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Cancer Survivor Jay Lopez: Kit Cars & Renee Good | Ep. 308
Cancer Survivor Jay Lopez: Kit Cars & Renee Good | Ep. 308
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About this episode
Jay Lopez returns to discuss his journey as a cancer survivor and his passion for kit cars. He shares updates on his health, including a shift to immunotherapy, and reflects on personal loss. The conversation touches on societal issues, including recent events in Minneapolis and the complexities of public perception. Jay also shares his thoughts on the current NFL season, particularly the Jacksonville Jaguars, and their potential playoff success. The episode blends personal anecdotes with broader discussions on current events and sports, providing a candid look at Jay's life and interests.
Topics:
16-cylinder engine
AutoZone
cars and coffee
cat-back exhaust
component car
exotic car dealership
Factory Five
hypercar
K cars
kit cars
Cars:
Acura MDX
Acura NSX
Audi S8
BMW 2 Series
BMW M3
Bricklin SV-1
Bugatti Veyron
Chevrolet Corvette
Ferrari F8 Tributo
Ford Edge
Ford GT40
Honda Civic
Honda NSX
Honda Z
Hyundai Kona
Lamborghini Countach
Lamborghini Diablo
Lamborghini Urus
McLaren F1
Nissan Skyline
Shelby Cobra
Toyota Supra
<div class="show-notes">
<h2>Hard Parking Podcast Episode 308: Cancer Battles, Kit Cars, and Current Events with Jay Lopez</h2>
<p>In this raw and reflective episode, Jhae Pfenning chats with returning guest Jay Michael Lopez about his ongoing fight with metastatic rectal cancer, now in maintenance mode with immunotherapy. Jay opens up about the devastating loss of his fiancée, his plans to move to Florida for a reset, and how he's rebuilding amid grief and health challenges.</p>
<p>The conversation shifts to cars, including Jay's love for kit cars like the Ultima GTR, critiques of the Italdesign NSX tribute, and his calming visits to exotic car dealerships before treatments.</p>
<p>They dive into societal hot topics, like the Renee Good incident in Minneapolis, media bias, accountability in protests, and events like Maduro's capture.</p>
<p>Football fans will enjoy Jay's passionate takes on the Jacksonville Jaguars, NFL playoff predictions, and matchups against teams like the Buffalo Bills and Houston Texans. Jhae wraps up with insights on maintaining balanced views in a divided world.</p>
<h3>Important Chapters (for Spotify & Other Platforms)</h3>
<ul>
<li>00:02:25 - Italdesign NSX Tribute</li>
<li>00:04:41 - DMV Plate Transfer BS</li>
<li>00:11:42 - Jay Lopez Returns</li>
<li>00:13:26 - Cancer Journey Update</li>
<li>00:23:10 - Losing His Fiancée</li>
<li>00:33:05 - Hitting Rock Bottom and Healing</li>
<li>00:40:23 - Exotic Car Experiences</li>
<li>01:11:46 - Renee Good Incident</li>
<li>01:28:17 - NFL Hot Takes</li>
</ul>
<h3>Main Show Sponsors</h3>
<ul>
<li>Right Honda: <a href="https://righthonda.com/">https://righthonda.com/</a></li>
<li>Right Toyota: <a href="https://www.righttoyota.com/">https://www.righttoyota.com/</a></li>
<li>Arcus Foundry: <a href="https://arcusfoundry.com">https://arcusfoundry.com</a></li>
<li>Autocannon Official Gear: <a href="https://shop.autocannon.com/">https://shop.autocannon.com/</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Contact Hard Parking with Jhae Pfenning</h3>
<ul>
<li>Email: <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a></li>
<li>Website: <a href="https://www.Hardparking.com">www.Hardparking.com</a></li>
<li>Patreon: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/hardparkingpodcast/">www.patreon.com/hardparkingpodcast/</a></li>
<li>Instagram: <a href="https://instagram.com/hardparkingpod/">instagram.com/hardparkingpod/</a></li>
<li>YouTube: <a href="https://youtube.com/@HardParking">youtube.com/@HardParking</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.</p>
</div>
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Technical
Too Afraid to Ask
Car
Honda NSX
"...a tribute, an NSX tribute, second gen NSX tribute. And they are partnering with Honda on this thing."
The Honda NSX is a sports car made by Honda that is famous for its speed and unique design. It was one of the first cars to use a lightweight body and a powerful engine, making it very popular among car enthusiasts.
The Honda NSX is a high-performance sports car that was first introduced in the late 1980s. It is known for its innovative design and engineering, including a mid-engine layout and lightweight construction, making it a significant model in automotive history.
Car
Acura NSX
"...hey did of the Italian design, the Italian design NSX, it just it just is not working for me. When the ..."
The Acura NSX is a fancy sports car that was made to be fast and fun to drive. It’s special because it mixes high-quality Japanese engineering with some stylish Italian design, making it stand out among other cars.
The Acura NSX is a high-performance sports car that was first introduced in the early 1990s and is known for its combination of luxury and speed. Its significance lies in its pioneering use of lightweight materials and mid-engine layout, which set a benchmark for future supercars. The NSX is often discussed for its unique blend of Japanese engineering and Italian design influences.
Car
Honda Z
"...I have an old Honda Z, as you know, 1998 and I'm looking around at other people that have these old Hondas..."
The Honda Z is a small car made by Honda in 1998. It's known for being compact and efficient, often appealing to those who like smaller vehicles.
The Honda Z is a small car produced by Honda, known for its compact size and efficiency. It is part of Honda's lineup that includes various small cars popular in Japan and other markets.
Car
Honda Civics
"...nd at other people that have these old Hondas and civics and in just old cars. And some of them are import..."
The Honda Civic is a small car that many people love because it’s dependable and doesn’t use too much gas. It’s been around for a long time and is popular for both everyday driving and for people who like to customize their cars.
The Honda Civic is a compact car that has been a staple in the automotive market since the 1970s, known for its reliability, fuel efficiency, and affordability. It has gained a strong following among car enthusiasts and everyday drivers alike, often being modified for performance and aesthetics. The Civic is frequently discussed for its versatility and the various generations it has undergone.
Term
K cars
"...some of them are imported from other countries, K cars like mine."
K cars are small cars from Japan that are designed to be efficient and economical. They have size and engine limits to qualify for certain benefits in Japan.
K cars refer to a category of small, economical cars that were popular in Japan, often characterized by their compact size and engine displacement limitations. They are designed to meet specific regulations for tax and insurance benefits.
Car
MDX
"I got the Honda Z, we got the MDX."
The Acura MDX is a family-friendly SUV that has a lot of space inside for passengers and cargo. It's known for being comfortable and having good features for a smooth ride.
The Acura MDX is a midsize luxury SUV that offers a spacious interior, advanced technology features, and a strong V6 engine. It's known for its reliability and comfort, making it a popular choice among families.
Concept
kit cars
"It's just like kick cars are such a big thing in the 80s and 90s. Now, I think most people have no idea they even exist."
Kit cars are cars that you buy as a set of parts and put together yourself. They were really popular in the 80s and 90s, letting people create their own unique vehicles.
Kit cars are vehicles that are sold in parts and require assembly by the buyer. They became particularly popular in the 1980s and 1990s, allowing enthusiasts to build their own custom cars, often based on classic designs or replicas of famous models.
Car
Shelby Cobras
"... of that, is it like a GTM? GTM, there's also the Cobras out there that are very popular."
The Shelby Cobra is a classic American sports car from the 1960s that is famous for being very fast and powerful. It was made by combining a strong engine with a lightweight body, making it a favorite among car lovers.
The Shelby Cobra is an iconic American sports car that was produced in the 1960s, known for its powerful V8 engine and lightweight design. It was a collaboration between Carroll Shelby and AC Cars, and it became a symbol of American muscle and performance. The Cobra is often discussed for its racing history and its influence on the sports car market.
Company
Factory Five
"Oh, like the Factory 5. But I don't think people ever think about those as kick cars, even though that's what they are."
Factory Five is a company that makes kits for people to build their own cars. You buy the parts and put them together yourself, which can be a fun project for car lovers.
Factory Five is a company that specializes in manufacturing kit cars, allowing enthusiasts to build their own vehicles using a combination of their components and donor parts from other cars.
Term
component car
"That's just a fancy word for a kick car. GT40s are another one, which most of them are that you see out there, right?"
A component car is a car that you can buy in pieces and put together yourself. It usually means you have to use parts from other cars to finish it.
A component car is a type of vehicle that is sold in parts or as a kit, allowing the buyer to assemble it using various components, often from different sources. This term is often used interchangeably with kick cars.
Car
Ford Gt40S
"GT40s are another one, which most of them are that you see out there, right? Yeah, super performance has done an incredible job."
The GT40 is a famous race car made by Ford in the 1960s. It's well-known for winning a big race called the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The Ford GT40 is a high-performance sports car that was originally developed in the 1960s for racing, particularly known for its success at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It has become an iconic representation of American automotive engineering.
Car
Mclaren F1
"...ost people look at it, it's like, oh, it's just a McLaren F1 wannabe. But what most people don't understand is"
The McLaren F1 is an extremely fast and expensive sports car from the 1990s that many people consider one of the best ever made. It has a unique design with three seats and is famous for being very powerful and rare.
The McLaren F1 is a legendary supercar that was produced in the 1990s, celebrated for its incredible speed and innovative design. It features a unique three-seat layout and was the fastest production car for many years, making it a symbol of automotive excellence. The F1 is often discussed for its engineering marvels and its status as a collector's item.
Term
cat-back exhaust
"...if we have to delete that, it's gonna be like deleting the cat-back exhaust"
A cat-back exhaust is a part of a car's exhaust system. It helps the car run better and makes it sound different, usually louder and sportier.
A cat-back exhaust refers to the section of an exhaust system that runs from the catalytic converter to the rear of the vehicle. Upgrading to a cat-back exhaust can improve performance and sound by allowing exhaust gases to flow more freely.
Company
Young Motor Cars
"...was through a company called the Young Motor Cars in Scottsdale. They're an exotic car dealership..."
Young Motor Cars is a dealership that sells expensive and rare cars. They are located in Scottsdale and have a variety of unique cars.
Young Motor Cars is an exotic car dealership located in Scottsdale, known for offering a range of high-end and luxury vehicles.
Concept
exotic car dealership
"...They're an exotic car dealership and they have some pretty cool cars on display."
An exotic car dealership sells very fancy and expensive cars that are not commonly found in regular dealerships. These cars are often high-performance and unique.
An exotic car dealership specializes in high-performance, luxury, and rare vehicles that are often sought after by car enthusiasts and collectors.
Car
Audi S8
"...hen and I had the choice between that or a Spyker S8. I was like, give me the Diablo 6.0."
The Audi S8 is a luxury car that is really fast and comfortable to drive. It has a sleek design and comes with a lot of high-tech features, making it a great choice for those who want both style and speed.
The Audi S8 is a high-performance luxury sedan that combines the comfort of a full-size car with the power of a sports car. Known for its sophisticated design and advanced technology, the S8 is equipped with a powerful engine and features that enhance both performance and luxury. It is often discussed for its blend of refinement and speed.
Car
Spyker S8
"...there was a motorsports carnival back then and I had the choice between that or a Spyker S8. I was like, give me the Diablo 6.0."
The Spyker S8 is a special sports car that combines luxury and speed. It's known for its unique style and high-quality materials, making it a rare find.
The Spyker S8 is a luxury sports car known for its unique design and craftsmanship. It features a powerful engine and is often recognized for its aviation-inspired aesthetics, making it a standout in the supercar market.
Term
V12
"You just feel the mechanicals coming in. That V12 just giving you constant feedback. Wow."
A V12 engine has twelve cylinders that work together to produce power. It's known for being powerful and smooth, making it popular in expensive sports cars.
A V12 engine is a twelve-cylinder engine arranged in a V configuration. This type of engine is known for its smooth power delivery and high performance, often found in luxury and high-performance sports cars.
Car
Bugatti Veyron
"...he's pointing towards the Bugatti Veyron. No, geez. And my heart sank even further. I couldn't believe that that was next. And this Bugatti Veyron was formerly owned by Arnold Schwarzenegger."
The Bugatti Veyron is a super fast and expensive car made by Bugatti. It's known for being one of the fastest cars you can buy and is very luxurious inside.
The Bugatti Veyron is a high-performance sports car known for its incredible speed and luxury. It was produced by Bugatti from 2005 to 2015 and is famous for being one of the fastest production cars in the world.
Car
Lamborghini Diablo
"...e. You know me, when I talk about the Lamborghini Diablo, the F-15 Eagle is not too far away from my conve..."
The Lamborghini Diablo is a really fast and flashy sports car that was made in the 1990s and early 2000s. It’s known for its sharp looks and powerful engine, making it a dream car for many people.
The Lamborghini Diablo is a supercar that was produced from the early 1990s to the early 2000s, known for its aggressive styling and powerful V12 engine. It was one of the first Lamborghinis to be capable of exceeding 200 mph, solidifying its place in automotive history. The Diablo is often discussed for its iconic design and status as a symbol of luxury and performance.
Term
supercar
"...that's like one of the first super cars, because back then we've had this conversation on the podcast, how do you define sports car, exotic super car, now hyper car, right?"
A supercar is a very fast and expensive sports car. It's built for high performance and often has advanced features that make it stand out from regular cars.
A supercar is a high-performance sports car that is typically characterized by its extreme speed, advanced technology, and high price. These cars often feature powerful engines and are designed for superior handling and performance on both the road and track.
Term
hypercar
"...how do you define sports car, exotic super car, now hyper car, right?"
A hypercar is an even more advanced and faster version of a supercar. These cars use the latest technology and are usually very expensive and rare.
A hypercar is a term used to describe the most extreme and high-performance vehicles available, often featuring cutting-edge technology, extraordinary speed, and a price tag to match. Hypercars typically push the boundaries of automotive engineering and design.
Term
V8
"it sounded like a V8 times 10, you know, it's like, well, what the heck is that?"
A V8 engine has eight cylinders arranged in a V shape, which helps it produce a lot of power. It's commonly found in sports cars and trucks.
A V8 engine is an eight-cylinder engine configuration where the cylinders are arranged in a 'V' shape. This design allows for a good balance of power and smooth operation, making it popular in performance and luxury vehicles.
Term
turbo
"...because you're here and the turbo's going. You're here in that big old 16-cylinder engine just a couple feet away from you."
A turbo is a part that helps the engine get more power by pushing in extra air. This means the engine can burn more fuel and go faster without needing to be bigger.
A turbo, or turbocharger, is a device that forces more air into the engine's combustion chamber, allowing it to burn more fuel and produce more power. This results in increased horsepower and torque without significantly increasing engine size.
Term
16-cylinder engine
"...You're here in that big old 16-cylinder engine just a couple feet away from you."
A 16-cylinder engine is a powerful engine that has 16 separate parts called cylinders where fuel burns to make the car go. It's usually found in very fast and powerful cars.
A 16-cylinder engine is a type of engine that has 16 cylinders, which are the chambers where fuel and air mix and combust to create power. This configuration is often found in high-performance vehicles and can produce significant horsepower and torque.
Concept
Tail of the Dragon
"I want to take it to the tail end of the dragon, take it out of cars and coffee or whatever,"
The Tail of the Dragon is a winding road in North Carolina that many people love to drive because it has a lot of sharp turns. It's a favorite spot for car and motorcycle lovers to enjoy a thrilling ride.
The Tail of the Dragon is a famous stretch of road located in North Carolina, known for its 318 curves in 11 miles, making it a popular destination for driving enthusiasts. It's often celebrated for its challenging turns and scenic views, attracting both motorcyclists and car enthusiasts alike.
Company
AutoZone
"...rock autos got parts, auto zones got parts. So I know the turnaround on that's gonna be..."
AutoZone is a store where you can buy parts for your car. They also offer services to help you with car maintenance and repairs.
AutoZone is a leading retailer of automotive parts and accessories in the United States. They provide a variety of products for vehicle maintenance and repair, as well as services like battery testing and oil recycling.
Company
RockAuto
"...rock autos got parts, auto zones got parts. So I know the turnaround on that's gonna be..."
RockAuto is a website where you can buy car parts. They have many different parts for different cars, and you can usually find them at good prices.
RockAuto is an online retailer that specializes in automotive parts and accessories. They offer a wide range of parts for various makes and models, often at competitive prices.
Car
Estera Commendatory 112i
"And I took the three most rarest cars I can think of. The Estera Commendatory 112i, one of one."
The Estera Commendatory 112i is a very rare car, with only one ever built. It's known for its special features and design.
The Estera Commendatory 112i is an extremely rare supercar, known for its unique design and limited production, with only one unit ever made.
Car
Vector W8
"Then the Vector W8. You wrote in the Vector W8."
The Vector W8 is a supercar from the 1990s that is famous for its unique look and powerful engine. It was designed for speed and performance.
The Vector W8 is a high-performance supercar produced in the 1990s, known for its distinctive design and powerful twin-turbocharged V8 engine.
Car
WX3
"I remember living in California in 2014, I got to meet Jerry Weigert in person and got to see the WX3 in person. And that was a really cool experience."
The WX3 is a special sports car created by a designer named Jerry Wiegert. It's known for being fast and having a unique look, appealing to car enthusiasts who want something different.
The WX3 is a sports car designed by Jerry Wiegert, known for its unique styling and performance. It represents a niche in the automotive market, focusing on high-performance and exclusivity.
Term
cars and coffee
"...you go to cars and coffee, you're looking for the car and the first thing you encounter..."
Cars and Coffee is a casual event where people who love cars come together to show off their vehicles and talk about them while enjoying coffee. It's a fun way to meet other car fans.
Cars and Coffee is a popular informal gathering where car enthusiasts meet to showcase their vehicles, share stories, and enjoy coffee together. These events often feature a wide variety of cars, from classics to modern supercars.
Car
Toyota Supra
"...alking with my buddy, Mike, he goes by Big Orange Supra on Instagram. I was having a three-way conversati..."
The Toyota Supra is a sporty car that many people love because it’s fast and can be customized to go even faster. It has a long history and is especially popular among car enthusiasts and in movies.
The Toyota Supra is a sports car that has gained a cult following since its debut in the 1970s, known for its performance and tuning potential. It became particularly famous in the 1990s with the fourth generation, which featured a powerful turbocharged engine and was popularized in car culture and movies. The Supra is often discussed for its iconic status and the excitement surrounding its recent revival.
Car
BMW F23
"he thinks the F-22 Raptor is the best. To me, the F-23 is the best. The last car on my list to add to the F-23"
The BMW 2 Series is a small luxury car that is fun to drive and looks nice. It comes in different styles, like a coupe or convertible, and is known for being sporty and stylish.
The BMW 2 Series is a compact luxury car that offers sporty performance and a premium driving experience. It is available in various body styles, including coupe and convertible, and is known for its agile handling and powerful engine options. The 2 Series is often discussed for its blend of luxury and sportiness, appealing to driving enthusiasts.
Car
Nissan Skyline
"...kind of looks like a Diablo mixed with the Nissan Skyline. And there's only one of one in the world,"
The Nissan Skyline is a car series that includes a really famous model called the GT-R, which is known for being super fast and great at racing. It’s popular among car fans for its cool features and performance.
The Nissan Skyline is a series of cars that gained fame, particularly the GT-R variant, known for its performance and advanced technology. The Skyline GT-R became a legend in motorsport and car culture, especially in the 1990s, due to its impressive handling and turbocharged engine. It is often discussed for its racing pedigree and influence on the tuning scene.
Car
Aston Martin Valkyrie
"...my buddy, Art Vandalay, posted up a picture of an Aston Martin Valkyrie. And I remember being really excited since the Countach, like, this is a really cool car."
The Aston Martin Valkyrie is a super-fast car made by Aston Martin, known for its advanced technology and racing heritage. It's built for speed and is one of the most exciting cars on the market.
The Aston Martin Valkyrie is a high-performance hypercar developed by Aston Martin in collaboration with Red Bull Racing. It features a hybrid V12 engine and is designed for extreme performance on both road and track.
Car
Lamborghini Countach
"And I remember being really excited since the Countach, like, this is a really cool car. You know, joy f..."
The Lamborghini Countach is a famous sports car from the 1970s and 1980s that looks very unique with its sharp shapes and doors that open upwards. It’s considered one of the coolest cars ever made and has inspired many others.
The Lamborghini Countach is a legendary supercar that became an icon of automotive design in the 1970s and 1980s, known for its sharp angles and distinctive scissor doors. It was one of the first supercars to feature a mid-engine layout and has influenced countless designs since. The Countach is often discussed for its groundbreaking aesthetics and performance.
Car
Chevrolet Corvette
"...could you really take a Corvette, you know, a special model Corvette, like a ZR1, you know, do you take a car like that..."
The Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 is a fast sports car that is designed for high performance. It's one of the best versions of the Corvette, known for being very powerful and having special features that make it handle better on the road.
The Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 is a high-performance variant of the Corvette sports car, known for its powerful engine and advanced technology. It represents the pinnacle of Corvette performance, often featuring enhancements in aerodynamics and handling.
Car
Lamborghini Urus
"...hat car. That's the first Lamborghini besides the Urus. I hate when I see it, I feel a little disgusted."
The Lamborghini Urus is a fancy SUV that is designed to be both powerful like a sports car and practical like an everyday vehicle. It’s a newer model that has become very popular among luxury car buyers.
The Lamborghini Urus is a luxury SUV that combines the performance characteristics of a sports car with the practicality of an SUV. Launched in 2018, it marked Lamborghini's entry into the SUV market and has quickly become one of their best-selling models. The Urus is often discussed for its unique blend of luxury, performance, and everyday usability.
Car
BMW F80
"... me, the final straw was kind of like the Ferrari F80. I'm like, really, you're gonna put a V6 in that."
Car
Ferrari F80
"And to me, the final straw was kind of like the Ferrari F80. I'm like, really, you're gonna put a V6 in that."
The Ferrari F8 Tributo is a super fancy sports car that is really fast and looks amazing. It has a powerful engine and is known for being one of the best cars Ferrari has made in recent years.
The Ferrari F8 Tributo is a mid-engine sports car that represents the pinnacle of Ferrari's engineering, combining stunning design with exceptional performance. It features a powerful twin-turbocharged V8 engine and advanced aerodynamics, making it one of the most celebrated models in Ferrari's lineup. The F8 Tributo is often discussed for its blend of luxury, speed, and the brand's racing heritage.
Car
Bricklin SV-1
"...aper than a C8, but not to build something like a Bricklin, for instance, you know, really it's to offer som..."
The Bricklin SV-1 is a rare sports car from the 1970s that stands out because of its unique design and special safety features. It was made by a Canadian company and is not very common today, making it interesting to car collectors.
The Bricklin SV-1 is a unique sports car produced in the 1970s, known for its distinctive design and safety features, including a fiberglass body and gullwing doors. It was an ambitious project by Canadian entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin, aiming to create a car that combined performance with safety. The SV-1 is often discussed for its rarity and the innovative ideas it represented.
Car
Hyundai Kona
"...rcar and I'm gonna go out and go pick fights with Kona 6. It doesn't work that way."
The Hyundai Kona is a small SUV that many people like because it looks good and is easy to drive. It’s a practical choice for everyday use and comes with a lot of features for the price.
The Hyundai Kona is a subcompact SUV that has gained popularity for its stylish design, practicality, and affordability. It offers a range of features and options, making it a versatile choice for various drivers. The Kona is often discussed for its balance of performance and everyday usability.
Car
Ford Edge
"...them into the Super Bowl. I just think that's the edge that they have. And then Stafford, you know,"
The Ford Edge is a medium-sized SUV that many people like because it has a lot of space and is comfortable to drive. It’s a good choice for families or anyone needing a practical vehicle.
The Ford Edge is a midsize SUV that has been popular for its spacious interior, comfort, and advanced technology features. Since its introduction in the mid-2000s, it has become a solid choice for families and individuals looking for a versatile vehicle. The Edge is often discussed for its balance of performance and practicality.
Select text to request an explanation
All right, Mike, check.
We're going.
This is our parking brought to you by right honing right Toyota out of Scottsdale, Arizona.
Back, this is the first episode here in 2026.
Back like I never left, y'all.
So the last time you heard me, I was talking about some changes that I was
making here in the studio.
So if you're watching this, you can definitely see a different background.
You'll also see a different background opposite of me here in the studio.
Coming up on today's show, J.
Michael Lopez returns.
If that name sounds familiar to you, he is the guy who loves kit cars.
He's building himself a kit car one day.
He also has cancer and he was last on here in December of 2024.
So we're checking up with him before he moves to Florida.
What do we talk about besides his cancer?
Well, of course, we talk about cars and J has an opinion and I like guests that
are willing to talk about certain things because that allows me to talk about certain things.
I normally wouldn't talk about on the show.
We do touch the Renee good ice situation in Minneapolis.
I think it's important.
One of the things that made this show, I think great early on is that I would,
I wasn't afraid to talk about, I wouldn't say politics.
I would say more things that are stirring up society,
stirring up the country we live in, stirring up the world.
And this is a classic example.
I think the last time, obviously George Floyd, but, you know,
there was that big shooting in Houston.
God, it feels like a couple of years now and Brian sales is the one I would
usually have come on the podcast.
He's doing some different things in his life these days.
And this just happened to be an opportunity for us to talk about it.
So you're going to want to stick around because I know some of you value
those conversations more than others.
And some of you do want to know what my thoughts are when it comes to those things.
Also this past weekend, the Italian design had released or has released
and a tribute, an NSX tribute, second gen NSX tribute.
And they are partnering with Honda on this thing.
And I don't know if this was technically revealed at the Tokyo Auto Salon,
which just took place or it just happened to be another probably huge
event out there in Japan that may have happened at the same time.
But a lot of people have sent that to me on social media.
I'm not a big fan of it.
It looks like I don't know what it looks like, but a lot of people are going
crazy about it.
It's going to be limited, of course, in the amount that they make
and right hand drive only, which is the Japanese market.
I don't like the tail lights.
I think the NC one, which is the kind of car I have right now,
the NC one platform, I don't think you can make it any nicer
than they did the Type S that I drive.
The regular NC one 2017 to 2021 great looking car.
But I think the type S that I have is as good as it's going to get.
These renderings and this AI video that they did of the Italian design,
the Italian design NSX, it just it just is not working for me.
When the lights at first, I thought I had those sliver lights on the front,
kind of like the prelude does or some of the new Ferraris.
But the lights actually retract up in some of the in one of the videos.
And so it actually looked a little better, looked more like my car.
But I'm not a huge fan of that.
So if you guys have seen it, let me know what your thoughts on it.
So I talked about some changes here in the studio.
And I also made changes to just some overall branding.
So you may have noticed a new opening as well.
So hopefully, again, you're watching that.
I really want to push more of you that are used to listening to this.
And I know that a lot of people listen to this on their way to work
or while they're at work times where you can't really watch it.
I understand you can't really watch it on YouTube, but YouTube is where it's at.
YouTube is where I would prefer people watch the podcast
because of some of the visuals and because YouTube is monetized.
And I'm still waiting for my first YouTube check.
That means no one's watching it, but that's OK.
I love all of you all the same, but that's just my my preference.
So before the end of the year, I decide, well, I go to a car show
and I'm looking around and I have an old Honda Z, as you know,
1998 and I'm looking around at other people that have these old Hondas
and civics and in just old cars.
And some of them are imported from other countries, K cars like mine.
And I see they have the classic plate on them.
I go, oh, I should get a classic plate for my car.
So I get online and I register for a classic plate.
For some reason, I can't pick it.
You're supposed to be able to pick your classic vanity plate.
I can't. So I get the plate.
I wait a couple of weeks. I get the plate in the mail.
And at this point, I want to transfer my old plate from the Honda Z
over to the NSX and retire the VF1S NSX plate and replaceable hard parking.
That's the plate that I recently had for the for the Honda Z.
So I get online and I'm looking.
I go, I already own the plate.
So you have to pay for, you know, you pay for customization.
You pay for the special plate itself.
And I asked AI, I said, hey, I live in Arizona.
Should I just register the plate online?
Since I already own the plate, because you can't transfer the plate.
And the state says, well, you're going to save yourself money if you go into the office.
So I make an appointment. I go into the office and thank God.
I think I've said this before, make an appointment.
If your local department of motor vehicles has an appointment option,
always make an appointment.
I get in line and I'm number four in line.
There's at least 250 people in the no appointment line.
So I'm going to be in and out really quick, smart on my part.
So I'm next in line and they go, hey.
So I walk over there, I sit down and tell them what I want to do.
And this poor lady that's sitting in front of me,
she doesn't really talk good English.
I don't know what nationality she was.
I could just tell by her attempts to talk English to me.
It wasn't her first, second, maybe even third language,
but it's good enough to work for the state.
So I was trying to tell her, hey, I own this plate.
I just took this plate off of my little car
and I brought everything I could think of.
Now I'm no longer using this plate.
I want to transfer this plate to myself,
to this other vehicle that I already have.
So she was able to look at my policy
and say, okay, I got the NSX.
I got the Honda Z, we got the MDX.
You know, those are the three vehicles that we have.
And it should be just cut and dry, right?
So I'm at the DMV for like an hour
and she has to talk to her manager.
And according to the rules,
unless she just wasn't 100% sure of what I wanted to do,
you can't transfer your plate to another one of your vehicles.
You could transfer a plate if you sold your vehicle.
Now I don't know how much of this was lost
in translation to be fair,
but based on what I was able to communicate,
I couldn't just transfer hard parking from the Honda Z.
First off, they couldn't even find any record
that the hard parking was associated with the Honda Z.
I've had Jay-Z on there, I've had hard parking
and now I have a historic plate.
As soon as I got the classic plate,
sat down, tried to look it up online
and the Arizona Department of Motor Vehicles,
Department of Transportation, there was no record.
No matter how many times you've registered your vehicles,
there's no record of whatever
your previous license plate was, which was crazy to me.
I own, I still have NA2 NSX all ran together.
I had a friend reach out years ago and say,
hey, I want NA2 NSX and I couldn't get it
because you still have it.
And this was after I've already transitioned
on to VF1S NSX.
Usually the rule is in order for someone else
to use that vanity plate, you have to turn that plate in.
Therefore it's available,
so you're not driving around
with somebody else's plates in a car.
Obvious reasons, it makes sense.
But for whatever reason when I upgraded
or I changed from hard parking to the classic plate,
any proof that I ever had
that I actually own hard parking,
the license plate was just gone.
And so I brought, I go, look, I got pictures
and the woman's like, no, no, you'll find, you'll find,
you'll find.
So an hour later, she comes back, she goes,
okay, we got it fixed, we got it all taken care of
for you, you're good to go.
Get out here, this is how much it's gonna be.
And she's like, well, it's $53 to do everything today.
I'm like, oh, okay, 53.
All right, cool.
I start reading it.
And she goes, well, this is your plate.
This is how little she understands.
She goes, okay, well, this is your new registration.
This is your temporary plate,
exactly like the plate I already have.
I literally had the plate in my hand.
I brought it in with me.
The actual plate, I said, hey,
this is what I want to transfer over
to the remaining six months
before I have to register the car again.
My NSX expires every June
because I picked up the car in June of 22.
She was okay, it would transfer it over,
I said, yeah, yeah.
So then she gives me the temporary plate.
This is your temporary plate, hard parking,
just like the literal physical plate I had in front of me.
And at two or three weeks, this will come in a mail.
Would you like me to take that plate you have
with you and destroy it?
No, it's the same fucking plate I brought in.
I was there for an hour and a half,
and I paid exactly the same amount
had I just bought it online the night before.
I paid for the vanity plate, which I literally already had,
and I paid for vanity customization,
which I already had.
Complete waste of time.
Before we get to this interview with Jay Lopez,
this conversation with Jay Lopez,
a little note from Sparkforge,
new read for this year,
eventually when I have time,
because Nathan gave this to me at the last minute.
And I said, hey, nothing like giving me the sponsor
at the last minute.
So this one's gonna be verbal
before I go and find some music.
Maybe I should use the same music that I used last year.
I do that, you know, I go and find that music,
and I decide to read it with the script.
Now, what do they have it on MTV Unplugged?
When it was just the acoustic,
you were just playing and it's like, yeah, unplugged.
Was it unplugged or?
Anyway, this is my MTV Rest in Peace MTV.
I think MTV's done.
I think MTV ended at the end of 2000 and 25, actually,
but Rest in Peace MTV.
And this is my sponsor read Unplugged.
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["Hard Parking Studio"]
Jay Lopez, welcome back on the podcast.
Welcome officially into Hard Parking Studios, man.
Thank you for having me back here at the studio.
I feel very privileged and honored to be here.
This is a beautiful studio you have.
I appreciate it.
The privilege and honor is on me, of course,
with having you in front of me.
So this is your second time officially on the show.
Correct.
December of 2024, you're on the last time.
We talked about some of your passions.
I always referred to you as the kick car guy.
Yeah.
Because not a lot of people,
and I think we talked about it last time, right?
It's just like kick cars are such a big thing
in the 80s and 90s.
Now, I think most people have no idea they even exist.
With the exception of that, is it like a GTM?
GTM, there's also the Cobras out there
that are very popular.
That's been popular since the beginning.
Oh, like the Factory 5.
But I don't think people ever think about those
as kick cars, even though that's what they are.
Yeah, you know, they see a Cobra
and they kind of classify it as something else,
a component car.
That's just a fancy word for a kick car.
GT40s are another one, which
most of them are that you see out there, right?
Yeah, super performance has done an incredible job.
And then you've got ultimate performance,
which that one is often slept on
because most people look at it,
it's like, oh, it's just a McLaren F1 wannabe.
But what most people don't understand is
they bought two ultimate GTRs to help develop
the McLaren F1.
So that's how I discovered that car
and how great it is, its potential
and even the value of it.
Sure.
So last time you were on, we talked about your cancer
and you were just getting started on treatments.
I think you were maybe a couple of months into it.
Yeah, I had started in May of 2024 with chemo therapy
and it progressed for the better throughout 2024
and to much 2025.
25 was a big year for you, tough year for you.
What do you like now?
Tell us where you're at with your cancer now.
So with my cancer, I'm on what's called a maintenance plan.
So we have this thing to where it's small enough
to where they really can't take a biopsy of it.
So they've taken me off chemo therapy
and they've replaced that with immunotherapy.
Medicine called a Vastin.
I hope I'm pronouncing it right.
And ever since they put me on that,
it has done a lot of wonders.
Unfortunately, the cancer has not shrunk any further.
It's just there with activity,
but there's no cancer signatures in the lymph node
like there was the last time I talked to you.
Which to me, that was probably the scariest part
of my treatment because the lymph node
it runs right next to your male parts.
It was within inches of that, you know?
And I had so many nightmares.
What if this thing actually got to it, you know?
So that's just a thing in the past.
It went down to a stack of dimes.
Now it's non-existent.
And immunotherapy, it allows me
to almost live a normal life.
Yes, I do get fatigued, but not as often.
I don't really get sick.
So I have that boost of, hey, I can go out,
go for a walk, go for a run.
And the best part of all is the treatment
is only 30 minutes when I go to Ironwood.
It's not two hours, plus I have to have
a designated driver.
No, I go up there, handle my business.
I'm back home in about an hour every time, so.
So as of right now, you've kind of gotten
through the worst of the worst in the maintenance.
You know, what are the opportunities
that they've told you that it's just pure monitoring
at this point, it hasn't gone anywhere?
Like realistically, what do they say?
We just continue monitoring for the rest of your life?
Or what have we seen in other people with similar?
So with my metastatic rectal cancer,
typically most patients that's only 21% actually live,
they beat this thing.
And in my case, it's probably gonna be
a lifetime membership with maintenance.
My colorectal surgeon, she's amazing.
She hates cancer probably more than anybody else.
She wants to perform surgery.
And that's a pretty scary, daunting task
because if I was to go and do this
as she explained it to me,
I'm gonna get what's called a stoma or a colostomy bag.
So the days of me going number two in the bathroom,
they're done.
Sure.
So now I'm gonna have this thing on my stomach.
And at first when I heard about this, I was terrified.
I was thinking, oh man, this is gonna ruin my life.
But rather than assuming things,
I talked to some people who've actually
crossed that bridge already.
And a lot of them are very encouraging
and they're just saying, you know what,
you can do this, it's not so bad.
And a lot of them have told me the same thing
where the worst thing that's ever come out of that
is, hey, you don't have an excuse
to go spend five minutes in the bathroom anymore.
You're in and out.
So if it comes down to it,
I'm prepared to pull the trigger and get it done,
despite how scary it is.
And my oncologist, she even tells me,
hey, you've got nothing to worry about,
you can do this too.
So I'm prepared to do it if that's what it comes to.
So it sounds common for that condition?
Yeah, in some cases, if you are somebody
who's struggling with like blockages,
it starts affecting your quality of life.
That's gonna be most likely the route
that they're gonna take a surgery.
And in my case, they pretty much gave me two possibilities
where if you have enough margin,
it's reversible where your colostomy bag would be temporary.
In my case, it's probably gonna be permanent
because the cancer is in the controlled muscles.
So if we have to delete that,
it's gonna be like deleting the cat-back exhaust
on a car completely, you know.
So just imagine you're cutting the exhaust off,
there goes your exhaust.
It's a loud car.
Yeah, it's a lot of exhausts gonna be deleted.
Yeah, that's a loud car.
Yeah.
What can you do to, if anything,
to prevent yourself from having to go that route
or to slow it down, slow down the likelihood?
I would imagine stuff you eat downstairs.
We both have waters, no sugars.
What else have you had to change, if anything?
Well, I would say one of the first things
I've had to change,
when I had this conversation with the doctors,
I was 30 pounds overweight more.
So I was about 360 pounds.
I got there because they put me on steroids.
Yep.
So when you're on steroids,
you gain weight like no tomorrow.
I've had weight problems my entire life
and this just amplifies it by like a hundred.
So for me, I'm gonna start out
with probably losing more weight.
There's no excuse for me to be 300 pounds right now,
even though that's where I'm at.
I'm over 300 pounds.
There's no excuse for me to be there now.
I'm off of the steroids.
So I think that's gonna be the starting point
is losing weight.
How?
I have to focus on proteins.
I have to focus on staying away from carbs,
things that are gonna put weight, keep weight on me.
I need to up my fluid level,
like just drink water,
stay away from sugary drinks,
because sugary drinks,
that just amplifies whatever symptoms you're gonna have.
Bad enough, TMI.
I'm in the restroom quite a bit.
If I drink a sugary soda or energy drink,
it's gonna be like times 10.
So...
Did you have issues with energy drinks before?
No, not at all.
So that's what I mean is like,
what have you had to change yourself?
Because you know what you have to stay away from,
but I'll be honest with you, it would be hard for me.
And this is the thing we always talk about,
like our elders, you know,
like my mother-in-law's on diabetes
and she used to have to wear this little beep thing on her
and she got tired of it, take it off.
But it's like, well, you know you're not supposed to eat this,
but you do it anyway.
You know, a lot of people just say,
they say, fuck it, I'm gonna do what I wanna do.
But you have to tell yourself, right,
to not do those things.
And I think I even myself would struggle
with certain things that if I just had to stop doing it,
then at some point I might just say,
fuck it, I'm just gonna do it anyway.
Right.
You know, is that a challenge that you have to face now
or have you always been pretty strict
on what you like and you don't like,
even though you've always struggled with weight?
Yeah, I've always struggled with consistency
in that aspect, especially if I wanna lose weight.
It's always been, you know, for an example,
we're starting out the new year,
what's the number one goal in the new year
that most people have?
Just to lose weight.
Lose weight, yep.
But if they don't work on their thinking,
by the time Valentine's Day rolls around,
they're not even gonna be able to find the gym.
So I think the most important aspect,
the most difficult part is that psychological thinking
that you have to break that pattern
that, you know, hey, have I gotta slam this energy drink
or am I gonna just drink a glass of water?
You know, it's gonna always be that tug of war
of making the right decision
and finding yourself going back to your old habit
and then trying to implement this new thought process
and, you know, introduce this into your life.
And it takes a long time to really build good habits,
you know, it's just how we are.
You hit the nail on the head, I think,
because my wife the other day, she goes,
hey, why don't you do a dry January?
I go, a dry January?
I said, how about I just focus on a dry Thursday?
And it just happened to be Thursday, right?
You know, you have to take the steps to get there.
It's like when you go to the gym,
nobody likes going to the gym,
but once you've gone to the gym on a consistent basis,
when you miss a day, you're like, shit, I missed a day.
But if you miss too many days,
then you're not gonna go back to the gym, right?
So I think it's kind of that step program over time
is what's really gonna make the change.
And it's harder to do than most people think it is.
Yeah, they think that they can do it in a couple of days.
Unfortunately, social media,
some of these influencers make it out,
oh, why aren't you doing this?
Well, you know, you had a rant about that
the other day.
I sure did.
Yeah.
And I'm kind of going into that
because they make it sound so easy,
but they never talk about the work
that actually has to get done to get these results.
If you wanna implement something new to your life,
you gotta plan at least a month and a half at minimum
to develop this new habit before it becomes just habit.
And then trying to kick your old habit
to the curb is even more difficult
because it's always gonna try to find a way
to just snake back in.
You have a bad day.
It starts raining, you know, just anything,
any excuse, your brain just automatically thinks,
oh, I can afford to skip today.
And then before you know it, it's a week later
and you're thinking to yourself,
oh, I can afford to skip this week.
I'll make it up next week.
Never works that way, you know?
Let's pivot a little bit
because you're getting ready to leave us
and move out of the state.
Let's talk about that
I was getting ready to jump to some recent events
with cars, but you know, why are you leaving Arizona?
Well, I will have to dive even deeper back to an event
which I posted on my Instagram, my Facebook.
You know, I hit rock bottom completely
and how did I hit rock bottom?
I lost somebody very important to me.
My fiance of 10 years.
September 10th?
Yeah, September 10th.
She had been battling all kinds of little issues
since we've been together.
You know, since the time we've been together
she's had back issues.
She had a, I don't know what that surgery is,
gastric bypass gone bad.
So that led to a lot of other issues.
She had like an infection and shit like that.
So she had occasional ulcers,
just things that didn't make any sense.
You know, it was a big old snowball effect
really put it into perspective.
And just to kind of dive into that event
that happened on, you know, back in September,
weeks leading up to that, I noticed that her legs
would occasionally turn like a purple color.
That's usually not a good sign.
That's something's not functioning right.
So I did take her to the ER a couple of times.
There was nothing on their end
that they saw that was alarming.
So fast forward to September 9th the night before.
This was a normal, you know, normal day.
Imagine just, you know, you're with your spouse,
you're worried about, you know, bills, things coming up.
You don't think of anything other than just your routine.
But I will say this much,
at that time we've been together
it was very strangely, very peaceful
like the night before.
You know, I'd taken her to an appointment.
And for some reason I wasn't as stressed.
I was like, you know, it's kind of weird, you know
just things were incredibly quiet for some reason
and just peaceful.
So I don't know what happened the night of
when we went to sleep in the night when we woke up
because, you know, Katie would sometimes
sleep in the living room because she had her own issues.
She's like, I don't want to keep you awake.
Why don't you go sleep in the bedroom?
So basically I started my morning the normal way.
We had a doctor appointment I get up.
I do my morning cycle as I call it, you know
dealing with my symptoms.
I get over that.
I get out of the restroom.
I walk down the hallway and, you know
I'm getting ready to wake her up.
Hey, we got to get this appointment going
and put things into a perspective.
When I approached it, it just wasn't that
it wasn't as routine, you know
I immediately saw that there was
that purple color on our legs
all the way up around her face
and blood was coming out of her nose
and I immediately knew.
So from that time I just remember going into a panic
like a downward spiral.
I felt like somebody threw me out of an airplane
but times 1,000.
Sure.
You know, your life slows down for a minute.
And the next thing I know I'm in the hands
of a Mesa police officer
like literally it happened within seconds.
My neighbor's coming out there
and yeah, you know
from there on it unfolded, you know
to me it was really difficult making that call
to her 91 year old father and letting her know what happened
and then her brother who lived nearby
the one that I worked for
and you know, his wife had to come out.
So it was pretty tough.
Well, pretty tough as the understatement
I would say it's the most painful thing
I had ever experienced while being alive, you know
and if I could say anything to anybody
that's in a long-term relationship
or a marriage right now.
And that is that pain.
One of you is gonna feel one day.
I'm not trying to scare you or your listeners or viewers
but unfortunately that's just the way life is gonna be
when you lose your spouse.
Dude, that was months ago.
We're not even six, we're three and a half
almost four months from that.
Like we're not even there yet.
Right.
That's, I mean, I saw the post, you know
like most people, you know, I'm really sorry
because I know she's your ride or die and like every post
but I mean, I just, this was my first time
knowing exactly what happened and, you know
what went down and to know that the night before was just
it was peaceful, but it was, it didn't seem like
it was irregular for me any other normal night.
I just, dude, I can't even imagine.
Yeah.
So from that point, when you find her
it sounds like everything else was just kind of a blur.
Right.
Like I went into a tunnel vision
and it felt like at one point in time
like I was gonna die like I was losing control
with myself.
It felt like I was running down a hallway
but instead of running down a hallway
it feels like you're running backwards.
It's the weirdest feeling in the world.
I can imagine it in my head
because they do this thing on TV shows
where they do the camera zoom and everything kind of like
it's like you're not moving
but everything else around you is
kind of like a reverse warp.
Yeah.
I would imagine that's what it would have felt like
and I wouldn't even say felt like
I can't even imagine what it felt like, you know.
I mean, that's, you know what I mean.
Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.
So what do you do?
You call, you just get on the phone obviously
and just geez.
Yeah.
So one of those calls was to my mother, you know
back in Florida, my grandfather
and I had to let them know
and that was very tough to hear, you know
their voice crackle and become emotional.
That to me was, aside from discovering her
that was the second part was telling family
and just hearing and feeling their reaction.
I know that's a very weird way to put it.
It is.
To me it was very hard to make those calls
and be like, hey, she's not here with us anymore.
Have you been able to talk to anyone?
Any sort of counseling or use your friend groups, family?
You've allowed yourself
because it sounds like you immediately jumped
into a reaction mode.
Like, okay, this is a situation.
Let's deal with the situation.
And once things calm down, now it's just me
and now it's all coming in.
Is that kind of how it went down
or do you mean you may not even remember?
It's really hard for me to remember
but I do remember a lot of her family reaching out to me
because I'm the only one out here from my family.
So her family to me is my family, you know.
And the first one I remember reaching out was
really reaching out was her niece who by the way
is battling brain cancer.
She had surgery so her motor skills,
she's in recovery mode.
She immediately was one of the first ones to reach out,
you know, and ever since that time, you know,
her family does reach out to me every now and then
to check out, hey, how you doing?
And it really goes back to when I was the first diagnosed,
you gotta build this network of people that are gonna,
they're gonna walk with you through the valley of hell
as essentially as I would call it.
And unfortunately there are situations like this
that happen while you're going through treatment.
You know, I looked it up to see if there was anybody else
who had gone through anything similar.
I'm pretty sure there is, you know,
but hardly anybody has shared that story,
you know, their story, their situation.
So I guess my goal with this would be hopefully,
you know, if there's another cancer patient survivor
that they could learn from this situation, you know,
and it would better help them.
Was there any survivor's guilt?
Does that ever kick in or just like the two of you've known
that you've been on this journey together for a while?
I would imagine there was maybe some sort of conversations
at some point in the past, hey, you know,
if anything happens to me, anything happens to you.
For me, there's not a moment that goes by
where I don't feel, I feel responsible to some extent.
You're gonna feel that lifetime guilt.
And I'm not gonna lie, and I've said this to very few
and I'm gonna put it out there.
I'm not final, you know, I'm not proud
of the final moments I had with her
because I was too busy.
I wanna go to sleep, you know, and looking back on that,
that's probably, that sentence me to a lifetime of guilt.
So when I look in the mirror every day, I feel guilty
like you should have had the best foot forward
no matter what, and in that moment,
you were just being grouchy.
Now you have yourself a lifetime of guilt
that you're gonna reflect back on.
That's what goes through my head quite a bit.
I hope through time you don't let that
continue to grind at you, you know, because life happens
and, you know, we never know when it's gonna be our last,
we never know when it's gonna be our last time
to see somebody, you know, we don't get the chance
to always say goodbye, and let someone's bed ridden
and you know, and you just,
it sounds like it was just a normal night
and not a normal morning.
Right.
And so I think that's the reality
at the end of the day of it as well.
It's like, well, we don't get forever in this world.
That sucks.
I'm never gonna forget.
I do feel a little guilty about that being,
the last moment is not how I would have framed it,
but I would just ask as your friend
that you just don't let that,
and I think over time, I think it would come
to that realization.
I think so as well.
But I mean, shit would do, we're three and a half months.
Yeah.
And I'm still processing that every day
as if it, as it just happened.
Yeah.
You know, and in this situation,
that's all you can do is what you can do.
I mean, I even sat down
and there were four Mesa PD officers saying,
Jay, there's no foul play here, you did nothing wrong.
And I remember the whole time, I'm pissed off,
like, why the hell are you guys asking about me?
As I'm sitting there just like emotional,
I'm like, why do you care about me?
What's going on with her the entire time?
You know, and finally, you know, her dad, her brother,
everybody's just like, this is not on you.
And I just remember getting incredibly angry at myself
and just, you know, it's hard to not feel guilty
to some extent and feel responsibility,
even though the professionals, you know, your family
have said, this is completely not on you.
To some extent, your conscious mind
is gonna keep reminding this is on you,
you're guilty as charged, you know?
And I don't think that feeling is,
I think that's a natural response,
but it's probably gonna stick with me
for a very, very long time.
Yeah, and so you're the only one from your family here,
and is that why you're leaving?
Yes, I have family in Florida.
I have, you know, my oldest brother
is still in Colorado Springs.
I just think it's a good idea in a situation like this
when you've experienced a catastrophe
to hit that reset button.
Right.
And for me, if I continued to live out here in Mesa,
it could potentially lead to other negative consequences.
So the best way to handle that is to lean on the doors
that are gonna open up, and in this case, it's Florida.
You know, my grandfather is just like,
I got an extra bedroom, why don't you come on over?
And I think that's gonna probably be the best way
to heal during this time,
is to go to a place I've never been before.
Never been to Florida, we've been talking about it
since, I don't know, 1993 of potentially moving out.
So you've never been to Florida to visit
or to live or period?
Period.
Well, you're about to experience Florida, my friend.
And then that tells me your relationship
maybe with the family hasn't always been great,
or you just don't travel.
So our relationship with the family
has kind of been in limbo for so long
because they've lived on the East Coast.
I grew up on the West Coast.
We grew up in Colorado Springs.
We never had the chance of traveling around.
I grew up with a single mother household,
me and my brother, we always stayed in Colorado Springs
just outside of Fort Carson.
Now I'm not gonna lie, this is not the first time
I've packed up and relocated and just gone.
When I left Colorado Springs, I moved to San Diego.
That's where the story began.
And that came from a staycation.
I had a friend that just, oh, we need to get you out here.
I'm gonna start a business, but we need you here.
You're like the last piece.
And finally, after four months, I'm just thinking,
I need to get out of here.
I need a fresh start.
I need to go to places where people
are living the lifestyle that I want.
And I said, worse comes to worse,
a plane ticket one way back to the Springs
would probably be maybe $200 at the very least.
And I'm gonna be honest, I have not regretted that decision.
It led up to a lot of great things even coming right here.
I probably would have never discovered hard parking
had I taken that chance.
So taking that bet on yourself to go
and step into the unknown,
I think it just depends on what your intentions
are going over there.
And you gotta have a plan once your feet hit the ground,
what are you doing next?
I think that's really what's gonna matter.
It doesn't matter if I'm going to Florida,
if I'm going to the Middle East or something.
It's gonna, what's really gonna matter
is what's gonna happen after I arrive.
So.
Any plans then other than getting there?
So once I get there, I really need to work on
getting back my health together.
Right now I'm borderline disabled.
And I understand with chemotherapy,
it's made me slower.
I sometimes struggle going upstairs.
I think that really needs to be the first place
I need to start with is I need to get a hold on my health
regardless of what the doctors,
if they're gonna plan for surgery or more treatment.
I think that's the second,
the moment I get out there, I need to focus on that.
And then we hear all the time when we go on to social media
about the fear of mongering of,
oh, the government's doing this and that.
I think I need to focus on getting my wealth together,
building that wealth.
And at age 40, because I'm gonna be 40 in June,
I think there's still a tremendous opportunity
to build that.
And even as a cancer patient that,
a lot of people would say, oh, that's counterintuitive.
You might not have a lot of time.
I think that's a hell of an assumption
to not still try to build something for yourself.
Even if you are on your deathbed,
I think most people should really have the mindset
of I'm gonna invest in something,
eventually it's gonna be profitable.
I think it's reckless to not have goals
and just stop caring about things.
Right, so I commend you for having that mindset.
And that's pretty much the mindset you've always had
from what I've known.
This doesn't have to be it.
I still have goals, I still have aspirations,
I still have things I wanna try to get accomplished.
So work towards them.
My dear friend, John Vassos,
who passed last February,
same way he just mess with the Leoma,
he just worked as much as he could
all the way down to the end.
He'd never stopped working on NSX, it's nothing.
And it's just, that's just what kept him going.
Wow.
You know, and another thing that keeps me up
aside from these events that's happened to me,
I always think the what ifs,
I don't decide to go for these goals.
What's gonna happen to me?
And most people that are in my position,
living off social security, they don't do well.
What if I need a major surgery
that requires like a $10,000 deductible?
You're screwed.
You were basically at that point
on your deathbed at that point.
So I feel even though my health
is not in great shape right now,
I feel like I'm very privileged still
that I'm functioning
and I could still do something about it
before that becomes default.
Like, okay, no matter what you do, you're screwed.
Now you have to live that lifestyle.
So I can't help but feel incredibly grateful
that I'm still functional
in the sense that I can make a difference
and still change the course of the direction
of where I could have very well be
and choose to live a better life
and still build something for myself down the road.
You know, I, like I said, I appreciate that mindset.
You know, there's a lot of different ways
we can go at this point in the conversation.
Because I know you've had some really cool things
happen to you here.
So let's bounce back to Arizona
because we're not done with Florida, right?
We're not done with Florida
We're not even there yet.
We're at Jacksonville Jaguars, Jersey on.
What have you been able to experience here recently?
Some really cool shit?
So probably the coolest thing I've gotten to experience
was through a company called
the Young Motor Cars in Scottsdale.
They're an exotic car dealership
and they have some pretty cool cars on display.
We did a podcast from there.
Oh wow.
Yeah, yeah.
So the way that that started actually
was once again through my cancer treatment.
There's a big thing going around
within the cancer community
with the waiting room situation
where you get incredibly nervous.
So the last time I went there,
well, before that event at Young Motor Cars,
I went to the waiting room, got checked out.
My blood pressure was like 160 over something
because I was as nervous as all hell, you know?
And I just remember my oncologist
telling me very casually,
we'll probably have to put you on, you know,
blood pressure medication and I'm just thinking
in my head, hell no, I don't want that.
You know, I understand she has good intentions,
it's not L intentions,
but I don't want any more medications.
So I was thinking to myself,
how do I keep myself calm before
going into one of these appointments?
And Young Motor Cars just so happens
to be right up the street
from Ironwood Cancer Research Centers.
It's literally like 10 minutes away with heavy traffic.
So I thought to myself, okay,
my dream car, the Diablo 6.0 is over there.
I'm gonna go take a look at that for a little bit.
That's gonna bring my levels down.
So I went there, I took a quick video,
like this is how a waiting room should be.
And I tagged the car and I tagged Young Motor Cars,
went over to my appointment, had a great appointment,
my blood pressure was normal.
So I'm driving home thinking, man,
what a great day that was.
Later that night, I remember receiving a DM
from Young Motor Cars by the name of Michael Young,
the individual that owns that company.
He's like, hey, Jay.
Super nice guy.
He's a wonderful guy.
Yeah, he is.
And he just said, hey, why don't you come on back?
We got something planned for you.
When do you have free time?
And I remember refreshing the screen,
I'm like, there's no way.
There's no way that this is happening.
So I even asked, you know, is this for real?
He's like, yeah, absolutely come on back.
And so I get in touch with them
and we plan a date and I come on up.
And the Diablo is sitting outside
along a bunch of other cars.
This happened on the day of the Strad Pizza unveiling,
like a couple hours before that.
So I kind of got a little preview
of what was gonna show up at Strad Pizza that night.
But I couldn't believe I had a second opportunity
to ride in a Diablo 6.0 around Scottsdale.
I do wanna point out that this is my second time
going for a ride in a Diablo 6.0.
First time was back in Colorado Springs.
I got to go three laps in a 6.0 around PPIR.
That was my very first experience.
And hearing that car come to life at over on the miles.
So that's not just a ride in a car.
Like that's a ride in a car.
Is the best $40 I've ever spent in my life.
Cause there was a motorsports carnival back then
and I had the choice between that or a Spyker S8.
I was like, give me the Diablo 6.0.
And I have YouTube videos of that going around.
It's a red 6.0 black wheels
with the red halos on a beautiful car.
But going for a ride in it at full speed
from my perspective is one thing.
Going for a ride in a city environment,
you know, just day to day uses.
That's a whole different other experience.
So that car driving around Scottsdale,
it just, it is a dream come true.
That's all I can really say.
You feel the car come to life.
You're connected with the road.
You just feel the mechanicals coming in.
That V12 just giving you constant feedback.
Wow.
You know, and it just brings me back to
this is why I had a Kuntaj poster on my wall growing up.
And one of the coolest things
that I wish I had gotten a picture of it
was seeing the reflection of me sitting in the car
driving by some windows.
You know, to me it just felt like I had accomplished my goal,
my automotive goal in life.
I'm like, wow, this is incredible.
That's a huge like bucket list check mark.
Yeah.
And I don't care how often I go for a ride in a Diablo.
I get, it feels like the first time I'm excited.
I can't wait.
So I'm thinking that's the end of that.
You know, I'm going to go home, you know,
I'm going to go on the Strad Pita, yada, yada, yada.
We get back.
And Michael, I remember kind of hinting was like,
we're going to take that thing out for a spin next.
And I'm thinking, okay, maybe it's the Porsche
or something.
No, he's pointing towards the Bugatti Veyron.
No, geez.
And my heart sank even further.
I couldn't believe that that was next.
And this Bugatti Veyron was formerly owned
by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
I got an opportunity to sit inside of it, you know,
driver side, then passenger side.
And it was a totally different experience
from getting out of the Diablo
and getting into this thing.
Then going for a ride in it is crazy,
even more of a completely different experience.
You know me, when I talk about the Lamborghini Diablo,
the F-15 Eagle is not too far away from my converse,
is not too far from the conversation.
That's what I often will compare it to
because it's a very complicated piece of machinery.
It's very difficult to maintain,
but at the same time, it just gives performance
like nothing else.
When jumping into a Bugatti Veyron
and going out for a little spin, you know,
just around the block, if I had to compare it to the,
if I had to compare this thing to the Bugatti Veyron,
it's really an otherworldly experience.
By converse.
Well, it's like you're going from one of the first,
not really, I mean, depends on who you're talking to,
right, for people around our age,
I would say that's like one of the first super cars,
because back then we've had this conversation on the podcast,
how do you define sports car, exotic super car,
now hyper car, right?
So like a Diablo is like a super car,
just past that exotic, and the Veyron is like
one of the first hyper cars, you know,
that we define hyper cars, I can't even imagine,
I've been in neither one of them,
but it's gotta just be like a completely different experience.
And it was, my brain was automatically saying,
this is just gonna be a really fast Bentley
with the motor in the back.
And I couldn't be further from the truth.
You know, the moment it started up,
it sounded like a V8 times 10, you know,
it's like, well, what the heck is that?
It just gives you a whole different tone.
And then the scariest part of all is,
you don't feel really the car making connection
with the ground, it's a weird feeling.
You know, you're just gliding on a cloud.
And a cloud that's giving you feedback,
mechanical feedback, because you're here
and the turbo's going.
You're here in that big old 16-cylinder engine
just a couple feet away from you.
Wow.
And it's one of the coolest feelings
in the world just going down the road.
And to think that, you know,
from a dead stop just accelerating,
you can now run a crotch rocket quite easily.
Right, that's crazy, right?
Yeah, and it's just, it's luxury,
but it's performance at the same time.
So it's essentially a cloud with the heartbeat
is the best way I'll forever talk about the Bugatti Veyron.
It's literally a cloud with a heartbeat.
And that opportunity, dude, I mean, that's a,
a Diablo is a 1%er's car.
I would say a Veyron is a 1% is 1%er's car.
Right.
And you were, not only were you in it,
you got to ride and feel the car.
And how awesome is that?
Are you, do you still have aspirations to,
as I'm looking at the thing you handed me when we walked in,
you know, build your own cars?
We talked about that last time.
Absolutely.
Because I think to myself, what if I buy a real Diablo?
What's that gonna look like?
What's gonna happen in that situation is
it's gonna be treated like a classic car.
It's gonna be treated like an investment.
Right.
So not a lot of joy, just a lot of staring at.
Right.
And it's gonna be a lot of asset management.
I'm not sure if I would appreciate it as much
as a high-end replica built by
North American exotic replicas or something.
Something that if I want to take it out on a drive,
I want to take it to the tail end of the dragon,
take it out of cars and coffee or whatever,
I'm not gonna have that guilt that,
hey, I'm pissing all over the real Mona Lisa.
It's just a poster, you know,
that I can put wherever in my house.
I don't really want to destroy and tamper a real Diablo.
You know, I'd much rather take,
like I said, a higher end replica and enjoy that.
And if something breaks, oh, well,
rock autos got parts, auto zones got parts.
So I know the turnaround on that's gonna be
really cheap, quick versus that thing,
which is just as complicated as an F-15,
you're talking about a very long turnaround
and an astronomical cost per, you know,
when it's time to go and do the service.
Engine out-service is not cheap.
You know, I've mentioned many times,
looking at the price tag of the Mario Andretti Diablo
back in Colorado Springs,
which I have plenty of pictures of.
On average, the owner of that car
was spending about $50,000 just for basic maintenance.
Yeah.
And I'm pretty sure, and this was in 2008 money.
So you could imagine, we're probably already double,
probably over 150,000 for the same amount of work
to be done in today's dollars, so.
So what we have over here,
this is your other project, Aspirations,
you wanna talk about that at all?
Yeah, so that over there is.
It's just top secrets, I'm not gonna, you know,
display it, but you know, I'm gonna,
this is my copy.
Yeah, that's your copy.
So here's what's gonna happen with this.
You're gonna sign it, and it's gonna be behind me
on this wall with all this other stuff
that I received from friends and guests.
So just so you know.
And that's quite okay if you wanna display it,
and I'll tell a little story about
where that inspiration came from.
Seriously.
So if the Lamborghini Diablo is an F-15 Eagle,
you know the replacement for the F-15 is the F-22 Raptor.
Sure.
But instead of building an F-22 Raptor for the streets,
because that already exists,
we got the Rivalto for the F-22 Raptor of the streets.
This is the idea of the what if, the second,
you know, let's give this design a second opinion.
Northrop's YF-23, the competitor for the F-22.
Gorgeous looking airplane, had a lot of potential.
I mean, if you've seen it,
it probably looks like something off Macross Plus.
Right, yeah.
You know, just something out of this world.
And it really is a shame
that the Air Force didn't put it in production.
So I kind of took, I took that idea,
and I said, you know what?
What if I ran with this?
And I took the three most rarest cars I can think of.
The Estera Commendatory 112i, one of one.
Then the Vector W8.
You wrote in the Vector W8.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, you're one of the few people
that understand how that is,
because we're part of the same vector group.
And that was also one of those things
where the guy who owned it at the time,
he didn't want any photos taken in his warehouse.
He's old school thinking that someone's gonna geotag it
and come to his warehouse and stuff.
And I was like, all right, cool, but God,
dog, I wish I would have a photo with that car.
And I never took one.
Yeah.
Because that was my poster car.
That was my, without question, dream car.
Obviously we all like the McLaren F1, that's a given.
Yeah.
But that's kind of like my diablo to you,
is that Vector was just, that was the first car that,
I mean, I've always liked cars,
but that was the first poster car
was actually like the W2 prototype on the wall.
But then I bought all the magazines
just for that car on the cover.
And it's just like, and I was,
that was the car of the cover car.
That was the chassis I rode in too.
Yeah, wow. It was crazy, but.
Yeah, I remember.
It's nothing about me.
I remember living in California in 2014,
I got to meet Jerry Weigert in person
and got to see the WX3 in person.
And that was a really cool experience.
You know, it's kind of funny,
you go to cars and coffee, you're looking for the car
and the first thing you encounter
is the man behind the car.
That's crazy. I'll never forget that.
I was talking with my buddy, Mike,
he goes by Big Orange Supra on Instagram.
I was having a three-way conversation.
I just remember seeing Jerry Weigert and just,
that's him, there's a Vector here.
And that was a really cool day.
I took lots of pictures,
asked him a bunch of questions.
Apparently we were there for three hours,
even though it felt like we were there for 10 minutes.
That's how many questions I asked.
Well, 10 minutes to you.
36 hours for Jerry.
Yeah.
So it was a really cool experience.
We share a lot of the similar ideas.
In his mind, when I asked him,
what's the best airplane in the world?
He says, whatever the Air Force has
as their main workhorse, that's the best airplane.
So to him, I see it as,
he thinks the F-22 Raptor is the best.
To me, the F-23 is the best.
The last car on my list to add to the F-23
is the Tami Kaira ZZ2,
which we've only seen in Gran Turismo.
I don't know if that's a car you're familiar with,
but it kind of looks like a Diablo
mixed with the Nissan Skyline.
And there's only one of one in the world,
and that's in Japan.
Blue, gorgeous-looking car,
very few people know about it.
So I figured with these three designs,
I can really run with something, you know?
And then going back to when I actually
started sketching this out,
I had my little Foxbat moment
when my buddy, Art Vandalay,
posted up a picture of an Aston Martin Valkyrie.
And I remember being really excited
since the Countach, like, this is a really cool car.
You know, joy for a minute.
And then I take a step back and I'm like, man,
there is nothing, there's not a car in my garage
or in my friend's circle's garage.
That's gonna be able to touch that.
So the question in my head was,
you know, could we really take, you know,
could you really take a Corvette,
you know, a special model Corvette,
like a ZR1, you know, do you take a car like that
or a highly modified Supra?
How do you counter something that completely changes
the landscape, the rules for light?
You know, the rules from there on out.
And that's really where my supercar course, Zario F23,
I refer to those two things.
That's where that really started.
And the goal with that is to not go out
and chase track times,
is to not go out and bash the Valkyrie.
It's really just to have a different perspective.
And to really, you know, it's really to approach,
to go back to the analog way of things.
Cause you know me, I'm not a big fan
of modern day supercars.
I can't stand the way the Timurario.
I can't stand that car.
That's the first Lamborghini besides the Urus.
I hate when I see it, I feel a little disgusted.
In most McLaren's today, I cannot stand to look at them.
Most, yeah, there's a couple of really hot ones.
Yeah, but the special ones, we know very few people have it,
but every influencer that's trying to, you know,
get clickbait has the entry level model.
And when you get close to these cars,
you realize they're not really well built.
They're a lot of corners cut and they're very simple.
And I cannot stand that
about most modern day supercars.
And to me, the final straw was kind of like
the Ferrari F80.
I'm like, really, you're gonna put a V6 in that.
And then your base model car has a V12.
That's almost a slap in the face to all of us enthusiasts.
That's interesting, right?
Yeah.
So that's where the premises of that is coming from.
And I don't know how much this thing is gonna cost to build.
My goal is to keep it cheaper than a C8,
but not to build something like a Bricklin, for instance,
you know, really it's to offer something very simple
to build, simple to maintain.
And that's gonna be very hard to do in today's world
because everything is hyper-inflated,
even with a 3D printer.
It's not like I could say,
hey, let me go 3D print this supercar
and I'm gonna go out and go pick fights with Kona 6.
It doesn't work that way.
Sure.
Did you see, it's,
because we're filming this right now,
Tokyo Auto Salon is going on right now.
Did you see the little K car that they built
that made it look like a Coral Q R32?
Yeah, I saw a little picture of that
and that was really awesome.
I thought that was AI at first,
but there's a video of it walking around
and that little son of a bitch,
like that makes me want to go to the garage
and turn my Honda Z into a Coral Q car.
I mean, that thing is fantastic.
Yeah, and to be honest,
I think that's gonna be the future of kit cars.
In general, is to take something like a K car
and make it look like, you know, a Volto.
Clearly a toy.
That thing looks like a toy.
Yeah, and it's not insulting to the brand
because even the brand will look at it and be like,
well, it looks like a giant toy,
so we're not mad.
We're just gonna point and laugh at it
and that's it and move about it.
Yeah, we're gonna let you do, you know, be creative.
It's kind of like Alex out here
with the Tumblr golf cart and the Tumblr itself,
the Batman Tumblr that has the Batman Tumblr
and he has a Tumblr golf cart
that looks just like it, but short and squatty.
Man, wouldn't be fun just to have that kind of money.
That's what I appreciate.
So the people who have the money
who do fun shit with it, you know,
those are the guys where I'm like, dude, thumbs up, man.
Right.
And a lot of guys thankfully here in Scottsdale
are cool like that, you know,
they'll allow most of us to go talk to them
because when I was in San Diego,
there was always that fine line that they just knew
that, hey, this guy has a nine to five.
Yeah.
You know, everything was at the car meets.
Yeah.
You know, whereas out here,
I've been invited to all kinds of things
just because I'm doing my thing
and they're like, hey, you know,
you do HVAC or why don't you come to this meet?
And I have some incredible conversations
from people who own hypercars, you know,
and here I am a regular nine to five or, you know,
and I'm having these conversations with people.
That's a really awesome thing.
And they're enjoying it.
You know what it is?
It's the fact that you can carry the conversation with them.
Right.
You know, it's like Jordan, low-baller GTR.
If you didn't know he had these cars,
you would never know it.
And like you, he's very well versed in the cars
or like Jorge of Tormenting Tarmac, you know,
same deal.
You guys can just sit there and talk cars all day
and not in an annoying way, in a fun and engaging way.
Because of the conversation, those who are purists
who really not once they purists,
those who have these cars that have always been fans
of cars, not just fans of the money,
they're able to have those conversations, I think,
with you and enjoy it versus to your point.
And there's nothing wrong with influencers,
it's the stereotype, right?
Versus you have this 18-year-old who made it big,
good for him, he bought the car for clicks,
he bought the car because that's what you're supposed to buy,
doesn't know shit about the car.
You're not gonna have those same conversations
with that person.
Right.
And it's funny you brought up my recent status update
about that.
There's just so many of these people.
I'm not gonna mention names
because I am trying to stay away
from a certain argument that's going down
with the well-known Bugatti Chiron owner.
That's all I'm gonna throw out there.
Not a lot of people out there,
they don't Bugatti Chiron, so.
But there's a few on Instagram, one of them,
there's a lot of drama associated with him,
but it really comes from that universe of,
you know, hey, you're fat, you're stupid, you're ugly,
give me $20,000 and I'll show you how to get ripped,
rich and any female you want.
And what goes through my head is,
well, that sounds great,
but where am I supposed to invest my money at?
That's always one of the questions.
As a cancer patient, what can you show me
what kind of diet plan you can put?
That'll actually help me out.
Not some shit that you're putting in chat GPT,
you know, cause that's what a lot of them will do
is they'll stick something on,
you know, they'll ask the question there
and then it's literally copy and paste.
And then their relationship advice, you know,
talking about, oh, I get bitches, blah, blah, blah.
I'd rather get one girl that's gonna push me
to level up, you know,
versus these girls with the BBLs, the freaking duck lips.
And I'm not here to bash those women
if there's something that I'm actually listening.
But when I see that, I just see low value
and a lot of guys are gonna be like, oh, Jay,
you've never been with a high value woman.
Trust me, I don't want those.
I wanna make that perfectly clear.
I wouldn't want one of those.
I would want a woman that's gonna push me
and help me level up.
And Katie was that woman.
Yeah, let's say you have one
and it's the materialistic thing.
It's, you know, a former guest,
we sat here and burned five minutes on like reality TV.
And it's like, when they do that,
they're not doing it to attract the next guy.
They're doing it to look better than the next girl.
It's a competition between women.
It always has been.
When they dress up to go to the club,
the women notice what other women are wearing,
what the shoes, their nails.
They notice that shit before we notice any of it.
So it's like, it's like this forever competition
between themselves.
So they get the BBL, the duck or all that other stuff,
you know, and yeah, they wanna attract dudes,
but they're also, in order to attract the guy,
you have to make sure you look better than the next woman.
So it's like this one thing.
But yeah, the snake oil salesman
is basically what it is.
I'm gonna get you ripped like me,
you know, for X amount or buying to my program,
I'll teach you how to make generational wealth
for just three hours a day.
Right.
Right, and it's just like, it's really,
I don't wanna say it's all a scam,
but it's the same hustle.
Exactly, you know, ever since Andrew Tate,
which by the way, I don't bash him,
I think he has offered a lot of value for free
if you just listen to what he says and do what he says.
I mean, you're probably gonna change your life
in some kind of way,
but a lot of people try to copycat what he has done.
And I'm not bashing him in my words.
You know, I wanna make that clear.
I think he does a lot of great.
There are some things I disagree with him on.
Yeah, he's a very, he is a very,
he's an interesting person.
Right.
Right, because I think there's things that,
like I, when I first heard Andrew Tate,
I was like, okay, wow, this guy,
but then you start hearing him more.
I've been in these chat rooms where he's talking,
like on X, and then you start learning more about him.
And it's other stuff.
It's like, okay, well, that's, you know,
but it sounds like you've found kind of,
I wouldn't say a silver lining,
but there's positive stuff you can pull
out of pretty much anybody who has success.
Yeah, and I tend to, you know,
study a lot of guys from a distance,
especially here in, you know, the Scottsdale area.
And I've noticed a lot of them,
they're not trying to go out and flex.
They own very big businesses.
They have very nice cars,
but you don't see them on social media.
Yeah, check out my SVJ.
They don't give a shit about that.
They're focused on their families.
They're focused on building their business,
like offering value, legitimate value to the world.
And to get to that point,
we all know, damn, well,
you can't work just two hours a month.
Like these, some of these influencers
are selling you on that fallacy that,
oh, just two hours a month,
just doing this online,
you're gonna make seven figures.
It's, I find that very hard to believe.
I mean, maybe I guess if you throw the ball downfield,
eventually you're gonna get a touchdown.
If you do it, but most of the time,
you're not gonna get anywhere
just by throwing it downfield.
You gotta have a plan
of how to get downfield and navigate.
And that's what I see a lot of
with these fake entrepreneurs, as I would call it,
because if you look at real entrepreneurs,
there's a lot of growth behind it.
There's a lot of failure that they've gone through.
A lot of failure, a lot of sweat equity.
And a lot of them tend to pick themselves back up
and keep moving, whereas people like Ty Lopez,
which we've seen in my garage,
got these books and I got this Lambo over here.
Where's he at today with his little courses?
And I hate that I share my last name
with that son of a bitch.
I really hate that.
Well, it's not a very rare last name, Lopez.
So I think you'll be all right with that.
Yeah, but it just sucks
that people even would entertain that, just like J.Lo.
Yes, my roots come from the same island as J.Lo,
but we're completely total opposite.
It's funny, she, my wife,
I think she's completely changed her mind on J.Lo,
but for the longest, J.Lo could do no wrong.
And more and more and more stuff
started coming out about her.
And finally, my wife's kind of like,
I don't know if I like her anymore.
It's like, okay, well,
congratulations for opening your eyes.
You know what I mean?
Speaking of opening eyes,
and I still wanna get to Jacksonville here,
but you have made some posts,
and I've probably liked the posts
of some stuff that's going on.
Right now we have a lot of shit going on in our world.
Right now we have a lot of shit going on in our country.
Do you have any opinions on Venezuela
or do you have any opinions on the recent tragedy
in Minneapolis?
And even there's some shit that went down in Portland.
I mean, this is the week all this shit's going on.
So pick your poison, I guess.
So for Venezuela, I think a lot of people
who have known me very well
know my opinion about Nicholas Maduro.
I'm gonna be honest.
It's probably the same as most people actually know.
I don't like that piece of shit.
And I'm glad they did what they had to do to him.
He's not dead.
So I'm not gonna say he had it coming,
but he needed to be removed.
And I think Venezuela is gonna be better for that.
I got a lot of backlash
when I made that opinion known on Instagram.
Like so many liberals were just attacking me.
Oh, how can you support this when you're Puerto Rican?
And it's like, come on, dude.
A year ago he was talking about invading the island
itself using Brazilian troops.
Like I'm supposed to be okay with that?
No, he had to go.
And I think Latin America is headed
in the right direction based on that.
What happened in Minneapolis?
I mean, that's a trend.
Let's go back to Maduro really quick.
Because one thing that I've said
is if you really wanna know what the impact is,
the immediate impact, look at the people.
And there are of Latin culture,
there are hundreds of thousands of people
who are very happy that this happened.
Even, because I get,
if you don't like the current administration,
I understand why some people wouldn't.
A lot of it is feelings, not facts,
but either way, and I've seen some of our current presidents
biggest haters I would call them
come out and say, I don't like that son of a bitch,
but this is great.
And I cried when I heard what happened
because I was so excited, this is such a big.
So for me, for the people who have nothing to do with this,
the paid actors, a lot of them are just paid actors,
or some of them are just like Die Hard and Anti-Orange Man,
to come out and speak on shit
they don't know anything about.
Like just educate yourself.
And we don't know the impact of this,
we won't know the impact of this for three, four,
five years.
Yeah, absolutely.
Because nothing happens overnight, right?
So maybe it was a good thing,
maybe we'll find out it was a bad thing.
It's all about oil, is it?
It's all about people, is it?
No, it's, this is what I told my wife
because we hadn't really talked about much.
And we probably won't, we had differences of opinions
on a lot of this stuff.
She goes, well, it was just for oil.
And I go, well, maybe it was,
but as a positive spin, the people are excited too.
I said, I don't know of any country
that has ever gone in just to liberate the people
without getting something out of it,
but the people are more than happy to give it to you
for their liberation, right?
So it's like, well, we'll see what happens.
And I said that last January,
I said, nobody, history will tell us
if our leaders are any good or not.
What happens today and tomorrow won't.
So that's all I have to say
about the whole Mendeuro thing.
Yeah, and I think I'll agree with you on that,
even though some of my views are pretty harsh.
When I heard that he was captured,
I'm like, this was an automatic win,
but I agree with you there.
It's gonna take time to really see
if that was a good decision to get him out of there,
or if somebody worse is gonna step up and do more.
I've listened to some Venezuelan reporters say
that they're excited to happen,
but there's more work to be done.
And there's others that are far more dangerous
that are just kind of waiting in the shadows.
But you did say something important.
I know I said I was done with that, but I'm not.
He was captured for trial.
We've bombed and killed other people.
I'm sorry, unalive, we have to say that now.
We can't say the K word.
Everything's unalived, he unalived.
We've unalived other people in the past.
This one was captured and will be held to trial
or whatever for their crimes,
but I think that's a big distinction
that no one's talking about.
Yeah, and who knows?
Maybe he'll end up being Diddy's cellmate
for God knows how long.
Dude, all the AI videos right now.
It's funny though, he said he was shocked
at how many rights he has in the United States
as a prisoner, right to remain silent.
They read him his rights, when they arraigned him,
he was just surprised.
He's like, wow, I could post potentially bail?
I have the right to not talk
because he's a dictator, right?
And then the misinformation is
we went in there and grabbed their president.
No, he was a dictator who forcefully took office.
Yeah, he was never their president to begin with.
He lost the election and he forcefully took it back.
Like that's not the same thing, so.
I read that a lot and I'm just,
every time I see that comment,
I just think you did not research the topic.
Instead, you drank the Kool-Aid of
we hate the big bad orange taco in office.
That's what is on your mind.
And I get a lot of heat seekers.
That's what I call them, heat seekers, NPCs.
That I'll leave a comment and the next thing you know,
they're crashing out in the comments.
Then they're in my DMs telling me,
oh, I wish your cancer would defeat you.
Oh yeah, nice.
That's like, oh, so now you're completely emotional.
Yeah.
You know, logic and reasoning went out the damn window
before you even hit that sent bunny,
you know, the sent bunny.
And it usually does.
And I'm the same way.
I try to, before I react anything,
or unless it's like my really close circle
or just conversation,
I try to research a little bit
and at least try to understand what happened,
what the immediate implications are.
You know, what this could mean.
Before I say anything.
Right.
And I also think it's important to give,
everybody needs to give themselves time to process.
Cause we, you know, like the Minneapolis situation,
it's very easily to get triggered just by watching
what happened, regardless of which side you're on.
And we're talking about the 37 year old Renee.
Good.
Good.
Yeah.
Being shot by the ice agent.
You know, transitioning to that, you know,
she's from the state that I'm from.
And you know, I know there's a lot of opinions
on that right now.
And even as, you know, where I stand at,
I still see that as very unfortunate
that it had to happen that way.
It's unfortunate for both sides.
We're recording this two days removed from the incident
and there's already been so much stuff that's come out.
Right.
I'll let you continue.
Yeah, so with that,
I think it's a very unfortunate thing.
Anytime, you know, I don't care who,
if somebody's dying and it's publicized,
it's not good for this country.
You know, I don't care if you're Democrat, Republican,
it's not good to watch somebody get shot
by a federal agent.
You know, on that same note,
I think there's a huge epidemic accountability issue here.
And we've reached the point and our society is,
yeah, we've acknowledged that selective hearing exists.
Now it's selective vision, selective acknowledgement.
The facts can be right in your face of,
this is how it happened, this is one unfolded.
But now we're dealing with the,
I would say a lifestyle now
because they're really trying to turn this
radical way of life into a lifestyle
where they're just incredibly violent.
They wanna see what they wanna see,
they wanna acknowledge what they wanna,
what they believe fits into their world or their narrative.
So it doesn't matter.
And they is.
These individuals,
I'm not gonna even call them Democrats anymore
because I'm gonna be honest.
I think if we brought that.
I hate reading that, honestly.
I just think that if we brought back JFK from the death
and he saw what was going on,
I don't think he'd be very happy
with what these people have turned into be.
And I can't call them Democrats.
I call them NPCs nowadays
because they literally behave like the players on GTA,
except now you don't have to jump on a motorcycle
and go kick their fender.
You do something that's out of their thought process
or their reality, they're gonna come follow you
and harass you, cause a trail of destruction in the process.
Too bad, right?
Yeah.
And there are stories that I will share,
I wanna share and as soon as they like,
well, when they say the Democrats
or they say the Republicans,
I don't share it because it seems so partisan.
When the story itself,
you can draw your own conclusion from it.
Now people are saying the leftists and the right
because people stop saying Republic as Democrats,
but it's still the same thing.
And someone is listening or watching to this right now
is probably thinking, I don't wanna hear this,
I don't wanna hear political talk.
This isn't politics, this is life,
this is our society, this is what's going on in the world.
Today is what's going on in America today
and you're part of this.
Yeah, exactly.
So you need to have an opinion.
I saw someone say that that video,
especially the popular angle
that people just selectively pick angles,
regardless the people on the right
pick the angle from the far, far away from the front
where you can clearly see what happened
and the people on the left pick the angle
from behind the car where you can't
really see what happened.
And someone says, this is the ultimate Rorschach test.
I said, you're absolutely right.
This is the current gold or brown.
Is it brown and blue dress?
What color is the dress?
Is it brown?
Remember that thing?
I kind of remember it.
Is it a blue and copper dress
or is it a white and gold dress or whatever?
And I remember that because I remember looking
at the dress and it being one color,
my co-worker said it's another color.
I looked at it and it was the other color
and I couldn't get my eyes to see the original color.
So a point being that people see what they wanna see
based on what their mind is telling them
they should be seeing.
And this is like the ultimate.
You know, my wife asked me about it
and I didn't wanna, I knew what happened
and I didn't wanna talk about it
because I already know what that opinion would be.
And what I heard was, oh, it's so sad
what happened to that woman.
I was like, oh, you mean the woman in Minnesota?
Yeah, and I go, yeah, it was terrible
like it shouldn't have happened.
That's my opinion on it.
And she just wasn't doing anything.
Well, actually she was.
And I knew that when it happened,
now two days removed, we know even more.
But I have the opinion, well, there's three opinions here.
There's the diehard people on the left
who says this was murder, she was innocent,
she did nothing wrong.
There's the diehard people on the right
that say she tried to kill the officer.
She tried to un-alive.
She tried to un-alive the ICE agent
and they're not police anyway.
They're not even law enforcement.
Well, technically, yes, they absolutely are
law enforcement, but she tried to run him over.
He was in self-defense.
He was well within his rights.
And I said, and then I'm on the third side.
I said, both things can be true at once.
She was not accidentally there.
She may have dropped her kit off
before she decided to go and block traffic on purpose,
which is proven.
And could the officer not have unloaded on her
and they arrest her later?
That could also be true.
Like all those things can be true at once.
But then when you say that,
the people on the left say, no, you're a Trumper.
The people on the right said, no,
get out of here to libtard.
Are you blind?
And it's like, no, I'm just a person
that sees, tries to see everything.
And so this isn't cut and dry.
You know, a year or two ago,
I had my friend Brian on here
and I would bring him on for stuff like this,
specifically these type of things.
And there was a shooting in Houston,
the Houston, Tokyo shooting.
And this kid, I don't know if you remember this video,
guy goes in and he robs everybody.
And as he's walking out,
as he passed one of the patrons,
patron has his gun and gets out and basically
unloads his clip on this guy
as this guy was leaving the store.
I think there was maybe seven shots on him.
Maybe more.
I think it was more.
And so we watched that because he shot the dude,
walked up to him and hit him one or two
or maybe three more times.
We're like, okay, the first shot,
you could say self-defense,
the rest of it seems like it's excessive.
And that was the gray area.
Was he justified in doing that?
Well, yeah, especially in the state of Texas.
What we found out is the gun that the guy robbed with,
wasn't even a real gun, it was a replica.
And of course, you don't have to check that.
That doesn't matter, it's just the sad part of the story.
The dude robbed a diner with a replica gun
and got killed, right?
And that's what's gonna happen,
but I could have,
I would have put money on the grand jury
in dining the shooter,
nothing ever came of it.
And to me, this is kind of one of those deals
where it's like, oh, it's,
if these people believe it's one way
and these people believe it's the other way,
then it's not cut and dry.
I have my own thoughts on it,
especially based on everything we've seen now,
and I'm very firm in my belief here.
But I just don't understand
if someone can look at something like that
and say it's definitely this or it's definitely that
and it's nothing in between.
And I think that's very important to have
that third opinion to really approach it
with a non-bias perspective
to get the best results
on how we're gonna fix this issue.
Because right now the state of the world
that we live in today,
it's almost like it's a mass recruiting campaign of,
are you left, are you right?
No, nobody is taking a step back to just say,
hey, wait a minute,
does any of this bullshit even make sense to us?
I think that's really a starting point
and I think there needs to be more of this
of a non-perspective.
Even if you are left or right,
I just think there has to be a non-bias opinion
and you have to take a step back and say,
hey, wait a minute, does any of this make sense?
You know what the funny thing is
before we pivot to football,
is I saw somebody else and they made this point
and God, it just made so much sense.
And I wish I could remember,
I watched so many clips.
I watched so many news clips
because someone could be watching this
or listening to them like,
oh, you're just a clip watcher.
You're drawing your conclusion for clips.
No, I'm not talking 20 second clips.
We're talking minutes.
Whether it's Anderson Cooper
or if it's Abby Phillip on CNN
or if it's Jesse Waters,
which is obviously extremely right side bias,
or if it's some of these people
that are obviously extremely left bias,
I watched and listened to these interviews,
these short clips.
But one thing that's just like,
the person said, okay, so January 6th,
it was all about protecting the officers
and all those riders need to be in jail.
These poor officers,
I think one of them unalived himself afterwards,
these poor officers,
now it's these poor people,
F the officers, block them, throw shit at them,
lay on their cars, yell and scream.
One of the things with this woman in Minneapolis,
cause I don't know if you saw the interview,
they interviewed a Nate or someone who lived there.
And she said, she heard the commotion, she came out.
But there's a very important thing that she said
that no one's talking about.
She said, I heard the whistles
and the whistles is a sign that ICE is here.
Why does everybody in the neighborhood have whistles?
That is a very good point.
Why does she know that, right?
And that supports, and then she says,
well, the woman, they got shot,
she was blocking the road, she was doing her job,
blocking the road.
That's what she was there to do.
And then she said, well, the cop shot her,
and blah, blah, blah, and I don't understand,
and I understand that too.
Like she doesn't really have the full clarity
of the full situation.
But what she did know is why those whistles were blowing.
What she did know is this,
Renee was in the car blocking and obstructing.
And what we do know is that Renee's wife
was outside of the car filming the whole thing
because that's what people do, you know?
But the thing is, the woman who said about the whistles
and confirmed, she got on the news later on CNN
said something completely different, you know?
And that's just like, you can't trust the source
anymore, but no one's talking about the fact
that she was talking about the whistles.
And now when you watch, knowing that,
when you watch all these videos,
all you're gonna hear are whistles.
Because these are organized protesters and anti-ice,
and they're taught to do this in a certain way
to try not to get in trouble.
And lo and behold, they're saying now that Renee,
she's met all these anti-ice groups at her kid's school.
And she's part of that.
That's terrifying to think of.
Yeah, 48 hours later, we have all this other information.
So one picture of her is probably the best picture
they could find.
And she shouldn't, I'm never gonna say
she deserved what happened.
Neither am I.
No, I'm never gonna say that.
But she wasn't this angel, perfect person
that they proper up to be, and they share the one,
probably the one decent photo of her with long hair.
Yeah, I saw that picture too.
Every other photo you see, the last photo
with her and her wife, shaved head, looking crazy
on the steps of being anti-ice and all that kind of shit.
So it's like, that's just waiting for it to come out.
And even in the face of all that,
people are gonna be fighting so hard to say
that she was murdered in cold blood,
unalived in cold blood, she was just trying
to turn around, she just dropped her kid off at school,
the officers, what are you gonna do
when they come up and people are masked?
It's like it literally says right there.
Yeah, ice.
Yeah, our sheriff's department, ice or whatever.
So I just, this world we live in is crazy,
but we live in it and I wish people
would just take a step back.
Like what are you fighting for?
What do you stand for?
I know people that have protested.
So we know that there's some real protesters out there.
But we also know there's people getting paid to do it.
I watched a video earlier.
I don't know if you saw the video
of the person who lit the flag on fire the other day.
Yeah, I saw that.
So that person showed up, lit the flag and just left.
And other activists and protesters saw that
and thought it was very strange and curious.
Who is this person?
Cause we've seen other videos where people light flags
and they're still there celebrating
and boycotting, you know, whatever else.
So I saw where they followed this guy
to a corner and they're asking him,
dude, what was that?
Who are you?
Why are you here?
Why did you light that flag?
Do you work for the government?
What do we law?
You know, that's bullshit.
So for the people who were exercising
their constitutional right to protest
in a peaceful way, good for them.
But we know there's agitators
and people with other interests,
they don't give a about anything that's going on
while they're protesting.
They're just there disturbed.
And that's crazy to me.
Yeah, that's, I call those people chaos creators
just like contact creators.
And you also mentioned the guy that, you know,
lit the flag on fire.
I think it's very interesting
that in France, somebody very similar
did the same thing.
So it just makes you wonder,
is this happening just here, you know,
in stateside or is there something else bigger going on?
You know, those piles of bricks that get dropped off,
wow, are they convenient every time something happens?
Yeah.
You know, when Maduro got captured,
less than four hours, six hours later,
the entire downtown New York was covered
in all these Maduro flags and all these signs.
Where did those thousands of people come from
between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m.?
Right.
And it just, it makes you wonder, you know,
who's coordinating all of this stuff?
If possible, I mean, I would like to know
who coordinates this stuff.
They must have a hell of a job
coordinating whatever industry they work in
to just have signs ready, flags ready,
and literally just have everything planned out.
You know, especially during times
where we literally within hours
know of something happening.
It's like clockwork.
And it makes, yeah, it makes sense, right?
Because during the DNC and the RNC,
there were ads to pay people to show up
to make it look bigger.
So if they're paying people to show up
and make the crowd look bigger,
probably paying people to do this too.
In fact, we know that.
I've watched reporters, independent journalists,
take pictures like, okay, there's J Lopez.
All right, well, J Lopez was also in Chicago last year.
J Lopez was in Houston, you know, fighting for this.
J Lopez was in Miami, the same J Lopez,
your money is linked back to these NGOs.
Like those are factual people out there
that are getting paid to do this.
And just for someone to,
I can't blame the people for not believing that
because their algorithms and their news feeds
don't tell them that.
I'll put it that way.
And then with the case of this woman in Minneapolis,
what I said to my good friend, Wes,
I was like, well, I'm curious to see
what my wife's gonna say
because she's gonna say based on whatever algorithm
her algorithm feeds her.
And of course, the only view she saw
was the view that I knew she saw.
And again, it's still up to interpretation,
but if that's all the data you're being fed,
then that's all the data you're gonna go off of.
And lo and behold, you already have a disdain
for the entire system and what's going on right now.
Yeah, pretty much that's what's going on.
And there's always a spokesperson behind both sides,
trying to sell you on one or the other.
It's like, join up and do this.
There's a lot going on.
And it's so obvious too when you just do it, right?
Like I said, I'll watch right-wing media,
I'll watch left-wing media and just kind of laugh.
I'm like, oh, come on, man.
You're pulling at straws right now,
straight right now, like there's no way.
This is like watching, to me,
it's like watching WWE at times.
You could just know that John Cena's gonna go win
the belt at WrestleMania.
You just read the storyline, it's like, come on, man.
Yeah, it's like, this guy just assaulted me.
I'm looking at the video, I'm like, dude,
you were in their face bugging the shit out of them.
Their bodyguard would ever put a hand on you and say,
hey, please step back.
That's not assault.
Like you're bugging the shit out of them.
Again, I'm talking, I've watched right-wing influencers
do this and I'm just like, dude,
I'm gonna block you on social media,
like all you're doing is just pedaling this bullshit.
Yeah.
But pivot from that,
there's probably nobody still listening or watching,
but at this point,
you have a Jacksonville Jaguar shirt on.
I do.
Big Jacksonville fan.
I have been ever since they came into the league in 1995.
I've been with them ever since.
Prior to that, I'm not gonna lie,
I was riding with the Cowboys.
I was a big fan of them.
And then after they won the Super Bowl,
I saw the commercial for the Jacksonville Jaguars.
I was like, that's my next team.
And been with them since.
And even during that time,
being a little kid growing up in Colorado,
John Elway was the guy.
Sure, of course.
So I remember getting picked in school in 1996,
oh, the Jaguars are gonna lose.
You'll see, yada, yada, yada.
We went in a mile high,
we kept the shit out of them.
And I walk into school the next day, you know.
Where's everybody at?
Where's that excitement at?
Well, who's your favorite player over the years?
Was it Mark Reneau?
Was it David Gerard?
Gerard?
I would say it'd be David Gerard
because I got to watch a lot more of what he did.
I mean, surprisingly, we'd be lucky
if we got one game aired in Colorado once a year.
Sure.
So.
I can't remember his name.
You would know.
The running back, it was really good for a long time.
Maurice Jones Drew?
No, not MJD.
No, the other guy.
Leonard Foranette?
No, the Linney's too new.
No, he's, God, I want to say he played with Brunel.
Fred Taylor, that's this guy.
Fred Taylor, yeah, the jersey you're wearing.
Oh, I mean, that's funny.
I'm staring right at the jersey.
Fred Taylor was a beast, man.
Yeah, he was great.
Back in his prime, he was just unstoppable, you know.
So, and I'm starting to see
a lot of that magic coming back,
but today's Jacksonville Jaguars,
I've never seen before as a fan,
and we're borderline like Cleveland Browns.
We just suck every season.
We've only had like maybe five winning seasons in existence.
And I think the Jaguars of today
are better than the 1999 Jaguars
that almost went to the Super Bowl in the 2017.
Jacksonville.
Yeah.
I think today we're far better than those two.
You think so, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
It's cool to see because they've been kind of knocking
at the door for the past few years.
You know, whether they start out shitty
and finish great,
or they start out great, kind of finish shitty.
Yeah.
Or they implode what, 28 points
or something they gave up,
and they had like a huge lead a couple of years ago.
Oh, yeah.
You know, in the playoffs.
But they're looking good right now.
Yeah.
I had no idea.
I mean, we're a Buffalo Bills family,
my wife's from Buffalo,
and so we're just, all right,
but I don't really have team allegiance,
but we're a Buffalo team now.
Yeah.
And I just haven't really paid attention
to any other team outside of Buffalo.
So now at the end of the season,
I'm looking, I'm like,
Jacksonville is turning it up.
Yeah.
So right now I see Jacksonville is probably
the most complete and trying to not be biased
because people are, oh, you're biased, you know,
Jacksonville.
I'm saying they're the most complete.
I don't really see too many loose ends
with them going into the playoffs.
The picture, if I had to guess what's going on
this weekend,
I know New England's gonna railroad
the living shit out of the Chargers.
The Chargers are just holding up a spot.
Jacksonville and Buffalo,
from a non-prospect, a non-biased perspective
and you're gonna hate me on this one,
Jacksonville is good,
but Buffalo is in a state of scarcity right now.
And what I mean by that is they're coming into this game
with a lot of baggage and pressure
of you need to win or else.
And I've noticed that really in the last couple of weeks
just seeing how Josh Allen looks on the sidelines,
he looks stressed and so does McDermott.
So I think coming in on Sunday,
Jacksonville is gonna be cruising,
Buffalo is gonna be scared shitless the entire time,
like we need to win this game or else.
Like the pressure's in Buffalo right now
to go out and be successful.
And if I had to pick one team to be terrified of
in the playoffs, it's gonna be Houston.
And I say this because they have
that psychological leverage over the Jaguars.
What do I mean by the psychological leverage?
They also just beat the bills.
Yeah.
They have that thing like the Tennessee Titans
when they beat us the three times
when we should have went to the Super Bowl but didn't.
And it's not because Tennessee was
an incredibly great team, not biased by the way.
My older brother's probably gonna be,
he's a Titans fan.
So imagine growing up, butt and heads.
Anyways, it's the psychological leverage
of this is what we did to you.
And I think Houston, if we play them
in the playoffs at some point in time,
they're gonna play that little psychological leverage.
And that's gonna give them an edge.
Other than that, Houston looks pretty dangerous.
I think they're gonna run over the Steelers.
And this is gonna be Aaron Rodgers final game.
That's just my opinion.
Those are your hot takes, huh?
Yeah.
As far as Buffalo, I agree that they have the most pressure
because at this point people are like, there's no Lamar.
There's no Patrick Mahomes.
There's no Joe Burrow.
There's no excuse.
It's like at the end of the day,
you're still playing another great team.
Right.
It's not Josh Allen versus everybody else.
Win and loss is a quarterback stat, right?
Mm-hmm.
But Jacksonville's scary, man.
Yeah.
They are.
And in this household, we've talked about that too.
I told my wife, I was like, you know, I don't...
And then my son, he keeps up a lot of the stuff too.
And my brother-in-law, he's just like this,
he's kind of like this blind Buffalo Bills lover.
I used to kind of fuck with him when it's like...
It's like, we're going to the playoffs,
like, yeah, you backed into the playoffs.
You know, he gets so mad, right?
This is probably five or six years ago
when Tom was still in the league.
But I think they have the most pressure
of any team right now in the NFL because of all that stuff.
And, you know, Josh can push sometimes,
but he has no receivers.
Their defense is always...
Their front seven has been okay.
Their defensive backfield has always sucked, you know?
And we have Bosa now.
He's really it.
So I'm worried.
Any team that could pass a run, it's always scary.
Yeah, and Trevor Lawrence,
he's been throwing deep downfield
like I've never seen him before.
So that's going to be a challenge for them
right out of the back.
I like seeing him have success, man.
I hate when people talk shit about players,
especially when they're young, you know?
Trevor Lawrence, he's the dude, you know,
coming out of Clemson,
but I'm glad to see him starting to have some success.
And I agree with you there.
And I'm not going to lie.
I was one of those.
That was kind of like, I don't think this is it.
I don't think he's the guy.
I was wrong, you know,
when he started kind of fumbling at the middle of the season.
I was worried.
I was like, they're probably going to get another quarterback.
I am so thankful he got it together.
But that's your right though,
because you're a die hard Jaguars fan.
I expect that.
You know, from college football,
I was all over Arch Manning's ass.
Yeah.
You know, I was like,
I don't even know if he's even that good.
Yeah.
Because at the time he was playing like shit.
At the time Trevor Lawrence turnover problems, right?
I mean, it's, but he's coming into his own.
Yeah. And he did very well.
I mean, all of a sudden he's three touchdowns, zero picks.
You know, most of the time it was like three picks
in one touchdown.
It's like, what the hell?
We haven't seen horrible playing call.
You know, we haven't seen horrible plays made like that
since Blaine Gabbard was our quarterback.
Yeah, I could owe Blaine Gabbard.
Talk about, you know, wanting to put a bag
over your head.
That's where the bag wires came from.
In my opinion was those years that you were awful, you know,
and this was a guy that couldn't throw down field.
And it was just a circus, but I am so glad
that Trevor Lawrence managed to figure this out
in the middle of the season.
After blowing a lead to Houston, psychological leverage,
I'm glad that he was able to come back
and rebound from that.
And he did it well against the Jets.
And then the media is like, oh, well, it's the Jets.
Then we go to mile high.
I really enjoyed that game.
And we showed mile high, hey,
you know, a little small market team, you know, get it done.
As always, and we've always been a small market team.
So I'm not worried about Denver and the playoffs.
I think Sean Payton is a great coach.
I just don't have that conviction that he's gonna go
and win another Super Bowl with another team.
I think he's gonna get to the AFC championship
and that's as far as he's gonna get.
Could be wrong.
I hope I'm wrong.
If Jacksonville does not go to the play,
you know, go to the Super Bowl,
but I just think he's holding a spot too.
Yeah, and I haven't watched Denver.
You know, I look at the stats, you know,
I don't want to sound like a LeBron sexual,
just looking at stats and all.
But you know, every week I kind of looked to see
who's been doing what.
And I just haven't watched a lot of football
outside of the Bills this year.
Yeah.
So, but by the time this episode comes out,
this game would have already happened.
So I will say good luck to your Jacksonville Jaguars.
Yeah, I'm probably gonna sound like a complete clown,
but I'm gonna own it and thank you very much.
No, no, this is when you say,
well, good luck to the Buffalo Bills.
Good luck to the Buffalo Bills.
There you go, there you go.
You know, I wish them the very best.
If this is the end of our season,
I'd be okay with that.
I mean, yeah, it's gonna suck for us,
but hey, we're gonna come back and rebound next year.
I wish the Bills, I hope they go all the way.
If Jacksonville doesn't get it done,
I hope the Bills are the next.
Sure, that's fair, yeah.
Yeah, you know, somebody's gotta stop CJ Stroud.
That guy's a, that guy terrifies me.
You remember the old 1980s Terminator
where you're here to do, do, do, do, do, you know that beat?
Oh yeah, I know the thing, yeah.
I hear that shit every time I see, you know,
CJ Stroud or the coach,
because their composure is so well.
I'm like, are you an alien, a machine or something?
You know.
It's funny, my wife says, she goes,
who is that?
I go, that's the quarterback for Houston, Texas.
She goes, oh, he looks funny.
I go, what do you mean he looks funny?
He looks like a little girl, you know?
I started laughing, so every time I look at him,
he looks like a little girl.
It's just his hair and like the shape of his face,
I guess, it's hilarious to me.
It's weird, I call it like the Sonic the Hedgehog cut,
you know, that's how it registers to me, you know?
Especially when he was wearing blue
and he's running around, I'm like, oh God, there he goes.
There he goes, real Sonic, yeah.
That's all I see with him.
And then, you know, you got the coach on the sidelines,
maintains composure even when the world
is freaking on fire around him.
You don't see any emotion, he's just sitting there like,
what?
Yeah.
Those guys do scare me out of everybody
in the playoffs right now, it's Houston.
I'm not gonna lie, you know?
I just, they have their composure,
they have their shit together.
They're the only ones that can really derail,
in my opinion, Jacksonville.
If they go to the division or the AFC championship,
you're gonna see a bloodbath probably between those two.
There's gonna be like two hockey players
taking off their gear and just punching each other
in the face until there's no face available.
You know, you're just gonna see blood and guts
just being splattered everywhere.
That's what I predict is gonna happen.
Who would win?
I honestly don't know.
I just expect a bloodbath is all I can really say
if those two meet in the playoffs.
It's gonna be ugly.
So then, who are your Super Bowl picks?
We're gonna go ahead and say Jacksonville.
Mm-hmm.
If Jacksonville goes, I suspect
they're either gonna play against the Rams
or possibly the Niners.
You don't think Seattle's gonna make it?
I guess Seattle's got the number one seed.
That's another team, I had no idea
until like three weeks ago.
I'm like, oh, shit, they're doing great.
I think Seattle's got a great chance of going,
but I think if they meet the Rams in the NFC Championship,
I think we're gonna see their true colors.
Sam Darnold has done an incredible job.
Yes.
I just think that McVeigh's coaching
is gonna put them into the Super Bowl.
I just think that's the edge that they have.
And then Stafford, you know,
this might be his final season.
I mean, this guy is still unstoppable, you know?
He can make any receiver great, you know,
that you give him.
It could be some guy at the bar, no name, you know,
guy that they just pick up.
All of a sudden, he looks like Tyrell Owens.
And that's because McVeigh is a great coach.
I don't know what they're doing for their offense.
I don't know who their offensive coordinator is,
but they're amazing, you know?
They just seem to always have it together
even when they're backed against the wall.
And, you know, Seattle looks great, you know,
you watch them, they look amazing,
but I think if those two meet in the NFC Championship,
I think McVeigh is what's gonna put them
in the Super Bowl.
Yeah, so you say Stafford basically has the Tom Brady effect
because that was, you know, Brady just take this,
any normal dude and turn him into a freaking Pro Bowler.
Yeah, so I think that's gonna be the advantage
that they're gonna have there.
I also believe Brock Purdy could get it done, you know?
I never count out Brock Purdy.
There's a lot of unfortunate criticism surrounding him,
you know, but I think he's a great quarterback.
He's one of those guys that if you sleep on him,
you're gonna find out the hard way.
You know, hey, I shouldn't have slept on this guy.
Yeah, I had no idea that the Niners are doing good either.
Yeah, I thought they were done
and all of a sudden what, they're in the playoffs?
I know, they've lost like three or four games
or something like that.
I'm like, oh, I thought they were maybe 500 or something,
but J. Lopez, best of luck to you when you relocate.
As always, you know, we're gonna keep in contact.
Absolutely, and hopefully I can bring some new experiences
to you, you know, what the car scene
might look like out there.
Reconnecting with my Puerto Rican roots.
I hope to share that at some point in time.
That thing is a, you know,
the little blueprint I brought to you as a part of that.
You know what I mean?
Well, you're always welcome on the podcast.
You know that.
Yeah, thank you.
And so it's been my pleasure to have you here.
So we're gonna get you to sign this
and then we'll get you out of here.
Sounds good.
Thanks, Jay.
Thank you.
Yeah, that was fun.
That was a lot of fun.
I enjoyed it.
I hope you guys enjoyed that conversation with Jay Lopez.
You know, I really, I really appreciate it
when my guests have that level of candor.
A lot of times I think we sit from these positions.
I always, I'm always very careful, even what I say.
And I may have gone a little scorched earth today,
but I still try to toe that line in the middle
because that's how I am.
I kind of pride myself on trying to listen
to different arguments and draw a lot of my own conclusions.
There's times where I'm on social media
and I have to check myself to make sure
I'm not falling down, falling too far down
that spiral of echo chamber
because we all know that your algorithm shows you
what it thinks you wanna see based on what you clicked
on or things, you know, based on what you looked on.
I'm not breaking any news here by that.
You know, so I know there's people
who don't like it when I go there
and there's people who love it when I go there.
And for those of you, I would say that don't like it.
You have to ask yourself what it is that you don't like.
You come here to hear my opinions on things.
You come here to hear a little bit of car talk.
If you've been with this show for a long time,
you know that not a lot of car talk goes on.
Some car talk, but this is the mind of people
who meet initially through cars and transportation.
And it's real conversations with real people.
And of course the subject matter kind of drifts toward
whatever the guest is specialized in
or wants to talk about.
I tried to not put controversial topics on
when I have certain guests,
but Jay and I talked about it a little bit before,
talked about sports, talked about his personal life.
And I pay attention to him on social media
so I know what his triggers are,
his conversation points are.
It's always better when you can have a conversation
with somebody, even if it feels like an echo chamber
at times, but I meant what I said.
You have diehard opinions in one way,
diehard opinions on the other way
and neither of those diehard opinions
are really very good at talking about anything
other than what they firmly believe.
Then hopefully at some point the majority of people
will be in the middle and be willing
to have a conversation.
That's just how we have to do it.
If this is your first time listening to the show,
thank you, this is what this show is.
It's not always as intense about these things
as we've had happen today.
And since we talked earlier in the week,
this was Friday when he was in studio,
more stuff has come out and I still feel
at the end of the day it's a terrible thing
that someone lost their life.
I don't even blame this person as much,
you know, what the officer could or the law,
the agent could or couldn't have done.
I do understand from that perspective.
And I would say this because, you know,
the difference in barely doing something
or doing something is nothing, something was still done,
you know, and maybe it shouldn't be this way,
but if you go up on an officer
and the officer says, don't touch me,
if you just barely touch, you get arrested
right there on the spot versus trying to assault
and tackle or wrestle with, you know,
the stuff that some of these idiots do.
I saw a statement about the recently deceased
and I think we get so trapped in our mindset
about this person was super innocent
or this person is a domestic terrorist.
And the reality is this person wasn't either.
This person was closer to innocent than a domestic
terrorist and what I mean by that is that
unfortunately, people get radicalized by the media,
by local and state governments, by hate groups.
It's come out that she was part of one of many
anti-ice groups that go around
and they professionally train to agitate.
Remember what I said about those whistles
and it's too bad.
It's too bad where people can be weaponized this way.
You know, I once said on a podcast last year actually
that people that can get radicalized like that,
they're just low hanging fruit.
And it's sad that people in the government,
people in the media see that as an opportunity
to put their meat hooks in and use them as their puppets,
as their agents to get their little causes apart
and sometimes people pay the ultimate sacrifice
and it is terrible and that's my stance.
And it doesn't mean I'm not emotional about it.
I just try to look at things that way.
It's like, damn, this whole situation sucked.
Any way you look at it, it sucked.
Should she have been there?
No, we know now, there's video with them blocking
the road and dancing in their car,
more than happy to do it.
Never should have been there.
Didn't deserve to get unalived.
I think that the ICE agent out of reflex
of getting hit by a car,
because apparently he had got drugged by a car
like 300 feet earlier this year.
It's just terrible.
The whole situation sucks
and I wish everyone could just take a step back
and realize it.
Also, I know you saw, well, you probably didn't see,
but ICE released a list of the Department of Homeland
Security released a list of the people
that live caught in Minnesota,
the sanctuary state essentially.
And whoo, that list is crazy,
but the sad thing is at the end of the day,
that list, and no matter how many angles we see
is gonna change anyone's mind.
And that's why you should be really asking yourself
what's really going on.
One of the things, right, Hanan, right, Toyota,
Spark Forge AI from Marcus Foundry,
AutoCannon, officially licensed, Hanan Acura Gear.
Can't forget my Patreon business supporters,
Automotive Specialty Tool, I've always known as Maryland,
Kui Automotive out of Warner Garden, Florida,
The Lucky Breaks,
Sport Breakers out of Caledonia, Michigan,
Beagle House, Small Home Design out of
Ashbrook, Virginia and Traverse City, Michigan,
Shave and Success, Treasure Valley out of Boise, Idaho.
And I think that's it.
I said Automotive Specialty Tool, didn't I?
I did, and they're on here twice.
I think I said that last time I read this,
so I need to update this.
So if you're in a position to help the podcast grow,
you can join the Patreon, patreon.com for it
slash Hard Parking Podcast.
But the best thing you can do is tell people
about this podcast.
The best thing you can do is leave me a positive review
on Apple.
You can, of course, subscribe and leave positive comments
on the YouTube channel and help this podcast
get to where everyone thinks it already is.
Questions, comments or concerns?
Info at hardparking.com or follow the Instagram
at hardparkingpod and I will see you next time.
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