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HEATSOAKED is a Florida-based car culture podcast hosted by Cris and KT - two 30-something year old car nuts who live the stories they talk about. What started as two friends having late-night conversation about dream builds, blown budgets, and heat soaked engines turned into a platform for the culture that raised them.
This isn't about perfect cars or polished influencer content. It's about the grind behind the build. Cris and KT bring real conversations about the 90s and 2000s era tuner scene, passion-built machines, and the culture that keeps them alive. Every episode dives into the journey of a typical gearhead; including the victories, mistakes, lessons learned, and the passion that keeps the culture moving.
HEATSOAKED - because nobody remembers the cool nights.
Cris (00:01)
Hey guys, welcome back to Heat Soaked, the 90s and 2000s car culture podcast. I'm Cris. This is KT. We're going to be jamming on some topics today and have some fun. KT, what are we talking about today, man?
KT (00:13)
Yeah, Cris. So today we are going to be talking about car culture and car culture specifically in the 90s and 2000s. What do you think about that?
Cris (00:23)
Nice. Man,
that's one of my favorite topics. think car culture has always been like a staple of American ideals and values, to be honest with you, man. There's nothing more amazing than that. It speaks about the arts. It speaks about what it is. And we get to talk about our favorite subject right now. Let's jump in,
KT (00:44)
so
yeah getting into it ⁓ tell me about it 90s 2000s tuner culture what comes to mind what are some things that come in mind there
Cris (00:56)
things that come to mind, man. Man, we could speak about the crazy decals, we could speak about one of my favorites, the underglow. Like, and that's recently coming back now, funny enough, because I see more cars having that underglow, but I don't think they understand that it wasn't LEDs for us. It was actually like glass neon. It was like garage lights underneath our car.
So that was actually one of the ones that I liked. Let's see, what about you? What comes to mind when you think about that stuff?
KT (01:27)
man, there's a lot of things in that era. So you mentioned it, Underglow, sound systems, big thumpin' sound systems.
Cris (01:35)
Her
you know the they were every easy Every parent heard you coming before you the corner to pick up their daughter. Yeah
KT (01:37)
Back there, monitors.
Body kits? Body kits were ridiculous back then.
Cris (01:46)
Favorite
body kit, so that's what I'm talking about.
KT (01:50)
It was just the culture of having showy cars and I think we talked about it off camera but it kind of related to personality. It was your way to represent you.
Cris (02:04)
Absolutely like everyone has their own personality when it comes to the cars. We talked about it a couple episodes ago Where everyone has their own style big rims nice interior doesn't care about the outside Motor is the fastest thing you've seen since Tuesday and the outside looks like a rust bucket But it's each character ⁓ specific per each person. Excuse me specific character
inside of their car and that's going to be what I think culture is and that's people enjoying that, seeing the efforts and the wins other people made and work on that from there.
KT (02:39)
Yeah, I love it. The expression of the individual. Absolutely. Let's get into ⁓ something that you said earlier. Underglow. I personally love underglow. So let's get into it.
Cris (02:52)
Alright, underglow favorite color. what you got to go with? ⁓ dude, neon blue. Blue, come on. Here's my reasoning, because clearly, Brian O'Connor had neon blue under the silver skyline of the f**k this. But, what I hated about it, was that every time you saw neon blue on a, you always saw it on a silver car back in the 90s. And for some reason it was always a crappy Subaru. And it made me mad.
KT (03:07)
Okay
So many silver cars in the 90s. The color palette back then. Though surprisingly they had a lot of decent colors back then.
Cris (03:29)
They did they had like
Renaissance red yeah, had some stuff like that and no hate to the you know Subaru culture Subaru blue is a clearly iconic color. I'll give you guys that
KT (03:40)
Was it World Rally Blue? think they actually call it.
Cris (03:42)
World
rally blue got see now you're now you
KT (03:47)
⁓
wanted an O5 STI with that exact color, but maybe one day.
Cris (03:54)
Alright,
gotcha. You're one of the ones. I'll just make sure I mark it down for next time.
KT (03:57)
But
let's get back to Underglow. Underglow actually started in the late 80s. It became popular in the 90s and especially into the 2000s where the Fast and Furious and you started getting into Need for Speed Underground. That really hyped it up.
Cris (04:19)
favorite thing to do is change it up, yeah.
KT (04:22)
Yeah, but I personally love underglow but from a technical side of things back then underglow ⁓ Wasn't the easiest thing to install they were actually like neon tubes that went under your car and good luck driving over a bump or rocks or anything and breaking those tubes
Cris (04:39)
like a glass break in a restaurant. Anytime you heard that sound at a car meet, you knew exactly what happened.
KT (04:45)
You
hope it doesn't leave glass in your tire drive server. I know a lot of us don't necessarily care. I shouldn't say this, but the environmental factors Florida.
Cris (04:57)
Down here, you know,
the Gators ate it and just became you know caimans or something like that
KT (05:03)
But that was sort of the beginnings of Underglow. Fast forward, Underglow evolved. Nowadays we have LED strips tend to be flexible too so they don't break as much. They're more water resistant when you're driving around with water underneath your car.
Cris (05:09)
Yeah, for sure.
I think about it, right, the technology has definitely come a little bit forward. I don't think, but being subtle back then with Underglow wasn't the goal. I think visibility was.
KT (05:35)
For sure, yeah. You wanted to be the guy who was seen from three blocks away.
Cris (05:40)
It's like the best way to turn car into a spotlight. Like you pull up, you hit the switch, people came by and multicolor like if you had multicolors under the car you were you know the bee's knees. Over everything that every car guy wanted to be at that point.
KT (05:57)
Yeah, you know, well today with LED technology you can get like rainbows, can strobing effects, like all those different sort of effects which back then it was very very difficult to do. You'd have to have multiple tubes under your car. There's just a lot more coordination and a like mechanical side of things figuring out how do I get power to this thing.
Cris (06:17)
am going to wire it in? Where am I going to drill through? Exactly. And of course, some people as we know had to add that extra battery in the back. It's like through the amplifier and the credit card.
KT (06:21)
Yeah.
You had to deal with the sound system draining some of that power.
Cris (06:34)
Always the fun stuff. But you were saying the stuff about the new LEDs. What's changed? mean, what really has it now? Is it they're flexible?
KT (06:42)
yeah, from a technology standpoint they are much smaller so it's a lot easier to actually install them underneath your car or you've probably seen them they have them inside your car where you can have LEDs like within your dash and have that illumination effect on the inside. Yeah. So they're very much more versatile nowadays.
The other thing is power requirements LEDs use so much less power compared to those old like neon tubes So it's much easier to get the wiring to them because the wires are much smaller nowadays. Yeah Yeah, and a reliability standpoint, the technology itself is much more reliable and more robust too so we we talked about it a little bit, but this this light is going underneath their car and
Cris (07:15)
Yes, absolutely.
KT (07:29)
Most cars here, you're like a foot or less from the actual pavement, rocks kicking up, water splashing, all of that stuff. Having LED lights nowadays a luxury. It's kind of like it's protecting you in a way too, because now you can kind of be seen from wherever.
Cris (07:47)
Yeah, and a lot of motorcycles use it nowadays. What's funny is this was like the culture standpoint, right? So coming from back then, we'd watch these guys pull up and be like, that is, you know, some people, it was loved by some, hated by others. was, ⁓ you know, some people called it ricin' it out, you know, like. It really hated it, especially down here, you'd get moisture in it just because of condensation. So like some of the bulbs would fail and they weren't.
KT (08:04)
⁓ yeah.
Cris (08:13)
cheap back then. Oh yeah. Like so it was like you know it was just funny watching that come by but also I do remember specifically pulling up the meets and these guys had it and it was such a ticket magnet. yeah. When they pulled out of the meets man it's like it doesn't matter if it was a Civic that you know had a 1.6 in it or just something that literally had the slowest car had undergloves would roll right out of lot.
Immediately the red and blues. And I used everyone, of course, at the meets like, you know, like the point there like that. But it's funny how technology evolved. Right. And we have this view of underglows now. But for example, I think of today and coming from like 90s and 2000s to today. Right. Twenty twenty six. We're looking at it where like.
It's stock on some of the Escalade doors, you know, like some of the footwells are seeing it on the inside. So did we develop that in our generation or is that something that like you think they were like, this was actually a good idea. You know, all of these new colors, all of these lights on the inside. I think it's the technology came through and all of our all the car guys who were at those meets started actually building some of these cars and getting involved in it. And they were like,
Hey, you know it'd be a good idea. Let's put some lights by the footwells and let's make it, you know, make it look cool. Let's make it customizable. So, you know, some old guys like, what do you mean? Like, how can you do that? The car is for driving. And they're like, no, no, the car is for culture. ⁓
KT (09:57)
It
goes back to our original saying that it's about an expression of you, right? As the person, as the driver, it's your own personal expression and we're doing it through lights. We're doing it through colored lights in this case. So, you know, get your favorite color on there, whatever you want. If you want to flash your underglow while you're driving past some cops, you know, that's on you. I love
Cris (10:13)
Yep, yep.
KT (10:25)
Did you personally have underglow
Cris (10:28)
I was the opposite side of that thing. I liked seeing it because I liked seeing the personality. I just felt like I didn't have enough confidence in myself and cars back then. And I'm being honest, like under glow was like the confidence in light form. So it's like, like I knew my car wasn't as fast as I want it to be. Yeah, it could handle what it needed to handle. But was it the best? was like, no, not really. Like, do I want to show off the inside? No, my floorboard was missing. ⁓
KT (10:43)
Yeah.
Cris (11:00)
else here do I really want if I got underglow on the outside I'd have underglow on the inside unintentionally you know what I mean like so that's that's kind of why I didn't have it what about you
KT (11:10)
You know, I always thought it was rice-y and for those of you that don't know, we use the term ricer a lot back then.
Cris (11:13)
We all made mistakes. We all made mistakes.
We still use it now.
KT (11:24)
So if anybody doesn't know what a ricer is would you care to explain?
Cris (11:28)
my god, I mean we call I've heard it called many different things clapped out riced out ricer riceroni I've seen it every day really loud really slow Super obnoxious Of course it always had to be a Honda like if you got an Acura you got a slight pass because it was a little bit better But there's always a Civic always in a cord. Maybe even a CRX, you know
KT (11:41)
typically a JDM car
Cris (11:57)
CRV even in some cases that was lowered. But we're talking loud exhaust, a base that was way too powerful for the car. Everyone knows what a ricer is. If you don't know what a ricer is, go home, sit down in the dark, Google it and understand you're probably one of 40 people who haven't heard what a ricer car is. But for those guys that do know and no judgment, we know a ricer when we see.
KT (12:18)
So co-
Cris (12:25)
You can hear it. You know what it is. That's what a rice-down car is.
KT (12:29)
To your original question, I've never had underglaze because I thought it was very ricey ricer at first. But as I've gotten older and I've developed a certain appreciation for that culture, that era, I'm like all about it now.
Cris (12:46)
Every car that you build now says, my god, what was your, so what's the color you're gonna put on this bad boy?
KT (12:52)
Aw man, so my favorite color is green, but I don't know if green would really do it for this guy right here.
Cris (12:57)
think
you could rock your aim a little bit. think, you know what, we're just, we're going to do it everywhere though. Wheel wells.
KT (13:02)
Well you know with LEDs we can change the colors, so we'll get some nice heat soaked fishhook colors.
Cris (13:09)
official yeah then what you know what we'll do is we'll do what the trucks are doing now we're gonna put the LED in the wheel wells so that way oh yeah so I'm make sure you do that I'm gonna surprise him maybe get like a like a light you know those lights that spin around the fans with the images yeah it'll be a hello kitty one I'll put it on your front we'll start making it but listen man under glow hands down if you didn't see the under glow
KT (13:15)
Yeah.
Cris (13:34)
If you weren't at a car meet, if you didn't see any those big wings and stuff like that, Under Low is absolutely a part of 90s and culture. It is what it was. We understood it when we saw it. But when we saw it in the Fast and the Furious, dude, it was the bee's knees. It was what everybody wanted to be. Everyone wanted to be like Suki with the pink data 2000. Pink Underglow, Ryan's R34 Skyline. Of course I wanted one.
KT (13:47)
yeah.
Cris (14:02)
You kidding me? I wouldn't have cared what people judged me if I had one of those. You you saw the Supra with the green, you saw, know, RX-7 with the red, everyone matched the paint color. It was like, it was a movement. yeah, was something I really enjoyed.
KT (14:17)
Yeah, for sure. And you mentioned it a couple seconds ago, big wings? So I think I know what your favorite... ⁓
Cris (14:26)
I'm
not talking about B-dubs or what we call Buffalo Wild Wings. We're not talking about chicken wings, baby. We are talking about body kits. What do you think?
KT (14:37)
body kits. that, so that for me, body kits, it doesn't really do it for me. No, it doesn't really do it for me. And I know there's some really good body kits out there, but for me, like I, I kind of like the classic look, the look that the car sort of came with. Now, yeah, there are a couple out there that are really nice, but part of it is like the work involved with putting a body kit on, the fit in the finish.
Cris (14:44)
Really?
KT (15:07)
That's it's tough, but but tell me about body kits. How did this how did this come into play?
Cris (15:13)
I gotta ask you mean that a big ol spoiler a big wing doesn't go on a front-wheel drive vehicle And push as much downforce on it as possible. So I mean, okay, like we're gonna was that your style You don't think it goes on it or do you think?
KT (15:28)
A little
ricey, you A little ricey.
Cris (15:31)
Rice.
That was boiled rice from the beginning. Anything. Listen, I get the I get the back end off the window spoiler for one that but I will never get a spoiler on a front wheel. Like those are for real time track cars if you're really going to need it. But I mean, if we're going to talk about wings and body kits, man, let's actually talk about aerodynamics. Yeah. So we know that is the study of how air actually moves around solid objects.
So of course we're driving these, you know, 4,000 pound, 3,000 pound vehicles. And you know, we have this correlation between aerodynamics and actual weight reduction. But aerodynamics is where these big wings, these body kits come into play the most. I mean, in simpler terms, it's the science of how air flows around these things. So if I can make air flow either basically underneath the car to the side of the car, push the car down more on a rear wheel drive.
I get more grip, get more grip, get more torque, I get more torque, get more what? Horsepower. Horsepower, baby. But in all fairness, shape did matter back then. I agree with you in one part. I hated putting them on. Yes. But after I was done and they were bond-tilled and painted and sanded for the thousandth and a half time...
I think some of them look really good. Now, even when we started getting into cars that had active aero, it was one of those things where you saw like on the rear wheel drives, the all wheel drives, the oversized rear wings. I think it looked fantastic if it had an actual method of working for the car. Exactly. But if it didn't have any effect on the car and it was just for looks, the aggressive front bumpers, the side skirts, the wide rear ends like that.
KT (17:10)
Yeah, that's the key.
Cris (17:21)
I really, it was race inspired. know, they used all of this arrow in, you know, all of the racing, the formula. We saw different changes in Formula One. We saw movements in actual racing itself. Like it depended on how the shape and the body, everything had a factor that played into it. But what did they take over in the car culture? Stock wasn't really respected.
KT (17:44)
Yeah, that's true, especially in that time.
Cris (17:46)
You know, and it's one of those times where bigger, you know, bigger spoiler, bigger bumpers, bigger looked faster. You know, for the people who were just learning about cars back then, like we didn't know this. Like we were like, that car is fast because that bumper looks way more aggressive than the other one. Yeah. Yeah, that bumper added, you know, 100 horsepower off the bat.
KT (18:09)
And
again it goes back to personality, Correct. So if you see like 50 civics driving around a day in stock form, it's like, you whatever, but then you got that one civet with the underglow.
Cris (18:20)
Yeah, see the EG hat and you're like, what did this guy do, man? This is crazy. You're right. Back to personality, I think, you know, and like I said, I didn't enjoy it as much when it didn't have an actual effect on the car. If you had a rear wheel drive and a spoiler, if it was actually doing something, great. Now, if you were looking for something to do because it was your personality and it was something the way you wanted to wrap up the car, that's a different kind of respect because
It's your car, man. It's your personality in this nuts and bolts form, in the steel shape it is. So I think the main thing when I go into these big wings of body kits, was mainly for function, or was it for the fantasy? Was it for the culture? Most cars didn't need aero, but looking fast kind of mattered sometimes more than being fast. Was it brand name kits that mattered the most? Was, okay, if you saw a car with a clean fitment of a body kit,
versus you know an ugly fit you could see the Bondo spots you could see it wasn't sanded down before it painted you know clean fit equaled some mad street respect. Went up to a meet with some nice body kit you rolled in slow you made sure you didn't scratch it was installed nice you took the time the effort the blood sweat and tears because you did have tears if you installed an old school body kit and you enjoyed the time with it you know you had that respect.
KT (19:31)
That's true.
Cris (19:49)
You were people like, man, how'd you get that fitment so clean? You know, they would ask questions. You could give pointers, but all I know is a bad fitment ruined everything. But I mean, let me ask you this. How big is too big on a spoiler?
KT (20:05)
So there's two sides of me. There's the technical side and then there's just the this looks dumb or cool side. So from a technical side, I'm sure we can calculate, you know, based on downforce and the type of car and blah blah blah. But on the other side of things, ⁓ just anything personally above the roofline of your car, that's too big.
Cris (20:28)
So anything extending above the roof line is just too much for you.
KT (20:33)
I don't think they're that big.
Cris (20:46)
I haven't even seen any DuckTales, Dovetails, anything like that that were that high. I mean, the only thing I can think of is if I'm thinking of like the GT3 RS, if I'm thinking of like even the GT3s have some nice carbon fiber ones that you can add on aftermarket. But those like, those cars would need it. Functional rear wheel drive, rear engine, or excuse me, mid engine cars. Rear engine, whatever you want to say. But I mean, that's the question. Like, nobody had that limit. It was like, how big was too big?
KT (21:02)
They're functional.
Cris (21:15)
I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna send it.
KT (21:17)
I'm just gonna be as visible as possible, right?
Cris (21:21)
Click this really crappy picture on eBay and I'm gonna go, you know what, we're just screwing in when it gets here because what did body kit mean to me after I installed one? ⁓ Commitment, because the screws or the pins going into that thing, like you never want it off again, because as soon as it fell off, one piece broke, you were in a corner going, now I have to do this all over again. It was bold. I give it credit where credit is due. If you had the personality, you installed it, you did all the tough work, you enjoyed it.
and it would look clean, dude, that's bold. Like, he took the time, he did that, that's some respect coming my way. And you know what, for the guys that do it, the big style, there's no fear of judgment coming from me. Like, they were just like, it's on, I did it, whatever, my car. My thing is, like, Big Wings and Body Kits, I feel like, was an album title back in the 90s.
Even body kicks, any of our local Florida artists want to make a song about it, please do comment. Heat soaked, you know, we definitely love it. But I want to hear the song. I'll even sing on it for you. ⁓ But they weren't about blending in. It's about commitment and standing out. Yes, that's what it was. That's what I like that style about man.
KT (22:33)
of
things in that era was about standing there.
Cris (22:36)
For
sure, for sure man. I mean we talked about it a little bit earlier and I kind of brought it up while I talking like what do you think about the like sending it? What do we do all this for? What do we do the under glow for? What do we do these big body kits? You know these big wings and body kits. We go to car meets. Because what do we not have then? We didn't have YouTube back in the 90s. That wasn't really a thing. You know how do we figure out how to fix a part? Forums.
KT (23:04)
Yeah.
Cris (23:04)
You
know, we were trying to search that worldwide web that no one knows what WWW means anymore. But it was CarMeets, man. And, you know, I think I was going to ask you, what was your memory? What was the culture like at the CarMeets that you were at?
KT (23:11)
Bye.
Yeah, so first it's about showing up and showing out, right? Like have a presence there and the way to do it is with your car. my fondest memories are going to car meets back in those times where, like you had stated earlier, there's just a lot of showy body kits, a lot of underglow, a lot of nice decals, like very nicely painted cars as well. ⁓ What cracks me up is
Cris (23:29)
Absolutely, absolutely
KT (23:48)
the one car that shows up that's like all black but the front bumper is white and it's like you know an aftermarket bumper with like a you know they were trying to get the kit but they just they just couldn't piece it together but come on man you should have just waited until you got everything and then put it on there don't put on just the front bumper
Cris (24:07)
Listen,
I'm not the only one that gets excited when an Amazon package gets to my door. I have to open it immediately. You don't think I would have done that back then? Like you're crazy. I would have opened it up, tried to get it on my car, realized I just lost three bolts to my front bumper, and then been like, you know what? This thing's going on today.
KT (24:24)
And then you find out like your front bumper sits like three inches lower than the side of your car
Cris (24:29)
All the
trimming it required from the brush tool and all the You're right. You're right. It was it was part of that fact when you saw that guy roll up, but still like
KT (24:39)
He was still brave enough to show up to that meet though.
Cris (24:41)
Actually
man, it's that guy right? He was still braving up to show up to the meet and of course he's gonna walk around, check out the other cars, look at them. He might even ask a question or two and I think that brings us back to this cool, really awesome thing we get to talk about which is the car community. It's one of our favorite things. It's how people help people and it's why we really enjoy what we do. It's yeah, we love cars. Could we be alone doing it? I mean yeah, we could but I really love driving with friends. I really love going, hey.
Did you hear that? When something pins through or a piston shoots through my hood. Did you see that? No, I didn't. I'm still driving. well, not So things like that, it's who do we have to share with this? It goes all the way to the roots of life. Who do we have to share with this life? Who do we have to really teach? Who do we have to ask? And I think that's what's really cool about these car meets is that
that guy with that white bumper, that shitty car could show up and people might give him some life changing advice or go, hey, you know what? Let me get your number, you know, and of course, you know, back then we were like, all right, let me get my house phone. Like, I still remember my house phone number at the end of the day. I'm just being honest because back then we had no likes. You didn't have algorithms. Respect was earned in person. It was a handshake and it was meeting. was.
having to go out and meet these guys who had their, you know, we thought they had their stuff together because their car was together, you know, and it was, ⁓ if your car wasn't seen, it didn't exist. You know, that's what I really enjoyed about it.
KT (26:18)
very much a reflection of you as a person. 100%. In all ways too. So if your car rinky dink floating down the street like after your underglow works it is a reflection of you like this dude doesn't really take care of his car and then you got the guy who comes up with like the clean ass car like a nice Civic but he has everything put together it's all he's at the meet and he has towels out polishing the thing like you know that guy really is committed to it.
Cris (26:46)
Well, it was was it was like a good relationship, you know the pull-up actually method not the pull-out method the pull-up till the meat actually met mattered Because like so like you pop the hood Trunks open, you know, if you got the sound system in the trunk like that was the jam if you had everything all set up but it was like late nights like long Conversations, you know in the cold and that's swiltering heat you're talking to guys. You don't even know
getting numbers, trying to look for girls, things like that. But that was all the culture because that's what it was. We were there to enjoy cars together. But there was those rules, right? You didn't touch cars without talking to the owner. You always made sure you paid attention. You respected those clean bills. Those are always the guys I would go to to ask for information. Hey man, this looks fantastic. Can I ask you a few questions? Like hey, how did you do this? How did you?
What did you do to get this manufactured? Where did you find it? Or how did you piece it together? And usually it was those guys that had those connections that really helped other people. Like, hey, how do I get my exhaust to hit this note? I don't really want to sound ricey, right? I don't want to sound like shit. I want to actually hit a note. And he's like, dude, do what everyone else isn't doing. Get a resonator. And you're like, ⁓ didn't even think of that. I just went full catalyst and thought this is the greatest thing since I bought a trumpet.
So, but it's, you never get those experiences if you never went to the car meets. And you didn't understand that, you know, representation of yourself mattered. I could pull up in a piece of crap, but the fact that I pulled up and started talking to people was a lot better than actually having nothing and just sitting at home. That's what I really believe, like talking about culture. Culture is the car meets. If you didn't go, you you missed out a lot. And I think that's what I miss a lot.
KT (28:14)
.
Cris (28:43)
And I love the fact that here in Orlando, get to really look at these here in Florida. We get to really look at all these car meets. A bunch of them get shut down. I think there was one the other day in Orlando, a full garage got shut down. I guess the owner of the garage, some BS happened. was watching, but you know, I could be wrong, but it's the car meets that are still happening. really, it was organic. Yeah. It was unfiltered.
It belonged to the drivers. Like we would meet up in an Arby's parking lot and the employees would be like, what's happening right now? And so one guy would go in and be like, Hey man, I hope you don't mind if we all just park around here or just like a closed Winn-Dixie or a closed Publix, know, like a lot of people that did that. It was, it was good times.
KT (29:27)
Yeah, car clubs were really a big thing back then too, right? And to your point, car meets still happen today, car clubs still happen today, but it felt like the origins of it were really, really heavy in that era. Absolutely. And, you know, we're talking because we grew up in that era. Of course, there are car guys from the 60s, from the 70s, from the 80s, they probably are saying the same thing.
Cris (29:53)
Correct
they had the same exactly the same same kind of representation with it
KT (29:59)
era is a little different. They have their own unique ⁓ defining characteristics. And for our era, it was everything that we said, the body kits, the underglow, the graphics, the wheels, the sound system. But you had mentioned it earlier, you used the term forums. I really want to get into forums because that was a really big thing. That was...
the early days of social media. that was before your Facebooks, your Instagrams, and even really before your YouTubes. We used forums to learn how to fix things on our cars. We used forums to actually set up car meets.
Cris (30:39)
Yeah, how to find them like unless you ever came across them you had to learn how to find them that was old school man that was like ⁓ Grassroots Motorsports. Yeah of them final gear read it. Yeah
KT (30:54)
Reddit
is a form of a car forum, but back then there were a lot of very specific car forums. I remember when I was driving just a regular old Mazda3, it was like a 2008 Mazda3, it wasn't anything special, but I actually had joined like the Mazda3 forums and learned how to do a lot of stuff based on that forum. But forums like that existed, there's tons of forums nowadays.
that are just mostly archives just because everybody sort of doesn't use the internet the same way anymore.
Cris (31:29)
There's
no research involved. Well, mean, like, so you had your Mazda 3, of course, like any Spanish child, we are gifted a Honda. And it's just a natural thing, like, you know how we're like gifted crosses and stuff from our families. We're just gifted Hondas. It's like a growing up procedure in Spanish culture. Don't know how to explain it further. It's just this weird thing. go, you know, we pray, you know, and then a Honda.
Like, you know, we get baptized, we go and then hop and that's it. That was so we had to get it. You either had stayed in that or got out of that. But you're right. Forums really helped you. Sorry, I didn't mean to side note, but it's true, man. It's true. just put forums helped us really understand because going back to car meets and car forums, it wasn't really about the meets. wasn't the meets weren't about cars. They were about.
people and learning and the forums help you find that. But you actually had to dive in, didn't you? Like, like, yes. mean, explain a little bit about that. People might not realize what you actually had to.
KT (32:35)
Yeah,
so you actually had to go and find forums yourself. And this is a little different than today's day where if you're on Instagram, the algorithm kind of feeds you information Back then, if I owned a Honda Civic, I needed to go out of my own way to find other people that had Civics. So it was going on forums.
online it was going to car shows it was just driving around town and seeing another guy that had a civic with rims and knowing that that's not a stock civic that actually that guy is actually into cars because he modified it to some extent let's go and talk to that guy yeah
Cris (33:13)
I'm running into them at fast food joints. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love it.
KT (33:17)
Yeah, so the connection that people had back then ⁓ was much different in the sense that the way people reached out to one another, it took a different level of communication, right? Like nowadays, we have the internet and it's so easy to just comment on somebody's Instagram post and be like, that's a cool looking car, bro. And like you never meet the guy. ⁓
All of that is there for you, but back then you actually had to seek it out.
Cris (33:50)
100 % you had to do the work to actually get that information plus I mean if anyone posted a picture of the car look like a potato because like we're nothing like nothing was that great to be able to post and upload that back then like it took three days you know you would full work week sometimes to upload one single photo so you go from there but I mean that's I mean if
You're right. think that was a great point is you had to seek out the information and the worldwide web, it was a tool for us to use where we had to the work in to find the information, gather it, and then bring it back to actually find other people to learn more.
KT (34:32)
And you can arguably say that it creates a stronger bond in the sense that because you have to go out of your way to do this, these are other people going out of their way also.
Cris (34:44)
100 % yeah, you know you're I mean I was gonna say 100 % but that just means you're so you're so correct and on the money ⁓ with that term but it's also like the bonds you would build at a car meet like I still know somebody that I'm had at a car meet he had a spooned Honda that he was working on and I was like man this is cool like this is and still to this day I know I know the guy
And it's pretty amazing that those bonds, they were stronger. The information you learned was just so much more in depth. You learned about people. You learned about cars. You just got to really enjoy yourself because, I mean, like I said at the end of the day, you really got a stronger bond with other people, but that just blossomed because you're able to now repost on that forum, share that information.
And I think that meant a lot to me back then because I didn't have a lot of information. So if I knew something anybody else didn't know that I learned, was like, everyone's gotta hear about this. And I would post and then people would be like, hey, thanks, that really helped me out in a tough situation. You're like, man, that made somebody's life. Nowadays it's all, there's a million, billions, trillions of videos.
about everything, about finding parts, some fake, some real, some now, AIs taking over the world. So now you don't know if you're talking to a real person or AI anymore. But back then it was, right, it was a verbal connection. was you hand shaking, you seeing eye to eye, going back to the dude's place who had a parts car, turn wrench on it a couple times, and dude, like, he served you pizza and beer. Or, you know, a check, like.
KT (36:28)
Yeah,
I think those bonds were easy to develop to deepen back then. Yeah. And today you can still create those bonds. know, you have Reddit out there, you have Instagram. Our social media today is a lot more connected than it was back then. There's a lot more information that floats around out there. But at the same time, because information is so easy to access, doesn't allow you to really sit down with a person or a group of people and just talk about it and kind of like...
bounce ideas and digest everything each other says because as you know in today's age we're flipping to the next thing just like that, Like everyone has ADHD.
Cris (37:10)
The doom scroll right? Yeah, so it's like I mean think about it like this like back back in the Wild West right? And I'm gonna make this funny example, but it's like they had wanted posters and they were on bulletin boards Well, we had car put like car things online, which was those forums and they were bulletin boards It was like hey meet going out at Winn-Dixie 730 on you know Saturday be there or be lame, you know, it was like it was funny stuff like that and you're like
Okay. And then the people that you meet at these places, you're like, there's, you know, we're to go to the next one. You guys want to come with us or we're to go to the one in the next town over.
KT (37:49)
get a little mini cruise that's a neat
Cris (37:51)
You're gonna go to Atlanta, we're gonna do this. like, ⁓ that's really cool, because you're right. So to your point, Underglow made sure you were seen. Big wings and body kits, can't wait for the album. Made sure you were remembered, right? And Car Mates made sure you were noticed. Like, you made sure you weren't alone. And that's what I really enjoyed about that 90s car culture that I couldn't get enough of, you know what mean?
KT (38:18)
Sure.
So how does that play into today's car culture then? You know what? think those
Cris (38:27)
I think of it like when you speak about a tree, everyone thinks about family trees and you set down roots here and things like that. hear in the old country songs, Set down roots, you know, family. I think that the seeds that we planted back then or that were planted by people before us that we kind of inherited, for example.
I think they've grown into like a nice forest if I were to use like an image or describe it because I think that we have a amount of car culture enthusiasts that are still around to this day. Yeah, it might be newer. Yeah, it's a different style. But guess what? We're still using underglow. We're still changing our back. Yeah, we're still changing our big wings and body kits and we're still meeting up.
KT (39:10)
Hahaha
Cris (39:18)
So there and you know what's crazy is like we talk about it these 90s and these 2000s as our favorite because that's where we grew up. But it's those are the cars that are most sought after. People are looking for those cars. When people see that we used to be like when when an old classic or a muscle car pulled up we'd be like that guy's not part of it. He's part of this different group. But that's a cool car. We'd ask questions and you know usually they just grumble out with a cigarette and go yeah V8 like.
That's a V8 boy. I think it's fun. think the torch was passed on and some guys are still out there doing the same thing. That's what I appreciate. There's guys like us using YouTube, going out, having podcasts, talking about cars, really just spreading the word. I think that's enjoyable for me. I love ingesting videos about people learning.
Right. It's just something that I've always really enjoyed. So when I see guys like, I mean, I'm going to do some shout outs and use some examples, but you see Adam LZ, like he started out with his car, his 240, he built it up. Now he's, you know, doing his own thing out here in Florida, Cletus McFarland. He started out small. They all started out somewhere. So I think that's important to me. And that's kind of like, well, that kind of our inspiration here. Like it's something that
When I see somebody struggling or starting out, it's something that we always help with. Like, I mean, we've helped jump cars out in parking lots and talk to people about just because of our slight knowledge, it doesn't mean we're going to go into it, but we use it to help. We never use it to, I guess, bombard. And I think the torch has now passed our generation to help this next generation who's all driving Teslas and their dads, you know, cars or something like that. But it's.
It's for our generation, for the kids who grew up a little bit like us. They have to buy their own car. They're gonna get a POS or a Hoop D, you know, and they're gonna see this. you know, it's why we love it, man. It's why we wrench down here. We love the time to ourselves, the time to think. We love taking things apart, putting it back together, and then if it fails, taking it apart again. I think that's important to me, but I think to a lot of others as well. In my humble opinion.
KT (41:42)
You're totally right. It's about the community. You described it perfectly. And as we kind of talk about the 90s and 2000s era, that was just a point in time within the whole car community as a whole. We mentioned it. Cars have been around for a very long time. We mentioned the 60s, the 70s, the 80s, 90s, 2000s and beyond today's community. But the one common theme is that it just involves people, people talking about cars.
In the 90s and 2000s, it was specific to sound systems, underglow, et cetera. In current generation, it's going to be about EVs and other stuff that I have no idea about. if it brings people together to talk about cars, to hang out and just continue that tradition, it doesn't really matter what they're really talking about.
Cris (42:25)
Nightmare?
That's true. I mean, we're still going to show up with our internal combustion engines. Yeah. You know, but it's like, OK, you know, all those other people who are the philosophers, they always ask you, you know, what would you be remembered by? What will you leave behind to the next generation? And I hope it's the information that there's always other people out there to help you. You know, and I hope the car culture understands that that's what I what I learned from. That's where I grew up.
learning from people who had no business teaching, were trying to do the right thing. And I think that's what we're missing a lot of these days is that, you know, the right thing is not really, it's a gray area now. And we don't know it anymore, but do we know what helping others is? Yeah. You know, what are we going to leave to that next generation? What are we going to leave to our kids? You know, our grandkids and stuff like that. Hey, I hope it's a car. I hope it's a nice, fast car that...
guess what, I'm gonna break six things on and it's gonna be major things and I'm gonna make sure they fix it. Yeah, cause you ain't driving a car that I built without having to fix it. No, no, that's just, it's just me messing around, man. But I would like, you know, my nieces, my nephews, my, you know, kids, all of them to learn a really good skill, you know, something that if you're ever broke down on the side of the road and you need help, you know, it's something to know. It's something to help others with. It's...
You're right, back to people. It always circulates around, know, cars are the epitome of what your style is, but it's back to, you know, everything's about people and taking care of that community. And that's why we're here. That's we do this podcast. That's why Heat Soaked was important to us. And that's why you keep hearing me talk about it. I appreciate it. I don't know how, but...
KT (44:18)
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah, that's why we're friends.
Cris (44:31)
I was like, I was like, you want to do what with me? You want to hear me talk? I don't even like hearing myself talk. This is awkward.
KT (44:40)
We're here, so...
Cris (44:41)
I'm
used to it. I just had to take you out with that. Yeah man, I think that's what it is. What is it to you? Do you have any insight on it?
KT (44:52)
Honestly, it was everything that we discussed and we can go so much deeper with this. But we would love to hear your guys' tthoughts like we said before, this is a podcast that we're doing together, but we want really for all of you to be part of it.
Cris (45:06)
Absolutely, like we're gonna ask our viewers or our listeners, tell us how you got into cars, tell us why cars are important to you. Leave a comment, subscribe, heat we're down here in Orlando, it's cold right now, but we're hoping to see you guys one of these days, maybe do one of these car meets. And hey, me and Amber know at the end of the day we might have a garage one of these days where we can pass that stuff down, but.
You know, it's just another episode. once again, guys, we appreciate you guys' time. Appreciate you listening. Like, listen to me rant. I don't know how you did it, but you survived. Thank you again. Leave that comment. Get that subscribe, guys, and have an awesome
KT (45:45)
at heatsoakedfl. ⁓
Cris (45:47)
Thanks