Max Maddox, Head of Creative at Donut Media

[Music]

The Bring a Trailer podcast.

>> Well, hello everybody. Alex coming to

you today not from the Bring a Trailer

headquarters, but instead from the media

center at Laguna Seca, a little bit of a

change of venue, which is exciting for

us. Normally, we're up in our little

office in San Francisco. Joined today by

Max Maddox, head of creative for Donut.

Max, thanks for being here.

>> Happy to be here. Nice to meet you,

Alex.

>> So, you said you are kind of a Laguna

Sacra car week veteran. You've done it a

couple times before.

>> I wouldn't call myself a veteran. I've

been here once for uh car week and that

was last year and I sort of dabbled in

the car week scene. So, I didn't do the

full thing. I didn't go to Pebble Beach.

I didn't go to the Quail, but I kind of

went to some of the ancillary events

that happen around. So, you know, you

get the various houses that the

automakers have. We were here last year

interviewing Horatio Pagani, which is

very incredible. But it's funny actually

just yesterday I was pulling into our

hotel and we're staying at the ranch

over in Carmemell Valley and we were

driving a big Cadillac Vistic which is

their electric SUV and we're kind of

pulling into the valet lot and all of a

sudden this Pagani just zooms in front

of me and I had to slam on the brakes

and who was it but it was Horatio Pagani

himself driving the thing.

>> Amazing. Amazing.

>> Yeah.

>> So you just came back from what sounds

like a rad Corvette drive. You guys are

uh getting to drive some new kind of hot

metal. Is that the stuff that you like

for the most part?

>> Yeah. Yeah, I mean Corvettes and high

power stuff. I don't even know what the

Cadillac is that you just mentioned. I'm

I'm so used to these old cars like this.

>> So, the Cadillac Vistic, it's one size

smaller than an Escalade. It's a three

row electric SUV. Not exactly my primary

interest, I would say, but

>> it's nice. Escalades are sick.

>> It's definitely It was a really comfy

ride up here. Um I'd never driven an

electric car that far, so we had to stop

and charge twice, which gave me a little

bit of anxiety. It felt like we were

kind of on the wire getting here with uh

just a couple miles on the tank, but uh

comfy ride. I will say they're making a

pretty nice vehicle. And

>> is that on the market now or is that

something coming?

>> Yeah, I think you can buy a Vistic right

now if you with a Q. Is that how it is?

>> That's right. Just like the uh what's

the other one?

>> There's a Lyric or something a couple of

those other ones for their electric

cars. A IQ suffix. That's one of the

things we're doing here. So GM is

hosting us and today we also did a

Corvette drive with the new ZR1. So

that's the

>> Excuse me on that car a little bit. This

is the thing that they just kind of

rolled out, right?

>> Yeah. So the C8 Corvette has been in

production for I want to say like five

or so years at this point and so they

started with kind of the base model.

Then you got the Stingray and the Z06.

ZR1 is the one that now has,64

horsepower. Is there electric going into

that or is that all is that turbos on a

It's a quad cam high revving flat plane

motor for That's right. So,

>> and then this is above that.

>> Yeah. So, this is the uh the flat plane

similar to the Z06, but I think they're

calling it the LT7. Okay.

>> Twin turbo and

>> and like 1,000 horsepower,

>> 1,64. And so, no electric assist on this

one. I do have the ZR1X which just set a

Nurburg Ring record uh just a couple

days ago and it's like a sub 7second

Nurburg Green lap.

>> Does is this all-wheel drive or is this

rear wheel drive only?

>> The one I drove is rear wheel but the

electric hybrid one is all wheel. So

yeah, that's amazing.

>> It's a lot to keep track of. A lot of

numbers and honestly a lot of the GM

guys sometimes get jumbled up too cuz I

mean they have so many. They also have

internal code names for all their

course. I can't

>> Have you driven a S8 before?

>> Yeah, I've driven one in the past. So we

drove one right when it came out. It was

the first press car that I ever got to

drive, which was

>> Oh, that's a cool car. Really fun for

me. Took it up the crest and and had

some fun. That was during the pandemic,

too. So, you could get away with like,

you know, not

exactly. And then we drove the -ay a

couple years ago, too, when that came

out, which is all That's the hybrid.

Okay.

>> Somewhere in the middle of the range.

>> Interesting. This notably different.

>> Oh, yeah. The E-Ray is interesting

because you have the V8 behind you, but

you also have the hybrid in the front.

It makes the sound together.

>> Okay. interesting. And I think they do

pump a little bit of the audio in, but

you hear the spooling up of the electric

system that kind of like while you have

the V8. It's a really interesting

feeling. And I I liked it more than I

thought I would.

>> Cool. I've heard that about the third

generation NSX. I've always wanted to

drive one. And I remember there was kind

of press people didn't love the electric

one when it came out, but I've also

heard some people say that, you know,

when those electric motors kind of pull

you out of a corner, it's actually a

pretty cool feeling.

>> Yeah. You don't have any of the lag that

you would normally have with with the

gearing of an internal combustion

engine. And honestly, like I think that

NSX, that third gen, it was ahead of its

time. People complain.

>> Seems like everyone's doing it now,

right?

>> I mean, Porsche is doing it. BMW, I

think Lamborghini has got a hybrid

system now, so it's pretty common place

at this point.

>> Awesome, man. I'm going to get carried

away talking about modern cars. Can you

school us a little bit on Donut itself?

Tell us a little bit. Our community uh

probably familiar with it, but give us

the elevator pitch. Tell us a little bit

about what Donut is or what it is today.

>> Yeah, man. So, Donut Media is uh an

automotive entertainment channel. We

primarily make YouTube videos for uh

younger audience. I would say somewhere

in the 16 to 35 demo is who we generally

make videos for. We've been making

YouTube videos for 10 years now at this

point.

>> That's a pretty significant merch wing

too, don't you?

>> Yeah. Yeah, we a big part of the

business.

>> We also sell clothes. We have a podcast.

Uh we've got a soap now that we sell.

>> Amazing. And uh

>> I was reading about your toys that you

have which was like a Kickstarter or a

crowdfunded thing.

>> Yeah, that's right. So we also did a

it's like a sort of a cartoony model car

and we had done some that were

officially licensed through uh Honda and

Acura and so we had a S2000 as well as

an Integra Type R.

>> Cool.

>> So yeah, we sold those a while ago. We

we launched our Kickstarter. This is

also during the pandemic.

>> It sounds like a pandmic.

>> Oh dude, it was such a pain in the ass.

I know. I wasn't directly working on the

>> stocky is what it's called. I wasn't

directly working on the stocky team, but

man, I just remember all the supply

chain issues that they ran into cuz it

was right around that time and it was

just like

>> horrible to get that off the ground. But

>> what is your background? What brings you

to Donut? Were you like a creative guy?

Always like a media person. Are you a

designer? What's your journey?

>> Yeah, so I've been at Donut for uh six

and a half years now. And I started as

an editor. I've always been really

interested in cars and media

>> and video editing.

>> Video editing. Yeah, exactly. So, I

started a donut as a video editor for

our show, Bumperto Bumper, that first

launched, which is a show that we did

that would do uh features on interesting

vehicles, and it was like very stylized.

We'd pick like really cool cars and we

wouldn't drive them, but we'd talk about

the story, and we, you know, sit in them

and and, you know,

>> talk to the owners, too.

>> Not always. Okay. Yeah. It was more It's

very host driven. So, part of the thing

with Donut is we have five or actually

six main hosts at this point. And we've

had other hosts uh kind of how should I

word this? We've had other hosts

graduate from Donut. We've brought a lot

of new hosts in in the last year or so

and we're very much

>> host to camera for the most part.

>> And are you one of those people or are

you behind the scenes? Are you a mix of

both?

>> Mostly behind the scenes. I've I've done

I

>> You prefer it that way?

>> Yeah. Honestly, I at one point in time I

wanted to be on camera more. I thought I

did at least and I realized it's just I

prefer the art of creating video and

occasionally cameoing and you know I I

was doing our podcast for a little

while.

>> I've listened to you on the pod before.

Yeah. Yeah. And you're obviously a super

knowledgeable and passionate car person.

Do you What does head of creative mean?

Like what does that job entail at Donut?

>> Yeah. So head of creative um in regards

to the YouTube channel, I basically

oversee the creative process from

inception of ideas all the way to the

final product that you see.

>> No kidding. Like even conceptualizing

like yes, we're going to do this show,

no, we're not going to do this.

>> Pretty much.

>> Yeah. So I I work with the people at

Donut to make sure that we're fostering

the best possible ideas and ideas can

come in from anywhere. You know, we have

an open forum for people to pitch ideas.

And um

>> how many people work at the company?

>> I'd say about 30 or so. Yeah.

>> Interesting. And from what the research

I've done, it seems like it's like very

like everyone can pitch an idea, right?

It's a kind of a open market of ideas.

>> Yeah. Exactly. And you know, we really

want to be able to make the videos that

we ourselves want to make at Donut and

from the host, the people on camera to

the directors, which are the folks that

really like move the projects along and

editors and everybody. Like ideas really

do kind of come from everywhere, which

is really cool. But yeah, and you know,

I'm kind of there with every step of the

way to make sure that the videos make

sense for the channel and that they're

just as good as they can possibly be.

>> Yeah. Awesome. Are you guys all in a

room together or you have to do it all

remotely?

>> Uh, it's kind of split. So, we have an

office space in Englewood, California,

right under the LAX flight path. So,

>> no. No kidding. That's like uh

>> Louder or quieter than the race cars

going around right now?

>> A little quieter, actually. This is more

noise than I'm used to, but

>> it's good noises here.

>> I had tuned it out. So, now that you've

mentioned it, I'm more aware of it. Our

CEO Randy is in this run group right now

out in his Mustang. So these are these

are cars that sound good with big high

revs.

>> Man, that's awesome. Yeah, this is my

first time at Laguna Sega, too. It's uh

>> No kidding.

>> Oh man, it's it's really surreal to be

here.

>> Have you gotten to cruise around a

little bit or did you just you just so

we literally finished this Corvette

drive down to Big Su and I'm like

watching the map knowing that I'm

supposed to be here at Luna and I'm

like, "Oh, it's going to take what like

an hour maybe

>> maybe even less depending on how fast we

can drive it. It was like an hour and a

half and we were just stuck in traffic

the whole time and we like showed up at

the gate and I'm already late. I'm like

I don't know where to go. And uh so

>> I feel like we should be walking around

the pits instead of talking here. Are

you a racing guy at all?

>> Uh kind of. Not not not a ton. I mean I

appreciate that motorsport exists, but

it's not something that I follow

religiously.

>> But even if you like cars, it's just so

sick to walk around.

>> It's really cool to see, man. I mean, we

saw some of these race cars just walking

in here, like old Mercedes,

>> the whole history of, you know, there's

a Porsche 804, the only Porsche Grand

Prix car sitting right there. It's like

crazy. 50 feet from where we're sitting,

you know? I've never never seen one

before. So,

>> dude, like walking around Car week or

just being in this environment,

>> you see all like these super cars and

you see, you know, 911s and whatever

driving by 356s, but then

>> you'll just see some like I saw a

British Ford Escort.

>> Oh, yeah. Tell me what are some of the

crazy spots you've had so far? There's a

there's a 356

race car with uh you know like the race

livery. You could tell it was all

patinaed up. Like some guy bought an old

race car and it was just totally slammed

and this dude was cruising it along. I

think that was the first car that we saw

when we drove in. I was just like,

"We're here."

>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

>> Um we saw 20 Bugattis drive by today.

I mean, you see stuff you're not going

to see elsewhere. It's amazing. One of

my colleagues just texted me some guys

just cruising around in his F50 using it

as his car, you know.

>> Saw the F50. Great driving. I'm sure

it's the same guy.

>> Top down. Yeah. Amazing. And then you've

got all these jalapes, too. Like you've

got these uh Yes. I don't I don't

>> of Lemons is either today or maybe

happened yesterday. That's an amazing

event. Been through it.

>> All the $500 Well, you know, 500. I

don't know if that's the case anymore,

but

>> What kind of stuff are you into? What

gets you excited?

>> Old Beamers for the most part. I have I

have three old BMWs. So, I grew up with

an E30 as my first car.

>> You're a young man. How old is old for

you?

>> 32 years old. So, uh this would have

been Yeah. 2011 or so. 2010 I think is

when I got my E30 when it was still kind

of like a cheap used car.

>> Six-cylinder car, four-cylinder car.

>> Yeah. Six cylinder. So, it's a 325E. So,

it's the ET. Oh, yeah. And I had that uh

man, my dad bought me that car for $200.

>> Amazing.

>> In 2010.

>> Amazing.

>> Uh it was pretty rough for a while. And

I daily drove it through high school. Uh

after I graduated college, it kind of

finally

>> graduated to project car and I was able

to start messing with it. And so, I've

just done everything under the sun of

that. Yeah. 15 years later, I do I do

still have that car.

>> Is it pretty modified or is it still

>> at this point? Yeah. I mean, it's full

suspension wheels, Euro kit. I like to

collect really rare body kit parts for

it.

>> Oh, interesting.

>> I got this like I got this kind of like

a ground effects kit made by Hela who

companies. No kidding.

>> And as far as all the research I've done

indicates, they only made 20 of them

>> in period. This is like an 80s kit.

>> Yeah.

>> No kidding.

>> Just the front. Yeah. Just the front

part.

>> Look like an Mtech body kit or

>> It's like an MC. It's lower. It's kind

of like a BBS meets an Mtech. So, it's a

little bit lower than honestly anything

I've ever seen. And uh I even I

contacted Hela cuz it has a part number

on it. It's got their logo and a part

number.

>> It's just the ear dam or it's all the

way around. It's skirted and everything.

Okay. All right.

>> They didn't have any record of this part

ever existing. No kidding.

>> They couldn't tell me anything about it.

Amazing.

>> So, I'd love to know more if anybody is

listening and knows about the Hela front

air dam for the early Euro E30. I'm

dying to know more about it. I still

have it, but I I took that off cuz it's

like so rare that

>> Yeah, you don't want you don't want to

be the guy that ruins the one of 20

piece.

>> Totally. There may have been one on BAT.

This is the right community to ask. The

E30s are out in force.

>> Absolutely.

>> Uh your other old BMWs are E30s as well.

>> No. Uh I have an 8 series as well.

>> No kidding.

>> A50i

12speed.

>> No, it's not a six-speed, but what's

interesting is that it's a Japan import.

>> Okay. So,

>> sold new there.

>> Sold new in Japan.

>> Left-hand drive. Still

>> left-hand drive.

>> Yeah, that's interesting. A lot of those

cars when the yen was up like and

they're all coming back now were

left-hand drive but people took them to

Japan

>> which was interesting. I didn't I didn't

realize this. We like JDM cars cuz they

right-hand drive and it's kind of fun

and like quirky that you get to drive on

the wrong side. They thought it was

pretty sick to drive on the left side.

These big baller businessmen in the '90s

when they were in their like you know

bubble era uh you know buying crazy

German cars and that was a flex for them

to be driving the Eurospec one. So I

don't know who owned it. I don't know

anything about it. modified at all?

>> Well, yeah, I I did some wheels, but it

wasn't modified in Japan.

>> No.

>> Okay.

>> Yeah, it's a slick top, too. Factory,

which you don't really see with those,

so it's it's pretty cool. Low miles. Um

>> color

>> silver. Yeah.

>> Fantastic.

>> That's a great car. It's a fun car.

>> I have not driven one of those in a

million years. They're wonderful. They

have kind of a big solid awesome feeling

to them.

>> Yeah. It's one of those cars that I I

think is just visually one of the

coolest looking cars.

>> Beautiful cars. and to I got a really

good opportunity to buy this. Uh,

actually Donut got acquired a couple

years ago and the company that acquired

us just gave us this car. No kidding.

>> And it was already imported.

>> It was already imported and our shop

manager Adam went through the process of

actually getting it California

registered and everything. So, I don't

know how we did it, but it has

California plates on it and it is a it's

a legit drivable car and we didn't have

a purpose for it. And we were like

getting pressure to sell a bunch of cars

cuz we were running out of parking lot

space cuz that is an issue in LA. So I

was like I'll buy it and so I bought it

from Donut.

>> You drive it a fair amount.

>> Not too often. Okay. No, I I don't drive

it too often. And it's one of those car

to bring to Laguna on the five on the

way up here.

>> I think that car would think about

Laguna cars like what's a good car to

drive up to car week and that would be a

fun one.

>> Well, it's pretty cool seeing what all

the you know you got groups of kids now

that are just like filming the cars

drive by. I think that's one that would

probably do well

>> next year.

>> Actually, maybe. It's one of those cars

that every time I drive it, I think

something's going to break. Like I don't

roll the rear windows down at all

because And they work, but I don't want

to find out what happens if they don't.

>> You think you'd have a high tolerance

for that if you're a guy who likes old

BMWs,

>> dude. I've changed too many window

regulators. Window regulators. Totally.

>> It is called trauma.

>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Does that

mean you've owned an E36 or No.

>> No. But I've changed plenty of those on

E36.

>> No, I Well, I've helped friends change

E36 regulators for sure. Um and then my

other one I have a 540i E39 Touring.

>> Oh, very cool. So, those are fantastic

cars.

>> Yeah. And that has been my daily for the

last 5 years.

>> Well, maybe I think I I heard you

talking about this on a podcast. I think

maybe I heard you also express fear that

something's going to break on that every

time you drive it.

>> I currently have two windows out and the

sunroof doesn't work and the rear hatch

doesn't open.

>> So, it's uh and that's like with me

changing them

>> deferred maintenance. That happened to a

lot of old BMWs, right? For that's why

so many of them were cheap for so long.

>> Well, you know what the problem is, too?

It's like all the window regulators fail

and I just keep throwing rock auto

window regulators in there thinking like

it'll be fine for a little while. It's

not worth it. And this is my message to

you, the listener. Just get the OEM

window regulator. It's worth it.

>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Fix it once. Buy once,

cry once. Uh do you have other

interests? Uh cars outside of BMWs? What

else? What else gets you excited?

>> I've always liked Porsches.

>> Okay. Were you part of the $850 BAT

Porsche purchase? Was that part of one

of your deals?

>> Oh, I am absolutely I'm absolutely a

part of that. I I'm the one who decided

to bid on that. Okay, great.

>> And uh decided that well honestly so

context $850 911

>> from Dennis Collins, our guy Dennis.

Yeah. I saw it on Bring a Trailer and

I'd been following it and I you know

it's sort of like you know that'll

probably go for like four grand cuz I've

seen 911s of that condition sell for

more than they should frankly.

>> And he did a pretty hilarious

presentation on it too which was

>> Yeah, he did a great job. He made a

really funny like driving video was on

the back of a trailer and you, you know,

you measured the paint depth and

everything and uh I don't know. I was

just following it.

>> There were 5 minutes left and it was

still kind of hovering around that $750

range. So, I'm like, you know what?

Let's do it. $850 and the clock ticked

down and I was like, I've never bid on a

car and bring a trailer before. Um, that

anxiety set in and then it said that I

won and I'm just like, okay, well, now

I've just bought this broken Porsche.

Did you have a plan for it or anything?

This was just in total impulse.

>> Yeah.

>> Um and then once I did that, I called

Nolan Sykes, our editorinchief, and was

like, "Hey man, I just bought this

Porsche. What do you think? You want to

do a video on it?" And he's like, "Yeah,

let's do it." So we went to Texas,

picked it up, and made a little video

about buying the World.

>> Hang out with Dennis a little bit.

>> Yeah. He showed me the He gave me the

tour of the compound and uh walked me

through the legacy of this car, which

has been through it. It's

>> What are you going to do with it? Can

you reveal that? Do you have a plan?

>> Yeah, I mean I so far we haven't done

anything to it and I'm a little bummed.

We just haven't had the bandwidth.

>> Um

>> we publish two

>> You guys are hustlers, man. Watching you

and your colleagues. I couldn't do it.

>> We publish two videos a week on our main

channel in addition to, you know, we've

got a couple of other uh channels that

make content and the podcast, but um

we've been doing a lot of really

buildheavy content. We have a a big road

trip series we've been planning for

that's currently shooting and literally

have not had the bandwidth to do

anything to this car because of the

extent of work it needs. So the state of

it right now we we had um

>> but our ideas

>> cruising around ideas. Here's what I

want to do aesthetically change nothing.

It's like the roof is caved in the

fender's crushed.

>> It's got BBS wheels on it, doesn't it?

>> It's got BBS wheels. Yeah. Like the

epsilon looking wheels. Yeah.

>> Yeah. I want to leave it aesthetically

like that, but I want the frame

straight. Yeah, of course.

>> And basically just bolt on a running

drivetrain and drive it around looking

exactly like that. So, I'm thinking, you

know,

>> a Porsche drivetrain or something else.

>> I think because the nature of how cheap

it is, we kind of we're treating it as

the Porsche for the people.

>> Yeah.

>> Whatever we can do, right? Like if we

stumble across a cheap Porsche

drivetrain, sure. But also, I'm thinking

like other flat sixes that might

>> totally

>> be able to plug in.

>> Uh I think I'm remembering this

correctly. Somebody put a Harley V twin

in a Porsche shell one time for Lemon's

race. There's like weird stuff is cool,

too.

>> Why? A Predator engine from Harbor

Freight. I don't know. Anything. I just

think the idea of And by the way, queen

title.

>> So, totally.

>> Dennis Collins gave us a license plate

for it cuz for whatever reason, because

he's a Texas dealer, he's able to issue

one. So, that it was technically street

legal for about 3 months.

>> CD Jeep. Yeah, those guys are legit,

man.

>> But I just love the idea of driving it

around here. I think it would probably

lemons. It would be perfect, man.

>> Yeah. or even just like, you know, down

the main drag in Monterey where all the

supercars are. I think it would break

some necks for sure.

>> It would be really fun. It would be

really fun. What are you doing? What's

the road trip content? What's that

coming up? What car are you doing that

with?

>> Um I can't reveal too much about it cuz

it's but basically um it's going to be

our flagship series for the year.

>> Okay, cool.

>> For 2025.

>> Yeah. Okay.

>> For this year. So, it's coming out uh Q3

Q4. And it's going to be a teambased

challenge. And I can't say too much more

beyond that, but it's going to be

really, really fun. All of our hosts are

involved in it, too. So, generally

speaking, our videos will be led by one

or two hosts,

>> right? It's one kind of a show theme and

a host, right?

>> Yeah. But, so what this is kind of like

the Avengers of all of them coming

together. So, it's really exciting.

Massive production. They're covering

most of the continental United States.

We're going to be driving coast to

coast. So, it's uh it's a pretty big

deal.

>> Sex.

>> The road tripping is the best.

>> Yes. Which is something we haven't done

a lot of until recently. But, yeah, it's

really fun and something we've wanted to

do for a long time.

>> You guys have done other builds, too.

What are some other highlight builds

over the years?

>> Yeah, we have a build series called Hyo

where we take two identical cars. So,

for example, the first season we did

Nissan 350Z's. One gets modified with

cheap parts and one with expensive

parts. And so, we follow the saga of

each car and we compare the parts along

the way. So, that we've got low car,

which uh you know is the car of the

people that everybody loves, versus high

car, which is built money, no object. Uh

and yeah, we compare the differences

between the parts and we find out if

more expensive is more better.

>> So what are the findings?

>> Generally speaking, that is the case,

but low is always kind of the scrappy

underdog that you want to win. And there

are definitely is always always cases

when uh you can get away with spending

less money is generally the way it

works.

>> Well, that's interesting. That's like a

public service almost that you're doing

there, right? If like where can you

>> save a little bit money and where should

you not save money, right?

>> Exactly. And so, uh, yeah, we've had

some interesting findings. And honestly,

you know, what we find is

>> probably the imaginary midcar would be

the one you'd want to do cuz you don't

need to

>> ball out, but you also don't need to go

bottom of the barrel. But it's it's

pretty fun. And we've done,

>> man, four or five seasons of high low at

this point. So, we've done the Z's, we

did trucks, we just did a Mustang S550s,

uh, we built into drag cars, which was

very cool. Uh, Subaru WRXs as well. So,

yeah, that's a really fun series. Uh,

>> is that your personal favorite? Is that

your favorite thing to work on?

>> I mean, Hy Low is very high production

value. It's very expensive and usually

we have to have a title sponsor to make

it happen

>> cuz you got to buy the expensive parts

too, right?

>> But, uh, we have another build series

that we just did called Unclapped where

our host Tristan

>> he bought the most clapped out Scion F

FRS that he could find. I'm talking like

failed widebody just like peeling paint,

that kind of thing.

>> It's basically an abandoned build. And

the premise of the show was he was going

to unclap the car and redo it, but with

intention doing it the right way. So he

took this car, he actually finally has

just finished it in the last couple

weeks and turned it in from this Derelch

FRS into it's supercharged. He painted

it himself. It's got this beautiful body

kit, but um yeah, it's beautiful now. I

mean, it's like absolutely night and day

before and after. And I really like this

series because Tristan has poured his

heart and soul into doing it. And he's a

new host, too. So, this was kind of the

opportunity for like, hey, this is

Tristan's show we're going to give him.

And he killed it, man. I mean, he's just

absolutely saved this thing.

>> And with the build, you're really kind

of showing you can pour your personality

into it, right? Like the build ends up

showing what kind of stuff you're into

almost what kind of a person you are.

>> He put a GameCube in the trunk.

>> A carbon fiber trunk, by the way. So, we

did a whole thing where we put carbon

fiber stuff on it and then immediately

screws a TV in the bottom of it so that

he can play the GameCube. It's pretty

cool. Uh, I love that car. We also built

a little rider Miata.

>> It's like a retro Pimp My Ride almost.

>> It It is honestly very Pimp My Ride.

It's the closest we've come.

>> Are people nostalgic about Pimp My Ride?

Is that a thing that's happening

already?

>> Y2K nostalgia is here and I think you're

going to see like vintage spinners

hitting the market at pretty high prices

now. Totally. And I think uh in terms of

the used car market,

>> now is the time to invest in that. Like

>> 2000s is our most popular era. Like we

have the most listings from the 2000s on

BAT and it's like where most of the heat

is right now. Yeah, it's interesting.

>> That doesn't surprise me.

>> End of analog era a little bit. It's

like last cars before screens and manual

transmissions. Not everything's

turbocharged yet.

>> I think a good indicator is that the

youth are no longer really shooting

film. They've transitioned over to like

mid2000s digital cameras and that sort

of like post Y2K tech era. And we're,

you know, like the Motorola Razors and

everything. 100%. That is starting to

become the nostalgia right now.

>> There's some phones did crazy things

back then. I lived through that, man.

I'm 42, so I remember all that.

>> Yeah. As you were there. So, I think a

lot of those like Escalade EXT dubs and

>> like the Escalade Ext. You're not

supposed to admit that out loud, but

I've always liked

>> I have a feeling you're going to see

Nissan Morono cross cab relays start

appreciating.

>> Our staff's talking about them.

>> Yeah.

>> You kind of monitor what your staff is

talking about for what's cool? What's

the average age? Are you an old man at

Donut?

>> No. Well, I'd say probably like

>> I think we're we're mostly in our 30s at

this point, but you know, and I think we

were probably in our late 20s on average

5 years ago. So, you know, I should say

we've got some younger people in the

building now, which is interesting.

Like, uh,

>> yeah, drag a 23-year-old in there. What

are they excited about?

>> Pablo, who's over there at the Yeah,

Pablo is in his early mid20s, and it's

so funny cuz his like

>> his perspective is similar, but very

different. Like the way he views an E36

is so much different than the way I

always view an E36, which is that

>> that would be like a 2002 for you or

something, right?

>> Yeah. Honestly, dude, I mean, or

something like that, like an E21, maybe.

I don't know. Some

>> E21s. The unloved 3 series. You ever

thought about messing around with one of

those? Those are cool cars. They were

undervalued for a long time.

>> There was a neighbor that I had growing

up who had one that was just parked

outside and I just always thought about

like knocking on his door and making him

an offer. They need a little help cuz

they've got the big ugly bumpers on.

>> Yeah, you put the Euros on there and I

think you just do an M20 swap and you've

got yourself a very nice sleeper car

that

>> people of them. They're another one of

those cars that got cuz of UE E30 guys,

they got all the Ricaro seats and

gearboxes ripped out of them for many

years, right? So that everyone could

swap them into O2s and into other stuff.

>> The E30 community ruined a lot of very

good cars.

>> Yeah, all the Vaders and S52. I have an

S52 in a lot of E36. Oh, do you really?

Oh, that's sick. That's That's a really

good swap. I think

>> it's I had never driven a swapped E30.

>> I'm not a huge fan of four-cylinders and

E30s, so I actually think that's the

right move.

>> Yeah, I I had only ever driven my E30

with the M20 and then I got uh our old

host James basically gave me his engine

because he got a new one that we did a

video on and

>> an S52.

>> S52. Yeah. So, he upgraded from an S52

to an S54. I got the hand-me-down S52

and uh it was my first time driving a

swap D30. I'm like I hope I like it.

>> Yeah, I liked it.

>> Pro. Yeah, for sure. Awesome. What else

should people know about Donut? You want

to talk about other series? What other

things should our community know about

what you guys are doing?

>> That's such a good question. I like your

roof sweater, by the way. It's amazing.

>> It's legit and authentic and period. Our

listeners can't see that, but I'm

wearing green roof. Green roof sweater.

Yeah, I saw this. This was a I think

High Snob did a collab with them and I

saw it and I liked it. And you know

what's funny about this sweater? I was

wearing it once in public and a woman

came up to me and she said that she

thought this sweater complimented my

complexion very well and it was one of

the first times I've just been

approached by a random stranger. Uh

>> that's great. Well, you are a handsome

man and that sweater does look good on

you. So that's great. Little yellow bird

on there. I love it.

>> Yeah, it's got a little little yellow

bird guy on there, too. So um yeah, I

mean as far as donut goes, I mean you

guys have a tremendous number of YouTube

subscribers. Incredibly jealous. So,

we're over 9 million subscribers now.

And uh it's been a really interesting

year for us. You know, we've had we've

had

>> talk about where you stand. Talk about

your community a little bit, right?

>> That's one of the things BAT and don't

have in common is we got to think about

this audience of all these people that

are looking at what we're doing.

>> So, we had a little bit of an audience

departure a year ago because some of our

hosts left. You know, James, for

example, Zack, Job, and Jeremiah, they

were some of our main hosts and they

left to

>> They go way back. I met them at one of

the very first Radwoods many, many years

ago.

>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So they left to start

their own channels, which you know, I'm

super stoked for them and we're still

friends, but um you know, a lot of

people were kind of like, you know what,

I want to go watch them instead. So this

last year has been us introducing new

hosts to the channel and kind of

figuring out something new, and I'm

really excited about the stuff we've

been making. I was

>> say, has that been exciting journey for

you?

>> Extremely. Yeah, we've got this uh

Jimmy, who actually worked at Donut for

longer than I have, but he's new on

camera now. Uh he went to Japan earlier

in the year, and he did a ride along

with these um street racing civic

drivers on the Osaka Loop. Wow. And he

just did this whole deep dive into this

crazy subculture in Japan. And it's been

our most successful video in the last

like I want to say two or three years.

It's just uh it's really really struck a

nerve with people.

The utes they're interested in Japan.

>> Yeah. I mean, it's cool. Japan

colleagues are always trying to get over

Japan. They love JDM cars and

>> Yeah. We we did a build series on a

Civic also a while ago. It was a $500

Civic and the premise was we would put

expensive parts on it. And at the end

>> what era Civic?

>> Uh EG EG hatch. And we would put uh

expensive stuff on it like spoon brakes

and like uh we did a K2A swap and ITBs

and you know full interior.

>> Please tell me you didn't end up hitting

that car.

>> No, I love that car. That's one of I

think that's the best car we've ever

built. Like straight up function.

>> The Civic Type R is the original ones

that just became legal here. That's like

a dream car for me.

>> Yeah. No, it wasn't the uh I think like

the what the EK9 or Civic Type R. The

idea was, can we make a better car than

the new Civic Type R by spending the

same amount of money and putting it into

an old car? And our findings were, it's

really hard to make a good car, and the

new cars are very, very good. But our

Civic is sick.

>> As much as I love the old Civics, my dad

had the, you know, classic SI EM1 coupe,

right, that they sold, and I we put

400,000 miles on that car, and I loved

it. Uh, but I have a relatively new

Civic SI as my daily driver. And the old

cars, they're delightful, but they are

kind of tin cans. The new ones are just

really nice cars.

>> I picked my mom uh up from the airport

in this EG before we modified it. So, it

was still a $500 Civic at the time of

stock.

>> It had 400,000 miles, faded paint, and

the reason I was driving it was because

I don't think I had a functional car at

the time, and I'm like, I just borrowed

it from my parking lot,

>> picked her up, and drove her across

town. And it was uh it was pretty

embarrassing, but

>> but I had 400,000 miles on it. They're

tanks, man. They're great cars.

>> That car turned me into a Civic

>> liker.

>> I'd call myself a Civic liker. I don't

want to call myself a Honda boy or

anything like that, but I really gain an

appreciation for those cars and I

understand why they got the reputation

they did. They are sick and they're like

Legos, too.

>> Yeah. You put all the little parts into

them and they're

>> those motors are super fun. Have a lot

of character. So, that's awesome. Uh

what else? What other shows you got?

Anything you want to tease? Anything

coming up that's exciting? When is this

podcast coming out?

>> Uh, next couple weeks.

>> Okay. I think by the time this podcast

comes out, we will have another big show

currently airing, which is one of our

hosts, Justin, travel across the entire

continental United States on back roads.

>> Oh, sick. No interstate. Is that the

idea? It's all is as much off-road as

possible.

>> Oh, off-road.

>> Offroad. Off-road. Back roads

>> in a truck or a modified car?

>> A Subaru SVX.

>> Oh, I love SVXs. He has owned this car

for god knows how long. And um

>> still have an automatic transmission in

it or did you swap?

>> No, it's swapped. Yeah, it's a swapped

car.

>> And he put a lift kit on it. Basically

turned into a safari car.

>> Oh, safari.

>> Safari with metal bumpers, lift kit, big

tires, snorkel, and yeah, it's a

four-part series which uh

>> coast to coast.

>> Coast to coast, east to west, starting

in North Carolina and ending up in uh

>> How was the car? Was it pretty reliable?

>> Uh I mean, Justin has a reputation for

breaking things. And it was not a drama.

>> Had a couple issues with it.

>> Really what it came down to was uh the

car was reliable, but the aftermarket

stuff like the suspension for example,

we broke one of the coilovers and had to

have another one sent in. I think there

were probably some axles that

drive sha. Yeah. A lot of roadside

fixes. So ep absolutely epic journey. Uh

and we we're releasing all four episodes

in the span of one week, which isn't

something we typically do, but we really

think it's like we're going to make an

event out of it. And if that's out by

the time you're listening to this, I

would highly recommend.

>> I'm definitely going to check it out

when it comes out. I'm excited. I love

stuff like that. I think a lot of

YouTube viewers, myself included, I love

Roadkill. I like, you know, people want

to see you guys suffer a little bit,

right?

>> Unfortunately. Yeah. Yeah, the more

miserable our guys are, the the more uh

>> people enjoy the content. But um

something also kind of related to to

watching Roadkill and everything is um

TV viewership is really high right now

for YouTube and we've been making

content with the idea of people watching

it on TV. So it's it's not so much like

the you know like Mr. Beasty type

content you'd watch on your phone or

anything like that. This is basically

>> a television series or a movie even of

of this. you could sit down and spend

two hours watching this whole thing, you

know, over the course of a couple days

all in one staff will be doing so and

we'll be enjoying it. That's rad.

>> It's a really cool series. So, yeah, I

definitely recommend that.

>> Awesome. Well, what else, man? What are

you going to do this week? What do you

want to see?

>> Big week. Yeah. So, um

>> I know you guys are busy as hell.

>> We had the Corvette thing today, which

was very fun. Also a crazy car. I mean,

that ZR1, you know, we're talking about

a 1000 horsepower and a car that cost

>> is rear wheel drive only. Yeah,

>> that's got to is that that's got to be

the highest horsepower for a rear wheel

drive car, street car only, right?

>> Until you get into like

>> cuz most horsepower things are like

four-wheel drive or they're hybrid with

a electric motor on the front.

>> I think I think when you're in hypercar

territory, there might be a couple of

other ones that might eclipse it, but

for the price range and I think these

things retail like just shy of 200 or

something,

>> which is a slamming deal when you think

about it for

>> it's incredible. It shouldn't be that

easy to drive it. And I think what

scares me about a car like that is in

order for it to feel dangerous.

>> You're going like 115 or something. I

mean, it's like

>> I think about that all the time. Even my

freaking Civic, I'm like, I can't

believe they just like send people out

with modern cars. I I grew up driving

really old cars. So, for me, anything

modern that's kind of

performanceoriented is pretty freaking

fast.

>> Uh especially if you get them out on a

back road. And it's amazing that you

don't need any special training or

anything. They'll just toss you the

keys.

>> Same driver's license where you can

drive that 400 thousand mile Civic is a

>> Yep.

>> jump into the jump into the brand new

crazy Corvette.

>> I mean,

>> God bless us. But

>> I know. Yes. Real freedom. I love it.

>> Um, other than that, you know, I am

going to do uh there's a Cadillac reveal

that we're going to tomorrow and just

trying to bop around the quail and soak

it all in.

>> Absolutely. Try to go downtown Carmel if

you can. Just watch the crazy guys with

supercars buffing around themselves.

A lot of the stuff here I find that's

fun is the free stuff where you just

watch people just kind of Oh my god,

that's a crazy car that's going by. So

anyway, I hope you have a little time to

soak it up.

>> Yeah, we're going to definitely have

enough leisure time, I think, to enjoy

the scene. What about you? We got

anything big going on?

>> We're going to go over to the Overcrest

thing tonight, which is uh there are

buddies that are doing a little thing up

in Carmel Valley at a winery. We were

talking about wineries, I think, before

we started recording. Everything's at a

winery here.

>> My colleagues are racing here. I just

told you our CEO Randy is racing a

Mustang. another colleague Howard's

racing a Porsche car. So try to do that.

Usually we have an event here. We've

done one gosh for the last six or seven

years in a row. I would love to have you

guys at one if we do it again here at

Laguna and we bring a bunch of what we

call BAT alumni car. People who bought

cars on the site. We invite them out.

They get trackside parking, free tickets

to the race and we come out, we feed

them.

>> Cool.

>> If you ever gone to race tracks, it's

always hard to find shade, water and

seats. So we try to provide that for

people who bought cars on the site.

>> Yeah. Cool.

>> Bring them out here and hang out. you

don't have that this year. So that means

I actually get to bop around a little

bit and go see some stuff. So

>> enjoy the freedom.

>> Enjoy the freedom. Couple colleagues up.

We're gonna record a couple other pods

and yeah, just enjoy it. Soak it in.

>> That's awesome, dude. Hell yeah.

>> Well, I'm I'm excited to be here and I'm

going be back next year, too. Oh, also,

this is totally unrelated. So, I bought

a new daily driver recently. The wagon

is kind of probably going to get phased

out of my fleet cuz I just bought a

Cayenne diesel which uh is something to

look out for for me uh if you see me on

the road cuz I'll be driving that.

>> Dang, that's cool. What do you think? I

God, I haven't driven a Cayenne forever.

I've been ripping around Macons a little

bit and I love them. But what do you

think about it?

>> Uh well, I bought it for a very good

price.

>> A V6 turbo diesel. Is that what it is?

>> TDI. It's a dieselgate TDI. Okay.

>> And this is a 2013, so it's a second gen

Cayenne, a 958.1.

And I bought it very cheaply because it

does not run. So, I wish I could tell

you how I like it, but the high pressure

>> is that content. Is everything content?

>> No, this one's for This one's for me.

>> But yeah, I need to basically

>> clean and replace the entire fuel system

cuz fuel pressure or the uh I guess the

high pressure fuel pump exploded, which

is a common issue with these. And a

dealer will charge you $25,000 to fix

it. And I think I can do it for 1,500

bucks with the Rock Auto Parts.

>> These have ura injection. Do you have to

have that on these or these run cleaning

up without that?

>> For Sorry, what is that? Uh some of the

late diesels you had to inject a

chemical into the exhaust to keep them

clean.

>> Oh, you're going to do the deaf?

>> Yeah. Are you going to be able to get

this to pass California?

>> Yeah. This one's going to be pretty

stock I think for now and we'll see. You

know, I know there's tunes and

everything, but I'm a little nervous

about messing with it at this point. I'm

not trying to roll coal on anybody, but

I just I've always liked uh Porsche SUVs

in general, and I want a comfy daily

that I can just uh you know,

>> this is going to be a street car, or you

going to do a little off-roading with

it, too?

>> I'm going to do a little lift. I'm going

to do some tires and

>> a lightly modified camping on the roof

like

>> I might turn into that guy. I you know

there's a very high

>> there's a slippery slope I think a

little bit back

>> very high possibility pretty soon you're

going to be a death valley living on the

roof of your Porsche.

>> Absolutely. And my girlfriend has a

lifted Forester that we did a whole

build on and we did like put wheels and

tires and overlanded it out. So yeah,

we'll probably be hitting uh Alabama

Hills pretty soon with that. So

>> love it down there. I grew up in SoCal.

I miss it down there, man. Awesome. Any

parting shots?

>> Parting shots? Um no. Check out Donut.

Follow me on Instagram.

>> What's that?

>> Maxmatics.

>> Great.

>> Um,

>> we can link to all that too in our post.

>> Cool. That's That's all I got.

>> Awesome, dude. Thank you so much for

doing this. I know it was a little bit

of a struggle to get over here. So,

>> no worries, man. Everything's a struggle

in uh around here, but it could be

worse. There are worse places to be

stuck in traffic, so thanks, dude. Of

>> course, man.

>> And thanks everyone for listening, and

we will catch you next time.

[Music]

Max Maddox, Head of Creative at Donut Media

About this episode

Chevrolet Corvette

Cadillac Escalade

Cadillac Lyric

Audi S8

Honda S2000

Acura Integra

Ford Mustang

Porsche 911

Porsche 356

Ferrari F50

BMW E30

BMW 540I

Nissan 350Zs

Subaru WRX

Scion Frs

Mazda MX-5 / Miata

Honda Civic

Subaru Svx

Porsche Cayenne

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