Savant Young—former MMA champ and Japan-traveling fighter—breaks down how fighting funded his obsession with vintage JDM cars. He traces his path from South Central karate to MMA, explains why wrestlers are the hardest opponents, and shares the career leap that came after training with Rampage Jackson. The conversation pivots to his LA car community, Vintage Motor Union in Boyle Heights, and how he’s building an inclusive “car district” hub. He also details his “Race Related” beer collabs that generate real funding for racing, plus his RX-3 rotary build plans and a big Cinco de Mayo book-release event.
Joe chats with former MMA Middleweight fighter Savant Young. We explore how Savant went from a young kid practicing Karate in South Central Los Angeles to fighting on the biggest stages in Japan, his love for vintage rotary cars and his current project Vintage Motor Union.
"Chevy Trucks have you covered when the road takes you from smooth sailing to... Chevy Colorado will eat up some of the toughest terrains with five available drive modes, and Silverado and Silverado HD have the muscle to take you out for some serious,"
The Chevrolet Colorado is a smaller pickup truck than a full-size Chevy. The “drive modes” are settings that help the truck behave differently on things like dirt, sand, or slippery roads.
The Chevrolet Colorado is a midsize pickup truck. In this segment, it’s positioned as capable off-road thanks to “five available drive modes,” which typically let you tailor throttle/traction behavior for different surfaces.
"Chevy Colorado will eat up some of the toughest terrains with five available drive modes, and Silverado and Silverado HD have the muscle to take you out for some serious,"
Drive modes are like different “personalities” for the truck. You pick the mode for the road you’re on, and the truck changes how it accelerates and grips.
Drive modes are selectable settings that change how a vehicle responds to inputs and traction conditions. On trucks, they often adjust throttle mapping, transmission behavior, and traction control/4WD engagement to better match the terrain.
"and Silverado and Silverado HD have the muscle to take you out for some serious, with multiple engine options and impressive towing,"
The Chevrolet Silverado is a big pickup truck. People buy it because it can handle heavy hauling and towing.
The Chevrolet Silverado is a full-size pickup known for strong towing and multiple engine choices. Here, it’s described as having the “muscle” for serious trips, which is a common selling point for Silverado trims.
"and Silverado and Silverado HD have the muscle to take you out for some serious, with multiple engine options and impressive towing,"
The Silverado HD is the heavy-duty version of the Silverado. It’s made for jobs that require more towing and carrying than a regular pickup.
The Chevrolet Silverado HD is the heavy-duty version of the Silverado line, built for higher payload and towing demands. In this segment, it’s grouped with the standard Silverado as the “muscle” option for serious use.
"with multiple engine options and impressive towing, while Silverado EV is the perfect combo of performance and capability,"
Towing is when you pull something behind your vehicle, like a trailer. Trucks advertise towing capability because it affects how much weight they can safely pull.
Towing refers to pulling a trailer or other vehicle behind the truck. It depends on the truck’s engine/transmission, cooling capacity, hitch setup, and often the availability of towing packages.
"while Silverado EV is the perfect combo of performance and capability, making it a snap to hitch up this electric truck and hit the road."
The Silverado EV is Chevy’s electric pickup. The point here is that it’s meant to be capable for real-world truck tasks, not just driving around.
The Chevrolet Silverado EV is an electric pickup truck in the Silverado lineup. This segment highlights its “performance and capability” and specifically mentions hitching up, implying it’s designed to be used like a practical tow-capable truck.
"And he's obsessed with vintage JDM cars. He basically fought his whole life so that he could afford them and endured a lot of hardships along the way."
JDM means cars that were made for the Japanese market. “Vintage JDM” means older classic Japanese cars that a lot of enthusiasts love.
JDM stands for Japanese Domestic Market, referring to cars that were originally sold in Japan. “Vintage JDM” usually means older, enthusiast-focused models that have become popular worldwide for their design, engineering, and motorsport heritage.
"Let's talk about cars. How did you get into vintage Japanese cars?"
This means older Japanese cars that enthusiasts really like. The speaker is explaining how they got interested in that world.
“Vintage Japanese cars” refers to older Japanese models that became popular with enthusiasts for their engineering, parts availability, and motorsport heritage. In this episode, the phrase sets up the speaker’s personal connection to cars like the Mazda RX-3 and Nissan 510.
Brand
Tyco
"like the little Tyco race cars."
Tyco is a toy brand. The speaker is saying the Japanese cars reminded them of the little toy race cars they played with.
Tyco is a brand known for toy cars and other consumer products, and the speaker is using Tyco “race cars” as a childhood reference. In context, it’s a vivid way to describe how small and “toy-like” the Japanese cars felt compared to big American classics.
"But I know, you know, they were all into, not only into cars, they were into like customization also. So they would do little things to their cars to kind of personalize them."
Customization here just means people changing small things on their cars so they look or feel more like “their” car. Back then, that was a big part of car culture.
In this context, “customization” means owners modifying small visual or comfort details to make their cars feel personal. It’s a common car-culture theme—especially with older, affordable cars—where styling choices become part of identity.
"And then they really put little louvers on their cars or everybody has some kind of stern wheel cover or whatever."
A steering wheel cover is a sleeve you put over the steering wheel. It can make the wheel feel better in your hands and can also change the look of the interior.
A steering wheel cover is an aftermarket wrap placed over the steering wheel rim for grip, comfort, and protection. In older cars, it was also a common way to personalize the interior and improve feel.
"Or the driving gloves. That was a big deal back then. The little like. The half ones. Half finger."
Driving gloves are gloves people wear while driving to help with grip and comfort. In this story, they’re also part of the “racing” look and vibe people had back then.
Driving gloves are protective and grip-enhancing gloves used by drivers, especially in motorsport or spirited driving. The mention of half-finger gloves reflects a period style where drivers wanted better control and comfort while also matching a “racing” aesthetic.
"[797.0s] And, you know, I was one of those kids that if it moved, we really wanted to be in it.
[802.8s] You know, as I mentioned, you know, we had RC cars.
[806.9s] And then from the RC car, we had mini bikes and go carts."
RC cars are remote-control toy cars. For a lot of people, it’s the first step toward loving cars and learning how driving feels.
RC cars are radio-controlled toy cars, and they’re often a gateway hobby for future motorsport and wrenching interests. They teach basic vehicle dynamics concepts like steering response, traction, and control inputs—just in a smaller, safer format.
"[806.9s] And then from the RC car, we had mini bikes and go carts.
[811.3s] And, you know, from the mini bike and go cart, we like stole our first car at like, you know, 14 or whatever, you know."
They’re talking about smaller bikes and go-karts you can ride. It’s like training wheels for driving skills, and it helps people get comfortable with speed and control.
Mini bikes and go-karts are entry-level motorsport experiences that build real driving skills—throttle control, braking habits, and line choice—before someone ever drives a street car. They’re a common “ladder” for future racers because they’re low-cost and easy to practice with.
"[1312.1s] Like there was like this in surge, this like surge of, um, low-rise cars.
[1318.7s] Low riders.
[1319.4s] Yeah.
[1320.2s] There, which I thought was funny because I saw low riders here at home and I thought, you know, low riders are dope."
Low riders are cars that are lowered to the ground and styled to look a certain way. The speaker is pointing out that Japan treats that style like a car culture, not just a specific stereotype.
“Low riders” are cars modified to sit very low to the ground, often with styling and suspension setups that emphasize that look. In the U.S., the culture is frequently associated with street scenes, but in Japan it can be embraced more broadly as a fashion-and-car hobby.
"[1348.4s] Like who you looking for out here?
[1350.6s] It's funny too.
[1351.3s] Cause like over there, they're taxed on displacement."
Displacement is basically the engine’s size. If a government taxes cars based on that, people tend to choose smaller or different engines to keep costs down.
“Displacement” refers to engine size (how much air/fuel the engine can move, typically measured in liters or cubic centimeters). When a country taxes cars based on displacement, it strongly influences what engines people buy and how common certain engine sizes become.
"So like those big V8s, those have to be like well off.
You know, I didn't even think about that."
A “V8” is an engine with eight cylinders. People often associate V8 cars with bigger, louder, more expensive-feeling vehicles.
“V8” refers to an engine with eight cylinders arranged in a V shape. In car culture, V8-powered cars are often associated with higher power and higher fuel use, which can make them feel “luxury” or “status” oriented.
"Like we have so many JDM cars over here, like right hand drive cars.
Like we have a couple here, this is right hand drive."
Right-hand drive (RHD) means the steering wheel is on the right side of the car, which is common in Japan, the UK, and other countries. It affects driving feel, visibility, and even how cars are imported and serviced in markets that typically use left-hand drive.
"[2309.3s] Were you racing at this point?
[2310.7s] Just street racing.
[2311.5s] Nothing in the realm of like what we're doing now.
[2314.5s] It was just basically, you know, meetups."
Street racing means racing on public roads without permission. It can push people to modify cars for speed, but it’s also very dangerous and illegal.
Street racing is competitive driving on public roads without official sanction. It often leads to cars being modified for quick acceleration and top speed, but it also carries major safety and legal risks.
"And the only reason why I'm really doing that is because it's a race car. And I know I need to know how to build a motor..."
A race car is a car used for racing, not just driving around. Because it’s pushed harder, parts can fail, so being able to fix things quickly matters a lot.
A race car is built and used with competition in mind, which usually means more stress on components and a focus on performance and durability under track conditions. The speaker’s concern about an engine blowing up and needing to fix it at the track highlights how race cars are operated differently than street cars.
"...not be able to like fix it at the track. Yeah, and save money. I mean, now that I'm racing, I'm going broke doing that."
They’re saying doing the work themselves can save money. Racing costs add up fast, so learning to fix things can help keep the budget under control.
The transcript connects DIY engine work to cost control—avoiding labor and shop fees when something breaks. In motorsports, frequent maintenance and repairs can quickly become expensive, so self-sufficiency is a practical strategy.
"They know that we can't race these cars without doing this. So it's kind of like a sponsorship, but it's not like we're just saying, hey, let us put our stick, your sticker on the car and pay us."
Sponsorship is when a brand or business helps fund something (like racing) and, in return, gets exposure. Here, it sounds like it’s not just a logo swap—it’s also about showing what each side brings and helping make the racing possible.
A sponsorship is when one party supports another—often with money, services, or promotion—in exchange for visibility and brand alignment. In this segment, the speaker frames it as more than just putting a logo on a car; it’s tied to demonstrating value and enabling racing activities.
"You have like cut and dry, you know, analytics to give them. [2724.8s] Yeah. That's awesome."
They’re saying they can show proof that the event helped. Instead of guessing, they use numbers to see how many people showed up and how much interest it created.
They’re talking about using measurable data to show marketing impact. In practice, this could mean tracking attendance, sales lift, or social/brand reach tied to the event.
"we need to coin it so that way people can, you know, not that they're not attached to it now, but let's give it a name.
[2901.9s] Yeah. Like, let's give it a name.
[2903.5s] We'll call it the car district."
They’re basically giving a neighborhood a name so people think of it as a place to go for cars. The goal is to bring in visitors and make it feel like an event spot, not just random street parking.
The speakers are describing a neighborhood area they’re branding as a “car district” to make it feel like a destination. In car culture, these kinds of named districts help concentrate events, shops, and community activity so visitors know where to go.
"And, you know, we started, you know, selling shirts,
[3028.4s] doing little small car shows, things that kind of generate money."
A car show is an event where people bring cars to display and talk about them. The speaker is saying they used small car shows to raise funds.
“Car shows” are events where enthusiasts display vehicles and build community. In this segment, they’re described as a way to generate money to support the group’s space and activities.
"Like if it has metal bumpers on it, we you know what I mean?
That's it. It has metal bumpers, a smog exempt.
So we drop the Japanese just to be more inclusive for everybody to be a part"
“Smog exempt” means the car doesn’t have to go through the usual emissions testing rules. For older cars, that can make ownership simpler.
“Smog exempt” refers to vehicles that are exempt from certain emissions testing requirements, usually because they’re old enough or meet specific criteria. This matters for enthusiasts because it can make registration and compliance easier than for newer cars.
"[3223.3s] If there's traffic and you want somewhere to come in and hang out,
[3227.6s] to have a beer, jump on a sim rig, you know, just like a great work day.
[3234.0s] You know, we do that."
A sim rig is a racing video-game setup with real steering wheel and pedals. It lets you “drive” in a simulator, usually for practice or fun, without using a real car.
A sim rig is a home or club setup for racing simulation—typically a steering wheel, pedals, and a screen or VR—used to practice or just enjoy motorsport virtually. In a car-focused community space, it’s a way to keep people engaged even when they’re not wrenching on real cars.
"[3234.0s] You know, we do that.
[3238.1s] In addition to that, we we put a lift in, we have tools here for people
[3243.5s] that want to come and wrench on their own car.
[3246.4s] That's one of the, I guess, things to look forward to having."
A lift is a machine that raises your car up off the ground. It helps you get underneath to do repairs or maintenance more easily.
A lift is an automotive hoist used to raise a car so you can access the underside for maintenance and repairs. Having one in a community workspace makes it much easier for members to do their own work safely and efficiently.
"[3548.9s] That's awesome. I mean, it was it was made there up until like 2003 or something, right?
[3553.2s] Yeah. So this book is going to release that day.
[3556.9s] So we're going to have a Cinco de Mayo party slash book release party.
[3561.5s] So we're expecting to have a pretty heavy VW presence."
Volkswagen is the car company that makes the Beetle. They’re saying the event will have lots of Volkswagen cars there.
Volkswagen (VW) is the automaker behind the Beetle and many other air-cooled and water-cooled classics. The hosts mention expecting a “heavy VW presence,” which signals that the event will feature multiple Volkswagen cars and enthusiasts.
"And we'll always have Japanese roots since we have, you know, prime primarily a lot of Japanese cars. So I think we made the right decision."
They’re saying the group started with mostly Japanese cars. That often means the club’s early members and favorite cars were from brands like Toyota or Honda.
The speaker is describing the club’s origins and focus as primarily Japanese cars. In car culture, “Japanese roots” usually means the community started around brands like Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mazda, and Subaru and the events reflect that heritage.
"Well, Savant, thank you so much for talking with me. I appreciate you. Check out Vintage Motor Union on Instagram or drop by the shop."
They mention “Vintage Motor Union” as the shop you can visit. It sounds like a place where the group hangs out and works on cars.
Vintage Motor Union is referenced as the shop/organization the host wants listeners to check out. For automotive listeners, this is likely the local hub where the club meets and where cars are worked on or prepared for events.
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Chevy Trucks have you covered when the road takes you from smooth sailing to...
Chevy Colorado will eat up some of the toughest terrains with five available drive modes,
and Silverado and Silverado HD have the muscle to take you out for some serious,
with multiple engine options and impressive towing,
while Silverado EV is the perfect combo of performance and capability,
making it a snap to hitch up this electric truck and hit the road.
Wherever the road leads, Chevy Trucks are right there with you.
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Chevrolet Together Let's Drive.
Hey, what's up? Welcome back to another episode of Talk Talk Nation.
I'm your host, Joe Weber, and this week I got to interview Savant Young.
This dude has lived an amazing life.
He used to be an MMA fighter.
He was a champ at one point.
He used to go over to Japan to fight.
And he's obsessed with vintage JDM cars.
He basically fought his whole life so that he could afford them
and endured a lot of hardships along the way.
And now he runs Vintage Motor Union,
and he's part of the up-and-coming car district in downtown LA.
I'm really excited for you to hear it, but before we get into it,
hit like and subscribe if you want more of this kind of stuff,
and hit that little bell so you get a notification every time a new interview drops.
So without further ado, here's my interview with Savant.
I am here at the Vintage Motor Union with my host this week, Savant Young.
Savant, thank you so much for being on Talk Talk Nation.
Thank you.
I did a little bit of snooping, and you were an MMA legend.
You were a champion at one point.
You did a little bit of post-production in video.
You've lived many different lives.
I just want to touch on all those different chapters.
Right now, what's your main bread and butter?
Right now, my main bread and butter is I run an MMA gym in Pasadena called Fight Academy.
That's been my thing for the last 18 years now.
And what I do is I train men, women and kids how to beat people up.
Or I guess in today's world, I got to say protect themselves or self-defense.
But at the end of the day, I'm teaching people how to fight
since that's been my career for a long time.
Cool. So how did you get into MMA in the first place?
MMA for me was kind of like a getaway from LA street life.
I grew up in South Central.
So we were always fighters, so to speak.
And I kind of got noticed by a gentleman named, you know, Urban Jones, who was my first karate coach.
We used to hang out at this rec center called Hoover Park.
And it was one of those places where it was like heavy black gang, heavy Latino gang infested area.
The rec center was kind of like a refuge for all the kids.
And then within that, there was a karate program that this guy ran.
And I always used to like go and watch it.
I would just watch the class for a few months.
And like the reason I watched it because I couldn't afford to do it at the time.
The coach would always notice me coming here same day, same time, watching the class just kind of snooping around or whatever.
So he asked me one day, like, hey, how come you don't ever take the class?
You know, I said, well, honestly, you know, I couldn't afford to take the class, but I think I could beat him.
And it was one of his guys there.
It was like, yeah, he was a brown belt, you know, there.
And he literally gave me a shot to fight him, you know, right then and there.
And and I, and I fared pretty well.
Like he did a little better than I did obviously.
He was trained.
He was trained.
Is brown right under black?
Brown was right under black.
Dude, yeah, that's pretty good.
And I handled my own.
And from that point, he he saw the promise took me under his wing.
And that's awesome.
Now I'm telling the story.
So he was just like, just come doesn't matter.
Don't pay me.
Yeah.
I used to clean the gym.
That's kind of the the etiquette in martial arts gyms, like the young boys got to clean
the gym up.
So I had to sweep and mop and shit after, but I paid my way through that.
That's awesome.
What age were you around?
I started right around 11.
Okay.
Yeah.
Right around 11 years old and never, never look back.
So you're 11 years old.
You're taking karate.
How did you make the leap to MMA?
The karate followed me through high school.
I started, you know, searching for info, looking at books, looking at kung fu books,
wrestling books, Bruce Lee books.
Bruce Lee was probably one of the first actual mixed martial artists.
Yeah.
To date.
That I think he knew.
Inspiration for you?
Huge.
Yeah.
Huge inspiration.
Red books or whatnot on his teachings.
And I got introduced to MMA by a guy that fought in like the first four UFC's guy named
Joe Charles.
Oh, wow.
And he just took me under his wing, took me to another gym.
It was like, you know, I went to, not on the West side, but kind of in like the Hollywood
area.
It was like a gym full of Armenians.
I was the only brother in there, you know, didn't speak the language and shit, but I
was learning how to wrestle and do Sambo wrestling.
And then it just kind of snowballed into MMA.
Wow.
Out of all the disciplines, what's your favorite to study?
Is it still karate or is it?
Has it changed?
Yeah, it's changed since karate was like the inception for me.
But then I really got into kickboxing.
Yeah.
Doing all the things that were, I guess, you know, pertinent to mixed martial arts, being
that I was trying to seek it out as a profession.
I had to learn how to wrestle, had to learn how to box and kickbox and do Muay Thai.
But if I had to pick one, I'm definitely a striker.
I like punching kick.
Hell yeah.
I literally don't know anything about MMA.
I've seen the bigger fights, but like there's always the memes of like the ground grapplers
like in a fight.
It's like, come at me, bro.
And then they immediately like get on the ground.
I've seen the media already doing a little scoot.
Yeah.
They're doing the little butt scoot.
Yeah.
What is your least favorite type of discipline to go against?
Like a dude who knows ground grappling or a dude who knows Muay Thai?
Like who's the hardest person to beat in MMA?
To be honest, I would say the toughest guys to beat in MMA would be your traditional wrestlers.
Like the collegiate style wrestler, the kid from Iowa that's trained in the garage his
whole life.
And they don't necessarily know how to punch or kick, but they can do the lay and pray.
You know, they just play on you and you can't, you know, the goal is to fight.
Yeah.
Right.
But it is MMA.
So I get it.
I can't complain about dealing with a wrestler because that's part of it.
Yeah.
And we both know if we would have stood up, I probably would have knocked him out.
So he just played into his strengths.
And I think that's the beauty of MMA is that.
So wrestlers, they're annoying as f***.
I'm not allowed to.
Yeah, they're annoying.
Would you say that you were an underdog in your career at MMA?
Initially, I probably was an underdog.
There wasn't a lot of training in LA.
You know, MMA started to like find itself in OC or on the West Side.
Yeah.
I'm from South Central, so it was not really a hotbed, so to speak, as far as the training.
Yeah.
And then a lot of people that taught some of the specialized things like Jiu Jitsu,
a lot of Brazilians came here from Brazil, but they kind of like sought out the money,
you know, they didn't take it to the hood.
They took it to where they can get paid the most for it.
That part of it was our tough because I had to travel far just to train until I met a
few people, you know, like Joe Charles and Eugene LaBelle, Gokar, Savitian, some of my
first coaches that were pioneers in the game.
And they kind of really gave me that like, you know, that launchpad to teach me what
was not being taught.
So it sounds like you had a lot of good mentorship in the beginning and throughout your career.
Do you take that over to now this space and racing cars?
Do you like it when kids come in kind of wide-eyed and are like, well, what's this all about?
And do you like to foster that?
Yeah, I do actually, you know, I come from a pretty like a rough upbringing, family-wise.
So it was a lot of people in my life that became mentors or they showed me how to enjoy like,
you know, family parties or birthdays or whatnot.
So I kind of took a lot of those things that were given to me or things that were,
you know, expressed to me, you know, from others that weren't necessarily family.
I took those things and said, you know, these things feel good.
And I knew the effect some of those things had on me as a kid being that, you know, I got,
I've been taken in by people to live with.
I've had a lot of different help along the way to get where I'm at now.
So it made me understand how important that is for another kid, you know, to see that come from me,
you know, if they needed it.
So it's always been kind of like each one, teach one and community has always been a very high importance,
you know, in my life as far as being able to accept that and share that at the same time.
That's amazing.
I really love that mission statement too.
All right.
Let's talk about cars.
How did you get into vintage Japanese cars?
I feel like growing up in South Central, at that time, it would have been a lot of like slabs,
you know, bigger, box Chevy's.
Can't relax and shit.
I wouldn't imagine you see a lot of like, you know, sunnies or a rotary RX-3's down there.
You know, oddly enough, I think LA is the true like hotbed for culture in terms of like styling and just swag.
And, you know, obviously you had your typical cars, right?
The Cadillacs, you had the Oldsmobiles, you had the Chevy's or whatnot.
But I also seen, you know, my uncles had Rotaries.
I had an uncle that had RX-3.
My other uncle had 510.
And so I grew up seeing these cars.
And the thing that they always reminded me of were like the little cars that I would have on like my race track,
you know, like the little Tyco race cars.
I mean, in comparison to like the old Cadillacs, they're like toys, basically.
That's exactly what they looked like.
And I think that was what appealed the most to me was the size and the colors.
The colors were super, super vibrant, you know.
The safari goals.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, the goals, the greens, you know.
And then, you know, my mom bought a car.
I remember her first new car that she bought was like a Datsun B210.
And I remember going to a Datsun dealer and looking at all the cars, you know, this was in like very early 80s.
Did your uncles talk her into that?
Maybe, actually.
I don't know for sure.
But I know, you know, they were all into, not only into cars, they were into like customization also.
So they would do little things to their cars to kind of personalize them.
And everybody did that.
And then they really put little louvers on their cars or everybody has some kind of stern wheel cover or whatever.
Or the driving gloves.
That was a big deal back then.
The little like.
The half ones.
Half finger.
Like my pops used to wear these shits, you know.
He was a squabbler.
So I used to think he just wore them to fight.
But they were actually gloves.
He would actually, you know, drive in.
He had this Audi back then that he drove.
He had an Audi 5,000.
Oh, nice.
That was just like his car he loved, you know.
And that was my, you know, upbringing was always into these different cars that kind of represented the person that drove it.
Just to have those little things in your life that influence you.
It's funny how far that goes.
You know, like you're we're sitting here in front of 510 2002, which I want to talk about later.
This is like one of my dream cars.
But it's so funny how those little things in your formative years, how much of an impact they have, you know.
You never really know until it starts to present itself again and again.
Yeah.
And, you know, I was one of those kids that if it moved, we really wanted to be in it.
You know, as I mentioned, you know, we had RC cars.
And then from the RC car, we had mini bikes and go carts.
And, you know, from the mini bike and go cart, we like stole our first car at like, you know, 14 or whatever, you know.
And then just just for the sheer sake of knowing we could drive a car, you know, it wasn't anything else.
We weren't like bad kids.
You know, we saw a car that was stolen already and we re-stole it because we just wanted to drive it.
And surprisingly crazy enough, man, we took this car and ended up crashing into a police car while f***ing things.
Oh, shit.
Tell me about this story.
A bunch of buddies, you know, we used to just, you know, go around the neighborhood and we saw this car.
It was an older Datsun, you know, surprisingly.
And one of our guys that ran with us was a little bit older.
So we always had one kid that was a little bit older.
That bad influence.
He would get us to kind of do the extra, you know, stuff we probably shouldn't have done.
So we've seen this car in the alleyway and we noticed the ignition was all popped out.
You know, he goes, hey, man, we could probably start this car with a screwdriver.
So we're like, all right, let's just see if we could.
And sure enough, man, this car starts up.
We get in the car and we're literally like driving the car around our block so everybody can see us.
You know, we're like driving up and down our street.
You got to make sure everyone can see you.
Of course. We got to floss, you know, to be driving up and down the alleyways.
Just kind of, you know, literally not too far from where we're at now.
Which is funny.
And we came out of this one alleyway and literally there was like a police car.
We didn't notice it.
We just kind of just shot out and the police car like stopped right in front of us.
And we like bumped the police car and we're like, we just get a police car.
That's it. Yeah.
And, you know, they get out, they knew we were kids.
They get out.
They didn't like rough us up or nothing.
And they literally put us in the back of the car, took us to the house and made sure we got our ass wet.
Oh, man.
It was the best shit ever.
When police were police, you know, and I'll never forget that, man.
Like my mom was so pissed.
And at the same time, you know, she was happy that I didn't get no real trouble.
Plus we were young.
So it weren't, we weren't going to get in any real trouble.
But I think in comparison to policing now and then it was a lot more community involvement.
Yeah.
To actually serve or protect.
Yeah.
Instead of like, make an example.
Exactly.
Exactly.
Yeah.
So that was that.
And but it didn't stray me away from the cars by no means.
I was always in on the cars.
Was it always your goal to afford racing and afford these kind of cars through different types of work?
Or was it like you got sidetracked by MMA and that was your whole shit for a long time.
That was all you were focusing on.
And you didn't really think about cars.
No, these were my two true passions, I believe.
For myself, I've always had some sort of car that I was tinkering on or I wanted or I've kind of just obsessed over.
The martial arts for me just became a vehicle to not work a regular job for one.
Yeah.
Although I had many different jobs.
This was the one that I felt suited me the best because I could just, I mean, fighting was like, man, you can fight and make money.
We used to watch boxing, you know, as a family.
So we knew they would make money, but I didn't.
I knew that wasn't my thing.
I felt I wasn't cut out for boxing for whatever reason.
And MMA feel felt more just more gangster, you know what I mean?
It just felt tougher.
It felt like a cooler thing to do back then.
So MMA became that vehicle that literally just gave me a place.
It gave me a place.
I love the Japanese cars.
I always dreamed of fighting in Japan, which I was able to do.
Yeah, tell us about that.
Japan was a fight for an organization called Shudo, which is the oldest organization to do MMA to date.
They started in 1984.
You would think it's the UFC, but actually Shudo was the oldest org that existed.
So you got to do your dream and you flew over to Japan.
Did you fight for this organization for a while?
I've only fought there a couple of times, but I traveled back and forth to Japan with other fighters that I knew.
Once I started fighting, I would go and corner guys or help guys train for fights.
The few times I went there, I knew that MMA in Japan was a big deal and it was respected different than it was here.
Here you kind of had the crazy dudes in the crowd yelling out shit.
Out there, it was very respectful.
All the fighters were treated like celebrities.
You had people that would wait for you at the airport.
You really are a star in Japan when it came to MMA or combatives and the Sumos would be the biggest.
They're the biggest stars in Japan when it comes to wrestling.
Did you get to see some of those matches?
We did.
I saw a couple of those matches.
It was just crazy to see them in the training.
It was like a different animal.
It was like train and eat.
That was their whole thing.
Train and eat, train and eat.
The bigger they are, the more revered they were in Japan.
Who's the big dude, Yoshimoto?
Yoko Ono.
Yoko Ono?
That's John Lennon's wife.
No, the Yoko Ono.
Yoko Ono?
In Japan, that's kind of like the big sumo.
Like the name.
That's the category.
You're the guy.
But that is John Lennon's.
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So you're in Japan.
You're kind of living out your dream.
Are you while you're there?
Are you kind of scoping cars?
Are you?
Yeah, man.
We, um, we always looked for cars.
Surprisingly, you saw a lot of different cars in Japan, but we noticed cars in like driveways, you know, they would have car toys for sale everywhere.
You scooping those up?
I was scooping all kinds of shit.
Yeah, yeah.
I was definitely scooping stuff.
Um, there were, uh, I didn't get to go any like real car meets.
I was kind of bummed.
I didn't get to do that, but we definitely like, you know, scoped for cars in Japan as much as we could when we had the time to do it.
A funny thing, we noticed there was a bunch of American cars there too.
Like there was like a weird there was like this in surge, this like surge of, um, low-rise cars.
Low riders.
Yeah.
There, which I thought was funny because I saw low riders here at home and I thought, you know, low riders are dope.
And then to see the Japanese drive them and embrace that culture because here low riders are for the gang bangers, right?
Yeah.
For the most part, but you go to Japan and then like they would dress the part and then drive the cars and I would be like,
Are they wearing like the flannels and the chinos and stuff?
All along.
Yeah.
It's hilarious.
And I thought probably you guys got nobody to gang bang again.
Like who you looking for out here?
It's funny too.
Cause like over there, they're taxed on displacement.
So like those big V8s, those have to be like well off.
You know, I didn't even think about that.
Those are like rich guys cosplaying as like LA gangsters.
Yeah, which is hilarious.
Yeah.
And it's also the juxtaposition of like these massive cars right next to like K cars.
Yeah.
Going through.
And scooters and shit everywhere.
Crazy.
It was pretty cool.
It was cool to see though.
I mean, it was a, I guess you could look at it as a, you know, kind of like an old to LA, you know?
Yeah.
We transcend all, we go everywhere.
And we also embrace their culture too.
Like we have so many JDM cars over here, like right hand drive cars.
Like we have a couple here, this is right hand drive.
Yeah.
It's just a mutual respect for car culture going across the Pacific.
I mean, I guess that's just culture in general, right?
If we can embrace each other's, you know, forms of transpose, food, beer, whatever else, you know, then what do we have?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I do want to talk about this beer a little bit later.
This is a collaboration you did with the local brewery.
Yep.
So you're in Japan doing MMA.
At what point did you move back and start doing MMA full time?
I was in Japan back and forth.
I was also working a job.
I used to do some post-production work, just kind of like doing some spot editing.
Yeah.
For a couple of different shows, you know, one being, I don't know if you remember the
show Blind Date.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
I had a couple of friends that were on it.
Really?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I used to work on that show and a couple of different religious shows, you know, which were terrible.
Was that another passion or was that something you just kind of fell into?
I just fell into it, honestly.
You know, I had a homie that worked there.
You know, I was about to have my daughter and I just needed a regular job.
Yeah.
You know, I was, you know, selling weed and shit.
You know, I'm like, Hey man, I need to work, you know.
So I got this job at this post-production spot, just kind of working initially in this
room, just kind of like degausing tapes, you know, just erasing tapes when, you know,
and we had tapes.
Yeah.
Digital now, right?
But, and then I kind of moved from that into like shipping and receiving.
And then from that, they kind of trained from within.
And I started doing this little spot editing, like deck to deck editing on beta cams or whatever.
All while I was still training, still trying to pursue the fighting.
There was one month where, you know, I trained with Quentin Rampage Jackson.
Oh, wow.
Good friend of mine.
We were on teams together.
Yeah.
And he had a big fight coming up and he needed to go away for camp in Big Bear for six weeks.
Is a fight camp up there?
Yeah.
Yeah.
They have a bunch of different places that people will rent out a cabin and then they
have a couple of cabins that'll have like a cage there.
Wow.
And teams would just, you know, bring all their fighters there to work out.
I never knew.
Yeah.
And we, I went there, it was two camps at the time.
It was a Rampages camp and then Tito Ortiz had his camp up there.
And I took a leave of absence from work and I had a fight coming up also.
So I went to Big Bear with Rampage and a team and I got this experience of what it was like
to be a professional fighter.
Okay.
Everything that goes into it as far as like regiment and food and we had a chef there.
Oh, we had, you know, the coaches there, we had all our supplements and shit out.
We went out and ran every day and came back and played video games, sat in the hot tub.
Oh man, that sounds awesome.
And it was just like, and all these dudes were making real money, you know, like I had
my fight coming up.
I was probably going to make like, I don't know, eight, nine grand, maybe 10 grand, right?
But Rampage is getting ready to make like 300K.
Oh shit.
Tito's probably going to make twice that, you know.
And I'm sitting here going, here I am helping Rampage to train for a fight.
I'm in here, you know, sparring and wrestling and doing all the same shit.
And it's the same kind of moment where you see the brown belt and you're like, yeah,
I can do this.
So me and Rampage share birthdays a day apart and I was in camp and I literally called my
job while I was four weeks into camp on my leave of absence and told them, I'm not coming
back.
Oh man.
I'm like, I'm not going back to work.
I called my wife.
She thought I was crazy.
Yeah.
Like what are they talking about?
Big leap.
Yeah.
It was a big leap.
I didn't know what I was going to do.
We just had, you know, my daughter, it was just one of those things that I knew if I was
going to do this, I had to do it like this, right?
Yeah.
There's always that question of, what are you willing to give up for what you want to
get?
And I'm glad I did it because, you know, I won the fight that I was training for at
the time.
And then I got a deal with another organization that put me like on a monthly salary and like
medical and all this shit with TV exposure and that pretty much was that decision.
I think has a huge reason why I'm able to, you know, have this, this conversation.
That's amazing.
I mean, that is scary in the moment.
That's like, you know, your hero called action, do you cross threshold or you stay in your
comfort zone?
Right.
And I think you made the right decision too.
Like who knows where you would have ended up, but I'm glad that you had the wherewithal
to be in that moment and realize the opportunity.
So that you take the leap, you win your first big fight.
Yep.
Is that kind of like reaffirm your choices and you're like, all right, I'm full force
into this.
Yeah, it did.
It kind of reaffirmed those choices.
It let me see what it was like to train full time because I was always, you know, going
to work.
I worked a graveyard shift, so I would like go to work at night.
This is at the video place.
Yes.
Come home, take care of my kid, like wait a few hours, get up, try to go train.
So it was, it was wild.
Yeah, that's horrible.
I would always be in passing with my wife because she worked.
Obviously she had to have the like the real job with the medical benefits and shit.
So we were just in being passing a lot and making that choice gave me like the confidence
of, you know what, if you stick to it, you know, you hear all these things, you know,
stick to it, you can do it or whatever it is.
And it really was that situation for me.
If I hadn't have done it, I think I wouldn't have been respected by a lot of the people
around me that were doing it full time.
I was just kind of in and out.
And then I got embraced.
Guys like Rampage put his neck out for me for other fights, you know, being that he
was a big name in Japan.
And so they knew we were kind of part of that same bloodline that just kind of led one thing
to the next.
That's so cool.
Yeah.
So then you start getting like bigger billions.
You continue to win and at one point like you're moving through weights too, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I fought all over the place.
When I first started out, I fought at maybe a hundred and like 85 pounds and then I fought
at 170 because I didn't really understand the whole science behind like cutting weight
or, you know, finding an optimal weight for yourself to fight at.
And once I realized what that was, then I had to settle in on where I thought I'd be
the most effective and most competitive.
If you lose too much weight, then you're losing muscle mass.
If you put on too much weight, then you're sluggish.
Yes.
Well, the other thing about losing too much weight that people may not know is your body
becomes weaker and you become easier to be knocked out.
You got a little less fluid in you all over.
Less stamina.
Yes.
So and I fought some bigger guys.
I didn't know, you know, I fought at 170 for a few fights and I kept noticing when I fought
at 170 pounds, I'm like, fuck, dude, it looks way bigger than that.
Yeah.
Because we would weigh in the day before the fight.
I would come there.
I'd be like 173 or whatever way.
What's the margin for error?
Is it like three, four pounds?
Zero.
Zero?
You have to be exactly.
You have to be exact on the dot.
So that, you know, led to a whole other thing, right?
Knowing you have to be a certain weight on a certain day at a certain time.
Yeah.
So that kind of dictate how you move.
You know, I miss many Christmas dinners, many Thanksgiving.
I miss all kinds of shit or I'd be at home, everybody would be eating and like I'd have
a little saucer with my plate, you know, because that's just how it was, you know.
And the cool thing about it was the family knew, like my family knew what I did.
So I had supported, yeah, I had a very supportive family in terms of like making sure that I
didn't up, you know, because they know that's how it got paid.
I found my sweet spot was at the hundred and fifty five pound hundred fifty five.
Yeah.
One fifty five.
So you're doing all the way from hundred eighty to one fifty five.
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah.
Which was crazy.
So I had to, you know, fighting and weight driven sports in itself is very rough on the
body.
Like you kind of like destroy your metabolism because you're doing this like multiple times
a year.
It seems unhealthy.
It's very unhealthy.
Yeah.
I'm not going to lie.
I did.
I took one boxing class a while ago over in Eagle Rock and it was I'm not, you know, I'm
an easygoing guy.
It was a little bit more agro than I wanted.
Yeah.
He was really like pushing for me to like take more classes and buy the supplements or whatever.
Yeah.
And I think the turning point for me was when he was like he got in that morning and he
was like, I mean, I was like a minute late or something.
He's on my case and he was like, he was like, I was up this morning at five a.m. like running
eight miles and with like garbage bags all over me and I'm like, dude, that's not me.
He was a jackass.
Yeah.
Like, we, you know what guys like that are guys that never fought.
I guarantee you he probably never fought ever.
He's just a coach.
Yeah.
But I was like, I'm there's no way I'm putting garbage bags on and running eight miles and
doing all that shit.
Yeah.
So then I get paid for it.
Yeah.
It's crazy.
Some of these, some of these guys are wild, man, but the MMA journey for me has been like
one of those that I took it for myself.
I didn't, I didn't like preach this for anybody else to do.
Yeah.
You're not trying to sell like a snake oil.
No, not at all.
It was just my vehicle to get me where I am.
I wasn't just a fighter.
You know, I just so happened to know how to fight.
I hate fighting just in general, you know, but if you put a person in front of me and
say, Hey, who wants to fight for it?
I'm like, okay, cool.
I'm down.
You know, so that was, you know, my, my journey in the, in the, in the sport was to, you know,
take care of my kids, keep me out of your basic nine to five as best as I could.
And you don't seem like an angry person.
No, not at all, man.
I'm, I'm, I'm angry when I need to be, yeah, let's say, let's say that.
Yeah.
At what point did you want to start transitioning out of MMA and what did you start looking
towards to be your future career?
Well, I knew, you know, through MMA, I had, there's always some injuries involved, obviously.
And I remember missing a couple of fights due to injury.
What was your worst injury that you endured?
I guess the worst one would be I tore, I tore my whole like pectoralis in my chest, wrestling
for a fight.
I was dehydrated, getting ready for a fight, a pretty big fight here actually at the Staple
Center.
You know, I had been training a lot and, you know, I went to the gym to teach a class.
And one of the students didn't have a partner to wrestle with at the class.
And I thought, I, you know, and I'll wrestle with the guy a little bit, you know, whatever.
I'm in shape.
I'm fine.
I'm just going to, you know, I feel like all these stories start off with like, it was
not a big thing.
It's always that, I swear.
There's two things they say in a, there's like a omen in the gym, always when you ask
for that one last round, don't do it because that's usually when you get hurt.
And the other thing is don't ever take anybody lightly, right?
Because you never know what they're going to do.
Don't underestimate them.
Do not.
Yeah.
Do not, you know, guys say, Hey, we're just going to go light.
And then you're like, squabbling after that, you know.
So I wrestled with this kid and I heard like, it sounded like a piece of paper, like sheet
of paper torn half.
I do not want to literally like it sounded like that.
You know how that sound is, right?
And he goes, Oh shit, coach, did you tear your shirt?
So I'm like looking around like, I didn't even feel it at first until I started to
feel like my chest kind of go in.
And then I looked at my arm and I had all this purple bruising and shit under my arm.
Because my tendon like went into my chest and then the pain like immediately settled
in and I was just like going through it.
Oh my God.
Went to the hospital right then and got scheduled to have surgery like three, four
days later.
So they literally have to just like sew your muscle back.
Yeah, I have a couple of screws in my shoulder.
They go in your chest to find the tendon that ripped, bring it out, put like an anchor on
your shoulder and then put it back.
So it's not the worst injury to come back from.
But as a fighter, it's bad because you have to be able to throw punches.
So I talked to the surgeon and they said, do you want to fight again?
I'm like, yeah, I mean, it's all I know how to do, man.
So so he like, yeah, so we need to do this.
Because if not, you're going to lose like 40 to 50% of your strength on this side.
Yeah.
So I was like, well, you know, that's easy, easy answer.
Let's just schedule it.
Did the surgery?
I sat out 11 months of recovery.
Oh man, you missed your fight at the Staple Center.
100%.
Big fight.
Missed it.
Is there some sort of like contingency built into the contract for that?
Like in case there, no, you just shit out of luck.
Shit out of luck.
Man, somebody else gets the part.
Man, yeah, which which sucks.
I think in the UFC, they may have something built in now, but that's like
maybe as early as five years ago that you would have won that fight.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, I was going to beat this dude up.
Oh, man.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Oh, that sucks for sure.
But I mean, I made it through.
I made it through the end.
I had the gym at the time.
So the good thing for me as a fighter, I wasn't just bought
into the idea of only fighting.
Yeah, you had diversified a little bit enough.
I had the gym.
The gym kind of kept money coming in.
All I had to do was just sit back and, you know, coach in a sling,
you know, for a better part of a year.
I'm never going to hear paper tearing with.
Oh, my God.
You know, that I mean, I mean, not only that, there was probably
like 30, 40 people in a gym with music on and you could hear it.
And did everyone stop?
People stopped.
Like, oh, my God, what was that?
It was the craziest shit ever, man.
That's great.
And it was at your tendon tearing.
It wasn't your muscle.
Yeah, like the tendon ripping away from the shoulder.
Yeah, horrific.
Yeah, it was pretty bad, actually.
God, this is the point where you're like, all right, I'm going to start coaching.
Yep.
Put more effort into my MMA gym.
Were you racing at this point?
Just street racing.
Nothing in the realm of like what we're doing now.
It was just basically, you know, meetups.
Let's meet up here.
Yeah, you know, that's how a lot of guys race back then.
They would race at like Stadium Way or, you know, in Gardena or a couple of
different to Silmar.
There would be little street racers.
Yeah, yeah.
So those would be like some of the things that we would get into.
Or we would just kind of meet up and do little freeway pools or whatnot.
Yeah.
But nothing organized, nothing that required any type of real driving skill.
I mean, it was all straight line who had the faster car.
So we would always just like build our cars to go fast, straight, not necessarily
think about any type of turning or whatnot.
At this point, are you you're collecting the cars that you've always wanted?
Yes.
Yeah, I had my RX3 back then that I've owned a long time.
I just recently got rid of it.
But I had my car, that car since, man, 97, 96.
Oh, damn.
Yeah.
What got you into Rotaries?
I just love how they sound.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I love the sound.
I took a few rides in a couple.
You know, I've seen some at the street races that were really cool.
And at the the drag track, we used to go to Terminal Island.
I don't know if you heard of Terminal Island.
Yeah.
So we used to go down to Terminal Island and the Rotaries were just like
they were just rowdy, you know what I mean?
Yeah.
And they were like the anti American veered car.
Tiny little rotary revs to 9000.
Yeah, it was cool.
I mean, when they ran, right?
You know, when they ran, they were the best, you know.
Are you teaching yourself how to learn how to work on Rotaries at this point?
I am.
I'm actually going to I'm building a race car right now
that a buddy of mine is doing all the fab on now.
This is an RX3?
The one that you're talking about?
Yeah.
And I'm going to be building my first motor for that car.
And the only reason why I'm really doing that is because it's a race car.
And I know I need to know how to build a motor from round up just to do it on my own.
Like I can reach, you know, I can do anything around a car,
but I haven't necessarily built a motor myself yet.
You don't want to like get stuck at the track, you know, after it blows up
on one run or something, not be able to like fix it at the track.
Yeah, and save money.
I mean, now that I'm racing, I'm going broke doing that.
Yeah.
So I need to learn how to cut out a few people out of your equation.
Sure, which brings us to this collaboration.
Right. Oh, yeah.
Let's talk about this beer for our audio listeners out there who can't see it.
There's a couple cans of beer right here.
Race related beer.
This is a colch.
Yeah, looks delicious.
This is made by what brewery?
Well, the brand is race related, and we kind of went out and created
this community involvement thing with breweries in general.
Yeah. So the two that we've worked with now is one called
Brooke Idiya, kind of like Carnus Idiya.
Yeah, get your meat, but it's like the beer place, right?
And then the other was feathered serpent.
What we did was we figured out a way to support a small business.
We have a very heavy like beer,
kind of sewer presence among our group, our car group.
And we thought, how do we figure out a way
that we can help this business help us race cars?
Hell, yeah, the best loophole.
Yeah, it's so good.
So we came up with the the name race related.
And it's a it's a double entendre.
I love the name.
The name race related is for us all being related as racers.
And it's also a way for us to identify some race related terms
or issues or awareness or things that I think people need to know
about and understand without it being like militant or.
Being so out in the front, right?
It's a way for us to to connect through motorsport
and embrace each other's cultures as it pertains to everyone.
But the vehicle that we're using is racing.
Yeah, I love it. It's cheeky.
It's yeah, it is pretty. I like it a lot.
Yeah, people think it's it's pretty dope.
It has some some legs to it.
And this is our we're going on our third beer now.
And what we do is we contact the breweries,
let them know what we're about, you know, meet with them,
go to their establishment.
We we sit down and agree on what type of beer we're going to try to produce.
And we agree.
We're kind of like consultants in a sense, you know,
so they pay us to kind of come out and do our thing.
And then what we do is come out and do content for them, video for them.
We design the labels and we also host that release party at their brewery.
Hell, yeah. So you bring in a bunch of people,
but give them a bunch of business and you lend
kind of your image and and voice to it.
Yeah, we do exactly that.
What it does, it brings new eyes to their places.
It brings new, you know, eyes to us as a brand from their people that they have there.
And it just shows what community is when you get too small mom and pop groups together.
I love that. And and and connect.
And for us and the tangible is there.
They know that we can't race these cars without doing this.
So it's kind of like a sponsorship, but it's not like we're just saying,
hey, let us put our stick, your sticker on the car and pay us.
Yeah, we're showing our value also in terms of like what we present
and what we bring to the table as far as commerce, you know.
Yeah. And it's a ticket to a different culture that maybe like, you know,
like alcohol and cars. Yeah.
There's not a lot of like ways that they can interact.
Right. In a healthy way. Right.
Yes, so to speak. Yeah.
So it's a good way for them to like get into a different sector
and and do some cool marketing and support your business as well.
And it's really clean.
I mean, we normally what we like to do is let's say the brewery may open up at 2 p.m.
You know, when we go there, we'll say, hey, let's open at noon.
So that way you guys can quantify some of the reach. Yes.
That we have.
And you can literally see what it meant to have us there as you're established.
You have like cut and dry, you know, analytics to give them.
Yeah. That's awesome.
And it's been really good.
And we've, you know, our last two races
have been funded by us doing this.
And we have multiple other breweries that kind of have gotten a wind of it
and seen it and said, man, we want to have you guys come to our place
because we come with these cars, right?
We not only show up, our family show up, our friends show up.
All of our supporters that know what we're doing,
they come and support this, the beer and the brewery as well.
That's awesome. It's a win-win.
I feel like, yeah, there's so much shared interest in both those communities
that like a rising tide with all ships, you know, might as well come up together.
Tell me about this space that went right now.
We're at the Vintage Motor Union.
We're on Anderson Street in the car district, which is is that something that you coined?
Yeah, it is actually the car district.
You know, everybody calls this area the arch district, right?
This we're not literally in the arch district.
We're across the river from the arch district.
This is Bull Heights.
I think a lot of people were whenever they hold something in this area,
they'll kind of coin at the arch district to try to lessen the the sting.
Like, oh, this is in the neighborhood.
Yeah, which is dumb because this is like
arts district is like already so gentrified.
Yeah. And this is like still kind of what it used to be.
My sister, who is a social worker, did a college paper on Boyle Heights.
And I had no idea, but like this neighborhood
was a refuge for Jewish, for Japanese immigrants, for Hispanic immigrants.
Like this neighborhood is so cool.
There's no need to like try to make it anything else.
100 percent.
And that was the thing I kind of sat here one day, you know,
I kind of noticed everybody did that.
Like, oh, it's the arch district.
And I'm like, actually, this is not the arch district.
This is Bull Heights. Yeah.
And based on our neighbors on this particular street, you know,
we have lean customs, we have art of attack.
We have our neighbors next door, big time.
I kind of thought, man, this is really the card district.
This is kind of like the the La Brea or the Fairfax of cars.
Yeah. So, you know, you've got Meyers Street right down like a little.
Yeah, like, whereas if you've ever, if you're not from L.A.,
and you've seen, you know, a bunch of low riders or a bunch of like.
Yes. Cars in front of the L.A. Skyline.
There's a good chance that it was taken on Meyers Street.
100 percent, which is, you know, like right down the block.
Yeah. You know, so this area in general, I felt
we need to coin it so that way people can, you know,
not that they're not attached to it now, but let's give it a name.
Yeah. Like, let's give it a name.
We'll call it the car district.
I talked to all the neighbors, you know, talk to all our neighbors and say,
hey, we want to do this thing, what you guys get on board
and do a monthly car activity.
And the main reason for, you know, my wanting to do it was
we need to kind of create some commerce, you know,
because if you didn't know about this, there's not a lot of foot traffic.
There's not any foot traffic.
So and we got rent to pay and we got to race cars
and we got to sell t-shirts and shit, you know, so so we thought,
how do we get people to come here and recognize it as a destination
that they would want to visit, you know, throughout the year?
So the car district was born.
I love the neighbors loved it.
You know, you're a marketing genius.
I'm really like the name, you know, I guess I'm learning.
I'm learning on the way.
Well, I love how many hats you wear, man.
Like every passion that you have, yeah, you go full force into it
until you're an expert and I really love that aspect of you.
Yeah, that's I mean, I don't know any other way to go about it.
I think a lot of people try to be things that they're not.
And for me, I just say, you know what, I'm going to do what I love.
And if I can get paid to do it, then I'm a genius.
And you don't have asked things, too.
I feel like this goes back to when you first took the leap in the MMA.
You're like, you could have gone the safe route.
Oh, yeah. And just stayed in the edit bay.
Yes. But you took the leap and it worked out.
And I feel now it's coming back full circle.
It is where you're doing video content again.
Yes. Do you want to talk about that at all?
Like what's your approach to your content?
A couple of different approaches now.
What we're trying to do now is create a not necessarily content for ourselves,
but kind of content of what the community entails.
Yeah. Right.
People thought we were crazy when we came and rented this space,
not knowing how we were going to pay for it or what we were going to do.
And, you know, we started, you know, selling shirts,
doing little small car shows, things that kind of generate money.
And we kind of moved past that and said, you know what,
let's make what we have more of a club and more of something to where
other people can support it as their own.
So now, you know, Vintage Motor Union has become this hub for the culture.
And my goal now is to capture all what's good within that culture.
That's all the real things.
Yeah. So for anyone who is not familiar,
you used to be called Vintage Japanese Motor Union.
And now you drop the Japanese because, I mean, we have a BMW
floating above us right now.
But when did that change happen?
This year, actually, 2026 New Year's Day, we do a really big
New Year's Day gathering. Cool.
And it had been something that I thought about for a while.
And people would always kind of like fumble up on saying our name.
It would be Motor Union Japanese Vintage.
Or we were VJMU for short because we thought that was easier for people.
Which is also a mouthful.
It is, right? Yeah.
So and then all our friends, you know, to be, you know, very honest,
a lot of our friends have other cars, you know, porches and alphas and beamers.
And we we raced this BMW.
My father-in-law does.
So we thought, you know what, this year, New Year's Day would be the day to just say,
we're just going to put it out there, see how people receive it.
Yeah. And surprisingly, you know, we had one or two people that were like,
but you know what, I mean, for one, we're not Japanese.
We love the car, but we're not Japanese.
And number two, our true passion is all the old cars.
Like if it has metal bumpers on it, we you know what I mean?
That's it. It has metal bumpers, a smog exempt.
That's our thing.
So we drop the Japanese just to be more inclusive for everybody to be a part
of what we what we have.
And I think as the time goes, we're going to like continue to build our,
you know, build that brand a bit more.
I like that. I like, you know, obviously, inclusiveness is great.
The car community can be gatekeeping.
Yes. Especially vintage stuff.
Like, you know, not even just being priced out of old cars.
The if you're not an expert on all these old cars, like it's kind of hard to talk
to people without, you know, having a little bit of condescension here and there.
So I love that you're being more inclusive.
You're you're developing a different community that's bigger.
It's broader. I fully support you guys.
I don't that's not really a question.
But yeah, I got you.
All right. So if someone was interested in becoming a member
at the Vintage Motor Union, what can they expect?
Besides being part of the L.A.'s group, you know, what we're doing is
for members at the space, it's becoming somewhat of a co-workspace.
So if you need a spot to come in, drop in here.
If there's traffic and you want somewhere to come in and hang out,
to have a beer, jump on a sim rig, you know, just like a great work day.
You know, we do that.
In addition to that, we we put a lift in, we have tools here for people
that want to come and wrench on their own car.
That's one of the, I guess, things to look forward to having.
And then I think the main thing is
everybody that's a member here, we allow them one event here a year.
So let's say let's say you wanted to host your birthday party here
and you were a member and you didn't have a space for that.
This place will always be available for that.
That's an amazing perk.
And what we're doing is.
This is kind of like a community center.
We're not looking at this as a business like that's mainly for gain.
We just want it to be a business that sustains itself and allows
us the ability to come here when we want.
That's cool.
And and and support it through that.
So I think all the people that are joining, they kind of get a sense of that.
They kind of get a sense of like, these dudes just want to race cars
and hang out here and I can help facilitate that by being a part of it.
And and by being a part of it, you have access to use the space.
You have access to any like ticketed things we may do, whether it's here
or somewhere else, and you also have this network of people within it.
You know, we have people that are mechanics or other shop owners or welders.
Everybody here kind of has this kind of like this allegiance to help each other.
That's awesome. Within the club.
So I'm proud of that because there may be a guy that come here
that doesn't know anything about a car and.
Won't be afraid to ask a question, because, you know, most car guys,
they act like they know everything, you know what I mean?
When some of them don't, right?
And and I won't say I do.
You know what? I don't know. I have no problem asking.
And I want other people that come here to feel the same way.
Like if you don't know about your car, let us know will help.
Yeah. If you want to learn about your car, put it put it on the lift
and we can all hang out here and help you do it.
Or tell you what to do if you want to put your own hands on it.
So that is, I would say one of my dreams is to have a space like this
and a network of people like that, because like there's stuff.
Obviously, you can't find on YouTube, of course, especially with these old cars.
Like, you know, if you're trying to rebuild an old old rotary or something,
there's especially not everything online.
You know, no, not at all.
And I mean, and there's a there's a whole lot of clubs, right?
Like I see these other places, I see these other bigger brands
creating the whole club atmosphere and whatnot.
But I think where we differentiate is you see who's in front of it.
You can always touch it.
You know, you can see who's behind it and what's going on.
There's no like ulterior motives.
No, everything's out in the front. Yeah.
Yeah. What we're doing is what we do.
And we're not trying to like snake oil anybody into supporting us at all.
I love that. You're very upfront about being like,
yeah, look, we're selling beer so we can race.
And I think everyone resonates with that.
You know, yeah, even the guys at the track love it.
They're like, man, we see what you guys are doing.
It's fantastic. Why?
I didn't think of that 30 years ago.
Like, hey, you know, market 101, I guess.
I love it. I hope more people following your footsteps
because there needs to be more spaces like this where it's accessible.
There's a network of people that, you know, have different
expertises, yeah, a shared sense of like taste and love of cars.
I love it. Well, it's not always about what they can get out of it.
Right. It's always it's like, what can we put into something
and see where it goes?
I think that's the most alluring part of this is like,
you don't you don't have like
this need to sell a million shirts or like sell an idea of a lifestyle
that people don't really resonate with.
Like it's just a hangout spot and it supports a really cool hobby.
And everyone has a shared interest and we all have our own careers anyway.
So it's not like we're, you know, starving to do live.
We just want this thing to grow its own roots and just let it be what it is.
And then however we navigate through it to help the community.
And that's what we'll do. Hell, yeah. Yeah. That's awesome.
Well, when can people come down here?
What when's the next big event?
Our next big event of Cinco de Mayo weekend will be here on
May 3rd, Sunday, May 3rd.
What we're doing that day is we'll be releasing that book
It's a book release party called Vocho's Unilos in the book.
It's like a picture book about the Volkswagen Beetle
that was shot all throughout Mexico.
That's awesome. I mean, it was it was made there up until like 2003 or something, right?
Yeah. So this book is going to release that day.
So we're going to have a Cinco de Mayo party slash book release party.
So we're expecting to have a pretty heavy VW presence.
Awesome. There was a couple last time in that alley over there.
Yeah, they all show up.
And that's the reason why we kind of went with changing the name
because we have such a diverse group of cars that show up to events.
So I think we made the right decision.
And we'll always have Japanese roots since we have, you know,
prime primarily a lot of Japanese cars.
But we're definitely open to support all all makes models.
Awesome. Long as they're old.
Hell, yeah.
Well, if people can't make it to that, there's always they can just drop by.
Yeah, we are going to have some normal hours.
We usually hear on the weekends,
most people follow us on social media and we're like post days
that we're going to be here for the week or, you know, day of or whatnot.
For all of our members that join the club,
they have access to come here when they need.
All they have to do is just schedule and let us know.
Yeah. And we can let them come in and do their thing before the masses.
Usually the weekends are the best time to catch us here.
Well, Savant, thank you so much for talking with me.
I appreciate you.
Check out Vintage Motor Union on Instagram or drop by the shop.
Become a member, support Savant and their racing habits.
And it is a habit.
Yeah. Yeah.
If you're interested in training for MMA, where is your gym?
My gym is called Fight Academy and I'm right in the heart of Old Town Pasadena.
Hell yeah. So check that out.
Thank you for watching and listening.
Follow me on Instagram at Joe G Webber, follow Donut Podcast.
We got a bunch of really cool stuff happening right now,
including the new season of Pass Gas, which is on the golden era of JDM.
Keep it juiced. I'll see you later.
Yes.
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