AZ Trackstars Garage Dreams show recap with Josh Benjamin

Are you rolling? I'm ready, man.

I'm. I'm chilling, dude.

All right, this is hard parking. Brought to you by right Honda

and right Toyota out of Scottsdale, AZ neuros.

Jake Benning reporting for my home studio in Gilbert, AZ Coming up on today's show, Josh stops by the studio.

We haven't talked to him in a while.

Going to get in some car news. We're going to recap the AZ

Track Stars and Garage Dreams event that we went to at the time of this, and I'm going to talk a little bit about the F1 movie, but not a lot because I don't think Josh has seen it yet. Have not.

All right, all that more, Yeah. All that more coming up after

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Josh, welcome back. Hey, thanks for having me again

man of. Course, so last change since the

last time you were in studio, yes, You got a new car.

Yeah, I'm not talking about the one you drove here, but you got a new car. New car?

That's kind of made the rounds of social media.

Yeah. Still representing Liquid Molly.

That's right. I actually want to ask you about

that a little bit if you're incredibly loyal to them.

Yeah, I am. So they must be incredibly loyal

to you. Absolutely.

But what did you bring over here today?

You just bought a car a new daily.

Yeah, so two weeks ago I bought a new Mercedes GLA 45 AMG.

Well, new to me. It's not brand new, it's a nice

little 4 cylinder turbo hot hatch.

Those of you that kind of follow me or have known me in the AMG Mercedes game for a while. I've owned a bunch of V8 AM GS

and Mercedes so this is my first baby AMG engine so to speak, but it's a lot of fun I really love. It emasculating at all?

No, not at all man like it's you know, I I thought that at first like man 4 cylinder tour because I know it gets a lot of hate.

Is it a real AMG? Actually it is.

It's a it's a one man 1 engine AMG handbuilt.

It's just a 4 cylinder. It's not AV 8, but man 400

horsepower in that little hot hatch car.

It gets up man, it's fun. So it's it's fully loaded.

It's got the sport seats, all the fun stuff and I'm enjoying it and obviously with this heat and not driving my classic, it's it's it's much nicer drive to and from the office and bouncing around so. 100% You know, I think it's funny because the

four cylinders don't really get the love.

Today's 4 cylinder isn't yesterday's 4 cylinder.

You know, V eights sound nice, but everything now is V6 four-cylinder and you can do a lot more than you could absolutely most to your .400 horsepower 4 cylinder.

Get up and go. Absolutely.

Air conditioner probably works great.

Oh yeah, like you said, you don't have to worry about breaking down because you have a classic.

That's right, I do. I've been rude though, because

you came over here and I actually I was like, all right, well, Josh likes the red wine, so maybe we did the red wine and you go give me some bourbon and so you have picked.

What is this called again? Stop.

This is Blanton's. Blanton's OK.

Yeah, I just, I just saw the fanciest looking bottle in your cabinet. Well, one of them, there's some

really nice looking whiskey in there and I said give me that So and it's actually delicious. Well, Air cheers on that.

Cheers. Yeah, and delicious.

Yeah, hopefully you you enjoy it.

No, it's really good. That's how we do around here.

But yeah, so let's talk about your other car, because last time you were in studio, you didn't have it.

No, Yeah, so. I've talked about you before.

I remember. Yeah.

I'm like, oh, I hung up with Josh, you know, Josh.

Josh. Josh.

Oh well, it's always JJJJ on my end, so you know.

If it's Byron talking, that's. Byron.

The MVP guy. Byron, he says that to both of

us. I know you know, VIPJVIP, it's I

like it, it's cool. But I'm not trying to be AVIP or

anything. I just, I just show up and hang

out with friends and talk cars. That's it.

So, but yeah, so the last time I think I was on the podcast, I think I had the G Wagon. Yeah, so I had the G Wagon,

which was awesome. It kind of attracted the wrong

crowd having it for a couple years.

I enjoyed it though. Is it was kind of that momentary

flex in my life. Had a buddy out in Texas,

offered me some, some good money for it.

And so I said, you know what? It's time to transition, do

something my heart was always wanting to do, which was build a classic or especially Mercedes. And I sold the G wagon and I put

all the money into a really rare 190 E Sportline LE.

They made only 700 of them. I ended up converting that into

an Evolution 1, which is a homologation.

Only 500. And two of those were made in

the world. And yeah, it's gotten a lot of

love, lot of publicity, a lot of love at all the events as I drive around. It's it's insane.

I've never got so much love and care from the community and and in that car before. It's crazy, right?

It's wild, man. It's really.

Wild. So hold on.

So you you the car you bought 1 of 701 of the 700, correct?

And then you turn it into not necessarily one of the 500 because it wasn't one of those correct.

But so so something that's a if my if my math is correct and usually not, was it 404 hundred total between the two?

What 7 + 5? Is it 12?

Yeah. All right.

Yeah, for 12 years total of both of both homologation.

But then you took something that was already rare, correct?

And so do you ever get Flack for that?

No, I mean a little bit like, I mean, you get guys that come in advance, like, is that a real ego?

Is it? And I'm like, what's a real evo

to you? They're like, well.

And we've seen. I don't know.

I'm like, dude, it's one to one. I mean the car is there's

nothing different. It's the sport line.

LE technically a lot of people don't know is actually more rare than homologation, and only because so many people that owned them didn't treat them and respect them knowing what they'd become in the future. And there's less than I believe

recorded, less than 300 registered in the world cause the rest of them have rotted away, been wrecked, the whole 9.

So finding one that's been preserved the way that I have found it and then restored it and then built it, it's actually more rare than a homologation. It just doesn't have the price

tag attached to it because there's something very special about in history owning A homologation and being able to prove the VIN matches the homologation.

But if you don't care about that, go build yourself one it.

It'll be better in my opinion, because we saw that one at Barrett Jackson, that Evo. One, they had the evo one and

the two. And you want to tell people what

you saw? Our observations at night.

So, and, and this was not knocking that car whatsoever, but yeah, owning A attributed version of that car, I obviously I kind of wanted to see how close my body panels and everything lined up 'cause obviously if you can see some big gaps, you're like, you know, what's that?

What's going on with that? Surprisingly, the homologation

didn't look very homologated. It it looked like it either was

maybe possibly rebuilt in some form of way or maybe it that's exactly how it came out of the factory.

The rumor is because of the homologation that they had to do for the DTM series in that time, the late 80s, they kind of whipped these cars together pretty quickly to be able to race, which is probably what happened that the quality control wasn't like perfect, but there was some gaps on those fenders. And, and quite frankly, my my

190 E was better version of even the homologation.

And of course, that's my opinion, but that was my observation of what I saw on the body panels and all that.

And, and I love both cars. They're, they're amazing.

It's just obviously I think it went for 130,140 thousand.

Yeah, between the the Evo one and the Evo 2, I don't remember what they hammered at, but they were both pretty decent.

You know, and obviously my car is nowhere near valued at that.

I put a crazy amount of money in mine, but I don't plan on selling it or anything like that either unless someone comes at me with something stupid. But I love the car.

It's a crazy head Turner. It was a head Turner before you

stylized it. It was, yeah.

It's a. Head Turner now as well.

Correct. The journey has been awesome.

I've had the car now for two years.

God. It's been 2 years.

Now it's wild. A little over 2 years, I think.

Yeah. And obviously getting it,

restoring it, getting parts all over the world to restore and build the car. It's got a lot of really cool

from liquid Molly. For instance.

You want to circle back on that? I've been a supporter liquid

Molly for many, many years with Arizona AMG and I've always put you know how some people multiple mobile 1 royal purple.

Yeah, I'm a Liquid Molly guy and I just finally officially became a a sponsored driver from Liquid Molly.

Oh cool. Congratulations.

Thank you. So like all that support has

turned around and them bringing me on as a part of their family as a sponsored driver. And now we're collaborating

together to try to push the Mercedes-Benz agenda out there a little bit more because they kind of hyper focus a little bit more on the Audi, BMW end of things.

So we're really with my help, we're going to try to push the the Mercedes-Benz on on the agenda for them.

So it's really cool. Obviously the the livery that's

on it now. It was all black before, you

know, PPF pros and Gilbert as well as Wolf Design sponsored delivery. They made a childhood dream come

true with that. I've always.

Yeah, it's, it's it's. Great.

That iconic racing livery. So those of you that don't know,

a lot of you say it's a son axe livery.

Those that know those types of cars in the E30 M3 190 Battle Days, it's not a Sonax livery, it's a Konig Pilsner tribute livery, which was the original striped livery of that car.

And then I took a spin on it and replaced all the original logos with current sponsors. So it made it very one-on-one

and special to me and special to the sponsors supporting the car.

So I wanted to tribute and show love to them within the livery.

So yeah, childhood dream come true, man.

So. You guys are listening to this

rolling around like why would you not be?

Or possibly watching it? If you're watching it, we're

going to overlay this with some graphics, but if you're listening to it, you can pull it up and look at it.

It's AMG under score, Josh or Josh under score.

AMG under score Josh. On Instagram, we're going to

follow along and take a look at the journey.

Super cool car. The car you drove over here

today. Why?

Why did you decide this car? Of all the cars out there that

you should get? I wanted something that you

know, obviously I, I daily the a lot of people don't know this, but I daily the evo almost two years and this is coming on the second summer. I couldn't do it again.

The heat, just the heat having the dog.

A lot of people don't know. I, I bring my Rottweiler in the

back of the car. People they're they scratch

their heads just wondering. I can't believe he a dailies it

B has a dog back there. So I was looking for a car that

stayed where my passion is which is Mercedes-Benz and AMG but better gas mileage. I actually was looking at things

a little more practical this time around.

I've had some wild stuff, you know, FBOC 60 threes, G wagon lifted 5 miles per gallon and that I know it's $700.00 a month

and fuel alone looks like in that it's it's I was looking for something that was a little more practical, but I could still stay on brand with where my passions are.

Well, obviously my passions are cars, period.

It doesn't matter what kind of manufacturer.

I love JDMI, love Euro. I love all kinds of American

domestic cars. But Mercedes and AMG have my

heart because if you remember my mom's story, my mom working for Mercedes-Benz for almost 20 years, I grew up around AMG.

Yeah. So just it's a special place for

me. Mercedes-Benz and then I lost my

mom a few years ago as well. So I want to stay on tune with

that. I'm not saying I won't have

other cars in the future, but the GLA 45 spoke to me on being, I'll throw the dog in the back, good gas mileage, go up north, probably not glamp, but go to a nice hotel up north because I'm not a glamper, but just something practical so to speak.

But still staying on brand. I thought it fit that really

well. And then it puts a smile on my

face, still has that performance.

And I zipped a couple times on the way here.

And if you can get a smile on my face in a car, you got me.

I've I've I've been in some fast stuff and surprisingly it's a really good car and it's just it's more practical.

What are you doing now with Easy Euros?

AZ, EUR or House of Euro? That one House of euros.

Yeah, I've never been a. House of Euro and AZ, those are

two different places, right? So completely different.

Places completely different. Places.

Similar. No, it's alright.

No. Smoke towards AZ EUR I just.

Yeah, yeah. And I don't know any anybody at

AZ EUR so. I think I get their text

messages all the time too, so I must have inquired or we had the old Audi fix there or. Something.

Yeah, so. Sorry, House of Euros.

Yeah, no, yeah. So I'll.

Be at your event in October. I think it's October, yes.

We have October Fest, so we have the Oktoberfest, which I haven't even promoted yet. And then we also have the one

year. It's all good.

And then we also have the one year anniversary, September 12th, which is going to be a banger so that.

Just means I'm paying attention. Yeah, definitely come for the

September 12th one year. It's going to be, it's going to

be awesome. So, yeah, I mean House of

Bureau, they sponsor not only the EVO for the motor build that's coming soon, which is going to be crazy.

They also sponsor the GLA 45, which is awesome.

We're going to be doing some fun content with that and our partners. But yeah, we I've known Austin,

one of the Co owners of House of Euro for several years now.

I feel really shitty because Austin's like to go to the coolest cats and all these events.

We go to Austin. I'm sorry man.

No, he he is definitely rat. So he was the chief chief

engineer and mechanic for FCP or local Molly for their FD team and that's how we knew each other.

Full circle. I was doing marketing for

Throttle back in the day. I was a marketing director and

all that for throttle and events and the janitor and the, the, the 10 different hats with that. And so I travelled to FD and

Austin. It's so funny because every

single plane that we got on, he was in the plane with, and I was like, who is this guy with the mullet that I keep seeing all the time? And then ironically, he was the

guy with FCP. So we bonded pretty well when I

knew that he was starting a automotive repair shop in Tempe as well as performance. I was one of his first customers

when he launched that. So I gave him the Evo.

He did quite a bit of work on it and it was kind of a match made in heaven saying, hey, look, we're sponsoring the Evo already. Would you would you like to work

with us at a certain capacity? And we started talking about it

back and forth and now I'm running their marketing, I'm doing some consulting with them and events and media hiring and kind of everything admin back in for them.

I just started helping them with that.

So I'm looking forward to growing House of Euro into like the most dominant European automotive performance shop in the Valley. How do you get into that though?

Because some people watching or listening are probably pretty curious because as long as I've known you, that's kind of been like your thing helping launch businesses and get them going.

Yeah. You know, it's, it's funny

because a lot of times, well, not I feel like it's it's been, I haven't really figured out how to monetize it 100%.

Yeah, sure. Yeah.

Because, yeah, I've been in the car industry, in the car car community for over a decade, way over a decade.

And I didn't date myself there, did I?

But I look like I'm 23 but I'm actually not. 63 never looks so

good man my God. Dude, I know.

Tell me about it. I'm not 63 by the way, but

everybody's like really 6363? Damn.

God damn. What?

What's? This Asian or green or Asian?

No Raisin, right? Yeah, I know I am.

Yeah, that's true too. And black.

Yeah. But honestly, networking, man,

that's been, I've been fortunate enough to be complimented by many circles of being a master networker.

And that's kind of what I enjoy doing.

I really like helping people and I really like connecting the dots for people. And again, I haven't always been

in the best positions to figure out how to monetize myself in that way because I am, I have AI like to think I have a kind heart and I really like building people up.

And because of my business ownership experience and my marketing background and every other experience that I've had in sales and leadership and owning, again, several of the businesses, I've had some people within this community ask me for help in certain areas. And I've always loved sitting

down with them and consulting and saying this is what I would do and this is how I would do that.

And again, I'm not necessarily coming out with, you know, hey, sign up and I'll give you my newsletter right now, you know, on that's not who I am. I'm, I'm not, I'm not claiming

to be an expert. I just, I do have some

interesting ways of looking at things in business and especially when it involves cars.

And yeah, House of Bureau kind of knew that about me and they kind of said, hey, we see what you've done.

We see how you've gained sponsors and partnerships and we would like to be able to bring you in as an asset.

And again, that team and that family I've really enjoyed for a long time and it was kind of a no brainer for me to help them do that and and grow that. So yeah, that's just kind of me

in a nutshell on that so. So this last weekend, it's

funny, I like asking him questions because I know he's reaching for that blends, but I just gave you that, just gave you that break. But the last weekend we

basically burned her ass off at the AZ Track Stars garage and you were there with Liquid Molly.

Yeah, you know. Yeah, that was a hot event.

Did you go to the last time they did it?

I did not, nor did I. This is my first AZ Track Stars

event. I mean, the video, the promotion

that they do, it is it was hard not to like go, oh shit, they're doing something cool over here. You know, especially knowing

that it was going to be in a parking garage.

You know, obviously we knew it was going to be hot no matter what, but it gave you kind of that Fast and the Furious vibe, you know, which is kind of cool. You know, you can't, you can't

really do that anymore. You know, there's you go.

You, you collect more than 10 cars in a parking lot.

There's a high chance you're getting kicked out of it.

I wonder how they pull that off because we're talking Mesa too.

I know. I mean you personally know and

trying to put these events together and get.

Which I've. Never along the way.

Which I've never personally been successful out of all my attempts to put together a. Really.

I think last time we may have even talked about, yeah, cars and coffee. Yeah, we did that.

Never like launched because you kept hitting walls.

I, I would get to the very end, I would get all the approvals, I'd have everything laid out. I would have the vision, I'd

have the partners, I'd have the food bank, I'd have sponsors.

I, like I said, connecting people and getting things.

That is not something that is is unfamiliar for me.

But it always seemed like at the very end that something just always seemed to want to pull the plug from me.

So maybe that's just not for me and I'm OK with that.

Maybe that's just not my future. So now I enjoy, like I said,

consulting other people that are doing good events.

But you try to pull in like charities too, like we had we you. You helped me.

Get that charity. I'm I'm a connector like

yourself. You helped me get.

We had United Food Bank ready to be there and had some weird reason that wasn't enough. But this one, that AZ track

stars, garage dreams. And then they do the do the card

things for kids. And so they did like a little

kid race with a little Power Wheels modified and maybe that's the hook, I don't know. But very hot event.

Like what? What did you see there that you

really liked? Because you we, we have

different tastes in cars and sometimes we have the same tasting cars. Yeah.

I mean, honestly, I've been, I'm pretty blessed in the fact that like, nothing really surprises me anymore.

I'm sure you feel that. Way you do more events than I

do, so you see more cars I think than I do.

Yeah, maybe. Maybe.

I mean, it's very hard for me to go to any event now and see something that blows my mind, you know?

Unless, again, Koenig's eggs and things like that are super cool.

Hyper cars and all that, but. You're not going to see those at

this event, although there were a couple.

They didn't have that easy direct stars.

Yeah, they lce performance. There's a shop here in

Scottsdale. They brought a really cool

Ferrari that I really digged Yeah, they had some cool builds, like they had a couple cool things, but I hate that I feel so like Desan it's or what a desensitized so to be.

You know, that's what I mean. Like I I I see a McLaren or I

see a cool kind of cool build or some wheels and I and it's no disrespect to the owners or the builds.

It's just, I mean, I'm, I'm, I like my car.

Like, you know, I like seeing, I like seeing something that is like, I may never see that ever again in my life.

And that's how I feel about what I own.

I feel like when people see it, I may never see that car again ever in my life. And there's a high chance you

probably won't, unless you live in Gilbert and drive around and see me driving around. Yeah, I like, I'm going to go

through some of the pictures I have on my phone, but I like seeing stuff. For me personally, there's a

little nostalgia to it. I'll see some of the old 90s

early 2000s. Up my alley.

You know, of course, evil. Fives evil sixes.

You know, if I see like a Civic with a wide body kit, it's like perfect on there. I go back to that time where

it's like, wow, like that's nice.

And it's not gaudy. It looks like it just fell out

of Fast and Furious without the graphics.

Absolutely. They actually had a couple

civics there that were they look just extremely clean.

Like I mean they had a good 5 spoke wheel on it, a good lower on it, not a bunch of stickers, clean recaro's in the tier, manual gearbox. Just a guy with livery.

On his car and and yeah, and I know, but see.

That's a joke. But you know, with that being

said, like I'm to me, I'm like, dude, I would drive that all.

Day. Long all day long, you know cuz

nowadays it's all about like how wild can you go to get attention? You know how it feels like

camera can you go or how crazy of the neon lights can you put on your headlights to get a like?

And so to me, I ignore like all that walking through the crowd and when I see someone preserving history, preserving that car culture when I was growing up of those 90s Hondas or those 90s Mitsubishi's, you know, I really resonate with those types of cars. You weren't.

I posted this on on Facebook. You weren't there yet, but there

was a charger. Charger challenge.

I don't wanna say charger. That green?

Green No, not that, but we're walking up the steps and the thing this this guy was blasting in 2DS back to the hotel and I said please tell me that's a charger challenger as soon as we get to the top of the steps, sure as shit.

You know, it's kind of a regular charger challenger.

There was a I was by a pickup truck that had like Tesla 3 motors in it. Remember that one?

We walked up? You almost got me on that.

You know, it's funny because it took me a moment to realize that it was an EV converted ride because I looked at the front and I was like, kind of looks like some electrical stuff's going on up here. But it looked kind of like a

little baby motor. Like maybe it was a little

motor. It was almost rat rodish.

Yeah, Rat, Rat Rodish. Yeah, yeah, it was.

It was definitely like a rat rod.

Hot rod. Yeah, type of.

I mean, it's cool, but you know how I feel about EVs, so I don't. Well, we could do a whole thing.

How do you feel about EVs? Josh talking about EVs.

Yeah, I feel like this comes up on most of the the episodes.

So what is what is Josh's opinion on EVs?

I I'm not forget the mandate. That's not.

No, yeah, no, yeah, I'm not an EV guy.

I mean, I, I, I think, you know, and honestly, a part of that's just like driving around the Tesla.

I think there's like a Tesla superiority complex out there.

I may that may be just a complete stereotypical thing to say, but I feel like it finds me and you get the Model 3 cutting me off and zipping by and fast, fast gets the light punches it and I'm just, I'm not an EV guy, man.

I'm just not I, I do like the, the push of hybrid technology for the future. I think that's where the future

is, is in hybrid technology. You know, Mercedes-Benz,

Porsche, so, so many manufacturers have doubled down a year or two ago on EV technology and they really finally realized that we are not ready for this EV future that they tried to shove down our throats and they lost their ass on it. You know, Mercedes-Benz have now

announced they are no longer really pushing that EV agenda.

They're changing into hybrid technology, which, you know, V eights, you know, they did a 4 cylinder C63 for God's sake.

Yeah, you know, that was on the lot rusting away and no one wanted it because we wanted AV 8.

So a lot of mistakes are happening out there with that.

But yeah, I, I just, I don't care for EVs.

That's just me. I'm not going to sit here and

talk too much crap about them. Like it's not my style.

It's not me. It doesn't resonate with me.

So yeah, that's just. How I wouldn't mind when it's a

daily just because I, I like cars so much, I like switching it up. But our grid, people don't

realize this. Our grid can't handle it anyway.

Yeah, like China with their Gen. 4 nuclear reactors, which are

incredibly safe or light years ahead of United States, and they're on pace. I think in like 3 or 4 years

they'll have 5 or 6, maybe even 10 times the electrical capability that the United States has at.

Our current pace? I believe it.

And we could add 20,000 new chargers in every major US city.

It doesn't matter because we don't have the grid to support it. And I think people just don't

really understand. The back end on all.

That right what that really means so we could.

Even know that. Yeah, yeah, we could have hot

swap battery packs, but we we don't have what it takes to even produce the batteries. Like, we just flat out don't

have it, and we're not going to have it anytime soon unless we go to nuclear power. So yeah.

And we have all these regulations.

Chernobyl. Chernobyl all over again.

Yeah, well, Chernobyl, yeah. I think Chernobyl's like a Gen.

one or Gen. 2. Yeah.

And that was like a rare thing. Or Fukushima with a tsunami, but

still. Yeah.

You know, and I think that's the fear is getting people to realize cuz it's like we should have nuclear.

Yeah. Do you want to live by a power

plant? No.

OK, well, why not, Mr. Noble? And the reality is that's

probably never gonna happen again.

But the fear is real, and the fear is what keeps people from approving those. Things, Absolutely.

So until we do that, we're never gonna be able to support.

Yeah, just. And again, I don't have any

problem with Teslas or Rivians, and I think there's a lot of really cool TV's out there, but we just can't support it.

Yeah. And the technology can change.

What happens when it changes the five years?

Yeah, You know, now you can change your carburetor.

We've had decades of stuff. I mean, who uses carburetors,

right? But we have decades of stuff.

And you can roll filter. What year is your Mercedes

again, 93? Right.

Yeah, it's the last, last. One any any problem finding an

oil filter for that? No, right.

No, not really. Other parts, yes.

Very hard to find, you know. But oil filter no.

Oil filter? No, right, Because it's kind of

a standard. Absolutely.

It's across so many different. All motors have an oil filter

and and rarely do they have something that's so bespoke.

Absolutely. Or you can get me having NSX and

then now there's shit available there.

Shit on my Type S it isn't available and it's ridiculous.

Yeah, you break a button knob in your car, you just cry.

Just crying out. You might never be able to get

that unless you 3D print. It we've had people online that

they they blow out a front passenger strut on a on a second Gen. NSX.

They're waiting eight months to a.

Year wow. Because.

They just don't have them. Wow.

Meanwhile, and this is everywhere, on on on car news now, but Honda has announced 8. Months.

Wow. That they're gonna come out and

they're actually building old parts for NSXS and a bunch of other models. And it's, yeah, I mean, it's

like, it's like a heritage program.

Yeah, I love that. And Japan actually had an NSX

refresh program for a while. But they wouldn't the Gen. ones

obviously. Yeah, but it had to be a JDMNSX.

So you couldn't ship, I'm 90% sure you couldn't ship your US car. Yeah, even if you had a few

money, you couldn't ship your American NSX to there.

And the program was very expensive.

And Acura talked about doing something like that here.

They did a presentation NSX. Well, when they said, OK, this

is what we're thinking about doing and here's how much it's going to cost, everyone's like, I can do it myself for 118th of that, bro. They heard the number and

they're like, yeah, never mind. Yeah, because all that tooling

costs. So it's good they're that

they're. Manufacturing space lineup.

Space, yeah, all that stuff back.

So back to the event. They had a 2 step competition I

think, so I was leaving. How did you stick?

You had to stay, right? Because you're a booth car.

Yeah. So I stuck around.

Well, yeah, sort of. I mean, I stuck around towards

almost the end of it. I mean, my opinions are mixed on

the event. You know, I've been again, a

part of so many different events and I've been a part of so many good ones and so many bad ones. Also, obviously trying to

organize my own and consulting people that are running their own events. I kind of know what to look for

when it comes to how to run them and, and what not to do and what to do and how to make them efficient.

So my unfortunately my brain works like a business thinking person when I'm there too. Like I wouldn't have done that.

I wouldn't have done this. He should know this.

He should be doing. It's like when I when I rolled

in and got tried to scan my QR thing, the guy took like 2 minutes to scan my thing. He's like, hey, it's not

working. Do you have anything else that

you could use to? And I kind of like gave him a

look. I'm like, what do you mean?

He's like, well, do you have any other like way to this is the ticket? Like I don't understand, Like I

have nothing else to give you. Right.

And as a booth car, you probably didn't have to go through the whole registration thing. I I still, I still signed up the

car as a ride. So he looked.

My name up because he's like, do you have a QR code?

He finally did that for me. He finally some guy came over

and looked at him like dude, you can look him up by name.

So they're having an issue with that.

And then I went to some, a random guy with a staff vest and I asked him like, hey, when you know, when is the trophy ceremony? The guy didn't even know.

So it's just, you know. And then between the trophy

announcements later on, we couldn't hear what they were saying because there's a huge crowd literally 10 feet away from us, 2 stepping their cars on the way out, raving and raving, and two stepping the cars on the way out.

And some of them weren't even car show entries.

How about that BMW that was behind me?

Yeah, that was the most annoying thing.

If you're that kid in that BMW, dude, not cool.

Yeah. He kept revving Pop.

Yeah, he and he stayed there for like 5 minutes.

You rolled out and you parked it.

Annoying. My ears were like drumming out

and you know, it clearly says like no revving none of that in the event. But of course today's generation

like they don't listen, man. But what really bothered me is

that no one of the event stood up and created leadership and said, hey, with the mic, walk over there, get out.

Like there's just no one is taking a stand for anything at events anymore. They just kind of like, well, he

they're doing it. I guess it's OK.

And I'm and I just, it just drives me nuts.

Because here's the thing. Cool event overall.

Overall and. It's it's incredible because we

just talked about the struggles in creating an event.

They had porta Johns. They had plenty of food vendors.

It might not happen. You know, right?

Their Mesa PD was right outside, right outside.

Would not be surprised if an event never happens again in that parking garage or parking garage General well.

That's The thing is, is these people that don't think about that. So you got to you got to go and

control that shit. You got to cut that shit out as

soon as it happens, because that RIP of the event and and almost any event we could think of here, with the exception of maybe elite tuner that has the tuner cars and kind of something for everyone. Because reality is not every

event is really something for everyone, which it isn't.

You know, we have some more more of the higher end events.

We have more of the the street meet up style events but for something that they put together with Garage Dreams, I hope it happens again. Me too, but I really do I.

You have to control that shit. Yeah, I thought about it.

I thought about being the guy walking into the middle of two step, putting my head in the passenger window and saying a few words. But then, right, it's just like,

then what is that going to do? What is that going to?

Escalate that asshole and. Then and exactly, I'm

representing my sponsors and so I have to unfortunately bite my lip all the times and let things happen the way they're going to happen. But I don't agree with them.

You know, like you said, it's so hard to put on an event now.

I don't know, man. Like it's all about likes and

clicks and who has the most viral two step video on TikTok and it's just. People love it, man, I.

Can't stand it, man. I can't stand it.

They love it. It's almost the same.

Take over, crowd. Yeah.

It's currency, you know, it's all currency.

Money isn't currency anymore. It's likes and views and two

step videos. And I just, I just think there's

a cleaner way to do it. There's a better way to do it.

But unfortunately I don't, we're kind of losing that fight, you know, cuz kids are at that age now where they're the ones kind of organizing in parking lots and doing this and that.

And I don't know, I don't know what the future of 5-10 years of events looks like. You know, maybe it's only for in

10 years. It might only be for the elite.

It might only be for the people that own the parking lots, own the warehouse events and that have privatized events.

And then if Someone Like You and I say, you know, they're going to do our own event, they're going to go, sorry, dude, it's not happening. You know that might be our

future you. Know going to cost as much that

could have been cheap for them to put on anyway.

No, no. Especially there there was a

couple of Toyotas that I that I really liked trucks that were basically on the. Floor.

I saw those. Those were really like the three

of. Them right, I saw two, but there

could have been a third one. Yeah, there were three, but.

There wasn't a Toyota. The third one, it wasn't a

Toyota. I don't know.

I I saw. The white one there was the the

one the black one that was airbrushed kind of vato style which was cool as. I agree.

See, it's one of those cars. I like to say I love it that you

own it. Yeah.

There's so many. Cars, there's so many cars like

that. I don't want one, but I love

that you have it and I love that I'm seeing. 1000% when I was

looking at the black one I was thinking to myself, I'm not a judge exactly but if I were I would be trying to convince.

I would try to find a category for this thing if one doesn't exist and convince the other judges why this thing should win. Absolutely.

And I would say of all the cars that I saw there, that's the only and I saw a lot of cool cars.

Yeah, there was some cool. And I uploaded some pictures and

some people kind of messed with me a little bit like, oh, I didn't make the make the list, you know, like my boy Taibo.

And I'm just like, dude, I only you can only upload 20 pictures.

Yeah, you know, and then, of course, you know, you got to represent and it's like, all right, I get Josh I.

Appreciate you. I appreciate that you don't ever

feel obliged though. But your car's dope.

Just because we're homies don't ever feel like there's someone out there. And that's how I am.

I, I love the feeling of passing the torch kind of vibe, like I don't need to win, I don't need to win.

Well, I, you know, I don't need I, I didn't take a picture of Taibo's car. I went over and talked to him

because he's a cool cat. But I remember thinking to

myself, I wanna, I wanna try to take pictures of things that I don't typically post because I posted his car before at other events. I mean, I posted your car

specific events, but not your car show because this is the first car legit event that I've gone to where you've been there.

Yeah, on display. You know I didn't post Nikki's

Civic and her Civic is awesome. Her Civic is amazing.

Yeah, it's amazing. It's awesome.

Amazing build. One of my all time favorite

Hondas, The. The the the S 2000s there that

white one were legit. Yeah, there were two.

White, I know, but the big wing one that was all over there, Yeah, go wrong. One that was all over the big

wing S2K. There was an old right hand Dr.

Prelude type S saw that red one that was really clean.

Yep, clean. Yep.

There was a kid there and I could kind of tell the type of person he is kind of talk to him a little bit, but he had a like A992000 Honda Civic SI, a red one.

OK, and it was kind of parked over where I was.

So he showed up with the stock wheels, took the wheels off because he drove with some white TE 37.

So he got to the event, put his T ES on there.

Popular took his That's that's part of the starter kit, right?

Yeah, that's some. Took his carbon fiber lip and

stuck it on the car which is Velcro and then when the event was over he put the lip off. Stuck in his car.

Took the wheels off with his car.

You know I call that ingenuity. But you know, here's the deal.

I would have used magnets, but I'm looking at the car.

No disc to you kid, if you're watching this because you, you're probably not. But the the the paint on the car

was shit and it wasn't like an Immaculate car to go through all that with. I got it dude, just roll in.

I get it, park it. Don't drive like an asshole.

Park it. Yeah, hard park it.

Thank you. Don't drive like an asshole.

Minimize rock chips roll in that way.

Yeah, absolutely. Go home and transform it if you

want, but it's not like I agree though it was it wasn't a such a show level card. I tried to make it St. one

minute and then a show within another minute.

You just rolled it and then and then reversed it?

Yeah. Yeah.

And interesting and never heard of that before.

Ever. It's, I mean, I've seen people

go to shows and swap out rims and stuff.

OK, Yeah. But it's usually like they have

a whole. A column full of stickers from.

Like the Good Guy Show and everything they've gone to and you know they've won everywhere they've gone and you know, they trailer their car in and then do all this shit.

I don't know if you guys like that.

Yeah, and so but. This was like it.

It's a cool daily drivable Civic SI with some paint issues.

Yeah, you know, so. He thought that maybe just the

lip and the the change would just bump the category up a little bit, and I don't. Know who won anything because I

left. I know.

Yeah, I know a few people, a few people that won.

I don't even think they had a Mercedes category.

I doubt it. I couldn't hear anything

anyways. But yeah, I don't, I don't even

believe mine was voted because of where it was.

The booth card. Yeah, because of where it was.

I personally think booth cars should be.

Eligible and I you know what I. I I agree with that just Sir,

because I remember the back in the old high hot important night days, they had some crazy $600,000 booth cars at certain booths and they would win like best exotic or something.

It's like bro, I'm going to get in trouble for this but.

Maybe you'll know or maybe we'll both get in trouble, I don't know. Is this afr?

Wait, BRZ or FRS or some other bad ass thing?

That's an Fr that's. Agri think yeah, it's something

GR. It's GRE 6.

With a wide body, it's. 86 OK. This thing was dope, yeah.

Had the hood off and had all the all the all the shit on it.

These are. TS Yeah, the.

TS also, yeah. That's the TS, yeah, that's like

the. The fault thing, but that car

was sick so it definitely made no, I like that it.

Was super sick. And there was a there was a kid

there with a Geo storm. Do you remember?

You know what Geo storms are? Are you old enough to know what

that is? Course I do.

I. Never like whipped them, but you

know when I was in high school. There was there was a girl.

I grew up in a bitch. She.

She had a Geo storm and so I was always it was like chick cars.

But this kid he couldn't have been over over 20 years old rolled up in a Geo storm but like a body kit on it semi clapped out. Mad respect though.

Absolutely. I was like dude, I haven't seen

a Geo storm in like 30 years. I don't think I've props.

A long time, yeah. I didn't even recognize it

first. Time like is that a what is that

a Saturn? Like is that like an SL or

something? I walked up like oh shit, storm

the Geo freaking storm. Yeah, it's like seeing a tempo,

you know, or something like that.

You know, it's like that type of vibe, you know, something that you're like, I thought they wiped.

All those all over the earth, I thought.

Those one extinct, extinct all those.

Yeah, it's true. I agree.

Yeah, they overall, man, they, they had, they had some really cool cars there. You know, I, I like I said, I

like the unique factor of being in the, the parking garage and all that. It was hard not to keep thinking

about the heat. You know, it's just when you

start getting in that June, July for car events, it's rough here in Arizona, man, it's rough, you know, so, but overall, like I said, without knocking some of the stuff that I could take mental notes of what could have been better and what could it was cool then I don't miss. Being in shows.

Yeah, no, I don't miss being a booth car.

I will if someone reaches out, say Jay, will you be a booth car? If I'm available, I'll do it 10

times out of 10. And you know what?

All Seema. Like, you know, you've been,

you've been through the whole real deal stuff.

The thing is. I met up with Nikki and Brian

who won best rap by. The way.

No, no shocker there. Congratulations, Brian.

Yeah, best we. We.

Had to meet up at McDonald's at 5:30.

That's rough, that one right outside which means I had to set my alarm for like 445 and be ready to right set my clothes out. I feel like I'll hang out with

you. Guys 4 till four.

I can't be doing it man. 4 till four I mean.

It's good because you can kind of get there and even if you can't find a place part, you walk around, right?

Yeah. And then it gets.

Hot and you leave? Yeah.

But you set up there, so you're there.

The event doesn't start technically till 8 and then it doesn't. Until one a lot.

Of people rolled out early, which I'm not a big fan of.

People, if you're going to commit, commit.

Don't be showing up and roll. Don't show up late.

And leave. Super early if the event's going

to be over in an hour, maybe if you can really justify it, but you're going to commit, commit. That's right.

I agree, especially vendors. Like especially vendors.

I mean, when you're a vendor and you're sponsoring something, it looks really bad. Like when you like 10:30 and it

doesn't until 1 and you pack up in the middle of the crowd and you're dead. Won't I won't talk about.

Who they are. But there was a company that

starts with an M that I would complain about.

They would. They would show up.

They want you to give them everything in the world I know you're talking about. Yeah.

They'll show up with like 5 or. Six cars, giant trucks.

Yep, and they'll leave hours before the events.

It was like, it was like a weird.

Flex, it was like, it was almost like we're here, We out.

It was like, it was like. Yeah.

All right, we'll. See you later.

Yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about and hopefully they figure that shit. Out because they're from.

Words around the street. They got a pretty bad rap going

on. Oh, it's too bad.

Yeah, yeah, pretty bad rap. That's too bad because you don't

want any ill weltered other businesses, but yeah, but that's not good. It's unfortunately to.

It's kind of getting more common in the car world, No, Yeah, people are. People are taking easy streets,

you know, and creating a bad rap.

Oh, but even to that. It's like you get up before

something. The events went over to 1.

I didn't stay to 1. I left at like 12:50.

But you get home, it's 110° outside and you're just, you're just worn out. And some of these other events,

they're from 12:00 to 6:00. So you got to get there at 7:00

or 6:00 in the morning. By the time you load out at 7:00

at night. Don't miss it.

I don't I I completely. 100% agree with you.

Honestly, if it wasn't for the fact that I was curious, I knew that you were going because again, these events like to me, it doesn't matter how cool it sounds at the end of the day, if I know my friends, like my boys are going, that's who I that's where my core heart is. You know, I want to hang out

with Jay. I want to hang out with Byron.

I want to hang out with Will, you know, I want to see Brian.

I want to. And then of course, cherry on

top, I have a sponsor that's representing their I'm humbled enough to be one of their number one picks or one of their few picks that they want for their booth car.

And I of course want to show up for them for how they support me. But other than that, it's kind

of like hard choice. Like if you're like, hey man,

I'm going to 4 till 4:00 tomorrow.

I'm like, I don't know man, because I'm thinking about that 5:00 in the morning, wake up. Is the car clean like all this?

So I agree on, you know, I go to 4 till 4.

Is because all the points once I get to the highway, like 15 minutes, Yeah, and then you. Can come and go as you.

Want because it's just the cars and coffee.

Yeah, some of the other ones, even the really cool one down in Queen Creek, which I've still. Have not been to.

We're going to have to go at some point.

I heard it's. Great.

It's cool. Yeah, it's a throwback.

It's what cars a coffee should be, see.

And that's what I'm about. It's what it should be if that's

tons of. Different builds that's gonna

give me the vibes, I'm all. No one's judging anyone.

I'm all. About that you walk and it's

it's super long, yeah. As far as these Bros, you walk

and you see you see the cool shit and then you leave.

I love that. Yeah, you don't.

Yeah, that's. What I'm all about, man, I'm

about that old school stuff. If people were like.

Jay, I'm coming into town. When should I come into town?

I want to see some cool shit. I'm like, all right, I'm gonna

take you to Highline Auto cars and coffee.

Absolutely. Because people don't.

We're used to it. I know we're.

We have. We're fatigued.

We're. Desensitized too, yeah.

You know, you see a. Lamborghini.

And you're like, cool, yeah, cool.

Because you see a Countach. You're like.

Oh, Countach. OK, cool.

Yeah, no, I I agree. But people don't see.

McLaren, they don't see they're when when they see a Porsche and some of these other places around the United States, you know, not the hotspots like Arizona, you know, California, Florida, NY, Oh yeah, Chicago. If you're not from.

That you're like, oh, Porsche. And we're like, we're like, oh,

is there? Oh, it's not AGT 2R, It's not

AGT 3RS and the and and we see the.

GT3 Rs. Now we're kind of like cool car,

cool. You know What Car that happened

with? Him, you know, unfortunately to

me the and I think I may have said this in previous episode, regardless what you think about C eights, I think they're Gray.

Cars the I think they're awesome cars, the ZO6.

Gray car. It's an.

Awesome car. Fast.

When you first started seeing ZO6, you're like, oh that's a ZO6. Now you're like, I mean, look,

basic traffic. Sort of, yeah.

You're like kinda. You're like 006, yeah.

Yeah. Still I mean and I hope the ZR1.

And the Zora, absolutely. Which are they even calling it?

That now it's called something. Are they calling it Zora?

I think they were. Supposed to bring like code name

zora they. Should have kept that.

If they would have kept that, I would have given it a little more of the the nod to the what they were trying to give it the hypercore category, I think when we see one.

I don't want to see more than like one or two in any given time. Almost like that GTD Mustang.

I don't know if I'm I'll I'll probably see one or two at some point. You're asking like 350. 1000 for

that car too. Yeah.

Yeah, but that look. I think it's a sick car.

Absolutely. I love how it.

Looks I agree and I. Just don't want to see one.

I agree all the time I. Agree, because when you see.

One every once in a while it's like, oh wow, absolutely.

So I feel like that's the case with the NSX now because when the 2017 NSX came out, barely see your car.

I know, but that's my point Couple.

Couple well, my point is. When?

When the NSX came out, people were kind of like scoffing at it, especially if you roll into an event like we did this weekend. There's like no respect.

It's a hybrid. I saw all the reviews.

It's slow. It's not the old NSX.

Yeah. The funny thing is people are

like, hey, I love your car thing.

I like the old one better. Didn't ask.

See, that's that's like what I get.

I. Didn't fucking ask.

Yeah, I was like you. Go.

Is that a manual? I'm like, not yet, I'm working

on it. Yeah, the manual's cooler, bro.

Is that? A.

Is that a homologation dude? I didn't.

Oh, it sucks. It's not a real one, dude.

Yeah. Go leave it for you.

Thank you for your time. Leave.

Me alone, but now to your point. Now.

Like the last year or two, the the the second Gen. sexes are

starting to get more respect. And not to make it sound like

it's important, it's not important, but we're car guys, so to us it's more important than it should be.

To other people, I think it's a bad ass.

Car. They're racing that in GT3,

they're racing that in the GT3's endurance series.

I see, I see your Gen. 2's rolling around around Europe.

There's one in. There's one in in or MSA in the

F1 movie that you haven't seen yet.

Really. Yeah.

It's early. It's like an opening scene.

Peppa. Yeah.

So it's like, oh, NSX. Yeah.

Because the NSX GT3's. But yeah, the Type S got a lot

more attention than I thought it would be.

The AZ track star guys, they're cool.

They reached out months ago and I'm like, yeah, I'm there.

Yeah, I checked my calendar. I said I'm there.

Yeah, I don't care. I mean, I'm there, but

apparently got a lot of traffic and it's kind of good to see if I get the respect because it's a great car.

It's one of the fastest. Cars I've ever been in, we did a

couple poles way back and. And like I said, I, I, like I

said, I've, I've been in motorsport for a long time.

Yeah, I've been in some very, very fast cars.

And if a car going to put a smile on my face and make me grab something in the vehicle because I'm not a because I'm not a I'm. Not a very good.

Passenger I I just hate relinquishing my control dude, that car is fast. That is a that is a see some

people say, oh, is it quick? No, it's not quick.

It is fast. You can get it right.

It's fast, so quick and fast I. Mean it's never going to I mean

that polarizing thing behind me on the wall but it's obviously polarizing but you don't need that yeah you know it's different attention but I'm by the car kind of gets this respect. Josh AMG yeah.

AMG Josh. Yeah.

Thank you so much for coming by. Absolutely.

Thank you for having. Me as always, maybe we should

have another glass of. Blends.

I am down for that. To wrap this up, I'm.

Sure you are. Absolutely.

You know that Germans coming out of me, you know so.

And I can, I can stick it up with the best of them, my man.

So I appreciate you we. Want to thank Josh Bishop.

For stopping by the studio and talking about his new Mercedes and his 190 inmogulated build. Amman, did I say that right?

Or his 190 build, which looks like a race car.

Really freaking cool. We didn't talk about the F1

movie. I just went to go see that last

night at a warehouse event. The warehouse dot AZ.

It is a social club, car storage.

If you want to store your car there, you can store it there every month. Otherwise you could join the

social club and hang out and they have all sorts of really nice curated events. I've been there for several, did

a track event with them. They give you food.

But anyway, this last time we went to go see Formula One, rent out the movie theater at no additional cost to us other than just being a member. Obviously if you want to order

alcohol at the movies, you got to pay for that yourself.

Snacks, whatever. But to the movie itself, I don't

watch Formula One. I know obviously who Max

Verstappen is. Lewis Hamilton is.

I know Alonzo Leclerc. I know who these the the top

names are. Just as a fan of cars going to,

you know, Grand Prix events. I get around people who are in

the Formula One and I've watched a couple races, but I don't wake up at like 3:00 AM to watch the races.

But what I can say is the music score by Hans Zimmer.

Hans Zimmer does not miss. And if I'm saying his name

wrong, that's just how it's spelled.

Hans Zimmer, some of the best movies I've ever seen.

He's done the music scores too. And I would say that Brad Pitt

rarely misses. I can't think of a movie that

Brad Pitt's in where Brad Pitt himself is not any good.

He was exceptional in this movie.

I don't know how accurate it is, but what I do know is that Lewis Hamilton gets produced and like he's listed as like a director or a producer and it's got I think 14 people from the F1 world, like legit real people, including the announcers, which brings some authenticity to it. If you haven't seen it, but you

probably haven't at this point, but it is worth the Rotten Tomatoes score. I think right now the audience

has it at like 97, which is crazy.

It's good, but that tells you that a lot of the fans are going to go see it. You're going to see a lot of

Formula One purists and they love the movie.

The critics score I think is a little lower, maybe in the high 80s, which isn't really bad at all, but.

I love the movie. I like the like the movie itself

is kind of generic. You know you have your rookie.

Which is got all the. Talent in the world that I'm

mature that you bring in the old guy, which is Brad Pitt.

There's a there's a love interest in the movie.

The Formula One team is basically the worst team in the circuit. And what can they do to fix

that? It's kind of.

A cookie cutter. Thing for movies.

But even with that being said, it is it is so well made and with the music score, obviously the music, everything is done at the right time. The acting is off the charts.

Nothing seems cheesy, everything seems authentic.

And so I would say that it's one of the better racing movies I've ever seen. Now, granted, there's not a lot,

but when I think of Ford V Ferrari, you know, I love that movie. It wasn't really a racing movie.

It was more of a relationships movie, if you really think about it, the relationship of the people you know outside of it, you know, between Ken Miles and and and Carole Shelby.

That's really what that movie was.

Then you have Rush. Rush was an was a really good

movie too. I would say that Formula One F1,

sorry, F1 the movie if you're going to overly.

Criticize. This was definitely worth going

to see. They didn't see it in IMAX?

Boy that'd be incredible to see it at IMAX, but I recommend.

You guys going to see? It and that's pretty much all I

have on the F1 movie. It is one of the cooler, better

movies. I think it did 144 million this

opening weekend, which is the highest grossing movie in a very long time for an opening weekend.

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