Acura Long Beach Grand Prix with Andre Mullins | EP 323
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Company
right on and right Toyota
That’s the name of a Toyota dealership sponsoring this part of the podcast.
Concept
parade lap
A parade lap is a non-racing lap where cars drive around the track more for celebration than competition.
Term
lift
A lift is the machine in a garage that raises a car off the ground for work. “Off the lift” means the car was moved while it was up, which is risky and can cause damage.
Car
Acura NSX
The Acura NSX is Acura’s high-end sports car. In the episode, they’re lifting it up so they can work on it safely.
Car
Acura Integra
An Acura Integra is a small sporty Acura. Here, the person is saying they had to move their Integra off a lift before they could put a different car up.
Term
rear tire falls off the track
They say the back tire left the driving surface. When that happens on a course, the car can get stuck or end up in a dangerous position.
Term
driver rear
They’re talking about which back corner of the car is the problem—on the driver’s side versus the passenger side. That matters because the clearance and obstacles will be different on each side.
Term
reverse
They tried changing gears to get the car to move again. They started in reverse, then switched to first gear, but nothing happened because the car was stuck.
Term
first
First gear is the lowest gear for getting moving slowly. They tried it to make the car move, but it still wouldn’t budge.
Term
jack
A jack is what you use to lift a car off the ground. They couldn’t use one in the usual spot because of how the NSX is shaped, and lifting it wrong could be unsafe or damage the car.
Term
cockpit
They mean the space where the driver sits. They’re saying the driver area isn’t very large, which can make an emergency feel even more cramped.
Term
traction
Traction is how well the tires can grip the ground. If there isn’t enough grip, the car can’t move and you can get stuck.
Part
pinch weld
Pinch welds are reinforced spots on the car’s frame/body meant for jacking. Putting the jack there helps avoid bending or cracking the wrong part of the car.
Part
cranking tools
Cranking tools are the parts you use to turn the jack’s handle. If the jack is wedged in a tight spot, you may not be able to use the crank normally.
Part
drip pan
A drip pan is a tray that catches oil or other fluids so they don’t spill on the floor. It sounds like the lift has a part underneath that acts like that.
Concept
cardboard
Cardboard is being used as a sacrificial buffer between the car and whatever it’s contacting. The speaker later notes a “brush” mark where the cardboard rubbed, implying it protected the car from more serious damage.
Concept
particle board
Particle board is a cheap, flat wood product. They’re using it like a temporary spacer to help the car clear something safely.
Topic
gear
“Gear” here likely means the event stuff you get—like shirts or other branded items—rather than car parts.
Term
hookup
“Hookup” here just means a special favor or connection. They’re saying it wasn’t literally free, but it was arranged in a way that made it easier.
Brand
Torrance Honda cars and bikes
They’re talking about a local Honda dealership in Torrance. It’s where the car was shown or used for an event.
Term
oil life
“Oil life” is the car’s way of telling you when it thinks the engine oil is getting worn out. If it says you have 20% left, it usually means you should plan an oil change soon.
Topic
gas station queueing
They’re talking about what happens when a gas station is really busy—cars line up and it changes how people fuel. They mention ways to avoid getting stuck waiting in line.
Term
pay at the pump
It means you pay for gas right at the pump instead of walking into the store. When it’s busy, paying at the pump usually saves time.
Brand
Morongo
They’re talking about a specific place called Morongo where they stop for gas. They pick it because the prices are better and it’s easier to get in and out.
Concept
gas prices
They’re talking about how expensive gas is in different places. If one area’s gas is cheaper, it can make sense to stop there instead of paying more later.
Concept
state line
They’re talking about refueling right around when you cross into a new state. Gas prices can be different from one state to the next, so it can affect where you stop.
Concept
travel center
A travel center is a big roadside stop that usually has gas pumps plus services like food. It’s meant for drivers who need to refuel and keep moving.
Concept
lines
They’re describing how busy the gas station can get, with long lines of cars waiting to pump gas. Even if the price is good, the wait can be a downside.
Concept
fuel up
“Fuel up” just means you stop and put gas in your car. They’re saying the setup makes it easier to get in, fill up, and leave without getting stuck.
Term
digital
They’re saying the gas pumps are modern and electronic. Instead of older manual controls, the pump uses a digital screen to help you pay and pump.
Term
tags
“Tags” here means the car’s identifying plate/registration-style item. The speaker is saying it slipped under the car, so it was hard to deal with.
Term
key fob
A key fob is the little remote you use to lock/unlock your car, and often to start it too. If you lose it, the car may not let you drive.
Term
parking pass
A parking pass is a ticket/credential that lets you park where you’re supposed to. Here, it somehow slipped under the seat and got stuck in a hard-to-reach spot.
Term
exhaust monitoring
Some areas use cameras or sensors to measure how loud a car’s exhaust is. If it’s louder than the legal limit, the driver can get a ticket.
Concept
exhaust tickets
An “exhaust ticket” is a fine for having an exhaust that’s too loud. The police or sensors can tell when a particular car is louder than allowed.
Term
sport plus mode
Sport Plus is a button you can press that makes the car feel more “eager.” It usually changes how quickly the car responds when you press the gas and how it drives overall.
Term
EV mode
EV mode tries to run the car using electricity only. If the battery isn’t full or gets low, the car may switch back to the gas engine.
Term
turbo drive leader
This phrase doesn’t clearly refer to a car setting. It seems like a name for the person who leads the group and helps others follow the right pace and direction.
Term
downshift
Downshifting means putting the car into a lower gear. That makes the engine spin faster and can help slow you down without using the brakes as much.
Term
engine break
Engine braking is when you slow down using the engine instead of pressing the brake pedal. It can make your car slow more smoothly, and sometimes your brake lights won’t come on as much.
Concept
keep right
“Keep right” means if you’re not passing, you should stay in the right lane. The left lane is mainly for going around other cars.
Concept
left lane squatting
It means someone hangs out in the left lane even though they’re not passing anyone. That can make traffic worse for drivers behind them.
Term
radar shield
“Radar shield” is a slang term for when one car in front takes the attention from radar, and the cars behind it are less likely to be targeted. It’s like using the lead car as a buffer.
Concept
cruise control
Cruise control is a feature that keeps your car at a set speed. Here, the driver is saying they try not to constantly change that setting while matching traffic.
Company
Flying J's
Flying J’s is a roadside truck stop. People often stop there for gas and snacks, and the speaker uses it as part of their trip routine.
Company
Cinnabon
Cinnabon is a food brand famous for cinnamon rolls. The speaker is talking about stopping for the treat while traveling.
Company
Unicale
They mention another gas stop right after Flying J’s. The exact name is unclear in the transcript, but it’s part of their fuel-stop plan.
Car
Nsx Type S
The Acura NSX is a sports car designed for performance. People often recognize it by its styling, including its headlights. In this podcast, it sounds like the NSX is being used as a reference point for how a vehicle looks.
Topic
roundabout situation
They’re talking about a driving situation like a roundabout, where cars go around in a circle and then take their exit. That kind of layout affects who gets where first and how hard it is to make moves.
Term
driver side tail light
The driver-side tail light is the back light on the same side as the driver. If it’s “gimpy” or not working right, other drivers may not see your car’s signals clearly.
Term
final drive ratio
Final drive ratio is a gearing setting that changes how the car’s power gets to the wheels. A “shorter” ratio helps the car feel quicker, while a “taller” ratio can lower engine RPM at highway speeds.
Concept
Blackhawk crew chief type stuff
In racing, a crew chief is the person who guides the team’s strategy and technical decisions. When they say “crew chief type stuff,” they mean the kind of detailed racing talk that affects how the car performs on track.
Concept
chassis
“Chassis” is basically the car’s foundation—its frame and how it’s set up to handle turns. Two cars with similar power can feel totally different because their “foundation” is different.
Concept
power through turns
This is about what happens when you’re turning and also accelerating or braking. The tires have to do multiple jobs at once, so the car’s setup matters a lot for how smooth and controllable it feels.
Term
horsepower
Horsepower is a number that describes how much power the engine can make. More horsepower can help, but it doesn’t automatically mean the car is more fun to drive.
Car
Porsche 911
“GT4” is another track-focused Porsche 911. It’s built to be fun and capable on a circuit, usually with a bit less hardcore racing focus than the GT3.
Car
Mark four Supra
They’re talking about a Toyota Supra from the 1990s (roughly 1993 to 1998). It’s a very well-known sports car that a lot of car fans modify and talk about.
Topic
Roger
They’re mentioning a specific spot/road name (“Roger”) where people like to drive their cars. It’s part of the story about the area and why you have to be careful.
Topic
Acura lounge
The Acura lounge is a special guest area for the Acura event. They’re talking about how the rules for getting in changed and caused issues for people trying to enter.
Concept
fire marshal
A fire marshal is the person who makes sure an event follows fire-safety rules. They can restrict how many people are allowed in an area, so event staff have to follow the limits.
Part
engine block
The engine block is the big main metal part of an engine. It’s where the cylinders are, and it supports a lot of the other engine parts.
Term
grandstand tickets
Grandstand tickets are seats in the main spectator stands along the track. They’re talking about how expensive those seats are and how that impacts attendance.
Topic
Acura Long Beach Grand Prix
This is a big racing event in Long Beach. The hosts are describing what happens on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday during the race weekend.
Term
qualifying
Qualifying is when drivers race against the clock to earn their starting position for the main race. Faster laps usually mean you start closer to the front.
Topic
walk around
A “walk around” just means walking around the car in person to look closely at it. People do it at events to check out details before/after photos.
Brand
Acura Honda
They’re talking about Acura Honda as the group putting on the event setup. It’s why people could line up to get into the race cars and take photos.
Brand
NSX Club of America
This is a club for people who really like the Acura NSX. If you’re the president, you’re basically a leader in that community, which can sometimes come with special event access.
Topic
Paralympics
The Paralympics are the Olympic-style games for athletes with disabilities. The hosts mention them to explain who the sponsor athletes are and why they’re at the event.
Concept
Pikes Peak
Pikes Peak is a well-known race where cars drive up a steep mountain road as fast as possible. It’s considered a tough test of driving skill and car setup.
Concept
drift
Drifting is a driving style where the car is intentionally steered so the rear tires lose grip while the driver maintains control through the corner. It’s judged on things like angle, smoothness, and how well the driver keeps speed while sliding.
Concept
engine room
On a boat, the “engine room” is the space where the main engine(s) live. That’s where maintenance and repairs usually happen.
Term
diesel engines
A diesel engine works by squeezing air really hard so it gets hot, then fuel ignites from that heat. It’s often used in bigger vehicles because it can pull strongly and go farther on fuel.
Topic
Road America
Road America is a famous race track in Wisconsin. The episode is referencing where the group was during the event.
Term
Chromies
“Chromies” just means wheels with a shiny chrome finish. The person thinks the chrome look doesn’t match the car as well as the original wheel style.
Term
fat five
“Fat five” sounds like a nickname for a certain wheel design, probably a wider five-spoke look. They’re saying most people don’t like it, and they personally prefer the simpler silver version.
Concept
on track
“On track” just means you’re driving on the race course, not regular streets. It’s a safer, controlled place where people can drive faster and learn the course.
Concept
raffle off an opportunity
They’re saying the event randomly picks winners for a chance to do something special. In this case, it’s tied to getting time or access related to the track.
Car
Vulcan Aston Martin Vulcan
The Aston Martin Vulcan is a rare Aston Martin supercar built mainly for track use. People recognize it because it looks and sounds like a serious performance machine.
Topic
Highline
They’re talking about “Highline” as a place where you can go see lots of rare, expensive cars. The point is that it’s easier to see them there than at other events.
Concept
vintage cars
“Vintage cars” are older cars from past eras. At events like this, they’re usually brought out for a limited run or special showcase instead of racing like the newest cars.
Term
turn our cars sideways
This means the car starts to rotate so it’s not pointing where it’s going. Drivers try to avoid that because it can make the car harder to control and slower through the turn.
Term
manual mode
Manual mode lets you pick the gear yourself instead of the car automatically shifting. People use it to feel more in control and sometimes to keep the engine sounding the way they want.
Car
Koenigsegg Jesko
The Koenigsegg Jesko is an extremely expensive, very fast supercar. The speaker is basically saying their car sounded good compared to how loud the Jesko was.
Part
down pipes
Downpipes are part of the exhaust system that help carry exhaust gases out of the engine. Changing them can make the car louder and sometimes improve how it breathes.
Term
stick shift
A “stick shift” is a car you drive with a manual gear lever. You use a clutch pedal to change gears, and if you don’t coordinate it right, the engine can stall.
Term
stall
A “stall” is when the engine shuts off while you’re driving. In a manual car, it can happen if you let the clutch out too fast or don’t give the engine enough to keep running.
Topic
Follow the leader
“Follow the leader” describes a driving format where one car sets the pace and the others maintain spacing and mirror the route/inputs. It’s common in events and training to reduce decision-making while building consistency.
Topic
SEMA parade
SEMA is a big car show for aftermarket parts and enthusiasts. A “parade” here means a group drive through public areas tied to the show.
Concept
converted racetrack
They’re describing a route that’s temporarily set up for racing. Even though it’s in the city, it gets turned into a track-like course for the event.
Topic
wristbands
Wristbands are how events check who’s allowed into certain areas. The speaker is saying they made sure everyone had them so they could get to the right place.
Company
HRC
HRC stands for Honda Racing Corporation. It’s the part of Honda that focuses on racing and performance development.
Car
civic
The Honda Civic is a popular everyday car. They’re just saying you don’t have to be an NSX owner to enjoy the event and talk about cars.
Concept
rebuilt and running on that track
They’re saying the car was restored and made to work again, not just look good. And they’re impressed it could actually run on a real track.
Company
Cuy Automotive
They thank a company called Cuy Automotive. It’s listed as a supporter of the podcast.
LIVE
I drove my NSX off the lift.
Okay.
So how does that happen?
This is hard parking brought to you by right on and right Toyota out of
Scottsdale, Arizona.
Of course, I'm your host, Jay Finning, recording from my home studio here in
Gilbert, Arizona, coming up on today's show.
As promised on the last episode, Andre Mullins came over after the
Acura Long Beach Grand Prix and we sat in here.
We drank some bourbon and we talked about our exciting trip.
You know, they were celebrating day as an Acura was celebrating the 40th
anniversary and through my connections and relationships, I received a call
kind of last minute and I was able to assemble a small team of NSX owners
to drive our cars out there and the parade lap was awesome.
You're going to hear all about it, but it's kind of one of those things
where, you know, just being a good person.
I mean, being a good networker helps, right?
Being the president of the NSX club of America helps too, but just being a
good person, you know, almost anything beneficial that has come to me in my life
has come through my personal relationships in one way or the other.
And I'm just so thankful and grateful that I'm able to have those
type of relationships in my life.
Some of you watching and listening to this every week are part of those
connections for me and connections is weird, right?
Because connections are so impersonal, but I would say the relationships
that I've garnered over the years through connections.
And so when we talk about our trip to Long Beach, it's very, we have a lot
of side quests, there's going to be a lot of skipping around and we don't
focus as much on the cars who raced what and who won.
There's better podcasts for that, but it's more of the experience.
And so again, hopefully you guys feel like you were there with us.
And without any further ado, let's jump to that conversation I have
with Dre Mullins here in studio.
Well, here we are, we're fresh off of Long Beach.
Dre Mullins is back as promised.
We're going to recap our trip just like we did last year.
Absolutely.
But first, first, first.
Hey, I got to tell you something.
Okay.
All right.
I'm super embarrassed and I'm glad we've already completed Long Beach.
But guess what I just did today?
I drove my NSX off the lift.
Yeah.
Okay.
So how does that happen?
So embarrassing, bro.
I wish I was a Gen Z.
And what, and what got hurt or what got injured or a millennial?
Because the first thing in my mind was not to grab my phone
to start recording, bro, started taking pictures.
The first thing in my mind, I'm a Gen Xer.
How am I going to fix this before my wife gets home and see how much I fucked up?
So what happened was I needed to swap cars.
I need to take my Integra off the lift and put my NSX on the lift
because I'm about to do some work on my Integra.
So me, I'm backing the, I back my cars up onto the lift so that when the
browser opens, it clears.
So I'm lining the car up.
I lined up too far to the right.
And instead, so when I pulled onto the lift, I was too far right, too easy.
I have a four post lift.
So pretty simple.
I'm too far to right.
I've done this so many times.
I got cocky.
I'm a little tired.
I was going to say tired because we got back.
This is, so we're sitting here the day after we got back.
By the time this comes out, it would have been like a week or two later.
But so the last night, yesterday was a grind.
So I get it.
Yeah.
So I was like, all right, I just need to move over a little bit.
So I go off the lift and as I roll back, I guess I was just
officiated on the other mirror that was too close.
And I literally came back at an angle and that rear tire falls off the track.
The car is now suspended and teetered on the lift.
Now look, I like, I was like, I froze in the driver's seat.
So I'm like, okay, all right.
What do you do?
I got to go back the way I came.
So is this a driver's rear or passenger rear?
Dry is the driver rear.
Okay.
So it's not that angle.
I'm like, all right, let me just take it out of reverse, put it in first.
No move.
All right.
All right.
So look, I get out and I'm like, dude.
How do I fix this before my wife gets home?
Um, I can't put a jack under there because of how the NSX is, but no, here,
let me back up.
So when I knew I couldn't go forward, I look left and right out the window is
the post and the cable.
So I don't know how close I am to the post with the door.
It didn't, I didn't hear a tink or anything, but I know I can't, I'm stuck in the car.
Everybody knows a 90, like a N81 is not the most big cockpit.
So I had to crawl over out of the passenger door to get out to assess the damage.
Dude, there is a slight, I mean, a cardboard with the thickness between
that post and that door.
So I guess I'm lucky, but I'm looking at the tire and I'm like, well, without
traction, we stuck.
So I'm like looking like, well, it can't put the hydraulic jack under the car
because the post and everything's in the way.
So I ended up using the old school Honda scissor jack.
I put it up on in there.
Now you can't put it the long way because the pinch weld is the lift in the way.
So I had to turn it sideways.
The most sketchiest thing ever.
And now you can't use the cranking tools because it's up against the list.
So you're taking that little fork that you put the little thing and you spin.
Can't spin it like that.
So I have to grab a screwdriver or just a little rod and kind of just inch by
inch, but not even inch.
I want to say millimeter by millimeter, bro.
Oh, it's less than like an eighth of a turn, brother.
It was bad.
It was bad, but I ended up getting it up high enough.
Now, fortune on my style lift.
There's a center metal piece that hangs underneath almost like a drip pan.
Heaviest.
So my thought process was like, all right, I just need something to get
under the tire.
If I get a little traction, if I just go straight off the lift, I should be cool.
That's my thought process.
Brother, I get this car up.
I, I crammed that little plate under there.
Man, I looked at that, the metal, like that, that cable.
And I'm up, dude, you can't even fit the thickness of this phone.
Do the, do what that gap is.
But I know if I just go straight, I should be good.
I was like, well, I'm not that great.
I, I'm already shaking in jittery.
I grabbed some, uh, particle board, some cardboard and some inches.
And I crammed it in that little gap.
I was like, if anything happens, yeah, just in case, yeah, that's going to take
the grunt man.
So sure enough, I crawl back into the car.
I get in, I say a little quick prayer to baby Jesus.
I hit the gas and I just knew to go forward.
Car goes, boom, boom, boom, boom, down.
I was like, I'm out, I'm out, brother, I open the door and I, and I like close it.
Cause I knew if I turn around, I just didn't want to see like the whole side.
I turn around, all I see is just a little, nice little brush of where the
cardboard brushed against the car, nothing more than a quick little
bus drive to get that out.
Dog, thank you, Jesus, bro.
I was like, I was, I was saved.
Now granted, there's a little couple of scratches.
I was like, what about other stuff?
Like nothing under nothing?
No, no, no.
Cause it didn't hit the carriage.
It was just that that wheel was off.
So that's all saved.
We're all good.
Oh man, there was just a little minor scratch on the right where the, cause
you know how the rear tire, the little hump of the wheel.
So cause I didn't want to move it.
It just nicked the little corner on that little part, but nothing notable.
I got scratches on my car anyway.
It needs to be.
I think what everybody was picturing here.
Oh no, no.
I was like, oh, how, how, but eat, man.
So, Hey, that's what I'm saying.
I'm glad we got long beach out of the way.
My car is going to be parked for a little bit.
I mean, it's still show worthy cars and coffins and stuff like that.
But man, you know that feeling.
You ever remember when you didn't, you didn't mess up at home and you got
to that clock before mom gets home and you like, they are like, how do I get out of
this?
So that was my morning, bro.
So that's why I just take a time out.
That's problem-solving, man.
You know, I think, oh man.
So to that, I think we should open up this bottle of, uh, holiday, this Rick
house proof, uh, soft red week holiday.
There's a six on the building.
So I assume it's aged for six years and, uh, thank you.
This is a birthday gift.
Yeah.
So a quick little story behind that mom, I know you got down, down there every
burden, but I appreciate it.
I wish you got a lot under the sun.
That's what I believe that that's a little bit that way.
All right.
I'm quite sure there's some back.
I got more than your average person who says they like to drink, but I don't
have nothing compared to whiskey collectors.
Yeah.
Oh no, but those are collectors.
We don't call ourselves collectors.
Yeah.
We got to drink it.
Yes.
But what I'm really saying is everybody else, I mean, I can never, I mean, you
know, so tell us about what you remember from this.
I just knew.
So the whole big thing was, I just want something off the beaten path, something
that you might not have had.
And I just knew it was a distillery out of Missouri.
So, um, pretty, it was supposed to be a really good blend or a brand itself.
So I'm more than happy to kind of crack it open, give it a taste and see, you
know, what your thoughts are on, on this whiskey here.
Good Lord.
Missouri straight bourbon.
Yep.
Uh, 60.7%.
So we're looking and we're staring on the barrel of one 21.4 on this.
Woo.
Yeah.
The neck poor, I'm going to have to change the name of this podcast from hard
parking to hard sipping or hard drinking, hard drinking, but.
I think that's needed right now.
After my little episode this morning, like brother.
Yeah.
Let's, let's do this.
So what we'll do is before we jump into, uh, our Long Beach recap, because we had
a lot of fun.
Yes, we did.
And we had a very unique opportunity.
Then we're going to take this break and we're going to get our little
announcement from spark for darkest foundry.
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We're back after a thrilling discussion during that break, but
smells really nice.
Let's give it a slight little ding here.
One of these dings at some point is going to show up on these mics
because the last time nothing.
Take a drink of this, this neck poor, we were discussing neck poor.
So if you want to educate us, feel free.
That's good.
Oh my gosh, that's really flavorful.
You know, the crazy thing to me about bourbon for me personally, oh,
that's burning all the way down.
It is good though.
Is I can't always, I could not always tell you the distinct differences.
If you were to line everything up in front of me, unless like one was a
rye, right?
It has its own distinct flavor for that one.
I'm like, rye has its own flavor.
If you were giving me three ryes, I may, maybe I wouldn't, maybe I wouldn't.
But I do know when I like something and when I don't like something.
Absolutely.
And I like this.
That one dissipated really well.
Dude, the flavor was like, dude, I got a lot of flavor.
Like a little karma on there, little hint of like a, I wouldn't even say
like a smoke, but it's, that was really good.
I can hurt myself with that one, bro.
I would be interested to see, and obviously I'm going to see.
Now that I have had it, you know, full blown, like a sphere or giant cube.
Oh yeah.
You know, I don't mind my stuff kind of little dispersed around the glass.
It's all going down, you know, kind of like the pre conversation where I'm the,
I'm the type of guy that I'll finish a drink like coffee.
And if I'm thirsty and I want water, I'll just go right over to the water and
I'll fill it.
I will, I will put it on top of the last drop of coffee.
Like I don't give a shit.
If I was serving it to somebody, I would just give him a different cup.
Yeah.
No, right.
Or I'd wash it out if I'm putting it up.
But if it's just, like I do that with my coffee cup all the time in the morning.
Hey, you know, there's a lot of people in the military that, what do they call it?
Seasoning their cups.
So that old coffee that's been in there, it just drives to the edge of size of the
cup that you keep adding to it.
I think, yeah, I don't know about that, but it's a thing.
Cause I've done that before with certain things.
It's like, okay, well, you know, whatever.
But if it's, if I, if I just had the coffee, or if I just finished my, my Coca
Cola or my iced tea and I just want water now, I'll go over there and I'll just
add it.
There's, there's still ice in the thing.
Like who cares?
My water has a slight brown to it.
Who cares?
It's my water.
Some people are sitting there like, how could you?
Oh my God.
But in theory, I'm right.
No, you're right.
Hey, it's all going the same place, right?
It's all going the same place.
I'm not, you know, it's like, Hey man, you want some of this water?
There's this coffee flavored water.
But anyway, but so I don't mind throwing some cubes in my, in my liquor.
I don't mind either from time to time.
Some things that are deserved to be enjoyed neat.
Some things, you know, with a good cube in it.
And there's some that are just for mixing.
I don't really like those, but some people do, but those are the
good way to get us here.
So that's the way I look at it.
So what are people here for?
And then actually you're sporting a Long Beach 26 shirt designed by our
friend Dennis over at auto cannon.
Yep.
Dude, they hooked it up man.
Like this, their brand was like on point.
And actually this time, I think they had just a little bit more gear this
time because last year, I think so.
Last year felt rushed bear like on slight towards Saturday or the end of
Saturday going in the Sunday.
So I really felt that we had a lot more options to choose from this year and
a lot more variety as well.
So thank you guys for hooking that up.
I appreciate the gear.
And, you know, so looking it up loosely means they had it.
He designed it and it was there for sale.
You don't, we don't walk in and get them for free.
Although it could.
No, man, everybody.
Some people hear hookup and they're like, oh, where's my order?
It's like, I don't know.
The way you do that, you go online, you place it and this was a hookup.
The experience.
I'm wearing a type S experienced T-shirt that my good friend, a Jim
Lee at Acura, he's, he's, he's given me some really cool shit before in
the past and he was working, you know, it was on top of the parking garage
outside double decker.
I didn't do it.
I thought you did it because you had the shirt.
No, I just went up there to say hi to him.
Oh, lucky.
You know, that's a hookup.
You're right.
And I was like, Hey, I said, there goes my boys.
I'm going to catch up with them.
He's like, Oh, well, uh, did you get a shirt?
And I'm like, I guess what size are you?
God, large, you know, and so you hooked it up.
Oh, thank you, Mr. Lee.
He has a type S like mine.
His is the casino white pearl.
And we've seen it before.
He's brought it out to Torrance Honda cars and bikes.
Right on.
I think he's got 1200 miles on it.
I passed 23,000 on the way back.
So how many oils have you had?
Three, I think.
And he might be on his second.
You're not even on his first one yet.
Yeah, I'm due.
I have 20% oil life left.
Oh, by the way, let's get into this Long Beach trip.
I have a couple of small notes here.
You use.
Oh, I should have said no.
No, it's okay.
They're very most of most of what I'm looking at are expenses
because my wife's always yelling at me for not tracking my shit.
Oh, okay.
Well, let me let me hear these expenses.
How they break down for you.
Uh, gas, how much I paid, what the date was and which card I used.
All stuff I could pull digitally, but it's just easier.
Miles start, I did not log miles in, but I know for a fact I went from,
I started at 22 three and I'm at 23 something now.
So I'll get that.
Then I got the food below it, where it was, what the total was,
which card in the date.
Gotcha.
Yeah.
Now what I ordered, none of that's important because
we use two credit cards.
We use the price line because I guess there's zero something,
which I didn't know I didn't get that memo.
So I just always default to the MX.
Okay.
Yep.
So, and then at the button that, and that's really it.
Um, I do have a pet peeve on here that I logged on our way there.
What was that?
Was it on their way there?
It was on our way there, but then you kind of did it on the way back.
And then I realized I kind of do it too.
Sometimes we do, but it depends on where you're at.
So the morongo trail, the morongo station where there's this gas station,
there's, it's so busy.
It's almost like a Costco or Sam's.
Yes.
There are cues of vehicles lined up and it tells you if it's available,
like a parking garage where it's like the green, if it's open and the black,
if it's not, I mean, the red, if it's, if it's occupied on the, on the gas
public X or whatnot.
So the pet peeve, and I think even you do this, people who don't pay at the pump,
I think you had to go in and get your thing.
Yep.
And I think we've all done that.
But when you're busy, when you're somewhere like that, you have either,
you either prepay and then you move or you get your gas and you move and then you
go pay because that thing is so busy.
Then you have these cars just sitting there and you have lines of vehicles
out to the road.
Okay.
When it's like that, I get it, but that's why I go way far, way up front.
And I try to stay out of that.
And if I can't be in that situation, I'm going to pay at the pump.
But I have my reasons of why I don't pay at the pump there or in California.
I want, I really don't want to get California in my money no more.
So I want to control exactly a couple of dollars I'm going to give.
And the only reason I really use Morongo is because I found out that they're
usually kind of relatively close to Arizona gas prices as we start to hump
into the city, or if I'm needing a little bit of gases to get the heck out of
California, I can get just enough fuel to give me the state line where I
typically fill up there.
What is crazy though, because I've gone there a few times with the rest of
like the first crew, Will and Yoshi knows guys and Mike Tran and Eric Pasha.
And I never knew we'd always go to that first Morongo.
There's another one, a hundred yards up the road.
The one I, the one you took the travel center part.
You did.
I've never known about that.
So you took us last time.
Really?
We always stop at the one right there on the corner where the Starbucks is.
No, don't go to that one.
So yeah, the one, okay.
So it's kind of give you a more visual.
If you haven't been to the Morongo travel center, which most people haven't.
Well, if you would think that they have how many people would be stuck in
them lines, you know, it's like almost like you said Costco, but just triple
stacked the length of a Costco set of pumps and it's a lot easier to kind of
drive in and either go which side, because the pumps or a hose are so long,
you can move the hose to the inside of your vehicle.
Just go in, fuel up and keep it pushing.
So it just makes it way easier.
So if you're going to that earlier one, if you're trying to get in and out,
you're going to get jammed at that little one.
Take, go down like not even, not even, it's not even a couple feet.
It's not that far.
It's about a, it's about 50 yards further.
If that maybe a little longer, it's all, you know, it's, it's like right
there and it's crazy.
I'm like, I had no idea this existed and they have these brand new pumps
and it's all digital and it's super cool.
I'm like, what the fuck?
This casino must be making some good money.
Oh, I want to say they might be flying Jays and all those, the travel centers.
They don't ever have that.
But yeah, so I had that down, but I was thinking, I was like, you know,
I'd do that too.
Sometimes it's, it's, I'm that way you can look at my freaking car while I'm inside.
Yeah.
Admire it from afar.
Admire it from afar.
I like that.
But in that setup, it just makes no sense to just leave your car.
Cause you know, there's, there's lines of people just move your shit.
There's plenty of, there's plenty of parking.
Just move your shit around and go inside and do what you gotta do.
Right.
I, I, if you're that person and you know, there's like four cars behind you,
you better go pay inside.
I either go to the last pump or, you know, do your best to be as
considerate as you can for others.
Man, I, I didn't think that's inconsiderate, but you know, teach the wrong.
All right.
And it's true.
Yep.
Halfway through with his delicious drink.
But see, that's, that was my pep.
Oh, so now that you brought that up, this is why I don't, I got mad.
So you remember when we stopped and what was that?
Irvine to get gas and I walked in to pay on the way out.
Yes.
Yes.
So I gave her, because that's what reminded me about.
I was like, oh, I guess.
I gave her a hundred bucks, bro.
So I was at the pump and I pumped and it was like 29, uh, 90 87 and it stopped.
So I forced it to 30 bucks even, but it was 30 point 30 bucks and two cents.
So I dig in my car and grab two cents.
So my, my mind, my thought process, Hey, I go in there.
I gave you a hundred bucks.
I'm going to give you two cents.
You're going to give me 70 bucks back.
Right.
This chick was like, uh, you use the two cents.
I can't, I can't give you change.
Do you want your 98 cents back?
And I was like, what does it even mean?
So it's about, it's all about balancing out the register in the shift.
Brother, I, I, I looked at this lady and I was like, okay.
So you give her and I give me, that explains why you're in there for a while.
Dog, cause I was like, it's 29 and 98 cents.
You're going to try to give me back.
Here's two pennies.
Can I have a dollar?
She was like, no, I was like, well, why?
And then she was like, cause you use the two cents.
So then I was like, Hey, what's 98 plus two?
She said a hundred.
And I just looked at her and she was like, but you can't have the dollar.
Okay.
I, and that's why I, that's why, at that point, she had already made up her mind.
She ain't going to bend to you.
Bro.
And that's why I had the attitude I have when I came out of that store, bro.
Okay.
Let's get the fuck out of here.
That was bad, bro.
Cause now I got changed in my pocket and I haven't changed in my pockets of that
car. I had a situation where my freaking tags slid under my car.
Once again, it's under the pan of an NSX seat.
There's, you can't get your hand on there.
No, you have to like, I had to slide to see all the way forward to kind of work.
So I know the changes in my pocket, ching, ching, ching, falling out and
everywhere.
And I'm just like thinking about this chick behind the counter, but that's
how that all came about.
You know, and the stuff that I found, I forgot.
Oh, I found my other key fob or something.
I was something I had lost years ago.
And when I changed out to those tillets that I used to have, those B five
carbons, I remember this.
Oh, I haven't seen this in like six years.
It was underneath, I think the passenger seat, right?
You can't get your hand underneath those seats.
Literally riding like on the carpet.
Yeah.
So, and it literally, it's, I was amazed that that parking pass somehow
found its way and slid right under there.
It, somebody was messing with me that day, but it was what it was.
Yeah.
Dre had a very important parking pass that he had it one second and then
when he needed it, it was gone.
And I couldn't find it.
And you know what, I thought I was being slick because I knew I had it.
I wasn't trying to do anything wrong.
I wasn't trying to sneak in the Long Beach, all respect to you guys at
Erechora that when people try to take advantage of you guys, we're going to try
to fix that, but anyways.
I had the one from the day before they bow color.
So the people up front, they're the same color.
Yeah, they weren't really, they said the blue.
Yeah.
And they were like, go, go, go.
And all I needed to do was just get to my spot and pull my car apart so I can
figure out what happened.
And right as I was going through the final check, the girl was like, no, stop.
You had the wrong pass.
I was like, caught.
So that's when I was like, Hey, let me park right here.
And I started pulling my car about, but the homie J.
He was like, Hey, use your pass just to get him down here.
And then sure enough, he helped me kind of look, helped me look for it.
I was able to find the right pass and give him his back and everything was
kosher, but man, now I got change in my car.
I got a freaking try to figure out how to get out.
When I have cash on me, I have it for a long time.
Right.
Usually a long time.
I think I left there.
So when we left here, I think I had $6 in bills on me a five and a one.
I have a one.
I don't even know what I did with the five.
I must have given it to somebody at some point.
And I mean, I have money from like, I'll do Facebook marketplace.
And it's like cash, yeah, cash, straight cash on me.
And I just have money that I'm never going to use.
No, you know, rare's the rare's the opportunity to use it.
Hotel we stayed at was in Cyprus, right down the hill, right down the road
from the old one and I was a little confused at first.
I go, is this them?
I thought it was.
No, it was a different one.
Well, I knew it wasn't the same hotel, but I thought we were when I booked it,
it was right down the street from the old one.
And when I first got there, it didn't seem like it because it was like a mile
up the street.
And since it was a mile up the street, it was closer to another major street.
Correct.
And so we never went past the bakery and all that other stuff from last year.
Correct.
So I was a little confused.
Well, if you took Catella all the way down to the six of five, we would,
but you didn't have to.
You could have exited the other main.
I can't think of the street off the other street.
Yeah, you never needed to get on it like this is the street,
but it'll take you up to the, what was that 405?
Some, some, one of the other ones.
And then it was easier to go straight to the 202 boom.
And then yeah, to Long Beach and then the Grand Pier.
We were that way.
Right.
Yeah.
In fact, actually when I, the first couple of times, I know, I don't remember
getting on the main freeway at all.
No, you didn't have to.
Cause you were able to take, uh,
you take the road that on the freeway twice to Boca Chica and then exit.
And then I'm on that, whatever that long road is that took us to the hotel.
People in California are going like, it's, it's this room.
Let's minister.
It's this or whatever road it was.
Yeah, it literally runs parallel and it just put us right back where we need.
It made, I don't know, travel just seemed a little bit easier from that location
than it was from the other one.
Cause it looked like you were locked in the only going one way and one
direction at the hotel we stayed last year.
Yeah, I agree.
I agree.
Cause I remember a lot of like those, so California now has in certain spots,
those signs, those, like they don't only have the, they don't, not only have
the speed radars, but they got the exhaust noise.
They do.
Yeah.
I saw that sign on the road.
It's like exhaust monitoring or whatever, like the exhaust tickets.
I'm like, well, how, how are they going to know?
They just have to randomly pick a car.
Cause there's no way, you know, when there's four cars coming at you,
which one's loud?
So my guess is they may be isolated.
If there's multiple cars, nothing.
But when there's one car, that's the one.
Boom.
Here's your ticket.
I'm sorry.
Car enthusiast in California, man.
My heart goes out to you.
I don't want people still live in California.
Hey, listen, guys, beautiful, beautiful place.
Arizona is accepting, you know, all car community here.
You know, it's really great weather.
It's going to, your car will stay dry.
You ain't got to worry about nothing crazy happening, except for just heat.
But if you keep it under cover, you ain't got to worry about nothing drying out.
Yeah, that's true.
Well, Friday, Long Beach, Friday was packed, bro.
Did you see how people were there on Friday?
Was it Friday?
No, it was Thursday night.
So I didn't, I wasn't there Thursday night.
No, no, no, no.
You were, but you weren't.
What do you mean?
Thursday night, when you guys finally got to the hotel,
you brought over Buffalo Trace that night.
That's that.
Well, that was Thursday.
That hadn't been Thursday.
Dude, I got my days.
That was Thursday because you went out with your friends from, you want to tell that story?
Oh, yeah.
So actually, I was able to get linked up with two of my best buddies, Kevin and Damon.
Nick was a Kevin Cotney from high school, man.
I mean, we've been boys for like ever.
And it's just, you know, how time gets, you know, the best to everybody.
Everybody's got kids and family stuff, but they knew I was coming to the Grand Prix
and they made it a point to be like, hey, we're going to do dinner.
And I was like, well, let's do it.
And we were able to go out to a great establishment,
have some steaks or whatever.
And I'm usually a very picky.
Where'd you go?
I know you're on record as like, I'm not going to order no steaks when I go out.
No, I usually don't.
I can make it better at home.
But they all, they all order steaks.
And I didn't want to be the guy without one.
So I was like, I'm gonna stick to it.
You want to be like, oh, you're gonna order steak?
No, here, let me say, what was the name of this joint?
Let me find it real quick.
Yeah, it must not have been that good.
So no, it's not that.
It's just, you know, me, I'm more, I'm trying to be.
I guess I fail to pay attention more to the surrounding.
I'm trying to be more engaged with people because you're a terrible drive leader,
by the way, because I think about myself.
Yeah, I know that.
That's why you know that I follow.
Well, listen, I try.
I do. Well, is it because of my gaps are too short?
I just moved too fast.
So we're driving back last night.
You know, we're all over the place.
They don't, I know they're gonna, they're like,
why are you going to get to Long Beach?
They've probably stopped listening already.
I'm like, hey, man, because you know where you want to exit for your cinnamon buns?
Did you not hear me say I was going to get off the flying jays and grab?
OK, we'll get there.
All right.
That's part of you being a terrible driver leader.
OK.
So we're, we're, we're going like triple digits on average.
Like 99, 100, you know, one or two.
Mm hmm.
Which, by the way, that said, oh, Jay's a slow driver.
And Lamar looked at me and apparently I had to look on my face
where you start dying laughing.
I would go, babe, we were going.
I had the cruise control set at 90 the whole way there.
Were the average post speed limit at 65.
One point against the 75.
Were we going that fast?
No, I'm on the way there.
Oh, you're trying to save gas because of this current economy.
And so usually I drive everywhere in sport plus mode.
Browse in regular sport or EV mode.
And so it doesn't feel like you're going anywhere, even when you are, you know?
And then when you come up against those damn semis, that's when you have to get
off of it and you have to wait for them to get out of the way.
Well, some, some people wait for them to get out of the way.
And then then you go pass them.
So there was a lot of those moments where she just would like, oh,
Jay's a slow driver.
I'm like, shit.
I can get there.
Yeah.
So why was I slow then?
Because you're not slow.
So coming back, this is why you're a turbo drive leader.
I go, Hey, you know where you're going?
Just go ahead and you're like, all right.
When you're, you got to remember when you're.
This is what you should do.
You should always watch who's behind you.
And at least the next person.
So that the next person knows the person behind them.
So there's like this little chain thing, right?
Well, it's funny how we ended up with a chain.
Yes.
And so if you see there's enough room to cut in front of this truck,
you got to make sure at least one other person has that room.
And then this guy, Dre's like, I'm like, there ain't no room.
I'm not going to cut somebody off to look like an asshole on the highway.
Well, typically what I do is I'll get in front and then just downshift
and engine break.
So then they start to come up and they'll never see my brake lights.
And then the person behind me should see like, Hey,
Andre's actually slowing, then you're going to cut in front of me.
And then that little cut thing is great.
That's a good thing.
Well, leaf rock, but it was night.
We didn't have a radios.
And I just didn't want to gamble it.
So I just, if I keep consistent, I'm thinking they'll either follow
or understand if I make that change, they'll keep up.
But I guess I was just not giving enough.
I said, this motherfucker not know that people are following him.
Well, you guys are pretty fast as you get kind of small.
So you picked up a homie.
Yeah.
So no, we picked up a homie because all we are doing is driving.
We just trying to get the heck out of California.
And all I, as we were moving through traffic, we realized that Arizona,
we tend to drive at a good, decent pace.
We do here in our pace.
We're moving.
I don't know if I want to disclose how fast we average we drive here.
But as long as everybody's in the same ballpark, we're good.
But in California, they're a good, like 10, 15 miles slower, slower traffic.
Keep right does not apply to everybody.
No.
And these guys are like left lane, freaking, uh, what is it?
When you just like lay at somebody's house and you just don't, you just chill.
What's that word card?
Well, I can't think of the word, but, uh, left lane, it was left lane squatting.
There you go.
Just chilling in the left lane, like no consideration for anybody behind you.
So that's why I just drive around and just keep it moving.
And that's how I got to doing that.
But anyways, so as we're doing that, people get excited when they see, you know,
sex or two, I was going to say other than average cars.
Look at you and you got to go to sex or two, you know, sex or two.
Well, first off, you see one of the most rarer white ones flipped by and it's
like, Oh gosh, that's a new intersex.
Then boom, then you see another one.
Most people hardly see one.
They see two moving to traffic.
Right.
So then you see the other people.
I don't want to follow them.
So then they start following.
And then we had a good like four, about three, four cars.
Like I said yesterday, everybody wants to swim with the dolphins.
Hey, they was swimming, baby.
And there was this one civic, not civic, but a Cadillac.
There's a nice, nice kind of fire orange.
Like a beautiful Cadillac.
Yeah.
And he was moving.
And sure enough, he rolled up next to us on the freeway.
Yeah.
That's because Toppy's like, Hey, I see the place y'all going to AZ.
I was like, I was tired.
I'm following you guys.
I'm happy now.
I was like, bro, I get it.
Let's go.
We were his radar shield, really.
At the end of the day, that's why it's totally bad too.
I go, this guy's never going to lead in the world on the same place
because we're his radar shield, essentially, but I thought he did
something to you, which he didn't, because after I missed that 60 turnoff
and we had to just stay on till we hit the 10 or become the 10,
which I've never done that stretch before because I've never missed that turnoff.
I'll do it.
I saw it happens, bro.
I saw him flying by and then I saw you flying by and I'm thinking to myself,
damn, did he do something to Dre?
Like y'all are driving like this is personal, but you always like having
fun with people.
I love having fun with people if they want to play man, um, safely.
But yeah, I just, you know, I like to move at it.
My, the game for me is try to stay at a good, constant pace.
I'm not trying to speed, but when people move a little bit slower
and I'm doing like what 65, I'm trying to maintain 65.
Yeah.
I'm more, actually more, let's say, let's be realistic.
75, 65.
But let's say the speed limit, but we know people do drive a little bit slower.
So I just try to make the adjustments so I don't have to adjust cruise control
or come off the gas to stay away and some people will follow.
Um, so we go get, we're going in this story in reverse.
It's my fault.
So last night we're coming back and you want to get your cinnamon buns.
You know, of all the good gas stops.
True.
So I, well, I want to say good gas cops, the better gas locations
for the mileage that my car can get the way it burns fuel.
So I always try to get to state line because I know if I get the state line,
I can get home and it'll just be a half tank left.
Yeah.
So leaving Arizona, I know I got at least half a tank a little bit more
just to get the state line.
So that, but that's why I messed up because I, I, at this gas station
at flying J's, there's a, uh, a Cinnabon inside.
Boy, I love cinnamon rolls.
You have to really love them to make a special stop just for that.
Well, cause it's on the way, not the gas.
And they're sitting buns everywhere.
They're other located.
I get it.
But because I am on this road, that's my treat to myself as the
nostalgia part of it too.
Right.
So I, I, I thought I told the crew, Hey, I'm a dip over.
Go to the flying J's and sides and grab two cinnamon rolls and go to the next
gas station on the other side at the Unicale and then we're going to hop
the freeway and keep pushing.
I know I pushed my words and everything together.
So, and when I got back in my car, I like hitting turnarounds as fast as I
can.
So, so they're like, so the car is kind of sliding bad leader, bad drive leader.
So once again, being the bad drive, because there was somebody behind you
and it wasn't us.
It was nighttime.
I'm sorry.
Right.
I have 10 of windows.
I didn't know that it was headlights.
I thought y'all were good because I think it was an SUV.
But I've just learned that an SUV looks like an NSX type S.
You just have nice, like clear headlights.
So it had clear headlights and my headlights are 90s in there, not as clear.
But anyways, I dip around and I pump in my gas and I know y'all aren't that
slow and I'm like, dude, where are these guys?
And that's when I think you called me and you were like, Hey, where'd you go?
And that's when I realized y'all didn't make it all the turn around.
Y'all got on the freeway and start.
No, no, no.
Here's what we did.
Oh, the plot thickens.
Let's go.
The plot thickens.
So you being the poor drive leader as you are, you get in your car and
then we, this was a roundabout situation as people, like you said, but we're out
in the middle of the interstate, there's no lights outside of anything.
And so you do the roundabout and then all I see is the big SUV in front of me.
And you're dipping because that's how you are.
And you have that gimpy driver side tail light, which, which sucks, by the way.
You don't like my tail light?
No, it's retarded.
I love my tail light.
This thing slowly turns like it's about to die.
Kind of like a, it looks like a hurricane satellite photo.
Is that accurate?
I would say so.
Or a small little sonar.
Like how did it just.
No, it looks like a, and so it's kind of faint, but the car's so low and you're
always dipping.
And so once we got to the other side of the roundabout, we were right there at
the Y in the road.
I'm like, are you going to go straight or turn right?
And I go, I'm pretty sure he said he wanted to go across.
I go, you bet.
Where did he go?
She goes, I don't know.
I think he, I think the, he went, he went straight.
You asked him that I can't, I'm in the driver's seat.
I can't see the whole time I was driving next to you.
This is what I saw.
And she was sleeping.
I don't know.
She was sleeping.
No, we had just came out the gas station.
So she wasn't on the phone yet.
Yeah.
She wasn't in her phone yet.
And so I go, did he go right?
Did he go down and we had to make a decision because we're, we're engine
torn to where I have to go right and commit down the ramp.
She goes, no, I don't think I see him down the ramp.
I can't see.
So I'm convinced she can't see.
She says, no, I think he was, he went straight.
I was like, all right, fine, we'll go straight.
And so we pull into the station and figured we'd get there quick enough.
And we didn't stop.
Like when I was trying to figure out which way to go and I'm looking down, I
don't see, I don't see your car.
You can't see it.
No, why?
Cause you went to the far end at the very bottom past all the pumps.
Yup.
Because you're a bad drive leader.
Cause what you should have did is you should have waited to make sure people
were still behind you before you kept going.
And so me and oh boy, we pull in there.
I'm like, where'd he go?
He goes, I don't know.
I go, I thought he was coming here.
He goes, yeah, but we're looking.
So we were there.
Really?
And then I called you and of course you don't answer your phone.
No, cause it's in the car.
Yeah.
I'm like, I don't know.
I guess he, I guess he did go to the next one.
I said, I thought, does maybe he went to Tom Wells.
So then we just said, all right, well, we'll just catch up with him, I guess.
And so we're down there.
And that's when you're like, Hey man, I just found my phone.
Where you got?
No, you're like, Hey, where you guys at?
Yes.
I'm like,
And then I heard the, the, the aggravation in your voice.
You're like, bro.
That sounds about right.
I was like, uh, my bad.
And I was like, I was thinking, I was like, maybe I'm out of my words.
No, no, I heard what you said.
But I was, you had a second guessing because you dip so fast.
I'm like, where's, I was trying to get it over with that.
That's just like my thought process.
But I re, but after that phone call, instead of putting my phone in, in its
mount, I threw it on the seat.
Once again, intersects and seats and stuff sliding everywhere.
So I dip out of the parking lot, slide the car out.
So all the stuff is on my car flies to the door and it's my phone's over there.
Because it's going to cause I texted you.
So I'm mashing, I'm going through the turnabout as fast as I can.
And then I hear nothing.
And then I'm like, it's looking for my phone.
Now I'm in the dark.
And then you've shot past the exit that I told you we'd be at.
Well, I didn't even, yeah.
Cause at this point I'm looking for the phone.
I'm just driving.
I'm like, I can't find it.
And I was like, well, maybe I grab my earbuds and put them in and turn on.
I can just call or do something.
Nothing is not working right.
So I literally had to pull over, find my phone.
And that's when you told me, we're talking about, oh, it's funny.
Cause the bed's like, oh, he ain't gonna stop.
He just going to go.
We got, I was like, no, he probably, you know, I told you, I was like,
Hey, I'm going to just do 70.
You know how they are.
Yeah.
The spouse, you know, I'm not that guy.
I was like, no, he, he, he.
I screwed up.
I was going to do 70.
It was all good.
We all got, you know, re-linked up and it was funny.
Cause you're like, I go, okay, your job now is to watch for cops.
Too easy.
Hey, I kept telling you.
Cause we were flying and I could tell we were getting closer to you.
Be from what you're calling out.
You're like, I'm just past the pilot.
I go, there's a pilot right there.
I just pass.
It's like, oh, there it is.
And then you get the pine, the people slower traffic, keep right.
No one's moving.
And you're just like, these motherfuckers, man.
But no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
So the restaurant, many of my buddies went to.
That's what, that was my noise of re-winding.
We're winding it back.
The story back.
I just, it was boss, it was boss cats kitchen or here.
I'm going to pull it back up.
So people are going to want to know this in the site.
Was it in site?
You guys are 20, 30 minutes north of us.
So you're like Anaheim or something.
Where was it here?
Let me push back.
It was wherever it was.
What'd you order?
Why are you searching?
It was a bone in ribeye.
This is, cause this is bad pot bone in ribeye.
That's nice.
I know it's bad.
How'd you get it?
How do you get it?
Uh, I, I always get my medium rare brother.
Um, and it was season spectacular.
Maybe I just had the nice, salty crust.
Oh my God.
Yes.
Yeah.
It was like right on point, uh, had nice roasted potatoes with it.
And dude, I, I couldn't finish it.
Well, I know you don't eat a lot, but I was, I was pleasantly surprised
man, um, to have that steak.
And I even told the, the manager, she came over out trying to crack a job,
but I was like, I can't really say anything bad about this.
I was pleasantly surprised and I really appreciate them.
And then their drinks.
Oh my God.
They, they came out with some of the best drinks that I've ever had.
Um, my wife, she was super excited when she was getting her little
plumes and everything and how decorated they were.
And then my, my, my boy is their wife.
She, she was getting her lemon drops and everything.
And everything was just spectacular, man.
So I really couldn't give that place enough.
Like, you know, you know, uh, appreciation and thanks for, for that
wonderful meal, cause I normally I'd be talking crap, but I didn't
bad, nothing, nothing bad to say, but yeah, we'll find out that location.
You know, how I work is it'll pop in my head all of a sudden.
I'll be like, it was here, but I think it was in the Anaheim area.
If, if I remember correct.
We had sushi at, uh, it was an orange.
Told you it was an orange county or the city of orange actually.
King sushi, sushi brick, sushi King, something like that.
Where was that at?
Uh, it was right down the street.
Okay.
It was like a mile up the block.
Not bad at all.
Uh, but then when you guys got back to the hotel, you brought over a handle,
a buffalo trace.
Once again, me, I handle a buffalo trace.
Bro.
Okay.
So, okay.
Everybody understands where our hotel was literally.
You can see Costco, like right there across the street and then
liquor store was like real talk.
Had I been by myself, I probably would have tried to hit the Costco at least
once, see what they got.
They had, they had a good selection, brother.
Yeah.
They had that Costco had a, a decent selection, but I knew that I was going
to go to the liquor store.
I was going to pay 40, 50 bucks for a fifth.
Well, not a buffalo trace, but no, about, yeah, it's going to be 20, 30 bucks,
whatever, 30 bucks, but I know if I kick in another $10, I can get a handle.
Yeah.
So that's just what I think.
So sure enough, me and the wife would go over to the Costco and sure enough,
I get this big, huge bottle of buffalo trace.
And once again, we meet friends.
Right.
And that's what I want to get to.
And so, well, so we're walking out and we have our buffalo trace and, you know,
we're, we're walking out sharing our love stories about our, our spouses.
Right on.
And, you know, they're up in the room, probably doing the same thing.
You know, oh, that J, Dre is such a great husband.
You know what, J is great too, because that ain't, right?
So we're here with them on their car week is man, they love spending time.
Well, isn't life great.
And so we're walking around the perimeter, but the guy comes out and he's like,
oh, hey, that's a nice NSX.
I'm like, oh, cool.
He's, yeah, I got a NSX too at 92.
We're like, all right, cool, man.
That's what's up.
That's what's up.
And I think he was on the phone.
Yes, he was.
Yep.
And so we, we just walked around and we go back inside and decided to just park
in the lobby and finish our drinks.
Absolutely.
Um, and he comes in and he sits down.
Do you remember his name?
His name was Mike.
I think Mike from Haggerty, right?
Hmm.
Isn't that Eric?
Oh, yeah, I did miss his name.
I, I, I, uh, I took a note.
Eric from Haggerty.
Oh, you cheated.
I was already drinking and I was just, we were swapping.
No, fair, fair.
But I was like, okay, so he's Eric from Haggerty and he's the regional, uh,
like supervisor or whatever he is, but he's big.
He's a big wig.
He was.
He's a, he's a, he's definitely a big wig.
And man, we talked about cars, eighties, nineties, Hondas, everything.
And he went to his room and grabbed his handle of Knob Creek.
There we go.
I thought it was Wilfred Reserve off the top of my head, but no, you're right.
It was, it was not, he actually thought it was Buffalo Trace.
So he came back and was like, uh, it's not great.
I know.
He's like, I got Buffalo Trace too.
Like, all right, go get it.
And he, he went to the same thing.
He went to Costco and he got a handle as well.
So, but no, he brought that down and then we just kept going with the stories.
Well, you guys talk more technical stuff because I'll admit, I don't know.
I'm not a very technical person with cars.
Yeah.
Like, you know, bro, final drive ratio, four, five, five, six, two, you know, part,
you know, you got the 82 XP P 94, you got the P 94 turbine.
Yeah.
I got the P 94 B.
I'm like, okay, cool.
But I'm like, oh, you know, daily driven, exotic, you know, you know, these people,
you know, they'll be, oh, I know they'll be, you know, the people, people, I know
the people, I don't know.
I don't know the, the technical stuff, but it's fun to listen to.
Right.
Like the engineering, you know, Blackhawk crew chief type stuff.
I don't, you know, I don't know it, but I appreciate hearing it.
It's just fun, but especially when people have an appreciation.
Well, one is cause I didn't know what I was doing back in the day.
Swapping orders, doing all that kind of stuff.
All we knew was we're in chase of something, right?
Now that I'm a little older, more seasoned, more trained and driving and
everything else, I was screwing stuff up all along.
And to really appreciate every motor for where it's at and the power is putting
out for the chassis that's in, you just got to kind of be a better driver or
find a better chassis that's more capable.
Either which one, I mean, you can always push your chassis as far as you can,
but you're not, if you're not an engineer and with a team of engineers, you're
probably not helping the situation that that's just my opinion.
And I, whatever, I work on aircrafts and I appreciate the engineers
that made it a little easier for me to take out some bolts.
And I hate the engineers that made it very difficult to remove
some nuts in the telcon.
So I get it.
And certain chassis needs certain amount of power.
And the way you carry power through turns and doing stuff, it's just more relevant,
you know, to have it.
But anyways, he, he had a nice variety of old nineties cars that he's still
hanging on to and loving to this day and some fun stories.
And I like it when people have an enjoyment with these iconic cars, you know,
and they're not bragging, back in the day, it was bragging about how much
horsepower I had in this little car.
Now it's like, can you really drive your car?
Can I mean, are you having a good time driving your car or are you that guy
that's constantly complaining, oh, my car is doing this, whatever, you know?
Yeah, it was funny because I liked that he knew the people and he knew
who was cool and who was an asshole too.
Oh, on the, on the YouTube realm, the influencers and some of the big people.
It's like, yeah, this person's cool, that person's cool.
This person's a dick, that person's a dick.
I'm like, yeah, that's been my experience.
Or, oh, that's surprising to me.
You know, man, to be such a connoisseur of YouTube and certain personalities
and to hear some of the people that he was appreciative of, and he wasn't
so appreciative of, broke my heart because some people, man, like, now I know
if I meet this person, he is that person, and then you co-sign on some of them,
I'm gonna have to say something, but they're not going to care what I say.
But I just, man, that was wild that people will be like that.
Maybe something happened in their lives, they need to be that way, but.
I call it big time in people.
Why?
And I, well, that's what I call the phrase big time in people.
And I've always been like, I'm never, a lot of people don't know me,
but those who do know me, if they come up and like, oh, hey, I know you from this
or I know you from that.
I'm like, oh, I like, I want to talk to them.
And sometimes if I can't, I always walk away like, God, man, hopefully I wasn't
an asshole like, you know, it's called big time in people.
Because sometimes it's like, if you're, if you're like, oh, who are you?
Oh, okay, cool.
You know, thanks, man, whatever.
Fine, fuck off.
And then you're like, oh, I know this guy and he's big time.
So he and I, we're going to kick it off, but I'm too big to talk to you.
Yeah, that's, that's messed up, man.
And that's just how some people are.
And then some people are just, they just have different personalities.
Like they could be an introvert in life, like a lot of comedians,
they're introverts in life.
They write this bit, they get up on stage, they're larger than life.
You catch them at the airport, you catch them somewhere else at the
coffee shop, they might talk to you.
Absolutely.
You know, but you're not going to get, you know, if you, if I would
guess it, if you were to run into Chris Rock, you're not going to get Chris
Rock live in DC, you might be like, Hey, man, how you doing?
Hey, what are you doing?
Chris, you know, you may, you may be able to have like a real conversation with
them, but it's not going to be the same energy as you're expecting.
And then you fall in love with on TV and, you know, it's entertaining,
taint you for all those years.
So there's that.
I'm going to give some people that pass, but some people are just assholes.
Well, especially in the influencer space.
In the influencer space, I probably, I don't know if he thinks
of himself with, with John, uh, the Kenya.
Oh yeah.
Vita killer one.
Dude, that, okay.
I really consume a lot of his stuff cause he's always working on things.
And it's just, John and Mike, it really entertains that mechanical side of my
brain and that guy is really awesome.
Man, he's, he, I thought he was one of the boys, like down the earth, just
shooting the shit and just, just kept it moving.
And I felt so bad cause he came through and he was just be bopping.
Like, what's up, man?
It's like, what's up, bro?
He's like, yeah, I've just moved around doing my thing.
And I wanted to say so much stuff, but I was like, you're busy too.
And I had to go to the bathroom and the, but man, you are like, you're the
kind of guy I really appreciate.
Like you're, you're a cool dude.
And I believe a lot of the other influence are like, that's what I would expect.
Right.
But if I get slapped in the face with attitude or, or like a, who are you?
That would have just crushed me because I would have been like, dude,
are you, are you kidding me now?
You know, like, yeah, we're sitting here and you're doing something.
I'm not trying to be Stan.
No, no, I'm not going.
No, he's funny because that's like, that was, I think Saturday.
So it's like, they're really big.
The Honda and Acura people know them from their page, AAC garage.
You know, they have a decent following and it's him and Mike Chan.
I'm a, I'm a good follower.
Future guest, future guest, Mike Chan.
Hey, that's right.
That's right.
He's going to fly out here in June just to do the podcast.
That's, that's love, bro.
Yeah.
So maybe if he has time, maybe we can get together and do like a meal with
some of the local guys.
I'm down.
I'm down.
See Chris is down with science of speed.
I'm glad I still have a car to drive to something like that.
Right.
And then, and then people listening to this that are here in the area, you
know, let me know if you want to be a part of that.
And we could try to make that happen because I met up with them yesterday
morning, Sunday morning, early after the carnival meetup.
That's why I was like, Hey, I got some people and you were stuck in
line with your, with the, with the photographer kid or whatever.
And then just really great people.
I mean, that's what you want to aspire to be.
You want people to be like that because it's more relatable.
And it's just one of the guys or one of the gals, you know, um, but yeah,
super cool people.
So we do this thing with Eric and I think we're drinking to close to one
o'clock in the morning.
Yeah, it was late.
It was a late, late.
And then what did you do the next morning?
Cause I, I can't believe you did it.
Well, the homies called.
They were like, Hey, angels, Chris, seven 30 in the morning.
And I was like, we were in what, what Cyprus.
Yep.
And it was about one 32 o'clock when I'll go into bed and I'm trying to
set my alarms.
So just to make sure I'm giving myself enough time, not thinking junk thing.
And I guess I map it to our little location.
Ah, 40 minutes, plenty of time.
Friday morning, seven 30 in the morning.
That is not the same time and distance.
Oh, that's right.
Cause it's always real time.
Right.
Like if you were to leave right now, it would take you 40 minutes.
Correct.
So that's not the same time at six 10 in the morning.
So I just had my wife on a Friday morning.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I just saw happen that my wife, she nudged me at five a.m.
Boom, get up.
You, you're not going anymore.
So I got plenty of time.
It's only going to take 40 minutes.
She was like, it's Friday morning.
Look at the map.
And I looked at the map.
I was like, crap, it's going to take me an hour.
So I'm scrambling out on everything together.
Boom, out the door.
You know, I made it there at seven 25.
So I still, the way I drive was, it was nice.
Man, my, my, my party somehow didn't get there until eight 15.
Oh.
So, but no, they got a little, I guess held up as well.
But still in amazing time, an amazing, you know, cruise up to the top.
What did you guys see up there?
Cause I've, I've been invited to go there.
Joseph Gatt, friend of the show.
I think he's still a friend of the show.
Um, he invited me last year to come up and I'm like, ah, you know, I mean, I,
sometimes I like cruising sometimes I don't, but he invited me to go up
there and do that.
And then this year you guys went up and I guess it's always a special deal.
It was, so the big cars that were there is off top of my memory.
It was, uh, you probably see it in some of the highlight pictures from, um,
Long Beach Grand Prix, it was a trailer GT or, uh, for GT that was there.
I don't know if it was track prep or whatever, but it was really nice.
But it was on trailer.
It didn't run or I didn't see it run.
I should say, I should say it that way.
I think it's like a, uh, like a retired MCA car or like an official race car
type of deal.
It wasn't on the ground.
So I just knew it was like a, at that point it's a model and that's their thing.
And to be looked at, I don't want to ask questions about, but there was a, uh,
9-11 GT three cup car that was out there.
There was another GT three and a GT four.
And then they had a good mix of other, like, uh, like a, uh, Mark four.
No, I'm sorry.
Yeah.
Mark four Supra.
No, Mark three is the night.
What's the nineties one that marks me, right?
So the Mark four Supra is a super popular one.
It's like 93 to 98.
Okay.
So it was the Mark four.
It was on top of my head.
Forgive me on one of the bookend years nerds nerds.
I'm not too savvy on other brands besides Honda.
Cause that's the one that fast and furious, essentially put on.
It was up there.
Then you had a couple of other like vets, Porsche, just a lot of like
enthusiast cars I wrote there.
I have some videos, so I'll make sure I give that to you.
So you could edit in what we saw that was there.
Oh, okay.
Um, but it was, thank you for giving me the word.
Nah, you're good bro.
You know, I'm all about contributing.
So by the way, so this is a popular place that people like to take their cars
and drive Roger and you need to be very careful because.
You know, recently, unfortunately, a few months ago, a very famous person
crashed their Ferrari and.
Yes.
And passed very unfortunate.
Yeah.
I guess maybe he had a passenger or not, but he did.
I believe he did.
Yep.
Um, he's the guy who I think he, he call a duty.
Yes.
He was, he had a hand in the call of duty franchise.
I want to say it was a developer or like the main, whatever, maybe former CEO or
whatever that was, but he was up there.
Yeah.
And he had some other stuff going on too, but most people know him from gaming.
No, rest in peace though.
Cause it was a mistake.
Accidents happen, but the most beautiful thing about accidents.
People learn from them.
People can take a step back and well, they should, you know, or another lesson
will be learned from that lesson.
And you know, um, it's going to get taught one way or another.
Um, but yeah, it's not really about trying to do anything outrageous for me.
It's just having a good, cool, spirited drive.
And you can say you did it.
That's like the golfers want to check off the golf courses.
That's it.
I drove on this road.
I had a good time with a couple of friends.
Nothing crazy happened.
No rock chips, you know, um, we got to see a lot of great scenery.
And then we drove down and that was it.
Yeah.
But that was, that was Friday morning.
Dude, I forgot you're on point with dates, bro.
My whole weekend seems like one quick weekend.
So that was awesome.
Somebody has to, I knew we're going to do this.
Would you like some more Rick?
Oh man, hold on.
No, no, no, I, I'm trying to stay focused.
I'm already hard to having a hard time recalling stuff.
All right.
I'm trying to keep up with you and I kick the table.
My bad.
Um, but yeah, so that was Friday.
So I, that and I got up and we went to the, to obviously the track.
And then I was up in Brandon, our new Southwest guy.
Yeah.
Shout out to Brandon, man.
Brandon Lee did a bang up job this year, um, but sort out all the Saturday
cancellations because there's always people who cancel at the last minute.
And you try to make sure because we had a, to kind of tell the whole story here.
Our friends at Acura always treat us well.
Right.
It, you know, and we always appreciate it.
And so they give us a certain lot of tickets for, for club members for Friday
or sometimes Saturday or usually Saturday and then sometimes Sunday this year.
They did different stuff.
So we knew we had a limited number of tickets for Saturday.
So we had a ticket lot of, like nobody got left out on Friday.
We had plenty of tickets for Friday and you want to invite people from all over,
but it's hard to, you know, the other side of this coin is it's hard to plan
your travel if you don't know that you're getting to be there Friday and Saturday.
But if you only get tickets for Friday, you know, one hand, you could say,
we just buy your own tickets for Saturday.
That's correct.
That's wrong with that.
But the other hand is like, well, I got, I can't make this trip.
If I, you know, then I get it.
Right.
I get it.
Uh, we ran out of tickets on Saturday really quick.
Oh, wow.
Okay.
Well, because we only got 18 versus like 60 something.
And we're talking about cars.
So that's times two.
Right.
So those 18 cars or 36 plus one, 36 people at the most, they're going to run
out really quick.
Um, and then we had last minute cancellations, some medical, some plans.
And it's like whatnot.
And so we're trying to figure out, and this year they were being a lot more
tougher at the Acura lounge.
I saw that it was a lot.
They had lists of names and, you know, there were some things that happened.
You know, it's just like everyone's always trying to sneak somebody in and you
can't plan for that and fire marshal and shit like that.
Yeah.
And before you can get in with a key fob and then people are complaining
about that where you can't do that this year.
And it's like, you could always hand your key to somebody else too.
There's always going to people who game the system.
But it sucks at the wheel call ticket counter too, that your name has to be there.
Right.
And they check your ID.
Yeah, they sure did.
I'm like, Hey, my name is Dream Owens.
I'll pick it up on my ticket.
Can I see your ID, please?
And you can't do it for the homie.
You can't, because our, or prevent four cars from having to go down there at one
time and just hooking everybody up and all meeting at a different location.
Not going to happen.
Yep.
It's just always, it's always going to happen at every single type of event.
In fact, Monterey car week, when you go to the quail, they have these wristbands
and they will tighten them up at the door because they're used to people
taking the wristbands off and off to other people.
Makes sense.
And I know people who have benefited from that.
Fine.
Cool.
Whatever.
It's like, when I'm leaving, I don't need these wristbands anymore.
Here you go.
You want me out here in the parking lot all day?
Here you go.
Take mine.
Right.
But they crack down on that shit.
You know what I mean?
So they allow just kind of the same way.
So anyway, but it's just like, so I was helping him and the vet and I kind of
walked around and we had some fun, you know, but I could tell she was bored off
her ass and y'all motherfuckers didn't get there till late because of what he
got.
I was like, man, shit, where's the crew?
Fuck, where's the crew over there?
Watching her like, slow.
No, this was way, I don't know where the fuck you guys are at.
We didn't leave out of there because after the mountains, we came down.
I read everybody, everybody has to eat together and do all this shit.
Didn't have to, but they went to this Zacatecas restaurant, Mexican restaurant.
Like Lamar, he called him in a tuck.
They're like, Hey, we're going to eat here.
And they're like, Hey, you can have Leo Uber there.
And I was like, no, I'm going to go get her.
They're like, well, you're going to be like 30 minutes behind.
Not me.
So yeah, I jetted down to go get my wife and pick her, put her with me.
We went to go eat and that's what was taking so long.
Well, there's always the plus one factor.
Right.
We walked around and talked about that.
Not a bad thing.
It just changes things.
It does.
So I'm like, I'm thinking, I was like, where the fuck is this?
It's got to be a bunch of plus one factors going on right now.
Meanwhile, my plus ones over there rotten in the corner.
Like she was still talking to people, but you know, me, I know, man.
I'm Mr. I mean, I, I talked to everybody.
It's like a family, all these events are like a family unit to me.
And I, that's why I enjoy going, man.
That's a lot of good people and it's like, okay.
And she knows some people, right?
But she's like, I don't like small talk.
You know, I was like, yeah, but there's nothing wrong with small talk.
That's how you get to know, you know, why?
It's because you're probably not interested in that person and it
makes it hard to ask small talk, you know, and it's cool.
That's not your thing.
Like, I can look at, which is fine.
And it's okay.
I can look at an engine block and think it's the most exciting thing ever.
While somebody's like, dude, it's a hunk of aluminum.
Who cares?
Right.
So we're walking around and we get some food and we don't really do everything.
And you know, and you guys show up eventually and I'm like, God, you know,
uh, save the day, the same day, you know, I'm like, man, like I was low key
looking a man, you know, I'm like, where is that man?
You know, the women, they got to get together.
Like, you know, um, but anyway, so we, you know, and I get it with her.
She was, you know, she wants to do the beach day on Sunday, right?
The car Sunday was hard.
That was very last minute for us.
I'm like, oh, that's a hard, that's an opportunity and we'll get to it.
But I'm like, that was hard.
I get it.
Everybody was doing their best.
It was the first time they were trying to do it for Sunday.
So there was a lot of things, learning opportunity.
But I mean, as far as the ticket allocation and because these
grandstand tickets are $221 a piece.
Oh my God.
Yeah.
And so, you know, we got allocations, you know, I got, obviously here's the thing.
So Dre and I were officers of the club automatic in.
So, you know, before anyone's like, Oh, hook your friends up.
No, automatic in, right.
Automatic in our plus ones automatic in.
But so Friday as we're walking out, she's like, Oh, what's going on tomorrow?
Is it this?
I'm like, yeah, this is Friday the whole weekend Friday is qualifying.
Saturday is qualifying.
Sunday is a race.
Rinse and repeat every day.
Believe it or not, we didn't see everything.
I was about to say that we didn't, you're going to miss it.
Yes.
And because people like us, you're there with your friends, people you haven't seen.
You're going to sit there and talk, get some food before, you know,
at the clock, clock, watch some racing.
We didn't even go around that whole other side.
We went last year.
No, I didn't even know even existed till last year.
That's all the restaurants we still, we still didn't go over there.
Cause we're still trying to shake hands and talk with people that were there.
And then there was a different company from Friday to Saturday.
Different group.
And it's kind of just, okay, I got to meet this person here today.
So I'm waiting.
So then Friday she's like, all right, well, I'm going to go to the beach tomorrow.
Okay.
I'm like, all right, well, maybe you can get Leo to be a Twitter user.
But, um, but Leo kind of likes that stuff.
If that couldn't be, she doesn't give a shit.
She likes to experience like she, one day, right, you know, one day is cool.
Gotcha.
Right.
The two days, not for her.
And I get it, you know, um, three days, sure she didn't for her, right.
But you know how I'm thinking.
I'm like, damn, how many people wanted to be here, right?
A lot that can't be here because we're sucking up one of these tickets that you
don't want, you know, I wasn't mad at her, but I'm just like, damn, you know,
man, so maybe next year, if she wants to come out, maybe for one day.
Gotcha.
And she can just do the beach the rest of the weekend and link up with us afterwards.
I don't know.
Well, something we can ask and talk about and plan a little bit different
because I'm only playing for the car event.
That's what I'm going for.
And that's saying, and I'm, I'm not trying to set any type of other expectation
because I was gifted to be there.
I'm honored to receive that.
Whatever we get.
It doesn't matter.
So if they're saying, Hey, do this, I'm not going to be like, well, I'm over
here doing that, that does not seem fair.
And it doesn't seem right, even though that there's no real commitment
that you need to make still, it's for me, though, if any of those heads
and accurately like, Hey, we need your car to here, or can you do this?
Roger, that I'm there, you know, because you've given me an opportunity
to be here for you.
Now, will that happen?
I don't know.
It will.
It kind of did with, with this Sunday event that we ended up doing, but we
still, like I said, we had to wait and kind of figure it out.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Uh, so that was, that was what we do Friday.
So it was just pretty much they were doing like, uh, qualifying and they
were just doing a race.
That was that.
And then, you know, this whole time we still never walked around as a consistent
group.
No, this year was different.
This year was different.
Yeah, it was a lot different.
And they had actually done a really good job in the atrium when they
set up for Acura, when they set up the eighties, like dealership.
Oh, that was cool.
It was really, so, so, so what they did is they set up the corner of the
convention center, the atrium and in the corner where the, or our good friend,
Jonathan Rivers, John Rivers, Merches, they, they set up to look just
like a 1986 Acura dealership.
Yes, they did.
And they had a lot of eighties nostalgia, just kind of like in that area,
like the good old, like floor 27 inch TV that's wooden encased in wooden
around or wooden around it with the VCR on top.
When I, you knew VCR, I think it was like a beta or something.
Probably beta max.
And then they had like the rabbit ear, like a rate, the radar dish for antennas.
And then they had the old Nintendo's in the, in the cabinet.
Oh, it was real, they did a good job.
Even though like, uh, I don't know, CRT TVs, the black and white ones, where
it's just like static rolling.
Throwed ray tubes, man.
CRTs in the house.
Shout out to CRTs.
But they, whatever did the design hats off to you.
You guys did an outstanding job.
Saturday night, we linked up with, with, uh, with Ryan.
Yes.
He, you know, you guys were beat, dude, but John Rivers came out with us.
We went to Lucille's.
Yes, we did.
And you know, Lucille's, that's my third time going there.
It's okay.
But we go there because it can accommodate the cars and the people.
And the last minute, no issues.
Last minute, no issues.
Service was top notch.
Yup.
Uh, that, uh, remember the waitress's name, but she did an awesome job paying
attention to the full table.
Everybody's orders.
Everything was personable.
Until it was time for the check.
Well, she was gone.
I think, I think 30 minutes of our time there was waiting for the check.
Given her the check, waiting for her to come back for that so we can sign it.
But any, cause you and Leo, so here's, let me set the table.
So this guy, some of your listening are like, all right, well, all right.
So you guys are up drinking till, uh, like one o'clock and he has to get up at
seven tough shit.
I do that every day.
Tell them you're, tell them your normal sleep schedule because I think this is
important.
Uh, I'm usually in bed by like nine and nine at night.
I'm up at three, 23, 25 in the morning.
I'm trying to be out of the house by three 45 every day, every day.
That's my workout time.
Um, some people may be like, Oh God, how can I do that?
Well, when I, when I was deployed as a good nice little soundbite mother
law just started the shower cause I didn't turn on the no record now
recording light, although we're obviously in here recording, but
cameras won't pick that up probably, but anyway, it's all good.
Don't worry.
Um, just what this is just me, why people, they, they will turn against it.
They like, they hate it.
They can't do it.
Um, one thing I learned when I was deployed, you only can make time for you.
And I always want to give myself everything.
So I try to work out and do everything before I start my day.
Cause I'm trying to give myself the best version of me.
And sometimes when you're waking up, you're a little groggy, but I
can do more, run further, get through my exercise, or I'm not beat up after
a work day, trying to do a full workout.
I'm, it just doesn't work for me at this age anymore.
So that's why I attended.
I tend to start working with zero six in the morning.
So I try to get everything done by part of that.
That's why.
So think about that.
So this was Thursday night.
It was crazy.
Yeah, obviously.
So yeah, you guys have been both of you cause you're on the similar schedule.
So by the time we're at Fridays at Lucille's eating dinner, and it does,
it's not late, but it feels late.
Right.
I want to say it's pushing nine 30, you know, which is late for you guys.
Normally much less getting no sleep, no sleep, been racing, dry.
It's not racing, but driving all day was on the sun all day.
And now we're there.
Yeah.
So you two are at the end of the table and I'm watching you as we're
waiting for this, she was a nice waitress, but waiting for her to come back.
It was like, Hey, who's going to go to Ryan's and have a nightcap.
I can't do it.
You know, cause usually he hosts us every year and you know, and that's like,
look, no pressure, dude, cause you know, you know, shout out to bar,
rest in peace for her father.
Oh my God.
Yeah.
So they had to prepare on Saturdays.
They had to get rid of their tickets.
Correct.
Um, for Saturday because of that.
So she's at home, you know, working.
She's supposed to come join us.
But finally we got out of Lucille's and a few of us were there as myself.
Talk rivers, um, Miller time, you know, it's funny.
I call Brian Miller and Brian Miller and I call him Miller time.
He doesn't drink, you know, Miller time.
And that was like circle in the drain.
She was tired too, but, um, she was sitting on the couch talking to
Valerie and we're just drinking this Japanese whiskey that he gives us some
stuff I never heard of.
It's pretty good actually.
Yeah.
So if you had to put it up against, uh, either Yamasaki or, um, it's another
one that we tend to drink Habiki Habiki.
Where were you thinking with land?
Ooh, that's a good question.
Um, cause I think those two are pretty extreme in their own flavor for me.
It's closer to the Habiki flavor.
With a little bit of peediness to it.
Oh, yeah, it got actually reminded me of downstairs.
I have Brooklottic, um, Brooklottic's a famous distillery, uh, in, in Scotland.
And I have Brooklottic, I lay Barley.
They also have Brooklottic, the classic latte.
And you start moving to like Port Charlotte and Octomor.
Those are super, super like extra pity.
It's not that it's just enough to worry.
It's almost like drinking a super light IPA and not really, it tastes kind of
like an IPA, but it's just at that, like more of a hint.
Not that it doesn't kick your ass like an IPA.
It's kind of like that.
So it kind of tastes a little bit like a head, just a touch of pee to it.
I, I love that little peaty hint or that flavor.
So yeah, like the Brooklottic I've downstairs, it's, it's like one of
I don't even drink that much scotch anymore.
That's all it's like I'm bourbon now, you know, bourbon just, so I guess
being a Texas man is what really opened it up.
And I think they without the bourbon is compared to more and more, more times
and not from what I've drank, cause I don't have a drink a lot.
It seems to be a little more high octane on average.
It just needs a little less.
I'm not trying to get blasted anymore.
I'm just trying to have a great flavor, you know, whiskey or bourbon and
just to have it flavor mouth and I'll get a little head change.
I'm good, man.
You're not trying to pound the bottle.
That's just not what it's about anymore.
Well, also a little secret is a lot of the scotches like get me.
Oh, oh, that's right.
They get me.
So my body reacts to them in a very negative way.
So the McCallons, you know, the Glenphytics, which I have a lot of.
Was it how am I saying like, like a woolen like a woolen.
I like log of woolen.
That's peaty.
I can drink a lot of woolen.
I could, I could drink a lot of log of woolen ish, but a lot of the ones that
I started off with, I just, I, I drink very sparingly because they
turn me beat red and I swear, you know, I just, I can't fuck with them anymore.
I see it.
Bourbons can do that, but I found ones more bourbons because we're here in America.
And I'm sure there's tons of scotches out there that are clean, but scotch to me
kind of has a very, the flavor array of scotch is either mild or smoky as fuck.
Yeah.
And there's like, there's nothing in between really.
And at least bourbons, you can kind of experiment and, you know, it's funny.
I say that because we open this saying, you know, you can put five
bourbons for me.
I'm not going to know the difference.
I'll just tell you what it's good.
You know, between scotches and your bourbons and how they hit you and what
the flavor would be.
Yeah, because like Cutty Shark, uh, Johnny Walker, you know, a lot of those,
they're, they're actually, so there's three flavors of scotch.
And it's funny.
They're like, should we be talking about Long Beach?
Um, we will be.
We will be.
I'll tell them accounts, I think, um, but there's the mild ones.
Then there's the blended scotch.
It all seems to kind of taste the same, like the Cutty Sharks and the Johnny
walkers, they have that same flavor profile, but they don't taste the same.
If that makes sense.
Uh, and then you have the PD stuff and there's a range of PD.
There's blow your, blow your face off versus light PD, but even in that,
like I don't, I haven't just, and maybe because most people I know drink bourbon,
I haven't gone down those rows, but I started off with scotch and I'm falling
down the bourbon rabbit hole now.
Cause it just fits me, but it tastes better for me.
And I enjoy it to just sip on it a little bit longer and I do scotch or
anything else like that.
Yeah, but anyway, shout out to Ryan and then that Japanese stuff that we had
was pretty good.
Hey, I'm sorry, Ryan.
I really wanted to make it that night, brother.
Hey, and I know next year.
You're watching, he ain't listening.
If you do stumble across this part of this episode, Hey, I'm next year,
brother, next year, I'll send it to him.
I'll say, Hey, you guys got to shut up.
Absolutely.
You know, uh, and that was Friday, you know, and, and Saturday event was at,
the beach and I thought Tuck was going to go to the, now he ended up having to
do a paper, so he couldn't make it.
Yeah.
So he can't, um, you know, obligate it.
Um, a couple of other people had a couple of other things going on, but that's
when I took advantage of going into the, uh, atrium and, and doing the walk around
and looking at the, uh, exhibits or whatnot.
And shout out to once again, Acura Honda, setting up like Sims, uh, like they had
their race cars in there, had people getting them, hopping in and out of
cars, a big line for people to get into the car.
They were, did you see how excited they were?
Very happy being in line.
And then the smile they had once they were able to get into the car and get
their picture, they were in that car for like two seconds.
Yeah, I'm not going to stand in line to wedge myself in a car that I shouldn't
be sitting in to begin with.
They, you know, you're never going to get in and do anything with, besides this
photo, you need like a giant shoehorn to get me out of that fucker, get me in and
out of it, you know, I'm just not, you know, cause I had actually that, my, you
know, this, this whole situation for me and my whole neck and back.
I just had a shit night.
Um, yeah, but no Saturday was cool, man.
Um, every year we talk about this, you know, getting to the Long Beach
Grand Prix and, you know, you see your friends.
So I, so John took me up with him into the, one of the suites, which is cool.
You know, Kelly stopped by and be like, here's two of you and Jay want to come
in and I still have, like, I love the opportunity, but I still have like a
little bit of guilt too.
It's like, oh, cause you know how I am, man.
I'm like, you know, all my boys are down there and I'm up here.
We're just thankful to be in the same, you know, event.
Well, people better understand there's just different echelon, different.
There's only certain, uh, how we say occupancy at certain venues and areas.
They can only do so much.
And it's not always about a hundred percent that other person.
And if you're blessed enough to receive that invite, I'm loving the fact
you're able to share with people.
So maybe other people will be more inspired to maybe want to get into these suites.
Well, my justification for that is I'm the fucking president of the NSX Club of
America, so I can, I can get this pass, you know, but even then, you know,
they had, you know, you go up there and they have alcohol and, you know, uh,
they have food.
I think I talked about that.
And I ate a little bit, um, and I had like one little drink and I kind of sat there.
Didn't, you know, but you mean if the food was there, I would have put, uh, you
know, but what was cool is that we were, and you know this, but I'm telling
the people on this is so Honda and Acura for the upcoming Olympics in 28, you
know, they're big time sponsors and the sponsor athletes.
So right now they have 10, uh, Paralympics, like the, the handicap type, you know,
so they have 10 of those athletes and they were sitting in the actual suite.
We're on the outside of like the hallway.
And like we're not technically in the suite.
We went in there to say hi to Kelly and Jodi, but then we got out of the suite,
you know, so we weren't in there like abusing, but yeah, the, the Olympic
athletes were right there.
And so John's pointing out who's who, like, oh, you know, see her, she's this
and her husband's cool and he does this and this guy over here and the
Bopsled team, blah, blah, blah.
You know, I'm like, oh, that's really cool.
And I, well, the only thing I would have changed from that visit is when they
came out and walked passes, I would have said, you know, thank you for
representing the United States, you know, in the Olympics, you know, we're
just kind of waved at them and smiled, you know, and same thing when they came
in and I was like, thank you, they're probably, thank you for what, you know,
but it's hard.
Even with me, man, like shaking hands with like the exact accurate, I'm not,
it's been a while since I've been around like upper management, if you will,
like in the military for me, it was around officers.
There's a certain way you address, you talk, you have, I don't talk
conversations, whatnot.
And when you're in corporate America, same thing.
When you have the big whiz come around, there's a way, you know, but when
you just live in life and you're having a great time, you know, and sometimes
I'm not on my P's and Q's.
I don't, I think of my questions like after they left, and I'm the guy
wants to come running back up, oh, now, thank you for doing this.
It's just like, oh man, I missed the opportunity.
I just need to do better at being more prepared, you know, so I completely
understand.
Yeah, I mean, it was just, it was cool though, you know, and then, you know,
we came back down and tried to figure out what we're doing.
And then that's, you know, that's when Peter and those guys showed up.
And, um, I'm gonna look up this, I'm so bad with, with names, good.
We had it, we had a VIP there.
You're going to find it.
Cause you, you're actually more, way more organized than me.
I had to dig through text messages.
If I were Bob Caswell, in the case, yeah.
So Dai, Dai Yoshihara was down there.
Yeah.
That's, that's the race car driver.
Yeah.
So he's done Pikes Peak.
He's going to do Pikes Peak again this year.
He just got inducted into the Drift Hall of Fame.
Long Beach Drift Hall of Fame and he drove the number 40 Integra.
The 86 Integra that they had rebuilt and, uh, dude, that car was amazing.
Yeah.
So tell everybody what that means with the whole 40, cause I don't think
we even talked about that.
Ah, so this was the 40th anniversary of what Acura sponsoring the Acura period
or Acura period on the Long Beach Grand Prix.
So, and what was funny, they actually finally won a race.
They went on the time.
Well, they won on the actual day of the fourth anniversary.
Yeah, that's cool.
It just kind of aligned up that way.
Yes, they do win all the time, but.
I'm like, is this thing rigged?
Acura, Acura kind of wins a lot here.
Well, they have fast cars.
We have a couple, not too.
But that's what the 40 was.
So they did sport the number 40 on the car and that's what the whole
thing was for the whole weekend.
It's beautiful, beautiful.
Yeah.
And we'll tell you about, we'll tell them about what that meant for us and the
unique opportunity that we got.
And many people already know just from social media.
Um, but yeah, they brought dye down there.
And that's, you know, that's when Jonathan to Candia, we're talking
about earlier, VTech killer one on Instagram.
He came running cause he was late, but I didn't even realize it until he came
and used to, I was like, oh, wait, it's Jonathan right there.
You know, we, cause I met him years ago.
His boss asked me off this time.
Yeah.
He looks like, you know, you know, Corey Hossford is you show me a picture of him.
Remember when you were like, Hey, does these guys can be brothers?
Yeah.
I said, John, I said, I said, you, you don't know Corey.
You know, he does a tour with, with fuel fest.
Great guy, local drifter here for a while.
You know, um, and with that mustache and those sunglasses, they could be brothers.
They could, like Corey could be John's bigger brother or vice versa.
Like you just do the sunglasses, the mustache and the presence.
Absolutely.
You know, both great people, amazing people.
Um, but we capped off Saturday at, uh, at Jan and Craig Ryan's right.
Thirty six foot yacht.
Yeah.
I'm not, now that's a whole new, all I know is bigger.
It was big, big, it's a tri level boat.
Right.
I went up top, very hot, went back to the normal deck, restrooms downstairs.
He actually took, uh, someone was down into the engine room underneath the boat.
I, I looked down the hatch and I go, I'm not going on there.
It was dope.
Especially with this next situation.
Yeah, you would have had to kind of contort yourself to kind of like lower yourself and
then crunch down, walking underneath there.
But to have those big huge motor turbo, like diesel engines that were out and exposed
as a mechanic, oh, they make it easy to work on this kind of, I mean, granted,
you're going to be kind of took down there doing whatever you need to do if you need
to service them.
But man, it was immaculate down there and aviation dude's dream to see like everything
just clean and in its place and nothing linking all over.
Everything was spectacular down there.
So shout out to Craig and Jan on that one and inviting us over to the boat to come hang
out and have a few.
I appreciate that.
Cause they, they've been invited before, but I always feel awkward cause I travel with a crew.
Right.
You know, I need, I need a crew to feel relevant.
You know what I'm saying?
A Posse.
I need a Posse, you know, I need an entourage and it's like, I don't, if you invite me to
your boat to come hang out, if I'm by myself, I'm going to take you up on it.
Gotcha.
But I don't want to just show up with a crew.
You know, I don't want to tuck it.
Hey, to help me, I'm going to be rolling on that one.
To help me to be rolling on that one.
But no, I just don't want to show up with a crew.
It's just being respectful, man.
Yeah.
And, and, but when they said, yeah, we can get 25, 30 people, just let us know.
I'm like, all right.
Well, how much of a heads up do you need?
They go five minutes.
I'm like, all right.
And then Peter was planning on going on.
So Peter and Jake and you know, and everybody.
So that was a great time.
We went out there.
John joined us.
Kelly joined us.
I think Jody joined us too.
Right.
Jody joined us.
Yvette took an Uber from the beach.
Yes, he came and joined us.
You know, I know when she saw that boat, I sent her that picture.
I was like, dude, she came quick though.
And she was like, oh, I'll be right there.
I'm going to call this Uber really quick.
Come join them.
But very, very hospital, very gracious, awesome people.
You know, even Craig gave me a job because I was able to kind of help him
out of the engine room.
Oh, no kidding.
I was able to just pull him up and he would just, oh my God.
It is the easiest time I've ever crawled out of this hole.
Well, he had a bad accident.
Yes, I heard.
Which I didn't know about.
And I didn't get into detail.
I just heard accident and he's been recovering and it's just taken him out.
You know what happened or?
Overview.
Yeah, I don't know.
I don't know, but Jam was like, you know, he had a bad accident.
I go, no, I don't think I knew that.
I was happy to help.
I didn't know it was going to be 9-March stone, but it was, it was fine.
My full circle with them started at NSExpo 2017.
Hey, almost 10 years.
Yep.
We're up in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin at Road America.
And it was the last day in Craig.
He still, he still had his, I think 91 or 92 red NSX.
He had the homie Chromies on there.
Okay.
Yep.
The fat, the fat five.
Fat five.
Chromies.
Nobody likes, by the way.
No, no one likes any of the fat fives really.
I like, I like the basic silver ones.
I think they look good.
Really?
It works for the car.
It's period correct.
But for some reason, when you chrome them out, it just looks weird and it looks dumb.
But anyway, so, and then she needed a ride back to Milwaukee airport.
I have my rental car.
And so I gave her a ride.
Long story short, we did the cruise and I took her to the airport.
I didn't really know them.
I didn't really know her, but I took her to the airport and then we hung out and had
like a beer, a spot of cow, just like their beer.
And then, you know, he got home safe.
Obviously she got home safe and then we've been kind of friends since then.
That's beautiful, man.
Yeah.
And it's just like, what the car ownership is and the type of.
It's how these relationships are built, man.
Just, we're in the same place.
It's a common interest in a vehicle and a common interest in gathering with people
to have that same interest in the vehicle.
And you think that's kind of where it would end.
But then you realize that everybody has their own particular stories.
Yeah.
And then you start to develop these interesting relationships and friendships
that has just been rolling.
And like, I was introduced to what NSX Club of America back in 2020.
2021 is my first event, but it's only been growing and getting better with more and
more people that as we've just been rolling on.
And that's just what's been the super since leaving the military and having just
random people you become best buds with.
This is like my way of that same type of camaraderie.
Because we don't know anybody from Adam.
However, we do have a common interest.
And then as we start sharing these stories, man, everybody just starts opening up.
And then now everybody's changing phone numbers, setting up times.
Hey, I'm in your area.
How about dinner?
How about this?
Or if, hey, I'm here.
Do you need any help with that?
I can do this for.
And being in a civilian role, I've ran into a lot of situations.
That just does not happen in other car communities.
I'm not trying to, you know, shit on any other car communities.
They're envious when they are around us because they're like, I'm not getting this kind of love.
I've heard that from people in this club that have, that have had multiple
very expensive high dollar cars and they're members of a lot of different groups.
They go, the intersex crowd is different.
And we are, I just think we're, you know, a ragtag group of like nerds that really
like something that's kind of unique in its own way.
But because of that, we're able to see a little uniqueness in each and every person
and just kind of develop that relationship.
And it's, it's been heartwarming, man.
There's, there's, there's very little cause I can't say there is none.
There's very little pretentiousness.
It's there.
There's very little competition.
And my car is infinitely better than your car, you know.
And then I know some really cool people that have more money than I'm ever going to
have my entire life.
Like really cool people.
And they choose our car.
They have these cars.
Not only intersexes, but like, I know people with like
Valkyries and shit.
And they have that persona to them, but they'll talk to you and they'll, you know, they're cool.
They're cool people, you know, so there's, there's a bunch of douchebags out there too,
but there's a lot of people that have a lot that aren't douchebags, you know,
um, Sunday morning, for example, let's get to that.
So, oh yeah, I don't know.
I'm, I'm a hundred percent sure there's douchebags that were there.
But they, they said we had, we had some of our own too.
Right.
Right.
It's like, just like bloods and crisps.
I could promise you this.
None of the accurate douchebags are there.
No, they were saying, I don't want to be on this side.
Can I come to y'all?
That's what they're doing.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
The reason why, so it was really cool.
So there's some mothers typically has this event and now it's, it's more, it's called
mornings.
Yes.
Mornings, which I don't know what that is, uh, but it looks, it's probably kind of a
higher end, like car, car group or something like that.
Right.
And then it had car in the walls, what they called it.
Mm hmm.
And so we got the unique opportunity through Acura.
Thank you.
Again, Vince is the main, makes things happen.
It was kind of a last minute thing.
So people who were fellow owners, maybe watching or listening to this, if they're
still, you know, listening after all our side talk, um, which is my fault, but that's fine.
No, it's not.
We haven't fun, man.
Yeah.
And we want to share the experience.
They're like, Hey, can you get eight to 10 cars?
We're going to, we had the big 40th anniversary and we're going to finally do a parade lap.
Mm hmm.
And like Ferrisott's been trying, he's our, you know, former, you know, Southwest rep.
Yeah.
He's been trying, and he's a shout out Ferrisott.
You've done, he's a salesman and he knows what he's doing and he's been working his
ass off to try to make this happen.
And it just never happened.
I mean, you know what, this was the year Vince is a man.
And so obviously Ferrisott was one of the first, I said, Hey man, we have an opportunity.
Are you going to be there Sunday?
Because a lot of us weren't going to be there Sunday.
No, we already had major engines.
We just wanted to drive back home.
Yeah.
But the thing was we can get eight to 10 cars in a sexes.
So they had to give us those carnival tags.
I don't know, but they were expensive.
I can only imagine because Jay Jones actually bought the carnival tags.
They were 375.
Yeah, about $400 for tag.
And then you go to the show and it comes with stuff, you know,
Yes, you still get things with that.
You get an opportunity to go out on track.
They raffle off an opportunity.
So 20 of those cars and there were cars there.
There were two, three, four million dollar cars.
You had the, the, yes, go, yes, go.
The Jesco.
Jesco.
There was a Jesco there.
You had the.
There was a Aston Martin Vulcan, Valkyrie Vulcan.
I don't know.
I took a video of one of them.
Use the video because I don't know those cars off hand.
I just know what they look like.
But it was gorgeous and amazing cars that were like.
Every Lamborghini you could think of was there.
City blocks worth of cars of house worth of cars was just rolling through.
They weren't just regular Porsches.
They were, you know, RS GT3 GT2.
Just everything was there.
I don't know if there's a 19 there though.
But.
I didn't, no, no, not at night.
Tons of Ferraris.
Tons of really nice.
Clarence.
It's like just really nice cars.
Of course the, the nice McLarens were there.
And what do you mean the nice ones?
Aren't they all nice?
No, they're not all nice.
No, no.
But the, the nice ones were there.
There wasn't an F one there.
No, no F ones.
I don't think there was a Senna there.
No, no Senna.
But there were a lot of these cars that we were kind of spoiled here
because you can go to Highline and see a lot of them.
Not at the same time, but.
You will sprinkle them.
Any given Highline, you're going to see two to three just super
unattainable badass cars.
And so when people go, hey, I'm coming to Phoenix.
When should I come to see some cars?
I said, come, come for Highline.
I'll go up there with you.
So that's that type of show.
But anyway, so carnival, they have these, right?
But for the Acura, you know, I called the homies and then I reached out
like Jen and Craig Ryan.
Yep.
They, I know they've been, they actually canceled, they had plans.
Really?
To go on a trip for some other car group.
They canceled that so they can do this.
There's another couple that I'd never met, an older couple.
They were on the track too.
Because I saw they're going to be there all weekend.
So my, my task was finding people who were going to be there
or lived in the area already.
It's like, all right, well me, that's easy.
You know, we can make this happen.
Dre, you know, call a couple of the homies.
And I know so many people and not everybody obviously can come out.
So then you have to like, okay, we're going to pick.
Right.
Obviously Brandon, the Southwest Rep.
Farisot.
Yep.
You know, cause he's been trying to do this shit forever.
For so long, bro.
Like, yeah.
And then Jen and Craig Ryan and Gary, Gary Smith and his wife and whatever.
But we got the unique opportunity to go on the parade lap.
And it was just, I wish Yvette could have been there.
Right.
But I couldn't, she would have had fun on that, but the rest of the day.
And to your point, we were supposed to be at the driver's meeting at 1130.
And I don't think we even talked till 1220, 1228.
Correct.
So we're standing around in the heat.
Yeah, we're standing around in the heat.
So we would have probably both had to have heard about that the whole time.
Absolutely.
And we're guys, man.
We're simple.
We can just stand there and just burn up, watch the trophy trucks go by.
It's not, I don't think it's anybody's fault and everybody has to learn.
Something had came up, something changed.
These guys are on point.
They're on time management.
Racing is time management and everything has to happen.
Shows are happening.
But when things get backed up, they're making the moves they need to make.
The last thing I'm going to do is run and be like, well, what's that?
We're timed.
This is that.
What's going on?
No, that's natural.
The funny thing is we actually still started on time.
Yes, we did.
Yes, we did.
So because they knew we were going to be on track at this time,
but everything else is in the middle.
Everything before that was a clusterfuck.
Exactly.
But I know they're going to take the feedback and they're going to,
you know, figure out how to make it better.
This was their first.
Listen, they've been trying to do this.
We've been asking for this for years and it was a no.
And we finally get a yes.
Now we did it.
Now that they got some opportunity, they learned, they're like, okay,
so we can make it work by doing X, Y and Z next time.
Hopefully this is a reoccurring thing for Acura.
Having a lot of these vintage cars out there on track for that one lap or whatever the case,
maybe one get two laps next time.
I don't know.
I would love it, you know, but we'll see.
Going somebody don't mess it up.
No, you know, as long as we don't turn our cars sideways out there
and we follow the direction, I think we should be all right.
Did you have your windows down?
I did.
Did you hear the clapping?
Okay.
That's what I was going to get to.
Did you see it when we entered the field?
It was like, like everybody was watching in a suit, like an old Hall of Fame superhero
or somebody step out onto the field and they were like, oh my God,
we're seeing these type of cars.
Yeah.
Which is funny because the, the hyper cars, like the really expensive cars we were just
talking about, the 20 that were selected to go out went before us.
They were like, no, I'm sure people love that shit.
Like real talk.
I mean, you know, and you can.
I tried to doubt play.
You write though.
No, they're here to see them all throughout from where we're at, you know,
but that was cool.
And once they got done, they were like, come on, let's go, let's go, let's go.
And they, they were getting mad if we were taking too long getting out there
because of the time, because of the time, but we were able,
most of us were able to kind of get on it a little bit.
But as we're finishing the parade lap, I think, I think I got up to,
I don't know what I got up to, but I know I had to switch it into manual mode
so I can kind of control it more, you know, for the sound, you know,
there you go.
I'm not as loud as this fucking Jesko and these other cars went by.
But you got a good tune.
You got some, you know, down pipes.
You can hear me kind of going by.
So I want to make sure people, people heard that and listened to it, you know,
but I was able to get it going pretty good where I had to like really pay attention to
make sure because I'm not going to lie, man.
Before we went out there, I was kind of sitting in the car and I was like,
kind of fluttering a little bit.
You know, I was like, don't mess this up.
And kind of nervous.
I guess, you know, like you're getting ready to do a speech.
Did you have that?
Did you have any of that at all?
Any of the butterflies?
Yes.
Are we about to do this?
I'm in a stick shift car and I know how to drive, but when I start looking around,
I start looking at the car in front of me.
And there was a couple of times I had a couple of butt pucker moments
because I'm like smiling and looking.
And then I see a brake light out of the corner of my eye.
I'm like, okay.
And our Southwestern rep, Brandon Lee, his is the car right in front of me.
I didn't want us to get that close and connected, but oh my God, what an experience.
And I didn't want to stall, bro.
For me, it was getting ready to go out.
Once I got out there, I didn't even, it was just, you know.
Follow the leader at that point.
Follow the leader at that point.
But, you know, being able to get the car up and then, you know,
Rami, who I sent you guys links to earlier, took amazing professional photos.
Gorgeous.
Yeah.
I'm going to go ahead and pay for that.
Yeah.
I'm going to.
I'll happily because I don't have, I have cool pictures of my NC one on track at Expo's.
Right.
But not on track where it's the Long Beach Grand Prix, 40th anniversary, and all the sponsors
are up everywhere.
You know, and I may have to, you know, I don't want to damage his photos or anything,
but I may have to add some people, more people in the crowd, you know, for the, you know,
any little bit, you know, the only other time I've driven a car in front of a crowd was at SEMA.
Really?
SEMA ignited the last day you could have the SEMA parade.
And so there's people on both sides, you know, but even that, you're just kind of,
you know, but this was your, like, you're legit on the streets of Long Beach on a converted
racetrack.
City racetrack, yep.
You know, and it's just, man, what a way to cap off, you know, and then, and then we got
the wristbands.
Right.
Shout out to Efren for going around making sure we all had wristbands.
So we had none, and I was okay with that.
I thought we were on track.
I was like, if we can't get to the lounge, we can't get to the lounge.
We're here, we're on track.
Who fucking cares?
But they came through and hooked us up with the wristbands.
Absolutely.
And so we're able to go back to the Acre Owner's Lounge.
Best seats in the house, by the way.
Absolutely.
Even, go ahead.
No, that's why we don't really go to the grandstands that much.
We never go to the grandstands.
Dude, you see everything.
You have a big, long, swooping, like, turn, bin that all the cars you can see,
clear as day, and then have a huge jumbo tron to see everything else.
The restrooms are right there.
Yeah.
Then, you know, why move?
Yeah.
And there was actually more room this year.
There was.
So where you can still, you just hop around from different cocktail tables.
And honestly, you're not just sitting there locked.
Some people are sitting on the front and second row locked in watching the racing.
Correct.
I think that if I were to add all the time that I was just sitting there focused
in on the race cars going by, from all the years I've been to this event,
I think this is my fourth one.
I have to count the helmets in the closet.
I think this is my fourth one.
I think if I were to add up all the time, maybe an hour's worth of time staring at
the cars going by, otherwise you can hear them.
Right.
But you're talking to people.
I love how everybody does this, though.
When the car, when we're all talking and talking, then we start hearing the calls,
everybody goes silent.
And then they pass.
And then we just start talking again.
Or some people keep going.
And he can't hear them like, huh?
I'm like, yeah, you just keep smiling and nodding like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Oh, last bit.
So the guy I introduced you to, did I tell you this, Mark?
Did I tell you who that was?
I said he likes minivans.
You did?
Yes, yes, yes.
Something about his minivans.
And I was like, huh, tell me more.
I think so.
His pass, I'm pretty sure Mark Deutsch was involved when he got to Han in Acura,
did something with minivans.
But he was actually the guy in charge of allocations for the Type S.
Oh, yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
So he's been to a couple of Expos before.
Okay.
He's funny, but super dry, like dark, like deadpan humor sort of.
That's why he and I click.
Me and him would get along as well.
Yeah.
But it was good to see him.
He's usually there, but sometimes you see him sometimes you don't.
But we send a lot of emails.
I think I have his phone number.
I appreciate these guys taking our time.
You know what it is about Acura?
Not to make this an Acura Honda commercial.
It's the availability of the people in the suits.
Almost everybody.
I mean, I didn't see John Akeda this year, but I know he was there.
And he's approachable.
He'll talk about cars all day.
Yes, he will.
And he's over HRC pretty much.
And it's just like those people, you know, Vince, very available.
And we don't have to have, we don't have to be like on our, on our 12th NSX.
So we could be civic owners.
Right.
You know, we could be Integra, first gen Integra owners.
And you're going to get the same amount of time with them.
What's cool about those guys, they remember the good old days when they were the kid.
When they had that EG, that Integra, it was their first car.
So they are still connected and staying down the earth and sharing
because they know the excitement we have.
Granted, it can kind of be a little dry or like, oh my God, this car again.
No, not from them whatsoever.
They are just as excited to talk to the hundredth person about their first experience
and to share theirs as well.
And that's just appreciation coming from the top, man.
All right.
So we'll wrap this up like this.
What is, what is your
because the answer is easy.
The answer is the parade lap.
Absolutely.
Okay.
So outside of the parade lap, what was your most memorable
or favorite part of this Long Beach weekend?
And I ask you first so that I can come up with an answer.
No, absolutely.
Me, it's, it's spending time with people I didn't see last year is catching up with them,
sharing the life stories and just things that happen over the air and just getting caught up.
And also remembering it was a silly car.
That's the only reason why I was able to put myself in the same environment with a lot of these people.
And that's what it is for me.
Let me stop you there.
You could say that about every single time you go.
It's got to be something.
Hmm.
Was it staying up till one o'clock drinking with Eric from Haggerty?
No, that's just, those are just good times.
Because that's going to be one of those unique things that won't happen every year.
No, that was, that is unique in itself.
And did I appreciate this on hell, yeah.
Right.
It's, yeah, it's nothing, not to say you wouldn't appreciate that, but that's just,
it's one of those things you can't time.
It just happened.
That just happened, bro.
And it's, it's, I wouldn't say the bet.
Well, we'll see what else.
Let's see.
There's so many things that we did though, bro.
Um,
Because I took away the first obvious one.
Yes, you did.
Carnival parade lap.
That's one of my, going to be my go-to.
But actually watching the victory, watching them win that race.
That was cool.
Actually, no, back up.
Was it the, was it the fucking trophy track on two wheels around the whole track?
I mean, let me be real with it, that 86, uh, Integra, to watch it being rebuilt and running
on that track as, as any other car was, even though I had an 87 back in the day, a four door,
I'd never appreciated that car.
Like when I saw that rebuilt one and it made me just think like how far of a car
I have come because I gave two shits about that car and to watch them have cleaned it up
and have it as fully functional operational out there, it just lets me know.
Sometimes you need to just put a little more dedication and things that are around you
and they can be just as appreciated or appreciated as anything else that's just being kind of
to the scene.
So, and then what's special about that car is just a little side story and I don't mean
to kind of drag this on, but you know, I wouldn't agree.
Like as you know, I'm not always the greatest driver now that I've learned different things.
Drive good?
Well, I drive great.
You just suck as a drive leader.
Yeah, as a driver, but I, you know, I did a lot of dumb things and I used that car as
when I used to get in trouble and I had my L's a suspender or whatever.
I just knew the California cops weren't going to mess with me because I was, I couldn't go
fast in it and it looked like a beat up gray piece turd and if I needed to go to working
back and I had no L's, that was the car I chose and it was like my safety and it was my reminder
of stop screwing up so you can get something better.
But someone took something that I kind of took for granted and actually put a little TLC into
it and it made it something where I kind of wanted my whole car back, man.
So that's probably going to be the most part of the weekend for me, man.
All right, well, thank you for being here.
What are you going to say now?
You can't get out of this one.
Man, I don't, you know, I don't, I don't know because that was so good.
I had to think about it for a moment.
It took me a moment.
Yeah, I might, I might go off the cuff with this and I think I'm going to say
Craig and Jan's boat because I took a picture and you sit back and you look
and we're all there and we got people from Wisconsin, you know, we got people from corporate,
we got people from Arizona, you know, we got people from Seattle, you know,
Miller time and we have people local also there.
You know, Steve and obviously Jan and Craig Ryan and we're all just having
our own silly little side conversations.
The weather was great.
She brought out the meats and the olives was telling her story and it was just,
it reminds me of what happens at NS Expo after the day's events are done.
It's like the hotel room parties that we always have.
And it's kind of the same thing, just not as loud.
Hotel for hell god, bro.
Yeah.
And everyone's just drinking and having a good time.
And, you know, it's just on the boat and it was just cool.
Yes, it was.
You know, that, that invite is going to be open probably every year,
but this being the first year to capture it, it was just cool.
And then the weekend was, I mean, like I said, I stole the obvious one.
Right.
You know, but also side note is, is seeing Jonathan to candy again.
Again, I haven't seen him in years.
And then talking and meeting Mike Chan in person, because we all know the same people.
Him and RJ, you know, Kuiya Automotive shout out to RJ are really close as well.
And so we're all friends, but it was cool talking to Mike.
And so I'm, he'll be here in studio, like I said, and I'm looking forward to that.
He posted a funny picture off the Senate to you from his early days.
He's got like this, he's an Asian dude.
He's got this big fro and that's like a real photo.
Oh my God.
I can't wait to check it out.
Props to him for posting that shit on Instagram.
You know, it's just, it's crazy, but yeah, this year was special.
Every year special, but this year was even more special.
And obviously for all of us who were able to do it, and unfortunately not everybody could,
but for all of us who were able to get out there on track, that was, that was special.
Yeah.
Like I said, I appreciate the opportunity and all I can do is just keep doing and whatever
we can do to make it better and just keep participating and just keep having fun, man.
All right, man.
Well, we'll do it again.
Obviously.
Yes, we will.
But thank you for being the other side of the table with me today.
And obviously this, this Rick House is great.
You want some more now?
All right.
Yeah, we ended this.
We good now.
And let's go ahead and get the closing.
If you guys like what you heard or watched today, make sure you give us a thumbs up and
give a good comment.
Also, if you're able to attend Long Beach, what was your favorite part?
And if you're mad because we didn't maybe cover something, what would you,
what would you have rather had us cover?
Otherwise, I want to think right.
Spark for J.I. for Marcus Foundry.
Autocannon officially licensed on an accurate gear.
Again, you're sporting the auto cannon shirt.
That's a nice one.
Can't forget our Patreon business supporters.
Cuy Automotive out of Wintergarden, Florida.
Of course, that's RJ.
Automotive specialty tool.
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And of course, shaping success, Treasure Valley out of Boise, Idaho.
Again, one drink Wednesday at one drink Wednesday and Instagram at seven o'clock
Pacific time every Wednesday.
Make, make sure you give us a follow.
I tell you about the Patreon, but you're not going to join.
But I will say special thanks to Mark Stoneman, Catherine Cox, Eddie Ramos, Richard
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Great in front of me.
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Uh, I will see you all next week.
Absolutely.
That was a lot of fun, Dave.
Shut up!
About this episode
A Long Beach Grand Prix recap mixes garage chaos, bourbon tasting, and a deep dive into Acura hospitality. The hosts talk through an NSX lift mishap, gas-station annoyances, parking-pass confusion, and the logistics of getting into the event. They also highlight the Acura lounge, a 1986-style dealership display, a rebuilt Integra on track, parade-lap nerves, and the easy camaraderie of the NSX crowd and Acura insiders.
Original notes
Episode 323: Andre Mullins joins Jhae Pfenning in studio for a full recap of their trip to the Acura Long Beach Grand Prix.
In this laid-back, bourbon-fueled conversation, the duo breaks down the last-minute NSX parade team assembly, driving their cars in the 40th anniversary celebration, behind-the-scenes access, celebrity sightings, and all the Honda/Acura community vibes from the weekend.
Pure car guy storytelling at its best on the non-automotive automotive podcast.
Timestamps- 00:00 - Intro & Studio Welcome
- 03:10 - How the Long Beach Trip Came Together Last Minute
- 08:45 - Assembling the NSX Owner Parade Team
- 18:00 - Arrival at Acura Long Beach Grand Prix
- 35:50 - The 40th Anniversary NSX Parade Experience
- 48:20 - Driving the NSX on Track & Streets
- 01:05:30 - Celebrity Sightings & Event Highlights
- 01:22:40 - Bourbon Chat & Weekend Takeaways
- 01:35:10 - Future Honda/Acura Events Talk
- 01:48:00 - Listener Questions & Community Shoutouts
- 01:52:30 - Patreon Thanks & Closing
Contact
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.hardparking.com
Patreon: patreon.com/hardparkingpodcast
Instagram: @hardparkingpod
YouTube: youtube.com/@HardParking
Hard Parking with Jhae Pfenning
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