NoBraking

Austin Hironaka from Hiro's Hotrods is our latest guest a native from the Pacific Northwest, Hironaka was raised in Tacoma but post graduation found himself traveling the world as a professional snowboarder. However while looking for his next magazine cover or film Hironaka was always thinking about his next car project. Hiro's Hotrods combines his passion for both his love for Japanese cars and the knowledge of customizing classic cars passed down to him from his old man Moe.

This week we went down a different path with two of my friends, Designer Walter Franco and Builder / Host Big Mike to talk about the Automotive Community. But first let's take a look at what a community is. The word “community” has a strange power to it, conveying both a sense of togetherness and positivity.

So click to listen where we describe what we think the Automotive community means? And more importantly why is it important to us?

Today’s guest is the Hoonigan Design Director Jon Chase, however you might also know Jon for being the person behind DSTROYR, a lifestyle brand he created. But you might ask how did Jon start on this path? It all started by working incredibly hard at an industrial rubber company. Then things took a turn as Jon started at Famous Stars and Straps working under Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker. Jon spent time at Maisto as a designer working on diecast vehicles before some serious arm twisting from Hoonigan's Brian Scotto. This arm twisting had Jon join the growing band of Hoonigans and led to what is now his current position as Design Director.

Steve Hogue is a Coach Builder living the dream working on and fabricating vintage car bodies for a living. Steve Hogue Enterprises opened more than 25 years ago when Steve started working on muscle cars and hot rods. As Steve gained experience over the years his shop developed a reputation for both coachbuilt vehicles, sports and classic cars. The rare breeds that pass through his workshop include Shelby Cobras, early Porsches and anything else you could imagine.

Walter Franco was born and raised in the heart of Seattle and is passionate about both Japanese cars and fixed gear bicycles. However, having graduated from ArtCenter College of Design with a degree in Automotive design, Walter decided to elevate the car community through NAMSAYIN, his lifestyle brand that encompasses automotive projects, community events and clothing. Currently, Walter continues to work with small businesses with brand development, collaborative art and vehicle design projects. Some of those partners include Hiros Hotrods, Speedfactory Racing, Think Bigger Project, KASE Real Estate, JP+CO and Swarovski.

Ian Baker is the CEO of World Time Attack Challenge, however he originally got his racing career going first as a race car fabricator. It was during this time as a fabricator Ian was on the forefront of turbo charger installations in Australia. In 2007 as part of the Hi Octane Racing team he took a car to the Tsukuba Circuit in Japan, after seeing the race he wondered why they didn’t have anything like that in Australia.

As his interest and participation in the format grew, Ian saw an opportunity to re-create the event on a scale previously unseen in the sport of time attack. The idea was to create a truly international event where the best of international time attack teams compete on the same track at the same event. In this format, the teams represent not just the tuning shops behind the car but also their country.

The inaugural World Time Attack Challenge was held in 2010 at Eastern Creek Raceway and proved to be a huge success. It was the first time Australian teams competed against the international time attack superpowers; Japan and the USA. With the likes of PanSpeed, CyberEvo, R-Magic and Sierra Sierra. What Ian was pleased most about the event was it winning Speedhunters’ Event Of The Year and the response from those in attendance including the participants, sponsors, exhibitors, spectators and the media. Since then the World Time Attack Challenge has grown rapidly, setting new records for attendance and quicker lap times each year.

One thing that has happened throughout the running of the event is that Ian and the team are keen to add aspects to the event as time attack racing is only part of the show. New additions to the event include the Turbosmart Flying 500 where tuner cars line up on the main straight with the car reaching the highest top speed crowned a winner. The Turbo Legends race where the heroes of yesteryear take to the track to showcase the technology that ruled the Australian motorsport in the 1980s and 90s that is then followed with drifting competitions and stunt driving.

If you want to take a break from the on-track action there’s no shortage of attractions in the pit zone. The Trader Alley is bursting with exhibitors showing off their latest products or you can take in the largest outdoor car show in Australia.

Albo Agunday is a Canadian film-maker, Youtuber and story-teller who has lived in Japan since 2010. Originally he made the move to Japan to teach English as part of the Jet Program. As luck would have it Albo was whisked away to his new school in Gunma prefecture home of "Initial D" immersed in the world of street racing and drifting. Inspired to document the underground scene, in 2014 he created the documentary series “Drift Hunter” which is an investigative documentary series on Japanese automotive culture from a western perspective. 7 years later Albo made the move to Tokyo and during that time Albo has made the switch to ALBO Media where he aims to capture the sense of adventure and excitement of living in Japan to share it with his many hundreds of thousands of fans.

Charlie Noble is the Visual Effects Supervisor for the latest James Bond film No Time to Die. He has over 30 years experience in the visual effects industry and is one of the co-founders of DNEG.

No Time to Die is the 25th in the James Bond series. It stars Daniel Craig in his fifth outing as the fictional British MI6 agent. Development began in 2016 and it is directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga from a screenplay by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Fukunaga, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Principal photography was from April to October 2019 under the working title Bond 25. The final title No Time to Die was announced in August 2019.

Léa Seydoux, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Christoph Waltz, Rory Kinnear, and Ralph Fiennes reprise their roles from previous films, with Rami Malek, Lashana Lynch, Ana de Armas, Dali Benssalah, Billy Magnussen, and David Dencik joining the cast as new characters.

OG Moto Show is back!

The Outlier’s Guild Motorcycle Show is a celebration of custom bikes. It is now in its fifth year and came about as a response to similar shows in Austin and Portland. Los Angeles didn’t have a similar show, and the organizers, Ralph, Stand and John felt Los Angeles was ready. Five years in and four shows later (thanks Covid), Los Angeles is still enjoying the show. While a lot of motorcycle shows feature Harley-Davidson customs, and the OG Show accepts those, too, the focus of the OG Moto Show is a more diverse range, specifically: café racers, bobbers, classics, scramblers, old school choppers, trackers, modern choppers and full customs to name but a few. More importantly however each bike is hand-selected by the organizers. Also as in previous shows, there is more going on than just the bikes as there are a number of artists on hand, as well, displaying their creations.

In this two part podcast we have a selection of creatives from the show in part 2 you will hear from:

Wayne Elmore - Wayne Wreck Studios
Anthony Robinson - Gasoline & Coffee
Walter Franco - Waffle Designs
Dean Stunts - Scooter Outlaws
Hugo Eccles - Untitled Motorcycles
Michel Valle - Alchemy Motorcycles

OG Moto Show is back!

The Outlier’s Guild Motorcycle Show is a celebration of custom bikes. It is now in its fifth year and came about as a response to similar shows in Austin and Portland. Los Angeles didn’t have a similar show, and the organizers, Ralph, Stand and John felt Los Angeles was ready. Five years in and four shows later (thanks Covid), Los Angeles is still enjoying the show. While a lot of motorcycle shows feature Harley-Davidson customs, and the OG Show accepts those, too, the focus of the OG Moto Show is a more diverse range, specifically: café racers, bobbers, classics, scramblers, old school choppers, trackers, modern choppers and full customs to name but a few. More importantly however each bike is hand-selected by the organizers. Also as in previous shows, there is more going on than just the bikes as there are a number of artists on hand, as well, displaying their creations.

In this two part podcast we have a selection of creatives from the show in part 1 you will hear from:

Craig Marleau - Kick Start Garage
Dave Lucas - Lucas Studio
Dorian Valenzuela - DV Mechanics
Marko Djoric - Djoric Design
Ben Gradel - Ben Gradel Design
Cristian Sosa - Sosa Metalworks