72. A Built Z28 Camaro, The Gumball 3000 and Crown Rally Experience, 30,000 hard Miles w/ Paul Rode

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome back to the Minnoxide Podcast. I'm your host, Harris, AKA Minnoxide, man of many automotive aspirations. And today, I'm here with my cohost, Dan.

Hello, how's it going?

Mr. Gunnick Garage. That's right. You know how mad I am, by the way? He went on a cruise for like, what, nine days, 10 days?

Seven days.

Okay, we're just gonna round up. And he's got this tan now. So when I was editing the last episode with Joe DeVito, I was like, this is ridiculous. Like, you know, like how the bridesmaids can't be, you know, like better looking than the bridesmaids. And I'm just sitting here thinking like, this is b*******. Like, he can't be over here looking better to me with a beautiful tan. So in Texas, 2K, I'm gonna become a lobster.

He's killing you right now.

Yeah, I know.

It's just a good Norwegian jeans.

Because Norwegians are known for having great tans.

Yeah, are they not? I mean, you have the Swedes, flat hair.

Yeah, not tans.

Yeah.

So sweet. On that note, today we're going Beyond the Me with Paul Rode. It's Rode, right?

Rode, yeah.

Yeah.

I have this bad habit at the beginning of episodes asking people about their last names, by the way.

I answer, when people say Rode, I don't even correct them anymore. It's like, you know, a kid and teenager, it's the end of the f****** world.

Yeah.

As an adult, you couldn't care less. It's like, yeah, whatever the f*** you want.

Just move on. I remember like, you'd be in like, in school, and then a mispronounced, or a substitute teacher would come in.

Yeah, you'd freak out.

Well, especially if they really messed it up. Like if your name sounds almost phallic or something, then you're just getting made fun of forever. Like I remember one time, this was seventh or eighth grade, and a teacher was doing attendance, and he called Dylan, Dildil, end of the world. I mean, for the next like six months, poor guy.

That's pretty rough though. I mean, in school, that's a bad one.

Yeah. But anyways, today we're going beyond the mean, just wanted to get you, honestly, I remember when I was putting together my podcast list three years ago, you were somewhere on that list. I was putting together just basically anybody in the car scene that I knew that would just have cool stories. So I think you probably have some of the most, we were talking before we started the podcast, you got the Z28 has 30,000 miles of hard rallying.

Yeah, hard rallies, yeah.

Yeah, I mean, you've done them all. You've done all the big ones. I mean, I know you've done one or two gumballs now.

Two gumballs, yeah.

Yeah, yep. Is there another one coming up?

There's one, there's a gumball every year. The 25th one this year is coming up. They just had to change the route because of what's going on in the Middle East. So now it's gonna start in Vietnam and end in Singapore. It'll be the 25th one.

Are you doing that one?

I'm not doing that one. Flat out because the rally was gonna be in, start at the pyramids, and then they were gonna fly the cars over. And that one just isn't gonna get past the wife, plus the wife has some obligations that weekend. And so we can't go, but if it's a normal car rally stateside, I could take any of my co-pilots, but if it's something big where it's out of the country, she's going.

Right, that's fair. And I'm just curious, because I kind of paid attention to some of the social media stuff you posted or people were tagging you in. So the first year you went, what was the route for that?

Toronto, and it was supposed to end in Havana, and because of, we could swear in here, right? The f****** Russians. I was so excited about Havana, because they were going to ship the cars or ferry, the cars to Havana, and we're going to see all these cars from the 50s and 60s, 50s. I don't know if they have the 60s there down there, but the 50s and 60s that have all been modified with Russian parts. So you're going to see 350s and 400s with all these modifications on them. I really want to see that kind of s***. How they're keeping these cars running. But think of the United States here. My dad does refurbishing old tractors. He's got tractors from the 50s that are still running to this day with no problem. So it's not that big of a deal, but you want to see how they're doing it. I mean, here we got master mechanics and fabricators everywhere. And down there they do, but they don't have the tools or the technology that we do.

Yeah, because they're stuck. It's kind of like a time capsule.

Yeah, it's back in time, yeah.

So it did finish in Havana or did it work out?

We weren't allowed to. So we ended in Miami, and then there was like an unofficial leg that went down to Key West for the day. But yeah, it went from Toronto to Miami, and then at the Hard Rock Cafe there. So it's called Hollywood, Florida. That's what I wanted to say.

Yep, that's where we stayed a couple of years ago, I think. That's a nice area.

Yeah, there was one stop in Kentucky that just a small little bourbon town. The whole city, not a city, very small town. The whole community came out. It was like nothing I've ever seen. Everyone was there.

That's one of my favorite parts of rallies is when you get the stops along the way. It's one thing to launch and then get everybody involved, but if you can get people to come out at each city, that's the whole next level.

And to them, you are making their f****** day, their year, you're gonna be in their thoughts for a very long time. And to you, it's just another face that's kinda in the crowd, you know, you're driving by. You can't treat it like that, because these interactions, they will remember you. They'll remember how you treated them, that you smiled. A simple f****** high five goes so far with people in the car community.

Yeah, we did that. So the one and only year I went on Crown as a photographer, super last minute, one that people couldn't make it, this was like a weird part of my life where I was like, just ask. The worst they can do is say no. So I ended up riding shotgun in the SVJ with the Savage Garage guys, and we're bombing through the Smoky Mountains. And I mean, you had families sitting on the side of these hillbilly towns, I don't know how to describe it, but middle of nowhere in the mountains, in the hills, and they're just cheering. They hear people roaring down the mountains miles away. And to us, we're just enjoying the roads. But like you said, to them, it's like...

They never seen anything like that before.

Well, especially like the SVJ. This is like 2018 or whatever, brand new rocket ship. And you see these like... The guy, what was his name, Chuck or whatever, had the brand new 600LT.

Yeah, and for non-car people that might be watching the show, we're talking this Lamborghini SVJ. It's not just a Lamborghini Aventador. It's their track car, correct? And it's so low to the ground. No matter who you are in life, you don't even have to be a car guy. That car captures your attention. You know, like a Porsche GT2 RS doesn't capture someone's attention, but it is the meanest track car in the world. Those Lamborghinis grab your eye. They grab your eye, and you can't help but just look at it and go, f***, that's it. That's what you say. I mean, it's what goes in your head.

Yeah, it's the look.

It's the look.

Because, like you said, the GT2 RS, track monster, destroys everything. The SVJ is awesome, and it performs well, but when you put it compared to, again, a GT2 RS or a McLaren or something, it's just like, well, it's third, performance-wise.

Yeah, performance-wise.

It's a pig.

It's a piece of art.

It's a piece of art. Yeah, I remember, I think that was before I was straight piped. We were ripping through this one-mile tunnel somewhere in the middle of Nashville, or not Nashville, Tennessee. Just incredible. Mm-hmm. Yeah, so I had a little DJ there.

Well, you guys shut down the streets of Nashville, too. Like, we rallied in Nashville, but not in that fashion.

Well, you're talking gumball when we shut down the hill.

Yeah, that was when we started in Toronto. Yeah, yeah.

We saw you. You were there.

Yeah, so I just happened to be passing through town because I bought a Bronco down in Alabama, and I took my dad and my uncle there, and all of a sudden, I'm like, gumball? I see they got banners everywhere. So I hit you up because I knew you were doing it. Yeah, that was crazy.

We were like one of the first ones there, too, at that checkpoint. We were all in a** up there. But yeah, but back to the small towns when that Crown Rally in Kentucky, I know exactly what you're talking about. If you recall, there was like a kid on the side of the road selling barbecue. We all stopped. We were eating barbecue from this just this high school kid trying to raise up money and stuff like that for whatnot. And when we leave, we're all doing burnouts. Everyone's coming out like, you know, cheering you on because again, you just made their f****** day. And all you did was hit the throttle and let it loose a little bit.

You say throttle like you have a normal sounding car, by the way. I have one of my favorite photos from that year was, I don't know if you had your flag. I don't think you did, but you were doing we were doing rollers and you guys had headsets in your car. You have to because you can't talk in there. I'm just curious, have you ever measured like the decibel level of that car?

No, because to me, the inside of the car doesn't sound loud.

Really?

It's it's don't get me wrong. OK, I know it's loud, but it's not deafening. I mean, a friend of mine, Brad Erickson, has a 69 Z28. Same f****** engine I have. It's a 427, but for some reason, his sounds like Satan screaming. I mean, that thing is so damn loud. And I'd like to think, you know, in my head, yeah, my car sounds like that. No, it don't. But I hear that it sounds it's loud. I just think mine sounds good. It's not loud. But if you're following it for a couple of hours, it's loud. We wear the headset because my old co-pilot, Taylor, he mumbles. And it's not as full. It's just he just mumbles. So when you have these noise canceling headsets on, A, you can hear each other perfectly. And the guy loves to sing Adele. So we'll be singing Adele and s*** like that. You know, because you got to press a button to talk because we have music going through it and stuff. But at the end of the day, you're not fatigued. So when you don't have the headset on, at the end of the day, you're vibrating. It's like when you're swimming all day, you're kind of floating. And in that car, you're vibrating. Your hands are a little bit sore and cramped up. But your head is not ringing anymore. It's nice. So it's nice. It's bottom line, it's nice. And then if the wife drives or rides with, it's nice because she gets quality conversation in, and it just works out.

Those cars are obnoxious. I've done a rally in my buddy's C7. We came back from tail to dragon. Actually, both ways. And again, the ringing is true, but then he got a Turbo S the following year. That's damn near straight piped, and that was even worse than the Corvette. And I'm just like, it's so true. The ringing after a 10-hour drive.

Yeah, it does. You vibrate. You got Mustangs. And I know that you're 500 GT, right? You have a 500 GT? Yeah, they do a lot of work on that to not have that wear and tear, correct?

Well, until I do a resonator delete.

Is that what you did?

Yeah, I'm going to eventually, but they put baffles and stuff in there, and then it opens up to basically straight pipe when you're in track mode.

But they do a lot with the cabin to kind of not quiet it up.

Yeah, it's not bad. Mine's the track version, so I think it has a little less insulation in it than other ones do, but yeah, it's definitely nicer than my orange car, which is ice straight pipe basically, and that thing sounds like it's spitting fire.

So the Z28 project, they took all of that out. So a ZL11LE is their track car with the supercharger. Beautiful car, but it's got a lot of luxuries in it. The Z28 has zero. The only luxury you can have in it is air conditioning. The windows are thinner. Sound installation is gone. Or underneath the car is just metal. It's not the spray they put on for anti-vibration crap and stuff like that, that they do on the nicer vehicles. And there's no reason. And other car manufacturers have these type of cars. They're track cars. They're cars that don't have these nice luxuries and amenities. Why drive them? And it's almost like you just kind of want the abuse. You kind of just want the, yeah, at the end of the day, I'm beat up, but I feel good. I feel punished. Good. You know, good. It feels good. It's no one wants to ride it, ride in it. You know, for a little bit, everyone does. But no one, after they ride in it, you could tell that it's not what I thought it was going to be. I mean, it's got a squared stance. I got three 25s all the way around. The front tires are the same as the back tires. You feel everything. You feel everything in that car. And I love it. The steering, everything. You feel it all. Now, I have a 23 or 24 Z07, and it's got the track package in it, Z06 slash 7. It's got the track package in it. But you have electronic steering. You have electronic brakes. And if I'm saying any of these things wrong, I'm not a mechanic, but it's not connected to the road. Do you feel the road? Absolutely, but you're not connected to it. And that's why I say that I love that car, but I'm in love with my Z28. The Z28 is as close to the 60s and 70s road racing as you could possibly get because you feel the road. I mean, mechanics then could tell what was wrong with the car by their a** cheeks, the vibrations, the feel of it, and their hands.

The butt dyno.

Yeah, the butt dyno. I've never heard that. I like that. And my car, and again, the Mustang, the GT500 is their track car, right?

Yeah, but it still has more luxuries than that. It would probably be more close to the 1LE. I mean, it has a technology package, so I've got a subwoofer. I've got AC. I've got Ricardo seats, so they're not heated and cool, but they're still pretty comfortable for race seats.

But is it club cars that Porsche makes that has nothing in it?

Yeah.

That would be the next level, because I still have door panels. But those club cars don't have door panels.

Do they put a rear seat in it, in the Z28?

They do, but it's pointless. I deleted mine for my headset stuff.

So that's a limited production thing, too, right? The Z28s, how many...

733 out of two years, something like that. Mine's car 700 on the VIN.

That's cool.

Sweet.

Yeah, well, 14. And here's the deal. It's like Vipers. When they came out, everyone's like, $25,000, f*** that, I'm not paying for it. They couldn't give them away. But as soon as they stopped making them, people are like, oh, hey, wait. Like Vipers. Vipers, I remember, were like $10,000 off when they came out. Now you can't even get them for under MSRP, and they're 10 years old.

So I'm in all the Viper forums, and one just got listed for $450,000. And people buy...

What's the one that's AC...

ACR Extreme.

Yeah. What's the deal on that? That's their track, right?

Yeah, yep. So they have the ACR and then the ACR Extreme, and I believe it's the ACR that's 1,776 millimeter for the wing. And I think the Extreme is 1,886, or something like that.

And that Morgan kit stood on his wing in the ditch, right? You guys know who I'm talking about?

Oh, Michael Morgan.

Yeah, Michael Morgan.

Yeah, he had the fourth generation ACR.

Did he?

Yeah, when he...

And he stood on the wing, didn't he? Isn't there a picture of him standing on the wing?

That sounds like something Michael Morgan would do for sure. Yeah, great guy.

Dude, I love him. We had him on the podcast, I want to say 15 episodes ago, 10 episodes ago, something like that. And that guy is just a hoot. I hate him so much for getting rid of that Viper.

Yeah.

That was a fun car. And then Gramps.

And then Gramps, yeah, but you're going to have wife and kids. You got to give up some things.

Yeah, and the toys have always come back, too.

Toys come back. When I had kids, I got out of motorcycles.

Okay.

But that was it.

What kind of things for you?

I get two, but I still have my bikes.

Yeah. Well, when I was younger, street bikes, but then it turned into road bikes. As you get older. But you have kids, and you just hear, by trade, I'm a bartender. So when you're always the target of fundraising, this person had an accident, we need to give a certificate for that and stuff like that. And when you hear of one too many, unspoken, but when you hear of one too many accidents, you slow down in life.

Yeah, that happened to me this year, where I started, you know, all my life, I kind of managed to get away from hearing those stories, like, you know, on the internet or whatever. But two people I know fell off this year, actually, no, three. And so you see it on Facebook, I want him, I was like, you know, a bad accident, guy lost his arm. And it's just like, that one hits close to home, because his shop is just a couple miles from my house. We will go over there, you know, whatever, do hot dogs or whatever, just chill. So then I was like, oh, damn. It's always like being a young 24 year old, it's always appealed to me. It's like, oh, I really want to at least get a bike once, you know, but then you start seeing that reality.

It goes away fast. And we didn't have it when I'm 51. So back when I was in my 20s, we didn't have GoPros and all this s***. So you couldn't see all these accidents. You just hear about it or a picture in the paper. And I think now if I was in my 20s and with what's forced into your brain with Instagram reels and s*** like that, you see all these accidents. I would never even think about jumping on a bike. Now, I'm being a big f****** hypocrite when I say it because I do have a moped that I use just to run to the bank or something like that. But I'm not over 30 miles an hour, 40 miles an hour. But again, again, I'm being a hypocrite because I know accidents can happen. But I'm not going to smoke a deer doing 80.

Yeah.

That's the big thing right there.

You never know driving at night right out the gate.

Yeah, I'm driving to daytime when it's 80 out and no chance of rain.

Me and Wheeler were doing rollers or whatever when he got that camo wrap of what was the last year, and he almost smoked it. Like, the deer was inches from his hood. Like, we saw it in front of him, and I was like, oh, it was so close. But no, you never know what can happen. One of my buddies texted me yesterday. He's, like, totaled. What's going on? He just got the Ford Raptor R, and he was going through an intersection and a bus smoked him.

No s***.

Yeah, like one of those, like, transit buses or whatever. For 50 miles an hour, he went into the side of it. Totaled.

Does he want to see what the buyback is? Tell him I'll buy it from him.

I'll show you the pictures, dude. You do not want this thing.

I'll take the engine.

I'll take the engine.

This thing is mushed.

So the Raptors are now back to V8s, right?

Yeah, they're the same motor that's in the GT500.

Yeah, yeah. So it's no longer the...

God bless America.

Darkside V6 just...

They were still pretty nasty.

Yeah, I get they're nasty, but didn't the report just come out today? 708,000 of those engines in June of 23, the valve material's faulty. So now they're trying to... You can look that up yourself. So I'm 50 again, so I do have investments. But Ford's one of them, so you get all these news in the morning and stuff like that, that are just like... And my sister has a... Everyone in my family used to be Ford people. My sister still is. I was always the black sheep of a GM guy. And as Dan knows, I've admitted it to everyone, I'm a huge closet Mustang guy. I love them. Will I own one? No, but I f****** love them. I see when it's like, yeah, I like that car. You got to rip on them, but I still like them.

I love busted GM guys' balls. I mean, it's one of the joys I get in life. So it's between you, me, and Joe Bommister. Sometimes on Facebook, things can get out of hand.

Oh, it's funny. Joe Bommister, he has this car. What's it called, grape soda?

Oh, Orange Crush.

Oh, yeah, yeah, Orange Crush.

If he could add everything orange, you would have it all.

I know, so I'm f****** with him, because it's my favorite color, too. But his original one was faster, right? Because this is his second one.

Yep.

It's a Gen 4.

Well, he has a SN95 convertible GT. It wasn't automatic, but he swapped it to a six-speed manual. That was just kind of a cruiser. But what he had back in the day, I think, was a Cobra, and he had it boosted, all that stuff, and then he popped the motor, and his wife was like, okay, let's pump the brakes.

So when I debate those people, it's for fun only. I don't debate people or argue with people that have straight-line cars. I'm not a straight-line guy. You got to have the reaction of F1 drivers to be successful at that s***. I'm not a straight-line guy.

I would say road course is definitely my favorite.

F*** yeah, dude. Track, road courses, track courses. I do like cannonball series s***, point A to point B.

Rallying, it is, yeah. I tell people all the time when they're on here and they've never done one, I'm like, you'll get hooked. And I'm going to be completely honest with you, my orange car, when I picked up that car, because I drove through Hudson and saw your f****** car stickered up with all the Crown Rally stuff, and I'm like, what in the hell is that? So I do some googling, some research, and I was like, I'm getting a car for doing this. I did that for the sole purpose of doing rallies.

Crown Rally was, and I don't say this lightly, but Crown Rally is top five greatest things ever to come into my life. Because it brought that world to perspective for me. I mean, I don't abuse alcohol ever. I don't do drugs. Never got hooked on anything stupid. But cars, I mean, rallying, I thoroughly enjoy it. You know what else is great about car community? Everyone gets along. Of course, you're going to have a little, you know, whatever spat here and there.

And people that are coming up usually.

Yeah, but as a community, f***. Tell me one better. There isn't. There isn't. Great people. And it doesn't matter what your car is. You go to, and you can ask truly, like put a lie detector on hardcore Mustang guy. He can admire GTR. Grady, our buddy of ours, has a fully carbon fiber GTR. You don't think every time I see it, I'm like, f***, look at that car. Will I ever sit in it? No, because I don't want one. You know why I'm not hooked on cocaine? I've never done it. And why I've never sat in a GT2RS? Because I don't want to buy one. I can't afford to just throw that kind of money to buy one. But that's why I stick with Camaro. That's why I stick with my Z28. I can afford it. I just, you know, you got a Lamborghini in a while. Is it beautiful? Absolutely. Is it sexy? 100%. Will I ever sit in one? No. Because I just don't want to take that risk of going, I gotta have this.

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Can't do it.

The V12s are... I mean, so in order of dream cars in the last five years for me, it went from the Aventador to the Viper, the Supra, the GT500, and I'm like, I have to have all those. And the thing is, out of all those, the GT500 is probably the most attainable. The Supra, whatever, I moved on from that. Not really. But I'm just saying you're thinking like, they're going to be down into 70,000s here any year now. And it's like, that's really attainable. And it's probably one of the funnest cars I've ever been in or driven.

Yeah, there are. I've never driven one, but I've driven with plenty of them. Yeah.

So the one I drove, it's our buddies. It was making 1,014 to the wheels. And that was my first time driving 1,000 horsepower car. And I'm like, this is rambunctious.

It's dangerous because it's... So my Z28 is, well, as of the moment, it's 564, no, 556.4, something like that, right around there. Rear wheel. We did a little more work to it, so it's going to be closer to the 580s, right? Rear wheel. When I come out of a corner, I can hammer on that throttle. When I come out of the corner on the ZL11LE, you have to feather, you have to ease into it, you have to feel it, you have to know what's going on. Yeah. I am, I think it's because my dad taught me this, it's foot on or foot off. There's no playing around. Just get going on it, hammer on it. Twin turbos, superchargers, they all have a purpose. Man, they're scary. Trying to figure out twin turbos, some scary s*** because when that boost kicks in, you're flying. I mean, I have a diesel truck that has a turbo on it, of course, but when you hammer on that, it's the same kind of leg, isn't it? You kind of have that instant, but some of these twin turbos are stacked, right? Like BMWs do that, so it's constant pressure, correct?

You get low end and high end.

That's scary s*** to me.

It's still, so like a root style supercharger, like the ones that sit on top there, they'll give you a little more torque, so they'll feel like a little more punch. The turbo, I have not really ever been in anything twin turbo, but it is a whole other animal.

I feel safer in those though. Something about a supercharged car, like Mark's Mustang, that thing.

They give it a lot of punch. I think you're going to be more likely to break a wheel loose.

Yeah, pushers, I prefer pushers to over turbos. I say that very narrow-mindedly, because I've never had a twin-turboed vehicle other than diesel trucks. But I can control a supercharger, you know, per se. But I do prefer naturally aspirated. But I'm telling you, if I ever came across a GT2 RS, I'd be sitting in the chair next to it going, oh, dude, I love twin-turboes, because it'd be a GT2 RS. You get what I'm saying? It's just, it's nuts, those cars.

Do you tune your truck up at all? It being so new, you probably...

That's a single cab, right, or no?

I got a couple. So my 2020 single cab dually is deleted.

Is that the one your daughter drives?

No, she has the old farm truck, so she has had 14, that was her first vehicle, a 14-gasser one-ton regular cab dually. But that car, that thing was rough. But she paid to put her little 3-inch lift kit in it, because she had to, and I don't know where they get that idea from.

My 14-year-old is in the same boat right now. She's already planned out everything she's going to get for her truck. She knows exactly what she wants. Yeah.

It was great for her, because the kids learn how to drive, we will drive, they know how to drive in the snow. But how my girls got good at driving that s*** was the ATVs at the farm. It gets muddy out, take them out in the pasture. They're not going to roll it. They go slow enough, but they learn how to handle the a** end whipping around and stuff like that. And it does translate over to a vehicle quite nicely.

Yeah, it's the same thing. Anything with engines, my kids get in it and go. Even my littlest daughter, she's seven, she's been on 500cc snowmobile riding around out at the land up north. And I get them used to all that right out the gate. No one's been driving side by side since she was about eight years old.

Yeah, it's good stuff. It's good stuff. Teach your kids how to ride ATVs and stuff like that. And also controversial, but teaching them how to handle and understand guns. My daughters, they're good with guns. They understand guns. But the main thing is, I've taught them, if you ever see a gun somewhere and it ain't supposed to be there, this is how you disassemble it. This is how you get rid of key components where that gun can't be used. That's the main reason.

I've gone through the same thing with my kids, too. First thing you need to do is check and make sure it's clear.

Every gun's loaded. Every f****** gun's loaded. Even if you handed someone and that person saw you check it, you still have to check it. It was beating our heads. Again, I'm 51. In sixth grade, we took guns on the school bus to school. We did. We took our guns to school. He had to sign permission slip and s***, but I still remember the.22 rifle on one hand, the shotgun on the other hand.

He used to put them in his locker.

We took them right to the classroom back then. I'm 10 years older than you, I think. And St. Croix Central. Great school. Then we took a bus to the gravel pit. And Mr. McGee, I still remember, he had a 1911. And he was telling the kids, Kay, it's one of you guys. Teachers were realistic back then. One of you d******* are going to cut your thumb on this and dirty up my gun. And sure s***, they had their thumb up, and it sliced their thumb when it fired. And it's like, dude, you told us about that was going to happen.

I can't even imagine doing that s*** nowadays. That would be insane.

Teaching kids about guns is almost like a taboo now.

Those people that are cringing, listening to us talk about this right now, I'm sure.

And I don't mean to bring that up. You can edit that s*** out.

You're good.

It's important, because if you don't teach them, someone else is going to. If you don't create a culture, one's going to be created for you.

That should be on a T-shirt. That's a good quote.

That's a kind of a restaurant thing when you have bad managers. If you don't create your culture, one's going to be created for you.

That could be applied to anything.

Anything in life.

Yeah, any business or in life.

The shop downstairs, your home life, everything. If you don't create it, it's going to be created for you.

I got to give it to Rat. He has a great team assembled here. From both shops, all these guys come say hi or whatever. It's something like that. It's really underrated, right? But if you go somewhere and people don't want you there, you feel it. But here, it feels like you're at home.

You find the shop you want to be at. There's plenty of shops where I'm at. I've done all of my work through Tiger Pros because the people that do all the engine work is called Race Prove and More Sports out of Delaware. Yeah, Delaware. And they just ship it over here. Have they ever dealt with this stuff before? No, but they have a guy there that loves that stuff. And when you want to work on something, you learn quick.

Yeah, so true.

Yeah, and he's been there forever. He's the only guy that's ever worked on my car, and I love it.

You ever done any wrenching on it?

I'll wrench. So I have a 68 GTL. I'll just play around with that, look at stuff. But that's been modified now, and that's above my pay grade, I guess you could say. I'm someone that, if something goes wrong, I want to make sure that it wasn't because of trying to save a penny, trying to pinch a dollar, trying to do it, trying to save some time. I want to make sure that if it breaks, it's because I broke it. It's not because of bad judgment. It's not because I got cheap parts or something like that. So I try to do some research, and then I ask experts, hey, how did you do this? How did you do that? And then I go with that. And that's why my Z28, it's everything I've done to it. It's for durability reasons. I mean, even stiffening up the frame, it's durability reasons only. It's not really... I'm not trying to outrun someone, because again, it's a 427 stick shift track car, natural aspirated. It's not... you're not drag racing anyone and winning. Yeah. You're not. You're gonna pull away from someone for a little bit. You know, you can hang with anyone for a couple seconds until someone's turbo spool up, and then they're gone. The Z06 is a different B-cell, that flat-plane cranked engine, and that's naturally aspirated. That's scary.

That's like the highest horsepower naturally aspirated engine ever out there, right?

Yeah, V8, good call. It's nuts. Yeah, that car's nuts.

When they announced that, I was like, I've been saying this for the last 30 episodes, Ford and Chevy are killing it on the enthusiast game right now. They're making what people want to see. When they announced that it's going to be the highest naturally aspirated V8, I'm like, it's game over.

Yeah, they're building realistic cars. And you get kicked in the balls too for being a Mustang guy. I get kicked in the balls for it. It's still a Corvette. F*** off. It's paid for. How many payments at 6% do you have on your $300,000 car? Have fun. It's just, things are different in my life than someone else's life. And some people really care what people think of their car. And I don't, I love it. Like, if I'm on Crown Rally, there's never going to be, you know, like, highlighted video of my car. It's never going to happen.

Which is a bummer, because you have some cool wraps, too.

Yeah. Dude, that's the only reason I do the cool wraps is to get some sort of attention. But, no, but when I took it to Europe, it got highlighted a lot just because they don't see those cars. They don't see them. McLarens, Lamborghinis, Porsches, they're everywhere. Lamborghinis and Uruses are everywhere. Here, I'm like, that's a cool car, and locals are like, yeah, yeah, yeah. It must be Roth.

Well, it's like Schmi, he has all those, like he has the GT500 and however many American cars. People are like, this is amazing.

Yeah. So he was, so on this last gumball, he had a separate car every day.

I saw that.

And that was weird. Because you didn't know. Because he drives very good and very aggressive. But his handlers and the other people that are driving his cars, because it seemed like all the cars are with, I can't verify it, but there was always multiple of his cars with on the rally, no matter where. But some, you could come flying on, flying up at one, and it's one of his guys driving it. So it's like, okay, he's not going to be driving aggressive. He's not going to have fun and s*** like that. So he's kind of got to get around it. But he had his van, he has his own people and stuff.

Which is, I mean, that's cool. I mean, it's cool because he brought the Zenvo, I think the SF90, the GT500, and whatever else he has. But how many days was that event? Ten, right?

Seven.

Seven?

Yeah, 77 cars. And no matter where you go, people want to know, like, if you're there before someone, they're like, how far away is Shmi? How far away is D&D? Or Daily Driven Exotics? DDE. That's all it is, man. And if you're standing by one of those guys, people want your autograph. Like, if you're standing next to Dave, someone's like, dude, I need your autograph. I'm nobody. Dude, I'm telling you, I'm a guy from Wisconsin. I'm nobody. So that's always fun. It's fun. I'll tell you, the two coolest cars that clowned me on a track, a GT2RS, clowned me. Clowned me. Clowned me. Like, you didn't have a chance. Clowned me. And it was really cool. And it was decaled up like the famous, Help Me Out the Pink Pig or something.

Oh, yeah, yep.

Yeah. Great driver.

That's my coffee mug, by the way.

Is it? Some people think he's reckless, but great driver. Great, great, great, great driver.

And what was the other car?

Sienna. McLaren Senna.

Oh, gotcha. Yeah.

McLaren Senna. And that was in the gumball from Toronto to Miami. And I ran with that kid for a while. And that car, yeah.

It's amazing.

Wow. And you don't realize it until you see it. If you get a chance to go see one, you got to go see it in person. Seeing it on a poster and seeing it on social media posts does not do it justice.

Yeah.

Another car doesn't do it justice is an F40. So a person I know in Hudson has one. And seeing up close, it's like, holy s***, the floor is carbon fiber.

He's made it out to one or he makes it out to like one or two shows a year.

Yeah. Yeah. I just want to say his name because he's private. He's very private.

Yeah.

But it's cool seeing it in person. And it's like, how many parts on it there, like the plastic or the acrylic cover over the hood. And it's like, dude, it's cheap, but it's a race car. It's not meant to be, you know, some carbon fiber thing that's going to lift up. It's it's incredible car to see in purpose and in person. And that Senna was the same way. And usually people in those super high end rear cars cool as f***. Yeah. I mean, this is this guy was a kid and I didn't want to say anything offensive, like, you know, is it your dad's? I mean, how did you get it? How did you attain it? You just you just leave that s*** alone. And that's something that they it's like on car rallies, you're always going to meet someone that's bigger than life. And how do you act around them? As soon as they see your car person, they will judge you on how you drive. And based on how you drive, determines if they're going to hang out with you or not. The gumball from Toronto to Miami, Bill, we ate with in the Kentucky area, Ken Griffey Jr. He was right next to us. I'm like, Bill, just leave him alone. Don't talk to him. Don't look him in the eye. Because Bill, my co-pilot, he'll talk to anyone. I'm like, he's a normal guy. Because we're both starstruck. We're like, f****** it, it's Ken Griffey Jr. And I go to get something to eat and come back to the table, and him and Bill are just talking. He's like, so yes, you work for this guy? And I'm like, yeah, it's my chef and stuff like that. And shook hands, and I was just so just like, I couldn't make eye contact. I'm looking down, I'm like, f***, dude, this is cool. But nice as hell. I mean, so f****** nice. Yeah, it's cool. Again, the car community is like that.

We've started off on plenty of rallies, too, where I'm like, that guy is going to be a douchebag. And then by the, you know, towards the end of it, you're sitting back, drinking beers, hanging out.

Having a blast with the person.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, some people, they want to throw that, like, that alpha complex out.

You get a few of those.

Yeah, and then when you drive with them, you know the people you can drive with and the ones that don't. And the thing is, I always look at tires and f****** brakes. You know, what do your tires look like? What do your brakes look like? And if you're taking care of that s***, yeah, let's run. Let's go. Let's have some fun. But say in the Camaro world, if you have an SS and your brakes are looking a little worn and your tires are looking worn, I'm not going to let you fly up on me. I'm going to stay away. I'm going to let you pass me and get going because I'm just not going to get in an accident because you weren't taking care of your car. And again, the only reason I'm saying an SS is because I can say that with the Camaro community.

God forbid you say Mustang. They're going to come at you.

Yeah, so but that's all it is.

Yeah, well, that's a huge thing on rallies, too. Like, you know, I've done more running of them than being on them, funny enough. But it's you know who you want to rally with. I always say people, there's the people that want to go balls to the wall, get there first. You had the middle group that's going maybe 20, 30 over. And then you got the guys are just moseying along. Pick a group that you're comfortable with. You know, this guy's got to be first, you know, but I just like to be in the front crew. That's all good.

I'm not the guy who's passing on the left, you know, and the shoulder and all that s*** to get there, though.

No, and when I see reckless driving like that, you just let it go. You get to the next checkpoint. You pull the guy aside. And now I've, you learn from other people's f****** mistakes. And unfortunately, you know, an example I use is Larry for everything. A friend of everyone in the rally world who lost his life because of driving too fast. That's all there is to it. So before I have a rally, I was like, hey, I've lost someone. Raise your hand if you've lost someone in this room. You know, it's due to trying to keep it too real. You know, Dave Chappelle had this skit, it was called When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong. And it's the truth. You know, just humble yourself a little bit when you're driving. Understand it's not about you, it's not about your car, it's about the community and who you're representing. Because all those stickers on your f****** hood and fenders, you're representing them. You're representing them. There's a reason why 3M wasn't on every car on some of the rallies, because if you drove like a douche, you didn't get a 3M sticker on your car. If you were someone that was not a douche and could understand you're representing them, you got a big 3M sticker on the car.

That makes sense. I've been practicing my speech or whatever, because I'm running the community rally in association with community this year. And that will be my first rally. So my last rally that I ran was my whiplash rally, and that was the week before Crown happened. So that was one of my concerns. But then I took the year off, and now I'm back in, and I've just been thinking, man, as the coordinator, you have to set the standard. And I mean, in my head, it sounds so aggressive, but you need to, because people want to make it home to their families. It's like, yeah, we're out here to have fun, but let's let reality soak in a little bit. Humble yourself a little bit. Let's not overdo it. So yeah, I've been thinking about that one a lot these last few months.

Maximilian Cooper, the creator of Gumball, the guy does not lose sleep if he kicks someone out of the rally.

Yep, exactly. That's what I told Balto, too. We're going to kick someone off. We have to.

Yeah, you have to. So one thing that I would like to compliment on that rally and what other rallies need to do in order to get sponsors, the first day you're there, you unpack, you get in your room, all that stuff, and then you have to go to a meeting in groups of like, it's like three or four, maybe five teams at a time, and you meet every single sponsor. So you go to their booth, you find out about it. They don't quiz you or question you on it. We're adults here, but you're respectful. You listen. They have a gift for you. They have a little thing for you. And you get to know who these people are on your fenders, who they are on your hood, who they are on your bumper and stuff. So when you're somewhere, you can actually talk about that company or say, hey, this is who you reach out to. Hey, check this out. And that's a good thing. That's how you're going to be able to grow sponsors. Because too many people will hit you up, hey, sponsor my race car or some b*******. And it's like, for what reason? For what reason? For the 10 people that might see it and go, what is that? And you're not going to know a f****** thing about it? Oh, it's a restaurant I ate at. No, b*******. We're so much more than just a restaurant for one of my companies. But it's good to get to know the sponsors, right? And then promote that sponsor. If you're somewhere, just, hey, take a picture of that and tag them. Tell them that you appreciate the car being here. Gumball teaches you all that stuff to be respectful to the sponsors. That's a big thing. Do people still drive having fun and spiritedly? Absolutely. But are you going to be passing on a shoulder? No, that's a big f****** no-no that some people still can't get through their f****** head. If you want to get in a car rally, see your top three things. One, change all the fluids in your car before the rally. Your brake fluid, your coolant, everything. All the fluids. Two, tires. Just put on a new f****** set of tires. You're going to go through it, and don't think you have to have track tires. I use Michelin 4Ss because you know what? If it rains, you're in good shape. If it's dry, you're in good shape. If you go to a track event, you're in good shape. You want to do a burnout, they're still chunky enough. You're in good shape. Okay? Number three, you're not going to have the fastest car, so don't drive like it. The only thing you can have is the cleanest car. Clean that f***** up. Let's throw in one more. Don't think your s*** doesn't stink. If a kid comes up to your car, let the f****** kid sit in it.

Oh yeah.

Let the parents get a picture of it. Because that kid, it's going to be on their refrigerator. They're going to brag about it. Someday when they get social media, it's going to be a profile picture because they were in a f****** race car. Right? And this is how kids are brought in to the car community. This is how they grow up to want to be cars or be car people. Because of that one person that said, yeah, go ahead and sit in it. Don't think your car is so incredible. We're not talking F40s and F50s here and stuff like that. We're talking my car, Dan's car, normal people with cars. This f*****'s got a lot of cars, so I'm never going to take anyone's s*** about why I have too many cars. But letting kids know that car people are a-normal, jumping in. And how it started for me is Shriners Children's Hospital through Crown, letting kids that are fighting for life, and here we are just having fun. It's like this kid wants to see tomorrow. Yeah, you want to sit in the car? Go right ahead. You're not going to hurt it. You're not going to hurt the interior.

And if they do, so what?

What are they going to do? I mean, I don't know. Do you have leather seats in your car?

It's the Alcantara leather.

That's exactly what I have.

Yeah.

Yeah. Don't tell me yours are ventilated and stuff.

No, no.

OK, you're still a man then.

I've had ventilated seats in a few years.

I was a little worried about being too wide for them at first. There's some guys that will pay to send them out, get the bolsters widened out and stuff, but I fit in it all right. So, yeah, they weren't as uncomfortable as I thought they were going to be.

But when dads come up with their kids and they're looking at it, let the dad sit in it.

Yep.

Let the kids sit in it because it goes a long ways. And when you got out of the car, yeah, you're tired. Yeah, you want to get to the room. But take the time to show grace and give thanks. Running in car rallies is such a privilege. It's a privilege. Once you do it, it's addictive. Cars aren't for everyone. Rallies not for everyone. But I guarantee everyone has their thing in their life that they like to do that keeps them out of trouble. Again, no drugs, no alcohol in my life. So what am I going to do? I got to have some sort of fun. It's not just staring at spreadsheets 24 hours a day. So that's what it is. Have fun. Show grace and compassion. Be grateful. Be grateful you're in the moment. Let kids see the car. Pop the hood. Explain it to them. Tell them what a V8 means versus a V6 versus... Yeah. They don't know. These kids don't know. I'm telling you, I have three daughters. One of them didn't know how to read a watch, an analog watch, because they've switched all the clocks in school to the digital. I was like, no way. You don't know how to read an analog watch? She does now. It makes sense after a while, but they don't teach that stuff. So teach these kids some of these things. They don't know what... Soon it's going to be, they're going to know what electric car is, but they don't know what an LS7 is. They don't know the story of it. They don't know that it's... Did Ford create the LS7? I mean, Ford versus Ferrari, the introduction of 427 to the movie screen. I mean, great movie, by the way. The only time I was ever really like, Ford, yeah. Because they were trying to stick it to Ferrari. But yeah, there's so much... And you can see it in their eyes. You can tell the kids are disconnected. They're like, okay, I want to go see that car. But usually, the kids and even the parents are... Everything you're saying about that is now their most favorite thing in the world. It's like, yes, I'm getting a Z28. Okay, no, there's so many cars better than a Z28. So the impression is there. You're the one at Tony Bob. This is the one I want.

It's a memory, right? For me, the Viper, for Gran Turismo 2, that was always my car. And 20 years later, 10 years later, whatever, I get a ride in a twin turbo one, and it's like, this is it. I've come full circle. This is the dream car. Why? Well, because it just made an impression on me. Is there better platforms out there? Maybe. But it's like, this is the one for me.

Yeah, it is. And if you don't absolutely turn around and look at your car when you're walking away from it, that's not your car then. Keep looking. Keep looking, because you're going to find your car. There is a deep connect with a... I saw this quote, men love women, but men really love cars. And it's true. I mean, it's true. I posted my Z28 to troll someone once for sale many, many, many years ago. No intention. Like you said, my Z7 was for sale. I never responded to anyone on that. It's not for sale. But it's just... When you love something, it stays. Like a truck come and go. A daily driver car come and go. But that Z28 is going to be...

What's it like to say? Like anybody who's had a C6 ZR1, even if they sell it, they're going to have another one in no time.

Yeah. The most obtainable car when they were a couple years old is now unattainable. I mean, it's hard to find those cars, and they're not going to sell them. They're not. And they looked good compared to the C7 ZR1, I think, personally.

It's a little more tasteful.

Yeah, the C6 is a little bit...

It's classy. Gentlemen.

Yeah, it's less aggressive, but still just as violent.

It's kind of like if you look at the Honda Type R, the previous generation has all these crazy lines. I mean, personally, I like them, but nonetheless, that's kind of how the C7 was. Like, I'll just add a million angles on this.

Yeah, that's what the new ones are. I'll see.

I'm excited for whatever the C9 is going to look like or the new ZR1. I'm curious because I drove the Stingray a few months ago, and it was deceivingly fast. For a 400 and what, 80 horsepower car, whatever it is, it's ridiculous.

It's fast.

It punches you in the face.

Yeah. So you'd have to help me out with this. So what is it when you're steering, and it's understeering, right? When you're trying to go into a corner and it's not going in deep enough. That's understeering. Am I saying that correctly?

Yeah.

I experienced that in the C8 in not ideal conditions, but the Z28 had better control, I found. And that was the sole reason I just stuck more into the Z28 and sold that car.

I think it's just because there's more weight on those front wheels.

I agree.

What about your Z07? Have you had that on the track yet?

I have not had it on track. I've missed two opportunities, but I have driven it pretty hard. The G-Force went through the Smoky Mountains, so there was a lot of tail the dragon-ish kind of roads, to the point that you got it rolled on the window. It's like, oh my god, am I going to barf? Because you're going through so much, right?

Yeah.

Because it doesn't stop. In your head, you're like, okay, 10 more minutes is 10 more minutes is, and three hours later, you're still doing it. So you get to know a car really big time then. And that car was fun. And the reason it's fun, there's no shifting, there's no high revving. It's not, you know, with the Z20, you're in that power band, and you're trying to stay within it. With the Z06 slash 7, we'll just call it the Z07.

Sure.

It's, there's 10 gears. No, eight gears. How many gears is it? Eight? I think it's eight. But it's constantly, and when you have it in the, there's so many modes. So when you have it in the track mode, it shifts harder, right? But if you have it in snow and ice mode, it shifts so f****** smoothly, right? But it's okay because you're not racing, you're just enjoying it. But if you want to get aggressive, put it in sport mode or track mode, and it stays up there. Man, does it sound good. But the steering is much different because the tires are wider, the suspension is different on it than the C8. And it's a very enjoyable car. It's a very, very enjoyable car, very violent. It way outperforms, it clowns the Z28 in every single aspect of it. Everything. I mean, even, it's even got more trunk space. I mean, the car is just, it's great. I mean, it's great. Leather seats, they're vented. You get spoiled by all that s***. Actual radio, you can have a conversation. My daughter, when I won, she loved it. Where Sebas, my middle kid, I took her for a ride in the Z28. She's a little more tomboyish. So I think she likes that car more. But the Z067, it's flashy. It's a new, shiny thing. Everyone wants to pictures of it. But it's just not my personality.

I can see that.

Yeah, you feel a little... It'd be like you in a GT40 or the Ford GT. Is it great? Yeah, it's f****** great. But is it you?

I hate anything with just two seats. So my car is a track pack car. I had a rear seat delete. It came that way. I put a rear seat in it. I have kids at home that just want to go. We go to car shows, s*** like that. They want to ride in Dad Shelby. They want to do this stuff. I'd need at least four seats.

Yeah, and they sit...

So...

You can't say Indian salad, crisscross, applesauce, right?

Yeah, it's a little tight back there. They fit in there just fine right now, but...

Yeah, so the Z28... When you're sitting at the seat touches the back seat. We're talking... It's not a quarter inch. So it's kind of funny. It's like, what are you doing? But I get it to call it a... What do they call it then? A coupe instead of a roadster for insurance reasons.

I'm nervous for you, by the way. Cause like, so he's gonna be bringing his daughter down to Texas 2K with us? Or is that confirmed?

Yeah, I talked to her. So I mentioned it to her, and then I talked to you guys and make sure you're cool with it. You said, yeah, so I told her last night that she's coming.

You're gonna trailer your car though, right?

Yeah, we're trailering now.

But I'm just saying...

But when we're down there, we're getting around. And I already told her, I was like, just so you know, if Harris is with us, you're sitting in the back seat. She's like, oh yeah, yeah, no, that's no problem.

Do you have a truck to pull it?

Yeah.

What?

Can I borrow your Duramax?

Yeah, you can.

I got my Super Duty. I got it 2016.

You're super cutie? Yeah. But you want to get back, right?

Yeah, yeah, I'll be all right. I'll tow it all back with the Shelby if I have to.

But I'm nervous for you because I'm just sitting here thinking like, it's one thing to come out to the cruises and you know, like, you know, she saw Wheeler's car or whatever, and it's like, you know, see all these, you know, local supercars and hot rods and stuff. When you go to Texas 2K, dude, that's a different tier. Like you're gonna, you're gonna be very broke by the time she turns 18 is what I was thinking.

I've already got that problem. So Rowan's about to turn 14 here in April, and we just had school conferences, right, for middle school. And it just like, teachers would just not shut up about how awesome she was and how good she's doing in school. So I was like, f*** man. I went home and I was like, she really wanted to go to Texas and I wasn't gonna bring her. But I was like, she's just killing it at life right now. So I was like, I gotta give her, you gotta toss her some stuff, you know, show her that it pays off. So I'm like, you know what? We're gonna go down to Texas, you can come with me and go hang out, so.

Now the car community in Texas.

Is intense.

It's intense, but like how we try to keep s*** clean, they'll have heat tape everywhere. They just don't care what it looks like as long as it kicks out the horsepower and connects, right?

Dude, when you turn 18 down there, you get a Mustang with some welds. Like that's just, it's just ready to go.

Yeah, and if it's a Mustang, it's gonna have a crash bar in the front for the pedestrians.

Well, it's literally just all Camaros and Mustangs down there.

When we were down there for hockey, for the kids hockey in Dallas, I was blown away by all the, the actual rust-free Camaros and Mustangs. A lot of Mustangs down there. But rust-free keyword, it's like, dude, if at home, that car would be full of rust.

Yeah, you'll see like a 1993 Ford Taurus on the road. You're like, there's no way at home that thing would be just...

You're not s******* me. I saw a show on SHO, and I was telling the girls, look at that car. When that car came out, everyone had to f****** have it. What's special about it? Really nothing. But back then, it was really special.

It has a Yamaha.

24 valve, was in a V6, and it was a big deal back then.

That all of like maybe 300 horsepower.

Yeah, yeah, the show. Everyone had to have the show. F***, what a life we live. And we just, it's stupid. Like we're driving down the road, and my wife will just, I mean, she's pulled muscles in her eyes from rolling her eyes at me, because I will freak out when I see a car that's like, dude, you'll never see that car again. You won't see it. Saw a, remember Eagle Talons? Yeah. Okay, so it was the all-wheel drive, the 24 valve, it was the V6 one, the maroon one that looked good. I was like, seriously, you gotta look at that car. You'll never see that car again. And she's like, yeah, it looks like an egg. Yeah, it's just like, it does, but that was all-wheel drive.

They're insane cars. You know what I saw yesterday, dude? You'll never see this ever on the road, never ever. This is something like, it blew my mind more than a Bugatti. It's one of those, I think they're called Sherpas or whatever they are. Oh yeah. You know, those big square things. I was like on Facebook Marketplace, they always look smaller than they really are. This thing was huge. It was on like a, you know, a gooseneck trailer hanging off a foot on each side. And I was just like, I wanted to get a picture cause like I was driving by, I'm like, I'm never gonna see that again. I'll see more Bugattis than I see one of those again. Just ridiculous. But no, those Eagle talents, I got a ride in my buddy's, his was making like 500 wheel at the time.

Well, that's him doing a lot to it. Back then it was like 200 horse.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Just, but they're ridiculous cars. I'm gonna 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 give 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.

Now that you bring up Bugatti, I need to stand up for the person that had it. I don't know his name. I just knew him just from the rally. So the last gumball, I believe it was right outside of Germany. He hit a ladder that was on the road, which we would call an interstate, was on the road, hit it, a ladder, pushed it, like it wouldn't go underneath the car. So he's pushing it, wore it down, got off to the shoulder. People are like, oh, that's fake at stage. Nope, that happened. It was a couple of cars in front of us, true story. Didn't even do anything to the car, really, just cosmetic stuff. Those cars, I thought were just like, okay, would not want one. But after seeing it and how like, they're built pretty durable. There's a lot of intense stuff in that car. Like I had no idea that the wheels, the tires have to be changed, every oil change, because they are rated for 300 miles an hour. You don't have to quote me on this stuff, but look at it, just look at it. There's something to do with the tires that it's not on the wear and tear, it's on the miles, it's like, that tire can't be used anymore. Will it be fine? Yeah, but it's not insured now, or it's not under Bugatti standards. So when you hit that ladder, you could see that the ladder's ground down. And I just want to say that if anyone sees this and goes to that social media post that anyone says it's fake, it's not fake, witnessed it, saw it, laughed, it was funny. They didn't give a s***. I mean, to me, if I hit a ladder on my Z28, I'd be like, f****** A, this sucks, oh my God. These guys are like, yeah, look at this, we hit a ladder. It was just an aluminum ladder laying on the road and someone lost it off their truck. And of all the cars that hit it, that was probably the best one to hit it because it didn't do s*** to it.

It's like on Gold Rush a few years ago, one of the Huracans got a two by four through its bumper. Did you ever see that? Yeah, again, who knows if it'll stage or not. I mean, I'm sure somebody will vouch for it, but a two by four went through the bumper and then they pulled up to the next stop or whatever. Just crazy.

People lose s*** on a highway all the time.

On our rallies, we had somebody lose a splitter to a ladder, I think it was.

We had, when I did some workout in Michigan, I went and stayed out there with a guy who was staying with us and he didn't strap his aluminum ladder down on his and he went down. I get home from the day and he had gone and done his jobs and there's a ladder folded in half like a taco in the yard. And I'm like, what in the hell happened? He goes, I forgot to strap it down. And a guy in a Harley ran right up the middle of it, hit every single rung right through the thing. Folded the ladder, like this guy never lost his bike. Now that they pulled over, he was in a group of bikers. They all took pictures of it, had a good laugh, and then went on their way. I was like, that's cool that it happened that way, but you could have killed that guy. Strap your ladder down.

That's crazy.

Speaking of goofy s***, how much fun would it be, you know, when they do those intersection takeovers and they're doing burnouts and stuff.

Which by the way, are the Dodges now. I just want to put that, I think Mustangs are getting into clear because the Dodges keep doing a good job of clobbering people.

And it's in low key, I don't know why I laugh at it because of my dark humor, but it's funny as f*** when someone star fishes through the air. Yeah, you know, it's just like, what are you doing? But it'd be fun to do once without everyone throwing s*** at you, you know, it's just, yeah, birthday burnouts. I did a bunch of birthday burnouts. And once you get that in your system and you remember it, I'll still get the shakes once in a while. It's like, you want to go do a burnout, but you just can't do that anymore.

I do a donut every rally somewhere.

That's different. I'm saying you just can't just, you get that itch and scratch it.

Like every stoplight.

Yeah.

I remember I had the GTR out and this one dude in like an old, something old, I don't know. It's one that was like, you know, like, if I saw like a Nova, I'd be like, oh, that's a Nova. I had no idea what this thing was. And he just, you know, did a burnout right next to us, you know, on the way to like cars and caves. But you can't do it nowadays either too, because everybody has their phone and is ready to snitch on you too. Or like the takeovers. It's not because they're having fun. It's because it's a production. It's a movie, bro.

Yeah.

You know?

Oh, when you're out rallying, you inspire everybody around you too. There's been, there's plenty of cars that'll go and try and run with you for a while, and they try and race you.

When we got into France, because the whole time, when I drove in Toronto and the first gumball scared, it's like, don't go over speed limit. You know, you're a foreigner. You're not gonna, you don't want to get in trouble. We went to Scotland, and they're like, dude, it's fine. Just don't act like a f****** idiot. Drive with the pace of traffic. Traffic speeding is fine. Just don't stand out. Don't act like an idiot. We get to France, and these cars are lined up at these gas stations, and you're flying by, and all of a sudden, you got a civilian car running with you doing 120, 130.

That's the best.

Acting as a blocker for you. Like, stand in front of you, just like keep up. They have their left blinker on the whole time, so everyone's getting out of the way. Some of the most fantastic roads and drivers were in France. And here, I had a way different opinion of France before that day. After that day, I fell in love with its people.

I'll have to rally there, because I have your old opinion still.

Oh, man.

I do as well.

Yeah, they're fantastic. I mean, the roads were so nice. Another thing that blew my mind, you think of going through all these countries, it's gonna be checkpoint, checkpoint, checkpoint. No, it was like a line on the road that said, leaving France. It wasn't. Now, when you got to Croatia, there was a checkpoint ship, but then they got weird s*** going on. But amongst the countries that get along, nothing. I mean, nothing. It's cool. I mean, would I do it again? I don't have that answer today. Am I glad I did it once? I hope everyone has the opportunity to do the things I've done, because I feel like I've lived the life of 10 men, and everyone should do a rally, get out of their comfort zone, go somewhere that you just wouldn't go.

Do they do track stuff on Gumball, too?

No, not really.

No?

It is 100% point A to point B. The views are unreal. The dinners are unreal. The clientele, the people that come out, the parties, again, it's not about just getting smashed, but it's like where it's at. The architecture, I mean, if you're into that s***, I mean, like old buildings, I mean, it blows your mind.

I think after you get past a certain age, architecture is like, whoa.

Well, you don't realize how young the United States is until you go to Scotland.

Good point.

And so one of the guys we were on a rally with, that's what he does for a living, he will carve out a piece of block for an old building. That was around centuries ago. And I'm like, you've ever been to the States? I still remember, I mean, he speaks Scottish. I won't try to mimic his accent, which was awesome. I mean, you've ever been to the States? Yeah, it was Chicago once. I'm like, what'd you think of it? It's f****** new. And it's like, I didn't think of that. He's like, yeah, your oldest f****** building is new. It's like, okay. And it's cool, and it's cool, because you see Edinburgh was, you got to do it once. It's lovely f****** people. Again, there's so much in this world that we don't even know about. Some of the coolest rallies I've ever been on, also out west. You ever driven through Utah and Nevada and all that s***? Wow, it makes things, it's like we've been missing out. You got to go on a road trip with your kids, load them up in a minivan, fly to the city you've never been to, rent the goddamn Toyota, what are they called, Sienna, or the big minivan thing, throw the kids in it and drive. We went and saw the, what are the big trees in the Redwoods?

Oh, the Redwoods, yep.

Unreal. Pictures don't do it. Pictures don't do it justice. You see it and it's like, okay, not pushing religion, but yeah, this is created by someone. This is, you can't just think this s*** up. It's cool.

You know what was a magical experience for me when you say go to a city you never been to and drive? 2020, like we're talking peak COVID, like we're just about to, like just after Christmas, right? We go fly out there to pick up Jeff Storm's Noble. This is my first time in California, we will go to Long Beach or whatever, we're driving along, he's showing me all these food spots from when he was stationed out there. And then pick up the Noble, and we drive four hours to Vegas. So we're going through the mountains, the desert.

The Death Valley.

Yeah, I've never been in a desert like that. I've never been through California, just ridiculous. And in this car, that's basically a kick car.

Yeah, it's a go-kart, yeah.

Yeah, no disrespect, but it's kind of like a kick car.

I know what you're talking about, yeah.

And I'm just, somehow I fit in the car, by the way. And I'm just like, man, this is just magical.

Well, Jeff fits, you fit.

Well, I'm tall, right? It's a different type of fit. Yeah, yeah, but that was just, again, magical. And that's the other thing about rallies. That's when I jumped into SVJ, middle, that was my first time in Tennessee. At first time traveling alone, and I'm going from Chicago to Tail of the Dragon in a bunch of strangers' cars, first time in a Cadillac, first time in a Camaro, all these things. I'm just like, all these firsts that never would have happened if it wasn't for Crown Rally.

Well, we have cool lakes and rivers here, which is kind of our thing, but so I just flew to Denver and then to LA to get on this cruise ship. And even in LA, I was picturing this whole just city is all I would see, but it's in a big bowl of mountains too. And I had to tell you, I was like, we're from the Midwest, it's just flat. It just, I mean, even when you think you got a ski hill or some kind of a cool mountain, you have no f****** clue what a real mountain looks like.

We have pastures, we have green, we have forests, and we have a lot, we have four seasons here. Go to San Diego once, and it's the same weather year round.

Yeah, I couldn't handle that.

And it's like, holy s***, that'd be cool. Then you think about it, it's like, no man.

No variety.

I love every 90 days, you have a different set of clothes because of the weather.

I have to think about that too. I'm deciding, do I wanna do another set of hoodies, or do I wanna start thinking t-shirts for the season, for the Minnoxide merch? And I'm just like, I like thinking about it. I like wearing a hoodie. Once again, to the negative stuff, even then it's like, well, I get to put on a heavier jacket. It is fun, but honestly, the only thing that bothers me is not the cold, it's the ice. That's the only thing I hate about our climate. Everything else I can deal with, I can prepare for.

Yeah, I'd say the only thing that freezes up on the sidewalks, the ice, but when it just sneaks up on you, and all of a sudden you go outside and you're falling on your a**.

That's the only thing I don't like. Like my brother, he'll go sliding down the driveway. He'll get a running start. I'm not that guy.

You're not that guy.

I'm not that guy.

My dad slipped and fell on ice the other day, and I'm like, dude, at your age now, that can be like detrimental to you. You gotta watch your s***, man.

It's crazy.

No, I'm all for the winter. We do a lot. I've got thousands of dollars invested in snowmobile gear. I'm bundled up and ready to go.

That's something we did as kids, but we just got out of them. My dad still has the sleds, but f***, they haven't moved forever. Sleds now are not what they used to be. Sleds now, you'd die.

Yeah, mine's the fastest production sled they make. It's a Yamaha Sidewinder. So, it's got a 998 turbo. It's great. If you think your car pulls hard, if I get on the lake and I hit that throttle all the way down, it is intense.

And if you don't have the spikes on the track, you're not going anywhere.

Oh, yeah, I got all that stuff.

And they drag race those f******, too.

They do.

When I saw that, and I'm like this.

200 and some miles an hour.

On a snowmobile?

The record is set in Chetek, which is where we have our cabin. So, Winterfest is actually this weekend. They normally have all of the NSSR races, all that stuff there. It's going to be kind of a bus this weekend. We're going up to support anyway. Hang out with the bars, you know, do that kind of stuff. But the world record, I believe right now, on a straight line snowmobile is done in Chetek. 220 some miles an hour.

So I'm going to ask an adult question. How do they have, I mean, does their life insurance policy, I'm not making a joke, I'm serious. I mean, is their life insurance policy, no, they're doing that?

Probably not.

Because like Gumball, Crown does it too, but Gumball really does it. So Gumball, you have to give them a typed letter from your insurance company saying that they acknowledge that you're on Gumball and they understand what Gumball is.

Oh, really?

Yeah. It's not just that you can't just get an email. They have to have letterhead. It has to be a letter saying they understand it. So when I did Europe, my insurance, I was like, my agent was like, yeah, it's covered, it's covered. Until it came to typing up the letter. And they're like, yeah, we can't do it in Europe. I'm like, why? Because Europe, I'm like, okay. So that was an unexpected cost for seven days.

So how does that work?

Does it do like a temporary thing then, like a 10 day, 10 day pass for Europe?

$4,000. Dumb as f***.

So if I'm understanding, because like, this isn't something I necessarily think about regularly. So would that make your life insurance void then?

No, this is called the car, that was for the car insurance. When I was bringing up the life insurance, typically if you're doing something f****** stupid, like riding a missile at 200 miles an hour, I can't see how your life insurance policy would allow you to do that.

Yeah, yeah, that makes sense.

Yeah, like, can you parachute?

They have chutes, but it's on a lake, right? So there's lots of runoff, and these sleds, they don't even look like snowmobiles, hardly, they're all like, flat to the ground. They're super long.

No suspension.

Yeah, yep.

Crazy.

And that's in a quarter mile. They can get up to 200, I think it's 226 is the record or something like that right now.

Yeah, when we did the salt flats, I texted Brandon McDonald, my insurance agent, I go, him at salt flats, I know the car wasn't gonna do 200, but it's just a number to say, hey, if I go 200, am I okay? And he's like, yeah, have fun. I was like, cool. And believe me, I got up to 150, and I was like, yeah, no.

I wanna see 200. I've been to like 165-ish, almost 170 in the Shelby, but I would like to see 200 someday.

Well, you gotta do it somewhere. It's tough, because airport runways just aren't enough unless you're sticking a lot of money in the end.

They're not smooth either.

No, they're not. They're really not. But salt flats, you gotta have narrow tires. So after you're done, the old timers are all there, because it's their hobby. And so many people, this is again, drop your f****** egos and talk to old people. Because they know. So these old people that run the salt flats, it's anyone's property, but they kind of oversee it and govern it. Hey, what am I doing wrong? Why did I get nervous? Why did I get scared? Because you do it, you get scared when you realize you're floating. It's not floating on asphalt, you're floating on salt. And it's all it is, it's salt. Until you see it, you can't understand it. It's salt. And he's like, your tires are too wide. And I'm like, really? And he goes, yeah, when you get home, watch all the videos of the fastest cars. They've got narrow a** tires and there's no air in them or something. There's solid tires. And you learn so much from these guys. And apparently, the ends of these salt flats, the ends where it's like determining how far you can drive on it, it gets soft like a swamp. So you have to do it early in the morning when they're doing these big, long runs.

Oh really?

You learn a lot from these salt flats.

And it is just smooth as hell, or what, the salt flats?

Yeah, it is. But you could, just looking at that car on your wall right there, imagine it doing 150. You're straight, but for some reason, all of a sudden, you'll just, you're going like this. The car is like, the whole car is moving. Like you're floating, because you're not making contact. And that's why you need the narrow tires that kind of make that groove, I guess. I guess.

Because it's thinner, I can cut through it a little bit easier.

Yeah, you're just floating. When I told you, when you take it off, I noticed the cars were front of me, they couldn't get traction. So I built up slowly, kind of like second gear, I went a little bit further than I should have. But again, I was worried about third, was it gonna break loose? Yeah. You just gotta ease into it. People with all-wheel drive cars are different. They can just f****** just go.

Well, these guys were the fastest there. Probably. Yeah, that RS3 downstairs. He brought that out there, and he was only making like 800 wheel at the time. And I think they were the fastest one. I think they did like 192 or something.

Yeah, no one broke, too. But there was people in the 180s. And in my head, I'm like, that was like, at the time it was, I wanna say I hit the 160 mark. I did a live thing. But I was like, dude, that's still like 20, 30 miles faster in what I'm doing. And at the time, I remember saying to myself, I'm cool with it. The 200 objective I had in my head for some day is satisfied. It's gone. This is close enough. I'm done. I'm not doing it. Because it's, when you're thinking, you have a lot of time to think. But when you're driving up to that speed, you're only focused on what's ahead of you. But as soon as the car moves a little bit, your mind runs with thoughts of why, what the f***? You have kids, you're married, you have a company, you have employees. This ain't worth it. Shut it down. It flies through your head.

Because even in the flats where there's nothing to hit, if that car turns sideways, it's going to roll.

So they said it won't roll.

No?

Well, help me out. My car doesn't have any pans underneath or anything like that. It's all open. So airflow, it goes through it, right? If the car is sealed, and anyone can correct me on this, it's cool, I don't care. If it's sealed, the car can lift off from what I got from the old guys. So you want open wheels, you want it so the air can escape, I guess. So it doesn't lift you up and just throw you into the stars. But if you're going sideways, if the wind and everything's good, and you don't hit a divot or something, yeah, you're just gonna slide. But, so my tires are wide enough where I really felt confident I would just slide. But if I had narrower tires, possibly could have rolled. I mean, I'm not gonna play with it again.

Yeah.

And then when I got home, I called the local shop and tire pros, and they let me come over, and I just got this silicone salt stuff that dissolves it or something. Just made everything so slippery.

Are you still finding salt somewhere though?

No, but months later, you would still like hit a pothole or something. And you, you know, whoever's following you is like, dude, you dropped something. It was like a puff of white. It was like, it's still salt. But you do get it all out of there. Leaf blowers, garden hoses. I mean, just constantly just, I have a lift in my garage, so just put a little tarp down, keep spraying it every once in a while. But it took a good year. But again, it's salt. You can't be, you can't say you've driven the salt flats and then go, oh, I've never driven it in the winter. Dude, it's salt. It's salt. It's salt, 100% salt.

That's a one and done experience, too, right? Like you did it once, you did it.

Yeah, I did it twice, but I didn't do the balls out run. Because it's just as fun to go out there, and first time I ever overheated my car, just doing s*******.

That's right.

But now I fixed that. I put a four inch radiator in my car, so now I can do it all day long. But you live and learn if something happens to your car, okay, fix it, double it up, never deal with it. Like Wheeler, when he lost his axle, I put 1,500 horsepower axles in my car. Does my car produce 1,500? F*** no, it never will.

Good to overbuild.

But it ain't gonna break.

Yeah.

It ain't gonna break. But doing burnouts and stuff, you can be pretty hard on a car.

Yeah, it's good to overbuild for stuff like that.

Yeah. So when your kids drive it someday, they're not like, why didn't he do it the right way? My kids will never say it to me about anything I do. Building's nothing. They're gonna say, wow, he did a good job.

Setting the standard.

Yeah.

Yeah, fastest for me was riding Shotgun 189.

Holy s***.

Yeah, you got, see, I think you have minerals because I can't ride passenger.

Yeah, that was again in the Viper.

What the f***?

Yeah, yeah, 2000 hitting you at the chest.

Were you grabbing anything? Yeah, I was gonna say, were you like, were you just, did you just kind of like surrender and say, if it happens, it happens?

The first time I ever did that in my life was riding in an R8. He did it multiple times. I don't wanna say, being a passenger and somebody driving fast was in a R8, maybe like buck 30 or something like that. And that was my first time where I was just like, yeah, you know, if this is how I go, I go. I've smartened up since then, but when you're in a full blown race car like that, you just kind of, the best thing to do is just calm down, let the driver focus. Cause if you're that screaming guy in the passenger seat, you're both gonna die. You know, like I remember, I can't remember if it was me or my brother, he told. He's like, don't scream. Cause that, you know, put us both in danger.

People don't realize that. My Taylor is probably, his name's Taylor Hafner. The best co-pilot I think you could ever have.

I think I'm friends with him on Facebook.

Yeah, he was a green beret. I'm so sorry. Stop was not a green beret. He was airborne, airborne. He jumped out of airplanes, really big on history. Not green beret. I screwed that up, not a green beret. He was airborne. So is that a ranger, airborne ranger?

I think they, yeah, they can do rangers, which is a similar program.

So he's a b*****, and nothing you could do. I mean, we lost signal once in the Devil's Triangle. That's what the road was called. And we had a thing, one, two, three, four, five, meaning five is, dude, slow down. One is hit it hard, three is slow down a little bit. For corners, how bad the corner was. And it was a three coming up, and we didn't have service. He misread it, and it was a five. And I, first time ever, like, foot through the bottom of the thing, thought we were gonna slide it and lose it. Didn't, captured it. So I'm going, click, yeah, good job, good save. It's just nothing. There's no emotion. He was fine, he was fine, because he's been in worse situations, right? And that's good. It's, and Bill, my second co-pilot, he's good. Nothing gets him going. The wife loved her to death, but she's a nurse. She's seen, she's worked in OR, she's worked in elective surgery, she's worked in hip replacement, she's also worked in emergency rooms, where she's seen the worst of the worst. So, if I hammer it, I can feel her getting tense. So, Gumball, she was great in Gumball, because the thing I can't handle is you hear it. And that breaks your concentration. But I'm really surprised that the kids, they're all calm about it, they trust me. I've never broken that trust when it comes to the driving. You can't break that trust. That's how you get a passenger broken. Broken meaning as a co-pilot. But if that co-pilot trusts you 100%, yeah, it's great.

Yeah, I mean, yeah.

My one and only co-pilot is my wife, and she's great. The only one, we went up to the top of Pike's Peak, and we get up there and she's crying, but she didn't say a word all the way up. And I'm like, what the hell? She's like, I was scared to death, because on her side, on the way up. She sees rocks. Yeah, mountain and all this s***. And I'm like, yeah, it's all good, we're good. She didn't say a word though, until we got to the top.

Yeah, we got to the top. I was like, man, why are you crying? No, I'm kidding. No, Pike's Peak, we did that twice, I think, for my realities. That was a fun one.

Yeah, but we're driving up at normal. There's people that race up it.

Yeah, I know.

And then the strangest thing that people in your audience don't know, there's m************ bicycling up it. How?

And why?

You're walking around up there, and you're sucking wind and stuff, these guys are bicycling up it. Hats off to them, man.

Yeah.

Ridiculous. I remember from the first year, I went there to the second year. So I lost a lot of weight that second year, and I was up top, I was running on top of the mountain. Like we were like, you know, everyone's smiling at a rally. You get these people that want to go on a hike. I'm not one of those guys. They're like, oh yeah, let's go to the top of the mountain. Let's go walk all the way over there. I'm like, why? There's just no need for that.

Yeah, but it's fun. You just, until your legs are like, whoa, slow down. Your legs are like, why are they burning? Why are they on fire?

I'm just saying, you're thinking like, oh man.

Can you win gumball? Then how do they do? Do they do points or anything like that? Or are you just in it for the experience? You go, there's no, there's no.

So there's, there's, there's written and unwritten rules, I guess you could say. So there's no winner. There is a, there's a spirit of the gumball. And that has nothing to do with anything. And nothing. It's just, are you a cool m***********? Did you have some cool experiences? Were you a good person? S*** like that. That, those are the winners. But there's, there's a group of guys that are like, okay, this is, you know, this is how we run. You know, let's go, let's have some fun. And then, but the grid and stuff like that is kind of like the glory of it, you know, one through five. But that's all on fundraising donations and how much you can help raise. And one thing that they do for their, over there, that's unique that I wish they did there, that they do here. So their charities are throughout the world. So they have charities for the United States, everything. But their government gives or matches like 25% of what you give. Oh, really? For the charities, that's cool. Because if you do it, you sign a form saying you allow the parliament or whatever it is, their government to add 25% to it.

Well, we give money away here too, it's just in a different fashion.

Yeah, yeah, we do. We do, our government does give away a lot of money for different reasons, not the right ones. Yeah.

Well, the reason I was asking is because we're getting back to your hiking up stuff. I like those, so my co-pilot, she's great. So like we've switched before in rallies. That's not the seat for me. Like some of them we do, like you've done Ruth's rallies, right? Yeah. So like there's riddles, there's s***. Like if you, I don't listen to the radio, like when I'm rallying, we're doing stuff, we're figuring out, this guy will throw like little things, we gotta take pictures of certain stuff. I've been on a River Valley Road rally where we had to like hike up some staircase and take a picture at the top of some peak. I like that stuff too. It gets you out of the car, gets your legs stretching, you know, do this stuff. And then that's all part of the getting points to win, which is what I enjoy.

My type of rallying is like the Baker C2C. It's point A to point B. Don't get pulled over. Don't cause problems. Don't cause drama. Don't have people calling the cops. Get there, who's first, second, third, fourth, right? You know, stuff like that. I love that time clock s***. The pitchers and the scenery and the riddles and stuff, not my cup of tea. Do I respect it? 100% because there's so many different rallies, like there's so many different cars. Find what you like to do and do it. I have found that I love point A to point B stuff and I love having a purpose. I just don't want to be a person out there driving my car like a f******, I don't drive like a douche. I have fun. But I don't want to be the person just out there driving fun, having fun, just, you know, hey, this is selfish. It's only for me, it's my weekend. If I'm raising money for Shriners or Hear the Cheers or Epilepsy Foundation, you f****** feel good about it. And then you feel really good when Brad Hoffmander sets up a parade at the Shriners and you go to the Shriners and these kids come out. And I know I've talked about, we talked about earlier in your program here, but it's life-changing when you see a kid that you can tell is going through struggles, smile, and they forget all about their pain, they forget all about the needles, they forget all about the medications, they forget all about all the physical therapy, and their hands reach up to your wheel. They can't f****** see over the dash, but their hands touch that, you know, my wheel's used, and they feel that, and they feel the grooves, and they put their hand on their shifter, and they grab, you know, they look at the key, they always look at the key, you know, they don't turn the car on, but they're just like feeling s***, like dials and stuff, and then they, I'll put that, grab the, you wanna put the headset on? You know, it's, yeah, we were concerned about COVID and stuff like that, but this is, and I do respect that, you know, you gotta be careful with stuff, but it wasn't like I was wiping the headset and stuff, but to put it in, I'm like, I'm safe, you're safe, put this headset on, we're gonna rely on higher powers at the moment and just let you live. And you put that headset on, you press the button, you know, press that red button, because my red button's on the steering wheel, and then my co-pilot's is on the E-brake, the red button to talk, and you know, you press the button, and they'll talk, and you know, and it noise cancels, so it shuts everything off around them so they can hear the voice. And they'll shake their head like that a little bit, like, what's going on? And it's the same thing, it's in like fire trucks, or offshore remote speed boats and stuff like that. And it clicks, it clicks, their brain is shut off. That's, it's, you feel close to meaning of life. Yeah. When you see that reaction, when you see a kid, forget all the s*** they're going through. Yeah, it's good. And it gives you purpose, gives you purpose. Cause having fun is good, but having fun with no purpose, you do it. It kind of beats any a little bit, you feel selfish. But when you have a purpose and you have fun, and you help it raise money or do good, yeah, you have an excuse, son, to keep doing it.

Right. They don't ever let you put the kids in a car and go whip s****** or anything though either?

So, funny you say that, we had some kids in the salt flats, and people were doing s******, and the parents are all there and stuff. It's like, does your kid want to do s*****? And Wheeler is good at it too. Wheeler is telling me, man, top five human being. Some people just won't let people touch their car. It's like you and me.

He's so proactive about it. He's like, get in this car.

Get in this car.

Well, the Gavi to Gogo meets that we used to do on Mondays, they would put, the kids would come up and look, and there's a guy in a Hellcat, and then Wheeler too, they were taking hits on 12 there.

Yeah, Bud would do that. So, we would do burnouts in the salt flats, and that's how I learned my car would overheat on the salt flats. It just spinned around, and when you hear him giggling, you don't stop, it's like, I'm going to go another lap, here we go, I'm going to blow this f****** car up just because this kid's laughing. They're only scared the first loop round, and after that, it's like they're laughing, giggling. And if you press the button, you could press their button and hear them laughing because they don't think of being on the radio. But you press that button, and you hear them giggling and stuff, and it feels good. You're just like, yeah, this is good. You're doing good, and that's what matters. And then it's, I've never had a full blown adult say, can I, because they just can't, let your inner child out. You can tell you got a 10 year old mentality inside that adult body. Say you want to ride in the car. You want to go for a burnout? No, no, that's okay. Okay, I'm not going to ask twice. But yeah, so that did happen once they were out. They brought out some kids to the South flats and did s******* with them and stuff. But that's cool. Yeah, it's, when you go to the Shriners, those kids are in rough shape. So you don't know what you would do to them if you put them in a car and actually did a pole or something like that with them. Yeah, good point. You'd jar some bones in their body.

It's an amazing thing to give people those experiences. Because if you think about it, they're gonna remember that for the rest of their lives.

Forever.

Anytime they see a Camaro, for example, in the future, they're like, oh, I remember.

They'll remember that car, right. And it doesn't even have to be the exact one, because Mustangs, they all look so much different. The grille and stuff like that. But they'll know what a Mustang is.

It's like when you see a V6 Charger, and you're like, oh yeah, Hellcats.

Doesn't matter, right?

I like it when they appreciate that more than stuff like that.

It does happen. It's pretty rare that a kid will pick your car over a Lamborghini. Grady's GTR, that full carbon fiber thing, when some kids walk past that, and I'm like, you don't even know what you're walking past. This is literally Godzilla. This car is unreal. But again, that's kind of why I kind of tip a hat to Porsches. Their GT2RS or the 992 GT3 RS is there, and those are hot looking. But a lot of those Porsches kind of look the same. Let's be grown ups here. But when it comes to a Lamborghini or even some of those Ferraris, it's like, wow, former McLaren, anything with the doors that are opening up sideways and stuff. Kids want to see it because that's what they want on their wall. No kid puts a Camaro or a Mustang on their wall.

Speak for yourself, sir.

Well, yeah, but you force that on your kids.

I support the regime.

Yeah, I had a Countach on my wall. And then when I got to the point where... So I have properties. And when I got to the point where it's like, if I really had to have one, I could probably get something done. But then you start researching it, and it's like, okay, how do you back those cars up? You have to sit on the sill to back it up, because you can't see out the back mirror. And that's how they tell you to do it. The maintenance on it, it's how many horsepower? It's 300-some horsepower, 400-some horsepower. It's nothing crazy. You got to remember, the cars are mastered in the 70s and 80s. Again, beautiful works of art. But things have evolved. New information comes, new decisions. It's not my dream car now.

Yeah, dreams evolve. That's a good way of putting it.

They do. I mean, my dad's dream car is the 68GTO, and that's the only reason I got that car, because the guy smiles. The guy gets a tear in his eye whenever he sees it. And the reason I built it the way I did, well, I didn't build it this awesome carnage garage in Colorado did it, you can't break it. I mean, I've done some crazy burnouts with the thing. My dad just giggles, you know, like as a little kid, he's getting up there in age. So you can appreciate it. Cars are, there's a car for every personality, a car for everyone is going to find it. You don't even know your car yet. Some people, they don't even know it.

Yeah, that's a good thing. When I talk to people who aren't car enthusiasts, I'm like, you just don't know. You just don't know what you like yet.

The first car I fell in love with was Nissan 350Zs.

I could see that.

Dude, they're beautiful little cars. I had one, but I was like, nah, I ain't ripping on them. But back then, I didn't have the money to invest in them to really get the most out of them. Honda Preludes, those things were hot back then. They were beautiful cars. But I always went with GM because it was just, they're easy.

Yeah.

They're easy. Oh, you blew an engine? Cool, who cares?

Well, I've been looking at some of that. So when I picked up this, when you were complaining about traffic earlier, so my Lincoln Town Car is sitting out there. That's why I bought it, is to come here, right? You drive it through the cities, it's a nightmare. So I was looking for anything. I was looking at cool stuff that I remember from the 80s and 90s. I was looking for Preludes and those little Honda Civic hatchbacks and stuff like that. But that stuff's starting to become popular again now that all the prices are gone way up on them.

So what year is your Lincoln out there?

2007.

It's a Lincoln what?

Town Car.

So is it the squared one or is it the rounded ones?

It's rounded. It'd be the last generation that they had, but they don't look very far off.

It doesn't look like the space shuttle one where it's all really super.

No, it's basically a Crown Vic or a Grand Marquis.

And it rides like you're...

Oh, like I'm on a cloud.

Like you're in a waterbed.

Yep, and it still has a V8 and runs up nice. Yeah. And I'll smash it into some 88 on the highway, I don't care.

Gutless as f*** too.

That's not too bad. Come on.

What does it got, 351 in it or whatever?

No, it's a 4.6.

4.6, yeah. Yeah, those cars, my parents growing up, like I said, they were Ford people. They had a Lincoln Town Car, and it was very important to my dad. Signature series.

Oh, yep.

It was a signature series, Paul. That's what he'd always say. And yeah, it was dumb. It was a big, big, big car. You just float, like you said.

Well, I was gonna get something smaller, and then the front center council thing folds up, so I can get the whole fam in it, too. If we wanna run uptown in Hudson.

Yeah, you can put everyone in the front. It's a big bench seat in the front.

If I'm trying to go to Agave, and it's a pain in the a** to park downtown, I can take that instead of my truck.

Or you can go to GoGo.

Yeah, we've done that. Whoever you have up there.

Chris.

That guy is, I hope you're paying him well, because he is fricking amazing.

He is amazing. Yeah, and how we got him is through youth. So he was managing a restaurant, and he was their number two guy.

Yeah.

And like everything in life, young people can be frustrating to work with. Sorry. And the rest, no, meaning young people, right? And in the place that he was working with, young people were younger than the people that I have to work with in a full-service restaurant. So he just finally kind of cracked one day. I was like, just get the f*** out of my face, right? You can't talk to kids like that. So it got him in trouble. Well, he was a great customer with Agave and its staff, and I just had a meeting with him. I was like, hey, here's where you went wrong. Here's what I can help you with. Here's your growth that you're gonna have, and here are things that I can see you doing. And he did it, and he's latched on to it. He's a phenomenal human. He's still young, he's growing. But I do see myself working with him for decades. He's shown that, you know, when you have kids, it doesn't mean passing down success, because some people just, some kids latch on to that, some kids don't. But you can find individuals in your life that when my time's done, I feel good that he's gonna help it continue on. And he's one of them. He's a fantastic human. Still young enough where they don't see the big picture, you know, when they're in their 20s. You don't see that until you hit your 40s. You're like, it's not that you think of an expiration date. You start thinking of there's more to life than when I'm living. Yeah.

I'm seeing that more as I'm doing some traveling, getting out of here and in other places. And, you know, we were just in Mexico, and people, Puerto Vallarta, I was there, and you're just going through the streets and the stuff, and you're seeing how other people are living, and you're like, oh my god, man. This is, I mean, it was just like s***.

They're living off your table scraps, and their quality of life is so high.

Yep. There was, I saw this guy sitting in the dirt on the side of a mountain as I'm getting ready to go up and ride side by sides, and he f****** got a smile on his face. He's just happy as hell. He's living in what some people come travel to just to call paradise, and he's got some shack on the side of the road. He probably s**** in a bucket. Yeah. Just happy as hell. But I'm like, maybe I'm doing it wrong? I have no idea. Well, we're-

I think about that all the time.

Yeah, we're products. I mean, we are the commodity to a lot of things. Like social media is such a double edged sword. It can be good for you, but it's horrible. Two of my daughters of the three are social media driven. They're just, they're always, their thumbs, their thumb are the most powerful muscle on them. They're always scrolling, always scrolling, always scrolling. Gotta let the phone eat before you eat, take pictures, all that s***. But then I got the one kid, Seabass, the middle kid, who it's as if she has like a constant trickle of like THC. She's chill, she's nothing bugs her, no drama. She'll try to do drama once in a while when the other two are riled up. But it's like, it doesn't work for you, Seabass. She's like, oh, really girl? It's just like, it's so awkward for her. It ain't you. But so she did get Instagram finally, because I'll send the other two daughters and my wife, we call it fire, funny reels and stuff like that. And Charlie is the closest to me when it comes to personality, movies, dark humor, jokes. And it's, f***, it's funny. But she doesn't scroll. She'll look at stuff I see, look at a couple, what I send her, look at a couple other ones past it, and send stuff back. But her screen time's pretty low. She likes to read books and movies. She's proud that she's read 10 books this year. That's huge. It is huge, but I'll bust their balls and say, so how many of them are nonfiction? You know, shut up, dad. You know?

It's something, though.

Yeah, yeah, but it's...

It still entertains the, I mean, it builds the brain.

Stimulating.

Yeah, absolutely.

Great kid, great f****** kid. And people aren't supposed to say it's my favorite kid, but if she had to be my favorite kid, she would be. I love my dars. No one can take that away, but it's fun.

I tell them I have favorites. It changes every few seconds, every few minutes.

Yeah, that's usually what it is.

Depends how I feel right now.

Yeah.

Well, it's who's hurt you the least.

Yeah.

You know, who's actually done what you asked them to do without popping off.

Yep.

Who's broke your heart the least, you know, when it comes to having daughters? Yeah.

I've got, mine's, my oldest has got a boyfriend now, and she just wants to go to the movies all the time. Just go to the movies, go to the movies. And I'm like, you know, there's other things you guys can do. Like you don't need to, this is your excuse to hang out. Like go bowling, go do something else.

Show them how to wrench on a car.

So I have some rules. Before they're allowed to go hang out by themselves, I have to meet him. Yeah, I want to look him in the eyes and shake his hand. And then, you know, I just try and be, I gotta understand, I gotta let it happen, but.

But there's a lot of things they can do besides movies, like, you know, like break up.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I'm, I'm supportive of it, but I want to let her know that there's, he better not f*** up.

Yeah, it's when you grow up in a farm and you understand the triple S rule and you, you know, have excavating equipment and land, it's, it's just, it's not a good combination for a possessive or jealous boyfriend.

Yep.

What's the triple S rule?

Shoot shovel, shut up.

Is that, are you telling me or is that what it is?

That's what it is. It's when, yeah, shoot shovel, shut up. I've never been part of any of that s***, but I'm just saying when you have a farm and stuff like that, and you know, up north if there's a wolf attack or something like that, it's sometimes farmers have to do things and. That's where the rule kind of came from.

But going back to the social media thing, I kept it from, like I let them get phones, and then it was social media, if you have straight A's, and you can only pick one. You can't have Snapchat, Instagram, all that s***. You decide which one you want, Facebook, whatever, and that's the one you can have. Well, now I'm working with this guy. We're doing this stuff. I've started Gunna Garage. My wife and I are trying to do this thing here, and I'm like, I can really use the help of a teenager that's obsessed with a phone. And she sucks at it as much as we do, so.

As long as the kid doesn't let it dominate their life, comparison is a thief of joy. And the one daughter works hard and has money. So when I start seeing special, she works out all the time. So when you see special protein shakes or something like that, it's like, dude, you're becoming, you're the product. They're selling you stuff off the rails and stuff. Oh, huge. When you tell the kids that, they don't understand it because they don't understand how business works you on. And I should say it, that's the biggest lie life has ever told is that, oh, it's business you want to understand. There's no such thing. It's such a generic term, but every business is basically the same. They're either selling you a product or selling you a service. That's it. So when you look at these reels and someone looks goodness outfit, they're not trying to show you their tan and haircut. They're trying to get you to buy that outfit. They're trying to get you to buy those shoes. When Jordan comes out with a different colored Jordans, they want you to buy that shoe.

Well, now they're putting a link right on the thing too. So it's really easy.

Buy it here.

That's a tough one now. I've seen people complain about this too, because everybody's turned into a salesperson. That's one of the things that I've thought about doing with the show. It's like, oh, I can make a quick two grand or whatever. If I just put this stupid hat on, that first of all, my mother wouldn't be proud of, because they have these stupid sayings or whatever. And I'm just like, yeah, it could be that I could push it, but I'm just like, I'm not trying to peddle b*******. And that's the problem is now everybody's a salesperson on TikTok. Like, oh, if I should show you my phone right now, I have over 100 businesses, quote unquote, that have all these drop shipping companies that just want me to do a video of their product. One of them was like Connect Four, like a Connect Four knockoff. It's like, how does this even relate to my channel?

Yeah, but the reason you're not doing it is because of integrity.

And you know what, that's the tough part sometimes. It's like, man, if I could just sacrifice 20% of integrity, I'd be 300 times richer. But it's like, I'd rather work hard and get there the right way than have this flash that comes just as fast as it goes.

But you want to be able to sleep at night going, I didn't sell out, you did it the right way.

These hoodies, like the one that you got, it's like, I was supposed to have those six or seven months ago, but I'm like, it has to be done right. I sampled a bunch of shirts from a bunch of different companies. I'm like, this feels like garbage. I'm like, it feels horrible, the color's not right. Let's keep this going. You know, and not just those hoodies, but like previous shirts that I wanted to release, but I didn't because I'm like, you know what, it just doesn't look right.

Well, you have the approval of a 13 year old girl because she put it on and she was like, wow, this is nice. And then she wore it to school the next day and got tons of compliments.

That's what I'm saying.

That's another thing, but it's cool today, dumb tomorrow.

Yeah.

It's, well, New Balance shoes are all of a sudden f****** cool again. I'm like, you know.

So it's not just a Corvette guy thing anymore?

No, it's not. And I'm trying to tell them, like, you understand how dumb you look for Christmas that the wife got them all of these, except Charlie, the normal one. But she is, she didn't get New Balance shoes because it's like, all of a sudden it's cool. And it's like, those are not cool.

Yep.

And the kids, they look you dead and you go, you don't know. And I'm like, when I got a Corvette, first Corvette I ever owned, you know what I mean, my dumb f*** friends were sending me stupid a** s*** for coupons, for cutoff jeans or Fleet Farm coupons. And, oh dude, you gotta get your New Balance shoes. No, I don't need to get New Balance shoes. You gotta get grass stains on them. Or they're like, no, no, no, Paul's classy. He's got to have the Nike Pegasus, which is the Nike version of the, right? Is that what they're called, Pegasus?

I have no idea.

The Nike version of the New Balance shoes.

I bought my shoes because they have carbon fiber on them. I mean, I really don't, you know.

Yeah, it's, yeah, it's just, yeah. Reels and algorithms are telling our kids what's cool. And that is the dumbest s***.

Yeah, it's ridiculous. But yeah, like you said, was it cool today, dumb tomorrow? That's why I wanted to do something that I wanted to do. I'm like, you know what? I'm not gonna try to do this to appease what's hot right now. I just want to do something cool. People like, I can't remember who it was. They complimented my logo. They're like, that's retro. I'm like, that's what we were going for. Like I styled it over, I think it was like Sonico or something like that. I don't know. We were looking, like me and my graphic designer went back and forth and we were looking at, you know, what's cool in history? Because that stuff's gonna make a comeback. Every 20 years, the fad comes back.

Yeah, it does. You're absolutely right. Parachute pants. I mean, I've seen surf style jackets again. You know what you're gonna see? You're gonna see those starter jackets for the NFL where they zipped up in the front with the kangaroo pouch. Kangaroo shoes, I'm surprised they haven't come back yet. These are things a little bit before your time, but they were there. But yeah, you gotta be, especially with your stuff, with your merch and stuff like that, you gotta be green and growing or you're ripe and rotting. You gotta constantly be moving. And that's the thing I try to tell my kids. When you come out with something, like that logo or something, where I'm talking like car colors and stuff like that, that was designed and they knew they were gonna drop that like three, four months ago. And they've already got what's next coming down the pipeline.

Yeah, fast fashion.

Yeah, it's not, this is cool today and it's gonna be cool in a year from now. No, Stanley mugs, they're not all white now again. I mean, I remember when one of the dars got Candice one, I'm like, you have a nice Yeti coffee, what's this Stanley, why? It's gotta handle it. All of a sudden, every m*********** has a Stanley. And I just pissed off half your audience probably because I said that everyone's gonna f*** a Stanley. But now they're all different colors. It's just.

Well, and some colors are rare, so they're going for like s*** tons of money.

But, we're all girlfriends here. What's it gonna be like in three years when you're walking around with a Stanley? You're gonna be like f****** loser. Because it's gonna be like, those aren't cool anymore. Everyone has those. It's just the way it's gonna be. When Yetis came out, it was cool. This is a good, durable product. Good, I only have to buy it once. But I'm telling you, if you have any of the new colors, it's like, hey, nice Yeti douche. All of a sudden, it's a douche product. It's like, no, it's a great product.

My dog's got a Yeti bowl, by the way.

I will confess my dog has one too, but.

Yeah, well, my parent just balled out on his dog.

Yeah, but we take care of our dog. My dog and I, we're best friends. I kiss my dog more than I kiss my kids.

Oh, every morning, I'm drowning.

But that's just the way it is with stuff. It's cool today and questionable tomorrow.

Like you said earlier, comparison's a thief of joy. If you can just humble yourself and just be like, hey, I'm just doing this because I like it. Life is so much, like for example, the new style of highlights that I do, right? It's because somebody who's been crushing it a little harder than I have is doing it. I'm like, well, what are they doing that I'm not? That's where comparison's a good thing, right? It's like, how can I improve? But when you start looking at other people and you're just like, oh, I'm dumb, or oh, I've got a stupid Yeti, just do what you like.

So the two differences right there, one is research and development. You're researching how to better yourself. Comparison, when you're like, I want that color Yeti, that's you wanting that. That's not bettering your f****** life. That's something you get and you're like, oh my God, I'm complete. No, I'm not. Put it on the shelf. What's the next thing I gotta buy? F****** dumb.

Yeah, that's the thing. If you ask yourself, will this make me happy in two months? If you can ask yourself that question, or am I gonna care about this next week? I made a pretty dumb mistake a few days ago, and I was seething over it for a day or two, and then we're on day three or four now, and I'm just like, all right, you know what? People won't remember this in a week.

Right.

Let's just move on.

The same way with drama. Is it gonna matter in six months from now?

Yeah.

And it doesn't. People don't realize how people don't care. It's every single person you run into in your life has issues. They're going through problems. They're fighting battles and stuff like that. Don't add to it. Don't add to it. Don't f****** add drama to someone's life. Just stay the f*** out of it and move on. The greatest business to get into is staying out of others. And people will try to push their drama onto you, and all you gotta do is, yeah, cool, and just walk away. And I've learned that through girls, my daughter's sports. I mean, when it comes to athletics, boys have to play hard to feel good. Girls have to feel good to play hard. And it's a two totally different thing. A boy can be in a bad mood at a hockey game and go out there and bust a**. But if you have a girl with a bad attitude going to the hockey game, yeah, good luck.

Yeah, it's almost like fuel for boys.

Yeah, it's fuel.

Yeah.

Oh dude, even the best workouts are when you're angry.

Or heartbroken or something like that or disappointed.

Dude, I almost had abs when I was heartbroken. I was like 2% body fat from actually having abs for the first time in my life. I was like, huh, f****** A, we're almost there.

I can clean a whole damn house and rebuild the damn thing when everybody's pissed me off at home. Well, I think they do it on purpose.

Yeah. My thing is creating something. I'm telling you, it's a curse because when you create a company or a building project or something like that, it doesn't go away when you're over it. It's still there.

That's where my struggle is right now. I have friends that are like day traders, and I'm like, yeah, but you're not creating anything. And granted, yeah, some of them do get rich, rich, quote unquote, but I'm just saying, I think I want to create something. Yeah, I can go get a funded account and all that. That's cool. But even with this, I got to ask myself, am I creating something of value? And I feel like for a lot of people that listen to this, I think, I don't know, 300 or 400 listens an episode at this point on average. It's like... The way I think of it is these people are listening for this for one or two hours. I'm like, all right, I'm creating value here. If people are coming back, I have something. And then what comes next?

There's reference points in here too. People will remember something and reference it.

But yeah, dude, what blew my mind is when I had Sam Moraine on this podcast, and then I think a month, or maybe a few weeks later, I went to a car show and his dad walked up to me. I had no idea who he was, but I have to be like, all right, is this somebody I just forgot or something? And he's like, no, no, I saw your episode with Sam. I'm like, he never talks at home, but to see him open up on the podcast, that was really cool. And it's like, I'm like, man, I have people walking up to me all the time now. It's just, it's so weird.

People get to know you on this stuff. So I've done that stuff too.

For better or for worse.

Right, you see YouTube people, stuff like that, you meet them all, you feel like you know everything about them. They know nothing about you.

Nothing, right.

They're a regular person. And the same, everybody that comes on, you know, it's just, as long as you keep yourself humble, I think it's really fun. Like you just get to know people and just have cool stories. That's why I always tell people before I hit record here, it's like, it's just a conversation.

That's it.

That's all it is. Like I remember people would get fidgety about the cameras at first. You forget they're there.

Yeah. It's not a big deal.

It really is.

It's a room full of conversation. No one on the computer out there is gonna be trying to use this as a subpoena in court. It's have fun with it, open up.

What is it, statute of limitations, I think it's called?

Put your story out there, let people get to know you a little bit more.

And that's what I love having. We've had a couple of old guys on here too, like in the, what is it, the final nine, but maybe not the back nine, like the back two, like the last two holes of life, right? And it's like, I wanna have more of that on, because, you know, just get those stories out there.

Grab their experiences.

Experience, like you said, it's like talk to more old people.

Yeah.

Dude, like that's why a lot of people tell me I'm a little more mature for my age. Now, granted, I'm 24 now, so I had to get that compliment a little bit less now, but like when I was 18, 19, 20, it's like I'm talking to these people that were twice my age, and it's like I've learned so much, and I value those friendships more than, you know, the boosers I was hanging out with in college. It's just nothing.

We hang out. I gotta remind myself.

Well, you're my only boozer friend.

I'm not even really a boozer. Like, we'll go out and have a few.

Every rally, dude, you're my worst influence.

Yeah, I love it.

It's fun.

It's the only time you can really let loose a little bit.

Those parking garage beers are like the highlight of my life, right? So like I'm not the highlight of my life. That was a really wrong way. But like, yeah, right. So like we're there. We've just done running all day long. We're sitting there. We're standing by our cars. We're b***********. It's something I look forward to. Yeah, absolutely.

Do you prefer that over to clubs or I prefer?

Yeah, I'm not a big club guy. I mean, I'll do it. You know, go see people and stuff. But no, I am about. The s*** I love is. You know, getting a guy, a bunch of guys together at a car rally and you're playing left, right, center, presidents, an a******, a card game, shooting a s*** without a lot, a lot of loud music around you so you can hear each other and enjoy.

Yeah, yeah, but the loud music is too much.

Yeah, the love music gets old. But where you're at, the scenery, it just take it in because there's a lot of places in life that you'll never be at again. You don't realize it till you get a little older. It's like, oh, am I ever going to come back to this place? So just check it out a little longer.

I was thinking about that yesterday, walking in Minneapolis, like, because I took the wrong turn, so I ended up walking an extra half mile the wrong way, and there was no right to surround. But I was thinking, I'm like, I'm never going to walk down the street ever again, never ever. So it's funny that you brought that up.

Yeah, just look around and take it in. I mean, we forget so much in life.

It's like when we had our rally to Niagara Falls, these people were like, I never would have f****** driven out here 18 hours.

Yeah, no one ever says, I'm going to go hang out in Buffalo. Yeah, you go to Buffalo and it's like, if you go to a football game there, which I have not done yet, but it's on a bucket list. I'm not even a big NFL guy, but the way that that city comes together for football games, who the f*** wouldn't want to be part of that kind of atmosphere? When people are passionate about something, find out why they're passionate. Thank Check that out, you know, because it's nine times out of ten, it's gonna be a lot of fun. Went to the WPHL game, the women's pro hockey game, it was a f****** blast. Can you get a bunch of narrow-minded guys together that don't have daughters? No, you're not. But if you understand the struggles that girls go through when it comes to playing hockey, how all they want to do is be treated equal, even when it comes to the f****** hitting and s***, and they can't, they're kind of handcuffed, and you go to that game and they play rough with each other. It's cool, it's emotional, because they're doing something they love. Passion and love does not give a f*** what your gender is. If you are passionate about football, pro wrestling, f****** hockey, whatever it is, soccer, let them have fun. Let them play. Let them play hard.

It is, as a girl dad myself, it's so much different than the sports are kind of a hard one to get. My daughter signed up for the flag football they do in River Falls. Frickin killing those boys out there playing football. There's no women's football team or league or anything like that. I know she's stuck with soccer. That's what she really likes. So we're traveling all over doing that. But yeah, it's a whole different animal than the way they treat boys sports. But yeah.

Especially in the car scene, which is why I'm super stoked that your daughter's getting excited about this, because I just know four years from now she's going to have a stupid Mustang, and it's going to be a problem.

She's 13 years old. She's already driven my GT500.

And you're too young. You don't have kids yet.

No. I've been single for a hot minute.

Yeah, people don't even teach you that. They always teach you when you fall in love and you get your first heartbreak. They don't teach you the total level of different emotion when you have a kid. I mean, you'll run through a wall for them to protect them. You always want to make sure they're good and safe, but it's like a houseplant. You got to let it go outside to grow and get bigger and stuff like that to keep it from...

I have a bamboo I've had for five years. When I see the leaves turn yellow, I get nervous. But no, we just got my first ever dog. And it is not the same as kids, but the stakes are higher, as Bill Burr says. Mine bites someone, it gets put down. But point aside, it's like I'm constantly thinking, oh man, gotta make sure there's no chocolate around, stuff like that. Again, not the same as a kid, but my sense of responsibility has quadrupled in the last few months. So I can only imagine what it's like with a kid.

But a dog's always happy to see you.

That's what I tell my dad. I'm like, man, he's never gonna have b*******.

Kids are in good moods, they're in bad moods.

So that's two points for dogs.

They don't like to be called out on their s***. Okay. And they don't, they listen. They listen to the advice you give them, but they don't always take it.

No, I'm trying to teach right now the own up to your s***, because I think it might be just a decker trait. We're never wrong.

Yeah.

So my kids are going through that right now, and I'm like, dude, you clearly f***** up. Let's just own it, and let's not do it again. So that's been a hard pill to swallow at my house right now. Oh, it was this or that or this. I'm like, no.

Always an excuse.

Yeah.

It's never the person in the mirror.

Yep.

It's true. What else do you want to talk about? I don't even know how long we've been at it.

We just cracked two hours just a couple of minutes ago here.

That's good.

That's a nice thing about this podcast. I always used to say this is we start with cars and then see what else we get up into. And I feel like, I don't know, Tim made a good comment to me the other day, DeCestro. He's like, I'm pretty good at probing. I guess, allegedly, I don't know, good at starting a conversation.

No, he was another one of those old guys that we had on. And that's, I told Harris, I was like, this guy has stories. He's been in the automotive industry forever.

We could have kept going a while there.

Oh, absolutely.

I was sick two months because of him.

Worth it.

I'll tell you something weird that not a lot of people know. I have an incredible obsession with Star Wars Legos. It's f****** stupid.

Mine's the speed ones, the car ones.

I have rare ones. I've gotten some car ones as gifts from people that don't realize that I'm only into the Star Wars. I got the Z28 Camaro. I got the NASCAR Camaro as a gift and stuff like that. Someone sent me the Porsche one that they had. But yeah, Star Wars Legos, that's stupid. I'm way less into guns than I used to be. I used to be into targeting and stuff, but I can't shoot a gun without cleaning it, tearing it apart completely. That gets old after a while. So I don't hunt. I shot a deer once, and I had a two-story. I had to call my sisters to come gut it. I wasn't going to do it. I wasn't even proud of myself. Shot, dropped it, one shot. And I was like, well, f***, that didn't feel good.

So I have the same problem. And as I'm getting older, it's getting worse. And my grandpa had the same. We grew up hunters all our lives. And he got a cat, and that's what screwed it all up for him. So I mean, you get to where you appreciate life. You like animals. Deer are beautiful. But I'm not doing anything any better when I sit down and eat a cheeseburger. So when I do that, all of it's to the freezer. To me, it's hunting, gathering, it's filling the freezer. It's less processed s*** I got to buy from the store. So that's where I try. I don't do it for sport.

Again, and this is where I'm just a hypocrite f****** douche. When you see lions attack gazelles, it's like, I want to drop that lion. You see a bear attacking, so I want to drop that bear. And it's like, god damn, my cat will run after a f****** squirrel, and I'm not mad at the cat. It's just...

You set a mousetrap to keep them out of your Z28.

Yeah, but it's such a hypocritical thing, because then it's like, oh, I love a steak. What the f*** has a cow ever done to you? And I get their beef cattle. They're not actually dairy cattle, but I grew up in a dairy farm, and I know how well they're taken care of. I know how well they're taken care of. When people are like, oh, they're abused. The f*** they are. They're loved. They're loved. Farm animals are loved. You will never see... No, you will see it, but you will rarely see a farmer not just love the animals, like petting them, making sure they're good. When they're sick, you actually worry about them.

Circle of life.

Plenty of times, my father was in the barn for long hours to make sure everything was okay. I can tell you that. I've seen it. I witnessed it when I was a child. But my dad also taught me if a dog bites you, you put a bullet in its head. That's life. You don't allow certain things. Yep. If a bull... We had dairy cattle. If a bull hurt my grandmother, a bull kind of went after my dad one day, and they were gone. There's just no room for that stuff. But if... Yeah, I'm a huge hypocrite because I like steak. But you just want to ignore it. You want to ignore how it's slaughtered. You want to ignore all that. When you see a bison head, and you see that little tiny round 22 circle in its head from the steel rod putting it out, you ignore it. Oh, what's that? No, that's nothing. That's how they killed it.

I feel like once again, as I get older, I'm in this weird growing phase of my life, and I appreciate things more and more. So I remember Rogan talks about this all the time on his podcast. When he gets campaigns or whatever those guys on, they talk about hunting and all that. When you're a gutting the animal and it's warm and all that, that turns some people off. But I feel like I had to question myself. I'm like, how would I feel about that? And it's like you kind of appreciate it more. Like less food goes to waste. You respect it more. Like you don't want to burn the meat, you know? I don't know.

I'll eat the heart. And I don't know. I wouldn't go to the grocery store and buy a heart. But like this.

I feel like I would do that. Yeah, like I had liver for the first time, I think a year ago.

Dude, I f****** love liver.

Oh, I hate liver.

It has to grow on me a little bit more. I think I'll love it if I try it a few more times. You know, it's one of those things. Like I had beer. I started liking it after five or six, but maybe it's because you guys are getting in a buzz, but I'm not a beer guy.

Yeah, but back to your story, they leave the gut pile for other animals.

Yep.

You know, they take all the meat. They don't just throw it. It's not for sport. It's not like what wolves do, where it's just kill it and leave it.

We donate our hides, too, to they make gloves and stuff like that out of it.

Yeah. But yeah, there's a lot of good that comes out of hunting. It's just not my thing.

Yeah, yeah. I feel like at some point I'll try it in my life. I haven't, which is I think like, what, 30% of people in Wisconsin got hunting licenses or something? Like it's the highest in the country.

It used to be more. It used to be way more than it is now. Do you shoot at all?

I've, I learned how to shoot a couple of times. So like I went to Vegas, shot a few guns with Jeff Storms, but that's the last time I shot.

That's some younger people, and I'm not classifying you as younger people.

I'm in that group though.

I'm just asking.

Yeah, I'm like on the border of Gen Z and whatever the f*** is next.

Yeah, where they're just out of touch with it.

It's ridiculous. I remember I was doing some rally scouting with someone and the chick in the back seat was like, like she didn't understand it. Like she was like, I think she was like clowning farmers or whatever. And I'm just saying, you think like she had no idea of the concept that the food came from these rural cities. I'm just like, like people become so disconnected. It's kind of crazy. Like again, I'm restrained from a car podcast here, but it's so true. It's like, it sucks to see. And I'm glad that people like Rogan are out there because it makes you think about it a little bit more.

And the sad part is his voice isn't heard by a lot of people that need to hear it because when you get quickly categorized or classified, and then you're, what is it?

Compartmentalized?

Yeah, when you're putting a shelf, let's say, with a title on it, you're not gonna lose it. I mean, it's tough. And I think Rogan in almost every episode has something that everyone can learn from.

Yeah.

But he's not gonna get his message out there. That Dr. Jordan Peterson, another guy, when you listen to him, there's messages that are like, holy s***, that resonates with Earth. But he doesn't, no one can hear him because-

He's on this side of the table.

He's on this side. You just get, oh, you're here, you're here. And sometimes people just get a grudge, like in pro wrestling where it's like, okay, you want me to be the villain? F*** it, I'll be the villain. And it's sad because they have so much to offer mankind. Yeah, yeah. And I think we'll get out of that. I think the younger generation is more, can see through the b*******, where my generation were pretty thick-headed and narrow-minded. And I do have a lot of hope for younger generation. They do think they know it all, but if I remember right, my dad thought we all knew it all, we were smart a****. So I think it's something that keeps kind of getting spilled over. But I do have faith because my daughters, I've taught them that you gotta listen to both sides. No one's right, no one's wrong. They'll say something like, f*** Biden, or f*** Trump, or something like that. And it's like, so why? Challenge thinking, challenge thinking. Trust but verify. If someone tells you to do something, they can't explain why, don't do it. Don't do it.

That's a big one. I mean, when you put someone on the spot.

Yeah, get an explanation. Why don't you like this? When it comes, and let's just use presidential race because it's just easy, it's very easy.

It's hot, it's coming up.

It's hot. I am afraid that so many people, speculation, so many people vote because they don't want the other guy.

Yeah.

Right? They're not voting for who they like. They don't like the other guy. It's, but at the end of the day, you have two 80 plus year old white men. Trump's over 80, isn't he? Yeah. I don't f****** know. But come on. You can't talk about your policies and what you're thinking of stuff like that when you have a career politician that's over 80 and a career entrepreneur that, a career entrepreneur that doesn't really know a lot about politics, knows how to use it, knows how to work it to his advantage like all politicians do. But career politicians just suck in general. I mean, they just suck. How do we get a normal person, which it's impossible. I don't care if you're right or left. And I get a lot of heat when I, I lean right. I don't care, I'll say it. I lean right. I'm socially very, very.

Nobody's ever fully on one page. It's very rare to be one or the other.

Well, that's where we've gotten now though. Everybody, like you said, has to be one or the other.

Do I want someone in pain? Not at all. Not at all. Do I think in so much of welfare and food stamps? Yes, okay, yes. Do I believe I should be paying for someone's pension in Ukraine? No. Do I think there's something bigger going on? Yeah. Do I know what it is? No. So I'm not a conspiracy theorist. You're never gonna hear me going, the earth is flat, because it's not. But I'm just not gonna be jumping on these trains of, they're hiding something. No, okay, okay. Think that. I'm not wasting my time on that. I wanna spend time with my family and s***.

That's the problem, is you'll run yourself fricking ragged.

Dude, you could make something up in your head and find something on the internet to support it, and you will f****** believe it.

Like Chevy's better, yeah.

Well, are you a Ford guy?

I've been turning him slowly and slightly.

Lately I have. No, I grew up in Mopar.

So you're a Mopar guy?

My dad partially owns a dealership, so I grew up with that. So, well, eventually.

But either way, low credit score team. So Ford guys and GM guys kind of rip by each other, but it's always funny when you guys try to introduce yourself in the conversation, that's like, dude, shut up. Every car that you have out there is at 18% interest on weekly payments.

Yeah, but they're out there.

Yeah, you're right, they are out there. But back to the thing, and people don't realize how simple the world is. Think globally, act locally. You will b**** and have such high opinions about the national level of government, but I have been to city council meetings, and I'm the only dumb f*** in the room.

That's the thing, is I'll be in these group chats, and people are just popping off, and I just sit here thinking, what's the solution? I'm not going to the local stuff, I should be. You should be. I think about it maybe once a month, whenever I see, for example, I start b******* about whatever's on the news, and I'm like, well, what have I done about it? It's like, I can't complain, I haven't done anything about it.

I challenge all of you listeners, go to one local town meeting, or city council, or village council, planning commission, whatever you want, and I promise you, when you walk in, someone on the board, or someone that's there is going to come up to you and say, what are you here for?

Or if you want to just drop in, I'm just here to see it.

Oh, you're not on the agenda? Nope. They're always weirded out by it. They are. They're weirded out by it, because usually I have to go, it's for a liquor license, or permit, or some b*******. But when you go just to see what's going on for no reason, or there's something on there, like the wife will say, hey, go check this out, I'll go there and sit there, and it's like, what are you here for? Just check out the meeting. Oh, okay. Because there's no problem with it, but there's no one else there. And if there is, it's one other person that's on the agenda. We don't pay attention to this stuff. We try to pay attention to what's going on way up here. We're not paying attention to what's going on down here.

Yeah, and then you're surprised, there's a new roundabout in town. It's like, who approved that?

Or they want to replace your green mill with a car wash. Have you seen that one?

Funny you say that. I did have a conversation.

Can you stop that?

No, hey, man, I'm not. I'm not. There's no mafia. I don't know that.

Oh, well, I'm confused here.

Hudson, speaking of the agenda things, there's something I would never know. Again, a lot of them are live on line now, too. So I watched one the other day. In Hudson, somebody wants to buy green mill, which is probably not doing well since Milwaukee Burger went in in the same parking lot.

It's an aged concept, too.

Yeah, but what we don't need is a car wash.

Primarily.

So they want to put a car wash there.

Yeah, yeah, so they want to put a car wash there. And there's a car wash less than, would you say, a five iron of golf? I don't golf that much, but a five iron.

In several directions.

Well, yeah, the other one's kind of run down, but there's a lot of car washes in Hudson, Wisconsin, but there's also 10,000 cars in Hudson, Wisconsin, and we all have to keep our s*** clean, most of us do. So it'll just be about, I don't get it. I don't get involved with that, but is it a smart idea? No, but I've done some stupid s***. I've opened up businesses that were like, oh, this ain't gonna work.

You got a new one now, too, the pizzeria, or what's the deal with that?

So it's, I like to challenge people on their thinking, and you gotta get them to grow. And Sutton is my son, I adopted him when he was like six-ish, and he's been in my life, but he's at that age, he's in his middle to late 20s, where it's, again, it's like the house plant that's in the house. If you leave it in there, it's not gonna grow. You gotta get it outside and plant it outside and let it see what it can do. And this is a small challenge. Hey, make me a pizza that is scratch made, everything. I was not thinking of pizza sauce. I really thought pizza sauce just come out of a can like everyone else, but he made the sauce from scratch. How'd you figure it out? YouTube videos, that's a thing I give young people credit for. Back then, we had encyclopedias, and we had to talk to old people. You guys just go to YouTube for everything.

And the old people are there too, which is nice.

You're right, but you watch hours of video to figure something out. So he comes up with these three, four pizzas, right? And I'm like, okay, this is the things I'm looking for. I'm looking for a thin crust, I'm looking for light. So after you eat it, you're not like, f******, hey, I wish I didn't eat that.

You want Dave Portnoy to enjoy it.

Yeah, exactly, you're right, kinda. But I want it to be so it's not we're competing with hand toss, we're not competing with deep dish, we're not competing with Neapolitan, we're just doing a personal pizza that's scratch made, that you're gonna feel good after eating. So we came up these things, but again, the youth versus me, some people will have 10 meetings to accomplish one thing, and then they don't get it f****** done. I just have to have a thought and let's get going on it and start it tomorrow. Because that's what works, throw a bunch of s*** at the wall, see what works. So we get it up and running, and it's going good. Then next Wednesday, I'm like, here are the two things I want you to come at me with. Come at me with a bacon chicken ranch pizza, and then one of that Chris kid that works for us did a popper pizza, jalapeno popper pizza. So he makes them, and they're right there, like, okay, this is good, do it. I'm taking pictures, and I give it to Eric, my assistant. I'm like, put these on DoorDash, let's run them tonight. And Sutton looks at me like, whoa, what? I'm like, yeah, we're gonna, why can't we run them tonight? Well, I haven't really given any thought other than this. I'm like, the people are gonna tell you if they like it or not. It doesn't matter if you like it. If it doesn't matter if I like it, do they f****** like it? Because I have put my heart and soul into some features that have fallen over like a fart in church. It's just like it didn't work. And then Bill will come with a feature, and it's like, this is gonna work. And I'm very anti bringing out of a f****** bag frozen product. But some things are cowboy corn bites, macaroni and cheese bites. No one makes them. If they tell you they make them, they're f****** lying. They get it out of the bag because it's just impossible to make them consistently. And people go crazy for them. And it breaks my heart because it's like no thought was put into that. We found it. We discovered it. We brought it in. That's it. There's no love put in it. There's no thought.

Where somebody is shoving cream cheese into a jalapeno and wrapping it in bacon and taking a lot of work and making a Twinkie.

I'm glad you brought that in. So I went to go look at a, because my wife used to rally too, and tell Larry. And she, it's not, I don't tell my wife what to drive at all. I just help her get what she's looking for. She wanted a ZL11LE. We went down to Dallas to a Ferrari dealership that took one in and it was cheap as f***. And while we're there, it's, they didn't tell me, but they had the matching ZR1 in the back. I'm like, why didn't you tell me that? Because I was, paperwork's all done, and they were selling it for cheap. I'm like, why didn't you tell me you had that? He goes, Mr. Rode, we sell Ferraris.

This is trash. Yeah.

We only push one at a time. We're not gonna be pushing these cars. I'm like, I totally get it. Just show me this coolest car. So they show me s*** that I would never know what it is. Just, you know, millions of s*** like that. Cars, crazy cars. And this, here's this beautiful orange, the wing out and everything, ZR1 2019. And yeah, it was nuts. It was crazy.

What did they have it listed for? Any idea?

$100,000.

Really? Those are going for like 200 something now.

Now they are. But this was $100,000. I go, what are you gonna sell for? About $100,000. How'd you get it? Well, the guy wanted this, whatever car it was, and he brought him in. He didn't care what he got for trade in. I got that ZL11LE for 52 or something like that. And at the time, it was, they were $80,000 car, because they barely had any miles on it. So the point is, we get that, we go down to get that car, so we stop and get a barbecue shop to get some food, right, on the way home. And this guy is like, you know, you guys are low, you know, not from here, because he saw us looking at the board and s*** like that. You're in a line like you're in a cafeteria line. And he's like, ask him for a Twinkie. And I'm like, I'm thinking, is the guy f****** with me? A Twinkie? I'm like, ask for a Twinkie. So I'm like, yeah, I'll do that. And he goes, no, I'll ask him for a Twinkie. I mean, I don't recall the guy's name that was behind the counter, like working in the pits and, you know, the meets and stuff. And let's just say his name was Ralph. He goes, Ralph, Ralph, this guy's never had a Twinkie. So now my heightened senses went up, like this is going to be a f****** prank. He goes, save him a Twinkie, because the guy looks at me and goes, they don't save them their first come first serve. And he only makes like 20 a day. So he's like, yeah, yeah, how many you want? I go, we'll take two. He goes, you got it. So we get up there in line to all the people and we get our food and the two Twinkies, which are jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese, wrapped in pulled pork and then bacon and smoked. So I had it and I was blown away because I was not thinking this was a Twinkie at all or how it was going to be. So it was so good, I said, I got to put this on the menu. So I asked the guy, I go, can I put this on our menu? We're way up in Wisconsin, it's not going to have any, I'll even use your name, right, that I discovered it for me. He goes, yeah, it's kind of a down south thing. Everyone, they call them armadillo eggs and all that stuff. I'm like, no, I'm going to call it a Twinkie. And he's like, make sure you just call it a Twinkie. I go, the restaurant's name is Agave, I'm going to call it Agave Twinkie, he goes. Okay, and he showed me exactly how they do it, you know, cut it in half, take seeds out. Brought up bills like, f*** that, you know, because it's just, it is labor intensive.

I bet.

Yeah, it's labor intensive. And you have to learn how to wrap the bacon, because if the bacon doesn't cook right, it falls apart. You got to get it so the bacon kind of shrinks it together and pulls it together. It's, there is a technique to this, it's not just slapped together. And it sells good. And it puts a lot of education too. It's like, get the agave Twinkie. F***, we're expecting a dessert. No, it's the same thing I went through. And they like it, and it's the same thing, but it's on the menu. You know, you could see it.

I'll have to try that. I haven't tried it yet.

It's delicious.

It's good. And like any fresh vegetable, depending on the season, the intensity of the jalapeno, which is kind of fun too. And then we, the thing we do different, because I didn't want to just clone it, is we did a raspberry chipotle, Smucker's Jam, raspberry jam, and chipotle sauce we dip.

That's all you guys do. Your raspberry chipotle is...

That's it, man. We get it in house from scratch, yeah. Well, we don't make the jam. We buy the jam. But yeah, and then drizzle it on it, and just a nice little fire. And that's the thing with the raspberry chipotle. The day we make it, it's fine. The next day, a little bit of heat. The third day, it's perfect. It's like it'll kick you right in the balls a little bit. So you can always tell what day you're on with the raspberry chipotle. I mean, it's got a shelf life.

I think I told you when we ate there, I told you to get it on the wings. It's great as a wing sauce.

Yeah, it's Candice's favorite. Raspberry chipotle and the wings. I can't do it. It's a little bit too much fruity, but it's got great flavor, intense flavor. But we'll do it on the food truck. And it just goes a little too fast. You gotta be respectful of the prep ladies because they'll just... If you gotta make 100 of those in a day because of a fare or something, they're gonna be like, f*** you, we quit. Because I mean, it's labor-intensive. Each one, three and a half, four minutes to make. And I know it doesn't sound like a lot, but it's a lot of hand motions. And that's all of the ingredients in front of you. That's assembling it. That's not par-baking the bacon. That's not cutting every, slicing every jalapeno, gutting it out. That's not kind of getting the cream cheese warm and soft, right? Not liquid, but soft so you can actually use it. That's not making sure the pulled pork is cooled down so you don't burn your hands on it. You get what I mean? There's a lot of things that come together before assembly. Yeah. It depends on the jalapeno. Some are big, some are small, some are big, some are small. You do your best to try to do it. And then we roast them. And then we, at the very end, we'll deep fry them a little bit to get that crunch on the bacon. But then you serve it. I didn't come here to talk about food, but it was just part of the trip.

I think the point was, we were talking about how you got cowboy bites, which are a huge hit, and then you got stuff that you put a lot of work into that may not be as popular as your cowboy bites.

Cowboy corn bites, f****** fly everywhere. And it's just like, I didn't do anything to those. But we put a lot of work in that.

Not your Twinkie that costs you $50,000 to discover.

Well, the Twinkie is probably, if you wanted to stick it to me and go, yeah, he ain't making any money on this, the Twinkie is probably the lowest profit margin item on the menu, because of how much labor goes into it. Because labor ain't cheap. I mean, it's not cheap anymore. It's not. It's all there is to it. Oh, your prices are high. Yeah, we also have four employees there at $75,000. You know, with full benefits. Tell me another restaurant that's non-union that has full benefits. It's not out there.

What's your favorite item on the agave menu? Do you have one? Or is that just too hard of a question? Change of seasonally?

No, I would say... I'd probably say the... I can't remember the name of it. It's got jalapenos, blue cheese on a chicken sandwich. It's not the My Boy Blue. It's the... I can't remember the name of the sandwich. My wife just orders it for me. Or the pulled pork sliders.

Your pulled pork is...

Yeah, it's good. We got really lucky with it. We were trying products because we wanted to make it, but then we got to the point where we were making too much of it. It's you can't keep up. We were selling too much of it. So then Curly's helped us come up with their product where they did it in their facilities, and we've been using Curly's ever since.

So I was in the restaurant business for a while too. There's a lot of companies that do it, like here's my recipe, and then somebody like Cisco or...

Absolutely. Bix Produce, US Foods, they all do it. So you spec a recipe out to them, and they'll just do it for you for a minimal cost. There is a cost to it, of course.

Like an upfront cost?

Well, not upfront cost because you're using their labor. But as long as you're not a dick, they can use your special salsa or something like that to sell the other things.

You guys make the Laredo Ranch right there, though?

We still make Laredo Ranch. We're very tight about that recipe because it works.

I can't copy it. I've tried.

Yeah, but I can tell you what you're doing wrong, too.

Yeah, it doesn't matter. I just get a hold of Chef. I hit him up on Facebook, and he just hooks me up.

He'll just hook you up. Yeah, and that's everything. It's like I watched my kids when I made the first couple of pizzas, and my wife takes the crust, puts it in the Laredo Ranch. So we put a little thing on the Laredo Ranch with every pizza.

There you go. Put your Papa John's in that garlic butter sauce.

Could be the same. I've never had a Papa John's.

No?

Is that the take home and bake it thing?

No, that's Papa Murphy's.

Okay, Papa Murphy's.

Papa John's did everything popular with that little cup of garlic butter they'd send out with your pizza.

The only reason I think I've never eaten one is I don't think we have one by us, do we?

We just got one at Woodbury like a year or two ago.

Yes, I have.

In Stillwater, too, I think.

My favorite food if I'm going out to eat sushi.

Really?

F***, dude, I love sushi.

You miss Shanghai?

I do miss Shanghai.

That was my favorite sushi.

Yeah. He got too wrapped up in those alpha things, or those, what do you call those Polaris three-wheeled things that are on the roads?

Yeah, the slingshot.

Slingshot, thank you. He got into modifying those. Yeah, he had a motor company, Alpha Motors or something. I don't know if it's still around.

Oh, really? Yeah. Best California roll I've ever had.

Yeah. California roll?

Yeah.

I'm more into the...

I like all the fancy ones, but we get a California roll always with whatever. It's like the appetizer, right? Yeah, yeah. But theirs was the best.

Yeah, gotcha. Yeah, favorite hockey team, Boston Bruins. F******, I love the Bruins.

That's one thing I went... I've only been to one hockey game in my life. This was like, you know, freebie through an old job I had. And dude, there is no energy like a f****** hockey game.

None.

When those people stand up and cheer at the XL Energy Center or whatever it is, I'm just like, I got to take my dad to one. My dad's always wanted to go to one. You know, I'm like, oh, I'll get tickets one of these days. Like, that's a bucket list item to take him to that. Because it's just...

It doesn't stop. It's...

It's like football. It's a four-hour game, dude.

But football, you're trying to execute a play.

Yeah, yeah.

Hockey, it's a million mistakes, and you're hoping for one moment of greatness. I mean, it is. It's a million mistakes. You... There's no plays. Yeah, they have. Oh, do this, do that. But it never works out. It's just a million mistakes, and you hope that you can just pull together a couple moments of greatness to make a goal. Mm-hmm. I mean, my daughter's just... The last game of the year, they just lost a playoff game to Somerset. It was the fourth overtime they lost. And you know what? None of the fans were sad or cheering or nothing. They weren't like that, because it was like, we just witnessed a great hockey game. Both teams won, both teams lost, because that team is now beaten up for their next playoff game. You just played two full games of intense hockey.

That's crazy.

And we lost to a good team. We were a good team, too. Not we. It's my daughter's. I'm obviously not speaking for them. It's how do you teach your kids that if you're gonna lose, that's the way to lose.

Go out with them.

My dad and my grandpa always said, if you don't have to win a fight, but they should walk away knowing they fought you.

Yeah. That's a great f****** reference right there.

Yeah.

Yeah. That's it. What are life lessons you need?

Oh, yeah. That's actually a good point. What other life lessons can you drop on a youngin like me?

Enjoy life. Enjoy the seasons. Drive with the windows down.

Every rally.

Yeah. Don't be afraid of a speeding ticket. It's just money.

But sometimes, I've gotten a couple. And actually, it's funny enough that I've never been on a rally, but my insurance is hurting right now.

Well, that's... You got to pick and choose your battles. I get what you're saying. One of you mentioned a long tunnel in Tennessee. I came, I will say it, I came out of that tunnel kind of hot, because again, the exhaust, and I'm f****** 10 years old.

Do you rev your car when you go under the Northern Metro Bridge?

Yeah. If I have a chance to hit the throttle, I do it. So anyways, I come out of that tunnel, and here's a very nice officer point, I mean point over, I'm like f***, I got busted speeding. The wife drives by, she's just looking at me off laughing, right? So I pull over Taylor, and I pull over, and it was a Federal Park Ranger.

I've gotten one of those before.

Ticket doesn't go on your speeding ticket. The guy was so f****** cool. He goes, I'm giving you a ticket, I'm telling you just pay the fine. It doesn't go on your insurance, it doesn't go on your points, nothing. It's the Federal Government. But I'm telling you, if you don't pay it, there's going to be a lot of pain. It's not going to go away. Pay it, forget about it. Thank you, shook his hand, very grateful, took off. So it's, if you get a ticket, go to the court and just be truthful. Hey, can I get a non-moving violation? Yeah, you can. You know, I got one in the friendly state of Minnesota going a little heavy. And I got a, well, I'll tell you one even better. I got one in Utah, trying to catch up to some friends. Got pinched, it was pretty hard. And they just gave me, if you don't get an air violation within 90 days, we'll forgive this ticket. I live in Wisconsin. I'm not going to be in Utah for 90 days. Score. Yeah, score. There's ways to get around it. That's what I'm saying. Just have fun. Don't drive like a dick. Be respectful. And understand the person in front of you, you don't know what they're going through. Don't pass them like an a******. Don't rev it. Don't make short passes either. Have plenty of room. Have plenty of room. And if you want to go fast, do it on a track. It's, again, this is a Larry reference. He lost it only because he was on a track. He had a world-class car for a track. Tracks don't have pavement depressions where you hit a bump and you just launch your car. Be the person your dog thinks you are.

Okay, that one I want to take with me for sure. That one's going to stick forever. Yeah. That's a really good one.

Be that person. If you do something good, don't f****** write it on a check and put it on Facebook. If you do something good, just keep it to yourself because you'll be rewarded later. Opportunities are put in front of you. They're not... No one tells you to walk through them. So you got to be mindful of that. You got to look for things. Stay away from people that have an excuse for every solution. When the elevator goes to the top floor, you're going to let people off. Be comfortable with it. Might be a little deep for you. When you're going through life, your inner circle is going to get smaller and smaller. You got to be comfortable with that. My dad, when I was young, he told me, you just hope you have five friends when you're my age. I was like, f*** dude, I'm popular. I'm going to have tons of friends. And you're going to always have acquaintances. I still have a text group from high school and all that s***. But when it comes down to, I need this person or something like that, there's a couple, and that feels good. And you value those friendships, and you keep them. There's always going to be people in your circle. There's people in your outer circle and stuff like that. And people that you're so f****** glad to see when you're at a rally or an event. But who's going to pick up the phone? Who do you feel comfortable calling at 3 a.m.? Those are the people that you just, you never turn your back on them. And whoever is with you at your lowest, be there for them. When I was at my lowest, I went to the cigar shop because it wasn't a bar. I wasn't going to go to a bar and drink. And the guy let me hang out in the basement, smoke cigars, got a key to the place, a lot of s***. The place came up for sale, so I bought it because I didn't want it to disappear. They were going to sell it to someone else, but things weren't adding up because they didn't want the property. Well, it means they're going to move it. So I made the same deal, and the guy that's been there 20 plus years, his name's Jeremy, fantastic five-star human. I said, let's do this, and he jumped in with me, and we bought it. I'm more there for the property, he's there for the business. It works out good. But be there for the things that were always there for you. That's why I can't turn my back on that Z28. Some of the closest calls I've had with life and death. The car didn't let me down, and the car protected me. You got to be there for that. Your parents, your dad and mom carried you around when you were young. I mean, I know you love your parents, but you got to be there for them when now they're fragile. And it sucks. Everything's temporary. Everything's temporary. No matter what you want to think or do, time just keeps going. It does not care about your feelings. It doesn't care about the size of the turbo in your car. It doesn't care if you're having a bad day. Tomorrow's coming. So don't beat yourself up. Keep moving forward. Forgive yourself in the past. Don't let it hold you back. Alcohol steals tomorrow's happiness.

I've seen you post that one before.

It's true.

I feel. I think on Facebook.

I have, yeah. Yeah. It just steals tomorrow's happiness. Especially when you're older. When I see older people, it's like, oh, god, I was so f***** up last night. Yeah, that's why I like bartending. You used to like bartending, and that's why I've encouraged my oldest daughter to bartend, because you're still the son of the party.

That's where I met you.

Yeah, you did. Yes, you're right.

Over 20 years ago, probably.

Yes, yep, bartending. I never drank behind the bar. Take that back. I had one person have their daughter's wedding reception, and I did a shot of Louis XIII with her that was paid for. So I did do a shot of Louis XIII, but at the time it was a $1,000 bottle. So, but no one can ever say I was f****** hammered buying a bar. I just don't do that. You know, respect yourself, have integrity. Let people lie about you, that's fine. It doesn't matter. It really doesn't matter. But just be you.

Thank you for supplying my merch store with all these fantastic pillows. Gonna get those going. But no, that's a lot of valuable stuff in there, man.

Yeah, just s*** you think about. I mean, when you're driving, and you'll come up with a lot of stuff, as Dan will tell you, when you're driving and you can't focus on anything else but the road, and everyone's like, the scenery, the scenery, and you're worried about the two white lines and the yellow line in the middle, you do have some deep thoughts, because it should just end so fast. Do you have your will in place? Do you have your life insurance in place? That's the other thing. Too many people f****** die, and they don't have their s*** together. And you would save so much money in attorney fees for the loved ones who have left behind. Have a f****** plan. Have a plan. Have a will. It's not hard. You can change it. You can get moody and take someone in or out of it. Whatever you want. But, you know, it's... Again, everything's temporary, including your computer, your cell phone, you, me. And 100 years from now, it's coming. None of us will be here. None of our cars, as much as we want to believe they will be, they will not be here.

Well, if you get ceramic coating, you know, use coat... No, I'm kidding.

I'm not trying to be depressing. I'm really not.

We'll finish on a high note here in a second.

Just trying to be eye-opening, where it's like, there's so much to live for. It's not f****** working the extra hours this weekend.

Are you planning, you're firing your podcast up, or is it, you're still doing it?

I don't know. It's... I could go to f****** Key West, Toronto. I wouldn't f****** know. Yeah. And that's fun.

But if you... I got a lot of this from listening. I've listened to a few episodes on your podcast, and I really enjoyed it. And for some life stuff, even me as a business owner and stuff, and with the kids and all that stuff, it helped steer me in some directions, I think, that I was just f****** around and needed to get on a straight and pass.

Yeah, I did. I got a lot of positive feedback on it. But I also had some people on that were like, they didn't add value to the podcast. And I've probably got three or four that I just didn't post because you get taken advantage of when you have perceived success. So when you have a podcast, and it does well, like yours is doing well, you're going to have people reach out to you and go, hey, I'd be great, I'd be great, I'd be great on it.

I do a lot of vetting.

And it's tough.

It's hard to say no sometimes.

It's hard to say no. So you'll bring them on. It's like, okay, I can make anything look great. Here we go, I'm just going to work through this. I'm going to make them look great.

In there too.

It's f****** tough. And sometimes it's like, I'm not posting this. And when I saw Dan at the polar rally, didn't that when you said if you have someone bail out? Because that was one thing.

You actually, I didn't even bring up, you brought it to me first. Hey, you're doing this now. I was like, yeah, I am actually. And then I said, I have to get you on sometime. And you're like, anytime.

Yeah, anytime. Here's the bottom line. I had only two people cancel on me at last minute, and I know they watch this. And I think that it was because it was new. They didn't take it serious after a couple of episodes. They're like, hey, can we get out? Can we get out?

Yeah. I have a few of those people in the back of my head where I got mocked early on. And I'm just like, you will never see the f****** light of day on here. I'm not a vindictive person. I don't hold a lot of grudges, but some of those I will remember and I will hold the grudge.

But make them watch too. You keep them friends on Facebook.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Here's the thing. 99% of the time, you will not know I dislike you. 100%. There's a handful of people that I make it known, but at the end of the day, I'm not here to make enemies. I'm here to live life.

Yep, exactly.

But now I don't know.

Huh?

Now I don't know.

Trust me, you won't know until you're back on the unemployment line. I'm going to send you back to the agency. But no, those are tough conversations. I remember my first no, and I had to be like, you're just not a good fit, man. For the podcast, I mean.

No, I know what you're saying. You're f****** boring. That's what you want to say.

Well, it's not even that. It's just like, I don't want this to be unnecessary drama. I like to have people on who have stories to tell. And most everybody in their life, everybody has a story. But I'm saying in this particular space, and granted, two of the three hours we've done here weren't necessarily correlated, but at the end of the day, you're someone I see as value. You've done so much for the car community. You've done so much for the car community. So that's where it's like, yeah, maybe this doesn't make it out to the national audience. Who cares? It's a conversation that I enjoyed having. And that's the thing. I will never have anybody on here that I dislike or that I don't want to talk to.

I want to bring value to your podcast. That's why I wanted to come on. Again, if I was in my 30s, I'd be worthless to be on here. 40s, probably worthless, but 50s, yeah, it's worth it.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And really, there's nothing more to add on to that part. But I think, yeah, you just set the record, by the way. So it took somebody to beat Michael Peterson. I'm glad it was you. Michael Peterson, he's a good one. I love having him on. Do you want to pop the usual three?

Sure, sounds good.

And get some tacos after, hopefully?

Sure. I'm going to be sad if these are all General Motors vehicles, but we'll see where we land here. I'll be truthful.

I'll probably surprise you.

Okay, okay. So we like to ask our guests at the end of every episode to pick three cars. You have unlimited imagination, unlimited budget, whatever you want to have in your garage. We need a show car, a track car, and a daily driver.

So the show car that I would have no fluids in it hanging on the side of the wall or sitting in my living room would be, you're going to have to help me out with the name. It's made by Toyota. Is it a 2000 GT from the 70s? 70s or late, late 70s. It's called a 2000 GT, I believe. One of the most beautiful cars, kind of looks like a Jaguar-ish kind of, but it's not. It's Toyota. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful car. But will I drive it? No. Will I own it? No. They're a million-dollar car. But just because it's art, it's beautiful. It's a beautiful, beautiful car. What's the next one? Daily driver.

Daily driver.

So I'm going to take a little heat on this, but my favorite daily driver I've ever had was a Prius Prime. I had it lowered, and I love it. I'm on a waiting list for the new Prius Prime, the new body style. And that thing's going to look like it got dumped in a bad relationship, because it's going to be Liberty walked out. It's going to be sweet.

I've heard those things are actually... I haven't seen the new body style, but a lot of people are really thinking that's going to be a pretty neat-looking car.

It is a sweet-looking car. And my wife, she'll roll her eyes at me when I talk about vehicles, but I said, that's the new Prius. And she's like, oh, okay, okay, okay. And yeah, again, realistic, realistic, realistic car. Snow tires, it's great, great car.

I love that. My first Prius I drove, I was like, I almost bought it.

And your third one is Track Car? Yeah. Since my Z28 will not hear the podcast, it is my Z28, but if you're talking on limited budget, God, I f****** hate McLaren's because the dashboards look like Christmas trees, but it would be that Senna. Just because I've seen it in real life and I've heard it, and my normal car, I should say GT2RS. I should because that's obtainable. But since you threw out the money doesn't matter, I'm going to be greedy and selfish and say the McLaren Senna. But I do love, truly with all my heart, anyone that f****** knows me knows how much I do love my Z28.

I think that's a fair answer. Yeah. Well, we saw Steve Hamilton's on the community rally, and that was my first time seeing a Senna up close. And when you walk around and you look at a car in its details, a lot of people talk s*** about these super expensive cars, like, oh, man, I could mod my car to look better, just be faster, look cooler, whatever. When you take the time to appreciate that somebody in Italy or in the UK or whatever took the time to develop that car. They put that f***** in the wind tunnel. They're like, how can I make this thing work and be beautiful at the same time? You look at the Valkyrie. Yeah.

These aren't mass-produced cars. They're hand-built.

The Valkyrie is one of my favorite cars ever. So I read the How to Build a Car by Adrian Newey, the guy who designs Red Bull cars, and he designed the Valkyrie and working with Aston. And he goes into the detail of what went into that car. He's like, I want this to be functional, but then he gave some Aston a little bit of leeway. When you talk to people who design cars, or you read the books, you know, like that one, you really get an understanding of what goes into it. Like, we talk about our daily drivers, like b******* jeeps and all this, like, you know, whatever. But somebody somewhere put a little bit of soul into that within the restrictions that they were given. So I don't know. I love that center.

My question is this. Why can't regular vehicles look just as cool as the nicer ones? What I'm saying, why can't... Let's just say Nissan 350Z. Everyone knows them. Why can't the 350Z look just as b***** as a GTR? Okay? Now, I'm saying GTR, there's a lot into it, right? But why not, when they go on to the next model, why can't they take some of that cool-a** s*** they learned from the GTR and put it into the 350Z? Same thing. But why is it? Why isn't the stock Corvette can have... I'll tell you one. You're talking Mopar s***. Why can't the stock Mopars not look like Charles Engel's wagon with those narrow-a** f****** tires? Why do you have to get the red eye? Why? Answer me. Tell me f****** why. Because there's no reason. Why can't you just put out a car that looks great? The stock model, the cheapest model, still looks great.

Like in the 70s, like we did, or 60s or whatever.

Because they want to sell the high model.

The up edge.

Why can't the stock Ford Mustang or the stock Camaro not have four tailpipes? Why is it when you're behind it, you go, that's a V6? Because it's only got two tailpipes instead of the four. Why is it you're behind a ZR1, and it's like that's got the tailpipes in the middle, not on the outside? Why can't they just make all the s*** look great?

Because then it's not a status thing either.

But also, if all I can afford is a Dodge, is it the GT, the standard Challenger? Challenger, the two door one.

Yeah, they're like a V6 all wheel drive, right?

Right. If that's all I can afford, why should I be shamed when I bring my date to it, or my bicycle buddies, or whatever? You know what I mean? At that time, when you're young like that, why can't it look like the red-eye stance? Why not? Why not give people pride? Because when those people get older, and they have money, they're going to stick loyal to you. Instead of going, you f****** clowned me when I was in my 20s. I had a Formula 350 growing up in the 80s, and that car looked great. And that was the stripped down version of the GTA. So all it didn't have was the ground fix, but it had the wide-a** tires, still had the 350, still had the great seats in it. It was still, at the time, today it's a piece of s***, but at the time, it was a great car. You know, when I had my Fiero GT, why did the GT look so b*****, but the SE looked like a clown car? It's not fair to people that can't afford to get the really nice car. Why not make it still look good? Like, Hyundai, when they created the Genesis line, now, all those cars look great, but you also know that it's trying to look like a BMW or Mercedes and stuff like that, but you know it's not there. But it gives the people driving it pride. And you know what that does? It builds confidence. You know what that does? It gets them that next f****** promotion. It gives them the minerals to take that leap on that next job. A car can help build you. You may not think that, you may want to laugh at it, but the confidence you get when you're driving a f****** nice car and people are like, dude, that's a sweet car.

Oh, for sure. Well, that's one of the beauties of being where I'm at in my position is I've driven some insane cars over the years, or even riding shotgun even crazier. It's just like... Riding it at SVJ changed my life. That I was thinking, like, oh, I'll just get a few roommates, get a part-time job, f*** around, be a gamer, whatever. After that, like, the drive just sparks. And it comes and goes. You know how drive goes. Sometimes it's just like, eh, f*** it.

Yeah, but does it kill that if you go that other route where anybody can go get in a car that looks just like that? Does that hurt the automotive enthusiast?

Not at all. Because car enthusiasts, no. A normal car person, me, 10 years ago, would not be able to tell you the difference between a 911, a 911 4S, a 911 Turbo S, a 911 Turbo 4S, whatever these things are.

I still can, but I'm you 10 years ago.

But you know what I'm saying? They say, I wasn't there yet, but they all looked f****** cool. That's one thing I tip my hat to Porsche about. It's like, you can't tell if it's a $60,000 Porsche or a $300,000 Porsche. You can't tell. When you get close to it, you can tell. When you look at the brakes, the radiators, the stuff in the front, you can tell. And it's one thing I kind of f****** like about it. But why should someone get clowned for driving the stock version? Why can't they make a stock version that looks good?

We should just rack this up to human race. Who's clowning these people? They should be in the car community and being accepted no matter what, right?

Okay, again, I get it. But again, it's not that you're getting clowned by, let's say, other people. I'm going to challenge the thinking. It's you're not feeling 100% there when you're cleaning the wheels. Everyone should have wide tires on their sports car, on their track car. Everyone should have big brakes. You shouldn't look at a cheap base model car, and they can't give you a brake option. Give them the big brakes. Let them be proud of what they have. Because track cars don't have to be expensive. The Z28 does not have any f****** luxuries in it, but it's got everything you need for a track car. Carbon ceramic brakes. It's a fantastic car, right? Big f****** wheels on it. That's what I want every car owner to be able to have, to be proud of that. Brakes are a huge thing. Car people look at brakes. Like trendy people, fast people look at shoes. Car people look at brakes. If you don't have carbon ceramics, you want to see slotted, vented, big steel brakes. You want to see the big calipers. You want to see that. You want to see the six pistons in the back, and four to six in the front. You want to see that. What you don't want to see is what you see on the stock Ford Mustangs or the stock...

The little dingy gray ones.

Yes, the dingy gray ones that some people... And it breaks my heart every time I see it, and this is why I can never be like liquid multimillionaire, because I would buy their car and put the right brakes on it. When I see people spray paint their brake calipers on those standard wheels, I love that person instantly because they're trying. They're doing the best they can with what they have. Tons of respect for that person. I will respect that person more than someone with an Aventador or something like that that doesn't... That's a Huracan, I know. That doesn't respect it. That doesn't give a f*** about it. It's just a token of success to them.

It's like when I see Volkswagen guys, when they have a set of nice wheels, right? Because I'm in a Volkswagen group with 70 other guys, because that's what I got. I got a GTI, and I see these guys. They get themselves a set of $1,500 wheels that aren't reps. They're half-decent wheels for a track or something. It's like that guy's trying.

Trying. That's what I want to see. I just want to see effort. Enjoying it. You want to be the best. Yeah, try and enjoy it. Volkswagen guys, they're a different breed, because every one of us in our life, no matter what car you have now, you've thought about that. In my age, it was the Corrado in the 90s. Volkswagen Corrado. Maybe that will be my introduction into actually these sports cars, because you can modify the f*** out of Volkswagens. You can do some insane s*** to them.

Yeah, and we're in the right shop for that.

That's part of the fun, though, too. You buy something base model. I enjoyed building my orange car. I bought the bigger brakes. I bought the carbon wing. I did all this stuff. I was shopping. I was having a blast doing it. Now I have this car that has everything on it. There's literally nothing I can buy to upgrade it. Yeah.

I'm going to improve my argument here for a second. I don't want nice cars to look cheap and chintzy is what I guess I'm trying to look at. I don't want Miata's clowned when I've seen Miata's on racetracks.

Oh, absolutely. Hundreds of them.

You know, people are like, that's a f****** miles of Miata. That's a hunk of s***. Yeah, but that f***** can corner. That thing can break. You know, break meaning stop, not break down. Oh, yeah, but it's I want to see base model cars get the love they deserve. Yes. Given a little bit more respect by their designers and s***. I do.

Okay. Yeah. You've come full circle. Okay, I get it.

Yeah.

Yeah, that makes sense.

It's I want them to be respected more.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Like like Phil. Phil had that that Mustang GT, that orange one. Nothing special about it. He loved it. Why couldn't Mustang just design it a little bit more to give it a little bit more of an edgy look? Because that guy loved that car.

Yeah.

And I loved that car because of how much he loved that car. But why couldn't you Mustang? Why couldn't you just give it just a little bit lower, a little bit wider stance?

They do put like a stripe sometimes on the side of the V6 cars, too, just to dress them up a little bit.

Dress them up a little bit. That does help. But with with Dodges, why didn't they have tires?

They gave them the hoods eventually. They did. They gave them that. They gave them the dark. That was my thing. That's why I plastered it in my wheels, because they didn't have the dark wheels. The next year after did. I almost upgraded to that thing just to get the dark wheels. It would have been the same price, same payment.

But that engineer that, you know, someone broke his heart in high school, wants to give the car narrow wheels. Why?

Well, that's because it was all wheel drive and, you know, better in the snow and all that. Because like the RTs, right, the base model 5.7, they had two 55s. That's wide, given that the V6s were tricky. I see what you're saying there.

Yeah, give it a little bit.

The 5.7s got some love. The 3.6s didn't.

All of it is huge. Growing up in the 80s and 90s, where there were 14-inch, 13-inch wheels.

There was no optimization back then. Now that everything is all integrated, vertically integrated, how do we save costs here? Let's upgrade them to this, the upsell. That's the other thing. You want to give a reason to get the fries with the burger. Right.

No, I'm with you. I'm with you. I'm just trying to...

By the way, your Cajun fries. Thank you. You know how many times I almost quit 75 hard because of those f****** fries? Yeah.

They don't go along well with each other, do they? 75 hardened fries.

How many times? I would go there. I'd have to order the... What is it? The gaucho steak tacos without the fries.

Yeah.

I don't know. It's too much fun. I'm thinking about food again.

So about your f****** cars, what's your dream car?

Me?

Yeah, let's hear it. Has anyone ever asked you?

Oh, yeah. So we're coming up on the one year anniversary of when this question was introduced. It was in Texas. My buddy Charles, who works for MotionAutoTV, he... It started with five cars, and I'm like, no, no, no, no, let's cut this down. Too much. One was like your trailer rig and whatever the hell the other one was. But I can't remember what my answer was. I know the Liberty Walk Aventador was in there.

Liberty Walks are addictive. Yeah. What a company.

You know how much I used to make fun of them? Who made fun of them? I used to make fun of Liberty Walk Aventadors. I'm like, that thing is wider than a semi truck. Then I'm like, I love this thing.

Yeah, they look good.

So that was my show car. I think I'm going to stick with that. Liberty Walk Aventador. As for track car to Valkyrie, that one's real. I've watched countless videos of that, from Chris Harris to Mr. JWW. The passion I went into designing into that car. That car is really like, it's everything I want. It's a thousand horsepower track monster. I want a car that scares me. And granted, you can get scared in a GTI, in the right place. So there's that. As for daily, I was actually thinking about this yesterday, so I'm glad you asked. Or maybe it was today. No, I was actually today. A Tavarge video came on in the background today. He's got like a daily Hellcat charger, and I'm just like, that. That would be so fun to putz around. Initially, my answer was RSQ8. But I feel like by the time I have an unlimited budget, I'd probably be living in Tennessee or Texas, where I could daily a Hellcat charger. Just because it's not the fastest in anything. It's awful in everything it does, but it's so good at being fun.

If I had to pick someone to go test drive a vehicle for me and tell me the truth about it that wasn't near me, it would be that Mr. JWW.

Okay.

Class that guy.

Yeah.

And he knows cars. Where, yeah, I'm saying where you got to name someone like a celebrity or something like that.

Yeah.

That guy, he can drive.

Yeah. Yeah. You know who else? Chris Harris. I watched his video today collecting cars of him driving a 750S and Porsche GT3 RS, and I thought he was going to say Porsche. He finished the video saying, I'm feeling patriotic as f*** with this 750S, you know, because he's just like, that car was just such a car to drive.

Yeah.

And I didn't expect that. I expected him to clown on the McLaren.

No s***. How about you, Decker? What are your vehicles?

So I did mine. Mine's changed a little bit. I've decided that my show car is a 69, Lincoln Continental, Coyote swapped, dropped on bags, convertible. So that's what I want. Then Shelby dropped a Baja Super Snake Super Duty with the 6.7 in it. Finally, somebody's doing a performance diesel truck. So that's my daily.

I did not know that. You had to show me that.

I saw it in person at Shelby America when we were down there for SEMA. It was f****** b*****. And then my track car, I stay pretty loyal to Ford, so I want to say Ford GT. But I think just as I've been doing more track stuff, I want to drive a GT2 RS. I want to just, I want to know.

Start out with the 3 so you can handle the throttle.

I thought I was going to say 3, but we have just, I only get to pick 3, right? So I got to do one and learn into it. I actually drove a GT3 RS. We were doing a rally. He pulls these Audibles every now and again for bonus points.

That was such a fun rally. So we just started making up challenges. We just started calling Audibles in the group chat with all the rallyers. I'm like, 100 points if anybody gets to drive a supercar.

Test driving a supercar. I guess just drive a supercar. So you got to find somebody on the street or do whatever. So my wife and I pull into a Volkswagen dealership. They own a bunch of supercar companies now, right? And they had a GT3 RS. I told Miles, she's looking online. I'm like, it's got to be something like 130 or less so that they think that we can actually afford it. We're not going to get this pulled over. So she's texting him, does this count? Does this count?

That was so funny.

We found this GT3 RS. It was like 135K. So I roll in with my orange Mustang.

What year, like a 16, 17?

I want to say, yeah.

It was that generation, yeah.

It was an older one.

It was before the new generation was released.

It had to have 40,000 miles on it to be that cheap.

This was also what, four years ago?

Pre-COVID.

Yeah, keep going.

Okay, so anyway, we roll in with my car, and I own an electrical company. I'm not lying, but I'm looking for something else. I track this car. I want something. Whatever, I keep hearing about this. We're running a rally right now. I mean, we're decked out in gear. My car is all stickered up. I was like, we got track day tomorrow. I'm really considering this or whatever. So they basically let me drive it. They want you to do a credit check before you can drive something like that. And I'm like, nah, man. I just want to hop in with me. We'll go around the parking lot. And that's what I did. I drove around the parking lot. I drove around, but it was a cool f****** car. Even Mal was shopping on the way home. She's like, maybe we can do this. And I was like, ugh.

We almost got a guy to buy a Perfomante. The dealership just wasn't open. I was like, a thousand points if anybody buys one on this route.

He would do it just to win.

He's that guy. That was a fun one.

He's a really good friend.

It was the spec, too. I literally found it. It was like a half hour out. I'm like, this is the spec you're looking for. Was it red or green? I can't remember. I think it was red. But anyways, he was looking for a red Perfomante. I'm like, dude, this is one of your two specs. And the dealership was closed. The one dealership that's closed on a Saturday in the country. Are you kidding me? So, I don't know. We've had some fun times. Yeah, f****** realities. I'm excited to be back in it this year.

Speaking of trucks, I just got a new diesel, and I've been waiting a long time for it. So, GM paired up with AEV, American X whatever. They do off-road s***. So, it's got all this skid plates, bumpers on it, stuff like that. First time ever, I'm doing 70 miles an hour coming home, and I smoked a deer. I never hit a deer in my life. I'm on the phone. I'm like, f***. And the wife's like, what's wrong? I'm like, I just hit a deer. She goes, really? She goes, you're going to pull over? I go, there's no way it's alive. What about the vehicle? I go, everything's driving normal. Get home. There's a little fur on the bumper because it's a big, they're big steel bumpers. Nothing. No dent, no nothing. A little fur underneath the parking sensor. Blew my mind. So when you're saying that Shelby thing, the difference between yours and mine, I think yours is going to have more of the plastic show stuff like they do on the other Shelby trucks. So where mine's off road, yours is going to be more, not saying street minded, but it's going to be more street minded. I'm very excited to see what that looks like. Cause they do look good. They make the front end and the hood look huge on those Shelby trucks.

Yeah, it's got like the two nostrils, like the air intakes on the hood and all that stuff.

That's cool. Wait till you delete it.

I deleted my stuff? The heck, man.

Yeah, you gotta do it. And I'm not, it's not a, you're not hurting the f****** environment, okay? It's b*******.

You think even those plastic jugs of Deflane around at the gas island is better?

Exactly, and the fuel efficiency that I, no one can, remember this, guys. Numbers never lie. So when my fuel economy goes up, the vehicle's running better.

You've doubled the life of your engine.

I'm not sitting on the side of the road with a plugged up exhaust. Yeah, I'm gonna spend the five grand. I don't care. Numbers don't lie. So fuel economy went up. My dad's got the same f****** diesel truck, and he has all of his on there, and he's had plugged up exhaust, plugged up Cadillac converters, and...

And the new ones, are they still putting the depth tank up in the engine bay, too?

No, no, GM doesn't do that. That's a Ford thing.

No, GM did that. My father-in-law has a...

Hold on, hold on.

Uh-oh.

Hold on.

Ours are right next to the gas, the depth tank.

So are GM's this model year, and the prior one, the one before that, was up in the engine.

Okay, that was horrible.

The 14 was. But the 16, it went to by the fuel pump, I believe, because I have a 2020, and then the 2024, and it's by the fuel. And my dad's is a 16, it's by the fuel.

My father-in-law's is up in the engine bay, and he has to have like a step ladder, and he carries a knife to.

You gotta pop the hood. Yeah, I don't understand death fluid, it's dumb.

Yeah.

I don't think anybody does. I don't think I've ever seen anybody in favor of it.

No, somebody's gotta do it now.

No, I remember.

Skid loaders, Bobcats, s*** like that, it's gotta have it.

If it's over, is it 75 horse or 100 horse? Because the one skid steer, because my dad does a lot of work for the Amish. So the one skid steer does have it, the little one does not. The other one is because he said it was under 75 horse, or 60 horse, whatever it is. The little ones don't need it. Why? I mean, I don't know. It's funny how these rules and laws are put in a place by people that just don't understand.

People that will never use it.

No.

You're never gonna see any of these guys drag on a skid steer.

They don't even understand how it works. They just, someone tells them to vort on it, and they do.

Pretty much. Yeah, but they need their f****** landscaping done at their fancy little house they live in that has no grass.

Let's finish on a positive note.

Yeah, again, we're all hypocrites.

I'm like, man, this is about to be a 20 minute rant we're going into.

We'll have to break this into two episodes.

That's what happens when you bring old people on. Back in my day. Sort of. Sort of. But yeah, positive note, my... Yeah. Positive note, there's a lot of good in this world, and it's a great time to be alive. You may not think it's a good time to be alive because of what the news tells you.

What social media tells you.

Yeah, when you shut off, when you shut that s*** off and look around and understand you still have all the feeling, your fingers and toes and you can walk around.

As long as you aren't playing around with Tannerite.

Tannerite's fun. But yeah, just there's a lot to be grateful for. And we just we take it for granted too much.

And on that note, where can people find you?

Instagram Z281.

Simple enough.

Yeah, really simple. It's one of the greatest addresses you could probably get. Yeah, it might be hard for a Ford owner to click on it, but yeah, it's my feed just because I follow you. So but yeah, it's just want to be known as a car guy. Loves car rallies.

And yeah, yeah, makes sense to me.

Yeah. As for you, Dan, you can find us at Gunnit Garage. Just trying to do the same stuff with the whole fam. You know, did I did I say it yet?

You didn't say it. You're good.

He always say what?

With two ends, two ends.

It's my son came up with it. He his name is Gunner and he used to run around saying Gunnit all the time at home. So you kind of spun off on it. So it's got two ends in it.

Gunnit with two ends is what your slogan is.

Yeah. Well, that's our slogan is life at the red line because of the four kids and always specify it, though. Yeah.

You know, because I've got it. Yeah, I get it. Like like Lambo dad, he had two D's, you know, f****** search for that all the time. So if he was my podcast co-host, yet it's Lambo dad with two D's.

Why don't you just say gunnit?

I guess I could.

Oh, you could do that with you.

Then they might mistake that for three.

Right.

Yeah, it's great. I got my Road America plate and I got gunnit. It fits in there just perfect. Perfect. Yeah.

Just show your logo. So what you should do is put the logo on the other side. Where's the camera? Your camera angle is right there. You should have it.

Mine's right there.

Yours is right there, but you're covering up with your arm.

That's all right. I was going to wear my Minnoxide sweatshirt, but yeah, it's such nice quality. It's too hot in here.

Your logo is what's that logo there?

Well, it's just the AMS. Right there.

That sticker right there. You feel free to take some of those.

Yeah, that's why your sticker is right there.

Put that on the car. Oh, and you got one of those QR codes. That's clever s***, man.

Dude, me and my designer, we work well together, man. He's the best in the world. I love him. I, you know, yeah, he's designed all my liveries all over the years, you know, just kind of started. I don't know right now, he works over at Tint Pros designing cool stuff for a lot of other cool people. So that's really cool. As for me, you guys, hopefully three hours deep. Did we crack three? Yeah, three hours 12. I'm gonna... Dude, who the f*** is gonna beat this?

I've got one positive thing to end on. When you said window tint, people don't realize how easy it is to get window tint. Get it.

It changes everything.

It's a simple luxury. It's a simple luxury. You're not driving in a fishbowl. Man, get window tint.

You still got Brian doing your stuff?

Yeah, Brian Rosenberger does all the window tint.

We're lucky enough to be pretty good friends with somebody who's the master at TV.

Master at it. You go see him on a Saturday, you flip him 50 bucks, whatever he does. Yeah, window tint's a huge thing.

Changes the car. Everything is there.

It's like putting sunglasses on, man.

Yeah, it's the best quote unquote mod you can do for your car. Yeah, it's the best knowing that people can't look inside when I blow past them. But yeah, make sure you guys are three hours in. You know where you're following. So thank you for coming on, Paul. Thanks for existing, Dan. And we'll see you all next time. Yeah, see you later.