S&YE172 - Crosstrek Jedi

[00:00:12] Hello, this is Devin welcome to the Subie and you podcast you can find me on Instagram at cross-track underscore Jedi enjoy

[00:00:19] Yes. Yes. I hope you do enjoy this

[00:00:23] 170 second episode of the Subie and you podcast

[00:00:30] 172 episodes

[00:00:31] That that's a lot of episodes and we've been doing this thing for quite a while. I say we

[00:00:38] because

[00:00:39] Even though I started this podcast. It's the Subie and you podcast

[00:00:44] This is our podcast mine and all of yours whoever you are listening

[00:00:50] This is your podcast too

[00:00:52] Whether you're a guest or just listening as an audience member. This is our podcast

[00:01:00] It's our subie and you podcast so think about that

[00:01:03] For those of you who may have children who may not be so much children anymore

[00:01:10] In high school and if your kid is a senior

[00:01:16] It's uh, it's gonna start getting very bittersweet because my son

[00:01:21] Is going to be graduating from high school soon in the next few weeks

[00:01:26] And my daughter is already graduated a long time ago. She's married and has a new cross-track

[00:01:32] Which is awesome, but you know my son is going to graduate and

[00:01:38] It's going to seem weird to not have kids in

[00:01:42] You know school anymore non college school

[00:01:46] So for those of you who are in the same boat

[00:01:49] I feel for you because it's uh, it's going to get interesting

[00:01:54] And I wouldn't say that I'm going to be an empty nester because he's still going to be around

[00:01:59] But it's just going to be a different story now in a different journey

[00:02:04] and uh

[00:02:05] You know sometimes I get emotional thinking about it

[00:02:09] And if you're again or in the same situation as me, I'm sure you do too

[00:02:14] And for those of you that have very young kids

[00:02:17] You'll be here someday too, but between then

[00:02:21] and now

[00:02:22] Do all that you can to spend time with your kids be present with your kids

[00:02:27] And uh be the best role model that you can for them and help guide them through their life

[00:02:34] But enough of that we've got an episode to do here with devin to hear all about his subaru journey and his

[00:02:41] cross-track Jedi

[00:02:43] That's uh, it's a very interesting name and I like it because it has to do with star wars

[00:02:47] So we'll get into that here in just a bit

[00:02:50] The subi and you podcast is brought to you by eccentric designs

[00:02:54] For those of you who don't know eccentric designs is a small community driven business that offers custom fit vinyl overlays for most subaru models

[00:03:02] This includes various designs for the rear reflectors tail lights and side tail lights

[00:03:07] I also offer fun detail designs like the popular fender stripes and stickers

[00:03:12] Defined designs for your subi head on over to eccentric designs.com

[00:03:16] There's always more projects in the works. So be sure to follow at eccentric dot designs on instagram

[00:03:22] If you have not checked out eccentric designs, I highly recommend going to check out her website and her instagram page

[00:03:29] I just placed an order for decals for my daughter's cross-track

[00:03:34] So, uh, i'm not going to tell you what they are. You'll just have to wait and see

[00:03:38] But they should be on their way soon and we will be

[00:03:42] Putting them on her new cross-track soon. So thank you so much eccentric designs for sponsoring the subi and you podcast

[00:03:49] I really really appreciate it

[00:03:51] Isn't it time to enjoy the great outdoors?

[00:03:54] Before you venture into the wilderness discover the outdoor life gear from subaru

[00:04:00] From coolers and games to barbecue gear and ways to relax

[00:04:05] Subaru gear has everything you need to prepare you for the next trek

[00:04:09] So head over to subaru gear.com and go to shop then scroll down to outdoor life

[00:04:15] And be sure to use the code subi and you 24 for 20 off

[00:04:20] Your purchase of any of the items found in the outdoor live section or any other items on the website

[00:04:27] Remember that if the total of your purchase is over 50 after the 20 discount, then you automatically get free shipping

[00:04:35] Thank you so much subaru gear for extending this great offer to the listeners of the subi and you podcast

[00:04:42] We have another patron question of the week

[00:04:45] This one comes from jeff who goes by slow subis and he says name a car mod or trend

[00:04:52] That you like on other cars, but would never put on your own car

[00:04:58] so I was thinking about this and

[00:05:01] One of the things that I have seen and I saw this on ghost x-track first and I know some others have done it

[00:05:07] But where they put the blackouts on the side of their

[00:05:14] tail lights and even like on the sides of the headlights

[00:05:19] And while I think it looks cool on ghost and some other cars

[00:05:25] It's not really not really for me

[00:05:27] And I mean especially on the rear tail lights because I like the way that the red

[00:05:34] Tail light looks as it is the only thing I did was I put the hex

[00:05:40] smoky tent on the brake light and the reverse light

[00:05:45] Other than that. Oh, no, I think let me think I did the reverse light. I think I just did

[00:05:50] the brake lights, but

[00:05:53] that

[00:05:54] That's the only thing I did because I really really like the red

[00:05:58] I it's just something about it. So I don't want to cover it up with a blackout

[00:06:03] And uh, so yeah, that's that's really the only thing I could think of. I mean there are other things that I see

[00:06:08] That I probably would end up doing to pearl at some point if I could

[00:06:14] Like a bumper could but that's uh seems a little extreme

[00:06:18] But I think I could see myself doing that at some point

[00:06:21] I probably won't ever do it

[00:06:22] But I'm just it's something that I can see myself doing so

[00:06:26] And that's on a lot of cars. Anyway, thank you so much Jeff for your question

[00:06:32] You know what? I really liked this one. So I'm gonna do it again

[00:06:36] As humans

[00:06:38] We are born curious

[00:06:40] We have a basic need to explore our world push boundaries and overcome obstacles

[00:06:46] We seek adventure scale the peak catch the wave

[00:06:50] Fly down the mountain

[00:06:53] Conquer the trail

[00:06:54] The goal is to get off the beaten path and enjoy the great outdoors

[00:07:00] How we arrive at our destination is in itself a part of the adventure

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[00:07:24] Discover extraordinary destinations the quest for adventure begins with you and rica is what gets you there

[00:07:31] Be sure to use the code subi u 10 at checkout to get 10 off a set of wheels or a lift kit

[00:07:38] Thank you so much rica for sponsoring this subi and you podcast

[00:07:43] And of course this episode is brought to you by our friends over at melee design firm

[00:07:49] At melee design firm not only will you find great melee products such as their

[00:07:56] Engine bay caps battery mounting systems and other melee products

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[00:08:26] See what they have to offer because they have a lot of really great products

[00:08:30] Thank you so much melee design firm for sponsoring this subi and you podcast

[00:08:34] And now that we are done with all of that business

[00:08:36] We can get into this episode with devin and hear all about cross trek jedi

[00:08:42] And his subaru journey. So here we go

[00:09:00] Yeah, I'm very curious about the name and

[00:09:04] Seems like there's some star wars influence there obviously so we can get into that later

[00:09:09] But I have to start with the most important question, of course

[00:09:13] And that's whether you prefer waffles or pancakes

[00:09:16] Oh, this is a big question. Yeah. Yeah, I actually prefer waffles. Oh man. It's been like five or six waffles in a row

[00:09:26] But that's okay. We'll get another pancake person on here at some point. I'm sure

[00:09:31] We kind of were chatting a little bit about it and uh, I already know

[00:09:36] I guess the answer to this question

[00:09:38] But usually I ask people is this your first subaru and I'm thinking not

[00:09:43] No, no, no. So she's actually my seventh

[00:09:46] Whoa your seventh nice. Yeah. Yeah. So what have you had before? Oh first brand new one. Okay

[00:09:53] Yeah, first brand new one like like infant like I bought it. I have like

[00:09:57] Close to nothing on it. My first one was actually a very very rare one

[00:10:01] I had a 97 uh, su guinablu subaru svx lsi

[00:10:07] Oh nice

[00:10:09] How long did you have that?

[00:10:11] Oh

[00:10:12] Me I'll say it lasted for about two years. Uh, and then it got totaled. I was one of the worst days ever

[00:10:19] That's I think I I think I laid in bed for like the whole next day and I wasn't even in pain. I was just

[00:10:25] Just utterly just demolished like I just didn't want to move mental anguish

[00:10:30] Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, that would be tough man

[00:10:34] Yeah, then there was a boatload of impresses. There was like

[00:10:36] I don't know four or five them all different trim levels and whatnot

[00:10:41] And then I had an oh four fourster x t with a big turbo build on which

[00:10:47] That lasted for a little bit and then it went down for a while

[00:10:51] And then I got tired of it

[00:10:53] And the wife got tired of seeing it sitting it's sitting there

[00:10:56] So I uh, I sold that and then I went super realist for

[00:11:00] I don't know maybe a year and a little bit and then I saved like we saved up some money

[00:11:04] And then I pulled the trigger on I was actually middle of covet. I wanted to get a wrx

[00:11:09] I wanted the custom order or wrx the va body

[00:11:13] and then

[00:11:15] It just didn't work out

[00:11:16] Because of covet and the trim level that I wanted that I was looking for I couldn't find

[00:11:21] And my next option was you know, uh

[00:11:23] A cross trek and the my salesman that I was working with

[00:11:26] I actually bought majority of my brand new stuff all my other brand new stuff from

[00:11:31] And he was like, hey like you know, we got these good deals on these 19 cross tracks

[00:11:35] It was like 20 and I think I think it was like 2020 and it had leftovers yet in June

[00:11:41] And he was like, hey you take one of these we're gonna give you a good deal on it

[00:11:44] I was like, okay, and it's like we have an orange and a black one and I was like, well

[00:11:48] Black ones got a sunroof so look at that

[00:11:51] Nice nice

[00:11:53] So how did I mean obviously you didn't get the wrx and you weren't really able to get what you wanted

[00:12:00] But then like

[00:12:01] You know

[00:12:02] wrx is quite a bit different from a cross track as far as just overall build feel and power so

[00:12:10] Were you like

[00:12:11] Feeling kind of like you were having to settle with a cross trek or were you excited about getting the cross trek because of what

[00:12:18] Opportunities it could bring, you know with like going off-road

[00:12:22] so

[00:12:23] The cross track so it kind of

[00:12:27] I was like especially when I after I had the svx like I like the svx because it was oddball

[00:12:30] Like no one else had one

[00:12:32] It it felt like it meant like it felt like it was me, you know

[00:12:36] Like it was just kind of oddball

[00:12:37] So like the cross track to me like there wasn't a lot of people around my area that were really messing with them at the time

[00:12:43] so I was like, ah, you know like it's it's

[00:12:46] I needed a car that I could daily to so I could get back and forth to work

[00:12:50] So at that time I was actually working out a gmc dealer

[00:12:54] And I was like, I listen. I really wanted something that was you know

[00:12:57] Something that could there was versatile like I didn't have to park it in the winter or and whatnot

[00:13:02] so we got that and

[00:13:04] There for a while it's kind of like

[00:13:06] Digging into it like what can I do to this thing? What can I take it apart?

[00:13:08] Like I have enough super experience taking other stuff apart. Let's figure this out and

[00:13:14] Then first thing I think I bought was the my wheels

[00:13:17] And then after that it was kind of just like dominant started falling and then it grew on me

[00:13:22] So I started modifying it to fit my preference and I don't do a lot of off-roading

[00:13:27] But I wanted to be able to if I had to I could take it out and take it off take it off off off the street

[00:13:33] Or else wanted to perform on the street as well

[00:13:35] So like I really didn't do much suspension wise besides the strut power bar

[00:13:39] Because the stock cross-track suspension actually can hold up pretty good to actually I mean it's done everything

[00:13:44] I asked it to and I did done some dumb stuff on some back roads

[00:13:49] No, that's good. That's good

[00:13:51] Yeah, so

[00:13:53] Since you you know you go way back with subarus, but what got you interested in subaru in the first place like you know

[00:13:59] How did that come about

[00:14:01] In your you know radar way back then

[00:14:05] So honestly when I was a kid I used to watch a lot of tv a lot of racing my stepdads

[00:14:12] dad

[00:14:13] Used to race dirt modifies which is like a grassroots form of nascar racing

[00:14:19] And we have a couple dirt tracks around here

[00:14:22] dirt ovals around here and um

[00:14:24] They spent a lot of time like playing with my you know matchbox cars in the dirt like

[00:14:29] And stuff like that and there used to be this channel called speed vision

[00:14:32] And I used to watch it all the time. Well, the one thing that I used to watch is you stay up real late

[00:14:36] And they used to have wrc on so I got to see like call column mccray in like the 22 b's and stuff like that

[00:14:42] Like the first gen stis like robbing through like sweden

[00:14:47] And I was like, oh my god. These cars are so cool

[00:14:51] I'm like I want one

[00:14:53] and then eventually it got into as I got older started like paying attention more and then you start getting into like

[00:14:59] You know travis pastrana vermont sports car

[00:15:02] Uh ken block the ken box jim kana videos

[00:15:06] And then it was like I was hooked like I was like I gotta get me one of these as soon as I possibly can

[00:15:11] Yeah, yeah

[00:15:13] So like with your impresses did you were any of those modified for any kind of speed or anything or just

[00:15:21] Or were they modified at all?

[00:15:24] No, some of them some of them were some of them weren't um

[00:15:27] financially at that point in time

[00:15:29] I wasn't like really like I was still young and I was spending money in dumb spots

[00:15:33] Not not not really thinking about building. Yeah, well, there's a lot of trial and error involved

[00:15:38] And at that point I was just kind of just trying to you know get through life

[00:15:43] But I always you know had the love for subaru kept like watching videos and like

[00:15:48] Doing small things here and there just to keep myself kind of like

[00:15:52] Looking at it. Um, I think the

[00:15:55] Besides the cross-strek. I think the most modded one I had would had to be the forester

[00:16:00] Like I said that was a full turbo swap and everything else. Yeah

[00:16:03] I just wish I wish I could have that I had that on the road a little bit longer that car would have been nice but

[00:16:07] uh

[00:16:13] Yeah, did you take the forester off road at all or was it strictly a street build?

[00:16:18] It was strictly a street build

[00:16:20] It was fun like I could like a pull like like guys with like stock maros and make them double think twice

[00:16:26] Station wagon, which is pretty good. Nice. Yeah, that's cool

[00:16:30] So when you got your cross-track, you know, obviously you said you had some Subaru experience

[00:16:36] but like

[00:16:38] You know, you have the name cross-track jedi, but

[00:16:42] Obviously it ties to star wars, but did you have other names that you were considering and where how did you settle on cross-track jedi?

[00:16:51] So I it's kind of funny. So I was really I was like certain stuff like we had like I was always into star wars and I was

[00:16:58] Always when I see my car or see a car in general

[00:17:01] I'm always picturing like this is what I would do if I would own it. This is how I would customize it if you know

[00:17:06] I was

[00:17:08] Going to do it like my vision

[00:17:10] So what I started doing was like looking at it. I was like, maybe I'm going through a star wars theme now

[00:17:15] Eventually, you know different aspects of life happened and it kind of got away with it

[00:17:20] There is small star wars hints on my car if you look close if you scroll to my instagram

[00:17:24] There's some hidden little gems on the car if you look close enough

[00:17:28] I have to check it out then but um

[00:17:31] I was just like hey, you know, uh, originally it was gonna be like

[00:17:35] Subaru jedi I was looking at different ones

[00:17:37] But there's only two me different ones that were like somewhat similar and no one had like cross-track underscore jedi or cross-track jedi

[00:17:43] so I was like, you know what let me just

[00:17:45] Change it up a little bit. I was like I kind of like that idea

[00:17:48] And once I decided that I was going to go full bore with mod in the cross-track

[00:17:51] It was it was just a no brainer just to throw that together

[00:17:55] Yeah, it's uh, definitely catchy for sure

[00:17:59] And uh anything star wars related I like but I mean you've got cross-track, which is a great car

[00:18:05] And star wars reference jedi, you know good guys. So

[00:18:09] Yeah, it's nice

[00:18:11] And and so is cross-track jedi the name of your car and the name of your account because I've come across where

[00:18:18] Oh, that's just the name of the account and then the actual car has a different name

[00:18:23] So funny story. I'm very superstitious with certain things

[00:18:27] The cross-track really doesn't have a name because for some reason every time I throw a nickname on a Subaru

[00:18:33] either something happens to the to the car or

[00:18:38] Something this is bad juju for me

[00:18:42] So this one like I sometimes like my close friends like I'll refer to her as the lady in black

[00:18:48] but

[00:18:50] She doesn't really have a nickname. Okay. Yes. I know official name. Yeah, I got you. I got you

[00:18:56] Now you mentioned earlier you wanted to see what you could do with it

[00:18:59] And like so when you bought it where you were already thinking like hey, I'm gonna mod this car

[00:19:06] Uh, yeah, so I think there was a conversation with my wife when we left the dealership

[00:19:09] Where she was like, are you gonna mod this thing? And I'm pretty sure I said no, but I'm pretty sure at the same time

[00:19:15] I was shopping for the wheels

[00:19:20] And some wheels showed up but she's like, hey, what's going on

[00:19:24] No, I know I'm usually pretty good about that. Usually I was like, I mean usually if I'm gonna buy something or some type of part

[00:19:29] She's pretty she's been a trooper

[00:19:31] I'll go to her like hey, um, do you mind if I spend the money and buy this and I'll show it to her

[00:19:35] And I'm like, I really want to get it and usually she's pretty cool with let me do it

[00:19:39] That's good. Yeah, it's good to have that kind of support where

[00:19:43] You know, if you want, I mean because yeah, if it's like a big purchase

[00:19:46] It's you know, you have to justify it and

[00:19:49] And uh, but if you know if you can do it then do it and you've got the support and that's that's the best part is having the support to say

[00:19:56] Yeah, sure go ahead

[00:19:58] Yeah, it's definitely it's definitely it's definitely nice one too. I don't have to argue

[00:20:02] Yeah, so you said the wheels were your first mod and are your wheels are they 17 inch?

[00:20:09] Yeah, so they're 17 so I have they're 17 by

[00:20:13] five

[00:20:14] And a half so they have a half inch wider width than the factory

[00:20:19] And I did that on purpose because like I said, I didn't want to

[00:20:22] Push it so far outside of the boundaries of what I couldn't handle on the street

[00:20:26] So I knew if I went wider I'd have a little bit more grip

[00:20:30] And I on the street, but then I also knew I had better traction off road

[00:20:34] And then I won't take away from the aesthetic of the way the car looks from factory

[00:20:37] With the same 17s. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's a good point

[00:20:41] So wheels were your first mod. What were you starting to think of next?

[00:20:45] Like what was you know rolling around in your head for like what what am I going to do next?

[00:20:50] So after after the wheels, um, I started digging around and I was always really a big fan of Crawford performances mods

[00:20:57] Even like I had them on I had a bunch of the other stuff

[00:21:00] Like I think I had some stuff on a couple one of their two or their presses

[00:21:04] I had their stuff on my forester

[00:21:07] And I just really like they're like they've been around for a while

[00:21:09] Like they used to have Vermont sports car out a lot when Vermont sports car starts first again

[00:21:13] And get off the road on on like the rally courses

[00:21:15] Like they did a lot of stuff with the engine stuff and the aos systems and the exhaust systems and a lot of the rally cars

[00:21:20] Like back when pastrana and block are driving at the same time

[00:21:24] So I'm like, hey these guys are og

[00:21:26] You know, they know their stuff like I trust their rmd. Like let's start looking and um

[00:21:32] They eventually start coming out with some good stuff for the two onas, which I thought was really cool

[00:21:36] Which a lot of people don't really come go at and naturally aspirated for former Subaru

[00:21:41] They like to come out with the billet short blocks, which my cross truck has on it

[00:21:45] They also came out with an naturally aspirated aos, which my cross truck has on it

[00:21:49] But my second mod was I bought their exhaust

[00:21:52] Um, and I just loved the way it sound like the nameless sounds a little bit to me

[00:21:55] Sounds a little bit tinny or raspy almost

[00:21:58] Where the crawford has more of a smoother sound and you get a really nice like Subaru rumble at idle. Nice

[00:22:06] So I was like, I I love how they're how it sounds

[00:22:09] I'm sorry. That was the next thing I did. I pulled the trigger on that and then a couple months later

[00:22:12] I seen them r&d in the

[00:22:15] The intake blocks the fometic spacers and I was like that's next to my list

[00:22:20] I literally printed out a list of mods and I put a magnet on the fridge with the prices next to my where to get

[00:22:25] Her to someone's like, hey, I looked at my wife said hey hunt birthday

[00:22:29] There's your list. Just walk down it

[00:22:32] Nice nice. Yeah, that's good. Is yours and yours isn't automatic

[00:22:37] Yes, it is a cvt. So okay. I I can drive stick

[00:22:41] I don't have any issues driving stick, but I do have a cp of former cerebral palsy

[00:22:45] It makes it very hard to drive stick daily

[00:22:47] Oh, god like I get muscle spasms in my left Achilles tendon a lot

[00:22:51] Especially like even like if I'm driving my even if I'm driving the auto

[00:22:56] There's times during the day. Well, I'll get muscle spasm while I'm driving

[00:23:00] And with a clutch that's that's a no go

[00:23:03] Yeah, that could be problematic because you're always using your left foot

[00:23:07] Yeah, so that was that was one thing was which is why like I wanted to go after the va because the va was the first

[00:23:14] First wrecks in a long time where they offered it with an auto and that was my plan. I was going to go after a cvt

[00:23:20] va

[00:23:21] Like I'm like I said, but unfortunately those things were hard to find to begin with let alone find one in the middle of covid

[00:23:27] Yeah, yeah, definitely

[00:23:29] So what would you say is your favorite mod?

[00:23:33] Favorite one

[00:23:34] I'd have to say right now

[00:23:37] probably be the

[00:23:39] The intake spacers were probably my favorite

[00:23:41] Because even with just the intake spacers you can notice a decent difference in the pickup

[00:23:47] low end low end torque is

[00:23:49] Decently increased with just putting them on nice. That's good

[00:23:52] Are there other mods that you still have on that list that you're intending to get or add

[00:23:59] So actually funny story the list was finished about two months ago. Oh, nice

[00:24:04] Yeah, so the engines as far as she's gonna go

[00:24:07] At this point, um, there were some turbo kits floating around out there, but then I was like, you know what?

[00:24:11] No, I don't want to blow it up. I have to get to work

[00:24:15] Yeah

[00:24:16] But uh, there is some things i'm looking at here and there nothing completely crazy. I know

[00:24:23] Uh, there's some stuff that I've been waiting to see

[00:24:27] How it how it goes like some suspension stuff

[00:24:29] I'll wait and see if white line or any of these companies come out with any more like advanced bushings

[00:24:33] I've been looking at rallytech.com for bushings

[00:24:36] Just i'm just kind of waiting by my time here to see exactly what I want to do

[00:24:40] um with doing that

[00:24:43] But as of right now, she's kind of a

[00:24:45] I wouldn't say she's at a stand still. Um, because there's still some stuff

[00:24:48] I want to mess around within the interior

[00:24:51] Change some stuff up in there, but as for performance wise, she's pretty much done

[00:24:56] Gotcha now. There's some similarities that

[00:24:59] Pearl has and that

[00:25:01] the lady in black has

[00:25:04] and we both have the

[00:25:07] Full throttle battery and the melee design firm

[00:25:11] Battery mount so how did you find out about melee and then

[00:25:16] I know you and I chatted you were asking me about the the box and or the mount and which I was very satisfied with it

[00:25:24] I I like the way it looks and I just I like supporting

[00:25:27] Melee and Mitch because they've been really good to me in the podcast

[00:25:30] But how'd you find out about them to begin with?

[00:25:34] So that one did I found out through you actually and listen in the podcast now one of my buddies his name is dan haggie

[00:25:40] He works up at another suburb dealer. That's about an hour away from me

[00:25:44] I met him through our local Subaru channels around me

[00:25:48] And he's actually sponsored by them now

[00:25:50] He does I think local rallycross and like sec a like autocross racing. He has a white wrx y

[00:25:57] I mean, he actually has their logo like plastered on the whole side of the car nice

[00:26:02] Yeah, that's really cool

[00:26:04] And yeah, and I mean it's like

[00:26:06] It's I have I have the battery mount. I have the front strut tower brace

[00:26:11] I have all of their engine bay caps and then I have the pitch stop

[00:26:16] And then I have decals on the car because I like to advertise them

[00:26:20] But yeah, they've been great to work with and very thankful for

[00:26:25] You know their partnership and sponsorship

[00:26:28] Yeah, I was actually very very very satisfied with the install. It went very very quick. It was very very easy

[00:26:34] Yeah, yours probably went easier than mine because I didn't have a good I didn't have

[00:26:39] A good time for that

[00:26:40] It's I just there were some things that I did wrong though that I thought I was doing right in the first place

[00:26:45] Yeah, like I said, it wasn't it wasn't too bad

[00:26:47] I actually watched like I think the youtube video of the install like twice and then my buddy

[00:26:52] Rob and I looked at each other like oh, yeah, we got this. This is gonna take no time at all

[00:26:56] So I was I was looking at the decals on the side of your car

[00:27:01] Who like who did those who did those and like who came up with the design?

[00:27:07] so

[00:27:08] I uh, I co-owned a

[00:27:10] Vinyl shop with a buddy with one of my best friends. So

[00:27:14] I know I said it before and you said like, you know super through and through when we were talking before the

[00:27:19] podcast

[00:27:20] I actually met him through Subaru. We actually kind of met up

[00:27:24] There the one dealership that I was mentioning before or the bar one buddy Dan works

[00:27:28] Was hosting a like charity drive. It was like a put drive through and you dropped off money for um childhood cancer

[00:27:35] um as a super dealer

[00:27:36] And there's a bunch of us from our area that we're cruising over

[00:27:40] And it was like I met him in a parking lot and he goes

[00:27:43] And we were sitting there. It was kind of like the stepbrother saying like did we just become best friends?

[00:27:46] You know both our superiors. Yeah, yeah

[00:27:48] It's awesome. He was like hey, I do that. He was like, hey, I do this vinyl thing and I was like

[00:27:52] Oh, like I'm like you talking about like decals and he's like yeah, but I also wrap and I was like, oh cool

[00:27:57] So then like we got the talking got together and started like, you know started up a business

[00:28:02] We have we're on facebook. We're called be that be read vinyl industries

[00:28:06] Um, we just actually started launch our website just llc'd very nice two years of just doing it under the table

[00:28:11] Um, he's actually doing it full time now. I still have a full time job, but he's doing it full time

[00:28:16] That's awesome. Yeah, we do full wraps and stuff and the design was really easy

[00:28:20] So like I know what we talked about before um, I helped run a car club our local car club, uh, berks county subaru enthusiast

[00:28:27] Um, and one of the big things about berks county pennsylvania is the city of redding

[00:28:31] It's like the sea to the county

[00:28:33] But it also has a little bit of japanese flair to it back in the 1800s

[00:28:38] Uh guy built a pagoda on top of the mountain that sits behind the city of redding

[00:28:43] And they're supposed to be like a

[00:28:45] Like a hotel slash bar

[00:28:48] Slash eatery place and then it just never came to fruition the guy ran out of money before he could finish it

[00:28:52] And then something about he kind of for the liquor license or whatever

[00:28:55] But it's kind of cool because that's like our emblem of our subaru club is the pagoda

[00:29:01] Oh nice. So basically

[00:29:04] I was like, hey, I want something on the side of the car

[00:29:06] This is where it kind of changed up the whole design of the car

[00:29:09] I was like, hey, I want something different on the car and what we did was we actually took a picture of the city of redding

[00:29:14] We and if you look close, we vectorized the whole thing

[00:29:17] And then it's literally the mountain range from behind the city

[00:29:20] The city skyline at the bottom and the pagoda on top of the hill and then inside the put inside the mountain

[00:29:26] It says berks county subaru enthusiast at the bottom of the door

[00:29:29] Yeah, i'm looking at it right now. So I can see that yeah, I noticed that

[00:29:33] That there was something off too like because i'm looking at like the passenger side

[00:29:38] And you've got the berks county subaru enthusiast

[00:29:41] I saw that and then I saw that there were like some

[00:29:44] Structure looking things at the other end, but I didn't know what they were and now I do because you just described it

[00:29:49] That's really cool. Yeah, that's that's the first iteration

[00:29:53] She may get it we're working on a second one, but we are really really busy now in the shop

[00:29:57] We were hoping that we could get the second iteration done and that removed and the new delivery put on the side before boxer fest this year

[00:30:04] But we're not a hundred percent sure if it's going to be possible with how busy we are

[00:30:09] Yeah, I mean being busy is good, you know, so if that's something that has to

[00:30:13] Wait a little while. That's not a bad thing having you know business

[00:30:17] No, it's not at all

[00:30:18] How many times have you been to boxer fest?

[00:30:21] I've been to boxer fest

[00:30:22] About I think we're four or five times now

[00:30:26] Which is funny because i've never actually been there as a spectator

[00:30:30] We actually take the vinyl shop out as a vendor booths

[00:30:33] Every year nice nice. That's good. Yeah, because I saw you were there last year with your car at the booth

[00:30:41] Yeah, I saw that on your post and have you been to any of the other subi fest events

[00:30:46] No, I've been wanting to get to wicked big. It's just logistically

[00:30:51] Um at the moment like I know I wanted to get up there as like I wanted to try to go up there

[00:30:55] First as a spectator just to kind of get a feel of what it's like

[00:30:59] Because I didn't want to jump in with the booth yet as of yet because that is a way bigger show than what boxer fest is

[00:31:05] But our normal schedule right now

[00:31:08] Is a little hectic with putting other shows on

[00:31:11] So how far away is it?

[00:31:13] Boxer fest for me or wicked big. Uh, I guess both

[00:31:17] Boxer fest is about an hour and

[00:31:21] Not even an hour in 10 minutes. It's like I think it's like just under an hour or just around an hour

[00:31:26] Okay, and then wicked big meat about nine. Oh, yeah, that's a big difference. That's a

[00:31:32] That's a big commitment to go out there and

[00:31:36] Yeah, I they would definitely be good to scope that out first

[00:31:39] And you wouldn't want to like just go ahead and say hey, let's go

[00:31:43] Up to wicked big meet with our booth and then get up there after a nine hour drive and be like, oh, this is horrible

[00:31:51] I don't think it would be a horrible, but you know what I mean like not what you would think

[00:31:55] So yeah, it's good to scope that out first

[00:31:59] So you were at boxer fest in 2021. I'm guessing

[00:32:04] Yeah, because I was there too

[00:32:06] They might have been our first year. Oh, okay. Yeah first or second year

[00:32:10] Yeah, I was there too at 2021 but I didn't know what I was doing back then

[00:32:15] I was just walking around and I knew a few people there

[00:32:18] I had just met bucky

[00:32:20] And I knew some people from well, I didn't know people from SOA. I had just met them

[00:32:25] But I knew greg who goes by adventure dad wagon. He had been on the podcast

[00:32:30] I got to meet him and his wife and that was really cool and then ended up meeting some other people but

[00:32:35] you know, I just

[00:32:36] I didn't really know a whole lot of people back then and the podcast was still really new so

[00:32:42] Not very many people knew about the podcast and because it's

[00:32:47] Not on purpose but because it's more off-road and overland focused

[00:32:52] You know, there's so many

[00:32:55] Like tuna enthusiasts there that they just you know, they wouldn't have known about it or heard about it

[00:33:00] So it's kind of a little bit harder to get into that aspect of Subaru

[00:33:05] But I'm happy with the direction that it's been taking

[00:33:08] Also, it is in a good direction and honestly, that's

[00:33:11] That's the hardest part is bridging that gap

[00:33:14] I've been trying to do that. Like that's part of the part of the crossroads build

[00:33:17] I'm trying to bridge the gap between the off-road guys and the street guys

[00:33:22] Yeah, it's uh, you know, there's some crossover there and I mean, I I have no

[00:33:27] A few people that you know on the are on the tuner side and it's cool and everything but

[00:33:31] It's uh, yeah, it's not easy to make that connection all the time. So

[00:33:37] I also saw that so you you're speaking of events

[00:33:41] You did go to an event you went to

[00:33:43] STPR

[00:33:44] So what was that like and I'm guessing you were just there as an observer to check it out

[00:33:50] Yeah, yeah, um, so I've been so I we kind of got lucky. So my um, my wife her family owned actually on a hunting cabin

[00:33:58] Or property up in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, which is where they host STPR

[00:34:03] So one of our first vacations together was actually up to STPR. I think 0809

[00:34:09] Wow, we got to meet like

[00:34:11] Yeah, so we got to meet like David Higgins

[00:34:14] Um, Dave Mira before he passed away

[00:34:17] Um Ken block

[00:34:19] Like all those guys are still running full time when it was before it was a r.a. It was rally america back when it was rally america

[00:34:25] and then uh once uh, and then there was a couple hiatus like we didn't go up

[00:34:30] Just be dealt life in general and whatnot

[00:34:32] Um, and then I started talking into some of the people at the Subaru club

[00:34:36] We ended up getting the last couple last well two years before

[00:34:39] Aira they stopped becoming a national event and they're just a regional rally now

[00:34:44] We went up two years in a or three years in a row

[00:34:47] And we got an air bmb

[00:34:49] And we go up like maybe 12 13 14 people all split it for the weekend and it costs us literally nothing

[00:34:55] Oh, and then we just cruise around

[00:34:58] Yeah, we just cruise around go to different stages and watch and luckily, you know, we got to

[00:35:02] The kids got to meet like that we take up what this got to meet Ken block right before he he unfortunately passed away

[00:35:08] Um got to meet travis which Travis is always a ball much of you met him before but no, he's a great dude

[00:35:14] So like that's and to me that's that's what I kind of do it for it

[00:35:18] I do it for like, you know just watch the next generation get you know

[00:35:21] You know get to meet these guys and you know like I you know, I did when I was a kid, you know

[00:35:26] It's kind of a

[00:35:28] Full circle thing. Yeah

[00:35:30] So if you've been a fan of rally for well, you said you were watching it when you were younger

[00:35:35] so you've been a fan of rally for a while and

[00:35:39] Have you been to any other rallies or is that the only one you've been to?

[00:35:42] That's the only one I've been to that one's a little easier to make

[00:35:45] It's only four hours away the next closest one's like eight

[00:35:49] Yeah, so if you were able to drive your cross track on any rally course, which one would it be?

[00:35:55] I mean, obviously you probably know that one, you know

[00:35:59] So somewhat well

[00:36:01] But are there any that you've seen where it'd be like man, I would love to just take my cross track and rip down one of those courses

[00:36:07] I think snowdrift would look cool. We'll look fun just because snow driving the snow. Who doesn't like driving in the snow with a super

[00:36:13] Yeah, yeah, that'd be cool. And if uh, if you could ride with any rally driver, who would it be?

[00:36:21] Ride with any rally driver? Honestly, it either be david higgins or brandon seminuck at this point

[00:36:26] Just because those guys

[00:36:28] I mean

[00:36:29] Watching them guys drive a lot. Those guys are on so much higher level than most other drivers

[00:36:34] and just hearing like like

[00:36:36] I'm not sure if you watch any of the

[00:36:39] Launch control stuff from so a when they put it up when they talk to travis and travis is like

[00:36:43] I'm trying to follow brandon's line, but he's just breaking so much later than I am

[00:36:47] I think it would just be fun to be in the car with him because it just seems like he's so smooth at it

[00:36:51] yeah

[00:36:52] But if you could actually be a driver, who would your co-driver be?

[00:36:58] Uh, I'll say if I could be a driver my co-driver. Oh, man. That's a really good question

[00:37:03] Um, my wife is a saring over here looking at me. Give me like a lot a lot like eyes

[00:37:07] I can better tell you it's him or her but I'll say honestly

[00:37:10] You'd probably be my buddy dentis or my buddy rob

[00:37:13] My buddy dentis has been my co-dreak like been in my passenger and giving me directions at every stp

[00:37:19] Are we been to and we always find back routes when we get lost?

[00:37:23] He'd like I don't know. He'll pull out a map and like we're here just go this way

[00:37:27] So and we always get there on time. So he's usually dead on so I think it probably my buddy dentis or my buddy rob probably

[00:37:34] That's good. Yeah

[00:37:35] Be nice to have somebody that you can trust like that

[00:37:38] When you are getting out in your Subaru like what kind of places are around you that you get out to?

[00:37:44] And I mean, are you driving off-road much?

[00:37:46] Uh, no, there's there's a an awful couple off-road parks near me

[00:37:51] Um, the jersey pine barons aren't that far away, but I really don't get off-road that much

[00:37:55] The only time I really do get off-road is when I do go to stpr all the roads that there are logging roads

[00:37:59] So it's kind of like you're either you're forced to

[00:38:02] I know I have a couple pictures on my instagram. I'm in a creek. Um, that was up at stpr

[00:38:06] Most of time I'm like just driving back roads or just cruising around the cruising around the county here or you know

[00:38:12] On bypasses or whatever, but like most of time it's just back roads like backcountry roads is like where I like driving

[00:38:18] It's like and the funny thing is it's like I always said to my wife. I'm like, I'm the most comfortable

[00:38:22] When I'm behind the wheel of my car. I'm just completely relaxed

[00:38:26] Yeah, and it's really rare for me to be relaxed

[00:38:29] So are you like I mean, are you

[00:38:33] Not driving off-road like technical stuff intentionally or is it because there's not stuff available?

[00:38:39] There's not really a lot available around us like we do have a couple places

[00:38:44] But they're more geared towards like dirt bikes and side-by-sides

[00:38:48] Yeah, then there are like I mean there is a uh

[00:38:52] Something like about like an hour and 20 minutes away

[00:38:55] There's the poked-nose Subaru group and there's a lot of trails up there that those guys go off-roading on

[00:38:59] They're cross tracks foresters and stuff like that

[00:39:02] My buddy hunter. He's really big into going off-road. He goes to the pine barons all the time in new jersey

[00:39:07] He's constantly begging me to come along and I see him getting up to like the hood in his forester

[00:39:12] And I'm like bro, if you blow that up don't write to me at work

[00:39:16] Yeah, yeah, I mean there's there are you know, there's a lot of spots across the country that where people are

[00:39:23] Very blessed with some nice off-road trails

[00:39:25] But if there are there any that you've seen that you'd be like where you think like if I could get out there

[00:39:31] I would love to explore that area

[00:39:34] I mean, yeah some of this stuff in the pine barons looks like it's pretty manageable

[00:39:37] Especially if you're just for a cross track that's stock ride height

[00:39:40] So I mean I could I'm probably to take a whack at some of those

[00:39:43] There they'll all want off-road park that is closer to us. It's up towards the like the the Pocono area of pa

[00:39:49] Some of their stuff is just a lot of like folders and rock crawling

[00:39:53] Which I think I would probably stay away from because like I said, I drive my car to work every day

[00:39:56] So I try to pick record or anything

[00:39:59] Yeah, you definitely need to keep it, you know functional

[00:40:03] So I I went to a park an off-road park

[00:40:08] With my girlfriend and her daughter because I wanted to show them, you know, like my love of going off-road

[00:40:15] And there was all the trails were rated and a lot of them were rated more for jeep because they were more for like kind of

[00:40:22] Rock crawling. There wasn't there weren't really any huge rocks that were like

[00:40:27] I mean I could probably pass through some of them if I had a spotter, but

[00:40:32] You know being with just the three of us in the car. I didn't want to take any chances on those

[00:40:37] But we yeah, we got to some spots where I was like it was kind of rocky

[00:40:41] And I remember I was got to this one

[00:40:44] Intersection and I could go either left or right

[00:40:47] And both of them looked way too gnarly for my my comfort level

[00:40:51] So I was going to back up and when I was turning

[00:40:54] My right tire I guess slipped off of a rock and

[00:40:58] I either hit my skid plate or something, but it was a pretty big bang

[00:41:03] But that was uh, that was a little sketchy

[00:41:05] That's probably the most sketchy spot that I've ever been through but it did have some really nice mud puddles and

[00:41:13] And that's where I got all the mud on my car before I went to the big event

[00:41:19] Back in 2022

[00:41:22] And uh, that was that was really cool. That was the most mud I'd ever had on pearl

[00:41:27] And that was when I got the most looks from anybody

[00:41:30] In the three plus years that I've owned her and I was like, oh, yeah, this is nice

[00:41:35] So those that was fun, but I'd rather do mud puddles and rocks any day

[00:41:41] If you could drive anybody else's Subaru for a day, who's would it be?

[00:41:47] Oh, that's a good one. There's two of them. I would drive

[00:41:49] I say the guy who I

[00:41:51] I co-admin the first super enthusiast page with

[00:41:56] Mike he has a fourster X

[00:41:58] T08 and he's got about

[00:42:01] 465 or 450 to the ground

[00:42:04] I would love to drive that thing. I think it's a monster sounds fun or my buddy Dennis is he has a uh

[00:42:11] oh

[00:42:12] 607 Hawkeye and he's making close to about the same power, but that thing sounds like a jet fighter coming off merit craft carrier when it takes off

[00:42:20] Oh, that sounds like having fun to hear

[00:42:22] So with like the places just you have been to what's the furthest distance you've driven in your cross track?

[00:42:28] So actually it's a crapshoot. Um, I did actually two decent drives. Uh, this past in the past

[00:42:35] um, I'll say eight nine months here. Um, that were rivaled each other so

[00:42:40] In july my wife surprised me for my birthday because of my bucket list. I wanted to tour Vermont sports car

[00:42:45] I saw that we drove

[00:42:47] nine and a half hours to go to Vermont sports car

[00:42:51] When I was me and you were originally planning on trying to meet up at um 48 hours of tri-state. Yep

[00:42:56] My wife

[00:42:57] One best friend got married in Tennessee. So I drove nine and a half hours to gatlenburg

[00:43:03] Okay, yeah, yeah, I know it's I'm glad I was finally able to make it out to 48 hours of tri-state

[00:43:09] and uh, I know you weren't able to make it but

[00:43:12] So we went out to si a as you know

[00:43:15] If so if you get a chance to either

[00:43:18] Through 48 hours of tri-state if they go again in a few years or just go out there yourself highly highly recommend it

[00:43:23] That was really really cool

[00:43:25] That uh, that place is huge and just all the infrastructure that's in there is just insane

[00:43:32] And it was cool hearing like all the stories about

[00:43:35] You know how they put the cars together and the different assembly lines and how the workers work and

[00:43:41] Just seeing so many subroutes passing through there. It was really neat

[00:43:45] I want to make it up to Vermont sports car sometime. So that way it's a ball. Yeah, it's a ball

[00:43:50] Yeah, that would be that'd be a lot of fun

[00:43:52] So I know that they go up there with 48 hours of tri-state

[00:43:54] But I think it'd be cool. It's for my son and I just to go up there sometime for a tour and check it out

[00:43:59] But we have to figure that out. It's just a matter. I mean everything

[00:44:03] Everything cool is so far away from me. So it's either a really really long drive or I have to fly and

[00:44:10] You know, I don't mind driving but it's just having to take that much time off work

[00:44:14] Or flying and it's you know, not cheap

[00:44:17] So you have to weigh your options, but definitely worth it

[00:44:21] What would you say? So like with your car with your cross track? What is it?

[00:44:26] What about it brings you the most joy?

[00:44:29] Honestly, it's kind of funny because

[00:44:33] Throughout like all the other tribulations that I had coming up with all the other subarus and stuff like that

[00:44:37] This is the one that I feel like is most complete

[00:44:40] That I ever got to the point where like I've kind of had a roadblock a little bit or I'm kind of like

[00:44:45] I guess I would say like boulders block kind of like riders block

[00:44:48] Because there's not too much I want to go for on it anymore

[00:44:52] There's some things I think about but like there's times where I catch myself and like we'll be sitting in

[00:44:57] I mean my wife will be sitting in a restaurant or I'll be sitting at work and I'll look outside and I'll see her out there

[00:45:01] And I'll be like I can't believe I'm still I'm driving that thing like that's my car

[00:45:06] Like I put all the work into it. I spent the money

[00:45:09] Everything's put together and everything's working the way it should be. I'm not having any issues. I'm like I just

[00:45:16] There's time to just stare at her. I'm just like, you know, like I put this together. This is mine

[00:45:21] Yeah, I I think that there's probably a lot of people including myself that do the same thing

[00:45:27] because I mean I drive my car pretty much on a daily basis and

[00:45:32] You know, sometimes I get in the car and I'm just driving it and you know, I'm just I'm just driving

[00:45:37] And then other times like if I go to the grocery store or something and I'm walking out and I'm like

[00:45:42] Man, I can't believe that's my car. Like I you know, it's because you have this feeling about

[00:45:47] A car unlike you have any other car in in most cases where it's like

[00:45:53] You're just so happy and so proud to own this car and

[00:45:57] Like for me, I used to like think it would be really cool to own some, you know, fancy expensive nice luxury car

[00:46:04] Or something and you know, I'm like I when I bought my car. It's the base model. It's a manual

[00:46:10] I'm like I paid $23,000 for this car

[00:46:14] And it's not like super fancy. It's not any, you know, some kind of like quote unquote dream car

[00:46:20] But it's my car and I absolutely love it. Like it's like I couldn't I would have never imagined

[00:46:27] You know 20 years ago that I would own

[00:46:29] This car and be so happy with it and not think like I don't need some super fancy car

[00:46:35] Like I have this and it's amazing

[00:46:37] Yeah, yeah, definitely. Definitely and I always always say it's funny. It's like Subaru drivers are different

[00:46:44] Oh, yeah

[00:46:45] They're way different like it's like they have this emotional attachment to the car that I've not seen in any other brand

[00:46:52] It's like, you know, it's it's like

[00:46:55] It's like the cars have the soul of their own. It's kind of weird

[00:46:59] Yeah, and and I think there's like a certain type of

[00:47:03] People, you know, not not everybody's the same of course, but I think there's like a certain type of

[00:47:08] person that you know

[00:47:10] It was just like almost kind of silly to say but like was born to own and drive a Subaru, you know

[00:47:19] Totally agree

[00:47:20] So do you all ever go car camping or camping?

[00:47:24] No, we were thinking about doing something like that with the car club setting up some type of

[00:47:30] Uh, like like a retreat or something along those lines

[00:47:33] It's just a lot of like a lot of logistics and now the turnouts that we are getting

[00:47:38] It'd be a lot of logistics

[00:47:42] the local Subaru community and and just my

[00:47:46] generic area of Pennsylvania

[00:47:49] It's just I can't believe how actually big it is

[00:47:52] It's it's large and the people actually want to come out and do things

[00:47:57] Which is

[00:47:58] Insane. Yeah, that's a good problem to have though

[00:48:02] It is it is

[00:48:03] Something can be stressful at times, but it is. Yeah, so you're close to Allentown

[00:48:09] Well, I'm about 45 minutes south of Allentown. Okay, because with my previous job. I did some work in Allentown for

[00:48:18] Uh

[00:48:19] Lehigh

[00:48:20] something whatever the transit agency is up there in Allentown

[00:48:25] and

[00:48:26] I don't remember like

[00:48:28] When I booked my hotel, I don't remember if like I just thought it was close

[00:48:32] And and it really wasn't or something but my hotel ended up being like 30 or 35 minutes away from

[00:48:38] The transit agency

[00:48:39] Which on one of the trips it worked out well because it had snowed

[00:48:44] I think it was the first trip

[00:48:46] and there was like snow everywhere and not not really so much on the roads but just you know

[00:48:51] out on

[00:48:52] You know people's lawns and properties and stuff and so like

[00:48:56] My drive and I don't remember where I was staying but my drive from where I was at

[00:49:02] to

[00:49:03] The transit agency was going through a lot of like residential areas where the homes are spaced out

[00:49:09] They had a lot of land and it was going through windy roads

[00:49:13] And I think I was there for maybe four days or something

[00:49:17] and

[00:49:18] Absolutely loved my drive every single day and on one of those trips when I was this is way before

[00:49:25] I bought my cross-track but on one of those trips. I was specifically looking for a Subaru at the national

[00:49:32] Car dealership, you know at the airport or not car dealership the the rental place at the airport

[00:49:37] And I'm just walking around because like no place ever has subarus

[00:49:41] And I just happened to see a forester and I'm like I'm taking it

[00:49:46] had to take it

[00:49:48] and

[00:49:49] One night while I was out there

[00:49:51] There was some land that was just kind of like off the road and it was you know

[00:49:55] The grass was flat with the road and there weren't any homes around or anything and so I'm like

[00:50:01] I'm gonna go drive through the snow a little bit. I would just be here off the road to drive through the snow

[00:50:06] Get back on the road

[00:50:07] I did that a few times and you know, it didn't get the full experience of it

[00:50:11] But I'm like I have to do it and uh, so I've always remembered that and that was a fun trip

[00:50:16] And I'm glad I got to rent a Subaru finally

[00:50:20] Yeah, this area is pretty fun. Like I said, there's there's a lot of like

[00:50:24] There's a lot of stuff to do

[00:50:25] Actually you rode along you rode along with us. Lo Sube right for 48 hours dry state. I did

[00:50:32] He's about

[00:50:34] 15 or 20 minutes away from me. Oh

[00:50:37] Nice. Yeah. Nice. Yeah, he's uh, he was

[00:50:41] Accommodated me very well and I was very appreciative of that. He came and picked me up from the airport

[00:50:46] And he had already like booked his hotels and he said his brother was supposed to go

[00:50:50] He said I could just stay with him. And so that was really nice

[00:50:54] And then I got to ride with you know a couple of other people but yeah, he was uh, and then he was

[00:50:59] selling the badges and

[00:51:01] Putting that money towards my like the the account that I had set up like fundraising account that I had set up for

[00:51:07] Make a wish he was just

[00:51:09] Any of the money that he would make he was putting it towards that so that was really nice

[00:51:13] He's a great dude. I've I've I've uh

[00:51:15] Shot with chatted with him a couple times. Yeah. Yeah, so it was nice

[00:51:18] It was fun riding in his and his impressive too because it had to had a nice rumble

[00:51:24] And uh, just had a lot of good conversations. So it was nice to meet him and everybody else out there

[00:51:30] So, you know, you talk about your wife supporting you and everything with your mods and what you're wanting to do

[00:51:36] But does she does she enjoy going out with you and attending events?

[00:51:41] When she can she is she's a catering manager

[00:51:45] So she does a lot of weddings in the summer. So when we are out doing stuff

[00:51:48] There's a lot of times where she's out catering stuff and she doesn't come along but when when

[00:51:53] When she can she tries to yeah, that's good. That's good that she's you know, she likes to when she can

[00:52:00] Uh, what would you say about your cross-track best matches your personality?

[00:52:05] I was how odd ball I guess it's because it's a little bit odd ball

[00:52:08] Like it's kind of like the mixture of both like uh better both worlds of tuning and the off-road type thing

[00:52:15] Because like I said, she's she's built to be on the street end off the street

[00:52:18] so

[00:52:20] It's kind of how I how I how I think

[00:52:22] Like sometimes I'm online sometimes I'm offline. It just depends on what day of the week it is

[00:52:27] Yeah, yeah, and if you could describe your cross-track in one word, what would it be?

[00:52:32] I don't know never actually thought about that in one word

[00:52:36] I would say clean because like a lot of my body says like that's the cleanest cross-track I've ever seen because I'm constantly cleaning it

[00:52:43] Yeah

[00:52:45] I yeah, I wish I had more time to clean mine because

[00:52:48] And then I struggle with I'll get it really really nice and clean

[00:52:51] I'll wash it and it just it looks good and it feels good to be driving it

[00:52:55] And then we'll get a really hard rain here and I'm like, oh there's some mud out there somewhere

[00:52:59] And then it's not so clean anymore, but it's it's fun and it's worth it. So

[00:53:06] But you said earlier that you you know, you look at it. You're like I built that I did all the work on it

[00:53:11] So all of your mods if you installed in all of the mods on your car

[00:53:16] So yeah, I installed most of them

[00:53:18] Like I had some help with some some stuff with some of my buddies

[00:53:21] I'm like because with along with the the cpi do have r.a

[00:53:25] Rimsword arthritis. So my hands will get tired eventually

[00:53:28] so like I like my buddy Dennis my buddy Rob my uh my business partner brad like we've all

[00:53:33] Pitched in at some point and like there's times where like we start doing something like uh, I think

[00:53:39] We love when we did the the foam medic spacers for the crop or on the for the um

[00:53:44] The intake uh, we were there's about three of us on it and

[00:53:49] We think we took about four breaks and it wasn't because we were because we were tired

[00:53:53] But we're one that part showed up. I decided to go over to Rob's at like 9 p.m. To put them on so we were just there

[00:53:59] like midnight

[00:54:01] Yeah, get of these

[00:54:03] Is it was it one of those things where it's like I have these and I have to get them on now

[00:54:07] Pretty much pretty much that's pretty much how they all show up

[00:54:10] They show up and I'm like I get on the phone right away. I'm like, all right. Who's around?

[00:54:14] Let's go put some stuff on the car

[00:54:16] Yeah, I get that way too where it's like, okay. I have this now. I want to go put it on now

[00:54:21] I don't care what I have to do to to get it. Just let's just do it

[00:54:25] So how many miles do you have on your car now? Because I saw a post rehab like over 50 000 miles and yeah

[00:54:32] She just clocked 74. Okay

[00:54:36] And what year did you say it is again?

[00:54:38] 19 19, okay

[00:54:41] 74 it's a 19 i'm at

[00:54:44] 101 500 and it's mine's at 21

[00:54:48] So I put a I've put a lot of miles on it in a very short period of time

[00:54:52] But I I love getting out and driving it, you know

[00:54:56] And then you know, so one of the things I was going to ask you about too is

[00:54:59] You you posted I guess it was this past sunday

[00:55:03] And you said a little sunday mental health therapy out with the subi fam

[00:55:07] So like what does that mean to you?

[00:55:09] And like what's your interpretation of like

[00:55:12] You know mental therapy for getting out and doing that

[00:55:17] I mean honestly

[00:55:19] The the the Subaru family or my local Subaru family

[00:55:24] Or what how we call it the car called but we actually call it family because that's the way we all act

[00:55:28] It's actually big for me. Um growing up. I really had some separation from like my

[00:55:34] family from like my my

[00:55:36] biological father's family

[00:55:37] So I always had this empty space kind of and I feel like since

[00:55:41] I've been

[00:55:42] Helping run the Subaru the Subaru group and stuff like that like they've actually filled that void

[00:55:47] So anytime I can get out with them. I try to

[00:55:51] We're all very tight knit all very close

[00:55:54] It's it's just awesome because like it's like to be able to be like, hey, there's this many people out there

[00:56:00] That you know, I can rely on if I ever need anything they can rely on me if they ever need anything

[00:56:05] and

[00:56:06] To bring a group like that together

[00:56:09] makes

[00:56:10] Makes a whole

[00:56:12] Different feeling for me

[00:56:14] So when I do get out and especially when we're doing things like for example sunday, um

[00:56:18] We try to do one community outreach a month. Whether it's a small business outreach

[00:56:24] or a

[00:56:26] Like the one we went to is actually a charity

[00:56:29] Thing for a one of the local schools has a student owned an operated coffee shop. Oh nice summer

[00:56:36] Yeah, and in the summer they have problems keeping some funds going

[00:56:39] So they hosted a car show and one of the one of the young kids that's in our Subaru group

[00:56:45] Said hey, you know, I talked to the school school and they would love to have got have you guys out

[00:56:50] so I uh

[00:56:51] Made up an event about two or three weeks ahead of time. Um, we actually had somewhere on upwards of 35

[00:56:59] Cars show up for it. That's a nice turnout and yeah, and we cruised over we cruised over to um

[00:57:06] To the location of local school pulled in the whole car show thing and

[00:57:11] It was it was awesome because like I said, it's I try to

[00:57:14] Gear it towards a lot of our meats and stuff like that towards to a good cause like um

[00:57:20] We do uh, like once a month small business outreach is so I'll call like a local eatery

[00:57:25] About a month ahead of time and be like, hey, you know, like um, I want to do our monthly small business outreach at your location

[00:57:31] What do you guys think?

[00:57:32] What days do you want to do it? I let them tell me pick pick the day pick the time

[00:57:36] So we're not, you know infringing on them at all and then I'm like, hey, you know

[00:57:39] We usually get about 30 to 45 people that show up

[00:57:42] And vehicles if you're okay with accommodating that like about a week or a half before I'll call you

[00:57:48] Tell you exact number that I have showing up or write a ballpark about it

[00:57:51] I usually over inflate just to be sure that everything's safe

[00:57:54] And then we roll in um eat and have a good time. Um, it actually picked up so good after covid

[00:58:00] The local news actually did an art that is story on us

[00:58:04] Oh, that's awesome about doing about doing good around the community and I'm basically I'm just trying to bring in

[00:58:10] What Subaru promotes as a company?

[00:58:13] In through the group, you know, like they're all about like, you know

[00:58:16] Community and helping each other out and helping out the helping out like, you know different charities and whatnot. Um, we also do a yearly um

[00:58:25] ASPC a like dog treats and dog toys and animal toys drop off the local like ASPC a and uh, and like um shelters and stuff

[00:58:34] So like I said, we do a lot of stuff like that and like it just makes me feel good that I can spread like that part of me out

[00:58:42] And then like there's all the so other like minded people out there that can do the same thing

[00:58:47] Yeah, that's it's really great that you're able to do that and pull these things together

[00:58:51] And have so many people come together to support the businesses

[00:58:54] But as as you were talking about the small coffee shop student on coffee shop or a business

[00:59:01] What was like, how did you actually do the fundraising for that?

[00:59:04] Was it just people coming and purchasing coffee or was there something in addition to that where people were donating?

[00:59:09] So yeah, they held a car show. Um, you could donate individually

[00:59:12] They also had raffles entry to the car show was only like five bucks

[00:59:16] So it was the good for that they had about a hundred and forty car show up

[00:59:20] To it so they got some decent money off of that and then you could buy you could buy stuff while you're there

[00:59:25] Um, they actually let us set up our vinyl our vinyl the vinyl company actually let us set up a free booth there

[00:59:31] And then we actually

[00:59:32] We're looking at you know having

[00:59:35] Set something else up with them later

[00:59:37] Especially for next year because they did such a good job this year and the funny thing was is that they contacted us

[00:59:42] At the vinyl shop first

[00:59:44] Because they knew we go to a lot of car shows and they were like, hey, how do we set this up?

[00:59:49] And we were like well you can try these things like and we're like we don't know

[00:59:53] We never set up a car show before you know, but um

[00:59:56] it's

[00:59:57] It was it was a great fundraiser for them and they did I think they did

[01:00:01] They actually handed themselves pretty good for their first one. That's good

[01:00:04] Yeah, it's it's nice to get people to come together for you know small business like that and

[01:00:10] Especially student led. I'm sure they you know, they're very grateful for everybody come together for them

[01:00:16] And helping out. So what's uh, so with the vinyl business

[01:00:21] How like

[01:00:23] What is your goal and and mission with it?

[01:00:25] And you know, obviously you're doing wraps and and vinyls

[01:00:28] But are you are you doing like custom vinyl work if somebody orders something?

[01:00:33] You know, they want to do something like a car like we do

[01:00:35] Yeah, we do custom stuff. We'll custom we'll custom cut decals

[01:00:39] Right now there we have an order in for another local car club where we're doing their t-shirts and window decals

[01:00:45] We do we do all the bcse

[01:00:48] Our berkskine super enthusiast decals

[01:00:51] Full wraps we do like a t-shirts

[01:00:54] interior wraps

[01:00:56] Um, we just started doing window tinning. Um, we're looking eventually about getting in the ppf and stuff like that

[01:01:02] But our goal realistic like realistically is my business partner brad. He's he's an awesome dude

[01:01:08] My wife little graze anatomy reference calls him my person

[01:01:14] But uh, we we were like-minded

[01:01:18] We really want to like make sure make it make it so like this business can grow. Um, and then we can like kind of like

[01:01:24] Leave a legacy behind for his son because I don't have any kids of my own

[01:01:28] But leaving behind so his son can maybe operate it one day

[01:01:31] Right now our next goal

[01:01:33] We're kind of just taking baby steps first goal was to get one of us to be fully employed there

[01:01:37] So he's he's got we got that rolling. Uh, the next step is brick and mortar and then eventually maybe I'll follow

[01:01:44] As of right now the plan is at this moment right now brad has an apprentice and she's she's doing a really really good job

[01:01:51] Learning really focused for a young kid, which is rare these days. Yeah

[01:01:55] But she's she's doing a really good job

[01:01:59] And we're hoping we're hoping that you know, maybe by this time next year

[01:02:02] We can get a brick and mortar going and we can get on the bigger and better things

[01:02:07] But so far so good

[01:02:09] How is boxer fest for the business?

[01:02:11] Boxer fest for the business is amazing

[01:02:13] The best thing about it is is every time they come up like somebody comes up from subi subi events or subaru

[01:02:19] It's so funny because

[01:02:21] Brad and I meant through subaru

[01:02:23] Brad's love for subaru comes from like he had one save his life

[01:02:27] I mean, yeah, he got an really bad accident with his outback

[01:02:30] He has a scar on this head to prove it

[01:02:32] But he walked out with nine stitches and no broken bones or anything along those lines

[01:02:37] And he has an 044 striker xt

[01:02:39] and it's it's super brought me and him together

[01:02:44] And we love to give back to subaru. So the fact that we can go it's one of our biggest events

[01:02:49] If not the biggest event we do every year

[01:02:51] We're just happy to be there with other subaru people, you know what I mean?

[01:02:54] And a lot of our decals that we bring out that day are all geared towards like subaru like

[01:02:59] likeness stuff

[01:03:01] And it's it's just great to come out

[01:03:05] Chat with everybody

[01:03:06] I think half our problem is is that we bring like about eight people with us to help run the booth

[01:03:12] The first year we went was like first year we went was it was a 10 by 10

[01:03:15] The next year we went it was a 10 by 10 and two cars now. We're in a 20 by 20

[01:03:21] And we had three cars at the booth last year and one car was a full wrap and the girl drove the girl actually won

[01:03:27] Uh, $200 off a wrap at the boxer fest before in the raffle

[01:03:32] And she drove from pittsburgh, which is about five and a half hours away to drop her car

[01:03:36] Drop her wrx off with us for a week so we can wrap it

[01:03:40] And the best thing I think we've ever had happened like i'm I thought it was it was just so awesome

[01:03:45] We had a couple people asking us if the car was painted

[01:03:49] Because I couldn't tell it was vinyl wrapped. Yeah, and that nice. That was like the biggest

[01:03:53] Especially to my my business partner. He he's really really hard on himself. He likes he's very very like

[01:03:59] meticulous and

[01:04:02] He can see flaws and things but like if i'm looking at it, I can't see

[01:04:07] Yeah, and i'm like

[01:04:08] And he's like and and he put all the time and all the effort into that

[01:04:12] I mean, I mean i'm not gonna lie. He does all the hands-on wrapping and stuff like that

[01:04:16] I'm literally there to make sure the bills are paid and

[01:04:20] To help help him like organize things

[01:04:24] I'm more of the book work guy. He's more of the the guy that does the hands-on

[01:04:28] and um

[01:04:29] It's it's just like I said, it's a great working relationship. Um, like I said, and like I got a best friend out of it

[01:04:34] so

[01:04:35] Yeah, I mean that's great that you can run a business like that also with somebody that's you know, a best friend and then

[01:04:41] You know, it's just I think something like that

[01:04:44] I know sometimes you go into business with somebody and it can be bad business and you know

[01:04:48] But it sounds like but it can also be really really good and bring people closer together

[01:04:53] And if you're already friends and you know, you work well together, then you'll be successful together

[01:05:00] So, uh

[01:05:03] How has owning your subaru changed your life?

[01:05:07] Oh, hello this life

[01:05:09] Subaru in general

[01:05:11] I owe a lot to Subaru as a brand

[01:05:15] Subaru has gotten me a lot of places through business contacts

[01:05:20] through

[01:05:22] uh, just

[01:05:23] The community in general

[01:05:26] It's like I said the help helped me meet Brad, which you know and turned into this business

[01:05:31] It also like I mean it helped my career like I I wrenched for a while at toyota

[01:05:36] Wrench for a while at GMC and then GMC I became an advisor and then I had the opportunity to get hired at a Subaru dealer

[01:05:42] and I took it and

[01:05:44] honestly like I'm at the one of the heights of my career and

[01:05:49] I'm just looking forward like I really would love to either become a service manager at the Subaru dealership

[01:05:55] I'm already at or get into corporate

[01:05:58] Or do something along the lines with you know, Vermont sports car or something along those lines like

[01:06:03] I have you know, I always take baby steps like I did like we do with the business like I said myself like here's my next goal

[01:06:08] Here's my next goal. I try to climb that ladder

[01:06:11] And honestly like if it wasn't for Subaru

[01:06:15] I don't think I'd be where I'm at

[01:06:17] because a lot of the stuff that

[01:06:19] Came from owning a Subaru

[01:06:21] Is what brought me to the point where I am in life

[01:06:25] So it's kind of weird

[01:06:27] I always followed that column column crisis

[01:06:30] saying when in doubt flat out

[01:06:32] Like I'm always like, okay. Well, you know stuff's not working right for me

[01:06:36] But if I you know go a hundred miles an hour at it

[01:06:39] Eventually I'm gonna push through it and that's just how it works

[01:06:42] Yeah, it's pretty amazing what

[01:06:45] A car and a car brand can do for somebody's life and how it can

[01:06:51] You know, I've had people on the podcast that say that owning their car has helped them through a tough time

[01:06:56] you know with losing somebody or

[01:06:59] You know just whatever may be going on in their life or

[01:07:03] you know, it's some it's sometimes it's literally saved somebody's life because

[01:07:09] It was something that they could focus on

[01:07:11] and and put their attention to instead of other negative thoughts

[01:07:16] And uh, you know, it's brought a lot of people together and and like we mentioned earlier

[01:07:21] It's just like it's like there's it's a certain type of person that owns a Subaru

[01:07:26] And I think a lot of people too what myself included

[01:07:30] is

[01:07:31] You buy a car because maybe you will like that particular Subaru

[01:07:35] Maybe you've known a little bit about Subaru, but then

[01:07:38] you buy that that one car

[01:07:41] and

[01:07:42] You start connecting with people online

[01:07:44] You start thinking about what you want to do with your car

[01:07:47] And then it just turns into this whole completely different life that you would have never even dreamt of

[01:07:54] When you first picked up the keys to to buy that car

[01:07:58] Yeah, like 100%

[01:08:01] Yeah, it's I mean it's it's pretty it's pretty amazing. So

[01:08:06] You think you'll always own a Subaru?

[01:08:08] Uh, yeah, yeah, I put this way. I want once I get locked on to something

[01:08:13] I'm pretty hard core at it and Subaru is one of the things I've been

[01:08:16] I've been about the whole entire time like even if the short period of time where I didn't own one

[01:08:21] I was trying to get my hardest to get back into one. Yeah

[01:08:25] I was always looking always on facebook marketplace always looking around to see if I could get it get my hands on one

[01:08:31] It was just a matter of time

[01:08:33] So if somebody said

[01:08:35] You know money being no object you could own any Subaru that you you know

[01:08:41] That you wanted what would it be?

[01:08:43] Honestly, I try to go find another svx. Yeah. Yeah, but I'd probably I've always been really picky

[01:08:48] I think I've since I've wrecked the one I looked at 13. I walked away from all of them. Wow

[01:08:54] Yeah

[01:08:56] Had they been wrecked before too or something or was it just no so

[01:09:00] They only ever shipped 14

[01:09:02] So Subaru only ever shipped 14 right around 14,000 over here to begin with over a four year period of time

[01:09:08] So they're extremely rare

[01:09:11] Parts at this point even working at a Subaru even working for a Subaru working at a Subaru dealer

[01:09:16] It's extremely hard to get parts

[01:09:19] So like usually if you buy one that's in decent shape, you have to buy three more that are not so decent shape

[01:09:23] Just have no parts to fix the one that break. I mean, I would love to actually if I could fork out the money

[01:09:29] I would love to import

[01:09:31] it's jdm

[01:09:33] twin the

[01:09:35] I'll see on over here

[01:09:37] But then I'm even digging a bigger hole for myself because they were even rarer over there

[01:09:40] Yeah, well, I mean, you know if somebody said you could just have whatever you want. That's that's your car

[01:09:47] Honestly, that that's it. I mean that that that car did it for me that solidified it

[01:09:52] That gave me the Subaru bug from from like even from when I had it watching it as a kid

[01:09:57] Once I owned one that was it

[01:10:00] It's definitely a funky car, but it's uh, I think they're really cool

[01:10:04] Cool that you owned one

[01:10:05] Well, here's a little person or the segment to get to know the person a little bit better behind the account the account

[01:10:11] But who is Devin?

[01:10:13] So I'm

[01:10:16] 33 I'll be 34 in july

[01:10:18] uh

[01:10:19] married to my wife mary. It's here for

[01:10:21] 10 years now going on 10 years as of this november congrats. That's awesome

[01:10:27] Yeah, uh, no

[01:10:29] No kids. Uh had a bunch of fur babies were down to one. We got one german chef left

[01:10:35] God, uh, love like said love subarus love cars love like spending time with people

[01:10:40] My wife actually kind of yells me some like I spend a lot of time out helping other people

[01:10:45] And not a lot of time at in the house

[01:10:47] Any anybody that needs anything I'm usually out there with them drop it of dime

[01:10:51] Love anime always loved anime. Uh

[01:10:55] Any type of like car anime like initial deal was my favorite anime growing up and Gundam wing

[01:10:59] Love those two drag obviously the dragon balls in the real like everybody else

[01:11:03] Love japanese culture all together. I'd love to get over there at some point

[01:11:07] Star Wars, obviously um big star wars. No, don't ever get me started on that because I will literally go home for hours

[01:11:14] With useless nonsense

[01:11:16] Getting to gaming a little bit here and there. Uh, nothing. I really toned that back as of late

[01:11:20] I think it's more in the car world now that it is gaming

[01:11:23] But yeah, nice to get to know you a little bit better

[01:11:26] So where were you born?

[01:11:29] I was actually born in redding. So I really didn't leave

[01:11:33] All right, do you do you think you'll see yourself always being there?

[01:11:37] Uh, yeah, there's just there's a way too much around here that makes it so much easier

[01:11:41] So it's so easy to stay here. Yeah

[01:11:43] I mean we got we got tons of stuff like i'm i'm in the hockey also

[01:11:47] I season tickets to the local hockey team, which is the affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers

[01:11:51] We have a minor league baseball team in town also the affiliate of the fill the professional team in Philly

[01:11:57] Um, we have about three race tracks within 45 minutes. You go out a little bit further

[01:12:01] We have a couple NASCAR tracks drift track about an hour and a half away

[01:12:05] Like there's just so much stuff to do in this general area that there's no I really don't see a reason to leave

[01:12:11] Yeah, I mean it has to be really really good like a really really good

[01:12:15] Ah

[01:12:17] Yeah, I mean for me here in houston, it's I've lived here my whole life

[01:12:21] I don't want to live here for the rest of my life

[01:12:23] Not that there's not stuff here, but there's just so many

[01:12:27] Other places that I would I mean like for me

[01:12:29] I would love to live like in colorado springs or something like if I could just live where I want it

[01:12:33] I would want to be in or near the mountains. I love I love mountains ever since I discovered them

[01:12:39] Going out on a work trip

[01:12:41] And uh, so that would be it for me. But yeah, I mean, I know there's I've had a lot of people

[01:12:46] On the podcast who are very blessed with where they live and they're like, why would I ever want to leave this?

[01:12:51] I've got mountains this way. I've got you know, the ocean this way

[01:12:54] I've got all these beautiful places and I'm like, I don't blame you. I wouldn't leave either

[01:12:59] What is a favorite memory from childhood?

[01:13:03] Favorite memory from childhood. I'd have to say

[01:13:06] I'd have to say is probably

[01:13:08] Probably one of the first times like

[01:13:11] Actually probably my first my first time actually driving

[01:13:14] Would probably be my favorite one or the first time sitting behind a wheel of one of the

[01:13:18] Of like a race car. I think like my uncle's had a race car drawn up

[01:13:21] That there is the circle track and one of the dirt circle tracks around here and

[01:13:25] Uh, they put you put me my younger cousin behind the wheel of the car and fired it up with us sitting in it

[01:13:30] And there's just like the cool the coolest thing ever we sit in something that's just like a tube chassis

[01:13:34] With like a big v8 in front of you and the whole thing just should vibrate and it's just

[01:13:39] One of the coolest things. Yeah, I've just sitting there picturing that that'd be that'd be really cool to experience as a kid

[01:13:46] That sounds nice. So we know what you do for a living

[01:13:49] Well, we know you work for Subaru but you mentioned earlier, but what uh, here's your role there or your title

[01:13:55] Yes, so i'm a service advisor

[01:13:57] I used to be a technician did that for a couple years a couple years at uh

[01:14:02] A various dealerships that I did was at a Toyota for the longest I've ever like eight years

[01:14:06] I did it for five years at a gmc

[01:14:08] I've only been at Subaru for a year now. Um, but it's felt like coming home

[01:14:11] Nice, kind of because I've always had because I always had Subaru

[01:14:14] So I mean I was like I always wanted to work for Subaru so one I came in it's like being on

[01:14:18] It's like being on vacation every day almost

[01:14:20] I mean there is times where you do get stressful because I mean I deal with I deal with customers every day

[01:14:23] And sometimes, you know

[01:14:25] If something something doesn't work, you know, obviously car troubles or car troubles

[01:14:29] So it can be stressful and I have to be that that's to be that buffer

[01:14:32] I have to be that person that they can lean on, you know

[01:14:35] And I never got into the business to to take people's money. You know what I mean?

[01:14:40] And luckily I can I'm working for a brand now that I can actually I can stand behind

[01:14:45] You know what I mean like if they come in and they need to have needed something fixed on their car

[01:14:49] It's it's like I can sit there and say hey, you know, this is the problem

[01:14:52] This is how it's going to get fixed. It's going to get fixed and then when they leave

[01:14:55] I know I we fix the car, you know, I mean and I know like we're fixing their baby because I'm treating their car

[01:15:00] How I treat mine, you know what I mean? Yeah, like their car becomes my car for the day

[01:15:04] You know and I try to make like I know how it feels to have that away from you

[01:15:09] so it's

[01:15:11] I get a fulfillment out of it because it to me it's it's it's helping people in my own way

[01:15:16] Even though sometimes they I'm not gonna lie. I get yelled at about once a week, but you know, yeah

[01:15:23] That's always gonna happen with somebody

[01:15:25] Yeah

[01:15:26] You can't you can't satisfy everyone. So what would you say your dream job would be?

[01:15:32] Honestly, I think my dream job if if I if there would ever be a job

[01:15:38] would be

[01:15:40] being some type of liaison between

[01:15:43] Like so a

[01:15:45] And the Subaru community

[01:15:47] Do you know what I mean?

[01:15:48] Yeah, like talking to the customers like trying to figure out like hey, you know

[01:15:52] Like we're a little gonna read his artwork design this new car or we're trying to change up the cross track

[01:15:57] Like what do you think as a consumer that owns one?

[01:16:00] You know type deal or like reaching out and being able to like talk to like the other enthusiast like hey, you know

[01:16:07] They we're going to change some stuff on the wrx. What do you think?

[01:16:10] Like do you think it should be like I wish there was something along those lines

[01:16:14] Like I would love to bridge the gap between corporate and the community

[01:16:18] I think that

[01:16:21] Corporate as a whole

[01:16:23] That there should be something along those lines

[01:16:25] I mean they do listen Subaru is actually one of the brands that listens though. I think the most

[01:16:30] Out of all the brands I've ever worked for and I've worked for like Toyota GMC Mercedes

[01:16:35] A bunch of different ones and I think Subaru listens to their consumer the most

[01:16:40] That's one thing I love about the brand like they're they're they're very very in tune with the consumer

[01:16:44] Whether they're out there talking to them in general

[01:16:47] Or they're just looking at you know

[01:16:49] Numbers on the back end they listen, you know, yeah

[01:16:53] Yeah

[01:16:54] besides getting out in your cross track and you know getting out with other people and

[01:17:00] Doing meet-ups and you know the charitable events and stuff. You obviously you enjoy all that

[01:17:04] But what are some of the hobbies that you have?

[01:17:07] so I like I said I had season ticket I've seen tickets to the local um

[01:17:11] Minor league hockey team the riding royals. Oh, you get out I get out there. I mean

[01:17:17] I'm about there about 38 nights a year. Nice more when they make the playoffs

[01:17:22] I also get out on Saturday nights

[01:17:23] We like said we have local local dirt circle tracks around here

[01:17:26] I try to get out to those as much as I possibly can

[01:17:29] And then when I when I do when I do have spare time

[01:17:32] I like to you know work on like rental my on my car or

[01:17:35] Help other people out like I know this weekend and we just did a head gas gets on one of our club members cars

[01:17:42] uh

[01:17:43] she has issues and

[01:17:45] Couple of us guys were like hey look, you know if you know

[01:17:48] You can't go to a main shop because you're having you know, you're in some spot like bring it to us

[01:17:52] We'll we'll pull your engine out and do your head gas gets over the weekend not a big deal

[01:17:56] Yeah, that's good. It's nice to be able to help people out like that

[01:18:00] What is something that makes you want to get out of bed every day?

[01:18:05] honestly

[01:18:06] getting

[01:18:08] it's it's

[01:18:10] Just getting out and do it me like meeting new people every day and conversing with the people every day and just making

[01:18:17] Just an opportunity to get out there and make somebody else's life better

[01:18:22] Every day is kind of like a thing like that's why I enjoy going to work every day

[01:18:25] This is actually one of the first jobs. I've had where like I don't want to stay in bed

[01:18:30] Like I actually want to get up and go to work

[01:18:32] That's good

[01:18:33] And my boss even says to me he's like dude

[01:18:35] You don't have to be here at 7 a.m. When we only over at 7 30 every day

[01:18:40] But there I am on the first one there

[01:18:43] No, that's I mean that's really important when you enjoy your job because you know not everybody enjoys their job

[01:18:49] So when you can find something that you truly enjoy

[01:18:53] Then that's you know, it helps your quality of life to enjoy the work that you do

[01:18:58] So it's good to hear

[01:19:00] Well, what is something that makes you want to stay in bed?

[01:19:04] I would say if

[01:19:05] Probably what movies people say about the most is when I'm when I'm out all night. Well, friendship somebody's car

[01:19:10] I like if that's why you feel like I'm dead. Yeah, but that was Saturday morning for me. So yeah, that's probably it

[01:19:18] Is wanting to rest more

[01:19:20] Yeah, that or like if I know if I know I can't meet an expectation

[01:19:24] Of of like somebody or my or expectation that I set for myself

[01:19:28] There's some days where I'm just like, you know, I really just don't feel like I'm gonna do a deal with this today

[01:19:33] Hey

[01:19:34] Yeah, that makes sense. I get that

[01:19:36] What would be your best bit of advice to give to someone about anything?

[01:19:41] Honestly, there's a lot of stuff I like to say and one things I like to say is like just from my personal life experiences

[01:19:46] it was like

[01:19:47] a lot of people would get discouraged when like you get into

[01:19:51] like

[01:19:52] really bad situations

[01:19:54] Or like stuff that could be like life altering for you like you know passing up a family member or a bad break up

[01:20:00] Or you know wrecking your your car that you know, you spent a lot of time with and stuff like that

[01:20:06] but it

[01:20:07] It really benefits you to

[01:20:10] Get yourself straightened up and pushed forward through it

[01:20:14] Like my whole my whole philosophy is like yeah life's gonna keep throwing hits at you

[01:20:18] But you gotta take the hits and keep rolling

[01:20:21] And as long as you keep rolling, you know, like when in doubt flat out

[01:20:23] Just put your foot to the floor or go straight at it and you have a goal you keep going for it

[01:20:28] No one else has no one else is gonna stop you but you

[01:20:31] very true

[01:20:33] Is there anything that you want to

[01:20:36] Talk about or let people know about that? I didn't ask you

[01:20:40] Yeah, I mean there's uh some like just like one thing. I mean the only thing is like, you know

[01:20:45] Like I uh, so it's big for me

[01:20:48] Like I saw you he said, hey, you know like the mental health thing like how did you go out with your car club and stuff like that?

[01:20:53] like

[01:20:54] This car club that we had um started out in 2009

[01:20:57] As 12 of us one of our friends of mine, uh, jesse drablis started it

[01:21:02] We used to meet in a target parking lot and this is back before everybody bought a Subaru

[01:21:06] You know, there was only like a handful of us in the area

[01:21:09] And it went from that

[01:21:11] So the first five years growing exponentially

[01:21:14] Um, and then it died off for a little bit

[01:21:15] There's some in fighting in the group with like new blood coming in and old stuff trying to get out

[01:21:20] And then it picked up was like right around after covet home

[01:21:23] We started starting the pod again and uh now we're at 1500 members total. Wow Facebook page

[01:21:29] about 700 and somewhat active

[01:21:32] And then they sporadically

[01:21:35] Drop into events and stuff like that and like, you know

[01:21:38] I just really wish like a lot of these other super groups were like that

[01:21:42] There's some other groups that are out there

[01:21:43] I'm not gonna name I'm not gonna go out the name a lot of them

[01:21:45] But they're you know, they're more geared towards like your sti wrx owners and stuff like that

[01:21:51] Where like our group we don't care what you drive

[01:21:53] You can show we have a lady who shows up and she's in her 50s and she shows up in a left hand or right hand drive

[01:22:01] Subaru out like 95 Subaru out back wagon. It's like half rusted out

[01:22:06] But we treat that thing we treat that thing like it's like the biggest the best built sti ever

[01:22:12] And we accept her into the group with open arms

[01:22:13] It's just so crazy how how like the a group like that and how if you give the group a focus

[01:22:20] You can take people from all walks of life

[01:22:22] All different, you know ethnicities or

[01:22:25] Like demographics and different like political views and bring them all together in one and the brand kind of just like the glue

[01:22:33] You know, you're your your your cars the glue everybody treats everybody, you know fair ones like hey

[01:22:38] I love your build like your build might be like, you know

[01:22:41] You might have it just like an aftermarket exhaust from a private shop on there with like sti lis on it

[01:22:46] And it might have like 250 000 miles, but you know to us. It's the coolest thing in the world

[01:22:51] You know

[01:22:52] It just makes me and the fun and the crazy thing is it's like I didn't really want

[01:22:56] To be an admin they kind of were like hey, you know like you're the dude for the job

[01:23:01] Here you go, and I was like now what do I do with it?

[01:23:05] Yeah, so yeah, so it's weird because it's like and I have a lot

[01:23:08] I just like I try to do everything right by them

[01:23:11] You know like try to get it towards them and I mean anybody who's in that area

[01:23:15] You can just search us and in the pa area just search us up in like, you know, burks kind of Subaru enthusiasts

[01:23:21] We screen screen you one of the dm one of the admins whether it's me

[01:23:25] Or my my other buddy or another guy will come in and we'll DM you just to kind of screen you just to make sure

[01:23:32] you know, you're not

[01:23:33] Coming in the try to ruffle anybody's feathers and

[01:23:36] Just come in have a good time. Like I know I invited you into it at one point

[01:23:39] Check it out. Yeah, like I said, and you're always hey, you're always welcome to come up whenever you want to

[01:23:44] Thank you. Thank you especially if you want to get to stpr one time

[01:23:48] Like we'll be definitely be if you want to throw your hat in the pot

[01:23:50] We'll definitely take you up there with us and have a good time. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, I know there's

[01:23:57] I've been invited to a lot of different things and I'm like man

[01:23:59] I wish I could just like go around everywhere at any time but uh,

[01:24:05] you know, it's uh

[01:24:06] It's that's that's the toughest part for me is not, you know

[01:24:10] easily being able to make it out to places but

[01:24:13] And I have this selfish thing too where I don't or not really selfish, but it's I guess not being selfish of

[01:24:22] I don't want to go anywhere

[01:24:25] Unless I can go with my son or you know, my daughter now because now my daughter has a cross track and start

[01:24:31] So for like a long time she and her husband before they were married

[01:24:35] They were going to school together and living in Arkansas

[01:24:38] So, you know, it was they weren't able to like go places with me and my son

[01:24:42] But now that they're here

[01:24:43] It's like I always want to try to include them and so

[01:24:46] I would just I used to travel a lot for work

[01:24:49] so I had to travel to places but I would see all these really cool spots and

[01:24:54] You know, I felt

[01:24:56] And even though I wasn't crazy about my job

[01:24:58] I still felt the blessings of being able to go to places that I wouldn't otherwise be able to see

[01:25:04] And so I tried to enjoy those experiences while I was there and just

[01:25:09] Not take it for granted that I was at a different, you know spot in the country somewhere

[01:25:14] But like now when I travel it's like I don't want to just go and travel

[01:25:17] I did 40 is hours of tri-state only because they've been trying to get me to go there for like three years

[01:25:23] So and I knew that like my son

[01:25:26] Probably wouldn't want to go and you know deal with that because like when we go

[01:25:31] Even when we have like car meets up car meetups and stuff

[01:25:34] You know he wants to you know when he when he wants to go do something with me

[01:25:37] It's like he wants to do something with just the two of us because he's not really

[01:25:41] Walking around talking to people and you know, he doesn't really know anybody

[01:25:46] And so he kind of feels like just kind of brushed off to the side

[01:25:49] Which I get that and I don't you know, I don't like doing that to him

[01:25:53] Because we have been to events and like after a while. He's like can we go now?

[01:25:56] and so

[01:25:57] You know, but so like

[01:25:59] Going out to an event or something that's like at a cool spot. It's like I don't want to go

[01:26:05] If I can't take him with me and that's you know, that makes it even more difficult

[01:26:10] so

[01:26:11] I just I kind of like I feel like if I were to go somewhere like that that I would be

[01:26:16] Selfish in going to do something for myself

[01:26:20] And not being able to take him and then also

[01:26:23] Reserving that time that I would go spend to do that be like hey my time off from work

[01:26:29] I'd rather save that time off from work when I can go do something with him and my daughter and her husband

[01:26:34] So that's what that's one of the other things. It's difficult too. It's just

[01:26:39] Being away and and being like oh, I'm gonna go do this fun stuff by myself

[01:26:44] You know, of course not by myself. I'll be with other people but not being able to take them

[01:26:49] Yeah, no, I got it

[01:26:50] I underpresent that because I sometimes I feel like that like I said the wife

[01:26:54] She'll stay at home and or she'll be out at work at like a wedding or something and then I'm rolling over to a

[01:27:01] Subaru meet by myself

[01:27:03] But like I said, like it's it's funny because I've always asked me where where's Becca? I'm like, well, she's working, you know

[01:27:09] but um, it's it's

[01:27:12] I feel you on that like there's times where I wish like, you know

[01:27:15] She was she was there with with me. But then again, I got you know, that's like Subaru's were my thing, you know

[01:27:21] and um

[01:27:23] I gotta make sure I spend more time with her doing her things. Yeah

[01:27:27] Yeah, so it's just trying to find that battle. I mean there are times when I do stuff here locally with other people

[01:27:32] You know when he's not with me and that's that's when I try to go do something here and go hang out with my Subaru friends

[01:27:38] But other than that, you know, I try to spend time and then it's also it's his last year in high school

[01:27:43] so I've been trying to

[01:27:44] Be here and be present with him as much as I can

[01:27:48] And uh, because it's a big deal to me because I don't want to look back and be like, oh

[01:27:52] I didn't spend more time with him, you know when I should have and could have so

[01:27:57] That's a big part of it also. But yeah, I mean this

[01:28:01] This community and even even when you can't have the opportunity to meet up with a lot of people

[01:28:08] You have this humongous

[01:28:10] online community of people that you can reach out to at any time and say hi or if you have a question or

[01:28:16] If you're having a bad day, you know that there's so many people that you can contact and

[01:28:21] That will chat with you and you know do whatever they can to help you feel better or help you with that mod or just

[01:28:27] Just say hi

[01:28:29] Yeah 100% like I know um

[01:28:33] Rider die design

[01:28:34] I felt heard about them through you and I looked them up and I ordered some stickers and then literally

[01:28:41] Like as soon as she posted

[01:28:43] The sticker that she made for me on her story

[01:28:46] I was getting dms from other people with cross tracks like let's trade stickers

[01:28:51] And i'm not sure if you heard of it. I'm not sure if you heard about the mu-mu Subaru thing

[01:28:55] Yeah going around. Yeah, I've been trying to I've been slowly dodging all of them

[01:29:00] I've I made it I made it like a year and a half without getting one and I got mooched from somebody from out of state

[01:29:05] Oh, yeah

[01:29:08] Somebody sent me a yeah somebody sent me a one of their one of their uh stickers and when she sent me her stickers

[01:29:13] She sent me a mu-mu Subaru the uh cow with it. I was like, oh come on. I got moved for the first time from out of state

[01:29:20] Yeah, the rider die design she's uh, it's it's really cool to see what she's been doing and filling up her garage that she made

[01:29:28] I mean, I think that her whole concept with that

[01:29:31] Is super cool and you know, it's that's the other thing that like is kind of a struggle is

[01:29:37] You know, the you follow so many people. It's hard to

[01:29:41] See everybody's post and what they're doing all the time because like there's there's times where

[01:29:47] I'll have I'll just look through my feed and

[01:29:50] I'll see like a post from somebody that I haven't seen

[01:29:54] In months and I'm like, oh, what are they up to and you know, I'll check it out a little bit

[01:29:58] But it's just it's hard to keep up with everybody also, you know that you've

[01:30:02] Chatted with and yeah, it's like

[01:30:05] That'd be a full-time job in itself, but it's uh, it's always nice to catch up with people and

[01:30:12] See what people have been up to

[01:30:14] But I want to thank you for your time for uh being a guest on the podcast

[01:30:19] Yeah, no problem. Hey, thank you. Thanks. Thanks for the invite and

[01:30:22] If you're up here for boxer fest come stop by the booth and see us

[01:30:26] Yeah, well now that I know you're there. I you know if I had known it before I definitely would have stopped by and say hi

[01:30:31] And it's yeah, I mean and that's the cool thing about this too is like the longer you're in the community

[01:30:35] The more people that you meet the more people that you find out about where it's like, oh

[01:30:40] I go up there and I didn't know you were there before but now I do and now I'll come see you and

[01:30:45] You know the connections just start rolling and rolling and rolling as time goes by and that's that's really cool too and

[01:30:51] You know, I like that the I like that the podcast has

[01:30:55] Helped people find out about some of these small businesses or just other people

[01:31:00] And you know getting them connected that way because that's I like

[01:31:04] Helping people get connected on purpose, but then I like that the podcast kind of does it

[01:31:09] organically

[01:31:11] Yeah, yeah, I mean this this year's gonna be a big year for us too because I think well

[01:31:15] While we're working on it, but we're going to be taking a the berks. Hi stupid

[01:31:19] We're just gonna have their booth there for the first time this year. Nice. Nice

[01:31:23] They already so we're gonna try doing some active recruiting at the show

[01:31:26] Which I think it's gonna be huge for us too. So yeah, I'm really really excited for this year

[01:31:31] Like I said, you're more than welcome to stop on in stop by now

[01:31:35] If you're if you ever out part neck of the woods just you know DM me

[01:31:38] Well, maybe we'll throw a little be perks kind of Subaru welcome party for you. Oh, that'd be cool. Thank you. Yeah, that'd be awesome

[01:31:44] Yeah, no problem

[01:31:46] Well, yeah, thanks again and uh, I you know take taking the time during the week to record and uh be a guest

[01:31:53] So no problem. No problem. Yeah, you have a good one. Yeah, you too. I'll talk to you later

[01:32:00] Yep later. All right

[01:32:01] Hello everybody

[01:32:02] Thank you for tuning in to another episode of the subin you podcast and thank you so much devon for taking the time to

[01:32:09] Record with me and be a guest on this show

[01:32:12] Thank you all again for continuing to listen to the podcast and for sharing it

[01:32:18] I really really appreciate it. It really means a lot to me and

[01:32:23] I can't believe we're getting close to 200 episodes

[01:32:26] That just seems pretty crazy and uh, we're getting up close to three and a half years of doing the podcast also

[01:32:34] so again, thank you. I hope you all have a great week and

[01:32:39] It's crazy that

[01:32:41] summer is almost here kids are going to be out of school

[01:32:45] And they're gonna they're going to be happy about that and uh, hopefully we'll get to spend more time with our kids

[01:32:51] Now that they won't be in school. So

[01:32:54] Any plans for the summer? I

[01:32:57] Am working on plans. I'm not sure just yet what we're going to be doing, but we'll figure something out

[01:33:01] So anyway again, have a great week and we will see you next monday

[01:33:07] For another subin you podcast episode

[01:33:12] Thank you for tuning in much subi love

[01:33:15] rap

[01:33:16] The subin you podcast is hosted by rafael in a closet in houston

[01:33:20] Produced by rafael in a room next to the closet in houston and edited by rafael on a computer in the room next to the closet in

[01:33:28] houston with music by luke ruiz in another room in houston

[01:33:32] You can find the subin you podcast wherever you listen to podcasts including apple podcast spotify and many more

[01:33:39] To support the podcast, please head over to patreon.com slash subin you podcast

[01:33:44] Once you join you will have access to the discord channel and discord chats with other patrons

[01:33:49] If you'd like to get in contact with the show, you can find them on instagram at subin you podcast

[01:33:54] online at subin you podcast dot com or by email subin you podcast at gmail.com

[01:34:01] That's all for this week. Tune in mondays for new episodes