Import Alliance ATL - Behind the Event | Circle of Drift #138 - The Circle of Drift

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Because right now I'm like pedalto the floor.
Welcome back to the Circle of Drift podcast, where we
interview some of the most interesting personalities within
the industry. My name is Dawson and today we
have on multiple people where we'll hear from Paxton on S
chassis versus 4 chassis. It's going to sound obvious, but
I really want to go to the Mustang chassis.

(00:21):
Oh no, Sasha on low horsepower cars versus high horsepower
cars. I've gotten to drive like a
couple other cars lately, like my buddies one J, like 400
horsepower S13. It's always good to drive
different. That thing is a monster.
RJ on leaving the Jimmy Oaks crew and Scott on some SIM
related new products. I was full time with Jimmy for

(00:42):
almost five years, but I was a part of the channel since the
very beginning, so it was nine years.
We just did some new steering rules with triple oil for like
simulator specific. And plenty of more here on the
Circle Drift podcast. So don't forget to hit that
subscribe button down below. And without further ado, let's
get. Into the episode.
Yeah, I've been wanting this year forever.

(01:03):
I've been in the field with wherever they throw at me, brush
it off, pick myself up, moving on a little better.
Hey, Yeah, ain't no errors, baby.
Here's a new. Error all right, well, obviously
we're at import alliance and first one come on is Paxton so.
What's up guys? Been meaning to talk to you for
quite a while and Rob of course,but you know, so how are you

(01:23):
doing this weekend as far as Import Alliance goes?
I know you've been having a little bit of trouble.
It's been good. The event's been good.
A lot of people, a lot of cars. The car, on the other hand,
we've had some issues with. I've got about 8 to 10 laps in
so far. Just from Saturday.
It was good. First lap out, we just kind of
do a little shakedown with the car.

(01:44):
Everything was good. Second lap out we had a weird
failure with the dipstick. Sprayed oil everywhere, caused
the car to catch on fire so goodGod we got it back.
Went over. Thankfully we only melded like
one wire and just other than having this, but yeah.
Well, cool. All right, well, so for anyone
that doesn't understand What Caryou drive or have never seen

(02:07):
your face with the car, give a little bit of rundown on what it
is, what engines in it, all thatstuff.
So it is a 1995 Nissan 240SX S14blister kit, Texas speed Gen. 3
Coyote, Paxton supercharger, vengeance clutch, calamer
transmission, FDF suspension, front and rear take space

(02:29):
handbrake assembly, sicky handbrake handle.
I wouldn't say it's a prospect car, but it's a program
composition car. I would say it's virtually a
prospect car. It's damn near close enough.
What made you go with the Hemi platform on that?
Oh, sorry Coyote, did I just sayHemi?

(02:49):
My bad. Might be a little bit.
Better don't come for me. We want to be different.
We so originally the car supposed to be getting A2 JC and
we kind of fell over off that idea and our next choice was
like our next choice was like let's go 2 JS or LS, yeah.
And the common. Sense Dad's never been a Chevy

(03:09):
guy, he's always been a Ford guyand that was like.
Yeah, he always. Preaches LS everywhere.
Everywhere. And he was like, let's do
something Ford powered. So we got with Vengeance clutch
comp one and they were like let's try EcoBoost.
That was the first one. So we got to talk around.
This is back when Chelsea was originally doing the Fox Body.

(03:30):
Like when he was putting it together.
And there wasn't a whole, whole lot of support out for the cut
out for the eco boost, so we couldn't get to the power number
we wanted to. Do gym sports, doing some cool
shit with it. Now really as far as Eco Boost
goes, I was talking to them possibly doing 1 and I'm not
going to name the car yet because I don't want to give it
away for them, but actually Joshjust bleeped his part out.

(03:53):
OK. We're talking about doing one of
those because I have one just sitting in my driveway.
So it's a very, what do you, what is your opinion on the
EcoBoost platform comparative tolike other 4 cylinders in the
market, especially turbo 4 cylinders?
I think so. I love them.
I've heard the power I've I've never driven an EcoBoost car but
they say the power is very responsive.
There's a lot going on with themfrom what I've seen.

(04:16):
I superiorly I superiorly would still choose the Sr. over
anything or. Or.
KA like I've always just stuck with them.
Sounds are better every night. So are you all, have you always
been more into Nissan's then is that just kind of the right to?
That's what I got introduced to.So we came from drag racing and
we were always full blown drag cars and everything.

(04:37):
So when we got introduced to thedrift scene, that was kind of
introducing us to the JDM marketand everything.
And that's why I got introduced with the S14 and two 40s and
stuff, so. Like damn, that shit looks way
cooler. Oh no.
Oh well, how do you feel now that you own an S chassis in a
market that is like incredibly flooded in price range?

(04:58):
Like, how much would you even guess that car is worth now on
the open market? I honestly don't know.
You could ask any drift through that about their car and they're
like, I don't even want to. Know like it's hard to put a
price tag on it. Thanks to my partners and
everybody. We built the car for way
cheaper. If I had to resell it, I would
say 40 to 60 out of it. Damn, that's crazy dude.

(05:23):
Oh my God. I get sealed a shell with S
chassis prices. For two. 1003. 1000 more than
that. Did I see shells online for like
6 grand? What world are we living in at
this point? It's insane.
Well do you as far as we were talking about the engine
platform and everything. Sorry, my bad.

(05:44):
Do you ever see yourself jumpingaway from that platform and
going into possibly LS or comingback to the Jay-Z option?
One day, yeah, because I don't think I'll ever go LS, but the
Jay-Z would. Be I'll explain it.
Explain it why not LS? So we were around Brandon
Wicknick getting into a whole drift scene and he introduced us

(06:04):
to the Jay-Z platform and seeinghim take his like the shark card
at S13 cube and doing head gasket head studs making 506
hundred reliably issues. That was just like you can't,
you can do that for 5/3 or 4/8 or I mean unless you go six O 6.
Two which are. Out of this world now for
pricing, right? You just can't make reliable

(06:25):
power that easy. And they sound cool to me.
I love Jay-Z sounds. Jay-Z sounds.
Totally agree. Have you ever driven A Jay-Z
car? Yeah, I've been able to drift
it. Oh, OK, so you do get to drive
it sick. So then how as far as like the
driveability of a turbo car compared to what you drive now,
I mean you're virtually just on and off switch with this.
Oh yeah. So like, how was it dealing

(06:47):
with? Boost It was weird to get used
to because I've always been around NA and supercharged cars,
so driving something with a turbo I have to having to get
used to getting throttle a little bit earlier and
everything. Using the clutch a lot more,
yeah. Having a clutch kick, it's
really being. Able to surge, the turbo was
really odd for me, revving up inthe RPMS while you're just

(07:08):
floating the car. It took me a bit to grasp that a
little bit, but well, How long have you actually been in
drifting? How long have you personally
been driving? So I started driving back in
2021, 2020-2021. You're still fairly fresh dude.
You're a damn good driver for that young.
I started season 2 round one of clutch kickers like when season

(07:31):
2 kicked off of clutch. Kickers.
That was when. We've been around since round 3
of Clutch. I'd schedule everything off like
clutch kickers. How did you like it back in the
day compared to other events? I got to go to 1 fun day, it was
amazing. We used to go, so we lived in
Dothan, AL, so we were really close.
We were only like 45 minutes from the track from when it was

(07:53):
in Emerald Coast. We would go to every single
event and it was just the vibes were great.
Everybody out there was great. It was amazing.
What about those events though do you think made it stand out
compared to say FD or even like these events?
I feel like it wasn't as political to me, like comparing

(08:16):
it to FDI. Catch such a greater vibe at
Clutch Kickers and really any other grassroots competition?
Yeah, because music's playing. Everybody's running around,
acting a fool, having a fun timeafter parties, after all the
events. That's true.
Like Clutch Kickers, we used to go out to the Island Hotel after

(08:37):
all around, be a huge after party after, and it was awesome.
I mean. How do you feel about it coming
back or the possibility of it? I feel like it's going to be
good. I feel like it's going to take a
couple rounds to really bring everybody back.
I don't think the vibes are going to be the same.
It's. Not the same people.
It's hard to recreate that same vibe without the same exact

(08:59):
people. And I don't get me wrong, I love
mid pawn and I'm sure you've driven mid pawn plenty of times,
but like the track is good for it.
There's just not enough room either.
The the improvements to the track need to be better and I
think they'll it'll do great. But.
Will you? Will you be driving it when it
comes back? I plan on it.
Yeah, OK, cool. Damn dude, that's originally.

(09:21):
What my car was built for. That was the whole point of it
for. What's up?
That was the whole point of it. It was to drive Clutch Kickers
shit, and that's when Clutch Kickers went down.
We were like, OK, well we got a wide open range of building the
car. Now Clutch Kickers is back.
We're like, let's dedicate the car to Clutch Kickers again.
So what have you been I guess implementing in place of clutch

(09:44):
kickers for events and stuff since it went away?
Like what is the priority event now?
I really want to stay out towards so right now, of course,
we're just doing just these basic little fun days and track
days and stuff. I want to hit up some of the
money comps like money runs and everything.
I'd I wish we could hit up Riverside.

(10:06):
I don't know if they're bringingit back this year, but.
I don't think they're doing any more this year.
I know that the guys at Catch MyDrift that I just interviewed,
they do $10,000 payouts every every comp event.
I guess I think is what it was. It's essentially a $40,000
series. So next best to clutch kickers

(10:26):
in my opinion, right? And then even market it as that,
I told him. And I was like, dude just just
screwing up. Market it as $40,000, people
will come. Exactly.
But so we went out to Off Grid Motorsports Park a couple weeks
ago for their little competitionthat they did.
And we talked to one of the guysthat runs Catch My Drift as he
was telling me about the series.And I was like, this sounds, I

(10:47):
mean, this sounds good. They watch like a video drivers
it. Looks really good.
Hell yeah you should definitely try it.
Other than that though, what What comps do you hope to be
inviting yourself into? East Hens a big one for me too.
Really, who's The Who? Are some of the competition up
there that you're interested in like driving against?
Honestly, I don't know. I haven't looked at the list.

(11:11):
It's it's you always got a story.
Is he driving it? I think he's driving it this
year. I'm pretty.
Sure, Cono solo would be 1. Isn't Reese Conklin doing it?
Or. Won't he be healthy?
I think so, Correct me if I'm wrong obviously.
He's gotten into E46. I think it's, well, I think it's
down. Hell yeah.
Speaking of that, do you ever plan on changing chassis at all?

(11:33):
Like if there was a different chassis that you want to go to?
It's going to sound obvious if Ireally want to go to a Mustang
chassis. Oh no.
Oh no. I either want to go I have two
ways on the go. I either want to go Fox Body, I
want to go S550 like everybody. OK, that's what I was about to
ask with chassis. Why those?
I just love the way they look, that's what.

(11:54):
Get the Fox body. That's when we were in drag.
Racing, we were with the fox body.
That's the car we had small tirefox body and it was I don't know
if they've always looked good. Cash stop.
His looks amazing. Have you ever seen that car up
close and like really picked at it?
Is that kind of the concept you would go with?
Yeah, just kind of. I love the idea he has.
After the Japanese style body kit on three piece wheels.

(12:18):
It's just he's a hot boy bro andhe drives hard.
It's incredible how well that kid drives.
Love you cash, you're awesome. Oh yeah?
Well, with the age of SIM and everything, have you been
practicing and keeping up seat time on the SIM as well as in
the car or you kind of not have time?

(12:38):
So that's what I started originally on the SIM.
I drove on the SIM for about 3 years before I got into an
actual car. I'd say I picked it up pretty
fast, like it was a pretty easy switch over and anytime like
after work, every day after workI'll go and I'll drive for at
least 20 to 30 minutes just to get some type of seat time in.

(12:59):
I tried to as well. At least 1520 minutes.
Something like that keeps the the natural second nature alive
I guess. It is weird going from a car
though to the SIM like Oh yeah, after this weekend I'll go in
tomorrow sometime. I'll drive on the SIM.
I'll be like whoa, this is weird.
So do you think you would have comprehended the SIM as well as
you did if you started in the car first?

(13:21):
I don't think so. Why?
It's because you don't have the sense of the car.
I know there's so many things that you can feel in a car that
you still don't get on the SIM. So I've driven on motion Sims
and stuff. I've gotten like super realistic
feels and stuff from it and I don't think that I don't see it
being as easy to adapt. To I feel that what SIM rig are

(13:43):
you actually working with? What do?
You right now I'm on a fence, soI've always stuck the fan of
tech stuff. I drove on a club sport for a
very long time and I loved it and I just recently went over to
the DD and I want to go over to Moza.
Moza looks really good. Everybody seems to be talking
good about it and SIM Magic I believe coming out and it's

(14:04):
really. Good.
SIM Magic's been doing some crazy shit.
I mean, they're especially working with FD.
Like it's got to be product, good product.
You know, and I've driven on it like once or twice and it's.
What? Wheelbase was it, do you know?
I don't know. I'm not off the top of my head.
Because I'd be interested. They just came out with that
Alpha mini or something. I want to say it's smaller.

(14:27):
It's like, dude, it's. Tiny or it's like a weird.
Box. Yeah, I want to try that, see
how like I've heard all how wellit keeps up damn well.
As far as the SIM though, what is some techniques that you have
been able to progress a lot morejust physically because of the
SIM? I think really I got to think

(14:50):
about it for a second. For example, mine would be
transition timing. Yeah, really getting down.
I've really used it. So chasing for tandem and stuff,
chasing is always been a thing for me, yeah, such as using
transition timing and everythingto really catch up on cars.
I've really used to SIM to help on that.

(15:11):
But your basic stuff, left foot braking yeah, trying to get the
car to zones has really gave me an idea like getting on these
VDC tracks cars. I use VR headsets so.
I can. Really get a feel.
I drive an S chassis, I can get a feel.
How do you? Deal with.
It. So I've made the switch from VR
to the single monitor like 20 times.

(15:34):
I'll drive on the monitor for a little while and I'm going to
try to VR again. So I'll get on it, drive for a
week or two, get started gettingsick from it and getting a
weird. Feeling and I'm like I got quit
I got to take a break dude I I physically just can't handle it
I don't know what it is about the VR but it's 5 minutes in and
I'm like get out of my way I gotto get to the bathroom and.
Puke. My thing that throws me off the

(15:56):
most is not being able to see the handbrake in the shifter.
Oh yeah, yeah, like. Being blind from it the whole
time? Strange to me.
Be cool to have like almost an well, I guess that wouldn't
really work like the Apple Vision Pro where you can still
somewhat see through a little bit, but like only keep the

(16:17):
right or left corner, whichever,whichever you're doing right or
left hand drive. That would be kind of cool.
But huh, Well, where do you see as far as the progression of
drifting with SIM racing involved?
Like for example, you, you're a very young driver.
You're very good driver, especially for your age.

(16:38):
You're going to say that. I understand that.
But you are a good driver for your age and you have a very
capable car. You have a capable SIM rig.
You are progressing faster than say someone like James Dean
could at your age. So how do you think drifting is
going to be able to combat with that and the driver level and
skill level, all that stuff? So that's what talk about the

(17:01):
competition side. I think going to a Formula Drift
would be like, I think I see myself Formula Drift standpoint
one day, as long as I can get the backing for it.
Like I see myself personally being a insanely good driver one
day. That's bold to say.
I mean, I believe it like, cuz like I was mentioned in the SIM
stuff is you have so much opportunity to just continue to

(17:24):
train and it's relatively realistic.
So the skill level in drivers has exponentially jumped up
high. It's it's insane.
So. Because you have your driver
like hero hero. Yes, dude.
Insane. Yeah, he's absolute weapon for
his fucking ridiculous. I believe he drives on the SIM a
lot too. Like, Oh yeah, he started on the

(17:44):
same in his whole family. Yeah, they'll be they'll post
videos of them tandem in together, all in the same room
with all their massive rigs. I'm like, dude, we're screwed,
but we can't keep up. We're not this good.
It's. Crazy.
Yeah. I mean just for for example
whenever like that first month of you getting on a SIM, what

(18:06):
how drastic of a difference did your driving improve?
I would say it was a lot. It was different to me.
So when I got on the SIM, that was me learning to drive a stick
shift car, driving in general, because I started, I started
sending it like I think I want to say I was 11 years old, so I
was new to everything. Oh yeah, you started way too.

(18:29):
Damn dude, we're so fucked. You better get a SIM if you
ain't got one now. Oh well cool dude.
I love that. It's you can definitely see the
progression. So where I guess you just
mentioned formula Drift, Where do you see yourself in the next
couple years in order to get to that point?
I see myself kind of following the same path I'm currently

(18:52):
doing, hitting up all these school grassroots competitions
around. They seem like the best thing to
do right now and stand in terms of competition because the
money's there, the vibes are there.
Of course, you don't have to have a 1500 horsepower car to
compete. You don't have to have a half
million dollar team to be able to keep up with everybody.

(19:14):
Absolutely, as long as the grassroots competitions can keep
it in that point. Cool man.
Well you mentioned budget and stuff and marketing and having a
good program. So what are some things that you
have learned within the industry, especially being under
Nappy Boy and having all these connections?
What is something that's important to your program when
it comes to finding sponsors? Really putting myself out there

(19:38):
making friends with companies has seemed to have been that's
what I love having partners, butI will make like, I don't like
to be with a company if I can't be friends, if I can't be face
to face and hug them and be ableto just.
It's that type of have. Somebody I can call and talk to
and be like, hey, what's up, howyou doing so forth.

(19:59):
I think becoming friends with everybody is really, I see that
as more of opportunity than putting the card self out there,
right? I mean, not just to be real like
these companies are investing a lot in people.
So if I'm not at least somewhat on a friendship level with them,
I feel honestly bad taking any type of product to do, whether

(20:20):
I'm giving content back and stuff, obviously, But it's still
just, if there's no relationshipthere, it just doesn't seem
real. Yeah, you know, that's cool,
dude. I'm glad that things are working
out. I do want to ask about Vengeance
because obviously you're very heavily branded in Vengeance.
So what is the relationship there?
Why do you like their clutches so much?

(20:41):
So on and so forth. Going back to the power plant,
talking about the coyote, they're the reason we went
coyote. Really.
Because we were talking about the eco boost and we were like,
we don't want to do the eco boost because the power not
being there. So Chris Jewell, the owner of
Vengeance Clutch, he was like, let's do a coyote.
Let's be let's just do somethingreally different.

(21:02):
And Kelsey Rawlings and a coupleothers have started doing the S
chassis, have started doing the S chassis and we were like, why
not give it a try? Because V8 power is easy to
make. They're getting cheaper.
They're still expensive, but we were like, let's do that.
They have a clutch kit. They're stage 3 twin disc it's

(21:24):
insane. I've how much are those clutches
for that? They're running about 1100
dollars, 1200. Dollars.
Yeah, that makes sense. Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm
not. Right, right.
They're around that price. Range.
OK, well. Cool.
As far as I know, they're indestructible.
I mean. Never had any issues.
My my clutch has lasted longer than our previous motors have,
so we're we're. Supposed to.

(21:45):
That's always a good thing to have.
Hell yeah. You never want to mess with a
clutch. God, I no.
It's a job. That's definitely a job.
Well, cool, dude. Well, is there anything that you
want to mention that should be announced for this year?
Any exciting events coming up for you that people should look
forward to? We definitely, I think Speaking
of it now, we're going to try toget out some of the grid life

(22:06):
events. Catch us at Rd.
Away and South Carolina. I think we're going to be there.
Emo night, baby. That's a That's a bucket list
track for me. Oh, it's so good.
And you get the cart track too. Yeah, so running the high.
Speeds and. Being able to get really.
Good tandems on the cart tracks like superior for me tandem with
the road. Race guys too, you know.

(22:29):
And I, and I think we're going to get out to catch my drift.
I think that's one because it's not too far from here.
It's only, I think 6 hours. 7 hours.
Yeah, it's not horrible. It's not too too bad.
So, well, cool man. Well, I appreciate you stopping
by and chatting with me before the day gets too freaking crazy.
We'll have to definitely get a full episode going, but for
sure. Speaking of, if you guys have

(22:50):
any specific questions you wouldlike to ask him, leave those in
the comments and we'll follow that one up.
But appreciate it dude and for sure.
Sick man. Go have fun today.
We'll try to. Hell yeah.
Who? The hell to stop me?

(23:36):
All right. Well.
We got Scott Grib Royal, of course, back on the podcast.
So how's it going today? How's this event going, man?
Off to a good. Start yesterday.
We had good weather and I kind of had a rough start to the day
with the car. Luckily Mike and our buddy Mitch
are holding down the grip Royal booth so I don't have to work in
there. And we brought hot ice our S13,

(23:59):
pulled it off the trailer, realized I had broken something
due to my own neglect. Everybody leave me alone and.
Nope, we're doing it right and. Yeah, so I had a few, I battled
a couple demons to start the dayand luckily the guys at Cory
Works came through, brought me the part that I needed and about
noonish I was able to get the car sorted out there.

(24:22):
And then for the rest of the day, I mean me, I was Sasha,
Greg and I were pretty much doing 3 car tandems most of the
day, taking people for ride alongs, a lot of first time ride
alongs, which is awesome. Always a good.
Feeling. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And and yeah, the weather held up, which hopefully it does
today. It's looking like really gloomy
and I'm a little worried about that because my car doesn't have

(24:44):
wipers or defrosts or anything of that nature right next it.
Is I got something to truck? If you need I got some.
But like honestly the car gets so hot in the cabin it's like
the defrost is more. Of the issue than it is the.
Wipers so and yeah, I was developing or I wasn't really
our buddy Chris was developing this like.

(25:05):
Real slimmed. Down version of a of a defrost
system that we were going to mount into the car really.
Yeah, he, he designed all the like vent mounts and everything
that we would need is is it like.
S chassis specific? No, it's going to be.
Like a universal kit. I mean, yeah, the vent parts we
were going to have were going tobe specific to like the, the,

(25:26):
the duct up under the cow for the S chassis, of course.
But yeah, that that stuff's still sitting on a shelf where
it has been for like 3 years. So yeah, and it's still no
defrost. Get to it when we.
Get to it. Yeah, yeah.
And other things. Keep taking priority precedence
over that. So I get that, Yeah.
I mean, as long as the weather holds up, man, I am really

(25:48):
looking forward to the day and hopefully take some more people
for ride alongs and yeah, do some tandems with the boys and
call it a good day, you know? Absolutely.
Well, we got to talk a little bit about the issue because I've
had to say I've had throttle cable issues.
It's a common issue. You don't have to talk about it.
No, he's not putting the damn. Pedal stop correctly.

(26:09):
And yeah, I mean, I guess it's. Shared it could be helpful
information yeah so the pedal stop behind my accelerator on
the S13 is just essentially it'sjust compromised it's it's bent
it doesn't have some of the factory I mean I think it has a
part on it that I'm missing so now I have like a nut Sir with a

(26:29):
bolt in it and going through the.
Pedal No. Just like to.
Kind of stand off of the little like sheet metal piece.
That's how. I did mine, Yeah, the sheet
metal piece. Is like all warped and basically
if I if I get 2 in it and like mash mash all my body weight
into Hercules. Yeah, which?
I'm doing because it's the Sr. car.

(26:50):
So sometimes I get to, you know,I forget that like you can't
push the pedal further and. And so.
So yeah, if if that moves, then my pedal is basically
overextending the throttle cable.
And so the throttle cable are the on the throttle body, the
actual like wheel where the throttle cable attaches is, is

(27:13):
getting pulled like, I don't know what's, what's the right
word. Like it's, it's being stressed
in a way it's not supposed to and that compromises the rod
that goes through the throttle body.
And and so yesterday when I unloaded or Friday when I
unloaded the car, I realized my idol was off.
Popped the hood I had. Said the same thing to Sasha.

(27:33):
I was like, it sounds extremely quiet right now, and that's what
it. Was is the wheel was like moved
over a millimeter or two and, and so it wasn't really resting
completely on the, the the like set screw, right, the adjustment
screw. And so I was like, oh, that's
kind of weird. And I grabbed it and it like

(27:54):
pushed over a millimeter and I was like, yeah, oh, no.
I. Bet the rod is.
Wrapped up or. Something.
Yep, sure enough, pulled the. Cold pipe off and where the 2
screws are, which is another common issue, you know like if
you eat one of those screws, if it comes loose and you eat that,
it can cost you a motor. So yeah, pulled, pulled the cold
pipe off and looked at it, grabbed the wheel, pulled it and

(28:16):
the rod just separated around the bolt.
So luckily I caught it, you knowbeforehand, but unfortunately it
was 6 hours from home at the side of the track.
Not Corey works came in. Came through.
Yeah, Sebastian. Sebastian was at the.
Shop and and then later I actually broke an axle which was
probably compromised because I broke some stuff last weekend at

(28:39):
driven luck and I fixed everything and I was like oh,
this axle is probably good and should have known better, but
you know it is part of it. Yep and then like an idiot, I
didn't pack that axle. I looked in the trailer and was
like, oh, there's two axles in here and one of them's for Mike
Z. And then I had a.

(29:01):
Yeah, I had a passenger. Axle for my car, but they're
different lengths and I and the driver axle was the one that was
compromised. So once again, Sebastian had one
in his truck, so he came through.
And so yeah, so shout out to Sebastian.
Sebastian, you're the man. If you ever need parts.
Man, you let me know and if you guys need parts and he's at the

(29:23):
track, you better go. No, don't go holler at him.
Don't. Swarm his ass but but yeah.
Man, so that is a silly little issue, but again, it's kind of
one of those components. You can't go to the store and
buy it and they're getting so old, like, you know, shoot half
the guys here aren't running SRS, even if they're in an S
chassis. Yeah.

(29:43):
So it's I'll ask you this because.
Most people have asked me since I've had a throttle cable issue.
Yeah, why not E throttle so? Honestly, I was recommended that
recently when we were having this issue, especially with four
IS. Behind your back, yeah, 4 is
like, yeah you could. Just go drive by wire and I
didn't even know that was a thing for SRS now.

(30:06):
That. People have like adapted all
those components and, and, and Imean, it's also kind of one of
those things. I'm breaking this part because
of another issue. You know, the pedal stop could
be repaired. I could fix the route, but in
theory. With E throttle you don't
technically need a pedal stop right?
It's just open close. You're asking the wrong guy,

(30:28):
man. I don't, I don't know.
I don't have one. So force let us.
Know. Yeah, yeah, right.
But. But no, I mean, I just, I've
never had that problem before. It is really just down on the
firewall that that sheet metal needs to be reinforced,
modified, whatever it's compromised.
So that's where my issue is coming from.
It's not like the throttle body or the cable is the issue.
It's more or less me not fixing this other thing.

(30:50):
And you know, we all get it. Like I've had other things to
worry about and when that that thing's not giving me a problem,
I forget about it. So I need to just make a note
and address that and be more responsible with that issue to
prevent it from the from happening again.
Because yeah, I mean I've gone through like let's see, I've had

(31:11):
ASR card for like 18 years now and you know, different ones,
but been on the Sr. platform fora long time, never had this
issue before. And then in like the last four
months I've broken like 4 throttle bodies.
So that's insane. Yeah, so again.
It's stupid, but it's my own stupidity.
It's not. I can't blame it on a part.
So yeah, I could throw money at it and change to not have a

(31:33):
cable, but this still scares me.Personally, I like.
The cable, because I can go in the engine Bay and grab the
wheel like, you know, and maybe there's no you feel it you.
Feel it start fraying or something.
There's usually like some tightness on the cable and yeah,
but I mean. Again, I just.
I've never. Had issues with that, right.
I did have one time where I snapped cable that was more or

(31:55):
less poor alignment because of my brackets on my manifold.
So yeah. Dude I've been in the car in
some sketchy situations with each throttle as well.
So like I'm on the fence of I personally would rather have
cable that's more mechanical, easier to deal with I think.
But we were coming down my buddyMatt in his Godzilla S 197 down

(32:20):
NCM. So you know the little bowl turn
where it's like you got a sweeper and then it comes
downhill and then back uphill and it's a pretty steep drop and
like you transition pretty fast and right as he transitioned,
coming back uphill, throttle cutoff.
Yeah, like completely just lost it.

(32:41):
You have 0 throttle at all. And it almost washed us out into
the grass and then into the wall.
So I was like dude, even with a 1/2 ass cable throttle that just
frayed or something, which is probably what would have
happened in that instance, you still would have been able to
manage it and what would have. Been I mean what was the issue?
There like the sit like the pedal just died or something or

(33:03):
yeah. So it was the sensor on the
pedal is what ended up just going out, just went bad.
Yeah. And that's like, that's scary
because like you have no sign whatsoever.
Yeah, it's either working. Or it's not, you know, I don't
know. About it, but I don't know.
We'll see where the future leadsfor me because now I have like
spare cables and I have all kinds.

(33:24):
Of stuff in the. Trailer And like I said, I I do
kind of like, I guess there's really no purpose behind being
able to go in the engine Bay andlike, but I like that it's a
turbo car. Thing, I think, yeah.
I mean, it's cool to be talking.About the motor, standing in
front of it with someone and just be like, yeah, yeah, you
want to hear it? Like.
Yeah, yeah. But I guess.
Outside of that, I might be going drive, but I don't know.

(33:47):
I don't know. We'll figure it out.
We'll see. Either way there.
Either way, there's work and money to be done spent.
You know, work done and money tobe spent.
Absolutely. Time.
Typical one. Typical drifting car stuff.
So. Oh yeah.
Well. Other than that, how's the
business going? How's steering wheels and
everything? Yeah, everything's good, man.
Grip Royals doing well. We've got a couple new collabs
coming out and been doing some stuff with you, obviously.

(34:10):
Yeah, yeah. Kiss wheels, baby.
Yeah, and. Yeah, just trying to kind of
stay in our lane as usual and just do our thing and work with
people who appreciate us and andmake our little impact in the
industry however we can. And then outside of that, this
year we're doing a real hard push on Team Shriek, which is

(34:31):
the drift team. And where did that come from?
By the way, so Sasha. And I from Sasha, from Yankee
Special and I, we're just kind of like talking about doing a
team. And Mike and I have kind of
always wanted delivery, but I was like, I don't want like grip
Royal down the side of the car. Not to bash my own.
Brand. But like, yeah, it's just kind
of like wearing your own shirt if you're playing in the band at

(34:52):
your own show, it almost comes off a.
Little cringy, in a way, it's just.
It's just. Like everybody already kind of
associates the cars with Grip Royal because we're there with
the Grip Royal booth and we're the Grip Royal guys and you
know, it's just already affiliated.
So we don't need to like plastera sign up.
We don't need to plaster. Sign down the side and we want
something fun. You know, we wanted the team

(35:12):
name. That's fun and, and just kind of
reflects the fun we have with drifting.
And so Sasha and I were chattingand kind of came up with a
shriek thing. And then of course, he did all
the artistic side of everything.He did all the livery design,
the logo design. Dude's a madman.
Yeah, with art. He's an artistic.
Genius. Yeah, and then a bunch of.

(35:32):
The I mean, most of our team is kind of Memphis based and so
really it was just a bunch of the homies that, you know, we
know love to travel. They're investing in their cars,
they're investing in into drifting and their own programs,
whether they're, you know, they're not competing or
anything and they're just they're trying to do it right
and they're enjoying themselves and they're always a pleasure to

(35:53):
be around and they're helpful, you know, just they're good
guys. I've.
I've met them all myself, and every one of them I've had good
interactions with. They're the kind of guys.
Like when you're at an event andyou're pitted next to him or
you're in the pits or whatever that you can become friends with
very quickly. And, and so, yeah, everybody was
on board. We were like, hey, we got this

(36:13):
idea to do a team and what do you guys think about all doing
deliveries? We don't have to match.
It's really hard to get a bunch of people to match, make their
cars the exact same. So we're like, we'll just all
run the livery and have cool, hot cars.
I think that looks better, yeah.It keeps your like your
personality to the car. Yeah, yeah, different flavors.
For different folks, but like, we're all still together.

(36:35):
So it's the Skittles team. Yeah, and it.
And it works man. And yet you say the Skittles
team like I think of like the top garage guys.
Yeah, you know, like all. Their cars.
Bright colors, cool kits. They're rippers and in in any
time they go on track, you're like, I want to watch, you know,
so trying to aspire to be kind of like those guys.

(36:56):
And so is there like a goal? For final ballot and stuff like
that with it or is it just just homie yeah just you know we.
Always wanted our own thing and,and so it's finally happened.
So again, kind of joins resources and and have something
to lean on and help each other with and yeah, that's going
really well. So last weekend we were in river

(37:21):
at Riverside Chattanooga. Sasha and I got to show the
cars, do some driving. Now we're doing some driving out
here the weekend before that. I know Baron, Marcus and Rushan
went to Polecat for one of the eye track events out there.
And so like their three cars were out there representing team
streak and just, yeah, it kind of gives us another purpose to

(37:41):
help each other and share media and just against the brain on
each other to do it right and doit well.
But we don't all have to bear the weight of the whole effort,
right? Right.
And I for myself, I familiarize the shriek with RIP Royal.
So like you said, having the branding out at Polecat when
you're not even there. Yeah, I still relate Grip Royal

(38:05):
with it just because you're like, because I'm the, I would
say the main associator of it. But so is Shereek going to kind
of become a sister company to Grip Royal in a sense or is it
just kind of the team? It's just the team thing.
You know, and like Sasha's made some stuff and I've made some
stuff like some merch to kind ofgo with it.
And it's really just again, it'smore like we want our own, like

(38:26):
I'm wearing the shorts, like we want our own shorts.
So like we'll sell some to people, but like for the most
part it's for us. And and you know, like, it's
cool like doing ride alongs likeat an event like this where it's
not more about skill development, it's more about
like offering the experience to people.
And that way they can have like a keepsake if they want.

(38:48):
If they want to snag something because they enjoyed it so much
and want to represent us, that'scool.
And if not, no big deal. And yeah, so it's just just a
fun team. You know, we'll see where it
goes. And there's no intentions except
being a team. Yeah, well, sake.
Man, well as far as this event, you said you've done quite a few
ride alongs. How many have you done for

(39:10):
people? I don't I.
Don't know, I didn't keep counting or anything you know
of. Course I missed a.
Little bit, I had to make some repairs and things, but yeah, I
mean as many as we could. Every time we went out, we had a
outside of like first two laps where we were kind of working
out some kinks. Yeah, put somebody in the car.
And so there's a lot of first timers.
Right, a lot of first timers. Yeah, because, you know, I think
like events like this, you know,I, I know we came last year from

(39:32):
Fuel Fest. It was like, it's a big venue.
They do a lot of marketing and it brings in a large volume of
people. So with that, you're getting a
lot of people who have, they're familiar with the sport, they've
seen drifting, they've watched it from the stands and they're
kind of like, I want to ride. I want to ride in that monster
truck, you know, and, and yeah, so for us, you know, we could do

(39:54):
more. It's more of like how quickly
can we get through and do a lap and if we do more laps, we can
do more ride alongs, yeah. That just kind of goes with.
The event so I get it. Well, I guess you kind of hear
from, or I guess everyone has their own story really of taking
their first ride along. So from a driver's perspective,
what does it feel like to you togive someone their first ride

(40:17):
along? I don't really know if I have.
I mean, it's, it's like a it's fun, yeah, but it's it's.
But do you think at all? About like the effect you might
have on their life afterwards. I.
Think. About the effect more in like
the process of doing it, not so much like I'm not like after I

(40:38):
after they walk away, I'm not going like, and I wonder how
long they're going to think about that.
You know, it's more like, I justwant to make sure the.
Experience is good for. Them, you know, like I'll if I
don't have someone helping, I want to make sure I load them
in. Well, I'm giving them a lot of
guidance, try to make sure that they are comfortable because I
don't want someone like really nervous and uncomfortable in the

(41:00):
car. I don't want them to be in an
unsafe situation. So like right now with the car
we have it's buckets full cage, high door bars, high point 4
point harnesses. Yeah, so it's it's very raw.
So they get that full roller coaster experience this thing.
But you know, I want to make sure they got the harnesses on.

(41:20):
Well, I'm going to teach them how to get out of the harness
just to make sure. I'm telling them the only reason
that they should ever take this harness off is if there's a
fire, which. And then again, you kind of come
with that. And people are like, I mean,
think about if you got on a roller coaster and they're like,
hey man, all the time you take this off is if you're on fire,
you're like, wait, this thing catches on fire.

(41:41):
Like so that's a possibility. So to kind of give them.
That heads up Like, hey, like this is this is how you take
this off. The only reason we're going to
do that is if there's a fire andif they're we're not going to
have to worry about that. Yeah, we don't have to worry
about it, but I want you to knowhow to do it.
If we ever had an accident and that was the case.
So again, kind of hoping for thebest, expect the worst plan,

(42:05):
relaying that information to them, making sure they're
secure, making sure their helmetis on.
Well, a lot of people don't knowhow to put on a helmet.
They don't know how to do the strap and so just making sure
all that's good and doing it forthem instead of making them feel
like, you know, ignorant for notknowing how or something of that
nature. So I kind of just like.

(42:26):
Get them loaded and then I chat with them a good bit in the, you
know, if we're waiting in line or as we're cruising to the
track, you know, get their name.Have you ever ridden in a drift
car? What do you know about drifting?
You know, and just kind of get them chatting because again,
kind of break the ice, make themfeel comfortable that way they
can actually. Enjoy it, Yeah.
And then so. On edge.

(42:48):
Always. Nowadays.
People want to hold their phone and a lot of times I've told
people like don't. Just put that away.
Yeah, because honestly, the video is going to look like shit
and yeah, they don't know what they're.
Recording how it should be recorded all the time and then
you're. Not really enjoying the
experience and it goes quick, you know?
So yeah, but, but also now I get, especially if it's like 1

(43:11):
lap pass or something, I get people may want to like show
their family or show their friends and stuff like that.
So I try to tell people to hold their phone and then not look at
their phone, don't pay attentionto it.
Yeah, hold it in one spot. Hold your, hold your phone.
Look over it. Don't watch.
The phone, because you're going to dilute the experience for
yourself, records yourself. Yeah, I feel like that would be

(43:33):
better anyways. You get the reaction of yourself
and everything but but yeah. I mean, that's pretty much it,
you know, just trying to make itcomfortable and positive for
them right now because we're doing the team streak activation
here and in Juku Racing has kindof like teamed up with the team,
yeah. So we're doing like a little
like handing out stickers and stuff like that.

(43:53):
So when people come and ride, the booth looks incredible.
By the way, thank you. Shout out Sasha.
Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, we'll probably talk to
Sasha here in a minute and get his opinion on it too, but yeah,
yeah. Sasha killed it on the design
and it looks fantastic. So bright, colorful and fun.
And yeah, so like, same thing with the ride along experience
though, man. We, we do a ride along, we're

(44:14):
giving away stickers and like key chains and we've got our
merch hanging up. I gave a ride to a girl
yesterday who was a dirt track racer.
OK, she's been racing dirt trackfor like, I think she said three
or four years. And again, this goes back to
like just communicating with them or sitting there.
She had, she was gonna, she wants to get into drifting and

(44:38):
she was like, you know what's like a good way to Start
learning if we're not in an areawhere we can drive?
So recommending SIM driving, youknow, it's like it's a big
investment upfront, but it's going to save you a lot of money
in the long run and it'll make you a.
Better driver, faster. Yep, well, and.
You know, it's like more cost efficient if you're trying to be
a good driver in a two year timeperiod, go ahead and spend a

(45:00):
couple $1000 upfront and practice on that SIM.
Because if you're, if you don't have a track near you, you're
travelling, lodging, breaking stuff and maybe if your skill
level's lower, you're breaking stuff more frequently from going
off course and things of that nature.
So. Very quickly you can.
Spend a few $1000 getting into the sport, not only like
building your car, but I mean just trying to use a car.

(45:23):
And so giving her some recommendations there and then
she's like, I'm going to get a 350Z.
Maybe she even said she has one.And so we come back and Juku has
these noboris they sent us that have like S13 S 14 yeah, 350Z3.
70Z. Like a little silhouette.
Designs. Yeah, so like we come.
Back and she's all pumped and like hey thanks for writing and

(45:44):
you know we're say our goodbyes.I hop in the trailer and I'm
like, hey, this flag has a 350Z on and I think you're going to
like it. And she's like, that's.
So. Cool, dude.
Yeah, kind of. Doing that kind of stuff and
yeah, making it fun for the, forthe experience, absolutely.
Well, just for. Some I know.
That's kind of a lot of advice, but if you could pinpoint some

(46:06):
of the best advice for hosting your own ride alongs.
Because for me personally, I hada culture shock at Fuel Fest and
like it was you need a lot of help, yeah, in order to do stuff
like that. So if you could pinpoint what
are some key things that you should focus on when you are
having to host your own ride alongs?
Well, I mean, I think. Like cuz you know, we were both
at Fuel Fest. I think the difference there was

(46:27):
when they were doing ride along.So it was such a high demand and
the turnover rate was really, really demanding and fast.
So you kind of felt over the track layout made it so.
Fast man. Yep, Yep.
And, and like the way that you were loading people and where
you were wasn't necessarily in your pit, you know, it's kind of
on a, it's on a hot pit on track.

(46:48):
So and so you kind of couldn't even do it as one person because
there was, it was impossible, 20people.
Trying to ride. With you right now and then you
you can't you don't like have your own space really.
So you kind of needed that that helper to load in, take names,
take numbers, whatever to call people things of that nature.

(47:08):
So in a less stressful environment, I would say to just
communicate with everyone would be the best thing.
You know, if you got four peoplethat walk up at once, then you
kind of got to just ask them like, hey, can you guys like
make a line? Ironically, yesterday people
formed their own line at our booth and literally were just
waiting there in line. We didn't say anything.

(47:30):
They made their own line. And so when we came back, that's
impressive. Actually, yeah, we came back
from a run. And like, I was like, whoa, this
is cool. Oh yeah, dude.
Yeah, it's signed. Up.
Yeah, we. Came back from a.
Run. And I was like, all right guys,
you made your own line. That's awesome.
Like pumping them up. Because you know the worst.
Thing you can do is not acknowledge people.
Yeah, I totally. Get that in your own zone.

(47:52):
Worried about the car and I get it.
There's a time and a place whereyou know when someone's trying
to hey man, can I get a ride along?
You're literally like working onthe car.
You'd be like, hey, now, let me get to you in a second like, but
you want to say like, now's not the time, my guy.
Like, don't you see I have this turbo in my hand, you know, or
whatever, like it's not on the car anymore, man.

(48:13):
I'm gonna give you a. Ride but.
You know, I think just communicating with people and
you know, like I said, these people made their own line, So I
acknowledge that and just kind of mention, hey, that's awesome
that you guys did that. We see you.
We're going to get the next people in the car.
Thank you for waiting. We appreciate you wanting to
ride with us. You know, it's, it's really cool

(48:34):
you selected us out of all the cars that are here.
It does feel good. And you're waiting.
Like, I don't know, I hate standing in line.
Like, oh, I do too. Like I refuse to the only reason
I'm standing. In line is for a food truck and
even then I'm like man, I hope this tacos brother.
Yeah. Oh, this?
Is good man, I sure am hungry so.
Oh, that's awesome. Man, well, I'm glad the event's

(48:56):
going good. I'm glad you're getting some
ride alongs in. Is there anything special we
should look forward to in the future?
I know we've got the SIM wheels and stuff happening and all
that. We just did some new steering.
Wheels with grip oil for like simulator specific and to be
fair, like now that most people are on direct drive, you can run
any steering wheel. It's going to be able to handle

(49:18):
it just fine. But for your, you know, your
lighter setups that are using like gears and stuff like that,
which I believe is how those arebuilt.
But yeah, so a couple smaller wheels for like grip driving too
and. Yeah, like I said, we got a.
Couple collabs that'll drop soonthis year.
Other than that, man, we just got a full show schedule as

(49:38):
normal and we're trying to do asmuch as we can when we're at
home and then. Get.
On the road and then get back and play recovery.
It never ends. So what was the next?
Couple of string of events you got.
You. Would ask me that.
So next, the next event that I have is I think you're coming
here for Fuel Fest, right? I'll be here.

(49:59):
But I'll just be doing media forthat one, OK?
Yeah. So that same.
Weekend in Texas 144 like Nate Hamilton's company is going to
be hosting a drift event at Texas.
The. Motorsports Ranch is what it's
called. That sounds right.
Yeah, and it's. I think it's in Crescent, Texas.

(50:21):
Yes, Yes, yes, yes. Yes, and I think people.
Refer. To it as.
Crescent, yeah, yeah. But yeah, I've never been.
It's a road course. They actually have two Rd.
courses and we're fun. They're going to be hosting some
drifting in between, like the the road racing stuff and the
grip driving. Yeah, forget the different
classes that they have, but yeah, it's called Apex Fest, so

(50:43):
I'm going to be going to that and helping run operations there
and stuff. Dude really looking.
Forward to I want to. Go back out.
There, that track is a incredible.
Is it safe? I drove it last year and it's
incredible. OK, Yeah.
I heard it's got a lot of elevation.
They call it like the Texas togeor something, Yeah.
OK, it's. Very.
It's kind of like. You could almost resemble it a

(51:05):
little bit to Polecat. It's not as quite drastic as
elevation changes and stuff, notas pretty with all the trees and
everything. It's pretty open.
Yeah. Yeah.
But it's an incredible track. Yeah.
It looks really nice. I see that they.
Have like houses out there and Oh yeah, facility.
Itself is beautiful. Yeah, I'm stoked.
Man, just to check out a new spot, be kind of on the ground

(51:28):
level of what potentially could be more events at a new track.
Especially if it's a nice. Track that's always super cool
and a road course, you know, So yeah, I'm looking forward to
that and then. Honestly man, I have.
To look at my schedule, it's a bunch of the bunch of the stuff
that we go to over and over again, but you know, trying to
focus more on the events that allow us to bend, also allow us

(51:51):
to drive or showcase the cars. Doing a few of the slammed
enough shows this year too, which, you know, we're kind of
local to them, but they they tour all over the place.
So we don't really get to do drifting at all those events,
but it is cool to like go set upthe vendor booths, showcase the
cars and talk about the cars, bea little more present to discuss

(52:12):
drifting in in the cars and stuff.
So that's awesome, man. Well, cool.
I'm glad it's going well and I'mexcited to see how the season
goes. Yeah, man, Sorry.
This 15 minutes turned into like40.
You know when I get to talk? No, I'm cool with.
This dude, Yeah, I'm always downto chat with you.
So cool. Absolutely.
Well, I'll let you get back to it and let me get out of.
Here get Sasha by bro. Let's get Sasha in the sea.

(53:02):
Well, brother, we. Are here with Sasha Raevski.
Nailed it. Nailed.
It. Yes dude, it's always a hard
idea man I know so how's it going right import alliance
how's the event going for you car everything like that it's
going good it's. The first time I've been coming
to this event to vent for three years now.
It's the first time I've gotten to drive.

(53:25):
Really. Yeah.
How do you like the the the pavement out there?
That little parking lot she gritty.
At least it's not. Hot lab style, you'd be
destroying tires right now. Yeah, yeah, I went.
Through a pair in a little bit yesterday and.
We were. Just non-stop driving after

(53:45):
lunch. Car's doing good, you know, same
as she's just trucking along literally.
But give a little rundown. On the car, for anyone that
doesn't remember right now it's a 2000. 3 Lexus size 300 factory
manual. It's very simple build, solid

(54:06):
diff bushing, solid subframe bushings, coil overs from BC CNC
angle kit, FDF, high clearance tension arms for caster and yeah
and a BRZDIF and some conse wheels.
How do you like the? CNC kit, because I've been
seeing, I know we talked a little bit about this yesterday,
but I see it a lot, especially like on Drift HQ, they came out

(54:28):
with it, brought them on board. It's a Polish company.
Yeah. Well, it's, what do you think
about the kit? What do you think about their
parts overall? I don't have.
Any complaints? The only thing is like the since
it's a sandwich style kit it uses all OEM style stuff.
You just have to make sure you torque the bolts that go through
the knuckle into a factory spec which is like 88 foot pounds.

(54:51):
If you don't, they'll. Fall out.
Ask me how I know when did. That happen.
It happened about. I'll say it's like 3 months
after I installed the kit. Luckily it was in my driveway.
I went to back out and the the sandwich plate literally like
lifted off and pivoted on one ofthe the dowels and because 1
bolt was still in there but it like it just straight up sheared

(55:14):
the bolt. So it's not like the bolt fell
out, it just straight up shearedit.
Damn. Which was like whatever.
These are just a standard bolt. Yeah, it's a 20 year old.
Lexus Bolt? So a buddy of mine works at
Lexus. I ordered new ones and he was
like here's torch specs. I went click click click click.
I haven't had any issues since. The same thing with the tension
arms. I had the same issue with my FDF

(55:35):
arms yeah nothing against FDF great product It was I didn't
torque it to factory spec yeah cuz I me being me I was like
yeah oca doca, doca, doca and we're good to go I mean that's
all I've. Ever done?
I had the problems, but maybe Nissan is just like, yeah, they
need. Sloppier or something.
Else around their tolerances. Right, right.
But now the Lexus. Is good man just bone stock GE.

(55:57):
I added a header to it because of all the travel.
I'm scared of the catalytic converters, like clogging, but I
did notice like a nice like lower mid range, not necessarily
a pickup in horsepower, but lesslike resistance.
Yeah, because like under 4 grand, I could feel the cars
kind of waiting to get into it and then now it's just like it
just goes and then BBTI kicks inand it's like, yeah, there we

(56:20):
go. Yeah, so.
How much do those cars actually make?
Like how much power to 2:15 at the crank?
OK, so I was like, I'll be luckyif I have like 170 Volt
horsepower, yeah. So what I guess what tire sizes
and stuff are you running on that because how would make that
a very good comparable car to like a 350Z as a starter view?
Yeah, it's definitely very. Much like a three, a 350Z, just

(56:43):
less horsepower, right? Like AZ is definitely a lot
easier to drive like the IS. You really kind of have to like
you got to be mean to it. You got to like throw it around
and like just give it to the beans.
You have to drive it like a man.Yeah.
Yeah. Exactly, but I run, I made it
like since I'm wide bodied I runlike a 10 1/2 rear wheel.

(57:03):
Might be running 10 1/2 in this shit up.
Front too. Yeah, I had them at.
A driven lock. I had 10 1/2.
That's so insane to me. And just but how wide are your
overs? They're not that wide.
Oh wow, they're 50 mil. OK, OK, that makes much sense.
Yeah, yeah, cuz like. Stock, stock body like you run
like a nine and 1/2 + 38. Wow.
See, I run by nines all the way around.

(57:24):
Well, no, sorry, sorry. 9 1/2's in the rear nines up front yeah
I like a skinny tire up front it's very Yeah makes it more
agile for me like the. The 10 1/2's didn't really feel
any different. It's crazy.
So like if I put like right now,like I've got my actual drift
set up on the car. So I've got the Conse Nios in

(57:45):
the 9 + 22 up front with a 651 on yeah and then in the rear
I've got the 10 1/2 plus twelveswith like a 245, which I could
run a 255 or a 265 like a 400 tread Ware Yeah, you were doing
a stupid. Cold.
Yeah, it's a little. Rough, but.
Yeah, those were like, I can do it.

(58:06):
Those were the 200 tread wares that we had to crank those up.
But like the 400 tread wares andthe and 2:55?
Really. Driving the piss out of the car,
yeah. You were on the.
Worst tires? Up front, too.
It's stupid cold, right? You were on like street tires.
Yeah, I was on street. Tires like so like we had like a
front end slip there like this Ihad to air up the fronts to get
a little more slip because it was pivoting so hard and because

(58:29):
it's like just like driving around the.
Front. Yeah, just like the front end.
Just. Kick out real quick.
I'm like, I want to, I want to slide this out a little, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, we got it dialed in.After a few laps and after Scott
replaced his axle and all sorts of other stuff, I had an exhaust
bolt that left. Is this common?
That Y pipe is vibrate so hard because it's got like.

(58:50):
A transmission. Map it's like isolated so bumpy
and I. Drove the car. 12 hours here
with a trailer. Yeah, with a trailer.
OK, yeah. Explain.
That. Setup I forgot all about that so
you have the trailer actually onthe drift car.
Your drift car is your daily type deal and the thing goes
everywhere. Yeah, exactly.
So like. Since I travel then and like,

(59:11):
that's, you know, I, that's one of my main sources of income.
Like I was like, well, shit. I was like, it's hard to find
someone else to come with me anddrive the like my van and, you
know, load it up or like put thetrailer behind it and do all
this crap and like spend double the gas money because I don't
have a trailer to, you know, I have a truck and trailer to like
haul the car. So I was like.

(59:35):
Fuck it, let me do some Googling.
Fuck truck. Trailer Yeah, I looked it up and
I was like the. Car can handle a good amount of
weight like it's like a 3000 LB ton capacity and I was like
found the trailer hitch. I didn't like how it mounted
completely because it uses like the spare tire.
Well then that's like thin sheetmetal.
So I just added an extra quarterinch steel plate on the other
side. So I sandwiched it, made sure

(59:57):
it's all good, got the right hitch, and just make sure I
don't have too much tongue weight.
Like I raised, I raised the coilovers like 1/4 inch like that's.
Crazy and my buddy Mike. At MTR Motorsports, like he
built me a custom. Let him get it out.
Yeah, he built me a custom. Tire rack for the trailer it was

(01:00:19):
just a little open 5 by 10 yeah put trailer brakes on it to like
make it easier on the car that'ssmart because.
Like. Those brakes aren't, they're not
bad, but they're not like that beefy.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
And it's been killed. Like shout out to La Ron from
Twitch. Drift up, team up.
Soar with the gold. Soar.

(01:00:39):
Yeah, yeah, I know what you're. Talking about.
Yeah, man. He's the first person I ever saw
like doing that stuff and he's been, it reminds me of the
trailer that. Josiah just built Yeah, yeah,
way. Less way less sophisticated.
Yeah, he went. Josiah's is like mad.
Total like geek engineer on it Yeah, which love it.

(01:01:00):
It turned out fucking fantastic.Low key Josiah you.
Should like sell those as kits dude right?
DIY Weld it yourself kits. That would be sick.
People would buy it, absolutely.Especially for Drift Week, that
would be which I think that's what that trailer was built for.
Someone for Drift? Yeah, I think one of those
customers. Needed it for drift.
So cool dude I love. That you put conseys on it and

(01:01:20):
stuff. Yeah, yeah, I had to wrap.
You know, I had to wrap the brand.
You know, I love Chris and the brand and I was like bucket and
I had to, you know, tell them topaint match.
It or I just wrap match it. Oh wait, we are painting.
It Scott and I are going to paint it, it's going to get some
more stuff done because I've hadthis trailer for years.
Like we use it to like haul dirtand move random shit because my
wife's a flower farmer. That's right.

(01:01:42):
Yeah, she's a farmer. System of wild.
Makes. Sense.
So I was like. I'll still need this thing to
like do that task right? So I'm going to add some
expanded metal like in some of the openings to like make it
easier for that stuff and also safer for me to like haul shit
12 hours, 16 hours across the country.
Yeah and get a little tarp. But like, yeah, I had a little
trailer box to it, like and likekeep all my shit in there.

(01:02:06):
That's some spacers and put my Astros on it.
Yeah, because they got a little dent bent up after shipping.
So it's like don't want to run those with the amount of trailer
wheel but. They're perfect for the trailer,
totally. Fine.
Yeah and yeah. Dude, like I was thought it was
going to be like a real heavy load.
Yeah, You know, it's like maybe it's probably fully loaded up

(01:02:26):
for this trip, maybe 1600 lbs with the trailer.
That's not bad at all. No.
And I was like, oh. We'll see.
Dude the car did like 16 1/2 miles to the gallon What the
fuck. Yeah, that's crazy.
It's dumb. I was like, dude, the car.
Gets 20 miles on average. Yeah.
So it's like, that's way cheaperthan paying for a whole other
vehicle to like, tow my boot setup.

(01:02:47):
Yeah, I wouldn't do that. Fuck that.
And it's, I mean, you've seen the.
Boot setup. It's it's not a small boot
setup, Oh no, by the way. The boot setup is incredible.
I love it. You are a hell of an artist.
And like we mentioned on Scott'sportion of this podcast, the new
one for Shriek. Yeah, absolutely stunning.
Thank you. I love it.
I'm super stoked to. Like have gotten to do that
project and shout out to Anjuku for like enabling us and stuff

(01:03:12):
to support them. They support us and they've
been, you know, the number one like drip like place to buy
stuff for years. So it's like they were one of
the first. I think, yeah, like as far as
like the big main or I guess notmanufacturer like distributing
companies or what, you know whatI mean?
You guys know what I mean? Yeah, I just want them to.
Make some like I've been having them on making some IS300 parts.

(01:03:35):
I know it's expensive and stuff to do, but you know, they've
been doing a ton and they're new.
I've got to plug this because like I got their new MBSE
exhaust, the three inch cat back.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Boy.
That thing sounds smooth. Is it really?
Dude, it's quieter. Than the 2 1/4 exhaust that was

(01:03:57):
on the car. Oh shit.
Yeah, and it. Sounds that's so smooth it
doesn't sound like a VQ. Yeah, like a tin.
Can. Yeah, Yeah.
It's just like I. Get that like a real fat smooth
tone they've got like a more race version too right Which
kind of has the more like GT spec like muffler.
But since I, you know, drive my car 400,000 miles a year, I was

(01:04:18):
like, yeah, let me get let me get the quieter one.
Yeah, yeah, I. Get that dude, you'd have the
perfect drift week car right now.
Yeah, that's so cool. Yeah, mostly.
What's up? There you.
Go. Help A.
Brother out. Man, shit.
Well, I know you plan on going 2J or 1J.
Yeah, right. One J, OK.
Yeah, I think. Who was it?

(01:04:38):
Was it Ross going 2J or is he doing 1 J?
He's going non BBTI. Dash, I'm going BBTI.
OK, so explain. That when you plan on doing it
what like type of route with turbo set up like what do you
want to do with that Yeah, so I've got an.
N54 big box BMWZF transmission, queued up for it, set the shop,
picked one up. Why did you go that route?

(01:05:00):
Chris Nap. Oh, was.
There to talk to him. Because I was like, didn't want
to do CD because, like, the ISS really aren't that big of a car.
Yeah. And I would have to absolutely
obliterate my transmission tunnel and then also have to get
like, you know, they're like $800 transmissions, like
whatever. But then it's like which?

(01:05:20):
But which adapt for kit I want. Like I really like the fish kit
because it's like a full go downa rabbit hole.
Doing it, but it's like, oh, there's. 4 grand for that, you
know there's and I'm going to need a drive shaft regardless
like oh and then I need another $700.00 for the serial 9 shifter
kit. So it's like just to like
hopefully like make sure it fitsin the right spot.
I was like the ZF it's like thattransmission can handle 1200

(01:05:43):
horsepower all day. I'm never going to get close to
that. It's got great gear ratio.
It has an OverDrive and it's theDSSR, so I can like adjust it to
the exact length that I want it.And PMC makes the a JZX chassis
mounted shifter, which the IS has the same bolt pattern
because it's a J ZX110. Yeah.

(01:06:06):
So like I don't have to. Worry about that smaller package
like that. Would be and I can leave the
guibo. An OEM guibo on it to like take
some of that, absorb some of that shock man that.
'D be cool and it pairs perfectly.
With the with the stock manual diff which I still have the 372
so I put in a four damn near. Just pieced together because

(01:06:29):
Kristen apples like oh. Yeah, dude, I asked.
You saw the three siders, like get that, get this, get the PMC
kit, you're good to go. I'm like, what's up?
So how much total? In on all of those parts, do you
think you would be or are you I guess MSRP so.
Like the transmission I bought for 1500 bucks a single like
sprung clutch PMC kit for A1 JS like.

(01:06:53):
I think right about 15. $100 as well, OK, which is with?
The clutch. So it's like.
That's not bad at all. Yeah.
And then the 1J swap itself, we got 4500 bucks for a motor on
average. I don't like to do anything hard
I want. I was like, I'd rather spend the
money and make it plug and play.And I need a new harness anyways

(01:07:14):
because mine's wiring specialties.
Panic. Panic.
Panic makes. An.
Entire plug and play one J really link ECU Where are they?
Based out of you know, honestly,I.
Don't know but they're phenomenal.
Like I've had some KA stuff fromthem.
I've not heard much about them. They're killer dude.
They are like. Wizards with wiring I hate.
Wiring so. Dude, cool, I got.

(01:07:36):
My buddy to do and they're doinglike a jumper harness for his
CAA team. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And they've got a monsoon kit. And so they're like, yeah, here
you go, bam, bam, bam, bam, knock it all out.
They asked an insane amount of questions.
Of course. Yeah, wiring.
Specialties. Well, yeah, like this whole kit.
It's like it's a plug and play. Dropped it in, ECU goes into the

(01:07:57):
factory location. I still get to retain AC and
cruise control functionality. So like that's my biggest thing.
I could still use my stock dash.I'll probably switch to like a
Haltech IC7 or something. I don't do it.
Stock dash is a flex dude. Well, the problem is it's like
the. In the manual IS as it runs off

(01:08:17):
of a transmission speed sensor. Yeah, I got you.
Yeah. So like I would like to.
Keep the Altezza cluster. So I might just like maybe get
like a a GPS sensor and like tryand wire in that for the Speedo
yeah. But then I'll have two different
sensors, two different like input calibrators for the

(01:08:37):
Altezza since that's a 4 cylinder, What if you?
So if you're. Already getting the.
Harness though, why wouldn't that just have like a canvas
module to convert all of that? Yeah, because I'm pretty.
Sure mine I'm going to e-mail them because I don't know what
I'm talking about. So I'm just going to e-mail pan
and be like yeah, what can we doabout this?
You guys are way smarter than me.
I'm almost. Positive, the RB is a speed
sensor on the trans too and it converts it all forward so

(01:09:00):
that's the issue. Is like I don't the BMW doesn't
have that speed sensor, the BMW trance.
But no ZS have speed. Sensors on the wheels on the
back of the hub. Well, yes.
And then. These have ABS sensors, so
maybe? I could run.
Maybe I could run like. Don't take my word on that.
Maybe I could run like an ABS? Sensor GPS thing or something
like, I don't know, we'll figureit out regardless.

(01:09:21):
Like I'm not, it's got to be doable.
I'm not. Messed up about.
Running an IC seven, yeah, or something like that.
Or like a link link baby. Yeah, like I thought it's going
to be. A link ECU.
So it's like, would you do plug and play?
Or would you go like a full on like panic uses?
The G4X, Yeah. And.

(01:09:42):
That's a good ECU. Yeah, I love that one.
The the new ones that they came out with recently at PRI were
pretty impressive with some of the features and stuff you could
do with. Yeah, those are like.
But. Yeah, incredible.
Issues like if I was like, yeah,full race card and like all that
stuff, like for sure. But yeah, I'm not.
I love my plug and play. Does everything I need to have

(01:10:04):
all the sensors I want and then it works.
It's all I could ask for. Yeah, exactly.
You know what I mean? So like, you know, like safely.
Like for the 1J swap, it's probably going to cost me
another like 9 or 10 grand yeah to finish it, but like I'm just
extra about it and for the for along time like I'm probably just
going to run it with the stock turbo, crank it up a little.

(01:10:25):
I'll probably get like a new wastegate and stuff yeah, just
so I can run more boost in the factory trim.
Do you have a number you're? Looking to hit.
I mean if I can hit like 300. Wheel horsepower, I'll be
stoked. And then down the line, I'd
probably like to switch to like AG30 size turbo, keep it bottom
out, but I want one of those like super sick like.

(01:10:47):
Tubular manifold. That's bottom out that like
looks hot as hell. Like yeah, you said bottom out.
Yeah, or top mount bottom out gets to keep.
All the one J noises. OK, OK.
Like I want. That there's a dude on the
Internet who made his own on Instagram.
He's got a IS and it's a really,really cool looking manifold.
I'm like, I want that. Maybe I'll get like spoon to
like make it or something. But I'll have to be nice about

(01:11:09):
his carbine orange. So that's going to be hard for
me. That is a good he's.
Got a good orange? It's a good orange.
I've seen a lot worse, so that car's wicked.
He got. He let me drive it insanely
impressed. By that car, it's a, It's a,
it's a. Wicked car.
Oh yeah, so he gets his axle stuff sorted.
Apparently he. Did good, supposedly.

(01:11:29):
So good. I hope it works out.
Yeah, that thing. That thing's.
As a weapon for sure. Oh yeah.
Well, cool dude is what's the season looking like for you?
What's the next couple events and stuff Busy.
So yeah, we'll. Be doing team streak stuff over
at in Nashville in mid-april. Then I've got a private day for
my buddy's birthday Junius over at camps so it'll be my first

(01:11:52):
time driving camps which I'm excited for.
That's only like 3 1/2 hours forme.
That's crazy. Which is super.
Cool. I want to drive.
There eventually a couple like car show.
Like slammed enough events linedup for sure just to like sling
T-shirts. So help me fund this one J in my
life. So like, buy some T-shirts.
RJ is going to be fixing my website next month.

(01:12:14):
We got toe con. We got toe con.
Yeah, Toe Con coming up. Yeah, we got a bunch of events.
I want to try and come out to the Drift HQ.
Do it. Do it live for CMP.
Come out to some good lives. Too Bro got.
To I like. To they're expensive.
For me, man, and they're all so far away.
Oh yeah, it is true. You go to Texas?

(01:12:34):
Wait, no, it's not anymore. Did they ever do one in Texas?
Actually, I don't think that. Well, no.
There's dude, there's no mountains in Texas.
Well, I know that, but I swear there was.
Anyways, Yeah, we'll. Force them out to a grid life.
At some point, yeah, I've done grid life.
Midwest in the past, OK, so that's.

(01:12:56):
The good one anyways, but like, my car's not.
Caged or anything. So like, it's hard for me to
like justify doing that. Like it's a sick event.
South Carolina. Would be good, yeah, because you
get the road course and then youget the the CART track as well.
So the road course you can go fuck around on.
Exactly. That'd be perfect for me.
Like, yeah. I want to like speed up the cart
track I want to. Keep this car like.

(01:13:16):
More streetable like I'd like toif I get the one J done and like
get decent enough at driving andcan afford it.
I'd like to do Drift Indy streetleague next year.
Sick. Dude, definitely.
That's something like I really. Like drift Indy, I like doing
that. No star bash slash people.
Yeah, good people love Edgar. So like thing be really fun.

(01:13:37):
I'm not super competitive, but Ithink that's a type of serious
that's like competitive enough for me to like still have a lot
of fun because I don't give a shit if I get knocked out and
like, whatever, fuck it. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, some good ass drivers up there, man.
Yeah, that's. Really, that's all.
Like, I really need to get my chops down and luckily, like
driving with Scott and like thisweek boys, like, you know,
Tandem in that that stupid goal is my first time ever and we're

(01:14:01):
like 3. Laps.
And it was like, yeah, 6 car rent tandems, let's roll.
OK, Actually I think. I remember you saying that,
yeah. That's when you were first
starting with the left foot brake.
Yeah, kind of getting more comfortable.
With that and and really understanding it and I've gotten
to drive like a couple other cars lately, like my buddies one
J, like 400 horsepower, like S13.
It's always good to drive. Different setups.

(01:14:22):
That thing is a. Monster like I was like, man, I
cannot wait to have like, yeah, I need to finish my swab because
right. Now I'm like.
Pedal to the floors and then just no lift.
Oh, that's. Awesome, man.
Yeah. It's been fun, man.
It's been. Such a blast, like giving people

(01:14:43):
ride alongs all day yesterday and like and a lot of.
Newbies. Yeah, and like having a.
Blast. People are just like, dude, that
was wild. And like, cuz my car's so slow,
Scott gets to just like, really run up onto my door.
Yeah. And like, I could see him and
hear the turbo. Noises and hear the noises.
And like the people in the car, just like.
They're. Freaking the fuck.
Out. I love it, it's cool as shit.

(01:15:04):
It's such a cool feeling gettingto like show people.
That absolutely. I assume you do ride alongside
every event you go to, right? Yeah.
Especially like people. Ask and stuff like I'm not
opposed to it. I think it's fun, cool and it's
kind of show like. You don't need a crazy car, no.

(01:15:25):
And especially locally. I've done a couple of our local
airport events and have had other younger drivers and stuff
ride with me, right. And like or like people that are
wanting to get into drifting andthey're like, oh, is your car
turbo? And it's like, no man, this is
about as basic as you can get with this car.
Stock ass car. That looks cool.
I was like I. Put.
More effort and money into like making it look cool than

(01:15:47):
anything else. More important, yeah.
Kiss the barrier. Driven luck last week so I broke
a tail light broke half your heart a.
Little bit, you know, not really.
But The funny thing? Is really tail light as soon?
As I hit like I like. The car more now that it's got
scuffs on it. Adds character.
It's. Fine, yeah, It's just like for
me, I'm just. Like for me, it's like I.

(01:16:07):
Feel you, I'm not. Yeah, I'm not scared of it like.
Yeah, it's a beautiful car, but like, I didn't.
Want to be. Scared of it and be like oh I
can't do this because like I might get might might do
something and like till it gets to the point.
Where you're like, all right, I think this car has taken enough.
Yeah, it's a little banged up. Yeah.
Yeah, once it gets to. That point like, you know, she's
going to get cleaned up for sureand I'm going to keep her clean,
but it's like, you know, like the KBD kit, like I could have

(01:16:29):
got a new one, but like the amount of time it would have
taken to redo everything and allthis crap and like I still have
a business to run, especially ifyou're going to run the.
Same exact livery, Yeah. It's so hard to realign a livery
after that and I'm not the one having.
To cut it and and layer it yeah and all this crap and I'm it'll
be more expensive for the. Vinyl too, because you're not

(01:16:49):
getting as much cut Exactly. Well, like.
I mean I because y'all did all of them at.
Once and it became cheap as fuckto do it that way.
Yeah, yeah, I mean, but. Like I'm the one that buys it
all, all the material and stuff anyways and cuts it and layers
it. So it's like it's a shit load of
work on my end. And I'm like, I don't want to do
that. And so I was like, and then with
adding the trailer hitch, I needed that gap open anyway.

(01:17:11):
So I was like, fuck, we'll just cut this.
Because like after it's super cold, you know, with my exhaust
getting bashed in with, with Ross's door and stuff like it
just melted. Like it was like opening, OEM
opening and there was like melted all the way here.
So that's how mine was after. Pole Cat.
Cut all this out and it looks cool.

(01:17:32):
It still has like kind of like that street style, like begin
like aggressive kit. The hitch doesn't.
Stick out like a sore thumb. Either you don't actually put
the ball it's got. That weird euro boner thing.
That's a late dude. You ought.
To put a sign on it for while you're drifting, just a little,
like a little butt plug sign, you know?

(01:17:52):
Oh my God, how did he get some chocolates?
Hell yeah. Dude, well, I'm glad the event's
going good and I hope this season goes great for you.
Yeah, man, I'm excited to see. You at other events and yeah, we
got Toge Khan coming up September 19th and 20 yeah, so
luckily we got a little bit of time for that, but yeah, it's a

(01:18:12):
busy schedule this year. I think we got like 12 or 13
events lined up. Awesome.
It's. Good to hear.
Yeah, well, look forward to it man, and I hope it goes well.
Hell yeah. Appreciate you stopping by dude.

(01:18:53):
All right, well. Of course, we're back with RJ.
Very special. One new face to the channel.
But how's it going this weekend?You're here for Yankee Special.
Yep, you're running Yankee specials.
Booth, it's great. This is my first time in
Atlanta. Really.
Yeah. I think I've only ever driven
through Georgia before. I've never actually stopped.
So this is my first time here, OK.
It took me just as long to get from the hotel.

(01:19:16):
It took me just as long to get from the airport to our Airbnb
as it did for me to fly here from Connecticut.
Oh hell. No, two hours to fly.
In from Hartford to Atlanta, 2 hours like flat.
Took me 45 minutes to figure outhow to get out of the airport
and had to get to the rideshare rideshare area and then it was a
4550 minute Uber to the Airbnb. It's insane.

(01:19:40):
Dude, screw that. Yeah, I've been to Atlanta
several times because I don't live very far from it, but it's
always, it was confusing. I have.
Heard Atlanta is an hour from Atlanta and they were not
kidding. Yeah, did.
You get to go like experience downtown or no Atlanta right at
the airport. Just tried to get a Uber, figure
out where to go, and then it wasjust kind of like wearing a
hoodie and pants because you know, it was like 40° in

(01:20:02):
Connecticut and I landed here and it was 80.
So I was a little ill prepared for that when I got here.
Now I'm hot, I'm hungry, and I'magitated trying to figure out
where to go. With no.
Transportation. No transportation.
Sasha was still here. Doing his setup because I
couldn't get in early enough to come in and help set up.
So he's got me for breakdown butnot for the build up.
Gotcha. Well, cool.

(01:20:23):
Well, what do you think of import alliance because I assume
this is your first import alliance.
This is my first import alliance.
And so far, I guess my opinion is going to be very dull because
I have not left the booth. I.
Walked. 5 miles. Yesterday, in that booth, just
in a. Square.
So I haven't got a chance to walk around, but from when I did
show up the first day and I saw everyone kind of getting

(01:20:44):
together, I did notice that the quality of the builds was a
little bit higher than what I'veseen lately, which was nice.
Yeah, you do tend. To get more of like the show car
stuff here, it's not really Motorsports focused and all
that. Like even the merch that sells
is people want flashy stuff. Yeah, I've noticed that when.
I did. You get to poke around real
quick. Exactly.
Yeah. Well, cool.

(01:21:04):
We hope you get the get some time to actually go see if my if
my. Temporary weekend boss lets me
have another break, damn it. What a.
Slave driver, so there. Hell yeah.
Well, I know what most people want to hear from is like your
venture out of Jimmy and yeah, yeah, Oaks Garage and all of
that. So how has that been for you?

(01:21:24):
What's been going on? It's going good.
It's an odd. Transition because if most
people don't know, I was full time with Jimmy for almost five
years, but I was a part of the channel since the very
beginning, so it was nine years.So I had almost a decade there.
So it's quite the change up. I had full time jobs working on
things with him on the channel, helping film, working cars and

(01:21:44):
stuff, and then I transitioned into full time work.
So it's definitely taken some time to get used to and I'm
navigating through a couple other things just trying to
figure out what else I would like to do.
I'm doing a lot of more freelance stuff right now.
Like Sasha's hired me to come down here this weekend and give
him a hand with the booth and dosome merchandise stuff, help him
out with this website and a few other things.
So I'm doing that for a handful of other companies, while I kind

(01:22:05):
of figure it's a lot less stressful.
It's definitely. It's less stressful and it's
more stressful because you're trying to make your own schedule
and be responsible for yourself rather than just kind of help
out at one specific place. But it's definitely nice.
I've needed a break for a while and instead of just doing as
much car stuff as I would have done over the past couple years,
I've just been tucking some money away on the side so that

(01:22:26):
way I could be comfortable whileI try to figure things out.
Like I don't need to go have a full time job tomorrow.
I set myself up for, you know, like half a year just to be able
to really take my time and figure things out because we had
both had different plans on how we wanted things to go with
that. And there's no animosity between
Jimmy and I on anything that went through with my departure.
It was just as like, hey, you know what?
I think I'm going to go on a different course.

(01:22:47):
I'd like to try something else. I'm going to take my time and
figure it out that way. So yeah, it's just, it's slow
going. And I was like, people always
ask me like, what are you up to?I'm like, I don't know.
Right, I got things. How's the new gig going?
Yeah, they said. I'm like, I don't know.
What gig? Yeah, there's like.
Four or five of them. That's crazy.
I'm working with multiple companies, which is nice.
So a mix of like being freelanceand being in house.

(01:23:09):
Like there's one place that I'm there three or four days a week
helping out at a fabrication shop, Accurate Fabrication,
going in there, helping with their office work, doing their
website development and helping them like do basic day-to-day
things. Like they really needed to
update their scheduling system and figure out ways to bring
product in. So I go and I'm doing that.
That's near another company I'm dealing with.
Yeah. So basically it's just kind of

(01:23:29):
like I've always been really good at like someone needs
someone to come in and help bring them up to another level.
So they're like, I don't know how to do this, this and this.
Well, I don't know how to do that.
Let me come in, I'll run it through, give a couple months
and then you get the ground running.
It's almost like I could come inand someone's learning how to
ride a bike for the first time, and then I let them go one
second. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah. So is this all kind of
essentially what you were doing for Jimmy as well?

(01:23:51):
It's similar just to it. I came in and did.
I was doing all the back end work.
The website was designed and built up by me.
I was doing all the shipping andreceiving.
I was doing pretty much a majority of the product design
and getting the designs made, doing the ordering, like all of
the work that. Sucks dude, I commend you with
so much tedious stuff. All of it.
It's I hate it. It's a.

(01:24:12):
Lot it really helps to have a second set of hands to do that.
So like someone can focus on promotion, other things which I
was doing that as well, like a marketing side of it.
So I was just anything on the back end I was doing just to
have the other. Brain, yeah.
So that's the other side of a different perspective.
So in his case for being able tohave his mind.
Free to focus on creating content and working on the
builds and ordering parts and everything else like that.

(01:24:33):
Kind of have to like separate the two into two separate
businesses, if that makes any sense.
And then like have one person work on all that.
And then it was hard to split itinto smaller departments because
it was, you know, it's hard to finance that kind of capital to
have 10 people doing like the actual jobs.
I wore like 1015 hats when I wasthere.
It's just, I believe it. Dude I wholeheartedly believe

(01:24:55):
it, but it was good you. Know it was a good time.
I learned a lot and I came in not knowing the majority.
Like I had no idea where Shopifywas or ship station when I first
came in. So I learned all that from
scratch and now I've been helping other companies who are
just starting or need help updating it and getting that
going for them too. That's so good.
Dude, so like as far as like thejob itself though, cuz I feel

(01:25:17):
like a lot of outsiders that arejust look watching Jimmy all the
time yeah or watching any of these Youtubers all the time.
They see it as very glamorous. They see it all the highlight
reels of it. So as on your perspective going
into it. Did you ever see it as that?
Well, I had been with. It since 2016 from the very
first video, very first video, April 16th or sorry, April 6th,

(01:25:39):
2016. So it was like never even a
question. It was just I knew how it was
from the. Gecko We dropped the first video
on my birthday and like we had filmed it the night before and
put it together and it's just like back then I was a parts
manager at Cadillac. So I was going to his house
while he was home from college. Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
I get there Friday at like 6:00 PM when I got out of work and I

(01:25:59):
was there till 2:00 AM Friday, Saturday and Sunday until they
went back to school and I went back to work on Monday, working
on the car, putting things together and just doing stuff.
And then like hectic schedule. I did that for a while until
when I came on full time, I was helping film for a while and
then he kind of transitioned back into self filming because I
was really, really getting like deep into the business.
So I didn't have time to help film.

(01:26:20):
And then we got Austin. So it to me it was like I could
see how you would think it's just glamorous.
You're not doing anything, you're only having fun because
you only get to see the fun parts.
You don't see the tedious, daunting tasks that like little
tiny come week. To week that you have to.
Like take care of on that side because you only get to see what
we put out in the video. We like try to show it and a

(01:26:40):
more grounded aspect of what's real and not what's scripted,
but what's like, hey, for the camera, let's try to be in a
better mood for this. Right.
So I totally see how people onlysee it on the outside.
You're just seeing the best parts of it.
But there's ups and downs with everything.
Yeah, but I'm sure the. Exit to in that fashion and that
specific type of job, it is a little bit more controversial in

(01:27:03):
a sense and like not well, I guess not controversial, but
there's more talk behind it. People are curious more.
Oh yeah. So like it's not like cuz well.
They're always done a job. They always just see it as like,
oh man, which must have been going so good, why would you
leave? Well, it's just the same thing.
You don't see everything that goes on behind the scenes.
You don't see all the day-to-dayinteractions or whatever it is.
You know, there's a lot more conversation behind the scenes

(01:27:24):
than there are on camera and everybody's different.
There's and especially in this case where it's the business and
the YouTube and they're essentially separate but under
the same name, the avenues that they're going to go are totally
different. And as like I said, it's been 9
years for me and I've grown and changed and done a lot of stuff
in between that time. And so is Jim.
And it's just like you get to a scalability point where it's you

(01:27:45):
either have to. Get even bigger.
Or kind of figure out how to cutback and really focus on
maintaining what you have so that you could be, it's not just
more profitable, but be more efficient, right?
In those cases of us trying to figure those things out.
What I started to notice my lastyear there was when we were
doing it was, I don't think thatthis is how I want to go about

(01:28:05):
this anymore and that our ideas for the business became very
different. We went, we had very different
paths that we wanted to take forit, especially the amount of
time that we would spend around other companies that were more
successful than us or were coming up to our level.
He would see it as one way and Iwould see it as the other way.
I'd be like, OK, well, I don't want to do it like this, I want
to do it like that. And we were just on the opposite

(01:28:27):
side. Yeah, so.
Crossing paths that way, yeah. And not in a in a.
Bad sense. It was just that's how it goes
on there and like I said, peoplethink it's controversial because
there's like, Oh my God, did he left because he must be mad or
Jimmy must have fired him or this, this and that.
It was just no, it was like, hey, go sit down.
Let's talk about some stuff and figure out where we want to go,
because at the end of the day, it's like trying to figure out

(01:28:48):
what you want to do with your life.
And yeah, man, you think you're going to have it all figured out
by the time you're 21, but you're not.
Like, I'm going to be 31 next Sunday.
God, I bet. That feels crazy.
It does feel. Wild.
And it's a weird transition intobeing like, well, I thought that
my time there was going to be something I was going to do for
the rest of my life. And then all not, not all of a
sudden, but now it just turned into, you know what?

(01:29:10):
I really would like to try a couple other things and do
something else instead and then have to walk away from.
It was hard. Yeah, Yeah, at least.
You did it in a manner where it's reasonable on both parties.
And if you go and do all these other extracurricular things and
you hate them, I'm I guarantee you Jimmy would be more than
stoked to bring you back. We talked about a.
Bunch of stuff like that in the more or less.

(01:29:31):
And we both felt like it would be better.
Like when I told him that I wanted to leave, it wasn't that
he wasn't surprised, but he wasn't expecting it because he's
like, I know how you've been andwhat you've been wanting to do
and how you are and like how youthink.
And he goes, I want to see what's best for you.
And if you feel like this was best and you got my support 100%
from the other side of it now, that's super cool.

(01:29:51):
So it's we're, we're good. Jimmy's been one of my best
friends for a long time. We've known each other almost 18
years. So it's no different.
And honestly, for me, I got to apoint now where I did it, I
tried it, I liked it. And then now I'm not in love
with everything that I was doingand that I would like to try and
find something else. And even if that meant that I go
back to a more typical style nine to five job that I was

(01:30:14):
doing before, I'm OK with it as long as I'm really enjoying what
I'm investing myself into. And like I said, getting into
the point where what we were going to do with the business
was like, I really enjoyed it, but I didn't feel like I could
put my all into it anymore. And that was a problem for me.
Yeah. And it's no negative.
It's very respectable. On your, there's no negative
sense on. How that works?

(01:30:34):
But it's the same thing as everybody's got different tastes
and and whatnot, and I want to feel like I can really invest
myself into something. Well, that's good, yeah.
I'm glad we can paint the picture for a little bit more in
depth. I hope nobody.
Sees it in a in a negative lightbecause that's that's not what
it's about. It's just literally, it's not
business is personal. Like it's just a personal thing.
I feel like I'm on a different path for growth and things that

(01:30:56):
I want to do differently with mylife.
And you know, a lot of it will probably involve stuff outside
of Motorsports too, right? Well, since you've gained so
much knowledge on the back end of not just content but running
a business in general, yeah. What are some of the key feat or
key details that people should pay attention to when they are
starting their own business or trying to automate things or

(01:31:17):
whatever when they're trying to start?
Your own business, get ACPA, like get a good accountant,
someone to talk to, someone to bounce ideas off and you say
hey, I want to do this and they say no, that's how the
government you're an idiot shut.Up.
Yeah, because when I. Came in, there was a lot of that
stuff that I didn't know about and trying to learn some of that
stuff from the ground up is hard.
There are a lot more resources out there.
Don't be afraid to ask questionsand reach out.

(01:31:39):
And like you got to spend money where it's worth it.
Whereas like, yeah, marketing isdefinitely really good, but also
spending money on reliable information is definitely very
valuable. And then what do you mean by
reliable? Information.
Reliable information I guess. In my sense is like when you're
first starting out, there's likea lot of people like who are
going to be able to come in and say they can help you.
Whereas you, you kind of get a lot of like, I guess maybe in a

(01:32:00):
sense of like me doing some freeland stuff, you get a salesman
who's going to come in like, oh,I can help you do this, this and
this better off. Like I think in the beginning,
in my case, it made things easier if we were able to get an
accountant right off the RIP andspend money on that instead of
trying to immediately push the growth of the business by
getting more sales. I think we would have had a
little bit of an easier time with that growth if we had a
little bit more knowledge in thebeginning on how to run certain

(01:32:22):
things because we were hit wallsthat we would start to grow and
we would hit a wall and be like,well, what do we do about this
now? And then trying to figure it
out. Having like a good account would
really help us. Dude, what is an example?
Of one of those where if. 1. That you can share.
I don't, well, like a good thing.
For us was like growing really rapidly and selling across the
US and internationally and then learning about how you grow
really rapidly and then you're like, OK, I'm selling in all

(01:32:43):
these other States and then now I have to collect sales tax in
other states that aren't my local state.
And how does that work? And then you go into doing I've
like, I just maybe it could justbe for me personally, but I
noticed that there was a lot of more because I was more back end
stuff, more behind the scenes. There was so much stuff that
took up a majority of my time that I wasn't able to focus on

(01:33:04):
doing certain kinds of marketingpromotion and like brand build
up or like working on designs and other stuff with the website
because the back end of my stuffwas so taken over by trying to
deal with these other random things in the business.
Yeah, that's good. I think this is a lot of people,
they see us stuff on TikTok. They're like just go get your
LLC and you can take out a loan for like 50 grand and like go do

(01:33:26):
stuff, take all this stuff with.A grand much more involved with.
It that it's the stuff that willall of a sudden it's like April
and you're like all your taxes are due and then October hits
and then you're like, Oh my God,I have to do this, this and this
there. I think there's just same thing
as people see it as glamorous, easy and it's just fun.
You start your business, there'sstuff that doesn't hit you until
like a couple quarters in and you don't know what to do.

(01:33:48):
And I feel like that when you first start a business and
you're coming out, the reliable source of information is
important. 100% I. Just recently acquired an
accountant myself. Yep, and I can say it's a game
changer just being able to text someone and be like, is this
even smart? Yeah or what?
How do I need to categorize this?
Whatever the which in theory, like they'll just do it all

(01:34:10):
themselves for you. So I I totally agree.
I wish I would have fell into that sooner.
That's my big. I that's got to be my biggest
thing was like I say, I came in from like working in dealerships
and service and parts and stuff like that.
So a very general idea of like how the back end of a business
ran. And then when it came time to it
in there, both of us try to figure out and I'm like, we'll
figure it out, I'll save money, will do it ourselves like this.

(01:34:31):
And like between the bookkeepingyourself and anything to do with
like wasting more money. Taxes and stuff.
You're like, Oh my God, I'm spending.
So much time on this and we would have just had less
headache if we had gotten that information before because it
like you think it would be cut and dry and it's not.
And if you think the government is cool, the more you run your
own business, the more you hate them.
Every month that I had like something going on with that, I

(01:34:54):
was like, I hate these people. Now I get it.
Now I get why we have that revolution over 2%.
Absolutely. God damn.
It start another. One, yeah.
It is, it is. There is a lot of fun and games
involved with it, but there is so much more behind the scenes
that gets involved. Stuff that you're doing, stuff
that I'm doing, stuff that Sashadoes.
Anybody who runs the business, you get how much is on there.

(01:35:14):
So I don't want to discredit anybody from trying to start
their own business. Be smart, surround yourself with
the right people, ask the right questions.
Like do your, you could do a lotof stuff yourself, but it is OK
to reach out for help on those ends because that's the stuff
that will, like, not take you down, but it'll really take away
from your ability to focus on the stuff that's burn you out,
Yeah. It'll burn you out.

(01:35:35):
More than anything, you think? Absolutely, yeah.
Well that's really good advice dude, I appreciate that.
Can we ever expect you to get into drifting in drifting?
Yeah, no. Why I?
Don't drift, I know. You've.
You've kind of explained that a little bit in videos before, but
yeah, I just, it's not my thing.I don't really find it fun for

(01:35:55):
an extended period of time. Like I don't in my personal
opinion, I don't believe that the amount of effort that goes
into setting your car to go to the track day is worth the
reward of it just for my experience.
And like I've gone a bunch of times with Jim and he's throwing
the ZS at us. But like, here, go have fun.
Fantastic. But after like 1012 laps on my
hair, I'm kind of getting tired.I'm kind of bored.

(01:36:17):
I've always been more of an autocross kind of guy.
I like, I like that kind of thing.
First I like more of like I got to keep my car in control, then
trying to keep it control out ofcontrol.
And I've had one drift car I've driven a plethora of like
everybody else is saying, and it's fun, but it's just not for
me. It's not my cup of tea.
It's not what I really, really enjoy.

(01:36:38):
I love spectating it. I like going to the events, but
when it comes down to it, like Ijust don't have that much fun
with it. I would rather grip race.
I like the feel of like a lateral tree trying to pull you.
I like coming into a corner really tight and trying to keep
that speed up and like like boltout of it like that, that
everybody's got to each their own.
Like the drifting is definitely not the easiest thing.

(01:36:58):
I think anybody who wants to tryand pick it up can definitely
throw their weight around and have fun, but it's not something
that just like, I'm like, man, Igot it for you.
Yeah. It just doesn't click for me.
I always tell people I'm more ofa Sunday cruiser kind of guy,
like SUNDAE, because I really like ice cream.
Like I like, I want a nice fun car that I can get in and I can
take around to do my daily stuffand then go get ice cream when

(01:37:19):
I'm done. That's cool, man.
I. Love it.
I love it with all the drama between grip racing.
Y'all hate when I say grip racing and drifting?
Do you still think learning how to drift can help you with auto,
cross and grip racing in general?
I don't know. I don't really know if I have
anything off top of my head thatmakes me feel like they're

(01:37:41):
correlated. Really.
Yeah, there's nothing that's. Like speaking out to me, maybe
someone. Kicks sideways, like the
franticness of people that you know, I guess maybe when you're.
Like do an auto cross or grip and your car kicks like kicks
out. How to get yourself back in
Sure, but now there is there's really nothing in my head.
There's going to be someone who's going to say, oh, it is

(01:38:02):
like this would this would go together, But I don't really
think of anything in my head that like makes the.
Drifting and like grip. Racing go together.
It's always interesting. To hear, especially from someone
that's actually done both, Yeah,I can't stand when a grip racer
comes in and, like, shares theirpoint and gets so serious about
it, but they've never even trieddrifting.

(01:38:23):
And it's like, well, I mean, younever know, it might help.
Yeah, I can't. I really can't think of a thing.
And like, there's nothing comingoff my head.
In my head though, like, Oh yeah, these two things correlate
together, yeah. I'd rather you be that way
instead of just shoot me some bullshit.
Yeah, like if I don't. Know, I don't really feel like
talking about it. That's very.
If I don't know, then I don't know.
Oh yeah. Well, what does?

(01:38:43):
This year look like for you, what's the season like?
Events, a lot of travel. I'm going.
To be doing. A mix of like just part time
work, keep myself afloat with like bills and other stuff.
And then I'm working for a multitude of other companies.
So I'm going to be doing a lot of events like I'll be at.
I don't want to say where I'm going to be next weekend because
I want to leave it as a surprise.
So I'm going to be somewhere else next weekend.

(01:39:03):
Cool. I'll probably be at final about
final stage again. I'm supposed to go there with
Sasha and I'm out with this booth.
Nice. I'll be doing some stuff with
him for the Drift HQ 4th of Julyevent down in South Carolina.
I'll be going out to that one. I'll see you.
I'm going to do a road trip soon.
Take some time off for myself. That was like another big thing
about me not trying to dive right into another position,
another career or anything. I really wanted some free time

(01:39:25):
for me to kind of like refresh and reset.
So I was supposed to do that in January and I did not do it the
right way. So little road trip for.
Me and I'll. Be all over.
I'm excited. I'm kind of leaving everything
open for opportunity and it has been a knock in.
So I'm just kind of like lettingthis year like kind of happen as
it. Happens.
Yeah. Good.

(01:39:46):
Well, I sure do appreciate you making time, man.
I hope. Yeah, no problem.
Thank you for having me on here.And.
Get you that reset I need. Always good to have.
I need it. I'll be in the.
Mountains, that's where you won't.
You won't find me for a little while, but I'll be in the
mountains. Yeah.
Phones are laying by a river, soaking up the sun, grounding on
the earth. Good dude.
Well, thanks again. I really appreciate it.
Yeah. Now let's get you back before.

(01:40:07):
Stop. Yeah, get back before.
I get fired staying. Away.

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Import Alliance ATL - Behind the Event | Circle of Drift #138

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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;}Import Alliance ATL - Behind the Event | Circle of Drift #138