Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / Finding Your Tribe: How Paul Ragsdale Built The Autoverse to Unite Petrolheads Everywhere

Transcript

Finding Your Tribe: How Paul Ragsdale Built The Autoverse to Unite Petrolheads Everywhere · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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BreakFix podcast is all about capturing the living history of people from
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all over the autosphere, from wrench turners and racers to artists, authors,
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designers, and everything in between.
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Our goal is to inspire a new generation of petrolheads that wonder How did they
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get that job or become that person?
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The road to success is paved by all of us because everyone has a story.
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There comes a point in every enthusiast life where they ask
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themselves, am I alone in this?
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Does anyone even care about all these cars?
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Why do I care so much about these cars?
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I really wish there was someone I could share all this with.
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It's a dilemma that so many of us face, and our guest tonight is no exception.
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He's been a lifelong petrolhead, and always felt like he was the only
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person in his circles that took an interest in motorsports or in cars.
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Determined to make a difference, Paul Ragsdale decided to found The Autoverse,
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an organization devoted to spreading vehicle and motorsports enthusiasm, a
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haven for his fellow lost tribe members.
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And he's here tonight to tell us all about its creation, evolution, and why you might
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consider it your new home away from home.
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And with that, let's welcome Paul to BreakFix.
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Eric, delighted to be here.
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I have children now, so I can't say it's my favorite subject, but it's certainly
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one of my most favorite subjects.
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Well, Paul, like all good BreakFix stories, there's a
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superhero origin out there.
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So tell us about the who, what, when, and where of you.
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Like you mentioned in the introduction, there's always been this interest in
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cars, and you realize that so many people, as you got older, shared in this hobby.
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And so work us up from all the little lad who liked cars going
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vroom vroom to where we are today.
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Of course, like most of us have loved cars from a fairly early age, and my mother
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swears my first word was Volkswagen.
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It certainly wasn't, but I could pick out the Beetle when I was a toddler
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getting pushed around in a stroller.
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Definitely imprinted on that sound, actually had a Beetle in college because
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I just had to, and then discovered that it was an absolutely terrible car to drive.
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As charming as it might be, but it still made great sounds.
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Thanks.
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By that point, I was devouring car and driver primarily, but I was reading a lot
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of other automotive magazines as well.
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And I started watching every form of motorsport I could find, which included
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IndyCar, included M7, included NASCAR.
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And then I happened upon this series that was being broadcast in the
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middle of the night from all of these amazing places around the globe, like
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Japan and South Africa, and started following a young, young boy, Well,
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I guess not so young Brazilian driver at the time here in the Senate was
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absolutely hooked by that point.
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I would not say it's not my parents were against automotive passions,
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but they didn't share them.
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And so it was really kind of hard for me to access.
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I discovered there was something called the sports car club of America.
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And I managed to drag my dad out to an autocross was happening
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in our local university.
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I didn't get to participate, but I, I got to meet some of the people,
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but it was a long time before I got to do anything else like that.
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They did take me to a local go kart race.
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That was great.
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And we happens to be in France for New Year's one year.
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I dragged them to the start of the Paris Dakar Rally.
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At midnight and freezing cold, which was just terrific.
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But most of that time watching F1, watching rally and anything like that.
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Really the only source I was getting was from print magazines.
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And I would talk about cars.
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I would talk about motorsport and people would either look puzzled or like.
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I had said something really improper.
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I'm definitely one of the people who is thrilled that Drive to Survive has
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brought so many new fans into Formula One and into motorsport generally.
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And again, those are some of the drivers, pun intended, for founding
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the autoverse so that people who don't know where to find other
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petrolheads, where to find motorsport.
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Even to be able to experience it as a fan, much less to get out on a track in a go
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cart or shifter cart, or, you know, start doing high performance driver education.
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How do you actually go down that path?
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And so it took me a long time to get there.
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And I was like, I'm here.
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This is great.
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As I ever hoped, I would love more people to be able to share in that because
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of course I'm an extrovert and I just need more people around it parallels.
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In a very similar way, the way we founded Grand Touring Motorsports in the early
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days, what we now call the clubhouse.
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And so when we look back 10 years ago from today, as we celebrate our 10th
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anniversary this year, you know, our motto was similar to what you were saying,
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you know, never go to the track alone.
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We were a bunch of track rats, you know, starting out in HPDE with aspirations
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of time trials and club racing and involved in SCCA and NASA and hooked
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on driving and all these organizations that offer those types of services.
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You started to kind of buddy up with people that had cars like yours and just
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like, Hey, uh, I just stripped a bolt.
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You have an extra one, you know?
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And then it gets you talking.
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And then suddenly it's like, well, how do we stay in touch when the race ends?
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What do we do next?
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And that goes back to your idea of building community in the autoverse.
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I knew I was looking for that.
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A lot of my early professional career I was so focused on that that I really
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didn't have the capacity to engage in automotive activities and a lot of car
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events are happening very far away.
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I met Dominion Raceway in our garage here was at Virginia
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International Raceway this morning.
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Again, long distances from wherever you happen to be.
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But as I was.
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Trying to figure out how to connect folks.
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I think one of the inspirations for me was what was called DriveTribe.
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So Clarkson, you know, had formed, I thought it was a great idea, this
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automotive community where you could go and talk with people online, about
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your experiences, post your pictures.
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I don't think it ever fulfilled its promise and that's not a criticism.
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And I was very sad to see it close.
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And so that was one of the big drivers.
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The other thing that was happening at the time, this was 2021, was the very strange
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phenomenon of NFTs, non fungible tokens.
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And I just remember being so mystified by it, like so many people.
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There are some very interesting blockchain applications.
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People want to nerd out about that and STEM is one of our passions, one of my
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personal passions, but the community that built up around Bored Apes and
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other things, I could not understand it.
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And then something just finally clicked and I realized somehow
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they've activated community.
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And so that's what we want to do.
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So we did have ties to NFTs in our early days, but then very, very, very
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quickly, we had to run and hide and never say that again if we wanted to
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be taken seriously in any setting.
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But the point was always about activating community.
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Finding like minded enthusiasts and most importantly, banning gatekeeping,
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because certainly I've experienced, or all of us have experienced this.
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Oh, do you wrench on your car?
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Do you know how to do this?
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Do you know how to do that?
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It doesn't matter what gender you are, what ethnicity, you
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still get those knowledge tests.
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And you know, that's happening to this day.
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Also at the time we were woman owned, so we wanted to make sure that
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we were welcoming to female fans.
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So new fans, female fans, and other people for whom it was difficult.
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And also one of the big barriers in anything automotive is.
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So we very deliberately have a free membership tier.
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We do have a paid membership tier and I certainly don't want to downplay the
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cool things and activations that come along with that, but it's important
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for us to have a community where people can connect with one another
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without having to drop thousands and thousands of dollars for the experience.
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Yeah, Paul.
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So what is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?
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Like that's what those questions feel like, right?
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They do.
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Well, it's like this scene in My Cousin Benny.
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It's just unnecessary.
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One of our original ideas, concepts, I don't know that we ever had it as a
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slogan, was connecting people around cars.
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And people get excited about it.
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You go to events and little kids, boys and girls, parents, families, whatever it
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happens to be, get excited when they see just really beautiful machinery like this.
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I think people are, even if they're, don't have an engineering bent, they're
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still very impressed by the technology.
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And then of course, the art, the design represents, and then of course,
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there are a lot of adjacencies, like I said, for science, technology,
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engineering, and math education, and then of course, on ramps to motor sport.
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So it just, it touched on a lot of things that just values we all deeply.
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You've brought up the point several times already.
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And I remember back when I was at PCA national and we campaigned the slogan,
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it's not the cars, it's the people.
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They've been hanging that on the entryways of every doorway at PCA forever.
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And other groups have picked that up as well.
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And it's an interesting notion because unlike other sports, and we
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have to remember that motorsport is a sport like basketball or baseball,
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but it's not stick and ball, right?
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You're behind the wheel.
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You're still physically exerting yourself, all that.
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Motorsports fans are not the same as football fans.
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It's a very different environment.
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I used to joke with my dad sometimes that it's like the biggest collection
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of anti social people getting together, pretending to be social.
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Really strange sometimes.
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But it leads into what you're saying, but more importantly, you're talking
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about the 2020 and 2021 timeframe.
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And I wonder, looking back, even at our founding in the mid 2010s, it was
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a lot easier to start a social group.
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You're in the middle of COVID.
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How did that play out?
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I haven't thought about it from that lens.
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I will say that one of the first things that started to open
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up socially was track days.
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We were all cooped up.
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And here I had founded some brick and mortar automotive businesses
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either right before or at the very beginning of the pandemic, and then
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couldn't get out and do marketing.
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Couldn't meet people, couldn't fundraise, couldn't sell.
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And then all of a sudden track started opening up because you were outdoors,
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you were going to socially Since it was interesting that you couldn't have
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driver instructors in your own vehicle.
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So people had to figure out how to do things with radios
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and lead follow and so on.
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But I think there definitely was a big uptick in track day
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and motor sport participation.
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I think mostly from people who had done it previously and found that it
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was one of the very few outlets that they could engage in at that time.
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And then, I would say COVID was probably very much in view in our concept of
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having a very robust digital community.
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Again, with DriveTribe having recently had the plug pulled, certainly allowing
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folks to connect, want to be able to do.
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F1 live streams and be able to chat with each other.
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And I'm amazed, like even to this day, at least on threads, if not Twitter and other
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social media, people are always asking, Hey, where am I F1 friends, who can I talk
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with about my friends think I'm a loon.
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There's still a lot of people out there who I think are looking for this.
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You mentioned drive to survive.
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You mentioned these new F1 fans coming up through the Senna Prost era of Formula
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One, like I did in the groupie era of rally and some of just the most iconic
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racing during those two decades there.
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Do you think that the new generation of Formula One fans are, I don't
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want to say as passionate, as engaged as we were, or do you think they
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bring a new dynamic to the fandom?
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Has it watered down the sport in a way?
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Like, I hear these arguments all the time, so I'm really
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interested in your perspective.
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Viscerally, I think I push back against a lot of those ideas because they
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feel like the same kind of gatekeeping that I experienced in Formula One.
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before.
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So first of all, I remember during a US Grand Prix a couple of years ago, I
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was picking up takeout and the server just came up and started talking to
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me about the Hamilton battle battle.
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And I'm just like, what is happening?
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Like, why does a random person know anything about this sport?
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I mean, I was surprised that they actually had it playing in the restaurants, but
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when I've talked with folks and I realized that they don't have a knowledge of
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knowledge yet, I've had to remind myself.
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That they've got the passion and enthusiasm and I need to be one of
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those people who is welcoming to them.
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So I've taken a very conscious and deliberate step to try to encourage to try
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to welcome and just, Hey, this is great.
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What do you enjoy?
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I remember our very first brand ambassador I met at the Miami Grand Prix, someone who
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started binge watching drive to survive.
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And then the next thing you know, she's buying tickets to go to her
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first formula one race in person.
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And I remember asking her, I was genuinely curious.
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I expected I knew what her answer was going to be, but I was like, what is
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it that appeals to you about Formula 1?
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And she said, the technology.
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And I was just like, Oh, we should talk.
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Like what?
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She was a high school math teacher in the Chicago area.
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And we began a conversation.
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She actually went to a couple of races for us in 2020.
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She's actually now gone on and works at the Fermilab in Chicago.
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So obviously fulfilling some of those STEM engagement goals.
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And there are a lot of the same sorts of challenges, barriers to access to
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STEM education as there are in the automotive industry and in motorsport.
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So I would say definitely seems to be, I think the same level
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of passion and enthusiasm.
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These folks are just super excited about their crop of drivers.
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Like I got asked the other day, who was my driver?
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And I'm like, it was, and always will remain Senna.
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I like a lot of the modern drivers, but I just, I'm not
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going to have a driver like that.
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I don't think ever again.
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But yes, I think it's something that I do have to remind myself, and I certainly try
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to encourage others to be that welcoming.
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If someone doesn't know what DRS is, you know, someone who doesn't know who
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won the last six, Singapore Grand Prix.
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That's fine.
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This is great.
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The more the merrier.
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Knowing what you know now, looking back over your experience and as
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you've matured as a petrol head, do you find yourself having that moment?
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And we have a gentleman in our organization that you know it's coming.
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It always starts with that sigh, but you're just like,
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okay, here comes an explanation.
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He's trying to espouse his knowledge to you.
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Can you absorb it?
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So do you find yourself now, like, sort of trying to break things down
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for people and be like, so DRS, this is A, first of all, what it stands for,
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and B, this is sort of how it works.
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Like, are you now in that role where you're trying to educate people?
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In a lot of areas of my life, I have that tendency.
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I was trained as an academic.
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I've had the privilege to be in some leadership roles.
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There have been those times, but I think With respect to motorsport
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fandom, there's also just, there's this generational thing.
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There are those of us who, again, like we're raised on the center post
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era and I've got a good friend who was of our vintage, you know, we
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can talk about that era and about Schumacher and all these things.
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I think I am not that tempted to break things down.
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If anything, I really kind of felt the need to carry the Senate flag for a long
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time, and I'm like, this is all great.
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There was Jim Clark before him, of course.
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There have been other just really phenomenal drivers.
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I really feel, especially after the 30th anniversary celebration, or
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recognition this year, that modern F1 fans, way more than I would
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have expected, get his greatness.
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Again, go back, watch.
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So that I will do.
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I'm like, get your F1 TV premium subscription, go back and watch
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Dunnington 93, go back and watch Portugal 85, Monaco and the lap of the gods.
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Yes.
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And I try to do it in as friendly a way as possible so that I
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don't do the mansplaining that I don't want being done to me.
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Well, and I think that's part of the sport though, that you have to embrace.
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And I'm not trying to justify it any way, but what I'm trying to get at is
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in football or in baseball, there's really technical aspects to it,
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but then there's the human element.
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You can't talk about, well, at this moment, the muscle in
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his arm is doing this thing.
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thing.
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And in racing, it's like, well, the shock absorber is under this load and this many
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newton meters and the tires deflecting.
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And there's things that you can really geek out on at a minutia level.
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And so that's where I think we get lost in the noise because there are some
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people that maybe their background is in science or maybe they do have a passion
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for aerodynamics or they come from another hobby where it relates to them.
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And it's like Well, let me explain to you how tire adhesion works.
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And you're like, you can just see people's eyeballs rolling into the
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back of their head, but there's so many little facets to racing.
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And you mentioned this before about the young lady talking about how she was drawn
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into formula one because of technology.
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And that brings up one of our favorite Pitstop questions, which is F1 versus
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WEC, who's got the better tech?
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One of my personal values and one of our corporate values is transparency.
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I don't know enough about the tech in these two series to be able
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to give an intelligent answer.
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I, of course, was the young person who was devouring car and driver and
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all of these things in my youth, and now I am enjoying cars in a different
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way, but I'm pretty much not spending that much time diving into the
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technical minutiae like I used to.
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And one thing I wonder is I am trained as a scientist.
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I've had a technical career and my most recent W2 employment was
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in a very technical organization supporting the department of defense.
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So I definitely got my fill of the tech talks and so on, you know, in those four.
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Maybe that was a relief valve for me.
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I'm not sure.
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And it could come back.
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And one of the things I do tend to nerd out about is tire chemistry.
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And winter tires, especially in this region.
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And I'm like, Oh no, but there are, I mean, I like, I try not to tell people
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you need winter tires, but I'm like, Oh, but they actually do have advantages.
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They're not just for these conditions and so on.
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The rubber is more pliable.
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And of course their eyes roll back in their head.
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And then I it's like, okay, I'll stop talking.
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I'll give you another pit stop question to make this question a little bit
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easier because it's in the similar vein.
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So you're sitting at the head of the boardroom table.
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You have the deciding vote and you have to choose between the Porsche 959.
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The Ferrari F40, which do you choose?
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F40.
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When they came out, I loved both.
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I had posters of both on my wall and the Acura NSX, which poster I still happen
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to have found it in my parents basement.
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Certainly at the time, I think it was more blown away by the 959.
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200 plus miles an hour.
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It wasn't legal in the United States and so on.
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But that F40, especially as I've had the privilege of seeing several in
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person, just the visceral nature of that drivetrain, just the stunning bodywork.
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I mean, one of the most distinctive Ferraris ever.
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It's way up there for me.
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And the reason we like to bring that question up is it really parallels
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the difference between WEC or the 24 Hours of Le Mans or any of those
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endurance races versus Formula 1.
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You can encapsulate Formula 1 in the F40 and you can bring
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all of endurance racing into the technologically more advanced 959.
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Yeah, I just appreciate that.
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So let's switch gears.
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Let's get back to talking a little bit more about the autoverse.
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So let's talk about Tell us more about what is the autoverse.
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You hear a lot about, you know, the old joke back in the old days when we used to
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go behind the Dairy Queen and talk about our Volkswagens, you know, we started a
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car club and they all sort of fizzle out.
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People go their separate ways.
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Life's changes and things like that.
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The autoverse.
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Is it a car club?
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Is it more than a car club?
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What is it all about?
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I have to think about it from two very different lenses.
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So as an enthusiast, and also just, again, as one of our
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core values, it is a community.
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It is intended to be a distributed community, meaning be able to talk to
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people in Australia and Italy and the UK about things that are going on.
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Because This is a very niche area and whatever your, your local community
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happens to be, whether it's Fairfax County or it's in Houston, wherever
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you are, it's still hard to find those pockets of people, but there's that piece
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from a business perspective, you have to think of it as a media company, not
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unlike online magazines or our favorites.
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Car and driver, road track, motor trend, these sorts of things.
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So in terms of being able to pay the bills, we have to have
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partnerships to be able to create and bring value to our community.
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And then we have to be able to demonstrate that value to advertisers.
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It's a journey.
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I'll just say that right now, but In terms of the types of things that we do,
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the other companies I was involved with before, and I still am, we were doing
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a lot of event based marketing, started seeing, you know, there was just a lot
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of enthusiasm around vehicles generally.
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Why don't we try to tap into that, connect people directly.
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So connect people around cars, and that is mainly through, local events.
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So participation in things certainly here in the D.
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C.
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Area.
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We're regulars at Katie's cars and coffee.
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And because of my own passion for track driving, try to get out to track days.
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That's actually exactly why we sponsored the D.
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C.
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Sports car club of America last year, specifically the mid Atlantic road racing
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series, where we had actually competed in 2022 through another business.
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But we wanted more people to be aware of that.
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It's like, you know, Hey, you can drive an hour and there's serious
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competitive motorsport happening.
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And Oh, by the way, there are these high performance driving events.
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You can get involved and wanted folks to understand how they could access that.
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We try to have again, free public events so that we can use that as a basis
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of helping people figure out, okay, how do you go to a formula one race?
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Where do you want to sit, you know, when you go to Miami or to Kodak?
20:20
Because this came up recently.
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Where are places that you should or should not stay in Milan?
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One of our local creative partners told us that we were not staying where we should
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stay, and we should get a different hotel.
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Super helpful.
20:30
And there are other communities that do things like this, and we're
20:32
connected with some of them as well.
20:34
Um, there are like travel services specifically for going to F1
20:37
races, you know, some that focus on groups of women and so on.
20:41
So find venues that either already exist or that we can organize ourselves.
20:45
Cause we have hosted our own cars and coffees planning
20:48
to do more of that as well.
20:49
We're at a point right now where we are participating in more
20:52
events that are hosted by others.
20:53
But now that we have our own physical space here in the DC area, just outside
20:57
Fredericksburg at Dominion Raceway, we will be able to use this footprint
21:00
for, you know, social events as well, and then planning to replicate the
21:04
same kinds of capabilities in Houston.
21:06
So focusing very local, but then also connecting to it's like, Oh, okay.
21:09
You want to go to the Amelia Island Concord?
21:11
This is what it looks like.
21:12
Oh, and we'll probably be there.
21:13
Hey, let's meet up.
21:14
And then the same thing with, you know, Montreal and so on.
21:17
So we've had creator partners at seven F1 races this year, and then
21:20
we've done a number of track days.
21:22
And so we're looking at that as a core of being able to provide that community.
21:27
So it's like, okay, you feel like you must go to Monza or Spa.
21:30
Well, you know, here are people you can meet up with.
21:32
They're newer to the sport or actually maybe they're not.
21:35
And, you know, maybe they're, you know, happy to share some of their experiences
21:39
going to these races or participating in HPD events, whatever it needs to be.
21:43
So in a lot of communities or clubs, there's an organization or a matrix
21:48
or some sort of way it's structured.
21:51
Is the autoverse?
21:53
a flat organization?
21:54
Are there board members?
21:56
Is there a way for people to volunteer when they become a member?
21:59
Like, how does the structure of the community work?
22:02
I wish it were big enough to have structure.
22:05
Hopefully Sunday, I think one of the good lessons that we observed From
22:11
NFTs and those sorts of communities is I really was captivated by
22:15
the idea of being creator led.
22:17
So over the last year, I've worked on identifying like minded creators,
22:22
because these are the folks who are creating all of our creator
22:24
partners happen to be women.
22:25
We didn't set it out for that to be the case for whatever reason, the creators
22:30
who were working in the space, you know, where we have interest and have reached
22:32
out to us, or we reached out to have all been women, we've certainly reached out
22:37
to, you know, some male partners as well.
22:38
Those haven't come to fruition for some reason or another, but in terms
22:41
of structure, I would say a lot of it is conceptual and something
22:45
that we're working to build.
22:46
There's other components to the autoverse.
22:49
And as I was perusing the website and looking at the magazine, you
22:53
also have the garages, you have events, which you've talked about.
22:56
But you also have some giveaways in there, you know, Formula One tickets.
22:59
There's all these different things that you guys are promoting on social media.
23:01
How does that work and which part of the membership tier
23:05
does that get allocated to you?
23:07
How does all this work?
23:08
The giveaways, I mean, one, they're obviously to drive brand awareness,
23:11
but then also we just want more people to be able to experience F1.
23:14
F1 has a monstrous financial barrier to entry.
23:18
General admission pass to, you know, Miami or Dakota can be pushing a thousand
23:22
dollars for one person for three days.
23:24
So something that, you know, I've just wanted more people to experience.
23:28
I wish I could send lots and lots more people to F1 races.
23:32
So we really enjoy doing that.
23:33
And we enjoy meeting again, new fans, younger fans are coming in.
23:37
So yeah, those are posted on social media.
23:40
They're available to anyone.
23:41
And so we have specific giveaways site.
23:44
on our website.
23:45
So we are the autoverse.
23:45
io.
23:47
We have recently gotten the autoverse.
23:49
com domain.
23:49
So we're looking to transition to that in the new year, which will be fantastic.
23:52
But right now the autoverse.
23:53
io slash giveaways, you could see what we have running.
23:56
We are also posting at happy hour.
23:58
And I think there will be some other meetups.
23:59
So definitely folks who are in Austin, please reach out to us.
24:03
We talked about the barrier to entry, which, you know, has gotten significantly
24:06
worse in terms of like the ticket prices and all those kinds of things
24:10
as Formula One has grown globally.
24:13
Have you started to maybe look at other racing disciplines?
24:17
And I bring up IMSA as one of them here in the United States, because
24:20
it's still relatively inexpensive, but also it doesn't have that
24:24
at arm's length to the fans.
24:26
Like NASCAR can have, or Formula One can have, where you can
24:29
still get down in the pits.
24:30
Paddock passes are really cheap.
24:32
You can talk to drivers.
24:33
You can talk to engineers, can be there in the action.
24:36
So have you given any thought to other racing disciplines like IMSA
24:40
or WEC, which also runs in Austin?
24:43
We very much have.
24:43
In fact, I've been a club member at Virginia International Raceway
24:47
for the last few years, mainly because of the opportunity to
24:50
participate in their track days.
24:51
But they also have.
24:52
privileges for members to go to the Michelin GT race or whatever
24:56
the race is having to be.
24:58
For folks like us, that is like three of the best days you can possibly have.
25:02
First of all, it's multiple series racing over the course of three days.
25:06
You can walk the entire complex.
25:08
From Roller Coaster to NASCAR Bend to Oak Tree, soak it all up, hang out with
25:14
other people who are like minded, and then yeah, walk the grid, talk to the
25:17
teams, the drivers, the mechanics, some of the people you follow on social media.
25:21
I have had the dickens of a time getting people actually to come.
25:24
Like, I literally can't give away tickets.
25:27
Do you think it's because endurance races are too long, but then the whole
25:31
Catch 22 there is that they're supposed to be long and Formula One and even now
25:35
NASCAR with their new format is more digestible because it's designed for TV.
25:40
I mean, Formula One races were never longer than 90 minutes, but
25:43
it's like a soccer match, right?
25:44
It's 90 minutes and it's over versus man, six hours of the Glen, 12 hours
25:49
of Seabrook, 24 hours of Le Mans.
25:51
It's all day.
25:52
That could be.
25:53
For me, it's also conflated with geography.
25:56
It is extremely difficult to get people from Northern Virginia to go
26:00
to Virginia International Raceway.
26:02
And I had this conversation with a friend just the other day, we were talking
26:05
about track driving, you know, people were like, Oh, Summit is Dominion.
26:08
Obviously I'm a fan of Dominion, not least because of the access to the track.
26:12
And of course, beautiful complex they built here at Dominion Lux.
26:15
But when I was like, Oh, so you can go to one of these tracks with 10 turns.
26:19
This is, these are the kinds of speeds that you can do, or you can go to this
26:22
like great, big historic track and it's just an immediate, Oh, VIR is too far.
26:27
And the same thing with the Michelin GT races.
26:29
So I love Watkins Glen and Road Atlanta and places like that.
26:33
They're very far apart and far away from population centers.
26:36
To me, at least for the kinds of activities that we've done
26:40
more grassroots, the geographic distances, the time, being able to
26:43
get off work, etc., have been the biggest barriers to participation.
26:47
Where I probably see the most unmet demand, at least among our creator
26:52
partners, There's a big bias.
26:53
They're European, they're Australian.
26:55
We have a small number who are in North America.
26:57
There's a ton of enthusiasm around MotoGP.
26:59
And, you know, at one point in our history, we declared ourselves to be
27:03
wholly focused on, it's not just cars.
27:05
You know, we like trucks and other things like that too.
27:07
But our current tagline is four wheels more fun.
27:09
So we don't do bikes.
27:10
So we can't quite connect to that MotoGP enthusiasm and fan base.
27:15
I do think the digestibility is a really interesting point.
27:17
About F1.
27:18
And I remember when I went to my first race, which was at Coda in 2012, like
27:22
I'd spent so many years watching the practice sessions, watching the qualifying
27:26
sessions, and then watching the race itself and then did all of that in person.
27:30
And then I found like, basically it seemed like the race
27:32
started and then it was over.
27:33
It was like, wow, that was so quick.
27:36
Like that was two hours.
27:37
Can't be.
27:37
That'd be worse.
27:38
It could be rally.
27:39
And it's like a cricket match where it takes all week to get through it all.
27:42
Right.
27:43
Let's get back to membership a little bit here.
27:45
So you've got a free tier and you've got a premium tier.
27:48
What are some of the perks?
27:49
We say with our free tier, people get access to news events and
27:54
special offers from our partners.
27:56
We are affiliate partners of a number of fantastic brands.
27:59
Those include Fanatec, who recently been acquired, you know, still
28:02
putting out amazing hardware under their new ownership.
28:06
The official F1 store and then Tire Rack and a number of other
28:10
providers including NordVPN.
28:12
I think an excellent service if you are thinking about, you know,
28:15
security from hackers, ransomware, and all these other sorts of things.
28:18
Again, we want to make as much available to our members.
28:21
And we don't consider people subscribers, we consider them members
28:24
because we want people to participate and again, be able to engage.
28:27
Where the paid tier comes in, we've given a lot of thought to this because we
28:31
want Value to be available to everyone, but there are sometimes experiences,
28:35
call them exclusive, whatever it happens to be that not everybody's
28:38
going to be able to participate in.
28:39
You know, I guess it'd be kind of the equivalent of, you can go to a Formula
28:42
One race where you can get a paddock pass or you can get one of the team suites.
28:46
There are access to travel arrangements to behind the scenes conversations with
28:51
motorsport teams and drivers to track days, and then the other thing is.
28:55
We also offer a number of discounts from our brick and mortar automobile partners.
29:00
So things like detailing, paint protection, vehicle,
29:03
shipping, and transportation, and our car buying service.
29:07
And I will plug the car buying service that when you work with most car
29:11
buying services, you realize it's a program to feed you to a dealership.
29:15
And then you still have to do all the work, especially with the finance manager.
29:18
But this one instead takes the consumers.
29:21
Requirements and goes out and find some vehicles and helps
29:24
them get the best deal on them.
29:26
What's the cost Delta from free to premium?
29:29
Right now it's 333.
29:31
That includes monthly meetups.
29:33
We do road rallies.
29:34
Obviously those are going to be focused on Washington, DC and the Houston area.
29:38
We organize socials at F1 events.
29:40
We've done Miami before, and like I said, we're going to be hosting
29:43
a happy hour in downtown Austin.
29:45
Come hang out with the Autoverse and nerd out about F1 or learn about new things.
29:50
Or just talk to cool people.
29:51
Vegas baby, Vegas.
29:52
What about that?
29:53
Yeah, we have found Vegas to be perceived as very inaccessible because
29:58
of the price point for the tickets and the experiences and the hotels.
30:02
So I thought we were going to have massive interest last year.
30:05
And then we did it.
30:07
So I know very few people who went to the race.
30:09
Yeah.
30:09
No one in our community that drives our own participation.
30:12
If we don't have a large group of people that are going to be there,
30:15
then we're going to invest our time and energy in other places.
30:18
Kota is a special place in my heart.
30:19
I family from Texas.
30:21
I live there now.
30:22
And so there's a lot that we can showcase while we're there.
30:26
We have a little bit of home field advantage in terms of
30:27
restaurants, experiences, drives, able to show off some fun stuff.
30:31
I mean, it's by Daniel Ricardo, but in Texas, there's a lot to enjoy.
30:35
So another Pit Stop question before we move into our final segment.
30:38
So Paul, you've been to a lot of races, you've traveled the world, you've raced
30:43
on some tracks all over the place.
30:45
If you had to pick a favorite, which one is it?
30:48
And if there's a bucket list track, which is it and what car?
30:51
Oh, great question.
30:53
So favorite track has to be the IR.
30:55
I've definitely not driven on as many tracks as I would like.
30:58
I have bucket list tracks I want to drive.
31:00
I've been to Watkins Glen, our team raced there.
31:03
I've not had the privilege of driving it yet.
31:04
I was actually supposed to be at the Monticello Motor Club yesterday
31:08
for a track day, but then Motor Week was here doing interviews
31:13
about the garage development.
31:14
So we had a really fantastic time with a number of the other garage owners.
31:18
And we actually got to do an informal track day that they could get.
31:20
some footage.
31:21
So that, so that was fantastic.
31:23
Bucket list track, without a doubt, Spa Francorchamps.
31:25
So I've always wanted to drive there.
31:27
And we actually were connected with the folks at RSR Spa and would
31:33
love to put on a track day for fellow petrolheads like ourselves.
31:37
And the great packages, obviously the great organization where the
31:40
autoverse comes in is RSR Spa handles Absolutely everything at the track.
31:45
We help you get there.
31:46
The flights, the local accommodations, and those sorts of things to,
31:49
again, make it more accessible.
31:50
So now you're dealing with a language barrier, you're in a new
31:53
place, you know, how do you get ground transportation to no one?
31:55
So we figure all those out.
31:57
In terms of what I would want to drive, the car that I selected, um,
31:59
that I would like to drive there, if I could, it's in their current inventory,
32:03
but it is the Boxster RS Spider.
32:06
High revving, naturally aspirated Porsche with an open top format.
32:09
For track driving, you can't beat coupes.
32:12
They're fantastic.
32:12
But just in terms of visceral experience of a vehicle, the open top or even just
32:16
with the canvas up brings so much more.
32:19
That's what I love.
32:20
What people aren't seeing unless they're watching this on the Patreon behind the
32:24
scenes view is behind you is a Lotus.
32:27
Tell us a little bit about the car, the story behind the
32:30
car, why it's in your garage.
32:31
But I also want to follow that up with the final pit stop question.
32:34
One of our favorites, okay.
32:35
The sexiest car of all time.
32:37
Oh, interesting.
32:38
Okay.
32:39
Cause it's a beautiful car.
32:40
Don't get me wrong.
32:41
Oh, absolutely.
32:42
I definitely have a most beautiful car of all time, which I can throw out
32:44
in a bit, but yeah, this car, so as a petrol head, I mean, obviously there are
32:48
certain brands that are going to appeal.
32:50
Of course, there's Porsches, Ferrari, Lamborghini, but then,
32:52
you know, in terms of, you know, actually getting to start to.
32:55
Own and drive some of these vehicles.
32:57
You know, some of them are more accessible than others and Lotus,
33:00
just because there are relatively few dealerships in the U S it's just been one.
33:04
That's always been kind of remote for me.
33:05
There have been a few occasions when I've looked at buying a Lotus and then
33:08
I realized just how very far away, like there were times when the closest
33:12
dealerships were like New Jersey or North Carolina, in fact, actually got this
33:16
one from flow Lotus in Winston Salem.
33:18
And somebody was asking me about how is it to drive on the road?
33:20
I said, well, I drove it five hours.
33:22
From Winston Salem to DC when I picked it up and I was perfectly
33:25
comfortable, which I cannot say in a lot of other cars I've owned.
33:28
Yeah, it's magnificent.
33:29
And then, yeah, so Lotus has a mystique around it that very few
33:34
other brands have in terms of its commitment to the driving experience.
33:40
And not to say that there aren't fantastic machines made by other brands.
33:44
There certainly are.
33:45
But Lotus has always, I think, really dug in and made that their space.
33:49
Mid engine, rear drive.
33:50
They've been doing that for a long time.
33:52
And then chassis tuning.
33:55
And then their one of the very last holdouts with hydraulic steerings.
33:58
The steering feel of this car is sublime.
34:01
Those are big drivers.
34:02
And then my hero once drove for Lotus.
34:05
It's definitely just a really nice tie in association as well.
34:08
You need a John Player special livery on that thing, you know?
34:11
We've thought about it.
34:12
Probably going to get an autoverse livery before anything.
34:14
One of our partner companies is a detailing and wrap shop.
34:17
We're able to do those things both for street cars for protection purposes,
34:21
but also liveries for race cars.
34:22
In fact, we have a car racing at VIR at the Sports Car Vintage Racing Association.
34:27
So the Amira is the most beautiful car in your garage right now.
34:30
It is.
34:30
But is it the most beautiful car of all time?
34:32
For me, the most beautiful car of all time is the Ferrari 250 GT short wheelbase.
34:36
And it's one of those things where it's nice to get validation.
34:40
Like, I was flipping through a car book one time and I was like, what is that car?
34:43
I have to know what this is.
34:44
And I'm like, that's my car.
34:45
I had no idea how valuable these cars were.
34:48
But again, it just speaks to you in a particular way.
34:52
And I think there are a lot of lists that would name that the most beautiful
34:55
car, certainly of the 20th century.
34:57
So I'm not alone in that choice.
34:59
Motorsports, car clubs, vehicle enthusiasm, it's faced with
35:03
all sorts of challenges.
35:05
We talked about some earlier, but I think one of the biggest ones that
35:08
we're faced with, it's a harsh reality.
35:10
We have to do a lot of introspection into this topic, which is, how do we
35:15
make clubs, Racing the paddock itself, more diverse and more inclusive.
35:23
And we need to make it more inviting, especially for women
35:25
and people of color and all this.
35:27
So you highlighted some things that you're doing in the autoverse, but
35:30
if you were king for a day, how could we make racing and the vehicle
35:35
enthusiast world better and more open?
35:37
And I've thought about this a lot as a scientist and, you know, being
35:41
in STEM workforces, which are, there are a lot of underrepresented groups.
35:46
women, ethnic minorities, etc.
35:48
One of the things that I have, I'm saying this is white
35:50
male, middle aged white male.
35:52
I think where I have seen the most camaraderie and welcome is
35:57
organizations that are already diverse.
36:00
Like when you already have folks you can identify with in the paddock,
36:04
it's so much easier to connect.
36:06
And obviously, again, we have to literally have to keep the lights on.
36:09
So we have to have revenue streams, whether they're from advertising, Or
36:13
for providing services through paint protection or arrive and drive racing
36:18
services, driver coaching, vehicle transport, those sorts of things.
36:22
We've been actually talking a lot about go karting.
36:25
We've thought a lot about sim racing, we've thought a lot about go karting
36:27
because they have lower price points.
36:29
And so, yeah, I'm really thankful to be able to drive this car
36:32
and it's magnificent on track.
36:34
And on the road as well, but there are also, there are so many other cars that
36:38
you can actually get out and experience.
36:40
And I would definitely not recommend something like this for regular track duty
36:43
for all the reasons that are certainly going to be screamingly obvious in terms
36:47
of risk to the vehicle and you're going to make mistakes during your development.
36:51
So I had some good advice on those points coming up myself.
36:55
But in terms of accessibility, we want to be able to provide pathways for people
36:59
to get engaged and not have to travel 45 or 50 minutes to be part of a sim league.
37:05
Or in the case of carding, we have for a long time wanted to
37:09
become, you know, more active and see some opportunities, especially
37:13
now that we're here at Dominion.
37:14
Providing some opportunities for people to get into a rental track cars, because
37:18
I think one of the biggest barrier when people come to me and they want to know
37:22
about doing a track day is they get interested in it, but then they start
37:25
thinking about driving that car on a track and the risk that they may be
37:29
exposing it to and even the insurance options that they have available to them.
37:33
I mean, it's still damage to their car and potentially.
37:35
Terminal damage to their car.
37:37
So vehicle rental seems to be an area of demand that we're actually looking to
37:41
meet next year with, I would say, vehicles that are friendlier to a new track driver.
37:47
Think about Golf GTI or an R, think about a GR 86, something like that.
37:51
You don't simply jump into a vehicle like this and go out on your track day, much
37:55
less, you know, an open way race car, but for the people who want to be able
37:58
to do those sorts of things, we want to be able to provide a defined pathway.
38:02
And we do think that there's more, we're seeing unmet demand in the
38:06
area and I think Dominion would be a fantastic place to do that.
38:09
So we're hoping to have some exciting new things.
38:12
along those lines in early 2025 and see more cars running around
38:16
on track in the autoverse.
38:17
You opened the door to allow me to ask you, so what's next, Paul?
38:21
You mentioned a couple things.
38:22
What's next for you?
38:23
Are you checking some things off your list and other things that
38:26
might be going on at the autoverse?
38:27
Some exciting other news that you can share?
38:29
The biggest news is we have our first So we have this wonderful garage condo.
38:34
You can't see the whole thing here at Dominion Lux Complex at Dominion Raceway.
38:38
We previously had a space at the Virginia International Raceway,
38:42
just wonderful, great community, still part of the VIR club.
38:45
But in terms of accessibility for folks, especially in Northern
38:48
Virginia, it's simply too far.
38:50
So this location offers a lot.
38:52
I will also say it has.
38:54
Let's just say simpler zoning processes than the near suburbs at DC.
38:58
We've had space there too.
39:00
I'll just leave it at that.
39:01
So in our enterprise, had a dealership previously.
39:05
Like I said, we do offer detailing, ceramic coating, paint protection,
39:09
window tint, those sorts of things.
39:11
So we're going to be able to do those things here out of the garage.
39:14
But because we have the garage, we're also going to be able to do social events.
39:17
Now, I realize most fans are not going to come to an F1 watch party.
39:21
An hour outside of D.
39:22
C.
39:23
But for those enthusiasts who are already here at an SCCA or other track
39:28
event, we would love people to come over, hang out in the garage, be able
39:32
to cool down, you know, on a hot day.
39:34
We've got the air conditioning, have some refreshments.
39:36
Talk about cars and then yeah, see where we can be able to do some things
39:41
together, help people in their driver development path, help people into a
39:45
track car, finding one for the first time.
39:47
That is a very involved process.
39:49
I had help doing it and we want to help people do that as well.
39:52
And would be remiss if I didn't mention, I now live in Houston.
39:56
We're replicating a lot of these capabilities in the Houston area as well.
39:59
So vehicle sales and brokering, paint protection, ceramic coating.
40:03
So basically the businesses that I have either founded or run cater to me.
40:07
Like I am, I am my target customer.
40:09
I am the person who buys a car and immediately goes and gets
40:12
paint protection film put on it.
40:13
And then I'm going to go take it out to the track and do
40:15
all of these sorts of things.
40:16
And so those are the folks that.
40:18
You know, we're able to connect with, and then, like I said, provide excellent
40:21
service as well, because again, just like with a lot of automotive services, you
40:25
really don't know what you're getting and read reviews, but it's much more
40:28
helpful to be able to talk to people who've actually gotten services from
40:32
that same business and you can have a lot more confidence in quality that way.
40:36
So yeah, so establishing physical spaces in Houston and the DC area
40:41
where we can host people and then where we can also use as a jumping off
40:45
point for track days in those areas.
40:47
as well.
40:49
All right, paul of the episode where we l guests to share any shout anything
40:55
else that you ha I mean, the main thing I to be able to take away i
40:58
and you want to talk F1 w We can help connect that and if you want to get on
41:06
track, go carts, whatever it happens to be, we can help you get there too.
41:09
Lots of great other providers like Sports Car Club of America who organize the
41:14
events, but in terms of actually walking you through the knowledge and the hardware
41:19
that you need, we have the capabilities and network to be able to do that.
41:22
The Autoverse is a community of gearheads, and thanks to Paul and his team, they
41:27
live, breathe, eat, and sleep cars, and work to help you enjoy them too.
41:32
If you want to learn more about their awesome events, giveaways, and exclusive
41:36
experiences, be sure to check out www.
41:38
theautoverse.
41:39
io or follow them on social at theautoversegroup.
41:44
com.
41:44
On Instagram, see for yourself, come out and join them and enjoy a curated network
41:49
of providers who help you experience your vehicles to their fullest and have
41:53
some ridiculous fun in the autoverse.
41:56
And with that, Paul, I can't thank you enough for coming on break, fix,
41:58
and sharing your story with us and telling us all about the autoverse.
42:02
I'm excited to see How you guys are growing, how you've grown over the years.
42:06
I absolutely applaud people that are enthusiastic about motor sports and
42:11
continue to promote that to other people, because it is one of those sports that
42:15
if we don't continue to perpetuate that excitement and get people involved
42:19
and engaged, it will slowly die off.
42:21
And it is something to marvel.
42:24
Like we talked about the technology, the artists, everything that's involved.
42:27
In vehicles, it's more than just basic transportation.
42:31
There's a whole autoverse around these vehicles.
42:34
And I applaud you for bringing that to people's attention.
42:36
You know, we say we don't like talking about ourselves, but we all do.
42:39
Right.
42:39
Especially if you're extroverted.
42:40
So first of all, Eric, it's just been, yeah, such a pleasure, obviously, to get
42:45
to talk about one of my favorite topics.
42:47
Appreciate all your prep and being able to get to key elements.
42:50
And again, to connect with a like minded enthusiast, it is still
42:54
something I'm actively working to do.
42:56
And then of course, that we want it to make available to our community.
42:59
So, Eric, thank you so much.
43:06
We hope you enjoyed another awesome episode of break fix podcasts brought
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