Cooper Bogetti Breaks Silence on Cleetus McFarland, Corvettes, and Powerglide Transmissions

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If you're a podcast host,

listen up this once for you.

My name is Ali Jackson.

I'm the host of Finding Mr. Height,

a dating and relationship podcast

that I've been doing for four years now,

sharing my positive and practical approach to dating

that's built on my own life experience.

And I wanted to share another experience that I've had,

my secret behind monetizing my show.

It's called Red Circle.

And I was just telling my colleague

about how much I love their platform.

With Red Circle,

not only am I getting a seamless hosting experience,

but I also love the support I receive in AdSales.

It's not just typical AdSales either.

It's targeted opportunities based on my show and my life.

And the platform is super simple.

You just set your preferences

and Red Circle matches you with sponsors

that align with your show.

You can vet every opportunity

and their platform gives you great analytics.

More recently too,

my Red Circle team has brought me opportunities

outside of my podcast on social media.

To really augment the podcast partnerships,

bring them full circle.

I just can't recommend them enough.

If you want to give it a try,

go to redcircle.com to get your free trial.

That's redcircle.com for a free trial.

Welcome back to another episode

of the Street Alpha podcast.

I am your host, Tukes.

And we are in Bradenton.

And we have the pleasure of being in Cooper's shop.

Cooper is a well-known YouTuber

and also I guess I would say Dragracer as well.

And he's also, I would say a fellow podcaster, right?

He has a podcast brand now

that he's grown over the past few years.

And this is probably the first podcast episode

that I've had with another,

I wouldn't say you're a podcaster.

I feel like it's kind of like,

I hate when people call me a podcaster,

but somebody who does a podcast,

that's a well-known who interviews reputable people

and people who are actually professionals in the industry.

Same people that I interview as well.

So it's pretty cool that we'll get a different perspective.

And I'm sure we'll have some conversation

about the realities of starting a podcast

and what it looks like in the automotive space

for the future of podcasting.

And if that's gonna be, I guess,

a sustainable thing to continue to do in today's day and age.

The most part, maybe, we don't know, we don't know,

but I love to get your take on that too.

Super happy that we're able to do this.

And also we'll be able to unpack information about you

along your career that really nobody's really spoken about,

especially yourself, right?

Yeah, I've never really done a full explanation of all of it.

It's been bits and pieces

and people that have followed for a long,

and probably think that they know a lot more than they do,

maybe, or they do know more than some people,

just because they've been around long enough.

And I mean, you'd have to have been following

for a long time, early on,

what me and Cleetus were doing to really grasp it all.

I actually, funny enough, the other day I saw a comment

and somebody was like,

I was watching early Cleetus videos, this guy's an idiot.

It's like, you're watching a video from 15 years ago, dude.

Like, of course I was an idiot.

I was like 22 years old.

Oh man, that is funny.

Yeah, I mean, and kind of we were speaking off camera

about that, like, you know, even me two years ago,

like, you know, you don't really know much

when you first start doing this.

Even being on camera, how to film, it's funny.

If you guys check out the shop tour that we did,

I started recording and he's like,

oh, front-facing camera, that's interesting.

And I'm like, damn, I film on professional cameras

and I couldn't even film with an iPhone.

Like, I'm not even hip to know what you guys do

because a lot of the content you guys do now

is just like iPhone-based, right?

Yeah, it's just so easy.

I mean, the audio pretty much always picks up,

the video is always there, you can tell right away.

Yeah.

I was talking to Bill, the old man,

and he was telling me he films his videos

and he edits on his iPhone too.

A lot of people do, yeah.

But he edits throughout his day.

Oh, okay.

So I'm like, oh, so you kind of really have

like a good concept of by the end of it.

But I was like, man, that seems like a lot of work.

I hate the small screen,

but I think you get used to it after a while.

But yeah, I have like a massive screen

and it's just, I'm kind of spoiled to editing.

I just can't have the small phone stuff.

But I mean, if you have to do it in a situation

where you got to post a quick reel or something, why not?

But I just thought it was funny

because like I didn't know,

I assumed you guys film with front-facing cameras

so you guys can see if you're talking to somebody

and they have, you know, in the frame.

Not good enough camera, man.

You gotta use the backside.

Yeah, that's true, that's true.

So before we begin, let's give a round of applause

for Cooper.

It's all pleasure, pleasure to have you on the show.

I'm glad we're finally able to do this.

Yeah, thanks for making the trip, man.

Yeah, of course.

We had a great conversation

and if you guys haven't already,

members, you guys can make sure to check out the shop tour.

He gave us a tour on the shop

and also his studios where he films,

which is actually pretty impressive.

The space that he has, he was able to make it work

and it looks amazing, honestly.

It's something that I aspire to have,

but like we were speaking about what it really makes sense

because your location is prime.

Like you have your 10 minutes from the track,

people come in, they fly in from all over the,

probably the world at this point

and you can have conversations with people

like 10 minutes away.

I will say, I was probably this close

to building one in an enclosed racing trailer.

Oh, that'd be dope, but the space, how would that?

That would fit my car as well.

There is a podcast that does, they go travel.

I think it's in Europe or something like that, UK.

Oh yeah, yeah.

In the van.

Yeah, in the van, and it kind of works for him.

Yeah, and it's probably even tighter

than an enclosed racing trailer, so like.

That's, yeah, you can make it work, I think.

The van definitely is.

Yeah.

And if he could make it work in a van,

there's no reason why an enclosed trailer couldn't do it.

That wouldn't be a bad idea.

I know we were talking about like.

That would be great, like you're going to TX2K,

you go to World Cup, you go to...

Damn.

Like it just, and everything's already set up,

you don't have to think about it.

That, to me, seemed like a really good option

for a long time.

And you don't have to...

What?

You have your generator or just like a battery pack

so it's quiet.

No, but I'm not like spending so much time setting up.

Oh, that'd be awesome.

Damn, you really just gave me like a...

And it's crazy because I've watched that podcast before,

and I'm always like, I don't want to be crammed up

in a space, but then when I walk into your studio,

I'm like, this seems comfortable.

Like it's not...

You don't feel like you're cluttered in there.

It's like, it seems comfortable.

Like you have enough space,

you can put cameras on the side too.

And I'm pretty sure that'd be the same width

as a trailer or no.

It's probably a little bit wider, right?

That's a little wider.

It's like about a foot wider than an enclosed trailer.

That was kind of like,

kind of what stopped me a little bit

because I really wanted it just a little bit wider.

So you can still sit on the sides, obviously,

and then put cameras up on the...

Yeah, you'd probably just need a tighter table.

I think you could still work though,

if you get the right camera.

It would absolutely work.

And you're out of racetrack.

Nobody's expecting the perfect podcast setup.

It just seemed like a cool way to do it to me.

Oh, that's dope.

Well, you have an idea.

Pretty cool.

You should do it.

I will not care if you do it.

Oh, everything costs money.

That's the first thing I'm like,

well, in order for me to do it the way I would want to do it,

it's probably going to be an expense.

And it's like, I have to really think about it.

I don't know if it's me being cheap,

or if it's just like,

doesn't make sense for me to do that.

Am I going to be able to make that money back?

Yeah, it's a big upfront cost.

100%.

So it's like, is it smart to do that?

And I don't know.

It's a great idea,

but I think breaking it down cost-wise,

that's where you'll know,

like, all right, if this is a good idea or not.

But I'm really interested in knowing your story.

I've seen you over the years pop up on YouTube.

And then the podcast, of course,

I've watched several of your podcast episodes.

And a lot of those were great episodes

to kind of get information about some of the guests

that I've had on as well.

So, you know, podcasting has become

a very common thing nowadays.

And I don't want to say it's competitive,

because I feel like people watch

who they feel comfortable watching.

It's not about who's better.

It's more about like,

who people are able to kind of get information from

or feel comfortable listening to while they're working,

or at any time of the day.

Obviously you've transitioned from doing, you know,

YouTube car building to that,

but what even started at this all?

Like, where did that all stem from?

So I'll tell you, I'll go into that,

but I wanted to say about the competitive podcasting.

I actually think about it the opposite way almost,

because we both have had on people that aren't big names,

and we both want to get more views.

And the only way to get them to be bigger names

is to have them on things.

So, if you have them on and people like them,

and then I have them on and people know

that they like them from you,

or from someone else, or, you know,

from Harris with Minoxide,

if we can help elevate those names,

then there will be more guests that get more views.

And we could, you know, it's cheesy,

but the rising tide rises all ships.

So it's like, if we can all elevate these guests

to be people that people want to listen to,

and we could give people more hours of those same people

from a different perspective, that's a win.

That's a win for all of us,

because we've both had people on that.

And it's like, you shake it,

and you're like, more people need to watch this person.

They're very interesting.

100%. I agree with you 100%.

And that's really what we were speaking about before.

It was like, the way that I started this podcast,

I didn't really have like a brand like,

you know, you were already kind of known, you know?

So normally it's the other way around.

People start podcasts because, you know,

they already have a brand,

and they just want to do something separate.

But for me, it was opposite.

And, you know, for me, it wasn't about me.

It wasn't like, I want to be famous.

I want to get, you know, followers.

It was more about like, let me use my talent with production

to kind of help these people share their stories

and kind of get their information out there.

That's exactly what you said

is exactly why I started the podcast.

Yeah, to help elevate those people.

And then that elevates the other people

that are having those same people on.

I mean, it kind of helps us in the end of the day.

There's probably some people that are more famous

just from your podcast that end up going on to, like,

they have more notoriety from that.

And then they get to roll that into gaining more notoriety

into their own social medias.

And, you know, there's two types of people

you can give them something and then they run with it

or they let that fizzle out.

And there's probably a lot of people

that have ran pretty well with.

100%.

And the hard part is just kind of getting,

in the beginning, at least,

it's just getting people to believe in you.

Because people, you start a podcast,

everybody knows who you are.

Like, all right, yeah, no problem.

For me, it's like, I got to start somewhere.

So how am I gonna, you know, it's like,

you're working your way up.

It's a whole different start.

But for the most part, it's very rewarding.

Or it's like, to me, at least,

when people are able to kind of get on the podcast

and then go do their own thing.

I love seeing that.

Yeah, exactly.

That's the cool thing.

And you've probably inspired more people

to put their face on camera more than you realize too.

Like the same people that are on the podcast

that don't do much on camera stuff,

then in turn end up doing more on camera stuff after.

Like doing their own YouTube stuff more.

I'm sure you've, you may not have realized,

but you probably see it.

Like they realize, oh man, like I can just talk

and like, you know, show things in my shop

and put that videos out.

I can do that.

Maybe I should start paying attention more.

I feel bad.

The after effects of it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I, you know, doing this alone is kind of like,

it's tough because you don't really,

like I don't have time to like,

and it sucks because you have a guest on you just like,

all right, on to the next.

It's not really like that,

but it's just more of like, you know,

you gotta, you're just busy, I guess, if that makes sense.

So, but I do hope that it has inspired.

Well, there's a balance too,

because you're in this industry

and you have to talk about it all the time.

So you really do have to look at the industry all the time

and pay attention to it all the time.

Like something can't, you know, really happen.

And if you miss it and then you're talking to that guest

and you just like didn't realize

that it was something of importance, it kind of sucks.

Or even current events,

sometimes we talk about current events a little bit more

on my like automotive current events.

Which is great.

I can't do that.

You know, I think that's more of an experience thing.

You know, you race, I don't race,

and you understand the drag racing scene

and what the classes are and the events are about.

So it's a really, it's something I wish I can get into,

but that comes with time and experience, you know?

It was pretty cool to do that.

I think you should start like a news kind of, you know?

I've thought about it.

I've thought about doing a weekly or monthly wrap up,

but it's a lot of legwork to get like,

to be a basically an illustrator of, you know,

like you're a newspaper, what would they call that?

Where you're like the final say guy of like,

you have to be like the writer and the presenter

and it's just a ton.

It's a big job.

Even like the small 10 minute videos I do take a lot of time

because I'll do a ton of EPA videos.

I do a lot of that on like a clips channel I have.

And sometimes those do well,

but I'll spend all night reading legal documents.

It takes time to read stuff.

Freaking EPA legal documents.

I'm going through like reading, you know,

Supreme Court decisions and things like that

from like, you know, all the justices

and trying to like make heads or tails of it

and like understand their jargon and I'm like.

It's a lot.

It is a lot.

You probably have to maybe just get a producer

or get somebody on board that maybe like

can do all the legwork.

And then you just read the notes from it

because you already understand the industry.

So it just makes it easier for you to kind of just like

flow with it, you know?

But most of the stuff like that,

I always think on that kind of level.

I'm like, how can we make this like

the best possible production ever?

And if I had your talent like that,

I'd definitely try to do that.

I think it'd be really cool to kind of have somebody

reporting what's going on.

Cause we don't really have that.

You know, it's kind of crazy too

because there's a lot of legacy automotive journalists

that still don't do much video.

I have friends that write for these automotive drag,

like drag journalist websites.

And I'm like, you just spent

how long writing a 10 minute piece

and didn't film yourself reading it

and post it on YouTube?

True, true.

That's insane to me.

I'm like, a lot of people would be like,

oh, 10 minutes about the new drag strip that opened up.

I'll just listen.

I'm not going to read it.

True.

And I'm like, you just wrote it all.

You did all the research already.

Yeah.

You're 90% there.

You just have to read it out loud.

Put a camera on and read it out loud.

Put your iPhone up with a micro,

like it's the easiest thing it's insane to me.

You're so close.

Like you're so close to the promised land of like.

The hard work is done.

The actual content of, you know,

not to hate on these people that just write things

and it seems like you writing things

kind of goes into the ether.

It just kind of disappears.

But like, I don't know, it just,

video and you know, YouTube algorithm is mythical.

You can put things into it and it'll give you,

it'll give you the best month of your life

or the worst 100%.

I've been there.

You're just pulling strings and you're like,

I hope some of this works.

Yeah, I find that it's worse

when you're doing personal kind of content,

like personal build stuff for podcasting.

I kind of feel like I know now what is going to work

because that's basically the marketing

or at least the clips that roll out

is what's going to dictate how well

that episode does for me on my side at least.

But if you're doing like content

where you're like building a car

or like freestyle stuff, it's exactly like that.

You don't really know.

Well, a lot of people don't think about it

from the top of the funnel.

Like you think about your podcast from top of the funnel.

How can I interest the most people?

A lot of people when they're building

their own like build content,

will think about bottom of the funnel and I do it too.

I'm not immune to this where it's like,

oh, working on my 2JZ Camaro.

And it's like that's very bottom of the funnel.

That doesn't like, if I'm trying to get more new people

to watch it, they don't know me.

Why would they click my, they don't care.

Right, it's true.

Like you have to hook that same person

the same way you would hook your podcast listener.

They don't know anything about it.

A new person just rolled up off the street.

Your elevator pitches that title and thumbnail.

If it's a very personal thing,

which it all is like,

some people will do like a 50 part video series

on building a car and it's like,

yeah, they don't care about you wiring the AC.

Like they don't care, who cares about that?

I don't care about that.

Unless it's a popular platform where they're like,

there's like a common issue or something

or like something new that came out.

But yeah, sure.

If you're like Chris Vicks and you got like,

and you're also prepared for the long-term game,

you know, it's gonna go 10 out of 10,

but maybe five years from now, it'll keep creeping up.

And eventually it'll hit, you know,

like it doesn't have to hit, it'll just keep getting fused.

You know, and I know Chris Vicks pretty well.

He has the most evergreen content of all time.

All right, so who is it?

Tell us who it is.

Tell us what he looks like.

He, like when I close my eyes,

he kind of looks exactly as you'd picture it.

You know?

Yeah, he's just kind of like a regular dude.

You know, nothing.

You know, a regular dude is kind of like,

I think it's probably because when you've seen him,

you were like, oh, that's what you look like.

Yeah, that's Chris.

That kind of images.

He's just, you know, black hair,

kind of pasty skin.

You're trying not to give out as much.

I don't even know.

If I was like trying to describe him to somebody that was like,

hey, this guy just, you know, assaulted me.

You have to describe what he looks like.

You know, like a sketch artist,

I'd be like, oh, shit.

On a circular face, some facial hair, like black hair,

just a little bit of scruff every time I see him.

You've probably seen him at SEMA.

So many people at SEMA though.

Yeah, but he walks around with a Chris Fix hat on.

He's not that low-key.

Oh, so people know what he looks like?

Yeah.

Oh, okay.

He always wears it.

When he's like walking around like normal,

he's in Chris Fix merchandise, like full gear.

Oh, wow.

I guess to the, okay, so if you're not at SEMA.

But if you don't know what he looks like,

he just walked right by you.

Okay, but on online, he never,

never showed his face online.

Okay, interesting.

And how do you think he is?

He's got 10 million subscribers,

never showed his face online.

And how, how old do you think he is?

I don't know, 33 maybe.

Oh, okay.

He's only about 10 minutes from here too.

I can't even put a picture on my head

of what he looks like, but.

So funny enough, maybe seven years ago now,

me and Garrett were leaving SEMA

and we're in the airport.

Me and Garrett obviously, Cletus, we're in the airport

and this guy's behind us online and it's Chris Fix.

But did you know that?

Yeah.

Garrett did, he was like, he saw the hat

and he was like, are you Chris Fix?

And he's like, yeah.

And he, I think he recognized Garrett at the time.

We're still pretty small YouTubers.

And like, he wasn't as, you know,

wasn't like, oh, that's clearly Cletus at the time.

It was like, oh, there's this tall guy.

And Garrett posted a selfie with him on Facebook

and very quickly took it down

because everybody was commenting like,

hey, don't expose Chris Fix's face.

He's never exposed it.

Cause like, we didn't realize at the time

and Chris Fix was probably only like

three million subscribers at the time.

He wasn't like as.

But he took it down because Chris said something?

No, because the subscribers, the followers were saying,

like, hey, Chris doesn't show his face.

Like take this down.

So he took it down, but Garrett did leak Chris's face.

Oh wow.

For a brief minute and then took it back down.

But it was, I mean, somebody's probably got that screenshot.

Somebody definitely does.

I'm pretty sure if I looked it up online on Google,

somebody has got a picture.

It's probably that screenshot on Reddit,

if I were to guess.

I don't know.

I would just assume it'd be on Reddit, if anything.

Okay, interesting.

Yeah, there's a lot of hype.

A lot of people do like the nose face kind of approach.

I don't know if it's been common with the automotive space

in terms of people who do that kind of content.

Oh, it's so hard.

How do you even manage that?

Unless you only did like repair stuff

and he only does it in his garage on,

like in his driveway on jack stands.

I just have a lot of respect

for how he's been able to manage.

For so long and 10 million subscribers

is a really cool feat in the automotive industry,

I feel like.

100%.

That's a lot.

Where's Cleetis at?

He's like five or six.

10 million.

I think that it probably has to do with more

of the general content that he does.

Cause it caters to everybody.

Like you can be somebody driving a Corolla

and his content will kind of work for you.

It's a lot more people that content reaches out to for sure.

And the really in-depth repair videos.

It's just a great system to do it.

And it's funny that he's not,

cause a lot of people would continue doing that,

but then spin off doing like a project

that they really wanted to do

or like buy a freaking Lamborghini as like a side,

you know what I mean?

Like a side channel.

And he just kind of.

He's just flowing.

Hasn't, he just, you know.

Maybe he has another business

or something that he's, you know,

focusing on or something.

Or he just like, that's just funding.

You never know what people's plans are with.

If they even like doing what they do.

No, but it's the evergreen content.

Those videos will always get views.

True.

And he's already got the platform.

So it's like, that's just helps the algorithm

even more when he posts a video.

So yeah, that's good for him though, man.

I definitely got to look up that picture

to see what he looks like.

Someone, you wouldn't be surprised.

You just like, oh, okay.

That's yeah.

Interesting.

I had that same approach with a,

I did an interview with quiet.

He's like, he was at TX2K too.

He sells a lot of merch, quiet racing.

And I was just like, oh, actually,

I didn't think that that's what he looked like.

But I was just like, okay.

Wow.

Now I understand when people probably,

not in a bad way,

not saying he's ugly or anything like that.

But like, you know, you're just like a regular guy.

You wouldn't think that like,

this many people like, you know,

follow you because, you know what I'm saying?

Yeah, just seeing your hands like work.

You just see your hand.

Well, like everything's covered.

Is it gloves?

Blue gloves.

Yeah.

So it's pretty cool, pretty interesting.

But definitely I could see that being stressful

if you're trying to, you know, protect your identity.

I thought he was going to do a 10 million face reveal.

I thought, you know, I told him to come on the podcast.

I was like, I'll just like block you off halfway.

And then what do you say?

He'll do it eventually.

We just haven't been able to link up.

But I was like, I'll just,

I'll just have a half divider in between us, I guess.

Cause he did, he went on Graham Stephan ice coffee hour

with a helmet on for the whole podcast.

Oh, really?

I don't think I saw him on there.

I didn't even know he did the podcast.

Yeah.

A helmet on the whole time was like, damn, committed.

Committed to the bit.

They could have just not used that camera angle.

How long, how long was the podcast?

It's like an hour and a half.

Yeah.

It's got, I did an hour and quiet was like,

he was like sweating about to pass out.

Cause he has a whole suit on everything.

Like gloves, boots, full race gear.

So committed to the bit.

Yeah. No, a hundred percent.

It's definitely tough.

But let's switch gears.

Obviously that was pretty interesting, pretty funny.

But yeah, let's hear your origin story.

I want to know how you started with all this stuff.

I know, and you're from New York too, right?

Yeah. Long Island.

Yeah. So I'm from Long Island too.

I'm from Deer Park.

Okay.

And you mentioned you're from the Hamptons?

Montauk.

The last spot.

That's far.

That's probably like.

The farthest stop on Long Island, the last one.

I think that's like an hour and some change from Deer Park.

Deer Park is like Bayshore, like South Shore,

like kind of like in the middle of the island.

But even to get from there to like,

there was like an hour and some change.

Yeah. My wife had some family in Deer Park

and my family was like Ron Conk, Myria and stuff like that.

So like even my dad was from Westchester.

So the whole Island area was,

I popped around in, but I only lived in Montauk my whole life.

And then 18 years old, they were like,

all right, you're graduating high school,

where are you going to move to?

Or what are you going to do?

And I was like, oh shit, I should just,

I could just go anywhere.

I was like 18.

I was like, I could just like move, move?

Yeah.

And I was like, I guess I'll go to Florida.

It seems like it's nice.

There's warm.

So no college wasn't a thing for you?

I went to engineering school just for,

just to trade school.

Three years, I got a degree in,

I specialized in like fixed five volt.

So like small electronics, computer coding,

stuff like that.

Didn't really want to use it,

but I always had such a passion for small electronics

like that, that it seemed like a no-brainer.

And then came down here for school.

I was not like a car guy.

That was like truck country up there.

Everybody had trucks on Long Island,

like at least where we were.

And I had an SUV, I always wanted a truck.

I didn't really care for cars that much

because it's winter.

And it just seemed like I was never in a situation where

it was like, oh, I'm going to have two cars.

So I was like, okay, well, it does not make sense

to have two cars.

So I guess I'll just have a car that can do everything.

I'd need an SUV or a truck.

And then finally after a few years of living in Florida,

I was like, okay, I'm going to get a cool car.

And then I got that first gen CTSV

after a few years, daily drove that thing for a few years.

But before I got that car, I met Garrett.

Garrett, obviously, Cletus McFarlane.

But in Florida, of course, right?

Yeah, cause he's from Omaha, Nebraska, where 1320 is.

That's how he met Kyle Loftus.

And then he went to Florida for school.

We met through a mutual friend.

We're kind of both on an island in a way

where it's like, we didn't have a lot of car friends

around us, people that were any interesting cars.

Like they were so uninterested in cars

that we were almost forced gravity together.

It was almost like, hey, you two, you guys like cars.

And he was working for 1320 video at the time,

managing Instagram, Instagram was still pretty small.

It was like, it was just a photo platform.

It wasn't even...

So that started like what, 2011?

2011, I think is what Instagram came out?

Yeah, but it was a long time

before it was anything of like real, like...

Well, it was probably just photos, like you said.

But at that time, it was probably like,

cause I don't even know if video was on there,

heavy like that.

No, not, we were doing it in probably like 2015.

And it was still like, they were just starting

to roll out new features, like a 4U page.

And like it was really starting to ramp up.

And 1320 had not really cared about it.

They were so heavy on video and like DVDs at the time still.

Like they were still pushing that.

DVD era is wild.

Yeah, that was not even that long ago.

I know, it's crazy.

Nostalgic.

And they were pushing so hard on that,

that when Garrett wanted to help 1320,

he was like, hey, you want me to just start you an Instagram

and I can just run the Instagram.

But why do you think it was,

why Instagram and not like Facebook or anything like that?

They had already had a Facebook.

Facebook was already like kind of working pretty well.

They had a guy doing it.

But then Instagram was starting to ramp up.

So Garrett just offered to do it for free.

He was like, I'll just, you know, run your Instagram page.

So he was doing that for a while,

about a year into him doing that.

I mean, it hit 100,000 followers

when we were working for it.

Like it was that small.

It was still 100,000 followers back in 2015.

But like when I was working with him on it,

we had just saw it hit 100,000 followers.

Like that was tiny for 1320 video at the time.

They're probably like a couple million now on Instagram.

Yeah, but at the time it was pretty good.

Yeah, it was pretty crazy.

It was, it was definitely big.

And we were like pretty young

and pretty green behind the ears.

So we were just kind of like mean posting

and like post their photos and things like that.

But it was cool.

I spent years just posting every single day on Instagram

just like random photos I would find, random 1320 posts.

And then like finally they added videos

and we would be posting like videos.

And that was kind of a torture

because then you'd have to like actually edit things down.

Like before that it was just photos

and photos would do really well.

So like I'd have photos go off and like it was cool.

We were able to build the Instagram from 100,000

to finally when we stopped doing it in like 20,

I don't know, 2017 maybe.

When we finally were like done doing it for them,

we were like, okay, we're gonna hand the reins back off.

It was at over a million followers.

So like we, I was like soul posting on that thing

from like a hundred K to a million for years.

Wow.

And most of it was content that like people

like talented photographers like Scott Witte

or you know, people that 1320 would have helped them.

What's his name?

Kevin Cox at the time was super talented photographer.

I like photographers.

I don't wanna ever like discredit their work

because they do the legwork.

I was doing the easy shit.

I was like, they were just feeding me things.

But it gave me like an eye, it gave both of us like an eye

for being able to go through a album of say

like a thousand photos.

And it wasn't a gallery on Instagram at the time.

You posted one photo.

I posted one photo, yeah.

And it wasn't an algorithm, it was in the feed.

It was like it didn't show you random things.

So it gave us an eye to like what works,

what gets a lot of likes, what people like.

And it was an input of, I probably input 10,000 photos

into this thing and just learned what did well

and what didn't over time.

And it just, whether I know it now or feel it now,

it's like doing that much input,

you're gonna learn something about this whole industry.

And then after that hit like a hundred thousand,

maybe it was out like a couple hundred thousand

at the time, Kyle Loftus, 1320 owner was like,

okay, you guys clearly are doing pretty good.

Here's Facebook too.

So then we were, Garrett was the content manager

for 1320 video and I was his employee.

I was working under him.

I was managing Instagram and then I was also helping

on Facebook and we were also finding videos

and writing articles about them.

And at that time, you could kind of trick

the Facebook algorithm at the time

because it wasn't monetized on Facebook like it is now.

Facebook wasn't monetized until, I mean not long ago.

So we were writing articles on this like,

it was like a faux website that we had.

And we would just put the articles on Facebook

with a clickbait thumbnail and title

to try to convince people to click it

and go to the video and watch the video.

The article was really not important.

It was finding viral videos and getting them

to our website where our website had ads.

And it was a good system at the time.

And again, you could keep inputting that.

I would have to go through every morning,

find five videos that were interesting

and then we would decide which ones were worth

making a whole article about, putting them on the Facebook,

trying to drive traffic to this website.

That was kind of like, again, like it was like a faux website.

It wasn't anything that was like,

I don't even know what it was called.

I don't even remember the name of it.

It was like, racecar.net or something like.

Okay, that sounds like something they'd be like

from back then.

Yeah, it was like nothing of importance.

Like the website didn't matter.

It wasn't 1320.com.

It was just a vessel to get people to see an ad

and then we would make money off of them seeing an ad.

That was it.

And we did that for years again.

And me and Garrett were doing this for a while.

We had, we were managing both this website.

We were running the Facebook.

We were running their Instagram.

But like, there was no more growth really.

Like we're not against 1320 or anything,

but we were like, you know, 20-something year old kids.

We were pretty ambitious.

We wanted like more.

More.

We were like, okay, how do we like expand on this?

And then we were like, okay, well,

we can manage social medias.

So we set out, we started finding clients.

And then we ended up, I don't know,

we had like a half dozen, maybe a dozen clients

that we were managing automotive social medias for

at that time.

And this was like a couple years of doing that

where it was, it was good income.

That's, yeah, I'm sure that many people, yeah.

Yeah, but unfortunately we kind of paved the way

because it was still early.

So like people didn't see the value in it just yet.

Facebook wasn't what it is now.

Instagram, it wasn't what it is now.

We weren't delivering crazy amounts.

So we weren't like trying to get, you know,

tens of thousands of dollars from that monthly.

We were just trying to make sure

that these social medias were like alive.

It was really the, was really all they would pay us for.

We would offer packages,

but they were all like, they didn't really see the value

in it now, probably a little different.

But again, we were just like trying to get a couple grand

here and there from the, all these people.

And then it was, it was, it was rough work.

It was daily making sure that these social medias

didn't look like they were just dead

because that's what we would come into.

We would come into social medias

that looked like nobody was home

because a lot of these are just owner operated businesses.

They're not focused on it.

And even it was way worse at the time.

Now that, now everybody sees the value in it.

It doesn't take a lot of convincing,

but at the time it was like really had to try.

And we had a bunch of clients, they were all happy,

but eventually we were just like,

we're still doing that.

And we're doing pretty well off that.

Garrett had his C7, like I had my CTSB,

like we're both like in the car world.

We're working for companies like streetcar takeover,

TX2K like companies, like decent, you know,

decent brands and then

Garrett being the entrepreneur that he is

and a very smart businessman knew that that sucked.

Are you really buying a car online

on AutoTrader right now?

Really?

At a playground?

Yeah, really.

Look at these listings from dealers.

Wow, your search can really get that specific.

Really?

And you just put in your info and boom,

car's in your budget.

Mom needs a second, honey.

You can really have it delivered?

Really, or I can pick it up at the dealership.

One sack, sweetie.

Mommy's buying a car.

Mommy, what?

I think your kid is walking up the slide.

Kyle, again, really?

AutoTrader, buy your car online, really?

Like that legwork every day for somebody else sucked.

Yeah.

So he was like, hey, we should start a YouTube channel

around the Cletus McFarlane stuff.

Cause that was already a thing just on 1320.

Right, when you started doing the videos.

Yeah, they would do like random things on 1320

and we didn't live near Kyle.

We lived in Florida.

He lived in Omaha.

So like it was once in a blue moon,

there'd be a Cletus video.

We had no way to force them.

We didn't make them.

They would just happen when they happened.

So Garrett, again, he was, you know, he's a smart man.

I was like, okay, we're gonna start.

What are we gonna film?

Yeah.

And then that question kind of just continued on forever.

Like, you know, the daily question as a content creators,

what are you gonna film?

Yeah, yeah.

And, you know, he asked me before there was,

there was zero subscribers on Cletus McFarlane.

And he was like, hey, let's go film a video in the garage.

I was like, okay, cool.

So we were just, that was how it started.

We just started filming videos in his two car garage

that was like one and a half cars, really.

And he had three roommates at the time,

including him.

One of his other roommates got like use of the garage.

So we had to like drive his car out and like try to set up.

Like it was a whole thing.

But we just kept filming videos and filming videos.

And then finally it hit like a hundred thousand subscribers.

Then like another time it hit like a million

and like all these milestones.

And, you know, it was well over a million when I left.

But, you know, this thing started

with just two people in a garage.

Even when we were doing merchandise

was still two people in a garage selling thousands

of dollars worth of merchandise.

We would film all day.

He would go edit, I would go package t-shirts.

And then the next day we would do the same thing.

And that was just years of that was just like,

like a constant grind of that.

And it was, it was a lot when it's just two people

because, you know, it was still big

with two people, but it wasn't like,

there wasn't anybody to delegate things to.

So everything that needed to happen was like.

You or me, yeah.

What she was doing.

And it was really cool because I learned every side of it.

Yeah.

And dealt with every side of it.

And it was, you know, even then I was still managing

like the Cleis McFarlane, Facebook, social media

and stuff I was doing posts on there.

I was like still managing.

Like for a while there was overlap

of like still managing other social medias

while we were working together,

which we did have time for that because there's,

there's when we were just starting,

there wasn't enough money to constantly create content

or enough like ideas.

Yeah.

Like you got to get that ball rolling.

So we were always struggling with like,

oh, what are we going to do now?

I remember there was like times where it'd be like 10 a.m.

We're sitting there having breakfast,

sitting at McDonald's like,

what are you going to do today?

Like we need a video this week.

Like we need, like we need to do something.

And that's why if you go back to those early videos,

they're the most random things of all time.

So none of it was, and actually I don't,

I haven't seen any of like the very first videos

on Cleetus's channel, but like you guys weren't doing

car stuff like, or you were.

Oh, we were, but like,

but like what was the plan?

So, because people say it's so common for people to say,

hey, let's start a YouTube channel.

Yeah.

But then the next question is,

what is it going to be about?

Right?

And this channel, was there like any type of focus

or is it any plan?

Cause you said he's a good businessman, right?

Yeah.

And usually people who think like that have some sort of like

long-term goal or some type of idea of what they plan

to do with the channel or something.

Whatever the plan is.

The plan is still the same as it is now on this channel.

What can I do that will get views?

Wow.

You know what I mean?

It's not like.

But it doesn't really come across as like clout chasing though.

No, because he actually wants to do these things.

Right.

That's probably, that's probably what it is.

Yeah.

Like you can't force it.

Yeah.

But that's, that's what it started out as.

Like we would, we would look at what was happening

in the automotive world and in like social media

and be like, well, you know,

what can we do to just get views?

Because people are people were doing stupid stuff

on YouTube at the time.

And that's why a lot of those early videos are very silly.

I mean, there, a lot of those videos

are extremely, extremely silly.

Like you should just look at the first.

I'll just, I'll just show you.

You'll probably have to put it in or something.

But I think one day there was like a video

where he was like flying on the planes at the lake

or something like that.

This is before like years ago.

Let's see.

The popular ones are still the original ones,

but like turbo exhaust whistles, 14 million views.

We drove a car into a lake, turbo exhaust whistles again,

seven million views.

This one getting exhaust whistles on like, on what?

On a, on his Corvette.

We put the stupid whistle tips in his Corvette.

This one we got a turbo key chain and 850 PSI of nitrous.

This one is a fidget spinner with nitrous.

There's another one with like a turbo exhaust thing.

Like there was a ton of those style things.

Like they were just very throw away videos.

Like you would not post them now,

but that's that, that was YouTube 10 years ago.

Five, eight years ago.

Like that was such a different time.

Yeah.

That that stuff actually made sense

and you could make it funny and make it entertaining enough

where people wanted to see it.

Well, he could.

Yeah.

This would not have happened without, you know,

his ability to actually make it entertaining.

And funny enough, a lot of people probably don't even like,

they gloss over this cause they're just like,

oh, wow, Cletus, you know, just like,

that's so crazy that he's like able to run this business.

When I knew him, he was in college to be it.

He was, he majored in entrepreneurship.

Okay. So he was, he was set up to be,

he already knew what he,

like business running.

Like that's what he learned in school.

And then when he dropped out of school,

we were, I was actually with him the day that he decided

to fully drop out.

He dropped out of law school after two years.

He was in law school?

Yeah. While we were still running the YouTube channel.

Cletus was in the law school.

Yeah. For two years.

What?

And like he, he decided not to do that.

So like, you know what I mean?

It's not just like some random redneck guy

and that's not to take anything away from him.

That's to like fuel it of like, you know.

Yeah. Yeah.

No, he's smart.

Yeah. Exactly.

Everything's calculated for the most part.

And with how, you know, freestyle and kind of like fun

and random the videos are,

you kind of think like that it's just like,

oh, we're just doing whatever today.

But it's like, no, this is, this is actually thought out.

You, you definitely don't realize that also at the same time

when you get like, you know,

you've probably seen it, some of these contracts.

Yeah.

That also he's the guy that can look at them really well.

And, you know, I go to him with some things sometimes

and just ask him, I'm like, Hey, did you see,

not even just like me, like,

Hey, did you see this situation?

Like this business or like that going under

and he'll have these opinions that I'm like, ah, yeah.

See, this is why you own two drag strips.

Like I get it.

Cause like it just, it just makes sense.

And no, I know his dad pretty well too.

Like we've, I've spent a bunch of time with him.

His dad is an entrepreneur as well.

Super smart.

Like he's one of those guys that I would go to

if like you had one of those like big weird problems

in your business, like that type of guy,

like he's owned McDonald's, he's owned car washes,

he's owned, you know, taxis, like everything you can think of.

So I've gotten to know him.

I mean, I've known him for like 10 years now again.

So same deal.

I respect him a lot.

Like Mark Mitchell is one of those guys that I'm like, ah,

you know, if you have like one of those complex business

questions, he's the guy.

And of course the apple doesn't fall from the tree there.

The law school thing, I actually have a funny story.

We were on our way back from TX2K.

We were driving Carrot's truck.

We had the trailer.

We had just sold a bunch of merch at TX2K.

And then we had his C7 Corvette in the trailer,

ProCharge car.

And we were on our way back.

We were in Tampa and he had to get to his class.

And I was driving the truck and trailer and I'm like,

I'm like, honestly, I think we have to unload your Corvette.

Like because he had to get to class

and I was driving a truck and trailer.

I'm like, I can only go so fast like there's some traffic.

Like I'm not going to wad this thing up or kill somebody

because, you know, I wasn't, I just wasn't going to do that.

You know, like my, me being in a rush doesn't matter

to somebody else on the road.

Right, right.

So I was like, I guess I gotta unload your C7.

So like we pulled off, we unloaded his C7 and he got to class

and he just made it in time.

And then I, you know, got back and didn't have to unload

a trailer, but I got back and like that was kind of what

we had to do.

Like we'd be at TX2K all week and then we'd have to rush home

to get back to class to get, so he could get back to class.

I wasn't in school at the time and I was working full time

on our business, like our business.

It didn't, it didn't feel like a business really

because like we never really set out for it to be a business.

Like there was never any like, hey, we should start this thing.

It was more just like, man, an extra couple of grand a month

would be nice and then we'd like find another client.

So it just kind of like kept rolling.

And then, you know, I'd be killing myself because it's like,

oh, these clients.

Did you ever have a moment during the come up of Cletus

basically being like kind of, would you consider yourself

his right hand man basically for the most part?

Oh yeah, I mean, it was, it was a, for a long time it was,

it was felt like a partnership, but it was definitely more

of like just employer ship.

So did you find, and this happens very, it's very common,

especially with business, did you ever find a moment, you know,

in your life at that time where you felt like you were feeling

away about his success and not in a way where it's like

you're hating on him, but like that you wanted better

or you wanted that for yourself too.

I mean, I think everybody would definitely feel that it's

definitely crazy to see that level of success.

It's like, it's pretty unfounding, unfathomable for a lot

of people to even see now.

And I don't know.

I mean, I just, I never really strived the same that way

because you just lose a lot.

You have to, you have to really give up a lot of your personal

time and like things like that.

But he's in the rare spot where the two can join

personal time and making money, but most people don't.

And even if you work for him, you're not in that same situation.

Like I worked for him for years, but, you know, it wasn't

really my say, like if I, like, I would still, like I want

to spend time with my family and stuff.

Now I have kids now.

I didn't at the time, but like, you know, say like the

NASCAR thing, he could go with his family.

If you work for him, you're there filming.

Okay.

So it's almost different.

Like the personal time for one might not be the personal time

for the other.

I see.

So it's opposite.

So his personal time is also could overlap with work.

Work.

But if you're working for him, your personal time likely doesn't.

I got you.

So like it just, it is what it is.

And that's fine.

Like many people don't care about that.

Many people, like there's, there's all, there's 1000, probably

a million people out there that would give up all of their time

to hold the camera and film and that's, that's great.

And I did that for years and it was a lot of fun and I would

never trade that for anything.

Yeah.

But it's like, you should get burnt out doing it.

100%.

It's a lot.

Like it's, it's, it's constant travel.

It's constant, like, and like there was great money in it,

but it was just, it just went on long enough.

Yeah.

Like it just was like, it ran its course.

Do you, did you ever come across, and it happens a lot with

people with fame and popularity, um, people who are trying to be

in, you know, your circle and only because of what, who he is and

so on or was, is, is he the type of person that's more of like,

he's very sensitive to that.

He can kind of tell who's around for the right reasons and the

wrong reasons.

I haven't really noticed a ton of that, that get kept around.

Like it just, like, there, there's almost a, there's almost

like a natural instinct of it just doesn't, it just doesn't

last if that's your motivation.

True.

It just, whether it's subconscious or like something you

actually have to think about, it just, it just doesn't last.

It fizzles out.

Yeah.

And you know, I'm, I'm one of the few people of his friends

that are still in his life that was actually there when it was

just the C seven in a one car garage, which is very funny

because you know, everybody that gets in now is, is, is getting

into such a different thing.

Yeah.

Then what I got into and I was like, yeah, you know, it's easy

now.

Try doing it when there wasn't a thousand dollars in the bank

account.

I don't know.

A hundred percent.

It's a little more stressful.

Yeah.

But we're also, you know, 23 years old at the time.

So it's, it's different.

We can, we can, 31 31.

Okay.

I was like, we could eat Chipotle four times a day and it

didn't really matter.

So you can't eat Chipotle anymore.

Well, I can, but I'm not going to do that four times a day

like I did when I was 25 years old, 22 years old stomach

problems.

No, it's just, it's just not the same anymore, man.

Not like being on the road 24 seven and like, you know, eating

fast food constantly and just like, oh, so you consider that

fast food.

Yeah.

I mean, it's kind of crap food.

Okay.

Interesting.

I thought it was one of the healthier options.

I can't eat Chipotle because it messes my stomach up for some

reason, but that's why I thought you were saying that probably

because it's crap food.

Yeah.

I don't know what they put in that seasoning, but yeah, I always

always have a bad time at Chipotle for the most part, but like

it, you know, you, if you looked back at what we were doing

for quite a few years, it was always on the road.

We drove that trailer and truck and trailer before we had an

RV from Florida to California to Colorado to Pennsylvania.

Yeah.

And then we did the same with the RV and like that is such a

like to go make a video in Colorado when we're in Florida.

It's like a three day drive just to get there.

They rode them all most of the time.

Yeah.

Just to get there and then you have to hope that your videos

that you do when you're there somehow work.

Yeah.

And I could already tell when we were talking even about like

the trailer, you're a little bit more of like, I don't know

about that.

I'm kind of the same way.

I'm like, that seems really expensive.

Like how do you make that back?

He doesn't have that mindset.

Well, is it because of now?

No, he never had that mindset.

That's, that's, that's, that's what's tough, man.

He like, when we went out and got that RV, I was like, an RV

like that's wild.

This is like an $80,000 RV.

No fear.

No fear of like making these big decisions on things and I

have so much respect for that because I'm not that way.

I'm like, you know, I'm pretty like reserved and I also have

this like, I don't know.

I have this like more doom and gloom of like it's all going to

go away at any point, but no, not like he just doesn't have

that bone in his body.

Maybe that came from his dad.

Maybe that just came from upbringing.

I don't know.

But there's like a scarcity mindset or like an abundance

mindset and the abundance mindset is such a better way to be,

but it's hard.

It is.

It's hard to make these big purchases and he's told me this.

He's like, yeah, I'll just make big purchases that I can't

afford and say, I'll have to figure it out.

The figure it out thing, I do agree on.

I do say, I'll figure it out.

He'll say, I'll overextend myself and then I'll say,

we'll have to figure it out.

It depends on what we're figuring it out on because if it's

like, if I'm giving away like everything to just to get this

one thing, then it's like, I don't know if I'm a figure it

out.

That's like, I'm thinking about like, does this make sense?

No, but that's the opposite.

That's the reserve mentality.

He'll buy a $2 million race track or whatever.

I don't remember the price of it, but like with zero dollars

is an account and say, I'll figure it out.

Figure it out when I get to it.

When I have to make that payment, I'll figure it out.

I always wonder if there has to be like some sort of struggle

because I say, I'll figure it out or I say, like, I'll think

about things before I do it because I was already in a

situation where I've done something like that and it's

like, it didn't work out or it was stressful for me or it

held me up for a certain amount of months.

Now I'm like, nah, I don't want to go through that stress.

You know, so I always wonder if it has to do with like experience

or if it's just like, you know, just like overall, you're born

with that kind of mentality.

You're born with it.

You'll see it at like a like a blackjack table or something

or like poker, who will just push all like, you know,

because that's what it has to be.

Like you build up this thing, but then the same guy that

built it all up will also just push it all in and be like,

huh?

And that to me is crazy because you probably feel the same way.

You're like, well, I'll keep, I'll keep some of it.

I start sweating and be like, oh man, I don't know.

You know, Doug, Doug Cook has told me a bunch about this

like motion race works where he's like, you just got to be

prepared to push all the chips back in and just roll the

dice again.

Like all the chips back on the table.

Yeah, I don't know.

It's, it's, it's, it's a lot.

But you know what?

The good thing is that like all the successful people over

extend themselves.

I know.

It's the mindset to have and it's, it's really hard.

I'm not preaching from a point of like, oh, I have this

mindset.

I'm preaching to a point of like, I wish I had more of it.

Yeah.

And experience.

You witnessed it.

You literally were there.

And I try to because like, you know, I've learned that, but

it's hard.

It takes like a lot of mental, a mental strength to just a

lot of belief in yourself, I guess, almost like a, not in

like a bad way, but like a narcissistic belief in yourself

that like, you know, the universe, God,

everything, whatever you think will provide.

And there's, you know, Napoleon Hill has a great book

about this.

And, you know, he, one of his quotes is like, knock and

the door will open.

Ask and you will receive.

And it's like, it's true.

Yeah.

And I've seen Garrett do that in more instances than, than

one.

So like, for example, like a dragon drive, we were, he was

without a race and he wanted the good prep as one, as

people do.

And he went up and asked the guys and he was like, Hey,

when you see me pull my car up, go prep the track please.

And they did right when he, right when they saw him pull

into the lanes, they went and prep the track and everybody

was bitching in the comments like, Oh, they prepped for

Garrett.

They did this.

And he's like, he just went up and asked them.

Did anybody else go up and ask them?

Nobody else knocked.

Nobody else knocked on the door.

So the door didn't open.

Right.

Like you can't expect the universe to just provide things

that you didn't ask for.

And that was such a great example to me of like, all these

people bitching didn't ask.

They didn't even attempt to like, they only got mad after

the fact because nobody thought to do it.

Nobody, like it just, it is such a good example of that

exact mindset.

A lot of people.

But then I was like, well, you know, smart people see him

pulling the lines and pulling after him because you already

know that he asked.

Yeah, I'm going to go in that one because he already did

the job.

Yeah.

No, that's true.

That's very interesting.

I actually, um, really that's like working some gears in

my head.

I'm like, damn, that's, that's, that's true because the

successful thing is like, um, you know, I've been in your

thirties, I feel personally when you're at this age, you

start thinking differently.

You start thinking about what your future is going to

look like.

And you can think like that in your twenties, but you've

already been through trials and tribulations in your

twenties and you're just like, all right, I did that already.

I don't want to do that.

But as far as success, you always wonder if you have to

take those risks or if you are more reserved, can you still

be successful with the reserve mindset and still continue

to do the things that you love to do that are bringing you

money, right?

Yes.

It depends on how much time you want to give it.

I mean, you can be the most reserved person working nine

to five, keep putting away for retirement and boom, you're

a millionaire at the age of 60.

And is that, would that be considered success if you're

a millionaire?

Yeah.

I mean, if that's what you consider success, I don't

define what somebody else is.

It's definitely relative for sure.

Um, you know, my success is I get to wake up every morning

with my kids and put them down every night.

Yeah.

That's success to me.

Yeah.

Whether there's a million dollars in the bank account or not,

it doesn't stop me from getting to wake up with my kids

every morning.

Facts.

They have a roof over their head.

They're well fed.

Like that, that to me is, is success.

Is that what you've always wanted though?

Yeah.

I've always wanted kids.

Okay.

But like this lifestyle that you're living, like is this,

is this what you, is this like what you've always dreamed

of having or did it just come naturally?

And this is where you feel like you're content with it.

And you're like, you know what, this is actually not bad.

Um, I think I'm just in a different season of life right now.

Okay.

You know, I got a two month old and a two year old,

four month old now, but, um, it's just the season of life.

You know, as my two year old gets older,

who knows what that's going to look like.

Yeah.

We might be traveling to go racing more.

He might really want to do that.

He might want a junior dragster.

I don't know what he's going to want to do.

So that season of life is going to be way different.

Yeah.

Than a two year old and who knows if we'll be successful

doing something together.

I mean, it might be in my fifties and sixties that he wants

to do something and I'm helping him do something

that makes him hyper successful.

Yeah.

And maybe it'll be by the end of my life.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

It's true.

It's a long life.

It maybe it'll be friendly.

My daughter, maybe she'll be the one that does something

that I'm going to have to put all of my energy into,

but maybe it'll be this huge booming thing.

I don't know.

Maybe we'll have some sort of family business together

that all works out well.

There's so much more to life that, you know,

you haven't even got to yet, but...

Well, things happen quick too.

Yeah.

Like people think that they need to become a millionaire.

Like right now it's like, well, you can hit 35, 40

and then suddenly start doing something.

Yeah.

And then everything will work out for you.

True.

There's so many.

There's like things happen so fast.

Like everybody always picks like the Warren Buffett example,

which I don't really like that much.

They're like Warren Buffett wasn't a billionaire

till 55 or 60.

Yeah.

And it's like, yeah, but he won Berkshire Hathaway

and he was multi-millionaire.

It's like he wasn't a billionaire on paper until 60,

but like...

Yeah.

He was kind of, he already had a good start.

He was off to a head start.

And also like Warren Buffett's life kind of sucks.

Like the guy lived in the same house his whole life.

He drove, you know, a 98 Cadillac for his whole life,

never bought anything cool.

Maybe that's what...

Maybe he's not into...

I always find that people that are that level,

they're so like, they'll go to Walmart and pick up a shirt,

you know?

Yeah, I know, but that's kind of boring.

Like he didn't spend it.

Yeah.

I mean, that's a lot of money.

You got to spend...

I feel like you got to spend something.

He's like an old man now and he didn't really spend it.

Yeah.

What was the point for your grandkids?

Okay, cool.

Like, I guess...

Maybe.

I mean, it's cool to have...

But like, that doesn't last either.

Generational wealth, like that lasts like two generations at most

before nobody's getting any more.

Really?

They always squander it.

The statistics are crazy on how quickly it disappears.

I've never looked at the stats for that,

but I never actually thought about that.

That's smart to think about.

Yeah.

I mean, you even look at people like, you know, Andrew Carnegie,

like all of his wealth is gone after two generations.

You look at Rockefeller, all of their wealth is gone

after a couple of generations.

Even now?

Yeah, those were the guys that built America

and their wealth was gone in two or three generations,

just completely spent.

So the Rockefellers today are not...

No, they don't get like wealth like that.

They got to live in a mansion or something.

Not from the fortune.

Oh, okay.

You know, maybe like they have their own things

that have worked out,

but like the family fortune isn't what it was.

Interesting.

It's gone.

It's like it's completely just, it disappears.

They spend it, they lose it.

Inflation takes it away.

Like it just, it doesn't last.

So then you look at people like Warren Buffett

and they're like, did the guy ever even own a fourth gen Camaro?

I was unexpected.

You're going to be a billionaire

and not even own an R32 at any point in your life.

How crazy is that?

I don't even like R32 is that much.

And if I had a billion dollars, I'd have one.

Oh man, that was good.

You ever see like somebody just did a video on...

What's his name?

Andy Frisillo, who owns First Form,

the energy drink company and like workout supplements.

What's the company?

First Form.

He's like a fitness supplement

and they showed his car collection

and he's like a fitness guy.

He built a big business

and he had like three Bugattis, a Cunningsegg,

everything you can imagine, a couple four GTs

in like this really cool space.

And it's like, the guy's actually doing something cool.

And he has like a real passion for cars though

at the same time.

But again, I'm like, you know,

there's actually somebody live in life

like with their money that they made.

Like it's nice to see.

Yeah.

But Warren Buffett kind of bums me out on the other side

of just like, you know, there's a saying,

wealth is wasted on the old.

Okay.

Kind of true.

And then what do they say?

Youth is wasted on the young.

It kind of goes hand in hand.

Elon Musk even, he crashed the McLaren F1.

Yeah, even Elon too.

He wadded up a McLaren F1.

That's cool.

You know, he used his, he sold PayPal, got millions of dollars.

He bought a McLaren F1 and then crashed it.

That's crazy.

Yeah.

You might as well.

I did see the video of him getting it delivered to his house,

I think.

Yeah, the silver one.

He crashed that car, huh?

Yeah, he crashed it.

Wow.

But a lot of people have crashed McLaren F1s.

He's not alone.

So is Mr. Bean.

You know Mr. Bean?

Yeah.

He crashed a McLaren F1.

On the street?

Yeah.

Put it into some trees.

But like, what is, you know anything about why that happens?

I mean, it's just a lot of power for, it's Mr. Bean.

Dude, he shouldn't have been driving a McLaren F1.

Yeah, but how much does that car make?

Power wise?

Probably like a thousand.

Stick shift.

That's so odd that that's a car that they would crash.

Yeah.

I mean, the engines maybe in a weird spot.

I don't know.

They, people crash vipers too all the time.

Sock.

True.

They don't make that much power.

They just don't have any driver's safeties.

They don't have any like traction control.

They don't have any like, you just got to lift your foot off.

No ABS or anything like that.

And like the vipers are always weird because you sit so far back.

So by the time you feel that the car is like.

It's too late.

Yeah.

You're already way back here.

And maybe the McLaren F1 because like you sit in the middle.

Yeah.

You don't really feel that it's like losing itself.

Oh, that's true.

I always forget that too.

A lot of the older cars didn't have all the safety features that we have now.

Oh yeah, none.

There's gotta be something there.

Even like an early viper doesn't even like lock.

You could just like get into one.

Yeah.

They have like a clip on soft top.

If you want to take it off and get in the viper, you just like.

The joke with vipers is a flathead screwdriver.

You could take apart the whole thing.

What?

Yeah.

Cause they're like, they're a tractor motor basically.

The early ones are like a motor that was for a tractor and they kind of sound like that.

The fifth gen are pretty good, but like a first gen viper.

That thing, it looks like it was assembled by the people you would expect to assemble it.

Dodge engineers with a tractor engine, but people liked it because it was cool.

Yeah.

I think that earlier, I don't know.

What was the first year of the viper?

It was like 98 or 92 or something.

So yeah, that was the year that I think it might have been the second.

Might have been the second gen that I've always seen in magazines.

I can't remember what generation.

They're pretty similar looking.

They're hard to tell the difference.

Yeah.

But like, I think the side skirts and the headlights I think are about different.

Well, like think about that too.

Like they engineered them into a way where most owners got burned when they got out of

them because the exhaust was out the side.

Yeah.

The exhaust is right.

Yeah.

You're right.

That was like peak dodge engineering in the nineties was like, hey, be careful not to

burn yourself and you know, you can, you can't lock it and lock it.

Yeah.

Cause like the soft top.

So like you can never actually lock the car.

You could always get into it from the outside.

Wow.

I, you know, that's one of those cards that I've always wanted.

They're cool.

But now, you know, I think a fit gen would be ideal.

Not like the old generations, but, um, but I never realized up until more.

So like a couple of years ago when I started really looking into the vipers, um, how many

issues like they've had it motor wise.

Um, and like you just said, just like ergonomics.

Oh yeah.

You know, like random things like that.

Dodge wasn't qualified to build a car like that.

It's a rare, it's a rare.

Honestly, I still think that when you see a Viper on the road, it's a car that I would

always turn my head to because you never see them.

Yeah.

The vipers are what Corvette owners think they are.

Oh, like Corvette owners think that they have the prestige that a Viper has.

That's a good one.

Yeah.

Like that's, that's what they think they are really.

They think that it's this equivalent like seeing a gen five Viper drive on the street.

Yeah.

A C eight owner thinks he's the same in that same category of cool.

You know what?

I don't really know too many Corvette owners, but I could see why that's a thing.

I kind of, I kind of, I kind of want to say I agree.

Um, but like, I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings, but yeah, you could be right.

You could be on to something for sure.

If I heard somebody's feelings, then I was right.

Yeah.

No, I mean it could be true.

I could, I could definitely see that.

So a C eight thinking that they have a Viper for sure.

Yeah.

They think that they have that level of, of prestige and wow factor to them and they

just don't.

And you don't, so you don't think that the, uh, okay, let, even the, the ZR one, any,

any of this, any of these new Corvettes coming out now or anything like that.

You don't think that they have that same kind of, cause they're expensive.

What's the new one?

Is it zero one?

The zero one X.

Uh, it's really cool, but I think the problem will always be that there's a base model

available.

Hmm.

There's no base model Viper.

I mean, there is, but it's still a Viper.

Still like a, like a fit, like a bit, a non ACR fifth gen Viper is still a freaking

Viper.

But like a non zero one C eight is like, come on, it's like, it's such a dull car.

So do you think that applies for every platform or just, uh, just the, um,

I think it applies for some platforms.

I think the Corvette obviously have always been the blue collar car for that reason.

So they need a base model, but like there's no base model, you know, O five four GT.

True.

So you see those and they're always cool.

But of course there's only like 4,000 of them.

Right.

And like the Viper is same deal.

There's only like a couple of thousand of them.

So they're not in the hands, but it's like a Mustang.

Like seeing a Mustang would be really cool if they didn't make V six ones.

Every time you see when you'd be like, Oh, that's really cool because they didn't

make a V six one.

So you don't have like this regular traffic Mustang mix in.

True.

It's the base model that makes them less special.

Okay.

But with the Ford, the Mustang, you got GT 500s, you got three fifties.

Those are more that like I'd still, if I saw a G 500, like, oh, damn, that's a,

that's a GT.

You're a car guy.

Oh, okay.

Everybody sees it.

Everybody.

My wife, see a Viper go by and she would say that's cool.

She would know.

Okay.

Valid.

Valid didn't think about that.

You're right.

So any car that you can see a C eight in traffic and you're like, yeah, it's a C eight.

Well, I think it was cool when you first, when it first came out.

Yeah, but now they've made as many as the freaking Honda civics.

It seems like, yeah, they're everywhere.

They're pretty much everywhere.

They made a lot of those things.

Yeah.

Like there's something cool about being reserved and it's, you know, great.

They're reserved in the ZR one, but like they're not reserved in the base model.

Yeah.

They'll sell as many of those things as possible.

They've sold the, how long have they been out now?

Eight years?

The C eight?

Yeah.

What 2019 was the first year.

So seven years now.

It's crazy that it's any speed retired.

They had the C seven for six.

They had the C five for, or the C six for about six.

Yeah.

But they don't want to retire that platform.

You know, I, for some reason you just had 2019.

That's when it first came out probably roughly around that time.

Yeah.

And I'm already in my head thinking like, damn, they still haven't reached peak for that car.

Like for some reason, whatever I think about the C eight, I always think about them still

trying to push that to like get their ultimate C eight.

Cause back in the day it was like, if a zero one or, you know, zero six, like that's it.

Then they move on to whatever it is, but like now it's like, they just keep going with it.

You know, and now the zero, zero one X it's like, all right, dude, you guys are making

a two, it was $200,000.

Yeah.

I think it's up, up, up above that.

But it's like, now who's, I mean, I don't know.

Maybe people will buy that, but I just wouldn't.

Are you just going to keep beating that horse though?

How many years can you make the C eight?

I don't know.

Even like the, you know, C seven zero one, which is one of my favorite cars.

They made it for one year.

2019.

Yeah.

And then they were done.

I actually saw one.

That's it.

Like we're already two, three years and talking about the zero one for the C eights, even

like the C six zero one.

Now they're a great car.

They made it in what, 2013 only.

Then they were done.

That was it.

Yeah.

They're very reserved on it, but GM is in such a weird place now that they're just like,

if they'll keep buying them, keep making it forever because I have a worried, worried

feeling that they don't have anything else coming down the pipeline for the Corvette.

And how, what are we going to do?

Like what the GTR did 20 years?

Yeah.

GTR was time to go.

It was time.

And then Nissan was like, that's it.

You can buy a leaf now or a 400 Z, which did anybody buy a 400 Z?

No, it's not really too popular.

I do see them every now and then, but like rarely I see, I see way more Supras, but the

Supras been out longer.

Didn't they not even really call it a 400 Z?

They just called it a Z.

Oh, I still, I still call it a 400 Z.

But they didn't actually call it that.

It's called a Z.

Even.

Yeah.

I just had this conversation on the last podcast too.

It doesn't make sense.

It doesn't make any sense.

But it's Nissan.

No one cares about them.

They're spiraling out of control.

Yeah.

I had a whole Nissan episode and it was just like, it's interesting because I am, I'm

not really too diehard into any of the platform right now where I'm like really trying to learn

like what the companies are doing.

And it's not really what my podcast is about.

Mostly it's mostly built, you know, guests and so on.

But on the last podcast with me, 10, he was really breaking down.

He's like a Nissan fanatic, like hardcore Nissan.

I'm sorry to hear that.

But it's a tough, it's a tough world right now to be a Nissan fanatic.

Yeah.

He's upset.

He's more disappointed in Nissan because of, you know, what they're doing and a lot

of, um, I guess a lot of the mechanical issues.

It's what they're not doing.

Right.

100%.

So they're not doing a lot.

Yeah.

So I think, I think it's a weird space right now for, um, cars in general.

I think, I think after 2020, man, it just, it just got weird.

I feel like.

Yeah.

There's not, well, it's not that the companies won't or can't make enthusiast cars.

It's that no one's going to buy them because, you know, nobody's bought, like how many people

are really going to buy an entry level performance car that is entry level for $50,000.

Like even, like they're like, the Supra is supposed to be like an entry level ish car.

50,000.

That's, that's, that's what I think.

And that gets you the four cylinder one.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

It's kind of like.

It's, it's, it's an, I don't know if it's an inflation thing or if it's just, um, you

know, it's, it's a mix.

It's, it's an inflation thing.

It's a.

Yeah.

Um, also like the, you know, destruction of the US dollar pretty much, like more than

it is just inflation.

And then it's also just wages.

Like nobody's, nobody making $40,000 a year should buy a $50,000 car.

Yeah.

You shouldn't.

Like that is just the nature of it.

Even if you're making $80,000 a year, you also should not buy a $50,000 new car.

So what do you think you should be at to buy a car that caught?

Like what's, what's the cost to, to, um, to like income ratio there?

I mean, again, I think it's also like where you're at, like, because I, it also be about

savings and things like that.

And, and if you rent, you own a home, you aspire to own home to have kids, but I think

you probably not kind of fall into like the little bit of the Dave Ramsey, like don't spend

over 30% of your income on a car and also the wrong car and also a car that you're going

to modify because then you really get over your skis in a way where you're now modifying

this car that you're paying monthly on and you're now taking like, this is a lot of people

are taking out a firm loans to buy downpipes for their M threes, which is such a weird

world to be in.

Like it almost makes like, it almost like puts a little bit of a pit in my stomach.

Why, why does it do that?

Because like, you know, I live in society with these people that are doing these crazy

things.

And I'm not above these people.

I've, you know, been in situations where I've done dumb things like that as well, but

also like, it's because that's the only option.

If you want to modify a car and have fun and do car things, that's kind of the only option

for a lot of people because a lot of people, I mean, I guess it's not the only option,

but a lot of people refuse to get something that's older, but also you can't if you want

to BMW, you're honestly probably better off buying a new one because if you buy an old

one, it's going to cost you as much as the new one in the long run.

If you buy like a 2008 M three, you might end up spending way more than if you ended

up just buying like a new one in the long run.

So you're kind of like pinned a little bit here and you're not going to get like an E

36 because that thing needs a full restoration.

Like people are like, oh, you just buy like an old E 36.

Like, yeah, but all the bushings are clapped.

Suspensions clapped out like the engine's worn out.

Like you can't just it needs a full restoration.

Yeah, that's true.

So a lot of people are it's just pain like that's why like it gives me a pit in my stomach

because it's like it's just pain and I've spent a lot of time studying and understanding

what happened in like 2008 housing crash.

Yeah.

And it's like, okay, does the same thing happen to cars?

Are a lot of these cars are people?

I know there's a lot of people upside down on cars and that's a scary situation because

what do you do if you can't get out of a car that you owe money on that now breaks

and you hope that you still have a warranty on it.

If you're completely upside down on it because you bought it at the peak of the market.

Yeah.

And prices have come down because cars weren't supposed to appreciate.

They were never supposed to appreciate in value.

That was a weird thing that happened in 2020 2022 ish that time that people felt was going to keep going

because people forget quickly when money is in play that cars depreciate, not appreciate.

And for a couple of years they were appreciating.

So yeah, it's going to take a little bit for that to settle.

But as it does settle, I think it's going to be rough and also mods don't add value.

So just a friendly reminder that your downpipe, your intake, no matter how much carbon fiber

your intake has on it or what stitching your steering wheel has on it, it really doesn't add value.

So what are things that do add value and doesn't matter on certain platforms?

Let's say you said cars don't appreciate, right?

But there are some cars that you could potentially buy that may in the future, maybe like I guess a Porsche

or certain Porsches if you're in that tax bracket, right?

Yeah.

But anything less than $100,000, are there any cars that you feel that would be a good appreciation?

The problem is they don't appreciate faster than the money sitting in an investment.

So yes, they may monetarily go up in value, but realistically they didn't go up in value.

Maybe you didn't lose as much as you think, but you also try to, a lot of people try to do some fancy accounting

and they're like, oh, well, I actually didn't lose money even though I spent $10,000 on insurance over the last five years.

You know what I mean?

They try to justify it to themselves and like, yeah, you got to have fun with it and all.

I'm not making the claim of don't buy fun cars, but there's also the keep up with the Joneses thing has gotten really bad on social media

where cars that should still be cool aren't anymore because there's newer and better.

Like even like what I'm saying, like a 2008 V10 M3 or whatever, whenever they had the V10 in them, that was cool.

I think it's still cool.

Those cars won't go out of style.

Yeah, but some people like now compared to the B58 stuff, they're like, I don't know.

The greatest and greatest touching that junk.

Because of the amount of stuff, because people know that car is not a fast car.

It's a car that you would a driver would want to enjoy.

It's a fast car for people that drive regular cars.

It's a fast car for a lot of people like my 2012 CTSV.

It's a fast car for a lot of people.

Yes, it doesn't make a thousand on the street, but for most people that is a fast car.

90% of traffic.

100%.

Well, that's what I mean.

When I say fast car, I mean like, you know, the sky is putting downpipe and making 800.

But that's the keep up with the Joneses.

That's what I'm talking about.

It's like 600 horsepower is not enough anymore because like, but there's a lot of cool cars that you can get for that.

But it's way cooler to overextend yourself to get, you know, it was pretty bad in the Hellcat world for a while.

Hellcat, that kind of died out.

You would see 15, 20% interest rate basically payday loans on Hellcats.

Yeah.

And just for the flex, you know, it's died out a little bit as of lately because interest rates have come up.

Yeah.

And banks have tightened up on their lending.

So it hasn't died because the people don't want to do it anymore.

It died because the people weren't allowed, weren't getting the opportunity to do it anymore.

Right.

No, that's true.

That's true.

So what kind of, so what kind of mods?

Okay.

So in terms of the cars that appreciate, right?

You said the times have changed, of course, but you said mods don't really increase the value of a car.

So are there any mods that potentially could or?

Not, I don't think there's any mods that could increase the value enough to offset the mod.

Like what if, let's say if your car is turbocharged as opposed to an naturally aspirated.

Like factory turbo or like you added a turbo.

No, you added a turbo.

Yeah.

I mean, maybe on like a Supra in the right instance, but, but again, you got to think, sure, you increased the value, but did you increase the value enough to offset what you just spent?

Hmm.

True.

So it's like, yeah.

Oh, wow.

A number bigger, but it's like, yeah.

You just spent, you know, three or $4,000 to get it to that.

Yeah.

It's like, it's like a house.

Oh, I just put a pool in.

I increased the value.

It's like, okay, your house value went up 60 grand and you spent 60 grand on a pool.

Did you increase the value?

Yeah.

Yes, technically, but you also spent money to do it.

So it's like, you know, unless you're somebody like Victor, maybe who owns the shop that can do it.

But, you know, if you bring a Supra to Victor and you say, hey, build it, you're not just like, you're unlikely just going to go flip it for more money.

Right.

Because it's not just like an infinite money glitch.

It's not just going to like.

Yeah.

And he could charge more because of who he is, you know?

Yeah.

But like for his cars, like he flips some Supras where he modifies them and does it, but it's his deal.

It's his business.

Yeah.

He gets, he might have parts.

He, you know, there's ways for him to make money.

But like if you're just some guy and you're like, hey, I'm just going to have Victor fully restore this Supra and then try to sell it at Barra Jackson for more money than I just spent.

Right.

It's unlikely.

100%.

And that's, that's kind of the same thing.

It's like these mods aren't adding value that offset the actual mod.

So do you feel like a lot of, because, you know, I saw this clip on Instagram a couple weeks ago about how YouTubers are, a lot of them are in debt, like serious debt with these cars.

So I never really know how so many people have so many cars, not saying that they can't afford it.

And that, you know, obviously their channel is probably making money and so on, but there are a lot of people out there who may look at big YouTubers and say, Hey man, this guy's got 10 cars.

I could do the same thing.

Let's go take out a bunch of loans on these cars and figure out if it's going to make money back on content or like, you know, just have at least a good amount of content to make with a bunch of cars that I'm financing.

Right.

Um, do you think that a lot of YouTubers are mostly financing the cars or do you feel like they are just paying cash for it?

And your honest opinion.

I would assume they're financing it mostly just because that, that would be the smarter way to do it because when interest rates were lower, it was smarter to do it that way because tying up all that cash in a car isn't the best thing to do when you can do it monthly.

And also YouTube being on a month to month thing kind of makes it nice.

I would assume they're all financing it just because that just makes the most sense.

A lot of these guys have a line of credit and they don't have to think about it.

They just, you know, their bank will just approve them loans because they've been paying back loans.

But again, everything slowed down seemingly when interest rates went up.

So everything during COVID 2020, 2022, 23 around there was booming on YouTube.

Interest rates were low.

Now interest rates go up and suddenly everything starts being less popping in the YouTube segment of things.

And a lot of them are in the same not scarcity mindset where they're like, I'll just buy the expensive thing and figure out how to pay for it.

They don't think like we do.

They think like, well, you know, I just signed up for a $10,000 a month loan.

I better, you know, I better get to work.

Now, do you feel like you ever make that money back on car content?

Like I know obviously, you know, you over the years working with Cletus and so on, it might have been different at that level of getting those many views.

You can for sure get and obviously I'm saying this because yes, I have a podcast, but I do make money doing it.

And I kind of know like how much money a video would make in this space of automotive, like how much money a million view video would make.

So I see some of these people who have these cars and these car channels and I'm like, how are you, how like your views don't really match how many cars you have.

And I'm not knocking, but it's like, how are you able to do this?

Well, a lot of them are just on the month to month.

They just, they just one bad month could probably hurt them more than we all imagine.

Yeah.

And it's just a month to month thing.

They're just, I mean, you know, I heard this from a very unlikely source.

Onion from Hagrid Garage and he was saying how most YouTubers are just taking all the money they make this month, putting it into videos for the next month and then so on and so on and so on.

Never really getting anything out of it.

Right.

They're just keep the ball rolling.

The ball's never getting bigger.

It's never getting smaller.

A lot of them are just keeping the ball rolling with last month's money to next month because it's, you know, most people realize that YouTube's on like a one month cycle.

If you get paid next month from last month, like it's yeah, yeah.

And a lot of people are just doing that.

They're just, they're just pushing the ball forward and whether it's growing shrinking, they're just keeping it moving.

And it's just that same month to month thing.

Sometimes people get really lucky.

I've gotten really lucky where I've had some videos that do so well or so much revenue that I like, you know, the weight comes off your shoulders.

There's a little bit, but that's also dangerous.

You know, you can't, you can't let off the gas pedal at all because then you'll feel it next month.

Yeah.

I've been there several months this year.

You've probably had like, oh, I had a great month.

But then, but then guess what?

That just negatively impacted next.

That sigh of relief, which, you know, scarcity mindset people, I think fall into that.

You know, somebody not in that same mindset, don't fall into because somebody like me gets a big paycheck and they're like, I don't have to worry for a little bit.

Somebody like Gary gets a big paycheck and he's like, cool, push it all back into the center.

No, it's a lot different.

Yeah, I'm the same exact way though.

Like you get a good pay month and you're just like, all right, unfortunately, like you said, you got to keep going.

But unfortunately, like, I know we were talking a little bit before, like you get burnt out, man.

Like, I mean, I'm not just speaking from experience.

Like you kind of get to a point where it's just a lot to do content and have to think about it and have to upload thumbnails.

And I'm not complaining.

You know, it's part of the life that I chose and it could be, I could be working nine to five, like anybody else, right?

But at the same time, I feel like mentally doing content is just as stressful as doing physical labor because your mind is always, for me,

at least is always working all day, every day, trying to think about the next concept idea, how you're filming cameras, everything, you know?

So it's mentally training.

Well, the worst part about your job is still the worst part about your job.

Like whether your job is, you know, a clown at a circus and everybody's like, wow, that looks so great.

It's like, no, the worst part about your job is still like, I say this about people on dragon drives.

I've done quite a few sick weeks and I've done other dragon drives and like some people will have the worst week you've ever imagined.

They pulled the transmission out six times.

They got two hours of sleep.

You may have, you know, had to do like a belt or maybe like you had a pop tie or they had a patch.

It's like light work.

But the worst thing that happened to you is still the worst thing that happened to you.

No matter what happened to them, like the worst thing that happened to you still is the worst thing that happened to you and you're allowed to have that experience.

Like, you know, I had that with my sick week.

It's like it went mostly smooth.

I still complained about it here and there.

Like I still like stressed about it.

But just because somebody else had it worse, that doesn't mean that mine wasn't like, I wasn't also struggling on mine.

Like the worst thing that happened to me was still that same deal.

The worst thing that happened to me.

And it gets lost on people sometimes, especially in that environment.

And it's really easy to look at somebody else.

I'm glad I'm not that guy.

And then you have to like, and then you're working on your car.

It's like, at least my engine's not blown up.

You're like pulling your transmission out.

But those are the best events of all time because they, they force you to have to problem solve.

When my car is broken in Gainesville with an alternator bad and it's the middle of the night, you don't really have much choice besides like, well, I guess I better figure this out.

Yeah.

Kind of random.

Do you think that doing a drag and drive is smart with a platform that's not popular here?

Yeah, I mean, it's.

And I say that because if you break down, you have, you can, well, you have a 2J still possible to get parts.

Let's say if you have like an RB or if you have a popular like a swap that's not really common.

How are you getting parts?

You just have to make sure that you have the things that you know can't be found.

And also a lot of my stuff strategically is available at part stores, like purposely done, not using like super off the wall things.

Just like little things, you know, like just like simple things.

Like radiators and fans and like, you know, injector O rings and like a lot of the stuff is very universal and you have to purposely do that.

Like coils and right, right.

The more weird off the wall things you use, the more difficult it's going to become.

So you're set up for those kind of events are way different than, you know, I guess a week at FL2K or something like that.

Or it's the same setup you go across the board.

The car is a little different, you know, a tow hitch on the back of it.

I was towing a trailer and had to swap wheels and tires.

I didn't use nitrous on that.

So like there was a little bit different, but it's for the most part similar.

Okay.

I also, you know, I was going to do sick week when we did it and not this last one, but the one before that.

We only decided, I think it was Christmas day.

We were all talking hanging out or Christmas Eve.

We're all sitting there at Doug Cook's house, Motion Raceworks.

And I was like with Brett LaSala and Jim and we're talking about sick week.

And they were like, why don't you do it in your car?

And I was like, sitting there thinking, I was like, my first instinct is like, what excuse can I make to not do it in the Camaro?

Because I was going to do it in the Mustang chip.

And I was like, what excuse can I make to not do it in the Camaro?

Because I knew it would be a lot harder to be faster, be more expensive.

But like, I couldn't think of anything.

And I was like, I guess I should do it in the, I guess I should do it in the Camaro.

And that was kind of how that came, but that was, that was Christmas and the event was February.

Yeah.

So I was like, okay, well, let's figure that one out.

Yeah, better get some parts rolling here because like I still needed spare stuff.

I still needed like fluids to keep with me.

I needed, I didn't even have a tow hitch on the back of it.

I had to make sure it had a horn, headlights, tail lights, like across the board.

Like you have to, everything at that point.

Yeah.

And I never really drove it on the street much.

I drove it to like BMP a couple times, 10 minutes away.

It doesn't really count.

But I was worried.

I was like, well, what am I going to do?

Test this thing on the street for 500 miles.

Yeah.

And then it breaks the next 500 miles.

You know what I mean?

Like, you can only test so much.

You put a couple hundred miles, like you put like a hundred miles on it.

And it's like, okay, well, I'm not going to put more on it because then I'm just like.

Right.

I get, I get mad at some people.

You'll see that TX2K qualifying.

They will do every qualifier.

They will get six qualifiers, seven qualifiers.

They will do every single one of them run almost the identical time every time.

And then come round to their blown up.

And it's like, you know, you could have made it to the finals if you had just reserved yourself a little bit.

You pushed your car every time to be fucking, you know, swing your dick around.

And run the same time.

You'll see it.

Like you got, you had your car figured out after the second qualifier.

We had that, we understood.

Reserve it a little bit.

Do you want to win or are you here to, you know, bragging rights?

Yeah.

Bragging rights to me, a lot of people have different opinions on it.

Bragging rights to me, if you're out of drag race is winning or at least going rounds.

Some people bragging rights is a number.

Okay.

And that to me, you could do that at a test in tune.

It seems silly to go try to run a number.

Right.

At an event.

It happens at World Cup every year where it's just people going there for like home runs.

And it's like, yeah, you know, like, oh, you know, hitting the, hitting the ball real far in baseball is cool and all.

But if the guy catches it in the outfield, it wasn't that cool.

Mmm.

Good analogy.

It's like, yeah, that's true.

It's only cool if you fucking made the whole run and made it back home.

But you think that's why that, that, that event is as big as it is because of that, because of how many people are willing to take that risk to just send it on full kill.

They are.

And the first time that I noticed and like it kind of like was weird to me, we were there and I saw this whole family cheering after the car just got gapped.

And they were all just like on the starting line.

Yeah, like, like, I was like, it's just.

But it ran the number.

Yeah.

I was like, show a little disappointment here.

What are you cheering about?

You know what I mean?

Like that is not a cheerable event for me.

Like when, when my car loses and, you know, the driver went 800 on the tree.

So you guys shouldn't be cheering.

Sorry.

Sorry, you can't be excited about that.

You just can't.

It just doesn't make sense.

But it happens every year at World Cup.

You'll see it at TX2K and it's because it's a lot of these cars that get rarely dusted off.

And when they do, they go out there to try to run the home home run.

And it just, I don't know.

It's just a weird way to raise for me.

So, so what made you, I don't know if you've spoken about it, but like, what made you want to do 2J in this?

Because are you technically an import guy?

No, I just, I like cars.

I like the sound of the 2J.

Okay.

So I had a Mark III Supra.

Right.

That was being that this engine was built for and I had a built a 340 trans for it as well.

And it was like, oh yeah, it's going to be like this 800 horsepower street car.

So cool.

And then I bought this car and I put an LS in it and it got a cage and all this stuff.

And like the back, the Supra kept getting put on the back burner because I was like, yeah, I want to drag race.

I want to drag race.

And the LS and this wasn't built.

So I was like, okay, well, I'm going to have to build an LS.

It'll be like 20 grand.

And I was like, I got this 2J that's fully built and I already got a turbo for it.

I already got an ECU for it.

And it was all stuff that I needed if I was going to build an LS for this.

Yeah.

So instead of spreading myself thin on two cars, let me just build one interesting car as a 2J in it.

And like, I'll just combine the two.

So I got rid of the Mark III Supra and just took the LS out of this after, I think it was only running for like a month with the LS.

Oh, okay.

And I just, I knew it wasn't going to go that fast.

It was a super charged LS.

It was kind of just like a dinky setup.

So I was like, well, let's just take this out, put the 2J in here and it'll be a cooler overall thing.

And it's spiraled really, really aggressively.

Like it was, it was supposed to be like a pretty basic build.

Yeah.

When we first put it together, I told Vic, who did the engine, of course, and Alpha at induction did the tuning.

I told him, I was like, I'd be really happy if this car goes eights.

And they were like, and we took it out and the first pass and went an 830.

That's crazy.

At the first, we rolled it out to TX2K, fresh off the dyno, FL2K, fresh off the dyno.

And the first pass and went 830, like way wrong.

The suspension wasn't working right.

It did like, you know, hung the front end up, like all this stuff.

And I was like, oh, okay.

And I remember when it was first getting all the fab work done, I was talking to Jay Meager.

He was at Real Street at the time, RS Garage, and he looked at the car and I told him, I was like,

I'd just be really happy if this goes eights.

And he was like, he was like, you could do everything wrong and this car is going to go seven.

It's like, what are you talking about?

I was like, oh, okay.

I mean, he was clearly right because very easily it was going 8.0s and 790s.

It kind of sucked for YouTube because you're supposed to build up to things like,

oh, now we got to figure out our next, we got to figure it out.

It's not working.

Oh man, we're going to lose the shop.

You got to have like that, almost like some tension.

Right, right.

But it was really just like, okay, Alpha.

I'm simplifying his job, but he's so smart that it did look very simple.

And then it just like went sevens.

Like we didn't do anything different besides like some suspension, you know,

I twisted the knobs on the suspension a little bit.

So it was like almost anti-climactic a little bit.

How much is this car weight?

32 with me in it.

Okay.

It's not terrible.

It's like pretty good.

Yeah.

It's like standard street car weight.

It's really hard for like a real regular street car to be under 3200 pounds, realistically.

Yeah.

Like this has crank windows.

Like it has glass hatch.

Like it has a hood that opens like normal has a hatch that opens like normal.

Like it's still very street car ish, you know, and I, you know, I was done 1200 miles.

So I can say that I'm not one of those guys.

This is one of my pet peeves, man.

I really, really grinds my gears.

That builds a car like this.

And he's like, I take it to Publix weekly.

Oh, I drive this all the time.

It's like, don't I hate when people try to like pull that shit that like that.

It's like so glamorous.

It's like, really?

I don't want to climb in and out of this cage to go to freaking Publix.

Dude, what are we talking about here?

And it's like, it's not that fast on the street.

Like it's, it's, it's a drag car.

Like it.

Yeah.

Like if I'm on the street and I really want to make a rip, I got to like turn on a CO2

bottle and a nitrous bottle and make sure the nitrous is warm.

And it runs on ignite E85.

It's like, why would I?

Yeah.

But so many people do it and they make these cars sound like they're like these super

streetable cars.

And it's like, yeah, it is, but it's like, why are we trying to pretend that we need

to go drive them all the time to like pat ourselves on the back?

A lot of people use it as a crutch.

They like to, well, you know, it's only been seven fifties or it's only been eight twenties,

but I drive it to Publix weekly.

It's like their crutch of like why it's not faster a lot of the time.

It's fine.

It's fine to not be faster.

It's fine.

I could be faster too.

And I'll just tell you, it takes a lot more money.

It's, it's easy to be honest.

It's not because I want to drive it to go to get ice cream and I want to climb in and

out of a, you know, 750 roll cage all the time.

And then when you're really riding in one of these things, all you are is scared that

somebody's going to T bone you in this cage is going to hit me on the street.

Yeah, of course.

Yeah.

Terrified because all it takes is some dude in a freaking Tesla that weighs 5,800 pounds

to not to be doing this, you know, over here on his phone looking at something and just

T bone you.

Oh man.

Imagine a 5,200 pound car.

It could be on Instagram too, you know, that's the same thing.

That's the same thing.

You're right.

It's so funny.

It might be worse.

Yeah, it might be worse.

Actually, I mean, Pornhub's band in Florida, if you didn't know, but Instagram isn't.

Yo, that's hilarious.

Um, okay.

So when you've probably heard it from people where they, they put on this front that they

street drive their race cars all the time.

No, I've, I've, I've, um, I definitely heard that before for sure.

And it's a lot of, I think, I think, um, so I don't understand what the, um, the hype

around it is.

It's cool.

Yes.

To be able to take a car that can go seven seconds on the track and you could drive

it off.

But also you got to think there's cars that like the BMWs that can do that.

They can go to the track and run an eight and drive the same car home.

But are you talking about like cage cars, like full on race cars?

Or are you talking about just any car that runs a certain time at the track?

And if it has the appropriate safety gear to be going as fast as it's going.

Gotcha.

Cause there's a lot of those BMW guys that'll be like, yeah, I can run sevens and drive

it, but it's like, but you don't have the safety to be going sevens.

If you don't have a seven second cage, it doesn't really count.

Okay.

Because you can't actually use that in most instances.

Right.

Like, yeah, there's a ton of seven second BMWs that don't have the safety to be doing what

they're doing.

Right.

And there's, there's Supra's to do it.

There's all kinds of cars to do it.

But like if you have the, the matched safety to the ET, like my car, a seven 60 car that

has the appropriate gear and everything to be going that speed is not enjoyable on the

street.

It's just not going to be.

Yeah.

It's just, there's too many bars.

There's too many.

There's, there's a fire suppression bottle over my shoulder.

There's, there's a parachute handle in my line of sight.

Like it's just not, it's not what people make it out to be.

And that's not a complaint again.

That's just people try to oversell some of these cars.

Hmm.

You think, so you think it's a, okay, but a lot of the cars too, it can be like an older

platform that like, and the BMW world, I guess we can kind of keep that in its own lane because

we're just in a different time with those cars, right?

But like the older chassis cars, what would be the purpose of them trying to oversell that?

I think it's just for themselves.

I think they just like to feel like, cause you know, I'll, I'll talk about this car

again.

Like me and my wife, before we had kids, we took it to cars and coffee.

Yeah.

We did like a cars and coffee cruise with this thing where I was following like BMWs and

like true street cars with like slicks and skinnies on it.

It wasn't enjoyable.

There's no AC in this thing.

We're sweating our asses off and these people are just having a grand old time just living

it up and it was cool to take it.

But again, it's just, it's that it's just like, oh, it's just like a cool thing that you did.

It's not like, it's really not what people make of it for the most part.

So it's okay.

So it's, they just try to oversell their own car or their own ability to endure pain.

I think that's part of it.

But they don't admit the pain part though.

They make it seem like it's, oh, it's a, it's a walk in the park.

This thing drives so nice drives like stock drives like stock.

They try to pull that shit.

And, and yeah, a lot of cars that are as fast as my car do drive like stock.

Like you're saying a lot of the BMWs.

Super impressive platform, but they also don't have the proper safety.

So it's like, I kind of lose a little bit of like, yeah, it's, it's easier when you don't

have to, when you don't have the proper amount of safety, because it makes it really complex

when you have to put a full roll cage in a, you know, 2025 BMW.

Yeah.

It becomes a whole different element to that point.

That is true.

And also like a cutoff switch in the back and like, you know, you start to get into different

territory.

Does it have a drive shift loop?

Yeah.

Does it have, I mean, you know, obviously they still kind of tend to have power steering

and all their charging system and cooling, but then like the actual safety to be doing

that.

Like that's why on like dragon drives, like sick week where they do full NHRI tech, you

don't see many seven second BMWs or really much of those like modern street cars because

they never, they don't pass tech the same.

But what, so what, what is the purpose of, of a dragon drive then?

Like what, what is the real like reason that event became as popular as it is?

Because if you're saying that a lot of these cars don't have the proper safety and these

cars are running these times, then why implement the dragon drive aspect to it?

I think it's just because people like pain.

Life has been really easy for a long time in the US.

Okay.

And males between the age of 25 and 60 long for pain.

We don't work the fields anymore.

We aren't going off to fight wars like we did.

Yeah.

We long for some kind of like punishment and we opt for things like the dragon drive and

it, it, it tickles that, that spot that men have.

I think like some women have it, but I think for the most part men really have this like

this drive to go through some kind of punishment.

It's almost like a, it was like coming to ages, you know, back in, you know, Roman times

and stuff where you'd have to go off and do something.

Yeah.

It's, it's like that.

Like it's just ingrained into men that we want to go do something that's very difficult

and painful and like the dragon drive fits that really well.

What's the painful aspect of dragon drives?

I mean a thousand miles in a car like this is very painful.

There's, there's like your brain is constantly in this like flight or flight, fight or flight

mode of like high, like you're, you're at like this high resonant frequency the whole

time.

At least I am.

And I'm sure everybody else I've talked to kind of is too, because like there's so much

that could happen.

So much going wrong.

You get to the track and you have to do a list of things.

Then you, then you're leaving the track and you have to do this other list of things.

And then you're like, you have to find a hotel.

You have to, you know, repair something on the side of the road.

Like there's, there's just like, you don't know what the curve ball is going to be like,

oh, it starts raining.

Oh, you woke up and there's dew on the car.

Like that's a thing that you have to deal with on a race cars.

Like there's no defroster on most of these cars.

Like even like a little thing like that adds like a, like there's a video of me driving

this car to OSW where I'm sitting on the roll cage, head out the window because I can't

see out the windshield.

Oh, cause there's no wipers or anything.

So I'm just like my foot's all the way on the gas, like reaching all the way out.

I'm like out the window and just, you know, trying to get there because I got to get there.

Yeah.

Like there's no, oh, I'll be there in a minute.

Like it's a schedule.

Yeah, right.

So it really just like tickles that exact thing of like extremely difficult and you

pick a co-pilot that you hope can handle the extremely difficult and hope you don't

both die together.

We almost, I mean, we almost both of them was died when I did it the last time.

Oh, wow.

We were, we were cruising from Gainesville to South Georgia, our last stint.

And we had a damaged belt, the alternator belt.

I only run the alternator off the belt.

So it's just one little belt.

And I was like, gosh, a little shredded.

And all of a sudden I saw the voltage on the screen start dropping.

And the first thing that like this was pitch black on a back road.

First thing that went out headlights.

And I hear the fuel pumps start to lose voltage too.

And I'm like, oh shit.

Like, and I just pulled off on the side of the road and like I could not see a

I could not see a single foot in front of the in front of this car.

And I knew there was a ditch on the side of the road that was like deep.

And then like there was railroad tracks like right there.

So I was like, like we were so I had to get off enough to not be in the ditch,

but also off the road to not get plowed into by a car coming up the road.

So it's like that was one of those moments where I was like really cooked.

And then we're sitting there trying to figure it out, like trying to call people

for belts. It's like midnight, you know, like we're we're looking for a hotel room.

There wasn't hotel rooms for like an hour either way.

And then finally we're trying to figure it out.

Somebody else stops their help and people stop and help constantly.

And then it starts to rain.

And it's just like you're just like, of course, why wouldn't it start to rain?

And then you're just kind of sitting in the car it immobile with a trailer.

We were in the lead.

We were about and we were about two hours from the track in first place in our class.

And we're just like, man, is this the end?

Like we get this close to securing a victory.

And we're just stuck here on the side of the road at midnight

because we don't have a belt and alternator belt.

Like like we had a second one, but we ended up damaging it.

Yeah. And it's just like.

Thankfully, Kyle Boosterboy Wade was able to, you know, do a U-turn.

Bring us a few spare belts that he had and we made something work.

We're able to get to the hotel, but it's like it's just things like that.

And like that's a that is like a light issue to have.

Yeah, belt.

But it's so dramatic when it's at midnight on your way to a hotel

and then it starts to rain and you, you know, like it's nothing normally.

Right. Normally.

Oh, like you lost a belt or whatever.

Really, it's fine.

Like that's like a 10 minute fix.

You call the parts store, you tell them what car you have.

Another issue, I didn't even know what length the length the belt was.

Is that custom like custom deal?

It's yeah, yeah.

But it's just it's one of those things.

Everything becomes a problem when you least expect it.

Fuel lines leak, fuel pumps go bad.

We have fuel pumps seal go bad.

Those spraying fuel all over the engine.

Like it's just it never ends.

And that's that's the fun of it, though.

That's the fun of the event. Yeah.

You don't want an event where nothing goes wrong.

You don't want nothing to go wrong.

You want just enough to go wrong where you can continue on,

but not enough to take you out of competition.

You want like a little bit of hardship, especially for YouTube.

You got to have a little bit of hardship.

Like I know people that had like, oh, I didn't work on anything.

It was an easy event.

We got no good thumbnails, no good titles, no drama.

Yeah, drama. Yeah, yeah.

I've told him, I'm like, you better light that thing on fire.

So like a little fire like just like a manageable fire.

Something. Yeah.

You got to have something. So that's true, though.

That is true. You know, it's funny.

I was I was watching.

What's his name?

He has a VK in the in the Fairmont.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Calvin.

Yeah. So I was watching.

I actually was watching his stuff

because 1320 did a feature on his car.

Yeah, super cool car.

Yeah. So I watched the event and it was kind of like

like I was hooked because he did it in like four or five parts.

And he was having issues with the car, the traction.

And then obviously it blew up towards the end.

But I watched the whole way and it's kind of like you, you know,

you see the ups and downs and it's way more interesting to watch

and just somebody going on the track, hitting, getting their slip

or whatever it is. And it's like every video, that's what you see.

But it kind of made me think differently

because I'm like, damn, like you're actually watching this person

and it could have been his first time, not that it was,

but it could have been his first time.

And you're actually like, it made me want to do the event

because I'm like, damn, like it looks stressful,

but it also looks like fun somehow.

Even though it's like, I'm sure he's probably stressed out,

but like, I don't know, like everybody's there

for the same exact reason, doing the same exact thing.

And it's kind of like you're in your own bubble,

but at the same time you're around people that are that understand

what the, you know, with with the idea of the event is.

And they'll all help you.

I mean, we've we've even had like Sick Ward, which is just they come to follow

along and they're there the whole week.

So they're just kind of hanging out.

Like you get to know some of the Sick Ward people a couple of times.

Like there was a couple of people, like I think on the first one I did,

they were they were here from England just following along the event for fun.

They just rented like a Chrysler Pacifica.

They put the sticker on.

They were part of Sick Event.

Yeah.

And, you know, they they'd stop and see us.

But they were like, we would be broken down on the side of the road

and they'd stop and be like, oh, how's it going?

Like they just had like nice dinner.

They were just relaxing because like they had a Chrysler Pacifica.

They weren't like struggling at no point.

Did they have to struggle?

I mean, maybe it is a Chrysler product.

The rental company would pick it up.

But again, like they would just stop and check in on you.

Sometimes like you'd be really struggling in the morning and show up

and they'd hand you like a Chick-fil-A sandwich and be like, I look like you

needed this today because they wanted to see you go and finish too.

But that kind of stuff is cool.

There's just so much camaraderie.

That's that's like the word that everybody uses camaraderie because

everybody wants to see everybody else be successful.

Even the person you're in competition with like direct competition with

you still want to see them be successful, just a little less successful than you.

Are the cops like aware of this event?

Yeah, I mean, they're all street legal cars.

OK, no, I'm just saying because like, you know, around that time,

I'm not sure if police officers are kind of like, oh, well, you know,

what an event's going on. Yeah, I was wondering that, too.

Yeah, I don't know. I mean, it's not like TX2K where.

Oh, the cops pull you over.

They'll pull you over just because you got beatlocks on.

Yeah, leaving the track.

They're like, get you right in front of the track, too.

But like this event, you know, Florida is a little bit more lenient, too.

No one can really speed.

Right.

That's what I'm saying.

Like most of us are going 10 under.

Is there any rules for like the event?

Because think about it, if you have an event this big,

you got people driving all over the place.

Yeah.

The last thing you want to do is bring attention to police officers

and so on, because people are doing illegal things.

But like, is there rules that they, you know, before like if you have a meeting

before the event starts that like, oh, if you're going somewhere,

you know, make sure you stay at, you know, reasonable speeds or they've never

really never enforced it, never had to have that, never had to have that talk.

You know, not doing anything stupid.

Yeah.

And it's never been, it's never been a problem because most people

that do these things are, are that different bunch of people.

You know, it's not like a cannonball run or like a, like a gumball rally

type of thing where it's like, you're going to have people being like that.

Like even like cars and coffees get pretty silly.

But like all the time, that's all I see on my feed.

Oh, dude, the cars and coffee stuff is getting out of control, man.

They need to start having those things earlier in the morning,

to weed out some of the degenerates.

Literally, literally.

Yeah, no, it's getting out of hand now.

But I was just curious about that because it's, it's in a big event.

So, you know, you, you want to keep the event around for a while and that can

get ruined quickly.

But like you said, I think it's the kind of people that are at these

events that aren't doing this stupid thing.

You're going to build a race car, right?

Build a drag and drive car.

I think it'd be cool, but, um, what are you going to build?

Hopefully it doesn't have an RB in it.

No, I won't have an RV.

The RV stuff is cool.

Like we spoke about, but, um, I think it's cool.

I think like you picked this engine because it sound same thing with me.

I think it's a very beautiful looking engine and it has a very unique sound.

But, um, it doesn't make power.

Yes.

Can it make power?

Yes.

But, um, you know, too finicky.

It can be.

I think you just have to have the right people around and what would you

build as drag car then?

I would want to do a V eight.

So I can't say which V eight.

I can't say what man, but I want to build a V eight in my pry bar out here to pry

you away from me.

So I don't want to, I don't want to build a V eight for sure.

Um, I think, I think it'd be, um, a pretty, a way different experience from the

RB I want to build something that is like you can drop with engine in barely have

to do minimal mods, maybe change a few things.

And if you have to, at most pistons rods, that's about it.

I don't want to sit there and have to, to do like a ton of machine work, adding

certain braces, this, like it's just, you know, trying to figure out the oil.

Like it's just, it's a lot.

You have to, I think building like having a car that runs eights mid eights

somewhere around there would teach you so much so quickly.

And even the stuff that I had to learn with this car of like the actual

everything that surrounds making a pass is a lot, like there's so much that

surrounds it, even like safety gear, fuel stuff, like, yeah, because depending on

what fuel you run is different fire layer suits and stuff like that.

Like how's that run methanol, you need a 20 layer.

If you run ethanol, you can get away with like a 15 and even some of those

rules are a little weird and a lot of people like to, uh, they like to dodge

the safety guy a little bit.

They're like, oh, I got away with this.

And it's like, well, yeah, but he's not the one that's going to be on fire.

You'll hear that all the time.

You can't dodge, say, though, you shouldn't be dodging the safety.

You should just like, oh, I snuck one by.

It's like, yeah, but like, he's not the one that's going to be in the car

when it crashes.

Yeah, because I've been in a car that hit the wall.

I've been in a car, I've had this car on fire.

I've like, I've been through both of them and it's taught me, oh, well, yeah,

the guy that texts me isn't the one that has to deal with this when things go

wrong.

So I should probably have my shit pretty figured out.

But I don't understand what the issue is.

Like, and that's the only thing that kind of annoys me.

It's like, just put this shit on, bro.

Like, if you have it, it's insane.

It's expensive.

I get it.

Yeah.

But like, if you have it and it's sitting there on the passenger seat, I mean,

if you have it, just put, just do, just put it on.

Like you have it for a reason.

Just make sure you have the right stuff.

Like I do get it.

Like sometimes it is expensive, like you said, but some of these cars that go

on the track, man, it's like you just put a hundred thousand dollars in your

engine or whatever.

Like you can have, you have to have money for safety, you know, it depends on the

budget of the car as well.

But like, I just feel like you shouldn't be skipping out on that.

And that's never a flex to me in my opinion is to, I like safety.

I don't like safety a lot.

Yeah, I just, I just think that's a flex.

I, I, for me, and I'm paranoid too, I would want to make sure I have everything.

And that's why I think, um, you know, like it has to be the right car and

have to be done right.

That's probably why if I ever do go to a track and track race, like car, it, I'd

have to have all, all avenues covered for sure.

Um, just because, man, like, I don't know.

It's, it's a scary thing to do still at the end of the day.

There's something real fun about letting off a button in a power glide or turbo

400 car, you only run power glides, right?

Mostly just cause I'm cheap.

Okay.

So now explain to me, cause I'm actually very genuinely interested in this.

You mentioned to me that, um, the power glides like $2,000, roughly.

Yeah.

You can get like a good one for like 3,500 bucks.

Okay.

So now the price is changed.

All right.

So now like a really good one with a dump valve after market case, you could,

you could probably get one around there.

Okay.

Like a used brand new parts, a little different.

What about a th 400?

Well, like, you know, say, like, you know, the really fast guys run like a 40,

$50,000 th 400.

They can get that expensive.

Oh yeah.

Dude, whenever I hear it's h 400, I always think it's like seven, less than $10,000.

Yes.

You can get one for that, but you're going to have a stock gear set.

You're going to have a potentially a stock case with an after market bell housing.

Okay.

But a stock case is kind of scary.

I mean, they can come apart.

Yeah.

Like you can get like my feeder right there.

I don't want a stock case power glide right there.

That's going at, you know, 10,000 RPM.

Yeah.

Okay.

I don't want that.

There's, you definitely can't have a stock case case power glide, but you can kind of

potentially get away with a stock case 400, but it starts to get questionable.

And then, you know, like a good turbo 400, there's a real disparity there of like

price because there's some internal parts, like planetary gear sets and stuff like

that that are, you know, five grand for themselves, like an internal part.

And then, you know, the fluid is like $100 a gallon for like the good LAT fluid that

a lot of the guys run.

In the th.

Yeah.

Even in like power glides.

How often are you changing the fluid?

They changed a lot.

A lot.

Yeah.

So like every pass a lot or like every track event.

Probably every event, depending on how fast you are and how hot you get it, but a

lot of them are servicing it pretty frequently.

And are those fluids, um, do they help with the heat as well?

Yeah.

You got to get a lot of like, you know, Mark Mickey, for instance, won't warranty.

I guess his trans for my understanding, if they don't run that fluid.

Okay.

And you got to run like two gallons of this stuff.

Wow.

A hundred bucks a piece.

Is it, you know, the weight difference between the two power gliding the NH200?

Uh, it's not off the top of my head.

You think it's like a heavier transmission for an aftermarket case.

400 is pretty heavy.

Yeah.

I mean, I would assume so.

Well, like, like my power glide, I can lift up and put it on the motor, like the

engine stand, if I need to, like I can, I can just deadlift the thing.

It's not that heavy transmission like this and pick it up and not put it in the car,

but put it on the jack.

Like I could pick it up off the ground and put it on the transmission.

Oh, okay.

And then jack the transmission into it.

I'm not doing that with a 400.

Wow.

Like they're not that heavy, especially without the converter in it.

And the converters, that's kind of a null thing because it's the same converter,

no matter what trans you have.

Okay.

Like it'd be the same converter.

If I put a 400 in that car versus a power glide, see the same converter.

Um, now with, with the power glide, what are the limitations?

Like where does it get to a point where is it a power thing or is it like, um, well,

if you have, if you're making more power, I'm sure you can get that attract fast

enough to, to get a lower ET, of course, but like, where does it become limited

as opposed to a TH 400?

There, this might be controversial, but I don't think that there is really a limit.

I think you can go insanely fast.

You're, you're not going to run into a limit of the strength.

You're going to run into a limit of, you just can't squeeze more out of it

because you need more gear ratios, you need another gear ratio there.

And you don't have as many options with a power glide.

You just can't like turbo 400.

You can pick any first, second, third gear, final drive.

Like you can pick gears.

Okay.

You probably dealt with this a little bit with your transmission where it's like

you can kind of pick what gear sets you want.

Oh yeah.

Um, there's, yeah, but there's more options.

There is a little bit more options.

You can.

Like a T 56 manual transmission, there's only so many gear options.

Like a turbo 400 ton of gear options, power glide, you're, you're limited,

but people have been sixes with power glides in full bodied cars.

Like it's, it's not a limit there as much as it is.

Like people need the tuneability and the, the gearing.

Like you need like that, Dan and Dan to keep it in the power band.

Cause my car drops so much on the one, two shift that I need like another gear

and then another gear to keep it in the power band.

That's where I, that's where I lose a lot of time.

It's not like the transmission itself.

It's just another gear would be so helpful.

And, you know, we're talking about street driving.

You know, that was an OEM transmission.

Like our grandparents used to street drive power glides because that was all they had.

True, true.

Yeah.

Yes.

True.

These are a lot of the older, older south.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Like a valid.

Yeah.

Like a Nova when they first came out, that was what she had.

Yeah.

Sure.

It had a crazy rear gear ratio to be able to cruise on the highway.

But like, that was it.

They just had the two gears.

What, what, uh, rear ratio do you run on this car?

It's a three 70.

Okay.

So the higher ratios are better for obviously, you know, quarter mile up.

You wouldn't want to.

Yeah.

It helped on the highway a little bit too.

I used to run a three 55 switch to a three 70.

It's a little spicier off the line though.

It's harder to tame something like that.

But, you know, I could even try like a four 10 or something really.

Yeah.

It's pretty common for really get aggressive.

But again, it's just kind of that final drive and first gear ratio.

It was, I will say with a power glide, it kind of sucks tone of trailer

because you're like, yeah, labor in it so much to get it to move.

Right.

And I, I was pretty cheap and I didn't run like a tall tire.

A lot of the drag and drive guys run really tall tires in the back

to help with their gear ratio.

I ran like a ran what I had was like a tiny little like 26 inch tall

tire.

So it didn't help me eight as tall as you can get is what they'll run.

Like a lot of those guys, a lot of them run like off-road tires, like 32s.

Wow, because they're trying to get as much cruising as they can.

It's just like little things like that that you won't even think about on

your yeah and drive.

No, I definitely wouldn't.

I'd be like, what the hell?

Yeah, I was cruising so bad with the power glide.

You said they were three thousand thirty five hundred bucks.

Yeah, you can get one for that.

Okay.

How easy are they to find?

Is there like, uh, you just get from this, like get the buy and use?

Cause there's, oh yeah, I mean, they're all over the place.

So any company that builds race transmissions probably have them sitting on

the shelf.

Yeah.

Is this something you can pick up from like Facebook marketplace and just

throw on the one in the Mustang is a stock case glide that I picked up on

Facebook marketplace that has like some good parts in it.

But it was like, it was, it was 2,500 I think, but that was a stock case glide.

Yeah.

Like a really nice, like really, really nice all in power glide, probably peak,

like all out five grand new one.

Wow.

Brand new, all out, all out.

Like, but like a used one, three grand all time.

And the wear items are like nothing.

Like we've, we've had clutches in that car for ever.

I don't think we ever put clutches in that power glide, which is like the wear

item and they've been in the same forever.

Okay.

So I'm not that fast.

I don't make that much torque.

I don't make that much horsepower.

Now, you mentioned that you're, you're keeping your car in a power band is,

is kind of like an issue because you have two, two, two gears.

But do you find that increasing?

I don't know what you rev to, but does increasing RPM kind of help that?

It still drops, you know, if I shift at 8,900 RPM, it'll drop down to 8,000.

If I shifted 8,500, it'll drop down to 7,500.

You'll still be in boost though, right?

Yeah, I'm still in boost either way, but it's just the, you don't like, you

don't want to be that low in the RPM when you shift because that labors the

motor down so much, right?

Like you, you want the motor to keep accelerating.

If you pull the RPM down a lot, you're like, you're decelerating the motor

in a way and it's not great, but you know, you talk to way smarter people than

me that could explain that way better.

Oh yeah, I don't do transmissions.

I'm not going to lie.

Transmissions are the one car part that I feel have been invented by aliens.

Like some of these gears that like these, like, and even in the ZF transmission,

like you take that thing apart, man, you're just like, you know, you got a valve

box, like all this stuff.

I'm like, who, what person or what engineer need at some point that I have to go

on there?

It's like, yeah, all these numbers.

I'm like, I don't understand how that even started.

Like where some of these people having conversations at a table and said, Hey,

let's come up with this transmission.

Like, I'm just slow, slow progression, like, just like, I don't understand

incremental changes year over year from, I don't know, when did the power

glide come out like the sixties until now?

And, you know, a lot of people don't realize that the power glide became a

turbo 350 and the turbo 350 got another gear or became the turbo 400.

The turbo 350 is nobody really uses because their, their sprag is pretty bad.

It breaks often.

They're, they're what?

They have like a sprag in the, um, transmission that is very fragile.

So nobody really races them, but it was a slow progression.

Like you can see the progression from a power glide to a 400 and then from a

400 to like a 4L 60, 4L 80, they're very similar again.

They just have like an overdrive.

So like there's this slow progression and then like it went to more of a, um, like

ECU controlled trans with the six L's in the later cars, which yeah, the

4L 80s and stuff are ECU controlled, but they're not quite on the same level.

Like they're not reading what the clutches are doing and stuff like that.

Like the CTSV is where you can tune the transmission a lot more way different,

but a lot of that comes with downfall to people that are trying to like

actually modify these cars because not a lot of ECUs can control this stuff.

Well, right yet, at least.

Yeah, yes, but it's like it's been a while.

Yeah, it's been a while and still, and I, that's what I'm saying.

Like it's, there's, there's something like, it's like, dude, I swear,

aliens made that, um, OEMs know how to do it, but like aftermarket

companies still struggle a lot with the performance side of it.

One of the podcasts I did with Victor last year for FL2K, Victor and Mac,

they wanted to do an engine dyno test.

Victor was like, nah, we'll just put on an engine dyno and see what it makes.

Mac was saying, let's just put the cars in the dyno and see what they

both make to see what makes more power.

But both of them could figure out the horsepower by measuring maximum fuel flow.

However much the engine can flow of fuel is how much horsepower it's making.

It's, it's math.

Like if it's flowing X amount of fuel, it can, it's making X amount of power.

Like it's, you can figure that out, but also if they both run the same turbo,

they're both capped at the same horsepower.

Right.

Like if you run a 8890 from precision, it can make X amount of horsepower.

Yeah.

No matter what engine you have on it, it doesn't matter.

Yeah.

It's only going to flow this much air.

Right.

It's just, it's just science.

Like it's just math and like thermodynamics.

Like it, not to like hate on Victor or anything, but you look at a class like

Ultra Street, okay.

They say that you can only run a 76 millimeter turbo.

And that's the only turbo you can run for like a bunch of the combos.

Like there's like weird ways where you can kind of squeeze in like different.

So as long as this is 76, it could be a 76, 75, like a 76 millimeter.

They have their, their strict rules on how they measure it.

Like this, this exact size turbo, because they know that no matter what engine

you put it on, whether it's a 2J, whether it's a six, whether it's like a Buick

six cylinder, a couple of people run, whether it's a, it can only flow so much air.

And one turbo or can you do twins?

One.

Okay.

So who's, who's the fastest in that class?

Um, there's a, it kind of goes back and forth.

Um, currently it was like this small block Ford combo was really fast.

Um, there's a couple of things like nitrous cars struggle, like, but they cross over.

So like it ultra street has nitrous cars.

They got big block nitrous, small block nitrous, you know, six cylinder, 76

millimeter turbos, coyotes with 76 millimeter turbos.

They have pro charged combos.

They have so much stuff and they have to try to make the parody work, but they

know that the turbo can only make so much.

It's just like, right, we all know this.

Like I hate to break into Victor, but unless he can make more on that turbo

without blowing up, then that makes sense.

Like if Mac can only, you know, he can't run it to max, he can't max out the

turbo because you're going to blow it up.

That's the only way he can beat him.

It's not going to make more, like if they're both running the turbo max

efficiency all out, they're only going to make so much power.

And if they can keep like EGTs cool enough.

Well, that's even if they, if they even can make the power that the

turbo is rated for, right?

Cause a lot of people, they get turbos and they don't know you're making

the power that, you know, like you can buy, like for mine, I have a 7675.

I think that's rated like 1350 or something like that.

And I'm not going to make that, but like you said, the other factors that do

matter if you have, you know, obviously fuel and, and, and, um, I guess, actually,

no, I don't even know what would it, how would that would even affect that?

I have a three, two, I have max a lot of fuel flowing.

I don't, I mean, I probably could make 13 if you might be able to max out

that turbo, like now I probably could actually,

you'd probably run into a back pressure issue before you maxed it out fully.

Yeah, no, a hundred percent.

Um, you'd probably run into an exhaust constraint on that.

And that would be also the engine dyno issue.

It's like, you would find out if your turbo system is effective, if you

run enough intercooler, if you got enough, you know, I don't have enough.

Back pressure for sure would be the problem with me.

Yeah.

So it's a common thing and no amount, like the engine's just an air pump.

It's not really an RPM too.

Cause if the turbo, if I'm, if I'm making power, if I'm at 8,500,

which is where I'm at now and we're pushing, you know, let's say, I don't

know, 30, 30 ish pounds of boost and I'm at 1200 and the turbo is kind of like,

you know, wants to keep going, the car wants to keep making power.

Then I got to push the RPM up now, technically.

Cause if not, then how, how else am I going to get, unless I bring

boost in earlier?

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, you make more boost at a lower RPM stress on, oh yeah.

It's hard on the motor.

Yeah.

You got to hope that your, your motor can handle it.

Yeah.

The car stuff is just like, you always got to think about, yeah, you

have the right cam set up.

Yeah.

I just think about is the cam, is the cams working right?

Yeah.

You know, for somebody like Victor who's got the two cams, Max got four, of course,

but like, no, I mean, it would, it would really just be about whether

they can both max out the turbo.

Yeah.

If either of them can max out the turbo, if both of them can, then they pretty

much have a hard cap of how much power they can make, because you can only

flow so much air through a hole this big.

Right, right, right.

No, a hundred percent.

And it's like, you're, you're, you're maxed out.

And where, where they're made.

The turbo can only spin so fast.

Right.

You can't make it spin faster than the other guy, because it just, it just

does not work that way.

Right.

It will only spin so fast, you only have a hole this big.

It's like a restrictor plate.

You know, NASCAR runs restrictor plates for a reason, because they

want to make the opening smaller.

And if they make the opening smaller, it doesn't matter what you got going on

under it, it could be the biggest big block you've ever seen.

But if the holes this big, you're still going to, you're still going to hurt it.

It's still limited.

Yeah.

Can you, can you explain to me, or help me understand this about the, the

converter power loss that he was talking about?

It's just really more of a gear ratio thing than anything.

And some people use the converter to get past some gear ratio things.

Like they, they measure slip in the converter and, you know, at the top end

of the track, you're trying to have the converter not slipping as much as possible.

That's why like a lockup transmission, the converter goes from say like 80% slip

to one to one locked up.

And that's why a lot of people, when they talk about lockup transmissions, they

talk about breaking their car.

Because when you go from slipping a little bit to locked up, it's going to be

really hard on parts.

Like it's going to almost try to turn the motor backwards for a brief second

because it's just that one to one hard hit.

Everything's right to the back.

There's nothing in between.

It's just locked and it's really hard on cars.

And that's why you hear, you know, people use the lockup in really tricky ways.

You'll hear a car that has three years go down track.

And you're like, wow, it's kind of like a lot of gear shifts for a car that has

three gears.

Yeah, you'll hear it.

You'll hear a lot of like, because they're getting more fancy.

They're, they're leaving the line.

First gear, then they lock it in first gear, then they hit second gear, then

they lock it in second gear, then they hit third gear, then they lock it in third.

I got to hear that.

That's pretty interesting.

You'll hear it.

It's very tricky and it's very hard to do.

And how, what are they doing to control that?

They're using the ECU to control it.

The lockup is a solenoid and you can, you can pulse it, but it takes, you're,

you're walking a real tightrope.

And again, I'm not smart enough to really, really explain what they're doing.

I've had it explained to me and I, I understand it a little bit.

But when they're doing this in under six seconds, walking and unlocking

yeah, that quickly, it's really impressive to work.

And you have to do probably a bunch of test passes to even get that dialed.

Well, that's why the biggest stride forward in cars has been ECU technology.

Yeah.

You know, turbos are good.

They've always been kind of good.

Engines more or less been the same.

Yeah.

Transmissions.

Yeah.

ECUs and data have been the biggest jump forward and people that don't use much

data and don't interpret much data are usually the ones that fall behind.

Unfortunately, you know, everybody always made fun of laptops in tuning.

I talked to Sam who works for Garrett.

He was like, I remember the first time I saw somebody plug a laptop into their car

and put it on the roof and tune the car with a laptop.

And he was like, he was blown away.

Hey, how long ago was that though?

Oh, I mean, he was, he's been doing it forever.

So yeah, yeah, probably 20, 30 years, 30 years ago.

You made a big, you made a big transition to doing your own stuff.

Right.

I know we were kind of on the origin story and kind of, yeah, yeah.

So now you're on your own, but like what made you want to make the switch?

Like, why did you decide to go on your own and do your own thing?

Um, it kind of, it was really one of those deals where it just felt like

that was the right thing.

Like, you know, it was, it was fairly mutually decided between me and Garrett

that my time with him was up.

It was like, okay, like, there's no more growth.

I don't really like where I'm at in this.

I was mostly in the merchandise department.

So that wasn't really fun.

And it was just like, well, I guess I should just go do my own thing and see

how that goes.

And I never really was like worried.

I was like, oh man, it's not going to work out because there's, there's

so many things to do in this world.

There's so many jobs.

They know enough people.

I know enough.

Yeah.

Like there's, there's always something I can do.

So I never really worried about that.

So I was like, well, I'll do my own thing.

And I said this on, um, we talked about this on the monoxide podcast a little bit,

but I was the most important thing in any of this is ability to change and pivot

and do things and, and adapt because social media is a changing landscape.

And a lot of people get really stuck in their ways on, oh, you know, I am a YouTuber.

I won't do Tik Tok.

I don't post on Facebook.

Like I am a YouTuber.

Yeah.

A lot of people get like that macho-ness almost of like, because YouTube is

kind of like the tallest mountain.

It seems it's the hardest one to master.

But then they leave money on the, like they leave, you know, it's not about money,

but they leave money, clicks, notoriety, views, like on the table by not being

open and pivotable when they have to be.

And you put all your eggs in one basket and it gets really scary at a time.

And, you know, you're good on multi-platforms.

You've probably made more money on Facebook than YouTube at that point.

Um, not yet.

Yeah.

Well, not a use is on the number one, but yeah, that's make money.

For sure.

I would just mean like, you know, things like that make great money

as well, and a lot of people have, they get in their own way.

But they also don't pivot content styles.

They don't pivot anything.

And it's fine when it's working.

Right.

But if you've not tried or pivoted or done things when it is working or not,

then you're kind of like, you might eventually get lost in the times.

And that's a worry with AI.

Like, yeah.

Hey, I might cook tons of YouTubers.

There's a strong chance of that.

Yeah.

Okay.

There's no reason why five years from now, everything we watch won't be custom

curated to us and no one will have no variety because there could be a situation

where your own YouTube algorithm is all videos that are not made by a human.

They are just all custom curated to you by an AI.

And then what?

And then all, why would they not try for all the ad revenue?

It doesn't make any sense not to.

We won't even, that would be the most detrimental thing to society in my opinion

because none of us will have a shared culture, a pop culture.

Right now, it's already fleeting.

I think cars are the last thing that we all connect with.

Yeah.

Like, because there's only so many.

So we all kind of congregate around cars.

We've already lost that with movies.

Nobody watches like.

Movies are done.

We've already lost that with most TV shows.

Sports are pretty disenfranchised.

There's very few things that really unite people besides like, you know, maybe like

working out cars and arguing about politics.

And if we lose more of any entertainment and everybody's just consumed by their

own entertainment that is custom curated to them, that on top of that,

doesn't even have anybody overseeing it.

Yeah.

Like, there's nobody checking in and it's just all personal algorithms.

That's when that's when it seems really scary and how do you, how do you be a

YouTuber when you're competing with that?

Something that is directly algorithmically planned for you as a YouTuber.

So it's like, I don't know what five years looks like.

Long way to say the last five years, eight years has worked fine for me.

Yeah.

But I don't know.

I'll have to, I'll have to pivot again.

I'm sure probably won't be doing this when I'm 60.

So I'll have to pivot again.

So you, so you, did you have a plan in your head prior to doing your own thing?

Or you were just like, you know what, let me try something on my own and see how

that's going to work out.

And then I'll figure it out.

Like how, yeah, you got to just land on your feet, hopefully.

And, you know, I've had, I, I had cars, I had this house already in this garage.

So like, I, I already knew like, oh, I, I could just start making videos and, you

know, Gary gave me a bump on YouTube.

So I got a huge bump in subscribers.

I was monetized.

I made tons of videos.

Like it was, it has worked out fine.

So I'm just like, oh, I guess it'll just keep working out fine.

And again, it's, it's that creator where every morning you have to wake up and be

like, well, guess I have to create something today.

What will it be?

And that's the only really, it's the only really way to do it is it sucks being a

little too day to day where, you know, you want to plan longterm things, but it's

really hard to, because you can't really plan like four months in advance.

And like some YouTubers can, like somebody like Tavaarish, see him buy cars that he's

like, I may get on to that in like two years, but it's like most people can't have

that money tied up sitting there.

Yeah, no, you can't.

Yeah.

But I don't know.

It's like, I don't know what the content will be next year.

I don't know what the content will be the year after that.

It'll probably be different.

And you just plan to keep trying different things.

I've heard somebody say like 20 or 30% of your content should be things that

you're trying that are new for your audience.

Okay.

And the rest of it should be what has built your audience.

So 70, 30 split.

Yeah.

It's, it makes a lot of sense because you got to be trying new things and see what

sticks, but also doing the things that does work.

Okay.

And that seems like a smart way to do it.

I'm not that smart.

So I haven't mastered that, but I try.

Do you ever, do you ever feel like you regret leaving or do you ever feel like,

you know, sometimes where you're like, maybe I should go back at all?

Maybe like the first year or so, it felt scary at times.

Maybe like two years down the line or like some days where it was really,

really hectic, what I was doing.

And I was like, man, it'd be really easy if I was just like an employee sometimes.

But for the most part, no, it's just like a, it's like a fleeting thought.

You know, it's like, it's the same thing.

It's like, Oh, do you regret moving out of your parents' house?

It's like, yeah, it was nice.

I didn't pay rent and like, you know, the grocery, the groceries were filled,

but it's like, you still got to, you still got to move out and still do.

Yeah, yeah.

It's kind of the same thoughts.

It's like, yeah, it'd be nice to be in that situation, but it's just fleeting thoughts.

Did a lot of people think at the time that you guys had some type of, because

you know, people like, people split up all the time and it's not always for bad

reasons, but there are a lot of people think that you guys had something going on,

like where people are really upset about.

Oh yeah.

I mean, they still do.

And, and for the longest time, me and Garrett never really like.

Addressed it.

Addressed it because, you know, I have like a really a strong troll streak in me.

And it was almost more fun to not address it and watch rumors and like spiraling

things happen and like people, craziest conspiracy theories you've ever seen.

Like in these comments, like long things.

And like it was almost more fun not addressing it and leaving it like open ended.

Yeah.

And, you know, we, I wouldn't even be in many of his videos or anything, but like,

I'll still go to his house for dinners and stuff.

But like, yeah, so there's still like, people think that there's like this strong

underlying beef, but it's like, it's not.

When you wanted to do your own thing, did you have a conversation with him or was

it like something that you were kind of sprinkling in the air a little bit like,

Hey man, like, you know, I'm thinking about doing this.

And then he kind of gave you his input or did you just have like a out of nowhere

like, Hey man, this is what I want to do.

And I'm moving on.

It was, it was felt by both of us that, that the relationship had run its course.

It was just, it was, it was, uh, it was in the air.

You know, I mean, it's like, it was an unspoken thing.

You know, we had butted heads a lot, like towards the end, mostly just because,

you know, two people trying to do what we were doing.

We butted heads a bunch.

We butted heads, I mean, forever, two people running a business together.

Yeah, you're going to butt heads.

Um, but it just came to a point where I was just like, man, this is, this is a lot.

And I think it's better to stop doing this.

Like any, it's like any business relationship, but no hard feelings.

It was just, it is what it is.

Like, you can't, yeah.

Like, no partnerships really work in business.

It's really tough to have partnerships, like for a long time too.

It's like, bands don't last, partnerships don't last.

It's, it's not easy.

Employees last a little bit if you pay them well enough.

Yeah, that's true.

But like, even employees don't last.

Like look at bands.

Bands are such a great example of it.

Yeah.

That's the most similar to a YouTube channel is like a band.

YouTube channel with partners or?

Yeah.

Like a multi-person YouTube channel, but bands even have like founders and

like leaders and the person that owns it.

Like the Beatles, only a couple of them did well.

Yeah.

No, it's, it's tough.

Well, I, I can think in my head right now, like a couple of YouTube channels that

have split up, even like shops, shops that have multiple owners, like those end up

falling apart, usually one steals from the other.

Thankfully, I was never doing that.

I never stole anything.

I'm pretty sure people would definitely know for sure if there was like that

going on, because then you probably wouldn't see you around at all anymore.

Yeah.

Like that.

Do you guys plan to do something together again in the future?

Maybe like a, I don't know, something that you guys can kind of work together on?

I don't know.

I mean, you guys, obviously he does your podcast every now and then, you know,

you guys still, it would be only for me.

Okay.

He's so big.

It's not like, and like it's not fan service anymore because, you know, I haven't

been on the channel in so long that most of the fans don't know about that.

So it's not like, and I don't care about that.

It's just it, it would only be for me.

Like it's not, it's not fan service anymore because he's grown so much since then.

And you probably lose people over the years.

You're like recycling basically.

I kind of think of it like skin, you know, you just like recycle your skin.

You just don't even know it.

So it's like new viewers.

Right.

And yeah, I don't know.

I mean, he would, he would be part of any collaboration.

I would ask him to be part of it, but I just, everybody asked him that.

I try not to do that.

It's kind of like everybody wants to collaborate with him.

So I'm like, eh.

So what's, what's next for you?

Obviously you have the podcast.

I'd like to, I think the podcast, the like 70,000 subscribers would be cool to

get a play button for it, but that's kind of like a vanity goal.

It's just like, it's just like one of those things that's cool.

Get it before they stop giving a hundred K play buttons out.

Oh, imagine they stopped that.

That would suck.

They're going to stop.

They got it.

They're probably giving out so many of those things.

Now.

Yeah.

Cause everyone's, everyone's getting, everyone's just getting a hundred.

It's not as big as it was.

So it's like, no, because it's short because it's short.

So everyone, people have short channels that are making.

So it'd be cool to get one before they, they stop.

But I mean, that's a goal.

Just keep talking to cool people and, and help elevate the sport of drag racing

would be nice.

That was my goal when I set out was to try to elevate the sport of drag racing

and put more eyeballs on it.

Now I've become a little more cynical.

And I think that some of the sport doesn't deserve it because they're

self so self sabotaging.

Yeah.

In a lot of ways, but I'd like to see that keep growing.

I'd like to see motor sports in general keep growing.

And really the goal is to, that's a tough one.

Build the cars that I want to build.

Build the cars you want to build and drive the cars that I want to drive.

You know, me and my son get to go for ice cream in my first gen CTSV.

That's, that's the current goal.

Okay.

Yeah.

That's a solid goal.

Put car seat in the back of it and do a burnout while going to get ice cream.

That'd be good content too.

It seems like fun.

You know, Matt Hapel has this thing, build a car that you can do

burnouts and get ice cream with.

Hmm.

That's what people want.

That's not a seven second car though.

It doesn't have to be seven seconds, just something fun that you can get ice cream

with and do burnouts.

Ice, yeah, something fun.

It's not a seven second car and would save the equipment and all that stuff.

Hey, you don't need all that.

That's why the Cadillac's nice.

Cause like even if it's an O four, it's like fairly safe.

Yeah.

Like it's not like an O four Honda Civic gets, it's pretty robust car.

So I'm not like too scared putting the kids in the back of it.

Ah, okay.

Like if it was in, you know, like a Camaro like this, that'd be very scary.

That'd be, that'd be sus.

Even like, you know, my friend was like, Oh, you should build like a 80s

Fairmont and I'm like, I don't know how comfortable I feel putting kids in the

back of like an 80s Fairmont.

It's only things you start thinking about when you have kids.

Yeah.

I'm, your mindset probably switches completely like your whole life.

You're, you're doing things differently for different reasons.

Also, when you have children, I'm sure.

Absolutely.

I'll get there soon.

No, you know, I'll get there.

I'll get there.

So the best thing ever.

I want, I wanted to ask you a question, um, about your podcast.

Now, normally people always ask me who was the worst guest and who was the best

guest, right?

And obviously I'm, I'm, I'm a host.

You're a host as well.

And, um, I never really, I never really thought about it.

And so people ask, and I still to this day kind of like, I kind of know who it

is or like what it was, but I want to ask you this question because I think it'd

be interesting for people to kind of know, um, on your podcast and mine.

Um, not based off of, no, you can base it off, whatever you want to base it off of.

I'm going to base mine off of purely, um, my energy and in terms of the podcast.

And you want to name names of who was best and worst.

I know, I know.

So like, I know it's not, okay.

This is why I'm saying this because if you're going to say the worst, right?

Of course you, it's, it doesn't necessarily have to be based off of the

person because they were a bad guest.

It's more of like, okay, for example, for me, maybe I wasn't prepared.

Maybe I felt like I was asking the dumbest questions and maybe I didn't do my

job as a, as a good host to kind of really pull the information out of that

interview the best way.

It doesn't have to be because the person was kind of like mean or they just

didn't have energy.

Yeah.

It could be in that.

And that's just to be most respectful because obviously we both have platforms

and brands.

We don't want to obviously discredit anybody or be disrespectful.

And when it comes to the best, it could be either or because I can work in

anybody's favor, of course, right?

So who was, let's start with the best.

Who was the best guest you've had?

So I can, I can go about that in two different ways, like you were saying,

um, because I've had people that I just didn't do them justice, like you're

saying, I just didn't do, I just didn't do them justice as an interviewer.

I didn't keep the things flowing the right way or like their story straight.

And I will say one of my best and favorites was Jason Heffner of Heffner

Performance and it did really well.

We had a long conversation.

We were, we're talking for like well over three hours, just like long

conversation.

People really loved it.

Um, I think that I did a pretty good job, but it's really hard for that

amount of time to keep like a flow of interview going.

Besides, like it's more of just like conversation.

Um, I think I did a really bad job when I had Arnie on of Arnie's antics and

he's a friend of mine as well.

And I just think that I did a bad job portraying him and leading the

conversation the right way.

Arnie, who owns, he has the cannonball record.

Oh, okay.

Okay.

Really cool, really awesome guy.

He has so much going on.

I just did not do justice for what he brought to the table.

I didn't come prepared enough to make it as engaging as it should have

been and ask him the right things.

What do you think you could have done better in that situation for the interview?

I don't know.

I, I, I just think I could have had maybe better questions or maybe given him

the space to answer them more thoroughly.

Okay.

Like actually like shut up and you probably have felt this where it's

it's a really counterintuitive thing, but when you want people to elaborate,

you don't say anything.

Oh, that's the worst feeling.

Sometimes it's really hard.

Yeah.

But if you want them to elaborate, you just basking the silence.

Yeah.

And they will elaborate.

I, well, actually for me, now I'm thinking about it.

If I want them to explain, like you said something a couple of things

earlier and I was just like, what does that mean?

Like I'll just ask.

But sometimes if, depending on the topic, I'd be like, I don't want to ask

that because it's probably like, I know sometimes I ask very basic questions,

but there's sometimes where it's like, I'm definitely not going to ask

that one because I feel like I'll probably get flamed for it.

But I know I don't believe in stupid questions, but I guess some people do.

Yeah.

Sometimes you want people to elaborate, elaborate more in and, um, you know,

it just doesn't work that way.

Of course.

I know it's hard.

So where are you going with it?

Um, as far as what, like your, your people for me.

Um, so my, my worst podcast, and I think this person knows it because

I spoke to him about it already.

I felt okay.

Um, my worst podcast was, was GSC, uh, Greg.

Um, and the reason why that was the worst podcast was because I, and

this is a mistake I made traveling, right?

You know, I travel with all this stuff.

I have to set up everything.

I barely got any sleep the night before that episode and I flew in and did

the podcast the same day.

So every podcast I've had, there's another podcast too, which is a big name.

Uh, every podcast where I fly in and I do the podcast the same day as I fly in,

if it's an early flight, they're always, they're always bad because I'm always

off, I'm exhausted.

I'm usually, for some reason, I can't really sleep before a flight sometimes.

Um, just because I'm usually always editing a podcast and then I find

myself exporting a podcast at one o'clock in the morning and my flight's at

like seven.

So then I have to still pack up all my stuff and I'm stressed out because I

have to make sure I have all my equipment.

And by the time I get to bed, I'm like in bed at three o'clock and then I have

to be up in like two hours.

Okay.

So for Greg, I got there and we had a great conversation.

We did a shop tour and everything and all of the stuff that we could have

spoken about on the podcast, we spoke about prior to the podcast and that

ruined it for me because I was like, these are really good conversations

that I'm learning, but how am I going to repeat all this?

And I don't have this even, I don't have this in my notes because where he's

showing me camshafts, he's showing me the machines, how he makes them and so on.

I'm like, damn, this is good, but how am I going to repeat this?

I tell people sometimes to, to stop talking.

Like, I try to, I tell them like, Hey, small talk only.

How's the drive here?

I've done that sometimes too, but it was really hard to because it was like, I

was so interested and I was like, damn.

So I remember I was so exhausted that I was like, I'm just going to go back

to the hotel.

Let me, I was like, let me, let me, you know, shower or something.

And I ended up taking a nap for like an hour.

And when you're so tired and you're taking that for an hour, you're just like

drained.

So then I go to the interview, set up, I'm still exhausted.

And I remember I just was not prepared because I was thrown off by this

whole shop tour that we did.

And I was like, how are we going to, I was just, I was flustered.

Yeah.

And I think the, one of the questions I asked him was, what is a camshaft?

It's like the dumbest question I've ever, ever asked really

simplified for the people.

So I was just like, so what is a camshaft?

And I just, it was a really, really, really bad interview.

But, um, you know, Greg knew it.

He knew I was tired and, um, you know, we spoke about it already.

Um, but if I, if there's something I could have done differently, it's

not interview on the same day that I flew in, especially early.

I'm in the best podcast.

I would say, um, I would say, I would say shainty.

Interesting.

I would say shainty because I, and I'm not nothing bad towards Shane at all.

Right.

When you think about somebody like him, normally in my head, I would think

he's not going to elaborate.

He's going to be quiet or he's not really going to share information.

But on that podcast, he was just like, somebody I did not expect to have the

energy and information that he chose to share on the platform.

So I was like, wow, like you check off all the boxes in this interview, whether

it could be controversial, it could be your energy is great, the information

you're sharing, and this is stuff that nobody's really heard on the public

platform too, some of the stuff he was talking about.

So I'm like, damn, like, you know, when I was asking some basic questions

on there too, but I asked him those basic questions because I felt like he would

be the best person to explain it.

Yeah.

He was able to take the, the layup question and run with it right into a way

where the wrong person, not wrong, but a different person might take that and

be short with it.

Yeah.

100%.

He was just all in.

Yeah.

That's what I mean.

Like some people can take those basic questions and really, really take them to

the finish line for you and that, that's really important is like, you know,

maybe early on people didn't really get the concept of the podcast stuff either

and elaborate and I still have people like, oh, is this, is this like, am I

taking too long here to like explain something?

And I'm like, no, live it up.

Like explain it as in depth as you think you need to.

It's great.

That's, that's the whole point though.

Like it's just to share information and have these kind of conversations with

somebody like that because it's like, you know, you get those questions

answered when you're at the track with these guys, but you know, if you're in

the pits or whatever, that's your chance, but mostly you guys are busy half the

time they're not sitting there trying to tell you how they set up the car.

Like they'll tell you that on the podcast if they're willing to sit down with you.

Yeah.

And I just felt like I had very, um, I had, it was like a very exclusive

interview and he was sharing things on there that he's probably spoken about

before, but his energy was just different.

He was like, he was like on like three cups of coffee.

He told me before the podcast.

Well, you see, you like, you talked to some of these people and we talked about

it a little bit of like, you almost leave.

You're like, man, you should like make your own videos.

I, yeah, I think that too.

But I'm like, there, some of these people are not going to, they just don't have

time.

Yeah.

But you know, you don't have to like, it's not hard, but yeah, you should.

It's, it's as easy as hard as you make it.

Yeah.

Like making videos are as easy or as difficult as you want to make it.

You can make one cut from your iPhone, not add anything, not like, you don't

have to edit anything.

Yeah.

If you're explaining something well enough, it's worth putting out there.

Right.

100%.

And yeah, some people are just like reluctant.

Like I remember my early introduction to some of that stuff was J meager's

tech tips and those always like captured me.

Right.

I was like, man, the way that he was like, he was saying things that no one

else was on YouTube and it was like the same type of stuff.

Yeah.

I'm like explaining things that I didn't understand at the time.

Still don't.

Yeah.

Sometimes you're like, what?

I still don't.

Still over my head.

Yeah.

I try my best.

Jay was good too.

Jay was great too.

Um, but again, I, it's expected.

I knew Jay was going to be what it was.

I just didn't know Shane T's demeanor.

I didn't really know him as a person.

So it was just like, let's see how this goes.

And then I'm not going to lie.

I didn't understand half of stuff he was talking about on there, but it was

good to be able to, because I learned when I'm editing, like we had this

half conversation, whatever I learned here, I have in my head.

But when I'm sitting down and editing is when I really retain the information

because then I'm watching it back and I'm like, okay, and this is where I get

the clips and all that stuff.

So you're a good editor.

I've never watched one of mine back.

What?

I have to have to watch everything.

I know I've never watched one back.

So you just upload.

Yeah.

I wish I could just do that.

I just match up the audio and video.

Yeah.

Cut the beginning and the end off, put an end music and.

But you don't get to get a mess ups or like, if, you know, like,

what am I going to mess up?

I don't know.

I take a lot out.

I take a lot out because I don't know.

I just want like a clean, polished interview.

Yeah.

I've never taken anything out.

Yeah.

I think what are we on?

I don't know.

Long time.

Fuck.

All right.

We should probably wrap this up.

Well, we just realized we're on three hours.

This podcast, which is pretty normal for you guys are here listening.

I salute you, but I was a good way to end the podcast of the questions.

I think.

Yeah, that was awesome information.

And I think that that's pretty cool for people to kind of know.

And mind you, just to be clear, guys, these are our choices, not based off of the

the guests, of course.

And we're not saying that the guests were terrible.

Us as hosts, it's our job to bring the best out of the guests.

And it was based purely off of us not doing our job the best that we could have.

Right.

Yes.

Not the people, of course.

But yeah, then thank you so much for your time.

And this is great.

I actually, before I was setting up earlier, I was like, I feel like this is going to

be a good episode.

And then we kind of spoke about why, you know, we both do the same thing.

And it's kind of like, this is the first episode where honestly, genuinely,

where I'm not, I'm not like nervous right before you press record.

You're not in interview mode as much.

I am, but like, I don't know.

It's just because it's relatable.

We both kind of do the same thing.

And obviously I'm not relating myself to you and what you've done and all your

accomplishments, but in terms of just podcasting, you know, of course they're just saying.

No, man, we run in the same world.

It's, it's, it's so similar.

I had a lot of fun.

Thanks for having me.

Appreciate it, man.

If you can, please let the viewers and listeners know where to find your content

if they're interested in watching.

Um, if you search Bo Getty on anything, B-O-G-E-T-T-I,

I guarantee I will come up somewhere on there, whether it's Google, TikTok, Facebook,

Instagram, wherever you find your entertainment,

search Bo Getty and you'll see me somewhere.

I guarantee it.

I'll try it.

Prove me wrong.

Find someone else that comes up first.

I'm always worried that like, I'm going to try that for sure.

I'm always worried.

One of my siblings are going to outshine me and be the first Google search.

Imagine.

Or my son.

He screwed.

I already took all of it in the future.

Yeah, you never know.

We'll be looking at, we'll be looking out for that one.

But all right, there you guys go.

You guys have all of his information.

If you guys are interested in watching his content,

I watch your podcast, of course.

So guys, please make sure you guys check out his podcast.

I'm pretty sure that if you watch this podcast,

you're most likely 100% watching because we interview.

Yeah, we got a lot of crossover.

Yeah, appreciate you, man.

Thank you so much for the hospitality.

Thank you for the tour.

Make sure you guys check out the tour as well.

If you guys are members, it's pretty interesting that to see his cars,

his shop, and also his facility on where he films his podcast.

And so next time, guys, make sure you guys head over to StreetAlpha.co,

copy your merch, and catch you in the next one.

Peace.

Just telling my colleague about how much I love their platform.

With Red Circle, not only am I getting a seamless hosting experience,

but I also love the support I receive in ad sales.

It's not just typical ad sales either.

It's targeted opportunities based on my show and my life.

And the platform is super simple.

You just set your preferences, and Red Circle matches you with sponsors

that align with your show.

You can vet every opportunity, and their platform gives you great analytics.

More recently, too, my Red Circle team has brought me opportunities

outside of my podcast, on social media,

to really augment the podcast partnerships, bring them full circle.

I just can't recommend them enough.

If you want to give it a try, go to RedCircle.com to get your free trial.

That's RedCircle.com for a free trial.

If you're a podcast host, listen up this once for you.

My name is Ali Jackson.

I'm the host of Finding Mr. Height, a dating and relationship podcast

that I've been doing for four years now,

sharing my positive and practical approach to dating

that's built on my own life experience.

And I wanted to share another experience that I've had,

my secret behind monetizing my show.

It's called Red Circle, and I was just telling my colleague

about how much I love their platform.

With Red Circle, not only am I getting a seamless hosting experience,

but I also love the support I receive in ad sales.

It's not just typical ad sales, either.

It's targeted opportunities based on my show and my life.

And the platform is super simple.

You just set your preferences, and Red Circle matches you

with sponsors that align with your show.

You can vet every opportunity, and their platform gives you great analytics.

More recently, too, my Red Circle team has brought me opportunities

outside of my podcast, on social media,

to really augment the podcast partnerships,

bring them full circle.

I just can't recommend them enough.

If you want to give it a try, go to redcircle.com to get your free trial.

That's redcircle.com for a free trial.

Cooper Bogetti Breaks Silence on Cleetus McFarland, Corvettes, and Powerglide Transmissions

About this episode

Red Circle

enclosed racing trailer

automotive drag

top of the funnel

bottom of the funnel

Chevrolet Camaro

elevator pitch

SEMA

Chris Fix

jack stands

1320

Instagram

AutoTrader

drag strips

RV

abundance mindset

scarcity mindset

track prep

First Form

McLaren F1

ABS

safety features (modern vs older cars)

Nissan

downpipe

turbocharged

alternator

drag race

crank windows

nitrous bottle

AC

burnouts

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