Ep22 Jonny Lieberman

Welcome back to another episode of Car Stories with Sun.

Kane and Amelia Hartford.

So, Amelia, question for you, oh dear, when you go to a place like Starbucks or Baskin Robbins, right, and you pay with a credit card okay, and then they flipped the screen over to you and there's like.

Tip, tip, always, always tip everything, Tip a lot.

You've at the grocery store.

I am so thankful to have an income and be in the position I am in, and I worked in food and service for so long in my life. Always tip.

I'm a thirty percent or more person.

But what if they didn't do anything?

Tip? Really?

Yeah, I'm in a better position there, and if I can help, that's all that matters.

God, you're so much better human being there.

You don't like tipping?

No, I love to tip, Like I worked in the service industry forever, so when I'm at a restaurant, like, I make sure that you know people are taken care of. Right. However,

when I feel pressured, like you buy a bottle of water and it's like a dollar ninety nine and then there's a thirty percent tip option for that and they didn't It's not like, look, I'm about like being fair.

It's like if you did something.

So here, here's the thing. If they were to raise

the minimum wage and pay people more, they're just gonna make the cost of goods more. So there's no they're

not going to raise them in on wage. So I

feel like we as people who are fortunate enough to be able to help someone else's income, that's our responsibility because the big business isn't going to do.

Why don't they just raise the prices of the food then, like, I don't mind.

They do, they will? They wild?

Why do I have it?

But not everyone can afford raising the prices of food.

Starbucks can.

People who are buying, Well, have you picked in and out now? Or double double?

It's over ten dollars, So that's that's inflation, right, But they don't ask for a tip. How come in and

out doesn't ask for a tip?

Well, they pay their their people, I guess I don't know.

So so but Starbucks cannot like Starbucks is.

Way bigger, Well, they could and they I'm pretty sure Starbucks will actually help pay for your college and give you health.

Care for your college. Yeah, that's true.

When it comes to tipping, I'm just a tip always tip generously.

Bad service, even.

For bad service for twenty Yeah.

Bad service, bad food, and you'll still tip. Yeah, bad attitude.

Maybe they're having a bad day.

Huh.

Really yeah, I'm a tipper.

Huh.

The tipping thing is like very stressful for me.

That's why I don't think about it. I'm in a

position where I can help someone more than I need it, don't think about it. I tip.

I went to the drive through with Teedji to go get them a pop cup and myself a drink, and they pull out the credit card thing, and you know, I tapped it and they had to tip. Yeah, and

then we met eyes. It's just one. I was like,

they're like, I know you, what do I tip? And

I was trying to press like the one dollar thing all right, and then I dropped the credit card and there was like a whole fi. I had to move

the car up and like come out of the car and she's just like I looked at her and I was like, oh, she's thinking.

You cheap.

Do you think it's only awkward because you make it awkward?

They make it awkward. Why why is this? Like why

is it that there's the thing is like at this place I've paid cash before and there's no tip jar.

I've seen tip jars, well not at this place, so there's no tip jar. So I'm like, I don't understand.

If I pay cash, you're not you're not asked to leave a tip. But then with the credit card it's

like three dollars twenty five cents option for one thing. Anyway, Okay,

so all right, I'm not going to win this argument.

There's no argument here. It's just it's not.

It's a it's a perfect It's also a new.

Thing because to Japan there's no tips.

Right, there's not. They actually, in fact, they get insulted

when you try to offer a tip.

Yeah, because there's something wrong with this tip culture.

It's the cost of going out. It is what it is.

If you don't like it, don't go there.

I don't know.

I guess yeah, I can't control it.

You know.

When I get a Domino's pizza delivery, I tip huge because it's the best pizza. Well, all right, so speaking

of best, our next guest old friend Johnny Lieberman, Yes, co host of The Inevitable with our one of our past guests, Ed Low, an old friend as well.

Johnny holds a high level position within the motor tren family and very knowledgeable, knows a lot about cars, and we had a conversation that I wasn't expecting to have and he was a complete open book.

Yeah, it's cool to be able to have car conversations about cool cars and racing and all that. But then

you know, I have like a vulnerable like talk, right, and then be able to share things. I think probably

most of the listeners wouldn't imagine, like you go through the war, I go through, he goes through, and then that they were all human.

It's nice to be able to I always say, if I'm not learning something, I kind of don't get as interested in it. That's why I love cars. So I'm

constantly learning, and I feel like these conversations we have with people, I'm constantly learning things, which I find a gift and so interesting.

Yeah, I agree, just like the gift of a Dumbinos pizza.

All right, without further ado, it's you're a dog guy too, right, you have a dog, just one at the moment we've had a couple, had a coupling.

They come and go, what kind of dog you have?

Now, Mutt? She let me, is we.

Saw her mom. Her mom is a Wiener dog. Dad

is taller and fluffier, but no clue. We found her

at the pound. Yeah, she's she's getting up there, but

she's she's still pretty cute. Pretty stinky at this point,

but pretty cute.

It's hard when though they pass on.

I mean we had what well, yeah, yes, yes, it's horrible when they passed. I've had I've had one almost

killed me and another one was pretty sad. But yeah,

actually I've had three. Yeah, it sucks. It's one of

the worst things. Yeah, I went there next to a

person dying.

It is it's like a child like dying. When my

previous dog, we had actually three, we had two chowchows.

One was really connected to my wife, Simba. The female

was like really attached to me. Yeah, and went and

and we had a Maltese that Simba actually killed Jesus.

But that's horrible.

But but Simba waited for me to come back from Germany like I was working. I came back, I come

into the house. She jumps to give me a kiss,

and then she lays down and then and then I took her to the vet and then Bet said, you have to go get an MRI because there's something wrong with her. But she was like thirteen already, right. And

then it was like during the pink Berry kind of craze, Remember pink Berry the yogurt place. It was like dead

summer and I was like driving to the MRI place and Simba was in the back seat and she started, like, you know, breathing hard. So I pulled over and I

took her out of the car and she just passed away in my arm and I started. It was like

out of a movie. I was like crying and like

yelling at God, and snot was coming down my nose and I'm like ah. And then I look up and

all these kids are eating their pink berry going like.

This man was holding this dead dog, Like I look up and all, okay, I think we'll wrap this up real quick. Yeah it's horrible. Yeah, I could have do

another dog forever.

This is a great way to start a podcast.

Yeah, you know, but it's also you know, and then when we got Tedgi, if a dog's life span is like ten to thirteen years, thirteen is like.

That depends if little dogs live longer's that's you know, so a little dog in fifteen years can be pretty normal.

Big dogs live like eight years eight ten.

It depends on the size.

That's like that.

Oh yeah right, oh yeah, and.

He's already four. So he reminds me of knife is short, right,

and go for some cuddles and kisses right as much as you can.

Yeah right, well said bring it in after the show.

Well, Johnny, thank.

You so much, thanks for joining us today.

This is so cool.

This is I mean again good to run into you at the best green barbecue in La.

Yes, parks barbecue.

Starting each other parks.

You know parks.

Yeah, I love parks.

You love parks? Do you love parks?

Of course?

Okay, okay, So we have a mutual friend Saying Saying.

Saying is a restaurant or he owns Father's office. He's

a big car guy. He's been on your show, a huge,

huge car like official.

So funny story. So say Father's office. It's actually the

one in Santa Monica is now I think twenty four years.

Old as of last week.

So I used to be really into homebrewing and I was in this beer club and we had our meeting there.

This is back in like two thousand and one, and he had the best beer at the time, you couldn't find good beer anywhere, just didn't exist in restaurants, and he had like Pliny the Elder on.

Tap I love plenty.

Yeah, but again, this is twenty one years ago, twenty three years ago anyways, and I'm like who is this guy?

Like who? And they're like, oh, I sang, but he's

a real dick.

No.

Everyone likes me, and I remember I walk up, I like tap him on.

The shoulder and I'm like, hey man, like you have the this is amazing, what a cool restaurant. And he

literally just like looks at me and turns his back. Really,

I say a word, just turns his back to me, and I'm like, fuck that guy. I don't know if

we can swear on this fuckcast. Okay, great sucked this

guy and I didn't. I had nothing to do with him.

I stopped going to father's office. They got a good burger.

I'm like, the owner's an asshole. And then on Instagram,

I get a message like hey man, like we should hang out, you know, like you want to go to parks.

And I showed up and I tell her that story and he's just like, yeah, this is like something.

I do you think you think the connective tissue eventually was cars.

Was saying one hundred percent, yeah, yeah, yeah, one hundred percent.

Yeah.

And then it turned out that I have a big.

Interest in food, and you know, he's mutual friends in the food world and the car world and everything. So

but yeah, for sure, but that was that was what was so funny was so I was I was at parks with my son, my brother in law, and my nephew, and I'm telling stories about eating there with Sang. I'm

like saying this, saying that my nephew, who's a huge fast and furious fan, thought I was talking about him, and he's just like, you come here with he thought your name, was saying and I'm like no, no, no, no, that's Sang, not Sung. And we're walking out, I'm like, oh, hey,

so I'm always just talking about you and my nephews like just stars. It just like goes silent word and

then like running up, He's like that, I can't believe you know him, I can't like.

And the guy that I was with was the writer of the of the movies. Oh seriously, what was the

name Chris Morian? Chris right, yeah, yeah, nice guy. Yeah,

he's super nice.

Oh cool? Oh how funny?

Was this coincidence?

Small La World? Yeah?

So okay, so this was recent, this is like the past week or yeah, that was so funny.

The day that Ed was here.

Yeah.

On the podcast, Ed brought you up quite a few times.

I'm like, you guys have this.

Yeah, well I've been working with Ed for over thirteen years.

Wow.

Another one who was mean to me when I first met him. Yeah, this was like back in so I'll

tell you exactly what this was. So I knew his name,

you know, I never really met him. And then we're

on the X six launch this this is like two thousand and seven, and he's there and it's Motor tren.

I wasn't a motor tray at the time. I was like,

I don't even know what I was at, but like motor trend, big big deal. And he had like a

video guy with him. And this is again two thousand

and seven, and I remember I was like trying to say hello to him, just like wouldn't look at me, wouldn't give me the time of day, you know. So

but you know, since I was I did a podcast with that this morning, so you know.

It seems like a reoccurring theme.

That I mean it could be Yeah, I don't know, it's just those two. Really.

When I first met ed, he was very intimidating to me too, really, yeah, because he I met him at Motor Trend. Yeah, and he was in a suit. Any

Asian man in a suit intimidates you. Yeah, totally didn't

like he's wearing a suit. He's that corporate guy right

right right, And then you find out like, oh he makes bread.

Yeah, he's a goofy surfer, he's super cool.

Yeah, you can never judge a man by his.

Suit, fair enough. I wasn't intimidated. I was just like,

this guy just does not like me.

But you know, where were you riding at the time.

I was probably still at Gelotnik and I might have also been writing for a site I don't even know what's around anymore called The Truth about Cars. But that, yeah,

I started in I started writing about cars two thousand and five.

Do you always want to do that?

Like?

Yeah, in a.

Way, like like you know, I love cars my whole I was just telling this story. I was trying to

explain to a younger kid how lucky they are. Like

where I lived, there was a there was a hill a grow up in Thousand Oaks, and there was like the rich people lived on top of the hill. And

I knew up there a guy had a Lamborghini Yalpa and it was green and it never moved. Now, the

reason never moved is because I couldn't move. I didn't

know that, and I could ride my bike up the hill and like once a week or more I would go up there just to look at it. Because at

the time, nobody made a Yaulpa poster. There was no

Yelpas on television, there was no internet. Maybe once every

four years, road and Track and a black and white photo would have a picture of a Yaalpa.

That's it.

That's that's that's how you saw a Yalpa unless you got a Lamborghini book, which there really weren't any Lamborghini books.

So, like, you know, I was I've always been super into cars.

I used to I've always been a writer, and I used to write like fiction stories based on what I'd read in you know, Car and Driver about like you know, the hero would drive a GTI, because like a gt I was like a big deal in like nineteen eighty whatever.

You know, I've read like these like horrible James Bond rip off stories where the guy's driving a GTI, because that really appealed to me, you know. And then yeah,

I did a bunch of others, a lot of other stuff in my life. And then I was twenty five,

I found myself unemployed. I was doing like software dot

com bubble burst, and I was back in LA and I cold called Motor Trend and they were basically like, yeah, kid, you'll never work here.

They actually gave me good advice. I just chose not

to listen to it.

Uh.

And then fast forward and I'm I'm a webmaster at cal Arts, the art school up by Magic Mountain, and I turned thirty and I couldn't figure out a way.

To goof off.

I was so bored, like I'd reached the end of the Internet. And in this like voice is realization hit

me and it's like, if you don't get up out of this chair now, you're gonna turn forty sitting in this little tiny office by yourself, another decade of your life gone, like do something. And it was a real

like panic attack moment. And this truth about cars at

the time was just one guy, Robert Farrago, and I send him an email like I want to I want to write about cars, and he said, go find a car and review it. And it was a it was

this remember the SABERU the SOB ninety two X, which was a WRX wagon, uh dressed up as a SOB.

So my buddy had one. I hey, can I borrow

your car? And I took it up Angela's Crest and

like wrote a review, and you know, long story short, he was like, yeah, okay, that's pretty good. I'll send

you a press car. And then the rest is sort

of history. And now I've been a motor trend like

over thirteen years.

Wow.

So yeah, so pretty.

Crazy, but like it was, yeah, it was a real like better start moving type of realization.

What is awesome about being able to sit down with someone and getting to know them? I was like, what

keeps Johnny's like headlights on high beam? Because I meant

I used this. I used that kind of phrase a lot,

like when I meet people that are even younger than me, I go, dude, your headlights are damn in life? Like

you're like you're just kind of in neutral, just kind of coasting through life.

Right.

Then you meet people all different ages, right and they're like the redlining through life. It's awesome, right, It's like

I want to live like that and going back to and I want to put emphasis on that at thirty, Yeah, you had the courage because it's it's not it's easy to just say and kind of overlook, but to go I am uncomfortable going out like this. I'm going to

go fucking chase my dream.

Life is precious and short and fleeting, and like, just take advantage of the time that you have here because it doesn't last forever, you know, it just really doesn't.

Where'd you get that?

I don't know.

Look, I mean probably my dad died real suddenly when I was twenty five, our heart attack and died. I

think that had a lot to do with it. And

then recently we were talking about dog dying. I've had

like people dying. I mean it hasn't been that reason,

but like a few years ago, like I you know, it was like the Davy who I was talking about.

I want my mother in law, my mother, my sister, my best friend, they all died kind of like every six months one of them was dropping. Yeah, you know,

and then you have you know, if you have children, you know that like they just don't stop growing, you know, and like it's it's getting to the point where my kid's about to turn seven, and like I can still hug him and snuggle him. But like sometimes it's like, no,

I don't want to hold hands. I'm like, oh, that's

my favorite thing in the world, is like holding hands.

When we cross the street.

Like really, okay, you know, you know you don't want to like hold my hand because it's kind of weird.

But yeah, it's just it's just this I don't know awareness of it. You know that life is short and

fleeting and like, uh, you know, make make make hay while the sun is still shining type thing.

Okay, well the sun is still shut. You know that

should be a T shirt too.

We should start something this T shirt everything.

Guess I'll let's keep talking. I'll come with something better

than that.

Can I get morbid for a second?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, please?

Do you feel like life's almost over? You're not You're

not that old. I'm not saying it, like question seriously,

Like you say life when by twenty years so quickly?

Does that scare you for the.

Rest of young?

I love the young, and I'm not saying for you like I'm telling you like.

That Johnny by the way, Yeah, yeah, yeah, this one foot in the grave. No, no, I don't.

I don't think that that's scared of getting older.

No, but you know what, I hang out with older people that that make me feel young, you know what I mean, So like I have like I do this other podcast Spikes Car Radio and Spike and Zuckerman. They're

both about to turn sixty, and they're youthful and they're running around and they're doing stuff. So you know what,

I used to see older people as like, oh, they're so old they can't do anything.

So no, I'm not scared of that.

But my question was first too poorly, But.

No, no, no, I love it.

So no, I'm not scared of dying per se. I'm

just scared of like, you know, very few things happen overnight, and you got to put in the work and all that, and just like I just want to take advantage of the time. I want to make the most of this

this really crazy sitting here on this like little tiny rock orbiting a small sun on the edge of a galaxy, Like it's pretty rare that you get, you know, seventy eighty ninety years on this rock, like take advantage of it.

Do you see a fifty year old and go, god dang, that's all?

No, not at all. What scares me and what prompts

the question is how fast life goes. Because I really

feel like the last decade of my life like went by so fast. And I heard the analogy of like

a toilet paper roll when your baby, you're just at the beginning and the next thing you know, it's like almost at the end. Because for a.

Lot of because I heard that before, it is good at altitude though.

Because as you get older, it goes faster and faster.

Because like when you're a kid and you're in school the end of class, you're looking at the clock, You're like, how's this going so slow? And then needs to get

older at links and then I imagine at least place some people I talk to, the older you get, the quicker it gets. And that's what scares me because I

want I don't want it to go buy too fast.

How about you, Johnny? I remember in my twenties time

was slow. Yeah, Like I was like, geez, get to

the weekend, come on, mane. Now I wake up and

it's seven pm.

It is. You're right, it is.

It is really funny. How if I have something to

do that week, it's just there instantly. It's like there's

used to be like, oh, that's on Thursday, like this podcast, like that's in four days, but it's like it's Monday.

Now it's Thursday, and it is quick.

But I think, uh, having kids in my case, like that really sped up time because I still you know, your phone's like six years ago today and I'm like, how was that six years ago? Like he what, it's

the same kid, you know, And it's like really, I think kind of distorts time in a way. But then

at the same time, like if I stop, that's the thing is it's rare to like stop and not just go write on your phone. If you stop and think

about I think about what I've done in my you know, car career. It's like I could write a really good

book because I've done so much, you know, Like it's it's.

Crazy, would you write a book.

I've always wanted to write a book. I don't know

who would read it, but I've always wanted to write a bit read it, Okay, yeah, you know, because it's just like I've I've done some like pretty wild stuff, and you know, but it's also like you know that there's also the temptation to do like a tell all, you know, because I know I've seen some. But it's

also like I really want like an inside baseball of a very obscure industry.

I want to know all about ed.

No, I'll tell you there's a lot to tell.

There's there's a lot to tell. Uh yeah, yeah.

He put he presents swell as you said, he dresses up for. I don't know, is it like insanely narcissistic

to like I'm going to write a book about me?

You know, like probably think so.

But if it's interesting, it's interesting, you know what I mean? So,

and like I've just done some wild stuff, you know.

So what's the craziest It's funny.

The one that pops in my head when I said that is well, it was I was trying to go two hundred and fifty miles an hour in the Bugatti Sharon Uh.

Supersport and.

Florida h Space Shuttle runway and like, you know, you're doing the driver's meeting and they're like, so, you know, keep your visor down, uh, because even though you got a windshield. Like if a bird comes through at you know,

two hundred and some odd miles an hour, it'll it'll kill you, so, you know, one extra layer of protection.

I'm like, okay, oh.

And if there's alligators on the runway, like don't hit them, try and go around them, like you don't want to turned too much. But it's pretty wide, and as we're

driving up to it, there's just alligators everywhere.

Luckily they weren't on their runway.

And then the way we did it was we did one hundred and fifty mile an hour run, a two hundred mile an hour run with a guy in the car, and then he gets out for the two fifty.

But as we're doing you know, two hundred and eleven miles an hour, there's birds. They go right over to

the top.

They were both like down, you know, like okay, maybe they knew what they were talking about.

But I go, I do it, and they're very adamant.

They're like, don't look down.

At the speedo, just floor it and hold it and you know, go for eleven thousand feet or whatever it was.

And when you see the flags, lift and hit the brakes.

So I do that, and I'm like yeah, you know, two fifty. I get back there and they look at

the data. It's like, now you went two forty five.

I'm like, what you know? I was welded to the

floor and they're like, yeah, we don't know. Do it again.

Well it was really dumb to say do it again because the protocol was they changed the tires every time you go.

You know, those are.

Expensive tires, aren't they, or that as that was old in the day. It was like ten thousand of tire

for the Bugattis for the.

Veryron tires had they were like they were like impregnated with carbon fiber.

Uh, they were very unique to the varn.

These I believe were just like Vayron Spec Michelin Pilot Sports Cup twos.

So it is expensive, but it's not like yeah, no, what it.

Was like forty thousand for a full set.

I think it was more than that. I think it

was like sixty thousand for the physical tires. But they

and then but they were also they were bead locked, so that the actually changing was a whole process and it had to be done like in France, I don't even ask. So no one had done a two hundred

and forty mile an hour run and then done another one back to back. It was really a bad idea

because the tires were shot, they got heat cycled so much.

And I just went again, changing tires, just wind changed tires.

I just wanted to get it, and like the rain was coming, you know it, you know it a one day, you only had one chance, like do it, do it?

So I went and it turned out the reason why I couldn't go faster than two forty five on that first run was that there was crosswinds, and so when the crosswinds hit the car, it creates a vortex on the other side that like pulls the car and it just it just slows it down enough. So before we

knew that, one of the drivers said, hey, he goes.

You know, we built in a lot of safety margin.

So when you see the flags, just keep your foot in it for another thousand feet or so.

Just count to one. Because by the way, at two hundred.

And you know, fifty miles an hour, you're going a football field in like a second.

Yeah, it's really fast.

That's hard to get another five miles per hour though in a second it is it is, So I.

Keep my foot welded.

But at about I remember I was looking this time, so I'd done it before, and I'm going to stare at the speedometer this time to make sure.

And at two hundred and.

Forty miles an hour, a wind hit and it was like if I didn't turn the car, like I was going to go off the runway.

You know what I mean, because I've suddenly been redirected.

Is it right?

As you were looking down? It caught you off card.

It was just I was, you know, I'm doing this, but it was just I just I felt something push the car and it's like suddenly my trajectory was not straight down the runway, it was at a thing. So

I had to do this at two hundred and forty miles an hour, which was like, just saw my kid's face.

It was just Richard's face just popped into my head.

It was like oh. And then kept my foot and

it kept my foot and it just wouldn't go over two forty. Came back in and said, I'm done.

I don't care.

You know, three hundred and ninety six kilometers an hour is fine, it doesn't matter.

You know.

That was pretty wild.

And then I guess the other crazy thing I do is I raised Pike's Peak in twenty twenty two and that was, Yeah.

That wonderful, but also really I kind of got robbed.

It was like super foggy.

What car were you?

I was in a Porsche seventy eighteen, came in GT four Club Sports.

Wow.

Yeah, which is kind of the worst car to do Pike's Peak in because it's naturally aspirated and rear wheel drive, Like you sort of want all wheel drive and as much turbo charging as possible. So yeah, the car at

sea level makes four hundred and twenty horse power. At

the peak it was making about two hundred and fifty.

So it was a pretty slow way to go. And

I had seven days of practice of glorious, perfect sunny, clear, dry weather. The race is Sunday morning, Saturday night ten

inches of snow, and then get there in the morning it's raining and freezing. Track is wet, and then after

like the bottom quarter, it's just pure.

Fog all the way to the top.

Like I mean, like twenty I can show on my phone afterwards, like twenty feet of visibility in front of you, and you know, sheer eighteen hundred foot drops everywhere, and you know, so I made it to the top.

I didn't crash. That was something.

Have you driven pikesbeak?

I haven't. It's on my bucket list to do.

You should do it. You'd be good for it, and

you'd be good at it. You got to do it.

Yeah, on the bucket list.

Yeah, and don't not even bucketts. Just do it now,

you know. And I'm itching to go back. It's just

that like racing, you know, it costs a lot. Water's wet.

Racing is expensive, you know, just it really is.

I haven't heard that before. Yeah, I heard that's too

t shirt life. I've the more propular one I know

is to make a small fortune racing. It takes a

big one.

Yeah, start with a large one, exactly right. Yeah, No,

I was. I was just everything's crazy. It's like you

gotta you gotta buy oxygen. I remember the morning I

was doing the middle section, like I didn't turn my oxygen on, and my my crew chief was talking to me and he's asked me some questions and I could see the expression on his face was the way I look at my kid when I know he's lying to me, Okay, what.

Really did you really wash your hands? You know?

And he's looking like that, and I'm staring back at him, and he goes, is your oxygen on?

I no, he goes, turn your oxygen on?

Oh okay, And I remember I was trying to buckle my seatbelt and I just I couldn't. I didn't have

to wear with the mental capacity to buckle my seatbeltesting yeah, and then suddenly the oxygen's on. It's like, oh okay.

So it's it's a very weird, harsh environment and it's just yeah, it's just it's a neat, neat, neat race that if it if it wasn't a thing and you today said hey, let's race up this mountain. Never happened

in a million years. It's just totally grandfathered in. There's

you know, I forget what it is, but like ten percent of the field crashes in practice, fifteen percent crashes during the race. Like it's a you know, the cars

are safe now, but they weren't always, you know, So it's just it's just, yeah, it's nuts.

Every year, isn't there like a huge accident And there's.

A lot of accidents. Yeah.

I mean, like I said, I think it's like twenty percent or twenty five percent of the field doesn't.

Make it to the top right now. If you google

Pike's Peak evo, you'll see this.

I was just thinking the EVO. Yeah, that was probably

one of the more famous crashes.

They named a corner after it, Evo Corner.

Yeah, and he he was fine, The driver was was okay from loping arm. There was a fine, but he

didn't you know, coulda or that car.

Went eighteen hundred feet end over and over end over end or it was crazy and I think one broken arm.

There's two guys in the car, one broken arm. And

like they they did a video for Racaro the seat maker about how great this is because the seats didn't fail. Yeah,

you know, and they got yeah, which which you've done some racing, you know that not all cages are built equally.

Yeah yeah, whoever built their cage is a very good cage builder.

Yeah, and yeah again I can I'll show you more.

We're done.

And it's bad to talk about photos on a podcast, I know, but like I got a picture from my go Pro of the fog on EVO corner, and then I was slided over to picture of the EVO going off, just to show people like I could not see that corner.

Yeah, twenty feet.

That would have scared me a little too, not being able to see what a cliff right there.

It was just weird because we had total perfect weather for seven days straight and then the race itself. I

wasn't scared. I was just frustrated and annoyed because, like

I could.

I knew.

One shot. Well, anyone's driven in fog, even driving a

fog on the freeway, like all of a sudden, bam, car you hit it because they're parked and you can't see in front of you.

And again there could be a you know up there the sheep, you know, a rock could have fallen.

Like the sheep like to grab the hay bales and drag them all over the place.

Like it's it's really it's a weird race. I mean

that was the thing of the driver's meeting. They'd be like, okay, yeah,

so somebody saw a bear at four point thirty and then there was some sheep up by engineer's corner, but they seem to be off the track. Now a couple

of bowlders the size of bowling ball. But you know,

just avoid them all right, have fun.

Yeah, it's like it's crazy.

Is your sign in to cars too. No, No, not really.

Do you think he will be?

I don't know. He's in two you know.

This week he's into Minecraft uh and Minecraft Legos. Last

week he was into Harry Potter and Harry Potter Legos.

I got into cars probably when I was like nine or ten, So I really like it hit me like I always liked him and knew about him.

And your dad was a car guy, right, Yeah, he had a Z.

Yeah.

I mean that's honestly, I believe my earliest memories.

I hate saying honestly.

I've been lying about everything else. This is one thing

is true. My dad, Yeah, he we I grew up

in Thousand Oaks, and so my dad used to love to drive the Malibu canyons and so I, you know, I remember this really well. He'd strap me into the

front seat in a car seat, and he had a blow punked tape deck that had a microphone input and you could record, and he used to like drive around with me on like Decker canyon stuff and like you know, record, you know, me talking to him and interesting, yeah, and he'd play it back. So I have this real strong

memory of that, probably the one memory, not probably one hundred percent with when I was like nine or ten, my dad's from Montreal, and we were back in Montreal and in Old Town Montreal, which is like gray cobblestone streets, there was an orange Coontash, you know, and especially this would have been probably like eighty four. At that point,

they'd only built like a couple hundred, you know. The

total run of the Kuntash was probably like fifteen hundred cars total, but that really ramped up towards the end, you know, like post eighty six and on. So like

in eighty four, he just didn't see Coontashes, you know, even living in La But here was an orange one on the gray cobblestone streets in old town. And my

dad liked cars enough that he'd let me just just blew my mind. I like short circuited, and I just

stood there like gaping. There's nothing looked like at the time.

Now there's a lot of things that are shaped like the Cuntash. But at the time, all cars were front engine,

rear drive. There was no mid and the mirror before it,

which was mid engine, looked like a front engine car, you know, So it just looked like a classic sports car.

The Cuontash was so new, so unique, and yeah, it him it out for a decade or so, but I was, you know, I was nine, what did I know? And

that like the second after that, it was just cars, cars, cars, cars, cars, and that's just all I cared about.

That experience to go to a car dealership with my stepdadd It was like one of the memories that I still vividly recall to watch him like negotiate, go for test drives. The whole experience was this like wonderful experience

that I wanted to actually share with my nephew. My

nephew was staying with us to the freshman in high school, and so he would be around like, you know the cars that I have, and I was like, you know what, We're going to go and experience how to buy a car.

What car would you like.

When you turned sixteen? And he's like cheap? So I

took him to a Jeep dealer and we met the salesman at the lot and it was this guy. He

had just started there very excited that the guy from you know, the Fast movies are there, and I was like, hey man, I really want to share this experience with my nephew, and I let my nephew like pick the car, and he's like, okay, we're going to go for a test drive. And the car was like in the storage

area and the parking lot. Okay, right, And I have

never driven the Jeep before, and it was a manual because I was like, hey, so if we're gonna buy a Jeep, you gotta buy a manual. So I'm driving

the car. He first of all, he doesn't take my license.

There's like this is his first day, and he's just excited, right yeah. And so he's in the back seat, my

nephews in the front seat, and I'm driving the car and we get to this incline. I go, hey, dude,

lift up the gate and he's like, I thought it's automatic.

So he gets out and he's like the intercom and nothing's happening. He's like, hey man, no one's answering. So

I think we got to take the car back and we got to go downstairs, and I was like all right, and I thought I put the car reverse and boom, I slam into the gate right and it's just like boom, and I'm like, oh, oh, this is not good. Right,

And I was like what do I do? And he

goes the car. I go, how do I put the

car in reverse? You have to lift it up and

pull it. There's like some weird thing, right yeah. And

I was like, I don't know do this man, I go, come here, you don't know anything about the car. I

put it in reverse and he goes, okay, and he does something and I'm like all right, and now we're like way at the bottom. I gotta give it some gas,

so I do it again. And now I'm in.

The gate.

Gate.

You when did this happen?

I don't want to say is wrapped around the Now he's going to remember those calculating how much damage this is?

This is like what a great experience. And he's just like,

oh my god, finally we figure it out.

I get the car of your surfaces on the internete of you slamming.

It's now it's this is it's a ship show. It's

had a little fender bender this thing, and I'm like looking and I'm looking at this, dude, I go, this car is jacked up. Man, this it's like not look.

I mean, I'm like, this is going to cost the amount of the value of the car, right, And I'm looking at him and he goes, just leave and I was like what. He goes, it's my fault. Just leave

and I was like, but you're gonna get fired, and he goes, I don't like this job anyway, right, So anyway, and I'm like, yo, this is crazy and we so we go home and fast forward last week, right, I was at AutoZone picking up something.

Was he working there?

No?

No, no, And I'm like and the guy's like, hey, what's up?

And I'm like, what's up? And he goes, hey, man,

I heard that you like crushed this right into the gate.

And I was like, who told you that? He goes,

My buddy is like one of my best friends. And

I go what happened to him? He goes with that job.

That is my experience.

I mean, well, the good news is that there's a dealer lot insurance thing. So it's like an eighteen hundred

dollars deductible fixes all that.

Oh really yeah? Yeah, okay, so I don't feel so bad.

Don't ask me how I know that.

But no, I was gonna say, but like that that dealership experience, yeah, like like.

How there's no real segue. You're doing a great jobship experience.

I was gonna be fantastic for him. He'll never forget

this experience. It was, it was.

It was hard to explain because again just before the internet, like I remember when Lexis appeared, this was this was huge because it was like late eighties, forty thousand dollars for a Japanese car, which was unheard of, you know, I mean that Mercedes cost that much. And I remember

my dad's like, we got to go see this thing.

It was like they had an event at the local.

It was a Cadillac dealer that also suddenly was Lexus, and we went down there and it was at night and they had an LUs four hundred under spotlights.

And it was just like look at it. It's like this.

Looks incredible and like and they do stuff like that now.

But I think I feel like for the most part, you see stuff on the internet.

Even with the Internet. My first experience with the Seat

Corvette was I it was touring. I was like, I

need to go find a dealership that houses car in the showroom. And I convinced this dealership to let me

like film a video like thirty minutes before they open and just walk around and show it and I was like geeking out. It's so cool to even if you

see something online or not at all, to just see it in person is such a different experience.

Yeah.

Look, until you see a car in sunlight, I always feel like you haven't really seen the thing, like.

You know, like two D photos or video.

And that's one thing like when you actually like lay your hands on it, see how the paint reflects in sunlight.

You know, that's that's you get the full.

Measure of the car.

Yeah.

Do you think your sun will or this generous your song generation is going to be able to appreciate cars like you did?

I mean, I look like the way I did was really weird, you know. I like I said, I was

riding up a hill to go look at the go by myself.

Yeah.

Yeah, for sure you know of what you've done with your movies, because what if you've done you know the videos.

I used to make.

I mean I meet people all the time, like do everything I know about cars I learned from watching your videos, Like oh you know, so I think I think we're creating enthusiasm, you know, and like like my but the reason I ran into you at Parks is because I had that Porstra of the g T three RS.

Yeah, which is uh I drive that car. Yeah driven,

That's that's amazing.

I haven't drawn it, but I love your stories with it, and it looks very nice.

I really connected with that car. But by my my

nephew's fourteen, he's like uncle Johnny called me. That never

called me Uncle Johnny. Do you think maybe, like you know,

I haven't seen you in a while, we go out to dinner. Yeah, sure, could you bring the Porsche. It's

like I can bring the porch, so you know, And like I said, like the thing we do together is when a new fast and Furius comes out, I take him.

You know, that's our like, that's our thing.

On a personal note, yeah, uh, what do you feel like your dad taught you as a father that you have taken and applied to your own relationship question?

God? Uh, you know it's funny. I've done a lot of.

Therapy, especially recently because, like like I said, had a series of deaths that were just like devastating. I remember

my dad and at the time it just seemed very normal, and then when he wasn't around, I was like, this is weird. All my dad would do is like talk

to me about science. He really didn't know history or science.

He really never like it was never like how you doing, what are you doing at school? Didn't never came up.

You know, all my friends were little idiots. All he

wanted to do was tell me about like World War two and science.

That's it.

And so I remember, like, you know, going out to lums with them all the time, and we would talk about the general theory of relativity and you know, but so I was able to this morning this morning, you know, I remember my dad doing the same thing. I'm like, Richard,

if you're in a train and I'm standing outside the train, and I, you know, I think you're going sixty miles an hour, and then if you throw a baseball on the train, to you, the baseball is going sixty miles an hour. But to me, I see the baseball is

going one hundred and twenty because it has the speed of the train, it has the speed of the ball.

So that's that's relativity. It depends on where you are,

you know.

So my dad has been good for stuff like that, and he was, you know, was a wonderful man, kind man all that stuff like, was he what you know, did he give me equipment for life, Like, wow, if I would have been a scientist or a historian. Maybe

he was a good storyteller, and I'm pretty good at telling stories, so maybe he gave me that. But I

try and be I always wanted more time with my dad.

I mean, you know, he worked when he started his own business, he was working fourteen hour days and you know, so I'm trying to be real present in Richard's life, and I haven't been traveling as much. So yeah, I

don't know that was a good answer or not, but that.

Was That's a great answer.

Did you say you lost your mom also recently?

Yeah? I lost me. Yeah, in two thousand and twenty one.

So you've lost both your parents.

And my sister. Yeah, wow, I'm in well, I guess

my son, but yeah, yeah, my sister had a freaky, like out of the blue heart attack, and my mom was really sick for years and years and years. She

had like five different types of cancer and and that wasn't even what killed her. I mean she had a

million different maladies. You know, my best friend, you know,

overdeed thought he was doing heroin, was doing fentanyl. Mother

in law had an aneurysm, Davy, you.

Know, drowned in a river. It was craziness. Wow, it

was all within like two and a half years. It

was a lot. That was a lot. But it's been

it's been a lot better since no one, no one closes died, so it's been nice.

But I mean there was a time where it's like every six months, like, well, who's it going to be?

Oh shit?

Was there one thing that you learned in therapy that helped you the most?

Yeah, I don't know about thing, but I was very angry.

I was very angry, and I was very angry.

I had a very loving childhood. Nothing bad happened, but

my parents communicated through screaming. My mom was a yeller.

My dad was very quiet, very quiet until he wasn't.

Then he was screaming.

And I sort of learned that like.

That's how you are, and like, you know, everyone in my family was screaming at all times. It's fine and

that like, Nope, that's actually not the way to be to have these like crazy angry outbursts. And and I,

you know, I just just sort of like trying to be a good person. I wouldn't yell, but I was

I would get like enraged about stuff that I couldn't control, and therapy really helped me with that. And I had

a lot of anger that all these people died. I

was very angry about it. I wanted to like lash

out about it, and we spent a lot of time exploring that, like, well, you know, where's this anger coming from?

So I think that was My wife commented that, she said, you know, you're a lot calmer these days.

Do you like have a mantra? Do you tell yourself

something or like when you get angry, do you just recognize it and say there's nothing to get angry about.

Yeah.

And I also like, when you're a parent, you realize this that like children model their behavior on the way you act. And so when I see my son, like

if you can't do a math problem or something, I'm like, boy, he's getting that from me, you know what I mean.

So you try, and you try and like cool it down.

It seems like therapy is something that people that haven't gone through therapy they kind of dismiss it or they don't give it any credit, and then go through it and you're like, holy mokes, it's like finding the owner's mailua all of a sudden.

Yeah, that's yes, right, analogy, Yeah, right.

Yeah, it's it's right. What's an owner's manual? It's an explanation.

And so this woman she was able to like, you know, I think you're angry because of this.

Yeah, it's been very helpful.

I thank you so much for your willingness to be open and share that. Yeah, because I think a lot

of the listeners that look up to you, that follow you, that connect with you, like with cars and stuff, I think we forget that you're a car enthusiast, but you're still human beings. Sure, you know, there's things that break down,

and sometimes you need another person you look up to and going, hey, they break down like me too.

Yeah.

It's easy to look at Instagram and see a highlight reel or any of that. But yeah, it's really kind

of you, involved of you to open up and feel comfortable, and I thank you for feeling comfortable with us to talk about it.

Oh totally.

I can only imagine that this has hopefully helped someone hearing.

Yeah, And you know the other thing I find, and not so much with therapy, but like I've been on this like kind of like body transformation kick, Like I've lost it.

So you've lost like almost thirty pounds.

No, I'm but twenty a little over twenty, you know, but this one has been insane where like cause I've just been I said, like, well, how am I going to keep myself? Like, what's one habit I have that

I do all the time? I post on Instagram. I've

done over ten thousand posts. Obviously I'm serious about Instagram now.

And I just thought it up. I said, if I

do like a weekly update, it'll it'll keep me honest.

If I know that, like in five days, I'm gonna have to post a picture and talk about my weight and whatever.

I'm gonna do it.

If I can kind of like hide in the shadows, I won't do it. And like the amount of people

that have like A signed up with my trainer, but also B like just said, like, man, I struggle with that so much, so hard, thank you so much. I

know how hard this is.

I'd a woman I don't know who she is.

She sent me a DM to O the day She's like, you know what, man, I said, if that, if Johnny Lieberman can lose weight, I can do it. I'm down

sixteen pounds. I've stopped doing this and I'm.

Just like, that's amazing.

This is great, you know what I mean. Now I

have a long way to go to where I want to get to. But yeah, I mean it's like my

my pants are too big, my wallet falls out all the time. This ring is starting to come off, you

know what I mean. Like it's it's a transformation, and

it's it's really you know, I'm sure you guys know it's a diet more than anything. I mean, he's got

to like, you know, as much as I love eating, you got you gotta stick mostly to a to a pretty boring diet.

It's it's awesome you were talking about this because that was on the road for like ever this year and the roads the killer and stay in hotels and then and then I was like I feel like shit, Like internally, yeah, like it's a human being. I feel like what is everything?

It was like the headlights dimming right and I would and I go down the bathroom. I would never turn

on the light ever. Yeah, I would like when I

would wake up and go, you know, brush my teeth or go to pee or go to shower, I would leave the lights off because I couldn't like stare at myself.

You yeah, yeah, looking man?

No no no, no no. And then I mean even

Amelia I would tell that I don't second, but they take pictures and I'm like, I don't want to see myself like any movie or project I would do. I

was like, I can't see I can't look at myself.

It would get me, yeah, it would make me super depressed.

Has that changed?

As soon as at November twenty third? I remember I

was like sitting there, going, what are you gonna do?

Then?

What are you gonna do about it? Right? It's like

I'm smoking like half a pack to its pack of American spirits a day, yeah, and you're like, okay, delicious, but you yeah, yeah, yeah right right, But like and then I'm garbage whatever I want. I'm eating right, and

I'm like, why are you doing this? But what are

you going to do? And then so I threw the

cigarettes away and I started going for like a walk, and I go, I'm gonna start running again, like really running, and then the run like reprogram my brain. It's almost

like rebooting your computer, right or getting like a tune up and going The reason you feel this way is because your oil is dirty right, and you you got to change that filter, bro, like every three thousand miles, like change it, or even change it at eighteen hundred miles, because how hard are you going?

I have bad dysmorphia, and I get roasted whenever I share that, because like why you like, you're fucking beautiful or whatever, but I have bad dysmorphia. I can't look

in the mirror and feel good about it.

This is really, this is what's beautiful about this conversation, because that's YouTube. When I when I like, when I

see her, when I see her posts right, and she's like, oh, you know amazing, right, I'm like, geez, I go, I wish I could that.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's hard to look at those photos for me.

That's crazy.

It's crazy with you two, because you know, you guys make a living to some degree off your looks, like you're you're good looking.

At it's we feel and think the exact same thing because objectively, when I look at you and then I and I see your videos and I'm like, god, this guy, it's like he just fucking has everything together.

Yeah, he's so smart.

Remember, there's charisma. It's like a it's a it's a personality, right.

I mean that's why this this conversation is awesome for me because I'm like, yo, like you feel the same thing, you feel the same thing. We all have our.

I thought you guys have other problems. I'm shocked at this.

This is no no, no, no no. I mean I mean

daily I wake up and I have to hug him because I'm like, I'm worth this man, yeah, right, Like and if these dogs are like I think, sent to us, because then he comes up to me like certain days like when I'm like I don't even want to get out of it because I'm I'm a piece of poop, right, and then he'll like lay on me, and I know I'm sulking.

When my dog has come over to me to sit with me, I'm like, oh, I guess I'm I need to go take a lap.

Yeah, I don't allow myself.

I have that feeling, but it goes away and like you know, I just say nope.

You know, and I clear it instantly.

But I know that feeling where it's like I'm worthless. Yeah,

and I still suffer from like imposter syndrome, you know, And it's like it's weird, but I do you know, like it's like, why am I here, and it's like, well.

Because you're invited, you know.

Man. Yeah, so yeah it's weird.

Yeah, it's weird being a human. Huh.

But thank you, Tony, Yeah, thank.

You so much for coming on, taking time out of your day to come sit.

With us, you know, anytime. It was great. It's a

lot of fun.

Thanks. I appreciate you.

M m mmmmmmmmm m hm

Lamborghini Kuntash

Chevrolet Corvette

About this episode

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