April 11, 2024 • 51 mins
Sung and Emelia sit down with three-time Formula Drift champion Chris Forsberg. Chris shares his journey from self-taught beginnings through numerous accomplishments in Formula D as well as his new passion for off-road racing. They also talk about setting goals and strengthening relationships. #winningest
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome back to another episode of Car Stories with Song
Kang and Amelia Hartford.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
What's the question today?
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Are you a good gift giver?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
No? I'm horrible.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
I found that there are these websites like winebasket dot com. Okay,
and then it's just a matter of like, okay, it's.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Just how much money I want to spend?
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yeah, is this.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Person one hundred dollars gift two hundred, three hundred or whatever?
And it's like it makes it super easy, sure, right,
and you're like, wow, that looks glorious, right, but to
actually go somewhere to like if I had to buy
you a gift.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Like, yeah, am I a fifty dollars friend? One hundred
dollar friend?
Speaker 4 (00:41):
Two hundred dollars? That's the problem, you tell me? So?
Or is it?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Do I make you something?
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Do you make things?
Speaker 4 (00:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I draw, I like paint stuff.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Okay, I'd more appreciate something like that, you would, right, Yeah, Yeah,
I feel like those are the most meaningful gifts.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
The worst gift. I hate this gift.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
And I hope my like agents and managers and lawyers
are listening to this, like this, there's a Hollywood gift.
They send you this card and they go on, your behalf,
we've donated such and such amount to blah blah blah
organization and.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Hate that I got the same gift this year.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
I hate that gift. I'm like, we got that gift?
Is this like thank you for what? Right? Like putting
it in my name?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
I'm like, come on, get me some cized chocolate or
some hotel toilet.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Try don't feed the starving children.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Yeah, exactly, Look right, that's a come on, that's a
that's a that's a weird gift.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
That's a JANKI gift.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
I think it'd be sweeter if they let us pick
the charity. But they have an organization that they work.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
With, And yeah, I don't. I don't want that gift.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Do you want your agents and lawyers to draw you
a painting?
Speaker 4 (01:49):
I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
You know, my one of my agents, Frank, who is
your agent too, He gives listening to this, he gives
the best, best gifts.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
He will make you like a collage of the year.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
What the hell? Frank?
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Right?
Speaker 2 (02:03):
And I'm like, you did this.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
I haven't received a yearly clause.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Well you will, real I mean, because he loves photos
and he'll like create this whole poster.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
And you're like, Frank, you actually went out and made this,
And he goes.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Yeah, Frank seems like a good gift giver.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yeah, he's a great gift giver. Are you a good
gift giver?
Speaker 1 (02:21):
If I try, I can be At the very least.
I try to write people letters. I like whenever I travel,
Like you've noticed, I like to bring back little knickknacks
for friends and stuff. I don't necessarily believe in only
giving a gift for a birthday once a year. I
like to give people little gifts throughout the entire year,
just so you know that you're thinking of them.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Yeah, you gave me a gift yesterday. I did maple
syrup candy lollipop.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Yeah, shaped like a maple leaf. I brought it back
from Canada.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
I got me in trouble yesterday. Why because I left
it in the car and it melted. No, no, no.
And then I went straight home and then we had
to go to the Pet Star, my wife and I
and she goes, what is that marijuana candy? I was like, mariju,
that's marijuana. Are you getting stoned at the podcast?
Speaker 4 (03:09):
And I'm like no.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
She went to Canada and guys, She's like, well, that
looks like marijuana candy to me.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
That's funny.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Yeah, but no, thank you for that kid. That's that's
a that's a good way to give gifts just throughout
the year. Yeah. Yeah, I'm trying to be more I
guess less. Maybe hoarding is the word, because I have
all this stuff, right, there are things that just end
up stacking.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Like I can't stand that I threw everything out, not
like things, not things that people give me. Just I
live a very minimalist lifestyle.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
But okay, let's say somebody gave you five key chains
and you know you only need one, or you don't
even need.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Any merch if a company were going on. Yeah, I
have so many people in my life. I would be
so happy to take them from me. All take what
I'll use. I don't. I'm not one who if I'm
not going to use it, not do anything with it.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
I'm trying to give away everything, yeah this year because
I go, Okay, this guy loves hats.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Well, there's someone who'll probably appreciate it more than you might.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Yeah, because I have a need for it.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Even Yeah, I don't appreciate it, but I think because
maybe when I was younger, I had nothing, like I
want to like have everything.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Yeah, right, so it's harder to let go.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
My mom held onto everything, which is why now I'm like,
I can't. I don't want anything.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
Huh.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
So is your like house sparse?
Speaker 1 (04:31):
I just don't keep knick knacks and things. I don't
even have like my high school yearbooks. I really don't
have photos of me as a kid. I have the
stuff I use every day.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
But yeah, huh, that's good. That's a minimalism. Yeah, yeah,
I have.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
I've started keeping a little box of memories and it's
like a little small box that I just put in
the top of a closet. So I'm like, well, maybe
I should keep some stuff to look back. That's been
like the past year or two.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Yeah. But you collect.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Cars, Yeah, I do collect cars.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
It's hard to get rid of those.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Can't get rid of those.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
I'm trying to get rid of my cars.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
I'll take them.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
I'm sure you will.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
You have enough anyways, speaking of cool cars, our next
guest is well, we call him the winningest professional drift
driver in history. Yeah, a living legend literally, Chris Forsburg.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Yeah, pro driver, he is a very successful businessman, and
it was cool to sit down and talk about the
headspace that you have to be in to be a
competitive person.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Yeah, and having balance with that, yeah, that letting that
competitive spirit be toxic.
Speaker 5 (05:36):
Right.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
So you know, I've known Chris for years, but I
don't know him, and today it was nice to actually
sit down and get to know the man behind this myth.
You know, winningest drift driver in history. So, without further ado,
Chris Forsburg, there's such a technical approach that you take
(05:58):
with driving. You know when I listen to you talk,
and it's amazing that you're self taught. I mean, correct
me if I'm misquoting this, but like the winningest professional
trust driver in history, Chris like self taught, Like I think,
I don't think people are aware of, like, you know,
(06:22):
your accomplishments in the sport, right, I mean the winning.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
This winning is.
Speaker 5 (06:30):
It's a funny word to say, but yeah, because it's
it kind of goes across different accolades because we have
I say we me you know, you include the team, right,
It's like you know you always say we, but yeah,
I have the most podiums and formal drift I'm tied
with most championships with James and Osmo, and I have
the most head to head battle wins.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
So you got to walk through this the origin and
the history for us, because it's how did it start?
Like how do you teach yourself to be the winningest
in history?
Speaker 1 (07:02):
But did you see yourself?
Speaker 4 (07:07):
How many more times can we say?
Speaker 5 (07:09):
So it's no, It's interesting because I wasn't like fully
into cars when I was young, but like my uncle,
like he was in the drag racing My grandfather like
worked on a drag card team, and so like we
went out to like a couple of NHR races and
so I'm like, wow, like Boston, No, I'm from Pennsylvania.
We went to a couple of drag races and like yeah,
(07:31):
like Andrews allowed, cars are fast.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
This is cool.
Speaker 5 (07:33):
But like it kind of start and ended there. And
then my cousin he was a flat track motorcycle racer
about the same age as me, like maybe a year
or two older. I went to a couple of his races,
same thing, like oh, this is cool, but like I
didn't like pursue that right, And it didn't really change
for me until my brother is two years older, and
like our group of friends are about a year.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
Older, and sobody one of two three.
Speaker 5 (07:52):
I have a younger sister, older brother and so uh So,
when my brother and his friends all got their licenses
and they started to kind of like getting cars, Like
he had a Chevy Blazer at first, and then but
a couple of our friends had like the Hondas, right
and like one out of Volks So I want a
little civic things like that. So we kind of got
into the car scene through them, right because he's like
(08:14):
buying his Quarterer Intake and things like that, We're like, wow, like,
you know, those sports cars are cool, and you know,
the import scene more so. And so he got a
Mitsubishi uh and my buddies got Hondas and we started
to learn how to work on them ourselves. Like my
parents had a house with a barn, and we converted
one of the stalls into a little garage, and so
(08:37):
everyone would bring their cars over our place. And then
myself and my buddy Tony Angelo, who I met through
my brother as well, we're all just kind of into cars,
and he had a little more knowledge about cars than
I did, and so he kind of taught me some
of the basics and then from there together we like
learned how to fabricate. We're building our own like turbomanifolds
and like you know, making our own exhaust things like that,
(08:59):
and basically like you know, souping these cars up ourselves
back in like two thousand, like ninety nine time. And
you know, the way that we learned was just you know,
Internet forums things like that, read magazines because not everything
was available to us. We weren't just doing bolt on parts.
We're like building our own stuff because I had I
(09:19):
at that time in two thousand, got my RC seven,
and so there wasn't really many options for like we're
trying to buy like intercol or kids from like Yahoo Japan,
like turbo kids things like that, and you know, stuff
would show up, it be like banged up, dented, and.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
We're like, well, let's just make it ourselves.
Speaker 5 (09:34):
So pick up an intercol or core and you know,
welding up you know, steel pipes because we couldn't take
a while aluminum yet and things like that. So we learned
how to do all this ourselves by trial and error.
I blew up like five motors in that car, learned
how to rebuild the rotary motors, you know, ourselves like
me and Tony were just take it apart in the
living room and you know, how does this thing work?
Just use the manual and put it back together. And
(09:55):
so everything that we did was basically self taught, like
not only the driving but the mechanical and the tuning
side as well, because there just wasn't any availability to
us out there in Pennsylvania. There was very very few
tuning shops, uh, and then the ones that did exist
we couldn't afford anyway.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
You know, so we're just like, well, let's just do
it ourselves.
Speaker 5 (10:14):
It was all pretty easy until we tried to make
like basically more than four hundred horsepower. Like as soon
as we like kind of hit that realm.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Four was a lot at that time, it.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
Was yeah, yeah, So we we got pretty much all
of our cars, like the Hondas were making like three
hundred wheel like our Arc sevens were like three fifty
wheels stuff like that. And basically as soon as we're
trying to like hit that next level, like we're just
breaking things left and right. We couldn't figureut how to
keep the engines together.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
So, but how did you learn what drifting was.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
So, yeah, like I didn't really know what drifting was.
But I got my ARC seven first, and I got
the ARC seven because Tony Angelo told my brother that
that's what I should get because I didn't know what
I wanted to get, which this was in two thousand
ft fc FC.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (10:56):
Yeah, So we kind of like fell into drifting because
of the car that I got, if that makes sense.
So I got the RC seven because Tony you know,
basically was like, oh, this is a rear road drive car,
comes with the turbo. It's cool, right, And I like
look them up and I'm like, yeah, they look look
cool and everything else. What I was saying was my
old AOL name was Import Turbo, right, because I didn't
(11:18):
know what I wanted, but I wanted to import. I
wanted to have a turbo, that's all I know. And
so landed on the ARC seven. I was like, this
is cool. It's like a little exotic, right, It's got
this weird motor in it. That was the car that
we like learned how to fabricate and everything else. And
so in doing so, when you start making like, you know,
three four hundred horsepower, it naturally just burns the tires
and the more we were reading about what to do
(11:39):
to RC seven's, you know, you kind of start landing on,
you know, the Japanese websites. There's not too much you know,
on the American side of what people are doing to
like R seven except for drag racing. Yeah, and so like, yeah,
you're searching for intercoler kids, suspension kids, and you just
keep finding drift cars. Right, So we slowly, you know,
are falling into these websites about drifting. And then and
(12:00):
one of Tony's friends over in Japan, who was based
over there, he was sending us a real player videos
of cars drifting because you know this before YouTube even existed. Yeah,
and so we're like getting these like you know, pixelated
videos of like cars drifting around, and we're just like,
that's awesome, I want to do that. And so all
(12:20):
in the same time, when we're like blowing up our
cars trying to make a whole lot of horsepower, we're like,
let's actually like not make so much and make them
drift cars. And around that same time, we went to
like my high school parking lot, took a couple cones
out there and basically tried to drift through it. Like
we didn't even know what we're doing. We just watched
a couple videos of like, you know, this is when
(12:42):
we started to find out about initial D and we
watched all that, and we found out about you know option,
you know, watching the VHS tapes and so we're just
looking at the in car footage and you know, like
for the first like year or two, like I never
even pulled the handbrake. Didn't ever think that would you know,
be a part of drifting. And so you know, we
see him like you know, turning in and pulling on this.
(13:02):
It's all in Japanese, so we have no idea what
they're saying, and we're like, oh, like okay, pull the
way home. Pull that like makes the car rotate, like okay.
And so it was just all trial and error like
for the first like two years, and then we eventually
figured out how to control the car and be able
to drift it around purposely and you know, without spinning out.
And that was all like yeah, leading up to about
(13:23):
two thousand and three, and that's when myself, Tony, Matt
Petty and this other guy Eric went to English Town
and pitched doing the first drifting events out there. So
it was the first organized drifting events, which is now
Club Loose, the longest running drift events in the country.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
That's so cool.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Wow, so you were in high school.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
Man, Yeah, yeah, I just graduated. Yeah. So yeah, I
got my car when I was a senior.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Wow, just self taught from initial d And yeah, that's crazy.
Did you like right away connect to it? Did you go,
I love this, this is like my my body.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
Yeah right, and.
Speaker 5 (13:59):
Yeah, it just just always felt like being in the car,
like was where I wanted to be, like, you know,
love driving, love cruising, love you know, being at the
racetrack things like that. But I really do like the
build and that's what got me into cars to begin with.
Building cars, like I find that to be as rewarding
as driving.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
So the method to the madness or like see behind
the curtain of like, you know, successful people. It's interesting
that we're having this conversation because I was like, what
makes Chris the winningest?
Speaker 4 (14:31):
Right in it for a long time.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
But also you know the car, Chris, like you know
it insight out drivers that don't even change the oil
in their cars, right.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
So there's drivers who don't even truthfully know what they're driving.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5 (14:47):
I mean, you know, it's just it's just different approach,
right to some people that benefits them right to not
have a connection to the car, right because for me,
it's like I don't want to break it. I don't
want to because you know, like peopable, so it can
be a detriment as well to like know how hard
to push it If you.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Hear a noise it almost you get in your head
a little bit of what could I have broken?
Speaker 5 (15:10):
Yep, and then you know, like how much is this
going to cost to fix it? Because you I'm also
the owner of the team, and so you know, you
might not want to like, you know, just blow the
motor up, you know, for the sake of game will
more lap in. Whereas if you're just the guy that
shows up and it's like where's the star button, like
you're not going to treat it with any sort of exactly.
So you know, I try to be hands off at
(15:32):
the track, so it's better that way.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Yeah, keep that in the game.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
Yeah, I try to have that separation.
Speaker 5 (15:38):
But yeah, like so, like I was saying, I I
truthfully like enjoy the building. I love the process, you know,
trying to create new things like the my dots and
it's like how we met. The first time was I
built the two eighty Z, took it out to Sema,
did the RB conversion, did the you're talking about the goal,
I know what you're talking about. Yeah, And so his
debut the year before, and you won the Grand Trismo
(16:01):
Best in Show, and then I debut mine the next
year and then we got the Grand Turismo a board
best Import too, so it was pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
Yeah. And then years later she's in Grand Tourist. Yeah
and then there I.
Speaker 5 (16:12):
Go, I know, so h yeah, so that was cool
and yeah, like we got to do that. Like Nissan
shut just recently, so that was probably right after you
filmed with him, right.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Yeah, yeah, that's how the I wouldn't say that's how,
but the Nissan relationship definitely strengthened after doing a movie
about Nissan. It. Yeah, the first car I ever owned was
in Infinity. The first car ever fully built was a Nissan,
so that heritage has run deep since it's all beginning.
So it was cool to be able to do GT
and then us doing that shoot together at Willow was
(16:44):
pretty awesome.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (16:45):
Yeah, that was really fun. Yeah, I got to do
I got to be a judge for a GT Academy
back in I think it was twenty twelve, I want
to say, but yeah, flew out to Silverstone, the whole
thing was set up. We had a little drift challenge, yeah,
out there part of it. So that was cool experience
as well.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
So from amateur high school self, it's drifting because I
want to share this with the listeners out there, and
I'm curious as well. So then how do you get
to the pro level? Like did you eventually have to
have like a coach?
Speaker 5 (17:16):
Yeah, it was two thousand and three, like I mentioned,
and that was when we just started those events over
in New Jersey and so went to the first couple
of those and then it was later that summer we
saw the D one Driver Search. It was the first
one right in out Arwin Dale, and so me and
Tony were like, we gotta go right, So we loaded
(17:38):
up our cars, put him on the back of a flatbed,
and we just drove straight out forty fifty hours.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
The D one Driver Search what is that?
Speaker 4 (17:46):
So D one GP, the D one Grand Prix Series.
Speaker 5 (17:49):
It was before they had their first event in the States,
and so they held a driver's search where they let
pretty much anyone enter. There was like sixty of us
out there, and they picked the top eight were allowed
to run in the actual D one event that was
happening in like September, And so we put our cars
(18:09):
on the flatbed, drove all the way out, entered into
the event with our RC seven's and like Kengoshi's there,
die Ziro's there, like Rey Sam like all those you know,
all the OG guys are out there too, and so
we get to the event and basically neither of us
make it pass the first round, right, Like I had
like an understeer, I like messed up.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
Right.
Speaker 5 (18:29):
They're obviously being very critical and like I said, it
was like sixty some drivers and so and was it
just drift?
Speaker 4 (18:33):
Of course it was like or was it tandem?
Speaker 5 (18:36):
No, it was just single runs like a small like
basically the infield of our one dale, not the bank
or anything. And so yeah, like it just didn't have
a great pass. But basically being out here like I
first time in California, you know, like you see all
the cars, like all the vinyl on them, all the graphics,
and like they don't clean, they're nice. They all got
(18:56):
nice wheels, you know, the tents, pop ups and everything.
I'm just like, there's something happening here, right, And that
was basically like I'm moving to California, you know, drove
home in sorrow. But on the same hand, it was
like selling my car, like getting a new car, like
I'm going all in. That was right when the Z
came to the market, the three fifties, I should say,
(19:18):
came back to the market and three two thousand and three. Yeah,
and so I've sold my ARC seven and I used
that money down payment and bought a new Z. I
took it to like one or two events on the
East Coast, and at the same time it was just
like basically making my plans, wrapping it up. And there
was like a Falcon drift show off that was happening
in October back at erwin Dale again, and I was
like going back to that event doing that, and so
(19:41):
packed up all my stuff, moved out, made it in
time for the event, and like had like a nice
boty kit on nice wheels, like the car looked, you know,
really legit got to that event. I got fifth place
at that event, and so like just instant like recognition,
I guess you could say it was obviously a pretty
small community knew each other and it kind of turned
(20:02):
into like who's this kid, you know with the with
the new car right type thing? Like I say, this
is like my first like subconscious lesson in marketing is,
you know, you invest in yourself. No one's going to
do it for you until you prove that you are
going to put in the work and the effort on
your own. So instantly started to get the attention of
companies because I had the new platform, so they wanted
(20:24):
to provide you know, coilover kids, exhaust intakes, you know,
because they're promoting all their new parts for the new car.
And so I was able to get support almost immediately.
And so that's when I got linked up with motor
X at the time, they were my first partner, and
that's how I was able to go to forma drift
in the first year. And so I went out and
we entered forma drift. So I've been to every form
(20:48):
of drift since the very first one, which was Road
Atlanta and we got second place, went all the way
to the finals.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
First round.
Speaker 5 (20:54):
First, your first, the first fdy around, Yeah, your first?
What you well is that the is that the year
that Sam Samuel hubin At won Yeah. So I member
him in the finals and he won the first round,
and then I met him in the semis the second round,
so I got third place. Second round, he got first again,
and then he won the third race, and then I
(21:17):
eventually beat him. I was the first driver to beat
him at irwin Dale the final round that year.
Speaker 4 (21:21):
Wow. And I ended up third overall.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
So so I mean that year they saw the goats
in that your class very.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Defining of the industry today because everyone is really still
around and competing still mostly.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
A lot of them.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Yeah, I retired.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
I see him all the time.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Are you a person who sets cool? Are you one
who just only does what they enjoyed doing that day?
Like how do you navigate that?
Speaker 4 (22:06):
I guess it's I never really like set a goal.
Speaker 5 (22:10):
I don't have like this is my five year plan,
like I'm gonna be doing this, Like how I explained,
like how I kind of like fell into like pro drifting.
And that's like when I was saying, when I was
out here for the first time in the summer of three,
I was like I got to move to California, just
like everything was just telling me, like I gotta get there,
like I'm gonna miss the wave, and I'm glad that
I did, because it was there was so much happening
so quickly. Import drag racing was basically falling off, and
(22:34):
you know, the Fast and Furious movies of course were
like you know, coming out, and it was just bringing
so much attention to the automotive scene. I remember, like
when we were running our little shop out of my parents' barn,
Like we went to the premiere of the first Fast
and Furious movie and we had a whole bunch of
flyers made for our little car shop, sticking them on
the windshields of you know, any modified car, and we
(22:54):
drew up some business, right, and that was helping us
to like build our cars. We're working on other people's cars,
and make a money so that we could go buy
tires and go drifting. Yeah, Like there was never really
like a goal or a plan. It was just being
in the right place at the right time. And the
only thing that I really did like step forth, which
has shown you know, incredible response or feedback i should say,
(23:16):
is the off road side. That was something that I
was like, I want to get back into it. I
had like dabbled in a little bit here and there,
like I had a like a razor that would take
you out to the desert and just enjoy just driving around.
I was like, I really want to do this like
on a different level, and so we pitched a Nissan
when the Frontier came out, where like we really want
to do an offer a program with Frontiers.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
The Frontiers my daily driver.
Speaker 4 (23:36):
Yeah yeah, I love it.
Speaker 5 (23:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
Same.
Speaker 5 (23:39):
So it's like this whole package that you can now purchase.
It's a you know, race winning, you know, dealership to dirt,
you know, package that we helped propel. And so it's
still like a little surreal. It hasn't really settled in.
That's crazy, I know.
Speaker 4 (23:53):
So it's like a dream, I know.
Speaker 5 (23:55):
And that's like the thing that like it doesn't really
feel real still because it's uh, you know that that
would be like I say, like a goal that I've
always had. And the way that we made it happen
was like like I said, it was like once again,
like something was like telling me like this is the
way to make it happen like I always saw or
like I always wanted to be like, oh, like I
got a you know, like an fr edition like Z
or something like that, right, But there was just something
(24:17):
that was always telling me like, no, it's like it's
it's the trucks.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
It's in the.
Speaker 5 (24:19):
Dirt, you know, like like focus on the off road.
And so we did that, and the Frontiers like such
a high grossing vehicle that it just made sense to
launch this Forestburg Edition package with the Frontier and then
building the truck going to the race winning.
Speaker 4 (24:34):
It just told the story perfectly.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
That's awesome.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Yeah, yeah, you would assume you would think that it
would be in like a Z Forstburg Z edition that
you could drift, but yeah, for every car person, it's
like you have your own Saline or Shelby.
Speaker 4 (24:49):
Yeah, Frontier, it's pretty awesome.
Speaker 5 (24:51):
It's it's wild. Yeah, So it's yeah, it's it'll be
launching in the fall. So, like I said, if you
have a Frontier already, or you can get a brand
new like on the truck, which is great because that's warrantyed.
You know, so so many people are afraid to touch
brand new cars because you lose your warranty. So that
was like the biggest thing is it's all dealership installed,
(25:11):
still covered and there how much that costs. It's nine
ninety nine, nine nights, so it's like ten thousand dollars.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
It's so bad.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
And any dealership wow.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
Any on.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (25:21):
So you get there, Yeah, so you get yeah, full exhaust, yeah,
the full suspension, the lift kit, beadlock wheels, Yokohama tires wow.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Yeah, and then you can go Baja straight to Mexico.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
It yeah nice. So yeah, it's it's really yeah, thank you.
Speaker 5 (25:37):
So that was that I would say, is like like
just subconscious bucket list item that I didn't even know
I was like aiming for when we're like pitching this
off road program.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
So did your parents think you're out of your mind
that you were packing up and going to know? They
were pornia, They're pretty supportive.
Speaker 5 (25:56):
Yeah, they didn't really know what to think, but it
was like okay, like you know, if you're going to
try it, you know, give it a hundred percent effort.
Like because I went to like community college for like
six months, wasn't really for me. I was like kind
of skipping class to like go work on my car,
and I'm just like I'm just not going to end
up in an office, you know.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
I Mean, that's that says a lot I mean, that's
a great lesson for people to hear. Is like, you know,
we were actually talking to Jeff before you came about this.
It's like it's a great quote, like, you know, passion
is what is the recipe for people's success? Right when
he because they were like, well, you know what, what
what differentiates people that you meet that you know you
know are going to be successful?
Speaker 2 (26:34):
And it's like simple. It's like they just are super
passionate about what they're doing.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Right, And I've i personally, whenever people say lucky, I
can stand the term lucky because I feel like luck
is when hard work meets opportunity. But that was the
first time I heard passion actually talked about when it
comes to success. Yeah, to to your point, So I
think we both see the passion when you talk about
(27:01):
what you're doing. And maybe you don't need that five
year plan. You just live every day going after what
you know you love doing, and with that will come
success of some sort.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Because it still sounds like where do you see yourself
in ten years? It's like, well, what doesn't matter. You're
just passionate about what you're doing, so things are going
to come.
Speaker 5 (27:20):
Like you know, the off roading and right, yeah, like
I I say, like, oh, I don't have like at
I do have like another like idea that's like my
next goal, like you could say about it. I mean, yeah, sure,
it's not like my my next idea or like goal.
I guess you could say, is too for us to
have like our own compound with our own track on it? Right,
(27:41):
obviously everyone's kind of dream you could say, like who
wouldn't want to have like their own house with a
big shop and a track on it.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
I if this sounds cheesy, but I have that on
my vision board. There you go.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
It's like, of course it's like playgrounds.
Speaker 5 (27:55):
Yeah, you know, a place that we can actually run
our cars without you know how, and to go to
a racetrack or load them up and everything else. It's
like that's like kind of my long term like legacy plan,
so to have a place for people to come to
since I mean not that like Willow Springs is going anywhere,
but you know, racetracks are usually falling to the wayside,
So it's like giving people a place to go because
(28:17):
that's like what we needed when when I was a kid,
and that's why we went to English Town because we
can't keep doing this on.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
The street, you know.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
And the track designed for like, you know, purpose, it's
purpose built for like drifting, right, because I mean, did
you ever imagine drifting would grow to this point?
Speaker 2 (28:32):
Because it's crazy, it's huge.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
Yeah it is.
Speaker 5 (28:35):
Yeah, it's world worldwide and yeah, and I would say
a lot of that is once again Fast and Furious movies.
You know, Tokyo Drift made drift you know, household term
like people then understood it when I would tell people like, oh,
like a drift cars, like what does that mean? You know,
it was cool because you probably don't know this, but
(28:56):
I was. I was a part of that movie, not
in it by any means, but I did all the
sound recording for your car. Yeah what so it was
was on Tokyo Drift right, Yeah, yeah, Peter, it was
Tony Angelo's old former drift Falcon FD.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
He was talking about that car when we did the podcast.
He has it in his bank, right, Yeah, he did
it below when he was recording it. Yeah, whoa, So
you the driver?
Speaker 4 (29:27):
Ye whole the wait? No, I think it was No,
I think Tony's I think the FD was fine. I
thought it was the Mustang that broke.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
I was one of the cars.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 5 (29:42):
I think it was Vaughn's Mustang that broke because so
like yeah, Falcon brought the rig out and they had
the f D in there, uh and the Mustang and
so yeah, I was like, you know, went out to
this runway. You know, microphones all over the car and
it's like, you know, you have like a like a
line item list of like okay, like you know, I
only car like rev the car rev to the red line.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
You know, like that all the way down.
Speaker 5 (30:04):
It's like drive up stop, drive up, rev stop, you know,
and like just get them all the different tones. That's
so yeah, like every time you hear that the FD
like rolling around. Yeah, that's two.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
That's crazy. Man if Fest has just a world, it
really is.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
The car community is like a family. Everyone seems to
know everyone, and there's that always a full circle moment.
Speaker 4 (30:23):
I feel like, yeah, and that's what's cool about it.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
You know.
Speaker 5 (30:25):
It's like like almost every time like a situation rise,
like it's like, oh, like I know a guy and
like you know, make a phone call. Like you're saying,
like it's such a small community. It's like you know,
they'd say, it's like, what the six degrees of separation?
Like in the car community, It's like.
Speaker 4 (30:37):
Yeah, sure is Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
So I'm sure there's people listening to this podcast because
obviously they're fans of you, and maybe they want to
learn how to get into drifting themselves. What is I know?
So much has changed within the last twenty years for
today those wanting to get into drifting. What would you
(31:00):
recommend for someone?
Speaker 5 (31:02):
Yeah, Well, it's funny because you know, people have different
viewpoints on whether it was easier to get into drifting
in the early days or now, And I guess it's
all in the definition of what what do you think
is drifting? Are you trying to be like a pro
one form of drift driver or you're just trying to
like go drift your car. As far as like learning
how to drift, it's one hundred times easier now than
(31:24):
it was in the beginning because there's so many different
events and tracks and opportunities to do so we had
to make our own.
Speaker 4 (31:29):
There was no place for us to go then.
Speaker 5 (31:32):
Also, the accessibility of you know, the knowledge of how
to create a drift car right or a modify car
to drift is there, and like we're saying, the car
community is so open and sharing you know, setups or
tips or you know, whether it's driving tips or you know,
like how to build the car, Like it's all just
at your fingertips. So that portion of it is so
(31:53):
much easier. And for anyone that wants to get in drifting,
I always tell them it's like, yeah, obviously you get
a real world drive car. And then the first three
to tell everyone to do is diff seat, coil overs,
usually in that order too. So make sure it's got
to diff whether it's factory or you know, weld it
up if you're on a budget, or you know, get
a mechanical one.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
If you can.
Speaker 5 (32:11):
You have to have that because you have to have
the real rols locked up, right, That's like a given.
And then so step two. The seat I think is
one of the most important things because as you're learning,
you're really getting thrown around the car, right, and so
if you just have like a regular old seat, Like yes,
newer cars now have some nice bolstering, but you know,
like your old BMW's two forty's you know MOZ does
all that, Like they're pretty flat and half a couch. Yeah,
(32:34):
And so as you're learning, you know, like you're gonna
get tossed around, and so a seat actually connects you
to the car and you can feel the car right
and like you know a car will drift with the
rear wheels locked up in factory form. You know you
can do that, so you don't need to sit here,
and like I gotta do an engine swap, I gotta
get an intake, I gotta you know, all these different things.
It's like the seat will connect you to the car
(32:55):
and let you feel what the car is capable of.
And it also is like a bit of a safety
thing too, so that you are more in control of
the car. And then coil overs because that's you know,
your next best bang for the buck, because you know,
lowers the car, stiffens it up and helps it to slide.
From there, you can start working on you know, horsepower
and other things like angle kits. But I usually try
to tell people to not start with the angle kit
(33:17):
because it's too forgiving, right, it allows the car to
rotate too much, and it gives too much of a cushion.
Like you should learn with less angle first and then
add it because that will help you to be a
better driver in the long term. But yeah, that's that's
just to get a car that's basically ready to drift
and then from there, you know, obviously go out to
a track. And so many tracks now have like clinics
(33:40):
drift days, like little lessons, they have teachers instructors, so like,
if you want to get in drifting, stick to the basics.
Don't overbuild your car. The problem is most people they
just get stuck in the build. They never even make
it to the track, right, So they have like this
project and they're not actually driving the car, and there's
always going to be someone around that's more advanced or
(34:02):
knowledgeable than you.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (34:04):
Right, So you have to have a little bit of
a courage to just put yourself out there, yeah, and
ask yeah, and and be humble and know that you're
not the best guy there, and you know, don't be
afraid to ask for help.
Speaker 3 (34:14):
I mean, if if you were able to talk to
your high school self that was on a budget and
have a choice of cars that are available today, what
would you start with.
Speaker 5 (34:23):
I mean, honestly, like I I know it sounds like
I'm just like preaching the Nissan, but like the z is,
like you see at the track events. There's so many
of z's out there now. The three fifty right now
is like one of the best startup cars. It's got
to be six. You don't got to do an engine
swop for worry about horsepower. It's got a strong transmission,
comes with a diff got decent seats, Like you can
(34:45):
hop in a stock Z and just start whipping around
track no problem.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
What was the story with the S thirty the to
eighty build? Like why did you do that?
Speaker 4 (34:54):
Which is an awesome car? Like yeah, I love it.
Speaker 5 (34:57):
Yah, they're cool. Well I always thought they looked kind
of cool, you know. I was working with Nissan like
off and on. This was like twenty twelve or so,
and then that Dotson like fell in my lap. It
was basically like a friend of the guys at m
A Motorsports were like, hey, this car that we tuned once,
this guy wants to sell it sold Donson, Like would
(35:18):
you want it?
Speaker 4 (35:18):
I was like, yeah, So I.
Speaker 5 (35:20):
Got that Dotson had like no interior, but it had
a running RB in it and like some old whatever
wheels on it.
Speaker 4 (35:27):
Got it for four grand? What what? Yeah with the RB? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (35:31):
Oh I know you can even buy an RB for
four grand or like even like a rolling Donson but yeah,
you know I was twelve years ago.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Yeah you know so, but yeah free yeah, because it.
Speaker 5 (35:42):
Was like the guy's moving needs to get rid of it,
like I'll take four grand for it. Was like I'm
on my way, fell in love with it, started working
on it like crazy, and beefed up the engine like
read it the whole interior like yeah, you know you've
seen it's kind of like, you know, a whole new
kid on it.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
But carbon signal.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
These two guys, the two friends when's the doctor and
on it's like a at guy and they're just enthusiasts
of old dots Ins right, Like they're obsessed over vintage
and modern like Nissans and Dotsons. So we were building
the fuguzzi, the two forty Z, the seventy two that
(36:18):
I have. They reached out to me because they were like, hey,
we were doing like interior parts for like the two
forty and they're like I'm like who are you guys?
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Like oh, we live in Dubai And I'm like what,
like do what or like why like whatever?
Speaker 3 (36:31):
Man?
Speaker 2 (36:32):
And they're like can we send it to you? And
I'm like you guys, I'm sure you will.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
And then they actually sent everything and it was this
bespoke custom interior that you know, the figur right, and
then the year after they connected with Chris and then
your body kit and the interior is all carbon signal. Anyway,
they're the coolest dudes. They become like brothers to me.
You know, they're just like truly passionate, crazy car dudes
(36:59):
that I mean, this is all they do. They just
keep making these cars and then they support people in
the community, right yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, they make beautiful stuff.
So what are you going to do with this new
two eighty because I have three kids here? Oh yeah,
you should build one.
Speaker 4 (37:13):
I might all these kids. Yeah right, they're halfway there.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
Yeah, I'm genuinely down. I've been wanting to do a
dots and build even so a five to ten, like
I've just been wanting to do that for so long.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Now we can't put a rotary motor in that.
Speaker 4 (37:25):
No, nice, I wanted to do.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
With a rotary because I've never worked on a rotary
before and I love to learn new things.
Speaker 4 (37:35):
And it was like crickets.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
She's like, oh, I want to do that, and Mike spec. No,
there was a big old I don't like a two eighty.
Speaker 1 (37:40):
I would never. I would never. I'd want to put
an RB in it or something in the Nissan family,
something capable of lots of power.
Speaker 4 (37:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
I mean, if you want to do a Z build,
there's so much support. Yeah, you should do that.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Well, we'll talk more about it. I'm actually looking at
my next projects and be besides the thirty four, I
wanted to do another Nissan building. Like how I got
into cars and you bought my Z Nissan Z. I
don't know if you remember I spec that car out
the Yeah. Yeah, he bought the Z that I'd specked
(38:15):
out because at the time I couldn't take delivery of it,
and I've been regretting not buying that car. Yeah, I'm
glad you.
Speaker 4 (38:22):
Enjoyed respects so much loving it.
Speaker 5 (38:24):
Yeah, because the Z that Nissan put on order for me,
it arrived and it had red interior, and I didn't
hate it, but I was like, you know, we're getting
this new car and like, you know, like blue is
kind of like our thing, it's like part of like
our colorway. And I was like, yeah, like and you'll
just pass on it. You know, I'll go back on
the list for one with the blue interior, so the
(38:45):
performance model and everything else. And so when it finally
came back through, it was like like maybe six months later.
It was apparently the one that she had specked out
but then didn't take delivery, so all of a sudden
it became available.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Yeah, that was so funny because we were at the
newsman Ze launch. I was like looking at this Z
and I was like, wait a minute, this like's all
too familiar. And then we're talking we put it all
together and then that's what happened, because.
Speaker 5 (39:11):
It was funny because yeah, just like got the call like,
oh we found one, and I was like, I mean,
you found one, but it makes sense.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
Yeah, h Starry to ask this question if it's sensitive.
Are your parents still around? Yeah they saw supportive.
Speaker 4 (39:38):
Yeah no they are.
Speaker 5 (39:40):
So my mom's still in Pennsylvania, my dad is in Indiana.
Now they're separated, but yeah they're they're around, and yeah, no,
they're they're support They used to come to the races
a lot in like the early years.
Speaker 4 (39:52):
But you know it's like it's expensive to fly to
the racetrack all the time. My brother I gave him
the ARC seven.
Speaker 5 (39:59):
So yeah's I after I got the dots and then
built that up and the Arc seven became like a
back burner project. And my brother's like, I really want
to get a car, and like I don't know what
to get and this and the other. And I was like,
you can have the RC seven in like this pile
of parts I have for it, but you know, you
can't ever sell it, you know type thing.
Speaker 4 (40:15):
And so he's like, yeah, deal, so good deal. Yeah,
so great.
Speaker 5 (40:18):
Gave him the car, give him all the parts, and
then you know, helped him get a few more things
for it, like when we it was closer to getting
ready to run and yeah, so he drives that car.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
Now.
Speaker 5 (40:28):
It's just talking to him on the way up here,
telling him when I was going to do this afternoon,
you know, and he's like, oh that's awesome, you know.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
And so you're really close to your brother, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah,
he's great. So younger brother two years older, younger sister,
right yeah, younger sister, and.
Speaker 4 (40:43):
So yeah, we we talked like it's funny. We uh,
I call it going to church.
Speaker 5 (40:46):
We talk every Sunday and just like yeah, so it's well,
it's like we kind of like it's one of those
things where you lose track of time, right if you
don't like keep in touch with people. Yeah, And so
there's a while there where we just wouldn't talk for
like weeks or months. You know, you don't even realize
how much time goes by. And then it was it
was during COVID, like you know, you start kind of
(41:09):
calling people little more often, like in that time when
you're just like, you know, stuck in the house. And
so it was like at that time, so I was like, yeah,
twenty twenty, I was like, yeah, we're gonna talk every Sunday.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
Are you religious? Do you go to church or you
just call church?
Speaker 5 (41:23):
Yeah, So it's like it's like all right, like time
to go to church. Like you know, you would just
like laugh about She's like you go to church yet,
Like no, I gotta call him.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
That's really good. My sister's five years younger than me.
And there was years ago we got in the argument
over something super stupid.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
It always is.
Speaker 3 (41:43):
Yeah, it was so dumb, right, Like it was something
like I think it was like about an Instagram post,
but I can't remember.
Speaker 4 (41:52):
For me, it was something so dumb.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
And then I didn't speak to her for two years,
Oh I believe it?
Speaker 3 (41:58):
Yeah right, and I will cup One morning and I
was going, am I going to be that guy that
dies without like communicating with, you know, your only sister?
So I called her and I was like, look, I
don't know what we argued about, and I actually don't care,
but I'll apologize whatever it is, I'm sorry, And then.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
She just starts to cry, right, and I was like, yeah,
let's not do that. Let's not let's not like argue.
Speaker 3 (42:25):
And then one day we get old and we die,
and then our story is that, you know, like we
didn't speak to each other over.
Speaker 5 (42:33):
Something stupid, right at least something. Yeah, And it's like
somebody needs to do it, you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (42:39):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (42:39):
No, And that's that's you know, big on you for
taking that initiative, because it's so easy to just like, oh, well,
well they're not calling, you know, and like that's usually
what happens, and that's like how just people go their
separate ways, right, But it's you know, one thing I've
learned in like recent years, like you can't change people.
They're going to act the way they're gonna act. Either
(43:00):
accept them for who they are or move on. Did
something have to switch in your head? Because that's something
that a milion like we talked about this like this year.
I mean, I'm making a conscious effort to just that'd
be so hard on people, right because I'm like they
fucked me over or like, you know, they did something
that I don't agree with, Like I'm cutting them off right,
(43:20):
and I'm like and this year, like I don't want
to do that. I don't want to be that guy anymore.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
It's too much.
Speaker 4 (43:25):
It's like carrying a bag of rocks.
Speaker 5 (43:26):
Yeah, yeah, I know, it's just yeah, it is like, yeah,
it's just a bunch of baggage that you don't really
want to deal with. And well, I guess for me
it was I was previously married for like eleven years
and my new partner lives my fiance now. I mean
she's fantastic and really like understands like how to communicate
(43:47):
with people and how to like understand either what people
are saying or like what they're trying to get across
here like reading like you know, body language, things like that,
and so really like is helping me to like you know,
learn like those fundamentals of like like this is like
this house person is going to be and either you know,
you have to accept those behaviors and you know, and
(44:07):
if you want a relationship with them, like you'll have to,
like you said, like work at it. And you can't
hold that against her if you're the one that wants
to have the relationship. Things like that that like, you know,
she makes me think a lot about some of that,
which is good. I appreciate that because I would be
the stubborn type to just like whatever, just you know,
walk away.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
Yeah, we need that sound partner in crime to slap
you around a little bit.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
We'll say, to keep you grounded.
Speaker 2 (44:36):
Are you hyper competitive Chris?
Speaker 1 (44:39):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (44:39):
Yeah, I mean, because that's that's what got you where
you are today, that being the winningest.
Speaker 4 (44:51):
A T shirt?
Speaker 3 (44:51):
Right, But I mean, I'm sure there's pros and cons
to it, Like over years, have you found a balance
where it doesn't seep into like life in the negative way?
Speaker 4 (45:01):
I mean, I guess so i'd like to think.
Speaker 5 (45:03):
So I'm trying to not be so hyper competitive because
it does you know, consumer time, Like you know, the
more the more time and effort you put into something,
the more successful you're going to be at it. Right
of course, and so but yeah, you have to have
a balance, right. I've been doing this for over twenty
years now, and so I guess. But what gets it
to me is like once we kind of like get
like going in in an event or at the track, like, yeah,
(45:27):
I get like way too competitive, trying to be like
you know, like the fastest or whatever, and like like
what can I do.
Speaker 4 (45:32):
To make the car better?
Speaker 5 (45:34):
Like we just got invited to that the fat International
Ice Race. They usually have it over in Switzerland, pretty
awesome event, and then they had it in Aspen this
year for the first time, and it was also open
to multiple manufacturers for the first time. And so I
was driving the Safari package, the new nie on Zi
that they had. So they brought that car out and
(45:55):
you know, it's like, yeah, this'll be a fun weekend.
You know, like go out and like you know, rip
the car around, you know, like get some mangle, get
some cool photos and content will be great. And it's
like as soon as the times dropped, I was like,
oh wait, we're like we're like sitting like you know,
hop five right now, it's all that sounds like start
messing with the car, trying to like figure out how
I can get a couple more tents out of it,
you know, like once again, Like you know, mindset going
in is like we're just here to have a good time.
Speaker 4 (46:15):
You know, we got invited, this is great, and so
we were where fourth just missed it, but you was
away with like anger anger.
Speaker 5 (46:23):
I wouldn't say anger, but yeah, it was definitely just
you know, bad mood at least for like three minutes.
Speaker 4 (46:29):
You know.
Speaker 1 (46:30):
I don't know why they're going to say three months.
Speaker 5 (46:35):
Months Normally, like if it's like a FD event or
something like that, like like it'll linger for days, you know,
maybe even weeks, but it's uh but yeah, like I
was like, I was like let it go, you know.
But like that's like that instant like mindset of like
like just missed it, you know. Yeah, that's that hyper competitiveness.
Speaker 4 (46:53):
I guess you could.
Speaker 3 (46:54):
I had to like shut it down because it's okay
to be competitive to a degree. But what I'm struggling
with and like I'm working on, is that it causes
me to be jealousy and I don't like that. I
don't like that version of myself where you know, like
what Jeff, you know, was sharing with us today to
to be in awe of other people's accomplishments. Right, I'm like, oh,
(47:16):
I'm gonna really work on.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
That versus like why aren't I doing that? I'm not
doing enough?
Speaker 2 (47:21):
Yes, I do it to myself all the time, and
that's that's something that like eats me up. It consumes me.
Speaker 3 (47:27):
And I'm like, you know, being competitive, it's like it
makes you like wake up and be disciplined and go, Okay,
I'm gonna push myself to this. But then it gets
to a point where, like when you're sitting alone and
the voices start talking to you, you just like I
get consumed, Like I get hot.
Speaker 4 (47:43):
And I'm like, yeah, wait, why not me?
Speaker 2 (47:44):
And like who is this person? It's like it's not
fair and all this nonsense, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (47:49):
Yeah, I've definitely had those feelings.
Speaker 1 (47:52):
You know.
Speaker 5 (47:52):
It's you can't be successful and have that kind of mindset.
Like However, the saying goes like, you know, all ships rises,
the sea rises, right, so it's like, yeah, you have
to like build other people up.
Speaker 4 (48:01):
You can't be trying to knock them down. You knock
yourself down.
Speaker 1 (48:03):
Yeah. Yeah, And it's not a zero some game.
Speaker 4 (48:06):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 5 (48:08):
You know, like certain people have certain goals, like you know,
like you're successful in a certain way, and you're successful
in a certain way, and everybody has a different goal
of what or a vision of what success is, right,
and so you can't be jealous of one person's success
because like you have your own path. And so I'm
like preaching to myself right now because it's like the
same thing, like I've felt that way before, like seeing
(48:30):
other people like.
Speaker 4 (48:30):
Accomplish something like why don't I get that? Like why
did I do that?
Speaker 5 (48:33):
Because I'm not putting effortwards that. Yeah, you know, so
you just gotta be proud of people for you know,
achieving their goals.
Speaker 2 (48:38):
Yeah, well, said Chris.
Speaker 3 (48:40):
It's nice to get in the mind of a champion,
like have access to like you know, how you think,
what your ethos is, and most of it is it's
almost common sense, but it is.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
It's mentality.
Speaker 5 (48:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (48:55):
Yeah, like you know, treat other people the way you
want to be treated. Yeah, it's as simple as that.
Speaker 1 (48:59):
It goes around around.
Speaker 3 (49:00):
Yeah, You're just it's a great example of like a
template to follow is that, you know, there's so many
people that give like excuses of like you know, well,
hey dude, what's your dream. It's like, oh, I want
to be a drifter, but I can't like when not
well because no one, like no one taught me, like
you know, my dad doesn't even drive, or like I
(49:21):
don't have that kind of money. It was like why
am I going to do it? Like I don't live
in la, I don't live by racetrack. It's like, let's
go and study Chris Forsberg. Right, it's like self taught,
like you know, and it starts with this like love affair,
this passion to like you know, like work on cars.
And it's been really nice to sit down with you
and really get to know you. I've been looking forward
(49:42):
to this opportunity for years because thanks, I would see
you like I see you at like Seema, I see
you at some events and then and it's this bigger
than life kind of character because it's like champion, No,
I mean to you, you see yourself, right, and but
then to others it's like, you know, you see the accolades,
you see the winning this the title, right, So it's
(50:03):
really nice to get to know the person behind you know,
the man, right.
Speaker 5 (50:06):
So yeah, no thanks and yeah It's one of those
things like how we talked about earlier, like you're just
kind of going like one step at a time, and
you know, you don't even realize, like you know, things
that you accomplish like over twenty years until you start
like stop and look back because it's like, oh, this
is the next event, This is the next event, next.
Speaker 4 (50:25):
Thing to do.
Speaker 1 (50:25):
Easy idiot caught up in it. You know.
Speaker 3 (50:27):
Somebody asked me the question this year because they were
like talking about this movie I did twenty years ago,
and they're like, what has changed then? You know, it's
like do you think, like you know, you've accomplished success
and like what is your definition of success?
Speaker 2 (50:40):
Right?
Speaker 3 (50:40):
And I don't know where I got this answer, because
I was like, this is a brilliant answer. I just
came with the fact that even I still am passionate
about something that wakes me up, and that that motivates
me to be a better person, to be the better
version of myself, to constantly learn and grow. Like I
was like, that is my definition of the fact that
(51:03):
I actually still care about something that's really good.
Speaker 2 (51:06):
It's a luxury to have passion. Yeah, it's a blessing.
Speaker 1 (51:09):
Thank you, So much for joining us.
Speaker 4 (51:11):
Thanks for having me though, this is awesome.
Speaker 1 (51:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (51:13):
When I saw the podcast get launched, I was like,
I don't really want to get on that, and then yeah.
Speaker 4 (51:19):
You guys reached out and so very cool.
Speaker 1 (51:21):
Thank you, so yeah, thank you
Welcome back to another episode of Car Stories with Song
Kang and Amelia Hartford.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
What's the question today?
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Are you a good gift giver?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
No? I'm horrible.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
I found that there are these websites like winebasket dot com. Okay,
and then it's just a matter of like, okay, it's.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Just how much money I want to spend?
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yeah, is this.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Person one hundred dollars gift two hundred, three hundred or whatever?
And it's like it makes it super easy, sure, right,
and you're like, wow, that looks glorious, right, but to
actually go somewhere to like if I had to buy
you a gift.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Like, yeah, am I a fifty dollars friend? One hundred
dollar friend?
Speaker 4 (00:41):
Two hundred dollars? That's the problem, you tell me? So?
Or is it?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Do I make you something?
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Do you make things?
Speaker 4 (00:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I draw, I like paint stuff.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Okay, I'd more appreciate something like that, you would, right, Yeah, Yeah,
I feel like those are the most meaningful gifts.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
The worst gift. I hate this gift.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
And I hope my like agents and managers and lawyers
are listening to this, like this, there's a Hollywood gift.
They send you this card and they go on, your behalf,
we've donated such and such amount to blah blah blah
organization and.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Hate that I got the same gift this year.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
I hate that gift. I'm like, we got that gift?
Is this like thank you for what? Right? Like putting
it in my name?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
I'm like, come on, get me some cized chocolate or
some hotel toilet.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Try don't feed the starving children.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Yeah, exactly, Look right, that's a come on, that's a
that's a that's a weird gift.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
That's a JANKI gift.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
I think it'd be sweeter if they let us pick
the charity. But they have an organization that they work.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
With, And yeah, I don't. I don't want that gift.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Do you want your agents and lawyers to draw you
a painting?
Speaker 4 (01:49):
I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
You know, my one of my agents, Frank, who is
your agent too, He gives listening to this, he gives
the best, best gifts.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
He will make you like a collage of the year.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
What the hell? Frank?
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Right?
Speaker 2 (02:03):
And I'm like, you did this.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
I haven't received a yearly clause.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Well you will, real I mean, because he loves photos
and he'll like create this whole poster.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
And you're like, Frank, you actually went out and made this,
And he goes.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Yeah, Frank seems like a good gift giver.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yeah, he's a great gift giver. Are you a good
gift giver?
Speaker 1 (02:21):
If I try, I can be At the very least.
I try to write people letters. I like whenever I travel,
Like you've noticed, I like to bring back little knickknacks
for friends and stuff. I don't necessarily believe in only
giving a gift for a birthday once a year. I
like to give people little gifts throughout the entire year,
just so you know that you're thinking of them.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Yeah, you gave me a gift yesterday. I did maple
syrup candy lollipop.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Yeah, shaped like a maple leaf. I brought it back
from Canada.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
I got me in trouble yesterday. Why because I left
it in the car and it melted. No, no, no.
And then I went straight home and then we had
to go to the Pet Star, my wife and I
and she goes, what is that marijuana candy? I was like, mariju,
that's marijuana. Are you getting stoned at the podcast?
Speaker 4 (03:09):
And I'm like no.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
She went to Canada and guys, She's like, well, that
looks like marijuana candy to me.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
That's funny.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Yeah, but no, thank you for that kid. That's that's
a that's a good way to give gifts just throughout
the year. Yeah. Yeah, I'm trying to be more I
guess less. Maybe hoarding is the word, because I have
all this stuff, right, there are things that just end
up stacking.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Like I can't stand that I threw everything out, not
like things, not things that people give me. Just I
live a very minimalist lifestyle.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
But okay, let's say somebody gave you five key chains
and you know you only need one, or you don't
even need.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Any merch if a company were going on. Yeah, I
have so many people in my life. I would be
so happy to take them from me. All take what
I'll use. I don't. I'm not one who if I'm
not going to use it, not do anything with it.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
I'm trying to give away everything, yeah this year because
I go, Okay, this guy loves hats.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Well, there's someone who'll probably appreciate it more than you might.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Yeah, because I have a need for it.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Even Yeah, I don't appreciate it, but I think because
maybe when I was younger, I had nothing, like I
want to like have everything.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Yeah, right, so it's harder to let go.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
My mom held onto everything, which is why now I'm like,
I can't. I don't want anything.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
Huh.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
So is your like house sparse?
Speaker 1 (04:31):
I just don't keep knick knacks and things. I don't
even have like my high school yearbooks. I really don't
have photos of me as a kid. I have the
stuff I use every day.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
But yeah, huh, that's good. That's a minimalism. Yeah, yeah,
I have.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
I've started keeping a little box of memories and it's
like a little small box that I just put in
the top of a closet. So I'm like, well, maybe
I should keep some stuff to look back. That's been
like the past year or two.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Yeah. But you collect.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Cars, Yeah, I do collect cars.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
It's hard to get rid of those.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Can't get rid of those.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
I'm trying to get rid of my cars.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
I'll take them.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
I'm sure you will.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
You have enough anyways, speaking of cool cars, our next
guest is well, we call him the winningest professional drift
driver in history. Yeah, a living legend literally, Chris Forsburg.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Yeah, pro driver, he is a very successful businessman, and
it was cool to sit down and talk about the
headspace that you have to be in to be a
competitive person.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Yeah, and having balance with that, yeah, that letting that
competitive spirit be toxic.
Speaker 5 (05:36):
Right.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
So you know, I've known Chris for years, but I
don't know him, and today it was nice to actually
sit down and get to know the man behind this myth.
You know, winningest drift driver in history. So, without further ado,
Chris Forsburg, there's such a technical approach that you take
(05:58):
with driving. You know when I listen to you talk,
and it's amazing that you're self taught. I mean, correct
me if I'm misquoting this, but like the winningest professional
trust driver in history, Chris like self taught, Like I think,
I don't think people are aware of, like, you know,
(06:22):
your accomplishments in the sport, right, I mean the winning.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
This winning is.
Speaker 5 (06:30):
It's a funny word to say, but yeah, because it's
it kind of goes across different accolades because we have
I say we me you know, you include the team, right,
It's like you know you always say we, but yeah,
I have the most podiums and formal drift I'm tied
with most championships with James and Osmo, and I have
the most head to head battle wins.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
So you got to walk through this the origin and
the history for us, because it's how did it start?
Like how do you teach yourself to be the winningest
in history?
Speaker 1 (07:02):
But did you see yourself?
Speaker 4 (07:07):
How many more times can we say?
Speaker 5 (07:09):
So it's no, It's interesting because I wasn't like fully
into cars when I was young, but like my uncle,
like he was in the drag racing My grandfather like
worked on a drag card team, and so like we
went out to like a couple of NHR races and
so I'm like, wow, like Boston, No, I'm from Pennsylvania.
We went to a couple of drag races and like yeah,
(07:31):
like Andrews allowed, cars are fast.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
This is cool.
Speaker 5 (07:33):
But like it kind of start and ended there. And
then my cousin he was a flat track motorcycle racer
about the same age as me, like maybe a year
or two older. I went to a couple of his races,
same thing, like oh, this is cool, but like I
didn't like pursue that right, And it didn't really change
for me until my brother is two years older, and
like our group of friends are about a year.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
Older, and sobody one of two three.
Speaker 5 (07:52):
I have a younger sister, older brother and so uh So,
when my brother and his friends all got their licenses
and they started to kind of like getting cars, Like
he had a Chevy Blazer at first, and then but
a couple of our friends had like the Hondas, right
and like one out of Volks So I want a
little civic things like that. So we kind of got
into the car scene through them, right because he's like
(08:14):
buying his Quarterer Intake and things like that, We're like, wow, like,
you know, those sports cars are cool, and you know,
the import scene more so. And so he got a
Mitsubishi uh and my buddies got Hondas and we started
to learn how to work on them ourselves. Like my
parents had a house with a barn, and we converted
one of the stalls into a little garage, and so
(08:37):
everyone would bring their cars over our place. And then
myself and my buddy Tony Angelo, who I met through
my brother as well, we're all just kind of into cars,
and he had a little more knowledge about cars than
I did, and so he kind of taught me some
of the basics and then from there together we like
learned how to fabricate. We're building our own like turbomanifolds
and like you know, making our own exhaust things like that,
(08:59):
and basically like you know, souping these cars up ourselves
back in like two thousand, like ninety nine time. And
you know, the way that we learned was just you know,
Internet forums things like that, read magazines because not everything
was available to us. We weren't just doing bolt on parts.
We're like building our own stuff because I had I
(09:19):
at that time in two thousand, got my RC seven,
and so there wasn't really many options for like we're
trying to buy like intercol or kids from like Yahoo Japan,
like turbo kids things like that, and you know, stuff
would show up, it be like banged up, dented, and.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
We're like, well, let's just make it ourselves.
Speaker 5 (09:34):
So pick up an intercol or core and you know,
welding up you know, steel pipes because we couldn't take
a while aluminum yet and things like that. So we learned
how to do all this ourselves by trial and error.
I blew up like five motors in that car, learned
how to rebuild the rotary motors, you know, ourselves like
me and Tony were just take it apart in the
living room and you know, how does this thing work?
Just use the manual and put it back together. And
(09:55):
so everything that we did was basically self taught, like
not only the driving but the mechanical and the tuning
side as well, because there just wasn't any availability to
us out there in Pennsylvania. There was very very few
tuning shops, uh, and then the ones that did exist
we couldn't afford anyway.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
You know, so we're just like, well, let's just do
it ourselves.
Speaker 5 (10:14):
It was all pretty easy until we tried to make
like basically more than four hundred horsepower. Like as soon
as we like kind of hit that realm.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Four was a lot at that time, it.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
Was yeah, yeah, So we we got pretty much all
of our cars, like the Hondas were making like three
hundred wheel like our Arc sevens were like three fifty
wheels stuff like that. And basically as soon as we're
trying to like hit that next level, like we're just
breaking things left and right. We couldn't figureut how to
keep the engines together.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
So, but how did you learn what drifting was.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
So, yeah, like I didn't really know what drifting was.
But I got my ARC seven first, and I got
the ARC seven because Tony Angelo told my brother that
that's what I should get because I didn't know what
I wanted to get, which this was in two thousand
ft fc FC.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (10:56):
Yeah, So we kind of like fell into drifting because
of the car that I got, if that makes sense.
So I got the RC seven because Tony you know,
basically was like, oh, this is a rear road drive car,
comes with the turbo. It's cool, right, And I like
look them up and I'm like, yeah, they look look
cool and everything else. What I was saying was my
old AOL name was Import Turbo, right, because I didn't
(11:18):
know what I wanted, but I wanted to import. I
wanted to have a turbo, that's all I know. And
so landed on the ARC seven. I was like, this
is cool. It's like a little exotic, right, It's got
this weird motor in it. That was the car that
we like learned how to fabricate and everything else. And
so in doing so, when you start making like, you know,
three four hundred horsepower, it naturally just burns the tires
and the more we were reading about what to do
(11:39):
to RC seven's, you know, you kind of start landing on,
you know, the Japanese websites. There's not too much you know,
on the American side of what people are doing to
like R seven except for drag racing. Yeah, and so like, yeah,
you're searching for intercoler kids, suspension kids, and you just
keep finding drift cars. Right, So we slowly, you know,
are falling into these websites about drifting. And then and
(12:00):
one of Tony's friends over in Japan, who was based
over there, he was sending us a real player videos
of cars drifting because you know this before YouTube even existed. Yeah,
and so we're like getting these like you know, pixelated
videos of like cars drifting around, and we're just like,
that's awesome, I want to do that. And so all
(12:20):
in the same time, when we're like blowing up our
cars trying to make a whole lot of horsepower, we're like,
let's actually like not make so much and make them
drift cars. And around that same time, we went to
like my high school parking lot, took a couple cones
out there and basically tried to drift through it. Like
we didn't even know what we're doing. We just watched
a couple videos of like, you know, this is when
(12:42):
we started to find out about initial D and we
watched all that, and we found out about you know option,
you know, watching the VHS tapes and so we're just
looking at the in car footage and you know, like
for the first like year or two, like I never
even pulled the handbrake. Didn't ever think that would you know,
be a part of drifting. And so you know, we
see him like you know, turning in and pulling on this.
(13:02):
It's all in Japanese, so we have no idea what
they're saying, and we're like, oh, like okay, pull the
way home. Pull that like makes the car rotate, like okay.
And so it was just all trial and error like
for the first like two years, and then we eventually
figured out how to control the car and be able
to drift it around purposely and you know, without spinning out.
And that was all like yeah, leading up to about
(13:23):
two thousand and three, and that's when myself, Tony, Matt
Petty and this other guy Eric went to English Town
and pitched doing the first drifting events out there. So
it was the first organized drifting events, which is now
Club Loose, the longest running drift events in the country.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
That's so cool.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Wow, so you were in high school.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
Man, Yeah, yeah, I just graduated. Yeah. So yeah, I
got my car when I was a senior.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Wow, just self taught from initial d And yeah, that's crazy.
Did you like right away connect to it? Did you go,
I love this, this is like my my body.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
Yeah right, and.
Speaker 5 (13:59):
Yeah, it just just always felt like being in the car,
like was where I wanted to be, like, you know,
love driving, love cruising, love you know, being at the
racetrack things like that. But I really do like the
build and that's what got me into cars to begin with.
Building cars, like I find that to be as rewarding
as driving.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
So the method to the madness or like see behind
the curtain of like, you know, successful people. It's interesting
that we're having this conversation because I was like, what
makes Chris the winningest?
Speaker 4 (14:31):
Right in it for a long time.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
But also you know the car, Chris, like you know
it insight out drivers that don't even change the oil
in their cars, right.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
So there's drivers who don't even truthfully know what they're driving.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5 (14:47):
I mean, you know, it's just it's just different approach,
right to some people that benefits them right to not
have a connection to the car, right because for me,
it's like I don't want to break it. I don't
want to because you know, like peopable, so it can
be a detriment as well to like know how hard
to push it If you.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Hear a noise it almost you get in your head
a little bit of what could I have broken?
Speaker 5 (15:10):
Yep, and then you know, like how much is this
going to cost to fix it? Because you I'm also
the owner of the team, and so you know, you
might not want to like, you know, just blow the
motor up, you know, for the sake of game will
more lap in. Whereas if you're just the guy that
shows up and it's like where's the star button, like
you're not going to treat it with any sort of exactly.
So you know, I try to be hands off at
(15:32):
the track, so it's better that way.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Yeah, keep that in the game.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
Yeah, I try to have that separation.
Speaker 5 (15:38):
But yeah, like so, like I was saying, I I
truthfully like enjoy the building. I love the process, you know,
trying to create new things like the my dots and
it's like how we met. The first time was I
built the two eighty Z, took it out to Sema,
did the RB conversion, did the you're talking about the goal,
I know what you're talking about. Yeah, And so his
debut the year before, and you won the Grand Trismo
(16:01):
Best in Show, and then I debut mine the next
year and then we got the Grand Turismo a board
best Import too, so it was pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
Yeah. And then years later she's in Grand Tourist. Yeah
and then there I.
Speaker 5 (16:12):
Go, I know, so h yeah, so that was cool
and yeah, like we got to do that. Like Nissan
shut just recently, so that was probably right after you
filmed with him, right.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Yeah, yeah, that's how the I wouldn't say that's how,
but the Nissan relationship definitely strengthened after doing a movie
about Nissan. It. Yeah, the first car I ever owned was
in Infinity. The first car ever fully built was a Nissan,
so that heritage has run deep since it's all beginning.
So it was cool to be able to do GT
and then us doing that shoot together at Willow was
(16:44):
pretty awesome.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (16:45):
Yeah, that was really fun. Yeah, I got to do
I got to be a judge for a GT Academy
back in I think it was twenty twelve, I want
to say, but yeah, flew out to Silverstone, the whole
thing was set up. We had a little drift challenge, yeah,
out there part of it. So that was cool experience
as well.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
So from amateur high school self, it's drifting because I
want to share this with the listeners out there, and
I'm curious as well. So then how do you get
to the pro level? Like did you eventually have to
have like a coach?
Speaker 5 (17:16):
Yeah, it was two thousand and three, like I mentioned,
and that was when we just started those events over
in New Jersey and so went to the first couple
of those and then it was later that summer we
saw the D one Driver Search. It was the first
one right in out Arwin Dale, and so me and
Tony were like, we gotta go right, So we loaded
(17:38):
up our cars, put him on the back of a flatbed,
and we just drove straight out forty fifty hours.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
The D one Driver Search what is that?
Speaker 4 (17:46):
So D one GP, the D one Grand Prix Series.
Speaker 5 (17:49):
It was before they had their first event in the States,
and so they held a driver's search where they let
pretty much anyone enter. There was like sixty of us
out there, and they picked the top eight were allowed
to run in the actual D one event that was
happening in like September, And so we put our cars
(18:09):
on the flatbed, drove all the way out, entered into
the event with our RC seven's and like Kengoshi's there,
die Ziro's there, like Rey Sam like all those you know,
all the OG guys are out there too, and so
we get to the event and basically neither of us
make it pass the first round, right, Like I had
like an understeer, I like messed up.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
Right.
Speaker 5 (18:29):
They're obviously being very critical and like I said, it
was like sixty some drivers and so and was it
just drift?
Speaker 4 (18:33):
Of course it was like or was it tandem?
Speaker 5 (18:36):
No, it was just single runs like a small like
basically the infield of our one dale, not the bank
or anything. And so yeah, like it just didn't have
a great pass. But basically being out here like I
first time in California, you know, like you see all
the cars, like all the vinyl on them, all the graphics,
and like they don't clean, they're nice. They all got
(18:56):
nice wheels, you know, the tents, pop ups and everything.
I'm just like, there's something happening here, right, And that
was basically like I'm moving to California, you know, drove
home in sorrow. But on the same hand, it was
like selling my car, like getting a new car, like
I'm going all in. That was right when the Z
came to the market, the three fifties, I should say,
(19:18):
came back to the market and three two thousand and three. Yeah,
and so I've sold my ARC seven and I used
that money down payment and bought a new Z. I
took it to like one or two events on the
East Coast, and at the same time it was just
like basically making my plans, wrapping it up. And there
was like a Falcon drift show off that was happening
in October back at erwin Dale again, and I was
like going back to that event doing that, and so
(19:41):
packed up all my stuff, moved out, made it in
time for the event, and like had like a nice
boty kit on nice wheels, like the car looked, you know,
really legit got to that event. I got fifth place
at that event, and so like just instant like recognition,
I guess you could say it was obviously a pretty
small community knew each other and it kind of turned
(20:02):
into like who's this kid, you know with the with
the new car right type thing? Like I say, this
is like my first like subconscious lesson in marketing is,
you know, you invest in yourself. No one's going to
do it for you until you prove that you are
going to put in the work and the effort on
your own. So instantly started to get the attention of
companies because I had the new platform, so they wanted
(20:24):
to provide you know, coilover kids, exhaust intakes, you know,
because they're promoting all their new parts for the new car.
And so I was able to get support almost immediately.
And so that's when I got linked up with motor
X at the time, they were my first partner, and
that's how I was able to go to forma drift
in the first year. And so I went out and
we entered forma drift. So I've been to every form
(20:48):
of drift since the very first one, which was Road
Atlanta and we got second place, went all the way
to the finals.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
First round.
Speaker 5 (20:54):
First, your first, the first fdy around, Yeah, your first?
What you well is that the is that the year
that Sam Samuel hubin At won Yeah. So I member
him in the finals and he won the first round,
and then I met him in the semis the second round,
so I got third place. Second round, he got first again,
and then he won the third race, and then I
(21:17):
eventually beat him. I was the first driver to beat
him at irwin Dale the final round that year.
Speaker 4 (21:21):
Wow. And I ended up third overall.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
So so I mean that year they saw the goats
in that your class very.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Defining of the industry today because everyone is really still
around and competing still mostly.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
A lot of them.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Yeah, I retired.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
I see him all the time.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Are you a person who sets cool? Are you one
who just only does what they enjoyed doing that day?
Like how do you navigate that?
Speaker 4 (22:06):
I guess it's I never really like set a goal.
Speaker 5 (22:10):
I don't have like this is my five year plan,
like I'm gonna be doing this, Like how I explained,
like how I kind of like fell into like pro drifting.
And that's like when I was saying, when I was
out here for the first time in the summer of three,
I was like I got to move to California, just
like everything was just telling me, like I gotta get there,
like I'm gonna miss the wave, and I'm glad that
I did, because it was there was so much happening
so quickly. Import drag racing was basically falling off, and
(22:34):
you know, the Fast and Furious movies of course were
like you know, coming out, and it was just bringing
so much attention to the automotive scene. I remember, like
when we were running our little shop out of my parents' barn,
Like we went to the premiere of the first Fast
and Furious movie and we had a whole bunch of
flyers made for our little car shop, sticking them on
the windshields of you know, any modified car, and we
(22:54):
drew up some business, right, and that was helping us
to like build our cars. We're working on other people's cars,
and make a money so that we could go buy
tires and go drifting. Yeah, Like there was never really
like a goal or a plan. It was just being
in the right place at the right time. And the
only thing that I really did like step forth, which
has shown you know, incredible response or feedback i should say,
(23:16):
is the off road side. That was something that I
was like, I want to get back into it. I
had like dabbled in a little bit here and there,
like I had a like a razor that would take
you out to the desert and just enjoy just driving around.
I was like, I really want to do this like
on a different level, and so we pitched a Nissan
when the Frontier came out, where like we really want
to do an offer a program with Frontiers.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
The Frontiers my daily driver.
Speaker 4 (23:36):
Yeah yeah, I love it.
Speaker 5 (23:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
Same.
Speaker 5 (23:39):
So it's like this whole package that you can now purchase.
It's a you know, race winning, you know, dealership to dirt,
you know, package that we helped propel. And so it's
still like a little surreal. It hasn't really settled in.
That's crazy, I know.
Speaker 4 (23:53):
So it's like a dream, I know.
Speaker 5 (23:55):
And that's like the thing that like it doesn't really
feel real still because it's uh, you know that that
would be like I say, like a goal that I've
always had. And the way that we made it happen
was like like I said, it was like once again,
like something was like telling me like this is the
way to make it happen like I always saw or
like I always wanted to be like, oh, like I
got a you know, like an fr edition like Z
or something like that, right, But there was just something
(24:17):
that was always telling me like, no, it's like it's
it's the trucks.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
It's in the.
Speaker 5 (24:19):
Dirt, you know, like like focus on the off road.
And so we did that, and the Frontiers like such
a high grossing vehicle that it just made sense to
launch this Forestburg Edition package with the Frontier and then
building the truck going to the race winning.
Speaker 4 (24:34):
It just told the story perfectly.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
That's awesome.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Yeah, yeah, you would assume you would think that it
would be in like a Z Forstburg Z edition that
you could drift, but yeah, for every car person, it's
like you have your own Saline or Shelby.
Speaker 4 (24:49):
Yeah, Frontier, it's pretty awesome.
Speaker 5 (24:51):
It's it's wild. Yeah, So it's yeah, it's it'll be
launching in the fall. So, like I said, if you
have a Frontier already, or you can get a brand
new like on the truck, which is great because that's warrantyed.
You know, so so many people are afraid to touch
brand new cars because you lose your warranty. So that
was like the biggest thing is it's all dealership installed,
(25:11):
still covered and there how much that costs. It's nine
ninety nine, nine nights, so it's like ten thousand dollars.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
It's so bad.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
And any dealership wow.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
Any on.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (25:21):
So you get there, Yeah, so you get yeah, full exhaust, yeah,
the full suspension, the lift kit, beadlock wheels, Yokohama tires wow.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Yeah, and then you can go Baja straight to Mexico.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
It yeah nice. So yeah, it's it's really yeah, thank you.
Speaker 5 (25:37):
So that was that I would say, is like like
just subconscious bucket list item that I didn't even know
I was like aiming for when we're like pitching this
off road program.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
So did your parents think you're out of your mind
that you were packing up and going to know? They
were pornia, They're pretty supportive.
Speaker 5 (25:56):
Yeah, they didn't really know what to think, but it
was like okay, like you know, if you're going to
try it, you know, give it a hundred percent effort.
Like because I went to like community college for like
six months, wasn't really for me. I was like kind
of skipping class to like go work on my car,
and I'm just like I'm just not going to end
up in an office, you know.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
I Mean, that's that says a lot I mean, that's
a great lesson for people to hear. Is like, you know,
we were actually talking to Jeff before you came about this.
It's like it's a great quote, like, you know, passion
is what is the recipe for people's success? Right when
he because they were like, well, you know what, what
what differentiates people that you meet that you know you
know are going to be successful?
Speaker 2 (26:34):
And it's like simple. It's like they just are super
passionate about what they're doing.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Right, And I've i personally, whenever people say lucky, I
can stand the term lucky because I feel like luck
is when hard work meets opportunity. But that was the
first time I heard passion actually talked about when it
comes to success. Yeah, to to your point, So I
think we both see the passion when you talk about
(27:01):
what you're doing. And maybe you don't need that five
year plan. You just live every day going after what
you know you love doing, and with that will come
success of some sort.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Because it still sounds like where do you see yourself
in ten years? It's like, well, what doesn't matter. You're
just passionate about what you're doing, so things are going
to come.
Speaker 5 (27:20):
Like you know, the off roading and right, yeah, like
I I say, like, oh, I don't have like at
I do have like another like idea that's like my
next goal, like you could say about it. I mean, yeah, sure,
it's not like my my next idea or like goal.
I guess you could say, is too for us to
have like our own compound with our own track on it? Right,
(27:41):
obviously everyone's kind of dream you could say, like who
wouldn't want to have like their own house with a
big shop and a track on it.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
I if this sounds cheesy, but I have that on
my vision board. There you go.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
It's like, of course it's like playgrounds.
Speaker 5 (27:55):
Yeah, you know, a place that we can actually run
our cars without you know how, and to go to
a racetrack or load them up and everything else. It's
like that's like kind of my long term like legacy plan,
so to have a place for people to come to
since I mean not that like Willow Springs is going anywhere,
but you know, racetracks are usually falling to the wayside,
So it's like giving people a place to go because
(28:17):
that's like what we needed when when I was a kid,
and that's why we went to English Town because we
can't keep doing this on.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
The street, you know.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
And the track designed for like, you know, purpose, it's
purpose built for like drifting, right, because I mean, did
you ever imagine drifting would grow to this point?
Speaker 2 (28:32):
Because it's crazy, it's huge.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
Yeah it is.
Speaker 5 (28:35):
Yeah, it's world worldwide and yeah, and I would say
a lot of that is once again Fast and Furious movies.
You know, Tokyo Drift made drift you know, household term
like people then understood it when I would tell people like, oh,
like a drift cars, like what does that mean? You know,
it was cool because you probably don't know this, but
(28:56):
I was. I was a part of that movie, not
in it by any means, but I did all the
sound recording for your car. Yeah what so it was
was on Tokyo Drift right, Yeah, yeah, Peter, it was
Tony Angelo's old former drift Falcon FD.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
He was talking about that car when we did the podcast.
He has it in his bank, right, Yeah, he did
it below when he was recording it. Yeah, whoa, So
you the driver?
Speaker 4 (29:27):
Ye whole the wait? No, I think it was No,
I think Tony's I think the FD was fine. I
thought it was the Mustang that broke.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
I was one of the cars.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 5 (29:42):
I think it was Vaughn's Mustang that broke because so
like yeah, Falcon brought the rig out and they had
the f D in there, uh and the Mustang and
so yeah, I was like, you know, went out to
this runway. You know, microphones all over the car and
it's like, you know, you have like a like a
line item list of like okay, like you know, I
only car like rev the car rev to the red line.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
You know, like that all the way down.
Speaker 5 (30:04):
It's like drive up stop, drive up, rev stop, you know,
and like just get them all the different tones. That's
so yeah, like every time you hear that the FD
like rolling around. Yeah, that's two.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
That's crazy. Man if Fest has just a world, it
really is.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
The car community is like a family. Everyone seems to
know everyone, and there's that always a full circle moment.
Speaker 4 (30:23):
I feel like, yeah, and that's what's cool about it.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
You know.
Speaker 5 (30:25):
It's like like almost every time like a situation rise,
like it's like, oh, like I know a guy and
like you know, make a phone call. Like you're saying,
like it's such a small community. It's like you know,
they'd say, it's like, what the six degrees of separation?
Like in the car community, It's like.
Speaker 4 (30:37):
Yeah, sure is Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
So I'm sure there's people listening to this podcast because
obviously they're fans of you, and maybe they want to
learn how to get into drifting themselves. What is I know?
So much has changed within the last twenty years for
today those wanting to get into drifting. What would you
(31:00):
recommend for someone?
Speaker 5 (31:02):
Yeah, Well, it's funny because you know, people have different
viewpoints on whether it was easier to get into drifting
in the early days or now, And I guess it's
all in the definition of what what do you think
is drifting? Are you trying to be like a pro
one form of drift driver or you're just trying to
like go drift your car. As far as like learning
how to drift, it's one hundred times easier now than
(31:24):
it was in the beginning because there's so many different
events and tracks and opportunities to do so we had
to make our own.
Speaker 4 (31:29):
There was no place for us to go then.
Speaker 5 (31:32):
Also, the accessibility of you know, the knowledge of how
to create a drift car right or a modify car
to drift is there, and like we're saying, the car
community is so open and sharing you know, setups or
tips or you know, whether it's driving tips or you know,
like how to build the car, Like it's all just
at your fingertips. So that portion of it is so
(31:53):
much easier. And for anyone that wants to get in drifting,
I always tell them it's like, yeah, obviously you get
a real world drive car. And then the first three
to tell everyone to do is diff seat, coil overs,
usually in that order too. So make sure it's got
to diff whether it's factory or you know, weld it
up if you're on a budget, or you know, get
a mechanical one.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
If you can.
Speaker 5 (32:11):
You have to have that because you have to have
the real rols locked up, right, That's like a given.
And then so step two. The seat I think is
one of the most important things because as you're learning,
you're really getting thrown around the car, right, and so
if you just have like a regular old seat, Like yes,
newer cars now have some nice bolstering, but you know,
like your old BMW's two forty's you know MOZ does
all that, Like they're pretty flat and half a couch. Yeah,
(32:34):
And so as you're learning, you know, like you're gonna
get tossed around, and so a seat actually connects you
to the car and you can feel the car right
and like you know a car will drift with the
rear wheels locked up in factory form. You know you
can do that, so you don't need to sit here,
and like I gotta do an engine swap, I gotta
get an intake, I gotta you know, all these different things.
It's like the seat will connect you to the car
(32:55):
and let you feel what the car is capable of.
And it also is like a bit of a safety
thing too, so that you are more in control of
the car. And then coil overs because that's you know,
your next best bang for the buck, because you know,
lowers the car, stiffens it up and helps it to slide.
From there, you can start working on you know, horsepower
and other things like angle kits. But I usually try
to tell people to not start with the angle kit
(33:17):
because it's too forgiving, right, it allows the car to
rotate too much, and it gives too much of a cushion.
Like you should learn with less angle first and then
add it because that will help you to be a
better driver in the long term. But yeah, that's that's
just to get a car that's basically ready to drift
and then from there, you know, obviously go out to
a track. And so many tracks now have like clinics
(33:40):
drift days, like little lessons, they have teachers instructors, so like,
if you want to get in drifting, stick to the basics.
Don't overbuild your car. The problem is most people they
just get stuck in the build. They never even make
it to the track, right, So they have like this
project and they're not actually driving the car, and there's
always going to be someone around that's more advanced or
(34:02):
knowledgeable than you.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (34:04):
Right, So you have to have a little bit of
a courage to just put yourself out there, yeah, and
ask yeah, and and be humble and know that you're
not the best guy there, and you know, don't be
afraid to ask for help.
Speaker 3 (34:14):
I mean, if if you were able to talk to
your high school self that was on a budget and
have a choice of cars that are available today, what
would you start with.
Speaker 5 (34:23):
I mean, honestly, like I I know it sounds like
I'm just like preaching the Nissan, but like the z is,
like you see at the track events. There's so many
of z's out there now. The three fifty right now
is like one of the best startup cars. It's got
to be six. You don't got to do an engine
swop for worry about horsepower. It's got a strong transmission,
comes with a diff got decent seats, Like you can
(34:45):
hop in a stock Z and just start whipping around
track no problem.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
What was the story with the S thirty the to
eighty build? Like why did you do that?
Speaker 4 (34:54):
Which is an awesome car? Like yeah, I love it.
Speaker 5 (34:57):
Yah, they're cool. Well I always thought they looked kind
of cool, you know. I was working with Nissan like
off and on. This was like twenty twelve or so,
and then that Dotson like fell in my lap. It
was basically like a friend of the guys at m
A Motorsports were like, hey, this car that we tuned once,
this guy wants to sell it sold Donson, Like would
(35:18):
you want it?
Speaker 4 (35:18):
I was like, yeah, So I.
Speaker 5 (35:20):
Got that Dotson had like no interior, but it had
a running RB in it and like some old whatever
wheels on it.
Speaker 4 (35:27):
Got it for four grand? What what? Yeah with the RB? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (35:31):
Oh I know you can even buy an RB for
four grand or like even like a rolling Donson but yeah,
you know I was twelve years ago.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Yeah you know so, but yeah free yeah, because it.
Speaker 5 (35:42):
Was like the guy's moving needs to get rid of it,
like I'll take four grand for it. Was like I'm
on my way, fell in love with it, started working
on it like crazy, and beefed up the engine like
read it the whole interior like yeah, you know you've
seen it's kind of like, you know, a whole new
kid on it.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
But carbon signal.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
These two guys, the two friends when's the doctor and
on it's like a at guy and they're just enthusiasts
of old dots Ins right, Like they're obsessed over vintage
and modern like Nissans and Dotsons. So we were building
the fuguzzi, the two forty Z, the seventy two that
(36:18):
I have. They reached out to me because they were like, hey,
we were doing like interior parts for like the two
forty and they're like I'm like who are you guys?
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Like oh, we live in Dubai And I'm like what,
like do what or like why like whatever?
Speaker 3 (36:31):
Man?
Speaker 2 (36:32):
And they're like can we send it to you? And
I'm like you guys, I'm sure you will.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
And then they actually sent everything and it was this
bespoke custom interior that you know, the figur right, and
then the year after they connected with Chris and then
your body kit and the interior is all carbon signal. Anyway,
they're the coolest dudes. They become like brothers to me.
You know, they're just like truly passionate, crazy car dudes
(36:59):
that I mean, this is all they do. They just
keep making these cars and then they support people in
the community, right yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, they make beautiful stuff.
So what are you going to do with this new
two eighty because I have three kids here? Oh yeah,
you should build one.
Speaker 4 (37:13):
I might all these kids. Yeah right, they're halfway there.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
Yeah, I'm genuinely down. I've been wanting to do a
dots and build even so a five to ten, like
I've just been wanting to do that for so long.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Now we can't put a rotary motor in that.
Speaker 4 (37:25):
No, nice, I wanted to do.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
With a rotary because I've never worked on a rotary
before and I love to learn new things.
Speaker 4 (37:35):
And it was like crickets.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
She's like, oh, I want to do that, and Mike spec. No,
there was a big old I don't like a two eighty.
Speaker 1 (37:40):
I would never. I would never. I'd want to put
an RB in it or something in the Nissan family,
something capable of lots of power.
Speaker 4 (37:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
I mean, if you want to do a Z build,
there's so much support. Yeah, you should do that.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Well, we'll talk more about it. I'm actually looking at
my next projects and be besides the thirty four, I
wanted to do another Nissan building. Like how I got
into cars and you bought my Z Nissan Z. I
don't know if you remember I spec that car out
the Yeah. Yeah, he bought the Z that I'd specked
(38:15):
out because at the time I couldn't take delivery of it,
and I've been regretting not buying that car. Yeah, I'm
glad you.
Speaker 4 (38:22):
Enjoyed respects so much loving it.
Speaker 5 (38:24):
Yeah, because the Z that Nissan put on order for me,
it arrived and it had red interior, and I didn't
hate it, but I was like, you know, we're getting
this new car and like, you know, like blue is
kind of like our thing, it's like part of like
our colorway. And I was like, yeah, like and you'll
just pass on it. You know, I'll go back on
the list for one with the blue interior, so the
(38:45):
performance model and everything else. And so when it finally
came back through, it was like like maybe six months later.
It was apparently the one that she had specked out
but then didn't take delivery, so all of a sudden
it became available.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Yeah, that was so funny because we were at the
newsman Ze launch. I was like looking at this Z
and I was like, wait a minute, this like's all
too familiar. And then we're talking we put it all
together and then that's what happened, because.
Speaker 5 (39:11):
It was funny because yeah, just like got the call like,
oh we found one, and I was like, I mean,
you found one, but it makes sense.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
Yeah, h Starry to ask this question if it's sensitive.
Are your parents still around? Yeah they saw supportive.
Speaker 4 (39:38):
Yeah no they are.
Speaker 5 (39:40):
So my mom's still in Pennsylvania, my dad is in Indiana.
Now they're separated, but yeah they're they're around, and yeah, no,
they're they're support They used to come to the races
a lot in like the early years.
Speaker 4 (39:52):
But you know it's like it's expensive to fly to
the racetrack all the time. My brother I gave him
the ARC seven.
Speaker 5 (39:59):
So yeah's I after I got the dots and then
built that up and the Arc seven became like a
back burner project. And my brother's like, I really want
to get a car, and like I don't know what
to get and this and the other. And I was like,
you can have the RC seven in like this pile
of parts I have for it, but you know, you
can't ever sell it, you know type thing.
Speaker 4 (40:15):
And so he's like, yeah, deal, so good deal. Yeah,
so great.
Speaker 5 (40:18):
Gave him the car, give him all the parts, and
then you know, helped him get a few more things
for it, like when we it was closer to getting
ready to run and yeah, so he drives that car.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
Now.
Speaker 5 (40:28):
It's just talking to him on the way up here,
telling him when I was going to do this afternoon,
you know, and he's like, oh that's awesome, you know.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
And so you're really close to your brother, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah,
he's great. So younger brother two years older, younger sister,
right yeah, younger sister, and.
Speaker 4 (40:43):
So yeah, we we talked like it's funny. We uh,
I call it going to church.
Speaker 5 (40:46):
We talk every Sunday and just like yeah, so it's well,
it's like we kind of like it's one of those
things where you lose track of time, right if you
don't like keep in touch with people. Yeah, And so
there's a while there where we just wouldn't talk for
like weeks or months. You know, you don't even realize
how much time goes by. And then it was it
was during COVID, like you know, you start kind of
(41:09):
calling people little more often, like in that time when
you're just like, you know, stuck in the house. And
so it was like at that time, so I was like, yeah,
twenty twenty, I was like, yeah, we're gonna talk every Sunday.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
Are you religious? Do you go to church or you
just call church?
Speaker 5 (41:23):
Yeah, So it's like it's like all right, like time
to go to church. Like you know, you would just
like laugh about She's like you go to church yet,
Like no, I gotta call him.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
That's really good. My sister's five years younger than me.
And there was years ago we got in the argument
over something super stupid.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
It always is.
Speaker 3 (41:43):
Yeah, it was so dumb, right, Like it was something
like I think it was like about an Instagram post,
but I can't remember.
Speaker 4 (41:52):
For me, it was something so dumb.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
And then I didn't speak to her for two years,
Oh I believe it?
Speaker 3 (41:58):
Yeah right, and I will cup One morning and I
was going, am I going to be that guy that
dies without like communicating with, you know, your only sister?
So I called her and I was like, look, I
don't know what we argued about, and I actually don't care,
but I'll apologize whatever it is, I'm sorry, And then.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
She just starts to cry, right, and I was like, yeah,
let's not do that. Let's not let's not like argue.
Speaker 3 (42:25):
And then one day we get old and we die,
and then our story is that, you know, like we
didn't speak to each other over.
Speaker 5 (42:33):
Something stupid, right at least something. Yeah, And it's like
somebody needs to do it, you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (42:39):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (42:39):
No, And that's that's you know, big on you for
taking that initiative, because it's so easy to just like, oh, well,
well they're not calling, you know, and like that's usually
what happens, and that's like how just people go their
separate ways, right, But it's you know, one thing I've
learned in like recent years, like you can't change people.
They're going to act the way they're gonna act. Either
(43:00):
accept them for who they are or move on. Did
something have to switch in your head? Because that's something
that a milion like we talked about this like this year.
I mean, I'm making a conscious effort to just that'd
be so hard on people, right because I'm like they
fucked me over or like, you know, they did something
that I don't agree with, Like I'm cutting them off right,
(43:20):
and I'm like and this year, like I don't want
to do that. I don't want to be that guy anymore.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
It's too much.
Speaker 4 (43:25):
It's like carrying a bag of rocks.
Speaker 5 (43:26):
Yeah, yeah, I know, it's just yeah, it is like, yeah,
it's just a bunch of baggage that you don't really
want to deal with. And well, I guess for me
it was I was previously married for like eleven years
and my new partner lives my fiance now. I mean
she's fantastic and really like understands like how to communicate
(43:47):
with people and how to like understand either what people
are saying or like what they're trying to get across
here like reading like you know, body language, things like that,
and so really like is helping me to like you know,
learn like those fundamentals of like like this is like
this house person is going to be and either you know,
you have to accept those behaviors and you know, and
(44:07):
if you want a relationship with them, like you'll have to,
like you said, like work at it. And you can't
hold that against her if you're the one that wants
to have the relationship. Things like that that like, you know,
she makes me think a lot about some of that,
which is good. I appreciate that because I would be
the stubborn type to just like whatever, just you know,
walk away.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
Yeah, we need that sound partner in crime to slap
you around a little bit.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
We'll say, to keep you grounded.
Speaker 2 (44:36):
Are you hyper competitive Chris?
Speaker 1 (44:39):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (44:39):
Yeah, I mean, because that's that's what got you where
you are today, that being the winningest.
Speaker 4 (44:51):
A T shirt?
Speaker 3 (44:51):
Right, But I mean, I'm sure there's pros and cons
to it, Like over years, have you found a balance
where it doesn't seep into like life in the negative way?
Speaker 4 (45:01):
I mean, I guess so i'd like to think.
Speaker 5 (45:03):
So I'm trying to not be so hyper competitive because
it does you know, consumer time, Like you know, the
more the more time and effort you put into something,
the more successful you're going to be at it. Right
of course, and so but yeah, you have to have
a balance, right. I've been doing this for over twenty
years now, and so I guess. But what gets it
to me is like once we kind of like get
like going in in an event or at the track, like, yeah,
(45:27):
I get like way too competitive, trying to be like
you know, like the fastest or whatever, and like like
what can I do.
Speaker 4 (45:32):
To make the car better?
Speaker 5 (45:34):
Like we just got invited to that the fat International
Ice Race. They usually have it over in Switzerland, pretty
awesome event, and then they had it in Aspen this
year for the first time, and it was also open
to multiple manufacturers for the first time. And so I
was driving the Safari package, the new nie on Zi
that they had. So they brought that car out and
(45:55):
you know, it's like, yeah, this'll be a fun weekend.
You know, like go out and like you know, rip
the car around, you know, like get some mangle, get
some cool photos and content will be great. And it's
like as soon as the times dropped, I was like,
oh wait, we're like we're like sitting like you know,
hop five right now, it's all that sounds like start
messing with the car, trying to like figure out how
I can get a couple more tents out of it,
you know, like once again, Like you know, mindset going
in is like we're just here to have a good time.
Speaker 4 (46:15):
You know, we got invited, this is great, and so
we were where fourth just missed it, but you was
away with like anger anger.
Speaker 5 (46:23):
I wouldn't say anger, but yeah, it was definitely just
you know, bad mood at least for like three minutes.
Speaker 4 (46:29):
You know.
Speaker 1 (46:30):
I don't know why they're going to say three months.
Speaker 5 (46:35):
Months Normally, like if it's like a FD event or
something like that, like like it'll linger for days, you know,
maybe even weeks, but it's uh but yeah, like I
was like, I was like let it go, you know.
But like that's like that instant like mindset of like
like just missed it, you know. Yeah, that's that hyper competitiveness.
Speaker 4 (46:53):
I guess you could.
Speaker 3 (46:54):
I had to like shut it down because it's okay
to be competitive to a degree. But what I'm struggling
with and like I'm working on, is that it causes
me to be jealousy and I don't like that. I
don't like that version of myself where you know, like
what Jeff, you know, was sharing with us today to
to be in awe of other people's accomplishments. Right, I'm like, oh,
(47:16):
I'm gonna really work on.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
That versus like why aren't I doing that? I'm not
doing enough?
Speaker 2 (47:21):
Yes, I do it to myself all the time, and
that's that's something that like eats me up. It consumes me.
Speaker 3 (47:27):
And I'm like, you know, being competitive, it's like it
makes you like wake up and be disciplined and go, Okay,
I'm gonna push myself to this. But then it gets
to a point where, like when you're sitting alone and
the voices start talking to you, you just like I
get consumed, Like I get hot.
Speaker 4 (47:43):
And I'm like, yeah, wait, why not me?
Speaker 2 (47:44):
And like who is this person? It's like it's not
fair and all this nonsense, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (47:49):
Yeah, I've definitely had those feelings.
Speaker 1 (47:52):
You know.
Speaker 5 (47:52):
It's you can't be successful and have that kind of mindset.
Like However, the saying goes like, you know, all ships rises,
the sea rises, right, so it's like, yeah, you have
to like build other people up.
Speaker 4 (48:01):
You can't be trying to knock them down. You knock
yourself down.
Speaker 1 (48:03):
Yeah. Yeah, And it's not a zero some game.
Speaker 4 (48:06):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 5 (48:08):
You know, like certain people have certain goals, like you know,
like you're successful in a certain way, and you're successful
in a certain way, and everybody has a different goal
of what or a vision of what success is, right,
and so you can't be jealous of one person's success
because like you have your own path. And so I'm
like preaching to myself right now because it's like the
same thing, like I've felt that way before, like seeing
(48:30):
other people like.
Speaker 4 (48:30):
Accomplish something like why don't I get that? Like why
did I do that?
Speaker 5 (48:33):
Because I'm not putting effortwards that. Yeah, you know, so
you just gotta be proud of people for you know,
achieving their goals.
Speaker 2 (48:38):
Yeah, well, said Chris.
Speaker 3 (48:40):
It's nice to get in the mind of a champion,
like have access to like you know, how you think,
what your ethos is, and most of it is it's
almost common sense, but it is.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
It's mentality.
Speaker 5 (48:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (48:55):
Yeah, like you know, treat other people the way you
want to be treated. Yeah, it's as simple as that.
Speaker 1 (48:59):
It goes around around.
Speaker 3 (49:00):
Yeah, You're just it's a great example of like a
template to follow is that, you know, there's so many
people that give like excuses of like you know, well,
hey dude, what's your dream. It's like, oh, I want
to be a drifter, but I can't like when not
well because no one, like no one taught me, like
you know, my dad doesn't even drive, or like I
(49:21):
don't have that kind of money. It was like why
am I going to do it? Like I don't live
in la, I don't live by racetrack. It's like, let's
go and study Chris Forsberg. Right, it's like self taught,
like you know, and it starts with this like love affair,
this passion to like you know, like work on cars.
And it's been really nice to sit down with you
and really get to know you. I've been looking forward
(49:42):
to this opportunity for years because thanks, I would see
you like I see you at like Seema, I see
you at some events and then and it's this bigger
than life kind of character because it's like champion, No,
I mean to you, you see yourself, right, and but
then to others it's like, you know, you see the accolades,
you see the winning this the title, right, So it's
(50:03):
really nice to get to know the person behind you know,
the man, right.
Speaker 5 (50:06):
So yeah, no thanks and yeah It's one of those
things like how we talked about earlier, like you're just
kind of going like one step at a time, and
you know, you don't even realize, like you know, things
that you accomplish like over twenty years until you start
like stop and look back because it's like, oh, this
is the next event, This is the next event, next.
Speaker 4 (50:25):
Thing to do.
Speaker 1 (50:25):
Easy idiot caught up in it. You know.
Speaker 3 (50:27):
Somebody asked me the question this year because they were
like talking about this movie I did twenty years ago,
and they're like, what has changed then? You know, it's
like do you think, like you know, you've accomplished success
and like what is your definition of success?
Speaker 2 (50:40):
Right?
Speaker 3 (50:40):
And I don't know where I got this answer, because
I was like, this is a brilliant answer. I just
came with the fact that even I still am passionate
about something that wakes me up, and that that motivates
me to be a better person, to be the better
version of myself, to constantly learn and grow. Like I
was like, that is my definition of the fact that
(51:03):
I actually still care about something that's really good.
Speaker 2 (51:06):
It's a luxury to have passion. Yeah, it's a blessing.
Speaker 1 (51:09):
Thank you, So much for joining us.
Speaker 4 (51:11):
Thanks for having me though, this is awesome.
Speaker 1 (51:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (51:13):
When I saw the podcast get launched, I was like,
I don't really want to get on that, and then yeah.
Speaker 4 (51:19):
You guys reached out and so very cool.
Speaker 1 (51:21):
Thank you, so yeah, thank you
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