Latest / That Car Show / Photographer Evan Lewis and His Amazing Flying Machines
Transcript
- 0:00We we took that car out into the mountains and I just drove it
- 0:04around without any headlights on.
- 0:05This week on that car show, it's our friend Evan Lewis.
- 0:10From the Wilds of Alaska to the manicured fairways of Florida,
- 0:14photographer and adventurer Evan Lewis sees the world from a
- 0:16unique perspective. Sometimes from behind the lens,
- 0:20sometimes from behind the wheel, and sometimes from the cockpit.
- 0:23Evan joins us to talk about his GT3RS obsession, why the Aston
- 0:27Martin DBX is the best SUV ever built, and yes, airplanes.
- 0:32We dig into his passion for photography, his love of Leica,
- 0:35the machines that inspire him in the adventures that take him
- 0:38from Alaska to Florida, and everywhere in between.
- 0:41It's photographer Evan Lewis, and it's that car show.
- 0:47Hey, it's that car show, and it is Car Week.
- 0:51And by the time you hear this, that's where I'll be feeling
- 0:55very poor and probably a little hungover.
- 0:57But I don't care because after the Colorado Grand Car Week is
- 1:01the car thing I look forward to each year.
- 1:05No, it is not to jump the shark, even though our buddy Angela's
- 1:08Death Highways Car Week video is a masterpiece.
- 1:10In any case, I know I'll see a lot of you listening there, so
- 1:14please do say hello if you see me.
- 1:17I will have a pocket full of that car show stickers where all
- 1:20my cash used to be. And to be honest, we were just
- 1:22going to run up best of episode this week while we're in
- 1:25Monterey. But then I saw that we were
- 1:27doing really well on the automotive podcast charts,
- 1:29especially in India of all places, and wanted to keep that
- 1:32streak going. So here we are.
- 1:34But this is going to be a good one with a really interesting
- 1:37guest. And it's just me today, too.
- 1:38So I first met photographer Evan Lewis in a parking lot, which is
- 1:42weirdly where I've met a lot of the folks we've had on the show.
- 1:46Evan was in his 991.2 GT 3RS, which I suppose is nothing
- 1:51unusual except that Evan was in his early 20s at the time.
- 1:54He was holding it like a camera too, which is a combination you
- 1:57don't see every day, at least not in Evergreen, Co.
- 2:00And well, I almost didn't approach him that day.
- 2:02I'm so glad I did because Evan has become a good friend and he
- 2:05also might be the most talented automotive photographer I know.
- 2:08And that's saying a lot because I know a lot of automotive
- 2:11photographers. But Evan and I got to hang out a
- 2:14bit recently, getting some driving and some photography in.
- 2:18In any case, welcome to the show, Evan.
- 2:20Thank you. Yeah, It's good to be here.
- 2:21Good to see you again, Ryan. We were just talking before we
- 2:25hit record years ago, a few years ago at least, you did a
- 2:28couple of episodes of the Steering Committee.
- 2:31RIP. So Evan, let's set the scene
- 2:34with your car credentials because I think this is one of
- 2:36the things that sets you apart from a lot of car photographers.
- 2:39Specifically, you are a fan of the 991.2 GT 3RS you've owned I
- 2:44think 3 or is it 4? 3/3 of.
- 2:49Those and I think most remarkably, you've put over
- 2:5150,000 miles on them collectively and you have not
- 2:55lost a cent. So what's the secret?
- 3:00You know, Ryan, I, I don't know that I know the secret.
- 3:02I just know that, you know, it seems to be the trend that if
- 3:07you purchase a pretty much just any modern semi modern Porsche,
- 3:12you just don't lose money on it. And yeah, I've, I've kind of had
- 3:17ups and downs, like over the last, you know, couple years as
- 3:20far as like the values of the cars, but for the most part,
- 3:23they've maintained their their value.
- 3:25And then very recently they've just continued to go absolutely
- 3:29insane. So I've been very fortunate to
- 3:33have been able to own a good, you know, I guess three of them
- 3:36and put a lot of miles on them and, and at least break even or
- 3:41make money on them. So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 3:43And you've driven not just highway miles, you've taken
- 3:45these cars off pavement. You recently were in I think
- 3:49Utah and you took. A car off yeah, yeah, yeah,
- 3:52just. The salt flats, but like you're
- 3:54kind of like over landing it this GT3RS.
- 3:57Yeah, I definitely have done some questionable things in on
- 4:01the GT3 Rs platform, but it's always always for the cool
- 4:06photos. So, you know, always, always
- 4:10trying to find new cool places to take pictures.
- 4:14But yeah, I mean, the car has been absolutely just rock solid.
- 4:17I mean, just from the first one I that I owned, I lived in
- 4:21Florida at the time and I would drive it to Virginia to see my
- 4:25family and drive on fun roads. Like I think I did that four
- 4:29times in that car, which is like a 12 hour drive each way.
- 4:34And then the second one I owned, I had out in Colorado when I
- 4:38lived here and, you know, did all the Colorado mountains and
- 4:42that's when I met you. And then the most recent one, I
- 4:46take back and forth between Florida and Colorado.
- 4:49I ship it out there. I don't drive it, but but it's
- 4:52been driven to Utah and all over Colorado.
- 4:56So yeah, they definitely were driven, yeah.
- 5:00Your car is always clean too, so I'm not quite sure how you do,
- 5:02but your lesson for the rest of us who sometimes a little funny
- 5:05about, you know, putting miles on cars, so.
- 5:08It's a car and it's honestly one of the most robust cars I've
- 5:11ever owned. Despite a low, low sports car,
- 5:15it's it's really been reliable and and fun to drive so.
- 5:19Yeah, that thing is built like a vault.
- 5:21You let me drive it a few weeks back and traded keys with you
- 5:23and my GT4. And I love my GT4.
- 5:25I'm the biggest proponent of the GT4 and the Cayman platform in
- 5:28the world. But getting into your car was
- 5:30like, you know, levelled up, right?
- 5:31I mean, it just, it just felt like that much better that much
- 5:34more, which was which is cool. Are you a fan of the 992GT3 RSS
- 5:39at all? I, I have mixed feelings about
- 5:41it. I got to drive one.
- 5:43I did a photo shoot of one of my friend's cars and he let me kind
- 5:47of keep it for the day, you know, very fortunately.
- 5:50And I get to do some, some sporty driving in it as well as
- 5:55highway miles. And yeah, what do I think about
- 5:59it? I think that it's an incredibly
- 6:01capable car, you know, just taking it through some corners,
- 6:05while of course my car feels incredibly stable and precise.
- 6:09Somehow this car even feels more planted and more precise.
- 6:14Of course, you're really not going to get the benefits of the
- 6:16arrow, the extra arrow unless you're on the track.
- 6:18But yeah, I mean, they did an A phenomenal job with that car.
- 6:23But at the same time, it it you know, I think that the 991.2 GT
- 6:283RS again, I'm completely biased here, but it has a balance to it
- 6:35that the 992 doesn't have right. The 992 just went full on into
- 6:41the as close to race car as you can possibly make for the street
- 6:46in there in that you're compromising the storage space.
- 6:50You don't have a front trunk anymore.
- 6:52So. Can you know completely cut?
- 6:53Down on your usability of the car or doing trips like Utah or
- 6:57something like that. And then I think that while it
- 7:02is an extreme design, I think that the 991.2 has a lot
- 7:07cleaner, more subtle lines, still flies a little under the
- 7:10radar, which I like, so. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 7:13I've not driven one, but I just don't, I don't, I know that I
- 7:17don't want one. Yeah, that's crazy.
- 7:19I take your 991.2 all day long. But to me that's kind of, and
- 7:24maybe it's, you know, the, the Porsche's just, you know, in
- 7:27general moving forward, I just, I don't know, there's something
- 7:31about, you know, there's certain generations of 9/11, right?
- 7:34Like 9 and seven, just great generation, especially the dot
- 7:37twos, right? The nine and one dot twos, just
- 7:39just great. I the new one is, is it's, it's
- 7:42not just a a a, you know, it's not just one jump.
- 7:45It feels like two or three jumps.
- 7:47And it's an indirect. I just don't know.
- 7:49That's for me. So.
- 7:51Yeah, definitely. Yeah.
- 7:53I think, I think from a ownership perspective in the one
- 7:56thing that I've noticed on the 9 N two generation, that's such a
- 7:59subtle little thing that I think most people don't really talk
- 8:02about that much. But I find like one of the
- 8:06aspects, aspects that takes away from the 992 is, is the
- 8:10transmissions in the cars. And the 992 obviously is it
- 8:15shifts maybe faster. I mean, they're all lightning
- 8:17fast, but it shifts faster. But the thing that like in my
- 8:21mind takes away from it is that it shifts smoother.
- 8:24And and of course, like, you know, there's the like if you go
- 8:28from an E gear Lambo, you know, Gallardo to, you know, the newer
- 8:34hurricane, like it's like, OK, I, I see where this is like
- 8:38beneficial to shift faster, although maybe you prefer the
- 8:41raw aspect of the E gear shift. Some people do, including
- 8:46myself. You know, obviously the PDK
- 8:49transmission and the GT cars from Porsche are, are incredibly
- 8:52fast. But the one thing I got and get
- 8:55in my car, like when I downshift especially is like there's this
- 8:59extra little like I don't know how to describe it, like kind of
- 9:02vibration or like you feel like the the car's getting punched.
- 9:07You know when you. When you get, it feels powerful.
- 9:10And then also when you upshift sometimes the car rewards you
- 9:14with like a nice like pop out of the exhaust between.
- 9:16Yes it does. And again, very subtle little
- 9:20things that just, you know, are there but aren't there on the
- 9:249:00 and 2:00, the 9:00 and 2:00.
- 9:26And it came in GT4RS, which I own for a little bit.
- 9:29We're both very, very smooth shifting car, so lightning fast,
- 9:34extremely responsive. As soon as you click the button,
- 9:36you're in the gear, but just lack that extra little umph that
- 9:39makes that shift in that and I'm in my car, yeah.
- 9:43Well, and that's it, right. I mean, we're buying these cars
- 9:45for the experience and you know, I don't know, I think, I think
- 9:48your car, I think the .2 is just more, the 991.2 is just more of
- 9:52of what I'm looking for. You know, I just can't imagine
- 9:56and I haven't driven it just can't imagine that the the
- 9:58992GT3 Rs is any more fun. And perhaps it's even less fun
- 10:03than you know, you had that GT4RS for not very long.
- 10:08Yeah. That seems to be a thing with
- 10:10those cars. I feel like people just don't
- 10:12hang on them. Maybe the Spider Rs is more, but
- 10:15the GT4RS is I feel like people keep them for six months and
- 10:19they're gone. I why is that?
- 10:20I. Think I think there's different
- 10:22reasons. My reasoning for not keeping the
- 10:25car very for very long wasn't like I think a lot of people
- 10:28complain initially, Oh, it's too loud.
- 10:30Oh, it's you know, it's this or that.
- 10:33The car is incredible. I mean, I did, you know, I took
- 10:36that thing to the track. I did the fastest time I've done
- 10:38around High Plains Raceway in that car faster than 991.2 GG
- 10:423RS and it was incredibly balanced.
- 10:46I felt super confident on, you know, back roads and on the
- 10:49track in that car really had no bad habits.
- 10:54So you know, but for me, I think, you know, it was a car
- 10:59that I rode in for the first time in Alaska on a photo shoot
- 11:03on the end up and I was so come back to.
- 11:05Alaska too. But yeah, yeah, I was so blown
- 11:08away by the the sound, like the the induction noise that
- 11:11everybody talks about. I was like, this is different,
- 11:13you know, and like it's hard to like have like a really
- 11:17different experience in a in a newer car these days.
- 11:19So I wanted to try it and the values were such that I could do
- 11:23so, you know, with that car being less valuable than, you
- 11:27know, the GT3 Rs. So I just, I went and bought 1.
- 11:32I tried it. I drove the crap out of it.
- 11:34I think I put, you know, I owned it for what's 4, four or five
- 11:40months or something, 8000 miles on it.
- 11:43Oh, that? I don't realize you put so many
- 11:44miles on it. OK, I drove it to California and
- 11:46back. I mean, I track time, you know,
- 11:49everything and yeah, great car, but I think just back down to
- 11:54like the transmission and also like one thing I like about the
- 11:58GT3 platform and the 9/11 platform in general is like,
- 12:03yeah, the GT4RS is more balanced and more predictable, but again,
- 12:08not necessarily more fun, right? I like that the GT3RS has a
- 12:11little more edginess to it and you have to know how to, you
- 12:14know, control it a little better in the turns to to get the
- 12:16results you want. Right, yeah, One of the things I
- 12:19did like about your GT4RS was that it was a non vice hack car,
- 12:23if I remember correctly. And I just, I like, there's
- 12:26something about the the transformation to the Rs on that
- 12:29car, which I think makes it less attractive.
- 12:32And and you know, when you add the carbon, you know, the
- 12:35exposed carbon hood and and all the rest, it just it loses a
- 12:39little something for me. I like that car.
- 12:41It was because it was white, if I recall.
- 12:44It's just like almost like a body and white race car or
- 12:46something. It just had that had that look.
- 12:48It was it was cool. But I'm with you.
- 12:50I just, you know, yeah, I'd love to have one and I know there's a
- 12:53price jump and all that, but I don't lust after one.
- 12:56I don't want to get rid of my standard GT4 for for the Rs.
- 12:59I just have no desire. I think if I went that way, I'm
- 13:01going to actually do the Spyder Rs.
- 13:04Yeah, it works better for me for some reason.
- 13:07I I don't know why and if they aren't a manual done, but.
- 13:11Oh, yeah, totally. I would say now, now that
- 13:15they've had some time to settle down and the market's actually
- 13:17really saturated with them. You know, I think that there is
- 13:21like a nice like price gap now between my car and that car
- 13:25because before it was like, Oh well, the GT4S is about the same
- 13:29price as the 99, you know, my generation GT3RS.
- 13:32But now you can pick up AGT 4S for like 185 or something like
- 13:37that. And at that point, you know,
- 13:39it's a lot of money, but it's also significantly under, you
- 13:44know, the price of a GTE and and then 1.2 GT 3.
- 13:48So it's got it's like, you know, price point where I think it
- 13:51makes sense now, but that's just my opinion.
- 13:55And what's interesting about that too, is you look on Bring a
- 13:57Trailer and the last, the last two standard GT Fours that sold,
- 14:01no, granted, I think they were all very low miles, 3000 miles
- 14:04or something, but I think 1 sold for 160 and the other sold for
- 14:07180 or 190. These are the standard GT Fours
- 14:09now, good colors, buckets, whatever.
- 14:11I mean, they were, you know, but they, they both originally had
- 14:14stickers I think of, you know, 1:20 or 1:30.
- 14:16So it's interesting to me that those seem to be coming up and
- 14:20the RSS seem to be coming down. I I don't know why that is.
- 14:24And maybe they made more R s s I I don't know, I feel like you
- 14:26see them everywhere anymore. But it's an interesting, you
- 14:30know, I, I think it's just an illustration of people buying at
- 14:33the end of the day, what they really want.
- 14:35And that's manual transmission and that.
- 14:37But but your car, the 991.2 GT 3RS, I think will go down as one
- 14:41of the greats. It's just, yeah, it's just, it
- 14:44has it all because it has the looks, It has the, you know,
- 14:46the, you know, it has the feels, right?
- 14:47It has you know, and you know of course doesn't have a manual,
- 14:51but that manual wouldn't really suit that car anyway, right.
- 14:54So that's. Yeah, exactly.
- 14:56I wish the GT4RS had a manual. I think that car I know.
- 15:02I I would want that and and I and I predicted and I apparently
- 15:05I was wrong. I thought before they ended 718
- 15:08production that they would sure should come out with a manual
- 15:11RSI just thought because they would sell everyone right.
- 15:13We keep hearing about how Porsche is, you know, low on
- 15:16cash and you know, everything else.
- 15:18I mean, there you go. Why wouldn't you have done that?
- 15:21They could have made them 500 grand.
- 15:22And I think if people would have bought them, it's just it.
- 15:24Would have been the same thing as the 9/11 St. and all that
- 15:27other right? Yeah, everybody.
- 15:29Yeah, Whatever they make, somebody's gonna buy so.
- 15:31Well, I think I told you this too, but I recently drove our
- 15:34friend Tom Horan's 9/11 R which I'd never driven and this was a
- 15:38really great one. Black stripes on a non metallic
- 15:41black body. Had that brown interior at the
- 15:43PITA. It was, it is was the spec,
- 15:47right? And it's got that lightweight,
- 15:49had the light wheel, lightweight flywheel option and stuff.
- 15:53And of course that of course was the Rs engine of the Earth.
- 15:55So that would have been the .9 and 1.1 Rs engine, I guess,
- 15:58which I don't know how, how that's different than than your
- 16:01engine, but that, that's one of the best cars I've, I've, I
- 16:04think I've driven and people seem to either love them or hate
- 16:06not hate them, but they're just kind of like, yeah, nothing
- 16:08special. There's something special about
- 16:10that car. And I think it was the
- 16:11combination of the Rs engine with the manual.
- 16:13But I'll never be able to afford 1.
- 16:16So that's a good point. But it was a fantastic,
- 16:18fantastic car. But we both got to drive
- 16:23something else very special of our friend Tom Horan's recently.
- 16:28You were out here in Colorado for a few weeks and said, hey,
- 16:32you know, I'm going to be out. Do you know anyone that's got an
- 16:34interesting car? So I put you in touch with a few
- 16:36folks. But Tom has this car we've
- 16:39talked about a lot. It's an Alcoholics gtar Again,
- 16:44I've got this article coming out in Advance magazine in September
- 16:47on this thing. What do you think of that car?
- 16:49Because I think that is so different from a car like your,
- 16:53you know, your GT3 Rs, it, it kind of sneaks up on you does.
- 16:57What do you think? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 17:00Ryan was extremely generous and introduced me to some really
- 17:04fantastic people the last time I was here.
- 17:07Been doing some been trying to build a photography portfolio
- 17:10for a specific camera that I'm working with the Leica camera
- 17:14store in Miami on doing a presentation on.
- 17:17And yeah, Ryan introduced me to Tom.
- 17:20And 1st off, what an awesome guy.
- 17:22I mean just. Tom's the best.
- 17:24So many amazing connections and, and what I like, you know, just
- 17:29incredible collection of cars. But yeah, the Alcoholics is
- 17:33something that I was completely unfamiliar with before.
- 17:36Really. Is that right?
- 17:38Yeah. I mean, I, I had, you know, I'd
- 17:40heard you talk about it, but I really had no kind of idea, you
- 17:44know, about what it was. So it was cool to learn some of
- 17:47the history and everything. But yeah, we, we did this photo
- 17:52shoot and then at the end of the photo shoot, he's like, you want
- 17:55to drive it? And I, and I was like, like, I
- 17:59won't say no to that opportunity, but you know, it
- 18:02was definitely a little nerve wracking at first, but I, I
- 18:05wasn't going to pass it up. So, I mean, we were in a, you
- 18:09know, easy. Park to yes, yes, yeah.
- 18:12And of course immediately got it and installed it, you know?
- 18:16I think I did the same thing, Evans Field, but it's a tricky
- 18:19car to get to drive smoothly, Yeah.
- 18:22It is tricky to drive smoothly, but it was, I mean, I was just,
- 18:26it's like the epitome or, or like the pinnacle of like what a
- 18:30raw driving experience is, right?
- 18:32I mean, ultra lightweight, you know, you got like a heavy
- 18:37touchy throttle and then you know, there's the standard.
- 18:41I think it's a 5 speed transmission.
- 18:45You know, everything about the car was mechanical, you know,
- 18:48down to when you started it up and you hear was it the flywheel
- 18:51or whatever that makes that Zing sound.
- 18:53I mean, it's just so it sounds. Like something's broken, but it
- 18:55also. Sounds amazing.
- 18:56Cool. And yeah, yeah.
- 18:59But yeah. And yeah, I mean, driving that
- 19:02car took me, you know, maybe 3 or 4 minutes of kind of shifting
- 19:06the gears to get used to it. It was definitely very unlike
- 19:10other cars I've driven, you know, but everything is, you
- 19:15know, steering super tight and weighted correctly.
- 19:18The, the throttle, the, the, I think the hard part of getting
- 19:22it into first. And like, you know, the reason I
- 19:24saw this because the throttle's got like an initial weight to
- 19:27it. So you got to kind of like you
- 19:29don't want to. I'm like definitely not trying
- 19:31to Rev it too much, you know, I just didn't Rev it enough.
- 19:34So but you know, once I got the hang of it, it was pretty easy
- 19:38to drive. But yeah, the throttle response,
- 19:43the power and everything was just like balanced, but in like
- 19:47a super like race car raw, like really takes you back in time.
- 19:54And I, I think that most people don't have like a reference
- 19:57point for that car. But I, there's one car that when
- 20:02I drove it immediately popped into my head when I was learning
- 20:05to drive manual. I have this good friend back in
- 20:08Virginia. His name's James.
- 20:10He's got an incredible collection of cars and he's got.
- 20:13Countach Mira, your Ford GT, you know, you name it, but one of
- 20:19the cars he has is a BMW16100TI that has been race modified by
- 20:27Alpena. Extremely rare car, but I I got
- 20:33to work on it with him and and you rebuilt the engine and, you
- 20:37know, got the thing driving again.
- 20:39And then that was pretty much the car that he decided to teach
- 20:42me manual on. So it's just, I mean, really
- 20:46cool experience, but yeah, that that's my closest reference
- 20:50because. Yeah, yeah.
- 20:51When you get on the throttle, it has that instant kind of like
- 20:55punchy, you know, feel to it and has that same kind of like, you
- 21:00know, raw, like kind of boring. So I don't know how to describe
- 21:04it, but you know, but I mean the Alcoholics was like way
- 21:08Mysterium felt way better and and everything else.
- 21:11But it was cool to like kind of see that era of car and then
- 21:16compare it to. Right, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 21:20I think the stuff you picked up on is, is really right on point.
- 21:23You know, I, I talked about this before.
- 21:24I struggled just getting my foot to fit in the pedal box.
- 21:27I, I don't know if that's the air conditioning unit or
- 21:28whatever that hangs down below. If that wasn't there, it would
- 21:30be a lot easier. But then, you know, the, the,
- 21:33the, the arc of the pedal is tricky.
- 21:36And then you compound it with it.
- 21:37It is heavy. Yeah, it's, it's you know, but,
- 21:40but it's a satisfying car to drive.
- 21:42And, you know, it's one of those cars, you look at it and you
- 21:45wouldn't think it's what it's worth.
- 21:47And then you realize, you know, it's got all these carbon fiber
- 21:49parts and titanium suspension bits and everything.
- 21:52An exceedingly rare car. I mean, I'll probably never have
- 21:55a chance to drive another one ever.
- 21:57And so I'm so glad, you know, you got to drive one.
- 22:00Tom's been so generous, you know, with his his his fleet, so
- 22:03many of the the cool cars I've gotten to drive for the past few
- 22:05years, you know, have his name on the title.
- 22:08So thank you. Tom.
- 22:10Yeah, he's, he's a great guy, good friend.
- 22:12And and yeah, has had some amazing, amazing cars come
- 22:17through. It's no go ahead.
- 22:20They. They made like what, two of
- 22:22those a year, I think he said. They were on #31 ever insane.
- 22:27Yeah, yeah, they're pretty special.
- 22:29And of course, you know, you know, the argument is would you
- 22:31rather do one of those or like an Emory car, right.
- 22:34Like an Emory 356, an Outlaw. And I think given because he
- 22:38also owns one of those and he's been, you know, gracious in
- 22:41letting me drive it. I think personally, I'm in camp
- 22:44Emory. I know Dan McGinnis or Buddy's
- 22:47listening. He's firmly in camp Alcoholics.
- 22:50I don't know, I think I need to spend more time like you.
- 22:53I, you know, I was behind the wheel for, you know, 30 or 40
- 22:55minutes or something and, and you know, and he's sitting next
- 22:59to me. I'm going to be very, very
- 23:00careful. You get in that car and realize
- 23:02there are no side mirrors. So you're merging onto the
- 23:05highway or whatever. And it's all you got to, you
- 23:06know, you know, prick your head around.
- 23:09But you know, a real rewarding car.
- 23:12You know, one of the things I didn't do when I drove it again,
- 23:14trying to be careful, I didn't Rev it to red line.
- 23:16And that's one of those cars that just keeps building to red
- 23:19line And then Tom gets in it and that he's giving it that last
- 23:221000 RPM and that then the car really, really came alive.
- 23:25But special thing, Yeah, just a just a cool thing.
- 23:29So another cool car that you've driven because you bought The
- 23:32thing is a car I've not spent any time with its car.
- 23:35You hardly ever see. It's your daily, exceedingly
- 23:38rare, I think, at least on US shores.
- 23:40But the Aston Martin DBX, this is the SUV, if you want to call
- 23:44it that, of the Aston Martin lineup.
- 23:47What What drove you to this? Yeah, so I worked at the, I
- 23:52worked at the Lamborghini Sarasota dealership for a while.
- 23:54I got to drive a lot of cool cars.
- 23:56I got to drive a lot of Eris's, which right, is like the, you
- 23:59know, one of the competing cars. And then one day, I guess
- 24:04somebody who had worked at the Aston Martin dealership brought
- 24:08over their like, brand new demo, you know, Aston Martin DBX, and
- 24:12I got to do a short drive in it. And ever since then I was like,
- 24:17that is the best SUV I've ever driven.
- 24:20Yeah. The best SUV ever.
- 24:22Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I.
- 24:26Know, I know, it's not the Urus. Right.
- 24:29Yeah, exactly. I mean, just, well, OK, I mean,
- 24:33obviously best is very subjective, right?
- 24:35So like, what's the best about it?
- 24:36It's the most, it's the SUV that feels the most like a sports car
- 24:42that I've ever driven. So, you know, obviously we have
- 24:47the Porsches, we have the, you know, we have the Lamborghini,
- 24:51we have the Bentley, but the Aston Martin is well, anyway, it
- 24:57just, it kind of initially like shocked me a little bit.
- 24:59I was like, wow, this thing really feels like I'm driving,
- 25:04you know, a car that's a lot smaller than it actually is.
- 25:09And so ever since then I just, I'd wanted one and of course,
- 25:14you know, knew those cars were 180 two $100,000 and thanks to
- 25:23British car depreciation, I was able to find one a 2021 model
- 25:30for 84,000 really OK, which was, you know, less than half the
- 25:35original MSRP of the. Car, right?
- 25:37It's a lot. Of car.
- 25:39So I was like, well, I've always loved this car.
- 25:43I need, I, I want something that's like more practical
- 25:47because I, I have a Golf GTI that I kind of will throw my
- 25:50camera equipment in and stuff, but it pulls up really quick
- 25:53and, you know, sometimes I'm, you know, wish I had more space.
- 25:56And of course the SMR DBX does not necessarily feel like the
- 26:01necessary solution, but you know, but it was, it was
- 26:06something where I was like, well, this car is incredibly
- 26:08unique. They're rare.
- 26:09I think it has the best lines of any big.
- 26:11Again, I'm very subjective here, but I think it has the best
- 26:14lines of any large SUV out there.
- 26:18And I just started doing search. I started searching one day I
- 26:21found one, you know, 100 miles from me in Orlando and I went to
- 26:25go check it out and you know, what I had remembered about it
- 26:29was true and ended up, you know, driving it back.
- 26:34But I guess I mean, I'll start by just touching on like what I
- 26:38what I mean by it really drives like a sports car.
- 26:41The car has a lot of different personalities to it.
- 26:45So if you just want to drive it like a normal daily driver, you
- 26:47certainly can. You just put it in and you just
- 26:49have it in the normal GT mode and it's quiet.
- 26:53It's very comfortable. You got heated, cooled seats in
- 26:56the front and rear, everything's covered in leather and it's
- 27:00still the Super luxurious car. From a like modern standpoint,
- 27:07it does lack a little bit 'cause it's an old Mercedes MMI.
- 27:13So which? Yeah, that was a certain era.
- 27:17Yeah. I mean, yeah.
- 27:19Which is. Silly for Tommy 21, no car
- 27:21playing or nothing, but I, you know, I'm that's never bothered
- 27:25me. You know, I never use car play
- 27:26in the Porsches. So it's like, you know, one of
- 27:29those things. But you know, one thing I do
- 27:30like is physical buttons and switches.
- 27:32And I mean it's, it's got that so but so anyway, you have the
- 27:38the GT mode where it drives like normal.
- 27:40You can put it in terrain mode and you would be shocked about
- 27:43how much clearance this thing gets.
- 27:45Really, it's not. Pretty hard in standard mode,
- 27:48yeah. Yeah, I mean, yeah, it's, you
- 27:50know, it's it's not like super low, but you put it in like
- 27:53terrain plus. I mean, it looks like it lifts
- 27:56up 6 inches. I mean, you get like a ton of
- 27:58clearance. And then vice versa if you put
- 28:02it in sport or sport plus, it lowers down even more and you
- 28:06get the exhaust open. And yeah, it's I think the
- 28:11engine note. So it's powered by a Mercedes
- 28:15twin turbo V8 and transmission so.
- 28:18Same thing that's in an AM GGT is that.
- 28:21Yeah, pretty much. I mean, it's I understand it.
- 28:24Yeah. So it's 550 horsepower and I I
- 28:29like those AM GV eights. They sound good.
- 28:31They sound better than the Audi V eights and they're very
- 28:36responsive. I mean, it's very, very lively
- 28:39turbo engine like you get on an Rs, Yeah, it's faster than the
- 28:43DBX, but it just feels like that car just feels more sloppy, like
- 28:49there's more body roll. You feel the front end kind of
- 28:51lift up and you know, where as you get on the Aston Martin,
- 28:56it's very linear turbo, you know, kicks in very quickly.
- 28:59Yeah, You know, everybody is like, Oh yeah, it's like it
- 29:02feels like a naturally aspirated car.
- 29:04No, I mean, it doesn't. It feels like a turbo V8 but
- 29:08feels like the best the turbo V8 can be put it.
- 29:11Yeah, yeah. And there aren't too many of
- 29:13those around anymore, right? As of, you know, 2026, right?
- 29:16So many things have done, you know, sixes or fours.
- 29:21But I think the most like impressive part about the car is
- 29:25the handling when you put it in Sport Plus, which it limits the,
- 29:29you know, takes a little bit of the traction and control away
- 29:31and stuff like that. I have, I've driven a lot of big
- 29:35cars. I've driven a few big cars
- 29:38quickly, especially the Audis and stuff.
- 29:41And you know, if you push one of those two cars, the cars too
- 29:44hard in a turn, you get understeer.
- 29:46It's like, what do you expect with a big heavy car?
- 29:49Somehow Aston Martin has figured out how to make this thing tail
- 29:54happy. Like I have gotten on it in a
- 29:57couple turns and just slowly like progressively gotten on the
- 30:01power getting out of the turn and ended up needing to do like
- 30:041/2 wheel like correction really.
- 30:06Like, you know, yeah, to to actually get the the nose to
- 30:09point straight. Like it is surprisingly tail
- 30:12happy for a massive car. Yeah.
- 30:17And that just makes it super fun to drive.
- 30:19Yeah, yeah. And it's, I mean it, yeah.
- 30:23I know, I think they look great. I don't know if there's really
- 30:25any particular criticism, you know, let me toward them when
- 30:27they were new by the journalists or what have you.
- 30:29I just you know, at 81 grand, it's so much car.
- 30:32I mean, it's not that's not nothing, but I mean that's so
- 30:34much car for the money. I mean, I don't know if you do
- 30:36you remember the the Aston Martin signet?
- 30:39This was the car that was built on the Toyota, it was supposed.
- 30:42I think it had to do with fuel economy, you know?
- 30:45Oh yeah. Yeah, they were pushing these
- 30:48things. I don't know what they cost at
- 30:49the time, but basically you were getting it was like the Toyota
- 30:51IQ or it was like this little square stance.
- 30:54You know, I don't know, think of a smart car type vehicle and
- 30:57then Aston Martin very famously built one or or outfitted one to
- 31:01Aston Martin standards. But I've seen a couple of of of
- 31:05good ones for sale and I want to say they were shockingly close
- 31:09to what you. For.
- 31:12For the SUV, I'll have to someone check me on that.
- 31:15But you know, I think those are three cylinders.
- 31:18I think they made one with like AV 8.
- 31:20I think they made one. But the point is I I think that
- 31:23that car is probably only going to go up over time too, because
- 31:25people are going to realize what a wonderful and kind of what a
- 31:28novel thing you know that it is, right And that engine.
- 31:32I mean, I, I think that gives people some some solace too,
- 31:35that that's a, that's a pretty rock solid engine, if I recall,
- 31:38pretty bulletproof. You know, I've driven them and,
- 31:40and the big Mercedes cars, you know, the the GT and the the
- 31:44four of the four door GT is, what do they call that?
- 31:46Is it just the GT sedan? I don't know, but that's a hell
- 31:49of a power plant. Yeah.
- 31:50It just just goes, yeah, it's like I like in those cars,
- 31:54especially the sedan. It's like the world's best, like
- 31:57Charger, right? We're just, it's just, it's,
- 32:01it's like engine forward, right, power forward and everything
- 32:04else kind of kind of follows. But no, that's, that's that's
- 32:08cool. I just, it's not every day you
- 32:10meet someone with the with the DBX, you know, let's talk to
- 32:13them. So and yeah, I don't know.
- 32:15Now I'm kind of into those. I've been going down the DBX
- 32:18rabbit hole. Yeah, yeah.
- 32:21I mean, so far so good. Come to come to Florida and test
- 32:23drive it. I need to do that.
- 32:26So Speaking of Florida, have you ever done Amelia in Florida?
- 32:31You know, I, I haven't done any of like the major car
- 32:34gatherings. So no car week either, huh?
- 32:36No, no, I, you know, it's one of those things like I it would be
- 32:42fun to go, I would enjoy it. But I also, you know, I'm just
- 32:47very into like the, the more the drivers scene, you know, out in
- 32:50the mountains driving and getting together with friends
- 32:52and I love seeing all the cool cars.
- 32:55But, and I'm sure, you know, obviously I see all the
- 32:59incredible pictures that take get taken, but it's, it's never
- 33:03like a priority for some reason. I think it's just, I mean, I
- 33:08think, you know, I love seeing the cars on the street.
- 33:10If I see somebody driving there, they're on or whatever, you
- 33:14know, down the road, that's the thing.
- 33:16But to see them all in one place, I don't know.
- 33:20Yeah, maybe it's just it's not the same for me as it is for
- 33:23other people. You're quite a bit younger than
- 33:25I am and it took me till I was 48 to go.
- 33:27You know, I'm a fan. But like I said in the intro,
- 33:30you know, it's still not as good as the grand.
- 33:32And the reason why is because you get to see those cars in
- 33:34motion. You get to hear them spell them
- 33:36and, you know, not really touch them, you know, at least not
- 33:39without the owner's permission. But you know, and then those
- 33:41cars all have these amazing stories too.
- 33:43And and, and you don't necessarily pick up on that just
- 33:46seeing them static somewhere. But that said, I you know, we'll
- 33:49get you out there. We'll break you down.
- 33:51It's. Oh, I mean, I'd love to go.
- 33:54It's, it's just, it's overwhelming in all the best
- 33:56ways. And then the first time you go,
- 33:58I mean, there's nothing like that first time.
- 33:59It's just, it is, it's like a, it's, it's like a hit.
- 34:03You know, it's like you've injected something into your
- 34:05veins where there's just so much everywhere all the time.
- 34:09And the people you see, you know, it just, you just don't
- 34:12know who you're going to sit down next to at lunch or
- 34:14whatever. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's
- 34:16fantastic. That that said, I've got to
- 34:18leave and 36 hours and I have so much to do our week.
- 34:23It's just that happens every every time.
- 34:26But you should get out if nothing else, for the
- 34:28photography. And I guess that pivots us into
- 34:30why you're really here now that we've sort of set your
- 34:32enthusiast credentials in stone. You are, you very well may be
- 34:37the the best car photographer that I know.
- 34:39And and I say that sincerely when I see one of your photos,
- 34:43Evan, I know you know immediately that it's it's one
- 34:46of one of yours. So very curious.
- 34:48You shoot on Leica. You mentioned Leica.
- 34:50Leica is like if Leica were a car brand, what would you put
- 34:54Leica or where would you put Leica?
- 34:57They they would be like, I guess, I mean, you know, if you
- 35:01want to be specific, maybe like a singer or something like that,
- 35:04like, you know what? Because yeah, yeah.
- 35:08Or, or just Porsche in general, you know, I think they go hand
- 35:11in hand because they're a brand that is very historically
- 35:15significant. They've been around for a very
- 35:17long time. They were pioneers of the 35mm
- 35:21film camera. And, you know, and, and they're
- 35:24known for making these precision mechanical cameras at, at a
- 35:31quality that's, you know, at least from a lens perspective
- 35:35that's pretty much unmatched, you know, in the photography
- 35:39world. So yeah, I'm, I, I think that,
- 35:43you know, Porsche or Singer would be a good comparison
- 35:46depending on. What you like?
- 35:47Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And why like you just just mesh
- 35:52better with the brand, you know, the usability, the cool, the
- 35:56inherent like sort of cool of of the brand.
- 35:58What's? Sure.
- 35:59Well, well, like anything in my in my life, any connection that
- 36:03I've made, it's usually because of cars.
- 36:05And it just driven my Audi R8 at the time down to the Revs
- 36:12collection in Naples. I've.
- 36:14Heard of it? It's an incredible collection.
- 36:16They've got historical, you know, Porsche 917 K, they've
- 36:20got, you know, McLaren FF1, you name it.
- 36:25But I, I got introduced to this guy named Josh down there and he
- 36:31happened to be the manager of the the Lyca store in Miami and
- 36:35instantly just hit it off talking about cars and ended up
- 36:41getting hands on one of his cameras and got to play with it
- 36:45at the event. And, you know, he invited me
- 36:47down to Miami and got to basically just get my hands on a
- 36:49bunch of cameras and play with them and just kind of fell in
- 36:52love with them at that point. Now, I was around the time I was
- 36:55graduating from college. I'd been shooting on Canon
- 36:58before that. So OK, yeah, it was, it was like
- 37:01the next step. And I was, it was really cool
- 37:03because the cool thing about Leica that I think the coolest
- 37:07part for me is that Leica, you know, likes to like like kind of
- 37:13Porsche, like bring back these old like mechanical, you know,
- 37:19lenses and cameras, right. So, you know, I run like some
- 37:24vintage, like a glass on my modern, you know, camera.
- 37:28And it's, it's really cool the effects that you can get out of
- 37:31the the lenses on. So, yeah, yeah.
- 37:34But when I see one of your photos, again, like I said, I
- 37:35know it's yours. So what's your process you shoot
- 37:38on? Like, I know there's some
- 37:39processing at fault, but I think that's, you know, because anyone
- 37:44can go and buy like a camera, right?
- 37:45You know, any, everyone's a designer, everyone's a
- 37:47photographer or whatever. And so I think you really have
- 37:50to differentiate yourself with the unique style.
- 37:53So I, I can't quite put my finger on it, but again, when I
- 37:55see one of your photos, I know that it's yours.
- 37:57So take me through your process. If you wouldn't, wouldn't.
- 38:00Sure. Yeah, Yeah.
- 38:01I mean, I don't, I don't think that my process is like
- 38:04inherently because I shoot on a Leica, right.
- 38:08You know, I spent time in college, you know, growing my,
- 38:12you know, photography techniques.
- 38:16But essentially I, well, let me think about this.
- 38:21It's like one thing to like do the process, another thing to
- 38:23like think for. It you shoot all digital, right?
- 38:26Yeah, shoot all digital. And so yeah, I mean I've like
- 38:32through the years kind of like taken the perspective of not
- 38:36just like, OK, let's like look at the the car from the outside.
- 38:39Like I want to like kind of make whenever I photograph a car, I
- 38:42try to like make a series that kind of gives the viewer like an
- 38:48idea of the experience of being around the car and what's it
- 38:52what's it like to interact with it.
- 38:53So, you know, I usually start with a few kind of like regular
- 39:00or not regular images of the exterior of the car.
- 39:03And one thing that I developed as a skill early on in my
- 39:05photography process is artificial lighting initially
- 39:10through like long exposure photography.
- 39:13So doing what's called light paintings, which sure, you know,
- 39:17without any example, it's hard to describe, but essentially
- 39:23doing these longer, you capturing images over a longer
- 39:26period of time, putting light on the car to kind of bring it out
- 39:30of the background of the image and create this really unique,
- 39:36you know, look essentially. And then from there, later in
- 39:40college, I started playing with strobe photography, which is,
- 39:44you know, essentially the same thing as when, you know, a
- 39:46portrait photographer brings a flash to a a portrait photo
- 39:49shoot, except for I use like a giant, you know, giant flash to
- 39:53light up the car. And this pretty much gives me
- 39:55like full independent control over the lighting of the vehicle
- 39:58in any given scene because I can over overpower the sunlight.
- 40:03And so, yeah, I mean, it's it's really, if you point it at
- 40:08somebody and fire the flash, it's like a flash bang.
- 40:10I mean, but yeah, so, but but it allows me to control, you know,
- 40:17the lighting of the car in the scene and.
- 40:21And so I use that to kind of try to show off the lines of the car
- 40:25to my best ability. Like so I basically will find
- 40:29the best angle for the car that I think is not like, and that
- 40:33just comes down to judgement. Like what do I think are the
- 40:35best lines on this particular vehicle?
- 40:38And then I'll, you know, use a tripod, put the camera on a
- 40:42tripod and move the light around the vehicle, take a bunch of
- 40:46pictures in the same, you know, the camera is oriented in the
- 40:50same spot. So then I can go in and then
- 40:52post production, stitch these images together and essentially
- 40:56create any kind of lighting that I want on the vehicle which
- 41:01layer it all together just kind of results in this beautifully
- 41:04lit image of the car. Yeah, yeah, that's, I think one
- 41:08of your signatures is the lighting is so incredible.
- 41:10I guess I never really thought about how you accomplished it,
- 41:13but yeah, it's that's cool. That's cool.
- 41:17You do this in Photoshop, you know, once.
- 41:20Yeah, you get. The photos.
- 41:23Most of the production is done in Photoshop.
- 41:25I'll layer the images together and kind of they kind of go
- 41:28together like a puzzle piece or puzzle pieces where I don't
- 41:33necessarily know how they're going to fit together at the
- 41:35beginning. But once I play around with the
- 41:38layers and bring some light into the image on, you know, one
- 41:41layer or take away on another layer, it all kind of just comes
- 41:46together. And yeah, that process just
- 41:49comes from having done that thousands of times.
- 41:53But yeah. And then after that I do a bit
- 41:56of like color grading, post processing and some plug
- 41:59insurance for Photoshop that make that easier.
- 42:03And I I generally try to apply kind of a more like film look to
- 42:08the images. So it's still a modern look, but
- 42:11it combines that modern look with, I guess, like this kind of
- 42:17more nostalgic feel. And I think that's maybe one of
- 42:21the things that's like hard to put, like hard to like see it
- 42:27and know what's happening, but like it kind of really just adds
- 42:30to the feel of the image. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 42:33What do, what do? What have you really enjoyed
- 42:35shooting and what maybe are you still looking to shoot car wise?
- 42:39Oh, good question. I hope I can help, we know
- 42:44people. I know you will.
- 42:47They, they, I have no doubt in my mind.
- 42:51Well, I, I mean honestly one of my favorite photo shoots of all
- 42:55time recently. I'll I can show you here.
- 42:57Yeah, yeah, please. Of this Aston Martin that I just
- 43:02did and that was one of my favorites.
- 43:04I did that at the airport in Saint Petersburg.
- 43:08Incredible car. I did a long exposure for the
- 43:11tail lights and then strobe lit the the vehicle.
- 43:14That's cool. So that's like one of my all
- 43:16time favourites, just such a beautiful location and to, you
- 43:20know, sometimes you envision a photograph and it doesn't mount,
- 43:24you know, how you envisioned it. And sometimes you envision a
- 43:27photograph and it comes out better than you envisioned it.
- 43:29And. And that was that case.
- 43:31That's cool. So I just get really excited
- 43:33when I like have an idea in my head for a shot and then it
- 43:36comes out better than what I. Yeah.
- 43:38Yeah. Anticipated, but I also do a lot
- 43:42of I like implementing, you know, aviation into my photos
- 43:46as. Well, yeah, yeah.
- 43:47I wanted to get to that because, you know, I, I think airplanes
- 43:50might even be more photogenic than than cars, at least the
- 43:54ones you work with. Like, so think old warbirds
- 43:57think, you know, these amphibious planes that get flown
- 44:00around, you know, island Island and, you know, the frontier, you
- 44:04know, of Alaska and this kind of thing.
- 44:06So how'd that all come to be? And because I mean, God, you've
- 44:10been on you've, you've been some places and it's amazing, amazing
- 44:14planes. You know, it's just like open
- 44:16planes and the experiences that most of us will never have.
- 44:19Sure. Yeah, Well, that all started
- 44:22when I just decided, like one year after college, like, I need
- 44:26to go see some of the country. And I've always wanted to go to
- 44:28Alaska. So I ended up just kind of
- 44:31booking a flight. And it was around the time of
- 44:33COVID, so flights were super cheap and I just went up there,
- 44:37rented a car and drove around and then had like a very loose
- 44:41connection with a pilot up there.
- 44:45He took me up flying and I have some aviation background.
- 44:47I took flying lessons when I was younger.
- 44:49And but then anyway, he took me up flying.
- 44:52I did a bunch of photos and he took me out flying and he rented
- 44:57this plane from this flight school and he's friends with the
- 44:59owner of that flight school. So I took a bunch of pictures
- 45:03and then he was like, oh, I got to show these to the owner of
- 45:05the flight school. And so he ended up showing me
- 45:08the picture, showing him the pictures that I had taken from
- 45:11that Cessna 172, small, little, tiny little plane we were in.
- 45:15And he was, I guess, impressed enough that he was like, well,
- 45:18we need to go take some pictures of my, you know, flight school
- 45:22planes. And, you know, because it's
- 45:25Alaska, you know, you don't just have standard flight school
- 45:28plans. You have a couple like
- 45:29Backcountry, big tire, like off airport, you know, what are most
- 45:34commonly used up? There's Piper Super Cub.
- 45:37So next day we're taking three planes out.
- 45:41I'm doing air to air photography of two of those planes flying in
- 45:44formation. We, you know, went over and
- 45:48landed in front of this magnificent glacier.
- 45:51And ever since I had that experience, I was like just, you
- 45:55know, hooked. And so I just took every
- 45:58opportunity I could to come up there and fly with them and, you
- 46:01know, create a portfolio of aviation images, which then
- 46:04eventually led me to, you know, gather other connections in the
- 46:07aviation space. And we're doing that.
- 46:10That's, that's led me. I mean, that's brought me to
- 46:13places that like, I mean, in some cases, nobody else has ever
- 46:16been incredible in Alaska. It's just such a vast,
- 46:21incredible place to explore. And the really the only way to
- 46:23do it is in a, in a plane. So, and then that's also giving
- 46:28me the opportunity combined aviation with car photography.
- 46:31So if you go on my Instagram, you'll see I think the top row
- 46:37of of you know, my pinned post is all cars and planes so.
- 46:41Yeah, yeah. What's your Instagram?
- 46:42Before I forget it's. Yeah, it's Evan Lewis dot
- 46:46expedition. Yeah, it's a great follow.
- 46:49It's good you do these, especially with the airplanes.
- 46:52I always think of you of like, God, if you were born 2
- 46:55generations ago, like the, the, the prime of like National
- 46:58Geographic, right? Your shots would be on the
- 47:00cover, right? You know, of, of every month,
- 47:02because they have that, that look like when there's this
- 47:05sense of adventure, there's this sense of danger, right?
- 47:08I mean, to your point, you're you're going to places that
- 47:10maybe have never been, you know, photographed, you know, you've
- 47:13got this, this great style of shooting these like bright
- 47:16yellow or bright red planes against like the, you know, the
- 47:19glaciers and and you know, the open ocean.
- 47:22It's just it's really phenomenal.
- 47:23I think you play around a lot with the depth, right?
- 47:26That's just, yeah, just just just awesome, awesome stuff.
- 47:29So definitely check out Evans Instagram.
- 47:32It's a it's a great follow and it's also just fun to watch to
- 47:35see where you're off to next. You know, I've never been to
- 47:39Alaska. You know, it's it's definitely
- 47:41on my my shortlist too, but it's part in large part by those,
- 47:45those photos, although I know a lot of those places, I mean,
- 47:48you're not in Anchorage, you're doing this stuff.
- 47:50I mean, you are like out there, like in places where you can
- 47:53only fly into, right. I mean, these lodges is these
- 47:56yeah, these beaches that you it's, it's, it's pretty great.
- 47:59So so you've done all this amazing stuff.
- 48:02I mean, we're what's next? Like, is there a place on this
- 48:04planet that you really want to see and shoot next?
- 48:08Yeah, I definitely like, I think my next priority is to start
- 48:12doing some stuff in other countries.
- 48:15You've Rd. tripped and explored a lot of the lot of North
- 48:18America. And so yeah.
- 48:21And I, I, I want to expand my geography to Europe.
- 48:25And I think, you know, one of my big bucket list places is
- 48:29Norway. Like maybe I'll go there soon.
- 48:33But yeah, but always, just always looking for just new
- 48:37connections in the aviation and automotive space.
- 48:42You'd ask me, you know, what I want to shoot.
- 48:44I mean, I, you know, anybody out there with any hypercar, you
- 48:48know, I just, I want to add it to My Portfolio.
- 48:53But you know, at the same time, like for me, what makes a photo
- 48:58shoot special is not, it's not just like the car, right?
- 49:01It's, it's the experience that's going on.
- 49:06You know, so like one of the gentleman that you introduced me
- 49:10to on this last trip was Blake. Amazing guy.
- 49:13And he, you know, I just, I waved him in traffic.
- 49:17I gave him a thumbs up. He waved back.
- 49:19I, I called you and I was like, here's this guy and you
- 49:23connected with me with him. And the next day, you know, he's
- 49:25taking his like literally 1 of 1, you know, 993 custom, you
- 49:31know, amazing car. And we're just like ripping up
- 49:34in the mountains together. And and like I asked, you know,
- 49:37like, could we go up to mount Blue sky, which is the highest
- 49:42elevation Rd. in the US? And which, you know, again, it's
- 49:45it's not like a smooth Rd. It's not not like probably the
- 49:49best place for like a nationally aspirated 993 Porsche be right,
- 49:54right. But he was like just super down
- 49:58to make it happen. And, and it's, it's people like
- 50:00that and, and locations like that that really make it
- 50:04special, right? It's like tells more of a story
- 50:06than just a picture of the car in a parking lot or parking
- 50:10garage or whatever. So yeah, always just kind of
- 50:14pushing for the next cool car in the next insane like special
- 50:19location. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 50:22I got a sneak peek of those. They're fantastic.
- 50:24We're so lucky here. I know it's one of the reasons
- 50:26you keep a car here and you travel back from Florida all the
- 50:29time. It's one of the reasons I moved
- 50:30to Colorado from Chicago. It's because these damn roads
- 50:34and these locations and I've been here long enough now where
- 50:36I start to take it for granted a little bit.
- 50:37But you mentioned mountain blue sky and yeah, that that stretch
- 50:41you were on was that final stretch to sort of the the top
- 50:44of the mountain, which is not a great Rd.
- 50:46Some, you know, precipitous drop offs.
- 50:49I think, if I recall correctly, a lot of potholes and and other
- 50:52things. But the road to get to that road
- 50:54is, I think, one of the the best driving roads in the country.
- 50:58We've talked about it a lot. Used to call it squat pass.
- 51:01I don't know if it's still called squat pass.
- 51:03There's a more PC, but it's just these are the roads we get to
- 51:06drive. Like these are this is what's
- 51:08what's what's there. You know, do do that in Chicago,
- 51:11do that in four, right. I mean, we're just so spoiled.
- 51:14It's your point of adding to the the story of the photo, right?
- 51:17You know, goes goes a long, a long way.
- 51:20We've got a pretty, pretty good here in, in Colorado.
- 51:23But yeah, that that car of Blake's, it's called the Mison
- 51:26Project. And, and the Mison Project has
- 51:28its own Instagram account and, and it's this beautiful mice and
- 51:33blue 993 that when you saw it, you weren't quite sure what it
- 51:36is because it isn't a singer, it isn't a roof, It isn't, you
- 51:39know, a, a Gunther works or, you know, it's it's own thing.
- 51:43It's really, really, really special, really cool.
- 51:46And it just, I think it photographs particularly well
- 51:50too, especially with you behind the, the camera.
- 51:51So. Yeah.
- 51:52Amazing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 51:55Well, now, now we've set the bar high.
- 51:56So now the next time you're in Colorado, we've got to find
- 51:59three more people. But I already have some folks in
- 52:02behind the and we got to get you out some time to, to shoot some
- 52:06of the, the grand cars too. We have a wonderful grand
- 52:08photographer, obviously, but it'd be fun for you to, you
- 52:12know, at least meet up with us for a day too and see some of
- 52:14these cars in motion. I, I know I sound like a show
- 52:17for the grand, but I, I am, I mean, it is, it's the best car
- 52:20thing ever. And you know, some of the cars
- 52:22we've had this year are just incredible, just incredible.
- 52:24Like, like I told you, 4D types, 4 Jaguar D types and AC type 2
- 52:29and 5:50, you know, spider Porsche and, and it's just come
- 52:34on, you know, I mean, that's there's some people out there
- 52:37living their very best lives and they're doing this each week,
- 52:40you know, of the grand. But in any case, so, So what do
- 52:45you have going on next? Where?
- 52:46Where are you headed next? Well, tomorrow morning I've got
- 52:49a fun photo shoot, actually, Yeah, I So one of my friends,
- 52:57his name's Corey. He's introducing A golfing brand
- 53:03where he's going to be making automotive themed golf clubs and
- 53:09ball markers and all these things.
- 53:10So I I I can't remember the name of it right now, but I'll.
- 53:15Sure. No, that's OK.
- 53:17But anyway, yeah, we're, we're doing a, a, a product feature
- 53:21for his new products. And he asked me if I knew
- 53:24anybody with cool cars. Believe it or not, I know a
- 53:28couple of people. But anyway, so I reached out to
- 53:36one of my good friends and he has he's an older gentleman.
- 53:40He's got an incredible collection of cars and initially
- 53:45had an incredible collection of Ferraris, which funny enough,
- 53:49based on, well, kind of recent events, but also just, I think
- 53:54maybe I encouraged him a little bit.
- 53:56Now he's got an incredible collection of Porsches.
- 54:01He always come background to Porsche.
- 54:02I mean, it's just. You do.
- 54:04And just you know, for any Ferrari owners out there
- 54:07listening, you know, he, he is Ferrari obsessed.
- 54:10He's got you know, he's had pretty much every, you know,
- 54:14model of the regular ones, you know, sure, 48488 Pista.
- 54:19He's got a speciality 458 speciality Perta, you know, 488
- 54:25F 8, you know, all the, all the major ones and you know, then he
- 54:30started buying Porsches. So I kept my GT3RS in his garage
- 54:35because it's nearby my place and it's a nice place to keep it
- 54:38last year. And I think he got so many
- 54:40compliments on on the car in his garage.
- 54:43He he got jealous. So he went and got himself
- 54:45A992GT3 Rs. So and then following that he
- 54:51got a Carrera T or I mean a Targa manual.
- 54:57He has like 2 Cayenne's that he daily drives and.
- 55:00And they start every time. Yeah, and then recently he got a
- 55:07992.2 GT three with a manual transmission.
- 55:11Oh nice. And I kind of like reached out
- 55:14and I was like, hey, you know, this would be like the perfect
- 55:17car for this golf photo shoot because we're going out to
- 55:20stream song, which is a very kind of prestigious golf resort
- 55:25in. The middle of.
- 55:26Central Florida. And I asked him, I was like,
- 55:30hey, like, you know, would you mind bringing this car out to
- 55:32this photo shoot? You know, because I think it
- 55:35would. It's brand new.
- 55:36It complement the brand really well.
- 55:39And he was like, yeah, just let me know when you want it.
- 55:42Take the keys and drive it out there.
- 55:45OK. So I'm very excited to get to
- 55:48experience that car. Yeah, for sure, for sure.
- 55:51Drive it out there tomorrow morning.
- 55:55So. But anyway, yeah.
- 55:57So that photo shoot tomorrow is going to be really, really cool.
- 55:59I'm going to have my friend drive the Aston Martin out
- 56:01because I feel like that's kind of like the, you know, practical
- 56:05golf. Car.
- 56:07And then I'll, I'll take the GT3 out there and yeah, that would
- 56:12be cool to experience that and got a couple of models and, and
- 56:16yeah, it'd be a fun time, so. Yeah, that's a nice thing.
- 56:21Are you still shooting for the night vision company?
- 56:24I used to do some work for them here and there.
- 56:25Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, I still tell people about
- 56:27the time you came for a visit and you were, you had this big
- 56:31like S class Mercedes, like an older one, right.
- 56:33So you already have, it's like you're a Cold War spy.
- 56:36And then you pull up, you open the trunk and in the trunk of
- 56:39like Pelican cases full of the most sophisticated night vision
- 56:42stuff I've ever seen. Like, I, I just, it was, it was,
- 56:46yeah, it was a moment for sure. That stuff was amazingly good.
- 56:51Oh, it's incredible. It's so fun and like you've
- 56:54never tried night vision before. It's like one of those things
- 56:56where you're like, you think like, oh, that's like cool, I've
- 57:00tried that in like video games or whatever.
- 57:02You actually try the real stuff in real life.
- 57:05It's remarkable. I think also on that same trip,
- 57:08I think I went with like Oliver and maybe Dominic and you know,
- 57:12a couple of our friends and we, we took that car out into the
- 57:17mountains and I just drove it around without any headlights
- 57:20on. I turned him on when there was
- 57:24traffic coming around the corner but otherwise had him off and
- 57:27drove like perfectly fine without lights on.
- 57:31Unless the listeners worry, I guarantee you you were seeing
- 57:34better through that night vision stuff than you would have with
- 57:36the headlights on that Mercedes. It's it's true you can see
- 57:39farther down the road than the headlights.
- 57:41I mean, you, if there's a deer like, you know, half a mile down
- 57:44the road, you'll see it long before you will headlights.
- 57:47So. Yeah, it's, it's crazy.
- 57:48Like when you see that stuff and you hold that stuff, there's
- 57:51like this inherent sense of responsibility, like a man could
- 57:56get into a lot of trouble with this and it's it's like it's,
- 58:00but it's, it's, it's like, I had no idea to your point of just
- 58:03the the level that, you know, the tech had gotten to, but so
- 58:08cool. It was just, I mean, you again,
- 58:10you felt like, you know, you were, I don't know, some sort of
- 58:13spy walking around the neighbor. Pretty amazing.
- 58:15So that's you should for a wheel company too.
- 58:18That's another client of yours, right, That does aftermarket
- 58:21wheels. Anyone else you want to plug?
- 58:23Yeah. Oh yeah.
- 58:24Well, yeah, I got OE wheels that I'm I'm shooting for on
- 58:27Wednesday. So yeah, yeah, they're, they're
- 58:30great. So nice.
- 58:31Yeah. And then I'll be back out there
- 58:33in Colorado towards the end of the month.
- 58:35So I look forward to doing some some more driving then.
- 58:38So all right, well, it's an hour probably should let you go, but
- 58:42it's been a fun conversation like it always appreciate your
- 58:44friendship and and you doing this.
- 58:46And we should plug your your website and your Instagram
- 58:49again. Website is.
- 58:51Yeah, website is Ariel AERIAL because apparently I found out
- 58:56like it's hard to spell Ariel apparently.
- 58:59Ariel. It is Ariel.
- 59:01I tried to type in my notes correctly.
- 59:05Arielautomotive.com is my photography website.
- 59:12And then yeah, just my main Instagram is Evan Lewis dot
- 59:15expedition. So those are the two best ways
- 59:18to see some of my work. Yeah, yeah.
- 59:21Like I said, you're a great follow.
- 59:22And I'd like to give a couple of other plugs too, for the show as
- 59:26we head into Car Week. We had a couple of really
- 59:28wonderful guests recently who are very much Car Week adjacent.
- 59:32In fact, one of them runs Pebble.
- 59:34That's Vince Fenaldi. He's the new Pebble Beach
- 59:36Concord president. That was a really fun one.
- 59:39Make sure you check that out if you haven't.
- 59:41And also Meekum Auctions Chief Operating Officer Sam Murtaugh.
- 59:45I'm looking forward to running into both of those, General
- 59:47woman in Monterey, but particularly good episodes.
- 59:50And especially if you're headed to Monterey, you need something
- 59:52to listen to. Please do check out those two
- 59:55episodes and give us a follow if you think of it and give us a
- 59:58rating and a review if you've got time to.
- 1:00:01That's the stuff that that puts us on the charts and will put us
- 1:00:04higher the charts in the US, not just India, although we
- 1:00:07appreciate that placement very much too.
- 1:00:09So Evan Lewis, always a pleasure to talk with you again.
- 1:00:13Look forward to seeing you the next time you're in Colorado
- 1:00:16doing some driving with you. Hope to have you back on again
- 1:00:20soon as well. Yeah, likewise.
- 1:00:23It's been great. Thanks so much for having me and
- 1:00:25definitely looking forward to it.
- 1:00:27Thank you. Well, this has been that car
- 1:00:29show. Remember, always be driving.
- 1:00:31And until next time. Thanks a lot, Evan.