The Avants Podcast

Emme Hall describes herself as “Driver, reviewer, rabble rouser”, but we think she left out that she might be the most epic of adventurers. Rebelle Rally? Check. Baja racer? Check. Crossed Mongolia on a knock-off 49cc Monkey motorcycle? Also check. Needless to say, if you know anything about us, we are fans. Between all that fun she is also a great writer, and one we have followed for a long time on Jalopnik, Cnet, and more. Check out this week’s episode for some adventure inspiration!

Follow Emme on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/yeahemme

Read all about Emme’s trip across Mongolia on a Monkey on Jalopnik: https://jalopnik.com/riding-a-monkey-bike-across-mongolia-is-amazing-and-pai-1849686223

This week we talk with Amir Bentatou, owner of RS Future, and probably the nicest NSX on the road and on the track. Amir obsessively worked his way up through the motorsports ranks to create his company RS Future, which makes functional aerodynamic race components and more! Amir talks with us all about aerodynamics, Time Attack, drifting, NSXs, and his upcoming Discovery channel show, Monster Garage with Taylor Swift.

Paul Charsley is the Motorsports Manager for Heart of Racing and just won 24 Hours of Daytona, but before going home he gave us a call. We literally had to reschedule Paul because he told us “I need to go win Daytona, but we can do the show afterwards.” True to his word, he gives us the recap of Daytona, tells us about Aston Martin’s comeback, The Heart of Racing all women’s team, and Aston Martin… drifting?

We first met Felix at the 2022 Avants Classics on the Green last summer and we’ve been excited to have him on the show ever since. Felix was instrumental in shaping our love of Hot Wheels and then went on to creating incredible art with people like Magnus Walker, all while still being a successful bass player. Felix is another one of those special guests with endless interesting stories from living a life well lived that you're sure to enjoy. 

Read more about Felix in the Avants Magazine article here! https://www.avants.com/magazine/push-and-pull-with-artist-felix-holst

We catch up with long time friend John Kleven, who is now the President of STEK USA. Long time listeners may remember John from all the way back on Episode 32, but a lot has changed since our first chat! John talks about how STEK started, lessons from owning Metropolitan Detail, and his constantly changing and fun car collection. 

This week we talk with Arun Sharma, General Manager of Ferrari Newport Beach. More than selling cars, Arun has a long history in the motorcycle world when he ran Motorcorsa. Arun has some great insights on the past, present, and future of Ferrari as well as some really fun stories of his time in the business.

Explicit, unfiltered content warning

We welcome our long time friends STEK USA as an official sponsor of the Avants Podcast! 2022 was a great year for us and we had some amazing guests, but we think we can do even better in 2023 with their help! Avants has more events, more partners, and we’re growing into even more places. Adam and Krissy join us for this episode and we share our favorite memories of 2022 and share what you should be looking forward to most for 2023.

You don’t have to be a photographer to really love this episode with Jamey Price, but if you are, you are in for a real treat! Jamey is one of the most successful, talented, awarded, and well known photographers in motorsports today. We get Jamey’s fun story of moving from Steeplechase Horse Racing all the way to his incredibly successful career as a motorsports photographer. You probably know Jamey’s work, so now it’s time to get to know Jamey!

Stefan is one of those people who just never stops amazing us. From racing Formula 1 and Endurance Driving and then going on to become the incredible artist he is today, he seems to have that golden touch. Stefan starts us off with his stories of racing at the most hardcore time in history to his decision to move to full time artist. Stefan will have a section in an upcoming edition of the Avants magazine for you to see his latest work, but also has a studio you can go visit down in California! We plan to take him up on that generous offer as soon as we can.

It’s almost Christmas and we hope you are enjoying the holidays! If you’re still looking for some last minute gifts, we’ve got a few ideas for any budget, but on this episode we have a chat about our Christmas lists and hopefully you’ll get a few ideas from us.