Joe Rogan Experience #1443 — Jonathan Ward Transcript

Transcript

0:00 One. How are you tying that one up? And I've done various deep dives throughout my life into, like, all sorts of different art forms. In fact, the reason automotive design became my thing and turned into a business was because my hobbies of and in Morocco and Mexico. And there's something about just literally putting on your podcast, going in my spare bedroom at

2:39 level and with an obsessiveness that is, to me, deserves to be rewarded. And you just redo the insides so that you can drive them really well. And then there's modern cars, like 90s cars I'm cool with. What a shit show, man. You know, that video got like a half a million views in like half a day. And the client came to me with, like, a pretty direct and simple mandate.

4:52 You guys had that thing for a long time. What kind of engine does that thing have? That's what I like. Now, I may want to elevate that and geek out on it and do unnecessarily cool shit that the production car company wouldn't have done. Yeah, it's one of those things where just some people have too much money. Yeah. I love all the weird sourcing you do. And I'm like, well, how weird do you want it to be? It's so disgusting. It is. I don't know why. He loves it. He's like, where can I get some really weird stuff? I love all the weird sourcing you do.

7:36 Yeah, it's foul. I mean, it's like an amphibious car. That way Where are the lawyers Why are you trusting these people? Have you ever seen And it's like, you know, the race took months and months and months, And all the photography and all the old data put into the Right? ACP, great race car driver, dear friend of mine. No. What are you doing? I didn't say I'm going to do it yet, but I want to do it.

11:17 sixes like those oh no like rolls open touring cars oh those, those fucking things. And Alvises in like super weird early shit open wheel cars. Oh, my God. They're super trippy. I think one of those all rallied out vintage would be super, super Dead factory other than those are more contemporary tires go go with that that last image that you had Jamie with the crazy tires

13:02 Yeah. But they kind of, not the way you and I are thinking. I mean, it's like a 48 humpback Tudor four-door. whatever, you bring one over from or something sitting in some static collection gathering dust? Really? Okay, so that's the problem. It's just like to me, like the quintessential shape is like a 69 Camaro. 69 Camaros? like that kick-ass egg crate grill and all those details,

16:27 Which model was it? But Phil Norwood, who used to actually race for Ferrari, he's – I don't think he's doing them anymore, but he for a while in Texas, I believe, was doing what they called the P4 Norwood. market. And they'll call GTO and say, build me one that looks just like my car. There's a company called Revology that does that with Mustangs. That was for Ultra Low Volume Vehicular Manufacturers Act.

19:21 When did he start using LS3s? it's like, I talk to execs at Ford, I'm like, it's really gross when they combine Chevy and Mopar. bay to look like an old speed equipped v8 and you know vintage thin kind of fenton header look you Yeah, 49. What? Oh, no. Yep. Yeah. Well, it's a one of a kind. There it is. Now, that is one of the things that I love that

22:31 Have you driven a Tesla? And when this guy charges this in, how many miles can he get? so I literally just make sure my flatbed is at hand and just drive the piss out of it until it can't go. But yeah, that whole derelict program, you know, do I want is my next car and I'm like you know what I'm tired of over restoring shit because It wasn't until it was done and it got like the cover of Hot Rod and won all these awards that my dumb ass went, oh, wait a minute.

24:53 Derelict until I was done. or whatever you want to call them, everyone wants them to be beautiful and pristine with, tells a more personal story of like I'm like, screw it. That is the fastest and most fuel efficient of the Hemi build I've ever done. Oh, really? Throw that thing away and put a good old GM four early five E in there. So this, um, thing has how many miles on it now? I got

27:34 I had like a full-on 3D detailed model in my head and like my version of jumping over sheeps at night in bed was like sitting there and zooming in on an element and changing that radius and scaling this and trying that. But your company in particular, it's so perfect because you do all those videos Yeah, do something else. If you're not passionate about it, you suck at it.

29:10 There's a lot of people that are making the exact Bronco you make. I'm like, no, not really. Like that just irks the piss out of me. having to wait and not having to pay as much. But at best in this industry, you get what you pay for. I mean, it's cool. To even give 10 of that to some knuckleheads has been a good three or four months. No. I have a couple R&D projects in the works that are, again, those odd projects that were keeping me up at night.

32:42 Like before you built my Bronco, which took a year to build and I've had for a year and a half. You know, like I'm a fan of those cars. umpteen different suppliers and a big pile of cost. And at the end of the day, you could say, dealer although they probably cringe and say no no no it's not a 70 you know look look here's the Can't do that because the body's not designed to absorb energy.

35:29 Say, okay, here's your legal entities for both. me i think it was midas was trying to think of ways to stay relevant and they they were like You were talking about retrofitting things with ABS. aftermarket, quite frankly, my dear, is an absolute whole house, in my opinion. There's just so much I say the bitch word all the time. I would say that maybe.

38:09 I didn't see that. One that was more modern looking. Really good leathers. I drive the shit out of it. And every time I drive it, people are like, what in the fuck is that? It's it the way I describe it. It makes other cars seem stupid like they're stupid But the difference between that and, say, say the broncos you don't feel it like the bronco it's a manual transmission and you literally feel every gear it's there's all these

40:54 There's a sweet spot somewhere. It's too technical in a manner that makes the stats improved, but not the connection to the driver feel more dynamic. It's a great car. How long do I have to save? I had the Countach Periscopo. It's a bucket of shit. M1. And they had it for sale. God, I love that thing. It's hard to remember, but it looks exactly like that.

44:29 What year was that? So that's when I had it on my wall. He had a Stratos for a couple years. because like as you know i'm a big watch geek and he's like the antichrist and the watch culture They use the quartz to sort of accentuate. and you're in a new time zone and you land, Yeah, mechanical quartz combination. And they're oil-filled and all sorts of neat niftiness.

46:36 Why is the luxury watch world bleeding? 20 grand and more independent watch brands are killing it everyone in between is like on your ladies Daytona. Yeah, there's different grades of them and stuff, and it depends on the metallurgic content God damn it. because the Geneva show got canceled. considered luxury in a conventional sense. People want more story.

49:21 It's so great. a piece of art. I feel like it's I have that. Yeah the p100d. Yeah. Have you ever sat in the back seat? A breeze? and air gets in there? I don't know if you ever saw that. go out with him right before he lost his mind completely? What if he, Buckminster Fuller, I'll buy the damn car. Great guy. Yeah, they cock-block them Really? Come outside.

54:02 And there's going to be a bunch of other electric vehicles that are coming out from Volkswagen that are really cheap and a bunch of different put an electric motor to a bell housing adapter to the stock transmission, which is stupid because range. I want dedicated thermal management networks for the batteries, the controllers, So even before we could finish that car,

56:28 So in two years, it's totally worthless because the tech is outdated. But then again, being that it's part of this industry, you know, I go grill the dudes at their trade show booth and they're like, And Volkswagen claimed with that vehicle that you noted earlier that they were going to And then it's like so many of these EV startups and retrofit companies come to the scene looking for that elusive FedEx fleet contract that everyone thinks is going to be easy to get.

59:01 within five years, I imagine probably half of my client builds will be electric. I don't know who built it i was just scanning through uh There's like Movement Motors in Austin is doing really nice retrofits. They just finished doing a 2002 BMW. You press a button on your screen, and it shows you where they are. But, for example, around here, it's a joke.

1:01:45 So it would work with that. And then the other one, And then there's just two different pigtail adapters. You can go either way with it. then coming back every couple of years for us to upgrade and evolve as the sciences evolve. bloom boxes no really what is it yeah i've been thinking about them lately i remember seeing them I was so excited. inside and i think stan Stanford was getting into it.

1:05:35 What? Wow. at a show where people have like 200 by 60 foot booths. And he's got this odd little toroidal and then how to stop the damn thing was like the bigger challenge. And I had the guy's info. Do you think someone bought him out and just wanted to? And he was very cagey about it. so the idea was it would assist the internal combustion engine through its compression cycle

1:09:24 Jesus Christ, this guy. And then he had a viable engine and it was really working and uh and then he he he had a heart attack Well, anyone who doesn't believe in conspiracy theories, I say look at Jeffrey Epstein. I ran outside and asked him what's wrong. Or both. He was in love with a pigeon. I love that story. I'd like to look into it. Maybe you can engineer something.

1:12:03 I see what you're saying. Yeah. all the early pioneers in the transportation sector in the U.S. And it was like eight years of court battles to overrule it. look at Mr. Payne's film, Who Killed the Electric Car? And you look at Firestone and who was it? They're the ones that ended up stacked in the desert. And there's a video of him taking a hammer and a sledge and banging it off the fenders.

1:15:20 Stainless? Like you see through the doors, So actually, can you Google that image? a hemp fiber car there it is it's like are you kidding me Structural bracing on the doors? Like, okay, I'm going to take it out to the desert and we're going to go elk hunting or whatever the hell you're going to do that weekend, right? It is. Sure. can find that video of Henry Ford banging the hammer

1:19:13 it. That seems to be a prototype The Angry Historian is pretty balls-out serious when he makes a statement. It's really hard, but it's really light. I mean, see if you can find that lotus, the hemp lotus. Yeah. What the hell is Lotus doing these days? But then even like last year at the Quail, we were up there showing a car. Yeah, from what I've been told, that's what's

1:22:05 But they're not selling cars. And said it was awesome. You know Johnny Lieberman, right? But like the Yugo, the cars were like late and they were going to debut at the L.A. Auto Show. and just like run the show That's interesting. finding fellow artisans that also understand how to build cars, that really get what you're doing. wait, what? It's like, you mean to tell me if I catch a dude smoking crack while on the clock

1:25:02 No, you don't. yeah, you know those automotive lifts in your building? You see this picture of me and the mayor when he did the ribbon cutting? i actually don't remember. But I bullshit that gets tagged on top. I had to lawyer up and we're fighting it. I don't want to go anywhere. So you find some place where you are zoned for lifts? Like, what is this?

1:28:13 Verbal. And he said, what in the fuck? hard time with is we charge $100 an hour for our labor. that have gone to do jobs that they hate. But like Department of Water and Power, I think it might be the uber green side of Democratic because I think am i think the old whatever the old two-party It started moving across the ramped parking lot. 58 families plus all our sublets and everything else. But it's, it's hard to retain people when,

1:32:13 On the spot. But I tell you, man, more and more, We've been dealing with cancer. I'll send you your money back. to remove the battery posts. you're not supposed to reward that kind of behavior with a week's paycheck. Screw you. ask him no you go there i'm asking no i'm not asking oh were, I'm not asking. Oh, were you a Republican? I'm nothing. But you go there.

1:35:22 So it's prison for homeless people. It's not going to work. the passenger window of his BMW. But he was in the middle of breaking the law and stealing the guy's property. Barbecue, my friends at Le Barbecue have a kick-ass barbecue place. Well, shoot them in the foot and then run over them. Well, that's the problem with Democrats. You can't do those things.

1:37:37 And, you know, you can't litter. once you camp down under the overpass. Yes, but how about Venice? This is the problem. You know, and the downside of it, a lot of people got arrested that probably shouldn't have. It's really how far it's gotten. Was that the Carter administration? They send them to the Palm Springs. Like to me, my word is everything to me.

1:41:18 room. Could you socialize legal defense, education,. Like, do you think that would be viable as a hybrid where it's a democracy? education solutions versus the private options that have the access. Yeah. That's the, that's I mean, there's a lot of doctors that just want to start cutting people. It could be this. no fuck you i'm out of here like well he's dealing with 15 people a day yeah he's probably exhausted

1:44:27 if I don't take the chemicals that Big Pharma promote That seems insane. So you have to take medication. Yeah, CBD is an issue or a solution for some people, some people with epilepsy. There's something about your body burning fat Yeah. I mean, that is literally the benefit of a healthy diet and exercise is your body functions better and it can ward off attacks.

1:47:49 Like I'm not letting her fill her car up with gas, go to the bank, anywhere. There's so many intelligent people that I know that treat exercise and diet and just your own physical well-being as if it's a frivolous pursuit pursuit of And I think that sometimes it takes a real outside challenge to bring us together. Like I think it's probably fair to say that nationwide any business that's under, say, whatever, 20 million a year,

1:50:28 Yeah. Yeah. You know, but again, they're still dealing with medieval diseases on the street because people are shitting everywhere. when you look at the map of San Francisco and human shit. It's all over the place. And You can't just look at it like it's not a gigantic public health crisis. And it's like, fuck, that's a tough one. That was really kind of the root of it.

1:53:51 And the realtor's like, you're fucking dreaming. you drive down skid row and you'd go what in the fuck is this is a zombie movie and it is tenfold They don't really know how many there are. And also the fact that so many people are asymptomatic, so they're wandering around with it. liabilities to how you address or don't address it. Yeah. It's very interesting.

1:56:06 Just make shit, travel the world, spend time with craftsmen, spend time with my family. So I need to figure out how to cash in, so to speak, on the equity the brand has created in ways that don't step on the brand's wee wee. So like I am right now, leather goods brand um as a dude make a jacket like that I'll buy it yeah that jacket looks jacket. look at the expense of that thing and how,

1:59:17 from the polyurea coating of every fucking component Like, that's amazing you guys can do it. It's been amazing. happier individual and they're going to break new ground and be of great value versus trying to fit everyone into these bullshit social silos, most of Encouraging people to think outside the box. interface yeah yeah it's um it's a mess, you know? And, uh, the only

2:02:42 podcasts literally really oh it's so crazy they think, literally. Really? Oh, it's so crazy. And there's a million podcasts. but it grew very organically for you 100% organic you had no clue was gonna turn into this empire of Whereas, you know, if we go to a restaurant, we'll talk for a little bit. person, the less distractions, the better, the less bullshit, the better. It's just you and a

2:05:05 careers and stuff. listen to too. And for me, it's, um, it's very educational and it's also the beautiful thing suck and I'm not interested. Ain't none of us getting out of here alive exactly and you can jump off that fucking ship and i bet you can make it to the shore i bet you can the rest of it's a breeze. realize like this is, and then you get to hear the story like, oh, this isn't like they weren't

2:08:27 And my pension, my 401k tank, blah, blah, blah. Even if it just gives you the creative, creative juice, get that juju flowing and then you can it into first and then it's, then it's moving, but it's that initial did I pull that off? You know what I mean? But like, it grew merely out of the passion. And when And then you look back two years, three years, five years, and you go, holy shit.

2:11:03 right how many days is that that's like a fart. And what is that, like a week at a GM? Not even, right? How many days is that of making cars? You know, I would hate to see California's crazy economy and society. like for off-road use only marketed parts, they're now pursuing the distributor, into cars that never had any. And the NOx and CO2. You know, all the platformers are the vast majority of them that we work with.

2:14:05 It's a better experience. So it was a complete infrastructure shit show to get it to the point of viable. It's a full turbine. into it. Should we wrap this up? Keep on trucking.