RJ De Vera - EP.112 | Car Curious

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. Yeah, yeah, and we're back yet again and we're pumped like we got a guest today

That is an OG and by a triple OG. Yeah, and this is somebody that I followed along with especially

you know back in the early 2000s mid 2000s and he just so happened to star in one of the movies that helped shape the cultureYeah, and the man I'm talking about is no one other than RJ DeVera big nameThat's how I'm feeling right now because this man has kind of seen a lot of the scene before it was even the sceneRight and not just in LA or California, but in Tokyo and then of course helping choose parts and cars for the fast and the

Furious the whole thing right so I don't even want to talk about anymore. Let's just get into episode 112

Dude, let's get it. This is RJ DeVera. Let's go. Nope. All right, and we're back with RJ DeVera. What's up RJ?

How's it going guys?

It's pretty good man. We appreciate you being with us. I know you're it looks like you're over there and what's sunny California.

It is sunny California, but I just come back from Indianapolis so we just came back from our PRI showWhich is also a part of where I work at SEMA and it was cold in Indy. I think so in the 20s and it's like the phone said feels like two.

It's been a busy Q4 with both the SEMA show and the PRI show so I'm happy to be home. Yeah, I was always kind of surprised how they did those so close together, but I mean I guess it makes sense like knock it out in this, you know, about the same month almost.

A little bit you know, there were you know, PRI wasn't owned by SEMA up until I think 15 years, 10, 15 years ago and there were separate events, but PRI specifically, that's the off season for racing right.

So you really have to kind of get it in in this December January before people go racing again or else it's really difficult to congregate the racing industry.

And in SEMA show, I'm still trying to dig in to why it's it's always that first, you know, kind of last week of October, first week of November.

I mean, it was our 57th year. I think it was only not in Vegas the first couple when it was in in Southern California.

So I'm not really sure what the history is on why it's always been that that late. You know, this was my 27th SEMA show in a row.

So I've been going since the mid 90s and it's always been in November. So yeah, I still trying to figure out why that is.

I know I PRI is in December, but I don't know why SEMA shows in early November.

So maybe some of the listeners are like, who is this guy? What do you mean you're involved in SEMA? So, you know, obviously we know who you are.

We've been following you for dang almost 20 something years. So, but can you just give the listeners a real quick background like who is RJ DeVera?

Yeah, I mean, this might take the whole the whole hour really together. But you know, at the end of the day, I'm a true blue car enthusiast, my whole career, you know, close to 30 years or maybe 30 plus years, have all been automotive.

And I started my career really with the love of JDM imports. It wasn't even called JDM back then, you know, in the early 90s, but it was just, you know, Japanese tuner cars.

So kind of, you know, made my way selling parts out of my mom's garage to help fund this passion that we all have to modify our cars, which led to a job at Super Street Magazine.

So I worked at Super Street Magazine, kind of at the launch of it and then, you know, being kind of one of their their guys on the street, which, which led me to an editorial job that helped me pay my way through college.

So did that for about six years. I was also helping with a lot of import car shows in Southern California and helping some, you know, Japanese companies come to the US through, you know, because I was exposing them and shooting them in the magazine to feature them in Super Street.

So ended up, you know, consulting for about 10 years right after college. It's a little movie called The Fast and the Furious came out right around 01.

And I was actually on the initial team that helped, you know, kind of launched out franchise as a consultant to the film to help choose the cars and the parts for the cars.

And then he on the game, he a couple of lines, little two seconds of fame there, which we still leverage till this day, actually, you know, 20, whatever, 23 years later.

So that really, you know, helped the career of consulting, kind of jump off, had an MTV show, a couple of seasons called Trick It Out.

I did a lot of things in automotive, you know, built a lot of cars. If anyone that knows me, knows kind of done my bit, you know, being a glorified stylist is what I'll call it.

Because I didn't really build engines like staff for anyone like that. I just kind of accessorized cars was a project manager at the end of the day, but got my hands dirty enough, but nothing crazy.

Like some of the best in the world, but met quite a few of them, but did a lot of consulting on that from building cars and then helping people market their brands to the, this, like, this tuner space that was kind of the hot thing in the 2000s, you know, until 2010.

So the whole, let's call it the Fast and Furious movement, even those more than that.

Had my own wheel line even, you know, helped launch a couple of wheel lines, but had one of my own that lasted for about seven years and accommodated with race engineering, making the Roja Motorsports wheels for the last couple years, which is a real, like real honor for me right at the end of the day, you know, to have one of the brands that I love growing up, you know, kind of have a make a wheel that had my name on it.

Man, I have like burned in my brain, sorry to interrupt, but like burned in my brain, man, I have the ad for the Roja wheels with you standing, you're like standing in the center of the page and the wheels are all around it and that's like burned in my brain, man, for sure.

I can see myself too.

If I remember correctly, that particular had probably had the Pepsi Evo, which we built a number of Lancer Evo's right when they got to the US, and we gave them away actually.

And so I got to use those as vehicles to launch new wheels, but at the same time, you know, do some work with with a with a brand like Pepsi, which I couldn't believe at the time still can't believe sometimes now, but I'd work with them for a good five years, you know.

So yeah, it was really, it was a really great time for me. A lot of fun. Well worked on a quite a few projects, you know, with different brands. And then that led to the recession, and then beginning a corporate job.

And I worked from a Guires car care for about 12 years, which is owned by 3M. So did the whole, you know, working on a publicly traded company for a good, you know, a good decade plus.

So kind of really cut my teeth and learn a lot there. And then now I'm at SEMA as we talked about in the beginning, which is a membership based association.

Most well known for the SEMA show and the PR I show, which of course are kind of mechas for the industry if you're in it, you know, in the industry to go to as automotive events.

So been here two and a half going on three years in March. So it's been a journey for me as a as a automotive, a professional in the automotive aftermarket space.

But yeah, I've definitely put my time in. I think I got a lot more to learn, but definitely have seen a lot of things, you know, through this three decades.

Yeah, I would say like you said, I mean, we could we could probably be here for a whole nother hour, just really elaborating on those 30 years. But what's your current position at SEMA?

So I'm actually the VP of marketing for the association. Wow. And so my team, the marketing team here is more of an internal agency for all the different business units beyond the SEMA show.

And the PR I show, which a lot of people only know SEMA from the SEMA show in Vegas. Right. So they all everyone thought I was moving to Vegas when I took this job.

But we do a lot of things. You know, we do a lot of product development work for a lot of manufacturers to help, you know, everything from 3D scanning to 3D printing to measuring sessions of vehicles that are coming out to probably the biggest is our emissions compliance and testing that we do for lots of performance companies and helping companies get.

49 state legal or card compliant. That's a big part of the association. We also help manufacturers standardize their data so it can be sold online.

So it's a little bit more product distribution. And then we've really gone into government advocacy, which we can talk about and really, you know, doing things within both, you know, city, state and federal to really protect this love and this industry that we're in. Right.

As you guys know, there's a lot of EV mandates that are coming down. So we're really advocating for a technology neutral future, which is going to be really important, you know, for our industry.

So we're doing a lot of that government work kind of behind the scenes. So my team kind of helps all of those business units kind of be successful in whatever they're trying to do. So it's a different had every day. It's quite fun.

That actually sounds pretty interesting and who would have known that there are guys behind the scenes just trying to create a balance, you know, between the EV and the ice vehicles and how not to shut guys like us out just because we don't plug in our cars, you know, like who would have known.

Yeah, and we're such a big at the end of the day are economic impact as the industry is huge. We did a study, I believe the results came out last year where it's like 330 billion plus in terms of economic impact to the US that the automotive aftermarket industry kind of contributes to the US economy.

And it's I think we touched like one point over a million jobs, like one point two million jobs. And then in terms of just tax revenue to the federal government and the individual states, it's an enormous amount.

Like 10 billion or something like that. So yeah, you know, as you guys know, our industry is mainly like small businesses, right. And so like thousands and thousands of small businesses.

And so there's big ones like Keystone and distributors and summit and Jags, but overall it's it's small companies that are making stuff or distributing stuff or installing stuff. So I think to your point, you know, this passion runs through a lot of people and it affects a lot of people, right, not just in the US but globally.

So yeah, it's been really fun to kind of join, you know, kind of this side of the work versus, you know, marketing to sell a product off a shelf, right, very different.

So okay, so before we get into all this serious stuff, you know, I think a lot of our listeners, right, just like me, just like him, they're nostalgic, right, like the good old days. And I know, and I knew even before we were going to entertain this that you've got some stories from back in the day that would make some guy smile, I guarantee it.

Let's shout a little bit about that, whether it's, you know, California, Japan, like whatever you got, tell me some of your favorite stories.

Some of the faves.

I think one of the first ones would be Super Street Magazine. And we talked about that a little earlier.

I remember meeting the guys that were creating it and as a person that was modifying Japanese cars in the early 90s buying option magazine from the local Japanese market and trying to like learn, you know, the Katakana and the Hedagana to like, you know, how do I, because I had an integrity.

So it's like, is that saying, integrity? It's like, oh, integrity. Okay.

Cool. You know, and then having a magazine in the US kind of launch and dedicate, you know, and focus on the type of tuning that a bunch of us young kids were doing on the streets of LA that wasn't really getting noticed, you know, Turbo mag would feature a turbo Honda here and there because of the imports.

And then sport compact car time was really featuring more like Euro low riders now. So if you had like a modified Japanese import in the way we do it today, the only place you could really go to was, you know, the street races, you know, battle the imports and then no one really covered it.

So when super chic kind of got announced, or I found out about it, I was like super excited, right? And a guy from my team at the time, a high school car crew, because who wasn't in a car crew back then was going to what's the cover car, which was a yellow DA,

the accurate, integrated GSR that we put on Jack stands, you know, that was photoshopped out because it was the launch issue. And so I was on that photo shoot. And I didn't realize like the journey that we were going to be on, you know, I was just excited that the magazine was going to feature an integral,

and the racing heart type C's would want these headlights on the cover because no one was really featuring that stuff, right? So that's definitely a big memory. And of course, I became a huge contributor to that magazine, you know, and so many people through the industry that become a lot of the who's who Johnny Wong Sam do, you know, John, a dairy all come from Super Street, right? It's like the University of Peterson as we like to call it because a ton of us work there.

That was a big one. I think another one was the very first import car show, not a lot of people know this, but the first one in the US was done in Southern California in March of '95 was called Import Show Off by Diane Ken Miyoshi.

You know, Ken doesn't really, I don't think he's in the industry anymore, and he doesn't really talk about show off as much, but that was really, you know, a pivotal point where you could go to a car show and not be a Euro low rider car to win, right?

And so that was such a big deal again for this small movement in California to have a car show that we could go to to celebrate cars that were, you know, styled and tuned in that way, right?

People had racing hard or SSR or move and like all this stuff that we love now or some people love now.

That had to start from somewhere in terms of people gathering together outside of just house parties and the street races and really battle the imports, which is really probably the very first official import car thing in the US, which started in '91, which was just a drag race, you know, in the middle of the desert Palmdale, which LACR, which doesn't exist anymore, just drag strips.

So I remember being, I ended up being on the cover of the program, which was this like black and white, you know, kind of small program I had in Tegra, that move again, kid and presidios at the time, and that's when I was selling parts out of my mom's house.

So I decided to buy a booth at this, you know, import car show and I borrowed a display case from a local tuning shop, because I didn't have one.

And so I remember being at that event and just being like, wow, this is like I can't believe this is happening, you know, like this is real.

That's another, like this is real, like we're an actual movement, right?

We're not just a bunch of kids, because I was kind of making a living lowering people's cars at house parties at the time, you know.

And just people's garages, you know, I was kind of like, you want one figure, you want two fingers, you want to talk to like how, you know, how low do you want it?

And there were a lot of springs at the time, so I knew like how much to cut from the spring to get it to that.

But that's what I did, but you know, there wasn't, again, it wasn't a place to really gather to like show off our cars.

There was something called Nisei Cruz, which was in the Japanese town of LA, but that kind of got shut down quite a while before that first import car show.

And then from there, it just took off.

That's another one. It's crazy because people, a lot of people like, you know, California was creating this like you said as early as the 90s, the late 80s.

And a lot of people didn't even realize it until obviously the movie that you're talking about fast and furious came out and really highlighted what was going on in a way.

And then all of a sudden it's like, oh wow, this is going on and you know, all the California guys on the forums are like, yo, this is bang going on for like.

Yeah, yeah, no for sure because the movement, and I would say even across the country's, you know, super street really united the movement in my opinion.

Because it was going on in different pockets for sure really stemmed in Southern California. And there's there's guys that I looked up to that were street racing and you know kind of having their import cars be, you know, American muscle stuff right.

So so that kind of been kind of the foundation of it, but as super she came up and has these import car shows started to pop up all around the country.

So that's what to be a connecting thread right so that that became super street magazine. And because that blew up so much sport compact car evolved to feature more, you know, sport compact cars that were kind of tune into Japanese aesthetic and even turbo magazine started to put even more.

Performance oriented cars that were not mustangs or Camaros, but were civics and MR2s and supras and or sevens right so.

So yeah, it was definitely there's like this nucleus that list got a lot bigger.

You know, going to Japan for the first time in 97, I believe, yeah, because super street came out October 96, I yelled at them kicking and screaming and said, you got to go to Tokyo auto salon because this is the mecca.

And they didn't have budget so I ended up going I said well, I'm going to go and the editor was like, well, let me give you some film so you can shoot it.

And I was an engineering student and I remember telling the guy Matt Pearson, who is the editor and I told him like, look, I'm an engineering student.

I don't know how to take pictures like it's okay if it sucks, we won't use it.

So I took a friend's pocket like I and I shot the show and I came back. We developed it and it was decent enough. He's like, hey, can you write an article? I'm like, man, and many engineering students are not a writer.

That's what we have.

You know, it doesn't have copy editors for like, all right, I never worked so hard like on any paper article as I did for that was like 500 words.

I think I had two weeks. I had the deadline. I worked on it like every hour of every day of those two weeks. The article came out.

And I just remember, you know, having a byline in the magazine and what that felt like. And me showing the, you know, the US what like Tokyo auto salon was.

Which then led to a lot of trips to Japan and then me featuring a lot of those two years and helping them come to the US. So that's crazy.

So that's some of the exposed Tokyo auto salon for the most part.

Not just, yeah, not just myself. I mean, on that same trip, some people I found out I was going and we're like, hey, we've never gone. Can we go with you?

So one of the guys that came with me was Sean Carlson. Unfortunately, he's passed, but he he was an editor at Turbo magazine.

So, you know, turbo had done something on it through Sean, but we were together on that trip because I had convinced my friends older brother, who was Japanese and who was helping this company called night sports, who was doing our excitement stuff to kind of be our guide.

And he was the older brother of the guy that did import shop in a small world, right? But they had heard like, oh, I just go into Japan with a bunch of people with some guy that knows a couple people and are like, dude, I don't know any Japanese.

Can I go? I'm like, we neither. Let's go.

So, yeah, I wouldn't say it was just me, definitely. It's definitely a number of people that, you know, we're interested in it because we're just fanatical about, you know, JDM cars before the term JDM was even really coined, right?

Because I was a few years later, you know.

But yeah, I was really, really just surreal to be in Tokyo, you know, flipping through these option magazines. I'm sure you guys kind of did the same thing.

And like, oh, my God, that's the minds are 33, you know, and seeing that in person or whatever the HKS, Concy car, whatever, you know, it was the thing.

But that was a huge memory of like going to Japan and then like seeing some of these legends that I'd built up in my head through the option max and actually, and then meeting them in person and then like asking them why they do what they do and then helping some of them come over.

And then I think that I would be one of the main ones that I helped come over to the US.

So those are some of the big ones. Of course, the movie is a big one, you know, getting involved in the film. I thought it was going to go straight to DVD. I didn't even think it was a serious deal when they got presented to me or got talked about.

And then from there, the MTV shows are pretty surreal as well.

So I don't want to keep talking forever, but those are the main memories I would say hold on. I because I think I remember I heard something about when you were in Japan, like almost getting in a crazy car wreck in a 34 or something like that.

Yeah, I have quite a bit of Japanese stories like, you know, being in Japan and being out late at night, things from like Bagoku Park, which is famous now and going to that.

And then I was hanging out with the San Biaku Club, which is the 300 mile an hour club that like do a lot of what they call long gone racing, which is freeway kind of, you know, where they they run around in these little routes.

But so the one you're talking about is I'm an Osaka. I'm there with my co-workers at Super Street. We we befriend the tuner. I'm not going to mention which one.

I'm just going to put them in a in a bad light, but he wanted to impress us. So he grabbed a couple of his, you know, tuned cars out and through a bunch of us in different ones to go on these bonsai runs on the on the highways of Osaka.

So we were in a 34. We had it packed four people. And this tuning guy had this thing of like you have to trust me.

And what that meant was you don't you don't rock seat belts. He was like no seat belt. And we're like, what is he serious and he's like no seat belt.

And then we're like, yeah, so it was spayed to us later that was supposed to be a trusting right because this guy's like tuning legend in Osaka.

So you know, our 34 multiple tunes. So he puts it on the high team, which I think was like 800 horsepower. So now we're like we're bombing to we're going to dinner of all things, but we're bombing like crazy on the on the highways of Osaka.

And we get to this kind of I think it was a bridge or a transition and there's traffic up ahead. But we're we're like he's like foot to the floor and he sees it and he starts to break this car full outcome breaks.

But you can tell like the rate of speed is like it's not a comfortable rate of diesel. It's like and and homey starts yelling like too much weight, but I couldn't understand it.

Too much weight too much weight. And so I'm in the back behind this carbon Kevlar grid seat going like I think we're going to hit those cars in front of us. And I'm just going to like I'm going to die because I'm going to like into this carbon Kevlar seat right.

The chief editor of sea racetrack is of the front passenger said the time and then I'm translators to my last and he lets off the break at the very last minute and kind of like bumps like turns into one of the cars.

So it's so he doesn't rear end someone and he kind of just ricochets off this car. And then he keeps going.

And he gets on the stuff. And we you know because he has staff following so he calls his staff and he's like hey make sure you go talk to the people that I bumped off and you know because in Japan if you get in the accident, you kind of make this piece off.

You know you go.

So so he does this thing and so it's you know in my head I'm like oh my god I almost died.

Sounds like some of the stuff for sure. They do it.

He was super embarrassed for sure. But the car was fine. It wasn't too bad. But there was a moment of like oh we're going to re-end that car.

I'm going to like fly. I'm not even going to hit the windshield because it was a full carbon Kevlar seat with the little bars.

You know like the Valley stuff one.

I was like oh yeah this is not going to end well but he saved the day you know so.

Hang that's wild and this was what you said 90 something.

This was probably 99.

98.99 my guess we were in a 34.

So yeah.

Brand new car.

Yeah.

Yeah that's crazy.

I thought it was a 34 or a purple 34 but yeah that's that that was one of the stories from Japan for sure.

You know that was really memorable but really memorable.

I can only imagine I mean at the point of almost crashing and you're like alright so when does that flight take off?

Like when it might be out of here anyways.

So dude I got to ask about the HKS drift car.

I got to know about that thing.

Yeah.

What was up with that?

So you know drifting kind of I forget where the first event where I love because I'm just such a fan I love attending these like first events right so.

I think I just did a drift demo in Irwin Dale.

Before D1 came for the inaugural event and I think it was Falcon Tied or arranged it but then there was an invetational event.

I think it was for the US people to so they could actually compete in the D1 event that was going to be here.

So one of the guys that became a finalist in that pre-lim was Reese Millen and the other was this guy named Daiyoshi Hara.

So I'm sure people are familiar with Dai maybe not Reese because he stopped drifting quite a long time ago but if you're more sports band you definitely know the Millen.

Anyways, yeah Dai and Reese were the two finalists and they did like seven one more times Reese won but because Dai was the runner up he was allowed to come compete in the D1 event the very initial one I think was 2003.

So Dai does really pretty well.

He ends up driving one of my best friends cars.

He had something called I love racing was like a clothing t-shirt line. They also had the I love drifting too right.

Yeah correct.

Yeah because it started up as I love racing and then when he went drifting as a team it became I love drifting.

So he drove a Jerry's S13 that was his high school car that got converted into a comp car.

For about a year or two and then I was somehow got introduced to the rock star energy drink guys who wanted to get involved.

So I brought them on as a sponsor to that team and became a partner to that team.

Oh wow.

And so as we got that sponsorship we also had Nidalee Tyre sponsor we had a good budget.

So we're like okay we got to put Dai in a more competitive car.

If he's going to compete against Sam and Reese who were dominating at the time.

Sam had the Viper Reese had I think a Pontiac GTO or something like that.

Oh who been that Sam who been at right.

Yeah Sam who been at a res millen so we're like if Dai is going to compete for a championship because we thought he was good enough.

Like we got to get him something more competitive than this S13 right.

So we started to look around and I had some friends and they were like hey.

Tana Gucci's car not one D1 championship RS1 S15 is up for sale because he's driving RS2 right in Japan.

And I'm like well where is RS1 they're like well it's in Europe and they're not using it for anything.

They're really the selling and I was like oh damn.

So I told Jerry and Dai and they were like dude can we make this happen.

I'm like I think we have enough sponsorship money to make this happen.

So we were working through HKS USA at the time.

We're like hey we want to buy the car but we also need support because this is a pretty intricate car.

Like a Hollinger dog gearbox you know it was a stroked SR.

I mean it was a D1 championship car right.

So we bought the car and we put it into Europe as cars.

Yeah and then we put it together and Dai almost won the championship that year.

He came in runner up in that car.

I think he won like out of like two seasons he won like four out of eight events or something in that car.

That's cool it stinks he couldn't quite get there but like yeah.

He ended up winning in in '09 with Falcon in a Nest 13 oddly enough it was LS powered at that time.

But that's still my favorite car because it had the full Vertex kit on it.

And it was just badass.

Yeah dude Nest 15 with a Vertex kit you can't you can't beat it.

So you think that car is still around?

It is I know so I just saw it like two months ago.

I did an event for hype drive hype beast this like cars and kicks event.

And they had it at a facility called the Mortaring Club in LA where people store cars and it's a coffee shop.

Well I walk in and I'm like is this the Falcon S15 to like yeah I'm like what is it doing here?

He's like yes I'm a story in here.

And the one thing even though it's the car has been kind of unfortunately like bastardized because it's it's it's got it doesn't it has an L-ass and all these things are are different about it.

But the plate because you know ton of Gucci has signed this meter plate that we kept and it's still in it.

It's like a carbon fiber plate that has the HKS logo and ton of Gucci's signature.

And I'm like yep this is still the car you know it's really been painted like three times.

Yeah that must have been kind of one of those like full circle memory lane type things this this long afterwards.

For sure I mean I think I have a couple of friends that would love to buy it and restore it to its original form which is if anyone looks up HKS you know S15 RS1 you'll see this red car with the turbo that looks like an animal like a beetle or something.

And with the odd one the three spoke odd months super odd months.

I know where the wheels went. Yeah I know where the wheels went because Mickey bought the wheels from throttle Mickey from throttle by those wheels.

And I think he still has quite a few sets but the cars just sitting I don't know who owns it but yeah it'd be cool to buy it and kind of rest them on it into its original state.

Yeah because I think Mickey was on that Falcon team that the car went to right. Yeah correct.

That's right that's died over Falcon as well so that's how the car ended up there because Jerry and I were like what are we going to do with this car we have nothing to do like so we just sold it.

And I'm like oh well guys driving first we'll keep it as an additional I think Calvin Wayne drove that car for a little bit but.

And then it just kind of it shapes through the hand became a demo car.

So obviously you've been yeah you've been in the game you know we figured this out by now you have the game right.

So you saw the game at the inception in a sense and now you know 30 whatever years later you are here still in it in a different capacity but still in it.

How have you seen it change like what's your take on this industry in 2024 when it comes to the import the Japanese import cars.

I think it's it's have been flow and it has its ups and downs for sure.

I feel like it's more popular now than it's ever been because of the 25 year rule and a lot of the coolest cars that we all wanted that we couldn't get now being available.

But I've seen it kind of you know balloon and then shrink and balloon and then shrink you know at the end of the day I think the the the passion that underlies at all has been the same and constant but it's kind of gone up and down right depending on on you know what car what style of tuning has been involved.

You know you've had companies that each cast is great example they were you know in the US from the 70s and then I forget where they when they actually officially shut down I think it was a late right around recession right.

And then they kind of weren't available in the US unless you bought it like motorbicity or something or or maybe turn 14.

But now they're kind of back still through a distributor but you know they displayed a pure right it displayed it's he must so it's cool to see this resurgence of like you know not just new brands but old brands that like guys like me like oh my god's a kiss or oh my god you know it's great right like I've known Kenji a great since he started there as just like an R&D guy in the 90s and now he's the president you know doing really full on like crates motors right.

That was just stuff in our dreams so it feels like it's come around full circle all user words a couple times for me where it was like I was part of this big movement and then the movie made it like it's saying we big and then got kind of cliche and I kind of died out for a little while and then kind of started to have its own kind of segmentation with like evos and WRX's and and then you know the new youtubers kind of got into it they didn't even know what they were going to get into but they did.

And now that's exposed people right like Dustin I think does a great job of exposing a bunch of stuff in Japan.

Yeah exactly.

Back to my day we would have only have only looked at it in magazines and you know and for people that don't know Dustin Williams I forget the name of his company's JDM legends or I think it's all or legend's media.

I mean he does a great job of like visiting Omori factory and showing you what that's like and you know going to these different tracks and so yeah it feels really cool to see you.

It was really cool to see it kind of come come around again you know where people are super interested in right hand drive cars and JDM cars and cars that you couldn't get in the US like the evil 5 or R 33 or an S15.

So I feel like there's more or even cars like the cappuccino oddly enough.

Yeah we do that.

I feel like there's even more interest now because you know it's accessible so it's really cool to see and from the same perspective you know it's grown and gotten small and grown again right when I was in it was all about import track racing and blew up and then it kind of died out then it became all about drifting and a blew up and then kind of died down and you know.

So it's it's everything and flowing right now I feel like there's definitely more of it at the Cima show and just around in my life in terms of like going to you know cars and coffee events and whatnot.

But there's also a code mingling right of just anything cool and kind of retro whether it's Euro or American or Japanese you know I feel like when I was growing up was very much like Japanese cars only you know.

And I think there's still a segment where it's that like GT are only you know yeah but I think like there's a generation that's more open like it's a E 46 BMW it's R 32 it's you know 70s Camaro they can like park next to each other and converse and like appreciate each other's cars regardless of theroad because right that's I don't know it has I agree it has kind of come around like that where you know the old muscle guys can appreciate the Japanese muscles so to speak and vice versa.

Yeah I mean you go to car meet now I mean you bring a GTR let's say an NSX the amount of people that will just ask you questions about those two cars right from being cars in the 90s it's way different than when I was doing it in the 90s we're like oh what is that.

You know what is that rice rocket. Why does it sound like that.

Yeah you know backwards race car a lot of front wheel drive harness puts clicks up front which is like what's up with the backwards race car it's like because it's front it's thepropulsion comes out of the front drive that's why but people laughed at it at that time you know and now it's kind of in thelearn right and I know a lot of things are going all will drive because you're just going a lot faster from a drag perspective which really blew my mind he's like all will driveharness doing like each I was like what. Yeah they're supposed to be dash hop in hardly making it through the yeah for sure.

Some of those are click on the yeah.

It's been great to watch I'm excited for the for the future I'm excited that all of these cars are becoming available here I think that's going to add to that movement like I personally want an S15.

So now I can actually.

I'm not partial probably white.

I did oh for sure you know spec are I would definitely do the vertex kit I mean I love that kid on on the car that we had back in 2005 you know it was black at that time with gold bumpers because of rock star so I'm doing a black one.

But yeah I just I just finished my S2000 projects I need to chill out a little bit.

You got a pair of roaches just like hidden in the storage container ready for that S15 or what.

That's the crazy prime not are the most sentimental person in the world so I didn't keep a single wheel.

Which is crazy to me like I should have kept one just one and then one one got a set was up for sale that were like brand new and box that I should have bought that I didn't imagine you're selling those wheels and the RJ De Vera Hitch you know to buy them.

That would be crazy. So but you know I like I have one of my collector cars now and and asked him more than that I designed wheels for so I have so many friends that cut wheels or make wheels.

But I figure something out it'd be cool to have to have something nostalgic like that but I'm also not completely tied to like that has to be the way you know.

And so just jumping back to see my real quick so 2024 obviously you just got done with it you know a month or you know six weeks ago what from the Japanese import side what dominated seem like what do you feel like was the standout.

I mean I think in terms of modern car you know it's got to be GR86 or Supra you see it most of the boots I think that those are the cars that most people.

That get something slightly used or New York tuning you know it was definitely your GTR because there's you know everyone can get their hands on one now so there were 134s 133s that were there.

You know we did a little thing called the JDM showcase were invited you know some small manufacturers from Japan that that normally wouldn't be able to do a full booth into a space and center hall so like cool racing came.

What was the other companies that were there like escaping me right now I have to look it up but there are definitely like six cars that were like these small companies from either Tokyo or Osaka that just brought one or two cars.

There were one Prius 3G are 86 is one Supra and I'm 33 in that in that booth so wow you know that kind of gives you the flavor of like the stuff that's there but.

A few 70s Celicas that were pretty interesting oh that's cool and some yeah like step up a docus built one that was an annuals booth there was also really clean 280 Z in that booth so.

How did you two any Z's I would say as well and in a Toyota trend pass someone put like a 12 cylinder like in a 70 Celica right so that was pretty cool.

Yeah yeah yeah yeah I would I would I TV's and white body.

Oh yeah my good my good body Johnson ball design the kit and everything so yeah I mean there was a lot of cool stuff man.

Yeah yeah I was excited to see that bill by legends brought out there 34 we had a chance to have a private track day with them at food speedway and we saw those cars in motion like ripping the track and so to see it there and then all of a sudden it's you know in the hall thatseemed like it was just like wow okay this is pretty cool yeah I mean in that cars I think it's it kind of signals what could be the future for some of this right because that's at the extreme end right you're talking you know 800000 right rest

so mod top to bottom strips with to see read you know complete new motor from minds and the whole nine and you know if you look at the singer model or the Gunther works model or some of the rest of modded hot rods right that's that that's the JDM equivalent to it you know and and they've I know they sold over 10 or somethinglike that across the board 32 33 34 by you know the 34 you know super special right in my opinion so so yeah I mean Masa is a good friend I knew the two guys that started that yeah through their GT channel days we had done a really cool project together so it's cool to kind of see them evolve and be on this project and be making some waves

because I mean if I could afford it I'd want one yeah for sure yeah they're beautiful cars and yeah I can't imagine the future as far as that type of thing goes you know as these guys want to continue to restore and bring back the former glory of you know even a base model GT areyeah no for sure it's exciting you know these people are making enough money and much like the hot rod movement everyone wanted the car that they either had in high school or dreamed about right so for a lot of people that grew up in the 90s those are the cars that you dreamed about you know so for them to be offering that for people to

throw down you know 750,000 to a million bucks to have one of those it's really great to see yeah no I'm super happy for those people for sure you know absolutely so all right I know Aaron had a quick question yeah man I want to know what you're up what you're driving today like what's the daily driver what's the weekend driver so the daily just changed I had a just a little Hondacore 2.0 T for a little while I had a somewhere in my life I got into the European stuff and some luxury and exotic stuff and for a while I didn't have a Honda so I kind of got on myself like these are my roots I got it you know I got to get back to it so yeah so I ended up with a

Honda core to drive every day you know just to call myself out because I'm a person that tells people like I love cars but it's just stuff you know yeah that we shouldn't get too attached to I mean I am I think we are yeah but just to check ourselves right where it doesn't become more important and the things that are really important which are our relationships our family you know those type of things so I would tell people this and they're like RG all you drive is like bougie European carsand I was like no I don't really care and they're like yeah be as you don't care so I did the accord solely to prove to myself that I don't really get but I dropped it on SSRs and I drove it around for five years so I just sold that really cheaply to my brother from my oldest nephew because we kind of had a deal as my oldest nephew's car kind of deteriorated that I that he would get the accord so I replaced it with a BMW an Alpina actually I'm a big fan of

Alpinas so I got to be six super into green right now and not a comfortable circle with the other cars so it's literally like a month or a couple weeks oldyeah like super comfy I mean the thing makes 600 you would never it's not an M cars it's very like just like a like a B2 bomber that just cruises yeah yeah but it's very special because it's an Alpina so that's the daily nowright before I took the job at SEMA I bought an S2000 so at the time I got rid of everything but my accord so thought we're not to have a project car coming to SEMA and I knew I wanted to do something Honda and go back to my roots so I ended up getting finding an S2000 of all the Honda's that I had done that's probably the one I love driving the most I had an NSX so I was looking for that too but NSXs are so expensive right yeah yeah

and my NSX I owned for like 12 years so it's not something I was like I don't have to have one again where the S2000 oddly enough was the S2000 from the Fasten Furious it was the black one in the first movie which then I sold to them for the second movie and turned pink for that superso he said that's cool I didn't realize that was your car same car same car so that's it's at the Peterson Museum but I painted it like a couple different colors but I justremember that I love driving that car so so much so when I thought about what Honda should I do I initially thought integrity bar you know DC to and then I went to go look at a couple and they were pretty pricey you know and I was like you know for that much I could build a really rad S2000 so I thought the S2000 and wanted to build it was kind of in my head if I was going to build an S2000 and if Fasten Furious was just coming out now how would I build it you know being being in my

late 40s versus being in my mid 20s right how would I how would I build it differently so I kind of went on this journey to create this you know at the end of theday of its cars and coffee slash open lapping kind of you know NASA HPD E SEC a kind of open lap day car so that's that's one of the fun weekend cars that's really you know based on my roots it's turbocharge where set up got the 20th anniversary bumper oh I'm the card that inspired it was the evasive S2000 R concept oh that you guys are

thinking oh yeah you how could you not be that when they drop that thing it was like oh wow yeah so I know the guys that that started a base of one of thepartners I went to college with and I knew about the car so when when I was thinking about what car to do I remember thinking like I want to see whatthey're doing this I want to go see it I'm like yeah I'm gonna go S2000 versus ITR so so it's pretty much done now needs an oil cooler but it's gotbrown boats got moving on roof again wheels you know close-up or callovers does got into graphics on it I did it does not I was so upset I had nothing to do with the graphics in the first movie

disclaimer I'm just gonna say that I know some people love the truly robots now which were the weirdest things to me at the time but you know the so the story aboutJohnny trans character he was actually supposed to get a John Seball's full homin I think he had a Z3 or Z4 or something and then we couldn't afford thethe replica duplicate cars and then we had to pay for the homin stuff so we're like that's too much like Argy what about your S2000 it looks pretty like me now like oh yeah

and the bell said go give us the kids for it no problem so we ended up that's how Johnny Trent ended up in the S2000 it wouldn't hit the same if he was in a Z3 or anything like that I don't thinkso so yeah I mean that's how the movie ended up in the film but what was I was I get to was the question again I kind of lost mytrain of thought I think we're just talking about the the weekend driver your S2000 yeah yeah yeah getting back to yes so that's that's kind of that car and then the last is the collector car

the sports car which I haven't asked in more now as I mentioned earlier it's called a vantage up one edition and before that I had an SLS goal wing which I sold a little too earlyunfortunately but still sold it for what I paid for it so that's always a win so those are those are the three I think plenty enough car payments I'm going to be in debtfor I'm going to be in debt for a while for sure but I love it all you know I'm not very I don't have kids have the opportunity to do those thingsyeah yeah and it's still keeping that the the old passion by the S2000 you know the new year oh thing with the

Aston Martin and then of course the BMW is the daily I mean it seems like you are keeping to your roots your passion you know which I thinkwell balanced yeah I think is important yeah everything's modded everything has wheels you know and it's lowered not crazy I mean the S2000 is definitely the one with the most modsyou know and that one actually co-share with someone so help build making you know the cost of building a little bit nicer on the pocket oh yeah so I'm out onto my buddy will who's who's going to be the one really driving it on track more than I am but so maybe S15 I'm looking for one I'm kind of trying to convince one of my friends the co-share that one with me as well

that's a good idea really we never thought about co-sharing it that's actually like yeah we got to talk after this yeah because you can actually drive it all the time you know it kind of makes senseyou know you're going to drive it once or twice a month like why not split it with someone but because it definitely made it a lot easier to be like let's go buy the mugen roof let's go buy the you know like yeah that's up is like how much was thatholy smokes but you're like you totally want it right because it's like oh you it isn't it isn't done without it you know or the spoon mirrors or something you know which is like even even with the industry friends and family kind of deals that I can get because I know almost I have like one degree of separation to most people it's still like how much was that holy smokes and that's a pretty penny

yeah it it it kind of has gotten crazy but I mean when you want quality as you know I mean that a lot of times is what comes with it yeah what you pay for man alright we got one I got one last thing for you you know we've kind of talked about the past we've talked about the presentwhat's up with RJ for the future where do you where do you see yourself headed what like is there a you know you mentioned the S15 we kind of know where you're going there but you know where where you headin that's a great question you know for me you know 47 just about turn 48 in a few months you know and it's been a couple life stages in this industry that allow that it's really made me who I am at the end of the day so the future me just wants to give back more it's one of the reasons why I joined SEMA you know I think I have an opportunity here to help create more platforms for people you know in the industry to hopefully find their success

you know and I'm being coming from a community that's fairly underrepresented or was underrepresented in my time you know there's a piece of me that wants to do that for more under under represented voices right along with the people that are very well represented you know but that's got a little bit of my calling my purpose now is helping you know people and and businesses and organizations build better versions of themselves so that's really my main focus for the future meand of course I still want to enjoy car culture you know I still I mean I attend a car and coffee almost every weekend I take vacation to go to like Tokyo Auto Salon or festival speed or you know Monterey Carly people out where there's a lot of people love cars but they're like RG your taking vacation to go where like I'm going to Japan they're like oh awesome what are you doing I'm going to Tokyo Auto Salon they're like but we do the SEMA show I'm like I know but Tokyo also has a different beast so I don't ever foresee myself

like not loving cars or like spending way more money than we should on cars because definitely I you know I think all three of us probably be that but it's what we love you know so I just want to continue my passion I want to share this passion with other people and I want to you know help bring more people into the industry and maybe help them find you know success in the career whether it's they're working for someone or they have their own business or they're creating content like like you guys are here you know so I would say that's kind of the focusfor now I'm sure it'll continue to evolve hopefully there's more cars in my future you know I'm pretty strapped strapped with all the car payments right now so I got to chill out for a little while but there's always something new but I'm a person that loves to learn I think I spoke about I'm not super sentimental you know letting go of my NSX that I had for 12 years was like the point that I knew I wasn't super sentimental because I had that car for so long I painted it six different times and had so many memories in it

you know and so you know just a touch on what you said what I found as a reoccurring theme for you know guys like you who found you know success in this industry early and have been through all of the stages they always end with what you said they want to help bring up the you know kind of under exposed and you know the people in this industry that are still maybe trying to make it you know which I I feel likethat's like super noble because a lot of guys will take their success and run with it where a lot of the dudes like you that we've had on the podcast they don't just want to do that they want to spread that success and help that like maybe not even the next generation but then the next people kind of succeed and I think that's super cool man.

Yeah I appreciate that you know I mean I started in the in the segment of the industry that was very underrepresented right you know you still kind of get me fun of now no way near like it wasn't the 90s driving driving JDM imports so yeah it's very core to where I started right so I don't know I think for me it's just you can't you can't forget those things.

Yeah no I agree 100% when when it comes to where you started keeping hold of that is kind of what keeps you grounded.

For sure so let's talk about you guys a little bit like what's behind there someone's 33 civic type R looks like.

Yep yeah there's a FL 5 new civic type R that's kind of my most recent acquisition I guess you could say and then yep that's my 33 GTR and Aaron has his 32 GTST behind us.

Okay then got a couple bikes on the side to a couple bikes there's our good friend Supra to the to the right of me we help him out and store it in in the garage so it doesn't get left out in a snow bank can't be letting your your buddies do that can't leave the supers in the snow bank.

I'm jealous of the garage we don't get that much room here in Cali so yeah that is one thing about me and we got a little bit of land but you know if you walked out this door you'd be cold let's just say that.

Awesome yeah so I'm we're stoked on you guys doing what you're doing.

Thanks man hopefully we'll see you at SEMA hopefully we'll run across each other our friend Dawn is from import alliance and he's going to bring us along this coming year so that we can kind of experience SEMA and hopefully do.

Have you never been now I've been to Tokyo autosalon you know bend.

No but you know never been to see me ever to see my okay you guys definitely have to come you guys will be like kids and candy.

So it's just like going to your first Tokyo autos one in a different way yeah there's way more variety than there is in Tokyo you've got almost all Japanese except that last call seven eight which has the Euro stuff yeah where SEMA's you've got off road stuff you got muscle car stuff you have tuner stuff yeahyeah I figured you can go a bit different someone you can I mean we do fun fact we do 23 miles of Alcarpet so if you walk every aisle at the show not including the outside there's no Alcarpet outside you would you would a ret you would a ran a marathon yeah I'm about to lose some weight as SEMA and seriously just have counter on holy cow.

Man we decided to have you guys come you guys definitely have to make it you know you know someone else so yeah we may be doing something around podcasting like having a podcast studio or different people can come in and do a session wow kind of throwing that idea around so well let's stay in touch that happens.

You guys are a corner episode while you're at the show yeah that's what we did at Tokyo autos on we kind of found a corner where nobody would run us over and and we just sat on the floor and recorded an episode but like we were live from Tokyo autos on so you know it's really cool for us all right before you get you guys go ahead.

You guys going out on a couple weeks yeah I'll be there unfortunately you won't be able to make it but yeah I'll definitely be there is is that your vacation.

It is so let's make a let's make it a point to catch each other weather in the city or out in Makuhari or wherever yeah absolutely man yeah I'll keep in touch with you and but let the listeners know real quick where can they find you on the internet.

So I have a Facebook page and the Instagram page and a tick-tock page but the only one I really do is Instagram so just RJ underscore Divera at I think that's it right yeah on IG so that's really the only one I post on it's you know I I've consolidated my life or online to be really just about cars I think it's it's a I know people make a living out of it I respect that but I feel like mentally it's it's so easy.

It's so easy to kind of fall into that social media traps so I've been doing a little bit of separating kind of my personal life because I used to kind of put stuff on there like when I'm eating and whatever whatever and now it's really all about cars.

But yeah that's where people can find me and of course the C.M.A. show stuff is all over we have it in every platform linked in X you know Facebook Instagram tick-tock the whole nine so that's the work stuff whether it's PR or or C.M.A. show or C.M.A.

or C.M.A. show or C.M.A. association those all exist so.

Oh yeah man we definitely appreciate this like we said you know having having the OG on the podcast was you know kind of one of our bucket list items and you know I know I'm going to sleep good tonight man we just had RJ Divera on the podcast you feel me seriously.

Well I told it and joined it feel free to you know if you want to talk more stories at a certain point there's definitely different decades we can tackle.

And would love to be a guest again if that made sense but really appreciate the time today to kind of just meet you guys it's evident that you guys are true right hand drive.

Yeah so you know you're just kind of seeing you and talking actually awesome and you'll be looking forward to it.

Enjoy the evening man.

All right RJ frigging Divera dude what a legend yeah this was if you guys can't tell this was like wow we really have RJ Divera on our podcast yeah like you know to some people that may not be a big deal but to twoguys who have been in this you know into this for over 20 years.

Yeah seeing that man progress and then seeing where he's at today was just like was awesome.

Yeah I do hear all the cool stories like from the super street days like yeah do it if it won for super street I don't know if I would be into the import cars like I wouldknow that as much of an influence no absolutely not dude every time you know I went to the grocery store I was going to that magazine I'll do justa draw overall cars so dude the day they featured my accordion readers ride dude you best believe I was pop enough the fake the fakechampagne dude I was loving it I made super street even if it was like a two by two inch dude I made it so yeah hearing you know kind of that

how long he's been into it like 1997 go into car shows you know that's super early so you know it's inspiring that a guy can follow his passionand still end up in the industry this long afterwards.

That's how you know it's true yeah absolutely that's how you know he loves it.

Spassion to the game is true yeah like unmatched man we appreciate you guys listening for sure hopefully you enjoyed that I can imagine you didn'tif you're if you're homie didn't listen to the episode like you should spam him with it because that that was dope for sure and there's a lot to learn in therebut of course you can find us on social media at our HD G U I S for episode 112 with RJ freaking the fair

I'm Bobby this is Aaron see ya peace

RJ De Vera - EP.112

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