Behind Adam LZ's Big Block Headers & Custom Fabrication w/ Mike Catell Circle of Drift #163

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
You obviously came did the big block stuff for Adam.
In your opinion, which one has been your personal favorite?
That the big block ones, like right up there.
I was there for like 5 days straight before the E town
around and it was like 70 hours.But I love that shit.
Like I am a high functioning autistic person and lucky enough
for us, we were able to wrangle up the wild Canadian Maple Mike
Howdy. We wanted the best, the best and

(00:21):
comedian enough. Mike is very familiar with not
only a vibrance products, but also with April 1 concepts.
You're the only one that I know of who's actually gone out of
their way and got someone to develop a header for their
application. It's just a lot of like around
and not making insane progress. It's all dirty.
Mike's been at work. It's got my grubby hands on

(00:53):
it. It is way.
Louder than I thought. Welding and fabricating are also
two different things in like a day by day job.
There's welders and then there'sfitter fabricators.
And if a fitter fabricator sucks, the welders not going to
get a good result. And like vice versa, even though
sell these headers like even hismechanic and I was like, it's
not going to fit. It's not going to fit.
I'm like, it's going to fit One of my favorite projects is a

(01:16):
good customer of mine, a 86 Corolla.
We did. He's done all the swaps that
pushed a lot of like pushed a lot of my limits every time I
did a setup on that car. If I'm building art, you don't
need this. You want this, So don't don't
make. Your.
Don't make your want devalue my time.
I will always give people my time, but if I'm spending my
time working I need to be paid what I feel is a fair hourly

(01:40):
rate. Welcome back to the Circle Drift
podcast. Thanks to all of you that stop
in every single week for a brandnew episode.
And today we are actually at Grid Life at the beautiful Lime

(02:01):
Rock Park to hear from Mike Kittel on a lot of the
fabrication and welding side of not only drifting, but
Motorsports in general. But before we get into in the
episode, I do want to touch on, as I'm sure most of you have
seen the slamming of Gatlinburg situation where now that event
has been shut down. And from someone that came from

(02:24):
that industry and spent a lot oftime with those events kind of
growing into drifting. It's kind of sad to see that
some of these delinquents essentially are causing trouble
in the streets and being just blatantly disrespectful, which
in turn caused the second day ofthe show to be completely

(02:46):
cancelled. And I am working on getting an
interview with someone from out there that can explain a lot of
the situation and what's going on behind the scenes, what'll
happen moving forward. But all I want to say is that if
you support any of those companies that do go to those
shows and bring out their vendorbooths and sell products like

(03:09):
say Grip Royal where they introduced three new steering
wheels, I think specifically forthis show.
And they were completely cut offfrom a day of being able to sell
them. And I know a lot of those
vendors really rely on that event specifically.
So if you had the chance to and you were planning on purchasing

(03:29):
anything that day and or you just want to support those
vendors because of them being able to well, missing out on the
entire day, do that, it'll definitely mean a lot to them.
But I'll leave it at that and not speak any further on that.
So without further ado, let's goahead and get in the episode.
All right. Well, obviously we have a well

(03:53):
actually you're not a new face technically to the podcast.
I've been in like a little Kansai, Kansai yeah yeah,
segment before. Technically Kansai.
Apparently I didn't get any of that right.
But yeah, no. So he was actually in what was
what did we even call that? Pit talks?
Yeah, can't say pig talks. That was the first time I ever

(04:14):
did the. First time we actually like met
and I was like, that's that podcast.
Yeah. Oh, that's awesome dude.
Well, how are you doing? You want to give a little
rundown on anyone on yourself toanyone doesn't know that's.
Like, my name's MM GT Custom is what a lot of people call me.
My name's MM Katel. I'm out here at Grid Life this
weekend out. I'm from Canada.
You probably hear that. Oh yeah, houses, stuff like that

(04:37):
say stuff a little weird, but I'm out with my my wagon again
this weekend, which is what you saw on that first podcast.
We still got the same cool wheelsetup on it.
Just I showed you earlier. We just revamped it.
We got Haltech on board this year, my man Andrew, and we
revamped the whole setup. The whole Haltech.
System UC10 dash like ball and big thick dash, the Nexus PDM

(04:59):
ECU like the Nexus ECU which hasthe PDM outputs in the ECU so
that powers the whole engine harness.
And then I have a separate PDM in the back for my fuel pumps,
my fans, my brake lights, interior lights and stuff like
that. So I'm stoked on it.
Like this is like I've been drifting for 12 years now and
I'm just like my pro car kind oftree.

(05:21):
It's not a pro. Car For anyone that doesn't
know, it's the wagon that Adam LZ just drove.
He did just drive it a previous event.
So that was that was FDS event, right?
Yeah, like basically kind of it's called Race wars.
It was like another company thatput on event and they brought
Adam out for the event and then Adam asked to use the wagon.
So then I went out there and I helped strap all the passengers

(05:42):
in and make sure the car was good for Adam.
Broken axle, good at breaking axles.
So so eventually it will be morepro car.
We want to do more to, I want todo a quick change in it like
that. It's just bit by bit by bit,
it's becoming slowly a pro am pro car.
But that's a word that's been used loosely now too, right?
Like Travis Travis readers like E36, the LE36, like LS1LS2 quick

(06:04):
change. It's like that's pretty much a
pro car. It's a good fucking car.
Yeah, but it's the party car, right?
So pro car is definitely like a a weird terminology to use
wagon. This car has been around since
again, I've been drifting since like 20/14/2013.
So it's actually one of my good buddy Drews.
He built that car and I've always been a stance guy.

(06:26):
Like I've always had my blue M3.If you've seen that Laguna Seca
blue M3 with A1J swap in it on VSKS just like slammed down,
super unfunctional, looks super cool drifting, but the wagon was
the polar opposite of it. Pack people into the car like
it's got four seats, four race seats, 4 harnesses.
So you can fill the car with your homies, go out and just do

(06:46):
party laps, rear mounted rad, a bunch of big ticket parts on it
to make it do what we're doing here feasible because it's a lot
of a lot of abuse, like you know, a lot of abuse on a car.
So as soon as you go to like rear rad and stuff like that, it
really does adds a little different packaging stuff.
But like, the thing runs at. How do you Honda work the rear
rad setup with the Hatch and everything?

(07:09):
Dude, it's. Like there's more room in the
Hatch, like there's so much roomback there for the rear rad.
So it's just like a big All Starperformance rad with a big V
mount radiator setup that my Drew buddy Drew made with two
Volvo 240 fans on it. So how's the air?
What's the air coming in? There's a hole in the top of the
roof so it lets some air in and then the the truck trunk is all

(07:32):
cut up so then it lets the air out and it only gets to like
2:15 2/20 when I'm like on limiter for like 3 laps.
The thing to worry about is it is oil temperature because you
just don't want to thin out the oil and delete all of the oiling
properties of the oil and intake.
Air temperatures get a little spicy when we're like again I'm
Canadian so I'm using weird numbers Celsius.

(07:53):
Oh, I. Actually, I just mixed
Fahrenheit in Celsius. That's the Canadian issue.
We're a little bit at everything.
Yellow crossbred at this point, no.
Idea we have no idea how to measure anything apparently it's
all mixed up. But it really helps the cooling
capacity of the car. So you just hot lap it so that
tires are now the limitation of 2-3 hot laps.
But I love events like this dude.
Like this track is like my Forza.

(08:14):
I've said it to everyone like this is my Forza 4 dreaming.
Just ripping that straightaway hot dog and up that hill is like
one of the coolest. I just found out this morning
that Lime Rock is the only majorlike North American track that
still has the exact same layout since the day it was built.
Dude this is like a monumental historic track.
Like they used to do crazy like IROC championship races like the

(08:37):
Trans am. Like I'm not best with all the
old school racing terminology, but they used to.
It's got history. Here too, yeah.
And then same with where I'm from.
We have a track called Mosport. It's not called Mosport anymore,
but it's known kind of like especially the old head guys,
they used to do Formula One there.
So my dad watched like real Formula One when it was like

(08:58):
John Player Special, like real F1 cars when he was a teenager
at that track. So that's another track out in
your house. But they would never let this
happen. I hope one day they let this
happen, but it's so cool to have.
I consider this like a like an Atier course.
This is like, that's what the cool thing about grid life.
They're letting us kind of hood rat, kind of kind of skate.

(09:20):
Park kids We get into these big skate park kids of a very nice
facility where we get put to the.
B&C courses, they're like, yeah,but like, yeah, you're going to
go. We don't care about the grass.
It's so cool to have Dickie and all the guys here who are like,
he even he wasn't here this year, but last year he came to
the drivers meeting and he was just so amped on us being here
doing this. And I'm like like, again,

(09:44):
normally we're the outcasts, like the skate park kids.
So it's such a cool event just to be able to actually use our
cool cars here, so. Well, you have plenty open road
to do it here. Is this the only grid life you
really come to? Yeah, I wanted to do more this
year, but I didn't get the car really ready until like fully
ready until like July. So we just did a my first event

(10:06):
this year was called JDM Fest. Like Front St. guys came out
there. Jimmy Oaks comes out to that one
and that's a really cool event out in Quebec near us.
It's super fun. It's kind of like a parking lot,
but they've made like a really cool course in the parking lot.
It's like you can go there on a Thursday night after work and
just drift until like 10:00 at night.

(10:26):
Like it's like a driving range for drifting.
It's called ICAR Mirabel. So if you're local to there, you
can just like bring your car to work, set of tires, or just
drive your car there after work,burn a set of tires, drive home
like any night of the week. When they sold it cost.
These are like a. 120 bucks Canadians, that's like 20 bucks
US or something like. That damn, is the inflation that

(10:47):
bad? It's pretty.
It's pretty brutal. Yeah.
When I like, I just swipe my card when I'm out here.
And then you like, see the afterfact, like 20 bucks for food.
You really got 20 bucks for foodand that 3350 hits your bank
account. You're like, whoa, was that a
$33 chicken sandwich? Who knows?
So how much? Because like obviously like
Tommy Lemare for example, he's got a massive program as far as

(11:11):
monetary support. So it needs a lot of money to
make happen. I assume that's just with all of
you guys, you have to deal with the extra.
How do you compensate for that? There is no compensation for it.
Like obviously we buy, we have our own speed shops and parts
stores near us locally, but the pricing is always more because
they have to deal with the duties and shipping and taxes

(11:34):
because most of the stuff comes into the US and then we get it.
Rarely does it go the other way for especially like for
performance products. Like there's not many
performance brand products that are being made in Canada.
FDF is a brand, Serial 9 is a brand.
Serial 9 makes some really cool stuff.
They're out in BC like GS, Lexus, like their big stands and
drift guys. They make knuckles and stuff IS.

(11:55):
It is it turn 14. 30 fourteens in America, but I have.
A turn. 14 account. So I I buy part like that's How
I Met like Jeff Stonebach and Corey.
I buy parts from turn 14 but I try not to buy parts from turn
14 because it just adds another shipping duties and then
conversion. So if I can get it locally from

(12:16):
a distributor like RPE, that's alocal distributor out near me in
Quebec is awesome. JRP is another distributor out
near us where we can get parts from.
So we it's not like we're lacking any of these parts.
We can still get everything. But as you that there's
definitely more of a cost to it.And like even FD rounds
themselves. Like I've been going to have to
FD this year with my buddy Brianand it's insane, dude.

(12:38):
Like just watching like the private private, even the top
scale level when you got Brian Turek Rockstar, you know, like
Toyota got some big, big rigs and then you see the privateers
doing it and I'm just like. I could make you scratch your
head for a while. I could.
Suck the bash out of something pretty quick.
Like it's like, I just love drifting because it's like skate
park hanging out with my friends.

(12:59):
My good buddy came up with this whole family here, a couple
buddies. Like that's what drifting is
about, like having a good time. And there's nothing wrong with
competition. I love competition and I also am
a competitive person. But there becomes a point where
it's like why competition feels good is not from the winning.
The winning is obviously a good portion, but the winning only
feels good when you've lost a lot.

(13:19):
Like if you just go in and you just win all the time, you're
not really learning anything. You learn a lot when you lose.
So it's good in that aspect. We got to be kind of OK with
lose. Even look at Turk this year,
it's killer. Dr. Turk's been on top for how
long? Little rough start of the season
this year. He did awesome last round.
But like it's it's unanimous, like everyone's going to have a
little bit of a struggle in it. So it definitely takes a strong

(13:40):
heart to stay committed to it after the fact.
Absolutely. So you'll never plan on any
competition stuff probably then?Stuff like I'll do like a
gambler here and there. We're going, I'm bringing the
wagon next week to the Legends of Drift at New Jersey.
From here. I don't know if you're staying
in town and going to that after or not.
Sadly I'm not, I wish I was, butlife.
Dude. Yeah, yeah.

(14:01):
It's just way too much going on.Dude, it's a lot.
It's a lot, especially if you'rebringing this whole setup from
Tennessee and you got other commitments and stuff too,
right? Like.
It's. I just think I don't think it
would bring enough value to me with all the, I think people are
getting way too busy and caught up with the, you know.
Whether? It's the movie set or the
driving or the whatever the fuck.
Totally. I totally understand.
Yeah, but. That's anyways, that's besides

(14:24):
the fact. But have you seen more like,
especially with the line of workthat you're in too, that you
kind of enjoy the aspect of helping the driver?
Yeah, more than anything. Yeah, like I love building
stuff. Like I've been a builder since
that's what got me into drifting, was building stuff for
myself, building cars for other people, parts for other people,
building relationships with people.

(14:46):
Yeah, I like making stuff. Like I wouldn't be doing the
stuff I'm doing now if it wasn'tfor coming out to events like
this and like broadening my horizons and staying in Canada.
And there's some good events in Canada, but that was my major
focus like 2-3 years ago. I kind of got a house, you know,
it's like, hey, looking at my funds, take a little step back.
And then when I got back into drifting again, I was like, what

(15:07):
do? If I'm going to go out four to
six times a year, what do I wantto do with that value?
I'd rather spend a little more and not drift as much and come
to an event like this and Airbnb's and friends food like
it. It's more of expensive than a
local event. But the connections that I meet,
I wouldn't be hanging out with Brian and helping him out with
FDI, wouldn't be doing stuff forAdam LZ and making the big block

(15:29):
headers good buddies with Grant.Now I've just become friends
from hanging out and driving with these people and Nick Swan
is the man, the fucking man. Like that's a legend.
Like just becoming homies with these people and becoming
friends. And then now it opens up.
Although I didn't think that drifting here two years ago, a
year. Fast forward on making

(15:50):
intercooler piping for Adams S15because he's like met me from a
friend from a friend who vouchedfor me and now I'm just doing
more cool shit. Now I want to get into the like
the builds and stuff that you'vebeen a part of, but first, like
for anyone that doesn't know what got you into fabrication
and wanting to build stuff and like that takes a certain brain
to want. To always been into cars, like

(16:12):
grew up around, as I told you, my dad went to F1, was younger,
grew up with Lotuses. My dad had like Lotus, Caterham
Super 7. So I've always been into cool
cars and racing, grew up racing motocross and then high school.
Your high school kid, you know, do stupid shit.
Then I went to college to go work on transport trucks because
I'm like automotive. I'm automotively inclined.

(16:32):
I want a career in something automotive like, you know,
anybody would think that. Don't do it.
It sucked. It's drifting.
Pick F1 or. No, just pick something you
like, pick something you like doing like that was my biggest
thing. I was I was in college working
part time at a muffler shop and then I'd finish at 3:00 PM, go
to the muffler shop after my school for three hours till 6:00

(16:54):
PM and do the three hours. And then when I finished my
college, I was already working at a truck shop 5:00 AM driving
an hour and a half to the shop working like a 10 hour shift.
Everyone there was miserable. 35I'm 34 now.
So this is, again, back in high school.
I was 1819. Whatever, All of them, who
knows. So I'm saying at this point,
yeah. But everyone was generally

(17:16):
miserable. And I was stoked going leaving
school to go hang out at the muffler shop with my buddy Matt,
who was working it at the time. After that I was like, OK, I
don't want to go work on trucks.I'd rather make 400 bucks a
week. Slang and mufflers doing flex
pipes, Cadillac, just mig. Well, that's what I do every day
now. Still like 9:00 to 5:00.
I run the muffler shop. I got my main man Trevor.

(17:38):
He pretty much manages the muffler shop now so that I have
the opportunity to travel and goto FD rounds and go make stuff
for Adam or Grant. So Trevor, I'm blessed, blessed
he came into my life. In the COVID.
Era like he was a Barber, was told not to work.
So then I'm still working because I got bills to pay.
So my bills didn't stop. So I'm still working.

(17:58):
He came by one day and he's like, I'm looking for work and
I'm like, I'll teach you. Like he didn't know how to lift
a car, didn't know how to well, anything.
Guy kills him. Now I can talk forever, but in
general, I chose what I would like doing more than the this
career is going to make me enough money to enjoy my
hobbies. That's like saying like I'm
going to retire when I'm like 60and do all these things.
Do it now. Because when you're 60, you

(18:20):
don't, you know, how do I make it to 60?
How do you know you don't like? How did you know that it was mig
welding? And like exhaust work, it was
fun. It was fun.
I woke up every day after that college and starting that job
and I enjoyed going to work soldmy Mark 4 TDI that I had like
slammed down on like neon fluorescent.
Where was the time sticker bombs, neon wheels.

(18:40):
You know, I had no money. So we're spray heating up those
springs. Yeah, heating up my springs.
Lift up the car. They Ding, Ding, Ding, like fall
over your solid axle. Sold that for my first 244 grand
Sr. swap 4 lug on the front, 5 lug on the back.
And that's like, that's where itlike snowballed.
Did my first track day with it, Sr. and then I had to pull a

(19:04):
motor and like that's when I learned everything.
I'm like no one, no one's going to help me with this.
I got to pull out the motor. I got to buy a used engine for
$500, take the head off my engine, put it on that because I
cracked a ring length SR20 and that's kind of what started it.
You just kind of taught yourselfpretty much on.
Yourself. Like I had some mechanical
aptitude from my dad and dirt bikes, changed my air filter,

(19:24):
changed my oil tightening sprockets.
Like I know how to turn wrenches, but what really pushed
me into it was getting into stuff that I love.
Like my dad didn't want me to have a 240.
He thought it was an idiot. Like why would I sell my
reliable TDI Jetta that's good on fuel for like an SR20?
That's SR2240 that's like mixed matched lug pattern bumpers.

(19:45):
Black because it's got a wall Burrow in it with no tune.
Fuel pressure is just maxed out.Like horribly inefficient car.
But that's what taught me everything.
Like that was my stepping stones.
Got into stance cars after that.My buddy had AE30 with an SR20
in it that we did a bunch of cool stuff.
H2 OY days like big stance right?
Like traveling out to Maryland H2O for the big shows and just

(20:10):
seeing like Matt Wallin and guyslike that.
I got into BMWs like from the 2.40s because I'm from.
Ontario, we're like, you're in Tennessee.
You don't get rust like we get up here.
Even up here in Lime Rock area, Connecticut, I think they get
there in the Rust Belt. Anything north of Kentucky,
you're going to start dealing with some rust, so.
Yeah, we get the salt on the road, so there's not many good
two 40s. So got out of my two 40s sold

(20:32):
that, got into BMWs 1J swapped my BMW, same thing I was drove
it for a few years. Stock power is good as a blast
load of people in it. I had fun.
But all the French guys out there are called MTC Med, Tom
Cask bring a helmet and they're beige cars, and these guys were
just stacking up. Like.
Blowing out glass and stuff likeit was like the the wildest

(20:55):
thing to see and they all had stock 1J VVTI stock turbos, 280
horsepower bringing up to 265 Fahrenheit.
They're fine. Like just ripped it forever.
I'm like this is the engine package.
Put that in my BMW, great BMW atthe time.
Like we all have matching cars. So it was like money gang drift.
Me and my buddies at the time wehad like a Vice Vice, you know,

(21:17):
Vice Vice did like a vice documentary on drifting in
Ontario and we were in that vicevideo.
So I put like an IS300 BN kit onmy E40.
This is before all these kids were.
This was like 20, 2017 20/16/2017.
Like put JDM kit on my car and drove that.

(21:38):
It's good dude. Like I, I can just walk and talk
forever about all this. I have so many shitty, stupid
cars and just been through so many shitty stupid cars.
But it's stuff that I like and I'm overly obsessed about.
So that's always been the driving motivation factor and
thinking that a regular job was going to make me be able to
obtain that. I don't think that was the move.
So my biggest, always, the biggest take away is pick

(22:01):
something you enjoy doing every day.
If you're waking up and you're enjoying what you're doing,
that's like the recipe. Like it doesn't matter what
you're doing. If you're stoked to do garbage,
cool. If you're stoked to be in the
Army, cool. Like it's if you're stoked to be
doing what you're doing, you're living the dream.
And you just got like you're, you seem pretty stoked on what
you're doing. Like this is your job.
Like think about other people's jobs working in like a Kellogg's

(22:24):
factory or something. Who?
Yeah, you know, I guess I ask all the questions everyone's too
afraid to. And you're living your life the
best that you can, best of your ability.
And like, there's always someonewho's in a different position
too, right? I always try to like take a step
back. And it's just like, I am not a
very religious man, but I am blessed to be doing what I am
doing every day and having fun hanging out with cool people who

(22:45):
have same common interests as me.
Because other people are not that lucky, right?
So pick what you love to do and everything will just kind of
fall into peace. But it's going to be shitty.
That goes to the, that goes the other.
Part It's got to be. Shitty to make it good.
Life's life's shitty anyways. It's going to be shitty.
Would you rather be shitty out of nine to five that you hate,
or shitty while you're doing something that you kind of like?

(23:06):
And you're going to have. That's the difference.
There's going to be hurdles thatare going to end and how you
attack those hurdles is how you were going to have the end
result. And that's what I kind of took
from cars and being passionate and like autistic about like I
need to make this work with no money.
Taking that into other areas of my life made me a better person

(23:27):
and put me in a better position because it was like that,
adapting and overcoming a scenario, right?
Well, a lot of those had to haveadapted your skill level too, as
far as fabrication. So like at what?
I guess not at what point, but what project or what were you
working on at the time that had really exceeded your skill level
that you know, you just didn't think you could do at the time?

(23:49):
Hey, hey, that's a tough one because I've done a lot of weird
stuff like that. One of my favorite projects is a
good customer of mine who becamea friend from being a good
customer of mine at 886 Corolla.He's done all the swaps like 16
valve, 20 valve, F20F22 and now we have a JC.
In it. So now it's a Jay-Z swap.

(24:10):
He's going up and that pushed a lot of like pushed a lot of my
limits. Every time I did a setup on that
car, whether it was making a manifold or making an
intercooler, it was him having that trust in me and just being
like, dude, I just know that youcan turn this vision into
something and just kind of do it.
Those are the customers. Because that's not even the

(24:31):
build. It's definitely the customer who
gives you the ability to just kind of.
They give you the they have faith in you.
They have faith in what you're going to do and trust what
you're going to do. And then that just kind of opens
up like the possibilities are endless.
And then now there's no scenariolike sent me all that stuff for
the big block header, which is like 3D scan, 3D modeled

(24:52):
everything measured out and he'slike, can you do it?
Will it fit? I'm like, we're going to, we're
going to do it and we're going to make it fit.
There's only one way to do it, and we've got the attitude.
Yeah. And like nobody's done it.
It's like I'm going to do it now.
Like even though sell these headers that I built on his pro
car, like he's still waiting on his engine and stuff, but not
the car he's running right now. But he's got a pro E46 that

(25:13):
Andrew and the guys have built up.
So I built a crazy header for that and having like even his
mechanic and everyone's like it's not going to fit.
It's not going to fit. And I'm like.
It's going to fit you. Just fucking wait bro, wait.
It doesn't. I'm not leaving Tennessee till
it fits. Car's a good dude.
I'll I'll wish he would stop taking himself out.

(25:33):
He drives hard though. That's why he's like X Factor at
100. He's always 100 X Factor.
He's like, he's like Cole Richards, but nowhere near as
calm. It's just all attacked and I
have like again, I've been drifting and like everyone
watches FD and everyone has opinions on FD.
I used to go to FD Canada when Bagel was still there in that

(25:55):
seat. Like drift.
FD has come so far in the years and you need to go there.
And if you're into cars in any aspect, you need to experience
what these cars are doing, what what the drivers are doing in
these weapons of cars. And the timing.
Like when we were at Saint Louis, it's like Adam was on one
too. And just like watching the

(26:16):
timing of transition through theblind smoke and once you drift
and then you're in smoke, it's scary as shit.
Like and to be in a car that literally wants to kill you
while doing this, like the cars are insane now.
And I have so much respect for the dudes who are putting those
cars at the points that they need to be at, like it's
unfathomable. Do you think they might be a
little too insane now? Do you think they're?

(26:38):
Just too overbuilt as a mechanically stoked in general
dude. Nah they're sick.
Like I like I could listen to RTRS all day long just like at
the brink of almost hitting limiter fully loaded up and it's
just engine porn dude. Like it's just they sound so
good. And then even Adam's car, like

(26:59):
when you hear the car geared on the limit and the things are
just moving and grooving, like you got to be there.
Like that's the thing that I always say.
It's like I watch all the eventson my big screen, but being
there in person and watching thecars do what they're doing like
Jersey was the. Stick around tool.
It's insane. It's a whole different
atmosphere. But like I the reason I brought
that up was because in that video of Adam driving your car,

(27:23):
Josiah mentioned, which kind of like set me back a little bit.
I was a little confused that if you were to build a car 100% by
the book or by paper, it would be a terrible car to drive.
That's explain that because likeeven though.
You angle kits like and people just that's that's at the end of
the day, the angle kit is a toolthat is put on the car to adjust

(27:48):
and make it feel a way that a driver likes.
So you have Ackerman, which is abig thing.
Ackerman completely changes the way a car feels.
I've driven from not everything a lot of stuff I've driven
Corvettes S chassis, A80 sixes, which are like if you've never
tried to drift an 86, do it it'll humble you real quick like
it is just a different car growing up racing motocross, you

(28:08):
get arm pump they don't have caster they have like 3° of
caster. So when you go when you go from
like an S chassis with the rear rack and the over centering so
like that's your knuckle changesthey're now changing the knuckle
or the rack location to prevent over centering of the rack.
So then you don't have to pull the wheel back.
They put tons of caster in them so they have a lot more of a

(28:30):
steering wheel feel. E46 from the get go has like 6°
of caster and E36 like a BMW carout-of-the-box, no mods done to
it is so drivable in comparison to an S chassis or an 86 or an
S2000 or any of these cars that need a lot of changes, even 353
fifties are. Good out-of-the-box.
But you do an angle K and you'relike, this is an entirely new

(28:53):
car. Yeah, like entirely new car
BMWs, even my angle kit, it justemphasizes all the BMW Ness in
my opinion. We run tons of Castor on it,
little bit of toe in at the end of the day.
The grip kit in the back. I'm just changing grip kit
settings to for tire wear. Josiah is going to get in there
and be like, you know, yeah, I'mjust like that tires wearing a

(29:16):
little. That's like how I adjust it.
So that's why those tools are good on that car.
It's a tool for the driver. Every driver likes different
things. What you like, what I like, what
Adam likes, which is I likes areall very different things.
The tools are to make the the car is a tool, right?
If you take a Mustang, Mustang drives way different than an S

(29:39):
chassis. So you take a guy from an S
chassis and get him in a Mustang, it doesn't mean that he
can't drive it. It just means it's a lot
different driving than the S chassis.
So I did are all tools. Cars are just tools and you can
adjust what you want on it, whether it's suspension tuning,
engine tuning, interior tuning, you know a bucket seat is a big

(30:00):
change compared to a snot seat. They're all tools to making
whatever you're doing with the car.
If you want to do grip racing, drag racing, drift racing, all
of these parts are going to now accompany something nicer,
right? And none of them are perfect
though, is that there's always going to be sacrifices, even
like a factory cars alignment ofthe Ackerman of the leading

(30:22):
wheel versus trail wheel. It's made for a very St. ability
car. You're not doing a 180 in the
parking lot scrubbing your fronttire, right?
They're all tools. They're all tools.
That's the best way I can put it.
I'm not a professional. I'm just a that is just that
dude drives. A car, it's definitely just a
tool, but like as far as the FD aspect of it and like cars, the

(30:45):
fact that we're at that point towhere now we have to pull back
from being a perfect product to still be drivable, like it's not
even a car, just getting. Ridiculous.
I don't think you'll ever have aperfect product.
And that's kind of what Josiah was saying.
The cars are definitely getting ridiculous, but what limits the
car is the tire. It's not so much the car.

(31:06):
The tire is always limited. And James Dean has even said it.
His RTR at home is set up way differently.
Not it's set up a decent amount differently because of the tire
they're running over there, which is like their tire limit,
like there's there is no real tire rules out there.
They can get the grippiest, grippiest, grippiest tire and
they set the car up for that. You can run a drag radio.

(31:27):
You can spin it. Pretty much, and that's what
Josiah was saying. He's like just the tires that
they run out there if the car was set up way differently
compared to the tires that he's running in DMCC right now, which
is like, I think it's a Sestino Gretch, like a three O 5.
So it's like that's the spec tire of DMCC.
So there's all the tire is always the limiting factor for

(31:49):
sure. Like I think the chassis,
especially you take an RTR car, you take a Papadakis car and
even take Adam's car and like Adam's Adam's team is sick
because it's just us. Like that's why Adam is so sick.
And I'm not just saying that because I know, but like Sean
Booth, Ginge, Freddie and the boys are like making this happen

(32:09):
against RTR, who's like 26 people, four cars, like
everyone's making good. I would think that you got
engineers, you got so many different levels to the RTR
team, which is real racing. That's like a NASCAR team for
drifting. And then you got Adam and Booth
just yelling. It's sick.

(32:29):
It's sick to see the underdogs come on top.
So that's what I, that's why I don't think there is no limit
for it because there's always going to be the tire limiting
factor and then now the driver limiting factor setting up the
car to do what they want to do with the tire that they're on.
I'm curious to see how the science behind the tire is going
to end up in say, 10 years or so.

(32:49):
It's it's going to make a whole 10.
Years. Like I didn't even care about
tires before I was running eye links, whatever.
Yeah. And then as soon as you get into
a tire that has grip and side bite is the term you hear a lot.
Like having your car feel consistent and smooth all the
time makes me a good driver. I wouldn't be able to be 4th
gear tapped coming down that hill, like flicking into the

(33:12):
fastest corner of this place without having confidence that
like, OK, I think my car is going to be here because you're
trying to trust the tire. Like you're just relying on the
tire. And then when you're on cords,
you feel it instantly. You're like I'm on ice and you
can keep going and you'll shred them, delam them, which I'm
doing here. I'd like everyone that I'm down
in the pits with two. We're all driving like we're

(33:33):
like it's our first drift day too because you have the
sessions, so it's OK. We got 25 minutes.
I'm using all of this tire whereI don't normally use all the
tire to cords because how? Many laps is it taking to go
through. I do 3 laps, cool out box,
switch the tire to side and thenI have like 2 more laps and I'm
like oh wow yeah. That's more than I would expect

(33:55):
though. That's crazy.
I could, I on the third lap. I could put on a new set for
sure. What?
Atlantis? What?
Tires. Are they again?
I'm running 26535 Valeno. Or is this Estino acrovas?
Acrovas I think. OK so you know what Crovas?
I haven't tried those. They're decent.
I think they're like a 200 ish treadwear.
Like they're like 22240. They're not crazy.

(34:17):
My buddy mop beside me has the 340 tread wires ones that have a
thicker like there's more physical tread in them but he
makes a little more sauce. I mean he's like 657 hundred so
he's like burn burning through him.
And the wheel speed here is insane dude.
Like, oh, it's got to be. Like. 4 Just from driving on the
SIM I could I could see it. 4th gear is like you can feel the

(34:37):
chassis like like you can feel the vibrations.
Everything's happening, right? Now you're moving out.
We're doing 100K consistently. So like, oh.
My God, what's that? What are you entering at?
I don't know, like fast, like top of third, like top of third,
like this back straight coming up the hill, I'm 4th gear up the
hill, suspension lifts off, it starts drifting just all the way

(34:59):
in, a big flick in a little bit of hydro to set it.
And so 100 like down that street, probably like 120.
Yeah, for sure. Again, I'm Canadian, so I'm
talking weird numbers like 60 miles, 55 miles, whatever that
is. Like 1.
I don't know, it could be 4th ispretty quick.
Can we get a the speed gun is sobig a circle, a drift speed gun?

(35:22):
Dude, dude, wouldn't that be something?
Cars don't have a Speedo anymore.
Oh God damn, what was I going toask about that?
Oh, the tires. So I've heard a lot of weird
things about the Sistinos but I personally haven't tried them.
But have you tried the Zek Novas?

(35:44):
Yes, I tried the Zek Nova very. Similarly, Zek.
Nova's definitely a little grippier for them, but I get
more life out of Velino Zestino.It's the last ones I used that
were pretty good. The the best ones I've used in
my opinion in terms because I'm skate parking like I'm just
having fun. I want to get the most amount of
tire, like a most amount of lapsout of a set of tires that I

(36:06):
can. Was the Abusu Mitsuri ones from
Valeno and like they look like some like mud tires.
Like I went right on them was. And on AZ too, no you got a
little more jam but like on a stock Z those tires would lift
you last you an entire drifting like for sure guaranteed on a
stock cart. I think at Polecat I was getting

(36:27):
last year when the car was actually running I think 6 to 8
laps, that's it and Polecat and.You're jamming and that's what I
get on the wagon too. I'd get like 6 to 8 like heater
laps out of them. Heat cycling up too.
Like the heat cycling I feel is a big thing here.
I'm not heat cycling so that's why the tires are dying pretty
quick. I'm doing like 3 laps, 3 heater

(36:49):
laps back-to-back. If the tires have no chance to
like we're fire hose like they didn't, they didn't have a
chance. They didn't have a chance.
But like at local events, yeah, heat cycle.
And I feel that is the biggest thing.
If you can let the tires cool down, swap them outside to side.
If you got some abnormal wear, you're going to almost double
the amount of tires like you get.
Yep, I would say. I would say so instead.

(37:11):
Of just hot dog. And well, so how is this track
compared to your local tracks then the surface like is it
just? The surface here is really nice.
I feel the surface that our local tracks are pretty rough,
not E town rough. E town is like insanely rough
asphalt, but they're pretty smooth.
But this place is like. I mean, it's like a five star
top. Tier dude yeah this is some next

(37:32):
level stuff to be able to drift ears.
So sick. So sick.
OK, so how many tracks do you technically have local to you
then? That we can use yeah 2.
No way. Yeah, the KU Grove, which was at
the LZ World Tour ground like that first Canadian one and then
Shannonville is our next Local 1and that's within like a three
hour radius of us locally. OK, next tracks from there like

(37:56):
that ICAR one that I mentioned, but that's like 6 1/2 seven
hours one way. So it's like, yeah, like what
back is Quebec? And drifting is is different,
but you don't really hear about a lot of Quebec drifting because
it's all in French. Even DMC series, crazy good
drivers. It's a good series to watch, but
it's all in French. So like, we kind of are like,
OK, like I grew up learning French and stuff and like, I

(38:19):
can't understand it really, but like I'll still like watch it
through, but to get another audience into it and not have an
English dub over. You're just losing a huge
audience to it. You're used to hearing it.
Yeah, yeah. But like if you were to watch
it, you'd be like 20 minutes in and be like, man, I have no idea
what to be in Spanish. He loose.
Yeah, there's too many Spanish people here.
So like I'm used to hearing thatit's like the same concept that

(38:39):
was the. Same.
Yeah, Quebec is like pure French.
So it's so crazy. But it's a crazy series and some
of the tracks are insane. They're like 13 hours away.
You would have seen the video ofJosiah just like in the wall,
like like some of the tracks arelike full commitment, like very
cool traffic. Though and.
That's where Tommy Lemaire came from.
Like he won at DMCC and that's what got his pro license.

(39:00):
Some good drivers come out of there, dude.
There's some good drivers but you don't know about him.
Like even we barely know about him and we're around the corner
from because it's all in French.How do you expect American guys
to even know anything about DMCCC in general?
Like the only reason you might even know about it a little bit
is from Tommy. Probably I was going to say that
that was the only reason I even knew what, but you're not going
to see. Any footage from it really,

(39:20):
unless Josiah post it because you follow him.
Like, yeah, it's kind of like not hush hush, but it's just
hidden away because of a language barrier.
Yeah. So most of the time you are just
coming to the US to drive. Now I have been yeah, like
honestly this year I've been been traveling a bunch to the
States and like there's no no better feeling.
It's definitely like reignited apassion back into drifting that

(39:42):
I wouldn't say I like lost, but like I fell fell off for a bit
like local events near us were never as cool.
A lot of the cars are shit. Nobody cares about like anything
about their cars. Not saying nobody, like there is
a lot of like minded people likeme too but like the coverage
general consensus is like. More function over anything.
No, it's more demolition Derby over anything.

(40:04):
You just have like really shittycars that like guys obviously
don't care about and don't try and fix up.
Like I'm always constantly trying to like I hit a wall like
a month ago wrote this car off like it's got to be presentable.
It's got to look good. It definitely looks like it hit
a wall still, but like it looks better.
The the passion isn't there froma lot of people.
And I like coming out here because the passion is clear as

(40:27):
even E Town, it's like they haverules and standards and then if
you want to play their games, the cars now have like a
standard to it, whereas we don'treally have a standard.
That's the demolition Derby kindof vibe.
And it did disappear for a bit and now it's like back in full
force again, so. Yeah, I think drifting needs
more of the NOT rules but like just structure to it.

(40:51):
Accountability. Structure accountability.
That's why I like, like Nick Swan will tell you if you suck
or if your car sucks. And it's like, and that's what
I've learned from like the Jersey people.
That's like just that he's not from Jersey, but like going to
New Jersey and hanging out with these guys.
They're not saying it to hurt your feelings.
They're just telling you like your car.
Fucking sucks. Yeah.
I'd much rather you just tell mewhere.

(41:12):
Where should I? Improve that or like you're
driving sucks like they're goingto tell you straight up.
Whereas then they kind of beat around the Bush up near us.
And we do hold our like Shannonville events, the FDF,
like drift days. And I haven't been out too many
this year just because it's intothere's one this weekend right
now. It's been interfering with a lot
of events, but same things. We have drivers meetings and I
try and do that and we're tryingto hold people accountable who

(41:34):
are just not given a good look to the whole thing.
But I don't know, I'm not tryingto fix that either.
I'm like, I'm just, I'm just come out here, yeah.
We're just come to the States, have fun.
Come to the states, have fun. As you heard, a lot of the
Quebec tracks are super far, so 7-8 hours into the states to
like this slice of heaven is a no brainer to me.

(41:54):
And then the connections that I've made from it is like
insane. So I since I promised that we'd
get into that, let's let's touchon the connections and stuff
because you obviously came did the big block stuff for Adam.
You've done quite a few projectshere recently.
Yeah. So in your opinion, which one
has been your personal favorite?That's the big block ones, like

(42:15):
right up there in terms of personal favorite because it was
like I was there for like 5 daysstraight before the E town
around and it was like 70 hours.So I'm just like burning 14 hour
days into it. But I love that shit.
Like I am a high functioning autistic person.
I can just like zone in if that's my only responsibility,
which it is because I'm out in Florida.

(42:37):
Luckily good buddies with Booth and Donnie, Donnie works at
Drift HQ so I stayed out of their place while I was there.
I'm just working with the boys every day and just grinding
fabrication. Especially like that.
It just takes a long time. Especially like header work. 60
hours, that's kind of what I say.
Like 60 hours is kind of averageinto a header.
Like pretty 50-60 hours. I can do that pretty quick.

(42:57):
OK, So then walk me through the process of it because obviously
you got the the CAD design of everything and you're kind of
are you mapping it out in your head at that moment just or are
you actually going in and like playing with the software
touching? Things playing with the software
so I can measure out the straight sections that are
needed for the bends. But in the software we had all
the bends needed, so I'd take one bank and all the headers

(43:18):
that I really make for V eights,I only really make 4 to 2 to one
style headers or 4:00 to 2:00 to2:00, which is NASCAR stock car,
Sprint car headers. What's the reasoning for that?
By the way, for anyone that doesn't, I'm.
Not an engineer. Rausch Yates does it all NASCAR
like it is a. Unanimous.
Proven. Kind of proven.
Proven horsepower method. I think in like the 2000s, they

(43:39):
started really bringing them in a NASCAR and Truck Series 4:00
to 2:00 to ones X pipes, side pipes.
And then NASCAR changed their sound like now they sound like
our TR cars. I think that's a big, a big
piece of the sound is the 4:00 to 2:00 to 1:00.
But it just seems, again, I'm not an engineer, I'm just the
dude who's like, I like tubes, it seems.
It seems to be unanimously one of the best header setups in

(44:02):
terms of packaging flow, engine performance.
Yeah, I'm no expert. I just think that is the way
that they do it. So that's why I do it.
And we start with the header flange.
So I have my one side, all of the first runners, I would then
cut them all up first to where they should kind of be, put them
in their home, throw a tack on it.

(44:22):
And then I usually put like a false spark plug, so like a big
bolt. So replicate where the spark
plug wire is going to be or the spark plug socket so that you
can actually get spark plugs outof the car.
Like big deal, especially on a car like that where it's getting
constantly. It's pretty much an FD car.
So it's going to be constantly played with.
So you want to make stuff easy to play with.
And then yeah, dude, it's like, and that sounds easy on paper,

(44:45):
but like just those cutting up those bends and those straights
and cleaning them all and then tacking them all into place.
That's like. 2020 hours right there, right.
It adds up fast. So it definitely takes a weird
special type of person to want to do big fabrication jobs like
that. I just enjoy the adapting and
overcoming of like, hey, that's not really going to work or it's

(45:07):
not going to work good. I'm just like, I'll make it work
good. Like I just like a challenge.
Yeah. So as far as like the clearance
and stuff that I, I figured mostpeople into this of the steering
shaft getting in the way, the no.
There's another big hurdle. Was that OK in in the design, it
was not an issue. And then how I made it, I'm
spending so much time to make itas close to the design as

(45:28):
possible. So it's not an issue because in
order to get the header out, youneed to remove the steering
shaft. So it's like, yeah, it's just
thinking of you need to work on cars.
You need to work on the types ofcars to be able to understand
all of these hurdles to work around.
Same with like bell housing where we place the flanges on
the bottom section. Before I went to that crazy X
pipe that I made, the flanges need to be put in a spot so that

(45:51):
you could still pull the trans off and pull the bell housing
off so that you can work on the clutch or do anything to the
clutch without pulling off all the headers.
Because now that's an extra hour, right?
Like it's just got to work on cars to kind of learn these
things and these hurdles to go around.
It's just fun. Like the titanium tubing is like

(46:11):
that's all Takes a lot of time too.
But like with the pie cuts and the technology, I used to spend
so much time cut my own pie cuts, rotating tubes, clean them
all up. Now you can get it all bagged
and tagged Mint ready to go. Line up the.
Lines. Quick tax on everything.
Where are you getting that stuffthrough, by the way?
Vibrant Performance is always like my number one company that
I go to for all of my titanium straight tubing.

(46:33):
Seems like they're going right now it.
Seems like it for sure. They have been around for their
Canadian company too. Vibrants been around for for
years. They used to be sold in Canadian
Tire, which is our like. Actually, Tommy mentioned that
yesterday in this podcast. Yeah, they used to be sold in
like DNA mufflers, like they areembedded in in like Toronto
area. As a company, Ticon Industry,

(46:54):
Stainless Bros also make amazingstuff because everybody makes
different components. Like I'm cutting all my tubes
with SQ manufacturing jigs, which are those big billet jigs
that I put in my band saw that Ican like rotate the tubes.
Those are all sold from. I think it's Stainless
Aesthetics, which is through Ticon Industries.
So I'm not I'm not like one whole brand bias.

(47:16):
Like every brand has a great Ave.
Every every company has a great product for a great Ave.
You know what I mean? There is no one sold answer and
there is no like, oh, you use that you suck.
Like you can't use that. Like to me, that's some
bullshit. So there's not one that someone
should most definitely stay awayfrom.
Yeah, Amazon like, like no name Amazon.

(47:38):
Like if you're getting into TIG welding and stuff and like I
always like, that's How I Met Grant Anderson.
I helped him set up his Prime Weld TIG welder.
You don't need a Miller Dynasty or like it's 2025.
We have so much technology out there now and so much cost
effective packages. When I got into TIG welding, it
was a big undertaking. I had to invest 4 to $6000 to

(48:00):
get a good machine to be able todo what I need to do.
Now you have Everlast, Prime, Weld, all of these companies who
make really cost effective solutions that any dude in his
garage can buy a machine, get a couple components and start
making some cool shit. Well so give me an example of a
good budget setup then that you someone could just go buyer at
the store. Right now I think Prime welds

(48:21):
are on Amazon as well too. I set up grants Prime Weld
identical to an Everlast in terms of the knobs, the
settings, the feel of it. Both of those machines I think
are under $1500 for like a a good 200 amp ACDC TIG welder.
Then your next thing is your welding cups.
Like you need to get good welding cups.

(48:41):
And then obviously how we got tothis conversation is the
materials that you're using. You're using really inferior
stainless universal exhaust kitsoff of Amazon.
You're you might get the result if you just want 200 Kurt, like
you might get the results. But if you're looking for those
salmon stacks, gold Dimes, purple colors, like if you're
looking for the goodness, you need good quality products.

(49:04):
Vibrant Performance is always mygo to.
Stainless Bros is another great company.
Tons of other Great American companies that I don't
traditionally go out of my way to purchase because of the extra
cost that comes to it now. Like JMD tubes, stainless header
manufacturers. Like we bought the 8 to 1
collector for the setup that we did on Josiah Corvette.

(49:26):
When we did the 8 to 1 setup on that, we bought that from them.
Like Vibrant doesn't sell an 8 to 1 collector, neither does
Tycon. Like you know, there's always
going to be other manufacturers who offer crazy stuff.
I make a lot of custom exhaust manifolds.
So like a Hyundai TCRTCR is likea race series of front wheel
drive cars. There's Audi's Hyundai

(49:47):
Velosters, it's a race car sold from Audi or Hyundai to run in
this series like full race car. So they break their manifolds a
lot. And I've made like 2 replicated
manifolds out of 321 stainless, which is a step above three O 4,
has a better heat cycling because stainless gets weak.
When you heat cycle it like a three O 4 stainless steel, I
think it's like 12-13 hundred degrees, it starts to lose its

(50:11):
molecular strength. So the three O 4 manifolds on
those cars were getting so hot that they were literally melting
in on themselves and then restricting the flow.
So I made a 321 manifold. I had to get all the bends from
Ace race parts, like at the timethey were the only ones who sold
the schedule 10321 stainless. And then I got a billet

(50:31):
collector, like a full custom billet collector from Elmer
Racing in like New Zealand because it just fit the
packaging. Like Sky's the limit.
Like there is no one answer. You got to do a lot of research,
the research, find out what you want, what the customer wants.
I'm just all about making a good, good product for a
customer's demands. But I pick and choose my

(50:52):
customer too, I don't just take everything.
Absolutely. I mean, you got to have your
own, your standard to your own business anyways.
I'm building art. You don't need this.
You want this, so don't. Don't make.
Your. Don't make your want devalue.
My time is always my biggest thing.
I will always give people my time, but if I'm spending my
time working, I need to be paid what I feel is a fair hourly

(51:15):
rate for my time. And if we're not on that same
page, I don't care if we're, I don't care what we're building.
We're not building. How do you?
Find that price range. How do you know what you're
worth? Of your shop overhead, like
that's always the biggest thing.Like I run like my main man
Trevor's hanging out from here with this little boy.
He runs my exhaust shop. So like 9:00 to 5:00.
So that shops rate is based off of the monthly cost of rent,

(51:38):
heat, hydro, water, employee wages.
That is a generic shop cost. Now everything else is a
product. You know you're going to bring a
product in. There's an MSRP on the product,
so you charge MSRP for the product plus taxes.
There's your profit margin on your part.
It's up to you as a shop owner to find out what your profit
margin is for your shop rate. So like I'm, I'm, I talk to

(52:03):
people openly all the time. Biggest thing is, is my dollar
is Canadian. So that's a big difference.
So at our regular exhaust shop, we're 100 a $120.00 an hour
depending on what we're doing. We get jobs in all the time.
That's like a quick heat shield or quick hanger Weld that takes
1520 minutes. I'm not going to charge you 120.
I could, but I'm not going to dealership you and charge you
$120.00. We're going to charge you 40

(52:24):
bucks for my time. You know what I mean?
Like for a quick hanger job, something like that.
So that shop has its shop rate of its time.
But I also don't price every joblike that.
Because we're good at our job does not mean like.
What's the best way I can word this?
Just because I am good at my jobdoesn't mean it has to decrease
the value you could get someone.To come make you it's faster.

(52:47):
You could get someone to come make you a $10,000 deck.
They could say it would take a week.
They do it in two to three days.They still charge you $10,000.
That's just because hopefully they're good at their job and
they brought in extra manpower to get it done in that time
frame. Like they're still charging the
same amount. So we do that same same kind of
concept. I'll do a vibrant muffler
installed on a car for say $450,Trevor or I can do that job

(53:13):
depending on the car in half an hour.
That doesn't mean that I'm goingto charge less on that because
we have our MSRP and like a kindof base shop rate.
So it's like that is a good profitable job.
That is what we want to be doing.
We can make $150.00 profit off of that job.
If it takes you 2 hours, it takes you 2 hours, it's still
OK, but you want to be able to do that in half an hour, an

(53:35):
hour, and then get the next job in an hour because that's what
we do. We book hourly appointments all
day long and we're 2-3 weeks outall the time.
So we're just caused every day we wake up, we go into the shop,
we got a yeah, it's sick. Like there's nothing no better.
Feeling so? Cool.
And then you also get the gun. That's when you get the pick and
choosey, when it's like it's noteven pick and choosey and we're
busy. And then now that's going to

(53:56):
almost guarantee that you get the good customers because
people who respect you and valueyou are going to wait a week and
a half, two weeks to get the service that you offer or isn't
the person who wants it right now for the cheapest price
because it's their world and you're living in it.
It's just like now it goes. Someone go to Midas dude it.
Looks like you're in a really good position.

(54:18):
That's awesome, man. Yeah, I love it, dude.
And then I have my custom fabrication stuff, which is now
a different, different cost because the skill is more
compared to my regular shop, like the skills that I'm
offering and then the jobs that I'm getting into.
So that's when we're going to get to 150 two $100.00 an hour
depending on what I'm doing. You go to any top, top scale

(54:39):
dealership or or even shops locally near us even like a
local Volkswagen dealership is like 15999 plus tax.
So it's like 165 an hour and youget some fucking Lube jockey who
does not give a fuck about your car.
You know what I mean? People are going to give me a
hard time. It's like go to Canadian Tire
and like, I don't know, I'm not working with it.

(55:00):
Yeah. And I'm blessed to have enough
good people like my buddy Mitch that I mentioned with that
Corolla who have worked on that car for so, so many years, all
of like all of my buddies who also aren't fabricators.
Because even my good buddy that I'm with here, he's he's me,
He's a fabricator, owns his own business.
He's in Ottawa, which is like 5-6 hours from me.
That's why we're we're buddies. Like we jive the same people

(55:21):
respect like my friends, they'vebecome friends because they
respect the value of my work that I've also done on their
vehicles for them. So I think that's another good,
good positive of it. Like it is business, but like at
the end of the day. You're taking the time to do
things right, take care of people, and it's paying off in
the long. Run and they respect the way

(55:43):
that I want to do it and they trust that the way that I want
to do it. It's like the guys who like
nitpick and like make a project a hard time, they kill the
passion of it. And that's one thing.
It's like, and it's happened to me, it's happened to me.
Like, you know, you get some customers and you're like, why
the fuck am I doing this? Like I'm spending so much time
and effort when I could be like hanging out with my girlfriend.
And my dog, when you're that new, how do you distinguish

(56:04):
what's worth your time and what's not?
You don't you don't have the thegusta to do that.
You got to fucking. You got to be the dude.
You got to be the dude who's under charging me right now and
then getting those jobs in and then you learn you're like, man,
like the amount of roll cages and bash bars I do for like $300
and it's like I look back at it now.
It's like I spent 8 to 10 hours pulling that bumper off coping

(56:28):
tubes for a 200 two $150.00 bumper.
Custom bash for us. Yeah, this is like when I first
started, but we were doing we were doing dude, Josiah used to
do full cages for like 3 grand Canadian like full one off
custom. Cages.
Wasting tube like you waste the section of chromoly and you're
like, I suck like you end up andyou will like like if you're

(56:49):
making a cage or two work like you're always wasting 2 like
it's always gonna happen. That's why he doesn't do cages
anymore, especially with companies like cage kits.
Like I would never make a cage anymore.
I'll make bars, like I'll make bash bars and small stuff like
that. But in terms of like if I even
bought an Ash chassis or an E46 and I wanted to put a cage on
it, I'm going to chair Slayers Canadian OG.
I'm going to be. Like 2 fronts and two rear

(57:11):
everything. That's what I would do and I'm a
fabricator. It comes click, click, click.
Now I just got to do the shitty part of getting all the seam
sealer, you know, all that stuff.
And then you just click the Cajun.
So times have changed and that 1010 years that I've been in it.
But no, that was a really good question is like what?
What do the new guys getting into it do?
You have to be the guys who get that job where I'm not going to

(57:33):
go out of my way to get that jobnow.
You know, like I'll sit back, hecan take that job, and I'll wait
for something else to come my way or I'll just hang out of it.
I think it's just a very normal thing that not even just in
fabrication, but any line of entrepreneurship or anything
like that. Media, you know, there's always
the free media guy, but then theguy who's been in it for 10
years who's charging you 100 and5200.

(57:55):
But whatever. Like everyone has a value to
their to their rates, right? That's how those guys learn.
You're not just going to like start taking photos with your
iPhone and be like, you guys oweme 500 bucks a day for media
coverage. It's like, man, you can't do
that. I will.
At least with video and photo work you can make a portfolio.
Yeah, there's no like real way to show fabrication in a

(58:18):
portfolio since no real fabricator is going to want to
sit there and look at all this. My.
Instagram would be like My Portfolio and that's how I got
into it. Invisible.
Like, I'm from the Instagram era.
Like that's like where I've even, I've met a guy this
weekend hanging out with Grant, a swoop spill.
I don't know if you've ever seenhis stuff.
And like, we were just hanging out talking, and then I saw a
shirt. I'm like, you're the hard line

(58:39):
guy. And he's like, yeah.
And I'm like, dude, I've been following you since like 2015,
2016, because he's just a cool niche Volkswagen.
And the Volkswagen I always respect because they do like
Tuck Bay's and they do some likereally, really nice stuff.
And it just gets unheard of because everyone's like
Volkswagen kids. But like, there is some crazy
dedicated, awesome fabrication work that gets done on the old

(59:00):
Mark wands, Mark tubes. Just another dude who's just
like, man, I've followed you foryears.
You're sick. And then he's also down.
We were literally talking like the same thing, firing customers
and like being down, finding that scale and then like being
out of passion or running out ofpassion because of certain types
of customers. But you have to like, I think

(59:21):
you nailed it so good with that.It's like, yeah, well you kind
of have to because it goes circles back circle drift
circles back to what I first said is and you kind of need
shitty moments, the value, the really good moments.
Or else they're just. Moments, I guess, like you don't
know the difference. It's got to be sometimes maybe
good, sometimes maybe shit. Well, I then let me just get

(59:43):
your best piece of advice for anyone that wants to follow down
your exact fabrication pathway even.
If it's not fabrication, you just got to wake up every day
and love what you're doing and find passion and whatever it is
you're doing. There is no rule for like just
for fabrication or just for photography.
It's just as long as you're waking up every day and you're

(01:00:04):
loving what you do. In due time, keep putting that
same effort and passion into whatever it is you do and hold
yourself accountable. Accountability is a big thing
because if you have goals, the only way you're going to reach
these goals is by holding yourself accountable if you're
not achieving these goals. That's why fabrication is really
good too, because you start withnothing and now you have

(01:00:24):
something. It's like it is pretty much
that. And that's a lot harder to
measure on like a personal scaleof like even your business.
I can see how it would be a lot harder to physically measure out
like like how much I've grown inthese past 2-3 years.
Sometimes you got to take a stepback and then you're like, holy
shit. Like Dawson four years ago would
probably wouldn't think this Dawson would be doing what he's

(01:00:46):
doing now. Yeah.
No, it's it's very hard now. I'm I'm sure you've gone through
it too. And now especially past few
years, traveling all over, doingall these crazy builds.
I mean, you, you kind of lose the sight of what the goal was
originally and you're like, you finally get a two week break and
you're bored and you're like, damn, four year 4 or five years

(01:01:07):
ago, I would be like, I would kill someone to be in the
position that I'm at right now, which is just, it's, it's
insane. And I, I always try and take a
step back and like and look at that, like the, the stuff I get
to do, the places that I get to see, the people I get to
surround myself with. 10 years ago me would have just been like
Nah like no way dude you suck you.

(01:01:29):
Have to sound like ungrateful oranything like a lot of this
stuff is because of you guys which greatly appreciated a lot
of the sponsors and all that stuff so.
It takes an audience, right? It's.
Never a one man deal. And like I respect I try and do
my own deal. Like I suck at it dude.
Like it is so much on top of doing what I normally do, which
can sometimes be a lot of work, not all the time.
It is a lot of work to sit down at a computer and go over stuff

(01:01:52):
that you've done and cut and critique yourself and add music.
It's a It's a lot of work. I had to do it sitting right
here in front of everyone this morning.
It's like editing videos and being consistent.
And that's like like back to accountability.
I need to hold. If I want to do better in that
area. I need to start holding myself
accountable to be like I'm doingcool shit all the time.

(01:02:15):
I'm just not picking up a camera, filming it, and then
putting it on my computer and enveloping 2-3 hours to make
something of it. That's what I'm not doing.
So if I have a goal and an aspiration in that area, that's
what I need to do and start holding myself accountable.
Am I going to do it? Probably not.
Who knows, but but I am. I am aware.
Someone to help you out on that aspect?

(01:02:36):
I'm right? Here that's.
What all I try and focus on now is just post production stuff I.
It's because that's always been an issue for me.
It's like, it's like I can edit stuff.
I'm not that good at it, but like I've done a couple things
here and there. I'd probably have like 12
YouTube videos up. Like I'm way better at like
Instagram Stories. If we could just do Instagram

(01:02:56):
Stories, I'd be set, but we're not.
You hear it all the time, like especially drivers, dude,
they're like, it's hard. I've got, I've got a shit little
footage that I've just had backlogged.
I just can't do anything with it. 16. 1000 photos and videos.
Online I do and. I was just like, yeah, I guess
it becomes such a big hurdle that you're just like later,

(01:03:18):
later. But yeah, I procrastinate on it
and I'm not holding myself accountable, so I can't sit
there and expect good rewards from it.
That's another big thing. I can't sit there and be like,
why is my YouTube not I know whymy YouTube is not taken up if I
put the same effort into that that I did a certain fabrication
product or if I do when I'm building headers for somebody or

(01:03:39):
myself even, because that's how it all started.
I started building stuff for myself, right?
Can't afford. I can't afford a dude like me
who's charging $150.00 and I'm making $13 an.
Hour You're trying to be self-sufficient.
Yeah, and that's how you learn so.
That's awesome, dude. It's cool, it's cool shit dude.
It's just different, different views, different different views
on stuff. And I always just try and step

(01:04:00):
back and just realize where I am, who I'm surrounded by, and
what I'm doing and blessed. Well, it's good to hear your
side. I feel like people see you a lot
and they know of you, but they don't ever get to really hear
the real you. So I'm just I'm you.
This is awesome like. I'm just another dude.
I'm nothing special, not at all.I'm just another.
Dude, yeah. I mean, yeah, but you've got
great work and a lot of people look up to you for that.

(01:04:21):
I can. I can definitely get down.
I can not so much on aluminum, but like titanium, stainless, we
can get down for sure. I'm confident in my abilities
and fabricating like because welding and fabricating are also
two different things, like very,very different things.
Anyone there's Weld and in like a day by day job, there's
welders and then there's fitter fabricators.

(01:04:42):
And if a fitter fabricator sucks, the welders not going to
get a good result and like vice versa.
So there's big parts and that's what I'm talking about like
spark plug clearance, steering shaft clearance.
Like that takes becoming a fabricator and the only way to
get good at that is practice anddo it a lot.
And the only way to do that is undercut me on jobs and you know
what I mean? Well.
Speaking of the self-sufficient part of it in the beginning,

(01:05:05):
what would you suggest or not? Let me not say that most people
will go after the flux core likea Harbor freight welder.
I personally have one. Yeah, I use it for simple shit.
Start with. Is that a good suggestion from
like a great? We have the Canadian Tire, so
like a link that was my machine forever, a Lincoln 140 make pack
from Canadian Tire, which is like in the hobby welding area.

(01:05:26):
So even go to like TSC Harbor Freight, like you go in, go to
the welding section. It's probably 600 bucks.
Get a bottle of gas and so. No, I'm talking like the two
$300 flux core welder. Is that a?
Is that something decent for just a normal grassroots guy to
have in his shop if he needs to fix something really quick?

(01:05:48):
It's yeah, it would be. I'm just going to be on, this is
going to be on video. I'm going to be incriminating
myself. So that's what the flux core is
never OK. But if you're at a track and you
have a problem and that's all, you got no problem with that.
But on that note, you can spend an extra 200 bucks and you can
get a MIG welder with a small gas bottle and bring that to the

(01:06:11):
track and that's even better. What if it's just like brackets
like bumper? Brackets flux core is.
Ugly. Flux core is ugly.
Spoon would never let me live itdown if this guy saw me behold
it like a 7018 rod or like a spool Weld like yeah I would
never live it down. I know way too.
Many people who just throw me ontrash.
I'm calling you every time guys.Well, it's not going to help you

(01:06:33):
get better because flux core is so inconsistent.
Though. You want to.
Get fucking hate welding. I'm just going to be honest, I
don't like it. There's nothing wrong.
Well that's probably because you're flux corn.
Shit, I'd hate welding too. No argument.
I used a regular milk welder when I did the whole RV swap and
it had to build everything so I didn't.
I wasn't a I like fabricating. More than welding, honestly.

(01:06:57):
That's fair. OK.
Like welding is like the end of it.
Like with the titanium stuff, I click everything together and
now it's like Weld for 30 hours bitch.
You're like, OK, where it's it'sfun making something that has
nothing and bringing it to something and then a dude again,
like Adam is just another dude. It doesn't matter if it's Adam

(01:07:17):
or if it's a customer like Mitchback home.
Me showing them the end result and then being like dude, like
them being stoked. On it, it's the skate, it's the
skate. Park Vibe, you do a sick trick
and your boys are like go like you get amped up and it makes
you feel amped up. So I like making stuff like that
because it makes me stoked on what I'm doing.
And that's why there's no real rule of like what I'd be doing.

(01:07:39):
I'll make whatever the fuck whatever like as long as it you.
Want to make a hood ornament foryour drift car?
Cool. Yeah, I want to.
I want to. Once I rewrap the wagon.
I've been wanting to do it forever.
There's a local guy near me who does it.
And like, I paint shit like we all paint, you know?
We got drift cars. You got a drift car, You painted
something. I want to do cool low rider lace

(01:08:00):
roof. Like I feel the wagon needs that
dude. So take all the wrap off.
It's. A big roof.
But God, you got a whole lace bed sheet for that, Yeah.
They make bed sheets, but that'ssomething that I like.
I'm OK at painting. I can paint some stuff.
I buy real paint. I got like a Sato gun, Sato gun,
whatever. Like I can paint some stuff

(01:08:21):
decent, but that's something that is like beyond what I think
I'm capable of. So I would love to like try and
do something like that and that's what I'm.
Kidding is, I love the paint aspect of it, the cosmetic and
like. I'm just getting better at it,
like that's my thing I want to try, so I'm going to fuck it up.
Like I'm going to do a bad job at it I would think.
But hopefully after the second time, like it's going to turn

(01:08:42):
out into some at least cool, like different.
So that's what it always is, dude.
Even this stuff, like you know, you're finding areas that you
can always push yourself and be better in and make the brand
better or make yourself better, right?
That's what it's all about. Every day, every day, every day.
What you love. Oh yeah?
Well, what? You got any big projects coming
up with anybody? It's kind of end of the year

(01:09:05):
right now. We got I.
Got a bunch of small. Stuff, yeah, like end of the
season, September is coming up. So I got Trevor's wagon.
Trevor's got a wagon at the shopthat we put in that lesson that
we put an LS into and buttoning that all up should get that
running by the end of the year. Next week before the ledge is
the drift thing. I got to make some stuff on his
eyes. Corvette, because that car sits
so low to the ground, it just keeps racking my exhaust.

(01:09:28):
So it's good job job security. Hey boy.
It's the style though. We got to have it.
So fixing all that and yeah, pretty much, dude.
Awesome. I think that's all I got lined
up now. I think we're Adam.
I've been talking about a coupleof things, 4 rotor things.
I love that car. It's a sick car trying to get

(01:09:49):
that full 767 sound out of it. So that should be coming up in
the pipeline. I don't know when, but we've
been talking about that. Yeah.
Nothing crazy. I'm just even the big block
stuff. It was like a week, two weeks
notice and he was just like, I'mlike, yeah, I'm down.
Cancel everything. Yeah, that's any.
YouTube. Yes, but.

(01:10:10):
What's the next event for you? Let me start there.
I'll think about it. Next weekend, the legendary
should be out there at New Jersey.
OK, so that's the big movie thing.
Josiah is going out there in thewagon in his Corvette, and I was
planning on bringing the wagon. I don't think I'm doing the
competition. I think I'm just going to be
hanging, throwing down. Say, say OK.
So that's the next big one. As far as your company, if

(01:10:32):
anyone wants any work, is there any direct way to contact you on
where how to find that? My Instagram is Mike GT custom
exhaust or sorry Mike GT custom is my Instagram.
My shop is called GT custom exhaust.
We are located in Oshawa ON Canada so.
Might be a little far from. Tennessee, you know, a couple

(01:10:54):
states, a little bit of a distance, but if you're in that
general area, reach out to us either on Instagram, always send
an e-mail, come by the shop. If you're a super cool guy and
you got a cool project and you want me to come out and do some
stuff, I definitely would be down to do that.
But we just as everything, if you watched the podcast, they
didn't like Fast forward in the end here, we got some shit.

(01:11:16):
I got a checklist and I got to make sure everything kind of
checks off 1st. But yeah, Dave almost forgot
that question. Good thing you did it.
I appreciate it. I got to plug myself somehow and
my I'm going to plug my YouTube that I don't upload anything to
is also Mike. Yeah, now you have to upload.
Maybe he'll be uploading soon, who knows, But yeah, that's

(01:11:38):
pretty much it for all my like social stuff.
Mike GT Custom Mike Patel here for a good time.
Awesome man. Well, I appreciate it.
Yeah, dude, I've been meaning todo this for a while.
Absolutely. Blast, you're always welcomed on
of course. Thank you for taking the time.
No, my pleasure, dude. I think it's almost drifting
time, right? Should be yeah.
Alright, cool. I got my just.

(01:12:00):
Said Drift and Grid. Drift is welcome to grid.
Yeah, go. Damn, I took it.
I can't be too long. Oh dude, before we started this
I'm like I can talk for. Trust no bitch, can't catch, no
feelings. I've been taking long flights
from the Bay to Ibiza. Hit home, run.
I'm a ball like Jeter. I just want 444, then I leave.
I'm a young pop star called a boy.
Justin Bieber got a little money.

(01:12:21):
If you want, I can teach her whole life.
A movie. You can watch it in theater.

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