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Acura Longbeach Grand Prix / Guest: Ex-Black Hawk Crew Chief - Dre Mullins
Acura Longbeach Grand Prix / Guest: Ex-Black Hawk Crew Chief - Dre Mullins
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About this episode
Dre Mullins returns to discuss the Acura Long Beach Grand Prix, sharing insights from their experience and the excitement of the event. The conversation dives into the impact of tariffs on car prices, the challenges faced by consumers, and the dynamics of car financing. They reflect on the impressive Acura displays, the camaraderie among car enthusiasts, and the thrill of being close to the action at the Grand Prix. With anecdotes about their road trip and interactions with fellow car lovers, this episode captures the essence of automotive passion and community.
Topics:
long beach grand prix
tariffs impact
car financing
acura displays
community engagement
road trip experiences
automotive events
car enthusiast culture
EP272
In this episode, Jhae and returning in-studio guest Dre Mullins discuss tariffs as it relates to auto sales as a former finance director. Dre gives his input on what may have gone wrong with the Hudson river helicopter crash involving the Siemens CEO, family, and Navy Seal pilot. Then Jhae and Dre recap all events leading to and during the Acura Long Beach Grand Prix weekend that took place April 11 - 13, 2025.
00:00 Introduction
02:00 car parts and tariffs Dre Introduction
05:40 Auto loans and tariffs
08:30 Low Credit High Risk
12:20 Toyota to absorb tariffs and billing rates explained
14:40 Chinese factory workers expose US brands on social media
16:10 creative dealership techniques to move your money around
19:00 NY Post on Honda , Nissan cancels orders for Nissan Rogue
22:41 Grand Prix vs Formula 1 experience
27:30 Siemens CEO and family die in helicopter crash, what happened?
30:00 crew chief screws up Acura NSX
33:00 It never rains in Southern California
37:00 Acura Lounge at the Grand Prix
52:21 Katella Bakery - best bakery in SoCal?
54:47 Watch your kids
57:30 Jordan vs Lebron GOAT discussion
1:03:50 Acura brand headed in the right direction
1:11:00 Outro and Closing
Contact Hard Parking with Jhae Pfenning:
email: [email protected]
Website: www.Hardparkingpod.com
Patreon: www.patreon.com/hardparkingpodcast/
Instagram: instagram.com/hardparkingpod/
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@HardParking
Links Referenced in this video:
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/nissan-cut-japanese-production-top-selling-us-model-due-tariffs-source-says-2025-04-15/
https://nypost.com/2025/04/15/business/honda-to-boost-manufacturing-in-us-after-trump-tariffs/
https://www.gplb.com/
Filter:
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Technical
Too Afraid to Ask
Car
Mclaren 720 S
"...he MC what MC20 that really cool one. Yep. Or the McLaren 720 S when they came out and they lost their ass on ove..."
Car
Honda Civic
"...da, had committed to building the next generation Civic in Indiana, the counter of the tariffs. Right. Bu..."
Car
Nissan Rogue
"...business decision? So. You know, so they have the Rogue that we're that, you know, that Rogue. What was t..."
Car
Nsx Type Sa
"... Listening to this, what they did is they took an NSX type SA Gotham Gray and they dismantled it essentially. A..."
Car
Honda Prelude
"...see the Honda 0 saloon EV. Last year they had the Prelude there. This time they had the Honda 0"
Car
Tesla Model Y
"..., not really big, but maybe like a a Tesla is the Model Y is the egg right? That's kind of the SUV issue is..."
Introduction
car parts and tariffs Dre Introduction
Auto loans and tariffs
Low Credit High Risk
Toyota to absorb tariffs and billing rates explained
Chinese factory workers expose US brands on social media
creative dealership techniques to move your money around
NY Post on Honda , Nissan cancels orders for Nissan Rogue
Grand Prix vs Formula 1 experience
Siemens CEO and family die in helicopter crash, what happened?
crew chief screws up Acura NSX
It never rains in Southern California
Acura Lounge at the Grand Prix
Katella Bakery - best bakery in SoCal?
Watch your kids
Jordan vs Lebron GOAT discussion
Acura brand headed in the right direction
Outro and Closing
Select text to request an explanation
This is our parking bought you by Right Hunt and Right Toyota out of Scottsdale, AZ. I'm your host, Jake Penny,
recording from my home studio in Gilbert, AZ Coming up on today's show, we're going to talk a little bit about cars, tariffs, and we're going to recap our trip to Long Beach for the Acura Grand Prix. Joining me in studio is Dre Day
is back for Dre Day. Volume to Dre.
Welcome back. Thank you for having me.
I appreciate you getting me back into the office.
I'm active Office studio. Same difference.
You're in the, you know, redesign studio as it gets a little different. You're you're another one of my
test subjects. Every time I have a new guest in
here, I kind of change how I'm doing stuff.
But hopefully today's looks better on camera because I'm my own worst critic. Before we get going, this
conversation is sponsored to buy Sparkforge.
Dre hit it. All right, so business feeling,
feeling whack? Too many tools, too much chaos,
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Save it head. Over to arcusfoundry.com and use
the code Hard part to get your first month free, upgrade your tech and get back to business. I don't know if anyone
understood a damn thing you said.
What? All right, before we jump into
our trip at Long Beach, figured we'd talk about some car news.
Of course, the big hot topic right now is tariffs.
Maybe we can hit it from an automotive standpoint.
You do have some experience in this arena dealing with cars for a long time. What do you think is going on
with it? Have you had a chance to even
look into it? It's a success, not a success.
Obviously, it's too soon in my opinion.
In your opinion, but from the listeners, probably some car collectors, car part, people that repair their stuff, people that buy and sell where? Where are you coming from with
this? Wow, here in tariffs are just at
first I didn't know what they were and still they started announcing them on the news and we're just pointing at everybody and we're going to start throwing tariffs on everything but. Well, then to be fair, because
we've talked about this leading up to the election, that's true.
Like most people, you're kind of like who's running?
OK, give me my 2 seconds of whatever I need to know a day, right? Keep my head down working.
I'm not getting as deep and involved as Jay has fallen down these rabbit holes. Oh no, it's actually a good
thing to kind of focus on and know about because now I get to see what everybody's crying about or or mention about or complaining about because I didn't understand, like because I'm not in the market for a car. I kind of, I'm not trying to buy
anything new, but I try to maintain and keep my old cars going. So just crazy.
I had to order a bunch of parts from my car all in from Japan.
And now that I'm understanding that these tariffs are like from other countries or what not can make what I just bought almost 25% more expensive. It kind of makes me nervous
because it's going to make it more harder to maintain and keep controlled stuff, you know? So you just bought some parts
like you said. Did you notice or was there any
sort of like did you buy them online and were there like a little warnings on each website because of the tariffs and all that good stuff or? I think I just beat that because
I I wasn't. I mean, you just bought them.
I mean, I know they were, they were pushed off.
It's it's today we're recording on Tuesday, April 15th, tax day.
Oh yeah. Happy tax day.
Happy tax day. Happy you pay more money.
But a lot of businesses have kind of proactively started charging, and I don't know if it's real or they're just trying to take advantage of the market because it's kind of bullshit because they haven't really kicked in.
I was kind of 2nd to you on that one because a lot of the business, I've already have their, their, their invoice, their, their stuff in warehouse and everything's here.
Maybe they're trying to raise those prices to compensate for the restock because they know in about a month or two they're going to have to reorder and they're looking ahead.
So I mean project man, I mean product management, that's, that's actually smart decision. But you don't know 100% if that
tariff is going to affect and when because every time we get to close to it, it's going to be this day magically we get delayed. So I think we need it to happen
and be signed to deliver and see what they're ordering so they can, you know, accurately say, hey, this is how much is costing us and this is going to be pushed forward to the consumer because someone's going to have to pay for it.
What about in the car world that you because you don't really navigate no spaces as much? No, no, no.
So just to kind of get a little background, I was starting car sales back in 2017. From car sales I was promoted to
finance. So I ended become a finance
manager. One thing I learned in finance,
it's all about loan to value, it's about their credit and then making the deal presentable for the bank to buy it.
So from finance management I made into finance director.
Now you're pretty much just hand in hand with your banks and just trying to really buddy, buddy and have them buy your deals and just kind of set them up. Now, if you're applying tariffs
to vehicles and you're increasing the price of the vehicle, that price and that money's got to go somewhere.
So if your bank is only going to give a customer with an X credit score, let's just keep it simple, 100% loan to value.
So they're not putting a down payment and they're just going to walk out, then they're good. But the car, let's say if it's
only worth 30,000. Now let's back up for a second.
Double click into that loan to value was defined as what?
So what the bank is, so they're saying that if your car is worth 30 grand or MSRP is like just keep it simple 30,000.
So the bank is like, OK, they're selling it for 30,000, that's 100%. A lot of times what happens is
you a car will be worth a certain amount, let's just say 30,000, but their credit isn't strong enough.
So the bank will say, well, we're not giving you 100%, we will give you like 80% or 90% make.
It we'll approve you for 25,000, you got to come up with the next the rest. Your down payment.
So now understand if that car was 30,000, they're only approving 90%. So you got to come up with what,
3 grand? So now that car is now
increasing up to 25%. Yes, the car is still only truly
worth 30,000. I don't.
If you add a tariff on to it, yeah, you increase the price, whatever that percentage is. Essentially a tax.
Exactly. But the bank says so it's only
worth 30 grand. So if we're going to put our
name on this car, we're only giving you what it's worth.
So who's going to come up with that money?
And if somebody's in a situation and they need a car, that's when the car deal starts to kind of have to try to make make it make sense. Does it make?
Does that kind of it? Does.
Yep. So, and I think that a lot of
people that are going to be more hurt is the lower credit score people, people that have to me have a real hard time buying cars because now you're at the mercy of a bank because you only have so much money. And now are you getting your
full money's worth or now are you having to get something way less expensive, maybe a little less reliable, but you're still going to be on the hook for that car for what, 3, five years, three to five on a used car some.
And these new cars, they're, they're pushing these loans out from 84 to 96 months. Wow, right?
So it's just kind of I, I think that the consumer with the, the more challenged credit score is going to be the one that's going to really take on most of the grunt.
But now think about this though. These guys aren't walking into a
dealership cash money, so they're signing their name on a loan. So all these loans are going
somewhere and typically do. Are people keeping these cars
for five years 6. Years.
No, not at all. So there's a there's a little
storm kind of developing in the background in my opinion on their loan. They're they're depreciating
asset and everything else. That's where I'm really
concerned and and my big issue. But so back to the to the lower,
lower credit score people getting a harder time getting a loan, right? Because I've heard that before
from other people. And I'm thinking, yeah, But if
you have a low credit score, depending on how long you've been around, you could also be considered high risk.
So you're already going to come in with a higher interest rate, right. Anyway.
So, you know, maybe the people with the in this isn't to trigger anybody with a low credit score watching or listening because you can get a low credit score for any number of reasons. You don't have to be someone who
doesn't know how to manage your money.
It's true I suck with money, but I happen to have a good credit score because I have a Good Wife who manages our money, you know?
But you know that's your risk, right?
That's your level of risk. You need excellent credit.
You're probably better managing your money than some of the shitty credit. Now let me show you.
So the argument would be OK Hold hold that thought.
So the argument would be OK, You got a low credit score in today's economy. Should you be going out and
buying a new car to begin with or should you just try to find a not even a certified pre owned but there's tons of cars on Facebook marketplace. My my rule is buy what you can
afford. Right.
What that is, only that person's going to be able to determine that. But at the end of the day, it
gets hard when when you're you're thinking you can do something and life happens and then you can't afford it anymore. If you think if you're in that
kind of situation or that could happen to you, that probably shouldn't be the decision you're making.
But not your dad, not your mom. You can do what you need to do.
But the other side is the low credit score.
That's one thing that's hard to get in the car.
So me as the finance guy, I'm going to find a car to put you in that the that the bank will approve and make that loan work.
Once again, probably not something that that that you're really craving. The other side of the house is
the good credit score people. These one, there's some there's
a group of people that know what they're doing when they buy cars and there's this good, good score group of people that just I just need a car and get out. So I think those people are the
ones are going to show like in about three to five years if they go in those 84 months, those 90, because now if you have a good credit score, your loan to value, let's go back to that example. The bank will approve now over
100% like 110112115. But if that car once again is
only worth 30,000 and the, the dealership is selling it to you for 35 now 40 because of markups or whatever the case, the car was never worth that. So now you're on the hook for
however long you signed that loan for and that interest and everything else. And now these supposed tariffs,
you're, you're buried in that car.
So to to the next three to four years, you're thinking I'm going to trade this thing in. These people are going to be so.
Upside down. And it's just going to be
terrible. They're going to be in a
situation where you can actually walk away from a car, but before they report it as whatever, you can go get another loan and then just right, let it. Go and people do that all the
time. And when I think about that, I
think about the premiums that people pay for cars right prior to tariffs. I mean, essentially it's a force
premium, the market adjustment and we know people that and granted this isn't your average consumer, but we know people that may have bought the Maserati, you know, the MC what MC20 that really cool one. Yep.
Or the McLaren 720 S when they came out and they lost their ass on over $100,000 and there was no threat of tariffs.
It's just the market. Right.
And that's just that was normal and now you're trying to increase it X amount of percent with tariffs and expect, expect these people to take on these loans.
I mean, I just think we're playing with fire here.
Right, yeah. And then the average consumer so
we'll we'll so Toyota, OK, so Toyota said that they are going to absorb the difference for the consumers.
I don't know how long that is. You have a kind of a smirk.
What do you think that really means?
Because I know that there's room.
It's like, So what I do healthcare IT or any temp, you know, you can say any temporary service, whether it's manpower or if they're still around. But any, any temp service, I'm
basically a well paid temp. OK.
And so when I work for the hospital, the the temp company calls me and says, OK, the hospital's hiring looking for people like you. This is how much they're paying.
Got you. I'm like, all right, well, I'll
take let's say I make $15.00 an hour.
I don't let's. Yeah.
You know, 1499, no. I'm joking.
Let's say I make $15.00 an hour, right?
The billing rate is the delta because my, the company that's hiring me, my consulting firm is billing the hospital $25.00 an
hour, right? And they're turning on paying me
$15.00 an hour. That's a $10 delta.
You know, that's, I don't know what the math is, 35 percent, 40% of my money. And so I think that's why
Toyota, they understand that. So it's like, OK, they're,
they're going on Valium based here.
You know, if we can still sell, I don't know, 400,000 vehicles, you know, that 22% or 20% or 50%, whatever it ends up being, it's a loss for us in our pocketbook.
But since we're profitable, you know, let's say we made $3 billion last year. So now we're making 2.7 billion
or whatever it is, we're still making $2.7 billion.
Our customers are happy, they're still going to buy from us.
So they've been absorbed that part.
And that's one of the arguments that I've had with people.
They say, OK, who's and I'm not an economist, I'm just some person, right? That's all we are.
That's all we are. So I'm not going to pretend like
I'm an expert in any of this shit, right?
So for people who are blowing up the comments and all that shit, I'm not an expert. Please do.
Chances are, yeah, chances are neither are you.
But they're like, well, who do you think that cost is going to come down? That's going to come down the
consumers. And yeah, it will come down on
us. And you know, maybe we see it or
maybe we don't, but if it cost them 25% more, they're probably going to split the difference in most cases with the consumer, hopefully. But I don't think they're going
to if they charge you 25% more because have you seen the viral video clips? And we're getting off of cars
really quick. But have you seen the viral
video clips that I already know you have it, but you don't live on social media like I do. But there's no, there's a viral,
the viral video clips of all these, all these factories in, in China. OK, getting on TikTok, getting
on whatever. Well, they don't have TikTok
over there because they're not allowed to have TikTok, which interestingly enough, they're not allowed to have TikTok or our Facebook. But they're getting on whatever
their social media is and they're uploading maybe X and there's like, my name is whatever.
And I'm working in the Lululemon factory.
And this is how much Lululemon actually pays for this stuff.
They paid, you know, $5 for these pants.
They're charging you $100 for these pants.
If you want them, they're the ones that are screwing you, not us. If you want them, you could buy
them direct from us. And here's my number.
So there's a huge, huge profit margin there.
And we already know that, right? You know, I think I watched
someone do a video on the Birkin purses, right?
It costs Birkins or what, $30,000 purses?
I don't know. I don't know why we know about
purses, but because we have why we have why exactly.
You know, it's thirty $30,000 purse, $35,000 purse and it doesn't cost $10 a make, but it costs about 12 or 1500 U.S.
dollars a make that they went through and showed all the stuff. But that's still quite the
delta, right? So if a company like Birkin or
Lululemon is going to increase their prices by 1520 thirty percent to combat the tariffs, who's really getting screwed here? They have the room, right?
That's all I'm saying. That's my only point.
No, that was a very good point to make because at the end of the day, every dealership, every that I've worked at, they've never they're all for profit. So if that's going to cut into
their profit margin, the it's not really that big because they have their profits already built into a lot of their vehicles.
They know what their whole backs are.
They know what they need to sell it for.
But I'm, if a company's telling me, yeah, we'll absorb some of that, you can move the numbers around a little bit to make it look that way. But at the end of the day, they
still got a profit margin they have to make to make sure everybody's checks are getting cash or they can cash everybody's checks or whatever. So I would have to look into the
the structure of the deal a little bit more to really kind of see what it is. Because I've seen people that
they move numbers from one side of the deal to another side of the deal and they're the happiest person.
And then for some reason they're paying way more money than the other way it was so. So you just made me think, OK,
on how they kind of move the numbers around.
And it's the same deal when you're getting ready to sign for that car, right? They're like, OK, well here's
what we're going to do. We're going to take an
additional $3000 off. We're going to pay that for you.
We really want to make this deal with you, right?
So we're going to buy it for you today.
If you, if you secure this card today, we'll take care of that balance for you to get you in this vehicle, right?
Because they know on the long end they're going to make money off the financing. Because we all know that you're
paying up until at least halfway through your loan.
You're paying all. Interest.
Interest, baby. And the principal doesn't start
kicking in. If you guys want to be
depressed, if you're financing anything right now, the easiest thing to look at is a car, right?
If you're financing anything right now, go ahead and look at your payments over time and look at what went toward the interest and what went toward the principal.
And you will be shocked if you've never paid attention.
Like wow, that $7.00 payment, the 1st 30 payments, 650 of that
went to interest. You know what's funny, when I've
ever had people in the box, the boxes are our office in our finance. Like when people are there and
they get to that final page, all finance guys, car guys know and they're seeing the box of how much they're paying.
And they might start with just say a $30,000 vehicle.
And then at the end of the loan, it's like they paid 70 grand, you know, at a whatever payment. So they see that number.
And so then the first thing that people think of, they're like, wait a minute, if I'm paying 70 grand, I should go buy a $70,000 car. I'm like, no, no, no, that's not
how that works. So, and then I'm like explaining
the numbers to them. And then it just really shows
you like what people who's paying attention to what and who knows what, because it's not about like what you can get into. Once again, like I said, it's
what you can afford and I'd just be like, OK, just sign here.
True. Let me pull up this story that I
sent you earlier. Yeah, that there.
OK, let me tell you. So you sent me the story, right?
And I saw the screenshot first and I was like, what?
But you had just talked about the other tariffs on the other PAC ass before. Right.
So a couple episodes ago I'd mentioned that Mexico, not Mexico, but Honda, had committed to building the next generation Civic in Indiana, the counter of the tariffs.
Right. But what what ended up
happening? I guess the the screenshot what
did it say it was like? So is Honda the boost US
manufacturing shift production from Canada and Mexico in response to tariffs. Right.
So when I read that, I'm like, oh, snap.
But then I actually went to the next one you sent me was a link.
And it was like, it was confirmed that Honda didn't say anything. But I was looking at the picture
and then I went to the article and I'm like, dude, this could have ran like wildfire. And then no, when you actually
get to the information, it tells you, no, they're not.
That's not what they committed to.
Honda denies reported plan to shift production from Canada, Mexico to US in response to Trump's tariffs.
That's actually updated and that was updated at 3:38 PM.
So, but at the time I send it to you, that's this is the New York Post. So I was looking at some of
their shit and I'm like, these are some wacky ass headlines.
OK so now it was a little unclear because even before I sent this to you I was like let me find this somewhere else other than on X. OK, so like that article and
that's what I said it denies. So then again, I I was looking
at it from the point of view of like, whoa, look how fast information can go the wrong way.
But then again, how much time did it take you to or it was you? Think this was CNN it.
It was them updating it so it it even the headline had probably been changed by the time I even got to the link I.
Mean we already produced 70% of the Hondas in the United States and the Honda does find a boost over the next two years.
But another another part of this was Nissan was halting production. Well, is where their sales at
are they? Are they needing the cars?
Are are. Well, they were, they were
halting production on some models because to counter the tariffs. But it's that's my initial
thought. I was like, wait a minute,
aren't they in a bunch of trouble right now because they can't sell anything? OK, so listen, it's, it's good
to know that they're halting production, but there's so well.
Look that up while you're talking.
Avenues of understanding why a company's doing what they're doing one, if you're not selling something, why keep making it that's the first thought, right Two, this is going to become more expensive so and we're already not selling it.
So let's just stop the bleeding now, right next is there's a lot of cars sitting on lots right now.
There are a lot of like 2020 threes and 2020 fours that are still getting some what we call a lot rot.
So I think Stalantis vehicles like their Dodges and Jeeps and stuff are probably one of the culprits right now.
And I used to work do that and I know how that stuff works and it's just a lot. But and then with the failed
merger or idea of a merger between Nissan and Honda, well, OK, once again, they were doing that to try to help save what Nissan. So I just think there's a lot
more information behind the scenes.
Like if I really want to get into the nuts and bolts of it, I want to look at their sales over last year.
I'm going to look at their stock price over the last year.
I'm going to look at the sales of each one of their cars.
So because I want to understand like, why would you make this business decision? So.
You know, so they have the Rogue that we're that, you know, that Rogue. What was that car?
Is it a Nissan or a Toyota? But it was like a convertible
SUV. It was.
Ugly. So we just got back from Long
Beach, you know, Shout out to Acura, Shout out to obviously Ferris Sot for being a Southwest representative.
Shout out to Vince for hooking it up.
With all that being said, this was your first Long Beach.
I went last year. I opted not to take a lot of
photos or videos just make some notes right Last time I did like a full vlog wrap up video and it was fun, but it feels like it would basically be the same video one year removed.
So I want to do. I wanted people to experience
this through your lens and your and your points as we kind of talk about it. So let's talk about it, man.
So my. So Friday, I guess that's day
one, right? OK, so I have AI guess I want to
say an interesting way to compare the Long Beach Grampy.
I've never been before, but IA long time ago, I was able to participate in a NASCAR event and went to that race a long time ago. So that was an interesting
crowd. I've also been to a couple F1
events, so in in Coda in Texas. So that's a different racing
crowd. So this Grand Prix, my
experience was, I want to say right in the middle of of like.
Yeah, about the. How they prefer like how they
prepared for the race, right? I, I saw their box office, it
looked good. But if, if you go to like an, a
different racetrack, you can see the different levels and that and that one being a street track.
So we know everything is kind of pulled in and built up and everything else. But overall, for what it was, I
was super impressed and I had a really good time.
I, I think even though it was 3 days, it, it felt like I needed more time to take in more of everything.
And, and I, I don't want to, I want to, I say overwhelmed.
I, it's a good thing, but man, I feel like I still missed out a lot and I want to continue to like go back and try to pick apart and do a little bit more. Well, that's it.
We're done talking about the Grand Prix.
You blew your whole load on that, on that little segment.
Let's hope crack open some notes.
But I drove out with Nathan. Nathan was Spark Forge actually
a show sponsor and his car is more than capable.
Like I know he takes on the track all the time, right?
So it's not like I'm not judging because I know he's you know, the car is well engineered as as weird as it looks to some people, it's actually very capable and put together.
But when we're so we're flying up to 10 in a semi because, you know, they, they keep their shit on cruise control, right?
And so as they get ready to run up the ass of the next, next semi in front of them, you know, they whip it over.
And this guy whipped it over almost as I was getting ready to pass him. OK, so I I would say slam on the
brakes. I had to do some aggressive, you
know, braking. Thank God it's brick by wire.
It just feels different. Yvette freaking out.
She does this weird squeal and locks up her knee.
Her knee's already puffy. When she gets done, she's like,
oh, I just made my knee worse. I go, what was that?
What was that squeal like? What was that?
And we just started laughing because I don't know what that was. But if she was ever in trouble,
you wouldn't hear it. But then as we're pulling into
the area, OK. So we're on the.
Ten. I think at this point it's the
sixty that peels off into maybe the 90 or something.
Does that sound right? Yep.
So we peel off and there's a truck 91. 91. 91 yeah there's
like an older white SUV because it's starting to get dark now right because Nathan doesn't have a headlights on that's why I know and he pulls over cuts Nathan off cuts cuts across the gore point and almost runs me and Yvette off so I have to do this quick correction because I see it in my peripherals this thing like right here and thank goodness like there was a Yvette said there wasn't a car next to us there was but it was a little further back right. But.
If that thing like I could have swerved into some other car, that's true. And so.
She's freaking out. So that was our trip there.
We get there at like 8:30-ish, right on Friday.
And you and Leo are already there, Yes.
How was your drive over my drive?
Actually, and it's about 6:00. Hours, give or take.
My drive was it. Was actually OK.
Truth be told, I actually broke my car right before the Grand Prix. But what happened?
I'm an idiot mechanic. That's what happened.
Weren't you in charge of? Helicopters from the military.
That's why I'm. Admitting right now as an idiot
I did something I really wasn't supposed to be doing.
I was trying to do a really quick fix and anybody that knows that torquing bolts is a there's a reason for a torque wrench.
Real quick because we touched on it and we'll get back to you and I apologize for interrupting you on this, but I know I'm going to forget this thought. We touched on it Thursday night,
Yes, as a helicopter guy, I don't know how much information has come out with the latest crash.
That's the one with that. That rotor system separated,
yeah. So I saw a.
Video after and you can see the helicopter flying normal, but it's too far away. And I said that I said at some
point a video is going to surface from like a surveillance camera or something and you can see the helicopter, just you can see the point of impact, but you can't see what caused it, right?
You know, anything. Have you ever, have you looked
into that? What is your thoughts?
I saw the video. I saw the rotor system separate.
I don't know what would cause that or happen.
So I I don't know if it was hit by another aircraft or I think the rumors are drone or something like that might be a larger because. Drones, like people think about
drones being these little things that people take these car car events, but there are some big fucking drones and.
And if it hits at a certain point, I mean, maybe it doesn't matter. How big it is like if like a lap
a drone that has a surface base the size of a laptop minus the rotors is probably big enough to do some major damage right?
And you got to. Think about this, if the rotor
system held by a bunch of like rods and stuff like that, let's just pretend it's the force of that rotor, that disk above the aircraft, I don't know, let's say it hit in between the rotor system and the fuselage, right? A little tweak on that massive
amount of force, it'll probably just RIP it apart and it just separate because you got to think a helicopter to me when they start up and they're flying, I feel like the helicopter trying to pull itself apart, you know, it's just everything is kind of holding together and maintenance is crazy on it. Everybody does aviation might
know that, but I I didn't get into it and I don't, I did not want to find out. Maybe it was a maintenance issue
or anything like that. I don't think it was, but all
this stuff will go back to somebody and I just feel bad for whoever was in. Yeah, rest in.
Peace. There were there were six
people, the pilot and a family of five from Spain, which is Aceo of I think Siemens in Spain, his wife and his three kids. So that's a really.
Sad and rest in peace man. No reason to.
Believe or think of any sort of foul play with the conspiracy theorist, but who knows? I haven't looked at much into
it, but so this is coming from an And again, tell the people what you did in the military for the.
Last what, 10 1/2 years? I was AUH 60 Blackhawk crew
chief, so I was pretty much an aircraft mechanic, so a Blackhawk. Crew chief, a mechanic tell us
what happened to your car. Well, a couple of days before I
wanted to prepare my car for this because I'm going to have three solid weekends of being in my car.
One was going to Grand Prix with the Art Acura, the next one is coming up this weekend for Fountain Hills, and then we have a weekend after we're supposed to go back out to California for West Fest. So I have ordered a bunch of
parts of one I kind of mentioned earlier in the in the show, but I wanted to get it everything fixed.
So I swapped out a few parts of my car.
Everything was good. I noticed a small little shit to
my steering wheel, so me thinking, well, it was only four bolts let me undo everything and just look everything and make see what maybe I screwed up. So what I ended up doing was the
dumbest thing ever. If anybody knows about staring
those 14 millimetre bolts studs underneath any Honda steering wheel, I know they're sensitive. Everybody's probably laughing
right now because oh, oh, you knew what you did.
You broke them off. Yeah, sure did.
So how that happened was I was had my torque wrench still right are. They steel.
No, I. Know I had the torque.
No. Are they?
Are they? Aluminum.
Are they steel? No, they're steel.
But they're just 14mm. But I should have done what I
did. But what I did is I was upside
down. If you you know, the NSX
underneath the foot well is a very tight spot.
Oh yeah. So that sucks.
I was upside down, slid underneath and my torque wrench was outside of my car so I figured I was just going to cinch the bolts down and then get out of the car and then get my torque wrench and just hit hit and be done.
Well my dumb was sitting there a quarter turning the nuts trying to cinch them down and I never really felt the sharp rise in torque cuz I was just kind of going back and forth and I got to the second bolt on the inside and it popped off with the force of it popping off. The other bolt was already over
torqued so it just snapped and the steering wheel pretty much me upside down fell down and hit me in my chest.
So me being a mechanic, I was like, OK, I screwed up.
I got to do a lot of work. So I did something I probably
should not have done. I found a way to secure that
steering wheel back to the framework of the car inside to just get my car to Long Beach and back.
What day was this? This was.
Going to this was Wednesday, OK and.
You guys left Thursday? Yep.
Morning. Yep.
OK. All right, all right, listen.
Listen, if I tell people and people go out their way to do anything for me and I put my name, I said I'm going to be somewhere, I am going to fight tooth and nail and and honor that because they didn't have to do anything for me.
I put myself in that situation and if there's a way to work through it, I'm make it happen, right?
But great, my NSX community came together and they kind of gave me some other options. I got the car back out here and
now it's getting worked on. So that's done all right, so you
make it to. Long Beach, yeah.
So it made it to Long Beach. I decided to wash my car but we
all know our intersections are pretty low so there's a car wash about. 20. Minutes away off of I wish I had
the address still, but I remember getting off of Avalon, I think, and it was on the corner of the street, but I had to kind of case the part the the block to kind of check the right angle to get up into the car wash.
I realized the only way to go in was the wrong way.
Yeah. So I knocked that out, went in
the wrong way, washed the car, and then because the broken steering wheel, it took me forever to do a turn around in inside the car wash. Got that taken care of.
What? Yours.
Yours 90. 494. OK, so you have the.
Electronic power assisted steering.
No, that's 90. Five and a biv.
Oh, so I am all manual. Well, baby, right?
Right, so you made me think about something that I was gonna rant about, and now I get to rant about it.
Let's go now. Wasn't there a song It Never
Rains in Southern California song?
Yes, there was by Tony. Is that Tony, Tony, Tony?
I think it's Tony, Tony, Tony. Theirs might have been a remake,
I don't remember if theirs was a remake of somebody else's.
But my point is, I hate driving my NSX in my old NSX in Southern California. I do not understand, if it never
fucking rains, why are all the entrances and I guess exits of so many buildings such a hard angle?
The gas stations are the worst. Yes, I've done the car wash
thing before. I hit my type SA couple times
when we were leaving the BBQ spot that night.
Yeah, getting back on the high. Did you hit that too?
It did. What the hell was that?
Oh, no, I got you. I.
Know it's how you're talking as soon as you get to get.
On the freewheel it's go bam Yep me and the vet are like damn what the fuck was that? Like I don't not understand why
California, Southern California roads are so and shitty, you know? What's sad man, I used being
originally from California born and raised.
I always used to be like, California roads are great, this, this and that. New, there's some.
In some parts, yeah. But dude, I can't believe how
bad the roads are and the shape it is.
I don't know what you guys got going on or what they're doing with your registration money because I believe registration your car. I can get really political.
With that but dude. Have you seen the registration
prices in California? Anyways, we're talking about the
money. Where's the money going,
exactly? It's going somewhere, I'm just
saying. And it's in Arizona.
I don't know how they're they're set up, but they take care of their roads and stuff here. Granted, we might have a freeway
closure every other weekend or whatnot, but the Smooth Rd. is
worth that sacrifice in my opinion.
I just don't understand. Those ramps in and out, like you
have to do that. You have to circle around and
think about, I mean, not you having the cars that we have and a lot of people listening or watching this understand that you circle around any and every time you go past the driveway, that's the first thing that pops your head.
Yep. Oh, if I was slanted, if I was
in my other car, you know, I was even going over some of the swells of the humps in a parking lot, right?
I think I hit, I think we were driving to Ryan's house somewhere around Target. It's kind of the same deal.
It's like, and you go to a crawl.
It's freaking annoying. So you, you damaged your car,
you're in a car wash. So what, we go to the Grand
Prix? Yes.
What was that like for you? Friday and Saturday you can
combine all the days. Well, to me.
It was a great And then what? Did you see that you really
loved a lot and then don't, you know, feel free to to check your notes if you haven't. Yeah, absolutely.
So it was all a learning experience to me.
It was new. I really like the fact it seemed
like there was so much to get involved in.
I mean, the vendors you had, you know, so food everywhere.
You had just event after event, just other DJs.
There's there's just so much that was happening.
It was like I felt like I was missing out and I needed to be everywhere. But then you were like kind of
stuck in a position because which you were observing like the race that the practice that the the screen, you're like, I don't want to move from this because I'm enjoying what I'm what was going on right here. So like on the Acura?
Lounge, right? Yeah.
OK, the Acura Lounge. So the Acura lounge is really
cool. I mean, I know we also had
grandstand tickets as well, but the seats and the view from where we are in the Acura lounge was amazing.
It's hard to beat that. You're right.
There on a big high speed curving turn, I think it was turn 1, you have right when they pass turn 1, you can lead you right into the big screen that's right there to your left.
You watch the rest of the race and then you just flow right back to the cars coming back around on the track on turn 1.
So it was a really great experience to watch this with that. Yeah, it was really close.
And I think you and Leo had more time, you know, to kind of wander around a little bit on Sundays.
And I commend you for that because I want to do that.
But I always run into somebody that I need to talk to or want to talk to, and it just becomes hanging out with your buddies in another city, which I'm fine with.
I I welcome that, right. But it's hard when you're
sitting there in the lounge or at one of the tables up by the bar and you're just chatting up with your homies, right?
You know, because I like racing, but I couldn't name 6 people out there across all those different courses, right?
You know those race cars, I like seeing them.
It's cool to have them in the background.
But I do wish that I had more time to your point to just kind of sit back and enjoy it. Maybe go down to the
grandstands. And I don't think anybody use
those tickets because if you're in the accurate lounge, there's no reason to go down to the grandstands, right, Because you have the seats there, right? They're they're bar seats
essentially. And you have literally a bar
behind you. Sometimes they're walking around
with hors d'oeuvres. Yep.
And you, like you said, you have those vendors.
I mean, we went to the food court the last day, the one behind us and there were some good options.
Yes, there were like there wasn't there's not bad food at this event. And it's huge.
You know, it takes over the entire corner of of Long Beach, right from the Convention Center back to the pier.
And it's just what did you guys think about the pits?
Because again, because you've gone to Formula One, which I've never done, right, you've done it gone a few to a few other things, right? Well.
Comparing it to Formula, it's just two different, they're different Formula and you can just see how much more money is pumped into the F1 Boy, it's it's tremendous.
But at the end of the day, the experience of watching the cars is kind of like the same if you're really into the the cars, but when you go to the. Pits though, I mean, how
different? Well, the.
Pits. We, I've never been to the pits
at Formula One, but when we went to the ones here, they were really good setup of just kind of walking around and looking at the car. So how when we went, we went
after AOL Racing team. They won.
So I wanted to go see their car Rexy or and.
That's the Porsche. Yeah, the Porsche.
It's. AGT 3 Porsche Tell us why the
Porsche? Is important to you.
OK, so. Kind of backing up on Friday, my
grandson was able to him and his dad were able to join me.
Your grandpa? Yes, I am Grandpa Paul.
No, I'm. Just kidding, but Daiki joined
us at the race. Now my grandson, he is a huge
dinosaur fan. So I kind of because he was
dinosaur like a dinosaur fan. A couple of weeks ago, I had
started kind of watching like GT racing just to pass the time and I saw this livery on this, this Porsche that just, it just made me think of my grandson. So if he's going to get into
racing and I I hope that he does one day because he's only for four, I'm like, maybe this will be the car that I can kind of see if he takes a lighting to you since he likes dinosaurs.
Come to find out, they end up winning that weekend, right?
That's crazy. They ran on, they ran on
Saturday, right? So that became the highlight of
my weekend. I know Indy was Sunday, but man,
I was on Cloud 9 on Saturday. So and that's how we ended up
going to the pits and then watching them do their when they come off the track, they did their weighing and everything else. They start doing their
inspections, what not and it was a really cool experience.
I, I was, I've never been that close to the actual race cars and I was it was a lot of fun and a lot of things to look at and take in over there. Well, if you guys went.
Into the the paddocks, right, the pit pass.
Yeah, there you go. It's the.
Same deal you're. Literally right there where you
guys were over by the green Porsche.
I've never been over there. Wow, that's.
When you guys are. Said, hey, we're over by the
scales. I'm like, I don't know where
that is. I got to stop and ask somebody
and I was close, but that's just so much stuff to see, right?
There's so many vendors there. Like you said, there's so much
food there. There's a paddock and then we
haven't even talked about inside the Convention Center.
You know what's messed? Up about the Convention Center,
I kept getting stuck and I think on the beginning areas of atrium, is that the main atrium where?
All the acuras are set up. I kept I.
Kept being stuck there because I was just mesmerized by all the exhibits and, you know, displays that they had there that exploded type. SI know you're going to
probably. Insert a picture of whatever,
but man, that that is dope. And to really see the internal
engineering and just kind of how it's all like exploded out and just how they take in what they've done with that car.
So if you're. Listening to this, what they did
is they took an NSX type SA Gotham Gray and they dismantled it essentially. And they had it on kind of a
display to where it looked like it was in the middle.
Like seriously, a transformation.
There you go from Transformers. The wheels were shot out.
You know, the headlights are kind of floating by themselves.
The hood, the front bumper, you know, everything was kind of floating and it wasn't spread across.
Like have you ever seen the bodies exhibit where they it's kind of morbid with the humans where they slice them up look like ham every layer of. Skin to the muscles that you get
down to the bone or something they like.
It's like a slice. So what wasn't as spread out as
that, right, But it was probably 12 foot left to right or however long a car is. It was just a little bit longer
to be fair, right? Yep, and I guess they were
trying to hang them from the ceiling and they they said they couldn't, so they built a stand for it, Right, The fire Marshall. Like, shut it down.
It's like, right, You ain't hanging out up there, but you had the. RX car there.
You know, they had Peter Cunningham's one of his cars in there, right? You know, all the HRC stuff.
And God, what a time. What an incredible time to own
an Acura. It was beautiful.
And you know what, for them to take that time and then bring everything out and the show it that way.
Big UPS Acura, man, I mean, like I was really taken back to really see that the care and you know, everything they put together for us. I mean, it was their 50th
anniversary at the Grand Prix and I felt they came with it.
You know, if for them to keep me with their equipment and, and they had everything going on in exhibition hall.
But I found myself running through the exhibition hall and coming back and and finding something new in the exhibits that they had out you could spend. 4 hours in the Convention
Center easily right? Right.
The I went last year and it was cool, but what was your thoughts of so you get to the Grand Prix and you're walking around and all you see is Honda and Acura stuff everywhere.
Did you ever thought you would see that?
No, because you in in your mind it's like, OK, I'm going to go to this event and I know it's sponsored by Acura.
OK, I know it. But you think you'll see all
this Porsche stuff, maybe all this Ferrari stuff, some Honda, some HRC stuff here and there, right?
65. 70% of the displays were all HRC and Acura.
It was beautiful and I was like wow, this is cool, This Is Us.
I'm part of this. Exactly and.
They have a little heritage with that company and it was a beautiful thing to kind of step back and just say, hey, I did that. I'm part of this, you know, and
and. Access to the people yes, I
don't think I said this when we're sitting in the lounge is like I don't know what company you know, being in the NSS club, you know I don't know What Car manufacturer you would have that close of access to the people. I know Ford is really good.
You know, Ford Motorsports is really good interacting with their people, right? But and there's always A1 offs,
like I think I said this, you can go to Monterey Car Week and if you go to the quail, you're going to see Tonusag there with all his people. You know, you're going to see
Pagani there with his people, but it's still not the same.
No, You know, you're not going to walk up and have like a real conversation with them. They'll talk to you, right?
But you're going to be 1 of 1000 people.
But when you talk to like the John Nakedas, you know, head of HRC, right? And Steve, who was up there
talking or Andrew in charge of accurate PR, you know it's a real conversation, right? You know, I, I saw.
Jonathan So Jonathan Rivers, Kelly and Jodie, you know, we saw, we met them as we were walking out.
Like you don't. Those are real people right up
there on the food. Chain way up there.
And it's, and it's, it's organic, like those are your people too. It's not just some corporate BS
like they are legit into you and you're legit into them.
That's true. And I just don't know.
Of you know who, what other company you would have that with, I think it was. Really kind of took me back and
you think about it is when we had our 4:30 meeting on Friday and we hurt a lot of the higher ups.
I can't think of the the Vince came out.
Vince. Yeah, Vince when he kind.
Of shared his story about, you know, hey, he's pretty much like us, You know, he's had three NS. XS and now he's growing.
Up to the ranks and working for the company, you know, so he's going to like work for us as much and help us out with what things we're trying to accomplish with our club, with the car, everything. So I, I was really taken back to
hear that they have that love cause a lot of people, I don't know when they make it up that high, did they come from being in a, or were they put into that position to drive a certain number right. Or, or get something out of
other people? Because maybe they're a
connector, but they're not really connected to that one piece of equipment as they are Sure.
And it, and it shows because they actually care about us too.
Hey, what do you need? What can we help, you know?
Oh, thanks. Well, it's like the.
Gentleman, I forgot his name so you know, please forgive me who was doing the main the the main speaking where we had met at the parking lot with the accent I know exactly you're.
Talking about and he's I looked. At him as kind of a consultant
because he kind of identified himself as kind of a third party, right? That, you know, Honda pays a lot
of money to make sure that that the connections, you know, are made and people kind of understand what they're trying to do. But even he obviously had a lot
of passion for it, right? But yeah, I mean, I just think
it's amazing. One of the things that I wanted
to point out about the exhibit hall is being able to see the Honda 0 saloon EV. Last year they had the Prelude
there. This time they had the Honda 0
and it's a lot smaller in person, right?
I. Thought it was like this, not
really big, but maybe like a a Tesla is the Model Y is the egg right? That's kind of the SUV issue is
that right? Is that the?
X the one that opens up. X is the one I think the one
that opens up like a bird or something like that.
I don't. Even know if they still do that
but you guys correct this if. If we're wrong, Oh yeah, I
wanted to I. Wanted to talk about Tesla a
little bit, but I guess we missed our window on the on the car news. I'm gonna jot it down anyway,
but you know, that thing was pretty cool.
Now I don't understand why when people design EVs they have to make these super crazy wheels for them.
They're trying to be efficient. Well, like just throw some
split. Fives on there.
I don't listen. Remember with the Cyber truck
then they have those covers on there to make them a little bit more like aerodynamic or efficient and now they're messing up. Those are the ones that.
Were look like, yeah, like cutting the tires.
Yeah. So they had to pull them.
Off. So I don't know if it's in the
design phase that they have to incorporate this design type of wheel. But yeah, like you said, they
can go to some stock wheel or something else to make it look a little bit more. Yeah, that's not just Honda.
You see it on all these easy concepts.
Yeah, Which car? Remember our Friday lunch at
Dublin? Was it?
Was it the Dublin or that? Yeah, that was Friday.
Wasn't it? Yeah, that was cool.
Got to give a great shout. Out to Jeff, man.
He looked it up. Bartender.
Jeff Yes, Sir. Yeah, by way of, of, of Ryan,
Yeah. Only reason we made it is Ryan
knows everyone. Yeah, dude, so.
Bringing up Ryan, right, great time in his house.
I want to say, hey, shout out Ryan.
Thank you so much for the hospitality.
It was awesome when he finally we changed numbers a day after right is Ryan. And what's weird is he sent me
his info and it was Ray and then Ryan and then his last name.
And I was looking and that's why I asked, hey, April 12th, were you over at Ryan's house? He's like, yeah, that was April
12th. Well, what's crazy is my brother
that passed away in 2013, his name was Ray.
So his birthday was actually April 12th.
So for Ryan to kind of send it and then for me to see his name was Ray, I guess that was. Like for like a split second
you're like, wait, what so. That's how it all lines.
Am I in a simulation? Right now.
Listen, I don't I'm going to have that conversation with Ryan when we go back from I said I'm like bro, and I'm I got to show him because I only knew him as Ryan.
So I never really thought of it. When I saw Ryan, I was like man,
almost teared up bro. When you send me his info, I was
like, oh man, right? Well, professionally he's Ray.
And so a company he used to work for, he would do these like these telecom events. And so when he would come out
here, he's like, hey, Jay, I'm going to be in Phoenix.
He'll come out and hang out. And so I hang out with him.
He's like, OK, this is a work function.
If anybody asks, my name is Ray. And you're one of our not
clients partners. Gotcha.
He was your partner. And it was it was always
awkward. That's the only time I'd ever
known him as Ray because there's always Ryan before that, right?
So it's like, how long you known Ryan?
But how long you known Ray? Yeah, yeah.
But then they started. So what business are you in?
And it's like, oh, yeah, I forgot what it was.
Dead ass. One time somebody asked me a
question about the business and I was just like, and just kind of walked off like I just did not hear them at all, man.
It was it was awkward as a a good.
Way to play it off though 'cause you could have put yourself in a deep pool and then like, well, I do and then they start asking and then you're like, you know what I give?
Yeah, 'cause there's only. Supposed to be partners there
'cause it was kind of like an open bar type of deal, right?
Absolutely. Yeah, but I mean he.
Takes care of people, man. He's he's he.
He and his. He and Barb, his wife.
Yeah. Such great people.
Yeah. I stayed with him last year when
I was there. I can see why.
Yeah. Yeah, they're like, when do you
want to stay with us this year? Our house isn't good enough for
you. Nah.
You know, there were a bunch of people with me.
They were. Joking with me?
But like, no, if it was just me, I would have stayed there.
But you know that I was like, no, we're going to get a hotel, man, you know? Exactly.
Because they have kind of. AI mean it's it's in like in her
office or his office. It's kind of like I don't
remember if it's a bed or like a sofa bed type of action.
There's a significant difference.
You know, us were like, all right, I'll sleep on this.
I'll sleep on the fuck couch, right?
But I don't know what comedian. Said it, but it's like when are
my wives commit to going are the whole price of the weekend just like with triples. Fortunately, no.
But sometimes yes. Right.
Sometimes, yes. Shout out to Katella Bakery.
Oh yeah. I really enjoyed my what I had
was the omelette and my wife she had this sandwich with this Vicetta bread. I didn't even know what that was
but I guess she was in love with it.
Now check this out was crazy. We ordered our food.
I think it was what time do you guys show up?
I don't remember. Way after you guys, not really
because. What was crazy is that what she
ordered, that bread was out within the 1520 minutes that you guys showed up. They had like ran out.
But that bakery was awesome. Everything was super fresh,
everything was delicious and I think that's gonna probably be a little staple every time I go back to that area.
You. You'd.
Almost have to weird deposit. I got random notes here.
OK so we both stayed at the Residence Inn.
That's correct. This one was.
Different because when you checked in they wanted you to pay an extra deposit which is crazy.
What was it like 300? Or something like that.
Two, 5300. Yeah, and then you had to sign
this thing. It's like I will not party.
I will not this, I will not that.
And I'm looking at this lady checked me in with her mask on her face. You know, I'm like, this is
freaking California. I go, hey, is this just your
guy's policy or is this like a California thing?
Like, you know, I'm not upset. I don't mind.
You know, I got the money and do the deposit.
I was just asking, right? It's like, no, it's just our our
policy. I was like, oh, OK, there you
go. Weird.
But you were taken back by it too.
Lucille's BBQ. We did that on Saturday or
Friday, Friday, right? That was Friday night.
'Cause we did Saturday night with that Ray's Ryan's house.
Yep, shout out. To I have it all written down
here, Chris, Jeff, Jason, Dre, Leo.
Yep, we here Barb, Ryan, Kat, Maxi, J Tuck, Valeria, Janet and James. That was smart for you to take
notes of everybody out at the table and Nate.
Trent Lamar and I'm so sorry, Nate.
I was calling you Nick for the longest.
I'm admitting that's hilarious. I I'm.
Hey listen, from now on you have to.
Call him Nick. No, I am no one and he's gonna
look at. Me and just like uh huh no he'll
roll with it yeah he he was doing it for a minute until he corrected and I was like Oh my bad bro so I'm sorry Nate right but only. Only you can call him that.
No, he. Won't do it no more.
But it was it was cool that Trent was there just by just by weird chance. And then my wife got.
Mistaken to be your wife? By Janet Yeah, yeah.
I got a note. Here.
So we're walking through the Convention Center and I don't think you guys are with us during this time.
This is our second trip through. OK, so we're opening the car,
sitting in the cars like the the FL 5 Civic.
And you know, my wife sits in there and Trent sits in there and all of a sudden she comes out, turns around and she starts digging in the back. I'm like trying to check the
trunk from the back seat. There were kids who had crawled
into the back of the Civic. What?
And they were like, hey, can. You get us out of here.
No way. I was like, somebody need to.
Wash their kids. What?
So they so she puts her and her and trainer like turn around.
They they flip down the seats and these fucking kids come crawling out of the trunk. Oh.
No, they were white. Too.
So they weren't, they weren't illegal, they weren't Mexican, you know, just, you know, but it's like, what the hell, man?
Like people need to watch their kids.
And I'm watching these kids run in and out of all these cars.
I'm like, damn, how long were these kids trapped in the back of that? I know, how terrifying.
Is that like you're not getting out like?
Can you please open get out of here?
I would have freaked out. Like dude, how long you guys
been here? What happened?
How did you even get in here? Show me and let's like, make
sure you don't do that, No. More shout out to Joseph GAT,
who I wanted to introduce you to him, but you guys weren't around when he was around. But friend of the show.
Yep. Friend of the show.
He was supposed to come back on the show and kind of give me like a full access interview about all the stuff that's going on with him. OK, Gave me a lowdown for about
an hour on the phone prior to the event.
And so he's still working through a lot of that stuff, but it was good to see him. Wish I could have met you.
Joe, I will next time, brother. You'll meet him at some point.
Yeah, you'll meet him at some point.
So when I was walking to give Nathan his parking pass the last day, you know, my boy Victor was there.
I got to send you Victor's. I didn't tell you, Victor.
He's an actor. No.
You. Didn't.
Yeah. So he.
So when he left Garland, where we grew up, like the first ten years, he was in a bunch of movies, OK.
Now he just makes his day-to-day by just doing commercial spots.
Yeah. He's like, yeah, you know, all
your stuff, playing to dad now, you know, But you know, he's like, whatever. So every once in a while, if
you're watching, paying attention to what's on TV, you might see him in a commercial. Really.
Yeah, I've seen him in a few commercials.
I got another boy, Reggie, who's been on the podcast, and he's.
I remember that. One so he's known.
By a lot of people for playing Sergeant Sims on On Call of Duty. He's like a recurring character,
but he's also, I see him, he's been in a few TV shows and I see him on commercials every once in a while, so it's kinda cool if I remember correctly. That was when they were having
the strikes, yeah, that's when he was.
On Yep, the sag after strike, that's the last time Reggie was on. Yep, we don't.
I don't have him on that much. He's down all the time, but we
don't see eye to eye on the GOAT.
Conversation on who? Would go I I only know of one.
There's only one goat. Conversation non football OK,
we're talking basketball. You're.
Saying MJ then. So you're going MJ.
I'm Team Jordan. He's die hard, LeBron, OK.
And you know, we don't need to get into that.
Do you think that's? Fair.
I mean, if you look at are they 2 ghosts in two different eras or do you say the sport all together because of this is these rules? Here's what I'll say.
Is a die hard MJ fan I I don't buy the goat in two different areas conversation because it's still the modern NBA right there's a significant difference from the Bob Cousy days and you can't convince anybody on this earth that there isn't no there's a big. Difference.
There's a huge. Difference.
Less teams, less players, less athleticism.
It's not a black or white thing, but come on.
I mean, Bill Russell was great for his time.
Given his size. There's no way everyone that's
everyone's bigger, bigger, not even just stronger and faster.
Everyone's just flat out bigger. Maybe he's Ben Wallace in the
modern NBA. Blend it in.
Yeah, you know Ben Wallace. Was great defensive player for a
while but. But but I don't.
Know, but you can't take anything away from MJ.
You can't take any. LeBron could adjust to any.
I'm convinced that he's never going to be my GOAT for a bunch of different reasons. Give.
Me give me your top 2 just he's not the GOAT because this I just need to know top 2 so I can kind of understand because I'm a data guy and I believe he's a compiler.
Yeah. OK.
So data on, he's going to look strong on data and statistically. He's not good in any actual
category that he leads. So.
So what do I mean by that? Yeah.
He can't shoot. He's never been able to hit free
throws. OK.
You know. So that's data.
You can say clutch gene that you can't quantify clutch gene, but you can see it. And so a lot of their goat is
visual. It's like, OK, who's the goat,
Barry Sanders or Emma Smith? Because the data will suggest
Emma Smith because he has the most rushing yards.
But Barry. Sanders, but Barry Sanders.
Just did it better than anybody ever.
And if he wasn't? Career wasn't cut short.
He would have had a lot bigger numbers.
He, yeah, he cut. It short on his own right, So
that mean there's but I can see I can make an argument as much of A Jordan guy as I am, I can make an argument for LeBron being considered a GOAT because there will never be another LeBron James. There's never going to be
another player that comes in the league at the as a teenager plays 2223 years at a high level.
That's true. The game is different, but you
know, he takes care of himself, takes care of his body.
He's soft as hell. I don't care what anybody says,
but that's that's just how the game is.
He's allowed to do it and no one's ever going to do that.
And there's something to be said about that because he's not like he's just been in the league for 23 years.
It's not like he's, and we're getting way off subject here, but it's not like he's Udonis Haslam, who played for the Heat for like 30 years. It's true.
Haslam rode the bench like the last, I don't know, eight or nine years of his career and it was a player coach.
He's not that. He's an active, very active
player, puts up points when he needs to, you know, just lead teams when when they. Need them or they lean on them a
little usually. Yeah, usually, but at the end of
the day, who don't want to have the ball in their hand.
LeBron is way down that list, right?
Because he just, you know, and those are, he just ain't it.
So I I probably just giving you like 5 reasons you you did and I was. Like, wow, you, you really did
your homework, so I know my stuff.
You must. You must.
Be having this conversation with these LeBron friends that are coming. No, no, but.
I met, I met, we'll get right back on track, but I, I, I met Reggie without really knowing who he was because when they did The Last dance, I had five episodes on this podcast where I had, it was a panel thing and I was a moderator, but I also joined Victors. He didn't do a podcast, but we
did a Zoom call after every episode, episode or two episodes. And so Reggie was one of the
people I was debating. We were going at each.
Other man, we were going at each other well, hey, but.
Biggest to you, because I still think Jordan is one of the ghost because how the game was played then, the game's a little different now. In my opinion.
It is different and I'm not really that much of a basketball guy, but to me it was a lot more involved back in the late mid 90s. You know, it was just
interesting. Everybody was like going in.
Now it's a little bit more to me like a finesse type of game and it's not as like like gritty as it kind of was when it got to those last, you know, quarter last few minutes of 1/4.
Now as far as like MJ, the reason why I see MJ as the GOAT to, in my opinion, one watching him play grow up.
I could not quote stats and all that stuff, but it just the way his presence, presence was on the court, it was an evolution over time. And it was like, even though in
the very beginning, when he was taking those and missing and just doing little things, he never shield away from it.
And he forced himself to get better and better and he challenged himself. Yeah.
And he did, and there. Was times when the team should
not have won the games that they won.
But he took it in that era and willed his team to win ring after ring after ring. So that right there is a little
why I look at him a little different than I do LeBron Lebron's in a system that's cater to the way that they play.
So as long as you understand how to game the system you like, how was who's the guy? Harden.
Oh yeah. Most overrated player in NBA
history, right? Like.
Once again, can I do what he did?
No, But when you look at some of the points that he, you know, was able to receive from certain type of fouls and things that he did or and ones or whatever, you're you're gaming a system.
I don't care what nobody says and you're nothing wrong with that, but take advantage. But is that really true?
What was happening back then? That wasn't happening in the 90s
and 80s. People were getting knocked over
and like, whatever, pick up and let's go.
If you're down 6 points, you know, who do you have more confidence in? You know what I mean?
So it's just like, I never, I never threw that out there, but I'm throwing that out there now. It's just like, and you already
know the answer. That's a rhetorical question,
but Long Beach, Long Beach, I'm sorry, I'm.
Sorry, yeah, we got into. That it's easy to get into.
Did you OK, so the we we were walking out, we saw the the Coco Zorita ZDX type S OK, the white car.
Yep, that thing was sick dude. Like I'm, I'm really liking what
Acura's doing with their their new line.
It's really looking clean edged up and really like the next level. I think one of the complaints
that I had over like the last five or ten years with Acura cars, when you get inside of them, I felt like I was in a Honda still or it just wasn't on that next level like how you would on a more premium brand. But looking at the vehicles this
weekend, all of them are on display.
I was having, my wife was like tapping me on the shoulder like, hey, I really like this. That's really clean.
That's really like refined and refreshed.
So whoever the design team for Acura, hey, you need a raise.
You did an amazing job. Thank you for presenting those
vehicles. I think if anybody has never
been, it's a great experience to go, please go.
You're going to don't give yourself time.
There was a lot of lot of exhibits, a lot of things to venture into, get into and take your time.
I tried to take as much as I could in, but I want to think, I think I want to make this an annual thing and really start to develop a relationship and learn more about Indy racing itself.
Like I said, I stumbled across GT Racing on that and I really wish I knew more about that team, but it was really cool to know that, you know, the team is fairly new, the AO Racing or Weathertech Racing team, whatever they really knew.
But you know, just getting involved, cheering for somebody and then seeing all the different styles of racing too.
That was fun, man. I just think that a lot of
people take a lot get a lot of. I was going to say it's.
Cool that they have different series.
Yes. I don't know how many they.
Had maybe four or five because they had the trucks too.
That's true. Tries to hit the ramps.
You know what I'm saying? That was what?
That's cool. This.
Truck like. Literally on three wheels,
rolling around the corner and then hitting a ramp and then you're watching them like hopefully they're landing straight because I'm a couple cock eyed.
They would kind of take off to the wall man.
Last year I went. Down to basically where they run
compliments of Peter Cunningham, of course, always taking care of her brother Pete. And, you know, he took me down
there and we were like, right there, there's a line in front of you. As long as you're behind the
line, you're good. When the race started, you had
to get a little further back, but, well, no, because they had the guardrail because you have the kind of the lane and then the the thingy and then and then the the tracks.
So they were still jumping 30 feet in front of us.
And it was pretty awesome. Somewhere I have video of that.
But yeah, I'm going to echo that the whole experience is cool.
And I would like to go back. And you know, what happens is
you end up it's fun, but it's even more fun because you're with your friends, right? And we have so many friends
because of what we do as far as NSX drivers and the car family is just so huge, right? You know, one of the things
Yvette said after we had dinner at Lucille's BBQ, wow, your, your NSX friends out here are really cool.
You know, she goes for the most part, all your car friends are cool because there's always like the awkward dude or the, or the, the girl that work with them, the girl that other girls don't like for some reason, right? You know, some personality.
Differences, right? Exactly, And I don't know who
that would be for her, but you know, I just, you know, when you said most of them they weren't hanging with.
Us this weekend cuz everybody got along so that's what I said when. Somebody's a diva, they get kind
of weeded out really quick, right?
And I told her you could swap out, you could add 10 more people or you could swap out 10 people and the vibe would have been just as good. Absolutely.
And there's something to be said about the cliche of family, right? That's family.
You can have what you want, as long as it's a Modelo.
That's what we have in here right now.
That's it, baby. But yeah, it was, it was
excellent. But The thing is, when you have
all the friends, it's harder to really roam around because you move to the next booth and you talk for 20 minutes.
You move to the next booth, you talk for 20 minutes.
Got to go to the restroom. Everybody as a group goes over
and stands by the restroom. You know, it's and I had a good
time, but I just because what happens when you go in the Convention Center? The big part is you kind of
snake your way through there, right?
And then you get in the middle aisle and then you just all go one way and then there's stuff to the right, there's stuff to the left. It's hard.
There's stuff behind you because you cut in early and it's just, it's a little bit like one more day.
That's what I That's how I. Felt when we were even Sunday, I
know I wanted to sit, but I know we're trying to get back, but I could have done like one more day in the exhibit hall and really taking some more information and just looked at more of the the the exhibits that they had there.
There was so much going on, even that was really captivated by their little simulation rig that they had set up.
Man, they have a big room. For the kids too.
See. They didn't even see that part.
It's got all the balance. Houses and all that shit.
And there's even more like vendors in there too.
Yeah, see, I gotta make sure I get so from the from the main atrium where they had the exploded car, right.
If you would have gone and left behind the big screen, there's an entire other section of the Convention Center so.
Passing the Nets, the guy that had all the no, that was right.
OK, so. You had to go the other way.
I never went the other. Way bro, I know you.
Go the other way, right? Yeah.
You missed it. Yeah.
You missed the opportunity to to stare at other people's kids while you bounce up and down in the jump house.
No, that's. Weird, bro, it is, yeah.
But they but we went that way before, like last year when when Peter took us around. But yeah, man, that's that's
Long Beach 2025. I can't wait for the.
Next man and. Then, you know, hopefully we can
do it again next year, absolutely.
If Acura will have us back, man. Hey, I'm down.
You can go even if they. Don't you know?
And I buy my. Tickets, they say, hey, I'm been
sold. I believe the pricing of
everything is perfect. I think the general.
Admission wasn't too bad. I don't know, like the
grandstand tickets that we got were about 200 bucks.
They're grandstand. Tickets.
Yeah. You don't have to go grandstand,
you know, shout out to Vince. And Ferris and ACUR for.
Thank you, Eth, I mean. We got him, absolutely.
We didn't pay anything. I'm not complaining for the
parking pass and everything, but it's worth paying for, right?
One thing, it's funny. Jay.
Tuck was pissed cuz he didn't get so we're walking around and he's looking at these locals. He's like, there's no way those
three girls look at them, man. There's no way they paid the
money to get in here. There's gotta be a local hooker.
Look at that woman. Look at those old people there.
I'm like, yeah, probably. Like, I don't know what to tell
you. Maybe the general mission
tickets are like 20 bucks like I don't know.
Well, maybe. They paid and had a hookup or
something the other way, but they got here bro.
They found a way and it's just. Apparently it's just a place to
go because when you look around, it's clear.
There's no freaking way. Everybody there are race fans.
No, no way. I like I said, I don't know that
much about the series and we were there, but it was.
Like it's the experience and an event for everybody to come together. And like you were saying, I know
it sucks because you're like trying to move through and it's conversation, conversation, conversation.
But we're we live busy lives and and when we get around our friends, it was like, dude, that's our time to kind of catch up. Yeah.
And it's it's like, oh man, I wanted to spend that time, but it's like I still got to move around.
So I complete that. You find a table and you're.
Sitting there for an hour and you look up and there's, you know, Jay and his fiance way over there.
You're like, man, I haven't even spent any time with you.
You don't want to feel bad. Because you don't want to walk
away. And then you're like, dude, I
still want to go see something over here.
Then you're like, yeah, it was a lot.
Well, anyway. We're going to wrap this up.
Let me get that sheet in front of you.
Absolutely. Thank you.
So much before we officially put the can closing I want to thank my Patreon business supporters. Kuyatomoto out of Winter Garden,
FL, Pell Construction out of Colony Michigan, Be Cal Small home design out of Ashford Virginia and Traverse City, MI.
You know I could actually do this better if I just rerecorded the canned ending, but I didn't. So really.
Shay Bros out of Boise, ID. They are new ish sort of.
It's West Tangersley and did I say automotive specialty tool?
I don't know if I did, but automotive specialty tool.
I have Owings Mills in Maryland. So for Dre Mullins, Andre Dre
Day, I'm Jay Fenning and we will queue the official closing.
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Ain't nobody got time for that. Shut up.
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