Larry Chen

Larry Chen is one of the most skilled and famous automotive photographers of this generation. His clients include auto companies, race car drivers, organizers, events, and everything in between. Most recently, he's known for his video series on Hagerty that showcases car culture around the world. From underground clubs in Tokyo to royalty in Asia, American muscle collectors to wheel makers, the show is a true look at every corner of the automotive world. Today Larry brings us the amazing story of how he got access to the Sultan of Brunei's cars; Larry's new photo book; and what it was like seeing his own Nissan GT-R featured on the prestigious lawn of The Quail. Larry's show: https://youtu.be/TWhimSwbxE4 Patreon questions include: Car communities that challenged his expectations Getting hit in the face by cars Which point-and-shoot to get Automotive personalities that inspire him The Nissan Z Nismo manual Should he upgrade from his Supra to a different camera car? Is he Anthony Bourdain? And more! Recorded September 3, 2025 Show Notes: Car Gurus Buy or sell your next car today with Car Gurus at https://wwwcargurus.com. Go to https://www.cargurus.com to make sure your big deal is the best deal. Liquid IV Don’t let the grind drain you. Ditch the Glitch with Zero Sugar and Zero Crash from Liquid I. V. Tear. Pour. Live More. Go to https://www. LIQUIDIV.com and get 20% off your first order with code TIRE at checkout. Rula Rula patients typically pay $15 per session when using insurance. Connect with quality therapists and mental health experts who specialize in you at https://www.rula.com/tire#rulapod Quince Go to https://www. Quince.com/TIRE for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. New merch! Grab a shirt or hoodie and support us! https://thesmokingtireshop.com/ Use Off The Record! and ALWAYS fight your tickets! For a 10% discount on your first case go to https://www.offtherecord.com/TST Want your question answered? Want to watch the live stream, get ad-free podcasts, or exclusive podcasts? Join our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thesmokingtirepodcast Instagram: https://www. Instagram.com/thesmokingtire https://www. Instagram.com/therealzackklapman

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Matt Farah?

  What's up everybody, welcome to the Smoking Tire Podcast. Today's episode is brought to you by Off the Record. As always, look, we all get tickets. Everyone who drives a car pretty much will get one sooner or later. What you shouldn't do is plead guilty to that ticket. That's just handing over your money, not just to the government, but also to insurance companies and potentially putting you in jeopardy of losing future employment or current employment and other benefits that you need a clean driving record for. What you need is Off the Record. If you go to offtherecord.com/tst, Off the Record will connect you with a qualified attorney

• 0:42Matt Farah?

  in the jurisdiction where you got that ticket, and they will fight that ticket for you to get those points off your record. Off the Record has an excellent, excellent results list with very high percentage of wins. And if they can't get those points off your record, you don't pay. So, go to offtherecord.com/tst today to get 10% off all legal services booked through Off the Record. OfftheRecord.com/tst. All right, on this episode of the podcast, my old pal Larry Chen is in studio. He's got a new book out called Life at Shutter Speed, and we're talking about it and the stories behind it.

• 1:23Matt Farah?

  Plus, he went to Brunei and straight up asked the Sultan to see the cars. That's crazy, and he's going to tell us the story on this episode of the Smoking Tire Podcast. Let's go. Larry Chen.

• 1:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, glad to be here.

• 1:39Matt Farah?

  Cheers, Benvenu. Author, author Larry Chen.

• 1:44Speaker 01

  Never ever in my life, I would have thought that I would be writing, I would publish a book.

• 1:50Matt Farah?

  I guess you did do some writing in this book. Your new book, Life at Shutter Speed.

• 1:55Speaker 01

  A lot.

• 1:56Matt Farah?

  Hypothetically, just wondering, the definition, if you did a book that was only photography and had no writing in it, does that also make you an author?

• 2:06Speaker 01

  That's a good question.

• 2:07Matt Farah?

  Ask your agent.

• 2:10Matt Farah?

  Oh, that's just Ryan. Ask Ryan.

• 2:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, Ryan.

• 2:12Matt Farah?

  I know your agent. Ryan.

• 2:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:14Matt Farah?

  Ryan, chime in in the comments.

• 2:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, I kind of feel like, maybe? Yeah, because it is a book.

• 2:21Matt Farah?

  Yeah, making a book.

• 2:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:23Matt Farah?

  An author, author writes books, an author.

• 2:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:26Matt Farah?

  Yes?

• 2:27Speaker 01

  The dictionary says, a writer of a book, article, or report.

• 2:30Matt Farah?

  Hmm.

• 2:31Speaker 01

  Someone who writes the writings of a professional author.

• 2:34Matt Farah?

  Okay, so, there you go. If you want to remain an author. No, once an author, always an author.

• 2:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:39Matt Farah?

  Life at Shutter Speed.

• 2:40Speaker 01

  Well.

• 2:41Matt Farah?

  That's a good name for a book.

• 2:42Speaker 01

  Thank you. It is my life. This is legitimately my life's work in one book. And so many people helped me, including yourself.

• 2:52Matt Farah?

  Well, you didn't need to write a book to come on this podcast, but you did it anyway.

• 2:56Speaker 01

  No, but I'm saying, like, you, I photographed you, and you're a part of the story.

• 3:01Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I mean, me wrapped in cool-looking cars, which is my favorite costume, so I'm happy to do that.

• 3:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:09Matt Farah?

  Yeah. We should do it again with Sparkle Monkey down there.

• 3:12Speaker 01

  I would love that. And then also, one of the few film photos that I published in this book was with your Mustang.

• 3:20Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 3:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:21Matt Farah?

  Man, that's some grainy, awesome shit. I have a big one of those on my wall at the house.

• 3:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, that was a time period when I had the time to do that, right? Because the way this book is laid out, it's backwards chronological. So as soon as you turn the first couple pages, you get into my 2024 photos, which I think is probably some of my best work. And then as you flip the pages and you go back 20, 21 years, because it starts in 2004.

• 3:52Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 3:54Speaker 01

  It kind of de-evolves.

• 3:55Matt Farah?

  The light gets a little harsher, the pans get a little slower.

• 4:01Speaker 01

  Well, my.

• 4:02Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I know.

• 4:02Speaker 01

  You can, you can see my, you could see my skill develop, but you can also see my style change. And the main thing is you can see the technology.

• 4:12Matt Farah?

  The tech and like, you're worsen?

• 4:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, because as you go back, the sensor technology is not as good, right?

• 4:20Matt Farah?

  Oh, oh, oh, worsen in the book. I thought, I was like, I thought you meant in real life. I was like, ooh.

• 4:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, as in.

• 4:26Matt Farah?

  Is that exclusive? The technology sucks now?

• 4:28Speaker 01

  Right, like, the dynamic range is not as good, the lenses aren't as sharp.

• 4:34Speaker 01

  This, that and the other, but the main thing for me is that you can see very early on, I wasn't really pushing composition and light and pushing what photography was, car photography, like in terms of what's possible. What I was doing early on was just relying on relationships, taking pictures of people, telling stories, a lot of friends, and just the story, whatever's happening in general, versus relying on beautiful shapes, beautiful colors, complementary colors. And that style for me just develops over time. And it's something that I'm super proud of.

• 5:17Matt Farah?

  Well, you want to chase richness, right? You're trying, you're, you're, the photos get richer and richer and richer in color as they get newer.

• 5:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, yes, but also it's just what I'm photographing. It's what I'm focusing on, what I'm, what I'm chasing. And you'll see also, over time, I shoot more, kind of like in the middle of the book, before I started doing video. And then come around 2018, 2019, when I started doing my own show on the Hunnigan channel, that's when I started slowing down and I started doing both. I started doing video, YouTube, and I also did stills at the same time. And now, unfortunately, I wouldn't say stills is on the back burner,

• 6:05Speaker 01

  but it's just like a extra thing in addition to what I do, which mostly I'm just doing video and telling stories now.

• 6:14Matt Farah?

  Is that like, so is this, I mean, is this book sort of like the, the, the, the complete catalog of stills then?

• 6:25Speaker 01

  You know?

• 6:26Matt Farah?

  In that way, since it's now sort of just... Not really a thing anymore.

• 6:30Speaker 01

  I'm glad you mentioned that. It's something that I thought about. And when I say this is my life's work, I don't think it's the all the my still photos that I'm going to do. I'm gonna still continue shooting still photos. It's something that I can't let go. And for example, this past trip that I went to, I went to Brunei. And we'll get into that after we finish talking about the book. But I always have my still camera with me and I always have to take still photos because A, it's something I can't let go, but B, it got me to this point, right? It's storytelling a different way.

• 7:09Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I laugh because like that's kind of why I make YouTube videos. I mean, the other way.

• 7:15Speaker 01

  Right.

• 7:15Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 7:16Speaker 01

  So with that said, it's not a like a stopping point. It's more of a timestamp.

• 7:23Matt Farah?

  Okay.

• 7:23Speaker 01

  Like I figured, I'm a big round number guy. I love round numbers. And 20 years, it's actually 21, but it's it's mostly 20 years of full on, just all out shooting, nonstop. And all of it, it's about 5 million pictures that I whittled down to a little over 2,700 pictures.

• 7:49Matt Farah?

  That is fucking crazy.

• 7:51Speaker 01

  It's a lot of pictures. And you know, the thing is, I have had two camera bodies. 5 million is pretty conservative because I've had two camera bodies that both have 1 million actuations, over 1 million.

• 8:03Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 8:04Speaker 01

  So there's a really good chance it's well over 5 million, but there's just no way for me to calculate it.

• 8:10Matt Farah?

  When you say 5 million, you're not talking, when you say you went from 5 million to 2,700.

• 8:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:16Matt Farah?

  You're talking about 5 million frames shot ever? Okay, all right. So you're not talking about like you have previously edited down, you know, you know, the work. And now you're talking about 5 million finished photos. All right, that would be almost impossible.

• 8:32Speaker 01

  Well, the, at the height of my shooting around 2015, 16, 17, I was shooting about half a million a year.

• 8:41Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 8:42Speaker 01

  And, and then surrounding that, there were some years that were 350. And then before that, obviously, less and less and less. Once you get to the earlier years, it's down to ten thousand, whatever. And then now, it's a lot less also. But with that said, I still.

• 8:59Matt Farah?

  Depending on what you're shooting, I mean, like, when you've shot me and my cars, uh, it's been, it's, it's not been heavily actioned. It's been more portrait stuff, most of it. But if you're shooting, you know, motorsport, you know, you might be machine gunning. You know, if you're chasing a drifter around a full lap of a track, you might, you might machine gun two thousand frames. You know, no problem, right?

• 9:25Speaker 01

  Well, you'd be surprised, right? So for your Mustang, I did both. I, I shot with film and I shot some with digital.

• 9:33Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah, I guess, I guess we only have ever really just, uh, I think we used some digital, but I think the film ones were just more interesting.

• 9:39Speaker 01

  Well, it was more of a backup, right? So then, uh, I think around that time, I was averaging about maybe five hundred to seven hundred photos for a car feature. Cause I, I wanted to make sure that I told the whole story about the car. Every angle, inside and out, all the details, all the patina, all of that. And then of course, there's photos of you with the car. I'm pretty sure there's a film photo of you in this car with your glasses and your whatever.

• 10:04Matt Farah?

  My stripe hoodie.

• 10:05Speaker 01

  Rastafarian, whatever.

• 10:07Matt Farah?

  Get up. So funny that it was, cause it was like, it was actually a Dais hoodie, the whitest shit. It was the, the most Brooklyn white kid shit ever.

• 10:15Speaker 01

  But, but then I did a shoot with your Safari nine eleven and that was probably twenty five hundred photos because there was a lot of drifting, there was a lot of sunset, running back and forth, a lot of dust. So I was laying on that shutter pretty heavily because there's just so many frames in between that is just like the perfect, hey, your tire picked up for this microsecond and it looks cool for that moment.

• 10:42Matt Farah?

  But also if you're running, if you've got two cameras mounted on the nose of your car and you're running chase around a racetrack, um, you know, you probably, and you know the flow of camera car catches film, that subject car and camera car. So you know, but as you're coming in, you're. Right, like yeah, isn't that still the style, the, the, the, the way to get that shot? Cause you're also driving the fucking car.

• 11:05Speaker 01

  That is my favorite thing ever, being able to drive and film. It's my two passions put together.

• 11:12Matt Farah?

  I told, I didn't tell you, uh, I was, we were talking to Zach about this, uh, and my friend Mike came to visit last week from LA. And you know, the stuff that we get to do every day, you sometimes like, don't really think about.

• 11:25Speaker 01

  You took him out in the Alpha and he was blown away.

• 11:27Matt Farah?

  Well, first I told you, we did, we were doing car to car in the fucking roof rodeo on a closed road. And I'm like, street drifting this car, you know, right off the bumper of the camera car, which is an Aston Vantage Roadster. And he's like, you're out of your mind. This is the craziest shit I ever seen in my life. Uh, and I was like, oh yeah, it is.

• 11:52Speaker 01

  You know, this is the thing is when I pick up my camera, it's my special day.

• 11:56Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 11:57Speaker 01

  You know, I absolutely love shooting still so much and with, with those moments, like you're, you, I, I don't know. It's just something that you're used to, but you also still enjoy it. I know, I know you enjoy it.

• 12:11Matt Farah?

  And we're not going to flip through the book on camera, but like this right here, this shot.

• 12:15Speaker 01

  I shot that with my Supra.

• 12:17Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Which is that, and probably this with your shot with your Supra as well.

• 12:20Speaker 01

  That was with my two forty Z. So that was before I got my Supra.

• 12:22Matt Farah?

  So do you, I mean, do you remember before you got your Supra, when you and I were at Gridlife in the BMW M2? And we had mounted cameras on the nose and we were doing this. And I remember when we were chasing around the drift cars in this car, just going, we have our own private view of this action that nobody else could ever get.

• 12:44Speaker 01

  The best.

• 12:45Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 12:45Speaker 01

  Yeah. Because we're right in their door and I, I don't know if you remember, I was pushing you to essentially get closest possible. But you have to back off to let them transition. Otherwise they'll take the nose off of your, your press car. They'll take the complete front end off.

• 13:01Matt Farah?

  And we're just getting, and, and there's a lot of smoke. You have to always stay like upwind of the smoke. Otherwise you just can't see anything.

• 13:09Speaker 01

  It's a, it's a lot harder than people would imagine. And you know, I'm glad.

• 13:14Matt Farah?

  I was doing it with video cameras on the nose. So all I had to do was drive. You. Then put a still camera in the nose and you're riding right seat and firing.

• 13:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:24Matt Farah?

  Now, you are driving and, and triggering. Do you have like, what, a steering wheel trigger?

• 13:30Speaker 01

  There's a couple of ways I do it. I actually have a mouthpiece trigger that, um, people use.

• 13:35Matt Farah?

  Like a quadriplegic?

• 13:37Speaker 01

  No, skydivers. That's what they use to trigger a shutter on, when they mount it on their forehead.

• 13:43Matt Farah?

  So what do they do, bite on it?

• 13:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, they bite on it.

• 13:45Matt Farah?

  Seriously?

• 13:46Speaker 02

  Is it the same one that you handed my then girlfriend to?

• 13:49Speaker 01

  Uh, no, well, I just gave her the entire remote.

• 13:54Speaker 01

  I took the entire remote and just gave it to her and she was helping me. So I prefer to have an assistant.

• 14:00Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 14:00Speaker 01

  But if I have to do it solo, then I'll do it myself. But I had it on the steering wheel.

• 14:06Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 14:07Speaker 01

  But it actually is very difficult to do on the steering wheel because sometimes I have to counter steer. And, you know, because sometimes you just get out of. Yeah, you have, you're, people don't realize how fast these guys are going.

• 14:18Matt Farah?

  Really fast.

• 14:19Speaker 01

  They're going really fast. Uh, the, the wheel speed is like a hundred and fifty miles per hour, even though they're drifting sixty, seventy, eighty miles per hour. But when I've been following these individuals at Road America or at Laguna Seca, they can drift up to a hundred and twenty-five miles an hour or more.

• 14:37Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 14:38Speaker 01

  It's insane. So I'm going, literally going as fast as I can.

• 14:41Matt Farah?

  I mean, I know you love your Supra, but I wonder if, if we were starting from zero and going, let's build the perfect Formula D chase car. Do we want a rear drive car? Do you, I think, I think you actually want an all wheel drive car, like a, like a nine eleven turbo that would actually stay cleaner at a higher speed, even though it's really fun to also drift behind people.

• 15:05Speaker 01

  I think the two would be nine eleven turbo, turbo S or R35 GT-R.

• 15:11Matt Farah?

  Yeah, but R35 GT-R would be fucking boring. Those cars stink.

• 15:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, but it overcomes the weight with technology.

• 15:19Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's what Chris Harris' guy uses, Neil. That was his grip, what do you call it, grip whatever. But he had, you know, big cameras mounted on it and stuff. And if you're going fast and you're chasing people, like, yes, the car is boring on its own. When you're doing what you're doing, it's not boring.

• 15:33Speaker 01

  So, a couple of things about the book.

• 15:35Matt Farah?

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• 16:17Matt Farah?

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• 17:02Matt Farah?

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• 17:24Matt Farah?

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• 18:07Matt Farah?

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• 18:51Matt Farah?

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• 19:06Speaker 01

  Couple of things about the book. Um, it's one of those things where I really tried my absolute best. I curated it to the point where every single picture for me was important. These photos on-

• 19:20Matt Farah?

  I bet that cover took you forever.

• 19:23Speaker 01

  Well-

• 19:23Matt Farah?

  Ever to get to that-

• 19:24Speaker 01

  Let me tell you why I, it took me forever. Because I wanted to choose these photos where-

• 19:32Speaker 01

  They would only show up once, right? So if it shows up on the cover, it's not gonna show up in the book.

• 19:36Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 19:37Speaker 01

  But they're still significant and you could see like we even-

• 19:40Matt Farah?

  I bet that drives you nuts.

• 19:41Speaker 01

  No, well, we even made sure not to print the barcode on. So you can take the barcode off so you can see that picture that it's covering.

• 19:50Matt Farah?

  Oh shit. And also, that could have been a good like use for like, if you had found a photo where like, you know, it was a shitty composition and the, you know, it was out of whack and the car was like off in the corner, but the barcode like actually fit, that would have been a fun spot. But removable is key.

• 20:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, so that way it still has an ISP number, you know, still in the Library of Congress. So every photo, very important, you know, you have Mara Andretti on here. You have a lot of these significant moments. But I didn't want to put something that was so important that it would take up a space here, but it wouldn't have like a two-page spread in here, right? So you take this slip cover off and then you have a photo of Pike's Peak. And we did like a fun gloss thing on it, so-

• 20:36Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it's actually got a really cool, if you, if you bend it through the light, it looks like the, um, the headlight tracks up Pike's Peak are almost like painted onto the book.

• 20:46Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 20:46Matt Farah?

  Pretty slick, man, I really like that.

• 20:48Speaker 01

  So we wanted to make it look like cars are moving and you can kind of see like a live photo.

• 20:53Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it's cool.

• 20:53Speaker 01

  This photo can never be recreated ever again. It's just the way that they run the race. It's this, during this time period, during sunrise, right? So what they do now is they'll run the cars when they're dark already. So this is just all the pit vehicles going up. So I went up early and it was just this time period. And I think it was because there was a fire and they had to move the race. So it was during a different time. In

• 21:26Matt Farah?

  Right, right, right.

• 21:27Speaker 01

  In the year.

• 21:28Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, so the light came in at a different angle.

• 21:30Speaker 01

  So, so I was able to get this.

• 21:32Matt Farah?

  That's like the one of my Lambo outside. You can, that shot can never be taken again either.

• 21:37Speaker 01

  There's so many of these, like, like, R.I.P. Irwindale, of course, right?

• 21:41Matt Farah?

  Yeah, right.

• 21:42Speaker 01

  Tracks, so many roads, so many places, uh, that you can never recreate. Obviously, uh, the back, I can never recreate this, unfortunately, because, uh, this is Ken Block.

• 21:53Matt Farah?

  Because of Ken, yes, but it's a great shot.

• 21:55Speaker 01

  So, this is a rally in Spain.

• 21:58Matt Farah?

  Oh, it's fucking awesome, a little bit of road. Wow, look at that. That's sick.

• 22:03Speaker 01

  This is significant for me because this is such a good story about Ken. Uh, this was a stage. And, believe it or not, on the stage, every single person competing, including Sebastian Loeb, whoever was competing, they had to do a donut around this roundabout and then continue on.

• 22:22Matt Farah?

  Oh.

• 22:22Speaker 01

  And that was part of the stage. It was in the notes, yes.

• 22:26Matt Farah?

  Boss do donut on roundabout.

• 22:29Speaker 01

  Guess what Ken did? More donuts. So, he, he told me and his photographer, Ron Zaras, and he, he basically told the team, like, look, if I'm not gonna win this stage, if I'm back, I'm just gonna do donuts and I'm gonna stoke out the crowd.

• 22:45Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 22:46Speaker 01

  And so, we're like, okay, let's go, let's plan for that. And this, all of these people, they just started getting so stoked because it was just Ken just doing donuts here. And the story of this is, uh, these individuals basically were there all day just to get this spot. And we call this Poo Mountain because it's, there's nowhere to go to the bathroom.

• 23:11Matt Farah?

  Oh, my god.

• 23:12Speaker 01

  And they basically just went to the bathroom everywhere. Uh, and this, this is the sacrifice.

• 23:17Matt Farah?

  Picture's worth a thousand words, but not a thousand cents.

• 23:19Speaker 01

  Exactly, so.

• 23:21Matt Farah?

  It literally glosses over the fact that that's whole area was just fee city.

• 23:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, fee, fee sees, yeah. Yeah. But uh, so just a couple-

• 23:33Matt Farah?

  Screwzak is on its last legs, man.

• 23:35Speaker 01

  Couple other little fun things about this.

• 23:37Matt Farah?

  Ooh, look at this. I like my, I like how mine is a pre-pro.

• 23:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, yours is a AP, basically.

• 23:42Matt Farah?

  X out of 1,000, yeah.

• 23:44Speaker 01

  So the first picture in this book is something that I have never published before. This is the first time anybody's seen this picture, and the reason why is because this picture, somebody paid me $70,000. Not me. Someone paid $70,000 for this picture to exist. Because I auctioned myself off for charity.

• 24:04Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah.

• 24:05Speaker 01

  For one day, I don't know if you remember this.

• 24:07Matt Farah?

  I do, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 24:07Speaker 01

  Unbring a trailer.

• 24:08Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 24:08Speaker 01

  And it went for 70 grand.

• 24:10Matt Farah?

  Oh, cool.

• 24:10Speaker 01

  And I went to the guy's place.

• 24:11Matt Farah?

  Where, where in the world, in general?

• 24:14Speaker 01

  I can't say.

• 24:15Matt Farah?

  What country was it in?

• 24:16Speaker 01

  It was in the US.

• 24:17Matt Farah?

  Okay.

• 24:17Speaker 01

  And then, so he commissioned, uh, Nismo to build him like a, a perfect spec.

• 24:23Matt Farah?

  Sure.

• 24:24Speaker 01

  Basically, well over-

• 24:25Matt Farah?

  One of their like restoration things.

• 24:27Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 24:28Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 24:28Speaker 01

  But this one was, uh, taken down to bare metal, acid dipped, sealed, all that. Which makes it like, I think they call it a fine spec, which is a brand new car.

• 24:39Matt Farah?

  Wasn't that like the one they just did for, at the auction?

• 24:41Speaker 01

  No, that one wasn't.

• 24:42Matt Farah?

  Oh, it wasn't?

• 24:43Speaker 01

  That was a restoration, but they get it just down to adhesion, yes.

• 24:48Matt Farah?

  Oh, I didn't realize that it wasn't, that that wasn't as high as they can go.

• 24:52Speaker 01

  This is even more.

• 24:53Matt Farah?

  No, that's probably why it didn't make the number, huh?

• 24:54Speaker 01

  Exactly. So this, if you sold this, it would go for more because this from Nismo's already over a million dollars.

• 25:01Matt Farah?

  Does, um, Built by Legends go that far?

• 25:06Speaker 01

  Yes, yes, they do.

• 25:07Matt Farah?

  That BBL car I drove was the real deal. That thing was sick.

• 25:10Speaker 01

  So they do, uh, and that's through Garage Yoshida.

• 25:13Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 25:14Speaker 01

  And Garage Yoshida restored my car.

• 25:15Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 25:16Speaker 01

  But my car wasn't stripped down to acid. It was stripped down, again, to adhesion.

• 25:22Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 25:22Speaker 01

  And then, um, pretty much as far as you can go without actually dipping the entire chassis in a bunch of different baths, uh, but still-

• 25:32Matt Farah?

  What did they charge for that? Did they offer that and you're like?

• 25:35Speaker 01

  It's so much more.

• 25:36Matt Farah?

  It's gotta be a ton.

• 25:37Speaker 01

  It's ridiculous. I mean, but- For what it is, do you want a brand new car or not? You know, if you can afford it and if it's something that you want and you weren't around when the car was new, then you have to pay for that.

• 25:49Matt Farah?

  I get it. Did let me ask you, and I want to come back to the book, but since you brought it up.

• 25:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:55Matt Farah?

  Does your car, which is gorgeous and was done by experts of experts?

• 26:00Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 26:01Matt Farah?

  Does it feel like a brand new car?

• 26:03Speaker 01

  It's, it's still, yeah, I mean, it feels like a 25 year old car. I mean, it is, it already felt really nice when I had it. It was in really good condition, but it just that much, that little extra step.

• 26:21Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 26:21Speaker 01

  In terms of like less rattles, just certain things. Part of it is because in that era of Nissan, the cars weren't built that well, to be honest.

• 26:31Matt Farah?

  Which is funny because like, I don't know, I don't, I don't think they were built that badly compared to like, what a 2000 American, I had a C5 Corvette, homie.

• 26:42Speaker 01

  Yes, I get that, but if you look at my car and if you look at my build series on it, on the Hagerty YouTube channel, I show that my car's not that bad, but it was just left outside.

• 26:56Matt Farah?

  Uh huh.

• 26:57Speaker 01

  Okay, it, it might've been covered, but it was outside and the paint was faded. And when they cut open my shock towers, it pained me to watch them cut open the car, but there was a lot of rust under the shock towers. And it was just because Nissan didn't put rubber where they should have put the rubber, right? Because as soon as you drive on wet roads, what does the tire do? It shoots up the water into the shock tower area.

• 27:23Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 27:23Speaker 01

  And if it's not sealed, then it'll rust, no matter what.

• 27:28Matt Farah?

  So, but, but I mean, after, when you got it back from this, you know, year long process, bare metal respray, et cetera. Did it then feel like a like a brand new car? Folks, we gotta take a quick break for Car Gurus. Look, if you're looking for some super classic enthusiast car, we know where to go for the spots. We know where those bodies are buried. But if you're talking about regular cars, cars for most people, cars for going to work, going to the store, that's most cars. Those purchases are actually more annoying because there's so many cars, so many sites, and it's so much confusion. That's where Car Gurus is here. They help you cut through the noise, showing you the best deals and in-depth vehicle details so you can feel confident about your purchase.

• 28:13Matt Farah?

  Because when it comes to your big deal, you deserve the best deal. These are expensive things. They need to last a long time. They need to work with your lifestyle. They need to be reliable, stylish, etc. And it's like dating. You gotta swipe through a bunch of options. Some look better than they are, and you just hope you don't end up with good enough while you're looking for great. So how it works is Car Gurus connects you with trusted, vetted dealerships when you're ready, ensuring a transparent and hassle-free buying process. With over 4 million listings, Car Gurus has more car listings than any other major online automotive marketplace in the U.S. So you can find the best deal. Car Gurus gives you the control to shop how you want to shop with the tools, information, and data-driven ratings you need. It's no wonder that SimilarWeb's estimated traffic data

• 28:58Matt Farah?

  shows Car Gurus is the number one most-visited car-shopping site. Buy or sell your next car today with Car Gurus at cargurus.com. That's C-A-R-G-U-R-U-S dot com. cargurus.com. Make sure your big deal is the best deal. And lastly, we are brought to you today by Liquid IV. This is some good stuff here. It helps. It helps hydration. It helps with vitamins, nutrients, electrolytes, all the stuff that you need in your body and you probably aren't getting enough of, all in a single stick that you drop it into a bottle or cup of water. Very easy. One stick of Liquid IV in 16 ounces of water is more hydrating than

• 29:43Matt Farah?

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• 30:28Matt Farah?

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• 30:56Speaker 01

  I mean, I'm still working on it to this day. Like, we just upgraded the brakes to R35 brakes. It even feels better now.

• 31:04Matt Farah?

  I don't, by the way, mean new. Like, does it feel like a 2025 brand-new car? I don't mean that. I mean, like, compared to this amazing gold thing.

• 31:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, I drove this.

• 31:14Matt Farah?

  Which is, okay, acid dipped the works. The best one can get.

• 31:17Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 31:17Matt Farah?

  Was it notably better than what you've got?

• 31:20Speaker 01

  This one, I have to say, the main difference is that they got all new interior panels. And mine are the same.

• 31:27Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 31:28Speaker 01

  But now, we're starting to source new interior panels. I got a bunch from Z1 Motorsports, for whatever reason.

• 31:34Matt Farah?

  Okay.

• 31:34Speaker 01

  They stock a lot of R32 to R34 panels. And I'm starting to source things little by little. But it's just like little things, right?

• 31:46Matt Farah?

  All right, but that's not, okay, so interior, I got it. Like, so, the acid dip thing is only for the "I don't give a fuck" crowd. It's for "money doesn't matter, I don't care." For everyone else, you're not really missing out, is what you're saying.

• 32:00Speaker 01

  How about this, I bring the car, and you and Zach can drive it.

• 32:03Matt Farah?

  This one? I would have a go in this. Oh, your car?

• 32:06Speaker 01

  My car.

• 32:07Matt Farah?

  Oh, I'd have a go in your car. I love an R34, they're fucking great.

• 32:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, I know you've driven one in Japan.

• 32:12Matt Farah?

  I've driven five or six different ones, they're all great, it's hard to find a bad one.

• 32:16Speaker 01

  Mine makes stock power. It's verified, dynoed, on Garage Yoshida's dyno, makes 330, I think.

• 32:25Matt Farah?

  At the wheels?

• 32:25Speaker 01

  At the wheels.

• 32:26Matt Farah?

  That's the stock, that's the stock.

• 32:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, stock, stock, 100% stock.

• 32:30Matt Farah?

  That feels great.

• 32:31Speaker 01

  Feels slow compared to my R32, which makes around 500. But, it's, I feel like a million bucks driving that thing. I drove that all the way up to Monterey Car Week. And I showed my car at the Quail, which is so crazy.

• 32:46Matt Farah?

  Isn't that fun?

• 32:47Speaker 01

  Talk about a huge rite of passage, I know you've, have you showed other cars at the Quail?

• 32:51Matt Farah?

  No, this is my first one, too.

• 32:52Speaker 01

  How fun was that?

• 32:53Matt Farah?

  Really fun, I had a cigar ready for the drive-out, it was great.

• 32:58Speaker 01

  Just...

• 32:58Matt Farah?

  I really enjoyed myself.

• 32:59Speaker 01

  I never, ever thought I would be able to do that. And just like, I never thought I would be able to publish a book. So many rite of passages, you know?

• 33:07Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 33:07Speaker 01

  For a real car nerd, it meant the world to me, really. It was so cool for people to be able to see the car, meet so many people that appreciate it for its era. You know, a couple of years ago, I don't think they would have let an R34 into the show, no?

• 33:23Matt Farah?

  I mean, I think since Philip has become more involved, the younger person at the Quail. I think the, the audience and the cars shown and all that has shifted accordingly. I mean, I don't think there's, I mean, look, all you have to do is look at... The auction prices, I mean, no one is questioning if a R34 Skyline is a legit collector vehicle at all.

• 33:50Speaker 01

  It's just so funny to me because I was on the Quail Rally with all those other vehicles that I don't even.

• 33:57Matt Farah?

  Old shit, right?

• 33:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:59Matt Farah?

  Like old stuff.

• 33:59Speaker 01

  Old stuff, but like the Pagani Huayra and Lebonini this and Ferrari. I don't even know how to pronounce some of these names.

• 34:06Matt Farah?

  Oh, Doechi Cylindri, I think is the correct name of that.

• 34:11Speaker 01

  Anyways, when we're driving.

• 34:12Matt Farah?

  Doechi. Fuck, I better get it right before we review that thing.

• 34:14Speaker 01

  When we're driving along, the kids, the car spotters, were just going nuts over my car.

• 34:20Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 34:21Speaker 01

  Flipping out because they're like, okay, Ferrari, Ferrari, Lambo, McLaren, Pagani, oh my God, it's a GT-R. And they're just like.

• 34:28Matt Farah?

  Kids love Skylines.

• 34:30Speaker 01

  Flipping out. And I think to myself, oh my God, this, it's hilarious because I'm the only Japanese car, only Nissan on the rally. And yeah, people just appreciate it. It makes me happy because originally when I purchased the car, it was never about how it performed. I could care less. I get that you can make a thousand horsepower. Who cares? For me, it's about the aura, about the story, about the way it makes me feel when I drive it. Uh, the way it looks, you know, it's just of my generation.

• 35:01Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah. If you grew up playing Gran Turismo, this was the car.

• 35:05Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 35:05Matt Farah?

  When we were in high school and early college, what are we doing? Nürburgring, no Skylines. That was like the thing. And then you drive it and you go, oh shit, it wasn't like just a cheater car in the video game like. And, uh, you know, because we didn't know about like Group A when we were 16. We didn't have fucking YouTube and shit. So, you know, but, but, but we had Gran Turismo. And so that was really what I was saying. And then you drive and you go, it's not disappointing. It really drives actually like really nice.

• 35:33Speaker 01

  Really good.

• 35:34Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 35:34Speaker 01

  So we'll, we'll close out on the book. Um, it's $125.

• 35:39Matt Farah?

  It's pretty and you should buy it is what I'm saying.

• 35:41Speaker 01

  It's available.

• 35:42Matt Farah?

  Firebird rules. This white Firebird.

• 35:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, Riley says.

• 35:45Matt Farah?

  God damn, is that, that the one that's like. The wide, wide boy, fuck, that thing's awesome. You should, everyone should buy this book, it's sick.

• 35:52Speaker 01

  So, yeah, if you guys want to preorder it, we're shipping them this week.

• 35:56Matt Farah?

  Oh, cool.

• 35:57Speaker 01

  Actually, so I, I just came from seeing the container full of books.

• 36:02Matt Farah?

  That's gotta be fun, rewarding.

• 36:03Speaker 01

  On Amazon and also on CarraraBooks.com, but if you purchase it on CarraraBooks.com or Amazon, it doesn't really make a difference. Obviously, if you do it from Amazon, it helps us bump up the ladder in terms of like car books, so definitely appreciate you guys.

• 36:21Matt Farah?

  If you buy it direct from the publisher, you don't have to support the oligarchy.

• 36:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, that too.

• 36:24Matt Farah?

  Also that.

• 36:25Speaker 01

  So, so we give that option.

• 36:26Matt Farah?

  It's okay.

• 36:27Speaker 01

  So, I definitely appreciate everyone for supporting me on this book. This is just something that I spent.

• 36:34Matt Farah?

  Go to your local bookstore and have them order it for you.

• 36:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, that works too.

• 36:37Matt Farah?

  Support your local bookseller. God, this book's so pretty, Larry.

• 36:40Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 36:40Matt Farah?

  I would give this one to a fan, except I'm not going to because I want to keep it. This one with the sparks. These, these, uh, these Jim Kana stuff's great. Um, man, I'm so happy for you. There's so many good pictures here.

• 36:52Speaker 01

  Two, two things real quick. So, I am doing a public book launch at the Peterson Museum.

• 36:57Matt Farah?

  Oh, fun.

• 36:58Speaker 01

  I'm announcing that soon, so first time talking about it. Um, that'll be on October 5th, Sunday. So, anybody can come and check out the book. I'll be there signing copies, uh, but it'll be like a public fun meet. It'll also be the-

• 37:15Matt Farah?

  You have to buy a ticket or register somehow, or can you just show up?

• 37:18Speaker 01

  If you're spectating, you could just show up. If you want to show your car, then you have to-

• 37:22Matt Farah?

  It's like one of the cruises, at one of the cruises, it's a cruise in, right, Sunday morning.

• 37:25Speaker 01

  So, it also happens to be the last day of the Ken Block exhibit.

• 37:28Matt Farah?

  Oh.

• 37:29Speaker 01

  So, if you want to come and see the Ken Block exhibit before it goes and come check out the book, um, if you want me to sign the book, whatever, we could do that. Uh, I'm also going to announce one really, really special event that I'm doing. I don't know, did you see this, uh, meet that I did at the Queen Mary earlier this year?

• 37:47Matt Farah?

  No.

• 37:48Speaker 01

  So, I, I did a meet at the Queen Mary, uh, the day before Formula Drift. Seventeen hundred and fifty cars showed up. And, yeah, it was, it was really crazy.

• 37:56Matt Farah?

  How many were you expecting?

• 37:58Speaker 01

  I don't know, but-

• 37:59Matt Farah?

  But not that many.

• 38:01Speaker 01

  So, so we are gonna do another meet.

• 38:03Matt Farah?

  Oh, fun.

• 38:04Speaker 01

  But this time, we're gonna do it in downtown Long Beach. And we're gonna take over the entire parking structure in downtown Long Beach, 800 spaces.

• 38:14Matt Farah?

  Like the middle one, like that's two or three blocks from the beach?

• 38:19Speaker 01

  It's, it's the one that the Long Beach Grand Prix course goes around.

• 38:23Matt Farah?

  Oh, okay.

• 38:23Speaker 01

  So it's gonna be the Type S Night Lights meet. It's a Formula Drift pre-meet and it's presented by Pennzoil, so that one is going to be on October 16th. It's free for everyone to come.

• 38:35Matt Farah?

  That one I can come to. I'm traveling for the other one.

• 38:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, you should, you should definitely.

• 38:41Matt Farah?

  Wait, you say October 5th? Yeah, I'm traveling for it. The Peterson one I'm traveling for, this one I can come to.

• 38:46Speaker 01

  Are you going to Luft, is that why?

• 38:47Matt Farah?

  No.

• 38:48Speaker 01

  Okay. Going to something else.

• 38:50Matt Farah?

  Huh?

• 38:50Speaker 01

  You're going to something else. But I'll be at Luft and I have to fly back for that event.

• 38:54Matt Farah?

  I'll be at Performance Car of the Year.

• 38:56Speaker 01

  Oh, cool.

• 38:56Matt Farah?

  Which is a thing I cannot complain about being at, that'll be fun. But no, I will definitely, I would like a spot at the Long Beach one.

• 39:04Speaker 01

  I'll save you a spot. It's a lot of fun, cuz we're gonna have like a fun Tokyo Drift moment, where we have all the Formula Drift cars come up the, the entire parking structure. But legally, obviously, you know, they'll rev. No, not drifting. They'll, they'll, they'll rev and they'll pop some bangs, all that shoot fire.

• 39:23Matt Farah?

  That'll be very loud.

• 39:24Speaker 01

  I'm basic.

• 39:24Matt Farah?

  Bring headphones.

• 39:25Speaker 01

  I'm gonna try to recreate the Tokyo Drift moment to the best of my ability legally.

• 39:32Matt Farah?

  Within reason.

• 39:33Speaker 01

  But, but also with the support from City of Long Beach, which is so cool.

• 39:36Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 39:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 39:37Matt Farah?

  Long Beach is alright.

• 39:38Speaker 02

  What time is the event?

• 39:40Speaker 01

  It should start like 5 or 6 PM, uh, but.

• 39:45Matt Farah?

  But it owns a calendar, Zach.

• 39:47Speaker 01

  And it'll end at 10, but let's get to Brunet.

• 39:51Matt Farah?

  We will, uh, yeah, we'll have to bring some cars to that.

• 39:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, that'll, that'll be fun.

• 39:55Matt Farah?

  I'll tell you how many spots I need. Okay, yeah, I saw this on Instagram and I was like, what the fuck is Larry doing? So, what are you doing over there?

• 40:03Speaker 01

  A lot of people talk about, oh man, one day I wanna see the collection, one day, you know, how cool would it be to see the Brunet collection? Has anybody actually gone to Brunei to try to see any cars? Do you know of anyone that's gone?

• 40:17Matt Farah?

  I mean, there's like an Instagram account that claims that the family of Brunei is not happy with them. They get sneaky sort of clandestine photos of stuff and have other photos of stuff. I don't know. I haven't tried to see anything. I don't know anyone who actually has, no.

• 40:34Speaker 01

  So, over the past couple of years, I've been shooting a lot in Southeast Asia. I've been shooting my show, Caption Car Culture. And I've been meeting a lot of people from Brunei. I've been meeting people from that region. And I feel like up until this point, I haven't really made enough connections to really make it happen, right? So, just this last time I went to Malaysia for this show, I met some of the organizers from this show in Brunei. They call it the Borneo Custom Show. And Borneo is that entire island.

• 41:10Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 41:11Speaker 01

  And in the island, there's three countries. There's Brunei, there's Malaysia, and there's Indonesia. And so-

• 41:18Matt Farah?

  But then Indonesia has a whole bunch more. It's one of the islands.

• 41:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. It's one of the islands, yeah. So, this one island, they have this one car show. It's the biggest car show of the entire island. So, out of those three countries, and obviously the biggest in Brunei. And they've been going on for eight years. So, I thought, okay, this is my end. This is at least my, I wouldn't say cover story, but it was my way to make connections on the ground, make some friends, and actually go there and check out the show, but shoot my shot at shooting some royal cars or some collections, right?

• 41:53Matt Farah?

  Are you pretty well-known in that area? Like, if you show up at this show, at least a certain number of people will know exactly who you are.

• 42:03Speaker 01

  It was insane. And, you know, the thing is, in Southeast Asia, most of these countries, they're English-speaking, right? Especially Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, and Hong Kong. Just a lot, that region, and a lot of Indonesia, a lot of Thailand, they're English-speaking and they consume English content. So-

• 42:27Speaker 01

  I didn't really understand my viewership. I didn't really understand these individuals until I went on the ground, shooting their car culture. And Brunei especially, it's crazy. The percentage of people there that watch my content absolutely blew me away. So, long story short, I took the steps to go. I made some connections with some Royals that maybe are a little further away from the Crown, but they're still Royals. They still have royal blood.

• 43:03Speaker 01

  So, went there, right away, got on to their radio station because their, their radio station, of course, is government owned, but they still listen to the radio every single day. Got there, kind of put it out there that I want to see some royal stuff. And it, it was very well received. I, I, I was very surprised. I met so many people. I, I brought, I, I kind of keep track of how many people I meet by bringing stickers and I give out stickers. I brought 2,000 stickers. I'm almost out. I like, I almost ran out. So I met so many freaking people.

• 43:40Speaker 01

  But I met the Sultan, the King, you know, the Sultan, his brother Jeffrey, who started it all, and also the Crown Prince, who's going to take the throne eventually, you know, when, when the Sultan either passes away or when he wants to move on, and also his two brothers. So I met pretty much the top, yeah. I met, it, it's so insane. It's like going to England and meeting the King.

• 44:14Matt Farah?

  Yeah, like how long did that take? How long did that take? You landed to, I'm shaking the hand or, you know, saluting whatever. Two days. Pretty fucking good.

• 44:24Speaker 01

  It, it was.

• 44:25Matt Farah?

  Honestly, I think, uh...

• 44:28Matt Farah?

  Fucking Bond would be pretty impressed with that.

• 44:31Speaker 01

  So.

• 44:32Matt Farah?

  That's pretty, that's pretty amazing.

• 44:34Speaker 01

  If you could just picture this, like, think about.

• 44:37Matt Farah?

  Nobody could meet.

• 44:39Speaker 01

  Think about coming.

• 44:40Matt Farah?

  Larry's like, hold my beer.

• 44:42Speaker 01

  Think about going to, coming to the US and just two days meeting the president from, from nothing.

• 44:48Matt Farah?

  I mean, I know, you couldn't do it from nothing. I think it would be about 280 million dollars. You could show up here and make laws, it turns out. But yeah, I get the point.

• 44:57Speaker 01

  But like any other country with royalty or anything like that, like that just doesn't happen.

• 45:04Matt Farah?

  So who among that group was like, oh, I know Larry Chen, let's hang out.

• 45:08Speaker 01

  Which, by the way, this is completely first time me talking about this, right? Full, like you guys are getting the exclusive, the scoop. Uh, I'm gonna, I'm not gonna tell you everything. I'm gonna tell you up to a certain point.

• 45:20Matt Farah?

  There's another book.

• 45:21Speaker 01

  Well, no, it's not that. It's, we shot a whole Hagerty Caption Car Culture episode on it. A very detailed documentary and I'm gonna put all of that out showing this entire thing. This entire process of me, you know, going from Singapore to Brunei, cause that's the only way you can get there. And then, uh, showing me going to the, you know, the royal, all of this, everything, every bit of it. I just documented it to my best ability and I'm gonna lay it out there.

• 45:51Matt Farah?

  The only way you can get to Brunei is from Singapore. Logistically or legally?

• 45:56Speaker 01

  Logistically, yeah, logistically. So, so went to Singapore, went to Brunei, uh, met up with a lot of local car culture enthusiasts that were also royal. And, uh, I wrote a letter to Prince Mateen, who is in charge of the collection now. Okay. So what happened with Prince Jeffrey is he went bananas, bought all these cars, as you know. And a lot of people know who follow this story. And he got in trouble, right? He got in trouble and so he couldn't keep the car collection. So what happened is the car collection got moved to another government agency that takes care of it.

• 46:40Speaker 01

  And it's, it was called Band Two. Now it's called Band Three. And the locals told me it's, the reason why it's called Band is because it's like, it was banned.

• 46:53Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 46:54Speaker 01

  So they had a, they had Band One, Band Two, and Band Tree. And it's, it's spelled very weird. So when they spelled it Band Two, it's T O O. Now it's spelled Tree as in T R E.

• 47:06Matt Farah?

  B A N.

• 47:07Speaker 01

  D.

• 47:08Matt Farah?

  B A N D.

• 47:09Speaker 01

  T O O.

• 47:10Matt Farah?

  T O O, okay.

• 47:11Speaker 01

  This, this is the government entity.

• 47:13Matt Farah?

  Okay.

• 47:14Speaker 01

  That takes care of every single one of Jeffrey's cars.

• 47:17Matt Farah?

  Okay.

• 47:18Speaker 01

  Uh, and now Prince Mateen, the son of the current Sultan, sorry. But I, I knew I was gonna do it. Uh, don't bang the table. The, the Prince Mateen, who is the son of the current Sultan.

• 47:35Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 47:36Speaker 01

  Is taking care of the entire collection.

• 47:39Matt Farah?

  On behalf of this other entity where they took them from his uncle.

• 47:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 47:44Matt Farah?

  Okay.

• 47:45Speaker 01

  So my goal was to meet Mateen and ask him if we can shoot this collection. So, uh, I wrote a letter to him and also wrote a letter to his office. Uh, because our friends on the ground are friends with him and the people that surround him. He was able to receive the letter and he did say he wanted to meet me. And he already knew who I was. So, once we got onto the ground, we already had a bunch of collections lined up with a bunch of Royals. In fact, we had four separate collections that we already had access to, okay to film, okay to tell the whole story.

• 48:30Speaker 01

  Once we got on the ground and once this ball started rolling and I went on the radio and I started posting, saying, you know, meeting people.

• 48:40Speaker 01

  One by one, those collections dropped like flies.

• 48:43Matt Farah?

  Oh.

• 48:44Speaker 01

  So, we think somebody in the royal family was like, no, this isn't happening. And just started actively shutting these things down. I don't know. But from the text messages that our contacts got, from the text messages that we saw, where it's like, positive, positive, positive, all of a sudden, they all go negative, like, at one certain time, all at the same time? We think-

• 49:08Matt Farah?

  There's a group-

• 49:09Speaker 01

  Somebody-

• 49:10Matt Farah?

  The royal group chat was like, yo.

• 49:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, somebody is like, nah, this ain't happening. So, what do we do? We're like, okay, let's meet them in person and ask them face to face. So, it just so happened to be the king's celebration for his birthday. That was postponed, uh, because I guess he got ill for whatever reason. And they have two celebrations for his birthday. One on one side of the country and one on this other side of the country. So, I just happened to be there and then-

• 49:40Matt Farah?

  It's a boss move in a country that's small.

• 49:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, well-

• 49:42Matt Farah?

  You're about to ask the king a favor on his birthday? That's fucking-

• 49:46Speaker 01

  Well, here's the thing. My, our contacts on the ground, like I said, they are royal and they had seats at the table or at this event. And they're like, Larry, just come along with us. He, he already wants to meet you. Let's just make the introduction and you can talk to him in person. And I'm thinking to myself, how is this even a thing? How is this possible? Like, where in the world does this exist? Anywhere else? I, we're talking about a relatively small country, okay? Half a million people, but still.

• 50:18Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 50:19Speaker 01

  It, it is, it, it is a legit royal family. Like, I saw the palace.

• 50:25Matt Farah?

  Yeah, but now that I think about it, half a million people, if that's it, it, there's, you know, there's probably only fucking two or three degrees from anybody to a royal.

• 50:34Speaker 01

  Right, that's the, that's the thing.

• 50:36Matt Farah?

  That's like, when I went to Iceland and I was driving a McLaren, the only McLaren to ever go to Iceland, everywhere I went, they were like, I knew you were coming.

• 50:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 50:45Matt Farah?

  My cousin told me you were coming, everywhere. I knew you were coming, I knew you were coming. I guess, you know, it is crazy and I'm not trying to take away from it because you, there had to be multiple levels of permission and approval, probably beyond what you even know about. But like, but now that I think about it, in a population of a half a million people- Everyone's gotta be only a couple of degrees from the king.

• 51:09Speaker 01

  So.

• 51:10Speaker 02

  But just imagine Larry, like, his, you know, his head with camera popping up in his photo. And he's like, hey, man.

• 51:15Matt Farah?

  Dude, your next book should be like a Where's Waldo book, but it's Where's Larry?

• 51:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 51:20Speaker 02

  I shook his. I got this YouTube channel and we.

• 51:22Speaker 01

  I shook his hand. I told him it's my first time, Ru and I, um, excited about meeting the people. You know, the people are so friendly, beautiful country, all that. Gave him the whole spiel, you know? Um, but yeah, we went there, uh, watched, um, Prince Jeffrey land in his own Blackhawk helicopter. And then watched the king, um, land. He's flying his own Blackhawk hel- helicopter. He flies his own 747. Uh, he's a pilot and also the sons are pilots too.

• 51:55Matt Farah?

  Flying around in a Blackhawk is, is that practical?

• 52:01Speaker 01

  Who cares?

• 52:01Matt Farah?

  No, I guess, yeah, yeah.

• 52:03Speaker 01

  So they land, they, they come, and we didn't know Jeffrey was gonna be there. We didn't know Prince Jeffrey was gonna be there. We, I already was excited to meet Prince Mateen, who's in charge of the collection. We, I had no idea that the guy who started it all, in terms of car culture and Brunei being one, being something that you can't separate anymore.

• 52:25Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 52:25Speaker 01

  The guy responsible for it was there.

• 52:28Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 52:29Speaker 01

  He lands and then he, he gets in his, uh, it was like a, um, I don't know, Taycan or something. Drives, um, over to the assembly area. The, the Sultan gets out with his sons. He gets in his G-Wagon, which is the only vehicle in the entire country that doesn't need a license plate.

• 52:50Speaker 01

  He gets in his G-Wagon, they assemble, they do the whole thing. And, um, what they do with his birthday celebration is they meet.

• 53:00Speaker 01

  Like the local politicians, they meet the local, or local politicians, local families, local royal families, local businesses, like all the oil companies and all the people that, his subjects essentially, right? So they all line up and I was embedded with this one company that does a lot of the oil stuff, but they also tune the fastest cars on, in the country. They built this crazy R35 GT-R. I think they're building one that's, I don't know, 2,500 horsepower right now. That, part of the cost, right? But anyway, so I'm along

• 53:40Speaker 01

  with these guys and then so the royalty comes, the king, or the Sultan comes first, you know, I say, "Thank you, whatever, amazing country." I take a selfie with him. And then Jeffrey comes along, Prince Jeffrey. I go up to him, I'm like, you know, I give him the whole spiel, you know, "I'm American, first time, can I photograph your car collection?" And he looks at me, he's like, "I haven't seen my own car collection for so many years. Why, why would they let you shoot it if I haven't even seen it?" And he's like, "If you want to..." That's a fair question. You're asking the wrong guy. Exactly. He's like, "You're asking the wrong guy." "I have no access." Yeah, he, he's out. "Nice to meet you. I have no access."

• 54:21Speaker 01

  What, because he got exiled, or he self-exiled for, I think about a decade after all that stuff happened, because it was just, whatever, just not a good look for him to be around for whatever reason. I, I don't want to get into that. True this excess, yeah. Yeah, I don't want to get into that. Either way, he can't get into the car collection, is the point. He can't. So then he, I don't know, maybe he can, maybe publicly he has to say that. But Prince Mateen is the guy. Right. That's the guy. He, he's, he jokingly is like, "Hey, talk to my assistant." I talked to his assistant and he's like, he's joking, just, just leave him alone, you know? So then I go to the two other brothers, the Crown Prince, I, again, say, "Thank you, you know, glad to

• 55:06Speaker 01

  be here, tell him I'm American, talk to his other brother, um, super nice guy." He's like, "Oh, you're from Los Angeles or whatever." Then Prince Mateen, last one, the one I want to talk to.

• 55:17Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 55:18Speaker 01

  He comes up to me, first thing he says, "Hey Larry." He knows I'm coming. You know, he knows what I'm there for. And I ask him, "Hey, um, can I shoot either your collection or the main collection, the private collection?" And he's like, "Let's talk in private." And, uh, he just connects us with his secretary.

• 55:40Matt Farah?

  He's gotta be, he's gotta be last in line, it's such pressure if he's first in line.

• 55:44Speaker 01

  He talks to his, uh, secretary and, um, he's like, just exchange numbers or whatever. But my, my contacts, they already knew the secretary. We were already talking. And that's how we actually got him the letter.

• 55:59Speaker 01

  So then, uh, basically, we'll, we'll leave the story off here. I, I will say I did get to shoot roller cars. And, uh, I'll, I'll tell you guys privately after, after filming, but I want to release everything.

• 56:13Matt Farah?

  Don't blow up at the spot, don't give away what you can sell, Larry.

• 56:16Speaker 01

  I know, I know, I, I want to put together like a really good episode detailing this entire journey. And, um, it's gonna be long, it's gonna be probably over an hour, because I really put a lot of effort into this one, you know? Uh, and the crazy thing is, just me showing and documenting, you know, watching them land their helicopters and just face to face, you know, taking selfies with them, that whole process leading up to that was already crazy. And then, everything else after that, so, yeah. That's wild. It's so wild. It, cause, yeah, so many people, this is the last untold major car culture story in my eyes. Like, it's forbidden.

• 57:00Matt Farah?

  So we've been told.

• 57:01Speaker 01

  So, so, yeah.

• 57:04Matt Farah?

  I, we, you know, we've also been told, you know, the cars are in total disrepair, the cars are, you know, the cars are this, the cars are that. It's always been kind of a, and yet some, you know, you, every once in a while, you'll see ex Brunei cars that have sort of made it out. Uh, something happened to them.

• 57:21Speaker 01

  What, one of the big stories that I do talk about that I'll, I'll let you guys know about is the fact that I try to convey how much of a trickle down effect there is, it's huge. It's insane. Like, you cannot, at least for a car person, doing all these car things in Brunai, you can't go to a car thing without. Meeting somebody or meeting an owner and being proud of the fact that this was a ex royal car. And on paper documented, this is, this was registered to the palace.

• 57:53Matt Farah?

  You mean in Bernai?

• 57:54Speaker 01

  In Bernai.

• 57:54Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah.

• 57:55Speaker 01

  Like, you want to talk about a serious trickle down effect, it is insane. They've done so many auctions and they've gotten rid of so much of the collection. Uh, and it could be crazy cars, it could be insane.

• 58:08Matt Farah?

  But yeah, they also had like 500 black S classes and something, so there's probably.

• 58:12Speaker 01

  Exactly. There's a lot of that. There's a lot of that. And, um, for example, I met with an individual that was with us that also has royal blood. He bought a, just like a regular three series E36, three 25i.

• 58:29Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 58:29Speaker 01

  At a royal auction, registered to the palace. I, I think actually registered to the Ministry of Finance, which is what Prince Jeffrey's thing was. For, and he bought it for $3,800?

• 58:44Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 58:45Speaker 01

  You know?

• 58:45Matt Farah?

  I mean, it's because to most people, it's like 325, who gives a shit?

• 58:48Speaker 02

  Well, this ad, this ad you put a picture of is funny. It's an ad for an auction. And it's like $200 cash deposit required per vehicle.

• 58:55Speaker 01

  200 Bernai dollars.

• 58:56Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah. The ban, ban to vehicles for sale.

• 59:00Speaker 01

  That's how they spell it. Ban to.

• 59:01Matt Farah?

  Yeah. B A N D T O O.

• 59:03Speaker 01

  Yeah. For, look how, and it looks like it was done in Microsoft Word.

• 59:07Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 59:07Speaker 01

  Right? 2012.

• 59:09Matt Farah?

  Yeah, this is a, uh, and this like, this one's really funny because it's a replica. It, I don't understand why the people with all the money and also access to get very real Ferraris would have a replica, but okay, sure. Uh, but it's fun.

• 59:23Speaker 01

  Like you could see their pink slip, it's blue.

• 59:26Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 59:26Speaker 01

  Um, it actually says banned to, look at this, Ministry of Finance. That's where it's, that is where it's registered. That's the address. Like, how crazy is that? Like, this is just so cool to me, being able to tell this story. So, yeah.

• 59:44Matt Farah?

  Yeah, man. I hope, I hope you got to see some of the, uh, the actual good stuff, not just the fake Ferraris, but the paperwork is hilarious.

• 59:52Speaker 01

  Yeah. So there, there was a lot of that. I mean, we, we spent four days on the ground. Um, but of course, leading up to that, it was months and months of planning with the locals.

• 1:00:02Matt Farah?

  But what about that car show? Was it awesome? What are people driving?

• 1:00:06Speaker 01

  Dude, they're, they are car obsessed there. Like, it, it just, it trickled down in terms of the cars, but it also tricked down in terms of enthusiasm for these vehicles. They are car obsessed. And because it is an English-speaking country, they, they just know. They consume all of your content, they consume my content.

• 1:00:27Matt Farah?

  But what's popular over there?

• 1:00:29Speaker 01

  Mostly JDM.

• 1:00:30Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:30Speaker 01

  Mostly JDM because it's right-hand drive.

• 1:00:32Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:33Speaker 01

  You can have left-hand drive, but it's pretty difficult to, to use a left-hand drive. Most of the cars that I saw, um, people either converted them or they had somebody else convert them or whatever. Uh, I know a lot of the Royals had Pinafrina convert certain cars to right-hand drive.

• 1:00:53Matt Farah?

  Sure.

• 1:00:54Speaker 01

  Um, I, I saw the only H2 Hummer there that was converted to right-hand drive, but it looked so good, like they spent so much effort on them.

• 1:01:01Matt Farah?

  There was a company in Australia doing those H2s and like Rams and Raptors to right-hand drive. It might have been done by the same company, but it did look right. It looked exactly like it was supposed to.

• 1:01:11Speaker 01

  But in terms of just like everyday pedestrian, normal tuners, normal car enthusiasts, mostly JDM because they're more affordable.

• 1:01:17Matt Farah?

  Sure.

• 1:01:18Speaker 01

  The proximity to Japan and of course being right-hand drive, uh, it translates. But that's not to say they don't have their Mercedes. Everything that the Royals liked, the people like.

• 1:01:28Matt Farah?

  How were, uh, the roads? Anywhere to drive?

• 1:01:32Speaker 01

  Not really. You, they, they don't have a track. They used to do drag racing. They used to do like legal drag racing where they would block off the streets. But now for them to go to a racetrack, they have to drive to Malaysia, which is not that far.

• 1:01:45Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:01:46Speaker 01

  It's like us driving whatever to another state or, or even not even, you know?

• 1:01:51Matt Farah?

  On the island, though?

• 1:01:52Speaker 01

  Yes, on the island.

• 1:01:53Matt Farah?

  Okay, alright.

• 1:01:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, on the island.

• 1:01:54Matt Farah?

  So it is possible to drive to a racetrack from where they are?

• 1:01:57Speaker 01

  It is, yeah. But, yeah, it is.

• 1:02:01Matt Farah?

  That Busazoku wagon with this star-shaped exhaust is insane. Did you hear this run?

• 1:02:06Speaker 01

  No, no.

• 1:02:07Matt Farah?

  That sounds like.

• 1:02:08Speaker 01

  But, but it, it was really cool just to meet so many people face-to-face that consume our content. That's, and they're so far. You know, it could not get any further. It, it was. So much to get there, like it was like over twenty hours of traveling. I know you do that stuff all the time.

• 1:02:26Matt Farah?

  I do, it's far, I know what far is.

• 1:02:29Speaker 01

  You understand.

• 1:02:30Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:30Speaker 01

  Twenty hours is just flying.

• 1:02:31Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But and and there's there's the time it takes to fly somewhere and then there's like certain places when you land. You know, if I fly twenty hours to certain places, it doesn't feel like I've gone as far as if I go twenty hours to Southeast Asia and I go like I'm fucking far from home right now, you know what I mean? Um, oh, that that's a that's a good little Sarah, TRD Sarah. That looks good.

• 1:02:59Speaker 01

  So.

• 1:02:59Matt Farah?

  More people should do things with the Sarah.

• 1:03:01Speaker 01

  What's also crazy to me is um, just how how common it is to see the Royals, like they're especially because where we're staying, um, we were actually staying very close to the full collection. Like I could see it, I could see the buildings.

• 1:03:19Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:20Speaker 01

  And even where I was, the hotel I was staying, the hotel I was staying is owned by the Royals, of course. And it was so opulent and so nice and so beautiful.

• 1:03:32Speaker 01

  Wasn't, there wasn't that many people there. Uh, from my understanding, there's just not that many visitors to this place because they just don't really have that many tourist attractions. And one of the things I was publicly talking about on the radio, I went on the radio twice, and I was talking about the fact that they should really open it up for car tourism. Because I feel like it's such a draw for us car nerds to be able to see this stuff. People will go.

• 1:03:58Matt Farah?

  I mean, they could probably turn the whatever's left of the collection into some kind of museum that, you know, people would go some distance to see.

• 1:04:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:04:08Matt Farah?

  Um, and it could bring money to their country.

• 1:04:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:04:11Matt Farah?

  Um, that's fucking crazy, man.

• 1:04:16Matt Farah?

  How's the food in Brunei?

• 1:04:18Speaker 01

  Uh, it it's like Malaysian food.

• 1:04:20Matt Farah?

  Malaysian food.

• 1:04:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, Malaysian and Indonesian food. Um, simple, lot of rice, but good.

• 1:04:25Matt Farah?

  Good.

• 1:04:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:04:26Matt Farah?

  The uh, is it the kind of place where like, like?

• 1:04:32Matt Farah?

  Like optimistic car culture, you know what I mean?

• 1:04:37Speaker 01

  So what do you mean by optimistic?

• 1:04:39Matt Farah?

  Like, I I just mean like, they're excited about it. They're excited about like, you know, sports cars and and and things like that.

• 1:04:48Speaker 01

  It's in their blood. They live and breathe it. Everybody that I met, it's it's it's like um, I don't know, it's just something that's ingrained in them. They love it so much and they they'll love whatever they can get, right? And we we're talking about just Toyota Corollas that are barely holding together. Uh, and then they'll do their absolute best to put it back together. Um, or it could be supercar, hypercar, whatever, like the range of cars.

• 1:05:19Matt Farah?

  Like Singapore, it's really hard to own cu- own sports cars, though. Is this like that or not really?

• 1:05:23Matt Farah?

  This is much more, they don't they don't care.

• 1:05:26Speaker 01

  Fuel is cheap. It's subsidized by the government. Fuel is, I calculated it, I think it's about a dollar fifty per gallon.

• 1:05:33Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:33Speaker 01

  Uh, or less. Uh, and everybody drives. This is unlike any other Southeast, East Asian country in that there's no scooters. Everybody can afford a car. And they, the population also loves the Royals. They love the government. They love the uh, all of the amenities that's given to them, you know, so people can drive cars. Um, people can afford nice houses. People can afford nice things. Yeah, I I can understand a lot of people like to complain about this place, but they've never been there. They've never actually met these people face to face. I've met thousands of people that while I was there.

• 1:06:16Speaker 01

  Uh, like you wouldn't believe, we calculated it, it was almost three percent of the entire country that went to this car show over two days. Over thirteen thousand people paid five dollars, five brunei dollars, which is, I think, three dollars.

• 1:06:31Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:31Speaker 01

  Uh, US to go to this show, to see cars, and also to bring their own car to show their cars i- in their major convention center. And if you could imagine.

• 1:06:44Speaker 01

  Over thirteen thousand people or fourteen thousand people in a country that's

• 1:06:48Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:49Speaker 01

  Less than half a million people.

• 1:06:50Matt Farah?

  That's a huge return.

• 1:06:52Speaker 01

  It's crazy. It was so insane how many people were there.

• 1:06:56Matt Farah?

  That's like what like a luft does, you know, but from a national, US national and international audience.

• 1:07:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:07:03Matt Farah?

  Yeah, that's crazy.

• 1:07:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's crazy. It is so cool. I'm so glad I got to experience it and I can't wait for everyone to see this story.

• 1:07:11Matt Farah?

  That's awesome.

• 1:07:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:07:13Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I can't wait to flip through your phone after we're done.

• 1:07:18Matt Farah?

  Do I need to get a new point, like a, is there a cool new point and shoot I need to get? Like I have an iPhone sixteen that I'm like, a pro, and I actually really think the camera on it's pretty amazing, but.

• 1:07:30Speaker 01

  It depends on what you're looking for, but right now what's very, very hot is that point and shoot look. I don't know if you noticed that.

• 1:07:37Matt Farah?

  Yes.

• 1:07:37Speaker 01

  Point and shoot and direct flash look that is all of a sudden like vintage feeling. Whereas it's something that we as photographers.

• 1:07:47Matt Farah?

  No, I remember that.

• 1:07:48Speaker 01

  Pushed away from.

• 1:07:49Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:07:50Speaker 01

  But then all of a sudden it's come back in such a big way. I don't know, maybe it hides imperfections or maybe it's just a certain look. Maybe it's like the in-between film and digital.

• 1:08:02Speaker 02

  Is it the mom genes of photography styles?

• 1:08:04Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:05Speaker 01

  I guess.

• 1:08:05Speaker 02

  Just everything goes in a cycle?

• 1:08:06Speaker 01

  It's pretty cool. I think it's pretty cool. There is a look for it. But now it's coming back in such a big way that Canon cannot keep any of their point and shoot cameras in stock. They cannot make them fast enough, like the, and people have been hitting me up, a lot of people. Asking if I can get a hookup for a G7X or something.

• 1:08:29Matt Farah?

  Oh shit, that's crazy.

• 1:08:31Speaker 01

  It's like they're, they're going backwards.

• 1:08:34Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:35Speaker 01

  But that's okay. I think it's cool that they're embracing this look. It's like film photography, but it's not going that far.

• 1:08:42Matt Farah?

  Well, and it's, it's an opportunity to not take your phone out. Which I think it's at a certain point, people get really sick of their phones and so you're looking for, I want, I want to take the pictures, but I don't want to be pulling my fucking phone. Cause then you start putting it on social media and like, I want to wait to keep that shit for later, you know?

• 1:09:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, no, it's cool.

• 1:09:02Matt Farah?

  I, uh, I hate my new phone, but I do like the new camera on it. The 16 Pro has a good camera. I've been impressed with it.

• 1:09:09Speaker 01

  You know, people always ask me, what, what steps do they have to take to get into car photography? Just use your phone.

• 1:09:15Matt Farah?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:09:16Speaker 01

  Look, all the stuff that you just showed, um, on the screen, all of it is with my phone.

• 1:09:21Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:22Speaker 01

  It's just because it's easy, you know, all of this stuff.

• 1:09:24Matt Farah?

  And if you really give a shit, they have like very cheap.

• 1:09:27Speaker 01

  The selfie I took with the king, that's on my phone.

• 1:09:29Matt Farah?

  Attachments, if you really care about your phone.

• 1:09:31Speaker 01

  If, if you go one slide, you could see the picture of the guy that started it all, or no, that's Mateen.

• 1:09:36Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:36Speaker 01

  That's me pleading my case. That's, that's him, Jeffrey. Yeah. Prince Jeffrey.

• 1:09:41Matt Farah?

  Mateen looks exactly like the guy that you have to convince to get in somewhere.

• 1:09:45Speaker 01

  Well, he's, he's honestly kind of like the playboy of the royal family. He has a huge following on Instagram, uh, and I think when he got married, collectively, like all of Southeast Asia, all the single women just were very upset, uh, because, um, who wouldn't want to marry a prince? A good-looking prince that, you know,

• 1:10:08Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:09Speaker 01

  Has his priorities straight. Now, it's, it's, it is so, I'm just so glad I had a chance to experience what I experienced and I, and I'm really excited about the story.

• 1:10:18Matt Farah?

  That's cool, man. That's a, that's a really fun opportunity. Wow. Uh, Zach, can we go to the people? They deserve to be heard from the Patreon over at patreon.com/thesmugentirepodcast. Get the show live, get the show early, ask, ask questions of our guests, get the show without ads and a whole lot more. Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, Michael says, if you didn't have your R34, what would have been a good JDM choice for the Quail Tour? Hakoska would probably fit in better.

• 1:10:52Speaker 01

  Uh, it's, it's tough because I guess it depends on how much you want to suffer, right? I, I didn't suffer at all because we had air conditioning, the car's super comfortable, has plenty of storage.

• 1:11:06Speaker 01

  Uh, I guess the easy answer, I, I'm going to bring my R32 next year because I feel like there's so many cars that I could bring, but it wouldn't.

• 1:11:17Speaker 01

  I wouldn't say it wouldn't get the same attention because I guess it depends on the crowd out there, but I don't know, I just figured it's nice to still have some amenities, especially having to carry all this camera equipment, you know, to still shoot and do my job while I'm out there. I think it would be fun to have the R32 out there.

• 1:11:39Matt Farah?

  Tim McLaren says, Larry, what subculture in the car community challenged your expectations the most over the years?

• 1:11:47Speaker 01

  Expectations. I don't know. That's a good... What do you think? What challenged your expectations?

• 1:11:57Matt Farah?

  I mean, was there... Oh, I mean, I think... I don't know. I mean, I...

• 1:12:08Speaker 01

  This is something you've been...

• 1:12:09Matt Farah?

  I've never been... Well, I've never been like that surprised by what I saw compared to what I expected to see.

• 1:12:17Speaker 01

  It's something that you've been talking about more and more recently about all of the rest of mod companies.

• 1:12:23Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:12:24Speaker 01

  It's amazing to me that there is people to support these companies.

• 1:12:30Matt Farah?

  Apparently there are. Most of them sell pretty small numbers of stuff, but I do think there's enough clients. If the goal of this company is to sell 25 cars, I think there are 25 people who either have so much money that they just look at it and go, yeah, one of those, or they are disillusioned enough with the idea of what a modern supercar is, very digital, things like that, that they are looking for a very raw experience. And if they don't, they don't have to sell that many.

• 1:13:03Speaker 01

  It's just like they could do what the manufacturers wish they could do.

• 1:13:07Matt Farah?

  Sure. Certainly, yeah. I mean, if you drive...

• 1:13:11Matt Farah?

  If you try a, get to try a Singer Turbo, you know, like if I'm Porsche and looking at them doing a Singer Turbo, I'd be like, oh, boy. That sucks that we can't make this, because they could, like, they could build that if they wanted to and were legally allowed to, but they can't.

• 1:13:26Speaker 01

  They can't.

• 1:13:27Matt Farah?

  Yeah, Porsche can't copy themselves.

• 1:13:29Speaker 01

  Well, I was, I was thinking about that, right? Nissan, they sunsetted the R35 GT-R, which we were very lucky to be able to be a part of. We did the last shoot for the cars.

• 1:13:39Matt Farah?

  Oh, you did? Cool.

• 1:13:40Speaker 01

  And we sent it off. They actually invited me to watch the last one go off the line. I was busy. I was actually in Bernai when that happened. And the, the CEO, the current CEO, or the new CEO said, yeah, it'll come back in a certain form. And of course, it has to be a certain level of vehicle, right? It has to, people are going to expect a certain kind of vehicle if it's a R36 GT-R. But I, I thought to myself, man, it, it honestly needs to be slower and lighter and smaller. Like, it needs to be, i- if it's, if it's just faster than everything else, then.

• 1:14:20Matt Farah?

  Well, not, I don't think it needs to get bigger or heavier.

• 1:14:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:14:23Matt Farah?

  It, it could, I think making it smaller and lighter would also make it faster.

• 1:14:27Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:14:27Matt Farah?

  I think there's an argument for that.

• 1:14:29Speaker 01

  It, it's gone to that point, a- and I'm, I know you guys have talked about this also. It's gone to the point where you are already at the limit of how fast it could be. So then, now what are you actually chasing, you know?

• 1:14:44Matt Farah?

  I don't know, and I'm part of the problem because I work for a car magazine and car magazines put up numbers and people bench race and then they care. And if we stop talking about numbers, they might stop caring a little bit, but.

• 1:14:55Speaker 01

  Maybe it needs to be like an Alpine.

• 1:14:58Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:58Speaker 01

  You know?

• 1:14:58Matt Farah?

  I mean, dude, I, I, I, I think that's the best car ever, and they don't sell a lot of them, so what do I know?

• 1:15:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:15:05Matt Farah?

  Um, I am a huge fan of the Alpine, and I'm in, and I'm, and we've driven some of these amazing boutique level cars. I mean, the, the Alpha thing.

• 1:15:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:15:16Matt Farah?

  Last week and the roof stuff and, um, you know, even like, uh.

• 1:15:23Matt Farah?

  Even, you know, some of the replica Cobras and stuff like that. I mean, there's, there's a lot of ways to engage with machinery in an interesting way. Most of them are outside of what mainstream carmakers are selling right now.

• 1:15:41Matt Farah?

  Jews control the weather tech. This is nuts. It's a, trust me, that's an innocent joke. Larry, what is the weirdest or scariest thing that you've been hit by on the job? I imagine a few pieces of race car or debris.

• 1:15:56Speaker 01

  Oh, I've gotten hit by a lot of things.

• 1:15:58Matt Farah?

  Big rubber projectiles?

• 1:16:00Speaker 01

  Uh, like when, when you're shooting NASCAR at a super oval or super speedway, they, they kick up rocks that are going just as fast as the cars and it's insane. Like they dent my big lenses. They'll, they'll hit certain, if they hit your face, obviously it stings like crazy.

• 1:16:22Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:16:22Speaker 01

  It's probably just like the smallest micro pebble. But I think I've talked about this before.

• 1:16:28Matt Farah?

  You're getting shot with a BB gun?

• 1:16:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:16:30Matt Farah?

  How do you protect your eyes?

• 1:16:31Speaker 01

  Well, I always wear either goggles or sunglasses or some, something. Because I know, I just know, you know, these things are going that fast. I think I said this story before on this podcast, but we've actually gotten hit by rocks while we're in a helicopter chasing a Baja 1000 vehicle. Because they shoot up the rocks so high that they hit our windshield and it's like, okay, now it's time to go higher.

• 1:16:57Matt Farah?

  Yeah. I was hit by, in New Zealand in 2015. I was hit in the nuts with a fucking racquetball sized rock that was kicked up by a rally car.

• 1:17:10Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 1:17:11Matt Farah?

  And someone was flying the drone and got it on the drone. The footage existed somewhere.

• 1:17:18Speaker 01

  Of you just doubling over and falling on the ground?

• 1:17:22Matt Farah?

  It was fucked up.

• 1:17:23Speaker 01

  You, um, yeah, you experienced the gravel machine gun for sure.

• 1:17:28Matt Farah?

  Holy shit.

• 1:17:28Speaker 01

  I've actually gotten hit by Ryan Turk in his drift car, but it was only because he did a burnout and I was behind him and I was about to shoot him. Leaving and then he decided to put it in reverse and back up because I guess he heard something or like there was some kind of imbalance on his wheels. So he basically just drove straight into me, knocked me over. I think that was the only time I've ever gotten hit by a car and now, no matter what, when I'm on the starting line of anything, it could be drag racing, could be NHRA or whatever. I don't stand behind the cars because they could always be in reverse.

• 1:18:05Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:05Speaker 01

  Yeah. So anytime I'm anywhere and I see people just crowded around the car as they're about to launch, I'm like, ah, one of these days it's gonna be in reverse and you guys are all gonna get.

• 1:18:16Speaker 02

  Friend of ours launched a Porsche backwards into Tom's tripod in like 2014 or something like that.

• 1:18:22Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah.

• 1:18:23Matt Farah?

  You can do it.

• 1:18:24Speaker 01

  It happens.

• 1:18:25Matt Farah?

  You can actually, I, I, you must, by now, you must not be able to activate launch control if the car's in reverse.

• 1:18:33Speaker 01

  I don't know, but you can still load it, you can still load the chassis, the gear is short for reverse. I mean, it flings, so.

• 1:18:38Speaker 02

  Tom, Tom noticed the sound was different and it wasn't launch control and that's how he knew to move.

• 1:18:43Matt Farah?

  Oh.

• 1:18:43Speaker 02

  And then, whoop, bam.

• 1:18:44Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 1:18:45Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:18:45Speaker 01

  Lucky.

• 1:18:46Matt Farah?

  Um, Misfits Cyclone, if someone gave you an autographed poster of your heroes or people you looked up to in the automotive world, who are they? I don't know why they had to come up with the autographed poster thing, but um, basically, who do you look up to?

• 1:19:03Speaker 01

  I, it's, it's the people that I'm, the people that I look up to are the people that I work with now, the, the people that inspire me in the industry now. Uh, the people that are creating alongside me. I, I think those, those are the people that I look up to because it makes me really happy, uh, when I look at the entire landscape of automotive media. I look at the variety that's out there and the really good content that's out there that is so different that I wasn't even a part of or I didn't even know about. It makes me happy that all of those can exist individually. And I love to consume it, you know, it, it's super cool.

• 1:19:48Speaker 01

  It inspires me because.

• 1:19:51Speaker 01

  I hope it's the other way around. You know, I hope I'm creating stuff that people are enjoying and people are are consuming. And I think that's really it. It's a lot of photographers will say, oh, so and so photographer, you know, a long time ago, they had a great style, whatever.

• 1:20:10Speaker 01

  I feel like it's the people that I'm in the trenches with now that that inspire me because we're all doing it together. You know, we all have essentially the same access because we're in the same timeline.

• 1:20:23Matt Farah?

  Fair. Sounds good. I don't know anything about Cayenne hybrids. Tim A says, this morning, the Nissan Z Nismo was confirmed to receive manual transmission. Can you just check that, Zach, to make sure?

• 1:20:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:20:36Matt Farah?

  It did? Okay, good. What are your expectations and how much more desirable is the Nismo with three pedals? A lot more. Is a lot. It's they fixed it. That's called fixing it.

• 1:20:47Speaker 01

  I don't really get. I don't really like this backtracking. I don't get why they waited this long. Maybe it's like the whole Toyota thing.

• 1:20:55Matt Farah?

  It was dumb. I don't know. But but when I went on the launch, I was like, what are you guys doing? And they're like, don't rule it out. I was like, all right. But like, this, that's stupid. You should have just done it. But.

• 1:21:05Speaker 01

  Can I answer that first one?

• 1:21:06Matt Farah?

  Yeah. You want to answer that question? You like that top question? Go for it.

• 1:21:13Speaker 01

  I.

• 1:21:15Matt Farah?

  That's a I would. That's a that's a question I would throw straight in the garbage.

• 1:21:19Speaker 01

  Really? Why?

• 1:21:20Matt Farah?

  I hate those comparisons.

• 1:21:21Speaker 01

  Oh, well, he doesn't. He did inspire me. Anthony Bourdain.

• 1:21:27Matt Farah?

  The question is, do you see yourself as the Anthony Bourdain of car culture?

• 1:21:31Speaker 01

  I don't.

• 1:21:32Matt Farah?

  The part of that question I would throw away. Do you see yourself? Well, nobody should ever fucking see themselves that way.

• 1:21:38Speaker 01

  Right. I think.

• 1:21:41Speaker 01

  Well, yeah, I mean, for me, it's more just his storytelling and his what he did for that culture like that. A lot of those. People, a lot of those individuals have inspired me to tell the stories the way I do. But I definitely don't see myself as, you know, I'm my own person. I tell, I'm a photographer that is lucky to be able to do what I do, you know, for a living.

• 1:22:07Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I learned, I learned a long time ago that

• 1:22:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:22:11Matt Farah?

  He's, he's dead, he was very good at his job and inspired people, but like, you don't, you don't, nobody should want to pick up that and, and, and think of themselves that way. It's a recipe for failure.

• 1:22:28Matt Farah?

  Is this, is this the last one at the bottom, granny shifting nut? Oh, we got a bunch more, is there, keep going down, I wanna see, I want good ones. I want good ones.

• 1:22:38Matt Farah?

  Quadrofolia face, how critical is it to a car being clean, perfectly detailed? When we're not talking about closeups?

• 1:22:47Speaker 01

  This is something that I run into all the time. Sometimes you just don't have the time. Sometimes it's impossible, so sometimes you just have to shoot around it. Polarizer filter is your friend.

• 1:22:58Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:22:59Speaker 01

  You can get rid of a lot of reflections, you can get rid of a lot of dirt and dust. And sometimes it's okay to leave that stuff because, especially if you're shooting a vehicle that is supposed to be off-road or supposed to get dirty. I think it adds to the story. I think that's pretty cool to show some brake dust, to show some wear.

• 1:23:21Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:23:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:23:22Matt Farah?

  And if, if you're not taking closeups, the car can be a little dusty and it won't make much of a difference. I mean, you should see when we, when we're at the magazine and we're doing these big, you know, group tests and group shots, we do the jankiest fucking job of cleaning these cars. We have, we don't have like people to do it, we're doing it and we have other things going on, so it's literally like rip the quick detail, you know, the car's been on track all day.

• 1:23:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:23:48Matt Farah?

  And it's like, give me a half a bottle of quick detailer and a half-used fucking microfiber and I'll get what I can get, you know, cleaning one side of the car at a time. Janky as hell. No one ever notices, no one ever says anything.

• 1:24:04Matt Farah?

  Let's see, uh, we never talk about this. Otto Bon Jovi says, what's Larry's typical routine while flying? How do you relax while traveling? Or do you relax? Or do you work on planes?

• 1:24:15Speaker 01

  Uh, I guess it depends if I get upgraded or not.

• 1:24:18Matt Farah?

  Yeah, right.

• 1:24:19Speaker 01

  If I have the space, I'll try to do work. And if there's a reliable internet connection, I can bang out emails or I can review videos. I can do work. But if I'm cramped up, which most of the time I am, then I'll just enjoy movies. It's honestly the only time now that I can watch movies and TV shows. So I just load up my iPad or tablet. I have a Samsung tablet that I, I'm just like that guy, that iPad dad. You know? Just carrying this big tablet. Uh, and, uh, yeah, just kind of enjoy my time that I can finally disconnect.

• 1:24:59Matt Farah?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:25:00Speaker 01

  Whereas if I had the space, I just have to push myself like, hey, I gotta get work done. Cause by the time I land, you guys know how it is.

• 1:25:07Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:25:07Speaker 01

  It's gonna be so many emails.

• 1:25:08Matt Farah?

  Another day's gone by.

• 1:25:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:25:10Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it's, the things don't stop because you're in the fucking air. Um, ooh, question for all of you. Kurt says, what tracks should we do HPDE at in the south? Will be trailering, uh, new GT3 from Boston over the course of a week and a half. Currently looking at VIR and Road Atlanta. What other good tracks are there in the south? Um, Carolina Motorsports Park is pretty fun. Um, that would be a pretty good time in a GT3. And it's, uh, it's safe. Ooh, can you get on the new one, Flat Rock, outside of Knoxville? If it's open and you can get on it, it's a brand new one. Can you see if it's open yet? Flat Rock Motorsports Park in Tennessee. Looked really nice.

• 1:25:55Matt Farah?

  It looked like a good one. Um, see if you can drive a NASCAR track.

• 1:26:01Matt Farah?

  Like a Charlotte Motor Speedway or Talladega?

• 1:26:05Speaker 01

  Daytona would be so cool.

• 1:26:06Matt Farah?

  Daytona is awesome. Have you ever done track at Daytona?

• 1:26:09Speaker 01

  I just did an endurance race, a 14 hour endurance race.

• 1:26:11Matt Farah?

  Oh, really? Driving what?

• 1:26:13Speaker 01

  Miata.

• 1:26:13Matt Farah?

  Oh, is it fun?

• 1:26:14Speaker 01

  Man, there's nothing like getting pushed into your seat on the bank.

• 1:26:18Matt Farah?

  Dude, there's so much foot to the floor.

• 1:26:21Speaker 01

  Even in a Miata, I feel like there was just so much G-force pushing you down. And turn one at that, on that configuration, which is the 24 hour configuration, is so sketchy.

• 1:26:34Matt Farah?

  Turn one where you come off the banking into the infield, that is sketchy.

• 1:26:38Speaker 01

  So sketchy, because you're turning and braking.

• 1:26:39Matt Farah?

  Even in a Miata where you have actually some decent suspension travel to absorb that.

• 1:26:43Speaker 01

  It's such an easy track to drive, but it's hard to get the time out of it. And I had the most fun driving it.

• 1:26:50Matt Farah?

  I bet, I bet 97% of your lap is floorboard.

• 1:26:55Speaker 01

  Yes, yes. So, which is why it's hard to get that last, whatever, half a second.

• 1:27:02Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:27:02Speaker 01

  You know, the bus stop, if you mess that up, you're, you lose so much time.

• 1:27:07Matt Farah?

  Sure.

• 1:27:07Speaker 01

  You have to do it perfect every single time, and especially in a Miata.

• 1:27:12Matt Farah?

  In a Miata, is it, what year, what generation, ND?

• 1:27:15Speaker 01

  Uh, it was NC, but it had, um, like, uh, some, I don't know, Ford motor, I think.

• 1:27:22Matt Farah?

  Okay. But it was a 5-speed or a 6-speed?

• 1:27:24Speaker 01

  It was a paddle shift. It had a ZF, 8-speed, yeah.

• 1:27:29Matt Farah?

  Get the fuck out of here, in a Miata?

• 1:27:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was super cool. It was a lot of fun.

• 1:27:32Matt Farah?

  Oh, well, it's certainly easier to nail the bus stop if you're not doing a 5-4 downshift also on the stick. Oh, fun.

• 1:27:39Speaker 01

  It was, it was fun. It was my first race where I actually had to do driver changes at speed.

• 1:27:43Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:27:44Speaker 01

  Because, uh...

• 1:27:45Matt Farah?

  They didn't have a minimum?

• 1:27:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, you, you, uh, Zach, you've done endurance racing where it's like, there's a certain time you have to,

• 1:27:51Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:27:52Speaker 01

  to get out, and then you belt in, and whatever, you take your time, right? I've never done that. You, oh, you've never done driver changes? Yeah. Yeah, but Lemons, there's driver changes, right?

• 1:28:00Speaker 02

  Oh yeah, but they're slow.

• 1:28:02Speaker 01

  Right, that's what I'm saying.

• 1:28:03Matt Farah?

  Well, they, they, at the, at the entry level series, in order to make sure everybody is safely belted in and not rushing, they go, your pit stop is a four minute minimum.

• 1:28:13Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:28:14Matt Farah?

  You know, so take your time fueling, take your time, everyone has to stop, yeah. What you're talking about on the fly.

• 1:28:20Speaker 01

  I'm talking about.

• 1:28:21Matt Farah?

  What series was that?

• 1:28:22Speaker 01

  WRL.

• 1:28:23Matt Farah?

  Oh, cool.

• 1:28:23Speaker 01

  So, coming into the pits, like, as fast as you can go, hit the pit limiter, hold that sucker down, and it's just no cooler feeling than going down the pits, pit limiter, and then you're, you're taking off your belts, I'm taking off my drink thing, everything, like, one thing at a time, and it's like, okay, I have to remember to do all of this, and then, as soon as I land there, they basically yank me out of the car. You know, it was just so cool.

• 1:28:53Matt Farah?

  It's easier for me to get out than to get in, because I'm almost certainly bigger than the person who's getting in after me, so I don't have to loosen anything. I can just go off, and, and then the next person can cinch from there. So, I, often when I race on these, I do, I'll take starts, and then, the super fast guy will come in, you know, after me, and they can just do, do, do, do, do, real, real fast. I'm doing WRL in, uh, in December at Cota.

• 1:29:26Speaker 01

  Enjoy it.

• 1:29:26Matt Farah?

  It's gonna be fucking sick. Um, yeah, that's, that's a good time, though. At Daytona in a Miata, that's a lot of full throttle.

• 1:29:34Speaker 01

  It was fun.

• 1:29:35Matt Farah?

  How'd you do in the race?

• 1:29:36Speaker 01

  Uh, we, we got, we got all the way up to second in our class, and, uh, uh, unfortunately, the transmission failed.

• 1:29:44Matt Farah?

  Fucking CF!

• 1:29:45Speaker 01

  I know.

• 1:29:45Matt Farah?

  Boo!

• 1:29:46Speaker 01

  At hour nine, we, but we were doing really well.

• 1:29:49Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:29:50Speaker 01

  The, first, I feel like. They had a ringer car, uh, and then-

• 1:29:54Matt Farah?

  You're talking about a motor swap and a German gearbox. Let's go. It was fast car.

• 1:29:59Speaker 01

  It was fun. It, it, it was just, we had better fuel economy, so we just stayed out there. And we were doing up to two hours stints.

• 1:30:08Matt Farah?

  Oh, nice.

• 1:30:08Speaker 01

  And it, it was really hot. It was in the middle of summer. Um, so of course we ran a cool suit, but oh my God, it was still so hot. It was like crazy.

• 1:30:17Matt Farah?

  It must have been, but you have high speed, so that helps because of good airflow. And if you're rolling a cool suit, cool suits are the jam.

• 1:30:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, it, it helped, but, um-

• 1:30:25Matt Farah?

  Two hours, cool suits probably donezo by about hour, hour and a half, right?

• 1:30:29Speaker 01

  It was, it was very difficult. It was, uh, the, like, I, I could barely walk after I got out.

• 1:30:35Matt Farah?

  Two hours, a long drive. It's a long stint. So anyway, Kurt, Daytona, tried to do a NASCAR track. VIR and, and Road Atlanta are great. Is-

• 1:30:44Speaker 01

  Flat Rock opened.

• 1:30:45Matt Farah?

  It opened? Can we get some photos of it? How does it look? I really want to try this one. Uh, we're, we're gonna have to use it for one of our road and track events. It's been about to open pretty soon. Pretty, uh, I'm sorry. It's been about to open for like three years.

• 1:30:58Speaker 01

  That looks pretty cool.

• 1:30:59Matt Farah?

  Uh, elevation looks nice. We've got eight, uh, twenty, twenty-three corners.

• 1:31:04Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 1:31:05Matt Farah?

  Any photos? Yeah, rolling, uh, rolling Tennessee hills.

• 1:31:09Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 1:31:10Matt Farah?

  I have to make a stop and check that one out. We'll have to get a report from Sam. He's almost certainly driven this course. Shout out to Sam Smith. Um, yeah, look at that. Con, I see condos. Okay. I see, I see, oh, one, one post to the left has a good, uh, was a good race, or down. Has a good ra- ah, looks good. Look at that.

• 1:31:29Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 1:31:30Matt Farah?

  Looks nice.

• 1:31:30Speaker 01

  That's incredible.

• 1:31:31Matt Farah?

  All right.

• 1:31:32Speaker 01

  Oh, wait, so I heard about this place.

• 1:31:34Matt Farah?

  Yeah, we're gonna have to go check this out.

• 1:31:35Speaker 01

  They're close to-

• 1:31:38Matt Farah?

  I think Knoxville.

• 1:31:38Speaker 01

  Knoxville, okay.

• 1:31:39Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Hell, yeah. Knoxville's a great town.

• 1:31:42Speaker 01

  That's awesome.

• 1:31:43Matt Farah?

  That's a fun fucking, and right by Tail of the Dragon, all the good shit.

• 1:31:46Speaker 01

  This makes me so happy that there's more tracks than I can drive. There's so many tracks. We, we hear about tracks closing all the times, but new tracks are opening up all the time also.

• 1:31:57Matt Farah?

  It's very rare that like a really good track closes. It's like, and really good ones are opening. They're all really, wait, did you see, have you been to Willow yet? You seen Streets?

• 1:32:07Speaker 01

  Uh, I was just there a while there paving it, but-

• 1:32:10Matt Farah?

  I saw the photos of the finished Streets.

• 1:32:12Speaker 01

  Oh, really?

• 1:32:13Matt Farah?

  It looks unbelievable. I can't wait. You're coming on the 11th?

• 1:32:16Speaker 01

  Unfortunately, it's the same time as the Japanese Classic Car Show.

• 1:32:19Matt Farah?

  Oh.

• 1:32:20Speaker 01

  I would love to go.

• 1:32:21Matt Farah?

  Okay, I'll be there on October 11th. Uh, blurp all, last one, and then we're out of here, says, are there any cool new Canon items coming out that you can talk about?

• 1:32:31Speaker 01

  Not that I can talk about. I, I know some things are coming up, um, that will excite a lot of video nerds, but I am really excited because I'm going to Japan to check out the Canon lens factory for the first time.

• 1:32:46Matt Farah?

  That's rad. That'll be fun.

• 1:32:47Speaker 01

  I've been doing a lot of these deep dives in terms of like how things are made, right? So we just did one where I showed how RS Watanabe wheels are getting made, right?

• 1:32:57Matt Farah?

  I saw that, it was sick.

• 1:32:58Speaker 01

  Very, like, honestly, ancient technology, right? Sixty-five year old process.

• 1:33:05Matt Farah?

  It is handmade looking stuff.

• 1:33:07Speaker 01

  It is so crazy. It's, there's no secret like that, that kind of thing, it's a lot easier to get made, um, with a modern process, but that's not the point, right? That, that's not the point, you know, people still want handmade things because of the story.

• 1:33:24Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:33:25Speaker 01

  Um, so I want to kind of do the same thing with the Canon lens factory and just show what I can show. Uh, I don't know. I've never been, so I have to see the process. I know they have to grow the fluoride lens, or they have to like use some kind of process to, to grow it.

• 1:33:45Matt Farah?

  Oh.

• 1:33:46Speaker 01

  Um, so, so, uh, yeah, I think it's some kind of like chemical process.

• 1:33:51Matt Farah?

  I've never given a single thought to how lenses are made. I mean, I'm sure it's awesome. It's probably really good.

• 1:33:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly.

• 1:33:57Matt Farah?

  I bet it's like a watch factory. I bet it seems like that.

• 1:34:00Speaker 01

  I don't know. I mean, have you been to a watch factory?

• 1:34:03Matt Farah?

  Yeah, a bunch.

• 1:34:04Speaker 01

  And is it like chaotic or is it?

• 1:34:05Matt Farah?

  No, it's quiet.

• 1:34:07Speaker 01

  It's like a hospital, right?

• 1:34:09Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:34:10Speaker 01

  Very clean and.

• 1:34:11Matt Farah?

  Yeah, and and some of the smaller ones are just individual benches and some of the more advanced ones. The benches are set up with a sort of a conveyor belt type of system. Um, and some of them, one watchmaker will build a whole watch start finish and other ones, it's a little more. You know, I just install column wheels. I just installed winding crowns, whatever. Um, but, uh, I don't know. I I don't know why I picture lenses being like that, but maybe not.

• 1:34:39Speaker 01

  Have you been to a vehicle plant yet?

• 1:34:41Matt Farah?

  Yeah, a bunch of them. They're fucking cool, man. Nothing's like a car factory.

• 1:34:45Speaker 01

  I I recently, I had a chance to go to the Tahara, um, where they do like the GX five fifty and LC two fifty Land Cruiser. Plant in Japan. I also had a chance to go to the Toyota plant in Texas. I never understood how easy it was to assemble a car until I watched these guys like put on a bumper in fifteen seconds. And meanwhile, I'm over here struggling. If I had to remove or take, take off a bumper and put it back on, it would take an entire day.

• 1:35:14Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:35:15Speaker 01

  Just for me to do one simple.

• 1:35:16Matt Farah?

  Yeah, when they have the exact right tool in the exact right place with the exact right thing to do this and the exact right thing. And they do it, you know, a hundred times a day for a hundred years.

• 1:35:28Speaker 01

  And the clips aren't twenty five years old.

• 1:35:29Speaker 02

  Right. Yeah, that's the big thing.

• 1:35:31Matt Farah?

  Done. Yeah, yeah, it's crazy. Yeah. And how, sometimes how little physical motion is required to, you know, install the thing and it's.

• 1:35:40Speaker 01

  Blow me away.

• 1:35:40Matt Farah?

  Yeah, you should, you should try if you can. I mean, the, the different, the, the different ethos is of car factories. If you go to from like McLaren. To the biggest contrast is McLaren to Morgan. Those are my favorite and you could do both in a day, actually.

• 1:35:56Speaker 01

  We're talking about wood?

• 1:35:57Matt Farah?

  Spaceship and a fucking woodshed. Yeah, totally. It's amazing. Um.

• 1:36:03Speaker 02

  Corvette's cool and then Ferrari is also cool. Like the ones that do more mass production are interesting just to see how they. Pack things into a certain size building and like, you know, the conveyors snake around and like as the body joins, you know, the subframe and the engine and that stuff. I I find it fascinating. And then in the Ferrari factory, there's like a little rainforest to, uh, keep the humidity right. Because of just the way it affects materials.

• 1:36:27Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:36:27Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:36:28Speaker 01

  So, so, but then were you able to film there? No.

• 1:36:33Matt Farah?

  Ferrari's pretty strict.

• 1:36:33Speaker 01

  I would love to film.

• 1:36:34Matt Farah?

  They didn't let you take pictures inside?

• 1:36:36Speaker 01

  No.

• 1:36:36Matt Farah?

  Really?

• 1:36:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:36:39Speaker 01

  They're, they're pretty strict about it.

• 1:36:40Matt Farah?

  I think there, there are P, maybe not Ferrari. Corvette would def, we filmed in Corvette. We did literally film in the Corvette plant.

• 1:36:47Speaker 01

  That's awesome.

• 1:36:48Matt Farah?

  The coolest part of the Corvette plant is like the high-performance engine room. Like where all the ZO6 engines are made by hand by like six people. I, I got very sad when they told me they didn't get to try the cars though. I was like, you build ZO6 engines all day? I was like, they don't let you try one? They're like, no, never. And I was like, yo, that's a bummer. I feel like they'd be real enthusiastic about work if they knew what they were building.

• 1:37:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:37:11Matt Farah?

  You know?

• 1:37:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:37:12Matt Farah?

  Um, dude, the book is amazing.

• 1:37:14Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 1:37:15Matt Farah?

  Get it, get it wherever you can get it, but if you can, get it directly from Carrera Books or have your local bookseller order it.

• 1:37:22Speaker 01

  It is very heavy. It's eight pounds, 405 pages.

• 1:37:26Matt Farah?

  It's very heavy.

• 1:37:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:37:27Matt Farah?

  It is very heavy.

• 1:37:28Speaker 01

  It's, um, it's a hefty one.

• 1:37:30Matt Farah?

  It is, it is a true coffee table book.

• 1:37:33Speaker 01

  It is.

• 1:37:33Matt Farah?

  In the, uh, the grand tradition of the car coffee table book.

• 1:37:37Speaker 01

  It is a good representation of my life's work.

• 1:37:39Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:37:40Speaker 01

  It took 21 years to make that book.

• 1:37:42Speaker 02

  I'd say it's also a good representation of this era of car culture.

• 1:37:46Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I mean, that, that too.

• 1:37:47Speaker 02

  Jokana didn't exist really 20 years ago and a bunch of other things.

• 1:37:51Matt Farah?

  It's, it's such a good, uh, cross-section of like, this is what racing in the 2010s, you know, was, and here's what pro touring and tuning culture and all this stuff.

• 1:38:03Speaker 01

  I, I hope people come up to you wherever you are and ask you to sign my book of your page.

• 1:38:09Matt Farah?

  I would happily.

• 1:38:10Speaker 01

  I think.

• 1:38:11Matt Farah?

  If people are carrying this around in hopes that I have, that they run into me to sign it. These dusty Baja ones are gorgeous.

• 1:38:18Speaker 02

  I'm gonna bring my book to your signing. I'll just stand in line like a.

• 1:38:22Matt Farah?

  Well, you should certainly sign this one while you're here.

• 1:38:24Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, yeah, that's a good point, yeah.

• 1:38:25Matt Farah?

  I mean, obviously, this one.

• 1:38:26Speaker 01

  That's an artist proof.

• 1:38:27Matt Farah?

  Yeah, this one we're gonna keep here. This one is for us. So if you come visit us here at West Side Collector Car Storage, you can come look at it for yourself. Um, and Larry will sign this one. That's fucking sick, dude. Uh, of course, uh, Larry's videos, uh, for Hagerty, um, uh, uh, on YouTube. When do you, I mean, it's gonna be a while for the Brunei thing.

• 1:38:47Speaker 01

  Uh, I've been working on it since, I've, I was working on it on the plane on the way back. Like, I was, you know, writing my voiceover, writing all the notes. We're digging into it pretty deep. In fact, we went through all the footage yesterday.

• 1:39:00Matt Farah?

  Cool. Um, so that'll be up probably, you know, soonish. Um, and the, uh, the Watanabe, uh, factory tour at, uh, uh, on the Hagerty Channel is really crazy. It looks like, it looks like they've been making wheels this way since like the 1800s. It's nuts.

• 1:39:15Speaker 01

  Well, they've been making swords and stuff this way, you know?

• 1:39:19Matt Farah?

  You know, I have a set of those.

• 1:39:21Speaker 01

  Oh, you do?

• 1:39:21Matt Farah?

  My wife's pal has Watanabes on it, yeah.

• 1:39:24Speaker 01

  So like, literally, these guys made your wheels?

• 1:39:28Matt Farah?

  It's crazy.

• 1:39:28Speaker 01

  The same guys?

• 1:39:29Matt Farah?

  They're, they're, they're real. They're probably worth more than the car. But they're awesome, they look great.

• 1:39:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:39:34Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah. Um, thanks, Larry.

• 1:39:37Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 1:39:37Matt Farah?

  Always good to see you, dude.

• 1:39:38Speaker 01

  For having me, as always.

• 1:39:38Matt Farah?

  I appreciate it. And let's, uh, let's find a time to take pictures of, of the, of the Manx.

• 1:39:42Speaker 01

  I would love that. Yeah, I shot a couple photos of it out there that, I think that at one point it was like in the sandpit, right?

• 1:39:49Matt Farah?

  Mine wasn't, they had another one in the sandpit, yeah.

• 1:39:51Speaker 01

  But, yeah, it was a cool little arrangement that you had around that sand trap.

• 1:39:56Matt Farah?

  They, what's weird about, about, uh, my car is like, you know, most cars, when you like pose them, you know, it's like a front three-quarter kind of thing. My car, because the engine is so weird, you're always like nosing it in and sticking the ass out the back. Um, but people then are like, wait, what, what is that? That, that's weird.

• 1:40:14Speaker 01

  We, we definitely have to do a full-on shit with that.

• 1:40:16Matt Farah?

  We should.

• 1:40:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, somewhere on the beach.

• 1:40:18Matt Farah?

  Wherever you like to go, bro. And of course, um, if you go to LarryChenPhoto.com, you can get prints.

• 1:40:24Speaker 01

  Oh, uh, yeah, um, it's LarryChenPrints.

• 1:40:27Matt Farah?

  Oh, LarryChenPrints.com, sorry. Get prints from Larry.

• 1:40:30Speaker 01

  Can I just thank you so much again, uh, like, right out of the shutdown, right out of the shutdown time, you gave me a shout-out when I came on the show. And we sold a hundred prints. We sold $10,000 worth of prints.

• 1:40:43Matt Farah?

  Oh, nice.

• 1:40:44Speaker 01

  One day, thanks to you.

• 1:40:45Matt Farah?

  Oh, that's great.

• 1:40:46Speaker 01

  So you really helped. Around that time, you know, we just couldn't get work, right? Uh, so just that one shout out from you.

• 1:40:55Matt Farah?

  Happy to do it.

• 1:40:56Speaker 01

  Moved the needle so big.

• 1:40:57Matt Farah?

  Oh, that's awesome.

• 1:40:58Speaker 01

  Ten, you basically just gave me ten grand.

• 1:41:00Matt Farah?

  I didn't. The people did.

• 1:41:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, the people did.

• 1:41:02Matt Farah?

  I just told them how to do it, but that's all right. There's that fucking Trans Am.

• 1:41:05Speaker 01

  I appreciate it.

• 1:41:06Matt Farah?

  And there's my car.

• 1:41:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, there's your car.

• 1:41:08Matt Farah?

  Uh, and a photo that you can never get again. How about that? Um, yeah, go buy prints. They're amazing. They last forever and, uh, and you can display them in your home in a variety of ways. And, uh, and they're awesome. People will ask you about them as they do about the one here and the one in, and the ones here and the one in my house all the time. Um, dude, and then we'll see you. You'll be at the Peterson Museum on October 5th at the Cruisin', doing book signing.

• 1:41:34Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:41:34Matt Farah?

  Bring your car. Come on out. That unicorn one is sick.

• 1:41:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:41:38Matt Farah?

  Uh, and then at, uh, Long Beach.

• 1:41:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:41:41Matt Farah?

  Downtown parking garage, October 16th. I will be there. What vehicle we have is TBD, whatever's, whatever's, what will look the coolest? We'll see. Um, but, uh, yeah, thanks to our patrons for their questions today. Thanks to everybody else for listening and we'll see you later.