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GTR On Tracks, Drift Games Fire, Hamilton Smashing A 34 & More - EP.70
GTR On Tracks, Drift Games Fire, Hamilton Smashing A 34 & More - EP.70
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About this episode
Current events in the automotive culture take center stage as Bobby and Aaron reflect on their recent trip to Japan and the excitement of spring car season. They discuss their adventures exploring Up Garage, a unique thrift store for car parts, and the challenges of navigating the Japanese car scene. The episode also highlights Lewis Hamilton's recent escapades with a GTR, the impressive Drift Games HQ, and the unfortunate explosion that devastated their shop. With insights on car culture and personal stories, this episode captures the essence of automotive enthusiasm.
Topics:
japan trip
up garage
drift games explosion
lewis hamilton
car culture
spring car season
project cars
automotive events
In this episode we speak on different current events in the JDM culture. From an Mspec on tracks to the major fire at Drift Games.
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"...egal, all of that. You know, I mean, not even the GTR, but the GTT. Imagine how many GTT owners there a..."
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Nissan R33
"...to do. This guy named Mark, he is on Instagram as R33 Skyline GTR. He's got quite a few of these cars."
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Hey, and welcome back to the right hand drive guys podcast.
The show for guys who like right hand drives.
As always, I'm Bobby.
This is Aaron.
And this is episode 70.
And today we just kind of want to like go through like, I don't know, the current events,the state of the culture, the, I don't know what you want to call it, but we just wantto chop it up a little bit about some different things that are happening, you know, withinI guess, you know, you could say the culture that we're a part of.
Yeah, yeah, it's springtime, dude.
Everyone's getting their car's out.
All this action's happening.
Yeah, businesses are doing their thing.
Yeah, it's, it's definitely a time to move, right?
This springtime is always when everybody's excited and we're excited too, of course.
And, you know, we're working on our projects behind us, you know, as much time as we can.
But it's been one year since we first visited Japan.
Oh, yeah, man.
And go ahead.
Yeah, seeing the memories pop up, it's just like, yeah, took me right back, you know?
Yeah, yeah, almost instant jupression in Japan V, what were we saying?
Japan V.
Yeah.
So almost instant, right?
Because not only the memories come up, then you see the boys over there for the event.
So we were there two at 10.
Right, right, like a couple of weeks ago, the months are already happened.
Yeah.
So we're like, oh, man, even though it was like kind of freezing and we're out there for hoursand there was rubber all over our faces, we would do it again in a heartbeat.
100%.
Yeah.
So, yeah, I mean, if you haven't been along with us for, you know, the Japan trip and therest of the episodes, I mean, we pretty much went for two weeks at that point.
And we did a little bit more sightseeing in that type of thing.
My wife was along with us for that week.
We stayed in hotels.
We kind of just explored and like got the lay of the land.
Right, right.
Then the second week we had rented a little camper van type thing.
We sent my wife back in, love you.
And it was just us.
And we packed this next week just full of everything, right?
Like as much stuff as we could with the time we had during, yeah, golden week during goldenweek.
Yeah.
And you know, we were everywhere from Tokyo to Osaka, which for sure.
Yeah.
Pretty, pretty big gap there and yeah, with the traffic and all like it was made.
It was wild.
Thinking back, it was, it's kind of crazy how much we traveled around and just drove, howmuch we drove around.
You drove your 34 GTR.
Yeah.
Just around Japan.
Yeah, thousands of kilometers.
Yeah.
And then, you know, for part of this, he's chasing me with the camper van and that's obviouslylimited at whatever cams, you know, and I'm sitting here.
I don't think it was, man.
Oh, yeah.
I think I'm saying you were doing 110.
Oh, yeah.
That's the same speed cut you did, I think.
Yeah.
So we had a blast and it really kind of introduced us to the culture.
And again, yeah, like he said, we got to do the mart seri and we were able to check out someof these iconic places that we really wanted to.
Somewhere close for Golden Week.
And we kind of did have a little bit of trouble just kind of navigating like, okay, what'sgoing to be open, what's going to be closed?
You know, we got to check out J's racing.
We got to check out spoon, global auto, top right, you know, all these places.
And we took a like tour of all the upgarages that we passed, right?
Yeah.
Like every single upgarage dude, we we went in there and just just looked, looked at all theparts, all the all the wheels.
Yeah.
You were trying to get rid of those T37s.
And you were trying to find something to flip.
Yeah.
No, we were.
Yeah.
We were just trying to see what's up because of course we've heard so many so many storiesabout all found this at upgarage, all you know, whatever the case may be.
You know, that's the place where you can find the stuff, ship it back.
And instead of paying the US tax, you know, so to speak.
So we definitely, you know, made sure to hit those.
If we saw one that breaks, we're squealing and we're whipping it in there.
And so that kind of brings us to the next thing is upgarage, right?
That's like something.
And if you don't know what an upgarage is, if you just whatever happen, it's basically,you know, some new parts, but mostly used parts store.
Yeah, they buy and sell.
It's pretty much like a thrift store for car parts, I guess you could say.
So yeah, I mean, it's, it's like you go in and there's tons of wheels, headlights, taillights, you know, just you name it, head unit, seats, steering wheels, like everything.
All these rare like OEM parts that you might not ever see or only seeyou ever once and again, you know, and they even had trash, you know, they had front grillsoff these caveans and like these giant headlights, cars you didn't even know what they were.
I mean, but it was still cool to be around and it's still cool that they, you know, they caterto the scene, you know, and they, they really put out.
Yeah, and I mean, I'm usually not one like, like to thrift shop.
So to speak, not like, oh, I don't thrift shop, but like, I don't know.
Only I don't necessarily enjoy going into a place and just like searching through a bunchof stuff that I don't know, you know, when you buy new, obviously you know what you'regoing to get right when you walk into the new store, when you walk into a new store.
You have no idea.
Yeah, but at Up Garage, I enjoyed it.
Like sifting through everything it was like looking for treasure.
Right.
Like we find those 32 N1 headlights and like, oh, wait, oh, what can we do with these?
And like, oh shit, some JZ80, JZ80, whatever.
Yeah.
So those are the glass ones, like, you know, and so it was cool.
Like it was like the one time that I've really enjoyed kind of like thrift shopping if youwanted to call it that.
Right, right.
It was like part of the hunt and like, obviously all the, the cards and stuff, all the tagsare in Japanese.
Like you could just see, you know, the chassis code or an engine code or like, so that wasalso kind of enough a fun part of it is just, I don't know, just part of the hunt, youknow, part of yeah, it's like treasure.
Right.
Like, when you found that steering wheel that you brought home, you're like, oh shit.
Yeah, it's actually like a legit, you know, and there was a few cool things like so realistically,right?
You're going through these places.
And if we went through 12 like places, we found something at what?
Three or four maybe that was like, oh shit, this is here.
You know, like that kind of replacement MFD, whatever that was.
Yeah, it was like, dang, this is here.
You look it up and it's like, oh wow, this is actually $400 cheaper than I could get iton eBay.
Yeah.
This is a good find.
You know, I can't do anything with it.
Yeah, exactly.
But you're like, what?
Yeah, this is cool.
This is one of those deals people get.
Right.
So, you know, and of course here in the US, we don't have enough garage.
We really, I mean, I wouldn't say that there's like a chain that's like that.
No.
You know, I don't think it works here.
But, but I mean, we need it, but the problem is, is Japan is small compared to the UnitedStates.
Yeah.
So, to have these stores in Japan, right?
Yeah.
There's over 230 in Japan.
Right.
So, that's actually a good number for the amount of states we have.
But for the land that that covers.
Yeah.
It's not, you know, so it's really hard.
So, you know, you know, it wouldn't make it here like that.
Right.
They couldn't use the same model in the States.
I don't think so.
No.
So, one, I don't think there's enough of that type of like tuner car culture left to likesupport the second hand, like the second hand market.
That's it.
Yep.
But they're trying.
And a lot of Americans, not all, don't get me wrong.
But a lot of Americans like want new, right?
Like they want new, you know, like, whereas I feel like the Japanese, because dude, some ofthe parts in Upcroage were like holy crap.
This is like kind of beat.
Oh, yeah.
Like these are spark plugs.
Yeah.
These are used spark plugs.
Like what is going on here?
This is a used water pump.
Like who's buying it?
Yeah.
But I mean, somebody does.
So, what we're getting at is we love our Upcroage.
We would love them to come to the United States, right?
And they just built a store in California.
Yeah.
A little south of LA.
So they're trying it, right?
And it's interesting.
It's very interesting, right?
Because super auto box created a store in Southern LA or whatever.
In this building.
Upcroage.
Oh, it was in the same building.
Yes.
And in the old auto box building.
And it was a super auto box.
Yeah.
And I think they, it was really 2000s, I believe, right?
Yeah.
And I think they rent it.
Like Upcroage didn't take the whole thing.
They took part of it.
But it's so funny that like Upcroage moves into auto box, old store that they obviouslycould not keep a flow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, I mean, I don't know.
It's going to be interesting.
I did see it seemed like they must have shipped over like some of their best parts.
They must have.
Because I mean, I don't know.
The second, it just, the second hand market in America is just different.
Oh, sure.
It gets more person to person rather than, you know, it's more people in marketplace thangoing into a store selling your old stuff, buying new, like, I don't know.
I, it's going to be tough for them, especially only being one of them.
Right.
So everybody's got to travel to that.
At first, it's going to be sweet.
Yeah.
I'm sure it's sick.
I'm sure they've got all the good things.
And that's the hard part, right?
Right.
Yeah.
Once they sell out of that stuff that all those scavengers want, yeah, unless they can replaceit, but now they're shipping it from Japan every time.
They're not getting those trade-ins, like you said.
And plus, I mean, I wonder what the price point is going to be on some of these things.
Because one of the things I liked about Upcroage is you, you kind of find deals.
Even nowadays, you can, you could find, kind of find deals.
They've always said that, you know, the price in the last few years has gone up on things.
Like, steering wheels used to be under $100.
Now they're whatever, 110, after the exchange rate.
So I just don't know if you're going to be able to find those deals.
Like, everything's going to be--No, it won't be like that.
Right.
It's going to be like retail.
It's retail, you know what I mean?
Like, hey, you can't get these things here like this.
Right.
Now you can.
Right.
So you can get this at a better deal than you can get it.
Let's just say it, auto-box, or whatever.
So yeah, I don't know how they'll do.
I mean, I am excited that they see America worth investing in.
You know, obviously the like uptick and imported cars and stuff that helps.
The 34 becoming legal, all of that.
You know, I mean, not even the GTR, but the GTT.
Imagine how many GTT owners there are now.
Yeah.
It's, I mean, it's a lot.
Yeah.
And yeah, I mean, I'm excited for it.
I probably never will step foot in it, unfortunately.
You know, like, right, like I get JDM cars, we get JDM cars, but we'll never be able tostep foot in that unless we--Right.
But it is cool.
It is cool to see Japanese companies having a presence in the scene in America.
Like, Up Garage, Trustkikaku also has a store in the US now.
And I'm just saying to see who else can come along.
Well, I'm anxious to see how long they last.
Yeah, I'm excited to see what they're going to do.
Yeah.
I'm excited to see what they're going to do.
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This guy named Mark, he is on Instagram as R33 Skyline GTR.
He's got quite a few of these cars.
He's got in R1, 34 GTR.
He's got Nest 15.
He's got a, what was that?
The active red R34 GTR.
He's got an M spec.
Yeah, he props to him.
He props to him.
He's got an M.
That's a collection, dude.
So he teamed up with a guy that lives like, you know, an hour and a half, two hours away fromus named Hershey.
And Hershey is kind of one of these mysterious guys.
Unless you're in the game.
He's one of those dudes that only has one first name on Facebook.
Yeah.
How do you do that?
I don't know how he does it, but like that's his first and last name.
It's wild, but so the guy keeps like a pretty low profile, right?
He is heavy in the game though.
So if you're also heavy in the game, you've probably heard of him and he's from New Hampshire,which is crazy, right?
Because a lot of times these guys will be from New York, New Jersey, Cali, Texas, youknow, these Florida, these type of states.
You don't hear nothing like this from New Hampshire.
So Hershey is the guy who supplies the tracks.
He supplied the tracks.
He has though, however, been importing R34 GTRs since 2010.
And overall, he imports at times 400 cars a year.
That's numbers.
Yeah.
In 2022, he imported 400 cars, he said.
So I just had a phone call with him right before this and he kind of, you know, gave mea low down because I was just kind of curious like, hey, did Mark buy that?
I'm spec off you.
And he said that he actually didn't get that one from him.
And he said that that car has quite the story, but he didn't elaborate.
So I assume it's maybe not the best story.
But Hershey has put tracks on three different 34 GTRs, 34 GTT, 33 GTR.
He's done the track thing, right?
And so we've seen him doing this for years, but again, he's low key.
So he himself, Hershey doesn't blow it up because he's actually just doing it for fun.
Right.
No posted on a group or two, but he doesn't blow it out or nothing.
And so with this one, I think Mark really wanted to do something unique.
Mark's from New Jersey area.
He wanted to do something unique.
And Hershey's like, hey, I got the tracks.
And so they bring them, they get the M spec.
Now mind you, this is like a 300 plus thousand dollar car.
This is an extremely rare Millennium Jade M spec.
And he's like, yeah, I know I throw the tracks on it.
Like, fuck it.
You know, like, okay, cool.
So yeah, there were the tracks on it.
And so they take it down to Atlantic City, New Jersey on the Atlantic City Beach andstart ripping this M spec.
Now Hershey did say that this was like the least successful time that he's done the tracksbecause of like, a, there was a lot of people on the beach.
They didn't have like enough time to truly set it up so that the turning radius was whatthey wanted.
And then the sand really started flinging a lot more than they expected.
And so obviously they weren't trying to run through that paint just doing this littlesplash.
Sandblasting it literally.
So I mean, if you look up Mark's Instagram or, you know, Hershey also owns BlackdoubtMotorsports, he posted it.
You can see this.
And I mean, they still like, look like they had quite a bit of fun with it, you know, buthe says when he puts them on the GTTs on like the lower end cars where he doesn't have toworry, he said it's actually a blast.
I would really work on the GTTs.
He said it's just, it's no different than a all-wheel drive car.
Which didn't seem to make sense to me, but I guess because of all of that traction.
Right, right.
It's just pushing it.
Yeah.
And so I guess because I was thinking like, well, the front tracks, but it's still creatingresistance with what you're on.
So it's still rolling those traction.
He's still way down on them.
It's not like he's pushing the track.
Right.
You know, so yeah, I mean, these guys, yeah, I wouldn't say they broke the internet.
I would say they definitely disrupted it a little bit.
Because you know, people obviously, especially people, maybe they don't have 34 GTTs that reallylove them and they want to see the pure things done with them.
Right.
And they're like, this is not pure.
You're putting goddamn tracks on this thing.
You know.
And so I definitely recommend looking up that video.
But I had asked Hershey, I said, you know, you got any more plans on like doing anythingwith tracks?
He's like, no.
And I'm like, really?
And he's like, well, yes, but I can't tell you yet.
And so I'm like, okay.
I thought it Z-Tune on tracks coming right up.
But so yeah, I mean, I thought that that was like a pretty cool, mentionable thing thatthese guys are willing to just take these beautiful cars out and really switch it up.
Because usually you just see like an ATV or something like that on tracks.
Dude, you see a 34 GTR on tracks.
It looks like a hot wheels car.
Yeah, it does.
It kind of seems fake.
Yeah, it looks fake.
It just doesn't even like my brain didn't even comprehend it at first.
It was just like, what are you looking at?
Like it took me a second.
I'm just like, wait, these dudes are wild.
And so, okay.
So speaking of 34s, right?
Most guys know Larry Chan.
You know, we definitely had the pleasure of meeting him at the Fuji Track Day.
That top rank put on for us the last time we went to Japan.
Sounds like a really cool guy.
100%.
Yeah.
Seem pretty down to earth.
You know, I know some people want to hate on him.
Like, oh, big YouTuber, big media guy.
Well, listen, like, yeah, he is.
And he put in his time to get there.
Yeah, right.
And he cannot entertain everyone.
And that's something maybe that you and I understand, but maybe other people don't.
Right?
Like, I knew that Larry Chan was not there to like give me his time.
He was there to enjoy himself.
So therefore, I didn't demand his time.
Oh, not even to enjoy himself.
He had a full photo crew.
Yes, true.
Dude, yeah, he was working.
He was working.
He was working.
He was working.
Overall, I would say he's a cool guy.
Oh, yeah.
So Larry has a, uh, base eye, blue 34 that he sourced from top rank and that he did driveat that track day.
And so he knew that he wanted to have this thing restored.
I remember when he got it, when he announced he got it from top rank that he said thathe wanted to be one of those last 100 that Yoshida, you know, did.
And so I'm like thinking like he's already in there right now, like dang, like maybe hegot bumped up, but like, if not, it's only been like eight months.
So like he got in with an eight months.
That's not horrible.
No, no, no.
You know, so Yoshida must have some room in there still.
So if you want to get your shirt refinished, I think they just.
Pump them out.
Honestly, I don't think they have the, I don't know, like the restrictions, I guess you couldsay Nismo would have that type of restoration.
They can, you know, just do a entire car and have all the tools to do the entire car inhouse right there.
Just paying it out.
Yeah, everything like to strip the car completely.
Yeah, Larry's done it.
Been doing a good job covering the restoration too.
And so that was kind of the point is, yeah, he's showing us, you know, pretty much fromstart to finish.
He's showing us that process that Yoshida someone takes to tear down that car with his wifein six hours, dude.
He tore down an R34 GTR rolls in within six hours.
Him and his wife tore the whole thing down.
So it was all in pieces stripped down to the shell, ready to have spot welds, you know,drilled out or whatever and get to move in.
So yeah, if you haven't checked out Larry's Instagram about this process, he was lucky enoughto be able to cover that, you know, kind of first few steps in the process to really kindof give you like a, I don't even know, like some insight on what truly happens to thesecars behind the panels.
Yeah.
You know, when water and rain and different corrosives get in there, I mean, it's a little scary.
Yeah, it is.
You wouldn't even notice.
Because I mean, I remember on one of his posts, he just blatantly says, you know, if youhave driven your R34 in the rain, you have rust like, yeah, yeah, that's crazy.
Because yeah, I've driven mine in the rain in the short time I've owned it.
Right.
So I mean, there was, there was, I don't know, I think it had to do with cost or somethingwith Nissan, not, you know, doing all the seams you should have.
And that's what happens.
Which is crazy.
Yeah.
It affects the S15s as well.
And that's like of the same error.
Right, right.
So, yeah.
And so beyond that, you know, that was just like, you know, just in between these two panels,that's not speaking on like underneath.
And it's the strut towers.
So like one of the main structural pieces of the car, like you lose out your strut tower,dude, you're in trouble.
Yeah, Nissan messed up on that heavy.
Right.
So, you know, and I would assume that he's going to go on to cover more of this process.
I hope so.
And, you know, because a guy was asking me, he's like, well, how is Larry Chen, you know,how can he do this?
And, you know, I'm trying to explain to him, like some people think like these YouTubers justget hooked up and it's just free, right?
Like it's just, well, did you notice that Larry Chen is documenting it all?
That's not just for himself.
Right.
You know, he's trading, you know, you got to think different trades, different skills.
You can trade, you know, barter, so to speak.
So he's creating this whole media, like, outline for them of their process.
Right.
He's getting a little discount.
Yeah.
Right.
I mean, kind of the same thing.
Tommy F. Yeah, he's been on other podcasts saying that any YouTuber that wants their 34
done or any other Skyline's done, he'll do them for free.
Like, labor is off the board because he knows he's getting back to it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Maybe that's not the best idea considering some of the things that have gone on with him.
But like, I get it.
It's like one of those things, the exposure, you know, just like Dustin Williams with TopRank.
He created a lot of sales for Top Rank.
Right.
I mean, he somewhat inspired me to use Top Rank.
And I don't even watch all his videos.
So it's the same thing.
Did he, you know, did he get hooked up with his van for the Japan and a van thing?
Probably.
Right.
But then they had this huge influx in rentals of regular-ass cars.
Yeah.
So it's one of those things, right?
But I'll definitely be excited to see Larry's 34 finally done.
And I mean, that's the dream to have it done in Japan like that.
Yeah, especially from Garajashita.
And if you don't know who they are, look them up.
Like, they, they, dude, you got to know who they are.
I mean, they make the metal panels like they have their own stamping machinery.
Yeah.
I don't know.
They make a lot of things.
A lot of the seals they make.
There's just, yeah, I heard that they do a lot.
They purchase Nissan's old stamping equipment from those parts.
And so to just create one of those machines is like impossible.
It's huge.
They had to move it in there.
And so that's what's crazy.
That's why Nissan, you're not going to see them producing it.
They sold their machine.
They're stamps, you know, whatever.
But so speaking of 34s, it was quite...
The uproar recently in the 34 community.
And apparently they let an F1 driver loose on the streets of Japan in a rented 34.
Yeah.
Again.
Again, a second time, apparently.
And so I guess the first time there was a little bit of an uproar, but the second timeanother like, all right, you're just kind of, you know, being ridiculous.
And so Lewis Hamilton.
Yeah.
I don't know if he personally rented it is.
Probably I doubt it.
It was somebody else, right?
But he was what?
Mobbing through the streets, just like...
Just hooning, I guess you could say.
Yeah.
He was hooning.
Just hooning.
You know, just beating on a GTR.
Which is cool.
Like, I remember the first, the first time he did this, he got...
Not into trouble, but there was definitely a lot of people talking about it because he was,you know, beating on these people's rental car.
And I don't think they took too kindly of that and, you know, they ended up getting on Twitter.
And it was a whole big thing where, you know, they were pretty much just like, "Hey, whatdo you do?"
And this isn't how we do things.
Like, which is, it's not how the Japanese people do things.
Like, they wouldn't like you beating on their stuff unless you had some other...
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
Some other agreement.
Which I sure this time he did because, yeah, I don't even know if it was...
I didn't see the wall I'll play or nothing, but...
He seemed to be having a good time, you know, just been in years and...
He didn't like blow the motor.
Right.
Like, I don't know.
Like, I get it, but, you know, I mean, if I don't know...
They don't care he's Lewis Hamilton.
Yeah, I know.
The first people that run into the car, they don't care who he...
Right.
They might not even know who he is.
Like, yeah, I don't know why he...
Yeah, that's weird that he's choosing to go 34 GTRs.
Yeah.
He could just go McLaren and it or do whatever.
Or just like go buy one.
Yeah.
Just for buy one.
Yeah.
Have you heard of top rate?
Lewis Hamilton.
Have you heard of top rate imports?
Yeah, do.
We can hook you up.
Yeah.
Come on.
But yeah, it just seemed like people really took that super seriously.
Like, he was disrespecting the car and like, you know, all of that went like, we, youknow, we don't know this dude.
Like, yeah, sure he gets to drive F1, but like, you know, that's in this like purpose-builtrace car that's super controlled on, you know, maybe this is like what makes him truly happyis to be able to take a actual street car and like hammer it on the street and maybe reallylikes 34s.
Yeah.
I don't know.
I can't see it.
I don't get his number.
I can't ask him, you know what I mean?
But, so, yeah, I mean, I don't know.
Let these guys be as long as they're not putting Japanese people in danger and stuff likethat.
I personally didn't see any videos or anything, so I don't know.
But as long as like, it's not like, yeah, I don't think he's like drifting through Shibuyaor nothing.
Right.
Oh, yeah.
He's not like jumping the fence to Daikoku or nothing like that.
But yeah, he's, he's just taking a little time.
He's out there having a good time.
I'm sure people are just hating on him because it's, you know, great because in hisLewis Hamilton, right, and who wouldn't want to do that?
I don't see anybody in here that wouldn't want to do that.
I know.
Sure.
Something we wouldn't want though, right?
I mean, when it comes down to like the things that you build, right?
Like if you're watching on YouTube, you can see Blankaraj, right?
It's something we built.
It's not insane.
It's not, you know, whatever, but it's something we built and there's Mad Pride put intoit.
So no matter what level, and I'm sure a lot of guys can relate to this, no matter whatlevel you build something like when you build it, it's like yours and the Pride there isjust like huge.
And I don't know if I mean, I'm sure you guys listening to this has had to had seen thisshop.
This shop was insane.
Like when I first showed it to you, you're like, what the hell is that?
And I'm like, no, dude, this is like their shop.
And you're like, holy moly.
And so drift games, is drift games HQ or was their headquarters?
Yeah, yeah.
It was like their, their shop and their, I mean, it's pretty much everything.
It was like their production studios where they do their podcasts, where they do alltheir editing.
You know, they, I don't know.
And they had a crazy shop and like all their cars, you know, were in there and likedisplayed in the night.
Yeah, if you haven't seen it, they had like a fake Starbucks in there for like one of therooms and another like a fake 7/11 for like one of the rooms.
Like a bunch of that type of stuff.
And it was just so cool to see and like it was just so well put together and just looksso nice.
Like, so nice.
Like, yeah, I thought at first I'm like, oh, this is some like mega rich dude that likegot bored and designed like a whole town inside of his garage.
You know, it was, it was them and they were actually like dudes that were in the culture andlike a part of it, you know, not just somebody coming in with money and trying to insertthemselves into it.
They built that off from, you know, the success.
Off last 10 plus years, you know, which is huge.
And so this place was awesome.
Like he says, you know, they would do all of their work out of there.
They would, they would, you know, because they were building cars and whatnot, right?
Yeah.
I don't know how much like mechanic type work they were doing out of there.
But they were definitely storing a lot of their cars there and just had them on display.
And also they were about to have like an open house type event because it hasn't been finishedfor that long.
It's been a few months.
Yeah, it was not, no, it was not long at all.
I think it was finished in like November or something like at the end of the fall.
Yeah.
They were about to have this open house.
They had all these extra cars that might not be there.
They had all of their merch, all of like just do anything you could imagine.
They had all in one spot.
Yeah, just like you would, right?
I mean, realistically, you know.
And then, yeah, something happened.
Like they're in a compound with, I don't know, two, three, maybe four other shops.
And it happened at another shop and caused a catastrophic explosion.
And it just sounds like an insurance claim to me, boy.
Yeah, but dude, that's the thing though.
He, Dave, the main drift games guy, he went on to say like insurance, like, yeah, sure,but like race cars don't necessarily have insurance.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know, all their footage from like the drift masters and like all these European driftplaces.
Yeah, I saw the thing that he posted and it was like this big case full, full of footage,like crazy.
Yeah.
Like, so all of that.
And then also, Davey, he said that he didn't have anything at his house that was driftgames related.
Like, his house did not have a single piece of memorabilia, a single piece of anything.
It sounds like an extra runner to me.
You knew what he was doing for sure.
He said, I ain't keeping nothing at the house.
So, you know, like any memorabilia, any like, you know, hard card or anything you got froman event or land.
Yeah.
So we lost everything.
So we lost everything.
So this fire flattened it.
Like, there was just like the shell left and like some frames of cars and stuff.
Yeah, dude, it was really sad to see.
Yeah.
You see, like they flew drones before they like, you know, tore the place down.
They flew drones around the place and like, it was just so sad.
Like at one point, they flew the drone up to like the wall that had broken down and youcan't really see much into it just because of the lighting and stuff.
And then they changed the exposure on the camera.
And you can see the cars inside and it's just that line of cars that were just like sosick was just like all just burned to a crisp and you just you could see wheels and maybesome metal and like it was just so sad to see.
And it's like, man, I could not imagine going through that and having to pick up the pieces.
You know, even though there's no pieces left to even pick up.
And then that's another thing.
They weren't even allowed to even, you know, kick through the rubble.
Like that's crazy.
The whole they weren't allowed on the property.
Whole place had to be torn down and like they couldn't even they couldn't even go andsearch for anything.
Like not that there would be anything left.
Yeah.
If you see the place, I mean, it's it's the street.
It's so sad, dude.
Yeah.
I mean, so shout out to the drift games guys for, you know, I'm they're still dealing withit.
This was like a few weeks ago, but you know, like they're still dealing with it.
You know, there's nothing like everything you've worked for being literally burnt out fromunder you.
Right.
And then, you know, just very recently they had just started putting the finishing toucheson there to Jay Z.
They've said mercy a lot of drift car that, you know, they were doing in collab with LibertyWalk, which is kind of a big deal.
You know, that's like a huge company and like for them to be supported by Liberty Walk,you know, this, these Irish dudes, you know what I mean?
It's kind of a big deal and it's just sad to see that go up.
So that car burnt?
Yeah.
Damn.
Yeah.
That would, that would suck like damn.
So yeah, definitely, you know, thoughts with them.
Hopefully they have some good fortune coming their way.
Yeah.
If Karma's a thing, they they're owed some good karma.
Yeah.
I mean, and if you got time, go check out the channel and Dave breaks down, you know, oneof the first episodes after the thing, like he breaks down like the last, you know, 10,14 years of how drift games became what it is today.
And dude, it's like a crazy story.
Like it went from, you know, him coming up in the drift world, then getting cancer andthen having to get out and then just all this crazy stuff.
And dude, they just stay at it and they just stay rocking.
Yeah, that's sweet.
That's like that ultimate story.
Yeah.
So yeah, definitely shout out to them for, you know, having to go through this right now.
Yeah.
But yeah, I mean, we, you know, episode 70, like I said, we just kind of wanted to switchit up a little bit, go over some, you know, current events, talk about that, you know, one yearanniversary, having depression, all that good stuff.
But yeah, we'll be right back at it.
We got the marketplace episode about to come out.
We have the man, Albo coming up.
The man.
We have Albo coming on the podcast next week.
So we're super amped about that.
And yeah, I mean, tell your friends, have your friends, you know, listen to the podcast, sendthem the link through Apple podcasts, whatever you got to do.
Hit us up in the DM if you have any questions about anything, whatever, go into Japan importinga car, anything like that.
Hit us up on the socials at our HD, GUIS.
And for another episode of the right hand drive guys podcast, I'm Bobby, this is Aaron.
See ya.
Peace.
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