A deep dive into the world of InDescent, a company specializing in modified Porsches, featuring co-founder Phillip Teal. The episode covers the journey of building a sneakerhead's dream Porsche, inspired by the Nike Green Lobster sneaker. Teal shares insights on the challenges of logistics, the design process, and the unique features of their builds, including custom carbon seats and a powerful engine setup. The conversation also touches on the broader automotive culture, the influence of SEMA, and the importance of quality control in custom builds.
On this episode we meet with Phillip Tieu, Indecent’s co-Founder and Vehicle Development Director, the night before PCA’s unStock show. Phillip brought their latest creation that impressed many Porsche enthusiasts at SEMA this year. We get to hear how Indecent was started, where they are built, what inspires their designs and much more. It was a refreshing hour into the mind of a young and growing company that is carving out their space amongst established brands such as Singer, RWB and Guntherwerks.
"...I want to thank our presenting sponsor, Pirelli. With Pirelli tires, they have to achieve the highest levels of performance, safety, noiselessness, and grip on the road surface..."
Pirelli makes tires that help cars grip the road better and perform well, especially in sports and racing. They are a well-known brand in the automotive industry.
Pirelli is a renowned Italian tire manufacturer known for producing high-performance tires for sports cars, luxury vehicles, and motorcycles. Their tires are designed to provide excellent grip, safety, and performance under various driving conditions.
"...with a goose neck. Well, coming back, the trailer had problems. We had two blowouts..."
A gooseneck trailer is a special kind of trailer that connects to a truck in a way that helps it carry heavy items more securely. It attaches inside the truck bed, making it easier to control when driving.
A gooseneck trailer is a type of trailer that attaches to a pickup truck via a ball hitch mounted in the bed of the truck. This design allows for better weight distribution and stability when towing heavy loads.
"...borrow my cousin's F 250 because I don't have a truck big enough..."
The Ford F-250 is a strong pickup truck that can carry heavy loads and tow trailers. It's often used for work or by people who need a powerful vehicle.
The Ford F-250 is a heavy-duty pickup truck known for its towing capacity and durability. It's part of the F-Series lineup, which is popular for both work and personal use.
"...the trailer had problems. We had two blowouts. Of course. Did you have spares?"
A blowout happens when a tire suddenly loses air and can burst. This can make it hard to control the vehicle, especially if you're towing something heavy like a trailer.
A blowout refers to a sudden loss of air pressure in a tire, which can cause the tire to burst. This can lead to loss of control of the vehicle and is particularly dangerous when towing a trailer.
"...I just was enamored by drifting, you know, I think I was kind of like your typical Asian, I guess love Nissan's love drifting cars..."
Drifting is when a driver makes a car slide sideways while still controlling it. It's popular in racing and car shows, and many people enjoy watching or participating in it.
Drifting is a driving technique where the driver intentionally oversteers, causing loss of traction in the rear wheels while maintaining control through steering. It's often used in motorsports and has a strong cultural presence in car enthusiast communities.
"...she was like, you know, I want to get into a Macan. I was like, Oh, that's cool. You know, sure. I mean, we can afford a..."
The Porsche Macan is a smaller SUV made by Porsche that is known for being fun to drive and having a high-quality interior. It's a good option for people who want a luxury vehicle that can also handle daily tasks.
The Porsche Macan is a compact luxury crossover SUV that combines sporty performance with everyday usability. It features a range of powerful engines and a premium interior, making it a popular choice among luxury SUV buyers.
"I bought a six speed manual based 997.1 for $26,000."
A six-speed manual is a type of car transmission that lets you change gears manually. It has six different gears, which can help the car go faster or save fuel.
A six-speed manual transmission allows the driver to manually shift through six gears, providing better control over the vehicle's power and efficiency compared to automatic transmissions.
"T-37s on it, which is a JDM thing, so it caught my eye."
T-37s are a type of lightweight wheels made by a brand called Volk Racing. They are popular among car enthusiasts for their performance and style.
T-37s refer to a specific model of wheels made by the Japanese company Volk Racing, known for their lightweight and high-performance designs, often used in motorsports and car tuning.
"I bought a six speed manual, which ended up being our first SEMA build for Toyota Tires in 2022."
SEMA is a big car show in Las Vegas where companies show off custom cars and parts. It's a place for car enthusiasts to see the latest in car modifications.
SEMA stands for the Specialty Equipment Market Association, which hosts an annual trade show in Las Vegas showcasing aftermarket automotive products and custom vehicles.
"I put some JDM bread seats inside of it, which is a very cool thing for JDM lovers."
JDM means cars and parts made for Japan. People who love JDM often like to use these parts to make their cars special.
JDM stands for Japanese Domestic Market, referring to vehicles and parts that are produced for the Japanese market. JDM enthusiasts often seek these parts for their unique styling and performance characteristics.
"we, Sebastian and I, of indecent, we're inspired by Nikai-san of RWB."
RWB is a company that makes special body kits for Porsches. They are known for making the cars look wider and more aggressive.
RWB, or Rauh-Welt Begriff, is a Japanese company known for its custom wide-body kits for Porsche vehicles. Founded by Akira Nakai, RWB has gained a cult following among car enthusiasts for its unique and aggressive styling.
"...we both equally love modified cars over stock cars. We appreciate stock cars, but we love modified cars."
Modified cars are cars that have been changed from how they originally came from the factory. People do this to make them look different or to make them perform better.
Modified cars are vehicles that have been altered from their original factory specifications. This can include changes to performance, aesthetics, or both, often to enhance driving experience or personal style.
"...there's Liberty Walk out there. There's all these big brands that sell body kits..."
Liberty Walk is a company that makes special parts to change how cars look and perform. They are famous for their unique and bold designs that many car enthusiasts love.
Liberty Walk is a well-known aftermarket company that specializes in creating body kits and modifications for high-performance cars. Their designs are often recognized for their aggressive styling and wide-body kits.
Adro is a company that makes parts to improve how cars look and work. They create body kits that can make cars more stylish and sometimes faster.
Adro is an aftermarket company that focuses on performance parts and body kits for various car models, aiming to enhance both aesthetics and performance.
"...this design, in my opinion, is so beautiful that I believe that this can be more than just a body kit company. And the thing that I really feared..."
A body kit is a set of parts you can add to a car to change how it looks. It can make the car look sportier or more unique by adding new bumpers or side panels.
A body kit is a collection of exterior modifications for a vehicle, designed to enhance its appearance and aerodynamics. These kits often include bumpers, side skirts, and spoilers, allowing for a more aggressive or customized look.
"...the wheel fitments all off. And so I told Sebastian before we even produced the very first kit..."
Wheel fitment is about making sure the wheels and tires you put on a car are the right size and shape for it. If they don't fit well, it can cause problems when driving.
Wheel fitment refers to how well a wheel and tire combination fits a vehicle's specifications, including width, diameter, and offset. Proper fitment is crucial for performance, handling, and aesthetics.
"...we don't have the, you know, we're self funded, right? We don't have investment design studio."
A design studio is a place where car designs are made. It's where people come up with ideas for how cars should look and work before they are built.
A design studio in the automotive context refers to a specialized facility where automotive designs are created and developed. This includes everything from the initial sketches to 3D modeling and prototyping of vehicles.
Singer is a company that takes old Porsche cars and makes them look and perform better. They are famous for their detailed work and unique designs.
Singer Vehicle Design is a company that specializes in restoring and modifying classic Porsche 911s. They are known for their high-quality craftsmanship and attention to detail, creating bespoke vehicles that blend modern performance with classic aesthetics.
"...consciously, like just deciding on working on the water cool generation, for one, that's a very conscious decision beyond just a 997, because,..."
Water-cooled cars use liquid to cool the engine, which helps keep it running at the right temperature. This is different from older cars that used air to cool their engines, which can change how the car drives and performs.
The water-cooled generation refers to a series of Porsche 911 models that use water cooling for their engines, as opposed to air cooling used in earlier models. This change allowed for better engine performance and efficiency, but also altered the car's character and driving experience.
"it was a dandelion yellow 997 with a ducktail on it, a very sleek design."
A ducktail is a style of rear spoiler that looks like a duck's tail, and it's often used on sports cars to make them look cooler and help them go faster.
A ducktail is a type of rear spoiler design that resembles the shape of a duck's tail, often used on sports cars to enhance aerodynamics and aesthetics.
"If you're chasing down a part for a Porsche that's been impossible to find, maybe you're looking for a trim piece or looking for something for your 944 turbo or your 911 SC, either way, Auto Atlanta has you covered..."
Auto Atlanta is a business that helps people find parts for their Porsche cars. They have many parts available and can ship them anywhere in the world.
Auto Atlanta is a company specializing in parts for Porsche vehicles, providing a wide range of components and expert advice for Porsche owners.
"...if RWB is here on the spectrum, if Gunther works is here, we're dead smack in the middle..."
Gunther Works is a company that customizes Porsche 911 cars, making them more powerful and stylish while keeping some classic features. They create unique cars based on what customers want.
Gunther Works is a company that specializes in building high-end, custom Porsche 911s. They focus on blending modern performance with classic design elements, creating unique vehicles tailored to individual tastes.
"... an inch off the ground. So he had a Gen 2 Dodge Viper, which is quite rare already in Europe alone, and..."
The Dodge Viper is a super-fast sports car that was made from the early 1990s until 2017. It has a really powerful engine and a bold design, making it stand out among other cars. People talk about it because it's known for being a thrilling car to drive and has a special place in car culture.
The Dodge Viper is a high-performance sports car that was produced from 1992 until 2017, known for its powerful V10 engine and aggressive styling. It has a cult following due to its raw performance and minimal electronic aids, appealing to driving purists. The Viper is often discussed for its unique character and the driving experience it offers, which is unlike many other sports cars.
"In Europe, they're putting Nissan wheels on a Porsche. Like it's just the weird, yeah, they just don't care."
Nissan is a car company from Japan that makes many types of vehicles, including sports cars. They are popular among car fans, especially for their performance models.
Nissan is a Japanese automotive manufacturer known for producing a wide range of vehicles, including sedans, SUVs, and sports cars. The brand has a strong following among car enthusiasts, particularly for models like the Nissan GT-R and 240SX, which are often modified.
"I think the 992 is a good example where we are actually going to start doing CFD testing on that."
CFD testing is a way to study how air moves around a car. It helps designers make cars more aerodynamic, which can improve speed and handling.
CFD testing, or Computational Fluid Dynamics testing, is a method used to analyze how air flows around a vehicle. It helps engineers optimize aerodynamics for better performance and handling.
"...h build. Actually, I'll be honest with you, your Boxster, your Boxster, I know that was a rush build and t..."
The Porsche Boxster is a sporty convertible car that has been around since the late 1990s. It's known for being fun to drive and has a nice balance, which means it handles well on the road. People talk about it because it's a stylish car that offers a great driving experience.
The Porsche Boxster is a mid-engine roadster that was first introduced in 1996, known for its balance, handling, and performance. It played a significant role in revitalizing Porsche's brand image in the late 1990s and is often praised for its driving dynamics and open-top experience. The Boxster is frequently discussed for its blend of luxury and sportiness, making it a popular choice among enthusiasts.
"Now, one of the next questions was about engine and transmission options. Now, that car has a upgraded engine. I think it was like 550 horsepower methanol injection, two additional injectors."
Horsepower tells you how powerful an engine is. The higher the horsepower, the faster and more powerful the car can be.
Horsepower is a unit of measurement for power, commonly used to quantify the power output of engines. In automotive terms, it indicates how much work an engine can perform over time.
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Welcome to the Porsche Club Insider, your one stop for all things Porsche and PCA.
Here's your host, Vu Gwin, and the Insider crew.
Welcome everyone, it's episode 197, it's the eve of Unestock, and we've got a very
special guest here. We're actually in a hotel, conference room, nondescript, and
there's a soggy floor below us. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Tell him what hotel we're in.
Yeah, let's not. We have our special guest here, but before I introduce him, I want
to thank our presenting sponsor, Pirelli. With Pirelli tires, they have to achieve
the highest levels of performance, safety, noiselessness, and grip on the road
surface. Innovative tires that can even satisfy the most specific mobility needs of
our end consumer. On this episode, we're going to speak with Phillip Teal, co-founder and
vehicle development director of InDescent. You may have seen himself or you may have
seen, honestly, the car while we were at SEMA where InDescent has jumped into the modified
911 pool with their wide body 997 and soon 991 and 992 coupe and cabriolet creations.
I got to give it to Manny. Well done. That was a very well. That wasn't even AI. That was a
well put together. I was banning in the basement of the Wonderground working. And this all came
together really last minute. We're going to get into that in a bit, but I want to thank
everyone that's listening. Thank you so much. If you aren't currently a PCA member, own a
Porsche. What are you waiting for? Grab that Vin head over to PCA.org and make yourself a
member. And for those of you that don't currently own a Porsche, check out our test drive
program. Just go to www.pca.org. So, Phillip, welcome to Insider. We've spoken over a couple
of years now as you've kind of gone down this road of InDescent. And we saw each other last
week at SEMA. It seems like it wasn't that long ago. I know it's been a whirlwind for you. So,
let me just, for the listeners, share with you. Now, I knew about the InDescent. You've been
sharing photos with me. We stay in communication. We knew the car was going to be unveiled at SEMA.
We were super excited about it. And we'll throw some photos later. Damon will have them. But your
car was featured on the Toyo Treadpass. For those of you who have never been to SEMA, it's one of
the links between two halls. And Toyo really does kind of handpick, curate some really cool
modified cars. All different. Makes some models. And your car was one of them. And of course,
we covered it. I saw it. My jaws dropped. And we'll talk about the specific build. But from there,
obviously, the whole idea of Unstock, we went to SEMA years, year after year. And we see all these
Porsches. And we wanted to have a modified Porsche show that could showcase the cars at SEMA. And
this literally is what happened with the InDescent. You showed the car. Of course, I've always invited
you to Orcs Reunion. I've always invited you to Unstock. And you were with us at Eibach last year.
But this build was like timing was not exactly on your side, right? And getting the car here,
you would think. Probably just ship it from Las Vegas to Santa Clarita would be easy. But you
had some things going on and the car actually got on the trailer, went back to Houston. And then it
has to come back out here. Actually, it's on the way right now. So that can be unveiled in Santa
Clarita tomorrow. And all of that is one, I know you wanted to do it, but could we get the logistics
together? And the cost folks listening to this is, you know, he's a young company and to do this
sort of commitment is a big deal. But maybe we should give a shout out to the organization that
helped us get the car to Unstock. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, first off, thanks for having us in
Decent. We're just so excited to be here, be a part of this. And yeah, you're absolutely right.
We do certainly have to thank Total Energies. They are a French lubricants company that is our
partner. And we are exclusively using their lubricants courts and all of our vehicles.
And they have actually funded us to bring and transport that vehicle out. So this wouldn't
be possible without. Yeah. And this was a conversation that started like you really
approached them the evening after we talked about this at SEMA. I think it was Thursday.
No, Wednesday, we thought about it. Thursday, you were meeting with them. And they and you
made it happen. So the agreement was one thing, but then to get the car onto a trailer and have it
sent from Houston back to Santa Clarita also was not an easy task. I know. Not at all. Not at all.
Yeah. And keep in mind that Total Energies is a $250 billion annual company. They're large. So for
them to make a decision that quickly as well. I mean, we really, you know, I think we're pretty
fortunate on that. And so but yes, transporting car was difficult. You know, the car, I would say
isn't any wider than any other supercar that's out there, but it's wide. So you can't just put
that on any transporter. The car certainly low because we've said it low for the car show or
kind of to show off the vehicle. And yeah, we had to let or we had to send back to transporters,
which we killed two days because we had all that extra time to deal with it. Exactly. Exactly.
Yeah, it's back to Houston. You know, thought I had everything perfectly scheduled.
As always, I think everything's going to go smoothly. I believed in you, my friend.
Philip kept texting me like, dude, I'm trying my hardest. I want it there. I'm trying. I'm like,
I'm just going to you just let me know if you need something from me. But you do you. And
I called all of my contacts, everyone I knew all the collectors I knew and finally had a company
local to Houston that said we will personally transport that vehicle. However, the trailers they
had also didn't fit the car. So they're using my trailer, which I was about to say. How did it
actually get to Vegas? Your trailer? Yeah, well, so I borrowed the French trailer because we brought
two. We had a car with total energies at their booth in central hall. And then of course, the
Toyo build. And so I bought a trailer, which was great and exciting because I also got a chance
to borrow my cousin's F 250 because I don't have a truck big enough and with a goose neck.
Well, coming back, the trailer had problems. We had two blowouts. Of course. Did you have spares?
We had two spares. I was going to say, you'll have spares when that happens. And in addition to
that, the F 250 started leaking. The transmission started to leak. This is a 2024. So I was actually
considering driving it myself, which honestly, I really didn't want to after going to Vegas.
Of course. But I didn't even have a truck to do so. So I had to find someone.
This is how I felt so bad. I'm like, I really wanted him to be there. I know he's really
stressed and I hope he figures it out. But every time he texted me, I'm like, oh, poor guy. There
is just one more roadblock. Like he's just going to go just bonkers. That I have to say. I'm here
and I have to say the Archbishop journey for me is like, how do you handle challenges? That sums
it up for me in a nutshell. So before we get into indecent, can we spend a little bit of time on
how he even got to this car scene? Definitely. Yeah, would love to. Yeah. I guess some of my
background, I, you know, grew up in Houston all my life. I've loved cars ever since I was young.
Big car scene in Houston. Yeah, big car scene in Houston. I think a little bit kind of not very
known on the big map in some cases, which I feel the same way about food there. I think food's
great there and Houston food is yeah, that's a whole nother podcast. Yeah, at the top of the
charts. So anyways, and so yeah, I had from a very young age, I just was enamored by drifting,
you know, I think I was kind of like your typical Asian, I guess love Nissan's love drifting cars,
built multiple growing up and just figured out how to do it myself, you know, hand tools, watching
things online and had always kind of do that and done that personally and graduated from
college with a finance degree and doing nothing as most drifters. And, you know,
started a career in the software space. And so I worked for big companies all the way to small
startups on the sales side. I've always been a bit technical. That was kind of my superpower and
did really well. And I have to say, and I think this is somewhat of a common story now, but
during the pandemic, I kind of woke up one morning, kind of asked myself, what am I doing here?
You know, like, do I want to continue this? And it provided me an awesome life, you know,
great financially. But I love to make things very, very difficult myself. And so I said,
how do I how do I make my life tougher? And so, you know, one thing was like, well, I never really
considered being in the automotive industry, but let's do something. And some of it's my
accident, to be quite honest, you know, it wasn't all planned that way. But you were in the JDM
world. Yeah. So where did Porsche come in? So I have to give it to my wife. She's the classy one.
I'm not. And so she, you know, we were looking for a car for her. And she was like, you know,
I want to get into a Macan. I was like, Oh, that's cool. You know, sure. I mean, we can afford a
pre-owned one, you know, let's get into one. And, you know, the first Porsche we got into was a
Macan turbo. Oh, nice. Loved it. Sweet. I mean, it was, it was either a base brand new one or a
pre-owned turbo. Pretty option turbo. Loved it. Good choice. I mean, that was the second we drove
that SUV. I was like, this drives like a sports car. And it kind of changed us from there. So I
was quickly right after that looking for a 997. This was during pandemic? Yeah, during pandemic.
Wow. Man, what else? So did you? I would say early pandemic. You went straight to the 997,
but that's like an enthusiast car. So yeah, most people who get into the brand, right,
looking for something newer. So were you an enthusiast prior or did you become one when
you got to Macan? Yeah, that's a good question, actually. Part of it was really just my budget
and what I wanted to spend. Also, I just love the way the 997 looked compared to the air cooled.
I wish I would have known more about Porsche when the air cooleds were a lot less expensive
because, God, we've been looking all over for a 964 that's reasonable. Oh, good luck.
So exactly. Yeah. So is everyone else? Yeah, right, right. And so, no, that was really just,
you know, quick shopping around, poking around, looking at some of the prices. And at that time,
I mean, I bought a six speed manual, which ended up being our first SEMA build for Toyota
Tires in 2022. I bought it six speed manual based 997.1 for $26,000. Wow. Clear title.
T-37s on it, which is a JDM thing, so it caught my eye. Oh, I loved it. I mean, I just,
I loved everything about it. So how did you go from buying a Macan, getting a 997,
and then landing at SEMA? Yeah, that's also in itself kind of this whole journey.
So was it like, I'm going to get into building, getting in and building cars? What was the goal
initially? You know, honestly, there wasn't really a goal. I just, I got that 997, I started to enjoy,
and I started to like, understand what everybody was talking about, you know? And I can't say that
a ton of my friends, because again, I didn't grow up in a wealthy neighborhood, so it's not like a
bunch of my friends or family had 911 supportions. But I quickly started to get familiar. And then,
of course, the kind of tuner side of me was like, what do we do next, right? So I put some
JDM bread seats inside of it, which is a very cool thing for JDM lovers. And then I started to say,
well, what else can I do to the body? Now, the body, even though it was a base, it did have a GT3
front bumper and rear bumper on it with the GT3 wing. But I was like, there's probably more that
we can do here. And so that was kind of the search and the hunt. So of course, you know, we, Sebastian
and I, of indecent, we're inspired by Nikai-san of RWB. And I know that can be a bit controversial,
but for all JDM lovers, you got to respect and love Nikai. And so that's what I figured. You
know what? This could be a good opportunity to turn up the notch a little bit. So were you looking
for finding an existing kit that you could bolt onto your own car? Or were you like, hey, I can
make a kit? Like, when did you? Yeah, there's a big difference. Like, many of us just buy stuff and
bolt onto our cars. No, making it, it was not even in the picture. It was not even a part of this
whole thing. I actually reached out to RWB. And for me, Sebastian has another reason why I started
the company. I had another reason why. And again, we came together to do it. Because Nikai-san has
a 997 kit. Yeah, actually, at that time, he was just about to release it. There weren't photos
just yet, but there was a lot of kind of like background conversations that was happening,
who's developing it. And so I was excited. I was like, you know, I can't get a 993 or a
9964, but I have a 997. You know, I'm a little mad that he just skipped over 996. Yeah, that's
true. What about this 996 owner? Yeah, no, it's true. But that's as you know, miles works and
why I support miles works, you know, they make body kits from the 996, 986. And so you see Nikai-san
in this 997. Yeah. So the ideas start. Well, actually, I didn't even see it. It was just a
conversation. So I reached out to RWB. And I was like, I want it to be a part of this list. How
do I get on? And you know, the thing I love and sometimes it's a challenge with RWB is like,
they are probably one of the biggest brands for modifying in this case. Right. But they are like
the least bit of a business. Like it's not a business structure, you know, and it was kind of
a thing where it's like, hey, send us a huge sum of money for this kit. And then we'll call you
when we're ready. And that just didn't sit right with me. And in addition to that, there was something
very specific I was looking for. What's iconic about RWB is the big wing that the 993 GT2 EVO
style wing, right? And I was asking for that. I was like, is there any way you guys could ask Nikai-san
to like make that for the 997? And by the way, they still have not made that. So if you look at
my car in 2022, which was that personal, you know, my 997 I bought for $26,000, the very first and
decent build, serial number zero zero two, that is the first and decent to have that big wing.
Because that's really what I wanted. So that then spawned this kind of accidental thing. I was on
Facebook, there's a big group called modified Porsches, which I am now the owner of. So it's
kind of funny. It's about like 160,000 followers there. Sebastian Polit, who lives in Poland,
posted a very like crude render of this wide body design for the 997. And that was literally
probably a week after my conversation with RWB. And so, you know, it was very kind of simple.
I've reached out and said, Hey, are you going to make this? Are you going to sell it? Because
I'm interested. It looks really cool. It's a smooth, thinner conversion. I actually like that a lot
more. And we just started a conversation from there. So that was kind of the beginning of this
thing. That was before we had a name. And it was just Sebastian's idea in his mind. He had a 997.
And the conversation started from there. You know, at this point, you're going to make a
business out of this or who made the notes. You're still hunting for your personal car.
Yeah, exactly. Yes. You're an enthusiast. Hey, I'm going to modify my car. And so
at what point in the story do you suddenly realize there may be a business?
Yeah. And so, you know, it's the pandemic was difficult for me because I had traveled almost
like every week working in the software space. And to go from that to literally stop traveling,
being at home the whole time. My body was used to being in different time zones. You know,
now, if you ask my wife, that was like the best thing for her because she was like so excited
for me to stay home the whole time. But I basically, we're having this conversation,
he was telling me about the process and who he's going to use to manufacture. And there's,
you know, for those that don't know, Poland's very well known for making fiberglass boats.
And so they have a lot of companies there that can produce these parts and actually do it at a
very high level. And so Sebastian is telling me all this and just honestly, one morning I
woke up and was like, light bulb came off. I was like, wait a second, if I'm very early and having
this conversation with you and you're in Poland, who's selling the kits in the US? Because like,
maybe there's an opportunity here. And so that's how it started. Now that was a starting point,
but there was so much more that happened to get us to where we're at today being a company that
has decided to actually build cars and build custom commissions. So that was in essence how the
beginning of this started. So I'm really, I'm really curious about this because
you know, you go into a business and you say, if you're starting a pizza parlor, you say, well,
what's going to make my pizza parlor different? And is there room for my pizza parlor in this
city where there's a bunch of pizza parlors? So Porsche obviously is a very popular brand.
Everyone wants to be part of it. When did it occur to you that
there was a need for what you were going to be making? You thought that people would buy it?
Yeah, I don't think we thought about that, to be quite honest. I think it was simply,
Sebastian and I wanted to build cool cars. We became very good friends and I see them as not
only a business partner, but a brother now. We have a very, I think similar taste in the way we
see and believe how cars should be modified. We both equally love modified cars over stock cars.
We appreciate stock cars, but we love modified cars. We didn't think about that at all. Honestly,
it was just, how do we build cool cars? And the funny story is at the beginning,
just like all companies that are designing a body design, you're going to turn into a body kit
company. You sell body kits, you know, there's Liberty Walk out there. There's all these big
brands that sell body kits, Adro, which is doing it really, really well. And at the beginning,
I kind of like saw the renders as they progressed. And as he was developing that body, I mean,
we're talking, Sebastian, I worked on this for over three years before him and I even got together.
So this has been in his mind. He's been sketching for a very long time and he's never done this
before, by the way. So he owns a detailing company out in Poland is very successful,
but he's never created a body design. He's not a designer himself, you know. And so as we progressed,
it hit me one day, probably about a month and a half or two months into him talking every single
week, every other day about this. And it hit me, it was like, look, this design, in my opinion,
is so beautiful that I believe that this can be more than just a body kit company.
And the thing that I really feared, and he also as well unconsciously was, you know, we've seen
body kits that are beautiful body kits put on vehicles poorly. And and things like, and I mean,
chrome wraps can look cool sometimes, but I did not, I do not like chrome wraps on a vehicle,
right? So like it could be colored poorly, the wheel fitments all off. And so I told Sebastian
before we even produced the very first kit, like, what about building cars? And he was so excited
even here that someone would even want to like build cars and do it as a business. And he was
like, look, I'm going to go on vacation. Let me come back. Let me think about it. Let me come back.
And he's came back and said, look, I love that idea. I just don't know we have the capability.
And so that's kind of where without knowing both of what I would consider our superpowers coming
together. It's what we need in order to create this company, because I'm very technical, I'm
very good at building cars, I think at least. And I know pretty much every component of a vehicle
to make that process work, he didn't necessarily, but he's very good at design. He's very good at
knowing how these shapes come together. And so throughout that process, he was working with
the factory that we work with exclusively in Poland, shaping it in person, because of course we
don't have the, you know, we're self funded, right? We don't have investment design studio.
We don't design. So we can't do clay modeling, right? It's literally shaping the body and then
saying that doesn't really look right. And that was kind of one of our first lessons that what
you do digitally does not always translate to the eye in person. So we have to do both those things.
And so the funny story is Sebastian said, let's just sell body kits. It'll be easier. I was like,
okay, man, I'm cool with that, you know, so that was it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was kind of daunting
to go become a car builder. Like, yeah, yeah. I mean, and again, that's of course, we know
Singer, we know got the work. Well, that's what I was going to ask you. So while all this is
happening on your personal journey, you're, you know, all once you get into the Porsche world,
you can't help it, but see what's going on with Singer, got the works and, you know, other,
you know, big builders and your that motivates you because they're in a different
space, right? They're in a completely different space. But what they're doing to me, I think,
would inspire someone like you that says, I could, I could have my little space, but, you know, it,
it can happen. Yeah, no, without a doubt, we look up to them, you know, they have paved the way for,
I think, people like us to even possibly dream this as a thing. And but also at the same time,
there's a lot of lessons that I think we've learned and watching the decisions that they make.
And in some cases, consciously unconsciously, like just deciding on working on the water
cool generation, for one, that's a very conscious decision beyond just a 997, because,
you know, the price point of those vehicles are not the same as air cool, right? And so,
you know, Sebastian, I, you know, I'm 38, he's 38. We kind of want to build cars for people like
an RH, you know, and maybe before like people that aspire to be Singer owners in the future,
right? But they're starting that car collection now, maybe this is the first car commission ever.
And so we want to keep the price point, what I would say not cheap, as I've said to you before,
but somewhat reasonable. Within reason. Yeah, exactly. Within reach. Right. Exactly.
Exactly. Yep. And so what was funny about that story is we said, Okay, let's sell kits.
We finally produced the very first one, we post a picture on Facebook and a few other places and
said, Hey, here's the kit, here's how much we sell for for a month and a half, almost two months,
not a single person bought a kit, not a single person put a preorder in at all. And then something
flipped with Sebastian, he said, you know what, nobody's buying a kit, let's just build cars.
Because they needed to see it. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Again, we're nobody, right? I mean,
nobody knows who we are. You were hopeful. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the name is kind of strange
a little bit indecent, you know, and it was a way to obviously make fun of ourselves a little bit
in the cars that we build. But from that point on, we just said, Yeah, let's stick to this. Let's,
let's move forward. And Sebastian built a serial number 001, of course. And that was
debuted at Ultrace in Poland in Grotswaw. And that car was 997.1 car 997.1. We were partnered with
a Nazatech and Rotiform at that time. Nazatech is paint protection film, right? Yeah, a color
vinyl. A color vinyl. Yeah, and they're probably in PPF now, I feel like everybody is. But yeah,
so, you know, it was a dandelion yellow 997 with a with a ducktail on it, a very sleek design,
European car. So of course, it was slammed to the ground, modern looking Fuchs, beautiful car,
beautiful car. I mean, it was, again, to see a smooth fender conversion on 997 being truly wide,
which is not something that anyone's really seen before. Let me ask you this question. And I'm
corporate sponsor. So we mentioned Nikaisan and RWB. And I, it's very polarizing. And we talk
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I don't care. And I'm going to cut and I put it on to what you have, what you presented at SEMA
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Porsche people, Porsche passion since 1978. Nailed it. That's awesome. Nailed it.
He should have memorized it by now. I know. I say it now. Back to the question of
where did you want Indecent to align which group? Actually, I really like that question a lot.
I'll start by saying if anybody were to ask me what's the elevator pitch of Indecent,
like a five-second pitch, it really would be if RWB is here on the spectrum, if Gunther works
is here, we're dead smack in the middle. We love the individuality that RWB has really
encompasses this kind of individual taste and style, but at the same time, we care about the
technical aspects. I'm a bit of a geek when it comes to things like suspension work and engine
work and even interior bits. I think in between those two companies, the answer to your question
about cutting a fender and everything and who do we want to be. I also love to tell people,
I think we're like the prep school version of Nikai-san. We probably take a little bit more
care, not necessarily that he doesn't because as I've cut more cars, because we're a small
company, I'm doing everything. I'm cutting the cars, I'm sweeping the floors, I'm talking to
customers, we're talking to big partners. As I've cut a lot of those cars, I can quickly
through those videos, even the ones that are actually poking fun at him, see the level of
precision that he actually has. It's certainly something else. I have a huge amount of respect,
but for one, cutting it and doing it more mathematically is something that's important to
us. A small thing we do is anytime we even disassemble a car, we're creating our own library
database of how we disassemble certain parts. Unfortunately, you don't get that information,
especially in the water-cooled cars. It's not a lot out there. Not a lot of people are tearing
apart their water-cooled cars. We take a lot of precision doing that, but in addition to that,
because we are a smooth fender conversion to the cars, it's also, based on our business and our
design, you cannot install that within a day and a half. It takes a lot of time to get that right.
I don't know if that was kind of the answer in your question, but...
And here's the thing. It's funny because it does trigger people when a 993, a 964, whatever,
it gets cut raw by Nakai-san with any eyeballs. But if you really look at how
kind of amazing that he's doing this freehand and he's following a line, that's...
He doesn't do any suspension. He just...
But the thing is, what he's doing is what body people do all the time on cars. It's just that
because these cars are painted and he comes and puts a kit on and people are filming that
particular process. It looks so gruesome. It looks so like...
Body shops taking it back to the way it was original. He's not doing that.
The act of cutting it is... I mean, it's just so raw.
But once again, he's hand cutting it to his vision. A body shop guy is taking it back
or making a replica of something that Porsche already did. So when you first came out with
a car and you showed it, obviously, people didn't know what indecent was. What did they
think your car was when they first saw it? Yeah, actually, a lot of people didn't really have an
idea. So this is in Poland and Sebastian Pulit, the founder of the company, he is a little bit
known in that space. He had, again, everybody in Europe, especially Eastern Europe, when they
get a vehicle, they're slamming it to the ground. That thing is like an inch off the ground. So he
had a Gen 2 Dodge Viper, which is quite rare already in Europe alone, and he slammed it. So he
was kind of known for that. And he actually grew up in the group of guys that actually all ultimately
gathered together, which then has turned into Ultrace, which is a huge event in Europe. I mean,
that event probably for the past six, seven years, there's a thousand modified cars in that event.
Wow. It is insane. In my opinion, the European culture when it comes to modifying cars is
they're so free about it. What I mean by that is in the U.S., somebody has to see a wheel
on a particular model and vehicle 10 times before they decide to buy that wheel.
In Europe, they're putting Nissan wheels on a Porsche. Like it's just the weird, yeah, they just
don't care. So they get such unique style. But when people first saw that car, they were blown away
by it. I mean, it was equally loved from men and women, which was cool for us. Just to see that
smoothness, the wide width on it and the car at that low. And again, there, they're used to seeing
more air cooled cars than these water cooled cars. And so that was a shock for a lot of people in
the beginning. So that would say not many people are really copying RWB versus cars that are copying
Singer. Right. I mean, think about us or how many cars we see. Your first thought is,
is that a singer? But it looks a little bit different. And you start, you know, walking around
trying to figure out what kind of car it is. You know, I never thought about that way. But yeah,
the cars that are copied are typically like a singer. But RWB is so distinct. Like I feel like
you can't even approach that because the works is distinct because they have a really unique style
and their body work. But when I saw pictures of your car, you had a smoothness of the body
where RWB kind of replicating the GT2s of the nine and three generations with yeah, exactly.
But yours was, I knew it wasn't RWB right away because I said this is way too like you said
refined. There was no rough edges. Right. Whoever did this was one piece. And also what I like
about what you've chosen to do as a car builder is it's not just the appearance of the car.
Now, a lot of RWBs is up to the owner. Like they bought the body kits are really the only
responsibility Nikai-san has is to get that body kit on that car looking good. But what the owner
has done with the suspension, the motor, the interior, Nikai-san has really nothing to do with
that. Yeah, it's actually up to the kind of local representatives of RWB. Some of them are car builders,
some of them aren't. Right. So it depends on the wheel spaces are just like, absolutely with a huge,
you know, low offset. And this certainly, you know, I wouldn't say destroys the vehicle for
some it does, but it certainly changes the way it handles. There's no question about it. And
actually, as we've learned going through this business, like having aftermarket and factory
parts work cohesively together in this ecosystem is it's it's a it's a challenging thing to get
right. You know, and I can't say we've perfected it, but we are in that journey to figure it out.
And we will figure it out, you know, but yeah, that's why you're getting a customer who doesn't
want a body kit. He wants to deliver. He wants someone who's already knows what you're doing
and setting the car up. A friend of mine bought a singer. And I just asked him, I said, Hey,
would you ever put an aftermarket suspension on this car? He said, no way, because you know
how much money I paid for a car that was already set up. And I said, I said, no, I said, I do that
would be the answer. But sometimes when people buy new portions, they right away go, I'm going to
throw coals over. And I thought, you know, much research went into this car before they put it
on there. Absolutely. Same thing goes with the car you're building or whatnot. So people are
they're paying for that. They're paying for what you've done. They're paying for your vision,
which in a way is almost what Dr. Porsche did, right? He said, I couldn't find a car that
I wanted. I dreamt of, so I built my own. So you're hoping that other people buy into your vision
of what you think a 997 should be if it's modified. Yeah, absolutely. 997, you know, we did release
the 991 about eight months ago. So the Toyo build was the very first 991 for indecent here in the
US. We built about three or four in Europe. And you're absolutely right, Manny. I mean, the thing
is, like with these vehicles, especially with the customer base that we've started to kind of
understand who our target market is, you know, I think like Singer and Guntherworks, they know
their target market really, really well. Ours is different, right? Like we don't compete in the same
segment, right? Somebody coming to us is not expecting to spend a million dollars plus.
And so a lot of those customers though are, as I mentioned earlier, in the very beginning of their
kind of car collection journey. So they actually don't know that this is what they want. But we
guide them through that, right? So part of what they're paying for is obviously the wide-body
design, the way the cars look. But the other thing that they don't realize they're paying for is,
number one, the consulting beside this, actually helping them understand what they should option
their vehicles with. Now, unlike Singer and Guntherworks, where there's a pretty, I wouldn't,
I wouldn't say a standard path, but there kind of is, right? Like, I mean,
they have to because they're building so many cars now.
Exactly, exactly. And so, but with us, it's like, we can change it up quite a bit. There's a,
you know, we want to have a large horizontal range and also a vertical range, which is why,
instead of just focusing on one generation, we're releasing more. We have a 992 design, as you
mentioned, Vu, that we've got nailed in the render. And now we're starting to work on that. Now,
admittedly, the 992 is so technically advanced that there's probably going to be more developmental
work on that vehicle. But we also want to have a horizontal range in like, there's different
suspension packages that you can sign up for. And those things should be recommended based on
what you plan to do with the car. What's the use case? Are you, you know, weekend, you know, cruising
just a car meet, and you've got other cars like some of one of our customers has a GT4 and a
Spyder. So he's like, look, I don't need a crazy fast car. I just want something to cruise on the
weekend versus someone else like the Toyo build that we have with the Nike, the Nike inspired
build. That customer is like, Hey, I actually want to do some more spirited runs. So, you know,
we've got a full deck billet suspension on that, for example. Now, when you decided or when the
body kit was presented to you, we know a lot, especially the more expensive builds, very exotic
materials, cool, it's light, maybe stronger. But that's also a big price point to with your car.
Where does that lay in the spectrum of cost and type of material? Yeah, it's all a balance for
us. And it has to be right. Like we don't have a blank checkbook to just do whatever we want.
You know, and through this journey, I've learned, look, I get why a singer costs as much as it does
because they're spending millions and tens of millions on development before they even touch
the vehicle, right? But for us, it's actually a balance. So we have to balance out, like I'll
give you a good example, our body kit overall that we produce in manufacture, which again,
right, we have to build the car so we don't sell parts to anybody at all. That took about a year
and a half to two years to even get that across to the market, right? Because everybody called
us for a body kit. So that was kind of the first hurdle. Now we're past that hurdle. But the body
kit itself, it's actually part fiberglass and part carbon fiber. And that's not for the cool factor,
it's actually based on necessity on stability on the part based on the size itself. So our rear
quarter panels moving forward are actually in fact carbon fiber. While other things are fiberglass
because it's okay for them to be. Now when you just there's designing the wide body, there's
aesthetics, your, your eyes and whatever that you would like. But where does the engineering and
aerodynamics and handling, how do you, I know, I don't think you have a wind tunnel. So like,
how do you, how do you test and design to make sure that, okay, it looks cool, but how does it
perform? Yeah, you know, the honest answer is some things we focus on that and other things,
we just can't right now at least, right? I think the 992 is a good example where we are actually
going to start doing CFD testing on that. Whereas a 997, 991, we did not do that. And so some things
are really more by eye, you know, and that was kind of something I learned from Singer, like Rob
Dickinson, as mentioned recently on a video that, you know, it's not all technical for them, like
he wants the wheel and the tire profile to look a certain way. And I have to say, whenever we do
an alignment on a vehicle, while we start with the specs, I actually eyeball and we're like,
I, you know, it needs a little bit more camber, it'll look cooler if it had a little bit more
camber. And so, you know, it's really not that technical for us to be honest. It's really about
visual to start. And as we continue to grow and get, you know, more help and smarter people to
help us, that's, that's where we'll go down that road. Because your customer, I guess,
the customer you're seeking isn't the one who's going to take this to the track. Correct. Correct.
And so not yet, we're working on that, we have a race car that we're working on. But I think people
that buy Gunter Works Singer, I don't see people bringing Singer to the track. I'm sure there are
some, but I don't think that's a number one priority. Otherwise, for sure, I mean, they're
going to be buying a GT3 or RS or a Cup car. Right. I think they want a car that can handle
like it's on a racetrack. But yeah, I think people it's not uncommon for people to give up some
comfort, right, to have that right stance and that look. And anybody says that's not true,
I think they're lying. Yeah, because as someone who just lowered my 964. Yeah, I feel the bumps
and everything. But I'm willing to take it because I like the look of it. And so to me, it's part of
the sportiness. You know, ideally, if I had the stock right height, I'd probably have a really
comfortable Cadillac like ride. But I'd rather have that look so I can understand why not every
car is built to be a race car in a wind tunnel. Yeah. And I have to say, actually, you know, we
have recently rebranded with a new kind of logo and a crest, if you will. And part of that branding
is what we've labeled as a hot tour, meaning that we're like a passion house, we're actually
moving we want to move beyond just a car building company. Because that's the other part of it,
right? You come to us and you don't realize we're actually a consultant help guide you to what we
should build the car with and what parts and how to tune it. But it's also the design aspect
behind all this. And obviously, we kind of underscore that with the Nike. The Nike build. Yeah.
Yeah. The Nike bill will talk about the Nike builds interior. But on in the in the general
order palette that you have, what customers can choose from for the interior? Like how deep does
that go? Oh, yeah, it can go as deep as you want really, you know, again, we are working towards
building China simplify the options because when you have too much and kind of, you know, analysis
for paralysis, right? We want to have three different levels. But essentially, for a lot of
the cars here in the US, they've been full custom interiors. You know, I think when people get into
this and our customers come to us, a good example is like brand new glass. Everybody comes to us
as not only glass, the moment they see the paint job, they're like, oh, we need new glass, you know,
we need new seals and everything. And that happens with the interior as well. And so some cars are
actually completely stock. Some cars have full custom interior. So it's kind of, you know,
whatever you want, basically, I think, when you said originally commission a build, not many people
can say they've commissioned a build, people can say I took it to my shop and had him put a suspension
on or or a front fender or spoiler or whatnot. But the commission to build to me means somebody
I'm going to sit down with somebody and top to bottom, we're going to make this car one of one,
right? Because no one's right. I doubt anybody walks up and says I want the same car I saw
at SEMA. I want that for me. It may be close to it, but they're probably going to make it to their
own spec so they can say one of one. That's right. We always talk about how people push
your people and every bright make wants to know how rare their car is. Right. Right. And I'll say
that it's actually fun too in the journey because there's two things that happen well before we even
turn a nut or a bolt on that vehicle. One is we do a lot of design rendering work. And so our
renders are very proud of their very lifelike. They're super accurate. And I'll share one of
the Nike build before probably six months before the car is built. We go through so many iterations.
We render the exterior, the wheels, because we spoke manufacturer own wheels as well. And also
the interior, which a lot of companies don't do. And so that's one. But the other thing that we do
is we get to know the customer. And that's a really fun part. I mean, we have this basically
database of the customer, what they like, what they what they enjoy, what are their previous
cars look like, you know, do they have a certain style? And, you know, from that kind of spawned
this whole idea of how do we merge two hobbies into one, right? The love for cars. And in this
case, with the customer that we built number 14, which was the Nike car, he's a sneaker
collector. He loves our sneakers. I didn't realize that car was number 14. Yeah, it's number 14.
Wow. Okay. Yeah. And actually, we have, we're building 20 in Europe right now. So there's
others in process. And we have probably 15 on the waiting list right now. So
Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. I can't believe I'm saying that a lot.
To think this has been since COVID. Yeah, we've been busy. Yeah, we've been officially in business
for three and a half years. That's incredible, man. Thank you. Thank you. I really, I'll tell you
the funny thing is I feel like I haven't done anything. Well, we have a lot of challenges.
Mani and I've just been speaking into a microphone. We haven't done much, Mani.
We haven't accomplished anything. Wait, what video? We were originally just audio. Yeah,
that's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. No, it's funny. If I would have told my
younger self when I first started, this would take three and a half years. I would have said,
no, it's way too long. That's incredible. And then now I blink an eye, it's three and a half years
later. So Mani has a list of questions, everybody. I think it's going to fold into,
let's talk about the Nike build. That's the car that we saw at SEMA. We did an Instagram post that's
gone very well. Let's talk about, I think it's all of metallic. Dark all of metallic. Dark all
of metallic. How it started. It's a little bit tweaked. The car has a presence that definitely
the stance, you can't miss that, the wide body, but it's very refined. It's not like some of the
stuff you see at SEMA, not to say anything negative about other builders, but some of the others are
so outlandish and so over the top, it does get your attention, but doesn't look refined. And your
car just seems sort of like royalty amongst all that. And then there's a reason why they put you
in the middle of the tread pass because it looked, the fit, the finish, we've seen other cars at SEMA
is that, you know, people try to rush and I don't, I don't know if you were rushing to get it there
when you finished it, but it didn't look like it was a rush build. Actually, I'll be honest with you,
your Boxster, your Boxster, I know that was a rush build and there were things that I could see on
that car. And you even told me, I didn't finish it because you were going to try to do the whole
interior in the old school and you just ran out of time. Like I totally get it. That's tough to
try to make SEMA, but this car was like, or at least you hit it for me because I looked at it
from front to rear, like it was done. It was ready to be presented to the world.
And that was a customer's car already? That is, yes. He must have been pretty
excited. His car was going to be featured in SEMA. He couldn't believe it. Because you don't buy
these cars to be quiet and unassuming. You're buying it right to share the world. And I would
imagine knowing that your build, your vision of what you thought your car should look like
is now going to be featured in SEMA. That must have been pretty wild. And it was his first portion.
No kidding. That was his first portion. He came from the BMW world and his first
portion was commissioned. Yeah, exactly. And actually, he put a whole lot of faith and trust
in us. And the funny story is just real quick, he owns several Dairy Queens in Houston. Money and
ice cream. Yeah, there is. Blizzard specifically. And his funny, his restaurant is in between the
Body Shop partner that we use. And I mean, if you think that you can bring a car to a body shop
and just let it be, no, that's not how it works. You have to really project manage. And I think
ultimately, that's what we are. We're like project managers. And so on the way to that
Body Shop, there's a Dairy Queen. I stopped by for a Blizzard because Houston is really hot.
And this guy at the cash register is wearing a cars and coffee shirt. So we had a conversation
two and a half years later. He's building in a decent car. What? Yeah. So you never know where
business can come. And he's such a great person. We've had perfect reason to go get ice cream
later. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And so no, he's so excited. And you know, to know that that car
was going to SEMA for Toyo Tires, which has been a great partner of ours, again, the very first
intro to this world for me was to build a car, you know, presented at SEMA, which was my Ruby
Stone vehicle, the 997. And yeah, he can't believe it, to be honest, you know, I mean, like that
it's getting showcased. And it was funny because at SEMA, he was actually signing on her car. She's
like, I cannot believe I'm doing this. Why am I doing this? The interior of that. So as
the presence of that car on the outside, the lobster claws, right, the wheels,
any Porsche enthusiasts will recognize that wheel. However, that is a very custom wheel.
Yeah, that's right. Well, what did it take to like who because the shoe is why it's lobster,
right? So I think that's kind of understandable why you went there. But who designed and who
came up with the carbon barrel, the size of it, it's tastefully done. Thank you. Thank you. We
worked really hard on that. I might have mentioned at SEMA that I'm not a fan of lobster claws.
You did say that. That's why I was like, it's a beautiful wheel. And I love the wheel now,
but it took 30 different versions of rendering to get it to that point. It's a gorgeous wheel.
Thank you. And maybe even to start. So the pair of Nikes, which was producing,
creating collaboration with a company called Concepts out of Boston, it's called the Green
Lobster. And they make a bunch of different colors, but it's the Lobster series. They're
very well known shoes. Actually, the Green pair is $2,000, $3,000. I know I looked.
So this is not like a shoe that you see every day, right? So being that we wanted to kind of
keep it on theme, that's why we chose the lobster claws, multiple iterations to make that right.
But we do all the design work. So we start off kind of similar to how we design the car.
It's just visual. We're doing blender renders that allows us to see what a visual looks like.
Then we take that into the engineering side, which we also do in-house. And then we have
a manufacturer overseas that actually helps us machine these wheels. And so we go through that
whole entire process. Now the carbon barrel, that was a last minute decision.
That's a wise choice. That looks beautiful. Thank you. Thank you. It really changed the
look of that car because we actually have a test set of wheels that's like a polished lip.
Looks really good. When you put the black barrels on, it makes it look along with the side mirrors.
We have that RSR inspired side mirror. It makes it look like racing sinister almost. It's kind
of like this dark aura. I'm so happy we did that. But that wheel will only be for that car?
Not necessarily. Honestly, we haven't built enough to even decide that.
I'm thinking there's a lot of time and energy to... Absolutely.
That would be nice to say, okay, maybe I'll sell a second set to help offset all that.
That's one of the things like Singer doesn't do. Because how many people look at certain parts of
Singer and say, well, I would love to have this or that. I think on the wheel design,
we probably will use it again when it's for the right car. But the colors are going to be different.
The carbon exterior has been darkened, for example. Maybe we'll do something different and tint
the carbon a little bit differently. But we haven't gone far enough to figure that out yet.
Okay. Well, let's still talk about the outside of the car. The rear bumper is replaced.
Both rear fenders replaced. Door is stock?
Yeah. So the only thing that's stock are the doors, the hood, and the roof.
Everything else around it is... Correct.
Either we replaced the panel completely, or we utilized the factory panel and our panel.
So for instance, the front fender is a full overlay. So we have the original fender underneath it.
We cut it to obviously widen the arch, and then we actually bond our panel on top of it.
We use McLaren's technique to actually bond and very specialized adhesive. So that was kind of
another thing when we started this journey. Every body shot we spoke to, because we're not body
people, right? So we need help. They're like, oh, that panel is going to fly off after you drive
like 5,000 miles. Well, I can tell you that, unfortunately, after my first car got back to
Houston from SEMA, an expedition ran into it, and the panel did not pop off. So I think our
technique is good enough. And the problem that I've identified there is that body people, when they
figure something that works, they don't really change. They don't learn new techniques. Right.
We're always after new techniques, because we don't know any better.
Now, one of the next questions was about engine and transmission options. Now, that car has a
upgraded engine. I think it was like 550 horsepower methanol injection, two additional injectors.
Uh, was that the customer wanted more horsepower? Or did you want more horsepower?
Yeah. So it was, you know, PDK car. Yeah, that's right. So the project started what I would consider
kind of our standard line, if you will, you know, 550 horsepower standard. No, no, no, no.
So I would say like as time progressed and the SEMA thing came up and he was getting, you know,
excited, right? I was like, Hey, I think we need to turn this car up, you know, like in all ways,
in every category. And, you know, so we had, I would say, you know, a good, healthy budget,
and then it went like way over. Yeah, of course, he was like, you know, when you go to SEMA.
Scope creep. We've heard of that. Scope creep. Yeah, absolutely. You know, and so,
you know, it was something that we were originally actually going to bore that motor out to a 4.2
liter. That was the plan. It's a base Carrera, 991.1. But unfortunately, our partner there had
some challenges. They couldn't get the cylinder sleeves in time. And so we had to basically
figure out a different plan. And that was actually to put this R racing supercharger on there,
which then added the two additional injectors, the method injection on it, and just cranked
the power up on that car. Now, will that motor be like a future offer as well? Or you can?
Absolutely. Okay. Yeah, 100%. 100%. Yeah. Do you do the motor work in-house? No, we have a partner
today that actually does the assembly and build of the motor. Slacker Racing is our partner there.
We have also partnered with, you know, Jake Rabia as well, so depending on the engine option,
and which is really cool because they both actually came to us, which was really exciting for us,
you know. I do have experienced building engines, not M96, M97s or, you know, the 991 motors. But
for now, we offload it to them. So the customer can choose which engine they want.
Absolutely. Yeah, based on what they want, right? The other great thing about Slacker,
for example, in FSI, they have their own engine dyno. So they can break it in, right? That's a big
problem, especially when you spend this much money to rebuild an engine. Yeah, because that's a
whole other follow wax. I mean, you're a singer in Guntherworks and, you know, they went the route
of getting other people to do what they knew how to do well and you do not have to worry because
entering that part of engineering, like I said, that will be a never-ending journey of trying to
find power where somebody already like a Jake Rabie already knows what how to do that. Look,
we don't have an unlimited checkbook, as I mentioned earlier. So we have to get innovative and smart
and creative, right? Find the right partners. Exactly. We have to utilize partners for what
they're good at and use that. And in some cases, you know, like wheels is a good example. We had
partners before. It takes way too long to get some custom wheels nowadays. And so out of necessity,
we have to make it ourselves. And we do, right? So it's a progression thing. But, you know,
they're they're really smart people that have been doing a very specific thing for a very long
time. And there's no sense in us kind of re-creating the wheel. So let's talk about the interior,
because from the outside, this the Nike build car, the interior also jumps out at you. But
tastefully so. And it's because of the color that the shoelaces color, the seatbelts matching and
the greens and the neon yellows, custom carbon seats. Yes, that's right. But also, I think you
built, we're talking about how this is primarily will primarily live as a streetcar. They wanted
custom carbon buckets, but you actually made them a little bit bigger, a little bit more
comfortable carbon bucket, which is kind of cool. Yeah. Yeah, I've been in carbon buckets. I mean,
the Boxster build last year, utilize carbon buckets that are so tight, I can barely fit in them.
My other business partner is really tough. And so yeah, for one, we wanted to make a seat that
was more bespoke to our use case of having it wider in the base. And I can't say that we're
figured it out there. But I'm really excited about that seat, because that is a fully enclosed
carbon seat. I fit in it, everyone. I sat in it. I fit in it. Yeah, it was the interior was, I mean,
that was a whole nother thing. Because what you'll notice about some of the indecent builds is that
the outside exterior is exciting and it catches your attention. But when you start to get closer
and closer, you see a lot more. Easter eggs. Exactly. Yes, Easter eggs. Especially when you
look up in this car, you look up in this car and you see that theme of the shoe carry the pattern,
the lining pattern is on the roof. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. So inside the shoe, and I love
what concepts and Dion did with the shoe, he's the owner of concepts. I mean, they just collaborate
with all the biggest companies, New Balance, Adidas, everybody. They took the theme where the inside of
the shoe is almost like a picnic basket pattern, right? And it's white background with like lime
green and different shades of green. So we wanted to do that as well. So if you look at the sunroof,
it's actually hand painted, hand painted in this kind of cross hatch pattern. The interior is actually
done by E3 Customs out of Florida. They are most well known for doing every big YouTuber out there,
all the interior. So they're very, very talented. Again, we did many renders to figure out how to
distribute the colors correctly. And I would say that was our focus. How do we do this tastefully
and not, you know, make it tacky? Because I think it's very easy to make it tacky. And so we figured
it all out through renders. And then, you know, they had the challenge of making it happen. And
that was tough because the if you look at the seat, there's so many different colors of green.
Obviously, that was inspired by the 964RS, you know, that kind of multi colored look.
But those colors, you can't buy those greens. And so they had to custom dye
to even get that. Yeah, that's right. Wow. Yeah.
You call it a Nike build. Did Nike have anything to do with that?
No, no, Nike inspired. I think a lot of people references the Nike build.
The thing is, when we put our clip up on Instagram, there's so many folks that are
car and sneaker heads. Like, do you think this is going to be your thing? Like,
do you think other people will be like, well, I like this shoe. Could you build me a car like
this? Yeah, I'm very hopeful. Would you be okay with that?
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, without a doubt. I mean, so this car is our very first,
what we call a special commission, special commission, meaning we just turn up the dial from
within design from like nine to 11, you know, and turn it way up. And there's more than just shoes,
though, right? Like, the thing is, I don't, I'm not smart enough or a bit of a designer to be able
to mix colors myself and know it works. But let's think about it. These companies have spent
millions in development work to figure it out. So I know what looks good. And we've got people
that love watches. I love watches. We have women that love handbags and purses. There are so many
hobbies we can incorporate into this whole thing. And honestly, I think a lot of sneaker heads out
there that have been successful in their career, they love cars. They just don't exactly know
how to get into cars. And selfishly, of course, I like the car. We got the video up quickly. But
selfishly, I was thinking, you know what, if this goes well, and we put in the hashtags,
you know, Nike, Green Lobster, I'm like, this would be cool if we exposed PCA to sneaker heads.
And it worked because sneaker heads were commenting. So the, you know, we can see who's
watching our posts. And it's for this particular post, non followers was like through the roof.
Like it was, I want to say 70 to 80% non PCA Instagram followers were watching that. I'm like,
that's exactly what we were hoping for. Like a whole new set of eyes. Yeah. Now know about PCA,
which was pretty cool. I didn't even know that because that's super cool. And I mentioned to you
before we started this podcast that the owner of concepts, which is that design company that
collaborated Nike, he commented on that video. So because of our posts? Yes, correct. And how
you reach you? Yes, exactly. I love that. I love that combination. So I'm going to ask you a few
more questions. Okay, one is, how long does it take to build a car? What's it take to have it
delivered? What's the price range? But before you answer that, let me take care of some housekeeping
here. We want to remind folks to head over to PCA.org to sign up for our newsletters,
performance news, e-brake news, and mart fresh news all free of upcoming events. We have Tech
Tactics East, which is February 21 and 22 in Eastern Pennsylvania. And registration will let
you know when that opens, stay tuned, break, and you don't have a break, subscribe to it.
Because that's where you'll see it first. Exactly. And works reunion Amelia Island,
that'll be March 6. Registration opens December 10. If you're looking to race with folks, PCA
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decals, send us your address information to podcast at PCA.org. So how long did it take to
build the Nike? So we started that in March. So that's a quick build. Yeah, that's it's fairly
especially we have no resources, you know, because like I'm wrenching at all. I've got a
small team that just started, but I'm training everybody how to actually build these cars.
And we're in Houston, which I can't say we have a lot of resources there as well. Anybody that
can do anything like that, you know, lives in Miami or pretty much here in SoCal. And so yeah,
it's a very private timeline. I will say that with my corporate background, and I have a director
of operations, Alex, who also has a corporate background, we're very, very focused on process.
So we're doing small things like not only the training series of videos that I mentioned,
how do we disassemble and reassemble a car. But for example, we've had issues were in the past
for other SEMA builds, because this was our third SEMA build, we get a part in, and we can't find it,
you know, so it just we're scrambling. And you know, when you're working 36 straight hours on
assembling a car, you're like, you're just losing it, right? And so like we have shelves where we
have this whole system, and it tells us when a part gets checked in, what shelf it's on,
where we can find it. That's how we can get a build to that. But we're not done yet. We want to get
builds down to four months. Yeah, that's our goal. Because as a company, we don't want to just
blow up the price, which I think we can do now. But we don't want to do that. We actually want
to get more efficient cut down the waste. And as we can build faster cars and more cars, we steadily
increase prices, the brand grows, right? And so to do that, we have to use software technologies,
processes, and we're just very focused, like we want to take this company beyond just a car
building shop, the body kits are coming from Poland. Correct, correct. How much do the tariffs
affect you? Yeah, so they they have affected us quite a bit. Actually, luckily, on the indecent
side, more so than MilesWorks, because MilesWorks, we just sell the kit. And so the margin is very
tight there. And in Decent, since we don't sell kits, you know, we have a little bit more room
there. So it has affected us. But we just turned the corner on actually having a long wait list.
And so I'll know more ask me in about three months. So explain to me the difference between
MilesWorks and Decent. Yeah, so to start, I founded a company called Tube Industries,
which is a distribution company for parts and services. So we help companies from overseas
kind of enable them here in the US to break into the US market. Correct, exactly. And so
in Decent was a start. And in some companies, I'm an owner and so in Decent's one example,
in other companies, I'm a distributor for. So MilesWorks, we're a distributor for. But,
you know, I joke with people, there's any way to ruin a 911, it's come to my business because we
ruin it because we've got indecent where we'll cut up cars. And then for MilesWorks, you can
actually buy a body kit. But it's a different kit. That's right. It's a different kit, different
brand, different, you know, person that designed it all. And but those body kits are for the 996,
Craira and the Turbo and the 986. And so what's beautiful about it, those body kits are like
five, 6,000 average, right? If you don't have the budget to afford indecent, well, we have
something else for you. Right. So a lot of people that are coming from the JDM market,
there's so many people we run into that they're trying to figure out what's next. You know,
like, what do I do next after Honda's or Nissan's? And they can get into a 996, but they still want
that JDM custom thing. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Or our customer just wants to build themselves. Well,
we've got MilesWorks for you as well. Okay. Let's see. If someone was interested in a indecent
build, what are you telling them as far as how long it will take? Yeah. So, you know, the average,
yeah, the average there is certainly a list now, which, you know, I'm very proud of, but at the
same time, we're basically into 2028 now on our build list. Yeah. A part of that, part of that
honestly, though, is we can't build enough. We don't have enough space, square footage tooling to do
so. So I've got a two, three, five year plan built out to where we get to the point where we're
building 40, 50 cars, because that's the goal within five years. You got the problem of any
young business and that's managing growth. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Again, it's, one day, we didn't
have very many builds. We're building, you know, a few cars here and there, and the next day, it was
like everybody was calling us. So when did the phones start ringing off the hook, so to speak?
About three months ago. Three months ago. Is there something that triggered it? A magazine
article? You know, I'm not sure. I mean, we've had a few magazine articles. I will say that we
have focused on Instagram. We just broke 100,000 followers a few months ago. I think that was one.
The algorithm just became happy with us. I think the second thing is that we've spent a lot of
time, energy and money on producing high production videos that we post on YouTube. And so what we
learned is that the customers that really cared and were willing to pay this money, because they
wanted something very high detailed, they want to see the quality of the cars, right? Like, there's
a lot of cars that are built that look really great in pictures and you see it in person. Yeah,
exactly. You're like, okay, this something's off, right? Yeah. We'll see them at SEMA. Yeah, exactly.
So our YouTube channel, while it's very young, there are very in-depth videos of what we're doing,
at least the finished car. We haven't been able to film the process just yet, but at least the
finished car. And so how did the phone call rate change after this year, SEMA? Oh, yeah, a lot.
I mean, at SEMA, we had three more builds that were on the list. And I have to say, look, I'm a
bit almost ashamed that we have such a long wait list, which is why I'm so focused on increasing
our abilities and capabilities, because I don't want anyone to wait more than a year. I think a year
is about the right time. Right, right. Six months before their build, we actually start the rendering
process. While you're saying that, I'm thinking, remember that UPS commercial, where like the ticker
thing, where like the orders were coming in, and they were like happy at the beginning, because
oh, we got the first order, our second order, our 10th order that gets to like 1000s, they're like,
oh my God, what do we do now? Yeah, that is us right now. Honestly, it really is. And you know,
we're still trying to figure out, honestly, how to build cars and maintain a high quality level,
right? And, you know, we've got a bunch of dealers overseas. They're really officially builders,
is what they're called. Sebastian builds the cars in Europe and Poland. But of course, in Europe,
you can't drive a car from country to country like you can here, state to state, right? So,
we have a builder in Hungary and Dubai. We have multiple builders. So now you're thinking about
global growth. Exactly. And actually, what's interesting for our business, and it's like a
test trial for us. In Europe, we have a official builder network, and they can build one builder
in each country. In the US, we build all the cars in Texas. So we're actually kind of experimenting
with both. Now, there's plus and minuses with both, right? The minus is how do we maintain quality
of quality control, so many different people. Here are the challenges. Well, how do we build
enough cars? We don't have the space, right? And so it's, it's been kind of interesting and fun.
Well, we could probably go for another hour easily. You're gonna have to share more stories
tomorrow when we're together at Unstock. Congratulations, Philip. Thank you. You know,
it's been cool to, you know, be a part of your journey and observe it. It's gonna be interesting
to see what you're like in three years. Yeah, me too. And it's gonna be interesting to see how
everyone, because I believe the Nike inspired build outside of SEMA, sort of the public hasn't
seen it, right? Yeah, that's right. So they'll see it for the first time at Unstock tomorrow. And
I'm super excited about that. So again, be sure to head over to PCA.org. If you're not a member,
thank you all for listening. Be sure to like, comment and subscribe. Consider sharing our show
with other fellow portion enthusiasts. Until next time, stay safe and we'll catch you down the road.
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