February 15, 2024 • 44 mins
Sung and Emelia sit down with industry veteran and car community legend, RJ de Vera. RJ shares his journey from his early beginning selling car parts out of his mom's condo, consulting on (and appearing in) the first Fast and Furious films, through his current position as SEMA's marketing vice president. They also share their upcoming car projects and talk about the future of car films.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
All right, welcome back to car Stories with some King
and Amelia Hartford. Amilia, I have to ask you a question, yes,
before we get to our next guest. So my wife
and I we got in a pretty big argument, and
I want to hear another female's perspective on this. So
I was traveling for a few months, right, and during
(00:26):
the travels, I ran out of underwear, okay, And then
I was living out of a hotel. And I don't
know if you've ever done laundry at a hotel. It's
like highway robbery. What they charge you for it's.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Insane third prices. I usually try to find like a
local laundromat.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Yeah, and I just didn't have the time to do that,
but I do. Just I have a problem paying that
kind of money to like.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
It's like a five dollars repair underwars sometimes more.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Yeah. So I just stopped wearing underwear, and my wife
thinks it's disgusting. But then I tell her, I go, well,
it's like I stop boring underwear, but I do wash
the pants and I think of it, and then I
thought about it. It's like, why does a guy I'm
just gonna speak for men. It's like why do I
need underwear? What is the point of it? So is
(01:17):
that discuss She's like, that's gross, that's disgusting, that's I
don't know.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
I'm sitting here as your double story. I'm thinking, like, huh,
do guys even really need underwear exactly? What's the purpose
of it?
Speaker 1 (01:28):
What are boxers? They're like shorts. They're like shorts at
the end of the day, right, So what do I
need underwear for?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Unless you're wearing sheer pants? This is gonna get gross.
But I know some guys just pull their boxers and
don't like white.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Oh yeah, well look and all the guys, well, you
know guys that do that. I don't do that. I'm
not one of those guys. If you have that habit, sure,
I understand the purpose of underwear. But otherwise, would you
get in an argument with your like future husband or
significant other because he's not wearing underwear and he's clean
(02:03):
an argument? No.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
I want to be like, yeah, why wouldn't you wear underwear?
But as we're having this conversation, I'm struggling to see
the point.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Of what I mean, right, Because I was like, explain
to me why I need under It's like, well, that's gross,
and that's the that's the reason why I need underwork
because it's gross, Like who invented this thing called underwear?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Like?
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Why, yeah, do I even need it?
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Right? It's restrictive, especially if it's just like boxers, not
something to like support.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Yeah, well I started doing a lot of running, right,
like like mid distance running. I don't wear underwear really, yeah,
because it's it's it's a constrictive. You're all like blushing
was a question thinking of the anatomy.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Of like, well, if you're running, wouldn't you want something
to support? Because I know, as a woman, I like
to wear sports bross. I don't need something bouncing around.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yeah, I guess. But then yeah, I guess, but I
don't think I need that, Okay, Yeah, because I'm trying
to prove her point, I'm like le's laundry.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Yeah, but then you're known as the guy who doesn't
want underwear.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Well, you don't know who's going to see.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Yeah, anyone listening this podcast?
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Yeah, well I have nothing to hide. But seriously, yeah, right,
come on, listeners, like everyone like think about it. It's like,
I don't know, obviously, you're right.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
I'm struggling to see the point of it, I understand
why a woman, a female would need underwear like this
if there's she's wearing a skirt or dressed like you know,
you don't what it's concealing things, right, But then what
does a dude need that for?
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Right, It's like I'm wearing pants nine point percent of
the time.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Right, as long as you trust your parts, I guess.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
What, it's going to spray things and you're wearing pants,
you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (03:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (03:55):
All right, So you are you pro underwear.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Or I'm gonna say I'm pronorb but I agree that
you know, you agree.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
With my argument that it's unnecessary depending on your level
of hygiene.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yeah, yeah, how long does you like wash your clothes?
I guess?
Speaker 1 (04:11):
And yeah I want to smell. Look, there's no issues
with that, right, So okay.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Good, all right, God we got that out of the way.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Okay, So next on to our next guest.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Today, we have our good friend RJ. Devera. When I
think car industry, I think of Argent And it was
really cool to get to hear stories about the fact
that his mom had a turboed mini van that she
used to drag race.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
What.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Yeah, it was really wonderful to hear how close he
is with his mother and how impactful she was to
where RJ is today within the car community. In the
car industry, RJ.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Was at the Guires for years and now he's at
SEAM of the nonprofit which if you guys don't know
about SEMA, they are basically the nation lorgest trade show
when it comes to automotive and they also helped to
keep the passion of motorsports alive.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Yeah, I met RJ because he lent me his famous
essex way before the Fast and Furious days, and I
used a little bit of his swagger even in the
Han character because I was like, this guy is super cool.
But to actually sit down with them get to know
the man behind the myth was really awesome.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
And he actually had a feature in the Fast franchise
as well. That's right aout further Ado, r jaa Vera.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
RJ, Hey, r JA dea vera.
Speaker 5 (05:35):
What's going on? Thanks for having me, Thanks.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
For coming on.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
When people talk about RJ, your mother always comes up. Yes,
And it's something that I've always like, admired and envied
about you that you have such a deep connection. Thanks
those relationship to your mother.
Speaker 5 (05:54):
Yeah, I'm my mama's boy for sure. You know, I
love her dearly. I wouldn't be who I am without her.
But yeah, in the nine you know, when my parents
got divorced, he decided to come hang out with with
her kids, me and all my friends that were in
the car club, to like drive us back and forth
from the car show. And then she used to go
to battle the imports with us. And then one day
(06:15):
she woke me up and she's like, hey, can we
turbo charge my van? And I was like, are you serious?
She's like, yeah, I'm getting bored just hanging out with
you guys, Like I want to go drag racing with
you guys. I'm like, okay, Sure, it was a Honda
Odyssey minivan, but the original.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
It was still a minivan.
Speaker 5 (06:36):
Yeah, it wasn't a Siena, but it was a minivan.
So anytime anyone turbo charges a minivan, I always kind
of get some nostalgic feelings, like Besi's Odyssey and stuff.
But yeah, we painted it yellow for her fiftieth I remember.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
I'm sorry. I'm like shook. I didn't know your mom
had a turbo min yellow and used to race people.
Speaker 5 (06:55):
It wasn't fast, but she was really good on bracket racing,
so I taught her how to power I can build
a boost up.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
I want to meet your mom.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Let's have the coolest mom ever, right yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:07):
Yeah, so it was really fun. But yeah, she would
beat people because she was pretty good at dialing in
and running pretty consistent, and that she would always give
people a hug. So my friends would come like destroyed
and they're like, dude, I just last year mom in
your in her mini van. I'm like I'm sorry. They're like,
I will never raise my mom. She'll definitely beat me
because her dial in was like on the money, like
a tenth every time.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Amazing.
Speaker 5 (07:28):
Yeah, she's super cool.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
I read that you guys started selling car parts out
of the condo.
Speaker 5 (07:34):
Yeah, she still lives in that.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:37):
Yeah, so she's just she's a great example of, you know,
any parent that's had a difficulty but decided to be
different for her kids, because some parents have a rough
upbringing and that kind of continues on and there's some
parents that kind of do the flip. Right. So I
really got it early into like wanting and modified cars.
(07:58):
I started buying parts for a car and have pretty
early on, and I was saving up for a Civic,
and then because my brother wanted to be a DJ,
she gave him the wagon, sold his car, and then
got me an Integra, which I started modding really fairly quickly,
even before I had my license actually, and then she
was like, son, it's a new car, like, I got
(08:20):
you a new car so you don't have to fix anything.
And I'm like, well, I'm not really fixing anything. She's like,
I don't get it, and I just needed an excuse.
So I'm like, well, there's this whole thing going on
and people modding like import cars. I'm just going to
sell the parts. And she's like you're going to sell
what parts? And I'm like, well, springs and rowbars and intakes,
and she's like, I don't get it. But if you
(08:40):
like doing it, sure you know you got to pay
for the stuff. When you're I'm not going to pay
for it. So that's how that started, and I learned
how to promote that stuff, kind of helping my brother
promote and his friends promote the clubs that they were doing.
So I just made flyers with car ports on it,
and I would put it at the different like fixed
up cars at the local college, Santamonica College, and that's
really how I started. Yeah, I guess I started selling
(09:03):
car covers before that, like right before that car covers. Yeah,
I worked at a little shop in Santa Monica and
they were like, oh, like, we're really interested in this,
like this thing that's happening with like you know these
you know, Japanese American cars. There was JDM wasn't even
a term. Then I'm like, oh, I could help with that,
and they're like, okay, we'll hire you. But all I
do is sell car covers. I was like, I don't
want to do that. I don't want to sell like
(09:24):
all these like performance sports. And a guy worked with
he's like, oh, just get a business license and I
was like, well, how do you do that. He's like, well,
you go down to this state Board of Equalization office
and I was like, well, how old do you have
to be and he's like, I don't think you have
to be any age.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Wait.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
That's so intimidating for so many people to do, and
it doesn't seem like that's anything that's prevented you in
your life. Someone you just went straight after it, because
at least as a child growing up. For me, if
someone want to tell me, oh, go to get a
business license, like I would be a little intimidated of
that process.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Hustle would go get it.
Speaker 5 (10:00):
I think it's part Asian, but I think it's an
immigrant hustle, like when you're an immigrant, you know, so
I immigrated from Philippines with my parents. It's like, well, that's
what is needed to get done with. Okay, let's all
find out. And all they can say is no, right,
what else is going to happen? So seeh I was
really skeptical that I would even get it because I
didn't know if there was this eighteen year old barrier
because I was sixteen and a half or seventeen.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
That's crazy.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (10:24):
And so I would call these shops that I was
buying parts from. They're very few that sold parts, and
I'd be like, hey, I'm looking to start selling this stuff.
And I remember when I would walk in because I
was seventeen with like size thirty six, like khakis like
the bangs that were died, and they were like are
you the guy spoke on the phone. I'm like, yep,
that's me, and they're like do you own is it?
(10:46):
Like a real business. I'm like, yep, have my business license,
and they're like, where's your shop. I'm like, well, it's
in West LA. And then I wouldn't tell anyone. It
was just my mom's condo. And so it was a
lot of fun. It taught me a lot, and that
was kind of the time when like import car culture
was really like starting to move, Like the first import
car show was in ninety five. I mean I had
(11:07):
started this in ninety four, but the only place you
could really go if you had a fixed up car
was to these house parties that I talked we talked
about before we sat down, or these like eighteen and
over like dance parties.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Talk about what's this house party?
Speaker 4 (11:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (11:22):
So all at you? Yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:24):
So a lot of the house parties were kind of varied, right,
there are people dancing, there's people getting in trouble. But
at a couple of us would end up in the
garage and because we had no money and we're like, okay,
well who's cars next, you know, and really all we
wanted to do is lower it and look, you know,
kind of gangster, right. So so we got really my
friends and I got really good at like popping off suspension,
(11:45):
and we didn't even have the spring tension really, so
we would just put a box and Dino exhaust box
and we would stand on it and we were like
one more, one more, like everyone get out of the way,
you know, and it would like pop off, you know,
and that's how I think we would cut it or
have it burnt somewhere, right, which was the worst ride.
I think someone was talking about like it was fun
(12:07):
to be bouncy, Like, no, that wasn't fun, But that's
what happened, right, because there wasn't a lot of stuff
that you could buy at the time. So yeah, I
ended up befriending a lot of Asian gangs because they
lowered a lot of their cars. But they're also like, oh,
that's Argen. He's into that street racing stuff. Like don't
need to mess you know, you don't need to mess
with him. He's cool, you know. But yeah, it was fun.
(12:27):
It was a lot of fun. It was kind of
that culture some time until Imports Show Off and Hot
Import Nights and Battle the Imports got really big, which
led into the movie of course, And yeah, it was
kind of a game changer at that time, but it
was already kind of getting bigger because there was this movement.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
For those that you don't know speaking of the movie,
RJ is in Fast and Fears.
Speaker 5 (12:50):
Yeah, a little two seconds of thing. I still get
residual a little more than that.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 5 (12:55):
There was three lines in the script. One got cut
where joh Rule and I were kind of bantering at
the line.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
So just to give you context of how I know
RJ was starving actor. Like, I'm like a buck twenty
five starving. I have like twenty jobs just to like
you know, be able to eat. And I was like,
I have to just like make some type of money.
I have to also be around like you know, production
(13:21):
and Stan I can't remember his name, last name, but
he was part of Yolk magazine and he was a
good friend, right. He was like an older kind of
like brother type, and he was like, hey man, you
know we got to do this like kind of cool commercial.
And you know, you have a camera which I didn't
(13:43):
because I could borrow it, right, And he's like, do
you want to shoot this commercial? I was like, what
do you mean you like shoot it? He's like you
want to direct it? And I was like yeah, I
had never directed anything, and he's like, you know how
to do that? I go, yeah, of course I did.
I was like yeah, and I'm like, so what is
(14:05):
it about. It's like, well, you know, you got to
come up with an idea and then you know it's
like like some car thing. This is way before fast
and fierous or anything. Right. So and then somehow I
think that the actress that was going to be in
the commercial, they stan already had picked her or they
were friends and she's was friends with you. So because
(14:29):
I was like, where do we get a car? Right,
it's like, well, we need like a dope car. I
go like what kind of car? It's like ideally like
an NSX something like that. Like that's crazy, that's that's insane.
Like who's gonna let us follow that? We have no money?
And then you showed up at your car okay, right,
and it's.
Speaker 5 (14:47):
Starting to ring something. Remember I do that now that
you say?
Speaker 1 (14:50):
And then he shows up and I was I tell
everybody the story. I was like, yo, man, that's like
Asian James Dane dude. It was because I'm not from right,
so I didn't grow up in that that culture, right,
like the car culture in Georgia. We didn't have that.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
It was that's a nice car.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
Yeah, time that I had. Actually, there's a story about that.
I can get into.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
What color was that car?
Speaker 5 (15:17):
Like it was red, it was candy apple red, then
it was a color shift paint. Then it was.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Silver, silver, we got to win silver, and it was orange.
Speaker 5 (15:25):
That was the last six colors. Too many. Yeah, I
would have kept it if I didn't paint it so
many times.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
But he was the first like cool Asian car dude
I had ever met. That's to find this commercial. Yeah,
but it's so cool.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
That was your That was your directorial debut.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
You realized it and we finished it, like you know,
we cut it. It took forever because it was it was
an old ass computer, so I remember it was. It
was before final cuts and we had to like walk
away and go have dinner every time we rendered.
Speaker 5 (15:56):
I remember those days.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
But yeah, you came and you were.
Speaker 5 (16:01):
Actually because I always wanted and even me now probably
not as much, but anytime someone had a project like hey,
we're trying to do this, I'm like, let's go, Like
what do you need? You know, like you need a car,
you're a person. So that's how that Arco thing came up.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
That's funny because that's how I know you today. You're
still very much like that. I try to make it like,
let's do this, make it happen.
Speaker 5 (16:21):
Especially if it's like paving away or giving someone an opportunity.
I just loved to get involved. So being part of
this Asian American movement at that age, and then like
car culture being becoming somewhat of our platforms to be
kind of seen and recognized became a real fulfilling thing
for me.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Let's back up, how did you get involved in Fast? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (16:58):
I was initially like casult with Craig Lieberman, the other
person that was consulting on the film. We were both
working at Peterson Publishing. Somehow somebody at Universal found Craig
gave him the script when it was still Redline. They
were like, hey, we're looking for some consultants. He jumped
on and they were like, hey, do you know any
Asian kids that grew up kind of six street racing
and stuff? And he's like, huh, funny you asked like, yeah,
(17:19):
I have this really young, y, happy twenty year old
that works for me, and I'm actually part of his
car club. We're gonna have a car show this weekend.
You should come meet him. And then they were like, hey,
what's your story? And I told my story. They're like, oh,
well you want to help us? And I literally thought
the movie was going to go straight to DVD. I'm like,
are you serious? You're going to make a film with
impoor cars? Sure?
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Right?
Speaker 5 (17:37):
And they're like, no, we're serious. I okay, you're sure.
If Craig's working on it, yeah, sure, I'll help. And
so what we first did was go through the script
and be like, well, this car progression doesn't feel right,
like was it. Paul's character initially went from like a
three thousand GT tony clips and We're like, well, that
progression isn't right. So we started to align cars to characters,
(17:59):
and then they wanted to go find some cars, so
we started to call friends for these like casting calls
for cars, and then started to figure out, like could
we afford it, because I think that initial movie was
like a thirty five or forty million dollar budget, So
there were actually a lot of cars that ended up
being the character car that weren't initially Selfishly, I was
trying to get Vin's character to drive the NSX, but
(18:19):
we couldn't afford six of them, let alone the kit
that was on my car, Like, they wouldn't give it
to us for free. So we ended up getting the
RX seven because the Veil side guys were totally down.
They're like, yeah, you need kits, no problem, I mean,
you know what it's for. So there there's little funny
tidbits like that. Even the S two thousand that was
rick Yun's vehicle, which is the villain in the first movie,
(18:43):
that ended up being my S two thousand. We wanted
to use a ham and Z four, but we couldn't
afford four or five ham and Z four, so it's like,
what else do we got. I'm like, oh, I have
this thing S two thousand that looks kind of like batmobile.
They're like, that's good. Can you get the kit? Like, yeah,
I think I get that kit for us, which ended
up being Suki's car in the second movie, and now
(19:04):
it sits at the Pepo it's the.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Same car, same car. Well who made that kid?
Speaker 5 (19:09):
Yeah, yeah, you know Sacho, So yeah, well.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
It's the same.
Speaker 5 (19:14):
I didn't know that it was black in the first
movie with the Ninja Stars, which we made fun of
in Super Street and call them snowflakes.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
But I didn't realize like vale Side was there from
the beginning.
Speaker 5 (19:26):
In the beginning.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Yeah, well, hopefully you get to meet him one day.
Yoku Makusan, the owner of the site. It's like just
one of the angelic Cuman beings.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Yeah, did see your z it toky It was there again?
Speaker 5 (19:39):
Yeah yeah, yeah, he's one of the OG's from that
Japan tuning air, like Smoking Nagata, you know, Ada San,
Drift King, They're all the same circle. And I had
met him because I was working at Super Street. He
didn't have a booth at Auto Salon, so I got
some friends to rent a van to drive us out
to his shot and then I shot it for a feature.
(20:00):
And then the next year I came back and I'm like, hey,
remember me. I worked for the small little magazine in
the US. And people were already knocking his stuff off
in the US, and he was like RJ, like in Japan,
this is shameful, and I'm like I understand, but people
want your stuff and they can't get it. And they're like,
I'm going to fly to the US and you're gonna
(20:20):
help me. And I was like sure, Okay, so I
actually helped him start as US when he had the
US offices back here back then, which is how we
got all the parts for the movie, because I was like, Hey,
there's this movie that's happening. We need some parts. And
he's like, what do you need. I'm like, well, we
need RC seven kids and S two thousand kids. He's like,
(20:40):
do you need wheels. I'm like, yes, we need wheels.
Send that to and so that's how we ended up
in the movie. WHOA Yeah, but he was.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (20:48):
He was a mentor for me, and everyone talks about
their mentors, so he was definitely one of them.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
That's so interesting. I never knew that.
Speaker 5 (20:54):
Or Jay, he's super a jail. Like, there's so many
cars that I built that ended up on the covers
of magazines, and they did because he would always send
me the first so he'd like, Oh, here's my new
S two thousand, here's my new Millennium Edition S two
thousand kit. I'm going to send you on go build
a car. Or here's the m R two Fortune Model kit.
I'm going to send you one, and.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
This while you were at Superstreight.
Speaker 5 (21:15):
It was while I was kind of like a roving
editor at Superstreet. Yeah, and still doing you know, selling
body kits and other parts. And then started the wheel line.
I don't know if you know this. I had a
wheel line that was named after me for about seven years,
which is a lot of fun.
Speaker 4 (21:31):
Really uh huh.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
So those are probably collector items now, it's fine.
Speaker 5 (21:35):
I didn't keep it. I don't have one single wall right.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
If anyone's listening, who has what did you?
Speaker 5 (21:40):
If you have a Roja Motorsport wheel, I would love
to like have one.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Got to bring those back, man.
Speaker 4 (21:49):
Yeah. It was.
Speaker 5 (21:50):
It was a good era in my life. I was
very blessed, very fortunate. Like I remember the wheel deal
specifically where I had helped the company American Racing develop
their new import line which is still rounds called Multagi Racing,
and then they were like, hey, RJ like, have you
ever thought of having your own line? And they created
a mock up and the center caps at RJD wheels,
which I felt I just about fell like out of
(22:12):
my chair laughing because I was super into like the
JDM stuff like racing hard SSR and I could never
imagine someone like wanting to buy a wheel that had
like RJD. I remember driving home one day and I
was like, you know, even if it did suck, it
just be cool. And this is probably in the mid
early two thousands, right before the first movie. I got
(22:33):
back and I'm like, hey, guys, like I'm down, Like
you can't call it RJD because that sounds really lame,
Like it's your it's your line. You make it whatever
you want, you know, I'm like.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Okay, cool.
Speaker 5 (22:43):
And that started that whole kind of line of wheels
for about seven years.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
That's a long time. Yeah, it had a good run.
I like what you just said. There was like self
doubt about like who's who, Who's gonna want these wheels?
But let's give it a try, right, you know, it's
like these for in our head. I'm very guilty of it.
And that's something that I'm always conscious of and trying
to like overcome going I'd like to try this. I'd
(23:11):
like to you know, write this, or direct this, or
even my first, like you know movie I directed. Right
the whole time, it was all these voices like who
are you doing direct?
Speaker 5 (23:20):
What do you know?
Speaker 1 (23:21):
You have no talent?
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Imposter syndrome.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Yeah, it's gonna it's gonna bomb, it's gonna flop. It's
gonna you're gonna lose money and you'll never be able
to do this again. And even after I finished it,
it was like constant voices like it sucks, it sucks,
it sucks. And then it comes out and it's like
it sucks, it sucks, it sucks. And then all of
a sudden one day you like step back and you go,
you know, yeah, it didn't want to Oscar or it
(23:44):
didn't do all that, but you know, it sets you
up and you learn so much. Yeah right, And the
most important thing I learned was that even if it
doesn't didn't win awards and doesn't have the same successes
as like the big block busters, it made me realize
that I have so much gratitude that I could just
(24:05):
even do that. Yeah, to be in a place to go, hey,
you know, you want to go make a movie, you
want to direct a movie. It actually happened, yeah right,
And then the voices kind of calm down and you're like, hey,
shut up, voices, just go and do. And the lesson
that I try to like convey here is that you
got to shut those voices down. You just got to
do it right.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
I heard something this morning and I don't know who
it came from, so I don't want to misquote, but
it was one day or day one.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
It's your choice, so simple.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Yeah, I know, but like so much there at the
same time.
Speaker 5 (24:40):
Yeah, because if you don't start, it never happens.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
But I hear that through line in your story. A
lot even you know, get in the business license of
just going after it and getting it. It doesn't seem
or do you have many thoughts that are similar to
what sung saying of imposter syndrome or maybe doubt? Do
you ever doubt yourself?
Speaker 5 (25:00):
I definitely have the voices I think, like a lot
of people do, write down you know that doubt and
whether am I capable of doing this? You know what
gives me the right to try this? You know? Will
it resonate with anyone? I think that's a lot of
people deal with that, right. I'd like to say, probably
bury it pretty good. We're like, oh, wow, what's the
(25:22):
worst that can happen? And I think I was really
blessed and fortunate that at a at a fairly young age,
I was able to do that and things were somewhat successful, right.
The movie did well, Super Sheet did well, so I
worked on projects. I worked on forts and motorsports that
did well, and so I was really like, oh to
your point, like you look back, You're like I did
pretty good, you know, and so you get you gain
(25:44):
more confidence, and it's kind of I'm sure your your
first YouTube video to the one you just posted, if.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
You go back and watch huge growth, right yeah.
Speaker 5 (25:52):
You know, yeah, because I mean it is it is
day one, you know, and so I've I've been really lucky,
and I think thee of us, you know, to be
able to do things where then you can look back
in hindsight, so the second time you do it, it's
a lot easier, and the third time it becomes like, oh,
I kind of know this cycle, you know, and so
you do have a lot more confidence, and then you
(26:14):
also fail, right I was, you know, I I after
the wheel line. I tried to do a whole performance
car line right around the one bubble bursts, and I
had investment and then I lost it. I was trying
to build a couple pro drag cars, went crazing a
debt on my mom's home equity and then had to
shut everything down, and the dream came collapsing down. And
(26:34):
it was probably some of the toughest time in my life,
and it took me seven or eight years to kind
of pay back this this loan. Luckily it was a
home loan. So but this fear that I was going
to lose like our small little condo, you know, chasing
this dream and having this gratitude to my mom for
even allowing me to like do that. But that was
(26:55):
an experience and you grow from it and then you
learn like, well, failure's just a part of it, you know,
and just about getting up and getting back on the bike.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
Right.
Speaker 5 (27:03):
So I think that's that's where that imposter syndrome can
really hold you down, if you hold on too much
to the things that didn't go well, yeah, you know,
versus like, well that didn't go well, what did I learn? Okay,
that hurts. I'm gonna let it hurt, and then I'm
gonna move on.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
And just because it didn't go well last time doesn't
mean it's not gonna go well again.
Speaker 5 (27:22):
So so I think that's if I could impart anything
on anyone, you know, I would agree with you. Just
they want to just go just go for it, you know,
and no matter what happens, it's not the end of
the world life goes on.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Yeah, thanks for sharing that. I mean, I think a
lot of people look at you. He is a dude
that every that everything goes right. And then to just
share that you had to take like a loan out
from your mom's condo where it all started.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
It all.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Yeah, well obviously, I mean all that wealth of knowledge
is you know, valuable to the industry, the car industry
too today because now you're at SEMA.
Speaker 5 (28:03):
Yeah yeah, yeah, so it's it's come around full circle,
you know. Like my first two main events that I
went to outside of the import car shows were Autoslon
and SEMA back in ninety six. I had so I
took you Autuslan for those listening, which is there's a
couple events that I think if you're a car enthusiast
you have to go to Tokiautoslan is one of them,
(28:24):
Festival of Speed is another, SEMA Show is another, and
Monterey Carweek. It was like to me those four like
if you love cars like you gotta go to those four.
But SEMA, I haven't missed one since ninety six except
for the one that we didn't have, So this one
will be twenty seven years. So when I came to
work for the organization. It kind of felt like a homecoming.
(28:45):
The only the only thing that I had not done
going to the SEMA show was be part of the
team that put it together. I'd been you know, a builder, photographer,
small company host, bigger company hosts for like so many
things around the show. That just felt like natural that
I would be part of the team that helped, you know,
(29:06):
kind of puts it together and helps evolve it. And
just the organization, right, because many people think about SEMA,
they just think about the show, but the organization does
so much more for just the aftermarket companies and the
people that are involved in the industry.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
So for the listeners that don't know what SEMA is like,
how would you describe it?
Speaker 5 (29:25):
For Layman Tern, Well, it's some membership based organization or association,
but it also really looks out for the industry and
advocating for the industry.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Right.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
We're doing a lot of work on the government front,
you know, to really advocate for, as an example, a
technology neutral future. There's a lot of proposals that by
twenty thirty five, everything that's sold news is going to
be ev and we feel and personally for myself too,
that it should be technology neutral. If people should be
allowed the choice to choose whether it's a synthetic fuel
(29:55):
or hydrogen or biofuel or EV or hybrid. That yeah,
the customer should have the choice, right, it shouldn't be mandated.
So let like innovation kind of you know, it's it's
the American story, you know, Let innovation like win over.
So we're doing things like that, and we do a
lot of product development testing and EPA and card compliance
for a lot of companies.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
You're making it too too complicated organization to help and
support aftermarket.
Speaker 5 (30:23):
Companies, yes, and the industry, yes, the automobile. Sorry, so
I got too deep. I just love it. I just
love what we stand for. We love working here, and
it's really really interesting to see like car culture like
move beyond just like national borders, right, and I think
Fast kind of did that too, you know, where like
(30:45):
it created as phenomena and just to be part of
that for me was was very fulfilling, really really fulfilling.
And so that's that's all I want to do now
is do things like that.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
So do you think because of social media car culture
is going strong? Because you know, with ev sure, coming in.
There's always this argument, this notion about car culture dying,
but it seems like, you know, anytime I looked at it,
like Instagram or yeah, it's just it's all like maybe
it's my it's all I see.
Speaker 5 (31:22):
I think I was on the brink of disappearing, to
be quite frank, after the recession. It felt like my
nephews as an example for me being who I am
and my nephew is not caring about cars is a
little bit crazy to me. But it's just not their deal.
Older they they're twenty five and twenty three, a super
into sports, super into gaming, but that's their deal.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
They don't care about cars at all, not at all.
Speaker 5 (31:44):
But it felt like during the risk, after the nine recession,
there's this debt, and then right around like twenty thirteen
or fourteen, I started to see young people again at
car meets and it would rattle off like car names
and horsepower, like the people that grew up in our
generation that played grants Arismo actually oddly enough and found
out about cars and come to find out because of
(32:07):
social media, because of mobile games like CSR Racing and
things of that nature. It was kind of coming back
in a different way though, you know, do I think
things will change. Absolutely if things become really all new
cars are evy, that's going to change things, you know.
But I think the love to personalize thing isn't and
(32:27):
I think that's where the difference is. Like maybe some
of the performance stuff changes, but this idea that you're
always going to want something that's personal in yours, I
think isn't going to go away. So that's what gives
me hope. And then of course what everybody's doing, you know,
the stuff that Emilia is doing, Dustin TJ, you name it, right,
all these people that are young and really diving into
(32:47):
it and showing that next generation. It's really cool to
see and I think it is helping at the end
of the day, Like I don't think we'd have as
much interest from the younger generation if people like Chamelia
weren't making her content and breaking the barriers that she's
braking early.
Speaker 4 (33:03):
So absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
I was watching this YouTube video but this car meet
in Texas, right, and this guy asking car owners like, hey,
you know, what do you think about this car? You
should show a picture of like somebody's and a sex
and you know, give it a brating one to ten
and you go, that's a nine, that's a ten, And
(33:41):
there was you know the ten people I saw. There
was I think one Asian dude. Everybody was like Texan
like you know, good old boy like Americans, but everyone
was driving. I think I saw one hell cat. Everybody
was driving JDM. Yeah, and it made me realize something.
It's like through the car culture, this thing of like inclusion, diversity, right,
(34:07):
understanding other cultures, like for us to be accepted people
that you that look like you and I. The cars
are taking care of that for us because you know,
when Japanese cars are so beloved, it's not a thing anymore.
There used to be this term called rice rocket. Even
five years ago. Man, there was like these Maverick guys
(34:28):
from good old boys, and they kept calling my Maverck
like a rice rocket, and I was like, what is
that term? Rice rocket? Right? The thing has gone now
they're just like heay man, that's a dope ass car,
right right, And it's pretty beautiful to see that that,
you know, the car culture JDM culture becoming so like
(34:49):
global actually helps like people get along better, you know,
and it fights racism. It was just like fascinating, like
you know, likezation I had's.
Speaker 5 (35:01):
I never thought of it.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Ten years ago, these good old boys would be in
like you know, American Iron and they look at a
in the hegra type bar is like a rice rocket.
They're like, why would I drive that? Or they look
at that Corolla. It's like why would I drive that
little Corolla? But now that is like pretty cool everybody's pocket. Yeah,
it's it's changed for sure. I think for bring a trailer,
(35:23):
Like the fastest growing segment is eighties and nineties JDM cars.
Speaker 5 (35:28):
Yeah, Like there's this bond that people start to have
when you're like, oh you're you're a carn thesist. Like
we're the same people, you know. And it happens in
different cultures, right, I are other things like food or
sneaker culture or whatever, but car culture is one of them.
You travel around the world and it could be completely different.
Like I've never seen this car, like I used to
(35:48):
go to France. I'm like, what is that poujo?
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Like?
Speaker 5 (35:51):
But it's tuned in the same way. It's got deep
job and stereo and wheels, and you're like, you're my people.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
I called out my found family because I always say
wherever travel. I know, I have a family there, and
you don't even need to speak the same language. Like
when I was at Tokyoto San, I was using the
translator app to just communicate about the modifications that have
been done to certain cars, and I at one point
I took a step back and screenshot it because I
was like, this is pretty cool. Yeah, we don't speak
(36:18):
the same language, but at the same time, we do
and we're talking it. And that's cars.
Speaker 5 (36:22):
I am curious, like, what are you guys looking to
do next car wise? But you got Project Base, Yeah,
you got your thirty four.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
Yeah, that's probably going to be my next project.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
I also have this Replica Superbird that it came across
that I'm kind of going through the planning stages of
right now. And yeah, a few few cars on my horizon,
but my biggest focus right now is getting the FTR
on a container and back out here to the States.
What about you.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
I have a it's actually a eighty five Grand National
roller found in the desert. I have a stock which
you have a Grand National team. I love this. I
love wow you sold it? Yeah, well so I just
love the Gea bodies. And then Nissan they're supporting us,
and they send over enough car for me to take
(37:15):
all the pieces out. So Nissan sent me a R
thirty five with a v R thirty eight motorow So
that imagine a R thirty five g t are having
a baby with a Buick Grand National and the King
Kudo comes out.
Speaker 5 (37:32):
I think you're so good. And Daniel like best names
for cars.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
So hey, I'm doing it with Daniel because we have
students Ordan together. Yeah yeah. So then it's actually just
sitting in the garage now, so we just got to
get to it. It's been a busy last year. I'd
love to send it to Tokyo Auto Salon and just
leave it there because you know, Japanese love American cars, yes, right,
(37:59):
and then as an egent, a real Grand National and
the heart is Japanese car, which is like so awesome, right,
So King Kudo that's sweet with like watanabase. Imagine like
the vision is like big fat waase right with the
rocket bunny kid on it, right, and it's all these
little like the door handles are from the gtr okay, right,
(38:23):
you're gonna use it a little bit yeah together yeah,
so it's like it's like if a Grand National and
a GTR had a baby, the King Kudo would come out.
So it's a biracial car.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
Yeah, I'm excited for this project. Yeah, that's a really
rad Is yours going to be the S two k?
Speaker 1 (38:40):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (38:40):
It's almost done actually for us for what I wanted
it done.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
What were you doing to it? You just got this
car a couple of months ago.
Speaker 5 (38:46):
No, no, it's been two years almost. It's pretty stoked
about it because I kind of the thought was if
I was going to make an S T thousand, if
Fast and Fears was just coming out, Now, how wide
I build it? And so that's what this car is.
It's kind of a little bit of a tribute building. Yeah.
So I've been driving it around a lot of about
four months ago. I just haven't taken it to track,
(39:07):
which will be the next thing.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
So since I have you here, this is a good
good person to talk.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
Not the underwear thing.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
No, no, no, okay, that's past topic. So since you
were part of the first Fast and now we're at Fast, Yeah,
where do you think the Fast franchise can go or
should go? Or should it even go any longer? Because
(39:38):
I mean now that we're literally in space.
Speaker 5 (39:41):
You're all avengers at this point.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Yeah, right, so how do we make it better? If
you were too?
Speaker 5 (39:48):
I don't know if it's better. I mean I do feel.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
Like, what's it what? What does it need to to
put some gas in the tank?
Speaker 2 (39:55):
I mean what you did there?
Speaker 5 (39:57):
Yeah, unintended? And you've got cars in a piero in space,
which is pretty hilarious actually, and cars getting picked up
by jets. It's like, okay, Like it feels like it's
run its course as that, and it almost feels like
a prequel could be an avenue, but it's a completely
different story, and it's back to cars, you know, at
least as a car fan, Like I still watched the
(40:17):
franchise knowing like it's gonna be a spy movie, you
know at the end of the day, right, and with
a lot of explosions and cars that flip over and
keep driving like fifty million times, which is funny because
we used to make fun of the first one like
oh there were like twelve thousand.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
Shifts, granny shifting not double.
Speaker 5 (40:34):
And all the words right that they had us actually
like a side tangent. Craig and I created a bunch
of words on a sheet and they just started putting
stuff in spoonoaterer with like these six turbo was like
those those don't don't go together. No one's gonna know,
No one's gonna know. But it just feels like it's
it's just so over the top. Now, like how do
you bring it back? Like kind of like Bond. Bond
got super over the top when I forget who the
(40:57):
action director was, where like you were people were shot
at and they were like ever getting hit and then
you went to the like the current version of Bond,
which was way more raw, right physical, and I feel
like the franchise could do that. And so that that's
just Party of one if it was going to go anywhere,
and maybe it needs to sunset and something else come up.
The Grand Tourisma movie was a great movie. It approached
(41:20):
car culture in a different way. I mean, yeah, it's
gaming culture and car and more racing culture, right, but
Grand Sarisma was such a big part of why car
culture became what it was because like, no one knows
what the hell spoon Civic was until they paid grants
risk or earth GTR for a lot of young people.
That's how they got introduced. You know, So that's my
(41:42):
that's my thoughts on I'd love to see it be
something different.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Yeah, I mean when I when I you know, when
I think about Emilia and you know, the TJ's and
the Dust and right, there's such a like lack of
representation and movies today for this demographic, right, I mean
Fast is kind of our generation, right. And it's interesting
(42:05):
because you know, when we did Tokyo Drift, I mean
after it came out, you know, people just kind of
pooped on the movie. They're like, what is this drifting nonsense?
Isn't that fast? And now kids, the kids today are like, hey,
that's the movie I connect with, right, and that's.
Speaker 5 (42:21):
What started it.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
Yeah, a lot of it's interesting, right, It's like.
Speaker 5 (42:24):
And not like Fast won because they were okay.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
Drift was the first one for me, and then I
went back and watched the others.
Speaker 5 (42:30):
I think there's this opportunity, to your point, to you know,
have the next generation be a part of something that
becomes the next Fast. I mean, it's car culture I
don't think is ever going to die. I think the
love for cars and going fast and breaking barriers and
all the things that it stands for is part of
the human spirit, So how do you capture that in
(42:50):
a new way.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
I think there is a hunger for car centric like entertainment.
You know, yeah, there's still a big interest. I mean,
this is a good question. Then to gauge that is,
like it Seema growing or dying or not dying?
Speaker 5 (43:07):
It is, so then that kind of change things. Okay, sure,
So we're growing from what the pandemic was. I think
like last year we had like one hundred and forty
thousand people. Year before we had one hundred and thirty
year before, we had one hundred year before, we didn't
have it. So we're getting close to some of the
pre pandemic numbers.
Speaker 1 (43:25):
Or were those numbers, Yeah, what were those numbers?
Speaker 5 (43:26):
I think the biggest was like one seventy.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
I would love and this is my unwarranted or unasked
for opinion, but I would love to see Seema doing
I know there's always it's Vegas, so there's the parties
and all that afterwards, but I'd love to see it,
to see a carshoon in one of the garages one night,
and I'm sure you got to talk about doing that,
but yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
It's a good I noted.
Speaker 5 (43:49):
We're hatching an idea.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
Yeah, well, thank thank you J. This was a great conversation.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
Thank you so much.
All right, welcome back to car Stories with some King
and Amelia Hartford. Amilia, I have to ask you a question, yes,
before we get to our next guest. So my wife
and I we got in a pretty big argument, and
I want to hear another female's perspective on this. So
I was traveling for a few months, right, and during
(00:26):
the travels, I ran out of underwear, okay, And then
I was living out of a hotel. And I don't
know if you've ever done laundry at a hotel. It's
like highway robbery. What they charge you for it's.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Insane third prices. I usually try to find like a
local laundromat.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Yeah, and I just didn't have the time to do that,
but I do. Just I have a problem paying that
kind of money to like.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
It's like a five dollars repair underwars sometimes more.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Yeah. So I just stopped wearing underwear, and my wife
thinks it's disgusting. But then I tell her, I go, well,
it's like I stop boring underwear, but I do wash
the pants and I think of it, and then I
thought about it. It's like, why does a guy I'm
just gonna speak for men. It's like why do I
need underwear? What is the point of it? So is
(01:17):
that discuss She's like, that's gross, that's disgusting, that's I
don't know.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
I'm sitting here as your double story. I'm thinking, like, huh,
do guys even really need underwear exactly? What's the purpose
of it?
Speaker 1 (01:28):
What are boxers? They're like shorts. They're like shorts at
the end of the day, right, So what do I
need underwear for?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Unless you're wearing sheer pants? This is gonna get gross.
But I know some guys just pull their boxers and
don't like white.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Oh yeah, well look and all the guys, well, you
know guys that do that. I don't do that. I'm
not one of those guys. If you have that habit, sure,
I understand the purpose of underwear. But otherwise, would you
get in an argument with your like future husband or
significant other because he's not wearing underwear and he's clean
(02:03):
an argument? No.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
I want to be like, yeah, why wouldn't you wear underwear?
But as we're having this conversation, I'm struggling to see
the point.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Of what I mean, right, Because I was like, explain
to me why I need under It's like, well, that's gross,
and that's the that's the reason why I need underwork
because it's gross, Like who invented this thing called underwear?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Like?
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Why, yeah, do I even need it?
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Right? It's restrictive, especially if it's just like boxers, not
something to like support.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Yeah, well I started doing a lot of running, right,
like like mid distance running. I don't wear underwear really, yeah,
because it's it's it's a constrictive. You're all like blushing
was a question thinking of the anatomy.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Of like, well, if you're running, wouldn't you want something
to support? Because I know, as a woman, I like
to wear sports bross. I don't need something bouncing around.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yeah, I guess. But then yeah, I guess, but I
don't think I need that, Okay, Yeah, because I'm trying
to prove her point, I'm like le's laundry.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Yeah, but then you're known as the guy who doesn't
want underwear.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Well, you don't know who's going to see.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Yeah, anyone listening this podcast?
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Yeah, well I have nothing to hide. But seriously, yeah, right,
come on, listeners, like everyone like think about it. It's like,
I don't know, obviously, you're right.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
I'm struggling to see the point of it, I understand
why a woman, a female would need underwear like this
if there's she's wearing a skirt or dressed like you know,
you don't what it's concealing things, right, But then what
does a dude need that for?
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Right, It's like I'm wearing pants nine point percent of
the time.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Right, as long as you trust your parts, I guess.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
What, it's going to spray things and you're wearing pants,
you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (03:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (03:55):
All right, So you are you pro underwear.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Or I'm gonna say I'm pronorb but I agree that
you know, you agree.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
With my argument that it's unnecessary depending on your level
of hygiene.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yeah, yeah, how long does you like wash your clothes?
I guess?
Speaker 1 (04:11):
And yeah I want to smell. Look, there's no issues
with that, right, So okay.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Good, all right, God we got that out of the way.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Okay, So next on to our next guest.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Today, we have our good friend RJ. Devera. When I
think car industry, I think of Argent And it was
really cool to get to hear stories about the fact
that his mom had a turboed mini van that she
used to drag race.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
What.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Yeah, it was really wonderful to hear how close he
is with his mother and how impactful she was to
where RJ is today within the car community. In the
car industry, RJ.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Was at the Guires for years and now he's at
SEAM of the nonprofit which if you guys don't know
about SEMA, they are basically the nation lorgest trade show
when it comes to automotive and they also helped to
keep the passion of motorsports alive.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Yeah, I met RJ because he lent me his famous
essex way before the Fast and Furious days, and I
used a little bit of his swagger even in the
Han character because I was like, this guy is super cool.
But to actually sit down with them get to know
the man behind the myth was really awesome.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
And he actually had a feature in the Fast franchise
as well. That's right aout further Ado, r jaa Vera.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
RJ, Hey, r JA dea vera.
Speaker 5 (05:35):
What's going on? Thanks for having me, Thanks.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
For coming on.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
When people talk about RJ, your mother always comes up. Yes,
And it's something that I've always like, admired and envied
about you that you have such a deep connection. Thanks
those relationship to your mother.
Speaker 5 (05:54):
Yeah, I'm my mama's boy for sure. You know, I
love her dearly. I wouldn't be who I am without her.
But yeah, in the nine you know, when my parents
got divorced, he decided to come hang out with with
her kids, me and all my friends that were in
the car club, to like drive us back and forth
from the car show. And then she used to go
to battle the imports with us. And then one day
(06:15):
she woke me up and she's like, hey, can we
turbo charge my van? And I was like, are you serious?
She's like, yeah, I'm getting bored just hanging out with
you guys, Like I want to go drag racing with
you guys. I'm like, okay, Sure, it was a Honda
Odyssey minivan, but the original.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
It was still a minivan.
Speaker 5 (06:36):
Yeah, it wasn't a Siena, but it was a minivan.
So anytime anyone turbo charges a minivan, I always kind
of get some nostalgic feelings, like Besi's Odyssey and stuff.
But yeah, we painted it yellow for her fiftieth I remember.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
I'm sorry. I'm like shook. I didn't know your mom
had a turbo min yellow and used to race people.
Speaker 5 (06:55):
It wasn't fast, but she was really good on bracket racing,
so I taught her how to power I can build
a boost up.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
I want to meet your mom.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Let's have the coolest mom ever, right yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:07):
Yeah, so it was really fun. But yeah, she would
beat people because she was pretty good at dialing in
and running pretty consistent, and that she would always give
people a hug. So my friends would come like destroyed
and they're like, dude, I just last year mom in
your in her mini van. I'm like I'm sorry. They're like,
I will never raise my mom. She'll definitely beat me
because her dial in was like on the money, like
a tenth every time.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Amazing.
Speaker 5 (07:28):
Yeah, she's super cool.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
I read that you guys started selling car parts out
of the condo.
Speaker 5 (07:34):
Yeah, she still lives in that.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:37):
Yeah, so she's just she's a great example of, you know,
any parent that's had a difficulty but decided to be
different for her kids, because some parents have a rough
upbringing and that kind of continues on and there's some
parents that kind of do the flip. Right. So I
really got it early into like wanting and modified cars.
(07:58):
I started buying parts for a car and have pretty
early on, and I was saving up for a Civic,
and then because my brother wanted to be a DJ,
she gave him the wagon, sold his car, and then
got me an Integra, which I started modding really fairly quickly,
even before I had my license actually, and then she
was like, son, it's a new car, like, I got
(08:20):
you a new car so you don't have to fix anything.
And I'm like, well, I'm not really fixing anything. She's like,
I don't get it, and I just needed an excuse.
So I'm like, well, there's this whole thing going on
and people modding like import cars. I'm just going to
sell the parts. And she's like you're going to sell
what parts? And I'm like, well, springs and rowbars and intakes,
and she's like, I don't get it. But if you
(08:40):
like doing it, sure you know you got to pay
for the stuff. When you're I'm not going to pay
for it. So that's how that started, and I learned
how to promote that stuff, kind of helping my brother
promote and his friends promote the clubs that they were doing.
So I just made flyers with car ports on it,
and I would put it at the different like fixed
up cars at the local college, Santamonica College, and that's
really how I started. Yeah, I guess I started selling
(09:03):
car covers before that, like right before that car covers. Yeah,
I worked at a little shop in Santa Monica and
they were like, oh, like, we're really interested in this,
like this thing that's happening with like you know these
you know, Japanese American cars. There was JDM wasn't even
a term. Then I'm like, oh, I could help with that,
and they're like, okay, we'll hire you. But all I
do is sell car covers. I was like, I don't
want to do that. I don't want to sell like
(09:24):
all these like performance sports. And a guy worked with
he's like, oh, just get a business license and I
was like, well, how do you do that. He's like, well,
you go down to this state Board of Equalization office
and I was like, well, how old do you have
to be and he's like, I don't think you have
to be any age.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Wait.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
That's so intimidating for so many people to do, and
it doesn't seem like that's anything that's prevented you in
your life. Someone you just went straight after it, because
at least as a child growing up. For me, if
someone want to tell me, oh, go to get a
business license, like I would be a little intimidated of
that process.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Hustle would go get it.
Speaker 5 (10:00):
I think it's part Asian, but I think it's an
immigrant hustle, like when you're an immigrant, you know, so
I immigrated from Philippines with my parents. It's like, well, that's
what is needed to get done with. Okay, let's all
find out. And all they can say is no, right,
what else is going to happen? So seeh I was
really skeptical that I would even get it because I
didn't know if there was this eighteen year old barrier
because I was sixteen and a half or seventeen.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
That's crazy.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (10:24):
And so I would call these shops that I was
buying parts from. They're very few that sold parts, and
I'd be like, hey, I'm looking to start selling this stuff.
And I remember when I would walk in because I
was seventeen with like size thirty six, like khakis like
the bangs that were died, and they were like are
you the guy spoke on the phone. I'm like, yep,
that's me, and they're like do you own is it?
(10:46):
Like a real business. I'm like, yep, have my business license,
and they're like, where's your shop. I'm like, well, it's
in West LA. And then I wouldn't tell anyone. It
was just my mom's condo. And so it was a
lot of fun. It taught me a lot, and that
was kind of the time when like import car culture
was really like starting to move, Like the first import
car show was in ninety five. I mean I had
(11:07):
started this in ninety four, but the only place you
could really go if you had a fixed up car
was to these house parties that I talked we talked
about before we sat down, or these like eighteen and
over like dance parties.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Talk about what's this house party?
Speaker 4 (11:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (11:22):
So all at you? Yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:24):
So a lot of the house parties were kind of varied, right,
there are people dancing, there's people getting in trouble. But
at a couple of us would end up in the
garage and because we had no money and we're like, okay,
well who's cars next, you know, and really all we
wanted to do is lower it and look, you know,
kind of gangster, right. So so we got really my
friends and I got really good at like popping off suspension,
(11:45):
and we didn't even have the spring tension really, so
we would just put a box and Dino exhaust box
and we would stand on it and we were like
one more, one more, like everyone get out of the way,
you know, and it would like pop off, you know,
and that's how I think we would cut it or
have it burnt somewhere, right, which was the worst ride.
I think someone was talking about like it was fun
(12:07):
to be bouncy, Like, no, that wasn't fun, But that's
what happened, right, because there wasn't a lot of stuff
that you could buy at the time. So yeah, I
ended up befriending a lot of Asian gangs because they
lowered a lot of their cars. But they're also like, oh,
that's Argen. He's into that street racing stuff. Like don't
need to mess you know, you don't need to mess
with him. He's cool, you know. But yeah, it was fun.
(12:27):
It was a lot of fun. It was kind of
that culture some time until Imports Show Off and Hot
Import Nights and Battle the Imports got really big, which
led into the movie of course, And yeah, it was
kind of a game changer at that time, but it
was already kind of getting bigger because there was this movement.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
For those that you don't know speaking of the movie,
RJ is in Fast and Fears.
Speaker 5 (12:50):
Yeah, a little two seconds of thing. I still get
residual a little more than that.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 5 (12:55):
There was three lines in the script. One got cut
where joh Rule and I were kind of bantering at
the line.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
So just to give you context of how I know
RJ was starving actor. Like, I'm like a buck twenty
five starving. I have like twenty jobs just to like
you know, be able to eat. And I was like,
I have to just like make some type of money.
I have to also be around like you know, production
(13:21):
and Stan I can't remember his name, last name, but
he was part of Yolk magazine and he was a
good friend, right. He was like an older kind of
like brother type, and he was like, hey man, you
know we got to do this like kind of cool commercial.
And you know, you have a camera which I didn't
(13:43):
because I could borrow it, right, And he's like, do
you want to shoot this commercial? I was like, what
do you mean you like shoot it? He's like you
want to direct it? And I was like yeah, I
had never directed anything, and he's like, you know how
to do that? I go, yeah, of course I did.
I was like yeah, and I'm like, so what is
(14:05):
it about. It's like, well, you know, you got to
come up with an idea and then you know it's
like like some car thing. This is way before fast
and fierous or anything. Right. So and then somehow I
think that the actress that was going to be in
the commercial, they stan already had picked her or they
were friends and she's was friends with you. So because
(14:29):
I was like, where do we get a car? Right,
it's like, well, we need like a dope car. I
go like what kind of car? It's like ideally like
an NSX something like that. Like that's crazy, that's that's insane.
Like who's gonna let us follow that? We have no money?
And then you showed up at your car okay, right,
and it's.
Speaker 5 (14:47):
Starting to ring something. Remember I do that now that
you say?
Speaker 1 (14:50):
And then he shows up and I was I tell
everybody the story. I was like, yo, man, that's like
Asian James Dane dude. It was because I'm not from right,
so I didn't grow up in that that culture, right,
like the car culture in Georgia. We didn't have that.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
It was that's a nice car.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
Yeah, time that I had. Actually, there's a story about that.
I can get into.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
What color was that car?
Speaker 5 (15:17):
Like it was red, it was candy apple red, then
it was a color shift paint. Then it was.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Silver, silver, we got to win silver, and it was orange.
Speaker 5 (15:25):
That was the last six colors. Too many. Yeah, I
would have kept it if I didn't paint it so
many times.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
But he was the first like cool Asian car dude
I had ever met. That's to find this commercial. Yeah,
but it's so cool.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
That was your That was your directorial debut.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
You realized it and we finished it, like you know,
we cut it. It took forever because it was it was
an old ass computer, so I remember it was. It
was before final cuts and we had to like walk
away and go have dinner every time we rendered.
Speaker 5 (15:56):
I remember those days.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
But yeah, you came and you were.
Speaker 5 (16:01):
Actually because I always wanted and even me now probably
not as much, but anytime someone had a project like hey,
we're trying to do this, I'm like, let's go, Like
what do you need? You know, like you need a car,
you're a person. So that's how that Arco thing came up.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
That's funny because that's how I know you today. You're
still very much like that. I try to make it like,
let's do this, make it happen.
Speaker 5 (16:21):
Especially if it's like paving away or giving someone an opportunity.
I just loved to get involved. So being part of
this Asian American movement at that age, and then like
car culture being becoming somewhat of our platforms to be
kind of seen and recognized became a real fulfilling thing
for me.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Let's back up, how did you get involved in Fast? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (16:58):
I was initially like casult with Craig Lieberman, the other
person that was consulting on the film. We were both
working at Peterson Publishing. Somehow somebody at Universal found Craig
gave him the script when it was still Redline. They
were like, hey, we're looking for some consultants. He jumped
on and they were like, hey, do you know any
Asian kids that grew up kind of six street racing
and stuff? And he's like, huh, funny you asked like, yeah,
(17:19):
I have this really young, y, happy twenty year old
that works for me, and I'm actually part of his
car club. We're gonna have a car show this weekend.
You should come meet him. And then they were like, hey,
what's your story? And I told my story. They're like, oh,
well you want to help us? And I literally thought
the movie was going to go straight to DVD. I'm like,
are you serious? You're going to make a film with
impoor cars? Sure?
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Right?
Speaker 5 (17:37):
And they're like, no, we're serious. I okay, you're sure.
If Craig's working on it, yeah, sure, I'll help. And
so what we first did was go through the script
and be like, well, this car progression doesn't feel right,
like was it. Paul's character initially went from like a
three thousand GT tony clips and We're like, well, that
progression isn't right. So we started to align cars to characters,
(17:59):
and then they wanted to go find some cars, so
we started to call friends for these like casting calls
for cars, and then started to figure out, like could
we afford it, because I think that initial movie was
like a thirty five or forty million dollar budget, So
there were actually a lot of cars that ended up
being the character car that weren't initially Selfishly, I was
trying to get Vin's character to drive the NSX, but
(18:19):
we couldn't afford six of them, let alone the kit
that was on my car, Like, they wouldn't give it
to us for free. So we ended up getting the
RX seven because the Veil side guys were totally down.
They're like, yeah, you need kits, no problem, I mean,
you know what it's for. So there there's little funny
tidbits like that. Even the S two thousand that was
rick Yun's vehicle, which is the villain in the first movie,
(18:43):
that ended up being my S two thousand. We wanted
to use a ham and Z four, but we couldn't
afford four or five ham and Z four, so it's like,
what else do we got. I'm like, oh, I have
this thing S two thousand that looks kind of like batmobile.
They're like, that's good. Can you get the kit? Like, yeah,
I think I get that kit for us, which ended
up being Suki's car in the second movie, and now
(19:04):
it sits at the Pepo it's the.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Same car, same car. Well who made that kid?
Speaker 5 (19:09):
Yeah, yeah, you know Sacho, So yeah, well.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
It's the same.
Speaker 5 (19:14):
I didn't know that it was black in the first
movie with the Ninja Stars, which we made fun of
in Super Street and call them snowflakes.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
But I didn't realize like vale Side was there from
the beginning.
Speaker 5 (19:26):
In the beginning.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Yeah, well, hopefully you get to meet him one day.
Yoku Makusan, the owner of the site. It's like just
one of the angelic Cuman beings.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Yeah, did see your z it toky It was there again?
Speaker 5 (19:39):
Yeah yeah, yeah, he's one of the OG's from that
Japan tuning air, like Smoking Nagata, you know, Ada San,
Drift King, They're all the same circle. And I had
met him because I was working at Super Street. He
didn't have a booth at Auto Salon, so I got
some friends to rent a van to drive us out
to his shot and then I shot it for a feature.
(20:00):
And then the next year I came back and I'm like, hey,
remember me. I worked for the small little magazine in
the US. And people were already knocking his stuff off
in the US, and he was like RJ, like in Japan,
this is shameful, and I'm like I understand, but people
want your stuff and they can't get it. And they're like,
I'm going to fly to the US and you're gonna
(20:20):
help me. And I was like sure, Okay, so I
actually helped him start as US when he had the
US offices back here back then, which is how we
got all the parts for the movie, because I was like, Hey,
there's this movie that's happening. We need some parts. And
he's like, what do you need. I'm like, well, we
need RC seven kids and S two thousand kids. He's like,
(20:40):
do you need wheels. I'm like, yes, we need wheels.
Send that to and so that's how we ended up
in the movie. WHOA Yeah, but he was.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (20:48):
He was a mentor for me, and everyone talks about
their mentors, so he was definitely one of them.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
That's so interesting. I never knew that.
Speaker 5 (20:54):
Or Jay, he's super a jail. Like, there's so many
cars that I built that ended up on the covers
of magazines, and they did because he would always send
me the first so he'd like, Oh, here's my new
S two thousand, here's my new Millennium Edition S two
thousand kit. I'm going to send you on go build
a car. Or here's the m R two Fortune Model kit.
I'm going to send you one, and.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
This while you were at Superstreight.
Speaker 5 (21:15):
It was while I was kind of like a roving
editor at Superstreet. Yeah, and still doing you know, selling
body kits and other parts. And then started the wheel line.
I don't know if you know this. I had a
wheel line that was named after me for about seven years,
which is a lot of fun.
Speaker 4 (21:31):
Really uh huh.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
So those are probably collector items now, it's fine.
Speaker 5 (21:35):
I didn't keep it. I don't have one single wall right.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
If anyone's listening, who has what did you?
Speaker 5 (21:40):
If you have a Roja Motorsport wheel, I would love
to like have one.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Got to bring those back, man.
Speaker 4 (21:49):
Yeah. It was.
Speaker 5 (21:50):
It was a good era in my life. I was
very blessed, very fortunate. Like I remember the wheel deal
specifically where I had helped the company American Racing develop
their new import line which is still rounds called Multagi Racing,
and then they were like, hey, RJ like, have you
ever thought of having your own line? And they created
a mock up and the center caps at RJD wheels,
which I felt I just about fell like out of
(22:12):
my chair laughing because I was super into like the
JDM stuff like racing hard SSR and I could never
imagine someone like wanting to buy a wheel that had
like RJD. I remember driving home one day and I
was like, you know, even if it did suck, it
just be cool. And this is probably in the mid
early two thousands, right before the first movie. I got
(22:33):
back and I'm like, hey, guys, like I'm down, Like
you can't call it RJD because that sounds really lame,
Like it's your it's your line. You make it whatever
you want, you know, I'm like.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Okay, cool.
Speaker 5 (22:43):
And that started that whole kind of line of wheels
for about seven years.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
That's a long time. Yeah, it had a good run.
I like what you just said. There was like self
doubt about like who's who, Who's gonna want these wheels?
But let's give it a try, right, you know, it's
like these for in our head. I'm very guilty of it.
And that's something that I'm always conscious of and trying
to like overcome going I'd like to try this. I'd
(23:11):
like to you know, write this, or direct this, or
even my first, like you know movie I directed. Right
the whole time, it was all these voices like who
are you doing direct?
Speaker 5 (23:20):
What do you know?
Speaker 1 (23:21):
You have no talent?
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Imposter syndrome.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Yeah, it's gonna it's gonna bomb, it's gonna flop. It's
gonna you're gonna lose money and you'll never be able
to do this again. And even after I finished it,
it was like constant voices like it sucks, it sucks,
it sucks. And then it comes out and it's like
it sucks, it sucks, it sucks. And then all of
a sudden one day you like step back and you go,
you know, yeah, it didn't want to Oscar or it
(23:44):
didn't do all that, but you know, it sets you
up and you learn so much. Yeah right, And the
most important thing I learned was that even if it
doesn't didn't win awards and doesn't have the same successes
as like the big block busters, it made me realize
that I have so much gratitude that I could just
(24:05):
even do that. Yeah, to be in a place to go, hey,
you know, you want to go make a movie, you
want to direct a movie. It actually happened, yeah right,
And then the voices kind of calm down and you're like, hey,
shut up, voices, just go and do. And the lesson
that I try to like convey here is that you
got to shut those voices down. You just got to
do it right.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
I heard something this morning and I don't know who
it came from, so I don't want to misquote, but
it was one day or day one.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
It's your choice, so simple.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Yeah, I know, but like so much there at the
same time.
Speaker 5 (24:40):
Yeah, because if you don't start, it never happens.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
But I hear that through line in your story. A
lot even you know, get in the business license of
just going after it and getting it. It doesn't seem
or do you have many thoughts that are similar to
what sung saying of imposter syndrome or maybe doubt? Do
you ever doubt yourself?
Speaker 5 (25:00):
I definitely have the voices I think, like a lot
of people do, write down you know that doubt and
whether am I capable of doing this? You know what
gives me the right to try this? You know? Will
it resonate with anyone? I think that's a lot of
people deal with that, right. I'd like to say, probably
bury it pretty good. We're like, oh, wow, what's the
(25:22):
worst that can happen? And I think I was really
blessed and fortunate that at a at a fairly young age,
I was able to do that and things were somewhat successful, right.
The movie did well, Super Sheet did well, so I
worked on projects. I worked on forts and motorsports that
did well, and so I was really like, oh to
your point, like you look back, You're like I did
pretty good, you know, and so you get you gain
(25:44):
more confidence, and it's kind of I'm sure your your
first YouTube video to the one you just posted, if.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
You go back and watch huge growth, right yeah.
Speaker 5 (25:52):
You know, yeah, because I mean it is it is
day one, you know, and so I've I've been really lucky,
and I think thee of us, you know, to be
able to do things where then you can look back
in hindsight, so the second time you do it, it's
a lot easier, and the third time it becomes like, oh,
I kind of know this cycle, you know, and so
you do have a lot more confidence, and then you
(26:14):
also fail, right I was, you know, I I after
the wheel line. I tried to do a whole performance
car line right around the one bubble bursts, and I
had investment and then I lost it. I was trying
to build a couple pro drag cars, went crazing a
debt on my mom's home equity and then had to
shut everything down, and the dream came collapsing down. And
(26:34):
it was probably some of the toughest time in my life,
and it took me seven or eight years to kind
of pay back this this loan. Luckily it was a
home loan. So but this fear that I was going
to lose like our small little condo, you know, chasing
this dream and having this gratitude to my mom for
even allowing me to like do that. But that was
(26:55):
an experience and you grow from it and then you
learn like, well, failure's just a part of it, you know,
and just about getting up and getting back on the bike.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
Right.
Speaker 5 (27:03):
So I think that's that's where that imposter syndrome can
really hold you down, if you hold on too much
to the things that didn't go well, yeah, you know,
versus like, well that didn't go well, what did I learn? Okay,
that hurts. I'm gonna let it hurt, and then I'm
gonna move on.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
And just because it didn't go well last time doesn't
mean it's not gonna go well again.
Speaker 5 (27:22):
So so I think that's if I could impart anything
on anyone, you know, I would agree with you. Just
they want to just go just go for it, you know,
and no matter what happens, it's not the end of
the world life goes on.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Yeah, thanks for sharing that. I mean, I think a
lot of people look at you. He is a dude
that every that everything goes right. And then to just
share that you had to take like a loan out
from your mom's condo where it all started.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
It all.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Yeah, well obviously, I mean all that wealth of knowledge
is you know, valuable to the industry, the car industry
too today because now you're at SEMA.
Speaker 5 (28:03):
Yeah yeah, yeah, so it's it's come around full circle,
you know. Like my first two main events that I
went to outside of the import car shows were Autoslon
and SEMA back in ninety six. I had so I
took you Autuslan for those listening, which is there's a
couple events that I think if you're a car enthusiast
you have to go to Tokiautoslan is one of them,
(28:24):
Festival of Speed is another, SEMA Show is another, and
Monterey Carweek. It was like to me those four like
if you love cars like you gotta go to those four.
But SEMA, I haven't missed one since ninety six except
for the one that we didn't have, So this one
will be twenty seven years. So when I came to
work for the organization. It kind of felt like a homecoming.
(28:45):
The only the only thing that I had not done
going to the SEMA show was be part of the
team that put it together. I'd been you know, a builder, photographer,
small company host, bigger company hosts for like so many
things around the show. That just felt like natural that
I would be part of the team that helped, you know,
(29:06):
kind of puts it together and helps evolve it. And
just the organization, right, because many people think about SEMA,
they just think about the show, but the organization does
so much more for just the aftermarket companies and the
people that are involved in the industry.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
So for the listeners that don't know what SEMA is like,
how would you describe it?
Speaker 5 (29:25):
For Layman Tern, Well, it's some membership based organization or association,
but it also really looks out for the industry and
advocating for the industry.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Right.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
We're doing a lot of work on the government front,
you know, to really advocate for, as an example, a
technology neutral future. There's a lot of proposals that by
twenty thirty five, everything that's sold news is going to
be ev and we feel and personally for myself too,
that it should be technology neutral. If people should be
allowed the choice to choose whether it's a synthetic fuel
(29:55):
or hydrogen or biofuel or EV or hybrid. That yeah,
the customer should have the choice, right, it shouldn't be mandated.
So let like innovation kind of you know, it's it's
the American story, you know, Let innovation like win over.
So we're doing things like that, and we do a
lot of product development testing and EPA and card compliance
for a lot of companies.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
You're making it too too complicated organization to help and
support aftermarket.
Speaker 5 (30:23):
Companies, yes, and the industry, yes, the automobile. Sorry, so
I got too deep. I just love it. I just
love what we stand for. We love working here, and
it's really really interesting to see like car culture like
move beyond just like national borders, right, and I think
Fast kind of did that too, you know, where like
(30:45):
it created as phenomena and just to be part of
that for me was was very fulfilling, really really fulfilling.
And so that's that's all I want to do now
is do things like that.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
So do you think because of social media car culture
is going strong? Because you know, with ev sure, coming in.
There's always this argument, this notion about car culture dying,
but it seems like, you know, anytime I looked at it,
like Instagram or yeah, it's just it's all like maybe
it's my it's all I see.
Speaker 5 (31:22):
I think I was on the brink of disappearing, to
be quite frank, after the recession. It felt like my
nephews as an example for me being who I am
and my nephew is not caring about cars is a
little bit crazy to me. But it's just not their deal.
Older they they're twenty five and twenty three, a super
into sports, super into gaming, but that's their deal.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
They don't care about cars at all, not at all.
Speaker 5 (31:44):
But it felt like during the risk, after the nine recession,
there's this debt, and then right around like twenty thirteen
or fourteen, I started to see young people again at
car meets and it would rattle off like car names
and horsepower, like the people that grew up in our
generation that played grants Arismo actually oddly enough and found
out about cars and come to find out because of
(32:07):
social media, because of mobile games like CSR Racing and
things of that nature. It was kind of coming back
in a different way though, you know, do I think
things will change. Absolutely if things become really all new
cars are evy, that's going to change things, you know.
But I think the love to personalize thing isn't and
(32:27):
I think that's where the difference is. Like maybe some
of the performance stuff changes, but this idea that you're
always going to want something that's personal in yours, I
think isn't going to go away. So that's what gives
me hope. And then of course what everybody's doing, you know,
the stuff that Emilia is doing, Dustin TJ, you name it, right,
all these people that are young and really diving into
(32:47):
it and showing that next generation. It's really cool to
see and I think it is helping at the end
of the day, Like I don't think we'd have as
much interest from the younger generation if people like Chamelia
weren't making her content and breaking the barriers that she's
braking early.
Speaker 4 (33:03):
So absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
I was watching this YouTube video but this car meet
in Texas, right, and this guy asking car owners like, hey,
you know, what do you think about this car? You
should show a picture of like somebody's and a sex
and you know, give it a brating one to ten
and you go, that's a nine, that's a ten, And
(33:41):
there was you know the ten people I saw. There
was I think one Asian dude. Everybody was like Texan
like you know, good old boy like Americans, but everyone
was driving. I think I saw one hell cat. Everybody
was driving JDM. Yeah, and it made me realize something.
It's like through the car culture, this thing of like inclusion, diversity, right,
(34:07):
understanding other cultures, like for us to be accepted people
that you that look like you and I. The cars
are taking care of that for us because you know,
when Japanese cars are so beloved, it's not a thing anymore.
There used to be this term called rice rocket. Even
five years ago. Man, there was like these Maverick guys
(34:28):
from good old boys, and they kept calling my Maverck
like a rice rocket, and I was like, what is
that term? Rice rocket? Right? The thing has gone now
they're just like heay man, that's a dope ass car,
right right, And it's pretty beautiful to see that that,
you know, the car culture JDM culture becoming so like
(34:49):
global actually helps like people get along better, you know,
and it fights racism. It was just like fascinating, like
you know, likezation I had's.
Speaker 5 (35:01):
I never thought of it.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Ten years ago, these good old boys would be in
like you know, American Iron and they look at a
in the hegra type bar is like a rice rocket.
They're like, why would I drive that? Or they look
at that Corolla. It's like why would I drive that
little Corolla? But now that is like pretty cool everybody's pocket. Yeah,
it's it's changed for sure. I think for bring a trailer,
(35:23):
Like the fastest growing segment is eighties and nineties JDM cars.
Speaker 5 (35:28):
Yeah, Like there's this bond that people start to have
when you're like, oh you're you're a carn thesist. Like
we're the same people, you know. And it happens in
different cultures, right, I are other things like food or
sneaker culture or whatever, but car culture is one of them.
You travel around the world and it could be completely different.
Like I've never seen this car, like I used to
(35:48):
go to France. I'm like, what is that poujo?
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Like?
Speaker 5 (35:51):
But it's tuned in the same way. It's got deep
job and stereo and wheels, and you're like, you're my people.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
I called out my found family because I always say
wherever travel. I know, I have a family there, and
you don't even need to speak the same language. Like
when I was at Tokyoto San, I was using the
translator app to just communicate about the modifications that have
been done to certain cars, and I at one point
I took a step back and screenshot it because I
was like, this is pretty cool. Yeah, we don't speak
(36:18):
the same language, but at the same time, we do
and we're talking it. And that's cars.
Speaker 5 (36:22):
I am curious, like, what are you guys looking to
do next car wise? But you got Project Base, Yeah,
you got your thirty four.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
Yeah, that's probably going to be my next project.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
I also have this Replica Superbird that it came across
that I'm kind of going through the planning stages of
right now. And yeah, a few few cars on my horizon,
but my biggest focus right now is getting the FTR
on a container and back out here to the States.
What about you.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
I have a it's actually a eighty five Grand National
roller found in the desert. I have a stock which
you have a Grand National team. I love this. I
love wow you sold it? Yeah, well so I just
love the Gea bodies. And then Nissan they're supporting us,
and they send over enough car for me to take
(37:15):
all the pieces out. So Nissan sent me a R
thirty five with a v R thirty eight motorow So
that imagine a R thirty five g t are having
a baby with a Buick Grand National and the King
Kudo comes out.
Speaker 5 (37:32):
I think you're so good. And Daniel like best names
for cars.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
So hey, I'm doing it with Daniel because we have
students Ordan together. Yeah yeah. So then it's actually just
sitting in the garage now, so we just got to
get to it. It's been a busy last year. I'd
love to send it to Tokyo Auto Salon and just
leave it there because you know, Japanese love American cars, yes, right,
(37:59):
and then as an egent, a real Grand National and
the heart is Japanese car, which is like so awesome, right,
So King Kudo that's sweet with like watanabase. Imagine like
the vision is like big fat waase right with the
rocket bunny kid on it, right, and it's all these
little like the door handles are from the gtr okay, right,
(38:23):
you're gonna use it a little bit yeah together yeah,
so it's like it's like if a Grand National and
a GTR had a baby, the King Kudo would come out.
So it's a biracial car.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
Yeah, I'm excited for this project. Yeah, that's a really
rad Is yours going to be the S two k?
Speaker 1 (38:40):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (38:40):
It's almost done actually for us for what I wanted
it done.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
What were you doing to it? You just got this
car a couple of months ago.
Speaker 5 (38:46):
No, no, it's been two years almost. It's pretty stoked
about it because I kind of the thought was if
I was going to make an S T thousand, if
Fast and Fears was just coming out, Now, how wide
I build it? And so that's what this car is.
It's kind of a little bit of a tribute building. Yeah.
So I've been driving it around a lot of about
four months ago. I just haven't taken it to track,
(39:07):
which will be the next thing.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
So since I have you here, this is a good
good person to talk.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
Not the underwear thing.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
No, no, no, okay, that's past topic. So since you
were part of the first Fast and now we're at Fast, Yeah,
where do you think the Fast franchise can go or
should go? Or should it even go any longer? Because
(39:38):
I mean now that we're literally in space.
Speaker 5 (39:41):
You're all avengers at this point.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Yeah, right, so how do we make it better? If
you were too?
Speaker 5 (39:48):
I don't know if it's better. I mean I do feel.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
Like, what's it what? What does it need to to
put some gas in the tank?
Speaker 2 (39:55):
I mean what you did there?
Speaker 5 (39:57):
Yeah, unintended? And you've got cars in a piero in space,
which is pretty hilarious actually, and cars getting picked up
by jets. It's like, okay, Like it feels like it's
run its course as that, and it almost feels like
a prequel could be an avenue, but it's a completely
different story, and it's back to cars, you know, at
least as a car fan, Like I still watched the
(40:17):
franchise knowing like it's gonna be a spy movie, you
know at the end of the day, right, and with
a lot of explosions and cars that flip over and
keep driving like fifty million times, which is funny because
we used to make fun of the first one like
oh there were like twelve thousand.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
Shifts, granny shifting not double.
Speaker 5 (40:34):
And all the words right that they had us actually
like a side tangent. Craig and I created a bunch
of words on a sheet and they just started putting
stuff in spoonoaterer with like these six turbo was like
those those don't don't go together. No one's gonna know,
No one's gonna know. But it just feels like it's
it's just so over the top. Now, like how do
you bring it back? Like kind of like Bond. Bond
got super over the top when I forget who the
(40:57):
action director was, where like you were people were shot
at and they were like ever getting hit and then
you went to the like the current version of Bond,
which was way more raw, right physical, and I feel
like the franchise could do that. And so that that's
just Party of one if it was going to go anywhere,
and maybe it needs to sunset and something else come up.
The Grand Tourisma movie was a great movie. It approached
(41:20):
car culture in a different way. I mean, yeah, it's
gaming culture and car and more racing culture, right, but
Grand Sarisma was such a big part of why car
culture became what it was because like, no one knows
what the hell spoon Civic was until they paid grants
risk or earth GTR for a lot of young people.
That's how they got introduced. You know, So that's my
(41:42):
that's my thoughts on I'd love to see it be
something different.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Yeah, I mean when I when I you know, when
I think about Emilia and you know, the TJ's and
the Dust and right, there's such a like lack of
representation and movies today for this demographic, right, I mean
Fast is kind of our generation, right. And it's interesting
(42:05):
because you know, when we did Tokyo Drift, I mean
after it came out, you know, people just kind of
pooped on the movie. They're like, what is this drifting nonsense?
Isn't that fast? And now kids, the kids today are like, hey,
that's the movie I connect with, right, and that's.
Speaker 5 (42:21):
What started it.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
Yeah, a lot of it's interesting, right, It's like.
Speaker 5 (42:24):
And not like Fast won because they were okay.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
Drift was the first one for me, and then I
went back and watched the others.
Speaker 5 (42:30):
I think there's this opportunity, to your point, to you know,
have the next generation be a part of something that
becomes the next Fast. I mean, it's car culture I
don't think is ever going to die. I think the
love for cars and going fast and breaking barriers and
all the things that it stands for is part of
the human spirit, So how do you capture that in
(42:50):
a new way.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
I think there is a hunger for car centric like entertainment.
You know, yeah, there's still a big interest. I mean,
this is a good question. Then to gauge that is,
like it Seema growing or dying or not dying?
Speaker 5 (43:07):
It is, so then that kind of change things. Okay, sure,
So we're growing from what the pandemic was. I think
like last year we had like one hundred and forty
thousand people. Year before we had one hundred and thirty
year before, we had one hundred year before, we didn't
have it. So we're getting close to some of the
pre pandemic numbers.
Speaker 1 (43:25):
Or were those numbers, Yeah, what were those numbers?
Speaker 5 (43:26):
I think the biggest was like one seventy.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
I would love and this is my unwarranted or unasked
for opinion, but I would love to see Seema doing
I know there's always it's Vegas, so there's the parties
and all that afterwards, but I'd love to see it,
to see a carshoon in one of the garages one night,
and I'm sure you got to talk about doing that,
but yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
It's a good I noted.
Speaker 5 (43:49):
We're hatching an idea.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
Yeah, well, thank thank you J. This was a great conversation.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
Thank you so much.
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