GRIDLIFE Champion, Dewey Dewitt talks GRIDLIFE sale, building RACECARS in 2026
Konig - Behind The Wheel Podcast
GRIDLIFE Champion, Dewey Dewitt talks GRIDLIFE sale, building RACECARS in 2026
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Car
Porsche 911 (997)
The Porsche 911 (997) is a version of the famous 911 sports car made between 2004 and 2012. Some of these cars had engine problems called bore scoring, but many are still great to drive and own.
Term
bore scoring
Bore scoring means the inside of the engine's cylinders gets scratched or worn out, which can make the car run badly or break down. Some Porsche 911 (997) cars had this problem.
Concept
race series
A race series is like a sports league where many car races happen over time, all following the same rules.
Concept
live stream
A live stream is like watching a car race on your phone or computer while it is happening.
Concept
Formula Drift
Formula Drift is a car race where drivers slide their cars around corners to show skill and speed.
Concept
GRIDLIFE
GRIDLIFE is a type of car race event where people race on tracks and also have fun with car shows and drifting. It's like a big car party with racing.
Company
IAG
IAG is a company that makes car engines and parts better, especially for Subaru cars. They help make cars faster and stronger for racing.
Brand
Subaru
Subaru is a car company from Japan that makes cars known for being good in races and on rough roads because of their special engines and all-wheel-drive. Many people like to race and modify Subaru cars.
Term
platform
A platform is like the basic structure and parts that many cars share, like the frame and engine setup, so they can be built more easily and perform well.
Term
K series engine
The K series engine is a type of Honda engine that many people like to put into older cars because it can make them faster and is easy to work on.
Term
B series engine
The B series engine is an older Honda engine that people used before the K series came out. Many swapped it out for the newer K series to get more power.
Term
cast piston
Cast pistons are made by pouring melted metal into a shape to make the piston. They are cheaper but not as strong as pistons made by squeezing metal under pressure.
Term
ring land issues
Ring land issues happen when the thin parts of a piston that hold the rings crack or break, causing the engine to lose power or get damaged.
Car
Subaru EJ25 engine
The EJ25 is an engine made by Subaru that has four cylinders lying flat. Some versions had problems with parts inside the engine breaking under stress.
Term
turbo engine
A turbo engine has a special part called a turbocharger that pushes more air into the engine so it can make more power.
Term
cylinder walls
Cylinder walls are the inside parts of the engine where the pistons slide up and down. Thicker walls help the engine last longer and handle more power.
Term
boost
Boost means pushing extra air into the engine using a turbo or supercharger so the engine can make more power.
Concept
aftermarket
Aftermarket means parts or upgrades you can add to your car that weren't made by the original car company. People use these to make their cars faster, cooler, or different.
Concept
Nürburgring
The Nürburgring is a famous race track in Germany where car makers test their fast cars to see how well they perform.
Term
cable operated transmission
A cable operated transmission means the car changes gears using cables that connect the gear stick to the engine parts.
Term
proper fuel systems
Proper fuel systems mean the parts that bring fuel to the engine are better and stronger, so the engine gets enough fuel when it needs more power.
Term
stage two
Stage two means the second level of upgrades to make a car faster. It usually means bigger parts and better tuning to get more power.
Term
transswap
A transswap means changing the car's transmission to a better or different one to make the car work or perform better.
Car
Subaru FA engine
The Subaru FA engine is a type of engine that Subaru uses in some of their cars. It works well with the STI transmission when swapping.
Term
driveshaft extender
A driveshaft extender is a part that makes the connection between the engine and wheels longer so everything fits right when you change parts inside the car.
Term
manual transmission
A manual transmission is a type of car gearbox where the driver changes gears themselves using a pedal and stick, giving more control but needing more skill.
Term
torquey engine
A torquey engine is one that can push the car strongly from a stop or at low speeds, making it feel powerful and quick.
Term
heel-toe downshifting
Heel-toe downshifting is a way to use the pedals in a manual car so you can slow down and change gears smoothly without jerking the car.
Term
brand awareness
Brand awareness means how many people know about a company and what it sells, which helps the company sell more products.
Car
Ford Raptor
The Ford Raptor is a special kind of truck made by Ford that is really good at driving on rough dirt roads and trails. It has a strong engine and special parts to help it go fast and handle bumps.
Term
concave
Concave means the middle part of the wheel is pushed inward, making it look like a bowl.
Term
wheel clearance
Wheel clearance means making sure the wheels have enough room so they don't hit other parts of the car like the brakes.
LIVE
All right, so we're just going right back to what we're doing.
So like, but here, so, so I, I agree.
I mean, I think, I, I think, you know, some of our stuff is, is trending a little bit
older because these are the cars that we found nostalgic, right?
And now we're in a financial position where we can buy them, you know, one of the 98 ones
or the 98 sevens, you know, uh, you know, like a, like a boxer came in kind of thing
or even, even some of the 997 stuff that has obviously come down in price sort of.
There's a caveat.
There's a caveat there.
97 stuff.
Yeah.
GT threes and the fancy models are all going to be done.
Yeah, they're gone.
They're gone.
Even, even, and we're not talking about even like some of the, some of the, you know, some
of the S's and even some of the, you know, turbos and stuff, we're talking about stuff
that's going to be double the price of just the basic, you know, 997 or something.
But, you know, the thing is like the 997, as long as you didn't have the bore scoring
issue, it was a good car.
It drove great.
It was amazing.
Yeah, absolutely.
So, um, so I can see a lot of people doing that, then you have also our generation people
that are combining the two that like, like my friend is now, you know, they're starting
to do like, uh, the K swaps into the ones that have the bore scoring issues.
Yes.
It, we're actually starting to see that Adam Jabay with the grid light actually doing
one of those right now, too, which is sick.
I love it so much.
I know.
Yeah.
But he's not, he's not using the K, he's not using the K swap.
He's using, uh, he's using the Audi 2.7 motor, I think.
That's new to me.
I just know he's swapping.
He's, I think he's swapping.
I might have just blown the doors out of it.
Hey, listen, you know, listen, as long as we're doing, as long as we're blowing doors
off, we might as well just say, hey, how do you feel about the whole grid life sale?
I mean, if we're going there, we're going there.
Well, I guess, as well, I read that yesterday.
Okay.
Now, first off, I'm about to my own horn.
I feel pretty bad as well.
But, um, so this goes up.
I've probably see it 10 minutes after Greyser, it's motorsports drops.
They're super quick.
Yeah.
And I was like, oh my God, what the hell is happening now?
I knew because I know Chris and Adam well enough to know that they've been strung out
the past couple of years and those boys have worked real hard to do what they've done for
us.
And I was, I was worried when I read that, I'm like, oh man, they, they just cashed out
and got out of here.
Um, I posted something up on my Facebook wall because I wanted to see what everybody thought
about it.
And, uh, it, within 10 minutes, I was on the phone with Chris Stewart and he called me.
He writes edit.
Well, I immediately like, I have a great call with Chris Stewart.
He lays out what this actually is because what that looks like is private equity came
in and bought it.
Yeah.
But it's not.
No, it was some, it was the guys long racer.
Okay.
And they're, they're insidudes.
They got a lot of money.
That's a Dyson's.
It was a marketing company and grid life, kind of creating a, a separate entity in Chris,
whom I have the utmost respect for.
And anytime I've ever thought this isn't going to work, Chris has proved me wrong.
Um, still own stake in that, that new company.
Yeah.
So it's not private equity coming in and going, okay, we're going to milk this thing for everything
it is.
And it's not some like large corporation that doesn't understand what this is buying it
to try to sell spark plugs or something.
Right.
That's not what this is.
In the end, it's actually kind of a media company buying this for content.
They just want us to keep doing what we're doing, which I say we, because I think grid
life as a community flames grid life is their own.
And I think grid life wants it that way.
And so we, we are all a part of that story.
And I think this is just going to get that story out more after talking to Chris, right?
After I talked to Chris, I am 100% championing this.
I think it's great.
So what's interesting to me is that, um, so just so everybody knows, I mean, I could
provide contacts.
I've known them for probably 20 years.
Not that we're best buds, but like we've done business before.
I know them.
We've had conversations, but the owner of the ID agency is a gentleman named Victor
Carrillo and Victor, um, he came from automotive companies.
He started out with CC back in the day, class Edinburgh corporation.
And then, you know, he's kind of climbed his realm up.
He went, um, to some, I think he was with a Rikaro.
I think at one point he, I don't know if he was with BBS, but he, he moved around to some
of those things.
And then all of a sudden he realized there was an, you know, a need that he can start
his own agency.
He has, he's successfully had that agency for, you know, probably 20, 20 years or so,
maybe even a little bit more.
And the people that work with him are long respected people like Greg Emerson, who was
the editor in chief of Euro tuning magazine for a million years.
So, um, so yeah, they, and they've been the agency record for formula drift for a long
time.
And so, so yeah, these are all still automotive people.
And I think that that kind of goes to, to back up your point of what you were saying.
And look, I, you know, I, uh, I know Chris and I know Adam, um, I don't know that I
speak to them all the time, but, but in any conversations I've had, it's more with Adam,
I think, than Chris is, you know, like they were, they were really running around like
going crazy, trying to make sure everything was good and the experience was super high
and the series got better.
Yeah, just renting a track has gotten so expensive.
Yeah.
It's this huge thing that they are moving around and to make it work, prices were going
up and they were trying to keep the prices the same level for the rest of us.
And it was, it was unsustainable.
I have to be real.
It was without some sort of help.
They had no room to move.
They cut everything they could.
Lots of people got pissed off when HPV went away and things of that.
They had to, they had no room to move.
If a lot of the things that people have been pissed off about in the past, like say three
years, this is going to allow them movement to maybe have some of that stuff again too.
Yeah, maybe.
I think that the hard part, like you said is, you know, when you talked about the whole
idea of, you know, coming in as a media company and different things like that, I mean, look,
I know, I don't know much about, but, you know, Chris Dyson is a driver himself.
So, so, you know, he comes from, from that history of knowing what programs are supposed
to be like, knowing how, you know, race, you know, race series are supposed to be conducted.
So I think that there's, there's a potential lot of good things that could happen there
for grid life on the race series organization side.
And then the media thing is always a tough part for me, not because I think there's any
ill intentions, but because I think media can go one or two ways, either it becomes
the way where we're using this as a lot of media content, it gets out there, we're going
to do a good job, we're going to, you know, get this stuff, you know, take the live stream
to a new height, do this thing that, or it can potentially go the way of trying to use
partners and different things like that to essentially try to build this huge monetization
tunnel.
Now, there's not, there's nothing wrong with that on the surface.
That's how businesses work and that's how they should work.
But the potential issue could potentially be, I know I'm using potential, but the reason
is because I don't have a clue, like I'm speculating to the highest extent and I just don't want
it to be one of those things, but they sometimes with media comes the idea that you have to
figure out a way to put a heavy monetization on it and that sometimes has a weird byproduct
that can happen.
I would argue the same thing has happened with Formula Drift and some of the other series,
they have the best intentions, but as things start to shake down, media turns into partnerships
and acquisitions and things you have to do to be able to pay the bills, which sometimes
can get cloudy.
But I don't know that that's what's going on.
I'm just saying.
Fair enough.
Yeah.
And that could get terrifying really quick.
I totally agree with you.
Yeah.
And there's no way.
And again, I'm not saying that's what's going to happen.
I'm not.
I don't have any.
I'm just saying like I we've been doing this long enough where we can see how things shape
up and sometimes they're just a byproduct of trying to do one thing and you end up in
a certain situation because that's how you pay the bills.
Yeah.
You know.
Yep.
So I what I was really surprised to see is the amount of people trying to point at a
red line time attack and what happened with that to this and they're so drastic.
Yeah.
And not it's not even in the same world.
Right.
Well, that was so I want to put that out there too.
Like that's that is not even remotely the same thing.
The story of red line, which a podcast I just recently listened to, I think it was a perfect
lab podcast had the original founder of red line on that was super interesting.
We're going to chance listen to that.
But these these are couldn't be two different more two different stories.
I just like I want to make sure that's out there.
Sure.
You know, a lot of people will mean due to time attack and these are this is not the
same thing.
Yeah.
I also think it's important to point out just because I think I have enough enough of an
understanding of Chris and Adam and some of these people on a personal level to be able
to say that, you know, you have to understand when you start a business, we start this thing.
I mean, Chris is a guy that that to throw an event mortgage to mortgage his house.
Right.
Like it's not that he hasn't already put put the stuff on on risk.
And he's been doing it for years now, decades.
And you know, and so with that said, you know, you're starting to get to a point where you
have to understand that these people are like they have families, they have lives.
Like, you know, at some point, you have to take the road of how do I make this sustainable
so I can live?
Yeah.
Right.
And it's a big job.
And there's a lot of things that come and there's a lot of risk that comes involved with racing
when you own a business.
It's tied to racing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it's they're not big money in this.
I don't know how anybody thinks at the end that anybody is getting rich because nobody
is.
Right.
Yeah.
So it's interesting.
So so kind of bridging off of of the of the grid life, you know, kind of recent update.
It brings it.
So so you're running you're running a program.
Kind of give us give me give me a little bit of oversight as far as look, here's the thing.
I think there's there's a lot of you've done some other podcasts where you've talked about
your, you know, your own racing and some of your career and your history and some of the
things you've done.
And I want to and I want to touch on some of that stuff.
But so how does the IAG I mean, obviously, we know you work for IAG, but how does the
IAG circle work and kind of weave into your program?
So I mean, in the end, the the thing we're looking for as IAG, and most people know us
for building engines, we're trying to prove that you can take a Subaru and compete with
it at a high level.
And you know, the amount of people that will tell you you can't out there, it's it's unreal
I have to be be, you know, honest.
It took a long time to get the program to where it is.
And at no point would I be able to be there without IAG's help.
Right.
And we've learned a lot both ways, you know, me working for IAG and some of what we've
learned is went into our engines and then the other way around it's it's we've we've
came a long way together.
But last season, we went nine events, same engine, and I can't say that for a lot of
BMW powered things, which everybody seems to think is God's gift to time attack these
days.
Right.
Yeah.
That's interesting.
Good.
I've never thought of looking at the BMWs as a reliable platform, let alone.
I mean, don't get me wrong, the car itself, but not the engine, like the N54, B58s, they're
I mean, you can make power out of them.
They have problems.
This is like the Mitsubishi versus a Subaru argument.
You're going to have to you're going to have the BMW guys that are going to super disagree
and tell you a bulletproof at all.
Listen, if any of them have the same mileage I have on my VQ, we'll have that conversation.
But I've done spark plugs on my that's the only thing I've done on my entire engine and
it's still kicking and they've already done everything.
Oh, sure.
You know, look, we all know that the different models that maybe were plagued with some some
things.
But yeah.
So so on the on the Subaru level, I mean, like you said, going a whole season, you had you
had a number of wins, a lot of wins, you guys stack them up, but in addition to that, you
also like you said, campaigned a car that the engine didn't have to be messed with all
season long.
And obviously, there's a lot of learning that has gone up to that point existing.
But you can argue that that made a better product for IAJ, because that that real that
real feedback and development was happening to the point where any time there was something
to critique, they could do it and they can make a kind of aversion change within what
they were doing.
Yes.
So we again, we learned a lot, especially during the 23 season.
Some changes were made.
I, you know, I could, I'm not going to get into too much in the weeds, because honestly,
I'm, I'm not the engineer to talk to about that, but some changes were made.
It definitely was for the better.
But again, we learned a lot from that.
Not only that, you're it's a really smart guy who used to work for IAJ, and I love
them to pieces.
Rick, his his thing was always saying rising tide raises all boats.
So if one Subaru is winning, that means the entire Subaru community is coming with it,
you know, and next year, you're going to see a flood of this.
You've got companies like Subi mods, you know, they're sponsoring all sorts of drivers,
turning concepts, bringing stuff in.
And now I can't say which names are coming, but like, we're getting a lot of big names
into this class now who will be driving Subaru's.
And a lot of that is due to the fact that we prove the platform can do it.
And do it at a high level.
And it's, uh, it's awesome to see that the whole community rises from it.
And, uh, you know, somebody's got to do it.
And it just happens to be us, which isn't a bad thing.
It's a really good thing, but, but so when we start talking about platform,
there's a few things that come to my mind for, for some of those people watching.
The first thing is we obviously have the chassis platform and then we have the
engine platform, right?
So, I mean, predominantly we're still talking about the EJ, right?
Yes.
Okay.
For now, for now.
I was going to actually ask about that later.
We're getting there.
Don't worry.
Yeah.
Yeah.
For now, um, for now, the, you got to understand the, the EJ is kind of like,
it's even, it even goes further back than like a Honda K series.
The EJ hasn't changed much since like 91.
Okay.
Like it is the same engine almost entirely.
So we have all of this aftermarket we can draw from and arguably it took us up
until about this point to figure out how to do it right.
Um, but you can, you can really make a crazy powerful EJ reliable these days.
And you couldn't do that even 20 years ago.
You know, it legitimately is 600 is the old 350.
So on that point, if we're talking the EJ has its limitations with the FA now,
that's kind of the question we're going to, are you going to start to see
the FA engine move into the older platforms, kind of like how, you know,
we've started to see the K series go into the older platform.
That's the perfect way to see that too.
I was a Honda head back in the day also.
So I, I saw the whole B series into K series.
I lived through that.
Um, and now all you see is K series put and that's cause you're crazy.
If you don't, do I see that happening?
Absolutely.
Um, do I see that happening right away?
No, and of the real reason for that is, and, um, I will get chastised a bit
for saying this, the VB was a flop.
It absolutely was.
And it just did not catch the imagination of the enthusiast at all.
Some of it was bad timing coming out of pandemic and everything else.
And then you couldn't get them.
And then they're just the price was way too high for what it was.
Um, it was up against some extraordinarily stiff competition, but the big thing
is it just didn't have an STI version.
Like, and it, it, it hurt it.
I know what I do believe is the new concept B, which, uh, Subaru at Tokyo
auto salon showed off in their attack you car.
Um, that was the closest thing to a production STI we've seen yet.
Uh, that, um, if we get that as an STI and they can keep that 55 K or less, I
think we're going to see a, uh, I think that engine is going to get real hot,
real fast.
Now you know, we're already working on the ability to stick an FA into older cars,
whether it be an older FA 20 with an older FA car with FA 20 heads.
We're working on messing with that a little bit and seeing how we can make
that work really efficiently and, um, doing stuff backwards compatible.
But also, uh, there's going to be a lot more conversation of sticking them
in older EJ platforms because that platform just makes power.
The heads just flow better.
It is a better platform to start with, but it's got some nasty hurdles.
We got to figure out.
So in regards, I'm sorry.
So in regards to the, the, uh, the, the FA is the heads really the limiting factor
out because I noticed that IG offers a FA 24 short block, but they don't
offer a long block for the FA 24.
And I was wondering, actually the heads party, like that's the thing is like
the heads, really all they need is a set of cams.
Um, TPG tuning did a whole thing on it where they're, we help sponsor that car
and they did some big numbers on it and cams, big turbo and whatever, they
picked up so much power on just cams.
It's big limiting factor right now is oil delivery.
Anything past about 7,500 and you are rolling the dice and that is going to hurt
it because it's still a small displacement engine in the grand scheme of things.
2.4 liter is not large.
So, and if you're trying to make big power, that's going to take a big turbo
and to really do that and do it right.
My EJ, I'm spinning to 9,500 that we're going to have to, you know, if you,
you've got to give it up at 65, 7,000 RPM, um, to keep it safe.
That's, that's worrisome.
So, um, we, we've got some development to do on that side.
Uh, we've got the engine that'll hold together.
We know it can make the power.
Uh, but we, if we really want to fat the power band up and really make it
something that like from a time attack standpoint, something I would be really
excited with, we're going to need to be able to fat that power band up.
And the only way to do that with a small displacement engine is going to be
reps.
All right.
So, so you think, you think the key there is to increase the, the
oiling capability?
Yes.
We have to figure out a way to raise red line and, and it's, it's not the
heads falling apart.
It's the, it is an oiling issue.
Uh, same thing that, that plagues the, uh, you know, the, the BRZs and the
FRS is, it's, it's the same thing.
So when we fix one, we will end up.
Yeah.
So, so now when it comes down to some of these engines, like short block wise,
as far as, you know, the bottom end are, are they pretty stout from the factory
or is this like, no, you got to build them.
They're not bad.
Um, the short block itself, it's still a cast piston.
Um, it doesn't have the ring land issues of the, uh, the EJ 25 specifically.
Um, it was designed to be a turbo engine from the get go.
Okay.
Um, you can see that the cylinder walls are a little bit thicker.
So you're a lot safer at that for 50 mark.
Then you were on an EJ by a long shot, but you're still, you, they kind of
they weren't made for big power and they had to think about efficiency when
they were building this, not the nineties mindset.
Um, over build the crap out of everything.
And then you guys just slam it with boost in the aftermarket.
Sure.
I didn't like that model though.
Yeah.
Man, it was great.
It was pretty good.
So, so kind of circling back a little bit because I, you know, I think the FAA thing
is, by the way, my take on the VB, the reason it never took off is because they
put those unpainted claddings all over the side of the cars.
They, they, there was a lot of miss marks on that car.
They miss so hard with that car.
And they, there were such small things they could have did to fix it.
Yeah.
I agree.
It was, that was rough, but what I'm surprised as the aftermarket though is, and
again, I'm saying we, but we don't really do body pieces.
No, I understand what you mean.
You mean we as an aftermarket, we should have grabbed onto that is this is the
easiest thing to upgrade.
Yeah.
And I could couple of companies.
Oh my God.
We're going to be able to just slap widebodies on this thing without even
trying, right?
Like I saw that and thought we were going to see all these crazy everybody was
going to have a wide body car.
It's going to be like the stage two thing.
But it, that never really came to fruition.
You, you saw like painted the, the painted cladding, but you really never
saw like the aftermarket grab onto that.
You know, that car just hit at a weird timing mark though.
It did, right?
Like you had, you had the pandemic thing that was kind of there, some
delivery issues on the car.
You had the whole, the, you know, tuning EPA thing kind of saturating into
people that were trying to be able to plug, do plug-in tunes.
Like there was, there was a lot of like little things that were happening and
then a few stylistic things.
The whole industry after the EPA started kicking the doors in of like
cop tuning and things like that, right, right.
Took giant gas and, uh, that was right in the middle of the VB, right
when it needed to start taking off and couldn't, right.
There was a lot that happened there.
But the other thing that killed them too is they were, they were STI prototypes
that were running around the Nurburgring already.
Like they were running STI.
Oh, you had this, this, anybody who was really tapped into this, who was
really an enthusiast and waiting for the new STI, they were waiting for the STI.
They just never came.
Right.
So they didn't buy the WRX.
They wanted this STI and it flat irons tuning just installed a six speed
in their, their VB.
Okay.
And if you, you don't know the, the, the VB uses a cable operated trans, not a
linkage operated trans, but the VB 100% was designed to take an STI style
six speed because all the bolt holes for them, they're already there and
threaded.
It's ready for you to just put it in.
Wow.
Like there was no reason for them to put that in there, but it's all there.
Like it was designed to have an STI version and they never gave it to us.
I've got theories on why I'm pretty sure Toyota pulled strings because they own
a good hunk of Subaru and said, we're going to get the GR Corolla out here and
we want this to be big and we don't want it to have much competition.
No STI.
I think that's what happened.
It's a good theory.
I mean, it's a good theory.
It's an interesting thing.
So it kind of going back to, to building a Subaru, right?
So if we're, if we're, if we're in the land of let's put ourselves into, let's
take this in stages, right?
So, so we start out and we are now going to be the, you know, first timer in
competing in a few grid life events kind of thing.
We're entering into time attack.
We're putting on a builds.
We have limited budget, but we have realistic budget, right?
We're saying to ourselves, we know we have to do some fairly decent mods to
this car to keep it livable and survivable and the whole thing.
Okay.
Now from an EJ standpoint, what, what can we get away with?
What are the go to mods?
Do we, should we just go right out of the box and, and do a build, do, do some
sort of bottom end?
Is that not really the thing you think they can hold together?
What makes a competitive EJ car?
We're going to just say right there.
I don't want to get into generational with chassis things yet.
But I mean, it isn't even a generational with chassis.
It's all kind of the same thing.
Right.
That's fair.
Um, so that's the beauty of this engine.
Not really changing all that much of reality of it is unless you have a, a
version seven through nine, uh, JDM EJ 207, you're probably going to need a bottom
end, um, that would just assume it's coming.
Okay.
Oil and components and then keeping your temperatures in check.
Now again, we're talking about let's, we're looking at grid life and we're
looking at what class could I put this in?
That would make sense.
More likely you're going to look at it and you're going to go street, make sense.
Okay.
Limited arrow.
The car still has to be mostly, you know, a NASTI with maybe some bolt-ons.
That's the concept, right?
But we're still talking stock turbo or a small-ish stock location thing.
Um, so all of those guys are running built bottom ends.
Um, if in, and again, it's, I say this all the time, it's cheap to race.
It's expensive to win.
Okay.
So it's, it's really cheap to get out there with a very basic STI, go out there
and lay some really good times down and have a great time and, and even go to the
track, you can go to the track with a very basic STI without having to turn it
up, you know, low three hundreds, safe tune, run some ethanol, keep your fuel
tank topped off.
So, you know, you don't got to worry about fuels.
The basic stuff, um, I'd recommend it with newer 200 treadwear tires.
I'd put a good baffled oil pan on like our oil pan killer B makes a thing too.
You know, just a good baffled oil pan and that could be a solid track car for you
for many years and it is unreal how capable that car is.
You'll run with them threes and basic Porsches and whatever.
And you have a great time.
You'll go out there and hang with your buddies.
That's not time attack.
That's going to have a good time at the track, which are two different things
and they're both awesome.
Those who just want to go have a good time at the track and then be able to drive
their car home or they want this thing to do dual duty or maybe they just love
Colin McCrae, you know, look at that.
That's great.
And you can keep that reliable.
Absolutely.
But when you start competing, the current when I ran street years ago, it was
about 320, 330 wheel was about it.
And then you had the EVO that I was running against making about three
50 or so because the stock turbo was just bigger.
Um, he, uh, it is now, if you don't make four to four 20, you're
screwed, though, the rules have kind of morphed a little bit and some
stuff's changed and ethanol's opened up now and people's bills are just better.
People drive better, but you're looking at 400 to 420 wheel that little
bit of a change that 60 wheel horsepower horsepower difference is everything.
Yeah, we're talking built engines, proper fuel systems, all sorts of stuff.
Now, if you want to compete, right?
No, I mean, that makes sense.
So now let's say we, we know, you know, kind of that whole premise with VEJ.
How does that compare maybe to an out of the box?
You know, the VB essentially take it.
If you were to go buy a VB and try that, this is the thing.
I think a VB, nobody's put in a real effort with a VB.
You can make 400 with a VB sneezing at it.
And if you were to it, the stage two for a VB is incredible.
It is unreal how quick those cars are.
I think a VB with 400 ish, you know, right in that ballpark could be competitive.
If somebody put a serious effort into it, but one of the things that hurts
it isn't even the engine.
It's the fact that you've got an open diff in the front.
You got an open diff in the rear.
You got a kind of a crummy center diff.
So we're looking at doing an STI transwap, no matter what, right?
You know, and then so the costs are going to start piling up in other places.
But that engine, mint, if somebody were to put a serious effort into it, I truly
believe you could get that up to the pointy end with not all that much effort.
They're not that much heavier in race trim either.
As like, you know, a GR or even a GD chassis.
Right.
So what does it take?
Complicated or kind of bolt in for doing an STI swap?
It's very straightforward.
That's the nice thing about, well, STI transwap.
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah, right.
Transwap literally is it.
That's the beauty of Subaru's is they are legitimately like Legos.
STI transbolts right to an FA engine.
Like the, yeah, the patterns all the same, all the mountings all there.
I even, like I said earlier, with the linkage and everything, all the holes
are there, right?
Like you need a little extender piece to, so the driveshaft sure makes up the
distance, but there's a couple of companies who make those and everything
else from a VA just bolts in.
That's crazy.
Yep.
So, so being that you've had experience now, now you've had several of the
chassis.
I know we were focusing, I know we went up, but you've been all over the place.
Now, I know boogie boogie man obviously is a GC, right?
What is there one chassis out of all of them that if you said, Hey, I'm
going to pick X engine, I'm going to pick X chassis.
What's the chassis you're choosing?
I know they're all similar, but I know they, there are some pros and cons to
each of them.
And I love putting you on the spot.
It depends on the class.
Okay.
It really, really does.
Um, if, right, if, if you're trying to do the least amount, um, you're
going to want something that started life as an STI in, in like, say street, but
if you're going to go into street mod, you're throwing half of it out or you're
going into track mod where you're going to throw even more out, those rules
change a little bit in my opinion, your, your two best chassis's and I'm, man,
I'm going to get struck for this one.
Best chassis one is GD.
It just is.
And, and that's, it's almost as light as a GC.
Okay.
But you have way more room for wheel and tire, but the chassis is significantly
stiffer.
Okay.
It is, it's not even comparable.
Uh, the chassis significantly stiffer and even from an aerodynamic standpoint,
it's still a good chunk better than a GC.
Now the next one would be, depending on what we're trying to do, I would, I would
actually put the, the GC four door specifically in the, uh, the G V.
So that would be the, uh, the sedan, uh, 11 to 14 STI kind of tied.
And then I would put the GC two door after that.
Interesting.
Cause that 11 to 14.
That was the odd one out there.
Now the reason for that is one, that, that chassis has so much room for
tire clearance.
I have grown to hate and then all in love with that chassis all over again.
Once you're trying to build things, uh, helping, um, helping my tuner and
really close friend, Graham, uh, kind of working with him on his and seeing his,
the, how, how it's, uh, evolved.
It gives you so much room for cooling that you don't have in these other
chassis's, you have plenty of room for proper, uh, entrance and exits with ducting.
You've got all the room in the world for tire.
The chassis is still crazy stiff.
You don't care that the interior is shit because you're going to throw it all out
anyway, right?
Exactly.
It's going to be the trash can and all of the stuff that everybody loves about
the VA, the quick steering rack, all of, all of that just bolts in, right?
Like what made a VA great other than the interior being a lot nicer and it kind
of looking nicer, uh, is, is better in a GV, but you also don't deal with the
cooling issues of a VA, the VA STI specifically has cooling issues.
The, the shape of that nose does not play nice with, with, uh, just basic radiator
upgrades and stuff like that.
There's not a good place to put oil coolers.
It's just, it's, it's got its own problems.
Now with that stated, you know, there's the aftermarket has done a lot for it.
We have this crazy ass radiator or whatever to make it work.
But you, if you, you're just picking something to start from the GV.
And like I said, the GC four door, because the four door is more
structurally sound than the two door.
That's interesting.
I mean, these are the insights that I wanted to know.
Cause I, I never knew about the GV having any, like, I thought that was the
redheaded stepchild of the bunch.
I thought that everyone was like, oh, that's
little red, more redheaded.
Um, the, the, the reason I don't put the hatch in there is because if you're,
you are trying to do street monitor up and I, I love Mike Omic, but man, he
is fighting an uphill battle with that car, um, is he's dealing with the hatch
and aerodynamically that car is fighting him.
Hmm.
So it's a better rally car than it is a time attack car.
Cause I mean, that was, that was the chem block.
That was the, the chem block that everyone that sort of stuff, it's sick.
And if, if really what you're trying to, if you're looking for like a street car
or whatever, and you kind of vibe with a hatch more sweet, that's, that's not
the conversation here.
If we're talking time attack or a track car specifically, and it's not even
that car can't, it can compete just in street monitor, something that's going
to deal with a whole lot of arrow.
It's going to become more of an issue.
You've got guys like Josh Helka or, uh, you know, a few other guys who, who
have won championships with, uh, the hatch in street, because there's
not aftermarket arrow involved in the situation.
Gotcha.
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
Okay.
So one of the things I've always wanted to do if, and I've always had it in the
back of my brain, we almost did it when I burned the car down at Laguna after
23 is I want to take Boogie's engine.
I want to stuff it in a BRZ.
I want to put an eight HP behind it.
Yeah.
I'm telling you, it would be maybe Supra and be terrifying.
Yeah.
Um, I, I think it'd be sick.
So we've actually had Greg from turbo lamik on previously and that
transmission is off the charts.
Like we say that transmission, but like there's like three or four versions.
They're kind of associated to your power levels.
So, yeah, but, um, yeah, no, we, we've had that conversation with the past.
And I'm actually working on it.
I've had this conversation with you in the past with the, with my Z.
I'm actually putting it on that.
So it's definitely one of those, one of those wants to look at.
I actually had that question on here.
Cause I think I, you had mentioned it in other podcasts.
You were like flagship in the eight HP and they were all doubting you.
And you're like, no, you guys don't understand this thing is going to be the
future.
So I'm glad that somebody besides us.
It absolutely is.
And it, it, it really, it almost negates the need for a sequential.
Like we just got a sequential gear set and buggy.
It's so good.
It almost negates the need for a sequential.
And now they're starting, there's, there's a push to figure out how to get
the all wheel drive ones working.
So we're, there's, there's, uh, adapter plates to try to stick them up to
EJs and stick them in.
So if we, that's going to be massive, you know, if a street mod car can
stick an eight HP and like, there's no reason to really do a sequential.
Now, when that stated, I don't know how far that is off and what we're
going to, what that's going to take.
And I got a feeling it's going to be a little more expensive than people realize,
but it's coming.
It's coming quick.
Man, I'll tell you though, like I kind of hope it doesn't catch on because I'm
worried the price is out there.
Like honestly, like here's the thing.
I, I wish I could speak to my, you know, older self at this point and say,
you idiot, why aren't you buying all of these?
You know what I mean?
I feel like I could hoard these things.
Um, because the writings on the wall, they just are that good.
They're just that tunable.
They're just that, you know, basic and stout.
And like you name all the adjectives you want that equate to something you'd
want as a gearbox and the eight HP does it.
It does it from a performance standpoint, like give me the old three
pedals stick for driving enjoyment.
Okay.
It's the same old Porsche guys, stuff like that.
If, if this is more of a street car, I think you'd have more fun with a stick.
I really do.
But if we're talking a track car, there's so many things that eight HP can do
that, like we're, I'm having issues with my sequential, especially like
downshifting and its ability to like smooth the downshift.
So it doesn't upset the car.
Like we're still trying to figure that out in the sequential and make that work.
And then like I had an issue at, uh, at the, the pit race of that where my
strain gauge in my shifter, uh, started freaking out and I had to go back to
running three pedals with a sequential and, and that's, you know, that sort of
stuff is just gone for the most part.
Once it's, once it works, it just works.
It just does what it needs to do.
Yeah.
It's interesting though, because like, like, I mean, kind of going back to even
when we were speaking to, you know, Greg, it's like he, the amount of stuff that
they're able to do, especially with, you know, just one of their turbolamic boxes
and stuff like that, they can have it basically, it can work, it can work as a
manual, it can, like, I mean, it's just incredible how many things it can do and
how, uh, how far you can take it as far as the customization and programming
and, and things like that.
So, so as far as the driver enjoyment, you can almost have both.
I agree with you when I'm not saying it's the same.
I'm not saying it's the same.
But you can put the third pedal in.
Have you seen the, the pedal potentiometers that they put it?
Listen, it's there.
It sounds like the fake speakers.
Oh, come on.
So it's not real.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I, I get, I get it.
It's like the, it's like the, the front wheel drive drifting Hyundai.
You know, yeah, I got you.
I, I just think, I just think that there is a, especially when you're building
cars, I think that, you know, look, I'm, I'm a guy that I want to have a manual
car, especially when I'm going to go and it's going to be my not primary driver,
right?
But I do acknowledge, I do acknowledge that if I was building something for the
track and I was more concerned about being the most competitive, absolutely,
that an automatic, especially one that's good, that good is going to shift
faster than I and my fat mozzarella fingers ever can.
Yes.
No, and not only that, like, even if you were to get everything right, and
there's still the whole.
A manual transmission due to its simplicity will end up putting more
power to the ground.
Okay.
But with that stated, is that enough to offset the, the amount of driver
error that you are going to put into the, you know, and there is, you
might get it right one lap out of 50, you're going to get, you know, 48 laps
correct with the eight HP set up correctly.
Yeah.
I think the consistency of it is key, but I also, I, I also think the gear
advantage, having the extra two gears does that your advantage, maybe not as
much in your, your particular aspect that you guys see it in, but from a
streetcar standpoint, I love the fact that, you know, I can have a decently
driving car on the street and still be able to take it out and actually use
it and have usable power.
You know, we've, we've talked about doing a six, 700 horsepower build doing
that on a manual transmission can be annoying to drive on the street.
And I've always looked at it as this, the eight HP would give me those
best of both worlds out there where I can have the, the good powerful
torquey engine and not have to have a clutch that supports it.
But your second car should be a manual.
If you can't heel toe properly, like you, you aren't even going to be able
to appreciate what that eight HP is doing.
Yeah.
That's true.
Yeah.
Well, I can't heel toe properly.
So I'm out of luck.
C 32s are not conducive to heel toe yet.
The trans tunnel from, from IG's perspective, I've, you know, I've, I've
kind of watched them, you know, for a long time.
And I've kind of seen their progression go from Subaru base to really starting
to expand their horizons as far as, you know, what they're doing.
What are some of the other platforms they're really looking at?
And, um, I don't, you don't have to go too far out.
If it's like, you know, yeah, but you know, what are some of the other, the
main things that IG is looking for?
This kind of goes into our conversation earlier though, like when the, the same
thing that happened with a VB, when the EPA can crash in and everything, like I
got to be real, every single performance company went, we need to see what else
we can do to keep these lights on.
Right.
Only that it makes sense to diversify, you know, if all of that goes away
tomorrow, like what does everybody go home?
Of course we've got to diversify.
So it made sense.
And not only that, we had this production capability and the engineers
to make some really cool parts for a couple of different platforms.
So the first one we ventured into was Bronco, um, with small stuff, uh, this
like, it was wild cause I didn't know much about Broncos.
And honestly, it's really not my scene.
I tend to be over on the performance side, but some of the stuff those
guys are doing over there is really incredible.
One of the first things I noticed is in a Bronco, there isn't like a, uh, like
a shock system to open up the rear gate.
It's just like a stick, like it's a hood.
It was, it was insanity.
So that was like one of the first things we did.
Sold a fricking ton of them.
And then we started doing steps.
The, the easy on steps were, they were, they just sold like crazy.
And we built a really good community within Bronco.
And now they started messing around with, uh, with some of the other
Fords, uh, like the Ranger Raptor and stuff.
We, we brought our, uh, IEG AOS over into a bunch of these platforms.
And that's worked out really well.
You know, stuff that we've learned from Subaru is also applied over here,
especially since a lot of those engines are direct injection and we, some
of the stuff we found with the FAA early on, because it's not port and direct
injection, unless it's a BRZ, um, you can, you can prolong the need to have
to, you know, do walnut blasting and all the crap built up on the back of your
valve.
So it was, it was huge for, that was easy to explain to a boomer.
I have no other way of putting that, you know, like it will help you.
And so those did really well.
And we've got a bunch of other little parts, but then we started
messing around with, uh, Toyota pickup trucks.
We're starting to mess with that Jeep stuff.
So we've got a whole IEG off road platform.
Also, that is, you know, starting to do some really, really good work
over there too.
Um, at first, I think we did confuse our customers a little bit because you'd
go to IEG performance to see Bronco parts, and Subaru parts.
And I'm happy to say that that is properly split now, but it was a little
weird for a while when you're like, you're a hardcore Subaru enthusiast
and you're getting blasted with a bunch of Bronco stuff.
Um, but we, you know, we got to sort it out and, and like they're doing,
they're doing really, really good stuff over there and it's, it's awesome.
So that's, that's kind of the other side of what IEG has been up to.
And honestly, one of the reasons that, you know, we continue to be able to
grow and do cool things, uh, one hand feeds the other for sure.
The majority of what we do is still Subaru performance.
Um, as far as what's actually like keeping the lights on, but, uh, there's
definitely where we're looking both ways for sure.
Yeah, it's a tough, it's a tough segment climb.
We, we have a, you know, we have an off road line of wheels and obviously
wheels are wheels, but, but they're not, but they're not as far as, you know,
kind of the authentic nature that goes with the styling and different things
like that, that's something you have to kind of really embrace community for or
go into.
And it's, it's tough to do that kind of, you know, right hook and say, all right,
I've run over here on this segment and now I'm going to hear this segment.
It's not, you know, it is, it is a hard thing.
And then there's the, the whole thing of just brand awareness, right?
You come from one segment, every, you know, everyone knows IEG.
And then you go over here and they're like, what the hell is that?
You're starting all over when they completely different type of customer.
Absolutely.
You know, and, and the phone calls, especially during that time period were wild
because it was a completely different type of customer than I was used to
dealing with at all.
Some of it was fun.
Some of it was a testing, um, you know, but we, we, you know, a lot of growing
had to happen in a short period of time, you know, and then where a lot of this
is, is still trying to find the right talent within the company.
That makes sense on that side.
When most of the people that you know are from like super performance, you know,
and it's finding just the right talent to, to do what you're trying to do
here is, is rough because you, you need the right people for it.
We can make great products, but you really need people within the community.
And to be really enthusiastic about it.
And we, we've got, like I said, we've, we've made some really awesome hires and
some great people that are, that are on that side now.
But some of that was a tough pill to swallow for some of us that were even
at the company, you know, I came in right when that started.
And I'm like, I got to be real guys.
That, that ain't my bag, you know, but it, they almost, almost convinced
me to buy a Bronco.
So yeah, it's interesting.
I, you know, I, we've done with, uh, you know, we're pretty close to some other
people, whether it be, you know, uh, Jeff Reiser from like full race and stuff
like that and his, and his quick, you know, his quick, uh,
right hook to, uh, to some of the Ford Raptor community and stuff like that
has been pretty interesting to watch.
And then, so it's kind of got a similar thing.
And he's just like, well, cause it's just good.
It just does this.
It just does that.
And like you realize, like the, the enthusiast nature kind of trickles through
a world looking for the same type of thing in different places.
Um, but it's a, it's a different person.
You know, and that's
different person.
I will say that the Raptor community has been a little closer to the
server performance oriented than the Bronco community was the Bronco community
was really looking for the, the people who bought those cars were very
nostalgic for a car that most of the people that worked at IG, it didn't exist
when we were born.
Yeah.
Don't I mean, so it was it, we were, you'd get on the phone with some of these
guys and they'd want to talk old school Broncos with you.
And I was like, buddy, I don't know anything about what you're talking about.
You know, because like, I felt like we're not talking about the OJ, that's
what I was thinking this whole time.
Like sixties Broncos, sixties Broncos, if you look at the OJ Broncos, he's talking
like, if you look, if you look at what the Bronco looks like, it's a throwback
to a sixties brand.
Yes.
And these are, these are the guys, you know, these, these folks remember the sixties
Bronco and that's what they're trying to, a modern version of that.
Right.
You know, they're trying to tell us about these old Broncos.
And like I said, I felt disingenuous talking to some of these people because I
didn't really know what I was talking about.
So one of the things we, you know, went out to do is make sure we found some
people who understood, you know, that community better.
Yeah.
It's hard because it's like, there's been a number of OEs that have tried to do
those retro revamps and they fail so hard.
Oh yeah.
Uh, Dodge Dart comes to mind.
Yeah.
That's just using a name plate though.
Yeah, but that was, but that was, I mean, that was, it was so bad, but I feel
like Ford's done well with that.
Cause even, even if you look at the S two 31 Mustang, you know, that was a
very popular car when it came out of three valve, but you can't, you can't
really use Mustang and Camaro, no, no, but I'm saying the aesthetics of it.
I mean, that had that throwback look and people actually bought that car.
Like it was popular when it came out, but the equation would be more to the,
when they revamped the challenger or the charger, because it had gone missing
for a while, and then it came back.
You don't even know, even the charger's not a charger cause the charger was
never afford to do it right to take an old name plate like that and do it,
do it some justice.
Um, you know, they're not the first ones to take nostalgia bait and try to do
something with it though.
Honestly, we got to give that to the PT cursor.
Oh, I don't know.
That's, that's really hard.
Listen, don't, don't knock the turbo PT crazy.
Yeah, so the, so the, so the Cavaliers, but that doesn't make you, right?
I, I think that there are just some, there's some things that I think the,
I think the Broncos are very cool platform.
I, you know, I like that had a lot of, uh, you know, actual off-road things.
I think they really serve the masterclass when they first launched it as far as a
marketing perspective.
I think the difficult part that happens is I think as an enthusiast, when you
start to get your hands on it, there are some things you go,
plastic oil pans, um, you know, stuff like that, right?
Like as an enthusiast, you're like, wait, so the thing can, you know,
crawl out of every mud hole imaginable, right?
Like, and it can crab, but it can't, but it, but God forbid, a stick hits the
oil pan too hard and shatters.
Um, so I think that there's stuff like that.
But those are the things that the aftermarket really do shine well on,
right?
They get to come in with their parts, um, and, and we get to, we get to make
something better than, than we kind of found it.
So that part's interesting.
Get some nice rock armor underneath and you don't have to worry about the
plastic world thing.
A lot of aluminum, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Here you go.
So make a bunch of crap too.
So before we kind of full circle wrap you up, cause we've held you for, for a while.
Um, this is, it's all, listen, I love good car combos.
So, so that's, uh, that's all a good thing.
Actually, Dewey has one for you before we, we start going too far away.
Yeah.
For you, the gold wheels, every, every single time Dewey and I talk, he is on
me about getting you to make gold wheels.
So here's, so here's the problem.
The problem is that originally when, when you thought it was, when was this?
2006, 2007, like gold was huge, right?
And then it went away.
When did it go away?
I'm going to say 2012, 2013.
13 and probably almost totally dead in 15, right?
And so after the conversation we had earlier.
Okay.
Right.
I told you we're coming back.
Yeah.
So I know for STI just sold for $107,000 in blue and gold.
I know you guys are going to think I'm crazy, but I have been right every time.
Yeah.
I'm telling you gold is, is about to be a hot commodity.
I, I don't agree with you, but, but, um, I don't think the gold is necessarily
the problem here.
I think the problem here is that the car fit to the gold is the problem.
Like we don't have that really dominant Subaru thing that's happening here
where everybody's lusting after the gold wheels right now.
I don't agree with you.
They're bronzing.
They're bronzing.
They're still stuck in bronze because they don't have gold.
But here, here's the thing.
We've, we've, we've tried this.
You're starting to see people that are trying to come out with that really
light gold with the machine lips and stuff like that.
And it's not, it's not that that's a championship Porsche type thing.
Yeah.
The, the gold, the golds that you're talking about are the really rich looking,
but obnoxiously gold wheels.
You, you guys make the color.
Yeah.
And you're dialed in.
Yeah.
Okay.
No, that's disgusting.
I don't, I don't think we could do that one.
It has to be lighter.
Exactly what you need to put on a, this is just so you know, I've been having
this conversation for six months, you might have swayed me until you took that
path into that one size and we make one run.
We'll call it dewy spec or whatever.
And I will sell those things.
They will be gone.
Listen, I want to tell you a quick story, I want to tell you a quick story
about that gold that's on the dial in that was a mistake because no, so here's
what happens.
So we, we have different color codes on different things.
We make custom blends or not.
You don't go to a PPG or anything like that.
It's the same.
So, so we have a code that this is what's supposed to be.
So we show up when we released the gold, whatever that was, whenever that was
2014, I have no idea.
Um, we show up at SEMA, we pull this thing out of the box and everybody goes, whoa.
And that wasn't a great, whoa, it was like, uh, what is that?
I didn't have a gold wheel though.
But, but it also wasn't the gold we wanted.
Like we, we, we had like the sample was not that.
So now all of a sudden our, our things is like, all right, wait.
So this is not the gold we were looking for.
It doesn't matter.
Put it on the rack at SEMA.
Everybody changes things after the fact, we'll change it.
So we get back, we have seven other, uh, gold wheels.
We know exactly which one we originally picked.
We picked that one again.
Is there enough when they come?
Wrong color again.
It was like, it was like, no matter what we did, I was like, I don't understand.
Is there, is there something going on here where the color codes are wrong?
Like, I don't understand.
So in that point, you know, we had, we had stock, so it just, it just stuck.
But like the truth is to me, that's a very mustery gold.
I would probably need to see that person.
Like I'm, I'm going off of what I'm seeing through a monitor on a website.
Yeah, for sure.
Island that I bought for my mini was like the dark gray and it looked great.
A lot of people, listen, a lot of people like that gold.
That's why we've kept it for so many years.
I'm just saying, I'm just saying it has its time in this place.
It's not the, it's not the anomaly.
It's the, not the anomaly.
I'm not saying you need to do all your wheels in this.
I'm saying you need to do a wheel that would work really well on a Subaru
and a proper size in gold.
And I am telling you, it would go.
And so anybody with a blue, black or white STI or WX and or
beer, Z or F or S would, would just grab those up.
I am telling you, it needs to be in gold though.
It's got to be in a good gold.
So when you say, this is interesting.
So when you say it's got, if you make it in the right fitment, what is the
right fitment that you're talking about?
It's, it would be an 18 by nine and a half plus 38, like right in that area.
And it needs to be in 501 hundred and five by one 14, same thing.
So what's interesting is your, that's definitely on, especially in the
five and a hundred, that's definitely a race spec, but it's certainly not a street spec.
I don't agree with you at all.
Look at what way you're crazy.
Man, I don't want to see homeboys, homeboys.
They don't even want to run 18s.
Oh my God, these guys, these guys only want to run 17s.
A lot of these guys don't realize that a small role and that's all they need to do.
I have this conversation with people nonstop.
They don't, they, what they're, a lot of people don't even understand
how fitment works that if you want to put a decent size tire on the car, you're
going to have to roll your fenders, even if you have a V, you know, a GP or whatever,
you're going to need to do that.
But the second, a lot of this knowledge has all been lost with the sands of Nassiak.
And yeah, I mean, we're going to, we're going to start talking about that, but in,
it needs to be brought back out there.
If we show them how to do this, they will do it.
All they're looking at is a picture on Instagram and going, that shit's hot.
I want that.
The problem is that, you know, 10 to one, you're going to get that guy and he's
going to put an 18 and a half and a 35 on the car.
10 to one.
Out of, we tell them.
This is it.
You tell them a wheel that looks like shit.
I'm not going to mention other brands, but yeah, there's some other brands that
sell a wheel that like people go out and look at this.
They're like, Oh my God, I want that.
I need that.
But in my fitment, and then they get the wheel and they're like, this is not what
I thought it was.
There's a million people out there running that same wheel that looks like butt.
If you only sell them the wheel that they need that they want.
And it's like that works for you because more people are running around taking
pictures of their cars on Instagram with the correct fitment of wheel.
It's such an interesting, it's such an interesting thing because in the, and we
don't have to get super into it now, but like the nuts and bolts of, of how, how
the wheel thing would work around the Brembo brakes and different things like
that, it gets super weird and iffy when you start getting into some of these
sizes, right?
Because you're 18 by nine and a half plus.
Like that's why I said that it'll clear all the Brembo's, all the big break
kids, all the, you need one size.
Maybe unless you make a concave and then you just lost it again.
But that, that wheel already is slightly concave.
It's going to look the part.
It will see when we put it on my car, I'm going to scream, which we're, which
will we talk about?
Well, the decorator, the decorams, the 36, but that's 36.
But yeah, it's a B profile, 18, nine and a half.
Oh, that one, that one.
Yeah.
That one is right.
Cause we, we made that to be for the rear of some of the BRZs and, and
a lot of stock break guys like to shove them on the front.
They've been putting the B profile in the front because you can get it.
You can get away with it.
But the problem is that majority of those guys, they don't, they'll
never step into an 18.
They want to do the 17 cause they're so worried about going with such a thin
tire.
Let me prove it.
This is like a weird hold my beer moment.
Like I want to believe him.
I want to believe him and then put my, what's going to this?
Make sure you put something in the comments.
If you're a Subaru person, hear me out, like just scream at the top of your
lungs, we're going to make this happen.
Here's the, here's the on air bet.
Here's, here's the deal that we're going to make ready.
We're going to do something.
And we're basically going to say, we will do some sort of trial run of that
wheel, right?
The DECA gram, it's the, it's an 18, nine and a half.
I think it's at a 35.
If I remember correctly.
Okay.
So, so all right, we're talking about that particular style that it's, it's
available in five and a hundred.
We could also drill a five, four and a half, right?
I don't think it's going to clear Brembo brakes for the performance pack BRZ.
I don't think it will clear Brembo brakes in the front for STI, but we can
double check that with that said, check that for you, but we have, we have the
brakes, we can, we can, we can put that on there, but like if it, let's say it
does clear and we do this, I will be down to do a special group by and if it
turns out that we can get, let's say, 20, 20 cars, 20 cars, 20 sets, then, then
we will add it to the line.
Let's go.
What do you think about that?
Is that like a real on air type of promise?
I will see why we couldn't make that happen.
I absolutely think that can happen.
I got to figure some stuff out on our website because you don't generally
take money preemptively.
We also don't sell to the public like that, but, but I think, I think we can
come up with something over the next couple of weeks to try to put it
together and if we get it, we'll build it.
It might be a little bit ways out for some people, but I think it's an
interesting thing and, and, and this is to answer whether the bet really
works is gold back for Subaru's.
Oh, man is new again, man.
World rally blue is cool again.
All of this stuff.
It's back.
This world really blue was always cool.
Yeah.
I don't think it ever stopped being cool.
Oh, crazy.
The community.
It really was it.
Maybe not the community.
The rest of us like to play with white for years.
Yeah, I get it.
So I guess the Evo guys liked the blue that we never got.
Is that is that what it comes down to?
Because we never had a blue.
And so the Evo eights never had a blue like that blue by you.
It just wasn't the same type of blue.
Yeah, that's true.
Because my eight go ahead.
Evo sixes did.
They had a reams blue, which is really rare.
But anyway, oh, that's probably yeah, yeah.
So anyhow, well, listen, all right.
So we made our bet.
That's where we're that's where we're wrapping up.
Is there anything we're going to put all your information,
contact, IG stuff, all that stuff's going to be down in the description.
And, man, I appreciate you doing this.
I think we got to do something again.
We got to do something at a good life event.
Let's do super, super fun.
We have to we have to come up with something cool.
So all right, we may be making a gold wheel.
It came to you first here.
Brought to you by Dewey and the good folks at IG.
All right, man, thanks so much for coming out with us.
Yeah, this is fun, dude.
Any time you guys want to do this, I'm always down.
You guys come up with a some insane topic you want to argue about.
I will come on and argue.
I love that.
Yeah, I'm down to argue.
We're going to do the Earth Vader of whatever you need.
Nice.
Evo versus the I Evo versus the idea.
Come on, let's do it.
We're not going to do car things.
We're going to argue over like the best type.
Honestly, at this point, most of the most of the Evo guys have kind of like
went within the WX community in some way or another.
I got to tell you, that might be that may be the most aggressive
shot I have ever heard taken.
It's one thing when the suit of the Evo guys go at each other.
I don't that may be the most aggressive slap to somebody's face
that I've ever heard.
And he did it.
Like, I got it after the deal, though.
Glasses.
Come on, casual.
They're in Evo meets anymore, but they're still Subaru meets
and Evo show up at those getting.
I'm loving this.
It's getting worse.
This is great.
He just casually rolling.
This is amazing.
You want to be a hero?
Go to like Wicked Big Meet or some sort of big Subaru event with your
Evo people.
You will have so much appreciation for your car, but they won't egg me.
No, no, not anymore.
It ain't like that.
Now, that feels that feels like something like that.
Like maybe, but like a six or even a well put together, you know, eight
or nine do that.
It's a different world now.
2006.
There was a there's used to be a Volkswagen show.
Waterfest that was here in English town, Jersey, and I was working
it and I had a bug guy at the time, right?
So and I was and I drove.
I'm just I'm not showing it at the show.
I drove it in there and they started throwing their water.
They started booing to the point where they literally got out of the car.
I'm like, all right, you want to throw water bottle.
Come on.
Let's go ahead.
Let's throw some water bottles.
I was like, this is crazy.
Anyhow, Volkswagen people.
You know, I want to Colorado at one point.
I get it.
It's the elitist of elite.
Yeah, that's right up there with them.
So yeah.
But all right, man.
Thanks so much.
We appreciate you hanging out with us and and we'll catch you.
We'll catch up with you soon at a grid life and a grid life event
that is going to be better than it's ever been before.
I'm I'm hyped.
We got to catch up at a grid life event where you guys are at your
probably going to end up at Circuit Legends or the one one.
Let's hang out.
They're going to be great.
The Watkins Glen one is going to be out of control this year.
Yeah, I want to like go and actually stay over.
They have almost camping opportunities.
I've never done.
Yeah, you do got a state like the party is happening at like 1130 at night.
Oh my God.
I'm an old man.
That's like, yeah, we're in bed at that time.
I don't know.
I get really funny when they're hammered.
Yeah.
No, I've seen James Houghton and his good old watermelon wearing.
Oh, man.
Thanks so much, man.
We'll catch up with you later.
Take care of something peace out.
About this episode
Dewey Dewitt dives deep into the recent GRIDLIFE sale, reassuring fans that the new ownership by a media company with racing roots aims to grow the community and improve the series. He shares insights on building competitive Subaru race cars, discussing engine platforms like the EJ and FA, and the challenges and opportunities in tuning and reliability. Dewey also explores chassis preferences for time attack, the future of transmissions with the eight-speed automatic, and the expansion of IAG into off-road platforms like Broncos. The episode wraps with a lively debate on gold wheels making a comeback in the Subaru scene.
Original notes
In this episode, we’re joined by GRIDLIFE champion Dewey Dewitt for a deep dive into everything happening in the world of grassroots motorsports right now.
We get into:
- The recent sale of GRIDLIFE and what it means for the future of the series
- What it’s really like building a competitive racecar in 2026
- The rise of 8HP transmissions and why everyone’s talking about them
- Subarus, K-swaps, trends in engine builds, and where things are headed
- Plus plenty of real-world insight from Dewey’s experience at the highest level of the scene
We talk through why wheels and tires are usually the first step, how suspension transforms the driving experience, when it makes sense to add performance upgrades, and where people commonly go wrong.
Whether you’re building a car, racing competitively, or just love the culture, this episode is packed with knowledge, opinions, and behind-the-scenes perspective you won’t want to miss.
Drop a comment and let us know your thoughts on the GRIDLIFE sale and where you think the scene is headed!
2026 Behind the Wheel Podcast | All Rights Reserved
Thank you for tuning in, and if you enjoy our podcast, please SUBSCRIBE! We’re on Spotify, Apple Podcast, and iHeartRadio, and we always upload our full video interviews on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/konigwheels (we’d love for you to subscribe there as well!) Thank you for listening!
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