Kendan Anderson -The GTR Triple Threat - EP.99

Hey and welcome back to the next episode of the right hand drive guys podcast the podcast for guys who like right hand drivesI'm Bobby. This is Aaron. Yo, yo, and this is episode 99

Hell yeah, and that means that next week is episode100 and if you have listened to all 100 of our episodes we arereally deeply excited about that. Very thankful. We definitely put in a lot of effort into this so you taking the time to listen to this right now is awesome. Yeah, absolutely appreciate 100%

And so we decided let's do another interview. Let's talk to another one of you know our fellow car people and this week we have somebody that I got to meet last year

for ours meeting he's from Colorado and his name is Ken and Anderson and Ken and is a pretty unique guy. He definitely knows a ton about Nissan's and it helps that he has quite a few which I'm sure we'll get into

during the podcast but we were at ours meeting and a mutual friend of ours introduced us and I didn't have a hotel room at Fuji Speedway Hotel which all the other dudes didand I was pretty bummed about it because once I got there I realized like whoa this place is sick you know and I would love to stay here but I'm like you know 20 kilometers away whateverand Ken was like hey dude I got an extra room you want it and I'm like what like for real like you just overheard my conversation you're like offering me exactly what I need and from then on like I was like you have this dude's awesome

Yeah, yeah, sounds like he didn't have to do that and I definitely appreciated it but as I got to know him I just realized his knowledge is so expansive and he's he's kind of into a lot of different pieces of the Japanese cultureand it just kind of made it was fascinating for me so I was like let's have him on so this is episode 99 with Kenden Anderson let's get it.

Oh yeah.

All right and we're back with Kenden what's up man?

Hey how's it going?

Pretty good man pretty good dang I can't even the background there man you're really showing us what you got that is a good looking garage dude.

Well you guys are always in the garage so I figured I should go on the garage.

Yeah absolutely man I'm loving it and so I know Kenden you know I know Aaron doesn't really know Kenden in the listeners some of them may some of them may not but just hit us up with like who is Kenden like what do you do what your deal?

Yeah I'm Kenden, I grew up in Auburn I buy cars here and there occasionally for myself and some to fix and sell that's kind of dried off a little bit recently.

I've always been in the Nissan's I had a 91 centra in high school.

Great reliable car super slow.

Reliable but not exciting.

Right right and actually so this pulsar right here is probably the closest thing to that car I had in high school.

Also a front wheel drive 1.6 liter but a lot faster a lot more fun.

And so where are you at you you live in Colorado no?

Yeah so I moved to Colorado in 2006 and stayed here ever since I just really liked the outdoors lifestyle mountain biking hiking there's a good car scene here.

Really great cars and coffee scene here.

So stuck around.

So yeah that was something I was going to try to kind of elaborate on because as you know I used to live in the springs back in the day and it pretty much seemed like a lot of evos and STIs like a lot of that all will drive kind of setup is that the same now or has it kind of expanded a bit.

I would say it's quite diverse. There is a lot of Subaru's here. There's not as many evos.

I don't know if it's a reliability thing but there's definitely a lot of Subaru's more of them are into the stance crowd maybe here.

I mean all runs of motorsports we have guys that are street racing and making a thousand horsepower on Honda's on R35's super as evos we have guys there's a huge drift community here drift Colorado.

Just had their first I think pro M licensing series this summer where they are actually they issued out their first pro M license for formula drift nice.

We have high planes raceway we have a PPI R unfortunately we lost band of me or this year so a lot of the guys are taking to the streets lately.

So that's what happens when the drag strip closes I mean it is what it is.

Yeah that's true.

Yeah a lot of diversity we've had an atasha car club that spring up recently which I feel like you don't really see outside of the west coast much.

So it's starting to kind of spread Colorado starting to take some of that.

Yeah I think ever since they added more direct flights from Denver to Tokyo the influence has increased quite a bit.

You know there's a lot of Japanese culture that has infiltrated the state in the past decade for sure that's we can't really complain too much about that I mean you know in that sense for guys like us anytime we can get a little bit more influence from Japan I don't really ever see that as a bad thing.

Absolutely and I just heard one of my favorite sushi sushi chains as spots all over the west coast they're opening a restaurant and Boulder and two more in the coming years here wow so it's like the robotic like sushi chain where you order on a screen and it comes shooting around the conveyor belt right.

Come on.

That's really good stuff too. Here's spoiled man you guys are spoiled out there so I know let's set it right off because you know one thing when I when I met you that obviously was really apparent was that you have the triple threat and so I know Aaron had a question about that.

Yeah yeah man why the skyline you know I know you've been in the Nissan while why the skyline yeah why the skyline.

I mean I could go with a link to the answer and I'll give some more background but it most boils down to this wow is that you pulled out the archives can then come on.

So I have a library so I have every issue of GTR magazine from 1994 1994 I have I mean it's I have a ton of magazines so when I was growing up in high school I had dial up at home you know we the internet wasn't a thing we didn't have you to there's no Facebook and so that's how we got our information was magazines modified magazine super street sport compact car yeah.

All right go down to Seattle there's there's this big grocery store chain called Wajima and they have a bookstore in there and they get magazines from Japan like option and GTR magazine and I picked those up you know I can't read Japanese but you know you can readentire sizes and turbos and displacement and all kinds of things so it's you know that kind of brought me into what is a skyline in high school my my dream car was honestly the 300zx that was something available on the US market I didn't really know even if you could or how to get a skyline in the US back in the 90s.

By the time I went to college a few of them had started trickling in through motor X and a handful of them in Seattle area some guys were bringing them in through the Navy they were having cars shipped back just not so legally but they were making it into the state somehow.

So we need to see them around town on very very occasion and just the presence of that car always was a level above anything else that we had especially as a guy with a high school of the center.

Right yeah the twin turbo monster shows up and it's just mind blowing you know the closest thing we have is the supra which is exorbitantly expensive at the time also so.

That kind of set me down the path of skyline ownership I bought my first one 2014 site unseen from a place called Zenitani Osaka flew out there in November of that year got to meet the owner of the shop and see the car.

And you know fired up and.

Shipped it out in January of that year that's a long story for another day.

Is this the third day ever since that's 32 this one right here yeah that thing yeah that that we'll get to your IG at the end but that thing is a beast like that thing is is ridiculous for sure when I first saw that it just it looks like a track attack car and which is wild.

Is that a Zenitani bill car.

It was originally it's now the whole drivetrain was rebuilt by UP garage in the northwest which I'm sure we'll get to in this conversation so it's currently a step 0 2.8

that's a super-responsive.

So I know I don't really even know I know you've been going to Japan for a long time right.

Yep like when was your first trip.

So my first other than layovers through Tokyo my first trip was in 2011 and I this October will be my seventh trip to Japan.

Yeah yeah so it's a place I like returning to obviously it's hard not to just unlike anywhere else on earth.

It really is and and it really is crazy how you know it brings people together like I mentioned in the intro like I met you just for going to Japan if I hadn't gone ours meeting next year we probably sorry last year we probably wouldn't be talking.

And it's just crazy how it's like this common denominator for so many people and you go there and you meet somebody and it's it's like you guys have been cool forever because of that love you know for Japan and it just kind of I don't know I never have had a bad or a bad experience in Japan.

Yeah I feel like the guys that go they get it like there's more to it than just building your car in the garage and driving it locally.

You want to go and see the source of the influence of this particular car culture and the source is Japan.

Go to Nismo go to Spoon go to mine see these shops meet the owners talk to people over there and it's and it's clear you know the way that they build and tune cars and the way they put passion and everything they do is so apparent.

Compared to shops here in the US and just people in general whether their mindset is a little more lazy and immediate in what they want and things they do to their car.

Yeah I would agree 100% and so seven times over there that's that's more than probably most of our listeners for sure give us a few quick favorite memories from these these trips you got a story or two you know just you know I'm sure you do let's hear it.

Yeah I think I've got a pretty good story from each trip but I'll try to keep it brief here in in 2013 I got interviewed by NHK TV at Toyota Mega Web just out of the blue this TV crew shows up and says can we interview your foreigner and we're not sure why you're here and we want to talk to you I said okay.

So I got on TV and they're asking me which cars do you like and you know what are you why are you here and at the time I had a 350Z drift car back home and I'm pulling out my phone showing pictures of me drifting at PPI.

Probably thought I was a super nerd for going all the way to spend the look at cars but it was an experience for sure and it's unfortunate Toyota Mega Web is no longer there because that was a great place to go see all kinds of different cars.

2014 I took my girlfriend to Kyoto Osaka and Hiroshima that was a really great trip.

Kyoto in December is amazing they have the bamboo forest all lit up at night there's lanterns in the river.

Oh wow.

Just a lot of really really beautiful scenery over there believes change color later over in Japan too so.

Oh wow.

Late November early December is almost peak like leaf season over there for them.

That must have been beautiful huh.

Absolutely good time good time to go to because it's not too cold yet just a just a jacket.

It's not too rainy you know the monsoon season is over.

Let's see.

Visiting I went bend about the Yamazaki and the Hakuushi distilleries obviously those are.

Kind of bucket list places for me as a as a whiskey fan and the experience there is.

Really cool especially the Yamazaki distillery they have this.

Tasting room called the whiskey library and they have over 3000 whiskies on hand to sample for a price.

I'll send you guys some pictures after this you can understand what I'm talking about but it's just rolls like bookshelves of whiskey bottles.

Super cool you must have been in heaven.

I mean there's only so much time and so much you can drink in one city but it was nice it was nice.

Yeah I definitely got to sample some things there that I would not get to sample back home just because outside of the.

It's so expensive to sample some of these whiskies you know to buy a bottle in the US you're talking thousands of dollars.

I'm not that much of a higher I might have some Skylines but I'm not that much of a high point.

Man that's awesome.

2018 was my first hours meeting this this year will be my fourth.

In 2018 I had booked a GTR through a more environmental car and two weeks before I flew out another foreigner wrecked it.

So they called me and said what do you want to do we don't have any other GTRs available and I said well do you have any other Skylines at least and they said they had a GTT so I said I'll take that.

I drove that through Hacone through the mountains up to Fuji that was kind of an experience I didn't realize the cigarette lighter was not wired in so when I was using Google maps to navigate my phone was running out of juice the whole time I was driving out there.

By the time I get to Hacone turnpike the turnpike is closed that I don't know what was going on but there are two guards and they said the turnpikes closed.

And I only mapped out the one route through Hacone turnpike to get to my hotel up on like a sheet so I was kind of like I'm screwed.

And I pulled around and I pulled into a seven of parking lot and I just sat there for 20 minutes thinking okay what am I going to do I have literally 2% battery left on my phone.

I have a general idea of how to get there maybe.

I'm going to have to wing it I don't speak Japanese I don't have a physical nap to go off of I went into the 7-11 and I tried to ask the clerk working there if they had a map for sale they don't turn back around I was getting back on the road and I saw they were taking the cones out from the gate so I got back on thetrack they just open it up I had the whole turnpike to myself for the whole drive it was amazing absolutely amazing at sunset to roll it into you like I she up there.

And I tell my hotel.

I knew was on the lake front and I knew the name of it and I managed to find the hotel everything went fine.

And then the next morning it was raining drove to Fuji Speedway first stars meeting it was great.

Yeah that could have went sideways real quick if if that turn pike hadn't opened up that that was some good luck that you just so happen to be patient wait.

For sure for sure and I it was a little nervous too because of the the previous car that had been wrecked.

I didn't want any foreigners driving on the mountain roads at all and I begged them I said hey look I I've been planning this for over a year.

I'm saying at this hotel which is on the lake there's there's no way to get there without going through the mountains and then I'm going to Fuji Speedway and then I'll be back you know I'm 30 something years old I'm not going to be.

You know driving the piss out of this car on the mountain roads I'm trying to be cautious and come out of this unscathed to.

You know I don't want to be that guy on the news crashing a car that I don't own yeah that's for sure worked out it worked out.

So and funny story about that car that's the same GTR that Lewis Hamilton was doing donuts in and gotten trouble for and it's the same car they got found in a container last year last fall.

What someone stole it.

Yeah so someone had rented it parked it outside the hotel and it got stolen the police found it in a container getting ready to leave the country last year I think.

Oh wow the thing has some stories.

Yeah and that's pretty crazy I mean the fact that you had this car that then gets right goes through all of this that's pretty wild but you never even got to drive it right because it got crashed.

Nope.

I mean it was sitting in their parking lot the whole front end was smashed up.

Yeah they weren't scrapping that they were fixing it for sure.

Definitely definitely and it's unfortunate because as more situations like this happen the opportunity for others to experience that goes down.

True because the more these cars that get wrecked and the more foreigners that abuse that privilege you know they're not going to be renting the cars out anymore and that's kind of the situation I think they have two or three GTRs left parental.

And they're pretty expensive now just because of the repair costs.

Yeah and I mean I think that that probably applies to more than just the GTRs more than just rental cars right just the way that certain foreigners are treating Japan itself I feel like it's getting a little tighter.

They're becoming a little more boundaries you know that type of thing because the respect that maybe a guy like you has for the country isn't shared across all the way.

And they're going to be able to get a car to cross all of the people coming in which is too bad really.

So speaking of Japan so we we're I'm about to return to Japan I'm excited I know you must be getting on a flight in a few hours right I know you're headed out pretty soon.

I got a week to go I'm only going to be there for a week this time so some of the other guys here from Colorado or spending two to three weeks.

I've got a couple vacations this year so I'm kind of tight on time so I'm just going to make it a one week trip again which is it's like me to did oh I'm on the same thing I got seven days.

And it's it's hard though isn't it like because when you're booking it you so want to just like add a few days but you know you know obviously priorities and responsibilities all that stuff.

But I'll take any amount of days in Japan that I can get that's for sure.

And so absolutely you know I know I know you're headed to ours meeting and obviously hey dude let me give you props real quick dude because you blew my mind with your planning skills like your planning skills no I'm serious dude your planning skills are top notch like when I saw your itinerary I was just like wow there are levels to this and my chicken scratch on the college rule piece of paper is just not cutting it.

But you know I know you're going to ours meeting and I obviously saw some of your your plans but what part of this trip are you looking forward to.

Yeah so I bought another car a three and a ZX lighting yellow that's a clear about manual motion s yeah only hundred 103 made in that color and that's two plus two.

That's two plus two correct yeah so it's also the last two plus two twin turbo ever built it has a one in four chance of being the last three and a ZX ever built.

Wow I'm hoping to maybe get some answers from some of the Z guys maybe the USA club you know leaders are some of the Japan guys I can talk to you over there maybe some of the guys at Nismo or if we make it into you know heritage collection maybe they can confirm deny someone's got to have a picture of the last one all off the line and that's my call.

That's insane how so like what how did you even come across the potential last 300 ZX ever built.

I was actually shopping for S 15s they could I get maybe a cheap car to enjoy for a bit and then resell here the GTRs are the keepers the other cars tend to just come and go I fix them and fix them up enjoying from a little bit and then pass them on to their forever home kind of thing.

So I been looking for at S 15s because I really do like that's 15 as well I just happen to browse through the three and ZX listings and I saw this lightning yellow car dealer in Tokyo.

If you've been on grunette if you waste a lot of time looking at cars like I do yeah you know that they they provide the last three digits of the VIN for all the cars that are listed there well the last three digits of that VIN it only matches up to one lightning yellow car it's that last one ever made.

So that's you know to me I saw that and I said hey this this is kind of special.

I think I should try to buy this car because it's it's not selling for that much money considering the condition the rarity the fact that it's a manual it's a version S.

So I took the opportunity had James call the place they sent in videos of it running everything checked out and scooped it up and so we got it through shock and it's and that's what I'm going to be driving on the strip.

Oh that's so I'm pretty excited like I said the yeah you know like I said the three and ZX was my high school being car because that was slightly more obtainable than a skyline and not for a high schooler but.

I've had this is my third Z really love the car it's so much more of a GT car than a sedan compared to the skylines you sit much lower it it just feels a little different so I enjoy it i'm looking forward to it I don't know what long term i'm going to do with this car maybe put it in a museum or find some space for it.

I don't know yet but for now i'm just going to enjoy it I have until August of next year when it ships over to figure things out so not terribly worried about it the moment but lightning yellow three New ZX super excited to drive that we're also going to be getting to drive several of the to get routes in Guima area this year which i'm looking forward to not driven any of those in my trips to Japan.

The food you speedway hotel has a circuit experience for guests of the hotel now where on weekdays at noon the let you do three parade laps with a pace car in your personal vehicle so a whole bunch of us sign up for that this year because that is super cool to have that opportunity i know with with you having your car from top ring you know they have that kind of opportunity for their customers.

For regular jose like me that's that's a pretty difficult thing to arrange on your own yeah near impossible i would say unless you are an actual race car driver of some sort and get license to drive on food you speedway so i'm really looking forward to that that has been you know that was my one of the do this car.

But i did not get into the the hours meeting lottery last year when i had the car there to drive it on track because i also do parade laps at hours meeting if you it's you apply it's a lottery it's there's so many applications that it's pretty rare that you get to actually do it yeah it's hard it's definitely hard to get in.

Yeah that in the photoshoots to we thought i got into the photoshoot group last year but then they sent an email saying hey we actually set.

The email to all the applicants just the hundred that were selected so i got all my hopes up and then.

Didn't get super last minute yeah at the last minute my friend gave actually got my car into his booth at hours meeting which was super cool that was not expecting that at all.

Yeah to see your car up there in the booth that was definitely really cool because that's obviously an an iconic situation right where you know and i'm sure you can think back and you have the memory of just standing there and seeing your car actually on display at hours meeting that's that's like sick.

Yeah yeah but of all that i think the thing that i'm most looking forward to is going with my friends again so it's such a different experience traveling with your your like minded friends.

Versus traveling alone so i've done ours meeting twice once on my own once with my girlfriend and James which was cool to.

But with the whole group of guys from back home i mean it's such a cool experience to get to do all that stuff together and then share those memories you know when you see these guys you know on the weekend cars and coffee track day stuff like that you know.

Hard to describe but having your friends there is an experience yeah i agree and obviously you know me in this guy i've got to go twice and it's it together and it is a whole different bonding it.

You know because you're you know every time you go to Japan you experience something new every time you go to Japan you you just do things you didn't do the last time and i feel like that bonding and then going home and you're like damn we're like back in real life.

This sucks and then you're googling how to immigrate to Japan you know it's the whole thing right and so you know i agree 100% that that experience and having people that you know and share like the love for the culture with it is just it makes it so much better i agree.

In speaking of i know this guy this guy's got a good one for you yeah yeah it's going to be a tough question here you could only keep one of your cars what would it be real tough yeah i mean that is it is a tough one i i want to say the r 33.

But i have to go to 34 the build quality is just it feels like a modern car even though it's 25 years old the 32 in the 33 they feel like an i need car and they're super fun i really love the heck out of them.

But the 34 i could live with on a daily basis if that was the last car on earth for me you could wake up and i said it's the slowest of my cars and yet it's the most has the most creature comforts it's the quiet is i could take it on i could take it on a 10 hour road trip and be completely comfortable in it it's it's a difficult decision but the other cars have their purpose is just for one car for the rest of my life.

It's got to be that one does it all yeah and i agree with you canton i think.

When i sit in my 34 since it's not here with me when i go to japan i sit in it and i drive it i really notice the difference because i haven't driven it in so long right and you know i got my 33 out here behind me and you're right like the 34 has more creature comforts it's not a good one.

It has more creature comforts it's smoother it's more comfortable like all of the fine yet is much more refined and and it feels like the gap between the 33 and 34 is more like 10 or 15 years not just a few if not any you know so yeah i agree with you on that one the 34 is has he said much more refined.

But for my 33 i do like i wanted to take this thing to you p garage like for a while obviously i'm in main it's in washington that's like a very far trip like so far and and i am like the type of guy i want to go there with my car and drop it off and like kind of you know do the whole thing and so you know i wanted to ask you this andanyways but i think everyone else would love to hear like what's your experience with you p garage i mean i know they did your 32 they got your 33 there you know you must love it but but tell us a little bit about it.

Yeah there are different from other tuning shops it's it's just dog Eric and the shop cats and i apologize you pricey my cat run.

I see it around the garage i love the door open so we would be scratching the door and so now he's just climbing on everything but you p garage has a very strong formula and ethos behind what they do and they're more picky the most shop so they're not just there to turn cars out and turn a profit and.

And you know get things through the door if you bring a car to them and it's it's rusty they'll tell you hey you shouldn't be putting an engine in this like let's find you a better chassis to build the then you know don't spend 25 grand on this car let's find you a better one and then we'll start from there and go.

They're very down to earth they treat their customers like family almost it just because it's it's a very small group of folks that they've worked with they're again they're not a huge shop but they're very good at what they do and their their ethos is more of.

Improve the vehicle without taking away anything from it so add response add reliability make it more easy to tune or run on on pump gas or whichever fuel that you want to run.

It's adding to the car without taking anything away is kind of their mindset so they want you know if it's whether you want just a 400 horsepower responsive street car or you want 600 horsepower track build that's also responsive but does a little bit of everything that's kind of their wheelhouse obviously my 33 with the big GT35 our turbo that's.

It's a little bit outside of the norm for what they build but they know that I've already.

Built the response machine right here and so being an hks protealer they were comfortable with kind of taking this on and and seeing what we can do with it and so that car it's being put back together now we've had some machine shop setbacks with with the crank and things happen at 9000 rpm that don't happen at 8000 rpm.

But that's the car I'm going to be taking a GT our festival in Texas here and myself Luke who also has a mid 600 horsepower GT 33 here in Colorado he's also going to Japan with us we're both going to be trailing our cars down and just doing roll race in a car show and trying to enjoy the event rather than break our backs you know trying to put on any sort of record breaking performance of any kind.

This is for enjoyment for us we don't want to blow anything up we just want to do some polls have a great time and watch other people break their stuff.

Yeah yeah it's always nice when when you see somebody else do it in like your car still running beside you you know I mean like hey all the power to him if they want to blow up their car yeah yeah I just want to like enjoy mine for sure.

So yeah I mean I guess that makes sense you know they're more of their response guys it seems like they really love to clean up the engine bay make everything look awesome you know I've never seen a car come out of there that didn't look great you know especially under the hood.

And yeah clearly they're the guys for Vcam huh.

Absolutely I think we're at 60 plus Vcam cars that they've done yeah they are definitely the place to go if if that's what you want under your car in the US.

Yeah and it seems like HKS took notice and obviously now there's a partnership between UP garage and NHKS which probably for Doug and those guys that was probably like a blessing to be able to have access to all of those parts you know on demand.

And be able to work with guys like you and actually implement the parts and then have these amazing cars coming out of there that's pretty awesome.

Yeah absolutely.

What do you go but heck yeah man.

So you talked about your Z you're about to get but after that what's next for Kenden?

What's next. This car I'm having my air goes to air cup suspension put on while we're in Japan so I'm going to be taking that down to a friendship this weekend and then this winter it goes to UP.

I've got a full of dismo fine spec long block brand new in the crate that I've been saving since 2015.

That was supposed to go in this car because it showed up with a blown engine and then we actually ended up rebuilding this car instead and the you know we're able to save the block ahead then turn it well.

Most of the engine.

So I just left that engine in the crate and saved it for a future project and you know a decade later that's the future project now.

And I spent the past two years you know acquiring all the really good stuff the carbon ismo parts the stuff that's really hard to get it's you know you can only get it in a more factory.

So it's going to be the full you know meat potatoes on that car not going to be a huge horsepower build we're talking probably.

400 to 450 wheel that's fine again it's but it will have one of the cool things that UP is able to do is they're able to do a hidden Vcam.

So the engine will look just like it came right out of the nismo factory.

But it will have the response of the Vcam also.

Wow.

So it should be pretty pretty fun build and this car is already fun stock format.

Add another hundred hundred twenty horsepower.

It's going to be a blast.

Yeah I mean that does seem like you know because obviously I have mine it's stock and yeah I feel like I could use an extra hundred 120 and 150 horsepower and it be like perfect.

Super reliable super smooth but it's there when you need it.

Yeah I and plus all those nismo bits.

Geez man come on.

Save some for the rest of us dude.

Yeah and that that was actually really cool because when I saw your car in Japan when I went and then of course at R's meeting I was just standing there just like there's probably still some drill marks on the hood there but.

The interior really struck me because you know I know yours is what a V-Spec car.

No it's a base model.

Years the base model but.

So someone stuck a V-Spec 2 sticker on the back but when I had it ceramic go to that I took it off.

Oh okay that's what's true because I'm like and your interior was fully done and I was trying to put two and two together I'm like do V-Spec 2 cars come with you know the like leather interior you know I'm trying to figure this out and then finally I just.

And you're like oh no actually I had you know Robson do it and you told me the price and I was like do no way and literally like immediately made the appointment with Robson and yeah that interior it's it's like a M-Spec interior right like.

Yes so Robson did the M-Spec leather interiors for the actual Nissan M-Spec cars so their license to use the GTR M on the seats.

Wow that's cool.

That makes so much more sense I didn't realize they were actually commissioned to do that and so that's what gave them the right to use that logo that's pretty legit.

Yeah.

Yeah and for the price I mean it's an O-Braner.

Yeah it really is and I'm excited to get to Japan and sit in mind for the first time and like actually see it because seeing yours was awesome but you know I I've got 8000 kilometers in Japan on my car.

I've sat in those cloth seats for the past three trips.

I'm ready to sit in some leather you know what I'm saying I'm ready to treat myself.

Give that smell that fresh leather.

Oh yeah absolutely.

I feel like it really adds the class to the interior that that car is missing.

Yeah no I think that's nice.

The seats are very supportive but that NAPA leather really really makes it nice.

Yeah and I agree I think that it you know really takes the outside and ties it in with the inside with that new interior and yeah if you're getting a GTR and it's still over in Japan like make that work because for less than like 4000 bucks a full leather interior that's unheard of over here to that quality.

And as you said if it's the guys that originally did the M specs I mean you really can't go wrong.

Yeah.

Alright man so you know we're we're gonna wrap this up a little bit but before I get you off of here man I have to ask and we've mentioned it you're a whiskey connoisseur that's your thing you know everybody's got their thing and whiskey is your thing.

And I respect that 100% but what I need to know okay what I need to know is what is the best Japanese whiskey Kenan has ever had.

It's Yamazaki 25.

Yamazaki 25.

And so what you know I'm not insanely familiar with whiskey but like what makes that special.

So 25 years means it's it's been aged in the barrel for 25 years so obviously there's a time factor involved.

The the Centauri Yamazaki and Hikushi distilleries I think those are their oldest single malt distilleries that have been in operation.

Kind of around the early 2010s those two distilleries started winning a lot of awards and getting a lot of international attention.

And in 2011 I think Centauri actually took world's best single malt whiskey and it was the first time the Japanese distillery had ever taken that title from Scotland.

So that really kind of exploded Japanese whiskey onto the scene and then in 2014 when I went to Japan with my girlfriend and we went to the Yamazaki distillery you know they have that whiskey library there.

I said I have to try this I mean for a tasting 100 millilitre tasting it was $50.

And 100% worth it 100%.

Wow.

At the time those bottles were selling for $6,000 a piece.

Now they sell for $15,000 on average.

So there's I mean there's no other chance I would ever have to sample that.

And it's completely different than anything else I've tried the complexity the flavor the intensity.

It's just it's hard to describe because it's so different like that the extra time in the cast just really really makes it something special and different.

It's a science in itself I'm sure.

Oh yeah.

Hell yeah man that's cool and say it was say it one more time.

Yamazaki 20.

Okay you have the opportunity the distillery is between Kyoto and Osaka there's a train station right there.

I think you have to make reservations because it's very popular with tourists.

But if you get the chance it's it's a good place to learn about whiskey even if you're not huge on whiskey.

And try some whiskey that maybe you'd you'd never otherwise get to sample.

Oh yeah man we're definitely going to take note of that.

We appreciate you coming on here Kenden just as I expected you know very informative good flowing episode.

Let people know where to find you where can where can we see this triple threat on the internet like what's the deal man.

Yeah I post most of my stuff on Instagram MDNT underscore 32.

If you find me on Facebook I'm on most of the skyline pages too or just reach out to me Kenden Anderson.

Ask me any questions follow me add me as a friend.

Whatever you want to do if you need to ask some questions fire away awesome yeah man guys definitely absolutely knowledgeable.

Whenever I got something I know I shoot it to him and he's always quick to fire back with the answer.

We appreciate you coming on today man hopefully everything goes well for you with that 33 in the machine shop and otherwise we're going to see in Japan in just a few weeks buddy.

Yeah looking forward to it thanks for having me on awesome man see you.

Dude episode 99 dude canden seems like a solid dude yeah he's like that type of guy that you meet him and you're like alright yeah this is like this is one of these guys that I know I can rely on not just for knowledge but for like positive influence so to speak yeah for sure just talking to him especially in real life you're just like wow you're like super full of knowledge yeah yeah.

And that's like that with a lot of these guys that have really made this lifestyle a large part of their lives and I'm sure like with some people talking to us is kind of like that right I mean and so he's like that next level and so it is cool to kind of have him on your side because when you do got that random question yeah he pulls out you know magazine 37.

Yeah from the library yes exactly yeah and he can actually kind of show you like this year I was trying to get on the infield in ours meeting and he sent me directions and QR codes and all kinds of stuff to try to make that happen that's however unfortunately like he said it's very limited and it really aren't picking us guys because yeah you know which I can but yeahman Kenden for sure like he said you can hit him up on Facebook you can hit him up on Instagram super friendly guy as you saw yeah and I suggest you do that because again it's always great to have somebody like that in your corner yeah absolutely but yeah make sure you're hitting us up to send us a DM you got some episode suggestions like we said next week is the hundredth episode we're obviously super excited about that it's yeah

you know a pretty big milestone for us I would say yeah and again thank you for rocking along with us we super appreciate it follow us on Instagram at our HD G U I S you can find us on YouTube under the same name but forepisode 99 the last double digit episode yeah I'm Bobby this is Aaron see ya peace[Music]

Kendan Anderson -The GTR Triple Threat - EP.99

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