Emelia Hartford on Fast & Furious, Corvettes, Superbirds, Racing and Acting with Scotto and Roegge
Very Vehicular
Emelia Hartford on Fast & Furious, Corvettes, Superbirds, Racing and Acting with Scotto and Roegge
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Car
Chevrolet Corvette
The Chevrolet Corvette is a fast sports car that looks really cool and is made in America. People love to talk about it because it's known for being powerful and stylish.
Car
Dodge Viper
The Dodge Viper is a super-fast sports car that stands out because of its unique look and powerful engine. It's built for people who love a thrilling driving experience.
Car
Ford F 100
The Ford F-100 is an old pickup truck that many people love because it's tough and can carry a lot of stuff. It's a classic vehicle that reminds people of the past.
Car
Land Rover Discovery
The Land Rover Discovery is a fancy SUV that can drive on tough roads and has lots of space inside. It's great for families and people who like adventures.
Part
Open Country RT Pro
The Open Country RT Pro is a special kind of tire made for driving on rough and muddy roads. It helps vehicles grip better in tough conditions.
Concept
Formula 1
Formula 1 is a type of car racing that involves very fast cars competing in different races around the world. It's known for its advanced technology and exciting races.
Term
F1
F1 stands for Formula 1, which is a top-level racing series where cars compete in fast races on different tracks. It's known for its advanced technology and exciting races.
Term
F2
F2 stands for Formula 2, which is a racing series that helps train drivers to compete in Formula 1. The cars are a bit less powerful than F1 cars, making it a great stepping stone for racers.
Concept
Daytona
Daytona is a well-known racetrack in Florida where many car races happen, including NASCAR events. It's famous for its speed and large crowds.
Concept
GT car
GT cars are fast cars made for long drives. They are built to be comfortable while still being powerful, so you can enjoy speed and luxury at the same time.
Concept
F1 car
F1 cars are super-fast race cars made for Formula 1 racing. They are built to be very light and aerodynamic, allowing them to go really fast on tracks.
Concept
Rush
'Rush' is a movie about two famous race car drivers, James Hunt and Niki Lauda, and their competition in Formula 1 racing. It shows their different styles and the risks they took while racing.
Concept
Ford versus Ferrari
'Ford versus Ferrari' is a movie about a competition between Ford and Ferrari at a famous car race called Le Mans. It tells the story of how Ford tried to beat Ferrari and shows some exciting car racing scenes.
Concept
Fast and Furious
Fast and Furious is a movie series that features fast cars and exciting action scenes. It began with street racing but has since included many other types of adventures and stories about family.
Car
Ford Escort Mark I
The Ford Escort Mark I is an older model of a small car made by Ford. It was popular for racing and is known for being light and easy to handle.
Term
JDM cars
JDM cars are cars that are made in Japan for people in Japan. They are often very popular because they can be fast and have special features that you might not find in cars from other countries.
Brand
Mopar
Mopar is a brand that deals with parts and services for certain American car companies like Chrysler and Dodge. People often use the name when talking about performance cars from those brands.
Car
Dodge Charger
The Dodge Charger is a big car that looks tough and can go really fast. It's famous for being featured in movies, which makes it a favorite among car fans.
Car
Local Motors Rally Fighter
The Rally Fighter is a special off-road car made by a company called Local Motors. It's built for driving on rough roads and has a unique look that some people really like.
Car
Volkswagen Golf
The Volkswagen Golf is a small car that many people like because it's easy to drive and has a lot of space inside. The 1995 version is from a time when the Golf was known for being reliable and fun to drive.
Term
VR6 engine
A VR6 engine is a special kind of engine that has six cylinders arranged in a V shape. It's designed to be smaller and lighter than traditional V6 engines while still providing good power.
Term
all-wheel drive
All-wheel drive means that power from the engine goes to all four wheels of the car, which helps it grip the road better, especially in rain or snow.
Concept
barn find
A 'barn find' is a car that someone finds after it has been hidden away for a long time, usually in a barn. These cars can be special because they might need a lot of work but can also be worth a lot if restored.
Company
FCP Euro
FCP Euro is a company that sells car parts online, especially for European cars. They have a lot of different parts available, which is helpful for people fixing or restoring their cars.
Car
Synchro
The Synchro is a special version of the Volkswagen van that can drive all four wheels, making it better for off-road driving. It's known for being tough and useful for different kinds of adventures.
Car
Nissan 240
The Nissan 240 is a sports car that many people like to modify and race. It's known for being fun to drive and easy to work on.
Car
Cadillac Ct5V
The Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing is a fast and luxurious car that offers a lot of power and features, making it great for driving enthusiasts.
Term
supercharged
Supercharging is a way to make an engine more powerful by pushing extra air into it. This helps the engine burn more fuel and produce more power.
Car
Audi RS6
The Audi RS6 is a fast and powerful car that's part of the Audi A6 family. It's designed for people who want a luxury car that can also go really fast and handle well.
Car
Porsche 911
The Porsche 911 is a fancy sports car that many people recognize because of its unique shape. It's known for being really fast and fun to drive, making it a dream car for many.
Car
Audi RS4
The Audi RS4 is a fancy car that can go really fast and is also very comfortable. It's designed for people who want a nice car that performs well on the road.
Car
Volvo V90
The Volvo V90 is a nice family car that looks like a station wagon. It's designed to be safe and comfortable, making it great for long trips.
Car
BMW M5
The BMW M5 is a super-fast version of a regular BMW car that is both comfortable and sporty. It's designed for people who want a luxury car that can also race.
Car
BMW M3
The BMW E30 M3 is a sporty version of the BMW 3 Series that was made in the 1980s and early 90s. It's known for being fun to drive and is popular among car lovers.
Car
BMW E30
Car
Nissan Z
The Nissan Z is a sporty car made by Nissan. It's designed for people who enjoy driving and want a fun, fast car.
Car
Infiniti G35
Infiniti is a brand of fancy cars made by Nissan that are designed to be comfortable and stylish. They are known for being nice to drive and have a lot of features.
Car
Nissan R33
The Nissan Skyline is a famous sports car that many people love because it's fast and can be customized. It's well-known in racing circles and has a big fan base.
Car
Nissan 240SX
The Nissan 240SX is a small sports car that people like because it's easy to drive and can be modified to go faster. It's popular among car fans who enjoy racing or drifting.
Car
Chevrolet Camaro
The Chevrolet Camaro is a cool sports car that many people love because it looks tough and goes really fast. It's been around for a long time and is often compared to other muscle cars.
Car
Plymouth Superbird
The Plymouth Superbird is a rare and cool-looking car that was made for racing. It's famous for its unique design and is now a collector's item because not many were made.
Car
Kia Niros
The Kia Niro is a small SUV that is good for the environment because it can use less gas or even run on electricity. It's a great choice for people who want a practical car that helps save on fuel.
Car
Ford Five Ford
The Ford Five Hundred is a big car that can fit a lot of people and stuff inside. It was made to be comfortable for families, but it didn't sell as well as some other cars.
Car
Audi S8
The Audi S8 is a fancy car that is really fast and comfortable. It's designed for people who want a luxury car that also performs well on the road.
LIVE
Today's episode is a good one.
We are joined by Amelia Hartford and my great friend, Will Rogie, and look, we get into
cars and we talk all about that, her corvette, so on and so on, but we dive into something
that is really important to the three of us, which is filmmaking, movies, why they inspire
us, and also why we all have aspirations to make them.
It's a great conversation.
I really enjoyed this one, and I hope you do too.
Here we are, another episode of Very Vehicular.
Amelia, thank you for joining us today.
Of course.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, you had me on your podcast.
I feel like I should come to yours and stuff.
I love it.
And also, Mr. Will Rogie, who like, I really kind of wish could be my constant co-host
on here.
He's not?
You're not?
No, he lives like hours from here.
Yeah.
It's not easy for him to come here all the time.
More than just hours.
Yeah.
If I could, I would be here.
Yeah.
Well, depending on where, because Will either lives, you know, in Big Bear, Ohio, or somewhere
in a van.
Right.
Yeah, I was going to ask.
I thought that was your van outside?
It is.
Okay.
Well, usually when he comes here, he would sleep in the van in the driveway.
Yeah.
Because there was a period of time we didn't have the guest room finished and he would
just sleep in the driveway.
And my son thought that was the best thing ever.
He's like, is Will sleeping in his van?
Because when you're six, you really aspire to sleep in cars.
Wait, I'm an adult and I want to do that now.
We all do.
I'm trying to find a super C so I can tow my race cars and just sleep in it.
Nice.
So before you came in, Will and I were talking about like, what are we going to talk with
you about today?
Because I, you know, by the way, if you don't know all of your history, what's a really
good podcast that you've done in the past to shout out that you've done like your back
story, how you got to where you are, because we're not going to talk about that.
Yeah.
I did night school with race service.
There's a YouTube video that honestly, I felt like I really went through how I got
to where I am today and a lot more people have watched it than I thought.
Nice.
So people will reference that.
And just because I get referenced it so much, I feel like that might be a good one for people
to watch.
One thing I love about the team at Viper is that they're just like us.
They can't leave anything stock.
Otherwise, they'd only make red and black stools.
Instead, they are constantly releasing limited edition colorways to my favorites.
They've done the ghoul, which is glow in the dark and the voodoo, which is this really
rad deep purple and black.
And if you like camo, you can get a Viper stool trimmed in official real trade.
They've even done really cool collabs with friends of ours like Roadster shop and the
drift HQ.
Maybe one day they'll do a scato edition, although they keep telling me no one wants
a stool that's missing half of its parts and doesn't ever roll.
Anyway, check them out at ViperIndustrial.com.
That's Viper with a Y.
Being a full size human at six foot eight with a head to match wearing sunglasses or
any glasses for that matter has never been flattering for this melon.
That is until Heatwave Visual launched extra large sizes.
That's right.
See these glasses on my head right now.
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That's big enough that it even saves me from looking like Oliver Trey.
You too can free that oversized head from those shameful two small glasses.
Go check out all the extra large styles at HeatwaveVisual.com.
All right, we got a big update to the scato fleet.
Ashley did it.
She finally sold her F 100 to Mike Burroughs.
Regular listeners know that he has been hounding her for this truck for a long time,
but a deal was made and that deal includes him helping us finish her Land Rover Discovery.
That means it's going to need new tires.
Great timing because Toyo has just released the new Open Country RT Pro.
This tire is an aggressive hybrid mud terrain and comes as tall as 42 inches.
It has a three ply sidewall.
It's got massive lugs and unlike the Land Rover, it's durable and reliable.
Check out ToyoTires.com for which Open Country works best for you.
So because our whole thing is like, I've been on so many podcasts and they always
ask you the same eight questions.
How'd you get in the cars?
How old were you?
And then you get to a point where you start to sound like Magnus Walker.
And I love you, Magnus.
But like Magnus has told his story so many times, it's very good.
Right.
Like he could go do like a one man Broadway show on the story of Magnus Walker.
He did a Ted Talk, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
He's like Ted Talk level now, you know?
So to avoid that, you know, you can go listen to that one.
And then, yeah, but we were talking about what are we going to talk about today?
And we started to think about you have a lot going on.
Yeah.
Like you're up there with a lot of people like myself who have too much going on.
And then we started to think you have all these things going on.
And some of them cross over, but some of them don't.
Right.
And I think is you sort of continue to sort of mature in what you're doing.
Those things get broader and broader.
So, Will, I'll let you start with the question because it was your thought.
I think this is like the ADHD table, right?
Yeah.
It's like all of us, I think have had success because we're going in a lot
of different directions at once.
But I think the question we kind of thought of for you is like, which one
of the hyphens of your like multi hyphenated things that you do, if you had
to rank them, which is important to you, which one would you pick?
Or how would you order them?
Cause like when people introduce you, they'll say, Oh, really?
Hartford is this.
I, I guess I love starting with actress because that's something that ever
since the cars came later in my life, acting came like, since my mom will
tell you, it was the first thing that I ever really learned how to say it was,
I want to be an actress.
And, and I feel like that's something that's so near and dear to my heart.
And a lot of people will be like, what do you mean?
You've accomplished it.
You've done Gran Turismo.
You've done all these HBO and Netflix projects, like you're an actress now.
And, and sure I am because I work on my craft every day, but I don't like, I
don't know yet that I've taken it to where I want to go with it.
Um, but that one's the most important, that's the most important one to me.
So I'd, I like starting with actress, but, um, I also feel so grateful for the
car community, even though it came later in my life.
Um, I, I don't want that to ever go anywhere.
So probably actress and then car builder and racing driver.
And, and then we can just add everything after that.
So those are the first three.
Yeah.
Okay.
So let's get into the first one and talk about this.
Cause I think that the three of us sitting at this table all really enjoy
filmmaking, right?
Different aspects of it.
And I do think that all three of us, I don't want to speak too much for you,
but in conversations we had that we're in this like interesting transition, right?
Will and I both started in automotive.
I actually started in culture stuff before that and, you know, but came into
automotive and just like you said, for me, automotive was this amazing path.
Um, in some ways it was actually the fast escalator to go do really cool
stuff versus where I was originally.
Um, but now that I've done a lot, I really am excited about kind of what's next.
And while I want to keep and bringing a lot of that with me, um, I'm mostly, you
know, if I'm sitting there and what will cause like your hyphenated, like, you
know, your, your actress builder, you know, a race car driver for me, I'm
really moving into, you know, film director is the thing I want that comes
first, right?
And obviously I did a bunch of that, but getting to do second unit work on
Drifter and some other stuff that's coming up.
Like that's where I'm most excited and writing scripts and doing all that.
Like I'm moving into that world for you where you are right now.
Um, you know, yes, you have done a bunch of stuff.
Like you've been in a major feature, right?
That's awesome.
But how do you get to that next step now?
Like where do you, and, and do you think that you're, that it's a bit of you
can't do everything at once situation?
Like, cause that's this podcast was delayed for six and a half months because I
went and made a movie, right?
Like it really, the thing about movies is they are all encompassing on a whole
they're like, oh yeah, it's your life.
It's your life.
You really can't do anything else.
You can really take a phone call when you're, when you're working on a movie
if you're doing 12 hour a day.
So I mean, for you, where is sort of the, you know, have you thought that in
your head of like what the give and take is for that?
Yeah.
When I did Gran Trismo, which was a great case study for me, I was still able
to upload weekly videos.
And part of why I do weekly is because I, one, it's quality over quantity, but
two, because I also feel like that's for the most part something I can do my
best to continue to be consistent with.
But yeah, there is a little bit of, can you do everything?
I want to say yes.
And I feel like I'll always try to find a way, but then you just end up
sacrificing your sleep for the most part.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The, um, do you, I, do you feel like you want to do stuff like it doesn't
matter what you do as an actress?
I know you've done stuff outside of automotive.
Do you enjoy doing the automotive stuff more?
Definitely.
I, I hope to continue to tell stories based in the automotive space.
Um, this hasn't, I don't know when it comes out of this has been announced yet.
I won't say what the project is called, but I do feel comfortable saying
that I wrote a script that we are starting to go into pre-production for.
Um, that is based around cars.
And, and I feel like something, uh, you know, when you talk about what's the
next step, how do you go from something like Gran Turismo to then doing more?
And I feel like that's something that a lot of actors in general run into.
It's like, great, I did a project, but what's next?
And it's constantly what's next.
And, and I've been, I mean, it took me nine years to get my first acting
job of, of working every day, trying to do like different casting workshops,
cold mailing agents and managers, putting myself on tape, doing anything in everything.
Um, and I don't want another, you know, so many years to go by before I'm just
waiting for someone else to hand me an opportunity, which is why I decided to
just write my own movie and, and why I continue to write.
And I'm, I'm separately working on writing my life story right now.
And I have a few projects in the works that, that I've been doing.
And, and I feel like that was the biggest thing for me was, you know what,
at the end of the day, I kind of do it on YouTube already of production.
So why not take, uh, all of what I've learned the last seven years of
YouTubing and continue to do that, but use what I've learned as, as a tool to
then create maybe longer form, uh, storytelling based projects.
When you started YouTubing, did you think that that was a road to acting?
Or did you think it was a tangential work?
No, I just wanted to get off food stamps and pay my rent.
That was it.
Cause I, I worked in food and service for six years and everyone I worked
with or other actors trying to, quote unquote, make it in Hollywood.
And, and I just, it was, it was hard to, to live on your own in, in LA trying
to get by, um, and I just, I, I wanted the financial freedom, um, however
you want to quantify that for me, it was just taking care of the
minimums and in order to go to auditions and not stress that, man, if I
don't do this shift, I'm not going to make my rent.
I think it's really interesting though, right now, because obviously Hollywood
is in this major upset.
No one kind of really knows what's going on.
What's scary.
It is scary, but I don't actually think that people like us have that
much to be scared about.
And I'll tell you why, because the, we don't come from the traditional side of
this and it's in moments like this, that the untraditional usually work out.
And what they're afraid of is YouTube and we're the ones from YouTube who are
now knocking at the Hollywood door going, Hey, we think we can do this
a little bit different, but I'll tell you, and I've had conversations
with like James Pomfrey, I think he's a great example of someone who came
here to become an actor.
It didn't work out, ended up going and doing the stuff with doughnut.
And then that has actually given him a position to go back to acting in a
completely different place and with different leverage than he had.
Cause now he has a built-in audience and that's all people want.
You could be, and I think this is sad in many ways for the craft, but you
could be one of the best actors in the world and not have a following and a
producer is going to pass on you because you don't have a plus up for the film,
right?
Where if you come in and you're like, Oh, I've got a million followers, that's
already interesting because it means that not just as they're, I think the
viability side of it, but you have already proven an ability to make people
like you.
Yeah.
And you're not sacrificing talent for an audience either.
Like at the end of the day, you're going to hire who's best for the project,
but it does help to have a committed community who also just as a fan base
want to see you succeed.
Yeah.
And I think that that's where this is all interesting.
And like, you know, Will and I have been talking about, you know, I'm working
on a script right now.
I'm actually working on three scripts because of one thing, but
I'm working on, you know, three scripts and we've got one that's kind of
moving at the moment.
And it's interesting because I feel confident about trying to go make it
because of the people that I know, the built in audiences that we have and a
community that wants to kind of support what we do.
And I saw that a lot in obviously Drifter with, with Sun Kang, because, you know,
super low budget.
I mean, you know, and I don't think when people think movies, they don't think
they think low budget, but it's like the budget for that was the equivalent
of like a Jim Conner budget.
So to make it two hour long movie is the same amount of money we spent on nine
minutes, right?
You know, and you think about that comparison, but there was so much plus
up because so many people wanted it to happen.
And so many people came out, whether it was, you know, animal style coming out
and just, you know, sending it with their cars and putting, you know, putting
all of their stuff in harm's way because they wanted to be a part of it.
Yeah, it's a film made by the community for the community.
And I think that there's something really interesting there for the car
community because of how big it is.
And there is that big support for everyone to go do, do that next thing.
So I think we're all in this really interesting moment right now as creator.
I don't want to say like creator turned filmmaker, but it kind of is.
I listened to this other podcast and it's called, what?
Forget it's a, it's just like a movie podcast.
What went wrong?
Oh, yeah.
I know that one.
Do you listen to that?
What went wrong is fantastic.
It talks about, listen to it.
It's great.
And it talks about, you know, all the problems that happen on movie sets.
And I love listening to it because it makes you realize that everyone has issues.
Right?
It's not just you.
I'm going to give you another one too, Script Notes.
I listen to Script Notes too.
Yeah.
I listen to Script Notes too.
It's another great one.
Script Notes is fantastic.
I mean, that's a gem in terms of just really good information.
Yeah.
But they were, they're talking and you know, there's, it's a male and female
host.
I don't remember their names and the one, the male host sound is a bit older
and she referred to films as content and he's like, don't call it content.
It's art.
And I thought it was something funny because I do think that there's like this
little bit of this negative connotation around the stuff we make.
Yeah.
Well, there's a negative connotation around the word influencer, around the word
content, around anything that's challenging the norm.
Do you like the word influencer?
I mean, no, but I prefer content creator.
Yeah.
I like content creator too.
I think that's better.
Um, but it's interesting because yeah, influencer just sounds weird.
I think there's just been too many jokes around influencer, but, um, and I
hate to think of myself as an influencer.
I know.
I don't, I don't like that title either because it kind of, it's like,
it's a little slimy.
Yeah.
It feels like you're better than someone else because you're an inflect.
I don't like that.
The word taste maker is a way cooler term.
Yeah.
I'll take taste maker.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, but no, I think that Hollywood has had this weird gatekeeping experience
forever, really.
Yeah.
Um, I mean, so much so that even just the town of Hollywood was able to gatekeep
from everyone else making movies, but now it's open.
And I think a lot of the studios are starting to say, okay, we need to do this
differently.
I also think that the days of the $200 million movie are over and they're
looking now at more indie, you know, 20 to $30 million films.
Yeah.
Make more of those and get back to that.
We're also in a world where we're starting to see YouTubers on Netflix and
major streaming platforms.
Yeah, because they have audiences.
And that's, it's crazy to think about, but it's what people care about, right?
Like we all grew up caring about, you know, Brad Pitt and the such like that.
I don't know why I was going to say that.
He's, he's great.
But I think when you're talking about like a studio or talking about an
investment, right?
Like you want to know that someone's going to have an audience and a following.
And this is the purest way of knowing that, right?
It's saying like, Hey, this person has a dedicated community that's behind them.
Just following them and what they're doing.
So it's going to translate to this.
It's less of a risk, right?
Right.
And the community also trusts that they're going to do a project that's
also going to make the audience happy as well and satisfy them.
Totally.
So the other day, um, you shared a audition tape with me and it's interesting
watching because you're acting like that's not you.
It's not like, it's not a side I've seen of you.
Do you think that that's such a compliment?
But, but that is, it's always interesting to see that from people, you know,
as actors and I got to see a lot of that with Pumphrey on set because Pumphrey
is a completely different person in that movie.
I mean, I haven't even seen it yet.
I'm so excited.
Not even recognizable as a character versus who you know him as on,
you know, on, on speed or donor or whatever.
I mean, when I was reading that script, initially I was like, wait,
James is going to play this character.
Like this is heavy and he's not, you know,
And he did it very well.
Like I think he, I think you really, really like did a star performance there.
Interesting.
Cause I wonder how the audience is going to feel about it because he's
typecasted himself to a YouTube audience, the funny guy.
And this is, this isn't really a funny role for him, right?
It's a very serious role.
Do you think about that a lot for yourself that you are going to be asked
to play all these different roles?
Cause obviously your role in, in Gran Turismo is very different than who you
are or who I know you as.
Yeah.
So, um, I, I think that's part of why acting is fun.
Those getting to explore different characters and like what makes them tick
and, and I, am I nervous?
I don't, I don't think so.
I, I feel more excited to be able to share different characters with audiences.
And maybe there's going to be some that not everybody liked, but I, I hope to
only create things that people are excited about.
So when you're thinking about and like, and you're putting together a script and
you're writing for yourself in it, is that weird?
Or do you write a character, create a character and then know you're going to
become that character?
As I'm writing, I, I know it's a character I'm playing.
Right.
So it's, it's a little weird writing something I know I'm going to play because
I don't want that to influence the choices that I'm making for the character.
But at this point, it's kind of just what I've done for, for every project that
I've been writing so far.
Do you, um, from, can you share much about the new script?
I mean, I don't know, you don't want to give too much away, but you said it's,
it has, it has to do with cars a little bit, some bit, something.
I don't think I can say.
All right, fair enough, fair enough.
I get it.
I get it.
I want to.
Yeah.
I'm more, the thing I'm working on right now is, um, it's like car adjacent.
Like there's good car action and stuff in it, but it's really just a thriller.
Yeah.
And I just found that the more I started writing, the less I wanted to write about cars.
Like the more I wanted to write dialogue and write situational stuff.
The stories about the people in the cars are just encompassed that more than anything.
It doesn't mean that it's not like the car itself is talking.
So it's really a story about community and, and the challenges they face.
But a thriller is like that's the stuff that, that I get excited about too.
It's like fun, action, heist, all of that.
Yeah.
And I think that that's like, when I think about my favorite movies that have,
that are car related, aren't car movies, right?
Like Ronan is my favorite car movie of all time.
It has two good chase scenes in it, but it's not a car.
I wouldn't consider baby driver a car movie, but that was, yeah.
Amazing or the Italian job or any of that stuff.
I think that those really win where we were just talking about the need for speed movie
and, you know, some of the questionable decisions that they made in it.
And it's like, I think it's really hard to make a car movie.
Yeah.
Right.
And cause even like fast and furious, the first one was a car movie, but then it,
and Tokyo Drift was a car movie, right?
But then the rest of them became action films that had cars in them.
And yeah, those cars went to the moon.
And we can talk about that in a whole different podcast.
But I love the original Fast and Furious, by the way.
It was really good.
Yeah.
I think it, but it just like, it to me, it's like, I think just being of that era
and being the theaters and stuff for it and like just being like, oh, this has a finger
on the pulse, even if it is not exactly, you know, it's like, it's point break, you know.
Thanks for saying it.
It is point break.
It is 100% point break.
I mean, it's all of the same things as point break.
But it's still great.
Point break is fantastic.
You know, I've actually never seen Thelma and Louise.
No?
No.
I know it's like one of those things that's like on the list I need to,
it's hard to like go back and watch older movies.
But yeah, it's on the list of things I need to go see.
I love watching older movies.
It's like a past time of mine when I have time.
I've recently started watching a bunch of movies from the 70s
because it's really the last era of practical car action.
And so I've been watching a bunch of like movies you never hear of, right?
And I forget how slow movies from the 70s.
They are, they are the, because it's not like today where attention span is like
three seconds, you need to punch it with a quick action intro.
Like the setup for films was so different.
I watched this movie the other day and first nine minutes had no dial.
It was just a guy tuning his carburetor and then driving on some candy roads.
I love it.
I love that.
It was it for nine minutes.
I'm like, it's basically a Jim Conner film.
Talking about favorite movies, what are yours?
Give us, give us the hit list.
Well, I was going to ask if you've seen The Thing.
Yes.
Okay, good.
Yeah.
Old, I love old John Carpenter films.
I'm really into Tarantino for some of his modern stuff.
Obviously Pulp Fiction and Glorious Bastards.
I, I'm a sucker for the Mission Impossible franchise.
That's okay.
That's okay.
That's okay.
God, what, what else?
Three billboards was one that I loved so much.
That was really good.
That was really good.
Yeah.
I would just, it's not like I just have like some like million dollar baby.
I love.
Very good.
Very good.
Yeah, I would just start naming random films versus most like this is my
number one favorite.
This is my two number one favorite.
I just, I don't feel like I can favoritize films like that.
I feel like they're all different.
They're a unique way.
I definitely have a list.
Do you have a list?
What's your list?
No, I definitely don't have a list.
I'm curious to hear you.
What's your all time favorite movie?
Goodfellas.
Okay.
Yeah.
Goodfellas.
I mean, for multiple reasons, but like I grew up in Queens, New York.
It's set, you know, in New York, a bunch of it was shot in Queens.
My neighborhood was like that.
I grew up around.
I mean, it was not abnormal for a friend's dad to go away for mob activity.
Like it was really like a glimpse of like life in that aspect.
And then so like that.
And then it just came in an era and like it was so quotable.
Like there was just lines in it that I just love like always want to be a gangster,
you know, for as far as I can remember.
And then it was like, go get your fucking shine box.
Like there's just such great moments in that film.
And I also think it's one of the few, like one of the early films that made me
think about how it was shot, like some of the scenes, like where they're like going
in through the back and they go through the, through the restaurant,
like through the kitchen to like get into the club.
And I remember like thinking, man, how are they shooting that?
You know, like it was one of those things that kind of pulled back of it.
I'm also just a, yeah, I just like big Scorsese fan to begin with.
Yeah, of course.
The legend.
Yeah. And then after that, I would say Ronan's definitely up there.
Lockstock, I'm a huge Guy Ritchie fan.
I like it more than Snatch, but they're both very good.
I dream to work with Guy Ritchie one day.
Ever since his BMW commercials with Madonna, like...
We were just talking about this.
So here we're all coming to, we're coming full circle.
So for me, the two things I sort of give credit to for making me want to get into
films is the higher series, which would specifically star,
which was Guy Ritchie and Madonna's BMW film and Ronan.
Like those two things, because those were, I think it was this great mix of action, comedy,
and cool, you know, just like vibe to it.
I can't explain.
It was just so good.
Like when they catch air and like goes into I think classical or whatever,
and then throws her out, coffee all over her.
I was, I mean, it looked like she pissed herself, which was like so good.
And I love it too.
Cause I always used to think about the relationship between Guy Ritchie and Madonna
for making that scene.
Cause it was seeing Madonna in a way you really never saw Madonna, right?
Like Madonna at that, especially at that time, I think it was just so fashionista,
just seeing her sort of made fun of and, you know, and put in sort of a clown role was great.
I love that.
So here's the thing.
So hopefully maybe one day you'll get to, you know, be in a Guy Ritchie film,
I'll get the second unit, the action with Will and we all get our Guy Ritchie check.
Although, are you a big Guy Ritchie fan?
Oh, absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, no one does dialogue better.
No, it's, it's so good.
And all those films, I think for me, like you said, like Snatch and Lockstock,
like all hit at the right time where it was like, I was watching a lot of DVDs.
I was in college.
I had time to be able to like watch those and absorb a lot of movies and a lot of films.
So yeah, those were pretty pivotal.
I think, I think for me though, like just growing up, like I love action movies.
Like I love,
like we were talking a little bit about like rush hour before this rush hour,
all the early like Jethly and Jackie Chan stuff.
I just love so much because I just love a good blockbuster.
Go in and just watch insane physical action or physical comedy is really good.
But Mission Impossible holds up so well.
The first one, like I went back and watched Mission Impossible one recently and I was like,
it's shot beautifully.
The performances are really good.
The story is really interesting.
You know, like I think you understand why the franchise is so good.
Because like it just builds off of that.
Yeah.
Do you, what do you think about us?
You both this because I think that there is this tendency in filmmakers to not like action films
because it almost feels like it's the,
it's like the popcorn film or it's too easier.
It's not art and it's on that side.
But I do like a good action film.
Like I am a sucker for not even care if it's good or not.
Like if there is any situation where this person used to be special forces
and now needs to save someone any Jason Statham film, like I'm going to watch it.
It might not even be good, but it does.
Being good and being enjoyable is two separate things.
Yeah.
I'm, I'm a fan of the blockbuster action popcorn movie.
It's junk food.
It's fantastic.
I love it.
It tastes great.
But that don't get me wrong.
I still love like more of the like artsy independently financed films,
but it's two completely different theater experiences.
Oh no, I agree.
I love a really good blockbuster.
We were just talking about going like maybe go to the movies later tonight.
And it's like, yeah, I'm down for like, essentially, like, you know,
it'll be enjoyable enough to watch.
Like you can sometimes go and watch a drama and it's just not good.
Is there anything in theaters right now that you guys are?
Well, I guess we were just talking about going to see running man.
I want to see running man.
That's one.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm curious.
I've heard great things about it.
I'm curious to see everyone's like slamming it because I didn't make the box office numbers.
They thought it would, but I'm excited to see Glenn Powell's performance.
I'm excited to see a great who did baby driver.
And I'm excited to see them work together and see, you know, the amazing work that I feel
like they do together.
No, I it's I also love that movie as a kid.
That's where I'm dating myself.
But that was like such a cool concept.
And it's funny because back then it felt so surreal where now I'm like,
you definitely could make that show.
Like you could definitely make a TV show where people just try to survive the game.
I think it's a Stephen King book like it's based on.
So it's like, yeah, it's great source material.
And like you said, I think, and the time that it came out because it was that 80s,
like early 80s that was out like the original, like, yeah, you probably just didn't have the
resources to do it, you know, like the way you should.
And now it's like, I was actually listening to a podcast with Edgar Wright about it and
same sort of thing, like all Edgar Wright's films, like the early ones.
Was it smart less?
No, it was actually because he's probably doing a press tour.
But it was like a Roger Deakins podcast.
So like a cinematography podcast where he was talking about it.
I haven't listened to that podcast.
Edgar Wright's another big, I feel embarrassed that I spaced on the same, but he's another
he's another big one for me.
Yeah.
I mean, I still think Baby Driver is the only modern film to get correction, right?
Like I'm saying in the last two decades.
So I think there's ones that have had snippets of shining moments.
And then there's like one camera angle that just blows me right out.
I think with Baby Driver.
I guess John Wick, you wouldn't really consider that car as much as...
They have a couple of moments I think are really good.
And I think that they've gotten close.
But you don't think of it as more of a car film.
But I, so I, I think there's a difference.
I think there's some really good action in John Wick.
And I don't think that maybe the way they captured it is right.
Then there's other moments where, yeah, I think that Baby Driver,
the opening scene is really sort of just spot on.
Like it just feels really good.
It feels really energetic.
It works really well.
I like I even, and I'm not a big fan of music over driving scenes, but I like how they worked
in like the iPod and like, you know, the whole like that, like tying it all together in the edit.
I just think it feels really good.
I think there's a couple of great moments.
Like obviously the, you know, the thing that Tanner did with Keanu,
where they have the door off and they reach out and get the gun.
But I actually preferred watching the testing for it than it in the film.
I think it's funny.
We've never once mentioned the F1 movie.
Okay, we can talk about the F1 movie.
I think it doesn't look better than broadcast, which I think works fine for the film.
But other than like the one kind of trick camera thing that they did
with like the 180 spin that now is in every single drift video since then.
I don't know.
I thought that the, I didn't have any problems with it.
Like it didn't bump me.
Did you enjoy it?
Yeah, I did enjoy the film.
I thought the film was really good.
So I thought the film was really good, but I didn't leave going.
Oh my goodness.
That was some of the best action work I've ever seen.
It felt, I don't know, maybe slightly elevated from like broadcast,
but I think that's what it should be.
I think if it was too stylized and it felt too much, not like broadcast,
I don't think it hit the right demo.
It wouldn't, it wouldn't really land.
Do you know what I'm saying?
Like I think if you tried to make it in the, like, what was the
Sylvester Stallone like driven or driven?
Was it?
Yeah.
The one with like a car or something like that.
Like I don't remember that movie well enough to dig into it too hard,
but I think there was a lot of scenes that I just remember feeling like way ridiculous.
I mean, not just like leaving and driving on streets, but, but just, I think that F1
did a very good job of just making it feel like a race.
And I know that I think they really tried to maybe push it and elevate it, but I don't know.
It's just, I, what I think I found more amazing, and this kind of goes back into
my same thing on the John Wick films is they did a slide out of a building that was like a drift jump
was really cool.
Right.
I recently spoke to Jeremy Frye on how they did that and where they got the inspiration from,
and, you know, he worked on that.
And they actually got it from anime, which I thought was super cool.
But it looked a lot like the gym five drift jump, right?
And I thought that moment was really cool.
I just don't know if I would have captured it the same way.
So I think in sometimes you get these car movies or movies that have car chases where the action
is really, really good.
And it's like really well thought out.
The stunt coordinate is really kill it.
And either the edit or the frame or how it's kind of like put together doesn't really land.
Where I think in F one, what is really impressive to me in F one is that you actually had Brad Pitt
driving at speed and like figuring this out.
Right.
And, and all the work they did with like F two cars and everything they did to try to
make that film feel as real as possible.
I think that part was all really good.
And the photography and then I think is it's a it's a it's a B plus, but it's definitely not
it definitely not an A to me.
I don't know why it just I didn't really stand out.
Like when I was, but it also didn't take me out.
Which I think is so, which I think is so important.
Like when I'm watching a movie, I don't want to feel like you're trying too hard with the cameras.
And I want to be like, whoa, what was that?
Right.
Like why did you do that?
Right.
I just want to be in the movie.
I just want to.
Did you see sinners?
I did.
How did you feel about that?
And when they're in the probably about the midpoint of the film, when it changes
complete direction into the steady single shot of the different types of musics.
Yeah.
I love sinners.
That definitely took me out.
Really?
But I don't think I would change it.
Yeah.
I think that sinners affords itself to be artistic.
It also changes aspect ratio and format.
That was one of my favorite movies this year with sinners.
And I thought I thought it was fantastic.
I definitely, when that moment was happening, we saw it together.
I definitely remember being like, hmm, interesting choice.
But when it was over, I wasn't.
Yeah, I don't know if I would have changed it.
It's kind of a no notes moment.
But it definitely took me out.
Like it definitely had me go, huh, this is cool.
This is like an interesting thing they did.
But I think that movie is the kind of movie that allows for moments like that.
I don't think F1 is.
Right.
Right.
That's fair.
That's fair.
And I don't think F1 did do anything that really pops you out.
I think it does well.
And I think that that 180 camera that they were doing sort of the control camera,
you've probably seen a ton of shots on Instagram of people replicating it.
I thought it was cool, but it got really, really blown up.
And I just feel like they could have done better stuff with it in the film.
I actually think a lot of the stuff I've seen kids do with drifting with it is way cooler
and a better use.
So, but I want to hear Will's thought on this because I know that I know that he's got some
thoughts and we never got a chance to do a pod when F1 first came out.
Do we saw it together?
We did, right?
I think we did.
Yeah, we definitely saw centers together, which yeah, centers is phenomenal.
And you're just like in your mind, you're like, how is Michael B. Jordan doing
both of these characters that are so different that are brothers?
I didn't know going into it.
He was playing two characters.
It's fantastic.
Yeah.
I don't know if they kind of hid that in the trailer.
You just kind of assumed that was the same person because it wasn't established enough.
Like I just don't, I don't remember.
But I can't imagine how hard it is for an actor to do that.
I mean, you've got Tom Hardy did that one with, I forget the name of that film.
But I'll watch anything Tom Hardy.
Are you watching not to completely tangent, but are you watching Mobland?
I've been watching it.
So good.
Anyway, keep it going.
So my favorite scene in F1 is actually the opening one.
That opening is fantastic.
That like, sorry, finish or you're gonna say it.
Because I think what you're talking about is I think that it worked from their coverage
because like thinking about trying to integrate with F1, right?
Like we just shot at a live event, right?
And I've done that before for a show also where it was like,
oh great, you got to integrate into this.
You only have this much time on track.
You're not really taking any chances because you can't.
You know, you're like, you have this much time in the event schedule to capture it.
So you're not going to be doing big dramatic things.
But for the opening in F1 with touring cars, you have,
they were at Daytona for two weeks filming, you know, around the event.
So they could go on track.
They could have the helicopter.
They could have the firework explode in the middle of the track.
They could script all of this action happening.
And like for me, that was so much cooler because mounting cameras on F1 cars
literally the hardest challenge ever.
Oh yeah.
The vibrations are insane.
Traveling at speed with the cars hard.
But like, as you know, shooting a GT car, it's a lot more accessible.
And there's a lot more points you can put things.
So and they don't cost that much to run versus an F1 car.
So they did a really good job with the opening scene.
The opening scene was fantastic.
I like my heart was racing after and I'm like, oh, hell yeah.
And it sets such a great tone in the beginning.
I think it's really good.
Yeah, we obviously have a couple of friends who are involved in that.
Yeah, I thought they did.
I thought they did really good.
So I think in general, everyone was good.
I actually, I sort of hate the hate for F1.
There's hate for it?
Oh yeah.
You mean just for the series or for the movie?
No, for the movie.
Okay.
There was a bunch of sort of F1 fanatic hate for it because this would never happen.
Or like this, this is, you know, this like people getting too particular about it.
Yeah.
And I just, I don't know.
It's interesting to me because those same people probably love Days of Thunder.
And it's like, that movie wasn't realistic either.
Which I'm excited for the next.
They're bringing that.
Yeah, yeah.
The whole combination between those two would be amazing.
But there's definitely, there's definitely a bit of, I don't know.
There was a bunch of people who were just trying to be, you know, internet.
That's not how they would do that.
That's not how you do that.
Like that, that couldn't happen.
It's like, I don't know, you have to suspend a little bit of reality, I think,
for making a movie like that work in, you know, a two hour window.
You know, if you want to make that show last a mini series for six episodes,
maybe it could be a little bit different, but you got to move through stuff a little
quicker.
You can't explain everything.
And all those kind of like driving stuff that he was doing and, you know,
and they're like, oh, you can't do that because of this, because of that.
It's like, I don't know, just let it live.
So I actually, because it's funny, because like when we talked about before,
I said it hasn't been, you know, I, when I think of driving, I think of really sort
of crazy car chase, like driving at the edge stuff.
I don't often think about motorsports movies in that package.
Because typically I think in motorsports movies, I'm okay with it feeling similar
to what the broadcast is and maybe punching up here or there, just so that, you know,
it has maybe a little bit more of a cinematic version of the broadcast.
Um, yeah, I don't know.
I think you skipped over a few that were like definitely sweet car movies that have come
out that have good driving in it.
Like Rush was great, you know, Ford versus Ferrari was really good.
Like, but I think like you're talking like a hyper stylized type thing,
which is Ford versus Ferrari to me, right?
Like the action might not be so crazy, but the Christian veiled driving shots are really good.
Yeah, I thought that movie was again, I take out, I think when it comes to racing,
there's been a bunch of good stuff.
You love the practical on screen.
And that's why I think the baby driver intro, like you like so much, right?
It is because you're like, you're really seeing a car doing this.
Yeah, it also feels like Jim Connell won.
Right, right, right.
Sliding under the semi.
Yeah, yeah, I like that.
I guess when I say car stuff, it's less the motorsport stuff because I think there's enough,
I think there's enough stuff out there for inspiration in motorsport
that it gives cinematographers sort of a reference of how to film it,
where I feel that in the car chase world, we've left the great car chases of yesteryear,
bullet, you know, all these sort of kind of classics from the 70s and early 80s.
We've sort of forgotten about those and we've moved into a CG world,
or we've moved into a world where even if you're shooting practically,
you're shooting the car in a way that it feels it's more camera tricks than it is car tricks.
And I'd rather see something that's the car doing something cool than being really tight on
the front fender or the front headlight and a lot of camera shake and all that
to sort of create something that feels that way.
And I don't know, I think Baby Driver broke that like Baby Driver was the first film for me
where I was like, this car chase feels like I understand what's happening.
You're telling me a story, I can follow this and I get it.
And it's not a car movie.
It's not a car movie.
Yeah, and I mean, Fast and Furious, what is your take on the Fast and Furious series?
I like Fast and Furious. I was obsessed with the first and the third,
and I'm totally okay with the fact that it became more of an action franchise with cars around it.
I don't care how cheesy it is, I don't care that they want the space for family,
I love it, I'll see everyone.
I support that, you will wear it, you add on.
Same thing, I think that there's only so much you can do in that sort of world.
Like it felt like too fast, too furious, it already pushed it to a point where I was like,
you know, it doesn't need to be this tighter on the cars anymore, like you can do something else.
I certainly wish that they had stayed a little bit more true to car culture on some things.
It very much felt like Hollywood's take on car culture on a certain stuff.
And especially when I say culture, I really mean the cars.
I think at a certain point, the car casting was really good.
I mean, there was a moment where you've got Paul Walker's characters driving a Mark I escort,
which was like, oh, that's really cool.
Like that was even early for people to think that that was cool.
But I just felt like then it just kind of got into a world where it's just Dodge Chargers,
and I'm assuming that's all sponsorship behind the scenes.
But you shouldn't take that sponsorship.
Like to me, that like lessened the movie for me, right?
Where it was cooler when what made I want to go back to the first one.
I was in my early 20s, maybe 20, not even 21 yet, when that movie came out.
And what was so cool about it was like they checked all the boxes, right?
You they threw in, you know, they had obviously a collection of great JDM cars,
and then they threw in like one shitty Volkswagen to, you know, try to service the Eurokids.
And, you know, but then they had, you know, the muscle, like they had all this different
stuff. I thought that was really cool. Like it was this nice little nod to people of all
these different things, different entry points for it.
Where I think in the later movies, you sort of lost that.
And it was just becoming in that look, I get there's an entire audience that loves Mopar.
But it just felt that there was less variety in what we were seeing.
And it was more of, can we make this cool thing to do this one scene?
And I don't even care if the car really looks that cool and whatever.
So it's funny because my son just got a bunch of Brandon Coddham just bought him a Fast and
Furious. He bought him the charger. And so he loves it.
And I'm like, yeah, that's a car to love. Like that thing is super cool.
Like that is a super cool car. And then he also has the rally fighter.
And he liked the rally fighter until he got the charger.
And so the kids got taste. And then he doesn't like the rally fighter anymore.
It's just a weird car. Like I don't know why that car was ever in the film.
And no knock to local motors. I appreciate what you tried to do with that thing.
But it just like isn't cool. So I think that they lost that and they,
I wish some of the action stayed. So like some of the earlier stuff.
And the early action was still already ridiculous and unreal.
I think going to the moon and like some of the, it just gets over the top.
I don't know. It takes, those are things that take me out.
Or I'm like, what? But that doesn't mean I don't still go see them all in the theater.
So I can't say I don't like it. I can't say I don't like it.
When people compare it more to an event, Avengers, I get it.
It's the Marvel. It is Marvel makes, makes a car movie.
Yeah. Because it's that.
But they've built it in such an incredible franchise is massive.
They have rides for it, everything. It's amazing what they've done with it.
I think that, you know, going kind of back on that, I think that an interesting thing for me
is how much it has influenced modern day car culture.
Yeah.
Right. So I'm pre-fast and furious. Like I was into cars when that movie came out.
And when it came out, I actually saw really like a massive negative effect to it because
it really shut down street racing in New York City and it made cops start pulling you over
because all of a sudden it was like something to talk about on the news.
Yeah.
So to us, it was really cool at first, but then it sort of had this massive shutdown on
car culture in New York. Like all of a sudden you couldn't go cruising anywhere.
And it all happened within six months of the film coming out.
That doesn't mean that I didn't watch that thing until the tape popped.
Right. I mean, it was like me and my buddies would watch it all the time.
Like we would just be hanging out at the house, barbecuing.
And it would just be on the TV playing repeat.
Right. Certainly, certainly loved it.
But I think that you look at the next generation of car culture and like so much of it came from
that movie. Like how many people would be into cars today if that movie didn't come out, which is
super cool. But it's been 20 plus years since that movie came out.
I mean, two decades is crazy for a franchise to run that long.
Do you think this next one will really be the last one?
Hey, what's up? Here's a quick little story time interruption brought to you by FCP Euro.
The time has come for me to do what I think most middle-aged men do,
which is relive my childhood by rebuilding my first car.
And my first car was a 1995 Volkswagen Golf.
But I'm going to do this one a little bit better.
So I got myself a 1995, but this is a Volkswagen Golf Syncro.
That means it's got a bigger engine.
Yeah. It's got that VR6 and it's all wheel drive.
Unfortunately, it is set not running for over 20 years.
Yeah. It's a full on barn find because it was a project when it sat.
So the engine wasn't running. I've got a ton to go through.
Luckily, FCP Euro has almost everything I need just to get this thing back on the road.
First, there's the obvious maintenance stuff, right?
All of the fluids, the brakes, the general consumables.
But this thing is also just missing parts.
Like there were things just not there.
And then there's all the things that you just want to make better.
So I have been spending the last two months just stacking my shopping cart.
All the things I'm going to put in here.
And a lot of you have been asking, you know,
is there going to be more than just podcasts?
Yeah, there's going to be more than just podcasts.
There's going to be builds.
I'm going to do them a little bit differently.
It's going to be like a build cast, but we'll get into that later.
You'll catch one of the first ones here, which will be my Synchro,
built with a ton of stuff from FCP Euro.
If you two have an outstanding project just sitting, go to fcpuro.com.
Most likely they've got all the parts to get your Euro back on the road.
They certainly did for me.
Do you think this next one will really be the last one?
If I was them, I would start doing spin offs.
I think, and I know they did the haps.
Chops and chops.
Yeah, I know they did that spin off,
but I actually think it would be interesting for them to do
more car culture based stuff, especially right now.
I mean, I don't think car culture has ever been as big as it is now in my lifetime,
probably bigger in the 50s and 60s,
but I think car culture is absolute peak.
And I lived through the hip hop era in the mid 2000s
and worked in the business when it's, you know,
pinned my ride and it felt really big then.
It seems even bigger now.
I mean, especially in the United States.
I mean, I think America's final acceptance of Formula One
has kind of brought in this whole new sort of sports viewer type following.
And then just the fashion sort of crossover
with 80s and 90s car culture is so big now.
It's like, you just see it everywhere.
So I think right now would be the time to do that for them.
Like they could probably spin off and do it.
It's kind of amazing that they haven't taken that route.
As much as they've taken the action style from Marvel,
they haven't really looked at it and said,
this is like Star Wars.
This is X-Men.
You can, you can do individual story lines.
You can do all the spin off.
And I know they did one,
the direction they went was even less car involved to me.
It felt like, right?
Like where you could go back and, you know,
you could tell origin stories.
You could tell side stories.
You could, you know,
you could do these characters when they were younger with new actors.
I think you could reimagine this.
You could, you know, whatever happened to,
what's the kid who's in the Volkswagen?
Jesse?
Like, you know, what?
I know, but like,
but there could be like a whole other story line.
It doesn't matter.
Sung's character died and came back.
There's no rules here.
They just have to like open up some like continuum
in this space, you know.
Yeah, fair enough.
Isn't there an argument that Tokyo Drift
kind of is the first spin off?
Yeah.
That's true.
Well, I don't know if it was a spin off as much as,
it was definitely a spin off.
I think it was them trying to figure out
what to do with the franchise.
It was them trying to prove that they don't need the cast.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think, well, I think it was them trying to prove
they didn't need the cast.
I think it was probably also not having the budget
to, to bring the cast in.
Because like Vin Diesel exploded after the first film
and all of a sudden was in everything.
I mean, this is an opportunity for you both as screenwriters
is to write the Fast and Furious spin off
or origin story for whatever side you want there, Scotto.
You know.
Yeah. I just think there's,
I think you can just live in the universe.
Right.
Like I don't even think you need to use any of the characters.
I think you could bring in all new characters
and it could be slight.
I mean, just like how they did with, you know,
with Ballerina for the John Wick franchise.
Like I think that there's a real opportunity.
They've created this name that's so good
that you could just build something into this.
By the way, I do just want to pause and say,
real life over almost 50 minutes in
and we've only talked about movies for this part.
So I love it.
This is great.
This is what this podcast is supposed to be about.
Very vehicular.
Today it's very cinematic, but you know, whatever.
Well, I will add and say,
I do know that they've tried to do spin offs
and there's been spin offs in the works,
but then they just haven't gotten traction, no pun intended.
For the reason that the films are still out,
from what I understand,
I don't think they wanted it taking away.
I don't know that for a fact,
but I do know they've tried doing it,
but I don't know if they're waiting for a later time or what.
Interesting.
Interesting.
I'd love to read one of those scripts.
It'd be interesting to see where they go with that.
Yeah, right.
I think what would be interesting for them,
I don't want to give them all the good ideas,
but they grew to this point
where they were completely leaning on the shoulders
of really, really big actors
who require really big money to be involved.
Well, I don't think your next budget
can ever be cheaper than the previous.
You have to continue to run up yourself
and then you get stuck in this position.
Trust me, I know that with the Jim Conner films.
All I ever wanted to do with the Jim Conner films
was hit the reset button
and go back to doing something basic,
but you just feel like you can't.
You feel like you can't do it.
Was every Jim Conner after the first
just more and more progressively expensive to make?
Was there one that was ever cheaper than one previous?
Let me try to think.
They were maybe close.
I mean, the first Jim Conner was $30,000.
To think how cheap that is.
I mean, it's not even in the same like 30 grand.
Yeah, to what you guys probably spent today.
Yeah, I mean, I've signed up on $30,000
without even thinking about it.
Well, that's only $30,000?
Wow, that's a bargain.
I'm pretty sure you can't even do a day for that anymore.
No, no, no, no, no.
A day is six figures easy.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So, yeah, I mean, it's really ballooned out of that.
And part of that's just there's an expectation level.
You do things different.
First ones were shot on HVXs.
Now we shoot on cinema level cameras.
So, you know, that's all really shifted.
But I think there's also just if it's doing well
and you just keep spending on it and it keeps doing better.
But there's a bit of a trap there.
Yeah.
Right.
And at a certain point,
there's something fun about making something scrappy again.
And I also think that, to me, I mean,
do you guys watch Star Wars stuff much?
A bit.
Yeah, like I don't watch a ton of it,
but I was into the first films when I was a kid, obviously.
And I'm not by any means like a big Star Wars person.
But I've really enjoyed a lot of the spin-off stuff.
I think Rogue One maybe.
And I know you share this.
Love Rogue One.
Did you watch Angkor?
Yeah.
And like these, to me, are better than some of the films, right?
Like they've found a new storytelling elsewhere.
And I think the fast has that capability.
I think they have the capability to go find a whole other storyline
that just lives in the universe and not chasing it with big actors.
I think it would be really interesting to go do something with a Netflix or whoever.
Who are they on by any way?
They're universal, right?
Yeah, they're universal.
Yeah, they're universal.
They could go somewhere there and find an entirely new storyline
that maybe runs through streaming, that does it differently.
I think that that could be very interesting because they've gotten into this world
where you're being ran by big stars.
And when you're that big, the big stars have a lot to say.
And the big stars only want to do certain things.
And they don't want to do certain action.
And they don't want to do this anymore.
And I get it.
Like it's, you're getting older.
I mean, all these guys are older.
I'm old.
Like they're all 10 years older than me.
So you've got a whole crew of people who are in their 50s and going into their 60s.
They've aged out of making this movie, right?
And I, bringing in a younger audience, it's excitable and wants to kind of do that
and be more involved.
I think could be, could be really interesting for that series.
Because you've built, it's one of the biggest, not even just an automotive,
it's one of the biggest film franchises, period, period.
It is in its own way.
And I think as car people, we forget that because I think there's a negative
note about Fast and Furious.
Even if you love it, you're going to make fun of it, right?
It's like part of it.
It's like, it's part of our meme culture in cars.
And I think Fast is in this weird place right now where I didn't like the last one.
Did you like the last one?
I mean, I watched, when I say didn't like, like, would I watch it on a Delta flight?
Yeah, for sure.
Twice maybe.
Would I go to the theater to see it?
Yeah.
Would I watch it at home?
No.
And that's an interesting thing to say.
But like, I enjoy the theater experience so much it's worth going to the theater for
just to go see it.
But like, would I go watch it right now?
No.
Would I go, if, if when we're done with this podcast, you're like,
you guys want to make some popcorn and go watch Fast One?
100%.
Like the original Fast and Furious was, was so good.
Tokyo Drift also really good.
A bunch of them were really good.
I think the last one just felt, I don't know.
It just felt like nobody wanted to be there.
But I don't know, where are you at on that?
We've really tensioned it, but it's okay.
Let's just keep going.
I don't want to shit talk fast because I feel like the,
they've done so much for this community and for this industry.
Yeah, yeah.
And if they called me tomorrow and said,
Hey, do you want to be the next one?
I would be like, don't pay me.
I'm there.
But by the way, I think every person sitting at this table
would 100% work on the next fast.
Yeah, yeah.
And that's not short of giving it some criticism, right?
It's fans acknowledging that, you know, we'd all love to,
to help just to grow it in a different way.
I would argue that it is one of the most influential things
to car culture in the past 20 years and also bringing,
like I would say that the video game culture.
So like Forza, you know, the, you know, yeah, Gran Turismo,
like all need for speed.
I think all of them did amazing job of bringing the outsiders
to go, wow, car cultures, car culture is pretty cool.
And then I'm a little biased.
But I do think a lot of the Jim Conest stuff really helped
like an audience that didn't know that was there.
Funny thing, Ken Block never saw a single fast and furious.
Really?
Yep.
Never saw one.
Didn't watch a single one.
At a certain point was like,
I haven't seen him.
So I refused to see them.
Yeah, I think it became that way.
I think it became that way.
He said that he knew enough about the first one
that he had no interest in seeing it.
Ken hated anything that felt faked.
So he was like, I just, I just, he just had no interest.
And a concept that the two of us had,
unfortunately we were never able to make,
was Ken Block watches fast and furious in his reactions to it
and to do just a reaction series of like Ken, like watching it.
But yeah, he just, he never saw it,
which I always thought was really interesting
because people would like ask him questions about fast
like on autograph lines.
And he'd be like, I have no idea.
Who? What?
I don't even know who you're talking about.
Like he has zero understanding of the film,
which I always thought was, was really interesting.
So it's just not his kind of thing.
Yeah, I will say that they do a great job.
Like you said, I think the spin off potential is there
because the world building is really good.
Yeah, the world building is massive.
Like Tokyo Drift, like with Justin Lim was incredible
because you believe that that world really existed.
The first one feels like it really exists.
I thought Louis Latteria did a really good job too,
stepping into a franchise like that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So it's like that does exist.
And that's actually a question I have for both of you guys
is like doing screenwriting,
coming up with your own stories and things like that.
Do you like having a box to kind of work within
or is it too broad?
Like if I was just like, hey, you can make whatever you want,
no budget consideration, no character setting,
kind of consideration wide open.
Do you like working like that?
Or do you like having some constraints
where it's like, hey, I kind of know that it needs to be
this much needs to exist in this sort of world
or is it like as a storyteller
and creating something like having free reign is kind of...
Well, I feel like, at least for me,
if you have free reign, it's a little excessive.
Then you find yourself just doing the most
like arbitrary things you can.
When I'm writing, I have a budget frame in mind,
but I'm not like, oh, I'm not going to write that scene
because it's going to put me over.
I still write the scene and if I need to tailor back, I will.
By the way, I just want to say it's such a fantastic question
because I think as a creative,
I spent the first half of my creative time wanting more,
wishing I had more budget,
wishing I could had more opportunity
and I had less constraint.
And then I hit a moment where I realized
that the constraint was what made the creative good.
I mean, you go back to Hoonigan Daily Transmission,
we didn't have that much money to make that show.
The rule was you couldn't leave the yard.
The rule was the minute that the gate opens,
it was going to cost us money.
So we could just try to figure out
everything we could do in that yard.
We never thought we would make 300 episodes.
We never thought it would be something
that would go on to do millions of views.
Like that wasn't the plan,
but it made us all really force the creative.
And even look at the couple different scripts
that Will and I are working on right now.
One of them, a producer said,
don't even worry about the budget.
If it's a good idea, we'll get it funded.
And it's almost like the minute he said that,
I was no longer interested.
Where we're trying to make this other thing
that's so low budget that I sort of enjoy the box
that I've had to build into.
Well, Reservoir Dogs was made with a million dollars.
And I know it seems like a lot of money
for people who don't understand budgets,
but that's nothing.
So was Swingers.
It's like those two movies.
And that whole, both those movies came out
around the same time.
Like those were fantastic films for what the spend was.
And you go back and you watch them,
and there are inconsistencies everywhere.
Like you watching, like, oh, that changed.
They're wearing something different
because they probably didn't even have a script supervisor
managing it because they couldn't afford it.
They were just like a bunch of people wanting to make a movie.
And the original Fast was massively budgeted
because it was the original Fast and Furious
was supposed to be shot in New York City
and they couldn't afford it.
So David Ayer rewrote the film to be more of a popcorn film
and have it be shot in California
because it was just easier to make something in California.
And David Ayer wasn't involved with the first one, was he?
He rewrote, he did the rewrite.
So after that, he was not involved.
He got out of it then and felt pretty bummed that he did
because he kind of wish he had stayed along for it.
He actually approached Ken and I after Jim F5
to make a Jim Connell movie.
Unfortunately, I never panned out.
But yeah, he did the rewrite of it
that basically turned it into what we know Fast as today
because it was a much moodier sort of drama
when it was set in New York City
than because it didn't have the same kind of like
over-the-top heist element or anything like that.
It was more based in the world of street racing and that culture.
Yeah, and that like completely changed the direction of it.
But I don't know, I think that,
and that was all because they had a budget issue.
They're like, no one's going to watch this movie.
This isn't going to do well.
You would say you're right with budgets in mind as well?
I do, yeah.
I mean, we did, everything in Hoonigan was always,
can we afford to do this, right?
So I think that the budget's won.
I also, there's other things I like to think about.
It's not just that sometimes even just like locations-wise,
like, hey, how can I make this location work?
Use that as inspiration.
I find that my brain is wired to find solutions to problems.
You guys both are, you know, think about that.
Like as creators and creatives like that,
like that's all you've been doing for the past decade plus, right?
Is like, how can I be scrappy and do this?
Because I'm sure the first builds that you both did weren't like
what you've done recently.
Definitely not.
Like the projects, you know?
Like the scale has just-
Although I've come full circle.
I'm like back to working on Volkswagen.
Yeah, for sure.
So I got so burnt out on over the top builds.
But yeah.
Well, also the demand now for YouTube,
it's like you have to do like a full build in one episode.
You can't just like, when I was on YouTube starting out,
it's like I did a year building my 240
and then another year after that for the other 240
and then the Subaru stuff.
Like it just wasn't as it is today.
Now I feel like I have one, maybe three episodes
to do an entire ground up restoration.
I'm going to use this as a great transition moment
because I, this was sort of,
this was the whole thing I've been thinking about
for the past 24 hours.
So I was like, what are we going to talk about
when you get here?
Where do we go?
In terms of content.
Just, yeah.
Like-
Or in terms of life.
I was actually talking about launch.
Or launch.
But if you want to get it happy.
But no, meaning, so I think this is this really weird moment
right now, right?
Like we, first generation, well, first generation YouTube
was cat videos and whatever.
But second generation YouTube was the vlog era.
Right, right.
And now we're in this interesting third generation
of YouTube where I think the line between YouTube
and television is blurring more and more.
And then like, where does it go from there?
Do we just go make TV?
And then all of a sudden we ended back up where it started.
I think this is interesting as I watch a bunch of,
you know, what are now the seniors in the space,
people who've been there for a while.
Think about how many other people are making the stuff
that you make now, right?
And one, you're oversaturating the space.
There's so many people out there,
but there's also just the want to do something new
to do the next thing to kind of continue to, you know,
improve the first episode of Very Vehicular we did.
I think Vinny dropped a bombshell because he told the audience
that we absolutely hated making daily transmission.
And people were shocked by it because like, wait, like,
no, it's like, we just sat there and watched
other people drive their cars.
It wasn't a lot of fun.
And it was fun for the first 20 episodes,
but on episode 347, it was kind of old
and we used to batch film them and it became a job,
like anything else.
That's the thing too, like for, and just to tag on that,
I'm sure when you guys were filming this first that.
Oh my goodness.
You were filming like, not 20, that's an exaggeration,
but 10, yeah, 10 episodes a day.
Yes, we would do, we would do,
in the two to three days we were there,
we would do 20 plus episodes.
And it like, I could see how it stopped being fun
because it's not like, let's have fun.
Let's be honest, I was like, all right,
from this time to this time, we banter him.
This time, this time, we got to be racing him.
This time, this time, the other driver's already
getting ready to line up and it becomes more production.
So at that point, yeah, when are you
blurring the line of filmed or is television?
Do you want to talk about cars today?
You think we should talk about cars?
You want to just skip right over
and just make this a media episode.
I'm good about it.
I'm cool.
Would you drive here today?
Anything fun?
Usually I drive a Nissan,
but I don't have a press car right now.
So I drove my Cadillac CT5V Blackwing.
Ooh, I really liked that car.
Supercharged 6.2 liter V8, 6 speed.
I really, I really, really liked that car.
Yeah.
It was out of the RS6.
So it was torn between those two.
No, you have an RS6.
No, no, no, no, I don't.
When I was buying the Cadillac,
I was torn between an RS6 or that,
and then I did the press drive for this car
and they said it was going to be the last one
that they make in a manual too.
So I was like, you know what, I'll get this.
Well, we could talk about press drives.
Because all three of us have done press drives.
So it's like, that's a good thing.
Yeah, I want to go with the RS6 though for a second.
I realized the other day, I don't think I like the RS6.
What?
Yeah, I know it's crazy for you to say that.
Wait, that is so random for you to say that.
I know, I know, because I'm such a big Audi guy,
I have an RS too.
Because everyone loves them, you're like...
You know, that would be a strong argument
because I'm definitely a bit of that person.
Like, oh, you like it, I'm not going to like it.
It's the punk rockin' me.
I think it lost the plot.
It's the new fast film for me.
I think it lost the plot.
I think it is too big.
I think it is too flashy.
Like, my RS2, I mean, I had the plate on it,
if you know you know.
Because I spent 40 minutes talking to random boys
in a parking lot at Ace Hardware this weekend
because they wanted to talk to me about my RS2.
When I say boys, I mean, 40-year-old men.
But because it's like, if you know what it is,
it's super cool.
But if you...
But you like that stuff.
You like the uniqueness, something that's different.
I say that with this ridiculous 911 next to us.
Not always, but I do enjoy the subtleness.
But I always thought that's what made RSs.
Like, the previous RS4 was pretty subtle.
If you didn't know, it just had wide fenders.
The new RS6 looks insane.
And I don't know, it just seems kind of crazy.
I actually think that the new Volvo wagon,
whatever it is, the V90 wagon or something,
because I saw them parked side-by-side outside my house one day,
I was like, I actually think that's a better looking car.
Which is crazy for me to say.
I love Audi's.
Yeah, do you think understated cells
are in that market?
Like, if you're competing against...
No, no, it's a hundred and what, $30,000 now or something?
No, I get it needs to be what it needs to be.
That doesn't mean...
Isn't that literally everything we're talking about
from films to media to this of like...
Of what sells and what does well?
Everything now is like, it's just like,
there's no plain pizza anymore.
Everything's just like, it's like meat lover
and vegetable lover and cheese lover.
It's like all the lovers enjoying.
Yeah, I don't know.
I guess I just miss the subtleness of it all.
So everything just feels like way, way, way, way over the top.
But it's still a badass machine.
Is the RS6 more offensive than the M5?
I don't like BMWs at all.
So you're asking the wrong person.
I stopped liking BMWs when...
That's another hot take.
Yeah, I stopped liking BMWs after the E30 M3 came out.
I'm obsessed with the E30 M3.
It's a beautiful car.
I just, I don't know what it is.
Maybe it's because when I was a kid,
the kind of people who own BMWs, I just didn't like them.
I like the 36's, the 92's,
and then I started losing after that.
Like, don't get me wrong.
I'm like, I'm a fan of like the modern,
like them two competitions, them fours and all that,
but I just, it lost me after the 92.
To me, I think that they are...
I can't really speak to the newest ones
because I haven't driven them, but...
They drive great.
They're amazing cars.
I think that BMW makes one of the best driving cars in the world.
It just doesn't speak to me.
I feel like maybe it's for you and I both,
it's an age thing.
I feel like we missed the boat on the younger generation
and I feel like you'll agree with this too is just,
I feel like everyone's driving a BMW
or they're driving something unique and fun.
Yeah, I saw something like that.
No, but BMW's not fun.
I'm thinking like, I love when I see someone
work around on a Nissan Z.
Right.
Like it's, because I feel like so much you see BMWs
as kind of being like that,
what the Infiniti G35 was back in the day.
Yeah, I get that.
I don't know.
I actually wish I could lose my BMW like jadedness or bias
because like I said, like their film series, The Hire,
was to me one of the greatest things.
And if they tomorrow asked me to do one, I would do 100% do one.
Of course, yeah.
And I respect them as cars.
There's just something about that barrier that I don't know.
It's just, I can't cross it.
Where I've crossed it with a bunch of other makes,
like I wasn't a big Corvette person.
And now that's not entirely true.
I was a big Corvette person when I was young,
but I went through a period of time of not liking Corvettes.
I don't know why.
And then I drove the Z06, the C606.
And then I got to drive the Pratt and Miller car.
And I was like, this is fantastic.
I drove it back to back with an 911 Turbo
and it was way better on track.
And I made me kind of love it.
And now I like have gone back and I love C5s.
And I didn't even like C4s.
That's funny because back in the day, yeah.
Right. Because back in the day, I just didn't think that was cool at all.
And now I'm like, man, I think I want to buy a C5.
Like that's pretty cool.
I don't know.
I just keep going.
I get like really close to BMWs.
I'm like, maybe.
And I'll like start paper building one.
It's funny because you're such a Euro guy.
I know.
You would think that.
I love Mercedes.
I will eventually own one.
You know, obviously love Porsches,
love Volkswagen's, love Audi's, love all of it.
So, but it just never clicked.
I think like Amelia said that there's this thing
for people younger than all of us at this point
where it's like BMW fits this sweet spot
of a car just being old enough
and being performance and real drive
and kind of cool looking.
But it's the generation that we probably all skipped over.
Yeah.
Because it's like that second hand sort of market
where it's like, oh, yeah, like the three series
from these years is now like really attainable.
Yeah.
Yeah, I guess.
I mean, I get it.
There's a lot out there.
I get it.
I see a lot of them.
Yeah, I know.
I get it.
It just never, it just never landed.
Like for me, I don't have a lot of Japanese cars
because I don't fit in them.
It's not because I don't like them.
I just don't like, I don't fit in a 13.
I don't fit in a 14.
I fit in an R33 because it's a bit bigger inside.
I don't fit in a 32.
Yeah, can't, can't relate.
I, yeah.
You know what?
You should sit in my 911.
You could see a car you don't fit in because I bet you.
I bet I can't see over the steering wheel.
You won't be able to reach the pedals.
I have to usually sit on padding
just to see over the steering wheel of cars.
When my wife actually needs to move it,
she takes a backpack and fills it full of towels
and wears that to move the car.
Because the clutch is so heavy.
That's kind of smart to keep that.
The clutch is so heavy because when she pushes back
it would push off the clutch.
Yeah.
So, yeah.
I already know I won't fit in it.
No, it's, it's slammed to the, like the seat is so low
that I have like five inches of headroom in the car.
You probably won't be able to see over the car.
No, I won't be able to.
Even my own GT4S club sport that I raced at Pike's Peak,
if anyone looked inside the car,
there was so much padding,
I couldn't see over the dash of the thing.
We tried doing a seat pour,
but I just didn't like the way it felt.
Because it's not like a single-seater open-wheel car.
We just stuffed a bunch of padding in it
that I used in order to be able to see over the dash.
So, all right, we jumped through.
You started talking about Actress.
You're talking about Car Builder.
We didn't really talk about building cars,
but that's fine.
You talk a lot about building cars.
I have a channel for that.
You have a whole channel for that, which is awesome.
I want to touch on one thing on that though
because we're talking about, you know,
I have mostly Euro cars,
but I also have some muscle cars,
and I've got some trucks.
You have an interesting taste
because you have some really, really cool Japanese cars,
but then you also have like a really interesting interest
in older American cars.
Where do those two come from?
Because it is sort of, to me...
Well, I can tell you exactly where it came from.
Yeah, well, to me, there's like a massive split there.
Like, I have a nova that most of my friends who like
Skylines and Sylvia and whatever could care less about,
but you sort of have blended those two,
and you have an audience that enjoys that blend too.
Yeah, which I'm so thankful of,
but how I got into cars was being the only one
in Bloomington, Indiana with an Infinity G35
when everyone else had American muscle.
My second car was a Nissan 240SX with an LS1.
So it was blending both worlds of American and Japanese,
and obviously from there it was just an appreciation of both,
and kind of segueing into, yes, I have my RB26 or a 34,
but I also have my LS-based 69 Camaro.
Do you feel like there's two different audiences
that you attract from when you're talking about both cars,
or do you feel like there's an audience
that just sort of is enjoying both now?
I definitely have an audience that enjoys both.
They enjoy what I enjoy, which is great,
but sure, there are people who are like,
she's, ah, I can't really say that
because the views didn't speak for that,
because I did the 2000 horsepower VR38,
and the Nissan Z, which did the same amount of views
as doing the Plymouth Superbird build, the NASCAR build.
A slightly different audience, yeah.
Yeah, I think maybe slightly different audiences in a way,
but I feel like people watching my channel
really just enjoy watching me have fun, which is great.
And I think that that's such the,
if you can do that and keep that the key,
because I always get people who will constantly
ask me questions, if I do a panel or whatever,
like, oh, what's the trick to YouTube,
or what's this, or what's that?
And it's like the minute that you stop having fun,
your audience realizes.
Yeah, if I'm doing a build, I don't enjoy, people see it,
and they don't want to tune in, and I don't want to do it either.
And also, I think that's why I don't upload every day
is because then it would stop being fun for me,
because then it's just, I'm a glorified mechanic.
I love that even just thinking you're uploading once a week,
you're like, that's not a lot, which is crazy,
that that's sort of the expectation,
but I actually think even weekly,
you look at guys like Mighty Car Mods,
they'll do like once a month.
Yeah.
I am so jealous of that, because it still works for them.
Yeah, but most people are uploading every other day
or a couple times a week, and I couldn't keep up with that.
What is the lead time for you on a project?
Like, what does that whiteboard look like when you're like,
hey, these are the things I want to do in the next X amount of time?
Well, the things I want to do in the X amount of time
versus whiteboarding just the structure of a build
or maybe a little different,
I don't plan too many builds ahead,
because I'm usually just so deeply obsessed
in what I'm working on at the time.
A lot of people and a lot of partners and sponsors
want to say, hey, what's your 12 month plan?
What are you going to be building this year?
And I try to have a plan, but truth be told,
the car I'm working on, I struggle sometimes to see past that,
because I also don't want to just finish it,
and I'm really good at this,
is not just finishing a build and parking it.
Like, I really like to build cars for a purpose
to be able to enjoy them.
So it's, I can't always promise
what the series is going to look like after I build it,
because it depends on what I'm able to do with it
and how much fun I'm able to have with it as well.
Tell me more about finishing cars.
What does it feel like? Speak slow.
I know that there's like, at least for you and I,
because I think we're very similar,
it's going to be very curious to see if you are,
is it's like, are you a good person
that's able to conceptualize a build
and like do a ton of research beforehand,
before you even really like embark on buying,
like a donor car, a project car?
Like, do you enjoy that process?
Like the IDAs and research?
I'm an impulse buyer.
I am such an impulse buyer, but yeah, I mean,
I do a ton of, I try to have all the parts ordered
before I even start the build,
because that is just, that downtime kills you,
especially if something's back ordered for six months,
and you can't get it anywhere else.
Yeah, I try to, I really try to have everything ordered,
everything prepared.
I kind of know what I want to do with it ahead of time.
I leave some room for when the audience watches,
and they say, like, oh, you need to do it this way,
and that way I'm not too stuck in my ways,
and I'm open to changing and interpretation a little bit,
but for example, like the NASCAR Superbird,
when I bought that Superbird out of my buddy's barn,
I, at first I was looking at, like,
that was kind of an impulse buy.
I knew what I wanted to do with it.
I was looking at doing like a Hellcat swap on it,
but after buying the car and looking at it,
I was like, man, there's really, like,
the only thing that's good on this car is the roof.
Like there's literally no floor, everything's rusted,
and I impulse bought after a couple beers
is on Facebook Marketplace, a used NASCAR,
and thought, oh, this would be so,
and that's what struck the idea of kind of doing
like a Richard Petty-inspired R5P7 NASCAR Superbird,
and that wasn't the plan when I bought that chassis,
but it slowly just kind of built into what it is today,
to me then doing the 210 plus mile an hour run
at Goodyear's Proving Grounds.
The Z, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it
before going into it.
The Corvette, I did not.
When I bought the Stingray, I wasn't planning on
twin turboing it and building it to what it is today,
but yeah, sometimes going into builds,
I know exactly what it is I want to do.
Other times I buy it because I'm curious about it,
and I like it or something like it sounds like
stupid cheesy artsy, but like something speaks to me about it,
and for whatever reason, I'm like, this is the next project,
but it's not like I try to plan really far ahead.
I don't always get that opportunity to,
but once I start a build, that's what I'm in.
So there was an early variant of like a Superbird then
that was going to be like entirely kind of Mopar Rastomod.
Yeah, yeah, 100%.
Okay.
100%, and then it just pivoted because I saw something
that just really excited me.
I'm happy that I'm not the only person
who has late night marketplaces.
It's so worst.
At least for you, it doesn't change the direction
of like 30 people's lives because people at Hoonigan
would just see a flatbed show up and drop off some carcass.
I'm like, don't you guys see it?
And I was like, no, I don't see it at all.
What?
You want to put a what in there?
Oh, that's coming on the next flatbed.
I bought two cars to make one, but I definitely,
I would say most of like the really kind of wild ideas
at Hoonigan were inspired from just me on Marketplace.
Yeah, and I was, and I'm not saying this
because I know you have a hard time finishing projects.
It's okay.
It's okay.
This is part of the therapy.
That's fine.
I'm willing to, I'm talking about it now.
It's okay.
I am, I'm weirdly, if I say I'm going to do something,
I have to do it.
So from, and I just like, I think it's my OCD
and I don't take it lightly.
I actually like, I have bad OCD and I have like a
Tourette OCD and like, I am a weird fucking person,
but that weirdness makes me have to finish something.
I start or else I can't sleep at night.
I get that.
Yeah.
I like, do you get that?
No, I do.
I do because I have it in different ways.
So for me, my cars aren't important.
So it doesn't really matter
because like they'll fall down the list of importance.
So I think part of my neurodivergence is
everything has a hierarchy.
So it's like the Jim Conno film has to get done.
You don't need to finish your Volkswagen, you know?
So to me, I wasn't, even though I made content about my cars,
it was like filler content to me.
And some of it did well, but it wasn't what was important.
It was more important that the main thing at Hoonigan got done.
So it was like trying to see that through.
That being said, I am definitely a starter
and not a finisher.
I love starting a new project.
You want to go start something right now?
We can go take a motor out of a car tomorrow.
I'm here putting it back in.
Putting it back in is fine too.
It's the last 10%.
It's like, I don't want to plumb the brake lines.
I'm there right now with the GT3 911 that I'm building.
This is, you know, when you're busy,
you only get fragments of this.
So that car caught on fire.
What's the story with that?
Because I'm literally telling you what I know
from scrolling Instagram and I'm like,
wait, is this thing on fire?
What are you doing with it?
It caught on fire at the racetrack.
The previous owner did not have insurance on it.
Everyone is like, oh, the guy drove away
because he wanted to put it on public road.
So it's off race.
I can make an insurance claim.
He did not have insurance.
He was having fun.
He did a fat, nasty burnout and maybe a little longer
than he probably should have.
And a piece of tire got stuck in the wheel well,
caught fire, lit the liner, lit literally everything.
And it just, when they were driving
to go get an extinguisher,
because there weren't anywhere they were,
it just lit up in flames.
So it wasn't actually an engine fire.
It was more of a bumper fire.
So it didn't still intact.
It actually ran.
It's fire.
Yeah.
I mean, there was some like vacuum lines that had melted,
but for the most part, everything was fine.
And I didn't know that buying it.
I thought the engine was torched.
So it was actually a huge victory.
Yeah.
Usually things are not better than you thought they were.
It's usually always worse.
I was like, oh, that's interesting.
I didn't realize there was a window on the back side of the
didn't see that on initial inspection.
Yeah.
But now I got really lucky with that one.
And right now literally just got the motor in the hole
over the weekend and then out to start plumbing everything.
If you have any interest in watching me clean a bolt,
that could possibly happen on Patreon,
because that's why I love Patreon.
See here on YouTube,
there's certain things that just don't work,
but on Patreon doesn't really matter if it works.
It just matters if you want to watch it.
Anyway, subscribe to my Patreon.
I might clean a bolt or two, answer some questions,
tell old stories, pontificate, you never know.
Question for you, because Will and I were discussing this before.
What do you think was either your moment, your build,
your video that sort of changed or like changed the direction for you
and sort of kind of brought you to that next echelon
in being an automotive creator?
Like was there one particular moment for you where you felt
this is like things are moving and opportunities are opening up
and viewership's increasing and there's more going on?
There's a term for it, like a step curve.
I never really...
Tipping point.
Yeah, I never really experienced that so much,
as much as just like a linear curve in a way.
Like it just exponentially,
the more I continued on a consistent schedule
of uploading and building the larger, I guess I got,
which sounds weird to say.
I will say though, building and piloting what was the world's fastest
Corvette, new generation Corvette at its time,
definitely gave me some notoriety.
I wouldn't say that was the thing that made me,
but it gave me validity and not only my abilities
but also my teams and that was a blessing, I would say,
but it wasn't like doing one thing propelled me to being who I am today.
Right.
Yeah, and I don't think it's saying it that way.
I think it's more like there's always this thing you keep doing it
and eventually it tips, right?
And what do they say every overnight excess took,
you know, 10 years to happen?
And I don't know if that would be your overnight success,
but I knew you and I was well aware of your stuff well before
that the Corvette build.
But that, we were talking about this before you got here,
that that was definitely the moment where I think you sort of joined
the ranks of all the YouTubers.
Like, because all of a sudden it was like,
you were now in the same Venn diagram as Cletus and all these other people,
especially too, because you tapped into that American car market,
which is a much broader market than I think a lot,
what a lot of us play with in the Japanese drift and kind of Euro space.
But that was the thing where I felt like all of a sudden you were exploding.
Like we were watching from the outside and, you know,
obviously we knew you at that point,
we'd already done some stuff with you here and there.
And, you know, I remember just being like,
Oh yeah, you're you're on it right now.
Like it felt like, you know,
not just seeing other people talking about you,
you're showing up in like, like actual media and things like that was really cool.
So did that change the way that you were thinking about
other stuff you were going to do?
Because I think that was a very I'm going to build this
and I'm going to go do something with it.
And then I'm going to achieve something.
And then, you know, that's that gives you like this.
It's like a really nice story arc.
Because I think one of the issues for and I'll be my own critic
for Hoonigan was a lot of our stuff didn't have a story arc.
So and a lot of it was because by the time we got something done,
we were like either we need to be on to the next thing
where there really wasn't a budget to go finish it out
or whatever the reason was.
So, you know, there were things that were really cool,
like scumbug, we built it and then we went to go did Baja with it.
Like that was rad.
There's other things we built that barely ever got used.
Like it was just for the sake of building them.
It's probably because we were making too much at the time
and there was so much going on that no one really cared or was focused on it.
It also wasn't anyone's personal journey.
Right.
It was like a company's journey where for you,
this was like your own personal journey to get there.
I think that's the difference.
It's it's a personal journey,
but they're also my cars that I'm building for myself
and what I want to do with them.
But yeah, it was interesting because I guess that definitely
was probably the bigger thing.
If not one of the things that like suddenly I was in the conversation
with these YouTubers that before I was like,
it'd be so cool to meet them one day.
Yeah. Yeah, I can see that.
Yeah. I mean, I think that there was because I remember it was that
and then all of a sudden like I just it sort of exploded.
And I think it was a model that also did very well for Cletus, right?
Build something, go break a record, go do this, right?
To use your word before like it was a validation on what you had done, right?
Not only as not only as someone who could build something,
but as someone who could also drive something.
And that brings us to our last transition.
That was a good transition.
You like that?
Yeah.
So that brings us to the last transition, which is Amelia, the race car driver.
I got to spend some time with you at Pike Speak this year.
And I just, I don't want to big you up too much,
but everybody was really impressed by you.
And I'll tell you why, because I think a lot of times people expect influencers
to show up and not actually be good at it.
And a lot of times they're not.
And I think one thing that has been amazing for anyone who is an influencer,
your content creator is that this audience, this sort of clout, whatever it is,
can open a door for you, but it won't keep the door open.
And I think you got there and you really impressed,
like you impressed like old people who are like, are not impressable.
Like, you know, they're just like old motorsports guys who are like,
what is damn YouTuber?
Like you definitely like, wow, you can actually do this.
That's cool to hear too, because obviously I only know what like first hand interactions I have.
So it's nice to hear people are saying that behind my back too.
Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, I don't think it's much behind your back in that negative way.
But it was in a positive way.
Yeah. But I think people will say stuff to your face,
but I think everyone was, I think you drove, you were quick and you were calm and you were consistent,
which is what makes a really good race to our driver, right?
Like you could be quick and not consistent.
That's not really good.
But I think that you actually now belong to a very, very small group of creators
who are not just good at building stuff, good at capturing an audience, but also can drive.
Because it's a very, very, very small window of people who can do it,
and especially outside of drag racing.
Not that I want to take anything away from drag racing,
but it's definitely a different skill set.
Like I think there's a bunch of drivers who are pretty good at running their car on a quarter,
but there's a way smaller collection of people who are good at setting a time or,
you know, on laps or, you know, rally or anything like that.
So is there a future there for you?
Like do you want to do more of that?
It was third in your list, so it felt like it was all the way at the back.
But I mean, there's more on my list.
But I hope there's more of that.
This past year, I was really thankful for being able to do that Formula E race,
as well as Pike's Peak, and have success in both of those and perform very well.
I love driving.
I really do.
I hope to do more of it.
I want to do more rally racing, and I know that's something that you love as well.
Oh, you and I, I was the other day, I was just looking at a text message
between the two of us, because I went to go text you,
and I think the last thing we text about was I was like,
I really think you should jump into rally.
Like it's a really cool space.
I think you'd really enjoy it.
It's definitely a space that I would love to get into.
I would love to do Pike's again this year.
I don't know that I could continue, not continue,
I don't know that I could do a series where it's like every weekend
I'm practicing where I'm out there.
It's going to be more of not one-offs, but exposition style races.
I would love to do more endurance races as well.
But yeah, I mean, I absolutely hope to do more driving.
I have so much fun doing it.
Well, it looks like the Nurburgring has just opened up like
sim competition level for qualifying for the license
to be able to do the Nurburgring 24 hour.
I did not hear that.
Yeah, I didn't read all the details.
So backstory, Vin, myself, and Ron were supposed to race a 24 hour
with Hyundai as a factory team.
And we were in the process of going through the licensing
and all of that when we all left Tunigan.
One of the reasons we left Tunigan, not entirely,
but one of the reasons was was they shut down the program
because it didn't work in their insurance.
No knock on them.
They have like 1500 employees
and workers comp would have dropped them
if any of us participated in racing,
which actually made a massive problem
because it meant that no employees at Tunigan could ever race.
Ever going to Tunigan was a salary employee?
Yeah, yeah, we were all salary.
So we would have all had to like leave a salary employees
and do all this stuff.
So anyway, that's not, doesn't matter.
But we went through the process.
I mean, we were going to have to live in Germany
for two and a half months to get our licensing.
Yeah.
So it was crazy, the amount of work.
And we had to do a bunch of stuff here,
but I think they've, I think because of Rastappan's run,
they've made changes to that
and they've realized that they need to to lighten it.
So if you have experience in another country,
you can do a bit of stuff.
Apparently it's them.
Don't quote me entirely on this
because I haven't actually read the article.
I was just in a group chat that was like,
man, if this was here two years ago,
we probably would have gotten to race.
But even like just to get your license
to be able to race there, your certificate,
two and a half months is crazy.
For pikes, for an actual professional race,
I moved out there for one month
and that was a ton of time.
And you kind of gave up content for that month too, right?
You stacked stuff so you could really focus.
So I was still uploading,
but everyone knew that I was in Colorado practicing for racing.
But like I've been training on my pilot's license
for years now and that's just.
So what, okay.
So we did the first three.
So now we got, we got actress hyphen,
like automotive builder hyphen race car driver,
half a potential pilot.
What else you got on there?
Producer.
Producer.
Writer.
Screen writer.
I know that there's like a bunch of stuff in your past.
Like you've had many lives.
Yeah.
So you, because you said you used to do like mountain climbing
because when I talked about being afraid of heights at pikes.
I love heights.
So I traveled the U S competitively rock climbing
for a period in my life.
Okay.
I know you're an avid snowboarder
because you still start working with this guy.
Yep.
We've ridden together
and we plan on jumping out of a helicopter together.
Yep.
Nice.
What else?
What else?
So you were dabbling with some boat racing?
Yes.
I'm really enjoying the hyphens.
Man, the hyphens keep going.
What else you got?
Did you mountain bike for a little bit?
Did you say you got out of or weren't doing that?
Yeah.
After breaking my collarbone,
I don't downhill mountain bike as much.
Do you have hardware in there now?
You got that titanium plate or?
No, no, no.
I got, I got really, you can feel where it healed.
I have this weird thing about collarbones.
Really?
Just collarbones?
Yeah.
Like it's just one of those things like it makes me do this.
I don't think people touch my collarbone.
I don't like touching other people's collarbones.
That doesn't bother me at all.
I don't know what it is about collarbones.
It's probably because I rode BMX
and I was like into snowboarding and like carting
and all the things that you break collarbones in.
So I was always afraid of breaking my collarbone.
Ashley broke her collarbone four times.
She broke it first snowboarding
and she broke it a big bear which she hate now.
She'll never go back to be there.
And she, they had to ride her down in the Ambo
with a completely separated clavicle.
And then the second time,
I don't know how she broke it.
So eventually she broke it again.
All in the same spot.
Sleeping, sleeping.
She took, they took the titanium plate off
and she rolled over the middle of the night and cracked it.
So now she just has the plate.
Yeah.
She just kept the plate in.
Oh man.
So that's great.
The other one, the plate that broke is on her keys
and I always look at it.
I'm like, oh, I don't know what it is.
Like most stuff like that doesn't bother me.
Like I had to like, like pull my friend's ear
out of like a dirt chump when they ripped off once.
I was like, oh, here's your ear.
Something about just clavicles.
Like they don't even have to be exposed.
Just seeing them.
I'm like, whoa, it's just a weird,
it's a weird bone for me.
I don't know, it gives me that.
It's like a ticklish thing or something.
Anyway, so anyway, you got a lot of hyphens.
Anything else?
I'm sure there's more.
Yeah.
I'm in the same way.
So for me, it's the ADHD though.
I just like a lot of things.
Yeah, same.
I can't do just one.
Like I want to be like Brian Scott, a filmmaker,
podcaster, writer.
Oh podcaster, that was one.
Yeah, writer.
I do enjoy building cars, but I think I have to finish them
before I call myself a builder.
You know, I enjoy, I'm not a race car driver,
but I enjoy driving cars spiritually.
I wish I could be a race car driver.
All I want to be is Jeff Swart when I grow up.
It's all I want to be.
I mean, he's in Africa right now racing.
I know.
He's in Africa racing, what is probably
the greatest race of all time.
So yeah, it's like East Africa, Safari is the top rally.
He's there with Alex Gelsamino,
which is Ken's old co-driver.
So yeah, that was a, yeah.
No, Jeff's like doesn't really,
like Jeff just has like the perfect life.
I aspire to be him.
Because he is all the things.
Yeah, really.
He's got great style when it comes to cars.
He's got, he's just cool.
Like I enjoy talking to him.
He's a good person.
He's a good person.
He's a good conversationalist.
He's brilliant creatively, has an amazing eye,
and is also really, really good behind the wheel.
I don't even know how old he is anymore,
because I've gotten older,
which means he's gotten older and I've known him for a while
and he was kind of old when I first met him
and he's still really fast behind the wheel.
I was talking to Chris Harris the other day
and we were chatting about something
and he was talking, he's at the rally as well,
but he's co-driving, because he's co-driving for Ferdy
and he's like, yeah, I can't believe I'm going as a co-driver.
He's like, I just, but whatever.
He's like, you know, I'm gonna, I'll go.
And I'm like, all right, yeah, yeah.
I was like, oh, Jeff Sword will be there.
And all he said was, he said, I've never met him,
but he's old and fast, isn't he?
And I just love that.
Like, I mean, Chris Harris, like that's high praise.
Like Chris is probably the fastest journalist to ever live.
Like the man is really good behind the wheel.
Well, and Jeff is like in great shape too.
Like he was like cardiovascularly like outperforming me
at the top of the mountain.
I'm like, try to catch my breath.
I was getting dizzy and lightheaded.
He's just there holding conversation
like another day in the life.
In Jim Connoffiles, they're the first episode.
If you haven't seen it,
if you've ever watched Jim Connoffiles on Amazon,
it's really worth watching the first episode
because it's all about us filming Climb Conna at Pikes.
And there's a moment where I am hyperventilating
to the point that I might puke and Jeff is like running.
Yeah.
I believe it.
And I make the comment of like,
I can barely breathe and this man over here
is like running, you know, circles around me.
One thing he told me he does, I saw him do
that now I try to only do this so silly.
But whenever there's an escalator and a set of stairs,
he told me he will never take the escalator.
And now I'm like, you know what?
I only take the stairs.
Will and I are like that.
Like when we travel, like coming home from,
you know, you're coming home internationally,
flying to Bradley and like there's a little big flight
of stairs to go down.
Yep.
Like always take the stairs.
Yeah, like always, always do that.
Is that to beat the people going down?
Or is it to be a little bit of that?
But it's also like just to try to get your steps in.
Like it's definitely.
Global entry is pretty good now.
Yeah, global entry is pretty good.
Yeah, you walk right though.
Yeah, it used to be that.
But I definitely add that.
The other, you know, I got so wrecked by the elevation
the first time I was ever at Pike.
So I got really, really sick.
The first time I was ever there in 2006, 2007.
That I take it really seriously when I go there.
So when we did Climb Kana,
I entirely cut out caffeine from my diet a week before
because it's one of the things that can affect you.
I didn't drink a drop of alcohol the whole time I was there.
And I was really healthy and I over drank water.
Like it was just and that was because
I'm already a bit afraid of heights.
So it's like I already have that like dealing
with the heights thing.
The last thing you want to do is be like dealing
with heights, have a headache, be nauseous, feel dizzy.
So it's like I was able to remove that.
Although Pike's Peak actually, when we were filming there,
I think it carried my fear of heights.
Like I'm still, I'm still height aware.
Like how people are gluten aware.
Like I'm height aware.
Like I'm like, ooh, that's a clip over there.
I'd rather not walk to the edge.
But at Olympic, which is that thousand foot drop,
like at the end of the film,
I walked all the way up to the edge, went around the arm,
and like kind of gave a little look where I know you two,
like you guys like climbing, which is so dumb to me.
Like climbing is almost as dumb as running.
I have no interest in doing either.
Well, one thing I want to do for Pike's next year,
which apparently people were doing it last season.
I didn't bring my board as you drive to the top
and you just ride down because there's still snow
on the mountain.
Yeah, those shoots still stay in.
Yeah.
So.
Interesting.
I'm not afraid of heights once I'm on a snowboard.
I don't know what that's about.
Like I've ridden like, I've ridden, I've ridden like
Chamonix, which is like, I mean, there's nothing on the,
in all of America that feels like Chamonix.
Like you come around a corner of Chamonix,
and you're like, that's a 4,000 foot drop.
And there's no fence because they're French
and they don't care if you die.
It's totally different than the U.S.
where it's like, don't go this way.
You may die.
There's X's, it's like there.
You're just like, oh wow, this is just wide open,
top of a peak.
When you backcountry in Japan,
they make you feel like paperwork that basically like,
what your name is, what your contact is for emergencies,
and they give you like a number.
And at the end of the day,
you have to bring back the number for them to know
whether or not they need to go searching for you or not.
That's pretty sketchy.
I used to go camping with my parents in Northern Canada.
And after you crossed a certain point,
it was a no search and rescue,
unless you left a $10,000 search and rescue fee
and my parents didn't have any money.
So like we just wouldn't leave the fee.
So you have to sign paperwork that says,
you know, they won't come find you
because you're like too far deep into the backcountry.
They can't afford it.
So.
Well, the sad truth is of this number thing,
one of the guys I met at the hostel
who my friends and I were riding with,
took his number with him.
But they also never tried calling him.
So I'm like, how legit is this number system?
There is still a Japanese man right now driving around,
looking for this dude.
And then it all will drive K-Van trying to find him.
Well, so more race car driving in the future.
Yeah, definitely.
I will say the thing I want to see most from you is more acting.
I would like to do a film with the two of you.
I think that would be real.
This whole podcast was setting up this one moment.
We have arrived.
This is it.
I hope you watch to the end.
We're announcing now we're doing a movie.
We don't know what it is, but we're going to do a movie together.
We're going to figure it out.
We're going to figure it out.
We're going to figure it out.
No, I think that would be really fun.
I think it'd be really fun.
And I think it would be one of those things
that the community would get really behind.
I think so, too.
And I think something that would be really cool for me is,
if I could have my way, I want,
there's something I really want,
and maybe you could be that person.
I want to help build the next Paul Newman,
the next Steve McQueen, where they could do their own driving.
Because one of the problems...
I have a Steve McQueen painting on my wall at my shop.
Yeah.
One of the things that I just think would be very interesting
is someone who can act and also do a lot of their own driving.
That is my dream.
And obviously, we saw a bit of that with Brad Pitt,
and that's what we bigged up him with, with F1.
But I think that that era is gone,
where you could have a driver, James Dean,
who could wheel a car,
and because of that, you could put them in a scene,
and you don't have to do face replacement,
or you don't have to do a lot of stunt driver stuff,
and not saying that you have to do all of it.
No, no, no.
But if you could do 90% of your scenes...
You're literally saying what my dream is.
Yeah, I just think that that would be amazing.
I compare the career that I like to have
is what Tom Cruise has built.
Except I don't need to do all the stunts.
I want to do the driving stunts.
Yeah.
And I think that that would be...
It's so cool, because how much more do you
enjoy Mission Impossible?
Because you know that he was actually on that
biplane, where he actually jumped the motorcycle
with a parachute.
And like, I would do that stuff.
Don't get me wrong.
Like, I'll break an ankle jumping between buildings
and finish out the scene.
Yeah, yeah.
And I think that that stuff is great.
I was just listening to what went wrong,
and they were talking about Kevin Costner.
I did his own stunt at the end of Waterworld,
because it was the bungee jump scene.
It's referencing an old movie.
No, I love Waterworld.
You know, I do too.
And everybody hates that movie.
They hate it because people got really mad
about how much they spent on it.
I don't really think it's that bad of a movie.
I love the movie.
It's pretty good, except that he's like nothing
but an asshole to all the women and like children
in the movie.
And then all of a sudden, he's nice at the end.
Well, you could say that about a lot of films.
And a lot of men.
So, but I think that I actually really enjoyed it.
I haven't seen it in years, but I might re-watch it,
but I was just listening to the podcast about it.
And, but I guess he did the bungee jump thing
and like wrecked himself.
I didn't know that.
And it was the last shot that they did.
And, and the director was like, can we go again?
And he looked at him.
He's like, we're done.
And he just walked off set and went home.
Right.
And I was like, the end of the shoot because,
because they didn't have enough budget.
So he was like, and they were like,
we were going to run out of time and we're going to have to,
you know, they didn't have face replacement technology then.
So they'd have to shoot it in a way.
And if they saw the stuntman's face,
they'd have to shoot it again.
And he was like, I just need to finish this film
because they were like 75 days over schedule.
I was like, I'll just do it myself.
And then like hurt himself.
It was like, I'm done.
But I, but it makes me like respect him as an actor so much more
because like you're fully in it.
And I think that CG and how really good they've gotten it,
you know, face replacement, but also just masks
and all the kind of stuff that they've done
that it doesn't feel like actors need to do that stuff as much.
But I think getting into the role
and actually feeling what it feels like for a car to slide sideways
or for a car to jump, you can just play it better.
You can understand it more.
You can actually understand the thrill
and the excitement that comes into it.
Cause I definitely watch a lot of people in cars
looking the wrong way, feet like,
or having too much of an excited face.
Well shooting Gran Turismo,
that although we weren't allowed to drive the cars,
they went above and beyond to try to make sure
that we still got to experience it.
So we were in pod cars and the driver was on the roof.
So we still had the wheel and the pedals.
We weren't really driving it,
but we were on the track going at speed passing one another,
which made for like a ton of fun and a better experience than...
Oh yeah, for sure.
You know, not doing it.
Yeah, beyond some process.
Yeah, green screen, background.
Well, this is how one of the scenes
that Frankenheimer did in Ronin,
they used a right-hand drive car.
They put a left-hand drive dash in it.
So De Niro's actually in the car,
but the stunt driver's driving underneath a duvetine wrap
with a steering wheel, but he's in the car with them
and they just framed him out of the shot.
So De Niro looks terrified.
Well, with mounted cameras too, you just paint it.
Yeah, it's like De Niro looks terrified
because he's actually in the car
and they're sliding these super narrow roads and niece.
Like, that was real and everything was practical there.
And I think you can feel it.
Something honest about it.
The marketing of movies at this point plays up so much.
And the audience likes it.
I know.
Because Tom Cruise's whole thing now is that.
I mean, with the Fall Guy, all that was playing up all those.
I mean, even Glenn Powell is what we were talking about earlier.
He was like, oh, I did that function as stunts.
Well, you realize, I mean, Fall Guy's a perfect example
because that was a big push to like,
we were making a movie about a stunt guy.
Let's bring back real stunts and actually do that.
And the 87.11 guys are the reason why,
and I'm pretty sure, I don't know if it's been definitive,
but stunts are going to be the Oscars now.
Oh, they should be.
Literally risking life in limbo to make it work.
So yeah, anyway, maybe we can make that happen
because that to me is where everything gets even better.
Because now there's carrying the role narratively,
doing all the acting, but also being able to be in the car,
do a lot of the maneuvers, like figuring all that out.
And just it feels more real.
I think that's one of the number one things
is as Will and I transfer or transition from Jim Khanna,
Jim Khanna filmmaking style as well as just anything in drifting
or motor sports and then working in Hollywood
is you always have to think around,
okay, now how do we do this with the talent in the car?
Yeah.
Right.
And how do we figure this out and make this feel
as realistic as possible?
Because that could be the giveaway.
That could be the part that doesn't really land.
But then at the same time, and you see this
in the Jim Khanna films with Travis,
Travis is so animated in the car
that it adds a different level of energy
where Ken was a robot in the car.
He like winced once and it was like probably
because he landed a 150 foot jump.
He was like, ooh, otherwise he's just there.
He's just calculated because he's a race car driver.
Yeah, he's locked in.
Right.
And I think being able to actually be in the car
and act a bit while doing it is like a really nice piece.
And you go back and you look at the old Steve McQueen stuff
and you're like, yeah, he's actually driving right now.
And there's a cameraman ratchet shaft in front of the race car.
It was the good old days.
So, well, hey, I realized we've gone a while,
but thank you for coming out.
Yeah, our counter stopped counting.
It stopped counting at some point.
I was afraid he was going to do that.
We've gone past time, which is 99 minutes.
No, I enjoyed this, so thank you.
I hope the audience, I hope you guys enjoyed at home.
Obviously, you probably turned on going,
great, we're going to talk about all of her builds
and we jumped all around and did a bunch of other stuff.
So what is your favorite build you got right now, though?
Oh, I can't say favorite.
Do you keep your cars?
Yeah, I've only sold like two.
All right, so we have some things in common.
I struggle to sell them because I end up loving them so much.
And I can't tell you what my favorite one is
because it's like picking a favorite child.
Even if you have a favorite, you don't say, but yeah.
I've got a series that I saw.
I have 26 cars right now.
Ooh, I have 21.
Oh man, you're up there.
Yeah, I have 26 cars right now and it's absolutely ridiculous.
A lot more of them run than most people realize
because in the past two years,
I've just taken care of a bunch of it.
But I want to do a series where I cut that down to 12 and part of it.
And maybe you can come on an episode.
It's going to basically be like, okay, it's like this or that, right?
Like you have five Ford trucks ranked them
from your favorite to your least favorite.
Boy, that'd be fun.
Yeah, and then people have to be like,
wait, you're going to keep that one?
And then I have to rank everything
because I have this other show I want to do.
And we'll bring you back onto it called Firing Order
where we just make an order.
Like we do a list of like favorite car movies.
Like what's the best car chase scene?
And then you do the list and you make the list.
And I really just like it because it's a good name, firing order.
And then the crew of people who come on are called the rotating assembly.
I just appreciate that.
Yeah, she's like, whatever.
I was really proud of it.
Fine, whatever.
I like it, I like it.
But I like the show as a concept.
Everyone brings their list.
So you bring your favorite three.
He brings his favorite three.
I bring my favorite three.
And then we fight over it.
And we have to finish with a list in order
of what we all can agree on, right?
I want to do that.
I want to do that.
But I want to do that with my car collection as well
to get my friends to help me lighten the load.
So because like it's like ridiculous.
Like there's certain cars like the 911 is a forever keeper.
But I have a Ferrari 360.
I don't drive because it's just not me.
It's cool.
It sounds amazing.
You can fit in it.
Yeah.
And actually I fit in it better than I do the 911.
Really?
Well stock.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's actually pretty big inside.
Yeah, the far is bigger than you expect.
But I love it.
It sounds great.
And every time I drive it, I'm always telling people
I should drive this more.
And then I move it out of the way to drive my rapid.
It's just not me.
I'm not like a Ferrari guy.
I'm like subtle.
I just.
I don't even think I knew you had a 360.
Yeah.
See.
Yeah.
I have a full NGT like kitted red 360.
Yeah.
See.
It's not here.
It's a PBI right now.
So, but yeah.
So I don't see things I probably should get rid of.
But then again, when I drive it, I'm like, this is really good.
And that's all it takes is like for me to like rotate something in
and then I don't get rid of it again.
So anyway, I want to try to cut down to 12.
Because at this point I have 26 cars that either run poorly
or have problems or don't run at all.
And I think having 12 cars that are somewhat dialed would be great.
Like this still doesn't have a headliner.
Hasn't had a headliner since 2009.
So whatever.
Because I tin-topped it because I'm too big for a sunroof.
So I tin-topped the car.
But it's just things like that.
Like I just don't finish anything.
Like everything's like slightly broken.
But okay.
AC doesn't work on the RS too.
But every car has like a little thing to it.
And I just would, I think maybe it'd be better to have more.
I don't know, I'm getting old.
I want like things that work.
Yeah.
Or it'll just be really good content to make that I just
completely fall apart and can't sell anything.
So I did sell two cars in the past month though.
Progress.
It really is.
It really is.
Gross, gross.
I sold most likely my most reliable car ever.
Because I sold a complete shipbox that I drove from Vancouver down to LA
to someone who then drove it in the same shipbox condition from LA to Pennsylvania.
And I realized, I realized this may be the most reliable thing I own.
And I just gave it away.
So anyway, thank you for coming on.
Thanks for having me.
We'll have you back.
So you know, it's good to see you.
And good luck on everything.
And yeah, let's go make a movie together.
Let's do it.
Yeah.
What kind of movie you want to make?
Action, cars, fun.
Cool.
I'll put it together.
Sounds good.
Thanks everybody.
Well, sorry to say that is the end of the podcast,
which means no more listening to me unless you are a Patreon subscriber.
And if you do subscribe to Patreon, first off, thank you.
If you don't sign up because you can find a lot more from not just me,
guests, walkarounds, a bunch of additional content,
including a tour of like my garage,
which a bunch of you have asked for for some odd reason.
Go check it out.
Brian Scato on Patreon.
Viper Industrial makes the best damn shopstools ever.
Go buy them.
Okay.
Now that we've got that out of the way,
I want to take a moment to really thank Viper.
They were the first to hop on and support very vehicular.
When I hit him up, the immediate response was yes,
we want the biggest package you've got.
That's why they're the title sponsor.
Look, they make a really great product.
And I felt that way before this partnership,
but they also do a really good job of supporting all of us in the car community.
Think about it.
They work with Adam LZ, Chris Forsberg,
Grant Anderson, Travis Pastrana, Vermont Sports Car,
and those are just the ones I can remember right now.
So Viper, thank you again for supporting very vehicular for its first ever season.
And as I was saying before, go buy a damn stool at ViperIndustrial.com.
That's Viper with a why.
For most of my life, I would say I was the occasional sunglass wearer.
Why?
Because I was the frequent sunglass misplacer.
But I've noticed with the new heatwave photochromic lenses,
that changed from almost clear to a nice dark tint,
technically a VLT range of 70 to 17%,
that when I get into the car or walk into a building,
they stay on my head, which makes them harder to lose.
The performance advice are my favorite shades right now,
but they offer the photochromic lenses in a bunch of other styles.
And most importantly, for this big old head, they come in extra large too.
I just wore them for a trip to the mountains,
and I think I looked stunning in them.
If I say so myself, go get yourself some at heatwavevisual.com.
I've been running Toyo tires for over 20 years,
whether it's for my sports cars, my trucks, or even my oddballs,
Toyo makes a tire for them.
So for example, my 911 is on R888Rs.
Church Van, that's sitting on Open Country CTs,
perfect for the weight load.
My S8 runs the Proxxas Sport AS,
and I even have a set of Celsius snow tires for the RS2,
sitting on the shelf waiting for winter fun.
When I finally finish the F600,
they even have a commercial grade tire for that.
So no matter what you drive, Toyo's got a tire for you.
Toyotires.com, check them out.
About this episode
Emelia Hartford joins the Very Vehicular podcast for an engaging discussion that spans her journey in the automotive world, her experiences in filmmaking, and her aspirations as an actress. The conversation dives into her love for cars, particularly her Corvette and Superbird, as well as her passion for racing. Emelia shares insights into the challenges and joys of balancing multiple careers, including her recent projects and future goals in acting and driving. The episode also touches on the evolving landscape of automotive content creation and the importance of storytelling in both film and car culture.
all wheel drive
barn find
Daytona
F1
F1 car
Fast and Furious
FCP Euro
Ford versus Ferrari
Formula 1
GT cars
Audi RS4
Audi RS 6
Audi S8
BMW 3 Series
BMW M3
BMW M5
Cadillac CT5
Chevrolet Camaro
Chevrolet Corvette
Dodge Charger
Dodge Viper
Ford Escort
Ford F 100
Ford Five Hundred
Infiniti G35
Kia Niro
Land Rover Discovery
Nissan 240SX
Nissan Skyline
Nissan Z
Plymouth Superbird
Porsche 911
Volkswagen Golf
Volvo V90
Original notes
Scotto sits down with multi-hypenate-career superstar Emelia Hartford, joined by cinematographer Will Roegge in his second appearance on Very Vehicular! If you expected car chat…? They eventually get around to it; but not before figuring out their fixes for Hollywood and car action, sharing their favourite ‘popcorn’ movies, and giving us a glimpse of what may be to come on these three’s slates. With these three involved, who knows where the road could take us? You’ll have to listen to find out. Enjoy!
Partners:
Vyper Industrial
FCP Euro
Heatwave Visual
Toyo Tires
Producer: Nick Rutter @nickrutterarts
Music: SlikSound
Patreon: https://patreon.com/u37266647
https://bio.site/321actionaction
0:00 - Welcome & Introduction
0:47 - Emelia’s Many Career Hyphens
02:18 - Sponsors: Vyper Industrial, Toyo Tires, Heat Wave
14:54 - Don’t Call it Content - It’s Art
04:05 - Discussion on Filmmaking and Creative Pursuits
05:23 - Emelia's Acting Journey and Future Projects
11:18 - Hollywood's Changing Landscape
22:31 - Favorite Movies and Inspirations
38:42 - Motorsports Movies vs. Car Chase Films
41:14 - The Evolution of Fast and Furious
44:39 - Impact of Fast and Furious on Car Culture
45:59 - Sponsor: FCP Euro
47:30 - Future of Fast and Furious Franchise
51:17 - The Challenge of Increasing Budgets in Film Production
58:24 - Constraints Fuel Creativity
01:02:57 - The Changing Landscape of YouTube Content
01:13:40 - Balancing Car Builds and Audience Engagement
01:19:15 - Late Night Marketplaces and Wild Ideas
01:20:01 - OCD and Finishing Projects
01:21:20 - The GT 3 911 Fire Story
01:22:57 - Check out the Patreon
01:23:23 - The Tipping Point in Automotive Creation
01:27:39 - Racing and Influencer Perceptions
01:29:35 - Future Racing Aspirations
01:32:53 - Hyphens and Hobbies
01:41:38 - The Dream of Acting and Driving
01:48:54 - Car Collections and Future Plans
Very Vehicular
321 Action Action
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115:45