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Ryan ZumMallen - The Cult Of GT-R - EP.58
Ryan ZumMallen - The Cult Of GT-R - EP.58
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About this episode
Ryan ZumMallen, author of 'The Cult of GTR', joins the Right Hand Drive Guys to discuss the fascinating history of the Nissan Skyline GTR. The conversation dives into the book's exploration of JDM culture, the significance of the GTR in Japan, and the myths surrounding its legacy. Ryan shares insights from his research, including his experiences visiting key locations in Japan and the passionate community surrounding the GTR. The episode highlights the intertwining of automotive history and cultural pride, making for an engaging listen for car enthusiasts.
Topics:
nissan skyline gtr
jdm culture
automotive history
book insights
community passion
myths and facts
japanese history
import regulations
hks tuning
cultural pride
Have you ever wondered why the 25 year law ever came into effect? Can you imagine what its like to be invited into HKS Japan and meet with the CEO? What about walking the lot, and peeking into forbidden warehouses at TopRank Japan? Ryan ZumMallen, the author of Cult Of GT-R fills us in on these topics and more!
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Welcome to the right hand drive guys podcast the show for guys who like right hand drives. We're your host. I'm Bobby
This is Aaron. Yeah, yeah, and make sure to follow us on all the socials at RHD
G U IS andDM us with any questions you have we're always more than willing to help and check out the merch if you have a chanceRHD G U IS dot comWe're pretty excited today actually today is our first ever guest inHopefully one of many for the future, but our first ever who'd we got man?
Dude today we got Ryan ZumallanRyan Zumallan who's this? Yeah, if you don't know he is the author of the book the Cult of GTR the Cult of GTR
soYeah, dude this book is sick like the book is sick. Yeah, when you first brought it up to me
I just opened a random page of it andImmediately just read in a little story aboutFirst time visiting top rank. Yeah, and from there on I was like holy cow. What else is in this book?
So I had to you know read a cover cover. Yeah, day great in dude. I mean to be honest
This is probably the first book I've read like since high schoolThat's no, but I think a lot of guys will agree, you know give this another six monthsAnd I think a lot of guys will say the same. Yeah, yeah, for real. I mean and it's hard to like you know
Really hold my attention throughout a whole book, but I mean this thingI mean, it's more than just GTRs really. I mean he throws in some Japanese history. Yeah Japanese American history like
He throws in little excerpts about other cars and other little tidbits about yeahjust random loss stuff and yeah, there really is a pretty big spread andYeah, I think we what you're saying about holding attention likeJust these stories relate to us in a lot of car guys so much that it would almost be hard not to hold your attentionRight with the way that he tells this story. Yeah, and overall it's just a great book and whether you know
If you're just into JDM cars or do just cars in generalThis is a book that would probably hold your attention. Yeah, if you have any I don't know any
I don't know what you say question about why the GTR isThis thing that it is yeah read the book and it tells a very good story about this car by the end of itYou almost feel not like a GTR know it all but you absolutely feel more educated and and have maybe even the slightest bit more respect for the cars knowingHow much they've been through yeah, I'm gonna presentso we dowe had actually tried this and
We had some bad audio out we couldn't tell if it was like our Wi-Fi or if it was it was Ryan's micBut we ended up doing it again, and so you'll kind of notice our background is a little differentWe had to go to one of our offices in order to make sure that we had perfect Wi-Fi and everything was gonna workSo we switched up the location for a bit, but what do you say we get into it? Yeah, let's do it. All right
Ryan ZumolinAll right, and welcome back today we got a special guest. I am super excited to introduce Ryan Zumolin the author of one of my favorite books
And I'm not just saying that the cult of GTR. Hey Ryan, how you doing today?
I'm doing well, man. Thank you very much for having me
So for those that don't really know who you areGive us a just a little breakdown of who you are. How'd you get into this position and and
Yeah, let's fill them inSure, I've been an automotive journalist for over 10 years nowWorking at smaller websites mostly, but I was recently at Edmonds for a few years and have written some pretty big pieces for major outletsDon't freelance for road and trackHad big pieces in the verge and then a few years ago I started a book publishing company just to give myself a little bit more control over the types of stories that I wanted to go after and
Give myself a chance to really sink my teeth into some topics that I wanted to chase and soPut my first book out in 2019. That's called slow car fast and it's on
Millennial car culture and how our tastes and trends are changing car culture as we know itI should probably update it with the Gen Z version now at this pointThey're taking over butAnd then my most recent project is cult of GTR as you mentioned and the story of the Skyline GTR has always been one that fascinated meJust hearing like you know bits and pieces of the story here and there and there's so much rumor and there's so much
wild speculation aboutYou know how things really went down so I wanted to try my best to see what I couldYou know take those rumors and see what I could prove and verify and then put it all in one placeTo give the diehards somethingTo really enjoy and hopefully give them some new informationBut also introduce this story in this phenomenon to people who might not be aware of it at all because
The Skyline Mystique is stillNot widely known because the car just hasn't been here, right?
So yeah, that was the that was the goal to try to capture some of the magic that makes this car in this culture specialYeah, I mean and I was definitely 100% one of those people even though I I own GTRstoFigure out and do the research of you know is this rumor true or false?
Like did this really actually happen?
You know why did MotorX actually shut down?
You know some of these things and and it's pretty diluted on the internetYou know whether it's on YouTube or Google or whatever and it's really hard to decipherWhat is actual rumor or what is fact and by reading your bookIt really did clear a lot of that up and and I had and I know Aaron said the same thingI had multiple moments where I was like no shit. That's actually what happened like that's wild and and I really think this will be a great tool with all of these
You knowBeyond these people but with all of these new owners that are about to actually take possession of the carI feel like this book will be an asset and as you said to truly understandWhat this car has been through you know since it came outUm yeah, that was that was definitely the goal. So I'm glad you had that experience because I was definitely looking for that oh shit moment
Yeah, yeah, and it's really cool becauseWhere some books will tell you a story and then go on to the next story. I really appreciate how
This book will start to tell you a story and then like peak that interest and then come into the next cool storyBefore fully finishing the last one. So you're almost like intertwined with multiple stories at once and you don't want to stop
Because you know the next part of that other story is coming. I really think that that was a
Good strategy on your behalfWell, I appreciate that and I mean that's how it happened in real time too right like all this stuff was happeningI mean during the 90s and early 2000sAll the stuff was happening simultaneously, you know, Nissan is still producing the carIt's got this incredible legendary street racing mystique in JapanIn the us people are scrambling to get them here legally and illegallyThe laws being enforced sometimes in in
In different waysDepending on which jurisdiction is handling it. So all these things are happening all at once
And so I kind of wanted to create that impressionThat it's all spiraling very quickly right no, and I for sure got that out of it like I felt like I was in it almostLike oh no, what's gonna happen with hero is he gonna keep spending his money on these weirdo bars or what?
You know like that's genuinely how I felt like during the bookThat's no man. I'm glad
So I know Aaron had a question. Yeah, yeah, so I gotta ask you know
Why the GTR you know, it's just a Nissan right? Why the GTR over a car that you know has status
Let's say like a Porsche 911 or you know something that has history as well like why the GTRYeah, the number of times that I got that question over the course of theOf the research was pretty was pretty astounding umYeah, a lot of people really do view it as just a 30 year old NissanYeahAnd so that that proved to me. I thought that there was an opportunity to
umYou know introduce thisMystique to peoplethis phenomenon whoWho just aren't aware of it at all and know know this kind of line as a regular sedan or overhyped orJust a big motor or you know any number of misconceptions and soThere there is definitely something unique and special about the GTR umand for me a lot of it has to do with how important that car is to Japan and its people
You know, it really does represent something more and that is ultimately why they kept sales almost completely to Japan to its domestic marketumYou know, this was this was a cardesigned specifically for the Japanese peopleumBy really the most Japanese car company, you knowNissan the two words that they combined to make the word Nissan meanJapanese and industryLike this this company and it's it's
founder was was directly influencedumBy wanting to build a car company that could compete withuhAmericansand umKind of took blueprints that he learned from American industry in his studies andApplied them in order to build a Japanese company that was just as strong as as all the others in the world andumThe GTR is the ultimate expression of what NissanUm tries to be and tries to accomplish and so i mean just that fact right there
Just how important it is to the people um, I think makes it special and what they were able to accomplish is like trueuhtechnological breakthroughs in terms of the full-wheel drive system therear-steer system and then obviously the RB26 motor um andto haveperformance that would blow away cars twice its price or moreYou know that that really really is special and then on top of that all the success in motorsports and
uh it became a phenomenon in video games and and films andum created thisThis whirlwindAround it that exceeded anything anyone at Nissan ever expectedBut I think combine all that stuff and uh it it it truly is somethinguhDifferent from other car stories out there and there are a lot of cars with great storiesumAnd litigious backgrounds and scandal and and all of that right um
But yeah, all of that combined umUh makes the GTR pretty special and also it's uh the people associated with it like the people whoReally really care about that carum, you know, they're they're diehards like other cars have but they're also very welcoming and umvery down to earthYou know when you get into the realm ofUh high-end sports car enthusiasts. It's not always a very uh, you know
uhwelcomingIncorporating place. Yeah, and uh
Yeah, GTR people in my experience have definitely been oh you're interested in the thing. I'm interested
Let me tell you everything there is to know um and that that certainly helped a lot. Yeah, I can I can attest to that for sure
It's like once like they accept you in like they're they're willing to almost do anything for youAnd they're willing to bring you along on whatever they're doing um, you know, I've I've been a part of quite a few different car communities in my let's just say car career so far andYou know, you would think the GTR community would be more snobby or standoffish and it's honestly the exact opposite and I feel like I've beenMore welcomed through that community than I have
You know the communities that maybe people would see below that community, you know, they've beenIt harder to like kind of get accepted in than than the GTR communitySo I can agree like and I think that boils down to the true passion for the car and the fact that we've all been waiting for it over here for so longThat the anticipation has just created just yeah this this whole different attitude about itUm, so what we really wanted to do uh because we we really did enjoy the book and
So we wanted to ask you a few questions that would maybe just lead you into a story or two that um are related to the book to kind of give some of our listeners a little preview and and hopefullyYou know give them the desire to go grab the bookum, soThe the question that I had because I know so few people have had this opportunity and you know to some it made justYou know seem trivial, but I want to know what it was like having
Masha take you through the backside of pdiWhere not many people have gone, but I would guarantee almost people would pay to take tours. What what was that like for you?
Yeah to to come from a place in the US where you know there'sAt this and and I visited about a year ago. So you know our 34 gcrs weren't coming into the country yet um and to come from a place where
There's maybe a handful of our 34 gcrs and then go to visit a place where they're literally storing them by the dozensUh, you know, there were overThere's more than 50 r 34 gcrs in that warehouseum, and so to have that door open up and you walk into it and it's uhUh, it's it's it's overwhelming to see that manyuh of thisHighly coveted model all together and more than that um
To knowJust how many of them are waiting to come to the US so those cut for those who might not know those cars at the top ring facility in Japan are already bought and paid forByOutside customers in other countries. So they're just sitting there waiting to become legal to import
Um, and to me that illustrated the whole story right there right like this car is so desirable that people will buy it in another country and keep it in another country and pay rent on itFor the privilege of being able to pay to import it a year or two years or three years down the line sometimes five or six yearsI know some of these guys it's been a hot minuteLet's say you bought it. Sure. Yeah
Yeah, some of the cars in there I've I've been there six or seven yearsumSo yeah, and I I figured if I could explainThe significance of that warehouse and those cars then I thought that that was the whole bookUm, and as soon as I as soon as I walked in um, I knew you know, this was gonna be goodum, and the top rank guys are all great. Masha is you know fantastic. Just a super warm
umGuy that's just fun to be around and listen to all his whole his stories, you know, his family has an R34 GTR that they bought newuh, and he says he'll never sell and uh, I don't blame himumSo yeah, it was just you know, it's just different to being in Japan as you guys know and experience the car there on its home turfum, it's uhI think for a lot of people in the community that's what it's all aboutAnd so I just I just tried to soak that in
Yeah, I can't blame me. Masha is uh, quite the character to say the least um, definitely always entertaining when he is around
umQuick little story about him when we were at there at the Fuji Track Dayum GTR magazine wanted to feature me in my car andI don't speak Japanese like that and so Masha was my translatorAnd I would answer with a simple two or three, you know word answer and he would just go in and I could just tell you knowHe was fluffing it up for me with with all these um, you know, special little words that he was using
And so I could tell right there he was a good guy because he wasn't gonna let me go out with just such a short little interviewYou know what I mean umSo I know Aaron Aaron had a good question um about the book as well. Go ahead man. Yeah, yeah
So HKS is one of those tuners it, you know, if you think about JDM cars you immediately think HKS rightThey're right on the right on the foot of Fuji. They're one of those classic shops, right
Tell us what it was like uhYou know meeting Ms. Gucci son and getting the full HKS tour and seeing all their cars their warehouses all that what was that like?
Yeah, another great experience umAnd uh, you know as you mentioned HKS was built at the foot of Mount Fuji and so you park at theParking lot kind of at the bottom of the hill and then as you walk to their office buildings you're walking upUp this incline and it's pointed straight at the mountainThat's so as you're as you're walking from building to building around the the headquartersUh, you know, you're constantly in the shadow of Mount Fuji, which is just like an incredible arena to be
Building, you know, one of the world's great aftermarket tuning companiesumAnd uh, yeah, it's it's special you can feel it. It's another one of those things that's like oh this could this could only be in Japan
um andumYou know, it's it's interestingWhere HKS is at currently, you know, they have such an incredible reputation andwere you know true pioneers in the areas of tuning in the aftermarket um, I thinkI'm pretty sure they produced the first ever bolt on turbo kit in the 70sSwiled and look at where that is nowum and
reallydominated theA lot of the 80s and 90s too and helped fuel that passion and that culture and that enthusiasm byfiguring out how to unlock cars like the GTR and reallyYou know get them to their full potential, which is the whole point, you know, like these cars stockYou know, they say 276 horsepower because of the federal mandate, but um, you knowThey're they're fun to drive stock, but they're magicThe magic that turns these cars into what they've become is when you upgrade them
Um and HKS played a major major role in thatNow where they are now is a little more complicated because there are so many competitors in the area andyou knowThey are not necessarily a leader anymore, you know, there are lots of lots of companies that are trying to make a name and are really innovatingAnd HKS is kind of sticking to their tried and true method of likeumModerate increases, you know smart efficiency
In some areas, you know, they were stressing fuel economy to me and I was like, I don't know if that's going to play wellin the US likeLike that's just not what where people's priorities are, but you know, they are they they have their ways andumIt's fascinating to see how they're trying to update that with like modern materials a lot of use of carbon fiber a lot of really advanced machine processesumBut you know they have that name and it comes with a price, but that name means something to people and so with
With the GTR skyline GTR marketExpanding here in the US. I think they will definitely play a role
umAnd a significant one. I just think they're they're up against a lot more competition than they have been in the past
um and it'll be interesting to see how they navigate that and try to try to stay at thatBut as you mentioned meeting umMizuguchi-sanWho's now the chief executive of the company and remember this is a giant company like this is not itThis is not your small tuning shop, you know in downtown Tokyo with like a one one bay door umThis is a publicly traded company onJapanese stock exchanges, you know, they have major government contracts
They have all types of applications. They do power sports, you know, jetskis and stuff like that. They do all kinds of stuff
But and this is the man at the head of it who built his career at least in part on the GTRYou know, he was head of the t-002 project, which is a record setting our 33 GTR back in the dayum and and still talks very fondly about thatBut it was it was really wonderful to meet with him his office isstunning and there areOr orchids everywhere kind of like lining the inside of his officeum and
You know we sat down at a table when he had I think six or seven executives next to himSo that was a bit intimidating, but a very a verysweet guy and very insightful you could tellbutbut yet to umWe spoke a lot about historyThe the history of hks forming and it's it's mission toYou know provide consumers with
umExcitementand that's that's still what they're going forand um, you know to hear it fromFrom themYou know in their office at the base amount Fuji surrounded by orchidsIt was uh, it was again just one of those experiences um thatI'll cherish for a long time. Yeah, that's got to be burned in your brain
Just you know walking in there initially and having everybody sit around the tableI can only imagine my knees would be chattering and I it would just be kind of one of those like you got to settle in type things becauseOf course we as enthusiasts have been looking up toWhat this man has been doing and the company has been doing for so longThat you know even though he doesn't consider himself any sort of celebrity in our eyes, right?
He's the man that's given us so much inspiration and opportunity. So I could only imagine and it it's really crazy to me that
As you say they're a huge company. They have things like government contracts
Usually when somebody gets into government contracting all of that little stuff goes to the wayside and and that's really one of the things for hks thatThat is awesome still is that like you said there's you know the skyline markets coming into the usThey have three guys right dedicated to rb still a25 30-year-old motor, you know or an older and they still have guys dedicated to it that to meThat's like pretty wild and show some dedicationcorrect. Yeah, and um the
GTR is still a major major part of their businessWhich is which is interesting because it's a pretty relatively low volume, you knowEnthusiasm niche sports car, but um it's theIt's tied with the Toyota 86 in terms oftheir total salesFor first among all all cars on the market. So um, you know the
Yeah, the cars that they sell they make the most revenue off ofI'm the entire market is GTR and 86Um, two cars that are on completely different opposite ends of the spectrum and that's the new 86 rightI think I think they're countingI'm yeah like within the last 10 years. Oh, yeah, but
Which yeah, which is crazy to think that a 30-year-old car is tying in accessory sales toRight, you know, whatever eight or nine-year-old car that that definitely speaks volumes just about those GTR enthusiasts as we talkaboutYeah, and I think they're counting R35 also, but but yeah, yeah, they entire lineage. Yeah
pretty impressiveSoyou knowYou'd like I can't even imagine I wouldn't know but the process to create a bookespecially to this level I can only imagine isA long process that is tedious and sometimes feels directionless and you know, I can only imagine like a your job isdefinitely one that takes a lot of focus and sowhat I was curious about wasWhat was the most interesting or intriguing knowledge that you gained during this book process because as you said
You know, you didn't know all this before you started the book. So what would you say was that you know
One kind of story or or bit of knowledge that you that just kind of blew you away?
I thinkunderstanding more about the the history of Japan andJapanese and US relations and how thosethose things really do influenceYou know decisions that are made today stillThere was so much that I didn't know about japanese history that I feel likeYou know should be better understood and maybe I'm just speaking for myself, but um, you know the fact that
Japan was a closed-offCulture for centuries until the 1850s when the US essentially barged in to Tokyo Bay and said you're going to trade with us nowBecause we just brought in our four biggest warships and pointed them at your coastAnd you're going to open up your country for the first time in hundreds of years and trade with usum andI'm oversimplifying it a little bitBut you know that is something that is not regularly taught in US schools
But it is still very muchuhEmphasized in Japanese schools todayYou know, that is a very important watershed moment for them as a cultureUm, and here we just aren't really aware of itBut that kind of set in motionA long and complicated history of relation between our two countries and in a lot of ways it produced unintended consequences like you know usKind of forcing them to adopt
more modernSociety led to Japan becoming the second largest economy in the world at one pointWith a with a market cap that exceeded the US's at one point which is astonishingum andAnd not to mention you know World War II and you know us being on opposite sides and after the war endedThe US occupied Japan for years and they went throughUh a brutal brutal period of reconstruction. They had a phrase
Um at that time because there was there was hunger starvation, you knowrealReal hardship and their phrase was endure the unendurableWhich isUnthinkable to but it was kind of a rallying cry a call to arms for them to collectively get through this period togetherAnd you know conditions that were like they say almost unendurableum and and i think that speaks to a cohesiveness in their society
That uhThat is really unique and special andAs they tried to build up from thatThe role of their car companiesuh wasEnormous and so there is so much pride in a company like Nissan same with ToyotaHonda and and and other similar ones, but there is so much pride in the products that that they produce andTrying to compete on a world stage and prove themselves asYou know equal or better to what everyone else is putting out
um and so understanding that that is theUh Genesis for where a car like the Skyline GTR comes from i think wasCrucial to to my understanding of of what makes it specialYeah, that makes sense and and really that is somethingDuring our first trip to Japan that we really realized and and maybejust being on like the um fan of the culture side over here before actually experiencing it
The level of pride that they have forWhat they do period whether it's the guy sweeping the sidewalk or yeah the guy building a drift car to go competeYou know in D1 or whatever they all have this same amount of like intense pride in what they do and it really shows like we have a hard time findingCars that don't impress us in one way or another in the sense of how much pride and like work they put into it
They don't really do anythingHalf-ass so to speak and that really stood out to us tooFor sure and I can't remember the wordAlbo taught it to us multiple times but they have a specific word forWhat for their pride and the way that they do things over there that's howLike into it and how focused on it they are is that they have a word just for pretty much not half-assingTheir stuff and so I agree I feel like that pride that was developed through those hardships has really you know
Shined during some of these times when they could have just kept doing anything mediocre, but they chose not toumSo lastly we'd love to hear a little bit about the situation that createdumYou knowThe kind of the end of motor x but really the beginning of the 25-year ruleI know you have a little insight on thatYeah, sure so the 25-year importing rule um
I'm I'm sure most people listening to this uh are aware of that but um you know it hasn't been around foreverIt was instituted in the late 80s um and in that period up to that automakers were getting concerned that it was cheaper for us consumers to buyCars abroadAnd bring them in to the country rather than buying them through US dealerships the strength of the dollar made our economyYou know favorable to that kind of stuff. So they were essentially
Stealing sales away from US dealerships. So
Auto companies particularly Mercedes, but it wasn't just themThey got several others involved and to make it like a group efforttried to institute a law to prevent that from happening and what they ultimately came up with wasuh a rule that any car not specificallymarketed for sale in the USHad to wait 25 years before it could be brought inNow they tried to push a lot like that through for years like almost a decade and just weren't weren't getting much traction
That people didn't really see a lot of sympathy for the groupUp companies that included Mercedes BMW and PorscheThey were kind of like well, you know tough shit um but what ultimately changed itUm was when they were able to make it a safety issue and that wasbased on alargely on a single episodewhen an imported gray market MercedesCarried off the road and crashed in northern California and um
a a 26 year old woman was killedSo she was riding passenger her fiancee was driving her fiancee have been drinkingLike throughout the day and would later fail a breathalyzer test or I should say aumA legal limit testBut in the ensuing trialHis attorney was able to convince the jury thatuhHis inebriation had little or nothing to do with the accident
Instead the fact that the Mercedes was brought into the country and then converted by a shop that he said failed to doAppropriate work led to a breaking failure and that's what caused the crash soultimately the owner of that car was acquitted um and you know he's been he's been free ever sinceum andMercedes and other car companies were able to point to that case and say see these cars are not safeUh, they have been tampered with by conversion shops. So they were in an awkward position right because they couldn't say
Um Mercedes isn't safeOf course notIt enabled that but it enabled them to say that conversion shop that you have to take your car to when you bring it into the countrytheir shady and you know, they do shoddy work andit couldlead totragedy anduhtheDefense attorney in that case literally pointed to each person on the jury and said it could have been you it could have been youit could have been you and
You know that resonated with them. So um he was acquitted that gave the car companies the ammunition they needed to
You know paint this as a safety issue and that ultimately created the political will to get the the law passed in 1988umBut yeah that I I didn't know that um I had to go back into uh records and reportinguh that were done during the time andAt the time they didn't realize you know that it would lead to something like thatThey were just reporting on you know a trial of a car crash and uh and the tragic death of a of a young woman
umBut yeah again unintended consequences and and now here we areYeah, and that is crazy, you know, I had always of course heard you knowMercedes Mercedes lobby toTo have that put in because of as you said theIncreased gray market sales and the decreased localized salesBut to know that what actually set it offWas that event in one single event even though I I know there was like a few more where they kind of
Blamed it that were maybe less tragic, but I did not realize thatThey pretty much just pinned the shops which I mean we all know some of these specialty shops do cut corners and and maybe that was the caseBut yeah, I had never realized that at allumSo I mean these are this is just a few tidbits of the expansive knowledge that you can find in the book umAnd hopefully some of our listeners have kind of realized like oh okay, this isn't just a fact book like this is kind of a
You know collaboration of stories that really lead up to todayalmost yeahum, and so let us know soWhere can we find this book where like if if our listeners want need to go get a copy right nowThey're not gonna be able to get a a wangana edition. I'm gonna tell them that
Because those are sold out and I was lucky enough to get mineBut there's still plenty of the white cover books, right?
Correct and uh the story is the same in both versions so you're not missing out on the storyBut you can find the book at my publishing website. It's corara books.com.ca.r.r.r.a
BooksBut also the book is sold widely so if you have a favorite you know online retailerum, you can find it on on most book marketplaces and uh, you knowIf you request it at your library libraries are always looking forNew titles to stock so um oftentimes if you request it they'll they'll bring it in thereIf you'd like to do it that way tooWow, yeah, no, that's a that's a great point. No, of course
We always recommend getting it on your website and skipping uh, you knowThe middleman and that and that directly supports you which we're all aboutum and shout out one more time it was slow car fast is the first book, rightCorrect. Yeah, that's that's the next one on my list. I'm not just saying that this one got me got me hooked
But I can't go too heavy on books, you knowbutSo we definitely it is it is and and I don't like to start something and I don't finish so it really takes meSomething but this this was actually really fast to finish because it really does get youhooked in the sense of what's the next story, you knowHow did these people in Florida end up getting all these cars and get blacklisted and I need to know and you knowI want to know how hero messed this up, you know and and so these different stories really kept me engaged and and that was why
You know when when we were discussing well, who do we have on the podcast first for our first guestIt was almost a no-brainer to have Ryan on because ofHow hooked the book got me, you know his description of this are really going to be engaging and and so we appreciate you being on here today for sureLikewise, man, and thank you guys for for this opportunity and for all you do for the cultureAll right, buddy until next time. Thank you very much. Have a great day
All right guys take careWow that was crazy this guyCan you just imaginehow much research and verification and just traveling and meeting people that this guy did for this one single book? Yeah
Dude since saying must have beenMust have been quite a trip, right? Yeah, so
I mean the process of writing a book already is just like kind of wild butLike a book like this where it's getting likeKind of picked over with a fine toothed comb because GTR ownersDon't want missing information about the car out there and man all I've seen is approval approval approval for this book fromGTR owners that I know from California to Japan. Yeah, yeah
I mean dude read the book and I guarantee you you're gonna learn something. Yeah, you're gonna
You're definitely gonna learn at least a thing or two. Yeah, I totally
And I know you know find him on Instagram again. He gave us
The key to where to find the books try to buy it directly through him that's going to give him more of the end dollarWhich helps him produce more books? Yeah
And yeah, if you have any questionsAsk the man. He's super cool. Yeah, 100% check out his other books as well. Yeah, yeah
I'm planning on doing it. Yeah, and he I did notice he does a lot of automotive articles for a lot of different websites now that
I've been following him and whatnotSo you've probably read something of his new and you and realize it probably yeah, absolutelyAll right, so this is episode 58 our first guest Ryan Zumullen the author of the cult of GTR and until next timeI'm Bobby, this is Aaron.
See ya, peace!
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