Ep14 Hert

All right, welcome back to Car Stories.

With Sun King and Amelia Hartford, and.

Today we are talking with His name is Hurt.

I asked about his last name. He said, I go

by just Hurt.

He's a good friend of ours and we get to talk about his history, his love for drifting, and his association with Hunigan and all things FC.

Yeah, and recently being a host on the new Hot Wheels NBC show. It's been so cool to see his

career flourish, just someone who's really passionate about cars in the motorsports world, and to see where he is today.

I think it's a really cool and inspiring story that people are about to hear.

So without further ado, the man, the myth, the legend, Hurt, I'm so happy to see your career and everything.

You're just killing it. Dad.

I could say the exact same about you. It's crazy

how far we've come, Yeah, in this space, just basically doing what we love, you know.

Yeah, we're just a couple of kids who liked tinkering and driving cars.

Yeah, drifting is a is a very interesting thing because when I started doing this in two thousand and seven or whatever, I mean, there was no Instagram, yeah, you might have still been using MySpace. Like social media wasn't

even Facebook at the very least Facebook. But social media

wasn't even on the scope. You know, we were doing

things because we love them. I never imagined what the

space would turn into with the amount of reach you can gain from just doing what you love and any any aspect, not just drifting. You could be a cook,

you could you could be a car detailer or whatever.

There's like the ability to make a career because of the tools like social media is actually insane.

And also be able to share that like freedom of expression too.

Yeah, everyone has a voice. Yeah, it's good.

So you said you started in two thousand and seven.

Where'd you start in Florida? You're from Florida?

Yeah, so, born and raised Orlando, Florida. I mean I

started immediately once I got my first car when I was sixteen. It was a two thousand and four Honda Accord.

Shout out to my mom. She she got it for

me as a as a gift, still in high school.

And I immediately ruined that car.

Trying to drift the front wheel drive.

Well, just you know, I went to home depot, got some dryer ducting, made an intake, you know, had no idea about how maths work or anything like that, so the idle air was all messed up and just you know, fart can all the good stuff, you know.

Yeah, but it just like a crappy exhaust.

Yeah.

Yeah, well it's a four cylinder automatic Honda Accord with an exhaust, so it just sounds like it's farting, you know, everywhere you go.

But you can't drift that car because so you weren't drifting down.

I didn't even drifting wasn't even on the scope. Drifting

is an interesting thing because like, obviously I had seen Initial d Obviously I'd played like Need for Speed Underground too, and I loved drifting in those games, but it never occurred to me that that was something you can do in real life, you know. So it's funny how it

all came together, because because I loved playing those games, but it wasn't like, oh, I'm going to do this in real life.

That wasn't in my in my thought process. I just

loved playing the game.

You know, what was your first experience seeing drifting then, because that had to have been kind of like a very memorable moment.

Yeah, So I mean, I can tell you my my my true experience.

Right.

So I had that Civic hatchback, I got rear ended, I got the insurance insurance check. And the day that

I got the insurance check, my friend was taking me home from work and there's a used car dealership that was also a rotary shop and they had a white FCR seven parked out front for sale hot and so I was like, I'm that's the car, you know. So

I had the insurance check, cashed it, went and bought that.

You what that was at the time, right, it's an initial Yeah?

Yeah, So that's that's another interesting thing, right is is I watched you know, initial D I played games, but again, I just didn't really correlate real life with you know, these shows and these things, right. I mean when I

watched Fast and the Furious one, there was an FDR seven, but I didn't put it together that that was an FDR seven, Like that was right, you know, it was just such a like it was so separated, so so so detached right for me, and it started to become more real. I I get this R seven and I

go to an R seven meet in Florida, in Florida. Yeah,

So this is all Orlando, Florida. I go to a

Dino day. I meet a new friend, Chris. He has

an R seven. I don't know car stuff. You go

to card meets, you talk to people, you make friends.

It's the beautiful thing about this culture that we're we're in.

And he invites me to their secret spot.

You know, yeah, it's it's yeah.

He invites me to secret spot where him and his friends go to drift. And it was it was a

construction site for like a Pepsi building or something like that, and it was a really sandy lot on top of concrete, like so it's really easy to slide, you know, good on tires. You can go all day secluded. And so

they take me to this spot. They set a cone

up and they're like, you need to be able to do donuts around this if you want to drive with us.

If you want to drive with us, you got to learn how to do the basis. No, I love it.

That's like the first thing you got to learn.

This is how I remember it.

There could be you know, variances and things like that, but this is how I remember this story. And it

just like it gives me chills every time I think about it because like there's a very defining moment in my life, honestly. So, you know, I do the donuts

and then time goes on and these guys just take.

Me under their wing and teach me everything.

Right.

They taught me how to clutch kick on Rocket Boulevard, which was another spot that we used to go to, which was just a perfect sweeper and you could just run it back and forth.

Can you describe what a clutch kick is for the listeners.

Yeah, So they taught me how to clutch kick. And

a clutch kick is where is a way to initiate and drifting. So as you're running towards the apex, you

push the clutch in, rev it up, and then pop the clutch and so it's just like a quick clutch kick and that'll get the car sideways and initiate your drift.

So they taught me how to do that. They taught

me how to do a lot of things, and they made drifting real for me. You know, they helped me

understand like, oh, it's not just in video games, this is actually real life. And then that got me in

closer with and Jukie racing as well.

They've built drift cards. They've competed in Formula.

D for a long time, like an O company.

They're super O G Yeah.

And that's when I got to see professional drifting. So

going to like NOBE Nationals and seeing you know, people like Gyamanaka and Justin Pollock, like completely different spectrums of drift culture, but you know, all in the same place on the highest level at the time.

Yeah, You're You're there really at like the peak of drifting motorsports, really when it was coming together in the US, right.

I feel like I feel like I was a couple of years off, but I was there.

Yeah.

Sure, Like I wasn't there for D one versus USA, which was like three oh four and that stuff. But

I feel like I definitely got to witness the early days of American professional drifting, and that's why I like, I mean, you can you can clearly see that my cars have inspiration from Japanese style drifting, and they do.

But I still feel very.

Much a product of American drifting from you know, obviously out of V eight and my R seven, you know, the R seven that I talked about, learned how to drift in all that stuff. I ended up smashing that

car into pieces and you know, time goes on on.

I did a lot in life, you know, like I lost my license for a little bit.

I had to really oh yeah, just just.

Doing stupid stuff. I don't recommend anyone.

Losing their license and different time.

Yeah, I mean, it wasn't even for street drifting. It

was just like stupid speeding tickets here and there, like speed traps and points. There's a point system in Florida

and you get X amount of points, they just take your lives.

I had that in Indiana. I got pretty close.

Yeah, so I lost my license for a couple months, and that was probably one of the hardest couple of months that you know, I ever had. And and that's

when I got in with in JUGI Racing. They weren't hiring.

I was like, I'm going to come and sweep some floors and swept floors, worked my way into sales and ended up being a big part of their sales force as they reinvent themselves after the recession back then. And

and then I got my RX seven from my friend Zach.

So my friend Zach had this Vight R seven look bone stock, massive Vight with nitrous.

You bought it with the V eight.

So I bought it with a blown up y okay, yeah, So he had that car forever and I always joked about buying it. He blew it up, bought a z

E six, parked it under a tree. I had a

Crown Vic. I just smashed the diff in it doing

and I posted it up for sale and he's like, I want that car, and I was like, well, I want R seven and the Crown Vic was really nice.

I just had a did you guys do a trade out right?

We did.

I don't know what the prices were back then, but today that wouldn't make sense.

Well, no one wanted RX sevens. There's a there's a

time where RX sevens you could. No one really didn't

mess with the rotaries a lot. I mean, obviously people

mess with the rotaries, but the common car guy didn't want to deal with the rotary engine. So RX sevens

just weren't sought after vehicle.

It's interesting because today like they're very I feel like sought after.

Yeah.

I mean, this was the FC though it was at the FT.

Hey C is way better than that loud.

The FC is still in the affordable like, yeah, yeah, you could buy a nice FC bill for a decent price, whereas f d's are like minimum forty grand for a nice car. So that's why that R seven you bought,

the FC was swapped with the VA to get more horsepower.

Yeah, so he was a drag racer. He was a

big VA guy.

So he swapped that car and ended up blowing it up, parking it under a tree. We ended up doing the trade,

and then I went to l k Q just the junkyard bought a five point three Leader l S, which is an iron block version of the five to seven LS l S one.

I never knew that LS and that was a five to three.

Yeah, yeah, so the first one. Yeah, the Torque Stallion

my f C R seven.

Yeah.

The name, yeah, that's just a silly name. We came

up with because cars just they're better with names, and I don't know, it just makes it fun.

Tor Stallion Stallion, Yeah, where'd that?

Because I would do ridiculous burnouts and the back would just shake, So we just called it the tourk style.

Nic Song is also really good at naming cars.

I thought you were going to say he's really good at working, but to see it too too.

Once the cameras awful, I get you know, get a show.

Yeah, it was a fun project and the V eight was great, and a lot of people hated it. You know,

I'm a product of American drifting right because I put a V eight in a Japanese car. But I also

had b in sports big wing slammed on vskfs, so very j style externally, but it had a cammed out V eight on the inside.

I still want to own those wheels, even though I know they're like people say they're played out. I love

those wheels so much. I want to set for my

two forty.

Whoever says they played out has no idea.

What it?

What is this?

What do you mean by American drifting?

American drifting is just very different from Japanese drifting, the style of the types of motors they used, the just just the overall aspect, I mean, and things are changing now, but back then it was very Japanese drifting. Style is paramount,

and obviously it's subjective. You know, someone might think this

is cooler than that or whatever, but style is subjective.

Turbo motors four cylinder, six cylinder, you know, SRS two j's one J is all that's what Japanese drifting was and low cars, bright wheels or big wheels, and then American drifting was. It was a mix to begin with,

but it turned into V eight VA VI eight and styling function function over form, not that form doesn't function.

That's another conversation, and again it's subjective, but people really thought externally Japanese cars looked way better than the American drift cars. So there was just always a battle of

Japan is better, America is better. And so me coming

from watching Nope Nationals and the early days of Formula drift, seeing Tanner Faust bomb the Hill of Roade, Atlanta and a si On TC with a Nascar VI eight and that vight is just punching you in the chest from hundreds of feet away, like that is American drifting, you know.

And so I loved Vates.

I love the idea of vights, I love the sound of Vates, and so I was very happy to take a Vight and put it in Marx seven. And I

didn't know that I was causing a stir when I did it, you know, because it was just normal for me.

But as I got deeper and learned more about the culture and the Internet started to.

Go sales before you can get real internet, right.

And the Internet started to grow. Then it was like, oh,

people don't like this, and then I just fed into it.

You know, I'm just like, well, this is you know, this is my car. I'm going to do what I

want to do with my car, and I think everyone should kind of.

Live by that. So so I just trolled the trolls

and uh, that was a good time.

So if I can ask, because I'm so curious about the progression of your career and how you are where you are today, obviously the next thing to talk about would be your involvement with Hoonigan, Right, So how did you go from I guess how did I'm sure people are curious on how you got that opportunity and you were a big personality with the Houdigen brand. When I

looked at Hoonigan, you know, I thought I thought hurt.

Yeah, I mean I hear that a lot and I appreciate that obviously, the late great.

Kim Block, right, may he rest in peace.

Yeah, he's forever a legend and he did he did a lot for Honigan as a brand. It just depends

on when you started watching hoon again.

Right, the day to day blogs versus Jim Conna Right series.

So basically I was friends with Drift Alliance, so Von Getting Junior, Ryan Turk, Tony Angelo, Chris Forsburg, that whole group of East Coast English Town drifters and I used to go up there a lot, East Coast Bash, shout out club loose. So the phase that I told you

about when I lost my license, I picked up a camera and started filming drifting because I still wanted to be involved in the community even though I didn't have a car or anything anymore. Had to take a break

from that to get, you know, get myself together. But

so I picked up a camera and I started making videos so i'd film them on you know, bash days, film the drifting, put some music to it and make it fun.

You know.

I wish I believed in blogging a lot sooner, because I didn't believe in it in the early days.

And that's something I'm like, man, imagine.

But because of you know, the videos I used to make with my friends, basically the stars a ligne to where you know, I met Brian Scotto, the co founder of Honigan Industries. He also was one of the brilliant

minds behind Zero to sixty magazine and has directed a majority of the Gym Conn.

Of films and best friends with Ken.

And yeah, amazing friends with Kim Block. He's just a

creative juggernaut. You know, he has a vision and he

has a way of laying out those visions like like I've never seen before. So Brian Scotto, I met him

at Chris Forstburg's party after he won the championship. I

don't remember meeting him that night. I don't know if

we remember meeting each other that night, but there's a photo of us eating tacos, really like a really bad photo of us eating tacos at this party, and I think we became Facebook friends because of that, right, And you know, time goes on, the relationship grows. I'm doing

my thing in Mark seven. I'm doing driveway burnouts at

my house and just you know, just having fun in my car, and Hoonigan is starting to become a thing.

So funny story. I'm a back up a little bit.

My name's Hertretch Hoonigan is Hoonigan eight letters. Hoonigan's launch

date it was November first, that's my birthday. Just weird, Yeah,

just weird, you know, weird energy that just comes together.

And we had a great time that year the launch party, and I think I just really built a good relationship with those guys on top of what I do on the media side, right because I liked my videos to be different from everyone else at the time, because everything felt the same, so I wanted to bring some rawness to it. And obviously Hoonigan was a pretty raw brand,

so they had a role that needed to be filled.

And thankfully I was just in the right place and the right time, doing the right stuff. And after that

Seema party, Ken Raise grc his car caught on fire.

They got video of it all, and then he hit me up and he's like, hey, you want to edit this video?

And was I qualified to edit a video of that caliber?

No, I don't know.

If a lot of people know that you used to edit a lot of the videos.

Yeah, a lot of people don't know that I was camera and edit.

And personality and helped with creative.

I mean there's people.

I think there's people that work there now that don't even know that I have that I did that, you know.

Not to take away from everyone else who's there on the team.

Too.

No, not at all.

Well, but I mean, you know, I just had a I just had a different vision of voice and rawness.

And obviously Brian helped fine tune that as well.

It's all collaborative.

Yeah, so he hit me up to edit that video.

I said, oh, no problem, and I'm in Florida. There

in California, Brian is a night owl. So it's three

am for me and I'm just like falling asleep editing this video. And you know that goes out. That's cool.

I got to edit a video for kim Blocker.

Would you edit on?

It was a really old.

MacBook like Final Cut or something.

Yeah, for sure Final Yeah, might have been pirated with them.

But with that, I showed him my work ethic, what I can do.

When yeah, well you're up at three am editing, just.

Grinding it out.

That's That's Brian's dream is editors that'll stay up til three am.

Getting stuff done.

I feel like that.

And so you fast forward a little bit.

Brian messages me on Facebook and he's like, hey, you want to move to California, And I said, hey, you want to give me a job? There There was a

long period of silence in between that where I was like, oh, I guess I didn't actually get this job. And then

and then it you know, they flew me out, interviewed, and then it became real. So I packed my car

with everything that I could fit in it, and if it didn't fit in there, I didn't bring it.

We have such similar stories of like I always you said the saying of like they took me under the wing, and I say the same thing about the car community.

I packed my two forty SX with everything, my V eight Japanese car with thing I could fit in it, drove to California.

Just to make it, just just to do something right.

I was very comfortable in Florida. I didn't have to leave,

but I just felt.

Like there was more, like a calling almost.

Yeah, it just felt like there was more and it would just be a shame to not go see if there was.

What were you doing for work in Florida?

So when I left to go to Houning and I was working at Juke Racing, you know, nine to five, come in answer phones, make sales, answer emails. And that

all stemmed from me going in sweeping floors and like forcing my way into a job, you know, because I just wanted to be in the automotive industry. I loved

cars so much. I used to valet park cars before

that at the hard Rock Hotel and it was good money.

But it just didn't feel the.

Cars running the family at all, not at all.

I'm the only automotive person in the family and that makes me excited.

You know, none of my son's here. He's four. He

loves cars and I'm not going to force him to do anything. You know.

He chose hot Wheels and he takes it all in.

So I'm excited to kind of nurture that and see what it becomes.

I'm excited to see it.

Yeah, it's it's really exciting. It's really exciting.

And you just shot a show in the UK. Do

you want to talk about that at all?

Sure?

So I just had the opportunity to shoot Hot was Ultimate Challenge. Retligwood top gare Us the Flores Lava was

the host of the show and also a judge.

I was a judge, and then Delala was also a judge.

Son was also a guest of one of the episods.

Yeah, he was a guest. He was a wonderful guest.

It was very mean to religion it was great. Actually,

just kidding, but I never dreamt of being on TV.

I am and was so happy to see that you were one of the hosts of that show.

I appreciate it.

I feel like you are so deserving of this opportunity.

I was just I saw you in the airports that were passing ways and I like had to stop you to say, dude, I'm so happy for you.

Yeah, I appreciate that. It still doesn't feel real, honestly,

and it's like I never dreamt of being on TV, and then we started doing it. I was like, Wow,

I didn't even know I dreamed of this, but now that I'm doing it, this is like a dream come true.

And then like the cherry on top is that my mom, you know, gets to see me on TV.

Like this is such a cool thing.

Like not that I ever thought she thought I was a failure or anything like that, but I just feel like that is an accomplishment as a parent to see your child do something on a grand stage like that.

So it just it felt really cool to be a part of it.

That was an experience of a lifetime being in a production like that and working with people like rut Sung, Terry crews, Jay Leno, and like, we were just around legendary folks, So it was cool to get to feed off of their energy and just learn by being around you guys. I learned how to kind of just purely

be yourself when you're on a stage like that.

And this is what I just gathered from watching you guys do your thing.

You didn't really change for any situation, right, I feel like you stayed very true to yourself and also making yourself vulnerable. So when Terry was on, I watched him

be so happy and you know, speak to someone, and then the story kind of got a little deep, you know, sharing sharing stuff about her aunt and things like that, and like you could feel the emotion just kind of come out of him, and he made himself vulnerable and shared some stuff.

And this is on camera and off camera, you know, and it's just like.

Wow, isn't that wild? Because you watch TV as a

viewer and you look at these people and you're like almost like they're you think they're putting on something or you think that they're behaving differently when they're they're just unapologetically being their self. They're being open, vulnerable, And I

feel like the people who are most successful with the people who are just themselves.

And that's what I feel like I gathered for that exactly, is you don't have to try to be anything but yourself.

Just have a good time and if it works, it works.

And same with kids who are listening like social media, whatever you're trying to do. I feel like if you

just be yourself at the end of the day, that's you are enough. You are enough.

Yeah, don't get caught up looking at social media accounts.

Social media is kind of a joke.

I know, it's high like real. Don't compare yourself and that.

I mean, it's something I even struggled with at times, right, because you know, we all do. We worked hard to

create content and build this stuff. And you have all

of these peers and you see all these people doing all this crazy stuff, and it'll get in your head.

You know, that's the thing, creating content, you know, right, and once as long as you remind yourself that you know, everyone is a person and everyone is going through stuff and doing stuff, it keeps you grounded.

Don't do it for the gram, do it because you love it.

Yeah, what did you think you were going to be doing when you were a kid with their other aspirations.

I I definitely loved computers, so I thought maybe I would get into computer programming. I also liked, you know, architecture,

but I also just liked gaming too, so I didn't have a definitive, you know, of what I wanted to do.

And then the moment that I started messing with cars, it was just game over.

Did you go through I did for myself, which is why I ask about going to college or not. In

my early twenties, I definitely had a lot of regret of maybe I'm making the wrong decision, and if there's a time to do, it's got to be now, because it's going to be years and I might regret this down the line. Did you go through that regret at all?

Were you very much not right for me?

Yeah?

I felt really good about my decision because the only higher learning in the automotive space was being a mechanic, and I didn't.

At least that's what I felt.

I tried going to automotive school, and when I grasped that and realized, well, I guess my options are start my own shop. Really, but at the time I wasn't

focused on storying amound stuff I was thinking of the job I would get and was working a dealership or turn wrenches somewhere, right.

And I was okay working on cars, but I don't I wasn't convinced that that's what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

Either.

I really enjoyed driving. I feel like once I started driving,

and once I started drifting, I felt really and I mean like this brings in feelings of, you know, my dad passing and things like that. Nothing felt right until

I started drifting, you know, And so driving cars, the feeling of driving cars, the freedom, the just everything goes away.

It just did something to me that led me to this.

Right, there was no other option but to chase making more opportunities for me to be inside of a car driving.

And because of that, it made me feel good about my decision not to go to college. And I'm not

saying you shouldn't go to college. I think there's definitely

reasons to go to college. I think I definitely could

have learned a lot more about business and things like.

That sane, you know, But I do feel like school teaches you how to apply yourself. You don't always learn

that necessarily in the real world.

Either self discipline is very difficult.

Song remind me, did you go to college? You did

four years?

Yeah, you get a PhD In being handsome or No.

I was on my way to law school. Okay, yeah,

that's what I thought I was going to be doing.

But this girl that I was dating in college, she it was like the first girl that I ever fell in love with, right, and I was actually going to be a lawyer for her, right because I was like, oh, yeah, we know, we'll have a happy life together. And then

she cheated on me. And I have to actually have

to thank this this woman, because after I found that out, I became very selfish. I was like, I'm never going

to live my life for somebody else. I mean to

do exactly what I wanted to do. I pursued this

stream of being an actor, and I think the combination of having my heart broken and then being angry and then feeling like I wasted my time with this person, I was gonna now worry about myself and pursue this stream.

So it gave me tunnel vision. So I think back now,

if I had stayed with this person, I'd probably be divorced.

I have kids that you know, being neglected, and I'd be very unhappy, you know. And so sometimes these things

happen in your life where in the moment you feel, you know, like the world is ending and it's such a horrible situation and you're angry at the world. But

actually it changes the course of your life.

They are these doors that open right with you, you know, yeah, your life today.

Yeah, I feel like houting him and got lucky because right when I started working there, I had suffered my worst heartbreak. Oh really yeah, and then tunnel Vision happened

and I just I had worked endlessly.

Yeah, I feel that.

Yeah, sometimes you got to get your heart broke into I think, to rebuild that clarity, right, Yeah, yeah, I totally agree with that. There's a question I want to

ask you her. We didn't really talk about it, and

when we're doing the Hot Wheels episode, because that was the first time I met you in the UK. And

you know, what really impressed me about that show is like the diversity and the host. You know, you have

Rutledge and the Lull and then you right, so I mean diversity within that show. And I think in Hollywood,

you know, there is this like charge to you know, have like, you know, representation, but when you were coming up in the car community. Even currently, when I look

at the landscape, there are very few African Americans, you know, that are actually part of the car community. Like you

go to a car meet, if I see a handful, it's a lucky day, you know. I want to ask you, like,

why do you think that is?

I mean, it's a tough game. I think representation is

a massive thing. And that's one thing I'm learning now

that I'm in the position that I am right, is I get a lot of people who look like me come up to me and say thank you to me for doing what I've done so that they could see it happen and potentially go in that direction. It's really

interesting to me because you know, twenty years ago when I was doing this, I mean, I'm from Florida. That

should tell you what the automotive community might have looked like.

I didn't let that the term me or stop me, but I understand how it could, you know, and so why I don't know why, but I think if I had to put anything on it, I'd say having more representation might might help. I think it's gotten much better,

and that's kind of where I'm moving now with what I'm doing is I moved on from Hoonigan and now I'm partners with T Pain and Nappy Boy Automotive. It's

black owned, you know, black forward facing, but all inclusive.

We're definitely going to focus heavy on going to events and just building on that representation thing that we just spoke about.

You know, It's funny.

I was actually thinking about this the other day because because I fully let go of my pro dreams a long time ago, just because of cost and everything like that, but I also didn't expect me to be where I am today, so to speak, you know, and that's not me putting myself on a pedestal, but.

No, I mean I will. You're a hero to so

many people.

You know, I have reach, I helped, you know. I

worked at Honigan for ten years and that brand was a powerhouse in the automotive space. And you know, I

have sponsors now and I do things and I'm going to try to build a real car next year. And

I was just thinking about this the other day. I

was like, why why don't I just try it for fun?

You know, See what I can make happen. See who'd

be willing to help support the dream. Honestly, I watch Formulad,

I know so many of the drivers and the amount of work I'm going to have to do to even even make eye contact with them is going to be insane.

But it would be such a fun challenge to do.

So it's it's kind of creeping back up on my list necessary, you know, it would be very fun. You guys,

got any stories you want to tell me? How did

you get in the cars through the movie?

No No. I had a neighbor when I was a kid, Like,

you know, my household was not like the healthiest, so I'd like wander around the neighborhood, right, and there was this old man that was working on his sixty three or sixty nine Impella so ss with red interior, and he was an old Korean war vet and he had he would always have the radio like and everytime I hear beach Boy songs, I think of him. And he

looked like the fawns, you know. He had his hair

slicked back, and he had his like camel unfiltered cigarettes like rolled up in his sleeve and he would be restoring this old impella, right, and he would let me hang out with him, and he'd never ask any questions, like old school dude, you know, it's like people's business or their business, you know. But he just let me

sit there in the garage while he's smoking and slowly restoring this car and ask him all these stupid questions like you know, what does SS mean? It's like why,

you know, does it have to be red interior? Like

what is like oem? Like why does it have to

like come from factory? And he started showing me all

these like catalogs from you know, from the manufacturers to buy the badging and you know, the interior parts and bits and and then I remember he was so happy the day that the convertible cloth or of the fabric was installed, and he goes, this is how it came out of factory, right. And so since I was a kid,

you know, the idea of being like a caretaker for old cars was something that was planted by this gentleman.

And that's why, you know, I'm not into racing and going fast, like I actually am not even into like showing my cars to people. It's really like the idea

of being a historian, being a caretaker of these old cars and having this, you know, sanctuary in a garage, you know, especially, I'm always in search of like mentors too, so because I would say I know nothing. You know,

as I get older, I realized I know less and less, and especially with cars, it's always something to learn. There's

always somebody that knows way more than your Usually there are lessons you're going to learn from that person that you can apply to your life, right, And that's actually my connection to cars is that I get the opportunity to meet some amazing human beings that are passionate about these like you know, machines and these cars and their historians or their builders or their racers. And most of

the time I walk away I and you know, people be very surprised I don't give a shit about the car.

I do not. It's really I care about the person,

and then I have a connection to the car.

Hearing the story about the guy who used to let you hang on his garage actually helps me understand your builds and things like that, because you can see that kind of shine through those things.

M M. That's really interesting.

Do you like drifting?

The drifting itself, I have no interest in, but because of the access I am allowed due to the fast and various movies. You know, I get to meet these

like amazing seeing people within the drift community.

The car stories, why they're.

Drifters, and what it takes to be a drifter. Like

I meet these professional drifters that tow their own cars from you know, Middle America and there, you know, there's six in a room, so their crew is like, you know, all sleeping on the floor together, and you know, I get I get excited and I get inspired by that enthusiasm, that passion. You know what I mean, Because I say

this almost on a daily basis, But to keep you know, your headlight shining bright, the light behind your eyes. It's

very hard as you get older because life, you know, fucks you up, you know what I mean.

So, and to what you're saying. When we went to

the NASCAR race together, you were very passionate about standing by the pit boxes and watching them do tire changes and watching them work on the cars and seeing how quickly they were able to do it and how in unison they did it without communicating with their words but more of their hands.

Yeah.

But I think that also stems from maybe your entry point into automotive with this neighbor was based on the stories and seeing what he was able to create with his story, right, Yeah.

I agree with that, Like telling that story really opened me up to to what you're into as a as a car person. But I'm also curious, what, uh what

drift events have you been to? Just for me a

d We're going to drag you out to some now yeah ft so so because you know, I go to an event annually called Final Bout.

So next year, let's make that.

I think that'll probably be more of my thing.

I've always wanted to go to a final about when like Instagram was like first popping off. I used to

fall Animal Styles, that's their name. I used to I

don't know these people in real life. I just I

just like I still don't know who they are today, but that was their stuff was really sick.

Yeah.

So it's team based, so it's no there's no individual individual scores and.

Find your squad.

Yeah.

So the first year, first two years, I drove an Animal Style Okay, Final Bout, and I mean I held him back, but I'm a lot better now.

So if we want to run it back, well, you know we can do that.

But you know, your car show score gets taken in and then the driving happens, which is basically a jam session with the teams, so all.

The style and like a tandem of three so.

Minimum three, and there are teams with up to like seven cars.

That all sounds so cool.

It's really cool. It's really cool.

And you know, there are teams where I've been this person on the team where there's one guy kind of holding it back, right, just not doing.

As well because you want to be door to door as.

Close as you can be, as smooth as you can be.

And sometimes there's a guy or two that kind of hold the team back. But you can't park that guy.

You guys are a team. It's not about winning. It's

about bringing your team together and doing the best that you can. And so because you are like, if if

you park that guy and we find out you park that guy, you're going to lose points because that's just not that's not what you're here for.

You know, who is the one of the founder a final about that lives out in la that has the ft ilia. Yeah, yeah, Iliah keeps pressing me to go

to final. I was supposed to go to this advent.

Yeah, they good enjoy man I mean, obviously, I totally understand where you're coming from and you're feeling in cars.

I actually love that you can say that proudly, you know, because some people will probably you know, kind of keep that inside and not want to share that.

Just you know, people like to fit in. I'll never

fit in.

I still don't fit in, So there's like, you know, a question of yeah, I do not fit in anywhere still, so that it's okay not to.

Fit in I don't fit in cars.

Yeah, But I mean you're right. I think people assume

because you know, of Han like I am this like car expert and mechanic and professional level like drifter.

Well, I think people see Han when they talk to so they don't understand that that's a character you're playing.

Yeah, And then I used to get like bashed because I would go That's why it's very hard for me to go to like cars and coffee. You know, I

have to like drop up a lot of courage to go there because I would go and being inquisitive and just being very naive. I would go to like dudes

and go, hey, can you tell me about this car?

Right?

And you know, like I remember, like the first time like the R Eights came out. I was so infatuated

with this car and there are these dudes that modified it.

And I went over there and I was like, can you tell me about this? And like what motors in here?

And like what are you guys doing? Like how do

you modify? Like how do you get the horsepar? And

I thought like I was making friends, right, and maybe if I wasn't han it, you know, they would have been more accepting. But this is where I also realized, oh,

you have to be careful in the car com it's very cliquish too, Like after I left, they were talking like hello, shit about me. It actually like made me

go maybe I do not belong here right then, And as time went on, the circle of friends that I have, right, you know, they're so supportive in the car community, they're just you know, amazing people. And you start to realize

just because their car dudes, it doesn't make us family, right, right, Like some people are into cars for different reasons.

And that's a tough that's a tough situation, you know, being vulnerable and just being open like oh what's this and and then getting that kind of backlash. But I'm

glad it didn't stop you from continuing to have fun.

And now they motivated me to change kind of you know, the environment too, and to be like an ambassador for this change of inclusiveness, to go, hey man, you know it's okay that you don't know anything, right, I mean, come and enjoy and let us like share the knowledge.

You know. I believe that it is our responsibility to

you know, be mentors and you know, to be able to pass off this knowledge. And you know, it is

frustrating at times where people hoard their knowledge, right. You know.

Yeah, I think is very important for someone with your reach to be in the automotive community because like a lot of people fear that the automotive space will eventually die out. But as long as we have people like

you with your reach and your stardom sharing the love for it, somebody's going to see it and it just kind of keeps trickling up. And that's that's another thing

that I love about, you know, working with t Pain.

He has cars, he's had, you know, fancy cars and fun cars, but he's not a super car guy either, you know, and he's learning now as as we go through this process, I think he's learned a lot, but him not being afraid to be vulnerable. I think it's

great because like we went to we've we've done three really big track days this year and he's still in very much in a learning phase of drifting. You could

have just wrecked your car in front of all these people and they would be so excited that you wrecked your car because then they get to go online and talk shit, you know. And and but he didn't. He

did great. He handled the pressure well, he made the adjustments,

he took his time and learned.

And I don't know, I just.

Love that, you know, thanks for sharing that. It's like,

you know, him willing to be vulnerable, right and taking having the courage to fail.

Yep. I mean that's it's a big deal. Yeah, it's

a really big deal.

And he wears it on his sleeve too, like we'll be there the day before. I'm like, you're ready. He's like, no,

I'm not ready. I don't you know. He's very honest,

very humble. Honestly he said this, and this might be oversharing,

but he's like, I don't need money, you know, because he's done well for himself. He's like, so I'm not

asking you to join me in this so that you can make me money. He didn't want me to think

that he was using me as an entry point into the automotive space since I had just been, you know, been a part of Honigan for so long and this and that. But he made it very clear, He's like,

this isn't a this isn't a money thing. This is

something that I'm passionate about. And this is something I

can see you're clearly passionate about, and so that just makes me want us to go on this journey together.

The brief time that I met him when I was in Atlanta, I see a sincereness from him, and even just you saying this, I'm like, I could I believe that just from the little time that I that I got to literally say hi to him. Yeah, it's sincere

and he just likes cars and wants to get into.

It's out of this world, you know.

And the same goes with you and the people that I met on the hot Wheel set, Like you just don't expect people who do who have done these amazing.

Things, to just be normal humans.

Yeah.

You know, I was taught, you.

Know, when I was younger, that the camera doesn't lie I think it was actually Sevestia Stillone told me that because I asked him a question. I said, how does

one become like a superhero? How does one become Rocky Balboa?

And he simply said, the camera does not lie. There's

certain people that can never play that role because that's not who they are, right And I think T Pain recognized, like with it what Amelia was saying about himself of being a sincere person because he has feet on the ground and being truthful. And then like, when I see

your content, I see no pretense. Literally, I see no like,

you know, fakery, Like you are who you are and then when I meet you, you are who I thought you were going to be. And there's a lot of

people that have this pretense. It's all show. And I think,

especially with the pressures of social media, people feel like they need to embody this idea, you know, because I didn't understand what this partnership with T Pain is and it's super cool to hear that it's about like this positive sincere representation, and I think that's going to make a tremendous difference in the car community for other African American kids that wonder, you know, like how do I be, you know, be a part of this community right And you know, when I met you, I was like, what a great ambassador you know, And you know part I

hope you don't change because they say, you know, fame changes people, but money changes people. I'm the same guy,

but I think you're You're also and I'm so happy we got to chat with you.

Honda Accord

Honda Civic

Nissan Juke

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