Hard Parking with Jhae Pfenning Oct 6, 2025

Inside NSXPO 2025: Acura NSX, YouTube Grind & EV Future w/ Jonathon Rivers of Drive Culture

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42:35

Term

power trains

Power trains are the parts of a car that make it move. They include the engine or motor and the parts that send power to the wheels. The conversation is about how car companies are changing what types of engines they use, like electric or gas.

Term

plug-in

Plug-in hybrids are cars that can be charged using a plug, like charging a phone. They can drive on electricity for a while before needing to use gas, which helps save fuel.

Term

hybrid

Hybrid cars use both a gas engine and an electric motor. This helps them save fuel and produce less pollution compared to regular cars that only use gas.

Term

electric

Electric cars run on electricity instead of gasoline. They use batteries to power an electric motor, which helps them move. This is part of a trend where car makers are looking for cleaner ways to power vehicles.

Term

gas

Gas cars are the regular cars that run on gasoline. They use a gas engine to make the car move, which is different from electric cars that use batteries.

Term

hydrogen fuel cells

Hydrogen fuel cells are devices that use hydrogen to create electricity. They are seen as a cleaner way to power cars because they only produce water vapor instead of harmful emissions.

Concept

hydrogen infrastructure

Hydrogen infrastructure means all the places and systems needed to make and deliver hydrogen fuel for cars. Without enough stations, it’s hard for people to use hydrogen cars.

Car

Acura Integra

The Acura Integra is a small car that many people like because it's fun to drive and can be modified easily. It has been around for a long time and is known for being reliable.

Car

Toyota Tercel

The Toyota Tercel is a small, affordable car that Toyota made for many years. It was known for being good on gas and easy to drive.

Term

supercar

Supercars are some of the fastest and most expensive cars on the market. They are designed for high performance and often have unique features that set them apart from regular cars.

Term

Econo car

Econo cars are budget-friendly vehicles that help you save money on gas and are often less expensive to buy. They are great for everyday driving but don't have the speed or power of sports cars.

Term

modulating brakes

Modulating brakes means gently pressing the brake pedal to slow down instead of just slamming it down. This helps the driver maintain better control of the car while stopping.

Term

stabbing the brakes

Stabbing the brakes means hitting the brake pedal hard and fast to stop the car quickly. It's a technique used by drivers to slow down quickly when needed.

Term

kicked out

When a car's back end slides out during a turn, it's called 'kicked out.' This usually happens if the driver goes too fast or turns too sharply.

Car

Acura NSX

The Acura NSX is a fast and stylish sports car that was made to be fun to drive. It has a special design that helps it handle well on the road, and many people love it because it feels exciting and powerful. It's a car that stands out and is often talked about by car fans.

LIVE

I can feel the coolness in here, but I think this thing is ready.

Let's see.

Is it rolling?

Ready?

Whenever you're ready, man.

All right, man.

This is Hard Parking, brought to you by Ray Haun and Ray Toyota out of Scottsdale, Arizona,

I'm your host, Jay Finning, recording from my home studio here in Gilbert, Arizona, coming

up on today's show as promised.

After the conclusion of the NSX Bowl banquet a couple of weeks ago, I sat down with the

great Jonathan Rivers of drive culture.

He just also happens to work for America Honda for 15 years, but we sit down as Jay and

John of the YouTube creators that we are.

I did ask him some industry questions, but not too many, but once again, I struggled.

I had one of my cameras, the camera on me went out of focus after starting in focus.

You just got to deal with it.

I ran it through some AI stuff.

It made me go from blurry to creepy, but fortunately the camera on John Rivers was perfect so you

can look at his beautiful self the entire time or most of the time and then you'll

just deal with me.

And if you're listening to this audibly, then none of that matters anyway.

So coming up after this word from Arcus Foundry and Sparkforge, Jonathan Rivers.

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John Rivers!

What's up?

Well, what's up brother?

How you doing?

I'm doing great.

We just got done within this expo 2025.

Yes, sir.

We recorded last year in Dallas and here we are.

That is correct.

Tacoma.

Washington.

Tacoma, Washington, yeah.

Because we always say C-TAC, right?

But we decided we were going to come out here.

We advertised Seattle because Seattle's the popular thing.

Because no one knows what Tacoma actually is.

Right, no one knows anything about Tacoma.

But I mean, what are your thoughts?

How was your event?

It was great.

Good hats off to you, president of the club and the rest of the team.

You guys did a great job.

This was my third in this expo.

My very first one was actually when I was still living in Ohio working at the R&D facility

developing the car back in 2014.

So that was my first one.

And then the second one was last year at Texas.

So this is only my third in this expo.

I know there's guys that have like a dozen.

They got like 20 of them or whatever.

Which is cool.

So my frame of reference is small, but it was a good event.

You said it best.

You got up on stage and told everybody, the cars are fine.

It's the people, right?

And I feel like for my corporate job, it's the same thing.

It's why there's so many people that have worked there for two dozen years.

Because at the end of the day, it's a family.

It's about the people that you work with day in and day out.

What is your corporate job by the way?

What is it you do for a living?

Is it the drive culture YouTube channel?

That is a passion project.

It's a side job.

But yeah, the YouTube channel is fun.

Day to day though, yeah, I work at American Honda.

I've been there for another company for 15 years.

So a long time and done a variety of jobs over the years.

So that's the day job.

But the YouTube channels have been growing, it's been fun.

So we'll see where it goes.

Can we talk about YouTube for a second?

Of course, it's a grind.

It's kind of a pain in the ass.

It's real.

I mean, I think people with the rest of social media,

they see something or they look at someone

who has just the grandest success, right?

And that's the goal, that's the benchmark.

And then they think or believe that it's easy to get there.

And so I mean, that's the great part

because everybody has the ability to start a channel,

start an IG page, whatever it is.

But once you do and you commit

and you start sharing your friends and family,

hey, I'm doing this, like you said, the pressure's on.

And you're like trying to turn it into something

and you quickly realize it's a lot harder

than you might thought.

So yeah, the grind's real.

It's funny because, you know,

I guess probably for 10 years now when you ask kids,

some kids, you know, it's a new thing.

Like, what do you want to do?

I'm going to be a YouTuber.

And it's like, it sounds great,

but it's such hard work.

And I think people won't realize it.

I mean, it's like podcasting.

I mean, you don't do that.

I mean, you're a guest on this one, but yeah.

You have to wear all hats.

It's such hard work.

And unless you just get that lucky break, man.

Yeah.

Had you ever questioned, you're like.

You know what?

For me, and it's not even about the lucky break

because, you know, I think to minimize any pressure

that I either put on myself or had,

I never said I need this many subs.

I did this many views or buy it within this timeframe.

I'm just doing it to do it.

It's still fun to do.

I get to drive cool cars, you know.

And now, not because the channel is big,

but it's kind of gotten to this very early point

where now I've met random people

that have actually watched the channel.

So that's what's kind of,

I haven't had someone just run up and be like,

hey, I watched a channel, but like in conversations.

And I'm like, hey, this channel and like,

and then they go actually at this event.

One of the guys is like, no, I swear.

And he's like, he pulled up his YouTube history

and he had already watched one of the videos.

And I was like, oh, okay, like that's kind of cool.

So like, there's obviously, you know,

a lot of people out there.

And so for me, it's like the more people I can reach

and you know, people like us that are like,

come to these events and they watch that.

Like that's, that's cool.

So for now, we'll see where it goes.

No, man, that's just hard, man.

You know, I finally hit monetization.

Oh, really?

Congrats, man.

Oh, I thank you.

But you know what happened to me when I did that.

So, and it's a grind.

I'm not gonna, you know, the,

I have another channel that's a little better off,

you know, than the podcast channel

because I can't stay focused with anything.

So it's a little scattered, right?

Car people want more car shit.

Non-car people want anything but cars.

This is quite true.

Yeah.

And I'll talk about whatever I wanna talk about

at the time.

My wife doesn't even watch my fucking podcast.

She says it's political.

I can relate.

I was like, it's not political.

I just, if I have an opinion on something

or I guess I was in an opinion on something,

we're gonna talk about it.

But I said, why don't you listen to more episodes?

You know, but you hear something you don't like

than all this politics and whatnot.

But you know, so what happened was

I got monetized, I'm like, finally.

So I turn on all monetization.

Of course.

You know, make sure I have all green.

Yeah.

You know, dollar signs.

Go to bed, wake up, check my phone,

and your YouTube page has been deleted.

The page was deleted?

Not suspended.

No.

Completely removed.

And I look at the email and I'm like, huh.

All right.

Well, I'm just gonna keep laying here for a minute.

Cause I'm the type of person

where I could completely lose it, but there's no point.

I'm not gonna change whatever it is that happened.

I just have to, and so I started thinking to myself,

okay, well, I guess I have to start over.

You know, thank God I have all the videos.

I got 400 and some videos.

So thank God I have to wipe your face.

Yeah. Sorry.

Now you get this on camera.

This is don't, don't put that part on camera.

What's going on camera?

Oh my gosh.

So I'm like, okay.

Well, I'm just laying there in bed.

I'm like, all right.

Eventually I have to get up and get on my work day.

Yeah.

Okay. And then I'll just deal with it then.

Right.

So I'm reading the email and it's like, all right.

Well, you have a chance to appeal.

I'm like, all right, there's an appeal process.

You know, I've heard of other people this happening

and they've appealed and got their pages back.

So I'm not gonna panic yet.

Okay.

So I get up and I do the drama thing

and I post it on social media.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

You were supposed to wait.

Well, here's the deal.

I wasn't like, what the fuck, my page.

I just like, I just posted the screenshots.

Yeah.

You know, and then, but I was, I was updating people

and it's like, okay, your appeal process has been,

you know, your process has been submitted.

It could take two business days.

And I go, okay, well, I guess I just wait.

Because at the end of the day, if the page is gone,

there's no recourse, there's nothing you could do about it.

It is what it is.

But did they say why it was?

Yeah, it was spam.

And another one was like, not really false advertising,

but like something like, so first thing I'm thinking

about is a conspiracy corner,

which is a new segment I added.

I'm like, well, I got canceled for a conspiracy corner.

Boy, maybe possible.

Wild.

But then I rubbed a couple, you know, brain cells together

and I go, it's AI, AI has scanned my page.

That was my thought.

And it saw that I was using the RSS fee from the podcast.

There's ads in there all the time.

Sometimes it's the exact same ad on everyone.

So if AI is reading that, it might think it's a spam page

because I know YouTube is trying to crack down

on AI pages, you know, the faceless pages,

spam bots, because they hit monetization

as somebody somewhere's getting rich

for literally doing nothing, but still in content.

So I submitted the appeal.

I submitted the, and then I posted the screenshot of that.

I'm taking people through this roller coaster.

And within two minutes, your page has been brought back.

So they came back.

They came right back.

That's amazing.

Yeah, and I go, there is no way somebody reviewed that.

They were just looking for an appeal.

They read like a normal person, not a robot.

Then boom, the page came back.

So not because of spam or anything like that,

but there was one, no, for me.

Oh, for you.

No, no, for me, this is, I, you know,

so this was like an early video of mine,

where to your point, when you go to monetize it,

it will sometimes like flag it

if there's like copyright issues or whatever else.

And so music, and that's what it was for me

on this one video I had.

It was like music, but I actually had

like a royalty free song

that I didn't even need the license for.

I mean, that's why I used the song and the thing.

But to your point, I had to flag it back to YouTube

and say like, no, like you said,

almost that appeal process,

but it was just to say that, no,

this content's okay, the music's okay.

But that process took a while.

Like it took like two days or something like,

so yeah, so I like whatever,

I mean, you think about it, right?

The amount of views I got on that video

in that time didn't count towards monetization.

And that was actually a popular video.

So it was actually like doing really well.

And I'm like, oh, this is horrible, right?

And then finally, you know,

the appeal or the judgment came back

and it was flagged as okay.

And then the dollar sign came back

and then whatever money was made is fine.

But I'm like, man, that's a thing.

And I actually talked to, I won't drop his name,

but you know, big time car review YouTubers

got millions plus subscribers.

He was telling me in the beginning that happened to him

to the point where over his whole first year

of doing YouTube, he was either having

some kind of copyright violation.

They suspended his channel, his page.

Like it like took away the monetization,

just all this back and forth and drama.

So I mean, I know this isn't a rant session on YouTube,

but it's like-

It is right now.

You know, I mean, it's those things though

that unless you're doing it, you don't know, right?

So the, you know, and again, everything looks easy

and people assume it's easy, right?

And so it's like, oh, I want to be a YouTube bro.

I want to do this.

And then when you realize all these things

behind the scenes that could inevitably go wrong

or whatever else and a lot of stuff

outside of your control, it's tough, it's frustrating.

Yeah, it's kind of a pain.

There's a website and they're not paying for this

or not sponsored, so I'm not even gonna drop the name.

But I've been using it for a while

and I can get music and get all sorts of stuff

like editing tools and whatnot.

And so it's gotten so bad

where I can go to my profile and go down

and they already have like for YouTube,

there's two or three companies that I guess

like zap everything.

So if it's that company,

then I just take the YouTube video

and I put the URL in there and I hit submit

and then within like 20 or 30 minutes

the claim gets released.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, so now I don't want to necessarily cancel

that account that I hardly ever use

because I think that feature is only available

when I have an active account, so it kind of sucks.

It's tough, man.

And I've been now, so I mean,

right now it's almost October, 2025, right?

And so I've uploaded my first video in January of 2024.

So it, you know, not quite two years yet.

And I mean, last I checked, you know,

I've got like, I don't know,

4,100 subscribers, whatever it is.

And no, I mean, it's not about a number, right?

Because you know, I've,

what I've also learned and talked to people

that have tens of thousands or 100,000 subscribers

are like, sure, you want to have more, right?

Obviously who wouldn't want more?

But it's really about how engage that audience

to see there's a finger point.

Yeah, no, it's about the engagement, right?

If you've got 5,000 subs,

but they're always watching your videos

or liking your videos or commenting,

that inherently will do well.

And advertisers will up the CPM,

thus giving you more revenue.

And you can do really well

with a somewhat small subscriber base.

Now, again, obviously if you have more,

the pool can be bigger.

But if you've got 100,000 subs and they don't actually

come back and watch the videos and aren't engaged

and there's no community, then what does that mean?

So I think, again, we always get caught up in the numbers

and the metrics and a lot of people don't understand

that it's not, subscribers are fine.

It's the views.

It's how much people are watching your videos,

how long they're watching them.

Are they clicking on the ads?

Are they like purchasing something

once they click that affiliate link?

Like all that, are they using YouTube Premium?

Like there's all those things

that actually dictate the monetization component of there.

Yeah, it's kind of a wild thing, man.

Should we talk about the car industry?

This is your show, man.

All right, I mean, hey.

I just work here, yeah.

So what are you drinking, do you know?

You gave me the glass.

I mean, I thought this was water at first.

And I was like, this is not water.

So it is clear liquid.

Well, what am I drinking here?

We can call it water.

All right.

Hello, which is tequila, yeah.

So it probably doesn't taste like water.

It does not.

And I'm not gonna real finish this, but.

No, it's fine.

I told you, you don't have to.

Yeah, I'm sipping, I'm sipping.

I like to lace it from my guests, you know.

Yeah, to get them kind of loosened up a little bit.

Oh yeah, oh yeah, you know.

Tequila doesn't need to be like.

It's the truth drink, right?

Yes, the serum, yes.

So how are things going in your world

as far as the car industry, Acura, all public stuff?

But sometimes people don't really do their research.

Like, what are you excited about that you guys are doing now?

What are you excited about for the future

that you're allowed to actually talk about?

Well, yeah, I mean, I'll preface it with, you know,

I'm not here on the company's behalf.

You are not, yep.

You're just the guy that's getting drugged right now.

Yeah, so not here on the behalf

is not affiliated with the company,

but no, just being a car guy, right?

And a YouTuber, right?

No, the industry's in a crazy place,

because you've got a lot of stuff going on, right?

I mean, you've got really this major shift

and strategy on what type of power trains are available,

electric, hybrid, plug-in, gas,

no one has the magic eight ball,

but we all have to plan very far ahead.

And so, no, I mean, across the industry,

so it's a tough time and everybody's trying to figure it out.

There's politics, there's taxes, the tariffs,

everything you hear in the news is real and so, yeah.

Wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

What news?

Well.

Stop.

All right.

Not everything you hear in the news is real.

Not every, well, you know.

I'm going to take that poll.

Related to this, related to this topic, right?

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Related to what we're talking about.

No, I mean, I think, well, the problem is,

I think, you know, when I say that,

because I think when people hear tariffs,

they're like, oh, well,

it's not going to impact me or I haven't seen the different,

I haven't seen the impact yet,

but it's kind of a downstream effect, right?

It doesn't, it's not necessarily a light switch, right?

And so, yeah, we're just kind of starting

to see the impact of it, right?

And so, yeah, it'll be curious to see, you know,

how that shifts the types of products that come out,

you know, consumer sentiment, what they want to do,

what they want to buy.

So, yeah, interesting time.

Not going to name the car company,

but one car company continuously blames the tariffs

on their poor sales and them having to cancel stuff.

And they had poor sales before the tariffs was even a thing.

So at some point it's about the cars

that they're trying to push, the price point.

Like, what's something that your average consumer

doesn't really understand when it comes to product planning

because you guys have to look out multiple years.

When things actually change, they're unexpected

and causes you to completely shift, you know,

in your planning, you know, how disruptive is that

potentially or how disruptive can that actually be

that maybe you've seen?

You know, I mean, look, I mean, at the end of the day,

you know, I think every company,

every department of the company,

whether it's a planning team, the sales team,

the PR team, everybody has to try to react

as quickly as possible.

And especially given the environment today,

things, decisions happen really quickly.

Very, you know, that do have that,

like I said, kind of downstream effect.

And so along that way,

you kind of got to keep up with things

and see how it's directly going to impact

your given business and part of the business, right?

And so, no, I mean, like I said,

I've kind of moved on them in marketing

and things at the company, but no.

But like I said, you know,

I think every department has to,

no matter what business it is,

they have to look at things and go,

wait a minute, like this is really challenging.

How do we, how is this going to affect

the plans that we already had in place?

And then maybe how do you pivot and do stuff like that?

So yeah, it's challenging for sure.

Not speaking on behalf of your employer,

but just speaking as a YouTuber, you know,

what have you seen or in looking out at that shift, right?

I mean, reading the writing on the wall,

I mean, it seems to make sense that manufacturers

maybe say, okay, well,

we don't know where we're gonna be in 10 years

because we don't have the capacity

to support it right now anyway.

Maybe we should just kind of shift angles for now

and keep some of that stuff on the back burner.

I mean, is that what you're kind of thinking

at drive culture?

No, I mean, it, look, like I said,

it's whether you're a car guy or however you wanna like,

you know, if you're just an enthusiast

or if you're just someone that is trying

to keep up with industry news.

I mean, no one has the magic eight ball

and it'll tell you where things are gonna go.

I mean, you know, to your point about the YouTube channel,

the one good thing is I get to drive

a lot of different cars, obviously, and fire them out.

And so, you know, I think that's always inherently

been the problem when something, some new tech,

new features, you know, come into the marketplace

until actual customers get to use them,

get to drive them, get to try them out,

you know, formulating opinions is tough, right?

Which is why they go to YouTube

to hear other people's opinions.

But, you know, I'm not here to sway anybody

or say, you know, you're right.

But no, I mean, for me, it's like, again, I think,

you know, when you go back to like fundamentally

what people wanted, right?

People, and it didn't matter if you wanted a sports car

or a luxury car or an SUV or sedan,

people always wanted good looking cars.

They wanted cars that went pretty fast.

That was like always a bonus, right?

And they always wanted something that, you know,

again, made their drive, their commute,

either easier, more convenient, or more fun.

Like that as a transportation device,

I mean, that's what people are searching for, right?

And I think whether the car's electric,

you can get all those things.

Cars, hybrid.

And more of those things, actually, for most people.

Yeah, yeah, I mean, look, you know, for,

and so again, I think the powertrain component of it

is very flexible, right?

It depends on what customers want.

And it's great to have the different options out there.

It's great that customers get to experience

the different options.

Certain parts of the country right now

have better infrastructure than others.

Long term, we'll see where that goes, right?

But I mean, I think that it's great

that people can go out and say,

hey, look, you know, for me, AV works because of this

because I live close to the office, I can commute.

There's charges where I live in my state

in my office, place and tar, you know,

these other stores and places that you go to,

they have EV chargers.

Then there's gonna be certain parts of the country

where it doesn't exist.

Doesn't make sense, whether it may impact it,

the driving distance the person has to do, the commute.

So look, I mean, for them,

it's not about saying all together,

get rid of that powertrain then.

Right.

Go look at a different option

that works better for you, right?

And maybe it's hybrid, maybe it's gas, you know?

Maybe it's some hydrogen thing

that the people are trying to work on.

Hey, hydrogen fuel cells are,

I have a hydrogen fuel cell on the channel.

It's a real thing.

But again, that is an entire infrastructure play

as well, right?

You know, so again, if you live in a place

that has hydrogen fuel stations that are up and running,

it might actually be a great alternative for you, right?

But clearly that's a very small part

of the country right now.

So it's not gonna work for everybody, so.

Yeah, I mean, it's more that we don't,

the country just flat out does not produce enough

to support it, it just, the grid, it just doesn't.

Like you said, you know, no one has a magic eight ball now.

You know, whatever's coming is coming.

You know, articles, people said certain things.

I'm like, all right, cool, whatever.

But for something that's out now,

you know, I think the last time you were on,

we talked about your Integra, your Integra project.

The cool thing about working at OEM

or working in the industry is,

yes, you are privy to future stuff.

You obviously have to work on it.

Somebody's gotta be working on stuff for it to come out.

So clearly people know future stuff,

but of course we can't talk about it.

Fair.

With that said, though.

But I wouldn't, you know, I wouldn't ask you to,

you know, I'm not Barbara Walters, you know,

I'm not trying to get you on a gotcha.

No, the good thing is, is I still love my car.

I mean, my car is great.

Drink more of your drink and then keep.

I was gonna repair it.

All of a sudden, you know, no, no,

great thing is I've been still enjoying my car.

I've had it for two years now.

Don't drive it enough.

I've literally got like less than 5,000 miles on it.

And so.

I have a miniature of it.

Yeah.

That you gave me.

Yeah, I mean, that year.

Yeah, of course, no, man.

It's awesome.

Yeah, it's fun.

It's still such a fun car to drive.

Yeah, lucky to have worked on it.

Lucky to own one now and drive it.

And yeah, it's been good.

What's one of the biggest things

that people don't understand that goes into the vehicles

that you guys are rolling out?

That's a very vague question.

I was gonna say, I mean, like I said,

I mean, I think across the industry, you know,

most people don't actually know

how the sausage gets made, as I say.

So.

It's like in a sex boat.

There you go.

Yeah.

Behind the scenes, rare.

All the stuff that you guys have to do

to put on, you know, at the end of the day,

people come here and they go, oh, it's a great event.

They look at all the cars and then they go home

and you hang out with people and go home.

But, you know, but yeah, I mean, my, you know,

the planning, the years of planning for today

and the event and all the people behind the scenes

and all the activities and the complexities

behind that most of the attendees here

don't know about it.

So it's the same thing in art

and in the auto industry or anything else, you know.

I mean, the work, the time, the investment,

the blood, sweat and tears, all the stuff

that, you know, goes behind the scenes is unbelievable.

So especially something like as complex as like

the automobile, right?

You know, a device that has to, you know,

get someone safely, you know, from point A to point B

and last 30 years and 200,000 miles

and, you know, still be really high quality

and not fall apart and, you know,

provide long lasting joy and excitement.

I mean, think about, I mean,

there's not many other products that you buy

in your lifetime that have to live up to that standard, right?

So, I mean, our phones and stuff.

The British.

They don't last that long.

My mind did last.

No, I had to replace mine, you know, so I mean,

so that's the thing, I mean, and, I mean,

even your phones, our phones are great.

You know, no matter what brand or product you have,

I mean, phones are great, but, you know,

you get a new phone every year.

You know, you're always upgrading,

you're always getting the newest model.

It doesn't have to last for 20 years, you know,

it doesn't have to, you know,

go through the same safety and reliability and, you know,

I mean, so it's just a different level of complexity

in that industry.

What did you think of Ted's speech?

It was good.

I worked for Ted for a long time.

I know, yeah.

Yeah, and now he's good.

Like, that's when I first,

I didn't know you at the time.

Like we talked about last year,

but, you know, that's when we had

that first encounter in Columbus.

So you were there.

Yeah.

Yeah, you were there, yeah.

For sure.

Got pictures.

Yeah, I thought his speech was good,

but as I watch him, because I love the guy,

love you too.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

I love the guy.

As I watch him, I go, that's, he's passionate.

You could tell he's from, you know,

the engineering side, you know,

the equation when you were looking at the presentation.

So we had to give him like little, little signs.

That's too funny.

He missed every sign, that's it, but.

He did.

He missed all of them.

Yes, but that's, you know, look,

I mean, he's great, man.

The one thing I, you know,

I have so much respect for him is that, like,

you know, because now he's not

tied to the company, right?

He's, you know, he's moved on.

He retired, right?

And so he's not here on the company's behalf,

as he said.

He's not saying things in the company's behalf.

He's literally here as like everybody else.

And then, you know, all the regular attendees,

he's here as an enthusiast, as a car guy,

as someone that's passionate.

And obviously, given his role and what he worked on,

I mean, everybody here is, you know,

very excited for him to be here

and appreciative of him to be here.

But for him, it's just, he's here to participate

kind of like anyone else.

I thought to him, he's just like,

oh man, I was out on the track

and I got to drive a car.

And I was like, you literally did that

for your entire 30 plus year career.

Like you just drove cars on the track

and yet you're here and you're excited

to be driving the cars on the track.

You know what I'm saying?

So like, so that to me is, it's pretty special.

So anyone that, you know, loves their job,

loves their career, loves their company as much as that.

I mean, that's, that speaks volumes.

So I rode with him in the track

because we did the same thing in 2017 at Road America.

Yep, yep.

And it's funny because since NSXPOL is always

kind of around the same time of year,

give or take a few weeks,

the Facebook memories popped up a picture

of me doing a selfie

with Ted.

You know, he probably owes me either a drink

or a hot dog because every time I see him,

I mean, they're buying him a drink or food.

But I was, we went around the ridge twice

and I was glad he took a lap to cool the brakes off.

Yeah, wait, this is in your car?

No, this was in the, in checker type S,

the gold car, yeah, the gold car.

And yeah, I don't think I've been right since.

Oh yeah.

Yeah, I was, I was ready.

In fact, we were, the third lap we were going around

and just kind of talking like, you know,

how are the kids, how's the family

and all the things going?

And I'm like, I'd have to cut my sentence as short

because I felt, you know, I was like,

yeah, everything's going good.

No, no, it's the thing.

I mean, when you get, and along,

I mean, nothing recently,

cause I didn't participate in the track stuff this week,

but I'm way back in the day,

I getting during development

and throughout that whole process.

Yeah, I mean, I went right seat with him

and other, you know, very skilled drivers and stuff.

And when you do that,

you go right seat with someone

that really knows what they're doing

and like changes your whole perspective.

You're like, wait, the car can do that?

And it's like.

So going back to the first time

we were there together without knowing each other.

That's the first time I met Peter.

And he was taking his Toyota Tercel

or something like that

around the, your guy's little test track out there.

And so he was pulling up and all four doors had opened,

well, three doors had opened

because he was a driver

and everyone was just hopping in the car.

And I had that exact thought

going around that track with him.

At the time, I didn't really know Peter.

I had just met him.

Like he's like, my boy now, right?

Just a regular ass car can do that to your point

because those people know

what they're doing behind the wheel.

I wouldn't do that,

but I know I can.

And then the car can.

Well, yeah, you know what the car,

might be capable of, right?

And so at some level,

yeah, it just changes your whole perspective

because the way we drive on the street,

no matter what car you have,

whether it's a really fast supercar

or just a average, you know,

Econo car, the way you drive on the street

is totally different than how you drive on the track.

As it should be.

Well, as it should be, but I think,

but I think what happens,

especially with someone that's a beginner

that goes out on a track day for the first time,

they're still driving like they're on the street.

And so what I mean by that is like,

they're not looking far enough ahead.

You know, they're not breaking hard enough.

Right? In normal driving,

you don't break actually.

You're modulating in this kind of the slowly,

you know, decelerating

and trying to bring the vehicle to a stop on the track.

You're like waiting to the absolute last minute

and then, you know,

stab the brakes as hard as seemingly possible, right?

It's like, it's this instant kind of like on off.

And I remember one of the first times

I got to go right seat with like a professional driver.

It was that more than the speed,

more than maybe even a cornering grip and stuff like that.

It was the braking that threw me for a loop

because you're like,

they're waiting to the,

you're like, dude, what are you gonna break?

Like we're right at the turn and when are you gonna break?

And then like how hard that, you know,

that braking g-force, right?

It's just kind of like pushes you forward.

Now you know what a seat belt is really for.

And you're like, oh, please hold me, you know,

because you're just being thrown forward.

And that is such an amazing experience,

but it's, you have to experience it.

And quite frankly, most people don't get a chance

to go right to seat with Peter Cunningham

or someone might get a little set of right.

For John Rivers.

I'm not that good, but I can drive, I mean, you know,

but I mean, it's, no, I mean,

I take people for drives and do that stuff

and always try to behave myself.

But again, sure, if they're not used to it

or like, or at least have the confidence in you

that you know what you're doing

or that you're gonna stop or turn, whatever,

it's a big thing, so.

So we'll get you out of here

on a couple more of these little things.

So we did the group drive.

You guys, you drove, was it Casino White?

Yeah.

Or Casino White NSX Type S?

I was, yeah, NC1, just a regular NC1.

Oh, regular NC1?

Oh.

Ah, I mean, yeah.

You poor folk.

Just for clarification, yeah, it just was, yeah.

So. You're poor folk.

Drove that, yeah.

How was it, how did you like the drive?

Was it incident free?

Yeah, no problems.

Oh, yeah.

No problems, no problems.

The route that you guys had planned was really good.

Oh, that wasn't me.

Well, I mean, but just the route

that everybody was taking was really good,

because yeah, I mean, inherently everybody kind of broke up

and then there's people stopping off to take pictures

and then there's, you know,

then obviously there was the big lunch break in between,

so the route was good, it was scenic.

I mean, it was really beautiful,

the trees, the water that would.

The city of Northwest is beautiful.

Yeah, I mean, just a gorgeous backdrop to be driving

so cool again to see all the passionate owners and enthusiasts

and all of the cars, all the different colors,

the first gen, the second gen,

type S, everything mixed in together.

So, yeah, no issues out.

And I mean, you know, what do I know?

I don't know the entire event,

but I didn't see or hear really

of any other major incident.

So.

Did I tell you about my drive?

No, what happened?

Oh, no, something went down?

So I was volunteer to be a drive leader.

Okay.

And so I take off with the group

and I'm chatting with my co-pilot, you know,

a guy from back in Arizona who needed a ride,

you know, I handed him up the seat.

So we're chatting, so he has the route on his phone

and I have it up on the car play.

We're just talking, talking,

we missed one of the first turns.

I'm like, all right, well, we'll find a place.

He goes, we missed turning them people on radio.

Hey, I think we're supposed to turn back there.

I'm like, all right, I saw it,

I'm gonna turn around, whatever, it's good.

And then, you know, I'm always checking to see

who actually are still following me instead of cut off.

Everyone was still following me.

I was like, all right,

because they're like all president days

up there driving, we're good, right?

So then I'm kind of checking up, checking the rear,

checking the side, checking the rear.

And I look up and there's this dead baby deer

in the middle of the road.

Well, I thought it was like half a deer.

It was something dead and red, right?

And by then it was too late.

It was like right in front of the car.

I was like, oh, shit.

It's like, okay, nothing to do about it.

I'll have to check the car later, right?

So then I'm looking for a spot to turn around.

And, you know, these are all private drives, what not?

So I finally find a street that kind of dips off

to the left and goes down.

So I'm like, all right,

let me just bust a U-turn like right here.

So as I busted the U-turn,

the street kind of pitched down

and I scraped the bottom of the car pretty hard.

As I was doing U-turns, I was like,

I'm like, aw, beep.

So when we get back on the route and we're driving,

and one of my good friends from Arizona

is on me, like he is on my ass on the,

he's on my ass on those roads.

And I'm thinking, I go, who the hell is behind me?

Will that be, bleep bleep?

Like, all right, well, Jay Tuck,

it's not that he's the sacred name or anything.

So now I'm worried about him on my ass

on these roads that I've never driven on.

And you saw the routers like this

and then we come up to the first gravel pit.

Everyone was talking about there's two gravel pits.

You come up to the first one

and by then I'm going like, I don't know, 45?

And I see at the last minute, I'm like, oh shit.

And then I got the back end of the NSX like this.

Yeah, just kicked out.

Yeah, kicked out.

I was like, oh, bleep.

And of course, that was the last crazy thing that happened

but I'm getting shit the whole time

by my friends in the back, like, Jay's throwing dirt

and dust, who's kicking on dust?

I'm like, when you're at the front, it's a different.

You don't have as much notification.

You don't, and I've never driven

on that fucking road before.

No, that's too bad.

I mean, well, look, you were okay.

And they were tight.

You remember, I mean, tell the people how tight

some of those, especially when it got done

on like one and a half lanes wide.

Yeah, no, there was basically no split in the lanes.

It was just, yeah.

It was like a golf car pass almost.

And then somebody in the back.

So by the time we had doubled back,

we had another group behind us.

Like, I think Brian Miller's group was actually behind us.

So then now we had like 20 NSXs behind

instead of like eight or nine.

And somebody radio was like,

hey, is there a car up there

where it's kind of trapped behind or something?

You know, I'm like, hey,

I've volunteered to be a drive leader.

If whoever's back there talking,

feel free to come all the way up here to the front

and take the lead, you know?

Yeah, yeah, if you want to do this.

Yes, I'm not pushing a 55-60

because you saw that road.

Like I had no idea because it's, you know,

elevation, you don't know where the turn is.

We hit the main highway and after that,

it was all Gucci, but that was my experience with it.

Yeah.

But like I said, long as you were okay,

it sounds like the car is okay.

I mean, yeah, I mean, we drove that same route,

obviously, right?

So it was one of the gravel and, you know,

luckily it had, I wasn't the,

there was actually a couple of cars in front of me

that weren't either in our group or whatever else.

And so I had a little bit and,

okay, those people slowed down quite a bit.

Something must be coming up.

So I had like some, like I said, notification.

And so I, you know, slowed down

and, you know, just had to really crawl through there.

But other than some dust kicking up to your point,

it was totally fine.

So glad you made it out.

I'm glad I did too.

The rest of the drive, I think overall was great though.

So again, hats off to you guys there.

Can you put on your Acura hat for a second?

All right.

Well, I just want to thank you

for all your support for this event

and personally thank you for your support,

for me for some things.

And we couldn't do this honestly,

it's very cliche, right?

But we couldn't do this without you and Acura.

And so I 100% appreciate that.

And you know, I 100% appreciate you.

So thank you.

I thank you, man.

And look, I said, I'm not here

to speak on the company's behalf because-

You can take the hat off if you'd like.

No, no, but it's not gonna take the hat off

because there's so many, like,

just like there was a lot of people

that helped put this event together.

The company's way bigger than me.

The people that were here,

look, there's a, I won't name drop anyone,

but there was-

There's several.

There were several people from corporate that were here

that did an amazing job.

Absolutely.

Actually really did support.

You know, I probably didn't do nearly as much as they did,

but to be here, to work with you,

to see the events get better each year,

to see the attendance go up,

to see the response from the attendees,

like that's a win for everyone, right?

So I'm just lucky to, you know, again,

to be here, to be able to come and support these events.

And you know, I feel like that's the same belief

from the other people that attended too.

So yeah, thanks.

You give me confidence when I'm on stage.

I'm like, oh, Jay Rivers, Kelly's my girl.

No, yeah, no, man,

but you have you right in front of the table.

I was like, okay, so.

No, thank you.

I mean, yeah, like I said, you know, the hospitality

throughout the week was top notch.

And you know, again, like I said,

I think everybody that attended,

enthusiast, corporate guy, you know, NSX owner,

you know, spouse plus one.

Everybody just had an amazing time.

I didn't hear a bad thing.

So again, hats off to you guys.

Well, hopefully we can do this again next year.

I'm flying to that one.

So I don't know how much of this crap

I'll be able to bring with me.

Yeah, yeah, I know, but let's definitely do it, man.

It's exciting.

You guys put the announcement out there.

So I'll see if I can keep the street going

and definitely come next year.

I would love for you to, even if you're just,

I don't know, you have to find a way to make it work.

Okay.

John Rivers, thank you.

Appreciate you, man.

Well, another month, another closing.

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About this episode

Jonathon Rivers from Drive Culture joins Jay Finning to discuss the recent NSXPO 2025 event and the evolving landscape of the automotive industry. They dive into the challenges of YouTube content creation, sharing personal anecdotes about their experiences with monetization and audience engagement. Rivers reflects on his long tenure at American Honda, the shift towards electric vehicles, and the importance of community in the car culture. The conversation also touches on memorable moments from the event, including a group drive and the camaraderie among NSX enthusiasts.

Econo car electrics gas hybrid hydrogen fuel cells hydrogen infrastructure kicked out modulating brakes plug‑in powertrain

Acura Integra Acura NSX Toyota Tercel

Original notes

EP296

In this episode of the Hard Parking Podcast, host Jhae Pfenning welcomes back Jonathon Rivers of Drive Culture, fresh off the NSXPO 2025 banquet in Tacoma, Washington. As a 15-year veteran at American Honda and a passionate YouTuber, Jonathon shares insights on the grind of building a YouTube channel, from battling monetization woes to navigating copyright claims and the importance of audience engagement over subscriber counts. The duo dives into the thrilling NSXPO experience, discussing the scenic group drive through Washington’s tight, twisty roads, a near-miss with a dead deer, and the challenges of leading a convoy of Acura NSXs. Jonathon reflects on the auto industry’s evolving landscape—electric, hybrid, and hydrogen powertrains—and the complexities of product planning amidst tariffs and consumer shifts. With heartfelt thanks to Acura’s support for NSXPO, this episode is a must-listen for car enthusiasts, YouTube creators, and anyone curious about the behind-the-scenes of automotive events and content creation.

You can find Jonathon Rivers at: ⁨@Drive_Culture⁩

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