WEBVTT - Ep16 Rod Chong 0:00:05.320 --> 0:00:08.400 Hello, friends and family, Welcome back to another episode of 0:00:08.480 --> 0:00:12.959 Car Stories with Song Kang and Amelia Hartford. Today's guest 0:00:13.160 --> 0:00:19.040 we have Rod Chong. Rod is the chief creative officer 0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:23.360 over at the beloved Race Service and just an artiste. 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:26.960 Yeah, well evolved human being. He shares a lot of 0:00:27.000 --> 0:00:28.960 wisdom on his personal journey here. 0:00:29.040 --> 0:00:33.280 Yeah, and he's had a very full career outside of motorsports, 0:00:33.320 --> 0:00:36.120 from also video games to music to fashion. 0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:38.760 Yeah, it was just a really pleasant conversation with a 0:00:38.880 --> 0:00:41.400 person I've never met. But you've been friends with Rod 0:00:41.440 --> 0:00:41.920 for a while. 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:44.120 Yeah, I've known Rod for a very long time and 0:00:44.159 --> 0:00:47.120 he is not afraid to ever go deep with the conversation, 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:51.520 which I appreciate the openness and willingness to go there. 0:00:51.680 --> 0:00:57.480 All right, Well, enjoy Rod Chong everybody. 0:00:59.320 --> 0:01:02.720 So, for the listen out there that aren't familiar with 0:01:03.200 --> 0:01:07.680 your history and your work, can you give us a 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:10.960 little history of Rod and where you are now and 0:01:11.000 --> 0:01:11.919 where you came from. 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:15.000 Yeah. Well, I'm one of those kids that grew up 0:01:15.160 --> 0:01:21.480 racing go karts from an immigrant family in Vancouver, Canada. 0:01:21.880 --> 0:01:23.920 And I think a lot of people, I'm sure you 0:01:24.000 --> 0:01:26.399 find this from all the people that you talk to 0:01:26.760 --> 0:01:29.520 in the car world that often a passion for cars 0:01:29.560 --> 0:01:33.080 tends to come from childhood. Usually, I find nine times 0:01:33.120 --> 0:01:34.760 out of ten, so I'm no different from that. My 0:01:35.720 --> 0:01:38.920 father and his brothers were racing cars and go karts, 0:01:38.959 --> 0:01:42.319 and my father had a shop where they would build 0:01:43.120 --> 0:01:46.520 custom car stereos and they'd giant subwoofers and they'd enter 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:49.560 them in competition. So I grew up racing. But interestingly, 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:54.840 I never really liked the wheel the wheel sport that much. 0:01:55.120 --> 0:01:59.800 It's maybe this very shy, quiet Asian kid and I 0:01:59.880 --> 0:02:04.240 like drawing and painting cars more like the creative aspect 0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:08.120 of being a kid that was into cars. I liked 0:02:08.120 --> 0:02:10.800 being a racing driver more so I could, you know, 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:15.560 have something to help with, you know, being the experience 0:02:15.600 --> 0:02:18.680 of racism and all that stuff as Asian kid in school. 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:20.280 It gave me a little bit of a leg up, 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:22.480 and I liked to have my leather jacket I could wear. 0:02:23.360 --> 0:02:26.800 Maybe that's a Jamaican culture coming through. But fast forward on. 0:02:27.639 --> 0:02:30.360 I went to art school too with a plan to 0:02:30.440 --> 0:02:32.680 design cars because I was good at drawing and painting 0:02:32.720 --> 0:02:36.760 and got distracted with cameras and running around with cameras, 0:02:36.800 --> 0:02:40.080 so it seemed way more fun. So the first career 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:43.720 was directing music videos, so that I did that in 0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:46.640 my native Vancouver, then came to Los Angeles and then 0:02:46.720 --> 0:02:50.079 ended up in London doing that. That kind of fizzled out. 0:02:50.120 --> 0:02:52.240 I was living in London and I heard about this 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:55.200 video game that you could download all suits of different 0:02:55.200 --> 0:02:57.160 cars and you could change it and make your own 0:02:57.200 --> 0:02:59.400 cars for it, in your own tracks. And this was 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:03.160 an e called sports Car GT, a PC simulation game, 0:03:03.639 --> 0:03:05.760 And because I'd already had a career in media, I 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:10.240 put together a crew of people. We started making sports 0:03:10.240 --> 0:03:12.680 car mods for f one games, so you would take 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:16.360 an EAPC game and make it into a sports car game. 0:03:16.840 --> 0:03:19.560 And I love lamon and GT racing, so this is 0:03:19.560 --> 0:03:22.040 what we focused on. And one of our mods became 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:24.760 very famous, and then suddenly we all got headhunted and 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:28.600 overnight I was given a job designing and producing racing games. 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:32.000 I turned that into a job at EA and went 0:03:32.040 --> 0:03:35.000 back to my native Canada because I figured out in 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:37.920 my hometown they were making this very famous racing game, 0:03:38.000 --> 0:03:41.160 Need for Speed, and this was at the height of 0:03:42.120 --> 0:03:44.360 tuner cars and all that stuff. There was this big 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:48.840 street racing scenes. Drifting was just coming up, becoming more popular, 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:53.200 and You for Speed was tapping into this. And this 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:56.640 was about two thousand and five or so. Most Wanted 0:03:56.680 --> 0:03:59.240 had just come out and I joined the team and 0:03:59.280 --> 0:04:02.040 they put me in t charge of the cultural elements 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:04.520 that were going to be integrated into the games, and 0:04:04.560 --> 0:04:07.400 they started sending me to La to go to drifting 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:11.560 events and I started meeting people and getting more involved 0:04:11.600 --> 0:04:14.160 with the community, first in SoCal, even though I lived 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:17.080 in Vancouver, and then the bosses said to me, Hey, 0:04:17.080 --> 0:04:20.000 we want to make a website about car culture. Thought 0:04:20.040 --> 0:04:21.520 about it for a couple of weeks and then came 0:04:21.600 --> 0:04:25.080 up with this idea of speed Hunting or speed Hunters, 0:04:25.120 --> 0:04:27.839 which became a website that we launched in two thousand 0:04:27.880 --> 0:04:31.000 and eight. And at the same time we launched another 0:04:31.000 --> 0:04:33.760 program called Timney for Speed, which was a drifting team, 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:38.000 and we started building Carshusima. But we got to travel 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:40.360 the world and go to all the different scenes around 0:04:40.360 --> 0:04:43.360 the world, and that was an incredible moment to go 0:04:43.440 --> 0:04:47.040 to Japan, Australia and New Zealand, all across Europe, all 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:49.719 across the US and see what people are doing. And 0:04:49.800 --> 0:04:52.479 then I left that in twenty fourteen, did a few 0:04:52.480 --> 0:04:58.839 other projects within racing games, sim racing, even some atanas 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:02.080 motorsports stuff the company called Robo Race and then joined 0:05:02.080 --> 0:05:04.040 the Race Service team. About five years ago moved to 0:05:04.120 --> 0:05:08.320 LA and I had the dream of coming to SoCal 0:05:09.279 --> 0:05:12.599 to be a participant in the car scene here. People 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:14.880 think I'm crazy, but I kind of moved to La 0:05:15.040 --> 0:05:18.680 so I could drive cars. And I love big cities too, 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:21.240 because there's a great creative scene here. As both of 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:27.640 you know, there's people that are doing fashion, media, films, 0:05:27.920 --> 0:05:31.680 graphic design, whatever it is art. But you can have 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:35.200 that here but still enjoy driving cars, and having lived 0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:37.840 in Stockholm. In London, it's much harder to do that. 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:41.520 There's great creative scenes projects. You got a nice car 0:05:41.560 --> 0:05:43.839 in London, it's very hard to enjoy it. 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:47.000 Sure, and even in Canada because the weather is so 0:05:47.440 --> 0:05:51.240 like it's gonna list out your cars. 0:05:51.480 --> 0:05:53.040 That's salt right, yeah yeah yeah. 0:05:53.080 --> 0:05:55.440 So So for the folks that don't know Race Service, 0:05:55.480 --> 0:05:58.640 because we had one of your colleagues here Service Chames, 0:05:59.200 --> 0:06:02.240 could you explain to the listening audience what you guys 0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:03.599 do over there at Race Service. 0:06:03.800 --> 0:06:07.480 Well, Race Service, it's been interesting Race Service has been 0:06:07.520 --> 0:06:10.320 around about five years or so, and for the first 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:12.760 few years people kept saying to us, what is race Service? 0:06:12.920 --> 0:06:14.800 What do you guys do? It seems very cool, but 0:06:14.920 --> 0:06:17.400 what is this thing? The way that we explain it 0:06:17.440 --> 0:06:20.560 is that it's a creative agency. So we do different 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:26.240 types of projects, collaborations with different brands, usually in automotive 0:06:26.279 --> 0:06:30.080 and motorsports, but we do work in video gaming. I 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:34.200 do some projects in fashion as well, and our thesis 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:37.760 is to connect the worlds of motorsports and automotive to 0:06:38.080 --> 0:06:44.800 wider parts of contemporary or pop culture, streetwear, music, video games, 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:50.360 even some Web three materials, fashion, different organizations. Like we're 0:06:50.400 --> 0:06:52.920 an agency for NASCAR. We do a lot of projects 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:56.200 with AMG and Porsche Hot Wheels, this one that I'm 0:06:56.240 --> 0:06:59.120 quite involved with. We'll want us to do content and 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:03.240 strategy and sometimes events to connect all these worlds together. 0:07:03.600 --> 0:07:07.719 We're also in the middle of launching a streetwear fashion 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:12.200 brand as well that's kind of focused around collaborations with 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:15.320 automotive brands. But we have our online as well. That's 0:07:15.360 --> 0:07:17.679 a bit of a new project. And then the last 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:20.840 part of Race Service is that we are a car 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:24.560 culture hub. We wanted to have a place that's a destination. 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:29.200 And we have meetups once a month, the first Friday 0:07:29.200 --> 0:07:32.240 of every month at our space. We occasionally curate events 0:07:32.680 --> 0:07:34.680 and we have a pretty active community of people that 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:37.960 come out to our different programs on site. 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:41.080 And can I invite anyone listening to go to a 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:42.800 Rise and Shine sometimes? 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:43.400 Absolutely? 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:45.240 Yeah, that's what it's called Rising. 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:49.600 And Shine yea very first Friday of every month. 0:07:49.680 --> 0:07:51.880 Yeah, and it's a good turnout. And maybe if you're 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:53.840 not familiar cars, you want to get in the space, 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:55.960 you want to meet some cool people. I think it's 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:56.720 a great environment. 0:07:57.080 --> 0:07:59.840 So you know what I love about you guys over 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:03.360 Race Service is that a lot of times you meet 0:08:03.520 --> 0:08:06.880 you know, car folks and they have no fashion sense. 0:08:06.960 --> 0:08:10.920 They look like they show up like that because you know, 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:13.840 my wife always bags on me. He's like, you know, 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:16.080 why don't you like dress up? And then everybody over 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:18.920 at Race Service, you guys just have a great blend 0:08:19.280 --> 0:08:22.800 of what is hip and fashion and pop culture. And 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:26.240 then you mailed that with you know, car culture, which 0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:28.880 you know, I got some schwag from you guys, and 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:30.680 I took it over to my house and my wife 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:33.520 is like, that's what you should be right, because it's 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:36.199 a celebration of you know, our love affair for cars 0:08:36.240 --> 0:08:38.920 in the community. But then it's you know, it's it's 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:41.040 a it's a wonderful blend, you know, so. 0:08:41.120 --> 0:08:45.360 Blends industry where and fashion install But we're quite focused 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:50.520 on curation. Whether we are designing an event, we'll think 0:08:50.559 --> 0:08:53.680 of every single aspect of what someone experience is going 0:08:53.720 --> 0:08:57.240 through that event, from the music to the posters and 0:08:57.480 --> 0:09:00.480 every little detail and the singles. For any film project 0:09:00.520 --> 0:09:03.080 that we do, the worst Senate Race service is to 0:09:03.080 --> 0:09:06.120 do a project that has no style, or to take 0:09:06.120 --> 0:09:10.200 a photograph that doesn't have visual aesthetic buy in to it. 0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:13.320 It's something that's very important to us and I find 0:09:13.320 --> 0:09:16.000 that that whole trajectory interesting. When I first started going 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:21.280 to automotive events, say you go to an event, say 0:09:21.360 --> 0:09:25.160 drifting event in la even ten years ago, people had 0:09:25.440 --> 0:09:29.040 some style, you know, ten years ago, ten years ago. Yeah, 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:30.560 And then i would go to an event in the 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:32.800 UK and I'm looking around and I'm thinking, what are 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:36.960 these people wearing? But the interesting thing is in the 0:09:37.000 --> 0:09:42.840 past ten fifteen years that's changed, that has really changed, 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:48.760 and you see the intersection of street wear and modified 0:09:48.800 --> 0:09:52.640 custom cars a lot more now in that people's personal 0:09:52.679 --> 0:09:56.880 presentation is definitely linked in a lot of scenes anyway, 0:09:56.960 --> 0:10:01.600 maybe not everywhere, to whatever customer car that they're building, 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:04.560 or how they express their personal style through a custom 0:10:04.640 --> 0:10:05.719 car or a modified car. 0:10:05.840 --> 0:10:07.599 And you guys do a lot of cool collubs and 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:09.480 help companies bridge those gaps. 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:09.800 Right. 0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:12.960 One huge project that you've had lately has been Hot Wheels. 0:10:13.040 --> 0:10:14.720 Yes, what would you guys do that? With Hot Wheels? 0:10:15.000 --> 0:10:17.920 We've I've been personally a collaborator of Hot Wheels for 0:10:18.760 --> 0:10:22.320 a long time through many different programs from speed Hunters, 0:10:22.400 --> 0:10:24.760 had different collabs we did when I was seeing the 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:26.559 Project Cars video game, we had a line of Hot 0:10:26.600 --> 0:10:29.920 Wheels that we collabed with them. But Hot Wheels has 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:34.200 been a client and collaborator of Race Service since we 0:10:34.280 --> 0:10:36.960 started for the past five years, so we're involved with 0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:41.080 the Legend's Car Show. We have produced numerous content programs 0:10:41.160 --> 0:10:43.840 with them that you see on their Instagram channel. Currently, 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:49.280 we are doing a documentary series for a car that's 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:52.079 been built for rent Sport Reunion. It's going to debut 0:10:52.559 --> 0:10:54.720 in about a week and a half. So we're always 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:57.160 involved with all sorts of different programs with them. I'm 0:10:57.200 --> 0:10:59.720 a bit of a Hot Wheels collector. I love the brand. 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:02.959 Those little cars are so much joy in each of them. Yeah, 0:11:03.000 --> 0:11:06.120 well you've done projects with me. Yeah, I have your cars. 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:09.680 I mean it's it's like every car person's Bucke list. 0:11:09.840 --> 0:11:13.439 Yeah your car is a hot wheel Yeah. 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:13.520 Yeah, so cool. 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:17.079 Yeah, for any automotive personality or car builder, I think 0:11:17.120 --> 0:11:21.120 that's definitely a big checklist item. Right, you've arrived, you know. 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:23.600 I'm sure you've seen a lot of people come and 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:26.640 go right trying to do what race Service does and 0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:30.160 what do you think that sets you guys apart to 0:11:30.200 --> 0:11:32.000 just be able to kind of help the listeners if 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:34.600 they have interest in doing what you guys do. 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:37.520 It's also a wider question of how do you take 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:42.720 your passion or cars and make that into your career 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:46.959 and then have that continue, which is not for a 0:11:47.000 --> 0:11:50.640 lot of people. That's not easy, and that that's a 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:53.760 big question. Right. I would say that it's a mix 0:11:54.000 --> 0:11:58.160 of being driven by passion, taking that passion and having 0:11:58.200 --> 0:12:01.719 that fuel you is really really good. That'll only get 0:12:01.720 --> 0:12:04.920 you so far, though, because you know this concept of 0:12:04.960 --> 0:12:06.719 the ten thousand hours, right, you have to be a 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:10.800 good craft you have to be to be an expert. Yeah, 0:12:10.880 --> 0:12:12.640 you just have to look at the craft of what 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:15.520 you want to do. So if you take you know, 0:12:15.720 --> 0:12:18.600 we look at the content creation side of what you do. 0:12:18.960 --> 0:12:21.360 There's a lot of craft of that. How do you shoot, 0:12:21.440 --> 0:12:23.960 how do you talk to the camera, how do you edit? 0:12:24.000 --> 0:12:27.200 How do you build a storyline? I believe that people 0:12:27.280 --> 0:12:30.120 that do the groundwork to become very good at what 0:12:30.120 --> 0:12:34.480 they do. That's very important. And then lastly, it's being 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:36.920 able to work on your personality so that you can 0:12:36.960 --> 0:12:39.960 talk about what you do, you can connect with people 0:12:40.360 --> 0:12:44.439 and find those opportunities. So for me, those are the 0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:48.320 magic three mixes of you work really hard so that 0:12:48.400 --> 0:12:51.480 when the spotlight swings your way, that you're ready and 0:12:51.520 --> 0:12:54.719 you don't fuck it up, then maybe it's going to fly. 0:12:54.880 --> 0:12:55.800 What do you think, Amelia? 0:12:56.200 --> 0:12:59.600 I lean more towards the ladder where I think you 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:02.839 can achieve anything that you want to on this earth, 0:13:02.920 --> 0:13:05.319 so long as you work for it and don't give up. 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:07.839 I always think of this little image of this person 0:13:07.880 --> 0:13:10.240 who's like digging underground trying to find a light or 0:13:10.240 --> 0:13:13.120 whatever it is, and most times people will give up 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:15.080 before it just takes one more swing to get there. 0:13:15.600 --> 0:13:18.000 In acting world, you may get one hundred or a 0:13:18.080 --> 0:13:20.920 thousands no's before you get one yes. And I think 0:13:20.920 --> 0:13:23.600 as long as you work towards anything, you're a good person, 0:13:24.080 --> 0:13:27.199 you can achieve. You know, what you believe, where you've 0:13:27.240 --> 0:13:29.120 found excites you, or what you set out to do. 0:13:29.320 --> 0:13:32.440 But there's so many fucked up people that achieve success. 0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:32.960 Right. 0:13:33.280 --> 0:13:35.920 But i'stell business they go that guys in the fuck 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:38.320 or so and so is it's such an asshole? 0:13:39.040 --> 0:13:39.560 What do you think? 0:13:39.679 --> 0:13:42.840 I tend to focus on creatives, being a creative minded 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:47.320 person myself, and there's a category of creative me and 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:50.240 my friends call them naturals, and they don't really spend 0:13:50.240 --> 0:13:53.600 a lot of time thinking about it. Yeah, some people 0:13:53.640 --> 0:13:56.720 would would say that if you're too smart or you 0:13:56.760 --> 0:13:59.520 think too much, you might paralyze yourself thinking about all 0:13:59.559 --> 0:14:02.120 the possible abilities and if I do that or should 0:14:02.120 --> 0:14:04.240 I have that strategy? And then that will light to 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:07.440 that to that, and sometimes if your your brain isn't 0:14:07.480 --> 0:14:09.640 clogged up with all this stuff, you just do stuff 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:11.120 and you go for it. 0:14:11.559 --> 0:14:11.760 Yah. 0:14:11.840 --> 0:14:16.199 I think that also relates to your culture. I'm not American, 0:14:16.320 --> 0:14:20.120 I'm from Canada originally, and you know immigrant parents and 0:14:20.160 --> 0:14:23.560 all that whole thing. But one thing have immigrant My 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:28.840 father is from Jamaica, Jamaican Chinese, my mother's from Columbia 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:31.600 and South American. But one thing, having moved here five 0:14:31.680 --> 0:14:37.360 years ago, that I love about American culture is they 0:14:37.400 --> 0:14:42.120 can do spirit. But also the way that people support 0:14:42.120 --> 0:14:45.000 each other in the communities. I think that that's fantastic. 0:14:45.040 --> 0:14:47.840 If you say I'm going to do this thing and 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:51.520 you have a good support network, people will generally say, 0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:54.200 from my experience, anyway, Okay, we're going to support you. 0:14:54.240 --> 0:14:56.040 Go for it, we're going to help you. We're going 0:14:56.120 --> 0:14:58.240 to talk to that person do that. Whereas in other 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:01.520 cultures that may have tall pop syndrome, you say I'm 0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:03.080 going to do this thing, and they're going to say, 0:15:03.080 --> 0:15:04.280 who do you think you are? 0:15:04.880 --> 0:15:05.640 Tall poppies. 0:15:05.960 --> 0:15:08.280 Yeah, it's like a field of poppies and one tries 0:15:08.360 --> 0:15:10.920 to grow taller, the other poppies are going to try 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:13.320 and gang up and cut that thing down. Really get 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:15.080 back in your place. Yeah, there's a lot of cultures 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:16.840 like that, and it's harder to get going. 0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:17.200 Right. 0:15:17.240 --> 0:15:21.000 Do you think that fueled your hunger or desire to 0:15:21.320 --> 0:15:24.800 prove everybody wrong because people are trying to cut that poppy. 0:15:25.120 --> 0:15:30.720 Yeah, I would say, because I'm a little older and 0:15:31.120 --> 0:15:35.520 you didn't have the Internet as a place to have 0:15:35.760 --> 0:15:38.920 community to show what you could do. I used to 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:41.480 make these crazy videos and I would finish them, put 0:15:41.520 --> 0:15:43.200 them on the tape, and put them in a drawer 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:47.440 because it was before YouTube launched. So now the world 0:15:47.560 --> 0:15:50.600 is a lot flatter. So if you're from a smaller 0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:53.240 city or a different place, you can still show what 0:15:53.280 --> 0:15:55.960 you do. You put it on the internet, build fans, 0:15:56.200 --> 0:15:59.680 figure out how you're gonna blaunch your career and great 0:15:59.720 --> 0:16:02.280 content whatever it is. So things are very different now. 0:16:17.400 --> 0:16:20.400 You know what I what I really envy about you, Amelia, 0:16:20.720 --> 0:16:25.280 is that you're driving the cars that you're building, right, 0:16:25.320 --> 0:16:28.240 Like you always show up here with like some cool cars, 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:32.520 and you know, I get so frustrated with these cars 0:16:32.520 --> 0:16:35.280 that I have because the notion of like driving a 0:16:35.360 --> 0:16:38.560 vintage car and if you're like, yay, I'm James Deeney, 0:16:39.160 --> 0:16:41.840 you know, Hollywood, and then like an hour later it 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:44.000 starts to overheat and then you're you're on the side 0:16:44.000 --> 0:16:46.920 of the road. Man, I don't like that anymore. Like, 0:16:47.040 --> 0:16:49.280 you know, it was cool like for the first like 0:16:49.800 --> 0:16:54.640 three times that happened. But then always these old cars 0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:57.600 have some problem and you know, the gauges don't work 0:16:57.640 --> 0:17:00.840 like I think half the cars the gas fuel gauge, 0:17:00.960 --> 0:17:01.760 I'm not sure if it. 0:17:01.800 --> 0:17:03.960 Sound empty or full, because this is going up. 0:17:04.040 --> 0:17:05.760 And that's a little bit of the argument for the 0:17:05.800 --> 0:17:08.440 whole ev swap thing, right if it takes out that 0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:10.920 you can just enjoy the thing. It probably doesn't drive 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:13.960 in the same way, but the thing runs and it's 0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:18.480 probably ten times as fast. Also, yeah, that's really fair. 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:22.400 When I build cars, I keep streetability in mind, like hardcore. 0:17:22.680 --> 0:17:24.320 Like I just bought a sixty nine Camaro and I 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:26.639 already bought everything I need to put AC in it 0:17:26.680 --> 0:17:30.560 because I never again will I take out a C 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:33.959 from a car build a car that ice'. There's just 0:17:34.000 --> 0:17:36.920 so many layers. I wanted to be comfortable driving because 0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:38.639 I don't want to end up on the side of 0:17:38.640 --> 0:17:41.320 the road. And when I moved here with my two 0:17:41.359 --> 0:17:43.840 forty SX that was constantly overheating, how to pull over 0:17:44.000 --> 0:17:46.640 no AC, going to auditions with like my makeup running 0:17:46.680 --> 0:17:50.080 and sweat driven down my back, spelling like gasoline because 0:17:50.119 --> 0:17:52.720 it was run and rich. I just like I think 0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:54.480 now I want to be able to enjoy the cars, 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:56.159 and it makes me so sad if they park for 0:17:56.200 --> 0:17:59.600 too long that I maybe it's my OCD a little bit, 0:17:59.600 --> 0:18:01.520 but I almost make them a little too perfect. 0:18:01.640 --> 0:18:07.600 It's a challenge of classic car ownership modified cars. I've 0:18:07.600 --> 0:18:10.240 given up on dreaming of air conditioning in mine. I 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:13.720 bought a fan off Amazon, and I just just blows 0:18:13.760 --> 0:18:14.480 a little bit of air. 0:18:15.720 --> 0:18:19.080 I've been thinking about liquidating all my cars and just 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:21.440 focusing on one and like making. 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:23.160 That that's what I'm doing. 0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:26.000 I just have one because I love vintagch cars, but like, 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:29.680 get that thing like completely sorted out, where as they 0:18:29.800 --> 0:18:33.160 see has everything that I need, all the creature comforts 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:36.080 where I can drive it across country to New York 0:18:36.200 --> 0:18:36.639 and then. 0:18:36.560 --> 0:18:37.440 Drive it every day. 0:18:37.840 --> 0:18:41.320 Because I look at these cars and you know, I'm 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:43.080 getting older, and I go, when am I going to 0:18:43.080 --> 0:18:45.760 actually enjoy this? When am I going to be able 0:18:45.760 --> 0:18:47.600 to drive it into canyons? When am I going to 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:49.919 be able to take it to the track, Because I'm 0:18:49.920 --> 0:18:52.040 always paranoid like it's going to break down? 0:18:52.160 --> 0:18:53.080 Yeah, right? 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:56.280 And I think I shifted to like I love the 0:18:56.359 --> 0:18:58.439 process of bringing these cars to life. 0:18:58.480 --> 0:19:02.480 But then that really fully alive kind of limping through. 0:19:02.960 --> 0:19:05.720 Yeah, it's hard. He like lose trust in a car 0:19:05.800 --> 0:19:08.240 sometimes two when it breaks down one too many times. 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:11.040 Yeah, I've done something a little crazy with my car. 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:14.320 Is I had a digital twin made, well, a digital 0:19:14.359 --> 0:19:18.360 twin if I commissioned someone. No, it's an add on 0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:21.800 for this PC simulation game, a set of corsa. So 0:19:21.880 --> 0:19:25.880 I had this guy in Europe build it. We scan 0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:28.040 the car and he built a three D model of it, 0:19:28.480 --> 0:19:30.400 did all the physics and everything. So I can sit 0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:33.119 in my living room because I'm in the PCSM racing 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:36.520 with a VR head set, and I've driven the car 0:19:36.560 --> 0:19:39.560 across Tokyo for example, two hundred miles an hour in 0:19:39.640 --> 0:19:40.360 virtual reality. 0:19:40.720 --> 0:19:42.800 You have your car on a set of corso, yeah. 0:19:42.840 --> 0:19:45.000 And I've driven it on the on the La Canyon. 0:19:45.080 --> 0:19:46.440 I mean, that's stupid because I could do that in 0:19:46.440 --> 0:19:49.280 real life because that's in LA. But still it's funny 0:19:49.280 --> 0:19:51.520 that I can drive my car in my living room 0:19:51.560 --> 0:19:54.879 around racetracks around the world. Way to enjoy it. 0:19:54.960 --> 0:19:57.720 A set of courso for those listening, think of not 0:19:57.760 --> 0:19:59.840 to compare to Grand Trisma or I racing, but it's 0:19:59.840 --> 0:20:03.359 a racing video game essentially. That I said, of course, 0:20:03.400 --> 0:20:06.159 is specifically a lot of drifters like to use for 0:20:06.200 --> 0:20:09.480 the realism of being able to get a car sideways 0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:11.760 and get seat time without actually spending money on tires 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:12.200 and gas. 0:20:12.840 --> 0:20:15.399 That's so cool anyway, That's the way that I enjoy 0:20:15.480 --> 0:20:18.880 my my classic car virtually, so much. 0:20:18.720 --> 0:20:20.840 Different than playing it in like Grand Turismo or so 0:20:20.960 --> 0:20:23.440 because I have my car in Grand Turismo and. 0:20:23.720 --> 0:20:26.560 That's less street and more tracks into it. 0:20:26.560 --> 0:20:29.160 I was like, yawn, it's different than we are. 0:20:29.400 --> 0:20:33.560 If you have a full PC simrig, you're you're you're 0:20:33.600 --> 0:20:37.440 able to trick your nervous system. It actually thinks you're driving. Yeah, 0:20:37.480 --> 0:20:39.119 it's very different than a TV. 0:20:39.400 --> 0:20:40.920 I like that. Yeah, huh. 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:45.800 I'm curious about what makes you tick, I guess, and 0:20:45.840 --> 0:20:47.280 how you go into going. 0:20:47.119 --> 0:20:49.880 To get into it? Okay, yeah, let's go. Yeah, let's 0:20:49.880 --> 0:20:51.560