Ep23 Chris Forsberg

Welcome back to another episode of Car Stories with Song Kang and Amelia Hartford.

What's the question today?

Are you a good gift giver?

No? I'm horrible.

Yeah.

I found that there are these websites like winebasket dot com. Okay,

and then it's just a matter of like, okay, it's.

Just how much money I want to spend?

Yeah, is this.

Person one hundred dollars gift two hundred, three hundred or whatever?

And it's like it makes it super easy, sure, right, and you're like, wow, that looks glorious, right, but to actually go somewhere to like if I had to buy you a gift.

Like, yeah, am I a fifty dollars friend? One hundred

dollar friend?

Two hundred dollars? That's the problem, you tell me? So?

Or is it?

Do I make you something?

Do you make things?

Yeah?

I draw, I like paint stuff.

Okay, I'd more appreciate something like that, you would, right, Yeah, Yeah, I feel like those are the most meaningful gifts.

The worst gift. I hate this gift.

And I hope my like agents and managers and lawyers are listening to this, like this, there's a Hollywood gift.

They send you this card and they go on, your behalf, we've donated such and such amount to blah blah blah organization and.

Hate that I got the same gift this year.

I hate that gift. I'm like, we got that gift?

Is this like thank you for what? Right? Like putting

it in my name?

I'm like, come on, get me some cized chocolate or some hotel toilet.

Try don't feed the starving children.

Yeah, exactly, Look right, that's a come on, that's a that's a that's a weird gift.

That's a JANKI gift.

I think it'd be sweeter if they let us pick the charity. But they have an organization that they work.

With, And yeah, I don't. I don't want that gift.

Do you want your agents and lawyers to draw you a painting?

I appreciate that.

You know, my one of my agents, Frank, who is your agent too, He gives listening to this, he gives the best, best gifts.

He will make you like a collage of the year.

What the hell? Frank?

Right?

And I'm like, you did this.

I haven't received a yearly clause.

Well you will, real I mean, because he loves photos and he'll like create this whole poster.

And you're like, Frank, you actually went out and made this, And he goes.

Yeah, Frank seems like a good gift giver.

Yeah, he's a great gift giver. Are you a good

gift giver?

If I try, I can be At the very least.

I try to write people letters. I like whenever I travel,

Like you've noticed, I like to bring back little knickknacks for friends and stuff. I don't necessarily believe in only

giving a gift for a birthday once a year. I

like to give people little gifts throughout the entire year, just so you know that you're thinking of them.

Yeah, you gave me a gift yesterday. I did maple

syrup candy lollipop.

Yeah, shaped like a maple leaf. I brought it back

from Canada.

I got me in trouble yesterday. Why because I left

it in the car and it melted. No, no, no.

And then I went straight home and then we had to go to the Pet Star, my wife and I and she goes, what is that marijuana candy? I was like, mariju,

that's marijuana. Are you getting stoned at the podcast?

And I'm like no.

She went to Canada and guys, She's like, well, that looks like marijuana candy to me.

That's funny.

Yeah, but no, thank you for that kid. That's that's

a that's a good way to give gifts just throughout the year. Yeah. Yeah, I'm trying to be more I

guess less. Maybe hoarding is the word, because I have

all this stuff, right, there are things that just end up stacking.

Like I can't stand that I threw everything out, not like things, not things that people give me. Just I

live a very minimalist lifestyle.

But okay, let's say somebody gave you five key chains and you know you only need one, or you don't even need.

Any merch if a company were going on. Yeah, I

have so many people in my life. I would be

so happy to take them from me. All take what

I'll use. I don't. I'm not one who if I'm

not going to use it, not do anything with it.

Yeah.

I'm trying to give away everything, yeah this year because I go, Okay, this guy loves hats.

Well, there's someone who'll probably appreciate it more than you might.

Yeah, because I have a need for it.

Even Yeah, I don't appreciate it, but I think because maybe when I was younger, I had nothing, like I want to like have everything.

Yeah, right, so it's harder to let go.

My mom held onto everything, which is why now I'm like, I can't. I don't want anything.

Huh.

So is your like house sparse?

I just don't keep knick knacks and things. I don't

even have like my high school yearbooks. I really don't

have photos of me as a kid. I have the

stuff I use every day.

But yeah, huh, that's good. That's a minimalism. Yeah, yeah,

I have.

I've started keeping a little box of memories and it's like a little small box that I just put in the top of a closet. So I'm like, well, maybe

I should keep some stuff to look back. That's been

like the past year or two.

Yeah. But you collect.

Cars, Yeah, I do collect cars.

It's hard to get rid of those.

Can't get rid of those.

I'm trying to get rid of my cars.

I'll take them.

I'm sure you will.

You have enough anyways, speaking of cool cars, our next guest is well, we call him the winningest professional drift driver in history. Yeah, a living legend literally, Chris Forsburg.

Yeah, pro driver, he is a very successful businessman, and it was cool to sit down and talk about the headspace that you have to be in to be a competitive person.

Yeah, and having balance with that, yeah, that letting that competitive spirit be toxic.

Right.

So you know, I've known Chris for years, but I don't know him, and today it was nice to actually sit down and get to know the man behind this myth.

You know, winningest drift driver in history. So, without further ado,

Chris Forsburg, there's such a technical approach that you take with driving. You know when I listen to you talk,

and it's amazing that you're self taught. I mean, correct

me if I'm misquoting this, but like the winningest professional trust driver in history, Chris like self taught, Like I think, I don't think people are aware of, like, you know, your accomplishments in the sport, right, I mean the winning.

This winning is.

It's a funny word to say, but yeah, because it's it kind of goes across different accolades because we have I say we me you know, you include the team, right, It's like you know you always say we, but yeah, I have the most podiums and formal drift I'm tied with most championships with James and Osmo, and I have the most head to head battle wins.

So you got to walk through this the origin and the history for us, because it's how did it start?

Like how do you teach yourself to be the winningest in history?

But did you see yourself?

How many more times can we say?

So it's no, It's interesting because I wasn't like fully into cars when I was young, but like my uncle, like he was in the drag racing My grandfather like worked on a drag card team, and so like we went out to like a couple of NHR races and so I'm like, wow, like Boston, No, I'm from Pennsylvania.

We went to a couple of drag races and like yeah, like Andrews allowed, cars are fast.

This is cool.

But like it kind of start and ended there. And

then my cousin he was a flat track motorcycle racer about the same age as me, like maybe a year or two older. I went to a couple of his races,

same thing, like oh, this is cool, but like I didn't like pursue that right, And it didn't really change for me until my brother is two years older, and like our group of friends are about a year.

Older, and sobody one of two three.

I have a younger sister, older brother and so uh So, when my brother and his friends all got their licenses and they started to kind of like getting cars, Like he had a Chevy Blazer at first, and then but a couple of our friends had like the Hondas, right and like one out of Volks So I want a little civic things like that. So we kind of got

into the car scene through them, right because he's like buying his Quarterer Intake and things like that, We're like, wow, like, you know, those sports cars are cool, and you know, the import scene more so. And so he got a

Mitsubishi uh and my buddies got Hondas and we started to learn how to work on them ourselves. Like my

parents had a house with a barn, and we converted one of the stalls into a little garage, and so everyone would bring their cars over our place. And then

myself and my buddy Tony Angelo, who I met through my brother as well, we're all just kind of into cars, and he had a little more knowledge about cars than I did, and so he kind of taught me some of the basics and then from there together we like learned how to fabricate. We're building our own like turbomanifolds

and like you know, making our own exhaust things like that, and basically like you know, souping these cars up ourselves back in like two thousand, like ninety nine time. And

you know, the way that we learned was just you know, Internet forums things like that, read magazines because not everything was available to us. We weren't just doing bolt on parts.

We're like building our own stuff because I had I at that time in two thousand, got my RC seven, and so there wasn't really many options for like we're trying to buy like intercol or kids from like Yahoo Japan, like turbo kids things like that, and you know, stuff would show up, it be like banged up, dented, and.

We're like, well, let's just make it ourselves.

So pick up an intercol or core and you know, welding up you know, steel pipes because we couldn't take a while aluminum yet and things like that. So we learned

how to do all this ourselves by trial and error.

I blew up like five motors in that car, learned how to rebuild the rotary motors, you know, ourselves like me and Tony were just take it apart in the living room and you know, how does this thing work?

Just use the manual and put it back together. And

so everything that we did was basically self taught, like not only the driving but the mechanical and the tuning side as well, because there just wasn't any availability to us out there in Pennsylvania. There was very very few

tuning shops, uh, and then the ones that did exist we couldn't afford anyway.

You know, so we're just like, well, let's just do it ourselves.

It was all pretty easy until we tried to make like basically more than four hundred horsepower. Like as soon

as we like kind of hit that realm.

Four was a lot at that time, it.

Was yeah, yeah, So we we got pretty much all of our cars, like the Hondas were making like three hundred wheel like our Arc sevens were like three fifty wheels stuff like that. And basically as soon as we're

trying to like hit that next level, like we're just breaking things left and right. We couldn't figureut how to

keep the engines together.

So, but how did you learn what drifting was.

So, yeah, like I didn't really know what drifting was.

But I got my ARC seven first, and I got the ARC seven because Tony Angelo told my brother that that's what I should get because I didn't know what I wanted to get, which this was in two thousand ft fc FC.

Yeah.

Yeah, So we kind of like fell into drifting because of the car that I got, if that makes sense.

So I got the RC seven because Tony you know, basically was like, oh, this is a rear road drive car, comes with the turbo. It's cool, right, And I like

look them up and I'm like, yeah, they look look cool and everything else. What I was saying was my

old AOL name was Import Turbo, right, because I didn't know what I wanted, but I wanted to import. I

wanted to have a turbo, that's all I know. And

so landed on the ARC seven. I was like, this

is cool. It's like a little exotic, right, It's got

this weird motor in it. That was the car that

we like learned how to fabricate and everything else. And

so in doing so, when you start making like, you know, three four hundred horsepower, it naturally just burns the tires and the more we were reading about what to do to RC seven's, you know, you kind of start landing on, you know, the Japanese websites. There's not too much you know,

on the American side of what people are doing to like R seven except for drag racing. Yeah, and so like, yeah,

you're searching for intercoler kids, suspension kids, and you just keep finding drift cars. Right, So we slowly, you know,

are falling into these websites about drifting. And then and

one of Tony's friends over in Japan, who was based over there, he was sending us a real player videos of cars drifting because you know this before YouTube even existed. Yeah,

and so we're like getting these like you know, pixelated videos of like cars drifting around, and we're just like, that's awesome, I want to do that. And so all

in the same time, when we're like blowing up our cars trying to make a whole lot of horsepower, we're like, let's actually like not make so much and make them drift cars. And around that same time, we went to

like my high school parking lot, took a couple cones out there and basically tried to drift through it. Like

we didn't even know what we're doing. We just watched

a couple videos of like, you know, this is when we started to find out about initial D and we watched all that, and we found out about you know option, you know, watching the VHS tapes and so we're just looking at the in car footage and you know, like for the first like year or two, like I never even pulled the handbrake. Didn't ever think that would you know,

be a part of drifting. And so you know, we

see him like you know, turning in and pulling on this.

It's all in Japanese, so we have no idea what they're saying, and we're like, oh, like okay, pull the way home. Pull that like makes the car rotate, like okay.

And so it was just all trial and error like for the first like two years, and then we eventually figured out how to control the car and be able to drift it around purposely and you know, without spinning out.

And that was all like yeah, leading up to about two thousand and three, and that's when myself, Tony, Matt Petty and this other guy Eric went to English Town and pitched doing the first drifting events out there. So

it was the first organized drifting events, which is now Club Loose, the longest running drift events in the country.

That's so cool.

Wow, so you were in high school.

Man, Yeah, yeah, I just graduated. Yeah. So yeah, I

got my car when I was a senior.

Wow, just self taught from initial d And yeah, that's crazy.

Did you like right away connect to it? Did you go,

I love this, this is like my my body.

Yeah right, and.

Yeah, it just just always felt like being in the car, like was where I wanted to be, like, you know, love driving, love cruising, love you know, being at the racetrack things like that. But I really do like the

build and that's what got me into cars to begin with.

Building cars, like I find that to be as rewarding as driving.

So the method to the madness or like see behind the curtain of like, you know, successful people. It's interesting

that we're having this conversation because I was like, what makes Chris the winningest?

Right in it for a long time.

But also you know the car, Chris, like you know it insight out drivers that don't even change the oil in their cars, right.

So there's drivers who don't even truthfully know what they're driving.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, you know, it's just it's just different approach, right to some people that benefits them right to not have a connection to the car, right because for me, it's like I don't want to break it. I don't

want to because you know, like peopable, so it can be a detriment as well to like know how hard to push it If you.

Hear a noise it almost you get in your head a little bit of what could I have broken?

Yep, and then you know, like how much is this going to cost to fix it? Because you I'm also

the owner of the team, and so you know, you might not want to like, you know, just blow the motor up, you know, for the sake of game will more lap in. Whereas if you're just the guy that

shows up and it's like where's the star button, like you're not going to treat it with any sort of exactly.

So you know, I try to be hands off at the track, so it's better that way.

Yeah, keep that in the game.

Yeah, I try to have that separation.

But yeah, like so, like I was saying, I I truthfully like enjoy the building. I love the process, you know,

trying to create new things like the my dots and it's like how we met. The first time was I

built the two eighty Z, took it out to Sema, did the RB conversion, did the you're talking about the goal, I know what you're talking about. Yeah, And so his

debut the year before, and you won the Grand Trismo Best in Show, and then I debut mine the next year and then we got the Grand Turismo a board best Import too, so it was pretty cool.

Yeah. And then years later she's in Grand Tourist. Yeah

and then there I.

Go, I know, so h yeah, so that was cool and yeah, like we got to do that. Like Nissan

shut just recently, so that was probably right after you filmed with him, right.

Yeah, yeah, that's how the I wouldn't say that's how, but the Nissan relationship definitely strengthened after doing a movie about Nissan. It. Yeah, the first car I ever owned was

in Infinity. The first car ever fully built was a Nissan,

so that heritage has run deep since it's all beginning.

So it was cool to be able to do GT and then us doing that shoot together at Willow was pretty awesome.

Yeah.

Yeah, that was really fun. Yeah, I got to do

I got to be a judge for a GT Academy back in I think it was twenty twelve, I want to say, but yeah, flew out to Silverstone, the whole thing was set up. We had a little drift challenge, yeah,

out there part of it. So that was cool experience

as well.

So from amateur high school self, it's drifting because I want to share this with the listeners out there, and I'm curious as well. So then how do you get

to the pro level? Like did you eventually have to

have like a coach?

Yeah, it was two thousand and three, like I mentioned, and that was when we just started those events over in New Jersey and so went to the first couple of those and then it was later that summer we saw the D one Driver Search. It was the first

one right in out Arwin Dale, and so me and Tony were like, we gotta go right, So we loaded up our cars, put him on the back of a flatbed, and we just drove straight out forty fifty hours.

The D one Driver Search what is that?

So D one GP, the D one Grand Prix Series.

It was before they had their first event in the States, and so they held a driver's search where they let pretty much anyone enter. There was like sixty of us

out there, and they picked the top eight were allowed to run in the actual D one event that was happening in like September, And so we put our cars on the flatbed, drove all the way out, entered into the event with our RC seven's and like Kengoshi's there, die Ziro's there, like Rey Sam like all those you know, all the OG guys are out there too, and so we get to the event and basically neither of us make it pass the first round, right, Like I had like an understeer, I like messed up.

Right.

They're obviously being very critical and like I said, it was like sixty some drivers and so and was it just drift?

Of course it was like or was it tandem?

No, it was just single runs like a small like basically the infield of our one dale, not the bank or anything. And so yeah, like it just didn't have

a great pass. But basically being out here like I

first time in California, you know, like you see all the cars, like all the vinyl on them, all the graphics, and like they don't clean, they're nice. They all got

nice wheels, you know, the tents, pop ups and everything.

I'm just like, there's something happening here, right, And that was basically like I'm moving to California, you know, drove home in sorrow. But on the same hand, it was

like selling my car, like getting a new car, like I'm going all in. That was right when the Z

came to the market, the three fifties, I should say, came back to the market and three two thousand and three. Yeah,

and so I've sold my ARC seven and I used that money down payment and bought a new Z. I

took it to like one or two events on the East Coast, and at the same time it was just like basically making my plans, wrapping it up. And there

was like a Falcon drift show off that was happening in October back at erwin Dale again, and I was like going back to that event doing that, and so packed up all my stuff, moved out, made it in time for the event, and like had like a nice boty kit on nice wheels, like the car looked, you know, really legit got to that event. I got fifth place

at that event, and so like just instant like recognition, I guess you could say it was obviously a pretty small community knew each other and it kind of turned into like who's this kid, you know with the with the new car right type thing? Like I say, this

is like my first like subconscious lesson in marketing is, you know, you invest in yourself. No one's going to

do it for you until you prove that you are going to put in the work and the effort on your own. So instantly started to get the attention of

companies because I had the new platform, so they wanted to provide you know, coilover kids, exhaust intakes, you know, because they're promoting all their new parts for the new car.

And so I was able to get support almost immediately.

And so that's when I got linked up with motor X at the time, they were my first partner, and that's how I was able to go to forma drift in the first year. And so I went out and

we entered forma drift. So I've been to every form

of drift since the very first one, which was Road Atlanta and we got second place, went all the way to the finals.

First round.

First, your first, the first fdy around, Yeah, your first?

What you well is that the is that the year that Sam Samuel hubin At won Yeah. So I member

him in the finals and he won the first round, and then I met him in the semis the second round, so I got third place. Second round, he got first again,

and then he won the third race, and then I eventually beat him. I was the first driver to beat

him at irwin Dale the final round that year.

Wow. And I ended up third overall.

Wow.

So so I mean that year they saw the goats in that your class very.

Defining of the industry today because everyone is really still around and competing still mostly.

A lot of them.

Yeah, I retired.

I see him all the time.

Are you a person who sets cool? Are you one

who just only does what they enjoyed doing that day?

Like how do you navigate that?

I guess it's I never really like set a goal.

I don't have like this is my five year plan, like I'm gonna be doing this, Like how I explained, like how I kind of like fell into like pro drifting.

And that's like when I was saying, when I was out here for the first time in the summer of three, I was like I got to move to California, just like everything was just telling me, like I gotta get there, like I'm gonna miss the wave, and I'm glad that I did, because it was there was so much happening so quickly. Import drag racing was basically falling off, and

you know, the Fast and Furious movies of course were like you know, coming out, and it was just bringing so much attention to the automotive scene. I remember, like

when we were running our little shop out of my parents' barn, Like we went to the premiere of the first Fast and Furious movie and we had a whole bunch of flyers made for our little car shop, sticking them on the windshields of you know, any modified car, and we drew up some business, right, and that was helping us to like build our cars. We're working on other people's cars,

and make a money so that we could go buy tires and go drifting. Yeah, Like there was never really

like a goal or a plan. It was just being

in the right place at the right time. And the

only thing that I really did like step forth, which has shown you know, incredible response or feedback i should say, is the off road side. That was something that I

was like, I want to get back into it. I

had like dabbled in a little bit here and there, like I had a like a razor that would take you out to the desert and just enjoy just driving around.

I was like, I really want to do this like on a different level, and so we pitched a Nissan when the Frontier came out, where like we really want to do an offer a program with Frontiers.

The Frontiers my daily driver.

Yeah yeah, I love it.

Yeah.

Same.

So it's like this whole package that you can now purchase.

It's a you know, race winning, you know, dealership to dirt, you know, package that we helped propel. And so it's

still like a little surreal. It hasn't really settled in.

That's crazy, I know.

So it's like a dream, I know.

And that's like the thing that like it doesn't really feel real still because it's uh, you know that that would be like I say, like a goal that I've always had. And the way that we made it happen

was like like I said, it was like once again, like something was like telling me like this is the way to make it happen like I always saw or like I always wanted to be like, oh, like I got a you know, like an fr edition like Z or something like that, right, But there was just something that was always telling me like, no, it's like it's it's the trucks.

It's in the.

Dirt, you know, like like focus on the off road.

And so we did that, and the Frontiers like such a high grossing vehicle that it just made sense to launch this Forestburg Edition package with the Frontier and then building the truck going to the race winning.

It just told the story perfectly.

That's awesome.

Yeah, yeah, you would assume you would think that it would be in like a Z Forstburg Z edition that you could drift, but yeah, for every car person, it's like you have your own Saline or Shelby.

Yeah, Frontier, it's pretty awesome.

It's it's wild. Yeah, So it's yeah, it's it'll be

launching in the fall. So, like I said, if you

have a Frontier already, or you can get a brand new like on the truck, which is great because that's warrantyed.

You know, so so many people are afraid to touch brand new cars because you lose your warranty. So that

was like the biggest thing is it's all dealership installed, still covered and there how much that costs. It's nine

ninety nine, nine nights, so it's like ten thousand dollars.

It's so bad.

And any dealership wow.

Any on.

Yeah.

So you get there, Yeah, so you get yeah, full exhaust, yeah, the full suspension, the lift kit, beadlock wheels, Yokohama tires wow.

Yeah, and then you can go Baja straight to Mexico.

It yeah nice. So yeah, it's it's really yeah, thank you.

So that was that I would say, is like like just subconscious bucket list item that I didn't even know I was like aiming for when we're like pitching this off road program.

So did your parents think you're out of your mind that you were packing up and going to know? They

were pornia, They're pretty supportive.

Yeah, they didn't really know what to think, but it was like okay, like you know, if you're going to try it, you know, give it a hundred percent effort.

Like because I went to like community college for like six months, wasn't really for me. I was like kind

of skipping class to like go work on my car, and I'm just like I'm just not going to end up in an office, you know.

I Mean, that's that says a lot I mean, that's a great lesson for people to hear. Is like, you know,

we were actually talking to Jeff before you came about this.

It's like it's a great quote, like, you know, passion is what is the recipe for people's success? Right when

he because they were like, well, you know what, what what differentiates people that you meet that you know you know are going to be successful?

And it's like simple. It's like they just are super

passionate about what they're doing.

Right, And I've i personally, whenever people say lucky, I can stand the term lucky because I feel like luck is when hard work meets opportunity. But that was the

first time I heard passion actually talked about when it comes to success. Yeah, to to your point, So I

think we both see the passion when you talk about what you're doing. And maybe you don't need that five

year plan. You just live every day going after what

you know you love doing, and with that will come success of some sort.

Because it still sounds like where do you see yourself in ten years? It's like, well, what doesn't matter. You're

just passionate about what you're doing, so things are going to come.

Like you know, the off roading and right, yeah, like I I say, like, oh, I don't have like at I do have like another like idea that's like my next goal, like you could say about it. I mean, yeah, sure,

it's not like my my next idea or like goal.

I guess you could say, is too for us to have like our own compound with our own track on it? Right,

obviously everyone's kind of dream you could say, like who wouldn't want to have like their own house with a big shop and a track on it.

I if this sounds cheesy, but I have that on my vision board. There you go.

You know what I'm saying.

It's like, of course it's like playgrounds.

Yeah, you know, a place that we can actually run our cars without you know how, and to go to a racetrack or load them up and everything else. It's

like that's like kind of my long term like legacy plan, so to have a place for people to come to since I mean not that like Willow Springs is going anywhere, but you know, racetracks are usually falling to the wayside, So it's like giving people a place to go because that's like what we needed when when I was a kid, and that's why we went to English Town because we can't keep doing this on.

The street, you know.

And the track designed for like, you know, purpose, it's purpose built for like drifting, right, because I mean, did you ever imagine drifting would grow to this point?

Because it's crazy, it's huge.

Yeah it is.

Yeah, it's world worldwide and yeah, and I would say a lot of that is once again Fast and Furious movies.

You know, Tokyo Drift made drift you know, household term like people then understood it when I would tell people like, oh, like a drift cars, like what does that mean? You know,

it was cool because you probably don't know this, but I was. I was a part of that movie, not

in it by any means, but I did all the sound recording for your car. Yeah what so it was

was on Tokyo Drift right, Yeah, yeah, Peter, it was Tony Angelo's old former drift Falcon FD.

He was talking about that car when we did the podcast.

He has it in his bank, right, Yeah, he did it below when he was recording it. Yeah, whoa, So

you the driver?

Ye whole the wait? No, I think it was No,

I think Tony's I think the FD was fine. I

thought it was the Mustang that broke.

I was one of the cars.

Yeah, it was.

I think it was Vaughn's Mustang that broke because so like yeah, Falcon brought the rig out and they had the f D in there, uh and the Mustang and so yeah, I was like, you know, went out to this runway. You know, microphones all over the car and

it's like, you know, you have like a like a line item list of like okay, like you know, I only car like rev the car rev to the red line.

You know, like that all the way down.

It's like drive up stop, drive up, rev stop, you know, and like just get them all the different tones. That's

so yeah, like every time you hear that the FD like rolling around. Yeah, that's two.

That's crazy. Man if Fest has just a world, it

really is.

The car community is like a family. Everyone seems to

know everyone, and there's that always a full circle moment.

I feel like, yeah, and that's what's cool about it.

You know.

It's like like almost every time like a situation rise, like it's like, oh, like I know a guy and like you know, make a phone call. Like you're saying,

like it's such a small community. It's like you know,

they'd say, it's like, what the six degrees of separation?

Like in the car community, It's like.

Yeah, sure is Yeah.

So I'm sure there's people listening to this podcast because obviously they're fans of you, and maybe they want to learn how to get into drifting themselves. What is I know?

So much has changed within the last twenty years for today those wanting to get into drifting. What would you

recommend for someone?

Yeah, Well, it's funny because you know, people have different viewpoints on whether it was easier to get into drifting in the early days or now, And I guess it's all in the definition of what what do you think is drifting? Are you trying to be like a pro

one form of drift driver or you're just trying to like go drift your car. As far as like learning

how to drift, it's one hundred times easier now than it was in the beginning because there's so many different events and tracks and opportunities to do so we had to make our own.

There was no place for us to go then.

Also, the accessibility of you know, the knowledge of how to create a drift car right or a modify car to drift is there, and like we're saying, the car community is so open and sharing you know, setups or tips or you know, whether it's driving tips or you know, like how to build the car, Like it's all just at your fingertips. So that portion of it is so

much easier. And for anyone that wants to get in drifting,

I always tell them it's like, yeah, obviously you get a real world drive car. And then the first three

to tell everyone to do is diff seat, coil overs, usually in that order too. So make sure it's got

to diff whether it's factory or you know, weld it up if you're on a budget, or you know, get a mechanical one.

If you can.

You have to have that because you have to have the real rols locked up, right, That's like a given.

And then so step two. The seat I think is

one of the most important things because as you're learning, you're really getting thrown around the car, right, and so if you just have like a regular old seat, Like yes, newer cars now have some nice bolstering, but you know, like your old BMW's two forty's you know MOZ does all that, Like they're pretty flat and half a couch. Yeah,

And so as you're learning, you know, like you're gonna get tossed around, and so a seat actually connects you to the car and you can feel the car right and like you know a car will drift with the rear wheels locked up in factory form. You know you

can do that, so you don't need to sit here, and like I gotta do an engine swap, I gotta get an intake, I gotta you know, all these different things.

It's like the seat will connect you to the car and let you feel what the car is capable of.

And it also is like a bit of a safety thing too, so that you are more in control of the car. And then coil overs because that's you know,

your next best bang for the buck, because you know, lowers the car, stiffens it up and helps it to slide.

From there, you can start working on you know, horsepower and other things like angle kits. But I usually try

to tell people to not start with the angle kit because it's too forgiving, right, it allows the car to rotate too much, and it gives too much of a cushion.

Like you should learn with less angle first and then add it because that will help you to be a better driver in the long term. But yeah, that's that's

just to get a car that's basically ready to drift and then from there, you know, obviously go out to a track. And so many tracks now have like clinics

drift days, like little lessons, they have teachers instructors, so like, if you want to get in drifting, stick to the basics.

Don't overbuild your car. The problem is most people they

just get stuck in the build. They never even make

it to the track, right, So they have like this project and they're not actually driving the car, and there's always going to be someone around that's more advanced or knowledgeable than you.

Yeah.

Right, So you have to have a little bit of a courage to just put yourself out there, yeah, and ask yeah, and and be humble and know that you're not the best guy there, and you know, don't be afraid to ask for help.

I mean, if if you were able to talk to your high school self that was on a budget and have a choice of cars that are available today, what would you start with.

I mean, honestly, like I I know it sounds like I'm just like preaching the Nissan, but like the z is, like you see at the track events. There's so many

of z's out there now. The three fifty right now

is like one of the best startup cars. It's got

to be six. You don't got to do an engine

swop for worry about horsepower. It's got a strong transmission,

comes with a diff got decent seats, Like you can hop in a stock Z and just start whipping around track no problem.

What was the story with the S thirty the to eighty build? Like why did you do that?

Which is an awesome car? Like yeah, I love it.

Yah, they're cool. Well I always thought they looked kind

of cool, you know. I was working with Nissan like

off and on. This was like twenty twelve or so,

and then that Dotson like fell in my lap. It

was basically like a friend of the guys at m A Motorsports were like, hey, this car that we tuned once, this guy wants to sell it sold Donson, Like would you want it?

I was like, yeah, So I.

Got that Dotson had like no interior, but it had a running RB in it and like some old whatever wheels on it.

Got it for four grand? What what? Yeah with the RB? Yeah?

Oh I know you can even buy an RB for four grand or like even like a rolling Donson but yeah, you know I was twelve years ago.

Yeah you know so, but yeah free yeah, because it.

Was like the guy's moving needs to get rid of it, like I'll take four grand for it. Was like I'm

on my way, fell in love with it, started working on it like crazy, and beefed up the engine like read it the whole interior like yeah, you know you've seen it's kind of like, you know, a whole new kid on it.

But carbon signal.

These two guys, the two friends when's the doctor and on it's like a at guy and they're just enthusiasts of old dots Ins right, Like they're obsessed over vintage and modern like Nissans and Dotsons. So we were building

the fuguzzi, the two forty Z, the seventy two that I have. They reached out to me because they were like, hey,

we were doing like interior parts for like the two forty and they're like I'm like who are you guys?

Like oh, we live in Dubai And I'm like what, like do what or like why like whatever?

Man?

And they're like can we send it to you? And

I'm like you guys, I'm sure you will.

And then they actually sent everything and it was this bespoke custom interior that you know, the figur right, and then the year after they connected with Chris and then your body kit and the interior is all carbon signal. Anyway,

they're the coolest dudes. They become like brothers to me.

You know, they're just like truly passionate, crazy car dudes that I mean, this is all they do. They just

keep making these cars and then they support people in the community, right yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, they make beautiful stuff.

So what are you going to do with this new two eighty because I have three kids here? Oh yeah,

you should build one.

I might all these kids. Yeah right, they're halfway there.

Yeah, I'm genuinely down. I've been wanting to do a

dots and build even so a five to ten, like I've just been wanting to do that for so long.

Now we can't put a rotary motor in that.

No, nice, I wanted to do.

With a rotary because I've never worked on a rotary before and I love to learn new things.

And it was like crickets.

She's like, oh, I want to do that, and Mike spec. No,

there was a big old I don't like a two eighty.

I would never. I would never. I'd want to put

an RB in it or something in the Nissan family, something capable of lots of power.

Yeah.

I mean, if you want to do a Z build, there's so much support. Yeah, you should do that.

Well, we'll talk more about it. I'm actually looking at

my next projects and be besides the thirty four, I wanted to do another Nissan building. Like how I got

into cars and you bought my Z Nissan Z. I

don't know if you remember I spec that car out the Yeah. Yeah, he bought the Z that I'd specked

out because at the time I couldn't take delivery of it, and I've been regretting not buying that car. Yeah, I'm

glad you.

Enjoyed respects so much loving it.

Yeah, because the Z that Nissan put on order for me, it arrived and it had red interior, and I didn't hate it, but I was like, you know, we're getting this new car and like, you know, like blue is kind of like our thing, it's like part of like our colorway. And I was like, yeah, like and you'll

just pass on it. You know, I'll go back on

the list for one with the blue interior, so the performance model and everything else. And so when it finally

came back through, it was like like maybe six months later.

It was apparently the one that she had specked out but then didn't take delivery, so all of a sudden it became available.

Yeah, that was so funny because we were at the newsman Ze launch. I was like looking at this Z

and I was like, wait a minute, this like's all too familiar. And then we're talking we put it all

together and then that's what happened, because.

It was funny because yeah, just like got the call like, oh we found one, and I was like, I mean, you found one, but it makes sense.

Yeah, h Starry to ask this question if it's sensitive.

Are your parents still around? Yeah they saw supportive.

Yeah no they are.

So my mom's still in Pennsylvania, my dad is in Indiana.

Now they're separated, but yeah they're they're around, and yeah, no, they're they're support They used to come to the races a lot in like the early years.

But you know it's like it's expensive to fly to the racetrack all the time. My brother I gave him

the ARC seven.

So yeah's I after I got the dots and then built that up and the Arc seven became like a back burner project. And my brother's like, I really want

to get a car, and like I don't know what to get and this and the other. And I was like,

you can have the RC seven in like this pile of parts I have for it, but you know, you can't ever sell it, you know type thing.

And so he's like, yeah, deal, so good deal. Yeah,

so great.

Gave him the car, give him all the parts, and then you know, helped him get a few more things for it, like when we it was closer to getting ready to run and yeah, so he drives that car.

Now.

It's just talking to him on the way up here, telling him when I was going to do this afternoon, you know, and he's like, oh that's awesome, you know.

And so you're really close to your brother, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, he's great. So younger brother two years older, younger sister,

right yeah, younger sister, and.

So yeah, we we talked like it's funny. We uh,

I call it going to church.

We talk every Sunday and just like yeah, so it's well, it's like we kind of like it's one of those things where you lose track of time, right if you don't like keep in touch with people. Yeah, And so

there's a while there where we just wouldn't talk for like weeks or months. You know, you don't even realize

how much time goes by. And then it was it

was during COVID, like you know, you start kind of calling people little more often, like in that time when you're just like, you know, stuck in the house. And

so it was like at that time, so I was like, yeah, twenty twenty, I was like, yeah, we're gonna talk every Sunday.

Are you religious? Do you go to church or you

just call church?

Yeah, So it's like it's like all right, like time to go to church. Like you know, you would just

like laugh about She's like you go to church yet, Like no, I gotta call him.

That's really good. My sister's five years younger than me.

And there was years ago we got in the argument over something super stupid.

It always is.

Yeah, it was so dumb, right, Like it was something like I think it was like about an Instagram post, but I can't remember.

For me, it was something so dumb.

And then I didn't speak to her for two years, Oh I believe it?

Yeah right, and I will cup One morning and I was going, am I going to be that guy that dies without like communicating with, you know, your only sister?

So I called her and I was like, look, I don't know what we argued about, and I actually don't care, but I'll apologize whatever it is, I'm sorry, And then.

She just starts to cry, right, and I was like, yeah, let's not do that. Let's not let's not like argue.

And then one day we get old and we die, and then our story is that, you know, like we didn't speak to each other over.

Something stupid, right at least something. Yeah, And it's like

somebody needs to do it, you know what I mean?

Yeah?

No, And that's that's you know, big on you for taking that initiative, because it's so easy to just like, oh, well, well they're not calling, you know, and like that's usually what happens, and that's like how just people go their separate ways, right, But it's you know, one thing I've learned in like recent years, like you can't change people.

They're going to act the way they're gonna act. Either

accept them for who they are or move on. Did

something have to switch in your head? Because that's something

that a milion like we talked about this like this year.

I mean, I'm making a conscious effort to just that'd be so hard on people, right because I'm like they fucked me over or like, you know, they did something that I don't agree with, Like I'm cutting them off right, and I'm like and this year, like I don't want to do that. I don't want to be that guy anymore.

It's too much.

It's like carrying a bag of rocks.

Yeah, yeah, I know, it's just yeah, it is like, yeah, it's just a bunch of baggage that you don't really want to deal with. And well, I guess for me

it was I was previously married for like eleven years and my new partner lives my fiance now. I mean

she's fantastic and really like understands like how to communicate with people and how to like understand either what people are saying or like what they're trying to get across here like reading like you know, body language, things like that, and so really like is helping me to like you know, learn like those fundamentals of like like this is like this house person is going to be and either you know, you have to accept those behaviors and you know, and if you want a relationship with them, like you'll have to, like you said, like work at it. And you can't

hold that against her if you're the one that wants to have the relationship. Things like that that like, you know,

she makes me think a lot about some of that, which is good. I appreciate that because I would be

the stubborn type to just like whatever, just you know, walk away.

Yeah, we need that sound partner in crime to slap you around a little bit.

We'll say, to keep you grounded.

Are you hyper competitive Chris?

Yeah?

Yeah, I mean, because that's that's what got you where you are today, that being the winningest.

A T shirt?

Right, But I mean, I'm sure there's pros and cons to it, Like over years, have you found a balance where it doesn't seep into like life in the negative way?

I mean, I guess so i'd like to think.

So I'm trying to not be so hyper competitive because it does you know, consumer time, Like you know, the more the more time and effort you put into something, the more successful you're going to be at it. Right

of course, and so but yeah, you have to have a balance, right. I've been doing this for over twenty

years now, and so I guess. But what gets it

to me is like once we kind of like get like going in in an event or at the track, like, yeah, I get like way too competitive, trying to be like you know, like the fastest or whatever, and like like what can I do.

To make the car better?

Like we just got invited to that the fat International Ice Race. They usually have it over in Switzerland, pretty

awesome event, and then they had it in Aspen this year for the first time, and it was also open to multiple manufacturers for the first time. And so I

was driving the Safari package, the new nie on Zi that they had. So they brought that car out and

you know, it's like, yeah, this'll be a fun weekend.

You know, like go out and like you know, rip the car around, you know, like get some mangle, get some cool photos and content will be great. And it's

like as soon as the times dropped, I was like, oh wait, we're like we're like sitting like you know, hop five right now, it's all that sounds like start messing with the car, trying to like figure out how I can get a couple more tents out of it, you know, like once again, Like you know, mindset going in is like we're just here to have a good time.

You know, we got invited, this is great, and so we were where fourth just missed it, but you was away with like anger anger.

I wouldn't say anger, but yeah, it was definitely just you know, bad mood at least for like three minutes.

You know.

I don't know why they're going to say three months.

Months Normally, like if it's like a FD event or something like that, like like it'll linger for days, you know, maybe even weeks, but it's uh but yeah, like I was like, I was like let it go, you know.

But like that's like that instant like mindset of like like just missed it, you know. Yeah, that's that hyper competitiveness.

I guess you could.

I had to like shut it down because it's okay to be competitive to a degree. But what I'm struggling

with and like I'm working on, is that it causes me to be jealousy and I don't like that. I

don't like that version of myself where you know, like what Jeff, you know, was sharing with us today to to be in awe of other people's accomplishments. Right, I'm like, oh,

I'm gonna really work on.

That versus like why aren't I doing that? I'm not

doing enough?

Yes, I do it to myself all the time, and that's that's something that like eats me up. It consumes me.

And I'm like, you know, being competitive, it's like it makes you like wake up and be disciplined and go, Okay, I'm gonna push myself to this. But then it gets

to a point where, like when you're sitting alone and the voices start talking to you, you just like I get consumed, Like I get hot.

And I'm like, yeah, wait, why not me?

And like who is this person? It's like it's not

fair and all this nonsense, you know what I mean.

Yeah, I've definitely had those feelings.

You know.

It's you can't be successful and have that kind of mindset.

Like However, the saying goes like, you know, all ships rises, the sea rises, right, so it's like, yeah, you have to like build other people up.

You can't be trying to knock them down. You knock

yourself down.

Yeah. Yeah, And it's not a zero some game.

Yeah, exactly.

You know, like certain people have certain goals, like you know, like you're successful in a certain way, and you're successful in a certain way, and everybody has a different goal of what or a vision of what success is, right, and so you can't be jealous of one person's success because like you have your own path. And so I'm

like preaching to myself right now because it's like the same thing, like I've felt that way before, like seeing other people like.

Accomplish something like why don't I get that? Like why

did I do that?

Because I'm not putting effortwards that. Yeah, you know, so

you just gotta be proud of people for you know, achieving their goals.

Yeah, well, said Chris.

It's nice to get in the mind of a champion, like have access to like you know, how you think, what your ethos is, and most of it is it's almost common sense, but it is.

It's mentality.

Yeah.

Yeah, like you know, treat other people the way you want to be treated. Yeah, it's as simple as that.

It goes around around.

Yeah, You're just it's a great example of like a template to follow is that, you know, there's so many people that give like excuses of like you know, well, hey dude, what's your dream. It's like, oh, I want

to be a drifter, but I can't like when not well because no one, like no one taught me, like you know, my dad doesn't even drive, or like I don't have that kind of money. It was like why

am I going to do it? Like I don't live

in la, I don't live by racetrack. It's like, let's

go and study Chris Forsberg. Right, it's like self taught,

like you know, and it starts with this like love affair, this passion to like you know, like work on cars.

And it's been really nice to sit down with you and really get to know you. I've been looking forward

to this opportunity for years because thanks, I would see you like I see you at like Seema, I see you at some events and then and it's this bigger than life kind of character because it's like champion, No, I mean to you, you see yourself, right, and but then to others it's like, you know, you see the accolades, you see the winning this the title, right, So it's really nice to get to know the person behind you know, the man, right.

So yeah, no thanks and yeah It's one of those things like how we talked about earlier, like you're just kind of going like one step at a time, and you know, you don't even realize, like you know, things that you accomplish like over twenty years until you start like stop and look back because it's like, oh, this is the next event, This is the next event, next.

Thing to do.

Easy idiot caught up in it. You know.

Somebody asked me the question this year because they were like talking about this movie I did twenty years ago, and they're like, what has changed then? You know, it's

like do you think, like you know, you've accomplished success and like what is your definition of success?

Right?

And I don't know where I got this answer, because I was like, this is a brilliant answer. I just

came with the fact that even I still am passionate about something that wakes me up, and that that motivates me to be a better person, to be the better version of myself, to constantly learn and grow. Like I

was like, that is my definition of the fact that I actually still care about something that's really good.

It's a luxury to have passion. Yeah, it's a blessing.

Thank you, So much for joining us.

Thanks for having me though, this is awesome.

Yeah.

When I saw the podcast get launched, I was like, I don't really want to get on that, and then yeah.

You guys reached out and so very cool.

Thank you, so yeah, thank you

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