What’s Next for Adam LZ? Scotto Finds Out!

Hey, what's up everybody? Welcome back to yet another episode of Very Vehicular brought to you by Viper Industrial. As always, I'm your host, Brian Scato. Today is a fun one. We have on none other than Adam LZ. We talk about everything from how drifting went from a hobby to a professional career. We talk about YouTube, the pros, the cons, the painful parts. We talk about growing businesses, what it's like to be a leader in those roles, and what's next for him in his 10-year plans and how the word retirement is in those plans, which is crazy when you think about how young he is. He's done a lot. And before we get into it, I just want to say a little housekeeping. I hate to ask it, but it really does help. If you like, subscribe, comment, and especially share this video or any of the podcast. So please do it. But most importantly, enjoy the show. It's a long one. 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And it works out to 50 miles an hour, meaning you don't have to take every dip in the road at that douchey 45 degree 2-mile-an-hour crawl. Check out kw-suspensions.com to find a kit for your slammed ride. Music Mr. Adam LZ, welcome to my garage. Thanks for having me. Thanks for driving the Mercilago here. It's pretty cool to see that. It wasn't too bad. It's one of the cool things about doing the podcast from my house is just watching people bring really cool stuff to the house. I've had a Testerosa, Mickey brought it Stagia, Zotac the other day, last week or whatever. It's just nice to have cool stuff here. Anyway, how you been? Good. We just finished Media Day at Long Beach, so coming off of that. How was that? It was good. Did you enjoy Media Day? I think it's, if you get an opportunity for extra practice before a race, you'd be dumb not to take it. So you see it that way? Yeah. For you, it's like, I don't care who's in the car, I just want to be out there driving. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. We don't get to talk to whoever gets in the car. The car's too loud. I can't hear them. And I remember that back in the day, they just kind of like, they're in line. They just put you in. Yeah. Like, hey, fuck it up. Let's go. Yeah. And then we sit in the car and it's too loud to hear and you're just like... Trying to say something to you. Like, all right. All right. I want to start by telling a story and then we'll kind of go back from there. So I want to say you were like 19 or 20 years old. You came out here for something we did at Hoonigan. And at the time I said, hey, let's go grab breakfast in the morning. I just want to kind of chat with you about, you know, stuff and everything that's going on. And we sat, we had breakfast at like some cafe near LAX. Did you recall this? Yeah, I do remember. And I remember like, we chatted for a bit. We spoke for like 45 minutes to an hour. We left and you left. You went to the airport. I was on my way back. And I want to say maybe it was Vinny or someone else called me and I had like another call. I was like, oh, I just had breakfast with Adam. And I was like, oh yeah, what was your name? I was like, you know, I was like, I got to say, I was like, that kid's pretty fucking smart for his age. I was like, I think he's going to probably do some pretty cool stuff. And I have a feeling because the thing at the time I was like, hey, I've got this idea. It'd be cool to have you involved in it. And then I feel like later on, you know, like watching you grow and do all of that, I realized like you had your own path, like you were doing your own thing. And for you, I want to kind of go back to that now because it's like, I can't help but look back at those moments that was like felt really early YouTube for all of us. Right. So it's like, you were doing your thing from BMX, like TJ Hunt was doing his thing from like the scooter side. And then like you guys both got into cars. We were there. Like we had come in, you guys were already doing your thing for a while. We were doing the car thing. We saw it obviously is like, hey, let's just try to bring as many people. And I always refer to like early day transmission is like J Leno for like dirt bags, right? It was like the show was like, come on, do some stuff. But like it feels so different now. Like it has been almost 10 years from that moment. Right. How old are you now? Well, first off, I appreciate it. Thank you for the kind words. Yeah. No, no, I was like, I spent a lot of time dealing with a lot of people. And it's like there's sometimes you meet people and you walk away and you're like, yeah, kids probably going to do okay for myself. So I'll give you, I'll give you your flowers on that. I appreciate that. And to be that motivated, have that clear of a vision at that young of an age, I think it was really rare. I think a lot of other people don't just don't see that. I won't name names, but I always hear people like, be like, oh, like I'll be just like Adam Elsey. And I'm like, no, you won't. Because I think that there's just certain things that are like people uniquely are equipped to be able to do, especially at a young age. Like I don't think I could do what I later went on to do at 19 or 21. Like my brain just wasn't there yet. Like I was still just like wild and out and like being kind of an idiot and a party kid and doing all that. It wasn't until I was like 25 that like life started to kind of like calm down. I started to like get focused on that. But for you, I mean, in that time, like how different does that moment feel than like where we are today? It's tough. Like for me, I'd been doing YouTube, which is crazy to think at that point for eight years already. I know. So that's almost like my midway point and where I'm at now to then. That's a trip just to think about. Yeah, but it's interesting just seeing the landscape of YouTube shifting so much over the years of like what it was in the early days when it was like pranks and you'd upload like a two minute BMX edit with some like metal music and you would get 10 comments and be stoked. And like nowadays people are upset if they don't get 10,000 views on a video, which is what, because like back in the day, that was big numbers. That was like everybody on YouTube watched your video. I mean, and to think now like the size of it too, because when we were, when we first got into it, I think you had, you know, people like yourself who were, who built a name for themselves in one segment were transitioning into cars. There was like a few people in cars. Everyone was kind of trying to figure it out. Obviously at 1320 been around for a while. There were things like the drive and so on. Donut was sort of doing things and then they hadn't completely shifted over to explain what it was like. I don't remember. And you know, for us, it was, it was not a business model. Like we weren't like, we're going to go on YouTube and make a ton of money. It was like, we have a bunch of camera equipment because we do all this other stuff, like not just the Jim Conifels, but other things for athlete drivers and stuff like that. And like, hey, we might as well just like have fun with it. And like that was the original idea. And then it became like birth this whole other thing. But now I look at the space and it's like, there's just so, it's like so saturated. I feel like in 2017 to like 2019, we all pretty much knew each other. Like everybody who was making content on YouTube, like you had their phone number where now it's like, I'll go on and be like, I've never even seen this dude before. And he's got 300, 400,000 followers in his last video did like 200k. And like, I'm not even aware of it. It's just crazy. At that time, did you like, did you see this kind of going where it's gone? I mean, I can't imagine you did, but. I don't think I ever, I don't want to say I never had a plan. I just, I don't want to say I'm good at pivoting, but like, I just do what I like. And if it doesn't work, I try to figure out what does work after that. Like I don't think about if YouTube will still be going on in 10 years. I just roll with the punches and adjust as necessary. I mean, how much of your life still feels like is YouTube's a part of it versus everything else you've got going on? Like, you know, you're not here because of YouTube. You're here because of FD this week. Although, I mean, it's all connected. I still feel like for me, YouTube is like, it's like the backbone of all the different things that I do. I don't feel like I could stop doing YouTube tomorrow and all the other things would still be equally as successful. But I feel like I could stop doing a lot of the other things and they wouldn't impact the other things. Interesting. So like, I feel like that's the one thing I can't get away from. Not that I want to get away from it because I really enjoy it. Yeah. But it's not something where I feel like I can just drop. When I first met you, you were still like editing and making videos every day by yourself. So like you would come out, do an episode with us, which would take like, you know, an hour and a half or two hours. And then you would either like sit at the shop or like head back to the hotel, cut something and upload it for the next day. And I remember then looking at you being like, that's going to burn this kid out. Like that's crazy to do all of that because we already had like a crew of people who were editing stuff. Like most of us on camera were not actually involved in the edit. A few people were, but and there was a group of us doing it. And like you were doing that solo by yourself every day. I don't know how I didn't burn myself out because for a time too, I was also doing all the merch orders myself. And like, there really, yeah. And there was times I had a hundred orders a night and then that's like while going to school yet. So I'd be like skating to school with a bunch of packages in my backpack and in my arms. I don't know how I made it work. How old were you at that point? College days. I'm trying to think that would have been like 2013 to 2016. So I would have been, let me do some math. So that was the 18 to 20. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right around that time. Yeah. Because Hoonigan really kicked off on doing YouTube stuff, I want to say in like 17. That was like when we, I think that was when daily transition came out and was like, it was, it was every day. But I mean, it's crazy to look at where all of this has gotten now because you were like, when you were part of that generation that grew up on YouTube. And now there's this whole generation that looks at YouTube is like the goal where like, I don't think any of us saw it as a goal. It was just this like, oh, this is unique or this is different or this is like an interesting way to like reach people. And now it's like a real business, which is like really shifted, I think the whole thing. And I don't want to, I feel like whenever the YouTube conversation goes up on this pod, it becomes like a business pod because there's all the bunch of us who literally look at YouTube like business. But it's also this amazing, you know, it was the anti gatekeeper that gave all of us this like amazing opportunity because even before that, if it wasn't for YouTube, Jim Conom wouldn't have been a thing. Sure. Right. Like that wouldn't have, that wouldn't have worked in any other platform to be like, oh, this guy's made this seven minute video and it went on to go reach people. Like that just wasn't there. So how different is it for you now though, in terms of making content? Like are you still as excited about it? It's, it's challenging because I find myself stuck between wanting to stay consistent, which is something we've made a huge stride on this year. Last year, I like kind of let YouTube hit the back burner a little bit and just like really focused on my personal life, which just had my uploads schedule very sporadic. And this year we've been almost consistently Monday, Wednesday, Friday, but I struggle when I have a really tough week doing business owner things and I can't make the time to make a video I'm stoked about. That's my biggest challenge right now with it. But I don't know, I still love YouTube. I love interacting with people. I always view it as like a tool to do the things that I want to do. I mean, that's what it was. I wanted to learn how to drift. So it was like, how can I leverage YouTube to pursue this drifting thing? When did the drifting thing for you transition from like this is a cool hobby to like I want to be a professional drifter? I never wanted to be a professional drifter. I was like, I was like anti establishment because that's like ingrained in you and BMX. So I would talk shit about FD. I thought it was dumb. I had, I don't think I had ever been to an FD. Maybe I'd been to one before I drove an FD. I've never watched it. I just built a pro car because I wanted to know what that felt like and then realize no one drives pro cars outside of pro competition. I had done a couple of laps at OSW and Pat Goodin's on there and like, oh, you would have qualified in pro specs. So I was like, maybe I could do it. And he gasped me up and then I did it and here I am. Good old spring brake Pat Goodin. So now that you're doing it, I mean, how, like has your feelings changed on that? I think the best thing that it did for me, and this is kind of like related to the YouTube stuff that you get to a point where you can leverage YouTube to almost do anything you want. Right. You can buy whatever car you can travel wherever, as long as you're smart, sell some stuff to pay for whatever. But that loses it's allure quick. So the drifting competition gave not only me, but my team a common goal, something that we could work towards and be excited about and show that we are more than just YouTube people. Yeah, that's a great kind of point because I think a lot of people on YouTube sort of live in that world. Cleetus is obviously going through it right now with the NASCAR stuff that like everyone just looks at you as like, oh, you're just a YouTuber. Shit, Ken got it in rally racing. We go rally racing and people would be like, the YouTubers here to rally race and he's like, God damn it. You know, but for you, are you enjoying the professional side of it? I mean, as someone who kind of like you said was sort of the fuck the establishment don't want to do all that. Like you are now in the establishment competing with that. I still am not a huge fan of the establishment. I like Formula Drift obviously or I wouldn't be doing it. I just I really like the challenge. I like to be challenged if I feel like there's no challenge and something I get bored. I move on drifting. I still feel like it's a challenge. I really enjoy the math and the science behind setup and tuning and engine combination stuff. Like I could just sit in dyno cars with Freddie all week and I'd be excited. Like that's fulfilling to me putting a new engine in a car, trying different cams, trying different turbos. That gets me going. So your first year, what car did you run your first year? First year was my S15. And then after that you joined, you ran the RTR car? No, so I did three years of my S15 before I switched to RTR. And that was in pro spec? I had done one year of pro spec, which was pro two at the time, then two years of pro and then I'd switched to RTR. What was the difference there from sort of running your own team, doing your own thing, running on a different team, like someone else's team? To put it blunt, I don't want to say I didn't know what I was doing. I was not a CEO. I did not understand how to manage people and the people aspect made me very disliked having my own team part. So part of that and just drama and stuff that would happen from my own team and then it also taking away from all the YouTube side. Because now we're spending all our time and energy on this formula drift thing, YouTube that actually pays the bills because formula drift just costs money. It wasn't a program that paid for itself, it was just spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to go compete. But also losing hundreds of thousands of dollars on the YouTube side because I don't have my team to build cars, that really hurt. So the RTR was it? I didn't realize you were using the same team to do both. I didn't realize the team that was making content with you was also the team running that. Yeah, so that made it very tough. You obviously did RTR for two years? I think a year and a half. I think I did a full year and then a half year. So what made you decide to go back and do it on your own again after that? I honestly didn't want to. It was... Oh, okay. Yeah, I was like kind of over FD. I was just frustrated with it. I had a really hard time driving that car and it made me doubt myself as a driver. Yeah. And I really wanted to go do Europe because I wanted to travel around Europe. So I built this whole Drift Masters program again that wasn't going to make me anything. I was just spending money, but I was like, I'm going to drive with the best drivers in the world. I'm going to give you all these cool places. I was going to do Long Beach anyway. And I was going to do it in my E36 as a publicity stunt because my E36 was like a grassroots car. It was not a four-millimeter drift level car. And everyone would always say in comments, oh, you should have driven that and FD, you should have driven that. So I was going to drive it and like I didn't think it was going to be competitive. And then I did really well in it. I remember that, yeah. And then I wasn't planning to do anymore, but then my car that was going to Europe didn't make it, which was a conflict with Atlanta. So I went and did Atlanta, which I think was the second round or whatever the second round was, I went to that I wasn't supposed to. And I did really well again. So the whole program with the 36 was completely by accident. Correct. Wow. And it just, I wound up doing the whole season in FD and I think I placed fifth that season, which was the best championship standing I've ever had. And it was like a season where I wasn't even supposed to compete. I remember when that was happening, it was all going together because you obviously, and you know, I'm sure you've spoken about this before, but like you had a bunch of hate from like the old crusty FD people, because like you were this YouTuber, maybe you didn't take the same routes as other people. And you know, let's be honest, people just really enjoy hating anyone who they feel like is big or has like a following. Right. And then I think there was also this like weird energy because you would be on the live stream. And as soon as you would, your run would be over, like the views would drop because like your audience who was showing up to see you would be like, okay, Adam's out. We're leaving. So it was like this big joke. You are familiar with that. Yes. I'm not telling you. You're looking at me like you don't remember this. Never happened. Yeah. Was that sort of like a difficult thing for you to kind of, or did that fuel you? Like what was sort of that space? Cause I remember on the outside, you know, in talking to a bunch of people who were like OG drift people who'd been around for a long time, guys like Will Rogi who were sitting there saying, you know, these guys could say whatever they want about Adam. But if you look at the math, like, I don't know if this is actually factual. Someone can correct me. But at that time, someone was saying that you had the least amount of events to get to podium, right? At your point, like when you landed your first podium, it was like no one else had gotten to podium as fast as you had without having a set of experience in a previous series, like a Drift Master or a D1 or something like that. I mean, for you, was that a bit of like fueling sort of or like, you know, whenever anyone shit talks to you, it's always nice to be like, how the fuck's that taste? You know, like a classic like, how do you like them apples? Like, does that fuel you a bit in people saying like, oh, he doesn't have the ability to do this and then you showed up and did it? I'll be honest. Like, I feel like the drift community was so welcoming to me. So it's just the internet side of it. Yeah, I think the actual core people who are competing in it were 100% I had a little bit of hate in the early days and I think a lot of that got squashed. I'd referenced this a lot, but there's one like super D competition that I did pretty well at. And that's like, that was more so like the breeding grounds of the people that didn't like me. And when I showed up there and like they saw that I could drive and I think that changed converted some of the haters, but the FD community has been so welcoming to me from the beginning that I never really felt that. If anything, it was just a drive to like want to do better myself. What do you can, what are you in talking about like super D and final bout and that type of stuff? What do you enjoy driving more like the grassroot style like events or the competition? Like what we're like the perfect weekend for you. What is it? I really like fun tracks that like if a track is fun to drive solo, I'm going to love to drive it tandem. That's like Ebisu North course is really fun. I love I could do 100 laps on that. I'll literally run through a full gas tank just demolishing tires there. Yeah. I actually really like driving in my place. Like I have so much fun driving there. Oh, really? That's great. Yeah, but I think I enjoy competition because I like to have I'm really bad if I have no boundaries. So if I just go like drive a fun day where there's no objective, I'll probably crash the car or go flying off track or blow it up. Like I need to have some sort of goal or like mission. So I'll usually if I'm doing a fun day, I'll have like a friend that I'm driving with and like I will drive as hard as I can. Not like it's competition, but almost like it's competition because then it keeps me kind of focused. Even when we're going Ebisu like every lap, I'm just like processing my brain. What did I do the last lap that I can do better? Like how can I get a little bit closer in this one spot? Why did he pull away from me here? I think if you can combine the competition like focus and trying to do better with like the grassroots, there's no stress. There's no organization. There's no time you need to be anywhere. That's when I have the most fun. That's the most fun. But you were saying before like, but you have to be like on the level. Do you feel like you always have to drive like a 9 tenths, 10 tenths to be like sort of committed in it? In Formula Drift or just for fun? Yeah, in driving. I don't like I really don't enjoy driving if I'm not trying my hardest. Like I get really frustrated if I'm driving a car and I can't keep up with my friends because the car is on a different tire. It's like, like I would almost rather not drive than drive and get yanked on every corner and just feel humiliated. Is that a competitive thing or is it like you just need to be driving on a certain level thing? Like, it's probably maybe a little competitive thing. I'm very competitive. Yeah. And like I always I think also too I want to put on a show like I know every time I'm driving somewhere if there's people taking videos on cell phones. I want every lap to like be something I'm proud of. Yeah. We're like if I know that I have a disadvantage in a car but no one else knows and then I could post a video and they're like, oh look at this scrub, he's like 10 cars behind. It's funny how like that type of stuff drives you so much. Like I was asking the question of like being at the level because we learned this with Ken and it was actually like a bit of an issue was that Ken was only good when he was driving at 10 tenths or 11 tenths and he would crash at 7 tenths. So like if Ken was leading a rally and then we asked him to slow down because we needed to just conserve the car and just get to the end, he would crash. Interesting. But if Ken was in third place with 30 seconds behind second place, he would find 31 seconds on the stage, drive like the devil and figure it out. But it was like it was so frustrating to all everybody on the team because you'd be like this dude doesn't know how to slow down and we like it's like kind of a well-known thing in high level motorsports. Like if you are not at the full top level, like you start to lose focus. Like if you're not at 10 tenths, not 11 tenths. And it's the thing that like I was later learned on that like, you know, they actually bring like psychologists and psychiatrists in to speak to drivers these days to like, where's your head space at to be able to be at eight tenths and nine tenths and 10 tenths because that you're still, you're still as focused as you are at that limit, and you're like purposely driving slower because I guess it's like a pretty well-known thing that if you're not maxed out people crash, which I think is so funny because it's the opposite of what you think, right? Like any movie script would be like, and then he went full tilt and crash. It's like no, actually statistically it goes the other way. I think I think I've definitely experienced that and it's usually, I feel like if I'm doing like grip driving and I do a cool down lap, that's when I do some dumb shit because I'm like, I'll just not be on the racing liner and I won't be paying attention. And I'll be like, I'm going slow, but then I understeer off the course. I'm like, what? I think there's a huge group of people who have crashed on the cool down lap because you're definitely like, oh, whatever. And then all of a sudden, you're like, you're carrying more speed than you were planning to into a corner. You're not breaking as hard. You're not breaking as hard. You're not pushing the car. A tire's on is warm. Like everything changes. Speaking of your favorite tracks, what's your favorite in the FT series? Like what's the event you get stoked for? Man, E-Town. They're not going back this year. Oh, really? Yeah, just because like that always felt like my hometown track because all my friends from Connecticut would go out there. And statistically, I'd done well at that track. So it was just, I love E-Town. Energy, sneaky peeps afterwards. Yeah, no, I love E-Town. I mean, that's obviously, you know, I grew up in New York. I watched that track go from a drag race track that we all went to. And then when they installed the road course and eventually like club loose and everyone went there, it was like such even in the early Hoonigan days, even though we lived here in California, we would travel out there all the time for events because it's like, there's really nothing like it. I mean, the great place on earth, like it definitely definitely just has a cool vibe. And it helps that the people who run the track, like the Naps are so cool about all of that. They're great. Yeah. You still doing the tour? You're going to do tour there as well? Yeah. Yeah. So in two weeks, we have LZ World Tour English Town. Okay. I'm super excited. Yeah. Where else are you guys going this year? We're going back to Quebec and then back to England. Okay. What's that like going from, hey, I make YouTube videos to like I now host event that like tens of thousands of people show up to? That was another thing that was like kind of like an accident. It was never always like we had done our open houses for a while and then that kind of like grew into wanting to include drifting. And I think maybe it was the first time I think Aaron Losey during a drift week, he like wanted to hold a public event and he wanted to use my name. And I think we called it the LZ Invitational and it was actually at E-Town. And then when we did that, we saw that there were some like legs behind it. So I'd done that again at Orlando Speed World. And it was just cool because I just got to make the rules and like just go drive with my friends. Yeah. I think you've created, I mean, I got to come out to that event because when we were doing Drifter, I got to go obviously to the one where we filmed that. But even just the other event that you did because we just came to watch, right? So Sung and I came and that was my first time. My first time going to it. It was also my first time back at E-Town in years. And I think you've done a really good job of like finding this weird in between, between like a proper competition style event, like a final bout event and then something that kind of accepts all. Right? Because like you've got the mix of, you know, you have Ariostair with like, you know, his McLaren or whatever he had last time and you've got like the boat and like you like drift car. And there's just this like interesting mix. And then you've also got like all of the YouTube drivers for lack of a better name, but then you've also got a bunch of guys showing up from FD. You've created this weird like pond where everybody plays, which I think is really unique and was also the thing that like we, when we were at Hoonigan, like we always strive to do. Yeah. What's funny about it is like the idea, like the world tour is kind of like a two-part thing. But the first idea behind it was like, I grew up watching like Viva LaBam and I loved watching the boys go and travel overseas. And I was like, I want to be able to do that with my friends, but not all my friends were like competing at the highest level. And it was like a cool way to create an outlet where there's a goal, a mission to have, you know, because you don't want to just go drive fun events because it gets boring. Yeah. So it's some structure to give to these people to come and drive, but we can all go to Ireland and fuck off and go drive rental cars like idiots through the woods. And like, you know, those fun moments between the events, I think are almost one of the reasons why I wanted to do the events. Yeah. And then meeting Drift Games over in Ireland. I think we had done an LZ Invitational at Mandelo Park before the LZ World Tour was born. And it was just really cool because they're so good at putting on a show. And then the idea of the LZ Invitational mixed with Dave's amazing announcing and their ideas of like how to keep people entertained. It just gave us this like empty book of we could do whatever we wanted. We could make it as ridiculous as we wanted people switching cars, doing stunts, like faking that people are crashing, like all this wild stuff that just is so fun for the audience to watch. Those guys are great, by the way. Like I fully loved working with them on Drifter. Like I'm not just saying it, but I don't, I think if they weren't there, I don't think we would have gotten everything done. Like they were just so good at one, managing everything, managing expectations with drivers, dealing with the audience, like figuring out all the pieces. Like they were, and I said that to them, I'm like, look, most times in production, I think like a lot of organizing, you know, groups go like they can't keep up with the speed at which everything happens or how fast things change. Or, oh, I thought we were going to do this, but now we're doing this. And like, those just do just took it in stride. I was like, I would be more than happy to work with those guys again. They were, they were great. I mean, they come from Driftmasters and like the that is on such a crazy schedule with the whole Red Bull, like production side of things that like they have to be on their mark. Do you think Driftmasters is the, is the top right now in drifting? What I always say to people, because this is like when I went and competed, I was like one of the first people that had done both, both series simultaneously. And what I would always explain is that FD, FD's top 16 is like your top 32 in Driftmasters. I think that you put your top three drivers from Driftmasters against your top three drivers from FD. They're probably all similar skill level. Yeah. But I think that there's more drivers of the top 16 and better skill level in Driftmasters. Interesting. Because it's a magnet series from so many countries, you have the best driver from every country competing in Driftmasters. So I think there's a greater quantity of talent, but I don't think that their talent is necessarily better than our talent. I haven't been to one of their events yet, but obviously I've seen plenty of them on the internet. I will say that from the outside looking in, it seems like the biggest spectacle. They really take the show concept to a whole other level there. It reminds me more of what Supercross is here in the US, which back in the day, a little tangent, but Ken would make all new employees go to a Supercross event. Because you have to understand that the FeldFamily does such a good job at taking that event and making it fun, even if you don't follow Motocross. Visually, it just looks good. And I think that's one of those things that Driftmasters just really landed. As you look at their stuff, the arena format, things that they do, just the aesthetic fireworks, all of the things that go into that. And I just think that they do a fantastic job at that. I think there's sacrifices to accomplish that. And I think that's where FD and Driftmasters kind of differ, because Driftmasters, there are a lot of situations where as a driver, you'd be pissed. Because it's so focused on the show that you don't get a five-minute call. You don't get a chance to fix your car if someone crashes into you and it's totally their fault. You're just shit out of luck. FD, it's more accommodating to the driver, but you lose some of the show in that because everything moves a bit slower, it's less jam-packed. There's more people and bodies and things to deal with all these things. Where Driftmasters is kind of like, you just roll with the punches. It may work in your favor, it may not, but everyone knows that it's all about the show. What do you prefer from that aspect? If I could do Driftmasters with a similar program to what I do, Formule Drift, it would be a really hard choice. But for me, it's an easy decision to choose Formule Drift because my partners care about the US market, but they don't care about the Europe market. So I have no business case to be over there other than me just wanting to go eat good food and travel to Europe with my friends. That's ultimately the reason we stopped racing in the WRC, because at the end of the day, all the partners, even if they were selling in other countries, the budget was coming from the US budget. So it was like monster energy. That's great. We might sell monster there, but you're getting paid out of the US bucket, so let's do more stuff in the US. Which is, I get it, it makes sense. It's also really fun to travel and do cool stuff in Europe. I wanted to go back to your view of the BAM thing because I think that so much of us were influencing you. You're obviously a bit younger than me, probably like 20 years younger than me, which is crazy. But looking at just how influential all of that was, you came on the 43 day stream. Thank you again for that. But we had Jeff Tremain on as well. And it was actually really cool because I've never really spoken to Jeff. I've been in the same room as him with events and stuff with Cam. I never really had a chance to talk with him. And I said to him, what you did with Jackass was so much of an influence for what we did with Hoonigan. For us, we always referred to Hoonigan as Jackass with cars. It was very much the early vibe for it. And he said, probably lying through his teeth, he was like, yeah, but you guys made it look better. I think he's mostly speaking to the Jim Connors stuff. But it's interesting because I think so much of a particular generation that grew up either watching Jackass or Viva LaBam or all of that, I think it gave us this idea of like, I don't even have to be a top level pro. I can just, as long as one of my buddies are, I can then go do all this cool stuff with them. And I think in a weird way, a lot of the different YouTube factions, whether it was like you or, you know, or TJ or Hoonigan, which was a little bit of a bigger group, you know, all sort of created this thing where like one person would go do something and then other people would grow up from underneath them. And then it was like, everybody just wanted to go like have fun and travel the road and tell the story about it. How much of, you know, that type of philosophy of like, I'm just here doing it for fun with my friends is still a part of your everyday versus like where it might have been, you know, five years ago, ten years ago. I think I've learned that you will get burned out if you do what you think people want you to do. I, every day when I make videos, I choose something that I actually want to do. And I'm of the opinion that people can see your excitement. I'm so bad at faking emotion that like, if I'm doing something, I'm not excited about it. The videos are going to do bad, even if it's a great idea. So I kind of think about what excites me first and I build my content around that. And I think, okay, well, these are the things I want to do. How can I make a title or thumbnail that will make people care? That's kind of like, some people work the other way around. Like they have the idea for the title and the thumbnail before the video. But I'm always like, I know what I want to do. How do we capture in a way that's engaging for people to watch? And then how do we make people care? I think you've done a really good job of staying core to that. I think that YouTube can be such a trap to be like, I want more views. I want this to grow bigger. And it all becomes about the title and thumbnail and like you don't actually care that much about what you're making. I mean, there were fights and arguments a lot at a certain period of time at Hoonigan where I would have an idea and someone else would say, you know, like, yeah, but what's the thumbnail for that? I'm like, I don't know. We can figure it out. It's like, well, until we figure it out, we can't make it because you're going to put all this effort into making something. And it's not going to do well because like the thumb's not there, which is a bummer. It's one of the downsides of how YouTube works. But yeah, I mean, you know, Donut has famously said that they would they would come up, they would come up with things that people were searching and then backwards the content out of it. So they would say like, oh, right now, for whatever reason, people are talking about Volvos. So we're going to make content about Volvos and then kind of engineer into that, which like I respect that from a data side. It was like, I was always like, I just want to make the stuff we make. And I was like, we definitely went off track and made stuff that was things that we were reaching for. But my favorite era of Hoonigan when it was like, I don't know, we just want to do something dumb. There was a time when I did that, but it was back when I was making YouTube tutorials. And that's what I would do. And there was no like SEO data. So I would go and I would just search BMX how to and see what words would come up first. And that's how I would decide how to tutorials to make. Yeah, that's good. Or I would find one that had like a lot of views, but we use a bad video or like the explanation sucked. And then I would just make a better one. Do you ride so much? Not as much as I'd like to. I feel like every time I ask you that, you say the same thing. I went through a phase where like I started riding a lot. But then as it gets closer to the season, I get nervous because like if I get hurt and I can't compete, I'm going to feel like such an asshole. Yeah. And like I again, if I'm riding, I can't ride at 50%. Yeah. I go out there and I try to do the same high level stuff that I did back when I was at my prime. There's no in between for me. I will tell you as someone who grew up riding BMX, it was once my life, don't stop riding. Yeah. Because I stopped riding for long enough that now that I am trying to get back into it, it feels like foreign to me. I just built a pump track out the farm, which was rad. And it's so much easier to do when you have Kubota tractor versus shovels when you're a kid. But I built it for myself, my son and some friends to ride. And it's like, I just like, it's fun because I'm getting back into it. But like, man, I have like 10% of the confidence I had in my teens and 20s. And it all just goes from like not doing it anymore. Because you keep telling yourself in your head like, oh, I'll keep riding. I'll keep riding. And then like all of a sudden years go by and you're like, I haven't ridden in forever. And then you just aren't good anymore. Yeah. I've got two funny notes on that. One, my cheat code was I built a really light bike like titanium frame, everything light. Because I still have the muscle memory. I just don't have the muscle. So like that made it a lot easier to still be able to do some of the tricks that used to do. But the weirdest thing I realized this about maybe like a year ago, I think I'm borderline better now than I was at my prime. And it's all mental. Okay. So from driving, I've learned to like go out and be perfect for a slap. Right. Where when I used to ride BMX, I would always work my way up to stuff. Like people call me fiftieth triadum. And like some people view that as like a bad thing. I was always proud of it because it's like, yeah, I tried this thing 50 times and people give up at 10 times. Yeah. Relentless. But I was never someone to just go for it. So like a new set of dirt jumps, I would maybe clear the first one and then I would bail off the next one, maybe clear the next one, bail off the next one. Like I would never 360 bar spin a box jump. I'd bar spin it first and I'd 360 halfway. Then 360 a little more like baby steps. Yeah. Now I take the same like mental strategy that I learned of driving where I just tell myself, do it and I'm going to be perfect the first time. I'd be busting out stuff that like I have no business doing. That's interesting. It's the coolest like realization I've ever had because like it you beat yourself up when you can't do something it used to do. So I can go out and I can still like bang out some like sick tricks. I'm like, yeah, fuck with me. No, trust me. It's a bummer to get on a bike and like not be able to do basic stuff anymore. I mean, I have bad knees, which is part of it, but it's like, you know, when you grew up and you're like, yeah, you look like I can bunny hop onto a picnic table. Like that's easy. Now if you were like, go bunny hop on a picnic table. I'm like, I'm trying not to go to the ER tonight. You know, it's like just things that felt normal, right? And like aren't anymore back to the like the mindset thing. Do you do anything like mentally like do you meditate? Like what's your process? And I think this is a space that a lot of drivers do not talk about, but like you do need to like be mentally there. So when I drove for RTR Vaughn and I'm sure he still doesn't now he would send drivers to they had like a driver psychologist, maybe, or like a sports mental, whatever. Yeah. Who just gave like a really cool like lesson on like a lot of strategies and stuff. And there's a few things that I do. I don't think they really do anything, but like a couple of them are just like, you know, the crossing your center, like tap your left knee, tap your right knee, like some other visual things like they kind of get your eyes locked in. But a funny thing that I discovered last year and it might be a total placebo thing. I think that me playing guitar in the trailer between battles has helped me a lot stay locked in because one of the hardest things about formula drift is like we have practice. You get in the zone and then boom, you're iced out for four hours sitting in the trailer, standing in the sun and like, you're like laying down. I get tired. I get sleepy and then you get back in the car and you're like disoriented. Like last year and I started doing this at E town. And that's what I was like, oh, I did really well at E town. I got to do this. I was like trying to like write songs in the trailer and like I get so locked in like straight tunnel vision in the trailer. Like I'm just dialed in and then I get back in the car and like you're still in that mind state. It was maybe a bad thing because like maybe I get a little fatigued doing that. But I think it's helping. Look, I have spent a lot of time around top level pro drivers and everybody's got their thing. Right. Like what is the thing that you do that just gets you focused? Ken used to have this like ball that was like attached to a strap on his head that he would do that too. Yeah. And we used to make fun of him so much because he'd just be in the trailer, clenching the ball and like, oh goodness. And like we're all in there like work on something else and he's just going at it. But, but you know, it was this thing that like helped him find focus. He used to do a bunch of other weird stuff like he would do like arithmetic while he was doing something else because of the co driver notes being able to do math at the same time is doing something active, like without turning off that side of the brain. But no, it's an interesting one. The guitar thing's funny because I was like just scrolling Instagram one day as we do. And I was like, that guy looks like Adam. I was like, what? Wait, what? Cause you have like your own guitar. Cause what is it? LZ. It's just LZ guitars. LZ guitars. Yeah. Like where did this love and passion come from? Is this something you've always had? Is it new? So my first YouTube channel is BMX Guitar 5. I didn't know any of this. And I think some of my first, it might have even been either my first or second video was like me just playing guitar. Oh, really? And I was way better when I was young. I like went to like lessons and stuff. And then I didn't play from like age 13 to like age 20. I picked it up again and like I started tinkering with it. And like one of my subscriber fans had like dropped off like some guitar gear for me to try and like, I got into it for a little bit and then I got out of it again. And then like maybe like a year or two ago, for whatever reason, I decided to pick it back up again. And I had started to meet a lot of people in the industry. And I think meeting people in the industry. And you got music industry? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Specifically like it's all the guitar players I look up to. And now. Which are top three list, your top three guitar player list. Oh, that's a tough one. Definitely there's a band called Aira. Jesse Cash is, he's right. Some really cool stuff. I really like Chris Wiseman. He's another good one. And then there's another guy named Keaton. I don't know his last name, but in a band called Invent Anime. And they all just like, I just really like the stuff that they write. Yeah. And I know two of them and they're like super cool. But because I know them and almost like holds me accountable now, we're like, I feel like I have to play and be good. But I don't know. It's just, it just became something to do. And like, again, it's like, I want to be better than I was when I was younger. So like, I don't know. It's something. It's funny. When I saw that guitar page, I was like so stoked for you because as someone who like who's, you know, lived in the content space for a long time, watch people get sort of really burnt out just doing the one thing. And then like you have this other side and I'm like, I didn't even know that about you. Right. And obviously it was, I imagine you were like, OG fan base. It was there since day one does, but, and then like for you to go back and like make this thing that's like, it's like a different side of you. It's cool. Cause I think, I mean, just before I gave you a tour of the house and it's like, as I mentioned there, and I've mentioned on the pod before, but it's like, it's not something that like, I really talk about like what my wife and I do in the house and our restoration stuff and all that, because like it's nice to have something that's like private still. It was weird for you to take the guitar thing and really kind of like also put it on display because I feel like your whole life has been on display. No, I mean, that's a good point. I think it came from just like, I would just post stories of myself playing and I saw that there was a lot of people that followed me that were like super excited about it, but I also felt like it was maybe too much for people that didn't care about it. Right. So then I was like, I really like sharing this, the side of me, but I don't want to like piss people off. They like don't care. Yeah. So I was like, I'm just going to make this page and then I can just post it and like, I don't have to feel guilty about it because the people that follow LZ guitar know that that's what they're going to get. Yeah. They're not going to get anything else. So then it just kind of gave me an avenue to connect with people and I think it's really cool, the amount of people that like share the car and the music world interest. Yeah. No, I mean, it's always interesting to see what that crossover is. Like I will constantly, like I'll be following somebody, you know, for completely different purposes that are not automotive and then I'll comment and like 20 minutes later, get a DM and like, dude, like I had no like, like this is so cool. Like such a big fan of Hoonigan, you know, big fan of what you guys did with Jim Conner or whatever. And it's like a trip for me because it's like, I follow this person because of, you know, something that's what feels to me completely out of the space, right? It's either like something in the movie industry or like something completely random or like cycling or whatever. And you're like, oh, this is like, it's cool to see that crossover. And this was something that we, we really realized and took advantage of with Ken early on was like, Hey, you have a certain level of interaction when you're talking about rally. But when you talk about mountain biking, like all of a sudden all of the people who are like, holy shit, Ken also likes mountain biking. It's like, it makes you less two dimensional. You know, it's like, I think people start to go, oh, wow, this person has more elements to them than like being that one piece, which like, to be honest, is I think why vlog content worked so well for so long because people got to be like, oh, I get to know more about your life and know these other pieces and all that kind of stuff. And there's stuff that like I'll bring up on this pod because, you know, in a long format, you don't have to like edit stuff out. And I'll just, I won't think about it. And then I'll get a bunch of DMs on people. I'd be like, dude, I'm like so happy you brought that up. Or like, I didn't think anyone else like knew about that or whatever. And then I'm always sitting there back in my head like, should I do more about that? Cause like it's cool when you do see like a group of people spike up and say, oh, that's interesting. I like that. So, but anyway, back to the, from the guitar side. So you would play guitar in between. Are you going to do that this weekend? I'm going to play guitar with you. Yeah. Yeah. This is a great side. I did not know. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. And like for whatever reason too, last year, I feel like the, cause I don't, I shouldn't say I don't enjoy playing other people. I'd love writing stuff. I've always loved music. I like to think that I have a pretty good ear for music, but like I look back at some of the riffs that were like in between practice and like, damn, that's just like kind of good. And like for whatever reason, like, I don't know, maybe my brain is somewhere else. So it's like kind of cool on that side too. I feel like I must play better. Were your parents into music? Is that where you got it from or? No, not really. Yeah. Yeah. I don't, I don't know where it's, I think it started from like liking that genre of music. But I never, I never learned how to, like I had a blues guitar teacher, so I never knew how to play the music that I like to listen to. And I think it was later in life meeting my friend who was the subscriber that gave me guitar gear that like taught me what I needed and how to achieve the sounds that I heard and music that I listened to. Then once I could replicate like the stuff that I liked, that's when I was like hooked because I'm like, now I can make cool things that like I'm stoked about not just playing some blues riff. Yeah. One of my biggest regrets was not learning how to play guitar when I was younger. So, you know, I, this is where I date myself. Like, so I grew up listening to music in like the late 80s. So you've got like guns and roses, like Motley Crue and all of that. But then also listening to things like black flags, Swiss hall tendencies and, you know, that kind of early era like thrash and punk stuff. And my uncle was who's like 16 years older than me was in a band, like play guitar, really like kind of like hair metal stuff. And was like, you know, was really into guitar playing like, you know, seven string Ibanez and like all this like kind of like weird stuff was really into like, Ying Wei Malmsteen, Steve Vai and like, and that was what like I was raised on was like that era of like the guitar heroes right before that was a video game. And I really wanted to play guitar, but my parents were like, you have to learn how to play piano first. And I had zero interest in playing piano. Like there was nothing less cool than piano in like 1990. Like it was like, I was like, I don't want to play piano. I just have like no interest in it. And like my uncle bought me a guitar, but like I never took lessons, never really learned. And then like later on, I learned to play bass because I really wanted to be in a punk band. And I was like, my buddy had like an old Wreck and Bacher and he's like here, like kind of like learned how to talk myself a little bit, but never really saw it through. And I was this person who had this like massive love for music, but never learned how to play it myself. And then life just gets in the way and other things happen and you don't do it. And it's like, it's on that weird list of like at some point in my life, like I want to hit pause and just learn how to do this. So it's cool that that's something that you like we're doing and now like, you know, brought back. Would you ever want to play in a band or just kind of like doing things on your own? Guitar hero actually is what got me into playing by the way. We really? Isn't that funny? Oh, that's funny. I don't think I care to play in a band. That just that takes something that I think is like a fun, like it's like one of the only like me activities I feel like I do. Right. Where then that becomes like way more stressful. I would love to do it once just to say that I've done it. Yeah, yeah. But like not telling anyone about it. Like I'll just play like backup guitar and like some like band and like no one will know who I am, but then I could just have that experience. So like know that I did it. Just to have that moment. You had a couple photos that I could share after. Yeah, I did it. Yeah. Do you have a lot of friends in bands? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So what's cool is the compound is like started to become a destination for like a lot of the bands in the genre of music that I listen to for them when they have shows in town. They stop by. I'd give everyone drift rides and everyone has a good time and it's cool. And then people get stoked because there are a lot of these guys are in a cars. People don't know that they're in a cars and then it just it connects both worlds. Yeah. Yeah. I mean that part it was like even early on like, you know, the drift Alliance dudes all knew like the guys from bouncing souls, which was like, one of my favorite punk bands growing up in New York and like they would come out and go to shows with them. And then like, and then the same thing started crossover for Hoonigan and we'd have like all these like, you know, like, you know, the brand in the drummer from Rancid was like, was so into Hoonigan that he had like his drum kit had like Hoonigan stuff on it, you know, which was like, to me, which is super cool. And it also gave me this really cool access because I got to go to shows and got to go, you know, and I think that's one of the cool things that, you know, whatever this world is that we live in, I never know what to call it. I think it's like weird to say YouTubers creators influence whatever the hell it is, but this thing that we've all somehow managed to build and live in gives you such weird opportunities outside of just the thing you were planning on. Right. You're like, I want to go do this because I want to race cars or I want to make this or I want to do that. And then you're like, I also get to play guitar with my heroes, which is like such a cool part of all of this. What are the cool stuff has come out of this for you? What other random hobbies do you have that no one knows about? I've, I should say I've recently taken up wakeboarding because like I've done it twice. Okay. But so like my whole family, I was going to say your dad, my whole family's professional water skiers, which is something that like not a lot of people know. But I was like, I don't know, I got into wakeboarding and my dad was like, no, it's not water skiing. He's water skiing. So then I kind of got bored of it. And then I moved on to BMX. But now I'm like, I really want to stay in shape, but I'm terrified of riding BMX and getting hurt. Where in my mind, wakeboarding is a little bit safer than BMX, but I can still do something fun because like, I'm not a gym guy. I don't think I'll ever be a gym guy, but I like doing physical things and I go crazy if I don't do physical things. Yeah. So like climbing gyms, I'll do sometimes, but I don't like doing that alone. Yeah. Where it's been my new routine. I take our new dog and I go visit my sister who lives on a lake. The dogs play, we hang out, go wakeboard, they go ski, and we have lunch after and it's been like the coolest routine. All right. And this is down in Florida? Yeah. Okay. Because you grew up in Connecticut, right? Yep. I've only gone wakeboarding like two or three times. Ken got really into wakeboarding. That was like one of the things he loved doing is to just love going out to the lake. And it's definitely one of those things that like the first time you do it, you go home and you're like, I could do this again. And like, I think I kind of want to really get into it. And then you're like, I need a boat and all these other things to go do it. But it's certainly fun. Although we always used to joke about wakeboarding, that wakeboarding is like one of those sports that it's just best to like just do on your own and not film it. Like it never looks as cool as it feels. Definitely not. Like I would be out there and I'd be like, this is so sick. And then like Ken would show me a video and I'd be like, yeah, not as sick looking as I thought it felt. I definitely agree with that. Why do you think on the BMX thing, why do you think so many BMX dudes get into cars and specifically drifting? And I think more so than skateboarders. Like I feel like there's this direct correlation of like with age comes a cage. Yeah, I think BMX compared to skateboarding, you like have to either know or care a little bit more about like mechanics because you're like, there's way more going on with a bike between the chain and the hubs and headsets and bearings. So like you already have a little bit of that in you. So like imagine installing coilovers on a car. If you're a skateboarder, probably a little bit more scary than if you're a BMX rider. Right. So I think there's some sort of component in that, but I really think it's just like the action sports like reckless, like adrenaline rush. And then yeah, the age get a cage thing is like you get old, you get sick and getting hurt, but you want to still have that same feeling and you get that drifting. Oh, hey, please pardon this little story time interruption brought to you by my good friends at FCP Euro. A few weeks back, we kicked off a whole new show called firing order. And now I'm searching for BMW's late night on marketplace because I made a big argument that the BMW Z4M coupe should have been one of the top five drivers cars after 2000. While it didn't get into the top ranking, it definitely got into my head. And now I got a little bit of an itch to scratch. First thing of course you do at this point is you start looking up all the problems. Sure enough, there's a bunch of garden variety issues, TPS failures, rear trailing arm bushings, engine mount failures, sticky idle control valves, problematic clutch delay valves. But the main event, rod bearing replacement and vano system rebuilds. I'm pretty sure vanos is German for VTEC. I got to double check. The good news is though, I went over to SCP Euro and not only do they sell all of the parts I listed above, they even make a full refresh kit for the vanos. So those of you who are listening, what am I getting into with this whole vanos issue? Decide whether or not I really want to get myself into a summer fling with a Z4M coupe or am I just on a road to heartbreak? So if you too are thinking about adding a little European flair to your mid-summer night fever dream, head on over to FCP Euro because they're the best at helping keep European cars. On the road by supplying you with all of the parts you need for those somewhat unreliable but beautiful vehicles. Check them out. FCP Euro dot com. What was it for you that made you crossover or got you into it? I had always wanted to race. So when I was 16, I would like, I wanted to be a race car driver so bad, but I had no path. No, I'll let to do it. I remember my mom's ex-boyfriend at the time, like let me do it like autocross day and he had a Camaro SS back when they were brand new. I smoked everyone at the autocross day and I was so proud. I like saved that autocross sheet on my wall. This is like the Lime Rock autocross track. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. FCP course now. Yeah, but there was no path for me to do that. And I think I'd been exposed to drifting because a lot of BMX guys kind of had to crossover. Some drift guys did BMX stuff and I think some of the earlier Turk videos. And I just, again, I never really had an outlet to do it. I would try to drift. I had like a E46 sedan at the time, automatic open diff. In the snow, I'd be a wannabe drifter. And then like I crashed my car, I think twice or three times. And then I literally in video, I was like, if you want to drift, just stop being dumb like me and just buy a 240. Yeah. And it took me from that point, maybe like three or four years to save up enough to where I could have a 240 is like a second car. Yeah. I mean, for me, it was like cars were like, I was so into bikes, cars were secondary, but growing up in New York City, the only way to get out to go ride trails. And like when I was riding, even though we were in this amazing playground of really good street, dirt was still like kind of the coolest thing. Everyone was still riding trails. It was like you had to like have a car to get there. Yeah. And everybody had like for, I don't even know what reason, but like my group of friends who were all a lot older than me all had like slam Volkswagen's, which like I just thought was cool because it was like roof racks. That's what I wanted. Yeah. My buddy Kevin, he had a GLI. Uh-huh. It was slammed with a roof rack and I thought it was the coolest car and I got bait and switched by a dealer and that's how I wound up in the BMW world. Oh. But I wanted a GLI. There's probably a better thing because as a Volkswagen guy, like you just probably better get BMWs, but yeah. Well, I think it's almost good that I wound up with a car that like you couldn't really modify like an automatic 325i. Like you're not doing any engine or any of that stuff. So like it wasn't a huge distraction to me at the time, but I was also like, I was terrified of getting a drift car because I didn't know how to work on a car. Yeah. And originally when I had made the venture to get it, it was supposed to be a shared thing between me and Jimmy Oaks. Okay. Because Jimmy was like my, he was going to work on the car because I didn't know how to do anything. So he was like, look, just get it. Like I can help you do whatever needs to do. And then we were going to share the car and go drive the Lime Rock track together, which got shut down before I had even gotten the car up to Connecticut. So I never got to drift in Lime Rock, but that was the goal of when I got the car. But I had met some people in Florida and they were like, I'll just bring it back down to Florida. We have the Orlando Speed World skid pad will help you down here if anything goes wrong. Because I was like, if the car breaks, I don't know what I'm doing. Right. Like the craziest thing I'd done on a car was like put angel eyes on an E46. Man, I remember that error. Because like the 240 world, there's like not really DIYs for a lot of that stuff. But like if you had an E46, there's like DIY articles for anything and everything. Right. It's like 25 pages long, shows you everything you need to do. Yeah. With a 240, like, you know, sometimes you just need a breaker bar and some silicone. Yeah. It's definitely a different group of people who are building those. Yeah. What error, what time was this? This was when you got your 240, what year? I think it would have been my second year in college. So it would have been like 2017, 2018 area. So it's like just, it's like, so the missile car thing is kind of passed now and people are starting to build nicer cars. Right. Or was missile cars still, I mean, East Coast like held missile cars for a lot longer than the rest of the country did. I think it's just like in Florida, we have a lot of like missile cars, but a lot of it's just because we drive year round. Yeah. Connecticut and a lot of the places where they have a winner, everyone makes their cars nice again. And then Florida. Which is the proper missile model. Yeah. Florida the season never stops. So people just keep driving their car. Yeah. I mean, to me, I think I was, you know, I got into cars from that and then I was always into motorsport, loved racing. I actually didn't really love drifting when it first came out. Not for anything other than like, it just didn't do the same thing to me for me that like rally did. I got to meet a bunch of the DA guys like early on was a journalist. I was already like doing stories on that. But it was the missile car stuff in E-town that I think made me first like really kind of change my mind about it. And I just have always loved sort of the grassroots side of it. But it was just that was the thing that felt the most like BMX or skateboarding because it was like just hanging out, chilling like, Hey, let's try this. Let's try that. Like you brought up the Turk stuff. It's like the early Turk stuff would be like, like, what can we do that's funny? And it's like, Oh, let's put a, let's put a K rail or like an armco on the side of a, you know, a crown Vic and do like a moving like, like, you know, wall tap obstacle, which was super sketchy when we actually did it in the end. But like, you know, we're come up with all these different ideas or like just dumb stuff. And I was telling this one the other day to Jeff Tremaine, we did Tony Angelo and Chris Forsberg, Tony Angelo, we gave him a stun gun. And he was, and the whole thing was like, this was that era where like Forsberg couldn't be phased. So it was like, you just can't face Forsberg. He's unfaithable. And we're like, all right, let's see if you can take a stun gun to the neck. And we were like, literally just zapping him in the car. And it's like, this is the kind of thing that you could only get away with in drifting. Like no, no, like professional motorsport was going to like, a lot, not that we were doing it at FD, but like no driver from that community. And like, Indy was going to be like, yeah, it tased me while I'm doing laps at 200 miles an hour. I think that was this like really fun, exciting moment where like all of that stuff, all that stuff just really blended. But yeah, no, it's, it's interesting. The, the BMX crossover, I just, I feel like I see it more and more. Destruction BMX always get like fed stuff from them. And it'll always be like, you know, why is it that, you know, we all own what we all own like ship boxes now. Like, and it's always like a picture of someone working on a car. It's like, why do we go from car bikes to this? And you like read the comments and you're just like, thousands of comments deep. Just like, yep, we all ended up there. Like that just became that weird, weird crossover for the, for the bike guys. And like all my skateboard friends all got into motorcycles. Really? Which makes no sense to me. It's like, you went from four wheels to two wheels. We went from two wheels to four wheels. But I think it has a lot more to do with like on a motorcycle, you can take your skateboard with you, but you need a car to take your bike with you. And I feel like BMX, like obviously there's exceptions to this. BMX was less about style than skateboarding. Right. BMX, a lot of it was like more about like the tricks and how fast you were going in the speed and that like skate was a little bit more artsy, kind of like a different people, right? Like BMX were more like rednecky, like greasy people. Skaters are more pretty boys, at least in my world. A little more urban. Yeah, yeah. And I think motorcycles, at least if you mean like not like racing motorcycles. No, no, no, no, like Harley's. Like Bobber's. It's more of like a vibey thing. Right. There's BMX riders that get into it. We're like drifting is like, again, it's that same. You're chasing the speed, the mechanics and you want to wrench on it to fix it and see if it's going to be a little bit better. Like, yeah, BMX people, we're all freaking out about trying to, oh, can we get this a little bit lighter to get this bolt, this thing where like skateboard to fit like a lot of the parts, but like all the same. Yeah, pretty much like a set of trucks is a set of trucks. Like you get up good bearings. You can take your whole thing apart like three minutes. Yeah. Or like BMX or is like all the geometry, like you have an inch, you have a quarter inch difference in one tube on a frame and it feels like a completely different bike. I remember like switching my bike from like 175 mil cranks to 180 and like just feeling like it was so weird. Like this just feels so weird. And like, you didn't realize how small of a difference like five mil is, but like at the time it was like, yeah, I don't know. My bike feels completely different. I came and ride it today. Well, what's funny when I was riding it, everyone started realizing that shorter cranks were better for spinning. So like I would ride 160s and like someone made the analogy to him at times like, try to spin with your legs spread out like this or try to spin with your legs spread like this. Makes perfect sense. Crazy. Yeah. So what's next for you, man? I mean, I bring this up because I'm baiting you into the rally car conversation. I'm just going to say that right now. Cause you and I, I brought it up last week to you when we were on the pod and you were just saying that you love it, a lot of fun, but it's just not the right route. I would love to do like a proper stage rally and Dave, rally ready Dave. He's like, whenever you want to do it, we'll go together. He'll help me through it. Cause it's that's like a huge barrier to entry of like not understanding how any of that works, very intimidating. Yeah. So that's definitely a bucket list. I don't think I'll ever race like in a rally series, like as like a thing, but I would definitely love to do like a stage rally and like from start to finish and just have experienced that. Yeah. Um, lately I've, I don't know anything about it, but I've heard like almost every like retired race car driver that I've ever met speaks so highly of. Baha. Yeah. They're like, that is the best thing I've ever done in my life. So like now I'm like a little bit intrigued and like I kind of want to learn more. So maybe that's something that like I might try at some point, but I'm at the point right now where like I'm, I'm ready to, I don't know, I'm ready to start slowing down, but like I'm thinking about what steps I can take to like get more life back. Mm hmm. Not taking on more things. Like there's no, not really anything more I want to chase. It's just like, how do I leverage what I have going now to set my life up to be where I want to be, have kids and have a family and be a dad that could be present and not be working nonstop. How old are you now? 30. Yeah. Um, that's definitely a, you will blink and it'll disappear. Like I had my someone I was 40. And now that I have him in six, like I wish I had him when I was 32. Right. Like looking back at it now and like, oh man, what was I sleeping on? Like this was so good. Like, and it sucks being a dad in your 40s versus a dad in your 30s. Cause it's just like one, there's just a simple math situation of like, he's going to be, when he turns 20, I'll be 60. Right. Like man, that's a huge gap right there versus, you know, being able to, you know, play with B one, be around longer, but also just like, you know, you get older and your knees don't work the same and all these things that, although things you do as a kid catch up to you, um, you're, you just have that different, the different perspective on it. But at the same time, I will say this, you know, I have a lot of friends who had kids when they were really young and all they have is this resentment that like they didn't get to live more of their life. Like I don't really have that. Like I had a great life. Like I did a ton of things on my own. And now I have this next chapter that like I can enjoy more because I don't have that feeling of like, Oh, I didn't get to go do this or I didn't get to go do that. It's like, I got to travel the world. I got to hang out with like all my friends and call it work. I got to do all these really rad things. I got to be involved in something that had an impact. Like, all right, cool. Bunch of boxes checked, you know? So if I have any recommendation for you, it's like, definitely pay attention to that because I think when I was in my early thirties, I'm like, yeah, I'll have a family soon. And it's like another year, another year, another year, another year, another year. And then all of a sudden it's like, Oh, shit, like I'm 40 now. I'm having a kid, you know, which is, which is, which is interesting, but it's, you know, it's definitely a fun thing. And the balance stuff, man, super important. I'm, I'm in this really weird space now where it's like, I don't know. I'm so, I was so used to going a thousand miles an hour at Hoonig and doing so many things, I do not know how to slow down. Yeah. I don't. It's like the best time I've had since Hoonig and was doing the Drifter film because I was, I was working 16 hour days and it felt normal to be like, cool, I'm nonstop work and I'm like bleeding out of my eyeballs. And like, why is it that this feels normal versus like having a down day? And you're like, what am I going to do today? And then you just fill the day with like bullshit because you're like, you just not used to stopping. Do you get to break, do you take breaks much? Like, do you do vacation? I don't do vacation a lot, but I've been, I've gotten really good at like, I basically work like eight to six and like at six, like I pretty much shut off completely. Wow. I could see what you're saying. Like I really enjoy when it's like, I don't want to say a chaotic eight to six, but like I like when there's a lot going on and like my time feels well spent. Um, but then I love that at six, like I go drive a car to restaurant or go downtown, whatever, like it's just no more. I don't open my phone for emails. I don't do any of that. Like it's been such a massive shift in like my mindset. Like were you one of those people who was always looking at the metrics and the analytics of like how videos are doing? Yeah. I would say last year I made a very conscious shift to like, I don't say not care anymore, but like I'm, it's weird. My whole life is been growth. Yeah. So you get addicted to the growth. And then when you stop having growth, when you stop having growth, it feels like you're failing. Right. And I think I just got to a point where I decided like, all right, I'm actually really happy. Like at this spot right here. I feel like I've got a really good fan base. I really enjoy what I'm doing. I think the size of my team is good. And this had just kind of occurred to me after I had like a pretty massive like ramp up of growth and then like a reset year. And then I was like, I don't want to get to that level again. I really like that the level where I'm at right now. Yeah. And if I can maintain the same amount of views in every video and get to do the things that I want to do, I'm happy. I don't need to be chasing to hit a million views in every video because it's, it's crazy to think that like, I don't know, maybe like back when I was doing BMX videos, there was a time where like I was getting a million views a day. Yeah. That's wild to think. And YouTube was a lot smaller than two. So like that was crazy numbers. And the amount of people that are watching those BMX videos that didn't even ride BMX was wild. Do you think the BMX days were bigger than the car days for you? Or did you see a decline when you first got into more making more car stuff? It's a good question. I don't, I think that the BMX videos were like a lot more consistent. Higher views. Yeah. But it took like a week of filming to make one video. So the regularity was a lot more difficult where like once I moved in the car stuff was a little bit easier to make content more often. So I wouldn't say like it was just different. Yeah. Cause obviously we didn't meet till you were already doing on the car stuff. And I think at that point, you know, it was, you were one of the bigger sort of consistent creators and you were uploading like almost every day it felt like, or every, or at least four times a week. I was, I was daily until I was daily through college and then for, I think of a couple of years after college, but before I like switched to every other day. Yeah. And that was a wild shift for me. I think I had, I'd like been hanging out with TJ and he was like, you know, you can like upload every other day. And then like, you'll still get the same amount of views. I was like, nah, bullshit. He goes, let's try it. And I tried it and it was like the amount of life that I got back of like, that is one thing that like, I feel like I deprived myself of the social experience of my life from like age, let's call it 16 to 23, 24. I never went out to eat with anyone. I just, I would always go back to the hotel and I would edit like there was no social life. So now it's the opposite. You'd come to LA and be like, Hey, let's grab dinner. And you'd be like, sorry, I'm busy. That's, that's why I got breakfast with you. You're like, I've got 20, I've got, you know, 20 minutes before I fly out. Yeah. Cause you were always editing. So now it's like, it's become the thing because I like robbed myself of that so much. It's like my favorite thing to do. If I ever have friends in town, like I don't care what I have going on, I'll do whatever it takes to get it done or drop it so I can go to dinner. It's like, I'm a fiend, like friends going to dinner together. That's like my number one hobby. Going to dinner is great. Especially like when I got friends in town too, I throw a bunch of keys to all the cars, we go mob out, Indian sizzler, shout out, hot spot. It's good. You like Indian food? Yeah, of course. You gotta come to Indian sizzler. And we don't really have great Indian food here in California. I feel like, like we have some pretty good stuff on the East coast, but I've also got to spend a lot of time traveling and producer Nick's when his hands up like England rip, rip for Indian food. It's like really, really good Indian food, halal food, like all that does really well in the UK, mostly because they have nothing else that's good to eat there. Colors of brown, colors of brown. Yeah, man. Those are like some of my greatest memories when I was younger. I had a car club was we would go because we were all broke kids, you know, you're like 19, 20 years old, spent all your money in your car. And we would go to Applebee's for half price apps. And it was like, it was like Monday night we would go. It was like next to this place. Sports Plus was the name. It was like a Dave and Buster's like, you know, Temu version. And we would go there, hang out, talk about cars for, you know, half an hour and then go get half price apps and just like beast mode, half price apps. Cause you're like for $10, I can get bonus wings and also mozzarella sticks and everybody would just order. And then you would just hang out for like two hours, just chatting it up and like those are like at the time they didn't feel special, but now as I'm older, it's like those were the like the best moments. Like, and then cruising out with everybody, like the going back home, you know, you get on the highway, everyone ripping. It's funny you say that. Like I think back to the BMX days and like some of, some of the things I remember not the skate parks, but like I remember every time we went to Haven skate park, which was like an indoor skate park. I remember stopping at the McDonald's and like getting, getting McDonald's with my friends were like the same thing. We would go to TGI Friday. There's just like Applebee's and we would get bottomless chips when we were riding in Waterbury and like that was just, that was our dinner. Yeah. We would just sit there eating chips and soda. It, I can remember so many days going snowboarding, which did you snowboard? A little bit. I was never really great. I don't want to, I want to get back to this, but are you one of those people where if you're not good at something, you don't do it? No, I actually love snowboarding. It's more so just the fact that it like wasn't a super accessible thing that like you need to drive an hour or two hours to go to the mountain. Yep. But I like, I love it. Every year, if a group of friends goes, I'm so down. What would have been the close mountains for you in Connecticut? I think like Jiminy Peak and no, there's like maybe like sundown is a mountain. They're like, there wasn't a lot of great ones. Like the people that really snow where they would go to Butternut, wherever that is. Okay. And I think that was like a three or four hour drive. Yeah. But I love going up the mountain like the chairlift ride. That's my favorite part. They're going down part school too. Yeah. I know for me though, like I think back and it's like, I have more memories of eating with friends after a good day of riding than the actual riding. Like, you know, I could think about like those like particular moments or those days you landed like a trick, like those things stood out. Like the first time I like stomped the 360 and you're like, fuck, yeah, that's super cool. But I have more memories of like this weird sandwich shop that we found and like we just like, you know, and you're like your hands are still frozen and you're like sitting there just eating and just shooting the shit with everybody and like reliving the day. It's like, man, that was, that was like so much such a good fun kind of like moment. And it's, it is funny as you get older, you look back and you're like, yeah, man, it's those weird personal like moments like that. I mean, you know, when I came out to, we went out, I forget, I don't even remember when, but we went and hung out with, you know, Oaks and just like that whole crew in Connecticut and You're the Sally's? Yeah. And it's like, just like going and hanging like we, it was like just two or three days. Like we were back and forth from like Tommy's spot to Lime Rock. Like it was just like all this like different stuff going on. And I remember like me, Vinny Grant was there. We like kind of left being like, man, I'm kind of envious of like the setup those guys have because like, like there is, they still have like this just like swing by each other's shop and like hang out and bullshit and like bust each other's balls. It's like, it's a, it's a good vibe. And like, I think we got, it definitely got to a point in the tuning game where things got so sort of business incorporate that like that piece started to kind of fall away. Like you were there in the early days when we were, I mean, we were just a clubhouse that like kind of ran a business, but like as it became more and more of a business and it became less and less of somebody would just randomly stop by and your whole day would end because you get to like sit there and hang out. It's like, those are definitely, definitely, definitely peak moments. So what right now, like you've got, how many cars do you have at the moment? Like where do you even know? I've sold a lot. Yeah. So I have less than I have had in other points of my life. There's the neighborhood like 30 to 50. Wow. Somewhere around there. So you don't actually know a number. There was a time I knew, but it like I buy and sell cars so often that I don't keep a moving list. And those are all at the property in Florida or pretty much most of them? Yeah. Almost all of them, like minus the Lambo. And then there's like a couple of cars that I have in Japan and New Zealand. They're really scattered a little bit. You have, you have an Ebisu car still? Yeah. I have an Ebisu car. I have one car stored in Japan that's waiting to become legal. And then I've got super still in New Zealand waiting to get shipped back. And I've got a 240 in New Zealand. What are your keepers? Cause I know when you first got here, I walked, you and I walked around the Lambo quickly and you're like, I don't know if it's a forever car. Like, do you think you have forever cars? I mean, I'd say almost every car that I own is a forever car. Wait, what? There was a, there was a time, like it was until like two or three years ago, I had like never sold a car. So you've kept them all this time. Yes. So to me is like, I think if it's something that I've put a considerable amount of effort or like video content towards, it becomes part of my story. And I like to be able to look in my garage and see the evolution of building cars, my taste changing and all of this to where like, let's, let's take an example of, let's use my cream 240. It's not a good one cause it's my first car, but if I were to sell that car, remove my name from it. It's maybe worth like 15, 20 grand. Right. I would pay 15 or 20 grand to just look at that for the rest of my life. That's it is not worth that. Now, if that same car was worth 200, 300 grand, I might have a second guess. Like my drift master's car, if someone came up to me and they offered me a couple hundred grand, I might consider selling it, even though it was part of my journey, just cause like it, that's a, that's enough money to like make a difference. Yeah. That's why the, the GT threes and stuff. I always play the game of trading them back because like as much as I would love to sell my first GT three RS, it's, it wouldn't be worth having that amount of money just sitting. Yeah. I feel like that's also like, you've got, how many GT threes have you had now? I've had, I've had the 991.2 RS, then I had a 992 GT three, then I had a 992 GT three touring, now I have a 992 GT three RS. So I've had four and then I've had two turbos. You never had a 997? No, I was never a 997 guy. Oh really? Have you driven one before? Yeah. And it just, for me, the Porsches of what I've always loved about them is they don't feel like a 240. Right. I've driven a couple of 997s and like the front McPherson is so like darty and twitchy and like it doesn't, it doesn't feel as much as a nice car. And like I get, I get ridiculed a lot for this opinion. I'm not a 997 guy and I'm sure I'll own one someday and the people won't make me eat my words. Yeah. But like, I really loved my 991.2. That was a great car. But the 992 is, is as much as I like old shit, like the 992 is sick. Yeah. I mean, not the RS, the GT three was sick. A lot of people say that, you know, the, those cars have just become easier and easier to drive. So I think that like traditional 911 people like how much harder the older cars were to drive, which like, it doesn't make sense when you say it out loud, but there's definitely that like, oh, the car just kind of is a little bit more rewarding, which I think is like the mentality. Um, but you know, uh, like having, have, I have friends who've had both. And I think everyone leans the 997.2 as like the best. But if you ask anyone, like what's faster on track, it's like, the new cars are where it's at. So I'm like, I'm so focused on the engine part of it. Yeah. That it's really hard for me to take a less optimized version of the same engine. And I know it's not same because the 997 are still the Metzger's right. But like, even if I compare like a 991 to a 992, the 992, they change some stuff with the intake and like the motor is so much more torque that it's so much better to drive around. It's like the 992 for me is just, it's the best version of the engine. It still sounds great, but it's got a ton of torque down low. And you get this new upper front wishbone that doesn't make it do all the dirty McPherson things. So that was always the big thing for me. Cause like driving around my road has so much camber on it that like the McPherson cars are just doing this the whole time getting yanked around. And it's like not enjoyable. And then I hop in the upper arm car and it's just like, it feels like I'm driving a Cadillac that's still as sharp as any Porsche I've ever driven. I don't have a lot of time in the newer cars. So like for me, I just like the, I like old ship boxes and I like the dartiness and that's a thing that, that I've just enjoyed, but, um, and I just liked the connectivity of them, but that's all, it's all a pretty good argument. A conversation that you and I started when we got here and I kind of paused it because I wanted to have it now is I've noticed this thing where a lot of us who started in YouTube on budget shipbox builds, right? 240s, 36 is whatever it might be. Um, have, you know, have done well and are now graduating. Like we all just seem to kind of graduate into that. Like Porsche Lambo Ferrari space. Um, which I think is a weird thing because I, like, I still, it's still weird to me that I own this Ferrari behind me because it's just not me. And you said that, like, you don't feel like that lambos you, but like you still bought it and you still even questioned like whether or not it's going to be a forever car because there's something cool and special about it. But I do hear from the audience that like for the audience, it's weird because like they all, like they didn't change the same way that we did. They still love all the ship boxes we build, but we've all sort of graduated to this other thing because as you get more successful and you have more means, you get more access to other things. And all of a sudden, like you have less interest, really some people have less interest on work, still trying to make a, you know, E 36 do something or whatever. Um, where do you sort of find that balance? Cause like for me looking at you when you first started like posting about GT3s, I was like, Oh, this is a side of Adam. I didn't even know existed. I think what's always been cool for me is because I'm into so many different like genres of car stuff. I've formed all these like pockets of my audience where like I do the Porsche stuff and I have a bunch of the Porsche guys that watch those videos. I do the 247 has those. Maybe the evos guys had different evil audience. And I feel like that's kind of been a strong point of mine is like, I'm not stuck on one brand or like one genre of cars. Yeah. So it, it also kind of like cross pollinates. Like I'll hear some of the Porsche guys getting more interested in drifting or drifters getting more interested in Porsches. I just anything that's like a, a cool driving experience gets me excited. And I do think I was, I was pretty nervous at what the audience was going to think of the Lambo thing. Cause the Lambo is like, it's way out of pocket for me. Like it doesn't. Yeah. It's not on brand anything. But it's, it's douchey is like the thing that most people look at, but it's also pretty cool. Well, and I had wanted a Lamborghini so bad that I remember I told my high school teacher, I was like, I'm going to have a Lamborghini before I graduate college and I was going to go there and I was going to show up at school and like, yeah, like I did it. I bought a house instead, which I think was way smarter decision. Um, but as I like got older, I learned like, I don't want to be a Lambo guy. Like the people that drive Lambos maybe not want to be a Lambo guy. And I was really surprised to see how much people actually like the videos with the car, just because it's through a different lens, right? No fault to DD. I love those guys. Like I think what they do is really cool. DDE making a video about a Mercey Lagos way different than my taken a Mercey logo. Of course. I'll, I'll spend 15 minutes talking about like one little dumb bolt underneath the car because I think it's so funny that they use this one bolt because I'm comparing it to two forties, which is also what my audience knows about. Right. So it's like, I'm a Lamborghini owner through the lens of shared experiences of the other people that watch my content. So it's, it's different. Yeah. No, and I love that perspective because I feel sort of the same way about it. I, um, I actually feel uncomfortable sometimes driving my Ferrari around, which I don't feel that way about the nine 11, nine 11 is worth way more than the Ferrari, but for something to me, the nine 11 doesn't seem as, um, they blend in people don't know. Yeah. They kind of, I mean, mine doesn't blend in so much, but it blends in more than the average and I don't know. It's like an old nine 11 and I don't know. And I didn't pay that much for it. It's, it's worth a lot more now, but like that car just feels normal to me where this feels like I have this huge like thing, like look at me. You got the Ferrari badge. You got the window doors. It's screaming. I mean, yours is orange. I'm rich. I'm rich. And I want you to know I'm rich. You see a nine six four and it's like, that's probably an old guy that has good taste. Right. Right. Yeah. Do you find that like just driving this around now, like even driving in an LA? Dude, the first time I drove it home from when I bought it, I stopped to get gas and like the first time I put the doors up and everyone looked over, I regretted my decision so much. I, I lived through the door halfway because I didn't want to put it all the way up and I rolled out of the car because I was so embarrassed. Yeah. It's a weird thing to be embarrassed. And it's like, you deserve it. You have worked super hard. I have witnessed you work that hard. You deserve to go buy those fun things in life, but it is weird to be like, I don't really feel like I belong in it. Vinny gives me shit all the time because he's always like, bro, why are you still pretending to be poor when you're not anymore? And I'm like, because I know poor so well, it fits me like a glove. I was like, it's I would rather drive my shit box Volkswagen's around than my nice cars. I was like, I don't know. It just, it's just a weird, like I just feel more at home driving that or driving something that like you built your own and you modified your own and you made it your own. And it's just like, oh, this is a really cool spec that I paid the money for. I think that that's a really big thing. I love my nine, six, four. Like a lot of people ask me my favorite cars. I think it's probably my nine, six, four. Oh, really? And like that car is kind of my daily right now. So like I've been putting miles on it. Nice. And it's, it's just like a good car. Yeah. You put a lot of work into that thing too, right? Yeah. And like I did a lot of it myself too. So it's like, it's a different type of passion. Like someone asked me a question about that car. I'm excited to talk about it. The Lamborghini, I haven't really done that much. So like it doesn't feel like it's like something that I created. Like my minute nine, six, four, I think it's cool as fuck. And like, I know every single thing that was done to that car. I did a lot of them myself and like, I love that car. It's a great color too. Like that color just stands out so much. When I first moved to California before RWB stuff on my car, I had a Nissan Titan and a 911 when I left New York. And for some reason, the 911 showed up first on transport and then the Nissan Titan got like lost in transport. And I ended up having the 911 as my daily driver for like four months. And it's probably the best time I have with that car. I remember going to like Home Depot and having to buy two by fours. And I put like a moving blanket over the roof and it had like the four. It had like the 4.0 wing in the back. And I just had like it going across the back, like, you know, ratchet strapped. And I wish I had like taken a photo of it at the time, because it was pretty cool. But like, but I was just using it as a car. And like all my friends referred to it as like the Hank Moody 911. I don't know if you ever saw the California case. But because I would just like leave it parked at the movie theater, I would go there because it didn't seem it wasn't as special as it is now. Like now it's like such a special car because 9-Elevens are through the roof that like I question it more. But like it is a really good car to daily. Like it certainly is. Of all my cars, it's the only one that I think right now that has working air conditioning, too, which is nice. So rule out the like new R.S.s because they're so like loud and in your face. That was always my favorite thing about the 9-Elevens is like, you could have a GT3 into most people. It just looked like any other Porsche. And it's so funny because like I watched there's like a super car Blondie or someone like that on Facebook that was like talking down about GT3s because like, oh, you spend all this money and just looks like every other 9-Eleven. And I'm like, that's the point. You don't get it. That's the point. It's like you have this thing and like only only the people that like get excited about that thing. No. And it to everyone else, it's like, oh, it's a Porsche. So it's like a nice car, but they have no idea what it is. I mean, my favorite cars in the world are the if you know, you know, I have an Audi RS, too. You know, many times I have some old guy come over and be like, oh, yeah, I had I had one of those. I'm like, oh, you did? Like, where would you get it? Oh, yeah, I got it at the dealership over here. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, because he just thinks it's like a B5 or a B4. Like he doesn't. And it's like, I love that it just blends in because if you know, people will lose their mind. You be like, oh, my God, is that an RS too? Everyone else is just you just kind of blend in, which is like my favorite, my favorite type of car. And I think 9-Eleven used to blend in. I think nowadays, though, they've become such this part of pop culture that like even the most basic 9-Eleven sort of stands out, but not in the same way. A bright yellow, a bright orange Marcielago does. Like that just like yells like, like, you know, look at me and attention. But it's crazy because I think a lot of me, TJ's like, he's stacking a bunch of 9-Eleven's, everything else. I think a lot of a lot of people who got obviously Vinny's like given up like ship boxes, Vinny's like fully Vinny is moving more and more day by day to I only want to own OEM brand new cars that like don't have any problems. And like, I get it. I get it. But for me, it's like, I dream about building dumb cars. I don't even like think about acquiring more of this. Like I probably need to sell, sell more of this. So yes. Do you think you'll, you'll, is this like the one or they're more that are on the list of the kind of dream cars to buy? I, I just really enjoy like nice cars, if that makes sense. And I think the 964 opened my eyes that like I can find stuff that's not new, but it's like a nice car from an older era. And the 964 is a weird one because like stock, they're not the greatest. They're not super exciting. So like that obviously costs a considerable amount of money and time to get a tour it is, but I'm intrigued by cars that are special, that don't need a lot of things to make them exciting. Right. And I don't know what that means. Like the Carrera GT before it became an unobtainium would have been a car on the list. Yeah. Like F40 type, like the, it's like not a hypercar, but it's, it's a level above a supercar like that. Right. I don't even know what you'd classify it as. This conversation is one that I've had forever because in the magazine era, like a 9-11 was never considered a supercar. It was always just a sports car. But now that's hard to say with the new GT3 RS because it does supercar level stuff and then hypercar is like a whole other level of things. But it's like, I don't know, but then as an NSX sports car or supercar, I don't know, it's, it's, it's such a weird like kind of game of semantics of, of where each of those cars fall. Um, and then it even becomes a conversation of like, Oh, is a, you know, as a, you know, a, is a V8 versus, you know, V12, like what makes it this or that? I don't know. I think at a certain point, like you, once you get above sports car, it's all kind of supercar, hypercar land. And I think those two things blend and I'm not that into that world. So I don't care to have the argument over it. Like I've listened to the Matt Faris and the Chris Harris's and everyone like talk about that. It's like, I don't know. None of that really excites me as much as, you know, some car with a really weird engine swap in it. Sure. That's more what I'm into. But you get to a point with like engine swaps and stuff and you know that there's always going to be these quirks. Like it never works the way you think it's going to. My, my life's mission is to perfect all the cars that I own. And I will just have a note that is pages and pages and pages long. Every time I drive the car, that's, that's what I'm thinking about. It's really funny. Like I'm just, I'll be driving. I'll be with someone. They see me pull up my phone. They instantly know what I'm doing. And I'm just like adding notes to like fix this, this tie rod loose. This want to try different realignment. Like I'm just laser focused, but I like, I feel like that also gives me a purpose, facilities it sounds like Ash Ketchum's purpose was to catch them all minds to perfect all the cars. I get that. I get that. Cause I think I, um, I'm at the point now where I realize I have too many cars for what I want to do with them all. Cause you've bought a lot of cars that you either finished and then kept, or you bought cars that were, you know, just drivers. I bought a lot of like these really lofty project cars. I was like, oh, I'm going to do all this to it. And then I just never had the time to do it. Those are some of the cars that I've been selling. Okay. Because I'm like, I'm accepting that like, I'm probably never going to get to it. Like I just sold my, I had a EVO TEM ERS super rare, like 200 made, probably a hundred left because all of them were rally cars, people just destroyed. And like I had, I had all the parts to turn that into like a sick time attack car. But it was just, I had no purpose. I had no desire to do it. I've always got other things that were more important than I like accepted. All right. Like certain cars that I own almost stressed me out because I know that like, it's almost like a hundred thousand dollar liability of what it will cost me to build it. And I don't care. I don't care to drive it in its current form. Right. Yeah. So like I have cars like that, like my GCA, I kind of feel that way. And I'm like, I didn't even know you had a GCA. Yeah. I've got, it's a version six STI type R super cool car. Yeah. Like I don't, this isn't, I mean, it's whatever I'll just say. I'm like, I have a really nice FD. I've never made a video about it. I hide it in all the videos because I'm not, I've spent so much money to find the nicest FD on fucking planet earth that now I'm scared to build it because it's such a nice car. I'm like, I should sell it and I should buy like a driver. Right. Right. Instead of touching that. Yeah. Like a driver spirit R instead of this R except I spent so much money on. And like also look at him like, I don't care to drive a stock. I'm going to spend all this money and time to build it. And when am I ever going to do that? That's, I think sort of the issue I have with my love affair with cars is the cars or the silhouettes I like aren't good stock. Like they all need something, especially in like a modern day situation. Cause you get into a car that may have been faster than the nineties and it's like, it just doesn't, it just doesn't do the same thing anymore. Or you're like, oh, I want better braking. I want this and then everything kind of like spirals out. But the mistake I made was I bought a lot of things when they were cheap. And now I feel like I've like invested in this weird stock and like, oh, but if I get rid of it now, like, am I really going to want to replace it? Am I going to want to buy it again? That's the challenge. You know, cause you're like, oh, and in my head, I think, oh, I'm eventually going to do this. Like I'm eventually going to do all these plans, but I'm starting to kind of come to grips with like, I don't know, I have 26, 27 cars right now. Like 12 of them are runners. The rest are all projects. So it's like, I really need to just sit there and probably just focus on the 12 that are runners, maybe sell a couple, take a couple of projects and you get finished. Like, I don't know if you ever saw that Audi Qquattro that I built. Like that car runs, but doesn't drive because I haven't taken the weekend to figure out why the clutch is not pushing in because the slave isn't pushing the rod far enough. That's it. That was two years ago. It's just like life. It's like there's just a bunch of things going on. And without there being, without me being involved in content anymore, there's not like that content driver of like, oh, I got to get this done because I got to get that episode done. It's just like, I just have to do it. But then once it's done, it's like, that just opens up a whole other can of worms because then I'm going to go drive it and find a list of things that are wrong because I completely reimagined the geometry of the entire car. It is not going to work the way I want. And it's going to take years and years of development. And I don't like, I don't really have that bandwidth, nor do I have like, if I look at all the other projects I have, but at the same time, I'm so invested in that project, I can't sell it. It's like, I couldn't just like sell it and not finish it. So it's like, I eventually have to do it. And I think it's like your point. It's like, that's a hundred thousand dollar liability. Like I look at that car and I just know that like, once I start getting into it, like figuring out all the little stuff and it's all the small stuff and it's all the small stuff. And we talk about this all the time in the podcast where it's like, there's this whole list of like the last 5% that doesn't make for good content. And like, but you have to do it. That's my favorite part. Is it? Oh, you like that stuff? Because that's the, that's where like, I get so laser focused on these cars where like, I get obsessed. Like I won't sleep if there's a problem that I need to figure out. So like that's why I think a lot of the cars get to a better point. Cause I won't, if I have a clutch problem, I won't, I will just, that is the only thing that I'll think about. And you can't get out of your head. Yeah. And it like, or like there's a little rattle. I'll get so obsessed with it. But what's funny is like most of my cars, at least in the beginning days, they all like just happened because it was a marketplace deal. Like my, my first FD car, like I got, cause it was like a good deal. There were never nice cars to start with. And there was a certain point where I started realizing, oh, like, I'm buying all these shitty cars and I put all this money and all these parts. And I should probably start with nicer examples. And I think that's where like my R34 project and like, I went down this rabble with the FD, my chaser is really nice. Like my nine, six, four, cause it's like, what difference is it going to make? If I spend 20, 30% more and get the nicest car possible to start with, with nice paint, that's like a really nice car. And I build that instead of getting whatever the cheapest car was. That was like a really big regret. Cause I like looking at my garage and be like, man, all these cars, like they started as like shit. Yeah. That's definitely where I'm at. And I think a lot of that comes from the YouTube like mentality, which is like, I want to take this thing, that's a shit box and then completely strip it down and like do this massive like makeover of what this vehicle is without realizing that like, man, that's hard to do with every single project you have. Right. And every car, like to dig that deep into it and just tear it down with the bones. And so I have these cars that I'm now like, some of them I'm already half invested in, I'm like, I've already like put so much or effort and not even like money. It just like effort. Yeah. Like I tracked down these parts or I found this really rare stuff. Cause like all the weird Audi stuff I like is difficult because some of them, only like a hundred of them were sold in the US. Like they weren't popular here. They're hard to get the parts from anywhere else. And so it's like you spend all this time like tracking it all down. And then I sit there and like, I should have started with a much nicer car. Like I wouldn't have tried to track all of this stuff down. That's part of the fun though. It is. Like that's like kind of my favorite part is like the hunt for the parts is sometimes just as fun as actual. Well, Tommy is a great example of that. Oh yeah. That man is constantly hunting parts for cars that he doesn't even own. I get that though. Like I'll find something rare that'll make me want to buy the car it goes to. I've done the same thing. Like you find either like a super rare manifold or something. You're like, I got to build this car now. Yeah. Like I have you super cool. How many guys do you have helping you now? Do you have, you still have a decent shop of people working? So in my shop right now, I've got Sean, who's a tech. I've got Josh and Ray who paint and body. Yeah. Um, and then Freddie kind of works here and there on the FD team and like assist some projects on the tuning. Um, he doesn't technically work for me. He's just in the shop a lot. And then we've got a new guy, JP, who again, doesn't technically work for me. He also works for a couple other companies, but he's in the shop all the time doing all our fab stuff. So it's kind of like three guys, but we get a lot of help from Freddie and JP. Yeah. How big of a change was it for you when you got the compound? Uh, it was, I mean, that was huge, huge change. I mean, it was from a business level because that was also tied in with the purchase of drift HQ. Yep. So like, I think I, I fumbled, I fumbled my way through like the first year or two, and then I just realized like, I want it to be a better leader. I had just felt like you can, you can get away with like treating a business like you're a bunch of friends and it can be really fun for so long. And there's a certain point where doing that actually creates a worse environment for everyone and you have to add structure and you have to be an actual leader because just being buddies with everyone actually makes it a worse work environment for them. And that was like a big realization. And I took the initiative and I joined like a CEO kind of course type like group, um, and just really like worked on myself. And I feel like that was a really pivotal change of like understanding how to run a business, how to deal and communicate with people and how to set up proper like hierarchy of like, I have different people that manage different departments and like all of that structure that like sounded so scary and was always against like what I would want to do coming from the Vue Max world, but it's really like allowed the business to grow and like everyone to have a good time doing what they're doing. Yeah. I don't think people talking enough about how difficult it is to work with friends. Like it is, I think some of the toughest days I had at Hoonigan was the struggle between having to be someone's boss and then that person also being my friend, you know, and I remember, you know, having conversations with people at the company who would be annoyed about something and they'd be like, well, you need to say something. I was like, well, here's the problem. If I say something, I also to spend the rest of the day working on creative ideas for this person. So if this person shows up 20 minutes late to work, which they shouldn't, but then like I grill them on that, they're now annoyed with me. And now I had to spend, you know, the rest of the day with them being annoyed. What I then realized later on, so I, so I wouldn't, I would let, I would let a lot of people get away with murder who I shouldn't have let do that. But then what I realized later on as like I matured and kind of grew through it was that those other people who were complaining that this person was getting away with murder were like, they were actually the good employees. Like they were the ones who were doing it. And because I wasn't being firm enough with this one person, I was, it was sort of a disservice to them. It was like disrespectful to the dude who was there on time, who was doing their thing, right? Huge. And, you know, that really sort of shifted like in the later years and starting to kind of realize that I never wanted to be a boss though. Like, and that's, I think the problem is like, you can be a leader, which I think I was decently good at leading, right? Like people would follow me into fire. I was like, I don't know, Scott has got a crazy idea, but we're going to go do it. Right. And, but I had a hard time being a manager. Sure. Right. And I think that, you know, there were elements, there were times where I would bring in someone to help manage for me so that I could like be more focused on leading the brand and being sort of the vision and all of that. Um, and really be more of like the Hurrah coach, like let's do this, kind of get everyone excited. Um, but then there's a disconnect there too. It becomes difficult because then you have like the one person, like you have the person who becomes like for, you know, sake of a better word, like a disciplinarian, that everyone ends up hating. Right. And it's like, so it's, it's, it's a difficult thing, but I do think like you find this weird spot where it kind of works. And, and for me, um, who didn't work best when it was 15 people. Yeah. 15 people was like, uh, was like the right number where like we could all still go get dinner together. Yeah. Right. I think once it became 40 people and a lot of people really never had like direct contact with me other than, you know, just running into each other in the building because they had like their higher up that they spoke to and everything started getting, I just felt like I no longer had control over certain things. Like I couldn't, like the way I saw things wasn't being, you know, um, sort of translated to other people the way I would do it. And then I was getting annoyed, but I'm getting annoyed at someone who like I never even directly spoke to about it. So like, how are they going to know? And I think there's just a certain scalability in building authentic brands that it's really hard once you get over a certain size. Sure. And you look at it, whether it was in BMX or skateboarding, like you start to get big and it's like, it just becomes hard to like keep that thing true. At the same time, I couldn't do what I did for Hoonige in the first, whatever, how many years it was before we started to really kind of grow past that for much longer than I did without absolutely burning out. Cause I was like, when we were doing daily transmission, I was, we were going, we were uploading it midnight. I don't know why we did that, but we were uploading it midnight. I would work with the editors on the edit till midnight. We would get it finished around like 10 30, just so it would render in time. It would go up at midnight. And then I would stay in the comments until two o'clock in the morning every night. And then I would still get up at seven every morning because like there was like the whole apparel business that we were running that like I had to get there for and it was super fun. But my goodness, was that like exhausting? So it's like, I don't know, finding good people around you though is like, is great. But I, I now that I've worked solo, I miss the everyday of just having like your friend group. It's like, these are like, these are all my friends and now I don't see them as much anymore. It's like, we have to like make plans to go see each other. Like, oh, let's go get dinner tonight. Let's go do this where when you work together, you're like, you just fucking see each other every day. You show up at the same place every day. So how many people in total are at compound? A little over 30. Oh wow. Damn, you've built a, you've built a, you've built a business now. Yeah. Yeah. But man, like, you know, kind of going off what you said, it is one of the coolest things, like I've got such a great team to just know, like, I feel like we could almost do anything. Like if, if we get a task or something thrown at our plate, like, I know that like we've got some really good people and they're down to do what it's going to take, whether we're talking on the car side, on the drift HQ side, on the sim HQ side, like it's just, it's really cool to have that feeling of like all these amazing people at your back that are like down. What are all the businesses right now? So the way that it's, it's segmented, it's kind of like my personal, I call it my personal, which is like the race shop, the YouTube stuff, my merch business, I kind of treat separately, LZMFG, that's kind of operates as its own entity, drift HQ operates as its own entity, and then sim HQ operates as its own entity. So like, I kind of play in the shop with the race cars, do the YouTube stuff and like manage the guys that work on the cars and like that's my thing. Okay. And then all the other pieces have their own heads. Correct. And then you kind of, kind of run that and then you help support in all of that. I mean, we have, we have weekly leadership meetings and right, like it's pretty structured. And then what does, like where does the tour land under? Is that the tour is kind of like its own separate entity. That's a partnership between me and Drift Games. Right. So that's another, that's kind of like an adjacent to what we do. Yeah. You got a lot going on too. Yeah. But like, again, like I've just learned that as long as I partner with the right people, I mean, drift HQ, Duarte, my business partner was like the 90% of the reason why I even made that move is cause like I loved Duarte and I knew that I, if I was going to take a parts journey, I wanted him to be my partner. Same thing with the world tour. The world tour would not exist if I didn't have Drift Games as a partner. Yeah. So like I've learned to really just find people that are really talented and just like give them the tools and the freedom to be able to do the things that they're good at and like it's, it's crazy. Yeah. And I think that, you know, a lot, like YouTube is just really interesting place. I think a lot of people did it the wrong way. I think in many ways, Hoonigan did it in the wrong way, especially in the later years. I think Donut ended up doing it the right way than the wrong way. And I think that there was this model where like individual creators was really what YouTube was built for. The team model, while super fun, is a lot more of a struggle to create, right? Like one, the algorithm doesn't really do well if you've got one person, one day and another person next. Like everyone's showing up every day because they want Adam. That's what they get. With Hoonigan, you would have shown up and it would have been like hurt one day and Zack the next, which like literally couldn't be more polar opposite people in terms of what they like and everything. But on top of that, I think that, you know, a lot of people talk about how like being a YouTuber is just not sustainable anymore. Cause like there's not really enough money from just the YouTube to grow a business of more than maybe one or two people. But what it does allow you to do is what you did, which is like, you just got to build like four or five other businesses that support that one thing. And I think as you said earlier in this pod, YouTube is there because it helps fuel it all, but it's like all those other pieces are the pieces that like come together. And I spent a lot of time looking at it from that side because it's interesting to see like what's still working, what's still successful. Cause like you and Cleetus have a somewhat similar kind of approach to things. Like, yeah, you're in different spaces, you have different audiences, but in terms of, you know, you both have an involvement in a parts thing. You have like a compound that, you know, he uses his a little bit differently, but it's a big place to create your brand, your brand affinity, your content, stuff like that. You obviously have apparel. You're both competing in series. You have your thing that does that. And it's like that seems to be like the best working model, but it isn't easy. Yeah. I mean, look, I think Cleetus would probably say something to me is formula drift where like he doesn't need to be doing that. It probably doesn't really, he would probably make a lot more money doing other things, but it's probably a personal goal of his. And like he now gets to do this thing and like have something to work towards. Cause like he could do whatever he wants. He could fly his planes and helicopters and it gets boring. Yeah. No. And look, I mean, I think I made this joke to you the other day, but we always said Hoonigan was a really profitable business and can spend all the profits on rally racing. Yeah. It's like he didn't have levels and where we made our money, but that's what fueled him. It's like, it's, it's what he wanted to go do. So you do all of this to create the paths and the access to go do that kind of stuff. Right. You know, I think similar to you guys have oddly parallel stories. I'm sure people have said this before, but it's like in very different spaces, even though you guys are friends, you do content together, but like it is like these two different worlds. Like, and that's something that we learned, you know, in our days of like the, the world of, you know, sports cars, the world of drifting, the world of JDM cars, and then the world of American cars is like, it's like a totally separate space. But you're blending them now. You've got a big block. Yeah. Tell me more about that thing. I mean, it's just one of those things where like, I get excited about cool engines. Yeah. It doesn't matter what it is. I noticed that there seems to be a theme like engines are a big driver for you. Yeah. I just like, again, like I, I'm just excited. I'm that first start that dyno run, the trying the different cams and this and that to see, I like the cause and effect of it. It's a very clear cut. I do this. I get this result. And sometimes it's like, there'll be a world like the rotary world or something gate kept and like, I don't know. We don't know. We can always find out and then it works and you get excited. Success. I like that. What are your top five favorite engines? Four rotors. Definitely, definitely up there. Yeah. The thing sounds, I mean, going back to filming on Drifter, like, my God, just the sound that thing would make was just so crazy. It's got so much character too. Like it's not just the sound, also the way it feels and like the emotions that it evokes that's up there. Um, my two J and my FD cars incredible. So like that's for sure up there. Um, I really like my air cooled four liter that engines got so much soul. Yep. Um, SRs are great and I love an SR, but I don't think it has the same like pedigree as these other engines. Like I love an SR, but I don't know if I would put it in my top five engines. Right. Like I'm a lot of people tell you it's God's motor, but no, I agree. Like I, I think it is, but I don't think I'd put it in my top five engines. Like if I compare that to like a four liter, uh, 992 Porsche motor, right? Like it's good, but it's not that turbo S 54 really cool. Like there, I don't know. I could name so many. This is the show I want to do because I do this other podcast called firing order where we just make lists and we bring everyone on and then we just fight about it. Right. And like, maybe, maybe next time you're out here, I'll save that one for you. Cause it's a hard one to get into cause you start going like, man, this is really good. And there's like, oh, well, he's like some weird peculiar engine that like you forget about, you know, like, oh yeah, that's a really cool thing. I get it. I like weird motors that no one really talks about. So watching a video the other day on the, like the GM inline five, which is like the Vortex, 3600 or whatever. I think they love those in Brazil. There sounds, sounds about right. Super common of them. And that's where I learned about it. Like, wow, I've never heard of this. Yeah. And it's, it's basically like the 4,200, you know, the inline six that everyone was calling like the American, uh, Jay-Z. It's a, that just shorter. Yeah. Just with, you know, so I sold her slap and like, I was, I saw a video the other day of one running. I was like, that thing sounds insane. Cause I'm the person where like, if it sounds cool, I like it. Oh, a hundred percent. It needs, it needs to sound cool and needs to have character. Yeah. Like there's some engines that like sound good. Like I think, man, I'm probably attracted to a lot of people. I think like vipers, like the, like the Viper engine sounds cool, but I don't feel like that engine does character. That makes sense. Yeah. It has like a weird, like angry throatiness to it. That's cool. But there's like, it, it makes it a good amount of torque, but it doesn't, it kind of just like falls on its face. It doesn't like rev high. It doesn't, it sounds cool, but it's like there's, it's lacking the like excitement portion. Right. You know what I mean? And I think any engine that doesn't rev lacks that excitement. Like I can't think of that many engines that, you know, don't rev high that you're like, man, that's a really great engine. Uh, B 58 S 58 engines don't rev super high. And like, I think those are pretty good. Like stock two J revs to 7,200, but it sounds so cool going to 7,200. Yeah. But 7,200 is high compared to like, if you think that 7,200 to me is low. Yeah, I know, but I'm like 7,200 is the beginning of getting into the high range. If it doesn't rev past the 65, I'd, yeah, you look at a lot of old American engines and it's like 6,600, 6,500 is like, is like red line. And you can't really push them past it that much. No, we don't like that. But I like obscure stuff. And I realized like when I was younger, I think I kind of fought that. And I was like, but I'm just like, I like the things that like less people know about because I enjoy the research it takes to figure it all out. Sure. I think to the same point that you're like, Oh, I like to put in these cams. I mean, I did the, I did the bear up pretty early on before a lot of people are doing. That's a great example. But again, it's just like, I see these things and I get excited about them because I don't know it's something new to learn about. And it's similar with Freddie too. Like Freddie's become a big part of what I do. I like things to get him excited. He likes things that he hasn't done before. Yeah, I like things that I haven't done before. So we kind of like feed each other's like frenzy of we call it feeding each other's tisms. I don't know if that's PC to say. No, I look man, I think most of us are on some level of spectrum to make whether it's making content, working on cars. This whole thing, I don't know. It's like this is a world that does very well for the neurodivergent. So it definitely is like, whether it's a little bit of autism or it's whatever it is, like there's something about your ability to sit there and be like, I'm totally cool with hyper focusing on this for 19 hours, training and learning everything I need to know about this in a really condensed amount of time where like most people are like, I don't know, I don't want to figure that out. That's definitely a thing that I think is a is a is a bonus here these days. Welcome to another snack cart brought to you by our good friends at Viper Industrial. As you'll notice, I don't know, he's not sitting here because I forgot to record it with him. But I do have Chris Stewart from Gridlife and Ron Carr. This is a little teaser of an upcoming firing order. But first and most importantly, let's have a snack. So today we've got a Hershey, crunchy waffle and cone pieces. All right, let's let's let's let's hop in. We got to split this because I've only got two. Okay. Hot take. This tastes just like crackle. I was just going to say, this is a crunch bar. He just rebranded. They just rebranded crackle. Do you think that this is crackle from because I have a whole theory about candy corn, how candy corn hasn't been produced since 1960. Everybody just gives it to each other and then it goes into a mysterious place and then it just gets re-gifted. I'm like pretty excited about where like the whole world is now. Where like Hershey and Reese's. Actually, no, the whole world actually sucks. But I'm pretty excited. I'm pretty excited. Snack world. Don't take that out of context. Don't take that out of context. I'm pretty excited where the snack world's at right now. Snack world's a jump thing. No, but it's like they discovered, like they discovered colapses. Like Reese's is the supreme in the game. Oh, yeah. Like they're just collabing with everything. Yes. Twix has been killing it too. Actually. Twix. Yeah, there's been a lot of like. Twix is doing big things right now too. It's all the colapses. On the other side, Doritos doing big things. I was just going to bring that up. The cool ranch lays because they've been doing the they've been doing the flavor swaps where it's like your favorite Doritos flavor. Doritos kind of as a potato chip. Anyway, that's another snack brought to you by Viper. Back to the show. Anyone want that last bite? Yep. Since we haven't, we're almost at the two hour mark and we haven't talked about it. Drifter, let's follow up with you on that. Did you enjoy did you enjoy acting? It was very cool. It was very stressful. I was it. Did you find it stressful? I just remember that the scene you I imagine you would have been there when I had to stand on the wall and like talked to everyone. I wasn't there for that because I was filming all the action. Oh, yeah, you guys are on the back track. Of course, Steve. I had like a monologue and it was so long and like it was part of like a long on cut scene. Yeah. And I didn't know any of this. Like I was like kind of lazy about memorizing my lines. Yeah. And then none of it was natural to what I say. And I just remember like all the people that were down there too, like my friends. Right. So like I had to stand up on the floor for forming in front of all my friends. It's like windy out and it's part of this massive scene where if I mess up it, it screws up the whole take and everyone like there's so many people investing time in this. All the pressures on me and I felt like it came out so awkward and corny and I was I didn't want to watch a movie. I was like, I can't. I thought you I thought you look great in the movie. I think it was really well for you. No. Yeah. Once I saw it, I was like, oh, I don't know what that like it, you know, maybe there's a movie magic, but it came out great. And I was like, I, I feel like the movie made me look so cool. I'm like, I went into it like wanting to like cover my head with my hood and like not look at it. And then I got out of it. I'm like, I look cool. I look, I don't want to take credit for it. But when, you know, Sung approached me years ago for the initial D film, those originally going to do. And then that didn't work out. He reached back out to me a year later and he said, Hey, I'm working on the script. Would you like to read it? You know, I really would love to have you be involved in it. And I read the script and, you know, on the first pass, it had changed a lot from that original thing to what actually got made. But I hit him back and I said, Hey, this might be weird, but like I was reading this character and I just think it fits Adam L. Z. Really well. And he was like, huh, interesting. And like that was, and then obviously after that, like I brought you in, we had the conversation and all of that. And the reason I actually thought it fit wasn't because you were the character, but because there's actually, I think you were sort of the antithesis of the character in some ways in that this was the person who didn't want someone new coming into drifting, right? It was almost like the opposite of sort of your story of like that idea of like, this was the guy who came up through the, you know, unorthodox ways or whatever. But there was just something about that. And then also like the four-wheeler super, I think just, it looks like a villain's car, like it just does. It just has that, that look to it. And it was like all of that just, I think worked out like really well. Like those pieces, I'm happy that all went together. And I was stoked to, I mean, unfortunately we didn't get to work together as much, but we did some fun stuff at ETan, which was great. But that for me is like my, like that's my fun zone. Yeah. I just fucking love that. I love being on set. I love directing all the stuff. I love putting it all together. I love all the problems that come up because I enjoy figuring them out as we're going. Oh, I love that. And just like, it's just like, all of that just like is so much fun. One of my favorite things at the track is when something goes really wrong, everyone's freaking out and that like kumbaya moment where you get everyone together and go, all right, this is the problem. You're going to do this. You're going to do this. This is how we're going to, it's not going to be great, but we're going to get it done. That is like the coolest feeling ever. And then everyone gets motivated. They go and do it. And then it all works out. Do you find yourself to be one of those people that the more chaotic things are, the more calm you get? Hmm. That's a good question. I don't know if it makes you more calm. I just think I operate really well in like high intense stress. Like I'm really good at problem solving and making decisions like under stress. I wouldn't say I get more calm, but like I've learned how to kind of like separate emotion and what's going on to be able to be very clear minded. And I feel like that's, that's what makes or breaks you in this business world. Yeah. Yeah. For me, I'm one of those people that when things are like on a regular day, like there's nothing big to do today. There's a couple calls or whatever, like I fall apart. But on that day that you're like, this is an 18 hour day, like it's going to be crazy. We might have rain. We might have this and, and if everything goes right, like we're barely going to get the day done. But if anyone thing goes wrong, like it all falls apart. I'm like, that's the challenge. I like, yeah, that's the thing that fuels me. It's like, Hey, can we do this? Can we get it done? And, and so much of making Drifter was that because the movie was, you know, seriously under budget for what we were trying to accomplish. So much of what came out of it was friends, you know, from the industry that were there to support kind of song's dream and just make it happen. But that also meant that like everything we were doing, we were like stealing. You know what I'm saying? Like everything was like every minute of the day, we were just trying to take back and make it work. But that's like, that's my, that's my space. That's like where like for me, it's like, yep, that's why I like, I really like enjoy. It's, it's one of those things that I realized it on that film. Cause I, I left, you know, I left Hoonigan and was like, Oh, the fuck I'm going to do. Went and kind of did something completely other for a year. And that was like the first thing I did after leaving Hoonigan. And I was like, Oh yeah, this, like this is the stuff. Like I really enjoy making bigger things. And I enjoy making them like with other people. And I definitely, I enjoy being behind the camera more than in front of the camera. I don't mind being in front of the camera, but it's just like, it was always a necessity. It wasn't the thing that I wanted. Like I enjoy that, like going and making that all. But, you know, when I think about the two of us in that position of like how I was as a leader there, you're in an interesting position because you're leading and you're also in front of it all. So like you are the brand. It does make it tricky. Yeah. And that is, it is hard for me sometimes to like compartmentalize the two because it, it is very difficult to go from like an administrative type day to like being a YouTube personality. So like Monday is I usually write off cause I'm in meetings all Monday. I try to like jam pack my Monday with all the like business meetings and stuff like that. Cause I can't function if it's like business brain meeting, then our filming meeting, then business brain meeting, then our filming, like there needs to be like big windows for me to just fuck off and be creative. Otherwise like it doesn't work for me. What do you do to sort of separate your brain from like, I have to be Adam, the businessman versus like Adam, the talent versus just Adam. And I asked this because one of the reasons why Ken and I worked so well together was because like if something sucked, I would tell Ken it sucked. A lot of other people were afraid to tell something. Ken that what he did sucked where I like, I wasn't, and I think that worked because he needed that person in the background to sit there and be like, Hey, what are we going to do? How are we going to do this? Right. And, and in many ways, like he let me lead and tell him how to, how we were going to do stuff because it's hard to have a perspective of yourself and also be the one in charge. And he was able to separate that. Like there were things that Ken was obviously in charge of, but like when it came to the Jim Conner films, like I was the one telling him, like, that's not cool. We got to do it differently. That doesn't look good because I had to be his eyes and ears, both outside of the car, but like just also like outside of his own head and all of the like weird, I don't mean to use this word negatively, but like we all have it, the weird ego that comes with being on camera. Right. Like it's, you have that ego. You're like, you read the comments, like people say shit that sucks and all those things. And some of that stuff sometimes drives you and it's literally like this, this like really, really small vocal minority that's saying something. Yeah. Right. You look at the number of likes and the views your video caught and like two comments may change the way you think about something. Right. How do you separate that for yourself, both being the one who's in charge and also the one who it's all about? I mean, like I said, I try to compartmentalize. Like I try to pack. Like if I have business heavy meetings, I'll usually structure the day. So like I have Mike set up to where he's editing footage, maybe that we shot the day previous while I'm doing business meetings. And then maybe we have a four hour block where like, we know we're going to shoot X, Y and Z and we can just kind of like have fun in the shop, fuck around, do what we need to do. I really don't enjoy working on cars if I have like a time limit. Like if it's stressful, then I'm just like in a bad mood the whole time. But like if it's a long-term project that I can just like finish when I finish, I enjoy, I love working on cars and like doing something and having them result. But it's so far in a few of the days that I have where I have enough time to do the job that I want to do. It's always like trying to do a four hour job and two hours and film and then getting distracted by 17 things, which makes it really not fun. Yeah. And I think that's the part that like a lot of people just don't see. Yeah. You know, they just see like, oh, you're living the life. And you're like, and look, I always say we are like it's pretty great and it's better than what it was. But it's also doesn't come easy. Like it's not like, it's like, oh, you just like video it and then like you just upload it and it all just works. And it's like, no, you don't even days it, it, it, it doesn't work at all. And you try to put it together. And you know, too, like I'm sure you've dealt with your fresh air of this. There have been so many, I shouldn't say fires, but like so many massive things that have happened behind the scenes that have been huge financial mental distractions that I don't ever talk about or put on YouTube. And people tend to forget that like they think anything that happens monumental in your life makes on YouTube. But when you're a business owner, you can't, there's a lot of things you can't put on the internet. Yeah. Yeah. And that, that's a big challenge. Cause when you're dealing with like some big shit and it's a real distraction that and then like not being able to talk about that, that's the challenge. One of the biggest challenges we had at Hoonigan would be when employees are quote unquote, you know, like characters and hosts left the show. Because sometimes they left in situations that like I legally, we couldn't talk about it like this person's an employee fired by a company in the state of California. Like I can't talk about why that person left. Yeah. Like I can't talk about why that person left to another employee, let alone a million people watching, right? And then people get super annoyed and be like, Hey, what, what, how are you not? Does how are you not addressing this? Like, how, like why this person left? And the internet loves the drama when somebody leaves or something changes or, you know, dynamic shift and it's like, man, it's a reality. But unfortunately, one, we can't talk about it too. After kind of watching like the drama that was like Haggard garage, which, you know, we were like, yeah, we're just like, don't want to be involved in that. Like if something bad happens here, like it's just not what the show we're making. Like we don't want to make a show about like negative things. Yeah. Like that's not what we're here for. Like the show is to just be positive and have a good time. And that was it. And it's funny because now in, you know, afterwards, like everybody who once worked at that company are all friends again. Yeah. But there were moments where we weren't, there were moments where we're all on camera and people were just sick of each other. It's like being in a band, like travel together with each other every day. People want to do different things. People feel, you know, this person's getting this or whatever it is. And, you know, you're just trying to make it work. But, and I'm sure you've had, you know, your share, your fair share of that too. And, you know, I know like, we don't have to get into it, but like your own personal life has been on camera. Sure. Which like, I've always was lucky to have that very separated. Um, I'd made a joke on an episode I did on Vinny's channel and I referred to something as the divorce and I met my relationship with Hoonigan. For the next five months, people thought me and my wife got divorced and we're like commenting on her stuff, commenting on my stuff. You're like, oh man, so sorry you're going through a divorce. I was like, I was just being funny about Hoonigan. But I imagine like, you know, all of that kind of stuff is like super difficult for people. It's like, it's a whole other side of the, of YouTube that's, that's interesting because creating those, those boundaries, I think is really difficult. Cause like I, you sometimes lean into that stuff, especially if you think it can be more positive, because one of the things that I talk more about, like on this podcast is like the past two years for me, like it's been a bit of a journey of like dealing with my ADHD, something I was undiagnosed with. I knew I had it, but I just kind of dealt with it. And then it got a little out of control and it became something that was like really struggling with. And I talk about it because I think for people who are listening, who also have it, they're like, oh shit, like Scott has this and, but he also is dealing with it. But it's also not easy. Right. And like, I think people like to hear that from people that they, they see, you know, do certain things or they, I hate to say look up to you, but you know, do look up to or whatever. But then at the foot, you know, and I also talk about just like, just general shit, like, you know, like life is not the way you planned it and things change. And it just is what it is. And sometimes you find yourself, you know, in your mid 40s, go and like, well, this isn't what I was expecting my mid 40s to be like, but whatever. And like, there's a piece of that I dabble into, but I'm always cautious, like not to talk too much about it, because like then all of a sudden, like your whole like life is on, on front street. Um, how has that been for you? Is that something you feel like you pull back more and more from? Cause you, your life was really front street. I mean, look, I'm, I'm a seasoned veteran in this game. Yeah. Yeah. You've been through it. I had a divorce on the internet. I know you did. And I don't want to talk about that. No, but like, I was, that was when I knew you. Yeah. And like first met you. I've been there down that with like almost every walk of life at this point. So like, I'm 30, I feel like I've lived a life of like a 50 year old. It ages you. And like, I've been through so much drama and bullshit over the years and so many different ways that I've just learned how to get ahead of it. Yeah. Like even if it's someone leaving and it's for a reason that's like, I'll, I'll make up a fake story and I'll make an agreement with them. Like, look, this is for the best interest of everyone. Even though this isn't what happened. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to say this and it's going to benefit. I'm going to benefit. Let's take the high road for everybody. Yeah. It's going to benefit you and like we all win from it because you don't want to be the channel, like you said, where it's like focused about negative stuff. Yeah. Because then that becomes your new identity. And then the only thing that does well is negativity. Yep. And then you move into that where you're like, Oh, if I don't do that, that becomes the new high watermark is like, remember that one episode where the two of us fucking hated each other, which I think is what went wrong with reality TV. Yeah. Right. I think all the shows that like, you know, kind of birth this space that we made our own version of, you know, it's what made all that stuff fall apart because those producers, all they want to do is make each other hate each other. Cause like that makes for great content. Yeah. And it's like, we tried to avoid that so much. Like as humans, you know what I say to people when they ask, like, what's what's a big viral YouTube video idea? I don't remember who talked to me about this. It might have been, it might have been Roman Atwood, who's like a big inspiration for me growing up or I made it come up with this on myself. I don't know. But it's what would get your neighborhood talking. That's going to be your big YouTube videos. If someone's in the hospital, someone gets hurt. If there's some big drama, someone gets a new car, someone gets a new house. They break up with their girlfriend. Like they're like, it's almost like hardwired in our brains to be like nosy about those things because they're like these like big life moments. Those videos will always do well. Yeah. If it's something that would be the talk of your neighborhood, it's a viral YouTube video. That's a good point. That is really good. Whether it's good or bad, like if something gets neighbors talking. More likely bad than good. Yeah. But yeah. But more like, but still good times. Cause sometimes you're like, did you see Boba, Boba painted their house? If someone gets a new car, the whole neighborhood's like, oh, they got a new car. You know, that's a big deal. Especially when you grew up in like a small neighborhood, especially if someone gets a car that's like maybe a little too like outlandish for them. Like, oh, you see Boba, Boba got a Mustang. Who's he think he is? Do you, um, like, do you ever think about how different life would have been for you if you didn't do this? I think that I like my goal from as a kid was to own a bike shop because I love the idea of business and like I wanted to be around what I'm interested in. I think I'll be doing something similar. I may not be a YouTuber in front of a camera, but like how I kind of got where I was, I was almost in part of me like Jeff Jermaine, I'm going to go back to that. He was like the guy behind the scenes coming up with all ideas. He was on camera, but he wasn't on camera a lot. That was kind of my thing. Like, I mean, I always fashioned myself as the Jeff Jermaine of Hoonigan because it was like the similar thing. Like I was there when I needed to be, but I was in front center. I had friends that I would make the VMAX videos with and like I was in the videos and people liked me, but they really liked my friends. But I would, I would think of these ideas and like I would think of how to portray the certain thing or how to set this up or ideas of something for them to do. And I was like, I don't know, I was like a mat, like a puppeteer behind these things. That sounds like really negative, but it was like, I, and still to this day, like I look at situations and I'm like, always like, how do I make this person look good in this situation? So you build all these like hero characters in the process, but like I was never like a really likeable person. I feel like on YouTube, like it was sure to certain, at a certain point, I learned and I was really watching Roman and understanding the whole vlogging thing and like really letting people in. But prior to that, I like kind of was just, I wasn't there that much. Like I was in the videos, but I wasn't like someone who was like, Oh my God, Adam LZ is the coolest guy ever. Okay. Yeah. I see what you're saying. Right. Like I was just, I was more just like the center figure. Right. And you were kind of building this world around everyone. It's, it's really interesting you bring that up because in the, when we first do a daily transmission, I think I was, I was unliked or disliked because I really, I was in the background. I was helping everything move and I would really only step in when things were going off track and I had to bring them back on track. And that kind of, especially because I had a bit of like an abrasive New York attitude about it. I would come in and I think I would seem a little crass with everybody or like, because these were my group of friends, I would be pretty harsh with everyone, but like that doesn't always translate on YouTube. People are like, Oh, this guy's kind of a dick. And then they, Vinny and Hurt did this episode called a car cane rehab where they took all of my cars and they put them all in the shop in the same spot. And they walked me and Ashley through the mall and they were like, you need to convince us why you hadn't like, at the time it's like nine cars. Like, why do you have all these cars and why did none of them run and what are you going to do with them? And it was this moment where I was myself. Like I was just like, it was funny. I was enjoying the interaction with my friends. I was being very self deprecating. I was letting these people who I think at the time, everybody saw as my employees, but they were my buddies to make fun of me and like me let down my guard and also me be weird and quirky as I'm sitting there trying to defend some like random shipbox Audi I had or my wife's nine 44 or some pre war, you know, 1929 hot rod I wanted to build or like all these things. And after that, like all of a sudden the audience was like, okay, I get this guy now, like he's kind of quirky. He likes his weird things. He's this is his personality. And I always joke that that was like my, my, my moment in like, you know, the Hoonigan cannon where all of a sudden I developed my own audience. It's a weird to say that, but like there was a group of people who were now tuning in because they wanted to see what I was doing. We're up until that I was just like the guy who was pulling the strengths. Right. I was just making sure it was all working and I never wanted to be more of that than that, but then that kind of became it. Like again, like I was saying, if you make stuff that everyone wants to see, you'll get burned out so quick. We're like, I get really excited about like the nerd data and the analytics and the dino graphs and I just made a conscious decision. They're like, okay, I'm accepting that I'm going to make a 20 minute video talking about tuning this car and then it's going to alienate me from reaching the masses. They're never going to click this video. And if they do, they're not going to like it. But what I've found it to do is it's kind of like educated my people with me as I've learned. So now the people that have been with me for a while, they're like, they understand everything. They get just as excited as I do about it because they have seen all the steps and things and places, but like you can get stuck in this weird no man's land where if you're trying to make it too general to appeal to everyone, that it doesn't really appeal to anyone and then you're not enjoying it because you're not talking about the things you want to talk about. So pretty much most of my content, I feel like is like pretty niche specific that I'm just lucky to have a pretty big niche. But then every once in a while, I'll make a video that I know will probably have broader appeal and I'll, I'll structure that one. A little bit more easy for your average person to watch. And maybe I get a couple of people that stick around for the more nerd stuff. Like when I got the Lamborghini, I knew that's a video that people are going to click to watch that probably haven't watched my videos in a long time or maybe it's the first video that I've seen. It's like we edit it and I talk in a little bit different way where like, I'm a little bit easier to understand, maybe not nerding out as much as I would in other videos. Yeah. I mean, look, I make a podcast on YouTube. This is like two hours plus long, like with a thumbnail that'll just be our faces. This is like the opposite of like what YouTube is built for. But when I, the audience that listens to it loves it. Yeah. I get more like DMs from people when episodes come out than like I ever did at Hinnigan, but like, you know, a normal episode of this between what happens on YouTube and what happens on the RSS feeds and like Spotify, you know, it's like 50, 60,000 views on average. Like if that was something that happened back in the Hinnigan days, we like deleted it. Yeah. Right. Cause you're like, that's the, but when you look at it and you think, yeah, but those people are listening for two and a half hours and like they're in it and they're listening. It's like, and that's this thing that like I enjoy making now. Like I don't, I don't, I missed what I used to do. But I don't like, I don't really want to make builds. Kind of want to do that anymore. I enjoy this. I wanted to have a conversation with you about this. You and I have not had a conversation this long, probably since that breakfast and the breakfast combo was that long either. Um, it was like, Hey, cool, let's catch up. Some people want to hear us catch up, talk about different things. Um, but yeah, I don't know. I think that that's where I'm finding, um, I don't know, fulfillment in like making stuff these days is like, Hey, that just kind of works. But I'm also starting to like look and realize like, Oh man, a lot of other people sort of figured this out at a different time. Yeah. We were, we were just trying to, we were trying to be too big, which was like, but you know, we had a lot of mouths to feed when you had like 10 people on camera becomes it's a much different world than, you know, when you're, when you're just one or two people and it's a lot less things you got to kind of figure out. But yeah, I, I enjoy sort of, uh, just like making the thing that, that serves a particular group and then just depending on that group to like ride with you. I loved doing my podcast. I had a lot of fun with it, but I was just like, I just can't prioritize the time for it right now. And like, I'm very much someone who if I'm going to do something, I'm going to be all in. Yeah. So like, I have so many great opportunities of like incredible people coming by the compound that I would love to make an episode with, but I'm like, I'm not ready to start unless I'm all in it. And I'm just too spread thin right now to do it right. That makes me just not want to do it at all. I feel you on that. I feel you on that. My number one, uh, thing I used to say back in the day was like, it sucks to drown in opportunity. Like to be in a place where you feel like you're drowning because there's so much things that you could do. Um, and then just trying to focus on like the one and like that's, I think is one of the hardest things that comes as you do more and more and more is like, how do you like keep a North, like a North star? Like this is a question I ask myself all the time is like, like, what is my North star? So I'll ask you that, what's your North star right now? Like, where do you go? Like when I say North star, I mean, like the 10 years from now, where do you want? Where do you want to be with all of this? I mean, 10 years, I hopefully I'll be like retired on the beach with my family. Do you say that though? Do you think you can turn off? I, I genuinely would like to, I aspire to be somewhere and let's call it five years where like, not, I don't have to do anything. Right now, like I have so many things that are codependent on each other. They're like, I really don't have the opportunity to, like, I've got a great team, but I can't just stop. Right. Cause the other things that hurt, you stop doing YouTube drift HQ will hurt. Like it just, it's all sort of symbiotic. I would just love to get to a point in life where like I'm, I'm, I've got a solid base, like if I want to work on cars, if I want to go drive cars, make a video, I can, and if I upload once, one video a month, cool. If I upload 10 a month, if I upload one a year, but it's just stuff when I want to do it, what I want to do it. Like I don't want to disappear off the face of the planet. I love connecting with my audience. I just would love to get to a point in life where I don't feel like I'm running in this gerbil wheel just to keep things going. Were you ever a fan of Casey Neistat? Are you familiar with this word? Oh yeah. Big time. I wasn't, I wasn't ever a huge fan. Like I would tune in. I would watch random views here and there. I would watch more so from a point of like curiosity and research rather than like being a huge fan of his. Yeah. But like it was really, it was really cool to see his journey. Are you bringing up? Cause he did kind of dip. He dipped and he just uploaded a new video like last week. And he, like that was interesting. Cause he like dipped at his prime. Yeah. I mean, I think that was someone who either burnt out or wanted, I mean, you know, he had, you know, kids and he wanted to change his life. And for me, not that any of it was planned, but like it all sort of worked at the right time because my son was born and then, you know, we sold Hoonigan and then I left and, and like it kind of worked even though I wasn't really ready to, I, I don't think I was ready for Hoonigan to change the way it did, but it was nice to like all of a sudden be home at five o'clock to have dinner with my kid, which if I had had a kid in the early days of it, I wouldn't have been around. We just wouldn't have, there just wasn't a possibility of it. And I wouldn't have known what I was missing because I just wouldn't have been there to know what I was missing. Right. So I think there's a bit of that from Casey, but I bring that point up because he hasn't uploaded in, I have no idea how long YouTube served me the video. I watched it the other day. It was okay. It wasn't the best, but I was like just happy to see like, an old face, an old face. Yeah. And I thought like, man, that's a luxury. Like that's a luxury to disappear from the internet for like two years. Yeah. And then just pop up and just make a video and just be like, and just be kind of back in it and have like a massive audience. It's just excited for you to, to be back. But imagine if he didn't dip at his prime and he like ran the ship to the ground or like everything plummeted and then he dipped, it would be totally different. I talk about this all the time, like is Tupac, like our Tupac and Biggie really the greatest rappers? They just like die before they had a chance to like make a bad album. Right. And like I used to work in music. So think about this all the time. It's like, you know, Nas is arguably a better rapper than Biggie, but he made a bunch of bad albums. So you don't know. Right. And I think the same thing, not death is maybe a little bit hyperbolic for the conversation, but if you just keep doing something and it just keeps going down and down and down, it's like at a certain point, you just got to be like, let me just turn it off and leave on high note. Dave Chappelle is a really good example. Like, I don't know if you watched the Chappelle show. I'm probably dating myself. You're way too young for that. But he did two amazing seasons of nothing but really funny stuff. Then he stopped. And I was like, he never got to make a bad season. He, and it's like, there's something, there's something kind of, you know, I think really valuable there. But yeah. So, so for you, 10 years from now, you retired. Well, I mean, like, let's use retired and like air quotes. Like I've retired from the hamster wheel, which I think is fair. Like for me, I'll tell you mine. I'm still going to want to be working on, and like messing with engines and doing all these like cool projects and stuff, but it's like purely a passion project. It's not, there's no why or reason or necessity. There's no pressure. There's no overhead I need to cover this or that. I really hope that happens for you. I say that because I think I was sitting in your seat thinking the same would happen for me, only to slow down and realize that I'd like slowing down. I just like, it didn't work for me. Hopefully it works for you. Hopefully it works for you. But slowing down, like I lost all this purpose of like what I wanted. Like, and then I got that. Like I said, I got that purpose in Drifter again. Like I was like, walking in a Drifter, I was like, huh, like, and then I walked into that and I'm like, okay, I really enjoy doing this. And like, I, and like, I think that for someone like you, who's been so motivated and have had so much success that you don't even count because I, you have done so many things that you're onto the next thing. You don't really ever probably likely take the time. Like, do you think you, do you think you celebrate your success or do you just kind of move forward? I mean, that's a crazy topic. No, like a good example is like, I remember like winning like an FD round. Yeah. And then like two days later, I was like, not like depressed, but like, I was just like, I don't know, it's weird. And I like looked it up and it's like a common thing that I get asked athletes get after like big performances and stuff like that. I was just like, it's just weird. Like at last, like momentary. And then it's like, like you said, you're just onto the next thing already. And I also think when you get to a point to where you start to have really high expectation is that winning starts to feel like the expected. Yeah. And then all you do is fear failure. So like when you, and whether it's winning at FD or getting whatever it is, you know, a million views a day, that's winning. You're winning every time you do that. But then the first time you don't, it feels like you're, you've like failed. And like, so the, so as long as you don't fail, you're not unhappy. Like, you know what I'm saying? It becomes like this weird flip when you start to expect to like always, always do well. But I say that because I don't think I took an inventory of all these cool things that I did with my friends. I did with, you know, just all these, you know, other people, things I did with you. I didn't take any inventory in it while I was doing it. I just did it. Tomorrow's another day. Tomorrow's another day. And then I got this unique experience to go spend a year in a different space. And that was an automotive and kind of like feel nostalgic for like all this cool stuff that I did. But I like, I think of the number one thing I would tell people, you know, who we're doing it now is like, just take a few minutes and enjoy the moments. Yeah. And then do it also from a leadership side. Cause I think one of the biggest critiques I got from, from people who worked for me is like, it was like, it was never good enough. Yeah. Right. Like you're just always chasing the next win. So it's never good enough. Like everything feels like, Oh, wow. You just fucking created this crazy Jim Conner video that's outperformed everything else. And you were like just talking about the next one. Yeah. Like you're not celebrating that moment. And that is really good advice. And I think that that was this thing that I wish I could have been better about because I look back at it now and I'm like, man, the crew I had, the team I had that helped me do all these things, like just fucking these amazing group of, of killers who were, none of them were, were expected to win. You know what I'm saying? Like it was like this group of misfits, right? Like I love hurt, but like, you know, like the none of like when I hired hurt, he was working it in Juku and like was like, did barely knew how to use a camera but was making videos, but he had like the, he had like the gumption and like the moxie to go do this stuff. And, and then like, you know, he went on to kind of, you know, go build an entire world around hurt, right? And, you know, and it was cool to see a bunch of those people grow, but also the people who like are the unnamed, like the shredders and, you know, antique, all the guys who made the videos. Like, and I think that I like the one thing I wish I was better at or I owed them is like celebrating those moments we won instead of just like moving on to next. And to go back to the initial question that I asked you was like, you know, do you think you'll be able to, to slow down or you're still going to need to chase something? I think I'll modify my statement a little bit. I would like to be able to, like I really enjoy the business side so much so that like, I think I would enjoy running the businesses and being a part of them with YouTube removed and like not being a public figure at all. I don't think I need that, but I love like sitting down in the meetings and coming up with ideas and direction. Like I really enjoy that. So like, And that's what I, to rewind all the way back, that's what I saw on you, that breakfast we had when you were 19 or 20, because I couldn't believe your business acumen at that age. Like I was talking to you, I think about some merch kind of concept that we were going to try to do and put together. And the questions you're asking, I was like, oh, I can't pull, can't pull, can't pull a fast one on this kid. He knows what he's talking about. And I think that that is something that is just oddly ingrained in you. Like you're, you're, you are built that way. If no one's ever told you that before. But like I said, I saw that a decade ago from you. I would love to be at a point where like I could go and open a coffee shop and I have so much money and cushion that like it doesn't matter if it fails. And like I could just, I could decorate it however I want. If the contractor charges me double, I don't need to cry about it. Like, like just do cool stuff. You know what I mean? Like I would still like, I guess it's kind of chasing and it's not really like being retired, but it's just like more passion projects. Yeah. I think what I'm getting out of this, which I think is my same thing is I would love to go do something where the success of it isn't based on does it make money? The success of it is like, do I think it's cool and does it bring me happiness? Yeah. Which is so different from what the struggle is, you know, I think on the day to day in a, in a YouTube world. And you know, it's funny. You and I both know that if, if there's passion behind it, it's going to be successful. And it's going to make money. Yeah. It's inevitable. I never set out to make money in life. It wasn't the goal. It was the byproduct. Sure. You know, now that I'm older, I think I wish I was better at making money because I look at other people and I'm like, how the fuck did you make all that money? I'm like, I should have been more paying attention to it, but it was never the goal. I never expected to, to make money. I had it. It wasn't from money, it wasn't expected, but it came because I enjoyed making things and those things ended up making money. Like that was like, it was a side effect of the, the making the cool things. To, for me, my right, like North Star right now, which I really struggled with cause like I've got this podcast, but like, I don't want to be a podcaster. It's like, this is something I do because I just enjoy conversation. You and I would have the same conversation if the cameras weren't on. And we were just like chatting. It might be a little bit different. We might tell a little more other stories in between, but it's pretty much the same thing, right? Um, and I don't want to go do another Hoonigan like that. It's just like, I've done that. I've checked that box. Um, I don't even know if I want to make another Jim Conner film cause I've checked that box so many times over. Um, but I do want to go make films and like big projects. Like those are the two things I realized, like really excited me. So I think for me in 10 years, it's like, I would like to go direct my own feature film, right? Like, and even though it's in cars or not, I don't even know. I just kind of enjoy that, that thing. And I had to tell myself that every morning, cause otherwise I'll spend the whole day doing something else. Yeah. Do you know what I'm saying? Like, I have to remind myself that like that is the goal. Otherwise I'll like to your point before I will be like, how can I make the podcast better? How can I make this better? How can I do that? Or our album would come up with a whole new business idea. That's like not even something I really want to do because someone will have mentioned something. I'll be like, Oh, it'd be interesting if we did this, this and this and this and then I'm like off in that direction. I mean, me speaking, what I'm saying is speaking of inter-reality. Yeah. Like, because if you don't, it's what you're saying. If you don't have a goal, like you're not going to make decisions to get to the goal. If you don't tell yourself that, you just wander off a known, like no man's line. Yeah. It's, it's funny you mentioned that because I used to always joke and before the term manifesting was such a trend, but like, I would say things in episodes to hold myself accountable. 100%. I'd be like, we're going to do this. Or I'd be like, you know, it'd be a cool idea partially to get the feedback, but also like put it in the universe and like, it may start to happen. Sure. Funny how, how much of that, you know, sort of all, all came out of that. All right. We are, we are rounding the two and a half hour mark. It is definitely getting a little warm in here. No air conditioning in the, uh, And I'm getting hungry. You're getting hungry. You're getting hungry. You're like, we can go take this conversation to dinner. So you got any, you got any last thoughts or anything you want to leave people with any, any cool things you're working on, any things that you thought about that we haven't said, I know we bounced around a little bit today, but. Yeah. It's, it's tough because like we bounce from subject to subject and like the way my brain works, I have like eight things I want to say about subject A and then we're already moved on to subject B and I'm like, but I, but I wanted to talk about that. And then like, I'm, I mean, you can tell like I've, I'm fidgeting with things. Like the fact that you got me to sit in a chair for two and a half hours is insane. Like it's a challenge. I hope you've enjoyed the conversation. It's great. It's, it's easy. I'm just like, uh, I'm a fidget. I always need to be doing something. Yeah. Yeah. I know I get it. I got it. I'm not a good sit down person either, but I've learned to be on here cause I, otherwise when I tab things, I get a look from Nick. Cause he's like, you're making noise. So I've got a really bad resting bitch face. So I have to keep telling myself, smile. So otherwise I just like creepy the whole time. It was like, well, thank you for, uh, thank you for coming on, spending some time. I know that, uh, I know Long Beach FD is always a busy week cause it's like the first week back. So I, I appreciate the time spent and coming by. And it's also, it's good to catch up. You were definitely one of the people who were in my list of, it'd be cool to do a big project with you one day, figure something out. I know you and I, we've talked about it in the past. We should keep it, keep it going, figure it out. It just, it's just about making time. This is it. This is the manifesting it. And who's going to pay for it? Yeah. Maybe one of you, maybe one of you, I pay for it. Yeah. No, I, uh, look, I don't think the right ideas. I, the one thing I have been very good about in life is figuring out how to get the right ideas funded. Yeah. So we just need the idea. Yeah. I think we just need the right idea. And then you got to just commit to it. And then you go find funding. I love the idea phase of like projects. It's the best part. Cause I'd be spitting some random shit out. Yeah. And like people always think I'm ridiculous. And then an idea stems from that ridiculous thing I spit out. And I like, yeah, that's what I tell you about. I think the best part of like the idea part of like the brainstorming part is you have a brainstorming meeting, nothing good comes out. And then like driving home or like getting dinner afterwards, someone's like, you know what it, like this is kind of crazy, but, and then they say something and like just all just explodes from there. And you're like, yep, that's the idea. Like love it. Like that's absolutely great. Like some of the best ideas that I've ever been involved in just came out of like the most random, it was like the idea was entered as a joke. Like someone's like, I don't think we should really do this, but just imagine. Yeah. You're like, wait, wait, wait, no, but like, I think there's something serious there. And I was always the person who would do that. Like people would throw ideas out. And I don't know if you do it because it's you're like hedging your bat a little bit because you're like, if you don't make it a real idea, then people are like, won't judge you on it. And then sometimes people would say something and be like, that's fantastic. Yeah. Like, but we just have to tweak this, this, this and this and like, that's how you do it. Mine are all shower ideas. I come up with all my best ideas in the shower. So much so that I got a notepad in my shower. Oh, really? Cause I started to get anxiety in the shower that I'm going to forget all the things that I'm thinking about. I get the, I'll get that like in the middle of the night and I'll have the middle of the night idea. And I did like the whole notepad next to the bed, but I'll like just scribble it and I won't be able to read it in the morning. So I now have the notebook like in the bathroom. So I'll just get up in the middle of the night and like go in the bathroom and write notes. And there's been mornings from my wife's like, what are you doing last night? I'm like, I was just like writing down ideas. She's like, okay, whatever. I'm like, I'm like, trust me, you don't have to like think I'm like DMing some Instagram model. I'm definitely in there writing about some stupid idea with a car. Because like otherwise I'll forget them in there like gone forever. So the other one that's really good for me is road trips. Yeah. Both solo or with a friend. Like if I'm with like a good person who's like a co-conspirator and coming up with ideas, like a long drive and just shooting that back and forth. That's a great format. Or just a really long drive by myself. Do you drive by yourself much? Yeah, but for me, I'm like, I'm so into the music stuff that like I'm just, my brain is constantly deconstructing music whenever I listen to it. And so that like, that's my time to listen to music. Yeah. I don't really have time where I can like just really focus on music. So like, I don't really think of great ideas and I'm driving, but I think the shower, I usually don't have music going. So it's like kind of just like, there's no distractions. I don't have my phone when I have my phone all the time elsewhere. So it's like just pure thoughts. What type of music are you listening to now? I think like most of the stuff that I listen to the most you'd classify as like, like progressive metal. It's almost like you take a bunch of dudes that are like so good at the instruments that they play that they start to just make it as hard as possible. And like as rhythmically complex. So like some of the stuff I listen to, it's not like it sounds good. So almost like like, like math rock level. Yeah. Like math rock, but like metal in a way. And it's like my brain is trying to understand the rhythms and patterns that are going on. So like some songs I listen to like 10 times not because I necessarily like how they sound, but because I'm trying to figure out what they're doing and like why it makes me feel a certain type of way. It's like almost like a challenge for my brain, but it makes me not think about anything else. Yeah. But it like, it becomes a distraction because like if I listen to a song like that before I came in here, the whole time we're talking in my brain, I'm just like, I'm like playing the song and like still trying to figure it out while we're talking. Do you find that and going back to this, do you find that by playing guitar in between like you're still on beat in the car? Like, do you still sort of like carry that over or do you separate that? There's been around where I got a little bit too far down the rabbit hole and like, yes, it became a distraction. But then there's other ones where it's just like a good like activity that kind of keeps me like not even calming. It just keeps me focused. Right. Otherwise, I will, I just like fall asleep and nose off because it's just bored. Yeah. That's the part of racing no one talks about is like, it's hurry up. It's like hurry up and wait. Yeah. It's like, do it. And then you're like, okay, now I've got two hours till something else happens. Yeah. Just sitting here. Do you like other music outside of that or is that your own space? So I like to think that anything that's good music, I can appreciate. I got all this, I'll listen to some rap, some EDM stuff, like even some country songs, like older classic music. If I, if you played LZ radio, which is my playlist on Spotify, there are some songs that would come on. You'd be like, what the fuck? But there was something I heard in that song where I was like, I really like how that made me feel. Yeah. So I want to save this so I can listen to it again. Yeah. I absolutely love music. And again, it's why I mentioned earlier, it's weird that I never learned to play because I don't love all, like I think like the only genre I'd never got super into was EDM. Although I did for a little bit like, like hardcore techno was really big when I was younger and so I like go out dancing and do that. But like all different forms of like old R&B, like classical, like, I don't know, like it's one of those things. Like I obviously love like 90s hip hop. I also love modern hip hop. I still listen to new music, which I think is interesting because I was for short, at some point I would stop listening to new music. Like I would just get stuck in a genre. And then, and I did for a little bit, but like I'm now like constantly just trying to find new stuff as well, which is just a weird thing. And I actually, even though I make a podcast, so don't listen to me at home. But I've also started to create a role to stop listening to podcasts and cars for certain drives because it made me stop listening to music. And I think music just tends to make me happier. I probably listened to the wrong podcast, but I'll only listen to podcasts if their drive is like over two hours. And then it's like, I really need to pass the time. Cause I'm going to get burnt out on my music probably two hours in. So for me, if I'm going, if I'm driving to the farm, which is about an hour and 45 minutes, I'll listen to a podcast, but the roads at the farm are really good. And I've got like particular songs that like match certain roads because it's like the right tempo for the right car. You know, it's like a slow car on this road. You don't need to explain. Yeah. I listen to sometimes period correct music for the car that I'm driving. I get so. I support that. Yeah. Do you have systems in any of your cars? I kind of wish I did. I guess cause that's like the, that's like the one thing that I care so much about. And like I'm always just like, I'll throw like a head unit and maybe speakers. Yeah. But like that's, that's one of the things like I think the next GD3 I get, I'm going to do a system in it. Yeah. Cause the audio and GD3 is just not good enough, especially like once you've had a turbo and you realize how much better like the Burmister stuff is than like the Bose stuff. It, uh, I think I would value that. When I was, when I was younger, I had a couple of decent like audio setups. Like I had like a Sony mobile ES, which was like their premium, but then I had a Macintosh setup. Do you know, are you familiar with the Macintosh? Like Macintosh in the, if you're looking for a period correct audio unit for like a late nineties car, Macintosh was like one of the better, um, sort of like hi-fi level stuff. I'm sure Nick's, Nick's giving the okay on that one because he's a, he's an audio file, but, um, yeah, that was like one of the brands you get. And all their stuff looked like it was like out of the fifties. Like I had the altern dials and blue stuff and looked like tube stuff, but, um, that was like just really good sound stuff. I, I miss systems in cars. Like even just shitty systems, like Alpine head units and, and JL audio, like subwoofers, like I don't know why we like left that part of Colt. Like we, we brought back all of the nineties and early 2000 aesthetic of cars, but I miss like having like a subwoofer in the trunk. I just, like I forgot how much fun it is. I do have subs in three of my cars. Oh, you do? Which ones? My chaser, my skyline has a little sub actually for my S 13 still has a sub in it, the cream one. Oh yeah. And then my, uh, my E 46, my first car, I got the same double 12 inch box that I had when I was a kid. So I love that shit. I'm rebuilding a mark three, uh, Volkswagen golf. That's a VR six all wheel drive synchro and like, I'm like specking the whole thing out and I was specking it out like with two 10s in the trunk with like, with 16 by nines in the cargo tray, because that's what I, that was what my first car was at 95 golf. And like there was nothing cool within driving around Queens, just like bumping music, like it was just such a good part. And I don't know, there's just something, I think that, uh, it's a part of like, uh, like music has become again, like I think most content. And again, I'm, you may not feel the same way because you're a different generation, but it's like music has become so easy to listen to, just type in something to Spotify, find something, whatever that like, I find like I cherish it less, you know, where like back in the day, you'd get a new CD and you'd like just listen to it until, until you can listen to it anymore. And I'm like trying to get back into like, I want to listen to this, I want to listen to just this album and like enjoy this album, like the way it was supposed to be done. That's kind of how I listen. Oh, really? I listen like album specific. Like all, if I'm on a drive, I'll pick an album and I'll listen to the album front to back versus just like poking around on songs. Yeah. Especially like a lot of music I listen to, I feel like they build the album to like tell a story or be coherent, even if there's no lyrics, it like it's, it's intended in the certain order for a reason. Yeah. I think that that level of like larger, longer form curation is something that like we've all lost because now our entire curation is an algorithm that just feeds you a bunch of short form pieces versus sitting there going, I want to listen to this whole thing, the way somebody, you know, somebody saw it. So, and like, you know, I grew up on like Led Zeppelin, which was like the perfect band who was like, they thought through the album from the first song to the last song, to the weird effects in between and how you were going to listen to it and all of that. So, and I got away from all of that, but recently I've been like trying to do that, like my wife has a vinyl jukebox in the house and like I really kind of enjoyed like, and the whole thing is period, correct 1950s music. And it's like sometimes we just turn that on and just like walk through the house, like listen to like Frank Sinatra, which is like the classics. But then there's also like other bands that like, I don't even know who they are, but like it was, we bought it because it was of the era. And now it's like, I just know these songs. I just kind of love them. So that's cool. Anyway, we tried to wrap this up 15 minutes, brought up music, went for another 15 minutes, but I know, I feel like I can hear your stomach. So it's time for us to, it's time for us to go. My stomach and my restlessness. You're starting to get more and more restless. I don't even notice it. That's fine. Yeah. I'm screaming internally. You're like, wrap it up. Are we done yet? No, I would, I would love if I, I think if I wasn't making the drive to San Diego after this, forgot you got that in front of you. Yeah. And like, I really want to go in TJ's hot tub and I know if it gets too late. Oh, you can't get in. Yeah. So like I, that's very important to me. TJ was supposed to come on the pod last week or the other week. I kind of got late on it. And now you beat him on the pod so you can tell him, be like, oh, I was just on Scott's podcast. Ask him about the hot tub. Ask him, is it a good hot tub? Special hot tub. It's a special one. That sounds really suggestive. It sounds really suggestive, but he's not that far from me. We went by the farm. So maybe I'll go swing down and check it out. Hell yeah. Cool. Well, dude, thank you so much. Thank you for coming on. And yeah, good luck this weekend. Thank you. What's up? What's up? What's going on? We're not accepting any messages this time. Goodbye. Goodbye. Viper industrial makes the best damn shopstools ever. Go buy them. Okay. Now that we've got that out of the way, I want to take a moment to really thank Viper. They were the first to hop on and support very vehicular. When I hit him up, the immediate response was, yes, we want the biggest package you've got. That's why they're the title sponsor. Look, they make a really great product. And I felt that way before this partnership, but they also do a really good job of supporting all of us in the car community. Think about it. They work with Adam LZ, Chris Forsberg, Grant Anderson, Travis Pastrana, Vermont Sports Car, and those are just the ones I can remember right now. So Viper, thank you again. And as I was saying before, go buy a damn stool at ViperIndustrial.com. 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