Behind Illegal Street Drifting & Budget Drift Car Setups w/ Lucas Fournier | Circle of Drift #146 - The Circle of Drift

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I've seen where like, you know, we go to a meet up on Drift Week
and I've seen, you know, Aaron, I've seen Chelsea Denova fucking
St. drift down a hill like in the middle of Oregon.
You know, it's like, is that a takeover?
You know, as you know, I've seenthe Drift Week guys ripping
Donuts like a historical monument, you know, stuff like
that. It's like where do you draw the
line? Welcome back to the Circle of
Drift podcast presented by SIM HQ.
My name is Dawson and today we are back at the home studio

(00:22):
actually with Lucas. I'm a cheap guy, right?
I don't buy the right parts. I do everything wrong but I'm
good at doing everything wrong. However I tried spool gun
welding the back together Me andmy buddy exploded my oil pan in
my face one time. It was great, but I feel like
grassroots, like the best drivers are Texas and N Northern
California. They get down.

(00:42):
Oh, that absolutely. Do you know?
And we have so much more to go over, so of course, look below
the video and make sure the subscribe button is pressed.
And without further ado, yeah, I've been wanting this year
forever. I've been in the whatever they
throw at me, brush it off, pick myself up, moving on a little
better. Hey, Yeah.
Ain't no errors, baby. It's a new today we got Lucas.

(01:05):
So how are you doing today? And, you know, tell me a little
bit about yourself. I'm good, man, Just stoked to be
here. You know, I'm from Northern
California, but we're on this big trip we've been doing around
the country and, you know, we'recoming through Tennessee.
So I gave you a shout and thought it'd be super cool to
come by. I guess I've, you know, watched
a lot of episodes and had friends on episodes and stuff
like that. But yeah, Northern California,

(01:28):
like I said, and, and yeah, I'vebeen drifting for eight years.
I got a bunch of different cars.I drive a lot.
You know, I could my, my Instagram's uncle seat time.
I consider myself kind of the, the king of seat time and the
budget king kind of, you know, I'd like to tell people I get
the the most seat time per dollar kind of anybody.
I would argue and I kind of stand behind that for the most

(01:50):
part, But I'm also we have a pretty newly open drift Academy
and in Northern California we called North Cal Drift Academy.
So we've been opening that up and teaching kids and, you know,
kids, adults, you know, men, women, everybody been trying to
get as many people driving as wecan and show them a good time
and kind of get them addicted tothe sport that we all love.

(02:11):
And another one of my, you know,claims to fame, whatever you
want to call it is a it sounds bad when you say it this way,
but we kind of have the one of the the country's biggest
illegal St. toe gaze, you know, the the legal toe gaze are.
Because we're gonna talk about that.
Yeah, we get to it. Don't worry.
Eagle toe gaze are become a big thing, but we have one of the,
I'd argue one of the coolest St.scenes out in California, what

(02:34):
we're doing out there. So it's it's a pretty good time.
What a title to have I guess. Right.
I guess, you know, it's kind of self-proclaimed, you know, a lot
of local guys, you know, on the scene always know and they
always want to come out to our spots and stuff like that.
And it's kind of becoming a thing.
But yeah, it's a it's a pretty incredible experience that we
have going on up there. It's kind of hard to explain
without. Well, I got some questions for

(02:55):
us, so we'll we'll get into thatin a bit.
But right now you're on this like long trip to with the boys.
So tell me a little bit about this.
What are what are y'all even outdoing?
The trip with the boys, so it's me, my brother, we kind of,
we've been planning this for a while and it's kind of it got
inspired actually from our dad, who he unfortunately passed away
a couple years ago, but we were really close with our father.

(03:17):
Sorry about that. Yeah, no worries.
Grew up riding, you know, ridingmotorcycles, all that stuff,
huge motorcycle family and we ina safe and we passed away.
We found this whole notebook andit was like a journal from him
and his friends. And they took a cross country
trip back in 1976 and it was, you know, him and two other
buddies and they had a, a sold Chevy van in the Ford Galaxy.

(03:39):
And they toured the whole country And they take turns
right down like what happened, you know, each day and all the
stuff they stuff they did, places they went, and they'd
even have other people they met along the way write stuff, write
stuff in there. And we were like, thought it was
just the coolest thing ever. And, you know, to be able to do
a trip like that while we're still young enough and, you
know, still don't have, you know, too many obligations to be

(03:59):
able to pull something off like that.
So decided to do our own trip. We got a toy hauler.
We got 4 dirt bikes in the bed of our truck.
We got a toy hauler with three stand up jet skis in it.
And we've just been making our rounds.
We kind of bombed straight to Louisiana.
One of our other but good friends flew in, met us in
Louisiana and you know, we did Bourbon Street, we did a a fan

(04:21):
boat tour, you know, couple coolthings like that.
And then we jetted off to Florida, went down to the Keys,
jet skied in the Florida Keys inthe ocean for the first time.
That was super cool. I end up sinking my jet ski,
which I unfortunately do all thetime.
It's kind of, it's kind of a normal thing, but the salt water
really kind of made that one sting a little bit worse.
Wait, why? Why would the salt?

(04:42):
Water. Just bad on the motor.
Oh yeah, just corrodes, corrodes, rust.
And we're from California. Like that's been a big thing
too. We're out on the East Coast,
like everything's so rusty. We're from California.
Everything's we're spoiled. Nothing's rusty.
Everything is awesome and dry. And all the cars are, you know,
we see like a car that's a little bit rusty and we're like,
Oh my God, that's crazy. But.

(05:02):
Yeah, the salt. Water is just super, super hard
on stuff, especially jet skis and, you know, but yeah, so did
the Florida thing. That was super cool.
Unfortunately, motocross track wise, we were trying to stop as
many tracks we came to. Florida's kind of like kind of
like drifting, you know, Southern California and Florida
are kind of like the two Mecca's, I would say.

(05:23):
And for motocross, it's almost the exact same thing, Florida
and Southern California, but we got rained out.
We didn't realize how bad the weather is on the East Coast.
You know, we're spoiled with ourCalifornia weather too, but we
got rained out for a couple different tracks.
The front of our trailer is a rental from our dirtbag buddy.
And it's just, it's we've like have it like Simpson strong tie

(05:43):
straps holding the front together and gorilla taped.
And it's, it's a mess. So it's leaking on us.
All kinds of good stuff. And yeah, so we got rained out
at a couple different tracks. We got to hit actually, you
heard a swamp fest. I have.
So we end up at this track in North Florida and we I'm like
walking in the back. Oh yes, I just watched a video
on that the other day and I. See like a concrete skate park

(06:05):
and I'm like, what's going on here?
I see a bunch of BMX dirt jumps and I like pull up the Google
map and there's a bunch of wood skate park features on the
Google map and I'm like, there'sno way.
Like and I googled them I'm likewhere's Swampfest?
And it's like Waldo Motorsports park and we're like, no way.
How cool is that? So we end up there, got to ride
there for a day, and then we shot up the coast, got cut

(06:26):
through the Carolinas and Virginia, all that got rained
out. It was pretty much raining all
the whole time, just kind of a bummer.
Ended up shooting straight up toMassachusetts.
My buddy Louie's house, which Louis is a whole, whole nother
story in itself, and met him on the first drift week we ever did
Drift week 3. And Louis was kind of almost
infamous from that trip because he was just a wild dude, but an
awesome dude. And I hadn't seen him since

(06:47):
then. It's been like five years, but
we always stayed in touch. And so we got to his house and
he has drift cars and a big old paved driveways.
We were ripping laps through hisdriveway all day and my brother
and Buddy were getting to drive and it was it was a super good
time, good time to see him. Which, by the way, which drift
weeks did you do? I've done 3467 and 10.

(07:08):
Jesus, I've. Done a.
Lot and also I've I'd argue nobody's done a drift week for
as cheap as I've done, like by along shot, I can do a drift
week. For like 5.
Like 5 to 7 grand and the last one was my last 187 octane fuel
and used tires. Not a single new tire was put on
my car. How did you obtain those?

(07:31):
So I brought a giant trailer like so it's single axle, a
probably 1213 foot deck aluminium trailer with a bunch
of used tires and wheels. Even my all my buddies used
tires and wheels and parts and stuff too because we had two C
Sevens with us. So I had all their stuff and a
bunch of used tires and then, you know, get all like kind of
branded Wicknick style, just going through the Valino scrubs

(07:52):
pile and picking, picking and choosing the ones I liked.
All of them came from that. My car is also really good on
tires. It's like pretty incredible.
So like my C7 buddies mainly skip he'll blow.
Like you know who runs like per years pretty much because per
years are, you know, in my opinion, Kendas and Pergia and
Velino per years are. Like the two the.
Two best per GI don't know. We don't have per years.

(08:13):
I don't know. But it's always confused me.
So anyways, like yeah. We're always with the bleener
guys. I think Mike always says Pergy
is, I don't know, whatever. But those, you know, those are
the two like some of the best tires in my opinion.
And Skip will run those. You know, he'll get 1015 laps on
AC7A Pro charge C7 and he'll take them off.
You know, which basically ball, you know, 5% maybe pretty much

(08:35):
bald, but the outside to those usually lasts a little longer
and I'll run those on my car forlike 30-40 laps and they're
they're bald. It's it's pretty insane with
decent amount of grip too. It's pretty, it's, it's pretty
wide. How the fuck?
And my car does, even on used tires 'cause that's I'm a used
tire. You just stock power though,
right? So it's S14 with a stock 6 liter

(08:58):
like stock tune stock. That's crazy, actually.
And you know, but it's like, youknow, and with the S10
transmission, it's kind of a weird kind of lowish wheel speed
as such kind of torques around and you know.
It's it is true it works. Well, but yeah, it does
phenomenal on tire usually, which is pretty nice.
So OK, so you said how much overall for drift week, like 5

(09:20):
or 6 grand? Because back it used to be
cheap. It was cheaper back in the day.
You know, it used to be like 2 grand to do it now and that's
three grand now. Whatever, somewhere around
there. And yeah.
And then so back in the day, I'dusually buy, you know, probably
300 to $1000 in tires from Valeno, you know, to on the trip
because they roll with you, you know, and provide your tires.

(09:42):
And the first drift week I was like Uber prepared because I had
my stock Z back then. I took that and I was like stock
suspension, no coil overs like, but I've had years in the car
like, you know, I could drive the car at a high level still
somehow. But, and actually that was the
first time I ever put a brand new tire on the rear of my car
in my life. Ever.
For gripping. I put some 215 kendas on and I

(10:03):
thought my car was broken because.
I. And I'm like, what is going on?
Way too much grid at that. Point and and I put AU 16 on it
in the back and I'm like, Oh no,it's not broken, it's just
different. And so that was the whole, you
know, learning experience there because I was pretty deep into
drifting at that point, but I was still just, you know, super

(10:25):
budget, you know, kind of shitty.
Car so you just like camp in places like what is the air B
and. BS always come out to, if you
have a passenger that's usually only like 500 bucks for the
whole trip, 'cause you know, youhave your Airbnb group, you
know, there's five cars which 10people and then so you split it
all up. So the Air BN BS really aren't
that bad. I remember the first drift week,

(10:46):
'cause I'm a huge budget guy, I'm about as cheap as they come.
I remember telling Aaron like, hey, 'cause I can, I can't, can
we just camp like did a day and he's like, Oh no, that's not
allowed. You know, whatever.
I'm like, all right, whatever. But because that trip I had a
big a pretty good size enclosed trailer behind my Z that was
probably, you know, 6 feet by 10feet, single axle enclosed.

(11:09):
And I had an engine in there. Sorry, I didn't have an engine.
I brought an engine on the othertrailer I that I towed to park
for the initial meet up. But I had a transmission diff
axles, full sets of tools, probably 6 pairs of wheels,
another probably 4 pairs. Of used tires.
So I had tons of used tires withme to make it work.
And yeah. Dude, that's insane.

(11:29):
All right, So what are some likelittle tricks that you've picked
up along the way since you've done so many drift weeks that
people don't really say? I mean, it's, it's just having a
car that holds together because I've, I've been super and my
whole career like and I considered I'm, I'm a cheap guy,
right? I don't buy the right parts.
I do everything wrong, but I'm good at doing everything wrong.

(11:51):
Kind of so. What the fuck?
Is that it's weird I can try to explain more once you start
talking about parts and cars andbecause I've I've very different
opinions. I feel like for most Drifters,
you know, but because you know, it's like the first drift week I
did, I brought pretty much an entire spare Z, even though it's
a stock car, I just, you know, wanted to be prepared and an

(12:15):
entire spare Z And I spent like $1.50 on a brake line 50 and
that was the only thing I had tobuy because again, my car's
super good. My E brake lines for my dual
caliper setups, they're hard line from the master cylinder
all the way to the calipers and it's $20 in parts from AutoZone
and I get a flare tool when I make the whole thing myself and

(12:35):
it's 20 bucks and if I break a line I just.
Make another one. Yeah, that's fair.
So and it's super ghetto like you know, but it works.
I I'm not going to knock it if it fucking works, dude.
So just keeping it, having a carthat is operable.
And that's even, Yeah. Everything else falls a big.
Fan of stock, you know, OEM as as possible usually, but then

(12:55):
even like by 2:40, you know, it's it's a swapped car with a
kind of an oddball swap too. But there's all this, there's
still stock or stock like swap parts kind of but and even that
thing, it's just built with all every corner cut kind of
possible cheapest parts. And it's people are always just
like, how does that thing just keep going, you know, and.

(13:19):
Why did you decide to build thatcar in the 1st place the the
240? 'Cause I got I mean my first car
was at my first drift car was S14A Zenki 240 and ended up
selling it after I I rebuilt thedual Cam and then blew it, you
know blew it up again end up selling it and I got AZ and then
yeah, I just got a good deal from a buddy.
It was a a real 98 too. It's like the kind of size it's

(13:39):
pretty smashed up now, like realsmashed up, but real 98 and had
like all the glass broken out ofit had a knocking dual Cam auto
in it and I paid 900 bucks for it.
So I was like perfect. I don't know.
I've I've been driving my Z for years, could drive it, you know,
pretty close to its limit. And I was like, I'm ready to
build a cool car, which I also always preach to people.

(14:00):
You know, I see tons of kids that they just go, oh, I want to
build this, get in a drifting. I want to build this car and I'm
like, don't buy a stock G35 or Zdrive that.
And while you're driving that, having the time of your life,
then build some car in your garage is going to take you
three years, you know, and buildyour cool car, you know, which
is kind of how I did it. And I think it's, you know, it's
the best option for sure. But yeah, so I was like, all

(14:23):
right. And then my brother, actually,
he had the 6th leader. We pulled it out of AO2 Escalade
and he put it into his S10 like a 99 S 10, which was kind of
cool because you can do it that way with those transmissions.
The MV35 hundreds where it's still from the bell housing
back. It was a completely factory S10,
but it had a six liter in it andthen he ended up getting a

(14:45):
firebird with LST 56 and puttingthat whole swap in there.
So he's like I'll sell you the whole, you know whole swap for
1500 bucks put in your car. It's like perfect.
You know didn't even have to unmate the transmission.
I guess I did when I was mockingeverything up.
But yeah, so super, you know, cheap set up and those
transmissions they bolt to an LSno adapter kit, $400.00.
It's just super fun. And they're becoming more

(15:07):
popular and almost one of not making pop, you know, and the
price goes up. But yeah, so that was kind of
the whole inspiration behind behind that build and it it all
worked good. And like I said, I built that
car for including the price of the car, like 4000 bucks.
And it's like I've been I've like I've won grassroots comps

(15:27):
with that thing series like done4/3 drift weeks with it.
Now with that car specifically, it's been through, you know,
been through a lot. And now I know as chassis are
ungodly expensive now, but if someone had one and they were
trying to do a budget swap like that, what what is the the
guidelines that someone should stay within in order to do that

(15:50):
at the cost that you did? I mean.
Literally just doing every little thing yourself.
Kind of and I'm not even like a good fabricator, but that's.
So the main I have, I have a whole YouTube video on my you
know, my YouTube's not that big or anything, but I did make like
a kind of build breakdown on my car specifically like a while
back. But the main saving things are
LS swap headers suck 'cause they're the steering shaft and

(16:13):
you they're a pain to put on andoff.
So I had some stock manifolds, astock truck manifold fits on the
passenger side perfectly and thedriver's side when I literally
just hacked up into the header banks as far as I could stuck
like a three bolt muscle car, stainless steel flange up in
there tacked it on, brought it to the welder at the local truck
shop and he just pizza pied pieces in there till it's sealed

(16:36):
and that thing it's it's nasty looking and it's broken.
That's the number one thing. It's probably broken my car, but
it'll break and just have an exhaust leak.
And actually this last year of Week 2 and a little bit before
that, I had issues with it hitting my steering shaft and
causing me some binding issues and little stuff like that.
Nothing that kept me from driving too much, but little
issues here and there. But I can take it, take my

(16:58):
manifold out in like 10 minutes.That's good and it's free three
years versus $500 swap headers. That, yeah, that is true.
OK. So you are saving a lot of money
there? A lot of money and the
transmission obviously that's where stuff always gets
expensive. Adapter kits are super
expensive. So transmission huge savings.
You know you got to bite the bullet on like an oil pan.

(17:19):
You know I tried going the cheaproute on an oil pan and it was
like why? That went for eBay.
It was like cracked off the get go kind of in.
I even tried spool gun welding it back together.
Me and my buddy exploded my oil pan in my face one time.
It was great. But because we're cleaning out
with brake cleaning and that welding and oh, Jesus, yeah,
duh. It was.
It was pretty bizarre. I don't still understand how it

(17:40):
happened, but yeah. So then, you know, you got to
bite the bullet on the oil pan, kind of you got to bite the
bullet on a custom drive shaft usually.
So the couple, you know, 5, you know, 4 or 500 parts you got to
buy. But other than that, you know,
it's like I got a truck manifold, truck accessories, you
know, super, super basic. What about the motor mounts and
stuff? They're just orange ones, the

(18:02):
orange, you know, 240, you know,the same ones that people use
for everything. Like the ISR ones.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're like a yellow orange.
Yeah, they're orange, have the black, you know, spacers,
however many you want to stack, just the ones that people, the
Poly ones that people use for dual cams and SOS and everything
pretty much. And it's conversion.
So the motor conversion mounts or eBay ones that are like 100
bucks which actually finally broke last year, like blew the

(18:24):
whole tabs completely off of them and my motor fell on my my
steering rack and actually my oil pans dented super bad from
the steering rack. I believe it.
And that locked my steering and I was on at Sonoma on winter
jam. We were jamming all day and
finally as soon as I entered my steering just locked and backed
off. My buddy with AC-7 hit me pretty
hard and which that's all this. AC-7.

(18:48):
Yeah, OK, so this C7 too, this skip my buddy skip.
It was a oh like mint like 20,000 miles C7 grand sport.
'Cause I just had Tommy Lemare on from FD and he drives AC 7.
So we talked a little bit about the chassis and.
Stuff 'cause I'm super pretty intimately knowledgeable with
the C7. I just got one actually too that

(19:08):
I'm oh. Yeah, yeah.
I missed you said that. Yeah, and then my other buddy,
he just built his whole, he tookit on the last drift week too,
but he just took a night like a wrecked one, made it mint and
then made a drift car and now is, you know, going to destroy
it. But so we have a lot of feedback
and actually drift. Week 7 I rode.
I rode with Skip and he just letme drive it half the time which

(19:30):
was super cool. That's rad.
Yeah, so a lot of knowledge thatelectric steering racks are like
the biggest downfall of those. I would say once you put PBM
stuff on them, they kind of liketo burn out pretty quick 'cause
I think they get overworked a little bit and kind of wig out,
but yeah. Straight lines.
Mint. 20,000 mile grand sport. He like traded his grandma for

(19:51):
like his nice Jeep or something and he wanted to get into
drifting. So I used to drift with his
little cousin who also unfortunately passed away and
got into it finally. And you know, and I drifted with
him. That was always, you know, me
and Skip because, you know, it'shard buddies, you know, trying
to make events and stuff. But Skip was just always at
events and could always all to make all the events I did
because we drive together a lot,you know, almost like at least

(20:12):
every other weekend and yeah, this thing.
And I was always like super. I'm like, I don't want to hit.
I remember when I first started drifting.
I'm like tandem of AC-6 has stressed me out.
You know, I'm like, I'm not trying to, you know, ruin
someone's nice car for if I can help it.
But the C7 was like, I don't want to touch that thing, but
like, you know, and get real, real close to it.
But I was like, I don't want to be the one, you know, because

(20:33):
the regular car, you know, put door marks on it, whatever, not
too big a deal. We like super aggressive
driving, you know, but I was like, I'm not going to mess up
the C7. But then it's a couple other
people started hitting it and you know, he just, he didn't
care. You know, he's I'm, you know,
I'm in the front of lines throwing a thumbs up for like 10
car trains and he's right behindme and he doesn't care.
So, you know, stuff happens and he's basically following me into

(20:56):
any situation which, you know, always gets a little sporty.
And so that thing now it's just,it's pretty haggard.
It's been smashed up and it's, we actually drift Week 7.
We had to go to steering rack from the dealership in Socal and
we pull up to the dealership andlike everyone's just looking at
us like what, what are you? What is this thing?
Like what is this smash to pieces C7 straight pipe pulling

(21:19):
up in here, you know, But yeah, so I think it's it's due for a
refresh. On the the steering though, did
what rack did you say y'all put in it since it's electric?
It's still electric. We just oh, you still use that?
$1800 from dealership Another electric steering rack goes
through about one a year. Why not just convert it to
something else? Because like AC-6 rack.
Yeah, that's probably, you know,in the works.

(21:42):
Hopefully you know I don't. Know we're just fucking doing it
I'll. Just get another one, you know,
just get a new one, replace it. It'll be good for another year.
That's. How it'll be good for another
year? We did talk about the C6 rack
and now that my buddy Ori, he has he has one now and he's like
the builder, like he's when he caged my car and he builds like
like I'm a, you know, I swap cars and build stuff, but I'm a

(22:02):
hack. You're a hackist.
I'm a super ultra hack, you know, but with really good luck.
Somehow I don't know. You sure about that?
You know, I've you just like to believe that because I was
really young, so maybe I just got good better at it.
I don't know, but I like, you know, push the limits of people.
They say don't, don't do this. This will never work.
I'm like, I think you're just saying that I.

(22:23):
Still got to try it. I'm usually right most of the
time. I'd like to like to think, but
Ori is like a super, super good builder.
Like he's a Toyota guy, mainly came from rock crawling, but got
him into the drifting thing and he'll build like, you know, like
a 93 Toyota pickup and swap a 3-4 and do it and swap the
Tacoma dash and air conditioningand bar and ref it and like

(22:43):
builds like nice stuff. So now he built his whole C7 so
and that's like actually one thing with the C sevens too, is
the PBM kits. The bottom like Uniball, you
know, for that goes to the bottom of the knuckle.
We'll just shear off like 4 times up at Infinity circuit
skips sheared off and he's just stuck in the middle of track.
Barely need a Jack under the carand.
So I would not, I, I understand like I work with FDF but like

(23:06):
consider FDF cause they've put alot of engineering into that
kit. I I think it's on the market.
Yeah, that's just and Skip. Been driving that car for like.
Probably 4 years now. So that was the only thing
available back then, you know, and but they ended up, you know,
they're big off, you know, off road guys.
So he just welded, you know, a new piece to the to the lower to

(23:28):
to actually take like a big RK heim like a nice high, not like
the cheesy, you know, stuff thatthey use so that they fix that
problem. But yeah, that's the only other
real issue had with those cars. But then they're yeah, they
work. They're cool.
That's a good time. What about the aluminum chassis
part of it? Does that ever come into effect
with how like simple of a build it really is?

(23:51):
Not too much. I mean he had I know he had
drift cave put a cage in his andyou know, you got to actually
bolt the Cajun instead of Weld it and stuff and the cage bolts
like to drag on the ground and stuff and going off track.
But. It's just extra sparks.
Yeah, it looks cool, Yeah. But no, they're still pretty.
You said always car. You know, you pretty much just
need to angle on it and, you know, Skip was in line forever.

(24:11):
He finally just went dual caliper and yeah, it's pretty
much it. Oh, so actually the electronic
diffs, that's a weird thing because like AC-6 LSD works
awesome. You know, it's just a regular
mechanical, you know, posi kind of LSD, but C sevens anything
that's not a base model, which base models are dry or actually

(24:32):
wet sump, which is weird becauseall the other ones are dry sump.
Base models are wet sump and they have an old school posi,
but they're weaker. They like to break.
But anything like Z51 and up hasan electronic locking DIF.
And this is where like Skip never even messed with his and
always just kind of got him by. But you would notice when like
tighter kind of stuff, it would kind of, you know, want to open
up more and but he always just just sent it and it it works

(24:56):
good enough. But like Ori's car, when he
first built it, it was like noticeably like bad and like
opening up. And that's because, you know,
once you start deleting stuff and all the stabilitract goes
off, it kind of wigs out. But he ended up, you know, Ori's
the man. So he tears it apart and he
finds it's in like an electronicpump going to like a solenoid
that's pumping hydraulic fluid into this locker on one side of

(25:17):
the DIF that's like hydraulically controls it.
And there's a gauge on the dash it tells you you're locking
percentage. And he had wired up a switch pro
to where and it's like a pulsingsignal that changes.
So you wired up a switch pro to where you could like get it to
pulse and kind of keep it locked.
But he eventually found there's like one company that makes an
aftermarket C7 posi and they will only like sell you the
whole diff. But he got them to send him just

(25:38):
a locker and installed it himself, which led to that
actually. How much did that cost for just
the locker? I think like 1500 bucks and then
you put it into an old because he had a, you know, a couple
parts cars put it into an old diff housing with kind of
suspect gears because it was blown up And on drift week 7
actually, or drift week 10. This last one we're hitting
Ridge Motorsports park to big giant Rd. course and it started

(26:00):
humming by the end of the secondday.
And so in Medford, he had our other buddy coming up bring him
his old the factory diff and he pulled the whole diff out and
swapped the gears in like 3 hours and someone else's lift.
And it's just. Dude, cowboy alright.
He's he's about it. He's he's a savage for.
Sure, that's crazy. I'm excited to see what happens

(26:21):
with those chassis. I think they're going to start
growing here soon. Is the is the diff situation
still pretty complicated to replace?
Like is, it is still it's probably.
Worse. It's probably worse than a C6.
How bad? Like why?
It's just they're packed in there.
I mean you just got to drop the subframe.
Though, so it's still all kind of the same thing.

(26:42):
Yeah, it's it's super similar the C7 diffs just bigger and
it's got, it's got a diff cooler, you know, it's OK, yeah.
That. Means so he made it look easy.
I've never I haven't really had to mess with them yet.
I've I've done my C6, you know, a bunch of stuff like that, but
I think it's a good chassis, butI still think AC 6 is better
stock because like my C6 is bonestock.

(27:04):
Like it literally has FDF mini mantis.
That's it, stock handbrake leaf springs and that car is a riot
and it will you know out drive my two 4010 Volt.
So OK, then let me ask you this because when I interviewed TJ
Hunt and he said that the C6 is like screw getting AZ screw

(27:25):
getting all of the the C6 is thenew starter chassis.
Would you agree? OK, so that was the best big
misconception that I saw in a lot of the comments from you
guys was that well, still not there yet just because cost way
too much. I have two grand is a stretch
maybe for a shell, but out in Cali, Well, OK, well, Cali,

(27:48):
yeah, I guess. I guess we're talking about
Cali. Yeah, there's dumb cheap out
there A. Thousand 1500 bucks, you know,
you just get some kid with a misfire and convince him it's
about to blow up and give him 1000 bucks.
I need AI, need to get AZ and just keep it out there so I can
fly out and then the GS. Are usually cheaper too, you
know, especially get one that's rerounded a little bit or
something, you know, perfect like that because yeah and like

(28:10):
that's even even like I've ever wonder.
I got AI got AG for 1000 bucks Ithink, or maybe 800 bucks and
dude's like, oh, stop running. You know, I get there and
between, you know, the, the throttle body and the math, the
boot right there, the rubber boots ripped.
I'm like, oh, that's why I don'trun.
You know you didn't don't even didn't even try.
I got home fired it up and it started it was still misfiring

(28:32):
pretty bad, but it was so low onoil.
I put like 2 quarts in it and the misfire went away like
that's how low it was. But I and then I took the car
out. We went out St. in that night to
our like our good spot. And that thing was 100% OEMG 35
stock handbrake, stock LSD stockeverything, not an aftermarket
part on the car. And I had the best time that
night just shredding that thing.Oh yeah, putting it on, you

(28:56):
know, and people can't even catch me in that thing, you
know, stock suspension that willsquat to it.
I think it would just take off. But yeah.
And it was actually my the test drive to sell it to one of my
buddies too. And by the end of the night that
the throw out bearing locked up and exploded the fins off the
pressure plate. So I was just stuck engaged.
So I just float in gears all theway home and, you know, but my
buddy still in sold to him with a transmission and he still

(29:16):
drives it. That's all.
You know, it's still a good car,but yeah, the GS are great, man.
GS and GS are incredible. And to be able to take a car
like I said, OEM like that, you know, not as it came off the
showroom floor and like the LS DS are the worst parts of those
cars, I'd argue because most of the LS DS don't work good, but
that one worked good enough to get by and then you can at least

(29:38):
this you can Weld them. You know it's an LSD that you
can't Weld so. I have an auto opened if in mind
and it's been welded for God knows how long now.
Probably 6-7 years total of driving and stout.
Still, yeah, that's that's just.Probably, knock on wood, that
was probably dumb as fuck to say'cause I run.

(29:58):
AZ different mass 14 too 'cause you know it's 60 bucks for
conversion bushings so it's likeno brainer.
But yeah I think mine's a an auto open one too.
Is it gotta get the 330 year ratio?
Yeah, 5 O. Yo dude, when's your first
event? I think it's in, like, I think

(30:20):
it's in two weeks, something like that.
But dude, have you even ordered tires yet?
Oh, my God, you're right, dude. Thanks for that reminder.
I got to do that. Yeah, no problem, man.
Have you tried the Zek Nova's yet?
I mean, I've been tossing aroundthe idea of doing that, but I
think realistically, I'm just going to buy some cheap Walmart
tires like I usually do. No.
OK. No, we're not doing that.
You've had plenty of seat time by now.

(30:42):
You need proper tires. But what do you mean proper
tires? Well what I mean by proper tires
is like better, more consistency, longer life, and as
weird as it sounds, even smells better.
But bro there's so much more expensive.
No no no no. Just use the circle drift code.
It's like 20% off yo. Wait, really?
But what? What do I do for the next event?

(31:02):
Well then just use it again. I mean you can literally use it
all season if you want. Well shit, you ain't gonna tell
me twice. I'm going to do that.
Same goes for you too. If you're looking to get your
tires before the 1st event. Maybe it's coming up quick.
Drop down below to the link to Zic Nova tires and use the code
Circle Adrift to get 20% off. Well tell me about the Norcal
scene. Is it any different from Socal

(31:23):
or is it like it's very different?
I like my news. New thing I've just kind of
thought is I my personal opinion.
Obviously I'm biased, but I feellike grassroots, like the best
drivers are Texas and Northern California 'cause there's like
you go to one of like a grassroots series.
I'd agree with Texas, I just don't know all bunch of north
Cal. Drivers savage for sure 'cause

(31:43):
Lone Star, like, you know, thoseboys.
They get down. Oh, that absolutely.
Do you know, and I'm a huge, youknow, I'm a driving instructor.
I judge people's driving in likea positive way.
I love going to an event and like, you know, seeing like
someone I don't even know. And I'm like, that guy can
drive. Like, you know, just by
watching, you're like that guy can drive.
And but yeah, so Norcal is good.There's like you go to a local

(32:06):
comp in the top 8 is like you'relike, how do you judge these
battles? Like, you know, they're so close
and so dialed in. And there's a really, really
good scene in Norcal between like Sacramento and the Bay
Area. You know, there's tons of good
drivers and it's, it's a pretty much a really healthy
environment. You know, there's always, you
know, drama and politics and allthat good stuff, whatever.

(32:28):
But, you know, or just a bunch of, you know, children.
But yeah, there's tons of good drivers, tons of good people.
And yeah, man, I just. And then on top of that, because
there's like, there's kind of that.
And then started our own little scene, because I'm from a pretty
small town, you know, maybe 15,000 people, you know, kind of
up in the mountains a little more just above Sacramento.

(32:48):
And within that, I've kind of have started our own little
scene. You know, we have probably 15 to
25 drivers just up there, which is a quite a bit for a small
town like that. You know, when that's because of
our, our whole kind of whole street scene where, you know,
kids are like, Oh, I don't even got to go to the track.
I just buy a car and go in the mountains.
But the mountains, the boys and I can, you know, drive all night
for the price of fuel. It's like, why would I ever go

(33:09):
to a track? But so there's, there's,
there's, I have my, my kind of my track friends.
And then there's the crossover. You know, a lot of my friends,
I'll try to get him, push him togo to the track, you know,
because no matter how much you drive in the rain, in the
street, a drive, drive track is still going to be a a different
ball game. You know, it translates quite a
bit, but it's definitely different.
But yeah, so I got my, my whole group of friends that are my

(33:32):
track friends, you know, which we're always competitors to most
of the time. So we're all, you know, always
the ones competing against each other.
But and then I got all my local boys, you know, which I like.
I love to try to get them to go out to an events whenever I can.
You know, it's cool if we can get a group.
Is that kind of what the drivingschool is forward kind of bridge
that gap? Or no, the driving school is
more for more for people that don't really, you know, my boys,

(33:53):
it's like, and that's I started off, you know, teaching my
friends like, yeah, grab a car, follow and come with me like if
you want to do some. Yeah, just grab one of those
Outback. Let's go.
Like buy your own car, you know,Don't get my car, but, you know,
buy your own car and I'll tell you what to do to it.
And you follow me into the mountains and you know.
What's the mountains to start off?
Because, you know, I've never seen a car towed from the woods.

(34:17):
You know, even if the cops come and do mess to you, you know
they don't, they're not going totake, you know, down in the
city, they'll take your car for the most part.
OK, I see what you mean. So and we're, and we're kind of
in a rural area, you know, but we're still a city.
But if we're, you know, we're 45minutes to an hour, we can get
to like some pretty remote, remote places.
This is for the driving school you do this for.

(34:39):
OK, so this is just when you started teaching?
Your buddy the driving school The driving school is all closed
course down in the. Season, I was not saying there's
no fucking way. But this is kind of how it
started was me like teaching my friends how to drive by just,
you know, in the streets kind of.
But the no, the driving school is all closed course, you know,
rental cars. It's more for someone that

(35:00):
doesn't know how to get into it,doesn't even know starting from
scratch mostly. But we also have kids that you
know, can drive or lot even likekind of, you know, the sideshow
seeing kids that think they knowhow to drive and you know, you
come and throw them. Poor kids.
I have. I have a lot of a lot to say
about that too, kind of because it's funny story.
We'll get to that because that that'll I've got some questions

(35:22):
for that as well. But yeah, so where was I with
that? Yeah.
So more for, yeah, people to just kind of come get their feet
wet, you know, see if they want to, you know, get their own car,
that kind of thing. And then they can also bring
their own car and have us, you know, kind of grill and.
Where is this normally at? It's in Sacramento, CA What?
Track like is it always that onetrack it's.

(35:42):
Actually, I'll get my sponsor book here.
Dude, one of my my first and only sponsors Cali custom
Alignments out of Sacramento. They and their automotive, they
do all kinds of stuff now too. A lot.
Mainly custom suspension and stuff like that.
But it was the first, like when I got and built my S14 and got
arms and stuff, you know, it's like, OK, this is the guy to go
to that will actually touch, youknow, aftermarket stuff.
And a dude gives you a drift alignment, you know, And so me

(36:05):
and him became real close. His name's Jersey.
He's actually from New Jersey originally.
But yeah, so came really close to him over the years.
And he's always supported me anda couple of my other team guys.
And, you know, kind of he alwayshad, you know, big visions and
stuff. And we kind of had the vision
together trying to do a driftingschool thing and I finally got a
shop that, you know, had a a lotthat would support it and stuff.

(36:26):
And finally, you know, able to make it come to come to fruition
finally and make it happen. And it's.
Been so it's all like on your own business property.
Yeah, So no track needed. It's all that's that's crazy
hell. Yeah.
And we're, you know, we're working not this location
they're at isn't their lease is up in a couple months and they
got, you know, we're trying to find a a new spot.
I think they got a new spot locked in that should be even

(36:47):
bigger and better hopefully because, you know, it's, it's
not as much space as I would, you know, want in a perfect
world, but it's enough to to teach someone how to, to drive.
You know, yeah, I mean, we're essentially doing Donuts and
figure eights when you're teaching someone.
And then, you know, we get a catthat says, I know how to drive.
And we're like, all right, we'llhit this layout.
You know, yeah, we'll hit the man line, bro.
Yeah, exactly, exactly. That's crazy.

(37:09):
OK, so where like do you have a website for this too?
Oh yeah. N called Drift academy.com.
OK, you know, and that has info.Just sign up there stuff.
Yeah. And then yeah.
And then usually yeah, you can sign up schedule through.
We have Instagram and stuff too,usually DM or scheduling your
times. And yeah, so far we're pretty
fresh, you know, everyone doing a couple months.
But while I've been gone, my boyDoug, one of my teammates and

(37:31):
he's like, you know, like a partner in it, in the whole
thing. He's been keeping it going while
I've been gone and everything's been been going good.
What cars do you like guys have so actually?
My OG 350Z, that one from drift week that's been going for seven
years on Walmart oil and hopes and dreams and 87 octane.
That's not good marketing. Don't say that, I'm just
kidding. I know spa, I'm always like.

(37:53):
One of those. Sponsors I'm like, maybe it's
because I run all Walmart and eBay parts.
I don't know. But but yeah, that original Z
still going seven years deep. And then I got another G35
that's set up simple. You know, they both just have,
you know, rack spacers, coils, hand brakes, you know, and then
I also have an SC300, which is actually one of our it was like
the original one of our originalstreet cars from back in the

(38:14):
day. I ended up getting it in a trade
for like a CTSV and sold it to abuddy and but I think it's got
like PBM knuckles and like a geared auto diff and like some
cool parts on it. Just to NAJZ.
Yeah, NA 2JZ W 5A and it's a it's a hoot to drive.
It's that's a super fun car, especially with a little.
Angle such a heavy. Yeah, not too bad.
Don't think like 4 or 5000 lbs on there not.

(38:35):
That much the doors weigh a lot,but that's about they're long.
It's a Superman. It's basically.
A yeah, yeah, yeah, it's true. But yeah, so those, I mean, no,
they're good cars and I'm not big on weight thing like people
have got, I don't got my cars. If I, you know a couple £100,
you're not going to notice that in my opinion.
Well, as a beginner anyways, you're not you're.
Definitely active, Yeah. If anything is, you know I'll

(38:55):
give. You a little more, you know,
just get you. Going a little faster.
I'm used tires, you know, you need that extra weight, Yeah.
The tires are a little bit more be fine.
Hell yeah. Well if anyone I'll leave the
link to that in the description if anyone from California are
watching. Didn't know about that.
How many people do you? Are you usually taking on per
month for that? I mean, were you right now or

(39:16):
Saturdays and Sundays? So usually weekends.
So, you know, we'll take if me and me and my partner are both
there, we can do, you know, fourpeople in a day, you know?
Oh, wow. Students.
Yeah. Each.
Each take 2. Is there a cap to it?
Like is there, you can only takeso many, no people per class or
whatever. Yeah, we try to keep it to like
2 drivers per instructor, you know, to kind of keep it pretty.
Oh, OK. That's pretty hands on, you

(39:36):
know, because I know a lot of a lot of drifting schools, they'll
kind of do it in like a bigger class setting, but that kind of,
you know, it's a pretty intimatething, you know, getting in a
car with someone and you know, having them.
Well, not even that like if they're normally fairly pricey
for like to actually go out and learn, and especially if you're
renting a car too. So if you're not giving them

(39:57):
that one-on-one time that they're, you know, expecting and
paying for, then that could cause some, some issues later on
down the road. That's for, I feel like a
benefit of always been, you know, such a budget driver.
You know I can our price points pretty low compared to everyone
else. How much does it cost if you
want to share? Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah. So full day, like a full day
with a, you know, car included, tires, fuel just literally

(40:20):
arrive and drive is $800. Oh, wow.
OK. Yeah, yeah, that's not that bad
at all. What do you consider tires?
And that's how many hours of track times.
That's for six hours, Jesus. OK, you know, but obviously you
got to let the cars cool down tires, you know, change tires,
but you know, but you're still, you know, the, the class sizes
are so low, you get quite a bit of driving.
And for that and you know, when we'll take people, you only have

(40:41):
to know how to drive a stick. We'll teach her how to drive a
stick, everything, you know. So we've had a lot of male
students, female students, we had a lot of couples do it
together. So it's, it's, it's been, it's
just for. Reference I mean you're on
average going to get maybe 4 hours of track time at a normal
event unless it's like just someraw dog event it's going
sunshine or sunup to sundown. But like. 4 hours is a lot, you

(41:05):
know, like a regular track day, actual time burning out and the
tires spinning, you know, like maybe an hour of actual, you
know, cuz that's, that's where the thing I'll bring up
streetwise to that was what's, what's cool about that is, you
know, you like said, you go to 8hour track day, you're burning
out for maybe an hour. We'd be up there in the
mountains, you know, for four orfive hours and we're running

(41:27):
straight up and, you know, and. We're there for.
Five hours and we're burning tires for 3 1/2 of it, you know,
in the rain. Oh, you got to tell me a little
bit about that. So where did where did the
street drifting and mountain drifting aspect of it even start
for you and the whole crew? And why do you continue it I
guess. So it kind of I mean, that's
kind of how it all started. You know, I remember even first

(41:49):
getting into the first time everslide in the car was with it was
in like AI think S 197 Mustang or maybe a new edge and it was
with I'm like 14 or something. And the guy driving is, is like
a Sprint car driver, you know, he comes out on the road and
kicks it out, sweeps back and I'm like sweeps it back across
the highway and I'm like, dude, that was that was that felt
crazy. But like he had control of that.

(42:11):
Like that was super cool. And then I met my buddy Doug,
who's, you know, my partner in the drift school and my teammate
and he was, he was wild. He'd he'd be in a 2003.
He still has the truck. It's all straight axled and rock
crawler now. But his parents stock 2003 GMC
Sierra 15104 wheel drive and he we'd be hitting like cloverleaf,

(42:34):
like 270° off ramps to go to themall and stuff and just full
walk around the whole thing. And we're just me and my buddies
are just like, dude, this is thecoolest thing to what we're
being back industrials. He's coming over these crests at
like 60 miles an hour and we're like, dude, this is this is
wicked. So that just started like the
bug, you know, and that turned into us getting cars, you know,

(42:55):
and hitting off ramps and doing Donuts and, you know, and that
translated into finally met my buddy John.
John, you know, a couple years later who he was kind of like in
the Sacramento scene. And sudden he knew how to like,
they all had two 40s. They knew how to like actually
drive, drive. We were just kind of, you know,
some weekend warriors kids messing around.
And he taught me how to like, you know, use a handbrake, link

(43:16):
corners, you know, actually really, really drift, you know,
and from there it was just, it was on, you know.
So in the way in the beginning you were just like ripping up
mountain roads. No handbrake.
Yeah, like more than just even in town, Just like, yeah, just
hitting, you know, off ramps, you know, doing Donuts and
parking lots, you know. Kind of impressive, actually.

(43:37):
Yeah, you know, and then, yeah, John kind of taught us how to
really drive and that kind of, you know, which made me lead,
led to me going to my first track event, you know, and
really, you know, getting the bug for it and kind of getting
the addiction. But yeah.
And then like I said, we were always and we were in, you know,
rural area and we grew up, you know, we ride dirt bikes on the
road. We, you know, could get away

(43:58):
with quite a bit. And one of my buddies, Cody,
actually the one who's on this one of the on this trip with us,
he was from up in like the more rural kind of part.
And he was like, oh, dude. Like actually.
So the our main spot, like the good St. spot, the kind of
legendary one was we originally had a drag racing spot way like
up past it. And also, you know, where young

(44:19):
kids are starting to build fast cars had like a Camaro, you
know, so rub their drag racing. And he was one that showed us
that road. But then one of our buddies just
kind of get into drifting. So he started sliding the road
on the way up there. And then when we all start
getting into it, we're like, OK,this road is like like wicked
because it's like in the rain. It's like a minute and 32nd run

(44:39):
of probably 10 corners, like back-to-back, just bangers,
like, and it's on a, on a uphill.
So going up is like super, you know, slows you down a little
bit. It's, it's honestly really easy
to drive, which was why it was good for people starting out.
Yeah. Uphill, yeah, uphill, super
wide, super slick, forgiving corners.

(45:00):
And so for tandem. And it's just epic, you know,
And then downhill, like the realmen go downhill because downhill
is a whole other ball game because it's pretty steep.
So, you know, starting off there's like one or two of us,
you know, me and John are like the only ones going downhill.
And then, you know, now, you know, as homies progress, you
know, there's 345 of us are all tandem and John's pushing me
down the hill and stuff and it'sgetting more wild then.

(45:23):
How do you find these spots justdriving around randomly?
Yeah, our buddy knew this one from growing up up there.
And, you know, just driving around this, there's a lot of
woods, you know, there's, there's, there's an art to
finding spots, but it's, it's hard, you know, and people
always, oh, where's this spot? Where's this spot?
And you're like, can't give you my spots, you know?
How do you control traffic and stuff like do you just wing it
this or you has got somebody up top and bottom?

(45:44):
So this road and it's, it's a kind of a bigger Rd. like more
major Rd. too, but kind of out in the sticks.
And so there'd be a little bit of traffic, but it's kind of a
tweaky area too. So it's like if you see someone
up there and we always go at night, always go at night and in
the rain, you know, that's like it when it's raining, everybody,
you know, knows it's time to go out.
But it's kind of like if someone's out on this road at

(46:07):
like, you know, 1011 O clock or later, they're probably doing
something worse than us. You know, they're probably
that's fair. And like, you know, when we get
locals, they'd stop, like go, you know, give us a thumbs up,
do a burnout, you know, like having a good time.
You know, it's every once in awhile you get people pissed
off. And a couple times I had to call
the, I had the cops called is usually 'cause you know, we
don't, I'll be honest, we don't shut it down, which is probably

(46:29):
pretty dangerous. But the guy in front like you're
looking for headlights, you know, as we got over because
someone's coming down and you know, the first car goes around
him and the whole train, you know, like 8 car train goes
around him and then you know, they call the cops.
That's the only time. That was that's got to scare the
life out of those people. I get it.
But it's knock on wood. And by the way, I just, I have

(46:51):
to throw this out there. I do not condone St. drifting
but this is a great story and I want to make sure it's like told
and shared. Try.
This at home or whatever? Yeah, be smart.
How to. Do as we say, not as we do.
Certain, yeah, certain stuff like you know, if there's dates
because you know, we go out and like film some cool stuff and
during the daytime and certain stuff we have radios and we'll
spot stuff and try to be safe when when we can.

(47:13):
But yeah, that's, you know, I was a kid and, you know, grown
up once it's dangerous once you learn how to drive because then
you feel like, you know, once you have that control because
then you want. To does it not feel wrong to do
all of this like, and now that you like, you obviously know how
to drift. You have a fucking school that
teaches people. So now you have a business on
top of it that you know has to uphold a certain standard.

(47:34):
And then you know you're going to drift events, drift weeks.
Like does it not feel shitty kind of still doing it?
Yeah, I think I maybe I'm just kind of blind to it because I
haven't messed up yet and heard,you know, like I as as bad.
As no major wrecks this whole time.
Like major wrecks like but all within like like homie puts into
a guard rail. Homies we smack at each other.

(47:56):
We've never, never affected anyone else.
So it's never never been any like.
Civilian or just outside collateral language, it's.
All that's good. Yeah.
So we have a pretty good and youknow, and that's after years.
So no, I don't know. He couldn't even drive.
A Porsche down a road without getting totaled by a truck.
Yeah, but so there's a, there's an R tube.

(48:18):
But we've also been very lucky, you know, and like I said, it's,
it's, it's pretty stupid in, in some instances.
But you know, as a kid, you know, you come to a Canyon Road
and you shut your lights off so you can see if you can see
anyone coming and then, you know, get after it.
But that's also there's some badones too.
There is some really dumb stuff like there's some videos of us
running this pretty crowded river Canyon by our house and

(48:40):
there's a follow Cam with my buddy, one of my like kind of
younger buddies who he's he's he's became a really good
driver. I kind of turned him into a
monster. I feel like almost and he's
behind me chasing me in our in that same G35.
I was talking about borrowing itfrom our buddy, our buddies in
his passenger seat and he's justletting him RIP it.
We're ripping this two lane Canyon Road and you see as the
cars come around as daylight andthere's kind of an art to it.

(49:02):
It's really weird St. drifting like in the daylight on A2 lane
Rd. 'cause you know in you on your
out. So you know when you're in the
outside, you can just run your outside in your lane.
But if you get to a spot where you know the obviously there's
an ideal drift line, you know that puts you in the other lane
if you're looking at it like it's a track.
So you got to take as much of that lane as you can as far
ahead as you can see. You had to be in that lane, but

(49:24):
you got to be not far enough that if you see a car come, you
have to be able to gather it up and get back in your lane.
So there's like a weird kind of art to it as there's a video of
him chasing me and you see him, you know?
You're still in the rain during the day too, right?
It's all during the rain. Usually, but for the most part,
because the dry is the people, alot of people don't get to the
dry in the street is no big jokelike you know, and that's funny.

(49:48):
For anyone that hasn't watched any of the drift, sorry to cut
you off, but in the Drift Appalachian episodes like even
people with 700 horsepower, 600 horsepower in their cars are
bumping their 240-5250 fives up to about 80 PSI.
Oh yeah, because it is so grippyon the street, especially coming
back uphill. And that's why I just tell

(50:09):
people it's like, you know the and that's why I don't like I
hate you. I don't like drifting the track
in the rain as much. Like obviously you know what
happens, you do it, whatever, but it's just so greasy and like
always so slow and rough from atthe track.
I want it to be dry. But in the, you know, on the
streets, the rain is nice because it's more consistent.
You know, it's a road. It's not covered in tire dust

(50:29):
and oil and dirt and from all the dirt drops, you know, it's
real consistent and nice, but you know, but trap.
But a dry track surface versus adry St. surface, such a
different ball game. And that's like events like so
we did the I don't know if you did, you see there was the Utah
toe gay? They did, yeah.
Ultimate drifting challenge. Got to go out to that because
Bobby's one of my my buddies there.

(50:50):
And I was stoked on that becauseI'm like, that's my game.
Like, you know, like I, you know, I drift in the street and
and it's like 9000 feet elevation too, like so the cars
are, you know, struggling. Yeah and I I knew what was going
on. I was like, I came up on, you
know, 1516 seventeens, like, youknow, beater street tires, you

(51:11):
know, and and everybody's on their 260 fives and I'm like,
you guys are tripping and I justwatched everybody not even be
able to run a line, like, you know, just straighten out the
whole time. And I'm on my two O 555 sixteens
just having a ball, you know, having a a great time.
And I'm like, it's bad. There's videos of me.
I'm on a a 16 inch tire on one side of 18 inch tire on the

(51:32):
other side, mismatched wheels. Like I'll, you know, I'll blow
all my tires off and I'll start mismatching all the survivors
out of my sets and run that. I was I was and like I was, you
know, first seeing the Chelsea Dinova stuff where it's like,
oh, you got to run the same tireevery time, you know, so you get
consistent and this and that. I'm like, well, yeah, if you
have money, like that's sounds like a good program.

(51:53):
But like, you know, I, I don't. So I'm going to run whatever I
find behind the, the Les Schwab in the tire band because that's,
that's still where I get my tires.
I go to, I go to tire shops and I get take offs.
That's, you know, that's still what I run to this day.
And I have a great time and I drive, I drive a lot of laps
because like. Obviously I understand where

(52:14):
Dinofa's coming from but like I also get where you're coming
from as well. But also new tires feel so good
dude. It's almost like an addiction.
They don't. Feel $280 a pair Good.
I mean, I get that. I I can understand that, but
that's what are you paying 280 apair for, right?

(52:36):
I mean, what do you? I mean, what do you pay for it?
OK, I guess that would be Oh no,I'm just my maths.
I mean, I'll say 2, I'll say 2. Four.
That was a fuck up on my part. 265, you know 100. 20, Yeah,
yeah. I'll say it for, you know, for a
kendo or something. That's fair you.
Know. Hey my fronts I run Walmart
cheap as I can get 50 to 60 bucks a tire from waterfalls or

(52:57):
Westlake. That's scary.
That's actually scary. I would 100% if I'm running shit
tires at least put decent tires up front.
And I've and that's I've always had I hate when people blame
their front tires. So I'm like, I've been and I was
also coming from like a stock Z stuff.
You know, I'd, I'd always leave just reaction pictures on my

(53:18):
Z's, you know, so all your frontgeometry is still the same,
right? Because then you've you've super
good front grip. As soon as you start changing
your Ackerman and doing big angle kits you lose a lot.
Like the cars become super understeer happy I feel like.
To an extent. Dial it in right?
Yeah. I mean, because that's like you.
Get it all you want. I'll run my front tires to cords

(53:38):
and I'll still be jamming in thefront of 10 car trains, but fine
front grip, no problems at all. You know, and it's just, you
know, it, it people, people, people.
The last thing, the last thing Iwant is for my front grip to go
missing. Rear grip is manageable is you

(54:02):
can, you can drive the car with the throttle, but if you lose
the steering that that freaks methe fuck out.
Do I? Yeah, I am, but there's also
like the people that argue 'cause like you'll see that
video of I don't know who postedit, but it's like a completely
bald set of like some accelerate, I think it was 65

(54:23):
ones on the front. And he's like, I don't even want
to change these cause the car drives so good without the front
grip and I'm like I do. My brain just doesn't brain
comprehending the lack of front grip.
And another argument I could saythere why it might work for me
better too, is cause, you know, I feel like it's a lot of it's
the ratio between the grip and your friend, your rear, right?
And I'm usually running not muchgrip in the rear because I'm

(54:45):
running used tires and stuff like that.
And I, I run, you know, unlike these days.
I'll you know, it's funny all ifI'm doing a comp, I'll like save
like so every once in a while Skip will get me maybe a nice
pair of Kendo's or some or some accelerators that he has and
I'll save those and run those just for a comp just because
when I know I need to be fast and I won't even qualify them or

(55:06):
nothing. I get that.
I mean, we all do that. Yeah, I go to, you know, go to
enter, go to faint into the first corner and I'm like, the
car doesn't even move. And I'm like, oh God.
Like, you know, because I didn't, I'm not used to what
they feel like. But that goes back to, you know,
running the different tires. I feel like can also in a weird
way, become help you become a more adaptive driver because you

(55:27):
know, a car is obviously if you would not, you know, make your
car, you know, set up how you like it and you know what it
does and you can really dial andimperfect what you do.
But if you can drive anything, Ifeel like that's what you know.
I don't think you're setting yourself up to be able to drive
absolutely anything though. But if you, because if I put you
in my car as gripped up as possible, you you wouldn't be

(55:53):
able to enter the first time, that's for sure.
It would not. But I you wouldn't be able to
comprehend that. For my car set up like yours
too, you know I've ran my car. With Yeah.
Candles in the front, Pergy is in the rear.
You know, I know what it feels like.
You just got to drive it a little harder.
I mean, yeah, that is true, You just drive it harder, but.
Yeah, like I said, when I put when I grip my car up, it feels.
But going from such a flowy likeloose ass set up to like a

(56:18):
machine, like on it's full tilt,yeah, I I couldn't do that.
That would that would that wouldthrow me off so fucking bad.
That's like, like I said, I, I think I just do it because I'm,
I'm a budget guy, you know, it'swhat I've always done.
It's how I drive so much. If I, if I bought new tires, I
couldn't afford to drive half asmuch as I do, you know, it's

(56:41):
just kind of. Hard on it there.
It's just how it's been, you know, that's how I've always
done it. And I've just been, you know,
I've never been a super, you know, I, I do comps and I like
to compete and that kind of fun stuff, but I've always just
drove for, for fun and drove foras want to drive as much as I
can. So I think that's kind of what
it is stemmed from. Well, on back on the topic of
the whole mountain drifting thing, you mentioned you have

(57:03):
arguably the biggest illegal like street tow, I guess
organization, right? Sort of, Definitely.
Wouldn't call it an organizationor it's alleged it's.
All it's. All allegedly anything.
Yeah, it's all alleged, but arguably the biggest in the
country, you said. I mean, yeah, because I mean, I
like. Why?
Though like how does it make it that?

(57:23):
What's the? Because you know, where else do
you see, you know, 1520 cars on a mountain Rd. in the middle of
the night? I.
Think that's the point? You're not supposed to.
I know, but it's really cool when you do and it's like it's
funny and what you know, and it's like a super some of these
kids never even been to a you know, everyone saw someone,
never even been to a track. And then you get them bring

(57:44):
their buddies, you know, and like, and these even some of our
buddies that don't know about drifting and they're riding with
us going dude, this is the craziest thing I've ever.
And it's just like it's just hard to it's so hard to capture.
And we've had some pretty, a couple media guys over the years
and some pretty good videos. And we have hours and hours of,
you know, in car phone videos, but that doesn't do anything

(58:04):
really that much justice. And like to capture how much,
how cool it is to just be hanging out with your buddies
and just jamming for, you know, jam for 45 minutes.
So we're like, OK, we'll, you know, we'll chill for 1520
minutes, hang out, you know, do whatever, you know.
It's crazy that you like that people feel the need to risk it

(58:26):
I guess for the street drifting.Like I mean don't get me wrong I
love St. drifting is fun and I'mnot one that does it very often
nor have IA lot in my life. But it's just crazy to me that
people will risk it. They just don't care.
But I guess in the setting you're talking about too, it's
like it's it's hard to say no. Are how LAX it is and it's but

(58:48):
it's hard. It's like I said, it's you can't
just find that anywhere. Like we've got super lucky with
this spot and it's I can't even lasted as long as it did.
And it's like it's kind of getting a little iffy these
days. Had a couple of issues, you
know, but just years of being able to do that and it's almost
like we're kind of in disbelief while we're doing it that like.
How does it work and especially being in California too, because

(59:10):
you have all of the the autumn, the car laws or like whatever
you want to. Talk about it.
The more I've seen, especially traveling around, I feel like
then you know out here you have what inspections in most states,
different stuff. I don't hear specifically but.
Like East Coast stuff, all the rusty stuff too, but you know,
you've inspections and this and that.
I'll always ask people, you know, I'm, I'm, you know, a car

(59:32):
guy through and through. So I'm always, you know, asking
people about different laws and their, you know, their States
and you know how things go down and it seems like you kind of
get nickel and dimed everywhere you go.
And in California, it's really only smog and you know, you, if
you're into cars, you know a wayaround it, you know, kind of you
wouldn't. Say it's really only small.
There's a lot of problems with California that's not for this
podcast, but. I've been.

(59:54):
Yeah, we. We.
Live that's this whole trip too it's like you know people oh
where you guys from and you got to say oh California, you know
but like. You just started saying I'm like
we're. From Northern California, but
like the good part, like, you know, we're almost little more
like Southern Oregon. Like, I don't know if you ever
heard of State of Jefferson, butit's like it's the 51st state
where they're taking the top chunk of Northern California and
the bottom chunk like a dirty redneck state, you know, because

(01:00:17):
we're, you know, kind of some dirty rednecks to a point, you
know, we're we're kind of country kids from the mountains
a little bit. And but yeah.
And it's like I've been pulled over in my my 2:40 with my truck
manifold sticking through the hood and the cops like, oh cool,
what motor you got in this thing, you know, like.
It's really that vastly different from South to north.
Not S to north, but I drive 45 minutes to sack and it's the

(01:00:40):
city and it's the hood and like you know and.
That's. So, yeah, but we're, and like I
said, that's, you know, and all this one of the original spots
where I was taught to drive all the sack kids kind of, it was a
little closer to sacks. So they'd all kind of come up
there and it kind of got blown up and the cops started coming.
You know, no spot lasts forever,but you try to make it last as
long as you can kind of. But yeah.
But I still say even that like the cops, if they see you're

(01:01:03):
going out into the mountains, like you go to a, you know, like
a big one's like a lake, you know, for all the kids want to
find spots, you know, you go on Google Maps and look at lakes
way out in the middle of nowhere.
And if they have parking lots, that kind of thing, you know,
that's a good way to find a spot.
And if a cop sees you to making an effort to go out where nobody
is to drift, they respect that alittle bit.
They really do. And that's why I told you I've

(01:01:25):
never seen a car towed from the mountains.
I've, you know, I've heard him threatened all.
The next time we come out here, we're going to tow a car this
and that, you know, whoop, Dee, whoop.
But they at least appreciate that you're not doing it
somewhere where there's people and like causing a scene and
just doing it for, you know, doing it for, you know,
destructive purposes. I guess I should say I get that.

(01:01:45):
What is the worst case of running with the law that you've
had then? I've been very lucky.
Like I've really I've got a bunch of speeding tickets for
doing like 5-10 over and like onstreet.
Like usually when I get in trouble, it's frown.
I'm not even doing anything thatbad.
I did go to jail back when I wasin college at Chico.
I went to jail for doing doughnuts at like a car meet.

(01:02:05):
And I was that was when I was already like into drifting like,
and everyone's, you know, doing burnouts this car meet
everyone's like, Oh, you know, go show them what's up this and
that because they knew like how how I can drive and shit.
And I'm like, no, like I'm not even wasting my time with that.
You know, I guess nonsense like whatever.
And I'm like people are doing burnouts for like an hour.
I'm like, I guess it's cool, like, fine, whatever.

(01:02:26):
You know, I may have gone a little excessive, but then on
the way out I got pulled over, cop took me to jail, you know,
that kind of thing. And I had another one try to get
me from a reckless. We're doing like a memorial for
a buddy and where we all did massive burnouts in front of his
old house because he was a huge car and diesel guy.
And then I was like leaving the,the function like like an hour
later and the cop pulled me overlike, oh, you did a burnout.

(01:02:48):
I'm like, Nope. I definitely just left the dudes
house just now and I beat that one in court and stuff.
So, but yeah, I've been like I've I've, I don't know how much
probably incriminating myself here quite.
A bit no, I was just curious howhow bad it's.
Got me a license and shit believe it or not.
Wow like I should drive truck and.
Everything. Jesus Christ.
So yeah, there's a fine line. You got to, you know, go walk

(01:03:12):
sometimes. And like I said, you know, it's
not a good idea. But if you're if you're smart
about it and you know you. What's the most common like run
in that you get with the law? Like how's it usually go?
Usually it's, you know, they'll usually the, I feel like I've
only had cops show up while I'm drifting, like not actively

(01:03:33):
drifting, but while we're hanging out at the drift spot,
you know, they'll always catch us in between times usually,
which is nice. And usually they just kind of
know what's going on, kinda. And, you know, be like, all
right, like. You know you caught me.
Yeah, but it's like, but if theydon't catch you doing anything,
it's like they can't do anything, you know, So usually

(01:03:53):
they'll maybe try to like write down some license plates or, you
know, and they'll always give uslike a warning, you know, and
maybe take some pictures and sayif we see you out here again,
you know, but they know if they,if you aren't doing anything,
they can't really do nothing. That's crazy for the most part.
You know, I'm sure if someone really want to push an issue
like, and I'll, you know, I, I have quite a bit of respect for
law, you know, a lot of people like hate cops, stuff like that.

(01:04:14):
I, I respect law enforcement quite a bit, you know, and, and
they'll be, they'll usually be cool, like bad night where it's,
you know, they pulls up and we almost had a cop go for a ride
along one night, a really cool cop, like super cool.
And this is the kind of good oldboy mountain stuff a little bit,
you know, but and, you know, he tells us, you know, it bullshits
with us for a SEC was like, oh, you guys like have spotters up

(01:04:35):
and down the road. You know, I'm like, oh, yeah, of
course we do, you know, sure. And, you know, kind of asked us
just what's going on a little bit.
And then we're like, all right, Yeah.
Well, like we were about to headout anyways.
He's like, all right, yeah, havea good night, you know,
whatever. And, you know, and there's one J
cars with no tail lights. Nobody gets tat like, you know,
I keep I like to keep my stuff tagged.
I try to I try to keep it where if I get pulled over, I'm legit,

(01:04:57):
you know, because that just helps your cause.
And but yeah, where cops will let stuff slide.
But then there's also been times, you know, where where
they don't and how to where theypull people over and try to give
me a real hard time. And you know, they're always
cops will always lie to try to get you to admit to stuff, you
know, that kind of thing. That's oldest trick in the book.
But you know, it's like old Bay Area thing, No face, no case.

(01:05:18):
You know they don't. They can't put your face in that
driver's seat doing that and they can't really do much.
I mean, I guess that is fair. Do you have like, I know you've
you've done a lot of explaining around why it's still safe and
like the different variables youguys take, but to anyone
watching that still might be like that's still almost a

(01:05:39):
takeover. What do you say to that?
I mean, that's like there's. I don't believe that's.
True, it's all there and like the takeover thing is super
funny because like I'm from California, right?
We grew up right next to the BayArea.
So like we use like, I remember when I was a kid, when I was,
you know, 16/17/18 probably we used to go to the big take like

(01:06:01):
in the Bay. And like the Bay is a whole
different thing. Like that is a cultural
experience. And like, you know, they've been
doing that stuff since the 80s, you know, and it's like, you
know, and it, it's a whole mob mentality thing.
And it was pretty cool back then.
It was just getting the borderline of it being like kind
of, you know, real destructive almost and like bad.
But there's, you know, and it comes back to thing like the

(01:06:24):
secret ingredients, crime, kind of, you know, that little extra
extra spice almost. But, and it is like, you know,
it's, it's a takeover. But I think that's the
differences between doing it in an intersection, which, you
know, doing an intersection in abig city, like has its own
perks, you know, you know, it's dangerous and cool, whatever,
you know, yada, yada. But you know where when you

(01:06:44):
start lighting cars on fire and like fist fighting people, like
that's where you kind of lose. Crippling people from YEAH
across the road. Yeah, well, that's that's if you
get hit by a car, you're a fucking idiot.
Like you know you. Got like that.
That shit boggles my mind. We.
Used to go and we're like, you know, the people's girlfriends
trying to go and stuff and we'relike, no, like, no, like this is
like we barely feel safe here and we are like watching our own

(01:07:05):
ass. So like, you need to, you know,
no one's old lady is allowed to come.
You're not trying to be responsible for anybody than
yourself. And you need to like run a hop a
fence if you need to and do whatyou need to do, you know, 'cause
cops come with tear gas, you know, all kinds of crazy stuff.
But that was like, that was justus being kids.
Like, you know, like, all right,we got to go see what this is
about. But how are we going with that?

(01:07:25):
Your takeovers? Oh yeah.
So like in the street as far as us being like a takeover kind of
thing. And that's where I think the
difference is if you're going out and you know, going to do it
out where no one can see and you're not trying to, you know,
you're doing it just for yourself almost, you know, for
your own and your buddy's personal fulfillment.
And that's like even like some drift week stuff.

(01:07:46):
You know, I've seen where like, you know, we go to a meet up on
drift week and I've seen, you know, Aaron, I've seen Chelsea
Danofa fucking St. drift down a hill like in the middle of
Oregon. You know, it's like, is that a
takeover? You know, as you know, I've seen
the drift week guys ripping Donuts like a historical
monument, you know, stuff like that.
It's like, where do you draw theline?
Like we all we know, we all wantto have fun.

(01:08:07):
You know what we've. All got a story of St.
Drifters. Yeah.
What's it hurting? You know, what's your
intentions, You know, there's it's all a kind of a Gray area.
So I think the stipulation. That most people would have
though, is those guys. And yes, they may do it
occasionally, and it's like onceevery year.
Maybe you're doing it pretty often.
Yeah. So I think that's the

(01:08:29):
stipulation that most people mayhave an issue with is just
you're making it a repetitive thing to where it's now drawing
a crowd. And I think that can almost
hinder drifting and the growth for it by there being so much
crowd drawn to St. drifting. And I may be totally wrong about
this too. I'm just like spitballing.
Yeah, no, I just you got to have.

(01:08:50):
A I'm sure you plenty of people have said this shit.
To you too, like. But I was like, even like, it's,
it's weird, man. And at least where we're at, you
know, like we're in the hills, you know, like people that don't
even know what drifting is, you know, like it's, you know,
country folks, old people. I.
Truly believe y'all are not endangering anyone's lives like

(01:09:11):
nothing crazy is really happening.
Not but and the most dangerous thing you can do is get in your
car and drive on the highway, you know, like that's the most
odds you have of dying is getting in your car and.
Driving out there. And I argue doing what we're
doing doesn't really change those odds, you know, because
we're pretty, you know, we're pretty skilled pretty.

(01:09:32):
You have very good control and you know, and are safe about it
as we can be. Don't get me wrong, there's new
plan. You know, I, when I was a kid, I
first got my license, didn't know I know how to drive.
I did so much stupid stuff and almost killed me and my friend
so many times. Look back just, you know, like
what an idiot, you know, it's where now it's like, and normal
driving. I'm like a grandpa, like it's on

(01:09:53):
or it's off, you know, But yeah,so it's, you know, where do you
draw the line with it? But.
Do you think it'll ever stop or do you?
Do you want to? Yeah.
Will you always continue to St. dress?
I think we will because it's it's for us like it's, it's
almost like a cultural thing andit's not like if you know, and

(01:10:15):
it's, it's a pretty tight knit group of just our kind of area.
And but it's, and it's, you know, the spread throughout the
kind of state that, you know, there's, there's guys that just
hit the track, you know, and youknow, that kind of thing.
And then there's kids that I feel like it's mainly just, you
know, more kind of poor kids growing up that, you know,
that's they couldn't afford to go to the track or they didn't

(01:10:35):
know how to go to the track. And that's what they did.
From my point of view, I would see nothing but opportunity
there. Instead of just continuing the
street drifting, why not start your own toe?
Make it legit. And I mean, if if the audience
is already growing for it and it's needed in that area of the
country. Yeah, and we've talked about.

(01:10:57):
It right? We've talked about it for sure,
but it's comes to the thing where it was never like it just
started from just buddies going out and having fun.
Like, you know, and it's such a,it's like like a low overhead,
like low impact kind of deal where it's just, you know, ten
of us meet up at the parking lotand we go drive, you know, and

(01:11:19):
that's kind of what I'd I'd start.
That's the hard part to let go of.
Like let go of and how easy it is, you know, and I, that's why
I started like, you know, bitching at my buddies where
it's like you guys need to go tothe track.
Like I get that you, you know, you want to just go put $40 in
your fuel tank and go drive all night.
And how that seems way better than going and spending $400.00

(01:11:40):
and going to Thunder Hill in themiddle of the summer and, you
know, having a long day, like, you know, but, but there's a
place for the track. The track is going to elevate
your driving to another level, you know, being on a dry surface
and going faster and getting in the third gear.
Like, you know, because that's where like, you know, I took
that and I, I kind of ran with it where I like, I love, you

(01:12:00):
know, fast stuff like big Rd. courses, the faster, the better.
Because you know, that's, that's, that's makes it cooler.
You know, second gear is, you know, one thing.
Third gear is a whole other ballgame.
Fourth year is a whole other ball game on top of that and you
got to push yourself, you know, and you can only push yourself
so much on the street and like, you know it, taking it to an
environment where you really cannot worry about anything is

(01:12:22):
huge and it's a huge benefit. So I, I totally preach both
sides of it. I just, the street stuff is just
super near and dear to my heart because it's just some of the
best times in my life. I can see that I get I'd still I
can't condone it but I get it now.
Why not just SIM for seat time? Honestly totally totally viable.

(01:12:44):
Like it works. No, I would never argue in a
millionaire. I've seen it time and time
again. I've had kids on my door that
have hardly driven at all and they're same kids.
Yeah, we just talked about it. Before we started this, they are
raw drivers and it works. I just talk shit because I
don't, you know, I was like, where's the street credit in
that dude? Like I learned by crashing in
my. He said St.
Grade I learned by crashing intomy friends and guardrails and

(01:13:08):
totally in my car. Man, you learned on a freaking
video game like come. On Oh my God, that was too
fucking funny, dude. So where's the street grade in
that? You know, so that's what it
like, you know, it's and like I'm super accepting.
I love the sport. I love helping anyone and get
into it and you know, I've, you know, whatever way you got to do

(01:13:29):
to drive, I'm there for it. You know, I love the sport more
than anything. And I just want to see people
drive. I'm huge.
And like any of the young kids especially 'cause you know, like
kind of generations are kind of falling off, you know, in my
opinion now even ours, you know,like, you know, it's, you know,
it slowly goes downhill, but andyou know, less kids are into
cars and you know, stuff like that.
So I love seeing young kids. I've have tons of young kids who

(01:13:52):
have, you know, gotten into carsand driving and got into the
track. And I love doing it.
I love seeing it, you know, lovesharing how much joy I've gotten
out of this with other people. But where's it going with that?
It was originally about the SIM.Yes, SIM, but yeah, so it's like

(01:14:12):
whatever you got to do to get into it, you know, that's fine.
But yeah, I just, you know, something cooler.
What is your experience with theSIM like?
Do you even like it just as a tool to use?
So as a so I remember the first time I drove one, I was already
like, you know, a pretty seasoned driver.
And I'm like, this is a lie. This isn't, you know, this

(01:14:33):
isn't, there's no way this is like a real car, you know, but
after and some people pick it upfaster than others.
You know, I've had buddies, you know, usually people play like,
you know, video games, more kindof stuff where they're 30
minutes in, you know, they can kind of run a line pretty good
dude. I was like like 5-6, ten hours,
like just like struggling, you know, to finally and then after
that like get to the field whereI'm like, all right, this feels

(01:14:54):
like a regular car, Like my inputs are pretty similar.
Still way worse than driving in like than me driving in person,
but I can, you know, kind of getdown, you know, run a little
tandem or something. But and then yeah, but that was
once, once I actually finally got a SIM and, you know, a
decent thrust master setup and started playing a little bit.
But I'm fortunate enough to where I was like I, I didn't

(01:15:15):
really play it 'cause I was always driving in real life.
So I'm like. Not a bad problem.
Not a bad problem to have. So I, I I eventually sold it,
you know, and 'cause I was. Like I think if you invested in
a proper setup, you would get the more feel that you were
looking for. No, I know, but it's still trust
master just like Logitech. It's like all, you know, just
budget. It's belt drive, yeah.

(01:15:37):
It well, yeah, that's better, but.
Like myself, I love my setup. I've driven some pretty gnarly
ones and like I get it at that point it's like all right, this
this kind of feels pretty close.I miss I'm missing a couple
senses, but it's that it's all there.
So I, I think you've probably, Iknow your budget as.

(01:16:00):
Fuck, but I've driven like. The amount that you've driven in
the mountains like you probably could have bought a ball or SIM
magic setup. Oh yeah, 100% no.
And it's super valid. Like kids that want to, you
know, it's just not, not my thing, not for me.
But it is 100% an amazing tool. But I think it's kind of weenie
too still. Oh well, if you want to be

(01:16:22):
weenie you can also save some percentage off at SIM HQ by the
way that codes in the description, but.
It works. I will never, I'm a, you know,
realistic guy and I will never deny that it absolutely works.
You know, there's kids. But it's weenie, there's SIM
there, there's. SIM but.
You're a kid that will. Out drive me any day of the week

(01:16:43):
until we go to a real Rd. I do I don't know man that I've
driven some of the toe maps and stuff in Aceto and they're
pretty realistic with the off camber and like everything too
the. Grip level.
Changes yeah, I'm sure the grip level is definitely going to be
different, but it's pretty as far as the visuals and the

(01:17:04):
camber and the just geometry of everything.
It works. But but yeah, I was going to say
after that, but well, yeah, thatwas cool.
Definitely suggest playing the SIM more.
Well, I guess you got rid of it,so you can't really do that.
But get another one, try the SIMmore, maybe start a real tog,

(01:17:27):
you know? The real tog.
Would be. I think that would be.
But that's that's a very hard, especially in California.
Just do 1A year. Location like.
One a year and then don't even talk about the the the stuff
y'all do on your own. Like just let that be for the
boys. Do one real tog a year because
then you'll satisfy the town up there.
You bring so much money to them.But that's getting like a permit

(01:17:50):
to do that legally, you know, that's.
Well, I bet that would be. A you'd have to go to a poor
county, find the right Rd. that wants the money and actually
what can it's it's a hard thing to, you know, it's a hard thing
to obtain. It really is.
But yeah. And that's kind of where it got
to with with our thing is it started off kind of small, you
know, just a couple of us and then, you know, more bits,
buddies or buddies all getting into it, you know, and that got

(01:18:11):
to the point where it's like, all right, we have too many cars
up here like, you know, like we got.
To chill. We need to kind of split up like
we need to yeah, we need to likegate keep it more now, you know,
'cause it before it was like any, you know, buddy's buddy,
you got a car or like, you know,come on out, but they got to the
point where it's like all right,like so.
We're not dropping the coordinates in the description.
No, no, no. And like we.

(01:18:32):
Jamie, pull it up. But yeah, so we've had like, you
know, or even like, see a randomkid up there, like, oh, I was
like, someone told me to go hereand we're like, like, don't ever
come back here. Like, you know, like, get out of
here. So.
Damn, so you've had to run people off like that?
Here, you know, every once in a while that's crazy wrong buddy
that wants to. Self police start.
Running his mouth, you know, andyou know, talking about stuff.

(01:18:55):
So like if there's a kind of a balance to all of it, like I
said, it's a super dynamic situation, you know, every.
Well, though I don't condone it,I'm glad you're taking the steps
you are to keep things as safe as.
Like I said, no and no spot lasts forever, you know?
So it's we try to do everything we can to keep it as long as we
can. You know, even some somebody's

(01:19:15):
like figure it out that's like this.
Somebody's like, you shouldn't even post videos of it, this and
that. We're like, yeah, you know.
I mean, I would probably agree with them, but you're going to
do what you want. You're a grown adult.
Yeah. So dummies, Well, if you could,
what would your best piece of advice be for anyone getting
into drifting? I'm big G 35350 Z.

(01:19:38):
You know best. You know you can get one for 234
grand. Keep in mind where you're at.
Yeah, Yeah. You're the only place in the
country that has ZS and GS that cheap.
You. Grew up Wheeling and dealing.
You know, it's all about findingthe right deal.
And the more knowledgeable you become, the better deal you can
get. You know, it's all about
immersing yourself in it, kind of.
But yeah, do that. Get a car that's almost stock.

(01:20:00):
And that you can set up to drivewell because it doesn't make
doesn't take much to make a car drive well and then just drive
that and then build your car while you're driving that 100%
and just go to the track. Drifters are some of the coolest
people. You know, I've gotten, you know,
taking tons of people like from drag racing and off road racing,
all different forms and gotten them into drifting.
And they're all like, man, this is so much like it's cheaper,

(01:20:22):
the people are better, it's lesscompetitive.
You know, it's super cool. That's actually one of our guys
that the craziest guy on the thetoe gear run mudslayer.
I don't know if you've ever seenhe's if you've ever seen there's
a 68 Camaro, like first Gen. Camaro drift car with and it's
on AC-6 chassis graphically C6 chassis with a four O 8 twin

(01:20:46):
turbo E85, like 800 horse LS with a front mount T56 and a
quick change rear like full FDF mega mantis in the front.
And this dude, he's we met him. He has like 67 Camaros on Hummer
chassis. He's on like 40 twos with like
rear mount fucking blown big blocks on alcohol that he like
does mud bogs with. And he was a street racer too.

(01:21:06):
He's been on St. outlaws, all that stuff.
And we ended up like meeting him.
We found out he lived like kind of right up by us and became
super good buddies with him. And he's just like the most laid
back chill dude. But you get him in the driver's
seat and he's just an animal, just a madman, like he'd be, you
know, down. He he took a stock Z didn't even
put coilovers on it because people tell you, oh, you can't

(01:21:27):
put wise fab on AZ with stock coilovers.
You can. He made it happen.
And he's just backwards down thewhole mountain on the guardrail,
Doobie hanging out his mouth, freaking blown over curbs, just
a mat like. Binding everywhere.
Everything's binding. No, he's.
Ripping. I'm sure he was ripping.
He drove straight through it, but it was binding.

(01:21:48):
He'll be like, no, like I'm going to take it easy, like, you
know, and then he's just dragging every single wall.
He's just the absolute madman and he builds the craziest
thing. She's like, oh, I found this Rex
can am when I took another Rex can AM and cut them in half and
welds them together in the center and put an LS in the back
of it and like just ridiculous. Like blow like, you know, like
I'm a hack and he blows my mind,but he's pretty.

(01:22:10):
Good at the same. Time like his stuffs pretty
wild. Oh yeah, he's like, he's pretty
cool. He's one of our OG homies now.
He's he's always a good time. Oh, all right.
Well, last question I got for you is the deeper one.
Actually, I don't ask this in forever.
If you had the chance to speak to the entire world, what would

(01:22:33):
your one message be? I'll go with something.
My dad always, he's telling me, always stuck with me because,
you know, he wasn't like a religious person or anything
because he always said, you know, if there's, you know,
you're going to choose a God, like good luck picking the right
one, right? But just be a good person just
for yourself so you can feel good about it and treat others

(01:22:53):
how you want to be treated And just, you know, be a good person
because it's the right thing to do.
You know, it's not that hard like.
Simple and easy. Yep.
Yep. I wish people told their kids
that more. I feel like that's kind of
dropped off. It's hard.
I had a. Really, I had a.
Really bad all the way you want to be treated.
That seems like a common sense thing.

(01:23:14):
But you ask some fucking 12 yearold or 14 year old, they're
going to be like, what are you talking about?
I've never heard that in my life.
Yeah, having good parents is important.
I had a a real good dad. Thankfully he was real hard on
us, which, you know, has its ownvalue.
But he was still, you know, yeah, really good dad.
Read that wheel. Do better right behind him.
Do better anyway. Yeah, I want to.

(01:23:35):
Give credit to one thing too. We're talking about Richard
Alvani. I always, you know, I, I always
claim to be, you know, get the most seat time per dollar or
whatever and do the cheapest drift weeks ever or whatever.
The only one person I will say that I think drives for cheaper
than me is Richard Alvani. He's a prospect driver.
Ever heard of him? HP Chasers and which he's a

(01:23:56):
fucking he's a great guy too. Like I've hung out with him a
bunch. Super, super cool guy.
His brother Russ, I've seen him at AVS and he bought like $100
auction Crown Victoria automaticwelded the deal and he's pulling
tire wall tires off the tire wall AVS and changing them with
the Harbor Freight hand changer in the parking lot and running

(01:24:19):
laps and linking AVS in an automatic Crown Victoria.
And I was like, I like, that's cheaper than me, like I.
Can't bigger balls than I got. That's what I'm sure.
Like what's the only? Person I will like say that's
cheaper than I drive, like that's real.
Wow. That's wild.
And now he finally T5 swapped itand stuff, I think.
So he really that's OK. But that's the thing.

(01:24:40):
It's like, you know, I'll put him against some some pro
drivers or like, you know, but like good drivers in their fancy
cars and he's going to run a more consistent lap than they
are because he's a good driver. And that was another drift week
kind of thing too. I remember drift week 4, we went
to Hunnigan, which was super cool, like and it was like the
Compton one that wasn't really as popular.

(01:25:02):
I feel like, you know, kind of that, not like the main burn
yard, but still was super cool. But, and this kind of stuff
swings back into the takeover thing too, is watching like pro
like level guys and pro level cars try to do like first gear,
like tight car control stuff waslike mind boggling how bad some

(01:25:23):
people were at it. Like I was like, I know kids
from Antioch, some hood kids who've never been attracting
their life. They can take ASN 95 drop top
with a manual in a stock handbrake and run that lot and
make it just their bitch and just go crazy and put everyone
here to shame. And you guys in your pro cars
can't even like do some Donuts. Like it was like it was pretty.

(01:25:45):
Like cars are completely different level of monsters, but
I I get what you're saying, yeah.
You know, but still like it was,it was pretty, pretty wild.
And but then like Aaron Lossy, Aaron Lossy, fantastic driver,
like probably 1 of, you know, Aaron Lossy and his big fancy
car running awesome lines, you know, great, you know, great
driving. So it's like, you know, people

(01:26:06):
try to use the car as an excuse sometimes and it's like, car's a
car, you know? I get it.
There's some pretty crazy ones out there though.
You know, and that's like if I'll put a 15 inch wheel and an
18 inch wheel on a car and go, you know, and we're at the Toge
in Utah and people are scared todrive downhill and scared to
drive at night. And we're going downhill at
night on mismatched tires. No headlights.

(01:26:26):
Fuck it. Yeah, just kidding.
But yeah, so it's. I guess is there anything else
that you wanted to mention aboutall of whether it's the school
side of things or? I don't think so.
I think it's plugged to school pretty well for the most part.
We're definitely open to new drivers.
Like I said, all skill levels good.
You know, any, any demographic we do well.

(01:26:47):
Again, you can always look in the description.
I'll leave it down there if you do want to sign up or anything
like that. Maybe pressure them into not so
much more St. drifting. Maybe do a legal one which is
possible. Got to make a try to.
Separate it, you know? Yeah, yeah.
Hell yeah, dude. Well, I do want to say thank you
for making a stop here and doingan episode with me.

(01:27:09):
It's pretty cool. Share your story.
Yeah, thanks for having me. You know, I feel like I usually
got a lot to say. And like I said, you know, 15 is
full of a lot of the same opinions.
I feel like I have quite a bit of differing ones, you know, to
some point. But you know, it's all all the
same stuff. Little cool, cool ones, but we
get over it, you know? It's like, you know, we should
all be thrown faint and be driving like men, you know, but

(01:27:29):
I'm just like I said, I'm just I'm just cheap.
I'm as cheap as they come. So if there's kids like, you
know, that can't afford to do stuff the right way, ask me how
to do it, you know, like even ifyou want, you know, shoot me Adm
on Instagram, you know, uncle C time and like I love, you know,
people with questions for anything about cars, ZS, all
that kind of stuff. I like helping whoever I can,

(01:27:49):
you know, with whatever info I have to get them driving and,
you know, let them know that people.
I feel like people are always like, oh, you have to do this
and you have to do that. You know this isn't going to
work. And it's like you don't have,
you know, you can get by if you don't have the means.
You know you can get by and still do what you want to do and
learn along the way. Absolutely.
Well, cool dude. I really appreciate it.
And I've had some some good, good conversation.

(01:28:12):
So this is great. Of course, look below the video.
All that stuff is there if you want to get in contact with him.
And yeah, thanks again. Grab some merch, hit the
subscribe button if you haven't already, and of course, we'll
see each and every Sunday.

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Behind Illegal Street Drifting & Budget Drift Car Setups w/ Lucas Fournier | Circle of Drift #146

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Behind Illegal Street Drifting & Budget Drift Car Setups w/ Lucas Fournier | Circle of Drift #146