Suppy on $100k Hondas, NYC Street Racing Tales, Custom Building and Selling fish!? VV011

S2 E11 === Welcome back to yet another episode of Very Vehicular. I'm your host Brian Scotto, and today I have a long time friend of mine joining the show. Most people just know him as Suppy. He is one of the most talented builders I know.

He's been active in the space since the turn of the last century. Today we talk about everything from our misadventures in the New York Street racing era, the evolution of the DIY builder, and obviously our time together at Hoonigan, as well as what he is up to now.

Plus, he even reminds me of the craziest project with NASA that never happened. It was great to catch up with Suppy. He's always got plenty to share and lots of insight, even if he doesn't care much for conversation.

Enjoy the episode, and as always, big thanks to our title sponsor, Vyper Industrial. What's up, Suppy? What's up, man? How you been? I been all right. Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot to catch up on. It's been a couple years.

Uh, yeah. I mean, like, I saw you for my birthday, but like, we didn't really like talk about life. Well, there was like a million people at the house. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So, um, yeah.

Do you drive anything fun here today? No, man. You know, I was gonna ask you that. I know, I know. I, I, I, I left the house. I was like, should I drive a car? It's like, no, it's still damn far.

I just drove the boring TSX. So it was just What, what is like your current collection right now? What do you still have? Do you still have the, the FJ 60 I, that is the car I'm always gonna keep, so I'll always have the FJ 60.

I have the Integra, I have the nine three, the NSX, um, and then the Boring cars, which is the TSX, the Rivian. And I just bought the FD back. Oh really? Yeah. Like Oh, interesting. Like on the way here.

Wait, on the way here. You bought it? Yeah, like my, like you were coming, you're like, the energy of Scotto is I have to buy a car. I appreciate this. Well, I got rid of one car and there's a hole in the side of the house right now.

So I'm like, I have to feel that. This is the LS fd? Yes. Okay. Are you gonna keep it Ls? No. So what are you gonna do? I'm gonna actually put a K motor back in. I'm gonna put a K motor in it back. I'm not back in it, but in it.

In it. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Um, all right, we'll, we'll, we'll get to that. Yeah. Yeah. So, so here's actually a topic that I wanna start on. Okay. 'cause. A lot of people obviously know you from the days of Hoonigan.

Yep. Yeah. But like, you're like old, like you're ancient. Like you've been doing this forever, right? It's not that old. Not that old. Yeah. Yeah. But I've been doing it for a while. But you, you, you just look young.

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So if you are ready to step up your tool game, whether it's the Zyklop Ratchet or the Joker wrenches, find [email protected]. Uh, we've been talking one of the like, ongoing themes on the pod is this idea that YouTube has pushed everyone to build like ridiculous, like builds that don't make sense.

Mm-hmm. That like the regular build that like we all grew up with, which was like, you know, B 16 swapping a Civic, or VR six, swapping a golf. Like those things are like not cool enough anymore. Yeah.

That people now have to put like the craziest thing in the craziest thing. And then it occurred to me as I was thinking about things to talk about with you today, that you were doing that before YouTube because you tried to put an rb mm-hmm.

Into a Ferrari 360. Mm-hmm. Before there was Instagram. Yes. Before there was, I mean there was YouTube, but like you didn't know about it. I didn't know it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I did that.

I did. So you were already doing like, so maybe, 'cause I'm trying to figure out who's to blame for this. And I thought it was, I thought it was maybe Mike Burrows uhhuh, like trying to build like F forties, uh, stuff like that.

But I realized like you were, you've always done this. Yeah. You always liked the ridiculous build. Yeah. Like, I, I think I did that to that, that rrb uh, 360, I think it was like 2008. Yeah. 'cause that was in zero to 60 magazine.

Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. It was 2008. I think I did. I don't know. Did that ever, did you ever finish that market? No, I ended up selling the car. Oh, okay. Um, 2008. I don't know. And what was that?

That was a, it was a challenge, Ali. Yeah. That I sold the motor out of to another client. 'cause he had a challenge, Ali, that he blew up. And then it was just, I had a couple RBS laying around. So it, and it went, yeah.

Like I got to a point where the engine training was together and then like it was in the car. I started wiring it and then like, I needed the money. So I ended up selling the car. Yeah. And this was like 2007, 2008.

Yeah. Yeah. And then I, I did the, weren't I? Where were some key features at? 'cause didn't you like paint? The valve covers were like green, right? Yeah. I painted. Yeah. Yeah. You remember?

And you had like tota straps in it, like Yes. Yes. It was very, I I tried to make it very JDM, which nowadays I think is something like that. You're like, oh, I feel like you've seen that. Yes.

But back then nobody was doing it. Nobody. Yeah. Yeah. Like I had work wheels on it. Yep. I had a, I just had a work wheels on it. Yeah. It had tota belt in it. Um, I had, um, I, I still can't say it right.

Is it bride or Bri? Whatever. Bri, yeah. At least I think so. I whatever someone will correct us as the internet does. I had those seats in the car. It was, uh, yeah, it was like a very JDM build.

Yeah. And because the other day I did an episode with Vinny where we were like talking about how the 360 is like really affordable now and it wasn't then. Yeah. Yeah. It was still a hundred thousand dollars plus car then, right?

Yeah. Yeah. When you guys, when you had that And that car, I think is one of the things that, one of the reasons I wanted a 360. Yes. Like, 'cause it was just like, it was bat shit looking. Yeah. It had a roll cage in it.

Yeah. You remember that? Yeah. Because it was an actual race car, right? It was an actual race car. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And we could only drive it around like, it, it didn't even have a real Vin. Right.

So like, we drove it around and so it was actually just a challenge then. Not Astra Yeah. It was a challenge. Yeah. Just a challenge car. Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. So you decided to put an RV in it.

Yeah. Why not? Yeah. So I, I wanted to kind of jump a bit into. Like origin story for you. Okay. I actually try to avoid origin stories on this pod. 'cause I feel like a lot of the guests that come on, all they ever do is tell their origin story Uhhuh.

But like you were this man of mystery that like, I think to the internet, you didn't exist before you started working in Cogan. Yeah. Yeah. And I wanna go back to, um, I wanna go back to this thing. It was like sport compact car uhhuh.

And it was a list, I don't know if you remember this, but it, I wanna say this was like maybe early two thousands. Okay. And then they were like, it was like a top list. Mm-hmm. And it said top five builders of all time.

And in the list was like, it was, you know, like, like step papas, right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And like, you know, all Vinny 10, like all these like really well-known names and the last one said, and a guy named Suppy from Queens, RRP M.

And obviously I knew you at that time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But like, you always lived in this weird outskirts of like, you didn't want publicity. Yeah, yeah. Like you just built your stuff Uhhuh. But I don't even know if like, like our roads connected because of C&M.

Yeah. Which was a Volkswagen. Yep. Yep. Tuning shop. Mm-hmm. And they somehow convinced you to weld shit for them. Yeah. And that's how I met you. But you were doing Honda stuff before that? Yeah, and I also, oh, oh wait, maybe I met you through AI design.

I don't actually remember. I don't think we ever ran into each other there. Right. I worked on, I worked on their stuff also. Um, they let me drive your GTR once. Yeah. I, I, I heard And then like, I don't think we've ever ran into each other there.

Uh, I think we did run into each other at, I think it was like a gas station that C&M was like working out of or something. Oh yeah. The one out in Long Island. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The uh, so, but where did it all start for you?

So like, it started with you Hondas is where it started. Started with Honda stuff. Um, you know, my dad like, bought his first new car for himself was a CRX. And I was like, that was the coolest thing in the world, you know, they're still pretty damn cool.

I know. Thank, thankfully he didn't buy a Volkswagen. Imagine where I'd be right now. You'd be like me. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, he bought that and then I was like, man, that's the coolest thing in the world.

And then that's how like that Honda thing started for me. So, and like, so like, talk about some of the Hondas, like what were some of the things you did? So I think, I think one of the first things I did was this was holy shit and give the years.

'cause you know, a lot of the people who listed to this pod weren't born yet, so, holy shit. I'm not even kidding. So I remember the CRX was a 1985 CRX. Okay. So this is 85. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so my dad bought that and I, I, I.

I think, oh shit, I don't even remember how old I was. I'm not trying to do the math right now. Um, by the way, I cross shop the CRX with my golf. Like I could have, I could have gone a very like pragmatic normal life and instead I got You got to golf instead.

Yeah. Yeah. Like, I chose between the two. Actually, I wanted, I really wanted to Land Rover Defender Uhhuh, and I realized how expensive they were, uhhuh, so I didn't get that. And then I was looking at a CRX and then I, uh, between a rabbit and, and a c and then my parents were like, you should have like a newer car with airbags.

So I bought a Oh, you a cx? And they were like, we'll, split the money. So I bought a golf. Oh, okay. Yeah. I bought the golf with airbags and then I immediately took the airbags out and put a MoMA wheel in.

Yeah. So anyway, continue on Joe. Like, I think my first car was an 84 CRX. Um, I bought Crash. Do you remember that, that magazine, that it wasn't a magazine, it was like a newspaper circular thing.

It was Car Buyers Market. Of course. Remember, car Buyers Market was like Marketplace. Yes. Analog. Yes. It was like it came out once a week. Yes. It was so good. So, and it was free. Yes. But you had to go find it.

Yeah, so my, my local like corner bodega always had 'em. So I was in there every week. This is probably high school when I, you know, um, I worked at a pet shop in high school and I remember like. I would buy these small fish.

They were called Arowana Yeah, right. And back in the day, like you could buy a small one for like 15 bucks, and then every Asian Chinese food or whatever store had a arowana that was big. And that was like their good luck charm.

Okay. Right. So if you, you know, back in the day. So I would raise them and then sell them for like hundreds of dollars. What type of, is it like a, what kind of fish? Is it like a tropical? Yeah, it's like a tropical freshwater fish.

Okay. Like a beta or No, no, it's like, it's called a silver arowana. Okay. So it looks like a big, long thing like that. It, it's silver. It's got some, some, it looks cool. Okay. It's a, so it's some very like good luck.

Okay. So I would buy them for 20 bucks and then I would have this big fish tank at my parents' house. I didn't pay any electricity, I didn't pay any water bills. So it was great. So I grew them for six months to sell them hundreds of dollars.

How old? This was 16. I was So you were hustling early? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like the only way I bought, I bought my first car selling fish. This is a story I didn't know. Yeah. So like, so I saved up enough money, I bought A CRX and then the getting back to the car buyer's market, like in the back.

You remember there were the rebuildable section? Yeah, of course. Yeah. So that's where I was, that dreams were made. Yeah. That's where I was Exactly right. So it was like I could rebuild that and at the time I was like, yeah, I could do that.

And, and for the people who were born after Yeah. You know, late nineties. Back in the day, you'd have to actually go through a printed classified and make a phone call. And these people, it wasn't like there was like 19 photos to scan through.

Oh yeah. And all this, it was probably like less than a hundred characters. Yeah. It would just, and they, everything would be e like shortened to Yep. So it'd be like, it'd like V-L-K-S-J-T-A. You're like, I think that's a Volkswagen Jetta.

What? It's like runs bring tow truck. You're like, wait, what? What was great was in the back. It was such a shitty thing that like it was black and white. Oh yeah. And only the expensive cars were in color.

Right. The cars you and I weren't interested in were in color. Yeah. The cars we wanted were like the little fine print in the back. Yes. Yeah. And you would've no idea what you're showing up to. Nope.

You would drive sometimes hours, like to Connecticut or Pennsylvania and you'd show up and you'd be like, wait, that's not what the ad said. Yeah, yeah. A completely different car. Yeah. Or something else is messed up.

But yeah, I ended up buying an 84 C Rx that was crash in the front. So what was great about the CRX was everything in the front was plastic. Mm-hmm. So I'm like, fuck. So I took a bunch of like fish tank hoods, you know, um, they were plastic.

I was cutting them up, gluing back together. And then, um, I took it and we painted it at the school, which was Edison High School, across the street, you know, at the shop. You went to Jamaica High. I went to Jamaica High.

And then, um. Jamaica, Jamaica High was across the street from Edison. Yeah. Oh, I know Edison. Yeah, Edison had, so I went to Malloy and every day at Malloy you tried to get out of the train fast enough so that the kids from Edison and Jamaica High wouldn't rob you because we were all right next to each other in Jamaica, Queens, there's, there's no more Jamaica High School now.

Oh, okay. Now it's a charter school, whatever it is. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, it's probably hard to get into now, but back in the day, oh yeah. Like if you lost a jacket on the e train, it's probably at Edison or Jamaica High.

Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was rough. Yeah. Yeah, it was rough. But yeah, so I went, I went to Edison for the shop classes, taking autobody stuff. So I took the car there, we painted the car. I ended up selling the car.

Then, um, that was like the first flip, right? That was actually my first car, my first flip. And then I got, um, it was a Honda Accord. Um, it was the si we had the, the hatchback accord. Yeah. It was called the LXI.

Mm-hmm. So it was fuel injected. And I was like, man, this thing's fast. Whatever. Back then everything fell fast. Yeah, yeah. It was like, oh, menacing is fast. Yeah. Um, and then I was like, I wonder if I can make it faster.

And at the time, like it was fuel injected, so I was like, what the hell is this shit? You know, took the fuel injectors off and I got a set of carburetors off of something. I forget my, some side drafts.

I think it was off a bike. Right. Yeah. And then that was like my first modification, my first like. Introduction into modifying car. Oh, it ran like shit. It was so bad. It was so, and where were, where were you living at the time?

Queens. Okay. In Jamaica, Queens. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, so you were like going out to Franny Lew? Oh yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. Like that was the test strip Frannie Lew. 'cause Franny Lew was like five minutes from my house.

I can't imagine something like Francis Lewis Boulevard existing today. No. For everyone listening. Frances Lewis Boulevard was this road in Queens and it was sort of incredible because it went on for miles.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And I mean, every night of the week somebody was cruising. Yeah. But on Fridays and Saturdays Yeah. It was, I mean, it was packed. Mm-hmm. But it got to a point where, I mean, like, this isn't, like most street racing in New York City happened in the background.

Like Flatlands, right. Conduit, Maurice Ave. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Like these are industrial streets that nobody's on. Mm-hmm. Francis Lewis Boulevard is a major artery in that section of Queens. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

There are normal people driving home from wall bounds. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. The seven 11 was the, the, the meetup spot right at the corner, remember? I know. And there was, I mean, there would be hundreds and hundreds of cars and eventually it got to the point where you would see trailers unloading Yes.

Full nine second race cars. Yep. Outside of St. Francis Prep. It was amazing. Yeah. Right in front of a high school. And the cops really didn't do much. No, no. They would just run patrol.

Mm-hmm. And it was kind of cool. And then they eventually did crack it down. Yeah. After Fast and Furious. But like pre Fast and Furious. It was sort of just this like amazing thing. Yeah. I mean I remember going there as a kid before I even had a driver's license.

Mm-hmm. Like riding with friends over there and like just watching from seven 11. Yeah. Or from any of the other spots or the diner and Yeah. And all that. So it, I, it's funny 'cause I forget about that.

'cause I feel like nowadays, like now they got takeovers, which is just trash and mm-hmm. Running everything. But like, there isn't that weird in between. Like DPA was another good one. Yes. Out Long Island Park Avenue.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, not DPA is funny because now all the car shops are moved out to Day Park. Oh. So like it's, I mean, they don't race there anymore. I don't think they do. Yeah. Even DPA, it was never like, big, big racing.

Yeah. It was like stoplight racing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was like old fashioned hot rod style. Like Woodward style. Yeah. Yeah. Light to light kind of racing and, but it was just rad. And you would just cruise.

Yeah. Yeah. Man, I miss that so much. I was like, but I haven't seen any other than going to Woodward Dream Cruise. Yeah. I just don't feel like that exists at all anymore. I don't know. I've been outta the scenes for so long.

I dunno. You're like, I don't know. I'm old. I drive, I drive to T sx, I drive a T SX to and from, I'm good. Before the pod started, Suppy was like, as I get older, I want to drive fast, less and less.

Yeah. And I am fully there. Yeah. I'm fully there. I, I just wanna be like, get to my destination. I'm like, detuning cars now. I'm like, you know what would be really cool if this car had 200 less horsepower?

So, so that's the fd. I'm like, I don't want to drive it with an LS three anymore. So, so talk me through the K series. Whatcha gonna do for it? So, K series, the fd, I think I ruined it, right? It was a good driving car before we were, you remember, I don't know if you remember this, when, when we were still doing this versus that.

Mm-hmm. And then Rob Dahm has his Corvette. Yep. He put a rotary in and we were supposed to race my FD versus dom. I remember that. Yeah. And I was like, I'm not fucking losing. Right. So I was like, I'm gonna take this car apart.

It was great. You know, it, it had like a mild camon and everything. And then I, I call up Zac. I'm like, Zac, I need a set of heads. I need the biggest cam you got, I need nitrous, I need all that stuff.

So Zac sends me this head package now it like, it's, it's chopping and, and like, oh yeah. And I'm like, fuck, I gotta put a clutch in it. I put nitrous in it and I, I regear it just to do the quarter.

I completely ruined that car and it drives so terribly. And you never ended up racing Rob? No. So you did all of that for nothing. For nothing for nothing. It's funny 'cause a lot of the audience hated this versus that.

Yeah. 'cause they missed just the original banter from Yeah. Yeah. I think we all enjoyed making it though. Mm-hmm. Because it was kind of fun. Like, it was like every, you never knew what was gonna happen.

Yeah. We were always like kind of side betting on cars. Mm-hmm. But there was this period of time where I think everybody wanted to build a fast all wheel drive drag car. Yes. Like there, 'cause I remember that was really what you were looking at the Integra for.

Yes. Yes. Like once I realized that the Audi coup Quatro, I'd built something that would never turn properly, I was like, well it could always be a drag car. Drag car. Right. Obviously Zac built the Tahoe.

Yes. Yes. Like, it's funny 'cause we all, and then none of us ended up racing our own cars. I know. We never did anything. It all left before that. So. Yeah. I, I think this verse is that like I got this whole car set up.

So this verse is that ruined ruined it. The car ruined and then I ended up like, I hate driving it. I'm gonna sell it to my friend. And then he's old too. He's old ag to me, and he's like, I fucking hate driving this car.

Soie. I actually don't know how old you are. I know you're, I think you're older than me. Uhhuh. But you could be anywhere between 35 and 55. Like you live in that. You live in that like kind of sweet, you know, thank your jeans for that.

Like, I clearly look like I'm in my forties. You just don't, it's great age people, you'll age overnight. We all know that. Yes. Yeah. It's like one day doesn't wake up one day. Yeah. It's like Crip keeper, you know what I mean?

Like fucking haggard humped over. I'm actually gonna turn 50 this year. I thought you were 50. That was my guess. That's fucked. Yeah. Like, I, I can't believe I made it this long. Yeah. My father-in-law said to me, um, he's, he's like approaching 80.

Mm-hmm. He's like, the weirdest thing is you, at a certain point you stop feeling older. Mm-hmm. He's like, you kind of are just like a 30 5-year-old. Yes. That's the way it's trapped in an old man's body.

Yes. And then I'm like, I'm starting to realize that now, like, there's a moment where you just kind of don't get older and you're Yeah. You just stay there. Like, the guys that work for me, they're, they're like 25.

Yeah. I'm like, fuck, who's working for you right now? Um, so Grimmm's over there, Grimm is still there. Yeah. Grimms with me and I have this guy, um, I have two other guys. Is Derek. Derek came from, um, Ford dealership.

Mm-hmm. Uh, also a Porsche guy. Um, and I have Jan Sel, which he is actually an accountant. Um, he lived in San Diego Okay. For a year he would drive from San Diego to Santa Fe Springs to come to work every day.

That's horrible. That's fucking. That is terrible. Yeah. But he did it. And he loves, he loves the car, he loves learning stuff. So he's a good kid. Yeah. I was going to ask you to bring Grimm with you.

Mm-hmm. But it like, this is an audio format. Yeah. It'd be weird 'cause he just makes faces and like, nobody who listens would understand what he was saying. That Grimm is still Grimm. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah.

Nothing's changed. Huh? Nothing has changed. Just sits at his, just enjoys plasma cutting things. Yes. Yeah. Do you guys have a mill? We have a C NNC now. So he is pretty excited about that, I'm assuming.

Yes. That was, that was like his new thing. He was like there for, for the late nights, just trying to figure out how to make it work. So yeah, we just, he's a special genius. I miss him. I would always just like do like these little cardboard like brackets.

Yes. And I just leave them on his desk. I, I remember And he'd come in in the morning. Yeah. And I could just hear him cursing under his breath. But then at the end of the day, it would, it would be there, it would be there, it would be better than my cardboard bracket.

Like he would re-engineer it. He never trust my measurements, so he always go and remeasure it. But, you know, it was like the thought that counted, you know? Yeah. It's al it's the same Grimm. He'll complain about it, but he'll do it.

And then be happy about it at the end. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, thing he enjoys being unhappy. Yes. It's like his resting state Yes. Is a resting state of unhappy. Yeah. So anyway, I'm happy that you guys made something outta that.

Yeah. Yeah. We're we're still doing the thing. You know, the shop is busy, thankfully. So, so you guys did some content, but you were doing some stuff for Hemmings and now are you still doing that because you're doing stuff?

We still, we still have, um, a pending um, series with Hemmings. Okay. Uh, we were building a Camaro. Yep. And we sent it to Paint, paint channel last year. I know we just started this year, but I'm saying like beginning of last year I sent it to him.

And you used to run a body shop. I know. It must really irk you. It does. It does. And I go there. He's great. You know, he's, he's a, like a great body shop, but it's like he has to paint a whole car and like he has to do this blocking and all.

I know how much work it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I know he puts it off 'cause he's like, I could just paint that bumper and make, you know, X amount of money in six hours. So my like, and this is a total tangent, but, but Tim just bought, uh, a new shop in Huntington Beach Okay.

Off of fifth Uhhuh. He, it's called Pristine. And it was a old Porsche shop in, in Huntington Beach, like right in downtown. Mm-hmm. And one of the reasons he got it is 'cause it's grandfathered, it has a paint booth, it has all these things that you could never have in a downtown district.

Um, and he's got a body shop there. And I've, I'm gonna have him paint one of my cars because he only has room to paint one car at a time. And he doesn't really have room to park them, which means, you know, it's gonna get pushed through the system.

Because every other body, if you go to a body shop and they have a massive parking lot Oh yeah. They do. You just know your car's not getting worked on. But if you're, if you sit there and go, oh wait, he can only work, take one paint job at a time.

It's like, this may actually come out the other end. It's like this. It's not like, 'cause otherwise it goes in and it just never comes back out again. You know? At least I hope body shops would work like that.

They, they know they could, you know, do an insurance job and it'd be way faster. Like when I had the body shop, if someone like, you know, a friend would ask me, Hey, could you paint my car? Absolutely not.

No, I know. No. 'cause it wouldn't make any sense. I could do two bumpers and make the same amount of money I used to work at, uh, auto Fix out in Long Island. Yeah. You know? Yeah. And like, they were like a Geico insurance one.

Yeah. And the, like, the owner loved, absolutely loved working on custom stuff. So he would take in all of the custom jobs. Uhhuh and his wife, I almost divorced him over it. Oh yeah. Because she's like, we lose money Yeah.

On every one of these stupid Volkswagen Jettas that you're having us paint. Yeah. Yeah. But we make tons of money Yes. On all this other stuff. Yeah. So I, I get it. But like, I, I, I go by there, I'm like, I, I need to finish.

Like, we're at the stage where it, it comes back from Body Shop and it's just assembly and then, you know, drive. Yeah. So like literally the last two episodes. I've been stuck in Body Shop jail for the past year.

Ouch. Yeah. So, and then the rest of what, what else are you guys doing? Mostly customer car. We did, uh, mo in the shop. It's all customer cars. Okay. So, um, there's no like sponsored build, so like everyone, it's always client cars.

So are you happy to be back to that? Um, because you've done a mix and we, we jumped off your origin story and kind of went present day. Yeah. But you went through sort of the gamut of like working for client stuff.

Mm-hmm. I know you've done a lot of SEMA builds and then you came to Hoonigan and you were like front and center building cards Yeah. For content Uhhuh. And then you left and you were doing a mix of it, Uhhuh.

And now it seems like you're like, you've gotten that outta your system. Like, are you happier building cars off camera? Do you miss building cars on camera? I like, one of the things I loved working at Hoonigan is I didn't have to worry about dealing with a client mm-hmm.

Dealing with money. Yeah. Yeah. You know, like, that's like I did. I know. I, I, that was like the worst thing ever. Um, but no, I, I'm back at it and I. My approach is a little different now. Like I'd rather have like four good clients rather than try to build 10 different cars.

Mm-hmm. So the clients I have now are, like, all the projects I have now are like year long projects, like we're rebuilding a bunch of cars. Yeah. Um, can you talk about any of the stuff you're building?

Um, yeah. We building the Camaro? Yeah. Uh, we have actually, what's the spec on? Like, what is So, okay, so the Camaro that the one that stuck in paint jail, um, oh God. I, I, I suck with names so I forgot who owned it.

Um, it was the one one Lap of America Camaro. Okay. Um, so it one, like one lap seven years in a row. Okay. So it was like one of the very first pro touring cars. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. So it was built in Canada like 10 years ago.

So we took it all apart and kind of like, Hey, what if we built a pro touring car today? What would it look like? You know? Um, so we, it's an LS seven car and we like, well the pro toin cars today should have a BS It should have traction control.

Yeah. It should have GPS monitoring, so like all the new electronics are in it. Uh, newer brakes. Right. So I think we're going with carbon ceramic brakes. Um, refresh the motor. Tell me you put Motech in a Of course.

You love motech. I love it. Anyway, keep going. So yeah, it's a full motech. Um, it's a full PDM so there's no fuses in the car. Yep. Um, it has a Bosch motor Sports a b, s unit. Nice. Um, so we use like, um, we use GPS for, uh, tracking the car.

Mm-hmm. Uh, you know, like a data acquisition. So like if it's wherever it is in the country, I know, you know, I could log into it with the GPS and stuff. Mm-hmm. Um, yeah, just like carbon ceramics, carbon seats, you know, and then a ton of fabrication stuff.

A ton of stuff. Like just every fabric, every single bracket is over fabricated. Oh yeah. Yeah. Like to the extreme. Yeah. Like if it can be billet, it would be billet. If it could be like forged carbon and then milled, it would be forged carbon and milled.

Yeah. So like we're down to Yeah. The fenders are held in by titanium bolts and, you know, stuff like that. What's the new company name? Here's, here's what's interesting because your old company was, was RPM?

Yes. Right? That was your first shop? Yeah, that was my first shot. And then you had LM 24. Yes. So this is interesting. I literally been having this conversation since we started the shop. So we started the shop.

I have my LLC, which is just, you know, wedge Panic Inc. Right. Which is my last name, which no one can pronounce. Nobody can pronounce, which is great. So, uh, don't, can pronounce your first name either.

That's why Suppy, it's way easier for the audience. Just say your full name. Suppachai Wejpanich. Yeah. Okay. Alright. Suppy is fine. So this was the thing, right? So I, I had to quickly make an LLC to do a project for, um, yeah, yeah, yeah.

For somebody. So I was like, fuck, I'll throw it together really quick. Use my last name. And I rented a, a small space and just kept working. I never really had a shop name. Mm-hmm. So literally the guys will work for me.

And, and then they were like, what's the name of the shop A year later? Right. I'm like, I don't know. I never really had a shop name. So we ended up, um, actually we, we had to deal with Hemmings. Mm-hmm.

And they're like, what's the shop name? It's like, we don't have a shop name. We're gonna call the, the Siri Suppy's Garage. I'm like, that's the shop name. That's the shop. All right. That works. I was gonna say, if you want, like, I'm pretty good at naming things.

I could just, you know, I could figure out a name and you could like all my cars. For me, it'd be like a perfect trait. Like, I like to this day, I don't have a logo. I don't really have a logo. I don't really have a official shop name.

This is why you were number five on the list. Some guy named Suppy and Queens. Yeah. This is it. So I've been, I've been running a shop building. I, I think we're on like our, like fifth full build. Yeah.

Without an official shop name. Just like, just something simple. 'cause you realize with a good name you could be like, Roadster shop. Yeah. I like you could just, it could be like, yeah. Um, it's Suppy Works.

You're like, great. Yeah. Something, something great. I have a Suppy Works car. It's worth half a million dollars. Yeah. I have no, okay. I marketing. Yeah. I, I, I don't, do not your thing. No, I don't do that at all.

That's my problem. Okay, so you got the Camaro. What other projects you got working on? So I have two Camaros. Mm-hmm. I have one, um, the one Lap America, I think it's a 67. I have a 68, which is kind of the same, less basically the same year because they Yeah, the window thing.

So 60 eight's technically the, well 68 was the first model year. Yeah. But then 67 and a half I think. Yeah. Or 66 and a half. I forget this. I used to know, this was like the half year, 'cause the car came out in like a half year.

So. Well, I have no idea. All I know is, is the windows are different 'cause I had the order power windows for them. Um, yeah, I have that. I have an NSX there right now that we did a K motor on. Neat.

Um, which is great. That's, I actually think a really good swap. Vinny and I were talking about doing a show on actual swaps. That make sense? Yeah. Like practical swaps. Yeah. And one of the ones we talked about was like a K in, in NSX.

Oh, it's great. It is a great upgrade. So the NSX is great. Um, we did a K motor. He was very adamant of doing a sequential transmission. So we put it, I I tried to talk him out of it. He's like, no, I want it.

Yeah. I mean, it just, it's cool. Yeah. It, it's all the cool factor. Oh yeah, yeah. Like give me a car with Sequential and Air Jacks Uhhuh. And it's like, that's just the, it's just the coolest thing.

Oh, he already asked me about air jacks and rolling anti lag. Like those are the three ricer things that you want from a race car. You're like, I don't care. Put, you could put that in your TSX and I'd be like, shit, that TX is the hard as fuck.

Do you just air jacks just roll up? Uh, do you remember, uh, Ken Gushi Yes. Showed up with a stock is Yes. But it had a sequential. Yes. And they made it cool. Yes, it has good gear noise and it makes clunks gear noise and clunks makes the car cool.

It makes it drive like shit though. Yeah, I know. But that's 'cause you're getting old and with old, with as you age comes wisdom and wisdom is the antithesis of modifying a car. So yeah, we have that.

Um, so we actually developed a shit ton of parts for the K motor that never like. I can't believe it doesn't exist. So we actually made a bunch of parts and you don't make it, none of this is available to sell people.

None of Yeah. When I, when I was looking up online. Yeah. We, so now we see and see customers. You should hire a business person, like a business manager probably. I would probably make a lot more money.

Yeah, you would. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, so, um, so yeah, so we make a bunch of really cool parts for a K series swap. You know, that's real wheel drive stuff. That's why I wanted kind of, you know, um, and what is that stuff?

What, what kind of parts do you make for that? So like the, the water necks, you said it longitudinally. Yeah, it's like the water necks are, are always a problem because they're always in the back.

Like we make this really cool intake now. Um, we make it like in a cooler block for the intake. Okay. Um, and what do we, we make throttle bodies for it, adapters for 'em. All sorts of like little knickknack stuff.

Do you remember? I do you remember this conversation? 'cause it was kind of going on I think when you were still at Hoonigan, which was that it, for some reason transverse Ks make a thousand horsepower with no problem.

Mm-hmm. And longitudinal Ks blow up. Mm-hmm. It's the oil pumps. So this is like a real thing that it's a real thing people were dealing with. Yeah. And it's just because they were engineered to work one way.

Yeah. People turned 'em the other way. Yeah. Uhhuh and they had problems. Now, so we've figured out what that is, is oil pumps. I make a dry sum kit now. Oh, okay. So, and, and with that, with that, now that's not a problem anymore.

Yeah. That doesn't, yeah. So, because that was the issue is there was a starvation issue Yes. With it being sideways. Yeah. Yeah. Because the way the pickup works and Right, right. But I mean, people say they, you know, there's the oil pans out there.

I still don't trust them. So we just make a dry sum. So we have that, the NSX, which is really cool. 'cause if you look at the, the swap in the car, like I've seen a bunch of n like case swaps in NSX, they don't look like they belong.

Like this one looks like it belongs in the car. Yeah. Yeah. Which is, I think, a hard thing to, and plus it has, um, it has ac um, it already has electric power steering. Mm-hmm. Um, yeah, it has ac so we run the inner cooler systems through the ac so it chills a, you know, the liquid.

Oh, nice. You run the coil like through. Yeah. And so we run that system. Do you remember, um, in like the mid two thousands, there was a company that was like selling that, I think they were called like cryo, um.

Something cryo works or something? I don't remember. No, no. They, it was like a, like in, it was when nitrous was really big, but instead of like doing a nitrous kit, they were spraying CO2 CO2.

Yes. And they had, they had like, um, it almost looked like a math uhhuh. It was like in line. Yes. Yes. And it had a cone in the middle. Yes, yes, yes. And it would cool the cone. So the CO2 never went into your intake?

They just used it to, to cool everything down. Yeah. It was called a CI forget that. I forget. I, yeah. It was lot of those things. But I remember like, that was one of those, like, this is gonna be the next new thing.

It was, it wasn't, yeah. Like the tornado that you put in the, remember that? I remember that hype. Yeah. Thankfully the internet came out and told us those things didn't work. Oh, the internet? Yeah.

Like leaf blowers and all of that. I still, I still, dude, I, if I'm ever back on the internet, I want to try to do the leaf blower. Like legit. Well, do you remember we did it before you came to Hoonigan?

Mm-hmm. Scumbag Labs. Uhhuh with, uh, with um, Brad. We did like, well, that was the problem. You know, that's who I should have invited today, was you and Brad to just hash it out. Oh, there would have to be a really good video.

I, we would've fisted, we would've thought, my memory, my last memory of you and Brad was Brad, like, drove into Hoonigan, walked in, just started screaming and yelling. And I think you just came out, like, yelled three words at him.

He just like ducked his head, got in the car and drove away. So I don't remember what it was about. It was weird. Like he rolled up in his Honda. Right. He wanted to race you. I, I, yes, yes. I'm like, man, this guy, the thing you gotta talk, you gotta say about Brad is Brad, it doesn't matter if the camera's on or off.

Yes, he's unhinged. Yes. Like he doesn't just unhinged for camera. Like that's a full time thing. It would be a normal day. And I'd be like, Brad, if you're gonna roll in here guns blazing, like, let us know so we can at least turn the cameras on and capture your full crashing.

Oh my God. There, there has been many times that he's like row through the gate. Yeah, at at Hoonigan and just come to the back. I'm like, and I would scream at this dude, like, get the fuck outta here.

I think he's changed his dosage for whatever he is been doing though, Uhhuh, because recently I've seen him and he is like super mellow. No way. Yeah. Last time I saw him, he was pretty mellow. He, he's pretty, he's on meds.

He ca he, I needed help with something and he came by. He's actually like really good at like random household stuff, so, and he's got like a weird plethora of tools. You're like, I need a tile saw. And he is like, I got one, hold on.

And he like digs out of his like backyard behind like a urinal or whatever. Yeah. So here it is, another story time interruption brought to you by my good friends at FCP Euro. But I must say today's a bit more of a confession as some of you know.

I have a lot of cars, 26 and um, I can't really buy anymore. But that doesn't stop me from wanting, I don't know how to stop the wanting. But what I've done is I've figured out this thing. It's like paper building.

I, I, it's like, think of what like fantasy football is for like guys who can't run anymore. I'm not really sure. I not into stick ball sports, but this is Fantasy Project Carr, right? Fantasy project car builds.

I go onto cp euro.com you know, after I spend a good two to three hours on marketplace finding what car maybe I might buy, it could be something like, kind of like rare, like a, like an old Volvo or something, you know, standard for me like an old Audi or it could be something kind of taboo that I don't tell my friends about, like an old BMW.

And then I head on over FCP euro.com and I just drop down that menu and I just look through all of the things. Cooling system. Yep. Breaks. Yep. I just fill the whole thing up until there's really nothing left in the cart that I don't need.

And from there I start to actually think, you know what, maybe this isn't a fantasy anymore. Maybe I really do need this car. 'cause you know, prices are pretty damn good at FCP Euro. I could buy this car, buy all these parts and honestly it's a better deal than if I bought a already running car.

That's right. FCP Euro will make your crazy project car ideas a possible reality. And that's one reason to head on over fcp euro.com to get all those parts for your Euro car and hopefully get it back on the road one day.

I'm still hoping. Anyway, I'm gonna go buy that car. Anyway, everyone keeps saying like, oh, you need to bring, you were one of the, the number one requests Uhhuh. People were like, we need Suppy on the show.

Uhhuh, you and Jon Chase. But then a lot of people were like, gotta bring Brad up. God. And I was like, God, I don't think Brad is confined to a podcast like that. Like he's um, he's like a physical actor.

Like, you need to really let Brad, that Brad do, Brad. That's what I was saying. You're gonna need some different cameras. It's gonna be, you need some room. It's gonna be a video. Yeah. Like, it's gonna have to be a video.

You have to do that podcast like in a foam pit or something. You know, it's like he just, he's got too much energy to just be in a chair the whole day. Yeah. So anyway, agreed. Back to it. NSX. So yeah.

Have NSX. Um, I have, which is pretty cool. Uh, I haven't a, we just started a Mercedes project. Oh, what kind? I have no idea what this is what I love about you. You built some of the coolest cars.

What kind Mercedes? Like, I don't know. Yeah. I don't know what number, how many doors does it have? It has four doors. It has four doors. So it, what era is it from? It's old. How old?

It's, I wanna say fifties it looks like. Oh, okay. That's, it looks like an old, does it, does it have the fins on it? Is it fins? No, it looks, you know what it looks like, it looks like, uh, one of those London cab things.

Got it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I wanna say 50. I have no idea. That's probably sixties. 'cause early sixties had fins, like the old classic cars and then you move into, I forget what code that is, but Yeah.

Yeah. I have no idea. Anyway, so you're working on one of those? One of those. So we are, um, building a full chassis. So, um, it's a four door. He wants to keep it, um, like a hot rod. So he wants to build a full chassis.

It's getting the V 12 twin turbo. Oh wow. Okay. Uh, we're pairing that with a four L 80. Nice. And then it's a 4 88 rear. Okay. On full tube chassis. We're probably gonna do, um, well not probably, we are doing Corvette front rear suspension.

Okay. Yeah. So that's that. So pretty similar to Rolls Royce chassis. Very similar to Rolls Roy. Just, yeah. Yeah. So we're, we're, we're doing the exact same thing where we're skinning the whole car and then just putting the body on the chassis.

Yep. So it's basically like a, you know, like an RC car. Um, there's that, there's my Porsche that's in the, in the shop now with the, with the motor. That's your 9 9 3. My 9 9 3. Yeah. Yeah. So that has a four liter ITB, um, six feet car, something, you know, pretty fun.

Fun. Pretty, yeah, pretty fun to drive. Um, I still don't think of you as a Porsche guy. I'm not. Yeah, I'm not, I'm, I, I mean, I don't care that it's a Porsche. I care that it drives nice.

No, and they, they drive great. Yeah, they drive great. Yeah. I mean, I hate that it's like, you know, this 9, 9 3 precious car, like, you know. Yeah. No, I, I get it. You have the car because it drives nice.

'cause you want to drive it. Yeah. Not because it's like a status thing. Uh, Vinny and I just did a whole episode on like, there's a ton of hype around nine 11. Yeah. Yeah. That have made them really cool and trendy, Uhhuh.

But even when that goes away, they're still fantastic cars. Yes. Yeah. Right. Like there's like, 'cause you remember when I bought mine nine 11, they were cheap, right? Yes. Yeah. Um, but that was because, but they're still a great car.

Mm-hmm. They still make a great car. Mm-hmm. But I think actually the over hype ness of how much everyone thinks they're cool Yes. Is taking away from people for, or, you know, they, people aren't remembering that behind the cool.

Yeah. Is still a really, really, really good car. Yes. That like drives very uniquely. Uhhuh has a really special feel and the, whether you like it or not, you can't disagree that the silhouette of an I 11 is Yes.

It's a good looking car. It's a good looking car. It drives fantastic. I love him. Yeah. Um, I just like, you know, I, I don't wanna be the guy who like drives a Porsche. 'cause it's a Porsche. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I want, I like the car. Well there's that car. I'm surprised you haven't k swapped it yet. I, dude, I was really considering it. Yeah, of course you were. I was. And I was like, you know what, I could sell this motor for like a shit load of money.

Yeah. Put a K motor in it and be done with it. My wife stopped me. Wow. Yeah. She's like, don't do that. You are gonna regret it later. You are not gonna be able to buy another motor and then you're gonna hate the car.

Wow. Yeah. Sound advice from the wife. I can't believe it. She actually made sense. Yeah. Huh. Interesting. Yeah, she's been listening. Yeah. Yeah. So this is that car that, or she's been like, or the other thing that could be happening is she's looking up the value of all the things you own.

Yes. Yes. Yeah. She, she understands, she's planning on taking them Yes. And selling 'em all for you. Yeah. She's like, when you get old with the original motor, probably worth more. Yeah, it's true.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't plan to sell any of my stuff. I'm kind of like you in that situation, you know? Like I just have stuff. Yeah, no, yeah. I get it. You don't. I'm gonna just gonna be that old guy with a whole bunch of shit and just like, yeah, whatever.

But you also, you boomerang stuff. You sell things. Yeah. Someone else makes it a little bit better. Yeah. And then you buy it back from them for less money. Yeah. Because haven't you bought and sold the FDRX seven a couple times.

Now th this would be f. Three. Yeah. This is the third time I would own this car. Yeah. Like you're the dude who keeps going back to their toxic ex-girlfriend. Like you are that guy, I guess.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're just like, Hm, what am I gonna do tonight? I should text this person. Boom. Got the car back. Yeah. Yeah. Well, the F-D-I-I-I, I wanna make it right like it drove Okay.

And then I, then I screwed it up, but ruined it. They ruined it. You ruined it for the internet. I, dude, I we all do it, man. We all do it. Yeah. Yeah. So there's that. You were part of ruining my Audi k Quatro for the internet.

Oh, I know. I think it was pretty cool when it was just the car. I know, I know. And I, I, I, I kick myself all the time. Like, you know, I'm proud part of the problem why people are building 17 Turbo Ferrari.

Well, this is what we were talking about. Like, I, I said this to Rob, like, we all push the limit of what we think is normal uhhuh, and we never really talk about how difficult all that stuff is to do.

Yes. Yeah. Because on, on, you know, in the video it's like, oh yeah, it's easy. Yeah. I mean, think about how much work the Rolls Royce was. Oh yeah. Tons. Tons. But if you're like, oh, that was one episode where they just like put the Chelsea together.

Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. And it still needed more development. Oh yeah. Like we still kept breaking transmissions in it. Like it still probably needed something else. Although I would say today, if we were gonna do that car again.

One thing, one change I think we would make to it is to do an eight HP trance. Well, I'm trying to buy a car, that car back. Oh wait, really? I really want that car. Oh, all right. I like where this is, by the way, this is like a new trend because I think Zac's trying to get a car back from Hoonigan.

Uhhuh. I think he's trying to get the Camaro, he's trying to work on that. I dunno if that's done yet. You may know more about it than I do, but I, I, I know a little bit of information. I don't know if I could talk about it now, but Yeah, that's what I heard.

Yeah. But I like this. I like this trend. It's a good trend. Yeah. I really wanted a buyback scumbag. Okay. But Blake Wilkey just took it to a level. I know. Oh, whatever. You've seen it. I've, I, I actually just saw it looks pretty cool.

Yeah, it looks pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. Like it's got like, like proper aar front suspension now. I actually saw the sema. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think they just released a video of it running and Uhhuh.

I was like, man, like it, because I was cool. It was cool to see scumbag finally get what it deserves. Uhhuh. But it also means that like, they're not gonna sell anything company anymore. No, no, no.

But I'm, I, I, I told everybody there, like I got the Cole Marrow, which is like weird, why I didn't, I keep explaining this. It's like somehow when we were like breaking up the things that was owned Uhhuh, like, they were like, you can have this.

And I wasn't gonna say no. Yeah, okay. Because I, I went my plan. But you didn't, you didn't actively want it? I didn't actively want it. Oh. They didn't have anywhere to store it. Oh, got it.

And they were like, do you want this? And I was like, sure, of course. Why not? So it's actually at Jose's right now. Oh. And, uh, the plan is I'm going to take the duramax that's in that and put it into my F 600.

Mm-hmm. And then, um, and then he's gonna put an LS back into the Camaro and go try to set a record with an LS powered Camaro, which is a novel idea, is the motor the car came with. So, yeah. We're, we're, again, we're, we're writing wrongs.

We're writing wrongs. We're d Yeah. And even, and then I'm gonna detune that RO engine. Well, well, if Jose needs an LSS three, there's one coming out an FD soon. See, this is what I'm talking about.

We, this could be, this is like, it's like, it's like human centipede, but for project cars, but project cars where we all just, we move the engines that belong back into the car, they, they came out of.

Yeah. All right. Yeah. I really want that car because I, I, that was one of my favorite cars. Okay. So this is a perfect segue. In the first couple episodes we had, you know, Vinny, we had Ron, we had Dan, um, Zac and Hert were on the show, and I asked them to list their three favorite builds.

Mm-hmm. Ever did. Mm-hmm. At Hoonigan across all mm-hmm. Times. So what is your top three? Oh, it's Warthog. Okay. Um, the indie truck. Okay. And the Rolls Royce. Those are all your belts. I know.

Well each one. I get it though. You were, you, you're more married to them. Each one is different. Right. Like the warthog. I've never built anything off road. Okay. Yeah. And the warthog was such a monumental build, not just because the mechanics of it.

Like it took every skill I know. Yeah. To build that thing, including carpentry. I, I gotta say something about warthog and we could talk for warthog 20 minutes right now. Yeah. Because I think it's a story that didn't really get told to the level it needed to be told to.

Yeah, yeah. Because one, you guys were building it during pandemic, right? Yes. And it was like kind of closed off. Yes. We, we didn't film it as much as we normally would've filmed stuff. Um, but the amount of trying to make everything scale, like the amount of that went into like making the glass like you guys were doing so much work.

And you're right. There was a ton of carpentry to kind of get Yeah. Like it took every skill I had to make that thing. Yeah. And it was, it was so funny. The, the story I love most about the warthog is like, we did this twin Turbo Ford.

Um, and like, I forgot that that was the engine that was in Yeah, it was like a three something Windsor, whatever. Yeah. I forget what it was. We did this twin terrible Ford, um, dry sump and like, we made everything Oh yeah.

Everything. And it was like 600 hours to get this thing to run and start and all this other stuff. And we were on the phone with Microsoft and they were like, wow, like let me show you this thing starts.

And they're like, oh, that's cool. What does the horn sound like? Like what? Yeah. 'cause that's really important to us. Yeah. Because in the game there's a, a horn because it needs to sound like how it sounds in the game.

Yeah. I was like, what the. Did you guys get the horn to actually, so we ended up getting a speaker, right? Yeah. And then recording, they sent us a sound clip. So we've reproduced that exact, um, sound.

Yeah, I mean that was an interesting project because we had done a lot of work over the years with Fort Zone. Had a great relationship with 'em, Uhhuh, they said, Hey, you know, the, uh, the Halo guys want to build this warthog.

Do you think this is something you could do? And I was like, sure, dude. It was so, and I, I don't, I definitely will admit now that I. Underestimated how much work it was gonna do. Well, when you, I remember this was during dependent.

We definitely did not make money on that project. We de lost money on that project. When you called me and like, Hey man, um, can you build a warhawk? I was like, yeah, fuck yeah. I could build a warhawk as soon as I hung.

And then you were like, what's a warhawk? I was like, what's a war? I had to Google it. As soon as we hung up, I was like, wow, that's fucking cool. I gotta build one of those. Yeah. I hope, I hope I can do it.

Yeah. That was, that was interesting. 'cause like it took every skill. I know. Yeah. Like, you know, wiring. 'cause that thing was like part rv. Okay. I don't know if you know, like the, one of the requirements was it had to sit, we were building the don at the same time.

Yes. So I remember, which was actually quite fun because it meant that like all the other guys who normally didn't work on cars. Yeah, yeah. Were working on the don. Yeah. You and Grimm were hidden in the little secret lab.

Yeah. 'cause no one was allowed to know about that project. So we had the little, which was the, I forget what we called that area. It was, it was the, was the original area 69? No, this was the build and battle set.

That was what? It was building battle set at 6 21. Hold. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then, and it got finished at. We, we finished it at, um, in Compton. Yes. But it got started there. Yeah. But it'd be fun because we'd be working on, you know, just scrapping together.

The dunk. Yeah. You guys would come over, yell at us about our brother wells and then go back and work on the warthog. Yeah. Yeah. I remember that. Good times. It was good times. So that was kind of, even though the pandemic kind of sucked in many ways.

Yeah. That was pretty peak working on like that era right there. Yeah. Because like I think you were really stoked to be working on something. Yeah. That was high level. Yeah. And I think kind of like brought back all the stuff that you learned at like mm-hmm.

AI design. Yeah. That kind of era. And then we were all stoked to just be out of our houses and like work and like learning to weld and like everybody really pitched in on Don. Yes. Yes. Like I think it's one of the, to me, Don's one of our, my favorite build.

Mm-hmm. Because. It was full court press. Everybody helped on it. Yeah. Like from Hert Jon Chase, like me, like everybody worked on that, that project, which was cool. Where normally it wasn't normally like that.

Yeah, yeah. Like the reality was, was you guys did 90% of the work and then the everybody else would come in, like move a few bolts and then be like, all right, we're, we're out here. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, but the, the Don was good 'cause because we separated the car. You remember that? Like the chassis. Oh yeah. Yeah. So like, we were always divide and conquer around. It was great. That's good.

So it's interesting. So Warthog is a car. We mentioned it in the list, but I don't think it was super high because for us who weren't involved in the build Yeah. It, the car almost didn't, that vehicle almost didn't seem real to us.

Yeah. It was. ' cause like, we drove it like once and then it got shipped off to Microsoft. We never saw it again. So I could see why that's higher for you. And then the, the ridge line is an interesting one because we all admit that the ridge line's probably one of the coolest builds we ever made.

Mm-hmm. But because we weren't allowed to drive it. Yes. It was weird. I, I liked the original line for the technicality. Oh, of course, right. I mean, it was an indie car that we worked with Honda with like, yeah, no, it's like, and the Honda engineers were gassed to work plastic.

Know. They were super, super stoked about it. Like they would, they would sneak out. I know. And just make up meetings to come by, to come by. I mean, it was, it made me have so much more respect for like Honda racing.

Yeah. Yeah. And it, it actually developed a bunch of good relationships with all those guys. But they were so into that project. Yes. But they weren't. They didn't trust us to drive it. No. And I think that like reduced all of our interest in it because you're like, wait, we can't, I think the only person that ever drove was Grimm.

Grimm. He almost total dick in the parking lot. Yeah. Yeah. I remember that. Yeah. I think Grimm was the only person that was able, that was, that drove that car that drove it. Yeah. Otherwise it was indie drivers.

Yeah. Yeah. It was like their actual test numbers. Yeah. Yeah. But that car was cool. I was like, it was super, super cool project, but it was definitely us jumping the shark. Oh yeah. We were like, yeah.

So here's a very relatable project Yeah. At the Honda Ridge line where the back half of it's an indie car. Yeah. I, I think, I think that, yeah. I think we were part of the problem of these, these ridiculous builds, you know?

Oh, yeah, for sure. But it was just what everyone was doing on the internet. I, I don't think it's changed. Like, I think everyone's still doing ridiculous builds. I don't know. I I hate that. Yeah. I, I.

I was big. I, I like ridiculous bills. 'cause I'm kind of like you uhhuh uhhuh. Like, the reason I think that I connected with you back in the day is I was like, this dude's crazy enough to put an RB into a Ferrari.

Like I just love that blasphemy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, oh, like, and I, and I also enjoyed the, like, this'll upset people thing. Yeah. Yeah. I think there's something kind of fun about that. And then I went down that route, made a bunch of things that are like, still a headache to me.

Mm-hmm. Like my Land Rover, all these different things. They're like, yeah, it'd be great to just put an engine out of a generator in here or whatever. And I love the R 2.8. It's a great swap, but it was, it was, it took way more to get it to work properly than I thought it would.

You know, like in my head I'm like, yeah, we can bolt put it together a week. It's, everything's a weekend. Oh dude. I'm telling everything's a weekend. Everything's a weekend. And now I'm really excited about just rebuilding an eight valve from my rabbit.

Like the, like basically the engine that came in the car, Uhhuh, I mean, it's a bigger displacement, but like, it uses the same motor mounts, like, and that's exciting to me. So meanwhile I have a VR six powered Corolla that is still just not anywhere near operational.

I, I saw it behind the shed. Oh yeah. You saw it up at the Yeah. I, I knew when I walked up to, it's like, there's, let me know when you got some space. I'll just drop it by. I'll just drop it by.

And Grimm can just over engineer all of of it. Oh yeah. Just all of it. Just, he'll complain about it the whole time. Be like, this is stupid. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I hate cars. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's just him every day. Yeah. But it's also, it's, it's part of the enjoyable part of Grimm. I mean, his name is Grimm. Yeah. He's fitting, he has a very Grimm outlook on life fitting. Yeah, it works.

So, so ridgeline. Yeah, Ridgeline was great. Um, the Honda engineers were a fantastic, yeah, it was great. And then the roles, it was funny because, you know, you would tell these guys who would like design.

You know, they were designing everything from the new race car Yeah. To like the Odyssey and they were designing suspension parts and all this other stuff, and they were like, Hey, we have this thing.

Can you make that work? It's like, yeah, well how are you gonna do it? I don't know yet. Just drop it off. Yeah. Yeah. And, and you know, at first they were really hesitant about dropping stuff off Uhhuh.

And then after a while, like, Hey, we got this thing, can you make you like. You know, take it, take it. Considering like when we would go visit them, we'd have to like put stickers over our cell phones.

Yeah, yeah. And like, it was like super high tech and like high security. And then you just come to Hoon again. Yeah. Yeah. You're like, oh, that thing. Yeah. I think we left it outside. I think it's on the picnic table.

Yeah, dude. Literally, we be careful. People are doing burnouts out there. We, we, they came one day and we were having lunch and we were gathered around the motor and there was like literally like Chick-fil-A rappers on top of, of course they were the indie motor.

Yeah. It was great. And they, they were like, they came the first couple times they came in, they were just off. Was it Chick-fil-A or was it Kane's? I, I, because you guys were serious Ca attics at that point.

I think it was Chick-fil-A. Oh, okay. Because every time we would film something, they would, we would get Chick-fil-A breakfast sandwiches. Because I remember any time I would go to lunch with the shop Yes.

You guys were like, we're going to Cane's. Yeah. Because you're like, fuck, Scott's paying, everyone's getting like a six piece Camec. But yeah, that was, that was good because you know, it was Honda, it was an Indy car.

When are you gonna be able to do that again? No, it was never. And, and that's why like, that was such a weird project for I think the company because it was a peak build. Yeah. Right. One of the coolest things we ever did, Uhhuh.

And I think one of the things we were really proud of, but it was also like the least relatable thing ever. Oh yeah, for sure. Like from the people who started this with a E 36 that had like a four cylinder in it.

Is that still round? No, you don't remember We cut it up, did we? Yeah. Oh, I don't remember. Maybe you weren't there for that, but yeah, we cut it into pieces. Oh, no. Yeah, yeah. It's gone. Gone now.

Okay. Like, there's nothing left of it. It was, it was like banana'ed anyway. Yeah, it was, I mean, turning that thing into an off-road vehicle was the dumbest thing we ever did. Oh yeah. I, I'll take some credit for that.

'cause I think we were just bored of it and we're like, oh, let's go do something with it. Dude, we spent like three weeks putting suspension on to jump it for like once. Jump it once. Yeah. Zac jumped it and then buckled the whole chassis.

Yeah, the whole thing just turned your shit. It was, it was over after that. And this was like my f my, one of the first things I did over there. Is that one of the first things? Yeah. You know what's I, I just remembered now.

So you started, we offered you the job, Uhhuh, but Kei truck was the first thing you came out. You finished Kei truck. Yeah. Which by the way, when we, when we put out this list, people were bugging that Kei truck wasn't on the list.

And the thing I explained to everybody was it looked cool and drove horrible. Oh God. I hate that thing. Yeah. And the gearbox was opposite. So the sequential was opposite. You know, it would trip your brain up every time.

It was, it was during the pandemic, it was actually shipped to my house, remember? And we Right. It was shipped to my house. Finished it. Shipped your house in, we, so we shipped it to your house in New York.

Yes. And you built it in your garage? In my garage, which was really small, tiny, like a one car Yes. Cleans garage. Yeah. Yeah. And it's shit everywhere. And at the time it was like, sh That was some great content though.

'cause you were doing some real DIY level stuff. Like didn't you use like a strainer? Yes. Yeah. You used, what was it, you used a strainer in the kitchen? I, yeah, I went to gr It was a strainer, it was like a pasta strainer that I, I made a oil pickup out of.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That was, I, I think that was a great period of time. 'cause you were just making the weirdest stuff and people were like, and then you also did like a dust collection. Yes. Yeah.

Yeah. Not for the car. Yeah. Yeah. Just like, I'm gonna make an episode about the dust collection system in my house. Yeah. In my house. Yeah. It was great. Yeah. Yeah. It, it was a bucket and a shot bag.

That was one of the better home wrenchers. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I, that was good times. Yeah. Yeah. But had the Kei truck. I hate the Kei truck. And then you, yeah. So you did that and then you flew out, and then the first project where you put you on Safari E 36.

Sorry about that. No, they were like, Hey man, can you help us weld some stuff? It was first, like the, the roll cage, and I helped him weld some stuff. Jose was there too. And, and then all of a sudden like, Hey, can you put the suspension on?

Can you do this? I'm like, all right. Yeah. And then like three weeks go by, I'm like, oh, we're gonna jump it now. Everything broke the first jump. And I'm like, is this what we do here? Yeah, it is.

It's, yeah. I quickly realized this is what they do here. Yeah. And like that was such a shift for you. 'cause you went from like customers and clients who really cared about their cars. Yes, yes.

To us who were like, cool, are you done? Can we break it yet? Yeah. Yeah. Because right before Hooning and I was doing the body shop stuff. Mm. Yeah. Yeah. So, so like everything had to be perfect and pristine before you gave it back to somebody.

Yeah. I think some of the peak times were when Jamo came out. Yes. Like in, in hindsight, I think a really good show would've just been like the you and Jamo show with Grimm as like the unwilling participant.

Oh yeah. That would've been like, like fantastic. Like Grimm just stuck between you and Jamo would, and like that show would've had to have like a reality show confessional, where like Grimm just complains at the end.

Oh God. About both of you. Like he's in a booth. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's just like in the confessional booth and he's just like, he hits the record button and he's like, ah. So today Jamo called me a bleep.

Beep. Bleep. I had to look up the last word. It's not good. People will watch this show. Jamo is just, yeah, I, Chao's. Chao's. Amazing. Oh, he's still the same. He's coming out. He's moving here. Yeah, he's moving.

Yeah. So you guys should make that show. I'll, I'll, I'll come in, I'll help put that together. Are you done? Are you done being on camera? No, I'm not done. I just, I mean, I'll do it if it's convenient.

It's never convenient. I know that, that's the problem. If any of this stuff was convenient, everybody would do it. I know, but I, people don't realize how shitty it is to do this. Like it's, it's work.

It's work on top of work. Yeah. Like, it's so much work to like, I feel so bad. Every time I see Vin put out a video, I'm like, God, Vin. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, you're still doing this. I can't, I, it's hard.

And we keep saying with Vin, he's the one that I didn't expect to go do it. Oh. Because he didn't want to do it while we were at GaN. Yeah. And then he was like, I don't wanna do this. I don't wanna be on camera.

And now he's that guy. Yeah, he's that. I, I had dinner with him the other day and he was just like, oh, it's so difficult. Yeah. You know, it's so much, so much work. I'm like, I know dude. I know. Well, 'cause think about it, like you could probably do the actual math 'cause you know this.

Mm-hmm. How much more time does filming a build put on than just doing a bill? I always doubled double. Yeah. Like it would take me an hour to do something. Normally it would take two hours to do it on film.

Yeah. Because you gotta have, like, sometimes you take multiple takes, so sometimes it just takes a while 'cause you're just waiting to set everything up and you can't just like go and do it the way you would do it.

Like for example, you would have to wear safety glasses when the camera was on. I fucking, that was the worst Mr. Safety squints over here. Oh God. And then we had to wear the sleeves every time you weld.

Oh, that was the Miller. Yeah. Miller made you wear the sleeves. Yeah. Yeah. Which was, I mean, yeah. Were you also. And I think this is something that, you know, maybe people don't talk about, but like the way you would do something if the camera's not watching.

Oh, yeah. Versus the way you do it when the camera is Yeah. 'cause you know, one, you're trying to teach Yeah. And you're trying to show the right way to do it. But like, there's just certain stuff that like, like you just grab a ankle grinder and just carve it out.

Yeah. Out and weld it. Hundred percent. But you're like, oh, I gotta use the whole saw now to make it look. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. Usually I'll take a drill and we'll just do the thing.

Yeah, no, you're like, no, you gotta do it different. Yeah. I gotta take you to the lane. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's another opportunity to show something. It definitely slows things down. But I will say, even to this day, I'll go do something simple and I still like will just put a GoPro out there really, just in case, like, I have recorded so much useless stuff of working on my cars over the past two years that I have never edited, I've never done anything with, and I don't know why, because I said I hated filming on camera Uhhuh, but now I feel like I needed it as like a motivation to like, get it done, do something.

Yeah. Yeah. No, I, I complete, I like, if if someone's there filming me yeah. Go for it. Right. But I would never, like, I had never had the urge to pick up a camera and then, you know, film my for, for me, I think it takes away some of, because the camera stuff makes it work.

Mm-hmm. And working on the car on its own is just pleasure. Mm-hmm. So like, if I am avoiding my family for an entire day to go work on my car, Uhhuh, it feels really guilty. But if I'm filming it, oh, it's work.

Because it's part of work. Work. It's a workaround. Does that make sense? That's pretty good. Yeah. I don't know. These are the lies I have to tell myself. That's pretty good though. Yeah, that's pretty good.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because you're like, oh, it's like work right now. Yeah. Yeah. And that's how you can justify to your wife how you own 26 cars and then why you're in the garage for 10 hours on the Saturday.

Yeah. When you should be taking the kid out to swimming lessons. Exactly. Exactly. This is good. Okay, so Warthog Indie truck. Mm-hmm. And rolls, roll Rolls Royce. Yeah. Those are your three. Yeah.

The Rolls Royce was cool. Um, I think the Rolls Royce for me is one of the best cars we ever built. I think so. Because it, it actually, it checked all the boxes for me. Yes. Yes. It was cool to drive.

Mm-hmm. Um, it was, it was definitely a ripper. Mm-hmm. Uh, visually I thought it looked really cool. Mm-hmm. And it was unique. Yes. And it was also a really good build. Yes. Right. Because there are other cool things that we built, like I actually really liked, um, Lord frightening Yes.

As a concept. Mm-hmm. But we never dialed it in. Yes. So like the suspension kind of saw Yeah, exactly. It couldn't handle the power. Yeah. Said leaf in the back and we just warp the springs. Yeah.

Yeah. We just, we just, we never finished it, but like, visually it looked cool. Yes. And I thought the concept of it was great, and as I've said before, I love the name. Um, but to me, rolls is Yeah.

Probably the pinnacle of like, yes. Like, 'cause like the Don is cool, but it's not one of, it's not one of the best built cars. Yeah. There's so many nicer dogs out there. We, we built it. It was a cool, fun group project.

Mm-hmm. But the role definitely lives there. So what, um, here, here's a good one for you. What are the top three cars you've ever built in your life? Oh shit. I'm curious if any of those three make the list or if there's, I mean, the indie truck is definitely right there.

Okay. Because, because the technicality of it, and I wanna say my Integra. Okay. Um, is the Integra running now? Yeah. Oh, I haven't seen it. Yeah. Why don't you bring that here today? Oh, it is running.

It's not driving. No, it's running. You sound like me. Okay. Lemme These are the loopholes in life. My friend, like my coop has been running for two years. No, no. It runs, it's never driven on its own power.

It runs and drives. I took the rear diff out. Oh, okay. Because, um, I took the dry shaft out to go to the dyno. Yep. And um, I was like, you know, take this time to take the rear diff out, changed all the bearings and 'cause it was making this howling noise.

I don't know if it was the bearing and a diff or the fact that, is that a CRV diff in the back of you have? It's a, it's a wagon diff. Oh wa okay. Yeah. And then, I don't know, that's off the old Civic, like four wheel drive.

Yeah. It's like, like a 30-year-old civic. The fall civics. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So I don't know if it was making noise from the bearing or the fact that it was bolted directly to a frame rail.

Yep. So I'm just gonna take it over to, to John and have him look at it and I'll put it back up, make some new mounts. Otherwise it runs and drives. It's great. I just got it off to Dino. Um, what are the plans with that now that it's no longer this first sack car?

Um, I'm actually gonna do. Um, dragon drives, like I want, always wanted to do, you know? Um, I was gonna take it out, uh, sick week and all this, you know. Oh, okay. Whatever. Oh, all right. That's the only one I know, but, but there's a bunch more.

There's a bunch. Yeah. There's like a Colorado one. Yeah. Whatever's close and convenient that I want it to though. Yeah. Um, because I think it'd be cool, you know. Yeah. Um, most of the times you see these big hot rod guys and there's a couple civics on there and a couple of Hondas on there, but they never make it.

Yeah. Because they're always shit boxes, you know? And they break Yeah. All the time. So I've driven the car. I, I probably, I has, I think Miles has run some of them Right. Miles has, but Miles.

Yeah. Miles. I, I, I, I was speaking of Miles the other day and he just put a sequential in his car, so he's not gonna be doing a lot of street driving anymore. Um, but yeah, I, I still wanna do, okay, so Integra, Uhhuh Honda.

Yeah. Bridge Lines. What's the, lemme see. Are they gonna be all Hondas? No, no. Any the AI design cars on that list, those were just like, eh, because they were like all weird customer stuff.

Yeah, yeah. Those were, eh, you know, I, I did, I wanna say, what year did the Cadillac CTSV come out? There's, there's a reason I'm asking. Early two thousands maybe was the first one. I think it was about 2004.

'cause that was when I was a journalist, and that was like, Cadillac was like, we're gonna become a performance brand. Yeah. Okay. So I wanna say more land out roofs. I remember those actually, real side tangent, Uhhuh when I was talking to one of the Cadillac reps when the cts V first came out.

Mm-hmm. And the XLR and everything else. And they said that one of the biggest problems they had is that the dealerships were still installing the land out tops on the CTSV and the XLR because like, that's what their customers wanted do imagine.

And they like, and they had to like go tell dealerships, like, stop doing it. Stop doing it. Like you can't do this. Like, that's not who we're trying to attract. So anyway, C-T-S-V-C-T-S-V, the reason I'm asking is, uh, CTSV is 2004.

A year later 2005, there was a, there was a wreck CTSV that a customer of mine bought. He also had a M three. So I put the CTSV motor in the M three in 2005. Okay. Um, at the time it was like blasphemy.

It was unheard of. And like, I think that was like, only because it was like something that that kind of sparked the interest of like doing weird and crazy shit. And that was a really fun, and that was before the LS sort of, so it's like trend.

I mean, that was even before people were really calling them by the LS name, either. It was still like the Corvette engine. Yes. Yeah. So that was, it's like the new, it was the new small block.

So 2005 I did the first LS swap that I know of. Yeah. Yeah. In, in E 36. Interesting. And when, when I was at zero to 60, we ran an article about LS one swaps because they seemed so. Unique and interesting at the time.

Mm-hmm. And I remember, I don't, one of the cars was a Volvo. Mm-hmm. It was a Volvo brick. And then the other one, um, I wanna say it was an fdr. RX seven was like, and that this was like 2008. Yeah.

Yeah. And it was like a novel idea Yeah. That people were putting Corvette engines Yeah. In these cars. Right. And then the LS three was about to come out. So that, that, I wanna say that's on my top list.

'cause that was like, kind of started the, you know, oh, if I, if I can do that. Yeah. What else can I put weird shit in? Interesting. You know, because before that it was always like, oh yeah, I'll put a Honda motor in a Honda.

But like the cross breed was, I think, started Yeah. With that car. So let's, on the conversation of building a drag car, let's rewind back. So you're building Hondas, and then I know that a piece of this, you got the drag race mm-hmm.

Street race bug in New York. Mm-hmm. So we're gonna go back to origin story here. What, where did that go from there? Like what were you, because like, I, I, this is actually something I don't know a lot about.

Okay. I know this is like, this is like RRP M era. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. You and your brother mm-hmm. Are doing that. Mm-hmm. And I know that you guys were super notorious in like street race cars Yeah. And englishtown cars, right?

Yeah. So, so we, okay. So we started drag racing. I fuck it, it was like 99. Okay. This is, this was during college. So like we, you know, it's the whole story. We used to start. Uh, we, we started in the garage, right?

We had this rented college house that we started doing stuff in the garage, and then we eventually, uh, moved back to New York and they started doing Honda stuff. Um, it all started, like back in the day, it was east versus west, that's all it was.

Mm-hmm. And, you know, um, so like we raced against a team, what they called themselves, team California. It's like the biggest drag racers from here went there. Mm-hmm. Um, and it was, it was great. Those days I loved because you would show up to the track, there would be no internet, and everyone just had wildly different shit.

Mm-hmm. Um, and that's what like caught the bug of drag racing. Yeah. Well, you know, that's the, and you were around in that era, but like, you know, that's the fast and furious story. Okay. So the Fast and Furious story I've heard because you were there.

I was there. And you knew Angel from Yonkers, right? Yeah, because he built that car. Uhhuh. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We Angel, uh, Ralphie from DRT. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, you know the Racer X? That was, that was him.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. We knew all of all of them. Yeah. And then we would, you know, um, so we would share, um. We became friends with all those California guys. That's how we, you know, I know all these guys from here and we would share tech, you know?

Yeah. Like, Hey man, we're doing this. Hey man, we're doing that. This is the latest Turbo. Let me also give, just pause for a second and just tell the audience. So the backstory is that the original Fast and Furious script was actually optioned from a Vibe Magazine story, which I think was called Racer X, right?

Yes. Racer X. Yeah. And it was about a story of all the top California teams that were like big sponsorship, came out to Englishtown to basically put on like a, you know, it was a race, but it was like this, like look at the power of all these cars.

And you had, you know, all these top drivers, you know, Bergenholz. Mm-hmm. You had Papadakis. Mm-hmm. Like everybody came out and there was like a ratty civic that was like used to race on the Henry Hudson.

Yes. And he smoked a bunch of them, right? Yeah. And ran like nine seconds mm-hmm. In a non caged car, got kicked off the track. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And this was a car built at, if I remember correctly, speed and sound.

Yes. Angel built it. Yes. Up in Yonkers. And they just didn't know how fast the car was. 'cause they had never really tracked it before. Yeah. Yeah. They just did street racing. Mm-hmm. And this story ended up being what influenced the concept for Fast and Furious.

It then got rewritten. Yes. If it became a completely different movie. Yeah. They moved it to California. Yeah. Um, changed the whole story. But it was originally a story about New York Street racing New York, which was this like gritty sort of Yep.

Everybody was building stuff out of like small shops and stuff like that. So that was, that was our thing. When we moved RPM into New York City, everyone's like, Hey, I wanna build a car to go race. Yeah.

You know, on the conduit I want, you know, and I'm like, yeah, I could do that. Yeah. Just leave my name out of it. Yeah. Yeah. Because I don't want, I don't wanna be, you know, I don't want the cops knocking on my door.

Yeah. So that's what we did. We were like the underground shop. Yeah. I mean, so many people in New York were like, the part of New York business that people won't talk about is people be like, yeah, you know, I do this.

And, uh, I go, really? Like, how can you afford, like that big house? Like, because I used to do stash boxes, but I don't do those anymore. Like every guy who did car audio also did stash boxes. New York's always got a side house.

Yeah. But that was, that was, and then my, my, my, my thing was like, I, I think I was one of the very first people to invest in like a TIG welder. Oh, okay. So like, I was always trying to weld shit and do shit.

Oh, okay. So I was like, well, one of the first people to invest in a tig, I had no idea how to use that thing. So like, we financed the thing you did by the time I met you. Yeah. 'cause that's what you were known for.

Yeah. You were the guy who would like, make manifolds for everybody. Yeah. Yeah. Because, you know. Nobody was doing it. Yeah. And I remember we used to bring like aluminum intake manifolds that we would cut up and make, you know, just out of Home Depot shit, you know, and then bring it to a guy and he was like, yeah, I charge you like 600 bucks.

The weld is, I was like 600 bucks, you know, back in the day, 600 bucks might as would been money million. Yeah. He's like, well, who else are you gonna bring? You're like, the car it's going on. We bought for 500.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. The turbo. I took off a fucking bus. Okay. Out of an MTA yard. So he was like, well, who else are you gonna go to? As soon as he said that, I said, you son, I'm a bitch. That's when I bought my tig welder.

Oh, okay. I like that. Yeah. Yeah. Because I 'cause of him, I have a holder. Hmm. And then that's definitely what drives you too, is like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You can't do that. Oh yeah. Watch me.

Fueled by spite. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, okay, so from there you guys start building some pretty fast cars. Yeah. From there. It was weird because we were some of the standout cars in that area.

Oh dude. We did so many drag, like professional level drag cars. Yeah. It was weird. And like we did, um, I think the, the craziest thing we've done was that, um, land speed insight. Mm-hmm. Because that was an all aluminum shit box that Yeah.

That went like 190 miles an hour. You still had that when you started did Hoonigan? I did. I did. You got rid of it though. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Because I would never land speed racing is something I never want to do again.

Yeah. ' cause it's so scary. It doesn't seem like there's a really big ROI No, because it doesn't actually feel fast. Okay. Right. The, the problem with land speed racing is you have to sustain a speed.

And that speed is usually almost your max speed. And you have, and it it, you just creeping one mile at a time. Yeah. And you're going 200 miles an hour and creeping one mile at a time for like five miles.

It feels like an eternity. And it also doesn't have the presence of speed. Yes. But the, the potential catastrophe that could happen if something goes wrong Yes. Is through the roof. Like I've never driven anything on that level mm-hmm.

That fast. But I've had like driven on El Mirage at like 120 uhhuh and it feels like you're doing 40. Yeah. Like you don't have the reference of speed. Speed, but you, but you understand, but you're, but it's like, all it takes is for one ball joint to go loose.

Yeah. It's over. Yeah. That's, I I don't wanna do that again. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was the thing, like when we built the Cole Marrow. Yeah. Like, in the end, I think everyone sat around thinking none of us actually want to go sell a land speed record.

Why'd we build this thing? Wait, when Dan told me about it, he's like, we're building a land speed. I was, good luck with that. I don't want anything. I don't wanna be near that thing. Yeah, yeah.

But I had the car, um, and eventually I was like, you know, maybe I'll turn into a dry car, or somebody just never did it. I mean you, but you guys had built a bunch of cars in that period 'cause you guys were kind of, you guys were known for that.

Yeah, we built a bunch of cars. Yeah. But we built, um, 'cause 'cause we had to take weld. We, yeah, we did c and m. That's how we know them. Yep. Right. Um, here's a question for you, 'cause I never asked you this in the time, so.

You know C&M, which was Chris or Taki and Mike. Yeah, right. Uhhuh, Chris and Mike. CM Chris and Mike Performance. Yeah. Yeah. They were real original, but they did have those cool shirts that said got boost on them.

Yes, yes, yes, yes. Which one of my favorite things ever was there was this Vagrant who used to live by my house in Steinway, who we called Crazy Happy man. 'cause he was either really happy or really crazy.

Okay. Depending on when you run into him. And um, I gave him some C&M shirts one day and then he got into an altercation with like nine police officers at a McDonald's and he was wearing the C&M got boot shirt.

That is so good. But this is like early Blackberry era. So like, no, no one has video of it, you know what I'm saying? Like, I think I might have this like really pixelated photo uhhuh of him yelling and screaming.

He is got the got boo shirt on. But I was, I was always like, yeah, it's, whenever I think of C&M, I think of crazy happy man fighting six police officers. That's amazing. Whatever in the street on, on Steinway.

Anyway, so funny question about that. 'cause like I was a Volkswagen guy, those guys were the fastest Volkswagen guys mm-hmm. For a period of time. Mm-hmm. It was back and forth between them and Shimmel and some guys down in Puerto Rico, but like, they were the fastest VR six.

Mm-hmm. They were the fastest Jetta. Mm-hmm. Especially in a front wheel drive format. Um. You were coming from the Honda world where you guys were already a lot faster. Mm-hmm. So did you look at all of us like, yeah.

That's cute. Yeah, we always, because Hondas were already into like the sevens. Yeah. And we were just breaking into the nines at that point. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I always kind of figured that. 'cause you always had this like, the fuck are you guys doing?

Oh God. Like, yeah. Like, what are you, why are you guys so slow? We're sitting there like, we're the fastest in the world. Yeah. Like, no, no. You're like, that's cool. The car I drove here is faster.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good time. Were you parked because you, you did a lot of the inlet piping and all that for them? I did their manifold, their all their, um, yeah, all their piping. We did the intake and exhaust manifold for them.

Um, and did you help them on the wheelie bar stuff as well? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because that was like a huge shift in the marketplace at that point was when we realized wheelie bars made cars that on our front wheel drive car, that was Ed.

Ed and Ron. Ron Bergenholz. Yeah. And Ed. And Ed Bergenholzes, their car would stay in my shop. Okay. Um, at, in RPM, you know, when they were touring the East coast, so we would always work on their car at our shop.

Oh, okay. And then. I think Chris came in, he's like, does this really, the wheely bars really work? I'm like, yeah, that shit works. He goes, I want a set. That's what he ended up making a set for. Yeah.

For my stuff. I mean, that really made that thing go. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, do you remember the, the lockout system that they had? Yeah. So that we could just make the rear solid for street racing. That's pretty good.

Yeah. Which was my favorite car. 'cause they had two cars at the time. They obviously had the full blown mm-hmm. Jetta with the full fiberglass nose mm-hmm. And whatever. And then they had the same engine in a streetcar.

Yes. And the streetcar was like, like kind of rough looking like stock had really bad stance. Yep, yep, yep, yep. Like, just looked like a kid who I remember was like the ultimate sleeper. 'cause it, it didn't just look stock.

Mm-hmm. It looked like a car of bad style. Do you know what I'm saying? Yes. I remember that car. And, and then it was, I mean, just a rip it would mop people up. I remember that car. They would get out and they'd turn the little things in the back to lock out the rear suspension and the thing would just be like horrible car to drive in.

Oh yeah. I could imagine. Yeah. That was during the era. That was before they moved. That was when they were in the taxi cab spot. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. These guys worked, I swear to God, I think we could say it now.

'cause there's probably statute of limitations. They definitely worked in a chop shop. Oh for sure. Like that was a chop shop at night. Yeah. Like they were running a tur, they were building turbo cars in the back.

Yes. But there was definitely some chop shopper going on in there. He probably still does. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, um, okay. So after RPM. How did you end up at, so where, where did that go?

Okay, so, okay. How, how I ended up at RP, uh, RPM was when I started with, you know, my brother and another guy. Um, shit went sideways. I went on my own. Yeah. And I took my clients with me. At the time, we also had a Ferrari client mm-hmm.

Where he was starting his, a Ferrari tuning shop, but late at night, he would just bring me all the cars and I would do all the work for him. Wait, wait, so you were like the ghost writer Yeah. Of a Ferrari shop.

So he, yeah, pretty much. Like, he would take in clients and be like, yeah, I could do the headers for you. Yeah. I could install that for you. And then he would call you, he was Drake of Ferrari World.

Yeah. He was. Yeah. You were writing all the lyrics on the back. Yeah, pretty much. So he would like, literally in the middle of the night, just bring cars and then I would do them. He would send him back to his shop and in the morning he would deliver the cars.

So I had that client and then eventually people caught on. Yeah. So like, that's how I started the whole Ferrari like service. Mm-hmm. And race car stuff. And I was doing it for a dealership at one point because dealerships didn't wanna do like, Hey man, we, we gotta do an engine out on this car.

Dealerships don't wanna do that shit. You know, they're like, we wanna do an oil change in brake pads. Yeah. Yeah. So they would send me cars. Um, so that's what, how I ended up with Ferrari stuff. Right.

And then that was 2008. Was it 2008, 2009? Because that's LM 24. Yeah. Yeah. And that, and then that was a shitty year to be working on high-end Ferrari stuff. Oh. 'cause the recession hit. Yeah. All over.

Yeah. So then after that, I, and you had a bunch of other stuff there. 'cause I remember you let us drive. I don't know why, but you let us drive that XJ two 20 that you had there. The one I told you don't drive.

Call me when you're ready to drive this car. That one? Yeah. Yeah. That was Elton John's car. Oh really? Yeah. Sick. Sick. I almost looped it out. I remember driving. I definitely went, we went like through an intersection.

Yeah. And like the crest, like I just came off the throttle a little bit. Yeah. Enough for it to just, yeah. So I, I remembered like, he was like, Hey man, do you have any cars that I could shoot? This was zero 60.

Yeah. Zero 60. Yeah. And then I was like, yeah, I got this XJT 20, somebody bought it in for some service. And I was like, I'll meet you there. I'll drop it off. When you're ready, I'll come pick you up.

I had no idea that was, that was, uh, yeah, El John's car. That's pretty cool. That makes it even cooler. Yeah. I almost totaled a tiny dancer car. It's pretty fucking sick, man. Yeah. There was that guy.

Um, he was a weird dude. Elton John? No, not Elton John. Oh. I was like, I was like, yeah, they made a whole movie about how weird he was. No, the guy who, it's called drugs. The guy who owned that car after Elton John.

Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. So it wasn't El, it was Elton. It wasn't Elton's at the time. At the time. I wish you would've left that part out. I enjoyed it more thinking. Oh, it was El John's car. Yeah.

Well, I mean, you sat where Elton John's butt was. Yeah. Okay. That's fine. Yeah. That works. Remember that car? It was so funny. Tangent too, right? That car, like when you took the sun visor down, it would cover the whole windshield.

'cause the windshield was so sloped. Oh yeah. Yeah. I do kind of, I mean, it, I barely fit in the car uhhuh. So I, I, I don't think I could see through any anything anyway. Oh, it was just driving it.

Yeah. Force. So there was that guy, that guy was weird 'cause he had like a, this is such a New Yorker thing. Um, he called me up out of the blue one day 'cause he had a Ferrari and then he's like, Hey, you need to come to Brooklyn and take a look at my collection.

Get 'em all running. I would go there and he would have like mirrors. And 25th anniversary Osh is literally rotting away in a basement. This is the part of New York car culture uhhuh that no one understands is that there is just the weirdest stuff.

Yeah. Stored in the weirdest of places. Yeah. 'cause in New York, like there's spaces at such a premium that people will just do the craziest stuff. I, I don't know if you saw, there was an article a couple years back, I don't even remember what car it was, but it was some insert some priceless Ferrari or whatever.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And the guy had nowhere to store it, so he like put it in the stock room of his store and then built a wall around it. You know what I'm saying? Like just like built, like, just like locked it into there.

Yeah. Like, yeah, just put it in here for now. So like, I, I spent the next like two years of the business just. Getting his cars running. Mm. That, that was interesting. Anyway, that's where that XJ came from.

And then where did the ai, was AI just additional work for you? I did. Were you working them as like a contractor? I was working with AI as a contractor. Right. So when they did, um, like, and by the way, for AI design to, to me, has built some of the most like high craftsmanship cards.

Yes. Like, like they deserve the term coach builder. Yes. Like, that's where they're at. I mean, Matt is just, I think Matt took a severe mental health issue of being really OCD and turned it into an amazing career.

Oh yeah. 'cause his attention to detail is amazing. Is is really, really good. Yeah. Yeah. And like, they have like really, really high-end clients, right. Like Calvin Klein. Mm-hmm. I think Ralph Lauren.

Ralph. Lauren. Calvin. Yeah. Like other people who are extremely discerning. Mm-hmm. And very particular. So they have built some really cool stuff and I, yes. We connected with them through the magazines at some point.

Mm-hmm. I actually think through rides originally. Mm-hmm. Tony Harmer started doing a lot of photography for them, but they were just always working on the coolest things. Right? Yes. And even their, like, they had that Econoline project thing.

Remember they had the, the vans that they were building Yeah. Which were basically limos. Mm-hmm. But from the outside, they looked like vans, standard plumber vans. So that like high wealth individuals could like drive around New York City unnoticed and have like full big flat screen TVs.

Yeah. Like all that. I mean, they were doing, and they still are, like, they're still building really real, they actually have an RS two there right now that makes me be like, man, I kind of wanna send my RS two to Matt, but I don't want the price tag that comes along with it because they like, have gone through and fixed all these things.

Yes. As an RS two owner, I'm like, yeah, it sucks that it doesn't do that. And they're like, yeah, we're gonna redo it and we're gonna do it not only how the factory would do it mm-hmm. But probably better than Oh yeah, for sure.

Sure. Because you, so you worked for them a couple years doing I, I was a, I was first an independent contractor with them. Yeah. Um, and then after the 2008 thing, Matt was like, Hey, why don't you just come here and do the thing here?

Yeah. Like, sure. You know, it'd be nice because after like struggling, you know? Yeah. Um, I was like, fuck it. You know, I just had a kid. I'm like, maybe it's time to. Go just get a nine to five. Yes.

Yeah. And Matt was cool. I I really enjoyed my time there. I must say Matt taught me a lot of things. Yeah. You know, 'cause before it was like, it, I, I think I was very rough and tumble race car, make shit fast.

Right. And then Matt told, you know, he taught me like to look at little things and like, I really appreciate that like, like my attention to detail now is, is is very heavily influenced by Matt. Did you get a lot of sort of the woodworking and finish stuff there?

Yes. Because like, I remember going there and they had a full wood shop. Yes. And I remember thinking, why does a car shop have a full wood shop? Yeah. Yeah. So I think, I think for me working there, like my woodworking skills like tripled and doubled and, and whatever it was, and then like.

It really opened up my eyes to like, at, at the time I thought fabricators were always guys who welded shit. Yeah. Like I went there and like, oh man, these guys were doing plastic stuff. They were doing like, um, wood stuff and like, this is great.

Yeah. Now I know how to work with these other materials. I mean the upholstery stuff was amazing. What was the guy's name do? Hiro. Hiro. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Hiro steering wheels were some of the best steering wheels I've ever seen in my life.

Yeah. Yeah. Hey, what's up? I figured you needed a break and during that break I was gonna keep talking to you. Are you curious about some of these random parts that I have sitting around my house? Like these itbs or this custom cut from billet GTI steering wheel?

Well this is the kind of stuff that I talk about on my Patreon. That's right. If you want more podcasts, but also just the kind of stuff that would never do well here on YouTube. Go check out Patreon.

That's what it's for. Like, just so, so good. Amazing. He's still doing it. Yeah. I I still speak to him once in a while. Is Hiro still at a No, he, he doing his own thing Now. Slide me his number.

Stimulus. Well, he Hiro did the dashboard and steering wheel in the ridge line. Wait, what? Yeah, I sent him the dashboard in the, the steering wheel. Oh, that's, I didn't even realize that. That's amazing.

Remember there was that character on, um, uh, what was it? Uh, west Coast Customs was ish. Yes. Yes. Like he, Hiro is the real life ish because like, Hiro was like, he was just a scientist with upholstery work.

Yeah. He was, he was amazing. He's still, he's still amazing with that stuff. Yeah. I, those guys did a good job. Yeah. So, so I, that was my stint at ai. I think I, I was there for three years. Yeah.

Um, great job. Learn a ton of stuff. And then I was like, man, I couldn't sit still. Like, I need, I need to do my own thing again. Yeah. And then I went to do body shop stuff. Oh yeah. But the body shop stuff was great.

Not because like, because you didn't have clients who wanted custom work. Yeah. Like I, she, yeah. Matt, like, I, I doing the custom work was great, but like, man, dude, it's like, takes forever. Mm-hmm.

And I was like, I really want to just like in and out, get it outta my life. Right. And then I went to the body shop stuff, which was great because I learned a lot of how to move cars through the shop.

Like, you know, you really had to count your hours. Yeah, yeah. Right. So that was a whole different thing. Well, I remember when you came. GaN. 'cause I called you and I said, Hey, we've got this potential opportunity.

What do you think? Mm-hmm. And you're like, well, I own a body shop. And I was like, well, okay, I guess you're not gonna do it. You're like, no, no, no. I would totally just sell it and be done with it.

Mm-hmm. 'cause you were sick of the business. Oh dude. Eight years in, I wanted to kill myself. It was great money. You know, everybody with a body shop has all these toys and stuff. Yeah. Because they're trying to get away from the body shop.

You know what I mean? Like they have boats and Lambos because the business sucks. Right. You're fighting all the time for money, you know? And I guess now because of the way, like, I guess from my understanding, um.

Insurance claims have really changed. Mm-hmm. Because like you, they have like all this new stuff where like photo, like, like it used to be like you could write something and do this. Now everything's really trackable.

Yes. Like back in the day, you could hit the insurance company for one price and then buy everything after market. Yeah. And pay less for it. Yeah. No, that shit doesn doesn't, that shit doesn't, like none of that exists anymore.

No, it does not. Everything's tracked. Yeah. So it's no longer as a profitable business as it once was. Yeah. Because you can't scam the insurance companies, which is a shame. 'cause the insurance companies just scam us, but the insurance companies are scams.

But, but yeah. So like when you I did that, which was great because I learned what not to do Right. By like, my whole life has been aftermarket so you figure it out. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but one of the joys was like taking a car apart was like, you know, when I was doing the, the race car stuff was like, how do they put things together?

And then going into the body shop world, you had to take classes, how to put things back together properly. So you learn like, you know, like that metal and that metal can't touch each other. Uh, this is the rivet you used.

These are the glues you used. So I learned a lot there. Yeah. Eight years in. I just like, I fucking hate this. So when you called, I'm like, you know, I, I need a break. I'm gonna go out and do this thing.

Yeah. And now you live in California. Yeah. It wasn't that bad. I always wanted to come out here. Yeah. Because every, like my brother's been out here for a good long time. Yep. And. I would be shoveling snow in my driveway in New York, you know, and my brother would like a, like an asshole.

Yeah. Like brothers do. Yeah. Pictures of palm trees and, and shit. Mm-hmm. But I never had a really good reason. Yeah. Yeah. Now here you are. And your family moved pretty quickly, like your wife was about it.

Well, the thing was, when we, when I, when, when we all agreed and I, I came out here, um, they were like, oh, well I'll be out here for four or five months. I'll find a place to live. Um, you know, we'll find a house.

We'll, we'll buy a house. And then COVID hit. Yeah. Yeah. And then she's like, well, I don't wanna move out there until this is all over. What if you die? You know, my wife is, my wife is like, this is why I love your wife.

Yeah. She's like, if you die, I don't know anybody there, so let's let COVID pass first. By the way, this is why she knows how much a nine 11 starts with the original, because she's like, if Suppy was to die.

Yes. I think, I think Yeah. She knows. Yeah, she knows. So that was her thing. She's like, I will mourn in the Maldives for a few months. That's my wife. So that was, she was like, so I stayed out, we stayed out here.

I stayed out here by myself for like a whole year. Oh, I remember. Yeah. Full bachelor pad. Oh, dude. That, that apartment was a, it was a studio apartment and literally you walked in, there was a mattress on the floor.

Yeah. And a cooler that I sat on. By the way, I will point out that you. During that era was my favorite. Suppy. 'cause you never wanted to go home because there was nothing to go home to. There was nothing to go home to.

It would be great 'cause I'd be like, Hey Suppy, you want to help me? Um, TIG weld all these AC lines for my, for my landish or whatever. I got nothing else to do tonight, dude. I didn't want you, you buying dinner, I'll stick around.

Yeah. And then the family was here and it was like Suppy, wass like, boom, I'm out every day. I gotta go. I got stuff to do. Yeah. I got soccer, I got this, I got that. I did all sorts of shit when they showed up.

Yeah. Yeah. But literally I would go home, I would go to the, the studio apartment to the mattress. There was nothing else there. You know, two miles just hang out at Hoonigan. Yeah. It was in, I remember it was great for all of our personal build.

Like even like that was peak personal build. Oh, I know. Era. 'cause like everybody would stay afterwards and work on stuff. I feel like we somehow lost that when we got to Compton. 'cause it just, even though there was more room, yes.

There was more space for everyone to work on their cars. Yes. The number one thing everyone complained about was that there wasn't enough room for everyone's own cars. We gave everyone that and no one worked on the car sign before.

So I have a, I have a thing with Compton, right. Everybody wanted to work on their stuff because they had limited space at 6 21. Yeah. But now we have an employee bay. They just bought stuff and, and never worked out.

And never worked on it. I know, because previously there was employee bay. Yeah. And you had to have your car out of there within a day or two. Mm-hmm. Someone else was coming in. Or if you worked in Main Bay, you had to be have your car.

Yes. Off the lift by morning. Yes. Do you know how many nights I wanted to go home, but I was like, shit, I just gotta stay and get this this done. Because the car's not even in pe like back together enough to take off the lift.

Remember you would be getting there in the morning and I would like still be mopping up the oil. I remember. Did you go home like No. No. I remember this like it was a motivator. Yeah, you are right.

Once we all had our, that's a good point. Once we all had our own lift spaces. Yeah. Cars just got parked. Yeah. It's like, I'll get to it tomorrow. Yeah. I could leave it on the lift. Nobody else is coming in.

Here's a another interesting conversation because I loved 6 21. Mm-hmm. But I thought Compton was gonna be so much better. Mm-hmm. And I actually think 6 21. I think so too. Was was better? I think so.

Like. I think you had a better team. Mm-hmm. Like you had a really good team at the end. Mm-hmm. At the Compton location. Mm-hmm. But there was just something about the general 6 21 vibes. Mm-hmm. That worked.

Which doesn't make sense because the Compton building was bigger, had more things like we had more tools, like everything was better about Compton, but something just didn't work as well as like the 6 21 era.

I don't know what it is. I like the 6 21 era. Yeah. It was good. Yeah. Because we, we would all be there working late at night. Yeah. There was more, it felt more like a clubhouse. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like Compton lost some of that, which makes no sense.

It was like more room to slide cars around. There was everything. There was just something that just didn't ever. Yeah. Now it's a furnish shop. Is that what it turned into now? Yeah. 6 21 is like whole oh six 20.

Oh, no, no. It's actually worse. It, it's a liquidator and it's nothing but garbage. Like broken forklifts sucks and just all this random stuff. So it's funny because the neighbors who were so upset about us being there mm-hmm.

Because we would have like the occasional because carcass of a car. Mm-hmm. Or you know, obviously doing all the donuts and burnouts that too. I, you know, I think now they're sitting there going, oh, maybe it was better when they were there.

Yeah. Yeah. Because we at least police the area. Yeah. Now it's like there's garbage everywhere. There's rats everywhere. There's like homeless encampments. And I ran into one of the neighbors while I was there filming with, with Vinny.

'cause we brought the Ferraris there for a shot's, a little egg to see if anyone recognized the side of the building. And we ran one the neighbors and he admitted, he was like, yeah, it was kind of better when you guys were here.

Oh, damn. It's like you didn't know how good you had it. Yeah. Yeah. We only made noise like once a week. That was it. Now you got this like mayhem now. Yeah. It looks like full on junkyard, so. Oh, it sucks.

Yeah. But no, that place was, it was a good time. It was, it felt like it had more of a, more of a clubhouse vibe. I compton's Interesting. 'cause I, you know, DE moved in, they now moved out. Mm-hmm.

And like, I still, like, I was trying to talk to. Fit Tim into buying that spot. 'cause you know, he's got Type 99, which is his new mm-hmm. Um, he's like basically building coach work. Mm-hmm. Level nine elevens.

Mm-hmm. And like, they need more space. And I was like, I'm like, I'm like, I just wanna see that spot work. 'cause it didn't work for Hoonigan. I, it clearly it worked for DDE e for a while. Mm-hmm. And then clearly didn't, 'cause they, they moved out.

I think it was just too expensive for what they wanted. Um, and I was like, maybe it'll work for that. And I'm like, I'm like, I just like the spot's so cool. Yeah, because like literally you can get away with murder there.

Yeah. Yeah. Like the cops never cared about anything. We did. No, no. Never came to the building. Never cared. Like super mellow. And it's also like only 10 blocks from my house, which is really the driving force for me all.

And I just need more storage. Just all your stuff would be in the yard again. Yeah. I just need a friend, you know, I gotta say Damon, like Damon's a friend. Um, love those guys, uh, over at DE but he was smart.

He never once let me park a car there. I was like, you have so much space here. He knew he, he would let me come and slide cars around, like if I needed to use the space. Oh. Because he knew he would open it.

But if I was like, Hey, I just gotta park this car for a day. He was like, Nope. Sorry. No room. Like, what do you mean no room? It's 40,000 square feet. You guys have like six cars here. What are you talking about?

No room. He knew. Yeah, he knew. Yeah, he knew. I would just absolutely take it because he knows Juan would turn into 40. Yeah. You know what? I just remembered I left a car at your, at LM 24. Oh shit.

And I sold it. And you sold it sick. Did you get ma you make money on it? Yeah. I, I was sick. It was a Volkswagen Golf. That was one I turned to a rally car. Yeah, it was a red one. I like stripped it all down.

I brought it out there for a cage. Yes. And then I was like, cool, I'm gonna race rally. And then I got a job with Ken. I was like, cool, I'm gonna race rally. And he is like, when I'm racing rally, I was like, oh.

He's like, how could you race? So that's a how could you race rally when I'm racing, I'm racing rally and I pay you to talk about me racing rally. And I was like. Ah, shit. And yeah. Yeah. That was it.

I forgot about that. Totally forgot about that car. Yeah, I remember that car. I was like, where's this guy? What'd you sell it for? Do you remember? I don't remember. I paid like 300 for it, so I definitely got more than 300 for it.

Sick. Sick. Oh man. That was good times. Yeah. I was actually just telling someone the story the other day of you saving my ass on the expressway. Yes. Because I drove my nine 11. Yes. And I, I changed the seats in it.

Didn't realize that I had unhooked the, um, the kill switch. Yeah. The like ECU had come loose on it and it died like mid corner. And I don't remember if I called you. You did. And you or you just showed up.

No. Yeah, you called me. 'cause you were like, oh man, I'm near, I'm near a Suppy shop. Yeah. And I, and I came out with Jamo. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And you guys didn't fix it, but you got me off the road.

Yeah. This is all that mattered. You were like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever. Like, and you're like, I'm out. Yeah, yeah. Your problem not. Yeah. Yeah. You were like, that's why you should buy a Honda.

Bye. It was like always the line like, see ya later. Yeah. I remember 'cause you're like, I bought a nine 11. It's like, why'd you do that? Now it's like the best, best one I ever made in my life. I, I know at the time there was, you know, nobody thought it was cool.

No, no. I literally bought an uncool car to all my friends. Yes. Everybody was like, why did you buy an evo? Yeah, that's, that was the line. Yeah. Because at the time, evil is rock evils were fucking cool.

Yeah, yeah. Like Tony Chan's, Evo was faster than mine. Nine 11. Oh yeah. For, for sure. Oh yeah, for sure. But now, yeah, that's another guy. I mean, that's just, you, you know, you guys, Asians, you got like really good hustle.

'cause you know, he bought that car selling fake option two stickers. Did he? Yeah. He was just bootlegging option. So you bought your car, selling fish, whatever. Hey man, sometimes you gotta, you gotta sell fish.

That's, that's, that's the hustle. I like that. Maybe that, that's probably where the name for your next, like when you finally move into the coach building phase and Suppy is selling, you know, million dollar rolls, 1978 Rolls Royces to really rich people who want fuck off cars.

It needs to have like the, like there needs to be a fish te analogy. You know what, what? That's right. What's the name of that fish again? Arowana, just call it that arowana performance. That's your fucking name, bro.

Like, that's your name. I'll give you that to you for free. That's your name. Like, I would, if someone was like, have you seen the new Arowana? I'm like, no. How much is it? They're like, 1.3 million.

I'm like, with a name like that, I'd spend it. Yeah. I always wanted a fish made car. Do you? And I, I say that jokingly though, but like, do you see yourself ever going into that like, bespoke car world?

Um, like, is it something you would wanna do where you go and make one a one-offs? I like doing the one-offs. But you wouldn't want to do like 10 of them? I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't wanna do like 10 of them.

Because you'd get bored? No, because I, I know what it takes. Oh, okay. And I know like, the difficulties of it, um, because you do, in one, you still have the creative juices to go, well, this is different.

I wanna do that, do this. Mm-hmm. When you do 10 of them, they're all pretty much the same. Somewhat. You know, you one expect them one gets be easier to a certain way. I know, but like, like it doesn't drive you.

I get, I get bored easy. Okay. So it's more of a mo it is a motivation. Yeah. Yeah. I would get bored. Like, TLC does a, a fantastic job. Mm-hmm. You know, Gunther works and saying they all do fantastic jobs at it, but there's, I would just get bored.

Hmm. I could see that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm, I mean, we try to standardize some of the stuff that we use and we build, you know, like we use the same coolers as as many, you know, as often as we can, but everything's a little different.

I enjoy the problem solving of it. Yeah. You're a bit of a masochist. Little. Yeah. Uh, it's interesting 'cause as this conversation goes on and on, and I, you know, I've known you now for two plus decades, I'm actually starting to realize that you are like the YouTube archetype.

Like you were the guy who did all the things that the rest of us didn't think was possible. Mm-hmm. Right? Like you were learning to tig when, like before weld porn was a concept. You know what I'm saying?

Like, before anyone talked about dimes, like Yeah. It was sort of like earlier than that you were doing carbon fiber layup. Mm-hmm. When I thought that you had to be like part of the defense department to make carbon.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Like when carbon still was not Yes. Very accessible in our space and everyone was just putting carbon wrap on fiberglass parts. Right. Like you were doing your own carbon layup stuff, you were obviously putting weird engine swaps into things.

You were doing motech stuff way before everyone else was. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And now that's like normal. Yeah. So like, you are the problem. Like, you, you were like, I guess you're like early man Uhhuh, you're like, you're like early tuber, like, like before YouTube you were the prototype for like, yeah, I'm just gonna learn how to do all this stuff on my own and just make it normal.

Yes. That normal people can do really high level things. Yeah. Because I think we live in this weird world now where like, where people are like, I'm just gonna make my own body kit. Yeah. Like, I would've never thought to do that in 2005.

Mm-hmm. I would never be like, I'm just gonna design my own body kit, learn to do layup on fiberglass mm-hmm. And make my own, you know, make my own molds. Mm-hmm. And, and just put it all together and just do it.

But like now people just do things. Yes. Do, but do you, like, do you feel like, 'cause I know you were always the, I'm just gonna do pers uhhuh do something. But you have to admit, like in the mid two thousands, in the late nineties, Uhhuh, if there wasn't a bolt-on kit, people really weren't doing it.

Yes. Yeah, I know. Like if there wasn't a, a supercharger kit mm-hmm. From Jackson or from whoever. Mm-hmm. Like you weren't putting it on your car. But you were, yeah. Why did you do it differently? I don't know.

I, I always just thought I'm that type of person that looks at something like, I could do that better. Oh yeah, you are. You know, like, I don't care what it is. Like I'll look at a paani and go, that guy sucks.

Yeah. No, I know. I You worked for me. Trust me. It was frustrating because you thought every, you could do everything better. Yeah. Yeah. That's me. Yeah. You're like, why are you guys doing it? Like, just, just do the damn work.

But, but that's me. Is that from your parents though? Like, I don't know. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know where that really comes from. Because you were like, like, I think, and I want to give you like your, your props for that, because I think nowadays there's like a lot of people who are like you.

Mm-hmm. But when, when I first met you, you were like this weird mad scientist. Mm-hmm. And that's like how we all looked at you. Yeah. Like, I don't know, man, Suppy. You'll come here, buy 'em like three packs of Marlboros.

Like, he'll figure it out. Like that was it like, it was like Suppy. Like there would be days where it's like, oh, Suppy coming to C&M and like everyone's like showing up with like, like as if you were like, the wise man has come to town, like soy.

How do I make this work? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're like, yeah, yeah. Hold on. I got, lemme go get some parts outta the kitchen and I'll weld this back up for you. And like, but you were doing that in an era where at least in sport compact cars, it didn't exist.

Yes. Like it's always existed in hot rod. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Guys were like doing sand casting their own heads and all that stuff in the fifties, but. That world, at least in New York felt mm-hmm. Removed from, from us.

But like you were there. So I was just, it's, and that's why we came to, that's why I called you for Yeah. Come work at Hoonigan. 'cause we were venturing into the world of like, we wanna build some really crazy shit.

Yeah. And I know this guy who tried to stick like a fucking Nissan engine into a Ferrari once Uhhuh. So maybe he, he could do that. Well I, I think, I think the fact that I love like problem solving right.

Is like my drive to keep, you know, doing stupid stuff. Yeah. You know? I dunno. So what's next? Um, as a project? Yeah. I've been, my next project, my next big project is going to be a CRX. Oh, okay.

Back, back to where it started back. But I want do it to, is that your retirement project or you bookend? No, my retirement project is my, my land cruiser. Like Okay. I always told my wife like, I'm gonna get rid of all the cars.

Mm-hmm. And I'm gonna rebuild the Land Cruiser for one final time and you are gonna bear me anything. And then you're just gonna drive off. Yeah. I'm just gonna drive off or whatever. But I know I wanna do a CRX.

Um, I've had like the Integra, I've had CXS in the past. Um, but I wanna do this one front wheel drive or wheel front Wheel drive. I'm gonna keep it front wheel. Really classic. Yeah. Yeah. Keep it front wheel drive.

Like a simple B 16 all motor, no turbo. Okay. I want the, the essence of driving a front wheel drive 'cause I don't own a front wheel drive Honda. Yeah. Did you ever think that you'd wanna be back in a front wheel drive car?

No. Yeah. No. But I, I, I enjoy it too. I didn't think I was gonna want another front wheel drive car. Yeah. But I really enjoy it. Yeah. Like, I, like, I, I, but this is the age thing. I think it is like slow cars driven fast is better than fast cars.

Yeah. I wanna make a Yeah, like a 200 horsepower Yeah. B series, but I wanna do it different torque steering like crazy. Oh yeah. Yeah. I just like, like how fast I'm going as like the mail truck passes you some lady chirping third.

Yeah. Somebody on like a bird scooter just coming by, you know? But I wanna do, like, I, like, I went to, I, I went to Pebble the other year. Okay. And I was looking, I've never been, I, I was looking at these cars, I'm like, God, I wanna park a Honda next to that two and a half million dollars Ferrari that I wanna see.

I wanna see that. I wanna be on the lawn with a CRX. That's a good goal. You know, like, I wanna do that. I, I think that's my goal. I mean, I feel like we're there, like, I feel like we're meaning that, like, within the Overton window of what's acceptable Yeah.

That there's, that's gonna move in. That's what I'm saying because like, Goodwood Festival speed, Uhhuh, um, and also the Goodwood members meeting. Mm-hmm. Like, there's now, because of the time, like there's Volkswagen rabbits competing, you know, in that Yeah.

In that race where when I remember watching, when I was younger, it was like. A world of daytona's Yes. And E types Yes. And things like that. Yeah. And now you're like, Hey look, there's a rabbit and it's like a rabbit and a mini racing.

Yes. Because it's like the next generation of car collectors are, are kind of, so I, I want to be the, I want to be the first guy or whatever Yeah. To put a Honda on the lawn at Pebble. And it's gonna be a C Rx, it's gonna be a C Rx.

Like, I want to, you know, full rotisserie build, um, you know, just all of it. Would you make it like stock looking? Modern? Retro, modern, retro. So you would do a lot of fabrication work? Yes. Like, so all your kind of classic stuff.

Yeah. But I don't want to like, alter the body too much. Right. Um, kind of like, yeah. That's a CRX that could have been original or, or like Yeah. But you would bracket the hell out. Like everything would be Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like I'm talking, like, you talk about sand casting. Like, I want to cast my own manifolds. I want to cast my own, you know. Okay. You know, magnesium valve covers, that would be really cool. You know?

Have you ever done sand casting before? I, I've done it. Not, not, not well, but I've done it in the Home Depot buckets. It was, it was shit, but yeah. Interesting. Yeah. Okay. I like that. Right. That's what I wanna do.

I want to take like a CRX. Ultramodern, like, I want to get into the nitty gritty of it. I want to like rebuild the turn signal stocks with like really positive, like, you know, detents and clicks and it's like, for lack of a better way, it's almost like the singer approach put to a Honda.

Yeah. Which is like, just go through it and make everything as good as it can be. Yes. Like leave the million dollar CRX. Yeah. Because I'm like, I, you know, you asked me about the shop stuff, I forget to tell you, but there's, there's a couple.

We're building civics. Like I built two civics and they're, they're surpassing a hundred thousand dollars. Wait. Really? Yeah. Like there's, we're building hundred thousand bucks. So there's customers right now Yeah.

Who want hundred percent six figure civics. Yeah, I am. Yeah, we're doing that now. It, it's really interesting 'cause I've had this conversation with one of your favorite people. Mongo. I know you love Mongo.

Mongo. I know Mongo. Shout out man. Love each other. That's why I should have brought the show today. Oh God. Too good. You should, yeah. Mongo and then Bradley. She's gonna be a fist fight. That'd be great.

I mean, that's basically the show firing order I have coming up is basically that. But, um, I think, uh, we, we've been talking about like, does the audience in the Volkswagen community exist for a quote unquote singer?

Like Mark one, mark Twoo a hundred percent. Like is that there? A hundred percent. Yeah. But see, I think the Honda audience is, is bigger than the Volkswagen audience. Yeah. I, I think the opposite.

Oh really? I think the Volkswagen kids will spend more money maybe. I mean, they all own nine elevens now. Yeah, exactly. So what if some, if you sold somebody a uh, a mark one, yeah, that was perfect.

Somebody would spend a million dollars on it. A million dollars. Yeah. I mean, maybe one person. You, I, I still think a hundred grand is the first mountain to climb because I think it would be an interesting space.

'cause like, as someone who enjoys restoring Volkswagens, it's become way harder. 'cause like the parts just aren't as available. Mm-hmm. Like, there's just a ton of stuff that breaks that like hasn't been replaced.

Mm-hmm. And there's also a bunch of stuff that you could make a lot better. Like, that's actually what's kind of fun. Mm-hmm. I think, and I wonder like with, with Porsches, there's a few things you can make better.

Mm-hmm. But with like Hondas and Volkswagen, like, there's a lot. There's a lot. Yeah. Like you can really push it and like really, really improve it. Right. So Uhhuh, that's what I'm saying. I know a singer's really nice.

Mm-hmm. But like, how much nicer is a singer? Very. It is very, but I've never driven one. I've only been around. They drive, they drive. Great. Yeah. Um, better than the regular 9 6 4 A little bit. Yeah.

But the fit, that's my point. Like better than, but the fit finish is amazing. Is phenomenal. Yeah. I mean the fit and finish on my 9 6 4 is Volkswagen quality. Yeah, I know. I, I taken my 9 9 3 apart and I'm like, I, this is terrible.

You, I actually think Audis of the same generation mm-hmm. Are nicer than Porsche's. Oh. I don't, in terms like, like that, like my nineties era, nine, like Audis have nicer interior pieces. 'cause this is all like seventies.

Yeah. That's just been carried on forever. Right. Anyway. Yeah. So a hundred thousand dollars civics. What, what, like, just gimme a quick outline. What does that look like? So, a hundred thousand dollars Civic, um, let see, K Motors.

Mm-hmm. Which is nothing special. Dry sump. Mm-hmm. Itbs. Mm-hmm. Um, but we do a drive by wire ITB. Mm-hmm. This particular car, we're doing a drive by wire, ITB. Um, we're doing dry sump, um, sequential trend.

I hate the sequential trends. Yeah. I know you've said that like nine, that's been the theme of this episode. Yeah. Is how much you hate sequential. Yeah. I, I hate 'em. Um, but again, yeah.

Had to have it 'cause the cool factor, um, spoon seats. Mm-hmm. Um, so we had a spoon exhaust and I said, this is not good enough. Right. So he is like, I need you to cut the muffler off. Just build the rest and just bypass the muffler.

But I would need the muffler there. So I'm like, you're gonna spend $2,000 for just to have a fake muffler. And he goes, yes. You know, that's like scene points. Yeah. You need the scene points. Yeah.

So he's got a spoon, exhaust spoon, like hood and whatever, you know, the cluster's like, yeah. Six grand. But this is still a street car. Street car. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. You know, full motech, all that stuff.

What do you think like the most expensive street civic is right now? Like do you think you're, oh, they're in the hundreds. They're in the hundreds. Yeah. So you're looking at quarter million. Um, you know, it's, I would say 150.

Okay. Yeah. That's interesting. Yeah. I, I, I, I feel like a really high quality civic or Honda build is in the hundreds now, and it's very commonplace. Like if you go to, have you been to Vin shop? Yeah.

Have you seen the guys next door? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Like tho, tho. It's crazy there stuff. Yeah. I, I love their shop, by the way, because they all work on the same cars. Yeah. So because of that, they have like the spares collection.

Mm-hmm. Like their parts bins, like they're bolt bins. Oh yeah. I know, I know you love their bolt bins. I love, you know, I love a good bolt Vin. I love a good, I love, but like, I love that shop and I want that.

I want that. But like with a few Volkswagen guys, see Yeah, that's what I'm saying, like if you had that with Volkswagen guys, somebody will buy it. Yeah. I mean, they're rebuilding alphas.

The worst cars ever. Yeah. I mean, they look good though. Yeah. But to, to me, I think A CRX is a way cooler looking car. Yeah. So actually the funny thing about the Honda shop is Rusty Smith, who's one of the guys that consortium of Honda.

Yeah. Yeah. Fan boys. Uh, was actually our real estate agent who got us both into 6 21 and Compton. No shit. And he also is an Olympian. He was like a famous speed skater, like who was in the Apolo Ohno Ono era anyway, the whole time.

Like we would go places, Uhhuh and he would always be like, yeah, yeah. I've got like a cool, like old, I got like some old Hondas. Yeah. But he like never talked about it. Mm-hmm. What I didn't realize was that he had a full like contour, like, you know, like concourse level Honda bills.

Yeah. Like perfect. Mm-hmm. Cars. Like he never bragged about it. He was like, yeah, I got some Hondas. Like, oh, I used to be into that too. Yeah. I didn't realize like he was super into it. Oh my God.

I was there the other night and I'm like, God, the bull. Yeah. They did a, they do really good stuff. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's pretty cool. Yeah. I guess those are all a hundred K probably. For sure.

Probably. It just, it's crazy to think those cars are worth that much now because mm-hmm. Of how cheap that stuff when I was younger. Yes. You know? Yeah. It's like when you're younger, you're building a Honda in Queens, it's like $500 for like a good VIN job.

Yes. And then everything else is stolen. Yeah. I mean, that's the best thing about the Honda market, you know? Yeah. Is the black market for the Honda Market dude. The Honda market, yeah. I can remember like having friends who'd be like.

Yeah. So, uh, last night, like they got my car and I'm like, dude, it was in the garage. Yeah. Yeah. They moved my truck. Yes. My van, my wife's car out of the way, all left, all three of those cars running in the street, popped the garage door and took my civic out.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I, I clearly remember these stories. Yeah. It was like commonplace. Yeah. No, they moved, they moved the Ferrari out of the way. Yeah. And took my civic. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that's, that's normal.

My buddy's wife's civic got stolen and they, she had a stock Si. Mm-hmm. And he had like a hyper modified Volkswagen and they pulled his VW out into the street to take her. Si. So it was like, it was like, not only did you get your car stolen, but you also like got your, your, you got your soul stolen.

'cause it's like they didn't care about your Volkswagen. Imagine how he felt in the morning. His ego is just like, fuck. Yeah. Yeah. His wife's stock si gone. But anyway. Um, alright. Here's a, here's another question that I, I had sort of written down to ask you.

Mm-hmm. What's the project that we didn't do at Hoonigan that you wish we did? Oh. Because we talked about so many builds that never ended up happening. I think that's the thing that like the audience doesn't understand mm-hmm.

Is for every build that happened mm-hmm. There was like 10 other builds Yeah. That did happen. That were like papered out. That never happened. Yeah. WW is there one that stands out for you? Yes. Yes.

I don't know if you remember this, um, it was the Astro van Kyle's, or, no, not Kyle's, for nasa. Oh, that was, uh, okay. We, we should talk about that. Yeah. So that was a really cool project that we never talked about.

Yes. So, so when you say Astrovan, it was an astronaut van? Yes. Okay. So here's the, here's the thing. Yeah. Um, to celebrate going to the moon again. Yes. Right. Which was one of NASA's programs that they clearly mm-hmm.

Followed through with yet. But like the new lunar project, they wanted to restore an original, um, Airstream mm-hmm. That they had that was like an actual Airstream rv mm-hmm. That they had built out.

And they wanted us to completely redo it, make it like new, I think it was the EV conversion all new. And they wanted us to do an EV conversion. Yep. Yep. And they were going to use that to, uh, transport the astronauts to, to the shuttle.

To the shuttle for the lean takeoff. Which, first off, like talk about stress. You're like the most important thing NASA has done. Yeah. Since the last time we walked on the moon. Mm-hmm. Right. And for all you conspiracy theorists out there, we did go to the moon, but do you think we went to the moon?

We went to the moon. Why do you think we went to the moon? Why wouldn't we. ' cause people think we didn't go to the moon. They think that we faked it. Here's why I think we went to the moon. Mm-hmm.

Because everybody knows somebody who was involved in the lunar project from that generation. Like my uncle worked on the lunar rover. Okay. Why would they have bothered to do all of that if we weren't?

That's what I'm saying, like there was so much, there's like 9,000 people involved. It's, you can't keep a secret amongst two people, let alone 9,000 people. Yeah. Like there's no way that like that Didn't we?

We were in the moon guys. Sorry that didn't happen. I can't wait. That all the comments Oh yeah, yeah. On this we're, we're almost to two hours. All the comments are gonna be about whether or not we went to the moon.

We went to the moon or not in on a very vehicular show becomes very lunar instead. Anyway, this was such an amazing project because one like the US government is gonna fund Hoonigan to build this vehicle.

Right. How we got how like this guy Jeff Jetton Jutton reached out to us and was like, I got this idea. I think this would be really cool. Yeah. And at first I was like, yeah, yeah, whatever. I didn't think it was gonna come to.

And then all of a sudden we start taking more and more meetings, more and more meetings. I think in the end we didn't win the bid and whoever did win the bid went outta business and then the projects just died.

Well, I don't know if you were in involved 'cause I was. Involved with like the pricing. Yeah. And, and just trying to figure out all the logistics and all the price. Well, and remember they were like, we have to have astronauts be able to get onto Yeah.

This, and then like, be in their full Yes. Suits. Yeah. And like transport them in the suits. Yeah. So we had to create all of that. Yeah. And the whole thing I kept thinking of, it's like, well this is one of the biggest events in space exploration.

Uhhuh in this entry. Yeah. And we're gonna build something that might break down all the way to the shop. Like, like just one of those like, oh, see, I thought about this. And like, everybody, everybody who was a Hoonigan fan would be like, yeah, yeah, no, I thought about this.

I was like, you know what, if it did break down and just all of us was just behind this thing, pushing it to the Yeah. To the shuttle would be amazing. Or just like pulling behind like shark cart with a stool of toe strap.

Shark cart pulls the astronaut transporter to the shuttle, does a few donuts, leaves. I, I'm GI guarantee mean that's the America I wanna live in. That, that would've been the highlight of the century.

I forgot that that project even existed. Existed, dude, I was so excited for this project. We were going to build, we were going to build an astronaut carrier. Yes. Like, who, like, like, I mean, if you think.

The indie truck Yes. Was unrelatable, jumping the shark. We bring you astronaut transportation. And this was right after the indie truck. Yeah. Yeah. And I was so excited for this project. Yeah. We were awesome.

So excited. We were on one. Like I was, I I probably spent a month just like figuring out, you know, I, I mean, because you remember 'cause you didn't come with me to visit the I did not, but I went Yeah.

Took a bunch of photos. Yeah. Like it, like they flew, we went out. Yeah. To Cape Canaveral or wherever in Florida. Like they showed us all the stuff. It was actually. Way more derelict than we thought.

We had phone calls with Airstream. Yes. Mm-hmm. Man, I forgot any of this happened. Yeah, dude, I, I forgot. We, we'd had, we had all the calls with Airstream. Mm-hmm. We were partnering with Airstream to do it.

Man, that would've been super cool. And then we lost a bid. 'cause it's a government contract. Yeah. Someone, whoever won the bid ended up going, it was like some electric car company. Yeah. Yeah. And I think they went outta business.

They did. Yeah. So it's like, so I don't know whether apparently the project just died. Well, are we going back to the moon or not? Well, I mean, nasa, you're listening to this, uh, yeah. Nasa, if NASA's listening, which obviously NASA listens to everything.

Right? Maybe that's a different government body. No, that's NSA Right? That's NSA Anyway. The other, and a SA, if you're listening to this, like, we could still make that happen. Yeah. We could still, I'm not saying we would get all the way to the finish line, but it would be cool.

Oh yeah. We, we could make that happen. Nasa, let us, let us know. I forgot about that project. Yeah. That's the one project I was really looking forward to. And we didn't do it. That's not what I thought you were gonna say.

What, what, what project were you thinking? The land speed motor home you wanted to build? Uh, that was, that was another one. Yeah. Yeah. Which was a, if I remember correctly, it was a front wheel drive.

A front wheel drive platform. Yes. It was on the Dodge. It was like a Dodge or no gm. It was a GMC motor home. Yeah. Yeah. GMC. Front Wheel Drive Motor Home. Yes. I forget what they were called, but, so I think we had this weird conversation.

We were probably sitting around bullshit and we're like, yeah, you know, I hate land speed racing. But it would be interesting as shit if we could get 10 people in a motor home and go 200 miles an hour.

Yeah. I mean, honestly, you probably could set the record at like 110. Like I doubt the record is that high to begin with, right? Like it's like driving old hot rods like a hundred miles an hour in a traditional model.

A I fast. I was just like, you know what? It's sketchy, but imagine how sketchy and how much. Fear would be in that, that, that motor home. I also think that's one of the best looking motor homes for the area.

Yes, definitely. Yeah. Like it looks like a spaceship and it's front wheel drive. It's super cool. Right. So it's big, big, long thing. So you're not, you're not pushing your, well they ran on the, um, was the todo drive train, because remember the todo was like the, was the like luxury barge, front wheel drive, and it had the front wheel drive, drive, train.

It's the one that Leno famously made rear wheel drive Uhhuh because he hated that it was front wheel drive. They used that architecture in that. And then also in the Clark Cortes, I don't really know why I know so much RV about that certain, I'm like, why do you know this?

I know because I went through a period of time where I really wanted to build a merch vehicle and I was like, before we built Merch Van Uhhuh and we were going that, we were like, okay, we could build an old rv.

So I was like, I looked a lot into like old Winnebagos. Mm. But the front wheel drive units while not as cool. Mm-hmm. For, you know, I don't really know why you need a rear wheel drive. Like, oh, you could do burnouts.

But yeah, they all had lower floors. Yes. So if you were to stand in 'em and, and me and like sell merch out of it, it just made more sense for it to be that. So that's it. But you know me man, I just rabbit hole on really weird shit.

I know. That's why you and I get along well together. You know, I would send you, I always send you Facebook marketplace. Oh, oh God. So man, we could do it. We could do it. Do you remember when I decided that, um, I wanted to build, uh.

Race truck. Yes. And I just bought a K five Blazer body Yes. With like, yes. And like, it just showed up. It was, it, it was always, always, I think it's the first time you were ever just annoyed with me.

You're like, whatcha doing? I, we would show up and in the yard it would be a carcass of something. And every morning it'd be like, what? That's Brian. What did he do? And I, I especially loved walking into Employee Bay and it would be hand sketches of like, just random nonsense.

Like ramp truck would be like hand sketch into a piece of cardboard just on top of your toolbox. And you know, this was like a three o'clock in the morning. Yeah, it was. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. The worst era in Hoonigan was when we had enough employees that I could call someone in the morning and be like, go get the trailer and go get this. Yes. Because what stopped me from buying stuff earlier on was that I would have to go get it.

Mm-hmm. And I was too busy to go get it. But once I could be like, Hey Josh. Yeah. Can you go get this in the morning? And you're like, yeah, no problem. Yeah. And next thing, because remember I also bought that smart car for a hundred bucks.

Oh yes, yes. We were supposed to do this. We were gonna js, we were gonna jigs or swap that or high booster swap that. Oh God. That was a project. And then we ended up putting the smart car in the bed of the blazer you bought.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that, and it went like that. Together to the junkyard. Yes. Like it just, when, when, when everything at Hoonigan, when like, when it became, like when the Hoonigan shut down that building, everybody left.

Like everybody was there. Like p like picking parts. And that was just like, it just went together to the junkyard. Yeah. The guy who picked it up at the scrap metal thing put it all in his truck and he drove off.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. It was hilarious. It was hilarious. Do you, do you remember the, 'cause you, were you on merch van or was that Dan? No, that was before I merch van. So Merch van, when you guys started Merch Van.

Yeah. I was doing Building battle. Right. That was it. Right? You came on on Building Battle, right? I came on on building Battle and then Merch Van just started. I completely forgot that You started on building Battle Yeah.

With Jamo. Yeah. Right. That was That's that was it. Yeah. So that was sort of the like, Hey, we should have you back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I forget because I remember like merch van was leaving.

I'm like, what are they doing with that thing? And then, and then we had the other one, the Grumman Yes. That I wanted to build and nothing that just that sat forever. Yeah. And then, you know, I sold it to somebody, uh, and they had a farm.

Mm-hmm. And they had a massive fire on the farm. Oh no. And it melted 'cause it was aluminum. Aluminum, yeah. Oh shit. Yeah, like the whole thing. Just like, just like big blob. I mean if you want, maybe you could buy it from him and you can sand cast manifolds for your, for your Honda project out of it.

Yeah. It was an old Grumman. Yeah, Grumman. Yeah. Yeah. You're like, ah, this is Grumman Engineering. Yeah. See that's got Bob cover. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Grumman Engineering right there. So, um.

Oh yeah. I, you know, I forgot completely. And there's so many things that happened, you know, like the old saying like, oh, I forgot more things than you've done in life. No, this is, this is like, there's a bit of that there.

The things that almost happened at Hoonigan is such a long list of stuff like that. Yeah. Remember we were supposed to rebuild A$AP Rocky's car. Yes. Yeah. That was something that, just like that we went away.

That sat forever. Mm-hmm. And then when they sold the building, I was like, someone needs to go and pick up A$APs car. Yeah. ' cause it was just there. I didn't even work there anymore. I was like, they were like, whose is this?

I was like, that belongs to A$AP Rocket. You probably should give that back to him. And then, but you did finish the Killer Mike Build. I did. So that, okay. There's a project that I'm happy that you, so we were supposed to build Killer Mike's Grand National.

Grand National. Yeah. Yeah. It sat at the show. It sat in the store at Hoonigan forever. Oh yeah. Not really on us. I just don't think Mike was like, ready to do the bill. Mm-hmm. It just kind of sat.

Mm-hmm. And like, I kept joking with him 'cause I was like, dude, the car's gone so much up in value that like, you're fine. Like you might not even wanna do it. And then so what did you guys end up doing in the end?

Because I know the original idea was to do a Hellcat did that the hell Crate? Yeah. Is that, that is the direction you guys went? No, no. It went LS in the end, right? Yeah. It went LT or lt, right?

Yeah. Yeah. So we, so the hell Crate, I don't know, you don't remember any of this, huh? So we broke the first motor in a Rolls Royce. Hert, broke it. Right. And then we kind of borrowed, uh, killer Mike's motor.

Right, okay. Got it. Got it. Yeah. Right. So we borrowed Killer Mike's Hell Crate that, that Dodge gave him. Yep. And then when it was time. To do a killer, my car and everybody's moved out and you're like, um, with his motor.

So we just ended up taking the LT that we got from Right. And we, we gifted him the LT that we got as part of the Corvette seed. Corvette deal. Yes. Program. Cor. 'cause they gave me a car and a motor.

Yes. Wild. Okay. So we ended up putting the LT in Killer Mike's car. Well I'm happy you righted that wrong. 'cause that car I was definitely a little worried. I'm like, man, we've been sitting on this car forever, ever.

Mm-hmm. So yeah. Anyway. Yeah, it was good. We put the LT in it. Um, he drove it to the Grammys. Yeah, I remember that. That's the year he won three Grammys Yep. And then got arrested. Yeah, I remember that.

Which honestly was kind of great for the story of the car. Yes. And for him, even though like Yeah, it was, it was so funny. 'cause we, we just got back, we delivered him the car, he drove it to the Grammy's and uh, we were all driving back, um, in a rental car.

It was Mike Musto, myself and Ron B. Mm-hmm. And then we were listening. Big, big shout to Ron Baugh my previous. Podcast host, was it? Yeah. 'cause when I did the podcast for, oh, that's right, that's right.

Yeah. What was it called? Car Crash Weekly? Yeah. On Spotify. Ron Baugh was my, my podcast host. So we were driving home from LA and we were in the rental, we're listening to the broadcast, um, of the Grammys.

And then Mike was up and like, we were all like super hyped when we heard he won course. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. And then we are like, yeah, let's go get some food. We sit down at, at, at grab food and then we see on the news like it, it's at the bar.

Killer. Mike gets arrested. Like what the, oh man, it was funny. Um, and then Ron, like, he's calling the manager, you know, his manager and all that stuff. And like nobody's picking up. And then finally his wife calls killing Mike's wife.

Yeah, yeah. Calls Ron and Ron's like, what happened? What's going on? Hey, I left my shoes in the car. Can you make sure nobody takes the car? Those shoes out? I apparently he was already out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

It was. So I thought that was hilarious. And I was like, what happened? I don't know. But she left some shoes in the car. No, it's funny 'cause that the backstory is, is that they used that car in the Ula la video.

Okay. And then as soon as they were done shooting that they shut that Universal Studios, they dropped the car off at Hoonigan and then the car sat there. Sat for years. Yeah. Yeah. Because it was like, oh, we wanna do this, we wanna do that.

Yeah. But like Mike had a bunch of other things going on. Yeah. And then it then, like, it finished to him, go to the Grammys. Like he, so like he drove the car Yeah. To one music event. Car sat for four years.

Completely Moth fault. That's dope. Great. And out the other one. So Yeah, it's great. I love, I love Mike. He's good. Yeah. I, we see him like once or twice a year and he's, he's awesome. Yeah. I think he's in town now.

'cause I actually saw he was, he was at the Grammy's. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I didn't see him this time, but Yeah. Yeah. But no, Mike's Mike's always, Mike's always a fun one. We were always trying to do a project with him 'cause um mm-hmm.

We wanted to do, I wanted to do a car show with him mm-hmm. About like going and, and exploring like, other types of car cultures, like a Anthony Bourdain type one. Mm-hmm. Because I watched Mike have a conversation with a guy, um, at a, at a, at actually a Hot Wheels event and the guy had a confederate flag license plate.

And it's like to watch Mike, who's like an activist mm-hmm. Have this conversation about this dude with this dude who like, clearly has a very different probably political mindset, uh, than Mike does.

And they were like. Best butt. He was just chopping it up full, chopping it up full, chopping it up. And afterwards I went, Mike and I went to go get a burger, and I was sitting there talking to him and I was like, you know, it was really cool to see like that conversation.

And he was like, yeah, man. He's like, you know, automotive. He was like, it's just this, this hobby that like crosses lines. Yeah. He's like, I love using things like cars to just get to like a, a a nor like a, like an even playing field or mm-hmm.

Even playing field, but just like a place where like we all like can talk about. Mm-hmm. He's like, it doesn't matter what that, who that dude voted for. Yeah. It doesn't matter what that dude thinks.

Like if we're just talking big box, we're just talking big box. Yeah, exactly. And I was like, man, this dude has such a great, like, vision on that. Mm-hmm. And I was like, man, this would be a good dude to have like to do a show.

Yeah. Mike. So we were trying to do a show with Netflix, but I don't know, pandemic, whatever happened. Yeah. All the reasons. Everything, everything blamed, everything on Pandemic. Dude. Fire it back up.

Let's go. Yeah, I I know. It'd be great. He'd be a great one for it. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. So he's down always. He's just got too much going on. Mike's like me, where it's like he, he says yes to everything.

'cause he does want to do it all, but he's also got like everything. Yeah. Yeah. I noticed that in the past, past two years. This is the, I'm gonna get off this pod and I'm gonna text him because the last time I texted him, the last time I spoke to him, he was like, Hey, let's talk.

And I was like, cool, let's talk soon. And never, that's like every, that was like five months ago. That's like every s Scotto text. It's 'cause I will have this moment of like, oh, I have this great idea.

And I'll be like, yo, Suppy, I got this great idea. You got time to talk tomorrow? Yeah. And then I'll wake up tomorrow and I'll have something else to do and I'm like, oh, that's it. Yeah. You know, you texted me about doing this podcast like four months ago.

Yeah, that sounds about right. Yeah, that sounds about right. Hey, look, we finally made it happen. Here it is. We did it. We did it. You talked for more than two hours, which honestly I didn't think was gonna happen.

I was just, because you're like, you're not like a man of many words. No. You're a man of many scowls. Like you're best known for scowling and brow beating us. So I wasn't really sure if you'd be able to talk for this.

Me, I was like, man, this is gonna be his shortest podcast ever. You've you've made it the time. Mm-hmm. Right. You, you've done your job. I'm gonna let you go home. But, which is a surprising thing 'cause it's, I'm not usually big on letting people go home.

Right. Like, I got this thing to fish. I mean, I ran, I ran Hoon again, like the bar in a Bronx Tale. Yeah. It's like now you can't leave now, but, um. The next podcast thing I wanna have bring you on is the Firing Order Show.

Okay. Right. Here's the basic idea for the show. Mm-hmm. Is we have a couple people on, we each come with a list. Mm-hmm. Right? So it's like a list of three things. Right. And you're like, you know, favorite top three, you know, F1 drivers during the eighties, uh, you know, top three cars under $5,000 to, to build.

Right, right. Yeah. Okay. And then we fight about the list. Okay. So we like, kind of rank it, which is like a, we were doing a bit of this, um, we were doing a bit of this during the livestream era and the pandemic, but never really like formulated.

So I wanna bring you on for one of the episodes. Okay. 'cause, because while you don't have a lot, while, while you're not the biggest, um, general conversationalist, that's like not what you're known for.

Mm-hmm. You do really like to argue fair. And I think a good, that's your, yeah. I think that's where you need to be, is in a position of argument is that's where fair, that's your, that's your love language.

Right. Okay. And I, I respect that. So what topic is a topic that like, like give me a topic idea. If we were to make a list, like a best of list, what's an interesting, best of list for you? Oh, man, that's, that's tough.

Uh, here, here's some ones that I've, I've been playing with, um, best practical engine swaps. Okay. Right. Uhhuh. Because a lot of engine swaps are not practical, but there are some ones that are actually like really practical.

Mm-hmm. Um. We were talking about doing like greatest wheels. Yeah. But then we thought it actually is so big that it may need to be like a whole series. 'cause you have to be like the best Euro wheels, nah, the best Japanese wheels, the best motor sport wheels.

Like, there's just too much to narrow that down. So there's that. Um, I think there's also like best sports car today for under a certain dollar. Mm-hmm. Or something like that. Um, maybe like the top three cars that everyone is gonna mod next could be like an interesting one.

Yes. That ones good. Seeing like those, so those are some of the things like we've been, we've been talking about. Um, you know, um, you could also just have like, you know, one of, you know, top five crazy builds of the past decade, two decades.

Yeah. Yeah. Right. Okay. Because I always like, we, whenever we talk about the Huna corn, I'm like, Huna corn's one of the, I think the greatest builds of all time. Mm-hmm. But there's other cars that like, are that, are these super important cars?

Yeah. What's that list? Mm-hmm. Um, it's not only you got any ideas. I like the best build idea. Yeah. Yeah. Because we all have different takes on what the, what a good build is. Mm-hmm. I think that's a, that's a good fight right there.

It would also be a really good post SEMA event. 'cause if everyone goes to sema you could be like, best build a sema. Oh, you instantly. Is it the going to SEMA part or is it the builds of sema? Which one both brought that energy out of you?

Uh, both. Like I do this new thing now, like, you know, you, it seems like one of those necessary evils that I absolutely hate. Yeah. Yeah. So I do this thing now, like I go for a day, dude, same here.

I went for a day this year. Yeah. I went for a day last year. Uhhuh. It's fantastic. Yes. This is what I do. I in and out the day. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's his like fly in the night before due Tuesday.

Yeah. Fly home Tuesday night. I drive. Yeah. I don't own anything that guarantees I get home from the desert. Like that's just not in my repertoire of vehicles is like, what do, like, is it really gonna get on?

You don't have anything that would make 800 miles round trip. So, uh, like guaranteed. No, like, okay, fair. You know what, the van, the van's probably my most reliable. Well, the last time you that we spoke, you were stuck with the van.

Oh yeah, that's right. Yeah, no, I fixed that. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. 'cause 'cause I brought it to someone to fix it. I'm realizing the less I work on my cars, the more they drive, the more reliable they are.

You know, it's weird but I really enjoy working on cars, so, you know, it's gotta find a, gotta find a middle ground anyway. All right. Yeah, that's good. Emily got anything else? I think that's it.

That's it. You're done. I'm done. I gotta get back to work. Yeah, I figured as much. Yeah. So here, here's what, you know what? This is the show I wanna make. Okay. Even if we just do one episode, the you and Jamo show.

Okay. Maybe become, maybe it's you, Jamo and Killer Mike. Okay. Like, all of that together can be great. Oh gosh. Okay. Like Killer Mike could kind of like run the main part of it and then he comes back and gives you guys a project like, Hey, oh, let's go, this is this thing that you guys now need to go build it.

And then the rest of it is just you and Jamo torturing Grimm. Yeah, that's, I'd watch that. I mean, I'd watch it just for the Grimm part. Yeah. Let's go. I'm, I'm down. Yeah. You know, Grimm I think would also be good on firing order 'cause he also has a lot of opinions.

Yeah. But he has, he's really quiet. Yeah. Yeah. He's got all the wrong opinions. Yeah. I mean, he called, he painted his car, the cro marrow, the, we called it the Scro marrow. I don't even need to say what color it was.

The Scro Marrow. And on that. Thank you very much, cb. It's been a fun, awesome little catch up. And uh, yeah, I need to come visit the shop. I haven't done that, so we'll do that anyway. Thank you guys.

Uh, tune in next week, Wednesday at 7:00 AM New episodes, live chat, all that good stuff here on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. Thank you. The mailbox is, the mailbox is the Accept Any messages at this time.

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