The Gearhead Project

[ TGP Super Issue Conversation! ]

Scott Glassbrook's spent the last 20 years building and improving a single race car—a 1990 Eagle Talon TSi AWD. He's deep into the 8s, headed for 6-second ETs—and people want the parts he's made for himself, so he started FTY Racing to make that happen.

In this episode of The Gearhead Project, Chris Rhoad and I talk about when, where, why, and how his automotive and professional interests merged, the realities of being your own boss, and see if we can’t break it all down into something that maybe—just maybe—you could see yourself doing.

Put another way, this is a conversation with a guy who realized he could make more money doing what he did for a living on his own, he could make a good living helping other gearheads do gearhead shit, and his podcast is a fantastic peek behind the curtain at some of the performance aftermarket brands we’ve come to know and love over the past decade.

Chris Rhoad founded Studio Rhoad. You can find him at StudioRhoad.com

How do you find a partner for your big, fat, crazy dream? I guess you could get lucky and reach out to a complete stranger on Instagram with only one picture on his profile and start talking about your feelings. Because that's what I did.

Listen in on a conversation between two Montero owners who decided to work together at building a community where gearheads help each other build better lives.

Cinderella story.

**We always see the best. Nobody’s sharing their shitty failures online.** We’re not looking at Facebook and Instagram to see all the boring, mundane tedium of our friends’ lives. We’re seeing their new cars, their exotic vacations, their $1,000 steak dinners.

**And we often walk away feel like we’re missing out as a result.**

They say we should always be kind to others because everyone is fighting an uphill battle or something. We’ve all got our challenges. But if we’re honest, if we’re listening to a podcast like this one, we’ve probably got it pretty damn good.

**So what’s it take to succeed?**

I was skimming Facebook the other day when I came across a standout update from an old Galant VR4 buddy, Diego “EvoDNA” Baltazar.

“There was once I time I was down on my dollar and out of luck, homeless and alone. Today I’m in a position where I’m able to help others through personal donations, pay rent on multiple properties, and just live. It took a long time to get here, and my path was skewed a time or two, but I made it. I may not have everything; but I have all I want.”

Three days later, we were recording the next episode of the podcast.

**Keep it simple. **

****

Everybody’s talking about new year’s resolutions and I’m just over here thinking, “I wish I could get my shit together a little bit better EVERY day.”

**Meet Ken Theis, gearhead like us, but also a seeker of work-life parallel he is.**

**Ken and I first connected in earnest back in the spring of 2017.** I’d bought my first mountain bike, shared a few pre-work ride results online, and was looking to develop something of a consistent training schedule. Ken was a longtime cyclist and fitness enthusiast who encouraged me early on, shared useful advice, and wanted to stand up a personal training side hustle.

We decided to form a mastermind group. The idea was simple. We’d get on the phone a couple-three times a month to discuss our work-life parallel goals, help each other work through things, and hold each other accountable.

**And so it was I came to call this guy COACH Ken.**

There’s a massive, long-form interview coming soon, where Coach and I talk cars, side hustles, life, the Universe, and everything, but I decided I wanted to get this conversation out there sooner—_because it’s that good._

As we were reflecting on things and exploring ideas, we discovered similarities between success in fitness, business, and cars—there are clear patterns out there to learn from. Think: _metaphor_.

**This conversation was as interesting as it was inspiring.**

**TGP S01E29 | Glenn Wallace Went All-In**

**How many engines have you built this year?**

**As of November 19th, Glenn Wallace had built 155.**

Let me put that another way. 46 weeks into the year, that’s more than three a week. If you divide 155 engines by the 322 total days already passed the night we had our call, that’s a new engine every other day. And get this—that’s only Mitsubishi 4G63s. He built several other engines this year, too.

**As if that isn’t impressive enough, this dude walked away from college to pursue his dream of a career in motorsport.** (His dad wasn’t exactly thrilled that my name came up in THAT discussion.) He started at the bottom. He worked his way up. And he has much to show for it.

Today, beyond building hundreds of race engines a year, he’s also out there supporting 3,000 horsepower monsters in the field and pushing the limits of his own project vehicle when he actually gets a couple hours for himself.

**This is the real, deal, folks. Figure out what you want to do with your life and go all in.**

**Glenn Wallace is a gearhead project.**

**LINKS**

thegearheadproject.com/tgp29

Buschur Racing [https://buschurracing.com/](https://buschurracing.com/)

**The first two-time guest on the podcast!**

**Driving into an unknown future.**

He did something crazy, something nobody in their right mind would do—he spent days driving a small car across Japan on B-roads.

Wait. That doesn’t sound crazy at all.

But when you think about it through the lens of leaving a horrible job in a still largely new-to-you country on the far side of the planet, relocating to another job in that same country, a country where most people would never do such a thing (they’d take the expressway, considering the tolls fair trade for cutting the drive in half), it starts to make sense.

And then, several years later, he returned to the island nation home of so many wonderful machines to do it again.

**Eric’s one of the small handful of people I consulted with prior to making this podcast the replacement for Gearbox Magazine.**

He’s a fellow Montero owner. He backs up his technical positions with facts, hard data, and—get this, math.

He recently asked me if I’d ever noticed my projects get done faster when I don’t tell anyone about them. Considering I’ve long found my projects get done faster when I’ve told others about them, I wanted to talk about this some more with him.

So we did. And I have never heard someone speak so—justifiably—highly about juggalos before.

**You lose if you talk about it. Or do you?**

This is the podcast for gearheads—_and friends_—who treat life like a build thread.

Eric De Gaston is a gearhead project like us.

**You don’t have to be a gearhead to be a gearhead project.**

Anthony isn’t. And the more I think about his path—even though we hadn’t spoken in nearly 10 years—the more I see he’s doing the exact same thing I am. The same thing we’re ALL doing.

Chasing our dreams of doing stuff that matters.

**He’s a self-taught software engineer who shares his path from playing video games to law school. And in this episode, Anthony and I talk about the journey and explore the intersections between what we love doing, what we’ve been doing, and what it takes to change course.**

This is the podcast for gearheads—_and friends_—who treat life like a build thread.

Anthony Pusateri is a gearhead project like us.

**Berry Lowman is a gearhead like us.**

I met Berry on Twitter almost 10 years ago, but we didn’t get a chance to really talk until we recorded this episode of The Gearhead Project.

He does open road racing in a Corvette. He drives the latest Ford press vehicles. He doesn’t get into religion or politics online. And he help organized Motorama LIVE, a weekly Twitter chat seen by _millions_ back in the golden, pre-shillbot days of Twitter.

**He’s the kind of gearhead you want to hang out with.**

**WHAT WE TALK ABOUT**

- Berry’s Open Road Racing activities (like rally, but simpler)

- How he and the crew made Motorama LIVE a hit

- The hustle required to make it all possible.

And I even talk to myself a bit when Berry’s phone dies mid-conversation. I could have edited it out, but we keep it real ‘round these parts, so I left it in (lest anyone think you have to be some kind of professional radio personality to do a podcast).

PS: The world needs to hear more stories of cool gearheads like us. **_Please do us a kindness and share this episode?_** Thank you.