Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / GarageRiot: The Car Enthusiast Social Network (Donovan Lara)

Transcript

GarageRiot: The Car Enthusiast Social Network (Donovan Lara) · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

• 0:00
  BreakFix podcast is all about capturing the living history of people from
• 0:04
  all over the autosphere, from wrench turners and racers to artists, authors,
• 0:09
  designers, and everything in between.
• 0:11
  Our goal is to inspire a new generation of petrolheads that
• 0:15
  wonder, how did they get that job?
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  Or become that person.
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  The road to success is paved by all of us.
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  Because everyone has a story.
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  Everyone is looking for somewhere to belong.
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  One of the main reasons for me that GTM was created was because we wanted
• 0:33
  to return that social aspect and sense of belonging back to track days.
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  Utilizing social networking online is huge and a great way
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  to stay connected to our groups.
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  However, as much as the internet brings us closer together, it also tends to
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  divide us into factions, and petrolheads and car enthusiasts are not exempt.
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  We even get as granular as marquee clubs, model specific forums, and branded content
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  on websites no one has ever heard of.
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  But
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  what if there was one corner of the net where there was no place for political
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  rants, baby pictures, or even kitty memes?
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  What if there was a place where obsessions run solely on petrol?
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  Enter Garage Riot, the car enthusiast social network, where you'll meet wrench
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  turners, master mechanics, tuners, traders, and enthusiasts of all types.
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  And with us tonight is Donovan Lara, Garage Riot's CEO and founder,
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  to explain how all this works.
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  And as always, I'm your host, Brad and I'm Eric.
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  So let's roll.
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  So welcome to break fixed Donovan.
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  Hey, thanks guys.
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  Let's hit up the hardest of hard hitting questions.
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  Oh boy.
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  What's in a name?
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  What does garage riot mean?
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  Where did it come from?
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  Where'd you get the idea?
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  You know, it took a while to come up with that name.
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  We tossed around several names that I won't share with you because
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  they're embarrassing at this point.
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  For a while, it was hard, you know, looking at some
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  of the, the original names.
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  I think at one point we were looking at car registry or some other things.
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  There was an octane reference here or there, you know, it's hard finding a URL,
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  first of all, that, that isn't taken, you know, oddly enough, garage right
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  hit me, I was on a beach in Florida.
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  You know, kind of taking a vacation and just sitting there
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  in a lounge chair, chilling out.
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  And I don't know, it just, I thought, Hey, garage ride might be kind of cool.
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  So I would love to give you some kind of, you know, amazing, you
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  know, meaning to it, but it really just kind of, it all kind of came
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  together and thought it was cool.
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  So that actually begs an interesting question.
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  Are the members called rioters?
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  You know, we've been asked that before.
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  They are now.
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  Yeah, we've affectionately kind of called them that, but you
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  know, you gotta be careful.
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  You can't, can't talk about writing too much these days.
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  So the name came after the idea, which is usually the case, right?
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  So where did the idea for Garage Riot come from?
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  What inspired you?
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  You know, I'm a car guy like, like you guys are, and really at the heart of it,
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  you know, I spent a lot of time searching for parts for a car that was restoring.
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  And, you know, I started to realize after a while I'm going
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  over here for information.
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  I'm going over here for parts.
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  I'm going over here for this, that, and the other sort of thinking about, wouldn't
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  it be great if there was one place that United all of those pieces together and
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  at the time, and even still, there really isn't one, there isn't one place where
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  you can go and really do everything that.
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  You know, you look for an individual websites across the web.
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  Our goal was to be that place.
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  And we're getting, you know, we're getting there foundationally.
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  We've got some, some things to do and we're not quite the be all end
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  all for car enthusiasts just yet.
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  But now you really think about when you go to a lot of places on the
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  web, really, they are divided up.
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  You know, you've got your BMW forums and you've got your, you know,
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  this, that, and the other, but.
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  There aren't very many places where you can go and really be among just
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  car enthusiasts themselves, right?
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  I don't have to own a Chevy to be friends with a BMW guy and vice versa.
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  And that part of it, I think is missing.
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  And I think we suffer from that, um, as car enthusiasts on the
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  web, you know, there really should be a place to unite us all.
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  And if you want to segment off, that's great too, but even on Facebook, you
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  know, there are groups that you join if you're a BMW owner or a Porsche owner.
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  So, you know, at its core, it's really.
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  Getting everybody together in that truest sense.
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  And you know, when you go to a car show, you don't skip over the 34 Ford
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  or you don't skip over the 63 Corvette.
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  You appreciate them all.
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  Hopefully if you're really a car enthusiast and talk to those people.
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  So it really, at its heart, that was a place for us all to be together and, you
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  know, kind of service our needs to beyond just the social interaction piece of it.
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  Are there two wheel enthusiasts on garage ride as well?
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  Yeah, that's the ultimate goal.
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  I mean, ultimately, and we started out that way, but it was hard.
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  I'm not a, I'm not a motorcyclist and I don't really know anybody in that.
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  I mean, I have people that ride, but.
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  I'm not as connected to that world is car world, but the ultimate goal is that,
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  you know, Hey, if you've got a motorcycle and you want to have a motorcycle profile
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  and a car profile, jump on there, man, you know, it's, it's all for everybody
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  because I think there's a lot of common chat, you know, we can talk about,
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  you know, motorsports and everything.
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  And we talk about, you know, you guys have seen it.
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  We talk about MotoGP and other things on there.
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  So I think it crosses over.
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  We just haven't actively gone after that particular market yet.
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  So this idea has been percolating for a while.
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  And obviously you guys have been live for a while.
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  So when did this all start?
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  You know, I actually had the idea back in 2006 and at the
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  time, you know, development costs were really, really expensive.
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  I tried, I got some investors together and we just couldn't pull it off.
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  And, you know, it kept me up night after night for years and years and years
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  until, you know, we got to a point where development costs were better and, you
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  know, some platforms are available for us to really take advantage of that.
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  So the site itself now has been up, I think this is our fourth year.
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  And we heard from Emily and Nate on a previous episode that, you know,
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  especially Emily, she's a member of Garage Ride for a long time
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  now, has a very low member number.
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  And she said that she met you guys at the vintage.
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  You were there with a booth and trying to get people interested and you've
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  grown leaps and bounds since that point.
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  What's membership look like these days?
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  We're in the couple thousand mark.
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  I'd have to pull up the exact number for you.
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  But, uh, yeah, we definitely grown vintage was one of those places where since, you
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  know, I'm a BMW owner, we, we already had a little bit of a network there.
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  So we thought that'd be a good place to test it out.
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  And the vintage where I, where I met Emily was actually the first
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  time that we launched to the world.
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  So we launched at vintage first, that was April or may ish, I think.
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  The site had been up since about January and in various stages.
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  So that was kind of our test market.
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  We really wanted to go live to the rest of the world in July.
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  So we did that and it was pretty good.
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  You know, it's, it's one of those things where, you know, people don't know who you
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  are, so you got to do some explaining, but that was kind of a built in market for us.
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  So that, that was really foundationally, that was key for us.
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  So since we're talking about garages, what's in your current garage?
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  Oh boy, I'm down a car since we talked last, not crashed.
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  Well, that's another story, but the daily beaters, we've got an Explorer
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  2013 Mini Cooper S and then in the actual garage, not in the driveway.
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  I've got a 88 BMW M3, got an 88 BMW M5.
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  And then nestled over on the other side of that is a 73 Porsche
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  911 that I've been restoring.
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  There's the air quotes, right?
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  For a really long time.
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  And then further down the road in some storage spaces, I've got another E28 M5
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  and a 1980 BMW 320i sport package car.
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  And I just, the one we were talking about a minute ago, I had a E36
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  M3 that I sold to a 17 year old who wrecked it two weeks later.
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  That's interesting.
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  So obviously you're a BMW fan and you're probably a fan of other cars.
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  So what are some of your favorites since we're talking about cars?
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  Yeah.
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  You know, I've always, and I still tell people I'm a Porsche guy, even though I
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  own more BMWs, but you know, even as a kid, I was always just kind of captivated
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  by Porsches and, and I finally traced it back a few years ago and what it was.
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  And when I was a kid, you remember the, the little slot car tracks, right?
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  And you can pull the trigger.
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  And my dad and my uncles used to take over the kitchen table with one of those tracks
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  and the cars they had, they had a nine 17 K and they had, you know, the, the Ferrari
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  at the time and everything, but those nine 17s, they had three or four of them.
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  And one of them was the Gulf livery.
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  They had a green one, which I don't know where that one came from.
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  And, uh, you know, of course the red Lamar winning car.
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  And I, you know, I realized at that point.
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  That that's still my favorite race car of all time, just the shape of it.
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  But that's really what my love of Porsche happened.
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  And, you know, there, there are tales of me and, you know, 10 years old,
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  taking pictures of neighbor's car, sitting out in the driveway, there
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  was a bronze brown colored nine 24, that was a couple of houses down.
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  And I used to go over there and take my, you know, camera and take pictures
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  of it and, uh, kind of evolve from there, but I love all cars, obviously
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  I wouldn't, I wouldn't have started this site if that wasn't the case.
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  And unfortunately, I love way more cars than I can afford to
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  own and have the garage space for.
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  But yeah, you know, I've had, I've had a 63 split window of that.
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  I had that car for about a year, year and a half.
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  I had a Datsun 1600 low window.
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  I've heard short window, they were short windows and somebody corrected
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  me recently, but I think he was wrong.
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  Uh, 67, you know, and various cars in between.
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  So I'm kind of all over the place.
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  And we'll return to your obsession with cars a little later in the
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  episode, but let's get back to talking about GarageRider a little bit.
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  So we've recently, you know, engaged with you guys and I've, I've been on the
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  platform and so has Brad and a bunch of our other members are, have joined us.
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  Recently joined as well.
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  And I find it very inviting.
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  I find it to be very relaxing environment.
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  It stands true to what it says on the website, right?
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  It is car enthusiast through and through.
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  You're not out there talking, you know, political nonsense, whatever.
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  And it's actually not even a repeat of the same content you would see on Instagram
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  or drive tribe or somewhere else.
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  It's actually.
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  Some legitimate content that's coming through.
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  People are like, Hey, what do you think about this?
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  What do you think about that?
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  And there's some really great conversations and
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  banter going back and forth.
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  So I found it to be really refreshing, even coming from the motor sports world.
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  And we're all car enthusiasts at the end of the day, but everybody's bringing
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  something to the table, which is awesome.
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  So let's talk about why garage ride.
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  How do you bring more people in?
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  How do you get more car enthusiasts enthusiastic about garage ride?
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  Yeah, I mean, I think you nailed it.
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  Really, it is, you know, you think about the world today
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  and the Facebook feeds, right?
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  And if you're not covered up with political conversation or,
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  you know, somebody ranting about something, I would be surprised.
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  So, even before this latest, you know, kind of rash of political talk
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  and, you know, kids, you know, my kids potty trained today and here's
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  this new cooking utensil I bought.
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  We wanted to get away from that and really just talk cars.
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  That's it.
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  You know, and, and political conversation is prohibited on our site.
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  We haven't run into it, but you know, if somebody was to get on there, start
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  talking about it, that's, that's a no, no.
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  And the reason for that is, you know, it turns people off.
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  That's not why they're there.
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  And really when you think about Facebook, that's not whether they're either, right.
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  It's to find their girlfriend from high school kind of thing.
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  It's not about, you know, those other kinds of things.
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  So that's what it is.
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  And it's an environment that, you know, like you said, you know, we want to kind
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  of nurture those conversations and those relationships and really make it a place
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  where people can come and, and share.
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  And, you know, like you said, I'm, I'm really impressed with the different
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  types of content that's on there.
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  You know, it's sometimes it's just straight links to articles or videos,
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  but you know, there's people on there that, that ask questions, which is great.
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  Right.
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  We all have a wealth.
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  Of knowledge, you know, some more than others, but somebody get on there and
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  ask, Hey, you know, I'm having this problem with, you know, this car and
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  this is what's going on and finding that again, which is another reason
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  why it's not specific to a make, you know, somebody gets on there and says,
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  I got a problem with my, I don't know, 69 Camaro, a guy that may not be in
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  that group, but used to own one can say, Oh yeah, that was an old, you
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  know, you do this, that, and the other.
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  So.
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  It's really just that environment.
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  We want people to feel free to share and really talk about what's
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  important to them in their car.
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  Speaking of features that garage ride has.
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  I mean, when you're, when you first log onto the site, you realize you look at
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  it and you go, Oh, I recognize this.
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  It feels like Facebook, or it feels like Twitter or LinkedIn, or a lot of the
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  other platforms that you're used to.
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  But under the hood, there's a lot more going on than what you just see.
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  The first minute you log onto garage, right?
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  So let's talk about some of the other features and capabilities that are
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  there for members of the service.
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  Yeah.
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  And that was intentional, right?
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  We want people to be familiar with how to interact on a social network like that.
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  So while we didn't model it specifically after Facebook, the interaction, you know,
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  Instagram, Twitter, it's very similar.
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  So.
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  You know, we have, uh, obviously the feed, the activity feed
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  where people go on and talk.
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  We discussed that, you know, we also have a pretty robust
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  album section photo section.
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  So, you know, that's a place for people to post about their own
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  car, but also, you know, events.
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  I was in an event this past weekend and you can't help, but
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  take a hundred pictures of all the cars in the parking lot.
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  So it's a place to put those, you know, places like Facebook have that sort
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  of, but not really in that context.
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  Right.
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  If I'm on a group and somebody's posted a hundred photos of car show, they went
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  to, I may or may not click through.
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  I don't really care if it's not contextually based on what I'm looking at.
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  So really that's a way for people to do that.
• 12:43
  Um, you know, we have an article section on there.
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  And while we're not trying to be a media outlet, you know, it's a chance for
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  members and ourselves to write articles that we think people might enjoy.
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  You know, my 63 split window story is on there.
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  Emily wrote, you know, some articles on there about what it is to be,
• 13:01
  you know, A woman in the car world.
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  So it's great.
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  And any, any member is welcome to contribute an article, you know, we
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  want to, want to share that as well, but we have a lot of other features
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  coming and we have some that we've kind of narrowed down a little bit.
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  So we started originally with a really wide scope of features.
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  I mean, everything you can imagine, we had.
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  All the pages, the groups and things, uh, we had classifieds events and
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  we really tried to narrow that down.
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  You know, it was, you know, imagine events alone, right?
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  All the events in the U S.
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  So really tried to focus that down.
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  So when you come in, we want you to contribute and, you know,
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  talk to everybody in there.
• 13:33
  It's not about necessarily spending all your time in classifieds, which,
• 13:36
  you know, we'll get back there, but you know, we're slowly opening that back up
• 13:40
  is, as we feel the needs kind of happen.
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  But, you know, like I said, the, the, my garage part is coming soon.
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  Um, you know, we're still working through it.
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  And, you know, you know, when you develop something, there's always
• 13:50
  something new you think of in process.
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  So it's continuing to get kicked back a little bit, but you know, that's
• 13:56
  something cool that, you know, we think users will be able to come into.
• 13:58
  And while the concept of my garage isn't necessarily new, it does solve a problem.
• 14:02
  Right.
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  And you think about how many times have you.
• 14:05
  You know, wanted to show somebody your car and you flip through 900 pictures
• 14:08
  on your phone, trying to find pictures.
• 14:09
  So it it's core, it's a place for you to quickly pull up all that
• 14:13
  information, but show your car, show you what you've done to it.
• 14:15
  So really excited about that.
• 14:16
  And I think that's something that's going to keep people
• 14:18
  on the site and coming back.
• 14:20
  Yeah, I can't.
• 14:21
  Think of a time where I haven't been in that particular use case where it's
• 14:24
  like, Hey, let me show you my baby pictures that aren't my kids, right?
• 14:27
  My cars.
• 14:28
  And it's like, you're sitting there scrolling.
• 14:29
  You see people just rolling their eyes.
• 14:31
  Like, Oh my God, here we go again.
• 14:33
  But yeah, it's having that one click away rather than, you know, scrolling
• 14:36
  for days will be, will be fantastic.
• 14:39
  GarageRite is available on iPhone and Android.
• 14:41
  There's a web version as well.
• 14:43
  And I happen to use that one on my desk.
• 14:45
  So available on all three platforms.
• 14:47
  I find it to be rather smooth.
• 14:48
  Conversation is good.
• 14:49
  And to your point, there's a lot of really great activity on there.
• 14:52
  Now I will say to sell it to my motorsports compatriots,
• 14:56
  I had to kind of frame it.
• 14:58
  I know you smirk every time I say this, but I'm like, Hey guys.
• 15:02
  It's like the U S based version of drive tribe.
• 15:04
  Right.
• 15:05
  And I have to say that because thanks to Brad, who's sitting here
• 15:08
  quietly smiling, GTM was one of the first tribes on drive tribe.
• 15:12
  So we're, we're listed as GTM HPD champions.
• 15:15
  If you go look us up and we were very fortunate to get on there early.
• 15:19
  And, you know, obviously that's sponsored by Clarkson Hammond in may,
• 15:22
  you know, the, the grand tour and top gear and all that kind of stuff.
• 15:24
  That's a kind of similar platform.
• 15:26
  Do you see them as a competitor?
• 15:28
  Is there somebody else out there that, or.
• 15:30
  Or do you guys stand alone in this particular vertical?
• 15:34
  I don't think we have a direct competitor in the market, right?
• 15:37
  There are people that do some things we do and we do some things other people
• 15:39
  do, but I don't think there's, there's one you could say, Oh, this is just
• 15:42
  another version of garage riot drive.
• 15:45
  Tribe to me is.
• 15:46
  Awesome.
• 15:47
  Right.
• 15:47
  It's a great site, but to me, it's more media outlet led, right?
• 15:51
  It's more about the stories and things, the tribes and things
• 15:53
  are that group aspect of it.
• 15:56
  But, you know, when you really look at that, that's not much different than
• 15:58
  Facebook groups and some other things.
• 16:00
  So, you know, I think that's where we're different.
• 16:02
  And this is going to be a terrible analogy here, but if you imagine drive
• 16:06
  tribe was more the Facebook of that type of World, we would be more of the
• 16:10
  Instagram type of that world, right?
• 16:12
  Well, we're, we're more streamlined.
• 16:13
  Just get on there, show us what you got.
• 16:15
  Let's have some conversations.
• 16:16
  It's less about all of the news and all the articles that we can share with you.
• 16:20
  So, yeah, I mean, and of course I wouldn't want to compete with those guys, right?
• 16:23
  They've got endless money to compete with us, but you know, beyond that,
• 16:27
  we've, we've searched for competitors and really there are people that do
• 16:31
  slightly similar, slightly different things than us, but you know, and your
• 16:36
  users will probably Prove me wrong and say, Hey, these guys are like you, but we
• 16:39
  haven't seen anybody like that just yet.
• 16:41
  I find it to be very unique.
• 16:42
  And to your point about drive traveling, no offense to them.
• 16:45
  It's almost too much sometimes, right?
• 16:47
  You're right.
• 16:47
  It's almost too commercialized.
• 16:49
  I see the same articles again, like I would see on jalopnik or I would
• 16:52
  see on a bunch of other places.
• 16:53
  It's all just reposted there.
• 16:54
  So i've noticed on like other Facebook groups and and stuff like that that
• 17:00
  there's a sense of elitism You know, where what I have is better than
• 17:03
  what you have and stuff like that.
• 17:05
  And it sounds like garage riot kind of shies away from that.
• 17:08
  And it's much more inviting and much more, you know, just general car enthusiasm.
• 17:15
  All are welcome.
• 17:16
  Is that, is that the case?
• 17:17
  And that's kind of what you were trying to do with it.
• 17:19
  Yeah, that's exactly what we were going for.
• 17:21
  And we've been lucky that people, I don't know if it's the vibe that we
• 17:24
  put out or people, you know, we're just attracting the right people, but we
• 17:27
  have a really good community and I know what you're talking about and I'm still
• 17:31
  in Facebook groups and things myself.
• 17:32
  And, you know, you especially get somebody on there that asks a
• 17:35
  question, they're brand new, right.
• 17:36
  And it happens to be a question that's been answered over and over and
• 17:39
  over again, and you always get that.
• 17:40
  The first, you know, smart Alec answer.
• 17:42
  And it's like, come on, man, you couldn't spend, you know, five seconds
• 17:45
  typing something nice, or I saw one the other day and I can't remember
• 17:48
  exactly what it was, but it was, somebody was asking a question, like
• 17:52
  what kind of fluid should I put in, you know, this, that, or the other.
• 17:55
  And.
• 17:56
  And the answer that somebody gave them, it seemed serious, but it was so wrong.
• 18:01
  If that person took them seriously, it could really have
• 18:03
  done some damage to their car.
• 18:04
  And it's like, everybody else knew, I guess it was a joke if they knew the
• 18:07
  answer, but you know, why be like that?
• 18:08
  There's no point in trying to be cooler than anybody else.
• 18:11
  I mean, it's, it's really, let's all just, just hang out and get along.
• 18:14
  And yeah, we, we try to be as humble as possible.
• 18:17
  And like I said, I don't know if that that's what everybody picks on or we just
• 18:19
  got the lucky, lucky group of people.
• 18:22
  Yeah, I'll be honest.
• 18:23
  I thought that was one of the more surprising things about a large
• 18:26
  social network like Garage Riot and that coming to the table as a track
• 18:29
  rat and a longtime car enthusiast, neither Brad or I were both on there.
• 18:33
  We're not coming to the table like as the car show scene, you know, we're not
• 18:38
  doing the grid life or anything like that.
• 18:39
  We're track rats.
• 18:40
  We're coaches, right?
• 18:41
  We're in the right seat.
• 18:42
  We're in a totally different level.
• 18:44
  And I can't say then than everybody that's there.
• 18:46
  I'm sure there's other people that are in the same boat that we're in, but.
• 18:49
  Every time we throw something up, I always find like people like, look at it.
• 18:53
  They respect it.
• 18:53
  There's good feedback.
• 18:55
  It's not like, Oh man, you guys again with your, whatever, you know, and we're,
• 18:59
  we're trying not to flood it either.
• 19:00
  You know, it's just, I kind of find interesting the relationship
• 19:03
  between the people there.
• 19:04
  It's, it's very inviting at the end of the day.
• 19:06
  So.
• 19:07
  Let's talk then and let's switch a little bit and let's get back to
• 19:10
  Donovan, the car enthusiast for, for a couple of minutes, shall we?
• 19:14
  So we talked about what's in your garage, you know, things like that, but
• 19:17
  being a car enthusiast is multifaceted.
• 19:20
  So there's the car show aspect of it.
• 19:22
  There's the racing aspect of it.
• 19:23
  Then there's also the voyeuristic side of it, right?
• 19:26
  There's always something that draws you and something you'd like to watch
• 19:28
  or something you want to spectate.
• 19:30
  And this is going to be motor sports related because we are GTM.
• 19:33
  Do you have a favorite motor sports discipline?
• 19:35
  I do it's changed.
• 19:37
  So in the early days it was DTM, but you know, when, when I was really
• 19:41
  probably most interested in that, we couldn't get it over here now.
• 19:43
  You can, you can see it fairly often, but so DTM and my family's from Germany.
• 19:47
  So you can see a little bit over there and then went on into, of course, you know,
• 19:51
  Lamar and those types of cars these days it's F1, however, I think Lewis Hamilton
• 19:56
  is great, but, uh, and I was listening to your podcast talking about it.
• 20:00
  You know, I mean, come on, man, it's, it's, uh, it's really just, who's going
• 20:03
  to come in second and third and fourth.
• 20:05
  So, like I said, I like the guy, I think he's amazing.
• 20:08
  Now he's seven time world champion and I'll be excited to see him win
• 20:11
  his eighth, which he probably will.
• 20:12
  You know, I'm still in the, the Botas guys and in Vettel, I want to
• 20:16
  see him come back and some of those.
• 20:17
  So, but it's interesting, you know, I, I tried to watch F1 off and on throughout
• 20:20
  the years and I could never get into it.
• 20:22
  And all my car buddies were like, man, you got to watch F1.
• 20:25
  I think it was 2017.
• 20:26
  I was watching a race and, uh, it might've been in Russia or it was,
• 20:31
  you know, somewhere over there.
• 20:32
  And it was the race where you guys probably remember where Hamilton
• 20:35
  brake checked Vettel and he got up next to him and swerved into him.
• 20:39
  And, you know, they were exchanging words from that point on.
• 20:41
  I was like, okay, now this is, this is good.
• 20:43
  Right.
• 20:43
  And you start to see the personalities and really until you get into the
• 20:45
  personalities, it's really hard to get engaged in a motor sport.
• 20:48
  And that's something I miss from IndyCar.
• 20:50
  You know, I don't really know those guys.
• 20:52
  Very well.
• 20:53
  But, you know, in Formula One, you start to see their, their personalities
• 20:56
  and especially with the Netflix show, I forget what it's called now,
• 20:59
  where they go behind the scenes.
• 21:00
  Arrive to survive.
• 21:01
  Yeah.
• 21:02
  And that, that really helps too.
• 21:03
  And you get their backstory.
• 21:04
  So that that's kinda, that's where I play these days is F1.
• 21:07
  I am still.
• 21:08
  1000, right?
• 21:09
  I am.
• 21:10
  I cannot find anybody that likes WRC.
• 21:13
  What's somebody write me?
• 21:15
  There's got to be somebody out there that likes rally.
• 21:18
  But anyway, it's because
• 21:20
  nobody knows how to get it.
• 21:21
  Nobody
• 21:22
  to watch it.
• 21:23
  You're the only
• 21:24
  person in the world
• 21:24
  that really simple folks.
• 21:25
  I'm going to lay it out for you.
• 21:27
  Red Bull TV for free all in 4k.
• 21:31
  You can watch Amazing coverage of WRC and WRC2 from the driver's perspective.
• 21:37
  Their recaps are amazing.
• 21:39
  They summarize the race down.
• 21:40
  If you don't want to watch the whole thing, you can watch it live.
• 21:43
  It's all up to you, but it is fantastic.
• 21:45
  It's one of the best places.
• 21:46
  And then if you don't get enough.
• 21:48
  WRC that way, go to motorsport.
• 21:50
  tv and you can get it free there too, with a basic account.
• 21:53
  So anyway, I'll leave, I'll leave it there.
• 21:55
  That's my shameless plug.
• 21:57
  Yeah.
• 21:57
  So I like WRC.
• 21:58
  I don't watch it very often.
• 21:59
  It's no group B, but yeah.
• 22:01
  A hundred percent.
• 22:02
  So, you know, I've tried in, in, uh, I was in Europe one time and they
• 22:06
  were running, it's Cyprus, right?
• 22:07
  Where they run one of the races over there.
• 22:09
  Cause that was one of the, Corsica,
• 22:10
  Cyprus, I mean, all over the place.
• 22:12
  I was going to try to go over there, but, uh, you know, I'm,
• 22:14
  I think I'm more interested in, in driving that type of race.
• 22:17
  Target, Newfoundland.
• 22:18
  Is that the, the one up where they do the rally through the city
• 22:21
  up in Northern Canada somewhere?
• 22:23
  Correct.
• 22:23
  I'd love to do that.
• 22:24
  I probably shouldn't because I'd be the guy that hit the house.
• 22:27
  I don't know if you've ever seen that, but, uh, you know, I appreciate
• 22:30
  that, that kind of, that roasting.
• 22:31
  So
• 22:32
  since we're talking about that, have you seen the movie
• 22:34
  Love the Beast with Eric Bana?
• 22:36
  Yeah, where he was, you know, a Ford or something that he used to work
• 22:39
  Falcon.
• 22:39
  Yes.
• 22:40
  And then he does target Tasmania in it and I won't spoil it for
• 22:44
  anybody that hasn't seen it.
• 22:44
  But if you're a car enthusiast, I highly recommend this movie because it speaks to
• 22:49
  all of us as petrol heads and the passion.
• 22:52
  I mean, he wears all his emotions on his sleeve and it's an amazing documentary.
• 22:56
  If you haven't seen it,
• 22:57
  it's great.
• 22:58
  I mean, that's one of the few that I've seen that, like you said, it's
• 23:00
  really, it's really passionate and you, it's really, really great to see.
• 23:04
  It's not like the John DeLorean movies that are out.
• 23:06
  Although some of those are pretty good.
• 23:08
  Have you seen the Alec Baldwin?
• 23:10
  Yeah, I reviewed it.
• 23:11
  There's actually an article on our website about it.
• 23:14
  The best part of it though.
• 23:15
  And I'll keep the, you know, it's at the end when, when the son says he should say,
• 23:20
  He says, and then they actually show it.
• 23:22
  I giggled out loud for about five minutes after that was hilarious.
• 23:25
  I found it funny when the daughter of John DeLorean was like, do
• 23:28
  you know what DMC stands for?
• 23:29
  It stands for destroyed my childhood, but no great film.
• 23:32
  But yeah, we reviewed that.
• 23:33
  We reviewed Shelby American and the Fangio documentary at the same time.
• 23:38
  And there's an article on the website about that, but since we're
• 23:40
  still geeking out about cars, let's go with Brad's favorite question.
• 23:45
  You can only have three cars, sadly, on this desert island with coconuts and fruit
• 23:51
  and whatever Eric, you know, talks about when he, when he pitches this question,
• 23:55
  but you've got a three car garage.
• 23:56
  You can only have three cars for the rest of your life.
• 23:58
  What would they be other than three split window Corvettes?
• 24:01
  Only three.
• 24:03
  That's not, that's not giving me a lot.
• 24:04
  Uh, you know, it changes all the time.
• 24:06
  I mean, right now, and I don't have to think about them, but I can tell you one
• 24:09
  of them would be an Aston Martin DB five.
• 24:11
  No question.
• 24:12
  Somebody just posted one on the site and it's white.
• 24:15
  I haven't seen a white one.
• 24:16
  I don't think ever, I didn't know they made a white one.
• 24:18
  I'd still have to go James Bond You know, silver, but you know, for me, when I look
• 24:22
  at a car, I appreciate all angles of it.
• 24:25
  And while I love that car, I have a little bit of a hang up in the back end,
• 24:29
  the way the back end comes together, you know, it's almost kind of Auburn
• 24:32
  boat tail meets 50 something Cadillac, but still, you know, love the car.
• 24:35
  It's iconic Ferrari two 50, you know, Lusso is, is definitely up there.
• 24:39
  That car to me is just gorgeous.
• 24:40
  It's incredible.
• 24:41
  Every aspect of it.
• 24:42
  And, you know, I like cars that I can just sit and look at.
• 24:45
  The Datsun that I mentioned earlier that I had, it was a 67,
• 24:48
  and I'm going to say short window because that's what I want to say.
• 24:51
  And for those that don't know that, that just meant in 68, they went to
• 24:54
  the molded in pillar for the window.
• 24:56
  The 67 and before was just bolted on.
• 24:57
  So there was no support there.
• 24:58
  But you know what I loved about that car?
• 25:00
  I loved so many angles of it, but the interior had toggle switches and, you
• 25:04
  know, the way the back end came together.
• 25:05
  So that was a car that I would just, Look at, and it wasn't
• 25:08
  a whole lot of fun to drive.
• 25:09
  I actually was pulling in the neighborhood one time with my father in law and
• 25:12
  his passenger door just managed to fling wide open for some reason.
• 25:15
  So, you know, they were those kinds of things.
• 25:16
  A radiator pipe was 90, but for my third, I'll tell you what I'm feeling.
• 25:21
  Although I could probably after this, tell you it's going to be something different,
• 25:25
  but I'm thinking a Porsche GT one street, and I forget the German name, something
• 25:30
  strata, but we'll, we'll go there.
• 25:32
  I think that would be incredible.
• 25:33
  Now that I see that, maybe a McLaren F1?
• 25:36
  See, now he's leading into the million dollar man question.
• 25:38
  If you had unlimited resources, and that's to include buying the car and
• 25:42
  maintaining it, and you could only pick one car, and it could be anything,
• 25:45
  it could be a race car, it could be a street car, what would it be?
• 25:48
  Well, I'll tell you why I buy cars.
• 25:50
  Maybe I can help that help answer the question.
• 25:52
  I buy cars that I think are going to appreciate, right.
• 25:54
  And cars that aren't something that everybody has.
• 25:57
  And, you know, I know E30 M3s aren't exactly super limited,
• 26:01
  but obviously they're, you know, they're, they're appreciating,
• 26:04
  they just sold one on bring a trailer for a quarter million dollars, right.
• 26:08
  I mean, they're continuing to go up.
• 26:09
  They're not super, super rare, but
• 26:11
  I don't know how much truth there is in that particular sale, but
• 26:14
  well, even the M fives that I have, you know, I have two of them, um, I've always
• 26:17
  wanted them there, even though they're more rare, they're just not worth as much.
• 26:21
  So they will be, I think, but for me, so that, that million dollar question.
• 26:25
  It would have to be something that I think was going to be just a super investment.
• 26:30
  So obviously I would say 250 GTO, right?
• 26:33
  That's kind of crazy, but bringing it back semi realistic, you know, I think
• 26:36
  we're still probably in the McLaren F1 or the Bugatti that kind of thing.
• 26:41
  And then with all the one offs that are being created these
• 26:43
  days, You know, who knows?
• 26:44
  I mean, I know there's a bunch of special Bugattis and the Lamborghini Veneno or,
• 26:49
  you know, that one, those kinds of things.
• 26:51
  I love those.
• 26:52
  So it'd have to be something very special like that.
• 26:54
  That was very, very low numbers.
• 26:56
  And some of those are one of one or one of four expensive to start out with.
• 27:00
  So, you know, it's for the limited consumer and that's something
• 27:02
  that's just going to continue to appreciate over, you know, over time.
• 27:05
  All right, Donovan, sexiest car of all time.
• 27:09
  Uh, are we saying sexy because of curves?
• 27:12
  Are we saying speed?
• 27:13
  Are we saying that
• 27:15
  is up to you?
• 27:16
  It's subjective.
• 27:17
  Sexiest car.
• 27:19
  While I like the curvy cars, the two 50 Lusos and those things, I really
• 27:22
  like edgy car, you know, like the, like we talked about the Lambos and stuff
• 27:27
  to me, I think, uh, and this isn't an all time, but I think, you know,
• 27:30
  when you get into the hurricanes and those with those really sharp edges,
• 27:34
  I just think those are sexy, man.
• 27:35
  I think those are the cars that you pull up and everybody goes.
• 27:38
  Wow.
• 27:38
  Right.
• 27:39
  You know, you pull up in a, a nine 30 turbo, maybe one guy in the
• 27:42
  parking lot would go, okay, cool.
• 27:43
  Everybody else would be like, Oh, that's just an old Porsche.
• 27:46
  I think that really exotic edgy design, I think is really, really sexy.
• 27:51
  Every time somebody says that I just have one thing that comes to mind the F 40.
• 27:56
  Well, that's exactly, yeah, that's exactly what I'm talking about.
• 27:58
  I mean, think about that car, right?
• 27:59
  It's not super curvy.
• 28:01
  It's edgy.
• 28:01
  It's there.
• 28:02
  Isn't you're right.
• 28:03
  That might be the sexiest car ever,
• 28:05
  but it still looks good today.
• 28:07
  And love.
• 28:08
  Some, some buddies of mine years ago, and this is pre garage riot.
• 28:11
  I've got some buddies that did well, right?
• 28:13
  They sold some businesses and we all raced together.
• 28:16
  Actually, there's women's and a champ car and a couple of them
• 28:19
  are worth worth a pretty penny.
• 28:20
  And I said, Hey, listen, guys, you know, I, this was right when the market
• 28:23
  for cars really started going crazy and everybody started buying them up.
• 28:26
  You know, at the time I bought a 73, nine 11 for 8, 000, you know,
• 28:29
  and it needed a little bit of work, but you couldn't do that now.
• 28:31
  But so I kind of saw some of that rise in some of these cars.
• 28:35
  I emailed these guys and said, Hey, look, Here's five cars I think you
• 28:38
  need to keep an eye on and they were in varying ranges of price.
• 28:41
  You know, some of them, Hey, we want to work a deal and, you
• 28:43
  know, maybe I'll babysit them and insure them and keep them for you.
• 28:46
  You know, that kind of thing.
• 28:47
  Let's look at them.
• 28:48
  So, you know, some of them again, we're in some older 911s, but a couple of cars
• 28:51
  on that list two that are most important.
• 28:53
  One was the Mercedes 190 two, right?
• 28:57
  At the time there was one for sale in Paris for 70, 75, 000, I think.
• 29:02
  And, you know, there were only 500 of those made.
• 29:04
  And I said, guys, you got to buy.
• 29:06
  This car, this very one or one like it, it'll be worth more.
• 29:09
  I think now that one didn't appreciate quite as much.
• 29:11
  I think I saw one for two 50 sell and bring a trailer a couple of weeks ago,
• 29:15
  but still, you know, not a bad turn on investment, but the main one on there
• 29:18
  was the F 40 and at the time the F 40 was selling for three, three 50, which
• 29:23
  was the price of a new events door at the time, And I said, I don't know, you
• 29:26
  know, to me, F fifties were seven 50 and those were still a million and I
• 29:31
  don't know why the F 40 took so long, but you know, I was like, guys, one of
• 29:34
  you needs to snap up an F 40 and they're all big car guys and they didn't do it.
• 29:38
  And of course now I haven't checked the price lately.
• 29:39
  I know they're over a million bucks.
• 29:41
  But can you imagine if you went to a Lambo dealer and you have your choice of
• 29:44
  a brand new Aventador or a Ferrari F 40 same price, I mean, it's a no brainer.
• 29:49
  I don't know.
• 29:50
  I'd
• 29:50
  buy the F 50.
• 29:52
  Personally.
• 29:53
  Oh, I love the F50, but yeah, I mean,
• 29:55
  Eric is not a fan.
• 29:57
  No,
• 29:58
  no, no, no, no.
• 29:59
  You never see them.
• 30:00
  Do you guys ever see them anywhere?
• 30:01
  No, because they're
• 30:02
  ugly.
• 30:02
  That's why I'm asking.
• 30:04
  I've seen them on YouTube all the time.
• 30:05
  That's it.
• 30:06
  I don't know.
• 30:07
  I've never seen any of these cars.
• 30:09
  Unfortunately, the F50 is quintessential nineties, right?
• 30:13
  Like everything else that became bloated and rounded in the nineties.
• 30:17
  The F50 is the same thing.
• 30:18
  Yes.
• 30:19
  It's all mine.
• 30:20
  Well, it's roots hark back to the F40, but when you look at the F40, you know,
• 30:24
  it's one of the last cars that Enzo put his hands on, or at least was involved
• 30:28
  with, you know, even at a high level within Ferrari, you look at it and you go.
• 30:33
  Right.
• 30:33
  It's still screams Ferrari.
• 30:34
  You look at the F 50 and you're like, did Alto Bianchi design this?
• 30:38
  Did the guys at Fiat design is like, what is this?
• 30:41
  Right.
• 30:41
  It doesn't look like all the Ferraris that came before it.
• 30:44
  It's just too Mobius and marshmallowy and whatever, in my opinion.
• 30:47
  And the Enzo is way too angular.
• 30:50
  It screams to the early two thousands where everything became, you know,
• 30:53
  wind tunnel ask, and it's never changed since that point forward.
• 30:56
  So the F 40, like the nine 59 retains those cutting edge designs.
• 31:02
  But also they're ageless, right?
• 31:05
  You look at them and another car that's in that category or two,
• 31:07
  rather the Supra, the gen four Supras, they still look good today.
• 31:11
  They look very modern.
• 31:12
  And the other one is the Audi R8 another car that you can't tell me what year
• 31:17
  it is when you look at an R8, they're all kind of the same other than the
• 31:20
  newest ones with the, you know, the goofy Lexus grill that they've put
• 31:24
  on these things, but the early R8s.
• 31:26
  They still look good today.
• 31:27
  Right?
• 31:27
  So that's just my stance on things.
• 31:29
  I always look at when I'm looking at a car like that, I'm looking at a
• 31:33
  car that can stand the test of time.
• 31:35
  And one of those happens to be, let's say, if we're looking really retro and it comes
• 31:38
  up a lot on this show is the E type Jag.
• 31:40
  It's a car that you look at and you go, wow, it still looks good today.
• 31:44
  65 years later or whatever, you know, you're like, it's an amazing vehicle.
• 31:48
  It's a piece of moving art, you know, but let's turn that on its head a bit.
• 31:53
  What do you think is the ugliest car?
• 31:56
  There's too many.
• 31:58
  I wasn't thinking our conversation about Ferraris.
• 32:00
  There's some
• 32:01
  ugly Ferraris too.
• 32:02
  Don't even get me started on
• 32:03
  that.
• 32:04
  Like, especially like the late sixties ones and the weird, some of
• 32:07
  the three thirties and the three 65
• 32:10
  and I can't give you one better.
• 32:11
  And it's on a previous episode, the Monday LT.
• 32:15
  I don't understand that market at all.
• 32:17
  I don't understand.
• 32:18
  You know, when they were 15,000, nobody wanted them.
• 32:20
  And I still don't want one, but now, you know, they're 80,
• 32:23
  some of 'em are 80, $90,000.
• 32:24
  And I, I don't get it.
• 32:25
  I mean, I, I never liked the 3 0 8 either.
• 32:27
  And I know that's heresy to a lot of people, but last fever to me it was
• 32:32
  too, it was too, commercial isn't the word, but everybody liked it.
• 32:37
  So I'm like, let's zigzag a little bit.
• 32:38
  Let's do something a little different.
• 32:39
  But, you know, to me the, the compliment to that though was the 2 88 GTO.
• 32:43
  And what I was gonna say a minute ago was you think about the way that.
• 32:47
  Exclusive line progress, 288 GTO, F40, F50, Enzo, and beyond.
• 32:51
  They for sure got less attractive as they went on.
• 32:54
  And while the 288 GTO, you could argue whether that's better looking
• 33:00
  or not as good looking as the F40, I think they were really close.
• 33:03
  Well, they're, they're basically the same car underneath.
• 33:05
  Right.
• 33:06
  But the 308 coming from the Dino line, but also carrying the lines of the 288.
• 33:10
  Cause they're all related during that time period.
• 33:12
  The one thing about the 308 though, yes, it is the pop star of the eighties,
• 33:15
  you know, thanks to Magnum and a lot of other stuff, but it's right up
• 33:19
  there with the 944 and the E30 M3.
• 33:21
  I mean, of that type.
• 33:23
  Quattro and the RX seven and a lot of other cars that I mean, they're all in
• 33:27
  that same boat as kind of the pop star heroes of the European sports car world.
• 33:31
  As, as that was changing from the Brits really having cornered the market with
• 33:36
  all the roadsters and everything they built the Germans and the Italians kind
• 33:39
  of swept in and said, look at what we have, you know, technology is superior
• 33:42
  kind of deal, but so I feel, yeah, but you know, and there's plenty of ugly Ferraris
• 33:46
  there are a lot, but you know, I think it's the same too.
• 33:48
  When you think about the DeLorean, right.
• 33:50
  It wasn't cool to like the DeLorean.
• 33:51
  Now it's sort of becoming cool to like it, but it was kind of that way.
• 33:55
  And I think for me, the three Oh eight, it was the bumpers.
• 33:57
  When you get one that has Euro bumpers on it, one of the early cars, and I
• 34:00
  don't really like the, the GTBs, right?
• 34:02
  I like the, just the hard roof.
• 34:04
  I think that looks a lot better.
• 34:05
  And I actually preferred the three 28 over that.
• 34:07
  I drove one.
• 34:08
  Which one?
• 34:09
  The 328 GTS QV
• 34:10
  actually drove them onto y'all about a year ago.
• 34:12
  And through a sprinkler system, it was a guy who was like, Hey,
• 34:15
  look, you want to drive, man.
• 34:16
  It drove amazing.
• 34:16
  But you know, what's funny is we have a friend, some, some buddies of mine.
• 34:20
  We got a mutual friend that we kid.
• 34:22
  He's the home of the unloved Ferraris, right?
• 34:24
  He's got a three 48, which that's a great car.
• 34:26
  I love those.
• 34:27
  I do too.
• 34:28
  But now he's looking for the, the GT four, which I always thought was pretty cool.
• 34:32
  I like that car better than three Oh eight.
• 34:34
  I mean, honestly, but yeah, I think there's a lot of them.
• 34:36
  And you know, my fear is always, I looked at buying a three 55 at one point, which
• 34:39
  I think is a gorgeous car, but you know, you start to hear the don't do that
• 34:43
  because all the exhaust manifolds crack and this, that actually on Jalopnik,
• 34:46
  there was an article, a guy bought one and he was like, here's why you don't
• 34:49
  want to own a three 55 and went through.
• 34:51
  I don't remember now, but he had it for a very short period of time and
• 34:54
  spent like 15, 000 repairing it or something before he got rid of it.
• 34:57
  But, but yeah, I think they're great.
• 34:58
  I think that the sixties Ferraris, I kind of lose track of, you said,
• 35:02
  the three thirties and three 65s, cause I didn't particularly think
• 35:04
  they were that good looking.
• 35:05
  But as far as ugliest car, I mean, it'd be easy to say, Oh, it's the Pacer.
• 35:08
  It's the Gremlin or one of those, but you know, the Aztec is in there too.
• 35:13
  I don't know, man.
• 35:14
  Honestly, I think the Panamera is hideous.
• 35:17
  I don't like that car at all.
• 35:19
  Let
• 35:19
  me throw a car
• 35:20
  out at
• 35:20
  you.
• 35:21
  The Chevrolet HHR.
• 35:25
  My wife wants one of those.
• 35:26
  So I can't totally, I totally agree, but no, no, she wants
• 35:30
  the SSR, the pickup truck one.
• 35:32
  The HHR is the, the, uh, the milkman.
• 35:36
  Yeah.
• 35:36
  Yeah.
• 35:36
  Yeah.
• 35:36
  Those are pretty bad.
• 35:37
  And what's worse is it was just a ripoff, right.
• 35:40
  From the, the other PT.
• 35:42
  Yeah, PT Cruiser.
• 35:43
  So
• 35:44
  I'm so glad you can share in this long running joke we have about the HHR.
• 35:49
  It goes back a long ways, but this is good.
• 35:52
  I'm glad you're, you're confirming everything.
• 35:54
  Ugly car, but you know, there's some European only cars
• 35:57
  that are pretty hideous too.
• 35:58
  Let's kind of flip things around a little bit because
• 36:00
  car culture is changing, right?
• 36:01
  And so we reminisce and we get nostalgic and we wax poetic about a lot of these
• 36:06
  older cars and they're beautiful, but those days are changing, right?
• 36:10
  You're well versed in the car world, but if you had to buy a
• 36:13
  new 2021 model, what would it be?
• 36:17
  Uh, you know, obviously I'm going to skew towards Porsche and BMW, but
• 36:21
  I'll, I'll, I'll do something different for the sake of this conversation.
• 36:23
  You know, I, I've come close a couple of times to putting a
• 36:26
  deposit down on a Cybertruck just because they're so different.
• 36:30
  And, you know, to me, that's the DeLorean of, of our era.
• 36:34
  I just think it's cool.
• 36:35
  And you know, it's crazy, you know, I don't know if you guys have, what
• 36:38
  experiences you had with Teslas, but, uh, those buddies that I
• 36:40
  had, those things are pretty cool.
• 36:41
  Ridiculous.
• 36:42
  You know, I got the buddy that's got the, what is it?
• 36:43
  The zero to 16, 2.
• 36:45
  2 seconds.
• 36:46
  And the technology in those cars are incredible.
• 36:48
  When we take them over the mountain, you know, they're able to turn on all
• 36:51
  of their data so they can tell what the temperature of each of their tires are.
• 36:54
  And, you know, all their, their G's and all that.
• 36:57
  So it's just really incredible.
• 36:58
  But what's funny about that too, is I don't know how much that truck
• 37:01
  weighs, but I have to imagine it's probably five or 6, 000 pounds,
• 37:05
  because that's about what the cars are.
• 37:07
  But the triple motor one will, they claim we'll do zero to 60 and like 2.
• 37:10
  2, 2.
• 37:11
  3.
• 37:11
  So.
• 37:11
  I don't know why you'd want to go that fast in three or four tons worth of steel.
• 37:16
  But, uh, but that one to me would be more for the kids, you know, Hey, it's
• 37:19
  cool, you know, dad's got this truck or whatever, but problem with modern day
• 37:23
  cars, I think though, is, you know, and it's going to sound very Jeremy Clarkson
• 37:27
  of me, but like that 1980 BMW, I have, you know, my first car was a three 20.
• 37:32
  I worked two jobs over the summer in college to buy it.
• 37:34
  And it was, you know, it was a decade old or something or however old at the time.
• 37:37
  But.
• 37:39
  I bought this one because it was another one of those
• 37:41
  cars, but you get in that car.
• 37:42
  It's purely mechanical.
• 37:43
  I mean, it has power steering and things, but it may be, it's psychological, but
• 37:47
  I just feel like I'm driving a car.
• 37:49
  It's not fast, but I'm not worried about, you know, the radio.
• 37:53
  And I'm not worried about, you know, how bright the headlights are and
• 37:56
  all the other crap in it, Bluetooth.
• 37:58
  I just want to drive the car and it feels really good.
• 38:00
  It's small, you know, cars these days are big.
• 38:03
  I don't know if you guys have seen a Camaro behind a, an SUV, but they're
• 38:06
  about as wide as each other, which is really crazy, but you know, in
• 38:09
  two, I'm disillusioned a little bit.
• 38:10
  Like when you look at Porsche, for example, you know, like I said, I
• 38:13
  love Porsche, but you know, baseline 11 is a hundred thousand dollars now,
• 38:16
  and that's just Kudos to them, right.
• 38:19
  To being able to have that kind of market.
• 38:21
  And it seems like this has been the story of my life.
• 38:23
  All the cars that I want to buy are just outside of my reach, you know,
• 38:27
  financially, whether it's, you know, you know, whatever it is in the days,
• 38:30
  in the early days, when I first started working, it was, I was 20, 000 shy
• 38:34
  of the car that I wanted, or, you know, the one that I really wanted.
• 38:37
  And now it seems I'm missing them by a hundred thousand dollars.
• 38:40
  I mean, it just seems to be this huge jump in cars.
• 38:43
  And, um, You know, it's hard.
• 38:45
  So, you know, I'd love to have a brand new 911 GT3 RS.
• 38:48
  The 07 RS, uh, green on black is one of my dream cars.
• 38:53
  That's, that's my fourth garage entry there.
• 38:56
  But you know, you look at the new ones and they're, you know, quarter million dollars
• 38:59
  and there are a lot of them on the road
• 39:00
  and I don't know how people are doing it.
• 39:02
  What do you think of the EV revolution that's taking over the world?
• 39:06
  You know, we're going to have to go
• 39:07
  there, right?
• 39:07
  I mean, there's no question.
• 39:08
  And
• 39:08
  I'm a fan for somebody else to own one, like my buddies that have them.
• 39:12
  I'm like, that's great for you, but I always want that.
• 39:14
  Petrol, you know, I always want those cars.
• 39:16
  I want the smell.
• 39:17
  I want the sound.
• 39:18
  And you know, when you're next to somebody in a Tesla that gives it, you
• 39:21
  know, full beans and it sounds like a remote control car that just, to me,
• 39:24
  that takes away half of what it is to be.
• 39:27
  I don't want to say a car enthusiast, cause that's not fair, but it takes
• 39:30
  away half of the appreciation that we have for the love of the sport.
• 39:34
  You know, you go to the races to hear the cars, you know, as much as
• 39:37
  in smell that, uh, You don't go, and that's my problem with formula E.
• 39:40
  I don't know if you guys have watched those races or not.
• 39:42
  I can't take them seriously.
• 39:43
  And I appreciate there's some real drivers and some real technology in
• 39:46
  there, but no sound, you know, I'm just, I can't get excited about it,
• 39:50
  but they'll eventually go there.
• 39:52
  You know, for me, it'll probably be, you know, daily driver.
• 39:55
  And when I mentioned the cyber truck, that would probably replace the
• 39:57
  Explorer, so it wouldn't be my, you know, BMW replacement, but it's fun.
• 40:02
  I mean, I think the tech is really cool.
• 40:03
  And if it's not a car that I'm trying to buy to impress anybody or, you
• 40:07
  know, Really have the fastest thing on the road, although they're very fast.
• 40:10
  You know, if it's really just kind of a function of driving, I
• 40:13
  can see myself going that route.
• 40:15
  And so a follow up question to that is what do you think of the new Hummer?
• 40:18
  The new all electric Hummer way overpriced.
• 40:21
  I don't know how they're going to do it.
• 40:22
  I mean, what it's a hundred and a half, I think.
• 40:24
  Yeah.
• 40:25
  It's ridiculous.
• 40:25
  It's like one 12 or something like that starting for the day one edition.
• 40:29
  I think it looks cool, but I think GM is in, I don't know if we have
• 40:33
  any GM people listen to this, but they don't understand their market.
• 40:37
  I mean, I think they're assuming right off the bat that they're going
• 40:39
  to sell to to all these executives.
• 40:41
  But, you know, in a topic that's going around garage right right now, you
• 40:44
  know, we talked about Tesla getting rid of their 35, 000 base model,
• 40:47
  which I didn't even know happened.
• 40:49
  But you know, the fact or that they had one, but the fact that it's
• 40:52
  obtainable for Everybody, you know, think about Henry Ford, right?
• 40:55
  That was his model.
• 40:56
  That was Volkswagen's model.
• 40:58
  I won't say by who, but we all know, but you know, the idea that everybody
• 41:01
  could have an affordable car.
• 41:03
  And I think, you know, you want to come in high brand like that, but I think
• 41:06
  if they had done that with Cadillac, maybe they'd have gotten away with it.
• 41:09
  And to
• 41:10
  your point, I think the Lyric is priced less than the Hummer is.
• 41:14
  So right there, it doesn't, it just doesn't make sense.
• 41:17
  Right.
• 41:17
  But as, as we've talked about on the previous, you know, drive thru episodes,
• 41:21
  I think there's speculation that the Hummer is a rebranded, what is it?
• 41:24
  The Rivian?
• 41:25
  It looks very similar to the, the Rivian pickup truck.
• 41:29
  So, and I've said this many times before, I think GM's late to the game.
• 41:33
  On a lot of things across the board, they were late to adopt hybrid,
• 41:37
  which they still really aren't there.
• 41:39
  They're late to adopt the shift in the market.
• 41:41
  Like you said, I don't think they know their market.
• 41:42
  And now I feel like they're lagging behind.
• 41:44
  And so, you know, I have some conspiracy theories there myself about, you
• 41:48
  know, maybe they're strategizing, maybe they're waiting to see everybody
• 41:50
  else make the mistakes so they don't have to spend the money to make those
• 41:53
  mistakes, you know, that kind of thing.
• 41:55
  And that is tactically very, very smart, but.
• 41:59
  That's 10 years too late at this point.
• 42:01
  Well, I was gonna say, especially when you look at the technology
• 42:03
  part of it, and you know, I've heard people in various businesses say,
• 42:06
  we don't want to be the leader.
• 42:07
  We want to be a close second.
• 42:08
  Like you said, let everybody make the mistakes.
• 42:09
  But, and I'm not an EV expert by any means, but you know, from
• 42:14
  what I've seen, Tesla is so far ahead of everybody else right now.
• 42:18
  I mean, even just the cool feature of it, you know, there's the
• 42:20
  feature where you can turn on.
• 42:22
  So it talks to you in certain, you know, or, you know, whatever that stuff is.
• 42:24
  It's just, Cool to be in that car, right?
• 42:27
  It's not just an EV.
• 42:28
  It does a lot of really cool things for you.
• 42:30
  So eventually there's going to be EVs all over.
• 42:32
  I mean, we're seeing them pop up every day, but you know, I think the problem
• 42:36
  too with GM, and I think it's a problem with manufacturers across the board,
• 42:40
  but if you build crap and it's ugly.
• 42:43
  You're in trouble, right?
• 42:44
  If you build crap and it looks good, you got a chance.
• 42:47
  I mean, look at the turnaround in Ford in the early 2k, right?
• 42:49
  They didn't have a lot of great looking cars, but they started
• 42:52
  working with, you know, Ford Europe and started really making some
• 42:54
  really nice looking cars, which they pretty much don't make cars anymore,
• 42:57
  but look at, he has turned around.
• 42:58
  Now they're not just this, you know, 6, 000 crap box.
• 43:02
  They actually have some nice looking cars.
• 43:04
  And I think people buy with their eyes.
• 43:06
  And the problem with Hummer is I don't know that that's a
• 43:09
  spectacular looking vehicle.
• 43:11
  I mean, to me, it looks like a brick thought I saw the last time I saw it.
• 43:14
  I think the headlights or something, say spell Hummer and
• 43:16
  the grill or something like that.
• 43:18
  That's a nice touch.
• 43:19
  It's not very obvious, but I also think, you know, oddly enough, I
• 43:21
  think that's an issue with Tesla.
• 43:22
  I don't think Tesla's cars are particularly good looking.
• 43:25
  They're pretty plain.
• 43:26
  And to give you context, you know, we go on these mountain runs and we're
• 43:28
  stopping on the side of the road.
• 43:30
  I've had people comment about my M3 and people have commented
• 43:32
  about this car and this car.
• 43:34
  People don't even look at the Tesla's like they don't even bother.
• 43:37
  And I think even if people know they don't care because it's basically
• 43:40
  a sedan, you know, a family car.
• 43:42
  No,
• 43:43
  it's an, it's an appliance is what it is.
• 43:46
  It's like every other dishwasher in somebody's house.
• 43:48
  You look at it and go, yeah, they got a dishwasher.
• 43:49
  Big deal.
• 43:50
  So if the, if the Hummer looked great, I think they could do, they
• 43:53
  could do a little bit more there, but I don't think it's quite.
• 43:55
  And I don't want to get on a conversation about that.
• 43:57
  The Wagoneer, but what I do want to ask you about is the C8 Corvette.
• 44:02
  I like it in what, what will be the zeo six trim kind of thing, but that's
• 44:08
  been my problem with, you know, the C seven and those other cars in the
• 44:11
  base model trim, I think it looks good, but I think it's an amazing car
• 44:15
  and the fact that they're selling it for 60 grand, I think is incredible.
• 44:18
  And I thought I read an article that said they're actually losing money, money
• 44:20
  on them or breaking even at 60 grand, but 60 grand for a three second car
• 44:24
  is, is incredible and awesome for them.
• 44:26
  I mean, they finally built a world car that people respect now the design.
• 44:29
  It's not necessarily just the gold chain where, and, you know.
• 44:32
  Button down, hairy chest kind of guy, but I think they got some ways to go.
• 44:35
  I mean, we're just talking pure design.
• 44:38
  I don't think they resolve the way the backend comes together.
• 44:40
  It looks like, you know, they backed in really hard into a Camaro or something.
• 44:44
  So, and you know, you've seen how many times they changed
• 44:46
  the taillights on the Camaro.
• 44:47
  It's like every year.
• 44:48
  And I think they're still trying to figure that out.
• 44:50
  But I saw a couple of them at Amelia Island this year.
• 44:53
  I saw a gumball blue one that was gorgeous.
• 44:56
  They had an orange one and they had one of the semi race trim.
• 44:59
  I don't know if it was an actual race car, but they had it made up that way.
• 45:01
  I think it's a beautiful car and I wouldn't be ashamed
• 45:03
  to own or drive one at all.
• 45:04
  I think they're awesome.
• 45:05
  So I think to your point, you're, you've made the same analogy.
• 45:08
  I think I've paid several times about the Corvette and it's posterior.
• 45:11
  They Bob tailed it off and then they said, okay, or the pencil broke.
• 45:15
  I don't know which one, what it was, but yeah, it just doesn't look right.
• 45:18
  And unfortunately for me, Characteristically.
• 45:21
  It kind of resembles all the rest of them, McLarens.
• 45:26
  I mean, from the front, they all kind of look the same now, which is unfortunate
• 45:30
  because you know, the saying right now is there's only one design that cheats
• 45:33
  the wind, but okay, but I don't know.
• 45:37
  I won't go there.
• 45:38
  It's not worth it.
• 45:39
  But it does go back to, I mean, I was talking about before that, and not all
• 45:42
  of my cars, I would say, or beauty queens necessarily to everybody, but you know, a
• 45:46
  car that, You could have in the garage and sit there and just stare at it for half an
• 45:50
  hour, you know, like you're watching TV.
• 45:52
  I don't know that that the C8 is there just yet, but you know, big, big
• 45:55
  spoilers fix a lot of things, right?
• 45:57
  You know, you think about some of the sexiest Corvettes I've ever seen were, you
• 46:00
  know, some C7s, you know, Z06 is lowered with the front lip and the spoiler in
• 46:04
  the back and not crazy, but you know, you lower any car and put nice wheels on it.
• 46:07
  It's going to help out.
• 46:08
  But.
• 46:08
  I just think it needs that touch.
• 46:09
  And even the race car, you know, the one they raced recently, they're racing
• 46:12
  this year, I think looks fantastic.
• 46:14
  Yeah, you're right.
• 46:14
  It there's, there's a little bit back there and I'm, I'm sure
• 46:16
  they'll continue to fix that.
• 46:18
  You know, it is interesting, the problems they're having.
• 46:20
  There's one of our social influencers took hers out and it caught on
• 46:24
  fire this weekend at the track.
• 46:25
  So, you know, between that and some of the other issues they're having,
• 46:28
  they still have some things to work out and I can't, and for everybody
• 46:31
  listening, I love GM, you know, come from a GM family and all that.
• 46:34
  But, you know, I think that they do have some, some things to fix and a little
• 46:37
  bit of ways to go on some of that.
• 46:38
  So folks, if you liked this conversation, this is what you can come
• 46:43
  to expect when you join GarageRiot.
• 46:45
  So let's talk a little bit more about what it's like to become a member.
• 46:48
  Yeah, it's pretty straightforward.
• 46:49
  You know, you go to the site, garageriot.
• 46:51
  com and give us your information.
• 46:53
  So, you know, it's your login and things, but it's your social security.
• 46:57
  No, I'm kidding.
• 46:57
  But really it's just, you know, we ask you for a little bit of
• 47:00
  information about who you are, right?
• 47:01
  Just.
• 47:01
  So we know who our members are and then you tell us what kind of car you've got.
• 47:05
  And that's it.
• 47:05
  I mean, it's pretty simple for the, for the apps, obviously you have to
• 47:08
  go to the app store or Google play and download it and go from there,
• 47:11
  but try to keep it simple, you know, don't believe in, you know, a lot
• 47:14
  of the extra information and things.
• 47:16
  And we know a lot of that information is, so we know, you know, okay, well,
• 47:19
  where are you at in the country?
• 47:20
  That's good for us.
• 47:21
  Right.
• 47:21
  So we can say, well, you know, you're in Atlanta.
• 47:23
  We've got a lot of people there.
• 47:24
  We can, we can target some ads to you, but it's really that simple.
• 47:27
  So are there any membership dues or fees or anything like that?
• 47:30
  Nope.
• 47:31
  Totally free.
• 47:32
  And, uh, yeah, I, you know, we, we had talked about something
• 47:35
  like that early on, a subscription model, but we don't wanna do that.
• 47:37
  You know, it's not really, we're not trying to make money off of our members.
• 47:40
  That's not what it's about.
• 47:42
  You know, you mentioned a second ago about, you know, that kind of
• 47:44
  grassroots approach in that, in the community, my business partner Heath.
• 47:49
  feels it as much as we do and more, right?
• 47:51
  He wants to help everybody in our community, almost to a fault in that,
• 47:55
  you know, he, he would give it all away for free if he could just to
• 47:57
  help everybody out, which is great because when you think about we're
• 48:00
  trying to get the word out, we're trying to help people get the word out.
• 48:03
  So however we can help somebody and they can help us as kind of how
• 48:06
  we've always moved and you know, the, we had, uh, the local chapter
• 48:10
  of the American Legion come to us.
• 48:11
  We were doing a show.
• 48:12
  They were asking, you know, how did you put this on?
• 48:14
  And, you know, what do we need to do?
• 48:15
  We're going to do our first show.
• 48:17
  And we ended up just working with them and helping them put on their show.
• 48:19
  And, you know, obviously didn't take any money out of it.
• 48:21
  That wasn't why we were there.
• 48:22
  It was really to help further that car enthusiast market and help people,
• 48:26
  you know, continue on with, you know, helping other people in the community.
• 48:29
  So that's really what it's about.
• 48:31
  And, you know, our car, we had car shows and, you know, we gave away
• 48:34
  a thousand dollar grand prize.
• 48:35
  You know, it was unheard of in the area.
• 48:37
  I don't think anybody did that.
• 48:38
  It was trophies and things.
• 48:39
  But again, to us, it was.
• 48:41
  Hey, if you spent a decade of your life and you spent a hundred
• 48:44
  thousand dollars on your car, you should get something back for that.
• 48:47
  You know, we're, we're here seeing all the work that you've done.
• 48:49
  You're sharing it with the world.
• 48:50
  That's awesome.
• 48:51
  You're sharing with us.
• 48:52
  We want to give something back to you.
• 48:53
  So it really is that kind of grassroots.
• 48:56
  Let's all take care of each other kind of feeling.
• 48:58
  And we intentionally do that and we don't ever want it to be corporate.
• 49:01
  Um, You know, it's, it's just cold, but you know, we want to be, cause
• 49:04
  we're in the trenches too, right?
• 49:05
  We're, we're at the racetracks and we're at the car meets and we're, we're
• 49:08
  online and chatting with everybody too.
• 49:10
  So we're just one, one of everybody else.
• 49:13
  Have you noticed or have you checked the numbers and in the COVID times, you know,
• 49:20
  everybody's feeling to get that fix that car show fix that event fix or whatever.
• 49:25
  But everybody's doing it virtually.
• 49:26
  Have you noticed any of your numbers increasing because of COVID and
• 49:29
  people not being able to go out and still trying to get that car fix?
• 49:34
  It's crazy times.
• 49:35
  Obviously, it's been interesting.
• 49:36
  We've seen various spikes, but you know, for us, we look at it two ways, right?
• 49:41
  We look at winter time data and then we look at summer season data.
• 49:44
  Oddly enough, we pick up at the beginning of each season.
• 49:47
  So about right now, we start to pick up members because people are
• 49:50
  inside, they can't drive their cars.
• 49:51
  So they're, they're not as busy.
• 49:52
  Jonesing for something online, right?
• 49:54
  I want to talk and just be part of it.
• 49:56
  But you know, COVID is, is a hole during that period.
• 49:59
  We didn't necessarily see any peaks and valleys.
• 50:01
  I think we saw more activity as far as, you know, the users that were sitting at
• 50:04
  home, but you know, our numbers, I say that not that we didn't get any activity.
• 50:08
  I mean, our numbers have continued to increase across that span as well.
• 50:13
  So honestly, we probably wouldn't have noticed a spike being more
• 50:16
  spiky than before because it's, we're exponentially growing, thankfully.
• 50:19
  So.
• 50:20
  COVID may have had something to do with it, you know, maybe
• 50:22
  silver lining, but I don't know.
• 50:23
  Maybe it's just luck.
• 50:25
  So Donovan, are there any perks to being a member of Garage Riot?
• 50:29
  Other than hanging out with the coolest car people on earth?
• 50:32
  Of course.
• 50:33
  I mean, yeah, I mean, it is what you make it, right?
• 50:35
  It's really about being able to, to get in to the mix with everybody.
• 50:41
  I mean, as far as, you know, are you going to get paid?
• 50:44
  You know, that kind of thing?
• 50:44
  No, but I think it's just really about.
• 50:47
  Opening your eyes to your community.
• 50:48
  So, you know, going back to what we talked about in the, in the beginning, you
• 50:51
  know, imagine somebody moves here from, from California and, you know, they're
• 50:54
  going to try to find people to blend in with and car clubs to get involved with.
• 50:58
  And, you know, more importantly, where we are, you know, we're
• 51:01
  not far from the mountains.
• 51:01
  So a lot of mountain runs and things.
• 51:03
  And, you know, again, it's really important, right?
• 51:06
  I don't think people.
• 51:07
  Think about it at the time, but let's say that I'm a mini owner.
• 51:11
  I am a mini owner, but let's say that I I'm new into town and I, and
• 51:13
  I joined a group or something, maybe I get the gist of what's going on.
• 51:16
  Maybe I don't, but there's a whole other world of, you know, the 98 other percent.
• 51:22
  that have other brands that are out there doing a lot of things, right?
• 51:24
  So if they're posting on garage ride about, Hey, we've got a, a meet this
• 51:28
  weekend, or we've got a mountain run this weekend, they may not have heard
• 51:30
  that in their mini group on Facebook.
• 51:32
  So it really, I mean, communication is key in all of this.
• 51:35
  So I think that's probably the biggest benefit of it all.
• 51:37
  But what I wanted to clarify on the perks, discounts, anything like
• 51:40
  that for like becoming a member.
• 51:42
  Yeah.
• 51:42
  I mean, so we work with, you know, the, the sponsors that we have.
• 51:45
  And, you know, if there's a discount available, we'll provide that to them.
• 51:49
  You know, that's really based on the relationship that we have
• 51:51
  with whichever vendor that is.
• 51:52
  So we have a couple shops in town that do some advertising with us and they
• 51:57
  give discounts based on the fact, you know, you're a Garage Riot member.
• 51:59
  So it really expands globally.
• 52:01
  We don't, Really have a perks program, although that's something
• 52:04
  we might look at in the future.
• 52:05
  When we were doing pretty big events, you know, we had discounts on, uh,
• 52:09
  entry fees and those kinds of things.
• 52:11
  So it's always there, you know, and we have graduate merchandise
• 52:15
  it's on Amazon and, and, you know, we have it on the site.
• 52:17
  We're going to bring some of that back too.
• 52:18
  So there, there will continue to be that, that aspect of perks there as well.
• 52:21
  We noticed that during the signup process, there's different types
• 52:24
  of accounts that you choose from during the registration process.
• 52:27
  So what's that used for?
• 52:29
  Yeah, right now.
• 52:30
  So, you know, I mentioned that we have a lot of things kind of behind the scenes
• 52:33
  that we have developed and either not launched them just yet, or we're kind
• 52:37
  of holding back for the right time.
• 52:40
  That's really about understanding the different types of users that we have.
• 52:43
  So if you're just a person, right, you come on there and give a personal account.
• 52:46
  If you're, say, a car dealership, You know, we would want you to
• 52:49
  come on there again, you know, us trying to help everybody out, right.
• 52:52
  We would want you to come on in, in your profile, be able to display your
• 52:55
  inventory or at least your website and your phone number, for example, something
• 53:00
  simple like that, that your personal profile wouldn't necessarily have.
• 53:03
  So it's a way for us to identify kind of the different needs of the profile,
• 53:06
  but also let the community understand that, Oh, this is a dealership, right?
• 53:10
  This isn't a person, this is somebody that I can go to and now I continue
• 53:13
  to go back to their profile and get more information about what they do.
• 53:16
  As an example, if I signed up as a business, does that automatically
• 53:20
  entitle me to any sort of like advertising or anything like that?
• 53:23
  How does that work?
• 53:24
  No, not necessarily.
• 53:25
  Not yet.
• 53:25
  I mean, you know, all of our, our sponsor relationships are different.
• 53:29
  So, you know, we talk to, you know, depending on what they want to do.
• 53:32
  So we have some people that want to Part of our marketing
• 53:35
  and everything that we do.
• 53:36
  So anytime we send out a physical mail, or if we're in a car show and giving out
• 53:40
  things, they want to be part of that.
• 53:42
  And then there's some people that just are happy having their,
• 53:45
  uh, their banner on our website.
• 53:47
  So we, at least right now, still try to have a one to one relationship with all
• 53:51
  of our sponsors and make sure that we're, we're doing the best we can for them.
• 53:54
  There's not really a one size fits all.
• 53:56
  And, and, and we don't want to have that again.
• 53:57
  It's, you know, everybody in their business has different needs.
• 54:00
  So, you know, we want to figure out how we can use that and leverage.
• 54:03
  So you mentioned several times events and events is always kind of
• 54:06
  a trigger word for us because there's all sorts of different types of, you
• 54:09
  know, automotive events out there.
• 54:11
  So what kinds of events does garage riot put on and where?
• 54:16
  So early on, yeah, we, we used it as a way to get the word out.
• 54:19
  So we did car shows and I mentioned the thousand dollar grand prize and you
• 54:23
  know, that wasn't by accident, right?
• 54:24
  It was partly to get people to go, Hey, wait a second.
• 54:27
  This sounds like a good place to go, but also, like I said, to give back to people.
• 54:30
  So, We did that pretty regularly.
• 54:32
  I think our first year we had one show, it was called summer
• 54:35
  riot and it went really well.
• 54:37
  And then the next year we did a summer riot, we did classic riots
• 54:41
  and, um, we had a couple others and those were really starting to kind of
• 54:46
  segment the different types, right?
• 54:47
  Obviously we had one that was Euro riot that was just for European cars.
• 54:51
  And then, and you know, it was interesting in doing that, you know,
• 54:54
  just in the car show world, you have people that show up and you know, member
• 54:57
  wise, we have people that there's a couple of people on there that have,
• 54:59
  you know, million dollars in cars.
• 55:00
  And then we've got some people that, you know, it's their first car, right?
• 55:03
  You know, they did what they could.
• 55:04
  It's probably a three or 4, 000 car.
• 55:06
  And we noticed that to come into some of these car shows.
• 55:08
  And we had this really wide variety of people.
• 55:11
  And, you know, I don't know if you guys have been, you know, entered your car
• 55:14
  in a car show, but you know, sometimes you go in and as soon as you pull up,
• 55:17
  you're like, I shouldn't be here, right?
• 55:18
  You know, this guy's got this car that looks like it was done for SEMA.
• 55:21
  And I, you know, I'm in kind of a, A really clean bone stock car.
• 55:25
  So we tried to break that apart and start, you know, leveling the playing field.
• 55:29
  So yeah, you may not get that grand prize, but at least, you know, you're going to be
• 55:32
  competitive in whatever space you're in,
• 55:34
  but so in the, in the track world, you know, the car show in the paddock
• 55:38
  is very different because if you look and you go, Hey man, you got straight
• 55:41
  body panels, you're doing pretty good now, and I'm joking, right.
• 55:45
  But there are no beauty queens in the paddock, you know, generally speaking.
• 55:49
  I mean, there are some very.
• 55:50
  Prestigious cars that do show up, you know, McLarens and Corvettes
• 55:53
  and Porsches and that kind of stuff.
• 55:56
  Not in the instructor run groups.
• 55:57
  No, not at all.
• 55:59
  And not at the club racing events or the time trials, the guys
• 56:02
  that are really going after it.
• 56:03
  You're like, well, that's cool.
• 56:05
  Your roll bar is three colors.
• 56:06
  That's neat.
• 56:07
  You know?
• 56:09
  So it's, it's, it's just a whole different ballgame.
• 56:11
  So I don't think any of our cars would win any awards.
• 56:13
  Other than the fact that they made it there and they run, but, but,
• 56:18
  uh, so what other kinds of events, cause you talked about, you know,
• 56:20
  mountain drives and things like that.
• 56:22
  Is that like a drive and dine?
• 56:23
  What else, what else you got going on?
• 56:24
  Yeah, we do that.
• 56:25
  The, so the mountain runs are a little more grassroots.
• 56:26
  It's Hey guys, we're all going to the mountains this weekend.
• 56:28
  You want to come?
• 56:29
  And, uh, you know, we do those, uh, we were also doing, it was every third
• 56:33
  Saturday, we did just kind of a casual get together at night, you know, people
• 56:36
  get up in the morning and they go to cars and coffee and, and, uh, you
• 56:39
  know, You know, I don't want to get up at four 30 in the morning, just so I
• 56:41
  get a car, you know, a park in space.
• 56:43
  So it was a way just for people to get together and chill out and relax
• 56:46
  and appreciate each other's cars.
• 56:48
  Beyond that, we haven't done any kind of formal racing or any series like that.
• 56:53
  I mean, to me at this point, I think that's best left to the experts,
• 56:56
  you know, and we're trying to keep our reach still manageable.
• 56:59
  And that's what I meant to earlier by, you know, When we launched the
• 57:02
  site, you could do everything under the sun and it wasn't manageable.
• 57:06
  So we kind of narrowed down and, you know, maybe we'll get there one day, but you
• 57:08
  know, you guys are the experts for that.
• 57:10
  So we wouldn't want to trample on any toes there.
• 57:13
  Well, that's why we're here to help.
• 57:14
  Right.
• 57:14
  But that's cool.
• 57:15
  So with your mountain pass runs, are those orchestrated or is it
• 57:19
  just kind of a lead follow thing?
• 57:20
  And I have a reason for asking this question.
• 57:22
  So.
• 57:23
  When you say orchestrated as far as Meaning,
• 57:25
  are they, are they like a time distance kind of thing?
• 57:27
  Are they planned out?
• 57:28
  Is there a route?
• 57:29
  Is it like a Gymkhana?
• 57:30
  Because this all falls actually under a motorsport discipline known as road rally.
• 57:35
  So that's why I was curious to see if they were slightly more orchestrated,
• 57:38
  or if it's just a lead follow type of convoy to a destination.
• 57:43
  No, they're more, they're more casual than that.
• 57:45
  Yeah.
• 57:45
  The last one we went on, we had a couple of Teslas and we had some
• 57:48
  guys with really loud exhausts.
• 57:50
  And, you know, we, we toured through the mountains and try to find different paths.
• 57:53
  And honestly, you know, we do about as much stand there and talk about,
• 57:58
  you know, cars and everything else is, is we can, so there's one particular
• 58:01
  route that we take a lot and we'll zip over the mountain as quickly as we can.
• 58:04
  And then at the end, there's a pull off and we'll stop.
• 58:07
  And we'll just get out and, you know, just BS for half an hour and watch all
• 58:10
  the cars that go by and then we'll get back in and shoot back over the mountain.
• 58:13
  And, you know, so it's really a social thing.
• 58:15
  And speaking of, you know, mountain drives and shooting up over back,
• 58:19
  back and forth over the mountain, how far are you from tail of the dragon?
• 58:23
  From here somewhere, two and a half, three hours.
• 58:27
  I was just there with a group three or four weeks ago.
• 58:30
  So not bad.
• 58:31
  GTM is planning a trip next, probably next fall to Tale of the Dragon.
• 58:36
  So we'll definitely, you know, keep it, we should do it as
• 58:38
  a joint thing.
• 58:38
  I mean, why not?
• 58:39
  Yeah,
• 58:39
  exactly.
• 58:41
  Yeah, I was up when we were up there, I took a buddy of mine and some other
• 58:45
  people and we shot across, we came from the east side and we took some twisty
• 58:50
  roads to get up there and we started out and I was in my E30 M3 that has a slight
• 58:55
  exhaust leak slide is being generous.
• 58:58
  So, you know, you can smell, is
• 58:59
  that like the exhaust leak at the track where we cut the mufflers off?
• 59:02
  And
• 59:04
  this is, you know, it's, it's funny.
• 59:06
  So when I bought the car and that's the second E30 M3 I've had.
• 59:09
  And the first one I thought was going to kill me from the smell to the guy
• 59:12
  had done a lot of, you know, he put an Alcantara headliner in it and I
• 59:14
  think the glue, you know, it burned my eyes every time I drive that car.
• 59:17
  So I got rid of it, but this one, when I bought it, the guy goes, yeah.
• 59:20
  He said, listen, they have a tendency to kind of back out
• 59:23
  their exhaust manifold bolts.
• 59:24
  So you have to have that tightened up.
• 59:26
  I've found nobody else that has ever heard of that.
• 59:28
  I've talked to some of the shops around here.
• 59:30
  They're like, you're crazy.
• 59:30
  So this one though, for whatever reason smells like exhaust.
• 59:33
  So I'd been in at the two, three hours to get up there.
• 59:36
  We took some curbies.
• 59:37
  It was awesome.
• 59:38
  We got up, went over the dragon, you know, went West over the dragon,
• 59:42
  stopped for a second, came East.
• 59:43
  But when we came East, we were on, you know, super party twisties.
• 59:46
  And I happened to look down and mess with the fan on the AC
• 59:51
  to turn it down a little bit.
• 59:52
  And when I looked back up, I was, you know, obviously going into it.
• 59:54
  To a corner and that was it.
• 59:56
  I was car sick from that point on.
• 59:58
  And, you know, it was that instant, you know, then the exhaust on top of it.
• 1:00:01
  So when we got to the other side, we stopped, there's two little stores
• 1:00:04
  there and I stopped in one and I told everybody, I've just got to sit.
• 1:00:07
  Just let me sit for a minute, went and got some water and, uh, just had to
• 1:00:11
  chill out, but I was not feeling well.
• 1:00:12
  And we left and I actually wore my mask in the car, you know, my, my COVID era
• 1:00:18
  mask and had the windows half down.
• 1:00:19
  And I was still out of it for about another 30, 45 minutes.
• 1:00:22
  It was crazy.
• 1:00:22
  So.
• 1:00:23
  I won't do that the next time I'll make sure that I get my exhaust leak
• 1:00:26
  fixed and run with the windows down.
• 1:00:28
  So Donovan, that's all really cool.
• 1:00:29
  And you know, we'll, we'll see what, what next year holds.
• 1:00:32
  And obviously for all of us, it's still very much a crapshoot as to
• 1:00:35
  what the schedule looks like and how things are going to turn out.
• 1:00:37
  So let's hope for the better for everybody.
• 1:00:39
  But since we're speaking of roadmaps, what's on the roadmap for garage
• 1:00:43
  riot, any new features you want to share outside of the my garage thing,
• 1:00:46
  anything else coming that we should be looking forward to on the platform?
• 1:00:49
  Going back.
• 1:00:49
  So it's one of those, you know, it took us about a year and
• 1:00:52
  a half to get up and running.
• 1:00:53
  And then, you know, live we went, it's kind of a beta launch and, uh, it's
• 1:00:57
  been a constant improvement from there, but, you know, we waited a little bit,
• 1:01:01
  probably a little longer than we should have waiting for it to be finished.
• 1:01:03
  And of course it's never finished, right?
• 1:01:05
  We've always got something we're developing and working on.
• 1:01:07
  And even still it's been, it's been live for about four years in this iteration.
• 1:01:12
  Yeah, I think the, the garage is probably the nearest to completion.
• 1:01:16
  Um, you know, we're constantly doing updates and it's, it's a lot of
• 1:01:19
  sleepless nights right now, we're actually going through a server
• 1:01:22
  migration that I'm hoping doesn't take the site down the next few days.
• 1:01:25
  You know, we have developed some other things that'll bring that on.
• 1:01:29
  We've got a, my garage feature coming where you can really show off your car
• 1:01:32
  and what you've done to it and be proud of it and share it with the world.
• 1:01:35
  We also have, you know, I mentioned we're on Amazon, but,
• 1:01:38
  uh, we've got a YouTube channel.
• 1:01:39
  We've been kicking up for the past couple of months.
• 1:01:41
  I think we posted our fifth or sixth video today.
• 1:01:44
  Uh, so that's going, those come out about every couple of weeks
• 1:01:46
  to check us out there, but, you know, constant improvements.
• 1:01:48
  We're always doing that for, you know, we need more room.
• 1:01:51
  We need more storage space and bandwidth.
• 1:01:53
  So the garage.
• 1:01:54
  Uh, my garage as it's called at the moment, I think is the most exciting.
• 1:01:57
  And like I said, you know, it's going to be a chance for you to tell us about your
• 1:02:01
  car, put your specs in, if you've modified it, your track times, where you were, what
• 1:02:06
  you ran, you know, those kinds of things.
• 1:02:07
  So it's really, it is your chance to shine as a, as a car enthusiast.
• 1:02:11
  And, you know, you can turn it around and go, boom, here you go.
• 1:02:14
  Here's everything about my car and I can share it off.
• 1:02:16
  And if I want to see, you know, your fastest lap at road Atlanta, I'll just
• 1:02:19
  check out your profile and it'll show me
• 1:02:21
  where do people go to find out more about garage riot?
• 1:02:23
  Can they contact you once they've signed up?
• 1:02:26
  What's your handle?
• 1:02:27
  Yeah.
• 1:02:28
  So obviously the URL is garage riot.
• 1:02:29
  com.
• 1:02:30
  You know, we've got the apps you just search for in the app stores at garage
• 1:02:33
  riot, but yes, I am black M five on there if you guys want to ring me up.
• 1:02:37
  So as we're kind of closing out the segment on garage ride
• 1:02:41
  itself, are there any sponsors or anybody you'd like to thank?
• 1:02:44
  Partnership?
• 1:02:44
  You guys, obviously.
• 1:02:46
  Hey, thank you guys.
• 1:02:47
  Yeah.
• 1:02:47
  Beyond that.
• 1:02:47
  I mean, we've got local shout outs to those guys, so hopefully they're
• 1:02:50
  all listening, but, uh, we've got some shops coming online here.
• 1:02:53
  Real soon that, uh, by the time this, uh, goes live, hopefully
• 1:02:56
  they'll be on, but, uh, we'll have to wait and see on some of them.
• 1:03:01
  Dunkin Donuts.
• 1:03:02
  There you go.
• 1:03:02
  There's one
• 1:03:04
  and rock auto.
• 1:03:05
  I've noticed as well.
• 1:03:06
  Well, actually, you know, let me say something for those guys.
• 1:03:08
  Those guys have been great.
• 1:03:09
  So, you know, they get on there and post and they'll post, uh,
• 1:03:12
  discounts on there often, and, you know, they're active members of our
• 1:03:16
  community, which is really great.
• 1:03:17
  You don't expect that from.
• 1:03:18
  You know, a business like that.
• 1:03:20
  So whoever, and you know, we haven't talked to anybody on the phone, only
• 1:03:23
  email, whoever that person is, or those multiple people are, they stay
• 1:03:26
  on top of it and really engage with our website, which is really, really cool
• 1:03:29
  to have a vendor of that, that level.
• 1:03:32
  So Donovan, we are super excited to continue the partnership that
• 1:03:36
  we've started with Garage Riot.
• 1:03:37
  And we have a couple things planned.
• 1:03:39
  We don't want to give away all the spoilers.
• 1:03:41
  We're going to have maybe some additional crossover episodes,
• 1:03:43
  some events, things like that.
• 1:03:45
  So we can't thank you enough for coming on the show.
• 1:03:47
  Describing to everybody what it's all about, why they should get engaged.
• 1:03:51
  And GarageRide has been a very grassroots experience, which resonates a lot
• 1:03:55
  with GTM and with our community and with our listeners and our audience,
• 1:03:59
  and that, you know, it's more down to earth and how you guys are continuing
• 1:04:04
  to perpetuate enthusiasm in this case.
• 1:04:07
  Enthusiasm around vehicles while GTM is continuing to try to
• 1:04:11
  spread motorsports enthusiasm
• 1:04:13
  to me It's really interesting when I have a conversation with somebody about what
• 1:04:16
  garage right is and I explain it to them And it's funny because you can see them
• 1:04:19
  at first They're kind of looking at you and you know when they get it because you
• 1:04:23
  can see that light go off, you know And then they start telling you oh, well, I
• 1:04:26
  could do this and I could do this and I could put you know this and that's when
• 1:04:29
  you know, they get it and that's been one of the most inspiring things because
• 1:04:33
  You You know, we've had people come up to us at shows and go, I love what you
• 1:04:36
  guys are doing, you know, keep doing it.
• 1:04:38
  You know, I'm gonna get all my buddies on there.
• 1:04:40
  And that's really, the goal was really to create something that we wanted to
• 1:04:43
  use and everybody else wanted to use.
• 1:04:44
  So thank you again for coming on the show.
• 1:04:46
  It's been really, really awesome.
• 1:04:47
  Yeah.
• 1:04:48
  Thanks for having us.
• 1:04:48
  And you know, this is, this is a good partnership for us and, you know, we
• 1:04:51
  welcome any and everybody and, you know, no matter what you drive and based on what
• 1:04:55
  we said today or not, you know, you're all welcome and we want to see you there.
• 1:04:59
  There you go guys.
• 1:05:00
  So when you get a chance, especially over the winter months here, check out www.
• 1:05:05
  garageriot.
• 1:05:06
  com reach out to at black and five, if you want to make some new friends.
• 1:05:16
  If you like what you've heard and want to learn more about GTM,
• 1:05:18
  be sure to check us out on www.
• 1:05:21
  gtmotorsports.
• 1:05:22
  org.
• 1:05:23
  You can also find us on Instagram at GrandTouringMotorsports.
• 1:05:26
  Also, if you want to get involved or have suggestions for future shows, You can call
• 1:05:31
  or text us at 202 630 1770, or send us an email at crewchief at gtmotorsports.
• 1:05:38
  org.
• 1:05:38
  We'd love to hear from you.
• 1:05:40
  Hey listeners, Crew Chief Eric here.
• 1:05:42
  Do you like what you've seen, heard, and read from GTM?
• 1:05:45
  Great, so do we, and we have a lot of fun doing it.
• 1:05:48
  But please remember, we're fueled by volunteers and remain a no annual
• 1:05:52
  fee organization, but we still need help to keep the momentum going.
• 1:05:55
  So that we can continue to record, write, edit, and broadcast
• 1:05:59
  all of your favorite content.
• 1:06:00
  So be sure to visit www.
• 1:06:01
  patreon.
• 1:06:03
  com forward slash gtmotorsports or visit our website and click in the
• 1:06:07
  top right corner on the support and donate to learn how you can help.