Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
A conversation about cars, trucks, tugs and other machines of transport that flows like an ADHD fever dream, hosted by Hoonigan co-founder and 321 Action Action director Brian Scotto. Enjoy, it’s gonna be a bizarre ride.
S4 E26 Audio
===
[00:00:00] Welcome back. It is another episode of Very Vehicular. As always, I'm still your host, Brian Scotto. Today's episode is a, is a really, really good one. But I wanna start by saying, if you're an American, there's a good chance you might not know today's guest, even though he is quite possibly one of the most important automotive YouTubers of all time.
He has built hundreds of some of the coolest project cars ever, and, uh, he has an entire universe that kind of surrounds the content he, he has created, and we're gonna get into all of that. But he's also, like, a bit of a celebrity in his own country, and if you speak German, you already know who JP Kraemer, AKA JP Performance, is.
I am really excited to have him on the show today, and we get into such a good conversation across the gamut of things. We talk about cars, obviously. We talk about, uh, the business of it all. We [00:01:00] talk about new cars, old cars, we, the cars we wanna build, the cars we love the most, but we also get into, you know, maybe some cautionary tales that America needs to learn from what's happened to car culture in Germany, and how quickly it can go away.
And we talk about what's next in car culture, in, in building things. Uh, I don't know. Uh, we talk forever. Actually, we talk so long that we set another record. Sorry, TJ Hunt, but this is now the longest Very Vehicular episode to date. So, uh, cut it up into parts, devour it whole, I don't care. Just eat it. It's a good one.[00:02:00]
Welcome to the show. I am, like, really, I'm really stoked you're here, man. It's been a l- been a couple years. Yeah. Yeah, ours too, I think last time. I still have a box from your car. I thought you shipped some of it, but you may still have another box. Right. I sent you a picture. You said you don't want the other stuff, I think.
Yeah, maybe that was it. Yeah, right, but I still have it. The only thing I'm missing is the, um, hitch, which looks like a dildo, like your European hitches, which might be weird. I used ... Yeah, yeah. Might ... You used it. It might be weird. I used it. Yeah, that's what I figured. I figured it might be weird to ship in the mail to the US as well-
you know, so. Is it? Yeah. Hey, I, I wanna start because there's ... I, I thought about this walking into the show. Um, you are, without question, the most successful automotive YouTuber I know of. So not just know, and I, I probably know all of them. Oh. But, but I know of, right? But at the same time, there's a good chance that a large percentage of my audience that's listening to this might not know you.
That's true. I- Is that, is that a weird thing for you? Mm, I know you now for a few [00:03:00] years. Yeah, yeah. And, uh, I hope, I hope this question's not coming up. It is the first question. Uh, but let me, let me explain that to you. For some reason, it is a very nice feeling. Yeah. Because in every situation, I come in, or I come into the s- situation, and it's very open and very free.
Because normally when I move around in Europe, it's not like that. Right. It's ... I, before I come, everybody knows, "He will come in the next 10 minutes." So it has this feeling of when the door opens, everybody stops talking. And here when I come into a room, everybody still talks. Right. And, um, what is very nice.
Yeah. But on the other hand, when I'm very open now, is that you worked for it, and you get used to it. And sometimes, maybe that's not cool to say, I want them to know. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because you worked for it, and, and, and you're a little proud. Because I really had a problem of being proud for such a long time.
And, uh, s- so sometimes there are people that are [00:04:00] very known in America, and they talk, and they explain to me, and I go like Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah, I did this too? Well, you know the first time we met, I had no idea who you were. You showed up, I think, with Brian Henderson of Rotiform- Mm ... uh, to Hoonigan, right?
Yeah, yeah. And, uh, you showed up and you were like, "Hey, do you mind if I film this, like, walk around?" Um, I had no idea that you were German because you were just talking to me like, you know, and I was just like, "All right." And then all of a sudden you started walking through, speaking in German, walking through Hoonigan.
And I'm walking with you, and you're talking in a language I don't understand. I'm like, "All right. Whatever." And you'd ask me a couple questions in English, and we did like a 10-minute walkthrough, and I didn't think anything of it. And then the video went up, and it was huge, and we got this massive bump in subscribers.
And I was like, "Who is this guy JP?" Mm. And that was sort of my first introduction to, one, realizing that American exceptionalism definitely exists and there's people who exist [00:05:00] outside of America, who have a large following. Um, but also got to kinda, like, see all your stuff. And, you know, this was 10-plus years ago, I think, when that happened, or about 10 years ago.
So, you know, I've obviously been to your place, you know- Is it 10 years a- no, no, no, no, no, no. Uh, that was probably 20... Maybe that was 2017 or 2018. So eight years ago or something like that. I was nervous because from- You didn't seem nervous You have a very, like ... Yeah, 'cause that was actually one of the things that took me off guard, 'cause like you showed up.
It was, like, just you, a single camera, which, like, to sort of- Right ... the American YouTubers, like the classic vlogger model. Yeah. And then you just, like, the camera went on and you became a different person. You did your thing. We moved through the building. I think this helps me. We talked about all these cars.
Yeah. I think this is the, the point, because I am nervous, but when I am allowed to talk about cars or I can drive, I can do- Yeah, yeah ... everything is gone. And, uh, so upfront I was nervous, and I thought, "This is ... These are the guys." Because even in Germany, [00:06:00] people know Hoonigan. Mm-hmm. Not the way it is maybe now, but the way it was.
Yeah. And for everybody it was crazy, and then I'm, I'm this ambassador for this country, and I was allowed to go there, 'cause I think I was the first German real car guy who went to your place. Oh, y- yeah, yeah. So, um, y- you get nervous, and you have this whole thing about it, and your style, and how it looks.
Because at that time, workshops and tuning, everything in Germany was, was not that way. And I think for me it was always very important to give the German style or the German audience a feeling of you. Mm. A feeling of Hoonigan. Yeah, yeah. A feeling of America. Yeah. I mean, we definitely, I think, had a very unique aesthetic then.
I think it's become a little bit more commonplace, but it was- 100%. It was like backyard garage in a warehouse, right? Like, it was just this kinda mixed vibe. Uh, let me ... I wanna get back to this though, because for those people who are not that familiar with you, can you give [00:07:00] us a really short primer? No.
Really short. J- no, like, just keep it five minutes. No. You started in television. Uh- Right ... but even before that. Yeah. So my rem- so, like, y- you started in tuning, and then you got into TV. Okay. And then you went to YouTube. I, I try, I try to do it fast. Yeah, give me ... Give it short. So, um, I'm 45 now. I, um- Yeah, you look it.
Keep going. You, you want me to tell them your name? No, no, no, no, no. Okay, okay. I'm just getting you back. Uh, I'm coming back to it later. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, um, then I, uh, had the chance to work at Porsche as a salesman, to learn that. And, um- Yeah ... it's called Ausbildung in, in, in Germany. And, um, then the owner changed, so everybody had to leave, and then I was working for, at 9FF, the Porsche- Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
the Porsche tuning company, right. I worked with them when I was at 0-60. We drove that crazy, long, what was- GT9. Yeah. Yeah, right. That thing's incredible. Yeah. So, um, and then I thought, "You know what? I think I can do better." And I, I ... Everything what I do, I do it with more than I really can. I [00:08:00] d- I give everything.
And then what came out was not really what I thought, and then I said very early, actually, "You know what? I'll do my own shop." And then I started 5 Star Performance with Sydney together. Mm-hmm. And we did this for four or five years, something like this. And then, uh, we talked and I said, "You know what? I think I want to do it by myself, and I think also for you it's better if you do it also for yourself because I think we are too different as a person and, uh, why should we fight so strongly to fit together?"
Because we did a TV show also together then later on, um, or during that time. And, um, then the TV came up to me and asked, "Do you wanna do a TV show?" I said no because I was, I'm a car guy. Yeah. I want to just build cars, the coolest cars that are around. And they asked for one and a half years. Every three months the guy from the, the, from the channel, I mean, really big guy, what I found out later, he called [00:09:00] me p- personally, "You wanna have the TV show?"
I said no. And then again, "You still don't wanna have it?" No. So then one time I said, "Yeah." And what year is this? Well, we talking now 2000 and Oh, five Okay Yeah, four or five Yep And then I said, "Okay, I would do it, but only with my friend." "But who's your friend?" "Uh, Sydney is my friend." So they came around and filmed him just with- without a show, just filming him- Mm-hmm
to show the boss, "Okay, this is the guy." Yeah. Audition tape. Uh, yeah, right. And then, uh, they called again and said, "Yeah, we c- we can do it." And this is how it started, and then it was three shows. And on the end of the second show, I said, "Only one more to go. I'm happy when they're leaving." And then they called and said, "Can we do another 10?
Another 10? Another 50?" And at the end, I think it was 130 TV shows. Right. And in that time, I did also five different TV shows, and then I was always explaining things because I'm pretty [00:10:00] much known to explain technical things with humor. Mm-hmm. How things work, why is the car doing this, or why is the engine doing that?
And I was explaining, explaining, and I didn't watch the show that was on TV, so I didn't know what they cutting out, how they're editing the video. And then I ... Somebody showed me something, said, "What you're explaining is wrong." I said, "No." And then I looked at it and was wrong because they take this out and that out and this out.
And then I went to the TV, to the channel, and I said, "Look, man, you, you can't do that. People want to know how this works." And they said, "No, they don't." "No, they do." "Trust us. They don't wanna know how it works. They just want to get entertained." And I said, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I don't think so." And then I started YouTube while I was doing TV.
Mm. And while I was doing TV, doing YouTube was- But when did you start YouTube? 2013. Okay. Yeah, which is early for that YouTube era. I think 2012, we, we started the channel, and two thou- two, 2013 was the first video. Yep. [00:11:00] And, um, I got problems with them. They said, "You're making a fool out of yourself." I said, "No."
"Yeah, you do. You can't do YouTube and TV." Okay. And then I said, "Okay. Well, then, then I stop doing TV." And, uh, they were shocked. Which now seems normal, but back then was- It was crazy ... wild. It was wild. Yeah. Right. Because I didn't want to do the TV show at all, so the money went up and up and up, so they paid me more and more- Yeah
and more to keep ... Because it's, until this day, the most successful car show in Germany. They still show it. It's still running in TV. Mm. It's old. I don't look that way. I, I'm a different person. But it's still on TV. And, um, so I stopped doing that because it was, at the end, not freeze. TV is horrible. TV is wrong, and the culture in TV is lying and- [00:12:00] On any costs.
Mm-hmm. And, um, so I didn't want to be there, and I'm anyway not a money person at all. So I thought, "No, I'm not doing that." So I started YouTube, and it started slowly. And the way it is, there came out one video, I think it was a thing on Facebook even, and then I think on, in one single day, I think 24,000 followers on YouTube in a day.
Wow. At that time. And I thought, "Wow, that's crazy." So it started, and I would say in the German language, we were the first YouTube channel about cars that is not uploading a TV show for, about cars on YouTube. So I, I would call it then OG, really. I mean, the beginning of- Yeah, yeah, yeah ... the whole stuff in Germany.
And I think this is where we still live on and, yeah. And then from there you just built... I mean, you went and took the YouTube [00:13:00] thing and funneled it into all these other businesses, right? So I mean, just to- Yeah ... list some, like you've got- 16 companies ... you have 16 companies. Yeah, right. Including a burger shop, including a museum, including- All kinds of stuff
all things. Yeah. Yeah. Right, right, right. Yeah, um, and the thing is, and I know it's always very awkward where people think, "He says he's not a money person but doing all this." It is not the money, because when you go to work and you are a doctor, it's not the money. Yeah. It's, you get this, right? Mm-hmm. But I like the game.
I like to have an idea and make an idea to real life, and being, while you do that, a good person and give things back to people in my world. Mm-hmm. Maybe not to skaters or swimming. Cars or technology in general. Um, and [00:14:00] honestly, this is all what I do. And then why so many companies is I look for somebody and I talk with them, and I feel, in many cases, they're not good people.
Mm-hmm. And and my employees know, when I go somewhere and this guy is not really a cool guy, they know what will happen. We gonna build a... And then, um, we, I, I'm always starting then my own stuff and producing it myself or building it myself or developing it myself. I mean, speaking of building cars, I was just, I was looking up, so I was like, "What are, I don't even know how many cars you've built."
Do you know how many cars you've built? 'Cause it is- No ... it i- it is an insane number. Yeah. I know because of the, um, my tax department know, um, when you have... Who helps you with taxes? That's called an- With taxes? Your accountant? Accountant. Yeah. Not, not in the company. He's in a- Yeah, yeah, yeah ... yeah, yeah, right.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like your bookkeeper [00:15:00] or- And, uh, they send me a list how many cars I own, so I know this exactly now. Oh. But you sell some of your cars, or do you keep most of them? I should sell more. How many do you own right now? 121. Oh my God. I feel so normal at 26 right now. No, 121 cars, and, um, the sad thing is when I go through the list, I remember cars Right, like you completely forgot about them
100%, and they are cars. I mean, real dreams, and this is for me something where I really have to work on myself. It's not a good feeling. Yeah. But at the same time, we little boys want to collect. Yeah. It's not enough that you can say to a friend, "I had this car." You wanna say, "I have this car." Of course, yeah, yeah.
Oh, I get it. So this, this, this is the way we are. So- And you built, like, a really wide range of things, right? I mean, I, I just- Mm ... I just saw the other day that you built, you had, like, an E-Type. Is that something, is that one of yours? Yeah. I, I completely missed that, and I love E-Types, [00:16:00] so I was, like, excited.
You do? I was excited to see that. Um- Not many people do ... yeah, my father had one. Okay. So I, my... Quick story, my dad had one. He sold it right before, like, I came into this world. The 12? Um, no, the 6, and he spent most of my childhood telling me how great that car was as we drove around in the Ford Pinto he was forced to buy because he had a son that was constantly breaking down.
So, like, uh, most of my life was a guilt trip about how great his E-Type was, even though it broke all the time, and it was an issue- But isn't that crazy? ... but how much he loved it, but he gave it up for me. So when, when my son was still in the oven, I went and bought an E-Type, to the chagrin of my wife, who was like- You did?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have, it's a project car. Like, it's, it sits in a shed, but one- They make problems ... one day, the plan for me, uh, is I wanna build it with my son. That, I think it'd be kind of a fun thing, and hopefully while my father's still here so I could get, like, three generations working on it at some point.
Get the parts now. Yeah, they're becoming more and more difficult. Mm-hmm. But I'm gonna do k- not the same thing you did, but I'm gonna, I'm not trying to restore it. I wanna build, like, a- Cool ... [00:17:00] resto-mod type thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Probably- There's a lot of, lot of potential in it. Yeah. But, but to get back to it, like, you, you, you build everything.
I mean, you've got modern cars. You've got- Yeah ... classic cars. You have Japanese cars, obviously a ton of Euro cars. Um, I think you've, you know, you've built a bit of everything. Um, you have a- You know what I feel? When you talk about this- Yeah ... I'm in America, and for me, all my idols and all the people who really built the very, very, very good cars are here.
Always when I walk through the SEMA show or car shows here- Yeah ... and I see the quality, how they build cars and what they do to them and how they do it, I feel so Really? See, I, I feel the, uh- Some not ... I, I think that what is impressive to me is not just, like, the collection that you have amassed, which is slightly problematic on some levels, but But, but I mean, you build really incredible stuff.
You know, like, there are cars that you build and you're like, "That is a r- that's not just, like, oh, I sl- slapped some parts on." It's like- No ... it's a concept, right? Like, you- I made [00:18:00] the same problem. I, I, I made the problem up myself, because this YouTube game, I saw another podcast, another thing, where people were talking about this.
Everybody's trying to beat the other guy- Yeah ... in this YouTube game. Vinny and I talk about it all the time. Yeah. We talk about you build cars for views, and you don't always end up building the car you want. You build something that's clickable because- See, in my case- ... you're like, "I stuck a V10 in a Supra" See, in, in- Things like that Yeah, see, things like that.
See, in my case is my brain is a little awkward- Yeah ... and when I ... I dream a lot, and I think and I do mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. The problem is when the idea is a little good, it gets a spark, and then it goes. And from that point on- Yeah ... it has to happen. So that's why there are so h- so many cars in storage, including parts.
The project is not known and never started because I want to be ready- Same ... in that [00:19:00] moment. Same. Okay, that, that gives me a good feeling. I, I collect cars not, uh, I collect cars because it's like a blank canvas for an idea I have in my head, and I just want to eventually see that idea out. I, I'm so happy you say that because, uh, people always attack me and are like, "Why haven't you finished that?"
Mm-mm. I was like, it doesn't, uh, I'm preparing for the future. Like, I, I want this now. I might not be able to afford it later, or it might not be available later, and the idea is there, and I need to start, like, c- you know, bringing it to life. Uh- You're a lot better at finishing them than I am, though, so. But it's the pressure.
Yeah. It's the pressure out there because of comments like that. And so, for example, we're always building cars, and the first video will maybe be out 2028. Yeah. And the videos are, are being shoot now. So b- because when the peop- the audience have no idea how difficult it is. You work that far out? Two years, yeah, two and a half years That's incredible This morning I got videos from a dyno, [00:20:00] and engine finished, everything finished.
Uh, and the first video is coming out midsummer next year. What? You do realize that, like, the standard model for a lot of people is, like, I work on the car this week, and then I film it, and I upload it. Yeah. Like, Mike Burroughs from Stanceworks- No ... is building that F40. I know. And, and it's like people ask, keep asking, "What's going on?"
He said on the pod last time, he's like, "The, what you saw in the last episode, like, literally- No ... that was last week." No, we are- You're a y- year plus out. Yes. Wow. Yes. Has it always been that way? Yeah. When did you decide to make that- Yeah. I love numbers. I love, I love organization, and I think at the end of the day, everything is numbers.
Yeah. You- Yeah ... the microphone, everything. And if you have control over that, easy. Yeah. We can get into that, 'cause I'm a huge data guy, which I think a lot of people are surprised to hear, 'cause I, like- I am ... I'm a, I'm a creative. But, you know, you don't get to make a Gymkhana series [00:21:00] be that successful for that long without really looking at numbers.
Correct. Like, it just, you, you don't just keep making this thing. Correct. It's like you have to analyze it. You have to see what moments worked, what didn't, and then you kinda have to continue to distill it to make it better, right? But- Even when people are not that way, and I also feel I'm, I'm a little bit more open always when I'm in a different country talking- Yeah, yeah, yeah
on interviews, 'cause in Germany I wouldn't say that. I'm a little offended sometimes when people are not that way. I'm not offended when they will never complain. Right. But they will complain, and the answer or the solution is there. And my head then goes, "You have two choices: Don't complain, or do it."
Right. Because at the end of the day, luck, meh, I don't know. There is luck sometimes, yeah. But people love this word luck. It's not luck. No. You can, the more you put in [00:22:00] it, you, more tickets you buy with, where it's luck underneath that, when you turn them around. And some people just buy one and go, "Ah, no luck.
Shit." Mm-hmm. But that's not the thing. So when you have, imagine some people have one, and then you have 15,000 cards. Yeah. You'll be... And you only need one lucky card. Yeah. You don't need then 10,000 or... You only need one. Dyrdek used to have this saying, Rob Dyrdek, he used to have this saying which just said, "Make your own luck."
Yeah. And I, and I love that because it's true. It's like if you work hard enough, the luck finds you. Mm-hmm. But you gotta put the work in to find the luck sometimes. Like, there are moments I'm like, "We were just lucky." It- For, for example, and I think this is interesting, you know, do you think you could do what you did starting today versus when you started in 2013, right?
Like- I was talking with Vin about this the last three days in a row
I think we are in a v- I [00:23:00] think we don't know now how important this time is for cars. Mm-hmm. In, in 10, 20 years, we will talk about 2026 like, "That was right on the edge. That was right, turning point." Okay. I'm gonna ask you a question then that I ask a lot of more OG people on the show. Do you think, and your perspective maybe being slightly different coming from Germany, do you think that we are at a peak moment in car culture, or do you think we're at a lull?
Who decides what is peak, first of all? Then, um- You do. That's why I'm asking you for this moment. For me. So peak for me. Well, you're, not just you, but when you're looking around at car culture, are you thinking we're healthy right now? When you have a mass of, when you have a mass of so many people- Yeah
and, uh, you also, I was lucky to, to travel around the world, and then you are somewhere in China, and they love scooters, and they are in their prime. Mm-hmm. [00:24:00] And I'm, I'm... For me, they're in the same culture as me. I don't know about it and never heard about it. So I think to say the peak is, is difficult when you have such a mass, um, of people.
So I think... Well, it's a very, very good question, and I would love to give the big answer. Mm-hmm. But I think it will take too much time because it's- Oh, trust me, this podcast has got nothing but time. This audience loves a long podcast. They do? Okay. The producer doesn't, but... So they love it. Okay, so, um, I would say when you think back to the '90s- Mm-hmm
then there was magazines, and in the magazine you had a chance to see a car from a certain angle. You don't know how wide the w- rear wheel is, but you can guess. Mm-hmm. And many magazines had the numbers also wrong. Mm-hmm. And then [00:25:00] stupid shit like 175 by 19. What? And, um, so y- you were there in, uh, your mind.
Now we have internet, and we have Instagram, and YouTube, and all this, so the information amount is so big. You s- you can see whatever you want. I don't know how to install this. I got 10 different languages and 20 different guys who explains me that. So we are growing culture. It's because more people get infected.
Maybe somebody stands next to a guy who's not owning the car, thinks... And then you can go in your car on your phone looking for cars. But the last two things he was looking for was maybe video games. So we can infect a lot of people. So is car culture the amount of people or the quality? So the quality always when...
And this is the way human beings are. When they do something [00:26:00] often, we lose quality. Often, we lose quality. And, um, so I would say we lose quality. But then the next question is, is quality in yourself or in what you watch? Mm-hmm. Because when I was young and I'm looking at the magazine, and I was dreaming, and I didn't know what wheel is there or what, how it looks from the rear or from that angle, I think the quality was higher because it happened in me.
Right. And this is something where I think we are not able to give that quality to people nowadays. Because when I see people, younger people watching Instagram, and I didn't know this function, they can't watch a video in normal speed. They- Right ... they, they push the, the... You can push on the, on the display- Yeah
and it speeds up. And- I didn't realize that for Instagram. Like, I know people listen to this c- podcast at 1.5, which makes us sound like chipmunks, [00:27:00] but I didn't realize that people actually do that for IG as well. Yeah. That's terrifying. Yeah. They do. They do. And so it's only- Oh, in, in, in, in, in. And I don't think that, back to your question, is are we at the peak?
Oof. Yeah. I- Do you miss the, do you miss the '90s? Oh, yeah. Yeah. When you see my cars- You know ... I would say yeah. You know, it- it's interesting, 'cause as you were thinking about, talking about that, I, I think something that I loved about the '90s was how uniquely different different regions' scenes were. Like, even in the US, what we were doing- New York
in New York- Right ... which is where I'm from, was very different than what was happening in California, Florida, right, the South. They were all very unique. I used to read VW Scene Magazine, which is a German mag. I know. And I used to read it in print. I would have to, I actually had a German to English dictionary just to try to translate a few words, right, and [00:28:00] understand that.
And something happens in you. A- and there was something that made me feel, when I would wa- when I would read those magazines, I felt like I had got this, um, this peek into something I wasn't supposed to, that it was a culture that I was, like, not allow- like, I wasn't supposed to be seeing it, and it felt so much richer to be able to do that, including Lowrider magazines, right?
Lowrider culture was not a New York thing. I never had a lowrider, but I thought the culture was cool, and reading those magazines felt like I had stepped into something that I was not invited to, right? And, like, there was something cool about that, where now everything is built to y- you, for you to be invited in.
Like, there is no more, I don't wanna say gatekeeping, but there's no longer a threshold to go enjoy something. It's not just cars, it's everything. This, this- Like, tomorrow you could become an expert in anvils if you want to- But young people- ... by watching an entire night of YouTube ... that's true, but this is a small thing I wanna say is young people think when they saw Instagram or YouTube view that they know.
Yeah. Oh, they don't know. Yeah. This is a, where I have a big, big problem, 'cause I have [00:29:00] 115 employees now, and a lot of them are very young, and, uh, poof, what they think what they know They don't have to do it. I saw a video. Now they know. No, that's, that's not true. But one thing, when I, when I was young, and my father's from The Bahamas- Mm-hmm
so I was flying, uh, back and forth as much as possible. Um, and when I was at the airport in Miami, I bought this Lowrider magazine. Mm. And DuPont Registry and all these things, because- Yeah ... Germany wasn't that way at all. And so I can relate very good to it. Yeah. And buying these American car magazines.
And I also had then the connection to this scene a lot, because I couldn't have st- stayed just in Germany and do my thing. Yeah. But I always knew that your culture and your way of doing it, and the freedom ex- especially that, is the right [00:30:00] turf, the right playground to give this culture the energy. Is it weird then for you that, that myself, growing up in New York, spent all this time trying to emulate what was happening in Germany?
Like, we were importing parts from Germany. We were, like, building our cars to look, you know, stretching tires, which is a two thing, right? Like, that's why it started, was 'cause the tires couldn't stick out. But, like, we were doing all these things to emulate what you guys were doing, and then there was this weird moment in the Volkswagen culture where all of a sudden Germany started building Volkswagens that looked like lowriders.
Yeah. And we were like, "Wait a second." Right. Right. Like, wait, wait, wait. Why are we looking at Germany for what's happening here in America, you know? I mean, it's very often that what the kid has on the other playground is always what we wanna have. Yeah, of course. Yeah. Do you think social media, uh, is, like, in some ways maybe ruined car culture, 'cause it's made it, like, too accessible?
Many people talk about it and try to blame it for that. [00:31:00] Do I think social media destroyed or- Destroyed, ruined. Maybe destroyed is probably the... You know what? That's probably a little hyperbolic. Do you think social media has, like, has been a positive or a negative- I think s- ... to current car culture? I, I think social media, social media is too fast to take care of every new member of our car club- Mm
to give them the right informations. Like, you have to go to school 10 years. Okay, we do it in a week. Yeah. Because, um, they go like, "This is the price for this car, and when I do suspension with this, this, this." They go like this, "I have this amount of money. I buy it, and then I go to the spot and I talk with the guys about the same shit."
So then he's there. I have nothing against people like that a- at all, but they should maybe sometimes give a little bit more to it to fit in. [00:32:00] Yeah. 'Cause I think sometimes some of these people just do it for the trend Right. Like, they're doing it for the purpose of social media, not for the culture of cars.
Oh, a lot. In Germany, big time. I guess here too, but- Yeah ... in Germany- Definitely big here ... big time. I mean, when it becomes a business, that sort of changes the whole dynamic of it, right? I mean, when- Female, female YouTubers buying a cool car? I didn't say that, but sure. No, no. Like, that's a piece of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, I, I, I, I talk openly about it because, uh, they use this
guy, I mean, ooh, how can I explain that correctly? Um- They, they have their business. Yes. So how do I get people into my business? Right. So- You're saying OnlyFan models who buy cool cars to get boys to watch. No, no, you said that. I didn't say that. You said that. You said that. So guys like cars. Hmm. How do- I buy a [00:33:00] car, what they're dreaming of, pretending I'm- Yeah
going to a track day or doing this. I'm a supercar guy, so they start dreaming on another level. And then luckily, by chance, she's doing what you said? How you call it? OnlyFans? OnlyFans. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah, yeah. You've never seen that before. No. Yeah. You guys don't have that in Germany. No, we don't. No.
You guys put your porn right out in the open. Yeah, yeah. We get the big sets. And, um- And look, I think this- And, and, and this is what, what I call where social media has I mean, I, I'm, I'm dreaming or I'm, I'm talking about a time years ago that will never change. It is the way it is. And I'm not the kind of guy who always wants that back from back in the days.
Yeah. So it's, it's, it's just an adaption. It's something like, it is the way it is now. So if I like it or not, it's my decision, but it is the way it is. What I wanna say is this is where it makes us sometimes a little difficult. Yeah. And look, for me, I've ... My career is based on [00:34:00] the success of things I've done on social media, so it's like it's a weird thing to parse 'cause in a way I, I miss what the culture was for me when I was younger.
Mm-hmm. But at the same time, I wouldn't have the career I have without being involved in it. So yeah, it's like, it's, it's a weird one. Th- there's a piece of me that wants to pull it back in. Like, I think it's gotten a little ... Like, it was really good at a moment, but I think now it's become ... It's not just oversaturated, it's like, "Why are we doing this?"
became the question. And we ... I, I don't wanna go too far down that line, but, like, Hoonigan got to this point where, like, we were building stuff we weren't even excited about anymore 'cause, like, it was just good for clicks. And, like, the minute we started to lose interest in that, you know, you start to ... And I think the same thing starts to come out of a social media world too- Mm-hmm
where it's like you're doing things just to get this done. Yes, but I think you invited me also because of a certain quality, and Hoonigan had this certain quality because when sometimes when you look at it now, mmm, how fast they do it- Mm-hmm ... and how they do [00:35:00] it, especially in Germany, 'cause I was talking to Vin, uh, also about quality on YouTube, and y- you guys now play a game of very high quality.
Mm-hmm. 'Cause when, when people do YouTube, they have that amount of camera guys, this and that, and team, and this and this. This is not existing in Germany. Hmm. It's still a little bit more pure. You feel very fast. He has an idea what he's talking about or not. Hmm. If you're not, mm-mm. I mean, it still works- Yeah
but not in that level. Here it is more like lights, tone, guys writing things and all this. Nobody has that in Germany. That's a good point. Do you think it's better to not have all that? 100 million percent. Yeah. I don't want a new TV. That's a good conversation. We're gonna take a quick break and come right back into that.
Oh, hey everybody. Here we are for another story time interruption, brought to you by my good friends at FCP Euro. If you're at all familiar with my [00:36:00] builds, you know that I'm not really good at, um, let's just say this, I'm the king of scope creep. I had an Audi Coupe Quattro that I was gonna build into a 500 horsepower driver.
It was a pretty simple, established recipe to do this. But no, instead, I decided to make it into a 1,000 plus horsepower race car that still doesn't run. The bad news is, is I also scope creep maintenance. The other day, went for a nice drive in the RS2. It was a spirited one, hit some canyon roads.
Everything was great till I went around one corner and I heard a very familiar clunk. This clunk, to Volkswagen and Audi guys, is nothing other than a blown strut bearing. It happens a lot, especially when driving slammed cars. And while most people would probably be dismayed at the tedious task ahead of them, not I.
I saw this as an opportunity. Yeah, an opportunity to finally fix that clicking CV joint, get after the bushings or the brakes that needed an overhaul. You know, head on over to FCP Euro and just [00:37:00] fill the cart with everything I can find underneath suspension, brakes, and even steering. Hey, why not? And, you know, then take apart other parts of the car and probably never put it back together.
This is kinda what I'm known for. If you too are like this, you can go to FCPeuro.com and scope creep even the most basic maintenance. FCP Euro doesn't judge. They'll be your plug to this horrible, bad habit we have. All right, so let's come back into that idea, because I think this is a really interesting conversation of, like, what YouTube is meant for.
Like, is it meant to be a place to do YouTube, uh- It's changing every day ... or is it meant to be a place that's, like, access to TV style stuff, and everyone's doing something different, right? I think, I think this YouTube or whole social media is, is a moving, morphing ball all the time. Yeah. It's just changing all the time.
TV, l- look, look, look at TV. From '80s to '90s, nothing happened. No. [00:38:00] Jerry Springer then came up, something like this. Yeah. So a new, a w- always one person comes and brings- Yeah ... a new energy, and then book, it makes a turn. Th- And YouTube, or this whole social media thing, you can make a book because it's, it's Something I found interesting when you talk about the TV stuff, so when we were younger, we had regular television, right?
I'm sure it was same in Germany as it was in the US. Yeah, we had five channels. Yeah, and then all of a sudden we had the talk show got really big, right? So here we had, like, Jerry Springer and Ricki Lake and Maury and all these shows, and that became, like, this new type of low buck, high visibility kind of show.
Few years later- Germany. And then we got The Real World from MTV, and that created the reality TV show, right? The unscripted world. Mm-hmm. And for me, I grew up before that, so, like, I got to watch that in a certain way, and then all of a sudden everything, everything was unscripted. [00:39:00] Like, it was just everything was a reality TV show.
The Bachelor, the Survivor, right? It's like all that was on TV. Mm-hmm. And I quite often try to think about a generation that's probably about 10 to 15 years younger than you and I, and that's all they knew. All they knew was fake reality. It was clear that it was fake, it was clear that it was produced- Mm-hmm
but it was being presented as reality. And to me, I think that's why so many people went to YouTube, 'cause YouTube actually felt like reality. YouTube was a guy talking to his Go- At that, at that time, at that time ... to his GoPro that actually felt there. But then we all just sort of kind of were like, "Okay, well we have to make that f- we have to stand out from the rest," especially as it gets more and more saturated and everybody wants to make something that looks different, looks nicer.
Mm-hmm. Am, I, I'm a h- obviously a huge car guy, but I'm also a huge media person. Like, I enjoy media, so I enjoy making things look nice How? I mean, what, what... Oh, okay. How it looks. Mm-hmm. Me too. Well, l- look, you know, I started in magazines, but I [00:40:00] started outside of cars, so I, I, I came from magazines- I know ... and culture into cars.
So I've always loved the art of storytelling, I've always loved movies. Like, that's the thing for me. My eventual goal is to direct more and more movies, and that's the world I like to be in. So for me, that's why I sort of tend to drag the content that way, 'cause it's my, it's my other love. But I, I do... I, I know what you're saying.
There was a pureness to the early days of Hoonigan, um, when we did Daily Transmission that the audience just, we were never able to replace. How do you keep doing that, though, for what is now 16 years for you? Yeah. Like, how do you keep that there? Yeah. Because that, I think, is the most difficult part. 100%, especially in yourself, because we're doing five videos a we- a week.
I know, which is incredible. And it's incredible, and 45 minutes average, 40 minutes average. And the thing is that I can't hear myself anymore, because I explained and I said that hundred of ti- hundred times. [00:41:00] So it is so difficult to keep that up, to be still interesting for people, but then you have to understand every day new people come and other people go.
Mm-hmm. And, um, also that I enjoy myself while I do it. Mm-hmm. So then you have a feeling, "I don't want to explain a central lock," or, "I don't want..." You know? Because I did it, and then you have to think, "Well, it's also my business." And then you are very often not grateful for yourself, because how lucky am I?
Yeah. That how lucky am I that, that I'm able to do this? I grew up no money. I mean, honestly, nothing. No food, nothing, right? And, um, and, and sometimes I sit there and I look and I think I, I own all this shit? And then I check [00:42:00] out WhatsApp and say, "You gotta fly tomorrow morning, do this, go on a racetrack and test a new GT3 something."
I go, "Fuck, I don't wanna go." Right? Yeah. So, so yeah, and I think, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Relax, my friend. You, it should be, there should, th- there is a planned version of you that you have to do I don't know what tomorrow morning, so be happy that you are able to do this." And this is not easy sometimes.
It sounds, I, I, I am not, I'm not complaining. Yeah, no, no, no. But I think everybody has his problems, and they become always their problem. I am in a very lucky position. Somebody have maybe more luck or less luck, but for every human being, the problem is the problem, and sometimes you really have to look twice to understand if that is really a problem.
I, I always tell people, it's still a job, but it's a good one. You know? Yeah. Like, it's still a job. There are days where it feels like a job. You don't wanna [00:43:00] do it in the morning, but it's not a bad one, right? Like, to be out there and do all the kinda cool stuff we've done and, um, you know, I, I, you know, I, I wouldn't, I wouldn't say I came from nothing, but I d- I didn't come from a lot growing up as a kid.
Mm-hmm. And, you know, parents didn't have a flashy house, they didn't have flashy cars. It just wasn't a thing. And, um, I look back at it now, and I'm like, man, like, I got to travel the world. I got to do all this really cool stuff. Like, you gotta be grateful for that. But that doesn't stop me from some mornings being like, "I don't wanna do this."
Mm. I mean, like, Vinny and I will get into it 'cause there's a business of it where Vinny's like, "I got invited to go travel somewhere, to go drive something really cool," but it's like four days of travel. But I get to go to this really cool place to go do that, and I'm annoyed that, like, I have to go do this.
But there's so many people out there who are like, "I would go do that tomorrow." And I do think separating yourself from that is actually really difficult. I mean, it's a- Super difficult ... it's a nice problem to have. But I, I wanna go back [00:44:00] to how long you've been doing this, 'cause I wonder, have you had this happen to you yet, where someone approaches you, they're like maybe in their early 20s, and they're like, "Dude, I love your stuff.
I started watching it with my dad when I was a kid." Oh. And you realize that you've now been making something for so long that an entire generation has grown up around it, right? Like, like I think about that with the Gymkhana p- you know, franchise. Like, this is something that started in 2008. There are people who watched that young, grew up, had families, had kids, have now introduced their kids to it.
So you have something like the new Hoonicorn Lego drops, and I've got a dad sending me a photo of him and his kid building this and saying like, "Man, I'm so stoked that I got my kid into this." And I'm like thinking... 'Cause like I still think of the audience in one place, and it's, it's, it's a fun thing to watch and experience that.
But back to your initial point, you have to constantly think about like, "Is this the same audience I'm talking to, or is this a new audience?" Mm. "Am I repeating myself? Have I done this [00:45:00] before?" You know. The age thing, and when people come to me, because in Germany, for some reason, I- they don't understand how, my age is or how old I am.
Yeah. Right? I'm, I'm 45. You don't look 45. I said it before 'cause I'm mad that you don't look my age. 'Cause I'm 46, but you do... You, you keep it a little bit younger. Thank you. It's good for you. Yeah, yeah. Thank you. Yeah, yeah. But then ha- I'm hoping it just catches up to you one day. Yeah. Rapidly. And, um, so they walk up to me, said, "I'm watching this all my life."
I said, "How old were you?" They go, "I was maybe seven." Yeah. "Look, look, look." And then, and then we talk a little bit. I said... And then they ask me, uh, "How old are you?" And then they, I go, "45." And they go, "Wait, wait, wait Same age as my dad Yeah Or you're older than my dad Yeah You're older than my dad. You can't imagine how much pain that is [00:46:00] Because in his face, this JP thing, it just goes like a glass, like And, and, and you, you, you feel like, "I don't watch this anymore.
I can't watch him. And he's older than my dad," you know? And, and, and, and this is extreme. But in the same conversations, maybe this doesn't fit right in this thing right now, but they-- I, I talk with them, and I love talking with them to get an idea who's watching it. Very often they say, "I don't have a driving license," in Germany Mm.
Yeah. That is crazy. Yeah. We, we used to get that a lot at Hoonigan. Yeah Because I'm asking, uh, "I'm watching this all my life, and I love what you do." And they say, "What, what are you driving?" "I don't have a driving license. I don't have dri- I don't have a car." Yeah. And and then the conversation for me is like, "Yeah, yeah.
Okay, okay. You, but you wanna have a car?" "Well, maybe, maybe. I don't know." "You wanna make a driving license?" "Yeah."
And then I start thinking like, "What are you watching?" [00:47:00] And then I had a very cool phase where people in the comments write, "It's funny that he, it's funny that he still thinks we are watching it for the cars." Yeah. And this comment went on for a few weeks, and it really got me. Mm-hmm. Because I still, I truly thought they're watching it because of the cars.
But I would say 50% of the people are not watching it because of the cars. How do you feel about that? I was surprised that I was so wrong Mm. 'Cause I thought, I don't know, 90, 95% watching for the cars. We had something similar sort of, kind of strike us at Hoonigan- Yeah ... where people started saying to us that they weren't into cars when they started watching Hoonigan.
Mm-hmm. That they were watching it because it seemed like a great group of friends. Mm. Right? Which is a weird thing, because in one ways you're like, I get it. It's probably one of the reasons I was attracted to, like, Jackass. Jackass seemed like- A [00:48:00] group ... it was a group and, like, what they did was fun, and it was cer- but, like, man, I wanted to be- Be
I wanted to be friends with them. Yeah. I wanted to be part of that group. Like, I saw them as this group I could be a part of, and my friends and I emulated the things they would do. We would antique each other, you know? Mm-hmm. Throw, like, you know, a flower at each other while you passed out drunk or something, right?
And, um, and we ... I think there became this moment where, like, for you, a lot of people probably want to be you, right? Like, like- Mm-hmm ... they're like, "I wanna be J-" You don't think so? Mm-mm. They're not like, "Well, I wish I was JP"? Mm-mm, mm-mm. 'Cause I think for Hoonigan everyone's like, "I just wanna be a part of the band."
Mm-mm. Like, I wanna be in the group. I'm, I'm very open, uh, on, on the channel, and they see how much I work and how much I do, and that I'm ... I, like, I'm not able to go outside in Germany anymore. Yeah, yeah. And people know that. And- Which is crazy, because you have a different kind of celebrity than any o- any, like, car YouTuber has here.
You know where I felt it strongly? With Ken. Oh, yeah. Ken was then in Germany. Yeah. [00:49:00] And he had the signing after me- Yep ... at the Sonax booth. It was full. Ken came, and half of the people left. Mm. And I thought, "I'm the startup guy." Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then Ken comes, and then shit's going down. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But that didn't happen. And for some reason, I, I was lucky to meet so many people, famous actors and all these people, and I always felt that sometimes J- very famous German people, they ask them to take a picture of me and the person. And I thought, "Maybe there's something different." And I'm not saying this, "I'm the greatest guy."
Yeah. I, I think it's that I never made a difference between anybody, so I f- they feel very connected. Yep. And they feel very ... And, and I really mean it, because I don't see a difference in anybody You [00:50:00] have a car, you don't have a car. Okay? You do this or you do that. I just, if you're nice to me, I'm nice to you.
Mm-hmm. And maybe I don't, maybe I'm not your opinion and maybe you're not my opinion. I don't know. But I'm, I'm always very, very... It's important for me to be very neutral. Mm-hmm. And I think this is for the people something where they think I, I think I like this guy. I, there's like this thing that I've realized, like the YouTube celebrity, whatever you wanna call it.
Um, I like, I refer to it as like economy class celebrity, right? Because like you're still amongst the people so you have to act like the people, right? Like I have traveled with Sung Kang. Sung Kang is like real famous. Like we don't walk through the airport. We get brought outside the airport, right? Like I land in Charles de Gaulle and I'm put into a Citroen and driven to a special lounge.
Mm-hmm. And I never walk into the terminal. I go through private security with him. That's amazing. That's real celebrity. I [00:51:00] sometimes sit in the middle seat . You know, like that's a different type of, of, of thing where people know you- Mm ... but you don't really, you don't, you don't have the ability to like escape them.
You don't have the ability to distance yourself from them. But I think something that's, that's very different between movie star famous, which is also I think race car driver famous, right? Like I think a Lewis Hamilton or something like that- Mm. Yeah, yeah ... versus, um, YouTuber famous, right? Mm. Is that because of the way, and I think maybe it's the rawness, it's the anti-television, whatever that is, the, there's a, people feel like they know you more.
There's sometimes the camera is on in some situations- Yeah ... where the... Can I explain that shortly? Yeah. How, how I feel it? Yeah. Because the, the, the, the movie famous person has an edited thing that gets shown to the people and he has a certain picture that he wants how they see them. Very curated. Exactly.
And the YouTube is like that, that the camera is [00:52:00] on in any kind of situation. He decides if he, he wants it online or not. Yeah. And this, this is a totally different- generation of famous that, that's growing there Mm-hmm. I think that this new famous or whatever, I, I, it's weird to apply the word famous, but I guess that's, it is very much what it is.
There feels like there's no boundary. So for example, when I first started traveling with Ken, I was always there. People would walk up to me and would say, "Hey, can I get an autograph with him? Can I get a photo with him?" They'd ask me like I'm his fucking handler. Because he, no, because he, he's so big Yeah, like a bodyguard.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you're a bodyguard. Yeah. I mean, big old trucks are bodyguards. Yeah. Ah. Yeah, yeah. I knew you were gonna bring it here. Yeah . I knew you were gonna bring it here. Yeah. That's his nickname for me. It's our love language. But like I, but- ... but people would come to me and be like, "Oh, can I..." He's standing right fucking next to me, like just ask him, right?
But then when I started to have a certain amount of like notoriety and people would recognize me, there was no barrier of entry. Like, people would interrupt me at dinner with my wife. [00:53:00] People would just- Mm ... come up and they wouldn't be like, it wasn't like, "Hey, can I have your autograph?" It was like, "Dude, how's the coupe going?
What's up with the Rabbit?" Like, as if I had ran into a friend. Mm. Do you know what I'm saying? And a lot of times- I do ... a lot of times I didn't know if I knew them or not, so I would just be like, "Yeah," just start having a chat. And then at the end finally they'd be like, "Hey, can we get a photo together?" I'd be like, "Oh yeah, sure."
But like that wasn't the original intention. Mm. Like the original intention was to create a connection, and that is something that- Over years ... I have realized is extremely valuable. It's a very different connection that you have in this YouTube, whether it's parasocial, whatever you wanna call it, it's a very different connection you end up having with an audience than you do as like a tried and true celebrity.
Yeah. Right? A s- in a sports athlete, a, a movie star or something like that. May I ask you something? Yeah. Isn't it also, because I know exactly what you mean, but when you feel over years, and in my case it's now nearly 20 years, that when people start this conversation to get a [00:54:00] picture, isn't there something happening in you?
What do you mean? That they ask these questions, but actually they just wanna have a picture. Because in me, something broke a little bit because they are just not brave enough just to ask directly, so they- Mm-hmm ... do this thing. In my mind it's just don't, don't give me this, just, just ask for the picture and then
See, I think one, I think you are 100 times more famous than I've ever been. So for me, I have a very core group of people who actually have the same interests as me, so, and I enjoy talking, so like I have definitely, I think people have come up to me who just wanted a photo and then they're like, "Oh my God, Scotto won't shut the fuck up."
So we might be different there. You know, we might, we might be a little different there. So, 'cause I've, I've seen the fandemonium.
I imagine, I imagine how he is looking to the group of his friends like[00:55:00]
Yeah, yeah, yeah, cool, yeah. I'm gonna watch it on You- He's like, "I, I just, I just recognized him 'cause I saw him with Ken. He just won't shut up about it." It's what happened. Yeah, yeah, I, you, you wanna have my number? Maybe we can talk on the phone. Yeah, we can WhatsApp. I can start a group chat, me, JP, and Vinny.
Oh, boy. But no, but I mean, I've seen the fandemonium that you've dealt with, like, you know, uh, yeah, I've been to the, your spot in Dortmund, and it's like, there was thousands... It felt like there was, like, hundreds of people just standing there waiting for you to walk outside- Mm-hmm ... which is, it's a lot, it's a lot.
Yeah, it's like work- So I, I, I get that from your side. Working in Disneyland. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's, it's pretty crazy. And you're Mickey Mouse. Um, I, I, uh, I wanna, I wanna rewind a bit back, 'cause we jumped right over it. Uh, I wanna talk about, 'cause you've built so many cars, do you have, like, a top five- Builds?
Yeah, or like a top 10? Like, what are they? Mm... Or even just what currently is your top [00:56:00] five? Like, it doesn't have to be your all-time greatest. See- But, like, right now, when you're looking at it, you're like, "These I am really excited about." You know what? And now is the thing, the time. Yeah. 'Cause we are building something from '28, what I would not, don't wanna talk about.
Mm. But this is absolutely in that. Mm-hmm. I show you a picture. Okay. Wow. Yeah. That doesn't look like a car a YouTuber would build. That looks like something that would be, like, revealed at, you know... All right. Yeah, that's pretty damn cool. Three years. I c- but that makes sense, 'cause it looks like something an automaker would reveal at, like, an auto show.
Yeah. Yeah. Or, um, so for, so the Beetle I think is a very, very cool car- Mm-hmm ... because it's, it feels very, really out of the video game. Yes. The Gran Turismo one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Then the Volto, the Volvo with the two Tesla P100D- Yeah, that was super wild looking ... engines. It has also a very high level of complete Yeah, I really enjoy that.
I, we built a, a [00:57:00] 140i- Okay ... uh, but the body of an M2, but it has the hatchback, so it's a wide body. So it's like a Z3- Yeah ... but in the modern world, and it has, uh, a thousand horsepower. I like this. We, it's n- nothing super special- Yep ... but when you look at it, it's, it feels nice. The Jaguar gets, gets very cool.
It's a lot, a lot, a lot of work. I completely missed it, but I got to look at it this morning. Yeah, it's pretty cool looking. Yeah, looks, looks pretty cool. And then in the moment, also one what we're building right now, also I, I can only- I love that you're only thinking about the cars you're currently building that don't come out for two years.
You've built, you have 120 some odd cars. Mm-hmm. You're having a hard time naming more than four. Yeah. Uh, first of all, check, check this out, okay? Oh, wow. Wait. Oh my God, that thing's beautiful. Wow. Mm-hmm. So it's a Nissan- And when's that? Uh, this, this will start, the first video's coming out in August. August, [00:58:00] okay.
So it's okay. So not too far. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's pretty badass. Yeah. What was the inspiration behind building that? You've had a couple before. Everybody, every... No, I still have them. Yeah. And, uh, it's always all-wheel drive, and I wanted to do something with the cheap version of it- Mm ... in rear-wheel drive, and make it a GT3- Mm
and look alike like the R36 could have... How could it look? Mm. Yeah, 'cause I think the R36 versions that they show right now- Yeah ... no, no. So I wanted to do something that is 34-like, not a 35, and something and- Well, you just gave away that it's a Skyline, so- Yeah ... yeah, that's fine. All right. So a, a car that's one of my favorite that you built, just because I feel like it's really unique and- Golf
is the Golf. Yeah. The Mark 2 Golf. Yeah. But I remember when I looked at it, I was really disappointed- Why? ... that it had a s- basically a stock VR6 in it, and I, I- Not, not anymore ... but at the time it did. Yeah. And when I called you out on it, you said, "Yeah, if it did then I couldn't drive it here in Germany." And [00:59:00] this was like a, a bubble bursting moment for me.
Mm-hmm. As a child, grew up, uh, got at first into Volkswagens, loved German cars, loved all the culture around- Mm-hmm ... tuning in Germany, all the history there, and I think I just wasn't paying attention to, like, what was happening in Germany with car culture because the... You know, and at that point I'd went through the process of, like, TÜVing my own car.
Is it TÜV, right? TÜV? TÜV. TÜV? Saying it right? Which is T-U-V to all of you who see that stamp. There you go. That's the stamp that's on all the quality wheels. If it's TÜV, then it's proper. Um, and I went and proofed that S2 that I bought, and it was a huge nightmare, and I think, you know, I think what, uh, Ruben said was the guy who TÜVed it, uh, had, uh, had, uh, uh, two blind eyes, yeah, yeah and no fingers.
Yeah. It's like something like that. And- So, like I, I, I didn't really realize how difficult that is. I mean, it, you come to California and you are like, "I love the freedom you have here with car culture." [01:00:00] We're all sitting here in California feeling like that's all disappearing, but it seems like Germany's in a much worse place now.
Because for me, I went back to Germany to go look at tuner cars and realized they all went to Poland. Like, I realized that the culture has just disappeared- Yeah ... from Germany. Like, when was, when really did that start happening? And like, I realize that's been a big part of sort of your time in Germany, like as an auto creator, that like you've been dealing with this, which is like something I just never really thought about.
'19. Yeah. '19, it really started hard. Really bad, yeah. Yeah, really bad. And, and I talk with this daily in America when, because you guys complaining, saying, "Yeah, this and that and that." And I always ... I say it and, but I ... You know, when you tell somebody something and he does not understand how much I mean it?
Yeah. You have no idea. You have no idea what problems mean, because you're telling me with the Corvette, right, right now, so, [01:01:00] "Yeah, man," smirking this and that, " you can't drive like that." Next sentence is, "But the cops don't care." Right. Okay, so what is it that the problem is there? The cops don't care because in our case, we have 30 times more things and the cops, oh, they do care You do get caught.
The car's just gone. See, the thing here is in the US, um, to be a car enthusiast in California especially, like, you just have to agree that you're gonna break laws, but it's a dice roll if you're gonna get caught. Do you know what I'm saying? Like, you might ... You're probably not gonna get caught. But what happens then?
It's, like, one in a couple hundred get caught. Yeah, but, but what happens then? It depends. I mean, sometimes they will take your car and deal ... And impound it. This is because of driving. Or they'll force, they'll force it out of ... Yeah. I- if you have- It ... So let, let me paint a picture Right now, you can get what's called state REFF'd in California, which means that your car is shown to be illegal for emissions purposes or something like that.
Okay. The car is no longer allowed to drive in California. You either have to s- Forever ... You, yeah, you either have to [01:02:00] sell it out of state or you have to return it back to what it was and then get it REFF'd again. Daily business- Yeah ... in Germany. Daily. I mean, on, daily. So I see, yeah, l- the way your eyes were, like, you have to sell it out of the state or you have to build it back.
It's like you go, "Oh." Seems like a huge inconvenience for us currently, but it's- Oh ... but where you guys are, it's a lot worse. It's the country's trying to make sure I don't want that anybody likes cars. Just use it to come to p- from point A to point B. That's the only reason that you sh- when you think of cars, this, I want you that you have the only thought of it has a door, steering wheel, and then I can go to the other place.
Do you realize how different that seems from the appearance we have? 'Cause for us, we're like- Autobahn ... Porsche, BMW, like Audi, the Autobahn, DTM. Like, we just think of this- I know, I know ... like, really cool car culture there, and also all- Keep it in mind. Just- And [01:03:00] also all the great tuners that came out of there, like- They're all gone
historic tuners. All gone. Yeah, I guess if you think about it. Tell me. Tell me one. Schnitzer, gone. Yeah. All these- Or they just do racing, right? Like an AWE or something like that. The name ... No, the, the name is still there. Yeah, yeah. But there's other people. So- It is one, if you love cars and you live in this country, it's one of the saddest stories you can really think of.
Even the manufacturers have, they're fighting with problems and they have stuff to do, which you never think of. And you, you... I, I see always the office- Mm-hmm ... TÜV guys. So we made that much money. What else can we invent to make more problems? Let me think. Um. And they go, "We can make them pay to do this and that and that."
"Yeah, that's, that's good, Bernd. Yeah, let's, let's, let's put this on the table. Yeah, that's, that's a good idea." And this, this happens every day. We have regulations for things you won't believe. So there, there's three things right now that are moving in the news in the US. One is that, [01:04:00] um, in Minnesota, there is a conversation around collector plates.
So it means that you have, you've registered your car as a collector car. You're now only allowed to drive your car on weekends. We don't have collector plates. Which is like... But I know, but this is, like, a huge scare to car collectors, 'cause the thought that, like, eventually could there be a world where, like, we're only allowed to drive our cars certain days.
Obviously, this is a bill to become a law, so it hasn't even passed yet, but people are worried about it. Second one is, is that we are hearing, you know, there's this new patent from Ford where they've have... And I don't wanna get this wrong, but there's some sort of facial recognition software that they have in the cars now that reports immediately to the police.
Ford? But why is Ford doing that shit? Yeah, that's a whole other conversation, right? Mm-hmm. And then we also have this other thing called right to repair, which is that basically the US manufacturers are saying, and inter- you know, you know, and then global manufacturers as well, are saying that you're not allowed to work on our cars.
So, like, that you cannot fix that car because we own the IP of the technology in that car, and now because [01:05:00] you need to be able to plug a laptop in- Mm ... we're not gonna give you access to that. These three things are sort of coming together to create a bit of a conspiracy theory that, like, eventually they're gonna be able to just shut down our ability to do anything, and, like, one of the Ford things- With the new cars.
With new cars, but they're also gonna try to limit our ability to drive old cars. Again, I, I'm gonna place this as I don't know if I fully believe this, but it's a bit of conspiracy theory in our community right now- As long, I think, yeah ... that that's where it's going, but it kind of feels like you guys are already there in a way in Germany.
Yeah, we absolutely are. But I think America is, they're very, very different. In America, the government listens a little bit. They listen to the people. It's 'cause we got guns, but yeah. Yeah. See, in Germany, they don't. You can vote whatever you want. You can say whatever you want. They do exactly what they want.
You can say, "I want it blue." Red. Yeah. So, and let's say 100% of the people, really 100% of the people say, "I want it blue [01:06:00] There you have your red car. And now it starts that the people are not accepting it anymore, let's put it this way. Right. Kinda late. Let me ask you a question as someone who is- But we don't know how, what we gonna do now.
So it's just, it's just the energy gets higher. Like you said, funny. Yeah. You have guns. But we going like, "Yeah, yeah But how are we gonna do that? Yeah, look, I, I, I guess as I, I look to you to ask the question of, like, how do you keep car culture alive through that? 'Cause you've now been doing stuff for six years since it's gotten really bad, but it, but- Explain that it helps you in your mind, that it is a very nice thing to have something that you work on and brings you somewhere.
It gives you a space where you can sit in, it gives you smell, it gives you emotions, it gives you memories. Mm-hmm. It brings you to memories. To explain to you that the human [01:07:00] being was always moving, ships, horses, everything. And, um, I think that very, very deeply in every human being, moving is a very important thing.
So jogging is also a big thing, but I think cars is also a big thing. It comes with money, 'cause you can run. We can just go outside and just run. So this is why I think it gets, in certain groups of people, especially in Germany, very offended, 'cause they don't like that you are able to buy this and I'm not able to buy this, and...
So I think cars are way more emotional and way more important than we think. Very often when we delete something, we found out or find out later that we say, "Well, hmm, wasn't that bad, right?" Because I think it's also crazy that- If we would put all this energy and all this money [01:08:00] into emission, uh, how the petrol engine works and how all this works, and to modify it even better, honestly, emission-wise, we're fine.
And also synthetic petrols and all this- Yeah ... we, we are fine. And, um, and when we're not, when there's no more gas, okay, there's no more gas. Got it. No more gas. But that we can change But I think we should always try to keep things, and this is now something what many people don't understand, that is just for you.
If it's a Fiat, if it's that, or if it's a go-kart, or it's a motorbike, or it's a bicycle, we need something. And now I said also bicycle. If your body or if your brain decided it is a car, then it is a car. Yeah, I, I... Look, you don't have to sell [01:09:00] me on the idea. Like, for me, I think car culture is hugely valuable, especially to young- It's more than a car
to, to young adults. I mean, it gave me a, a community. It gave me escape from bad communities. Uh, it, it- It gave you energy to g- m- more car ... to do things. Yeah. It gave me motivation. It was a carrot to not do other things. I mean, I, I grew up in- And then think about it as just a car. But it l- Look, look what you said, how much it gave to you.
Yeah. And at the end, it's just tires and a steering wheel. Oh, but it's, I mean, it's, it's way more than that. Exactly. I mean, it's, it's, it's something to spend your time thinking about. It's something to build friendships over. Mm. You and I, you live in, in Germany. I, I live here in California. And we are friends.
Now you're sitting in your garage, right? You're sitting in my garage because of cars. But also, I think if we're, especially if you're young adults and, like, I don't know about in Germany, but in America right now, we have, like, a major problem for, like, especially young men. It's like, what do we go do right now, right?
Like, what... Give them a focus. It's like, for me, growing up in the '90s, in [01:10:00] a scary time in New York where, like, crime and drugs was the route, and was the route most my friends took, cars and BMX bikes, two things that gave me mobility, is what got me out of it. Yeah. It's what changed my path from all of my friends- Yeah
right? So for me, I always will strict- I will strongly defend why, even if there's an emissions thing or there's this, like, as a whole, car culture is a positive impact to culture. Yes. Right? Like, and I, when I say culture, I mean large scale society, right? But, uh, w- I wanna go back to the question for you is how do you, as sort of like a leader in the automotive space in Germany, deal with watching this decline and trying to keep people positive and excited- Mm
about car culture when it seems like it's almost impossible? 'Cause I think that that is a huge fear, especially with the younger generation now, is like, "Well, I don't wanna buy this car and modify it only to have CHP pull me over and, uh, [01:11:00] cost me all these problems." And, and it's, it's a l- Mm ... it's more of a deterrent to get into it, versus where when I was a kid, you were- Yeah
I mean, America was pretty free. W- other than having tints on the windows, we pretty much could do whatever the hell we wanted with our cars- ... in the '90s, you know? So I'm, I'm trying every day to make- Little human beings fall in love with technology because, um, nowadays when you swipe and you like something or you comment, you can comment something and just duck.
The big difference is with technology is when it's not working, it's not working. When it works, it works. When it breaks, you can make it work. This is something what is, I think, very important for every growing human being to understand that. It is not about he can do it or I, I can ask him to understand I can do that.
I can make it work. [01:12:00] I can make it move. I can make all these things. And I'm trying every day to find people to feel that and my key to that is, and this is something where I don't see so much in the American YouTube thing. I think it's humor, knowledge. Humor, knowledge. Because when you don't laugh, you can only listen
Nowadays young people can only listen for 30 seconds. Mm. Max. Max. Brain closed. Thinking about all kinds of stuff in a row. Yeah. So make them laugh again. Oh, brain door open again. Knowledge. Laugh, knowledge. If you just, 'cause some YouTubers try to use it to show how smart they are. I can explain it so difficult that you don't have a fucking idea what I'm talking about.
And, um, and then I, the video's over and I want him to think I know so much and you don't know anything. So this is absolutely not my route. For me, [01:13:00] it is very important to explain it the way that it is super related to something what everybody knows in life, a door or a club or anything like that, and make them laugh.
Mm-hmm. And even as it gets harder and harder to become a car enthusiast through that period, you think just connection to that content is a reason for them to be like, "I wanna go build this." Like, if you're, if I'm a young German and I come up to you and I'm like, "I wanna build a car. Uh, what should I build, JP?
What should I go do?" And I'm s- Golf 4. And then, and then the kid builds it, and he gets in trouble 'cause he breaks all the two f- and then he just, and then loses his car? Is that what happens? Like, cars get impounded? Yeah. Gone. Hmm, if he's the right guy, yeah. Yeah. Can happen. That sucks. It does. We get that here for violations, like driving violations.
Yeah. Street racing- Yeah, yeah, yeah ... stuff like that. Yeah. Takeovers and- Yeah, yeah, yeah, here too. Does [01:14:00] takeover shit come to Germany? Is fucking bad. No, it comes to Germany now too. It's, it, it, it's bad. It, it's what has accelerated the problem we have here in the US, and it like, and rightfully so. Like, I have the- 100%, it's stupid
like, you came into my neighborhood, it's pretty nice here. Well, fucking, they were doing donuts in the intersection down the block from me. No. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And like, as the guy who did Hoonigan, I'm kinda like, "Well, fucking A." You wouldn't know. But, but- I imagine you walking down the street like, "Hey, uh, can you...
Aren't you Brian Scotto?" I, I- "Yeah, I am." I actually did yell at some kid for doing donuts at an event I was at, and the guy was like, "You're the dude from Hoonigan." I'm like, "Yeah, but they're, but like, we did it safely. There's fucking children here. What the fuck are you thinking?" Like- Yeah, yeah ... and this is bad for all of us.
Same. You know? See, I, we got 15,000 people a week coming to our shops, coming in- Yeah ... and I'm, they're revving. Yeah. I, I walk by, and I- By the way, for those who don't know, your shop is pretty incredible. I just wanna paint the scene. So it's like, really cool building, some cars on display, there's a [01:15:00] burger shop, there's a dyno that feels like a theater.
Like, you literally built a dyno where you can just kinda come up and check that out, and then down the block is this awesome museum that has a bunch of your cars, but also has, like, just some of the more important and legendary cars in- In the world ... in the world. Yeah. Right? When you had our donk there- Yeah
so obviously, most important cars. Yeah, most important cars. But, um, ju- just to kinda, 'cause it's not just a shop. Like, I just wanna get it clear- Yeah, it's not ... to the audience that they're not just pulling up with, like, a single door open. Like, it is- It's huge ... it is, um, it is, it feels like an activation or like an am- it, it's almost like an amusement park for car guys in a way, on a small scale, right?
Like, uh, like, there's that element of that, like, that you have this cool thing. I- And maybe the future gets cooler ... every, every time that I've been there, I leave going, "This is what the model is." Thank you. Like, this is what was cool, right? Thank you very much. Like, we, that, if I had stayed with Hoonigan, where we would've gone was that.
And Henderson and I were talking about Henderson and I had [01:16:00] talked about that kind of concept of like building brick and mortars that could be this really cool place that people can come to and it becomes like the hangout on a Saturday, the destination to go there. And like you get to experience the brand, you get to buy some things, there's a commercial element to it, but it also feels like a home- Mm-hmm
to us car enthusiasts. Mm-hmm. Which is like something you have done very well at Building Department. So I just wanna give you your flowers on that. So anyway, you're at the shop. So, uh, I see this guy revving and I walk up, "Hey, when you leave the parking lot, please keep it cool." And he looks at me like, "This is JP."
I said, "No, for sure I will not." Yeah. 10 meters later, and I understand when you 18 and you have your car and 30 people looking at you, you worked for this thing, and you pull off, you say, "This is my moment." And it really happened. They look at me and I got eye contact. And I go like...
And he goes[01:17:00]
I will send it all the way. And they really, they can't stop it. No. And he goes full. And I talked with him- Yeah ... 30 seconds before. He just c- they can't. Yeah, so, um, we, we used to do this event at Irwindale Speedway, and it was, it was where we started Burn Yard. So it's basically, like, all the things we would do in that small parking lot in Long Beach, you know, on a big kind of show experience.
I've been there. You- Did you come to the Irwindale event? Yeah. I mean, it's kinda like we do at SEMA. We did at SEMA. Only a year, one, one and a half years was able to do that, right? And then they closed it down. Yeah, 'cause it c- it was, COVID happened and then, uh- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ... everything kinda slowed down.
But anyway- I've been, I've been there ... at the end, I would stand in front of the audience, and I would say- Right ... "The only reason we get to do this is because you don't leave like an asshole." And I'm like, "And let me explain what that looks like." And I was like, "Today, the police are waiting on the off, on the on-ramp for you.
Do not [01:18:00] leave like an asshole." Six cars pulled off on the side of the off-ramp. It's like they just can't help themselves. It's like they just can't help themselves, and I get it. And look, I was a bit of that kid when I was younger, so- Yeah, yeah ... I used to go to H2O and Waterfest, and we'd just be doing burnouts everywhere in front-wheel drive cars, which is, you know, it- You learn later
it, its own crime. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. When, you do a rollback first. And your friends are holding you back. When your friends can hold back your car- Yeah. You're- ... that shows you how little horsepower and grip you have. You're not playing. Yeah. Legal disclaimer: It might actually be illegal to wear Heat Wave's polarized ultra black lenses while driving, but if you spend a lot of time in violently bright conditions like snow or in the desert, then these lenses are gonna be perfect for you.
Traditionally, sunglasses have an 11% VLT rating, but these are cranked all the way down to 6%. That's [01:19:00] limo tint for your eyes. They also provide a great level of ocular privacy for when you're looking at something you shouldn't be. I'll be wearing them tonight while I'm sat next to my wife scrolling Marketplace.
Avoid being blinded at heatwavevisual.com Some people are extremely organized, super sorted workbenches, garages, and lives. I am not that person. I'm a mess. Luckily, Wera can help. When you buy their toolkits, they offer matching foam inserts. Maybe it's a mental condition of mine, but there's something about an empty slot that just screams at me to go find that missing 10 millimeter before it vanishes forever.
Plus, the inserts fit perfectly into Wera's stainless steel rolling cabinets, which come both in regular and double XL for those of you, like myself, who hoard, I'm sorry, I mean collect tools. Go check them out at weratools.com. What's that old saying? Don't ever meet your heroes. Unfortunately, this applies to cars too, as my buddy Ken Block discovered when he bought his Ford RS200.
To [01:20:00] say it politely, the suspension sucked. So we went to KW to fix it on their seven-post suspension rig. Some say it was misappropriated in the middle of the night from an F1 team, and it once knocked out the power grid of a small village. But what we do know for certain is that this machine allows KW to create any test conditions needed to best develop their suspension across the entire product line.
Go check out kwsuspension.com and get yourself a kit developed on this insane seven-post technological torture device. I, I mean suspension rig. Speaking of old, what, what'd you get into first? What was, what got you into cars? Was, like, was it Volkswagens? Like, are you, was that your first kinda thing? I mean, I was lucky because of the no money situation.
I got together with the daughter of the boss of the Porsche dealership. Hmm. So my ass was in a 993, 996, uh, 9964 very early. Ah, you fucked your way to the top. Nice. Right. Yeah. So no, I remember that very clearly. He gave me the keys. He said, [01:21:00] "You gotta bring this car to Dusseldorf." And I walked the parking lot like, like in a dream.
Yeah. Like, honestly. Car, and the first thing I remember was my foot goes beneath the front window. So you feel, ooh, I'm, I'm, I'm window, very close. Yeah. Okay. And then I was looking for the key
Oh, okay. Left side. Start it. Engine in the back. It's, when you don't have any experience, it's normally in the front. So, rrr, I heard. Yeah. Okay. Then try, and then the clutch from a 964, 18 years- Yep ... right. Also, the bottom hinge is weird when you get used to- Yeah ... the pedals. Yeah. Right. So get it going, and no music on, and I was driving, young.
And I felt, "Hoo-ee, this is, that's me. That's me." And not the [01:22:00] acceleration. It was just like you felt that this car was put together to make people feel that way. Yeah. And then it happened. And that was it. That was like- Yeah ... that opened it up for you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, before that too, but it was so unrealistic for me.
Mm-hmm. Honestly. I mean, having, I did not think that I will own a car, maybe I will own a car in my life. Never a new one. Never something, uh, I mean- Never 126 amazing project cars. No. Not, yeah, not in the plan. Yeah. Um, yeah. It's kinda nice, right? I mean, I, I- Yeah ... I- It is still, I catch myself
And I'm waiting that I wake up Yeah, yeah I think that I can't, no. Or I think I made a deal maybe somewhere with the devil. I, I don't know what's, what's, what's, what's ... It can't be, [01:23:00] man Yeah, there's something really nice about that. I ... Everything I have is something I never expected to have, so, like, it's just that much sweeter because of it.
You know? Like, it's just like nothing ever felt, like, entitled. Like, I never thought, I never thought I'd own a, a Ferrari, granted an older one, but I never thought I'd own a 911. Like, I was really happy being a Volkswagen kid. I was, like, stoked to have a Mark 1. A Mark 3 felt, like, really nice to me when I got one, you know?
Um, and I never really wanted more than that. And it's funny 'cause I'm actually now in a way where I've gone back to that. Like, I've gone back to the simpleness of those things- 100% ... and don't actually enjoy the other things- That's why the prices- ... but it's, it's nice to be able to have it That's why the price also goes so high because we now understand that, um
Look, in 2010, we were dreaming, car 2040, that must be so fast and so loud and so extreme, because we thought it will go on. [01:24:00] Mm. And the energy was there in, in the industry, and then this thing came up. First, we were afraid of autonomous driving and all this. Mm-hmm. And I, I will drive myself. Mm-hmm. Okay. Well, not so interesting anymore, and then electric cars.
They want us to drive, everybody has to drive, has to drive electric cars, so we were kind of afraid. And then emission got more strict and all this. And new cars come out, they read very exciting. Mm. Numbers, okay, maybe design not really my thing, and you fall in love. You think, "Okay, I wanna, wanna have this."
You gotta wait one year, and then you sit in the car, and it lasts for 60 minutes. After 60 minutes driving this, you feel like, "That's the huge display. That's 1,000 horsepower, and yeah, okay, got it. People look at me because they think I'm rich. Cool." Mm-hmm. Done. And then you sit in the E46 M3. First of all, acceleration [01:25:00] takes time.
My foot is long on the pedal, but it's good because in the new cars, if you stay on it for five seconds, you are in deep shit. Yeah. You've committed a crime. Even in Germany. You, it's, shit's going down. In E46, you going. And ... And, and, and when you honest to yourself, you don't have this thing like 2010, I want to have the newest stuff because it will be better and faster and faster.
Now we hunting emotions and feelings and sounds and, and, and pureness. So everybody goes back, and because I think we had the best car time in the world. When do you think that was? In, in emotions? Yeah. What, what do you think was the best era? '95, '98. I'd agree with you there. I'd agree with you there. Vi- Vini and [01:26:00] Ron strongly push for, like, the mid, like, early to mid-2000s.
I'm, I'm o- EVO VIII, EVO IX, E46, things like that all came, you know, that era was really good. But, you know, I, I- It was ... but m- it might be our age. Yeah. But I don't, I think it's hard to argue that 2015 was the greatest moment. Like, if you were to add another 10 years, like, there's something happened in 2008, 2009 where it all just started to change and not- Mm
not for, not for the better. Infotainment, um, got so important and I enjoy infotainment, to be honest. Yeah. When I, when I have to drive somewhere, I, I, I enjoy it. Um, but when you look in the E46, when you have, even when you have the big navigation system, what you can see is nothing. And people were happy with the normal radio or in a Golf IV when you have, you know?
Mm-hmm. A radio had a display. I mean, I have to put my fingers like, I mean, I mean, like this. Oh, yeah. Yeah, like this. Yeah. [01:27:00] Okay? I mean, no, honestly, have it in front of your eyes. It's, it's, like, this big. New S-Class or something like this, we got this place. I can't, I can't show it. So where in this car industry we went from, from this to this.
I know. And this can show you what ... It decides what's to show you. I mean, how can I explain that? You can maybe switch it three times and then you've got three different things. This shows you the world. Yeah, everything. Everything. Too much. Yeah. Yeah. And it's extremely distracting and also it ages really badly.
Mm-hmm. Like, there's something about, like, you get into, like, I sit in my RS2, it's like, it feels ... Like, it, it just still works. Golf IV. But I get into a 2013 and it feels, like, old. Yeah. But there was a [01:28:00] time, I think it's always a wave. A Golf IV I think is the, one of the best Golfs ever. Oh, really? One, one and four and seven.
Seven is- Seven is a- ... is good ... is a good car. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. And so you have this- Okay. Mm, a Golf 4. Now I love it, but when there was a Golf 6, a Golf 4 wasn't that nice. Mm-hmm. Because then it has this ditch and then it comes up again. And I think this happens to nearly everything. There was a time, a 360, I was saying, "I don't like it."
Mm-hmm. The headlights and everything. Nah, I don't know. You know? And now, say, yeah, 360, it's, it's been- Yeah, because Ferrari took a really weird turn. Hell yeah. All of the sudden you're like, ooh, future classic. Yeah. Yeah, no, uh, it's, it's, so much is happening. That's why I'm saying what I said in the beginning, is I think in a, i- in many years [01:29:00] we will say, "2026, pooh, that was an important year, or important time.
From 2020 to 2030."
And important in what matter? Like, car- like the culture, cars that are available? Like, what, what- We made the turn that cars look very different. Mm-hmm. Body shapes, size, function. Do you think we're going back a little bit, though? 'Cause I, I feel like- What is- ... in the United St- Well, when I say backwards, I'll, I'll clarify that.
Yeah. In the United States, we went through the everything's going EV from about 2020 to about last year. June. And last year is, I think, when everyone woke up. I mean, when I was working with Audi, Audi was like, "Yeah, the future is electric." Yeah. And clearly it's not anymore. Clearly Audi's like, "Nah, we're gonna give you guys RSs."
Yeah. "You want, you want that in Avant too? Yeah, we'll give you that too." And it's like they're realizing that they probably went too far down that line, right? That there was this thought, there was a mandate from [01:30:00] people that this is what we wanted, but people didn't really want it. They found out- And the tech- I also think the technology's not really there yet.
Drive an EV in America from here to Vegas with only one charging station in between and realize like, yeah, the infrastructure's not really there. Like, it works for cities, it's great. Yeah. I don't mind it, but it's not what people were gonna be, and all of the sudden there was this turn back. But I really only find really high-priced cars to be exciting, and I don't like high-priced cars.
I, I feel like there was this major, like, void in what we had as kids, the GTI and, you know, these, the, the SI, right, like with Type R. Like, the- these accessible hot hatch. Yeah. It doesn't really feel like that's a community anymore. There's the, the GT86, like there's the, um, you know, BRZ whatever. There's the, obviously there's the new Type R.
Um, but, like, that community- There's some more options ... just doesn't feel like it's there. Yeah. It feels like, oh, there's GT3 RSs. Like, yeah, well, [01:31:00] fucking you buy a house for that. Like, like the lev- like- We, and there are young kids that have these cars ... which is wild. I don't understand how they do that, but.
In LA it's pretty normal. In Germany, we have it in Germany too. Yeah. And the, LA and Germany where I live is a huge difference. Yeah. But, um, they have that, but w- what I wanna say about the Audi thing, what you just said, is, or the car manufacturers, it sounds so simple, but it's very, very true. They just found out, hey, we can't go on, you know, if they don't buy the cars, if we don't get money.
Yeah. No, it, it, it sounds silly because they were used to- They made their own problem. Um, we bring something out and they buy it, maybe a little more, maybe a little less. And now we changing to that and we m- explain it cool that they, they will buy it. Oh, they're not buying it? And then we teach them from day one how the emotion has to look and what you like.
So the same person is now saying, "Yeah, I know [01:32:00] last year I said that the tailpipes from an RS6 are that big and they look like that and the sounds like that, and I know I said it was cool, but now this is cool." So this will not work that easy. And, um, so you teach over years also a certain dream and emotion.
So you also very quietly, what nobody talks about, you're trying very rapidly changing their dream. 'Cause not everybody's able when they see, they buy. So you dream something what is maybe eight years old and can get it then eight years later. So he's still in his dream. Mm-hmm. He's saying, "Nah." That's it. "No, I don't wanna have it."
"No, no, no, no, no, this is it." And, and many companies do it different ways. I mean, this company did it that way and, you know. Who do you think [01:33:00] is doing it right right now? BMW. Yeah. Porsche. Oh, I don't love, I don't love the look of the modern BMW. Mm-hmm. I was never a BMW guy to begin with- Okay ... so it's a hard one to look at.
Yeah. But I respect what they are as a car. Yeah. Do you know what I'm saying? Like, I can't deny- Yeah ... the quality of, of an, of a BMW. No, the package. It's, it's great. It just- It's great ... it just for some reason, I don't know, it just was like- Yeah. No, I understand. I think, uh, Porsche and BMW, they do very good jobs- Yeah
in keeping the emotion in 2026- Yeah ... the way it's legal, and yeah. For me, I, I, especially in the US, like, I think, I think Toyota is actually- They're very good, yeah. Ford- I think they're showing up right now with, like, they continue to be doing more stuff in performance. They actually, I just read something yesterday that they're building a cart, like you c- a go-kart, for 2,200 bucks or something, and it, like, so they're gonna probably start to roll out some sort of series around that that's around GR.
It's like, I think that they have [01:34:00] shifted from being, like, almost the anti-performance group, which is what we saw them at as, like, the mid-aughts, right? Yeah. The Prius was all anyone cared about f- from Toyota. They didn't make- Yeah ... anything- No, you're right ... that was cool, and now it's like there's a bunch of good stuff.
Toyota is- Right? ... absolutely out there. Yeah. And in Germany, for what you can get, I think I like Ford products in the moment a lot. Yeah, we don't really have Ford cars, so I mean, the, the Raptor's cool, but, like, Ford, uh, we have Mustang, but, like, there's- Mm ... nothing else. No. They're doing, they're doing good. Um, what else?
I mean, here in the US, like, obviously there's, like, Dodge, and they make thousand horsepower, huge things. Like, not my cup of tea, but I still give it to them. They're building the modern muscle car. Like, it's still- You know- ... fun and performance-oriented. Um- Thousand, thousand gasoline? Uh, whatever the, yeah, their whatever, like, the one of the- I mean- Like- No, the ZR1 I just drove one- Yeah, yeah, yeah
the, the, the day, uh, whoa. Yeah. What the hell? And I know, and I know them very well. In many other German c- you know- [01:35:00] Yeah ... company, they go, yeah, Corvette coming out, yeah, new car, yeah. The lap record, what a joke, that power, that time. Wait until other guys drive this car the same lap time on a Nordschleife.
Yeah. The potential in that beast is not bad. Mm. And I know they, i- in some other companies, they sitting there and go, "Well, our next model..." 'Cause they're always seven, eight years behind. Yeah. It will not beat the car that is out there now. It's so fast. Oh, yeah. You know Genesis? Yeah. Do you s- did you see the thing they released yesterday?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The magma- This week. Yeah ... the, yeah, GT3 program. I saw it.
Like, that stuff gives me hope. Yeah. That, 'cause I felt like- I know- ... for the longest time, all we were seeing- It's in Germany ... was EV concepts. Yeah. No, and the, the- And now we're starting to see performance concepts start to come back again. Like, that gives me a little hope. Yeah, yeah. So- But at the same time, the laws seem to not want that to happen.
So there's, there's a part, a, or a friendship or a job in me that I don't sh- talk on YouTube so much. Yeah, yeah. So I'm very much involved in, [01:36:00] in all these things. I just showed you a car, for example. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This is not so easy to do. Yeah. And so I know all these cars, and I can promise you they all have that, but they never see light.
Mm-hmm. Not at, in pictures, not in promotion, nothing. So they feel it's the right time, and they just ignite the ideas or the project cars that they have. And I can tell you, we are dreaming of, "They should bring out another toot." They have three, four different versions of it. Mm-hmm. But some board leader or some guy says, "Nah, we're not showing it."
It's sometimes very sad, and they are sellers, or they get crushed or something. It's where you think, my opinion is if you bring this out Very, very successful. Yeah. And then it dies. I mean, the RS6 Avant in the US is a really good example of it, because they [01:37:00] never brought wagons here. Mm-hmm. No one thought anyone wanted a fast wagon- Mm-hmm
which is why I had to come to your place to pick up my RS2, 'cause it was never something they thought the Americans wanted. And then the RS6 Avant came here- Mm ... and it was selling, like, 40 over sticker. Like, it w- everybody wanted it. Mm. And then they're realizing, oh, well, maybe there actually is a market for it.
And it also created a new halo for Audi, 'cause I think for a while, Audi just kind of became- Flat. Yeah, they became like, they looked like everything else, right? Audi in the US had this really nice moment in the early 2000s, the B5, the TT, the R8, right? Really kind of set them, right? And it was this great place.
Yep. And then, then we got the RS4 later in 2007, and then they just kind of got meh. And I think the RS6 Avant came out here, and people started looking at Audi in a completely different way again, right? Mm. Like, oh, wow, this is, this is really cool. Yeah. And- You know the designer ... brands need these halos. I know.
Mark. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. He's a very, very, very, very cool guy, and a very good friend. Yeah. And, um, he's not at Audi anymore. Oh, okay. Did he [01:38:00] happen to design the new, um- No ... who d- what do you think of that? Hmm. What is it called again? The- The Velari. The, that's it. Yeah. The Velari, yeah. So, oof.
That's the first time I s- I better skip the question maybe. All right, I'll, I'll, I'll give you my opinion then. Um- No, it's, it's not, it's not like that. It's, it's like, um- You're involved in the conversation. You're, you're ... Yeah, just, yeah Yeah, go on. Explain to me what you think about it. Um, I guess I kind of understand where they're going, but
And I love Audi. I mean, not only do I love Audi, I have a lot of friends who work there, right? Mm-hmm. Um, yeah. Um, Timo, right? I mean, a bun- you know, a bunch of people who are over there who are really great, and but I look at that car and I think what makes Audi great is that they're very good at doing an a- a, they do subtle aggressively.
Like, they know how to do, like, very subtle with an aggressive piece to [01:39:00] it. The RS4, B5, the current RS6, um, that car feels like it's trying too hard, and I don't think Audis try hard. The reason I like Audi is because it's an understated car. Mm-hmm. Right? And it is handsome, right? D2 S8, to me, that is a perfect car.
It is just simple, but it's, like, very handsome. It's, like, they're strong. It was also very close to the prototype. Yes, yes, yes, and that, that world, like, that design language, the TT was certainly a design ... It, it, it was Audi stepping outside of their zone, and in a way, that car actually didn't, like, live long well from a design point of view.
It was really cool when it came out, and every magazine and every auto show was like, "This feels like the future." Mm-hmm. And then it got really dated, right? Mm-hmm. But most of their stuff stays iconic. Like, you look at a D2 S8 and you're like, "Yeah, that still looks great." A B5 still looks great. Um- Amazing ... I, I still think even, you know, my RS2 [01:40:00] B4 era, like, there's still something about that you're like, "That car is really handsome."
But the Porsche vibe, the Porsche vibe helps a lot. Of course, of course. I don't think that this current thing will age. I, I, there ... And it's already polarized. There's a whole group of people who hate it, and I'm not saying I hate it, but then there's a whole group of people who are like, "Oh, this is super cool," because it's, it's different- Can I, can I ask you something?
for the sake of being different. Can I ask you something? Yeah. Would you think that something can be that way, like you said- Yeah, yeah ... age well or- Yeah ... be very nice in the, in, in the future when there are thousands? Um, or, or 10,000. I mean, 100,000. Would you think that's possible? You mean that it still looks really good in the future?
Like- And that people admire it ... the 911. I mean, the 911 is not a small volume vehicle. Not anymore. Not anymore, that's true. Even back in the day, they made a lot of them, and it's just a classic silhouette. Um, I don't ... The Mk1 Rabbit. The Mini. That, like, is a fantastic ... [01:41:00] The, yeah, like the- Yeah ... is a, is a fant- I, I think there's certain designs- But I think in the RS6- But those designs, every design I just mentioned- Mm-hmm
there's a subtleness to them. There's, like, an E30 M3. Like, there's certain things that just work, and I think that they pushed a little too hard, and it feels like they're trying very hard, and that to me seems very un-Audi. And that's the problem, is that people are still ... Like, the person who's buying that, they wanna buy it 'cause it's an Audi.
The R8 was the supercar in a sport coat, you know? Like, it was like- Mm-hmm ... it was wearable. It was like I could drive it to go to the, you know, the movies. Mm-hmm. Where the Lamborghini was not. Mm-hmm. Right? And I think, like, that is- And they were the same cost. Yeah. They were the same cars, right? And it's like that I think is a really nice place where Audi has lived, and this feels like, you know, that they've left that.
And obviously a lot of people are saying there's Cybertruck influence and all these other things, and I don't know. It just, when I [01:42:00] looked at it, I just- Maybe somebody wanted to make a statement ... I wanted to love it, and that makes it even harder for me to not like it. Yeah. Maybe- Do you know what I'm saying?
Like, I walked in the door wanting to like it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Maybe somebody wanted to make a statement. Yeah. Uh, it's- Yeah ... definitely a statement car. Yeah. Also, yeah, also. Yeah. And look, they're only gonna make 500 of them. Like, they'll sell them. It's not gonna be a problem. No, for sure. I just don't know if it's the poster halo car that Audi needs right now.
Mm-mm. Mm-mm. You know? I think design-wise there's a few spots, only from my opinion, that are not working very well. Um, I think that, um, Audi in the moment in their project or prototypes, putting a lot of weight in their design point in the middle of the car. They're cutting the car very much into two pieces, so the door line has a very big attention.
Mm-hmm. When you look at this door line, it's nearly invisible, and so they're making sure that you recognize where you open and where the middle is. And in this case, I would say it looks like two [01:43:00] cars in one. Mm. The rear and the front. The rear feels like an old Murcielago. It has, like, that shape. Yeah, it has this vibe, and also- And the front feels like Veyron-coded or something
I think it's very difficult if you have big surfaces or big, big, um, when you have after the B pillar- Mm-hmm ... going all the way to the back, if you do that that way and have that high of a shoulder and have not so much, um, attention into detail in that- plate, a car can become very easily heavy and looks, looks very silly.
Because the, from the B, B pillar to the front, it's a working thing. It has an idea, it has, uh, nostalgic ideas how cars looked back in the days from Audi, and it w- it works. But And this, the rear itself, it works, but in between from B to the rear, it [01:44:00] has no emotion for this kind of cars. Right. It looks heavy.
It looks- It does look heavy. Yeah. It looks wrong. It's funny, when you just said it, I guess I didn't really think back to, like, the early Audi designs. Like, I guess that's where they're coming from- Absolutely ... is, like, the classic- Absolutely ... the Auto Union era. Yeah, right, right. Yeah. I don't know if that's a good place to pull inspiration from- I think people don't know
for a modern supercar. I think people don't know. But I could see how in a design room, you're like, "Look at this, we're blending these things." Yeah, yeah, yeah. And there's so much DNA here- I mean, always, always- ... and all of that ... uh, w- I'm in the lucky position that they present that, that to me privately, and then I see this.
And when they, music and this and that, and then the pictures and the designer, we're drawing together and s- showing, you, you get that. Mm-hmm. But this is not, when you sit in the garage and see the picture, you don't have all this show. No, I know. You just see the pure- Yeah ... shit. And when that- Yeah ... uh, it has to work there, not with all the attention.
It has to work in that [01:45:00] moment. Yeah. And difficult. Yeah, I always had, uh, mixed feelings on the Hoonitron, which was the vehicle that they built for Ken. Mm-hmm. Um- I have it right now in the museum. I know you do, yeah, yeah. Um, I don't, I, I don't dislike it. There's parts of it I like a lot. I like the concept of what it was.
I think Ken and I were both extremely, um, both excited and, uh, really honored that, like, Audi put so- I mean, they, they did it very fast ... they did so much work to create a single purpose vehicle, like, an, a concept car- Yeah ... that actually went and did a thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which I thought was really impressive, but in our heads, we were thinking sport Quattro.
So, like, It was such a, like, we walked in the room thinking boxy and awkward in a sexy way, and then there was this thing that was slick and so different and whatever. Yeah, and Mark- But- ... and Mark is, is, uh, furious and, yeah. But it was interesting because when I sat with Mark, he made me love the car. When he explained it all to me, [01:46:00] I was like, "Okay."
He can, he can- Like, when he walked me through that- Yeah, yeah ... and he showed me- I love him ... this is this, this is this, that was actually, that, it made me change my mind about it. He's the greatest. And I was like, "Okay, I now really enjoy it." And now when I look back at the car, I, I look at it in a very different lens than when I first saw it.
Mm. 'Cause again, I'm waiting for the, you know, I'm waiting for the curtain to open and it's a sport Quattro that looks like- Yeah, yeah ... the sport Quattro met the Hoonicorn. Yeah. No, I- And instead it was this spaceship ... I, I was, uh, I was able to, to drive it a, a whole day. Mm-hmm. And, and really had good fun in it.
Yeah. This also gives you a new feeling 'cause the power is pretty cool. Yeah, yeah. But, um, when Mark goes through you with this, and I think really he's one of the greatest ever, 'cause Golf 7 and all these cars, really he's, he knows RS6, he knows what he's doing. You fall in love Do, do you think that the automakers were in a better era when they had outside design companies building cars?
You know, like the Pininfarinas, the, you know- 100%. They still do, and [01:47:00] very often say they don't. Okay. Yeah, I know they're still involved, but, like, it seems like a lot of it, the, a lot of the design stuff has moved in-house. I think sometimes when it's external from the campus, it lives somewhere else, it's experience.
Like, I know Audi has their big m- you know, they have a big design center up near Malibu. The new one, yeah, it's huge. Um, but I, I just look back at, you know, Gagaro, right? Like, this, the design era where they actually worked for a lot of different companies, so it gave them, like, this cross DNA of, of that.
The German, the German ... I think especially the German manufacturers, they always think DNA, DNA, and all this. This is wrong. Yeah. For example, and now I'm very open, uh, they brought me the RS5, the new one. And I like the design. It looks cool. Yeah. And I was really mad after driving it, because you see the competition.
Yeah? The BMW switch four-wheel, switch two-wheel, but a real two-wheel drive. Mm. And then they go, "Oh, yeah, but we gotta hang on in a Quattro and this, and..." I said, "How [01:48:00] much percentage of the power goes still to the front?" "No, no, no, we got to the ..." "No, no, no, no, no. How much is still going to the front?" "Yeah, but we got the torque vectoring."
No. And this is exactly what happens. Yeah. They love their shit so much to ... This is not the point. See, I'm the customer, and I drive it, and I don't like how it drives. Yeah. So when I don't like how it drives, I don't buy it. I don't mind how much technology, I don't mind how much put you in, you put into it.
I don't mind what it can do. And we don't drive up the hill every fucking day in the snow. No. And for some reason, the BMW all-wheel drive is even better. You think so? It is. Yeah. Mod- the modern version of it, yeah. Yeah. They're great. In the snow, everything. So you have to understand m- it worked very well for me to have the hang on, uh, uh, uh, all-wheel drive and all this, but time is over.
Because w- only for [01:49:00] the name, keeping up with the same Quattro technology, what is not in ... You, you're doing things to have the, um, 4tile, to do, to have the ... to be better, to ... I'm doing the- Advantage ... advantage. Yeah. Yeah, I'm doing it to have the advantage, but this technology is not offering it anymore But we have the logo and the name so we going that wa- What?
No. You know, you make a strong point because I wonder how much they limit themselves because everything has to be Quattro. I mean, just to b- go back, the reason that the D2 S8 was built as an all-aluminum car was because it was heavier than a 7 Series. It was heavier than an S-Class. So they had to throw all this technology- Mm-hmm
to make it as good as what BMW and Mercedes was offering. Because of this stupid- Bec- because Quattro. I like Quattro, but guess what? I live in Southern California. But you know, you know- I don't use Quattro that often. At all, first of all. And the modern all-wheel drive systems that they are out [01:50:00] there They beat it Yeah.
I mean, it, it would be interesting, 'cause it w- I think it would change what they could make, what they can offer, and also the cost on it too, because there's a whole additional system there that they're not thinking around. 'Cause imagine what would a cool rear-wheel drive sports car look like from Audi?
It would open up a completely different market for them. But I do think that so m- I, again, this goes back to the DNA thing, I think so much of their brand is attached to that. Same thing with Subaru, right? Like, you just assume a Subaru is all-wheel drive. Like, if one wasn't ... Like, it's always weird to me, you probably see them more, but when I see, like, an Audi that's front-wheel drive in the US, I'm like, "Why?
Why would you buy that car?" 'Cause all-wheel drive is their thing. But I do think that there's a rear-wheel drive market that, like, they've been afraid to get into, but at the same time they don't seem to be worried about making front-wheel drive cars. Yeah. You met Albert Biermann from Hyundai? Yeah, yeah.
Briefly, but yeah, yeah. Yeah. So he was at BMW. Yeah. He, he, he brought us all this- [01:51:00] Yeah, yeah ... super cool toys. Yeah. He's the new big, the new big designer for them. He's the one that brought the eight speed to Hyundai, right? I think that ... Yeah. Yeah. And, and the, and the, the N program- Yeah ... and all these things.
And we are very cool. He, he stopped working now. Yeah. So he's, he's, uh, he retired. He's a ... But he's still, he's still there. Yeah, yeah. And he's very cool. And we were talking, sitting down, eating something, and I said, "You know what? You should do, um, a rear-wheel drive sports car like that, and that, and that." And then I s- I said, "But you can't do it because you don't have the past," right?
Because- Hmm. And he said, "I don't mind." Yeah. "We're just building that what the people want." Yeah. And I was like... Uh, so I think this is actually a really good point, that the Korean brands seem to not be stuck in nostalgia. Mm-hmm. They, they are not actually excited about- They listen, but- Well, well, they also are not excited about their nostalgia, 'cause their nostalgia was a really cheap economy car, so they're trying to move away from that.
But you see pictures- And that's where you have things like the Magma [01:52:00] and from, coming from Genesis. Kia, I think, has some of the better designs on the roads right now. Like s- Absolutely ... some of their vehicles look, especially their, like, SUV class, looks really great. They will switch to N energy. Yeah. A- and I think, and I, I tell people this all the time, I would buy an Elantra N over a new GLI or whatever.
It's just a better car. Yeah. Like, it, from a performance standpoint. It is. From a performance standpoint, it's a better car. I mean, one thing where you guys don't have access to it, but I would love to invite you, come over to Germany and drive all the Chinese cars. Hmm. Which one of those are really good?
Xiaomi. Yeah. You know, we, I was in Australia when we were filming with Travis Pastrana, and I was talking to a bunch of locals down there, and you know, they've got all BYB, they... BY, what was it? This is BYD. BYD, sorry. Yeah, but- They, yeah, they have BYD, they have a bunch of other brands, and they were all saying that, like, the Land Rover knockoff from BY- BYD is almost as good as the Land Rover and 40 grand cheaper.
Why would you not buy it? They're like, "It's at..." Mm-hmm. And they're like, "And they're getting to the point [01:53:00] where they're gonna be better. Like, they're this close to being better than what the other offerings are." So I'm kind of, we, we may- I know many cars that are way better now. Yeah. 'Cause I've been to China just a few weeks ago.
Yeah. Been to the auto show and drove all this stuff what they have there. I mean, I'm talking now for Germany, we have n- nothing to put up that, I mean- Yeah ... it's crazy. I was in Shanghai about five years ago, and you know, was walking through one of the main strips where, you know, you've got, you know, Dolce & Gabbana, Coach, right?
Yeah. All these premium brands. Yeah. And then all of the electric Chinese car companies- Yeah ... are in the same place with- Yeah ... like, the Tesla model where they're in a regular store. Yeah. And I was just walking through and I was, I was bl- I was just blown away by the design. Yeah. Like, sitting in cars and you're like, "This feels-" Quality
really nice. I mean- And, and it just looks really good, and it feels like a concept car. And this is five years ago, and they are very fast. Just, yeah, and it's like it feels like a concept car, but it's for sale. Yeah. So when you come now- Yep ... and you sit in [01:54:00] a car from 2025 or '26, this will, this kills you. I think the, uh...
I think Canada has just allowed for the Chinese cars to come in. They do? Yeah, which will be interesting, 'cause I think that's gonna be the closest we get to starting to see them. They'll start to drop a, a couple drop across the border. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That'll start to shift things. Uh-huh. So. So Xiaomi, pretty good.
Zeekr, very good. Yeah. There are many, and the quality is... 'Cause first time I got into it, I want it to be that it's bad. I, I, I felt it. Yeah. See, I'm, I'm, I'm an open guy. I wanted to find the mistake. Mm-hmm. One. Open the door. Mm-hmm. Inside. And really two devil, devil, angel Yeah, yeah, yeah. We have a problem, right?
Yeah, we do have a problem. You finding something? No, that's the problem. No. No, I'm not finding anything. Yeah, so maybe you can make something up Do you have an idea what? [01:55:00] You know, it's, it's so good. Handling too? Yes. See, I, I don't think I'm even familiar with this- Look, look, Porsche, Porsche is, is, Nordschleife and Porsche together.
Yep. Xiaomi comes. They were building, before that car, vacuum cleaners. Okay? Right? They... And they just break the record. My love, it was like somebody cheated on you. It was like, I w- I was, I was like this, "Wha- But why? Well, wh- how? Why, why? They just come around and they just, just do that?" "How they can they do that to me?"
As a German-phile who wa- when the Viper, which is an American company, I should have pride in that, went and set the ring at the Nurburgring, I was like, "Ah, the Viper? Like, it's a tractor, what are you talking about?" Ugh. Like, I'm so upset that it got taken away- I bought one ... from the German brands. But, you know, I could only imagine how it felt when the Chinese showed up to do the same.
Yeah. Maybe- No, no, no ... maybe car culture will be saved by the Chinese. A Viper, Dodge, a Viper is out there. [01:56:00] Yeah. For a long time. Xiaomi- I don't even know the name. I can't picture. What you're, what you're saying, to me, is words, 'cause I can't visualize the car. I'm not even aware of it. We were looking at a list, Nick and I were looking at a list the other day, of the fastest current hypercars.
Mm-hmm. And the number one is a Chinese car I had never heard of before. I drove it. It does, and it does 300- The car that, that jumps. I- Whatever, it does 300 miles an hour or something like that. Like, never seen it. Yeah. I drove it. And then there was the, that Chinese company that did the, like, Gymkhana homage, which was actually quite good.
I don't know if you've seen it. Yes, yeah, a little bit. Yeah. I mean, there's moments, like there is some stunts that I was like, "That's not bad." Usually, when people do Gymkhana videos, I have more critique, but I was like, "Man, this actually not bad." But, like, I had never seen the car before. There's so much coming out of China that I'm just absolutely unaware of, completely lives in a blind spot.
Oh, yeah. Damn. That looks good. That looks good, and if you told me that that was the new Macan, I would believe it. Oh, a Ferrari. Oh, Aston Martin. Or Ferrar- yeah, yeah, whatever. Like, it just, it- Yeah ... it just looks... [01:57:00] Yeah, any one of those, it fits in that, like- This is 60,000 euros. Okay. And it has 700 horsepower, so I don't know.
And, and the interior and the quality and the leather and everything's great, and the handling is great. EV? Yeah, EV. Yeah. Brembo brakes, everything. Where, where is the, the EV- And when you buy 'em in China as a total... My price is with tax, everything. Yeah, yeah, import and everything else, yeah. And it's huge. So, but over there, they're 20, 24,000.
Yeah. New. Where, where do you live on the EV thing? Like, are you enjoying EVs? I know you've built a couple things. I- Is, but is, or is it something that feels like a forced hand because- I, I love- ... of what you're doing in Germany ... I love tech- technology. Yeah. So as long as I can choose, and I catch myself, when I have to drive somewhere, or after work, had a hard day and I'm driving my Taycan home This is the best car for me to drive home By the way, I think the Taycan and the, um- Ages very well
[01:58:00] and the e-tron GT or the RS e-tron GT are two of the best new sedan designs that have come out of Germany in the past 10 years. Agree. And it's a bummer to me- Agree ... that they're not also available with ICE, 'cause I would've enjoyed that as, as a, as like a actual engine-driven car. I, I, I, yeah, I just, I don't wanna dump that kind of money into an EV here.
I would say- I mean, RS e-tron GTs are, like, literally selling at half price right now 'cause nobody wants them I'm saying something right now? Yep You will be happy in the next few years. Okay. So you know something. Yeah. It will be good time coming up. The, um- For example, the n- the new Cayenne is the best EV car I drove so far.
Really? Yeah. No question. Interesting. Interesting. I was an early adopter for EV. I bought an electric smart car, mostly because it was just easy to get around. Yeah? Yeah. Yeah, we had the Smart EV for, like, a year or two. Okay, cool. And, um, mostly because it was just, I was commuting from Venice down to Long Beach to Hoonigan.
I could get [01:59:00] into the fast lanes, the HOV lanes here with it, but it was also just, like, a go-kart, and it was, like, super easy to drive. It was really convenient. But it didn't have ... Th- this car really had problems with distance. Yeah. The battery was- It only did 60 miles. It's crazy. So, like, it would ... Like, up to LA and back, I could get myself in trouble.
I then had an IONIQ, um, from Hyundai. Yeah. Uh, I, the I- Five. Yeah. Yeah, the IONIQ 5. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, the 6 is really gross looking. But the 5, the 5 to me looks like if someone took a, like, a Mark 2 Golf and was like, "What's the future look like?" Right. The body, the body sh- Yeah ... is, is half a good- It's, it's cool or, or a Lancia Delta Integrale.
Like, it has that kind of- You're right ... feeling, right? And I like that. Um- Mm-hmm. But I- I ... It's fine for, like, city life, but, like, it just never ... And the 5N was fun on track, but I, I just ... I, maybe I'm just old, but I'm have ... I, I sort of left the EV thing. Like, I was there early. I was sort of enjoying it at first, but then I just found myself gravitating back to just regular cars.
But the- Just last [02:00:00] night, I was looking at an e-Golf, because I couldn't believe how cheap they were, and I, I was looking at one literally just to do, like- The range ... like, like, I gotta bring my kid to, you know, to school, or I gotta do this. Like, I realize I don't own any new cars. The newest thing I own is a D2 S8.
Okay. So the newest thing I own- That's the newest? ... is a 2002. My wife has a newer, a newer Land Rover, but I don't own new cars. Wow. I ... And it's like, it's painful. I do it because, uh, and not to get on too much this, but I do it because there was this moment where I had newer cars, and I was only driving the newer cars.
So I had the IONIQ 5 N. I had, um, my O- my Audi 8L, and I just wasn't enjoying the cars I owned. It's like I would only drive them one day a week or something- Yeah ... like that. So I force myself. So I actually daily my RS2 and the Rabbit. Those are my dailies. So I drive them every day. I love the Rabbit.
That's it. So thanks. It's, uh, it's g- it's about to get painted, but it's like a street car right now. Like, I can park it out in front of my house, which is, which is nice to have. Yeah. No. No, this is very nice. But, um, but I, there [02:01:00] is a piece of me that's like, "Man, do I just want something that's really simple?"
And I will admit, for that, like, an electric car plays, like, as a good appliance, but I struggle in the performance side of it. But, like, the Taycan, like, the, especially the Gran Turismo, like, that makes me kinda want one, I'll admit. It's a fucking great looking car. It, it doesn't age. Yeah. It has now some years.
Do you have it on wheels? Hmm? Do you have it, like, on wheels and stuff? Like, have you lowered it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, 'cause it lowered on wheels, it's perfect. Yeah. It l- it looks, it looks Yeah. Really, really great. Um, no, but the EV thing is really working on me, um, because what it can do, because sometimes when I wanna drive home and then you start Stupid question.
Uh, the thing. 812 Superfast is the one that's not ... In front of the building. It's late. I gotta drive home. I drove with it to work, and I had a hard day, you know? I, I know. Ah! I know. Sorry. It's weird things to complain about. It's weird [02:02:00] things to complain about, but- It is. And then instead- It's, it, it's h- it's a high-stress vehicle to drive.
Yeah. And then, and then instead ... I know, I know. And it's ... Then the car helps me when I come a- or, or I, I ride my bike. Yeah. I'm still a a, I'm, I'm on my bicycle a lot, really. But- Are you big into cycling? Yeah. But not- But not, not, not BMX, just mountain biking. No, no, no. Uh, mountain biking. Yeah, yeah. Road biking too, or just mountain biking?
Just normal, just playing around. Nice. So I, I think what you said before is great, though, is, like, you like electric as long as you still have the choice. 'Cause I think that was the big fear for us in the US- I don't want it any- ... was that we were gonna lose the other piece ... in mobility, I don't want it somebody else takes as much choice.
I don't want that. Yeah. I don't want that. No. I think the future will al- is gonna be hybrid. I don't know, do, are you familiar with the Scout? Do you know much about Scout? Uh, it was American company back in, like, 50s, 60s, 70s, and they, International Harvester, the [02:03:00] Scout was one of the vehicles that they built and it was a truck.
Competed with the Bronco- I don't know ... Bronco, stuff like that. Um, when, when Volkswagen Audi group bought Navistar- Mm-hmm ... Navistar, which is a truck company, owned the International group, including the Scout name. So they've relaunched it in the US as a- Recently. Yes. As, it hasn't hit market yet, but they relaunched it as a Rivian competitor, right?
Ri- Rivian is pretty cool. Yeah, yeah. They, they have a really good design a- I think aesthetic. Um, but so they, they launched it as a competitor for that. I think they look very good. But, um, they, they launched an option for the car which was called the Harvester, which was a four-cylinder engine, which I think is, like, an
I'm, I'm gonna ... Don't quote me, but I think it's, like, an EA888 or something like that. Yeah, range extender. Like, it's basic- as a range extender. So the car is always electric, but it has an engine in it now so that if you want it to go off grid, you don't end up with your car dead- I, I feel- ... in the middle [02:04:00] of the desert, which is, like, w- a major limitation when you live on this side of the country.
Right. But- That showed me you don't have access to the Chinese cars, right? So I, I ... You know, we, we're, we're unfamiliar with it. So anyway, they, I went to the launch for the car, and I, I was really ... The thing I was most excited about was the range extender. I was like, "This is fantastic. This is great." And they're like, "Yeah, we're offering it as an option."
I end up s- talking to one of the guys, uh, at Scout recently, and they said, like, 90% of the pre-buys on the car- Of course ... are asking for the Harvester. And they had no idea that it was gonna be that level of demand. No, they should, everybody should do it. Which is hybrid the other direction, but like I'm, I'm there for it.
Yeah, yeah. Like, it works. So, so these, these, uh, Chinese cars, there are some of them, they all have a four-cylinder. Mm-hmm. Yeah. That's just producing power, and they are electric for the movement Some of them have a range of 1,800 kilometers. So you can charge the battery, what is also big, and you have the range extender, and the engine's not using a [02:05:00] lot of petrol, and you have a big gasoline tank, too.
So you put it in, and you're driving for 1,800- Wow ... kilometers without doing anything. Yeah. That, I think, changes people's minds about allow, uh, accepting- 1,800 ... accepting EV into your heart. You just, you just go. Yeah, yeah. Forever. Yeah. I, look, I, I think in the future, like, as long as we still get to have fun, spicy sports cars, there's a, there's a, there's a place for the EV market.
Like, it definitely makes sense. I don't think it has to be always sports cars. I think sometimes ... Look, back in the days, you ... I know you were the same guy, because every Golf guy is like that. Is, "Let me see what VW gives me as a new base-" Mm-hmm ... "to build my car." Mm-hmm. So it's just ... And it's not a sports car.
Yep. So you just, oh, six, seven, eight, ooh, I don't know. Yep. So you just- You're like, "Car sucks, but I'll put the engine in something older." Right, right. So you, you just use it as a starting point. [02:06:00] With these cars, not many people think like that. Yeah. So, uh, for me, I love all kind of cars. They don't have to be sporty or I don't know what.
Yep. Just love the fact of what it gives me. Do you prefer taking a more base model car and making it fun versus a really ... 'Cause you have both. You have really, really high-end cars, but you also have built some incredible base cars. Like, whi- which one is your, your favorite to do? For me, inside of me, the base car.
Yeah. Yeah, that, like, that old-school tuner kid thing- Yeah ... just doesn't escape, I know. Oh, no way. Um ... I'm building a, right now Whipple just built a eight-valve for my, my Rabbit, and it's like I'm more excited about that than a bunch of other way, quote-unquote, "cooler" cars I have. Like, there's just something simple about that I kinda love.
So I also ... And I think, I think you and I are very similar. The difference is, is that you got all your projects done, is like I- No. You got a lot more of your projects done than I did, but, um You have none [02:07:00] done. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. But remember, a lot of the- This one ... a lot of ... Well, yeah. There's a couple outside, but the, the, there's
A lot of the Hoonigan projects were technically mine in that they were my vision of what we wanted to do, right? I mean, and I'm not gonna own all of it, but including projects like the Hoonicorn, right? Like, I was very- Mm-hmm ... involved in, like, let's go build this crazy machine. Um- It was your idea? No, no. I said I wasn't gonna take the full credit, but it was partially my idea.
Originally, Ken wanted to go ... I saw a window in the US market to do something more muscle car. Mm-hmm. 'Cause at that point, muscle car stuff was just really big, and we were seeing this issue where, like, our, our content just was, like, hitting a wall. Like, we weren't getting past through to a certain person with a Fiesta Right, like a Ford Fiesta- Yeah
in America just didn't translate. No. And we were like, "Well, what car is due?" Not even Europe. Yeah. What car is due? And actually, originally Ken wanted to do it kind of as a joke and build an old Maverick, which is not a sexy car, but [02:08:00] we ended up going back to, you know, the original Mustang. And, you know, and, and I helped design, um, a lot of how that car looked and, and like all the way down to like what the hood scoop was gonna look like.
Cool. Like, how the blisters were gonna go on the car, um- Yeah ... how we were gonna take WRC elements, right? Um, you know, and obviously Ken was like, "It has to be all-wheel drive," and I was like, "It has to be a V8." 'Cause there was conversations about using an existing, you know, thing we knew, right? Using a Pepo engine or something that was familiar in WRC, but I was like, I was really into American cars at that point, so it's like, you know, if you remember my Nova, I was like, "It needs, like-" I love the Nova
it needs, it needs to be like, "Wah," right? And like, so it was like, you know, that car. But anyway, a lot of the projects that we worked on at Hoonigan were sort of things that came out of, out of my brain, and the things that excited me most was building things that weren't fast and making them fast or cool.
Like, we built a P10, like, bread van with like a LS in it, like, on, on air. Like, it's just ridiculous. Yeah, but- And like I, I really enjoy the ridiculous thing, where Vinny [02:09:00] would be happy to just drive GT3 RSs for the rest of his life. And I respect that, but I would rather build a cool 944. Yeah. You know?
Like, there's just a difference between the two of us. I mean, when you think about the Volvo, the Voltor project- Yeah, that's a great example ... yeah, the base car was €500. Yeah, as it should be. And then- 500, and at the end of the day, we talking crazy. Yeah. And i- in, in, in any, in any case, I mean, front frame, wheels, size, power, body- Yeah
inside, outside, everything, and it, it, that was actually the cheapest part was the car. I know, and I love that, and a lot of great projects at, at- Yeah ... Hoonigan were the same way, was like, started with a random shell and then build it into something really cool. Yeah. You know? What's your favorite car? Of mine, or- Yeah.
No, no, no ... in general? In general It, it's a question w- difficult and not really- Yeah ... today. Yeah. Today. Yeah, I would go between, it, it's between [02:10:00] an air-cooled 911 and the Mar- Which one? Um, probably, I mean, mine. I actually would say, like, I think I own my favorite 911- Nice ... which is the 964 Turbo, right? So, like, um, I mean, I pulled the car out this morning, and just pulling it out, like, the smell of the car.
Mm-hmm. Like, that- And it stays ... ah. I, I, there's just something about, like, the smell brings back the nostalgia of the first time I got in the car after buying it, 'cause I bought the car and it got delivered, and when I get in it, I still have that moment every once in a while, and it's like, that's just something that's really special.
I can't explain it. Um, and then I, I just really, really love Mark 1 Rabbits, and that for me is a childhood nostalgia. Like, I know that they're not great performance cars. I enjoy how they drive. You can make them very good. I enjoy how they drive, and as I get older, I take way less risks behind the wheel.
I have a child to come home to. Um, when I was younger, I wasn't like that at all. Like, when I was at the magazine, I took all the risks, right? I'm not that person anymore. A Mark [02:11:00] 1 and a well-sorted Mark 1, I can drive at a limit that I feel comfortable being at. Mm. Where, like in a new 911 GT3 RS, that limit, when I pass it, I die.
Like, there's no coming back from that. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. You know? Like, so I, I think that there's something I really enjoy about the limitations of that, but I also enjoy the nostalgia. Like, there's, there's that, um, that element. Those are, like, I, I, I actually own a lot of my, my favorite cars. I, I know the- I bought this car, by the way, my, my Ferrari that's behind us.
Um, I bought this because I sold my company and had a huge hole in my heart, and was like, "Well, might as well buy myself something nice." And I bought this, and I barely- But I wouldn't expect this. I wouldn't expect that. I know, and this, I think, is like... And I still haven't sold it, but I probably will. Like, it doesn't mean that much to me.
I'd buy it. Like, if you offered me a good number, you could leave with it today. We'll talk about it. Is it manual? No. No, it's actual F1. And how much are you wanting for it? We'll get to it. We'll, we'll talk. I can't talk on, I can't talk on here, 'cause if you don't buy it, you've already messed up my negotiating- Oh
with someone else, you know? So. [02:12:00] But, um- And it's not that I don't enjoy it. Um, I love it. It sounds amazing. It's great. It's just not me. Like, when I'm in it and I'm driving past a, like, a reflective window and I see myself- Right, but, hey, wait, wait ... it doesn't look like, like- In- ... doesn't look like I belong in it
have you ever seen a truck in a car? Oh, you motherfucker. I mean, in, you look, you look, you look ridiculous in, in any car. Do you have any idea how ridiculous I look in a Mark 1 Rabbit? I d- I did. I saw it. Yeah. They- It's- I look so ridiculous that the lean company made a pin of me hanging out of the window of my car
and even the pin is wrong. And they tried hard to make you... I mean, you, you're so big. And I don't know if, if, if, if you haven't seen him in real life, he's a big guy. And a Golf 1 is not a big car. Yeah, I don't know. It just- And to put this together in green, it looks special. Yeah. I don't know. What's your favorite car?
993 Turbo Mine also Yeah And when you said the smell, [02:13:00] 100% I bet it smells just like mine. You can sit in mine when we're done and tell me if it smells the same. It's- The seating position or- I'm afraid that- When you, when you before were talking about the windshield's here, the steering wheel's here, the pedals, the feeling, this like...
It actually moved me a little bit because I had that same feeling when I got in my car this morning just to pull it out of here so we could do this podcast, and it's like, just sitting in that car makes me happy. That's something special. Like, there's a lot of cars I've sat in in my life. A l- I've driven, especially as a journalist, a lot of really cool stuff- Yeah
I've driven. There's something about that cockpit that just works for me, more so than a modern one. I don't know what it is. I have a very good explanation for it. I have 120 cars, but I have one car, and that's a 993. Mm. So I- So if you had to sell everything. No, no, no, I mean- You're like, "Don't talk about selling"
I have the connection. That c- uh, connects, yeah. So this is my door. This is my steering wheel. Yeah. This is my shift knob. And because of YouTube and [02:14:00] owning this, and I, I love them all, but this is from the company and, and, and we build it and this is cool and, yeah, this is also a daily that I use, but the 993 is my car.
Yeah. This is my car. It's- See, I wouldn't have guessed that 'cause that's not a car I actually associate with you. Like, my two cars, my two favorite cars I think are rather well associated with me. I think for you, I associate these really crazy projects. No. Because we can't drive them. Yeah. I can't drive them.
Yeah. And that's sad. So when are you moving to California so you can drive all your cars? Or America? Where else would you go? The last few years I, I had the chance to film a lot of videos in the middle of America, right? Yeah. And I never thought about it. I had connections to Florida, Miami- Mm ... and LA, and always going back and forth, and always flying over this.
Yeah, that's why they call it the flyover states. Yeah. Yeah. They do? Yeah, that's what we... That's like, I wouldn't say it's a nice thing to call them, but that's what people call the middle of the country is [02:15:00] flyover states. Yeah. Yeah. So- 'Cause, like, they're just not often visited ... so I, I had a chance to really see some of these towns with 500 people and- Mm
very, very small, and I said That's me. Mm-hmm. That's me By the way, I just, I don't want to interrupt you here, but I now so badly want to take a cross-country road trip with you. I think that would be- ... super fun. I love- How long does it take? I mean, it depends. I've done it, I've ... The fastest I've done it is in 52 hours, um, which is, like, I mean, it's quick 'cause I was driving a moving truck, but, I mean, people will do it in 20 hours.
In a moving truck? Yeah. I used to work for a moving company, and, uh, we- 52 hours from where? New York City to Sac- to, um, to Santa Monica. Yeah, we just drove straight. We didn't sleep. So it's possible. I mean, and, like, obviously the Cannonball record, you know, is in 20 some odd hours, but that's, like, that's, like, that's, like, pretty- Yeah, it's a Audi, it's a Audi A5, right?
In, with this big gas tank. There was for a while, I don't know who has it now, I don't keep up on it, but yeah, they, like, they made it look like a Ford, which I thought was kind of [02:16:00] funny. They put the Ford logo on it. Right, right, right. They basically made it look a cop car- I saw it ... but it was an Audi. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I thought, I don't remember if it was a A5 or what it wa- yeah, I, I thought it was a A6 or whatever. Yeah. But anyway, um, yeah, and I know there was an A8 that held it for a while too. That would be my choice for that. I would do an A8L if I was gonna do the Cannonball, or, like, an e- or, or an S- In a Beetle
or an S8. In a Beetle would be cool. Well, they definitely probably w- no one notices you here in a Beetle. Like, a Beetle just kind of disappears in traffic. Yeah. But no, I think, I, I say that because, um, I grew up in New York City. I live in Los Angeles now, but at a certain period in my life, because of the magazines, I got to travel all these really small towns, especially when I was doing Donk Magazine.
Mm. Going to just these really small towns in the South and the Midwest, and I, I, it- You did the magazine? Hm? You did that magazine? Yeah, I launched Donk Magazine. Yeah, I used to work for a magazine called Rides. Um, are you familiar with Rides? Yeah. So Rides was, like, a competitor to DUB in the US, and actually had a bigger newsstand.
One of our photographers sent us photos from Miami and said, [02:17:00] "Hey, there's a bunch of guys here who have these, like, old, you know, they have these, you know, old, like, Chevys, and they're all on these big wheels. I, you know, I think you guys might be interested." What time was that? Um, so this was 2004, 2005. And, um, it was like, "Hey, the, we, you know, there's this culture blowing up here in Miami.
Do you guys wanna do a story on it?" And we said, "Yeah, sure. Um, send us some photos." Right? And this is, like, when I say send us some photos, like, this was, like, he literally physically sent us the photos, right? Because it was still an era where we were shooting in film and we were drum scanning things. So he sent us some slides, and we're like, "Holy shit, this looks incredible."
So we ran a- On a photo. Yeah. So we ran, we ran a story on it, and there was, like, eight or nine cars from Miami area. We ran the story, and just for fun, I mocked up a cover. And at this point, only rappers were on the cover of Rides magazines, or celebrities, right? So it was, like, it was a celebrity-driven car magazine.
And I mocked up a cover just for fun, and my [02:18:00] publisher came down, and he was like, "What, what, what is it? What are, what are you doing here?" I was like, "Ah, just, we're just playing with it. It's, like, it's just a joke." And he's like ... 'Cause I, I knew he was like, "What, what are you doing?" You know? He's like, "Well, you, are we gonna make that?"
I was like, "I, I don't know." He's like, "Ma- do you think we should?" I was like, "I, I don't know." I was like, "Maybe we do it as, like, just in a region. Like, what if we do it just in Florida or just as a, you know, just for the cover in that area?" That's possible? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we could do, like, split covers. Um, when in the US you make so many of 'em- Sure
that you can, you can kinda li- you know, separate those things. So we did a two cover, and we basically delivered the entire south, no wrapper on the cover, just the car, and it crushed. And we got the report back from the newsstand on how well it was doing, and within, you know, within a week the publisher was like, "You guys need to make more of these."
And I was like, "Okay, we're gonna do it." We called the magazine Donkbox- You have a picture of it- Um ... somewhere? I mean, I could find- Maybe later. Yeah, I'll show it [02:19:00] to you later. I was like, "We can, we can do this, and, um, we're gonna call it Donkbox and Bubble." Um, they were like, "Okay, go on the road and figure it out."
And, like, at this point, like, it's pre-internet. Like, the internet exists, but it's pre-social media. Tracking these guys down were not easy, so we were calling guys who were filming in the local areas. We were, like, on forums. Like, we're trying to find these guys, and we would just... And the best way to find them was the shops that were building the cars.
So we flew to South Carolina and then North Carolina, and then we drove down through Georgia and into Florida. And- And then you know what I mean ... and we just spent- These towns ... towns, like Sumter, North Carolina or Sumter, South Carolina, like, all, all these areas. There's this guy, like DreamWorks, the dude was one of the best guys.
And, like, we just met such awesome people during this period. And I, and I look back at it now- Mm ... at myself. Do you know Tony Harmer, photographer? Mm-hmm. I think you... I'm not sure if you've ever met him, but, um, he was, he was our photographer at the time, and he did most of the, um, like the premium Ken Block stuff.
Like, if there was a new livery launch- [02:20:00] Mm-hmm ... Tony Harmer most likely shot it. Like, the classic, like, two- Mm ... Ken Block with the lights in the background shot. Like, Ton- that was Tony's signature kinda look. And he worked at Rides and 0-60 with me. But anyway, we went and we did this, and my biggest regret was that we didn't turn the camera on the people more than the cars because it was such this cool experience for me to, like, go in here as, like, I'm, like, a German car guy, right?
I like making l- like, small cars slammed on small wheels with stretch tires. These guys are doing the exact opposite of what I do, but we connected. Like, I'm still friends with some of the guys I met in that era. But it also, like, as a New Yorker, like, you grew up in New York? You were told that you live in the greatest city in the world and fuck everywhere else.
I mean, the current New York line is New York or nowhere, right? He never did a series in New York. And, and, and I, I understand that as a New Yorker, but man, there's so much cool stuff to learn elsewhere. And, like, that was the real... That was the first time for me that I [02:21:00] got to, like, meet people and them be like, "Let me take you to the best restaurant in town."
And sometimes it was really good, sometimes it was an Applebee's. But, like, but, you know, but, like, that was... It was, it was really rad, and that gave me this, um, appetite for road trips. So, like, I have driven cross-country, like, full cross-country probably, like, a 12 times now, and all of them have been, like, trips.
Like, like, I used to purpose- And the longest? Um, I did, like, a... I did, I had the new Audi RS4 came out in 2007, and then I, I drove 8,000 miles zigzagging America to get to New York. So we went, like, like, we went, like, all over. Nice. We went, like, to Atlanta, and then to... So we got to Atlanta and a friend called us and said something was happening in Chicago, and we drove back to Chicago.
No. And just, like, on the road, and that was, like, two full weeks. I loved that. And then I was going through this phase too where I would purposely buy cars from far away to drive them home. So, like, I dre- I bought, like- So like Jamie. Yeah, kinda like that. Yeah, [02:22:00] like, years ago I bought, when I first moved to he- moved here, I bought an A8 in New Jersey, flew back home with my buddy Tony, and drove cross-country just taking photos and eating in random restaurants and starting conversations with random people.
But I think you would be a fun person to do that with because- I would love to have that life ... not, not that America's, not that America's still not new to me, 'cause there is still moments where I find parts of America that feel very different. Um, but- I- ... I think for you it would feel very different. 'Cause I've also road tripped Germany and France and- But small
and Scotland. It's still fun, but, like, I've, I've, I've- No, no, absolutely ... I've done all of that. See, so the, the, the JP that you see and that sits here is very happy and very free and, and because I can... After 24 hours in America, I always, I stand straighter, I look forward, I, I keep my head up- ... because I don't have this life on the other side.
And when I'm here, I always try to have a good time and to, to enjoy people because this is ac- this is absolutely not what I can do when I'm home. [02:23:00] So I w- when you talk about this, my mind says, "Boy, that would be nice." But 16 companies, all this going on, my life is not like that. Yeah. And so some people say, "Well, I'm a very busy guy."
And nobody, no matter who says that to me, I can say, "Mm-hmm. Can't compare the shit." So, but people in America who know me here, they see me always very relaxed- Yeah ... and give me these kind of offers. But when I come back You don't have that time. Mm-mm. I mean, I'm surprised you've stayed on the podcast this long.
I mean, I have... I, I, I gotta put the suspension into the Z- Uh ... Z06 that I just picked up. Are you going to do that with Vinny? Yeah. Oh, okay, yeah. I mean, he's there, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Okay. No, but the thing is that I told you when I came into the room that I had a very nice experience. Yeah, you said you had a very good morning.
Yeah. You didn't tell me what it was. Yeah. You can tell us now? So [02:24:00] yeah. So I'm... I... Over KW, I said, "Tim, um, I need the suspension for the car. Can you arrange it to me?" And we were looking. It's not in stock, but there's a customer who has the suspension. Mm-hmm. Let me contact him if he's, if he'd put it in the car already or not.
Right. He did not. So luckily, he was 20 minutes away where I stay. I just drove up to him. He- m- I'm pretty sure you know him. His name is Andrew. Okay. So I pulled up. Uh, in my mind, I was planning to stay there for a minute, pick it up and go. I was staying there for one and a half hours. We knew 30 people. We were laughing, this and that.
Vinny bought this, uh, bought the car yesterday- Yeah He and his friend were about to buy the car. We were talking- We were talking- That happens a lot here. You, it does? Oh, yeah. You c- I, I'll, like, send cars to Vinny, and Vinny's like, "I'm going to buy it right now." And I'm like, [02:25:00] "All right." Like- How can this happen?
It's such a big town. And the, my Z06- Facebook Marketplace algorithm. Okay, my Z06 that I bought, he had the same picture on his phone- ... of my car that I just bought. So it happened all the time, and you were racing with this guy. I was also racing with him, and, and he was, he's- Yeah ... racing in Nordschleife and all this.
And, and we were talking and talking. And the freedom, the feeling that I had this morning meeting somebody, he had no clue who I am. Right. And, but we had the same hobby. This is something what not, it's not happening. Yeah. Because when I talk to people, they want to impress me. They are nervous. They talk not how they normally talk because it's this guy.
So I had an experience that was, for me, I'm 45, new. Mm. Because I'm now in this position for around 20 years, so I had 25 years without that. [02:26:00] And now 20 years with that, and that's sad. Is there ever a world where you move to the US but still make German language content and sort of just live- I t- I, I thought about it.
We- ... and just live on... You and I have talked about it in the past. Yeah, we did. We did. 'Cause you asked me if I thought it would work. Yeah. I think you actually said, "Do you think I can make American content?" Right. And I said, "Look, I think you've done an amazing job. I'm sure you could translate it. But it's very saturated here, and you're gonna be up against a lot of other people, and you're gonna have to catch up to them."
Um, but I think there's actually something interesting, which is sort of like the footballer model, which is like live in LA, no one recognizes you. And that used to also be the F1 model. Not anymore. The distance. Not anymore, but they would all come and live here. I mean, Lewis Hamilton, before F1 became what Netflix has sort of turned F1 into, uh, he would live, he would hang out here in California because people really didn't recognize him.
Mm-hmm. Not true anymore. But I could see a value of that, of you saying, "I'm gonna come here. I'm gonna make, still make my German language content to the audience I already have [02:27:00] but expose them to something new-" Company. "... which is California." But it's California through your POV, which is so different. Like, when we go to Germany- Oh, you mean making content here for there
here, for there, right? What I'm doing right now. Is there a world where you do that? Because, one, it makes, it gives you a unique story, but it also keeps you out of this, like, limelight that, like, you do live in in Germany. And I, and I, I wanna say this for the audience- I said it before, I'm gonna repeat it again.
Having seen the fan base around you, it is more similar to the Top Gear fan base, which, like, I've seen of celebrity than the YouTube side. Mm. Like, 'cause Chris Harris, good buddy of mine, he talks quite often about how it's really intrusive. Like, it is, you just can't do any normal things anymore. Yeah, we, I mean we- You can't go to the movie with your kids.
You can't do these certain things, right? And I tell you what, we were filming together, Chris and me. Yeah, you guys just did that- Yeah ... the- Porsche thing ... the Porsche convertible, the GT3 convert. Yeah. And between him and me is still a difference of, [02:28:00] I don't know, I mean, very, very, very big. Yeah. So back to your question Yes.
There's an- Yeah ... a, a world, a dream where, where I can see that. It is a long flight. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I'm saying live here. Oh, live- Yeah, yeah, yeah ... 100%. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, impossible. Because- Yeah, just 'cause you got 16 businesses in Germany that are operating ... yeah, the company's too big and too strong and, and, and also to s- to look in their faces, I think what JP Performance gave to the German people is way more than a YouTube channel.
Because I'm wondering that, that nobody in America does copy that. Mm-hmm. Because everybody, it's not maybe who, what I say, they show what they do, and then they enjoy their money. Mm-hmm. But actually they don't give anything back. Maybe they do an event- Mm-hmm ... or this, but building a town or building a city or [02:29:00] building something for them, nobody does that.
Hmm. And I think the money's there, but nah. And for me, it's more like I wanna try to stop this process, what we were talking about, that is going down- Mm-hmm ... as strong as I can. Yeah. I, I do think that there's elements of the, the US group of sort of creators that are starting to do that. Who are the creators?
So, like, take, like, Cletus, for example. Are you familiar- Yeah ... with Cletus? He's a good example 'cause he bought a racetrack that was going to- Vin, Vin, Vin explains me in the moment really because I have no time to watch YouTube. Yeah. Most YouTubers don't watch other YouTubers. I wa- I'm aware of it more now just 'cause I'm bringing people on, and Hoonigan was always somewhat paying attention to it 'cause the Hoonigan model was different.
Like, we wanted to create a stage for other YouTubers- Yeah ... to come and do stuff with us. You are the show. Right. We were, we wanted to create that space, right? And so that meant that we were paying attention to who else was out there so we could invite them to come do the thing with us. [02:30:00] Um, but Cletus I think is a really good example.
You know, he's way more in the American car market stuff. That's, that's his space, big V8s, Screamin' Eagles. That, that's his model. Very much more in drag racing and now NASCAR. He's actually now starting to compete, uh, in lower NASCAR s- um, circuits and, and kind of, like, moving up ARCA as well as, like, Truck Series and stuff.
And, um, but, like, he went and bought a derelict racetrack- Mm-hmm ... and, like, fixed it, and now holds constant events there, and has brought a piece of culture back to it. And then- Good. I didn't know ... as condos and all these things have started to move in, he has been vehemently fighting those organizations to prevent racetracks from being closed in his area- Mm-hmm
but also sort of giving other people- Okay, I didn't know that ... the strength and power to go do that stuff. That's great. So there are, I think, you know, there are ... We're starting to see some of that stuff start to develop, right? Um- You know, I think for- But you don't have the same urgent than we do. Right, and that's because I don't think it feels as important, you know, for
And I, and I, I'm not trying to, like, toot the old Hoonigan horn, but it's like [02:31:00] we did the Irwindale stuff at Burn Yard because we were talking to the sheriff's department and they were like, "These kids need a place to go or it- the crackdowns are gonna get a lot worse." Mm-hmm. Like, "Can you help just create something that's, like, that's, that's cool?"
You know? And, and it's one of those things where it's like not that we really wanted to go work with the, with the, you know, the cops on it, but it's like they were being really cool with us to say, "You guys go do this." And like, you know, like that would be really helpful for us to, like, be able to ... 'Cause I will say this, like, people have different feelings about police in America for all different reasons, but-
a lot of cops are car guys. Like, a lot of cops really like- Not in Germany, though. Yeah, yeah. Some of them aren't, but a lot of them are. So, like I have sheriff friends who run full-blown race cars and are super into it, and like will, you know, will say things to me to the effect of like, "Oh, yeah, this thing definitely won't pass smog."
Like, of course, you shithead. Um, and I, like, and they have a racetrack, [02:32:00] uh, that's up in Santa Clarita that they used to let Hoonigan go drive our cars at, which was super cool. So, like, like there was- So I need, I need a racetrack ... that cool element, right? I need a racetrack- Yeah ... for in the next few days. So I booked tomorrow, because we wanted to go drifting and- Yeah, yeah
and track racing and, and on a, on a track with the, with the Corvette. Yeah, yeah. So I'm at Apple Valley. Okay. Was not so- Pretty small for the Vette, but I mean, if you wanna drift it, it's a good drift track. Just, just play around. Yeah, yeah. But is there a racetrack I can go tomorrow or on Friday? Um, potentially Willow Springs.
I can call- No. I can call a friend over there. Yeah. You don't wanna go there? No, I want. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, but everybody says to me- Yeah, I'll, I'll ... We'll, we'll, we'll try to work something out for you. Yeah. Yeah. I, I think that, um, unfortunately, but this is actually where the, the current American problem is we're losing all our racetracks.
So Irwindale, which I mentioned before, is no more. They've knocked it down. They've knocked it down. California Speedway, gone. They've knocked it down. Um, you know, Willow, uh, because of new ownership and I think they're gonna, they're gonna be able to stay, which is great. [02:33:00] Um, Thermal is a private track, can't go to.
Um, but all of these tracks, like my home drag strip, Englishtown Raceway, um, or Raceway Park as it's officially known, got shut down because people bought houses across the street from it and then complained- The fuck? ... that it was too loud. The same. So, so they're German- That is happening- They gotta be German then.
Yeah, so this is where ... And this goes back to the story, though- ... where I feel like you are, like, the Ghost of Christmas Future. Mm-hmm. Like, I feel sometimes when I listen to what you're talking about fr- and what, what's happening in Germany feels like the ghost of car culture future. No, you're not. And, and like how do we stop that?
You know? No, you're not. Americans have more connection to their ride. Germans love that. Mm. A big amount of Germans love to get controls Yeah. Well, you guys kind of just like order and control And Americans not Yeah. We, like, celebrate rebellion. So- It's, like, part of our culture ... it will never, it will never be like, it will never be like that I sure hope not No, it [02:34:00] will never be It, it's
As a, as a kid who grew up on German car culture, it is depressing for me to go see that. I, I think the thing that brought the biggest spotlight was going to Ultrace in Poland- Mm ... and having conversations with people there, and they're like, "This is what Germany used to be like." Mm. Like, "This was what Wörthersee was like.
This was it." And it literally had to leave the country because the culture just is not- Mm ... acceptable anymore. Like, it just is ... It's like- Yeah ... everyone looks at it that way I am, I'm working on it Where ... So we feel ... Like, I feel like there's this moment right now, um, where car culture feels criminalized.
Right? 100% Which, which, like, car culture, there was always a bad guy element to it. There's alwa- Like, street racing- Yeah, yeah, yeah ... James Dean. There was always that, but now it feels, like, even more so. Where do you have a li- Where do you have, when you use it, you have the potential to do it six time as strong by only pushing a pedal?
So it, it ... For even people looking at you, the potent- You drive [02:35:00] by, it's loud. You're allowed to drive 60 kilometers per hour. The car sounds crazy, and you're driving 55, and the people go like this. So the element is always a little there. Mm-hmm. Like skateboarding downtown or- Mm-hmm ... something like this. Yeah, yeah.
So it, it is not meant to be okay. Mm-hmm. So I'm driving home, and I got in arguments with people in Germany, and I shouldn't do that because this is, for the newspaper, always very interesting. Mm-hmm. I'm driving under the limit, but the car is loud, and they're screaming at me. Yeah. And I don't want, I don't want you to scream at me.
That's starting to happen here. Like, you're starting to see a lot more of that now. Yeah? Yeah, there's a video- Okay ... that just went famous of a ... I think- Karen? ... the guy was in a C8, and a Karen started kicking the side of his car because it was too loud, and, like, that is become sort of a culture- She gotta be German
is part of a culture that seems like that's now, like, okay. Yeah. 'Cause driving the Z06, it heads ... You, you heard me coming. Heads ... I heard ... Yeah, it's loud. Yeah, you heard me coming. So far, every day [02:36:00] Sounds amazing, man. Women, men, everybody stops me and says, "The car sounds amazing." Yeah. I mean, you also are- Never in Germany- Yeah
it will happen. Southern California still has a bit of a love for cars. Like, there's something special here. Yeah. Despite what everyone says, there's still something special here. Like, I've been pulled over in really loud cars, and usually the cop's like, "So what's under the hood?" And not in a, "I wanna state ref you," but in like a, "I want you to get out 'cause I wanna see it" way, you know?
So you get that, too. But maybe they were afraid if you can get out of the car because you're so big. Yeah. Maybe they want to stop you there. I mean- Yeah, no, no, no ... maybe they were afraid. I- I'll be honest, I have had- They, they want to help you ... other than the first time I ever got pulled over, I really have only had good r- good interactions with police.
Um, I don't know. The first time I got pulled over was a nightmare, and they, like, pulled me out of the car. In America? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You got pulled over in Germany before? Yeah. I lost my license in Germany. See? Yeah. I lost my license twice in Germany. [02:37:00] So I got pulled over in Germany a couple times, actually.
Yeah. Um- I remember when, when, when, when Brian- Yeah, I got lo- I lost my license in Germany for, um, autobahn. Like, there was like a literally, like, 300-meter section where the speed limit went down, then it went back up again, and I just wasn't paying attention, and we were moving and, yeah, they caught me at, like, you know.
What was the highest speed you ever drove? In Germany or here? Here, here I did, uh, on the highway, um, or on the- What, are you allowed to say that? Well, it's past point. Yeah, it's whatever. It's fine. Yeah. I don't care. No one's coming after me. Okay. Um, flock cameras aren't, well, you know, couldn't have catched me back then.
Uh, I did 186 miles an hour in a C6 Z06, uh, doing Bull Run in 2005 in Utah. And I, I hit 186, but I cruised at 180 for 25 minutes. Mm. Which is exhausting. Like, to drive that fast for that long is tiring. Yeah, I mean, the engine doesn't like it. Yeah, 180 miles an hour, right? Yeah. Not kilometers. [02:38:00] Um, in Germany, 18- I think I...
About, like, 175, 180 in the C... What was that? Probably the C7 RS6, or the twin turbo, uh, the V10, that one? Yeah. Mm. Um, did, did, like, 180 in that, yeah. I mean, whenever we're in Germany, the minute we get on the Autobahn, doesn't matter what we're driving. If it's a rental, nee, all the way out. Yeah, I mean, I, well, I lost my license in a, in a, in a Hyundai, so like you know?
Yeah. It, it doesn't matter what you're driving. It's like you're, it's, it's just fun. How do you guys... How has Germany become such an anti-car culture community and still have the Autobahn? I'm waiting for that it ends. Yeah. I've, it's, uh, many people ask that. Yeah. And, and the question is so big, nobody talks about it, to not- Do you, do you think-
get attention on it ... do you think that in some way the Autobahn is, like, part of German culture- Yeah ... externally? That it's almost like- 100% ... you can't get rid of it. Look- Like if, um, as a kid- Look, uh, look, right ... aw- it was amazing ... I'm te- I'm [02:39:00] asking 100 Americans a question, what do you think about Germany?
Even if one person says the Autobahn, it is culture of it, because there's so many options what you could said. Yeah. And I'm pretty sure when you ask 100 people in America, it would be more than one. Yeah. I mean, look, if you were to ask me when I was younger about Germany, it's like, it's World War II and all the bad stuff that goes along with that, and then there's the Autobahn, and then there's German cars, and there's schnitzel.
Schnitzel, schnitzel is, I think schnitzel is dying, the, the, the word also because you don't get a real schnitzel anymore in Germany, to be honest There's a decent schnitzel spot here if you wanna try- I know. ... if you wanna try American schnitzel. I've been to- We can go to Russell Buck. Uh, I, I'm pretty sure, I'm very, very sure that, that, uh, these kind of things will become better externally than internally.
Yeah. When you think of America as a German, what do you think of? Like, what are the things that really stand out for America? [02:40:00] Freedom. Yeah. What is that like? You know, that's, it's interesting to hear 'cause I think in America we feel like we have less freedom now than we used to. Maybe you have, but still.
And, mm, I just talked with a friend about it, and I think, 'cause he asked me about that- Mm ... and I said, because of China and all this, I think at the end of the day, China will, um, be the best in many, many, many things because they have a lot of money, and they have a lot of energy, and their mentality is like that.
But one thing is there that they can never, never take away is when you turn on a camera in America or when you have your flag or something's going on, what build up in every human being in Italy, in London, in, in, no ma- in England, everywhere in the world, is that America has so much feeling and written so many stories past the last 100 years that you will never, [02:41:00] ever be able to beat that.
Mm. And this is something what you can't copy. This is something what you can't buy. It is your house. It is the street. It is the tree. It is the forest, the water, skiing, surfing. It is, it is it. Well, that's what our- So, so, so you can't copy it ... that's because our number one export is Hollywood. Right. Our number one export is telling you how good our culture is.
What's very contagious. Which is arguably propaganda, but, you know. But it's the reason why Levi's are as cool as they are or were, you know? It's the reason why Levi's sold for so much money in Soviet Russia back in the day, because we have the ability to make things cool through culture. I think that is, like, the greatest American commodity- Yeah
is culture. You explain it better than me, 'cause I, I, I'm struggling sometimes when we, when we talk. I would love to explain it in my language. And yeah, I get that. I couldn't even ... I can't even say two lines in German- ... so I, I'm impressed that you've gone for [02:42:00] two and a half plus hours- ... speaking not in your native language, and thank you for that.
But I- We talking for two hours and 42 minutes? If you wanna ... The record is three hours and one minute, if you wanna go for the record. I don't want the record. Yeah. Otherwise, you can leave now. You wanna break the record, right? Yeah, of course. Do you know T.J. Hunt? Yeah. He owns the record. He set it, like, two weeks ago, so we can go for it.
Ha. No, I don't, I don't know him, so I'm talking with, with Vin about it. I know the name T.J. Hunt. Yep. I know Cleetus. I know- Adam LZ ... Adam LZ. Yep. Whistlin Diesel. See, that name- Whistlin Diesel, in my opinion, lives a little outside of the traditional car culture world because he sort of makes- Which one is it?
Whistlin Di- is the guy- Whistlin Diesel, he makes, like, mini films, and he usually breaks shit. Yeah. So he's, like, the guy who will, like, buy- See, that's for me- ... a brand-new Ferrari. It's, it's- Mm-hmm ... he lives in, like, a shock culture kinda space. I'm a little afraid- He has massive viewership, but- I guess, because people love to see that.
People love it, yeah. And this is not for me. This is not car culture. Yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's not my cup of [02:43:00] tea either, but I res- I respect that he's found something that works, and he makes it work, and I actually think he does good storytelling. Okay. So, like, as a storyteller, it's there. It's just, like, I wouldn't watch it.
But there are some things that he does that feel close to things that Top Gear used to do that I like. Mm-hmm. Like, he did this whole thing on the, you know, on the Hilux, which reminded me sort of, like, how bad can you- I- ... destroy a Hilux, you know? I, I see nearly nothing. Yeah. I watch ... Sometimes I watch Vin's videos.
Yeah. I watch Hagerty. Yeah. What do you watch on Hagerty, like Jason Camisa? Only ... Yeah, only. Yeah. Only- Do you know Camisa? Yeah. Yeah, he's a good dude. Yeah. Absolutely, and I think- Yeah, I've known him forever, 'cause we were both journalists back in the early aughts. Yeah. No, I think he does it ... He has a very special way of being directly in between of TV style- Mm-hmm, mm-hmm
and YouTube style. And he does it ... I, I enjoy watching him. Mm-hmm. If somebody would talk like that or tell me a joke like that, [02:44:00] I wouldn't laugh. It has to be him- Mm-hmm ... in combination. Mm-hmm. He does it very well. Then- Um, James Pumphrey Mm-hmm Because I think His way of talking is also extremely entertaining.
Yeah. Well, I mean, he's a actor, comedian by trade, so I think he delivers in a way that a lot of other- Dream of ... yeah, a lot of other people just, it's just not their nature to- Mm ... you know? Mm. And that's it. Yeah. Do you know J- do you know James? Have you worked with him before? I, I met him once. Yeah. He's a good guy.
Yeah. Yeah. I, I... We've obviously had him on the pod. I- me and him are both Volkswagen kids, so we, we, we chat on Volkswagen stuff, and I got to work with him on this Sun Kang feature film that I worked on, and it was kinda cool, 'cause I got to see him as an actor, which was, like, different than seeing him the way I, I always saw him on Donut, so yeah.
That's a good, I mean, that's a good combination of people. You do realize that there's, I, there are so many [02:45:00] million-plus subscriber YouTube guys in the car space- Mm ... that I don't even know them any... Like, I, it used to be I knew all of them, right? The Adams, the TJs, the Ga- like, these were all sort of the original group.
Mighty Car Mods in Australia, you guys, Yuka down in, in Mexico. Like, there was this- Who? Do you know Yuka? Mm-hmm. J-U-C-A. Um, I refer to him as, like, Mexican you, in that he is, like, by far the lar- like, like, by far the largest person in Mexico, just like you are. You, you eat up, in my opinion, I may be wrong, but you eat up so much of the space in German YouTube.
Mm-hmm. Like, it's you and then o- some other people. He sort of, he sort of a- appears like that. Mm-hmm. He's also a really cool dude, builds a lot of really cool projects. Um, I, I met him, like, similar how I met to you in Mexico, which is I didn't know who he was, and I, he showed up on set while we were filming with Ken.
He came over, he started talking. He was [02:46:00] nice, but he had a camera and he's kind of vlogging, and I was, I was like, "Hey," or whatever, man. You know, "Can we talk later?" So, so just had, like, an s- regular conversation with him, right? And then I got tagged in a photo later on, and, like, my, my Instagram exploded And I was like, "Oh, I guess this dude..."
So I hit him up, and I was like, "Hey, man," like, "sorry, I didn't realize, like, you know, what you were doing." I was like, "Yeah, if you wanna s- you know, stop by." And we ended up putting him... He showed back up with his Beetle, and we put him in the, we put him in the film, like a little- No way ... little cameo moment, 'cause he was just there, and I was like, "Oh, let's just throw him in for this one shot."
And, and I say that not because you guys do the same thing, but because from my understanding, he owns, like, a 70% market share of the Mexican YouTube space, where I don't know what your market share is, but it feels like it's, like, 70 to 80% of the market share. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. No one in America has more than a single-digit market share.
Do you know what I'm saying? Like, it's just, there's just so much out there. As big as you think Cleetus and WhistlinDiesel are, there's just [02:47:00] so much out there, and pe- they, like, they're, a lot of, a lot of creators are in this, like, 100 to 300,000 view, and there's just- countless. Like, you, every time you look, you find another one.
The cra- And you're like, "I never even knew this guy existed. He's got a million subscribers and he's doing half a million views on average. I had no idea he was in this world." Mm. So. So the thing is, um, I was talking to a few guys also in America about how much money they get from YouTube. Mm. And I was shocked.
Do, uh, you guys get a lot more? Yeah. Yeah. We, we don't do well at all. I mean, to give you an idea, not that this episode does YouTube views, podcasts really aren't like the YouTube model. It's also on YouTube? Yeah, this will be on YouTube as well. Oh, okay, cool. Um, so it's like Spotify, YouTube, Apple, whatever.
But, um, you know, on YouTube, like, even if this did, you know, 50,000 views, right? Mm. Like, and it's long, it's maybe, like, 200 bucks. Mm. And that's for something that's gonna be three hours long. Like, if we would've [02:48:00] done that back in the day on Hoonigan, it would've done very well. But the, the, the money that you make off of YouTube has been steadily declining in the US.
Crazy. Yeah. Crazy. Yeah, our CPMs are not strong. That's why everyone here has a separate business. Like, everybody here either is merch, is selling merch, they have other product integrations, so everyone has supported this, right? I mean, you're, you know, KW sponsors this show, right? Like, Heatwave Visual, right?
W- Wera Tools, which is a German brand. How do you say Wera, by the way? W-E-R-A. Oh, the green one? Yeah, yeah, yeah. They do? They, here in America? They sponsor the show, yeah, yeah, yeah. Wera. H- Wera? Wera, yeah, yeah, yeah. I, I would... They, they're different ver- You can s- say it different ways, but I think I spell Wera. So I, I only say it 'cause people call me out for how I say it, 'cause I say Wera.
Now, I know that Ws are Vs in German, but I think it's weird for me as an American to be like, "Yeah- Wera ... I like using Wera Tools." Like, it's weird. Although I will say Porsche, I'll say things the other way, but, um, I asked the, the folks here [02:49:00] and they're like, "We don't care. You can say it however you want."
They're like, "Our receptionist says We Are." I was like, "Okay." And they're like, she's like, she answers the phone, "We Are Tools." I was like, that actually kind of works. No, I mean- Um ... this whole marketing thing is so different here. Yeah. So different. If I would say in a video, "This is sponsored," or, "This is da, da, da, da," see, I have a deal with, um, Liqui Moly.
Yeah, yeah. But, but my deals are always like that. If I do nothing, I do nothing. If I do something, I do something. Yeah. Don't talk to me. Yeah. I need freedom maximum. And that, I think, is the, that's sort of, like, how I try to create my relationships as well. I think that works the best. That isn't how it always was, but- And if they, see, a- and if they don't accept that, I'm absolutely happy with it.
Yeah. But if I would tell my audience- But when you control, when you control 75% of the market space, you get to do that. Yeah. That's special. 100%. I, I, I'm, I'm aware of that. But, um, and I wanna stay that way, that I don't have to do deals because I don't wanna do deals. Yeah, yeah. I don't [02:50:00] want to. I just wanna do my cars, my videos, and I would never say, "Subscribe, watch this, like this."
Yeah. You decide if you wanna do that. If you don't like it, if you don't subscribe, this- Yeah ... is all your decision. I ne- I don't, I don't say buy this. I don't say nothing. You decide. You're smart enough to understand that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. You're smart enough. Yeah, I think, um, I think for, like, that kind of stuff, like, first I think- But America's very different
I think America's very different. Very different. We're like, we're very used to being adverti- Some of you guys stop the video like this ... we're very used to being advertised to. Yeah. Look, for me, I, uh, you know, when we were at Hoonigan, we did a l- we took a lot of money we shouldn't have taken because you got employees to pay and you just, we're trying to figure it out.
Mm. And YouTube wasn't paying it, and whatever isn't paying it. I'm now at a point in my life where it's like I only wanna work with brands I like. So, like, for example, Vera Vera is a great example. Like, I really like their tools. I, the reason they reached out to me is 'cause they saw me using their tools.
Like it- KW is the best ... yeah, I like those guys. No, no, America [02:51:00] does not know how good KW is. Yeah, see, as an American, like, I've had KWs on my cars since 2003. Mm-hmm. 2002. Like- And- ... because they were so cool. Like, Europe made us aware of that ... when I talk with Americans, "Yeah, I'm thinking about getting do, do, do brand- Yeah
or KWs in it," and th- it is like, yeah, I'm, I'm competing in a, in a basketball game. Um, I'm thinking about my neighbor or Michael Jordan. I think I take my neighbor. He- he's playing with me. So KW is really putting everything that they learn, including with the factories- Mm-hmm ... into the product that you buy, and I can promise you they're not doing that, the other brands.
Yeah. They have the picture of the car, but what you buy is not what's on the picture. Yeah. Even the ... yeah. Yeah, and we worked with them on actually developing stuff for us. Like, when Ken was having problems with his RS200, it was like, "Oh, bring it to the shock, you know, or the sh- the shake rig and, like, figure out the suspension."
Seven Post. Yeah, the, yeah, Seven Post, and like [02:52:00] all those kind of things. Um, also as someone who loves The Nürburgring and all of that. It's like you watch the N24 and it's like- Mm-hmm ... half of the competition is on- Mm-hmm ... is on KW. Mm-hmm. And if you think about it, the Nürburgring is closer to what you will drive on a good mountain road than any other racetrack, 'cause it's like slight, there's, there's roughness to it.
It, it doesn't have- I don't think there's a mountain road like the Nordschleife. I'm not saying that it's like it. But what I'm saying is, is it's a lot closer to a mountain road is than Spa. Yeah, that's true. Do you know what I'm saying? Or, or, you know, like it, it, or Laguna Seca. Like, there is- Yeah ... the road is not perfect.
Yeah, yeah. Which means that the suspension has to deal with that, where when you build suspension for perfect roads, it, it works like shit when you get it onto the 405. I always explain it like that with K- with KW, is you put it in the car and the car feels slower in the acceleration. Mm. Because it takes so much stress out of the car that you- That would [02:53:00] remove some of that.
That's a good point. Yeah ... that you, that you, that you really think, "I think I lost 100 horsepower." Right? Because, because normally it slips when I'm- I don't think, I don't think this is selling KW right now. You want your car to feel even slower? No, no, no, no. Now, what- I get what you're saying. I understand
no, but it really does. Yeah. It gives you way more, m- it g- it makes you faster- Yeah, yeah ... because you are way more comfortable, even if you're not that super highly skilled, because it helps you, takes care of you- Yeah ... to really be in control. Yeah. I think for, you know, back to the kinda like the sponsorship side of things, um, it, it is, it become a huge part of- content in the US, um, to both a negative and a positive.
And the positive side, it has allowed this to become a career for people, right? That there's money there. But, and I'm curious as to how different the German market is, but in the US, like, you pretty much have three options. One is you get paid for integrated content, right? Which [02:54:00] means- In the video. In the video, right?
Mm-hmm. So you're being paid by an outside partner to either talk about their stuff, right? Or to integrate it or whatever. In Germany, too. Second one is that you play the volume game, and that means that you're sort of in the... So you have to put up a lot of uploads, like you do, but, uh, you also really need all of them to do well, so you're leaning a bit into, like, algorithmic hacking.
So it's like the video needs a really good thumbnail, it needs to deliver algorithmically. But you don't, you're not really putting a lot of effort beyond that piece because you're trying to make money off of YouTube, and the best way to make money there is not to spend too much on your content and try to make it so that you are putting out enough content that you get paid from YouTube.
Mm-hmm. Right? Um, and then, you know, those are basically... You're either, you're either kowtowing to the algorithm or to the sponsor. Um, and then the third model is that you have another business, and your YouTube just funnels to the business, and that is where mostly everyone, I [02:55:00] think, has gone now, right? Or you do all three together.
Or you do all three together, right? I, I think everybody has a version of the three. Like, no one's saying no to the YouTube money, right? Um, but at the same time it's usually not big enough for, like... It's, it, it wouldn't pay, it doesn't, you know, it doesn't pay to keep this running. I think that the weird part is, is that I come from and you come from a world where people used to pay for content.
Right? Like magazines, you bought them. Mm-hmm. Right? TV channel, maybe you paid for it 'cause it was cable or you were paying through, through your taxes or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, I, I, I'm watching an audience in the US get really, really fatigued because either it feels too clickbaity, it feels like you're trying to make something for the algorithm.
You're not actually making good content, you're just making what the system wants. Mm. Or you're so heavily integrated with sponsors that it's like it feels like that's all that's there, right? Mm-hmm. The problem is, is that at the same time, [02:56:00] like if you're not the one spending the money, like you don't have as, as much control anymore.
So like I, I actually believe, and this is... I'm happy we waited till almost three hours to mention this, 'cause it is not a popular opinion. But I think content's gonna go back to being paid for, because I think at a certain point people are like, "I don't mind spending 10 bucks a month to get something I really want," versus everything that I watch is either algorithmically massaged.
And now that we have AI and AI can speak way more algorithmically, everyone's shows are just gonna be made this way. I, I, I, I don't, I don't wanna tangent too much, but I, I listened to this person the other day. They said they went and they found a creator who they wanted to emulate and be like. They downloaded all the videos, turned them into transcripts, took the transcripts, stuck them into Claude, had Claude figure out what pieces of this were the parts that were really working compared to all the top [02:57:00] videos versus the lower videos.
Oh. And then wrote them scripts for 10 videos, and they went and made those 10 videos, and each one of those videos did a million views You realize that it has completely removed the creative part of making something. Like, they just found the cheat code and the recipe to go do it There's a thing in my company And, and like that thing for me, just to finish that, that thing for me bothers me, right?
That, like, that's the way to go make content. But I get it. Like, if it's a business and you're trying to make money, uh, that, that's gonna start to come out. So you're now... As someone who doesn't wanna do that, I'm competing with that. I have great partners. I enjoy working with them, but I do realize, like, they're real- pa- partners will actually, I think, work well on a podcast, 'cause, like, we're talking for two and some odd hours.
People have to listen to, like, four minutes of, like- Mm-hmm ... advertisement over two and a half hours. It, it's a decent ratio. But I've watched other people's content where you're like- Jer off ... this whole thing feels like it's bought. Why am I watching this? Yeah, yeah. At a certain point, are we not, as an audience, gonna get back [02:58:00] to going, "You know what?
If I just pay 10 bucks for something and I get something I really want, don't I wanna watch it?" I watch Clarkson's Farm. I like that show. Do you ever watch that show? Never. Do you know Jeremy Clarkson? Absolutely. By the way, cancer diagnosis, prostate. He, apparently they caught it early, but, uh, it was on Clarkson's Farm.
I didn't see it last night- Honestly? ... but I read it. Yeah. Yeah, prostate cancer. Yeah, so and, uh, he said it's quite aggressive. I, I'm... He, he's, like, one of my heroes. Like, I do- He is ... what I do- He is ... because of the Three Amigos. He is. Like, every time someone will be like, "Oh, you guys kind of ripped off this," I'm like, "No, we ripped off Top Gear.
Get it straight." The only person we ever ripped off and ever will rip off is Top Gear, 'cause they did it all first and they did it great. Best. Yeah, they did it best. They really did. Best. So. The... Yeah, yeah. No, no question about it. Yeah. I was lucky to, to film and do things with their team. Same here. And- I got to watch them write.
I got to watch them sit in the room- Mm ... and write a skit with Ken, and watch it come together over cigarettes and wine, and it was [02:59:00] super cool. In my company, there's a thing. I don't allow them to use AI Thank you. No really. We appreciate you from the creative world. No, I- From a delegate of the creative, I appreciate it
no, 100% because, mm, the young ones also are so, not stupid, but so flat that they think I don't see it. Mm. Because, you know, when, when we talking and, and I ask them, "Can you, can you show me this?" And you see this da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da. "What do you think? That you wrote this in two minutes?" "Do, do you honestly think that?"
"No, I don't." Yeah. Just to let you know. And this is crazy. Do you even know what that word means? Use that word in a sentence. Right. Or when they, when they copy it wrongly out, when, when they leave it in, like, "Do you want it different or do you want me to write this in a different way?" Yeah. I said, "When you send me this shit, at [03:00:00] least put this out."
Yeah. And, um, no, this is something what I really don't like. And then you see, and partly they're right, the conversations I have with them because the young kids are so used to have it easy and fast. Easy, fast. Yeah. Easy, fast. And I'm saying, "Yeah, but I want you to think about it. I want you to do it." But I'm not doing it the way or as good as AI would do it, 'cause it's not the thing.
Mm-hmm. I want you, I'm paying you. I'm paying you to think about it, and I have, want to have a conversation with you because when you use it all the time, you lose all the potential that God gave you to create yourself. You become just a flat guy because you're not even reading what AI is telling you.
Mm-hmm. You just do, do, do, do, do. Cut and paste. And then they think, "I did the fucking job," and they're not. Yeah. And honestly, and I, and I, I know this [03:01:00] sounds so old person to say, but it's like in so many ways, like, they're cheating themselves. As something as I have- They do ... as something I've learned a- as I've gotten older, and, and Vinny, Vinny used to accuse me of this, and I, I agree.
Vinny said, he's like, "Sometimes I think Scotto makes things difficult just because b- difficult is a good story." And as I've gotten older in life, I've realized that the most memorable moments in life are the ones that have friction. Things that don't have friction, you don't remember. There's something about that friction that makes things sticky in your brain, right?
Like, that really difficult thing you had to make, that you hated it while you were making, stays there. Where the things that just happened, the cars, I'm sure there's, I'm sure, like, there's- We are very, we are very much the same ... the friction is the part that makes you kind of fall in love. I mean, and I, and I think it, it's even in relationships.
The, that, that girl that was difficult, that- Mm ... that friend who you kind of fucking hate, but also kind of, like, love. Like, there's something about the right- It's- ... amount of friction in life. It keeps the connection ... and we have too much convenience now. [03:02:00] Mm-hmm. Every- and the, and this- And looking for it ... and it applies to everything, including cars.
Like, I don't need a car that does all this for me. Some things are nice, and I, and I, I will go on the record, I like hill assist, only 'cause I've been driving manual transmission for so long. Because your foot is too big. That's- Yeah, yeah, it's probably 'cause it just hits the fucking dash all the time, you know?
No, I, it's also 'cause I live in Los Angeles, and there's really, there's some really weird steep hills here, and I hate burning my clutch. Like, I don't mind that. Steep hills in LA? You- Go to, go to La Cienega and Sunset with that car right now, and just sit in that line going up this, like, ep- it's like a 40 degree- Yeah, you're right.
West Hollywood, there, yeah ... yeah, there's some, there's some good stuff over there. But anyway, I say that, but, like, there's all these other things like bl- like auto blip shift, and, like, all this stuff that, like, I just, I don't need this convenience. I enjoyed learning how to heel-toe. And I will admit, I still could be better at it.
Probably 'cause I drive so many different cars and my feet are huge. But - ... but, like, but that's fun. It's fun to get better at it, and then, like, get out it to get out of practice 'cause you're [03:03:00] driving something else, and doing this and learning. Like, I enjoy things that require friction. Also, when we go a little deeper, heel and toe.
Yeah. And you, you know you can do it good, and then you're driving... Let's paint a picture. Somebody behind you, and you have this little battle. You don't know who it is, and you mess it up. What happens in your mind is working on yourself. Mm-hmm. Doing, "I should have done this. Fuck, I'm a little-" Mm-hmm. "... rev was a little bit too high or too low, eh."
Mm-hmm. And all this happens, and this is very important, because if you do it with a computer, eh, boom, boom, boom, boom. Yeah. And sure, you're faster, but, like, I don't know if that's the goal. No. Right? Like, I don't know if that's the goal. How fast can you be? Like, having a perfect lap in a manual transmission car, where you didn't botch a single corner- Mm-hmm
because you were perfectly there is an accomplishment, even if the time is slower for me. Do you know? Yeah. Or when you, it, when you get faster on this track and you feel that, for example, you, you in four. Mm-hmm. And you know I come to this corner and I have [03:04:00] 1,000 RPM left. Mm-hmm. And then you know, ooh, I got only 200 left.
Mm-hmm. It, so- Mm-hmm ... you get more connection to what you are doing, and I think it's very important. Yeah. And I, I think that that, like, I, we apply it to cars, but I think it lives in everything. And I, I go back to this, uh, to bring us full circle, I d- I just feel like content, and Germany may be in a different place and you have, I think, the advantage and the luxury because of the size audience that you've built, that you get to do the thing you wanna do and people show up for it.
Yes. Um, I think that in the US market, where things feel really saturated, everyone is trying to, like, out-shock each other, right? Like, there's, like- Mm-hmm ... this big thing that we maybe lost the plot of what good content is, like, of what it is that we want to make, right? And, and I don't think everyone agrees with that, but I, I do.
I, I watch a lot of stuff and I'm like, "This feels very formulaic. This feels like anyone else's show." I think that to me, the [03:05:00] algorithm, um, flattens, like, the creative curve. Like, people aren't trying to do outside stuff, right? Mm-hmm. Like, for example, Gymkhana- You know, may- maybe- ... Gymkhana was a very outside idea that I don't know if we would have today, because there was no model that proved that it would work.
Mm-hmm. True. But we were like, "Let's try this. Who knows? Maybe a skateboard-like video with cars might be exciting for people," right? I think that there's a little bit less experimentation because of the financial thing that goes around content- I think- ... in America. I, I don't know if I c- I can't speak for Germany, 'cause I'm, obviously- I think-
not German ... and on this one I would not agree. Yeah. Because, mm- Thousands of creators loading up videos every day. Mm-hmm. And their ideas are in that videos, but we don't see them. Because when we talk about these things, we only- I'm not saying they don't do it, I'm just saying it doesn't float to the top, 100%.
Exactly. So I, I 100% agree with you. I think that- Because we're only looking, these six guys have to do it. [03:06:00] Yeah. Uh, but maybe right there, he's there. Yeah. He's there and doing it. But... And, and maybe people watching it and they laugh about him. But when one of the six guys are doing it, "Yeah, that's the way to go."
Yeah. And he's thinking, "Well, I did this exactly like that." All the time. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. It's, uh... I, I think that there are some creators out there, like yourself, guys like Mighty Car Mods, Binky, um, who, like, they develop something and they've had it for so long that, like, that is their thing, and it works, and they don't have- Mm-hmm
to conform because it just, it just drives. Where I think a lot of other people... And, and Hoonigan was like, Hoonigan was like it for two different reasons, but, like, they're always sort of chasing something different. One of the reasons Hoonigan was like that is my fault. I just like new ideas and I wanna try new things.
There's- But that's you. Yeah, it's me, and I was like, "Oh, I wanna do... I, we did this, I wanna go do this now. I wanna go do this," right? And it's like I enjoyed jumping all over the place. Um- I think with you, too- Because it's, 'cause to me, making content is like project cars. I'm not happy with just one. I wanna have [03:07:00] 126 ideas that are out there, you know?
Mm-hmm. You have a very, very, very strong eye for aesthetics. Mm-hmm. In writing, in logo, in how it should look and how it should be. I think this is what we lose a lot, especially in the future, because AI is really hitting it right now. Yeah. And AI will use you. Yeah. how logos should look, how, how it should be.
And, um, I think many other creators don't have that in them. Right. So- Yeah, I get that ... flats I get that Flats. Or I, I, I hire somebody else to do it. Yeah, I think one of the most difficult things for the modern-day creator on YouTube is that you could be very likable on camera, but you don't, you're not good at editing, you're not good at the business end of it.
Like, you know, think about the whole picture that- Mm ... makes your channel work. Mm. This was one of the things that was really unique about Hoonigan, was that we had a [03:08:00] business- Mm-hmm ... that did the part, and it let other people show up and just do one thing good, right? They didn't have to do all the pieces.
Mm. And I- 'Cause you had the package. Because we had the package, right? And I think that unfortunately, I don't think that, uh, I don't think that YouTube supports businesses like Hoonigan or Donut or MotorTrend or any of those. I, I don't think the model of having 45 employees- Mm-mm ... to do content really works like it does for a single person.
Like, how many employees do you have now? Employees? Yeah. 120, 115. Yeah, it's crazy. But you got 16 companies. But, like- Yeah ... that is the model, right? I think- No, but actually, the, what you, you, like you said, when I pulled up at you, I'm, the, the video thing is small. Yeah, yeah. It's- I, I mean, is it even- I mean, now, and I, I mean, I got seven, seven camera guys who also editing.
Yeah. Right? And you're, but you're putting out five pieces of content a week. Right, so they have to- That is, I don't think anyone, I don't know anyone who does that much content. No? Not anymore. There are guys who will do them for sprints, so it'll be like, like Cletus does this thing called, like, [03:09:00] you know, like, the Month of Freedom, and he'll do an episode every day for 30 days.
But I think most people have sort of moved back to the twice a week at the most, maybe three times. Hoonigan was doing that. We used to, at one point we were doing 10-plus pieces of content a week across multiple channels. Yeah, it was insane. Yeah. No- I don't think it was good, though. Like, I don't think it was good
if I would go back, if I would go back to two, or not back, if I would go to two or three a week, it would not work anymore. Why? The people, JP Performance got so important for them. It's part of their life. Yeah, it's part of their life. It's part of their routine. It's part- I do this, and then I watch JP. Um, yeah.
The- What time does your show, when, when, what time? 11:30. In, in the morning? Yeah. So it's like lunchtime- Yeah ... I'm watching JP every day. Yeah, every day. Yeah. So if that would not happen After so many years. I mean, I got people pulling up to me and they pull up their T-shirt and they have my face- ... that big on their back, on their leg, on their stomach, everywhere.
[03:10:00] That's crazy. Face, not logo. Yeah. Face. People did that with Ken, but none of the rest of us, thank God. That's crazy. I, I would be freaked out. That's... is crazy, and, and I feel so sorry. I feel like, uh, and, and for especially, they expect that you say something, but you don't know what to say. You go like, "Um, nice?"
You know? It's- We had a Hoonigan rule, which is if you had a Hoonigan tattoo, you couldn't work at Hoonigan. Yeah. It's like, 'cause then it'd be even harder to fire you the day you came. It's like getting kicked out of a motorcycle club. We gotta cut it off you or something. So. That was bad. But I think we got the record, right?
Yeah. Right? I, I love that you stayed just for the record. I know you were looking at your clock. No. You're like, "I got all this work to do." Yeah. And you're like, "I'll stay for the record." Yeah. Let me, let me see. Let me see. Because the, the good thing always w- being, being in LA is that the time difference helps me also a little bit.
Mm. Yeah. It's also starting to get warm in here, 'cause we don't have air conditioning, so. Yeah, and I wanna check out your rest of the cars. Okay. Yeah. Well, I fully enjoyed this, buddy. It was good catching up. Me too. This is like- We can, we have to do it again. [03:11:00] Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anytime you're in town. So we could also, like, go do dinner and life stuff like that, so yeah.
Maybe I'll move here, and then I bo- then I will be the guy comes around all the time. You move here, I'll sell you the Ferrari. Same, you have a car when you get here. Yeah. Tell me your price. We'll, we'll talk off, we'll talk off camera. Okay, okay, okay. Thanks again.
The mailbox is full, full, full, full. The mailbox is f- f- f- f- full. The mailbox is f- f- f- f- f- f- f- full and cannot accept any messages at this time. Goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye Of all the sunglass companies out there, you might ask, why Heat Wave? Aside from them being friends of mine, they just make great shades.
Awesome styles, cool collabs, smart tech. They even have extra large sizes for big heads like me. And for those of you wearing this on the job, they make ANSI Z87 spec safety glasses too. But what [03:12:00] really attracts me to Heat Wave is that they are physically a part of our culture. You will find them everywhere from King of the Hammers to Formula Drift.
You'll see everyone wearing Heat Waves at your local track day event. Damn, you might even turn laps with the co-founder, Justin, because they're one of us. So one more reason to choose Heat Wave Visual to fix your face. I'm a tool dork. My obsession might even dwarf my addiction to cars. I love collecting unique and specialty tools, which is how I initially fell in love with Wera.
First off, they just make aesthetically pleasing tools. They feel good in your hand. They have a great finish. Their sizes are universally color-coded, and they are super strong. In two decades, I've never broken a tool from Wera. I wish I could say the same about my other tools. But the thing I like the most about Wera is that they create clever solutions for your wrenching woes because you need over-engineered tools to work on today's over-engineered cars.
So if you're ready to step up your tool game, whether it's the Zyklop ratchet or the Joker wrenches, find them at [03:13:00] weratools.com. All anyone wants to talk about nowadays is how great '90s car culture was, but what everyone forgets is how bad our slammed cars rode on crappy lowering springs. At the time, that's all my wallet could muster.
But when I finally did step up and get some proper coilovers, I went for KWs and never looked back. I've been running their stuff for over two decades now, in everything from my 911 to my RS2. I even have a custom set in my Land Rover Discovery, and yes, that bloody thing does finally run. Anyway, because of my long history with them, I am very excited to announce KW as the newest partner in this whole podcast syndicate thing I'm building.
Anyway, check them out, kwsuspensions.com.