these other people. Those are like car people. They're not necessarily, so I'm very brand loyal, but I love hanging out with anybody who's willing to like go out and just drive.

Yeah, that was a good time. I enjoyed it.

So like, again, if you want to sign up for South or North, don't be intimidated if you're driving a Miata, because you're going to get along with everybody, no problem.

I even kept up, but like, yeah, he's talking about loud. I think that's one of the times I really like spirited driving. And my car has a full exhaust. I have zero cats, straight back, header back, super loud. And my car was stupid low. Like, I should have raised it. I should have put, I don't know. But it's still a good time. Yeah.

I run my s*** so low in the winter still. I should raise it up. Like, it's not safe in the winter. It's like how low my car is. But like with my winter tires, I'm always rubbing. So every time I hit a bump on 169, it's just like, it's like, yeah, not good. No, honestly, I would rally with a Miata owner. I like Miata.

I'm as reliable. It made it through, all the way through. I just didn't drag race. Went to Rock Falls.

There is a Ford and Mazda partnership, so it's okay.

Every single time. Always finds a Ford correlationist f****** guy. We get it. You own the world. No, but like, especially when I'm sending out invites because I'm the main person sending out invites for the car community rally now, since I run most of it. Yeah, for sure.

I'm excited. That's cool, man.

I have to think, like, all right. I don't, like, the car is the first thing I have to consider, right? Because we are trying to make this, like, I don't know, like a higher tier event. I mean, and it's priced as such because, again, it's a top tier event. But I also need to look at who's the person, too. Because, like, for example, like, I've been on Crown Rally before, and it's like they've...

Those are club goers, right?

Well, that, I mean, that's...

Yeah, but they're, like, I don't know, 60 and rich.

No, no, there's a lot of 30, 40 year olds that need to throw down. Oh, yeah, dude, Crown was a blast. That was the best experience.

Are those Bitcoin people?

There's a lot of Bitcoin. But what I'm getting at is, like, I think the year I went, they actually kicked two people off the rally, and they set the standards.

They kicked them out for what? Like, being too reckless?

Yeah. Oh, yeah. And they set the standard, right? It's like, and I really hope other rallies do this as well because, like, that's something I've done on my rallies. Like, I've said, like, every beginning of every single rally, I've been like, if you do this, I'm gonna have to send you home. Like, I don't care. You're not getting a refund. F*** off. I'm gonna cancel your hotel room. Like, so that's one of the things that we've always set on rallies. And, like, I don't know if you remember any of the drivers' meetings. It's like, you know, just gotta shut that down. But point being, it's like, I like to do a little bit of research on the people before I send them an invite.

Word, word, word.

Because I want to make sure that you're, A, a good time.

Yeah.

And more importantly, not a dick.

So that's a big part of it.

Yeah, that that was like a joke in there. I could not finish off.

I was like, I've been working with Doug.

He's the one that accepted you.

Yeah, before the before the rally of 10,000 lakes, stage two, I never done anything. I did do any research. So after that launch of the Toyota, I lost everybody. I didn't have a co-pilot and have anybody. I was like, oh, everybody is gone.

And then I just rally without a co-pilot is tough.

Yeah, yeah. And that was like, OK, and everyone's gone. And I was like, well, I'll just do it myself, guys. And then that's when I ran into Mo and Tony and all of them. I don't know how I caught up or whatever. But I was like, all right, I'm not going to lose these guys. And that's why I was just floored.

I had a phone call with I think you met him. Eric, Eric's garage. He has the Datsun or whatever and a McLaren or whatever. So I had a chat with him yesterday because again, I was talking some rally stuff with him. And like last year, he went on G-Force by himself because he couldn't find the co-pilot because I wasn't able to go. And I was like, oh, I'm so sorry, man. But I literally said, it's like, dude, that kills 40% of the vibe. Without a co-pilot, you don't have anybody to talk to.

No one tells me these things. I don't know.

Well, now you know. Yeah.

Well, everybody listening to now. It's like, now you know. Like, yeah, you can do it by yourself and you will have a blast. I've done a rally solo once or twice now. It's not bad. It's a lot of fun, actually, especially like... So I went with these guys, right? And my buddy Mark has the 1,000 horsepower GT500, and I s*** you not. I wish there was video proof of this. It was the funnest thing I've ever done. He would get me on the straights by far, but I would dive bomb into corners so hard. I was scraping. This is on my summer tire setup. I would literally be scraping with my bumper on the corner because I would just dive bomb so hard. I'd be so far up his a**, and then I hear him downshift, you know, coming out of the corner. I would downshift twice, and I'd be in the power for all of, like, you know, up until 60, maybe at best. And then obviously he's gone. But he's like, man, every time I would look in my rear-view mirror, I was there. There was a little stupid bug back there.

We were going through those twisties through the swamp, too. You were, like, glued to my rear bumper as we were going through there.

Dude, you know who taught me how to rally? I talked to Tony Yost and Chaz, who we found on this podcast before. It's like, when they rally together, they're one. They're one. You have to be.

They're both aggressive.

Equally. You know how the other person drives. They're not going to break check you. This guy's in it to win it like I am, so we're going to do this together.

We were in a type of good time. I knew you were a good driver. I know my own skills. I can trust my own skills to a degree, at least on the street track. Different story. But what I'm getting at is stay within your depth, though. Don't be the guy that's trying to go buck ten the whole way. If that's your thing, pick your crew.

To be fair, we're doing that, but you and I rallied together several times. We know each other.

I've been doing the shift for years, dude. That was before I had the fear of God in me. We'll see what happens this year. But I don't know, man. Again, you're very fun. I had a lot of fun with you in Vegas. Please go on community this year.

Vegas Tam is different than regular Tam, right?

Yeah, regular Tam's just cranky.

Yeah, there you go. I need my sleep.

Give me my coffee.

There you go.

No, I'm going to talk to Dan. I'm going to see if we can get a Tam discount going here.

There you go.

I don't know how we got on to rallies. I have no idea how we got on to that.

This is driving. But yes, it goes with cold pilot, but the reason why I do drive is just like, I don't know, I like the peace and quiet.

Is this your car manual? Yes, it is.

I'm a real car guy.

He's trying to do burnouts.

Oh, yeah, just dumped a clutch.

Two of my tires are like this, right?

What year is your car?

The Miata, 1993.

1993? I drove a 2010 one on the sim today.

2010? An NC? No, that's the NC. That's like the stepchild of the Miata's.

Yeah. Stepchild.

They call them boats, the yacht club.

Okay. Are the new ones pretty boaty, too?

No, people like them because they have the horsepower to at least-

Oh, to back it up.

Yeah, right.

But the 2010-

The NC's are pretty good. It just looks like a jelly bean. Yeah.

It just didn't have the horsepower to back up the weight, maybe?

Because the NC had a retractable hardtop, and it's just like a bigger- newer cars are heavier to begin with.

As a grower, not a shower.

Yeah, you know, just a very little jelly bean. I like them. They're pretty cool. They're all pretty cool.

Yeah. How much of a cult following is behind those cars? They're perfect for everything, though. You want a road course? Go for it. You want an autocross? Do it. Yeah. Maybe not drag racing. Maybe not.

Have you seen those drag race Miata's in the videos? Like a blue one next to, I don't know, like a Lambo?

No. This?

This?

I've seen drag Miata's.

I've seen the Hellcat swapped one. I remember that one. Oh, jeez. That was rowdy. And where was it? Doing donuts in a burnout pit. Yeah, that's crazy. I don't know. When do you got 2J swap yours? Never. No?

Those engines skyrocket higher and higher and higher. I'll probably do K. K is good.

Yeah, that's a fair, yeah.

Yeah.

You can get a good bit of horsepower.

Yeah, K Series? We can do all motor for like 300, man. That's, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. We'll get Kyle Larkin to build one for you.

There's sites called K. Miata, probably kmiata.com. They have all the motor mounts and everything.

Uh-huh.

So, maybe.

That's our next podcast. We're gonna get over there. We're gonna help them do the swap.

Yeah.

Yeah.

In a Miata, we should be able to do that in what, four hours? Swap it over.

You're the car guys.

Do you do any of the wrenching yourself, or what?

What do you mean?

Yeah, I do.

Let him answer.

I do.

It was a long pause.

No, no, I do. When people ask me, do I work on cars? No, but I work on my car. And the reason why I do, because I'm just too cheap to go anywhere else to do it. Yeah. That's how Minnox does it. Yeah, right? So like, on the Miata, I did the suspension on it, and I did seat brackets on my car. What else have I done on it? Changed the radiator, because it was leaking. Like, I don't know, having done that crazy stuff on it, you know. But the full exhaust, my buddy, he's a fabricator. Phobia Fab, Matt Haney. So he helped me weld my whole exhaust system. Yeah. And then on the RX-7, the only thing I had to done was, I think, wheel bearings. I did that. I did a water pump on it, because my car was super old.

These are some pretty good things you're doing.

Two things, yeah, exactly. I learned how to work on cars, because my dad is a... He was a courier, so he drives 300 miles a day. And he's also like, I can't just bring my car into the shop. So him and I, we wrench on CV axles. I don't know, just maintenance stuff, I guess. So yes, I do work on my own car.

You remember the first time I heard the word courier?

Huh?

It was...

It's like, is this Pee Wee Herman?

Have you ever seen the show Power?

No, I have not.

It's kind of like a drug dealing show or whatever, but they have like couriers. Yeah, 50 Cent show. It was a good show. I never got to finish it because we canceled the whatever channel. Stars, that's what it was.

I don't know how I knew that.

Yeah, I think so.

They did plenty of marketing.

Yeah, that's how I know.

Yeah, but anyways, that was the first time I really... The word courier made it into my vernacular because they had drug couriers that would deliver whatever. Anyways, I don't know. That just brought back a happy memory. But no, that's something that we see a lot in the car community, too. When you get to a point, it's like, well, I'm not going to pay someone to do that.

I just learned on the spot.

Right, exactly.

But when you said, what have you done? I just do basic maintenance stuff, like alternators, starters, water pump.

That's still some pretty advanced stuff. I mean, you're not pulling and rebuilding engines or anything. It's more than just doing brakes, doing an alternator or a water pump. Especially a water pump on a rotary. I'm sure a water pump on a rotary is weird.

But that's why I like that car. 1.1 liter, right? It's the smallest engine ever. So I got around...

There's lots of room in that engine bay.

I mean, you see everything you need to do. Radiator, fan, boom. It's pretty easy. So we'll see. I have to start working on the RX-7. I think everything I have to do on that is just like... refer by show, because it's all rubber, right? There's a bunch of rubber parts that are all rotted and whatnot.

Your schedule is pretty on-off, right? You work, work, work, work, stop pretty much.

Yes, and I'm in the stop period. That's why I have time.

So why not just work on it right now? We'll send it.

Well, you were doing some traveling, weren't you? We were all over the place here a little while ago.

Yeah. So I guess... I mean, I'm not sure how much you want to disclose here, but for basically the entire summer, you were on this Ed Sheeran tour. You were working it. Yeah. That's a good way to describe it.

Yeah, it was. Yeah.

That was like, what, six months of nonstop?

Yes. May 1st until SEMA. That was fun.

Yeah.

That was a good way to end it.

Yeah.

Vegas. Yeah. So then now you're basically on off a little bit. So when's your next big f*** off period, I guess, or work period?

I don't know yet. Sometimes you get a call and be like, hey, you need to jump on this tour? I was like, okay, cool. If not, I can just run all the stuff locally. All the stadium stuff here, I just run.

Right.

Yeah. So that's how I got on a tour, because I built all the connections for everybody coming through here. You know what I mean? So I still have stuff to do, even if I don't hit the road.

Yeah, so you got time to work on it.

So you just ring up US Bank, you're like, hey, you need some help?

They hit me up.

Oh, yeah. That's a good way when the relationship goes that way, right?

Yeah. You guys going to go to Monster Trucks? I've been. Yeah, there's a Monster Truck. It's like two days at US Bank Stadium end of February. So I'm going to go.

Are you the announcer? Is that your voice?

Oh, my gosh. Maybe I can hit them up. Yo, Shannon and Kay, I'm going to hit you guys up. Be like the announcer. That'd be great. Yeah.

So what do you have to do with the Monster Trucks?

No, I'm just going to go.

Oh, you're just going to go? Okay.

So that's what car guys do, right? Monster Trucks inside, right?

So what exactly were you doing? Because you've told me this before, but what exactly do you do on these shows when you go on tour?

Buys water.

Yeah, buys water. I think the title is called Sight Coordinator. So I actually do a lot of, quote-unquote, lack of a better word, the manly foreman stuff, right? So I advance all the forklifts. I drive forklifts.

You're forklift certified?

I get the weirdest looks when I drive a forklift. Literally, all the people look at me like, what are you doing? I was like, I'm moving a forklift. Like, what are you doing on a forklift doing the same thing you do? So yeah, yeah, I advance like, we do like cranes and forklifts and all that stuff. Yeah, palettes of water.

Yeah, I could just see you with like your glasses like this, one foot up on the dash.

Yeah, project manager, lack of a better word.

I've seen him tear down those shows. We went to Imagine Dragons in Chicago, and Macklemore opened for them. And it was like, show's over immediately. Like, these guys come rushing to stage. They're just like tearing everything apart. It was crazy how they can get that down and load it in trucks and on to the next one.

Yep. So yeah, as soon as show goes down at 1030, we work around the clock and we get done. So that's Saturday night, 1030. We start working all the way until 6, 7 p.m. Sunday. Wow. Damn stop.

Do you have any like, I guess, is it like eight-hour day workdays or like 24-7?

Not eight-hour workdays. I wish it was eight-hour workdays.

So you just hop, okay, so, okay. You guys haven't unionized yet. I see what it is.

I work with the unions all the time, but I have to be the, I'd be the first one and last one out.

Oh, really?

I have a mixture.

So you're literally there like 36 hours, just hopped up on caffeine.

Yeah, I mean, we, like, I had a good part, a good other half on Ed. Shout out Ben Bossy. So like, you know, like he does the first half, because show day, most of the stuff is done already. So then I come in later. So then I come in like 2, 3 p.m. and then I'm there until 7 a.m. until he comes in. Yeah. And the day before, like the build days, I'm there at 7.38 all the way until 8 p.m. at night. So yeah, not bad.

It was so crazy when we were leaving SEMA, by the way. So we just finished our podcast with Kamel, right? Or where the simulator stuff was and all that stuff. And I think we finished the... So we started the podcast, I think, at 5, and we went for like an hour. So nothing too crazy. And by the time... First of all, they were getting all the cars out, or like whatever, standard stuff. But we went through the main convention center, all concrete floors, just torn apart. It did not look like SEMA at all anymore. It was the craziest... I've never seen a site like that before.

You're right, you're right. Because they had a lot of carpet, they had a lot of sanctions, they had a lot of hanging, all that stuff. Yup. It's pretty cool seeing all that set up, for sure.

It was like apocalyptic, dude.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It was just like, man, this is all over.

Everybody's done, they're ready to go home.

Yeah, dude. That was crazy.

It was a drunk.

Yeah. It sounds like you need to do more set up at The Mile or something. Yeah, the empty thing, all that stuff. Clearly it has not as much production as CIMA, but still.

Oh, we don't do that stuff.

We're the podcast, we're the talent. We want the room set up when we get there.

Oh, there you go. All right, here's a bowl of green M&Ms.

Yeah, yeah.

Green Skittles, actually.

All right.

That's an inside joke, it's okay. With that guy, so we had Janerson on a few weeks ago. I don't know, I didn't understand that green Skittle story.

We'll get them together and figure it out.

There's two green Skittles. Is it lime or green apple?

Well, yeah, green apple came. And I didn't care either way. My wife was very upset. She's very lime.

I hate citrus. I don't like orange lime or orange lime or lemon. There you go.

The main citrus?

Yeah, yeah. That's why I like the wild berry skittles.

Oh, those are good. I love skittles in general.

There you go. But yeah, the green apple. I'm down. This is a green apple drink right now.

See?

Yeah.

So what's on the agenda then? So do you, basically your go-to show every year is Modest then, right?

Yeah.

That's the main one?

Yeah, yeah.

That's just like your crew?

Yeah, that's a good one.

Bring to me.

I love that crew. They're bringing the cool, awesome indoor show St. Paul and get all the homies, you know? Yeah.

So, do you have any, like, so you mentioned Proving Grounds or whatever, do you have any like crazy stories like, you know, attending like Proving Grounds or any shows like that or anything?

Oh my goodness.

Do things get rowdy when you attend things?

I think the rowdyness follows me. I'm not the rowdy, I'm not the instigator. Oh my gosh. No, I'm not the instigator. When I go to Proving Grounds, I hang out with all the, I hang out, I actually hang out with all the drag racers. Yeah, because Nate Comfort, the, your V8 sucks, the black civic, you know, and then Haney, who's a phobia fab, who's a fabricator. I say he was a Subaru guy, he hasn't touched a Subaru in ages, but he's the main fabricator. The fog mount, the fog mount turbos on Subarus, have you ever seen those? That's like all his kits. So his, so his circle, so he introduced me to his circle of drag race buddies. So it's like Mark Leisure, who, yeah, Nate Comfort, you got Wade, you got Carey, like that, that crew is pretty cool. So every time I go to Proving Grounds, I usually just hang out with like that crew. Yeah, so it's kind of fun. I know nothing about drag cars besides they go really fast and there's a parachute somewhere, you know what I mean? But yeah, those are like, that's the main crew that I usually hang out with. That's pretty fun. Yeah. You know, so. And I don't think, I don't think my wildest, I think when Drive Cartel hosted the car show at at Proving Grounds, that's probably when it was the wildest, because we get there Thursday and it was just like Sing and I, it was just running around.

So Proving Grounds nightlife is supposed to be pretty insane, isn't it?

Have you guys ever been to Proving Grounds?

I don't know.

I never stuck around for the nightlife.

Oh my goodness.

Yeah, it's, it's, I'm boring about it.

Yeah, I think I aged out by the time it got really wild though, because we're at the condos and right now at the crazy camp sites. But even then, like, I don't know, it's pretty fun.

Yeah, I've heard wild stories. Just people just part people go for the partying from what I've heard.

Yeah, I think that's what it turned out more into. People just that's why like, that's why drifting was so popular because that's what kids like to watch, right? You don't know about drag or the tech, you know what I mean? Like, just like want to see cars go slidey and party at nighty.

Yeah, that's what they do.

Drifting is just so much more visual, right? Yeah, I mean, sure, everything else is also spectacle. Like drag racing is probably the next most exciting one because you see it right in front of you. Road course is a tough one, too, because like I talked to them.

Oh, there they went.

Yeah, you only see them from one corner and two miles.

Yes, I guess I see the beginning into the end of the drag shows because hanging out in that area, you see them all over, like boom, punch a van to do all the diagnostics. That's a very cool aspect, all of all of that.

But drifting is just such a spectacle.

Yeah, yeah.

Guys going sideways, hitting walls.

I think when people say the reason why people watch NASCAR is just to watch it crash, I think that's what drifting also implies. Like, oh my God, I want to see a car ride the rail, right? That video of the car riding on the cement barrier. 50-50 grind.

Yeah, Caruso is the one that got like a very good video of that. Like the guy just skating the rail. That's rowdy.

I mean, yeah, drifting is cool, but man, that's a lot of tires, man.

It adds up real quick. You know, I don't know. I remember when I my first, I think I only got to one proving grounds. I went there and they had the burnout pit and there was this GTR doing a burnout. It might have been like real drive converted or something, whatever. It was a high horsepower GTR. I remember it blew a tire and it hit me like, I should shoot out two inches from the boys. Like it was that close. Like it hit me like right on the inside of my leg. And I was like, all right, this is interesting.

Those burnout things. Yeah. People do it until they pop. Like that's the point, right? No one tells you when. That's, that gets pretty rowdy.

Those f****** Australians, man. By the way, you said that about any other race you'd be, I'd be getting canceled right now. But when you say something like, those f****** Australians, those Aussies, they're like, yeah, they just know, yeah, f****** right. But that's us, you know? Yeah, dude, they know how to, they know how to get down. Yeah. Well, that's their thing too, right? No, no, no. No, power cruises, the Australian run, right?

I never got it. I don't, never had a car. Could keep up with all those. And I said, my car would blow up.

Yeah. Fair enough.

Yeah.

Have you done on Oak Cross yet?

I have not.

I think you should do it with me this season.

I rolled and pulled my nders, and that's still rubbed. So I don't think.

You said you're stanced out too?

Yeah. It's pretty nice flush. I like that. I'm pretty proud of nders.

You're dragging frame or?

Maybe. Maybe.

You spark it all?

Definitely.

Yeah.

My exhaust. Yes.

Yeah. Well, I say let's raise, you're on coilovers, right?

Yes.

Let's raise you up an inch. Join us.

Maybe. I could try that. Yeah.

How stretched are your tires?

They're 15 by 8 plus 0, and I run 195 45. So on an 8, so I should be running like what? 205, 220. Yeah.

Yeah.

So it's kind of, I can have different setups.

Okay.

Teal wheels, of course, but I can run different setups.

Yeah. No, let's raise you up an inch. An inch matters. And I think you'd have a blast. If that means six laps, then we'll just slam it back again.

I could do that, yeah.

Well, it's not too bad. This is my first year auto-crossing. I had a lot of fun at the Michael, or not Michael, at the Morgan's Motorplex event.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

And yeah, that was a blast.

I've never been there yet.

Yeah, so he goes all over, like, so I don't know if they're doing the St. Cloud facility this year, which is a bummer. I really enjoyed that one, but they have a few parking lot setups coming.

Don't quote me on it, but I thought that he already had that all locked in. So I think that's coming back. Really? I'll have to talk to him.

It's throughout the season. I think it's like once a month, I think he has an event. Maybe ever. Yeah, how about that? So it's like 70 bucks for a day or whatever. You do six laps, and just like, hot lap, hot lap, hot lap.

Oh, so it's kind of like what DCTC did.

Yes, exactly. Yeah, and apparently, who was it? The last guest, I think, was saying... John was telling us that they're repaving DCTC.

Oh, cool.

Parts of it. Yeah, so it's not going to be as dog s*** of a surface from what they said. So we'll see what happens. I've heard from a lot of people that it's a great track to just choose tires. Bad. So we'll see what happens, because like you said, tires are expensive.

Right? Just keep going through all of them.

Hopefully, I can make it through this summer on one set. We'll see what happens. Fingers crossed.

Maybe I'll just slap more stickers than I can have a tire sponsorship.

That's the nice thing, man. I'd loved... As this thing grows, hopefully, I get more sponsors.

There you go, yeah.

When I watch someone like Tavaresh, and I remember looking at the comment sections, like, oh, I bought this, whatever. It's like everybody's in the comments, like, b*******, he got that for free. But it's like, that's the name of the game. It's like, yeah, I didn't buy it, but you can.

Yeah, that works, yeah.

Use code Tavaresh for 10% off.

I don't think I'm going to be that much into... I have so much things that take up so much time already. That's why I probably don't...

Yeah, what takes up your time?

Everything. I don't know. It's just like, I don't... I just spend like 12 hours...

Are you a golfer? Is that your hobby?

I'm not a golfer. Get out of here. Jesus.

Because I'm so close.

I like bowling.

Yeah? You as well? Okay, that's two bowlers in a row.

Yeah, I like bowling.

Are you a champion too or not?

I'm not a champion.

No?

Do you bowl with John?

I do not. No, no. The reason I got into bowling is during college. I think I grew up by this bowling alley called Mermaid.

And Mondays and...

Teal? Mondays and Wednesdays was like free bowling from 9 to midnight. And it was just something to do. So I just did that all the time. I was like, who wants to go bowling? I'm not great, but I like it.

Yeah. I'm going to take a second to support the home team. Many of you know the podcast is based out of Ratified Motorsports, who makes some of the sickest builds out here. That dyno you all hear downstairs has seen some serious cars. Whether you're looking for a standard tune for your cute little Volkswagen to a full-on Supra or RS3 build, you should get Ratified a call to get the sauce. Check out ratifiedmotorsport.com/performance to see what they can do for you. Let's get back to the show. Do you have a dance when you hit a strike?

Oh, definitely. I think the last time I went bowling, I was with my buddy's kid, and they started doing the little gritty.

Yeah, yeah.

Whoops, sorry. I got way too excited, right?

It's stiff. It only bounced and jiggled a little bit.

No, I'm just saying, like, I don't know. It just seems like it takes a lot of time to, like I said, spend all day at the track and doing all that.

That's why I like the Morgan's Motorplex event.

That's a lot, man.

Well, the nice thing about the Morgan's Motorplex event is, like, you could choose the morning or the afternoon session. I'll probably do both this year, but you choose one session, you're there for, you know, your group.

It's like an eight to noon, right? You're out there by lunchtime, I think you said.

Yeah, and that's if you want to.

That's not that bad.

But the thing is, if you're in the first group of either session, you just run your first group, and you can just leave, which is better compared to, like, let's say, some of these other, like, sanctioned events or whatever. The ones at DCTC, which, again, is a great event, but you have to also work the event, kind of, from what I've heard. Like, you can just, you know, collect tickets.

Oh, the cones and pick, yeah, yeah.

Stuff like that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And it's, like, simple jobs.

Which is cool. It's, like, because you're in it as a community, right? Right. Yeah, that's cool.

Whereas, you know, for me, it's, like, I'd rather pay 10 bucks and leave 3 hours early. Like, it's, like, I'm gonna go make the $10 back real quick. So, I'm, like, I'm that guy, unfortunately. It's, like, I don't know. Well, there's a reason. Okay, no. Okay, if anybody disagrees with me...

All right.

Here we go.

We're back.

We're back.

All right.

If you disagree with me on this, the next time you go to Chipotle, just know you could have cooked the f****** food yourself. That's all I'm saying.

Yeah.

Why did you bring up... Why do you hate Chipotle?

I don't know. I love Chipotle.

So, do you get pissed off when you go to Who Hut?

They what?

Like a Mongolian grill, and you have to, like, get your own s*** in a bowl, and then they cook it for you?

Oh, my God. The first time I did that.

The cons, like, the cons, right?

I love that Korean barbecue restaurant when I went to my first, like, experience in Texas. That was my first time at a Korean barbecue restaurant, but I'm still doing the food. Yeah. I was like, this is cool. But at the same time, I'm like, the f*** am I paying for?

I got a lot of friends that do that. Yeah.

Next time I'm saying, go to Hy-Vee up the street, give me some steak and bring it over here and use your propane. I don't know. My point being, it's like, yeah, what is your point?

If I'm paying, I'm not going to cook food.

You want to pay to not have to do the work. Exactly.

Thank you. Thank you for dealing with me.

Thanks for bringing that back to the circle.

And I'm the guy who pays the money and then still ends up helping in the end.

I never understood that about you.

I don't know.

Yeah, I never understood that. It's like, oh, Dan paid us a lot of money. Oh, he's volunteering now, too. I mean, thanks. You paid for us to do it. I know, just a regular nice guy.

He's just bettering the community, OK?

It's all good.

So are you going to sponsor some teal cones this year, is that what you're telling me? Teal cones.

I like that. I like that idea.

I have a teal cobra.

Oh, OK. I'm down.

I do like teal. I'm a 90s guy. Yeah.

Exactly. We're not going to have it back to the 90s. Should we have that?

Oh, we should have that. Yeah. Back to the 80s. But the 90s has been long enough. Now it's time for that to show up.

There you go. When I went to, when I went to Greddy, and let's say Irvine, is that that area. When I went to Greddy, it's not that big of a place. But the parking lot, every single car in that parking lot was 90s cars. This was just, last year I went to Greddy. Yeah. Yeah, all 90s. 90s CRX, 90s Skyline, 90s, just 90s everything. I was like, wow, that's a very, that's a cool comeback.

They were all slow as s***, but I loved that era of cars.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it wasn't like branded in like 90s JDM meat, but it was just, I think that's just happened. I think that's the golden era, right, for JDM cars with 90s.

Yeah, when having a CD player was fancy.

There you go.

That was high-end tech.

So how'd you end up at Greddy? Huh, just for fun or what?

It was the end of Elton, and I stayed a couple days. And my cousin lives in Irvine. And then Brian, Brian Janouch was like, hey, come to this thing. I was like, OK. So these buddies with the Greddy guys, and they were showcasing the two full carbon GTRs. Have you seen those? I said, I'm not a car guy. It's a R32 GTR wide-bodied. And they're all carbon. Holy s***. Like, all carbon. And when was it then? It was right before SEMA, because those cars were like, they've flown over for Japan. They do SEMA, and then they're flying back to Tokyo out of Salon. And he was like, it was like $70,000 to fly these cars there. I was like, oh my God. But these are really cool cars. They're like, I know they all have these, like, center lock six-spoke wheels or whatever. It was a really cool car.

Yeah, I've seen photos of them.

Yeah, I forgot what the name of it, because I said, I don't know these guys. Whatever, you know what I mean? But yeah, the carbon laid out, all the patterns, really cool cars.

I like that you have an appreciation for it, even though you're like, I don't know what the f*** it is.

Yeah, but yeah, the carbon weaving, they all laid. It was pretty cool.

You can recognize cool s***.

Yeah, I work in ice-cool s***. And then I have friends that work at, what was it, Bulletproof automotive? That's a car thing, right? Evasive motors. Yeah, so they have GTRs that do full carbon GTRs. And we have one around in the Midwest.

Yeah, we have Grady's, yeah.

Yeah, right? And that's the shop that did it. So I went to that shop, too, before. Isn't it?

No, the shop that did his was the one in, I think it's in Michigan. What was it called? It's been too long. SpeedCore. I think that's the...

So there's multiple shops that just re- the whole car, just chop it up.

Oh, yeah, turn cars into carbon. I'm pretty sure that's who it is.

Yeah, I don't know. But I went to the one, I went to Bulletproof.

Okay, so SpeedCore is the one that did Kevin Hart's car. Remember the one day he crashed a few years ago?

Oh, the muscle car. The muscle, the plastic cup boys, right?

Yeah.

That car was wrecked.

He broke his back in that accident. Yeah, that was crazy. I'll have to double check that, but I'm like 95% sure it was SpeedCore that built most of that car.

Yeah, I mean, I couldn't...

Because those are in the headlines, too, a little bit, too. But yeah, SpeedCore is like known for doing crazy s***, apparently.

Do they do other carbon cars besides GTRs?

Oh, yeah. No, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, because I think they're the ones that did like a twin turbo Dodge Demon full carbon body. And then a twin turbo all-wheel drive charger. Just ridiculous. It is crazy. Yeah, that'd be... I would love to talk to somebody that's involved in basically taking a perfectly good car, throwing everything away, and then just making a carbon. Well, actually, we had somebody like that. So at SEMA, I had Rob on. And what Rob was doing is he took this old 80s Bentley, and he took this perfectly good Hellcat, and he tried to find a salvage one, couldn't, because they were just the same price as a used one. So he bought a used Hellcat in perfectly good condition.

Did they do... What do you call it? Those new retro...

They did a body swap.

Yes. There's a name for it, right?

Yeah, it's called a unibody swap, basically.

Yeah, right.

So basically, he took the... So first of all, he actually had this old 2008 Harge or whatever, went to basically measure it, because it's the same frame as the new ones, chopped it up or whatever, tested the Bentley on it. It fit. So he's like, all right, time to get the Hellcat, took apart the entire Hellcat, and put this 80s Bentley body on top. So he's actually pretty far along. He's trying his best to have it done by next year for SEMA, which is crazy because the same day he got that Bentley to start putting together a project, he saw a rendering of a Bentley with a Hellcat motor on the internet just by chance. And he's like, I'm f****** doing that. And it was in Billionaire Green or whatever.

So drag Bentley. That's pretty cool, man. Yeah.

Well, it's going to be like a kind of like a show car.

OK, yeah, yeah.

You know, Hellcat motor. So I think it was already tuned up to like 800 wheel or something. So it's like, dang. So about, oh, for anybody listening, I shouldn't say it on the podcast. It's going to be an off air thing. Never mind. I'm not sure if it should be public information.

Way to tease everybody.

Oh, yeah. Oh, exactly. What's going on?

A certain Hellcat was stolen. You guys do the math.

You stole a Hellcat?

Isn't it either a track hawk or a Durango or whatever? They put that stupid thing in stolen like once a week.

Yeah, something like that.

Oh, because those are all like computer keys. So you can buy a thing that just doo doo doo doo.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We're going to Texas 2K and my GTVHunter, I'm going to get a club. You know, the old school.

So I heard they actually work pretty damn good.

Dude, they do not. I think my dad grew up, he's like, you know how you get rid of... I was like, why are you teaching them how to steal cars, dad? He's like, you just spray whatever and it freezes and then you just break it.

You should probably look up YouTube.

How to break in cars.

Great.

Well, it's kind of like, for example, like IT companies or whatever, like they hire people to try to, you know, break into their, you know, security protocols.

They do, yeah.

So what I think you should do is you should look up a few YouTube videos on how to break into a car or the club and steal it.

Or go out and just steal some cars.

You can practice too, if you want.

This is all recorded. You can't just say that. We're not stealing cars. Oh, yeah.

No, that last one that was stolen, that was me.

And then Caleb's bringing his ZR1 and he's just going to take off the steering wheel.

So I could just put a club on it and go park it on North Washington and just leave it for a little while and see if it stays or goes.

No, I'm just saying, just some research. See, you know, best reviews on certain clubs. I don't know. Listen, I'm not a thief, but...

I'm not a thief, but...

I'm just saying, I could think like one if need be.

That's why I always wanted a Type R Integra. It's just really cool cars. And then my buddy, man, is like, never buy it. You'll always get stolen. I was like, but it's a cool car. He's like, it will get stolen instantly.

We're not exactly, we're not a good part of the Dallas area, but the first place we were looking at for an Airbnb, I just had a gut feeling. Sometimes, I don't know, this is me being cautious, especially since we're bringing a lot of gear, whatever, and cars and stuff. So I'm like, okay, we don't have Hellcats this year, so that's good. But I'm like, I don't know, I just had this gut feeling. You want to find out what are the worst parts of every metro you visit. All right? So then I went on the map, right? And literally the street where Airbnb was at that we were looking at. So like the chart goes from like white to dark blue. And dark blue is basically like the highest crime.

Can we not use the word white?

Can we use white? White or colored? I don't know. What else do I use besides blue?

That was the color key.

Yeah, it's a stupid f****** map. But anyways, literally the Airbnb was like in the bluest area. And I'm just like... And the thing that they noted there, the highest was auto theft. So I'm like, yeah, these boys, like they're going to take our 38-foot trailer. And apparently they steal like Chevy's down there. Like they steal Hellcats up here.

Just regular Chevrolet cars.

Like Corvettes.

Yeah, Malibu.

They're not very smart down there.

But it's like they pick them off like M&M's down there. Like it's just ridiculous. So like Caleb's like, I'm not bringing my f****** Corvette into that area.

Right. Just know that I don't have mufflers on any of my vehicles, and I'm usually sleeping very close by, and I will have a hole punch for you if you decide to play that game.

Yeah, so that's one of the other things to be cautious of, is like especially like, because like we were in a good part of Houston last year, I think, but at the same time, like I don't care.

It's also Houston, right? I mean, I don't think I've ever been there, but I've only been there for the stadium, the Rodeo Stadium.

I've heard various things. The times I went, I never had a bad experience. Actually, no, never mind. One time we came in really late. It was like the worst part. And it's like, all right, cool, we're going to watch down the trailer. I'm like, here? I'm like, if you say so. But you go to any city where there's 9 million people, I think Houston is the fourth biggest city in the country. It's like, yeah, people forget that Texas has like, I think, two or three cities in the top 10, like of the most populated.

Dallas, Fort Worth. Yeah.

So it's like, yeah, you're going to find some people are going to want some free Corvettes.

Free Corvettes. I would like a free Corvette. Can you make it happen?

Yeah.

You just need to freeze the lock.

Yeah, right? It's like a spray.

I don't know what it was. The spray air cans.

You know exactly what I'm talking about. And now everyone's like, I'm going to start stealing cars at clubs now.

The way I see it is we're not returning the $50 bill we find on the sidewalk. And if you leave your car outside locked, I mean, and it's easy to break into, I mean, that's on you, bro. I'm just saying. I'm stealing your s***. You left it outside locked. Bad.

I've seen in some neighborhoods where they just put notes in the thing, but the doors are not locked. Please don't break my window. Feel free to rummage through my car. There's nothing in here, but don't break my window. You're right.

You remember when you would cut up your license plate tabs so people couldn't peel them off?

Yes.

I had my license plates stolen once.

I had mine stolen before, too. Then they did a drive off.

That's for gas?

Yep.

Okay, that's what they do. That's so much work for... I mean, I guess it's not more work. A couple bolts and then you get free $80 gas, I guess. But I don't know. That's a lot of...

Oh, gas is going down.

You can go to work for the day. You don't have to be that creative.

Yeah, right? I know, right? Yeah. So I was like, okay, I won't steal my license plates.

$80 worth of gas for...

Actually, we haven't paid $80 for gas for a long time. All my cars are 12-gallon tanks.

Dude, it's almost like $3 for premium right now. I'm just like, score.

Mallory's truck, $200 bill.

Really?

Yeah, it's like almost a 50-gallon tank or 55-gallons.

Geez, but it lasts forever. You get, what, 600 miles to a tank?

Yeah, in that 500 range.

See, that's why 2020 was so good. Gas was like a dollar, and there's nothing else to do besides drive. Yeah, so that was good.

Good old days.

Good old days of 2020. I don't think anybody's ever said that.

When this guy was president, gas was so cheap. Yeah, because everything was closed down. Sorry, that was controversial. But I mean, you can't compare gas prices when everything was closed. But I did like it.

Dude, it was crazy when oil, they couldn't figure out what to do with it because they had so much excess oil.

It was, yes.

At a point, too. That was a part of it.

When I started driving, gas was 89 cents a gallon.

I never saw it go above $1.20. Yeah. It was 89 cents a gallon.

People were b******* if it did. They were like, oh my god.

I'm not trying to date myself, but yeah.

I'm just happy that it's under $4 for premium right now. Dude, I could never in California, dude. I think they were paying like $8 or $10 a gallon. Are you f****** kidding me?

There's a lot I could not ever in California.

My family's from Hong Kong, and that is the most expensive place to own a car and drive a car. Because my uncle who's driving around, he has a little BMW crossover.

Yeah, all cars are like smart cars.

Yeah, but it was not BMW. Yeah, it was whatever. And he was all like, I watched him fill up the gas. It was like way over $200 a tank. I was like, damn. And he goes, yeah, when I travel around, and I noticed, I was like, yeah, Hong Kong has the highest gas prices everywhere. And then parking, it's a really high realistic, because that place is talking about jamming people. You have like 8 million people in the side of Minneapolis. You know what I mean? So yeah, that was pretty cool. Growing up, and I said, you should go every other day to Hong Kong. One of my favorite things to go is to go look at all the car parts shops. And I always bring back, even when I was little, I was like, look at this cool shift knob. I was like, what are you going to do with that? It's cool. So I started collecting little car parts in Hong Kong.

You were importing then.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, I just had these really cool things. And then one thing I noticed, when you said I was traveling around during Christmas, I went over to Hong Kong, those parking ramp garages are the cleanest things ever, like super clean, and every single car backs in. And I was like, man, imagine if like the states, people were like disciplined to like, because only the rich of the rich people drive in Hong Kong. You know what I mean? But like, it's just really cool walking to a garage, every single car neatly backed in.

Do you think it's like a rule, or somebody just did that one day?

I think that's how they teach them to drive, and they listen. You know what I mean? Like when you drive, you pull them back into a spot. So then, yeah. But yes, every single car.

Whereas here in the states, every state has their own rules, too.

Oh my, look at Winter County.

And when winter hits, there's no lines. There's no parking lines. You can park wherever you want.

People do that with the lines.

Yeah, you're right.

Hong Kong's the northern part, right?

It's like southeast.

So I'm way the f*** off. Which was the northern city? Like the big city?

I don't know, Japan?

No, but it does snow in China, doesn't it? Like on the northern part?

In China, not in Hong Kong.

Oh, that's right.

Hong Kong is like super, super, super humid.

Well, China's so small.

I'm losing it. I haven't had a history class in a decade.

It's cool.

Not history, geography. Holy s***, geography hasn't been since 7th grade, dude.

That's why I see all the cool... My first S15 I ever saw was in Hong Kong. I love that car. I think I was just telling all my buddies, input one of those. I like the spoiler with the upside down triangle third brake light. And I found out, I think Brian from Top Rank was telling me, oh, this is just packaged to spec. I was like, I don't know anything. I just want the spoiler with the brake light that's upside down triangle. So yeah, Hong Kong is really cool. It's like all the JDM cars. I don't know.

I wonder what their import rule is, right? Because like here, we have the b******* 25-year thing. I wonder what they have over there for import.

They get rid of all their cars because it's too expensive to keep it. Just like in Japan, like once it hits X mile miles, all their emissions and stuff is way too expensive to upkeep or to just get rid of it.

Oh, really?

That's why there's a surplus of all those Japanese cars going because it's too expensive to keep it.

Really? I did not know that.

Unless it's a really cool car. Yeah.

So after really like a certain year, you have to get rid of it pretty much.

I mean, unless you really like that car.

So we need to go somewhere over there and buy land just outside of town and put up a big shed, and then go in and just buy these cars and start stacking them in there.

No, people do that.

There's businesses now. That's what Top Rank does.

Oh, really?

You can buy a GTR and net. I thought I had a really killer idea. No, that's how they get it. Yeah. They just buy it, and they're like, we'll store it for you. And then when it's legal.

And then when it's 25 years, yeah.

Correct. So a lot of people, so and we saw this over the last like five years, especially like a lot of people, that's probably, I'm sure if we had Brian on, he would know the specifics of it. But people were ramping up buying the R34, because the second it legalizes, they already own the car, they just have to bring it on over. Or they would bring it on over to Canada or whatever.

Which is crazy, because those cars are like 80,000. So before they were legal. So that's, I think that's the speculation or your hindsight is, these cars are this much now. Imagine how much they are when they're legalized, right? So that's why you can get in early now, and then until then, it's just.

Which is weird. We had a conversation with this. So I know another importer that we had on the podcast. Dealer? JDM dealer? Whatever, anyways, we had him on the podcast. We were talking about this.

Was it Brandon?

No, no, Tyler Falconer or whatever from Nantech Garage.

Yeah, Brandon.

Oh, is that his? Oh, okay, yeah.

Brandon, he's my neighbor.

Oh, really?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So he is, yeah.

So, okay, that's the main guy, then, okay? So, but yeah, like they were talking about, or Tyler was talking about, like, yeah, all these prices are going up. So the question is, is A, does it keep going up? Or once the market gets flooded, does it start going back down?

That's what I was just wondering.

You think the market's gonna be flooded with R34 GTRs?

No.

More than it is now, right?

People want what they can't have. Once they can have it, then it's like, meh.

But there's only so many.

They're not making more.

True.

Yeah.

I mean, it will still be a premium, but are we gonna see them keep that $200,000? Or is it gonna go to a more reasonable $150,000?

Let's circle back. Look at Integra's. Look at how expensive Integra's are. USDM Integra's are stupid amount of money.

When I was looking for just a daily beater, I was looking at those, because I always liked them.

Yeah.

Yeah, no, it was like impossible. Same thing with the little hatchback Hondas I wanted.

Yeah, there you go, yeah.

Nope, not happening.

Oh, man, yeah.

Because it took a while for Mark IV Supras to really take off. Like now they're really taking off.

Definitely.

And I feel like that's going to be the case with the R34. I think it's probably going to be more legendary status, but I don't know. I think there's going to be a ceiling.

Oh, yeah, yeah, eventually, of course, you know what I mean? But then I said, how about I just buy it and then drive it? And then another 20 years, here's a low mileage one that's not beat up, right? Because I said, they're never going to make it.

Did you see the one that sold for 2 million?

Jesus.

Yeah, there was one that sold for 2 million.

Wait, and that's not a full carbon one, right?

No, no, no, no. It was, I can't remember the name of it, but basically.

No miles on it.

So there was like this program that Nissan did. It was kind of like a buyback program. I think they did like nine cars. I did a highlight on this. I can't remember the name of it, but basically, there was this aftermarket company. It was kind of like, for example, how Rausch works with Ford. Yep. I think it's Rausch. Yeah. That works with them. It was kind of like one of these. Yeah, kind of like, it was like their own version of like a Nismo, like the top trim, whatever it was. Whatever. But yeah, sold for like, I think 2 million.

Was it Mayans GTR? Was it Mayans?

I don't know. Yeah.

Well, those are really, yeah. So there's a bunch of crazy ones.

Yeah, just ridiculous.

Yeah.

Have you been to Japan then?

I've been to, the first time I went to Japan was right before pandemic. I went to Osaka.

Okay.

And the time before that, I went to Sapporo. So I went through the top part and the south part. So I never been to Tokyo. So yeah, so I think that's the next, what else is there? I went to Sapporo, Hokkaido, and then I went to Osaka. So now the next is Tokyo, so now I can go to Up Garage. And I really want to go to Toka Auto Salon this year. Yeah.

I want to go to Japan really bad.

Yeah, right?

Everybody was there this year for some reason. I was on my Facebook.

I know, I should have went this year. All my friends at Medesima.

Guys trip next year, let's do it.

Yeah.

Sure, as long as it's publicly funded. Get a GoFundMe going here.

So that'd be fun.

Yeah.

So then, have you done a lot of traveling then?

I mean, I guess I travel more than most.

Have you been to the UK?

I have not been to the UK.

So. I'm just trying to see, like, what cool s*** have you traveled to? I don't know.

On Friday, I'm flying to Miami.

Miami?

That's not that exotic, but I'm going on a ship to go to Jamaica. So there we go, see, that's cool, right?

In two weeks, I'm getting on a ship in Southern California to go to Southern Mexico.

Oh, there you go, see? Yeah, I haven't been able to travel that much, just around the states here, and then Taiwan, Macau.

Okay.

Hong Kong, Japan. Yeah. Yeah, UK. I don't know, some people ask me, it's like, I don't know if I have a desire to go to the UK. We'll see.

Why is that?

I don't know. All they do is stand there. The things I like to do is shop and eat. And the right, and like UK is not known for good food.

Well, they have, well, yes, some things.

No, but they have like-

Want fish and chips and curry?

Yeah, yeah.

That's what I was gonna say. They have a lot of like-

Curry is Indian.

Yeah, that counts.

What I have heard though is the food, so my dad's been to Europe a bunch, and food though, just even like regular old s*** is better because it's not pumped full of all the crap that we put in our food here.

You can't buy Mountain Dew over there.

Yeah.

Because it's so toxic.

It's like two ingredients away from Antipodes.

You want to talk about Mountain Dew? So my buddy had an FDR X7, right? That was like...

That's my dream car.

Literally sitting under a tree for years, like sap, disgusting. He got it for a steal, got it mostly fixed up. And I went to go clean his car, right? Like just, you know, he was out of town, and I was just like, you know, messing around. And we were just like trying to figure out, like what's going to get this tree sap off? Nothing. We tried every type of detail. We tried everything, Mountain Dew. We put Mountain Dew on this car, and just as a joke, and perfectly clean paint. Jesus. Yeah, ridiculous. And that was the day I decided I'm done.

Same properties as brake cleaner, apparently.

Like I was like, I never was a big soda guy, but after that day, I'm like, absolutely the f***. Like if that's doing that to that car, imagine what that's doing to your guts, dude. It's rearranging them.

I just had this story with my mom, we're talking about the first time she came over here when she was 19. So that's the first time she ever had like cold lettuce of a salad on a plane. And the first soda she ever had, like she's like, what the hell is this? Was Mountain Dew. Good old 19 year old Melissa Tam's like, this is delicious. It's Mountain Dew, what is this? I was like, yeah, it's radioactive. That's what it is. Of course I don't have that. So I always thought that was a funny story when like, yeah.

When they talk about McDonald's Sprite, what?

Oh, because it's spicy?

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Just ridiculous. I can never.

This is extra carbonated.

Is it really?

All the, I guess.

I know McDonald's has their own recipe. They have their own ketchup recipe.

And their own Coke recipe too.

Well, not Coke. They add more syrup because all their lines are cold. They're refrigerated.

Oh, okay.

So that's why you can not like, not crystallize or not gump up. So it's all cold. So as soon as you get it, it's ice and cold. So they can put more sugar, aka more carbonation in it.

I read the same TMZ article too.

I mean, I f***** with a McDonald's Coke.

Yeah, it's different.

I can go for McDonald's Coke.

That's one of the funny things when I go to other countries. I'm going to try the McDonald's. You're in a different country and you want a McDonald's. I do. Yeah, but they're different. Yeah, they are different.

They're better, right? Yeah, dude. Just ridiculous. Well, sweet, dude. I know we didn't really come into it with an objective today. No objective?

Yeah, see, okay, what did we learn? I don't know anything about cars.

You know plenty. What are you talking about?

You know, I like stickers, teal. I think I'm going to redo my car this year, maybe.

What would you redo?

The stickers. Yeah, right? Exactly.

Yeah, I know a guy. Yeah, we just have Hello Kitty stickers.

There you go. I got to hit up Triet and Tien. You know, I know those guys since... Do you know the first shop they were called? Street Scenes. Yeah, that's how long I've been there.

How f****** old are you?

Don't worry about it. Yeah, so yeah, Street Scenes.

Because you say a lot of things like you're old, but you don't look old. Those genetics are crazy.

There's a mystery. Just this 25-year-old cruising midway back in 2004.

In 19... Or not 19. In 2060, you're just going to have the same look.

What?

Not going to age at all. Yes!

That's going to be even more money, right?

Yes, yes. I'm convinced Tam's a time traveler. No, it's just, you know, he's sponsored by Vino. Great skin care.

It's the Asian genes.

Just jealous. You want to pop the usual three?

Sure. So, at the end of every episode, you probably know this one's coming. Maybe you don't listen. I don't know. We like to ask our guests a question. You have to pick three cars, a show car, a daily, and a track car, and you have an unlimited budget, a limited imagination. You can do or build whatever you want. What are you doing?

Oh, wow. Any order? A track car would be OMG Miata's GT4. Have you seen that car?

No.

Oh, that is awesome. Look it up. OMG Miata's GT4. It's so cool. It's like wide-bodied.

GT4 Miata?

No, not Miata. It's a Porsche.

Oh, okay.

It's a Porsche. Yeah, right? GT4, right? Yeah, this is the smaller one..car. So just say a Porsche GT4. Or 911 GT3. I'm sure everybody says that.

Well, let's just stick with GT4.

All right, but it's a really cool looking one. Don't you waver. That's my track car. And then what was it, the other one?

A daily and a show car.

Show car will be FDRX7. That's my dream car. I'm still looking for one.

No S15 on Triangle taillights?

S15, that's no, no. It's either FDRX7 or Dodge Viper. Those are my two cars right now. For a show car? Yeah.

So we're going to lock in FDRX7. Why the Viper?

Just because it's Americana.

It's like an American RX7.

Yeah, it is. Exactly. That's it.

What would you do to the RX7?

Oh, I don't know. Make it red and teal?

Baby got brought up.

Yeah, you know, have really, I really like seats, like really fancy seats. That's like one of my things.

It would be more like a bougie. It wouldn't be like, okay.

Yeah, you know, those far, the full.

I still can't believe we saw T-Pain at SEMA.

Yeah, yeah.

He literally walked right behind you, I think. Like that was, yeah, that was.

He's cool. I talked to him before. I did a show with him. Yeah, and he goes, I know you want a picture with me. I was like, all right, fine. And I was like, when you have a ride in your Pickle Rick Nissan, he was like, what? How do you know? I was like, I have a Miata. It's not the same, but it's the same. So we kicked it off down there. It was pretty cool. Oh my, and then my daily, easy. Toyota Sienna. Toyota Sienna. Yes. I just like practicality. Who's going to mess with you in a Toyota Sienna?

Is that what Mark Wahlberg has all decked out? The Sienna is the minivan, right?

Yeah, yeah, the minivan. I don't know. I just really like, that's what I like to drive around, minivan.

I think it's the first minivan, right?

It might be, actually.

Yeah?

I think so. That might be the first minivan.

Yeah.

Usually it's trucks. What would you haul in instead of minivan?

I just drive my family around, you know? My mom and dad, they don't drive, so I drive them around all around.

You could do that in a Hellcat sedan or something.

It's not enough room, right? It's just, you know, we need some cup holders.

How tall are they?

It's not tall. I don't know. It's nice.

You don't want a Maybach or something if you want room in the back?

No, I just thought it's like a nice Toyota Sienna. Have you seen that sparkly green? It's a nice green. Have you seen it?

Want some nice BBS wheels or something?

Yeah, sure. I could, yeah, right?

You like that green?

Yeah, I'd do probably, you know, like a bronze or a gold.

The green, that would look good.

Yeah, right? Yeah. So, you don't like the Mini? I just don't like the practicality. If you have an RX-7, you need a car that's super practical, because that car is the most unpractical car. You know what I mean? See? Yeah.

First of all, I'm all over the Minivan thing. Most people don't know this about me. Actually, before I got the Gladiator, I was considering buying my friend's Prius. I was strongly considering it, because I drove it, and I was like, this thing's got some giddy up. I was like, this thing's awesome. And it's like, he would have sold it to me for like five or six thousand. And it's like, before he got a Tesla, he's like, man, it's nice. I could take this car anywhere. I don't have to worry about a game door ding. Now he's got the Tesla or whatever. He's like, I gotta worry about a game door ding. I gotta care for it. Like the other day, one of your f****** people, for those listening to audio, I pointed to Dan.

So it's okay if it's me.

Yeah, you f****** Norwegian.

So I was leaving the gym, and there's this Ford Taurus, your people, and he's literally over the line. And I'm just sitting here thinking, I would say it, I'm like, you're gonna get door ding. I don't care. Like he deserves this. And then I looked closely, he's already got door ding. I was like, that's why he owns this car. He doesn't care. He just wants it. It's like you having that town car to play bumper cars in traffic. Like that's the whole reason it exists.

Well, it doesn't matter if you have a school car, even if you park, like I told my wife this, and she didn't believe me. I was like, you go to Target, and you park way in the back. You're away from everybody. Somebody, some a****** will park next to you.

I was just going to bring that out.

She did it one time. She's like, you're f****** right.

I came out and there was a car parked next to me.

Every single time. My car is so small too. So you see those memes, or there's a bunch of big trucks, like open spot, and you see a Miata. So I was like, you know what? I'm going to park far away. Always a car parked next to me. I was like, why? Why do you do that? And I think I was driving back in the day, there was a Triats NSX, a supercharged NSX, bright red. I went to Ikea, parked in the middle of nowhere, right? And then you see the Subaru parked right next to it. I was like, I don't care about your Subaru, bro. What are you doing? And yeah, they always was like, hey, man, look at my car. But no, then if you know that, you should not park next to me, then. What are you doing?

Well, we went to the Tavern that one time, too. Remember my GTV? That guy parked next to me. There wasn't even a spot. The whole parking lot is open. He's parked next to me in the drive lane.

That's a big pet peeve. Big pet peeve. I'm going to be in the middle of the north for a reason.

All right, we're not ending this episode. Pet peeves go.

Oh, pet peeves?

That's it.

Car guys. No, sorry. Oh, God.

How about diesel truck guys?

Stop filling up your Honda. If there's a diesel pump anywhere near your a**, go to the inside pumps. The diesel pumps are on the outside edge. I don't care. I know, Harris, I know you fill up your stuff, and then you sit there, and you go and you get a sandwich. You do that stuff, and I pull up in my truck, and I'm trying to get diesel, and you're blocking the pump with your GTI. If there's a GTI, I'll get out and high-five you.

I don't go inside. I'm not one of these guys that hogs the pump, but me and Adam were actually coming back from Texas this last time, right? And we're trying to get down there quickly, so we stopped by this one gas station, and Adam runs inside, so I'm stuck over here pumping the car because this guy in front of us or whatever would not move. Like, he was inside, came back out, and then started pumping his stuff. Like, most people pump, then go inside, like a normal person, and it's like, all right, I'll be quick, come back out. This guy was in there for like five, ten minutes, then comes out, pumps it, gets in his car, looks around like six times, sees I'm in the back, and he's still sitting there, takes forever to leave. And this is my first time ever pulling a car with a trailer, by the way, six feet. Congratulations, go me. Super fun. And I'm just sitting here like, man, that was so unnecessary. No, Eric literally had a diesel truck for all of one month, and that was one of his biggest pet peeves. F****** sold it at a meeting.

Yeah, I'll straight up get out and ask people to move. We'll come in with our work truck, and I'll see them just pull up. And before they even get out of the car, I'll hop out of the passenger seat. I go knocking the window. I'm like, hey, I'm about to get diesel. You're blocking the pump. You mind going to another pump? And they're like, most of the time, they're like, yeah. A few times I've gotten the finger, but most of the time, they'll move.

Well, if you ask nicely, too, you're pretty good about that. You're direct, but you're nice. And his directness by Minnesota does not compute. The other day, we were at Micro Center over here across the street. We're trying to get some stuff.

You would still be there.

I would still be there.

Just waiting, just waiting. I don't have those problems, guys. I go to the country club of gas stations, Costco. Just go. There's no gas station.

Just go.

I like that. That's nice.

They should have more of those. The convenience store is cool.

But you should only go to Quick Trip. But yeah, carry on.

All right, first of all, f*** you. Secondly, Bucky's, by the way, amazing.

That's a good experience.

I just came back from Chicago. They're going to have one in Madison.

Yeah, right on $39.99. Yeah, yeah.

I wonder if it will be done in time for our rally.

Yeah, that's a stop. That's a photo.

Yeah, that's a big building to put up. A lot of pumps and...

They work pretty fast, right?

Yeah.

I don't know if I've ever seen a rally photo that was a Bucky's takeover.

That'd be the America version of 7-Eleven.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Just all of us eating beef jerky.

Yeah, beef jerky.

Yeah, beef jerky.

Yeah.

Is that all your pet peeves? You got any more?

What's going on?

You seem like an angry person.

I'm an angry person?

Yeah.

I just went from the most happy I can get along with everybody to the most angry person. Oh my goodness.

You're volatile.

Oh my gosh. No, I don't have any other pet peeves. I think pretty good. I'm not a road rager. People go slow, people go fast. I don't care.

No, you're the guy I would road rage on.

Yeah, definitely.

I would look over. You'd be like an outfit. You'd have your glasses down here. I just look over. You're like...

Just blasting my Barbie girl. So much.

My kids are getting the same way. My daughter starts yelling at people from the passenger seat.

Really?

She's 13.

She's like, what's this guy doing? Get him out of the way.

Y'all crazy.

Yeah.

Well, sweet. On that note, where can everybody find you? Do you want people to find you?

Definitely not.

No, no Instagram, nothing? I wasn't asking for your address.

I was all like, man.

Do we need your phone number, your social security number?

Please. I like my solitude. I guess I have a personal Instagram, which is Tam underscore special. And then I have one from my car, because people like looking at cars, I guess, which is garage underscore special. Tam special, garage special.

Well, I sent you a Facebook friend request after SEMA, and you haven't accepted yet, so I'm expecting you to get on that.

You're probably in the pending purgatory, because I have over 5,000 friends on the internet. So I think I apologize. I'll scour the pending request, and then maybe you hit the lottery, and just yeah, I'll go look for it. Yeah, I'm sorry. No, I'm just messing with you. It's all right. I'll add you. I promise. We're friends.

It took a while for you to accept mine.

Don't be offended.

I don't know.

We're friends. I'm here.

I really was offended. The Midwest of me would just not say, it would passively, aggressively say something in the hairs after you left.

Yes, we were friends in real life. We don't need to be friends on the internet. What are you going to do, poke me?

I remember those days, Farmville. The Farmville days. We're going to have to get some tacos here. But Dan, where are you?

I'm going to garage. I'm wearing my Somobile Club sweatshirt just in, you know, for support. We're holding it in there.

Yeah, you had a tough year, huh?

Yeah, it's been rough. Last year was amazing. This year's been a little rough.

I'm excited, man. I'm excited.

I was working outside the day, so I really enjoyed that. But yeah, I looked at my sled, walked past it three or four times, and thought, hmm, that sucks.

Well, next week, we're doing a cruise, most likely. So we'll see what ends up happening with that, because the weather's going to be great.

Heck yeah.

Some people are already putting insurance on their cars, you know, in preparation for Texas 2K. So probably a good thing. So we'll see what happens there. But as for everybody else, make sure you're signing up for the old rally. I'm really, really excited for the Rouse this year.

I'm really excited for this year. With your involvement, with more, was it East, West, South, whatever, that's cool. Coolest places, yeah.

I ain't no part-timer. I've been doing this s*** for five years. I know how to put on a kick-a** rally, and me and Balto working together. The ability to bounce ideas off each other and yell at each other. By the way, a lot of people think we actually yell at each other when I say that. We don't actually yell. When I say I'm yelling at someone.

I've never seen Dan get loud.

But that's the thing, because everyone just yells at Balto. On the Internet or real life, you just yell at them, right?

Yeah, he usually comes over here and works with me, because I use this place as an office sometimes, just to catch up. And we just have really low-volume conversations. He's not a yeller. He's probably listening to this, just giggling to himself. But anyways, I'm really excited to be working with him, because we put on a really great event. Again, we complement each other's weaknesses, which I will get into off air.

My weakness. This is what I'm not good at.

Otherwise, check out our sponsor, Razorhood, of course. If something's wrong with your car, you could probably learn a thing or two about why. I feel like I'm forgetting somebody. Oh, ratified. If you want a fat... We didn't hear a dyno run this episode.

I know. What the heck? I was going to get the whole testosterone. I'm going to fire it up quick.

I can put the town car on there.

Yeah, that thing was ripping. That thing was ripping. Probably the loudest car here that they've had to date. But anyways, I'll be sure to check out Ratified Motorsport too. And thank you very much, Tam, for coming on over here.

Thank you for having me for no reason. No, I think it was a fun one.

And, Dan, thanks for existing.