Ep20 RJ de Vera

All right, welcome back to car Stories with some King and Amelia Hartford. Amilia, I have to ask you a question, yes,

before we get to our next guest. So my wife

and I we got in a pretty big argument, and I want to hear another female's perspective on this. So

I was traveling for a few months, right, and during the travels, I ran out of underwear, okay, And then I was living out of a hotel. And I don't

know if you've ever done laundry at a hotel. It's

like highway robbery. What they charge you for it's.

Insane third prices. I usually try to find like a

local laundromat.

Yeah, and I just didn't have the time to do that, but I do. Just I have a problem paying that

kind of money to like.

It's like a five dollars repair underwars sometimes more.

Yeah. So I just stopped wearing underwear, and my wife

thinks it's disgusting. But then I tell her, I go, well,

it's like I stop boring underwear, but I do wash the pants and I think of it, and then I thought about it. It's like, why does a guy I'm

just gonna speak for men. It's like why do I

need underwear? What is the point of it? So is

that discuss She's like, that's gross, that's disgusting, that's I don't know.

I'm sitting here as your double story. I'm thinking, like, huh,

do guys even really need underwear exactly? What's the purpose

of it?

What are boxers? They're like shorts. They're like shorts at

the end of the day, right, So what do I need underwear for?

Unless you're wearing sheer pants? This is gonna get gross.

But I know some guys just pull their boxers and don't like white.

Oh yeah, well look and all the guys, well, you know guys that do that. I don't do that. I'm

not one of those guys. If you have that habit, sure,

I understand the purpose of underwear. But otherwise, would you

get in an argument with your like future husband or significant other because he's not wearing underwear and he's clean an argument? No.

I want to be like, yeah, why wouldn't you wear underwear?

But as we're having this conversation, I'm struggling to see the point.

Of what I mean, right, Because I was like, explain to me why I need under It's like, well, that's gross, and that's the that's the reason why I need underwork because it's gross, Like who invented this thing called underwear?

Like?

Why, yeah, do I even need it?

Right? It's restrictive, especially if it's just like boxers, not

something to like support.

Yeah, well I started doing a lot of running, right, like like mid distance running. I don't wear underwear really, yeah,

because it's it's it's a constrictive. You're all like blushing

was a question thinking of the anatomy.

Of like, well, if you're running, wouldn't you want something to support? Because I know, as a woman, I like

to wear sports bross. I don't need something bouncing around.

Yeah, I guess. But then yeah, I guess, but I

don't think I need that, Okay, Yeah, because I'm trying to prove her point, I'm like le's laundry.

Yeah, but then you're known as the guy who doesn't want underwear.

Well, you don't know who's going to see.

Yeah, anyone listening this podcast?

Yeah, well I have nothing to hide. But seriously, yeah, right,

come on, listeners, like everyone like think about it. It's like,

I don't know, obviously, you're right.

I'm struggling to see the point of it, I understand why a woman, a female would need underwear like this if there's she's wearing a skirt or dressed like you know, you don't what it's concealing things, right, But then what does a dude need that for?

Right, It's like I'm wearing pants nine point percent of the time.

Right, as long as you trust your parts, I guess.

What, it's going to spray things and you're wearing pants, you know what I mean?

Yeah?

All right, So you are you pro underwear.

Or I'm gonna say I'm pronorb but I agree that you know, you agree.

With my argument that it's unnecessary depending on your level of hygiene.

Yeah, yeah, how long does you like wash your clothes?

I guess?

And yeah I want to smell. Look, there's no issues

with that, right, So okay.

Good, all right, God we got that out of the way.

Okay, So next on to our next guest.

Today, we have our good friend RJ. Devera. When I

think car industry, I think of Argent And it was really cool to get to hear stories about the fact that his mom had a turboed mini van that she used to drag race.

What.

Yeah, it was really wonderful to hear how close he is with his mother and how impactful she was to where RJ is today within the car community. In the

car industry, RJ.

Was at the Guires for years and now he's at SEAM of the nonprofit which if you guys don't know about SEMA, they are basically the nation lorgest trade show when it comes to automotive and they also helped to keep the passion of motorsports alive.

Yeah, I met RJ because he lent me his famous essex way before the Fast and Furious days, and I used a little bit of his swagger even in the Han character because I was like, this guy is super cool.

But to actually sit down with them get to know the man behind the myth was really awesome.

And he actually had a feature in the Fast franchise as well. That's right aout further Ado, r jaa Vera.

RJ, Hey, r JA dea vera.

What's going on? Thanks for having me, Thanks.

For coming on.

When people talk about RJ, your mother always comes up. Yes,

And it's something that I've always like, admired and envied about you that you have such a deep connection. Thanks

those relationship to your mother.

Yeah, I'm my mama's boy for sure. You know, I

love her dearly. I wouldn't be who I am without her.

But yeah, in the nine you know, when my parents got divorced, he decided to come hang out with with her kids, me and all my friends that were in the car club, to like drive us back and forth from the car show. And then she used to go

to battle the imports with us. And then one day

she woke me up and she's like, hey, can we turbo charge my van? And I was like, are you serious?

She's like, yeah, I'm getting bored just hanging out with you guys, Like I want to go drag racing with you guys. I'm like, okay, Sure, it was a Honda

Odyssey minivan, but the original.

It was still a minivan.

Yeah, it wasn't a Siena, but it was a minivan.

So anytime anyone turbo charges a minivan, I always kind of get some nostalgic feelings, like Besi's Odyssey and stuff.

But yeah, we painted it yellow for her fiftieth I remember.

I'm sorry. I'm like shook. I didn't know your mom

had a turbo min yellow and used to race people.

It wasn't fast, but she was really good on bracket racing, so I taught her how to power I can build a boost up.

I want to meet your mom.

Let's have the coolest mom ever, right yeah.

Yeah, so it was really fun. But yeah, she would

beat people because she was pretty good at dialing in and running pretty consistent, and that she would always give people a hug. So my friends would come like destroyed

and they're like, dude, I just last year mom in your in her mini van. I'm like I'm sorry. They're like,

I will never raise my mom. She'll definitely beat me

because her dial in was like on the money, like a tenth every time.

Amazing.

Yeah, she's super cool.

I read that you guys started selling car parts out of the condo.

Yeah, she still lives in that.

Yeah.

Yeah, so she's just she's a great example of, you know, any parent that's had a difficulty but decided to be different for her kids, because some parents have a rough upbringing and that kind of continues on and there's some parents that kind of do the flip. Right. So I

really got it early into like wanting and modified cars.

I started buying parts for a car and have pretty early on, and I was saving up for a Civic, and then because my brother wanted to be a DJ, she gave him the wagon, sold his car, and then got me an Integra, which I started modding really fairly quickly, even before I had my license actually, and then she was like, son, it's a new car, like, I got you a new car so you don't have to fix anything.

And I'm like, well, I'm not really fixing anything. She's like,

I don't get it, and I just needed an excuse.

So I'm like, well, there's this whole thing going on and people modding like import cars. I'm just going to

sell the parts. And she's like you're going to sell

what parts? And I'm like, well, springs and rowbars and intakes,

and she's like, I don't get it. But if you

like doing it, sure you know you got to pay for the stuff. When you're I'm not going to pay

for it. So that's how that started, and I learned

how to promote that stuff, kind of helping my brother promote and his friends promote the clubs that they were doing.

So I just made flyers with car ports on it, and I would put it at the different like fixed up cars at the local college, Santamonica College, and that's really how I started. Yeah, I guess I started selling

car covers before that, like right before that car covers. Yeah,

I worked at a little shop in Santa Monica and they were like, oh, like, we're really interested in this, like this thing that's happening with like you know these you know, Japanese American cars. There was JDM wasn't even

a term. Then I'm like, oh, I could help with that,

and they're like, okay, we'll hire you. But all I

do is sell car covers. I was like, I don't

want to do that. I don't want to sell like

all these like performance sports. And a guy worked with

he's like, oh, just get a business license and I was like, well, how do you do that. He's like, well,

you go down to this state Board of Equalization office and I was like, well, how old do you have to be and he's like, I don't think you have to be any age.

Wait.

That's so intimidating for so many people to do, and it doesn't seem like that's anything that's prevented you in your life. Someone you just went straight after it, because

at least as a child growing up. For me, if

someone want to tell me, oh, go to get a business license, like I would be a little intimidated of that process.

Hustle would go get it.

I think it's part Asian, but I think it's an immigrant hustle, like when you're an immigrant, you know, so I immigrated from Philippines with my parents. It's like, well, that's

what is needed to get done with. Okay, let's all

find out. And all they can say is no, right,

what else is going to happen? So seeh I was

really skeptical that I would even get it because I didn't know if there was this eighteen year old barrier because I was sixteen and a half or seventeen.

That's crazy.

Yeah.

And so I would call these shops that I was buying parts from. They're very few that sold parts, and

I'd be like, hey, I'm looking to start selling this stuff.

And I remember when I would walk in because I was seventeen with like size thirty six, like khakis like the bangs that were died, and they were like are you the guy spoke on the phone. I'm like, yep,

that's me, and they're like do you own is it?

Like a real business. I'm like, yep, have my business license,

and they're like, where's your shop. I'm like, well, it's

in West LA. And then I wouldn't tell anyone. It

was just my mom's condo. And so it was a

lot of fun. It taught me a lot, and that

was kind of the time when like import car culture was really like starting to move, Like the first import car show was in ninety five. I mean I had

started this in ninety four, but the only place you could really go if you had a fixed up car was to these house parties that I talked we talked about before we sat down, or these like eighteen and over like dance parties.

Talk about what's this house party?

Yeah?

So all at you? Yeah.

So a lot of the house parties were kind of varied, right, there are people dancing, there's people getting in trouble. But

at a couple of us would end up in the garage and because we had no money and we're like, okay, well who's cars next, you know, and really all we wanted to do is lower it and look, you know, kind of gangster, right. So so we got really my

friends and I got really good at like popping off suspension, and we didn't even have the spring tension really, so we would just put a box and Dino exhaust box and we would stand on it and we were like one more, one more, like everyone get out of the way, you know, and it would like pop off, you know, and that's how I think we would cut it or have it burnt somewhere, right, which was the worst ride.

I think someone was talking about like it was fun to be bouncy, Like, no, that wasn't fun, But that's what happened, right, because there wasn't a lot of stuff that you could buy at the time. So yeah, I

ended up befriending a lot of Asian gangs because they lowered a lot of their cars. But they're also like, oh,

that's Argen. He's into that street racing stuff. Like don't

need to mess you know, you don't need to mess with him. He's cool, you know. But yeah, it was fun.

It was a lot of fun. It was kind of

that culture some time until Imports Show Off and Hot Import Nights and Battle the Imports got really big, which led into the movie of course, And yeah, it was kind of a game changer at that time, but it was already kind of getting bigger because there was this movement.

For those that you don't know speaking of the movie, RJ is in Fast and Fears.

Yeah, a little two seconds of thing. I still get

residual a little more than that.

Yeah, I mean.

There was three lines in the script. One got cut

where joh Rule and I were kind of bantering at the line.

So just to give you context of how I know RJ was starving actor. Like, I'm like a buck twenty

five starving. I have like twenty jobs just to like

you know, be able to eat. And I was like,

I have to just like make some type of money.

I have to also be around like you know, production and Stan I can't remember his name, last name, but he was part of Yolk magazine and he was a good friend, right. He was like an older kind of

like brother type, and he was like, hey man, you know we got to do this like kind of cool commercial.

And you know, you have a camera which I didn't because I could borrow it, right, And he's like, do you want to shoot this commercial? I was like, what

do you mean you like shoot it? He's like you

want to direct it? And I was like yeah, I

had never directed anything, and he's like, you know how to do that? I go, yeah, of course I did.

I was like yeah, and I'm like, so what is it about. It's like, well, you know, you got to

come up with an idea and then you know it's like like some car thing. This is way before fast

and fierous or anything. Right. So and then somehow I

think that the actress that was going to be in the commercial, they stan already had picked her or they were friends and she's was friends with you. So because

I was like, where do we get a car? Right,

it's like, well, we need like a dope car. I

go like what kind of car? It's like ideally like

an NSX something like that. Like that's crazy, that's that's insane.

Like who's gonna let us follow that? We have no money?

And then you showed up at your car okay, right, and it's.

Starting to ring something. Remember I do that now that

you say?

And then he shows up and I was I tell everybody the story. I was like, yo, man, that's like

Asian James Dane dude. It was because I'm not from right,

so I didn't grow up in that that culture, right, like the car culture in Georgia. We didn't have that.

It was that's a nice car.

Yeah, time that I had. Actually, there's a story about that.

I can get into.

What color was that car?

Like it was red, it was candy apple red, then it was a color shift paint. Then it was.

Silver, silver, we got to win silver, and it was orange.

That was the last six colors. Too many. Yeah, I

would have kept it if I didn't paint it so many times.

But he was the first like cool Asian car dude I had ever met. That's to find this commercial. Yeah,

but it's so cool.

That was your That was your directorial debut.

You realized it and we finished it, like you know, we cut it. It took forever because it was it was

an old ass computer, so I remember it was. It

was before final cuts and we had to like walk away and go have dinner every time we rendered.

I remember those days.

But yeah, you came and you were.

Actually because I always wanted and even me now probably not as much, but anytime someone had a project like hey, we're trying to do this, I'm like, let's go, Like what do you need? You know, like you need a car,

you're a person. So that's how that Arco thing came up.

That's funny because that's how I know you today. You're

still very much like that. I try to make it like,

let's do this, make it happen.

Especially if it's like paving away or giving someone an opportunity.

I just loved to get involved. So being part of

this Asian American movement at that age, and then like car culture being becoming somewhat of our platforms to be kind of seen and recognized became a real fulfilling thing for me.

Let's back up, how did you get involved in Fast? Yeah?

I was initially like casult with Craig Lieberman, the other person that was consulting on the film. We were both

working at Peterson Publishing. Somehow somebody at Universal found Craig

gave him the script when it was still Redline. They

were like, hey, we're looking for some consultants. He jumped

on and they were like, hey, do you know any Asian kids that grew up kind of six street racing and stuff? And he's like, huh, funny you asked like, yeah,

I have this really young, y, happy twenty year old that works for me, and I'm actually part of his car club. We're gonna have a car show this weekend.

You should come meet him. And then they were like, hey,

what's your story? And I told my story. They're like, oh,

well you want to help us? And I literally thought

the movie was going to go straight to DVD. I'm like,

are you serious? You're going to make a film with

impoor cars? Sure?

Right?

And they're like, no, we're serious. I okay, you're sure.

If Craig's working on it, yeah, sure, I'll help. And

so what we first did was go through the script and be like, well, this car progression doesn't feel right, like was it. Paul's character initially went from like a

three thousand GT tony clips and We're like, well, that progression isn't right. So we started to align cars to characters,

and then they wanted to go find some cars, so we started to call friends for these like casting calls for cars, and then started to figure out, like could we afford it, because I think that initial movie was like a thirty five or forty million dollar budget, So there were actually a lot of cars that ended up being the character car that weren't initially Selfishly, I was trying to get Vin's character to drive the NSX, but we couldn't afford six of them, let alone the kit that was on my car, Like, they wouldn't give it to us for free. So we ended up getting the

RX seven because the Veil side guys were totally down.

They're like, yeah, you need kits, no problem, I mean, you know what it's for. So there there's little funny

tidbits like that. Even the S two thousand that was

rick Yun's vehicle, which is the villain in the first movie, that ended up being my S two thousand. We wanted

to use a ham and Z four, but we couldn't afford four or five ham and Z four, so it's like, what else do we got. I'm like, oh, I have

this thing S two thousand that looks kind of like batmobile.

They're like, that's good. Can you get the kit? Like, yeah,

I think I get that kit for us, which ended up being Suki's car in the second movie, and now it sits at the Pepo it's the.

Same car, same car. Well who made that kid?

Yeah, yeah, you know Sacho, So yeah, well.

It's the same.

I didn't know that it was black in the first movie with the Ninja Stars, which we made fun of in Super Street and call them snowflakes.

But I didn't realize like vale Side was there from the beginning.

In the beginning.

Yeah, well, hopefully you get to meet him one day.

Yoku Makusan, the owner of the site. It's like just

one of the angelic Cuman beings.

Yeah, did see your z it toky It was there again?

Yeah yeah, yeah, he's one of the OG's from that Japan tuning air, like Smoking Nagata, you know, Ada San, Drift King, They're all the same circle. And I had

met him because I was working at Super Street. He

didn't have a booth at Auto Salon, so I got some friends to rent a van to drive us out to his shot and then I shot it for a feature.

And then the next year I came back and I'm like, hey, remember me. I worked for the small little magazine in

the US. And people were already knocking his stuff off

in the US, and he was like RJ, like in Japan, this is shameful, and I'm like I understand, but people want your stuff and they can't get it. And they're like,

I'm going to fly to the US and you're gonna help me. And I was like sure, Okay, so I

actually helped him start as US when he had the US offices back here back then, which is how we got all the parts for the movie, because I was like, Hey, there's this movie that's happening. We need some parts. And

he's like, what do you need. I'm like, well, we

need RC seven kids and S two thousand kids. He's like,

do you need wheels. I'm like, yes, we need wheels.

Send that to and so that's how we ended up in the movie. WHOA Yeah, but he was.

Yeah.

He was a mentor for me, and everyone talks about their mentors, so he was definitely one of them.

That's so interesting. I never knew that.

Or Jay, he's super a jail. Like, there's so many

cars that I built that ended up on the covers of magazines, and they did because he would always send me the first so he'd like, Oh, here's my new S two thousand, here's my new Millennium Edition S two thousand kit. I'm going to send you on go build

a car. Or here's the m R two Fortune Model kit.

I'm going to send you one, and.

This while you were at Superstreight.

It was while I was kind of like a roving editor at Superstreet. Yeah, and still doing you know, selling

body kits and other parts. And then started the wheel line.

I don't know if you know this. I had a

wheel line that was named after me for about seven years, which is a lot of fun.

Really uh huh.

So those are probably collector items now, it's fine.

I didn't keep it. I don't have one single wall right.

If anyone's listening, who has what did you?

If you have a Roja Motorsport wheel, I would love to like have one.

Got to bring those back, man.

Yeah. It was.

It was a good era in my life. I was

very blessed, very fortunate. Like I remember the wheel deal

specifically where I had helped the company American Racing develop their new import line which is still rounds called Multagi Racing, and then they were like, hey, RJ like, have you ever thought of having your own line? And they created

a mock up and the center caps at RJD wheels, which I felt I just about fell like out of my chair laughing because I was super into like the JDM stuff like racing hard SSR and I could never imagine someone like wanting to buy a wheel that had like RJD. I remember driving home one day and I

was like, you know, even if it did suck, it just be cool. And this is probably in the mid

early two thousands, right before the first movie. I got

back and I'm like, hey, guys, like I'm down, Like you can't call it RJD because that sounds really lame, Like it's your it's your line. You make it whatever

you want, you know, I'm like.

Okay, cool.

And that started that whole kind of line of wheels for about seven years.

That's a long time. Yeah, it had a good run.

I like what you just said. There was like self

doubt about like who's who, Who's gonna want these wheels?

But let's give it a try, right, you know, it's like these for in our head. I'm very guilty of it.

And that's something that I'm always conscious of and trying to like overcome going I'd like to try this. I'd

like to you know, write this, or direct this, or even my first, like you know movie I directed. Right

the whole time, it was all these voices like who are you doing direct?

What do you know?

You have no talent?

Imposter syndrome.

Yeah, it's gonna it's gonna bomb, it's gonna flop. It's

gonna you're gonna lose money and you'll never be able to do this again. And even after I finished it,

it was like constant voices like it sucks, it sucks, it sucks. And then it comes out and it's like

it sucks, it sucks, it sucks. And then all of

a sudden one day you like step back and you go, you know, yeah, it didn't want to Oscar or it didn't do all that, but you know, it sets you up and you learn so much. Yeah right, And the

most important thing I learned was that even if it doesn't didn't win awards and doesn't have the same successes as like the big block busters, it made me realize that I have so much gratitude that I could just even do that. Yeah, to be in a place to go, hey,

you know, you want to go make a movie, you want to direct a movie. It actually happened, yeah right,

And then the voices kind of calm down and you're like, hey, shut up, voices, just go and do. And the lesson

that I try to like convey here is that you got to shut those voices down. You just got to

do it right.

I heard something this morning and I don't know who it came from, so I don't want to misquote, but it was one day or day one.

It's your choice, so simple.

Yeah, I know, but like so much there at the same time.

Yeah, because if you don't start, it never happens.

But I hear that through line in your story. A

lot even you know, get in the business license of just going after it and getting it. It doesn't seem

or do you have many thoughts that are similar to what sung saying of imposter syndrome or maybe doubt? Do

you ever doubt yourself?

I definitely have the voices I think, like a lot of people do, write down you know that doubt and whether am I capable of doing this? You know what

gives me the right to try this? You know? Will

it resonate with anyone? I think that's a lot of

people deal with that, right. I'd like to say, probably

bury it pretty good. We're like, oh, wow, what's the

worst that can happen? And I think I was really

blessed and fortunate that at a at a fairly young age, I was able to do that and things were somewhat successful, right.

The movie did well, Super Sheet did well, so I worked on projects. I worked on forts and motorsports that

did well, and so I was really like, oh to your point, like you look back, You're like I did pretty good, you know, and so you get you gain more confidence, and it's kind of I'm sure your your first YouTube video to the one you just posted, if.

You go back and watch huge growth, right yeah.

You know, yeah, because I mean it is it is day one, you know, and so I've I've been really lucky, and I think thee of us, you know, to be able to do things where then you can look back in hindsight, so the second time you do it, it's a lot easier, and the third time it becomes like, oh, I kind of know this cycle, you know, and so you do have a lot more confidence, and then you also fail, right I was, you know, I I after the wheel line. I tried to do a whole performance

car line right around the one bubble bursts, and I had investment and then I lost it. I was trying

to build a couple pro drag cars, went crazing a debt on my mom's home equity and then had to shut everything down, and the dream came collapsing down. And

it was probably some of the toughest time in my life, and it took me seven or eight years to kind of pay back this this loan. Luckily it was a

home loan. So but this fear that I was going

to lose like our small little condo, you know, chasing this dream and having this gratitude to my mom for even allowing me to like do that. But that was

an experience and you grow from it and then you learn like, well, failure's just a part of it, you know, and just about getting up and getting back on the bike.

Right.

So I think that's that's where that imposter syndrome can really hold you down, if you hold on too much to the things that didn't go well, yeah, you know, versus like, well that didn't go well, what did I learn? Okay,

that hurts. I'm gonna let it hurt, and then I'm

gonna move on.

And just because it didn't go well last time doesn't mean it's not gonna go well again.

So so I think that's if I could impart anything on anyone, you know, I would agree with you. Just

they want to just go just go for it, you know, and no matter what happens, it's not the end of the world life goes on.

Yeah, thanks for sharing that. I mean, I think a

lot of people look at you. He is a dude

that every that everything goes right. And then to just

share that you had to take like a loan out from your mom's condo where it all started.

It all.

Yeah, well obviously, I mean all that wealth of knowledge is you know, valuable to the industry, the car industry too today because now you're at SEMA.

Yeah yeah, yeah, so it's it's come around full circle, you know. Like my first two main events that I

went to outside of the import car shows were Autoslon and SEMA back in ninety six. I had so I

took you Autuslan for those listening, which is there's a couple events that I think if you're a car enthusiast you have to go to Tokiautoslan is one of them, Festival of Speed is another, SEMA Show is another, and Monterey Carweek. It was like to me those four like

if you love cars like you gotta go to those four.

But SEMA, I haven't missed one since ninety six except for the one that we didn't have, So this one will be twenty seven years. So when I came to

work for the organization. It kind of felt like a homecoming.

The only the only thing that I had not done going to the SEMA show was be part of the team that put it together. I'd been you know, a builder, photographer,

small company host, bigger company hosts for like so many things around the show. That just felt like natural that

I would be part of the team that helped, you know, kind of puts it together and helps evolve it. And

just the organization, right, because many people think about SEMA, they just think about the show, but the organization does so much more for just the aftermarket companies and the people that are involved in the industry.

So for the listeners that don't know what SEMA is like, how would you describe it?

For Layman Tern, Well, it's some membership based organization or association, but it also really looks out for the industry and advocating for the industry.

Right.

We're doing a lot of work on the government front, you know, to really advocate for, as an example, a technology neutral future. There's a lot of proposals that by

twenty thirty five, everything that's sold news is going to be ev and we feel and personally for myself too, that it should be technology neutral. If people should be

allowed the choice to choose whether it's a synthetic fuel or hydrogen or biofuel or EV or hybrid. That yeah,

the customer should have the choice, right, it shouldn't be mandated.

So let like innovation kind of you know, it's it's the American story, you know, Let innovation like win over.

So we're doing things like that, and we do a lot of product development testing and EPA and card compliance for a lot of companies.

You're making it too too complicated organization to help and support aftermarket.

Companies, yes, and the industry, yes, the automobile. Sorry, so

I got too deep. I just love it. I just

love what we stand for. We love working here, and

it's really really interesting to see like car culture like move beyond just like national borders, right, and I think Fast kind of did that too, you know, where like it created as phenomena and just to be part of that for me was was very fulfilling, really really fulfilling.

And so that's that's all I want to do now is do things like that.

So do you think because of social media car culture is going strong? Because you know, with ev sure, coming in.

There's always this argument, this notion about car culture dying, but it seems like, you know, anytime I looked at it, like Instagram or yeah, it's just it's all like maybe it's my it's all I see.

I think I was on the brink of disappearing, to be quite frank, after the recession. It felt like my

nephews as an example for me being who I am and my nephew is not caring about cars is a little bit crazy to me. But it's just not their deal.

Older they they're twenty five and twenty three, a super into sports, super into gaming, but that's their deal.

They don't care about cars at all, not at all.

But it felt like during the risk, after the nine recession, there's this debt, and then right around like twenty thirteen or fourteen, I started to see young people again at car meets and it would rattle off like car names and horsepower, like the people that grew up in our generation that played grants Arismo actually oddly enough and found out about cars and come to find out because of social media, because of mobile games like CSR Racing and things of that nature. It was kind of coming back

in a different way though, you know, do I think things will change. Absolutely if things become really all new

cars are evy, that's going to change things, you know.

But I think the love to personalize thing isn't and I think that's where the difference is. Like maybe some

of the performance stuff changes, but this idea that you're always going to want something that's personal in yours, I think isn't going to go away. So that's what gives

me hope. And then of course what everybody's doing, you know,

the stuff that Emilia is doing, Dustin TJ, you name it, right, all these people that are young and really diving into it and showing that next generation. It's really cool to

see and I think it is helping at the end of the day, Like I don't think we'd have as much interest from the younger generation if people like Chamelia weren't making her content and breaking the barriers that she's braking early.

So absolutely, yeah.

I was watching this YouTube video but this car meet in Texas, right, and this guy asking car owners like, hey, you know, what do you think about this car? You

should show a picture of like somebody's and a sex and you know, give it a brating one to ten and you go, that's a nine, that's a ten, And there was you know the ten people I saw. There

was I think one Asian dude. Everybody was like Texan

like you know, good old boy like Americans, but everyone was driving. I think I saw one hell cat. Everybody

was driving JDM. Yeah, and it made me realize something.

It's like through the car culture, this thing of like inclusion, diversity, right, understanding other cultures, like for us to be accepted people that you that look like you and I. The cars

are taking care of that for us because you know, when Japanese cars are so beloved, it's not a thing anymore.

There used to be this term called rice rocket. Even

five years ago. Man, there was like these Maverick guys

from good old boys, and they kept calling my Maverck like a rice rocket, and I was like, what is that term? Rice rocket? Right? The thing has gone now

they're just like heay man, that's a dope ass car, right right, And it's pretty beautiful to see that that, you know, the car culture JDM culture becoming so like global actually helps like people get along better, you know, and it fights racism. It was just like fascinating, like

you know, likezation I had's.

I never thought of it.

Ten years ago, these good old boys would be in like you know, American Iron and they look at a in the hegra type bar is like a rice rocket.

They're like, why would I drive that? Or they look

at that Corolla. It's like why would I drive that

little Corolla? But now that is like pretty cool everybody's pocket. Yeah,

it's it's changed for sure. I think for bring a trailer,

Like the fastest growing segment is eighties and nineties JDM cars.

Yeah, Like there's this bond that people start to have when you're like, oh you're you're a carn thesist. Like

we're the same people, you know. And it happens in

different cultures, right, I are other things like food or sneaker culture or whatever, but car culture is one of them.

You travel around the world and it could be completely different.

Like I've never seen this car, like I used to go to France. I'm like, what is that poujo?

Like?

But it's tuned in the same way. It's got deep

job and stereo and wheels, and you're like, you're my people.

I called out my found family because I always say wherever travel. I know, I have a family there, and

you don't even need to speak the same language. Like

when I was at Tokyoto San, I was using the translator app to just communicate about the modifications that have been done to certain cars, and I at one point I took a step back and screenshot it because I was like, this is pretty cool. Yeah, we don't speak

the same language, but at the same time, we do and we're talking it. And that's cars.

I am curious, like, what are you guys looking to do next car wise? But you got Project Base, Yeah,

you got your thirty four.

Yeah, that's probably going to be my next project.

Okay.

I also have this Replica Superbird that it came across that I'm kind of going through the planning stages of right now. And yeah, a few few cars on my horizon,

but my biggest focus right now is getting the FTR on a container and back out here to the States.

What about you.

I have a it's actually a eighty five Grand National roller found in the desert. I have a stock which

you have a Grand National team. I love this. I

love wow you sold it? Yeah, well so I just

love the Gea bodies. And then Nissan they're supporting us,

and they send over enough car for me to take all the pieces out. So Nissan sent me a R

thirty five with a v R thirty eight motorow So that imagine a R thirty five g t are having a baby with a Buick Grand National and the King Kudo comes out.

I think you're so good. And Daniel like best names

for cars.

So hey, I'm doing it with Daniel because we have students Ordan together. Yeah yeah. So then it's actually just

sitting in the garage now, so we just got to get to it. It's been a busy last year. I'd

love to send it to Tokyo Auto Salon and just leave it there because you know, Japanese love American cars, yes, right, and then as an egent, a real Grand National and the heart is Japanese car, which is like so awesome, right, So King Kudo that's sweet with like watanabase. Imagine like

the vision is like big fat waase right with the rocket bunny kid on it, right, and it's all these little like the door handles are from the gtr okay, right, you're gonna use it a little bit yeah together yeah, so it's like it's like if a Grand National and a GTR had a baby, the King Kudo would come out.

So it's a biracial car.

Yeah, I'm excited for this project. Yeah, that's a really

rad Is yours going to be the S two k?

Yeah?

It's almost done actually for us for what I wanted it done.

What were you doing to it? You just got this

car a couple of months ago.

No, no, it's been two years almost. It's pretty stoked

about it because I kind of the thought was if I was going to make an S T thousand, if Fast and Fears was just coming out, Now, how wide I build it? And so that's what this car is.

It's kind of a little bit of a tribute building. Yeah.

So I've been driving it around a lot of about four months ago. I just haven't taken it to track,

which will be the next thing.

So since I have you here, this is a good good person to talk.

Not the underwear thing.

No, no, no, okay, that's past topic. So since you

were part of the first Fast and now we're at Fast, Yeah, where do you think the Fast franchise can go or should go? Or should it even go any longer? Because

I mean now that we're literally in space.

You're all avengers at this point.

Yeah, right, so how do we make it better? If

you were too?

I don't know if it's better. I mean I do feel.

Like, what's it what? What does it need to to

put some gas in the tank?

I mean what you did there?

Yeah, unintended? And you've got cars in a piero in space,

which is pretty hilarious actually, and cars getting picked up by jets. It's like, okay, Like it feels like it's

run its course as that, and it almost feels like a prequel could be an avenue, but it's a completely different story, and it's back to cars, you know, at least as a car fan, Like I still watched the franchise knowing like it's gonna be a spy movie, you know at the end of the day, right, and with a lot of explosions and cars that flip over and keep driving like fifty million times, which is funny because we used to make fun of the first one like oh there were like twelve thousand.

Shifts, granny shifting not double.

And all the words right that they had us actually like a side tangent. Craig and I created a bunch

of words on a sheet and they just started putting stuff in spoonoaterer with like these six turbo was like those those don't don't go together. No one's gonna know,

No one's gonna know. But it just feels like it's

it's just so over the top. Now, like how do

you bring it back? Like kind of like Bond. Bond

got super over the top when I forget who the action director was, where like you were people were shot at and they were like ever getting hit and then you went to the like the current version of Bond, which was way more raw, right physical, and I feel like the franchise could do that. And so that that's

just Party of one if it was going to go anywhere, and maybe it needs to sunset and something else come up.

The Grand Tourisma movie was a great movie. It approached

car culture in a different way. I mean, yeah, it's

gaming culture and car and more racing culture, right, but Grand Sarisma was such a big part of why car culture became what it was because like, no one knows what the hell spoon Civic was until they paid grants risk or earth GTR for a lot of young people.

That's how they got introduced. You know, So that's my

that's my thoughts on I'd love to see it be something different.

Yeah, I mean when I when I you know, when I think about Emilia and you know, the TJ's and the Dust and right, there's such a like lack of representation and movies today for this demographic, right, I mean Fast is kind of our generation, right. And it's interesting

because you know, when we did Tokyo Drift, I mean after it came out, you know, people just kind of pooped on the movie. They're like, what is this drifting nonsense?

Isn't that fast? And now kids, the kids today are like, hey,

that's the movie I connect with, right, and that's.

What started it.

Yeah, a lot of it's interesting, right, It's like.

And not like Fast won because they were okay.

Drift was the first one for me, and then I went back and watched the others.

I think there's this opportunity, to your point, to you know, have the next generation be a part of something that becomes the next Fast. I mean, it's car culture I

don't think is ever going to die. I think the

love for cars and going fast and breaking barriers and all the things that it stands for is part of the human spirit, So how do you capture that in a new way.

I think there is a hunger for car centric like entertainment.

You know, yeah, there's still a big interest. I mean,

this is a good question. Then to gauge that is,

like it Seema growing or dying or not dying?

It is, so then that kind of change things. Okay, sure,

So we're growing from what the pandemic was. I think

like last year we had like one hundred and forty thousand people. Year before we had one hundred and thirty

year before, we had one hundred year before, we didn't have it. So we're getting close to some of the

pre pandemic numbers.

Or were those numbers, Yeah, what were those numbers?

I think the biggest was like one seventy.

I would love and this is my unwarranted or unasked for opinion, but I would love to see Seema doing I know there's always it's Vegas, so there's the parties and all that afterwards, but I'd love to see it, to see a carshoon in one of the garages one night, and I'm sure you got to talk about doing that, but yeah.

It's a good I noted.

We're hatching an idea.

Yeah, well, thank thank you J. This was a great conversation.

Thank you so much.

Honda Odyssey

Honda Civic

Acura Integra

Honda NSX

Lucid Air

Chevrolet SSR

Ford Maverick

Toyota Corolla

Buick Grand National

Nissan Gtr

About this episode

Original notes