The Iced Coffee Hour - An Unfiltered Conversation with TheStradman (Controversy, Income, and Regrets)

Episode Date: July 7, 2024

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224 miles an hour. If there's one thing that goes wrong... Oh, you're done for. You're absolutely done for. Why do you think people are so drawn to cars? For me, it's the freedom. It's time to put my foot on the gas, film as much as I possibly can, and try to figure this thing out. I have always been very open and honest with my audience.

It's kind of like the end of the road. I made a stupid decision. There's no excuse for it, and I'll never do it again, like lesson learned. life has gotten harder with the more success and the more money I've gotten and I've become more unhappy with the more money and the more success that I've got. The Bugatti was an amazing car, but part of why I bought it was in a way to check a box. It's important to have a good balance. It's important to have dreams.

It's important to be productive. It's important to work. It's important to have goals. Just not sacrificing, you know, everything. I could absolutely walk away from it. James, thank you so much for coming on the iced coffee hour. This is so much fun because we had you on the podcast three and a half years ago. You are our 30th ever podcast.

Today you own 17 cars. They've appraised your collection at $6.3 million. Oh, you've done your research. I have. Started with nothing. Thank you so much for coming on. Really appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me.

It's excited to be back. So one of the things in our initial podcast, it was funny because I went through, and I rewatched it to like bring me back at the speed here. And our entire focus back then was that you had no money invested in stocks or anything. It was just cars. Cars were your only investment. Is it still the case today? I got a house. I got real estate, Graham. Are you proud of me? So is it just real estate and the cars? Nothing else? No stocks? No stock. No, no, no. I have the house. I have the cars and I'm working on opening up a restaurant. Are you serious? I am. Yeah. Yes, sir. A piece. No, no. No, no. I have the house. I have the cars. I have the cars. I have

sir a pizza restaurant you guys didn't know that no yeah i was doing my research yeah i'm working on strab pizza the hat sp that's strab pizza pizza pizza where is you're opening up this restaurant in in arizona in scottesdale arizona you're kidding sir why's it's gonna be a pizza i'm hoping we open in september so we're working on getting city permits approved right now through the city of phoenix which takes longer than expected and once we get approved we'll do the build out and hopefully open in September. So how did this come about? Did someone approach you? They're able to do all the infrastructure and all of that? No, no, no. So I have a good buddy named Freddie. And Freddie has ran my merch for the last four or five years. And a couple years back, he created a cool piece of merch that was called Stradberger.

And it was just this really cool piece. It had the Avento Roadster and the Veyron and it was parked in front of a restaurant. It said, Strad Burger. And it was just like, it was really cool. And I love burgers. but I love pizza. And so Freddie and I got to talking, and it just kind of all came together. He's done some restaurants in the past. I love pizza. And one thing led to another,

we found a guy who's going to operate the restaurant for us. So there's three partners, and we're opening in September. New York-style pizza. I'm a simple... That was my next question right there. Are you Chicago-style? No, that's right.

Okay, okay. Wait, what's the difference between New York and Chicago? That you're even asking that question. I have no idea. I don't eat pizza. You don't eat pizza. Well, you're going to come to strapped pizza, yes? I'll have a slice. Okay, there we go. You know what's funny, I had a first slice of pizza this entire year a few days ago. My stomach felt like crap afterwards. I'd be eating super clean.

He needs strad pizzas. Yeah, exactly. That will not happen with strad pizza. You see, I've realized that if you eat pizza every single day, your body adapts and it becomes the new normal. And then you can eat more and more and more. And then you function at ultimate efficiency. Okay, so what's the difference between Chicago and New York style pizza? Chicago's like the really, really thick pizza. You eat. it, you have to nap for 17 hours after the fact. New York is super thin, crunchy. You're a New York guy. So for those that aren't familiar with who you are and what you do, could you give us a quick, like, three-minute synopsis of like where you started, what you do now, how you got to where you are

today? Yeah, so my name is James. I go by the Stradman on YouTube. Love cars, as you can see. We're here filming in my house in Salt Lake City, Utah. Been doing YouTube for 12 years, started in 2012. When I started my YouTube channel, I didn't have any cars. I just love cameras. I love chasing cars, traveling whatnot. And I started off my YouTube channel with no goals of monetization, no goals of fame. I just wanted to share cool car videos with my friends. I'd go to car shows.

I'd film as many cars as I could. I'd put them online. I'd share them online on car forms, et cetera, et cetera. And I filmed a video on the Lamborghini Venano. And the video hit a million views in a couple months. and my channel got monetized. And it was just like, mind-blown, right? Like, I filmed a video, it took five minutes,

I made $1,000. And from there to today, I've been obsessed with it. I love YouTube, I love filming, I love the strategy, I love the creativity. I still love the cars. Like, Cars has always been the foundation of what I do. And I've been doing YouTube full-time,

yeah, for 12 years. You've left out quite a lot, though, because for a while you were living in your Audi TT. Right, yes, yes. And the streets at Beverly Hills, sleeping in the car to be able to get car content. Right. Yeah. So I grew up in Oregon, a little town called Bend, Oregon. There's no cars up there. I mean, I still go home and you see nothing. Like, there's just like not a very big car culture.

And doing the YouTube thing, realizing I could get monetized. I just wanted to dive all in immediately. And I realized that like to do it, I had to invest either 100% or invest none and go chase another dream. And California, you know, it's the. land of supercars per capita. There's more supercars in L.A. than anywhere in the world. And I wanted it so bad that I chose to go down to California, film cool cars there on rodeo driving Beverly Hills, and chase the dream. And I had no money. I owned no cars at the time. Had no idea what I was doing. The term YouTuber wasn't really a thing at that time. It kind of was, but not like it is today. And I didn't know what else to do. I just knew that I needed to film as much as I could. So I

Yeah, I went down there and chased the dream. Were you always like an all or nothing type of person? Yes, always, always, in everything life. I've always been all or nothing. You think you were just born that way? Or do you think it was some like values that were instilled in you? Like, I think I was born that way more so because I have three older brothers, my parents, they're not quite the same.

I think it's almost, I guess, I don't know. I don't know the answer to that. It's not, if it's not genetic, did I learn it from somebody else? Was there an outside influence? I'm not sure. I just knew that like growing up, it was just, as soon as I got focused on an idea, it was like I was doing that

and nothing else mattered. And for me, it was always cars. Like, cars was always the thing. So when I graduated from college, it was like, I'm trying to buy and sell cars. I'm trying to, you know, figure out a way to be an entrepreneur to buy a car.

And that was really the all or nothing mentality. It was to own a super car. That's all that mattered. Any specific one or just? Usually either Ferrari, Lamborghini. You know, it was kind of a moving target throughout childhood. It was sometimes like the latest and greatest Ferrari.

So the name Stradman comes from the Ferrari Challenge Stradale. So when I made up that username when I was 15, that was the car. That was the target. But then as I got older, the target became Lamborghini and the Gaiaarta was the target that I hit. So it kind of always sort of shifted based on, you know, cars. There's always new models and, I don't know, new features that you kind of get drawn to. And the Lamborghini was the target when I was in mind. Yeah, that was where I found your channel, actually, is when you made that video, how I bought a Lamborghini, Guyardo.

And it was just you filming like this with the car in the background. And back, like, in the day when you made that video, that wasn't really done before. There were very few people on YouTube with a Lamborghini. Rob Dom was the first one that I saw with his Diablo. Uh-huh, yep. You posted yours. And then even before Rob Dom was Robert. Robert Himmler.

Himmer. That was it. And he had his green twin turbo. Twin turbo. Insane car. He was the only one. He was the OG of the OGs. He was.

He really was. And so for me, because I started watching YouTube back then, like, that was inspirational for me to see, like, someone is on YouTube with a Lamborghini. Like, that just didn't exist. When your video popped up, I thought it was really nice. It was really well done about how you worked as an accountant, how you were able to afford the car, the payments. Like, your openness and transparency for that video is where I initially subscribed, which

I think was way back. Like, I don't know how many subscribers here. That was really the video, the moment where I really. that I was right on YouTube though. Because up until that moment, most people in my life are like, you're crazy, what are you doing? You're going to buy a Lamborghini

on a $45,000 a year salary. Have you lost your mind? You're going to film YouTube videos to make money. But it was that moment when it's like the aha moment. Like, I got you. Like I was right. So how did you get the aha? Was it a certain investment that the Lamborghini returns or something?

So I bought the Lamborghini on September 26, 2015 or 16. And I filmed that video in November. So I bought, I bought the car and I filmed that video about a month later. And that video, uh, did about a million views in the first week or two. But it was really the ad revenue. The ad revenue I made about $10,000. So I bought a car for $110,000 that I was making payments via a $45,000 a year's salary. And that YouTube video paid for effectively 10% of the car purchase price with one video a month after I got it. And then today, I mean, that video has now $4 million. I probably made $20, $30,000 or whatever off of it. But it was really that moment's like, okay, one video is already paid off 10% of the car. That was kind of like the aha moment.

It was really the revenue attached to the video. And the subscriber growth too. What were the finances like buying a Lamborghini making $45,000 a year? So I put a lot down. So I saved a lot of money. So I lived very, very frugal. I don't like to word cheap, frugal. I mean, I was very focused on what I wanted. I knew what I wanted and I sacrificed everything for that. And so I, you know, I'd worked in accounting for a little bit a couple of years and I'd saved up every single penny I could. I lived with roommates. My rent was, you know, a couple hundred bucks a month. You know, I went to Walmart. I got frozen pizzas that were $3 instead of Dejornos that were $5 or $6. I didn't drink alcohol. I didn't obviously do any drugs. I didn't drink soda. You know, doing all these. little things, and I don't know the exact number. I'd have to look back. I want to say I put down like 40 grand maybe on the car. So I put down around 40-ish, and I financed 70. And yeah, I mean, it was an interesting conversation with the bank, but I was able to get it done. I didn't need a co-signer or anything. And I had good credit as well. I'd had a couple car loans through this

bank in the past. So I think that all helped. But yeah, I mean, it was definitely very risky. Were you nervous? Because with a car like that, I mean, the engine, blows up or you get an oil week. Right. Right. There could be 20 grand, 15 grand, gone. That was my single biggest fear. And I would say like in my whole journey, that's one of maybe the more fortunate things that happened for me. I did get a PPI. So I got a pre-purchase inspection on the car. I bought the car from Lamborghini of Newport Beach, which is a very well-known, well-respected dealership. The car was a single owner car, 10,000 miles, manual transmission, right color that's, you know, very sought after.

And so I did a lot of my due diligence there on the back end, but I got lucky. I didn't have any issues with the car for many, many years. How much was it? It was 110,000. Yeah. Today those prices have gone up a lot. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Six speed? Yeah, this car, if I had never driven this car, it would be worth, man, I don't know, 160, 170 grand probably. Obviously, I've driven it a lot. I mean, that car has been a fiasco for many reasons. Right. But yeah, it's definitely gone up a lot. And buying the manual transmission was key because the e-gear cars are prone to, you know, more expensive repairs, etc., etc. But yeah, I mean, as soon as I bought the car, you know, I was filming the delivery picking up the car. Like it was like all in. It was filming every single day, every single thing I could think of. And like you said, there just wasn't YouTube content on cars like there is today, especially Lamborghinis, especially a young guy. And that was my strategy. My strategy was. My strategy was. it around, you know, a Lamborghini is something that every kid dreams of. And every kid that

sees a Lamborghini owner is older with gray hair and they've retired and they finally get the car. Whereas a younger guy, especially back then, you just didn't see it at all. And so that was really my, my concept. But before we get into that, AI might just be the most important new computer technology out there. It's storming every industry and literally billions of dollars are being invested, it also seems like you can't go anywhere without hearing about it, so you better buckle up. The problem, however, is that AI needs a lot of speed and processing power, so how could you compete without your cost spiraling out of control? Well, that's why it's time to upgrade to the next generation of the cloud, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, or our sponsor,

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subscribed, I didn't really follow the content after until you got fired from your job. Right. And then I remember the title, I got fired from my job or I got fired. Can I still keep my Lamborghini? Yes, sir. Which to me was like, that was when your channel really took off. They really did. Yep. Yep. It did. And that's because I think you nailed it, though. All of a sudden, you had this intrigue. You're like, is this guy going to survive? Is he going to make it? Is he going to keep the car? And drama sells, right? But this was also like drama that was so relatable. It wasn't like, you know, Kardashian keeping up with the Kardashians drama. This was like every, every young guy dreams of owning a Lamborghini. And I think everybody was rooting for me to keep the car as well, right? And yeah, I mean,

it was, it was a very nervous time for me. I didn't know what I was going to do. But what was amazing about it is that that particular video did really well. So that video, I think, did 600,000 or whatever in like a week. And so that video, the ad revenue on that video made, I don't know, it was like three or four car payments, right? So that video, just that very first video covered me for the next four months. And so that, you know, relieved a lot of the stress. But once again, I was all in. I mean, I remember I got, I got laid off and I got laid off at like 11 a.m. right? I was in the parking lot at 1 p.m. filming that video. And then the next day, I filmed another, like, I was just like, okay, it's time to go. It's time to put

my foot on the gas, film as much as I possibly can, and try to figure this thing out. Why do you think people are so drawn to cars? For me, it's the freedom. The freedom that cars allows. That's what makes them special. Whether you love supercars or you have a Honda accord, I mean, it allows freedom to go wherever you want. You know, especially in the United States, that's such a big country. I mean, you can get in your car and you can drive to New York City and go see Times Square if you have a car and enough money for gas and you can sleep in the car and get there and get home. And that's what's always drawn me to cars was initially the freedom. And I always tell people that, you know, buying my Audi TT back when I was 19 years old, that was probably my greatest car moment ever

versus the Koenig because that was freedom. I was a kid. I flew up to Washington on my own. I went to this dealership. I picked up this car. You know, I could do whatever I want. I could go wherever I want. And that's what that car allowed. And obviously buying, you know, buying these other cars is special, but I'd already had the freedom. And then these cars were just, you know, it was the cool factor, you know, the dream come true type feeling for those. But their freedom was already there. Well, now I feel like it's a lot more about expression that the type of car you have says a lot about you and like the modifications you do to the car and like the type of car you pick. Like you can make a lot of assumptions about somebody when they pick a BMW over an Audi or an Audi or an

Audi over a Toyota. It's like all these little things you start to sum up. They're like, oh, generally these people are like this. These people are like this. And it seems a lot more common now. And maybe I'm just noticing it that like younger people are drawn to like the flashier. For sure. Cars. I mean, I think the world has changed.

Social media has changed the world. How many Lamborghinis did you see growing up? Oh gosh, it was a rare thing. Right. Never. And you never. I saw a guy out of spider and a Mercer. Elago up until my 18th birthday. Like, that's all I ever saw. And it was, it was just like this, this untouchable car that you could never have.

Whereas nowadays, they're just everywhere. I mean, Instagram, social media. They're making more cars. Like when you look at how many Lamborghinis they made in the 90s versus today. Of course. I mean, they built 3,000 Diabloes in total for a 10-year period. They built 14,000 gyrodos. So, I mean, and Eventador is, you know, 10, 12,000 hurricanes is even more than that.

the Eurists, they're everywhere. So yeah, I mean, production numbers have gone up because they're selling more, though. There's way more demand. And I think that social media has had a big impact on that. I think a lot of people honestly saw my video what I did. Buying a Lamborghini at age 26 is what I do for a living. And a lot of people have taken that concept and done their own version, but they do crypto or, you know, a course or whatever it is. But I think social media has allowed people to leverage, you know, in the same strategic way that I did it. to justify a car and then financing as well. Yeah. I mean, to finance a Lamborghini now is easy. Is it? It's so much easier. I put 40,000 down on the Gallardo for 110. Nowadays, you hardly have to put down anything.

I mean, you can get away, especially like, I don't want to, I want to say it's Woodside. Don't quote me on that. They'll do like, effective like a mortgage. You can do like a 15 year loan on a car now. I mean, it's insane. Is that smart, though? That seems like a terrible decision. I'm not saying it's smart.

you're not saying it's smart, but you can do it. If people want to buy a Lamborghini and they can just make the monthly payments, there's someone out there who's really to finance it. Yeah, there is. Yeah, money, money is, I guess, effectively cheaper than it used to be. I don't know. You're the finance guy. But getting a car loan on a supercar is simple now. Much easier than it used to be. So I think it's a lot of different factors. But because of that, I think people and social media, that's kind of why people, I mean, modifications are out of control. There's so much more creativity. I mean, the super that's behind the camera right.

now, sky's the limit. You could do a million different things. There's 75 exhaust you could get for it. There's 19 body kits, vinyl wraps are everywhere. I mean, there's just such a big market for it because I think social media is a big part of it. People want to be different. Yeah. You know, people want to express themselves via their car on social media. How's a different financing a car that's like a million plus dollars rather than a car that you could just go out to like a Toyota dealership and buy for like 30 grand. Yeah. So I've, most of the cars in here I own outright, except for the Koenigzeg and the Kuntosh. So the Kuntosh is financed with a traditional loan. The Konexeg is a lease. And then I had a Bugatti Veyron back in the day. And I guess I'll start with the Veyron. So the Veyron was $880,000. That's what I paid

for it. And I put down $580,000. So I, you know, financed $300,000. And I did that through a local credit union, the same credit union that did the Gallardo, did my event ator back in the day. And it was the biggest car loan they had ever done. But because they had kind of taken the steps with me along the way, it was pretty easy, actually. And I was putting so much money down. You know, you're putting $580,000 down on a car. If I default on that loan, they get the car, they have a $300,000 note. They got to pay off with the Bugatti. Like, the risk level was very low there. Even salvage. Even salvage. Even salvage. So that loan was a lot worth about that. So that loan was actually really, really easy. And then the Kuntosh, I put half down. Once again, that was so easy.

I didn't even have to submit hardly any documentation, partly because once again, same bank. I'd been banking with them since I was, you know, 10 years old. My parents opened up an account with them. And I'd done the Veyron. They'd seen my credit, whatnot. The Koenigseg is a lease. So a little bit different on that. Obviously, the leasing company holds the title. So I guess if you're looking at it black and white, I don't own this car, right? I'm just effectively renting it. But the lease is interesting because every month I make a payment, it reduces my payoff amount. And the payoff amount means that I can purchase this car outright someday. And every single month I make that payment, that payoff gets less and less and less, and I get closer and closer

to ownership. But in three and a half years, I will reach the end of that lease. I can either walk away from the car, or I can choose to pay off the car and keep it. And the payoff amount I want to say is like 800 grand or so. At the end of the term. At the end of the term. So you're going to probably Oh yeah, definitely. Yeah, because the car is worth around $3 million. So at the end of the lease, if I was to walk away from it, the lease of company would win the, yeah, I'm losing $2.2 million. So even if I wanted to get rid of the car, I would find a way to pay it off and then sell it, right? So driving a $3 million car, how does that? that feel if you're like behind a semi-truck or if you're like, you know, on a road with some potholes,

do you just, are you so frightened? It's the worst part about owning the car. And I actually didn't realize how little I would drive the car because of that fear. I've realized like my favorite car to drive is the ventador because it's 90% of the conings egg. But if somebody hits this car, I'm totally fine. I can get the car repaired. Financially, I'm not in any weird predicament. but the Koenigseg is effectively a hand-built car out of Sweden. There is 58 of them in the world. The car is priceless. And if I was to get an accident,

I have to ship this car back to the Koenig factory. They could repair it for, you know, who knows how much money. And the car is going to be out of commission for years, probably. I mean, it's kind of a very scary prospect because you're sitting at a red line and you're looking in the rearview mirror. I hope this car doesn't rear in me. What is insurance like in a car like this? It's not as bad as I was expecting. So I have it insured for $3 million.

And it's about $1,200 a month, which isn't bad. That's not terrible. No. And it really helps that I live in Utah. So if I lived in Las Vegas, I wouldn't double, triple. If I lived in L.A., double, triple. I think there's a lot of factors for that. But living in Utah helps.

There's fewer drivers on the road. There's more. percentage of the drivers in Utah are insured that are on the road, because that's a big problem in a lot of states is uninsured drivers. And so, and then obviously I have no accidents on my record. I have the multi-vehicle discount because I have 17 cars. They know I can't drive all 17 at the same time. And so that helps a lot too. Do you ever get pulled over? Yes, of course, of course. But I haven't been pulled over in a long time. Knock on wood. No, I'm not. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do they know you by now? I feel like if they know these cars. Right, right, right. Or they

to see you in the sea and they're like, come on. So the last time I got pulled over, I was in an 812 super fast. And I was, I was here in Salt Lake. And I pulled onto the on ramp onto the freeway. And I pulled on at like 70, 80 miles an hour, like very within the speed limit. And a Crown Victoria, I can see him in my rearview mirror. And he's weaving through traffic and he comes up next to me. And they're fans.

They know who I am. And initially I thought it was like an undercover cop or whatever. And they were fans. and there was a kid in the back and they rolled down the window and they're waving to me and everything. And the kid's like, let's hear it, let's hear it. So the ride that steals the spotlight every time it hits the road, that's the Volkswagen Tiguan.

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I downshifted from fifth and to third and I punched it. And about, I don't know, eight seconds later, there was Utah Highway Patrol right behind me, lights light up. It was like F-150. And I was just like, are you kidding? Cops saw the whole thing go down.

He was super cool. He was familiar with the channel. He was like, I saw what they did. I saw they were encouraging, you know, obviously don't do that next time, but I totally get it. Let me off with a warning. So he was familiar with the channel. And I think that definitely helped me. I mean, him seeing the whole scenario helped a ton as well, right? You're just being a nice guy. I was just, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I mean, you know, I accelerated. I didn't go, I wasn't going 130 or anything. I didn't even touch 100 miles an hour. I think I, you know, went up to 95 or whatever.

But he was pretty cool about it. I've had really good luck, but I also think I'm pretty smart. with how I drive the cars. You know, every, every car guy is guilty of going over the speed limit at some point, but I'm very particular with when I do it and how I do it. I never sustain high speeds, right? I don't weave in and out of traffic. I might do an acceleration onto an on ramp. And if I go fast, I ship the conoxegged to Florida and I go 225.

I got pulled over recently, actually, with Jack. He was just, oh my gosh, horrified. I was, because it was off the freeway. Right. And you're going through these small towns, and it was one of these towns where the speed limit goes from like 65 to like 35, like really fast. Right, right. And I'm telling Jack about this house. They came on the market in Oregon.

Of course you are, Graham. And I was like, it's surrounded by water. You got to take a look. And we're just talking about it. And I'm not looking at the speed. And I look over at the side and there's a car with like the radar. Right. I'm like, he's gone from me because I look down.

I see I'm going too fast. Sure enough, the car pulls out and I'm like, Jack, he's going after me. pull over and the guy walks up to the car, seems like a younger officer. And I think he watched the channel as well. Didn't say anything. Didn't say anything. But looked at it.

Like, they kind of gave me a double take where it's like, you know that look. I know the look. Oh, we all know the look. But they're not 100%. Yes, sir. And I'm like, I'm so sorry, I got my wallet in the trunk.

And if you'd allow me to like get out of the car, I'll grab it from the trunk. And he goes, no, I think, I think you're okay. Really? Okay. He had to have known you. Yeah. So then I took a picture of my license.

I have it on my phone. And I showed it to him. He was like, all right, I'll be right back. And I just asked, like, hey, I never asked, like, can I just get a warning? Right. And he walks back, comes back with a thing for me to sign. He says, this is a warning. Amazing.

And after that, I switched seats with Jack. He didn't want to drive. Yeah, he didn't want to drive at all. I was like, all right, no more driving. I've done. It's not worth it. I've been pulled over enough that now I've gotten more comfortable. Like the first time I got pulled over

I was a nervous wreck I was I mean I couldn't like the cops talking to me and I can't even complete a sentence right and now I get pulled over like I'm like oh here we go again but I've had really good luck because every time I get pulled over it's always for very like

simple things I already like I know that you know like sometimes like when I say simple like a speeding ticket to me is simple it's more reckless driving if I'm going if I was going 160 and I got pulled over which I would never do but if I was, then I would be a nervous rap, right?

But I always think about it. I was like, okay, worst case an hour, I get a $2, $300 ticket, learn your lesson. But I always keep it in at least a relatively safe speed. I always worry when they pull you over. I would love to be honest. And just say, hey, I'm so sorry. I know I was going 82 in the 65 and I was not paying attention. I'm so sorry because I think they appreciate for sure.

But then if you ever try to dispute the ticket, they have everything on record, and then you're on record is saying this. And so it's technically better not to say anything to stay silent, hand the license registration. But then I feel like they look at that and they're like, hey, if you just admit it to it. So it's like, where's the line? I never know. And so I'm always terrified to say too much. I think the key is to never state the speed you were going. Just going too fast, yeah. Yeah, I mean, like never state, oh, I know I was going 82. Like never, never. say that. That's for sure. You could apologize and say, oh, I was in a hurry. Like, you know, say, like, talk about life excuses, but don't ever acknowledge that you actually were speeding because you just never know what cop you're going to get. I've been pulled over a couple of times where the cop is super cool and you think you are free and clear, right? And then they come back with something. And then other cops are really rude and jerks. And then they come back, like, I get out of here. You just like never know. So I used to get pulled over in L.A. quite a bit.

and what would help was that they would usually cite me for window tint because they want to get you on something. Always window tint. And so if I'm going a little too fast or maybe I don't have a front plate or something like that,

they're like, hey, put the front plate on or hey, you know, just slow down a little bit. But here's a window tint ticket. They want to give you something. So for me that was like, all right, I'll take that one, I'll pay that. Well, because then they feel good too, you know. They get something.

They get something. I get something. Right. Everyone is happy. I've gotten a handful of window tent tickets many times. What's something about owning a supercar or a hypercar that people may not expect? I have found that one of my favorite cars to drive is my new Lotus Amira.

And the thing I love about that car is that it's really fun, it's really fast, it's different, it's unique. But when people see it, there's no ego attached to it. Whereas when I drive like the Koenigsegg or especially the Eventador, I just feel like people, people judge me so much wherever I go. Like some people love you, some people hate you. Some people you're bothering. Some people you're a godlike figure, right? But it just, it garners so much attention that there's lots of times. I'm like, I just don't, I don't want to portray myself in that image right now. But the Lotus is so much fun because you go out. Nobody knows what it is. It's very, it's, people know it's a little bit different, but it's not flashy. So I think that's the big thing

as I get older, that I crave the attention less and less and less and less. And the reason I own the cars has nothing to do the attention. Whereas I think non-car people would see something like this. And they'd be like, oh, that guy just wants a bunch of attention. But that's not it at all. There's so much more to the cars than just the attention. And I find myself trying to like stay away from the attention as much as I can. I love a point A to a point A drive. So something you guys may not know about me is I actually studied Spanish for five years growing up. and I was actually just in Mexico, and I realized my Spanish could use a little bit of a brushing up. So I went online or did a bunch of research trying to find the best place to learn a new language,

and I figured it out all thanks to our sponsor Babel. For those unfamiliar, Babel is the language learning platform that's helping millions of people quickly and confidently have real-world conversations in a new language. Their fast 10-minute lessons are handcrafted by over 200 expert linguists that can help you learn a new language in as little as three weeks. Whether it's German, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, or anything in between, Babel provides you with practical tips and tools that are approachable, accessible, and rooted in real-life situations to ensure that you're ready to apply everything that you've learned in real-world scenarios.

So Babel's courses have really helped me freshen up on my Spanish skills, whether it's something as simple as just asking for directions or ordering food at a restaurant to something as complicated as learning all of the different tenses in Spanish, it's really helped. And a big piece of this confidence comes from, Babble's speech recognition technology, which helps you refine your pronunciation and accent. So don't pay hundreds of dollars for private tutors or waste hours on apps that don't really help you speak the language. And for a limited time, we have a very special deal for our listeners. Right now, you can get up to 60% off your Babel subscription, but only for you guys at babble.com

slash ICH. So get up to 60% off at babble.com slash icch or with the link down below in the description. That's spelled B-A-B-B-B-B-E-L-L-com. ICH with the link down below in the description. Of course, rules and restrictions do apply. Thank you so much Babel for sponsoring this episode and back to the podcast. What car will get the most head turns if you're driving at? The Eventador. By far, by far. And why is that? Like the sound?

I think the sound of it, everybody knows Lamborghini. It's funny, like the Koenig's egg, you'd be surprised. Like, it actually gets a lot less attention than the eventador. Even though it's way more valuable, way more rare, people just know Lamborghini. and this one, I mean, this event door's got pink wheels. The exhaust is, I mean, you can hear this car coming from three miles away, right?

So the exhaust is well. It looks the meanest, honestly. And on a sunny day with the carbon fiber, like it just glows. Like, people can, people just know. They know what that is. This is almost so obscure that it's kind of like,

if you know, you know, kind of car. What car would you say, barring the price, barring anything gives you the best driving experience? Like, it's the most fun, the most control of the hands. handling. It's tough because like everybody, every car guy is so different. Like, everybody looks for different things in cars, right? For me, I think about the cars that I fell in love with as a kid, right? And a manual mercilago to me is just the end all be all. It's, uh, you know, it's,

it's, it's rare. The doors go up. It looks like a, uh, fighter jet, um, manual transmission. It's got enough power. To me, that's just like quintessential car. Now, Merci Olaugo on a racetrack, not a good car, not a great car, but just cruising on the highway or, or hitting a canyon by yourself where you're not looking to set a lap record, you're just looking for just like just the emotion and passion of a car. To me, Emmanuel Mercilago is like quintessential. What if someone has 40 grand? That's their budget. Lotus, Elise. You had a, you had a Lotus.

I had a lot of the day. I had an lease as well. I had no lease. I sold that for the exeage. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I love Lotus. We're kind of a little nerdy, though, because I feel like Lotus doesn't get the love that a lot of other brands get. Most people would say 40 grand. Oh, you get a Supra. You get a, you know, a BMW, what, whatnot. But I just love the Lotus because it still has that exotic feel to it, that specialness to it that I really like. I've always loved as as a car spotter. For me, it was always about like the, the chase, like finding the cars, the exclusive cars. And a Lotus is just the, it's just the cheapest, most exclusive exotic car money can buy. And it's a great driver's car. I mean, it's, it's lightweight, it's nimble, it's a manual transmission, looks cool. It's got a Toyota engine, so it's cheap to maintain. I owned one, and I miss that one. But the Amira is very, very cool as well. This is going to be kind of an annoying question because it might take a bit to think about, but what car when you first saw it impressed you the most out of any car you've seen? Konigzig.

I still remember the first time I saw a Konigieg was on a YouTube video. And it was this obscure, you didn't know how to pronounce it, where did this car come from? And you see the doors open. I mean, doors. Like, come on. It's so cool. Like, nobody can look at those doors open and not be mesmerized. And as far as there's like a first impression of a car, you just never seen any.

anything like it. And there's so many, so many cars or, you know, evolutions of another car, you've seen this before, you know, like the Kuntosh was revolutionary when it came out because it had the Cissor doors. But when the Diablo came out, they'd already seen it. You've already seen the mercy, like, mercy doors go up. You already seen it. But the Konex egg was something like, never seen this before, ever. And, and, you know, Konex eggs really didn't come from, come to the forefront of society until like 2008, 2009. So I was 20 years old at that time. And you're seeing a car, you're 20 years old, you've seen every car in the world,

and you've never seen anything like it. So the Konexag really left a big impression on me. What was it like owning a Bugatti? Now you could look back at it. Right, right. It was, the Bugatti was an amazing car. But part of why I bought it was in a way to check a box.

It was almost to like to own a Bugatti. Been there, done that, move on. overall the experience was was great but selling it I didn't lose any sleep I didn't miss it really it was my car was reliable I drove it a lot had a lot of fun but I have had more fun owning an event door how much did you sell it for

a million 50 who bought it um long story short Houston negotiated the deal and he sold it to another guy in Las Vegas kind of it's it's it's in Vegas yeah it's like Dude, he lives like down the street from you. Wow.

Not down the street, but yeah, he lives in Vegas. Yeah, he's in Vegas. Yeah. I had no idea. He's on Instagram. That's cool. Yeah. Wow.

But it was a cool car. I mean, maintenance on a Bugatti is obviously crazy, right? Oil changes are out of control. It's like 20 grand. You know, the tires are insane. They're $38,000 a set. But the cool thing about the Bugatti, they are by far and away the most reliable hypercar ever built.

You cannot touch the reliability of a Bugatti. I owned my car. I serviced it once a year. It was a lot of money. And then I drove the car the the rest of year and never had any issues. I mean, there was a couple of minorses here. I thought he had the one where you couldn't back it up or there was something. I had an e-break issue happened where the emergency break got caught. That was human air. Bugatti covered it for me. Okay. It wasn't a big deal. Yeah. It was just like a human air that happened. Uh, issue was sorted and I was back on the road. So as far as like an actual like mechanical issue though, never had any issues with it. Drove it 8,000 miles in two and a half years. Do you know your total cost of ownership on the Begotti?

I've never done the math on it. I bought it for 880. I serviced it. There was a $20,000 service, a $30,000 service. A $2,500 service. I think that's about it. I'm telling you right now that would be a banger video. If you did, if you actually added up how much you bought it for, the taxes, maintenance, right. That would be really good. Insurance gas over those four years by the time you sold it. Right. I have the feeling it's going to be positive. Oh, 100%. 100% is positive. I know that for sure. Yeah. I know for sure it's positive. Oh, even crazier for the video. If you added up the ad revenue you made from the Bugatti videos. Can we include the sponsored content too? How does the sponsor content work? If you're comfortable. Well, no, it's sponsored content is weird because how do you attach it to an individual video? Because you would be making a video regardless.

I would say no sponsored content, but only videos that you made specifically on the Bugatti. Yeah. Because you fit a sponsoring something else if it wasn't that one. Well, we filmed the video last time you guys were here where we race the Teslas. Yeah. That video did really well. It was like two million views or something. Wow. Couldn't have done that video without the Bugatti. It's true. And that's why, I mean, it's just crazy how how YouTube works, how you can justify a purchase like that. Because buying the Bugatti was not that scary for me because I'd already tested the method. I'd already, like I'd already proven it with the Gaiaata, with the event, or I'd work my way up to it. So when I got the Bugatti, I already knew it was going to work.

This one, on the other hand, was this one scary? Oh, gosh, dude. Okay, so this one... I'm still terrified of this. Are you kidding me? This car was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get. Why did you buy it? So this car and I have a very unique history.

This car was owned by a guy who was in California. And on the Gumball 3,000, he loaned the car to Lewis Hamilton. So Lewis Hamilton drove this car in the gumball from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. And I want to say it was 2015, 2016, I'm not sure. But Lewis Hamilton drove the car. I was living in Utah at the time. And I had never seen a Koenigsega Gera. And I heard he was driving it. So I, it was over the weekend. I drove my Audi down to Las Vegas and waited around all day. You know, these rallies, they're always behind schedule. I get to the finish line. It's like noon. And Lewis Hamilton finally shows up at like 9 p.m. So I'm sitting around for nine hours,

for these cars to come in. And, you know, Lewis Hamilton drives a car in. I have this cool shot of him getting out of the car and, like, waving to the camera and whatnot. And it was just like mind-blowing that I saw a Konex egg. But it was a Friday night and I was going to be in Vegas all weekend. So Saturday morning, I was sleeping in my car. I was living in Utah, working as an accountant. But when I would go on trips, I would still sleep in my car to save money. So slept in my car that night, woke up first thing in the morning. And I started just driving around Las Vegas, trying to find the gumball cars to film more videos. And I stumbled across the Koenig.

It was on the top floor of the parking garage at the Bellagio. And I found it there sitting with a bunch of the other gumball cars. Super excited. And so I just parked up my Audi in the parking lot and I filmed a bunch of stuff on it. And I just sat there and I was going to wait for the car to leave. Because at this point, like I kind of logged on camera, but most of it was just filming cars, right? And I really wanted to get a startup clip. I wanted to get more driving footage, etc.

etc, et cetera. And so I sat around all day on this parking garage all day and the car never left. It sat there all day. So Saturday night, I go find my camping spot wherever, sleep in the car, wake up, Sunday morning. And I go and the car's still there. And I wait around all day. But around like, I don't know, 1, 2 p.m. They come out to the car finally and the car has a dead battery. The Konig's like has a dead battery because it's been sitting out for, you know, a couple days. Who knows? The car didn't get driven that often. It probably was like low voltage or the battery needed to replace or whatever. I was really shy at the time. I didn't have the confidence level that I do now. And one thing led to another and the guy was trying to figure out a way to open up the

car door and he's on the phone. And he needed a set of tools. And I had a set of tools in my Audi because my Audi always broke down. I always had tools with me. And so that's kind of how the conversation started. I had this toolbox and somehow he's on the phone with Konigseg. He might have been on the phone with Christian Bon Conning's for all I know. And there's a, there's a way to remove one of the reflectors on the back end of the car, but you need like a Phillips head screwdriver. And once you remove that, there's a manual pull that will open up the rear deck lid. So he used my tools to open, open this up. And the whole time, I'm mesmerized because I'm, I'm talking to a guy who's affiliated with a Conigzek. Like, this is the only Koenigieg, Garrett, in the entirety of North America.

Like, this is insane. Lewis Hamilton is driving it. And, uh, eventually like he gets access to the battery but right on the battery it says do not jump start right like do not jump start but we don't have a jumper pack or anything and i have jumper cables in my car as well because my Audi breaks down all the time like i come prepared no matter where i go and i was like we can we could like hook up the jumper cables to my Audi and he's like looking around doesn't know what to do like his trailer because he's in a trailer car back to la his trailer is like two three miles away He doesn't know what to do. And so sure enough, I get in my Audi.

I pull up my Audi next to this Conigzag. I pull out my jumper cables. And we hook it up. So my Audi, like I have this photo of my Audi hooked up to a Koenigzek. And, you know, when you jumpstart a car, obviously you're supposed to like turn on, turn on your car and, you know, to draw more power. But we don't want to blow up this battery because it's a, it's a Swedish car. Like parts are very obscure. And it says, do not jumpstart.

And so we attempt to, we're thinking maybe we could get just enough power to at least open up the door, right? Because right now, we can't even get the door open. And unfortunately, we just can't, we can't get enough. And the guy has a jumper pack back at his truck. And I offer to give him a ride. I'm like, I'll give you a ride there. We can go get the jumper pack. And once again, he's like looking around.

He's got like, I'm just like a car spotter kid. And I'm, I'm dingy, right? I haven't showered in three days. I'm, you know, yeah, I'm just a kid. And I've been sleeping in my car and he says yes. So all of a sudden I get in my Audi and I'm looking around on my passenger seat. There's like Taco Bell like wrappers everywhere. I have my pillow and my comforter like sitting there. I have dirty clothes in the back seat because I've been sleeping out of the car for two or three days. And all of a sudden it's like this mad dash. You're just like grabbing everything and trying to, you know, push it to the back because once again, I don't know who this guy is. He's got a cone executive. though, right? Like, this guy is like, and especially back then, like, you're in awe of any kind of supercar, hypercar owner. And so, you know, he gets in the car. He's super nice. And, you know, we, we drive the two miles to get his jumper pack or whatever. And, and we get back to the car. And he hooks up the jumper pack. And sure enough, it's enough power. He opens the door. He lets it sit there for a couple of minutes and the car fires up. So I'm thinking I'm done, right? Like, this is it. And last ditch effort, I'm like, is there? any way I could go for a ride. And, and, like, it's an immediate no. Immediately no.

And I, I'm not, I'm not fussed at all. I'm like, I totally get him, you know, like, it was a conic's egg. Like, I don't even, I shouldn't be touching this car. The fact that I got to sit in it, because you let me sit in it earlier. The fact that I got to sit in, it was amazing. And then, like, as I'm walking away, he's like,

ah, get in. And I get in the car. And it was like, I mean, at this point, I had never ridden in anything. Like, I hadn't, I had, I think I'd ridden in a Gallardo and, you know, maybe I'd sat in some other cars, but I'm in a Koenigze. And I am, we are driving out of the Bellagio.

I mean, you can imagine the chaos. Like, I feel like a rock star. It's just, it's just wild. And then we, we pull onto the Las Vegas strip and he takes me back to the truck or whatnot. And I told him when I got it in the car, is like, I'll just walk back. Like, I'll walk back to my car. And bear in mind, I'd only been to Vegas maybe once or twice. I didn't have a smartphone or anything.

I have no idea how I'm going to get back to my car, but I don't care, right? Like, it doesn't matter. And we, I help him load up the Koenigseg back into the trailer. And, you know, I'm just like on top of the world, right? And then he's like, do you know how to get back to your car? And I was like, I don't know. I'll figure it out. Don't worry.

Like, I'm just like, I don't care. Like, you're fine. Like, don't worry about it. He ends up taking me back in the truck and drops me off in front. And I walk up to the parking garage. But I remember, like, the whole drive home. I mean, I am just, like, best day of my entire life. I mean, just, like, unbelievable.

The fact that I saw a Koenig's egg, I got to sit. He took me for a ride in it. Like, and I'll take you guys both for rides later. Yeah. This car is unlike any other car. I mean, the windshield, the way it wraps around you, the way the door is open, the V8 is like bolted to your spine. The transmission is so violent. It's so fast.

I mean, it is just a roller coaster. This car is, it's the greatest car ever built. And so, I mean, like, getting that experience back then, it was life-changing. Did you ever find out who that guy was? Yeah, we're friends now. You are? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, the day that I got the car, I let him know.

And, I mean, obviously, how did you guys keep in touch? Randomly, we lost touch for many years. And then through another friend who worked with this guy, we got reconnected. Amazing, yeah. For him, that's got to be crazy. Oh, I know. I mean. You the first time with the pillow and the comfort.

I know, I know. I mean, I was a kid. Like, I mean, I was just a car. And like, if you, if you drive around a coning, like, you deal with these car spotter kids all the time, right? Like, they're, they all blend in. They're all dime a dozen. There's these kids with cameras chasing you around. It's fun. It's kind of annoying, but it's fun. And, you know, you were like that as a kid, too. And so, yeah, I mean, he must be so confused, shocked. So what was going through your mind when this came up for sale? Like, how did you coordinate all of this? So, ironically, the car went up for sale, man, probably three years ago. And I remember seeing it for sale. I owned the Veyron at the time. And the asking price on the car, I can't quite remember what it was. It was in the

twos, maybe like 2.4 million. And I was like, oh my gosh, I can't believe that car is for sale. Because the car is called the Agara H.H. And H.H. stands for Heinmeyer Hansen. The original owner of this car, his name was David Heinmeyer Hansen, and he had the car custom commissioned. And he has a Pagani Zonda that is also called the H-H. And it's a matching spec. It's blue with carbon. So he has the two cars matching specs. They're both H-Hs. So when he owned the car, you like, you never imagine the car's ever even kind of come up for sale because like the car's named after him. So when the car came up for sale three years ago, I was like, how is this car even for sale? This is amazing. And the price was like extreme and I thought about it and then a week later it was gone and the card sold

and sure enough Houston bought it in Vegas Houston had bought it and I was like I was so excited but so jealous at the same time right because I was like Houston owns this car which means there's a good chance I could go for a ride in it maybe he'll let me drive it well whatnot you know and he's Houston's such a great friend of mine right and so it was it was cool that it was at least in the family right but there was that that one moment right before he bought it where I thought maybe, maybe I could get it. And, but it was, you know, everything happens for a reason. I wasn't really ready for it anyways. And I want to say in October of this last year, he hit me up. Houston hit me up and he wanted to get rid of it. And he's like, you're the first person I'm calling because I feel like

the car needs to go in your hands. You're the right owner for the car. Nobody, I don't want to say deserves this car, but like, you're the one who deserves this car. You have this story with this car. He's a salesman. You love Conan's egg. You're going to drive the car. You're going to enjoy the car. Like, I want you to have, I want you to have the car. Like, what can we do to get you to have the car? And I was like, bro, I can't afford the car because they're going up in value. Like, this car is just going up in value every single day. And so the car was worth a lot more than $2.4 million or whatever it was before. I just kind of told Houston, I was like, I can't do it, bro. It can't happen. He wanted to figure out a way to make it happen. And, and, uh, the leasing is what

really made the deal happen. Being able to lease the car. That was the thing that I had never really considered that, you know, the tax advantages, honestly, was really what did it. The tax advantages, because, you know, leasing a car, there's the ability to write off the lease payment, especially when you use it the way that I do, which is strictly for business use. Every single time I drive this car, I'm filming YouTube videos, TikToks, Instagrams, I don't drive the car that much. And 100% of the time my drive the car is for business use. And so it actually works very well for a leasing situation. Yeah. And obviously with the leasing situation, you don't have to put as much money down. The payments are big and the interest rates are a little bit higher. But it allowed me to get into a car that,

you know, I really, really couldn't afford to just pay cash for. Yeah. So for the Begotti, you were calling that a bit of a loss leader that it might not make money, but at least it brings people into the channel. Right. And then COVID just completely. spiked the value of cars. Do you view this the same way that it might be a loss leader? Or do you think make money on this? Okay. So when I bought the Veyron, I felt like the car was undervalued. Like, I genuinely thought the car was undervalued. And I still think it's undervalued. And when I sold the car for a million 50, I was like, this car is going to be worth so much more. The Veyron, they built 450 of them. The car in a lot of ways is the world's first hypercar,

thousand horsepower, W-16, four turbochargers, top speed production car world record. Like the car is like a holy grail car that is very, very undervalued. So when I did buy it for 880, I knew the car was going to be worth more. I mean, you just look at trends, right? Like generally when a car is 20 to 30 years old, that's when it starts to appreciate in value. You look at the 250 GTOs. You look at the McLaren F1.

You look at the Ferrari F40, the Ferrari fifties. Like these cars all follow the same trend. Now, the hard part about the Bugatti is the maintenance. The maintenance has always deterred a lot of people from buying the Veyron. the tires have hurt, the oil changes have hurt. And the driving experience on the Veyron is a little bit more luxurious, I guess you might say. It's not nearly as raw as some cars. And generally more analog cars tend to go up more in value, more like driver-focused cars.

But I still felt like the Veyron was undervalued. Now, COVID obviously changed the entire landscape. And it spiked the value of the car a lot faster than I expected. And that helped me, you know, get out of the car with a couple hundred thousand dollar gain at least, especially if you include the content. Now the Koenig, I also believe the same. However, I feel like the Koenig's egg, the ceiling is much, much, much higher. I believe this car will be worth $5 million someday in the near future. I think someday could be $10 million. It could go bigger than that. The very upper echelon of the car market is very hard to predict. The McLaren F1, you guys are probably familiar. That car, When I was in high school, that car is worth about $2 million, and now it's worth between $25 and $35 million, probably. That car is kind of a, you know, it's an outlier of sorts. The Pagani Zonda is in a lot of ways sort of the successor to the McLaren F1.

Zonda's a couple of years ago were $2, $3 million for like a low, you know, a low spec Zonda S, Zonda F, whatnot. And now good luck finding a Zonda for, you know, under $7, $8, $9, $10 million. So the Zonda is kind of following the footsteps of the McLaren F1. Now you look at the production numbers of these cars. McLaren F1, they build 106 of them. The Pagani Zonda, I want to say it's about the same. About 100 cars.

The Konigsega, Aguirre, there's 58 of these in the world. The Aguirre RS set the top speed production car world record. Konigseg is a brand. It's just growing and growing and growing in popularity. I mean, the younger generation, Konig's egg is the number one brand by far. I think most people dream of owning a Koenig. Like, it's kind of become like the poster car brand of like sort of like the boutique brands.

And so I just feel like this car is in a very unique spot to possibly follow the Zonda and F1. Even if it doesn't, it's still going up in value though. But I think it does have the chance for that extreme appreciation. If you were to upgrade in some way. from the Koenigseg, what would it be? See, that's what's so crazy about owning this car. It's kind of like the end of the road. It's kind of like the end.

You did it. Yeah, I mean, like, obviously, so this is, in the Konigseg world, this is the Agara S. They have an Agarra RS, which is like, you know, the fancier version of this car. You got more carbon fiber, a little bit more horsepower, bigger arrow. But the car is like a million, $2 million more, right? So, you know, you're getting very little benefit for a whole lot more money, like massive diminishing returns. That would be cool to own an agar RS, but because of my storyline attached with this car, I don't think I would ever do that. There's one car, the Venano, the Lamborghini Venano.

That's always been like my favorite car. That's like the car that started my YouTube channel, just with that initial success. So that's the car you should buy is that specific Finano. that one is sitting at the museum at the Lamborghini factory. I don't think it'll ever be for sale. But another one would be, there's only 14 vananos in the world. So that car would be really cool.

Those trade for $10 million probably, super obscure cars. Maybe someday that could possibly happen. But I don't think I would sell this for that. I would have to be in a position to buy that and keep this car. Because this car is so special. And that's part of the reason when I sold the Veyron. It didn't hurt that bad.

because I bought this, which is really like an ultimate dream car. How much does it cost you to maintain 17 cars? That's something that I should probably calculate. You've done a video in the past, breaking it down. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And do you remember by chance what it was? I don't.

Most of the cars are really reliable. One thing that I'm very meticulous about is annual service. Every single car gets an annual service every single year, which means more than once a month I have to take a car in for an annual service. It is a constant flow of cars. I have not had all my cars together in one single spot in five years because of that reason. Because when a car comes, a car leaves. Like, it's just constantly.

And the newer exotics are so reliable. So that really helps. I mean, like this event or this thing has been bulletproof. You know, the Supra, the Lotus. Those cars are bulletproof. The Kuntosh the spot, I don't drive them that much. So they don't break that much. Overall, it's probably a hundred.

grand a year. I spend in maintenance. Now, not that bad. I would say the Koenigseg, I just spent about 50 grand on a service on this car. But I don't think next year it'll be 50 grand. I think that was more like kind of a one-time thing. So I'd say, I'd say about 100 grand. What'd you have to get done for 50? So the car just, it needed a handful of things. I took the car to Florida for a top speed event. I was able to

effectively like rent out a runway and do a top speed run. And I, hit up Konigseg, the factory. And, you know, I wanted to get the car fully dialed in because what I was doing was very risky. And I didn't want to die. And so they, they went through the entire car. We got brand new tires. We upgraded the fuel pumps for maximum performance. We upgraded the arrow. We resealed a bunch of the stuff on the exterior. There was a couple other minor little things just to ensure maximum top speed. Now, a lot of the things we did, I probably could have gotten away without doing, but it was for the top speed event. I wanted it done. Because last thing you want to do is blow a tire when you could have bought brand new tires and, you know, what was your top

speed? So it was 224. 224 miles an hour. What's the fastest you've ever gone in a 224? Was that freaky? Were you terrified? It was terrible. Because I feel like if that speed, if there's one thing that goes wrong, you could die. Oh, you're done for. You're absolutely done for. Now, I picked the right environment. So the runway I was on was like, you know, a couple miles long, perfectly flat, closed down runway, obviously. The car had been fully serviced. The Connix Techs flew from Sweden out to Arizona to service the car, brand new tires. So it was the right environment. The runway at the Kennedy Space Center is, I don't know, 500 meters wide. I mean, it was just like the right environment, right? So from that standpoint, I did my due diligence.

but it's still terrifying, right? I mean, I'm not a professional driver. I didn't have a support team out there. I'm also filming a YouTube video. So I go out there. It's Florida and March. It's a billion degrees out. The humidity's off the charts.

I'm sweating like crazy. I got to put on a full rac suit, racing helmet. I'm also trying to film a video that is mildly entertaining. I'm setting up GoPro's making the, making sure the batteries are charged. I have the draggy mounted to the windshield as well. And we have four hours. we have four hours to do all this. But I want to work my way up to it, right?

Like you don't just get in the car and just pen it immediately. And so, you know, the first run I went out and I was planning to do like 180. And I was feeling so confident I just hit 207. Wow. But the issue you run into is that cars can heat soak. So as soon as you do this top speed run, the engine gets so hot, you're going to diminish your performance a lot. So you really need to let the car cool down for as long as you really can to then run it again. But remember, we're in Florida.

humidity is off the charts and we only have four hours. And I want to do as many runs as I possibly can, but I also want to work my way up to it. So I don't want to just pin it immediately and try to hit 240. So I want to do that warm up run. And, you know, with all the filming, et cetera, et cetera, before I knew it, it's 10.30.

And we have to be off the runway at noon. And I've only done one run at 207 and the car is still, you know, heat. It's just heat soaked. And so it was a very, very good learning lesson for me. I only did one run where I actually fully penned it from beginning to end. And unfortunately, I bounced off the rev limiter in sixth gear to seventh gear. So I lost some power there. It was a great experience, but it was terrifying.

It was scary. So what do you need to do to get it to 240? Temperature would make a big difference. So if I was to go there in January, that would help a lot. I want to say it was 80 degrees. You know, if it would have been, I don't know, 50, 60 degrees, that would have had a big impact. Obviously, not bouncing off the rev limiter. That was a rookie mistake.

I probably lost a handful of miles per hour there. And the big thing is the heat soaking. So figuring out a way to cool the car down, when you, you know, watch these manufacturers go and set these top speed production world record times, you know, they have a team of 17 engineers, right, that are dialing the car in. You know, they have a big tent. They have a bunch of fans that are cooling the engine down, et cetera, et cetera. and that would make a big impact being able to get the car to its optimal running temperature. So doing the run earlier in the morning would help. Probably not filming it, honestly, would have a big impact.

The fact that I'm an amateur driver, like if I went and did it again, I'd have so much more confidence that I think I could go a lot faster, partly because I wouldn't have to do the warm up. Because I did like 207, 214, 220, and then 224. So I did it four times. But I think if I went back and did it again, I would feel pretty confident to do 150 mile an hour. So I didn't heat soak the car, go back, let the car sit for an hour, and then just go full send.

And try to do it at 6 a.m. 6 a.m. 7 a.m. Do it in January when the temps are perfect. I think that would help a lot. I also don't know if this car, the crazy thing about this car, it's in Agarra S. Koenigseg never tested the top speed of this car.

So nobody actually truly knows if it could hit 240 or 250. Although really quick, before we go into that, if you run your own business, you know there's no better sound than hearing. And if you want to hear, a bunch more, then it's time to get started with their sponsor, Shopify. Shopify is the global e-commerce platform that has already helped transform millions of businesses worldwide. For example, Shopify is an endless list of integrations, third-party apps, and flexible templates to help you customize your online store exactly how you want. And what sets Shopify apart from their competitors is their ability to turn browsers into buyers with the internet's best converting checkouts. that's 36% better on average than other leading e-commerce platforms.

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for a whole month trial period, start a business, make some money at shopify.com slash ICH. Thank you so much Shopify and back to the podcast. Have you ever lost money in cars? I've lost money in the lower dollar value car. Oh, no, I did. Yes, I did. My 812 super fast.

I took a bath on that car. So I bought a white 812 super fast and I paid $397,000 for it. And I sold it for... It's weird because I traded it in on another car, so I got a huge sales tax savings. My trade in value is $2.85, but I saved about $20,000 in sales tax

by trading it in. So I feel like I sold it for $305. So, I mean, I effectively lost $100,000 on that white $8.12. But then what about the content that you were able to make with that? Even with that considered, is it still at a loss? Yes, because that car I didn't film a lot of content with. So I bought the white 812 and I had big plans to do a crazy build on the car. I was going to do a wide body kit.

I wanted to paint it, a custom interior, like go crazy. And then I got the car and I paid almost 400 grand for it. And it was such a nice car. I just couldn't do it. I couldn't cut up the car. And so I found myself in this very weird scenario in which I would just kind of drive it every once in a while and the car would just depreciate and value. And I put an exhaust on it, but I didn't film that many videos with the car.

and then I sold it. And I ended up trading it in for a crashed 812. And the logic behind that is that that would be a car that I would feel comfortable to cut up and to paint and to wide body. Let's talk about that because that was owned by Michael B. Jordan. Yes. Do we know who is driving the car or is that not public yet? We don't know. No, we can't say for sure. It's registered to him, so probably, but I don't know. I'm not sure. I know that we had a mutual friend who was on the scene shortly thereafter. He saw him. Michael B. Jordan at the scene, but he wasn't there to witness the accident. There is video footage of it crashing, though. I saw that. And yeah, he, whoever was driving lost the back end, overcorrected, and hit a Kia on the side of the road. You would think there would be somebody who would keep filming and watch the driver get out of the car. Right. I bet that exists. And I bet if, hypothetically, that were Michael B. Jordan, you would just say, hey, hear a little money. Delete that part the video. You could keep everything else, but to leave that part. I get it. I mean, it's still,

no one knows. Absolutely. It's like that many people were filming this car. Someone would see the person get out of the car. Well, the weird thing about the footage is that it came out about two weeks after the accident happened, the footage of a car actually crashing. Because Gordon, F spot, he filmed his video. He was there at the scene. He posted it the next day. It wasn't until two weeks later that the footage of the car behind posted it on Instagram and all the news stations like... I didn't know that. So yeah, I mean, you could be completely right.

Who knows? Who knows what happened? Wow, but you ended up buying it. It's an interesting story. So that car ends up on Copart. Yes. Which is like for damaged, salvaged cars, you could go and bid on these things.

But you couldn't buy it because you weren't a dealer? Correct, correct. You didn't know any dealers who could just place a bid on your behalf? So I probably could have, but I was too late. to it. So the car popped up on copart and I immediately saw the car and, you know, I don't know if it's copart or states have different rules and laws. And depending on where the car pops up for sale,

people like me can buy them. And this car popped up for sale in California. And in California, it's my understanding. I'm not like an expert in the field. You have to be a broker of sorts to purchase a car off copart. And the car was on copart for such a short period of time before I know. noticed it. I think it'd been on Copart for a while. I just wasn't aware of it. That by the time I had reached out to a couple of my friends who are brokers, the car had already sold. Now, unfortunately, the car sold for around $140,000. Okay. Fast forward about a month or two later, the car popped up on eBay, and I saw it. And immediately, I was like, I want this car. And the value in the car showing up on eBay was that the car had already gone through like the salvaged title process,

like the paperwork side, because my understanding is when a car is in an accident, you know, the title obviously it has to come back. Like if there's an insurance claim, a new title is issued in this form of a salvage. And the broker has a lot of expert knowledge, education, to be able to do that. So the car popped up on eBay. I didn't have to worry about any of that. I didn't have to jump through any hoops. I have the salvage title. And they had kind of done, I guess like a little bit of work to the car, the wheel was reattached. Because in the accident,

when the car hit the Kia, the wheel detached from the car, rolled down the road, but then on the eBay ad, the wheel was reattached to the car. The wheel was also repaired. It had been repainted. And the suspension assembly was also

reattached. And it appears to be brand new. Now, the suspension assembly on an 812 super fast is probably a $10,000 part. So, you know, there's a lot of value in that. I ended up buying the car for $187,000. So basically, the car sold on co-part for $187. So the broker who got the car off a copart made anywhere between, I don't know, $30,000 and $45,000 probably on the transaction. Do you have to pay sales tax when you buy a salvaged car? Yep, yep. So that's got, oh, well, I guess it's a dealer, maybe you just

Yeah, as a dealer, you don't have to. Correct. Correct. You don't have to. And, when I traded my white 812 in, it was traded in on the salvage title 812. So I didn't have to pay sales tax either because I traded in the car. And so your plan is to fix up this car? Correct. How's that going? Well, so unfortunately, in my infinite wisdom, I bought the car on eBay, sight unseen, looked at all the photos, did all the research I could. I flew out to California to Sacramento to pick up the car, or sorry, I trailered my truck out to California to look at the car. I should have flown out to California. and as soon as I got out there, I discovered the card frame damage. So the upper and lower frame rails on the passenger side had holes in them the size of like a baseball.

Now, the eBay photos were taken in a very, very specific way that you could not see that frame damage. So that was very unexpected. So when I bought the car for 187, I was thinking, oh, you know, I'll probably have to put in maybe 40, 50 grand to get this car up and running. Once I got there and I saw the frame damage, I was like, this is a whole different ballgame. because all of a sudden to repair an aluminum frame on a Ferrari is not a simple process but I'd already paid for the car

already wired the money why would you buy the car and wire the money without like inspecting the car like that I got caught up in the YouTube game because think about it it's a celebrity owned car so that's going to help the content

the accident was captured on camera I want an 812 super fast too because the white 812 that I have I just don't have, I can't, I don't want to cut it up. It's too nice of a car. It's too perfect of a car. The damage on this car in the photos appeared to be perfect for what I wanted to do. I wanted to do a wide body kit. The kit that I'm getting comes with a replacement front bumper, replacement front fender. Like, it's the perfect car. And it has a celebrity aspect. Rebuilds are, you know, so popular on YouTube right now that I got caught up in it. Like YouTube has a way of saving everything because at the end of the day,

you'll always get the videos, even when a bad thing happens. And, you know, I looked at airfare and airfare is so expensive right now. It's like 800 bucks to fly to Sacramento. I'm like, now I'm good. How is it that much money? You couldn't find like a Southwest early in the morning. I didn't look into it that much. I just got so excited because I felt like I had missed out on the car when it was on Copart. And so as soon as it popped up on eBay, I was like, that's the Michael B Jordan car. I sent it to F-Spot immediately. all my friends are all talking about it, you know? And of course, they're all like, yeah,

everyone was like, go buy the car. Yeah, do it, do it, do it, do it. And yeah, I mean, I made a stupid decision. Yeah. I mean, there's no, there's no excuse for it. And I'll never do it again, like lesson learned. Like sometimes you hear other people make mistakes and you're like, I'll never make that mistake.

You really kind of have to make the mistake yourself to kind of learn. Because it has frame damage, that means I had to pull the motor. I had to trailer the car to Pennsylvania. I'm going to have to pay, you know, $20, $30,000 extra. So it's a lesson learned, hard lesson learned. So on the Ferrari, how much do you expect? Knowing what you know now, how much is that going to cost? I'm going to say that 812 Superfast is the biggest mistake I've ever made financially,

buying this crash car. Because Ferrari is so incredibly hard to work with. So the parts are just out of control expensive. The upper dashboard on the 812, just the leather piece where the passenger airbag blue is $8,000. just the top piece of the dashboard is eight grand. The airbag that sits inside is like $1,500. Is there a way to buy this wholesale or no? You're just stuck. So I've tried to buy as much as I can on eBay or there's some, there's a couple random websites in Europe as well that sell like used Ferrari parts. And I've tried to find as much as I can. The issue is like there's just

not that many 812 super fasts that are ever built, right? And there's even fewer that are in accidents. And so there's very few secondhand parts available. And something like a dashboard, you know, most accidents that involve a Ferrari, if it has a passenger, that airbag is going to go off. That dashboard is going to need to be replaced, right? Yeah. So why can't you just sell it right now? Oh, absolutely. I could. Absolutely. I could. I could. I could absolutely walk away from it. And the nice thing about, you know, the YouTube channel that I've created, I have always been very open and honest with my audience. It's, I mess up all the time. I mess up all the time. I. I make fun of myself all the time. And I think my audience would understand if I wanted to give up,

but I'm not ready to give up yet. Like I would rather take an L, learn all these lessons from this, have the satisfaction of repairing the car myself, and yeah, enjoy the car from there on out and remind myself every single day, anytime I buy a car, especially a crash car, fly out and do an inspection. It'd be a good reminder for that. But the cool thing is, at the end of the day, the YouTube content will always be more interesting when bad things happen. Now, I would never purposely make bad things happen, but it's more interesting for a viewer to see this happen. I mean, to see me and my girlfriend remove a V12 engine out of Ferrari as somebody who's never pulled a motor out of any car, it's got to be fairly interesting to the, to the viewer.

And for me, it's been a great educational experience, too. Yeah. I like watching a lot of Hoovey's Garage. Yeah, Tavarish. Yeah, Tavarish is a man. Yeah, Tavarish is a man. The coolest thing about all of this is the car YouTuber community and the rebuild sector, they're the nicest guys. Like, I buy this car. Tavarish text me immediately. He's like, dude, you need anything. You need me to fly out.

Come help you. You have any questions. I'm always here. Call me. It would be. Both of you working on that car. Yeah, it'd be really cool. And I see you helping him with his McLaren.

I don't know if I'd be much help, but I could at least go say hello. And I also got a shout out Matt Armstrong, because Matt reached out to me as well. So Matt and Tavarsh both reached out to me. And then Jack, who works with Tavarsh, he also reached out to me. So the three of them, you know, they were all there. Like any given moment, I can ask them questions, which has just been, it's just been really nice at like in this day and age when there's so much competition that these guys are just like so helpful and willing to help, you know, a fellow car guy. Yeah. So what's going on with the car market right now? Because we're seeing prices begin to come back down. The cyber truck was something that I've been

watching a lot. And I saw prices start at like 180 grand. Right. And then every week they've been dropping by $10,000 a week. Now I saw one that recently sold for 108, which would have been cheaper than if I had bought one and paid sales tax on. Ironically, you'd say that. I canceled my cyber truck because I've been watching the market the same as you. Me too. So I first saw them come out. I had one on order and, you know, they're trading for 200 grand or whatever. And sure enough, though. as they started to flood the market, it's, yeah, it's legit, every single week.

A cheaper one is out there for 10 grand less, 10 grand less, 10 grand less. And I was like, I'm not going to spend $120,000 on a brand new cyber truck when I can buy a used one. And especially for social media, the cyber trucks are just everywhere. I mean, I saw four in a matter of 15 minutes the other day when I was filming a video. I mean, they're around every single street corner. And I think that's just sums up the market as a whole, though, like all car values. Like what happened during COVID?

is probably never going to happen ever again. Like that was such a unique moment in time. And I think we almost need to remind ourselves that that wasn't normal. And we have to change our thought process to back to 2019. Because most of the time a car comes out at MSRP, you drive it off the lot, you lose 10%. Like that's what it used to be our whole lives until COVID happened before like cars would trade over for MSRP. And so I think the market is just correcting back to that old normal is what's happening.

And I think the cyber truck is, you know, the pure definition of that. And someday I'll pick up a cyber truck, I bet for 50, 60 grand, maybe even in a year or two. So what do you think the most overpriced car is right now that you think is going to depreciate and value? I mean, I think the EVs are taking a big hit right now. Yes. But they're so cheap that I'm looking at some of the Tesla prices. Right. On Facebook Marketplace.

Right. There was a Tesla Model 3 that the guy. put it up. I think it was a 2020 and he was asking like 20 grand. Insane. It was low miles. And it was like, how is this a $20,000 on our car that two years ago would have been 38? Right, right, right, right. It's wild. They're so. I think, yeah, and I think the Tesla's, it's crazy that that cheap. I don't know if it's just supply and demand. There's just so many model threes that have been sold that eventually that's just going to happen no matter what because there's so many on the market that eventually somebody's going to want to sell a car and they're

going to make theirs the lowest on the market and somebody else. And it's just going to drive the price down. But I think I think the EVs that are non-Teslas, especially the luxury ones, are going to take the biggest hit. Mainly because I had a Hummer EV, it was one of the coolest trucks of all time. I love that thing. I sold it to shore up some money to get the Connix Egg, but I took that truck to Moab once. And it was the biggest disaster of my entire life. Because the Tesla charging network is incredible. You can take a Tesla anywhere in the United States and you can charge it. You have tons of range. You can use a supercharge. You can be charged in 20, 30, 40 minutes. But the third party charging network for all the other brands is

atrocious. I took the Humery of Vita Moab and, you know, every single other charger was broken. The ones that would work were charging at like three miles an hour. I had to get the thing towed to a hotel. It was the middle of wintertime. It was just like the biggest disaster. And after that experience dealing with, you know, that fatigue of dealing with low range, I wouldn't leave the Salt Lake Valley with my Hummer. And this is a truck that was $110,000, right? Like, this is a luxury truck that I feel like I cannot take more than 50 miles away from my house. So I feel like the luxury EVs, non-Tesslas, are going to take a big hit as people share in my experience.

Now, Tesla did recently open up their charging networks to other brands. But as far as my understanding is, it's not really. like not every single charger is that way yet. Like they're slowly integrating it. Yeah. Do you think the used car market is going to crash? I think it already is. I think it already has started to. I mean, values are plummeting everywhere on all cars. There's so many cars available on the market. I don't know if it's going to crash per se. I think it's just going to correct more than normal because COVID spiked the value so much. So let's pretend there's a world in which COVID never happened. What would these cars be worth. I think that's what they're going to plummet to. So what a normal car would

depreciate over the course of a year is now going to depreciate what it would in three years. I think is what's going to happen. So what I've, I've heard the argument that repos are increasing because a lot of people took on loans right on these cars at high interest rates because they could afford it during COVID. Right. Things are changing. And it's easier because they're upside down on these loans just to walk away from their payment. Because you've got to think of all these people that got these pickup trucks. And to say it, $70,000, it's now worth $40, but their loan currently is $55. Right.

They can't get out of it without paying off this loan. Where are they going to come up with $15,000? Just give the car back, get a hit on your credit. But at least at that point, you don't have to pay the $15. I think that that has happened across all the car market, the exotic market as well. I mean, there was so much money flowing through COVID that so many supercars, I mean, it's so easy to get financing, like I was saying earlier. There's so many guys that are upside down in certain cars.

You know, Eventadores, I'm not going to say they're like the lost leader for depreciation right now, but, you know, I bought this car for 240 grand in 2017. And I thought the car would be worth like 180 after three or four years. And then during COVID, this car spiked up to like 330 grand. And now Eventador's, this is probably back down to like 240. So it's kind of like gone like this. and, you know, I think that that is just going to continue

dropping that way across all cars. It's funny. I look at Facebook marketplace probably every other day for cars. Not even in the market. I just like seeing what's for sale and then thinking, hmm, this would be kind of fun. The Bentley Bentega is the one car that I've seen.

There was one that was priced recently in the 60s. That was like a $300,000 SUV. Insanity. Yeah. Bentley, Aston Martin, Maserati. You want to lose some money. Go buy a new one of those. Why do they depreciate so much? I think it's the clientele. Aston Martin is a weird hybrid. It's a little bit of an enthusiast brand, but also a luxury brand. But let's use Bentley as the example. Bentley is ultra luxury,

right? If you're the kind of person that wants a Bentley, you're also the type of person that I think wants to have a brand new car. You don't want to use car. You don't want somebody's secondhand car. You want to speck it out. You want to be whined and dined at the Bentley dealership. So you're going to go buy a new Bentley. And I think that, that, you know, they depreciate on their normal trend. There's no buyer for a used Bentley Bintaga at 200 grand. You know, there's no buyer for a used Bentley Bintagena at 150 grand. Because the type of person who wants a Bentega, either wants it new or they, the type of person, like, I can get a Bentley for 100 grand. So I think that's why the Bentley's and the luxury cars depreciate so much. Whereas the enthusiast cars, I think,

they depreciate a more traditional depreciation curve. You know it's funny, Jack, you don't even know about this. I think it was eight months ago, I was bidding on a Bentley GT. Oh, yeah. Believe it or not, it was a 2006. Why were you bidding on a Bentley? Okay. It was probably like 18 grand.

Yeah, so the story behind it, Harry, who used to service my Lotus Elise, was selling this on bring a trailer on behalf of his buyer. but it had no service history records because this guy, Harry, is like an independent guy and he's not, it never went through the, like, the official Bentley dealership route. It was just Harry working in the car. I trust Harry completely.

But because of that, a lot of people are really hesitant. Like, Harry, you've been working in this car where you've never heard of you before. I knew him. I knew the car was good. The guy who owned the Bentley, I believe, was also part of the Lotus group. So I felt super comfortable with this car. And given its lack of history, through like the dealership,

I was like, if this car sells at like 25 grand, it's a steal. So I was bidding on the car up until, I think it was like 24-5, then Hoovey's Garage. Tyler got you, boy. Then he started bidding it. He bit it all the way up to 30,

which was way more. But I thought at 25 grand, I could make money in this car. 100%. So I lost down it. But at 25, it sold it 30. And Hovie's Garage bought it. And then sure enough, he made a video a few weeks later.

And it was like a check engine light was on, but it turned out to be like just in a fault code. And it sorted out for like $100. Did he end up for reselling the car? No, I think he still has it. Huh. Yeah. But yeah, 25 grand for like a car like this. And I think it had like 30,000 miles on it.

It was a great deal. You would make money on that. So I reasoned there would be no sales tax on the car, private party. Buy the car at 25. get to say you own a Bentley, drive it for like a year, and you could probably sell it worst case, 25. So you get a free car. I always forget you guys have the sales tax, not loophole.

It's legal in Nevada. Correct. Where you buy a private party, you don't pay sales tax. Yeah. And what's even crazier is that the registration in Las Vegas is based on the original MSRP of the car, not the sales price. And then they depreciated every year up to the first 15 years. So when I got the Ford GT, there was no sales tax on that. So that saved 10% as buying it in California.

And then my registration was based on the original MSRP of the car back in 2005, depreciated over 15 years. The registration on that car was $400. That's all I paid that car. $400. I'm so jealous. It was one of the reasons I bought that car is because I knew I wouldn't lose money on it. And $400 registration, just everything worked out on that. Yeah, it's amazing. I wish so bad, Utah. I spent so much money on sales tax. It's out of control, out of control, especially if you don't keep a car very long. Yeah. That really, really hurts. Why can't you become a dealer? Because you're buying and selling cars so often. I've thought about it. To have a dealer, you know, there's there's a little bit of paperwork, not a big deal, but you have to have a location that is zoned for a dealer. You have to have operating hours and you truthfully have to be in the business of buying and selling cars.

right and that's just not what I do so I mean legally though you buy and sell more no I know but that's not the purpose like the the letter of the law is that you buy a car and you get the car and you immediately like you know you do whatever you need to do to get it prepped and ready for sale and you are making a a true and conscientious effort to actually sell the car and I'm not doing that with a lot of cars so yeah I feel like you could put every car for 10% more than what it's worth true true because there's the celebrity fact to it. Maybe.

There shouldn't be. I think some people would argue there's a 10% reduction because I owned the car. I don't know. I think for your audience, they gladly pay more for the car. Just because it's your car. I think it adds some allure to it. And it's a cool story. Like when you sold the Nissan, I think it's just cool to be like, hey, it was owned by

at the Stradman. Right, right. Well, most people, they... It's a story to it. They come here to Utah and they get to see the cars and, you know, sometimes they go for a ride in a car, whatever. Yeah. I mean, it is a fun experience from that standpoint. And most of the time, they're featured in in the video too, which is fun too. Yeah. And it's, it's cool from my standpoint to meet everybody. But yeah, the dealer, I mean, it could be cool, but it just, it also would be more complicated. Okay. It would just complicate my life. And sometimes simplicity is better than complications. But yeah, sales tax. And that's, that's one of the reasons maybe I'd move to Nevada someday is, is that alone. I mean, that would save me so much money not paying tax on private party transactions. Yeah. Because half the car is in here. And that's,

here I've bought private party. A lot of money. Speaking of the stereotypes of a Bentley purchaser, what are the stereotypes of people that drive other cars? It's funny because there's like the stereotypes that I think the outside the car world people see. They see Lamborghini. The stereotype would be gold chains. You know, just like, look at me, big time ego. The funny thing is that in my experienced the Lamborghini owners are actually some of the nicest, most normal, easiest, friendliest people to hang out with. Whereas Ferrari owners are snobby. Look at me. I'm too good for you. You know, even the dealership are different too. Buying car parts are harder at Ferrari. Like, you know, you go to the Lamborghini dealership. Everyone's like, what's up, dude? You know,

good to see you. You know, the kids come into the dealership. Hey, you guys want to sit in the car. you go to the Ferrari dealership, they won't even sometimes talk to you. And when they do, they're, you know, a little bit demeaning and rude to you as well. Not every Ferrari year of a lot of them are. And a lot of owners are that way. Like, we'll do drives with a bunch of supercars. There might be 15 Lamborghinis, a dozen Porsches, Aston Martins, and like one Ferrari. So like the Ferrari owners tend to like keep to themselves and stay in their little, in their little group more often than not. Modifying Ferraris is like kind of look down upon as well. So Ferrari, I don't know, Ferrari owners probably fit the stereotype the most, I think, whereas most the other

car brands are pretty like, I don't know, I don't know. I'd say this overall, Porsche is known for being the enthusiast car from what I can tell overall. Well, what's interesting about Porsche. Porsche is changing dramatically right now. Like you go back 10 years ago, the people who love Porsche were by the book enthusiast. But now Porsche has become almost like, there's obviously all the real enthusiasts. There's a lot of people that have joined the car world that want to be considered enthusiast. And they don't know anything about cars, but they know that Porsches are considered the

enthusiast cars. So they buy Porsches because they want to be considered enthusiasts. Does that make sense? Like say you have a million dollars, right? You buy your house and you have, you know, your watch and your iPhone and you want to come across as like successful and genuine and a real car guy. What are you going to buy? A GT3RS. Because the entire car community is going to bow down to you as being a genuine true car enthusiast. So what's weird is that 10 years ago, those were the enthusiast cars that the wannabe ego,

look at me, car guys, bought Lamborghinis. But now it's almost switched in a weird way, if that makes sense. Yeah. And what do you think about investment grade cars? Like what cars do you think exist today that would be a good investment long term or even treating cars like an investment? Doug DeMere has been very outspoken that cars are not investments and should never be treated as investments. I disagree with that. I mean, I've built an entire YouTube channel, entire career with cars with nothing. I bought a Lamborghini guy auto and turned it into, you know, $6 million car collection. I don't think he's talking about content creators. I think he's talking about the average person who's on maybe cars and bids and like, I'm going to make money with this.

However, and I see it from that standpoint as well, but in this day and age, I think you have to leverage your social media score or whatever you want to call it into everything you buy. And that that can be included in an investment. But if we take, let's take that out. Yeah. Let's take social media out entirely. I have bought a handful of cars that I have known with 100% certainty are going to go in value, just like the same mindset you'd have with real estate.

that manual mercy of logo I paid $2.75 for that car, I knew with 100% certainty it was going to go up in value. How did you know that? I've been a car guy in a whole life. I love cars. I know exactly what cars are going to go up in value. They're the cars that when you were a little kid, you saw them and your jaw hit the ground. Those are the cars that are going to go up in value. So what are we looking at today that is undervalued? I'll give you my list. The Accura NSX. The. new one. Which? The new one. Okay. I think it's underappreciated. I think it's a really good value. Right. The original Audi R8 that's a manual transmission. The V8 one. Yep. I've been wrong about this so far. The Tesla Roadster.

Okay. You haven't been entirely, they've gone up a little. They peaked. They peaked. I bought, I bought mine at the peak. Okay. And they've been slowly going down since then. Yeah. The Ford G.T. I think is a good one. Which generation? 2005. Okay. 2005 and 6. That's probably about it that I think is, oh, in the Honda S-2000. So I will say there's a couple factors that are the most important.

And then not the number one factor, but obviously production number. I mean, that's everything, right? Supply and demand is everything. The reason the manual mercialogos have gone up so much in value is because a mercielago at its core is very, very, very rare. Then you break it down to the manual transmission, also very, very, very rare. So that car is obviously going to be worth a lot, especially as the brands evolve and change over time. So Lamborghini is a brand. And I usually speak with Lamborghini because I feel more of an expert on the brand because I've owned so many.

Lamborghini, they built, you know, 4,000 Mercilagos from beginning to end from 2002 to 2010. So very, very low production number. And now you have the Hurricanes where they've built, you know, 14 to 20,000 of them. So just that alone just shows that the Lamborghini brand is getting so strong. strong, so strong, so strong, those guys that have those new Lamborghinis are going to eventually want to have the older ones as well, right? Like, especially as you become collectors, you're going to want to get the whole lineup of cars. So that's going to drive the value up on the older cars that are very, very rare. So rarity is always a very, very important factor. If you're to name three cars today that you feel like over the next 10 years would be great investments, what are those cars

at any price point? Right, right, right, right. Okay, so an interesting car. And obviously, the manufacturers play a huge role in this, right? But the Mark 5 Supra, the manual transmission, Mark 5 Super is very, very rare. Now, if Toyota continues, if let's say next year they, they unveil another manual super and they build 10,000 of them, this will be wrong. But right now, finding a manual super is almost impossible. and I think someday, you know, in 10 years when the Mark 5 is more appreciated, like the Mark

Super gets all the love, all the attention. But I think the Mark 5 at some point will get its day. I think the manual ones will be worth lock because they're so incredibly rare. It's such a unique piece to have. Now, I'm not saying this car is going to be worth like, you know, hundreds and hundreds of thousands, but, you know, let's say it's worth 50 grand. Maybe you could get one for 130 grand, right, in a couple years. Or in 10 years. years, let's say. So I like that one. You know, I don't, I don't follow the car market as closely as probably some people, especially like I really follow the hypercar market. Like, I'm very in tune with the hypercar market. And the Koenigzegg, you know, we talked about that earlier. There's a reason that I bought the car when I did. And I stretched the budget so incredibly far. Because to me, the Koenigieg Agar is the car that car that's when I discovered them. That's when most people discovered them. Top speed production car world record. The McLaren F1 has proved that method. And, and, far as, you know, appreciation. So I think, I think the Konexeg, but once again, a lot of it depends on what the manufacturer does in the future, right? You know, Konigseg building the new Jamera,

that's going to up the production of the entire car company, like double overnight. If they, you know, if they unveil more and more and more cars, you know, that'll change the perception of the brand. If they introduce an entry level car, that'll change the brand as well. And so there's so many factors that are outside of our control that determine whether these cars, you know, continue to go up in value. I think that Lamborghini as a brand is a really, really undervalued brand. I think the Kuntosh. Kuntosh just have started to see their day. You know, I bought my car for 475 and it's probably worth like 600-ish maybe. But when you think of like, you know, you look at the comparable cars, you know, Lamborghini is one of the biggest automotive

manufacturers in the world as far as perception, right? As far as like brand damage, like people see Lamborghini. And the Kuntosh is the car. That is in my mind sort of the car, the flagship Lamborghini. Every Lamborghini after that was inspired by the Kuntosh. You have the Murah that was a very special car, but I think Kuntosh put Lamborghini on the map. And you can pick up their flagship car. There's 2,000 of them in the world, and you can pick it up for half a million dollars. Then you look at Ferrari. You look at the comparable car, which would be the F40. They build, about 1,200 F40s, and those cars are trading for

$3 to $4 million. So you have two brands that are very popular, both Italian, same kind of car that put each on the map, same era, the Ferrari's worth $3 million,

and the Kuntosh's worth $500. So I feel like the Kuntosh definitely has room to go up a lot. And Doug Demiro has one, and I think for the same reasoning. Yeah. He used to see him one, right? It's wide all right.

Yeah, yeah, he tried to buy mine. Did he actually? I mean, loosely. He texted me. He was like, would you ever sell your kuntosh? I was like, nope. He's like, that's what I thought. I'm going to buy one. Why didn't you give them a high number? Say yes, 800 grand. It's yours. Throw out a number where it's like you don't know, I mean, Doug and I are friends first off.

Yeah. Like, I mean, I don't want to rip somebody off. I know. But like, if somebody offered me, you know, a million dollars for my Lotus, I'm not going to do that. I just feel bad. You know what I'm saying? Like, I'm not going to do that. But see, I think everything would have a price. And you just say, hey, okay. If someone pays you 10 million for this. For sure. Of course. Of course. So it's like. Now, this car would make sense. Yes. But I also know that Doug is a smart guy.

He's a friend of mine. Like, there's, there's a lot of white kuntoshes out there. There's enough white kuntoshes out there. I'm not ready to sell mine. I'm not going to sell it at a discount. I'm also not going to sell it. I'm not going to try to rip off the guy. And I'm not even going to suggest that he pays me $750,000.

Because to me, it's almost rude to do that because he's educated. He knows the market. I think he was hoping to probably just get the car for market value. And, you know, I had just gotten the car. I've only owned it for, at the time, maybe a year or so. And I'm still enjoying the car. And, and, you know, I don't buy cars necessarily for investment reasons. I've been lucky on a couple of them. I've predicted a couple of them. But I also buy the cars that I like. And an investment, you never really make the money unless you

sell the car. So, like, the mercy of log is worth double what I paid for it, but it doesn't really matter because I'm never going to sell a car. Yeah. How do you decide what cars to buy? Purely off passion. Really? Yep. Just what I love. Do you not think, like, is this going to do well on YouTube? Like do you go in with like. So I mean like there's there's two kind of thought processes. There's some cars that I buy for me and there's some cars that I buy for YouTube. And you know, I just sold a Nissan Z yesterday actually. That was a car that I really bought for YouTube purposes. You know, I thought it would do well. It was a new car. There was a lot of modifications that I could do to the car. And so I bought it for that reason. And I got the car and I did enjoy it. Like it was fun. I didn't

drive it all the time. And I enjoyed it. And then I sold it. And that was great. And, And it was a fun moment in time on YouTube. But I definitely didn't buy that car as one of my ultimate dream cars. Whereas the Kuntosh or the Espada, the Aspata is the perfect example of a car that I bought for me that YouTube could care less about. YouTube could not care about that car whatsoever. But when I was a little kid, I just thought it was cool. And when it popped up for sale, I just had to buy it. And I filmed maybe one or two videos with that car. And it's fun. And, you know, I think the audience learned about the car, car that they never heard. about, but for YouTube, that was not a YouTuber car. That was a me car. And then a lot of cars are

a hybrid. You know, what's so cool is the Eventador is one of my favorite cars in the entire world. And it also happens to be pretty much the perfect YouTube. Yeah, I would agree. Yeah, I mean, and that's why I have two of them. I love, and I want a third one. Like, I love the Eventador so much. It's, it's just all around the best at everything, business-wise and personal-wise. What do you think is the most overrated car? Oh, man. This has been going around a lot on Instagram lately. So everybody has been saying the GT3RS is the most overrated car. And I think it's very important to understand the meaning of overrated. Right. When I say the GT3RS is overrated, it is an amazing car. It is an incredible car. It is one of the best track cars of all time.

But the term overrated is saying that the car is rated higher than it is worth, right? Effectively. a GT3RS is trading for what half a million dollars maybe in this amazing car but i just don't think it's it's worth half a million dollars and i don't track my cars i'm not a track guy so that means nothing to me i like to drive my cars on the street i don't care about lap times that car at 300 grand is an incredible car and that's where Porsche priced the car they they stated the value of it and it's going for half a million out the door i would say that's that's overrated from a valuation standpoint Let's do overrated and underrated for certain cars, all right? Yes.

Okay. Cybertruck. I mean, obviously, overrated. I mean, like, talking about the biggest gimmick, right? Cybertruck? Yeah, I would say so. I think it's pretty cool. I think it's cool, but cool and overrated are different.

Right. Because everyone thinks it's very high. Some people say that it looks horrible, though. Like, I feel like that's a pretty large contingent of people that feel that way. So would that make it overrated? because the general consensus is probably that it's pretty cool. I think it's cool, but I think it's overrated in the sense of all the hype

and everybody paying over for it. Like I guess I'm looking at it from an evaluation standpoint. The one thing with a cyber truck is right now, it's really, really cool. And the novelty of it is what makes it cool, is that it's so different. But imagine a world in four years when there are cyber trucks everywhere.

Is the novelty going to completely have worn off? And then we'll see it for how, ugly it is. No, ugly doesn't mean it's not cool, though. I have the Ospata is ugly, but that's cool, I think. Okay, Nissan Z series. I think the, the, well, it's weird because the, so I had the new Nissan Z and I just sold it. And the audience overall wasn't very impressed with it. But I thought it was a really fun car to drive. It was really fast. I thought it, it looked really good in person. It didn't photograph well. So in a weird way, I would say that car is kind of, underrated in a sense, at least the new one. But I just sold it because I didn't like it that much.

But it got more hate than it deserved. Does that make sense? Like it didn't deserve as much hate. It could deserve a little bit of hate, but not as much hate. What about a PT cruiser? That is probably the worst car I have ever driven in my life. I've driven a PT cruiser. It's legit. I mean, the build quality on that thing is awful. Why? I'd have to make it look like it look like. that too. I mean, oh, don't, yeah. It was crazy for its time, though. They did a convertible P.T. Cruiser, bro. You should get one of those. You should get one of those and trick it up. Oh my gosh. What would you do to trick it up? Rims. Spinner. Drive it off of Liff. Grand Canyon or lower it. Stance it. I think maybe you guys should do a spinoff channel that's a car channel and you can start with a PT Cruiser. You guys do that.

Huge wing. I've I've done enough gimmicks. I'm kind of over the gimmick. I had a Jeepergini. The gimmicks. The PT Cruiser. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Lamborghini Gallardo. Oh my gosh. One of the most underrated cars. Oh my, especially a manual. Especially a manual. It is such a phenomenal car. And they're so, that's a good, good option for an undervalued car too, a manual garado. They just like, I think that, you know, there's a, there's a certain contingency that just loves the new stuff, right? Like new stuff is always better, always better, always better, always better, always better. But the new stuff has become so mind-numbing. It all feels the same.

I mean, you get in a brand new, let's say, Huracan, you get in a brand-new 720s, a brand-new GT3. You know, they all have, you know, the double-clutch transmission. They all have 600 horsepower. You know, they're all perfect. The cars are so dialed in now. They're so good that in a way they don't have as much soul.

like the newer stuff. And you could say that the Gallardo has less soul than a Kuntosh, right? Like, I think as cars, you know, develop and get better and better and better, you lose the soul more and more each time. And the gyardo to me is just like, it's kind of one of those end of the ear cars. You know, it has that, whether it's a manual or even an E gear, like the yellow one behind me is an E gear. And the E gear has its flaws, but you can kind of fall in love with the car because of the flaws. It's got an NAV10. It sounds incredible, especially the first gen's. I think the looks, especially the first gen, they are aging like a fine wine. I mean, every single time I see a first-gen, Gallardo, it just looks better and better and better. And at a hundred grand, I mean, you're getting a car that has the Audi influence that's well-built, that has decent reliability, you got good performance. You still have a little bit of Lamborghini soul in it. I think it's just like a really nice blend. It's a great entry-level car. I love the

guyardo. What about a Toyota Prius? The new Prius. I love it. I love it. I love it. I like it. I'm so good looking. It is, I mean, talk about 180 degree turnaround. I agree. You know, I mean, that, that, that car, I want to, I want to see one with a wide body kit

lowered on air. So I was on, it's such a good looking car from every angle. This is going to sound so lame. I was on Prius chat.com. And they were comparing the value of the new Prius versus a new Tesla Model 3. And the Prius overwhelmingly

one when you looked at the price, if you're doing long distance driving. So for road trips, the Prius one. For, you know, town driving, Tesla was better. But it's an incredible value right now. I really, really, really like it. And it's beautiful. Yeah. I mean, for lack, like, it's beautiful. And, you know, I'm not looking to knock Tesla's, but, you know, Tesla has stuck with the same design language for forever. I mean, like the four, the big four that they have, right? They all look the same. you know the the model s the model three is a squished version of the s the model y is a extended version of the s and then the the model y is an extended version of model three did i say that right almost yeah you know what i'm saying they're all iterations of each other yes right whereas the preas

is like a clean slate design like it looks just amazing i thought that's underrated yeah yeah very underrated yeah very very very underrated what about a fisker karma it's such a beautiful car like like like vision it's a great look like I think it looks really nice but it's a terrible car it's just a terrible car so I guess that would underrated, overrated it's just awful

looks good though probably overrated I guess it'd be overrated the only thing that people are reading it high though well they think about Justin Bieber well right right right right right right no people still think about it I feel like when if they do know about Fisker

I do think of Beber's chrome Fisker one what there was some video where paparazzi were like following him or something and the call and he said he was in a Fisker and the 911 operator was like, what? And he's like, it's a Fisker. And he's like, she did, yeah, it was really funny. Yeah, I mean, like I said, I think it's beautiful looking.

I think it had huge potential. But I, and I don't know the full story of Fisker, but I'd love to take the tech of a Tesla and put it in the body of a Fisker. I think that'd be really cool. All right, we're almost done here. Lucid Air. I think those are, I've never, I've never driven a lucid air.

every time I see one though it kind of has this weird like Rolls-Roycey like mystique vibe to it whenever you see one driving by you're like who's driving that thing? Like it just has this dark, cool, futuristic look to it when it's going down the road. I haven't driven one though.

I do think that's a car that will depreciate a ton though. I think it's going to follow the Bentley trend sort of because I think the buyer is only going to want it when it's brand new and because the third party network is so bad for charging cars, I could just see that tanking in value, but I think they're cool. What about Hellcat? Oh, I love Hellcat.

God bless America. I mean, I have to say, like, Dodge, Mopar, Chrysler, whoever the group is, like, they have done such a fantastic job of kind of like staying true to their roots when every other manufacturer is caving into EV and hybrid. And I just love the fact that they have since changed. like the new Challenger is, I think, an EV. But just the Hellcat. I mean, like 700 horsepower.

They put the Hellcat engine in the Challenger. They even put it in the SUV, the Durango. Those things are so cool. That was cool. That's so, so, so cool. So yeah, I'm a big fan of the Hellcat. My Gladiator, my Six-by-Six gladiator has a Hellcat in it. So I would say that those are, I'm not going to say overrated.

I don't think underrated. I think there's a very passionate following for him that respect them. I love a Hellcat. last one g wagon okay so the price point on the new g wagon especially like during covid oh gosh 280 grand just obscene obscene amount there's the squares too the g squareds those are trading for four hundred thousand dollars at that price point it's just absolutely out of control but like an old g squared you can get for like 170k or like an older g wagon i like the build quality always love mercedes I've never actually owned a Mercedes,

but I can almost guarantee certainly the first Mercedes I'll ever have will be a G-Wagon. I want to get a squared someday, like the older generation, I'm squared. So back in 2020, when we did our original podcast, you were pretty open about your income.

Yes. How has it changed over the last four years? Because I think from everyone I've talked to, everything has kind of gone down since then. Really? Has that been... Really? Okay.

Well, I guess the finance, Mitch, went up so much, that it just, it was abnormally high for a while, because that's the content people were watching. For sure, for sure. And I totally understand that during COVID. I didn't actually see a spike or a decline during COVID in audience at all. My channel is in a very weird position that I'm happy about, but I also don't fully understand. I've been averaging the same amount of views almost every single video for like four or five years. Almost every single video is between nine, thousand and 1.1 million views consistently every single video for years. Of course, I've had a video that's gone over, a couple videos have gone under, but on average, it's always the same. And the ad revenue

is the same. I want to say on that podcast, I probably said I was making two million a year. Two million a year in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, projecting for 2020, like literally the exact, almost to a T. You know what? It's crazy. It's, that's the sort of consistent. that people would dream to have. For sure. It could also be demotivating because you don't see progress that every year you just want to do

a little more than the last to say you did it. There's nothing better than growing. I mean, the old saying is if... You're not growing. You're dying, right? And yeah, I mean, the first couple of years on YouTube

when I was growing really, really fast was so much fun. It was so addicting because you're improving in so many ways and the audience is appreciating that improvement by engaging more, watching your videos longer, interacting, you know, views are going up. It allows you to buy more cars, do crazier things. So from a creativity standpoint, it opens all these

different avenues. And then, you know, you hit this plateau. And you're right. I'd rather plateau than fall off. But it is, it is a little bit like, you know, you're still, you're still chasing that growth, right? And so you're trying these new things like, you know, you're doing this crazy real build here. or you're going to this crazy location there and you still get the same, like it's still the exact same. But at the same, at the same nice,

same time, like the consistency, the, the, I don't know, it's, yeah, I mean,

and for ad spots, it's amazing, you know, working for sponsorships. I can guarantee a certain level of views almost every single video. Um, but growth growth is fun.

You always want to grow. We were talking earlier about your overhead and how you do everything yourself. Yes. Yes. That's something that I really admire. And I think Jack and I were talking about this a long time ago, just like when it comes to overhead and like stress running a business,

that you just do it in such a way where it doesn't seem overwhelming. Right, right. It's complete control over everything you do. Yeah. Do you think, yeah. That's always been the goal. I think back on that podcast, I said it, the goal was never this.

the goal is to get one Lamborghini. Like that was what I was shooting for. And I'm just so fortunate to have everything that I have that the last thing I ever want to get caught doing in life is sacrificing the other things that I love in my life to make more money. And, you know, money is good. Money is bad in so many different ways that it allows freedom, but I think it can also sour the heart in the brain.

You know, you can get so caught up in the pursuit of money. And one thing that I really love about my YouTube channel is that the roots are so innocent. I started my YouTube channel. There was no goal of making money because I didn't even know you could. I kind of sort of fell into it. I was passionate about cars. And then once I realized you could make money, obviously I went very strategic. I took a business approach to it. You know, I've made decisions to maximize that for sure. but I never want the money to be the purpose. So I don't want to sacrifice the creativity in the videos to make more money. And I definitely could because if I hired a team, I could produce more volume.

I could make more videos. But I think the quality of the videos would go down and it wouldn't have the personal connection that I love about YouTube. Because when YouTube first started, it was this, you know, just a couple guys, you know, talking to a camera in a very, not, I don't want to say, amateur way. This is an amateur, but like, you know, YouTube has become so corporate now, right? You have these teams. You have, you know, these conglomerates that are building these YouTube empires where they have, you know, 50 camera guys and a dozen editors and, you know, they're spending, you know, half a million dollars on a video. And then, you know, there's me holding a camera doing the filming, the editing, the directing, the producing, the acting, the scripting, the, you know, financing the project independently as well,

all just me. And that's what YouTube always used to be. And I miss those days, honestly. I feel like YouTube has become so corporate. And in my own way, I'm trying to like hold on to that, that whole mentality. You know why? It's just because there's so much competition. There is. There are so many more people making videos today and they're making videos at such a high level. Right. I know in the finance space, when I was doing content, there was nothing. that existed on the terms of like passive income, real estate investing, stock market investing, so few videos that if you made one at the time you'd rank like top three on search, your video would get recommended. Now you're up against people who will spend six months

making one video. And that video is so good that anyone who's posting on a consistent basis, they can't keep up. Like that video is so perfect that that's going to do the best. And so because of that, the competition is just, it's exhausting. Oh, it is. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I mean, it's, I mean, when, when I first started my automotive YouTube career, you know, I would reach out to a lot of these car owners, right? And I'd be like, hey, would it be possible if I can just like come film a video of your car collection? And, you know, this was back in the infancy of social media. And a lot of these guys were like, yeah, of course, you know, like they didn't get hit up very often, right? And, and I would go there

and I'd do my, you know, little thing where I'm talking to the camera and they probably thought it was like cute or whatever, right? Like, oh, you know, he's, he's a little kid, he's passionate. I love it. Those same guys now have YouTube channels, you know? Like, it's crazy. Corporations have YouTube channels. I mean, it's, it's unbelievable the car world. I mean, when I first started, you know, you had, you had Robert Himmler, you had Schmey 150, you had Brian Zook, you know, Doug DeMurro was pretty early, I was pretty early, I know I'm missing a couple guys. And now I couldn't even name. Vehicle versions. Vehicle versions. Yeah. I couldn't even name all the automotive of YouTubers with even even at a million subs, there's so many. And then you, like, every day I find a

new channel has half a million subs that's in the automotive space. And then you add TikTok, you add Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat. I mean, it's just gotten crazy how much competition there is in that sense. So how do you balance it? Because I've noticed you posting a little less lately. Yeah, yeah. Well, one thing, one thing that has gotten harder is that I feel like I have done everything in the car world that I can, that I want to do. There are. certain things that I could do that I don't want to do if that makes sense. But, you know, I've been doing this for 12 years. I've filmed over a thousand videos. You know, I've modified cars. I've owned so many cars. You know, I've done every wide body kit. I've done engine mods.

I've done top speed videos. I put cars on tracks. It's harder and harder to come up with interesting things to film. As much as I love, hate how consistent my YouTube channel is, I really want to maintain the consistency. And so you never want to post a video that does bad. It's hard to try new things that might not perform, especially as YouTube becomes me. You know, it's the end of day, it is still somewhat of a business. And, you know, you have, you have sponsors that, you know, want to promote their products on your videos. And, you know, I love the sponsors that I work with. And I want the videos to perform well as well. So the last thing I want to do is have a video bomb by trying something new or doing something different. And yeah,

it just gets, it gets harder and harder to come up with new ideas. And I still love the creativity of YouTube. And so I also want to do new things. And so sometimes like, I could film this video and it probably would do well, but I'm not as excited about it. Sometimes I'm like, I'm just not going to film it, you know. I think there was one time you went a month. Was it a month without posting? Well, there was one time in 2019, 2020, I got sick and it was 17 days. That was early January. But I think the longest, I think that's still the longest is 17 days. Sometimes less is more, too, though. It feels more like an occasion or an event when a video pops up versus some of the,

some of the corporate channels post videos every single day. Can we talk about what you mentioned earlier about your voice? Yes, absolutely. This is shocking to me that you mentioned that you could only film so much because your voice goes out because you're so high energy on camera. You're getting old. Ages catching up with me. But you say, like, you don't want to do like that sort of high energy anymore? So a lot of people will see me in this podcast and then they'll see me on my YouTube channel. And they'll be like, it's not the same person. Like what's going on? Like I don't understand. This isn't the same James we know and love. Like some people, some people call me a fraud or a fake on my YouTube channel that I'm not who I really am in real life, etc. etc. And you know, my Stradman persona is an inflated version of myself. And a lot of times people will see me in a collab setting.

right where I'm filming with with you or I'm filming with shmee 150 or the Hamilton collection and you know everybody has their their different style and I'm going to match that style right I'm not going to I'm not going to try to overtake I'm not going to try to you know steal the spotlight from somebody else I'm going to match the energy of the channel that I am on now when I first kind of started YouTube I took a very analytical approach and the analytic that I paid the most attention to was watch time watch time percentage You post a 12 minute video. If people are watching it for two minutes, that means they weren't engaged very much.

They're watching it for 10 minutes. They probably really enjoyed the video. And I realized, like, the talk, the faster you talk, the longer the watch time is. If you're cutting from scene to scene to scene to scene, and a lot of people see that high energy personality and they're like, that's not, that's not him, though. He's faking it. But what they don't ever see is like, when I'm hanging out with my friends at Red Robin and we're having a bacon cheeseburger with bottomless fries. It's the boys. And we're just having the

time of our lives for eight minutes right then. You'll see me Stradman with my friends. And I've figured out a way to bottle that up and put that on camera. So that's like the best way I can describe the persona. Now the issue that I've run into is that I'm getting old. I'm getting so old. I've been on YouTube for, you know, 12 years or whatnot. And my, I'm not saying my health is deteriorating, but that high energy, like you're talking loud. Like you're trying to command attention. You're talking to a camera also. For people who haven't seen your channel,

could you give us an example just for like 15 seconds? Yes, sir, yes sir. Of like talk to the camera as though you were on your... Of course, all right. And just like that, we're back, baby. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the channel and welcome back to the vlog. We're here with Graham Stephan,

the one and only who has a 4GT that he has to drive way more than he does. He drives it once a month, is. We gotta make that twice a month. That's really good. Not even stumbling over your words. It's weird. I mean, I've just done it.

I've done it for so long. That was one of the things when we film that Tesla Bugatti video. Right, right, right. I remember you're like, oh, hold on, I gotta film something. And you just flip the camera around and do a one take wonder for like 45 seconds out of the window of the car. And then just put it back and you're like, all right. I was blown away. Like, I would see that.

I would take probably 20 takes to do that. Right, right, right. Well, and that's what a lot of people don't see, though, is that lots of times, so my channel is all about rhythm and flow. And one of the hardest things that I deal with is an intro because I have to get in that rhythm. So you guys flew in that day or whatever you drove up. I had probably done 15 intros before you got there. So I had already kind of like started to get in that rhythm, get in that flow. And I've been doing it a long time. I've gotten better. I've really mastered it. They always say, is it 10,000 hours? Is that the thing? I've spent 10,000 hours. kind of, you know, crafting this Stradman persona, if you will. And it's, and it's very natural. The only thing that I've run into is that sometimes, like, you know, I'm talking really loud on camera, my voice. I can, like, strain my vocal cords. And that's been hurting me lately. And so I've, I've been trying to kind of like, you know, tone down the persona a little bit, mainly just for that reason. You know, that's crazy for me. I think I've, I might have, like,

permanently damaged my vocal cords from filming so much. Because when you look at my old videos, My voice is lower. Oh, interesting. My voice has changed two. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So my voice used to be a lot lower. What's up, YouTube? It's Graham here.

I'm going to make a video today of the easiest tips that you can do to be successful in real estate. Because I wasn't, like, screaming or shout out. I think when I was filming, no, seriously, because sometimes I'd be filming like three videos a day. And when I'm filming a main channel video, I spend about an hour and a half filming that. If I'm doing two reaction videos, obviously, like, everything is like this. Of course. But when you do that for hours. It's a one-way conversation.

So, but when you're doing that for hours, for seven years, I think I've strained my voice to a point where it doesn't go back to the same range it was in, like, 2016. You very well could have if you listen to your old videos. Yeah, I mean, your voice is a lot deeper. Yeah. But I think that's, that's it. It was just because I would yell. Right.

And unknowingly, I haven't been trying to change my voice, but you go watch my own videos. I talk different. It's a different wavelength or decibel level, whatever it is. Like, it's different. It's weird. I've also heard this theory, though, that as you get older, your voice naturally gets higher. I thought it would get lower as you get older. I've heard that it gets higher.

Could everybody, I mean, we can look this up. I just, I heard about it. Actually, it was like a month ago. I don't know if it was like a YouTube video or something like that. But who knows, we can look it up, put this stuff right here. If anything, it's probably from vocal strain. Yeah, I think so. Also, is it Bugatti or Bugatti?

Because Graham says Bugatti. I say Bagadi. Bugatti. I don't even, wow. I'm question. You say it however you want. I think it's a bagadi, Bugatti,

Veyron. Bugatti Veyron. Because Graham says Bougatty. I mean, I might be saying it wrong too. It's Frank. And is it Porsche or is it Porsche? Porsche.

This one's tough. This one's tough. Okay, so I say Porsche as well. Now, I realize if you're German, it's Porsche. I agree. But to an American, it's Porsche. I know the Porsche people

are going to be mad that I say that. What's your thought on that, though? Why do you say Porsche? It sounds more natural. Like, it sounds, it sounds douchey to say like, oh, that's a Porsche. Right. Exactly. But there's a connotation that comes along with here.

It sounds like vocal fry is what it is. It's like Valley Girl kind of Porsche. Maybe. I don't know. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it. Here in the United States, it makes it sound like you're trying to make it seem fancier than it actually is. Exactly.

Amen, brother. Uh, Porsche just rolls off the tongue here, even if it's not pronounced correctly. Right, right. Agreed. Agreed. Yeah. I mean, there's all sorts of words. And I can.

can't necessarily think of any off the top of my head that like, you know, a German speaker would say different than an English speaker. Like when you say Porsche, that's saying it with an English accent. When you say Porsche, that's saying it with a, I don't know. I don't know what I'm trying to say. I say Porsche though. My audience always gets triggered. And every once in I'll say Porsche. If I'm with a Porsche guy, I'll say Porsche though. But if I'm with a Porsche guy, I say Porsche. And you know what kind of guys I'm talking about, right? That's fair. Exactly. The other thing I really want to talk about is this house. Yes.

This was something we initially started talking about. I've been waiting for this moment. We made this bet. And you said it would take you 18 months from the time of construction until you spent the first night at the house. And I said it would take more than 18 months. How long did it actually take? You know, it's very funny because did we make a bet on that? We did.

Was it $1,000? Are we adjusting for inflation? We should. It's been a long time. Yeah. Now with inflation, that would have been like three grand. So here's what's so funny about that. It is within days of 18 months.

I'm dead serious. And I know that my construction loan had an 18-month term. I made it by like a week. Did you actually? Graham thought he was going to be raking it into it. I am almost certain it's like 17 months and like 20 days. But before any months, is, you know, sent my way.

I really need, I really, really need to look at the dates. Okay. Because I think the term, I know the term of the construction loan is 18 months, so it had to have been less. I was actually really, really nervous that I wasn't going to make the deadline. And if I wouldn't have made the deadline, supposedly they could have foreclosed on the house. I don't know if it ever had gone to that.

They wouldn't. I don't think they would have, but I guess they could have. I could have been in a sticky situation where if, like, the construction loan company was, I don't know. Foreclosure process takes such a long. Well, I know, I know. And that's why, because I'd never owned a house or built a house before, I didn't know how serious it was.

I just knew I didn't want to deal with it. And we beat it because I think October 1st was the date. And I think I moved in like September 20th, give or take. I think I did it. I'm pretty sure. Let's take a look. How much did that cost you? The house?

Yeah. How much are you in my house? It's crazy. So I built my house. I'm nearly certain at about. the worst moment in time and probably the last, man, 10, 20, 30 years, maybe. Probably 50 years. Yeah. I mean, like, and when I say the worst time, like, the start date was about the worst time and the finished date was about the worst time. Like, if I would have finished

it six months later, if I would have started it six months later and finished six months later, I probably would have been better on both ends. Interest rates ate me alive. I made a mistake in which I got a construction loan and then turned that into a normal mortgage. I should have gotten one loan that was both, if that makes sense. I'm not like the smartest guy when it comes to these things, but the interest rate when I started construction was like 2.99% and I ended up locking in at like five and a half, which is better than it could have been, I guess.

It could have been 7, 8%. So that hit me pretty hard, but the cost of lumber went absolutely crazy. The cost of steel went crazy. Concrete went crazy. I was approximately a million dollars over budget on this house. So the original budget was around. 2 million and by the time we finished it was 3 million. But the caveat is that it was a million

dollars over, but the original budget included the house finished. And at 3 million, the house still wasn't finished, but I was able to move in. So when it's all set and done, I'll probably be closer to a million and a half over budget. Because, you know, the house as it stands now, you know, the whole, the basement, the underground garage is completely unfinished. A lot of the main house, like you saw in the kitchen, there's a couple things missing here. And there. There's some holes in the drywall that need to be patched. You know, there's no accent walls or ceilings of any kind. So there's still a lot to do in the house. But I'm, I'm like, I don't want to come across as a complainer because I'm so incredibly grateful that I'm

able to afford this house. I'm also very, very grateful that I was able to cover that million dollars by filming YouTube content. I was able to leverage the construction of the house into YouTube videos, all the rough things that happened that was, that was truly bad timing like COVID with, with prices. Like, I acknowledged that on my videos and people thought that was really interesting. And that allowed me to create more content on the house that helped me pay and offset that million dollars over. Now, this is interesting because you talked about it. And I've had the same experience of people seeing you, they see the cars that could look you up online and they charge you more because they just say he could afford it.

So I'm going to inflate my prices 20%. How do you deal with that? Do you combat that? Do you shop around more? What's been your experience? Well, thankfully, my two general contractors, brothers, high country homes, shout out to them. They did an awesome job managing the project for me.

So they really good dudes. Their cousin is a buddy of mine. They're just like genuine dudes with good work ethic. and a lot of integrity. And I really trusted them. And, and they helped me navigate that a lot because, you know, they're older guys that I think did the project more out of passion, more so than money. Obviously, they still got paid. But they did a great job, you know, with their subcontractors, whatnot keeping that in line. What was really interesting, though, is, you know, after I moved into the house, the house still needed a lot of work, landscaping, the fence, you know, the garage floors. You know,

there's all sorts of things that have been done since they kind of walked away from the project. And that was when I really realized the value of what they provided. Because now, you know, when I'm working with all these other contractors to get other stuff done, I mean, some of the quotes that I'm getting are absolutely out of control. I mean, just like, it's just laughable some of the things that these people send me. One of the things that I've done is I've tried to do as much work myself that I can, you know, like landscaping. Like paying a landscaper to do a bunch of stuff, no, I'll just mow the lawn. I'll do the weeds myself. I'm not going to pay somebody. you know, $1,000, $2,000 every two weeks to weed my yard, right? That's ridiculous. I'll do it

myself. So that's one of the ways I've combated it. And the other way is just getting multiple quotes. Like, that's the only way to do it. The hard part that I've run into is like, when I take a car to a car dealership and something's broken, I know what it should cost because I'm an expert in that field. I've, I've loved cars for 20, 30 years, right? Like, I know the industry. But when it comes to houses, I don't know anything. Like, I've never owned a house before this place. So when it comes to building costs or, you know, the cost of installing a sprinkler system or landscaping or epoxy on garage floors, like, you just don't have that knowledge, right? And so a lot of it has just been getting multiple quotes. And that's been really hard because I hate getting

ripped. Yeah. We had Jason Oppenheim on the podcast. And he completely changed my perspective on getting ripped off. He called it almost like an extra tax that he has to pay for the convenience of getting it done. And he doesn't look at it as getting ripped off. And he doesn't look at it as getting ripped off. because I would be the same way. I would get a quote for someone to replace a valve in the toilet that was leaking. And on my duplex, it was in a really, you know, seedy part of town. It was not the very up and coming, not the best area. And they'd come and they'd give me a price on that.

And then when I move, the new price in a nicer area, all of a sudden seemed to triple. And it's a 20-minute drive between the places. The work didn't triple. The cost is the exact same. It's the same toilet. Of course. So why did it triple? Well, the area.

That's it. They priced the area. Yep. And so Jason made the argument that, well, yet, you can't spend your time negotiating, going back and forth. Is it a good use of your time? Is that going to stress you out? If so, just pay the cost and that is your tax.

For sure, 100%. I mean, opportunity costs. We all learned about that at some point in economics, right? Like, it is a real thing. And, of course, you have to factor that in at some point. And then there are other times where you're just like, I'm not going to do it right now. I'm going to go out there and I'm going to do this myself and not get ripped off. And then you quickly realize, like, wow, I could have filmed a YouTube video and made

way more money doing this and just paid. And you're right. Getting the hardest part about, you know, especially the contracting world is getting something done. Getting contractors to come to your house on the day that they say they're going to come to your house and doing the job right the first time. It's like if you can find the contractor that can do that, pay him, right? You know, like he deserves that because he's so much better than the rest of the industry. Yeah. And so there's a handful of things around the house that you guys saw earlier that I didn't, catch because I was out of town and by the time I got home it was done and you know I'm a little bit of a yes man as well I like to please people on some level I hate confrontation especially when

you have a YouTube channel where people know you the last thing I want to do is like have a confrontation with a contractor who then tells his buddy who's a fan of the channel that ruins my reputation so you also run into this issue where you want everybody to like you all the time which is really tough yeah you have to be on site daily and that's something that I learned very early on when I was remodeling the duplex that I would show up every single day and sometimes they were supposed to get there at like 8 or 9 a.m.

and I show up at 10. No one is there. Oh, don't. What happened? Oh, yeah, they're fixing a little thing over here. Don't worry, they'll be there. What time are they going to be there? They'll be there at noon.

All right. And then if I say, okay, that's fine, I'm leaving, they'll not show up. Of course. But if I say, okay, I'm going to wait. You have to babysit. All of a sudden and they're back there at noon. Well, the hard part that I run in,

to now that I'm living in the house is if I have a contractor coming on a Tuesday, I'm going to film on Monday and Wednesday, let's say. If that contractor doesn't show up on Tuesday and then they show up on Wednesday, it ruins my ability to do my job on Wednesday because if a contractor's here and let's say, you know, whatever, they're making a ton of noise. They're doing something that allows me to not be able to film what I need to. The fact that they didn't show up, it hurts in more ways than one. And so that's why with the house now, it's like, I almost don't even want to finish it because it's such a headache to get contractors to come finish it. It just affects my workflow so awful. Do you regret making a house so public?

No. One thing with my YouTube channel, especially when I first started early on, I felt like one of my competitive advantages, if you will, how I was going to separate myself from everybody was by telling the true story. Like telling everybody everything. And I think on that Lamborghini age at 26 video, that's what it was. Like, people had never seen anybody so real. You know, because you hear a lot of people that make similar videos and they're like, oh, you know, I own 17 businesses and I invested in this and that and this and that. But they're not telling you actually real things that actually happened, right? And so ever since that success on that video, I've wanted to be very open and honest with people. And just the nature of how I film in my style is such. Like, I film everything. I film. I film. my day-to-day life, what I do. Like, it's a very interactive style of content where people really know everything about me. And filming at my house is integral in that.

And there's really not a way to film that style without just sharing everything. Yeah. On that subject, you're also very public lately with your relationship. Yes, yes. What was that conversation like of throwing someone else into the mix so publicly?

For sure. Well, Sophia and I dated for quite a while before anything was made public. So I think that's like, that's always integral, right? You know, it's such an impossible thing to navigate, though, because you're really throwing somebody into this world that they, they didn't grow into, because I grew into it, right? Like, I started off with one subscriber, and then I grew to a hundred and then a thousand and the first person recognized me, and then a hundred thousand. And, you know, three people see you at a car show. And then, you know, all of a sudden you hit a million, two million, three million. And, you know, everywhere you go,

people recognize you and then you know Sophia is she's just thrown into that mix immediately she's in one video where I introduced her and a million people see it the first video but you know she has handled it so incredibly well I mean she helped me pull a motor out of a V12 Ferrari like think about that like that is an amazing girl like that's amazing I mean she helps in so many ways she's down for whatever she loves and supports me and in the YouTube thing she she comes on the trips with me you know, there's, there's times off camera that I'm, you know, down and out or whatever. I'm not feeling good. I, you know, a video did bad or I, you know, I don't know, whatever it is. A comment gets to me and she has a way of building me up and supporting me. And, you know, and hopefully on the

flip side, you know, she's had to deal with some, you know, comments are nasty, especially when you're just thrown into it so aggressively and so quickly, but she's handled it so well. What do you think is a valid criticism of yourself because in the public eye, you're like the happiest, the nicest guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? Like the most personable and likable person, but what would you say is like a valid criticism of yourself? It's so funny because there are so many things to be critical of me right now. But as soon as you like, you put on the spot, you know, like you almost need like a little bit to think about it. But a valid of criticism, I think I could be more grateful for what I have off camera. Hmm. You know, I think it's very, very, very easy

to become so normalized to what you have and to always want like better and better and better and to not be as grateful as you should. And there are moments and it's one of those things where there's a lot of moments that I'm very grateful, but there are some moments that I'm not where I lose maybe touch with reality. Like I get so caught in my own world, right? And my own problems. And then sometimes it's, you need to take that outward perspective on what you have. But I think, I mean, every human is guilty on some level of living in their own world, right? Like, the world revolves around me. Like, I literally live in this body.

Like, of course it revolves around me, just like it does for you, Jack. And, you know, but I think, I think that definitely being more grateful. I think, you know, years and years and years ago, I was more grateful in a way. And I think just the human nature of it all, you get more accustomed to what you have. you know i mean like just like that first ride in the conigzeg versus driving it today it's just not the same you know i i'm driving the conigs egg around and you know maybe somebody cuts you off and you get mad right but the first time i rode in the car like i wouldn't have the ability to be

mad i'd just be so happy to the thing is if that didn't exist we would never progress as people right we only compare across and up right but i think gratitude is something that's completely different like that's detached from that equation you always want more meanwhile still being grateful of the things that you have. Totally. But it takes active thought to be grateful, I feel like. I feel like unless you think of it, it's hard to feel grateful. Yeah. I agree. Until you take a step back and like really frame your mind. I think it just, it comes more natural to be where does everyone else at this level, where are they at? How do I stack to them? And then what's ahead that I could work towards? But at some point, you have to be content with who

you are and where you are in life, right? Otherwise, you're always searching and always he's chasing something. Since we last talked with you like three and a half or so years ago, what would you say is the biggest perspective change that you've had? Life has gotten harder with the more success and the more money I've gotten and I've become more unhappy with the more money and the more success that I've got. Isn't that crazy? Yeah. But it's like if you tell if, you know, you say that online, every single comment be like, oh, sign me up for that. But it's like, and you hear a lot of people that make a lot of money say that though. Technically, I think there's like a curve to wealth and happiness where it's like, you know,

if you're impoverished, you're not going to be happy. If you start making a little bit more money, you're going to want more. And then you hit a certain amount. I don't know what it is. I think it's like 100 grand or 120 grand. And then slowly like, you know, it doesn't go exponential and then it it flattens out and then it starts actually dipping. I don't know what that number is, but there's science that back. Yeah, no, there is. And I mean, I think, you know, for at least my personal situation, part of it's the pressure, right? The one comment on YouTube that will get me more than anything is like bro's falling off like i i hate when people tell me i'm falling off like to me that i don't know what it is it's just like a dagger in the soul to be falling off yeah it is it's very ego yeah

and so i think that's a big part of it for me is just this pressure to just keep going keep producing content that's new that's fresh make more money buy more expensive cars this YouTuber is getting more views than you this one's getting more views than you and and you have this way of getting cut up in it and sometimes it just like it just takes so much out of you you you lose your passion and your happiness in that sense i think everybody feels the exact same way i think most i think most YouTubers have felt it and especially as it becomes more corporate and more competitive you know and lots of times i'm being compared to these YouTube channels that are corporations you know and it's just like how can i compete with those guys you know like it's it's just impossible and

you know you also like i said you don't want to fall off though either Nobody wants to like, you know, have their channel die, right? Nobody wants to become relevant and then become Mr. Irrelevant, right? Like, that's a tough thing too. So it's like, you know, for me, I've always known like I need to walk away from YouTube at some point, right? And I would ideally like to walk away when I'm still like at the top of my game, right? You know, I don't want to walk away when my channel is averaging 10,000 views of video. Like I don't, I don't want to be on the bottom end of the bell curve. I'd rather walk away when I still have something left in the tank. crazy. So I wanted to stop making YouTube videos. At first, it was January of 2023. And then in January, I thought, let me get to April. Right. Because that was my birthday. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so I figured, let me just make it through April. And then April, I just thought, well, it would be cool to make it like an even seven years on YouTube. So I'm going to go to December. I got to December. Now, at some point across that, I decided to go from three videos a week to one video a week. Right. And then I thought, well, you know, January, I may as well continue through April again.

Of course. And the cycle continues of one video week. But I thought the same thing that I didn't want the views to keep dropping and then I stop. So I was like, I want my views to like do well. And then I could stop. I think the only one who did it really well is Tom Scott. He made a video years in advance.

I think it was like two years in advance saying at this date, this is going to be my last video. Right. And it's coming. And that's it. And he stuck with it. Amazing. terrible about sticking with this, but I've said this for years, and here I am continuing one video a week. Right. I think what's hard about it is, I mean, I see my YouTube channel as like my baby, right?

Like, I mean, I've, I've built this thing out of nothing. Like, I had absolutely nothing when I started it. And I've, I've, you know, poured my soul into this blood, sweat, tears. And to just walk away when you feel like there's anything left on the table seems sad. It seems hard. And you've created such a connection with your audience and there's so many people who you know hopefully still love you and want to see you continue filming but at what point is enough enough right yeah and i know for sure when i have kids i'm not that'll be it for sure i know i won't have kids on my channel ever what's your biggest fear uh being in the ocean in the middle of the dark in the water in the open water what's your biggest realistic fear um dying alone

being lonely and you know later in life um i think that's the biggest fear is just like especially you know i've i'm older than most people i'm not married yet obviously sophia's incredible um but yeah i mean you know focusing your entire life on materialism and you know buying buying buying building building building career career career career and then at some point you find yourself later in life where you're in a hospital and i don't know you donate all your money to the the state, right? Like, something like that, I think would be my biggest fear. Would be... What about that is fearful to you? I just know that family and friends is the most important thing in this world. Relationships is the number one most important thing in this world, and it's so

easy to get caught up in the other things in this world. Obviously, I love cars. I think as I've gotten older, I understand what they are more so. I don't love them as much as I used to. Like, when I was really young. I was like obsessed, obsessed. And now I love them, probably because I've experienced him so much. Um, but yeah, I mean, I think, I think just at some point in life, regretting, focusing so much on more, more, more, more, more, more, more. But I also think it's important to have a good balance. Like, it's important to have dreams. It's important to be productive. It's important to work. It's important to have goals, just not sacrificing, you know, everything to where you're lonely in a hospital.

You know, my dad passed away since we've had the podcast. And, you know, my dad, I look at his life and he was a man who, you know, he wasn't a rich man in the terms of the world, right? Like, his net worth was not crazy. Like, I make more in a year than he made in his life. But, you know, my dad was married to my mom for almost 40 years. He had four boys who all loved him, who all spoke at his funeral. How did that change your life?

life after he passed away. What was, because for me, I, I, it doesn't even seem like it's a possibility that a parent could pass. Right. It doesn't even seem like that could ever happen. I think it's weird because it's like, in a sense, it's leveled me up as a human. I have so much more empathy for someone who's lost someone. It is the hardest thing in the world.

I mean, it's like incomparable to any of. other challenge you will ever face in your entire life is losing a parent or, you know, a spouse or a child, right? Like it's because everything else in life has a solution, right? Everything else can be fixed. You file bankruptcy, whatever. Like, you fail a test. Whatever. I mean, you get in a car accident. You fix the car, right? But when you lose someone you love, it's, it's over. Like, that's it. Like, there's, you know, I mean, there's always going to be some level of obviously. Oh, why didn't I spend more time with my dad? Why didn't I do this more with him? And so, but from that standpoint, now, like, since then, you know, unfortunately, I've had some close people

lose friends or family of theirs. And, and I feel like I've been there for them on a different level than I would have been before or that I was before with other people who had lost loved ones. I had a friend when I was an elementary school who lost their dad when he was 10 years old. And until I lost my dad, it never dawned on me how hard that must have been. And, and, but it also, it gives me, like, a greater appreciation for my dad. You know, there's, there's nothing like losing someone that kind of opens your eyes to, like, what you had. And unfortunately, like, everything in life is kind of that way. Like, you don't, you don't know what you have until it's gone. But sometimes, like, you see things from a different perspective. You know, I see some of the things that my dad did for me.

and it's just like what an amazing person you know and uh some of that regret exists in that sense though because you're like i wish i could go back and tell him how grateful i am for everything that he did for me um so yeah i mean it's it's it's been you know i've spent more time with my mom too because of it it which has been really really good we've done some cool trips went to alaska with her um you know and that's that's been one of the you know you look at last and everything happens for a reason. And, you know, maybe I've been a better son to my mom because my dad passed. Maybe I'm a better boyfriend to my girlfriend because I have more empathy. Like, you know, I'd like to think of myself as being a better human, but it's definitely affect my,

like, it's affected my YouTube channel a lot as far as just like the passion, you know. Because it maybe helped you reevaluate your values a little bit? No, no, I think it's just kind of like, almost like what's the point. So the first year my dad passed was really, really, really hard. It's just like, I mean, it just seems like everything is so pointless, right? Like, like, what's, what's the purpose?

Like, why even bother? Like, who cares? You're all, we're all going to die. Like, one thing that I really struggled with is I would see, like, I would be resentful towards other people when they were their dad. Sorry.

That's fine. What's happened? It's just like, yeah, I mean, I would get mad. Yeah. I mean, I'm going to tell you from my perspective, it makes me think of things differently because you don't have that sort of appreciation without having a loss like that or something in your life. Because besides grandparents, I've really lost nobody in my life except for grandparents. Thankfully, have all pretty much been from old age. Right, right, right. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I, it's weird. Like, your mind, you just have so many games you play and you know, you think, yeah, it's like, I think about, you know, my dad never had to experience old age, though. Yeah. You know, he never was an old man, which is kind of cool. You know, he never, my dad lost his parents, but he never lost a sibling. He never lost a son. He, you know, he didn't, he didn't ever have to lose his driver's license. He never had to take a ton of medication. He never had to walk or be in a wheelchair. Like, he never had to deal with that. So I, you know, you always try to like. Yeah. I take the good and a bad situation. Like, well, you know, he, and he died, I guess, relatively peacefully, you know? I mean, I got to see him in the hospital. So it definitely, like, it definitely gives you a new perspective. And that kind of goes back to what you were saying, like, my biggest regret. Like, I don't want to die alone.

Yeah. When are Strad Kids Coming? after a wedding. Definitely after a wedding, that's for sure. When's a wedding coming? I don't know. Maybe soon though. Yeah. Not that soon, but soon. On my channel, I always say soon. And that's sometimes between pretty soon and somewhat soon. Soon could be anything from like a week to like five years. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. I mean, I definitely want to be a dad for sure. I want to get married. You know, I think that I don't know, the relationship that you have with a child, how, to be unlike any relationship, right? Never done it, but I think about the relationship I've had with my

parents. And it just seems kind of cool to have like, I don't know, take what you've learned in the world and be able to like pass it down to somebody and, you know, try to help them navigate life. And, you know, hopefully become a better person than you, than you, right? Like, that's kind of the goal. It's not always the case. But, you know, I love the idea of, yeah, of sharing that with, you know, a wife and having, I want to have a bunch of kids too. I think. be so cool. Especially like, you know, I've, I've focused so much my life on YouTube and I've, I've had, you know, such great financial success that I've put myself in a position where I could have, you know, five, six kids be basically a stay-at-home dad and, and just be like that dad that

is there all the time and is the little league coach. And, and, you know, I just, I just think I'd be really cool and I'm in such a fortunate position where that might be possible. Yeah. I've always wanted to have kids when I feel like I've accomplished everything else that I've wanted to do. So there's like that business aspect where I wanted to be able to focus 100% of my attention on that. For me, now it's being able to see the world. Right. I would, I wouldn't want to like go and travel and spend any time away from like having a newborn or anything like that. Of course. Yeah. Travel. And then after that, I feel like that would be a good time. For sure, for sure. And I, I mean, I think that, you know, a lot of the the success that I've had is,

been kind of by timing things appropriately. You know, when I was living in my Audi, part of the reason I did it is that nobody else was in harm's way. Like, I didn't have a wife. I don't have a kid living in the car with me. Like, whatever happened was up to me to deal with, right? But I would never put a wife or a kid in that situation. And so because I wasn't married and I had made that life choice at that point in my life, it allowed me to go all in on YouTube and have the success in this YouTube endeavor that I've had because of that. I will say everyone we have talked to about kids, and we ask people on the podcast like, what's it like

or what's been your experience. The one thing everybody has said has said that they regret not having kids sooner. Right, yeah. I don't think that one person has said, I'm glad I waited or, you know, I should have had kids a little later. Everybody has said they wish they had done it sooner

or that they wish they had more kids. Right, right. So whatever that's worth. That's worth a lot. Yeah. And it's also about, of course, you know, you've obviously found the right girl, but you wouldn't have, you know, I mean, like marrying Macy,

this is the right time for you because she's the right girl. Oh, yeah. I couldn't have done this 10 years ago. Right, right, right, yeah. So, I mean, everyone's life is different. Everyone's path is a little bit different. But yeah, I mean, I definitely, it's, yeah, I want to have kids for sure.

Yeah. And not the clock is ticking, but, you know, at some point, you're right. I don't want to be the, I don't want to be the 70 year old. Robert De Niro just had a kid. It's true. See that? He's, how is Robert? 80 something.

You're kidding me. But he's probably not going to see his kid graduate from high school, which is kind of sad, too, you know? He's Robert De Niro there. I mean, I didn't mean, I didn't know. Modern medicine could probably keep him going. True. Modern medicine, who knows. I'm kind of banking on living, like, into my hundreds.

Graham's going to live. He says to, like, he's like, 120, which honestly, I wouldn't, I wouldn't. I could actually believe it. Yeah. I can believe it. I guess for me, like, it just depends on if you have your brain still with you. If you still have your wits about you, that sounds great.

But if I was to lose my brain and, you know, modern science could keep me alive. No, I'm good. Call it a day at 75. What if you were 50% robot, though? Would that count or no? Well, I guess, I guess what 50%. Yeah, like just like anatomically. I mean, brainways and stuff like that?

entomically, but maybe half your mind is like, it's programmed, but it's AI. So it's like, if you forget something, the AI knows your experiences and can replace it with what it thinks you're going to say based on your experiences. So it's not 100%, but it's like 98. I don't know. You might say no right now, but once you have some kids, you know what I mean. It's true. No, you're right. Perspectives change entirely. I mean, I've, I've watched a lot of movies lately that involve AI and, you know, they're taking over the brain and you're doing crazy things you don't have control of, like, that sounds scary. I rewatched the Matrix recently, and it's surprisingly accurate to what I believe could

happen in the future. When you really look at it, it's like, this could be something that it's like 500 years from now. Absolutely. That it turned out to be 100% accurate. And then at that, it's scary true. Last question for you, would you want to live in the Matrix? I think I would.

I think I'd rather be ignorant and live in a world that. that ignorance is bliss. I think so. I would rather I would rather live in the matrix. Maybe we are already, right? I mean, I think there's so many things

that have happened that just can't be a coincidence that I think there could be some truth to that. I don't know. This is new, Graham. I guess we'll never know. I don't know if I did not expect this podcast

to make this. I've heard about this, yeah. Interesting. And so far everything, like I've always written down like goals or things that I want to achieve and so far I've hit

like every single one. Like the chance of doing YouTube videos for me it was like on the top of that. I never thought. A million years would be able to do that. And here we are. Do you remember our conversation at Anthony's house

talking about YouTube way back in the day? You had like 3,000 subs. I had like 30,000 maybe. We were talking YouTube for like, all week and straight? You don't remember that? I don't remember that. I don't remember that.

You don't remember that? At Anthony's house with Gordon? Way, way, way back. We were talking analytics. Unreal. Losing his mind. mind, get the AI. I forget a lot. His brain is just like chock-full. You got a lot going on in there. Lots happens since then. If my, my memory is terrible. If it doesn't pertain to what I need to know

right now in the moment, I don't remember it or I forget it. It has to apply to my daily life. And for whatever reason, like, that just didn't fit. It's weird. I don't remember. Do you remember, we were at like Raisin Cains and you were giving me advice about dating? You don't remember that? That sounds like me. You don't remember that. Wow. That's a hundred. That's a true story. What did I say? I hope it's, is it appropriate? It was great advice.

Yeah. And the Cains was amazing. Keynes is really. Yeah, we were raising Cains in Las Vegas. What am I say? Yeah. I don't remember. I remember going to raise some gains.

I think you just, I think it was, it was something along like, like just be confident, be yourself, be bold. Like, like great advice. Yeah. Oh, gosh. Yeah. I can't remember. He was great advice. It was great advice.

I love giving dating advice. That's the one thing. If I could make a YouTube pivot, it would be to dating. You can. You can. You can. Why not? You could.

I don't know. I feel like sometimes the harsh truths might be a little too, you know, spicy. What does it matter? I mean, I would just say, yeah, be open and honest and truthful. We'll see.

We'll see. More to come. Not more to come. But anyway, my point being, there's so many, like, small things that I've written down are big things, actually, in the way I've wanted to take my life,

that they've always happened. Right. That I believe we have control over what happens in our lives, the complete control. So you do not believe in determinism. You believe in free will. Yeah, I believe there's something to be said about determinism that I'm sure our environment

affects the way we think in certain ways. Like if you would plot it out everything I had said up until this point, you could probably predict that because of everything that's happened in the past in the way. And then we could plot your life out too that you'd have a certain reaction.

And based on your reaction, I'd react this way. And then you would say it based on R. So I believe everything kind of pieces together, but I do think you have complete control. Very interesting. Free will? Oh, absolutely free will.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, free will. At least for me, but I don't know about you guys. I don't know. What do you think of whistle and diesel? I've never met Cody. But as far as a pioneer in the automotive industry, I mean, think about it. You have, let's say, a thousand automotive YouTube channels, right?

You have 99 of them doing the exact same thing roughly, right? and then you have listen to diesel kind of sort of stand alone. And as far as like the creativity and the courage, the stuff that he does is, it's just like the man has no fear. And any man who has no fear has my respect. When you were mentioning earlier about people pushing the boundaries and doing something different and like,

how do you compete against that? He was the one that first came to mind because his videos are just so over the top. I'm like, how do you even think about it? like the Ferrari through the cornfield. Right. It's terrible. I mean, obviously, a very expensive video.

Amazing. But I think he said that he didn't, he didn't mean for the car to burn down. That just happened. I know. Which makes sense. Like, the brakes would get so incredibly hot from that that it makes sense. But him taking cars like this that people would like cherish.

And he's like, I'm going to push this to the limits. And there was another one. Wasn't he, oh, in his Ferrari, he was bashing it with a shopping cart. And I was like, I was hurting inside.

And some of the, he was getting 10% of the comments saying, how dare you disrespect that car, how dare you treat that. But he didn't care. Right. And it was like, this is just a car. And that's all it is. Yeah.

I mean, it's one of those things that I could never do that to a car. No. Absolutely not. But I can't look away when he's doing it. You know what I'm saying? Like you're watching and you're like, I could never do that, but I cannot stop watching. I was about to say, if you did it,

I think people would be furious. People say you lost your mind. It would be... I mean, they probably would, but the videos would probably... I'd probably break over that 1.1 million, right? In a sense, you know?

I mean, if I just took this... If I took the Koenigseg and just went rallying, it probably would do pretty well, but I don't know if financially that would be very lucrative in that car. You know what would do 10 million views in this?

Going over speed bumps at different speeds. True. That's true. Start at 5 miles, 10, 15, 20, do five mile increments. And then see if you could do 80 miles an hour over a speed bump. These are 10 million views.

But I don't care about the views. And then I don't need the one. I don't, how fast you could go and reverse. Remok did that. Did you see? Do you know who Remok is? No. You don't know who Remok is? Okay, so that's a Croatian company.

And they have a car called the Remok Navarra. And it's one of the quickest. Oh, I thought it was Rimack. Oh, maybe it is. Remok. Remak. Sorry. Remak.

R-I-M-A-C. Yeah, right. They did a video where they set the like top speed world record in reverse. They went like 170 miles an hour in reverse.

I'm serious. It's on YouTube. Go watch the video. It's sick. I mean, talk about guts. Do they have something that's holding the steering wheel so it doesn't like?

No, there's a dude drive in the car, reversing the car. You have to watch it. No, no, he's, I think he's... I don't know how he's doing it. It's beyond my understanding. That's horrible.

I don't know. You got to watch it. I think it's 170 miles an hour. hour in a Remock Navarra backwards. I could give you some of the ideas. I came up with 10 video ideas for Anthony and his Fauri. Yeah. And there were wild ideas like that. The thing about Wilson Diesel, though, the ideas, like we can all sit here. I feel like come up with a lot of the ideas. He executes him too, though. Like, I mean, you know, like half of it's the idea and the other half is the execution. And he does both flawlessly. You know, like I could, I could imagine, like,

putting the Konex egg on winter tracks and driving to the top of a mountain, right? He actually goes and does it. It's insane what he does. And then you add, you know, the different angles, the videography, obviously the scripting, everything he does, the personality, the character he plays, whatnot. It's, I mean, he's the pioneer in the industry. He's so far above, in a sense, all the other because all the other channels are the same. And no one can compete. He's not competing against anybody. He's competing against himself. You know, it's like you, if you watch automotive YouTube, you either watch, you know, my style or you watch Wilson Diesel.

And with my style, there's a thousand creators. So you'd divvy up the views in a thousand ways. Yeah. Thank you so much. Yes, of course. No, thank you very much for coming back on the show. It is always a pleasure to see you.

Yes, thank you guys for taking the time to come up here to Utah and we've got to go for a ride in the Konigsegg. I can't wait. Absolutely. Thank you guys for watching. Comment down below,

free will or determinism. Until next time. See ya.