Speaker 1: All right, welcome back to car Stories with some King
Speaker 1: and Amelia Hartford. Amilia, I have to ask you a question, yes,
Speaker 1: before we get to our next guest. So my wife
Speaker 1: and I we got in a pretty big argument, and
Speaker 1: I want to hear another female's perspective on this. So
Speaker 1: I was traveling for a few months, right, and during
Speaker 1: the travels, I ran out of underwear, okay, And then
Speaker 1: I was living out of a hotel. And I don't
Speaker 1: know if you've ever done laundry at a hotel. It's
Speaker 1: like highway robbery. What they charge you for it's.
Speaker 2: Insane third prices. I usually try to find like a
Speaker 2: local laundromat.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I just didn't have the time to do that,
Speaker 1: but I do. Just I have a problem paying that
Speaker 1: kind of money to like.
Speaker 2: It's like a five dollars repair underwars sometimes more.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So I just stopped wearing underwear, and my wife
Speaker 1: thinks it's disgusting. But then I tell her, I go, well,
Speaker 1: it's like I stop boring underwear, but I do wash
Speaker 1: the pants and I think of it, and then I
Speaker 1: thought about it. It's like, why does a guy I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna speak for men. It's like why do I
Speaker 1: need underwear? What is the point of it? So is
Speaker 1: that discuss She's like, that's gross, that's disgusting, that's I
Speaker 1: don't know.
Speaker 2: I'm sitting here as your double story. I'm thinking, like, huh,
Speaker 2: do guys even really need underwear exactly? What's the purpose
Speaker 2: of it?
Speaker 1: What are boxers? They're like shorts. They're like shorts at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, right, So what do I
Speaker 1: need underwear for?
Speaker 2: Unless you're wearing sheer pants? This is gonna get gross.
Speaker 2: But I know some guys just pull their boxers and
Speaker 2: don't like white.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, well look and all the guys, well, you
Speaker 1: know guys that do that. I don't do that. I'm
Speaker 1: not one of those guys. If you have that habit, sure,
Speaker 1: I understand the purpose of underwear. But otherwise, would you
Speaker 1: get in an argument with your like future husband or
Speaker 1: significant other because he's not wearing underwear and he's clean
Speaker 1: an argument? No.
Speaker 2: I want to be like, yeah, why wouldn't you wear underwear?
Speaker 2: But as we're having this conversation, I'm struggling to see
Speaker 2: the point.
Speaker 1: Of what I mean, right, Because I was like, explain
Speaker 1: to me why I need under It's like, well, that's gross,
Speaker 1: and that's the that's the reason why I need underwork
Speaker 1: because it's gross, Like who invented this thing called underwear?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 1: Why, yeah, do I even need it?
Speaker 2: Right? It's restrictive, especially if it's just like boxers, not
Speaker 2: something to like support.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well I started doing a lot of running, right,
Speaker 1: like like mid distance running. I don't wear underwear really, yeah,
Speaker 1: because it's it's it's a constrictive. You're all like blushing
Speaker 1: was a question thinking of the anatomy.
Speaker 2: Of like, well, if you're running, wouldn't you want something
Speaker 2: to support? Because I know, as a woman, I like
Speaker 2: to wear sports bross. I don't need something bouncing around.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess. But then yeah, I guess, but I
Speaker 1: don't think I need that, Okay, Yeah, because I'm trying
Speaker 1: to prove her point, I'm like le's laundry.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but then you're known as the guy who doesn't
Speaker 2: want underwear.
Speaker 1: Well, you don't know who's going to see.
Speaker 2: Yeah, anyone listening this podcast?
Speaker 1: Yeah, well I have nothing to hide. But seriously, yeah, right,
Speaker 1: come on, listeners, like everyone like think about it. It's like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, obviously, you're right.
Speaker 3: I'm struggling to see the point of it, I understand
Speaker 3: why a woman, a female would need underwear like this
Speaker 3: if there's she's wearing a skirt or dressed like you know,
Speaker 3: you don't what it's concealing things, right, But then what
Speaker 3: does a dude need that for?
Speaker 1: Right, It's like I'm wearing pants nine point percent of
Speaker 1: the time.
Speaker 2: Right, as long as you trust your parts, I guess.
Speaker 1: What, it's going to spray things and you're wearing pants,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: All right, So you are you pro underwear.
Speaker 2: Or I'm gonna say I'm pronorb but I agree that
Speaker 2: you know, you agree.
Speaker 1: With my argument that it's unnecessary depending on your level
Speaker 1: of hygiene.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, how long does you like wash your clothes?
Speaker 2: I guess?
Speaker 1: And yeah I want to smell. Look, there's no issues
Speaker 1: with that, right, So okay.
Speaker 2: Good, all right, God we got that out of the way.
Speaker 1: Okay, So next on to our next guest.
Speaker 2: Today, we have our good friend RJ. Devera. When I
Speaker 2: think car industry, I think of Argent And it was
Speaker 2: really cool to get to hear stories about the fact
Speaker 2: that his mom had a turboed mini van that she
Speaker 2: used to drag race.
Speaker 3: What.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was really wonderful to hear how close he
Speaker 1: is with his mother and how impactful she was to
Speaker 1: where RJ is today within the car community. In the
Speaker 1: car industry, RJ.
Speaker 2: Was at the Guires for years and now he's at
Speaker 2: SEAM of the nonprofit which if you guys don't know
Speaker 2: about SEMA, they are basically the nation lorgest trade show
Speaker 2: when it comes to automotive and they also helped to
Speaker 2: keep the passion of motorsports alive.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I met RJ because he lent me his famous
Speaker 1: essex way before the Fast and Furious days, and I
Speaker 1: used a little bit of his swagger even in the
Speaker 1: Han character because I was like, this guy is super cool.
Speaker 1: But to actually sit down with them get to know
Speaker 1: the man behind the myth was really awesome.
Speaker 2: And he actually had a feature in the Fast franchise
Speaker 2: as well. That's right aout further Ado, r jaa Vera.
Speaker 1: RJ, Hey, r JA dea vera.
Speaker 5: What's going on? Thanks for having me, Thanks.
Speaker 2: For coming on.
Speaker 1: When people talk about RJ, your mother always comes up. Yes,
Speaker 1: And it's something that I've always like, admired and envied
Speaker 1: about you that you have such a deep connection. Thanks
Speaker 1: those relationship to your mother.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm my mama's boy for sure. You know, I
Speaker 5: love her dearly. I wouldn't be who I am without her.
Speaker 5: But yeah, in the nine you know, when my parents
Speaker 5: got divorced, he decided to come hang out with with
Speaker 5: her kids, me and all my friends that were in
Speaker 5: the car club, to like drive us back and forth
Speaker 5: from the car show. And then she used to go
Speaker 5: to battle the imports with us. And then one day
Speaker 5: she woke me up and she's like, hey, can we
Speaker 5: turbo charge my van? And I was like, are you serious?
Speaker 5: She's like, yeah, I'm getting bored just hanging out with
Speaker 5: you guys, Like I want to go drag racing with
Speaker 5: you guys. I'm like, okay, Sure, it was a Honda
Speaker 5: Odyssey minivan, but the original.
Speaker 1: It was still a minivan.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it wasn't a Siena, but it was a minivan.
Speaker 5: So anytime anyone turbo charges a minivan, I always kind
Speaker 5: of get some nostalgic feelings, like Besi's Odyssey and stuff.
Speaker 5: But yeah, we painted it yellow for her fiftieth I remember.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry. I'm like shook. I didn't know your mom
Speaker 2: had a turbo min yellow and used to race people.
Speaker 5: It wasn't fast, but she was really good on bracket racing,
Speaker 5: so I taught her how to power I can build
Speaker 5: a boost up.
Speaker 2: I want to meet your mom.
Speaker 1: Let's have the coolest mom ever, right yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so it was really fun. But yeah, she would
Speaker 5: beat people because she was pretty good at dialing in
Speaker 5: and running pretty consistent, and that she would always give
Speaker 5: people a hug. So my friends would come like destroyed
Speaker 5: and they're like, dude, I just last year mom in
Speaker 5: your in her mini van. I'm like I'm sorry. They're like,
Speaker 5: I will never raise my mom. She'll definitely beat me
Speaker 5: because her dial in was like on the money, like
Speaker 5: a tenth every time.
Speaker 2: Amazing.
Speaker 5: Yeah, she's super cool.
Speaker 1: I read that you guys started selling car parts out
Speaker 1: of the condo.
Speaker 5: Yeah, she still lives in that.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so she's just she's a great example of, you know,
Speaker 5: any parent that's had a difficulty but decided to be
Speaker 5: different for her kids, because some parents have a rough
Speaker 5: upbringing and that kind of continues on and there's some
Speaker 5: parents that kind of do the flip. Right. So I
Speaker 5: really got it early into like wanting and modified cars.
Speaker 5: I started buying parts for a car and have pretty
Speaker 5: early on, and I was saving up for a Civic,
Speaker 5: and then because my brother wanted to be a DJ,
Speaker 5: she gave him the wagon, sold his car, and then
Speaker 5: got me an Integra, which I started modding really fairly quickly,
Speaker 5: even before I had my license actually, and then she
Speaker 5: was like, son, it's a new car, like, I got
Speaker 5: you a new car so you don't have to fix anything.
Speaker 5: And I'm like, well, I'm not really fixing anything. She's like,
Speaker 5: I don't get it, and I just needed an excuse.
Speaker 5: So I'm like, well, there's this whole thing going on
Speaker 5: and people modding like import cars. I'm just going to
Speaker 5: sell the parts. And she's like you're going to sell
Speaker 5: what parts? And I'm like, well, springs and rowbars and intakes,
Speaker 5: and she's like, I don't get it. But if you
Speaker 5: like doing it, sure you know you got to pay
Speaker 5: for the stuff. When you're I'm not going to pay
Speaker 5: for it. So that's how that started, and I learned
Speaker 5: how to promote that stuff, kind of helping my brother
Speaker 5: promote and his friends promote the clubs that they were doing.
Speaker 5: So I just made flyers with car ports on it,
Speaker 5: and I would put it at the different like fixed
Speaker 5: up cars at the local college, Santamonica College, and that's
Speaker 5: really how I started. Yeah, I guess I started selling
Speaker 5: car covers before that, like right before that car covers. Yeah,
Speaker 5: I worked at a little shop in Santa Monica and
Speaker 5: they were like, oh, like, we're really interested in this,
Speaker 5: like this thing that's happening with like you know these
Speaker 5: you know, Japanese American cars. There was JDM wasn't even
Speaker 5: a term. Then I'm like, oh, I could help with that,
Speaker 5: and they're like, okay, we'll hire you. But all I
Speaker 5: do is sell car covers. I was like, I don't
Speaker 5: want to do that. I don't want to sell like
Speaker 5: all these like performance sports. And a guy worked with
Speaker 5: he's like, oh, just get a business license and I
Speaker 5: was like, well, how do you do that. He's like, well,
Speaker 5: you go down to this state Board of Equalization office
Speaker 5: and I was like, well, how old do you have
Speaker 5: to be and he's like, I don't think you have
Speaker 5: to be any age.
Speaker 1: Wait.
Speaker 2: That's so intimidating for so many people to do, and
Speaker 2: it doesn't seem like that's anything that's prevented you in
Speaker 2: your life. Someone you just went straight after it, because
Speaker 2: at least as a child growing up. For me, if
Speaker 2: someone want to tell me, oh, go to get a
Speaker 2: business license, like I would be a little intimidated of
Speaker 2: that process.
Speaker 1: Hustle would go get it.
Speaker 5: I think it's part Asian, but I think it's an
Speaker 5: immigrant hustle, like when you're an immigrant, you know, so
Speaker 5: I immigrated from Philippines with my parents. It's like, well, that's
Speaker 5: what is needed to get done with. Okay, let's all
Speaker 5: find out. And all they can say is no, right,
Speaker 5: what else is going to happen? So seeh I was
Speaker 5: really skeptical that I would even get it because I
Speaker 5: didn't know if there was this eighteen year old barrier
Speaker 5: because I was sixteen and a half or seventeen.
Speaker 1: That's crazy.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: And so I would call these shops that I was
Speaker 5: buying parts from. They're very few that sold parts, and
Speaker 5: I'd be like, hey, I'm looking to start selling this stuff.
Speaker 5: And I remember when I would walk in because I
Speaker 5: was seventeen with like size thirty six, like khakis like
Speaker 5: the bangs that were died, and they were like are
Speaker 5: you the guy spoke on the phone. I'm like, yep,
Speaker 5: that's me, and they're like do you own is it?
Speaker 5: Like a real business. I'm like, yep, have my business license,
Speaker 5: and they're like, where's your shop. I'm like, well, it's
Speaker 5: in West LA. And then I wouldn't tell anyone. It
Speaker 5: was just my mom's condo. And so it was a
Speaker 5: lot of fun. It taught me a lot, and that
Speaker 5: was kind of the time when like import car culture
Speaker 5: was really like starting to move, Like the first import
Speaker 5: car show was in ninety five. I mean I had
Speaker 5: started this in ninety four, but the only place you
Speaker 5: could really go if you had a fixed up car
Speaker 5: was to these house parties that I talked we talked
Speaker 5: about before we sat down, or these like eighteen and
Speaker 5: over like dance parties.
Speaker 1: Talk about what's this house party?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: So all at you? Yeah.
Speaker 5: So a lot of the house parties were kind of varied, right,
Speaker 5: there are people dancing, there's people getting in trouble. But
Speaker 5: at a couple of us would end up in the
Speaker 5: garage and because we had no money and we're like, okay,
Speaker 5: well who's cars next, you know, and really all we
Speaker 5: wanted to do is lower it and look, you know,
Speaker 5: kind of gangster, right. So so we got really my
Speaker 5: friends and I got really good at like popping off suspension,
Speaker 5: and we didn't even have the spring tension really, so
Speaker 5: we would just put a box and Dino exhaust box
Speaker 5: and we would stand on it and we were like
Speaker 5: one more, one more, like everyone get out of the way,
Speaker 5: you know, and it would like pop off, you know,
Speaker 5: and that's how I think we would cut it or
Speaker 5: have it burnt somewhere, right, which was the worst ride.
Speaker 5: I think someone was talking about like it was fun
Speaker 5: to be bouncy, Like, no, that wasn't fun, But that's
Speaker 5: what happened, right, because there wasn't a lot of stuff
Speaker 5: that you could buy at the time. So yeah, I
Speaker 5: ended up befriending a lot of Asian gangs because they
Speaker 5: lowered a lot of their cars. But they're also like, oh,
Speaker 5: that's Argen. He's into that street racing stuff. Like don't
Speaker 5: need to mess you know, you don't need to mess
Speaker 5: with him. He's cool, you know. But yeah, it was fun.
Speaker 5: It was a lot of fun. It was kind of
Speaker 5: that culture some time until Imports Show Off and Hot
Speaker 5: Import Nights and Battle the Imports got really big, which
Speaker 5: led into the movie of course, And yeah, it was
Speaker 5: kind of a game changer at that time, but it
Speaker 5: was already kind of getting bigger because there was this movement.
Speaker 1: For those that you don't know speaking of the movie,
Speaker 1: RJ is in Fast and Fears.
Speaker 5: Yeah, a little two seconds of thing. I still get
Speaker 5: residual a little more than that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 5: There was three lines in the script. One got cut
Speaker 5: where joh Rule and I were kind of bantering at
Speaker 5: the line.
Speaker 1: So just to give you context of how I know
Speaker 1: RJ was starving actor. Like, I'm like a buck twenty
Speaker 1: five starving. I have like twenty jobs just to like
Speaker 1: you know, be able to eat. And I was like,
Speaker 1: I have to just like make some type of money.
Speaker 1: I have to also be around like you know, production
Speaker 1: and Stan I can't remember his name, last name, but
Speaker 1: he was part of Yolk magazine and he was a
Speaker 1: good friend, right. He was like an older kind of
Speaker 1: like brother type, and he was like, hey man, you
Speaker 1: know we got to do this like kind of cool commercial.
Speaker 1: And you know, you have a camera which I didn't
Speaker 1: because I could borrow it, right, And he's like, do
Speaker 1: you want to shoot this commercial? I was like, what
Speaker 1: do you mean you like shoot it? He's like you
Speaker 1: want to direct it? And I was like yeah, I
Speaker 1: had never directed anything, and he's like, you know how
Speaker 1: to do that? I go, yeah, of course I did.
Speaker 1: I was like yeah, and I'm like, so what is
Speaker 1: it about. It's like, well, you know, you got to
Speaker 1: come up with an idea and then you know it's
Speaker 1: like like some car thing. This is way before fast
Speaker 1: and fierous or anything. Right. So and then somehow I
Speaker 1: think that the actress that was going to be in
Speaker 1: the commercial, they stan already had picked her or they
Speaker 1: were friends and she's was friends with you. So because
Speaker 1: I was like, where do we get a car? Right,
Speaker 1: it's like, well, we need like a dope car. I
Speaker 1: go like what kind of car? It's like ideally like
Speaker 1: an NSX something like that. Like that's crazy, that's that's insane.
Speaker 1: Like who's gonna let us follow that? We have no money?
Speaker 1: And then you showed up at your car okay, right,
Speaker 1: and it's.
Speaker 5: Starting to ring something. Remember I do that now that
Speaker 5: you say?
Speaker 1: And then he shows up and I was I tell
Speaker 1: everybody the story. I was like, yo, man, that's like
Speaker 1: Asian James Dane dude. It was because I'm not from right,
Speaker 1: so I didn't grow up in that that culture, right,
Speaker 1: like the car culture in Georgia. We didn't have that.
Speaker 2: It was that's a nice car.
Speaker 5: Yeah, time that I had. Actually, there's a story about that.
Speaker 5: I can get into.
Speaker 1: What color was that car?
Speaker 5: Like it was red, it was candy apple red, then
Speaker 5: it was a color shift paint. Then it was.
Speaker 1: Silver, silver, we got to win silver, and it was orange.
Speaker 5: That was the last six colors. Too many. Yeah, I
Speaker 5: would have kept it if I didn't paint it so
Speaker 5: many times.
Speaker 1: But he was the first like cool Asian car dude
Speaker 1: I had ever met. That's to find this commercial. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's so cool.
Speaker 2: That was your That was your directorial debut.
Speaker 1: You realized it and we finished it, like you know,
Speaker 1: we cut it. It took forever because it was it was
Speaker 1: an old ass computer, so I remember it was. It
Speaker 1: was before final cuts and we had to like walk
Speaker 1: away and go have dinner every time we rendered.
Speaker 5: I remember those days.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you came and you were.
Speaker 5: Actually because I always wanted and even me now probably
Speaker 5: not as much, but anytime someone had a project like hey,
Speaker 5: we're trying to do this, I'm like, let's go, Like
Speaker 5: what do you need? You know, like you need a car,
Speaker 5: you're a person. So that's how that Arco thing came up.
Speaker 2: That's funny because that's how I know you today. You're
Speaker 2: still very much like that. I try to make it like,
Speaker 2: let's do this, make it happen.
Speaker 5: Especially if it's like paving away or giving someone an opportunity.
Speaker 5: I just loved to get involved. So being part of
Speaker 5: this Asian American movement at that age, and then like
Speaker 5: car culture being becoming somewhat of our platforms to be
Speaker 5: kind of seen and recognized became a real fulfilling thing
Speaker 5: for me.
Speaker 1: Let's back up, how did you get involved in Fast? Yeah?
Speaker 5: I was initially like casult with Craig Lieberman, the other
Speaker 5: person that was consulting on the film. We were both
Speaker 5: working at Peterson Publishing. Somehow somebody at Universal found Craig
Speaker 5: gave him the script when it was still Redline. They
Speaker 5: were like, hey, we're looking for some consultants. He jumped
Speaker 5: on and they were like, hey, do you know any
Speaker 5: Asian kids that grew up kind of six street racing
Speaker 5: and stuff? And he's like, huh, funny you asked like, yeah,
Speaker 5: I have this really young, y, happy twenty year old
Speaker 5: that works for me, and I'm actually part of his
Speaker 5: car club. We're gonna have a car show this weekend.
Speaker 5: You should come meet him. And then they were like, hey,
Speaker 5: what's your story? And I told my story. They're like, oh,
Speaker 5: well you want to help us? And I literally thought
Speaker 5: the movie was going to go straight to DVD. I'm like,
Speaker 5: are you serious? You're going to make a film with
Speaker 5: impoor cars? Sure?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 5: And they're like, no, we're serious. I okay, you're sure.
Speaker 5: If Craig's working on it, yeah, sure, I'll help. And
Speaker 5: so what we first did was go through the script
Speaker 5: and be like, well, this car progression doesn't feel right,
Speaker 5: like was it. Paul's character initially went from like a
Speaker 5: three thousand GT tony clips and We're like, well, that
Speaker 5: progression isn't right. So we started to align cars to characters,
Speaker 5: and then they wanted to go find some cars, so
Speaker 5: we started to call friends for these like casting calls
Speaker 5: for cars, and then started to figure out, like could
Speaker 5: we afford it, because I think that initial movie was
Speaker 5: like a thirty five or forty million dollar budget, So
Speaker 5: there were actually a lot of cars that ended up
Speaker 5: being the character car that weren't initially Selfishly, I was
Speaker 5: trying to get Vin's character to drive the NSX, but
Speaker 5: we couldn't afford six of them, let alone the kit
Speaker 5: that was on my car, Like, they wouldn't give it
Speaker 5: to us for free. So we ended up getting the
Speaker 5: RX seven because the Veil side guys were totally down.
Speaker 5: They're like, yeah, you need kits, no problem, I mean,
Speaker 5: you know what it's for. So there there's little funny
Speaker 5: tidbits like that. Even the S two thousand that was
Speaker 5: rick Yun's vehicle, which is the villain in the first movie,
Speaker 5: that ended up being my S two thousand. We wanted
Speaker 5: to use a ham and Z four, but we couldn't
Speaker 5: afford four or five ham and Z four, so it's like,
Speaker 5: what else do we got. I'm like, oh, I have
Speaker 5: this thing S two thousand that looks kind of like batmobile.
Speaker 5: They're like, that's good. Can you get the kit? Like, yeah,
Speaker 5: I think I get that kit for us, which ended
Speaker 5: up being Suki's car in the second movie, and now
Speaker 5: it sits at the Pepo it's the.
Speaker 1: Same car, same car. Well who made that kid?
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, you know Sacho, So yeah, well.
Speaker 1: It's the same.
Speaker 5: I didn't know that it was black in the first
Speaker 5: movie with the Ninja Stars, which we made fun of
Speaker 5: in Super Street and call them snowflakes.
Speaker 1: But I didn't realize like vale Side was there from
Speaker 1: the beginning.
Speaker 5: In the beginning.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, hopefully you get to meet him one day.
Speaker 1: Yoku Makusan, the owner of the site. It's like just
Speaker 1: one of the angelic Cuman beings.
Speaker 2: Yeah, did see your z it toky It was there again?
Speaker 5: Yeah yeah, yeah, he's one of the OG's from that
Speaker 5: Japan tuning air, like Smoking Nagata, you know, Ada San,
Speaker 5: Drift King, They're all the same circle. And I had
Speaker 5: met him because I was working at Super Street. He
Speaker 5: didn't have a booth at Auto Salon, so I got
Speaker 5: some friends to rent a van to drive us out
Speaker 5: to his shot and then I shot it for a feature.
Speaker 5: And then the next year I came back and I'm like, hey,
Speaker 5: remember me. I worked for the small little magazine in
Speaker 5: the US. And people were already knocking his stuff off
Speaker 5: in the US, and he was like RJ, like in Japan,
Speaker 5: this is shameful, and I'm like I understand, but people
Speaker 5: want your stuff and they can't get it. And they're like,
Speaker 5: I'm going to fly to the US and you're gonna
Speaker 5: help me. And I was like sure, Okay, so I
Speaker 5: actually helped him start as US when he had the
Speaker 5: US offices back here back then, which is how we
Speaker 5: got all the parts for the movie, because I was like, Hey,
Speaker 5: there's this movie that's happening. We need some parts. And
Speaker 5: he's like, what do you need. I'm like, well, we
Speaker 5: need RC seven kids and S two thousand kids. He's like,
Speaker 5: do you need wheels. I'm like, yes, we need wheels.
Speaker 5: Send that to and so that's how we ended up
Speaker 5: in the movie. WHOA Yeah, but he was.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: He was a mentor for me, and everyone talks about
Speaker 5: their mentors, so he was definitely one of them.
Speaker 1: That's so interesting. I never knew that.
Speaker 5: Or Jay, he's super a jail. Like, there's so many
Speaker 5: cars that I built that ended up on the covers
Speaker 5: of magazines, and they did because he would always send
Speaker 5: me the first so he'd like, Oh, here's my new
Speaker 5: S two thousand, here's my new Millennium Edition S two
Speaker 5: thousand kit. I'm going to send you on go build
Speaker 5: a car. Or here's the m R two Fortune Model kit.
Speaker 5: I'm going to send you one, and.
Speaker 2: This while you were at Superstreight.
Speaker 5: It was while I was kind of like a roving
Speaker 5: editor at Superstreet. Yeah, and still doing you know, selling
Speaker 5: body kits and other parts. And then started the wheel line.
Speaker 5: I don't know if you know this. I had a
Speaker 5: wheel line that was named after me for about seven years,
Speaker 5: which is a lot of fun.
Speaker 4: Really uh huh.
Speaker 1: So those are probably collector items now, it's fine.
Speaker 5: I didn't keep it. I don't have one single wall right.
Speaker 2: If anyone's listening, who has what did you?
Speaker 5: If you have a Roja Motorsport wheel, I would love
Speaker 5: to like have one.
Speaker 1: Got to bring those back, man.
Speaker 4: Yeah. It was.
Speaker 5: It was a good era in my life. I was
Speaker 5: very blessed, very fortunate. Like I remember the wheel deal
Speaker 5: specifically where I had helped the company American Racing develop
Speaker 5: their new import line which is still rounds called Multagi Racing,
Speaker 5: and then they were like, hey, RJ like, have you
Speaker 5: ever thought of having your own line? And they created
Speaker 5: a mock up and the center caps at RJD wheels,
Speaker 5: which I felt I just about fell like out of
Speaker 5: my chair laughing because I was super into like the
Speaker 5: JDM stuff like racing hard SSR and I could never
Speaker 5: imagine someone like wanting to buy a wheel that had
Speaker 5: like RJD. I remember driving home one day and I
Speaker 5: was like, you know, even if it did suck, it
Speaker 5: just be cool. And this is probably in the mid
Speaker 5: early two thousands, right before the first movie. I got
Speaker 5: back and I'm like, hey, guys, like I'm down, Like
Speaker 5: you can't call it RJD because that sounds really lame,
Speaker 5: Like it's your it's your line. You make it whatever
Speaker 5: you want, you know, I'm like.
Speaker 1: Okay, cool.
Speaker 5: And that started that whole kind of line of wheels
Speaker 5: for about seven years.
Speaker 1: That's a long time. Yeah, it had a good run.
Speaker 1: I like what you just said. There was like self
Speaker 1: doubt about like who's who, Who's gonna want these wheels?
Speaker 1: But let's give it a try, right, you know, it's
Speaker 1: like these for in our head. I'm very guilty of it.
Speaker 1: And that's something that I'm always conscious of and trying
Speaker 1: to like overcome going I'd like to try this. I'd
Speaker 1: like to you know, write this, or direct this, or
Speaker 1: even my first, like you know movie I directed. Right
Speaker 1: the whole time, it was all these voices like who
Speaker 1: are you doing direct?
Speaker 5: What do you know?
Speaker 1: You have no talent?
Speaker 2: Imposter syndrome.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's gonna it's gonna bomb, it's gonna flop. It's
Speaker 1: gonna you're gonna lose money and you'll never be able
Speaker 1: to do this again. And even after I finished it,
Speaker 1: it was like constant voices like it sucks, it sucks,
Speaker 1: it sucks. And then it comes out and it's like
Speaker 1: it sucks, it sucks, it sucks. And then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden one day you like step back and you go,
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, it didn't want to Oscar or it
Speaker 1: didn't do all that, but you know, it sets you
Speaker 1: up and you learn so much. Yeah right, And the
Speaker 1: most important thing I learned was that even if it
Speaker 1: doesn't didn't win awards and doesn't have the same successes
Speaker 1: as like the big block busters, it made me realize
Speaker 1: that I have so much gratitude that I could just
Speaker 1: even do that. Yeah, to be in a place to go, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, you want to go make a movie, you
Speaker 1: want to direct a movie. It actually happened, yeah right,
Speaker 1: And then the voices kind of calm down and you're like, hey,
Speaker 1: shut up, voices, just go and do. And the lesson
Speaker 1: that I try to like convey here is that you
Speaker 1: got to shut those voices down. You just got to
Speaker 1: do it right.
Speaker 2: I heard something this morning and I don't know who
Speaker 2: it came from, so I don't want to misquote, but
Speaker 2: it was one day or day one.
Speaker 1: It's your choice, so simple.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, but like so much there at the
Speaker 2: same time.
Speaker 5: Yeah, because if you don't start, it never happens.
Speaker 2: But I hear that through line in your story. A
Speaker 2: lot even you know, get in the business license of
Speaker 2: just going after it and getting it. It doesn't seem
Speaker 2: or do you have many thoughts that are similar to
Speaker 2: what sung saying of imposter syndrome or maybe doubt? Do
Speaker 2: you ever doubt yourself?
Speaker 5: I definitely have the voices I think, like a lot
Speaker 5: of people do, write down you know that doubt and
Speaker 5: whether am I capable of doing this? You know what
Speaker 5: gives me the right to try this? You know? Will
Speaker 5: it resonate with anyone? I think that's a lot of
Speaker 5: people deal with that, right. I'd like to say, probably
Speaker 5: bury it pretty good. We're like, oh, wow, what's the
Speaker 5: worst that can happen? And I think I was really
Speaker 5: blessed and fortunate that at a at a fairly young age,
Speaker 5: I was able to do that and things were somewhat successful, right.
Speaker 5: The movie did well, Super Sheet did well, so I
Speaker 5: worked on projects. I worked on forts and motorsports that
Speaker 5: did well, and so I was really like, oh to
Speaker 5: your point, like you look back, You're like I did
Speaker 5: pretty good, you know, and so you get you gain
Speaker 5: more confidence, and it's kind of I'm sure your your
Speaker 5: first YouTube video to the one you just posted, if.
Speaker 2: You go back and watch huge growth, right yeah.
Speaker 5: You know, yeah, because I mean it is it is
Speaker 5: day one, you know, and so I've I've been really lucky,
Speaker 5: and I think thee of us, you know, to be
Speaker 5: able to do things where then you can look back
Speaker 5: in hindsight, so the second time you do it, it's
Speaker 5: a lot easier, and the third time it becomes like, oh,
Speaker 5: I kind of know this cycle, you know, and so
Speaker 5: you do have a lot more confidence, and then you
Speaker 5: also fail, right I was, you know, I I after
Speaker 5: the wheel line. I tried to do a whole performance
Speaker 5: car line right around the one bubble bursts, and I
Speaker 5: had investment and then I lost it. I was trying
Speaker 5: to build a couple pro drag cars, went crazing a
Speaker 5: debt on my mom's home equity and then had to
Speaker 5: shut everything down, and the dream came collapsing down. And
Speaker 5: it was probably some of the toughest time in my life,
Speaker 5: and it took me seven or eight years to kind
Speaker 5: of pay back this this loan. Luckily it was a
Speaker 5: home loan. So but this fear that I was going
Speaker 5: to lose like our small little condo, you know, chasing
Speaker 5: this dream and having this gratitude to my mom for
Speaker 5: even allowing me to like do that. But that was
Speaker 5: an experience and you grow from it and then you
Speaker 5: learn like, well, failure's just a part of it, you know,
Speaker 5: and just about getting up and getting back on the bike.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 5: So I think that's that's where that imposter syndrome can
Speaker 5: really hold you down, if you hold on too much
Speaker 5: to the things that didn't go well, yeah, you know,
Speaker 5: versus like, well that didn't go well, what did I learn? Okay,
Speaker 5: that hurts. I'm gonna let it hurt, and then I'm
Speaker 5: gonna move on.
Speaker 2: And just because it didn't go well last time doesn't
Speaker 2: mean it's not gonna go well again.
Speaker 5: So so I think that's if I could impart anything
Speaker 5: on anyone, you know, I would agree with you. Just
Speaker 5: they want to just go just go for it, you know,
Speaker 5: and no matter what happens, it's not the end of
Speaker 5: the world life goes on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks for sharing that. I mean, I think a
Speaker 1: lot of people look at you. He is a dude
Speaker 1: that every that everything goes right. And then to just
Speaker 1: share that you had to take like a loan out
Speaker 1: from your mom's condo where it all started.
Speaker 2: It all.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well obviously, I mean all that wealth of knowledge
Speaker 1: is you know, valuable to the industry, the car industry
Speaker 1: too today because now you're at SEMA.
Speaker 5: Yeah yeah, yeah, so it's it's come around full circle,
Speaker 5: you know. Like my first two main events that I
Speaker 5: went to outside of the import car shows were Autoslon
Speaker 5: and SEMA back in ninety six. I had so I
Speaker 5: took you Autuslan for those listening, which is there's a
Speaker 5: couple events that I think if you're a car enthusiast
Speaker 5: you have to go to Tokiautoslan is one of them,
Speaker 5: Festival of Speed is another, SEMA Show is another, and
Speaker 5: Monterey Carweek. It was like to me those four like
Speaker 5: if you love cars like you gotta go to those four.
Speaker 5: But SEMA, I haven't missed one since ninety six except
Speaker 5: for the one that we didn't have, So this one
Speaker 5: will be twenty seven years. So when I came to
Speaker 5: work for the organization. It kind of felt like a homecoming.
Speaker 5: The only the only thing that I had not done
Speaker 5: going to the SEMA show was be part of the
Speaker 5: team that put it together. I'd been you know, a builder, photographer,
Speaker 5: small company host, bigger company hosts for like so many
Speaker 5: things around the show. That just felt like natural that
Speaker 5: I would be part of the team that helped, you know,
Speaker 5: kind of puts it together and helps evolve it. And
Speaker 5: just the organization, right, because many people think about SEMA,
Speaker 5: they just think about the show, but the organization does
Speaker 5: so much more for just the aftermarket companies and the
Speaker 5: people that are involved in the industry.
Speaker 1: So for the listeners that don't know what SEMA is like,
Speaker 1: how would you describe it?
Speaker 5: For Layman Tern, Well, it's some membership based organization or association,
Speaker 5: but it also really looks out for the industry and
Speaker 5: advocating for the industry.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 5: We're doing a lot of work on the government front,
Speaker 5: you know, to really advocate for, as an example, a
Speaker 5: technology neutral future. There's a lot of proposals that by
Speaker 5: twenty thirty five, everything that's sold news is going to
Speaker 5: be ev and we feel and personally for myself too,
Speaker 5: that it should be technology neutral. If people should be
Speaker 5: allowed the choice to choose whether it's a synthetic fuel
Speaker 5: or hydrogen or biofuel or EV or hybrid. That yeah,
Speaker 5: the customer should have the choice, right, it shouldn't be mandated.
Speaker 5: So let like innovation kind of you know, it's it's
Speaker 5: the American story, you know, Let innovation like win over.
Speaker 5: So we're doing things like that, and we do a
Speaker 5: lot of product development testing and EPA and card compliance
Speaker 5: for a lot of companies.
Speaker 1: You're making it too too complicated organization to help and
Speaker 1: support aftermarket.
Speaker 5: Companies, yes, and the industry, yes, the automobile. Sorry, so
Speaker 5: I got too deep. I just love it. I just
Speaker 5: love what we stand for. We love working here, and
Speaker 5: it's really really interesting to see like car culture like
Speaker 5: move beyond just like national borders, right, and I think
Speaker 5: Fast kind of did that too, you know, where like
Speaker 5: it created as phenomena and just to be part of
Speaker 5: that for me was was very fulfilling, really really fulfilling.
Speaker 5: And so that's that's all I want to do now
Speaker 5: is do things like that.
Speaker 1: So do you think because of social media car culture
Speaker 1: is going strong? Because you know, with ev sure, coming in.
Speaker 1: There's always this argument, this notion about car culture dying,
Speaker 1: but it seems like, you know, anytime I looked at it,
Speaker 1: like Instagram or yeah, it's just it's all like maybe
Speaker 1: it's my it's all I see.
Speaker 5: I think I was on the brink of disappearing, to
Speaker 5: be quite frank, after the recession. It felt like my
Speaker 5: nephews as an example for me being who I am
Speaker 5: and my nephew is not caring about cars is a
Speaker 5: little bit crazy to me. But it's just not their deal.
Speaker 5: Older they they're twenty five and twenty three, a super
Speaker 5: into sports, super into gaming, but that's their deal.
Speaker 1: They don't care about cars at all, not at all.
Speaker 5: But it felt like during the risk, after the nine recession,
Speaker 5: there's this debt, and then right around like twenty thirteen
Speaker 5: or fourteen, I started to see young people again at
Speaker 5: car meets and it would rattle off like car names
Speaker 5: and horsepower, like the people that grew up in our
Speaker 5: generation that played grants Arismo actually oddly enough and found
Speaker 5: out about cars and come to find out because of
Speaker 5: social media, because of mobile games like CSR Racing and
Speaker 5: things of that nature. It was kind of coming back
Speaker 5: in a different way though, you know, do I think
Speaker 5: things will change. Absolutely if things become really all new
Speaker 5: cars are evy, that's going to change things, you know.
Speaker 5: But I think the love to personalize thing isn't and
Speaker 5: I think that's where the difference is. Like maybe some
Speaker 5: of the performance stuff changes, but this idea that you're
Speaker 5: always going to want something that's personal in yours, I
Speaker 5: think isn't going to go away. So that's what gives
Speaker 5: me hope. And then of course what everybody's doing, you know,
Speaker 5: the stuff that Emilia is doing, Dustin TJ, you name it, right,
Speaker 5: all these people that are young and really diving into
Speaker 5: it and showing that next generation. It's really cool to
Speaker 5: see and I think it is helping at the end
Speaker 5: of the day, Like I don't think we'd have as
Speaker 5: much interest from the younger generation if people like Chamelia
Speaker 5: weren't making her content and breaking the barriers that she's
Speaker 5: braking early.
Speaker 4: So absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 1: I was watching this YouTube video but this car meet
Speaker 1: in Texas, right, and this guy asking car owners like, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, what do you think about this car? You
Speaker 1: should show a picture of like somebody's and a sex
Speaker 1: and you know, give it a brating one to ten
Speaker 1: and you go, that's a nine, that's a ten, And
Speaker 1: there was you know the ten people I saw. There
Speaker 1: was I think one Asian dude. Everybody was like Texan
Speaker 1: like you know, good old boy like Americans, but everyone
Speaker 1: was driving. I think I saw one hell cat. Everybody
Speaker 1: was driving JDM. Yeah, and it made me realize something.
Speaker 1: It's like through the car culture, this thing of like inclusion, diversity, right,
Speaker 1: understanding other cultures, like for us to be accepted people
Speaker 1: that you that look like you and I. The cars
Speaker 1: are taking care of that for us because you know,
Speaker 1: when Japanese cars are so beloved, it's not a thing anymore.
Speaker 1: There used to be this term called rice rocket. Even
Speaker 1: five years ago. Man, there was like these Maverick guys
Speaker 1: from good old boys, and they kept calling my Maverck
Speaker 1: like a rice rocket, and I was like, what is
Speaker 1: that term? Rice rocket? Right? The thing has gone now
Speaker 1: they're just like heay man, that's a dope ass car,
Speaker 1: right right, And it's pretty beautiful to see that that,
Speaker 1: you know, the car culture JDM culture becoming so like
Speaker 1: global actually helps like people get along better, you know,
Speaker 1: and it fights racism. It was just like fascinating, like
Speaker 1: you know, likezation I had's.
Speaker 5: I never thought of it.
Speaker 1: Ten years ago, these good old boys would be in
Speaker 1: like you know, American Iron and they look at a
Speaker 1: in the hegra type bar is like a rice rocket.
Speaker 1: They're like, why would I drive that? Or they look
Speaker 1: at that Corolla. It's like why would I drive that
Speaker 1: little Corolla? But now that is like pretty cool everybody's pocket. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's changed for sure. I think for bring a trailer,
Speaker 1: Like the fastest growing segment is eighties and nineties JDM cars.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Like there's this bond that people start to have
Speaker 5: when you're like, oh you're you're a carn thesist. Like
Speaker 5: we're the same people, you know. And it happens in
Speaker 5: different cultures, right, I are other things like food or
Speaker 5: sneaker culture or whatever, but car culture is one of them.
Speaker 5: You travel around the world and it could be completely different.
Speaker 5: Like I've never seen this car, like I used to
Speaker 5: go to France. I'm like, what is that poujo?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 5: But it's tuned in the same way. It's got deep
Speaker 5: job and stereo and wheels, and you're like, you're my people.
Speaker 2: I called out my found family because I always say
Speaker 2: wherever travel. I know, I have a family there, and
Speaker 2: you don't even need to speak the same language. Like
Speaker 2: when I was at Tokyoto San, I was using the
Speaker 2: translator app to just communicate about the modifications that have
Speaker 2: been done to certain cars, and I at one point
Speaker 2: I took a step back and screenshot it because I
Speaker 2: was like, this is pretty cool. Yeah, we don't speak
Speaker 2: the same language, but at the same time, we do
Speaker 2: and we're talking it. And that's cars.
Speaker 5: I am curious, like, what are you guys looking to
Speaker 5: do next car wise? But you got Project Base, Yeah,
Speaker 5: you got your thirty four.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's probably going to be my next project.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: I also have this Replica Superbird that it came across
Speaker 2: that I'm kind of going through the planning stages of
Speaker 2: right now. And yeah, a few few cars on my horizon,
Speaker 2: but my biggest focus right now is getting the FTR
Speaker 2: on a container and back out here to the States.
Speaker 2: What about you.
Speaker 1: I have a it's actually a eighty five Grand National
Speaker 1: roller found in the desert. I have a stock which
Speaker 1: you have a Grand National team. I love this. I
Speaker 1: love wow you sold it? Yeah, well so I just
Speaker 1: love the Gea bodies. And then Nissan they're supporting us,
Speaker 1: and they send over enough car for me to take
Speaker 1: all the pieces out. So Nissan sent me a R
Speaker 1: thirty five with a v R thirty eight motorow So
Speaker 1: that imagine a R thirty five g t are having
Speaker 1: a baby with a Buick Grand National and the King
Speaker 1: Kudo comes out.
Speaker 5: I think you're so good. And Daniel like best names
Speaker 5: for cars.
Speaker 1: So hey, I'm doing it with Daniel because we have
Speaker 1: students Ordan together. Yeah yeah. So then it's actually just
Speaker 1: sitting in the garage now, so we just got to
Speaker 1: get to it. It's been a busy last year. I'd
Speaker 1: love to send it to Tokyo Auto Salon and just
Speaker 1: leave it there because you know, Japanese love American cars, yes, right,
Speaker 1: and then as an egent, a real Grand National and
Speaker 1: the heart is Japanese car, which is like so awesome, right,
Speaker 1: So King Kudo that's sweet with like watanabase. Imagine like
Speaker 1: the vision is like big fat waase right with the
Speaker 1: rocket bunny kid on it, right, and it's all these
Speaker 1: little like the door handles are from the gtr okay, right,
Speaker 1: you're gonna use it a little bit yeah together yeah,
Speaker 1: so it's like it's like if a Grand National and
Speaker 1: a GTR had a baby, the King Kudo would come out.
Speaker 1: So it's a biracial car.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm excited for this project. Yeah, that's a really
Speaker 2: rad Is yours going to be the S two k?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 5: It's almost done actually for us for what I wanted
Speaker 5: it done.
Speaker 2: What were you doing to it? You just got this
Speaker 2: car a couple of months ago.
Speaker 5: No, no, it's been two years almost. It's pretty stoked
Speaker 5: about it because I kind of the thought was if
Speaker 5: I was going to make an S T thousand, if
Speaker 5: Fast and Fears was just coming out, Now, how wide
Speaker 5: I build it? And so that's what this car is.
Speaker 5: It's kind of a little bit of a tribute building. Yeah.
Speaker 5: So I've been driving it around a lot of about
Speaker 5: four months ago. I just haven't taken it to track,
Speaker 5: which will be the next thing.
Speaker 1: So since I have you here, this is a good
Speaker 1: good person to talk.
Speaker 2: Not the underwear thing.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, okay, that's past topic. So since you
Speaker 1: were part of the first Fast and now we're at Fast, Yeah,
Speaker 1: where do you think the Fast franchise can go or
Speaker 1: should go? Or should it even go any longer? Because
Speaker 1: I mean now that we're literally in space.
Speaker 5: You're all avengers at this point.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, so how do we make it better? If
Speaker 1: you were too?
Speaker 5: I don't know if it's better. I mean I do feel.
Speaker 1: Like, what's it what? What does it need to to
Speaker 1: put some gas in the tank?
Speaker 2: I mean what you did there?
Speaker 5: Yeah, unintended? And you've got cars in a piero in space,
Speaker 5: which is pretty hilarious actually, and cars getting picked up
Speaker 5: by jets. It's like, okay, Like it feels like it's
Speaker 5: run its course as that, and it almost feels like
Speaker 5: a prequel could be an avenue, but it's a completely
Speaker 5: different story, and it's back to cars, you know, at
Speaker 5: least as a car fan, Like I still watched the
Speaker 5: franchise knowing like it's gonna be a spy movie, you
Speaker 5: know at the end of the day, right, and with
Speaker 5: a lot of explosions and cars that flip over and
Speaker 5: keep driving like fifty million times, which is funny because
Speaker 5: we used to make fun of the first one like
Speaker 5: oh there were like twelve thousand.
Speaker 2: Shifts, granny shifting not double.
Speaker 5: And all the words right that they had us actually
Speaker 5: like a side tangent. Craig and I created a bunch
Speaker 5: of words on a sheet and they just started putting
Speaker 5: stuff in spoonoaterer with like these six turbo was like
Speaker 5: those those don't don't go together. No one's gonna know,
Speaker 5: No one's gonna know. But it just feels like it's
Speaker 5: it's just so over the top. Now, like how do
Speaker 5: you bring it back? Like kind of like Bond. Bond
Speaker 5: got super over the top when I forget who the
Speaker 5: action director was, where like you were people were shot
Speaker 5: at and they were like ever getting hit and then
Speaker 5: you went to the like the current version of Bond,
Speaker 5: which was way more raw, right physical, and I feel
Speaker 5: like the franchise could do that. And so that that's
Speaker 5: just Party of one if it was going to go anywhere,
Speaker 5: and maybe it needs to sunset and something else come up.
Speaker 5: The Grand Tourisma movie was a great movie. It approached
Speaker 5: car culture in a different way. I mean, yeah, it's
Speaker 5: gaming culture and car and more racing culture, right, but
Speaker 5: Grand Sarisma was such a big part of why car
Speaker 5: culture became what it was because like, no one knows
Speaker 5: what the hell spoon Civic was until they paid grants
Speaker 5: risk or earth GTR for a lot of young people.
Speaker 5: That's how they got introduced. You know, So that's my
Speaker 5: that's my thoughts on I'd love to see it be
Speaker 5: something different.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean when I when I you know, when
Speaker 1: I think about Emilia and you know, the TJ's and
Speaker 1: the Dust and right, there's such a like lack of
Speaker 1: representation and movies today for this demographic, right, I mean
Speaker 1: Fast is kind of our generation, right. And it's interesting
Speaker 1: because you know, when we did Tokyo Drift, I mean
Speaker 1: after it came out, you know, people just kind of
Speaker 1: pooped on the movie. They're like, what is this drifting nonsense?
Speaker 1: Isn't that fast? And now kids, the kids today are like, hey,
Speaker 1: that's the movie I connect with, right, and that's.
Speaker 5: What started it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot of it's interesting, right, It's like.
Speaker 5: And not like Fast won because they were okay.
Speaker 2: Drift was the first one for me, and then I
Speaker 2: went back and watched the others.
Speaker 5: I think there's this opportunity, to your point, to you know,
Speaker 5: have the next generation be a part of something that
Speaker 5: becomes the next Fast. I mean, it's car culture I
Speaker 5: don't think is ever going to die. I think the
Speaker 5: love for cars and going fast and breaking barriers and
Speaker 5: all the things that it stands for is part of
Speaker 5: the human spirit, So how do you capture that in
Speaker 5: a new way.
Speaker 1: I think there is a hunger for car centric like entertainment.
Speaker 1: You know, yeah, there's still a big interest. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is a good question. Then to gauge that is,
Speaker 1: like it Seema growing or dying or not dying?
Speaker 5: It is, so then that kind of change things. Okay, sure,
Speaker 5: So we're growing from what the pandemic was. I think
Speaker 5: like last year we had like one hundred and forty
Speaker 5: thousand people. Year before we had one hundred and thirty
Speaker 5: year before, we had one hundred year before, we didn't
Speaker 5: have it. So we're getting close to some of the
Speaker 5: pre pandemic numbers.
Speaker 1: Or were those numbers, Yeah, what were those numbers?
Speaker 5: I think the biggest was like one seventy.
Speaker 2: I would love and this is my unwarranted or unasked
Speaker 2: for opinion, but I would love to see Seema doing
Speaker 2: I know there's always it's Vegas, so there's the parties
Speaker 2: and all that afterwards, but I'd love to see it,
Speaker 2: to see a carshoon in one of the garages one night,
Speaker 2: and I'm sure you got to talk about doing that,
Speaker 2: but yeah.
Speaker 1: It's a good I noted.
Speaker 5: We're hatching an idea.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, thank thank you J. This was a great conversation.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much.