Hard Parking with Jhae Pfenning Sep 15, 2025

Jorge Aquino’s Journey: Puerto Rican Roots, Exotic Cars & Tormenting Tarmac

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Nissan Sentra

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Do you smell what the rock is cooking?

That was terrible.

That was perfect.

Thank you.

I mean, if people don't know, yeah.

That's going to be the opening for the podcast.

There you go.

What is up, everyone?

This is Hard Parking, brought to you

by Right Honored and Right Toyota out of Scottsdale, Arizona.

Coming up on today's show,

Orohei Akino of the Tormenting Tarmac podcast,

which is local here to me in Arizona and Phoenix area.

Actually, no, we're not competitors.

We're actually friends.

We both represent the car community

and uniquely get fun in entertaining,

engageable, different ways.

I was recently on his podcast, had a great time.

I'm going to link that in the description.

And after this quick word from our sponsor,

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Jorge Aquino, welcome to hard parking, man.

Dude, I'm so stoked to be here.

Thank you.

I'm glad you're here because we did,

I did your show a couple months ago, right?

So we're filming this on September 3rd

and I know that because September 4th is my anniversary.

Oh, really? Congratulations, bro, awesome.

The 21 years, 21 years that woman, that Puerto Rican.

And we're here, bro.

Downstairs, let's go.

So let's kind of go into the people, the viewers of this,

hopefully they're gonna be people

that are used to listening to Torming Tarmac,

but we know they're gonna be people

that are used to listening to hard parking.

And at least one of the things that I said

about when I was on your show

is when I'm on somebody else's show,

that's when people really get to know who I am.

When I listen to your show, I know you love cars.

Like you love cars.

You love giving shout-outs.

Yeah, I love it.

I do look, I do look.

Well, you know what, people put me on.

So I might as well,

I always gotta give the love back, absolutely.

But I wanna know a lot about you.

So we've discovered in our pre-talk,

you're Puerto Rican, which is pretty cool.

What can you share with us about that?

I mean, I was born in Puerto Rico, 1989.

I'm a 90s baby.

I'm a millennial.

Sorry, amen, it's all right.

Yeah, no, no, I'm coming to terms with it.

Well, here's the deal.

I believe I'll get with a participation trophy.

Ah, all right, fair enough, fair enough.

But like, you know, I came over to Arizona

when I was about three years old.

I grew up in Tucson, actually.

And Tucson's still home to this day.

It's so funny because it's, I love Phoenix

and I've been in Phoenix now since 2018,

but Tucson and Phoenix,

even though they're 90 miles apart,

they are so different in a variety of different ways,

not just the landscape, but just the flow of everything.

Like when I came to Phoenix,

I was like, man, it's a lot quicker here

and everything like this.

It's a full on big city.

And Tucson's grown a ton over the last 30 years,

but I still feel like it's got this hominess to it.

It kind of makes itself be like this small town

when I'm like, you can't really be a small town

when you got 500,000 people.

But I, cool, Tucson, I see you regardless.

But I grew up there.

I came over when I was three because my dad,

shout out to my dad.

He got, there you go.

I do shout out to people all the time.

It's all good, man.

Shout out to my dad.

May he rest in peace.

Like, you know, I love him

and he was just an amazing individual.

You know, I wouldn't be the man that I am

without him in any way, shape, or form,

even though I lost him when I was relatively young.

But like, you know, I still,

there are times that I go ahead and tell myself,

okay, what would my,

how would my dad go about things in one?

I have those conversations in my head all the time.

That's a good thing.

Yeah.

And you know, I miss him every day.

And I'm just really, really blessed

that I got to spend some time with him and everything.

But he went to go to U of A and Tucson for his PhD.

And so him and my mom were already married, obviously.

And so I went ahead and came along

and everything like that.

So that's kind of how that started.

My sister and I were both five years apart.

So my sister was born here in Tucson,

but we both had the opportunity

to go ahead and live in Puerto Rico multiple times,

which was honestly one of my favorite things

is when you come over to the States,

it's not very often you get a chance to go live back

unless you're an adult.

And I got the opportunity to go ahead and live there

as a kid and as a teenager on two different occasions

before coming back one more time.

And I've basically been here really since I was 13.

So what, what took you back twice

before the age of 13?

The first time was once my father finished up

his PhD at the U of A.

We went back myself, my mom, my sister and my dad

and he got a job there at the University of Puerto Rico

as a professor.

He was into animal sciences and everything like that.

And so yeah, he worked there for a while

and then in 98 he unfortunately passed.

And so for those like first few months after he passed,

you know, my mom really was trying to go ahead

and figure out what she wanted to go ahead and do.

And so in about late 98, she went ahead and decided,

you know what, I kind of want to restart over.

I think it's best for me and the kids, me and my sister,

go back to Tucson.

Tucson was a place that we really called home.

It was a place that we really enjoyed ourself

for those few years while my dad was in school.

And so it was a decision that to this day

I always commend her for

because we could have stayed in PR

and everything like that and it would have been great.

But you know, I grew to do so many things here

and everything like that.

A lot more opportunity on the mainland.

A lot more opportunity, 100% and everything.

So I came back when I was in, what would have been,

third grade, yeah, third grade.

That was the first time.

That was the first time I came back, correct?

And then I was here up until sixth grade.

So you're a 13 year old first grade.

Yeah, you matured now, but yeah.

Imagine, no, but the second time we went back was

because my grandmother, my mom's mom was diagnosed

with breast cancer for the first time.

So my mom wanted to go ahead and be close to her,

be with her and everything.

So in 2002, after my sixth grade, my year of sixth grade,

we went back to Puerto Rico for a year.

So I went to school in Puerto Rico over there

in private school and everything.

And so-

What was that like?

Man, that was a trip because like, it's weird.

You ever seen the movie Selena?

I actually haven't.

No, okay, for anybody who hasn't,

you need to watch it.

That's JLo's breakout role and everything like that.

And whatnot.

There's a scene with her and Edward James Olmos

where he's talking about the fact that for the Mexicans,

you can never be, you're never Mexican enough,

but then for the white people,

you can never be American enough.

It's kind of the same thing then.

I go to Puerto Rico and they're like,

man, you're Americanized and stuff like that.

I'm like, what the fuck does that mean?

Americanized, right?

And then when I'm here, they're like,

well, you know, you're brown.

I'm like, what is dumb, brown?

But you know what I mean?

So it's like, it's always this balance of like,

you're never-

You're Mexican.

Yeah.

Oh dude, don't even get me started.

I love my Mexican people as much as anybody,

but back when I was growing up in high school,

people always said, oh, you're Mexican.

I'm like, no, man, I'm Puerto Rican actually.

It's like, oh, it's the same thing.

And I'm like-

No.

No, it's not.

And I used to get offended back then,

but as I grew older-

It's a Puerto Rican thing.

It is a Puerto Rican.

It's a prideful thing to do.

Let me tell you something, man.

Puerto Ricans out there,

y'all know who we're listening to right now.

We are the most prideful people walking God's green earth.

Only us and Dominicans and Cubans

can be walking around anywhere

and just be wanting to carry our flags

and then be okay with it like normal and stuff like that.

Even though we're these like tiny small islands

in the Caribbean.

Yeah.

It's hilarious, but you know what?

I love it.

But back then it bothered me.

Now as I've grown up,

I'm such a fan of being Latino,

not just Puerto Rican.

Like I'm, I try to rep all my Latino people.

Like my wife is Mexican,

my sons have the beautifulness of being

half Puerto Rican, half Mexican and American.

You know, and Puerto Ricans are Americans.

Obviously we're U.S. citizens, but you get my point.

No, 100%.

Yeah.

Yeah, there's a lot of people that don't realize that.

That's for anybody out there.

Anybody who wants to know Puerto Rico.

It's a territory.

It's the commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

We are all U.S. citizens

and we use the currency of the United States dollar.

There you go.

For anybody who wanted to know.

But so I'm very proud of that.

But back when I was 14 in high school,

I was like, man, it would bother the shit out of me, Jay.

Oh, of course.

Big time.

But so anyways, when I was 13, going back to PR,

like it was really, it was tough.

And I spoke Spanish very well.

Still speak it to this day.

I'm bilingual and everything like that.

And I still have my Puerto Rican accent

when you talk to me in Spanish.

It slips out, right?

It slips out all the time.

But people would be like, you know,

there were some words that they would go ahead and say

that I had to go ahead and ask my cousin.

I was like, what does this mean?

I had to relearn the linguo and everything.

But what I've learned is there's some shared words

but not shared definition to it.

Definitely.

That's a fact.

And they can be complete opposite.

Yep.

Like my mother-in-law who's Mexican,

she grew up, originally her career,

she was a teacher and everything like that.

And so she in Spanish,

learned la real lengua española,

which is like,

Spaniard Spanish.

She's Mexican, but like that's what she,

in order to teach it.

And so sometimes to this day,

like I'll go ahead and say some words

and she'll correct me.

And I'm like, you know what?

Mother-in-law who my love and adore

and I appreciate, stop it.

I'm a 35 year old grown man.

And then she'll be like, well, speak like one.

I'm like, that, oh my God.

All right, whatever.

So I have to go ahead and take some time

and I'll come back and then I'll give her a hug

until I love her and then move on with my life.

But yeah, she'll still correct me to this day.

My mother corrects me on things to this day,

which doesn't really come as a surprise.

She's my mother.

So I love both my mother-in-law

and my mother very, very much.

But yeah, so I spent a year in Puerto Rico

and then came back from my eighth grade year

back to Tucson, back to my same middle school.

So I got a chance to go ahead and see all my friends again.

They were like, where were you for the last year?

I was like, I was in PR and what not.

And thankfully my grandmother was able to go ahead

and beat cancer the first time, which was great.

And speak, my grandparents have all passed

and everything like that, it's life and whatnot.

But the cool thing was that my grandmother,

my mom's mom, I'll never,

this is a story I like to tell

because she got breast cancer again the second time.

And I wasn't sure she'd be able

to go ahead and make it to my wedding.

And then my sister happened to have graduated high school

two and a half weeks before my wedding.

So 2013 May to June was like real tough on my mom, bro.

Her oldest son is getting married.

Her youngest daughter is graduating high school.

She was not well, but she was very happy

and very overwhelmed at the same time.

But my grandmother flew from Puerto Rico here

with my aunt and actually made it

to both my sister's graduation, stayed for my wedding.

Got a chance to go ahead and meet my wife,

which to this day is beautiful and everything like that.

And then as her cancer progressed,

she passed away a couple of years later in 2015.

But I still, that's a core memory of mine

because she was actually able to go ahead and come

and see me get married and see my sister

graduate high school and get ready for college.

And so that's a cool, beautiful memory.

And I'm always grateful that I had that time

with her and everything.

Have you been back since?

I haven't been back since 2010, which is way too long.

But just-

I can tell you the infrastructure still sucks.

Everything about it sucks.

I say that-

The water is beautiful.

Yeah, I mean, the island itself is beautiful.

For anybody, I say that it sucks,

but I always plead with people,

if you have the opportunity to go to PR,

if you have the opportunity to go anywhere in the Caribbean,

go.

100%.

Cause it's such a beautiful part of the world.

People always talk about like, oh, I'm gonna go to Hawaii.

It's like, Hawaii is cool.

Hawaii is nice.

I've never been.

I know it's cool.

Trust me, it's nice.

Yeah, but like the same time, Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico is nice.

Puerto Rico is nicer.

The Dominican Republic is beautiful.

Right there.

You know, Cuba's right there.

Shout out to my Haitian people.

Shout out to the Jamaicans.

Like all that, like the U.S. Virgin Islands,

everything, the Bermuda Triangle

is a beautiful part of the world

that needs to go ahead and be appreciated a little bit more.

And if you have the opportunity to go as a tourist,

please go because it actually helps my island

continue to remain relevant.

And the tourism helps in a time where, you know,

the hurricanes just keep getting stronger down there.

Natural disasters aren't the greatest.

The government sucks.

The government in Puerto Rico sucks.

It does.

And everything.

We've talked about buying a house there

because we went a couple of years ago.

So once you go somewhere, you're like,

hey, should we buy a house?

We never got past maybe 15, 20% seriousness,

if even that, but we still kind of think about,

man, that'd be nice.

We're actually may go like spring

to take my mother-in-law there

to see her, one of her sisters.

Because she's ill, but yeah, I can't wait to go back

because that water is so nice.

And the people are so nice.

You know, the people of Puerto Rico,

they are some of the most hospitable human beings

walking God's green earth.

And I'm not just saying that, like,

you'll ask for directions.

I'm sure you've asked for directions

or your wife has asked for directions for something.

And then-

Yeah, I have no problem asking for directions.

Homie, the way that they go ahead and give you the directions.

Time is money, dude.

I'm not gonna, no, I got this.

Yeah, right?

No, but the way that they give the directions is like,

the full on essay presentation,

the way that they go ahead and try

and explain directions to you, like,

if you get lost in PR after those directions,

like, you shouldn't be driving.

You know what I'm saying?

Because like, they're so good

and they want to help you and everything like that.

And so, I-

And people may be talking or saying out loud about,

well, now there's ways and there's stuff like that.

I'm here to tell you, being there a couple of years ago,

the map system is kinda screwy.

I don't know if this goes for close to the equator.

I don't know what, but it's,

you'll be on a road and it'll tell you to exit.

And you're like, I'm pretty sure

we're supposed to go straight.

Right.

You'll exit, go through a parking lot

and go right back on the same road.

That happened to us half a dozen times

That's just the roads, but then I'll-

That's just the roads.

Then you'll also figure out the fact that like-

You're trying to find a house like an Airbnb?

Yeah.

Staying here impossible.

That's wild.

I haven't done an Airbnb,

but I can only imagine how you live there.

Yeah.

Like, and you know, and then you have like the,

the cool thing about Puerto Rico on top of the fact

that it's amazing is for such a small island,

the different geography that surrounds this

three million to four million inhabitant person,

the island, like you've got the,

you've got your typical beaches and stuff like that.

But then you go to the center of the island

and it's like mountains, you know?

My mom's, my mom and dad, yeah.

My dad built a house back in 1988,

which my mom still owns to this day.

And she's been trying to go ahead and sell for a long time,

but like it's right there in this little town.

Actually, I say this little town,

geography wise, I think it's one of the biggest towns

in all of Puerto Rico,

but it's not that really inhabited.

It's called Utoado and it's right there

in the middle of the island, very mountainous.

But then you go to like the northeast,

just south of San Juan and south of the metro area

and you go to El Junque, right?

Which is this beautiful rainforest that we have there,

world renowned and everything like that.

You're like, hold on, man.

So I went from this mountains

and then you've got all this like island type vibes

and stuff like that.

And you got a rainforest in the middle of like

this small island, like that's kind of crazy.

And then you get to like Ponce on the south end,

everything is super dry, but still a beach.

So it's like for something so small,

the fact that the geography is that wide,

it's kind of amazing.

And you get that various different places in the Caribbean,

which is super cool.

But yeah, I speak of Puerto Rico so glowingly

because it's a part of me, so.

So when I was on your podcast,

we talked about sports and I'm a big football guy,

you're a big baseball guy.

Where does your love of baseball come from?

Yeah, being Puerto Rican basically.

No, no, no, but honestly, you know,

I played Little League, I wasn't very good at it at all.

My biggest sports memory of me was I took a pitch

to the shoulder once in Little League,

you know what I'm saying?

And it hurt.

Yeah, I bet.

Yeah, and I was like, even in Little League,

you got hit with a pitch, it's still gonna hurt.

It hit me right here on my right shoulder,

I'm left handed.

And so my mom was like, she was worried.

I'm like, ma, I'm okay.

Just got hit in the shoulder with a baseball.

No, thankfully not because what happened next

was the only cool sports memory

that I could really vouch for for myself

other than two other instances playing basketball.

But I make it to first base

and all of a sudden the pitcher throws a wild pitch

so I'm able to go ahead and steal a second.

And then as I'm on my way to second,

the catcher throws it wild

past the second baseman in the shortstop.

So I go ahead and I slide all the way to third, bro.

And all of a sudden batter hits it, pow.

And I run all the way home,

some greatest sports memory of my life, bro.

I remember it to this day, it's the only time,

never got a hit, struck out too much.

Pretty sure I remember a catcher hit me in the head

while I was wearing my helmet, everything.

That's the one core memory that I remember.

I was like, I did something cool, but I love baseball.

It's, I love the sport, you know,

I'm a big fan of both the Diamondbacks and the Yankees.

I grew up a Yankee fan.

And then when I moved.

Well, you have to grow up a Yankee fan.

You do, yeah.

You're exactly, shout out to my New Year's Recon people.

Of course.

So I grew up a Yankees fan, but then I, you know,

I love Arizona so much.

And I've loved the Diamondbacks

since they became a team here.

So I love them both.

And I just love following the sport as best as I can.

Every year the playoffs are on.

If the Diamondbacks don't make it,

I'm still watching the playoffs.

The Yankees are out in the first round,

which has happened way too many times.

I'm watching it last year.

I was watching the World Series

the best of my abilities.

When Freddie Freeman hit that walk-off in game one J,

I didn't want to talk to anybody for like several days.

And when we lost game five after being up,

I think five, nothing.

My friend Ross happens to be a Dodgers fan.

And so I told, we had talked earlier and said,

hey man, when I lose, we're cool.

Let's now rub it in each other's faces though.

Let's be respectful.

Let's just give each other some space.

I'm happy for you if you win.

You'll be happy for me if I win.

They won.

I'm like, all right, cool.

I tried to go ahead and keep my composure,

but you know, and I did it for the most part.

And he called me within 20 minutes after the game five ended.

And I picked up and was like, listen Ross,

I'm not, I don't want to do this right now.

And then he proceeded to rub it in my face.

And I was like, okay, go fuck off.

Like, I can't.

So I've heard, I've heard,

and maybe Yankee fan takes this,

but it seems like Dodger fan

might be more insufferable than like Dallas Cowboys fan.

So Dodger fan at baseball.

Who's the worst?

Is it Yankee or Dodger?

That's a good question.

Because I remember where I was last year

because I don't think anyone realistically expected

what happened in the World Series.

It happened the way it happened.

I thought I genuinely thought it would go

at least six games.

I knew one of them would have the capability

of beating the other.

I didn't think that the Yankees would lose in five though.

Yeah.

Yeah, we were in Dallas watching game one at an outdoor,

kind of like a half bar thing in S expo.

And I remember sitting there

because certain members of the club wanted to watch the game.

So we walked across the street and watched the game.

You know, it's one of those weird things

that's your memory gets triggered by sports

or sports triggers your memories.

Dude, they're both insufferable in their own ways.

I think as a Yankee fan,

I honestly think that it might be us.

Because like when they stripped the ball

out of Mookie Betts glove

in what would have been game four or game five last year.

I think it was pretty sure it was game four.

I was like, oh God, why are you such bitches?

Like I was at that moment,

I was so ashamed of my fan base.

Cause I was like, what are you doing, man?

Like it was, he clearly caught the ball.

And here they are like stripping out of his hand.

I'm like, what are you doing?

It's not like we all saw it.

There's cameras all over this 56,000 seat stadium, you know?

And not only did they get kicked out,

but I'm pretty sure they got banned for a really long time.

Because of stuff like that, I think to myself,

yeah, we're pretty freaking unbearable to be quite honest.

But that shouldn't take away from the fact

that Dodger's fans can be very unbearable.

Yeah.

Who's the names on the tip of my tongue?

And you would know it maybe this has to do

with kind of the root of your love also for the game.

But there's a very, I honestly want something.

There's a very prominent Puerto Rican baseball player

who's idolized.

The one for me is always Roberto Clemente.

That's it, Roberto Clemente.

He's got a huge mural in San Juan outside of a sports club.

He's to me, everybody talks about like who's the goat?

Like, you know, people mentioned Hank Aaron.

They mentioned the babe, obviously.

You know, Willie, you know.

I said Juan.

Yeah, no, no, no.

Well, there's Juan Gonzalez too.

Well, but I know it's not Juan Gonzalez.

Juan is your typical Spanish name.

I get it.

Roberto Clemente, to me, is my goat.

He's the one.

And to me, to this day, I never got a chance to see him play,

obviously, because he not only did he pass away,

but he also retired way before I was born.

But his impact, it even has,

it gives me this like small inkling of like,

I want the pirates to do well

because of his history and everything like that.

But his impact on the game goes on.

It's almost unmeasurable.

Every single Puerto Rican player that comes in the league

tries to emulate him in some way, shape, or form,

regardless of the position that they play,

which is kind of crazy considering that

there's nine different positions in baseball.

And he's, to me, every single time I see something about him,

also the impact that he just had on Major League Baseball,

not just on the country or Puerto Rico,

but just on the game itself.

Like the fact that he's still so well-honored

to this day by Major League Baseball,

like you can't beat that, bro.

He's so incredible.

As I hear you talk about these details,

were you just like a super whiz in school?

Cause one thing I've noticed about you

is you have an amazing memory for the fine details.

You remember everyone's name

and you know all these details about all these super cars,

old school exotics, new exotics.

Where does that come from?

I mean, that's gotta be some sort of a hard coding

in you.

I think it has to do with me

just being passionate about certain things, Jay.

I think that's really what it is.

Because I wouldn't consider myself a whiz

in any way, shape, or form.

I did well in school for a particular time,

but then as you get older,

you start to get a little bit lazier

in some things that you don't like.

But that's you, not your mind.

That's correct, yeah.

And I appreciate it.

That's actually a very kind compliment and thank you.

That means a lot.

I think it's the passion that I have for certain things

that makes me just give, that makes me care.

So you mentioned that I remember people

in particular and whatnot,

well one of my, I just love meeting people.

I love getting the opportunity to do it.

Memory sucks.

I think most people can't remember anyone's name.

You know their face, but you're just like name.

I do my best to try and remember them.

I really do because,

especially if you make a really good impression on me,

but simultaneously, I don't know.

I just like talking to people.

So because of that, if I find you interesting

and I hope that doesn't come across disrespectfully,

but if I find you, but if I find you interesting,

I'm definitely gonna remember you.

You made an enormous impression on me

and I'm going to remember that, right?

Same thing with cars and same thing with sports

and same thing with anything else.

Like if I find a great passion in it,

it just kind of gets instilled in me

and I want to either learn more about it

or because it got so instilled in me,

it's kind of hard to forget.

Like I remember, you know, you mentioned cars.

So like if anybody knows me,

everybody knows that two of my favorite cars of all time

happen to be a Lamborghini Merci and a McLaren SLR.

And so I remember seeing those two cars

in a variety of different magazines

and I remember seeing the numbers for that car

and both those cars and like,

because they still to this day,

hold this like craziness inside my brain,

I will never forget what they represented back then

and the numbers that they had.

And then just, I don't know, man,

like I think also the influence,

when you're a car enthusiast,

you have your particular influences and stuff like that.

So you watch some,

some people you watch for the passion,

some people you watch for the numbers.

And like, I don't know,

I think I've taken a variety of different things

and made it into my own coding, as you said.

Yeah.

So why the SLR and the Mercia Lago

because they're two completely different visual.

Yeah.

Makes, I mean, they're both exotics.

They're both, I would say the SLR is a little more

unattainable than a Mercia Lago.

You can buy one if you got the money

and there's always some out there.

We have half a dozen here in the area.

Why those two cars?

First of all, fuck my new coach pin.

My man, that that homeboy bought like nine of them.

It's like, now all of a sudden they're like

450, 500 grand.

I'm like, my guy, what are you doing?

He's controlling the market.

God, man, it's really, it's really frustrating.

Not that I have 500 grand lying around,

but you can get the point.

Yeah.

Well, the Mercia, the Mercia is pretty easy

because I think that even if you're not a Lambo fan,

everybody loves a Lambo of some sort.

So for example, like, you know, you being a Gen Xer,

you probably are more of a Kuntascha.

Not saying that you are,

but like more than likely you're probably a Kuntascha.

Yeah, that was, that is a poster car.

Exactly.

Most people around my age.

Us millennials, and even like early Gen Xers,

we had the opportunity and the privilege

of having two poster cars.

Well, it's funny because you had wallpaper cars.

Yes, true, but like we had both Diablo and Mercia.

And I love those both almost equally and everything.

And so, but I always went a little bit more

towards the Mercia, but just a smidge.

And even then sometimes it kind of flipped

between them, but mostly the Mercia.

And so, you know, the shape of it,

obviously Lambo doors, you know, this insane V12

that revs to like 7,500 at the time.

Or if you get an LP640, it revs to like 82 or whatever it is.

And it's any car that spits flames

is better than a car that doesn't spit flames.

I think we all know that, right?

As long as it's supposed to.

Correct, exactly.

Yeah, shout out to any Koenigsegg owners

who's got the weapon flames

when they're not supposed to.

Sorry, Christian.

But so that was, that's the reason

why I fell in love with the Mercia.

Sound of it, just the coolness of it.

The Busta Rhymes video really helped out for sure.

Oh, sure.

You know what I mean?

Pop culture.

Absolutely.

And then with the SLR, that happens to just be,

to me, one of the great,

one of the best looking grand Tory cars we've ever seen.

I'm a sucker for any, for a lot of SLs.

I love Mercedes and shout out to AMG Josh.

Obviously he's like our,

he's kind of like our Mercedes connoisseur here

in the Phoenix area.

Shout out to him in the house of Euro.

But so like with the Mercedes SLR,

like when I first saw that,

I think I saw it on the cover of Dupont Registry.

Like, man, I was like, you know,

that's a hot car right there, man.

And so that, like that car,

the only thing wrong with it

is I don't like that five-speed automatic,

but like who, at the end of the day,

I feel like I've gotten to a point in my life

that I don't care anymore.

And you can look at it all day.

Yeah, you can.

And then like, you know, like you,

we grew up watching Top Gear, right?

So they always talked about like, you know,

taking a blast from like London to like Monaco

or something like that.

What car would you like to take?

Why wouldn't I want to take a freaking SLR?

Why wouldn't I?

Cause it's awesome.

And not to mention you can fit stuff in the trunk.

It's great.

My wife is fine as hell.

She'd be riding Chaco in me out.

I'd be living my best life, bro.

And so that's, I think that's what it is

about the SLR that does it for me.

And then this, it has this particular snarl

that none of the regular V8 Mercedes have

and none of the V12 SL like 60s or SL 600s

or 65s or anything like that have.

It's just, it's really guttural almost.

And like, man, that's a cool noise that it makes.

And it makes my heart flutter quite a bit.

So the passion is like bleeding.

It's like leaking out of you.

Yes.

You know, like they say when people are sweating,

they're leaking awesome if they're a cool person.

Yeah.

So like the passion is leaking out of you right now.

Tell people your Nissan story.

Because people familiar with their podcasts

probably know it.

Wow, people familiar with mine don't.

Because you're talking about these super high end

badass exotics, by the way,

but grounded wise, we all have our normal dream cars

or normal daily cars.

So things we've always wanted when we're a little kid

that maybe it's our first car or whatnot.

Tell us about your Nissan journey.

And for anybody who wants to know,

I did pull up in a Kia Sorento this evening,

which is, that's, you know, dad life.

It is what it is.

Like that's the car I got to pull up in these days.

It could have been a Chrysler Pacifica.

Dude.

It could have been a Kia Carnival.

Yeah, true.

True.

By the way, for anybody out there

that Chrysler Pacifica with like the Hellcat treatment

that might be coming or like,

I think it's like stance or not stance.

What are we talking about?

I know what you're talking about.

Yeah.

I'm like, yo, if Chrysler makes that,

if SRT builds that, thank God, I'm in.

That's the best rental car.

The best rental car for me with a lot of people

is the Chrysler Pacifica.

It's a banger.

I'm just throwing it out there, but.

It's a banger.

It's got so much room and they're quick

with the penistars.

They're not bad.

Yeah, they're great.

But for me, the Z32 300ZX is one of the best-looking

sports cars of all time.

Doesn't hurt that it's got Lamborghini Diablo headlights

as everybody knows,

but that wasn't the reason why I even fell in love

with it.

I found that fact out afterwards.

Sure.

I was going to Pima Community College back in 2008, 2009,

and my first car, my mom bought me as a graduation

if she bought me a 1990 Honda Accord.

We're Honda guys.

You're an accurate guy.

I'm a Honda guy.

I love it.

And so I had that car for like 40,000 miles

or something like that.

Nice.

It was great.

It never steered me wrong.

It didn't have AC and instead,

because instead of me fixing the AC,

I put two 10-inch subwoofers as one should

in the year of 2008.

As an 18-year-old, that's what I did.

And so I owned that car for a year.

And so I mentioned that I was at Pima

because one day this person is like rolling around

in like a 08 or 09 Altima S-E-R,

which were really, really dope cars back then.

We all know.

Not very common either.

Not very common.

S-E-R is definitely not.

Obviously.

Altima obviously is.

Altima is, and we all know

Altima drivers these days, right?

And I remember seeing that car.

I was like, oh man, that's so sick.

Because I had a like D-Tune 350Z motor

and everything like that was really dope.

And so at the time, I was like,

I'm gonna go to my local Nissan dealership

or just throw a Nissan down in Tucson

and I'm gonna go ahead and look at one.

No, full and well, I cannot afford this car

because that would have been like a $27,000, $28,000 car

at the time.

Probably been like a high $40,000 car these days, right?

A few and just for inflation.

So I'd go and they didn't have one on the lot

and I was like, whatever.

But for whatever reason, they took me to the used lot

and I find this like dark green 300ZX

and I was like, hey yo, what in tarnations is this?

You know, like I knew of 300ZX's

but like seeing one in that particular color

it was like a tan interior.

It was not a twin turbo, it was an NA

and it was a four speed automatic.

At the time, I would have preferred,

I still prefer a twin turbo to this day.

I don't think anyone wants a four speed automatic.

No.

I have one in the garage, so exciting.

But at the same time, I'm looking at this car

and I'm looking at the shape of a J

and I'm like, that's hot, man.

Like that is uber sick.

I wouldn't have cared, honestly, but in 2025.

In 2025?

Yeah, no.

Like I'm telling you right now,

so right hand drive 300ZX's are kind of popping.

Like they actually, you can buy them

at a really, really good price

but you get them at the four speed automatic

and then you realize, oh, that's why they're so inexpensive.

At the same time, you're like, I don't know,

it's kind of a good move to make,

but you know, to each their own.

But yes, absolutely, I couldn't agree with you more.

At the time, I didn't care.

Also had the T-tops, it was sick.

I was like, man, I need this car.

And so I go home and I tell my mom like,

ma, I found this really cool car.

I really want to buy it.

She's like, she laughed at me.

She's like, we're not, you're not buying that car.

You're 19, you're not buying this car.

I was like, I have, apparently sometimes

I can have very good persuasion tactics.

Nice.

And this, for whatever reason, worked on my mother.

God bless her.

And so we come back a couple of days later,

it was still on the lot

and I think they were able to get it down

to like about seven grand.

So it was a 1994, had just to take

almost 100,000 miles on it.

And so this would have been 09,

so the car, 15 years old.

And I was able to, my mom cosigned for me on the loan for it.

And I bought this ZJ and I was like,

I should not be having this car right now,

but I guess I am.

But here I go.

Here I go.

Right.

You know, you know, had to pay insurance on it,

had to go ahead and make monthly payments on it.

I was a late a couple of times,

I never had my car repo, thank God.

Been there, done that.

You know what I mean?

No repo either, but still.

You know how it is, bro.

And dude, I owned it for three years.

And it was amazing.

I put 100,000 plus miles on that car

in three years of ownership.

Why'd you get rid of it?

I didn't get rid of it.

What happened was, yeah, I did not crash it.

I did not crash it.

So January 31st into February 1st

of the year of our Lord, 2013.

February 1st is my wife's birthday.

So shout out to my wife.

And so we were like about five.

We would have been four and a half months

from getting married.

And so I was working.

I was still living at my mom's

because we were looking for a house and everything.

And so I parked in my usual spot

at my mom's apartment complex.

Get out, you know, whatever.

I say goodnight to my fiance at the time

and I go to bed.

And all of a sudden like,

I don't know about,

it's called two o'clock in the morning.

My mom hears us like, boom.

She comes and wakes me up and she's like,

what? Hey, I heard this boom outside.

I was like, oh, cool.

And then I also realized that I forgot to call Natalie

to wish her a happy birthday at midnight.

Like I promised.

So I tried calling her, but she was like,

Zong, she was gone.

And so I was like, whatever.

And then all of a sudden,

I go outside to go ahead and check.

And like, so in this apartment complex,

it's on the corner.

It's on the Southeast corner.

All of a sudden I see this like enormous gulf of fire, Jay.

I was like, yo, what's going on?

So I put on my jacket because it's kind of cold.

And I kind of start running,

walking over there just to kind of see what's going on.

Just curiosity, yeah.

And then I start to realize,

oh man, my car's parked really close to that.

I'm like, oh boy, I got to go check on my car

and make sure that it's okay.

Well, I made it.

The Gulf of Flame was coming

from two particular things.

I thought it was a trash can.

It wasn't, it was this 2013 Ram 1500

that went up in flames.

And my little Z was parked right next to it.

And the entire driver's side was Gonzo, bro.

So what happened was,

so anyways, we call 911, everything.

Story goes,

an individual that lived in the apartments,

her estranged ex-husband made some type of homemade bomb.

And they were going through a nasty divorce

and he lit her truck on fire.

And upon second explosion,

because my car,

so literally they're parked right next to one another.

Upon second explosion, my car completely caught in,

like I completely caught in flames.

I saw the firefighters hacking at my hood, bro,

to try and put the car out so it didn't pop.

So it didn't blow up,

but the whole driver's side was gone.

I'll send you,

I think I still have pictures of it.

I'll send it to you afterwards,

so you can go ahead and see.

I cried, I genuinely cried.

Yeah, it was brutal.

Shout out to that Z.

Yeah man, I love that car to this day.

I'd love to get another one.

What's he gonna say?

How come you haven't replaced it?

Oh, you know, life.

Life?

My wife and I got married a few months after that

and we bought a car.

We bought our first new car,

which was a 2014 Nissan Sentra.

Like after a few months after our wedding,

which was good to me.

But as we grew up,

we're thinking about starting a family

and everything like that.

So I ended up buying a 2014 Focus ST,

which I owned for about two years

and put about 50,000 miles.

So that was, you know,

another venture in to enthusiasm,

if you will.

It's a nice ride.

It was fine for what it was.

I had a love of hate relationship with it

because it was like,

when it was,

when you were on the right roads,

it was great.

But like as a commuter car,

boy does that thing suck, bro.

Like I had like an 11,

I felt like I had like the tiniest tank of all time

and you would fill it up and tell you

you have 300 miles on it

and then you'd get like 260

and then you had like nine miles before empty.

And I'm like, hey, yo, this is not 300 miles.

What are we doing?

And it took premium on top of that.

I'm like, it's a four banger,

but you know, turbo,

what are you gonna do?

Let's talk about tormenting Tarmac.

Okay.

That's your podcast.

It is.

I'm telling you like you don't know.

Enthusiast never die, baby.

Enthusiast never die.

I think I've said before,

I love that,

that tagline,

the enthusiast never dies.

Why?

Why tormenting Tarmac?

Tell the viewers and listeners

your tormenting Tarmac story.

You know, TT has been a passion project

for even before it really actually started.

I used to do a wrestling podcast.

I'm a big professional wrestling fan

for anybody out there, you know.

Shout out to the travel chief, Roman Reigns.

Seen the rock lately.

Oh my God.

He slimmed down.

I hope it's not always epic.

Well, they say it's for a role,

but I don't know.

I don't want to speculate.

Right.

Well, he's got the smashing machine coming out.

Which is great.

Who looks amazing.

He looks bigger in the smashing machine.

He does.

He might be maybe he's just slimming down

for a different role.

You know, I-

Hopefully everything's good for him.

I hope so too.

Who knows?

He may have been juicing up

and maybe he's just laying off of it.

He's like, he's in his mid fifties now.

Maybe he's just laying off of it now.

Yeah, that's what a lot of people think.

Yeah, and so,

and good on him if that's the case.

And what not?

I've been a fan of the rock for like 25 years.

He-

So is the other Puerto Rican downstairs?

Oh, no way, really?

Yeah, she loves that dude.

I don't know what it is, man,

but that's our guy.

He's our guy, you know.

You smell what the rock is cooking.

That was terrible.

People's over it.

That was perfect.

I mean, if people didn't know, yeah.

That's gonna be the opening for the podcast.

Oh, yeah.

There you go, man.

But tormenting.

Tormenting tarmac.

So I used to do this wrestling podcast,

but in the depths of my soul,

I always wanted to do a car podcast

and everything like that.

And I kept on asking my,

one of my very good friends,

he lives in Detroit.

He's an automotive engineer over at General Motors.

Shout out to Ron Morris.

I hope he listens to this one

because that's one of,

he's one of my best friends.

He better.

We went to high school together.

And he's, you owe me.

You co-founded the podcast, man.

And so I always wanted to do the show with him.

And he never wanted to,

he did, but he always felt like a little uneasy

just because of his job and stuff like that.

I was like, bro, if I promise you

that we can go ahead and make this podcast,

like not get you in trouble,

would you be willing to do it?

He's like, okay, we'll give it a shot.

And so, but it took me still a couple of years

to really kind of reel him in.

And I'm in Fort Worth, Texas in 2021

on a vacation visiting my sister-in-law.

And all of a sudden I'm like, you know what?

For craps and giggles,

I'm just gonna start the Instagram account for TT

with knowing the fact I'm gonna start a podcast regardless.

So I started TT on the Instagram account,

very, very small.

And I was like, man, it's either now or never.

And I love this, I love car culture.

And I wanna see, I wanna rep it as best as I can.

I yap a lot.

So I wanna go ahead and yap with other people, right?

And so I told Ron, I was like, Ron, let's just start it.

We'll see where it goes from there.

And he's like, all right, cool.

So we recorded a few episodes starting in September.

We didn't release anything until January.

So we had six episodes in the tank.

And it's funny because we recorded the review

of the Formula One 2021 season

with the legendary scenes in between Lewis and Max

in December that ended up being the first one

that dropped along with our first episode,

knowing the fact that we had six months of worth

of other shows that are gonna come right after that.

People are gonna be like, you know, the time

is like really off.

Old news.

Yeah, right?

And we knew that, but it was like, you know what?

It's just two friends having a great conversation

and whatnot.

And I launched it, you know,

I didn't know what was gonna happen.

Some people listened and it was cool.

And actually some people here from the Phoenix community

because I'd already started trying to follow people,

trying to kind of garner a relationship with them

and whatnot.

And some of them listened.

I was like, okay, cool.

And it was him and I, but I was like,

we're never gonna really get anywhere

unless I really get entrenched into this community here.

And God knows we have one of the most amazing

car communities in the country, right?

And so I don't know what it was,

but I remember two particular people,

they were photographers and I saw their photography

and I was like, I gotta talk to these people, man.

Like, because they just seem to be really amazing individuals

who have their head on right,

but are also just doing cool stuff.

And that was Alex Skudlow and Caitlin Clink,

automotive Alex and KRC Auto and shout out to them

because they've been rocking with me ever since.

And it was originally gonna be like,

oh, interview automotive Alex first.

And then I'll interview Caitlin Clink a different time.

And it happened to be that KRC was back in town.

And I was like, you know, would it be wild

if I just got them on both?

They happened to be really good friends.

So we did it.

So you had three of them?

Actually, yeah, that's wild.

But yeah, we had a great conversation actually

and Steven, automotive Alex is now fiance.

Shout out to automotive Alex

and congratulations on your engagement.

Yeah, she just got engaged.

Yeah, that's awesome.

Love to see it.

He joined on the podcast too.

And so-

So you had a four play?

Basically, shout out to four till four.

Yeah, yeah.

Until Sloan was gonna be entrenched there.

That's a wild thing.

But anyways, you know, we had a great conversation.

And for some odd reason, people really love the fact

that those two individuals got a chance to go

and really speak on behalf of the Phoenix car community.

And they were the ones that I feel like

I'll always give them credit for this.

They're the ones that kind of put me

on the map here in Phoenix.

Cool.

You know?

And I'll always appreciate them for that.

And they're very good friends of mine

and I respect them so much.

And it always kind of went from there.

And from when I talked to them

and then I met other friends, you know,

I met friends in Florida who work at DuPont Registry.

I've become really good friends of mine

just cause I liked what they were doing

and they respected me.

And I was like, well, that's awesome.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

And it kind of went from there

where I started to talk to a lot

of the different photographers.

And then they appreciated that I was giving them a voice.

And I was like, well, I'm not giving you a voice

cause you're a photographer.

I'm giving you a voice cause I think you're dope as fuck.

And that to me was always the key.

And that's always going to be the key.

I want to give you a voice on TT,

not because of what you do,

but because I think you're a dope ass individual.

And that's to me always been the thing.

If you come on TT is cause I think

you're doing something amazing.

You know what I mean?

And that's, that to me is I think

what makes Tormenting Tarmac so special,

at least to me is I'm giving a voice

to people to go ahead and share stories

that some other people might not give them.

You allow people to share stories, right?

And that's kind of what we love.

It's the same thing for me.

I want people to go ahead and get the opportunity

to go ahead and be heard.

And yeah.

What do you want to do with it?

I just want to keep pushing it as best as I can, man.

I really enjoy it.

My wife the other day was like,

oh, it's just a hobby.

It's like Natalie, it's more than a hobby.

It's more than a hobby.

It's more than a passion project.

Like it's almost like a piece of me now, Jay.

That sounds really cringy and I'm not meaning for it to.

Well, no, it is.

It's part of your identity.

It is.

I'm Papa Tarmac, man.

There you go.

You know what I mean?

I don't have any cool names like that.

That was the shout out to my boy, Lodgy.

Brendan Lodge called me Papa one day

and all of a sudden Papa Tarmac kind of stuck

and that's kind of how it's been.

But yeah, man, it's a part of my identity now.

And that's what's allowed me

to be so entrenched in the scene, if you will.

And I want to just continue to push it.

I want to continue to allow people to go ahead

and tell their stories.

And I feel like it's allowing me to create my own,

if you will, or at least continue to evolve my story,

whatever that may be.

And I love it.

And I don't want to stop doing it

unless I'd stop doing it.

You know what I mean?

What's been the most challenging for you

as a podcaster?

Shoot, getting sound quality right.

Because I know, I mean, getting guest

doesn't appear to be a challenge of yours at all.

Every week you're, as of right now,

you, I think you just did episode 156 of Chad.

156, shout out to Chad, our boy, yeah.

Yep, absolutely.

I mean, you're like, you're about to catch me

and pass me, bro.

No, I don't know about that, man.

I said, I told you on our podcast

and I'll tell you again,

I feel like you're the godfather

and I'm riding on your coattails, man.

And that's always going to be the case

until the end of it, bro.

100%.

And if I go ahead and catch up to you,

I'm rocking with you.

I'm not, you know, I want us to both succeed

and that's what I love.

We'll do it.

100%.

But I think that the hardest thing is now,

it still can be like getting people to like realize,

hey, trust me on that, people get nervous.

They do.

You know what I mean?

They'll tell you,

oh, I don't know about that much about cars

or I don't, I don't know if I am that interesting.

And I'm like, as I said,

I wouldn't be reaching out to you

if I didn't think you were interesting.

And by the way,

there's a ton of other people

that I feel are interesting.

I just haven't reached out to them yet.

I don't think you're not interesting.

I think you are.

I'm going to get to you.

I promise.

I just don't, maybe I don't know what to do.

There's the people who say,

yeah, man, I'll do it.

Yeah.

And then you chase them and chase them.

You're like, you know what, we're done.

Yeah.

I also don't want people to go ahead

and take advantage of our platform

for the wrong reasons.

That's a big one.

I don't want you to go ahead

and come on TT to try and sell.

Sell yourself as an individual being dope.

Don't go ahead and try and sell.

Like I want it to be organic.

TT is always about originality

and it being organic.

And if I want you to go ahead and rep something,

I really want you to rep it because I believe in it.

I don't want you to go ahead and come to me

and try and say, I really want to sell something.

Because that's weird.

It's kind of odd, right?

So I think convincing people of trust me,

I know that you could have a story

and I want you to be able to tell it

because I think you're cool.

And I've successfully been able to do that

with some people and whatnot.

And I think that to me makes

the most interesting conversations.

Another thing that I find challenging at times

is finding the time.

Yeah, that can be a big one.

Yeah.

And hence the reason I got six pods

in the can right now.

Nice.

Yeah, which is cool.

But at the same time, I'm like, man,

I got six pods in the can.

Not me.

And I continue to go ahead and like, you know,

I'm still needing to go ahead and interview people

or set up more interviews.

I'm like, I gotta slow down

because then I'm not gonna have any time

for my family.

The biggest thing is balancing the time

for my family and the pod.

Cause I don't ever want the pod

to go ahead and take over my family.

But I also want to continue to push it as best as I can

and take it as far as I possibly can.

So that's been the biggest challenge.

Well, everyone's gonna find out, right?

Listen into it.

Eventually watching it.

As I continue to go ahead

and get a better camera set up like you, yes.

You know, the content is there

and content equals quality.

So you're doing a good thing.

Thank you.

I want to thank you for coming by Hard Parking Studios.

It was my pleasure, man.

Mr. Tormini Tarmac himself.

No, this means a lot to me.

It's not every day that people reach out to me

and they want me to go ahead and do their show.

I'm usually the one that's doing it

the other way around.

So when you messaged me the other day

and you were like, I want you to do this show,

I was like, Jay's reaching out to me?

I know I've done something.

And I mean, I'm not just,

I'm not saying that because I'm in your studio.

I genuinely mean it, bro.

So on behalf of everybody who listens

and on the behalf of everybody who rocks with you,

I love you, bro.

I got nothing but love for you

and I appreciate you having me on

and just to anybody that's watching,

we have a very, very special community

in this entire metropolitan area.

We do.

And it's an absolute privilege to be a part of it,

a very, very, very small part of it.

I hope people come away from listening to this

and watching this and learning more about you

than they would have in listening to your show.

Yeah.

Because you have your own story to tell.

Thank you, man.

That means a lot.

So thank you.

It's been an absolute pleasure, bro.

Beep, beep.

Well, another month, another closing.

If you like what you heard today

or like what you watched today,

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There's a buy me a coffee option there.

You want to support the show if you get value.

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Why not support it?

Special thanks to Mark Stoneman, Catherine Cox,

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Questions, comments, and concerns,

leave a comment below or email the show info at hardparking.

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And I will see you guys next week.

Now it's stripping time.

Hey, nobody got time for that.

Shut up.

About this episode

Jorge Aquino shares his vibrant journey from Puerto Rico to Arizona, discussing his deep passion for cars and the unique experiences that shaped him. He reflects on his family's history, the impact of his father's legacy, and the cultural nuances of being Puerto Rican. The conversation dives into his love for baseball, particularly Roberto Clemente, and his automotive journey, including his cherished Nissan 300ZX. Aquino also highlights his podcast, Tormenting Tarmac, emphasizing the importance of storytelling in the car community and his desire to connect with fellow enthusiasts.

Chrysler Pacifica Dodge Challenger Fiat 600 Honda Accord Kia Sorento Lamborghini Diablo Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Nissan 300 ZX Nissan Altima Nissan Sentra Porsche 911

Original notes

Episode 293 Jorge Aquino of Tormenting Tarmac:

In this engaging episode of Hard Parking, host Jhae dives into a heartfelt conversation with Jorge Aquino, the passionate voice behind Tormenting Tarmac. Recorded on September 3, 2025, this episode explores Jorge's Puerto Rican heritage, love for cars, and journey in podcasting. From personal stories about family and cultural identity to his obsession with exotic cars like the Lamborghini Murciélago and McLaren SLR, Jorge shares what drives him. The episode also delves into the origins of Tormenting Tarmac and the challenges of balancing podcasting with family life.

Chapters:

[00:00] Introduction: Jhae introduces Jorge Aquino, referencing their prior collaboration and celebrating his 21st wedding anniversary.

[03:04] Puerto Rican Roots: Jorge shares his journey from Puerto Rico to Arizona, reflecting on cultural identity and family influences.

[17:39] Baseball Passion: The conversation shifts to Jorge’s love for baseball, inspired by Puerto Rican icon Roberto Clemente.

[26:05] Exotic Car Obsession: Jorge explains his fascination with the Lamborghini Murciélago and McLaren SLR, rooted in their design and performance.

[40:16] Tormenting Tarmac Story: Jorge recounts the origins of his podcast, its growth, and the importance of authentic storytelling in the car community.

Resources MentionedTormenting Tarmac podcast:

Follow Jorge Aquino’s journey in the car community.

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