GTR Festival 2025 - EP.161
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39:07
Car
Nissan Skylines
The Nissan Skyline is a popular car model known for its speed and performance, especially in racing. It's famous among car fans and has a special place in car culture.
Car
Nissan GT-R
The Nissan GT-R is a very fast sports car that comes from the Skyline family. It's known for being high-tech and performing well in races.
Concept
drag racing
Drag racing is a fast-paced race where cars go straight down a track to see who can reach the finish line first. It's all about how quickly the cars can go from a standstill to top speed.
Car
Nissan Z
The Nissan Z is a new sports car from Nissan that continues a legacy of performance cars. It's designed for driving enthusiasts who enjoy speed and handling.
Term
drag strip
A drag strip is a straight track where cars race against each other to see who can go the fastest in a short distance. It's a popular place for car enthusiasts to test their vehicles' speed.
Term
side dump pipes
Side dump pipes are exhaust pipes that let the engine's exhaust gases exit the car from the side instead of the back. This can make the car sound louder and sometimes help it perform better.
Term
four inch side exit
A four-inch side exit means the exhaust pipe is four inches wide and lets the exhaust gases out from the side of the car. Bigger pipes can help the engine work better and sound louder.
Term
oval side exit
An oval side exit means the exhaust pipe is shaped like an oval and lets the exhaust gases out from the side of the car. This shape can make the car sound different and fit better in some designs.
Car
Nissan Silvia S13
The Nissan Silvia S13 is a sporty car that many people like to customize and race. It's known for being fun to drive and has a lot of fans in the car community.
Car
Nissan Skyline GT-R R32
The Nissan Skyline GT-R R32 is a famous sports car that is very powerful and is often used in racing. It has a lot of technology that helps it perform well on the track.
Concept
drag car
A drag car is a type of car made for racing in a straight line. They are built to go really fast in a short distance, like a quarter-mile, and have special parts to help them accelerate quickly.
Car
Yamaha R1
The Yamaha R1 is a fast motorcycle built for racing and performance. It's popular among riders who want a powerful bike that can handle well on the road or track.
Term
paint scheme
A paint scheme is how a car is painted, including the colors and designs. It's what makes the car look unique and can match other vehicles or themes.
Term
horsepower
Horsepower is a way to measure how powerful an engine is. More horsepower usually means a car can go faster and perform better.
Brand
Audi
Audi is a car brand from Germany that makes luxury cars, known for their quality and technology.
Brand
Lamborghini
Lamborghini is a luxury sports car brand from Italy, known for making very fast and stylish cars.
Term
track prep
Track prep is what race organizers do to make sure the racetrack is in the best condition for cars to drive on. It helps cars grip better and go faster.
Part
axle
An axle is a part of a car that helps the wheels turn. If it breaks, the car can't move properly, which can be a big problem.
Term
tow truck
A tow truck is a special vehicle that helps move cars that are broken down or parked where they shouldn't be. It can lift and carry cars to a repair shop or a different location.
Company
UP Garage
UP Garage is a company that modifies and restores cars, especially Japanese ones, to improve their performance and appearance.
Company
Nismo
Nismo is a part of Nissan that makes faster and sportier versions of their cars, as well as performance parts.
Company
Built By Legends
Built By Legends is a company that makes special versions of classic cars. They focus on recreating famous models that many car enthusiasts love.
Term
car carrier
A car carrier is a large truck that carries several cars at the same time. It's used to transport cars from one place to another, like from a factory to a dealership.
Term
Fuji Speedway
Fuji Speedway is a famous racetrack in Japan where many car races take place. It's known for its unique layout and beautiful views of Mount Fuji.
Car
Cadillac Escalade
The Cadillac Escalade is a big, luxury SUV that many people like because it's very comfortable and has a lot of space inside. It's often used for family trips or events where you want to travel in style.
Concept
heirloom car
An heirloom car is a car that people love so much that they want to keep it forever, often passing it down to family members. It's not just about driving; it's about the memories and history attached to it.
Term
GTR
The GTR is a model of sports car made by Nissan that is very popular among car enthusiasts. It's known for being fast and having a lot of advanced features.
LIVE
Hey, and welcome back to the next episode
of the Right Hand Drive Guys podcast.
The podcast for guys who like right hand drives.
I'm Bobby, this is Aaron.
Yo, yo.
And here we are live from Texas Motorplex in Ennis, Texas
for GTR Festival.
So if you haven't been following along on the Instagram,
we were able to come out, get tier one media
to cover this event and bring you guys our version
of GTR Festival.
Yeah, it's been a good time so far.
Yeah.
Ben, I think this is the most concentration
of skylines I've seen in America.
In America for sure.
You know, and obviously we've been to Japan
and I've been to ours meeting and, you know,
we've been to these events and we've seen a lot of skylines.
So it's easy to be jaded from the fact that we are
on US soil and that there is this collection of cars,
including some of the most high profile skylines
in the world in a sense, you know.
So yeah, it's been really cool to see this community
come together and to see Andrew and the GTR Festival crew,
you know, kind of, I don't know,
they've created this whole new thing here.
Yeah, and they're going global with it.
Yeah, I heard they're gonna do the UK.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, so, you know, that's cool
and we definitely appreciate them 110%
for giving us like pretty much unlimited access.
Yeah, we've been all around this place.
Yeah, we've been in and out all around, yeah, for sure.
So, okay, I mean, if you're not familiar,
they started GTR Festival in Australia.
I don't even know how many years ago,
but quite a while ago and, you know,
the Aussies are very into their drag racing, right?
Yeah.
That's for sure, and that's apparent here
as it is obviously at Texas Motorplex,
which is a huge drag strip.
And if you are watching on YouTube,
you can see behind us, this is like a mid,
mid 90s, early 90s photo of Texas Motorplex
and just how big and how popular it really is.
Yeah, yeah, I mean, this track's been here for a while
and it's been like a NHRA track for quite a long time as well.
Yeah.
So, I mean, it definitely, like if you're looking
behind us, dude, I mean, the place is huge.
And, you know, it's not just your rinky-dink drag strip
up the street.
No way, asses, dudes, quads.
Yeah.
His legs will tell you.
My legs are destroyed, dude.
But, I mean, it's pretty sick though.
I mean, like just seeing how they prep the track
and seeing people lose their shoes on the starting line,
you know.
Yeah, yeah, literally, they're not expecting it.
They step out there and their shoes are like
pretty much permanently part of the track.
Yeah, you better not go flatfoot.
No, yeah, you see everybody walking on their toes.
Their calves are huge around here, it's crazy.
So, I mean, basically our trip here
began leaving Boston on Thursday, right?
Thursday afternoon.
Thursday, we came in, we got our hotel,
this guy rented the new Nissan Z from Turro
and we grabbed that, that was pretty cool.
And then Friday morning, you know, it all kind of started,
you know, we got in here, we had a little media briefing
in this room that we're in.
They gave us these really cool pink vests.
Yeah.
You can see them on YouTube, like yeah, these vests are cool.
Super cool.
Yeah, and so we just kind of got to it, you know.
We just started exploring and, you know, by noon,
they were doing qualifying for role racing,
which is cool, I haven't really seen
role racing like that before, you know.
I've seen it at like IA and stuff,
but this is a little different
because you're actually at a drag strip and, you know,
I don't know, I thought that was pretty cool,
got my eardrums blown out a few times
by some crazy, crazy cars.
There's 132 by Midwest Skylines
that has these like side dump pipes.
Dude, yeah, I think it's like a four inch side exit, dude.
Like oval side exit, yeah.
Yeah, and it's exiting to the left, dude.
So like if you're standing on the wall
and that car goes, you're definitely hearing it.
Yeah, I thought it, I thought we were getting
mortared or something.
It was just like, ba, ba, ba, ba.
Dude, yeah, yeah.
I was like, oh my gosh.
Every shift dude is like bang, bang.
You can feel it in your chest.
For sure.
Like it was crazy.
So that was cool, you know, and we got to see,
you know, a ton of 35s, some Lambos, Audi, you know,
all that type of stuff doing these races.
And so, you know, that was pretty cool for sure.
And then, you know, that's like a lot of what Friday was.
Was the role racing, everybody getting in here.
You know, Garage S0 has a huge tent
full of all of the influencers' cars,
which I'm sure at this point you've seen
all over Instagram, TJ Hunt, Adam LZ, C. Kane, you know.
DJ No Way.
DJ No Way.
With the Sylvia?
Yeah, who, you know, these guys, you know,
they're impressive cars, you know,
LZ had his 33S1 and what, that 32.
Yeah, the 32 sedan that he like has for a drag car now.
Yeah, so, and we saw him run that down the track.
And I mean, cool car, right?
I mean, and that's part of the thing I kind of saw
was like, okay, you know, these influencers,
like of course they're doing these things
to get themselves out there,
but they truly enjoy the things that they're doing.
I don't feel like it's like this facade as far as like,
oh, they're not really into this stuff.
Like they're really into it.
He built a literal four door 32 drag car.
Like who's doing that if you're not into it, right?
So yeah, Friday was cool.
They gave us some trophies for role racing
and then did some fireworks
and that kind of concluded the evening.
And, you know, at this point, we're pretty beat, right?
It's like, you know, yeah, it's like a reality check.
Like, oh wow, okay, you know,
because there's two sides to the track, right?
There, you know, there's the side with all the vendors
and then there's another side
where they're doing a few different things.
And so Saturday, we kind of started exploring a little more.
We went to the other side behind like the grandstands
and they were having a cars and coffee.
And there, and it was a lot of exotics and supercars
and these type of things, which was, which was cool.
You know, it was cool to see them.
And then we notice the kangaroo.
We noticed the kangaroos, right?
You do, yeah.
Yeah. The kangaroo pin, dude.
Like, I've never seen a kangaroo before.
I think maybe I have in a zoo, but like not like that.
There was 10 of these, these guys just like chilling.
Like they were dogs or something.
It was so weird.
They were so chill.
Yeah, dude, I like, I was like,
dude, get a picture of me in this guy.
And I like kneel down and this dude stands up
and just starts mugging me, dude.
I'm like, all right, maybe don't get this pic.
I'm gonna get away.
Yeah, he immediately got intimidated.
You know how that goes.
Yeah, did flashbacks of kangaroo fights, dude.
They're feet, dude, they're like insane.
Oh yeah, they got size 25s for sure.
I'm like, dude, no wonder why they can jump so high, dude.
That thing lifts up and just repels them, dude.
So, you know, that was cool to see.
And I thought that that was good.
Cool Australian connection.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
I think you did have to pay to go inside,
but like to see him from the outside
was totally cool for me.
So they did like a Texas Academy Drift School.
We didn't get to catch that yesterday.
Which was Saturday, we didn't get to catch that,
but we kind of plan to today, hopefully.
We couldn't even really hear it.
So I guess that's probably why we didn't end up catching it
because we just didn't even necessarily realize.
And there's just so much other stuff going on, dude.
It's hard to keep up.
And so with that, they were doing some,
they were unveiling some new cars,
I guess some new builds that people did.
And it was like a kind of a midnight purple-ish 33.
Yeah, yeah.
You know, that was all done up, right?
And then they had a GT R1.
Yeah, yeah.
It was like an older Yamaha R1 bike
that matched the car's paint scheme.
And like the bike had a bridge seat stitched up,
like exactly like it wasn't the car.
I didn't really see the connection,
but like I thought it was cool.
It matched, he had a twin bike and car.
It'd be like, if I guess I got one and painted it white,
and you know, I mean, it's like if you're into both,
I guess it makes sense, right?
Like you got these, you know,
I don't know if the GT R1 in the form that it was in,
I don't know if it deserves that name,
so to speak, because it was paint and some like,
but still cool, right?
It is cool, yeah.
And then they had like a drag 32
that they unveiled that the wheels were insane.
I don't even know these crazy bead locks
that were machined, like, I don't know.
They look like a saw blade.
It was just crazy, you know?
They for sure put some love into these cars.
And dude, the paint on both of these cars was sick.
Like the 32 drag car, it looked like a normal,
like the normal gunmetal gray, dude.
But as soon as the light hit it, it was like,
okay, that's not the normal metal gray.
It was filled with flake or whatever it was.
Definitely had some metallic, it looks sick.
Yeah, and they did a good job spraying it.
It wasn't patchy or blotchy or anything.
No, no, it was glass, dude, it was really good.
And I can't remember what that company was.
It was like gloss or, yeah,
it almost seemed like some detail company who owned those.
But either way, it's cool, you know,
they had them all covered up
and they pulled them off and tomorrow, son,
you know, bless them or whatever it is that he does.
And so that's the thing about GTR Festival
is what I notice, right?
Here's what I notice.
I've been to a lot of events
and oftentimes the quote unquote VIPs or special guests
are like almost off limits.
You know what I mean?
They're like so far out of reach.
They're there, but the only time you'd see them
is if they were doing some sort of signing
or something like that.
Dude, dude, everyone is just walking around.
Yeah, dude, they're shaking babies, kissing hands.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, literally.
What?
Wait, what?
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Okay.
You know, from like, right,
Tamar-san, Yoshida-san, like T-Pain.
You know, they're to whatever Tommy F.
Yeah, Adam LZ, TJ Hunt, you know,
all of these kind of whatever figures,
they're all super accessible.
If you like quote unquote dare to go up to them, right?
Because that's how it is for a lot of people, right?
You're like, oh dude, I don't wanna bother them.
I don't wanna, you know.
But if you dare to go up to them and say hi, dude,
they're gonna say hi back.
And like, you literally can have a conversation
with these people.
Yeah, yeah.
Which I think is cool about this,
that they haven't made it this thing
where these people are out of reach,
because I hate that.
Right, right.
They're just regular dudes
that have found their success in the lane, you know?
So yeah, on Saturday, they started the headline drag racing,
like the big dogs, you know,
these one, two plus thousand horsepower cars and...
There's no slow cars.
There was no like slow cars, dude, it was insane.
Like everything was fast.
Yeah, from full out drag 35s to just stock turbo 35s, you know?
And then of course you sprinkle in,
like we said, your Audi's, your Lambo's,
and of course some Skylines, you know?
I mean, I wouldn't say besides like
that Midwest Skylines Maroon 32,
and then of course the RHM,
like there weren't any insane Skylines dragging
besides those, right?
Like a lot of it was 35s, like, you know,
which whatever we all know,
like to put money into a 35 to get it to this low number,
it's not necessarily easier, but I think it's easier,
just because of the support in the motor
and in the way that they can get the power out of it quickly.
But they do break.
Oh, yeah, yeah, they do break.
I think the only thing I did see break were R35s.
R35s, yeah.
And, you know, I don't know, why is that?
I'm not sure.
Maybe they're just pushing that much harder.
Yeah, and like he said, the track prep is insane.
Like this track is so sticky,
like, yeah, I can see how you could snap an axle,
how you could do these things.
Yeah, the ones that did break,
it seemed like it was some sort of driveline issue,
not like an engine blowing or anything like that.
It was like, axle, diff, transfer case,
something like that was...
Yeah, and so at one point, a white 35 went down
and this car was fast.
Like, I can't imagine how many horsepower it has,
but dude, yeah, he snapped something right at the get-go.
It took him an hour and a half to get him off the track
and get it cleaned up.
We were like, is this the end of the night right here?
They couldn't get it on the tow truck
because it was too low and the wheels were locked
because whatever broke, locked everything in.
And dude, I mean, even the guy that broke right off the line,
it took like 10 people to push this car
because the track is so sticky, dude.
They couldn't get it.
Yeah, I was like, haha, the R35 is a boat.
They gotta have all these people.
But no, dude, the track is so sticky, dude.
Once they got it off the track, it moved great.
But like on the track, it was like they were fighting it.
So yeah, we got to see that.
And then RHM from Australia brought their GTR.
It's like a 2000 horsepower 34.
And that was kind of like, for the 34 guys,
that was kind of like the highlight
of the drag racing, right?
Yeah, yeah.
And we got to see him run the roll racing on Friday
and then we saw him run yesterday.
Unfortunately, his run yesterday looked great from the start,
but I'm not exactly sure what happened.
All of a sudden, the car was blowing a ton of smoke
and he slowed down and that was the last we saw of him,
unfortunately, because he did wait in line
for that hour and a half or so.
But that's a beautiful car,
like from the whole motor set up to the actual paint
and like everything, like that car is like really nice.
So, and dude, he brought it,
he flew it over here from Australia.
And they said he paid thousands and thousands of dollars
to get this thing over here just for this.
So, like shout out to Andrew and the GTR Festival team
for continuing to bring their people over here
and kind of like progress the sport over here.
I think he got the record for the fastest R34.
Yeah, he did some record.
It was like sequential clutch shifting.
Yeah, there was all the,
yeah, yeah, with the wind blowing northwest.
Yeah, yeah.
It was a specific class, but yeah,
I guess he got the record for that on that run.
Yeah, so, which is crazy because it wasn't even
an amazing run.
So like imagine.
He definitely had more in it, I tell ya.
So, yeah, that was cool.
And so, within this, they have, you know,
like a whole kind of show and shine like type thing,
you know, the main concourse area is filled
with amazing vehicles, beautiful cars.
You know, we have definitely gotten to meet
some of our guests that we did remotely.
Marcus Hammond, you know, we get to hang out with Kenden.
Kenden's car is here, which is very, very nice.
I would say, you know, beyond these crazy built
by legends cars and stuff,
I would say it is for sure in the top five cars here.
As far as how clean it is.
It's good, it's really good.
Yeah, and so that was recently just finished
by UP Garage and, you know, Kenden's got a whole story
about how he bought this fine spec motor
from Nismo 10 years ago for this ridiculously low price
and it sat in his garage for these 10 years
and then he just threw it in this 34 and dude,
yeah, everything that UP Garage did was like.
Oh, and even some new stuff with their hidden vegan.
Yeah, he got the hidden vegan,
which they talked about on the episode
that we did with them.
And, you know, now to finally see it, it's like, oh.
Or not see it.
Yeah, or not see it, but um, yeah.
And we also actually, you know, last night
we got to meet Colapo, which if you remember our episode
about the guy who had his GTR like stolen essentially
before import and, you know, then found it.
Yeah, it popped up at a dealer's or sale.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So if you remember that episode, we got to meet him
and he is just such a humble, like a great guy.
You know, he instantly, he's like,
hey, want me to take your ride in my 33?
And because we were kind of just discussing his motor setup
and everything like that.
And we were like, yeah, dude, actually.
And, you know, he brought us both for a ride
and we had a blast.
He tried to get me a drive it, but I was like, yeah,
no, maybe I just don't.
You know, maybe I just don't drive your beauty
that you just waited a year and a half to get finished.
Right, right.
You know, like, sure, it'd be fine, but if it wasn't.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I'm just like, yeah, you know, so,
but that was really cool to like kind of connect
with some of these guys who we've helped share their story
but haven't gotten to meet them in like real life.
And so pretty much it was like,
we missed all the drifting like we said yesterday,
which, oh, well, there's some more today.
We're gonna have to go find it and, you know,
we'll talk about that on whatever an upcoming episode,
just how that went.
But yeah, so, you know, the night kind of ended last night
with the last of the drag racing,
the shop Houston kind of closed it out.
We were excited.
We were down by the finish line,
like we're ready for this final run, right?
We're like, dude, yeah, and this thing's crazy.
You know, they call it Kimbo.
It's like named after Kimbo Slice
because it's like unstoppable.
Yeah, do you think the back windows is huge?
The thing of Kimbo, yeah, yeah.
Which, you know, that was cool.
And I think this dude did like a six, six in his prior run
or six, four or something.
Like something stupid fast at 200 and whatever mile an hour.
So we're like, all right, cool, dude.
It's Saturday night.
Like this dude's gonna lay it all out on the track.
Dude, he gets the green light dude
and friggin takes the front wheels off the ground.
Like literally takes them off the ground.
And so that was like the end of that run, right?
Like he's not gonna continue that run.
And then they shut everything down.
So we got to watch him shut everything down, you know?
Yeah, yeah.
Like shut the track down.
And it was, you know, it was cool.
And so one thing was, I guess like at the end of every evening,
there's like a car meet and I can't tell, you know,
cause it says like Dan Rue, like car race or car meet,
you know, and I didn't really know who that was
until you told me, which whatever.
But I couldn't tell.
There's like this small car meet down
by the finish line stands.
And we couldn't tell like, was that that?
Or was it off site?
You know what I mean?
Like is the car meet space here just for people
to get together like afterwards or during?
Yeah.
Or was that the Dan Rue car meet?
Cause last year it was remote.
Yeah, it was off site.
So I just, I couldn't tell.
I mean, there wasn't a crazy amount of cars
that there's car meet anyways.
But that could have been
because there was something off site
that everybody was doing.
Unfortunately, because we don't have a car here,
we have a rental and it just made it a little harder
for us to participate in some of the off site stuff.
Just because, right?
Like, you know, when you got a group of like 10 skylines
and then you got this like Newsy,
it just, the vibe isn't quite like there.
You know, so hopefully next year,
I would love to be able to bring a car here.
That would be cool just to participate.
There's plenty to do here.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
For sure.
Yeah, no, we don't, like we left this place
just to get food and that's it.
Just because like that is one thing I'll say,
which I understand actually we need to talk about the coffee.
All right, so there's this play.
There's this truck here.
Yeah, if you know, you know,
and you're laughing your ass off.
Yeah, like, so basically, you know,
us especially day one, right?
We're like dragging ass, right?
We're like, we need a coffee.
And like we noticed this, this like coconut coffee place.
And we're like, okay, you know, the style's a little weird.
The logo has like a chick and a bikini with huge boobs.
Like, I guess I can get with this, right?
And then we start noticing like all of their employees
walking around in those bikinis, big boobs, right?
And we're like, okay, this is, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Welcome to Texas.
We're like, okay, this is, this is weird,
but whatever, like we need some caffeine, let's go.
And you know, we walk up and the trick's like selling us on it.
Right, right, I'm looking over and I'm looking at the menu.
I'm like, hmm, must be all market value prices
or something, right?
Yeah, yeah, there's no prices.
There's just the options.
So, you know, I'm feeling good.
I'm like, yeah, I'll get this guy's coffee, right?
He orders whatever.
I order some banana cream latte.
Whatever she said.
Yeah, and so the lady's like, okay, that'll be $40.
I'm like, what?
I'm like, do these come with pastries?
Like, is there, is there VIP movie tickets in here?
Like, what do you mean $40?
Yeah, what, like 16 ounces, like a 16 ounce,
it comes in this like super thick plastic cup that,
hey, she goes, because I'm like, dude, what?
She's like, well, if you bring the cup back,
you'll save $5 on your next one.
And I'm like, dude, are you kidding me?
Like, so swindled, like no mention of any price.
And when she does say the price, she's like,
that'll be $40.
Enhance me the thing, you know, and I'm like,
yeah, I'm like, dude, okay.
Like that was the last coffee I bought in this county.
That's for sure, dude.
I was not, and I think they either park that thing
somewhere locally or they have like a brick and mortar store.
I saw it on Google Maps when I searched coffee
because I'm like, no way I'm doing that again.
What do you know, coconut coffee pops right up, dude.
And I'm like, no, never that.
But I bet you walk in there offsite,
eight bucks or something, you know,
because they could never sell $20 coffees to the public.
Only at an event like this.
Money-longing, excuse me, that's something I don't know.
But otherwise, you know, the food, it's tough
because I understand when you come to an event like this,
like some, or more like a venue like this,
sometimes food and beverage is controlled by the event,
not by the promoters, so to speak.
Right, they got their own setup and everything.
Yeah, which we saw, you know,
they set up a lot of their stuff,
but that food price is ridiculous.
First of all, for a hot dog,
with a little bit of chili on it, it's 10 bucks.
Yeah.
Like due to $10 hot dog, you know,
so the first day, whatever, we went to a barbecue spot
down the road, like it was pretty decent.
It seemed to be like a popular local spot.
And then we went yesterday to a local like Takaria
or whatever, you know, and that was actually pretty cool
because that was like super genuine.
Yeah, it was cool.
Dude, we're in Texas,
and Texas is right next to Mexico, dude,
so the Mexican food has got to be fire.
Yeah, and it was.
And it was, dude, it was so good.
Like it was good.
Dude, Mexican Cokes everywhere, in this area, it's crazy.
Like on every menu is Mexican Cokes.
And I'm like, dude, my wife would love this place.
Like she can get a Mexican Coke every stop.
But yeah, no, yeah, I mean, overall, you know,
I get it, you can't control the food and beverage.
So like it is what it is.
It's just like, if that's not what you wanna eat,
you gotta go find what you want, right?
Like not the end of the world.
Yeah, I mean, if you frequent, you know, big car events,
you know what we're talking about, for sure.
So yeah, and then so today, like we talked about,
there's some more drifting.
There is a little bit more racing.
And I think they shut it down kind of early today,
around 6 p.m.
And yeah, they got a lot of open lane drag racing today.
You know, they have a lot of meet and greets
that they've done throughout the weekend
with a lot of these guys.
So you can actually get autographs and whatnot,
which I mean, if like that's what you want,
that's pretty cool, you know what I mean?
And so yeah, one of the things that I thought was really cool
was we got to meet a guy that owns four built by legends cars.
Yeah, that was crazy.
That was cool.
So a big car carrier shows up and starts unloading
built by legends cars one after another, a 32, 33, 234s.
And then they bring them over into the main concourse
and kind of set them up.
And we're just like, okay, wow, these are nice.
Like we saw the 234s run on Fuji Speedway
when we were there.
So it's cool to see them in Japan
and then of course in the United States.
And we kind of just walk around it and this dude's like,
hey, you got any questions?
And I'm like, yeah, are you the owner?
He's like, yeah.
I was like, dude, he's like younger than us.
Yeah, normal looking dude younger than us from Houston.
And he's like, yeah.
And I'm like, oh wow, dude, that's crazy.
What other cars do you have?
Big mistake, right?
If a guy's got four built by legends cars,
chances are he's got a long list.
And so he just starts rattling this stuff off.
And he's just like, yeah, dude, I don't know.
I got a lot of cars.
And I was just like, okay, cool.
And then I was like, you know, I asked him like,
so you have these other cars that I mean,
there was JDM cars, exotics, whatever that he had.
I'm like, if you had to choose just one to drive daily,
what would it be?
And he's like, dude, 34 all day.
And I'm like, out of all of these cars you have,
and he kind of broke it down for us
about the size of the car and how it drives
and like, you know, how you can.
He said it's comfy like an Escalade.
Yeah, he compared it 34 to an Escalade.
And I was like, dang man, like, you know,
but it was just cool to hear that this guy that, you know,
can, I mean, clearly drive whatever he wants.
Yeah.
Choose a 34.
Would choose a 34.
And then, you know, like I said, Yoshida-san and his son
were here, the built by legends guys were here.
And, you know, these people are coming from Japan
to like celebrate GTRs.
Yeah.
Like that's kind of a big deal, you know what I mean?
Yeah, I'm keeping having to tell myself that like,
we're in Texas.
Yeah, we're in Texas.
We're in America.
Not Japan.
Right.
So, yeah, you got to take that into consideration
because dude, we've never had anything like this here
in the States.
No.
Like not much at all.
And that's why I think like.
It's so new.
You know, I know it sucks, dude.
Like some people are like negative
and they'll pick this event apart, right?
They're like, oh, well, da, da, da, da, da.
They should do, you know, and it's like, dude,
these are some dudes from Australia
putting on an event in Dallas, Texas.
Like you need to take what this is and embrace it
so that they can continue to do it.
And that's the way that I see it.
Hey, if we're just going to be negative about this,
like we're not going to have it.
And if we don't have it, that's that, right?
Like if this doesn't succeed,
how could another event succeed?
Right.
You know, the only thing I would say is like,
I don't know, you know, like we kind of saw here, like,
yeah, 35 guys make drag cars, right?
We know that.
Skyline guys don't necessarily build drag cars.
They just, you know, whereas in Australia,
all the skylines are drag cars or drift cars.
Or well, I'm not really Skylines,
but that's what they're doing, right?
So it's like here, we're not dragging our Skylines as much.
What are we doing with them?
I don't really know, hard parking them.
Right, yeah, because I mean,
for the cost of them on paper.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and we waited so long.
Right, if you're trying to build a drag car, dude,
like you would want to start with a 35 usually, right?
Like the dudes that are drag racing,
they're 32s, 33s, 34s, like they're into it.
Like they are into the RB,
they're into the chassis, dude.
It's like sick to see,
but like that takes a special sort of person to do that.
Yeah, for sure, to almost sacrifice that car, right?
Yeah, yeah, because like that's what they want, right?
Like any of these dudes drag racing the 32s or anything,
like I'm sure they could go out and buy an R35.
They probably have an R35 at home, you know, right?
Like they can do that, but no,
they choose to like take out the classic dude and push it.
And, you know, have 1500, 2000 horsepower, it's cool.
It is, it is cool.
It just shows the love for the cars they got.
So that does kind of make it hard, right?
Because Australians have had them for so much longer
and like they were cheaper,
they'll turn these things into drag cars, you know,
whereas we're kind of not so much doing that.
So I think that does make it a little harder, right?
We have, but only with the 35, since we've had it for so long.
Yeah, and it's not that, you know,
you can get a 35 for half the price of a 34.
Yeah, I mean, yeah, it's true.
So why would you sacrifice this 34?
Right.
Yeah, so, you know, like I don't think
there's anything they could replace the drag racing with.
I just don't see it, right?
Because like a road course, like I guess,
like more people could participate with less investment
and less worry about like, you know,
just like when I took my 34 on Fuji Speedway, right?
Like I would, we, you know, we will granted the MFD
like caught on fire, but like beyond that,
yeah, yeah, beyond that, like, you know,
I scrubbed up my tires a little bit and that's like it,
you know, so I feel like maybe if it was like a circuit
type thing, but I also feel like the drag racing
gets the crowd, gets like into it, right?
Like it creates more like, not drama, but kind of drama,
you know, like which people love.
Yeah, and as far as like viewing goes,
like drag racing is a lot easier to watch than like a road
course, because like road course, you're just sitting
in a spot and watching them pass, maybe a section of turns.
You're not seeing the whole thing with drag racing.
You're literally seeing A to B, the whole thing.
So yeah, it's more spectator friendly.
Yeah, I guess you could say that, which makes sense.
And then it also keeps it in more like not in a smaller area,
but kind of, you know, like everything's right
beside the track here.
You know, there's really not much I could say like,
oh, they need to do this.
They need to do that.
I think we're in a developmental stage, you know,
in the whole thing, right?
Like your first two years of an event, that's developmental
for sure. Yeah, dude.
My only advice is keep going.
Yeah, keep going.
Keep coming back.
Dude, this is sick.
The support needs to be there.
That's the main thing, right?
Like they can try to keep going until they go bankrupt.
Yeah.
But if the support is not there, they cannot keep going.
So I think that's the main thing.
You know, you know what I'm going to actually say,
dude, my biggest suggestion for GTR Festival,
what do you think it is?
No idea. What is it?
You couldn't even have just guessed.
Like you couldn't have just guessed one thing.
Bring back Morgan Groves.
No, dude, like quit making us wear these pink vests.
Like get us like, dude, get us green, get us orange.
Like I want to be seen, but I don't want to be seen in a pink vest.
Right. Give me a Bayside Blue one.
Yeah. Oh, hell yeah.
Come on, dude, give me a Bayside Blue vest.
No, I'm just kidding.
Like that is what it is.
But you know, if that's all I got to complain about.
Hey, Tommy roasted us for these.
Yeah, Tommy roasted us immediately as soon as he saw us.
He's like, dude, really?
They couldn't have got you this cool lanyard.
I'm like, no, dude, we get trackside access, bro.
We get our eardrums blown.
What are you doing, Tommy?
Not getting his eardrums blown, but yeah, no, all in all, like, dude,
I think they're doing a great job.
I think that if we as the culture support them and maybe put aside
some of our little weird things, you know, like, I think that this can become
a huge staple, you know, we're only, I think it's well in this way.
Yeah, for sure.
And, you know, the fact that Australian and Japanese guys are attending this.
Yeah.
That's huge.
Yeah, dude, I wonder what they're thinking.
Like, what are their thoughts on it?
Because, you know, they've they've been through the stages with all these cars,
right? Yeah, they've already done all this in their home country
because they've had all this stuff.
But what do they think?
I wonder about the the American scene, you know, and how Americans
build their 35s, 34s, you know, Skylines, whatever, comparatively to them.
Like, I wonder if they're picking up on any cues or like, oh, that's actually
pretty neat, like might try to use that on a build or whatever.
Yeah, that makes sense.
Like they or are they like, oh, been there, done that.
Yeah, yeah, like, geez, or are they like, wow, they don't even use their cars.
Yeah, you know, for some, like, because I could see that, like in Australia,
I think they use their cars, you know, in Japan, they obviously use their cars.
I think America is the first one to treat these things like heirlooms,
you know, like, in a sense, like to the extent that we do, which I do,
I'm super guilty of, you know, like you treat them like an heirloom,
like this irreplaceable thing, which it is to an extent, you know,
but are are we missing out on what the car was built for by doing that?
Right. But I mean, I don't blame the people that I do.
There's so much money nowadays.
Well, yeah, when you pay 125 plus for a 34, like getting out there
and beating, beating it up is hard.
Yeah. But like, also, you know, how many opportunities
are you going to have to do that?
You know, and that's why I, I always took the opportunity at Fuji to do it,
regardless, because I'm like, dude, how many times am I going to get
to even have this opportunity at Fuji?
Not many, but period, you know what I mean?
Especially where we're geographically located, not not many.
So, you know, I think like there's got to be a balance there.
You know, like I would, I know Kenan's car obviously is still on its break-in.
So that's different.
But dude, I would love to see that, you know, just take one run down the track.
It's not like it's any crazy horsepower, but to see a car built
like that actually go down the track would be pretty nice.
Yeah, it'd be cool.
For sure. So as far as I've heard, like they plan to come back next year.
And like we mentioned, they plan to have a UK, they have New Zealand.
They have Australia.
Yeah, does it make sense to do a GTR festival, Japan?
Do you think it would hit?
Do you think that they would participate?
Yeah, absolutely. Why wouldn't they?
Like, dude, I don't know.
Japanese are different sometimes, right?
Like they're just they're different sometimes.
So I just don't know, like would they?
I think so, because most of the stuff around
Skyline's GTRs in Japan is more like road course based.
There's not I don't I don't really see that much drag racing.
Is there even a drag strip in Japan?
Yeah, I've seen like one or two.
So it would have to be a different a different thing.
Or no, they it's the same thing.
And that's what brings the people out.
Sure, because there is no drag racing.
Right, right.
That's what makes it unique.
I wonder why they're not doing Japan.
There must be a reason.
There's got to be a reason.
It's literally the home of the GTR.
There's got to be a reason, right?
Yeah, I think it would boom over there.
If if I if we get the chance, we'll ask Andrew, like, hey,
what's up? Why aren't we doing?
Why aren't we doing Japan?
Like what's up?
I'll ask him and I'll make sure to mention that in an episode.
But it is currently 11 a.m.
We only have two and a half.
No, it's 10 a.m.
My computer's still messed up.
See, I'm still living in the East Coast right now.
It's 10 a.m.
We have about three and a half hours
until we have to head to the airport to catch our flight back to the East Coast.
So we're going to get out there.
We're going to try to.
Oh, yeah. So what we did for this was let me pull it out of my fat pocket.
What we did for this was we created these aluminum cards
that say the chosen one on them.
And so what we've been doing is if you're on YouTube,
you can see it. I'm showing you right now.
But we've been giving these to potential guests,
you know, something not so easy to just throw away, you know,
not so easy to just forget about.
And we've been giving them to potential guests
and hoping that we will hear from them to schedule these interviews
so that we can continue to give you guys great content
and, you know, let new people kind of tell their story and hopefully inspire.
But we're going to get back out there.
We're ready for it.
We appreciate you guys listening.
Of course, you can always find us on the Internet at our HDGYS.
And if you're interested in joining the Facebook group,
check out the show notes and we got a link in there for you.
But for Episode 161 Live from GTR Festival in Ennis, Texas.
I'm Bobby. This is Aaron.
See you. Peace.
About this episode
Live from the GTR Festival at Texas Motorplex, Bobby and Aaron dive into the excitement surrounding this unique gathering of Skyline enthusiasts. They discuss the impressive collection of cars, including high-profile Skylines and notable influencers like Adam LZ and TJ Hunt. The hosts share their experiences with drag racing, role racing, and the vibrant community atmosphere. They also reflect on the festival's potential for growth and the accessibility of VIPs, while highlighting the cultural differences in car ownership between the U.S. and Australia. A blend of racing, camaraderie, and automotive passion makes this event a standout.
Original notes
In this special on-location episode of the Right Hand Drive Guys Podcast, we travel to Ennis, Texas for the three-day GT-R Festival 2025 at the legendary Texas Motorplex. Thanks to a Tier 1 Media Pass, we had full access to the action — from the pits to the grandstands to the staging lanes — capturing the event from every possible angle.
We watched some of the wildest GT-Rs on the planet, including a 2,000HP R34 GT-R from Australia, a 1-of-9 HKS Zero R, and countless builds that pushed the limits of what these cars can do. The festival also brought out major names like Adam LZ, Tommyfyeah, and even T-Pain, all soaking in the GT-R madness.
This episode is a raw, energized look at the cars, the people, and the culture that make the GT-R community one of the most passionate in the world.
🎙️ From legendary builds to once-in-a-lifetime access — buckle up for our full GT-R Festival experience.
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