Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / Car Culture Delivered: PetrolBox (Jon Sahr)

Transcript

Car Culture Delivered: PetrolBox (Jon Sahr) · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

• 0:00
  Break Fix podcast is all about capturing the living history of people from all
• 0:05
  over the autos sphere, 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 Petrolhead that wonder.
• 0:16
  How did they get that job or become that person?
• 0:19
  The road to success is paved by all of us because everyone has a story.
• 0:27
  Each box contains handpicked items, including tools, wearables,
• 0:32
  garage gear, detailing, supplies, magazines, collectibles, and coupons.
• 0:38
  Whoa.
• 0:39
  What are we talking about?
• 0:40
  You ask tonight?
• 0:42
  We're joined by John Sahr from Petrol Box to discuss why this Petrolhead
• 0:47
  curated monthly box is something you'll be anxiously anticipating.
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  Welcome to Break Fix, John.
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  Thanks for having me.
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  Hey, so like every good story, there's an origin.
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  So what inspired Petro Box?
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  Where did this come from?
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  Where did you come up with the idea?
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  Well, me and my son used to get loot crates back in the day.
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  We're kind of nerds as well.
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  I was just thinking at work one day, man, there's nothing out
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  there for the car enthusiast.
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  I was a mechanic at the time, so originally my thought was a toolbox, but
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  that's really hard to do with, uh, tools.
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  Most mechanics have their own preferences, so I just kind of like morphed it into a
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  car enthusiast box and just went with it.
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  And you're based out of Ohio, so right in the center of the domestic car world?
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  Yeah, we're in Columbus, Ohio.
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  Huge car following Jake's is based outta here, so we get a lot of really
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  big American muscle shows here.
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  It's a pretty nice area for the most part, other than the winter.
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  You still get rust buckets up here.
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  So let's talk a little bit about your car history.
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  So what are some of your favorite cars or least favorite cars,
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  maybe even motor sports pass?
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  I'm really like a Toyota guy mostly.
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  Always have been.
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  I've been into vintage Toyota, well old Toyotas really Right now I
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  have a 1986 Corolla, two-door coop.
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  That's the last of the rear wheel drive Corollas.
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  And I also have a 1980.
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  Toyota Corolla wagon.
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  That's a real world drive station wagon.
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  Those are my two like kind of fun cars.
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  The 86 coupe I've been building.
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  It's kind of like my drift car, but the more and more we've been doing track
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  events lately, I kind of wanna make it like I do everything kind of car.
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  The wagon's just kind of like my nice go to the Saturday cars and coffee show.
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  So that 86, that's the infamous Hachi Roku, right?
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  That everybody knows from like initial D and and Driftings and things like that.
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  Yeah, mine's a coop.
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  Most people, they love the hatch because that's what initial D had.
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  But I've always been a coop guy.
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  I've probably had nine or 10 of 'em over the years.
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  For the Ford guys, that would be like a notch back fox body versus the Fastback.
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  Right?
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  That's what you're saying with the coop.
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  Yeah.
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  'cause a lot of people prefer the coop.
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  Yeah.
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  Just like a fox body for the most part.
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  I, I also prefer the notch back fox body as well.
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  So Drift, huh?
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  So you're coming out of that world.
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  So what are, in your opinion, some of the best drift cars outside of the 86?
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  Really the A 86 is not like a great drift car.
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  It's a pretty good one, but it's got such a short wheel base.
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  Two 40 SX is like the king.
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  You can't really get any better than a two 40 SX no matter what year it is.
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  So do you think we got shortchanged when it came to JDM cars?
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  Like they still kept all the good stuff?
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  Or do you think there's some real gems, maybe some cars that people
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  didn't think about that are here in the States that could be built upon?
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  I think that there's a lot of good cars that we got here in the States.
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  Really, it's just the late nineties that we kind of got screwed on.
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  You know, we didn't get the S fifteens, we never got the skylines
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  and whatnot like that, but there's a lot of good cars here in America.
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  We have friends with the Catfish, Camaros, that drift.
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  I've seen Fox bodies out there.
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  I've seen C fives.
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  That's kind of a big thing now is the c fives are getting really
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  big in the drift community.
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  There is even a spec C five track series being born, I
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  believe, out of the West Coast.
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  So that's kind of interesting that we're seeing a resurgence in
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  the c fifth generation Corvettes.
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  Yeah, they're starting to get down there in price, and I think
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  people are realizing what kind of value those cars really bring.
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  Yeah, they weren't the most attractive Corvette, but they had
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  a lot of good things underneath.
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  I've gotten a chance to coach and many of 'em and drive a few,
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  and they're actually phenomenal.
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  I mean, when you're behind the steering wheel, does it really
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  matter what it looks like?
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  Well, and it's the last of the, uh, popup headlights.
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  You know, you're either a popup headlight guy or you're not.
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  It's very true.
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  It actually, we talked about it on a recent drive through episode, where the
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  C five Corvette was the last car to have.
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  Pop up headlights in the world, period.
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  So it's actually kind of cool to keep that tradition all the way up to like 2004.
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  So it's kind of neat.
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  So that being said, what do you think is the sexiest car ever in your opinion?
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  Like something you strive for, something you want?
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  Oh man.
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  If I were to like win the lottery or something like that, it's
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  gotta be like a 2000 GT Toyota.
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  That's my like unobtainable dream car.
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  I know I'll never be able to reach, but I've seen a few of 'em at like Japanese
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  classic car show out in Long Beach.
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  We've been to the Peterson.
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  They have one of the convertibles there, and those cars are just beautiful.
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  And on the other side of that pendulum swing, what's the,
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  just the ugliest car ever.
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  Oh man, there are so many of 'em.
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  Well, how about Jdm since you're a JDM guy or the ugliest Toyota for that matter?
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  Is there one, it's hard for me to say though.
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  'cause I, I really like a lot of cars, pretty much every kind of car.
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  Some of those mid nineties, like Toyota Starlets, we didn't get here.
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  Hmm.
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  Those, those are kinda weird looking cars, but a lot of 'em came with turbos too.
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  So they're kind of neat.
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  But teach their own, everybody, everybody has their own thing.
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  Absolutely.
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  So let's jump back into Petro Box.
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  That's what we're here to talk about, right?
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  So obviously you're a petrolhead come from the JDM and Drift world.
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  So let's talk about Petro Box itself.
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  You know, we know where the, where it came from, where you got the idea.
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  So what was in the first petro box?
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  So the first petro box was actually five years ago.
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  Pretty much exactly.
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  We sent out in November, 2016.
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  It had some products from Jacks Wax.
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  They're a local Columbus company, so we work with them frequently.
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  So, and then it also had apparel from Scotch and Iron, one of our
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  long affiliated companies that we work with quite regularly.
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  It's been so long ago, but it's hard to think that we've been
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  sending these out for five years.
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  What are some of the coolest items?
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  That you've put in a box after all these years, something you're
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  like, man, I wish we could do that again, or, that was one of the
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  hottest things that we put in a box.
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  Yeah.
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  That, that's one hard thing that we have to kind of balance is we
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  can't send the same items all that often, you know, because we do have
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  customers that have been subscribers for pretty much five years.
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  I, I don't want to shortchange those guys, but some of the coolest
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  items we've sent out, we've worked with the Shark Tank Company Grip
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  Mat, which is a silicone base like.
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  Tool and spare part holder.
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  That was really neat.
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  Uh, we've worked with a lot of really neat companies like Mishimoto.
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  We've worked with Hogan several different times.
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  It's just neat to meet some of these other business owners and be able
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  to put their products in their box.
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  Are there certain things that you kept for yourself?
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  You're like, man, these are the awesomeness of the awesome.
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  Every month I take home like a little box of my own.
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  So I ha I have all my cleaning supplies and everything in the garage.
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  Uh, all the tools I have most t-shirts, but sometimes you get the luck of the
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  draw and we're completely sold out of the size that I wear or something like that.
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  There have been a couple t-shirts that have slipped by that I
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  just can't even get anymore.
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  So how do you go about building these relationships?
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  Like how do you figure out what to put in the box?
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  How does that work?
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  I really like every kind of car.
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  I try to keep myself as neutral as possible.
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  Being a Toyota Motorhead, uh, I, I still love the new Mustangs.
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  I, I love the new Corvettes.
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  I wanna make something that.
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  Everybody can find a use for the products that we're sending.
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  I don't want to alienate any certain genre.
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  We gonna see some model cars in the future, maybe some Hot Wheels,
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  matchbox type stuff in the box.
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  I mean, there, there's, that's also another side of collecting.
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  Uh, we have worked with, uh, M two machines before and put
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  their die cast in the box.
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  Unfortunately, just, I've reached out to a lot of those companies and it's
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  very hard to get in contact with some of those bigger die cast and boy companies.
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  But if any of 'em want to be in the box.
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  We'll definitely put 'em in there.
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  I've been a subscriber now for over a year and I've been
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  keeping an eye on things myself.
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  And I find it funny, every month there's a sticker in the box and
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  I love it 'cause they change.
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  Sometimes it's a Corvette race card.
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  A couple months ago it was the Audi Sport Quattro, the S one, things like that.
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  And so I have actually taken to turning them into magnets so I can have them on my
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  refrigerator and all that kind of thing.
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  So it's actually a lot of fun.
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  I look forward to even those little things in the box, not just the
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  cleaning supplies or the T-shirts.
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  And there's been some really great t-shirts and I gotta say.
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  The one you guys did for the Overland community, for the
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  off roaders with the Jeep.
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  That was absolutely fantastic.
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  I love that kind of stuff.
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  And there, there are a bunch of petrol box shirts I wear all the time and
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  people ask me, where did you get that?
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  I'm like, came in my monthly box.
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  You should sign up.
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  That's awesome.
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  Yeah, it's it's amazing.
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  Uh.
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  Some of the shirts, I've been lucky enough to go to SEMA a couple
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  times before COVID shut down.
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  Pretty much everything.
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  Some of the pictures I have on my phone are just people wearing petrol box shirts
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  that I see just walking through the crowd and it's just kind of neat to see that.
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  Yeah, there there's a lot of really neat.
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  Things that we've put in the boxes I'm really proud of, like where
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  it's kind of grown inside the box.
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  Cleaning supplies, t-shirts, some sort of little kitschy item, like the stickers
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  or the magnets or whatever, some tools.
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  Is there anything else in the box?
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  Like what should people expect when they open a box for the first time?
• 9:48
  No.
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  You'll always expect something that you're gonna be able to wear, something you're
• 9:51
  gonna be able to use to clean your car.
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  And then just other really useful items.
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  We always try to include one of our legendary livery stickers each month.
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  We also have a magnet of one of our subscribers cars.
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  They really love that we have an entire refrigerator in the
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  warehouse just filled with magnets.
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  How do you become one of those rides in the month?
• 10:13
  How does that work?
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  If you wanna reach out to us.
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  info@mypetrolbox.com.
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  Just shoot us a high resolution photo.
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  I keep those all in a folder every month.
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  I just kind of go through and I, I'll double check, make sure you're still a
• 10:25
  subscriber, and then we'll throw that on the magnet and put it out the next month.
• 10:29
  That's awesome.
• 10:29
  So it's a subscription model, obviously.
• 10:31
  What are the tiers?
• 10:33
  What do you get in the different tiers and what do they cost?
• 10:36
  So we have our Petro box basic, which is typically two to three items each
• 10:40
  month, starting at 1995 a month.
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  Then we have our petro box premium, which is typically five to seven items.
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  Some of the bigger, heavier items in this box, starting at 39.95 a month,
• 10:51
  and depending on how long you subscribe, does get a little bit cheaper as well.
• 10:55
  So there's two tiers, and obviously it's probably cheaper if you
• 10:58
  buy the whole year up front than going monthly as well, right?
• 11:02
  Correct.
• 11:02
  Yeah.
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  If you bought 12 months for the subscription, you're basically
• 11:05
  getting like two months free.
• 11:07
  You know, like a lot of other companies that do this, there's
• 11:09
  usually sister brands or other things that people aren't aware of.
• 11:13
  So is there anything else that Petro Box or that you're involved in that
• 11:16
  you'd wanna let people know about?
• 11:18
  So recently, just this year, we did start our dog accessory brand.
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  It's called Petrol Pup.
• 11:23
  Oh, petrol Pup is, uh, a thing I've been working on for a while.
• 11:27
  I have probably the cutest dog in the world, and, uh, he just
• 11:31
  needed some more space to shine.
• 11:33
  So we, uh, got him his own little brand of car enthusiasts, motor sports
• 11:39
  inspired dog collars and leashes.
• 11:41
  Right now we have about seven different designs.
• 11:44
  And is that a separate subscription or is that something that's
• 11:46
  included with Petro Box?
• 11:48
  It's not included in the Petro Box.
• 11:49
  Uh, it's actually its own kind of separate thing.
• 11:52
  You can order some of the petro box stuff to go in your first box, but we we're
• 11:57
  never gonna just blindly guess like what kind of dog or size of dog you have.
• 12:01
  So that stuff will be just all by itself.
• 12:04
  It's just something that.
• 12:05
  We found pretty fun and, and I thought it kind of fit a niche that there wasn't
• 12:09
  anything out there for, 'cause my dog loves going to the car shows and all
• 12:13
  the attention he gets, so we just get 'em, uh, looking good for the car shows.
• 12:18
  Doggy bandanas are big to do.
• 12:19
  We actually have them available on our store site as well with our logos on them.
• 12:23
  And a lot of our members, you know, put them on their dogs and
• 12:26
  obviously they switch 'em up.
• 12:27
  It's like wearing T-shirts, right?
• 12:28
  Yeah.
• 12:28
  Well this time I'm gonna wear Formula one bandana next week I'm gonna wear
• 12:31
  a petrol beds, bandana or whatever.
• 12:33
  So, you know, it all worked.
• 12:35
  But, so you were talking about the subscription all that five years.
• 12:38
  Now in, in the making, how big has Petro Box gotten?
• 12:41
  How many subscribers do you guys have?
• 12:42
  So right now, typical month is a little over 1500 boxes.
• 12:46
  So it's going all around the world.
• 12:48
  Takes quite a bit of time and effort to get those boxes put together.
• 12:53
  So that being said, you know, with us looking at the holiday season, you know,
• 12:56
  it's very fast approaching any shout outs.
• 12:59
  Promotions, special discounts, anything you wanna throw out there,
• 13:02
  do you wanna let people know about?
• 13:04
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 13:04
  The, one of the best coupon codes we have out there is 2021.
• 13:09
  You'll get 21% off your entire first order from Petrol box.
• 13:13
  So you'll get that first month's box for 21% off.
• 13:16
  That's, that's a really solid deal, and that's good through the end
• 13:20
  of the calendar year through 2021.
• 13:22
  Correct.
• 13:22
  Oh, that's awesome.
• 13:23
  Check that out.
• 13:24
  Listeners.
• 13:24
  Get 21% off your subscription of Petro Box starting now on the
• 13:29
  holidays through the end of the year.
• 13:30
  That's really, really cool.
• 13:31
  I also noticed on the website there's a win, a set of RoboForm wheels.
• 13:36
  How do we go about doing that?
• 13:38
  Exactly.
• 13:38
  So every month we go through and we completely randomize
• 13:42
  our list of subscribers.
• 13:43
  We select one subscriber's box, we'll pull their shipping label out and add
• 13:48
  one of our golden tickets to the box.
• 13:51
  The Golden Ticket WA is a shiny glittery ticket.
• 13:54
  It'll tell you that you've won a free set of rot form wheels, and just email us.
• 13:59
  We'll get you in contact with, uh, one of our reps, and we'll get those
• 14:03
  wheels sent out directly to you.
• 14:04
  I tell you what, I did get a little excited one month, but then I realized
• 14:08
  it was exhaust wrap that was gold.
• 14:10
  And I was like, oh, yeah, I, I, I did have a few emails about that.
• 14:14
  People that were a little, uh, little surprised that they thought they had won.
• 14:18
  And I thought that was, I think that was April.
• 14:21
  So that made total sense.
• 14:22
  And I was like, oh man, I just got punked.
• 14:25
  I was like, it was pretty cool.
• 14:26
  It was a good joke, right?
• 14:26
  I was like, all right, whatever.
• 14:28
  So yeah, that was one that was like, that's a cool item too.
• 14:30
  A lot of people found, uh, uses for that.
• 14:32
  Track rats find, use for all the things in the petro box for sure.
• 14:36
  So it's all for, it's all good.
• 14:38
  One of the main things about Petro Box is that we kind of make sure that
• 14:42
  the box is out there for everyone.
• 14:45
  Uh, we recently just started to take people's information to let it best
• 14:49
  know what kind of cars they like.
• 14:51
  So it's domestic, Asian, European, or if you just like everything, we are trying
• 14:56
  to create this box exactly for you.
• 15:00
  Are you thinking like maybe themed boxes, like a Ferrari Box one
• 15:03
  month and a BMW Box another month, something like that to mix it up?
• 15:06
  I think maybe those might be seasonal things when we have a little
• 15:11
  bit more time and effort because Petro Box is basically just me.
• 15:15
  I run the daily I. Do all the packaging.
• 15:19
  I have some, I have a good group of friends that really help each
• 15:22
  month put the boxes together.
• 15:24
  All these friends are just huge motorheads from drag racing to
• 15:29
  track, to drifting and, and we kind of support it all out there.
• 15:33
  Mad props, by the way, because one of the boxes, I don't remember which month
• 15:36
  it was this year, there were socks from Heel Tread and I got super excited
• 15:40
  because they were on the show as well.
• 15:41
  John Sallows, super nice, and we talked about all sorts of things on his episode
• 15:45
  and it was really cool to open a.
• 15:46
  Petrol box.
• 15:47
  Oh my God.
• 15:47
  There's heel tread socks in here.
• 15:48
  So it's good to see this crosspollination in the motorsport enthusiast world
• 15:54
  and in the car enthusiast world.
• 15:55
  And you're bringing it all together, like you said, for all of us.
• 15:57
  And I think it's awesome.
• 15:58
  And I, and you know, I look forward to every box I get every month and I open
• 16:02
  it up and I'm like, yeah, this is great.
• 16:04
  You know, and unlike a lot of other.
• 16:07
  Box subscriptions.
• 16:08
  Like once you mentioned at the beginning of the episode, it did get to the point
• 16:12
  where it was very repetitive and so I was like, ah, you know, I, and I don't
• 16:15
  wanna see the same thing twice and I can understand how difficult that is
• 16:19
  to source new things, unique things and keep it interesting and keep it fresh.
• 16:23
  But, you know, mad props for doing this.
• 16:25
  And like you said, you're filling a corner of the car enthusiast world
• 16:29
  that nobody else is doing right now.
• 16:30
  And it's super awesome.
• 16:32
  It's commendable and, and I can't say thank you enough.
• 16:34
  I appreciate that a lot.
• 16:36
  Yeah.
• 16:36
  Hera is a great company to work with.
• 16:38
  They're out of Portugal.
• 16:40
  Mm-hmm.
• 16:40
  And, uh, we've worked with them a couple different times actually.
• 16:44
  Like I said, we try not to overdo it, so we won't, we've sent out their
• 16:47
  socks two or three times, I think now.
• 16:50
  So folks, to get the best in automotive swag and goodies, you definitely
• 16:55
  have to check out Petrol Box.
• 16:56
  Hop on over to my petrol box.com and see the previous month's collections
• 17:01
  and sign up today, especially using that coupon code 2021 to get 21% off your
• 17:08
  subscription or follow them on social at.
• 17:12
  Petrol box.
• 17:14
  John, I can't thank you enough for coming on and telling us about this,
• 17:16
  especially now that we're approaching the holiday season and people are
• 17:19
  thinking about gifts for their loved ones, especially for Petrolhead.
• 17:22
  We're probably some of the toughest people to shop for because we
• 17:26
  already have all the toys and the gadgets and tools and petrol box.
• 17:30
  I think just complete.
• 17:32
  That missing thing that we're always looking for.
• 17:34
  It's a great stocking stuffer, so thank you.
• 17:36
  Thank you so much for inviting me on.
• 17:38
  That's great.
• 17:39
  Absolutely.
• 17:44
  If you like what you've heard and want to learn more about gtm, be sure to
• 17:47
  check us out on www.gt motorsports.org.
• 17:51
  You can also find us on Instagram at Grand Tour Motorsport.
• 17:55
  Also, if you want to get involved or have suggestions for future shows.
• 17:59
  You can call or text us at (202) 630-1770 or send us an email at
• 18:05
  crew chief@gtmotorsports.org.
• 18:07
  We'd love to hear from you.
• 18:09
  Hey everybody, crew Chief Eric here.
• 18:11
  We really hope you enjoyed this episode of Break Fix, and we wanted
• 18:15
  to remind you that GTM remains a no annual fees organization, and our goal
• 18:20
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• 18:25
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• 18:52
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• 18:57
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