95. Fast AWD COBALTS? AWD Civic, and PowerCruise USA w/ Austin Gorak and Alexis Krebsbach

Hello, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the minnoxide podcast. I'm your host, Harris aka minnoxide, man of many automotive aspirations, and I'm here with my... You're doing all right today, co-host Dan.

Dan's hot and tired.

dude, it is like 90 degrees. We're up here at Brainerd International Raceway for the Powercruise Weekend. And once again, we got a new backdrop here. I'm gonna adjust this. Basically, the Performance Driving School, we got to give them a shout out for hooking us up. We did episode 87 here. It was in 91. I don't know. Look it up. But it's cool to be back in this building. So fun stuff. But today we are back with some more Honda people. We didn't have Honda people until I shouldn't say Honda people.

It kind of sounds like the last time we were at BIR.

Yeah, no, legit. So at the North Star Speed Summit, another. Have you guys heard about the North Star Speed Summit?

We were not at the first one.

But it's like the old proving grounds.

Yeah, we've been to proving grounds. Yeah, I don't think we went to Carmageddon when it was Carpageddon either.

We went once. Yeah, and it was.

Yeah, that's kind of what we've heard.

Yeah, new people are in charge now. It's going to be really cool. So the last one was pretty good. It was just a little bit smaller because they're trying to work out the bugs. But that's a really awesome event. I think that'd be a fun one. But yeah, we're up here for Powercruise, our second one. And what Powercruise basically is a street legal. Not street legal. It's like legal street racing. Is that a good way of putting it?

Sounds about right.

I always say that every single time. Is that a good way of putting it? So and I think your car your car gets yours at some point. Okay, hold on. Which generation Honda is that?

I think fifth.

Or I mean, like, is it EJ, EK?

Oh, EG.

EG. Gotcha. Yeah. I love the plate, by the way. Hatchie.

Thank you. That actually wasn't my idea when I bought the car underneath the top brake light. I bought it from some girl completely stock and the sticker was there. And so it's still there. And that's how I got the name. So I just adopted it.

Oh, so she called it Hatchie before you?

Yeah.

So just completely stock it and now it's like full blown race car.

Yeah.

My wife saw it on the way in here. She literally pointed it out to me. She's like, Oh my God, I love that name.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Well, so is that the name, car's name then? Yeah. I think some people get cars names. For example, my buddy's Viper is called Old Grey just because it's grey. It's a simple name, but it works.

Yeah.

But so then you guys have been doing a good bit of racing out there this weekend then?

Mostly today.

Yeah, it's been mostly today. It was a rough start to the weekend. Really? So Thursday, full new fuel system in the car. After last Powercruise, we had a bunch of fueling issues. The thing was super lean all of a sudden. And so we ended up putting, I put a bunch of new lines in it, two new fuel pumps, new injectors, yada, yada, yada on Thursday. We get up Friday, or we came up Thursday night, Friday go out for our first session. And I think first session was fine.

No, windshield piece.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Window trim flies off, but otherwise it's good.

It's just window trim.

And then I turn on the boost controller, put duty up, you know, a little bit makes like 13, 14 pounds. And I think third hit, intercooler pipe pops off the throttle body and ends up under the car in a pancake.

Yeah, that's fun. And this is still Friday, right? Like morning probably. Yeah, pretty much.

So we spent all day just figuring out some solution. Luke Saleen actually made a pipe just based off like measurements on the car. So he welded it all up down in the cities and brought it up with him.

No way.

Brought a bead roller, brought a bunch of couplers up, and we got that fixed, at least band-aided together, and got a driveshaft in it this morning. And it's been great all day.

So is that buddy of yours, is he like a fab guy or just somebody that's got tools?

So, Luke used to work for FabBot. I don't know if you've heard of them. They do a bunch of like LS transmission adapters, stuff like that. And then they kind of parted ways, and I think he does his own fab thing in his garage now. Does a bunch of CNC work, stuff like that.

Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah, we're talking to a fab guy, Caleb, actually, who's been on this podcast. He introduced me to the guy that routed all the stuff for his twin turbo Z06. And he's just like, fab guys are just DIY. Like, just go do some work on the side. Like, they're the best. Right. Like, it's like, you hope that they get, like, become a one man show. It's like, this is going to be awesome. But that's cool. So you guys got it back together. At what point yesterday?

This morning, actually.

This morning? Okay.

We put the intercooler pipe on last night when he got here.

You're right. Yeah.

And then we put the dry shed on this morning.

We had to go over to BIG Performance over here in Brainerd.

Oh, Greg's shop. Yeah, we had him on, too.

So we got the... I ordered a drive shaft from California for the thing. Monday. And he got it built Tuesday and two day aired it. Had a buddy bring it up and he got here last night with it. And of course, we used to have a CRV drive shaft in it that was shortened. Yeah. The carrier bearing location is different. So Greg made us a new bracket for it. I just drilled it and bolted it into the car for now until we can get it welded up. But it's working so far.

Did you guys know Greg beforehand or no?

No.

Oh, that's cool. Okay.

Yeah.

So, you know, we had him on, so he's got like this 4,000 horsepower Camaro that he drag races up here. Just, just nasty, dude.

Greg is just as ADHD as me, so it worked out great.

I feel like so many car people in general are just like that. Like, we can't like we start talking cars, especially just, it starts going into every different tangent, right? So so then you guys got it back together pretty much last night. And then this morning it was just it went off without a hitch.

Pretty close.

I mean, minus the brakes are very not happy to be alive. It's time for bigger brakes. It's just rock auto brakes on it right now.

So how fast are you guys doing at the end of the big straight up here?

Speedo ends at 120 and it's wrapped around. So I'd say probably the 140, 150 range. Really? Okay, so at the top of the strip.

That's cooking. That's cooking.

I mean, it's a lot of it's just, you know, the thing makes like, I'd guess 530 on 15 pounds.

Okay.

But it's, it was 2300 before the AWD stuff in the K.

Oh, it was 2300 stock.

Yeah, so I'd guess we're, it's still in the 24, 2500 pound range. Well, so there's nothing to it.

So it's AWD converted to them? Oh yeah, yeah. CRV.

We learned that last time, I remember.

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, it's been a hot, long weekend.

So you're not wrong.

I mean, I asked you the same question six times. And so it's a Honda, you know? So it might go like that. Now we were talking about this off camera. Like I want to go check out the car in person, obviously. And my favorite part is the gatorade bottle. Like, you know, every once in a while you just see it. It's just like, it's perfect. It fills in the gap that you needed to do. But my favorite was like, we were texting back and forth and you said you had something else beforehand on there.

What was it?

It was an iced coffee can. My basic white girl iced coffee.

Are those the only two variants that you've had so far?

Yeah, I just, I was going to put the coffee can back in it, but it was so destroyed by the time.

Yeah.

You know, we got everything back in it. It's like, I'll just find some other bottle for it. At least keep the same spirit.

Well, as long as it's not a Dasani bottle, right? Like, we won't stoop to that level.

No, no desert water.

No desert water. Yeah. What's an upgrade? Like, what would be like a fishbowl? Yeah.

I mean, generic water.

Smart water.

Smart water?

Yeah.

So smart, how did it get inside a bottle?

Stupid.

Every once in a while, I hope somebody's never heard that one before, and I'm like, all right, let's go for it.

So then- That's the first time for me.

Yeah.

Oh, I'm pretty sure I've told your kids that joke before.

Yeah, well, they haven't told it back to me yet.

Fair enough. Any good races for you out there then?

There was, the last time I was out, there was a white Audi A4, apparently a ratified belt card made 600 wheel. And I mean, that was a boss on the drag strip.

Oh, wow. Okay.

So I mean, that's, if it really makes that, that's a hell of a run for that thing, I'd say, where it's at now.

Okay. What's the cartoon on?

Sorry?

What's the cartoon on? Is it like stock ECU or-

On data.

Okay. Gotcha. Okay. Is that you guys doing all yourselves or?

It's a mix between me and Lurk.

Oh, Kyle? Oh, Kyle. Literally the last episode we just aired.

I didn't just see that in the bleachers. I was like, that's awesome.

Yeah. No, so funny enough, he reached out asking if he would ever consider having him on. And he kind of gave me his resume. And I'm like, yeah, let's do it. The first three sentences in, I'm like, oh yeah, I like this guy. And now, I think he's either the first or second most frequent guest. I think Michael Peterson still holds that.

Does he?

Sort of.

Were they both at three or something, aren't they?

They might both be at three.

Yeah.

So if it's hours spent, it's Michael Peterson. If you want to talk about Minnox on.

Get down to technicalities.

Yeah, right. Yeah.

But OK, so that's cool. So then what are the ambitions for the car then? Just kind of keep it as is, you know, just enjoy it or do you have like long term ambitions of just keep turning it up? Because that's a different ball game.

I think that's I think that one's up to her in the long run. Yeah, I was kind of the driving force behind the whole thing. But now I don't know. I just work on it.

You've lost control over the project.

Pretty much.

Yeah, I just drive the car and he he does whatever he wants to do with it.

So why Honda?

An ex-boyfriend of mine was like, Oh, we need to get you a fun car. And I just we were looking and he was a big Honda fanatic. And we looked at three different cars and I saw that one and I was like, this is it. This is the one. And I just kind of fell in love with it. I actually sold it once. That was a big mistake. I was miserable without it. I was a big crybaby without it and bought it back for way more than I paid for it. And I've had it for eight years now. It's holds a special place in my heart.

Like after you bought a bag eight years or total?

Total.

Total?

Yeah, I sold it for like two weeks. Oh, really?

Yeah.

That sounds something like you would do, Dan.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's like, no, hold on.

Stop.

I made a mistake.

You guys are always trying to get me to sell stuff. I don't want to let go of any of it.

No, not you.

That's just my wife. That's your wife.

So I'm like the antithesis. Antithesis? Those were words. Antithesis. The opposite. I'll just use a simple word today. I'm the opposite of his wife. His wife is like, you need to sell something. I'm like, you need to buy Facebook Marketplace.

Here you go.

You need to buy this today.

So every time we're traveling, they're on Facebook Marketplace, like sending me s*** to try and get me to buy stuff.

Well, like our friend, Caleb, like he flips a lot of wheels and such. So if you bring any wheels, he will source you some. But what's it called? He anytime he's in a city or his friends go to a city, he's like, hey, can you pick this up for me on the way back? So yeah, granted, you're not much better. You picked up Ford Contour parts at Texas 2K.

I did. I did. I hit up the junkyard. There are rust free parts down there in Texas. You know?

Can't blame a guy.

Nope.

So what's the story with your car then?

God.

Which one?

Okay. Let's start with that.

I'd say probably the Cobalts, my most notorious thing now. I was, I was big into LS stuff for a long time.

Sorry to hear that.

Oh, by the way, Dan's a Ford guy.

I was, I thought I was just thinking it in my head. I didn't mean for that to come out loud.

Go ahead, continue.

That's good. I like that. I appreciate the opposition. Yeah, no problem. Yeah, I was big into the LS stuff for a long time. Still have one floating around, but that's mostly on kind of what I started with. And then I kind of moved, I want to say back into imports, mostly into like DSM stuff.

Okay. Oh, you just love pain.

Yeah, absolutely.

And it's kind of just, what, four years ago, something like that, I bought, I should start, so when I started coming up to the cities, I had my 1G and I ended up becoming friends with a bunch of guys with Cobalts, Cobalts, Ions, bunch of ecotech stuff. And as a DSM guy, it's like, you know, you're all slow. And it was just, it was constant ragging on them, you know. And I got the opportunity to buy my buddy Sean's Cobalt after he kind of lost interest in doing the whole car thing. And it was one of those cars that was just, I don't want to say like influential, but you know, it was kind of a big deal to like potentially have it. So I got that thing. And I had had like a stock one prior that was really clean, you know, and but it was it was a fairly stock blower car.

And it was supposed to be a flip car.

Yeah.

So many of those collection.

Everything's a flip car until you keep it.

Yeah, exactly.

But yeah, I bought his and it was just a rotten shell. You know, drove to the winter, ended up ripping everything out, getting the clean one back and then swapping everything in there. And then it just kind of became ecotech. Everything we're going to break records. And because that's it's a disappointing platform, to say the least.

Yeah.

So I actually had it up here last Powercruise. OK, I think I blew it up. Fresh motor. I think I blew it up two laps in.

OK. So and what was it running for a motor?

The old set up was just a steel rod, two oh, it's a LSJ. OK. They're 86 by 86. Non VVT, real basic four cylinder set up.

You just had it cranked up or what?

It was it was a big mix of no tuning time and frustration. So it was standard entry last year and it was in June. July, June?

I think it was the second event.

Yeah. So second event of the year. And of course, it's just packed. Waited in line for like four hours and the thing's breaking up bad on the drag strip. And it's like, you know, I waited this long, like I'm going to go for it. And I think second lap end of the drag strip, I'm on the button. And it made it was probably in like the 500 horse range on spray, you know, as it was. And it just melted it at top of the drag strip. It died. Let the clutch out, start limping it around. It's like, I swear I hear this thing knocking. And I make it all the way back off track and it dies, never starts again.

So such is life.

Yeah.

But you didn't have to get drug off the track.

Nope.

Nope.

Thankfully I made it right to the little paddock on the side there.

Yeah.

And had her grab the bed and come loaded up.

I've seen so many people this weekend head down, getting drug off by a tow strap.

It's been tough to watch some of the stuff this weekend. I've never seen so many cars on tow trucks.

105 degrees outside. I mean, if you want to find some weak spots, today's the day to do it.

And that's the big thing about Powercruise. You know, at the end of the day, it's an endurance event. You know, if there's something to break, this is the place you're going to break it.

Yeah.

I mean, where else do you get, like for example, you go to Texas 2K, like if you're a competitor, you get maybe eight passes, if you're, something like that, in that sort of range. Here, you're literally doing it every four minutes.

Yeah.

Right? And it's like for three days. So they have something like 700 cars signed up for the event, which is insane to me. And then basically what you do is you just go around this whole two, three miles, yeah, three mile course, whatever. Where's that sign? There's one right here that says how big it is.

3.1 miles or something. Something like that. I know it says it on the pamphlets.

Two and a half or three, depending on which one you're running.

But regardless, you use that two and a half miles stretch to cool down, and then it's like, all right, and we're running again. So you'll probably get four or five passes in 20 minutes, just full tilt.

Right?

Where else are you going to do that?

It's not like they're short pass. Half these guys that are on the drag strip are going longer than a quarter mile. Yeah, they're in it well before the beams and they're out there after the boards.

I'm diving deep into that bank turn for sure.

Yeah, so his GT 500, right? Like that car can corner like ridiculous. So he's just like, let's see what we can do.

Yeah, I want to cut a deal with people like, okay, if you go ahead, you pull on me, but let's see who hits the brakes first.

Right.

Then we'll see.

Yeah, it's just another game of chicken. Yeah. All right. So then, so that's the car you were notorious for then?

Yeah. So yeah, it started off as DSMs and now it's Cobalts.

Okay. So what exactly makes you notorious about it? Just you to get as known for him or?

I'm pretty much the only guy in Minnesota, especially. I'm pretty much the only person trying to make actual power on that platform. There's a lot of bolt on like four or 500 horse guys, but nobody that wants to do any sort of innovation or push the platform.

Do you know any of the guys on the other side of Wisconsin over in Appleton area? There's Mike has a Cobalt SS and then there's another guy, Aaron, that's doing, he has an HHR that he's doing. I don't know if you've ever heard of those guys at all.

I want to say I have seen some, if it's who I'm thinking of.

Aaron, I think has a like a YouTube or something.

He does a lot of like videos and stuff, but I want to say, you know, there was a big video circulating the web about some Cobalts on the highway, in a road rage deal. And I want to say it was in that area.

It could have been.

So, maybe. I don't know, I'm part of a ton of like ecotech groups with guys all over the country.

I always tell the people, if they want to get into a platform or if they get something, go find the Facebook page that has all this stuff in there. If you think you're into some weird s***, there's a Facebook page with 10,000 people in it.

I'm listening.

Whatever you're into, I guarantee you there's a page.

Yeah.

Oh, and it's nuts, just like community differences.

Yeah.

Like, so I go from that, and that is a world of like, it can't be done. It's not a different platform. It's this platform. It's not an internal combustion yet. And then you go over to like Honda stuff, and it's, yep, here's recipes, here's the parts to buy, here's this, that, and it's just wild going from like, even, you know, they're both, you know, four-cylinder cars that are 20 years old.

Yeah.

And just the vast like difference and knowledge and availability and everything going from platform to platform is nuts.

I am kind of surprised because they're basically the same thing in my opinion.

I mean, they're not.

Yeah, but the Honda, the Honda platform has been around longer, and there's 40 bajillion of them out there on the road, right? And they never die.

Well, the Hondas are kind of dying.

Are they?

Yeah, they're not really out anymore. Like, there's maybe two EGs here.

It is tough in Minnesota.

Yeah, they're all in hiding, and I get it.

It's like if you go to California, like that's the entire scene. Well, that's where you get all your parts, right?

Yeah.

That's where the scene is.

Yeah.

That's literally Honda Central.

Yeah.

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What?

What about PetSmart? What are we doing here?

Honda people and PetSmart, I'm just saying, get a check valve.

Oh, the aquarium check valve.

All right, just making sure. I just wanted to see.

That is a reference I haven't heard in a long time.

Yeah.

I don't remember what it is, but I do know I've heard it.

It's in the Honda forums. So when I was doing the highlights for the last Honda episode, I was looking through the early 2000s forums, dude, and I'm just like, yeah, they're just these guys with experts or whatever at the time, just because this guy said so sort of situation, like it worked. So I just wanted to see. If you guys went to Pest Mart, got a gold. So then are you still trying to do much with that platform then or do you see yourself kind of pivoting from it?

Oh, I want to say I'm deeper into it than I've ever been with the new setup.

Or tell me more.

As soon as you break s***, you got to get real deep.

So trying to do Honda stuff with a Cobalt.

Pretty much. So where are we?

K-Swap and a Cobalt?

No, no. Got to keep it ecotech. All right. So it was a factory ECU last year, which is a real dinky. They're P12. They have like one one extra input from HP tuners. And they're just they're a terrible ECU to deal with. Two and a half bar capped map.

Oh wow. Okay.

Yeah. Terrible math resolution. Just it sucks. Like you're tuning them speed density on one corner of the table.

So again, is this you and then Kyle working on this?

This is mostly me.

Mostly you. Okay.

So like when we dino this thing, the last time we had it on maps dino when they were still, when they were still there.

Yep.

And Kyle ran the dino and I tuned the thing.

Oh, gotcha. Okay.

But this year it's on a Dominator. Aluminum Rod 2.1. So it's now, it's an Equinox Block, CSS, vader Aluminum Rods, Wysco Pistons, the whole, whole nine custom cams. And then I don't know, I don't know what we're going to do for a tourable on it yet, but I'd like to do something where I can kind of grow in it. I'd like to make nine hundred ish now.

Okay, I was waiting for something silly. I just hear these things. I'm like, all right, number keeps going up with each.

And then this, it's actually, it's almost all the way done being converted to AWD as well.

What's the go-to for AWD? How do you convert it to AWD?

Some really rare parts.

That doesn't make it easy.

So Saab built nine threes, obviously. Well, for two or three years, they built nine three XWDs, and they built them with a B207R, which is a turbo version of the LSJ, an F-46 Speed and all-wheel drive. So this is a Saab transmission, Saab transfer case, drive shaft and the full rear cradle. And it's all haldex rear, so it's common enough, at least.

So, does that make it pretty spendy or not quite yet?

It hasn't been terrible.

Okay.

There's very few like trannies out there, but like I ordered one out of Michigan, it was $500.

Oh, nowadays. Right.

Oh my God, what kind of episode is this?

This is weird.

I'm talking about Co-Park, man.

Boy. So then, we've had somebody do something crazy, all wheel drive conversions and stuff on his show to like, you know, for other, like, for example, we had somebody that made the world's first all wheel drive S 550 Mustang. Okay. Right. Which is not an easy feat. Like for example, has Toyota Hilux for a Toyota Hilux diff. Was it?

Yeah, I think so.

It was a diff, right? So it's like, I almost wonder it. How did you discover that the Saab was the way to go?

Oh God, that's a good question.

Hours and hours of internet research.

Yeah, probably. It was probably a deal where I saw a snippet of info on it and it just rabbit holed.

Okay.

I mean, that's generally, that's 90% of what I figure out or know is just ADHD rambling rabbit holes.

Okay.

So.

And then is there any, like, I was trying to think, like, there's going to be something else out there that's just like so like more readily available, right?

Because like some of the parts are so like the rear assembly. And I've figured a lot of this out through trial air looking at stuff. I think the trannies are readily available. I think the casing is the same as a Buick Regal six speed. Nice. OK. As far as the transfer case boss, stuff like that. Shift selectors, the same. The sob tranny is real weird. These are different shift selector, different upper mount, different front and rear mounts. But the AWD sob unit is it looks like it's all Buick based. OK. So that makes tranny availability super easy. I haven't quite figured out if the transfer case is the same. Physically, they're the same between the sobs and the Buick for the all wheel drive cars. But I don't know if the auto and manual stuff will interchange due to like your ratios.

And you're sticking with manual, I'm guessing. Gotcha. Which 900 horsepower in a rocket ship, right? Because the car, what did you say, Waze?

Those are 2700 ish from factory.

Yeah. And I'm guessing it's probably less under your care. Well, actually, the all wheel drive interior.

Yeah.

Plus your add-in parts.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So probably, I mean, probably still sub 3000.

Right. Exactly. And if you ever wanted to start going down the lighter route, which is always an option, it's like, let's get it working first. Then we can start making things lighter. And that's freaking gnarly. So then what's the timeline look like for that?

It's so hard. So like, I'll start putting something together. And again, it's just it's rabbit brain, you know? I start putting something together and for like a week or two, I'll be dead set. You know, I'm doing it. I'm doing it. Like I had, I went from stock suspension, you know, Cobalt, AWD subframe mounted and almost finished in three days of actual work time. And then it gets pushed outside and it sits in the parking lot. And I haven't touched it in like a month. So it all depends when I actually get the itch to work on it.

Okay.

I'd like it to be, you know, done next year, but whether it actually happens is a whole nother thing. And everybody that knows me knows it could be, it could pop out of the blue one day or it could be two years later and it's in the same spot.

Just everything about that. I'm just picturing it to Powercruise next year, for example, like that would run trains on some serious, poor choice of words. It would really, it would really...

Heat's really getting to you today.

Yeah, apparently.

Yeah. It would, it would really put some gaps between you and some people. God, choose my words.

I get it, I get it.

You get what I'm saying though? Like 900 to the wheels on that all wheel drive, you know, it's like 1200 horsepower GTR territory.

Yeah. I mean, it's...

Roughly.

Yeah. I mean, if... I don't, I guess I don't know what GTRs weigh. I've never been around them or looked at them.

36, 37. Yeah.

Yeah. So probably.

Yeah. You do feel the weight in those cars. Like even driving his GT 500, like you definitely feel the weight in it. And then you get in like a super light car and it's like, or even Sean's M3. dude, that thing is a freaking boat. Like they're almost 4,000 pounds. Like people that talk about 4,000 pound cars are in denial. Right? They're like, well, no, it's only 3,800. It's like, you're right there. You are one me away from 4,000. Like it's a problem.

Oh, it's, yeah, it's a huge difference.

Oh, we were running five deep in the Tesla plaid out there.

Max Bailey's?

Yeah. Yeah. That was, that was pretty cool to be in a plaid for the first time. Like was the torque insane? Yeah. I mean, obviously from a dig, but like, wasn't anything too crazy? Depends, right? If you're used to 300 horsepower GTIs, you know, it's the most craziest thing ever. But so then, okay, so then that's the plan for that car then. So then how's this dynamic work? Like, do you just like, all right, we're working on this car for a little while, and then you switch to the other one or?

That's kind of the itch. Like Powercruise is coming up and it's like, I'm just, who's closest?

Yeah.

Normally, it's we scramble for two weeks before the event.

Yeah, pretty much.

If we actually do put an auto on my car, we can't do that.

Oh yeah, that's the other thing. Yeah, I don't know, it's usually hers just because it's, my big thing, too, is like, if I go out, if I bring a car out, it's I have to like work on this all weekend, I have to be like super dedicated to doing this. And the only person like that maybe gets joy out of it is me, but I'm so stressed about it that, you know, at the end of the weekend, it still sucks. Bringing hers out at least, like it's, like I get to see her reactions to the car working and, you know, being done and stuff like that.

Just kind of punching in here, dude, that was fricking awesome.

Oh, I bawled my eyes out earlier when I put the drive shaft in it, cause it just did so beautifully. I was so, I was so happy.

That's, I think, almost think that's more gratifying than, you know, having something of your own put together and working.

So then where does this knowledge come from? Like what got you guys into working on your own cars?

I just drive the car. I don't, I don't do that.

You probably hand something here, there, right?

I mean, I'm knowledgeable enough, but I don't like working on cars.

Just fair.

Yeah.

To be fair, the us people that work on cars don't want to do it either, usually. That's what I tell her, too.

That's something you start seeing more and more, is people are like, at a certain point, you start making more money. You're like, you know, I'm just gonna have somebody else do this. I'm done.

Well, it was, yeah, absolutely. Like, I had just had her car at the alignment shop the other day. And dumbest thing, probably my error.

No, no, I put the suspension together.

Oh, did you?

Yeah.

It's not my error.

Nope, that was all me.

So they get it up on the rack because Powercruise won. You know, top of the drag strip, this thing felt terrible. Super wishy washy in the front, like it's gonna kill you. And so I dropped it off at the alignment shop and I'm like, I don't know what you got to do. I'm like, just fix it. Like this thing's super unstable up top. And he's looking at it. He's like, there's no caster in this thing. There's a quarter degree of caster in it. And he's like, I'm looking at it. I think the control arms are on the wrong sides. And I'm like, you know what, whatever, just just fix it. Like he's like, I'm gonna have to charge you. And it's like, that's fine. I don't, I don't care. Like whatever it costs. Like I don't have the time to do it right now. Just do it. And the thing is like, it feels great to tell somebody that until the bill comes. Yeah, right. So they do it. You know, they flip the control arms, do the alignment on it. And I go to pick it up and yeah, that'll be 500 bucks. And I go back to the, to my labored book, you know, and it's 1.8 hours on Mitchell to do upper control arms on a Civic. And I'm like, jeez. It's like, you know, had I known that, I might have just brought it back to the shop and done it myself. I don't know that I'll ever be at the point where I'm like comfortable paying another shop to, you know, just put stuff together.

It's pretty bad. Like right now I'm so busy. I don't have any time. So I've been taking it to more places and sometimes it'll be like, Oh, don't do that part. I'll do it or don't do that. I'll do that. And then I'm like, just fricking tell them to do it. I don't know why I keep trying to nickel and dime, especially the shops that I like know. And they're good to me anyway. It's like, I got to stop doing that crap. Like, Oh, do everything but the breaks. I'll put those on when I get home. And I'm like, it would have cost me an extra 200 bucks for them to do it. So yeah, it's, it's hard one to let go.

Yeah, it is.

When you're having somebody else do it.

I get it though. Like I feel both sides of it. Cause I own a shop too. So it's, it makes you understand the customers that are like, well, I only, I really only want this really specific thing done. Like, okay, yeah, I know, I know it hurts when you get the bill and I guess I get it. Yeah.

So then do you have a shop in addition to the towing business then?

Yeah.

Okay.

I've got a shop out in Minnetonka bought in April.

Oh, okay.

So she's been doing most of the towing stuff and I've been doing that.

So is that more like a general repair sort of deal?

Mostly.

Gotcha. Okay. Any particular platforms or not really?

I mean, it was one of those weird deals when I bought it. They really only did like light repair, brake suspension, stuff like that. No heavy line, no euro stuff, no diesel. And I just kind of started bringing all that stuff in after I took over and we pretty much work on anything. Some performance stuff too.

Yeah, yeah, here and there, yeah. But honestly, the more shops we talk to, they really do enjoy the bread and butter stuff. When you start getting into the performance stuff, that's also when people's expectations change quite a bit.

Yeah.

And there's a lot more diagnosis that has to go into it. It's like, why is this not working? Well, we'll let you know.

That almost has to be a passion part of it. You can't, like that doesn't pay the bills nearly as well.

I mean, don't get me wrong. I'm still trying to figure out the pricing on stuff like that. But I get it's all big dollar stuff, but when it sits for months, you got to have space for it, and then you're not making anything in that time. You're just shelling out and shelling out.

So you guys have any fun towing stories or what?

I don't know. I think.

You guys don't do any repos or anything like that, do you?

No. No, no, no. No, no, no, no, no.

That's a whole other industry.

Imagine doing that in Crocodile Country.

No, I've been I've been offered to do repos and stuff like that. I just I don't have any sort of interest to deal with those kind of angry people.

Yeah. Yeah.

There's usually not people in the best place of their life.

Yeah.

When you get there's a repo.

And even like private property and pound stuff, you know, like we for a long time, we were doing some subcontracting for city of Minneapolis work. So, you know, red tag, white tag, parking ticket stuff and tow offs. And even then, it's you never know. You know, somebody can have someone can be having the best night of their life out, you know, and see their car getting towed. And it's they're a whole other person all of a sudden.

I think private property and pounds are a lot worse than doing like pulling someone's car off the street because they park illegally. Because usually private property and pounds are in not super great neighborhoods. So I'm sure you can imagine how that goes.

So then you typically just show up when when somebody's like just broke down and decided sort of that's usually like 90% of it, I'm guessing.

Yeah.

When somebody forgot forgets to put their coolant cap on their golf GTI.

And it sounds like an experience.

My favorite is when I maybe go out to South Dakota or somewhere where their gas stations aren't as prevalent and then I end up running out of gas and I have to pay somebody like $160 to bring me two gallons of gas.

Yep.

So that I can get to the gas station.

This is all just specular.

Right.

Yeah. I mean, that would be horrible if that happened to somebody.

I don't know why I've gotten real close to running out of gas in my life. But never done it. I've done it twice in a year and I'm just like, dude.

Well, fun fact. So if you're ever broken down on the side of the highway, like you run out of fuel or you have a flat tire, call a highway helper, like the non-emergency number for whatever county you're in, because they'll do it for free.

Oh, really?

Yes. A lot of people don't know that. It's like if the resources are there, use them. You know what I mean? Especially in times like today, where not a lot of people have money, so use those.

Is that like just a Minnesota thing or just?

That's a good question.

I almost wonder.

I don't know.

It has to be probably a more populated area for that to be.

I would think they'd have highway helpers in all cities.

I don't think South Dakota gives a s*** if you don't. Leave you to the birds.

The area I was in, it was lucky if there was eight people in 100 miles of where I was.

South Dakota has a population of like 17, so. Yeah. One of them's got it.

And it's half of them on one end and half on the other end. Nobody lives in the middle. Yeah, very much.

I gotta say though, you gotta love the Black Hills over there in the Badlands.

Yeah, but you gotta go all the way through the rest of that s*** state to get to it.

That's how they get you.

Yeah. It is funny. You drive across 90 and it's like, you're ready to just blow your brains out. And then all of a sudden you come across and there's a huge Lake Mitchell. And then you start getting into the Black Hills and the scenery changes. You're like, okay, cool. I'm gonna make it.

Just all of a sudden there's life.

Yes, right? It's just flat nothing until then the scenery totally changes.

And then you get to the other side and it's like, all right, and we're flat again. So how do you know Benny, then? Benny Jones.

How do I know Benny? That's a really good question, too.

I have no idea. You know a lot of people.

I gotta get that boy on at some point. That dude's got some stories. His Evo made how much power back in the day? It was a fast Evo, wasn't it?

See, I've always known of Benny. So, I knew of Benny when he had the Evo. And through, you know, mutual friends and stuff. But I don't think I had ever really talked to him until earlier or maybe last year.

No, when we, when we, what did we, what did we tow? We towed something of his.

Oh, yeah, we towed his, I think it's an escalade. Suburban escalade.

Checks out.

I think we towed that thing two or three times.

Oh, definitely checks out.

Yeah, GM.

This Ford guy over here is just losing it right now.

Trains, you know, yeah, GM stuff.

You got your tow trucks, Ford, probably.

So the new ones are, yeah, came from mostly Dodges. But the thing that was nice about the newer Fords is I wanted to switch to. Well, we have one one gas, one diesel, but at the time I wanted to switch to gassers because we were at that time when diesel was, you know, ridiculous. Yeah, it was ridiculous.

Yeah.

And then the maintenance is huge on them, you know, fuel filters.

And you have the DOT, so it's not like you can just delete all the stuff that makes them run like s***, so.

So Ford had a decent gasser with the 7.3. They felt fine power wise with the 10 speed behind them. And nobody else really had an option. You know, I know that 7.3 is eat lifters, but so do the Hemi's. And there's still a six speed behind those trucks. You know, they're turds. And GM doesn't make a gas option in the heavy trucks. So I mean, that was the big thing. Like, okay, I'm gonna go out and buy Fords. And I've never been a Ford guy. You know, dad was die hard GM guy. So it was kind of hard, you know, moving over to that. But so far they've been fairly decent.

Yeah.

I've heard if you just keep up on the oil changes, then they're pretty good.

Yeah, we'll see.

No?

I've driven a lot of the newer Ford.

Oh yeah, I suppose.

Yeah.

I've handed this part out, right?

No, they're not bad trucks.

No, no, I'm just giving you crap.

Especially like the F600s, they have way better towing capacity. And yeah, no, like it really depends. Like I think they're either, excuse me, really good or really bad. Like I've driven one, like I got it brand new and it got to like 10,000 miles and the transfer case exploded out of nowhere.

Oh s***.

Yeah. And then, you know, like the low transmissions and motors and stuff like that. But like the two that we've had have been fine. We've gotten really lucky with those, I think.

They haven't quite hit 50,000 miles. And it's really funny too. So 42, when it's cold, now the transmission slips with 40,000 miles.

You can blame Andy for that.

And it's everybody that's like had a failure. It's pretty much a given. You will put an engine or a transmission at about 50,000 miles.

Oh, really?

And it's, well, 40 some thousand. Tranny's starting to slip on it. So we'll see.

You know, when I went with my, when I got my RV, I was looking at the newer ones with the 7.3s, and I decided to stick with the old 6.8 Triton V10, the old Triton True.

Yeah, I mean, they're pretty bulletproof for the most part. Exhaust tics, but I mean, yeah, really, you know, besides that and valve springs, they're pretty hard to kill.

So then how big is your fleet then? Is it two?

Technically three.

Three? Okay.

Two just sit there and look pretty in the flatbed, gets driven every day by me.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And is that just like your daily, too, then, at that point?

Yeah, I have three vehicles and I drive the tow truck.

Yeah, that checks out.

Yeah.

All rollbacks or what?

Two records.

Yeah, two records, one rollback.

Okay.

So back to like the Cobalt thing, right? So how much of a community is there?

It's big, but it's big in a bad way, you know, because it's all very low tier cars. You would say. When you say low tier, as in there's, I think there's like low horsepower, you mean? I mean, it's all very like bolt on and that's it.

Okay.

If he's not making a thousand horsepower, he's bored.

I mean, I'm not arguing.

I told it to my daughter out there. So my daughter's 14 and I decided to bring the family this time. And so she's been able to go out with me and we're seeing these little Hanas out there. I was like, you got to watch out. Cause you never know, some of these have a thousand horsepower and they weigh like nothing. So you never know what you're going to run into out there. Yeah.

500 horses. It's a great, fun street car. But look at the Honda community. Yes, there's a bunch of, you know, like mid power street cars, but there are always cars that make a ton and they fly. And it doesn't exist in the Cobalt community.

They're making world records.

Yeah, unless you look at, you know, like sportsman cars, where ecotechs are dominant, it's, there's nothing in between. You've got 500 horse street cars, and you've got 2000 horsepower sportsman cars, and nothing else. So, as far as, you know, bolt on parts, stuff like that, there's a ton of market, there's a ton of community around it. But as soon as you go, oh, I'm gonna do something more than that, you're the laughing stock, and that's it.

Like, oh, you're making stuff, oh, it's never gonna work, sort of, in the forums?

Yeah, there's like four people, four or five people that make, you know, 700 plus. And I think the unofficial or official record, you know, for a Cobalt chassis or a Delta chassis is 898. And I think ZZP did that years and years ago.

Now, isn't it, you must have to do quite a bit to them, because again, kind of an anti-GM guy, but aren't the Eco-Techs kind of known for not being that great of a motor? I mean, they get a lot of s*** talk. They do, they do. I don't think there's one Equinox out there that hasn't had a blown head gasket.

Well, timing chains.

Yeah.

Huge.

I think I have heard that too, yeah.

Every single motor that I pull apart, because I flip Equinoxes too. Every single motor that I pull apart, they're all brown varnish inside. There's never a clean one I'm putting timing chains in. And the GM went, oh, yeah, well, here's your nice oil life indicator. Change your oil when it says zero. Well, zero is 10,000 miles.

Holy crap.

And they're running, you know, conventional oil. So you want to, you know, this motor lives and dies by, like, a 3 16th oil feed hole to spray and lube on the chain. Well, what happens, you know, a small piece of varnish just plugs the hole and now the chain is dry. That's all it takes.

So then ultimately just a better maintenance interval and they're good?

Maintenance is huge. And it's the same thing with like GM three sixes. And I hate them. Like those motors are junk. But at the end of the day, a lot of it's people don't maintain them.

Isn't what's your?

Oh, they got rid of it. Yeah. But I told them, I was like, do you get rid of that 3.6 VVT? I was like, get that. I was like, you really screwed up there. And he was like, oh, it's fine. It's a Cadillac.

That doesn't mean anything.

You remember back in the day when Cadillac meant something?

Yeah.

Pepperidge Farm remembers.

He's got rid of it now, but he moved into a 4XE Jeep. So he just, you know, I'm sure that's going to be so much better.

Right.

Yeah. So is that literally all it is then?

I'm not going to say that, you know, they don't have problems otherwise because they do. But a lot of it comes down to, you know, not its maintenance. You know, if you actually do your oil changes at 3000 miles, keep the things clean, it's huge.

I find it hilarious how much R and D you can get out of this since you flip them.

Oh yeah.

That's kind of hysterical, right? It's like, all right, and we're going to, we're going to take this and this and all right, we're good.

Well, there's plenty of broken ones out there. So it's probably not hard to find.

We have four on standby. Yes, we do. That's hilarious. Oh no, you sold one. I'm sorry. We're down to three.

So then, if somebody were to replicate what you're trying to do, which would be difficult to imagine, what would be some of the first things that just need to immediately be replaced if you want to even make, let's say, 500 horsepower?

500 horsepower LSJs are their cake work. Stock bottom end, stock head, stock cams, head studs, 80 pound injectors. I would go turbo kit with like a S252 or an S257, and they'll make 500 all day happy. Blower cars, you're kind of stuck in the 3, 350 range.

But it'd be like a fun little road course car, probably.

And they are. With a blower, like a stock M62, they're a riot to drive as something like around town. They're slow on the highway, but, you know, like even something like this, it'd be great. You know, low speed rolls. And of course, I don't know if you guys saw the posts in like the Powercruise group, somebody was complaining about all the backed up traffic under the bridge from all these cars doing super slow rolls. And that's, but that's like those cars, that's what they're perfect for. A nice slow roll with a blower car is, it's an absolute riot, but you want to make any sort of competitive power and it's, you're going turbo.

What kind of, I guess, what kind of torque figures are they putting down too?

That's a good question, cause I cannot think of it off the top of my head and I've been thinking about it for 10 minutes.

He's like, please don't ask me, please don't ask me. But no, I mean, I have a rough sort of idea in my head.

Does the rest of the driveline survive? I mean, all wheel drive conversion aside, like does it, you know, trans axles, things like that, those all live through that too?

It's one of the funny things. A lot of the community talks about like how terrible the transmissions are, stuff like that. We don't have the drivetrain to support it, but like, look at like K Series Honda stuff, you know, it breaks at four or 500, four or 500 wheel, you're, you know, breaking transmission parts. And same thing, like an F35 five speed that comes in a Cobalt SS, five, 550, you know, they're pretty much good too. Stock axles suck in LSJs. The supercharged cars are dinky. You go to a G6 hub or an LNF hub, knuckle and hub, and then go to an LNF axle. So 08, did they make them in 08? I think it's 08 plus. I don't think they skipped a year. And I don't know a ton about the later turbo cars, but you go to an LNF, which is the later turbo SS, and the axle shaft is like this in them. I've never seen a set break. And nobody even makes axles for them at that point. They used to make aftermarket LSJ axles, because they're junk. But as far as the LNF stuff, nobody's replicated them. There's obviously aftermarkets, but as far as DSS or Insane Shafts, there's no point for them to make axles for them, because I don't think I've ever seen a set break.

dude, this is one of the things about this podcast. Now we're going to be going to, I don't know, Texas 2K or whatever various events around the country. We're going to be looking at Cobalts now.

You might, but I still won't. No offense. That's good.

That's smart.

I pulled to a gas station on a holiday in the middle of winter. Oh my God, I bet you that Cobalt's built. So like we talked about earlier, right? Like there's a big density of like Hondas and such, you know, in California, for example. And you go anywhere in, you know, Detroit or whatever, you know, it's Muscle Car City over there. Where's the Cobalt population? Are they just all over the place or?

They're kind of scattered. I mean, I know I know guys from Ohio, Illinois.

We used to have a great places.

We used to have a big group of them here in Minnesota.

OK.

I mean, Ecotec used to be, I don't know, probably 100 cars, and it was fairly active. And now all that's kind of trickled away to there's some bigger cars in Florida, I believe. Michigan, and obviously that's that's where ZZP and OTTP are both is Michigan. So those are the only real two parts hubs for them. Other than that, I mean, it's just it seems like it's always just kind of scattered. You know, there's never really a big following anywhere.

So, is there anything I'm kind of missing? I feel like there's another question that I should have asked at some point. I don't know, it's been 100 degree day today. Oh, dude, it's so long day. You know, it sounds amazing right now.

Food.

Food?

Yeah.

They got some good food on site here. Yeah. Should we pop the usual three down?

Sure.

Yeah, we are pretty deep into the episode.

Yeah, I feel like we are forgetting something, but we'll come back.

We'll do a Minnesota goodbye after it's fine.

All right. Well, then I'm going to say, as we get towards the end of every episode, we like to ask our guests to pick three cars. You have to have a daily driver, a track car and a show car. You have an unlimited budget. Swap whatever you want. Cobalts are OK. Whatever you want. What are you picking?

You have to go first. Daily driver. Oh, God.

A lot of you guys know Rattified Motorsport for their RS3, TTRS, 1000 horsepower hairdresser car builds, but they are so much more than that. From basic maintenance on an R35 GTR to, you know, cute little Volkswagen GTIs like mine, they're able to do a little bit of everything. Whether it's your basic maintenance or an intake in a tune, or even a full-blown build, be sure to go to rattifiedmotorsport.com to get yourself booked today, and I hope to see you guys at the shop.

Probably like a 3500 diesel Ram, something newer.

Mine was a truck too, especially when you're hauling s*** around, doing car stuff.

Yep, it's got to be like a new crew cab Maroon dually.

Maroon checks out. Sorry, I'm thinking about someone else in my head right now.

Bryce?

No. No, no. I saw Bryce on your profile somewhere.

I love Bryce. Okay. How do you? Okay.

Finish this question last time.

All right. So you have Trek car and show car left.

Oh, geez. Show car. I have never been a person to have anything actually nice.

Okay. Okay.

But you've dreamt about some nice s***.

God, it's hard. Maybe an Aventador. I really, you know, as is probably cliche as it is. And as much as I've been like, oh, you know, it's all, you know, they're overplayed and yada yada yada. I think they're beautiful cars.

S, SV, SVJ?

Probably an SVJ.

I mean, such a fun car. I've ridden a shotgun in one never for four hours. It's you're gonna need a chiropractor. I believe you that single clutch is a bastard. But I've even driven like a 2012 Aventador there. That thing's a Rolls Royce compared to the SVJ.

I can appreciate Huracans and stuff, all the V10 cars.

The hype is real with the S or the Aventador though.

Yeah, it's very real. You look at them in comparison and it's like, God, it's on another level as far as styling.

But there's nothing you can do with them. Right. There's literally, you cannot modify them all that much. There's a handful of twin turbo ones in existence, but they're taking time bounds. So.

Yeah, that's what I've heard on all of them. Every time I talk about it, all the V12s are junk. That's fine, they look great.

Looks wise, hands down, one of the greatest cars ever made. Right. Regardless.

Track car.

And this could be any type of track, or every type of track, triple track showdown.

You see, there is a nice white Viper out there, owned by Kyle Flecker.

The Enthmodo one?

Yeah. I'd probably have to say like an Enthmodo Viper.

That's not a bad choice at all.

No. We were camped next to him last year, and of course he's come over, sit in it. It's like, all right, I'll do it. And it's like, I should just sell everything I own.

Would you do manual, sequential or auto?

That'd be a manual car. Manual?

All right. Next follow up question. How high of power would you be willing to do?

It's hard to say.

Cause like on a minute budget.

Yeah.

Cause like, you know, you can make them 25.

You sure can.

You can have a nice Viper that's only 1200 and that's entry level.

I mean, the fastest thing I've been in to date is an 850 car. And you know, I don't know that I need to go faster than that, but if you never know, or no, just in general. And that was an EVO 8.

Oh yeah, that's scoots.

Yeah. Got it EVO. I think it made 1160 on MNP's dyno at like 62 pounds. And I got a ride on the street in it. And God, that was something else. All of a sudden, I was motivated to actually work on stuff again.

There's a lot of good looking EVOs out here. The black ones, especially have caught my eye. I'm like, I like that car.

It's actually here, the same car. If you look out, you'll find a gray EVO 8, no headlights. You can see the radiator through the driver's side headlight hole. It's got a, I believe that car has a 25, five cage in it. It used to be Spencer Sullivan's car. He traded it, I don't know, a year ago or something, six months ago. And he's here. He had it out first day. Then there's something with the tune where he's like, I can't bring it out, but yeah, never thought I'd see that car at Powercruise. Cause he was always very against the event, but yeah, to see it here and be like, it was cool getting to walk up and be like, Hey, I know this car, you know, and goes through a bunch of stories.

Lots of first timers here to have been either apprehensive or just never made it up here. So it's pretty cool to see this event growing.

I think 1320 drew a lot of people up here. Which is, it's super cool to see, you know, we haven't seen a Powercruise this big, I don't think since COVID, you know, and everybody had a bunch of excess money.

My first one was the last one because I've always had rallies that was going on beforehand. So it's just, that's, that was just the same day.

That was almost a given almost every rally we did or had, it was during Powercruise.

I had to choose what events to go against. Like, all right, am I competing with Crown Rally or Powercruise? I'm like, well, the Powercruise people don't do rallies. Most of the time. So let's go to, you know, that was the same day. Do you have enough time? You raid Rock? Oh, you got to pick your three. I'll let you do budget.

A daily, I'd probably an Escalate V.

Sold.

Yeah. I mean, I think they're ugly as sin, but like why on God's green earth would I not want a big a** SUV with a blower on it?

You can also do a Hellcat Durango.

You make a really fair point.

Would you do that instead?

The struggle is real.

It's also cheaper, faster and better in almost every way. Granted, the interior on the Escalate V is f****** incredible.

If I could put the Escalate V interior in Hellcat Durango, then probably, because they are a lot more attractive and appealing in my opinion.

So you have to choose one now. F***.

A V interior swapped Hellcat Durango.

Yes, with my unlimited budget. I'll swap in my... With the massaging seats and the heated and cooled. But track car, my Civic, if I'm going to be completely honest with you. And then a show car. It's kind of a dumb story. I used to have a really good friend. His name was Drew Nevels, and he passed away a couple of years ago. And he had a 2002 Volkswagen GTI. Pile of s***. It is rusty. It has seen better days. But he put a jetter front end on it. So I would probably restore that and make it a show car, if I could, just in his honor, you know, that kind of thing.

That makes sense.

Yeah.

Fair enough. Bryce, how do you know Bryce?

I don't know.

I know so many people. And half the time I look at him, I'm like, where do I know you from?

dude, if you were to put up like a map on the wall and like how many people I've introduced, it's kind of actually hysterical. They're like, wait, like, oh, here's the common denominator. Right. But so like you guys, like just drinking buddies or what?

No, I. So the first time I talked to Bryce, I had bought a 21 Ram Classic Stubby.

And there's the Mopar connection.

Yeah.

And they say no more fame.

Right. Well, and I wanted to do like a five, seven drop on it. And to do with those ones, you need a plasma cutter because you have to cut the upper control arm brackets off and bolt new ones on. But you can't, there's no way to get a saws all on there. There's no way to get a grinder in there. Brought to JWP and this is when Fat Cat was still alive and well. And he's like, go to Fat Cat. This is the place I bring all the Mopar stuff to. And I called him and funny enough, I'm telling him what I want to do. I'm like, I'd love to do a cam while we're in there too. And he goes, well, I don't work on trucks. You are the Mopar guy. Nope, nope, no trucks. All right, so.

We reconnected.

And I don't remember when I reconnected with him after that. Well, we talk about that story all the time now and it's it's always a laugh.

That's cool.

Yeah, I don't. I don't remember.

No, he's a good dude, too. So Fat Cat Performance is back now.

Yeah.

Yes. Back on his own. I'm not sure if he's necessarily taking a ton of people right now. I think he's just kind of figuring out what to do next.

But he's he's under a lot of stress right now.

For local Twin Cities guys that work on Mopar, he's kind of one of the go tos. There's other parts around like you can go further out. But hello, but no, I think he's a it's been fun to watch his journey these last four or five years and really grow into his own. So absolutely. Do you guys have your own like do you have any Instagram pages or anywhere people should follow you? Not really. Please don't give out your address. You can always tell people that. Once I had to edit out school addresses, I'm like, stop that.

This is going to get seen by a lot of people overshare.

Right.

Otherwise, are you guys on social media at all then or Facebook?

Basically about it. I should do more social media stuff, but shouldn't we?

It's like you'd be a hoot and a half. You too. This energy of this craziness, I it has to be shared with the world.

I've wanted to be on this podcast for so long too.

dude, I'm telling you, man, like honestly, like some people might hear this at the end, but it's like for me, it's like a big referral thing. It's like, dude, this dude's like the awesomest dude ever. It's like, that's literally like, you should get this guy in your podcast. He is, you know, because like, it has to be somewhat entertaining too, or like cool to listen to. Like I didn't think it was gonna be a Cobalt podcast. I'll be honest with you.

I didn't either. I was trying to keep it on her card. If he had told me that, I might have been sick. Like I don't think I can make it.

But the thing is, is like, when I ask somebody who I trust, like, you know, I've only talked to Benny in person maybe 10 or 15 times in my life. But like, you know, I've got a good relationship with him. I'd like to think like, you know, I think he's a good guy. So I'm like, all right, cool. I trust his judgment. You know, he's been to Texas 2K a million times. So it's like, all right, this guy knows what's fast, what's cool, blah, blah, blah, blah. Long story short, like, if people want to get on this, it's like, just cool people that do cool s***, right? Simple as that.

Oh, and it's always great.

Yeah. And sometimes it's like DIYers such as yourself, granted, you do have a shop too, or some people that are like big name brand shops, which we will be having on real shortly here. It's gonna be a really crazy two months, but yeah, that's the short and the long. I'm gonna stop talking. I should go.

What's the name of your shop?

Minnetonic Auto Service.

Okay.

So check it out.

And the towing company?

No worries, towing and recovery. Okay. They're both, you know, companies.

Yeah.

If I'm calling you, I'm worried. I hope you know that.

Yeah, you know, not an amount of times that I have heard that in the last five years.

A lot.

The problem that would have assuming that's for after you call me, there's no worries. Yeah.

We'll take care of it so you don't have to.

There you go.

Yeah.

Well, sweet.

Well, thank you so much for coming on guys. I'm glad we got to meet. This is super cool. Go enjoy the rest of Powercruise. We'll see who else we bring on in here. But cool. Well, thank you, Austin.

Yeah. Yeah.

Toyota.

Thank you for existing. Who drives a Honda.

And we'll see you all next time.

Thank you.